investigating it. >> reporter: it's not a big concern as of now. seven letters in total, six in new jersey and one in manhattan, b suspicious letters that could contain white powder. we're hearing from law enforcement sources that at least one tested out to be baking soda. the concern is low because they get this sort of thing in this area quite often so they're not too worry. the place has been secured, no injuries. it's getting more attention because it's the super bowl and everybody is on a heightened sense of alert. we're in times square where there are normally a ton of people visiting, but now even more, completely packed behind me. very excited about that toboggan run here. the nypd has mobile units across the city. the fbi has mobile units across the city. these are what they look like, command centers. inside you'll see surveillance cameras. they have cameras trained on every part of the city, every part of the stadium watching in realtime to see if anybody is,

as they say, acting suspiciously or any suspicious packages. i'm not sure if that makes you feel better or not. in a lot of ways they're trying to keep it safer. they have radiation detectors at the stadium itself. you have to go through metal detectors when you go inside the stadium. there will be pat-downs, you can't bring in backpacks or purses. you can only have clear plastic bags like you get at the airport. there are 2 1/2 miles of fencing. hell cop are patrolling, guys patrolling, including a dog. boats in the water. they have infrared technology as well as night vision technology. they're treating this like it's an extremely big deal which it certainly is. the good news about it is that all of these systems were in place for a long time here in new york. they're used to big events. the coordination between the more than 100 law enforcement agencies. >> katy, let me pause you for a second. i need to tell the audience what they're looking at here.

this is aerial video that's coming in to us from one of the locations where investigators are examining these so-called suspicious letters that were sent to seven locations in new jersey and new york area, as katy tur just reported. at least one of the letters, the substance has been identified as baking soda. at this point authorities say the concern is low, but as katy has been reporting, the security -- certainly the security level in and around new york at a heightened level. katy, let me go back to you. among some of the things that have changed as a result of security concerns and just on the side of precaution, there's no tailgating. i even know some of the fans who plan to attend the game, they have to take a shuttle or the subway to keep the area under control and safe. >> reporter: it's part of the tradition of football, going out and having a brat and a beer outside the stadium in the parking lot. they did away with that because of the security concerns. it made a lot of people feel not

super bowl to them if you can't go tailgating. if you're parking, you have to pay $150 or more. if you want the nfl express shuttle, that's $51. otherwise it's mass transit. out can't get dropped off. can't even walk into the stadium. inside it's $15 i think for a sandwich. people are starting to question if the security is being used as an excuse to raise all the prices and make a little bit more of a profit. >> okay, katy, thank you very much. appreciate you joining us. let me bring in retired atf special agent jim cavanaugh, also an msnbc law enforcement analyst. thank you for joining us here. >> sure, tamron. >> authorities say this is of low concern, but nevertheless they need to examine the seven suspicious packages in the new york and new jersey area. this speaks of security at the big events, the super bowl and other big events that could be a target for terrorism. this is a time when we're

focusing so much on sochi and the security threats there. we know when you have a large number of people, tens of thousands of people gathering in one location in the new york city area, especially, security has to be at its highest, even if it gives the feeling that big brother is watching us. >> right, tamron, exactly. for years we considered in federal law enforcement these super bowls as nationals, special security events. they've been designated by the secret service. they're big events. so there's a lot of security, homeland security, jersey state authorities, local police, federal agents. but the people that want to do us harm or even the people that want to act like they're doing us harm are also people who constantly watch the news and they know these events are on. there's been a lot of talk -- we've all talked about it with the olympics coming, a lot of talk about security. someone has taken advantage to

make maybe -- could be a hoax attack, it could be a real attack, they're trying to certainly disrupt things at the moment. >> absolutely. how daunting of a task is it to, as katy pointed out, keep a level of, if the word is fun for fans and people who attend these special events, as you noted they are referred to as, and balancing it with the appropriate amount of security? >> it's really tough. it really is. law enforcement has an unbelievable task. this venue is a huge security problem for law enforcement, but it's not as huge as the olympics. i was at the '84 olympics in l.a. all summer, and the venues were spread all across southern california. in atlanta the venues -- i was in birmingham, we had birmingham soccer. we had venues spread across states and large regions. the bun benefit of the super bowl is it's one location for the game, but, of course, you

