The governance new york, connecticut, rhode island, massachusetts, maine, and new hampshire. Residents in all six of those states are now facing what is shaping up to be a winter blizzard of historic proportions. At this point some of the heaviest snowfall is expected in the boston area, where forecasters are warning about the possibility of more than 2 feet of snow. Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick banned all traffic from the roads after 4 00 p. M. Tennessee today that is the first travel ban of that kind in more than three decades. And some shoreline residents in massachusetts have been asked to evacuate tonight. In neighboring connecticut, that states governor, dan malloy has also issued a ban on all nonemergency Motor Vehicle traffic. And that ban took effect earlier this evening. And Rhode Islands governor Lincoln Chafee has taken similar measures, ordering cars off the roads in sta state as well. The storm has been blamed for this 19car pileup and is causing travel problems in the air as well. At this point more than 4,000 flights in and out of the northeast have been canceled. New york citys airports remain officially open at this hour, but most flight activity has ended for the night. Already just a few hours into this storm, more than 10,000 electric customers in the northeast have been left without power. And tonight the National Guard reports that more than a thousand National Guardsmen have been activated in connecticut, massachusetts, and in new york as this region prepares for the worst. Joining us now is nbc news meteorologist bill cairns. Bill, what is the latest at this hour . Well, melissa we are watching this storm maturing, if we want to call it that. It is growing into intensity. Now it is becoming a fullfledged blizzard. In the last hour, about 50,000 people have lost power. And were going to continue to add to that number to the hundreds of thousands throughout the overnight. Thats the worst part of this. Losing power in the middle of a winter storm when you dont know how long its going to be until the power crews can a, get through two or three feet of snow to turn your power back on. Let me show you a cool image of the storm. This is the imagery i show you during hurricane season. It almost looks like a hurricane. The spinning l is where the center of the storm is, now just south of massachusetts and cape cod. And the way it works is all of the warm air gets sucked into the storm. And on the back side, all the cold air comes in behind it. And thats what were seeing now in areas where its actually snowing down towards philadelphia for the first time. The white on the map shows you where its snowing. The blue is where its snowing very hard. Were talking 2 to 3 inches an hour. Weve had reports of thundersnow. Literally its lightning and snowing at the same time. Connecticut, rhode island, and some spots of massachusetts. Now long island is just a mess. Ive heard reports of 6 inches of snow, and an inch of sleet on top of it. And now we have snow and rain and sleet. Long island is a miserable place right now, with the high winds and the crazy mixture of winter precipitation. And its not fun right now in boston either. Winds are now up to 50 miles an hour. Same with newport. Marthas vineyard, vineyard haven, all the same. Eastern mass is where most of the Power Outages in rhode island are going to occur. Already a foot of snow on the ground in many locations of rhode island. Were going to add another foot probably in the next six to eight hours. I think the one good thing when most of us wake up tomorrow morning, it will be over with. Hopefully the plow crews by about noon can get things under control. Were talking still the potential, someone from boston to providence has a chance of 30 inches of snow. And melissa, the highest theyve ever had is 27. 2 inches. This is going to be top 10, top 5, who nose, maybe even number one by the time its all said and done. I know obviously a lot of the governors have been making the decision to get cars off the road. What is the primary danger other than the traffic danger that is faced for residents in these areas . Unfortunately, there is always some knuckleheads that are going to go out there on the roads when everyone has been told to stay off of them. Now its snowing up to about 3 inch answer hour. This is where the cars get stuck. It snowed so hard, the plows cant keep up with it. And then youre in the middle of some interstate, in the middle of nowhere, and you have to call the rescuers to come get you and youll be stuck for 12 hours. There will probably be hundreds of people stuck tonight. Im sure they minimized it, but its going to happen tonight. The concerns are for the rescuers out there in the middle of the night doing this. And then the Power Outages. Tomorrow morning, the last piece of this puzzle will be the coastal areas of massachusetts at about 10 00 a. M. Thats the high tide cycle when we expect the storm surge to be at its highest. The wave action to be at its highest. Well could have waves 10 to 15 feet right near the coast where we have a storm surge of around 3 to 4 feet. Its not going to