like helioplex... it provides the highest average spf and unsurpassed uva protection. neutrogena®. get the best. live from studio 7 i'm suzanne malveaux. i want to get you up to speed for wednesday, the 1st of june. >> it's damn frustrating. that's how -- >> a family member trying to understand how budget cuts led to a man's death in a san francisco bay. alameda police and firefighters stood by and watched the man drown because they're not certified for water rescue. alameda cut its water rescue team two years ago to save money. >> what were they thinking when they did nothing? >> this just strikes me as not just a problem with funding but a problem with the culture of

what's going on in our city that no one would take the time to help this drowning man. >> could we have done more when the gentleman became unconscious? certainly there's that opportunity for us to have gone out and do more. we're looking at that. >> alameda officials say they'll reinstate the water rescue training. >> 911 what's your emergency? >> i called a little bit ago. i found out my granddaughter has been taken. she has been missing. her mother finally admitted she's been missing. >> casey anthony's mother cindy breaks down on the stand in an orlando courtroom. the jury hears cindy anthony's 911 call to report her granddaughter caylee missing. she told the 911 operator her daughter's car smelled like a dead body. prosecutors say casey anthony killed her daughter and buried the body in nearby woods and then pretended that she was missing.

sarah palin tops off a meeting with donald trump with a visit to the statue of liberty today. her i'm not running for anything bus tour stopped by trump's new york penthouse last night. later, palin and trump discussed the republican presidential field over pizza. trump has already said he's not running. palin is on the fence. >> what do we have in common? a love for this country and a desire to see our economy get put back on the right track, making sure that we have a balanced trade arrangement with other countries across this world so that americans can have our jobs, our industries, our manufacturing again. >> do you support sarah palin as president? >> she didn't ask me for that. she's a terrific woman. she didn't ask me. i will tell you, she's a great woman and a terrific woman and a great friend. >> president obama is meeting with dozens of house republican at the white house right now. they are trying to find common ground on spending cuts.

republicans insist on $2 trillion worth of cuts before they'll agree to increase the government's ability to borrow money. the debt ceiling must be raise by august 2nd or the u.s. will default on its bills. >> a view of the space shuttle "endeavour" coming in for a landing. gear down and locked. >> after 25 spaceflights, spanning two decades and 122 million miles, "endeavour" returned to the earth overnight for a final time. the shuttle will spend its retirement at a los angeles museum. >> i really want to thank my crew members who did such a spectacular job on this flight. could not have done this without them. they all, every single one of them just performed flawlessly. >> our commander, we want to thank him, too. >> thanks for coming out. it's great to be back and have a good morning. so long. >> nato today extended the

libyan military mission another 09 days. at license launched air strikes and a no-fly zone in march to protect civilians and pressure moammar gadhafi to step down. secretary general anders muhsin sends a message to the libyan regime, nato will complete its mission. in yemen, several generals who have defected say the regime is trying to kill them. they say four missiles hit their meeting site last night. they say nobody was hurt. a senior figure in yemen's defense ministry tells cnn that the general's allegations are not true. today is the first day of hurricane season. government forecasters predict a busy six months ahead in the tropics as many as six major hurricanes. that is triple the number in an average season. here's your chance to talk back. one of the big stories of the

day, today's question has congressman anthony weiner said enough on the twitter photo scandal controversy? carol costello with more. what do we think? it's been a back and forth, knotts a lot of answers to basic questions. >> it's a complicated issue. you may have heard about the indelicate photo of a man in his underwear sent from anthony weiner's twitter account to the a college student. weiner says his account was hacked. if that's true, it's a crime. why not alert the police to get to the bottom of it or say that photo is not of me which weiner has yet to do. he seems incapable of a yes or no answer. >> can you just say why you haven't asked law enforcement to investigate what you are alleging as a crime? >> you know, dana, if i was giving a speech to 45,000 people and someone in the back of the room threw a pie or yelled out an insult, would i spend the next two hours responding to that? no.

>> did you send it or not? >> if i were giving a speech to 45,000 people and someone in the back threw a pie or yelled out an insult, i would not spend the next two hours of my speech responding to that pie or that insult. >> did you follow her on twitter and if so, how did you find her, what was the reason? >> i have i think said this a couple of ways and i'll say it again. i'm not going to permit myself to be distracted by this issue any longer. >> okay. i know, a right wing blogger with questionable tactics did break the weiner twitter story but before we start referring to this as just another partisan political fight, maybe it's worth asking, should the congressman have to answer these questions? after all, don't we demand that of our public officials? or is the issue as he says, just a distraction? >> i'm not going to permit it to continue on for three, four, five or six more days. if that's not satisfactory to you, i apologize. i think what people really want

to talk about are things like the debt limit vote tonight or things like the oppressive disparity between the very well to do in this country and people don't have as much. or how it's more difficult being the middle class in this country. that's what i'm hear to talk about. >> has congressman weiner said enough on the twitter photo? facebook.com/carolcnn. i'll read your comments later this hour. >> thank you very much. there's a a rundown of the stories we're covering in the next couple of hours. a man drowns in the san francisco bay while firemen and police do nothing. i'll talk live to the fire chief to find out why. also, the new face of a syrian uprising, a 13-year-old protester, tortured and killed. plus, is it better to rent or to buy a home in some are asking the questions and some questions you should ask yourself before committing. and finally, cnn in depth, medication nation. how taking too many pills can lead to a disaster.

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ttd# 1-800-345-2550 ttd# 1-800-345-2550 and talk to chuck about ttd# 1-800-345-2550 rolling over that old 401k. try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. here are your choices for today's choose the news. first if you've got a computer chances are you're doing it already, using one of the greatest innovations while at the same time putting your personal information at risk. second, gas prices are dropping but there's still about a dollar more a gallon than they were a year ago. so that's pushed a lot of commuters to try slugging their way to work. and third, a 9-year-old boy

in joplin, missouri opens up a lemonade stand but not for himself. it's for the people who lost everything in that tornado. you can vote by texting 22360. text 1 for cloud computing concerns, two for slugging to work or three joplin lemonade boy. the winning story will air in the next hour. outrage in alameda, california, after a suicidal man drown in the san francisco bay. because of rules and regulations, firefighters and police stood by and did nothing. the story from reporter ken wayne with ktau. >> reporter: people spoke out. due to a lack of funding for shore-to-water rescue, firefighters said they had no one properly trained to go into the water. they stood by and watched as an apparently suicidal man treaded

water just offshore and then drown. >> it strike mez as unbelievably callous that no one there with any sort of training could strip off their gear and go and help this person. >> reporter: one witness said there were about two dozen first responders and not one of them got their boots wet. >> i asked the fire unit or the police department and also the coast guard what were they thinking when they did nothing? >> reporter: alameda's interim police chief said if it had been a child, officers would have jumped in. but in this case it was a large adu adult, so they were concerned about officer safety. >> it's muddy out there. we don't want them sinking. we don't want them in distress. >> reporter: fire officials say they will restore funding for water rescue training by july and tonight the mayor said there are immediate changes. >> in the future, the fire department's command on the scene will have the discretion to send swimmers into the water as circumstances allow.

