>> lehrer: good evening. i'm jim lehrer. on the newshour this thursday, the lead story-- president obama visits post-katrina new orleans. margaret warner has our lead story coverage. then, after the other news of the day, paul solman traces the sub-prime mortgage meltdown; kwame holman reports on today's deadline for tax evaders to own up, and jeffrey brown talks to the i.r.s. commissioner about that; and our colleagues at kcet-los angeles look at the dangers of driving while talking on the phone. major funding for the newshour with jim lehrer is provided by: >> what the world needs now is energy. the energy to get the economy humming again. the energy to tackle challenges like climate change. what is that energy came from an energy company? everyday, chevron invests $62 million in people, in ideas-- seeking, teaching, building. fueling growth around the world to move us all ahead. this is the power of human energy. chevron. >> 150 years of financial strength and the experience of an established investment firm have come together. wachovia securities is now wells fargo advisors. the financial advisors nearby and nationwide. with the advice and planning expertise to help you address today's unique challenges, we're with you. wachovia securities is now wells fargo advisors. together, we'll go far. intel. >> and by bnsf railway. and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. >> lehrer: president obama went to new orleans today to check the ongoing recovery from hurricane katrina. he praised the city's people for not giving up, and promised again to speed the process. margaret warner has our lead story report. >> warner: when air force one touched down late this morning, it brought president obama to new orleans for the first time since taking office. he visited five times during the presidential campaign. then, he roundly criticized the bush administration for the way it responded to hurricane katrina in 2005 and the pace of rebuilding since then. >> it's not acceptable that federal money is not reaching communities that need it, or that louisiana officials have filled out millions of forms just to get reconstruction funds. it's time to cut the red tape, so that the federal government is a partner, not an opponent, in getting things done. >> warner: the federal government has been heavily involved in the region since katrina swept through, killing 1,600 people and wreaking $40 billion of damage across the gulf coast. in all, washington committed tens of billions of dollars to rebuilding the region before mr. obama took office, and another $1.4 billion since then. today, mr. obama's first stop highlighted new orleans' progress and pain-- a reopened school across from a community center slated for demolition. >> because everybody worked hard, everybody kept hopeful, everybody was determined to rebuild, you now see just a school that is doing much better than it was ever doing before the storm. >> warner: the school is in the devastated lower ninth ward, the low-lying, mostly african- american area that was inundated by the storm surge from katrina. it was the last portion of the city to reopen to residents, and abandoned buildings still blight the landscape. overall, the city of new orleans is much smaller than it was-- just over 300,000 people, compared to 455,000 before katrina. but at a town hall today, the president hailed the city's comeback efforts. >> there are still people coming to this city, especially young people, who are committed to its future, who are ready and willing to withstand what storms may come, and eager to rebuild something better in place of what was.mó >> warner: at the same time, mr. obama heard continuing frustration with how long it's taking to rebuild. >> why is it, four years after katrina, we're still fighting with the federal government to repair our devastated city? i mean, i expected as much from the bush administration, but why are we still being nickeled and dimed in our recovery? >> i know, since a lot of these problems have been going on since katrina happened, people understandably feel impatient. on the other hand, these things were not all going to be fixed tomorrow. my expectation is... is that by the... by the time that my term is over, you guys are going to look back and you're going to say, "this was a responsive administration on health care, on housing, on education, that actually made sure that the money flowed. >> warner: the president was warmly received at today's event. but there was also criticism that the visit was too brief to do any good. republican congressman steve scalise dismissed it as a "drive-through daiquiri summit" and some officials and newspapers in neighboring mississippi complained the president bypassed their state. for insight into the state of new orleans today, four years after hurricane katrina, we check back with two new orleanians we've talked to regularly since the storm: jim amoss, editor of the "times- picayune" newspaper, and anthony patton, a former member of the mayor's "bring new orleans back" commission. he's also president and founder of do-wap agency, a marketing and media firm. welcome to you both. jim amoss, so how do you think new orleans is doing now? i