common i'll give you a hit they have the same thing in common that organizations like the american federation of teachers and the american medical association all have in common still don't know well it has a little something to do with guns i'll explain more in tonight's daily. so the days of junk food vending machines in our schools may be numbered last friday to be department of agriculture unveiled new rules that will prohibit the sale of greasy foods and sugary snacks and drinks in our nation's schools these new rules were acquired by a law passed by congress in two thousand and ten the law was known as the health of the healthy hunger free kids act of two thousand and ten and eight it was aimed at reducing childhood obesity rates according to the rule most snacks sold in school will have to contain less than two hundred calories and drink machines and elam. in middle schools will only be allowed to sell water low fat milk and one hundred percent fruit or vegetable juices and small pied all vending machines it will apply to the alec cart lunch lines then it will also apply to any other foods regular

common i'll give you head they have the same thing in common that organizations like the american federation of teachers and the american medical association all have in common still don't know well it has a little something to do with guns i'll explain more in tonight's. so the days of junk food vending machines in our schools may be numbered last friday be the department of agriculture unveiled new rules that will prohibit the sale of greasy foods and sugary snacks and drinks in our nation's schools these new rules were acquired by a law passed by congress in two thousand and ten the law was known as the health of the healthy hunger free kids act of two thousand and ten and eight it was aimed at reducing childhood obesity rates according to the rule most snacks sold in school will have to contain less than two hundred calories and drink machines and elam. in middle schools will only be allowed to sell water low fat milk and one hundred percent fruit or vegetable juices this will provide all vending machines it will apply to the alec card lunch lines and it will also apply to any other foods regularly

of slots the obama administration capped enrollment in the d.c. program under pressure from teachers union. earlier in 2008 campaign speech to the american federationhers then candidate obama criticized the opponent for supporterring vouchers. >> the only proposal is recycling tired rhetoric about vouchers and school choice. >> besieged by the republicans and many democrats and supported the d.c. program, they relented. >> best bet are reforming the public school system. many on the left who oppose voucher support school choice but under the us a spaces of public -- us a spaces of public education. >> raer than divert money away to individual private schools. of varying quality -- varying quality of no regulation or accountability for student outcome. >> unions are pressing the fight against the vouchers. last december they ruled jindal's voucher program in louisiana amounted to unconstitutional payment of public funds. other state teacher unions are following loads' lead suggesting a bumpy road ahead for school choice movement. >> bret: thank you. plenty of tears shed today along the florida space coast. three disasters that each rocked the space

let me bring in the president of the american federation of teachers. nice to see you again. under the circumstances for you, secretary duncan said as a nation, we see ourselves losing 40,000 teachers. if and when this goes through, will the jobs be gone forever? >> this is what is about the federal budget cuts? a really, really big on top of the last years having huge cuts in the localities. we lost 4,000 teachers. >> and the work that the folks do will be cut. they are the ones who have just been tied in remediation when kids are having trouble reading. the folks in the special ed are the service and the special needs kids have been cut already. 70,000 kids will no longer be eligible for head start. 30,000 kids will no longer get immunizatio immunizations. if you put it all together, some of it will start and some will be there. that is what you should be doing with the investment. kids who are the poorest will get the worst of this. >> here's another question. getting back to the teachers, say there is a deal that is done. that could happen. not by midnight, but down the r

and randy winegarten, president of american federation of teachers. is is hot topic of conversation. we want to keep our kids safe. ann, you say, that armed guards are something we should consider in public schools. why? >> yes. i don't think we have to make our schools appear like armed camps but i do think that someone armed in the school would be very beneficial as well on reactionary level as well as prevention. we have almost made our schools soft target or guns or terrorists because they know there is no one there that has a gun that can stop them. the only way to stop someone with a gun that comes in to do damage is with a gun, not with scissors. jenna: randi, you work closely with teachers. you say teachers should not be armed. what about armed guards? >> i'm glad that you also showed that in israel there is really strict gun laws. 40% of the people who apply for firearms don't get them. and teachers are not armed in israel. i think this is a community by community decision. i mean we have in our schools right now a third of our schools actuall

from our nations's capitol our studio here on capitol hill brought to you today by the american federation of teachersn of the aft under president randy winei weingarten making a difference every day in the classrooms of america. you know they are in our high schools and aur grade schools, in pre-school and in higher education. proud to have their support and guess what. did i mention it's a friday? >> all right. all right. we love on a friday to take a quick look back at some of the sound bytes we have brought to you during the preceding week and pick out our top five. we go from the bottom all the way up to the top. this is about as slow, actually, as you can get on the totem pole but number 1 on billboards, the number 1 most played song in america today, including on youtube, everybody, get ready, stand up and do the harlem shake. >> number 5. >> the harlem shake. ♪ >> bill: this sounds like you turn your car radio on and you are in between stations, you know, and you are just getting static. >> yeah. >> turning the dial trying to get a signal. tiger woods had the big shot to play with president ob

