health and human services secretary, kathleen sebelius joined her. they outline a program to make hospital care safer and less costly. specific goals are already set. >> if we are successful achieving the two goals, lowering readmissions by 20% in the next three years, lowering hospital acquired infections by 40% in the next three years, we actually will save a minimum of $50 billion from medicare, and that doesn't count medicaid and the private insurers. >> meeting the goals would save 60,000 lives and improve recovery time for more than a million patients. san francisco hospital is taking the lead in the partnership for patients program. >>> coming up on the special 4:00 edition of nbc bay area news, oakland's uptown district is experiencing a rival. we will take a look at more changes to the historic fox theater. >>> and newborns listening to classics. how this helps them cope with their brave new world. >>> and the fog is coming back quickly. 60s in inland spots. we will watch low cloud cover tonight. could we be talking 90s? wenow llinetou know

. >> kathleen sebelius will visit san francisco general hospital. will be joined by nancy pelosi as hospital officials, doctors and nurses. she is here to highlight partnership for patients. it an initiative for patient safety to save 60,000 lives by stopping millions of preventable injuries and complications in patient care. this morning's program begins at 9:30. >>> update this morning on gabrielle giffords. an aide says she struggles to communicate and is unclear whether she will be able to return to capitol hill. it's been five months since jared loughner went on a rampage. the chief of staff tells the arizona republic that she uses hand gestures and facial expressions to communicate because she still struggles to find words and put together sentences. as for when the public might see her, lawmakers may soon be ready to release a photo. >> a small group of squatters are willing to share what they found in suisun bay. check out the pictures. a rare glimpse inside the so-called mothball fleet. they climbed on the ships and sometimes they slept on

. >>> kathleen sebelius will visit san francisco general hospital. she will be joined by nancy pelosi as well as hospital officials and nurses. she has highlight, initiative for patient safety. it was launched in april with a goal of saving 60,000 lives over the next three years for preventable injuries in patient care. >> eric: time for a check on the forecast. you talked about the warmup this week and moving back on that a little bit. >> a setback but there will be step ahead. >> there will be minor fluctuations in the temperatures depending on how thick the morning marine layer. temperatures may drop a degree or two but the warming trend is still slated for next week. here is a look what is going on. deeper moisture in green, storms are passing to the north they reinforce the sea breeze and the morning marine layer, that is why we see the slighted fluctuation in temperatures. low to mid-50s for the rest of us san jose around 57 degrees and antioch 58 for the warm spot right now. antioch will reach 80 for one of the warm spots. you see temperatures

secretary of health and human services kathleen sebelius. secretary, good morning. >> good morning, chris. how are you? >> good. so we're the 43rd country to use these labels as a deterrent. i guess the big question is, why did it take so long? >> well, i think that's a very good question. the good news is that congress finally passed a tobacco regulation bill in 2009. president obama signed it, and we've been under way since then to implement long overdue safety warnings, crack down on advertising. really to make sure that america's young people don't start smoking. we have about 4,000 people under 18 every day who try their first cigarette, and about 1,000 of them become permanent smokers. and that's just not good for our country. >> so is that where this is really targeting? it's targeting our nation's youth. the kids that are easily, i guess, very impressionable at this young age? >> well, what we know is that we did a pretty good job lowering the rates of young and adult smoking. but we've been stalled since about 2004. so this is reall

health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius has the option, which has never been used before, to de-fund the state's medicine kay program if they find that the state does not uphold the federal law. well, all of this is unprecedented. >> this has never been tested in federal court before. indiana is the first state since the adoption of medicaid in 1965 to say we are not going to give a certain amount of money to a certain group to perform a certain type of medical procedure. so we really don't know what the answer to it is. >> and that's $5.3 billion worth of funding to indiana this year alone that may be hanging in the balance, trace? >> trace: steve brown live in chicago tonight. steve, thank you. president obama meeting with his war advisors today to figure out the next steps in afghanistan. remember, u.s. forces are scheduled to start coming home in july. but just how many and how long will it take? tonight, new battles over war strategy. plus, it's a mystery illness that's made thousands of people sick. investigators have been racing to find the cause before anybody els

