among the fatalities joshua michael, who received two purple hearts. he pushed his wife all of the. survived. ntsb investigators arrived today. >> we will be looking at information from the signals, making sure the dates and the lights were coming down. >> and video shows the bill gates and the lights working properly. -- the dates and lights working properly. the parade was quite to the need to with a banquet to honor the veterans who had been through so much, now this. >> still to come, the latest on the announcement that hostess is going out of business, in new concerns regarding the safety of a popular energy drink. >> the sunshine is coming in. insta-weather-plus forecast is just ahead. temperatures of up to 49 at the >> bad news for twinkie fans. was this is going out of business, filing a motion to close. they will lay off all 18,500 workers. officials say a nationwide strike crippled their ability to make and deliver products. bakery operations have been suspended, but delivery will continue and hostess brand retail stores will stay open to sell off already baked products. t

joshua michael, a purple hart recipient did the same, sack cry fies -- sacrificing his live to save hers. >> a video camera. there are also event recorders that would record things like speed, braking, horns, et cetera. >> reporter: they are now praying for the family. >> it's hard because we're here to honor them and they're heroes. >> reporter: there are conflicting reports whether the gates at the railroad crossing was down. dash cam taken behind the float may give them some answers. brandy history, los angeles. >> two people are missing and four others are burned after a fire started with an explosion. the reg was not producing oil and nothing leaked into the gulf. >>> we continue to see skies clearing out. now skies clearing out noisily across the free state. we'll look for temperatures to keep dropping. another chilly scenario late tonight. temperatures in the mid-40s. overnight 45 at 7:00 and dropping into the 30s. cold scenario. some sunshine by first thing tomorrow morning and it will be brings took start the day. much more on how the entire weekend shapes up straight ahead. >>>

one of them 34-year-old jjt joshua michael, a recipient of two purple hearts. his mother-in-law says michael pushed his wife off the trailer just before the train hit. his wife survived. joshua michael was killed. union pacific spokesman tom lange at a statement said the railroad crossing has lights and a crossing gate. he said the railroad's preliminary investigation indicates the lights and gates were operating at the time of the crash. video taken after the accident show the lights still flashing and the crossing gate down. the parade and banquet were sponsored by show of support. their website said each ways they try to think of ways to thank men and women for their military service. this year it was called a hunt for heros. on the group's facebook page an outpouring of sympathy. >> it's really sad because the families have already seen them go off to war, seen stuff that obviously some of them, they were all wounded so they have already had to go through something horrific. >> these guys are true american heros and with the parade at 4:00, pass by waving, c

sergeant joshua michael was the elungest, age 34. ungeushed his wife off the puck, saving her life. midland mayor wes perry. >> streets were lined with families. i was there waving flags and just the incredible change of emotion is -- -- is devastating. avineporter: investigators have a lot to look at here yet but here are a couple things they do know anthony. that on this 70 mile per hour toretch of track, the train was going 62 miles per hour and of te was emergency braking. mvestigators have yet to determine at what point those brakes were applied. >> mason: anna werner, thanks, anna. at the white house today ouesident obama met with congressional leaders to try to trk out a deal to avoid the so- .alled fiscal cliff. eret's the combination of severe budget cuts and tax hikes that will go into effect in january if there's no agreement on the budget. nancy cordes is at the white house and, nancy, it appears that everyone's at least a bit more optimistic now, right? >> reporter: that's right, anthony. today's meeting was just the first step and the outlines of a daal are still far f

gary stouffer, army sergeant joshua michael, sergeant michael believed to have sacrificed his life for his wife, daylyn, when he pushed her from the trailer just before the impact. >> it was chaos, loud, noisy, people were panicking. >> reporter: the parade was just blocked from going through a banquet. they have collected video from the train and the escort car. >> we just continue to pray together. >> reporter: as a heartbroken community mourns the heroes that fell here at home. janet shamlian, nbc news, midland, texas. >>> one day after the big settlement between the government and bp over the worst oil spill in u.s. history, another platform exploded in the gulf of mexico today south of grand isle, louisiana, 11 were injured, two taken to the hospital. two, sadly were missing tonight. this is a production platform, not drilling. and so the coast guard says the oil spillage is minimal. >>> and still ahead, some giant brand names in this country, are they all about to go away? >>> and later, all grown up, ready to report to duty. there is something about this particular recruit that

one of those staff sergeant joshua michael, the recipient of two purple hearts, pushed his wife off the trailer just before impact. she survived the crash. he did not. >> these guys are true american heroes. >> reporter: being honored for their service and sacrifice by a group called show of support, that sponsored a parade and hunting trip before it went horribly wrong. >> our mission is to determine the probable cause of the accident. >> reporter: 16 ntsb agents are on the ground now and say their investigation here could continue for ten days or more. but for so many, this tragedy will last so much longer. >> i haven't slept since yesterday. and i don't feel like i want to sleep, because i i'm thinking that i'm going to have nightmares over what i saw. >> reporter: a national nightmare still playing out in the plains of west texas. and back to the investigation. now, agents just getting their first look at video from an event recorder on the train. and a dashboard camera onside a sheriff's vehicle. both were rolling at the time of the crash. live in midland, texas, i'm jay gray, news