parks, 11:00 o'clock it morning, just down the street from us brought to you today by the american federation of teachersgood men and women under the president randi weingarten. you can find out more about that good work at aft, aft.org. chris christie yesterday surprising a lot of people becoming the 8th republican governor to support the expansion of medicaid in his or her state. it's the second time chris christie has cozied up if you will to president obama. he did so afterlin sandy and is -- after hurricane sandy. he is saying, i like it as long as the federal government is paying the bill. emily's list, a great organization i have supported for many many years, elected some phenomenal people to the house andnate, most dynamic of which recently probably elizabeth warren from massachusetts. emily's list says, take a look at chris christie. he is not all he is cracked up to be. jess macintosh is a communecations director for emily's list? >> thank you for having me >> bill: you do great work. emily's list, a great organization. >> thanks. >> we love having stephanie in? >> stephanie is our president.

steve: one of the nation's unions set to announce today it is joining forces with the american federation of teachers nurses are joining the teachers. national federation of nurses believe the move will give them more money and political clout as they try to mobilize and unionize more members. >>gretchen: he won jeopardy's tournament with the best final answer in the show's history. 17-year-old leonard cooper of little rock, arkansas, was in the lead but he didn't know the correct answer. he still gave a hilarious response and won $75,000, his total earnings after two days. >> now we go to leonard cooper. he's looking pretty happy. why? did he come up with why david eisenhower? you didn't. >> some guy in norfolk, but i just won $75,000. some guy in normandy. >>brian: that was coolidge. >>gretchen: for valentine's day you get to do sports. >>brian: sports time, money, money, money and more money. mariner's ace pitcher felix hernandez seeing nothing but green today. he has officially signed the biggest contract ever given to a pitcher. he's going to make $175 million over seven years, all of it guarant

and then the american federation of teachers, a national education association. these people, these organizations, can't all be wrong. but the n.r.a. has put them on their enemies list. let me give you some other names you might find kind of interesting. these are celebrities, now, not organizations, but they include the likes of actress lauren bacall, tony bennett. tony bennett son their enemies list. is this taking us back to the mccarthy every la? -- era? sean connery son the enemies list. michael douglas. billy crystal. katie lee giffords. -- kathy lee giffords. leonard any moi. mary tyler moore. john mcenroe. barry manilow. now come on. in this country we would create a list, an organization would create a list of enemies because they support gun violence prevention? mr. speaker, i'm dumbfounded by what goes on here from time to time. i particularly -- i am particularly dumbfounded by the inability of this congress and this house to stand up to the n.r.a. leadership and stand up for america. i'm going to close, mr. speaker, by moralizing two -- memorializing

wasiven a failing grade by her teacher who ordered her students recite as part of a spanish class assignment. the federal lawsuit says she offered it to recite the american pledge of allegiance in spanish but her teacher refused her request. ironically the school district has a policy that prohibits schools from ordering students to recite, that is right, the american pledge of allegiance. the senate just moments ago voted to confirm jack lew as the w treasury secretary. winning confirmation by 71-26. it is unclear when he will be sworn in. the newly confirmed secretary of defense chuck hagel was sworn into office earlier today. winning confirmation yesterday after losing the senate vote two weeks ago and undergoing days upon days of harsh criticism and questions from within his own party. our first guest tonight says president obama and senate democrats seem to follow and not misinterpreted the law of what sequestration is. to cut spending, not to raise taxes. joining us now, republican policy committee chairman, member of the senate foreign relations committee. good to have you with us. sequestration, we ve a new deadline, whenever the president signs

teachers, federal subsidies for teachers on head start on meat inspections. all sorts of domestic functions of government the democrats believe in and that all americans believe in. but the problem is unless you can prove to a public that is pretty skeptical of government those real consequences, it's hard to put effective heat on republicans to say, hey, raise some more taxes. >> john, how long do you think this could last if goes into effect and who would feel most of the impact? >> i don't think it will last all year. i think there will be a deal some time in the spring or early summer. and i think that deal will happen when you get negotiations on entitlement programs between democrats and republicans. republicans will find a way through the process of tax reform which involves closing loopholes to lower rates but also to use them to reduce the deficit. that is all going to come together and i think turn off these automatic cuts at some point. it's hard to say when. but the biggest dollar impact is going to be as david and i were talk a moment ago the pentagon. the pentagon gets hit harder than domestic departments. >> so much of the dialogue is finger po

