to calm fears among democrats who are very worried about their jobs come the next election. welcome to another hour of america s newsroom. i m martha maccallum. bill: the president holding a meeting with a dozen democrats, a two-hour sit-down could signal that obamacare will shut democrats in 2014. reporter: it was not on the president s public schedule. 15 senate democrats up for reelection in 2014. they came out of the meeting saying they have to do more.
reporter: where do you get to go home? in february of 2014. reporter: there are no fireworks because fireworks are normally preceded with a siren. a different kind of fireworks. thank you both and happy independence day. such a treat to visit both of them there. thank you very much. this independence day, very important for our statute of liberty, a milestone celebrated today on liberty island. we will go there coming up. also they fought for our nation at a very high price. we will hear from our service members who suffered catastrophic injuries on their own path to independence and the work they do to help others like them. i m with the old guard. i d like to say happy independence day to my parents back home in wisconsin.
realtors said today in a statement and i quote, the number of potential buyers who stayed on the sidelines and a accumulated during the recession but they started entering the market early last year as their financial ability and confidence steadily grew along with home prices the chairman of the federal reserve, ben bernanke, speaking at the university of michigan last week also pointed to signs of recovery after a recession, we remind you, saw home prices plunge 30%. arthel: yeah. now for the first time really since 2007, 2006, we re starting to see increases in production, rising house prices. that will affect household wealth. that is one positive factor that will help us have a, i hope, a better year in 2013 and in 2014. reporter: one thing that stayed constant over the past year, first-time homebuyers account for nearly one-third of home sales. arthel. arthel: james let s hope it is good news overall because
levels. post-2014 needs to be done with afghan permission we re told. panetta will have a teleconference with general allen tomorrow and they will talk about troop levels in afghanistan. he is not aware of any formal set of recommendations from general allen as of yet we re told from his aides. the new york times is floating the idea of 10,000 troops post-2014 with a thousand special operators keeping a lid on things. this is how defense secretary leon panetta explained his vision for the next year. as a result we are on track for two key milestones. one is that the afghans will be in the lead throughout the country for security in mid 2013. and afghans will ultimately take full responsibility for security by the end of 2014. reporter: the biggest problem facing the afghans is that they effectively have no air force despite
military leaders saying? reporter: most defense officials assume there will be one more fighting season next year in afghanistan going in the spring and going through next fall. general allen the top u.s. commander in afghanistan reportedly wants to keep 60,000 troops through the fighting season, most of the troops who are already there. there are indications that he will recommend that the united states also keep 0,000 troops after 2014 including 1,000 special operators to keep a lid on things. this is how defense secretary panetta recently described his vision. afghans will be in the lead throughout the country on security until 2013 and africans will take full responsibility for security by the end of 2014. reporter: the final decision is up to president obama and defense secretary panetta will speak with general allen about