The First Lady is in Milan to meet with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and his wife.
The First Lady and the Presidential Delegation will visit the Milan Expo 2015, tour the USA Pavilion at the Expo and participate in activities to promote efforts to support healthier families and communities.
With the theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life,” the Expo Milan is promoting a global dialogue about the future of our food system.
The USA pavilion is titled “American Food 2.0: United to Feed the Planet,” and it showcases American leadership on global food and development issues, science and technology, climate change, nutrition and health.
First Lady Michelle Obama talks at James Beard American Restaurant in Milan, Italy
First Lady Michelle Obama with Mario Batali
****
****
First Lady Michelle Obama, Former Miami Heat basketball player Alonzo Mourning, a member of the President’s Council on Fitness, Sports and Nutrition; Chef, writer and restaurateur Mario Batali pose with Italian and American middle school students in Milan, Italy
First Lady Michelle Obama is welcomed by Prime Matteo Renzi and his wife, Agnese Landini, as she arrives at the Santa Maria delle Grazie church to see Leonardo’s masterpiece “The Last Supper”
****
****
First Lady Michelle Obama speaks with Ester Renzi
First Daughters Sasha and Malia Obama walk in Corso Como shopping street in Milan, Italy
NYT: Obesity Rate For Young Children Plummets 43% In A Decade
Federal health authorities on Tuesday reported a stunning 43 percent drop in the obesity rate among 2- to 5-year-old children over the past decade, the first broad decline in an epidemic that often leads to lifelong struggles with weight and higher risks for cancer, heart disease and stroke. The drop emerged from a major federal health survey that experts say is the gold standard for evidence on what Americans weigh. The trend came as a welcome surprise to researchers. New evidence has shown that obesity takes hold young: Children who are overweight or obese between age 3 and 5 are five times as likely to be overweight or obese as adults.
“This is the first time we’ve seen any indication of any significant decrease in any group,” said Cynthia Ogden, a researcher for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the author of the report, which will be published in JAMA, The Journal of the American Medical Association, on Wednesday. “It was exciting.” Another explanation is that some combination of state, local and federal policies aimed at reducing obesity is starting to have an effect. Michelle Obama has led a push to change young children’s eating and exercise habits and 10,000 child care centers across the country have signed on. The news announcement from the C.D.C. included a remark from Mrs. Obama: “I am thrilled at the progress we’ve made over the last few years in obesity rates among our youngest Americans.”
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, introduces JoAnne Hammermaster, from Vienna, Va., who is co-founder and president of Real Food For Kids, and her son Sam Hammermaster, before First Lady Michelle Obama announced proposed guidelines for local school wellness policies
First Lady Michelle Obama recites a “wrap” song written by students from George C. Marshall High School in Falls Church, Va., about healthy eating
****
First Lady Michelle Obama helps Naeem Khan make history!
This handout photo provided by the Smithsonian shows a dress designed by Indian-American designer Naeem Khan for First Lady Michelle Obama. It was worn to the 2012 Governors Dinner and is now on display at the Smithsonian’s first major exhibit: “Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation” on Indian-American influences in U.S. history. Khan has designed several dresses for Mrs. Obama. The exhibit opens Thursday.
****
*Ahem* Ladies? You’re welcome
Sam Kass, Executive Director of Let’s Move! and Senior Policy Advisor for Nutrition Policy speaks to guests before First Lady Michelle Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announce proposed guidelines for local school wellness policies
Charles Pierce: …. Emboldened by enablers, the bishops have expanded their demands for exemptions from simply Catholic institutions to every business in America. There’s a reason for this …. they’ve been sitting back on their ermined duffs, believing that they were done so very wrong in the investigation of their crimes, and nursing the mother of all grudges, for over a decade. Now they’ve decided to strike back for the power they’ve lost. Women’s health is the issue they’ve chosen, because, in their little unindicted world, women don’t count, and never have….
