snowstorm near the north pole. it happens. [ male announcer ] there are 16 chevy models with a five star frontal crash safety rating. that's peace of mind for every size family. chevy... may the best car win. in the north of england to my new job at the refinery in the south. i'll never forget.

it used one tank of petrol and i had to refill it twice with oil. a new car today has 95% lower emissions than in 1970. exxonmobil is working to improve cars, liners of tires, plastics which are lighter and advanced hydrogen technologies that could increase fuel efficiency by up to 80%. let's wind 'em with precision. open our throttle to even more selection. and turn that savings swagger up full tilt. ♪ so when the time comes to bust open a can of doing... we've got all the tools for all the things we need to make 'em happen. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. we've made a special buy on spectracide weed stop. your choice for just $5.00 each. reach retirement age. and they are rewriting what it means to retire.

at merrill lynch, we have over 15,000 financial advisors to help you create a strategy to consolidate, manage, and invest your assets, which could make your second act better than your first. merrill lynch wealth management. it's another thing to back it up. the chevy 5-year/100,000 mile

transferable powertrain warranty. with roadside assistance and courtesy transportation, it's the best coverage in america. in the throes of a tragedy the people of poland mourn after a crushing loss. up next the latest in a live report on the crash disaster and the fallout of the investigation. plus nuclear concerns. world leaders to gather to keep nukes from terrorists. political fortunes, more presidential nods for mitt. and trailing tiger to win the masters, he will have to make some history. good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt and welcome to "msnbc sunday." just past 9:00 a.m. on the east coast. here's what's happening right now. poland is in mourning after the plane crash that took the life of the polish president and a large swath of the country's leaders. millions of people filled the streets of warsaw for a candlelight vigil.

russian president medvedev vowed to work with poland to thoroughly investigate the tragic crash. yonatan pomrenze has the latest. at what stage is this investigation? vladimir putin made an appearance there at the crash site. >> reporter: that's right. he went there. prime minister putin is in charge of the investigation and wasted no time. he went down to the site. he's personally overseeing it and just a short while ago he was at a small ceremony for the plane which was taking the president's body back to warsaw, expected to land there soon. they've invited polish experts to join them in the investigation so there's teams working on the ground in schmoe lensing still trying to find clues, information that could help them and there are specialists here in moscow. they have the black box. they started the process of

trying to pull data off of it. so they're really working around the clock and working closely with their polish counterparts. alex? >> and yonatan, when you think about what happens happening and the reason for the trip, the polish leaders heading, this crash is ironic. when you talk with russians, what's the feeling there in moscow? >> reporter: alex, here people -- obviously it doesn't have the impact it does in poland but people here are very -- they feel the pain and the polish embassy is right near my house. on my way in to work i saw the people coming there, laying flowers, and the polish leadership has made it clear. i mentioned prime minister putin heading up the investigation. but they've set up hotlines in smolensk and here in english, russian and in poland they relaxed the visa so families could identify their loved ones,

giving it a top priority to make sure the ironic and tragic part of history, which was a sticking point between russia and poland, doesn't have to factor at all in this tragedy now. alex? >> nbc's yonatan pomrenze, thank you. leaders around the world are sending condolences to poland. u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon said president kaczynski was respected internationally and french president nicolas sarkozy called him a tireless defender of the ideas he believed in. president obama said there are heavy hearts across america and confirmed the united states cherishes its deep and abiding bonds with the people of poland. coming up later this hour we're going to talk more about what led to this tragic crash when we speak with the former chairman of the national transportation safety board. mitt romney may be feeling a boost this morning when it comes to his standing with republican activists. the former massachusetts governor took the top spot yesterday in a straw poll. looking ahead to the 2012 presidential race. although romney didn't attend

the new orleans conference it appears he got help from supporters who offered free copies of his book and piggy banks touting his economic experience. texas congressman ron paul came in a very close second. i mean just one point separating them. while sarah palin and newt gingrich rounded out the top four spots. the republican party's chairman is working to recover from an embarrassing series of disclosures that put his leadership under fire. facing questions about reckless spending michael steele told the conference it's not only republicans who need to come clean. >> democrats also know they have some explaining to do. and they would love nothing more than for us to keep pointing fingers at me and others instead of their radical un-american agenda. i'm the first here to admit i've made mistakes and it's been incumbent on me to take responsibility, shoulder that burden, make the necessary changes and move on. >> it was steele's first public

