pollution is a main thing. we treat very little of the sewage in hong kong, and drop about 4,000 truckloads into the harbor every day. >> reporter: and a bridge being constructed could further impact the dolphins. the government says the plans were approved after it passed through required impact irn v n environmental assessments. >> these are nails in the coffin. i don't see us being out here there. >> if you want to check out the runner's up, i will have links on my facebook page. and cnn continues right now. >> thank you. it's a very big day in the world of presidential politics. we're just seven hours away from

the first major debate of the 2012 presidential campaign. seven candidates for the republican presidential nomination will gather in new hampshire, and cnn will bring you the live national coverage at 8:00 p.m. eastern time tonight. this will be the year's first debate in new hampshire, the traditional home of the nation's first primary. it will be the years of first debate for mitt romney, currently considered the frontrunner, and the first debate for newt gingrich, who is struggling to keep his campaign afloat after the resignation last week of several senior staff members. and don lemon is at the college in manchester where the debate will take place. i want to start with gingrich here. he made a passing reference to the incident in his speech. let's listen to that first. >> as somebody who has been in public life for nearly 40 years,

i know full well the rigors of campaigning for public office. in fact, i have had some recent reminders. >> now, don, there were reports that the gingrich staff members who resigned had doubts that he is committed to a full-scale campaign. do you expect gingrich will have to reassure republican voters there tonight? >> of course he is. and here's the message that is underlying here. the people who worked on his campaign said -- felt that he was not committed and they said that they worked on campaigns before and they knew what they were doing and gingrich was not listening to them, especially taking a vacation two weeks before the presidential debate. the voter in the back of their minds and at the top of their minds are thinking if newt gingrich cannot listen to his own staffers and take their advice and go on a vacation, instead of picking up the phone

and calling donors, will he listen to the american people and what is important to them? tonight this is his first shot at them. he made the reference at the beverly hilton speaking to a jewish american conference, and tonight he will have to tell the voter, and assure them that he will pay attention to what is important to them, because his own staff said that he wouldn't pay attention to what is important to them. >> so let's take a look now at the latest cnn opinion research poll. it shows romney with a slight lead making him, at least in theory, the current frontrunner. are the other candidates going to have to gang up on him here? what do you think their strategy will be? >> two people on there, guiliani and palin, they have not declared anything yet. and i think they will grang up on him, and he is the target,

and cain is gaining momentum not by picking on romney. another person who is declared and was not on the poll that you showed, is tim pawlenty. he will target mitt romney tonight. he has been doing it this weekend, talking about his massachusetts health care plan and has been calling it obamneycare. he will be the one to go after romney. >> just about 30 seconds or so can you tell us about the hall behind you, a little behind the scenes? >> reporter: well, we can only show you a little bit because some of the candidates are practicing. i will step out of the way, but don't go close because michele bachmann is up there, and they don't want to be videotaped, so we will show it from afar. they are going over there to the podiums getting used to venue and the scene. herman cain was here earlier and now michele bachmann is here, and other candidates will be here throughout the day. it's beautiful here, and we'll

be ready and are all excited. >> i like the chandelier behind you. >> reporter: very nice. i think it will fit in your living room. >> bring that one home for me, would you. thank you, jon. we'll check back again. thank you. sticking with politics now, when john boehner was elected speaker of the house earlier this year, many people had trouble pronouncing his name. he talked about that as well as another name in the news during a commencement address at ohio state over the weekend. what a he said is today's sound affect. >> when you begin to go out there and ask people to vote for you, they're probably not going to vote for you if they cannot say your name. my name looks like beaner, bonner, boner, and thank god it's not weiner. [ applause ] . >> yes, that last part of course was a reference to congressman

anthony weiner whose name is being said a lot and not in a good way. things just seem to be going from bad to worse. over the weekend several leaders of his own democratic party called on weiner to resign from congress. and that was before these pictures serviced. tmz.com published these photos that were taken by weiner himself at the gym in the house. weiner's office is not talking. weiner's office does say the congressman will take a leave of absence to get some treatment. in other news, arizona's 16-day-old wallow fire is 10% contained. some residents are being allowed to return to their homes but they are being warned the air quality could be a problem. there is still a lot of work left to do.

it turned 600,000 miles so far. destroyed 29 homes and four businesses and 35 other buildings. seven people have been hurt. "30 rock" costar says shaefrs disturbed by the anti-gay remarks. morgan made a joke about killing gay people, and nbc entertainment chairman says morgan's homophobic remarks are reckless and he is pleased too morgan has apologized. >> people in dallas and some here in our control room are celebrating today. i will not mention any names, valerie. because the dallas mavericks won their first ever nba championship. the mavs behind the series behind dirk. lebron james and his hand picked team will have to wait one more

year. he will pay for the whole thing so the city won't have to. now, a heart-shaped sticker and flies. what these things reveal in the casey anthony murder trial. we take you inside the courtroom room next. [ male announcer ] the inspiration for its shape was an archer drawing his bow. ♪ could that have also inspired its 556 horsepower supercharged engine? ♪ the all-new cadillac cts-v coupe. we don't just make luxury cars, we make cadillacs. a living, breathing intelligence that's helping drive the future of business.

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now in the fourth week of the trial defense lawyers for casey anthony claim a rare victory. this comes as the state begins rapping up its case. prosecutors are focusing on hair taken from anthony's car trunk and duct tape found on caylee's remains. it's their theory she killed caylee and then stored her in the trunk of her car before dumping her in the woods. steve, thank you for joining us again on the show today. i want to talk about the hair. an fbi hair expert testified hair samples are important to prove caylee's body was placed in her mother's trunk. but there was a rare win for the defense. how significant do you think it is for jurors?

>> caller: clearly the prosecution had a theory to lay ought, and when they cannot lay it out it was a blow to the prosecution. it was not a smoking gun that cannot be established elsewhere. basically what they wanted to show was the hair found in casey anthony's trunk was decomposed hair from a dead body, and the gentleman who was supposed to show that this morning, some of the discovery had not got to the defense, and that was excluded. it was not great for the defense -- for the prosecution, but it was not a case-destroying thing that happened. >> and the prosecution is also focusing on the adhesive found on the piece of duct tape found from caylee's remains. let's listen to what the fbi agent found. >> during my examination of q63, an outline of a heart appeared

on one of the corners of the edge on that piece of duct tape. >> so the court documents certainly stated that this tape was there. they did not mention it a whole lot, of course, in the testimony, but they stated that a sheet of these heart-shaped stickers were found by police at anthony's home. are prosecutors connecting that heart shape on the tape to the stickers, and could that be a message from the girl's killer? >> it could be a message, or sloppy work on the person that put the duct tape there. who can tell? but what we do know is those heart-shaped stickers, a similar set of stickers were found at the anthony home. if the defense was going to claim that somebody else put that sticker on there, that would be hard for them, because it has to be somebody that had some sort of access to the anthony family home, which, of course, would mean that this

meter reader, who they are trying to point fingers are could not have put that there. >> that's the guy that called in about the body. i want to ask you one last thing. the bug expert that testified about flies and larva, and they found this was a sign of decomposition. this could be a big blow to the defense, right? >> absolutely. the defense said the smell in the back of the car was not from a decomposing body but from garbage because there was a garbage bag back there. this evidence that says it was decomposition, and it blows a hole in one of their theories. >> thank you, steve, from "people" magazine. we appreciate your time today. >> okay. as we continue here this hour, our sister network we should mention is hln, and it's your destination for coverage of the casey anthony trial.