mean, what's back, what's not? >> well, the things that are... that make a city a vibrant place and a police you want to live in and a place you want to visit, for that matter, are all in place. sltuuñ to throwú out, we have more restaurants now in this city that's famous for its food than we had before the storm. and what's psychologically important right now is that we seem to have made it unscathed through a hurricane season. i can't tell you how good that feels. the things that are missing and the president didn't address today were the long-term protection for louisiana's coast that is not only vital to us but also to the nation. >> warner: and mr. patton, how do you see it? how is the recovery going? >> look, i'll shoot straight with you. the recovery has been terrible. it's been way too slow and residents have basically from their own backs, their own support, and the thousands and thousands of countless volunteers from all across this country are the only reason we here in the position that we're in at this time. and it's way too slowment i agree with what we just heard about some of the restaurants and that kind of thing. but the small business community is in peril. without tourism, we're dying. in any other service or business industry besides maybe construction is in a really difficult place. and i just want to challenge the people out there to know that don't they because four years have gone by that we're back in a good place. we're not at all. and we could use the support that we were supposed to get four years ago. >> couric: jim amoss, i know you said you thought a lot was back, but would you say the recovery's uneven? if you move from neighborhood to neighborhood? >> i would say it is very muffin dependent on what the means of the people in the neighborhoods were and poorer neighbors have been at a huge disadvantage compared to more affluent ones. people who are less affluent just haven't had the means to rebuild. and you see that in the neighborhoods where there's still extensive blight. where, in some cases, there's only one house per block. and that extends throughout the city of new orleans. >> warner: and what would you say to anthony patton's dent cot that it's really just depended a lot on volunteers but that the outside help hasn't been as great as promised. >> well, i would agree that there's been a huge outpouring of volunteer effort both on the part of ordinary new orleanians and volunteers from around the country that continue to stream into our city. and they have been the most effective in lifting the city and making a difference. the federal dollars only really began to flow this year. we've seen a tremendous amount in storm protection. $3 billion in contracts awarded this year alone. that doesn't quickly translate into revitalizing small businesses and helping people get back to a city when they don't the means to rebuild. >> warner: mr. patton, why is... what is the hangup with the federal funds coming in? you heard president obama was challenged particularly on why the local hospital hadn't been rebuilt and that i think young man worked at a community college, they were having trouble. what's the problem? >> well, i think a lot of it has to do with, you know, the planning processes, first of all. i think new orleans is beginning to face planning fatigue. and not just new orleans, but the southern region of louisiana and mississippi. and so we're trying, i think, to get all of our ducks in a row with the planning process as whether we're planning the school districts, whether we're planning health and hospitals, whether we're planning the master plan of new orleans. and so that's been a very cumbersome long process. the second thing would be the communication between our political leaders and those that ultimately write those checks, i.o.u. the president of the united states. i've said it to my friend and we've talked about it, louisiana never just... we can't ever seem to be on track, you know? when we have a republican president in george bush, then we have a democratic governor who doesn't get along with them. when we have a democratic president in barack obama, we have a republican governor who can't get along with him. and we just... the people of this community tend to constantly be put in this tug-of-war fight between government that really at the end of the day were affected the most because the dollars don't come home. >> couric: let me ask you about one anomaly i saw in the statistics, which is actual that the unemployment rate in new orleans is 2% lower than the national average. is that the case? and if so why? >> it is, and i think it's largely attributable to some of the infrastructure and flood protection and recovery dollars that have flowed into this area and they mask some of the fundamental problems once these dollars stop flowing, once we have rebuilt all those things. we're still going to be faced with an educational system that is on the mend but not there yet and a problem with jobs that has plagued this community for a long time. >> and i think it's also important to... i want to make a comment on it. i think it's also important, not only is there a pseudoeconomy happening, but let's not forget about