>> alameda's interim fire chief michael derazzi is with us on the phone. first of all like that woman in the piece said, if you could simply explain what were you thinking, when there's a man who is treading water for an hour, struggling for his life and drowns and your crews just watch? >> yes, suzanne, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you this morning. monday's situation presented itself as very difficult and very regrettable. on two levels we had to take under consideration the circumstances. first of all, this scene was a crime scene. the police department was in charge of the scene, obviously. under those circumstances we have to defer to their judgment based on what they have experienced. they felt that going into the water initially might not be the best idea because they were unsure if this individual was

armed, the stability of the individual. so that is on one level. on a secondary level, which is something that we in the fire department have moved to change immediately, there was a policy in place that pretty much precluded our people from entering the water. and that's something as i stated, that we have already changed and we will be putting into effect a new policy which allows our commander discretion after these circumstances. >> with all due respect here, why not say to heck with the policy, we have an emergency on our hands, a man's life is at stake. we'll deal with the paperwork and fallout later. >> that's understandable. i can certainly understand that. if our people had entered the water and said we have to do this because there's a situation that presents itself where we can make a difference, i wouldn't have an issue with that. what i am saying, though, is that the policy that was put into place has changed and there

won't be any question about that in the future. under the same circumstances, again, though, with the crime scene with an individual who could be unstable and potentially dangerous we'd have to take that into consideration before we attempted a rescue. >> as a firefighter, isn't that part of the job? it's a dangerous situation, we might meet up with somebody who's dangerous but we'll take the chance anyway because we've committed ourselves to saving lives? >> absolutely. i know, suzanne, those firefighters on the beach yesterday, they were incredibly frustrated by this whole situation, because i know them. they wanted to get in. they wanted to take action. they want to do their jobs. and they feel like they're handcuffed. it's an untenable situation for our people. >> if this was your father in the water drowning, would you say this was a frustrating situation? wouldn't you get the crews in the water to save him? >> if the situation was touching

me personally, absolutely. i understand the feeling from the community. i understand obviously the family, we feel terrible for the family of the individual. but i can't go back and change the circumstances that took place on monday. i can only change the way we do things going forward. and i have initiated that process and we're going to change it. >> does it worry you at all, these guys are following the rules, following policy, does it concern you at all that there was a lack of compassion, humanity, not a single one of those first responders got into the water, it took a good samaritan, a woman to try to save them and ultimately she was too late? the man was treading water a whole hour. >> i don't agree there was a lack of concern or compassion. i've talked to these people and they rinne credibly concerned and frustrated, again, over the whole situation. and yes, i know they wanted to go in there and make a difference. and that's why we're moving forward and we're going to use this situation to make ourselves better, make sure we don't have

this happen in the future. >> you certainly are trying to make the situation better, clearly that is not going to bring back this man's life. is there anything that you have to offer his family, besides an apology? >> you know, i wish there was something i could offer them besides that. but there is nothing that i can do to change the circumstances that took place on monday. all i can do is let everyone in the community of alameda know that the fire department is moving forward to make sure that we don't put our people in this type of a situation ever again. that we have the discretion to do what we know we need to do to take care of these type of rescue situations. >> chief d'orazi, we appreciate your time. a tragic situation. thank you, chief. >> you're welcome. sarah palin's bus tour is making a detour. she stops in new york to talk pizza and politics with donald trump. we were actually thinking, maybe...

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two of the most highly publicized people not officially running for president sit down over pizza to talk politics. sarah palin and donald trump met in new york for what trump called a low-key dinner. they discussed the potential field of gop candidates and trump recently announced he was not running for president after weeks of political grand standing. palin who is on a mystery bus tour won't say whether or not she is running.

she talked with cnn's peter hamby about last night's dinner with donald trump. >> how was the dinner? >> dinner was great. we had great pizza. wasn't that good? it was real new york pizza. that's with fun to get to be there. >> what's been the best part of the trip so far? >> oh, my goness. we love the o.t.r.s. we love hopping off the bus and meeting the nice folks who are the hometown characters basically in some of these small towns that we get to stop in. i love it. >> other candidates -- >> that's what i'm most comfortable doing. i know that. i love being able to. >> a lot of people don't realize in alaska you were known as a retail politician. if you do run -- i'm not going to ask you if you are going to run, because the answer will be the same -- would that one-on-one interaction still be possible for you as a global celebrity now? >> man, i would hope i never --

i would never lose that ability or that desire to get to be with that one-on-one relationship with people. i think it's the most valuable thing that a person, professional politician, anybody can have. is that desire to have that one-on-one relationship with people. that's how you learn and grow and figure out what the needs and concerns are so that you can know what to concentrate on to help meet those needs. yeah, if someone was to lose that, you'd become a typical politician and that's traj nick my eyes. >> palin has not officially entered the race. here are the republicans who have decided to run. former house speaker newt gingrich, ron paul, tim pawlenty, gary johnson and herman cain. there will be one more official candidate soon.

that will happen tomorrow. mitt romney will announce his intention to seek the gop nomination. some republicans like palin are in the spotlight while others like romney seem to be taking a low-key approach. next hour we'll talk to a republican strategist about the different tactics. syrians rally around a 13-year-old boy and against the brutal regime they believe tortured him to death. we'll hear tough talk from secretary of state hillary clinton. premium litters now work harder to help neutralize odors in multiple cat homes. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home.

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here's a rundown of some of the stories we're working on next. a young demonstrator becomes a poster child for the syrian uprising after being tortured and killed. then with housing prices at new lows, is it better to buy or to rent? we'll tell you some wes you should consider. at 11:56 eastern when taking too many medications hurts more than helps. our cnn in depth medication nation. well, a 13-year-old boy has become the new face of the two-month-old revolution in syria. after alarming video surfaced on youtube of the child's mutilated body, it appears to show that he was tortured before his death. the video has angered activists and drawn sharp criticism from the united states as well. >> i, too, was very concerned by the reports about the young boy. in fact, i think what that

symbolizes for many syrians is the total collapse of any effort by the syrian government to work with and listen to their own people. >> cnn's arwa damon has been following this story for us. and a warning, some of you may find the graphic images of injured children upsetting. >> reporter: on april 29th, anti-government protesters tried to break the syrian army siege on the city of dawrah. they described how security forces indriscriminately opened fire on them. 13-year-old hamza, separated from his father in the chaos. a month later, the family

received their son's body. hamza's face bloated, purple. this video posted to youtube catalogs each of his wounds, much of it too graphic to broadcast. the narrator points out multiple gunshots before moving to his head. and even more shocking, his genitals were mutilated. cnn cannot independently verify what happened to hamza or the authenticity of this video. after it was initially broadcast, hamza's family was threatened. now they are too petrified to talk. even to close friends. a prominent syrian activist who we reached via skype says she has no doubt it's real and that the regime had a message in releasing the boy's body. >> they want the people to see this. they want the people to get scared. they want the people to know

