Transcripts For CNN CNN Newsroom 20101201

bolduan in for ali velshi with you for the next two hours. here's what's on the rundown. a doomsday warning if we don't tackle the deficit and a loud call for big cuts, that could cut deep into your family's finances. a man leading the battle to wipe hiv off the planet and find out if we're winning the fight on this world aids day and building better athletes with tech tricks learned on an alien movie set. a big eye that you don't want to miss. first we're tracking a dangerous storm system that is moving up the east coast. the big concern now flooding with heavy rain expected for most of new england. it's already causing major delays at laguardia, jfk and other airports. i know. i do not want to have to tell you that. it's true. this same system already slammed the south spinning off four tornadoes in mississippi, twifrters hit for the second time this year but unlike the storms there in april no reports of severe injuries or death. now in rural louisiana a storm tore through the town of atlanta. it ripped one home absolutely to shreds. good news no injuries reported. and then in buford, georgia we learned a few minutes ago that it was, in fact, a tornado that caused all of this damage that you're looking at right here. our meteorologist jacqui jeras has been in buford all day. she joins us live by phone on morn the destruction that has displaced some families. what do you know? >> reporter: a real devastating scene for folks in this suburban neighborhood of atlanta, waking up with 56 homes which are damaged, 12 of those are destroyed. just unlivable. people are here today trying to pick up the pieces. we just learned from the national weather service that they said it was a tornado but they tell us it was an ef-2 so those maximum winds were 130 miles per hour. there was a tornado watch in effect at the time there was no warning. doppler radar did not pick up the rotation with this storm. so thankfully no one was injured in this situation and most people were not home since they were at work is what we're hearing here, common story across the neighborhood. the temperatures are very cold and that's helping, you know, making things a little worse unfortunately for these folks too. it feels like temperatures in the 30s at times today along with very windy conditions. there's so many contractors and insurance adjuster people here trying to move the process along as well. so in the mean time we're looking at quite a bit of damage. it's spotty throughout this neighborhood and the worst of the damage was this one home that we saw the pictures of that were flattened. literally nothing salvageable from that house. >> this something that people up the east coast are going to have to keep an eye on, right? >> i think for the most part the severe weather threat is over and done with at least in terms of seeing more rotating thunderstorms. but we still have a lot of heavy rain in the mid-atlantic and northeastern states so flooding will be a concern. record rainfall with this storm anywhere between one and four inches has fallen widespread up and down the eastern coast. we have to watch that in the upcoming hours. even though we might not see severe thunderstorms, the winds are just howling with this storm. we're going to see gusts up to 50 miles per hour yet this afternoon. that's much of the reason why we're seeing so many delays at the airport and when you talk 50 mile-per-hour winds, kate, certainly that can cause damage with power outages and trees down as well. >> jacqui jeras, thanks so much. >> sure. time now for our sound effect. we hear from a man the whole world wants to find. he's julian assange. you know that name. founder of wikileaks and now a relationship suspect in we dswe. interpol says its put out a red notice stemming from the sex case. that's not exactly an arrest warrant more of a be on the lookout type of deal to 188 countries around the world. a court in stockholm issued its own a warrant finding probable cause he may have been involved in rape back in august. assange insists he's innocent and calls the prosecution a smear campaign. in late october when he sat down with cnn he didn't want to talk about it. >> so you don't want to address whether or not you feel this is an atook on wikileaks. >> completely disgusting. >> i'm asking whether or not -- >> i'm going walk if you're going to contaminate us revealing the deaths of 104 people with attacks against my person. >> i'm not. do you feel it's an take on wikileaks? >> i'm happy to go on. in what sense? i have to ask that question, julian. >> the u.s. justice department says it's launched its own investigation of assange for the leaks. all the while he's laying quite low somewhere in the world. another controversial story that we're watching day one of a pilot program aimed at boosting organ donations in new york. now through may new york city will be sending out two ambulances to some 911 calls. the first is the standard emt one. the second is the organ preservation unit. that second crew will hang back out of site. if the patient doesn't make it they will gently approach the family. the backers say if the trial goes okay it could be revolutionary. close to 5,000 americans died waiting for new kidneys. something else pretty unusual for new york. an earthquake. yes an earthquake. a 3.9 quake rumbled the region yesterday morning. californians are scoffing at me right now. this was the area's biggest quake in some 20 years. no injuries or damage or really anything, though. the epicenter is that box that you see 80 miles off of south hampton long island. strongest quake ever to shake the big apple, magnitude 5.2 back in the 1700s and 1800s. i don't think anybody remembers. a first look at horror story that started to unfold two years ago. california attorney general has just released a video showing a 16-year-old boy escaping the home where he was held captive and tortured. you see him there dressed only in boxer shorts running into a nearby health club begging for help. >> a young man came into the front door. came in very dirty. you could tell something was wrong. he was holding a chain around his ankle. with a padlock on it. he quickly came up and just said please help me, they are coming for me. help me. i can hide behind here. >> horrible. four people have been convicted in that case. they face up 20 years in prison. if you can't clear it out, burn it down. that's what the bomb squad says is the safest thing to do with a house crammed with explosives in california. we're talking chemical, grenades and three types of explosives including pten. that's the stuff used by the shoe and underwear bombers. the man who lives there has pleaded not guilty to more than two dozen explosive charges and two counts of bang robbery. the controlled burn is expected to happen next week. don't want to miss that one. >> after a break, the moment of truth. i'll show you how some smart people want to fix america's finances and why your finances might suffer if they can't. bolt by bolt, car by car, let g out of the very best america had to offer. ingenuity. integrity. optimism. and a belief that the finest things are the most thoughtfully made -- not the most expensive. today, the american character is no less strong. and chevrolet continues as an expression of the best of it. bringing more technology to more people than ever in our history. inventing new ways to get around our planet while helping to preserve it at the same time. exploring new horizons of design and power. and making our vehicles amongst the safest on earth. this isn't just any car company. this is chevrolet. and the strength of our character can be found in every car and truck we make. it's why, today, tomorrow, and on into a bright future, we can proudly say... ...chevy runs deep. ♪ ♪ my country ♪ 'tis of thee ♪ sweet land ♪ of liberty ♪ of thee i sing [ laughs ] ♪ oh, land ♪ where my fathers died ♪ land of the pilgrims' pride ♪ from every mountainside ♪ let freedom ring ♪ whoa! that achy cold needs alka-seltzer plus! it rushes multiple cold fighters, plus a powerful pain reliever, wherever you need it! [ both ] ♪ oh what a relief it is! wherever you need it! singcheck the news onlinek the weather, check the time check the wife, check the kids check your email messages eck the money in the bank check the gas in the tank check the flava from your shirt make sure your pits don't stank check the new hairdo, check the mic one two 'cause i'm about to drop some knowledge right on top of you you check a lot of things already why not add one more that can help your situation for sure check your credit score free-credit-score-dot-com free-credit-score you won't regret it at all! check the legal y'all. anncr: offer applies with enrollment in triple advantage. if you're trying to budget your holiday spendi ining aren' all, or planning a new year's financial resolution which i'm not you can sympathize with people in washington. make the government live within its means. here's how amazingly tough that actually is. a blue ribbon bipartisan commission created by president obama put every conceivable tax and expense on the table from medicare to even museum fees. and managed to balance the budget in 2035 a quarter century from now. when members vote on the plan on friday they may well reject it but co-chair alan ysimpson says somebody has to do something soon. >> we all know the figures and we all know the math. the fact is this is it. no more fun and games. smoking mirrors. alchemy. and making