>> so, richard, we talk about the competitiveness. you bring up china. the president and republican leaders want to cut the deficit. tonight, democrats and republicans, they're going to be sitting together. how can they use this example of what they're doing tonight by blurring the aisle to find common ground when it comes to the problem of the deficit? >> reporter: well, for normal people if you listen to them, there was a lot of common ground. they talk about their concerns about the deficit and say they want to reduce spending. what they mean by spending ends up being very different, and they cannot agree on an appropriate use of investment versus what issing excess inspending. if they try to find agreement as opposed to lectorle advantage, they might find common ground. >> richard wolffe, thanks so much. so jobs, infrastructure, ed case, the top priorities that president obama is pecked to lay out this evening. an economist with the economic cycle research, michael cooper with "the new york times" and has written about the infrastructure debate and also adam schaffer, an education policy analyst with the cato institute. unemployment has dropped in this country. it's still too high, for most. 9.4%. but the real unemployment rate is more than 16%. explain this, the real unemployment rate and why do you think it's even higher than we've measured? >> well, you have the real unemployment rate people underemployed or have stopped looking for work, kind of dropped off the rolls and have a broader of unemployment to capture those people and it's very high, in the high teens. and also, it's picking up, i think something that's not really a cyclical event, there's a structural event going on in unemployment as well. recall that before this great recession, there was a big housing bubble, a real estate bubble. so there's a bunch of people who used to work in that area, for example, there's no bubble today. and so there's a skills mismatch. things that they are prepared to do, the economy doesn't really want. so you get this very large, extended unemployment rate or broader unemployment rate that i think belo loloies something th way beyond the business cycle. >> michael cooper, you wrote about infrastructure plans. lay out the blue frint fprint f >> the president will reiterate his call to outbuild the rest of the world. america has fallen behind in terms of building out the rail system, road system, other countries steps into the fray and invested a lot of money into the future. but he has a big challenge going forward because once upon a time, publics works projects were thought of the bacon that everybody fought to bring home. for republicans it's the pork they want to spurn that they'rer arguing costs to much. the president has to convince people these are investments, the new code worth for spending these could increase competitiveness going forward. it won't be about roads, maybe you'll hear about ports, moving frats, other things that things that could make it more competitively on a global scale. >> it comes from the same pig. adam i want to move on to you. the president emphasizes competitiveness. when we talked about education reform, how does this fit into the objective? >> well, i think we do need to be more competitive. we need to increase achievement but i don't think the federal government will do it. we have a decades history of him not doing that. he'll call for more spending, investment but you get a return on investment, that's the point. though we have more than doubled spending over 40 years per pupil in real terms we've seen scores flat across that time. they're not learning anymore. we're wasting a lot more money. >> reform takes money. in this economy, do we have the money to make the type of changes needed? >> well, you know, that's the open debate, where do you want to spend the money? taxing and spending. one, regardless of what washington does, this year is going to be one of revival because the business cycle, the private sector, is set to lift because of the whole bunch of business cycle dynamics that are outside the control of washington. interesting to see how it gets plays because they'll be blaming credit all over the place. bus that's what's going to happen. now, when you talk about high unemployment rate, are you talk abo enfrom structure or education, talk about excess capacity. we have more workers than we need right now, so the same thing's happening in infrastructure, you're not having a huge demand to build like more superhighways at this moment. i'm not saying it's not a good idea for longer term but near term it's not there. on the education front, the challenge is, is not federal but state and local where all of the budgets are being cut. >> i agree, exactly. the big problem is state and local budgets. that's the lion's share of the spending and they're up against the wall, especially with the stimulus going away. increases in medicaid spending at the state -- at state level and you know, k through 12 education eats up more than 50% of state and local tax revenue. it's the huge unspoken issue, i think, in the fiscal crisis. the state and local governments haven't seen the fiscal crisis. they will this year. a lot of people have to creative things like school choice to increase achievement. >> i want to turn the attention to the dow. it's remarkable, coming within striking distance of 12,000. levels we haven't seen this 2008. michael, i want to ask you, how much credit can the president take for this resurgence. we have the market report up on the monitor now. seeing red arrows across the bore, but still we're at and 1193. >> they're arguing as we go to the next spending and investments, people are argue what did the first stimulus do. the obama administration has argued it replaced the demand lost from