>> pelley: good evening. we begin tonight with a big improvement in the unemployment picture. the labor department reported today that the jobless rate in january fell .2 to 8.3%. the lowest in three years. and the economy created 243,000 jobs. that's a lot more than economists or wall street were expecting, so the news sent stock prices soaring. the dow gained more than 156 points to close at 12,862. and have a look at this. that is the highest close for the dow since may of 2008. the financial crisis sent the index as low as 6500 the following year, so that's quite a recovery since then. we asked anthony mason to tell us who's posting the help wanted signs. >> reporter: patriots trash cans and giants towels are rolling off the line this week at wincraft, the sports collectibles company in winona, minnesota. super bowl sunday is big business for wincraft, and president john killen sees business growing 10% this year. >> we're ahead of plan already in the first month of the year. so we're bullish on 2012. >> reporter: like many companies, wincraft, which has 500 employees, had to downsize during the recession. >> but the good news is we've hired back over 140 people in the last two years. and we're continuing to hire people. we've hired 20 new people in the last 90 days. >> reporter: is this sustainable? >> oh, absolutely. >> reporter: economist chris thornberg says private businesses have now added, on average, 218,000 jobs a month since november. >> add up the weight of evidence. it's not just january. it's november, december, january, and what you see is an economy that's picking up speed. >> reporter: back in winona, that's allowed jeff smith at last to land a job. after three years of unemployment and part-time work, the sales and marketing specialist, who once had his own company, tried a new strategy. >> i made the decision to change my career path and do whatever i could do to take care of my family. >> reporter: he was overqualified for his new job as a receiving clerk, but took it happily. >> i think any time anybody can get a paycheck, you know, their self-esteem goes up and they're so much happier with themselves. a lot of stress goes away. >> reporter: but even if this rate of job growth is sustained, it will take several years for the unemployment rate to get back to prerecession levels. the economy still has 5.6 million fewer jobs, scott, than it did four years ago. >> pelley: but, anthony, what explains this job growth? >> reporter: scott, employers have been telling us for months now that things are actually looking better. business is getting better, but they haven't been hiring because of all the uncertainty out there. well, it looks like they are finally regaining some confidence. >> pelley: anthony, thanks very much. it's good news, for sure, but one thing we noticed today is how stubborn unemployment has been. 5.5 million people have been unemployed for a year or more. look at how that compares to the past. this graph shows the job losses in the 10 recessions we've had since world war ii. all you need to notice here is how they're mostly v-shaped. jobs were lost and then they came back pretty quickly. but now look at the red line coming in from the left. the job losses from the great recession-- unlike any recession in 60 years, the jobs didn't spring back. in all, the time that they have been keeping records, we have never seen so many americans out of work for so long. the last time the unemployment rate was this low was in february 2009. that was president obama's first full month in office. norah o'donnell was with the president today. norah? >> reporter: scott, these better-than-expected jobs numbers are welcome news for president obama. still, his advisers know that the election is nine months away, and a lot can change that could really alter this downward trend line that seems to benefit his reelection chances. >> the economy is growing stronger. the recovery is speeding up. and we've got to do everything in our power to keep it going. >> reporter: pushing his jobs for veterans agenda in virginia today, the president called on congress to extend the payroll tax cut set to expire at the end of this month. >> so i want to send a clear message to congress: do not slow down the recovery that we're on. don't muck it up. ( applause ) keep it moving in the right direction. >> reporter: the unemployment rate may be trending in the right direction for president obama, but it is far above the point history tells us is needed for reelection. in the modern era, president george h.w. bush, lost reelection with unemployment at 7.4%; president carter at 7.5%; and gerald ford failed to win with unemployment at 7.8%. a student of history, the president is clearly trying to manage expectations. >> these numbers will go up and down in the coming months, and there are still far too many americans who need a job or need a job that pays better than the one they have now. >> reporter: scott, one of the reasons the president is trying to manage expectations is because the nonpartisan congressional budget office this week estimated that unemployment could reach nearly 9% on election day. >> pelley: republicans, of course, had another take on the news. thank you, norah. the republican speaker of the house, john boehner, said that the recovery would be even better if it weren't for the president. mitt romney, the leading candidate for the republican presidential nomination, acknowledged the drop in unemployment but said that it's not what he called a true recovery. >> this recovery has been slower than it should have been. people have been suffering longer than they should have had to suffer. will it get better? i think it will get better. i don't know how long it's going to