nbc's kristen welker has more. >> reporter: lester, good evening, i spent the day in charleston yesterday. and many people told me their lives have been fundamentally changed. the state says the water in west virginia is safe but that is being questioned and creating a lot of confusion and fear. life hasn't been the safe in the goldman house since the chemical, mchm leaked into the water supply from a tank at freedom industries three weeks ago. >> what is frustrating, there is no end in sight. >> reporter: for weeks, this family says the tap water smells like licorice, a scent associated with the chemical. >> we have a new normal now, we have new ways of cooking and washing hands. >> reporter: the goldmans say they have been using bottled water and will continue to especially when tests found the levels of the chemical higher than standard, in six area schools yesterday, including at eldest daughter's ellie's school. >> my big concern will be the health of my kids maybe in ten years. >> reporter: restaurants say

but let's get right to white house correspondent kristen welker, who is standing by for us, again, as president obama gets ready to speak there in maryland. he's going to speak in about 20 minutes, we're told. the theme here, kristen, is fuel efficiency. what kind of proposals can we expect to hear from president obama? >> well, craig, good morning. first, a little bit of context. you recall in his state of the union address, president obama framed this year as a year of action, essentially saying he was going to take a number of executive actions to circumvent congress to get things done, despite the sharply divided congress that exists right now, so this is an example of one of those executive actions. later today, president obama will announce that he's directing the epa to tighten fuel efficiency standards for medium to heavy duty trucks. now, according to a 2010 study, heavy duty trucks accounted for about 4% of the vehicles on the road, but about a fourth of the green house gas emissions. this is the second time that president obama has called for tightened fuel efficiency stand

joining me now kristen welker of nbc news. great to have you with us tonight. what can we expect the president to talk about, kristen? >> ed, i think you're going to hear stern words from president obama to give you a sense of what we have been hearing from this administration all week. white house press secretary jay carney, national security adviser susan rice have all said it would be a grave mistake for russia to intervene in ukraine. u.s. official at this hour essentially confirming that is what happened, uniformed russian officers, a hybrid of military and paramilitary are still flying into a region in crimea. the ukraine's u.n. ambassador telling the u.n. security council that russian military forces have taken over their main airport there. so, if this is in fact a case, if russia has in fact raided, entered ukraine, this will not only increase tensions in that region between the east and the west certainly, but continue to freeze the relationship between the united states and russia. you know, ed, one of the things that have been discussed throughout th

nbc's kristen welker is at the white house with more. kristen?> reporter: lester, national security adviser susan rice appeared exclusively on "meet the press" this morning, her first sunday show appearance since her comments on benghazi in 2012. but the first topic today was ukraine. rice rejected the idea that washington and moscow were nearing a return to cold war-style tensions, saying both the u.s. and russia agree that ukraine should remain unified. but she strongly cautioned russia not to get engaged militarily. >> that would be a grave mistake. it's not in the interest of ukraine or of russia or of europe or the united states to see the country split. it's in nobody's interest to see violence return and the situation escalate. >> reporter: on benghazi, rice said her assertion in the days after the attack that the violence appeared to be a spontaneous response to an anti-muslim video, quote, turned out, in some respects, not to be 100% correct and there was never an intent to mislead the public. but republican senator john mccain called ri

kristen welker, washington. >>> and elsewhere around the world tonight, efforts to bring relief to a syrian city that has seen some of the worst suffering in that almost three-year-old civil war had to be halted today, sadly, that's after a cease-fire collapsed and a convoy delivering aid came under heavy fire. we get the latest on the situation in the besieged city of homs tonight from nbc's bill neely. >> reporter: they have come with food for the starving. they were met with mortar fire and gunshots. u.n. officials and aid workers running for their lives in the back streets of homs, the city and its people have been under siege for two years, and today those who came to help them came under fire. several were injured. this was meant to be the day thousands of trapped civilians finally got food and medicine. but the trucks carrying the aid pulled back. there was meant to be a cease fire. it did not sound that way. it all started well, dozens of old and sick people finally allowed to leave the besieged old city, after a deal struck to help the warring sides. many were too ill to wal

