they're underway as well in san francisco, minneapolis, boston, you name it. a number of cities across this country. but lower manhattan, this is where this all began, where it's still pretty strong. right now new york police threw up barricades around zuccotti park, which they cleared of camp sites on tuesday. but late this morning, protesters, they threw the barricades back, and they surged into the streets of financial district. at least 75 people, take a look at that picture. this is what was going on. these scuffles just a short time ago when these demonstrators decided to move the police barricade. at least 75 arrests taking place, including that of a retired philadelphia police captain. also, a woman. a video we have been seeing, a woman dragged bri police. this was caught on a cnn ireporter. take a listen. >> now, we don't know why this woman was arrested, but nobody's being allowed to block streets or trying to enter buildings around the stock exchange without authorization. a live report just minutes from now. we're keeping a close eye on that story and will not be far from it at any point. but also, other nuz to tell you about. the mother of the first alleged victim to come forward in the child sex abuse case against former penn state coach jerry sandusky said her son was a hero. she told our anderson cooper that her son was shocked to learn about other alleged victims. >> oh, he definitely is a hero. he definitely is. he's a great kid. and he really, really -- you know, for a long time he thought that he was the only one, you know? he thought that we were basically just on our own and that, you know, as more victims came out, he started feeling a little bit better about that. >> brand-new details have surfaced about how sandusky allegedly lured kids and about the possible cover-up at penn state. "new york times" investigative correspondent joe becker will have those details for us a little later this hour. also, in just about an hour, an idaho man accused of shooting at the white house is due in federal court in pittsburgh. oscar ortega ramirez was picked up at a hotel. he's expected of firing at least two rounds at the white house last friday night. one hit a window and was stopped by bulletproof glass. another was found on the grounds. no one was hurt. meanwhile, the obama administration defending a move to award half a billion dollars in federal loan guarantees to a solar panel manufacturer. solyndra, you've heard that name plenty over the past month or so. it later filed for bankruptcy, but the energy sector, steven chu, appeared before a house panel today investigating the deal and offered no apology. critics say, though, the white house selected solyndra in a political move. also, the head of the u.n. nuclear agency says he must alert the world to iran's suspected development of nuclear weapons. he said today he wants to send a high-level mission to iran to address mounting international fears over iran's nuclear program. last week an ieae report warned that iran has been conducting research and experiments geared towards developing inin ining a bomb. iran, however, denies that they're trying to make a nuclear weapon. and an update on a story we told you about yesterday. an illinois judge has vacated the convictions of four men in the rape and murder of a prostitute in 1994. the judge says the new dna evidence linking someone else to the crime would probably change the result in a new trial. the state's attorney who opposed the judge's decision can appeal the ruling, re-try the men, or dismiss the charges all together. and the vatican taking legal action to stop an ad showing a photo of the pope kissing an imam. you see that? the ad is part of a publicity campaign by the italian fashion firm benetton. the vatican says the doctored photo offended the dignity of the pope. benetton says they'll pull that photo. and u.s. officials have confiscated at least 17 tons of marijuana after discovering a major drug tunnel linking san diego and teen wijuana. the tunnel runs the length of four football fields. officials say there were no arrests and the investigation continues. and how is your day going? well, the pilot of a delta connection jet, he got trapped in the jet's bathroom. and things, well, kind of went downhill from there. >> yeah, we're 180 knots, 10,000. can we leave the frequence for a minute. we are going to try to, uh, contact dispatch. the captain has disappeared in the back, and i have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit right now and i've got to deal the situation. >> well, that person with the foreign accent was trying to alert the co-pilot about what had happened. instead, the plane made an emergency landing at laguardia and new york. the fbi on hand. the trapped pilot got out in time to settle things down before fire jets were scrambled. we're about six minutes past the hour. a live picture here outside of los angeles. this is the two-month anniversary of the occupy movement. you know it started in new york, but, yes, it has crossed the country, gotten to l.a. and all points in between. a number of occupy rallies today, also a number of arrests as many of these protesters say this will be a day of action, and action we have seen. stay with us. 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[ male announcer ] it's practically yours. but we still need your signature. volkswagen sign then drive is back. and it's never been easier to get a jetta. that's the power of german engineering. get zero first month's payment, zero down, zero security deposit and zero due at signing on any new volkswagen. visit vwdealer.com. and zero due at signing on any new volkswagen. i've tried it. but nothing helped me beat my back pain. then i tried salonpas. it's powerful relief that works at the site of pain and lasts up to 12 hours. salonpas. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. well, they are calling this a day of action. and in new york city, there is a full schedule. 3:00 today, the plan to occupy the subways. talking trains at all five borou boroughs. also at 5:00 p.m., they plan to take the square. we're talking about foley square here, just across from city hall. and during rush hour, a march to the brooklyn bridge. our mary snow is there in zuccotti park in manhattan. we have been watching these pictures for the past hour or so. give us an update of what it's looking like now, mary. >> reporter: well, t.j., it's fairly calm here at zuccotti park. some of the protesters have left and they've been marching around lower manhattan. for the most part, today has been fairly peaceful. police say that there have been about 100 arrests throughout the morning. and that has been mostly for obstructing traffic or disorderly conduct. there were some tense moments in the past couple of hours here, as some of the protesters lifted barricades that the police had set up, and police came in here. a lot of distrust, t.j., among these protesters of the new york city police, especially after tuesday's eviction, when the police came in, the city said to these protesters they could no longer camp out here at zuccotti park. now, today's protests had been planned, because this is the two-month anniversary of the movement. and that occupy wall street movement started here, right here in lower manhattan. so a lot of this had been planned, but some of the protesters i've been talking to are saying that, really, they picked up steam because of what happened here earlier this week, in new york city. and as you mentioned, there are a number of other protests they plan to have throughout the day, and some of these organizers are saying that, you know, there are a lot of other protests that we don't know about, that they want to catch the city off guard, the element of surprise. they do expect to be out here throughout the day. >> mary snow, thank you so much. i want to bring in mike brooks, who's here with me now. and mike, our security analyst here, let me get the right introhere. when police officers see this, not a lot of clashes, not a lot of violence, but that's a lot of manpower, a lot of time, and a lot of attention diverted from other things going on in the city. >> it's a lot of money. all the cities across the country, t.j., where this has been going on. city governments, it cost money to run city governments, to pay for overtime. and look at all the cities today on the two-month anniversary. again, that's money -- and we talk about the transportation system, the subway system in new york city, you know, the occupy protesters talk about they're the 99% of the people. well, they're part of the 99%, the 99%, they use public transportation to get around. you know, to get to and from different boroughs in new york city. you got brooklyn bridge. last time we saw a clash there, there were 700 arrests. but, you know, this is not taking away -- a lot of people say, you see all the cops down there. is that taking away from our public safety? where you live in the different neighborhoods and different boroughs, no, they have brought in officers to deal with this, they know what they're doing, and they have a strategic plan. >> i'm sure there are plenty of police officer who is agree with the mind-set and the sentiment they're trying to get out of a lot of these protesters. but i've talked to a police officer here in atlanta, and he says, you know what, t.j., my kid's got a game tonight and i have overtime here tonight to spend at the park. there's a clash. it's not the police versus the protesters, in the police officers' minds, you can't help but to think, come on, people. >> absolutely. they were in atlanta, in woodruff park, and they were going to kick them out of woodruff park because they were causing, basically, a nuisance, and costing the city a lot of money. and then new york city said, we're going to let you stay in the park there. so that kind of set a precedent across the united states. but it has been, for the most part, nonviolent. but there is always an element, no matter where you go, that wants to cause trouble. and that's what law enforcement doesn't want to see. because, you know, they don't want to get hurt. they want to go home to their families too, but the public, they also want to keep them safe. we see in new york city, there's so many people down in wall street, very congested area, but now they're spreading out to other parts of the city. and i think sometimes their message is people going, you know what, enough, already, because they don't want to be inconvenienced. and these are people who have nothing to do with the financial community, you know, the financial businesses in the united states. >> what's the potential? a couple of knuckleheads in there, sure, but what's the potential for a couple of knuckleheads to turn this into a full-- hf full-on riot-type situation? >> there's always that possibility. i was with the police department in washington, d.c., handled