those 150,000 people who are not back in the community who don't feel welcome back, who don't have resources to get back, who don't have housing when they do come back. so i think that you're looking at a pseudoeconomy in new orleans that if the infrastructure was here as before around 450,000 to 500, 000 residents, we would probably be pretty normal to what's happening across the country. >> warner: explain that, jim amoss. why is the city's population a third smaller? did people not want to come back or could they not afford to come back? i think for the most part... i mean, this is a city that has a tremendous hold on its citizens and one of the lowest turnover rates. people are born here and stay here for life. so it takes quite a bit to get a new orleanian to move away permanently. i think most of it is people who simply do not have the means, including after getting whatever federal and state help there was, to rebuild and to come back to their neighborhoods. i don't think it's for any lack of wanting to. and then after four years, you know, it's very difficult to uproot yourself once your kids have settled somewhere, you've found jobs and the like. >> warner: so has that change it had demographics of the city and therefore the character of the city? i'll ask you, mr. patton. >> well, i agree with jim that, you know, this is a very resilient community. i mean, the people here should be praised in how they've stood back up on their own two and really tried to get themselves back to where they used to be. but there are... i mean, frankly speaking, there are people who would love to be back in new orleans who are not. and the second part is barack obama mentioned in his earlier conversation, what i heard on the clip, about all the young people moving in. but let's not forget about all the young people moving out. you know, my demographic probably more than any that... late 20 to early 40 crowd who has young kids who really can do a lot of the rebuilding are just getting a little bit fed up and they're starting to move to larger cities where there are better opportunities. and i think that's really important, that we stop the movement of people out of the community and then start fixing those problems and then bring new people into the community. >> warner: mr. amoss, let me ask you one final question that we should touch on. how much better protected is new orleans today from a storm of katrina-sized magnitude. briefly, if you could. >> sure. the fundamental difference between now and then tse that no longer can water the canals whose flood walls gave way. and that's a pretty basic thing. the big missing ingredient is that our coast is gradually eroding away and it means that every time a new storm comes, it reaches closer to our backyards because the gulf of mexico is that much closer to them. >> warner: jim amoss and anthony peyton, thank you both. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> lehrer: you can see how louisiana public broadcasting covered today's town hall meeting. follow a link on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. >> lehrer: in other news today, at least 39 people were killed in a series of attacks across pakistan. gunmen and car bombers struck in the country's second largest city and two others closer to the afghan border. we have a report narrated by angus walker of independent television news. >> reporter: one of three simultaneous attacks in lahore, one of pakistan's major cities, the targets-- heavily guarded police and army bases, teams of militants, some climbing over back walls had opened fire. three of the gunmen reportedly blew themselves up to avoid capture. this was one of pakistan's bloodiest days in a country that faces dozens of terror attacks every week. in the northern town of kohat, a car bomb partly destroyed a police station. in peshawar, in the northwest frontier, and near the afghan border, another car bomb near a government housing. in total, 39 people lost their lives today. this is the man who'll get the blame-- the w leader of pakistan's main taliban group. hakimulah mehsud took control, when his predecessor was reported killed by a u.s. drone missile strike in august. hakimulah is described as aggressive, keen to attack, not just in pakistan, but also targeting u.s. and british forces in afghanistan. >> the current wave of attacks began last month. 16 people were killed following suicide attacks in peshawar and bannu. then, at the start of october came three attacks in just one week in islamabad, peshawar and rawalpindi, leaving 75 dead. and on monday, 41 people were killed in the swat valley, an area the pakistan army is still clearing of militants. pakistan's government now says it's fighting a guerilla war with the taliban. >> lehrer: pakistani officials have warned taliban fighters in the country are now joining with other militants and with al- qaeda fighters from abroad. in u.s. economic news, new claims for jobless benefits fell last week to the lowest level since january, and the stock market kept moving higher. the dow jones industrial average gained 47 points to close just below 10,063. the nasdaq rose a point to close at 2,173. and the price of oil surged again to well