that we're dealing with. >> reporter: but that doesn't necessarily mean they can't do damage. >> doesn't mean they're harmless. absolutely. like a baby with a gun. >> reporter: he immediately called the fbi. eventually the hackers backed off after publicizing some of his e-mails. so far, no one has been caught and the hacker tracker is back to exposing bot-nets. susan candiotti, cnn, new york. >> if your choice didn't win, you just want to check out the runners-up, we have links to them on facebook.com/suzannecnn. we continue now with randi kaye. thank you very much. used to be unthinkable. today, an unprecedented u.s. government default is still not inevitable but it could be, one week away. hours after president obama and how speaker boehner each addressed the nation on the debt ceiling standoff, and the other party's stubbornness, republicans are planning another fall-back. not a new plan to borrow more and spend less but a blueprint

for post august 2nd if no plan is agreed to. if the treasury couldn't meet its obligations, a bill being circulated would prioritize payments, social security checks and paychecks for troops. everything else would be covered if possible with cash on hand or put off until we can take on more debt. two main default avoidance plans remain on the table right now. speaker boehner's plan would raise the debt ceiling twice, this year and next, with spending cuts now and an election year overhaul of the tax code and entitlements. in the senate, majority leader reid is pushing $2.7 trillion in spending cuts with a $2.4 trillion hike in the debt ceiling. reid's plan would not include tax increases, nor touch entitlements, nor require any follow-up votes in 2012. all right. i'm going to stop talking right now because we want to hear from you today. you have heard the speeches, the pitches, the accusations, denials and doomsday predictions. what do you make of it all? we sent cameras to the streets of atlanta to find out.

>> democrats not wanting to, you know, cut spending and republicans not really wanting to increase taxes at all. >> something we pay taxes toward doesn't seem to be working. >> college student. don't have to worry about it right now. >> anything that would stop me from making the money i'm supposed to make or cause me to make lesser money, i wouldn't want to go. >> i think washington is doing the best it possibly can do under the circumstances that was made available to them. >> it's frustrating. i am continually flummoxed by the fact that we're just two parties so divided and can't come together. >> they can't seem to get it together and compromise but today may be the day, if we're lucky. >> it's just they will approve it the last minute just like football. you knew it was going to get fixed. it got fixed. >> how's that for consumer confidence? but if it doesn't get fixed, if americans' creditors and debtors

begin to get stiffed a week from today or fear they will get stiffed, what does it mean for you and me? and what if anything can we do about it? if anybody knows, it is these people. ali velshi, cnn's chief business correspondent and co-host of "american morning." he's watching your 401(k). poppy harlow is watching your mortgage, car loans, student debt and we are happy to welcome dave ramsey, best-selling author and broadcaster who wants all of us to live debt-free. ali, i want to start with you. what could default mean to our retirement savings and what if anything can we do about it? >> well, look, think about it as a chance of a hurricane hitting you. can't stop the hurricane, but you can take a few steps to protect yourself in case it does hit. look, i don't think people should take drastic steps at the moment but there may come a time in the next few days where markets start to react fairly violently to the idea that a debt agreement has not been reached. i think when people want to start dealing with their 401(k) and their investments, a lot of people don't deal with it regularly so you should at least

know where it is. if you use an advisor, have the conversation today, not on friday or monday. know how to log into your 401(k), make sure you're not overexposed to stocks more than you should be. i don't think you should be downsizing your holdings at the moment. remember that if there is a debt crisis, if we end up not doing this, the stocks that will do the best, the companies that will do the best in this environment are those that don't have to carry a lot of debt and there are a lot of those out there. but there is definitely a lot of danger. i just worry that people make decisions a little too early beforehand and there may not be the reaction in the stock market that some people fear. >> all right. excellent advice. poppy, i want to go to you next. what would a default mean for our mortgage rates, car loans, student loans, how much should we care about this? >> we should all, every single one of us, care about this. what's important to point out is it's not just about a default. even if we reach an agreement in washington on the debt ceiling, it's also about whether or not the big rating agencies decide to downgrade the stellar aaa

credit rating of this country. even if that happens, this is why it matters to you. let's start with your home. most people's biggest investment, what is likely going to happen in the case of default certainly and even in a downgrade is your mortgage rate is going to go up. experts say this isn't just a temporary issue. mortgage rates will go up for a significantly long period of time. that's going to affect you, more houses sit on the market, prices fall further. this hurts the already weak housing market. let's transition to college. your college loan, your savings for college. similar story. the interest rate on private college loans is going to go up, it's going to be harder for folks to necessarily get credit if credit starts to freeze. the only sort of silver lining to this is that a lot of people do have their student loans lined up for at least the next term. it also affects your car. if you have a car payment, and it's very similar to your mortgage payment, when you talk about your car, interest rates are going to go up. they think car prices would go up as a result. it will be tougher for folks with middle to lower credit