promises we can't possibly keep. >> i will spare you the figures and the math because quite simply it makes my eyes glaze over. here's the situation. the government like your household takes in money every month and spend it on necessities. luxuries, whatever. if the money runs out the government and many households use credit to keep on spending. and that works for a while but at some point if nothing changes every dollar that comes in goes to the payment of the debt. every other expense, food, shelter, cable is cut out or paid for with more debt. in 15 years if nothing changes, every dollar the federal government takes in will go for social security and medicare. the so-called entitlements and also for the interest on the debt. there will be no money for anything else. even before that happens the panel warns ever rising debt will force up the cost borrowing. and sending more and more of our tax dollars to other countries that hold america's ious. already foreigners own more than half of our dpibt with china, you probably guessed leading the pack. now we could spend hours going through the spending cuts the panel may recommend but with all the fuse about extending the bush era tax cuts you might wonder how high is rates might go for you if the debt commission gets its way. again, that's a long way off from actually happening. bottom line income tax rates would go down maybe as low as 8% for lowest earners, but deductions, exemptions, credits would go away. the federal gas tax would go up by 15 cents a gallon. stay tuned for that. with all that said, 8 million people dropping their credit cards. i'll tell use. stay with us. i'm bob kearn, president of coit cleaning services. these pictures are the history of my family and they're also the history of coit. we've been in business for 60 years and our greatest asset has always been our people. we use the plum card from american express open to purchase everything we can and with the savings from the early pay discount, we were able to invest back into our business by hiring more great people like ruben here. how can the plum card's trade terms get your business booming? booming is a new employee named ruben. ♪ credit cards. your favorite topic? maybe not depending on how much you have to pay on it. credit card use is way down. 8 million americans have outright dropped their credit cards. why? there seems to be three big reasons. first, people are getting cut off by banks or by their credit card companies and people are also buying less these days and more afraid of debt so they are less inclined to use credit. third more people are actually trying to pay off their credit balance. a novel idea. average credit card debt is down this year, $4,964. i want to bring in christine romans our co-host of your money not my co-host, i wish it was my co-host maybe some day if i'm lucky. $4,964. that's still a lot of money. >> reporter: it is. it's up a little bit from the previous quarter but it's down a lot, quite frankly from where it was a year ago and fewer people are carrying big, big balances. a couple of reasons here. one reason is they lost their card. they completely had to have a settlement of that debt, they are done, they are off, the credit card company closed up their account, going after them in court trying to get home to pay and they are done or they are chastened by the credit card mess. they heard the message. >> 8 million people dropping their credit cards, your need credit. isn't there some risk? >> reporter: well, look, 78 million people do not have nip credit cards at all. is there a sfloisrisk to it? if you own your own home? if you own a car? no. there's no risk using a debit card or a check or a prepaid card as long us a are very careful about the fees associated with that. but there are still a lot of people out there who aren't using credit. now, the risk associated for the people who are not getting access to credit and they are using payday lenders, they are using really expensive check cashing places. they are usie ining onerous pla. people don't have access to credit any more because of the new rules meant to clamp down on some of the most egregious practices. that shut some people out of the system all together. >> one other thing. t.a.r.p. funding that beautiful acronym that we've grown to love. actually costing taxpayers a lot less than originally thought. $25 billion instead of the original $700 billion estimate. why is it so much less? >> reporter: we always knew it would cost much less than $700 billion. $700 billion was how much was put into the system. how much the treasury would get back and that was always the question. the bailouts cost a little bit less of the auto industry. the banks bought back some more of their preferred shares and the like, bought back more of that from the government. frankly, the government held an awful lot of toxic assets still and those are a little less toxic. some of the things they hold are worth a little bit more. now the forecast is $25 billion not as bad as the $109 billion. >>it's church change when we talk about government spending these days. i know when i love to get your eyes rolling. christine romans, thanks so much. you can catch more of christine and ali's conversation affecting your wallet on your money on saturdays at 1:00 and sunday at 3:00. rom is the author of the new book "smart is the new rich." some of the late zwroechlts. congress is still divided and facing a showdown on the future of bush era tax cuts and now two new surveys show that americans are pretty much divided on the issue as well. around 40% believe the tax cuts should only be for families make under $250,000 a year. about that same number want the tax cuts extended for everyone. six american troops killed in afghanistan may have been victims of a taliban secret agent. the taliban claim the afghan border patrol officer who opened fire on the nato convoy joined the police just to carry out an attack. but his police commander disputes that saying he was a trufd officer trained by coalition forces. the officer was killed. nato is investigate skbroopg today is world aids day. a new united nations report says new hiv infections have dropped by 20% worldwide in the past decade. the number of aids deaths is also dropping but there still aren't enough people getting treated. report says there are two new infections for every one person starting treatment. as i said it is world aids day and there's progress to report in the fight against this deadly disease. i want to tell you more about that. the battle is far from over. we'll talk to an expert on the front lines next. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] some people just know how to build things well. give you and your loved ones an expertly engineered mercedes-benz... ho ho ho! [ male announcer ] ...at the winter event going on now. and stay connected with three years of mbrace service complimentary. body rested. stress gone. mind sharp. because unisom gave you deep restful sleep all night. morning early birds. unisom. good night. good morning. aids is a killer that shows absolutely no mercy. today is world aids day and there are cheers for some gains in the fight. but also the realization that the battle is far from over. here in atlanta's centennial tl olympic park they showed off the guilt. there's two new infections for every one person starting treatment. you must pay attention to these facts. 33 million people worldwide are infected with hiv. the 2.6 million new infections is down from 3.1 million in 1999. there were 1.8 million aids deaths in 2009 and that is compared to a little over 2 million in 2004. over 60 million people have been infected since the start of the epidemic in the 1980s. nearly 30 million have died. that's nearly 30 million people. that's why i want to bring in the president and ceo of the newly created aids united and also the president and ceo of the aids foundation of chicago. mark, thank you for joining me. we list off all of those numbers. authors real numbers, authors real people. what do those numbers say to you. there's some good and also still some bad. >> hi, kate. thanks for having me on. yeah. this is a really important day, world aids day. it's not just about the numbers that are horrific, 33 million people worldwide and 1 million people in america living with hiv. but this is a time of great hope. that's why i'm so excited to be leading this new organization ate organization, aids united. it's not about the merger but it's about what we'll do end this epidemic in america. >> tell me about the merger. what is it gaining for you? what your guys taking on? how are you taking on this fight, continuing the fight? where are you putting your focus? >> well, in a couple of ways. we're so committed to yunifying this fight against aids. we'll focus on a couple of things. we'll focus on raising public and private resources and getting those dollars to the communities most impacted by aids including the south, which is just devastated by this epidemic. the second thing that we want to do is really focus on health care reform because this, kate, this is the game changer. this is what will bring about the end of the epidemic in the united states. >> i was reading something that really struck me. i read despite the lower numbers, the demand for resources is still surpassing the supplies that are out there. does that -- are people forgetting about the crisis we still face with aids and hiv? >> yes, i think as the former surgeon general said so eloquently a couple