appearance since he began to face calls for his resignation. we're going to have a lot more coming up with the political panel later on this hour. you can also stay up to the minute on the latest political headlines on our website. that is firstread.msnbc.com. it is the place for politics. the white house is to kick off a new effort aimed at fighting terrorism. president obama will play host to officials from 47 nations this week to discuss ways of securing the world's nuclear material. mike viqueira is joining us live this morning from the white house. mike, good sunday morning to you. >> reporter: same to you, alex. >> so what's on the agenda? >> reporter: it might be obvious but it's still startling to hear, terrorists who would do this country and other countries harm are trying to get hold of nuclear materials -- plutonium, uranium -- they want to make a nuclear bomb. they want to deploy them and set them off in this country and in other countries. that is why the president is calling this unprecedented summit. 47 nations, the largest dwaerg of a summit called on u.s. soil

since the united nations was formed in san francisco at a meeting there just after world war ii. all here to talk about the issue of loose nukes, loose nuclear weapons. the president has a goal of locking them all down in four years. there are going to be a lot of bilateral meetings between the president, other heads of state, starting today with two nuclear armed countries that have fought three wars in the last century alone and that's pakistan and india. both leaders will be here today. the president will make the trip across the street to blair house for bilaterals there and then it's down the street to the washington convention center monday and tuesday for this conclave, this meeting to try to do something about the issue of nuclear security and nuclear safety around the world, alex. >> hey, mike, i want to ask you about something -- the president took a little break from the oval office yesterday but without the press. did he even slip by you? what happened? >> reporter: yeah. there's no law that compels the president to take the press wherever he goes. years of protocol and tradition something called a press pool

that is assigned every single day on a rotating basis to cover the president, to be in the motorcade. it's actually kind of fun to drive along with the president -- >> no stoplights, right? >> reporter: not usually. sometimes they do depending on the mission or the event. even when he goes golfing as he did yesterday for five hours. he slipped out, the first time in memory a president has done that. presidents always hate to wait for the press, by the way, slipped out to see one of his daughters play soccer uptown here in northwest washington. everybody is back on the same page now as far as we understand it. >> okay. well, i think it's a good thing ep got to sneak away and watch his daughter play. i'm just saying. mike viqueira, thank you. two astronauts got an early morning start on the space walk today. this is the second in three days to replace an old storage tank. the ammonia tanks are part of the space station's cooling system, the one that they're removing today has been up there for about eight years. the new tank was delivered last

week. "discovery" will remain until saturday, landing scheduled for april 19th. tiger woods is going for the masters championship as he heads into the final round today at augusta national. nbc's kerry sanders following all the action from augusta for us. kerry, with another good morning, a near five-month break from golf does not seem to be slowing tiger down so how is he doing out there? >> reporter: he's doing amazing. he's tied for third. he's 8 under par. it's very clear that he is in the hunt for his fifth green jacket. it's as if tiger woods were never involved in a scandal, as if his alleged dozen-plus extramarital affairs never happened. less than 7 1/2 yankees ago the 34-year-old had said he would take an indefinite leave from golf. >> i do plan to return to golf one day. i just don't know when that day will be. >> reporter: now he's at the masters and tiger woods' damaged reputation and all is quieting

critics who assumed the distractions would ruin his golf game. golf fans attending the masters say they're mostly over the scandal, tired, they say, of the details. instead, anxious to watch tiger play golf. so what do you think of him now? >> the same thing i thought before. i think he's the great eest golr in the world. >> i felt like he would do well, top ten. tiger, top ten, no-brainer. >> reporter: and while the competition is not over, sportswriters here say they already see that classic american tale emerging, the comeback story. >> this is a country that's all about second chances. we've seen it in sports. we've seen it in politics. and now we're seeing it in golf with tiger woods. >> reporter: well, tiger woods had said that he was going to moderate his behavior antone things down both off and on the

golf course and then yesterday there was hole number six where in this genteel sport he used some rather colorful language and, yes, it was on live tv with no delay. alex? >> giving us something more to talk about like we needed it. okay, kerry sanders, thank you. let's go now to a hockey fight that resembled one of those old mike tyson first-round knockouts and took evander kane a couple of punches to cold congress matt cooke of the pittsburgh penguins. cooke was out for a moment. he eventually got up and left the game for good. he's going to be okay. kane, by the name -- he was named after former heavyweight boxer evander holyfield. a story that has outraged people across the globe, hope the abandoned adopted boy will get a new home of love. ♪

wellbeing. we're all striving for it. purina cat chow helps you nuture it in your cat... with a full family of excellent nutrition... and helpful resources. ♪ purina cat chow. share a better life.