scores to be able to get financing for a car. means fewer new cars sold. again, the housing market, the car market, neither are strong right now but the experts i talked to say the real concern here is outside necessarily your home and your car. the real concern here as ali was pointing out is your job and your savings. companies, if there is not an agreement, are not going to want to be hiring in this very uncertain environment. that's your job. if this market gets out of control, that's your retirement savings. >> poppy, thank you. dave ramsey, to you next. are you going around telling people already now i told you debt was bad? >> well, i think they are exactly on track, as always, when i'm with them. you know, yeah, obviously debt increases risk, whether it's a nation or an individual, and so there's a bit of an "i told you so" i guess but i'm not telling you anything your grandmother didn't tell you. if you don't have a car loan and you are going to save up and pay cash for your car, suddenly

you're not as concerned about that. if you're not buying a home in this current market, you're kind of missing out because real estate's on sale and interest rates are the best since 1959. oh, my gosh, the real estate market did fine with 7% and 9% interest rates. i wouldn't want it to snap back there instantly while we're trying to recover but over a period of time, we're at unusually low rates. so we're going to be fine in the long term. i think that ali and i have talked about this many times on the air that when these kinds of things happen, jumping in and out of your 401(k) on a panic basis is a good way to lose your shirt. 401(k)s are supposed to be long-term investments. the only people that get hurt on roller coasters are those that jump off. >> i think you would agree that sticking to your allocation makes sense here. you should be allocated, your 401(k) should have to do with your risk tolerance, which is very easy to find out anywhere on the internet. that's what you should be sticking to right now. if there's a reason to really panic, dave will talk about it,

poppy will talk about it and i will talk about it. we will have some kind of massive collapse but until then, i don't think we should act prematurely on this. you agree with that? >> absolutely. i think that's the danger of this being the leading news story for the past three or four months. joe and suzie are just freaking out, they're scared, they don't understand everything necessarily. sometimes i don't understand all of it, either. that's not a put-down. but the bottom line is 20 years from today, in your 401(k), i'm 50, my 401(k), i'm going to continue to invest in it next week regardless of what they do in d.c., because 20 years from today, it will be a nonevent. >> all right. yes, poppy? one final word? >> i was just going to say something interesting we should all note, this has never happened before in the history of this country. we have never defaulted and never had our credit downgraded. we are telling you what we believe will happen. we don't know how quick the impact will be, how significant it will be so this is fluid. you just have to be aware of why it matters to you. >> be aware and don't freak out.

that's the message i got from all of you today. thank you so much for the advice. i'm sure viewers appreciated it as well. thanks again. our sound effect take takes us to norway. more shock, more revelations in the wake of unspeakable hate. we are hearing from the lawyer for anders behring breivik who says the suspect is a little surprised he was able to set off a deadly bomb in oslo, then open fire on dozens of young campers on a nearby island. the lawyer says breivik took some kind of drugs beforehand and now is quote, very tired. his fellow norwegians are devastated. among them, muslims and other targets of breivik's war on multi culturalism. >> it's horrifying. i can't even describe it in words. it's really horrifying that he actually killed so many young people because he hates us. it's really horrifying. >> -- has indicated he's insane.

he's in a war and he says the rest of the world and especially the western world don't understand his point of view, that in 60 years' time, we all will understand. >> anders breivik's father has spoken out as well. he told a reporter in france, i'm quoting here, rather than killing all those people, he should have taken his own life. up next, glenn beck's controversial comments about the norway youth camp where dozens were murdered. is he just inciting more hate?

be kind to your eyes with transitions lenses. transitions adapt to changing light so you see your whole day comfortably and conveniently while protecting your eyes from the sun. ask your eyecare professional which transitions lenses are right for you. ask your eyecare professional for your transitions certificate of authenticity for your chance to win instant monthly prizes or our $20,000 grand prize! vietnam, 1967. i got mine in iraq, 2003. u.s.a.a. auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation, because it offers a superior level of protection and because u.s.a.a.'s commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. u.s.a.a. we know what it means to serve.

unlike fish oil, megared softgels are small and easy to swallow with no fishy smell or aftertaste. try megared today. he is no stranger to controversy but have you heard the latest thing glenn beck said on his radio show? he was talking about the shooting rampage at a norway

youth camp that left 68 people dead. take a listen. >> as the thing started to unfold and then there was a shooting at a political camp which sounds a little like, you know, the hitler youth or whatever, i mean, who does a camp for kids that's all about politics? disturbing. >> well, that was yesterday. today, he didn't refer to that comment directly but did continue making nazi comparisons, saying he saw parallels between hitler's statements to the germans and president obama's statements to the american public. so the question we want to ask is this. is glenn beck actually inciting the kind of hate he's talking about? joining me now is cnn contributor, sirius xm radio host pete dominick, cnn political analyst and senior analyst for the tom joyner radio morning show, roland martin and michael harrison. thank you, guys. before i ask what you think of the comments, i want to let our viewers know we have reached out