of weeks ago, in some ways aids is a forgotten epidemic in america. aids united we're about changing that story because we can. there are a million people living with aids in this country and 50 to 60,000 new infections. each one of them is preventable. if we just focus our energy and resources, we can end this epidemic. as the head of the cdc said recently and we have agreed with this for a long time, ayes is withinable. we have two worlds. we have expertise. we have the best scientific minds in the country. we have people with hiv who are committed themselves to end this epidemic. if we unite through aids united floss way we cannot win this battle. >> good point to end on. a good day for everyone to remember the battle that we still have ahead. mark, thank you so much. >> thank you, kate. it's locals versus federal officials in a real sign of the times. we'll tell you why the idea of new street signs is raising such a ruckus. since september 11, 2001, dr. kevin stone has been thinking about the rescue challenges of tall builds. >> right now if you're in a disaster, a fire, an earthquake, your choices are to get down the stairwell tore try to get to the roof. tall buildings often will get filled with people. the stairwells essentially become unusable. >> stone's solution is called the rescue reel. he says the small portable system is easy to use. >> hook it to shoeing that won't go out the window such as a door, a desk. get into a universal harness. clip to it the device and lower themselves to the ground. a nontrained person can get out of the building in under 10 to 15 seconds. >> stone thinks it could be one day as common as fire extinguishers. >> as we build taller and taller buildings, the ability of rescue departments to get people out of buildings is going down. >> a commercial version of the device should be available in time for the 10th anniversary of 9/11. gary tuckman, cnn. one word turns innovative design into revolutionary performance. one word makes the difference between defining the mission and accomplishing the mission. one word makes the difference in defending our nation and the cause of freedom. how... is the word that makes all the difference. ♪ who's born to care this life was protected... ♪ seems you've always been right there ♪ this life was saved... ♪ soothing sadness ♪ healing pain and this life was made easier... ♪ making smiles appear again because of this life. nursing. at johnson & johnson, we salute all those who choose the life... that makes a difference. ♪ you're a nurse ♪ you make a difference it's half past the hour and here are the late zwroechlts. >> flood watches and warnings are out across the northeast with heavy rain and wind causing big problems on the roadways and big delays at the airports. it's the same system that caused damage, major damage in the southeast yesterday. also the harsh reality of the federal deficit front and center this hour. the president's commission is out with a long list, a long list of program cuts and tax hikes that could mean big changes for your family's finances. also some encouraging numbers from the u.n. on this world aids day. new hiv infections are down 20%. the number of new infections outpaces the number of people starting treatment. so, it's road signs versus dollar signs as local officials try to battle the federal government. what am i talking about? well the feds have ordered the installation of new signage meant to make for safer driving only they are not paying for it and with town, city governments strapped for cash already they want to put the brakes on this whole project. also all over the country, and the worldwide web, be folks are taking time to honor none other than rosa parks. today is the 55th anniversary of the montgomery bus boycott where parks famously refused to give up her seat to a white passenger. she was arrested and the rest is history. that's part of today's commemoratation, the smithsonian is showcasing the dress that miss parks had been working on that day and google's main page shows a bus logo in tribute. if the senate doesn't ratify a new arms reduction treaty with rue sharks russia will build new nukes. that's not me talking or the white house which negotiated the treaty and very much wants it passed. that's russian prime minister vladimir putin in an interview with cnn's larry king. he says a new arms race is not his choice and not in america's interest but he says moscow will have to react somehow if washington rejects cooperation. the new pact would cut each country's stockpile of nuclear war heads and allow inspections to resume. some senate republicans want to put off a vote until early next year at the soonest. and you can see that interview tonight on "larry king live" 9:00 eastern only here on cnn. guns, tear gas, violence, and deaths. sounds exactly like a war zone, right? but it's actually election day in haiti. cnn ireporter is here to tell us about what he saw coming up in globe trekking. o it's a sale. nothing beats a sale! wrong move! you. you can save up to half off that sale when you name your own price on priceline. but this one's a deal...trust me. it's only pretending to be a deal. here, bid $79. got it. wow! you win this time good twin! there's no disguising the real deal. let's raise a glass to cookies just out of the oven. to the morning bowl of cereal. and to lactaid® milk. easy to digest and with all the calcium and vitamin d of regular milk. [ female announcer ] lactaid®. the original lactose-free milk. imagine going to cast your vote for president and being met with violent protesters and tear gas. that's what happened in haiti over the weekend and our own ivan watson got caught in the mess. take a look. >> reporter: all right. so some of the security forces -- it's starting to hurt. just fired tear gas or pepper gas to disperse the crowd. haiti is in the midst of a political crisis right now. not much else you can call it. >> this incident in port-au-prince happened the day after hoitaiti's national elect. there's no clear evidence of major fraud but there were many reports sunday ever disorganization and in some occasions of apparent cheating at the polls. in addition to violence some haitians were not allowed to vote because their names were missing. last week we had johnny on. you since have gone back down to look to cover the elections and you've come back to talk to us more about it. i want to roll some of the, if we have the video, one of your ireports. describe to me what we're looking at and what you saw this time around and if it's changed any since we were there last. >> right there, those are martelli supporters. >> he's a presidential candidate. >> right here, i'm actually standing on top of the martelli bus. where ivan is reporting you can see me. ivan is fantastic. this demonstration here is going from the section of port-au-prince and heading in to delmass. the police stopped them. they stopped the demonstrators right there. there's only a few policemen. pulled the tear gas out. people start running. they will drop the tear gas. that's the tear gas coming in that's bothering ivan watson. at this point the crowd dispersed and ran and the police had stopped them. >> johnny, tensions were already high when we were talking about it. they are dealing with that massive cholera outbreak. now this unrest with these elections. why are they so angry? what your seeing? what your hearing when you are down there? >> one of the things that's confusing people, what you just saw is not so much conflict, it's the martelli supporters continuing to support their candidate. they are rallying and continuing to -- the election isn't decided so they are continuing to campaign. that's what they are doing. it's when the police stop them that it turns into a clash. >> were you surprised when you saw these demonstrations? for you it's kind of relative because you were caught in some serious violence when you were down there previously. were you surprised with what you saw, how the election unfolded or what you expected to see? >> there's two parts to that. the night before this, election night there were some clashes that were more intense. the election itself was an interesting process. i followed a friend of mine trying to get a vote. his name wasn't on any of the rolls. he was finally able to vote at 4:00. we started at 8:00. there's no privacy. it's a room. everyone is voting in front of each other. so when one of the candidates, a stronghold for him. my friend went to vote for martelli and the whole room turned around and told him to vote for selestine. >> we'll have more in the next hour. you'll stick around i hope. we got more to go over. we'll talk more about the impb reports. we'll have you back next hour. thanks so much, johnny. let's get a check of our top stories. unemployment benefits are about to run out for nearly 2 million americans. senate republicans and democrats aren't seeing eye to eye over how to continue funding the payouts. congress has extended the deadline four times -- the deadline for filing four times in the past year. today marks the first day of hanukkah or the jewish festival of lights. jews celebrate the holiday over eight days by lighting candles on a menorah. it commemorates the rededication of the temple in jerusalem. tradition already has it that the menorah burned for eight days. and is there life out there? planning to hold a news conference tomorrow to discuss what it calls an astro biology finding. we'll have to wait and see if in fact et was able to phone home. so