believe in a residential care facility being sexually assaulted by as many as ten male suspect. sheriff's investigators spent the past several months trying to identify these suspects because the video was of such poor quality in many cases. as you mentioned, yesterday, they went public with some of the images, there's some stills of the men, because the imj as were so graphic, and so disturbing, they have not even allowed us to see the videotape. much less put it out to the public. what's interesting, there was a letter accompanying these videos that said, that it was from a computer technician who was hired to wipe the hard drive clean from a laptop that was bought by somebody else. this person said he bought it from a crack head in englewood for $20. when the computer technician saw the images on the hard drive, he was so disturbed -- he copied them and anonymously sent them to sheriff's department investigators and said please catch these sick people doing these things. sheriff's investigators had no idea who these perp rerts were until last night. they got a significant break in the case. it turns out the los angeles police department, some detectives there recognized two of the suspects. one of them is actually in prison, convicted of financial crimes, neglect, and sexual assault in a residential care facility. the other person was not brought to trial because there was a lack of evidence for the district attorney's office. they think they no who two of these guys are, and asking for the public's health and anonymous tipster's help. they'll be meating with the lapd putting these two cases together. they say it's very, very high priority because they've been receiving calls from concerned relatives of people in nursing facilities. worried their loved ones might have been victimized by these people. >> why did they decide to go public and how long did the police have the case before they went public? >> they had it for several months and they spent hours and hours trying to digitally enhance these images to try to recognize them. basically they had no luck. they decided to bring this case public and it absolutely brought some results last night. and, casey, finally they think they've identified two of these guys. how many people are they looking for? >> reporter: i'm sorry, i think they identified two of them. they've got eight other suspects that they've identified. individual suspects. and they have sounds from an interview i did earlier this morning with the lead detective on this case. it's really incredible when you hear what he has to say about how disturbing these images are. >> i was floored. i've seen a lot of terrible, terrible imagery in my current assignment, that involved children and all kinds of other, you know, hideous things, but this was amongst the most heinous that i've ever seen. poor, defenseless people who can't cry out for help or fend off an attacker, and, what i saw were just these poor people lying there, being victimized, in the most terrible way i've ever seen. >> and, again, as we mentioned, ali, they'll be meeting with their colleagues in the los angeles police department to try to identify these other eight unknown suspects. >> wow, what a story. okay, casey, now that they've got a couple, at least know where one of them is. hopefully they'll be able to break the rest of it pretty soon. casey wian, in los angeles, thanks very much. okay, a little over a week ago, we brought you the incredible story of gladys and jamie scott, two sisters serving two life sentences for a robbery netting $11. that's not the incredible part but some people call that outrage. the judge ordered them released. on the condition that gladys, donates one kidney whose failed. gladys offered to do that. but in terms of suspending a prison sentence it's bizarre if not unprecedented. in any event, we have an update on the story. >> yeah, we're free! >> hope you heard that. the scotts driving away from a prison in pearl, mississippi, a whole lot sooner than state officials estimated a week ago. that's not the end of the story or stories. there are a lot of angles to this. cnn martin savidge joins me to look ahead. martin, what happens next in this story? >> reporter: well, really, it's interesting, ali, that getting out of prison is just the beginning of what will be a long road and could be a very convoluted road. there's four hours of freedom for two year sisters after 16 years behind bars. first two hours of freedom had been spent in two way, number one. sleeping. they didn't get a lot of sleep, if you can imagine, because of the release today. two, getting food and three, the press conference expected 2:00 local time and 3:00 eastern time. that's when we begin to get answers. perhaps. i say perhaps, because as you know, their release was conditional, based upon what the governor set as specific conditions, one, the transplant, if there is a match, two, they want to be careful what they say, they realize it's a conditional release and realize the governor or those in the correctional department could change their minds, so they have to be careful for the first appearance in front of television cameras but the real condition is the condition of jamie. here's what he said. >> we're going to get them to medical facilities where treatment for jamie will take place immediately. then the doctors have to tell us how long it takes to test. we're not absolutely sure. but we don't expect it to take a long time. >> t >> rf t the test he's talking about is to figure out if gladys was a match for her sister. that could not be determined while they are in prison. that's critical if the whole transplant goes ahead. we know jamie will be in dialysis in florida, means they'll be headed there late tonight or early tomorrow morning. it's not only health care but their families. their mother is very, very anxious to see them. >> i don't understand, they didn't do a test whether one sister could be a kidney donor to the other. what happens if she's not a match? >> reporter: this is the question that's come up, many, many times. what if she is not a match? does that mean one of the sisters goes back to prison? the governor's office ensured that's not the case. it's rather interesting. since the whole announcement came about, the suspension of sentence, it appears the governor's office has been back pedaling because of the tremendous amount of attention and the outrage associated with kidney donation as part of some sort of get out of jail plan. i think the governor's office realized, either misspoke or perhaps it's no longer wise to continue talking about the kidney transplant. they say now, it's humanitarian reasons, she needs medical help, will find that medical help best outside of prison. >> i guess part of this. i don't know whether this came from the governor's office or not but the cost, for the prison service it's a whole lot cheaper to get that one sister, who is getting dialysis out of prison. >> reporter: they anticipated it was causing the prison system. about 200 thousand a year, alone, just for jamie to get dialysis, that means that's a medical burden, a cost the state would no longer have to take. it's also humanitarian reasons. what the governor doesn't want to address and probably wants to avoid is any question, he thought the sentence originally was unjustified and he would be freeing them for that reason. it's not. he always said it's medical and humanitarian reasons. >> marty savidge, what a story, martin savidge, in jackson, mississippi, we'll be hearing more about this later on in the afternoon when they hold a press conference. >> okay, an athlete in his prime, mar liezprime paralyzed by a tackle and bed ridden. you might think this will make you bitter and optimistic. not for eric, he's making progress and tells us inned to's sound effect, he knows there will be more. >> i believe that i will walk one day, i believe it. god has a plan for me and i know it's not to be sitting here all of the time. i know he has something planned bigger for me. >> rutgers announced legrand regained some sensation in his body. with all of the reports the government puts out the job report is the top of the list. it looks good unless you look closely. we learned the unemployment rate took a tumble last month from 9.8% to 9.4%. here's a look at picture of jobs gained and lost. you can see this all of the way to 2008. bot at many that. losing 700,000 jobs a month. beginning of 2008 and 2009. at the end of 2009 we started to gain jobs. in 2010 had a rough time through the middle of the year. for december we gained $103,000 jobs for the month. what mattered is how many jobs the economy created. that's much loweren than expectations but if you take the green for the year, what you have is 1.1 millionn started. and while any gain is good. gains likeeson k upep up with the pace of population growth. the economy, wiped out. so, that's another important thing to look at. i'm going to talk more about all of this why my "your money" como-host christine romans. patients denied transplants because of budget cuts. 