demonstrations almost every day. you try to maintain your cool, but throw one rock, throw one bottle, that can lead to the crowd mentality. then they start running different polices. what are you going to do? you try to maintain the peace, try to maintain the crowd, but all it takes, as you said, is a couple knuckleheads. >> but we should emphasize, overwhelmingly, it has been peaceful. we saw a couple scuffles, a few people arrested, about 100, they lifted the barricades, but for the most part has been peaceful. >> but the day is young. we're about quarter past the hour now. we're not going too far from these occupy wall street uprisings because they continue as we speak. also today, new details in the penn state scandal. missing files? how an internet post may have tipped off investigators to mike mcqueary. stay with me. the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ ♪ a refrigerator has never been hacked. an online virus has never attacked a corkboard. ♪ give your customers the added feeling of security a printed statement or receipt provides... ...with mail. it's good for your business. ♪ and even better for your customers. ♪ for safe and secure ways to stay connected, visit usps.com/mail well, today is the day. they call day of action to commemorate the two-month anniversary of the occupy movement, starting in new york. but we are seeing protests, not just in new york, all across the country, really, today. but what you're seeing are pictures from new york. this was just a little earlier, according to our mary snow. at least 100 people arrested in this day of action around zuccotti park. you see police there, they had erected some barricades around that park. protesters, we saw video of them, actually picking them up and moving them. some scuffles, some back and forth, pushing and shoving with police officers, but for the most part, this has not been violence on a wide scale. just a couple scuffles here and there. but for the most part, people there in new york just trying to make sure their voices are heard. they also plan to block the brooklyn bridge -- or march on it, i should say, and also planning to occupy the subways. we'll keep a close eye on all things related to the occupy movement today. let me turn now back to this penn state story. new details continue to emerge in this child sex abuse case against former ben state coach, jerry sandusky. the mother of one of the alleged victims is telling our anderson cooper, she and her son cringed as they watched sandusky being interviewed on nbc earlier this week. >> i understand your son heard jerry sandusky's interview on nbc on monday night. what was his reaction? >> he was upset. he was very upset about it. he said -- i didn't watch it -- i watched it when it was on, and he watched it after that. and he said that he cried and i said, why'd you cry? and he said, i'm afraid he might go free. >> he's afraid that sandusky might go free? >> yeah. >> well, today "the new york times" reporting that several years of files are missing now from second mile, that's the charity sandusky founded for troubled kids. prosecutors allege sandusky used second mile to target victims. "the times" also reporting that investigators worry with there may have been a cover-up by penn state officials. joe becker is "the new york times" investigative helicopter who is following this penn state case and she joins me now from university park in pennsylvania. thank you for being here. and just reading your article, a lot of new details in there that y'all were able to dig up. but do you agree? and i think from reading, a lot of people conclude, there were several times, several stops along the way that sandusky could have been stopped. but he wasn't. >> yeah, we talked to the university's general council at the time, and one of the sort of astonishing facts to emerge was that they never consulted, at least according to the attorney, the university general council before they decided what to do about allegations that an assistant coach, now an assistant coach, that a graduate assistant, had seen sandusky in the showers with a young boy, allegedly, according to him, raping that young boy. he ultimately told joe paterno, the coach, and then was summoned to a meeting with two school administrators. now, the school administrators have a different version of accounts. they gave a different version and not that the coach, the graduate student had seen him actually raping him, but they said that they were told that in one case it was horsing around in the showers with a young boy, in another case, it was that the other administrator was told that maybe mr. sandusky's genitalia had touched the genitalia of this young boy while wrestling. but in either event -- in either event, the attorney was saying that had he been told or consulted before the university decided not to go to the police and simply to take away mr. sandusky's locker room privileges, he would have told them that they had to go to the police. so it's a pretty amazing thing that they didn't bring him in. >> yeah, and jo, so much of the case seems to have come from mike mcqueary, the assistant, that grad assistant, assistant football coach now, but the grad assistant who allegedly saw this happening in that locker room. but it's amazing in the reporting you did, it seems like if they didn't have him, there wouldn't be much of a case. but also, the way that he came about, just an internet posting is how they found him? >> yeah. i wouldn't say that they wouldn't have a case. i mean, they, you know, started off with one boy. they wanted to establish a pattern. they did, you know, have additional witnesses. eight boys are alleged to have been molested by mr. sandusky, but the coach is an impartial witness, right, from their perspective. and the way that they stumbled upon him was on an internet forum. and they said, you know, people were talking about maybe a coach had seen something with sandusky, which investigators, you know, it was a break for them. they were able to find mr. mcqueary, and they said that he was immediately very forthcoming with them and, so it really did help their case. but it is -- what they sort of mentioned to me was just how, you know, if this was out there -- it was on internet forums. >> jo, last thing, what's the significance of missing files from the second mile charity that sandusky ran? >> well, prosecutors served subpoenas on the second mile, and they wanted a lot of different things. names of kids who have been through the program, but they wanted jerry sandusky's travel and expense records. and when they went to retrieve them out of the storage facility, three years were missing. and that was around 2000, 2003. now, ultimately, they were able to find one misplaced year, but the rest are gone. it's hard to know what to make of that, but as one investigator told me, you know, under the circumstances, they the find it troubling. >> all right, jo becker, again, investigative piece in "the new york times" on this. a lot of new details. jo, we appreciate you taking the time with us today. meanwhile, the obama administration and some members of congress have found a new battleground. the school cafeteria. the white house wants more fruit and veggies. congress is trying to pass off pizza as a vegetable! why the political food fight, that's next. also, occupy wall street. we just received a statement from the mta in new york, they manage the transit buses, subway trains, all that in new york city, saying, "we will be monitoring conditions and working closely with the nypd to maintain a safe and secure environment for our riders." we're not going far from this occupy wall street story. as we told you a little earlier, the folks in new york, at least, a couple of things planned, events they plan to march on the brooklyn bridge today. also, they plan to occupy the subways. all of that planned over the next several hours in new york. we're keeping a close eye. stay with us. [ female announcer ] the humana walmart-preferred rx plan gives you the lowest plan premium in the country... so you can focus on what really matters. call humana at 1-800-808-4003. as we come up on the bottom of the hour, you're taking a look at the scene a short time ago in new york. today's the day of action called by the occupy wall street movement. the occupy movement across the country, really. this marks the two-year anniversary of when this whole movement started. this was zuccotti park a short time ago. it has certainly settled down and a lot of people have cleared out since then, but they have not stopped. this is a day of action. still want to get their message out there. a day of action in new york. we're expecting to see many of the demonstrators, according to them, at least, going to the brooklyn bridge to march across it today, and also to occupy subways, as they say. but we are seeing scenes like this. again, for the most part, nonviolent today. maybe some scuffles here and there, but for the most part, it has been peaceful. according to our mary snow, about 100 people have been arrested today. but, again, several hundred, you can certainly assume, gathered there in zuccotti park, which has really been the birthplace, the home, as well, of the whole occupy movement. we're keeping a close eye on what's happening across the country today. also, it has been 30 years since the reagan administration tried to ketchup a vegetable in school lunches. now comes another food fight that's just as big, just as heated, but maybe it's a little undercovered. we're talking about it now. this is all about pizza and salt and french fries. that good stuff that's not good for you, necessarily. well, it was less than a year after president obama signed the healthy hunger-free kids act. congress is trying to undo now, many of those higher standards for school nutrition. the administration wanted to limit star and sodium to promote whole grains and to not count less than half a cup of tomato paste as a vegetable. you get that? it had to have at least a half a cup of tomato paste to be seen as a vegetable. but the frozen pizza, salt, and potato lobbies intervened, and yep, a compromise spending bill that's expected to pass this week removes, and i quote here, overly burdensome school lunch regulations. let me bring in dr. margo wootenhow. ma'am, thank you for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> pizza and salt and potatoes, they all have their own lobby, apparently, in washington and they work? >> they do. the big companies that make the pizza and french fries for school lobbied congress very aggressively to get some exemptions from what the obama administration had proposed. our kids need healthy lunches and pizza and french fries are two of the biggest problems. >> let's stick with the one that got everybody's attention on this tomato paste. what is the rule now? or at least, what did the obama administration want the rule to be on tomato paste? >> the obama administration proposed counting tomato paste, per it's volume, just like every other vegetable. so a half a cup of broccoli counts as half a cup of vegetable, and half a cup of tomato paste should count as half a cup of vegetable too. so pizza could be served, but it would have to be served with a vegetable, not count as a vegetable. >> there we go. so what will happen now? what is the next move? is there a possible this is going to stop? or what we're saying is that kids and their pizzas and their tomato paste win mean, i was talking to you during the commercial break, it's amazing all that's going on in this country and we're arguing about the amount of tomato paste. >> given how much of a problem of childhood obesity is, it causes heart disease, cancer, diabetes, very expensive problems that are contributing to the deficit. we need to be helping kids to eat better. and instead congress stepped in at the behest of the french fry and pizza makers and is making it harder for people to feed children healthfully. making it harder for the obama administration to address childhood obesity. >> all right. there's so much more i'd like to get into with you. we'll be talking about this story plenty more here on cnn throughout the day and also throughout the weekend as well. dr. wooten, appreciate your time. i'll check back in with you, if that's all right. >> great. let's talk some politics now. according to the polls, romney, the man to beat president obama, but gingrich pushing to the front. can he take on obama and can he win? that's fair game, next. