connections. >> my man, when are you coming back to atlanta? >> we need to spend a little quality time together. >> we do, man, we're missing that time. >> you have a great weekend my friend. i'm ali velshi, some millionaires actually want president obama to raise taxes. find out why. plus the tsa, are they really going to frisk you and show off your scanner image? today we are separating fact from fiction. and a solution for long-term space travel, a superstretchy suit that actually mimics the pull of gravity. in new zealand, 27 miners are missing after an explosion ripped through a remote coal mine. rescuers are on the site of the mine right now. two men walked out of the mine with only minor injuries. the major concern is the status of ventilation in the mine. officials say rescuers won't be able to enter the mine until they're certain it's contains no methane gas. as you see in this diagram i'm going to show you, the shaft in the chilean mine were vertical, they were dug to great depth. the trapped miners survived a half a mile under ground. by contrast, the shafts in the new zealand mine are horizontal. the miners are probably a mile and a half inside the mine. but because they drill into the side of a mountain, the miners are probably only a few hundred feet below the surface. here's what the ceo of the pike river mine said about the accident today. >> we do have the advantage because we have been walking in the mine that the men and the rescuers can get in and out of the mine quite quickly. they will work through the night and they'll work until they have determined the extent of the incident and the safety of all of our employees. >> pike river mine employees insist the rescue will not be as complicated as the one in chile. the reason is that the new zealand mine is not a deep shaftded mine. the rescuers can get in and out quite effectively. joining us is the director of the miner training program at penn state college. your assessment of this situation in new zealand? >> as the ceo said, it is a serious situation, any time you have a methane explosion, you just have to, you know, cross your fingers and see how this develops. >> i would say, though, mark, that prior to this chilean situation, most people, most of our viewers looking at a mine collapse or a mine explosion would have very little hope, more often than not things don't go well. we have all changed our perspective on this. we don't know the condition of those 27 men in the mine, we don't know if they're alive or not, but at this point, what is your assessment of where the miners are and how you can get to them. >> the communication was cut, so they're isolated. we just hope that those individuals did not receive, you know, the brunt of this concussion and explosion. so we hope that they're able to get into a safe haven there in the mine. and hopefully then the rescuers will be able to get to them. >> under what conditions can they survive? what has to happen in an explosion like this if you're trapped in a coal mine. >> number one, survive the initial blast, there's going to be heat, there's going to be toxic gases, there's going to be a shockwave, debris is going to be flying around. so it's just like any explosion, which is fire ignition in a confined space, it's very, very serious. so if you survive that, you're able then to put on your self-contained self-rescuer and isolate your lungs from the toxic atmosphere. of course you want to get out of the mine, that hasn't happened here, except for a couple of the miners. now the next best thing is to get into one of these refuge dh chambers where they have food a, water and air. >> thank you very much for your time. we'll stay on top of that story for you. president obama is in lisbon, portugal right now meeting with nato allies. strategy to end combat operations in four years. >> i expressed my gratitude to the portuguese armed forces who are serving alongside us in afghanistan and here in lisbon i look forward to working with our nato partners as we move toward a new face, a transition that begins in 2011 with afghans taking responsibility for security across afghanistan by 2014. >> we expect to hear from obama shortly on how things went today. we want to update you on a sordid tale we told you last month. it involves a married atlanta-based federal judge, a stripper, drugs and guns in a parking lot. just moments ago, judge jack kemp pled guilty to three federal drug charges, kemp was caught buying cocaine, marijuana and prescription painkillers for a stripper he was seeing. he officially retired from the bench right before entering court today. nobody likes to pay taxes, but let's face it, we have got it pretty good. just ask your parents or grandparents. right now the federal tax rate is 35%. in the early '60s was it 61%? 71%, 81% or 91%? i'll tell you when we come back. if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1. castrol edge. it's more than just oil. [ man ] save $523. save $345. 16 minutes could save you 16%. come on. isn't it time an auto insurer gave it to you straight? that's why you should talk to state farm. but not yet. first, talk to any one of the 40 million drivers who already have state farm. 40 million. yeah, that's more than geico and progressive combined. by a lot. 40 million drivers, more savings, and discounts up to 40%. where else are you gonna get discounts like that? but first, talk to your neighbors. chances are, they're one of the 40 million. then call a state farm agent or go online for a free discount double-check. they'll find you discounts you didn't even know you deserved. like discounts for having a safe car. so go ahead. check with your neighbors. then call a state farm agent at 1-800-state-farm or go to discountdoublecheck.com. ♪ before the break, i asked you how much of the incomes of richest americans that they had to give to the government back in the early 1960s. back then the personal income tax rate was a staggering 91%. so much for the good old days. right now of course we're quibbling over 35%. the current top rate versus 39.6%, the top rate. if the bush era cuts aren't renewed. democrats want to keep -- some republicans and democrats want to keep the lower rate at a cost to the economy of $700 billion although some argue that is offset by the job creation that will happen as a result of tax cuts. coming down on the white house side is a group called patriotic millionaires for global strength. they have signed an online letter saying, quote, we understand that cutting our taxes will increase the deficit. the country needs to meet it's obligations in a just and responsible way, unquote. 41% are a minuscule faction of millionaires and millionaires are a minuscule fraction of our population. this raise my taxes campaign came out the same day that the center for responsive politics reported on the wealth of members of congress based on their own financial disclosure statement. in 2009, 261 lawmakers, almost half were millionaires. lawmakers median wealth? $911,000, up 16% from the year before. senators as a whole had a better year than house members, almost $2.4 million in median net worth compared to $765,000 for the house. in just two weeks, four million americans could use their unemployment benefits. why? my cholesterol. anyone with high cholesterol may be at increased risk of heart attack. diet and exercise weren't enough for me. i stopped kidding myself. i've been eating healthier, exercising more... and now i'm also taking lipitor. if you've been kidding yourself about high cholesterol...stop. along with diet, lipitor has been shown to lower bad cholesterol 39% to 60%. lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients who have heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. [ female announcer ] lipitor is not for everyone, including people with liver problems and women who are nurspregnant or may become pregnant. you need simple blood tests to check for liver problems. tell your doctor if you are taking other medications or if you have any muscle pain or weakness. this may be a sign of a rare but serious side effect. let's go, boy, go! whoo-whee! if you have high cholesterol, you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don't kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. time now for your money. at the end of the month, unemployment benefits will expire for 4 million americans. legislation to end those benefits failed in congress yesterday. the battle is between saving those people's livelihoods versus the $4.5 billion price tag. for my weekend show your money, i talked about this with my co-host christine roman, rolen moore and we talked about the $1. >> we are we going to pay for that and is that the new normal, not just extending jobless benefits but a new, bigger infrastructure for helping people live who can't find a place in our economy? >> christine, you know i love you. but i disagree with one thing you said earlier. here's the but. think about this, you said there are no jobs out there in the economy. this is a tough economy, no question. but answer me this question, how is it that immigrants can come in from mexico or central america and within weeks of being here they have two or three jobs. there are jobs for people who want to work. >> picking lettuce and things like that. >> for people who are really working hard to make ends meet, working two or three jobs, when peop people aren't going out and getting a job at mcdonald's just to have a job. >> you're -- they're forcing the people below them to work two or three jobs. that's first. secondly, cnn has seen showed based upon previous data where you had immigrants from mexico who