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[ barks ] [ woman ] emergen-c. feel the good. fallout in arizona after two patients died after state budget cuts eliminated funding for certain types of transplants. now senate majority leader wants to restore $1.2 billion cut from the budget before anyone else dies. randall shepherd needs a heart transplant, one of the people taken off the list. >> i received word about a year after i was placed on the transplant list. i received word these cuts were on the horizon. there's a chance this was going to happen from my nurse coordinator. and she said, contact your state slate tor legislators, contact everybody you can. then i got the official call, unofficially on the inactive list, until either funding becomes made available or i'm able to raise the funding myself, na there's -- i'm not going to get my heart until then. it's obvious, if the state's broke, it's broke. and i can kick and scream all i want. if there's no money for a transplant then it's not going to happen. i think there's a lot of areas where cut backs could be made before they get to the transplant cuts. before things actually affecting people in life and death situation. i really feel bad for the governor making this legislation. i won't want to be the one that makes the call that results in someone else living or dying. >> generous way to look at t. a lot of you have weighed in on my facebook page. kathy writes, i probably have a different opinion than others. patients should not be denied help because they are poor. deb said i feel most for the families who must sit back and watch a loved one die for this reason. can someone start a foundation which will pay for life saving medical wroprocedures? continue to post on my facebook come. brand-new figures the economy is adding jobs and unemployment rate dropped. why are economists still worried? [ male announcer ] breathe, socket. just breathe. we know it's intimidating. instant torque. top speed of 100 miles an hour. that's one serious machine. but you can do this. any socket can. the volt only needs about a buck fifty worth of charge a day. and for longer trips, it can use gas. so get psyched. this is a big step up from the leafblower. the 2011 chevrolet volt. it's more car than electric. okay. the december jobs report has just come out. every year, every month, in the first week of the month. we get the jobs report for the previous month. let me show you what it said. unemployment rate has fallen, to 9.4%. that is the lowest rate that we've had since may of last year. i'm going to tell you why i'm not all that concerned about that. here's the bigger issue. 103,000 jobs added. a combination of jobs added minus jobs lost. by the way, 113,000 of those came from the private sector. more jobs created in the private sector than overall jobs. why? because the government shed 10,000 jobs. that's a trend we've been seeing now that we don't have stimulus and census jobs. also, what happens when we get an unemployment report, they give you an update to the previous couple of months and october and november both saw increases. their numbers were revised. so we added about 70,000 jobs to the 2010 total. that brings us to 1.1 million jobs created in 2010. that, by the way, is the best job creation year sin 2007. let's talk more about this with my friend, christine romans standing by in new york. christine, all sorts of people are going to have all sorts of thoughts about the economy and things, but the reality, 15 million people unemployed in the united states. we've lost 8 million jobs in this recession and should have added another three on top of that. we're way behind. while this is good. let talk a little more about where jobs, good jobs, good paying jobs. >> reporter: you said it's the best year since 2007 what happened since 2007, it's utter misery in the economy. that's the big as strict. where is the job creation. in this report, things like health care, leisure and travel. hospitality, temporary workers added about 500,000 new jobs in the year, when you look at how many times i said it, stem, science, technology, engineering, math, these are areas, talk to economists, people making policy in washington, say what do you want your kid to be, your grandkid. they name all these areas, just this week, career cast put together the best jobs of 2011. those jobs on the top of this list. software engineer, aps. all kind of new ways using technology. math ma tigs, actuary. a statistician, people would can distill information and data. we have so much information, this is a growing and moving industry, computer systems, ali. they all require a college degree, yes, they require some degree of math stills. mama, don't let your babies to grow up and be liberal arts majors, like us. other surveys show highest paid liberal arts majors or english degrees have tailored that to science and technology. so you can take other skills and apply them. >> but the world is in the science and technology world. i've got a column in this mon's money magazine investors guide. one of the great careers to get into is accounting. something that requires numbers and math. but making a mid career stretch. information technology, computers that's a great place to make a switch into. it's demand, growing demand for years to come. all of those jobs that i'm talking about are mobile. go anywhere in the country and some cases anywhere in the world with these. >> you even talk to some sort of career coach to say if you can taylor your still skills for a company that focus on information technology or computer systems even if that's not the skill set but seeking out those companies growing, they also need worker, clerical worker, other service worker, maybe that's a way to put your foot in the door so you get back to school. in the evening, community college, do retraining, what have you, the hard part, ali there's 6 million people out of work for 6 months or longer. lee look at a list like that and feel insulted. >> they need a job today. >> i completely hear that. while that job is not coming, at least look to the future, i look to people who through no fault of their own continue to find themselves unemployed. we'll talk more about this. tune in to "your bottom line" where christine gives you all sorts of good information. i'm joining her on that show this weekend and she's joining me on "your money" which airs at 1:00 eastern sundays at 3:00. we've got lots of information if you're looking for a job. okay. 23 minutes after the hour. let's check developments in the top stories. although the unemployment rate has dropped. federal reserve chief ben bernanke is still painting a pretty picture for employment. he told us not enough jobs are created to keep pace with the number of people looking for work. berne nanky said it will take time for the unemployment rate to return to normal and could take four or five more years for the job market to get back to where it was before the recession. a big break for l.a. county investigators, they tell cnn they've identified two suspects in a sexual assault case involving severely disabled women. investigators say 11 dvds show at least 8 men assaulting 10 women including one in a wheelchair. it is not clear when or where the assaults took place. updating a story we just brought you yesterday out of maryland as breaking news, law enforcement official said mail devices that ignited in state offices had a small battery and electric match. two workers slightly burned their fingers after opening the package. no arrests have been made but we hope to learn more information when police briefed the media later this hour. well, william daley is the new white house chief of staff. why some republicans like the idea. we'll be right with him. ♪ [ male announcer ] we asked people all over 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[ professor ] good morning students. today, we're gonna... okay. president obama has named william daley as his new white house chief of staff. some say this is another sign from the president continuing his outreach to the business community. ed henry, joins me from the white house. wh what is in your pocket there, ed? >> look, look. i wake up this morning and somebody on twitter saying, ed henry, you better step it up today because you were on talking about the jobs numbers. you have a shirt that appears to have 36 colors in it. >> i had to mix it up. are you not a fan? >> grass hopper, we have much to talk about. nobody knows about the white house better than you do. why don't we stick to somebody we know about. that is william daley. the. >> ron:s actually saying they like