have fans and spectators and everybody on the outskirts, tamron, come in the hotels and so forth. >> we know it's a challenge. as katy pointed out, it's a high level of security provided certainly for our own safety. thank you, jim, for your time. again, to our audience who is watching right now, these packages were found a short time ago, seven suspicious packages. they were received at hotels in and around the new york and new jersey area. one of the packages, the substances inside one has been identified as baking soda. but authorities, obviously the fbi and new jersey law enforcement officials still investigating at this time the other packages. the news nation is also following developing news in the proposed keystone pipeline project. a controversial issue that has often pitted environmental groups against the president's administration. in the next hour, the state department is expected to release a much-awaited final environmental analysis that will set the stage for a decision on

the project. in the last hour the white house said the report is not the final decision, but that it does represent a, quote, step in the process. president obama has the final say on whether the pipeline gets built and has previously said he will approve the project only if he's convinced it will not significantly worsen greenhouse gas emissions. many expect today's report to conclude that the pipeline poses little risk. a conclusion that would anger environmental groups which have been some of the president's key constituents. the president's decision could make keystone a big issue in races that will determine who controls the next congress. the proposed 1200-mile pipeline would bring sand soil from canada to refineries in texas. authorities say the $5.4 billion project means energy independence and jobs. opponents worry about the environmental impact and q whether many long-term jobs will, in fact, be created. joining me nbc news deputy

editor dom min co-month narrow. this is not the last word on this, but a significant step here. >> the white house says it's too early to hazard a guess on the outcome. we do know what the president has said previously on this. we know back in june of 2013 of last year, the president said this project could only be approved if it didn't significantly exacerbate the problem of climate change. that's going to leave a lot of people to conclude that if this report says it does not significantly exacerbate the problem of climate change, you would think the president would approve this. of course, we don't know exactly where the president's head is on this, but it's a significant step forward. >> joining us now josh sacks, legislative director at the national wildlife federation and opponent of the pine line. what is your concern at this point? we're expecting as early as maybe 3:00 eastern to hear the latest from this report. >> tamron, we have many concerns

about this pipeline, but the first concern is clearly that, if we allow this pipeline to happen, we're going to be exacerbating climate change impacts in a way that we can't even predict. right now if we allow this pipeline to go forward, it's light lighting the fuse on the biggest tar sands carbon bomb ever. >> early sources indicate that this report at least will say that there's no significant environmental effect if it does, in fact, come out to be this. will it be a disappointment and will your fight to keep the pipeline from happening continue? >> tamron, i haven't seen the report yet. i know any credible report will tell us what countless experts have said, which is this has tremendous wildlife benefits, on the climate change side and the spill side. we've seen many, many spills from these types of pipelines. any credible report has to mention those things. >> if the report comes back and again sources say it would say that the pipeline would have

only a minimal impact on carbon emissions because of the oil sands in alberta and the way they're developed, so you see that as a less-than-credible report? >> i think we would. we've heard from people as credible as james hanson, head of nasa's goddard space center told us this would have tremendous impacts. the first report that came out was clearly flawed. that's why they're doing a second report. we expect this one to be honest and make clear that this does have climate impacts. >> there have been rallies and protests over the last several years as this has certainly gone to a heightened level. what i guess i'm asking you is will the president if your mind suffer with constituents like yourself if he approves this pipeline. will be see the ramifications at the midterms perhaps? >> many of the people who oppose the pipeline have been great supporters of the president. many people represented by the national wildlife federation and others, we'll continue to press

him and make sure he makes the right decision. i sat in the audience when he gave the climate change speech and he said if keystone exacerbates climate change, he won't do it. we'll hold him through to his word. yahoo! is urging users of their accounts to reset passwords in what is the latest mass security breach for a major tech company. the company is not disclosing exactly how many accounts were affected but says it is working to get to the bottom of what it's calling a coordinated effort involving a third party database. yahoo! disclosed the hack on its tumblr site with a blog post reading in part "security attacks are unfortunately becoming a more regular october krerns." it goes on to say we rekret this has happened and want to assure users we take the security of their data seriously.