and kristen welker is going to tell us how it came about. how did it, kristen? >> well, this is a big event before the oscars, and this came about because it combines two things that the administration has within focused on education and nutrition. and this is aimed for connected to aimed to get high speed internet installed in all classrooms across the country. and so the white house asked students for short films to detail how technology has plaedd a role in the education. they got 2,500 submissions, and of those the white house narrowed it down to the 16 best submissions. and so that is what they are going to be celebrating, those submission, and they are going to be watching and screening today the students here at the white house, and certainly an exciting day, and the president is go g ing to announce that hes secured $4 million for the connected program totalling a billion dollars, and this is important, because 30% of the u.s. classrooms have high speed internet and compared to south korea where 100% of the classrooms have high speed classrooms. i will g

i want to swing over to the white house where nbc's kristen welker s kristen, what's interesting hereof our sort of main foreign policy priorities right now hinge on russian cooperation. that could be nuclear deal on iran, it could be some kind of resolution to the situation in syria. and there is a sense, i would love to know your thoughts on this, this white house has been a little more hesitant in and around certain issues because russia is such a major player in so many areas. certainly the white house feels like they have been -- they have to and must comment on this, given the situation over there. but one would expect that they are gonna thread a fairly careful line here, given the other priority at hand. >> well, i think that's absolutely right. and that has been a big criticism of this white house, of this administration, that they haven't been strong enough, that the president hasn't been strong enough on some of these foreign policy issues when you luke at a case like syria, for example, where he sort of walked up to the brink of taking military action and then decided to p

kristen welker is at the white house. conversation between president obama and president putin? >> reporter: betty, good morning. the call lasted more than an hour. both sides describing it as constructive. the unrest in ukraine comes as tensions have been mounting between the united states and russia. they both agreed the violence has to end. president obama called president putin on friday. in a statement, the white house said the two leaders exchanged views on the need to implement the political agreement reached in kiev. >> president obama underscored we have a significant opportunity with the cease-fire, with the agreement that would bring in a coalition government to reduce the power of the presidency. >> reporter: the phone call initiated by president obama was another move in the full court diplomatic press undertaken by the u.s. and european partners to push the ukrainon government into violence. >> the fact of the matter is, it is in russia's interest for the violence to end in ukraine as it is in the interest o

joining me for a preview of tomorrow and more, kristen welker standing at 1600 pennsylvania.start with immigration reform. after speaker boehner talked about the lack of trust with this white house on that issue, this is what president secretary jay carney said a few moments ago. >> i think that the challenges within the republican party on this issue are well known and they certainly don't have anything to do with the president. but as i noted before, the progress has been significant. >> all right, again that's speaker carney at the briefing. we should note that briefing is still happening right now. it is ongoing. there's the speaker continuing to take questions. kristen, it sounded like we heard what is probably going to be the new line at least from the gop with regards to why immigration reform is not going to happen this year. >> right, you had house speaker john boehner this morning really tapping into voicing the frustration of the republican base when he said that they can't trust the president. of course that is an ongoing reaction to what president obama announced

less than an hour from now, our white house correspondent kristen welker joins us from pennsylvania avenueident this afternoon. >> reporter: president obama using east lansing michigan as a back drop as he touts what he's going to argue are steady gains in the agriculture sector. the big center piece will be president obama signing the farm bill into law. it gives him a chance to highlight a rare piece of bipartisan legislation, in this case farmers see this as a win. it increases export insurance, also scales back some subsidies, but the most controversial part of this legislation is that it cuts about $8 billion in food stamps. now that really has angered some democrats, but you'll recall, craig, this was the source of fighting for the past two years, lawmakers unable to get a deal on the farm bill because of those food stamps. republicans wanted cuts that were much deeper, $40 billion. so the prad is going to argue that this marks a good compromise and announce an executive action called made in rural america, which is going to be aimed at helping rural businesses increase their exports