over $77 a barrel in new york trading. the social security administration formally announced today there will be no cost of living increase in benefits next year. it's the first time that's happened since adjustments began in 1975. falling consuming prices were the cause. some 50 million senior citizens will be affected. president obama has proposed giving $250 to each recipient to help compensate. >> lehrer: six-year-old boy in colorado had a scare involving a helium balloon. it started when the balloon got loose from the boy's home in fort collins. an older brother said he was inside a box attached to the balloon. the homemade craft reached 7,000 feet and flew for two hours but when it finally glided to earth, there was no sign of the box or the boy. authorities launched a frantic search and hours later they found the six-year-old hiding in a box in the home's attic. u.s. supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg had a health scare last night. court officials said she became drowsy on an airliner and fell from her seat. she was removed from the plane before takeoff, and spent the night in a washington hospital. doctors blamed a reaction to medicine. ginsburg was reported to be resting at home today. she is 76 years old and had cancer surgery last february. >> lehrer: and still to come on the newshour tonight: amnesty for tax dodgers; and dangerous driving. that follows our look at the sub-prime mortgage crisis. the latest numbers show overall foreclosures rose 5% between summer and fall. our economics correspondent paul solman has been looking into the sub-prime connection with all of this. it's part of his ongoing reporting on making sense of financial news. >> they told me the mortgage was going to cost me $4,000 every month, that i'm going to pay that for only one year. after a year, i can refinance so i can get a lower mortgage. >> reporter: antoinette coffi- ahibo, a typical victim of the housing crash. born in the ivory coast, now a lenscrafters optician, she lives in a queens, new york, house she bought new two years ago for $679,000 next to houses valued at far less. >> afterwards, i find out i have two mortgages-- one was 6% and the other was 11%. >> reporter: but you didn't know that at the time? >> no, i didn't know that at the time. >> reporter: but did you read the paperwork? >> no, it was so many paperwork. it was a bunch of paper we had to go through, and they said "just sign." everybody here was like that. everybody has two mortgages like me, all of them. >> reporter: two sub-prime mortgages that put her and her fellow immigrant homeowners at risk of foreclosure. bobby darkwah is from ghana. >> reporter: it's the story of neighborhoods like this that journalist alyssa katz puts intp context in "our lot," her sweeping new book on housing in america that this story can only give a hint of. >> jamaica, queens, is over there by kennedy airport. >> reporter: katz met us at the queens museum's recent show about the housing crisis. each pink symbol showing a city block with three or more foreclosures, blocks clustered in areas like jamaica. >> its a bastion of middle- class, black homeownership and a real sign, in a lot of ways, that of the success of home ownership in helping families build wealth. >> reporter: the significance of jamaica is that it symbolizes the larger story katz tells-- good intentions run amok, because 100 years ago, home ownership wasn't all that common, until republican president herbert hoover began promoting it in the great boom of the so-called "roaring" 1920s. >> financing was pretty freely available, with the problem that mortgages only ran for roughly five years, and then the payment in full for everything would come due. and when banks were solvent, that wasn't a problem-- a borrower could just go back and get a refinance. but when the depression hit, not only did banks not have the funds, but the property values had plummeted and were worth less than the amount owed on them, just like now with underwater mortgages today. and so, people went into foreclosure en masse. just millions, really just unable to make their payments and losing their homes. so the roosevelt administration stepped in with something called the homeowners loan corporation that refinanced the homes, provided longer term mortgages that the borrowers could pay, and based those mortgages on the actual property values, not the inflated 1920s values. >> reporter: you mean, all the proposals were hearing about today-- renegotiating mortgages, modifying loans, lengthening the terms-- that was all stuff that roosevelt originally put in? >> more or less... its exactly what they did. the one difference between then and now is, because the banks had already gone under, because the borrowers already had no more options, it was possible to just wipe the slate clean, do the refinancing and move on. >> reporter: as the museum show makes clear, however, part of government strategy was not to make loans to what are now new york's foreclosure pink zones-- in fact, red-zoned for decades. >> people who lived in cities, and particularly minorities whose neighborhoods was what's called "red-lined" by the banks, didn't have the option of buying. >> reporter: fdr's new federal housing administration literally drew red lines around "declining" neighborhoods to which it seemed unwise to lend. the effect was to shut minorities out of the fha's then cutting-edge product, the 30- year mortgage. banks honored the red lines as well into the late '70s. then came the housing boom. >> at that point, 75% of white american households... white- headed american households owned their homes, and the rate for black headed households and latino headed households was under 50%. so what you essentially had was, you know, companies, lenders looking for growth, had to look to black and latino buyers and refinancers for that growth. >> reporter: another innovation also fueled the growth-- bundling mortgages into batches and "securitizing" them into loans which were then sold to eager investors who'd been saving their money the world over, thus often bypassing banks entirely. all arguably positive trends that spawned a new breed of developer, appraiser and mortgage broker-- sometimes, as on this block in jamaica, all rolled into one. a company called united homes was more than willing to set up shop here in a previously unbankable neighborhood with very inexperienced home buyers. >> the only people that want to talk to us when we want to buy the house is those people because they are in the community. everywhere! you turn right you see them, you turn left you see them. >> shoddy construction, overpriced, adjustable rate mortgages, two mortgages on each home. >> reporter: james lewis, a community organizer, says the deals were just too good to be true. >> they conned people into thinking you'd be able to refinance in a year, so this was definitely a con job. there's nothing else you can say about it. >> reporter: we tried to contact united homes, but their phone was disconnected, their web site on the fritz. meanwhile, the company is a defendant in at least six lawsuits charging it with being at the center of a conspiracy to defraud low-income homebuyers, like robustiano and teresa reyes. >> they screwed everybody around here. everybody. >> yeah, because we have two loans. one of the loans is 12.9% interest with a balloon that we didn't even know about, and then the other one is 5.9%, and after five years, its going to raise. >> if they know that $4,000 was a little hard for me to pay, why they think that, if it doubles in five years, what makes them think i'll be able to pay the mortgage in the first place? so i was scammed. that was a scam. >> reporter: but it was a scam with honorable roots in a long and bi-partisan past, and not just herbert hoover and fdr. >> we must empower the poor with the pride that comes from owning a home... >> reporter: home ownership was a goal of the first george bush; a goal of the clinton administration, of course. >> we have the highest home ownership in history. >> reporter: and then there was congress and the government- sponsored enterprises it encouraged. >> in the 1990s, fannie mae and freddie mac played really central roles in changing how mortgages were underwritten, figuring out how can we get people who wouldn't have qualified for mortgages before into home ownership, and this will be good for our market growth and in the promotion of home ownership. >> reporter: but that's the problem, isn't it? >> well, it is except that those mortgages generally performed very, very well, and even through the most recent crisis, have continued to perform much, much better than other mortgages. >> reporter: fannie and freddie's critics would counter that they did wind up backing risky sub-prime mortgages, as well, and that, when the housing market collapsed, those mortgages contributed to the loss of investor confidence, which forced a government rescue. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. >> reporter: but the bigger story is a housing bubble encouraged by presidents from reagan to clinton to george w. bush, all presumably with the best of intentions-- pushing home ownership. >> the difference between anglo- america and african-american and hispanic home ownership is too big. and so by the year 2010, we must increase minority home owners by at least 5.5 million. in order to close the homeownership gap, we've got to set a big goal for america... ( applause ) and focus our attention and resources on that goal. >> reporter: to katz, it was yet another unrealistic american dream. >> there's a fundamental contradiction between the social policy objective of getting every american for whom its remotely possible to own their own home and making mortgage lending a profitable business for investors through the mortgage-backed securities market. that... those two missions seem to be fundamentally at odds with one another. >> the guys lied to me that i can get this house. they take all my income, i was qualified, they gave me the house, and now its a rip-off. i cant get no refinance, i cant get no loan modification. right now, i don't know what to do. my dream is just slipping, little by little. >> they just took the money and ran. >> reporter: why did you trust them? >> the guys... i don't know. i don't know why i trusted them because the guy sounded like, just like you! ( laughter ) >> you