i m christine romans along with my friend, carol costello. happy day before friday. up first this hour, iraqi officials honoring the service and sacrifice of u.s. and coalition troops as well as their own. special ceremony at camp victory overnight. vice president biden was on hand. the event coming just weeks before american troops complete their withdrawal from iraq. cnn s martin savidge live in baghdad. we were hoping you could attend that ceremony but you could not. reporter: good morning to you, carol. you are right. we were told about 12 hours before that ceremony was to begin that members of the media were not allowed to attend. even though the buildup a week and a half we were told absolutely we would be there. the explanation that was given was security. does not appear we were the primary security threat but the concern was that they honl limited space. this is going to be held indoors for security reasons at a palace out there at camp victory because they neede
acquaintance but white said they were much more than that, beginning in the late 1990s when cain headed the national restaurant association. unlike the women who accused cain of sexual harassment, white says her relationship with pretty simple and very inappropriate. cain told cnn s wolf blitzer he had no plans to exit the race but today he said he is quote, reassessing. wolf joins me live just moments from now. and moments ago in los angeles, conrad murray was sentenced to four years behind bars for the death of michael jackson, the maximum term and exactly what prosecutors war asking for. convicted of involuntary manslaughter forgiving jackson a anesthetic to sleep. the judge said murray is dangerous and completely without remorse. vice president biden in baghdad this hour. it s his eighth trip to iraq since taking office and almost certainly his last before u.s. forces pull out at the end of the month. he s due to meet with iraq s prime minister and president and commemo
depot in high yachtville, maryland. officials say apparently it looks like the driver of the car passed out behind the wheel, lost control. they say that a passenger, though, in the vehicle tried to steer away from the people but ended up crashing into a wall. several others were injured, no word on their conditions. greg tbreg and back to our top story, funding for school lunches, home energy assistance, even hiv care now all on the chopping block, just a few of the state programs at risk after the failure of the deficit-cutting supercommittee. doug holtz-eakin is the former director of the congressional budget office, president of the american action forum. and thank you so much for being with us. so explain how failure on the federal level impacts states and, obviously, individuals. well, gregg, it s evidence that not all ways of cutting $1.2 trillion are created equal.