they said we don't believe we are there yet in benton harbor. later this year he said we are going to work with folks in the community to the talk about the picture that you and have and we have as to what benton harbor's future should look like. local residents have been stripped of their right to have a say so. they have not had a local democracy since last year, since rick schneider took it away. governor schneider and the republicans legislature has done is up end the idea that in america we elect people to represent us. in america, we are governed by a democratic form of government. michigan republicans are ripping that idea out by the roots. if there are problems to be solved we do not do it by democratic means anymore in michigan. we suspend democracy to get things done, indefinitely. and it means you can be stripped of your right to vote for officials to govern your town and state level yo may not be allowed to vote in the state legislature. this picture shows michigan house democrats asking for a vote in the legislature and not being al

. >>> news out of benton harbor, michigan. is a mostly poor city and mostly african-american and the first city in michigan to have the local elected officials stripped of their power. last year by the state. under rick schneiders souped up emergency manager law your vote to who you want to run the town can be overruled. the state said that benton harbor is too broken to be allowed a democratic form of government anymore. governor schneider turned the town over to a single unelected manager who has unilateral power to do whatever he wants, no matter what the voters say. the manager says the elected mayor and the elected commission are not in charge anymore. so they are not in charge anymore. in rick schneider's michigan, democracy is considered part of the problem n places like benton harbor, at least, democracy must go before progress can begin. accordingly what counts as progress in benton harbor is up to the emergency manager guy now. under rick schneider's law, this unelected emergency official can fire the elected officia

out of benton harbor city hall. the signal from wbhc 96.5 fm only reaches three miles. it belongs to the town. they broadcast by the town, for the town and about the town. in february, exercising his unilateral power under michigan law, emergency manager put the whole thing up for sale on ebay for $5,000. you get the cords, microphones and everything included. come and get it. it turns out even if rick schneider's state law says they the emergency guy can auction off the city to the last office chair, under federal law you cannot do that. you can not sell a low-powered radio station that way. you can't sell it on ebay. a broadcast license like benton harbor has can only go to a local nonprofit or government body. not just to the highest bidder you find on-line. the emergency manager had to take down the listing on ebay and find a qualified buyer. and now we know who is planning to buy the radio station. provided the fcc agrees to the transfer, the new owner will be the benton harbor area schools. the school district

when price crossed the state line into benton county. he and his cold, weary troops continued on to cross hollows, 20 miles farther south, roughly between rodgers and springdale today. and there they joined forces with the confederate army of arkansas. the commander of that army was brigadier general benjamin mcculluck of texas. measles prevented him from gaining immortality. mcculluck missed little else. he fought against santa ana. he mined for gold in california. he commanded a troop of texas frontiers, rangers on the frontier against apaches. he served in the congresses of the republic of texas and the united states. he did many other thanks that brought him quite a measure of celebrity in antebellum america. he is often described as the anti-bell lum version of daniel boon from an earlier period. and he did a number of things that brought him celebrity in antebellum, america, he is described as the antebellum version of daniel boon from an earlier period. one of the most remarkable things is how his celebrityhood, is that a word? ho

it's not just for benton harbor anymore, it's for the whole state. democrats have begun demanding role call votes to see whether republicans have this 2/3 majority they claim. they're demanding an actual count to see if they have all 73 votes that the republicans would need for these laws to go into immediate effect. this is the picture of the democrats demanding a vote like that last week. demanding it and not getting it. we asked the michigan democrats if they could provide us with an example of the way that republicans are running the house. saying that they've got a 2/3 majority when it seems impossible that they do. and they sent over this clip from last month. this is amazing. what's happening here, the context here is that republicans have just passed a measure making it harder to get a repeal on the ballot, to get a citizen's repeal on the ballot. michigan democrats want to repeal that emergency manager law, right. republicans are trying to unilaterally change garn law to make it harder to repeal it. and naturally, they want that to take effe

it's the law that let the state take control of his benton harbor. under this law, the state installs a single unelected manager who is free to fire all the elected officials, sell off the town's assets, move to dissolve the town, cancel contracts, almost anything the manager wants to do. this emergency manager person has unilateral control. in michigan now, a long list of cities and school boards are run this way. they are being run as something much closer to dictatorships. and i realize that's a very inflammatory word, but frankly, that's what it is. when you have somebody in charge who has unilateral authority to do whatever he or she wants, that is autocracy. as has been their custom, the republicans passed the souped up emergency manager law naturally under immediate effect. they passed it on march 15th last year, the next day the governor signed it and it took effect right then, immediate effect. and less than a month later, benton harbor's emergency manager seized all power, took power from the elected mayor and elected commission in the span

