the building and construction trades we love to pull away from the aflcio. the president spoke to them and invited them to the white house. he invited them to the residence. not to the ground floor. not to the west wing office. the residence. that was special. it had never been done before. it hadn't been done for eight years under reagan or the democrats with jimmy carter. nobody had done that. that made a major impact. it made a major impact on many other groups we did it with. the president knows and roman has talked about this in his books and papers. the president knew things about everyone he met with. i never seen anybody with a memory in caring about people. the first time the governor went with the president on the foreign policy trip to japan. he came back and said he knows where the prime minister's son went to school and how many kids he has and if the kid is succeeding in school. he knows everything about him. he knows if he likes chess or if he likes to play tennis. that is something you cannot bottle or sell. it helped him in domestic policy.

maryland state and district ofcolumbia aflcio has 3,000 members and the support is expected to boost efforts. the past legislation allowing same sex couples to marry. group says they will mobilize members to help the governor and the general assembly pass the lawch the union will hold a press conference at 11 this morning scheduled for north utah street. >>> as controversial as the act is, the dream act gathered a lot of momentum and one delegate hopes it gathers more support. sherrie johnson live with the latest. >> reporter: that's right. the stage is set here in essex across the street. we are on eastern boulevard and right across the street that's where delegate pat mcdonough will announce his plan. he is kick off a campaign finance committee to overturn a law allowing instate tuition rates for illegal aliens. the finance committee will allow opponents of the maryland dream act to raise money for literature, radio and tv ads. dream act would allow undocumented high school graduates to go to college and pay in-state tuition. mcdonough was part of an effort that collected over 100,

maryland state and district of columbia and aflcio supported same sex marriage last month. >>> and today state senator nancy jacobs will hold a press conference to discuss her political future. she is expected to announce she will run for the second congressional district. she stepped down as the state senate minority leader during the general assembly meeting and formed a exploratory committee. >>> retail news, macy's department stores has decided to close 5 stores along with four bloomingdale's due to low business sales. corinne redman is standing by with more on the locations and how close some will be here in maryland. >> reporter: it will affect a lot of jobs here. among the stores closing, two are here in maryland and one in bethesda and the other in lawrld. macy's blames it on under performance. more than 830 workers will be affected by the closings. 375 at macy's and 463 at bloomingdale's. but many employees may have the option of taking jobs at new stores the company plans to open. macy's announced the company will open five new stores and one replacement stores but none in mary

. >> the aflcio is backing efforts that will allow committed gay and lesbian couples to marry. they're wanting to push the bill through. if passed, supporters believed the opposition will push for a referendum on that issue. the legalize bill cleared the state senate but stalled in the house of delegates. that brings us to our water cooler question of the day. do you think same-sex marriage built will be passed in this year's general election at session? wbaltv.com and on our facebook page, or send us an e-mail to watercooler@wbaltv.com. >> some immigrants made no longer have to wait outside u.s. borders while waiting for u.s. status. it would apply to those who can show a parent would suffer because of their absence. we will get a better look at the health of the nation's economy. the unemployment report is expected to be released for december. companies say they're planning fewer layoffs. new unemployment claims are down. >> the last weekend before the new hampshire primary. tara mergener joins us live this morning with our coverage. good morning. >> happy friday. the latest

and joining us now, the president of the aflcio richard trumka. very good to have you onboard this morning. >> great to be here. >> you know our obsession on this show, are getting those factories open back up across america, getting people back to work. the president talked about insourcing. that's exciting. how do we do it in a way that we can go to germany, we can go to japan, we say build here because we can be more competitive? >> well, first of all, you have to have the same will that germany has. they decided they were going to keep a high-wage society and be able to export manufacturing products. so they do that. that's their policy. the united states doesn't have such a policy, an export policy. so we need that. we need trade laws. trade -- different trade laws. when you have china that cheats on currency and gets a 40% advantage over an american producer, you're disadvantaged. when they don't comply with their health safety laws, children laws, prison laws, they get another advantage. and then we need tax laws. if you reward somebody for

maryland state and dc, aflcio has 300,000 members and support will boost efforts to pass legislation allowing same sex couples to marry. it will mobilize efforts to help governor o'malley and general assembly pass the law. union will hold a press conference at 11 this morning on north utah street. >>> and the lion king is bringing in the big bucks. last week the show grossed 1 1/2 million dollars and set up arecord for the theater and made more than 5 million. back to new york for more good morning america have great morning and we are back weather and traffic in 30 minutes. Ã >>> things are starting to look up. and things are starting to change in a good way. hopefully things stay good and they only get better. >> wow. that appears to be casey anthony, video diary. speaking out for the first time since walking out of court after her acquittal. we're going to take a closer look at that in a minute. how did it get on the internet? what does it mean? what did she say? >> she altered her appearance. but that very much appeared to be casey anthony. >>> and there's new details emerging i