good morning. sunday showdown. after a final push from the president and angry push back from the opposition, it all comes down to this. do democrats have the 216 votes they need to pass health care reform today? deep impact. what would reform really mean for you and your family? from doctor visits to prescription drugs. what you need to know about what could change and how soon those changes could take effect. deep mystery. what is that on the ocean floor in aruaruba?

could this photo finally solve the disappearance of natalee holloway. what investigators are searching for today, sunday, march 21st, 20 for today, sunday, march 21st, 20 2010. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning, everyone. welco welcome to "today" on a sunday. >> we're just hours away for a vote on health care reform. seems like a long time in the coming. >> nuthing is easy in this process. i expect a very long day. democrats still scrambling to get the last-minute votes needed for passage. president obama made a last-ditch effort on saturday. republicans are calling it armageddon. the very latest on this decisive vote, coming up. also ahead, we'll find out what the health care reform

package could mean to you. it could extend coverage to 32 million uninsured americans and require americans to purchase insurance and face penalties if they refuse. we'll sort through the plan and take a closer look at the impact and the timing of reform all coming up. also, the latest for the midwest as residents along the border have been keeping a close and anxious eye on the swollen red river nearing a critical level today. will the sandbags hold? the latest on the floods in just a few minutes. a little later on, we'll talk smart phones. those gadgets pretty hot right now. they come with quite a few bells and whistles. after all that, is it a smart investment? we'll take a look. more on the landmark health care bill the house is expected to vote on later today. mike vukijoins us. >> i have spoken with democrats this morning and a growing

confidence that the president will pass his plan through the house when they take it up about mid-day but victory is still not assured. after weeks of campaign-style trips for health care, mr. obama travelled to the capital to deliver an epithetic message to voters. >> help people who are down on their luck and give them a pathway to success and give them a ladder into the middle class. >> reporter: but victory is not assured. around the capital, protesters gathered to cheer on the plan's opponen opponents. and to hurl insult to democrats. inside, it was a day of hand-to-hand political combat. >> we're about 24 hours from armageddon. >> reporter: hit by criticism they were using procedural slight of hand -- >> this process corrupts and prostitutes the system.

>> reporter: democrats reversed course at mid-day and announced an up or down vote on the unpopular senate bill. meanwhile, abortion coverage remains the biggest issue standing in the way of passage. as one member who supported the bill in the past, announced a change of heart. >> tomorrow will be a sad day for me as a cast a vote against what we need. >> reporter: there is talk about having the president issue an executive order, affirming his position that no federal funds could be used to the pay for the procedure in an effort to peel away members of an anti-abortion blog. without their support, democrats still lack the support to pass the bill. it is clear that the stakes couldn't be higher. >> i don't know, quite frankly, whether victory will come on the third sunday in march or on the first tuesday in november, but victory will come. >> reporter: and, lester, the president begins his day here at the white house.

he'll be at the ready for more phone calls to try to put this health care bill over the top and then it will be on to the senate. lester? >> nbc mike viqueira, thanks. we're joined by david gregory moderator of "meet the press." >> morning, lester. >> will democrats know what the vote is before it's actually taken? will they know if the they have the 216 or not? >> they will. it is always possible that they are within a breath of having 216 and they decide to call the vote at that extra level of pressure. this is a pretty high-stake vote to do that on. all the indications are while they are still slightly behind there is an expectation that they'll get to 216 before they call that vote. this is why every moment counts here and why every arm being twisted counts because it will go up to the very end. >> mike had mentioned the possibility of an executive order regarding abortion. how big a potential showstopper does the abortion issue remain

to all this? >> very important. as of friday afternoon top democrats say we have to dig this out and it could matter to four or five democrats whether we get this language exactly right stupak being the most prominent among them. the feeling is they could get it done without that four or five. remember, this is a balancing act because talk of a resolution where they tighten up the language or run an executive order has to be balance would the fact that there are pro-choice democrats who don't want another vote taken. a very difficult balancing act for the speaker. >> interesting when the president addressed congressional democrats yesterday and he talked about all the predictions they could pay a political price to this. at the same time, the congressional leadership decided this is an up or down vote. meaning the members will have to say yes or no on this. how significant is it that they decided to go up and down? >> i think it's significant.