. >> kristen welker is at her job at the white house. kristen, with a hey to you.h today. what else are both sides saying? >> reporter: absolutely. i think you heard a robust defense from white house chief of staff dennis mcdonagh of the president's strategy to use his executive orders to pass some of these initiatives like increasing the minimum wage for federal workers, like setting up a requirement account for some workers. the education program that you just mentioned. david gregory, asking him if the president was playing small ball. dennis mcdonagh not surprisingly pushed back against that. he said look, these are important initiatives. important policies that the president wants to get accomplished. but the white house doesn't deny the fact that there is an acknowledgement, that there's only so much this president can get accomplished with this harply divided congress. the republican led house. here's a little bit more of the debate. take a listen. >> what the president does is spend a lot of time looking at what families across the country want. they want c

kristen welker is joining me now with more on this. is going on with the water problem there? are we safe or not? >> reporter: well, that is the big question mark, alex. i spent all day in charleston on friday talked to a lot of people. they tell me that their lives have just been fundamentally altered because of this chemical spill. the state says the water supply is safe. but it seems like there are new questions being raised every day. so that's creating a lot of concerns. and also a lot of fear. life hasn't been the same in the goldman house since the chemical mchm leaked into the west virginia water supply from a tank at freedom industries three weeks ago. >> what's incredibly frustrating is that there's no end in sight. >> reporter: for weeks this family says their tap water has smelled like licorice, a scent associated with the chemical. >> we have a new normal, new ways of cooking, new ways of washing hands. >> reporter: the goldmans say they have new ways of boiling water, with levels higher than the state's standard. includin

nbc's kristen welker has our report. >> i see this as a crisis. >> reporter: the concern was palpable last night at this town hall meeting. hundreds of residents demanded to know what has been done to clean up the coal ash spill polluting the dan river, which runs along the north carolina-virginia border into a lake where 12-year-old virginia roberts has spent much of her childhood. >> i am always at the lake so i don't want to get sick from the lake. i don't want it ruined. i've been there all of my life. >> reporter: three weeks ago a pipe that runs under a coal ash pond collapsed at a plant owned by duke energy company. coal ash is the waste produced from coal burning power plants and contains potentially cancer-causing toxins. authority say that the water is safe to drink when filtered, but residents should avoid direct contact like swimming in it. one source has been testing the water. >> we're finding levels of arsenic up to 35 times higher than the human health standard. >> reporter: last night, the public peppered the epa and duke energy with questions for two hours. >> the re

senior administration officials monitoring this situation closely. >> kristen welker, thanks so much.ichigan to sign the farm bill so there were a lot of political events today. that does it for us for this week for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." enjoy the olympics. monday, former secretary of homeland security and head of the u.s. delegation to sochi, janet napolitano. see what's new at projectluna.com how much money do you think you'll need when you retire? then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. i was trying to, like, pull it a little further. [ woman ] got me to 70 years old. i'm going to have to rethink this thing. it's hard to imagine how much we'll need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. so maybe we need to approach things differently, if we want to be ready for a longer retirement. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] bob's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before y

>> kristen welker tonight, thank you. >>> and when we continue tonight, we take you to hockeytown, usa, where they claim to be an olympic breeding ground. >>> and they're the conversation about his car loan didn't start here. it began way, way back. before he had children. before he got married. it started in his very first apartment. see that overdue bill? it arrived after he moved out. and he never got it. but he's not worried. checking his credit report and score at experian.com allowed him to identify and better address the issue... ... and drive off into the sunset. experian . live credit confident.™ >>> usa. >> we're back now at the sochi olympics, we heard a lot of that today, by far the highlight of the day has been team usa's dramatic victory over the russians in men's hockey, and probably nowhere in america is there a bigger celebration than in the tiny town where two members of the team are from, including the hero of today's game. here is nbc's kevin tibbles. >> reporter: in warroad, minnesota, so close to the canadian border you could walk it. but not today, it is minus 18