they're prompting users to resecure accounts, working with federal law enforcement agencies and additional measures to block future attacks. joining me "washington post" technology reporter haley sukiyama. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> we know what happened after black friday with target. this is a different type of breach. nevertheless oovps it does allow someone other than us to access potentially our information. >> absolutely. and sort of -- yahoo! is the second largest e-mail provider in the world, about 270 million accounts worldwide. they haven't disclosed how many users are affected, but probably looking at a pretty large group of people here and probably people who are pretty sick of resetting their passwords all the time. >> with yahoo! not saying how many are impacted, it begs the question of transparency. some of that was directed at target as well, neiman marcus when it had its hacking issue. whether or not these companies, once it happens, are being open with consumers and customers who

could be impacted by it. >> absolutely. i think in a lot of ways it's an ongoing information. yahoo! hasn't released information on the timing of this attack. it could be possible that it's looking into how many people have been affected by this. it also begs the question of how vigilant are these people being. it may not be yahoo! if it's a third party vendor, how vigilant are other people in the eco system being. >> what does that mean to a yahoo! customer? >> probably not that much. you trust yahoo! to secure its ecosystem and everything it does. from yahoo!'s perspective, a lot of companies contract things out, storage space. i don't know the particulars of this attack. it means somebody else that they work with that holds their data may have been affected. >> thank you, haylee, appreciate you joining us.

president obama teams up with the nation's top ceos getting them to sign a pledge not to rule out hiring people just because they've been out of work for a long while. we'll talk with one of the executives who met with the president a short time ago. plus -- >> i think it would be a mistake if house republicans were to support amnesty for those here illegally. >> senator ted cruz versus some house republicans over a possible plan to offer the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants a path to legal status. could this divide be deeper than just words? join our conversation on twitter. you can find me @tamronhall, my team @newsnation. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion.

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welcome back. president obama took steps today

to get businesses to hire more of the long-term unemployed. the president met with the leaders of more than 20 big companies which have agreed not to discriminate against people who have been out of work for a long while, something the president called, quote, a cruel catch 22. >> the longer you're unemployed, the more unemployable you may seem. according to one study, if you've been out of work eight months, you're likely to get called back for an interview only about half as often as if you've been out of work one month, even with the identical resume. >> joining me now, one of the ceos who met with the president, larry sim man president and ceo of the principle financial group. let's talk about what the president described as this cruel catch 22. we know there are many qualified workers out of work for reasons that are not related to their

job performance. why are these people continually rejected in the workforce? >> i think there's probably broadly tamron two issues. and i think the president talked about both of those in his remarks today. the first one is that there are some subtle but important biases that often are in the system today that make it difficult for the long-term unemployed. and the second piece of it is that in many cases they may not have exactly the right set of skills for the jobs of the 21st century. so it can also be a skills gap as well. >> we're talking about people who have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks. i read a quote from you. your company has signed on. you said this was really a no-brainer. why do you believe with the lay of the land, we've seen what happened with detroit to your point, workers who are ready to get in there but don't have the skills for some of these modern jobs? we've seen this evolve over time

and we've seen the outlook ot our economy as it relates to 2008 and the downturn. why did it take so long to have this conversation and make this pledge? >> i think it's a no-brainer because the 2008-2009 recession was so severe that in many cases the very high percentage of employees who lost their jobs during that period of time, in many cases it was due to no circumstance of their own. in other words, it was a broader business restructuring, shutdown, whatever it was. therefore, they didn't come into the unemployed ranks through any particular performance issue or a skills gap. that's very different than the recessions before which were milder and, therefore, they didn't involve as much business restructuring and when people found themselves unemployed. >> the president indicated about 300 companies have signed on so far. i have to ask you about the issue of minimum wage which also