there is no -- everything, no matter how awful could happen to their family members if they continue to participate in this revolution. >> reporter: but far from -- people, the video has only made people bolder. demonstrations to protests comes as depth erupted. even children took to the streets, risking a similar fate. vowing that his blood was not spilled in vain. activists say they are not surprised that the regime could have committed such cruelty and claim it's not the first time a child has been targeted. this 11-year-old boy was allegedly shot in his home. this video shows the body of a child lying in the street, amid intense gunfire as others tried to recover his body. and here children lie wounded in hospital, after security forces allegedly fired at their school bus. the syrian government said tuesday there will be an

investigation into hamza's death but a medical examiner told syrian tv there was no evidence the boy had been tortured. and he claimed the condition of the corpse was due to decomposition. hamza's death has prompted international outrage, a facebook page calling itself we are all the martyr. it had 60,000 followers by tuesday. this face, now the symbol after an uprising. >> cnn made repeated attempts to reach syrian authorities for comment on the death of hamza. president assad met members of the boy's family. we'll get to arwa dameen in a moment. first i go to the white house. this is where house republicans just wrapped up their meeting with president obama dealing with the debt ceiling as well as spending cuts. this is eric cantor. we can also get people back to work. we know our chairman of the ways and means committee, dave camp

is hard at work at putting together a tax reform plan. the president hopefully he'll work with us to do so and keep out of the discussions surrounding the debt limit and in the biden talks any notion we're going continue crease taxes. incounterintuitive to believe you increase taxes on those individuals and entities you're expecting to create jobs. >> it's a unique opportunity where the entire conference got to convey what they're listening to across america. the president laid out from a debt discussion, from the conference he heard about jobs. he heard about unshackling the burden of regulation on to small business to get them working again from wisconsin to west virginia to members across the way. what i heard from this president, that he wanted to sit down and find real cuts now. he said there needed to be entitlement reform and we will work with him towards those end

to direct, create new jobs, put us on a path to a balanced budget and pay down the debt as well. >> i want to thank the speaker and the president for bringing us together today for this important discussion. every generation of americans has been proud to pass on a better country to the next generation. and yet for a lot of americans right now there's a question in their gut as to whether or not our children and grandchildren will have more opportunities. the foundation we lay for them is so important. we can't take for granted that we'll continue to have that strong foundation from which opportunity and innovation and ingenuity take place. our tax policy matters. our debt matters. our energy policy matters. whether it was our vote last night on the debt ceiling or the conversation today with the president about job creation, we are committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure that that next generation has more opportunities. >> any day republicans and democrats are actually having a

dialogue, this is a good day. what the president heard from republican members of the house is that jobs are jobs number one. that is our job. and unfortunately, the greatest impediment we have to jobs today is a lack of confidence in the future. republican house members were able to share with the president that the job creators in our district feel that the regulatory burden, much of it coming from the president's administration, creates a lack of confidence in the future. tax policy that is not competitive, a tax burden than is too high creates a lack of confidence. and then last but not least, a debt burden. the president heard from republican members of the house that we know that the debt burden is going to lead to high taxes which leads to low unemployment. unfortunately what we did not hear from the president is a

specific plan of his to deal with the debt crisis that could actually be scored by the congressional budget office. we hope there's still an opportunity to work on the drivers of this debt that is costing us jobs, because republicans know that until we have the confidence that we can solve this debt crisis by dealing with the drivers our entitlement spending we're not going to get the kind of jobs that the people want or demand. >> did the president have a response to that? did he respond to your concern snnchz the president admitted that we have to look at growing this economy. and the discussion really focused on the philosophical difference on whether washington should continue to pump money into the economy or we should provide an incentive for entrepreneurs and small businesses to grow. i think the president was well aware and admitted the fact that

private sector job creation is not enough. he did mention that a lot of the losses were in the public sector, again, our message is focus on growth in the private sector. that's how we'll help bring down the deficit and get people back to work. >> did the president talk about additional spending? >> the president talked about a need for us to continue to quote, unquote, invest from washington's standpoint and to a lot of us that's code for more washington spending. something that we can't afford right now. >> [ inaudible ]. >> that wasn't exactly what i said. we have to take on this debt. and if we demagogue each other at the leadership level we're never going to take on our debt. we have a debt crisis coming and we want to deal with this. if we want to grow jobs in the economy and we have to get our spending under control and our

debt under control. if we try to demagogue each other's attempts to do that, we're not applying the kind of political leadership we need to get this economy growing and debt under control. >> was it confrontational? >> not at all. >> did he stop calling your plan a vouch every plan. >> i simply explained what our plan is, how it works. it's been misdescribed by the president and others. we simply described to him precisely what it is what we are proposing so he hears from us how our proposal works so that in the future he won't mischaracterize it. >> [ inaudible ]. >> he didn't mention one way or the other. >> mr. cantor -- >> what was the point of this meeting today? was it negotiating, was it public relations? >> i think it was an opportunity for clearly our members to communicate directly with the president about our ideas, about how to get the economy going again. how to create jobs and our ideas about how we solve the debt

problem that's facing our country. i told the president, one more time, this is the moment. this is the window of opportunity where we can deal with this on our terms. we can work together and solve this problem. we know what the problems are. let's not kick the can down the road one more time. now's the time to deal with it. thanks, everybody. >> you've been watching the republican leadership at the white house after a meeting with president obama. a lot of things obviously for them to discuss. our ownie brie oanna keilar is . one of the things that is debatable, a contentious issue right now is whether or not to raise the debt ceiling, the amount the united states can borrow, whether or not that's attached to spending cuts and that some of the republicans are insisting.

where do we go from here? >> from here, this is what we're hearing from the white house and what we're hearing from the hill, suzanne, is that the future of this really rests in those negotiations that at least for now vice president joe biden is leading with congressional democrats and republicans on deficit reduction and items that will be attached to increasing the debt ceiling. right now the treasury department says the debt ceiling has to be increased by august 2nd for the u.s. not to default on its loans. so what you're hearing right now, this is, of course, the republican side. house republicans, almost all of them meeting with president obama. pretty unique situation. by my count this is the only the third time in mr. obama's presidency that he's met with all house republicans and, of course, one of the big sticking points in this, you certainly heard republicans say they voice this to the president, has to do with increasing taxes. one of the things the white house would like to see is an increase on taxes of wealthy americans and republicans are against that.

they say that's going to hurt small business that will ultimately hurt the economy. you have the white house saying some spending cuts but there need to be an increase in taxes. we heard from house speaker john boehner there, suzanne, that this was a frank and productive meeting. i don't know if you could hear the question i shouted at paul ryan. >> i did. >> i was trying to get how confrontational this meeting was. he said the point he was making that we can't demagogue, get into politics. we need to solve this problem. but what we're waiting for right now as well from the white house is say readout of this meeting that went on for more than an hour, almost an hour and a half. shortly at 12:30, we'll be getting a briefing from white house press secretary jay carney on this. >> excellent, brianna. we saw you ask that question from up above. that was great. thank you very much. more news after this quick break. [ banker ] mike and brenda found a house that they really wanted.