kristen welker has more for us. >> my dad was a great guy. >> reporter: marie mills says washington failedather, 77-year-old medrick mills, who worked for the city's parks department for more than 40 years. last saturday, they were heading to this computer store when he collapsed. >> everybody had their phones out, and i said, stay with me, buddy. >> reporter: mills spotted a fire station just across the street and ran to ask for help, but that's when this story took a tragic turn. mills says instead of immediately offering assistance, the firefighter consulted a supervisor, and then told her he couldn't help unless she first called 911, which she had already done. >> and i said, are you going to just stand there and do nothing, are you going to let my dad die? >> reporter: witnesses say they also tried to get help from the fire station. >> everybody going over there asking him, can you come and help, and he did nothing. >> reporter: cyassistance didn' come for ten minutes. when someone flagged down an ambulance. but it was too late. mills was gone. >> everything i've seen about it is abso

. >>> let's go to the white house and nbc's kristen welker. eaction to this new report? >> reporter: approximate well, alex, i think there is a sense inside the white house this report shows that both sides, the oil industry environmentalists may have overblown their arguments to some extent. as you point out, the report shows the impact won't be as significant on the environment, as some environmentalists have been arguing. on the flip side, the oil industry has said this is going to be a big job creator. well, according to this report, it's not going to be a huge job creator. in fact, it will create about 4,000 temporary jobs over the course of the year. but only 50 permanent jobs. the official line coming out of the white house from matt layeric, white house spokesperson, is this, quote, the president has clearly stated the project will be in the national interest only if it does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution. the final supplemental environmental impact statement includes a range of estimates of the project's c

nbc's kristen welker is at the white house. kristen, hello to you.bout a conversation between president obama and russian president vladimir putin. what do we know about that chat? >> reporter: well, tj, we know the conversation lasted for more than an hour. it was initiated by president obama. both leaders agreed that a transition plan needs to be implemented quickly in ukraine. they also agreed that that plan needs to include a way to stabilize ukraine's economy. it's currently teetering toward default. and they also saw eye-to-eye on the fact that the violence needs to end, needs to stop immediately. but, of course, tj, this all comes amid tense relations between the united states and russia. the two countries have had sharp disagreements over a number of issues, including iran and syria. president obama, president putin also discussed those two issues. president obama congratulated president putin on the olympics. but the focus of that conversation last night was on ukraine and how to bring about stability. but, of course, they also believe that

i'm kristen welker in washington today for andrea mitchell. in just under an hour the clinton presidential library will begin to release 33,000 pages of records that were withheld until last year because of legal provisions. the records are expected to include memos to then president bill clinton from his advisers and perhaps memos from the first lady's office. what will these papers tell us as hillary clinton decides whether or not to run in 2016? joining me now, chris sill list saturd za and susan page, washington bureau chief for usa today. chris, let me start with you. >> sure. >> what don't we know about the clintons that the papers might reveal? >> i feel we don't know what we might know. one thing that's important is to put this in context. we recently had the release of lots of documents rerelated to a close investigation with scott walker in wisconsin. we had a lot of documents and more documents released in addition to chris christie's administration, closing of some lanes in ft. lee, new jersey, these are not documents related to a

kristen welker has more. >> reporter: white house officials say they're monitoring the situation in ukrainee release of the former prime minister, yulia tymoshenko. she just spoke to a large crowd in kiev, urged p situation forces not to give up calling them heroes. but this is what the white house was wanting to see. they have been advocating a swift transition to a coalition government, early elections. they want to see the violence come to an end. so they believe what has occurred today will help to move that process forward more swiftly. here's a little bit more of white house press secretary jay carney had to say in a statement that was released just a short while ago. he says, quote, going forward we will work the our allies, with russia and with appropriate european and international organizations to support a strong, prosperous, unified and democratic ukraine. going forward, the ukrainian people should know that the united states deeply values our long-standing ties with ukraine and will support them as they pursue a path of democracy and economic development. all of this comes, mil