was a topic with the president today. are you on board with raising the minimum wage for workers? >> i think it's something be need to work at very hard, tamron. i think that when we know you can be employed full time and you're still at about half of what we consider to be sort of the minimum level of wages in this country, i think we do have an issue there we need to discuss. having said that, of course, we need to do this in kind of a logical or sensible way. >> what is a logical sensible way? this is not a new conversation. we know that. >> sure. for example, we may need to get to a higher level over a period of time, for example, rather than taking one bold step. we do have an economic recovery under way, and i believe it's a sustainable recovery. at the same time we have to make sure we don't inadd very sently throw some monkey wrenches in there. we need to let the economic

recovery get going and then talk about the issues. >> you and i know well wall street, for example, they're benefiting from the economic recovery, some of the biggest and most successful companies in the united states are benefiting. what about the 1.3 million americans or more, i should say, who make less than the minimum wage which is $7.25 right now. if you increase those wages to $10.10, those people don't hoard the money and put it under the mattress. the money goes back to the economy at a time when wall street is winning. >> completely agree with that. my only point would be that we need to think about the pace at which we move from where we are today to something that we would consider more reasonable such as a $10.10 minimum wage. completely agree on the concept, just a question on what's the right timing in order to not undo the economic recovery. >> larry, thank you for your time. >> thanks for having us. republican senator ted cruz is not happy with an immigration reform plan by house republican leaders that includes a path to

legal status for most of the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants. those principles are on a one-page document unveiled yesterday at the house republican's annual retreat in maryland going on now. it rules out a special path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. instead, it says immigrants living here illegally could remain and live legally if they pass background checks, pay fines and back taxes, develop proficiency in english and american civics and scup port their families without public assistance. it also says border security must be improved first. senator cruz criticized the plan calling it, quote, amnesty. >> i think it would be a mistake if house republicans were to support those here illegally. in my opinion we need to secure the borders, stop illegal immigration and improve and streamline legal immigration. >> joining me now, "usa today"

columnist raul reyes. this is not the first time that senator cruz criticized house republicans. usually they pivot right back to him and say do his job. we know he was the man behind the government shutdown. >> on this i don't see much surprise. senator ted cruz has made his whole name on being against everything. the only thing we do know he was for was shutting down the government. i think the important thing to look at here for the republican party in the very broad picture, they have gone -- it's still early, they have gone from being the party of self deportation, against the dream act, no amnesty for anyone to at least opening the door to legalization for some. this plan does include a path to citizenship for the dreamers. so that in itself is something. the big challenge for them is going to take those principles which are still quite vague and translating that into some type of meaningful legislation. >> in his state of the union

address, the president only referred once to immigration reform. many believe that's because there's a deal on the table or something in the works and he doesn't want to interview. he was asked in a new seller view with cnn about immigration reform and the door being left open to signing the immigration bill before he leaves the white house. let's listen in. >> it's possible you might be able to get an immigration reform bill on your desk that has legal status for the millions of undocumented workers in this country but not citizenship. would you veto that? >> i'm not going to prejudge what gets to my desk. if the speaker proposes something that says right away folks aren't degree deported, families aren't being separated, we or able to attract top young students to provide the skills or start businesses here and then there's a regular process of citizenship, i'm not sure how wide the divide ends up being. >> what do you make of that

answer? >> well, i will say, like myself, the president seems to be an optimist. also very good with the vat gee. he's holding it close to the vest. that's it. i have to say talking about the state of the union, so many latinos, thousands of poem -- i was watching on twitter -- latinos tuned in to see what he would say about immigration, about providing relief from deportations. in the speech of about 7,000 words, there were only 120-some words on immigration. there's tremendous disappointment in our communities that he's not being mo proactive. i understand. i think many people do admit that it's all about the tactics, that he has to do this in order not to ruin the chances of getting a deal with republicans and going forward. i think this long-term goal for supporters of immigration reform is still an achievable inclusive path to citizenship. it's hard to prejudge the republican plan because it's not yet a plan.