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a 13-year-old boy has become the new face of the 2-month-old revolution in syria. after an alarming video surfaced on youtube of the child's mutilated body, it appears to show he was tortured before his death. the video angered activists and drawn sharp criticism from the united states as well. >> i, too, was very concerned by the reports about the young boy.

in fact, i think what that symbolizes for many syrians is the total collapse of any effort by the syrian government to work with and listen to their own people. >> arwa damon now joins from us beirut, lebanon. arwa, we noticed a man who was on syrian tv and said that he was the boy's father. he came out and he actually praised the president. i want our viewers to take a listen real quick to what he said. >> translator: what can i say, best president ever. thank god he gave us everything that we've ever asked for. >> arwa, that seems kind of strange coming from the father of that tortured child. do we have any information whether or not this actually is

the father and why he would say something like this? >> reporter: well, suzanne, we've been trying to independently ascertain that. as aim you're everyone can appreciate, it's incredibly difficult given that we have not been granted access to syria. we did, however, manage to speak to a number of activists who did say they do in fact believe that is 13-year-old's hamza's father. they believe this statement came about as a result of coercion, as a result of a threat. we've been trying to reach the family for days now and have been unable to do so. we've simply been told they are not speaking to anybody at this stage. they're not even talking to anywhere close frie their close friends. they said to be absolutely petrified. suzanne. >> we saw video of kids marching in your story. how has this impacted the young people there who are part of this movement? >> reporter: you can only imagine what it must be like for the children who are constantly being exposed as activists to

various military crackdowns where they go out on the streets to continue to demonstrate. these children are by and large very politically savvy, even though this uprising really just began around two months ago. we ended up meeting a number of children up in northern lebanon who fled from syria and the trauma they had experienced there was quite visible. we spoke with their aunt who said that even if they just heard a firecracker going off outside they were afraid. if they saw dark vehicles resembling those of the syrian authorities they were terrified. one can only imagine the toll this is taking on the country's youth at this stage. >> do they believe they could be targeted too now? >> reporter: well, most certainly, in anything, this has been a regime, according to activists that has proven time and time again, it does not differentiate between the age of the demonstrator when i was speaking with a number of activists, specifically about the case of 13-year-old hamza,

they were actually not surprised that the government would be so cruel towards someone so young. they said that this has been a regime that has a history of indiscriminate brutality. while a lot of people might be shocked by the image of this child, opposition activists are telling us this has actually been happening in syria for decades, not just under the president current but under his father as well. this is nothing new. the difference they say now, though, it's actually being talked about and now actually have a very active uprising against this regime, suzanne. >> arwa damon, thank you very much. excellent reporting. we'll be back after this quick break. building up our wireless network all across america. we're adding new cell sites... increasing network capacity, and investing billions of dollars to improve your wireless network experience. from a single phone call to the most advanced data download, we're covering more people in more places than ever before

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home prices are down more than 30% from their peak five years ago. that could be quite a summer clearance sale for buyers. alison kosik is here to tell us why it is better to buy or flent this market. what do you think? >> suzanne, it is really something to consider, especially since we're in a double dip in home prices across the country. many feel this recovery in housing is a long way off. a recent study from realty track shows 54% of americans say the housing market won't recover until 2014. if you are thinking about renting versus buying, there are a few things to consider.

we talked with the author of "the real cost of living." she says you want to consider these five questions before you start on the path to owning a home. do you plan to stay in the house for more than five years? do you have job security? do you have six to eight months of living expenses saved outside of your down payment? do you have 10% to put down and is ownership important to you personally and financially? if you answered yes to the questions, home ownership may make sense to you but you shouldn't feel you have to rush into the market, since historically, suzanne, the housing market hasn't really bounced back overnight. >> if you have your heart set ob on buying a how, what can you do to low are the cost a little bit? >> reporter: the best way, have your financials in order. look at your credit score. smartcredit.com says an elite score sits around 760. the lower the score, the l

interest rate. you want to be able to pay the mortgage if you suddenly have extra costs in your life, lose a job or have unforeseen medical expenses. >> great advice. thanks as always. congressman weiner, has he said yuf enough on the twitter photo? responses ahead. [ kimberly ] when i was 19, i found myself alone with two children and no way to support them.

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selectquote. we shop. you save. pressure on congressman anthony wean ore to answer questions about the photo posted on his twitter account which brings us to today's "talk back" question and carol costello with your responses. >> most of our facebook friends on the side of anthony weiner. has congressman weiner said enough on the twitter photo? >> yes, enough already. considering the same people feeding this also got a woman fired as a racist. you know you're working for the bad guys here. don't we have wars and deficits and housing meltdowns to worry about? this from paul, why don't we spend our energy exploring the extent politicians of both parties are ball af by lobbyists

and corporations to influence policy? to me, that's a much bigger issue. and this from kyle, focus on the issues. not the life of politicians. no reason to report it. keep your comments coming. i'll be back in ten minutes with more. >> carol i understand congressman weiner will be now on "the situation room," booked later today. "ac 360," clearly come out and, i don't know if it's answer more questions but put himself in a position for more questions. >> i think what he needs to do, come out and say yes or no to questions and that would put this thing to bed and nobody would probably talk about it anymore. >> do you really think? >> i do think. i really do. it's because of the way he answered the questions which seemed evasive that has kept reporters on his trail, let's say. >> he knows le s he's going to the questions.

interesting to see what he does with them. >> some somebody did hack his twitter account, doesn't he want to know who did it? even if a right wing conservative? it is a crime. why not have police investigate it? i'm sure those questions will be posed to him. maybe he'll answer them. >> absolutely. all right. thanks, carol. >> sure. well, it starts with one medication and then another before long it is a prescription for disaster. >> this is how you lose your life. for me to see this, you know, just brings back the ten years of suffering. >> hear from a woman who learned the dangers firsthand. cnn "in depth" medication napgs nation. you inspired a very special dog food. [ female announcer ] chef michael's canine creations. chef inspired. dog desired.

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this week we're going "in depth" on medication america. the pharmaceutical industry, there's a pill to cure just about everything. cnn networks looks into the politics as well as the pills. so you go to one doctor for a problem, you get a prescription. go to another doctor for something else, you get another medication. that is what some experts call prescription multiplication. elizabeth cohen has the story of one woman who learned about the dangers firsthand. >> this is how you lose your life. you need to see this. it just brings back the ten years of suffering. >> reporter: what went wrong? this woman says too many doctors, too much medicine.