be any sandy or anything like that that happened on the jersey shore and long island, but we could see homes with water getting in them or possibly weakening their foundations and fall do you think to the sea. Well watch that tomorrow morning at sunrise. Nbc news mobility bill cairns, thank you very much for that update. And as you just heard, bill mentioned that the area that is expected to get hit hardest from this storm is in fact boston, where there are some models that are predicting nearly 3 feet of snow. The weather channels jim cantore is live for us from boston tonight. Jim, what is the latest . Yeah, melissa, we are snowing at 2 inch answer hour right now. Gusts over 50 miles an hour at logan airport. Thank goodness the governor just made the call yesterday, saying look, i want everybody off the roads at noon. Im going to shut down the t at 3 30. You dont have a choice. That allowed the plows to get out there and get major headway on this storm. Now its very, very hard to keep up with. I was out here earlier. And my footprints are right there. Now theyre completely covered up. So we have 2 inch answer hour coming down. Obviously were at the boston commons so, folks are out here, enjoying the snowfall. Lets face it. This is just a beautiful sight out in through here if you dont have to be driving in it, which is exactly what we dont want people to do. Now, because of the wind that is picking up as well, weve had hurricaneforce gusts on nantucket island, we are starting to see Power Outages now in massachusetts alone, up to 30,000 plus without power. Were afraid thats going to continue to go up. Weve got long island, connecticut, rhode island, new hampshire, massachusetts, and probably parts of maine as well that are going to be dealing with these. National grid says about 100,000. Im thinking about 250 before all is said and done. The problem is once those lines come down, once those poles come down, youre going to have to remove all this snow before you can get in there and do some of the repairs. So its kind of a twofold problem here. And unfortunately one that theyve warned people once you do lose power, especially if its a severe case, its going to be probably a week before you get that power back on, even though there are many crews on standby to get in there and help with the situation. The problem again, though, is to get the snow out of the way first. Then we can get in on some of these roads and obviously get these power poles back up and the power lines back up. Well see how that situation mounts tonight. The good news is here it is at nightfall on a friday night. Most people are off the roads. The airports, even though theyre not closed, are literally shut down as well. So we got mostly everybody that we needed to get out of harms way. And now we have to hunker down and ride this thing out. Its going to be a long night, and its going to get worse before better. Snowfall possibly up to my waist at the common before all is said and done with the storm. Back to you. Thank you, jim. The weather channels jim cantore who is there with folks in boston who are making the best of wit snow people and dogs. I kind of love that thanks to you for reporting for us tonight. And there is lots more to come, including the amazing shrinking nra. Plus, the endangered awesomeness of the Postal Service. And beyonce versus the universe. Stay with us. [ male announcer ] when it comes to the financial obstacles military families face, we understand. Our Financial Advice is geared specifically to current and former military members and their families. [ laughs ] dad dad [ applause ] [ male announcer ] life brings obstacles. Usaa brings retirement advice. Call or visit us online. Were ready to help. Learn more with our free usaa retirement guide. Call 877242usaa. Ive got lots to say about beyonce. Entire shows worth of things to say about beyonce, really. But tonight well just stick to her super bowl performance and why those lights really went out. Thats still ahead. 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Its now a political reality that the National Rifle association, the once poster child for how scary lobby groups can intimidate politicians and keep them from supporting commonsense and popular policies, that nra is no longer very scary at all, or influential, not in the way they would like us to think they are. A ppp poll released earlier this week found that an nra endorsement is now more likely to cost votes than to gain votes for a political candidate. We had hints of the nras anemic influence during this past election when they spent nearly 11 million trying to get progun candidates elected and got less than a 1 return on that 11 million. It is becoming increasingly clear that no one listens much to the nra anymore. But for all of the out there, shocking, and just plain ineffective talking points, the nra screams from the roof tops, there is one message, one message on which they sort of have a point. I think without any doubt, if you look at why our Founding Fathers put it there, they had lived under the tyranny of king george, and they wanted to make sure that these free