they decided to have a symbolic constitution week in benton harbor. the emergency manager said you can't do that. they overturned that vote. there is no commission. forget constitution week, is there an overseer in charge with unilateral authority. we have seen it at work in places like flint, michigan and pontiac. on the eve of today's hearing whether the emergency manager law would get recalled. last night, with the prospect of the emergency manager law put on ice until voters can have their say on it last night with every emergency manager in the state having his unilateral authority cut off within hours, last night in flint, the emergency manager there posted a dozen new unilateral orders including several affecting union contracts of public workers. flint said the decision to post all those orders including the ones that wrote the union contracts had nothing to do with today's hearing and working on them a while but a coincidence of the timing. after we saw the story in flint, we checked with the website for the city of pont yag also has an emerg

we will ask campaign jair jesse benton when he joins us live next on "now." i look at her, and i just want to give her everything. yeah, you -- you know, everything can cost upwards of...[ whistles ] i did not want to think about that. relax, relax, relax. look at me, look at me. three words, dad -- e-trade financial consultants. so i can just go talk to 'em? just walk right in and talk to 'em. dude, those guys are pros. they'll hook you up with a solid plan. they'll -- wa-- wa-- wait a minute. bobby? bobby! what are you doing, man? i'm speed dating! [ male announcer ] get investing advice for your family at e-trade. then lead a double life! with new blast flipstick from covergirl. creamy color on one end, shimmery color on the other. so you can flip your look from demure, to daring. new blast flipstick from covergirl. ♪ you make me happy [ female announcer ] choose the same brand your mom trusted for you. children's tylenol, the #1 brand of pain and fever relief recommended by pediatricians and used by moms decade after decade. departure. hertz gold plus r

benton's still on the computer trying to get information. keep trying. i don't understand why you're doing this to me. just doing my job, pal. all i want is to do my job. did you locate my wife ? no. yeah ? this just came in fromhe immigration service. what's the story ? they still can't identify him. that's impossible. may i take a look ? be my guest. may i borrow your pen, please ? my last name is al-jibali. you have "jihali." oh. okay, i'll try it again. you see ? you've got the wrong man. really ? it says here, the suspect is male, medium build, mid-twenties dark hair, dark complexion. sounds a little like you. you must be joking. do i look like a criminal ? do i look like i'm joking ? all right. let's try it again from the beginning. like i told you before i was home last night. i did not go anywhere. all right, you guys are right here. what you want to do is cross the street right here, over to fish and chips. then cross right back again. you'll be fine all right ? okay. fine. yeah, i'll hold. come on, kid. you've been on the phone for 15 minutes.

. >> you guys have to see this video of a house fire from benton harbor, michigan. this was shot by mark pairin, and just look at these flames. the top story looks like it's melting. >> looks like it's just erupting smoke and fire. >> fortunately, this home was abandoned. nobody was inside. but as the firefighters continue to hit this thing with the hose, it looks like, okay, they're starting to get it under control, seeing a lot of smoke, that's a good thing, the fire is going out. you can see, they hit the top floor and then they're hitting the ground floor. watch what happens next. >> oh! wow. it just crumbled. >> yeah. nothing left to hold the thing together. just a couple walls. the whole interior burned out. >> it basically just collapsed, disintegrates and now looks like one big bonfire. >> i'm glad none of the firefighters went inside the house, like they do sometimes. i'm sure they probably realize there was no need for it. >> right. >> but i'm glad they weren't close enough to get hurt by this. >> it's like what happens in your fireplace, you know, the fir

my thanks to president andy benton for the honor and for graciously hosting our broadcast this evening. we'll get him to work on the view next time. >>> tonight, rescuers here in southern california are trying to help a wayward dolphin find its way back to the ocean. it's stranded in a title lagoon in orange county. earlier, it swam about 200 yards into open water, but turned around after encounter rs two other dolphins. >>> up next here tonight, must see tv for the newest captive audience. ♪ are choosing advil®. here's one story. pain doesn't have much of a place in my life. i checked the schedule and it's not on it. [ laughs ] you never know when advil® is needed. well most people only know one side of my life. they see me on stage and they think that that is who i am. singer, songwriter, philanthropist, father, life's a juggling act. when i have to get through the pain, i know where to go. [ male announcer ] take action. take advil®. and if pain keeps you up, sleep better with advil pm. your doctor will say get smart about your weight. that's why there's glucerna hunger smart s