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of a pain free holiday. this season, discover aleve. all day pain relief with just two pills. outhwash, toothpaste and this season, discover aleve. mouth wetting lonzenges - guaranteed effective on all types of bad breath and dry mouth. nothing works faster than therabreath. visit therabreathforfree.com well, to politics now. newt gingrich, is he the new anti-romney favorite among republican voters? more importantly, with all his, as they say, baggage, and the latest, his involvement with freddie mac, is he actually electable? it's all fair game. our experts and my dear friends, maria cardona, she's in washington, and lynn mcallister, he's live for us in chicago. lynn, you've kind of been on the newt bandwagon for quite some time. but as he gets up in the polls, man, the attacks are coming. >> they are absolutely coming. they are absolutely coming. and you know what, he has some baggage out there, but we'll see, just like the rest of the candidates, is he going to be able to navigate those waters successfully, or is he going to get tripped up? bachmann got tripped up, perry got tripped up, cain got tripped up. the only person that's been available to avoid getting tripped up has been romney. i think gingrich will do better, but we're starting to find out right now. >> all right, do e polls here, . gingrich versus obama. several recent polls are showing how he would do, possibly, against the president. not that great, but as we put these up and let our viewers digest them, is he the guy to take on obama, or will gingrich and some of the republicans say, you know what, he can't beat obama. as much as we like him, he's not the guy we need in the general. >> i hope he'll be the guy to take on obama, t.j., from a democratic standpoint. >> why? >> because i don't think that he will run a strong campaign against president obama. he's got two things that i think are going to really trip him up. the first one is, he's very undisciplined. and we saw this at the very beginning of this campaign. when a lot of his staff fled, it was because he was undisciplined. he hates, also, being questioned by the media. the gets testy. he has a temper. and so that, i think, is going to start showing once the pressure is on. and the pressure is now on. the sec thing is, he's actually more moderate than a lot of conservatives i think would want him to be on public policy issues. he supported the individual mandate. he supported cap and trade, and he trashed paul ryan's economic plan as right-wing social engineering. >> all right. let me bring in lenny again. as i talk to you, we'll put this poll up showing romney going head to head against obama, and he wins in some of these polls. lenny, i just did a segment about kids and eating their vegetables in school. is romney that vegetable that republicans are going to just be forced to eat? we know you don't like it, but you're going to have to just take it. >> well, you know what, he may be cauliflower right now, very vanilla, just kind of plain looking, but you can still get other vegetables. you can still get spinach and greens and broccoli. and that's what these other candidates have been. with newt gingrich, what we're going to find out is this. it's not so much what the polls look like in october. who can contrast well with president obama in a debate, in the general election, in the campaign trail. newt gingrich is probably the best candidate out of all of them to go on a stage with president obama three times and hold his own, if not win, at least two out of three of those conversations. once we start getting into how people look one to one, i think we may see newt rise even higher. but that's to be seen as of right now. >> maria, wrap it up for me with that grin on your face. >> i think the one thing that's going to be very difficult for gingrich to overcome, and we've sort of forgotten about this, but the reason why he wasn't the darling for the conservatives, when he first jumped in, is because a lot of them still have issues, not with his public policy or legislative baggage, but with his personal baggage. >> lenny, maria, i've got to to some pictures out of new york, guys. forgive. i've got to switch to pictures out of new york right now. we've been watching these occupy protests right now on this day of action, and i mentioned to you earlier, we didn't see a lot of violence, a lot of scuffles even, for the most part, it has been peaceful, but these are some apparent scuffles that are going on in new york right now. we'll get a better idea of the vantage point. not sure if this is zuccotti park, can't tell much right here, but a little back and forth and a little scuffling, it appears, going on right now between the police officers and the protesters. this was a day of action. two-month anniversary of when this all started, and it did start in new york with occupy wall street, and these occupiers, as they call themselves, taking over zuccotti park where they've been camped, and back and forth about zuccotti park. it went to the courts this week, and there was a raid and police went in, one night this week and got everybody out of there. a judge said they could go back, but they couldn't take their tents and they couldn't camp out. but still, zuccotti park in new york is really the epicenter of this whole movement. they have been back today for this day of action, and we've seen the protests, we have seen the signs, we have seen the dancing and some of the music and the drums and things that have come to signify or at least the emblematic of this type. mary snow showed a short time ago at least 100 arrests that have been made. but they have several other things planned today. they plan to occupy subways, as they say. they plan to actually go and occupy the brooklyn bridge today. there will be 100 or so arrests that have been made today. many of this had to do with people being out in streets and doing something against the law, something illegal. but for the most part, police have been standing by as the protesters do their thing, and not a lot of this back and forth. our mary snow has been there, covering this for us today. mary, i do believe you are still down there. i talked to you a short time ago, and you said things had calmed down dramatically. if you can give me some kind of perspective on what we're seeing here. >> things have heated up in the last few moments, t.j. this has been happening throughout the day, where you have these pockets of skirmishes, and you can see right in front of us, we saw a skirmish right in the middle of zuccotti park and people are actually coming towards these barricades. i'm sorry, i should say, police have been streaming in. as soon as there was this disturbance, some carrying nightsticks. it's hard to see right in there what happened. it happened so fast, t.j., and there have been a number of skipp skirmishes this morning and pockets of tension. and there have been protesters, pockets of them, leaving here, kind of splintering off, going to other major spots around lower manhattan. city hall and the like, and then coming back in here. and we just saw a mad dash toward that middle and some -- a at least one person to the ground and it took off and the police started streaming in. it has been tense. listen for a minute here, t.j., because you can hear the protesters are now chanting "shame" as three officers move in to the centerccotti park. it's hard to get a -- t.j., you can see, people are breaking through the barricades. i don't know if you can see that. into the street. >> mary, can you help us and be our eyes here, because the camera shot that i have and our viewers have is a little tighter. the picture you showed us earlier, the people seemed to have cleared out, but we have kind of a zoomed in picture, and it doesn't show us a good perspective. we're just losing the picture now. it doesn't show us a wider perspective of how many people are still there? are there still a lot of people gathered there? and how many are involved in this scuffle? >> reporter: i would say into the hundreds of people here, in this park. and early when this scuffle, this latest one just happened, it seemed like a couple of people, but now there's a lot of pushing and shoving in this park. i think you were just looking at some of the protesters coming out behind these barricades and police pushing them out on to the street. and i have to tell you, this happened so quickly. the park had really emptied out. >> mary, what is the object -- mary, what is the objective of the police right now? are they -- i know they were just standing by while the protesters weren't necessarily doing something wrong, but are they trying to remove protesters when they're in an area they're not supposed to do or just in the street or what? >> their objective is to keep them off the sidewalk, to make sure that people can go back and forth on this street. and anytime, it appears, that the protesters move out towards the sidewalk, the police seem to move in. so that is what their objective is. because, you know, these protesters can stay in this park. they have the right to. but, you know, it's really kind of getting heated right now, t.j. what i'm looking at is police really pushing people out into the street. >> and again, mary -- >> reporter: it's kind of hard to decide -- there's so much confusion, it's very difficult to say exactly what's going on here. >> well, we are, from this camera shot, and to our viewers right now, it might just be tuning in, and give you some perspective, mary, don't you go away, your our eyes and ears on the ground there. but just updating our viewers as we get close to a quarter to the top of the hour. this is the occupy -- this day of action. this is an occupy wall street, or many of these protesters are getting together on this second month anniversary of when this whole thing started. and they're back in zuccotti park. we saw a couple of scuffles a little earlier in the day, but as our mary snow was reporting to me just within the past hour, that things had dramatically calmed down after 100 arrests were made earlier in the day. but now things have changed in a dramatic fashion from some of the pictures we're seeing and what mary snow is describing. mary, go ahead and continue to describe what you're seeing. we're kind of at the mercy of this camera shot that is moving around right now and giving us, mary, specific views of what's happening down there on the ground. we can hear the chaos around you and see just a bit of it right now as well. >> reporter: yeah, and what we're hearing, t.j., and i'm not right in the middle of this, so we'll try to get more information about this, but it sounds like there may have been an altercation between a protester and a police officer and that's when this latest trouble started. and right now, what i'm seeing in front of me is the police are trying to put up these barricades again. you know the one thing that they've been trying to do is keep the protesters on the sidewalks. as you can hear, the protesters are chanting at them, "shame," this has been a chant they've been chanting all morning, throughout these various protests. and it's really been a very fluid situation throughout the day. >> all right. mary snow, we'll let you take a second. we'll take a quick break. and mary, we'll come back to you as you continue to get a good feel for exactly what's happening down there. to our viewers as we take a quick, quick break, you're seeing zuccotti park, new york, occupy wall street is the movement that's going on on this day of action to mark the two-month anniversary of when this whole up a movement started, and we are seeing some scuffles back and forth between the police and protesters, overwhelmingly peaceful, i should say, so far on this day, but a number of arrests, at least 100 in new york and these occupy protests are going on all across the country. quick break and right back. don't move. 550 let's talk about the personal attention tdd# 1-800-345-2550 you and your money deserve. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, that means king a close look at you tdd# 1-800-345-2550 as well as your portfolio. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 we ask the right questions, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 then we actually listen to the answers tdd# 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[ man ] so i used mine to get a whole new perspective. ♪ [ male announcer ] write your story with the citi thankyou premier card, with no point caps, and points that don't expire. get started at thankyoucard.citi.com. and a reminder, we're keeping an eye on the occupy day of action, happening in new york and really all across the country. we have seen a few scuffles we were showing you just a moment ago. at least 100 people have been arrested, at least in new york. at zuccotti park, this is where the whole movement started. a live picture we're seeing there. we'll keep a close eye on what's happening there and across the country. meanwhile, energy secretary steven chu was on the hot seat on capitol hill today. let me bring in jessica yellin right now. jessica, is the energy secretary trying to defend this the $535 million loan guarantee to a now bankrupt company? >> hey, t.j. well, he's explaining it, he's taken responsibility for it, and he's trying to detail why they made such a big loan to a company that ultimately went bankrupt. here is a bit of an exchange, as you imagine, it's become very, very testy, and the republicans, for their part, are trying to push the energy secretary to, bottom line, apologize for the loan, which the energy secretary has stopped short of doing. listen? >> based on what you know and what's and what's happened, who is to apologize for the half a billion dollars that has been out the door? >> well, it is extremely unfortunate what has happened to solyndra. if you go back and look at the time, decisions being made, was there incompetence? was there any influence of a political nature? and i would have to say no. >> so no apology? >> well, it is extremely unfortunate that what has happened -- >> so you see the nature of this. the bottom line is this. the investigation started because critics wanted to find out if solyndra got this money because of political influence. so the focus has sort of shifted now on to, was there a lack of diligence in the company? were there political motivations in the timing of releasing how badly the company was doing and that sort of thing. the question about political influence has been downplayed in the hearings today. there's still more to go. secretary chu is still testifying. it began at 10:00 eastern time and he's been in the hot seat for quite a while. >> jessica yellin, thank you. another live look. we're keeping a close eye on what's happening in new york. zuccotti park on this day of action for the occupy movement. at least 100 people have been arrested. vision. then my eye doctor told me about acuvue® oasys for astigmatism. he said it's the only lens of its kind designed to realign naturally with every blink so now, i'm seeing more clearly. [ male announcer ] learn more at acuvue.com. two of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. mary? what are you doing here? it's megan. i'm getting new insurance. marjorie, you've had a policy with us for three years. it's been five years. five years. well, progressive gives megan discounts that you guys didn't. paperless, safe driver, and i get great service. meredith, what's shakin', bacon? they'll figure it out. getting you the discounts you deserve. now, that's progressive. call or click today. a cloes eye we are keeping on zuccotti park. we've seen scuffles throughout the day, literally. it happened without a moment's notice. we saw a few of those scuffles a moment ago. at least a few of those people arrested as a part of protests going on all across the country. we are keeping a close eye on all of they will. we need to go back to the penn state child sex abuse scandal. the apparent years of secrecy surrounding the allegations against jerry sandusky. big college sports and an unwritten code of silence. let me bring in a former major league baseball player and espn analyst, author of time magazine opinion piece, silence in the locker room. thank you for being here. when you heard about this story on penn state, did you immediately think back to this code of silence? >> i did. thanks for having me. there's no question that being in the locker room a lot of years, i played 15 years professionally of major league baseball. and there is no doubt that there is a code. a lot of that code isn't necessarily in malicious intent. you're in that space very intimately, yet not necessarily that close. you're in close quarters but not necessarily integrally connected to these players. freshmen become sophomores. people graduate. with that rate of change it is hard to really know who you're dealing with. >> with, this code of silence be beneficial when you're surrounded and pro athletes especially, the college athletes. so is going on the o'outside. your only real family is in that locker room that you can be honest with and frank with. can it be a positive but even more so on the other side, such a huge negative. >> no question we're seeing the negative implications of that. that begins in the locker room. you set this tone of some form of protectionism and you turn inwards. you're not able to reveal certain information that could be extremely harmful to people around you. so once you get into that internal struggle, now you're just looking out for that core and a lot of things get lost. unfortunately, a lot of people can get hurt. >> how early, how young does this code of silence start? is it really from little league? >> it starts early. that's where the tone is set about how you interact with your teammates and coaches. that is certainly something that escalates at each level. when you're dealing with an institution that's huge like penn state, these exceptions and this sovereign nation, it is very easy to get lost in protecting yourself. that starts very early on. >> thank you so much for spending some time with us today. here we go. just a couple minutes to the top of the hour. a couple minutes from brooke baldwin. first some food for thoughts. cnn international special correspondent wants to he will power kids to ask this question. what is on my fork? what does that mean? it sounds very simple, a kid could figure that out. what do you mean? >> on top of the media work that i do, i focus a lot of my energy and time on empowering young people to take action to make the world a better place. this is part of a longer program sponsored by toyota foundation. this year we're launching a whole initiative around food and empowering kids. with all the bad things out there, type two diabetes, now childhood onset disease. we're empowering kids and giflg them the tools with this new program to start looking at having more vegetable based and fruit based food in their diets and live a little more of a healthy lifestyle and get engaged in their communities. we just launched that and we're excited about helping kids make it a healthier, better world for themselves. >> how do you do that? kids hear healthy food, you know. they've been told from the time they can understand english to eat your vegetables. how do you get at them? >> the way we do it is about engaging them, helping them understand why. i think oftentimes we talk to them about eating healthier. yet we don't really communicate why that's important. we tie it into education in schools, growing gardens in the schools. when kids do it, they love it. i visit schools all over the country. they get engaged. middle high school kids getting connected to the environment, broader issues. they love it. >> that's a good point. kids are just told to eat and it not exactly told why and how it is good for you. do you focus on not just the food, what's in it but where it comes from. >> the choices that we make around the food we make have a huge impact another global environment and our local environment. with he want kids to think about what they can do in their school and