let me bring in kristen welker who's traveling with the president in california.tely mean? >> reporter: well, t.j., this package is consistent with the united states' policy towards syria and its neighbors, essentially giving large amounts of aid to help the humanitarian crisis, in this instance giving aid to jordan as it houses 600,000 syrian refugees. as you can imagine, that has put a huge strain on the jordanian economy. but as you pointed out at the top, the situation in syria continues to be a crisis, peace talks broke down. there is no new date that's been set for peace talks to resume. this all comes as there's been fresh fighting throughout the country. now, according to a british-based organization, the syrian observatory for human rights, as many as 6,000 people have been killed since the talks first began in geneva on january 22nd. and overall, more than 140,000 people have been killed in syria. so the crisis continues. the other headline i would point out here, though, is that in meeting with king abdullah yesterday, president obama said that the unit

joining me with reaction from the white house is nbc's kristen welker.gislation to be passed this year. but given the speaker's latest comments, is this something he will now use executive action to push forward? >> reporter: i don't think so, milissa. the white house is signaling the president is not going to use executive actions to deal with the issue of immigration reform. the president has consistently called for a broad bipartisan bill to get passed. it looked like 2014 was the year, as you point out, that immigration reform could actually get done. republicans saying behind the scenes that it is politically smart, especially after you saw president obama win the latino vote by wide margins in 2012. we saw house speaker john boehner bring a woman named rebecca talent on board, onto his team. she's someone who's worked extensively on immigration reform in the past. i've been talking to those who are familiar with speaker boehner's thinking. they say he wants to see immigration reform get done. having said that, as we have reported on extensively, th

andrea mitchell reports" and of course at its new time, noon eastern time, filling in for andrea, kristen welker of mine is in for andrea. see you tomorrow at 11:00. if i can impart one lesson to a new business owner, it would be one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner. we built it for our members, but it's open for everyone. there's not one way to do something. no details too small. american express open forum. this is what membership is. this is what membership does. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain, i want my aleve. ♪ [ male announcer ] look for the easy-open red arthritis cap. [ chainsaw

i'm kristen welker in for andrea mitchell. the new interim government has issued a warrant for the arrest of ousted president viktor y yanukovy yanukovych. russia is openly questioning the legitimacy of the leadership and criticizing the west for recognizing that new government. for latest from ukraine, i'm joined by chief foreign correspondent richard engel. you have been there on the ground. we know how fragile this situation is. what's the latest there today based on what you're seeing? >> it's actually not very fragile here in kiev. what we're seeing now is an expansion of this conflict as people are starting to realize what the geopolitical consequences might be. very strong statements from the russian foreign ministry and that singing behind me, the protest square where this revolution began has become something of a memorial square and filled with flowers and people coming here all day to pay respects for the roughly 100 people in the country over the last 72 hours. there is increasingly religious component to this as t

but let's get right to white house correspondent kristen welker, who is standing by for us, again, asre in maryland. he's going to speak in about 20 minutes, we're told. the theme here, kristen, is fuel efficiency. what kind of proposals can we expect to hear from president obama? >> well, craig, good morning. first, a little bit of context. you recall in his state of the union address, president obama framed this year as a year of action, essentially saying he was going to take a number of executive actions to circumvent congress to get things done, despite the sharply divided congress that exists right now, so this is an example of one of those executive actions. later today, president obama will announce that he's directing the epa to tighten fuel efficiency standards for

and kristen welker asked the governor about that today.you about these subpoenas that have been served. federal prosecutors have issued several subpoenas including to some former and past members of your administration. are you concerned about what these subpoenas might reveal? >> first of all, my administration is going to work very closely with the u.s. attorney's office. we're offering cooperation in any way. each of the people subpoenaed, we did not hire any of them. they were all with previous administrations. but we're going to work in any way we can with the u.s. attorney or even looking at doing our own internal investigation if there's been any improper activity, it's not going to be put up with in this administration. >> i just want to get you on the record on this, governor, have you been served a subpoena, or anyone in your office? >> no, i have not been served a subpoena. and no one in my office have received a subpoena. >> are you confident those who received subpoenas have not received any improper financial payments from du