americans live now in areas where the federal government acknowledges a serious shortage of mental health professionals. and so we come to emerging stories about adam lanza, the sick young man who murdered those children and teachersry school. according to a couple local newspaper reporters, adam lanza may have been obsessed with previous mass shootings both here and abroad. according to the very latest statistics, about 1 in 4 of the american population is afflicted by one or more mental disorder. and while the overwhelming majority will never express their illness through an episode of gun violence, it's also abundantly clear that if we don't invest in our mental health services, then we're unlikely to pick up on any of those who may be minded to do the unthinkable. what we need to decide as a culture is whether we prefer reality television to real action. of course, providing psychiatric help costs money. but if it meant the difference between your child or mine facing a crazed gunman in a school classroom armed with a semiautomatic assault weapon, i

americans live now in areas where the federal government acknowledges a serious shortage of mental health professionals. and so we come to emerging stories about adam lanza, the sick young man who murdered those children and teachers at sandy hook elementary school. according to a couple local newspaper reporters, adam lanza may have been obsessed with previous mass shootings both here and abroad. according to the very latest statistics, about 1 in 4 of the american population is afflicted by one or more mental disorder. and while the overwhelming majority will never express their illness through an episode of gun violence, it's also abundantly clear that if we don't invest in our mental health services, then we're unlikely to pick up on any of those who may be minded to do the unthinkable. what we need to decide as a culture is whether we prefer reality television to real action. of course, providing psychiatric help costs money. but if it meant the difference between your child or mine facing a crazed gunman in a school classroom armed with a semiautomatic assault weapon, i think we'd have to agree that would be a very small price to pay. thanks so much for watching. chris matthews and "hardball" is next. >>> th

americans that every federal employee is absolutely necessary. if you cut any part of the federal budget you will wait in line at the airport for four hours or your child will not have a first grade teacheris completely a lie. but as a matter of optics as a propaganda piece i think it is effective. bill: what about that, alan? >> well the, boehner, to talk about leadership, when he keeps pointing fingers, blaming the president, called the president cowardly. he called, let the senate do it. this is a guy who wants to absolve himself of any responsibility. can't keep his own caucus in line. let's not forget this is a republican house that turned down, $2.50 in spending cuts for every dollar in tax revenue. they don't want to close tax loopholes. boehner is calling fingers and the president names. bill: this is also what boehner said at the end. "wall street journal" piece on the screen now. so as the president's outrage about the sequester grows in coming days republican haves a simple response. mr. president, we agree your sequester is bad policy. what spending are you willing to cut to replace it? what cuts, alan? >> he offered cuts all across the board. he offered cuts, certainly in th

federal aid simply because the teachers union would not agree to an evaluation. >> steve: why don't they bring this up for a vote? if you ask the majority of americansuld know whether or not a teacher is effective. if you've got the vast majority versus the teachers union. >> that's right. these are common sense reforms that we're talking about. everyone knows that in your job you have to be evaluated. you have to be evaluated in a pair and transparent way. but we still have to be able to see whether you're adding value in your job. so this a very, very object seeious thing the teachers union and the union needs to come together. >> steve: we love great teachers. it's the couple of bad apples that give -- >> the vast majority of teachers in this country are heros, they are doing extraordinary things for kids and those teachers should be recognized and rewarded. those teachers, in my opinion, should be paid a whole lot more money. >> steve: that's what you tried to do in dc and the teachers union wouldn't let you! check out her book. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> steve: very good. straight ahead, osama bin laden's compound was demolished. so

federation of teachers. few you organize nurses, you have to have the nurses association. i have a union, the national bar association, they don't think of themselves -- the american bar association, they don't think of thems as a union. the american medical association does it for physicians. the only group in america today that doesn't have a united representation are workers. and that's why professor stieglitz came out with his book in the middle class, we've seen a huge decline in the number of people in the middle class. the top 1% own about 1/3 of all the wealth in the country, the top 5% own about 65%. there's been a huge change. we had tremendous equality of wealth throughout the 1960's and 1970's. now we've become one of the most unequal countries in the world and it's frightening because it reminds me of france before the french revolution and russia before the russian revolution. i wonder how much longer workers in this country will bes do ill. i wrote a book years ago called "can unions survive," i said what will bring unions back, either they'll move into the 21st century and realize they have to be professional associations and not unions or workers will be so vehem