homes. we're not saying radically change everything but start thinking about getting more of the fruits and vegetables into their diet. for them to find ways that are fun and exciting to actually change it around. we do see a lot of successful there is a lot of talk that kids only want potato chips. i work with kids that every day they run out into their school garden and are eating tomatoes off the vine and sugar snaps and love it. >> can you tell us more? >> the program is called water planet challenge and it is waterplanetchallenge.org. as we get close to the top of the hour, let me hand this off to brooke baldwin. keeping an eye on all things across new york and the country. >> what a day it's been. what an afternoon and programs even evening it will be in cities across the country. thank you. hello to all of you. the news unfolding left and right here on this thursday. a lot happening over the course of the next two hours. we begin as always with rapid fire. take a look at these pictures. we are watching occupy wall street. what they're calling day of action. protests in new york, los angeles, all kinds of cities in between. as you look at this, you can see skirmishes broke out moments ago and lower manhattan, pretty tense in zuccotti park. hundreds of protesters return to the park after a morning march to wall street. police there trying to keep protesters corralled inside the park. but protesters, they've been picking up the police barricades. keep in mine, and here's the latest number we have. this could change 100. around 100 people have been arrested throughout the day today. the next protest stop for occupy wall street? manhattan subways. they are targeting multiple lines. these lines go to all five burroughs. we're keeping an eye on that. that is supposed to happen within the next two hours. protest oz also flooded streets in portland, oregon. newt gingrich holding a town hall event in florida. this as he faces accusations of lobbying for freddie mac and made big money doing it. he denies doing any lobbying. he is rising in the polls as the races are heating up. we're monitoring that town hall in florida. also during this hour, the man who police say may have fired shots at the white house appears in court for the very first time. the feds captured oscar ramiro ortega hernandez about 24 hours ago after a couple of shootings. and at least one bullet hit a white house window. take a look at this. we've got new video of the window now being replaced today at the white house. it is still not clear yet whether ortega hernandez will be charged. and a grilling on capitol hill. energy secretary steven chu defending the $535 million in federal loan guarantees he approved for the failed solar energy company solyndra and telling the house panel today, he was not, not pressured by the white house. >> as secretary of energy, the final additions on solyndra were mine. i made with it the best interests of the taxpayer in mind. over the long guarantee i did not make any decision based on political considerations. from capitol hill, i take you west of chicago. take a look at this. see that red? hint of red in this river? scientists have dumped nontoxic red dye into the deplains river by tracking this. they're hoping to better predict the movements of asian carp. the carp could decimate the fish series if they get into lake michigan. and secretary of state hillary clinton's motorcade attacked by paint. red paint, to be exact. even eggs. protesters got physical. she traveled through manila, the capital of the philippines. she is there visiting for the nuclear defense treaty anniversary. we should note her car itself, not hit. now this. loud booms, tear gas, nearly 30,000 marching through the streets. this is athens, greece. they're marking the anniversary of a major jump rising but also protesting all the belt tightening measures. the government wants more taxes and fewer benefits for students to save greece from going broke. and here's some new video from this major storm we were talking about this time yesterday slamming the southern states. here now is the aftermath. a south carolina home completely decimated, uprooted. ovens, wood splinters, pieces of people's lives strewn there across these different pieces of property. officials are saying watch out for the damage itself. >> the debris field that we have which is quite large, sharp objects, nails and stuff that splinter from homes. we'll have power lines, standing water. >> at least six people were killed in those storms. have you ever heard of a vertical forest? maybe not because it's the world's first. coming to life here. look at this. we're about to show you milan, italy, bringing these designs to its polluted city. each apartment in this building you're about to see pop up here will have a balcony planted with trees. they're supposed to help clean the air. two separate buildings filled with ivy and such. and we've got a lot more to cover in the next two hours including this. the occupy movement bubbling at this very moment. protesters say they want to end the reign of terror on wall street. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. chaos in gotham. thousands invading wall street. the brooklyn bridge, and soon, they're expected to crowd subways. we'll take you there live. plus the largest cheating scheme ever brought by the federal government. >> a wild black jack bust. a dealer accused of faking shuffles and his accomplice spilling card secrets through his cigarette. we'll show you how it all went down. newt gingrich accused of getting big bucks to lobby for freddie mac. this hour the republican is addressing a town hall and we're watching. of your baby acting adorable. baby. on it. matt, ignore me and keep updating your fantasy team. huh? 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[ male announcer ] on at&t, blackberry® torch moves at the speed of 4g. ♪ we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense. i tell you what i can spend. i do my best to make it work. i'm back on the road safely. and i saved you money on brakes. that's personal pricing. the story of the day. occupy wall street, these protests in cities across the country. i'm talking los angeles, portland, dallas, and the heart of the movement where it all began on new york city. mary snow is at the birth place of occupy wall street. zuccotti park there in lower manhattan. we've been watching, obviously the video coming through for the day. police protesters scuffling a couple minutes ago right around where you are. set the scene for me and tell me what it looks like now. >> reporter: well, brooke, throughout the day there have been like pockets of tension as protesters lead this park to other parts of the city and come back. a short while ago, we saw another flare-up if you will of skirmishes inside the park. police coming in. we're going to talk to this gentleman here who is an eyewitness to it. you do not want to give us your last name but tell us what you saw leading to that skirmish. >> i watched the, some of the protesters actually provoking police. and i thought the police used a lot of restraint. i watched them flick lit cigarettes at them and this close, blow smoke into their face and the police did nothing about it. >> then whammed? what led to the skirmish? >> these fences, they kept that you aring the protesters kept pushing they will and the police would put they will back and push they will and put them back. eventually they kept pushing it until it was very, room on the sidewalk. a few officers came and started to push it. they pushed back. the fence went over. i saw a policeman's hat fly off. i heard that he was hit with a battery and that's when the police came. that's when the whole riot started. >> you saw one person injured, correct? a protester? >> yeah. one gentleman had his head cracked open. but i will tell you that the police used a lot of restraint in the way they were being antagonized by the occupiers. i do believe in the cause very much because of the corruption in washington. but the police were really being pushed by these people. >> you said you came down here to check out what was going on because you believe in the cause, correct? >> yes. i heard it was the anniversary and today was an important day and i wanted to kind of observe to see what's going on. i was down here about a month ago when the tents were up. and i hope this cause keeps going into the spring and the summer and makes a change for us in washington. >> any impression of what's going on today? >> well, right now -- i was disappointed to see how the protesters were treating the police, truthfully. and i think, i hope they get better organized and some of the riff raff that's here, just great trouble, won't be here and it moves forward. >> reporter: thank you for taking the time to speak with us. brooke? >> here's my question. he talked about the riff raff. he talked about people pro voguing the police and the lit cigarettes and we see the video-driven story today. my question for folks that are there for their own message, for a peaceful movement, are they frustrated that really, it seems that some of the fringe movements, the fringe activities are, i don't know, trumping the message. do they worry about that? >> reporter: you know, there are obviously both sides. you talk to the protesters and they feel like they're being provoked by the police and questioned by the police. there is a big distrust of the police, as you can imagine. that's been their message for quite some time. they feel that their message, their real show of force will come later today when they are planning a protest at the brooklyn bridge and they speck that to be massive. and yes, i mean, they expected that there would be scuffles throughout the day and they go back to the distrust of police. and they tell a very different side of the story. but you know, they also are making the point that they feel that their movement is much larger than a piece of real estate. that's what they're trying to convey today. >> you mentioned the brooklyn bridge. i want to ask but the subways as well. first let's watch this piece of video again. you were at the park this morning. protesters returned. let's just watch this. >> reporter: they hauled out someone from the park and they have him in cuffs on the ground. what we can see from that overhead shot is that protesters starting to lift the barricades that were inside the park. we're seeing a couple other people being called out of the crowd now and being arrested. >> so mary, how many people have been arrested? what kinds of charges are they facing and what's the goal later on with regard to hopping on the subways? >> reporter: so far we've heard there are about 100 arrests and most have been for obstructing traffic or disorderly conduct. and what these protesters will tell you is that they're heading to the subways. they're saying they don't mean to disrupt