nbc's kristen welker is in indian wells.say about all of this. >> reporter: well, alex, president obama announced new federal aid to this area. this comes as california is dealing with what is being described as the severest drought in modern history. so here are the headlines of what president obama announced. first he said he's going to accelerate about $100 million in federal aid to ranchers here. now, that is money that was previously approved under the farm bill, which was signed into law recently. he also announced $35 million that's going to go to some of the areas that have been hardest hit. additionally, he has directed the department of the interior to give extra flexibility to water contractors. and he is calling on federal facilities here in california to scale back their use of water. here's a little bit more of what president obama had to say yesterday. take a listen. >> everybody, from farmers to industry to residential areas, to the north of california and the south of california and every place in between, a

>> all right, kristen welker, thank you very much. >> thank you so much.d the president of the national election network, reverend al sharpton. al, were you there. talk about how this program will be different from other programs. >> i think the difference is that the president having a unique background himself, having grown up a minority, from a single-parent home, can look as president and then look as one that was one of these young men -- >> that's pretty remarkable moment, by the way. >> very remarkable. >> when he said i was like you. >> very remarkable. and i was sit there in the front, and i was watching the young men, because i grew up in the same kind of circumstance. >> right. >> and i think that it was very personal to them and very personal for some of us that were in that room that i don't think a lot of people understand. i think he brings unique skills in saying this program is effective, this is not, and he can raise resources, none of which will be government money. >> yeah. yeah. pretty incredible. a partnership. >> you know, i had a co

nbc's kristen welker is standing by. what do you know?rter: well, alex, eric holder basically announced yesterday that the ruling applied to the justice department. here are the main takeaways. the attorney general said same-sex spouses cannot be compelled to testify against each other, can file for bankruptcy jointly and can have same rights as federal prison inmates in opposite-sex marriages. they'll be eligible for the 9/11 victim compensation fund for example. here's what else he had to say. take a listen. >> this means every courthouse in every proceeding and in every place where a member of the department of justice stands on behalf of the united states, they will strive to ensure that same-sex marriages receive the same privileges, the same protections, and the same rights as opposite sex marriages under federal law. >> reporter: chad griffin, the president of the human rights campaign praised the announcement by the attorney general. conservatives not surprisingly said they were opposed to it based on the fact that they think same

. >>> let's go to the white house and nbc's kristen welker standing by for us. a good day to you. we have the president signing this farm bill. even with democrats criticizing it has to come with cuts to food stamps. what is the president saying? >> reporter: the president is highlighting the fact that this bill represents a compromise. you will recall that lawmakers fought over the farm bill for the past two years of the main sticking point was really this issue of food stamps. republicans wanted to see cuts as big as $40 billion. democrats said that's a non-starter. the figure that they agreed upon, $8 billion in cuts over the next decade. if you break that down that's about $800 million or 1% of that program. the president also highlighted the fact that farmers are saying that this -- is basically a victory for them because it increases crop insurance and scales back some subsidies that farmers thought that were unfair and president obama making the argument on friday that this is also going to be a boost to the economy. here is a little bit more of what he had to say. take a l

nbc's kristen welker holding down the fort in cumberland, maryland, this morning. kristen, good morning to you. >> reporter: savannah, good morning to you. well, the snow is still here from the last winter storm, and we have .50 of igs ice that formed. this is what we are talking about. it is making conditions treacherous. the big problem is power out ages. about 800,000 in maryland and new jersey. it is due to frozen power lines and downed trees. dangerous conditions on the roads. an official with the maryland highway administration says they had 1,800 trucks plowing and salting overnight. just as many today trying to make sure these roads are as passable as possible. officials say it is dangerous out here. if you don't have to leave your home, they suggest you stay at home. a lot of people are ready for winter to be over. back to you, al. >>> they have run through the snow removal budgets. this is from central pennsylvania on into new jersey and long island. this is all icing going on, this pink. this is dangerous. we look for ice accretion. the accumulation of ic