benton? mdpd bar code says it was checked out by one of our csis, sir. which csi? i placed the bug yesterday when josh was out. why? he set us up. i wanted to nail him so bad, i could taste it, so i set up the bug... and i left. the next thing i hear, he's dead. what's on it? i haven't got a chance to listen to it yet. the flash drive's at my apartment. i can pick it up. i want you to remove yourself from the case. what?! you're put the lab in jeopardy, and i want you off the case. (gloves snapping) i've been fortunate to win on golf's biggest stages. but when joint pain and stiffness from psoriatic arthritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. i finally understood what serious joint pain is like. i talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. because enbrel, etanercept, suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have

benton? mdpd bar code says it was checked out by one of our csis, sir. which csi? i placed the bug yesterday when josh was out. why? he set us up. i wanted to nail him so bad, i could taste it, so i set up the bug... and i left. the next thing i hear, he's dead. what's on it? i haven't got a chance to listen to it yet. the flash drive's at my apartment. i can pick it up. i want you to remove yourself from the case. what?! you're put the lab in jeopardy, and i want you off the case. (gloves snapping) i've been fortunate to win on golf's biggest stages. but when joint pain and stiffness from psoriatic arthritis hit, even the smallest things became difficult. i finally understood what serious joint pain is like. i talked to my rheumatologist and he prescribed enbrel. enbrel can help relieve pain, stiffness, and stop joint damage. because enbrel, etanercept, suppresses your immune system, it may lower your ability to fight infections. serious, sometimes fatal events including infections, tuberculosis, lymphoma, other cancers, and nervous system and blood disorders have

you had a young lawyer who -- benton becker who was the go between here, but you also had other members of the president's staff who should have been interviewed. i think it was his press secretary resigned in protest. so that, i thought, was -- normal process. i remember before i entered congress, i had just been practicing law at one of the major law firms in new york and major national law firms. so this is what you would do when you started a case. you'd get the documents. you'd interview the witnesses. you'd find out what was going on. and since it seemed so natural and so plausible and so logical to do that, the committee said -- the subcommittee said to me, well, is this a great idea? it's a terrific idea. but never happened. they never asked for one document. they never asked for one witness. and i saw the times going by. i said, what are you doing about this? yes, liz, we're going to do it. they never did it. president ford, understand ing that this was -- realizing from his own staff there was no serious investigation, took the bull by the horns and said i'm going to go and te

democracy is on the march out of michigan apparently unsatisfied with trashing democracy in places like benton harbor and flint were unelected financial managers are now running the cities republicans the wolverine state are trying to stop people from voting altogether or at least making it a lot harder for people to vote that enjoyed news reports legislation is in the works that would quote retired require voters to affirm their us citizenship at the polls have photo identification when registering to vote in government sanctioned rainin it to register others to vote in other words if the legislation is passed michiganders are going to jump through all kinds of hoops just to get a chance to have their voices heard in our democracy which by the way is exactly what republicans want fewer people voting republican strategist and founder of the american legislative exchange council alec paul way rick once said. how many of our. good government they want everybody to vote. i don't want everybody to vote elections are not won by a majority of people they never happened from the beginning of our coun

and then in 1837, in january of 1837, when the democrats got a slight majority, tom has hart benton of missouri made it his life's work to get that censure, the word, you know -- it's not a word we use very often, expunged. they literally had the secretary of the senate come in and draw a nice straight black box over the original resolution as it appeared in the senate journal. and crossed a line through it, expunged by the order of the senate this january, whatever day, in 1837. then the democrats went off and had a huge party. i mean, this went to the fiber of who they were as a party. they were so excited, so happy, we -- and it was coming up on the last day of andrew jackson's term as president. so, this is a huge deal. >> did you ever make any senator mad over the last 34 years? >> once. >> can you tell us that story? >> no, i can't. actually, yeah, probably just once. >> can you give us a hint? >> it was a misunderstanding. and it -- but it's not what we're there to do. we're there to help. we're there, you know, to make information available, to draw people in, and it was just a