democrats who decided to vote yes for this are all in. they recognize that even if they want to run away from the president, they really can't on this issue. they are going to have to now move forward aggressively on the idea that if they can achieve this, they can go out there and campaign for it and see what happens in november. look, it's impossible to say how large health care looms in november. we know the jobbessilous pi esl going to be very important. this is important in what government should be doing and they're going to have to now fight it out if this thing gets pass would republicans. that this is government run amuck. >> i don't think you can demonstrate the anger and passion over this bill. we saw the tea party protesters yesterday, that movement is real. we have seen the polls, a lot of me americans are not for this. even if this bill is passed, is this fight going to continue on many other fronts? >> whether it extends to other issues we'll see whether the president can achieve consensus

like education, immigration or whether this only hardens the lines between the two sides. what you see among the tea party activists and even some of the ugliness among capitol hill yesterday is a real opposition to what washington is doing both process wise, but also the role of government in our country. this is a foundational, ideological and philosophical, philosophical divide about the role that government plays in our lives. and i do think that is going to continue. >> david gregory, thank you so much. >> thanks. more on what health care reform could mean for you and your family when we break down exactly what's in this bill in a few minutes. first now, here's jenna. >> lester, thank you. high anxiety all weekend for people liven along the swollen river in the upper midwest, this morning there is good news to report. kevin tibls is in moorhead,

minnesota. >> good morning. high anxiety, indeed. a long week of hard work and a million sandbags and a lot of nail biting as people in the moorhead area and fargo on the other side of this bridge have been watching the red river slowly and slowly creep up. of course, the initial concern was it was going to hit the 40-foot stage. that was the absolute record that it hit this time last year. those predictions have been slowly ratcheted down over time and yesterday the national weather service even ratcheted it down another half a foot, down to 37 feet. where it stands now is just about an inch below that and i've just gotten off the phone with the flood officials here in fargo, moorhead and they're just telling me it is slowly, slowly creeping up to that cresting. that should take place some time later on today, perhaps even this morning. when it does and the water actually starts to recede, there

are going to be a lot of relieved people and we're not only talking about civic officials, but all the people who live in the neighborhood along the low-lying areas along the red river. >> it seems like this happens every year, any talk of a permanent solution at this point? >> it does seem like it happens every year, doesn't it? i was just saying that to myself earlier this morning. you know, there is a permanent solution that is being discussed, but, of course, permanent solutions to everything costs a heck of a lot of money. $1.4 billion is the initial price tag that is being discussed with regards to actually building a river diversion and when i talk about a diversion, it's sort of like digging a big ditch. that essentially goes around the populated areas here and when the red river would rise a lot of that water would run off through the diversion and take it away from the poplar areas and that way what's happening behind me would not happen. they did it up in canada up in

the city of winnipeg. they did it with a way back in the '40s and '50s when things just didn't seem to cost so much. jenna? >> kevin tibbles, thank you. we want to get a check of the day's rest news stories and for that we'll turn over to peter alexander at the news desk. we begin in oklahoma and the southern plains where residents are spending the first full day of spring digging out from a deadly snow storm. mike seidel in tulsa, oklahoma w the latest. good morning. >> peter, the last day of snow and wind here in tulsa as yesterday's upper level storm and warm air dumped on the area. let me take you back to oklahoma city yesterday. you throw in heavy snow and 40-mile-per-hour wind gusts you get a whiteout. not an ideal start to spring time. it wasn't only oklahoma but missouri.

metro area husbayarareas had ni snow. the icy roads let to three traffic fatalities. here in tulsa we had four and a half inches and another one to two inches on the way but, peter, by tuesday the temperatures back in the 60s. tough to see the record highs yesterday in new york. back to you. >> that's the case from there. mike, thanks very much. in iceland, hundreds of people have been forced to evacuate their homes after a volcano erupted overnight. the good news is that no injuries have been reported. but, look at this, police declared a state of emergency. three iceland air flights bound for that country were actually diverted to boston. the volcano last erupted in 1821. the second day of a british airways worker's strike has forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights and leaving thousands of travelers in the lurch and that includes many people right here in the u.s.