to glenn beck to be on our show today or at least explain why he said what he said yesterday, but we have yet to hear back from him. okay. now, pete, let's start with you. what do you think of glenn beck's comments? >> well, glenn beck is an entertainer. he just made a major transition in his career and whenever he does that, he makes a hitler or nazi reference. some people might argue he's made more hitler references than hitler. of course, that's inaccurate and not true but it was entertaining. that's what he does. he's an entertainer, not unlike howard stern, except for howard's the greatest radio entertainer of all time and everyone knows he's there to entertain. glenn beck, people aren't so sure and they confuse it which is why a lot of people think he's dangerous. the bottom line, there is a comparison between political camps when you're trying to teach young people how to think. however, the hitler youth were trained to be murderers and these kids were going to lead perhaps the most peaceful country in the world for generations to continue being that way. >> roland, you know talk radio.

you're on talk radio. was this entertainment? >> first of all, there's no doubt you can classify him as a rodeo clown. he's called himself that. i won't call it entertaining because once you begin to interact and delve into the whole issue of politics, you are separate than other people. i won't try to say he's the same as howard stern. look, if we had to create a stuck on stupid segment, glenn beck would probably be our top candidate, four out of five days a week. so he loves to make these ridiculous comments and so i wonder what he would say about jesus' camp, a documentary. how can a man stand here dressing like one of the founding fathers, always talking about our values, sit here and rip some people who are trying to teach young folks about democracy? we need those kind of camps in this country, folks can't even name the speaker of the house

and barely the vice president. >> michael, what's your take on this? >> i think glenn beck gives us plenty to talk about and he's really good at that, isn't he? god bless glenn beck. where would we be if we didn't have him to give us material. that being said, i think when you get into the realm of nazi comparisons, you will have problems because that's the extreme of hatred. that's the extreme of evil. but there's a degree of truth to everything political. that's where people like glenn beck are able to create such excitement. they take a little grain of truth and they put it into a whole bunch of drama. in terms of this whole entertainment business, i don't know where the line begins and ends separating entertainment from journalism, from news, from documentary. we live in a crazy time. one person's entertainment is another person's education and vice versa. >> let me just step in here, because there are certainly other radio hosts that have made questionable comments. don imus called the rutgers university women's basketball team quote, nappy headed hos.

dr. laura schlesinger used the "n" word. you also have the fact -- sorry, pete? >> i do a radio show for three hours a day on sirius xm like glenn beck and howard stern. the difference is, i'm also a comedian. i know when i'm entertaining. but entertainers say really outrageous things to get people to talk about them. that's what we're doing right now. glenn beck needs us to do this for his new transition. that's what we're doing. but the difference of course is public fascination versus public interest. what i do, i would argue, is public interest. that is entertaining for some people like me. >> sure. but i do want to point out, though, roland, this goes to you, glenn beck has said this but he also founded and supports an organization that has camps in several states, so should he be attacking a camp like this? >> first of all, he should ask himself will he call his own camp that. there is a clear line of demarcation, randi, when it comes to people like howard

stern, when it comes to shock jocks, when it comes to people who want to be taken seriously in the political space. when you want to begin to share a stage with politicians, with people like that, then you are operating on a different level so you don't see howard stern trying to have a rally with faith leaders, trying to go to israel and have a huge faith rally and political rally like glenn beck. so he wants to play the game. oh, i'm serious, oh, i'm not, i'm sorry, you crossed that line and to say hitler camp, that's just idiotic. just idiotic. >> all right. roland, we leave you with the final word. roland martin, pete dominick, michael harrison, thank you for weighing in. we all know the recession affected different people in different ways. but you may be surprised to know just how big those differences are. es" are only in movies, consider this: over 70% of firefighters are local volunteers... these are our neighbors putting their lives on the line.

and when they rely on a battery, there are firefighters everywhere who trust duracell. and now you can join with duracell to help. just buy specially-marked packs & duracell will make a battery donation to local volunteers. these days don't we all need someone to trust...? duracell. trusted everywhere.

there's always been a wealth gap between white families and minority families in america, but a new study shows that the gap got much bigger during the recession. christine romans takes a look. >> reporter: brand new analysis shows the recession widened the racial wealth gap, so much so that it created the largest differences in wealth between racial groups that we have seen in the past 25 years. take a look at this. this is 2005. the median household net worth for white, hispanic and black families before the economic downturn, you can see a disparity already. what does that mean?