well, thomas hart benton who served both in the house and senate wrote a rebut tal, and said, you know, most of those senators used to serve in the house of representatives. they're not a different class of people. it's just that there is a different ethos in the senate than there is in the house. the big, boisterous house of representatives has always been a lot more tumultuous, which is what the -- and turbulent, the word henry clay used. the senate has always been a bit more is he date in its debates. i think, quite frankly, if he came back and sat in the galleries today, he would have very much the same impressions of the two bodies and he would be just as wrong today as he was back then. the senate in the -- back in those days, it was different from the way it is today in that it had no standing committees. of all the committees were ad hoc committees. they were created to deal with a particular issue and then went out of business as soon as they were finished with. and senators could be elected to committees drop on and off committees pretty regularly. that meant you really for t

as cities like benton harbor and pontiac and flint and very nearly detroit itself are having their citizens stripped of their right to vote at the local level in michigan, the question remains what's going on in michigan? and why is it first recourse in michigan now to put a halt to all the pesky voting, to solve the state's problems by stopping the voting process that is otherwise known as democracy. and who, if anyone, is going to change that in the state of michigan? on a personal note, i have to say, i am more inclined than ever to stay on this story. one, because it keeps getting more and more interesting and more and more fraught all the time. i think something's going on in michigan that's going on nowhere else in the country and it deserves a lot more attention than it's getting. the more rocks you overturn, the more you'll learn. but also, turns out your insults make me stronger. bring it on. keep shooting the messenger. [ male announcer ] you may be an allergy muddler. try zyrtec® for powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because it starts working fas

i'll see back here at noon when i'm joined by ron paul, campaign chair jesse benton, maggie hagerman, michael dyson. until then find us at facebook.com/nowwithalex. >>> "andrea mitchell reports" is next. greetings to you. >> thank you. coming up now, breaking news. george zimmerman's first court appearness, we'll bring it to you lie. mcrogers and a mother of two young children joining me to react to the criticism of ann romney's decision to stay at home. james cameron is here. also to talk about remaybing his record-breaking film in 3d and record-breaking film in 3d and his dused dishcloths. they can have a history that they drag around with them. try bounty extra soft. in this lab demo, one sheet of bounty extra soft leaves this surface 3 times cleaner than a dishcloth. the cleaner way to clean. bounty extra soft. ♪[music plays] ♪[music plays] purina one beyond. food for your cat or dog. >>> breaking right now on "andrea mitchell reports" we're live in sanford, florida, where minutes from now george zimmerman will make his first court appearance. after special prosecutor angela c

. >> this year, it is a two day of benton set of one. here in sparks, dba ltv 11 news. >> -- wbal-tv 11 news. >> the congressman speaks out about how he feels the obama administration is handling the civil service scandal. and goal completed? and annapolis sailor has balked at his welcome home. >> and this is an editorial. >> our goal has been your number one choice. we also strive to be your number one choice on the web with more than 12 million page views per month. the bail -- wbaltv.com won the award for best broadcast website. we'll listen to your feedback and heard you loud and clear. this week, will present a new web site that we hope he will visit every day. we designed the new site to be cleaner and clearer with a focus on delivering the top news, weather, and information you rely on. the navigation menu has moved to the top of every page. it has a clear look. videos and photo galleries are moving towards technology can use across to devices. the new site is live at every corner. the are live wire updates in formula of breaking

the george foundation contributes to many worthy causes throughout fort benton county. indeed, has played a pivotal role in making sure the generosity of the foundation is directed to causes that help our community the most. however, the childs advocate of the community, that brings me to the floor today. by contributing her time, energy and resources, dee has helped child advocates to serve over 8,000 children throughout the county. . under her leadership she's taught them to be better leaders, more effective program managers, and to achieve the dream of helping the most vulnerable children in our communities in ways we never thought possible 20 years ago. her contributions are helping children and in turn strengthening our communities and neighborhoods. she's given a voice to those who desperately need one on their behalf. these efforts to build -- doesn't stop with child advocates. she's also started an annual eight-month leadership for nonprofit course who teach the rising stars the skills they need to build a strong nonprofit community. most importantly she's led a