record for patient safety was recently highlighted when health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius and medicare chief dr. don berwick toured the hospital and gave it a glowing report for saving lives. >> they are getting levels of performance that most of the rest of us in healthcare can only envy. the vast majority of their patients are either uninsured or on medicaid and they are a very, very stressed population. and they are proving that kind of care isn't just kind of good enough it can be the best care. actually the best care in the country and they are showing the rest of us what's possible. >> reporter: one of berwick's chief goals is to reduce hospital acquired infections in all the nation's hospitals in the next few years starting next year medicare will start paying hospitals based on how well they do on patient safety. denver health started down that road a long time ago. >> it was about seven or eight years ago and i said to my chief of medicine, "you know, i can't stand this anymore." we're doing things just like we did when i was an intern more than 40 years ago. we h

at the white house today, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius said the new labels will discourage smoking among those who do, and those considering it. >> with these warnings every person who picks up a pack of cigarettes is going to know exactly what risks they're taking. over the last few years we've made giant strides in our fight against tobacco and our efforts are paying off. i'm here today with a renewed sense of hope and momentum we can make tobacco death and disease a part of our past and not a continuous part of our future. >> warner: the first warning label, "cigarettes may be hazardous to your health," was mandated in 1965. the text warnings were made more explicit. a 2009 law required the stronger warnings being introduced now. some 42% of americans smoked in 1965; now only about 20% do. but the decline leveled off in 2004. tobacco is still the leading cause of preventable death, the c.d.c. says, with more than 440,000 a year. cigarette makers did not respond today and declined an invitation to appear on our program. but a lawsuit many of the firms filed aga

after that, health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius talks about new labeling for tobacco packaging. c-span has launched a new easy to naff gait website for politics in the 2012 presidential race, with the latest events from the campaign trail, bioinformation on the candidates, twitter feeds and faceback updates from candidates and political reporters, and links to c-span media partners in the early primary and caucus states. visit us at c-span.org/campaign2012. and our series of interviews with republican presidential candidates continues sunday night with texas representative ron paul. he discusses his previous presidential bids, his strategy for winning the g.o.p. nomination, as well as his years as a doctor, service in the military, and his views on congress. "road to the white house" sunday night at 9:30 eastern and pacific on c-span. .

on my left, the secretary of the department of health and human services, kathleen sebelius.n my right, the commissioner of the food and drugs, margaret hamburg. she's the top official of the food and drug administration. they're going to talk to you this afternoon at the top of the briefing about a new ruling on labels for cigarettes and tobacco products. what allied to do, as we have done in the past, is have them make a few remarks at the top. they can take questions that you have for them. alice use them after 10 minutes or so, 15 minutes or so. then we can start again and i'll take your questions on other matters. >> we're here to announce a major new step we're taking to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco use, new graphic warning labels that will go on all cigarette packs and on advertisements for tobacco products. tobacco use is the foremost preventable cause of death in america and costs the u.s. economy about $200 billion annually in medical costs and lost productivity. every day approximately 4000 american kids between the ages of 12 and 18 try their fir

health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius will join nancy pelosi for a visit to secretary-general today. they will meet with doctor, nurses, patients and healthcare advocates this morning. this partnership was launched on april 12th to stop injuries and complications during hospital visits. the program is expected to 60,000 lives and up to $30 million for the next three years. >>> the planned collapse of a power plant goes terribly wrong. >>> also, a leader from south of the bord he will be down on the -- of border will be dunn on the -- will be down on the farm. >>> still no word about a missing contractor trapped at an old power plant in florida. look at these pictures. the company tore down, demolished a boiler, one that's big enough to make up about a fourth of the plant. but there was a 67-year-old employee inside it when it collapsed. crews are bringing in k-9 units searching the rubble. >>> deputy sheriff warren sneak lewis shot and killed during a manhunt for two teenaged murder suspects. he was serving a warrant when there was a gun battle. five people have been taken int