people in this new country would never be subjugated again and have to live under tyranny. So Wayne Lapierre is talking about the Second Amendment to the constitution there, and he is kind of correct. In this country we have a constitutional right to bear arms. The Second Amendment is 27 words long, quote, a well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed there is a lot of debate about what kind of arms the Second Amendment refers to and exactly what a well regulated militia is. But it is clear one of the things the founders wanted people to be able to do is to protect themselves from the government, government overreach. And this is a fact of American Life that the most liberal of liberals or progressive of progressives simply cant deny. The constitution protects this right. Here is the deal. For the past 48 hours, weve been watching a horrifying story unfold in los angeles. A frightening case study in what happens when someone decides to bastardize those rights and to use those Second Amendment rights to create chaos. This is a blue alert broadcast on a 187 suspect, former lapd Police Officer christopher jordan dorner. Suspect is armed and dangerous. As we join you tonight, a madman is still on the loose. Christopher dorner has killed three people and wounded another. Every Police Officer has become a target, and it has now moved to the mountains of big bear. Christopher dorner is a former Police Officer himself with grievances against the lapd. He has allegedly chosen to take out those grievances by targeting and killing other los angeles Police Officers and members of their families. He is trained in how to use weapons. Among the weapons he may have in his possession a 50 caliber rifle which shoots fiveinchlong bullets that can pierce bulletproof vests and vehicles as well as a shoulderfired missile launcher. He is still at large this evening. Dorner left a detailed manifesto online that he addressed to america. He called it last resort, and in it he listed the names of the people he plans to target and kill. Buried within his rant, quote, i am a man who has lost complete faith in the system. This is one individual who has decided that he believes the Los Angeles Police department has overstepped its bounds. He has decided to use his Second Amendment rights in this horrifying way. Since the massacre at sandy hook elementary in newtown, connecticut, in december we have been asking ourselves how to balance those Second Amendment rights with the moral imperative to keep innocent people, especially children, safe. Since that day when 20 first graders were shot and killed in their classrooms, there has been sustained attention on the issue of gun violence and gun safety. And it seems for the first time in a long time its not just political posturing. The president ial election is over, but elected officials are actually continuing to talk about what kinds of policies we might be able to enability, what we might be able to change, despite the partisan divide that seemingly stifles any reasonable debate on any issue. Today a Bipartisan Group of senators introduced legislation that would make it easier for people to Access Mental Health services at 2,000 federally qualified Community Centers across the country. The Community Centers were offered 24hour care, and they would be able to bill medicaid for their Mental Health services. The legislation is a move in response to the newtown massacre. Another Bipartisan Group of senators, including senator joe manchin of west virginia, who has long been a staunch gun rights advocate is working on legislation that would make it mandatory to pass a background check for everyone who wants to buy a gun. Currently roughly 40 of the guns sold in this country are sold with no background check at all. So if that happens, that would be a stunning achievement, right . Even just the bipartisan talks themselves pretty encouraging. It is all so encouraging. But we have to be careful not to pat ourselveses on the back too much. Not yet. Tomorrow First Lady Michelle Obama is returning to her hometown of chicago. She is returning to attend an event that should not even be taking place. She is returning to attend the funeral of a child killed by gun violence. 15yearold Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed in chicago on january 29th. She was huddled with a group of kids taking cover from a rainstorm after school. When a gunman opened fire and shot hadiya in the back and killed her. Hadiya was an honor student. She was a majorette. And in fact, she just performed at president obamas inauguration last month. And she was killed about a mile from the president s home on the south side of chicago. Hadiyas story reminds us again that while the mass murder of children in newtown was an unspeakable horror, it is thankfully rare. And while the manhunt in los angeles is a terrifying spectacle, it too is rare. What gun violence is in this country is Hadiya Pendleton, a teenaged girl killed in her own neighborhood in chicago. We have some political will right now coalescing around gun violence in this country, right . There are steps being taken that are