this idea. i heard something that he said that i thought was fascinating. >> reporter: he did, he was talking about how, look, how republicans op the hill have been saying they don't believe there's enough people who have run a payroll, created jobs, et cetera, here's what he had to say about bill daley. take a listen. >> i think it's kind of a hopeful sign. he has a business background. we used to say the last two year, i don't know if it's technically true or not. nobody at the white house who ever run a lemonade stand, they were all college professors, this is a guy out in the private sector. been a part of business. frankly my reaction, this looks like a good idea. >> ever have anybody at the white house who ran a lemonade stand? now he's offering an olive branch to bill daley saying he has run a lemonade stand. they've got a lot of career politicians in their leadership as well. maybe a lot of career politicians in the obama cab natural as well. the fact of the matter. bill daley is someone they can do business with. even though there's liberals unhappy about it. >> i saw roland martin who said he doesn't think either of us can dress. it makes no difference. the fact he's one guy, the boss of the white house. what can william daley do and what might he do to signal the directions that he might take the white house in. >> that's a good point. look, i had white house aides telling me while there are a lot of liberals worried bill daley maybes it plu tone yan all over again. white house aids saying, people are saying the same about the influence of rahm manuel. i seem to remember during the health care debate it's clear rahm emanuel wanted the president to scale back. the president overruled his chief of staff and in the end got what he wanted after a lot of struggles but got what he wanted. same may apply with bill daley. you're still a staffer to the president of the united states and who is elected and who is not. on the other hand, they're the person, the gate keeper. sets the agenda. sets the schedule. personnel, you name it and so, at the end of the day, the last person to see the president before he goes back to the residence. there's enormous influence in this job. he's going to have a lot of cloud. on the other hand the president makes the calls. >> i have six colors in my shirt. >> six. maybe i exaggerated. >> are you a hip-hop fan? >> yeah, why? >> stick around. >> lives cut short by gun fire. now maybe a decade later are police close to solving one of those cases? ♪ no other medicine, not even advil pm, is more effective for pain and sleeplessness. motrin pm. to london starts with arthritis pain... and a choice. take tylenol now, and maybe up to 8 in a day. or...choose aleve and 2 pills for a day free of pain. enjoy the flight. the rate board seems to be acting funny. watch. [dramatic soundtrack plays] wasn't me. you think i could do something... that awesome? enter the "tron: legacy" get on the grid sweepstakes, at disney.com/getonthegrid. this film is rated pg. 33 minutes after the hour. happening now, los angeles county sheriff's detectives say they have identified two men shown in a video who are suspected of sexually assaulting severely disabled women. severely disabled women. according to the police the men may be linked to another sexual assault in los angeles. the video came from 11 dvds that an anonymous tipster dropped off in the sheriff's department in monterey, california. two prisoners were released on the condition one donate a kidney to the other. the governor noted that the cost of dialysis was a substantial expense for the state. the nation's unemployment rate is down to 9.4%. lowest level since 2009 however only $103,000 jobs were created in december which is far fewer than expected. the jobless rate went down in part because people giving up on trying to fine work. biggy smalls, tupac shakur, both killed within months of each other in the late '90s. more an a decade later their murders remain unsolved. now we're learning investigators are pursuing new leads in biggy's case. it's been reinvague rated because of new information. ted rollins looks back on the circumstances surrounding both murders. >> reporter: las vegas, september 7th, 1996, mike tyson is fighting bruce sheldon at the mgm grand hotel. tupac shakur is there to watch tyson, his friend. after the fight, shakur rode with his boss to a party off the las vegas strip much the security team went in spratt cars. ninth behind the wheel, shakur in the passenger seat when witnesses say a white cadillac pulled up next to them at the intersec. witnesses say the gunman in the cadillac extended his arm out of the back seat indoe and fired a semi automatic pistol at shakur from close range. >> after the shooting the white cadillac made a white turn, speeding away. shug ninth with tupac leading in the front seat made a u-turn and started driving towards the strip. two police officers on duty. heard the gunshots. when they responded they followed shug ninth and tupac, which allowed the white cadillac to get away. this surveillance showed shakur and their e"entourageen on ento man. >> were you involved in the death of tupac shakur? >> anderson was shot and killed months later in a gang-related shooting. another theory focused on the gangster world that tupac sang about. many believed the murder was part of an east coast-west coat r rap war an dispute between this man, a one-time friend. >> made famous with hits like big papa, wallace, a new york rapper was gone as biggy smalls or notorious b.i.g. there had been an ongoing feud between biggy's record larl, and l.a.'s death row records run by shug knight which represented tupac. six months after the shooting, biggy smalls came to california to promote an album. during an interview with san francisco radio station. smalls denied any involvement in tupac's depth and seemed to want to put any rap war to rest. >> i'm getting over this whole situation with the east coast-west coast thing. them going through our things. i just came over. you know what i'm saying? kind of like basically squash it. >> reporter: four days later on march 9th, 1997, biggie smalls was shot and killed in los angeles. smalls was leaving a music city party. he was shot at a busy intersection while riding in the passenger seat of this suburban. a shooting eerily similar to tupac's six months earlier. >> given the fact they were both gangster rap artists. naturally our people will be contacting the las vegas authorities to see if there's any connection in the two. >> this blue vehicle was where biggie's suburban was. >> the detective was one of those assigned to the case. witnesses said the gunman looked like this. alone, drove up next to smalls and shot him at close range. poole is convinced shug knight ordered biggie small's murder, even though knight was behind bars at the time. also believes lapd officers working for ninth's death row records, ordered the murder. >> the head of security for rightway security and death row, organized the personnel to plan the hit, and i believe police officers were a big part of the hit. >> poole said he believes shug knight also had tupac shakur killed because he threatened to leave death row records. he retired early out of frustration because of this case. saying the department didn't allow him to pursue leads that involved other cops. >> i think i was getting too close to the truth. i think they feared the truth would be a scandal. >> poole later assisted biggie smalls mother in a lawsuit claiming the police covered up the shooting. the chief of police when poole was investigatoring was a city councilman. he tells cnn poole's allegations is absurd. we couldn't get shug knight to sit down for an interview, baugh he's told cnn he had nothing to do with either murder. reggie wright jr. did agree to appear on camera. death row records head of security who ran the company while shug ninknight was in pri. >> did you have anything to do with the murder? >> no, sir. >> reporter: he believes tupac was killed in retaliation for the casino fight and shug knight, was not involved. >> you know he 100% had nothing to do with the murder of tupac shakur? >> shug. >> biggie small, i do not know. >> both say the investigations of the shootings of tupac shakur and biggie smalls ongoing, ted rowlands, cnn los angeles. if you hear of a brutal civil war. southern sudan, why the outcome is important to africa an the united states. i'll tell but that in globe trekking. 