area, alabama and mississippi, in particular, i think they re number one and number three in the highest poverty levels in america. so you have already communities that have a lot of people in need, and the support structure, because of the recession, it didn t grow. reporter: despite the uncertainty, not knowing when the oil leak will stop and having to go without, folks like charlie have no desire to pack up and leave. i ve been around the world but this is home. we always come back to it. come back to it. president obama has a lot on his plate already. now he is pushing for immigration reform. why the issue is emerging as a priority for the president. people say i m forgetful.
he has promised to speed up the way bp pays claims. right now, kenneth feinberg is testifying before the house panel about the process. president obama appointed feinberg as claims administrator. he explained his role to the house small business committee. this is an entirely independent facility. it is not beholden to the administration. it is not beholden to bp. by agreement they decided let s establish and fund a truly credible, independent facility that will process eligible claims and pay them promptly. second, understand, please, that i am not the administrator of the $20 billion escrow fund. i am the administrator of the gulf coast claims facility which will draw on part of that $20 billion fund.
has anyone to this point laid a glove on her? not really. i think it s fair to say not really. and an interesting point. i ve been kind of e-mailing back and forth with some conservative activityists who, again, like everybody else, they re living on planet earth politically, and they realize that democrats have 58 votes in the senate, and barring something extraordinary, she is going to get through. but the politics of this are interesting. there is a lot of pressure on these republicans to try to lay a glove on her and to try to lift back the veil from their perspective. and some conservative activists i m talking to are unhappy with the performance of some of these republican senators. think they re too long winded, too technical, too dense and not really pressing her on some of the issues they care about. maybe we ll hear this afternoon about how she will deal with the president s policy issues that will come before the court, no question, like health care. yeah. all right, our
to florida. skimming boats back in port because the waves stirred up in the hurricane they re just too rough. some of those waves are 12 feet high in washington. the senate approves president obama s choice to lead the u.s. war effort in afghanistan. the vote to confirm general petraeus commander of afghan war efforts came minutes ago. he replaces general mcchrystal who stepped down. taliban militants launched a daylight attack on an air field used by afghan international forces. it happened in the eastern city of jalalabad, near the border with pakistan. our atia is in the capital, kabul. great to see you. maybe you can tell us this aspect of the story. the taliban texting about the attack? reporter: absolutely. tony, it goes to show you that the taliban know what they re doing. they know media relations. they have had this propaganda
past executives from meltdown firm aig are the guests of honor today. the president s financial crisis commission wants to know all about those super risky derivatives at the heart of the collapse. the cnn money team is all over this. christine romans is covering this story. christine, let s start with something of an explainer. what s a derivative? what is a derivative? oh, tony. please. derivative is at the heart of this whole mess we have ourselves in, and the derivative we re talking about here, it s not like a stock, something that s a shared company that you can buy and sell. and you re buying and selling actual stake in the company. this is this is a derivative of a stake in a company. or a stake in a certain financial instrument. it is basically a bet. a contract between two people. of if something goes up, i ll pay you this, if something goes down, i ll take this or pay you this. so these derivatives got so complicated tony, and were the heart of the insurance and banking