the rush hour in terms of disrupting subway service. they say they want to go down into the subways and talk to people and tell their stories and they say that it is incorrect to say that they're trying to shut these subways down. but in their words, they're trying to reach as many people as possible today. >> we'll be watching both the brooklyn bridge and the subways here on this show. quickly want to let our viewers know, we reached out to mta. they said we will be monitoring conditions, we're working closely to maintain a safe and secure environment. for now, let's go to the new york stock exchange. like so much others, had to go to work this morning. nearby zuccotti park, a lot of protesters have been there. did you have an easy time getting into work today? has there been any impact where you are? >> yeah. it was tough getting into the stock exchange here. it's like trying to get into a fortress. a lot of the streets were closed. when you get even closer, you've got a line of police officers checking your i.d. you've got these layers upon layers of barricades that are keeping you from going really anywhere that there isn't a police officer. but you know you get in here, you can almost forget what's going on outside. you see some of these pictures here that i took from this morning. this gives you an idea of how fortified the stock exchange is. these pictures i took from a location inside the stock exchange. they look a little more empty. you can see there are police officers at almost every entrance of this building. they're on horseback as well. that shot there, that's down broad street that runs right into wall street. but they definitely have a show of force here just in case these protesters tried to storm this building. >> obviously, the movement is called occupy wall street. these occupiers talk about the reign of terror. you're sitting at the new york stock which change. have you had a chance to talk to the traders, businessmen outside the exchange? what are reactions from them in terms of what they're seeing today? >> a lot of the traders that i talked to have sort of become used to this, believe it or not. even though the security and the show of force that you see from police officers is much stronger today. no doubt about that. and the numbers of protesters have certainly grown. a lot of the traders and a lot of the people who work in this area have literally become used to this. this has been going on for two months. security has been tight, yes. not as tight as it is today. but it is becoming a way of life here close to wall street. >> we should point out this mass day of action. this is the two-month mark. that's why this day is so significant for the occupiers. we want to let you know, we'll keep an eye, very close on new york but it is not the only place where protesters are storming. we'll take you to los angeles where folks refuse to leave. also developing this hour, a regional jetliner make an emergency landing in new york. what happened? >> the captain has disappeared in the back and i have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit. >> that's next. also a coach told friends, he did go to police after witnessing jerry sandusky allegedly raping a boy in the shower. but now police say they have no record of that. new twists in the penn state abuse case. last throw, prince. and last chance at medicare open enrollment, too. what do you mean? it ends december 7th. if you haven't reviewed your medicare plan choices yet, well, it's getting late. medicare gives you free cancer screenings and wellness visits, and 50% off brand name prescription drugs when you're in the donut hole... it's all part of the health care law. december 7th? i better get goin'! [ male announcer ] medicare open enrollment ends soon. call 1-800-medicare or visit medicare.gov to learn more. here's a scenario for you. you're the co-pilot of a plane. your pilot has up and disappeared. now someone is trying to get into the cockpit. what would you do? that happened last night as one of delta's regional jets was about to land in laguardia airport. here's what the co-pilot who was clearly growing increasingly alarmed said to air traffic controllers. >> 6132. we're at 180 knots. can we leave the frequency for a minute? we're going to try to contact dispatch. the captain has disappeared in the back and i have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit right now. >> it turns out there was an emergency. the pilot had gotten locked in the restroom. couldn't get out. the man with what was described as a thick foreign action send was simply relaying the pilot's predicament to the cockpit. under the circumstances, the co-pilot feared it might be terrorism. he was just about to ask for fighter jets to assist. fortunately the pilot finally busted out of the lavatory, made it back to the cockpit. the fbi talked to the man with this accent and determined he was a good guy. just simply trying to do the right thing. >> now new details in the penn state child sex abuse case. local police dispute claims that former penn state grad assistant mike mcqueary came to them after allegedly seeing jerry sandusky having second with a 10-year-old in a shower. sandusky, as you know, the former penn state defensive coordinator now charged with 40 counts of sex abuse with eight boys. there is also this. a new judge will preside over sandusky's next hearing. the former judge came under fire after she released sandusky on a $100,000 bail against prosecutors's wishes. the firestorm grew big where it was discovered this judge had actually served as a volunteer for the second mile, sandusky's charity. also, anderson coomer spoke with the mother of one of sandusky's alleged victims. she wants to remain anonymous. you won't see her. her voice has been altered. here is what she told anderson. >> so i went to the school and met with the guidance counsellor and the principal. and when i did, they told me my son had said some things about, that there was a problem with jerry and he didn't know. that he didn't really admit anything at that point that was, he just said he thought he needed to tell somebody or it would get worse. >> that's a really brave thing for him to have said. >> and then, yeah, it is. and then the principal said, oh, you know, jerry has a heart of gold. >> the principal said that to you? that jerry has a heart of gold? >> yes. yes. and that -- and in, i was very upset at this point. i was extremely upset. i was basically yelling at them that they needed to call the police. i said i want you to call the police, call the police right now. i said it three times, call the police right now. he said no, you need to think about, they said i needed to think about the ramifications of what would happen if i did that. >> what do you think they meant by that? >> i don't know. i guess, i'll assuming what we're going through now. i don't really know. >> one more development i want to pass along to you if you read "the new york times" article this morning. they're reporting that three years of records are now just missing from the second mile charity. the charity that sandusky founded where he met his alleged victims. missing. critics call it taxpayer money down the drain. energy secretary stephen chu is defending his decision to give federal money to the failed company solyndra. today, fire work on capitol hill. plus, the feds are calling it one of the most sophisticated tunnels to smuggle drugs. it has electricity. it has ventilation. we'll show you where it was found and why this bust is so big. of the most important are energy security and economic growth. north america actually has one of the largest oil reserves in the world. a large part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. that's good for our country's energy security a vacation on a budget with expedia. make it work. booking a flight by itself is an uh-oh. see if we can "stitch" together a better deal. that's a hint, antoine. ooh! see what anandra did? booking your flight and hotel at the same time gets you prices hotels and airlines won't let expedia show separately. book it. major wow factor! where you book matters. expedia. we're now learning there is a hearing underway regarding the man who was caught about 24 hours ago in a town in pennsylvania. indiana, pen that he be is named 21-year-old oscar ramiro ortega hernandez. police, pennsylvania state police and secret service were able to track him down. they believe he is the guy connected to the shooting last friday night at the white house. we want to go to athenna jones who is at the white house. you're now learning what charge this young man will face. >> reporter: that's right, brooke. the u.s. attorney just announced they'll be charging him with attempting to assassinate the president. this is according to the assistant u.s. attorney robert kitchen -- jimmy kitchen who said this in court a short while ago. we're getting this from our producer who was there in the courtroom giving us a play by play of what's going on. they'll be charging him with attempting to assassinate the president. of course, president obama was traveling at the time. the presumption is the suspect didn't know that. it shouldn't be too much of a surprise. you'll remember back in 1994, francisco martin duran was charged with coming up and shooting at least 29 rounds through you this front gate on the north lawn. he was convicted of attempting to assassinate the president. so it is not a surprise these charges, we don't know what other charges could come. we're still watching. >> we're learning today a little more about this man. the fact that friday was his birthday. he had hate for the president. what else do you know? >> reporter: well, as you know, the authority have talked to the friends and family who believe he had this intense interest in the president or the white house. we do know that his family had reported him missing way back at the end of october. october 31st. this is his family in idaho falls, idaho. they were concerned about him. so slowly things are beginning to come out and we'll be paying more attention as the story continues. >> all right. thank you so much for us at the white house. now a grilling on capitol hill today. energy secretary steven chu was in the hot seat. he defended the $535 million in federal loan guarantees. he approved for the failed solar energy company solyndra. in this fallout, an investigation was launched to find out if political favoritism played a role in funding this particular company. i want to bring in our senior white house correspondent. she's been following the developments. tell me about the hearing. >> reporter: pretty testy as you might imagine with steven chu the energy secretary in that chair for more than four hours so far. the republicans on the panel have focused their questioning on whether he takes responsibility for this loan beyond simply saying that he feels that