actually, some 4 million who went back because of the economy last year. don't simply assume that they're taking jobs. christine mentioned 4 million. the 4 million have children who are in school. and so it goes beyond just the 4 million. the question, you talk about housing, homeless shelters, filphilanthropy is down. >> a lot of people unemployed. you can see the rest of that discussion saturday at 1:00 p.m. eastern, sundays at 3:00 eastern. al . let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories that we are following on cnn. coerns over ventilation have delayed efforts to locate at least 27 miners in new zealand. they're missing after an underground explosion. rescuers are on stand by trying to figure out the best way to get to them. you can see this teen with his hands up as the plain clothes officer approached him. the officer kicked him three times including once in the groin during last months's arrest. he is one of four people charged with robbery of an undercover officer. and a lot of buzz over the birth of a giant panda cub. she was born weighing a mere 11 ounces. we just learned his sex this week. you looking for a job? we'll tell you how american people are feeling about their job prospects. when i was 16, i was hired as a cashier at the walmart in marinette, wisconsin. that first job launched my career. since i've been with the company, i've been promoted ten times over the span of 11 years. today, i'm a divisional learning and development manager. we can actually help people develop in their own careers. my job allows me to make a difference in the lives of almost 100,000 associates in the northeast. if you think about it, that's almost 8 times the size of my hometown. my name is nick and i work at walmart. ♪ try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. the latest jobs report from the bureau of labor statistics showed an increase of 151,000 jobs in october and the unemployment unchanged at 9.6%. you can look at that little green screen, we're going back into 2008 here. but those job numbers don't tell us about how the american public feels about their prospects post election. gary shapiro, is the ceo and president of the consumer electronicdiseases. >> we do care, we represent 2,000 of america's greatest technology companies and people have to buy our products. they're not luxuries, they're increasing necessities and they want to be employed to do that. >> you guys have a big show in january. it's kind of like the auto show of electronics, it's the same conversation i had with a lot of my auto friends. in the last few years we have seen pull backs because some people have had to take every day innovations and things that are advances as lucxuries becaue they're worried about their jobs. what have you found in your studies? >> we're expecting the best ever in january in terms of great new things. when there's a pull back in the economy, companies are really forced to innovate and work hash hard. what we fellow americans are saying they want a congress that's going to focus on the economy. this is certainly a message that employers are not bad, they create jobs. and that's why we're pretty optimistic, but americans are saying they like democrats, they're a little concerned about republicans, but they understand that we can't keep this spending, we have to attract the best and the brightest and we have to focus on trade. creating jobs makes sense. we are the most invnovative country in the world. >> let's talk about this innovation movement. we have heard a lot of complaining in terms of what's not working in job creation. you've got about four basic principles that you think would make america better for innovation and better for business. free trade, ubiquitous broad band, more people to come into the united states to work and deficit reduction. tell me about this broad band deployment. it's hard to understand how this is an issue that is holding us back. people think america is way out in front on this. >> we are in some ways for people working in their offices. but people at their homes are behind many other countries. we need broad band in our future, that will help productivity, medicine, telework. the administration is doing good things in that area. they're opening up wireless broad band. they're working slowly and not getting internet access. we need the broad band out there. our country has now become a slow growth country like europe. the rest of the world is fast. that means investment is flowing elsewhere. we have to do what we're good at. we're good at innovation. we have all the technology companies. we have to preserve that for our future. that's our only hope. >> there are some americans who rated immigration reform as their highest issue. it is small, let's be honest, 8% of voters in exit polls said that was their biggest issue. you're on the other side of that, you want more immigrants to be able to come into the united states and work? >> we want the right immigrants to come here. we want the best and the brightest, the smartest who always traditionally have gone to our universities until september 11, 2001. we want them to come and stay here. we want the entrepreneurs to come here. if they're willing to hire americans, they should be able to stay. we're all related to people who came here before us for a better life. we are a nation of immigrants. that's the mosaic and the beauty of american. that's why we're the creators. we're genetically people who can do it better and we should focus on our strengths and focus on getting rid of that deficit so we can invest in the future and we'll be the high growth country again in the future. >> one of these days i'm going to make it out to the big show. it is the super bowl of innovation and we look forward to seeing it. >> we would love to have you. we have heard a lot of gripes about the real and alleged gropes at the hands of those tsa screeners. what if someone else's hands were doing the groping? and what if those enhanced pat downs were suddenly against the law? i'll have the latest on the backlash coming up. introducing bayer am. its dual-action formula delivers extra strength pain relief, plus it fights fatigue. so get up and get going with new bayer am, the morning pain reliever. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." 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[ female announcer ] splenda® granulated with fiber. president balm obama is in portugal at a nato summit. the president is also expected to discuss a european missile shield program and we are expecting to hear from him live, probably in about a half an hour or so. we'll bring it to you. minority farmers may finally get their money more than a decade after reaching a settlement with the agriculture department on claims of discriminati discrimination. the senate is expected to approve the more than $1 billion settlement first agreed on in 1999. qualified farmers could each get $50,000 apiece to settle their claims. 13 chilean miners are in hollywood taking in the sights. the miners were brought to l.a. by cnn to attend our all-star tribute to cnn heroes. to watch that join anderson cooper and join stars like halle berry and kid rock as they pay tribute to the people you chose as heroes. thursday night, 8:00 p.m. eastern, also meet all ten of the finalists right now go to cnn.com/heroes. people have made a lot of noise about security at airports. advanced imaging scans that see through clothing and pat downs that don't spare the groin. ron paul, republican of texas, champion of very small government has introduced the american travel dignity act. and i quote, to protect americans from physical and emotional abuse by federal tsa employees. never mind that most americans think keeping explosiveses off airplanes is a good thing. meantime, a fellow republican lawmaker is encouraging airports to ditch those federal employees in favor of private contractors. existing laws allows that to happen. check out the airports that do not use tsa but use private screeners. the rules of procedures do not change. the tsa has to approve the firm who gets the contract and they have to do the same stuff. the latest airport to contemplate a switch is sanford interfarm. >> every time i have seen tests of the system, the private screeners performed statistically significantly better. those aren't my words, those are the words of an independent evaluator. we can do better, we don't have to have 67,000 tsa employees, 3,590 in washington, d.c. administrative personnel making $105,000 on average a year. >> that was congressman john mica. through it all most of us seem just fine with the so-called intrusive screening. 81% of americans believe airports should use state of the art scanners, only 15% disagree. although some people who are objecting are not objecting to the scanners, they're objecting to the pat downs. a pro democracy leader in detention for 15 years speaks out. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t covers 97% of all americans. rethink possible. and it's time now for globe tracking, first up, pro democracy leader is wasting no time in taking advantage of freedom after 15 years in detention. she was released from house arrest on saturday. while in detention for 15 of the past 20 years, her husband died in england. she hasn't seen her two sons in year s suu kyi spoke to cnn and we asked her should they have a system le in the united states or would she settle something more like china? >> i think we would like to have more respect for human rights in burma than at present. we would like the economic progress, but i think that has to be balanced by what i would think of as accountability and i think china is going in that direction. i think some of their local governments and so on have been made to be more accountable and i think accountability is very important, progress needs to go hand in hand with accountability. >> fred joins us now from bangkok. fred, she's a remarkable character, i mean, to the rest of the world she had fallen off the radar. now she's been freed. when we last talked about this, it was unclear what her role was going to be in myanmar and what the government was going to allow her to do. >> yes, very interesting, she already has a lot of interesting plan that she told me about, she said one of the things she wants to do is start a grass roots political movement in myanmar and she wants to do it by using modern technology. like you were saying she's been locked up for 15 of the past 20 years she's missed the internet, mobile media and she wants to challenge the military outside the political process. >> and what's your sense from understanding myanmar, what's the sense of how far they'll let her go, what's changed that they have decided that this person who's been the greatest threat to their authority for the last few decades should not be free? >> reporter: it's very difficult to ascertain that, because one of the things we have been seeing over the past couple of days is since she's been released, she's quite vocal on a lot of issues. and from being there on the ground, i can tell you, she's being watched all the time, people are taking pictures of people who are visiting her, there are spies all around her, but they're letting it happen now. the big question is what's going to happen once she really starts challenging them, once she really starts mobilizing people and there are a lot of people who are looking for change in that country. she tells me she realizes at some point they might find some reason to lock her up again, but she's going to keep going the way that she has been going despite that. >> what a brave woman. our next up, bangkok, thailand, an update on a story we brought you earlier this week. police now say they have uncovered more than 2,000 illegally aborted human fetuses. three people have been charged in the case. officials say the fetuses may have been hidden at the temple for the past year. and new skin tight space suits. turning astronauts into superheroes, it's all about bone density. set it in motion... and it goes out into the world like fuel for the economy. one opportunity leading to another... and another. we all have a hand in it. because opportunity can start anywhere, and go everywhere. let's keep it moving. ♪ okay, now here's our 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bringing you up to speed on some of the top stories we're following right now. researchers are intrigued by an experimental cholesterol drug that has sailed through early trials. it caused a huge spike in hdl or good cholesterol and it cut ldl or bad cholesterol in half. the next step a four or five year study to make sir it's safe and does work. according to a new pugh poll, americans are a little foggy about those elections held last month. only 40% knew that republicans won control of the house. turn out in the low to mid 40s. and a big turnout for harry potter and the deathly hallows. it opened early today, it is projected to earn $100 million just on opening weekend. the eighth and final harry potter movie is due out next year. john boehner, his information gap tops our cnn political update. cnn political correspondent candy crowley joins me now from washington. >> hello, candy. remember the big elections, we went into the morning to see what was going on. i have some discouraging numbers for you, john boehner is speaker to be. and a new pugh poll shows that just 38% of americans correctly identified that he would soon become speaker of the house and maybe probably even a little more disconcertingly, only 46% of people told this pugh poll, correctly said that the house had been taken over by republicans. perhaps we can explain this by saying that just 40% of eligible americans actually voted. so there seems to be a disconnect between the amount of enthusiasm that a lot of people looked at this election and those that actually knew what was going on. sort of discouraging, i think. diversity, it's not often that republicans are seen as the party of diversity, but governors would really like to change that, they're out having meetings in california with a panel of a couple of new governors who they say are the face of the new american party. there's the first hispanic woman governor in new mexico. and the first female governor in south carolina and they're saying small government, low taxes, it's not about race, it's not about male or female, and they're looking to put a softer face on the republican party. and finally, vice president biden is out and about talking about any number of things including speaker nancy pelosi, the high disapproval ratings that she has. he said republicans spent a lot of money to drive up that disapproval. and he said that a lot of great leaders sort of enjoy or disenjoy having popularity and approval ratings that are very split. he talked about ronald reagan, he talked about bill clinton, he said all of them tend to be, especially in an atmosphere like we have right now, divisive kind of characters, but he said he is quite behind her as the new minority leader in the house. >> i'm truly fascinated by that pugh poll, candy. what rock did you have to be hiding under to not know that the republicans won the house. as long as people don't know stuff, i guess you and i stay in business. >> i guess so. but they should listen a little bit more, but we say all the time that a lot of people just tune in in those final days to try to figure out, they do have lives out there. >> even if you tuned in in the last hour, you would have known that one. if you knew nothing else. oh, well. candy good to see you as always. >> i can't explain them, i just report them is all i can tell you. all right, new skin tight space suits are turning astronauts into superheroes and it's all about bone denity coming up after the break. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] they've been tested, built and driven like no other. and now they're being offered like no other. come to the winter event and get an exceptional offer on the mercedes-benz of your dreams. it's our way of showing a little holiday spirit. but hurry -- the offer ends soon. ♪ we are focusing on space for today's big i and that's why we have some major developments in spes technology that could lead to major advances in technology here on earth. over the years we have seen space suits change quite dramatically. take a look over on your left. that's a space suit from 1959, it's a modified version of a high altitude u.s. navy aircraft pressure suit. the second one is the one worn by neil armstrong. we have also got the space suit from 1968 when astronauts needed protection against the terrain on the moon. they also had to be flexible enough to stoop and pick up moon rocks. and from 1984, that's an astronaut jetting with a jet pack on his back. when you're in space for a long period of time, astronauts experience bone loss and painful elongation of the spine. a company has developed a new low gravity outfit to fix this. the professor at mit who helped develop this space suit and alley is next to her showing this next space suit which looks a little more spare than i would expect a space suit to look. >> what we're showing you today is what we call the gravity loading counter measure suit. this is an exercise suit for inside the vehicle. we call that iva, or intravehicular activity. this is specifically to help with astronaut physiological deconditioning, we lose muscle, we lose bone. this is our biosuit, that's the one you would go outside eva. >> things happen to bones of astronauts and you talk about elongations of spines. normally our spines get a little compressed. the idea of elongating my spine feels good to me, but i guess that's not for astronauts? >> we do go through deconditioning during a long duration of space flight. if you're there for 30 or 45, you may lose 40% of muscle strength loss. that's the good news, the bad news is you're going to lose 1% of bone mineral density per month, that's why it's so phenomenal. now the elongation of the spine is because when you sleep every night, just here at home, you actually grow a little bit as well. you're exactly right, you get some pressed during our daily lives and an astronaut goes into microgravity they're floating around. that might be over 2 centimeters. that might cause you back pain. this is the gravity countermeasure we call that. we want to counter all those physiological effects. so that's what ali is demonstrating in the blue suit. >> okay. so what's happening -- what does that suit do? we've seen -- we saw that there's stuff on it. tell me how it works. >> sure. what the suit's doing is loading her from the shoulders on down. the doe dine is basically -- the material specification going on vertically here. we kind of specify in how much pressure she's getting and we're trying to reload her, imagine she's floating in a space station now and might be exercising. we're reloading her for one body weight trying to get one body weight on the bottom of her feet, through the stirrups of our suit here. so you need an elastic material, the blue material. ten y then you can see the white restraints here. it doesn't stretch too much. we specify how much we want it to stretch. incrementally you create this vertical column of loading from her shoulders down