actress dixie carter has died. the tennessee native was most famous for jewel yard sugarbaker on "designing women" which aired for seven years in 1986. carter acted on broadway and in the series "family law" and she was nominated for an emmy in 2007 for a recurring role on "desperate housewives." dixie carter was 70 years old. as a tennessee woman's return of her adoptive son to russia makes headlines, another tennessee family says the case should serve as a warning for people considering adoption. james and barbara adopt add girl from russia in 1999. they soon found out the girl suffered from reactive attachment disorder. they say the disorder led their daughter to make false allegations of child abuse. >> the problem with compulsive lying, of severe disobedience, of an inability to really connect with us in a healthy

way. >> they eventually gave up their russian daughter to a family who specializes in the treatment of her disorder. adam is the author of "adoption nation." " good morning, adam. >> good morning. >> i'm curious how common it is for people to give back or give up their adopted children. >> not very common at all and i think it would be a bad takeaway from this story which is quite a story, i'll say. it would be a bad takeaway for people to say, oh, so that's what all the kids are like. no, they're not. this doesn't happen very often. >> adam, what should prospective parents know before adopting children especially older children? >> well, i would say older children, children who have a background of real negative experience, institutionalization, abuse, neglect, fetal alcohol syndrome, if you'redo one of those kids, you need to know what you're getting into.

i don't mean that in a negative way. if you give birth to a biological kid with real issues, you educate yourself about those issues, you get support for it. you put services in place. you learn about how to take care of your kid. if you don't get that training, if you don't get that education, you are going to have a tough time, and a lot of kids are not going to get homes if people think, oh, my god, i can't do this. it's about learning how to do this and the professionals involved and the parents involved both have to be in on the game. >> well, here's what was going on. so we've heard a lot about the fact this woman sent this little boy back to russia, her 7-year-old adoptive son, but she says the boy threatened to burn her house down. with a do you think her course of action should have been in dealing with this boy? >> get the kid some help. i wish i knew more about the case. we know so few details. was she properly educated, did she get the information she needed from the orphanage or the country? did her agency work with her?

and in the end if her kid was having problems, who did she go to to solve those problems? not to jetison them but to solve them. >> if we assume the woman is being truthful about the boy's threats and behavior, do you think the adoption agency has some responsibility here or the orphanage from which he came? do they bear any responsibility for the woman's situation and for the boy? >> i think everybody here bears responsibility. this should be a lesson to us not about how international adoption works but about how we are supposed to take care of individual children and their needs so that has to start with the orphanage, how well they take care of them, what information they provide. it has to go to the agency for training and supporting that parent and it has to be in the parents' hands as well because adoption is not child rental. this is your kid and just as if you gave birth buy liologically

this is your responsibility. so if you're having problems, yes, you should get supports and, yes, all those other people needed to do their jobs, but now you need to do yours and find how can i get help for this child and for my family? >> author of adoption nation, adam pertman, thank you for your insights. >> my pleasure. at least three russian families have come forward offering to adopt the 7-year-old returned by his adoptive mom in tennessee. it served as the home to america's team. now thanks to more than a ton of dynamite, texas stadium is just a pile of rubble. 1... 2... 3...lift! ha-ha ha ha ha! [ slam! ] [ ding! ] [ chirp! ] [ stomp! stomp! stomp! stomp! ] [ beep! crank! ] [ pop! pop! pop! ] [ ding! ] [ crunch! ] [ girl ] ha-ha ha ha ha! [ clank! fizz! clink! ] it's... time! [ click! click! click! click! ] [ indistinct conversations ] shh! [ girl ] it's on! [ female announcer ] walmart presents "secrets of the mountain." friday, april 16th, 8/7 central on nbc. family movie night is back. with thousands of rollback prices on everything you need. save money. live better. walmart.