health and human services secretary kathleen sebelius says they want kids to get the message that smokingnot cool. >>> and finally, you can call it a lost in translation. take a look and listen to what happened when secretary of state hillary clinton, defense secretary robert gates and their japanese counterparts took the podium a short while ago at state department headquarters. technical glitches caused some unexpected moments. >> we have a -- just a technical pause and see if we can fix the situation? are we making any progress? do you want us to talk? in the booth, can you hear us? okay. i'm saying something and, minister, will you say something, please. just say anything, minister. if we had the budget of the defense department, this would never happen. >> yeah, that's not something certainly that you see every day, wolf. >> we're on live television, happens to us all the time. and we have a big budget, no doubt about that. thanks very much. >>> let's go to jack. he's got the cafferty file. >> pretty snapping one-liner from the secretary of state. question this hour, why is america b

the start of the meeting -- start of the briefing, jay carney is joined by health secretary kathleen sebelius on new warn frgs cigarette boxes. this is from the white house earlier today. >> good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, i have with me two special guests, on my left, secretary of the department of health and human services, kathleen sebelius, on my right, the commissioner of food and drugs, margaret hamburg, the top official at the food and drug administration. they are going to talk to you at the top of the briefing about a new ruling on rables -- labels for cigarette and tobacco products. what i'd like to do is have them make a few remarks at the top, take questions from you, so that -- all the questions you have for them, we can do at the top. i'll excuse them after 10 minutes or so 15rks minute or so, and we can start again and i'll take your questions on other matters. with theark secretary of health and human services. >> thank you, jay,, good afternoon, everybody. we're here to announce a major new step we're taking to reduce deaths and diseases from tobacco use. new warning la

some of us signed a letter, 70 of us, to kathleen sebelius and asked if they had distributed grants to telemedicine to any of the abortion providers including planned parenthood. their response came back in the affirmative that they had issued several grants to planned this amendment does, it provides that none of the funds made available in this $15 million line item in this appropriations bill shall be used for the purpose of purchasing, prescribing, or otherwise administering. so i would just urge the boyd to pay attention to what this means to the country and no one in america should be compelled to pay for abortions. if they are doing that, skype abortions are aborrow ant and are irresponsible and deaths have come, 612 hopizations, this is a dangerous drug to distribute it, i'm opposed to it for a lot of reasons but practical minds that might disagree should understand that this government should not be paying for it. and the line item should not be used to provide for these abortions. i would yield to the aborgs. mr. farr: does the bill have anything to do what you are talking ab

in her two years as secretary of health and human services, secretary kathleen sebelius has been a champion for improving our health care system and fighting the hiv/aids epidemic are going fact, she has combined these fights to make clear that comprehensive health health carr all americans must include people living with hiv and aids. and, as a person who has fought for reproductive justice since the age of 17, i personally thank her for fighting to protect reproductive health and family planning services for youth and for women across this great nation. ladies and gentlemen, comrades, secretary sebelius. [applause] >> i want to start my thinking dazon for not only that kind introduction but for her amazing work over years. she has tireless leadership in the fight against hiv/aids and every day through her work and threw her example gives hope and courage to some of the most vulnerable women and families around the world. so let's thank her again, please, for being with us today. [applause] and i also want to thank dr. koh, howard koh who as the assistant secretary of health, has tackled a

presented to planned parenthood that have been administered by the health and human services, kathleen sebelius', agency. i know this, mr. speaker, because i headed up a letter signed by 70 members of congress asking for the documentation in a form from health and human service, are you providing grants to apportion providers, planned parenthood, that answer was yes. are these for telemedicine. that's the category in the bill. and the bill that just passed this house, there's $15 million for telemedicine. . it's supposed to help so we can do congratulations or remotely diagnosis, not that we can do remote, skype, robo abortions. it says you can't use any of the funds for telemedicine that will be used to distribute or used to facilitate the ru-46 abortion drug. there is a little more precise language in that. mr. speaker, i put the precise language into the record last night during the debate on that amendment. the precise language which is the congressional intent for this amendment. there is no misunderstanding, however, mr. speaker, since planned parenthood also scored this vote and also int