ubber seriously. my first question is one that has caused this program much confusion in the past. when i have reported in the last few weeks on this show on the fate of the big overhaul for food safety, that information on this show has been untrustworthy. i pronounced it dead, then it was alive, but in poor health and then life support then dead and alive. now it is completely healthy and living indefinitely. a white house official told us tonight, quote, it will be law soon. ta-da, but you didn t hear it from me. okay. so in light of all that, i m kind of scared to weigh in, but here goes. the food safety bill, a source of much confusion on this very program in the past, has finally become law. is that true or false? [ bell ] that s true. on his first day back in the white house after vacation, president obama actually signed the food safety bill into law. here is a picture to prove it, straight off the white house flicker page. so this should be the last time you hear about the
legislation, boehner convened 100 lobbyists and conservative activists behind closed doors, ed, do you think the people s business was being done behind closed doors, i don t. is this going back to the tom delay mindset in your opinion. yeah, boehner is very much in the tom delay mold, and in the fact you know great presidents have had brain trusts, people of mind of ideas. john boehner is notorious for having a very close circle of corporate titans. he s flown on their corporate jets, he goes golfing with them, and i just hope, ed, just like you did that the media in this next period gets behind his tan, gets beyond those tears and looks at policies which are going to make millions of americans cry because this guy is not a protector of the people s interest. i mean just in the lame-duck session, he sided against a food safety bill. i mean what kind of what is he for salmonella versus the people? this is not a protector of the people s interests and we re going to need a lot o
you hear about the food safety bill on this program. [ buzzer ] actually, that s not necessarily true. you may hear about it again because of this guy. congressman jack kingston, republican from georgia, is about to take over a subcommittee that controls the purse strings for the food and drug administration. and he tells bloomberg news that he is inclined to use his power to, quote, trim this whole package back. that s how you gut a law without actually going through the bother of repealing it. the food safety law would have a recognizable form, but no life force. it would essentially be a zombie. so to recap, food safety bill dead, then alive, then writhing in bed, then dead, now alive, but possibly soon a zombie. neither dead nor living. undead. okay. next question. true or false, the world is not ending. [ buzzer ] false. if you re a bird. in parts of the south. from a literal bird s-eye view
it is 28 minutes after the hour. happening now, president obama arrived back in washington a few hours ago. on his agenda today is signing the food safety bill. the new law overhauls the inspection and oversight of our food. it also gives the food and drug administration new powers to recall suspect products. a federal judge has sentenced a man who helped hijack an airliner to cuba more than 40 years ago to 15 years in prison. luis armando pena soltran returned to the u.s. and surrendered to authorities last year. moments ago the navy officially relieved captain owen honors of command of the uss enterprise after the release of the raunchy videos shot and shown on the ship. he played a prominent role in the videos in 2006 and 2007 but the clips were only made public over the weekend. captain honors and staffers are shown in the videos cursing apparently trying to be funny. time for globetrekking. first up pakistan. the governor of punjab province,
here. the irs, the internal revenue service is giving you a few extra dailies to get your taxes done this year not because of all the new laws or processing delays they announced weeks ago. instead it s a holiday thing. april 15 falls on a friday this year. that s the day federal employees observe emancipation day. the actual holiday is sat the 16th. so that means the new filing date will be monday, april the 18th. we ll remind you of that as it gets closer and i m sure your accountant or tax preparer will as well. president obama put nicolas sarkozy on his day planner. the french president will be at the white house next monday. it will be an important chance to talk about economic issues with france ready to assume the presidency of the g-8 and g-20 economic groups. president obama arrived back in washington a few hours ago. on his agenda today is signing the food safety bill. it overhauls the inspection and oversight of our food and also gives the fda new power to recall suspect