somewhere in america... there's a home by the sea powered by the wind on the plains. there's a hospital where technology has a healing touch. there's a factory giving old industries new life. and there's a train that got a whole city moving again. somewhere in america, the toughest questions are answered every day. because somewhere in america, more than sixty thousand people spend every day answering them. siemens. answers. answering them. siemens. everything is better with swanson broth in it. made with garden vegetables and sun-drenched herbs. the secret is swanson, 100% natural chicken broth.

well, that makes it official there, the longtime home of the dallas cowboys is out of here. texas stadium was imploded just about an hour ago so all that's left of the 65,000 seat stadium is 6 million pounds of steel and

concrete, 95% of which will be recycled. they left the stadium in 2008 after 38 historic seasons there. consumers wary of increase late fees are starting to pay off their credit card debt faster than before. late payments fell to 4.39% last quarter. so what does it indicate about our financial recovery? let's bring in a personal finance expert. i'm going to cross my fingers and think that means good news. >> sure, sure. absolutely. i get asked all the time, do you really think americans learn their less some this time about kr credit, how much we use credit? i have to say yes. i really think we've learned that lesson. we now know that our jobs are in precarious position. you don't feel the job security that we had before. it used to take a couple of months and now over a year. so folks are saying we know how dangerous credit card debt can be. if you lose your job you're in a lot of trouble. folks are paying off their cards more, using their cards tremendously less. revolving credit card debt is down 13% again so it keeps going

down. >> the credit card companies, aren't they upping their -- >> oh, yes. >> what's it called -- >> the interest rates. >> that's going up higher. >> they're really going up higher. we're not used to that. we're used to years of cheap credit and now projecting out in the fall, 17% average credit card rate. that's very expensive. that's painful. people are using their cards much less, too. rates are going to go up. now with the card act in effect, most folks if you had a low-fixed card, they change it had to a variable rate card so few of us have those low cards anymore. >> that's good. delinquencies are down. loan payments, those are a bit of a problem because that's up. that's an increased level there in terms of the overall payments. >> in terms of home loans especially. this is the one area of debt still in a lot of trouble and we know that. folks who own their homes are in trouble a lot. almost 6 million people on the brink of foreclosure still. so we're still seeing a lot of trouble in the housing market

but, again, with credit card debt, this is something that a lot of folks can control more than your home mortgage. they're really paying these things down and not using their cards as much. >> okay. we'll have you back to talk more money matters. thank you very much. >> you've got it. well, topping today's list of number ones, the most valuable teams in baseball, is it any surprise that the new york yankees come out number one. the yankees are $1.6 billion. see what a world series title and a new stadium will do for you. the boston red sox ranked second, $870 million. the mets third $858 million. the political website daily collar ranks san francisco the most liberal friendly. stanford university is one of the finest institutions of highest learning. the daily beast put stanford atop its list of the 50 most stressful colleges in america. competitiveness and acceptance rate are a couple reasons for that ranking. a 13-year-old california boy has high hopes of becoming the young

est to climb mt. everest. he'll attempt the feat with his father and stepmother. they are expected to head for everest today. let's go now to the top of the music charts. ♪ you know it, it's still hanging on at the top of the pop charts, lady gaga's "telephone." her sixth number one in the pop rankings. ♪ so in love ♪ i found you finally >> usher's new album debuts at number one on the billboard 200. usher knocking his protege justin bever after the debut at thumb one last week. that's a quick rundown of today's number ones for you. - pie. - apple or cherry? - cherry. oil or cream? oil or cream? cream. some use hydrogenated oil. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. nothing's more real than reddi-wip.

it's "msnbc sunday." i'm alex witt. approaching half past the hour, a grief stricken poland mourns the loss of its president and the 95 others killed in yesterday's plane crash.