chris from london has the latest. chris. >> peter, you can see it's wonderful flying weather in london. the sad thing is around 1,000 flights are being canceled. the strike ends monday at midnight. the update we have today is that they have cabbed up cabin crew replacement staff and they are putting together a strike schedule. they're actually reinstating some flights at the moment, including 26, eight of them are long haul and many of those heading towards america. >> chris choi from our partner itn in london today. thank you very much. a possible new development in the search for missing alabama teenager natalee holloway. divers will look off the coast of aruba for possible skeletal remains after this picture was taken by a pennsylvania couple

scuba diving in aruba. it looks like the outline of a skeleton. it could be a stone, it could be anything. still, the fbi is helping to investigate. finally, they'd like to call this march madness but this year's sports fans would agree it's officially insane. last night the top ranked team in the country and president obama's pick to win it all the kansas jayhawks were knocked off by northern iowa. 69-67. let them celebrate. the upset capped another thrilling day. it included a hail mary for st. mary's college. they beat second seeded villanova, 75-68. like a lot of america had kansas going all the way, which means it is just an investment in my colleagues. back to you guys. >> nothing better than when the underdog wins. >> that's why they call it madness. mike bettes is here with a check of the weather. >> march madness weather-wise.

spring side of it or the winter side of it. mighty snow right through the center of the country and he >> we start out at 40 but we warm up again. this rain holds off tonight and tomorrow. we will see an increase in clouds during the day, and faf year. tough stuff. and that is a look at your weather, now, here's lester. >> thank you. up next today. what health care reform might mean for you. we'll explain how the bill, if passed, will impact seniors,

prescription drugs.

but it's important to point out no cuts in services in this bill. >> now, say you're an average family with children. how does this affect you. >> again, short and long term. the short term dependent children up to age 26 will stay on their parents' coverage as long as they don't have option

coverage of their own. longer firm, if the families don't have health care insurance, they will get health care insurance. >> the one thing that both the democrats and republicans both exist on is the issue of pre-existing conditions. does the bill address that? >> it sure does. it will take a little bit of time to get all this insurance reform worked out in terms of implementing it. in the short term about $5 billion available people that have pre-existing conditions and that money will be fairly available and longer term when the insurance reforms kick in, insurance companies will have to sell to people with pre-existing conditions. >> you mention now and later short term and long term where is the line here and how does this affect us now? >> we're talking about 2014 when most of this, the rules kick in. anything pre-2014 is what we're talking about immediate relief and 2014, you know, all the legislation takes affect. >> after 2014, everything kicks in. >> that's correct. >> let's go some other situations now. say you already are covered and

you already have health insurance, does this affect you at all, at least right now? >> no changes. in fact, that's not a great thing because insurance premiums have been going up and up and i don't see them going down in the short term. more competition through state exchanges and a lot of programs to look at costs in the system and taking out fraud and waste and abuse and pilot program for tort reform to get some testing out of the system. longer term costs will come down for people. >> also the debate whether this affects small business owners and their employees. back and forth. does it, does it not? is this a good thing or bad thing? >> i talked to a couple business owners where most small business owners want to provide health insurance to their employees. they're small businesses, money's tight. this bill has tax credits available for people to cover some of the costs of providing health care insurance to small business owners for their employees the people i have spoken to like it and are going to use it? >> why is this so complicated?

what's really, what's going on here and what this is all about? >> i think the news will start shifting away from the politics hopefully later on today and we'll start talk about what is in the bill and as soon as the american people start understanding it, it will be a lot clearer. >> andrew, thank you so much. well explained. andrew reuben. still to come, do you have app envy? they're the latest gadget craze, but do smart phones really pay off? but, first, these messages. mmm. ♪ [ female announcer ] oscar mayer deli fresh meats. sliced, packed and sealed at the peak of freshness, they're impossible to resist. ah, you gonna eat all that? ♪ it doesn't get better than this ♪ i love you. imagine that kind of vitality...