encouraging, and maybe some of the things our lawmakers are working on, maybe they can stop the next newtown. But is there enough political will to do what it would take to save the next Hadiya Pendleton . Hadiya was most likely killed with a handgun in a city that has been reeling from gun violence, a city that is seeing its crime rate soar, specifically homicide. A city where roughly 90 of the near Record Number of homicides last year were gunrelated. A city where local gun laws are only as strong as national gun laws. The New York Times broke this down recently. Of 50,000 guns traced by chicago police, more than half came from outside illinois. Mostly from indiana, mississippi, and wisconsin. The Second Amendment means we have a right to bear arms. Should it also mean that there is no place in our political dialogue about the factors that made Hadiya Pendletons murder possible . Is it impossible to talk about removing handguns from our streets . Is that simply too extreme . Our first lady is going to be in chicago tomorrow attending the funeral of a child killed by gun violence. Chances are while she is there another mother is going to get a call about another child whose life was cut short by a gun. Joining me now is congressman Luis Gutierrez of illinois. Congressman, thank you for being here. A pleasure to be with you this evening. So clearly chicago has been receiving National Attention due to the high rate of gun violence. And there is a way in which thats a good story, because for a long time it was happening with no light shining on it. Yes. But the other thing, its led us to recognize the city actually has very tough gun laws. Yes. What needs to be done if you already have the gun laws in place and you still have this sort of murder rate . Its so porous, right . The guns just filter through to the city of chicago. And, you know, the first thing i supported back in 1993, 20 years ago when i first arrived in congress with such fervor was the assault weapons ban. I remember when we extended it. And that was good. But, you know, melissa, on monday, i worked all day today thinking than same question. So were going to have some faithbased leaders come and meet with me on monday. And were going get some victims, survivors of gun violence. Were going to meet with them, talk to them. And were going to start also begin to focus on, as you said, handguns. I went, and i was astonished there were 351 people murdered with guns in 2011 in chicago. 361 of them i mean 351, 361, 351 were handgun, 90 . Its clear we need to look at handguns also. And i hope for too long, i think youve heard many of us, melissa, as we go into National Campaigns and we dont want to be put in a corner as being against the Second Amendment and against the rightful right to bear arms. And it seems as though we articulate much too passionately and clearly and eloquently how were going to defend peoples right to have guns during campaigns. Instead of talking about how were going to save children on our streets. And lastly, if i could just, ten of the kids, i read the papers, ten of those murdered were teenagers, ten. In the month of january. Let me ask you a little bit about this. I think this is tough, right . And its tougher than just the laws. Because the last time that a democratic president , in this case it was president clinton, introduced powerful new federal laws, we ended up incarcerating black kids, kids from the west and south side of chicago, kids from towns like new orleans. There is just a little part of me that keeps being concerned that on the one hand, yes, we must push for tougher regulations. But how do we keep the regulations from falling on the backs of the very kids were trying to protect . Here is the point. We need a holistic approach to this. We cant just look its true. I wouldnt want to get on an airport where four out of ten people didnt get checked, right . So four out of ten people dont get checked for handguns in america. So thats not the kind of way we should conduct ourselves. Conversely, lets face it. We have a responsibility to have economic engines out there. Because, i mean, the demand for drugs is so huge and continues to spiral out of control in this country. Lets face it. There is a direct corallation. The propensity for drugs comes from the selling of drugs and the protecting of those drug turfs of which we are all involved both in the city and outside of the city. The suburbanites come into the city to buy drugs, and we consume drugs in the inner city. So the scourge of drugs continues to have a huge impact on our community. Killing populations because of the use of drug and killing our population, our youth innocently. Just think of the contradiction of that young girl dying, right . Honor student, wants to be a doctor. Just finished her final examines. Doesnt use drugs. And killed. Yep. Probably because somebody was using and consuming drugs, and somebody wanted to save the turf and protect the turf they were selling in. Congressman, i so appreciate you bringing us to that point. Because it does feel to me like this is exactly why it gets tough to have this conversation. Because it is holistic on the one hand we have the piece tough on guns, but the other piece is addressing the drug war and what it has done in our communities. I so appreciate you joining me tonight, congressman gutierrez. Thank you. And also, the work is going to continue. And those of us who love chicago and who know the scourge that this is in these communities, thank you for the work that youre trying to do there. Thank you. Thank you for your time. Now, having done the electoral math, republicans are forced to wander way outside their comfort zone. How is that whole rebranding thing working out for you, next. So now i can be in the scene. 