the private sector by increasing public sector money. you know, they'll point to the dow recovering probably and say you see we got us through that time. on the other hand, there's big challenges ahead and some people may be worried about froth in the markets and things when you have the markets going high but unemployment high is that a sound economy? >> so we're a jittery country, i get that. as we watch this and talk about the markets that are soaring, a lot of people are still having trouble turning that into really something fiscal to their own personal lives, getting food on the table. we're watching it at the top of this year, start of 2011, how food prices are soaring. >> for those who don't have big stock investments, this is a big deal, right? food and energy both, this is -- you can't -- it's nonnegotiable. you need to eat and you need to have heat or lights or drive the car. so when those prices rise and your income doesn't, it's what you call this proverbial belt tightening. that is a risk, i think, going into this year because food and energy prices will continue to rise because, actually, the economy's going to be growing stronger, not only here but you have growth around most of the world. and they all eat and drive, too. so that's a global price that we're competing and paying for there. i think we will have pressure on the consumer. but with stronger growth in 2011, there's hopefully going to be more income and employment to offset that. >> we'll hear what the president has to say. thank you. just want to point out, programming note to watch the state of the union tonight right here on msnbc. our special coverage this evening. officials around the country are trying to find new ways to combat a recent rash of brazen police shootings. it's been a challenging year already for the nation's officers. in justice two weeks alone, officers in at least six cities have been shot. take a look at these disturbing numbers from the national order of police. this year alone, 14 officers have been shot and killed, 59 others shot and killed last year. it's up 20% from the year before. jim pasco executive director of the national order of police. jim, these criminals seem to be showing little regard for authority, as we look back on them. is it more difficult now to be a police officer? certainly looks that to all of us after we hear about these shootings. >> well, i think what these terrible tragedies, particularly so close together, underscore to our nation as well as reminding our officers is what an inherently, dangerous and stressful profession policing is. yes, it is becoming more difficult for a variety of reasons. >> let's talk about what happened just last week where over 100 police officers in camden, new jersey, laid off. that's a high crime ridden area. but now for many who live and call the city of camden home, they have little protection. can this rash of violence be attributed to the lack of funding we're seeing around the country? >> i don't flow if this particular rash of violence can be attributed to the cuts which have recently been implemented but i can tell you for a fact that ultimately they will result in increased crime around our country. what happened in camden is at variance with common sense. a thresh hold of sensibility for elected officials to provide for the safety of citizenry. they abdicated that responsibility in camden, newark and other cities around the country. >> tonight the president addressing the country, certainly about many concerns facing our finances. also planning to tackle some of the tough issues, the government talking about safety and everyday citizens. what do you want to hear him say tonight in regard to that topic? >> first, let's begin by saying the president and his cabinet and his vice president have done some very, very positive things for policing since inauguration day. they've reinstated billions of dollars to the burn and jag grant programs which provide moneys for police to work on task forces and do special duties within their cities. that being said, i think we need to go further. something needs to be done to preserve the jobs of ploiolice officers, not because police officers are greedy and looking for money but police officer on the job is what stands between the citizens and violent crime. >> jim pasco, thank you for joining us. american service member locked away accused of revealing state secrets. up next, the case of private bradley manning. and charges of abusing one of our own. i have clients say it's really hard to save for the future and they've come to a point where it's overwhelming. oh gee, i'm scared to tell you i've got this amount of credit card debt or i've got a 15-year-old and we never got around to saving for their college. that's when i go to work. we talk, we start planning. we can fix this. when clients walk out of my office they feel confident about their retirement. 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>> reporter: tam mass, the easy answer may be they may never have directly connected meaning manning sa manning assange but somebody gave wikileaks the classified documents. as founder of wick, julian assange, most certainly would have been somehow involved. did assange or anybody else at wikileaks earth ither coerce or collaborate to download the documents from government computers which raises questions about conspiracy and espionage, which is at the crux of an ongoing investigation. >> we know assange is involved, he's the founder of wikileaks. however, how come we don't have the concrete evidence putting manning, who has been talked about this at the cent they of this investigation in talking about documents, how come they cannot say that he actually did this or had concrete information? >> reporter: he is facing two charges of