army sergeant joshua michael and marine chief warrant officer gary stover who died in this accident.it's something i never have seen. >> reporter: the last float of the ninth annual hunt for heros parade carried 12 veterans, their spouses and two escorts. seated in chairs strapped to the flatbed trailer and one eyewitness said the tractor- trailer tried to cross over the railroad tracks when the crossing arms came down and lights started flashing. some tried to jump but the plane was too fast. >> i ran over there with the intention to try to help, you know, and one of the persons, one of the veterans was under the attempt. >> reporter: the union pacific train from los angeles bound for shreveport had four locomotives, each with cameras. that footage ntsb investigators are sending to washington, d.c. >> we're going to know from multiple sources what happened when. >> reporter: in 2003, the seed for this stretch -- fee for this stretch of railway increased from 40 to 60 miles an hour, the speed did. union pacific has not said how fast the 7,000-foot-long train was going but said the en

she survived, joshua michael was killed. union pacific spokesman tom lange in a statement said the railroad crossing has lights and a crossing gate. he said the railroad's preliminary investigation indicates that the lights and gates were operating at the time of the crash. video taken after the accident shows the lights still flashing and the crossing gate down. the parade and banquet sponsored by a group called show of support. their website says each year they try to find new ways to thank military men and women for their service. this year, it was an event called hunt for heroes. all expenses paid deer hunting trip for wounded veterans. on the group's facebook page, an outpouring of sympathy. >> it was really sad. the families have already seen them go off to war, seen stuff that obviously -- they were all wounded, so they've already had to go through something horrific. >> these guys are true american heroes. we had the parade at 4:00, they passed by waving, celebrating, and midlanders lining the streets with flags and

we're also hearing remarkable stories of heroism, including that of 34-year-old joshua michael, an army sergeant who died in this crash. reports say he was able to push his wife off of the float before he was killed. amy? george? >> that is really something. clayton, thanks very much. >>> let's go to josh with the other top stories. >> we're going to begin with the images from the middle east. the middle east on the brink. air raid sirens, blasting, now, as israel's commercial capital races for more rocket attacks. this is first time tel aviv has come under attack in two decades. nearly two dozen people have been killed. abc's alex marquardt is in the middle of it all right now, in gaza. alex? >> reporter: that's right, josh. a lot of activity all around us this morning. there was supposed to be a truce for a couple of hours. but it quickly became clear that wasn't going to happen. as dawn broke, a series of very loud israeli missile strikes. israel says it struck over 150 sites overnight. some of those sites were rocket-launching sites, which we can see from here. and we've seen palest

here are their pictures, army sergeant joshua michael, marine chief warrant officer, gary stauffer. and investigators say now that the float crossed the tracks after the warning lights were turned on. the train hit its emergency breaks, but could not stop in time. and a california woman says that she was fired from her job because she got cancer? this lady says she had breast cancer and was fired. her name is susan and she was a senior executive at a tech company. she claimants that she was fired because her chemotherapy was quote, disruptive and her bosses didn't like her constantly leaving for doctor's appointments, however, the company says she actually resigned. she's now suing the company for 6 million dollars in damages. and those are your headlines. clayton. >> clayton: all right. thank you so much, ainsley and the super storm sandy stunneded even veteran weather experts with sheer strength and size and parts of the east coast feeling devastation, and our next guest was able to watch the storm unfold in real time and sandy is the focus of a new discovery channel cu curiosity

victims are 34-year-old army sergeant joshua michael. 47-year-old lawrence. 43-year-old lawrence boiviny pushed their wives off the float just before the train hit. >> i have been military schools. from all of the training and everything he went through and he laid down his life and pushed his wife out of harms way. >> investigators say the train was going 62 miles per hour below the 70 mile-per-hour speed limit when it hit the truck. security videos from the train are being analyzed to determine exactly what happened. 10 commandments monument is now on display at the oklahoma state capital. there is a problem. there is actually two problems. two misspellings. the worth sabbath is spelled wrong with an e. where a second a is supposed to go. and made servant has a u in place of the v. the monument was privately funded by mike ritz who said the company that made it can and will be correcting the mistake. >> how do you correct that to clayton's point? >> get a little apoxy in there. >> there is no white out that works. >> i'm glad we got all graphics right on that story. >> orgets on that

michael. >> mike: co-authors of "in the shadow of greatness, compilation of 33 stories of leadership, courage, sacrifice, from former classmates. joshuaa. >> well, we wanted to gather stories from classmates. first the graduate after 9/11. >> academy. >> 2002. and we want today capture the stories for our heritage and hopefully inspire new leaders. >> dave: it's a story of leadership and class of 2002. this could be any particular class, i'm sure not singular to yours. is that leadership something you possess on your way into the military or something that's developed while you're there? >> we think it's definitely transformation and in this book, it's meant for army, navy, marine corps, about young leaders in the 21st century after 9/11 and how they adapted to war and called to do unique things they weren't trained for and transformation in boot camp and the service economies and rotc's around the country and hope it inspires young people understand what it means to serve. >> what i liked about it, i didn't serve and a lot of citizens have not served and it kind of brings us together and helps us understand what you're going through.