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who are with us today that we are waiting for president obama to speak in north carolina. he is there in durham to sell his economic program. he should speak in 13 minutes from now or so so we will continue to watch that podium. this is all about job creation. he wants to make sure they will meet their job creation challenge, and he will meet with the jobs and competitive counsel there which is a group of industry leaders, and they will present him with a progress report on jobs. we'll keep an eye on that and as soon as he starts to speak we will bring it to you live here on cnn. they caused a lot of us to pull out our hair or scream bloody murder, and i am talking about the bank fees as likeable as a swarm of flies. here are some of the annoying. fees for sending a statement to the old address because you forgot to tell them about the new address. fees for using banks coin

counting machines, avoid the flee by rolling them in rolls yourself, and then if you want to chat with a bank teller, avoid the fees by getting online fees by using internet statements. and then don't lose your debit card. sign up for electronic statements. and receiving money, chase, for example, charges $15 for incoming wire transfers. charges for redeeming reward points, and you earn them and in some cases you pay to redeem them. and then the obnoxious fee, closing your account. u.s. bank charges $25 for

closing a count within a certain amount of days of becoming a customer. for all the latest financial news, jin christine romans, and don't miss your money with ali. and then locking horns tonight. former massachusetts governor, mitt romney, is likely to be the favorite target since he leads all the others in the latest poll. you can watch it here only on cnn. and president obama is expressing his views on the anthony weiner situation. he believes the behavior from the congressman from new york has been a distraction. a vintage world war ii

bomber crashed and burned today outside chicago. just take a look at these pictures. officials say all seven people onboard the b17 survived. hard to believe when you look at that. the plane took off from a municipal airport and crashed 20 minutes later. the plane was made in 1944. while republicans get set to duke it out in new hampshire, president obama has gone south for campaigning of his own. ed henry is up next to tell us what message the president is delivering. once again, keeping an eye on the podium there enduin durh north carolina, and we'll keep it here. [ waves crashing ]

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democrats in the house are lining up to call the anthony weiner scandal a distraction. until now the white house has kept quite, like i said, until now. let's bring in our senior white house correspondent, ed henry, who joins us this time every day. what are you hearing? >> reporter: i was on the gaggle in air force one, and the white house has shied away from any comment on the weiner controversy. here is what fascinating to me. the language he used was similar to exactly what nancy pelosi said over the weekend, and the dnc chair woman. all of these women did the

coordinated effort to pressure weiner and say it's a distraction and it's distracting from the democratic party message. and the white house stopping one step short of calling for weiner to resign. if they did call for weiner to resign, it would do the opposite of what one is trying to do, which is resign. the white house wants to talk about jobs, and they want to talk about medicare, and a proposed republican cut. and then when you talk to senior white house aides in private, when you go back to the trip to europe, back here in the states they beat up republicans on the issue of medicare. the president thought he had come back to a much better political environment and then the weiner thing has taken out of the oxygen from the democratic message and they want him to step aside, no doubt about it. >> and you mentioned jobs.

president obama is going to speak in about 20 minutes or so and maybe less. and the president is talking about jobs. why jobs now? >> reporter: because he's under great pressure because the unemployment figure going back up, and it's worth in the state of north carolina. so the bottom line is north carolina is a state that this president carried for the democrats for the first time since 1976, and jimmy carter, and if all of a sudden people in states like north carolina and indiana that were flipped from the republican column to the obama column in 2008, if they are worried about low job growth and high prices, it's going to be difficult to keep them in the democratic column. >> yeah, certainly understandable as to why he would go there. from there, he heads to florida. why florida? >> reporter: he's going to do fund-raising down in miami.

miami a nice place to visit. and there are stories in the new york times about how the president needs to get his fund-raising machine back up and running. we have the republicans and hosting a dig bedate in new hampshire tonight. they are getting some of the attention. the president has to get into that game as well. he's down in miami. a lot of fat-cat donors in warm places like that, and that's why they go to beverly hills in california and places like that, and it's a sure sign this campaign is on. >> thank you. we want to remind you we are waiting for the president to speak. could be any moment now and keep it here and we'll bring it to you live. an amazing recovery and pictures to prove it. new photos of representative, gabby giffords. you have to see these. [ male announcer ] you've reached the age where you don't back down from a challenge. this is the age of knowing how to make things happen. so, why would you let something like erectile dysfunction

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welcome back. it's half past the hour, and here's a look at some of the headlines and news you may have missed. the count down is on, and seven republicans will be on the stage in new hampshire. former massachusetts governor, mitt romney, may be the center of attention. he is the current frontrunner. and newt gring rich will see if he can get his campaign restarted after top aides abandoned him. catch all the action tonight right here on cnn, at 8:00 p.m. eastern. president obama is in north carolina today to talk about economic growth. he is meeting with the jobs and competitive counsel and touring the head courters of the leading maker of energy efficient l.e.d. lighting. he will give us a speech about

policies to promote job creation and accelerate hiring. from his stop in north carolina, the president will fly to florida, another key political state to attend fund razors fupd raises in miami. the judge would not permit an fbi examiner to show jurors a power point presentation about hair competition. the defense stated they never received a copy of the presentation. we're getting our first look at congresswoman gabby gifford since she was shot in the head in february. two photos show a smiling gifford and gives us an indication of how much progress

she is making. the photos were taken a day before she went to surgery to replace a bone in her school that had been removed to help with swelling. at a conference in london today, bill gates pledged $1 billion over the next five years to help vaccinate children in developing countries. the conference was cohosted by the british government and the global alliance for vaccines and imnauization. it will help to vaccinate $80 million and save 1.4 million lives. one child dies every 20 seconds from a vaccine preventible disease. the judge who ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in california told the world he was gay after the case was complete. today a hearing is being held on whether the case should be overturned due to possible dbia.

we have both debates in 60 seconds. keep it here.