household net worth means how much you own like your house, your car, minus how much you owe, your debts for things like mortgages and auto loans. this was 2005, then bam, 2009, there's that disparity. the housing bubble burst in 2006, the recession hit in 2007, continued into 2009, and this is the toll it took. let's check out 2005, 2009 side by side. minorities were much harder hit than white americans by the economic downturn and the financial crisis and that wealth gap is almost twice what it used to be. that's really interesting here, also, that hispanic households lost a whopping 66% of their household net worth over those few years. why? the study says it's because a huge number of hispanic americans live in california, florida, nevada and arizona. those states were the hardest hit by the housing bubble when it burst. today, those states have the lowest home values in the u.s. this is how much wealth was

lost, white families, hispanic families and black families, just over the years 2005 to 2009. christine romans, cnn, new york. next hour, we take a closer look at how the recession has affected the u.s. hispanic population. we'll have a live report at 2:10 eastern time in "newsroom." 23 minutes past the hour, time to take a look at today's top stories. democratic congressman david wu of oregon says he will resign from the house of representatives. on sunday, house democratic leader nancy pelosi asked for an ethics investigation of wu, accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward a fund-raiser's daughter. wu served in the house for seven terms. president obama warning washington not to consider compromise a dirty word. the president discussed the debt ceiling crisis on national television last night. house speaker john boehner responded by saying he has done all he can to reach a consensus. congress only has a week to come up with a solution to the crisis, otherwise the u.s. could

default on loans and lose its good credit rating. a lawyer for anders breivik says his client is surprised he was able to carry out friday's attacks in norway. the lawyer also quotes breivik as saying he took drugs before the attacks to stay strong and awake. at a hearing yesterday, breivik was charged with two acts of terrorism. his father says his son should have killed himself instead of going on a killing spree. the women accusing dominique strauss-kahn of assault and attempted rape is expected to meet with prosecutors tomorrow to discuss her case. prosecutors say she has told several lies that have weakened her case. diallo did interviews with abc and newsweek yesterday, insisting she is telling the truth. diallo says the former imf chief assaulted her at the manhattan hotel where she works. strauss-kahn maintains that the sex was consensual. arming the future cyberwarriors. attending special camps to learn the secrets of computer hacking.

the chevy cruze eco offers an epa estimated 42 miles per gallon on the highway. how does it do that? well, to get there, a lot of complicated engineering goes into every one. like variable valve timing and turbocharging, active front grille shutters that close at high speeds, and friction reducing -- oh, man, that is complicated. how about this -- cruze eco offers 42 miles per gallon. cool? ♪ is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose.

new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal. a living, breathing intelligence that's helping drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ machines have a voice. ♪ medical history follows you. it's the at&t network -- a network of possibilities... committed to delivering the most advanced mobile broadband experience to help move business... forward. ♪

[ pneumatic wrench buzzing ] [ slap! slap! slap! ] [ male announcer ] your favorite foods fighting you? fight back fast with tums. calcium rich tums goes to work in seconds. nothing works faster. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums

welcome back. we are going in depth on the cybercrime economy. today we'll take you to a special cybercrime camp where students are learning the tricks of the hacking trade so they can stop cyberattacks. cnn's ted rowlands is at one of those camps in missouri. ted, what are they doing there? are they learning how to be hackers in order to prevent hacking? >> reporter: pretty much. you take on the identity of the hacker and you're better equipped to prevent hacking going on. basically, the kids are at lunch right now, but all of these kids that are taking part in this camp and several other camps around the country over the summer have been invited. these are kids that have demonstrated through experience or some other way that they are knowledgeable enough to hang with the curriculum here. it's a very intense five-day learning experiment and then on the fifth day, they compete against each other to see who can hack the deepest into a simulated network system. the instructor at this camp is

justin searle. we're talking about very bright young men, some of them a little older, but people that really are being brought into the good side, if you will, to combat hackers. how important is it to harvest this talent? >> i think it's incredibly important. we have a lot of people that we need inside of this industry that simply just don't have that expertise and we don't have enough staff to be able to fill all our organizations. we need to introduce people and get college students thinking about their futures and try to get the kids with the talent and the capabilities into these fields. >> reporter: quite frankly, the hackers have a lot of talent. there are kids around the world that are bringing multi-million dollar companies to their knees, even infiltrating the united states government, the cia had an issue recently. give us a sense of the war. where are we? are the hackers winning or are we well equipped to defend? >> if we look at the number of machines and organizations that

have been compromised lately, all we see is the number of attacks and the number of companies that have people breaking into them is simply increasing. so i think it's safe to say we're on the losing side currently. but the good news is i think we're at least keeping up. >> reporter: we need to keep the wages high or at least opportunities high and things like that. what do you have to do to get to a kid before they go to the dark side, with the intellect to break into these systems to come join our side? >> number one, we need to instill passion for them, not only learning about the attacks and learning about the security issues that are here, but also kind of instill a little bit of a sense of unity and a group membership that we're all part of this good side, going through trying to defend these systems against people trying to attack us. >> reporter: u.s. cyberchallenge going on here in columbia, missouri this weekend, across the country all summer long. randi, we are trying to recruit these good brains for our side to combat those hackers.