poland this morning observed two minutes of silence and remembrance. we'll have more on that crash investigation in just a moment. anti-government protesters in bangkok are back on the streets after yesterday's deadly standoff with the military. four soldiers and 16 civilians were killed in the fighting. in rio a grim search continues today for more victims of flooding and mud slides that have killed at least 219 people. in musko dp ee, one teenager was killed, several others injured. and tiger woods four strokes off the lead entering today's final round of the masters. tiger has never trailed after three rounds and won a major. this is an fyi. those are your first five headlines. funerals continue for the 29 west virginia miners killed in monday's explosion. so far six have been laid to rest. the families of some victims are still waiting for the remains to be removed from the mine. brian mooar is in beckley, west virginia. with a good morning to you, the

six miners have been buried but so much more emotion to come. >> reporter: funeral after funeral, members of this community have lost so much but they still have each other. those who have lost are helping others who have lost. today another one of those funerals and there will be many more. today it's a funeral for william roosevelt lynch. he just turned 59 a couple weeks ago, a churchgoing man, a family man, and at the end of the day, he was a miner. his friends were miners. his family miners. and the mining community coming together today to help the lynch family in their darkest hour. the investigation here is just beginning. officials will be gathering in the state tomorrow, state and federal officials will try to reconstruct exactly what happened here. it does look like the buildup of methane gases in this horrific explosion we've heard about, that's pretty obvious but exactly what led up to it, whether there were deficiencies in the ventilation system in this mine that should have been

corrected. that is one of the many things. it's one funeral after another. 29 people dead in this tragedy. the two miners who survived, one of them in a hospital icu unit. the other said to be doing very well. alex? >> so hard to think of those 29 miners, the families that they led were such a significant part of, all of them just devastated. in terms of the investigation, brian, it's supposed to take quite a while, isn't it? >> reporter: alex, this could take a year. president obama wants a preliminary report on his desk first thing this week, meaning as early as tomorrow. the labor secretary says that there will be some very serious work done to see what deficiencies there are in the system, how that can be shored up. president obama, keep in mind, was the senator when the big mine disasters happened here in west virginia a couple years ago. the back-to-back deadly mines.

and senator obama helped senator byrd and rockefeller in their efforts to shore up mining safety laws so the president is very interested in seeing what can be done going forward and also looking back and seeing what he did as a senator, what the senate did and what the federal government did was enough and should have been enough. >> all right, brian mooar, thank you very much. well, friends and family of a missing utah woman search for new clues. susan powell was last seen on december 7th. her husband josh told police he last saw his wife when he left with the couple's young sons for a winter overnight desert camping trip. police have called susan's husband josh a person of interest in the case. saturday's search focused on the area josh powell said he was camping but no new clues were found. still family and friends say they were touched by the effort and support of the searchers. right now a former producer for "survivor" is being watched by the u.s. consulate in mexico while mexican officials investigate the death of his

wife. his wife went missing while the couple was vacationing in cancun with two young children. her body was found thursday stuffed in a sewer pipe near the hotel. nbc's miguel almaguera is in cancun, mexico. miguel, with a good morning to you, to the very latest on the police investigation. what is it? >> reporter: good morning. this investigation does move forward. we are expecting police to talk to us possibly tomorrow be a give us the latest on their investigation. as you mentioned, monica's body was found last week. her husband was taken into custody that very next day. he was questioned by investigators. he voluntarily went in and spoke to investigators. he was released from that questioning but was told he could not leave mexico. we know he is still in the general area. investigators will likely ask to top to him again. he does have a lawyer. he retained a lawyer that was recommended to him by the american consulate. so many moving parts of this investigation as it continues, alex. >> okay. miguel, how about the community there? how much are people aware of this story? because this is an american yet

it is a very popular tourist area. >> reporter: the hotel is a large compound that stretches for quite some area and most of the folks here were aware of the incident when it happened last week because they say the hotel immediately went into somewhat of a lockdown mode. security was much more visible and there was obviously police officers who were on scene on the compound. but as some of those folks cycle out and new people check into the hotel, we haven't seen the same type of intensity in terms of security or people with curiosity. many people don't know anything happened here but last week certainly much of the hotel was alerted by many people obviously disturbed by it, a murder in a relatively beautiful area of cancun. >> anything anything, thank you so much. >> you can read more at msnbc.com. police in mexico are looking for whoever threw an explosive device over the wall. the u.s. consulate and mexican border city, the device damaged