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still to come on "today" the must-have gadget. but are smart phones a smart idea for you? the comfort food of all comfort foods.

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>> two police officers shot at 12:30 this morning. when officers approached a car, a suspect pulled out a gun and shot one officer in the face. the suspected shooter was killed. the name of the officers and the shooters not released. >> in allegany a man arrested of murder. 23 yeerlt richard glenn ii charged with the slooting death of matthew golden inside golden's home. both men are from rolligs, maryland. before he died he was able to identify glenn as the shooter. >> >> 14-year-old kwaunt resm crudup was charged with the

murder of kenly wheeler. detectives say crudup used the victim's phone to call his family, calls which allegedly led police to the 14-year-old. he is being held without bail. >> improper handling of radioactive materials will cost johns hopkins university $300 ,000. they found solutions that were stored improperly. 19 of the alleged violations dealt with security and not health. in one case a patient was given radioactive treatment to the wrong part of his body. hopkins said he was scheduled for treatment to that part of the body at a different tim

>> we'll try to holt onto the good weather for one more day before things give up. you see these clouds drifting in our direction. today we'll see these high, thin clouds filter be -- filtering in. the rainy part of this storm system is expected to come in tonight and tomorrow. here's what the map will look like this evening, with the rain coming into the area. again, the clouds will be running out ahead of it. rain chances increase once we hit sunset. the forecast for today with that increasing clouds and the southwesterly so southeasterly

breeze. we should be able to drive the temperatures up to 71, 72 degrees or so. a little warmer to the south and cooler to the north and west. more weather coming up shorltly. >> john, thank you. "11 news sunday morning" continues in 25 minutes. and we're back on this sunday morning the 21st day of march, 2010. a rather loud, enthusiastic crowd joining us on the plaza. we thank them all for coming out. it is a beautiful spring morning and everyone seems to be taking advantage of it, especially our spring break crowd. i'm jenna wolfe along with lester holt. we're talking smart phones. i know you're a gadget guy and

you probably know the ins and outs of smart phones. because they offer so much, the price tag can be so much intimidating. but we'll get to the bottom of what is good and what is out. >> i'm actually down to two smart phones now. >> from 80. that's really good, lester. >> working our way down. then we'll help you get in touch with your inner grace and by that i mean how to pick the right wine in a way you probably have never thought of. for example, whether you like orange juice or grapefruit juice could determine the variety of wine. we'll explain that coming up later. >> you get to taste along the way? >> we get to taste along the way. also, we're continuing our week-long series on ask away with a question of many of us often get which is, how do you guys feel about working on the weekends? lester likes to work in the dark, as you can see. i go flying through the hallway. we work on the weekends, it's part of who we are. we'll answer your questions of what it is like to work on the weekends.

>> basically we're no fun on friday nights. we'll also talk about the comfort food of all comfort foods, mac and cheese. comes a lot of different varieties now from the regular stuff you grew up as a kid to the organic stuff and the stuff that isn't even necessarily mac and cheese it's gluten free with cheese. we'll get a check with mike bettis. >> so mild across the northeast but we found some teachers from florida and you should feel their hands. they're absolutely frozen. this cold weather here. temperatures in the mid-60s this morning. going to look great this afternoon still in the northeast. check out your forecast. look at the mild conditions in d.c. and baltimore and mid-70s. we have showers and thunderstorms rolling across the south and that rolls right through the heartland and all the way down to dallas, texas. lots of sunshine rolling in and lots of sun

>> we start out at 40 but we warm up again. this rain holds off tonight and tomorrow. we will see an increase in clouds during the day, and southern california. 77 today in los angeles. 78 in phoenix. looking good there. people visiting us from all around the country and hi, dad, from where? >> vermont. >> is he watching right snow. >> he's watching. >> give him a little hi. >> the twins are watching, too. >> the twins are watching, too. the whole family is watching. good to have you here. let's get back inside to jenna. all right, mike, thanks. this morning on today's

consumers, smart phones. the new it toy for gadget lovers. are they worth the investment? janice lieberman set out to get the 411 before you open that wallet. >> i can check my e-mail. >> reporter: you've seen the ads, but how wise is it to shell out hundreds of dollars for a smart phone? >> i could stream the movie "airplane" to my cell phone. >> reporter: i called in wired magazine's mike thompson to give me a crash force. we tried out the iphone, droig and nexus 1. >> i'll check the nutritional information of pancakes. >> we can do that? >> nutritional info pancakes. >> you just say it and you know exactly what's in the pancakes. >> reporter: from the practical to the just plain silly. my first light saber flight. i won.

