the most interesting piece of news in the transportation area, this month is secretary ray lahood's announcement that he will not serve a second term with president obama, as he is now at occupy sf -- just kidding. he is planning to pursue opportunities in the private sector. we will see what this portends for the future programs. for high-speed rail in driving safely. they have been closely associated with the secretary. hopefully this will receive as much support from his successor, if not more. congress continues to debate the president american jobs act, including the proposed $60 billion for transportation. but this work is happening against the backdrop of activities of the deficit reduction cibber committee, which is on a seek and destroy mission to reduce the federal prevacid by $1.20 trillion. in this political context, it appears that the only way that the house transportation infrastructure committee, headed by congressman john mica, can find its way to a six-year surface reauthorization is that it can find $100 billion in a non-gas tax revenue that it can pledged towards the act. thi

transportation secretary ray lahood says he will leave the obama administration at the end of the president's current term. the former illinois republican congressman gave no reason for that decision. he's the only republican in mr. obama's cabinet. he's become an advocate for safer driving and job creating transportation projects. la hood has not discussed his decision with the president. >>> more people are riding amtrak than ever before. amtrak said it carried more than 30 million passengers in the last 12 months, making the most in one year since the passenger rail project was created four decades ago. it has set ridership increases eight of the last nine years. despite that, congress wants to take away some of the railroad subsidies and want to take away some of the most valuable routes that link new york, philadelphia, and boston. >> riding the train along the coast is really wonderful if you can stay away from the airports. >> avoid the hassle. love the train ride. >> a lot of people like to get on the train and get out of town. >> especially with the weather we had yesterday, tom. >>

transportation secretary ray lahood made the announcement monday. the money will help fund new commuter buses in maryland, a study of transit options and a new system for metro to help keep track of the buses and trains. >>> the engineers who inspected the washington monument are back at work in d. c.. this time, they're inspecting the damage at the national cathedral. the cathedral itself is structurally sound but it's been closed since the earthquake because some stone carvings might be unstable. yesterday two engineers began inspecting the outside facade using cameras and ipads to keep track of what they found. >> this is the type of ornament that we're going to be looking at on these two towers. we want to make sure if we see rotation in these pieces about anakusis such as this we're less concerned with the stability. if we see lateral displacement, some evidence there may not be a dowel. those are the types of things we're going to be looking for. >> they don't expect to find much damage. it's expected to reopen november 12th. >>> most doctors

please join me in welcoming transportation secretary ray lahood.plause] >> well, good noontime, everyone. thank you all very much. thank you for the invitation from the press club to come back. this is my second visit, and i'm delighted to be back. and before i given, i want to say a special -- before i begin, i want to say a special word of thanks to jill zuckman who has been in charge of our public affairs for the last two and a half years and has put the department of transportation, i think, on a level with, certainly, other high profile cabinet organizations. and we're going to miss jill, and she's put together a great team of others, and we're grateful for her service. i also want to say a special word of welcome to these georgetown students who are here. i hope you're here because you're interested in transportation, but i probably know better than that. maybe you're just here because your professor told you you had to be here. but in any event, we're delighted that you are here. [laughter] and wish you well in your studies. i want to say to

transportation secretary ray lahood warns parents' driving habits provide a lifelong lesson for their >>> the st. louis cardinals flew into the world series last night, won the national league championship series 4-2. cardinals took an early lead and never looked back. they'll face the texas rangers who clinched a world series berth on saturday. carol is crying tears of pain. game one of the world series is wednesday night in st. louis. >>> to the gridiron now where you might expect to see players get physical. check this out. the postgame handshake between two nfl coaches turns into a postgame scuffle. you expect sometimes players get physical. san francisco coach jim harbaugh is a bit pumped up after 49ers beat the lions. both coaches address the tiff in his postgame competition. he added there's a protocol that goes with the league. >> tense moments, right? in college football, the bowl championship series unveiled the rankings. the lsu tigers narrowly beat out the alabama crimson tide for the top spot. the college football world will be watching when the two play in two weeks. okl

ray lahood and other transportation officials will be on hand at ann beers elementary to help escortes. it is meant to draw attention to the need for safer routes to school. >>> tony is back with a look at our forecast for today. this is where it all gets started to the weekend. >> for the weekend, for the next several days, the rest of this workweek looks good. i suspect a lot of people will be having lunch outside. it will an good one. i shouldn't have mentioned that because now julie wright is going to ask me for lunch. let's take a look at what is going on. here is a look at the temperature across the region. 56degrees is your current temperature here in washington. annapolis is at 50. baltimore, 51 degrees. quantico, 55. winchester, virginia, 52. culpeper is at 46 degrees. here is a look at the satellite satellite-radar composite for our part of the country. up to the north is where you see some cloud cover. when i say north, i'm talking about new england and a few showers out there but they are pushing out to sea and nothing really happening here. now, i want to show you a look