illegally downloading video of an apache helicopter attack in baghdad and 150,000 state department documents. what happened is that computer forensics experts went over manning's personal computers and determines that somehow much of that material that showed up downloaded on manning's computers were later released by wikileaks, hence the charges against him. as a matter of fact, this investigation is ongoing, and military officials expect additional charges, perhaps somebody at wikileaks, including julian assange, but most certainly against bradley manning, who by all accounts, will face a court-martial some here in the district of columbia. >> nbc's jim miklaszewski. thanks. more on the story about private manning. the military has admitted the commander at quantico improperly put manning on suicide watch. this comes as u.s. officials have strongly denied allegations that private manning has been tortured, mistreated for abused. manning's attorney disagrees and yesterday amnesty international sent a letter to robert gates calling for a review of what the human rights groups calls inhumane conditions for manning. >> jane and another visitor turned away when they tried to visit manning sunday. why were you denied admission to quantico? set it up, maybe this will alleviate that, did you have permission to get into khanty coin the first place? >> david haas is a friend of bradley manning's and he's the only person who consistently visits him, and i was there, you know, bringing david down. he stays with me when he's in washington, d.c., and i sit in the mcdonald's while he visits manning. they asked our car to drive on the base and wouldn't let us drive it off because they said it was illegal to drive it off. i had a pdf of my insurance and not a paper version of my insurance. the question remains why this took two hours, why they would not allow us to leave the base. they say we are not detained. we absolutely were. it became apparent that they were going to release us right before 3:00, which was the end of visiting hours. so david could not have any possibility of seeing bradley, though he was an approved visitor. >> you have done this before? you've driven david down before? >> many times. they've been very nice and allowed us on base. thement menmen minute we drove said they receives orders in order to do this. >> you didn't grab your cell phone or iphone or snapping pictures? >> we signed a document, the document they asked us to sign saying we would not take videos or pictures, so they knew what they were go doing and did not want us doing that. i started tweeting. people all over the world started following it while we were there. >> jane, today, though, the military's admitting that manning had been improperly put on a suicide watch. why that is significant? >> well, it's significant because it answers the question as to why they didn't want david to see bradley that day. last week was the week the bringing commander had put manning on suicide watch and the military admitted last night that was because he had defied order, not because this was out of concern for his medical condition. the military's long contested bradley's not been in solitary confinement. he's unpoi watch, supposedly for his own good, which imposes sole tear confinement conditions but out of medical necessity despite the fact three psychiatrists he's at no suicide risk. now they're admitting that aberheart abused his authority putting him on suicide watch. i wish jim miklaszewski who ask why he's allowed to overrule the psychiatrists and keep him on poi watch, overruling the decision of the psychiatrists. >> manning being kept in his cell 23 hours a day, with an hour for exercise, hour of tv each day, also reportedly denied sheets or a pillow. in your view, is private manning being tortured by the u.s. military? would you consider that torture or a harsh, strict punishment? >> well, number one, they should not be punishing anyone that they are holding for as a pretrial confinement. they hasn't been convicted of anything. you know, if he disobeys, whatever appropriate punishments, you know, is meted out for not following orders but putting him in solitary confinement is tantamount to torture when doing it to someone who has not done anything yet to deserve that. manning's attorney filed an article 138 complaint last week alleging that aberheart abused this authority in the situation. in response to that, that's why military officials removed the suicide watch from manning and admitted that aberhart abused his authority. the poi watch is still on. he's still in solitary confinement conditions. clearly they harassed the only visitor who goes to see him. these are human rights abuses and i think that people -- the president should take seriously the recommendations of the united nations, expert on torture, the recommendations of amnesty international and others that the poi order needs to be lifted. >> jane, great to see you. general david petraeus sents a letter to the troops ahead of the state of the union tonight. a look at what's ahead for the men and women overseas next on msnbc. 