32 minutes after the hour, and right now the california's ninth circuit court of appeals trying to determine whether the sexual orientation of a federal judge is relevant in a ruling he made on gay marriage. the judge we're talking about is former judge, vaughn walker. appointed by hw bush in 1989. last year he ruled the ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional. shortly after his ruling he retired and told the press he has been in a same-sex relationship and has been with the same man for the last decade. and there is is hearing on the

case, and some say the judge should have been pulled from the case because of their sexuality. if you pull judge walker from being gay you have to pull females off abortion cases and hispanics off immigration cases. here to help us flush this out, we have our guests. there is the executive director of the national center for lesbian rights. you have been in the courtroom with this hearing this morning. what is the latest? where do things stand? >> it's clear as we hear more of the argument from the prop 8 proponents. this is a hail mary boupathetic attempt to cast doubt on the ruling by judge walker.

it was really a sound ruling. the trial made clear that there was no rational basis to support constitutionally prop 8. the fact that his sexual orientation is being made an issue at this very late stage, actually, is an appalling attempt to undermined his credibility and cast doubt on a ruling that from virtually every perspective was the correct ruling in the case. >> should a gay judge be allowed to rule on gay rights after listening to that? >> it's not the fact that he's a gay, but he has been in a long-term same-sex relationship, and he was obligated to disclose that at the on set of the case and he chose to bury and conceal that. and under federal law, he was obligated to disclose and

requeues himself. the basic standard is whether the regular person would question his decision. he was ruling on his own right to merry his own sim-sex partner. the fervor over gay rights, i think everybody would agree this is a simple straightforward issue, and he should have recused. >> do you think this is something that he should have disclosed? this is something he needed to share? >> the only reason he would have needed to share it is if the fact he is in the relationship, and there is no evidence he wants to marry. the only basis on which he would have to disclose this, is he would be unable to be unbiassed and objective. and in the opening, if we go down that road, justice scalia

should not be set in cases involving roman catholics. judges take an oath that regardless of their life experience, every judge comes to the bench with biases. straight men. people of color and women. every judge comes to the bench with some life experience and it has formed their attitudes and they have biases. the oath they take irrespective of those biases they can set them aside and do the job of a judge. there is not one shred of evidence -- >> let me just get back to ed here. do you think that judges can set aside their biases, and really the other question for you, should the propizati 8 case be overturned and be retried? >> these are red herrings you are hearing from kate. if it turns out that a

reasonable person would think that judge wants to get in that club, you bet there is an obligation to requeues. we see the latest stage a remarkable course of disconduct -- >> yes or no, should it be retri retried? >> yes, it should be vacated and it should go to another judge to start over. absolutely. >> thank you both for coming on and talking about this. what do you think about this? should a gay judge be allowed to rule on gay rights? join the conversation by going to the blog. you can just search for randi on both sites. and then this is about to happen in egypt. two americans at the forefront join us with details next. at bayer, we're re-inventing aspirin for pain relief.

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it was a ref revolution the whole word watched. take the economy. the exact that it favored the ae laets and powerful while offering loaded dice to everybody else was one of thee . now the economy is barely crawling along. but a group of young

intrapreneurs are embarking on a mission that could turn things around. they will soon travel to egypt to conduct a boot camp for young egyptians. thank you for coming on. >> thank you for having us. >> tell us about the program and its objectives. >> well, i am part of a u.s. delegation that is with the egyptian and denmark government to be part of the business plan competition and a mentoring program with 48 intrapreneurs in cairo. >> how are the egyptians taking part in this, scott, how were they selected? >> in partnership with the global program, which is a united states initiative, along with folks like usa id, and denmark governments, they have been fostering through various programs to get 48 young intrapreneurs into the program and through the boot camp experience, us and several other organizations that teach education are coming together to

do this so we can foster an intrapreneur ecosystem. >> it's one-on-one mentoring, i would imagine. what do you hope, ryan, to teach them? what do you want them to get out of this? >> we have a four-day boot camp there in cairo. the winners of the business plan competition, the four winners will travel to the united states to do an internship at my company in raleigh, north carolina, in october. that's one of the awards for the business plan competition. >> and it's very interesting to note, through the experience, we are hoping as they hope to partner with folks to expand this sort of program internationally to a variety of other countries, like indonesia and others. >> is something like this a little premature given the continued uncertainty in egypt and continued criticism of the

military? >> taking all politics out of the equation, we're hoping to help them rebuild the economy, and foster job creation, and frankly, i don't think there is ever too soon to start people learning something new that can help the masses. we are honored to be part of the program through all of the amazing organizations that are working hard to build the community and the sooner we can get there and other countries with similar predicaments, the sooner we can put their economies on track. >> what do you think is the goal of the people you are helping, and how critical is entrepreneurship for success there? >> we want to going as part of the delegation to bring training and education to young intrapreneurs in cairo. we will see what it brings. if at the end of the day we can aspire intrapreneurs in egypt to take their companies to the next

level, we're happy to be part of that. >> appreciate it and good luck with it. >> thank you. coming up on 45 minutes past the hour. now a look at some of the top stories we're following. as libya burns with fighting and unrest, its leader moammar gadhafi is seen for the first time in weeks playing chest with a russian visitor. the visitor is the president of the world chess federation. and then a mass grave found in the northwestern city contains bodies of prisoners, not security personnel. the syrian media said they found 12 mutilated bosses killed by armed gangs, they said, in the grave. more than 1,100 people have been killed in libya since the unrest began in mid mark. airspace is now open. thousands of passengers were stranded after an ash crowd from

an erupting volcano. new technology for oil rigs that could help keep the workers and the environment safer. that's coming up right after this quick break. once again, we want to remind you we are waiting for president obama to speak in durham, north carolina. he's going to talk about how to spur economic growth. we'll make sure to bring it to you live right here on cnn. there's a cheaper, cleaner way to fuel up now. the volt plugs into any socket, and fuels up at home. sure it could use gas, but for most commutes you won't need much, if any. so from now on, fuel tube... we'll just call you...plan b. the 2011 chevrolet volt. it's more car than electric.

every day on the show we do a segment called the big eye. today we will bring you a new technology that could prevent oil rig disasters. we remember the devastating oil rig explosion in the gulf last year. 11 lives were lost, and the environmental loss will be felt for decades, and billions in business were lost as well in the split time explosion. there are sensors that can send

tons of data into a cloud of information. here to explain all of that and why it's a big deal, the editor of a magazine. tyler gray. tell us about the technology. why is this so important? >> you mention a tremendous amount of data that's going up into the cloud. so let's break that down a little bit. the amount of information is actually equivalent of all the sensors that are on one rig, it's about as much data as all the movies ever made. that's in a single month. we're talking a tremendous amount of data. that has to go some where. they can't be putting giant processors on oil rigs. they send it up into the cloud the same way we've heard about happening with your music recently and super computers in some far off place or a large array of computers process that information in a moment and send it right back down to its destination in a way that everybody can interpret and understand. it's happening very fast, very efficiently and off site. >> so this would help them know

more quickly if there was something wrong? >> it could. now, it's going to be a little tricky if we're talking about something 2,000 to 10,000 feet below the surface. there could be a situation where they may not know, you know, until it's a little bit too late. what it can do is all this information can go up into the cloud and be processed down to give the people on the rig a better idea of what's happening with the entire rig rather than one group knowing about one thing, another group knowing about another thing and then relying on everyone to try to get together. >> it really gets the message out. i would have assumed, though, that this technology already exists, though, on oil rigs. how is this different from what's already being used on other oil rigs? >> it's a really good point. there are realtime systems on some of the newer rigs. remember, the transocean rig involved in the deepwater horizon incident was 11 years old. they may not have had the same sort of technology. there's a lot of rigs out there that aren't equipped with the exact technology that this is