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[ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kao. time for a little globe treking, just two dace for a vote from independence. africa's largest country that most people thought would ever happen. go to the polls to decide whether to split from the north and become an independent nation. pardon me. the vote is important for several reason, one, oil fields. you see on the map. most of the oil fields in the country are in the southern part of the country. also, referendum is also made possible by a deal in 2005 that ended 20 years of civil war between the north and south. now, the obama administration pushed hard in a bid to prevent the repeat of mass killings that occurred in the western darfur region, that area on the left in the yellow, more than 300,000 people are believed to have died there. as armed groups crushed a rebellion. most, if not all of sudan's neighbors expect the outcome of the vote will be independence which is a step needed to maintain peace. cnn's david mckenzie has the latest from the capital of southern sudan, juba. >> reporter: southern cities are getting more and more excited about the referendum, africa's country that could see it split. they forced a civil war for decades. millions are killed but now they are in a referendum with a simple choice. unit, like this, separation like this. but the southern sudanese, all they can sing about, all they can even dream about is separation. >> to go without saying, if you go out here, you don't see the symbol of unit here. people have decided. what people already know. that is independent of south sudan. people are for independent and there is a word, because they head to northern sudan, it's because unit, for people in south sudan mean only one thing, it can mean war. >> reporter: southern sudanese looking for peace. this is not about solidarity but a vote about freedom. let stay in africa now, but head south to the land of the mountain gorillgorilla. the world wildlife fund released news about this critically endangered species. their number jumped 26% in one of two locates they exist. one you see there. the mountain region when spans the democratic of congo, the green blob on the bottom of the screen. that spans congo, rwanda and uganda. there are also 302 mountain gorillas in the windy impren traitable national park at the top of your screen. the world wildlife fund calls this a remarkable recovery and attributes it to unique collaboration between all three countries to protect the montain gorillas. i'm going to go check them out later on this year, i hope. >> let me bring you an update on the stories we're looking at right now. we learned the nation's jobless rate jumped from 9.4% down from 9.8 ps in november. we always get these a month late. $103,000 new jobs were added to the economy. that was a lot but not enough. short of expectations. awful 2010, if you take the whole total we've added 1.1 million jobs. you remember the recession started at the end of 2007. 2008-2009 were wrightoffs. while any gain is good. gains like these don't keep place with population growth. let alone the jobs that the recession wiped out. washington state residents jim and caroline mccullar stepped forward to accept half of their prize. the other winner whom the family will split the $380 million jackpot is yet to come forward. if the winner is my executive producer kelly, i expect a better birthday gift this year. workers, criticized for the slow response for the christmas blizzard have a second chance to prove themselves. snow predicted as far as georgia over the weekend, already started in the northeast. many northeast airports began reporting major delays early this morning p-including laguardia, philadelphia and knew wash, days expected through the rest of the day in boston, new york and philadelphia. i'll be doing my commute so i'll keep you posted live from airports. and students getting a better look at math and through speed and convenience, i'm joined by the founders of virtual nerd.com. leo and josh, joining me from the consumer las vegas consumer convention in las vegas. did i butcher that? >> a couple times, i'll get it right. tell me about virtual nerd. i'm past the point that i would necessarily benefit from it. about i know there are a lot of kids out there who struggle with concepts as they study them. tell me how you've solved this problem. >> absolutely. well, you know, i'm going to show you an example right here, as a video, if you were trying to learn to multi two polynomia. you never know when you have to do it. i'm going to make it mute for a second so you can hear me. what's really cool about it in addition to watching the video, you've got these steps on the side. if i move my mouse over the steps, links appear. if you're a student who's not 100% sure why you're doing here. you may ask, what is foil. you click on it. now a new video clicks on top of the one you were watching specific to what you were asking about. now while watching a video in the comfort of your own home in a self-guided fashion you can ask specific questions. so we've taken individual video and connects them in such a way that allows people to get a customized learning experience and it's really exciting. >> i would say if you combine that with the ability of somebody to ask a question that they haven't got or you haven't got on there, you've got the perfect virtual tutor, especially for those kids who may not be able to get the extra help. would there be a chat that you could have added to that? >> yeah, josh and i actually talked a lot about that? >> yeah. we actually talked about adding life chats, real time. another thing is more of a cure rated type of a search where basically you have virtual nerd staff who are experts in these different subjects who can take inquiries of students and customize playback tutorials. >> what are you thinking in terms of how someone pays for this? >> well, basically it's a subscription-based model. you can get one day, one week, three months at a time. one day is starting at $5, one week is $19. you get a limited access to all our tutorials on the site. >> that is incredible. we talk about all the struggles kids have in school and this could go a long wi to help kids out who have difficulty understanding a concept. leo and josh saltzman. you'll have to come back more so i can get the names perfectly done. enjoy the rest of ces. if you want to find out more information about virtualnerd.com, i'll link it to my site. he may run -- i'll tell you who e e-mail talking about after the blame. another unlikely candidate is talking about running for president. he's my good friend, joins me live from the political desk in washington. paul, tell us -- i'm sitting down -- who the latest person is. >> yeah. this latest person -- i think we all know him an know him pretty well and that is donald trump. here's the deal. he has been flirting with running for the presidential nomination for a while but now he is telling cnn he is seriously considering it. he talked to our john king on "john king, us ""john king, us ""john king ""john king, usa." take a listen. >> talk about the economies getting better. it can't get better because every time it gets better, opec raises the price of oil and they drain the blood out of the country. so i see what's going on, and i am seriously considering it. >> well, you know one thing, ali, when you run for president, you need money and i guess we can say he has some money. how about another new yorker? that is mayor bloomberg. >> he does, he does. >> he got a lot of criticism about how he handled the snowstorm. well, here's some living proof. check this out. a brand-new poll from new york. do you approve or disapprove of how he was handling his job. look at that. was 50% in october, now it's 37%. i think the snowstorm has a lot to do with it. remember, this is his third term. not running again. >> that's a little harsh if that's all from the snowstorm. it was a pain but it's just a snowstorm. he's going to get another go at it this weekend. snow's coming down heavily. paul, always my pleasure to see you, my friend. >> thanks. >> your next political update is just one hour away. okay, among the throngs of elvis fans flocking to graceland this weekend, this is one very special v.i.p. visitor who says the king's music helped him and his friends stay sane. we'll fill in the blanks in "odds and ends." here's the gas level. i can check on the oil. i can unlock it from anywhere. i've received a signal there was a crash. some guy just cut me off. i'll get an ambulance to you right away. available on most chevrolet, buick, gmc and cadillac models. onstar. safely connecting you in ways you never thought possible. live on. look at that deceptively beautiful skyline in atlanta. there's snow coming this way too. we will start this with a story that's got some new yorkers fired up. the village of gray neck on long island has voted to ban smoking. what's unusual is they're backing it outside in public places. no lighting up along the main drag, no butts while you're smoking through the local park. if the cigarette cops catch you, it's a $1,000 fine. they got the ball rolling saying the smokers with drifting outfront and the smoke