next, we hit the road and nick showed me how to turn our phone into a gps. right to target where we scanned the aisles for bargains. literally. >> the red bar over the bar code. there we go. >> got it. >> it pops up and it's selling for $178 at a walmart that is two miles away. this record player was about 50 bucks cheaper than the competition. save money in a flash. we made our own radio station. put in an artist you like and the app selects similar tunes. with just a few taps we were able to catch a flick. >> it's very important to figure out what kind of reception your phone gets.

four different carriers and when you buy a phone, it will usually come with one of them and you should find out whether they have good reception and service in the areas you'll be taking the phone. >> reporter: these phones are pretty smart, but i definitely need the matinee price to afford the price it costs to own one. for today, janice lieberman, new jersey. and joining us now is nick thompson from "wired" magazine. so obsessed with these phones throughout that entire piece he could not stop fiddling with it. so much offered with these phones are they really worth the money people are investing in them? >> depends whether there are specific things you can't do with your phones right now that you would like to do. >> for example, what we were doing in the restaurant. we were looking up nutritional information as we ate or at the movie theater where you could order your tickets in advance or the phones with gps that you could navigate in your car.

>> let's sort of break these down a little bit and go through it. let's start with the most popular one out there. is the iphone worth it or not becoming obsolete or better phones out there? >> the iphone was the first one that has the incredible interface and very intuitive and easy to use and people are familiar with it and wonderful phone. it's no longer the obvious, huge market leader. >> two phones that run on the same software one is the droid from verizon and next is google. >> what is nice about it, it has an app store. all kind of apps that developers make that you can then put on the phone. a lot of things we were showing in the segment walking through target taking a picture of a bar code and is the price a good price? you could download that to your different phones. this one is made by motorola and this one is made by google. >> we trust google as a phone

company? >> we do now. we weren't sure a little while ago. they clearly have done good work. we trust google. >> next is the palm, what is the deal with the palm? it's not the blackberry or the iphone. >> it is a very good phone. it runs on verizon and very intuitive interface, much like apple's iphone. it has an app store. it has a keyboard, which is nice. you can type. some people find that the screen typing where you have to press a little letter on the screen doesn't work so well. this one has a keybore thard th nice. this has a feature that others don't have, you can turn it into a wireless hot spot. it will connect through the internet through the phone. >> oh, okay. >> and up to five people can do it. if you're on a trip and everybody wants to use their laptop at a rest stop or something on the high way, you

can use this as basically a wireless router. >> will the rest of them have that? >> no, none of them would have that. >> it's expensive, you end up paying $40 a month extra on top of it, but it's a neat future that the other phones don't have. >> the nokia which costs more but that's because you can buy it on every service. >> the way the cell phone market works verizon, tmobile, sprint, the way this nokia works which has an incredible web browser we have the "today" show twitter feed. >> that's coincidental. how did that happen? >> the way it works with most carriers the carriers subsidize the phone and lock you into a contract. what nokia is saying, buy the phone, it will cost more. >> real quick, if you had to pick one of these phones, which would you pick? >> i would go for the nexus. i love the demos on them.

it's a little bit cheaper than the other phones because tmobile is a little bit cheaper. lots of good things to it. they're all excellent phones. >> nick, thank you very much. we appreciate it. up next, a wine pairing like you've never seen before. the easiest way to pick the wine you will enjoy right after these messages. ere do you want to go? nowhere. who do you feel like seeing? no one. depression hurts in so many ways. sadness. loss of interest. lack of energy. anxiety. the aches and pains. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a prescription medication that treats many symptoms of depression. tell your doctor right away if your depression worsens, you have unusual changes in behavior, or thoughts of suicide. antidepressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not approved for children under 18. people taking maois or thioridazine

