this year it is the secretary of agriculture tom vilsack. do we expect this to be... you talked about the issue. but the president must have some reality check about what he can actually do. he's not a lame duck exactly but he's going to spend the rest of the year campaigning. >> marcus: right. i think that we're not going to necessarily see remember when famously president clinton said, you know, send me this and if you send me this this way, i'll take out my veto pen. there's not going to be a lot of threats about veto pens because there won't be a lot passed for him to veto. there won't be a lot of ex-or tagss: pass this bill, pass this plan, because we saw that argument and it didn't exacty happen so it is going to be more athlete receipt cal really than actual... it's not i'm going setting up the legislative language. >> ifill: the president greets gabby giffords. a big hug. a big smile. of course her last night as a

she is joining rachael ray and agriculture secretary tom vilsack in alexandria and now. she is there to announce that school meals will have less sodium, more whole grains and fruits and vegetables. it represents the first major overhaul of school lunches in years. we will have much more on what the new rules mean coming up tonight at 5:00. it is an incredible rescue all caught on tape. buried life by an avalanche. he is alive today thanks to the quick action by his friends. it started as a perfect sunday afternoon. france and snow mobiles -- friends on the snowmobiles shooting every second on camera. john swanson off the snow mobile at the time, is swept under and buried. frantically, they uncovered his head and face, all the while trying to reassure him and make sure his airway is clear. the snow is packed like a cement, and they struggled to clear his head. rest of him is totally covered. it was his second brush with a deadly situation. he spent six weeks in a coma after being engulfed in flames working on his car 15 years ago. he could not budge an inch in the snow.

. >> first lady michelle obama and agricultural secretary tom vilsack will be on hand for the announcementf a new nutrition standards for school lunches today. they will increase student access to produce and whole grains and base it on a child's age. they will offer fat-free or low- fat milk and schools. these of the first major changes to school lunches in 15 years. muffin top and love handles are a battle for many women. how can you get rid of them without surgery? >> in the search for the perfect body, there's a new treatment approved by the fda that promises a trimmer, and less love handles without surgery. >> this is the first device that allows one treatment, one hour, one size down. >> it is called liposonic and it kills fat cells with ultrasound. this doctor is one of the first in los angeles to offer the treatment. >> and a high energy beam that will go through this again and started the fat cells -- go through the skin and target the fat cells. how are you? are you excited? >> i am very excited. >> this is a 34-year-old mother who had a c section and says her midsection has neve

first lady michelle obama joined agriculture secretary tom vilsack at an elementary school not too far from the white house. she ate a lunch of turkey tacos and fruit, while she told students and parents about the importance of good nutrition. >> "we all know that if left to their own devices, many of our kids would eat candy for breakfast, they'd follow it up with a few french fries for lunch and cookies and chips for snacks, and then they'd come home for a big chocolate sundae for dinner, right? (laughter.) and we know that it is our responsibility, as adults, to make sure they don't do that. the new regulations require schools to offer one fruit and vegetable daily, whole grains, a meat and low fat or no-fat milk. the new meals contain less sodium and trans fats. the first lady's let's move campaign battles childhood obesity through exercise and healthy eating. opponents worry about the costs to already cash-strapped school districts and about whether children will eat healthier but possibly less tasty food. >> there's been a fair amount of controversy around her move to get childre

the first lady and agricultural secretary tom vilsack visited park long elementary school along with celebrity chef rachael ray. they spoke with parents about the usda's new nutrition standards for school lunches. most school meals will now feature less sodium, more whole grains and more fruits and vegetables. the pizza is staying on the menu. it will be made, however, with healthier ingredients. >>> a groundbreaking crime- fighting app for the university of maryland campus goes live today. it is called m urgency. students will be able to send video and other information directly to police. dispatchers will use gps in order to determine the student's location. >>> still ahead, actress demi moore seeks professional help after months in the spotlight over her divorce. plus parents sue one local school system over its redistricting plans. we'll be back. >>> the federal reserve is expected to leave interest rates near historic lows when it wraps up its two-day meeting this afternoon. for the first time fed members will also offer their individual views on the economy and interest rates.

