mechanical failures for the city s slow clean-up effort. but what s not clear is if or how this may affect mayor bloomberg s political future. what it does do, however, is highlight some of the state budget and city budget issues that are thrust to the forefront of national news. so we will be talking to daniel hower who appeared in this piece a little later to get a little bit more perspective on who said what. it s a very interesting story with a lot of of ramifications. david, thank you so much. new this morning, he didn t walk softly, but this robbery suspect certainly carried a big stick. a wooden staff. a virginia store owner grabs a hammer in self-defense. this bizarre standoff ensues. big stick versus little hammer. doesn t work. the big stick won. and we know the store owner was not hurt. the robber jumped over the counter, making off with an undisclosed amount of cash. this reminded our producers of a