. >>> and transportation secretary ray lahood now says he will leave the obama administration at the end of his term. the former illinois congressman gave no reason for that decision. he's the only republican currently in the president's cabinet. he's become an advocate for safer driving and job creating transportation projects. his spokesman says that la hood has not discussed his decision with the president. >>> more people are riding amtrak than ever before. amtrak says it carried more than 30 million passengers the last 12 months, which makes is the most since the rail was createded four decades ago. amtrak has set ridership records the last four years. despite that, congress wants to take away the railroad subsidies, and they're trying to take away the most valuable routes in the corridor that links washington, philadelphia, new york, and boston. >> time for weather and traffic on the ones. >> let's check in with meteorologist tom kierein. more rain? >> unfortunately. we did briefly clear out overnight. there's capitol hill under a partly cloudy sky right now, live picture from

ray lahood, only republican in obama's cabinet, say his will not stay on if the president wins anotherwon't run for public office again. >>> the house votes of a republican-sponsored change to the new health care law, keeps federal money going to any insurance plan that provides abortion services and gives hospitals permission to refuse to do an abortion, even a woman's life is in danger. democrats like nancy pelosi are outraged. >> under this bill, when the republicans vote for this bill today, they will be voting to say that women can die on the floor and health care providers do not have to intervene if this bill is passed. it's just appalling. >> another big debate on capitol hill today, brings us to tonight's number. 94,500, the number of millionaires who do not meet the buffett rule test. what are we talking about? remember that number, 94,500. well, that means those 94,500 actually pay a smaller percentage of income in taxes than middle class americans. middle class pays that big percentage. these millionaires pay a small percentage. why? if you're in the middle class you know t

please welcome me in welcoming transportation secretary ray lahood. [applause] . . >> we are grateful for her service. i also want to say a special word of welcome to these georgetown students who are here. i hope you're here because you're interested in transportation, but i probably know better than that. maybe you're just you because your professor told you, you have to be here. but in any event, we are delighted that you are here. wish you well in your studies. i want to say, to begin with, that what i'd like to do is talk for a few minutes about some issues that i feel very, very strongly about, and then obviously i'll be happy to answer any and all questions that angela decides she wants me to answer. i want to talk about what i believe is on the minds of americans today, which is getting family, friends and neighbors back to work. since labor day i've been to 10 states around the country. and what i found is that every family know somebody that's unemployed in america today. and every family has somebody that's unemployed in america today. i do

please join me in welcoming transportation secretary ray lahood. [applause] >> good meantime, everyone. thank you all very much. thank you for the invitation from the press club to come ba back. this is my second visit and i'm delighted to be back. and before i begin i want to say a special word of thanks to jill zuckerman who, for the last two and a half years, has been in charge of our public affairs and has put the department of transportation i think on a level with certainly other high profile cabinet organizations. and we're going to miss, and she's put together a great team of others, and we're grateful for her service year i also want to say a special word of welcome to these georgetown students who are here. i hope you are here because you're interested in transportation, but i probably know better than that. maybe you're just you because your professor told you, you had to be here. but in any event, we are delighted that you are here. wish you well in your studies. i want to say, to begin with, that what i would like to do is talk for a f

- >>> we're now earning that transportation secretary -- learning that transportation secretary ray lahoodleave the president's cabinet at the end of the term. he indicated he would be leaving but did not give a reason. he is a political congressman. he served in illinois until he retired back in 2008. >>> a new report by a watchdog group say errors made by air traffic controllers have increased dramatically. air traffic safety mistakes more than doubled in the past three years. many of these errors occurred when planes were flying too close to each other. >>> a pilot of a small plane walked away uninjured after he was forced to make a crash landing in san rafael. the plane landed in a snake- infested marsh. rescuers say it appeared the plane's engine malfunctioned shortly after taking off from the airport in san rafael. a man from novato was the only person on board. >> we may not see the nba until after christmas if a labor agreement is not reached in the next few days. the commissioner said his gut tells him there won't be christmas -- basketball on christmas without resolution. the fir

got to remember, our conservative secretary of transportation, ray lahood, is 100% behind it, and president vice president bide suspect 100% behind it. this is a great initiative. it would put many high-paying jobs and would tie our cities back together again. that it is an american icon, the railroad industry. that's what tied the country together initially. we have to be behind this, and we'd be proud to rebuild the system. it will be the best in the world. host: ok, mike. want to get a couple of other points in. in one other iraq story, because you're probably going to hear about a report coming out today, a government report from stuart bowen, head of the inspector general for iraq reconstruction, somebody familiar to our viewers. he's been on this program numerous times. the headline says -- in this report, they're going to write a key piece of america's enduring presence in iraq, a multimillion dollar program to train police officers, could become a bottomless pit. they need to obtain assurances from iraqi officials about the program's future, this according to a new federal watchdog

on october 13, ray lahood with the u.s. department of transportation. on october 19, natalie cole will talk about the national labor foundation. on october 31, one of your opponents, herman cain, will join us. he will be followed november 3 by tom brokaw and november 9 by william shatner. we would like to present you with the traditional coffee mug. thank you for being here today. [applause] here is our last question. your son is a u.s. senator. how is his world on the hill different or perhaps better than yours? >> it reminds me of a little story. the first day, we were sworn in together and we were on the same television program. i was asked, how you feel that your son is in the senate and you are in the house? i said, i told him if he does a good job as a senator, he might be able to get a seat in the house of representatives. [laughter] >> how about a round of applause for our guest speaker today? thank you, senator. thank you for coming here today. i would like to thank our national press club staff for helping to organize today's event. you can fi