first lady michelle obama and calgary cultural secretary tom vilsack visited park lawn elementary to announce the nutritional overhaul. the first lady went through the lunch line and eight with some of the students. new guidelines mean less sodium, more whole grains and a wider selection of fruits and vegetables. >> for many kids whose families are struggling, school meals can be their main or only source of nutrition for the entire day. so when we serve higher quality food in our schools, we're not just fighting childhood obesity. we are taking the important steps that are needed to fight child hunger as well. >> you know who that is? that is rachel ray. she was also at the school to encourage healthy eating. >>> pay your taxes or face some legal action. so why are many federal employees not bothering to pay uncle sam in we'll have that story coming up next. >> first, time for our my fox half off deal. get ready for put on your dancing shoes. $25 buys you five dance classes at dushor dance studio in bethesda, maryland. can you choose from waltz, swing, tango, salsa and more. go to o

first lady michelle obama and agriculture secretary tom vilsack had lunch at an elementary school in virginia to announce the new guidelines. they include serving fruits and vegetables every day of the week, more whole grains, and less salt and fat. and they require schools to serve low fat milk and limit calories by controlling portions. >> when we send our kids to school we have a right to expect they won't be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we're trying to keep from them when they're at home. >> reporter: in oakland it's a whole farmer's market. >> i think it's an opportunity to continue funding. >> reporter: as head of the school program for the school district she has been making healthy changes for years despite a limited budget. she is glad today's news brings kid nutrition to the spotlight. >> the reason why we're excited about the new standards in oakland because it gives us more to do because we're not all the way there yet but will give us additional funding to get there and accomplish what we want to do in the long term for our students. >> reporter: li

the first lady and the agriculture secretary tom vilsack will visit park one elementary school whereutrition standards. will also join the students for lunch which will be cooked by celebrity chef rachael ray. the massive skoler ridiculous from bombarding the earth with radiation has caused no major satellite disruptions, but it lit up the skies above scotland and norway. -- massive solar storm. 6:49 right now. i want to check in with lisa baden to see how things are looking on the roads. >> 95 and route 1 after the occoquan river with a big accident on northbound 95 in the main lanes at route 1/woodbrige. we went to 66 but did not find a crash at route 7. looks good thru falls church. we will show you a live picture in the geico traffic camera enter at the beltway from new hampshire avenue around to georgia avenue with a crash on the shoulder on the way. let's go to cynne and natasha. >> we are happy families. -- family. >> feels good out there. another pleasant day, but a little cooler than yesterday in the afternoon, back to where we should be for this time of year. let's look at

first lady, michelle obama and tom vilsack visited elementary in alexandria today. first lady went to the lunch line and ate with some of students. less sodium, more whole grains and a wider selection of fruits and vegetables. >> for many kids whose families are struggling, school meals can be their main or only source of nutrition for the entire day. so when we serve higher quality food in our schools, we're not just fighting childhood obesity. we are taking the important steps that are needed to fight child hunger as well. >> along with the first lady, celebrity chef, rachel ray was at the school to encourage healthy eating. >> they work for the federal government, but don't feel like they have to pay any taxes. an eye popping new report next. and an incredible story of survival after an avalanche buries a snowmobiler. probably feels invincible now. all caught on camera. >> and if you see a story we should cover, send your tips to fox5 tips and give us a call. 202-895-3000.  >>> how much do you pay in taxes? the hopefuls have been in the headline

first lady michelle obama and agriculture secretary tom vilsack had lunch at an elementary school inirginia to announce the new guidelines. they include serving fruits and vegetables every day of the week, more whole grains, and less salt and fat. and they require schools to serve low fat milk and limit calories by controlling portions. >> when we send our kids to school we have a right to expect they won't be eating the kind of fatty, salty, sugary foods that we're trying to keep from them when they're at home. >> reporter: in oakland at this elementary school it's not just apples and oranges. it's a whole farmer's market. >> i think it's an opportunity to continue the improvement and to get funding to go along with it. >> reporter: as head of the school program for the school district she has been making healthy changes for years despite a limited budget. she is glad today's news brings kid nutrition to the spotlight. >> the reason why we're excited about the new standards in oakland because it gives us more to do because we're not all the way there yet but will give us additional

severed as tomato paste is considered a vegetable under the new rule bus agriculture secretary tom vilsackd the kid favorite will transform into something healthy. >>> it will be place old a whole wheat crust, you will have low-fat cheese and have lower sodium. >> reporter: a new lesson in nutrition, schools feed kids' bodies as well as their minds. erika edwards, nbc news. >>> coming up on news4, an unusual way one county in california hopes to promote exercise and to fight obesity, too. >>> plus, the founder of megaupload.com is heading to court. >>> i'm wendy rearing, coming up at 5:00, a former inmate awarded 22 million after spending two years in solitary confinement because he was charged with dwi in the inhuman treatment he says he endured. the untold stories of monticello, a new exhibit opening this week following thomas jefferson's slaves. a chefselves u >>> there is an effort under way in los angeles to fight obesity by making it easier for cents bike and walk around town. l.a. county supervisors approved an ordinance today requiring all new development projects to provide wider