it started when she had trouble sleeping. her family doctor prescribed sleeping bills. a few days later, she deserved bronchitis. a pull monologist put her on medicine. then a rapid heartbeat. a cardiologist gave her meds for that. it didn't follow. then antidepressants and on it continued until eventually she was seeing six different physicians taking 12 different types of medications, each month taking hundreds of pills spending more than $900 on prescriptions. >> you just take them without thinking. you know? they just become part of your day. >> reporter: according to the kaiser family foundation, americans spent more than $234 billion on prescription drugs in 2008. nearly six times more than in the early 1990s. the average american fills 12 prescriptions a year. >> when you're on 20 drugs all at the same time, you'd want to question whether or not that's

really necessary. the general direction has been, keep adding. add another drug and another drug and another drug. >> reporter: a trend, he says, is dangerous. she now run as company that helps others taper off their prescription drugs saying her tipping point was when she realized despite all the new medications she wasn't getting any better. >> i looked in the mirror, i was pitiful. my skin was gray, i was reenaish yated. who was i? i got to get off these pills. i have to find out. >> reporter: >> amazing story. did she really need all of those drugs? >> reporter: she says she really did need some of them. no question. but says looking back, she didn't really need all of them and wishes she asked her doctor at the time, do i really need this prescription? is there another way to address the problem? >> how in the world did she get

off all of those medications? >> reporter: she went cold turkey and doesn't recommend that. it was a mistake. there's other ways to go off medicine more safely. let's talk about these empowered patient tips. first of all, start by going to one pharmacist. that pharmacist knows everything you're taking and can tell you if there are interactions between different drugs. and secondly, here's what you also watt to do. when you're prescribe add drug, ask, what's the exit strategy? i mean, is it tough to get off this drug and if so how? thirdly, ask the doctor at every follow-up visit, do i still need this drug? sometimes a doctor prescribe as drug to take for a month or two but you keep taking it because they forgot to tell you, maybe. every follow-up visit say, do i still need this? >> elizabeth cohen, great advice. thank you very much. >> reporter: thanks. top of the hour, i'm suzanne malveaux and want to get you up to speed --

heavy fighting rocks yemen's capital before dawn today as the country inches closer to all-out civil war. the government is battling three opponents. anti-government protesters, tribal fighters and islamic militants. several generals who defected say the regime targeted them with four missiles last night. the government is denying it. [ chanting ] in syria, the death of a 13-year-old boy brings new life into the anti-government movement. amateur video shows women and children on the streets protesting his treatment. video of the boy's brutally tortured body was posted on youtube. a criminal trial for former egyptian president hosni mubarak is now scheduled to begin on august 3rd. he is charged in the deaths of anti-government protesters this

past winter. mubarak is in custody in a hospital treated for heart troubles and high blood pressure. casey anthony's brother lee testified at her closely watched murder trial in orlando today. prosecutors contend that the florida woman killed her 2-year-old daughter, then made up a story that she was missing. earlier, anthony's mother tearfully told the jury her granddaughter was missing for a month before she found out. >> -- crying and i overheard her tell me that caylee's been gone for 31 days, and that -- that zani had taken her. >> house republicans went to the white house today to discuss spending cuts with president obama. gop lawmakers want some $2

trillion in cuts before they're going to agree to raise the country's borrowing limit. the government has already hit the current debt limit of $14 trillion. now, unless congress raises it by august 2nd, the government cannot pay its bills. the atlantic hurricane season opened today. government forecasters see a busy six months ahead. the national oceanic and atmospheric administration says there will be 12 to 18 named stormed and 3 to 6 major hurricanes. the space shuttle "endeavour" is coming in for a landing. gear down and locked. >> after 25 space flights spanning two decades and 122 million miles, "endeavour" returned to earth overnight for the final time. the shuttle will spend its retirement as a los angeles museum. a city leader and in alameda, california, are getting an earful from angry residents

after a drowning death. firefighters and police stood by and watched. a suicidal man drowned in san francisco bay. dozens of other people witnessed this drowning. our dan simon is in alameda, and, dan, give us the basics here. how this actually could occur? because it is hard to believe that this actually happened. >> reporter: well, you're right. this is the situation where you sort of take a step back and say to yourself, something clearly is not right here, and what happened is, on memorial day, about 11:30 a.m., a man apparently intent on taking his own life, 53-year-old raymond zach, goes into the frigid san francisco bay behind me. he's fully clothed. his mom calls 911, first responders, firefighters, show up here with minutes, but because of a bureaucratic policy that forbids firefighters from attempting land-to-water

rescues, all they can do is stand idly by and watch this man die. apparently, there is also a situation here at alameda where the funding was stripped that prevented firefighters from getting training to enable them to learn how to do ground-to-water rescues. also at play here. after about an hour or so, a woman, who was watching all this unfold a 20-year-old woman, she goes in, standing right next to the firefighters. she goes in and attempts to do a rescue. by that time, the man is already dead. suzanne? >> really unbelievable, dan. the last hour i had a chance to speak with alameda's intern fire chief and we pressed him on this point. this is how he explained it. >> the policy that was put into place is changed, and there won't be any question about that in the future. under the same circumstances, again, though, with a crime scene, with an individual who could be unstable and potentially dangerous, we would

have to take that into consideration before we attempted a rescue, as a firefight firefighter, isn't that part of the job? it's dangerous. we might meet up with somebody who's dangerous but we take the chance anyway because we committed ourselves to saving lives? >> absolutely. i know, suzanne, those firefighters on the beach yesterday, they were incredibly frustrated by this whole situation, because i know them. they wanted to get in, take action. they want to do their jobs and they feel like they're handcuffed. so -- it's really an untenable situation for our people. >> if this was your father in the water drowning, would you say this is a frustrating situation? wouldn't you get those crews in the water to save him? >> you know, i'm sure if that was something that, you know, was me personally, absolutely, and i understand the community, the feeling from the community. i understand, you know, obviously the family. we feel terrible for the family of the individual. but i can't go back and change the circumstances that took

place on monday. i can only change wait we do things going forward. >> dan, what are the local folks saying there? is that good enough for them? >> reporter: well, you know what? there is outrage, understandably there is outrage. there was a city council meeting last night where people who live here took to the microphone, blasted the city council, blasted the fire department. the city council put this funding back in place. we're not tacking about an enormous sum of money. s 20ds,000 to $40,000 to get these firefighters trained. in addition, the fire chief, as you talked to him he said they changed their policy where basically they're going to allow firefighters to use common sense, basically use their ownty kregs in terms whether or not they can go in and attempt to do these rescues. suzanne? >> dan simon, thank you very much. a chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. today's question, has congressman anthony weiner said

enough on the twitter photo? that controversy, carol costello has that story. >> ooh, people are fired up about this one. you may have heard about this lewd photo of a man with bulging underwear sent from congressman anthony weiner's twitter account to a college student. and outspoken liberal married democrat says his account was hacked. that's true, that's crime. why not alert the police to help get to the bottom of it or say, hey that photo is not of me, which weiner has yet to do. he seemses incapable of a yes or no answer. >> why you haven't asked law enforcement to investigate what you are alleging is a crime? >> you know, dana, if i was giving a speech to 45,000 people, someone in the back of the room threw a pie or yelled out an insult, would i spend the next two hours responding to that? no. >> did you send it or not? >> if i were giving a speech to 45,000 people, and someone in the back threw a pie or yelled

out an insult, i would not spend the next two hours of my speech responding to that pie or that insult. >> did you follow her on twitter and if so how did you find her? what was the reason? >> you know eeshs think i've said this a couple of ways and say it again. i am not going to permit myself to be distracted by this issue any longer. >> i know. a right-wing blogger broke the weiner twitter story. before we start referring to this as another partisan political fight, isn't it worth asking? should the xongman have to answer these questions? after all, don't we demand that of our public officials? or is the issue, as he says, just a distraction? >> i'm not committed to continue on for three, four, five or six more days. if that's unsatisfactory for you, i apologize. i think what peel realople real 20 talk about the vote tonight or the oppressive disparity between well to do in the country and people that don't have as much, the facts the difficult being the middle class

in this country. that's what i'm here to talk about. >> the question of the day, has congressman weiner said enough on the twitter photo? facebook.cnn.carolcostello. i'll read them. >> he's be on "the situation room" and "ac 360" later today. >> so he's continuing the conversation even though he wants to put it behind him. >> see if he answers the questions. >> thank you. rundown of the stories we're covering over the next hour. first, is the debt ceiling debate confusing? a quick 101 to explain that. and after weeks of devastating tornadoes, hurricane season. yep, that starts today. chad myers is going to give us the forecast. and jurors hear the bizarre twists and turns in the casey an though murd aer trial. we'll play you some of the 911 tapes. and a list of contenders. finally, how america's pill popping touching everyone.