>> after what happened at sony and the cia, we need them. who are the future cyberwarriors? are they mainly college kids? >> reporter: you know, there's a gamut. we met a couple kids who are in college still, 18, 19 year old, then there's a 50-year-old guy from denver who has been at it for six years. it runs the gamut. if people have not only an interest but a skill level they have been able to demonstrate, that's what gets them invited to this camp. >> ted rowlands in missouri for us, thank you. if you're planning to mail a letter, listen up. the u.s. postal service may close thousands of post offices around the country.

32 minutes past the hour. let's take a look at some of the news and other headlines you may have missed. the august 2nd deadline to raise the debt ceiling, just one week away. but the political wars surrounding it continues to rage. president obama addressed the nation on television last night, urging viewers to pressure elected officials to work out a compromise. the president singled out house republicans, saying this is quote, no way to run the greatest country on earth, unquote. house speaker john boehner responded that congress won't give mr. obama a blank check. democratic congressman david wu of oregon has announced that he will resign from the house of representatives. he was accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward a fund-raiser's daughter. a lawyer for anders breivik says his client was quote, a little bit surprised, unquote,

that he was able to carry out friday's attacks in norway. breivik is being held in solitary confinement, facing charges he killed 76 people in downtown oslo and at a nearby youth camp. breivik's father says his son should have killed himself instead of going on that killing spree. a source says a new york hotel maid will meet with prosecutors tomorrow to discuss her allegations against the former head of the international monetary fund. she claims that dominique strauss-kahn tried to rape her may 14th at new york's sofitel hotel. she went public this week, revealing her name and giving media interviews after prosecutors questioned her credibility. your post office could be slated to close. postmaster genere leased a long-awaited post office study of nearly 3700 post offices that may be closed to reduce red ink. they include outlets in all 50 states and washington, d.c. most have so little foot traffic, employees average less than two hours of work per day and average sales are less than $50 a day.

good news for mcdonald's lovers who trying to watch what they eat. a healthier happy meal on the way. under pressure from nutritionists and children's advocates, the fast food giant has announced plans to add low-fat milk and apple slices to every happy meal and to cut the portion of french fries. mcdonald's says it expects to cut the number of calories by 20%. the new healthy happy meal debuts in september. don't pay full price on those prescription drugs. really. before you head to the pharmacy, the latest on how you can save some major bucks on your medication.

so, what are we going to do with this? i don't know. the usual? [ blower whirring ] sometimes it pays to switch things up. my - what, my hair? no. car insurance. i switched to progressive and they gave me discounts for the time i spent with my old company. saved a bunch. that's a reason to switch. big savings -- it's a good look for you. [ blower whirring ] [blower stops] the safety was off. out there with a better way. now, that's progressive. and form a layer called biofilm so strong it survives brushing. thankfully, there's listerine® antiseptic. its triple-action formula penetrates biofilm, kills germs and protects your mouth for hours.

fight biofilm with listerine®. some prescription drug prices are expected to plummet over the next few months thanks to expiring patents. that means you'll have cheaper generic alternatives to some of the expensive brand names which translates into big savings for you. so let's bring in cnn senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. we talked about this yesterday but we were talking about plavix and lipitor. what other drugs might be involved? >> lots of people take those. there are a couple more on this list. lipitor and plavix, plus singulair is going off-patent which means more companies can make it. when more companies can make something, that's more competition. and lexipro, a popular

antidepressant. >> generics go 20% to 80% less than prescribed medications? >> hard to say. some are say $40 a month, others are $4 a month. it all depends. look at what these are now. that will make you go oh, my goodness. it's a big difference. a month of lipitor, a very popular cholesterol lowering drug, $186 if you don't have insurance. if you have to pay for it yourself. plavix, $215. these are drugs people need. these are drugs that keep you from getting blood clots. >> this is what it will save you. >> no, no. this it what it costs now. if you went to the store right now without insurance, and you had to pay for a month of singulair, it would cost $182. lexipro, $117. i don't have a crystal ball so i can't predict what they will be when they are generics in the next year or so but it could be say $40 a month. could be $20 a month. maybe some of these will soon become $4 generics.

the difference is going to be huge. >> so what do you do if you have been prescribed one of these pricier drugs? can you do anything about that now? >> yes. it is very easy to be an empowered patient in this circumstance. it's one question to the doctor which is, doctor i there another drug that i can take that will work just as well but cost less. >> i think that's key, what you just said, just as well. >> right. >> generics do work just as well. >> they do. there might not necessarily be an alternative but often there is. i will give you a couple illustrations. for example, say your doctor prescribes lexipro. you could possibly take fluoxetine. >> look at the difference. >> right. $101 per month difference. patients say he suggested lexipro, the doctor, so i must have to take it. no. there are other drugs in that class that may very well work just fine or even better. here's another example.