was drifting in. now to memphis which has not banned smoking outdoors yet. it's a big weekend at graceland. the honored guest is an internationally known personality himself. the elvis fanatic led presley sing alongs which helped keep the group sane. afterward pena said, thank you very much for the opportunity. and you're looking now -- one hour from now two sisters will speak about their newfound freedom. the freedom hasn't quite sunk in, it will in about an hour, however a video about an hour driving away from prison know exactly what it tastes like. they're expected to step in front of cameras and talk about their incredible journey from christmas eve 1993 when they were arrested for armed robbery until this morning when they drove out. here it is. >> we're free. >> we're free. >> now, the scott sisters have completed their sentences nor have they been exonerated. my colleague martin savidge fills us in. >> reporter: for years family and supporters for the scotts have pleaded, prayed and protested for their release from a mississippi prison. the two were sentenced to life 16 years ago for a crime that netted $11. governor haley barbour suspended their sentences. their mother got the news in a phone call from a reporter. went hysterical. i had to stop the car. i was driving at the time when he called me. i got so emotional thanking god that finally this has come to an end. >> governor barbour said he wasn't released them because their sentence was too severe but because they were no longer a threat to society and for medical reasons. jamie scott need diceal sis three time as week. her 36-year-old sister has offered one of her own kidneys for transplant. the governor says the operation is part of the step legislation for their release, but some believe there's more than humanitarian motivations at work here. many expect governor barbour, republican, plans to challenge america's first black president in 2012. >> i have been asked if the governor did this for political reasons. my guess is he did this for political reasons. . but on the other hand i want to kmenld him for a move management which bespoke humanity. >> reporter: throughout their trial they have maintained their innocence as has said their mother. one of the victims later came back and asked gladys out. >> if somebody robbed you, would you come back to try to date them later? >> martin joins us live right in front of the podium where that the press release is going to happen. tell us, martin, what happens next? what's likely to happen next? >> well, first of all you have the press conference and we understand the sisters i just talked to -- their attorney was actually speaking. they won't take a lot of time because they have to get on the move. according to the rules that had been set up by the mississippi department of corrections, they have to be out of the state of mississippi within 24 hours of their initial release. that came at 8:00 this morning at central time. they must be out of the state by 8:00 tomorrow morning. they probably will be because they have much better places to be, pensacola, namely, where their mother and family are frantically waiting to welcome them back. then there are the medical issues which you know well, and that is that jamie needs dialysis three times a week. she needs dialysis tomorrow. she's scheduled to get that in florida and then begins the process to try to determine if the sisters are a match for a kidney transplant or, if not, making that happen in some other way. >> the boards behind you say naacp of mississippi. what's their role in this? >> reporter: well, there have been a lot of people working for a number of years trying to get these sisters out of prison. it started initially with their family and their attorneys but it's grown beyond that. the naacp has been strongly championing their causes. here's the thing. they will not stop here. i was talking with ben, the president of the naacp, and he talks about wanting to get a partner. here's what he said. >> we're heartened that this is the first step for this governor whenever he gives a pardon. the first thing he does is suspended the sentence and follows that up sometimes later with a pardon. he's in office for one more year. we'll push him hard for the next year to make sure that that happens. >> these two women have always maintained they were innocent. they were found guilty of armed robbery but they say they were innocent and it's clear what they want to do next or the attorney do next is get them exonerated. >> a remarkable story. we'll stick with you on this one. in less than an hour, we'll probably see the press conference. there's a reason to like the latest unemployment numbers in washington. let me give you a sense of it. there's also a reason to dislike them. let me show you what the numbers are to start with. first of all, that stretches a little further than we can see, so i'll just tell you about it. we gained 103,000 jobs in december. there we go. that's the green bar, that last one. that's 10 #,000 jobs in december. that's good. not as good as we were hoping we would see. after a four-month low, because the first part was stimulus spending. so we're gaining jobs, not enough. here's something interesting. the unemployment rate in the country has dropped. let me show you where these jobs were gained. let me show you some of the industries. this is december. the leashure and hospitality industry added 40,000 jobs, health care added 36,000 new jobs. health care has been adding jobs if the last several years. retail has added 12,000. manufacturing up 10,000 after earring of losing jobs in manufacturing in the last year, we've seen some gains in that area. so that's good news brks u not as good as some would have liked. like i said, the unemployment rate has dropped to 9.4% from 9.8%. but there are a bunch of people who aren't part of the labor force and that's why the number can be a little misleading. this is the first yearly growth since 1997 -- i'm sorry -- 2007. let me show you what some of these -- this is how these years have looked. in 2005 these were the total jobs we gained. more than 2.5 million. 2007, we're at a little over a million. 2008, look at those jobs that were hoft as the recession set in. 2009 was even worse. 2010 we ended up gaining jobs. there are some estimates next year we'll gain 2.5 million jobs. another story for you. an athlete in his prime paralyzed by a tackle and bed riden. you might think it would make a pers person pessimistic. he's making progress. he told us in today's sound effect he knows he'll be getting better. >> i believe that i'll walk again one day. i believe it. god has a plan for me and i know it's not to be sitting here all the time. i know he has something planned bigger for me. >> rutgers announced yesterday le grand has regained some sensation in his body. you can catch it on sportscenter. as promised they have taken a big step toward repealing the health care overhaul. it sets the stage for a final vote next wednesday but that is likely to be the end of the road for repealing it now because the senate still in democratic control and they're fighting back hard. they're citing a brand-new report which says that scrapping health reforms would add $230 billion to the deficit over the next decade. defense secretary robert gates is proposing cuts of $78 million for the pentagon as part by reducing the size of the army and the marine corps. gates also said the army, navy, and air force, have found $100 billion worth of savings in their individual bunt which they'll use to continue developing major webs and modernize forces over the next five years. the plan brings the pemt gone in line with president obama's request to reduce spending in the military. yesterday in maryland a law enforcement official said mail devices each had a small battery and an electric match. there were no threats before yesterday's incidents. two workers slightly burned their fingers after opening the packages. nameless helpless victims, mysterious male attackers taking sexual advantage of them. an anonymous tipster who left evidence on the sheriff's doorstep. we we're live with the very latest on this disturbing case. e anywhere else we'll match it and pay you $25. book now and save up to 60% on hotels. only at priceline. t adwiwiout food al t [ male announcer ] when diarrhea hits, kaopectate stops it fast. powerful liquid relief speeds to the source. fast. [ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kao. they are heinous acts against the most vulnerable victims. unknown men sexually assaulting severely disabled women. they went public yesterday asking for help and not even a day later, a big break. cnn's casey wian joins us with that plus system officers working on this remarkable case. casey. >> reporter: yeah. it's really been an incredible less than 24-hour period. detectives