these are still principles. another one of the challenges will be to see if they can negotiate in good faith with house democrats and those in the senate interested in reform. raul reyes, thank you for your time. still ahead, an appalling story out of utah. parents are outraged after dozens of kids had their school lunches taken right from them and then thrown in the trash because the school said they hadn't paid their lunch bill. >> even if they did try to send the word out, you still don't do that to a child. you don't take a lunch out of their hands. >> guess what the district is saying today? we'll tell you. plus new comments from the ex-boyfriend of amanda knox after he was picked up near the italian wore der this morning after the pair was convicted once again in the murder of british student meredith kercher. the big question, what's next for amanda knox? >> i will never go beingly. i'm going to fight this until

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welcome back, amanda knox is speaking out hours after an italian jury reconvicted her and her former boyfriend in the death of her roommate. she told abc's "good morning america," she will not return to italy without a fight. >> this really has hit me like a train. i did not expect this to happen. i really expected so much better from the italian justice system. i will never go willingly back to the place where i -- i'm going to fight this until the very end. >> with her lawyers vowing to appeal the guilty verdict and her 28-year sentence, for now it does not appear the italian government will seek to have her expedited before appeals are exhausted. meanwhile, we're also hearing

from her ex-boyfriend, raffaele sollecito hours after being stopped by police near the italian border. he was released after surrendering his passport. he's facing a 25-year sentence, tells nbc news he was surprised by the verdict. >> i was a completely free man and i just planned to do a trip in the occasion of the not guilty verdict. i was expecting freedom completely and i was programming to do a nice trip. >> nbc news legal analyst lisa bloom joins me now live. lisa, i know you've watched this case to the point of exhaustion. now we're here at this new level. any xhans that italy can press the u.s. to turn over amanda knox? >> they sure can. they've been eager to prosecute her. three trials now, two for guilt, one for innocence. the next step would be the appeals. amanda can appeal this decision

up to italy's highest court. she doesn't need to travel to italy for that. but if the court upholds this conviction, the next step i would expect would be italy makes a request for expedition to the u.s. the u.s. justice department would process that request and she would have a chance to fight it here in the u.s. >> with that said, the initial question will italy -- can they pressure the u.s.? we know they k. but will they be successful i guess i should have asked you. what are the odds they will have success? >> criminals are expedited back and forth between the u.s. and italy constantly and wean the u.s. and many other countries in the world. the risk is, look, she's a convicted murderer in italy. from their perspective, this is the worst type of crime. she needs to be returned. they're i'm sure going to press the issue. she can claim there's a problem with double jeopardy. that's the u.s. constitutional right not to be prosecuted again once you've been acquitted. out don't have that right in italy and in many countries of

the world. that's not an exception to our expedition treaty with italy. i would suggest italy is going to press this hard. she's going to fight and probably years more of litigation before that gets decided. >> despite being very convicted here, you make a note that you believe some of this evidence, particularly the dna, was not solid enough. it had been contaminated, which we well know and there are still holes here. does that help when italy does attempt to pressure the u.s. eventually to turn her over, the weakness of the case at all? >> i think it does help her. her argument in the u.s. court to fight expedition would be ig remember larts in the trial, that she didn't get a fair trial, the italian system has really had this whiplash back and forth, guilty, not guilty, guilty, not guilty, and there were so many irregularities. in the second trial where she was found innocent, dna experts said the dna was not properly collected and not properly

analyzed. that was very important evidence. i want to stress there is evidence against amanda knox. italy isn't crazy in prosecuting her. she falsely accused another man of doing it, put herself at the scene, then said she wasn't at the scene. there was reason for them to prosecute here. the bottom line is there's not much hard evidence against her and i don't think they have the case beyond a reasonable doubt. >> thank you, lisa. appreciate you joining us. still ahead, confessions from a former tsa agent who claims travelers worst fierce are, in fact, true when it comes to the full-body scans. we'll tell you what that individual told politico. the former agent even says they have a code word to describe certain passengers. it's one of the things we thought you might want to know today. plus what some are calling the stoner bowl. marijuana advocates taking advantage that both super bowl teams come from the only states where recreational pot is legal. putting up billboards around