it was unfortunate but whether he'll actually apologize for making this investment to begin with. here is what the energy secretary said to the larger questions at stake in this investigation. >> as the secretary of energy, the final decisions on solyndra were mine and i made them with the best interests of the taxpayer in mind. i want to be clear. over the course of solyndra's long guarantee, i did not make any decision based on political considerations. my decision to guarantee a loan to solyndra was based on the analysis of professional, experientialed professionals and on the strength of the information they had available to them at the time. >> reporter: as you might imagine, over the course of four hours he was pummeled on that statement. so he fought back in his own sort of quiet soft-spoken way. but it was, it's been ongoing and it's not done yet. they're just taking a break for the moment. >> what about the initial charge that this was all about doing a favor for an obama donor? >> reporter: that's what is sort of interesting about this. that's where it started. what it has moved to is that has not been the focus of today's hearing. so today, the critics have accused secretary chu of not having a staff that properly vetted solyndra before giving them so much money. and then also pumping more money into the company later and letting taxpayers sign up for a deal that if they went bankrupt gets taxpayers paid back before private investors. so as you can see in the weeds. and you've moved away from that original charge that there was a political possible scandal about political favorite i. it has creeped away. >> what about democrats? what do they say? >> this is interesting. even the democrats on the panel are saying today that this is a manufactured scandal by republicans who are hiding a political interest of their own. the democrats are saying republicans are doing this because they're defensing oil and gas interests who don't want to see green energy take off. because oil and gas interests, the democrats argue, donate to republicans more than to democrats. and so therefore the republicans are trying to stop this green energy industry which this loan program supports. it's just such a political football right now, brooke. it's going to keep going. >> we trust you. we'll keep our eye on the ball and if it gets testier, let us know. thank you. now to this. tunnels you said the u.s.-mexico border. they're so common, did you know san diego has what they call a tunnel task force? yep. a tunnel task force. on tuesday, a major pot bust led this tax force to this tunnel in a warehouse that connected to another warehouse in tea was u t not, in tijuana. first let's begin with the fact that this had a pretty sophisticated tunnel. >> very sophisticated. it had everything they needed to make it a very sophisticated, efficient and fast operation. we're talking about a toll of anywhere from 15 to 16 tons of marijuana just to put in it context. anywhere from 20 million to $30 million street value. and it was very long. it was the size of four football fields. 400 yards running across the border. they went 20 feet into the ground. it was four feet high by three feet wide. and when agents went there, they saw all of the sophistication that we're talking about. structural supports so there were no accidents. ventilation, everything needed to have it as a smooth operation for these drug traffickers. >> peeking over your shoulder to see the images. you can see it on the ground. how did agents find this to begin with? >> it started in a very simple manner. there was a small cargo truck leaving a nondescript warehouse near the border. agents stopped the truck and they found three tons of marijuana. so one thing connected to the other. and they found five tons on the mexican side. six and a half in the warehouse on the american side. but the bottom line, and this is what agents want to say themselves want to send a message to drug cartels that this is going to happen every time they tried to do this. let's listen to what then. >> i'm confident if these cartels want to continue to smuggle their drugs into the united states in this fashion, we'll find them and find them faster than they can build them. >> the thing is, brooke, they're very resilient. >> who is they? >> the drug cartels. in the last four years, 75 tunnels have been found across the u.s./mexico border. mainly in california and arizona. three in the exact same area we're talking about last year. one of them had even a rail system with carts so that the drugs could just be push -- >> made a little easier. that's why they have a tunnel task forceful rafael, thank you so much. coming up next, we'll get you back to the occupy wall street story. we'll talk to a woman who is weighing in on future of this movement. she said this is just getting started. but it has a bit of growing up to do. that's next. toothpaste and mouth wetting lonzenges - guaranteed effective on all types of bad breath and dry mouth. nothing works faster than therabreath. visit therabreathforfree.com where does the occupy movement go from here? sally cohen is a political commentator and the founder and ceo of the progressive think tank movement vision lab. she's written a piece about the future of the movement. nice to have you on. i want to ask you specifics about your point you make in this piece. first you've been watching the pictures along with the rest us. l.a., portland, new york. what's your reaction of this massive demonstration? >> i'm thrilled to see the turnout. i'm heart broken to see what seems to be an increasingly aggressive response on the part of the police. whether you agree with the protesters, america was a nation founded in the spirit of protest. the spirit of ordinary people being able to come together and express their views. we protect that in our constitution and to see police from the reports, you know, the streets and the pavement around zuccotti park are bloodied. they're dragging protesters away by their hair. they're not allowing medics to come to the aid of folks. police are there to protect safety and also to protect people's rights to protest and speak their minds will. >> you mentioned the park. earlier the protesters were evicted, kicked out of that park. it has happened in different parts of the country. in your opinion piece you wrote, now that it's been kicked out of the house, being the movement, it's time for the 99% movement to grow up. sally, what do you mean by that? grow up how? >> movements go through phases. this movement is in its infancy. the movement which is bigger than the tactic. the occupation is just a tactic. the movement for the 99% of people who want this country and our economy to work for everyone and not just the 1%. that movement, that 99% movement is really just in the first 1%. this is the first phase. we're entering the second phase. in a way, the developments of the last couple days have forced the movement to come to terms with what it will do next. >> talked to different people. there are different messages. they're trying to get across in this movement but some of the citizen civil has come. it is sort of nebulous leaderless movement. you say no. it is leader full, giving the voice to the powerless in our country. but looking ahead, you predict clusters of leaders will emerge. they won't necessarily look like who we think they will. what will they look like? >> i do think that it has been wrong to label this as leaderless. it is built on the notion of social movements, really, if you go back in our history through the civil rights movement, back to the founding of our country. it gave power and voice and leadership to many and not just one or two. so that really is the tradition they're building. on it is early. in its infancy. you're going to see leaders emerge although they're going to be different than what we're used to seeing. they'll be single moms, holeless folks, students who just got out of college and are struggling with their debt. it will be a wide range of folk. what exactly and who they'll rise around is yet to be seen. >> the people at the crux of this movement. they say they're peaceful and passionate. you see the violence. one protester was arrested after he was seen on youtube allegedly encouraging violence. and one person said they'll see what a molotov cocktail can do to macy's. in your article you cite the fringe. the fringe in the movement. what impact has this group had on the message overall? >> yeah. and to be clear, in every movement, left or right of center, i think this is sort of a largely middle of the road movement. but it has been inclusive of a very antagonistic group. for the fact of the matter for some very valid and nonvalid reasons, they just wanted to cause trouble and destroy property. they want to give a hard time to police. the vast majority of people who are both in zuccotti and the occupy camps around the country and supporting this movement across the nation and across the world are peaceful folks who believe in peaceful ways to voice grievances with our economy, with wall street, and with our government. and they're not represented by those few yahoos. but a few people wanting to cause trouble can get a lot of attention. >> they can indeed. thank you for explaining the movement itself and growing up, you say, how it will grow up. thank you. appreciate it. >> pleasure. thank you. still ahead, occupy protesters storm new york. find out how police are controlling the chaos and what they will do if and when the subways overflow with crowds. also, newt gingrich holding a town hall in florida. let's listen. >> probably registered republicans. having said that, i would say that one of the things that bothers a lot of people in the tea party movement and all over the place in this great country is that we consistently see politicians selling us out for their party. we are looking for someone who is going to sell out for us. sell out for we the people. my question to you would be, how would you define yourself? are you a conservative who is a republican? or are you a republican who is a conservative? >> well, i think i reject that kind of distinction. i think a healthy republican party is inharptly the conservative party in america. and has no future as anything else. and i think conservatives want to recognize that if you run in vermont, you probably don't run on the same themes as you run in jacksonville. and we want to govern an entire country. thin this is a krcountry of over 300 million people. a stable economy is 180 million people. you call a flame reunion and all 180 million show up, i guarantee you, there will be some strange people in the majority. so when i was speaker, i helped create a majority because i helped the republican party win everywhere. we won in new england. we won in oregon, we won in washington state, we won in california, we won in florida, we won in georgia. our