windows. the latest attack follows the shooting deaths of three people linked to the u.s. consulate last month. poland is reeling from the tragic plane crash that killed its president along with numerous military political leaders. the presidential plane went down while trying to land in heavy fog. reports indicate the 26-year-old plane clipped the tops of trees as it attempted to land. joining us now former chairman of the national transportation safety board and nbc contributor. mark, i'm glad you're here. lots of questions. mark, we had the troll tower reportedly advising the plane to land elsewhere. why would the pilot attempt to land in these conditions? it was near zero visibility. >> this is a pilot who has probably seen this kind of weather condition before. there's an expectation level

that he is competent enough to be able to make this kind of landing in this kind of condition. but, unfortunately, these kinds of pressures sometimes clouds the judgment of the pilot. >> yeah. how about the aircraft? much has been made it's a 26-year-old aircraft. this particular model has been in six crashes the last five years. how much does that weigh in your mind in terms of the investigation and putting a reason as to why this happened? >> well, the tupolev 154 has not enjoyed a good safety reputation n. this case, though, it was the president's airplane. it was one of the two in the special air missions fleet of poland. and this, from what i understand, had a very serious refurbishment back in december. so there are a lot of questions that will, i believe, be answered when the analysis of the flight data recorder comes back from moscow. the cockpit voice recorder should also tell a good deal of what the conversation was, the decision making processes

between the four crew members that were in the cockpit. >> but, mark, i mentioned 26-year-old plane, does that give you pause for concern or are you of the mind if a plane is routinely well maintained it shouldn't be a problem? >> it should not be a problem if it's well maintained and, again, this was the presidential fleet. this was the equivalent, if you will, of the polish air force one. and having a good deal of refurbishment which just occurred at the end of last year gives a good indication that this airplane was in pretty decent shape. what i am concerned about are the reports he, in fact, made four, if you will, this was his fourth time attempting to land. that tells me that he really wanted to get in there very, very badly and that potentially maybe pressured because of the serious -- the high level of delegation he was carrying. >> yeah, and the event to which they were going, too, an emotional and important one. mark, with the exception of

covering up the black box, the cockpit voice recorder, when they're on site, that investigation team, what's the first thing they go after? >> well, they're wanting to make sure all the parts of the airplane are located on the debris field. the black boxes are really the first thing they're looking at because they will give you a good deal of technical analysis, technical evidence to show what, in fact, was happening to the aircraft at the time of impact. >> okay. all right. how long do you think it will be until we have a conclusive decision as to what caused this plane crash? >> well, i've worked with the people that are part of this investigation, the interstate aviation committee of russia is very competent and i'm sure will be working extremely closely. now the polish government also sent a group of investigators to work there as well and, of course, from what i understand, now mr. putin is going to be heading the investigation in an administrative way so it wouldn't surprise me we'll begin to get a good deal of evidence and analysis very, very quickly

so that the world will understand what happened here. >> all right. former ntsb chair and contributor right now, mark rosencur. thank you, mark. police in shanghai found a good way to dispose of 30,000 illegal fireworks. they blew them up. they were put along a secluded river bank and when the coast was clear they hit the detonator. take a look. not that long ago, many families were priced out of an overheated housing market. but the times have changed. get the facts at remax.com. it's a great place to see all the listings in thousands of cities and towns. with tax credits for buyers, low interest rates and down-to-earth prices, the dream of owning a home seems more attainable than ever.

find out what an experienced re/max agent can do for you. nobody sells more real estate than re/max. visit remax.com today. in this. one day, i'll park this in a spot reserved for me. it's got 26,000 miles on it now, but i'm gonna take it to a thousand million. [ male announcer ] when you own a certified pre-owned mercedes-benz, chances are they'll own it one day, too. which is why it undergoes

such a rigorous inspection to meet our uncompromising standards. one day, i'm gonna drive this to vegas. [ male announcer ] hurry in to your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for 1.99% financing during our certified pre-owned sales event through april 30th.