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[ male announcer ] over 7 million people nationwide have talked to their doctor about chantix. chances are, you could be one of them. talk to your doctor. find out if chantix is right for you. chances are, you could be one of them. but you can still refinance to a fixed rate as low as 4.5% at lendingtree.com, where customers save an average of $293 a month. call lendingtree today. >> topping news now, anti-government protests in egypt claimed the lives of three people. a 20-year-old police officer die in clashes in the city of nisoor is, proprotesters were reportedly kills. . u.s. officials expressed confidence in backing president mew bar act's government. hillary clinton said egimyptian have the right to protest. the united states is monitoring the situation. a life acceptansentence cl . today, ghailani requested leniency, saying he never intended to kill anyone and has been subject of torture by the cia. judge kaplan denied the request saying actions caused suffering and or. >> today, prime minister putin vow retribution for the bombing. no group has claimed responsibility for the attack which killed 35 and injured 180. the state of the union and the state of your bank account. that's next on msnbc. the place for politics. what are you looking at? logistics. ben? the ups guy? no, you see ben, i see logistics. logistics? think--ben is new markets. ben is global access-- china and beyond. ben is a smarter supply chain. ben is higher margins. happier customers... everybody wins. logistics. exactly. see you guys tomorrow. aren't absorbed properly unless taken with food. he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. also available in small, easy-to-swallow petites. citracal. i have clients say it's really hard to save for the future and they've come to a point where it's overwhelming. oh gee, i'm scared to tell you i've got this amount of credit card debt or i've got a 15-year-old and we never got around to saving for their college. that's when i go to work. we talk, we start planning. we can fix this. when clients walk out of my office they feel confident about their retirement. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. i'm simon hobbs with your cnbc market wrap. having failed to get the dow 12,000 yesterday, we're falling back a bit. disappointment on 3m and johnson & johnson. consumer confidence index rose to its highest point, up more than seven points differen s si december. airlines are back on course for profitability. through flying less, grounding planes and eliminating flights, airlines have cut costs and managed to force fares higher. as the global economy rebounds travel demand is rising and planes are as full as they've been in years. the government reports profit margins at big airlines in the was at the their highest level in a decade. that's it from cnbc, first in business worldwide. back to you. simon pointed out the dow jones industrial average flirting, once again with 12,000 mark but we saw a dip today and that would represent a level not seen since before the economic collapse of 2008. we'll show it to you so you can drink it in as we try to inch closer to 12,000 mark. down by 28 today. look ahead to the state of the union, can we expect the president to take credit for helping spark economic recovery. >> a big question. republicans started to claim that by taking control of the house that they've had an impact on turning things in the right direction. but in reality, are we just living through the natural ebb and flow of the world's largest economic engine or can the federal government manipulate it at will? cnbc's steve liesman here to help us figure it out. big setup there. we're going to get through this for everybody. explain it to us. is the market up because the u.s. economy is cyclical, or is this the result of policy decisions that are coming out of washington? >> reporter: a tough one to answer. as you sort of suggested in your walk up there, success has a lot of parents and obviously failure has none. it's probably worth while to credit the obama administration with stabilizing the situation and those were poll says that began in the latter part of the bush administration, continued by obama, probably the t.a.r.p. fund with federal reserve policy. almost certainly stabilized the situation. they can take credit for growth is another story. i know the republicans want to say, we were coming into office. i think what certainly happened is the obama administration has taken a definitive turn or step toward the center when it comes to competitiveness, when it comes to growth, and when it comes to a focus on jobs. >> yes, failure is an orphan, steve. what can the president -- >> reporter: i was going to use a tougher word, but we want to keep my job. >> it's early. what can the president say tonight that can could ace positive or negative reaction from the markets tomorrow? >> reporter: i think the markets have heard what they're going to hear, appointment of mr. dally to the chief of staff position, the appointment of jeff immel from g.e. what we're seeing is that the obama administration may be easing back on some of the tough rhetoric when it comes to business and that's what the markets want to hear. there is a big question, thomas, which i cannot figure out yet. is the market giving business credit for the huge profits that they've run up or are they predicting better things to come in the u.s. economy? i hope it's the latter because it's not enough for what's happening now which is profits have been strong but there's not been hiring, and that's a big problem for the obama administration that's going to have many hours of debate about what the policy is in relation to that. >> the unemployment rate is huge. steve leaseman, thank you. capitol hill, all abuzz as lawmakers gear up for one of the biggest political events of the year. luke russert joins us now. what is the republican leadership want to hear from the president this evening? >> reporter: well, thomas, there is a lot of buzz up here on capitol hill because there have been some parts of the state of the union speech leaks out over the last few days from the white house, and they specifically had to do with what president obama wants to have, more investments within the american economy. listen to house speaker boehner precede that word investment on capitol hill. >> the american people know that we can't continue to borrow and spend our way to prosperity. they