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Thats the cold truth president obamas reelection is in certain ways more important even though its less emotional because it says that africanamericans having a stake, a governing stake in this country is just normal, regular. Maybe even unremarkable. And in a certain way, thats more valuable for our understanding of equality than the celebration of the first time it happens. Its really its really when it becomes something you dont even talk about anymore that you know were moving toward some kind of racial equality. The Republican Party has a new campaign going. Its called growth and opportunity project. As part of this new gop, Republican Party chairman Reince Priebus is visiting around the country. Yesterday, mr. Priebus held a, quote, africanamerican engagement and listening session in atlanta with africanamerican Small Business owners and Community Leaders from across georgia. Of course a black republican blogger who was at the meeting, this means that Reince Priebus met with georgias black republicans. Mr. Priebus told reporters afterward that the Republican Party has to change its ways. He said the party has to spend more time in more communities yearround, not just before an election. But the republican chairman says republicans are okay. Quote, i dont think there is anything that we need to fix as far as our principles and our policies. So on some level, it is clearly embarrassing to republicans that more than 90 of africanamericans vote against them. It must be, or else they would not keep announcing every four years that the Republican Party was wrong to use race for political advantage. That the party was wrong to use race as a political wedge. It sounds nice, right . The new Republican Party is going to reach out to you, you right where you live. Kind of like when mitt romney went to the Martin Luther king day parade in jacksonville. Wow, you want to do a picture here . Hey, i get to be up here. Come on. Whose got your camera, though . Who let the dogs out, who, who . Thanks, guys. Yeah, who did let those dogs out . Or how about the time that Newt Gingrich called spanish the language of living in the ghetto. And then apologized. In spanish. [ speaking spanish ] or how about when the Republican Party elected an africanamerican chairman, and he announced the dawn of the hiphop republican with republican principles in urban suburban hiphop settings. How is that working out anyway . Oh, right. If the Republican Party really wants to change, they might start thinking about folks like these. Voters in an ohio city forced to wait in ridiculous lines because republicans cut the time for early voting. Republicans are still trying to make it harder for people in urban suburban hiphop settings to vote with laws that require new forms of id. 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The archdiocese of boston urged people attending mass on sunday to use caution and prunes. And meteorologists expect this storm to leave behind 1 to 3 feet of snow. When you think of snow and rain and sleet and gloom of night, you think of the post office, right . Or rather the post office creed. Here in new york, you can see it there. See it . Just above the colonnade at the famous james a. Farley post office. Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. And for the time being, mail delivery has not been interrupted in new york state, although the Postal Service is asking people to help out their mail people by clearing snow and ice from t the driveways and porches. But in new england where the snow is heavier and driving conditions are extremely dangerous, post offices closed early today. New hampshire, maine, and vermont all pulled their drivers off the road today. But amazingly, the post office is expected to be back in full swing tomorrow. On saturday, mail delivery will be back. And it will be back for about seven months. You see, this week the postmaster general announced that starting in august, the post office will break with decades of tradition and will no longer deliver mail on saturdays. The post office has been downsizing for a couple of years now, shutting down locations that didnt add enough to the bottom line. But this is far and away the single most significant contraction of what the post office does. The post office belongs to you. It is a service you get from the government because the constitution says so. The United States constitution proscribes the post office. It was a cabinetlevel position