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you've heard of personality tests when it comes to looking for a job or a mate, but what about when it comes to wine? believe it or not, simple questions that can help you find your perfect match. ray joins us from "food & wine" magazine. we'll see a lot of food and wine. this is not a wine pairing segment, this is what certain foods suggest about your taste

in wine. >> people walk into the grocery store and look at the wine selection and say who knows what i will like here and you can walk into the cereal section and look at rice crispies and say i like this or i like this. people either like whole milk or skim milk. >> skim milk. >> if you think of that in terms of lightness, think of that as a light wine. whole milk is a little richer go for a big, rich, california chardonnay. so, that way you can kind of just take your basic food tastes and apply them to wine. >> same thing with citrus. great fruit juice versus orange. >> you like grapefruit juice or tart things. >> i like grapefruit. i did this black in the office. you're about 80% on the money. >> i feel good. >> for me, anyway. >> if you like things that are sweeter like orange juice go for a little more luscious.

if viognier. if you like a peppercorn sauce with your steak, you would like a french wine with a lot of pepper and spice to it. >> is this going to be heavier wine? >> this is going to be a little more spicy and intense. you'll go for a merlot that is softer and richer. >> you'd want to lean this way and, again -- >> for burr naze which is rich and luscious. >> interesting grouping you have here. you have wild mushrooms. >> mushrooms versus blackberries which is the odd ball. people actually like both. i am a mushroom fanatic. i love that earthy and that to me is pinot noir. blackberries are all fruit. like ripe blackberries and you go for something like a charis and a lovely, fun, juicy wine.

>> this is not a pairing, but suggestions. if you like the berry, you'll probably like this. let's talk about our dessert tastes. >> again, not a pairing thing. if you like creme brulee and custardy and caramelized thing, probably go for a white wine that has some barrel aging. you get that caramel character. if you like pure, clean fruit like sorbet, lemony sorbet than go for an unoak chardonnay that doesn't have any of those oak characteristics. pure fruit. >> we go in the wine store and we know a few wine varieties and we don't know what to try. >> i think people are daunted by it. you can look at the things you know you like and just apply that to wine and it clarifies the whole thing. makes it really, makes it a lot more fun. >> it's fun. ray, always great to have you on. thanks very much. >> thank you very much.

>> here's jenna. lester, thanks. now to our continuing series, ask away. today this morning, the question -- wow! how working on the weekends affects our social life. well, you ask and we answer. >> i love working weekends. i don't mind it at all. first of all, none of the bosses are around, you get to run up and down the hallways singing as many barry manilow songs you want. nobody cares. >> i think it's been a bigger adjust frment the people in my life when you explain to them that, no, i can't do this event on saturday afternoon or i can't go out late on friday night. and they always give you that look like, why? >> friday night, saturday night, if i do try to go to dinner, i'm usually yawning at dinner and i usually have to excuse myself because i have to leave to be in bed at 9:00 p.m.

>> it hasn't really affected my social life because it is part of who i am. my name is gena and i was born in february and i work weekends. i mention all three on the first date and if we can work past that, golden. >> a lot of people want to know what it is like working mornings and nights. get a little time off between shows. for those who care, i leave about 9:30 in the morning and go home and work out and usually make breakfast and get on a conference call with all my "nightly news" colleagues and then i take a nap. that's right, i actually do sleep and come back in the early afternoon to get down to the nitty-gritty preparing for "nightly news." >> i would say working weekends i get to be with my kids a lot. that's great. i can get home at the decent hour because i have gotten up so early. i can be with them most of the day and still have gone to work. >> when the rest of the world has to get up on monday morning and slep to work, i am sleeping

in, baby. any treadmill i want at that gym. >> all by yourself. >> i don't mind working weekends. wouldn't get to see all these great people. >> in the environment we're in it's always great to be working. what do you do during the rest of the week? >> people think we do nothing the rest of the week. >> we're doing stories and traveling on the road. we love our jobs. >> thank you for asking. an american staple in a box, but which ones are the mac daddy of all comfort foods?

