amounts of evidence, take in from usama bin laden s secret compound, steve centanni is live in washington with more on that, steve in. reporter: heather, yeah, a wealth of information, now, being analyzed and u.s. officials say one thing is becoming clear. usama bin laden was still the operational leader of al qaeda. now, the evidence seized during the raid on bin laden s compound yielded phone numbers and documents and computers that officials hope will break the back of al qaeda. mong the items, a videotape showing him watching himself on tv and other evidence, indicates that he was actively involved in planning al qaeda plots. usama bin laden was not just a symbolic leader of al qaeda, in fact, he had operational and strategic roles he was playing and that is clear in the information that we have been able to see to date. reporter: a task force headed by the cia is working around the
exceptionalism but i m sure the belgiums believe in their exceptionalism and you know the best counter to this was, steve in, the last few months. a guy in haiti living under a tarp quoted in the new york times said i just wish the united states would take us over. then we d be fine. to the rest of the world, they know the united states is the last best hope. i just wish our president knew that. now we know why you can put out so many books. because you are a well read man. listen to you making all these quotes and your new book called a century turns, new hopes, new fears. you focus on the two decades from 1988 to 2008. you said that was pivotal in american history. in what way? yeah, they really were. it was a big test particularly in the last administration of george w. bush. and what i pause on are the debates about the war in iraq and now it seems, gretchen, it s unanimous, isn t it? did you see the cover of newsweek victory at last, democracy takes hold in iraq. this wa
week those concerns typically go away and in some cases parents experience fewer hours for day care for their children than dhe in a five-day week because of the length of the school day, they may not need before and after school day care, for example. steve, north branch district really isn t alone here. there are dozens of school districts across the country now that are looking at the same choice, a four-day week or they have to let teachers go or getting these increases in class size that are unmanageable. what do you do? well, this is a financial decision and it s expected to address a financial need, not an academic achievement need. what we know for sure is that the single greatest indicator or improver of a child s performance in the third grade is more classroom time, not less. in fact, the united states is 27th out of 40 industrialized nations on an examination called a piza.
the studies that we ve looked look at a multitude of factors not just test scores but attendance and discipline rates and so on. you have to look at a lot of different elements when you re judging the academic merits of a program. we know we have high-quality teechlers that can make this happen. they re ready to make sure they have engaging activities for the students throughout the lesson. they understand the length of the school day may have an impact on student learning, and so they re prepared to modify their he lessons to make sure the academic learning time is maximized. before i bring steve in, what about families? you have two working parents in most cases these days it seems, families already financially strapped who have to deal with a whole extra day of child care expenses. i m sure you ve heard from parents on that front, right? yes. we have. in most of the district that is have gone to the four-day week, this is the number one concern for families. they re very conce
say we re concerned about more students in the classroom, that s more fatiguing than a hour-day week will be. quickly, steve. yet again we re designing schools to meet the needs of the adults, not the needs of the children. the children need more time on tasks, not less. i understand that there are districts all over country, some just under 200 who already have a four-day school week, and they re not showing any improvement. they re not. no improvement. so i don t know why we would go in a direction that we already know is going to limit children s progress. a much bigger problem to be addressed than we have time for tonight. we should definitely revisit this and talk about what some of the other options may be. steven, deb, appreciate both of your time tonight. thanks so much for coming on. thank you. thank you very much for having me. when we come back, the health care battle getting so ugly one democrat is calls the white house chief of staff a son of the devil s spawn.