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or access your web e-mail. second, a lot of the commuters in the nation's capital are slugging their way to work. it's a way to deal with high gas prices. and third, a young boy in joplin, missouri, sells lemonade to help tornado victims. so here's what you do. vote by detecting 223670, text 1 for cloud computing concerns, 2 for slugging to work or 3 for joplin lemonade boy. winner airs later this hour. republicans had what they describe as a very frank conversation with president obama about dealing with the nation's debt. the president invited all the house republicans to the white house for a meeting. as they left just a short time ago they spoke and republicans are calling for huge cuts in spending before increasing the amount of money that the country can borrow. at the debt limit. treasury secretary timothy good night geithner warns of extreme

consequences. what exactly is the debt ceiling, why it matters so much and here to break down the numbers here, carl, thank you very much. first of all, explain to us exactsly what is the idea of this debt ceiling? >> happy to say it's pretty simple and easy to explain. the debt creeling is a cap simply a limit set by congress on the amount of debt the federal government can really have when we're speending more than we can afford to pay off. think of it as a credit card. a credit limit, the maximum amount you're allowed to borrow. imagine all of america's debt all being on that credit card. we maxed it out a long time ago and have had to raise the credit limit time and time again. in order to raise that credit limit, though, congress and the president have to sign off on it. take a look at the national debt over the past ten years. through the roof. expenses like associate securso.

military operations. we're way over, mack maxed out that card again and that's got a lot of people ticked off. if we do not increase the debt ceiling the united states will have to default or continue the analogy, not make our credit card payment and that could be really bad for the value of the dollar. >> if the u.s. can't borrow enough money to keep the government running, what happens next? >> congress would have a very imminent and difficult choice to make. either need to raise taxes or cut spending imminently in order to continue to meet its obligations in full. according to tim geithner, the treasury secretary, not raising the debt ceiling would have tangible consequences right away. it could affect military salaries, retirement benefits as well as social security and medicare payments. we also wouldn't be keeping up on our interest on the debt, and unemployment benefits can be affected as well. but there is a tab. more than 14 trillion dollars and counting. there are no easy answers, and that's why this fight is getting ugly in washington, suzanne. >> why it's so important to see whether or not this is a clean bill.

they raise the debt ceiling or whether or not it's accompanied with cuts in spending which republicans are insisting. >> either way saying, we've got to raise the ceiling or it's going to hurt everybody. >> thank you so much, carl. >> thank you, suzanne. >> appreciate it. today is the first day of the new atlantic hurricane season. our own meteorologist chad myers is here with us and, chad, in light of all of the tornadoes, right, we've seen in the last couple of months, what does it mean now that hurricane season is upon us? >> well, that means a lot of humid any spots across the middle part of country where the storms have been. means there's a lot of flooding. means we have a la nina that has ended, that maybe caused a little of our severe weather season. la nina can enhance it. now that it's gone, maybe that enhancement is gone a little bit. you know, we didn't even realize we were going to have a big severe weather season until april, because january, february, march, had nothing. 50 tornadoes in three months,

and then all of a sudden, it just, right on top of us, in april and may. now something's on top of us, maybe tropically, although it's not even far enough in the middle of the atlantic to have any strength before it hits land. it will becoming ashore here looks like maybe north of brevard county, maybe even towards, i would say almost further north at the beach. does it mean more weather? no. actually. where did that go? i lost my -- anyway i wanted to show you what the weather was like, what the temperatures were like across the atlantic ocean, but that disappeared. showers and thunderstorms from orlando back down into florida, and that is going to be the story for the rest of the day. we also have a high pressure system here over the western part of the atlantic that wasn't there last year. the western pie was over here and all the hurricanes turned up and missed the u.s. that's a very bad place. all the storms are going to do this. work themselves into the gulf of mexico. a lot to go yet.

i'll get you that map. it was here. someone took it off. >> thanks, chad. we'll get back to you to get that map on. creating jobs. it's been very tough in this economy. well, today another troubling report. we go live to new york for those numbers. [ waves crashing ] ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] and just like that, it's here. a new chance for all of us: people, companies, communities to face the challenges yesterday left behind and the ones tomorrow will bring. prudential. bring your challenges.

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a reminder to vote foretoday's "cheese the news" winner. vote texting for a cloud computing terns, 1. how do you safeguard your derchtty in a virtual world. text 2 for slugging to work. and text 3 for joplin lemonade boy. the winning story airs later this hour. not good news for the economy, and a new jobs report is out that shows the private sector created a lot fewer jobs than expected last month. our alison kosik is with us at the new york stock exchange. alison, give us a sense. how bad is this? >> pretty darn bad, suzanne, to be honest. pay roll processing firm add had this report. a big miss. the expectation, private companies added 175,000 jobs in may. guess what we got? 38,000. you ask how bad is that? take a look.

the average job gains in the past six months sat at around 205,000. you're seeing the number today, below the recent trend. then you take eve an closer look and see where the jobs are cut. cut in construction. in financial services. in manufacturing. it's really that decline in manufacturing that we're really noticing, because that sector had really been growing and there were hopes pin and manufacturing that that would really pull us into a more of a stronger recovery. what this essentially does, this report, sets us up for a weak government jobs report we're getting friday. suzanne, analysts are already cutting back estimates. >> what does this mean? a depressing housing report yesterday. now you have this out. what is the bottom line here? >> the bottom line is, the recovery is slowing down. companies aren't hiring. not a huge surprise. the writing has been on the wall for weeks. weak housing and manufacturing reports. watched reports on consumer confidence fall last month. state and local governments are

cutting jobs because of big budget problems, and you look at companies like nokia and hp. they're predicting weak sales in the next, for the rest of the year in some cases, and this weaks in s iness is the main f main street. the dow and s&p fell in may. big declines day. the dow right now down 189 points. nasdaq off 36 it's definitely felt here on wall street as well. >> thank you very much. appreciate the report, alison kosik. a tearful mother takes the stand against her daughter. >> casey was on the floor crying and i overheard her tell me that caylee had been gone for 31 days. >> the latest turn in casey anthony's murder trial. our guest helps us fill in the blanks. it's dif - t adththod easy-to-swallow petes.