the same technology used to make -- used to make the movie avatar is being used to help build better athletes. it's today's big eye and it's coming up right after the break. the creativity, the innovation, there's definitely a tie there. one thing our scientists are working on is carbon capture and storage, which could prevent co2 from entering the atmosphere. we've just built a new plant to demonstrate how we can safely freeze out the co2 from natural gas. it looks like snow. it's one way that we're helping provide energy with fewer emissions. in today's big i the technology to make that smash hit movie "avatar" is used to make better athletes. the technology is also used in video game systems like x-box and playstation. the camera tracks the motion of the athlete's body and then sends that information to a computer that can be stew did by researchers at none other than the university of maine and one of the professor from the university of maine work on this project is bob leonard and joining me via skype right now. bob, this is fascinating. this cut all of our attention. how are you using this technology here? >> well, the main purpose is to help the athlete and to make our training more intelligent and less volume. if we can do more with less then athlete will be better rested, they will grow quicker, their performance will improve quicker. so hopefully through the science and engineering and the technology, we can be smarter about what we're doing to these athletes. >> how does the technology work? how does it actually help the athlete? what kind of information your gaining that you didn't have before? >> well, we've always looked at mechanics whether it's sprinting or golf or pick any sport that you would like. you can film it with a regular camera and get the big picture but this system sends over 2,000 images to the computer per second. and the olympic training centers have use this for a long time. it helps us look at things on a much smaller, more detailed scale, and it's becoming that specific as far as training. if you think about 100 meter dash, lasting 10 second, a lot can go wrong in 10 seconds. one little false move with your foot or hand or a body part could cost you 500ths of a second and there's the race. so this tool really helps us fine tune the movements to an unbelievable degree. >> we're seeing a little bit of the video of some of the, of one of your athletes training. she's a sprinter, i believe. what has the data shown so far? specifically with that athlete? what have been the results? how has that helped her? >> well, i wish i had some to share with you right now. we're just finishing up collecting it. the purpose of what we're doing right now is to determine if, if some of the exercises that we put them through in the weight room, how much relationship they actually have to race performance. athletes spend an awful lot of time of time lifting weights and jumping and doing things away from the track or away from the field. and we're trying to find out just how much of that energy is actually going to carry over into their specific performance. >> so it's a better use of time and resources in essence? if an exercise isn't working for one athlete you can cut that out and this is what the data would show in essence, correct sf. >> exactly. here at maine, we take the view that -- or any athlete or any -- take yourself. you only have so much energy for the day in a 2424-hour period. and we ask these athletes to do an awful lot. if we can help them focus that energy on worthwhile endeavors, they have to expend energy at school not just working out. so if we can help them place their energy where it needs to be so they can perform well at everything, that's our goal. >> fascinating technology. fascinating work. keep up the good work. with the university of maine. thank you so much for joining us today. >> thank you. want to give you an update also on a "big i" that we brought you a couple of months ago. ali brought you of course. microsoft has sold more than 2.5 million connect devices for the xbox 360 in the first six months. the $150 device allows gamers to play video games without controllers. it uses a camera to pick up body movements and just to give you some perspective, microsoft sold more kinect did he vices an apple sold ipads. critical meetings are going on right now. r old hearing aid. ich one? 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>> reporter: think of it this way. the republican party is a table with four legs. you have congress which is one leg. you have the potential presidential nominee, which is the other leg. you have the rnc, which is another leg and then the fourth leg you have the state parties. well, the rnc is extremely important and the next chafrm of the rnc is going to be very important because that's the person who is going to be charged with over the next year and a half trying to soften up president obama. you're going to have a lot of candidates running for pre. you'll have leaders on capitol hill, republican leaders trying to do some legislating. the rnc chairman is charged with trying to soften up obama and the obama administration and probably just as importantly trying to raise as much money as possible to try to take on president obama, kate, in 2012. >> so what's going on there? you have a lot of people around you. what's going on there today? >> reporter: well, kate, what we have today is we have this first forum that is taking place. we're going to have potential candidates that are going to be on stage taking questions from here in the audience. we expect about 200 people. what's interesting is it's moderated by freedom works, which is an organization that puts together tea party rallies and has really helped the tea party movement move from a grassroots movement to a national movement. they're going to be taking questions from behind me. one of those behind me, the former michigan party chairman. we expect to hear from erin wagner former missouri party chairwoman. here's a big surprise. mike duncan who was the rnc president under president george w. bush, he is a late add. he is going to be on stage today. he is another potential candidate for the rnc chair. michael steele, the current chairman, is not going to be here. i'm told he is still considering what he wants to do. he feels he still should be the chairman and a lot of the success the republican party had in the last election cycle 63 seats in the house aend 6 in th senate he feels a part of it but a lot do not feel he did a great job running the rnc specifically raising money. this will be the first of probably several forums we'll see. the election of the rnc 168 members are going to vote on it and that election will take place in early january. kate. >> michael steele definitely has a good resume under his belt with the past election. mark, we'll get back to you. thanks, man. your next update, your next political update just about one hour away. here's a good question. who is buried in this could havin -- coffin? 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[ man ] save $523. save $345. 16 minutes could save you 16%. come on. isn't it time an auto insurer gave it to you straight? that's why you should talk to state farm. but not yet. first, talk to any one of the 40 million drivers who already have state farm. 40 million. yeah, that's more than geico and progressive combined. by a lot. 40 million drivers, more savings, and discounts up to 40%. where else are you gonna get discounts like that? but first, talk to your neighbors. chances are, they're one of the 40 million. then call a state farm agent or go online for a free discount double-check. they'll find you discounts you didn't even know you deserved. like discounts for having a safe car. so go ahead. check with your neighbors. then call a state farm agent at 1-800-state-farm or go to discountdoublecheck.com. ♪ all righty with. it's time for a little "odds & ends," shall we? have you ever wondered what everybody is searching for online when they aren't busy watching cnn of course? today one of the web's most popular search engines yahoo! put out its list of the most searched terms this year. the oil disaster in the gulf of mexico was the most searched term followed by world cup soccer, the world cup soccer tournament and pipe singer miley cyrus, the iphone and tv show "american idol" also ranked among the most searched items. singer britney spears topped off the list at number ten. interesting fact. if yahoo! looked at my producer kelly's computer her top ten searches all of them would be ohio state football. these are the kind of working conditions i have here, people. it's that bad. anyway, here's a bizarre auction that may be better suited for october 31st than the first of december. the pine coffin that held the body of lee harvey oswald from his burial in 1963 until it was exhumed in 1981 is up for bids at nate d. sanders auctions in los angeles. the starting bid, $1,000. anyone interested? all right. i'm kate baldwin. you have one more hour to stick around with me. a doom's day warning if we don't tackle the deficit and a loud call for big cuts that could cut deep into your family's finances. plus we take to you a place where death is a way of life inside the drug wars at the mexican border. a penny for your thoughts? better yet, how about $100,000? big bucks for big ideas. there's only one catch. you have to be under 20. but first we're tracking some very severe storms that are moving up the east coast. we've been talking about it