have to remember how important it is for someone going in to take out a mortgage, buy a home. this is a very intimidating and difficult thing, particularly if you're the first person in your family ever to do it, which is the case for many people in this situation. you want to know that somebody is going to look you in the eye, give you what you need and say, "yes, we will help you." and that's exactly what this company and so many others did. >> reporter: so money was loose, regulation looser, everyone pushing home ownership, and the scamsters ran wild. but shouldn't the borrowers also shoulder some of the blame? people like yourself have been stigmatized to some extent here now as you ought to have known better. >> okay, i'm going to answer that-- one second. to all the people who say that, think about maddock... >> reporter: madoff. >> madoff. how many come from the money? that people were stupid? so, when you have a con artists- - people who know what they want and they know that they're coming to get you, they will come and do whatever they want to get you. it's not because you're stupid, you are the victim. we are the victims, okay? it's not because were stupid, it's not because we didn't do our homework. we are the victims and we need help. >> reporter: james lewis is trying to give it to them, trying to get lenders to modify their loans. do you see us pulling out of the housing crisis, slowly perhaps, but... i mean, after all, prices are going up in most major cities. >> this is america, its going to happen. when... the question is how many of these homeowners are still going to have their homes when that happens. >> reporter: as of today, 1.2 million homes are in foreclosure in the united states. another $2.5 trillion in adjustable rate mortgages are due to reset beginning in april of next year. >> lehrer: alyssa katz will answer your questions about the foreclosure crisis on our web site, newshour.pbs.org. next tonight, ending tax havens for some tax evaders. kwame holman begins with this report. lech banks that have holdings with americans who don't pay taxes on the money. some estimates show the u.s. government misses out on as much as $100 billion a year in tax revenue because of evasion. but the i.r.s. is collecting some of that money as part of an amnesty deal that expires today. it applies to those who have undeclared foreign accounts of at least $10,000. in a typical year, about 100 people come forward. but since the amnesty was announced, some 7,500 people have filled out and file it had forms. most will pay a penalty of 20% of the highest value of the account since 2003, plus back taxes and vest. and for that, they will avoid criminal prosecution. >> the program was initially set to expire on september 23 and about a week before that deadline, the phones really began to ring. the i.r.s. then at the 11th hour extended the program. >> reporter: the program, and the extension, have made for busy days for tax attorney scott michael and his colleagues at washington, d.c.'s kaplan and drysdale law firm. why did the i.r.s. choose to do this? >> to encourage americans to come forward and clean up their tax issues involving undeclared foreign accounts. the kicker with this program is that the i.r.s. has offered a cap on the civil money penalties that could be imposed. >> reporter: the firm represents 350 clients who are taking advantage of the program with accounts ranging from $50,000 to $100 million. he says some of the clients inherited their money, others are holocaust survivors and businessmen and women. >> as long as the income is from a legal source and the other conditions of the policy are met, these people are allowed to make a voluntary disclosure. >> reporter: clients had to send the i.r.s. their revised forms stating how much and where their money was kept. >> if you have a foreign bank account, it needs to be listed here as the amount. you have to pay tax on that income. >> reporter: for many who chose amnesty, it was a letter like that from swiss bank u.b.s. that prompted them to file. it warned their account information may be disclos to the u.s. government. swiss bank is at the center of the i.r.s.' struggle to shutter foreign tax shelters. earlier this year, u.b.s. admitted its participated in a scream to defraud the u.s. and as part of a settlement between the u.s. and swiss governments, the bank was forced to disclose the names of some 4,500 account holders. michael and others say the amnesty program already is showing a payoff. >> there is a lot of money throughout knees n these foreign accounts and what the i.r.s. is able to do in bringing people in is is not just obtain the tax for the last six years and these penalty amounts but it is bringing back into the system a pool of assets that will be taxed again and again. >> reporter: the i.r.s. has opened offices in beijing, panama city, and sydney to intensify its hunt for secret offshore accounts. it's all part of a larger effort by the obama administration to crack down on tax evaders. >> even as most american citizens and businesses meet these responsibilities, there are others who are shirking theirs. and many are aided and abetted by a broken tax system written by