until the 1970s. The post office is a really big deal. And its impact on america, thats been really big too. Not only does the post office handle 40 of all mail that is physically delivered in the world, but it also operates the largest fleet of vehicles in the country. And because the government has been historically better at implementing nondiscrimination policies for years the post office was a critical pathway for africanamericans trying to break through to the middle class. The post office not only paid a decent wage and was willing to hire africanamericans, but it promoted them too. By the end of the 20th century, a fifth of all postal workers were africanamerican. Today the post office is still hugely important in terms of jobs. It is the second largest employer in the country. Just after walmart. Its walmart then the post office. But what seems like a strength, the post office as a job creator, has been turned into a weakness. The post office had to shrink and get smaller because in the bush era, the Republicancontrolled Congress forced the post office to do something that no other Government Agency has to do. The post office has to fund itself impossibly far into the future. And because of this impossible to meet funding mandate, the post office seems broke. It is not broke there are people trying to break it, but it is not broke. The union that represents mail carriers estimates that if the post office goes ahead with the plan to cut mail delivery from six to five days a week, it will cost the country about 25,000 jobs. But hey, maybe walmarts hiring. Joining us now is congressman Elijah Cummings. He is a Ranking Member of the House Committee on oversight and government reform, and a member of the committee on transportation and infrastructure. Congressman, it is good to have you here this evening. Its good to be with you. So talk to me, congressman cummings. Do you have concerns about these planned changes to the Postal Service . And particularly the impact that it might have on black communities . Oh, no doubt about it. Youre talking about just this reduction from five days to from six days to five days will cut anywhere from 25 to 30,000 employees. And with regard to asian, africanamericans, and hispanics, they comprise about 40 of the Postal Service employees. So its logical to believe if they were to lose that 30,000 jobs, easily 40 of them would be africanamericans, hispanics, and asian americans. Now, there is another thing, melissa, that a lot of people dont realize. And that is over 40 of all postal employees are women. Yeah. So you have a lot of women, many of whom are single women head of household, and they depend upon that decent wage, decent working conditions and benefits to take care of their families. So, yeah, it would have a devastating effect in an economy that is already very, very fragile. I keep thinking that maybe the post office needs sort of better marketing. So after i saw the dodges, god made a former super bowl commercial, i kept thinking we need a god made a mailman psa, good needed someone to keep a growing nation connected and god needed someone to keep an eye on your house when youre traveling and god needed someone to knock on the doors of the elderly so, god made the mailman. So there is something mere needing to express just how critical the work of the post office is. I think a lot of people are confused as to why the post office finds itself in the difficulty that they are. Keep in mind that the post office produces about 65 billion a year. 99. 99 of that comes from the sale of stamps and first class mail. And what has happened over the years, melissa, is that the people have now moved more and more towards using the internet. And so therefore since 2008, that income coming into the post office has been reduced by Something Like about the volume, that is, had been reduced by about 43 . So basically we have now i think and pretty much everybody admits this, were going to have to do some downsizing because its just not a good fit right now. We have more employees than we actually need. But there are all kinds of ways to achieve this without necessarily going through drastic measures. What do you think the congress can do at this point in order to kind of forestall the labor force decline that can happen as a result of going from six days to five days a week . You know, one of the things that happened last session, melissa, is that the senate put together a pretty good bill. I didnt agree with everything in it. But it called for innovation. In other words, opened the door so that the post office can do what post offices do in other countries, enabling them to make additional money. For example, having opportunities to sell cell phones and opportunities to have all kinds of Postal Services that they would not normally have. In other words, to expand and to do things that they dont do now. And so but what happened is in the congress, the response has been that any time they decided the post office wanted to do anything innovative, Congress Said no, we dont want you to do that, because then youll be competing against the private sector. Right. So