all day and we need to talk about it again. a severe thunderstorm warning has just been issued for new york city metropolitan area. just been issued. forecasters are concerned about flooding with heavy rain expected for most of new england. major delays are already reported at laguardia, jfk and other airports, unfortunately. this same system already slammed the south spinning off at least four tornadoes in mississippi. twisters hitta yazoo city. in atlanta it ripped one home to shreds and no injuries reported there. good news. in buford, georgia, just outside atlanta we learned in fact it was a tornado that caused all of this damage in one neighborhood. the storm also killed a 54-year-old driver when heavy winds toppled a tree that fell on to his car. our meteorologist jacqui jeras has been in buford all day long. thanks for sticking around and joining us now from some of the destruction. want to get to the destruction that you've been looking at all day but first tell me about the severe thunderstorm warning in new york city. >> yeah, there is a warning and winds could exceed 55 miles per hour. this includes downtown and manhattan and the queens area as well. that's in effect until 2:30. we don't see any rotation with that storm right now, however, you do need to seek shelter because we could have some damaging winds. keep in mind the wind advisory that's in effect we could see 55-mile-an-hour gusts in that as well. stay indoors until this storm passes. there aren't any watches in effect right now. be aware of that, that we think this is a pretty isolated area. you can see all the airport delays from the winds and thunderstorms. laguardia and jfk both had a ground stop meaning nobody can take off to get in there. boston looking at an hour. look at newark, that is painful. 4 hours and 30 minutes. over an hour in philly, teterboro the same and dulles around 30 minutes. very cold temperatures on the back side of this front. be prepared for a 20 degree drop. that's what we have in georgia today. sunny beautiful days but feels like the 30s, 20s at one point. take a look at some of the damage we've been dealing with here. several homes, about twelve them were just leveled. there you can see the video from that. this home lost the entire side. here you can see the lamb 7 and the couch that has been pulled over there. pictures and mirrors that are still on the walls in this area. take a look at this wall. if you look up here, this whole thing was pushed back like a 90-degree angle. this was a well constructed home. these aren't shabby homes. it's amazing to see is the damage. over here this is one of the other big signs and you might hear the buzzing in the background. the chain saws are going trying to clean up. you can see how the tree branches are twisted in different directions and broken down. that's one of the sign we look at to determine whether or not it was a tornado and, yes, it was here in buford, georgia. an ef-2 with winds of about 130 miles per hour. lots of devastation in this area. thankfully, nobody was injured in this neighborhood. and a lot of the people actually weren't home either, kate. they were mostly at work at 3:30 in the afternoon. >> just amazing. i can't believe it. it looks like you're standing in someone's living room and you actually should be outside of their house. amazing. thanks so much for sticking around. talk to you soon. time for our sound effect today. we want to hear -- we're going to hear from a man the whole world wants to find. julian assange, founder of wikileaks and rape suspect in sweden. amid the fire severe storm, the global cops of interpol put out a red notice stemming from the rape case. it's not exactly an arrest warrant but be on the lookout to 188 countries around the world. stockholm issued its own warrant finding probable cause he might have been involved in rape and molestation back in august. assange says he's innocent and calls it a smear campaign. but in late october and he sat down with cnn's atika shubert he didn't want to talk about it. >> reporter: you don't want to address whether or not you feel this is an attack on wikileaks? >> it's completely disgusting. >> reporter: i'm asking whether or not -- >> i'm going to walk if you're going to contaminate us relelg the deaths of 104,000 people with attacks against my person. >> reporter: i'm not. what i'm asking is if you feel it's an attack on wikileaks. >> okay. sorry. >> reporter: julian, i'm happy to go on -- in what sense? i have to ask that question, jultian. >> the u.s. justice department says it's launched its own investigation of assange for the leaks. all the while he's lying low somewhere in the world. another controversial story we're watching, day one of a pilot program aimed at boosting organ donations in new york. now through may new york city will be sending out two ambulances to some 911 calls. the first is a standard emt rate. the second is called the organ preservation unit. that second crew will hang back out of sight. but if the patient doesn't make it, it will gently approach the family about removing the kidneys asap for donation. there areafeguards in place meant to head off ethical issues associated with it and the program backers say if the trial goes okay, it could be revolutionary. last year close to 5,000 americans died waiting for new kidneys. something else pretty unusual for new york. a lot of talking about new york today. an earthquake. a 3.9 quake rumbled the region yesterday morning. obviously people in california are scoffing right now. that's nothing but this was the biggest quake in some 20 years. no injuries or damage or anything reported, so that's very good. the epicenter is that box you're looking at 80 miles off southampton, long island. the strongest quakes ever to shake the big apple, magnitude 5.2s back in the 1700 and 1800s. a first look at a horror story that starred started unfolding two years ago. the california attorney general just released this video showing a 16-year-old boy escaping the home where he was held captive and tortured. you see him only in boxer shorts running into a nearby health club begging for help. >> a young man came into the front door, came in very dirty. you could tell something was wrong. he was holding a chain around his ankle with a padlock on it. he quickly came up and just said please help me, they're coming for me. help me. can i hide behind here? >> four people have now been convicted in that case. they face up to 30 years in prison. another story we're watching. if you can't clear it out, burn it down. i guess that's what is a good idea. that's what the bomb squad says is the safest thing to do with a house crammed with explosives in california. chemicals, grenades and three types of explosive including petn. that's the stuff used by both the shoe and underwear bombers. the man who live there has pleaded not guilty to more than two dozen explosives charges and bank robbery. the controlled burn is expected to happen next week. after a break, the moment of truth. i'll show you how some very smart people want to fix america's finances and why your finances might suffer if they can't. 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[ male announcer ] if you have gout, ask your doctor about uloric. ♪ i've been taking care of business every day ♪ if you're trying to budget holiday spending or planning a new year's financial resolution, you can sympathize with people trying to do the impossible, make the government live within its means. okay, it's not impossible but seems to be amazingly tough. a blue ribbon bipartisan commission created by president obama put every conceivable tax and expense on the table from medicare to even museum fees and managed to balance the budget in 2035, a quarter century from now. when the members vote on the plan on friday, they may well reject it but co-chair alan simpson says somebody has to do something and do it soon. >> we all know the figures sean we all know the math. and the fact really is, this is it. no more fun and games, smoke and mirrors, alchemy, trickery, cunning, cya, demagoguery and making promises we can't possibly keep. >> i'll spare you the figures and the math because quite simply it make my eyes glaze over. here's the scenario. the government like its household takes in money every month and spends it on necessities, niceties, whatever. if the money runs out, the government and many households use credit to keep on spending. and that works for a while. but at some point, if nothing changes, every dollar that comes in goes for payment on the debt. every other expense is cut or paid for with more debt. in 15 years, if nothing changes -- this is interesting -- every dollar the federal government takes in will go for social security and medicare and for interest on the debt. there will be no money for anything else, none. even before that, the panel warns ever-rising debt will force up the cost of borrowing for everybody. it will tie the government's hands when it needs cash for emergencies and send even more of our tax dollars to countries that hold america's ious. china leads that pack. we could spend hours going through the spending cuts the panel may recommend. but with all the fuss about extending bush era tax cuts, you may wonder how high the rates may go. if the debt commission has its way -- and, again, that's way, way away from happening, bottom line income tax rates would go down. yes, i did just say down. maybe as low as 8% for the lowest earners. we could all like that, right? but