well-connected lobbyists on behalf of well-heeled interests and individuals. >> reporter: the issue also has been taken up in congress where senate democrats have been pushing for tougher laws on tax evasion. >> lehrer: jeffrey brown takes our story from there. >> brown: joining me now is i.r.s. commissioner dug shulman. welcome. >> thanks, jeffrey. >> brown: do you consider this a success? >> answer absolutely. we brought 7,500 people back into the system, they paid back taxes and interest. it's a success in the context of being part of an overall effort that we have to crack down on offshore tax abuse. >> >> brown: you don't actually say how much you... the total recouped. why not? how much do you know at this point? >> today's the last day of the voluntary disclosure program. it's going to take a while to sift through the information, do the exams we need to do, figure out the back taxes, the substantial penalties people have to pay. i think the other reason is the real money and the real importance of this program subpoena people will pay a penalty and will bring money into the system, but we'll also... these people will be taxpayers in the future. this is part of an overall strategy that we have to get people back into the u.s. tax system and it's part of our overall strategy to protect the $2.5 trillion the i.r.s. needs to raise every year. >> brown: before we go to the future, let's stay with this program so people are clear. this is individuals, this is not u.s. corporations that you're dealing with in this amnesty? >> yeah. the program was for individual u.s. taxpayers who wanted to tell us what money they had overseas, bring it back, pay back taxes and penalties. so it was about individuals. this was not a program about corporations. >> brown: all right. so i guess one big question here, 7,500 people. is that the tip of the iceberg or is that... did you get most of what you expected to get? >> it's hard to say. as the commissioner of the i.r.s., these are 7,500 taxpayers who weren't taxpayers a year ago. so i consider it a success. we're going to have a multiyear effort. i'm sure there's more people out there. the whole idea of this program was that we're putting more resources, the president's asked for legislation, has given us increased budget for international enforcement as we ramp up we wanted to give people a one-time chance to get on the right side of the law. we'll now be going and focusing on people who didn't come in to make sure we try to bring them back to the right side of the law? >> brown: and what did you learn about types? is there a typical type, for example, of shelter or of person who's come in? >> there's a lot of variation in the people who've come in. it's everything from people who inherited money, couldn't sleep well at night and wanted just to come in and pay their taxes to people who had been skimming money and putting it overseas. we're going to spend the next several months really mining this data, looking at advisors that advised people, looking at institutions they worked with, looking to see)w if they hid the money offshore based on promotions. and so we're going to be trying to bring these people in but also looking for patterns to pursue. >> brown: that's what i was wondering. so you are going to take this and look at people who allowed it, the banks themselves and the tax advisors who help people create these shelters? >> absolutely. an important part of our job is targeting our resources where we have the most leverage. and nodes or hubs of activity that we can focus on that have been helping multiple americans evade taxes are good places for us to look. and so we're going to focus on these folks, focus on other people hiding taxes, but also focus on advisors and institutions that help them. >> brown: now kwame's peach, kwame mentioned u.b.s., the swiss bank that reach add settlement and is giving over 4,000 names of clients. i've read in some reports from private attorneys say the great many of the 7,500 who have come through are connected to u.b.s. is that true? are you able to match up the names? >> first of all, it's too early to tell. there are some u.b.s. customers in there. u.b.s. is still working to produce a list that they need to get to the swiss government which will be turned over to us. once we get names from the swiss government, those people would not have been able, able to participate in this program. there are going to be some u.b.s. clients, but this is not about one bank or about one country. we got people turning themselves in from 70 countries. almost every continent. >> brown: did that surprise you? that many countries? >> there's been a lot of focus on switzerland and the cayman islands. we also know as we truck money flows that there's places in asia that people are putting money. there's places in central america. i'm very pleased that there was such a global response. i'm not surprised. >> brown: and how much cooperation are you getting from overseas banks but also foreign governments to do this, if it is really global as it appears to be? >> so the program just ends today. we've gotten the information. but we've really stepped up as a government our effort to coordinate with other