claiming to provide. also this is just a lot more data being sent and a lot more efficient way. yes, you're getting some realtime data right now. it's not nearly what intel is offering to provide. >> do you see possibly this might be able to be used in other industries that could also benefit from this technology? >> well, that's the thing about this mysterious cloud that we hear so much about. you know, it's actually applicable to all sorts of different scenarios. imagine a nuclear plant where there's all kinds of monitoring going on and droves of data. if you have a place to send the data, it goes off, gets processed fast. it happens off site. there's not a lot of bulky equipment in addition to the equipment already there. sure, it could be applied from everything -- like i said earlier, your music or fastmoney.com's traffic which we use realtime data for or a nuclear plant or offshore oil rig to provide instant information and a better total picture about what's happening

on the entire scenario. >> any word for us about how this has been received by the industry? i would imagine they would be happy about something like this. >> it's brand-new, but i've spoken to some folks who've actually worked on oil rigs before. and i think their feeling was that, you know, there is an area between the surface and between these caps that stop these blowouts from happening, blowout preventers we've heard about. if something happens in that space it's almost already too late. there is some further prevention. if this can give you an idea, for example, that a rig is drifting off the center where the hole is in the bottom of the ocean, that can provide really important data to have people correct things before it goes so tragically wrong. >> all right. tyler gray from fast company, thank you so much. for more information on intel's research and to check out the complete article from fast company head to our blog cnn.com/ali. seven republican presidential hopefuls are gathering in new hampshire for tonight's cnn debate. but a few others who aren't in the race are making some news of

their own. that's ahead in our cnn political update. more on car i? was abe lincoln honest? mary: does this dress make my backside look big? abe: perhaps... host: could switching to geico reon car insurance? e host: do dogs chase cats? ♪ 70's music sfx: squealing tires. we're going to take you to the talks by president obama

talking in north carolina on how to spur economic growth. let's listen in for a bit. >> his name is david jones. david's the guy with the paper. there he is. david's back there. as you can see, david's shy. and lacks enthusiasm. but, nevertheless, so i got to see david on the -- looking at the new l.e.d. production light which he now runs, by the way. and it's easy to see why you guys are so proud of what you do. this company has made amazing progress. and the technology at this company is growing in leaps and bounds. in fact, as i was talking to chuck here at crete, he was explaining how just since my

last visit l.e.d.s have become -- how much more efficient have they become? double the efficiency just since my visit three years ago. just since my visit three years ago. so today the small business that a group of nc state engineering students founded almost 25 years ago is a global company, has got 5,000 employees. next month your new production line will begin running 24/7. and soon you'll add another 400,000 square feet of space on a new site next door. so you're helping to lead a clean energy revolution. you're helping lead the comeback of american manufacturing. >> this is a company where the future will be won. david was telling the truth when he said how great it is to work here and how grateful he is for

the opportunities it provides. but i also remember something else david said that day. he talked about how even with a good job at a great company, it was getting tougher for working people to provide for their families without having to cut corners. what he said was, "where am i squeezing that balloon to make sure that my family has a life, that we're moving forward, that we're progressing?" that was in 2008. before the financial crisis. before the bottom fell out of the economy. before a vicious recession that made things that much tougher for working families. so the world has changed since the first time david and i met. and for a lot of our friends and neighbors, that change has been painful. today the single most serious economic problem we face is getting people back to work. we stabilize the economy, we

prevented a financial meltdown, an economy that was shrinking is now growing. we've added more than 2 million private sector jobs over the last 15 months alone. but -- [ applause ] -- but i'm still not satisfied. i will not be satisfied until everyone who wants a good job that offers some security has a good job that offers security. i won't be satisfied until the empty store fronts in town are open for business again. i won't be satisfied until working families feel like they're moving forward again, that they're progressing again. that's what drives me every day when i walk down to the oval office. you, your families, your jobs, your dreams and everything it takes to reach those dreams. now, our economic challenges were years in the making.

it'll take years to get back to where we need to be. but for all the hits we've taken, we are still america. we've got the largest economy in the world. we've got the best workers in the world. we've got the finest universities in the world. we've got the most successful companies in the world. we've got everything we need to help our workers adapt and to help our fellow americans through this tough period. but it's going to take all of us working together, the private sector, government, nonfor profits, ak acedemia. i brought some folks with me. i travel with a bigger entourage these days than i did three years ago. so the group i brought today is a group called the council on jobs and competitiveness. these are leaders who have

decades of experience in running some of america's best businesses, creating jobs, understanding what it takes to grow our economy and strengthen our middle class. they come from the business sector, but also labor, universities. most importantly, they come from outside washington. and they've decided to dedicate their time and energy to this singular tax. how do we create more jobs in america? and, by the way, we put this together many months ago. not in response to one jobs report. but because we understood even though the economy was growing, it wasn't growing as fast as we want and it wasn't producing as many jobs as we want. and so i told them, i wanted to hear every smart, forward-thinking idea that they have to quicken the pace of job growth and make sure our economy and our workers can adapt to changing times.

so we just had an opportunity to meet backstage to talk about how we get our job creation engine running faster. i want to highlight a couple of their ideas that apply to companies like this, to companies like crete. now, the advanced manufacturing that you do here requires skilled workers. and you guys are lucky. you've got excellent schools nearby like unc and nc state and duke. reggie, don't worry. i'm not forgetting duke. every time i come here, there's some acc thing that i got to work through. but because you've got these great schools, you can hold your own talent draft. not just in basketball. but when it comes to highly skilled workers. and durham public schools has strengthened that talent

pipeline by forming a school of engineering at southern high school which celebrated its first graduating class last week and we are so pleased with that because we want more engineers in america. here's why this is so important. right now there are more than four job seekers for every job opening in america. but when it comes to science and high-tech fields, the opposite is true. the businesses represented here tell me they're having a hard time finding high-skilled workers to fill their job openings. and that's because today only 14% of all undergraduate students enroll in what we call the stem subjects. science, technology, engineering and math. of those students, one-third will switch out of those fields and only about 2 in 5 will graduate with a s.t.e.m. degree

or certification within six years. so these are the jobs of the future. these are the jobs that china and india are cranking out. those students are hungry because they understand if they get those skills, they can find a good job. they can create companies. they can create businesses, create wealth. and we're falling behind. in the very fields we know are going to be our future. so we can do better than that. we must do better than that. if we're going to make sure the good jobs of tomorrow stay here in america, stay here in north carolina, we've got to make sure all our companies have a steady stream of skilled workers to draw from. so last year in pursuit of this goal, we brought together companies and community colleges to forge pipelines directly from the classroom to the office or the factory floor. helping workers find better jobs and helping companies find the right workers. last week we announced new

commitments by the private sector as well as colleges and the national association of manufacturers to make it possible for 500,000 community college students to earn industry accepted credentials for manufacturing jobs that companies across america are looking to fill. so what happens here now is businesses and trade organizations are going into the community colleges, helping to design the training for specific jobs that they know are going to be available. in some cases providing the equipment to help those students train on. the students then have an incentive. they know, you know what? if i do well here, i know i'm going to have a job. and today with the leadership of the jobs council, we're announcing an all hands on deck strategy to train 10,000 new american engineers every year. [ applause ]