take. >> pelley: the republican caucuses in nevada are tomorrow. in the latest poll, romney leads newt gingrich there by 20 points, 45% to 25%. in a sharp change of heart, the nation's top breast cancer charity today apologized to the american people for cutting off funding to planned parenthood. planned parenthood provides women's health services, including breast cancer screening, but its abortion services are what touched off a furious debate this week over the funding cut and the motivations behind it. nancy cordes is following this story for us. >> reporter: looking for shelter in a political firestorm, susan g. komen for the cure issued a mea culpa this morning. "we want to apologize to the american public for recent decisions that cast doubt upon our commitment to our mission of saving women's lives." komen announced it was reversing its decision made public on tuesday to cut off funding for breast exams at planned parenthood. komen also said it would amend its new funding criteria that had seemed to disqualify planned parenthood alone among its 2,000 grant recipients. in a telephone call with reporters, planned parenthood's president, cecile richards, said she was grateful. >> we've seen over the last few days in the outpouring of support sends a real important message about women are willing to stand up for women and women's health. >> reporter: the komen foundation changed course after a torrent of women posted message online that was 10:1 against the charity. today, democratic center patty murray of washington state congratulated komen with this caveat: >> we will remain vigilant to make sure politics doesn't come between us and our healthcare. >> reporter: the komen foundation was recently ranked the nation's second most-trusted nonprofit, but this week it managed to outrage people on both sides of the nation's most divisive issue, abortion. >> i think we've seen this week a disgraceful display of planned parenthood using real thug tactics to bring pressure on them. >> reporter: charmaine yoest leadses the antiabortion rights group, americans united for life. you called planned parenthood thug-like. they say it's groups like yours that have been bullying the komen foundation. >> we have been working very diligently to get all the information out there about how planned parenthood does business. there are real serious and substantive questions about their financial stewartship of the public monies that they receive. >> reporter: scott, planned parenthood said today it has raised more than $3 million in the past three days. opponents of planned parenthood say that's proof the organization doesn't need the $700,000 it gets from komen each year. >> pelley: nancy, thanks very much. late today, federal prosecutors in los angeles said that they have closed a two-year criminal investigation of lance armstrong, the seven-time winner of the tour de france. he will not be charged. a grand jury has been hearing testimony of alleged doping in the world's most grueling bike race. some of armstrong's teammates testified that they had seen armstrong take banned substances and get illicit blood transfusions. one of those who testified is teammate tyler hamilton. we spoke to hamilton on "60 minutes" last year, and he told us that he saw armstrong use banned drugs, including the blood booster known as e.p.o. he was using e.p.o. in the tour de france in 1999? >> correct. >> pelley: he was using e.p.o. in the tour de france in the year 2000? >> he used it before to prepare for the tour. >> pelley: and what about the tour in 2001? >> he used it to prepare for the tour. i can't say that he used it during the tour. >> pelley: what did you actually witness? >> uh, i mean... i saw it in his refrigerator, you know. i saw him inject it, more than one time. >> pelley: you saw lance armstrong inject e.p.o.? >> yeah, like, we all did-- like i did many, many times. >> pelley: you saw it more than once? >> i saw it a couple of times. >> pelley: it was in that '99 tour de france that hamilton says armstrong used another drug called andreol. >> it's a little red pill that basically is what is inside is just an oil, a special oil. another way to take it is you get a little like eye dropper thing and you had a glass container of it. take it that way, too. with me. you know. >> pelley: and that oil was what? >> testosterone. >> pelley: another banned substance. >> correct. >> pelley: the grand jury was looking into whether armstrong defrauded his sponsors when he signed contracts that prohibited doping. in his public statements, armstrong has consistently said that he has never doped. prosecutors did not say why they closed the case. an attorney for armstrong said today, "this is great news. lance is pleased that the united states attorney made the right decision." late today, the united states anti-doping agency, which polices doping doping in sports said its investigation will continue. hackers have listened in on phone calls by the f.b.i. agents who are investigating them. a blizzard so fierce it forced a snow day in denver. and steve hartman on the road with a candidate at the bottom of the polls when the cbs evening news continues. cbs [ male announcer ] what can you do with plain white rice? when you pour chunky beef with country vegetables soup over it... you can do dinner. four minutes, around four bucks. campbell's chunky. it's amazing what soup can do. 