understand that we've got to tighten the belt. and i'm hopeful that the president is listening to the american people. i'm hopeful that the word "investment" really isn't more stimulus spending and a bigger government here in washington. >> reporter: you see the correlation between the word "investment" and more stimulus spending made by speaker boehner there. the number one issue on capitol hill for republicans that the president they banwant him to address is spending and the economy. they want to see massive spending cuts in the speech so they believe the country can go forward and not accumulate as much debt. they want to see president obama to decouple himself, in the words of eric cantor, from poll soifz t policies of last two years. they put together classic policies like health care reform, they want him to shift to the tone to the economy and leave that rhetoric in the past. it will be interesting to see whether or not president obama will water down his accomplishments over last two years, which are many in the 111th congress but that's what the gop leadership would like to see going forward. >> coming up in 5 1/2 hours. tomorrow, we're going to hear from mitch mcconnell in an exclusive on "the daily rundown." will the president. speech focus on domestic priorities? many will be hoping to learn more about the progress overseas and when troops are coming home. president obama said the transition out of afghanistan will begin no later than july but today in a letter to the troops general petraeus said great progress has been made but this will be a tougher year. joins by msnbc military analyst general barry plk kaf friday for a closer look at the drawdown. is the president's goal realistic when we talk about this? are we going to be out of afghanistan by summertime, july? >> no, hard imagine that. thomas, his challenge is explains at $10 billion a month war. we're losing a company or so killed and wounded every month. the american people walked away from the war. he's got to explain what is our strategic interest in staying there. what is the relationship to pakistan. and then i think he's going to underscore that we're coming out of iraq. we'll be out almost entirely by christmas. >> sir, general petraeus tells us the troops that he's expecting this year to be much tougher. the times there. what are the new challenges that he's trying to reference or prepare all of us back here at home for? >> well you, know, the good news, we've got general petraeus over there. one of the most capable, creative military leaders we've had since world war ii. what petraeus has got to do is have the situation look enormously better a year from now. withdrawal, not likely. but how can he shore up the pakistani military to confront the sanctuaries up in waziristan? how can he create operational afghan military and police units that will begin to create a security environment where we can withdraw? >> let's show a new poll that came out from the pew research center. the same percentage of americans said the u.s. is losing ground in afghanistan as those who see progress. general mccaffrey, can the president reassure us, especially those that don't see the progress that's happening, reassure everyone about what's taking place in afghanistan is actual progress? >> well i have no doubt, when you put 100,000 u.s. troops in there, 50,000 nato forces from 42 countries, and build 240,000-man afghan army, and you confront the pashtun taliban civil war this ought to work over time. the question is time, thomas. can we explain strategic national interests that justifies a five to ten-year continued engagement? >> really is the question, the time. general, good to see you, sir. more legal problems for italy's embattled and often controversial prime minister. leaked wiretaps show berlusconi keeps an apartment building full of girls on a standby for parties. nbc's michelle kosinski in milan with more. >> reporter: investigators say there are a lot of striking young women living here, rent-free. and they say the prime minister silvio berlusconi pays their bills and they go to his parties, something repeated and wiretaps that have leaked out of this morass. no sex, the girls claim but say their leader does give them money and presents. according to the criminal investigation, berlusconi's g - get-togethers were more like orgies. one phone conversation, a young woman says it's look a brothel in there. worse than the papers say. and then there's teenage runaway turns belly dancer karema, stage name, ruby, the heart stealer, who berlusconi is accused of paying for sex when she was at most 17. both she and he went on tv to deny it. but the prime minister's accused of lying and ordering police to let young ruby out of jail one time when she was accused of theft. the defense for the media mogul contains statements from 20 people who have attended his parties and describes them as dinners with some singing and jokes. since this all came out, berlusconi has refused to resign and his political party has gained popularity over the last month. back to you. >> thank you. how much sleep do you actually get? coming up next, how sleep can become a mind-altering experience. you do not want to miss this. you do not want to miss this. stay with me. are switching from tylenol to advil. you do not want to miss this. stay with me. to learn more and get your special offer, go to takeadvil.com. take action. take advil. another heart attack could be lurking, waiting to strike. a heart attack that's caused by a clot, one that could be fatal. but plavix helps save lives. plavix, taken with other heart medicines, goes beyond what other heart medicines do alone, to provide greater protection against heart attack or stroke and even death by helping to keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming dangerous clots. ask your doctor if plavix is right for you. protection that helps save lives. 