deductions, exemptions, credits would go away or sharply reduced. the gas tax would go up by 15 cents a gallon. stay tuned on that one p p. so tracking down a suspected drug cartel hit man. will he be convicted? we'll take you to the epicenter of mexico's drug war. [ female announcer ] humana and walmart are teaming up to bring you a low-price medicare prescription drug plan that has the lowest nationaly of only $14.80 per month. so you can focus on the things that really matter. go to walmart.com for details. to mexico's deadly drug war now. we told you yesterday about the arrest of a suspected gang leader and hit man for some of the drug lords waging the war against the government and the mexican people. the center of it all is juarez just south of el paso. now that the alleged killer is in custody, the question a lot of people are asking, will he be convicted? few in juarez believe it will actually ever happen. cnn's ed lavendera traveled to the border city and spoke to some residents and officials about the case. >> reporter: just minutes after crossing into juarez, we hear reports of a new murder in this modest neighborhood. we climb on to a rooftop to get a better view. it's just after 9:00 in the morning here in juarez and already we're at the a crime scene answering reports of a woman who has been executed in her home. the woman was shot and stabbed in the head. it's a crime that will probably never be solved and it's the kind of crime the mexican government vows will end as high profile cartel leaders are swept off the streets. the latest arrest celebrated by the mexican government is this man arturo gallegos cass tellon. they say he's the leader of a vicious street gang carrying out deadly hit for the juarez cartel. he's accused of ordering the murders of a american cons laut working leslie rodriguez who was pregnant and her husband gunned down in the middle of a busy treat last march driving home from a birthday party. in january 15 young kids were killed in a party inside this home, crimes that have shocked even this murder-ravaged border town. arturo gallegos was arrested in one of the most exclusive residences in juarez. this is as far as we can go. but behind these ten foot cement walls and tall pine trees you'll find mansions belonging to some of the richest people in this city but arturo gallegos did not go quietly. a violent firefight erupted when hundreds of federal police officers converged on gallegos. authorities shut down four major roads surrounding the neighborhood. gallegos was later paraded before the cameras. federal officials in mexico claim he is responsible for eight% of the murders in juarez since august of last year. that's more than 2,000 murders but not many people believe that claim, including the juarez mayor. the federal police said he was responsible for 80% of the murders that have occurred here recently. do you believe that number? >> well, i don't know. i got a doubt about that number. it's so high. >> reporter: arturo gallegos is a mysterious and shadowy figure of the juarez underworld. we came to this man to learn more about gallegos. he is a human rights activist and longtime critic of the drug cartels and corrupt police officers. he has many enemies and moves around with bodyguards. as we sat down to interview him, those bodyguards stood around us, machine guns ready. he tells me that gallegos didn't take the usual path to become a hit man. they're often plucked from the police force. he said he started as a young drug dealer and quickly and quietly moved up the ranks to assassin. he says this is a big arrest but fears prosecutors will never convict him of murder. in the last 8,200 homicides he says they have less than 100 sentences for murder, 100 convictions of murder? >> yes. >> reporter: there's no justice system here? >> in juarez don't have a justice system. >> reporter: and that is the problem as the murders keep piling up. no sense of justice. in the six hours we spent there, seven murders were reported across the city. ed lavendera, cnn, juarez, mexico. a short time ago polygamist sect leader warren jeffs was arraigned in a west texas court on charges including sexual assault and bigamy. it comes less than 24 hour after he was extradited from utah. jeffs you'll remember was the leader of the fundamentalist latter-day saints. the charges in texas stem from raids at the yearning for zion ranch a couple of years ago. he didn't enter a ple today. six american troops killed in afghanistan may have been victims of a taliban secret agent. the taliban claim the afghan border patrol officer who opened fire on the nato convoy joined the police just to carry out an attack. but his police commander disputes that saying he was a trusted officer trained by coalition forces. the officer was killed. nato is investigating. we've been talking about it a lot but today is a reminder is world aids day. a new united nations report says new hiv infections have dropped by 20% worldwide in the past decade. the number of aids death is also dropping, but there still aren't enough people getting treated. the report says there are two new infections for every one person starting treatment. we're going to hear and tell you more -- get you even more about the progress in the fight against aids from an expert on the front lines. you don't want to miss it next. innovative technology, and inspired design. and now, they want to give as much as they can to as many as possible. your chevy dealer is giving back to the community. come see how chevy is giving more. right now, get no monthly payments till spring plus 0% apr financing and fifteen hundred dollars holiday allowance on most chevy models. see how your dealer is giving at facebook.com/chevrolet. or retiring soon? 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[ male announcer ] no problem. as long as you're 65, eligible for medicare or retiring soon, we may have a plan for you. are you turning 65, new to medicare, or retiring soon? there's an aarp medicare plan from unitedhealthcare. that may be right for you, call or visit us on the web at answerstomedicare.com. i get to sleep faster, stay asleep and wake refreshed. melt to sleep fast. unisom sleep melts. aids is a killer that shows absolutely no mercy. today is world aids day and around the globe there are cheers for gain in the fight against the hiv/aids but also the realization that the battle is far from over. here in atlanta centennial olympic park they showed off the aids quilt today. the number new infections are actually decreasesing. since the start of the epidemic in the 1980s nearly 30 million have died. here in the u.s. there are more than 1 million people with hiv. there are about 56,000 new infections every year. less than half of americans have had an aids test since guidelines were expanded to include routine screenings and the cdc urges routine testing for everyone ages 13 to 64 and annual testing for gay men and intravenous drug users as well. earlier i spoke to the president and ceo of the newly created aids united and holds the same position for the aids foundation of chicago. i began by asking him to go beyond the numbers of this deadly disease. >> hi, kate. thanks for having me on. yeah, i mean, this is a really important day world aids day. it's not just about the numbers which are horrific, 33 million worldwide and a million people in america living with hiv. but this is also a time of great hope. that's why i'm so excited to lead this new organization aids united, which is the result of a merger of aids action and the national aids fund. but it's not about the merger. it's about what we're going to do to end this epidemic in america. >> tell me about the merger. what is it gaining for you have? what are you guys taking on? how are you taking on this fight -- continuing the fight? where rough putting your focus? >> well, in a couple of ways. but we are so committed to unifying the fight against aids and to bringing all people into this big tent because the only way we're going to conquer aids in america is if we are united. that's what aids united will be all about. we're going to focus on a couple of things. we're going to focus on raising public and private resources and getting dollars to the communities most impacted by aids including the south, which is just devastated by this epidemic. the second thing we're going to do is really focus on health care reform because this is the game-changer. this is what will bring about the end of the epidemic in the united states. >> i was reading something that really struck me. i read that despite the lower numbers, the demand for resources is still surpassing the supplies that are out there. are people forgetting about the crisis that we still face with aids and hiv? >> yes, i think as dr. koop, the former surgeon general said so eloquently a couple of weeks ago, in some way aids is a forgotten epidemic in america. aids united, we're about changing that story because we can. there are a million people living with aids in this country and 50,000 to 60,000 new infections. each one is preventable. and if we just focus our energy and our resources, we can end this epidemic. as the head of the cdc said recently -- and we have agreed with this for a long time -- aids is winnable. we have tools. we have expertise. we have the best scientific minds in this country. we have people with hiv that are so committed themselves to ending in epidemic. if we unite there is no way we cannot win this battle. >> that was mark ishaug talking to us on this world