this year it is the secretary of agriculture tom vilsack. do we expect this to be... you talked about the issue. but the president must have some reality check about what he can actually do. he's not a lame duck exactly but he's going to spend the rest of the year campaigning. >> marcus: right. i think that we're not going to necessarily see remember when famously president clinton said, you know, send me this and if you send me this this way, i'll take out my veto pen. there's not going to be a lot of threats about veto pens because there won't be a lot passed for him to veto. there won't be a lot of ex-or tagss: pass this bill, pass this plan, because we saw that argument and it didn't exacty happen so it is going to be more athlete receipt cal really than actual... it's not i'm going setting up the legislative language. >> ifill: the president greets gabby giffords. a big hug. a big smile. of course her last night as a member of the house. she announced last week she was not going to be able to continue to serve. she's going to concentrate on her recovery. exactly

we just learned the agricultural secretary, tom vilsack, will be the one member of the obama cabinetlways have one member standing by. they have the president, speaker and top leaders and they want to keep some member away, god forbid something were to happen. you can see the south lawn of the white house and the president and first lady limo. they will be exiting there to make the short drive to capitol hill. >> reporter: they will. the state of the union speech is so important to the president particularly as you head into an election. the challenge of this kind of speech, we all know it's an election year. you have to lay down your political markers without appearing to be too partisan to the american public. what the public wants to hear from the president is his vision from the country and sense of what he's accomplished over the last year. the challenge, i think, for barack obama, going forward is to make this election not a referendum on the economy but a choice between his vision and the republican vision. we heard senator shun sthune sa >> here they go. the president and fir

the fist lady agriculture secretary, tom vilsack and rainel ray will be in alexandria -- and rachaelay will be in alexandria to talk about making school lunches more healthy. >> it is making news at 6:12. most school meals will feature less sodium, more whole-grains and more fruits and vegetables. pizza is staying on the menu. it will just be made with healthier ingredients. >> today marks one year since the start of the revolution in egypt. now, this is actually a live look ta here square in -- atta here square in cairo. it took 18 days for egyptians to oust their president. the new parliament opened its first session on monday. >>> today marks seven days without power for people in trout lake, washington. they've been under four feet of snow since last thursday. crews are working 16 hours a day to get everyone back online. >>> once the fog burned off, it was a really nice day on tuesday. >> yes, it was. >> would you believe this? we're in the middle of a major solar storm. >> the flares jumping from the sun are the strongest they've been in years. lindsey mastis explains the effect

agriculture secretary tom vilsack said today the goal is to protect woodlands, while creating opportunities for the timber industry. the rules would shorten the average time it takes to develop forest management plans, among other things. the current rules have been in place since 1982. several attempts at revisions have been thrown out by federal courts. the penn state community paid final respects today to former football coach joe paterno. and there were overtones of the scandal that led to his firing last november. more than 12,000 people packed the school's basketball arena for the service. a line of speakers, including former penn state quarterback todd blackledge, lauded the legendary coach. >> joe's success and his impact didn't end sunday when he died and it didn't end yesterday when we all said goodbye to him. it'll live on in this place, penn state, and it'll live on in the lives and the hearts of people here for many, many years to come. >> sreenivasan: the penn state trustees had dismissed paterno, and said he should have done more about allegations that a former assistant mole

first lady michelle obama and agriculture secretary tom vilsack will announce later on today new rulesor school lunches. meals will have less sodium and more whole grains. fruits and vegetables in schools can only be able to offer low-fat or fat-free milk. the rule change is the first major overhaul of school lunches in 15 years. >>> students at gunnederson high school are divided over whether the boy's basketball coach did the right thing or went too far when he dismissed 1 varsity basketball players. ryan trand was a junior point guard for the team. he says coach mike allen suspended he and five other players for lack of respect, bad attitudes and being late to practice. while trand admits he was late, he and others deny disrespecting coach allen. when the coach rebuffed requests to ryan state the five players, the whole team decided to walk out. >> i've always wanted to represent our school in the best way possible, whether it be academics or through athletic and to just have that taken away from me is really hard for me to deal with. >> coach allen, meantime, has moved members of t