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[ female announcer ] so book today. freestyle cruising. only on norwegian cruise line. welcome back. the state of the union has been traditionally a combination, laundry list and a wish list. after his party traunss in the midterms and with republicans emboldened and looking ahead to 2012, how high will expectations be this evening. chris coons joins me -- senator joins me from capitol hill. you may recall he was the senator who defeated tea party favorite christine o'donnell from the midterm election there's. good to have you with us today. the president will obviously talk about job creation, something everybody's looking forward to, and the economy as well tonight. but with two years left in his first term, what do your voters in the state of delaware expect him to do about it? >> well, thomas what i think the folks of delaware are looking for tonight is a clear vision from the president about how we're going to be effective in competing, how we're going to win the future. i have been working hard in the lame duck session and now i look forward to working harder in the 112th congress to get us focused on things we need to do to make america successful at job creation. that means focusing on tax, trade policies, on education and innovation, ways to get back on track and being competitive globally. >> senator, i want to play what the speaker, the house speaker, john boehner had to say today. take a listen. we'll talk on the other side. >> i'm hopeful the president is listening to the american people. i'm hopeful that the word "investment" really isn't more stimulus spending and a bigger government here in washington. >> so with civility is the new buzz word in washington, can the president attempt to call out republicans for their lack of specifics when it comes to cutting government spending, especially entitlement programs? >> i think we have to find a season of not just civility but shared responsibility. if all of us, republican and democrat, house and senate, are going to talk and be serious about responsibly managing our federal expend turs, reducing debt and deficit, we have to be concrete, we have to move to specifics. i think it's important for us demand concrete and clear proposals, whether from the house, the senate or either party. we can't just keep talking about the atmospheriatmospherics, we move to specific actions. >> speaking of specifics, i want to get a yes or no on topics of whether or not you want the president to press for any of the following. gun control, war in afghanistan, closing guantanamo, and spending the rest of the stimulus money, where do you stand on those? >> if we're going to spend the rest of the fstimulus money we have to meet a higher standard to the american people the investments are targeted, investments we can have confidence will help us be more competitive going forward, but there are projects, will infrastructure, education and training, whether manufacturing, i think are making the case for. in closinging guantanamo and coming to a clear time line about afghanistan, i think both of those are things that the president should speak to. i think it's important for us to have a sense of his priorities. >> what about gun control? >> on gun control i frankly, i personally think it's important for us to more rigorously enforce the laws that we already have on the books to make sure that background checks are being conducted, particularly on those who have mental health issues or who have prior concvictions. i think he needs to dead indicate a majority of his time to the economy, jobs and competitiveness. >> last, but not least, who is your date tonight? >> i'm going to be sitting with john bozeman, republican freshman from arkansas. met him at orientation. we're both looking forward to hearing the president's vision of moving forward as a country. >> thanks for joining us today. >> great to be and with you. if you want to remember something that's really important, we have some advise for you. you're supposed to take a nap. new study shows extra bit of sleep could have a significant impact on your life. dr. matthew edland, the author of "the power of res." go encouraging results about how memory can be affected by sleep. break it down for us. how does work? >> basically, you need sleep in order to remember. you need sleep for learning. you need sleep to renew your body. if you don't renew your body, you don't last. >> so the focus of this research was really on taking naps as opposed to eight hours of sleep overnight. is sleep just as effective, if you make certain enough to get eight hours a night? are naps necessary, for those of us that can't take them to improve memory skills. >> naps are among the most normal human things out there but a lot of people don't believe that and a lot of people don't think they need them. what is wild is, even short nap can improve learning and memory, even as short as six minutes. basically, rest is regeneration, that's how we rebuild and renew our bodies. that's what's necessary for survival. if people want to take a nap, it's fine. whether workplaces will allow that, that's another story. >> there you go, doctor. i don't know if your bosses are going to allow us to curl under the desk but you never know. 24 participants in the study, half tested for memory without sleep did not retain new information as well. what's happening in the brain making sleep so important for us? >> it's literal rewiring the brain, renewing the brain. memories coming in have to get consolidat consolidated. that's what's happening in sleep. sleep is literally a altering experience. >> so, when we talk about this memories