to her soles. >> she's going to feel in space more like she feels on earth, the normal weight we carry. explain this to me. could there be implications on earth with this kind of technology? >> so we definitely hope that she'll feel in space like she would on earth. that's the thing. just nice and comfortable. very mobile, but still getting that loading back down to her -- to the bottom of her feet. that's a really important design feature. implications for here on earth, we'd, again, in terms of exercise, muscular skeletal loss, there could be atrophy, just think of it as an exercise suit but a pretty comfortable exercise suit. might help astronauts, might help someone here for some training on earth say if they had some muscle atrophy, they put it on. now, you mentioned it doesn't cover her arms because it's not keeping her life outside the craft. it's for inside the craft. the earth applications are great, especially for pathology, people who have trouble with muscles, bones or some locomotion diseases we're looking at. >> and she looks like a superhero. that helps, too. >> it helps it's a superhero design. i wanted to thank my colleague as well as the european space agency. we're all a big team investigating this research. >> very good. good to talk to you. david newman is director of m.i.t. technology program, telling us she's a professor talking to us about this new suit. i love it. thanks very much, dava. she described her kidnapping of nine months of hell. we're taking a closer look behind elizabeth smart's abduction. (announcer) energy security. climate protection. challenges as vast as the space race a generation ago. and vital to global security. to reach this destination, our engineers are exploring every possibility. from energy efficiency to climate monitoring. securing our nations clean energy future is all a question of how. and it is the how that will make all the difference. i'd get this tightness in my chest. so i went back to my doctor again. we chose symbicort to help control my asthma symptoms all day and night. [ man ] symbicort improves my lung function, starting within 15 minutes. symbicort will not replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. it is a combination of two medicines and should not be taken more often than prescribed. symbicort contains formoterol. medicines like formoterol increase the risk of death from asthma problems, and children and adolescents may have an increased risk of being hospitalized for asthma problems. symbicort is not for people whose asthma is well controlled with a long-term asthma control medicine like inhaled corticosteroids. once your asthma is well controlled, your doctor will decide if you can stop symbicort without loss of control, and prescribe a long-term asthma control medicine. be sure to see your doctor if your asthma does not improve or gets worse. symbicort is a good choice to help control my asthma all day and night. [ inhales ] [ exhales ] ask your doctor if symbicort is a good choice for you. [ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. aspercreme breaks the grip, with maximum-strength medicine and no embarrassing odor. break the grip of pain with aspercreme. breaking news. politico.com is reporting msnbc is suspending "morning joe" co-host joe scarborough for two days after he acknowledged giving eight previously unknown $500 contributions to friends and family members running for state and local offices during his tenure at the network. that is a violation of the parent company nbc's ban on political contributions without specific permission by the network president. as you know, this is an issue that msnbc dealt with recently with keith olbermann, "morning joe" co-host joe scarborough is being suspended for two days. we're going to work on that and get you more information on it shortly. but the accusation, the allegation is for eight previous i unknown $500 tdo nations to family and friends running for office. we're watching as the trial runs down for the man accused of snatching her from her bed. cnn is examining the story behind her abduction. martin savage has a preview. >> reporter: it had been nine months since elizabeth smart disappeared from her home. when police finally got a break. days after brian mitchell's photos appeared on "america's most wanted" police received 911 calls, saying they saw mitchell on this street outside salt lake city and he had been walking with a woman and a girl. police found mitchell and his wife and a girl wearing a gray wig and sunglasses. at first she denied her identity. police knew it was elizabeth. >> amber calls me right after that and says, tom, they called me and asked me to come out to sandy to the police station. and he's in the car driving out there as fast as he can. and i told him, i said, ed, i think you're going to go see your daughter. and then edward calls me and says, and he's just in tears and says, it's her, tom. you know, i thank you. >> reporter: it was the moment they had hoped for all those months but never knew would come. >> i'm so grateful for the prayers and the help and the eyes out there. it is just absolutely wonderful. >> reporter: ed called john walsh and asked him to come to utah. >> all the brothers were there and all the kids, and when she walked down those stairs, that was incredible. that was probably the best day i've spent on this show. >> martin joins us now from atlanta. martin, have you learned anything more about elizabeth smart's story? >> reporter: we have. that's part of the reason we wanted to put this documentary together. it was one to show you the remarkable story, remind you of what a miraculous story it was from the depths of when she was lost to the fear of her parents and the fact she was found alive and well. the question is, what happened to her during those nine months? only until now especially with the trial have we been able to piece together and hear from her, herself, elizabeth smart, the hell she went through. for nine months she was held by brian mitchell and almost every day she testified she was sexually assaulted. remember, she was 14 years old when she was taken. in the middle of the night at knifepoint. she was, as she screamed to her atta attacker, i am just a little girl. she goes on from there to describe to us what happened. we also hear from the testimony and here frar from her family. what is remarkable is to see this transition from a young victim then to this very strong, powerful woman now testifying on the stand against the man who abducted her. >> how is she doing now? that definitely is the curiosity. you would almost expect how could somebody have endured what she did and come out and seem normal? and she certainly does. >> exactly. i mean, that's what everybody says. whether you see her in the courtroom, whether you see her on television, it's like, how can she seem to be so normal? well, the truth is, you know, the family has protected her. they do admit that there is a lot they do not talk about. she does go through therapy, but she has another therapy of her own, uncle tom told me about it. he owns a ranch 40 miles outside salt lake city, and she loves to come out there. there will be days where she calls and says, look, i need to ride. she'll show up, she's got her favorite horse. the horse is a little black horse there. you see. lucy. she gets on there and goes with her younger sister mary ca katherine and rides off. sometimes the uncle goes with them. the number one rule, they don't talk about what happened. but when she comes back she seems better for just being out there. that's therapy in and of itself. >> looking normal on tv in the courtroom doesn't tell you what her story is like. she's going to suffer with that for a long time. good to see you. martin savage in atlanta. it's 2:00. i'm ali velshi. schools considering paying needy kids to show up and work hard in class. going to pay off? plus a cnn exclusive, aung song suu kyi tells us what she expects from president obama. the hot new car that never needs gas. first a developing story in new zealand. 27 miners are missing after an explosion ripped through a remote coal mine. rescuers are at the site of the pike river mine. two miners walked out with only moderate injuries. the explosion cut all communication and power in the mine. a major concern now is the state of ventilation in the mine. officials say rescuers won't be able to enter until their certain it's clear of methane gas. the mine is different from the one in chile where 33 miners were rescued after spending two months trapped underground. as you see on this diagram coming up, this is the mine in chile, the shafts were vertal, dug to great depth. the trapped miners survived a half a mile under ground. the new zealand mine, they're horizontal. officials say the trapped min s ers are a mile and a half inside the mine. because they drill into the sound of the mountain, you can't see that because you can't see the full left of the side, they're a couple hundred feet below the surface. here's what the ceo of pike river mine said about the accident. >> we do have the advantage, we could walk into the mine, a deep shaft mine, the men and rescue teams could get in and out of the mine effectively. yes, they will work through the night and work until they're able to go throughout the mine and determine the extent of the incident and safety of all of our employees. >> pike river mine officials insist the rescue effort will not be as complicated as the one in chile. the new zealand mine is not a deep shafted mine. because of that they can get in and out effectively. joining us by phone to talk about this, the director of miner