is you can get all this with a prepaid card. spends like cash. feels like membership. say cheese, it s time now for the poly side bar. the white house unveiling a new portrait of a confident-looking president obama this morning. the picture was taken on december 6th in front of his desk in the oval office. and what a difference a few years can make, right? check out the 2009 official portrait. the president a little bit grayer, but also got a bigger smile on him. last night it was all smiles, the couple went out on the town with friends to celebrate michelle obama s 49th birthday. they had dinner in georgetown. and things are looking up with the housing market including the most famous house in america, the white house zillow now saying it s worth about $295 million, that s up 7% since the beginning of the president s first term. the final preps are underway
could easily happen. reporter: without the diversion of massive amounts of water by the army corps of engineers, this flood would soon be pushing water over the new orleans levees. with the morganza spillway opening, the rising mississippi is abruptly cresting here a week early. at 17 feet, it is still just 3 feet from going over the top. just 3 feet from the top. that still sounds like a near miss to me. well, again, it is we re watching this very careful. we are not out of the woods yet. reporter: and that, in part, is because of what the flood could do to commerce at this major port. if this water comes up just one more foot, then the coast guard could have to make the decision to shut down river traffic. if that happens, city officials say it would bring an economic impact of $295 million a day. these levees on the mississippi river get tested by seasonal floods every couple of years.
an exclusive island unlike anywhere he has ever been. rikers island. until friday at the earliest, dominic strauss kahn will be a guest in an east river compound reserve for criminal defendants and convicts. it s a world away from the swanky manhattan hotel where he allegedly forced himself on a maid saturday and brought himself an array of sex crime charges. reichers houses 14,000 inmates, give or take, and employs some 10,000 guards. it s made up of ten separate jails, most of them barracks. but some regular cell blocks, as well. strauss-kahn has an 11 by 13 cell himself, but he is separated from other prisoners, phones, tvs and the internet also. cnn s deborah feyerick has done some digging on the forensics. what did you find? reporter: that s right. everybody is waiting for the result of the forensic to see, in fact, what was found at this hotel, whether, in fact, there is a direct connection to mr. strauss-kahn and the young lady who made these allegations against
when we say less popular his ratings are down 39% this past january. he s still drawing 1.75 million viewers. somebody likes the guy. it s worth remembering. when the biggest show on cable news has its biggest audience there are 295 million americans who are not watching. so this is inherently an elite game. 5 million people who watch cable news are the political nation, the people who care. there s talk radio. it s the same, the same 5 million people. total stunt for people in that top 5 million to say we represent the greater good american majority, the 295 million who don t watch any of this. they don t. within the world of the political elite which everyone who watches that show belongs, within that world it is important to have accurate information not pretend information, have real solutions not fake solutions teen have intelligent analysis not phony
these days, phones are everywhere. we know that. in fact, 295 million americans carry one. that s more than 50% of us. consider this. there are as many as 25,000 germs per square inch on the average cell phone. during flu season, that is not a good thing. here s elisabeth leamy with more. reporter: the fact that cell phones contain lots of germ cells hasn t made much of an impression on the public. had you ever really thought about germs on your phone? never. no, never came to mind. i m not a germophobe. okay, all right. you may be about to become one. oh. reporter: we traveled to sunny arizona to see what we would find on the phones of arizona state students. what does the x mean? that i m going to die. x is over an acceptable limit. reporter: using a handheld testing device, environmental science researcher sherry