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[ male announcer ] ocuvite. help protect your eye health. >> pelley: when a 16-and-a-half- minute phone call between the f.b.i. and scotland yard suddenly appeared online overnight, it got our attention. the call was meant for investigators only, but the hacker group called anonymous was secretly listening and recording. how did that happen? we asked homeland security correspondent bob orr to find out. >> reporter: it was a routine conference call with the cyberexperts from the f.b.i. and scotland yard discussing strategy for taking down the hacker group anonymous. >> reporter: but the agents didn't know there was a third party on the line. the target of the call, anonymous, was listening in as agents discussed potential suspects. >> reporter: the f.b.i. and scotland yard said no operations were compromised, noting that the call was not classified and not conducted on a secure line. still, the security breach is an embarrassment, surfacing just hours after f.b.i. director robert mueller warned congress of emerging cyber risks. >> i do believe that the cyber threat will equal or surpass the threat from counter-terrorism in the foreseeable future. >> reporter: sources say in this case, anonymous got lucky after one of the investigators was sloppy. this memo, advertising the conference call and access code, was circulated last month among the f.b.i., scotland yard, and a number of european police agencies. sources say one of the recipients of the memo then forwarded it to a private e-mail address and opened it on an outside computer. that police official's e-mail address had been previously hacked by anonymous. with the phone number and password, anonymous simply dialed into the conference. now anonymous is taking a victory lap of sorts. after releasing that f.b.i. call, hackers shut down police web sites in boston and salt lake city, and also the justice ministry site in greece. >> announcer: bob, thanks very much. we were surprised to learn our galaxy has a twin. we got our first look at it today from the hubble telescope. it's 55 million light-years away. back on earth, where's winter? well, it's right there near denver. a mile high and more than a foot ♪ [ male announcer ] when a moment suddenly turns romantic, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. even if it doesn't happen every day, you can be ready anytime the moment's right, because you take a clinically proven low-dose tablet every day. 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[ female announcer ] new swanson flavor boost. just dropped in the bay area. next on cbs 5 >> pelley: if you think there's too much money in politics, we want you to meet a man who's running for office with almost none. he doesn't have a superpac, but if he did it would probably be filled with paint brushes. steve hartman found him on the road. >> reporter: why someone would want to live in such a remote part of such a remote state, i haven't the remotest. >> it's the best of both worlds. >> reporter: you only have one world here. >> i only have one world. you can have your solitude and you can always go to town and have coffee with your neighbors. >> reporter: if one ever moved in, of course. the fact sliving here, 50 miles outside great falles, montana, there's just one thing harder than getting a neighbor for coffee. getting a stranger to vote for you. >> letting the people in montana know that jim o'hara is running for governor. >> reporter: like any campaign, he started with a platform. his just happened to be plywood. >> that's where jim stands. >> reporter: i see. and for three years now, whenever he hasn't been doing his job as a county commissioner, jim has been putting up campaign billboards at county courthouses >> how does it look? courthouses belong to the people. governments belong to the people. >> reporter: all hand painted in his garage, all different. he made one of every county courthouse in the state. then came the hard part, putting them up in that county. you know, montana is no rhode island. driving across the state to put up a sign or two or three can be a 1,000-mile roundtrip road trip and jim has made dozens dozens of such trips, logging well over 20,000 miles, which may sound crazy, but he says it's all a regular jim can do nowadays. >> it's become a game for wealthy people. and i think there are some good leaders that aren't wealthy that can't buy the name recognition. >> reporter: sometimes i wonder, is it really that great to be governor? is it really worth it? >> i i hear they have a great big kitchen. >> reporter: really? this is jim's campaign manager and wife, vicki. >> it's like, hurry, up, hopi, i want to cook in the kitchen. >> reporter: of course she also thinks her husband is the best man for the job and he certainly has shown the will for it, despite recent poll that puts him with just 3% in the republican primary. but jim remains confident, and eager to change that tide without changing himself. >> that thought crossed my mind, what if i do win this things thing and how am i going to keep grounded? >> reporter: i wouldn't worry too much. ( laughter ) >> about staying for the first time in three panies are hiring in a big way good evening, i'm dana king. >> i'm allen martin. for the first time in three years, u.s. companies are hiring in a big way. >> a new jobs report shows a hiring surge, lowered unemployment to 8.3% last month. 243,000 jobs were added, and that is the most in nine months. >> now, we need to see this develop into a long-term trend. we have had gains of around 183,000 jobs a month for the past five months. but we still have very high ranks of unemployed. 12.7million in january, and with the better jobs news, a lot of people who gave up the search for work will get back into the hunt for the workforce. >> many industries saw growth in january. 70,000 high-end office positions were added as well as 50,000 new manufacturing jobs for years the story is fewer things are made in america. the tide may be turning now. american manufacturing jobs are making a comeback