goal was to win everywhere. and i have a very simple definition. i want to build a coalition around one simple question. two questions. one economic and one about the nature of america. i want to win every person of every back ground who would prefer a paycheck to a food stamp. i welcome into this campaign to build a majority to get us going again. second, every person of every background who believes that we are endowed by our creator and this is an exceptional country, i want in our majority. then we'll figure out how we work together. >> hello, mr. speaker. first i want to welcome you to our great stiff jacksonville. my question has to do with illegal immigration. now let me repeat that. illegal immigration. and i'm wondering, two parts to the question. i'm wondering if you know of any past u.s. president who actually solved that president? and if so, who and how? >> well, they tightened up immigration dramatically in the 1920s. and although it wasn't a question at that point of illegal immigration but they had much tighter laws in the 1920s. that's primarily how they did it. look, we are in a very different era. we're in an era where you have worldwide instantaneous communication and world wide transportation. that means you have to think about how you're going to operate as a country in a very different kind of world. that's why if you go to newt.org and you look at the 21st century contract with america, you will see that we put in a provision to complete control of the border by january 1, 2014. i want to be very clear about this. this is why i'm different. i was the longest serving teacher in the senior military for 23 years, to one and two star generals and admirals. i have written two novels on world war ii. we won the second world war between december 7th, 1941, when the japanese attacked at pearl harbor and the japanese surrendering in august of 1945, 44 months. three years and eight months. think about that. we beat nazi germany. now politicians say you cannot control the border or it will take at least 15 years. that's nonsense. so we're drafting a bill -- two parts to controlling the border. one, we're drafting a bill which will suspend all federal regulations that would inhibit us from completing control by january 1, 2014. so we apply a world war ii style speed and aggressiveness to get the job done. second, there are 23,000 department of homeland security employees in the washington area. i am prepared to move half of them to texas, arizona, and new mexico. >> it's very important that we get someone like you in the white house. how do you intend to counteract the bias of the media and the dirty remarks we're getting? i've noticed that every time a republican runs, they get slammed in the press and always take the high road. they never knock back and say, it's okay for michelle obama to spend $10 million of the taxpayers money on vacations. and if you were to make any type of a remark like that against a democratic candidate, it would be racracism. it would be bias. how will you fight the press? they are everywhere. the other question is, what are you going to do, what can you do or plan to do about anchor babies? and more importantly -- when are we going to get our children home from the middle east and stop wasting them on other peel's countries? >> i think you went for three. >> she did. >> i don't think that was right. >> let me say, i believe we have to rethink our entire strategy in the middle east. because i think that it is a much harder, much longer term problem and i think tragically, the we have been engaged in campaigns where our military has been tactically brilliant, incredibly heroic. i think we need to rethink it as radically and decisively as possible. on anchor babies, if we get total control of the border it ceases to be a problem. they get here and therefore they won't be a problem in the long run. on the news media, first of all, this may surprise some of you. you know, i was dead in june and july as a candidate, not as a person. as a candidate. and now i'm apparently not dead. and according to fox last night, i'm in first place. i think realistically i'm tied with romney. we're both somewhere in about the -- but here's the key thing to remember. we all complained correctly when the news media failed to investigate barack obama. we complained when they refused to look at william ayers. we complained when they didn't actually explain what it was all about and what community organizer meant. we were right to complain about that. so now they're actually doing for us what they wouldn't do for obama. they're doing it partly out of bias. i understand that and i understand there are places like msnbc that are essentially the oebl obama re-election team. but that's fine. this is a free society. you can say that fox tends to be nicer than to obama. in the next three weeks i predict to you we'll have all sorts of questions about me. and it's fine. you cannot ask the people of the united states to loan you the most powerful governmental job in the world, particularly on a campaign that is promising very drama change, and not have them vet you carefully and thoroughly. and what you're going to discover is that in the 12 years that i stepped down that was in private life, in fact, i worked -- i worked extraordinarily hard. and that we were deeply committed to being citizens. we made seven documentary films that helped explain america, six of them. one explains pope john paul ii coming back to defeat the soviet empires. a series. books. we worked with a ride range of company. i help found four small businesses and that's fine. i will cheerfully answer every single question they ask. and at the end of it, you will be relevantly convinced, i believe, that i did no lobbying of any kind. i did no influence peddling. i won't use the words because they'll distort them. if you just take what people say about me in the debates and say to yourself, gee, is that a person somebody might have hired for advice. i think it's hard to argue that they should have hired someone who was truly dumb. so i'm happy to tell you, i have been a very successful -- i'll not as successful as mitt but that's not a comment about mitt. i would have liked to have been that successful. i think i represent the wing of america that believes hard work and success is good. not bad. and i'm happy to answer for it. >> we're listening to a little of the q & a with house speaker newt gingrich. this was sponsored by the first coast tea party. let's talk a little about newt gingrich with wolf blitz here just so happens to be here today. he said i was dead as a candidate in june and july. i remember you and i talk about that. his senior staffers had left. he went on a cruise with his wife around the mediterranean. he had some critical words for paul ryan and now he's risen because of what we've seen with perry, with cain. >> michele bachmann. >> does he have staying power? >> he is a very, very smart guy. i covered him when he had all the fights with bill clinton. he knows his stuff well. you forgot to mention the tiffany's issue which came up. that line of credit he had for hundreds of thousands of dollars at tiffany's. that caused a big stir. and he's right. a lot of the pundits, almost everyone thought his campaign isn't going anywhere. he went on that two-week cruise to the eastern mediterranean two weeks after he announced he was running for president of the united states. and everybody said, is he serious? why is he going? but as rick perry and michele bachmann and herald cain have found themselves in trouble, a lot of republicans don't like mitt romney. they're looking for someone else. and he is emerging as potentially that other nonmitt romney. that's why he is going up in the polls. >> as a candidate emerges and goes up in the polls. that means new scrutiny. additional scrutiny. the issue popped up with regard to his time, the gingrich group, this consulting if i recall, the accusations that he lobbied for freddie mac. the quote is he was acting as historian, giving advice. and the continued questions from reporters hurt him in his rise. >> he has to come totally clean on this. he wants to be president of united states. he has to release all the documents. originally he said we'll try and then his spokesman said they're not releasing anything else. if you make as much as $1.8 million over five years, $1.8 million, the gingrich group really is newt gingrich for all practical purposes. they were hiring him. he wasn't formerly registered with congress as a lobbyist so that's why he said he never did any lobbying. he was giving them serious advice. that's why they were paying him $20,000 or $30,000 a month. you get paid by freddie mac $20,000 or $30,000 a month, you're getting paid something they want. he'll to have explain that. i'm sure he will. you just heard him say some nice things about the news media that we're doing our job. we're vetting these republican who's want to be the next president of the united states. if he's moving up, he is going to be vetted. >> okay. we'll see you next hour. we'll explain why you're here in atlanta. >> you know why i'm here. >> and our evening at the b.e.t. >> soul train awards. we'll talk about it next hour. you've got something cooking as we mentioned. wolf blitzer, thank you. now to this as we continue to cover these occupy wall street, this massive movement. this massive day of activity really throughout the country. occupiers plan to storm more than a dozen subway stations throughout new york city. we're talking about lines that affect routes to all five burroughs. what are police doing to prepare? former police detective mike brooks is here. we'll talk about the law enforcement angle. the epicenter of occupy wall street is new york. within just this past hour, you have protesters, police claring there at zuccotti parks. mike brooks, you worked with metropolitan police in d.c. 27 years. you've worked certainly in washington dealing with protesters and the like. how do you prepare for a day like this? >> there's a lot of intelligence work that's done. you want to meet with the leadership if you can identify the leadership of these different groups and try to say, okay. look. we're here to protect you. we're here to protect the citizens of the city. new york, washington, d.c., portland, you want to make sure that they are able to conduct their first amendment right to protest. again, we talk about the grassroots organizer you spoke with moments ago. always a fringe movement. today we've had, i know of at least five nypd officers that have been injured. >> seven. just got the word. >> that's a new one. >> 175 arrests and to your point about this, even the activist i had on a moment ago said you have the fringe group. whether it is the occupy, whatever massive movement you have. you have the sliver of the population. and all it takes is one rock, one molotov cocktail and it's a