training at penn state university in university park, pennsylvania. mark, tell me, what -- compare this to what we saw in chile. how is this rescue attempt going to be different? >> well, it's going to be probably totally different. i mean, one, in chile, you had a gold mine, a deep shaft a couple miles under ground. this mine in new zealand is a drift mine. as you say, the portals or the entrance to the mine would horizontal. the ceo said the mine you can walk in. so access is going to be a lot easier. >> what are the challenges that these miners, assuming they're alive, we don't know enough detail about anything because we have no communication with them. what are the challenges they are facing right now? >> well, assuming they are alive, they would need to get to their cache of self-contained self-rescuers. isolate their lungs from the toxic atmosphere. then seek refuge so that they can sustain themselves until they're reached by the miner rescue team. >> what is -- you know, in the chilean mine we didn't hear about them -- we didn't know they were alive until a couple of weeks in. how do people survive in a mine if they survive the blast? >> well, they survive basically -- if there is an ignition and a blast, you know, the main consideration would be secondary explosions. and also the toxic atmosphere. so, again, they need to isolate themselves and get into an area where they're not breathing the toxic fumes, where they have enough oxygen. and so that's their biggest -- that's their biggest challenge right now. >> was the chilean mine situation unusual in that these miners became trapped and had a place to go and hang out until rescuers could find them? >> bewell, the chilean incident was a roof fall. not as devastating in terms of how far reaching. again, the atmosphere did not have gas. so it was a better situation. this is a coal mine in new zealand, so the hazards are greater. >> mark, good to talk to you. thanks very much. mark radomsky at penn state university. president obama is in lisbon, portugal, meeting with nato allies. the summit has afghanistan at the top of the agenda. strategies to end combat operations in four years. >> i express my gratitude to the portuguese armed forces serving alongside us in afghanistan. here in lisbon i look forward to working with our nato and isaf partners as we move toward a new phase. a transition to afghan responsibility that begins in 2011 with afghan forces taking the lead for security across afghanistan by 2014. we expect to hear from the president any minute on how things went today. we'll bring you his comments from lisbon when we get them. we want to update a tale we told you about last month. you may remember some of the details if not the name. it involved a married atlanta based federal judge, a stripper, drugs and guns. moments ago judge jack kemp pled guilty to three of the federal charges against hill. kemp was caught in an fbi sting buying cocaine, marijuana and prescription painkillers for a stripper he was seeing. he retired from the bench before entering court today. sentencing is in a few months. paying students to learn, it's a controversial idea more school districts are exploring. we're going to take a look at that next in "fixing our schools." breaks news. politico is reporting msnbc suspended joe scarborough, "morning joe" anchor joe scarborough for two days because he gave eight previously undisclosed donations to friends and family who were running for office most recently. this is the second, sort of second related incident they've had. msnbc also had an earlier problem with undisclosed donations. they are apparently in contravention unless they get specific permission from the network president. i want to bring in my colleague, who is joining me now from d.c. to talk about this. howard, let's just cut to the chase here. msnbc has done well and not hidden the fact it has a political slant on some of its news that often favors democrats. i don't know that everybody in the world would be all that surprised that a couple of their guys, keith olbermann and joe scarborough, are supporting political candidates. joe scarborough has a history in politics. this is a violation of nbc policy. does it make sense for msnbc? >> it's an embarrassment for msnbc. you have to have the prohibition though everybody know joe scar b borrow is a former senator. he was donating to state legislative races in florida. more important, the statement that scarborough just put out, i was on the phone with msnbc moments ago. he was very contrite. he said he apologized to msnbc and didn't realize this policy would effect state races. he is taking a stance where he's very clearly accepting the two-day suspension the network imposed. that i think will make it less of a messy situation in terms of msnbc moving past this later embarrassment. >> howard, you study this, you know this, this is what you do for a living. how do you deal with networks where taking ideological positions is par for the course during the day or on one show but you can't do that in your individual life? i mean, is it a valid question to say these people vote? they've got their views. in the case of these two guys, they're invited to share their political views in public. i would suspect joe scarborough's endorsement of certain republican candidates is a lot more valuable than a $500 check. >> that's the thing about this, is that the power they wheel, the influence by having that microphone is, indeed, more important than any single donation. at the same time you have to draw a line somewhere. the reason i agree with this policy is it's one thing for scarborough or olbermann or rachel maddow or people on fox or cnn, for example, for that matter in the opinion business, to share their views on the air. but when you get into writing checks for people and you run into a situation as olbermann did, where he interviewed an arizona democratic congressman the same day that he gave the guy money. viewers didn't have any way of knowing that, and i would draw the line there. that's where msnbc tried to draw the line. >> two of the checks we're talking about with joe scarborough are to his brother who was a candidate for statehouse. i mean, i guess the point is nbc has a rule that says if you get clearance you can go and appeal to the boss and see if they will clear you. if he had gotten cleared from the boss, say, my brother's running for a seat in a state legislature, would you have a big ideological problem with that. >> no, in fact, had he done that, that was his mistake not clearing it in advance. had scarborough done that i'm sure the bosses would have said fine. somebody like me who does this for a living, i wouldn't criticize joe scarborough for giving money to his brothers. when you have a series of contributions over the years it creates a certain confusion, is he a player, somebody who's talked about as a future candidate, is he give money to politicians or somebody who is paid to sit in front of a camera like i'm doing now and tell you what he thinks? >> is disclosure enough? if the idea is you disclose it, get clearance from your bosses, do you mind if anchors who are -- or hosts of shows who have an ideological bent to what they do, support their views with money? >> i do mind. i think disclosure is a good first step. here's my problem. so if you say, okay, you know, we know their opinions, it's all right to give money to a politician. what about the next step? is it all right to go to a fund-raiser and help a politician raise money? sean hannity who hosts a show on fox news has done that on more than one occasion. if that's okay, is it all right to write speeches for them on the side or privately give them advice? at some point you crossed the line in which you are no longer independent, even as an opinion person. you are part of a political party. >> got it. howard, always good to have you on the show. thanks very much. come by any time. >> i'll be happy to do that, ali. one of the topics we talk about every day on our show, fixing our schools. we start out looking at 12th grade reading comprehension scores. last year, students scored 288 out of 500 points, up 2 points compared to 2005. but down four points from 1992. education secretary arne duncan says that suggests senior's achievement isn't rising fast enough to make them succeed in college and careers. one idea educators have is to improve grades and test scores to provide incentives to students. a harvard economist tried it out in four cities with different results. in new york didn't help improve standardized test scores. chicago, grades improved but standardized test scores did not. in d.c., kids did better on standardized reading tests. in dallas where second graders were paid to read books, it significantly boosted reading comprehension stores on standardized tests. chris spence, the director of the trotto school district, my hometown, the school which i was educated. he's using social media to test the idea of cash for good grades. you tweeted out earlier this weeks, should we pay kids in more disadvantaged communities to do well in school? what feedback did you get for that? >> the feedback is mixed. there's people who love it, there's people who hate it. the fact we're getting a response on how to better serve our kids, particularly from more marginalized communities, it's a great conversation to have. >> i put it on facebook. we got a ton of responses quite quickly about this whole idea. when you tweeted that as director of the school board, what do you think? are you putting it out there for an idea or have some idea this might work? >> i mean, i'm all about trying different