this one is for high cholesterol. lipitor, $186 a month. lovastatin, $4 a month. your doctor for some reason may want you to take lipitor but you need to get him to spell that out. say look, doctor, this is a huge difference. there better be a good reason why i need to take that rather than the $4 alternative. >> unless you're paying the bill, explain it to me. >> send the bill to the doctor. >> elizabeth cohen, great numbers. we'll keep it in mind. thank you. millions of dollars of u.s. taxpayer money in the hands of the taliban. how did it happen? anananananann] this...is the network.

a living, breathing intelligence that's helping drive the future of business. in here, inventory can be taught to learn. ♪ machines have a voice. ♪ medical history follows you. it's the at&t network -- a network of possibilities... committed to delivering the most advanced mobile broadband experience to help move business... forward. ♪

it just may be the most egregious example to date of widespread corruption in afghanistan. american taxpayer money, hundreds of millions of dollars, ending up in the hands of the taliban. a year-long u.s. military task force discovered that the money was siphoned from a $2 billion transportation contract to provide most of the supplies to american troops. a source with knowledge of the investigation has briefed cnn about how it all went down. we are joined now from the afghan capital, kabul. just tell us briefly, how did this happen? >> reporter: this is coming from an internal report, but basically what happened was trucking companies subcontracted out to local entities here, who then in turn subcontracted out to even more local providers.

what happened was it turns out that some of those local, more local firms actually had some ties to nefarious elements, including the taliban. what we see here is a bulk of the transportation costs being filtered through some of these trucking companies and part of that money is actually ending up in the hands of the very individuals who are fighting nato forces here in afghanistan. >> how long ago did the u.s. government find out about this? >> reporter: well, a task force was set up last year basically in response to some questions by congressional lawmakers about the potential of nefarious activity here. effectively, this task force was just looking at what transpired in between 2009 and 2010. they focused on trucking because it is such a major, major industry here in afghanistan. but it also raises questions as to what other industries and what other contracts might be borne of some nefarious activity in and of themselves.

>> speaking of those contracts, why use the local companies in afghanistan instead of the american companies that the u.s. government uses in iraq? >> reporter: in a word, security. the way things work here in afghanistan is many of these local companies need some of the areas to be protected so they pay off local travel groups or security firms which in turn provides some of that assistance and provides safe passage. the problem is that safe passage may be guaranteed one day but the same individuals may be working in tandem with the taliban or might be taliban insurgents themselves a second day. it is a mish-mash of tribal allegiance that combines with the lack of transparency in some of the contracts that makes for a muddled situation. >> any u.s. taxpayer watching this is probably asking what are they going to do about it, can they fix it, can they get the money back. what's the answer?

>> reporter: the officials we have spoken to say they have basically radically revamped the awards and contracts program that was in place in the former system that allowed for some of this egregious activity to take place. some of the examples of that is under the previous system, eight companies were allowed under the contract. now they are providing up to 40. the purpose of that is so that the u.s. government is not relying upon any one singular firm to the extent that they were. they also say they have racheted up some of the transparency measures but even as in washington, where keeping track of subcontractors and contractors is difficult, here in afghanistan, it provides extreme difficulties. >> david, thank you for your reporting on that story. time right now, 46 minutes past the hour. it is time to check some of other top stories. negotiations over the debt ceiling dragged on today between the president and congressional leaders. capitol hill phone lines were jammed and key lawmakers'

websites crashed after the president and house speaker john boehner addressed the nation in dueling speeches last night. in norway, more details on the suspect in the massacre of 76 people. his lawyer says anders breivik was surprised that he was able to carry out the bombing and shooting rampage on friday. breivik's father says it would have been better if his son had killed himself. police continue to investigate breivik's claims that he didn't act alone. in mexico, sentencing is expected any day now in the case of a 14-year-old u.s. citizen charged with being a hitman for a drug cartel. as we have told you, prosecutors say the teenager confessed to killing four people by cutting their throats. 42 witnesses testified at the trial. he faces three years in a correctional facility. all right, everybody. watch what you touch. a new device can test for drugs, alcohol and tobacco in your fingerprints. back pain.elped me beaty then i tried this. 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. and my pharmacist told me it's the only otc pain patch approved for sale using the same rigorous clinical testing that's required for prescription pain medications. proven. powerful. safe. salonpas. 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.