their hands are kind of tied. Basically, what the Congress Needs to do is do a comprehensive bill whereby we have what we call an innovation officer, which is my idea. And that person would keep the post office as cutting edge of innovation and bringing in new ways to of making money. The over thing were going to have to do is we are going to have to do some downsizing. But when we downsize, is reto downsize with compassion. Keep in mind we have more than 100,000 people that are right now eligible to retire. And what we have to do now is make sure that they have a decent parachute to land. In other words, to give them some incentive money so they can go ahead and retire, and so that we can right size the post office. Keep in mind every time, melissa, that the post office tries to do something. Right. To correct itself or to make it possible to get new revenue or whatever, the Congress Comes in and says oh, no, you cant do that. They wanted to close down some post offices that are not being productive. Congress says no, thats not you cant do that in my community. Right, right. They want to close a plant down, a mailing plant, no you cant do that. So. So a balance here. They dont let them innovate, they dont let them compete, and then they say youre not innovative and youre not competing. Thats right. Thats the problem. Thank you, congressman Elijah Cummings who is reigning member on the house overnight and government reform. I appreciate you being here tonight. Thank you very much. And coming up, what the story of beyonce and the super bowl lights says about all the ladies, single or otherwise. To compete on the global stage. What we need are people prepared for the careers of our new economy. By 2025 we could have 20 million jobs without enough College Graduates to fill them. Thats why at devry university, were teaming up with Companies Like cisco to help make sure everyone is ready with the knowhow we need for a new tomorrow. [ male announcer ] make sure americas ready. Make sure youre ready. At devry. Edu knowhow. Looks like youre in a pickle. Yeah. Can you get me out of it . Just so happens i know a chap. Book any flight and hotel together and get access to our free personal concierge service. Any need, any question, were on call 24 7. With multiple lacerations to the wing and a fractured beak. Surgery was successful, but he will be in a cast until it is fully healed, possibly several months. So, if the duck isnt able to work, how will he pay for his Living Expenses . Aflac. Like his rent and car payments . Aflac. What about gas and groceries . Aflac. Cell phone . Aflac, but i doubt hell be using his phone for quite a while cause like i said, he has a fractured beak. [ male announcer ] send the aflac duck a getwell card at getwellduck. Com. [ man ] on in 5 [ female announcer ] it works as hard as you do. To outlast your day. [ man ] action wow [ female announcer ] secret outlast clear gel is better than the next leading invisible solid on white marks. Secret outlast clear gel. Earlier this week we learned that next tuesday, florida senator marco rubio would be delivering the official republican response to president obamas state of the union address. Today the Tea Party Announced its own postspeech president ial nay sayer, kentuckys republican senator rand paul. This is the third such tea party state of the union response. Their past two speakers were Michele Bachmann and herman cain. Yep, thats happening on tuesday. Happy mardi gras, everybody. Okay. Lets say youre a doctor, a private physician in any small to midsized city in the country. If any of your patients comes to you with an unplanned, unwanted pregnancy, you as her doctor can provide her with a lowrisk, outpatient procedure to terminate the pregnancy. You can file a claim with her insurance company. You can both go home to your families. Lets say youre a doctor who has chosen to provide abortions to the most vulnerable women, to women without insurance, teens or Domestic Violence victims. If youre a doctor trying to serve that population in say jackson, mississippi, or sioux falls, south dakota, or little rock, arkansas, or fargo, north dakota, you have a completely different experience. If you live in the community, youll have protesters at your home and office. Your friends and neighbors will get flyers calling you a murderer. You might employee an Armed Security guard. You take a different route to work every day. You might not even feel comfortable living in the community where you you might fly in from out of state and then fly back home when youre done each week. You might have to use an assumed name while youre in town. And if you dont, you can expect to be followed to your hotel by people who want to stop you from doing your work. Openly providing abortion where every one has access to it is bordering on impossible in the United States. The one remaining clinic in the entire state of mississippi, which is served by doctors who fly in each week to serve the patients there, is poised to be shut down by antiabortion politicians who control State Government. They have been very straightforward that their goal is to close this