. >>> and michelle obama and tom vilsack will talk about new standards for school lunches.ules are the first major overhall of school meals in 15 years. they call for more emphasis on offering fruits an vegetables. adding more whole-grain foods and that will increase the cost of the lunches. celebrity chef rachael ray will be searching up the meals. >>> a mechanical air is being blamed for a casino shuttle bush crash. the highway says the plane hit a barrier. the 18 people on the bus only one of them was injured. >> we've been talking about the crash. sal's back the hopefully there's better news now. >> all of the lanes are clear now. i want to put the map up. serious, fatal crash. 80 at carlson. 580 heading down to the split there near golden gate feeds -- fields. claudine wong will have a live report from the scene coming up. this is a look at interstate 8 0 and that traffic -- 880 and that traffic in oakland is getting busy. >>> let's go to steve. >> we have some sunshine. but a lot of clouds and light rain to the north. mostly cloudy north bay. but getting some reports

the answer is tom vilsack, the secretary of agriculture from iowa.rds, had there been something really bad, tom vilsack would be running the united states today. >> we see hillary clinton there, as secretary of state. she was there. she was not that mystery person who did not show up. in the meantime, which members of congress, so-called squat to get aisle seats so they can get on tv, shake hands with the president as he comes in or he goes out. you can see right there. is that carolyn malony from new york? no. ok. that's from texas. i can't remember her name right now. >> lot of emotion. give the microphone if you watched on fox newschannel as opposed to national fox. >> t >> in attendance up in the box is mrs. steve jobs. eventually as the president made his way down, he would embrace gabby giffords. she was there. every time she would stand up, keep in mind she's a democrat, every time she would stand up, jeff flake who is a republican also from her state of arizona stood up as well and he was asked afterwards why were you standing up and supporti

is former iowa governor and agriculture secretary tom vilsack, a candidate for president for a short time in a past era, but now a relatively activist secretary of agriculture, he will stay away we expect most if not all the rest of the cabinet to be there tonight. timothy geithner, you see there. welcome back to msnbc's coverage of the state of the union address. i'm rachel maddow, chris matthews, president obama will deliver his third official state of the union. chris, as we see the cabinet file in now, we see secretary clinton greeting john kerry, stands next to senator scott brown of massachusetts. i have been looking through some of the excerpts of not just the president's speech tonight but also the anticipated republican response from mitch daniels and it's pugnacious, we saw speaker boehner pre-butting the speech calling it pathetic, using very sharp terms, going after it. what are you thinking -- what are you seeing tonight in terms of the republican attitude toward the president at this point in the presidency and this speech? >> rachel, an objective statement since the da

wanted to talk about a letter that my administration had sent to the secretary of agriculture, tom vilsack one day earlier. the letter was rudimentary, bureaucratic and ordinary. for some reason, the president had personalized this and upset. careful, he said to me, this is going to be bad for everyone. and one of the things that were involved in that letter is request for food stamps that were suddenly out of work and possibly hungry. >> it's one of the pro forma things. when the president came down to survey the damage from the b.p. oil spill, he chewed out bobby jindal about writing the letter for food stamps. not one word was said about the oil spill. and also bobby jindal apparently told glenn beck on his radio show that the president said don't go on tv and criticize me. don't do it. apparently, according to bobby jindal, the president had just had it up to here with people going on tv criticizing him. >> back to the race for the white house now. the challengers who would like to take over the job of the president of the united states, there's another debate tonight and no doubt this

tom vilsack and she will visit parkville elementary school. delays from streetroad to a 14th crash and thee other side of the bridge on avenue and look at traffic the beltway at the american bridge, it looks fabulous. just somejamsville, clouds often the distance. .- off in the distance 34 and did this bird and degrees f and36 quantico is 34 degrees. this afternoon will be on par for temperatures in the mid- you, partly cloudy, but umbrella tomorrow and friday. day, justt rain all off and on. it is cooler by the end of the weekend. thanks for watching and we will be back at noon. "live! with kelly" is next.

yesterday agriculture secretary tom vilsack addressed the group. he talked about biofuels and encouraging grocery stores to sell locally-grown food. he was introduced by the mayor of santa ana, california. >> i was speaking to him a few moments ago, and he was mayor for five years of pleasant, iowa, i believe it was, mount pleasant, iowa. and i think once you're a mayor, you're always a mayor, you know? you kind of go around cities, and you're looking at streets, and you're looking at stores and residential neighborhoods and all that. but, so he is, you know, now secretary of agriculture, and they gave me a little bit of literature, and i just want to read one thing, and i want to turn it over to him so he can make remarks, and then i want this to be a dialogue to where we have a little bit of a question and answer and talk to him about some of the things that we're doing. but one thing in particular is that he entered into a partnership with the department of energy and the u.s. navy to invest up to $510 million during the next three years to prod