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time now for the political postscript. the president kicked things off this week with his annual state of the union speech. a congressman got too close with a reporter. in atlanta, a two-inch snowstorm turned to ice and paralyzed the city for days. >> i'm eager to work with all of you, but america does not standstill and neither will i. right now the president's policies are making people's lives harder. >> a thriving middle class doesn't come from shuffling the deck chairs on the titanic. mr. president, where are the jobs? >> the bottom line is i overreacted and my emotions got the better of me. i lost my cool. that shouldn't happen. one of our aid enforcement

priorities is the prevention of marijuana to minors. >> lady gaga says she's addicted to it and it is not harmless. >> the highways are mott the responsibility of the city. >> joining me live, nbc news senior political editor mark murray. that was the week that was. we mow the president hopes the state of the union was not a two-day conversation. but we also know this big interview with bill o'reilly will be the much-talked-about thing on monday morning, outside of the commercials. >> this super bowl interview for the president has become an annual rite of passage. he does it with all the networks actually hosting the super bowl. we've ufrn seen the president in a more buttoned, more casual atmosphere, more casual than the state of the union address. he gets some questions about the super bowl and what he's going to be watching, but very touch questions as well. tamron, you hit it very well, where the president is going to

try to continue to advance the message from his state of the union. in the broader scheme of things, i have an agenda, i know getting stuff done through congress is very hard, but i'm still charging ahead. >> this is something he to present. we also know the last dynamics greatly changed. talking immigration reform. raul reyes saying that a number of people concerned that deportation was not mentioned let alone comprehensive immigration reform and the laundry list of other issues that seem to be lost in that vacuum of washington, d.c. it is not lost that the person interviewing him has been a regular critic of the president, bill o'reilly. >> this will be the first time bill o'reilly has interviewed the president on the super bowl and elsewhere. while it has been sometimes a little bit of a testy interview, i think both guys have handled

themselves pretty well in the past. it will be interesting to see. you mentioned the state of the union address has a long litany of things. yes, the president mentioned immigration. but you only can give a few sentences or a paragraph to something like that. the big takeaway is the president is trying to say i have energy behind myself, trying to get some of these things done, all in an effort to boost his approval ratings. >> with the largest tv audience watching, larger than the state of the union. thank you very much. still ahead, atlanta's mayor saying he is making changes after the outrage over the city and the state's handling of the ice storm that left thousands of people stranded, plus stunning before-and-after pictures of the california drought that's only getting worse. the governor now urging people to turn off the water while even brushing their teeth and not to, quote, flush more than you have to. our flat rate shipping.

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a utah state senator is calling it bullying and an abuse of power. dozens of children in salt lake city had their school lunches pulled from their hands and thrown in the garbage this week all because their parents were said to be behind in their lunch money accounts. meantime, the cafeteria manager and a district supervisor have been placed on leave while the salt lake city school district investigates. nbc's mike die eastboutaibbi ha >> reporter: politicians called it an outrage. parents of children attending salt lake city's uente elementary school have lit up facebook with words like pathetic, disgusting, shamed. how can anyone take the lunches out of the hands of 30 to 40 kids and throw those lunches away because their parents had

zero or negative balances in their student meal accounts? food thrown away, the school said, because once it's served to the student it can't be given to anyone else, student like fifth grader sophie yeah. >> she said since you don't have money in your account, you can't get lunch. >> there were lots of tears and it was pretty upsetting for them to have that happen. >> reporter: the school district apologized for the embarrassing and humiliating situation. the children having their trays of pizza, salad areplaced by mik and a piece of fruit. >> this was a mistake. >> reporter: school officials say from now on they the parents will be informed if the meal accounts are deficient and that kids won't have lunches taken from them again. intensifying drought conditions in california. for the first time ever officials have declared part of the state to be in an exceptional drought situation.

that means hundreds of thousands of people could run out of water in as little as 60 days. governor jerry brown declared a state of emergency and asked people to reduce their water usage. to give you just an idea how serious this problem is, take a look at the reservoir where california gets most of its water. they show where water levels are now and where they should be in lakes, dams and water sheds. atlanta mayor kasim reed is announcing reforms following disastrous response to this week's deadly winter storms. among the measures, a comprehensive preview of what went wrong, a collaboration with our sister network, the weather channel, on future storms. meantime ak ban donned cars on highways leading in and out of the city remain a problem. the city says it's towed 150 vehicles so far. still ahead, the other big story coming out of the super bowl, the war over weed, and the flurry of billboards going up around metlife stadium for and