clinic by app s bypassing legislation and of requirement that is they knew they could not meet. What we campaigned on, ending abortion in mississippi. Were going to try to end abortion in mississippi. This is an historic day of beginning that process. Shutting down this one clinic started last spring. The same process is starting right now in fargo, north dakota. Another state with only one remaining Abortion Clinic being targeted by the state legislature in exactly the same way. The north Dakota Senate this week passed a bill with new regulations targeting just that one remaining clinic. Among all Health Care Providers in the state with the exact same new regulations enacted in mississippi, rules that are not necessary for safety or health. Just as this method of shusting down access to abortion seems to be working in mississippi, the folks in north dakota are picking it up and running with it. And if it works in north dakota, if this new bill becomes law and does shut down that one remaining clinic, it cuts off access for women in a huge swath of the country. This is fargo. This is where the only Abortion Clinic in north dakota is. The next closest clinic is to the east. Its almost four hours away in minneapolis, minnesota. The next closest clinic to the south, about four hours away in sioux falls, south dakota. To the west, youre probably looking at billings, montana, more than eight hours away. As you can see, theres already a very serious access problem in this part of the country. So if you take away the one clinic in this region that is served by so few clinics, youre cutting off access for women in a fourstate region. And that is the goal. With both of these laws, to harness the power of State Government to eliminate access to abortion, to eliminate the one little building in the entire state where a woman with a few means and tough choices to make knows she can go. But lets be clear. Even if the state succeeds in shutting down this clinic, they will not eliminate abortion in the state. Those with regular, private, ob gyns will still be able to terminate pregnancies. These rules will eliminate safe and legal abortion for the most vulnerable women. Theres a very easy way to describe this world being created by antiabortion forces whittling down the options for women. This is the preroe v. Wade reality. Its now affordable and accessible in some states and not in others this fundamental, cops contusionally protected right, in practical terms, depends on where you live. Women shouldnt have to live with that. [ mom ] 3 days into school break and theyre already bored. Hmm, we need a new game. Thatll save the day. So will bounty selectasize. Its the smaller powerful sheet. The only one with trap lock technology. Look one selectasize sheet of bounty is 50 more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. Use less. With the small but powerful picker upper, bounty selectasize. I took something for my sinuses, but i still have this cough. 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The outage was caused by a relay, electrical device thats supposed to prevent precisely these kinds of outages. The relay manufacturer has asserted the problem wasnt in the device but in how the local power company, entergy installed it. The intrigue. Here is one thing we can now reliably say about the power outage. It was not caused by beyonce. Yes, that was a theory being floated by some. Oh, okay, by many. At first bay fans took to twitter and said her utter fierceness took out the grid. Commissioner Roger Goodell felt compelled earlier this week to speak. Theres no indication at all that this was caused by the halftime show. Absolutely none. I know thats been out there to say that beyonces halftime show had something to do with it. Thats not case. Okay, so she didnt blow the lights. That hasnt stopped an almost comically predictable beyonce performance, those who see danger around every corner when women start flaunting their sexuality. There was katherine jen lopez who said she should, quote, put a dress on it. And another that halftime, quote, looked like a stripper show. Listen to this exchange. When you were seeing the halftime show, youre sitting there with your kids, what did you think as a mom and what were you saying to them . Well, the first thing i realized is that it looked like, um it looked like a stripper show. Im going to need everyone to take a breath. Now, feel free to debate and disagree about the aesthetic, musical or artistic value of beyonces performance but once you start blaming Electrical Engineering failures or moral dissenter grags on a married mom and business woman, you have entered into woman blaming like pan dora, a woman who opens a box and unleashes miserable on the world or eve who ate the apple. Now its beauyonce, with sunday afternoon football punctuated by go daddy commercials. Right. These are the stories we tell and they have consequences. In 2010 when conservative candidates campaigned on improving the economy . As far as i can tell the main target of all that economyimproving legislative energy was womens uteruses, which were targeted with a number of new