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stories we are working on. the defense accuses casey anthony's father of sexual abuse during her murder trial. we'll have the latest twists and turns jurors are hearing. then sarah palin and donald trump meet for a slice of pizza in the big apple and talk politic. what this mean or doesn't mean for the republican presidential race. and at 12:45 eastern, how prescription pills go from our medicine cabinets to the streets. a cnn "in-depth" medication

nation. with a headline-grabbing trial of a mother accused of murdering her 2-year-old daughter. members of casey anthony's family are testifying at her trial in orlando, and the jury is hearing two versions of how little caylee anthony died. cnn's tom foreman looks at the trial so far. >> reporter: in the florida courtroom where casey anthony's life is at stake, an electric moment. her lawyer describes her father george anthony finding his 2-year-old granddaughter caylee drowned in a swimming pool. >> immediately grabbed caylee and began to cry. and cry and cry. and shortly thereafter, george began to yell at her. look what you've done. your mother will never forgive you, and you will go to jail for child neglect for the rest of your freakin' life. >> reporter: the defense says it was a culmination of a lifetime of sexual abuse and secrets. >> and it all began when casey

was 8 years old and her father came into her room and began to touch her inappropriately. >> reporter: that's the reason, they say, casey anthony joined in a cover-up. >> this is not a murder case. this is not a manslaughter case. this is a tragic accident that happened to some very disturbed people. >> reporter: but the prosecution and even casey anthony's own parents say it's just not true. no accidental drowning, no cover-up, no sexual abuse. >> have you ever sexually molested your daughter casey anthony? >> no, sir. >> reporter: prosecutors paint the accused woman as cunning, self-centered killer suffocated her child with chloroform and duct tape, stuffed her in a laundry bag and dumpeder in a swamp, then went on the a binge

of drinking and partying and evenantered a hot body contest while her family wondered where the little one had gone. this with her brother. >> there's absolutely nothing to find out. to find caylee, i knew that this would be happening, no. >> reporter: this one with her mother. >> if anything happens to caylee, casey, do you understand, i'll die. if anything happens to that baby. >> oh, my god. a waste. huge waste. >> reporter: and then there is this. >> i got with three feet of my daughter's car, and -- the worst odor that you could possibly smell in this world, and i've. shed that odor before. it smelled -- like a decomposed body. >> reporter: some witnesses describe a different person. a caring mother, close to her child. >> it was amazing that casey and caylee had a very, a very special bond.

>> reporter: but which version of casey anthony the jurors buy will determine her fate. tom foreman, cnn. joining us to talk more about the casey anthony trial is holly hughes. a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor. thank you, fir of all, for joining us. you've been following this closely. >> yes. >> first of all, taug talk about the testimony of casey anthony's mother and it is the most compelling and most significant part of the trial. tell us why. >> it is, suzanne, and this is why. because when you've watched cindy anthony, no matter what you think of her, and we've been watching this family for three years. face it. there has been a lot of media coverage up until the point we actually started the trial. she's done some kind of goofy things we might think that's a little nutty. but no matter what you think of her when you watch her on that stand talking about her granddaughter, this 2-year-old baby, it is so evident that she loves this child and the raw

grief that we see emanating from her. that's what we expect from the mother. from the defendant, casey, and we're not getting that. we're listening. you listen to the 911 tape, where cindy has to actually report the baby missing after 31 days and the dichotomy. cindy is cying, panicking, yelling, this is a 3-year-old. get me help. casey doesn't want to get on foent. when cindy forces her to, she's like, yea, uh-huh, what? yeah, my daughter's been gone -- she might as well be reading off a laundry list or grocery list. no emotion. no affect. that's why when we see cindy dissolve on that stand, no matter what you think of her, suzanne, your heart breaks for her, because that's real true love. >> what do we think of the defense's case? we hear them talk about the fact this was an accidental drowning and she was forced to cover it up because she was allegedly sexually abused by her father. is that playing well with the

group? with the jury inside that courtroom? >> i can't believe it is, and here's why. common sense will tell you, i was a prosecutor here in atlanta for many years. so i know a lot of the sexual abuse survivors. they will lie to cover up the abuse because they're ashamed, but they don't invent imaginary people. they don't make up nannies. they don't invent non-existent jobs. they don't lie about everything. they're not path logical, suzanne. they are hurt and they are ashamed, but they don't lie about things that it's completely unnecessary to lie about, and there's no other evidence to back this up. one of things you and i were chatting about on the break was the important thing to listen for is evidence. and when jose baez stood up, he gave a loud compelling argument, but he didn't give us the name of any witnesses that could testify about this abuse or any piece of evidence that's going to prove that it actually happened. it's just accusations. >> quick, what's the next step in this case? who will we hear from next?

>> we've gotten through a lot of the lay witnesses. we're probably now going to get into the law enforcement officers and chronologically follow the investigation as it unfolded once law enforcement was called. >> holly hughes. thank you so much. fascinating case, all of us waging close lis. thanks for breaking it down for us. >> my pleasure. thank you. they're not running for anything, say both. why are sarah palin and donald trump soaking up so much of the republican limelight? we'll bring in and ask a republican strategist. ♪ [car horn honks] our outback always gets us there... ... sometimes it just takes us a little longer to get back. ♪

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or 3. winning story will air before the top of the hour. two of the most highly publicized people not officially running for president sit down over pizza to talk politics. sarah palin and donald trump met in new york for what trump called lowkey dinner discussing the field of gop candidates. trump recently announce head was not running for president after weeks of political grandstanding. palin, on a mystery bus tour won't say whether or not she's running. she talked with cnn after last night's dinner with trump. >> dinner's great. great pizza. wasn't that good? real new york pizza. fun to get to be there, yeah. >> what has been your favorite part of the trip? >> my goodness. >> "always love the otrs. >> hop off the bus and get to

meet the nice folks who are the hometown characters, basically, in some of the small towns that we get to stop. i love it. >> pull over at a coffee shop somewhere. >> what i'm most comfortable doing. i know that. i love being able to. >> in the last race known as retail politician. i mean, if you do run i'm not going to ask you if you're going to run, i know it's just going to be the same, would you, would that one-on-one interaction still be possible for you as a global celebrity now? is that something you'll be able to recapture? >> i would hope i never -- i would never lose that ability or that desire to get to be kind of what they one-on-one relationship with people. i think it's the most valuable thing that a person, professional politician, anybody, can have, is that desire to have that one-on-one relationship with people. that's how you learn and grow and figure out what the needs

and concerns are so that you can know what to concentrate on to help meet those needs. so, yeah. if splomeone was to lose that y become a typical politician and that's pretty tragic in my eyes. >> sarah palin talking to our own peter handy. how is it that the people who are not officially in the running are getting so much attention? well, we want to take a closer look how the field of gop candidates is taking shape. the republicans who are officially running so far, former house speaker newt gingrich. texas congressman ron paul. former minnesota governor pill pawlenlent tim plenty. former new mexico governor gary johnson and herman cain. republican strategist leslie sanchez. ban long time. great to see you. >> likewise. thanks so much. >> start with sarah palin taking a front seat on this one-nation bus tour, has all the trapping of a political tour and says --