so -- and, by the way, our jobs council led by jeff emult, they're doing this not counting on a whole bunch of federal funding. private sector companies are teaming up to help us promote s.t.e.m. education, offer students incentives to finish those degrees and then to help universities fund those programs. they're going to double their summer internship hiring. we're talking about companies like intel whose ceo is here today and paul is heading up our task force for the jobs council in helping to figure this out because he understands intel's survival depends on our ability to get a steady stream of engineers. i've been, by the way, to the intel plant out in oregon. it is unbelievable. it's something out of science fiction. and i pretended like i understood what they were saying the whole time. but -- but that's what's going

to drive our competitiveness in the future. we know that if we're going to maintain our leadership in technology and innovation our best companies need the world's brightest workers, american workers. that brings me to a second idea that we discussed backstage. at cree, you're putting people back to work in a field that has the potential to create an untold number of new jobs and new businesses right here in america, and that's clean energy. and my administration has invested heavily in clean energy manufacturing because i want to see the l.e.d.s and solar panels and wind turbines and electric cars of tomorrow made right here in the u.s. of a. i want them made right here. we invested in this company with a tax credit that allowed you to boost capacity and lower costs and hire hundreds of new workers. and with a grant from the department of energy, you've made incredible breakthroughs in

smart grid technology to transmit clean, renewable energy across the country more efficiently, at less cost. now, breakthroughs like these have the potential to create new jobs in other sectors of the economy as well. think about it. cree makes energy efficient lighting that can save businesses and consumers a lot of money. and there are a lot of buildings out there that need upgrading. and there are a lot of workers ready to do the upgrades, construction workers were hit harder than anybody by recession. almost 1 in 6 construction workers are out of work. and that makes no sense at a time when we've got so much of america that needs to be rebuilt. so this is what led us to create what we're calling the better buildings initiative. putting people back to work, doing the work that america needs done. upgrading buildings for energy efficiency could save america's

businesses up to $40 billion a year on their utility bills. and obviously that $40 billion could be better spent growing and hiring new workers. it will boost manufacturing of energy-efficient products like those made here at cree. it will put contractors and construction workers back on the job. it is a win/win/win/win proposition. so today the members of my job council updated me on their efforts to push this initiative in the private sector, and they're working closely with a champion for this kind of energy innovation, president bill clinton, who i asked to co-lead the effort with them. and as we get this moving, it can snowball. because right now the big impediment is a lot of companies know they would save money if they had more energy efficiency, but they may not have the initial capital to do it. in some cases building owners,

they're thinking to themselves, well, if i put in all this new lighting am i going to be able to recover it through the rents or the leases that i'm able to obtain? and so what we've got here are premiere experts who are going to be able to help us design this program to really get this to take off. now, these are just two examples of the kind of work that's being done by the jobs council. they had all sorts of recommendations that they're talking about. you know, how do we deal with making sure our regulations make sense so that we start eliminating ones that don't work? aren't making consumers better off or aren't improving our quality of life. how do we make sure that small businesses get financing, because there are a lot of small businesses out there that are still struggling to get capital. large businesses are doing pretty well. so they're tackling a whole host of different issues. now, their recommendations

aren't going to solve every problem that we face. but slowly, steadily, they're helping us to move forward. we're going to pursue these ideas and any good ideas that are out there, no matter where they come from. because even though this is a big country with great diversity of opinion, as you discover when you're president, we won't agree with each other on everything, we can agree on some basic things. we can agree on educating our children and training our workers to be the best in the world. we should be able to agree on investing in the research and technology that leads to new ideas and new industries. we should be able to agree on developing clean energy and manufacturing jobs that come with it. it makes sense for us to rebuild our infrastructure and all the jobs that it can create. that's what's going to be

required to grow our economy. that's what it takes to help our people prosper. that's how we're going to get to the future that we dream about for our children and our grandchild. and the main thing i want to communicate to all of you here at cree, everybody here in north carolina and all across the country, is we're going to get there. i know that because i've seen it here at this company. where you're helping to lead the clean energy revolution. i've seen it across the midwest where automakers are coming back and hiring again. even after reading their own obituaries two years ago. i've seen it from coast to coast where men and women are testing new ideas, starting new businesses, bringing new products to market and helping america come back stronger than before. so i am optimistic about our future. we can't be complacent. we shouldn't pretend that a lot of folks out there are not still struggling.

but i'm absolutely optimistic that we've got everything it takes for us to succeed in the 21st century. americans do not respond to trials by lowering our sights our down scaling our dreams or settling for something less. we are a people who dream big, even when times are tough. especially when times are tough. we're a people who reach forward. look out to the horizon and remember that, together, there's nothing we can't do. and as long as i have the privilege of being your president, i'm going to be right there with you every step of the way, fighting for a brighter future in this community, in north carolina, and across the united states of america. thank you very much, everybody. god bless you. thank you. >> you've been listening to president obama making some remarks there about job growth and the economy in durham, north carolina. really a reality check is what he gave us. four job seekers for every open job in america is what he told his gathering there.

economic challenges years in the making, he said. will take years to come back. americans, he said, going back to work is the single most important issue to the economy. he did meet with his panel to try and come up with some ideas to spur some job growth such as planning to train 10,000 new engineers every year and tackle some ways for small businesses to get financing a little bit easier. also acknowledging, though, that the recommendations won't solve the crisis, that it is going to be slow going. but as he told the group, we are going to get there. and that would wrap up his remarks there in durham, north carolina. well, as you know, it is a very big day in the world of presidential politic. we're now just six hours away from the first major debate of the 2012 presidential campaign. seven candidates for the republican presidential nomination will gather in manchester, new hampshire, and cnn will bring you the only live national coverage starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern time. this will be the year's first of eight in new hampshire.

the traditional home of the nation's first primary pipt will be the first debate for mitt romney, considered the front-runner. also for newt gingrich struggling to keep his campaign afloat after the resignation ast week of several senior staff members. cnn chief political analyst glo gloria borger, part of the best political team on television, is in manchester. glo gloria, nice to see you. tell me a little bit of what we can expect tonight? >> reporter: i think you're going to see the gloves come off. you've got mitt romney, as you pointed out, the front-runner, the man who's been through it before, didn't win but who's been through it before. you're going to see the other candidates start to attack him, i believe, and try and distinguish themselves. i mean, newt gingrich has to restart his campaign here in new hampshire. and tim pawlenty, it's very clear he's been the tortoise in

this race. he's going to try and distinguish himself from mitt romney and start attacking him on issues like his health care plan in the state of massachusetts, which he started calling obamicare. it's going to be the first time where we see all of these candidates really interact and see how they interact with each other, particularly with the front-runner. he's going to be the target. >> yeah. speaking of front-runners, i mean, romney has been around before. he lost. so why is he the front-runner, would you say? >> reporter: well, it's interesting. we just did a poll. let me show you one of these numbers which kind of explains it all. we asked who can beat barack obama? this is among republicans. when you look, mitt romney way ahead. 65%. rudy giuliani not even running, 56%. palin, 44%. gingrich, 43%. ron pall, 27 president. i think what we could say without a doubt is that republicans are hungry.

