Hikes. President barack obama gave a c years eve. Now today it appears that an agreement to prevent this new years tax hike is within sight. But its not done. There are still issues left to resolve, but were hopeful that congress can get it done. Senate republican leader Mitch Mcconnell said the two parties had reached an agreement on taxes. They are believed to have agreed to extend tax cuts for middle income earners. People earning more than 450,000 per year will see their taxes go up. Thats far higher than obamas original proposal. They have yet to agree to suspend spending cuts. The democrat led senate is expected to pass the bill on new years eve. The republican led house says it will not vote on the bill before the midnight deadline. Members of congress are expected to work on a stop gap measure to prevent any serious fiscal impact. The fiscal cliff has become a term many people even outside the Financial Markets are talking about. If the u. S. Economy falls off this cliff, rippl
The white house coming out today with some strong words in response to an attack on the Obama Administration from former defense secretary robert gates. In gates new book he slams president obama for things of how it handled the war in afghanistan, and a particularly harsh attack against Vice President joe biden. Gates writes i think he has been wrong on every Foreign Policy and National Policy in the last four decades. This line on biden, as you know, has been used by republicans before. But how surprised are you to hear this coming from the former secretary of defense. Reporter its surprising for a number of reasons. First of all, robert gates never struck a person that he would write a memoir to write about someone he worked for while they are still in office and while still directing the troops. Robert gates was always known at a lowkey, quiet, getitdone kind of individual. In his book titled duty writes about his di disdain of washing. You wrote of the individuals in the white hou
Brian. The dream of civilians soaring into space as paying passengers could be on hold tonight after the deadly crash of a Virgin Galactic space plane over the california desert today. Its the second accident involving a commercial spacecraft in this country this week. One crew member is dead, another was badly injured in todays crash which occurred during a test flight over the mojave desert. The still images captures what appears to be an explosion and then pieces of debris tumbling to earth. Nbcs tom costello has been covering the rapid growth of commercial space flight. He joins us now from our washington newsroom with more. Tom, good evening. Reporter hi, lester. It appears one of the pilots was able to parachute out and was injured, the other did not get out alive. They both worked for scaled composites, which built the spaceship. Tonight theyre building a team to investigate what went wrong. In mojave, california this afternoon disaster, the burnt and broken remains of Virgin Ga
Access. We begin tonight with the deadly Ebola Outbreak in west africa and the fight to calm fears here in the u. S. The World Health Organization says over 4500 people have died from ebola nearly all of them in liberia, guinea and sierra leone. With three confirmed cases here in the u. S. With one death, the centers for Disease Control says, it will release new guidelines for potential patients. Meanwhile, canada is prepared to send 800 vials, to the World Health Organization in west africa. Melissa chan, whats the latest . Well, randall, this afternoon judge clay jenkins spoke to the press. He is someone whos been very integral in dealing with the ebola challenge in dallas and he was also the person responsible for moving the Duncan Family for the unidentified location for the 21 day quarantine. The Duncan Family the first family involved in ebola. Here is what the judge said was important with this weekend. Its a critical weekend because eight to ten days after the exposure is the m
Creating snow there. That old system will move our way and bring up this moisture. The rain snow line, want to be very close to the i95 corridor. We are going to break that wind and this moves in. Who can expect what. Just how many of us will see accumulating snowfall. That coming up in the full forecast. Three hours from now, president obama will go to the capitol to share with congress his vision for the next year. His state of the Union Address certain to cover gun law reform, immigration, and the status of troops in afghanistan among a number of other items. Analysts say republicans will be watching the president as much for what he says as how he says it. Steve handelsman on capitol hill now with more on this. Thats for sure. Based on the speech excerpts just released by the white house, i will read a couple of it is clear that the president and his people want the American People to remember that he mostly talked about jobs here tonight. Heres a quote. Every day we should ask our