things to better support our students. one of the things i want to do, i want to lead with questions rather than solutions. this is a big question for us. we need to stay to ourselves, what else can we do to make sure every student gets the opportunity to walk that stage with pride, dignity and options? >> it is a question, though, some people say, if you take the incentive to learn and be good and do well in school away from the goal, and that is that i will do well in life, i will get into a good university, and i'll have a good career and you make it about something else, are we endangering the value of what education should be? >> well, you know, again, the commentary on that has been mixed, but for me, again, the end result is how do we look at different ways of serving our kids? and you know, for some kids, you know, they don't need the motivation. they don't need the incentive. you know, they've been brought up in an environment in which education has been valued. so it's not an issue for them. this isn't a panacea. this is just a -- >> you want to figure out a way to get students more engaged. what would you do? what kind of things have come up as ideas for paying kids? are we talking about cash, talking about incentives? >> well, again, it's such a high-level concept now. it's starting to unfold. one of the things we did is we sat up a task force to take a look at this. you can talk about attendance, you can talk about, you know, being involved in certain social justice activities around the school. all the things we know help to engage kids. the first thing is, they have to be in the building. for some of these kids from some of these communities they're not even there. how do we get them there and enkbaj them further in learning? >> could be anywhere from giving them some incentive to come to school or in dallas to read books all way to pay for performance? >> absolutely. i have to tell you, two years ago i had the opportunity to visit the spark program here in nyc. i was amazing. when i was sitting in the classroom and heard those kids and the conversation when they received their checks, one kid, check for $86, all of a sudden he said, you know what, can two to college, universities. for too many of the kids, post secondary is seen in the abstract and not a reality because so many are educational pioneers in their families. another kid, $15, she said, i have to work harder, make sure i complete my assignments. there's a whole series of things we can look at. i think just having this conversation is great. >> we often talk very regularly about things here in the united states, or tare the challenges canada the same? >> canada, united states, two different countries. when you take a look at results and thicks like that, canada is doing well. one of the things there seems to be commonality on are some of the marginalized groups. i mean, we have kids in our system, subgroups of learners where 40% do not graduate. the same could be said for some communities here in the united states. trying to open the door and say, okay, how are we going to serve these kids is something we're up for that. >> chris, thanks for joining us. good to talk to you. >> thank you. chris spence, director of toronto district school board talking about the concept of paying school kids. go to facebook and tell me what you think of the idea of paying kids, or an enseincentive to do better in school. a cop is seen kicking a teenager. the story behind the pictures, coming up in two minutes. nothing beats a sale! wrong move! you. you can save up to half off that sale when you name your own price on priceline. but this one's a deal...trust me. it's only pretending to be a deal. here, bid $79. got it. wow! you win this time good twin! there's no disguising the real deal. let me give you a check on top stories we're covering at cnn. concerns over ventilation delayed efforts to location 27 miners in new zealand. rescuers are on stand by trying it figure out the best way to get to them. two miners did manage to escape. a seattle officer caught on surveillance video kicking a 17-year-old boy has been reassi reassigned. he kicked the teen three times including once in the groan during last month's arrest. the teen is charged with attempted robbery of an undercover officer. birth of a giant panda's cub. weighed a mere 11 ounces. we learned his sex this week. i guess that means he's a he. an update on the breaking news. joe scarborough suspended for two days from msnbc after figuring out he had given a series of previously undisclosed political donations to friends and family who are running in state and local races. in violation of msnbc policy. which says if you want to give those kind of donations you have to clear it with the president of the company first. he has issued a statement in which he has apologized. said he's been told his donations violated msnbc guidelines. his statement says, i gave a number of $500 contributions to my brother and three longtime family friends. these contributions were nothing more than simple acts of friendship. i gained nothing personally, politically or professionally from these donations. to be blunt, i had no interest in their campaigns other than being kind to longtime friends. he apologizes for what he has done and says this will not happen again. we're honoring your heroes with an all-star tribute next week. what happens on stage is the first step. we'll take a closer look coming up. aww, not the mall. well, i'll do the shopping... if you do the shipping. shipping's a hassle. i'll go to the mall. hey. hi. you know, holiday shipping's easy with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. yea, i know. oh, you're good. good luck! priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.90 only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. aspercreme breaks the grip, with maximum-strength medicine and no embarrassing odor. break the grip of pain with aspercreme. next week we'll be bringing you to an all-star tribute of the top cnn heroes of 2010. these are people who made positive and lasting contributions to their community and to the world. their mission doesn't just end with an awards show. cnn's anderson cooper takes a look. >> reporter: good evening, and welcome to cnn heroes. for the last three years cnn heroes an all-star tribute has given us all a chance to come together and honor everyday unsung heroes who are changing the world. >> it's a tremendous show. this is what people do every day with no fanfare or any cameras. >> if you're going to go to any awards show, come to this. >> reporter: on thanksgiving night we celebrate the top ten cnn heroes with tributes. >> i want to honor the strength of a remarkable woman. >> reporter: awards. and inspired performances. ♪ >> to the heroes of cnn. >> reporter: we announce the cnn hero of the year you voted for. cnn hero of the year is efron pena florida. what happens after the show is perhaps the best encore of all. the global exposure all the heroes receive to transform their work and their lives. doc henley just opened a water filtration plant in haiti bringing clean water to an estimated 8,000 people every month. roy foster is now able to help female veterans. after being named 2009 cnn hero of the year efron pena florida captured the attention of an entire nation. his push cart classroom model has been replicated more than 50 times across the philippines. more than just one night, cnn heroes an all-star tribute has the power to change our world by inspiring the hero in each of us. >> thank you all so much for having us here today. it is a blessing. >> you can see the 2010 cnn heroes an all-star tribute on thanksgiving at 8:00 p.m. eastern. join anderson cooper along with john legends, halle berry and kid rock. again, next thursday night 8:00 p.m. eastern. meet all ten of the finalists right now by going to cnn.com/heroes. myanmar's pro democracy leader freed from is a ye15 yea detention. ave a box. and inside that box is their financial life. people wake up and realize i better start doing something. we open up that box. we organize it. and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think, "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. bring you up to speed with the top stories we're following at cnn. president obama is in portugal attending a key nato summit. afghanistan tops the agenda for the two-day summit. the nato allies are talking about a plan to turn over security for some provinces to afghan forces by early next year. minority farmers may finally get their money. more than a decade after reaching a settlement with the agriculture department on claims of discrimination. the that is expected to approve the more than $1 billion settlement agreed on in 1999. qualified farmers could get $50,000 a piece. to settle their claims. the 33 rescued chilean miners are living it up in los angeles right now, seeing the sights, meeting important people and taking pictures with tourists. the miners and a handful of rescu rescuers were brought to l.a. to attend the cnn heroes. see the tribute thanksgiving night at 8:00 eastern. time for globe trekking. myanmar, formally known as burma, aung song suu kyi is wasting no time taking advantage of freedom from 15 years of detention. they released her from house arrest on saturday. she'd been held for 15 of the past 21 years. her party won the country's first election in 1990. the results were annuled by the military. suu kyi spoke with cnn and was asked what she expects now from the obama administration. here's what she said. >> i believe in engagements. i'm not against that. there are lots of people who say that because now