they want to beat barack obama and so they want to nominate somebody who they consider to be electable. and that's what you're going to hear from mitt romney throughout this campaign. that he is the only one in the field who can actually take on barack obama because he has the experience in business to deal with the bad economy. >> gloria borger, we'll be watching it with you tonight, 8:00 p.m. eastern. thank you. >> should be fun. >> it should be. calls for congressman anthony weiner's resignation following his sexting scandal are only growing. while weiner is now checking himself into treatment, the president and house majority leader are now weighing in. pressure is building as more new pictures are surfacing. tmz.com put up these photos on their website of weiner apparently taking a picture of himself inside a gym for the house of representatives. cnn cannot independently confirm the location and weiner's office is not commenting. white house spokesman jay kearney says president obama

thinks the growing scandal is a, quote, distraction and says weiner's cover-up was, quote, inappropriate. house majority leader eric cantor is also reiterating his call for weiner to resign and says it's now up to the democratic leaders to force him to step down. coming up, a heart-shaped sticker, her hair and flies. how these things tie back to little caylee anthony and her mother, casey. we take you inside the courtroom, next. (screams) when an investment lacks discipline, it's never this obvious. introducing investment discipline etfs from russell. visit russelletfs.com r a prospectus, containing the investment objectives, risks, charges, expenses and other information. read and consider it carefully before investing.

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prosecutors in the casey anthony murder trial are just a day or two away from wrapping up their case and the latest details have jurors riveted. prosecutors are focusing today on hair taken from anthony's car trunk, duct tape found on caylee's remains and heart-shaped stickers. it is all part of the prosecution's theory the 25-year-old killed her daughter, caylee, and stored the 2-year-old's body in the trunk of her car before dumping her in the woods. let's go straight to "in session" legal contributor sunny hostin who's following the case very closely along with us. sunny, the judge would not allow an fbi expert to show jurors this power point presentation about the hair samples that they tested. these results, i would imagine, are important for the state to prove that caylee's body was actually placed in her mother's trunk. so how much do you think this could affect jurors when they deliberate? >> i don't think it affected the jurors at all, randi. while the judge said that the

powerpoint presentation couldn't come in, he still allowed the fbi expert to talk about his findings. so his findings are in evidence. what did he find? that the hair that he tested that came from the trunk was a hair from a dead body. he then said that that hair matched the hair found on caylee anthony's remains on the skull. that is crucial, crucial evidence for this prosecution. because it negates the defense theory that perhaps while there was a hair found, the hair didn't come from a dead caylee anthony, the hair likely came from a live caylee anthony. this expert said no way. this expert said in all of the testing that he has done during his career, a hair with that sort of postmortem root banding would only come from a dead body. >> this next piece of evidence really got me. the prosecution now focusing on this adhesive that was found apparently on a piece of the duct tape from caylee's remains. i want to listen to what the fbi

expert found and then talk a little bit more about this. >> during my examination of q 63 an yououtline of a heart appear on one of the corners of the edge of that piece of duct tape. >> now we have a heart sticker on the corner of the duct tape. they didn't mention this during the testimony, but the court documents have stated that a sheet of heart-shaped stickers were found by police at anthony's home. i would imagine that's a pretty important connection. >> well, it is. but let me make it clear. a sticker wasn't found on the duct tape. it was sort of the fan tphantom sticker, adhesive in a heart shape. connecting that to stickers found at the anthony home i think was very crucial. another piece of circumstantial evidence for this prosecution. certainly it ties the crime scene where the remains were found to the anthony home. but i think on another level, randi, it certainly was important. because it sort of gives you

that feeling that whoever placed that sticker on the duct tape was conflicted about what was going on. we've heard so much testimony about how casey anthony loved her daughter, about how they had this amazing relationship. you put that in line with this sticker, it could show the profile of a conflicted murderer. so i think on that level it was also very important for the prosecution to get that evidence in. >> sunny, we just have about 30 seconds left. but this bug expert who testified about the flies and the larva found in anthony's car trunk, why would that be so critical in terms of decomposition. >> i loved the bug expert because he was a very good witness and he said that he found evidence of blow flies and other insects that you would only -- in the trunk that you would only find where there was a decomposing body. so, again, with all of this evidence, the smell of death, randi, you've got the bugs, you have the root banding, you have the cadavers, you have the chloroform, all of that i think

could show beyond a reasonable doubt that caylee anthony was in casey anthony's trunk. so that is why all together this circumstantial case is really becoming quite clear for the prosecution. >> always appreciate your expertise, sunny hostin. thank you so much. and our sister network hln is your destination for complete coverage of the casey anthony trial. you can watch special coverage of the trial throughout the day on hln. as a part of a year-long initiative by our sister network, cnn international, the cnn freedom project brings to light the horrors of modern day slavery around the world. in today's impact your world singer/songwriter jason mraz joins the fight after a trip to ghana with free the slaves. >> hey, i'm jason mraz. we can make an impact by ending modern slavery. i got the invitation from free the slaves to go to ghana with a group in the lake volta region. a fishing village largely operated by kids.

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cnn meteorologist jacqui jeras is joining us for an update on this failed levee in iowa. are people in danger? i guess that's the first question. >> yeah. they've evacuated most people out of this area. this is something we've been watching for a while already in hamburg, iowa. we told you first about it last week that there was a breach in it. now that levee has failed altogether. we'll zoom in and show you the area we're talking about. this is about a 30-foot-wide hole basically or breach in that levee. water is flowing freely now out of the missouri river. there you can see the town of hamburg. here's where the river and the levee breach is right now. the concern is, is that for the most part this is going to be moving over a rural area throughout much of the day today.

then it's expected to reach near hamburg by tomorrow. now, notice the north side of town. we've got this levee up here. they've also reinforced the levees around hamburg. they've built them up and put a bunch of sandbags up so they're hoping that that's going to be enough to hold it. but there's no guarantee on that. so there is concern in the town of hamburg, especially the south side of town, about 1,100 people live there. now, in addition to this, interstate 29 just to the west of here, and it's expected to be reaching the interstate sometime late tonight or early tomorrow. so there is the potential that parts of interstate 29 could be shutting down. now, we've been talking about the conditions along the missouri river for a while. most of the rainfall and all of the problems have really been happening up near the head waters across parts of montana and into the dakotas. they're releasing record volumes of water across a series of dams here. that's expected to peak by tomorrow. so we're really going to know in the next 24 hours or so whether or not there are going to be some additional breaches along

this system as that water flows out of the dakotas, across nebraska and iowa and down into the state of missouri. last but not least, we want to tell you about a situation going on here in africa. a volcano has erupted there. this happened late sunday night into early monday morning. hillary clinton, who has been in parts of ethiopia has decided she needs to cancel her trip and come back a little bit early. right now no major aviation issues expected. however, that's going to change in the upcoming day as that ash plume starts to make its way over towards parts of the middle east. we'll continue to track that situation for you as well. randi? >> thank you, jacqui. appreciate it. well, a vintage world war ii bomber crashes and erupts in flames. how this crash became an amazing story of survival. you will have to see this, next. car connection calls the xf,