governments overseas. the treasury secretary has been very focused, the g-8 and g-20 of having this be top on the agenda, offshore evasion. the i.r.s. has set up a joint information center with countries like china, japan, u.k. and we're now working at all levels in the government to do a lot more coordination. we've also signed ten treaties in the last couple of years which are information exchange treaties. so when we ask for information, that tax authority will give it to us and vice versa. >> brown: you moved this deadline once before but today is really it, right? >> yes, today is. >> couric: so those who didn't come in? ... those who didn't come in, we'll ramp up our efforts and the chances of people getting caught are much higher now than they were a year. a and a year from now they'll be higher. >> brown: your thought is this is just the beginning. as you said, makes taxpayers in the future you hope. >> yes. >> brown: doug shulman, i.r.s. commissioner. thanks very much. >> thank you. >> lehrer: next, the dangers of talking on a cell phone while driving. the reporter is angie crouch from the program "so-cal connected", produced by kcet los angeles. >> reporter: for most of his life, austin barker was an adventurer. >> i would travel to mexico and central america. i was heavy into scuba diving and motorcycle riding. that was my life. i enjoyed that part of my life 110%, that's what i enjoyed doing. >> reporter: this is barker today. >> you got me? got you. >> i hate this situation. i hate this chair. i wish i could just extend my legs and walk. but its not going to happen. >> reporter: in 2007, while riding his motorcycle, barker was slammed from behind by a driver. although she denies being on it, if the other driver hadnt been distracted by her cell phone conversation, barker believes he wouldn't be in this chair today. >> people get on the phone and they start talking and yakking away, and they don't give any concern to other people. and what could happen to other people is exactly what happened to me. >> you know, using the cell phone is the number one cause of collisions for inattentive drivers. >> reporter: although california outlawed the use of handheld phones while driving in 2008, c.h.p. officer ricardo quintero says he stills sees too many drivers holding a cell phone instead of the wheel. >> i think we see a lot a lot more people, motorists using their cell phones, regardless of the law. and you can tell who is using the cell phone and who is distracted, because they are constantly braking, they are swerving, or they are going too when they are driving on the slow. when they are driving on the freeways. >> reporter: during our ride along with him, it didn't take officer quintero long to spot and stop cell phone scofflaws. >> you picked up your cell phone and put it up to your ear. >> reporter: quintero says it's also common to see drivers trying to gab illegally without getting nabbed. >> some people try to get around the law by, instead of having a hands-free device, they will put their speaker on, or put their phone on speaker, and they will try to get around that by putting their hands at their waist, or below where an officer can spot them. >> reporter: the c.h.p. has issued over 138,000 citations to people violating the cell phone law. drivers only pay $20 for their first offense, and $50 for subsequent offenses. and, unlike a d.u.i. conviction, drivers don't get points taken off their driving record if they violate the cell phone law. >> i think the fines now are a joke. >> reporter: traffic safety activists applaud recent federal government efforts to highlight the dangers of driving while distracted, but many believe, in the recent past, washington hid the dangers of cell phone use in the car. they point to long withheld national highway traffic safety administration studies from 2003 that just came to light this year. the studies report that cell phone use in automobiles caused nearly 1,000 fatalities and 240,000 accidents a year in the united states. the findings also showed negligible differences in safety between using hands-free phones, like those still legal in california, and hand-held devices. the reason? it's the cell phone conversation itself, not whether the driver holds the phone that's the risk. oh, my god! to understand how cell phones affect driver behavior, we met enrique mar. he's a driver safety consultant and he owns a company that builds driving simulators after getting the hang of driving this virtual road, i started taking calls. hello, its angie. first, with the illegal hand to phone method. okay, enrique, how did i do? >> reporter: is that pretty typical? >> yes, it is. >> reporter: although my driving was better when i talked on my hands-free device, i still was far from a model motorist. as soon as you receive a phone call, we see a change in your driving habit. if i was a officer, i would suspect you were under the influence. >> under the influence of my cell phone? >> correct, under the influence of your cell phone >> reporter: science seems to back this up. using m.r.i scans, researchers at carnegie mellon univeristy found that motorists who drove while on the phone showed a sharp decrease in activity in