she has not said whether or not she's going to run. has is her strategy here? >> that's the million dollar question. i love the intro. what brought them together and created this media storm? i have to do a shout-out to mark brunette, the reality guru, creator of "apprentice" and created "sarah palin's alaska." interesting those two powerhouses come together. it appears to be a media froth of interest. that is what these can't characters, candidates, whatever they are created. sarah palin as a post-candidate celebrity is able to do that no other individual on the right or left can do. she creates a lot of light on areas of interest that she has, and one thing that's interesting from 2008 to now, the issue was that she was seen as an empty suit who didn't really deserve to be a serious candidate. i think moving forward, the media learned to take her more seriously. that she is somebody who can captivate and audience, raise

tremendous money and put focal points, like she did in 2010, on other candidates and help them win elections. this time she may do it for herself. >> talk about mitt romney pshgs officially announcing tomorrow but essentially seems to have been taking a back seat somewhat. does it help or hurt he's throwing himself into the race really so late in the game? >> it's really not late. i think there are going to be other candidates who watch probably more so what sarah palin does to determine whether or not they're going to also throw their hat in the ring, but one thing about mitt romney. he is one of the only candidates so far who has the full experience of running a presidential campaign. how to get that political organization going, gain support. that is going to benefit him tremendously. he has a lot of money. a lot of resources. has gained a lot of respect to the issue of religion and such. he's had four years to play out. people have an understanding where he is, and ultimately, he may be the last man standing. he has that experience behind

him. so it's still very early in the republican field to see who's going to shake out. >> and leslie, quick, new jersey governor chris christie says he's not running. said it many, many times. even republicans travel to new jersey 20 try to recruit him. today a report that he's under fire for allegedly using the state helicopter funded by taxpayers to attend his son's baseball game. do you know anything about that? >> i personally do not. i would say this. it's a reporter's dream especially -- if the democrat's and reporter's dream to have a story like that. it's bad optics if she is a candidate who would decide to run on a president's level. right now, staying internal to new jersey. something people will poke fun at. other governors have done in the past. an issue of good judgment and optics. this case, hard to say. doesn't look like a win for him. >> leslie, as always, great seeing you. thank you very much for your perspective. >> thanks so much. from the medicine cabinet to the street, the illegal sale of

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politics and the pills. the cost of prescription drugs can sometimes leave you with sticker shock at the pharmacy. but those drugs can cost even more when sold illegally on the streets. poppy harlow of cnn.com joins us from new york with more on prescription drug trafficking and poppy, i understand this has actually become a very serious problem? >> reporter: very serious problem, and a very lucrative business. experts tell us, it is now a billion dollar business on the streets in big cities like l.a. and new york, miami, to sell these prescription drugs. by far it is the biggest drug problem in america right now. it's not, those illegal drugs you think of. it's prescription drugs. look at the numbers. they're astounding. the most popular prescription drugs on the street. oxycontin, oxycodone. hydroco-doan. one pill, $50 to $80, bought legally in the pharmacy, $6. similar with percocet and vicodin. we talked to and got behind the scenes of the sheriff in the

l.a. -- with a sergeant in the l.a. county seraph's department who told us he bought literally a bag of pills, he says he bought it on craigslist. when it comes to who is taking these pills, it's not just one group, like you might think. it's really spanning across a number of different democrat grachks. listen to what he had to say about who is buying these pills and taking them illegally. >> we say this in every demographic in l.a. from people in skid row, all of those people taking oxy all the way to upper middle class and rich kinds, and to hollywood celebrities. pretty much every demographic in our city is abusing this particular drug. >> and, of course, we couldn't show you his face because he's on the face policing this, busting people that are selling this right now and doesn't want his identity exposed. amazing how many people this is touching. >> why has were become such a big problem? the elderly are falling victim

to this? >> reporter: they are. we'll get to that in a second. kids think, experts say, it's safer, because they're parents take these prescription drugs. they're taking them because they think it's safer. weren't of the drug a lot of people are take, sex tasy. a mixture of viagra and ecstasy. very popular. $60 billion fraud every year in the country. billions come from traffickers who target elderly folk whose need cash, suzanne and offer to pay them cash for their monthly prescription drugs. that is happening in droves across this country. a lot more, a lot more behind the scenes with the sheriff's department. you can see it right here at other home page at cnnmoney. >> thank you for bringing that to our attention. appreciate it. breaking news here. this just in -- information about the libyan oil minister, his name, ganim, he has defected from the regime of

libyan leader moammar gadhafi and considering joining the opposition's transitional council saying he left because of the suffering of the libyan people. that gadhafi's political structure is in shambles. he doesn't know how long he'll stay in rome or out of libya, but a significant development that you have such a high-level individual and official in libya defecting from gadhafi's regime. todayed "talk-back" question, has congressman weiner said enough on the twitter question? >> seriously? people's, my facebook, accounts hacked all the time. do you think the police would really investigate every single hacking case? give it a rest already. more of your responses up ahead. but with advair, i'm breathing better. so now, i've got the leading part.

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the pressures on congressman anthony weiner 0 to answer questions about the photo posted on his twitter account bringing us to today's "talk-back "andy carol costello with responses. >> a lot of people want him to answer. has he said enough on the twitter photo? michael said, ooib seve weiner's

passionate work and commitment. let him do his job. focus on what really mattersinvestigate as we should. he says it's time to focus on many other matters. and as a female college student i wouldn't want ta lewd photo sent to me from a congressman. however, i really wouldn't want the media covering it once every hour instead of covering topics that representative weiner mentioned. what will we remember a month from now? a silly lewd photo or the legislation discussed in congress? and untrue smears, a.c.o.r.n., et cetera. the president ought to focus from him. when, whom? did he pay money? and so what if he doesn't investigate. move on. distractions from the real issues facing our nation and economy. whew! keep the conversation going.

facebook.com/carolcnn and thanks as always for your comments. >> thanks. what you wanted to see our "choose the news" story. the winner moments away. the count on chevy event is here. turn it up in a malibu. 33 mpg, over 500 highway miles a tank. one of our 9 models over 30 mpg highway. fuel up, rock on. very well qualified lessees can get a low mileage lease on a chevy malibu ls for around $179 a month. fuel economy based on epa estimates. and there's a great selection of inventory available now

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tell us what you wanted to see. here's your "choose the news" winner. deb feyerick explains how you safeguard your identity in a virtual world. >> reporter: do you it, i do it. in fact, hundreds of millions of people do it every day.

each time you log into your web e-mail or visit social media sites, like facebook or flickr or streamed tv shows or movies you're accessing a virtual world anyone were share from anywhere. welcome to the cloud. >> they allow you to not use expensive, a bulky storage space here on earth, and instead allow you to put things in somebody else's computer for free or for very little cost. >> reporter: john abel writes about the cloud for "wired" magazine and warns with innovation comes risk. >> assume that your stuff will be looked at. assume that it will be lost. >> reporter: there's no guarantee your data in the cloud is ever 100% secure. recent breaches at sony playstation network, epsilon data, even rsa security affected upwards of 100 million people. >> pretty much open season. >> reporter: this man se