aids day. coming up, guns, teargas, violence and death. sounds like a war zone, doesn't it? it's actually election day in haiti. cnn i-reporter is here to tell us about what he saw coming up in "globetrekking." it's a sale. nothing beats a sale! wrong move! you. you can save up to half off that sale when you name your own price on priceline. but this one's a deal...trust me. it's only pretending to be a deal. here, bid $79. got it. wow! you win this time good twin! there's no disguising the real deal. it's half past the hour. let's get to the latest developments in today's big stories. severe weather is being blamed for one death in new jersey right now. it's all part of a system causing flood watches and warnings across the northeast. it's the same system that caused major damage in the southeast yesterday. also, the harsh reality of the federal deficit front and center this hour. the president's commission is out with a very long list of program cuts and tax hikes that could mean big changes for your family's finances. and encouraging numbers from the u.n. on this world aids day. new hiv infections are down 20% over the past decade. but the number of new infections still outpaces the number of people starting treatment. so imagine going to cast your vote for president and being met with violent protesters and even teargas. that's exactly what happened in haiti over the weekend. and our own ivan watson got caught up in the mess. take a look. >> reporter: all right. so some of the security forces -- wow, it's starting to hurt -- have just fired teargas or pepper gas to disperse the crowd. haiti is in the midst of a political crisis right now. not much else you can call it. >> this incident in port-au-prince happened the day after haiti's national election. the election ended with allegations of widespread fraud. so far there has been no clear evidence of major fraud but there were many reports sunday of disorganization and some cases of just apparent cheating at the polls. in addition to violence, some haitians were not a loued to vote because their names were missing from voters list. last week we had cnn i-reporter johnny colt an to talk about the cholera outbreak as well as in haiti as well as the clashes with united nations peacekeepers. you actually since then -- you went back down and you've come back up. let's start where we kind of left off last hour. you were telling me about a friend of yours, you followed him in trying to vote and he ran into these problems. >> we started with my close friends gaston, a haitian man trying to vote. i thought it was going to be a quick morning story. we'll run down, we'll catch him. instead when we got there, his name wasn't on the voter roll. his name isn't on the list. so we went to seven different polling stations. his name was nowhere to be found. by 4:00 p.m. we were finally able to get his vote registered in a whole other section of port-au-prince. this is gaston now on screen trying to find his name at the third polling station. now, if you look in the background, these are schools and they're voting in each room. there is no privacy when you vote. >> so everyone can see what you're doing? >> first off, everyone is fighting just for the opportunity to vote. you have to have a registration card first and find your name on the list and get one of these. this is a ballot this woman has. gaston is holding this up because this is what he's not allowed to fill out. this is 4:00 p.m. you see people are -- that's gaston in the white shirt. zooming in on him trying to get into the table to be able to find out whether he can vote. it's a long process. >> he looks frustrated. >> he's a great man. you can see here the pressure on the voting table as this -- not sure you have to run this whole piece but people are pushing each other and it's tight and tense. gaston finally gets his -- i'm not sure if i'm supposed to be calling this out. but he finally gets his ballot. he's so excited. look at his face. what a great guy. took all day. >> there's so much going on in haiti. the earthquake and then the cholera outbreak. you went down and you were in the middle of it during the -- at the cholera outbreak still ongoing, with clashes with u.n. peacekeepers and this disorganization going on with the election. what are you -- what's the sense that you're getting when you're down there still? these tensions and these problems. just seems like a mass of frustration. >> the more i work on haiti, the more complicated the story gets. as a journalist i keep trying to get it into a nice little box to present to people in a way that makes sense and it just doesn't fit. there's clashes and violence over the election but also people continuing to campaign. so sometimes those things look very similar between violence and continued campaigning. i went to the press conference. they said the vote is going to stand. they said there was fraud length activity but not enough to be considered mass fraud. but again haiti needs an election. they need any leadership. they need a government and infrastructure and many things. again, it gets more and more complicated. >> as usual we're out of time. what's next for you? >> probably more haiti. >> someone has to stay on it. >> when they're going to announce who wins the election that's probably something i'll be there for that. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> fabulous work that you're doing. thank you. so imagine being paid $100,000 to take a few years off of college. it's part of a new fellowship to jump start innovation. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 if anything, it was a little too much. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 but the moment they had my money? nothing. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no phone calls, no feedback, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no "here's how your money's doing." tdd# 1-800-345-2550 i mean what about a little sign that you're still interested? tdd# 1-800-345-2550 come on, surprise me! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 [ male announcer ] a go-to person to help you get started. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 regular detailed analysis of your portfolio. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 for a whole lot of extras at no extra charge, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 talk to chuck. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 time nor "chalk talk" now. future innovators are beak told to stop out of college. not dropout. take a break to innovate. this is part of a problem called 20 under 20. 20 visionaries under the age of 20 will be given $1 hundred,000 for a two-year fellowship. their only responsibility will be to follow their dreams. the man behind the plan is peter till. you may know him as the founder of paypal and also the founder of the till foundation wills behind this vision quest. peter, thanks for joining me. first off, the first thing that obviously strikes everyone is you're paying people to stop out of college. how is this good education? what's the idea behind this? >> well, it's definitely did -- the idea behind it is the u.s. needs to do something to get the innovation engine started again. i'm very involved in working with a number of start-up technology companies here in silicon valley. and while there's always a decent amount that's happening, i worry that as a society we don't see enough going on and that this is one of the reasons i think people are so pessimistic about the future and think that things in 20 years, 30 years from now will not be any better than today. if we get technology innovation working once again in the u.s., i think things will be dramatically better and we need to figure out how to do this. as i looked at a lot of the great tech companies that have been started, they were started by people who stopped out of college. microsoft was bill gates stopped out his sophomore year. apple steve jobs stopped out. a lot of the facebook people stopped out of harvard to get that company started. whole foods, the entrepreneur who started whole foods dropped out of college. >> so is a four-year -- >> entrepreneurship can be started early. >> is the idea that a four-year college education is somehow preventing people from being innovative? what is it about a four-year college degree that isn't working? >> it is -- it is not necessary for being an entrepreneur. certainly college is good for people who are pursuing attractive careers in law and finance, in academia, in medicine. but it is not tler that it is necessary at all for people doing new things at the frontiers of knowledge. one thing that i think has changed dramatically for the worst in education is the amount of student debt people are accumulated. $250,000 is what it costs to go to a four-year private school in the u.s. and at the ends of that people basically have to take well paying jobs to pay off their debt and they cannot do anything entrepreneurial, anything in a nonprofit sector, anything that doesn't just pay you a lot of cash. so i do think there's something about the amount of debt that's involved in college that has changed very dramatically from the world of the 1960s and 1970s when college was basically free and you didn't actually have to think about this. when people are paying this much to go to college, you need to start thinking about what you're going to be doing a lot sooner and not simply be treating it as something that will automatically be a good