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backed by the superguarantee®? find a business only& suonline.s®. on your phone. or in the book. go to superpages®. and let the good guys save the day. it is half past the hour. here's a look at some of the headlines and news that you might have missed. the countdown is on. seven republicans will be on the stage tonight in new hampshire at cnn's republican presidential debate. former massachusetts governor mitt romney may be the center of attention. he is the current gop front-runner. and newt gingrich will see if he can get his troubled campaign restarted after top staffers abandoned him. with the call for new leadership, there's even room for some lesser knowns to shine. catch all the action tonight right here on cnn, 8:00 p.m. eastern. forensic testimony continues today in the casey anthony

murder trial. jurors heard testimony about a hair found in casey anthony's car trunk and the hairs on the skeletal remains of her 2-year-old daughter, caylee. the judge would not permit an fbi examiner to show jurors a powerpoint presentation about hair decomposition. anthony's defense team vigorously protested stating they never receive add copy of the presentation. anthony faces seven counts in her daughter's death including first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse and misleading investigation tors. i want you to take a look at this video with he. a vintage world war ii bomber crashed and burned today outside chicago. you see it there. officials say all seven people onboard the b-17 survived. the faa says the plane took off from aurora municipal airport and crashed about 20 minutes later. the plane was on its way to indiana where it was scheduled to fly over indianapolis as part of the liberty foundation's 2011 salute to veterans tour. the plane was made in 1944.

defiant syrians in the streets venting their rage against the government. the latest on a deadly crackdown and reports of a mass raid, coming up next.

in northern syria, hundreds of people are massing along the border with turkey waiting for the military's next move. their town new under army occupation after being seized over the weekend. but despite this latest crackdown, anti-government protesters throughout the country show no sign of backing down. we want to warn you, some of the images that you are about to see are graphic. >> reporter: syrian state media say this is a mass grave

uncovered in the northern town of jisr al shughur. the government claim the dead were members of security forces killed by armed gangs. their bodies mutilated. some opposition activists say they were killed during clashes between army units. the syrian authorities say they're now back in control of the town. this video purportedly shot at the weekend shows military helicopters patrolling the area. on the border with turkey, dozens of people who fled jisr al shughur chant against the government. they and hundreds more are said to be stranded close to the border waiting to get into turkey and safety. for more than two months, the syrian regime has tried to stamp out protests. but still they take to the streets. in the port of lataki a young man tried to escape what sounds like live gunfire. and in kabon, security forces

fall back before turning, aiming and opening fire on demonstrators. this video, like most, up loaded by opposition activists, and cnn is unable to verify where and when it was shot. but it's clear that protests continue throughout syria. often attracting hundreds if not thousands of people. and the chant heard time and time again, "the people demand the fall of the regime." at this protest in the city of duma, a man holds up a banner that reads "only in syria does the citizen feel safe in the absence of the security forces." despite using the full might of those security forces, the regime is unable to quell the protests of the syrian people. turning now to the strange story of a syrian blogger who is believed to be a lesbian woman but, in fact, is an american man

living in scotland. joining us now to talk about this case is michael holmes. michael, this blog was a gay girl in damascus. >> that's right. >> it turns out nothing of the sort. >> it was neither gay nor a girl nor in damascus as it turned out. there's this blog going on for some months under this name. now, she was blogging about what it was like to be gay in damascus, also talking about what was going on there, the protests, how she would go out to the protests, write her name and phone number on her arm in case she was killed and her body needed to be identified. this went on for months and months and months. there was a photograph of her. what's interesting, she was interviewed by the media. her voice was heard by many people around the world. and it wasn't until the person who was actually writing the blog, which is a guy called tom mcmaster, who's an american graduate student studying in edinburgh in scotland, until he

was going on vacation to istanbul and sort of as an away notice he has her kidnapped in the blog. >> that has so many of us worried, i remember. a lot of us had been following her story. all of the sudden she gets kidnapped. i remember, we even reported, many of us did, she's missing and what's happened to her. >> that's because he was going on vacation, he wanted to put it on hold for a little while. >> from what i read he doesn't believe he harmed anyone. he thought he was helping the cause. >> a lot of people were impressed with what he wrote. he was writing -- he showed that he did have a knowledge of the gay and lesbian seen in the middle east, if you like. in fact, some of his postings were actually reposted on gay and lesbian blogs in the middle east. he says he did it as a challenge to write in that voice. and he said there was a lot of vanity involved as well. he said if he'd written these things as an american male, no one would have listened. he thought i'll put it in this character. it became a writing challenge. a lot of people were hurt by it. "a," you've got real bloggers in

syria saying, you know, nobody's going to believe us now. also, people who said they started making queries about this female blogger at their own risk inside steyria. of course, there was no missing female blogger. also, he swapped e-mails with a lady in canada, a french-canadian who thought she was having an affair of some sort, a relationship of some sort. they swapped 1,000 e-mails. >> it's so bizarre. it really was dangerous for some. >> absolutely. the photograph on the blog was of a person living in london that he just saw on facebook. >> got to love the internet. >> oh, yeah. >> michael, thank you. we normally see world leaders like this, surrounded by people hustling from meeting to meeting, running the country. rarely do we see this. world leaders close up and personal. we talk to the man behind these incredible photographs of world leaders, coming up right after this quick break. it's salonpas. this is the relief i've been looking for. salonpas has 2 powerful pain fighting ingredients that work for up to 12 hours.

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every day on cnn, you hear about world leaders and how they're running their countries. now, rarely do we slow down enough to really see them, to see their faces up close and personal. photographer platon was given the rare honor of photographing many of these world leaders at a united nations meeting in new york. he set up a small studio right off the floor of the general assembly. he worked his magic to bring world leaders like tony blair, hugo chavez, benjamin netanyahu, mahmoud ahmadinejad,

daffy all in front of his lens. when i say in front of his lens, in some cases he was just inches from their faces. the photographer platon has collected these faces and published them in a new book called "power." he joins us live to tell us the back story on these photo. thank you so much for coming on. the book is amazing, it really is. so interesting to look through. i want to start with what you were hoping to accomplish with taking these photographs. >> it's great to be here. i first got the idea for this project at the beginning of what we now call the great recession. and it occurred to me that there's very few problems we can solve in isolation. in fact, countries are going to have to start working together in a new and unprecedented way. almost forming something like a global administration. and if there was such a thing, who would be at the table? we're always used to seeing our world leaders shrouded by sort of hype marketing and even

propaganda. i wanted to show them as human beings up close and very personal. >> i have a copy of your book here. i'm looking at it. one of the pictures that really strikes me is the picture of moammar gadhafi. he certainly has been in the news so much lately. how was he when he sat for your photograph? >> oh, he picked the worst moment to sit for me. it was during barack obama's first address to the general assembly as president of the usa. i was just a few feet away from the podium while obama was speaking. i was surrounded backstage by all his security guys, rahm emanuel, axelrod, his medics were there, sniffer dogs were there. and it was a small, confined space. suddenly i saw this giant crowd swirl coming towards me and in the middle of about 200 people was gadhafi. he was surrounded by a handful of female armed bodyguards dressed head to foot in military clothing. it was a scene from a james bond movie. >> oh, i'm sure. >> he marched in slow motion

defiance and sat for me almost as if to say, i will sit for you for my first portrait on american soil, but i'll do it under the very nose of the white house administration. >> i want to get the back story on vladimir putin, the prime minister of russia. you guys actually talked about the beatles? >> we did. i photographed putin in his private dasher in a bleak, gothic forest on the outskirts of moscow. and i arrived -- there was a three-foot -- three-story high security wall with snipers everywhere. and i was escorted into the building at gunpoint. so it was a very intimidating affair. but once i was in this historic room where they actually dissolved the soviet union, he walks in and i said to him, i'm a massive beatles fan. are you? he took off his ear piece, the translating ear piece, and he sent all his advisers out of the room and it was me, putin and a handful of security guards. it was very cozy. and we talked about the beatles.