need to be saturated into our memory banks through only sleep because we can make a logical memory -- we can have a memory about having this interview right now and walk away -- >> will. >> -- walk away with some very important points. why would sleeping after this help us retain more information from it. >> because we need sleep for long term memory. we actually need sleep to get things from working memory into long term memory in a way that's usable. we take in too much information. we take in enormous amounts of information. that information has to be processed, remembered or forgotten. a lot of what goes on in sleep is summarizing, taking the old information, putting it together with new information into something we can use. otherwise we're filled with all this stuff that we can't use and can't have real judgment with. sleep makes it work. >> is this something you would recommend more for students than you would for people in careers or is it supposed to be across the board for all of us to take away from this? >> it's across the board for all of us. rest is regeneration. what people don't realize is that within a few weeks most of you is gone. most of you has been replaced. your bones and teeth. everything else pretty much is remade. we are constantly remaking memories. we're constantly reconsolidating our learning. that's how we stay healthy. >>it's fascinating research. good stuff. our thanks to you for joining us today. it really is a fascinating conversation. i wish we had more time. we appreciate the time you've given us. >> remember the state of the union i hope as well. >> 9:00 p.m. tonight. don't forget the time. thank you, sir. so the roller coaster that is rahm emanuel chicago mayoral run has taken another turn. it's what tops the news now and that's up next. stay with me, this is msnbc. perfect. reduce lead and other impurities with the advanced filtration system of brita. ♪ [ upbeat instrumental ] and other impurities [ rattling ] [ gasps ] [ rattling ] [ laughing ] [ announcer ] close enough just isn't good enough. - if your car is in an accident, - [ laughing continues ] make sure it's repaired with the right replacement parts. take the scary out of life with travelers. call or click now for an agent or quote. 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[ high male ] fizz, fizz. . welcome back. in the news now rahm emanuel may get to run for chicago mayor after all. just yesterday illinois appeals court bumped rahm emanuel off the ballot because of residency questions. today the supreme court ordered no more ballots be printed without his name while the justice consider whether to hear an appeal from the former white house chief of staff. congresswoman gabrielle giffords is moving forward with therapy despite doctor orders to stay in intensive care because of lingering fluid on her brain. she could be transferred to the rehab center by the end of this week. we're wishing her well. that's our show for this tuesday. i appreciate your time. i'm thomas roberts. don't go anywhere. the dylan ratigan is coming up next right here on msnbc. stay tuned. funny thing about vegetables... they fill you up without filling you out. yes! v8 juice gives you three of your five daily servings of vegetables. that's what i'm talking about! v8. what's your number? seven years ago, i had this idea. to make baby food the way moms would. happybaby strives to make the best organic baby food. in a business like ours, personal connections are so important. we use our american express open gold card to further those connections. last year we took dozens of trips using membership rewards points to meet with the farmers that grow our sweet potatoes and merchants that sell our product. we've gone from being in 5 stores to 7,500. booming is using points to make connections that grow your business. sleep is here, on the wings of lunesta. and if you wake up often in the middle of the night... rest is here, on the wings of lunesta. lunesta helps you fall asleep and stay asleep, so you can wake up feeling rested. when taking lunesta, don't drive or operate machinery until you feel fully awake. walking, eating, driving, or engaging in other activities while asleep, without remembering it the next day, have been reported. abnormal behaviors may include aggressiveness, agitation, hallucinations or confusion. in depressed patients, worsening of depression, including risk of suicide, may occur. alcohol may increase these risks. allergic reactions, such as tongue or throat swelling, occur rarely and may be fatal. side effects may include unpleasant taste, headache, dizziness and morning drowsiness. ask your doctor if lunesta is right for you. get lunesta for a $0 co-pay at lunesta.com. sleep well, on the wings of lunesta. we removed the alcohol and made it less intense. ♪ now people everywhere are getting a deep clean and fresher mouth without the intensity that kept them away. it still kills bad breath germs for a whole mouth clean. but it's never felt so good. ♪ new listerine® zero™. deep clean. less intense. the #1 dentist recommended mouthwash brand, listerine®. the #1 dentist recommended but you can still refinance to a fixed rate as low as 4.5% at lendingtree.com, where customers save an average of $293 a month. call lendingtree today. good afternoon to you. i'm dylan ratigan. today the real state of the union. what should president obama say tonight to address our country's problems. how should congress respond and we'll talk to tom coburn about just that in just a second. plus the pentagon on the defensive. the military now saying they found no direct link between bradley manning and wikileaks founder julian assange. also, steel on wheels on the eve of our next. campaign to drive a jobs movement in this country. we'll look at ways to build and