so do you think fingerprints just reveal who you are? scientists have create add way for your print to reveal what you've been up to like drinking, smoking, even breathing. that's right. it could now be possible for police to pull someone over and know if they have been drinking just by taking their fingerprints. the method is developed by researchers and intelligent fingerprinting led by paul yates who joins me via skype. hi, paul. first, help me understand how this all works? >> hi, randi, first i'm glad to have the opportunity to talk to

you today. the whole basis for fingerprinting technique is we're able to detect tiny traces of sweat when you touch something. sweat testing is not new. what it allows us to do is use sweat for a high-definition image of the fingerprint itself. we can also analyze chemicals within the sweat to tell you about the res enlifestyle of the individual. >> so how accurate is this? >> well, we've been tessing the technique. first of all we use it on smokers. i guess everybody is familiar with smokers. the reason why somebody smokes is because obviously they are addicted to nicotine in tobacco. one smokes a cigarette, that nicotine gets met ab lized. we took a sample of fingerprints from volunteers an we tried to

detect this chemical in their fingerprints. we found it in a few fingerprints. we checked that back against the rest of the people that had given us samples and we only found it in the finger marks of smokers of we tried it again on different smokers for people taking drugs of abuse. we have volunteers from people in a drug rehab program. we've looked at those and, again, checked our rule back with the people that gave us the prints. in each case our results dry in with the particular drugs the individuals are taking. >> what if say you're out at a bar and you haven't been drinking but someone spilled beer on you. would that beer come out in your fingerprint and you end up getting in trouble for that? >> no, not really. you'd actually have to ingest the sample itself. you'd have to drink the beer. our test doesn't detect alcohol.

police already have good breath detection devices. >> this can also be used at a crime scene from what i understand. what would you be able to pick up there? >> that's right. say you've got the scenario where there's a crime scene. the police found some fingerprints. they looked at those fingerprints, checked them against their databases and they don't have the identity of that person on their database. you could look at that fingerprint, and you could get some intelligence from the fingerprints, are they taking drugs, over-the-counter medication. you could potentially pick up hormones. say pick up testosterone, say whether it's from a male or female and use that to build an intelligence profile of the individual you're looking for. the police could use that in their investigation to try to find who the perpetrator of the

crime was. >> very quickly, could this be admissible in court this type of evidence. >> the technique as it stands at the moment, i think it's fair to say it's more of a screening technique. you would identify a person if you're looking for somebody. you've been through the convention tests the police would do in order to provide the evidence to facilitate that individual to court. >> all right. paul yates. it really is fascinating. good stuff. thank you for coming on the show and talking about it with us. for much more on intelligent fingerprinting, you can check out my facebook page, facebook.com, randi kayee cnn. don't forget to tune in same time, same channel. jamming the phone lines? why are so many people calling their congressmen? [ male announcer ] do you know how you will react when someone changes lanes without warning?

or when you're distracted? when you're falling asleep at the wheel? do you know how you'll react? lexus can now precisely test the most unpredictable variable in a car -- the driver. when you pursue perfection, you don't just engineer the world's most advanced driving simulator. you engineer amazing. ♪

time now for cnn political update, a resignation in the house of representatives. joe johns joining me from washington. high there, jo, who is out and why? >> hi, randi, congressman's wu time is coming to an end after the resolution of the debt ceiling crisis he has generate add lot of negative attention

that led nancy pelosi and others to ask for an ethics investigation, the last straw you remember an allegation he denied he engaged in inappropriate behavior, alleged sexual advances even involving 18-year-old daughter of one of wu's longtime friends, also a campaign contributor. now that wu announced he was out, what happens to his congressional seat in oregon. we've been talking to the governor's office, trying to figure out the options for a special election. don't have anything on that. we don't know when his last day will be due to the uncertainty of the debt limit debate. this is a district wu won by double digits so there's a reasonable chance democrats can be optimistic. now that he's out of the way, they can hold onto the seat, randi. >> i want to ask what's going on with capitol hill. i would imagine phone lines heating up after president obama spoke and urged people to call their congressmen to get this debt ceiling mess fixed up.

>> a lot of calls, e-mails to the capital complex. personally tried a few times on the capital operator line, couldn't get through. turns out that was the experience for a lot of people. so much so congressional offices are being advised to provide district offices telephone numbers so constituents can call the office back home, if you will, in order to get through to the congressman, congresswoman or their staff. so got to sort of go around the capital operator. >> yeah, you know how to do that we know that. what about the white house, joe? are they making any preparations for a possible default? >> a lot of preparations. i just got off the phone with the freshry department. we've been told veterans advocacy group called to the white house for a late afternoon meeting tuesday to be briefed by obama administration officials on the impact of veterans if