when it comes to comfort

food, many people think first of macaroni and cheese with modern convenience has not only gotten easy to make but better for you. today food contributor phil is here to help us eat our way through the classics and some of the newer options out there. >> good mournrnmorning, lester. >> suddenly a few years ago it started appearing in restaurants and the whole comfort food phenomenon took off. >> they now put pieces of lobster in the macaroni and cheese and different things. it's a wonderful carrier but also macaroni and cheese it's satisfying and the aroma is great. >> it's the best on a cold winter day. this is the box most of us are familiar with. the kraft blue box but they announced they're cutting 10% of the sodium out of their products. how is it going to affect kraft macaroni and cheese. >> over the next two years in all their products, not just macaroni and cheese and it takes that long because besides sodium

it acts as a preservative and buying agent and so on. it will take them that long and conagra announced a 20% reduction in all of their products. i'm helping them get that word out on why people need to reduce their sodium levels. >> we all have too much salt in our diets. we won't taste the blue box. this is one you put in the microwave. >> it comes with the pasta in this little microwavable container. it has the pouch from the blue box and you add water to it and it cooks just -- 3.5 grams of fat. and that's a buck. that's a buck. >> very good. >> and the other thing that we've seen in the past 20 months with the economy is more people eating pasta because it's less expensive. so, we have actually seen the sales of macaroni and cheese go up dramatically. >> frozen food aisle. >> taste this one. now, this is only six grams of

fat and what's so important about all these products here is that you have to look at the serving size on them. this is $1, you can see right on the package just started a new program. >> pretty different, but good. >> it has an instant rub off inside. win $10 and $100,000 in their new promotion. you can get a lot of macaroni and cheese. >> this is a winning box. >> that's a winning box, but, again, just six grams of fat to that. stoefer's is a product that everybody loves and they should. this is 32 grams of fat in it. this is the cheesiest and you have to read those labels because this package has two servings in it. you have to be very smart. when you talk about sodium these range from 600 milligrams of sodium to this one which is about 1,400 milligrams of sodium. >> what is next? >> lean cuisine.

this has 2 grams of fat. the stouffer's is 250 and this is about 250. >> i don't feel like i'm giving anything up. >> you're not. now, annie's about $2.50 a package. lighter flavor only 4 grams of fat. they use a light cheddar. their noodles are a little thinner, little finer. its the same process as blue box macaroni and cheese. >> not as heavy. >> again, four grams of fat. last from amy's gluten free, nondairy rice macaroni. now, again, a lot of people are celiacs these days and have gluten intolerances and this is an alternative for them. >> this is rice, looks like regular macaroni. >> it has 22 grams of fat to it. different mouth feel. >> the texture is a little softer. >> correct. >> very cheesy. >> very cheesy.

and it's terrific. keep in mind, non-dairy cheese. >> healthy for you on many counts. you can't go wrong with mac and cheese. come back any time with mac and cheese. to weigh 'em all. if those boxes are under 70 lbs. you don't have to weigh 'em. with these priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service, if it fits it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. no weigh? nope. no way. yeah. no weigh? sure. no way! uh-uh. no way. yes way, no weigh-ing. priority mail flat rate box shipping starts at $4.95, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. gotta get that bacon! dog: yummy. crunchy. bacon. bacon. bacon. there, in that bag! mom: who wants a beggin' strip?

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let's get a check of what's coming up on "meet the press." david gregory joins us again. >> big day around here. coming up, a special preview of the historic house bill on health care that is expected hours from now. leaders in the middle of the fight steny hoyer and john boehner and then tim kaine and michael steele will square off about the politics of it all. it's coming up on "meet the

press." >> mike bettis first weather segment this morning. take a look behind. one of the viewers got a little too excited and went tumbling. we understand she's okay. >> two baltimore city police officers are wounded in a chuteout. i'm kerry cavanaugh with the latest. >> the insta-weather plus forecast includes a chance of rain somewhere here in the next few days. we'll detail it all com