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time now for the news nation -- there's a lot going on today. here are some things we thought you should know t.tsa is responding to an article in politico magazines which claims to contain confessions from a former tsa agent, entitled "dear america, i saw you naked and, yes, we were laughing." code red means an attractive woman wearing red. yellow alert means an attractive woman wearing yellow. retaliatoriry wait time, what a passenger with a bad attitude gets. the tsa issued a statement saying every passenger deserves to be treated with dignity and respect, transportation security administration policy upholds

this standard. we take swift disciplinary action if discovered. now it's time for the news nation gut check. when the denver broncos and the seattle seahawks face off on sunday, they'll represent the only two states with legalized recreational marijuana. it's something that has a lot of this called the stoner bowl. activists are easing in on it including the marijuana policy project. the group has put up five billboards around new jersey's metlife stadium promoting the drug is safer than football or alcohol. a group known as smart approaches to marijuana or s.a.m. has put up their own billboard countering the pro marijuana message, setting up another showdown off the gridiron. joining us, "washington post" reporter niraj chutski.

i didn't know this was being called the stoner bowl. even more interesting there. the reality is there's a serious conversation happening in this country and the president has said in a different way when he compared the effects of marijuana with alcohol. >> that's true. a lot of momentum that the pro pot activists are bringing up. they're hoping it will be on the ballot this summer and after a dozen states they're hoping to push on the ballot and through the legislative process by 2016. >> as i mentioned, the president has commented. in a recent interview he was asked where he said he didn't think marijuana was any worse than alcohol. let me play his new comments to cnn. >> i stand by my belief based i think on the scientific evidence that marijuana for casual users,

individual users is subject to abuse just like alcohol is and should be treated as a public health problem and challenge. >> here we were watching a hearing earlier this week where eric holder was being questioned about the president's comments. lady gaga of all people was cited as someone who said she had a marijuana addiction here, set aside her own personal journey and what she is dealing with here. it is a time for people to really do their research and i guess put away some of the 1950s thoughts or '40s thoughts of marijuana and its evils. >> that's right. one thing that i think both sides can agree on is there are a lot of problems with alcohol and there may be some problems with pot. i guess the question that's being debated and how bad it will be. the pro pot guys say it's not going to be that.

in fact, it will be a lot better than alcohol. people won't be drunk driving or high driving they argue. the guys on the other side say, look, these are both problem issues and we need to treat them both very seriously. >> we'll see what happens and how people on social media react to these billboards. what does your gut tell you? should the mayor want to debate be part of the sewell bowl given the special place these teams have the debate? go to newsnation.msnbc.com. that does it for this edition of "news nation." "the cycle" is up next. [ male announcer ] this is betsy.

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tdd#: 1-888-852-2134 of your trading. i can't believe your mom has a mom cave! today i have new campbell's chunky spicy chicken quesadilla soup. she gives me chunky before every game. i'm very souperstitious. haha, that's a good one! haha! [ male announcer ] campbell's chunky soup. it fills you up right. if it's 3:00, america is talking. so are we. cycling now, the trash talking, the money, the ads, the play calling. i'm toure. did you think i was talking about politics? i'm talking politics. since you brought it up, let's talk footballment your pregame is right here. news, sports and weather.

we did it all here. will old man weather be the 12th man. the seahawks aren't the only ones that get to use that refers. i'm krystal ball. the dow is on a roller coaster. we're along for the ride. i'm ari melber, we have the twists and turns as one of the rockiest months in a long time comes to a close. as we turn on toure tv. i'll take the cycle for $500, alex. as you know, msnbc is the place for politics. it says so right up there, but we start with omaha! >> omaha! >> omaha! it's almost time to snap the ball and get started for the super bowl that i think is really going to be super. it's the league'ses