the u.s. has decided to engage with the regime, they turned their back on us. i don't think of it like that. i think engagement is a good thing. i don't want them to go into engagement wearing rosie colored glasses. i think i want them to be practical about it. not engaged in rose colored glasses but keeping your eyes open and alert. what engagement is leading to and what changes really need to be brought about. >> fred joins me from bangkok. he conducted that interview. give offer viewers perspective on this whole thing. she won an election. the government throws her in a jail for is15 of the last 21 years, not jail, house arrest, unable to see her children. her husband who lived in britain died while she was under house arrest. she missed the interesting things that happened in the last 15 years. why let her out now? >> well, one of the reasons is they just had another election which the international community, of course, america also said it was a complete sham, ali. so right now i think that the military junta in myanmar believes they sidelines her from the political process. she has a different view of all of this. she's working to get a grassroots movement going across the country. she's trying to mobilize people who support her and i ink that her main goal is she's going to try and gather so much momentum that they won't be able to ignore her anymore. so certainly that's something that's quite dangerous for her, but it's also something the military leaders there will be very worried acbout. >> here's the question. you asked her what she expressed from president obama. is she really in a position to be expecting anything? is it likely she's going to emerge as a leader of a political party or be able to have some voice or if she says anything and steps out of line she's going back under house arrest? >> well, anything's really possible. you know, it's very difficult to ascertain what the military leadership in myanmar is going to do. are they going to throw her in jail if she keeps campaigning or let her do this? certainly if you look at her right now, she is by far the most important opposition figure in that country. i mean, she was released from detention, thousands of people went on the streets. people who were afraid to speak their opinion at any other time, put on t-shirts, bearing her picture on it. she is someone who's an important figure. there are people who believe in the future if things change in myanmar she could be a potential leader of that country. also there's one very interesting point, possibly the military leaders believe that if they work together with her, they could get some of the sanctions against their country lifted. they believe that she's someone who could campaign for that if they work together with her. we're not really sure what they want to do, but certainly she is a very, very important figure and one that they take very, very seriously, ali. >> fred, good to see you. thanks for much. our next stop on globe trek is bangkok, an update on a story earlier in the week. police say they uncovered more than 2,000 illegally aborted human fetuses recovered at a buddhist temple in the thai capital. police searched the temple after neighbors complained about the smell of decay. one person is charged with performing illegal abortions. two have been charged with hiding the remains. the fetuses may have been hidden at the temple for the past year. abortions are illegal in thailand or except in cases where a woman's life is engaged we her pregnancy. designer verne yip helps improve children's lives. he joins us next to talk about his work with unicef. gecko: gd news sir, i jugot ae anople really love our claimservice. gecko:speciallthe auto repair xpress. repairs are fast and they're guaranteed for as long as you is thisyyourcphone?ey, th! gecko: yeah, 'course. sswhere do you po you...carry... for as long as you is thisyyourcphone?ey, th! waitress: here you go. boss: thanks gecko: no, no i got it, sir. ncr: geico. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. tomorrow is the u.n.'s universal children's day. the idea is to remember the plight of millions of vulnerable kids worldwide and take action to better their lives. the u.n. children's fund marks the event in new york with the lighting of the unicef snowflake which represents a beacon of hope. the snowflake ceremony was held last night. our guest, verne yip, helped flip the switch and light her up. verne was named a unicef ambassador earlier this month. pleasure to have you here. thank you for having us. what do you do as unicef ambassador? >> you know, my chief responsibility is really to get the word out. i don't think a lot of people know that 22,000 kids a day under the age of 5 die needlessly. that's not a month, that's not a year, that's a day. >> 22,000. the button you're wearing on your lapel. >> absolutely. you'll notice it's crossed out all the way to zero. that's the goal of unicef and my goal, too, to make sure that number goes from 22,000 kids a day that die needlessly to zero. these are kids who don't have access to simple vaccinations, water, nutrition. unicef has been for years now working to get that number to zero. >> we certainly know the name. every kid knows unicef. it works in abstractions now. people sort of need something to identify with. where are some of these things happening? when i see 22,000 kids, under the age of 5? >> under the age of 5, correct. >> where in the world is this h happening? >> unicef is in over 150 countries. people see specific places at the forefront of what's happening in the media at the moment, but unicef is in over 150 countries because they don't care about a political situation in a country, they don't care about the race of the gender. >> right. >> of a child or the religious affiliation. for unicef it's about the fact there is a child and that child needs help. so whether it's emergency relief or getting water there or getting nutrition or vaccines, it doesn't matter. it's about sort of helping those kids. >> you're trying to help because you got a particular audience of people who think you're amazing. and they're going to listen because if vern's involved in this that must mean it's something i should pay attention to. what can the aftverage person d? you're an ambassador, people are seeing you on my show. what should we be thinking about with respect to getting the 22,000 a day down to zero? >> everybody can help. everybody can do something. that's the important thing to grasp. this is the season of giving. it's a wonderful time to be with your friends and family. oftentimes people are spending so much time at the mall, focused on purchasing things. if you go it to unicef.usa.org you can purchase inspired gifts from around $20 on up. there are so many things you can do. you can purchase mosquito nets that go somewhere, purchase things that are more education oriented or more water oriented. >> you're buying things for -- that will go and help people, kids in these countries? >> absolutely. instead of purchasing an actual thing to give to somebody you're giving them a present that keeps on giving, you know, the fact you are going to have mosquito nets deliver the on behalf of somebody to children somewhere. that's a pretty special thing. >> that is a great idea. >> yeah. >> how are you -- how are you enjoying it? we love having you on here. how are you enjoying your relationship with unicef? >> i'm loving it. for me flipping the switch last night on the snowflake was huge. that's a huge iconic part of the holidays in new york city. a lot of people don't necessarily know that snowflake represents unicef. it's the unicef snowflake and it's a beacon of hope for children around the world. i'm designing the unicef snowflake gala that happens at the end of the month as well. >> great to have you here. thank you so much. what a great idea. inspired gifts. i'm on your site on this one. in a couple minutes i'm going to talk to my viewers about this crazy shopping. we're a week away from black friday. i want to put a little water on this. let's find good uses for our money, though i want everybody to help the economy. do some good while you're at it. vern, thanks for bringing this message to everybody who thinks you're terrific including us. celebrity designer on set with us. if you want to know more about it, we have linked to unicef and vern's website on my blog. go there and we'll direct you. president obama has choice words for business leaders. ed henry is going to fill us in on the conversation starter when we come back. out of the very best america had to offer. ingenuity. integrity. optimism. and a belief that the finest things are the most thoughtfully made -- not the most expensive. today, the american character is no less strong. and chevrolet continues as an expression of the best of it. bringing more technology to more people than ever in our history. inventing new ways to get around our planet while helping to preserve it at the same time. exploring new horizons of design and power. and making our vehicles amongst the safest on earth. this isn't just any car company. this is chevrolet. and the strength of our character can be found in every car and truck we make. it's why, today, tomorrow, and on into a bright future, we can proudly say... ...chevy runs deep. ♪ ♪ ♪ came in last night at half past 10:00 ♪ ♪ that baby of mine wouldn't let me in ♪ ♪ so move it on over ♪ move it on over ♪ move it on over ♪ move it on over ♪ move over, little dog, 'cause the big dog's movin' in ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] a dog & a chevy, what else do you need? ♪ president obama is offering an olive