andy stern is president of the service employees international union, seiu, as it s known, he s also known as president obama s closest allies in lab of. molly henneberg, what is the union saying about this? reporter: jane, not a lot publicly, but in a statement, the seiu said, quote, over the past few months there has been increasing speculation regarding seiu president andy stern s intention to step down as president at the end of his term in 2012. president stern will acrest these rumors at the close of the seiu executive committee meeting this week. the executive committee is meeting here in washington, so we ll find out at the end of the week what he plans to do what he plans to do at the end of his term. the seiu says it represents 2.2 million people, mainly in health care, state and local government employees, and workers such as janitors and food service employees. jane: why would he be stepping down? reporter: it s a big job, an exhausting job and it may be the right tim
lot of people. political analysts say it s only natural because of its tie to health care. here s how michael bar roan sees it. the opinion around the country is against having the government pay for abortion or having others subsidize abortion through insurance policies. so when you pass a federal law that effects everything, you can expect everything to become a political issue. reporter: he said democrats made health care an issue, a political issue and, you know, by virtue of that, they ve done a same with the issue of abortion which the states will fight back on, jane. jane: shannon s in washington for us, thanks. jon: do you like to eat? well, this next story is of concern to you. it s about a massive, mysterious reduction in the bee population, and it s becoming a serious concern. folks who hate bees for whatever reason, may not care about it, but the disappearance of honeybees could have a drastic effect on our nation s food supply.
reaction is i thought we won the space race against the russians. there s going to be a summit, what do we expect to happen? reporter: the president expected to drop by the kennedy space center and lay out the obama vision. thousands of jobs are on the line. at issue is whether the nation that s been a leader in space exploration since the 60s is going to be in the game in a significant way while the russians and chinese gear up. but here s the bottom line, a soy yesterday launch is the only way for us to get to space. u.s. tax dollars going to the russians so that our astronauts can go to an international space station that we spent billions to help build. right now the nation that produced mercury, gemini, apollo and the shuttle system that operated for three decades has no option but to go hat in hand. jane: brian wilson in washington. thanks. jon: a shocking prank that goes horribly wrong. we have the video to show you. also, an unauthorized biography
150% this is the problem. people want to be heard. the great thing about the calculator, and we have 100,000 people, being able to say i now learned what i m paying for this, how i feel about it and responding. we are providing the ability to speak to their leaders about this and doing it in a way that s understandable. we ll never be able to solve this without them. jon: there is a lot of discontent. people feel the country has been spent into the ground. that we are going to go bankrupt at this rate. it s got some stop. people in washington i have to tell you and you know, on, their attitude is spend. they don t understand and spend money. that s what they do. jon: thank you, we ll be right back with more. competition. it pushes us to work harder.
in washington. the president warning world leaders this morning the risk of a nuclear terror attack has gone up. take a listen. just the smallest amount of plutonium, about the size of an apple, could kill and jury injure hundreds of thousands of people. terrorist networks have tried to acquire the material, and if they ever succeeded, they would surely use it. jon: the threat of such terrorists getting their hands on a nuclear weapon is a major focus of this summit. how serious is the problem and can anything concrete be accomplished just this week? joining us from washington, president of the plow shares fun and author of bomb scare: the history and future of nuclear weapons. joe also will attend the president s reception tonight. what are you expecting at that reception, joe? a lot of happy faces, a lot of broad smiles. this has been a big success not