thousands of people rallied saturday to push for comprehensive immigration reform in washington. senate majority leader harry reid addressed the crowd which gathered in front of a federal building in las vegas. reid assured the demonstrators he's committed to making reform a top priority. that rally was sponsored by the reform immigration for america campaign along with several other faith-based organizations. similar rallies took place in seattle, chicago, and el paso,

texas. as the obama white house tackles nuclear security this week it will be the latest in a series of high-profile issues. the administration is working to shape some of this nation's most contentious and complicated concerns. with us from washington is eleanor clift for "newsweek" magazine. also the staff writer for "roll call." good morning again, ladies. >> good morning, alex. >> morning, alex. >> emily, the president has not been shy about tackling these issues. is this out of necessity or perhaps is it a reflection of obama's personality? >> i think it's a little bit of both. when it comes to things like nuclear arms proliferation it's not something you can just wait until there is a convenient political time to work on an issue like this. i think the president and his advisers think that a nuclear arms represents, especially in the hands of terrorist who is would like to do our country harm, some of the biggest threats we face as a nation. i think the president feels that's not just something you

can wait until it's easy or convenient to start working on. obviously other things are more in his control -- health care, for example, although that's, again, not exactly in his control. he still has to work on it once it's passed. now he has to work on selling it. there are a lot of issues that stay on his plate even once they're checked off. obviously nuclear arms is not something you can just check off and move on to the next thing. there are things you have to keep on your plate and work on simultaneously. >> and this one he'll keep on his plate at least four years, a place to get all this loose nuclear material gathered up. tackling all these big issues, eleanor, does it give off the impression the president is in a hurry? >> well, i think he used to use the expression the necessity of now. i think he does only have four years and maybe he'll get re-elected and have another four. he needs to get ahead of all the election cycles and put things out there in order to have any

chance of accomplish. and he really has two agendas. he has the one he ran on and the one because of the economic collapse in this country. he's not going to give up on the issues that he ran on which included health care, reforming the education system and moving us towards energy independence. those are all big issues. they're all on the table. the nuclear issue, the s.t.a.r.t. treaty expired and so there was the necessity to that. if you go back and remember his campaign speeches, he talked about his vision for a nuclear-free world and he began working on that as soon as he got in office, meeting with the russian president last year to begin to win over his support. he chaired a u.n. security council meeting last fall and passed a ban on nuclear weapons and now this security summit next week. so i think it really is an example where his vision and his drive has put this particular

issue on the front burner and it's an issue of, needless to say, life and death. >> emily, taking what eleanor is saying, how much of this is a politically created time clock? there is so much on the table, so much that is currently being worked through when we come around to the 2012 presidential election that it's like we have to see this guy through. >> well, there's some of that going on and also the 2010 elections are creating somewhat of a different dynamic here on capitol hill. the chances of getting major pieces of legislation passed this year before the 2010 elections are pretty diminished. you're coming off health care, which was a divisive political fight and coming into the nomination of a supreme court justice which is also going to create a pretty divisive fight on capitol hill and elsewhere. i think that's going to create a tough climate for the president to push things through before the 2010 election. you saw senator reid promising that they'd get immigration done. that's another thing that's going to be very difficult for the senate to do.

so these calendars that are set are so influenced by politics, particularly this 2010 election which is going to be very, very divisive, and create a hostile atmosphere on capitol hill. >> you know, eleanor, obama said he'd rather be a good one-term president than a lousy two-term president. how much does that give you insight? >> we design success by the ability to be re-elected. so i think that goes without saying i think the president has put all these issues on the table and i think he can argue to the voters even this november that his administration made progress and it's the economic recovery seems to be coming along. he can put the choice between the voters as to continue the progress he's making or turn back the clock. i think that will be the democratic message. >> eleanor clift, emily heil, always a pleasure. >> thank you. >> thank you. if you haven't filled out the census, these folks sure hope you do. they are some of the volunteers who hit the streets in various cities to encourage people to complete the census. so far half the country has done

their census. [ ding! ] [ chirp! ] [ skid! ] [ thud! thud! thud! thud! ] [ crunch! crunch! crunch! crunch! ] [ clang! ] [ clank! fizz! clink! ] it's... time! [ click! click! click! click! ] [ indistinct conversations ] shh! [ girl ] it's on! [ female announcer ] walmart presents "secrets of the mountain." april 16th on nbc. make tonight a family movie night with marketside pizza and pepsi. with thousands of great rollbacks, it's rollback time. save money. live better. walmart. aveeno hair shines in real life. new aveeno nourish plus shine with active naturals wheat smooths damaged cuticles for 75% more shine in one use. real shine, for real life. yours. [ female announcer ] new aveeno nourish plus shine.