branch to the business community in an effort to smooth over bad feelings. as always at this time we're joined by cnn's senior white house correspondent ed henry. what's this about? >> reporter: you remember the u.s. chamber of commerce has been at war with the white house for months now. they spent tens of millions of dollars tries to defeat the president's health kcare plan. spent tens of millions of dollars in the midterm election largely electing republicans, also campaigning for conservative democrats. what i'm hearing from officials close to the negotiations, some new information that the president was considering gives a speech to the chamber of commerce, sort of going into the lion's den on december 2nd when they're planning a jobs summit in washington. that event has been canceled for unrelated reasons. the chamber i'm told is planning a new event in early january when the new congress comes in, right before the president's big state of the union address. they're planning to invite the president a second time now. i'm told by officials they're looking favorably on this notion of burying the hatchet here. there's been this pessimism in washington that look, the president has an agenda that's at odds with the business community in the estimation of some in the business community and maybe he's going to have a hard time coming together with the republicans taking power in the house. there might be a ray of hope here for the white house. that maybe the president can work together with the chamber of commerce, some of these business groups on say, trade. saw tom donahue, president of chamber of commerce, for example, in south korea last week fighting hard on the president's behalf to try to seal that free trade deal. hasn't happened yet. they're going to work together to cut debt, for example, might be support if of recommendations coming out of the president's debt commission. the business community is basically taking the posture from what i'm told, you know, the election's over. they, you know, they helped defeat some of the president's folks, but it's over now and want to work together with the president. we'll see. there might be an opportunity here for both sides to come together. >> if you run on to tom donahue, let him know to come on the show. >> is he not a fan or yours? >> not at all. he thinks i'm a lefty freak or something like that. we invite him on. tom donahue, talk to me about your policies and about the things that he has been fighting and we want to talk about business. >> i'm going to have his people call your people. >> his people call my people a lot. we just never get to talk to tom donahue. they put out statements and all sorts of things. tom donahue won't answer my questions. >> sounds like a beef you have here. >> no, no, it's an invitation. open invitation to talk to me. ed, the president is in portugal. >> he is. and i think largely we're going to see a nato summit, and our colleague, chris lawrence, is reporting that basically the president and the administration in general, what they're thinking about in private is the notion of trying to get maybe two or three provinces in afghanistan to be secure enough to be handed over back to the afghans as early as next summer. we'll see th. that might be ambitious. this is going to be about afghanistan and the nation ahead there. >> good to see you, my friend. i will se see you. i'm off next week. thanksgiving, you know. >> have a great thanksgiving you and your family. look forward to seeing you on the other side. new time next week. 1:00. >> always a pleasure, ed. have a good weekend. time for a political update. cnn congressional correspondent brianna keilar joins me from capitol hill with new developments involving congresswoman maxine waters. let me guess, something to do with ethics? >> reporter: this has to do with ethics. she had an ethics trial scheduled for a week from monday, november 29th. the ethics committee telling us it's not going to be held. we're going to be writing something up shortly. this ethic committee statement said the committee voted to recommit to the investigative subcommittee due to materials discovered that may have had an effect on the investigative subcommittee's transmittal. what does that mean? basically they're kicking it back to the group of law make who are oversaw the investigation. as per usual the ethics committee being secretive about why they're doing that. also on the ticker, this has to do with the economy. the american people still not feeling very good about the economy. according to a new poll, a new cnn opinion research corporation poll, more than half of americans polled said that they don't think the economy is doing so well. that said, more than half, 52%, also said they're hopeful things are going to be better here in the next year. that is, though, the smallest percentage in that hopeful group we've seen since the recession began in december of 2007. and then also, ali, you know, that whether or not the stimulus or as democrats call it the recovery act, whether it was successful as a big, political issue here on capitol hill. some democrats say, yes, it was, republicans say it wasn't. well, we do know that the stimulus managed to stimulate ad spending, $82 million spent on tv ads mostly attacking the federal stimulus so the great amount of that coming from republicans saying it was a failure. that's also on the cnn political ticker, ali. >> interesting way of looking at it. stimulating the ad industry. brianna keilar, on capitol hill. i'm going to take you for a car ride in a new car that never needs gas right after this break. here's a myth: you can't switch car insurance until your policy expires. the truth: you can switch to allstate today. extra incentive: you can get allstate's early signing discount. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. no leaves on the trees in lots of places. next month there will be leafs on the road. i'm talking answer the nissan leaf. unlike most of its green predecessors the leaf is entirely electric. it will wear a zero emissions badge. it's built to go 100 miles on a single charge, priced not too bad for a high-tech piece of machinery, 25,000 bucks after your tax rebate. as for when you can get one, that's a good when. nissan has taken 27 reservations for the first batch and don't plan on taking anymore until sometime next year. i managed to sneak peek at one of them, however, i took the wheel and i played chauffeur for nissan ceo, carlos gone. >> is this a big stretch at this point for the average car buyer to get into this? what's the -- >> it's not going to be a big stretch. i think first people would like to know what an electric car look like. >> right. >> how does it feel to drive it. >> right. >> what kind of, you know, what is the interface with the electric car. how do i charge it? is it complicated? the only difference really between this and a normally inducted car is the charge-up. from a driver's perspective, that's the difference, right? >> the big difference between this and a combustion engine, first there's a charger, elect thisty. there's no noise, vibration, there is no smell, there is no gasoline. there is no gas pipe. there is no reservoir. there are a lot of changes for the driver. >> right out o the gate there are two cars people are going to think of as being electric cars. this and the chevy volt. you seem to think there's a distinct difference. r you walked around the car and showed me no muffler. >> this car, by no way uses gasoline for nothing. okay? so we tend to say electric car is a car that will not use gasoline. there's no exhaust pipe, there's no emission of any sort. any other car using gasoline is a hybrid. of some sort. you can have a motor and an engine. you can say the engine is not used to move the car, it's used to charge the battery, et cetera, et cetera. you're still using gasoline. the objective for us, obviously we have hybrids. this is not about hybrids. this is about having the technology and having a car which is totally, totally neutral in terms of emissions to the environment. >> how big a role will electric cars play not just in nissan but in the automobile industry? >> my projection is in ten years down the road, 2020, the global car market, 10% of the global car market would be made by electric cars. >> get the rest of that interview on cnnmoney.com. you can't wait to get your hands on those super black friday bargains? i say buyer beware. i'll tell you why in my x, yz coming up next. on the mr twins haa g probm.shd up the da. of hld hearing aid. so s got ayr in her andveryin. whh on at works round the clock wio ily hassle. no tinoftt. lyc fits cfortab right next to your ear drum to deliver truly raund . in5% of spryric sound qua to deliver truly raund . to their old hearing aid. in5% ller twiic sound qua withyric cear d doost everything her sister does twenty-four seven. ifiing e with zero dailya hassle: too odo pa up. dll11 50 t nowand k out yourris sister does twenty-four seven. try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. time now for the x, y, z. i'm a business guy but not into the hype surrounding black friday. millions of you will rush out to take advantage of christmas holiday discounts. scores of retailers will work in overdrive to lure you into their stores with door buster deals. i see zero reason for people to line up predawn because retailers are good at creating artificial demand for stuff. i don't want to poop on your party. there are good deals out there, but watch out for the real black friday hoaxes out there. for example, if you're lining up at

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