retail pharmacies to get out of selling tobacco. so now cvs is saying they will as of october 1st be out of this business. the question then becomes, okay, will others follow suit? walgreens today said that it is examining this product line. it has been looking at this issue for some time. it s trying to balance needs and the desires of customers potentially who might want to buy tobacco with the other health care mission that they have. but increasingly, a lot of providers in this space are finding it is inconsistent when there really is absolutely no upside whatsoever to cigarettes or tobacco. unlike everybody buys candy, right? you buy a chocolate bar. that s not going to kill you. unless you have a million of them. and alcohol. but cigarettes, there is no upside whatsoever. so finally, cvs saying we re out of this business. and the president has applauded. as we ve heard from the white house, the president s statement, i applaud this morning s news that cvs caremark has decided
wall street is celebrating. ali velshi will join me in a few minutes. president obama is speaking at a fire engine in virginia and is calling for a payroll tax cut due to expire at the end of this month. he also wants to boost federal grants to local governments to hire veterans at first responders. over the past three years, my administration s made it possible to keep responders on the job and now communities that make a prir tea to recruit veterans will be among the first in line when it comes to getting help from the federal government. the jobless rate for recent vets stands much higher at 11%. four of the three gop presidential hopefuls are making last pitches in in nevada. mitt romney holds a commanding lead. newt gingrich and ron paul are stomping away and rick santorum is holding the nonbinding primary on tuesday. forget about what you heard about the susan b. komen cutting support of the planned parenthood foundation. that was yesterday s news. planned par
obama s seven month long quest. maybe one last quest to get health care here. yesterday, he decides to personalize the health care mission. he says instead of just going out and talking in the battleground state, why don t i bring a story to the fray? a story that was based on a letter written to me about a woman, natoma of ohio. natoma had cancer 16 years ago. she had cancer 16 years ago and has been cancer free for 10 years. she s a houses cleaner. right. as a house cleaner, she had to have her own insurance. because she was deemed, i guess, a greater risk according to her and the president, her rates went up to the point where it was just shy of $10,000 and now she has leukemia and now she is at a point where she feels as though she was going to lose her house and still not have insurance because of this cancer. she could not be there yesterday in strongsville, ohio, her sister connie was in