a new report hitting newsstands and the internet tomorrow discusses a growing trend in prisons. nbc news has teamed up with the grio.com and essence magazine to look at programs allowing mothers to raise their newborns in prison. studies show nurseries benefit the kids and the mothers but some question whether the government should be involved in child care. nbc has more. >> right now you're in the living area or what we may term as their dayroom. we want this to really simulate if they were in their homes. >> reporter: but this is their whole world. they never leave until they leave. >> in terms of them moving about the facility, that doesn't happen. >> reporter: this is it. >> this is it. >> essentially the department of corrections is now involved in child care. do you think that that's the right use of those resources? >> i do. i absolutely do. i think it's important that we invest in these people's lives

right now, both the mom and the baby. >> and i'm joined by the reporter of the story. also joining us, the news editor for essence magazine, wendy wilson. good morning, ladies. welcome back. in that piece, you were talking with the warden of the prison. she said absolutely, this is a program that works and stop all the questions, let's just do it. >> yeah. her argument was that you pay now or you pay later, that if you don't make the investment now, roughly $24,000 per year per infant, you will pay later when the mothers come back to prison or the children come back to prison as adults. the question critics have is it the department of correction's responsibility to shell out an additional $24,000 a year for children when their purpose is punishment and rehabilitation. >> wendy, i'm curious how these programs affect the black communities where oftentimes women can be the head of a household, almost almost 7% of black children have a parent in jail compared with 1% of white children. talk about this issue.

>> that's correct. definitely we feel that anything to keep black families together is vitally important. what often happens with these children if they're not kept with their moms is is they go into foster care. and once a child goes into foster care, we know, quite frankly, that it's very difficult for that mother to then reunite with that child later on. it's really vital for the african-american community at this point and stage to have as much support as possible to keep these families together, and these women have the support while they're in prison so we say why not? >> with regard to the cost of all this, you mentioned $24,000 a year, maura, to keep a child in a nursery, in effect. but if you exponentially look at this, nine prisons, are they going to take this program and put it elsewhere? because it's sort of a pilot program that is working on so many levels. >> right. it's really going to be on a case-by-case basis. there was a time in this country where this was very common. in the '50s, it was almost unheard of to take a baby from a woman whether she was an inmate or not. for whatever reason, it was

phased out by the '70s. it's on a case-by-case basis. there is the argument it works and helps keep people on the right path but there's the argument as to whether the department of correction should be dealing with this issue. >> the issue of foster care you mentioned, wendy, how destructive is that to chirp to not only breaking the bond of mother and child but getting foster children sort of not that solid foundation but a feeling of where they belong? >> exactly. and what often happens with these moms once they get out of prison, they try to get back with their child and that child has gone on to another foster home. reunion is so difficult. >> does the law work against the mother if she's been in jail even for a nonviolent crime, as all these mothers are that are able to keep their babies with them? >> of course. there's that stigma the mother is in prison and is maybe not prepared to take her child back. a lot of states do try to help foster that relationship, but it's really difficult. the child doesn't know the mom, the mom doesn't know the child. and so there is that distance between them.

>> this story, what's the most rewarding take-away to come from that story that you hope people get this nugget and use it as they think about this in the future? >> one of the moms said to me i'm so happy i'm here for all her special moments, you know, the little milestones that moms really well in seeing, the rolling over, the first smile, those kinds of things. she said i'm so happy i'm here for those special moments. it's just really very basic, just a mother bonding with her baby. and this is what changes their life. and it has a long-term effect. >> it really does. such a great story. a lot of people talking about it already. despite the fact it doesn't hit the internet until tomorrow. >> tomorrow. >> thank you so much. see you guys later. >> thank you. >> for more stories and video, go to thegrio.com. get this -- 47% of the people in this country who hold a job won't be paying any federal income tax at all, nothing. in fact, some who won't even pay any tax will even get a check from uncle sam.

how does that work? we'll explain. national car rental knows i'm picky. so, at national, i go right past the counter... and you get to choose any car in the aisle. choose any car? you cannot be serious! okay. seriously, you choose. go national. go like a pro. they're the future of america, so let's bring them up right and give them our cheese. american cheese. kraft singles. put it in their lunch boxes. heck, put it right in their mouths.