had almost no leads late yesterday. and in the last few hours they're receiving information even as we speak. they even got ten suspects on videotape. eight severely disabled victims sexually assaulted, 100 hours of videotape on 13 different dvds that were sent anonymously to the sheriff's department several months ago. they've been trying to analyze these tapes, coming up with composite drawings for the last several months and the images are so disturbing they've disgusted sheriff's veteran getters. >> i was floored. i've seen a lot of terrible, terrible imagery in my current assignment that have involved children and all kinds of other, you know, hideous things, but this was amongst the most happy us that i have ever seen, poor defenseless people who can't cry out for help or fend off an attacker. and what i saw were just these poor people lying there being victimized in the most terrible way i've ever seen. >> now, until late last night the only lead investigators have in this case was a letter from the anonymous tipster who mailed these dvds to the sheriff's department headquarters. he said he was hired by someone who bought a computer from a crackhead in ingalwood for $20. he was hired to scrub off the information that was on that computer's hard drive. he came across these images and was so disturbed that he copying them and sent them to the sheriff's department. after they went public yesterday, sheriffs now have a break in the case and believe they have identified at least two of the suspects. >> all right. how many do you think -- do they know how many are involved totally? >> they believe there are ten suspects involved totally. one of the men, they say, is actually incarcerated in state prison. he was convicted earlier of crimes as a residential care facility, fiduciary crimes and sexual. what they're learning from the lapd investigators is he took one of these severely women to las vegas with him, married her, brought her back to the care facility and she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by other men. so they're just piecing together this case as they speak but they're very optimistic now that they've identified two of the people on the i have videotapes they're going to be able to identify everyone else. >> thank you very much. we'll keep on it with you. when we come back, an extreme makeover. [ woman ] when my dance company went on tour, i took emergen-c. with 1,000 milligrams of vitamin c and energizing b vitamins, it made every performance count. emergen-c. feel the good. when you're responsible for this much of the team, you need a car you can count on. ♪ [ female announcer ] picking tights isn't always easy. ♪ picking a free detergent is. switch to tide free & gentle in the white and blue bottle. no other free detergent is milder on skin. and unlike the leading free detergent, it removes more residue from dirt, food, and stains. so nothing spoils this tights enthusiast's enthusiasm. tide free & gentle. style is an option. clean is not. also look for tide stain release free. we are kicking off our very first cnn hero story of the year by checking in with one of last year's top ten heroes. his name is dan walrath and he builds homes for wounded veterans. he's received more than $100,000 in donations. now comes a prime opportunity that is enabling him to help even more injured soldiers find their way home. >> it is my honor to present cnn hero dan walrath. >> being a top ten cnn hero is very humbling. the true heroes are servicemen and women who answer the call. since the show aired we've been getting phone calls and e-mails and donations from all over the world. >> we had seen dan on cnn heroes tribute and we thought that's a perfect guy we've got to team up with. >> good morning, patrick and jessica. >> abc's "stream makeover" joined with dan to build a home for a wounded war veteran. he pulled through. >> he was shot four time, once in the head. he's just made a remarkable recovery. >> for dan who normally works with around 200 people, it's a chance to build a home on a much larger scale. >> there are probably 4,000 or 5,000 volunteers involved. we have tons of military folks helping us. this house is going to be built in about 100 hours where normally we taken six months. >> and an event at ft. hood honoring patrick and his fiancee then made a special announcement. >> we have a is special ft. hood victims fund to reach out to all families affected by this tragedy. >> i feel so good all the time about sees these. now we're going to be able to change a lot more. >> the extreme makeover home edition episode featuring dan will air on january 20th. get involved with dan's group or to nominate someone you think is changing the world go to cnnheroes.com. it's 22 minute tafs hour. let's check in on some of the top stories this hour. the december jobs report has left investors underwemed. not as many jobs were created as we had hoped for. employers boosted payrolls by 10 3,000 jobs last month and that was much less than economists had anticipated. ben bernanke is painting a sober picture for employment. he said not enough jobs are created to keep pace with the number of people looking for work. he said it will take time for it to return to normal. it could take four or five years. >> president obama's economic team is getting a makeover. he's appointed gene sperling to head the economic council. it's the same job he held in the final years of the clinton administration. he also tapped katherine abraham and katherine higginbotham. well, the weather is already making a mess of weekend travel. ! [ both screaming ] i got into one of the most expensive schools in the country! [ male announcer ] when stress gives you heartburn with headache... alka-seltzer gives you relief fast. [ low male ] plop, plop. [ high male ] fizz, fizz. let's take a look at the weather situation. i spupt new york city is doing a little more planning than they did before. >> when you get two inches of snow after 20 inches that's nothing. buttal all of a sudden if this 2 to 4 would have been the original one, people would have been panicked. but it's where you set your expectations. so we do have a couple of these things being slowed down. airports and airlines are well in advance of this. this was yesterday's travel advisory. you can move your entire trip plus or minus seven days from the scheduled departure. american put a policy out as well. so did southwest and delta. you may change your flights without penalty in both places. >> i got one from delta. i encourage you if you're flying out of these places to do that. >> when are you flying? >> i'm flying out of here this evening and back to here on sunday evening. i'm going to get weather on both sides, right? >> you are. that right there is monday morning in atlanta. delta, airtran, all of the ones in and out -- maybe even from southwest because they're into birmingham and other places will really have some trouble getting in and out of atlanta with an ice storm. >> the major is whether you live in the northeast or in atlanta, if you're traveling it may very little to do with where you are. it's the systems end up slowing down and shutting down. >> yeah. >> and ft. lauderdale is delayed today because of volume. a lot of people want to get out for some reason. >> jfk, newark, an hour, an hour or two. if you're going to go to seattle, you're going to sit in seattle because they have to wait for the plane to get there because that's the plane they were supposed to fly you to los angeles on. you're sitting there going what is going on. >> i'll have heard reports and i'll be sitting at the airport and people are getting really, really mad. i say i'd rather not be flying until the airlines say it's safe to do it, cool your heels. i have no plans tonight. >> do you have a kindle? >> yeah, i have a kindle. i can keep mooips occupied. >> isn't that the case. you as an adult, no problem. now all of a sudden put a 5-year-old or 3-year-old next to you for three hours. it's not so pleasant. >> and sometimes it's longer than that. >> we did expect new york city to get two to four. that's right on the money. the heaviest will be north and probably northwest of the city toward the catskills and adirondacks. there's going to be another sliding snow but that should still miss the new york city ar area. >> i'm going here. i'll get the snow tires on. >> suspect that the key, that people are not so afraid of getting one car somewhere, but when that free way has all these other cars bumping into each other, then all of a sudden you can't go anywhere. we're already booking airports and hotels for atlanta for monday morning because we realize that people will be playing bumper cars on the freeway even though there's one or two inches of snow by then. >> much bigger issue down here. >> absolutely. people don't get the experience on the snow down