There were a couple of ways all of this could have been avoided. One … would have been to toss a whole lot of bishops in jail for conspiracy to obstruct justice, enough of them so their power to influence the secular law was destroyed forever. They needed to be humbled, unmercifully, until the hubris was wrung out of every damn one of them. Now, a woman working a low-income service industry job under the supervision of a Catholic boss will have her access to essential health-care truncated by a discredited encyclical to which no Catholic has paid any heed since the administration of Lyndon Johnson. These bastards needed to be broken, publicly, and into a thousand pieces that were scattered to the winds. Instead, they are “voices of conscience” again. It is to weep.
Greg Sargent (Washington Post): Is media getting politics of contraception all wrong?
Since the controversy over the White House’s new contraception policy broke, it’s been widely assumed that the battle is terrible politics for Obama, because it will cost him among Catholic swing voters.
But some polling from August suggests a majority of Americans supports the White House position – and that the opposition to the provision from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops makes no difference to them. Even a majority of Catholic respondents said the same.
….. The White House very well may buckle in this fight. But these numbers do suggest at least the possibility that leading commentators have been far too quick to declare this a certain political loser.
Greg Sargent: Since details of the big foreclosure settlement began leaking out, liberals have been watching to see how New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman would react, as a sign of whether the deal is a giveaway to big banks – or whether it contains the promise of real accountability.
In an interview with me just now, Schneiderman – who has gained a national liberal profile for his insistence on true accountability for financial institutions – conceded the settlement announced today was “small” in financial terms, given the struggles of underwater homeowners and people who lost their homes.
But he insisted that time will show that today’s settlement was a win – that it secured a framework that will ultimately result in a true accounting of the role big banks played in sparking the economic meltdown…..
Attorney General Eric holder listens as President Obama speaks about a mortgage settlement in the Eisenhower Executive Office building
****
President Obama arrives to deliver remarks on the No Child Left Behind law in the East Room of the White House
****
Jonathan Bernstein (Washington Post): Today’s economic news is that new claims for unemployment benefits have fallen again, with the four-week average now at the lowest point since spring 2008. That’s not all; the stock market is also at its highest point since spring 2008, and Gallup’s economic confidence numbers are also approaching post-recession highs.
It’s no coincidence that the run of good economic news – and employment is only a part of that – has been accompanied by a climb by Barack Obama in the polls. Indeed, the Pollster average now has Obama with an average 5.5 point lead over Romney.
….. It’s certainly possible that the new economic momentum will, again, dissipate. But the signs are mounting that people are being a bit too pessimistic. And if so, there’s a chance that Democrats and the president could be about to receive a whole lot of unexpected good news indeed.
WH: President Obama was wrapping up an interview with Mario Andres Moreno for Univision Miami’s Channel 23 at the White House in May when the conversation turned to the Eastern Conference Finals. The Bulls were one game away from facing the Miami Heat and a friendly wager was struck … if the Bulls won, Moreno would send the President some Cuban Fritas and if the Heat won, the President would send Moreno some fully loaded Chicago Dogs.
As fate would have it, the Bulls lost to the Heat and Moreno won the bet.
Last week, as promised, a large package of hot dogs with all the fixins arrived at Channel 23’s offices in Miami with everything needed to bring the Chicago Dog experience to the Sunshine State. Inside the insulated box were packages of all beef hot dogs, poppy seed buns, yellow mustard, bright green relish, onions, tomato wedges, pickle spears, sport peppers and celery salt – as well as a note from President Obama himself…
During the evening news broadcast, Mario Andres Moreno sat in his anchor’s chair with his Chicago Dog waiting in front of him as he recounted the story with his co-anchors. A screen shot behind them featured a picture of the President, a hot dog, and the tag, “Palabra Cumplida”- “Kept His Word.”
I posted this video a few months back, so in case any of you who missed it would like to see it … here it is again.
As you might possibly have guessed (!) from the number of times I post his stuff here, there are few political writers I admire more than Steve Benen (Washington Monthly). What I love most about him is that, unlike most self-described ‘progressives’, when he disagrees with President Obama on an issue there’s no hysteria or personal abuse, he just calmly, rationally and factually argues his point – and there are few people more persuasive than him.
This is a short film from 2008 about his work as a blogger, entitled ‘Digital Pamphleteer’. It includes footage of Mario Cuomo’s wonderful ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ speech.
The Obama Diary 
You must be logged in to post a comment.