decision. >> so, peter, tell me -- as usual we're running out of time. 20 under 20, you're going to pick these fellows. they get $100,000. what are they expected to do with it? what kind of projects are you asking them to jump into. >> 20 under 20.org is the site. to apply individually or teams up to four people. they can propose a tech company pl we'll try to identify various people to mentor them and work with them in silicon valley. if it doesn't work out, people can always go back to college but the hope is that a few people, indeed all the people we identify will find things that are so incredible that they will continue working on building some of the great new technologies for the 21st century and the u.s. >> fascinating idea. let's hope it works out. peter thiel, radical idea in education. about who knows. we can use it. let's get a check of our top stories now. unemployment benefits are about to run out for nearly 2 million americans. senate republicans and democrats aren't seeing eye to eye over how to continue funding the payout s. congress has extended the deadline for filing four times in the past year. nasa is stirring up a lot of -- nasa is always stirring up a lot of buzz but it's also stirring up a lot of buzz about whether there is really extraterrestrial life out there and planning to hold a news conference tomorrow to discuss what it calls an astro biology finding. so maybe we'll have to wait and see and if in fact e.t. finally phoned home. we want to show you these pictures right now just in actually from our affiliate in detroit, michigan. this is our affiliate wdiv. an office building is on fire. obviously pretty amazing pictures that we're seeing. just look at that plume of smoke and flames. police and fire officials are closing several nearby roads. if you live in that area you are being asked to avoid that area. there are no reports of injuries at this moment. we'll obviously keep an eye on this to figure out what caused this blaze and bring it to you as soon as we get it. also, richard branson created virgin records, virgin airlines and the first -- the world's first commercial spacecraft. but what does he have planned for the ipad? it's pretty interesting. so sir richard branson is at it again from. from the mind that brought virgin airlines and enterprise, the world's first commercial spacecraft comes an idea that may change magazines and newspapers forever. yesterday branson launched project, an ipad-only magazine sold at the apple store. and he called it no less than the future of publishing. the first issue costs $2.99 and show case s. the multimedia capabilities. we downloaded it -- unfortunately this is not my ipad but my producer kelly's ipad. you have to see -- of course i won't be able to do it. this is the cover of the magazine and we've been playing with it all morning. it moves. you can slide through the pictures. i could go on and on about it. for an article on actor jeff bridges background music plays as an animated vision spins. it's amazing and our poppy harley yoef talked to sir richard branson about it all. >> we worked with the ipad initially. it's a fantastic platform. it's literally exploding around the world. it enables you to do things with the magazine on an ipad you could never do with a normal magazine in the stores. it brings the magazine alive. >> is the future of publishing in apps and not in physically printed products? >> sadly for physically printed products, i think the future is in apps. for an advertiser, virgin atlantic, with our planes, for instance, if we advertise on target, we're going to be able to take people into the plane. we're going to be able to let people hear the roar of the engines. we're going to let people be able to see what kind of seats they're sitting in and see the quality of the food. but we can do it all in a really fun way which is not possible in just a magazine in the book stores. >> is there real money to be made here, richard? you do delve into things that are unexpected but you're also a very savvy businessman. so you clearly see this as a sustainable business. >> i have no idea whether we'll make money out of it. i hope it will pay the bills. i think if you create the best and if it's a really fun magazine, if it's one that people are telling their friends about, only costing $2.99 a month, i think word of mouth will get out. and hopefully we'll get many, many people wanting to subscribe to it. >> bringing in poppy harlow now. is this like video killed the radio star type of a situation? >> reporter: it might be. what is interesting is richard branson is doing this and we sort of know him for shaking up conventional industries. look what he did to the music industry and the airline industry and now doing it to publishers around the world. what's interesting too is he's not the only mogul to do this. he is the first one to have a magazine that is only in an app and only on the ipad. but rupert murdoch, the media mogul with news corp is going to launch a daily only newspaper on the ipad. i spoke to richard branson about that. he said there's the headlines it's the battle between myself and rupert murdoch. it's not necessarily true but they're both starting with apple which is frg. but what he said he's not just to stick with the ipad. he's starting on it and then will progress to others. this wouldn't work on a kindle which is black and white. he has to wait for the technology to get there and then move outside of working with apple. he clearly said he doesn't think the future in publishing is in print in any way, shape or form. >> a man ahead of his time as always. >> reporter: i know you're enjoying playing with it. >> like a kid in a candy store. i have no idea what i'm doing but it's fun. great interview. so a message for sarah palin. you're no reagan. find out who said that in our cnn political update next. 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>> kate, he's trying to get back into the mix. good to see you. i can show you his picture right here on the political ticker. the slimmed-down dick cheney. he's trying to get involved in one of the new political challenges and who should be the next national republican chair. his candidate served in the bush administration at the commerce department and transportation department and key lieutenant in the bush/cheney campaign. she's one of several trying to replace michael steele, the current rnc chairman. there's actually a forum under way this hour. she is not there but several potential candidates to lead the republican national committee into the next presidential cycle are there trying to spread their ideas and win votes in the party. but it's interesting to see the former vice president get involved. he's going to raise money for her along with a another key lieutenant mary matlin. remember yesterday the big meeting at the white house. the president had the republican congressional leaders down. it lasted a few hours. a letter from the senate republicans today to the democratic leader harry reid, who still runs the senate, said essentially we will do nothing. we will block anything until we negotiate a tax cut deal. it says we write to inform you we will not agree to invoke enclose to cloture to proceed until we have prevented the tax increase currently awaiting all american taxpayers. no dream act or "don't ask, don't tell" or anything else they say until they try to negotiate an agreement on tax cuts. another old face getting involved in a new story. if you're o the political ticker find the column by ed rollins, a key lieutenant to ronald reagan back in his days as california governor when ronald reagan ran for president. he writes a column today under this headline. i knew reagan. you're no reagan and goes on to write if you have want to be a player, go to school and learn the issues. if you want to be taken seriously, be serious. if you want to be a gadfly keep doing what you're doing. a guy who knows a lot about running for president essentially saying to sarah palin you've got potential but in his view she's lacking substance. >> all right. john king, chief national correspondent and host of "john king, usa" 7:00 p.m. eastern. thanks, john. >> thank you. your next update just an hour away. set it in motion... and it goes out into the world like fuel for the economy. one opportunity leading to another... and another. we all have a hand in it. because opportunity can start anywhere, and go everywhere. let's keep it moving. ♪ another heart attack could be lurking, waiting to strike. a heart attack that's caused by a clot, one that could be fatal. but plavix helps save lives. plavix, taken with other heart medicines, goes beyond what other heart medicines do alone, to provide greater protection against heart attack or stroke and even death by helping to keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming dangerous clots. ask your doctor if plavix is right for you. protection that helps save lives. certain genetic factors and some medicines, such as prilosec, reduce the effect of plavix leaving you at greater risk for heart attack and stroke. your doctor may use genetic tests to determine treatment. don't stop taking plavix without talking to your doctor as your risk of heart attack or stroke may increase. people with stomach ulcers or conditions that cause bleeding should not use plavix. taking plavix alone or with some other medicines, including aspirin, may increase bleeding risk, so tell your doctor when planning surgery.

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