here in the south as they do up here. people in buffalo are going -- >> what are you talking about. >> you can't go for one inch of snow? when i grew up -- if we cancelled for one inch of snow, we never would have gone to school. >> in toronto they would make a funny. after years of brutal civil war southern sudan votes for independence starting on sunday. why is the outcome so important for africa and the united states? i'll tell you on the other side when we go globe trekking. how 'bout husbds? rect inject sh systemeliminates. twins? precision dispense for optimal fabricar how 'bout this...? quiespin 360 technology means you always hr what's going on... ll take it! sears troduces the new whirlpool duet. it wks smarter, just like you. save instantly with free standard delivery and haul away. sears. ♪ ♪ [ crowd groans ] ♪ [ crowd cheering ] [ male announcer ] at&t, the nation's fastest mobile broadband network. period. it is 31 minutes after the hour, and we are less than 0 minutes away from a news conference with two sisters once serving life sentences for armed robbery. they're released from prison today. the release is one -- that's them driving away saying they're free -- that one donate a kidney to the other. the governor noted the cost of dialysis was a substantial expense for the state. los angeles sheriff's detectives say they have identified two men shown in a video who are suspected of sexually assaulting severely disabled women. the men may be linked to another sexual assault in los angeles. the videos came from 11 dvds that an anonymous tipster dropped off in march at the sheriff's department in monterey park in california. the unemployment rate has dropped down to 9.4%. that's the lowest level since 2009. analysts say the jobless rate went down in part because of people giving up on trying to find work. 260,000 people gave up. time for globe trekking now. just two days from a vote for independence in africa's largest country that most people thought would never happen. voters from southern sudan go to the polls on sunday to try to decide whether to split from the north and become an independent nation. this vote is important for several reasons. one, take a look at the oil fields. that's the stuff in the green. you can see most of those are in the south which is a dirt poor part of the country. the referendum was part of a deal made in 2005 that ended war between the north and the south. the obama administration has pushed hard for this vote in an attempt to keep from repeating mass murders. more than 300,000 people are believed to have died there as armed groups that were backed by sudan's ruling party crushed a rebellion. now most if not all of sudan's neighbors are expecting that the outcome of the vote will be independents from the south, a step they think is needed to maintain peace. we have the latest from the capital of juba. >> reporter: the southern s sudanese are getting more and more excited about this referendum. they fought a brutal civil war. millions are killed but now they're in a referendum with a simple chose. unity is closed with two hands closed, separation like this. all they can sing about, all they can talk about, all they can even dream about is separation. >> if you go out and don't see the symbol of unity here. people have decided the referendum process is to confirm what people already know. the people are therefore independent. it's not because they hate northern sudan or they don't wasn't to be together with northern sudan. it is because unity for people of south sudan mean only one thing. it means war. >> the sudan sneeze are hoping for peace. they say this is not about unity or separation a vote about free don. let me stay in africa for a minute and take you to another part of it to the lpd of the mountain gorilla. take a look at the map. that's where gorillas live. now you can see the number of gorillas has jumped more than 26% in one of the two locations where they exist in the wild, and that is this region. it shows it's down at the bottom, the blob sort of in the middle. that is the part that spans the democratic republican of congo, rwanda and uganda. since 2003 the population has increased. there's also 302 mountain gorillas in the northern part of uganda. that is uganda's inpen it travel mountain park. homeless kids with the odds stacked against them when it comes to education wrchl can they turn to start turning their lives around. homelessness is a huge problem in california. with high unemployment, rise in foreclosures, more families are finding themselves on the streets and they're struggling to keep their kids in school. there's one school now where homeless students make up the entire student body. cnn's thelma gutierrez reports. >> my name is chase sloan. have my mom and my little sister. this is my horrible neighborhood. my brother's wife has kicked us out of his house. this is where we came to seek shelter. >> i'm michael. >> some people over there, i feel very sorry for them. >> i'm real tired right now. tired but i have to go to school and get an education to get a better life. >> reporter: we're in the heart of san diego where monarch school is located. what make this school so unique is the entire student body is homeless. >> historically we have always hovered at a hundred students. we went up to 165 students last december? a lot of this due, of course, to the economy. >> yes, absolutely. and for the first time ever, our population, the face of the homeless student changed because we receive students that had actually lost their home due to foreclosure. >> how difficult was it to uproot your life to move here and then to become homeless? >> it was very hard because i had just turned 9 and i had to leave my best friend. we don't get to see each other grow up. >> chase, give me one. >> reporter: monarch students are taught by credentialed teachers. they also get free tutoring to make up for any gaps in their education and free medical and dental care and simple things to make life better like new shoes, a place to shower, and a laundry room to wash their clothes. >> were you treated differently by other kids when you went to the other schools? >> yes. >> how? hike teasing. >> what would they say to you. >> like bum or something. >> did they actually call you a bum, knowing that you were homeless? >> yes. >> that's a terrible thing. that's very mean. how did that make you feel? >> sad, mad. >> what did you tell them? >> like if they were in my situation, they wouldn't be saying the same thing. >> that's my mommy. she loves me a lot. every day we have to wake up about 5:00 in the morning and then we had to be out of here by 7:00. on the weekends we had nowhere to go, and if it was raining, we'd just be sitting somewhere under a tree trying to keep dry. >> what do you want to do when you grow up? >> be the president of the united states. >> you want to be the president. wow. what do you like studying? what are you good at? >> math, science, and handwrighting. >> those parents they came, picked up their kids, and took them home. she didn't have that. >> do you think kids get embarrassed? >> i'm sure they that do. oh, yeah, i'm sure that they do. they must be. >> did your kids ever come home? >> no, they would never say that to many. they know i try to do everything. >> some kids for their birthday they go to chuck e. cheese or something. us, we have not even a birthday party. when i get older and get a job and everything, i want to buy a house and have my mom move in with me and like i take care of her. >> what do you want of mike? >> i'm hoping that he'll remember this and see how important it is. half this stuff here, i don't think i would have to go through it had i had a proper education. >> having experienced so much loss so young, homes, friends, even family, parents say monarch is giving their children something no one can take away. >> monarch has given me a program. steel bands, i really love it. they've given me a technique and talent. >> thelma gutierrez, cnn, san diego. it's 43 minutes almost off the hour. let me bring you up to speed on some of the developments of our top stories. after 16 years in pruzison abou these two sisters were released with conditions. the one on the left give a kidnkia kidney to the one on the right. the governor noted the cost of dialysis was an expense of the state. we expect to hear from the sisters at a news conference in a few minutes if from now. we learn that the nation's jobless rate jumped down. 103,000 jobs were added to the economy, that was short of expectations. for all of 2010, though, the united states added 1.1 million jobs and that's the best year for hiring since before the recession started in 2007. while any gain is good, gains like these do not keep pace with population growth and they certainly don't replace the 8 million jobs that recession wiped out. new york emergency workers krit citizened for their slow response for the christmas blizzard will get a second chance to prove themselves. another snow starm has begun charging across the eastern states, snow predicted as far south as georgia by the end of the weekend. many northeast airports began reporting delays including laguardia, philadelphia, and newark. well, the queen of soul talks about her health sort of. i'll explain what i mean after the break. for pain? oh, bayer aspirin? i'm not having a heart attack. it's my back. it works great for pain. [ male announcer ] nothing's proven to relieve pain better than extra strength bayer aspirin. it rushes relief to the site of pain. feel better? yeah. thanks for the tip. daddy, i'm bored. almost. it converts the car's braking force into electricity, so it's more efficient. so i thought... what if we put that same system onto one of these? [ people screaming ] who knows? we might be able to create the world's first self-sustaining amusement park. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world? learn how to share your ideas at toyota.com/ideasforgood. all right. aretha franklin says her health issues are resolved. you all remember a month ago frank link announce heard concerts were canceled until may. that led to speculation. she added that she will not talk about her, quote, personal health. she asked for privacy as she continues to recover from whatever the problem is. now onto the queen of daytime talk, oprah winfrey makes the rounds. oprah is hoping to duplicate her daytime network success on her new network that's not a broadcast network. >> it isn't. and, you know, she is really -- she is really going to give it her best here to bring the momentum to this huge network that is oprah, all things oprah, the oprah winfrey network. you know, ali, if she's able to duplicate the unprecedented success of her day time talk show with own, it will be a remarkable achievement. ali, you also know that you have received the seal of approval from lady "o," so you know the wonders that she can do for people, even this guy. take a look. >> he explained it to her so well she could explain it to me. so i said this is the guy. this is the guy. welcome, ali. >> thank you, oprah. >> look at that guy. look at that guy. we all know who he is. big-time cnn anchor. do you remember that little experience, ali? >> i remember it well. it was right in the midst of the political crisis. clearly i wasn't eating. >> and we never get tired of seeing it. >> you and i, we meet a lot of interesting people all the time but there's something about being there around oprah. she's just something that hasn't existed before in the world of tv. >> larger than life. such a huge talent. and really speaking of talents, our own cnn talent, piers morgan, he landed a wide-ranging interview with oprah. that will air when his big show launches, january 17. they sat down for two hours. it was supposed to be less than an hour. they were having a good time. i think we're going to be in for some big sur prices from this brit. look at this. >> we said when we came back, literally, we all said, whew, what was that? did we not say that? that was one of the toughest interviews i had in 20 years. >> wow. what a teaser, what a teaser. she's been here talking about her new network "o." so far the critics are giving the programming thumbs up and the cable programming is giving it healthy ratings. some fans are upset that it's not available in regular programming. they hope the viewers will shell out a few extra dollars a month and subscribe. >> the channel will be the home base for people who are seeking the best of themselves. my -- your phonies ringing. my dream is that the channel will be on in people's homes the same way that people find their favorite radio station and they keep that on their favorite radio station and my dream is that this channel will always be the place you can come to and you can vibe on the good energy that is there. >> who was that personality disrupting the queen of talk? you know when oprah talks, everyone needs to listen. anyway, the big question needs to be will all the positive vibes on cable, will it win over the bickering from the housewives and the reality shows? i guess only time will tell. personally i think there's plenty of room on cable for more positive programs. what do you think, ali? >> absolutely. i was going to watch that reforwardless of whether i heard oh pray say she thought it was one of the toughest interviews. now i want to watch it. great to see you. come spend more time on my show. we don't talk clearly enough. >> thanks, ali. i would love to. >> open invitation. all right. time now for a politicalion date. shannon travis joins me. you're another guy we don't see enough of. >> who needs to talk about politics when we can talk about piers. some of the republicans want to do. the test vote passed. the actual vote will be nent week. what are some of our viewers thinking about their house -- their representative s repealin this law. there's a new national survey out. 46% in this fwgallup survey say yes, they want them to repeal this. 40% say no. when you look at it, 78% of republicans want their representatives to vote to repeal this law, but 64% of democrats say no way, no way, keep your hand off of it. meanwhile what would repealing the health care law actually do? well, one democrat is warning it will cause more americans to die. i want you to take -- this is a quote from representative john garamendi. he said the repeal of health care is actually a killer of human beings. he goes on to say some 40,000 americans die every year because of lack of health insurance. that's the reality. repeal this bill and you're going to find more americans dying. a lot of you debating over whether to repeal this or not. the last topic, who's afraid of sarah palin? tim pawlenty is not. he's saying, hey, i'm not afraid of sarah palin. he also told them he'll be able to make a decision. your next update from the political team on television is one hour away. what can you do to take advantage of rising oil prices? how can expedia save me even more on my hotel? by giving me ginormous discounts with these: unpublished rates. which means i get an even more rockin' hotel, for less. where you book matters. expedia. constipated? phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. [ professor ] good morning students. today, we're gonna... time now for the xyz. i've been talking about the rising price of oil and the prospect that it will go even higher in the coming months. a barrel of cruise trades for $90 right now. it's easy to see why. total oil production in 2009 -- that's the most recent full year that we have data -- was about 84.4 million barrel as day. we use all but 200,000 of those barrels a day. that's one pipeline or one refinery if it goes out. . it doesn't leave much wiggle room for supply and demand. forecasters see the price for a barrel easily crossing the 100 dollar mark soon and for those of you who drive, you've seen increases for weeks. right now the national average for a gallon of unleaded gasoline is over three a gallon. many of you are paying much more depending on where you live. when you pay more for something it gives you less money to spend on other things. in fact, oil could be the one thing that slows or recovery in 2011. if you're going to get bitten be i the hand that fills the gas tank you may want to invest in nermg on the other hand. whether that's looking at alternative energy or more traditional energy companies or oil futures or energy needs are going to continue to grow in 2011 and beyond. that's my xyz. brook baldwin takes it from here. we're expecting to see the two sisters who spent 16 years in prison. they were released just a couple of hours ago. huer's the yav yacht. the younger sister in this situation needs to give her history to her elder sister. so if we hear from the women, which we are anticipating. of course, we'll take that live here on cnn. >> we are also, dare i say, bracing for more snow and ice. chad myers will be joining me in a couple of minutes for that. and we've been told by police in california "todatoday there arer developments in the kiss of sick, sick criminals who assaulted several mentally disabled women and krid owe taped it. first you may va heard this by now. the jobless rate is down, down to its lowest point in some 18 months. here's the part you might have missed. i want to play a snippet from fed chairman ben bernanke. listen closely. >> we have seen increased evidence that self-sustaining recovery may be taking hold. business investment and new equipment and software has grown robustly, albeit from a fairly lower level. as firms replaced aging equipment. overall the pace of economic recovery seems likely to be moderately stronger in 2011 than it was in 2010. a-ha. so,