and i asked him his favorite beatles song and he admitted that it's "yesterday." although it's a kind of a joke, this pop culture connection allowed me to feel my way with him and get very, very close. i was about an inch and a half away from his nose. that's how i managed to capture that sparkle of power in his eyes. >> you can certainly see it. you can see it really in a lot of the photographs that are in this book called "power." platon, thank you so much for coming on and sharing some of the back story of the book with us. to link up to platon and see the photographs for yourself, head to our blog, cnn.com/ali. in today's taking the lead report, they cause a lot of us to pull out our hair or maybe even scream bloody murderer. i'm talking about those maddening bank fees, as likable as a swarm of fly. here are some of the most annoying. let's see if you agree. fees for sending a statement to your old address because you forgot to tell the bank your new address. for example, u.s. bank charges

$5 for the second and subsequent months that a statement is undeliverable. fees for using banks' coin counting machines. you can avoid the fee by rolling them in coin rolls all by yourself. talking certainly doesn't come cheap. especially if you want to chat with a bank teller. avoid these monthly fees by getting online statements, enrolling in direct deposit and using atms. don't lose your debit card. it'll cost you to get a new one. 5 bucks at bank of america, 20 bucks if you need it right away. this is a no-brainer. sign up for electronic statements to avoid the fee for paper ones. requesting old statements, you could pay from $3 to $5 for copy of checks. a lot more if the bank needs to dig into your account history. receiving money. chase, for example, charges $15 for incoming wire transfers. charges for redeeming reward points. you earn them and in some cases, yes, you're going to pay to redeem them. finally, perhaps the most obnoxious one of all, fees for

closing your account. u.s. bank, for example, charges 25 bucks for closing an account within 180 days of opening it. chase demands $25 for shutting it down within 90 days of becoming a customer. another state is looking to restrict the bargaining power of teachers by banning teacher strikes. should teachers be banned from walking off the job? [ man ] ♪ trouble ♪ trouble, trouble trouble, trouble ♪ ♪ trouble been doggin' my soul ♪ since the day i was born ♪ worry ♪ oh, worry, worry worry, worry ♪ [ announcer ] when it comes to things you care about, leave nothing to chance. travelers. take the scary out of life.

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trying to keep teachers in the classroom. in pennsylvania, legislators are proposing new rules to stop strikes. the idea is to make it illegal for teachers to walk out during disputes over pay or benefits. pennsylvania is not alone. take a look at this map with me. right now there are only 13 states that actually allow teachers to strike. that means in the majority of the country, teachers have absolutely no right to walk out. some call pennsylvania the teacher strike state. here's why. from 2000 to 2007, it topped all other states in strikes. 82 total. that's around a dozen every year. take a look at california. just three strikes in that same time. so here's the question. should it be illegal for teachers to go on strike?

let's bring in our team today. "new york times" labor and workplace writer steve greenhouse. and jonah adelman, co-founder of stand for children. jonah, i want to start with you. should teachers, in your opinion, be able to strike? >> i think my opinion is that teacher strikes should absolutely be a last resort. here in illinois where i am right now, the governor, pat quinn, just this morning signed a law, senate bill 7, that significantly improves the way contracts are negotiated here in chicago where you had a history of the threat of strikes preventing kids from getting a longer school day and year. senate bill 7 which stand for children drafted with advance illinois and ended up being strongly supported on a bipartisan basis changes things in chicago so that the length of day and year are no longer bargainable and mayor emanuel is going to be able to substantially as a result lengthen that day and year without the threat of a strike. i think strikes need to be a

last resort. i think there need to be very significant safeguards in place. the key question is, how do we set up processes so that school districts, management and labor can come to agreements that are in the best interest of students. >> steve, what would you say is behind the push to ban teacher strikes? is it simply the fact that there are so many of them? >> i think that's part of it, randi. i think the simple fact is, one, people don't like it when their teachers go on strike. all of the sudden they're trying to figure out how am i going to take care of my kids today? how am i going to go to work? it's a royal pain when this happens. second, as you know, randi, there are a wave of republican victories last november. and ever since republican lawmakers in wisconsin, ohio and now pennsylvania are taking actions to weaken unions, to weaken public sector unions at the bargaining table to move against them on pensions. a few months ago ohio banned teachers from striking. now pennsylvania with its new republican governor tom corbett is trying to do likewise.

again, i think the governor, the legislature thinks the general public doesn't like these strikes. they're not good for parents. they're not good for students. teachers say, wait a second, we need to have this right to give us leverage to bargain what they say is a fair contract. >> jonah, how would you say a teacher strike affects the children? >> obviously it's incredibly detrimental in that kids' school year gets interrupted and extremely disruptive to families. when there are strikes in communities, you remember for years if not decades. strikes should be avoided at all costs. steve brings up a good point when he talks about wisconsin and ohio and other states. is this about scoring political points or is it about solving problems? there are definitely significant issues in terms of the way in which contract negotiations happen in pennsylvania. you know, there should be a better negotiation process. the question that legislators need to really grapple with is does this legislation really help kids? is it going to help students? or is it just about vanquishing

a political adversary. >> steve, really, in 20 seconds or less can you tell me does this put teachers at a disadvantage when it comes to negotiations for pay, et cetera? >> randi, it certainly weakens their hand in bargaining. that's why teachers say if you're going to take away the right to strike you have to give us some fair way of reaching a settlement like arbitration so that a neutral person can decide what the contract should be when they're at heads with the school board. >> all right, steve, jonajonah, thank you so much for coming on and talking about this very important issue. appreciate it. the republican presidential candidates are gearing up to battle each other in tonight's cnn gop debate. it looks like anything is fair game. hear our cnn political update, straight ahead. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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we are now just about five hours away from the cnn gop debate tonight in new hampshire. seven republican candidates ready to face off with a lot at stake. cnn chief political analyst gloria borger is there in manchester right now. gloria, we're seeing a republican party that is split in many directions, it seems. what does our new poll tell us about the differences and what it means for the race? >> reporter: well, we have one really interesting poll that i want to share with you. and we asked republicans only about which candidate agrees with you on the issues that you care about. let's assume the results of this are not about just name id, although that probably has something to do with it. when you look, pa