congress doesn't pass legislation raising the debt ceiling. the president, as you know, has suggested there could be some type of cuts or delays in federal benefits to veterans and social security benefits if the debt ceiling isn't raised. republicans have pretty much been calling that a scare tactic. so a lot of talking going on as you know, randi. >> whole lot of talking. jo great to see you, thank you. the update on the best political team in television is just an hour away. president obama is warning washington not to consider compromise a dirty word. the president discussed the debt ceiling crisis on national television last night. house speaker john boehner responded saying he's done all he can do to reach a consensus. congress only has a week to come up with the solution to the crisis, otherwise the u.s. could default on loans and lose its good credit rating. it used to be unthinkable. today an unprecedented u.s. government default not inevitable but it could be one

week away. hours after president obama and house speaker boehner each addressed the nation on the debt ceiling standoff and the other party's object st bstinance. a new bill would cover troops everything else put off until we could take on more debt. >> this is not meant to be a substitute for raising the debt limit. i and i suspect most of the folks on the stage have voted in favor of raising the debt limit provided we put our government on the path to a balanced budget. what this bill is all about is minimizing whatever disruption might otherwise occur if the debt limit is not raised prior to august 2nd.

i continue to hope that this legislation never needs to be implemented but it would be very, very irresponsible to be unprepared, or worse, to be unwilling to minimize the pro tension for disruption. >> two main default avoidance plans are still on the table as we speak. speaker boehner would raise the debt ceiling twice, this year and next, with spending cuts now and an election year overhaul of tax code and entitlements. in the senate majority leader reid is pushing $2.7 trillion in spending cuts with $2.4 trillion hike in the debt ceiling. reid's plan would not include tax increases, touch entitlements or follow-up votes in 2012. i'll stop talking so you can speed up. you've heard the speeches, pitches, acry money. what do you make of it all? we sent our cameras to the streets of atlanta to find out. >> i'm an optimist. so yes i trust they will come up with something. but i'm very disappointed in the

way they have gone about it. >> i understand why congress, democrats and republicans just can't get together and get this thing done. >> politicians playing politics doing it for their benefit and playing games. >> i think the tea party side of the republican party is holding things up and their inflectionability is standing in the way of what i think is a reasonable proposal? >> whose fault is it? maybe the government's? >> at this point, just not going to get out. mark my words, they are not going to get out. >> find a way to get it done, that's it. >> get together in a room and work it out. politics is really all about compromise. that's what has to be done. >> certainly doesn't sound so hard when you put it like that. if it doesn't get done. if america's creditors begin to get stiffed a week from today or fear they will get stiffed, what might happen to the economy. that's the big question. and of course to our own family

finances. smart money turns to these guys for insight p ali velshi chief business correspondent, poppy harlow with cnn.com. i'll start with you, what could it mean to retirement savings and what can we do about it? >> i want to introduce another term here, the downgrade, by moody's or s&p that has been threatened. that might come regardless of whether or not we defall. there's a great article right now by my friend charles riley on cnnmoney.com. if the u.s. is downgraded, that could increase the cost of get not for u.s. government but the cost for borrowing for major u.s. companies and states and municipalities. obviously with states and municipalities we know they are running short of money. that could affect the services you get. that's on the service side of things. the companies, if you have a company that borrows money and their cost of borrowing increases, they might have to cut the amount that they borrow.

the way they do that is by cutting jobs. you may see job cuts, a pullback in the stock price. there's an idea the stock market may respond very negatively to the failure to get a debt deal. so there are a lot of things that can happen. we're in uncharted territory. we're not sure what the reaction will be. right now if you look at the stock market there's some sense the markets are taking this in stride. they do believe washington will get a deal. if they don't, you might see churning, the dow off 53 points. that's nothing compared to a bad reaction like the kind we saw in the fall of 2008 when markets were really worried about what was going on. >> poppy, i want to ask you. you've been looking at what might happen to mortgage rates, car loans. what have you found out? >> ali made such a great point there's two risks here. not just the risk of default. let's hope washington does reach an agreement by august 2nd. there's two monsters, default and downgrade. every single day that goes by

without a deal on the debt ceiling, it is more and more likely the credit rating of this company's stellar aaa rating will get defaulted -- will get downgraded. here is why you care. start with your home, probably your biggest asset. why do you care if you have a home mortgage, here is why. treasury rates will go up from the low levels. that means the mortgage rate will increase, an increase for the long-term unless you're locked in already to a 30-year fixed. that means more homes on the market, home prices could fall further. you get the idea. turn to your college loan, whether you have a kid in college or you are a kid in college and you know the rate on your the loan. you have a private student loan. that rate will increase with a drown grade of credit. tougher for people to get loans for college, to secure financing. just for people who may rent and may not have to pay for college, they just have a car loan, this matters to folks with a car payment. same story as with your home.

interest rate increases, tougher to get credit for a car, get that financing especially if you're in the mid to lower credit score range. fewer new cars sold, that hurts a car market not in great shape either. those are the real impacts of not only a default but a downgrade. that is why you heard the president say last night call your congressman, call your congresswoman, these are tangible affects we'll feel with a downgrade. >> one thing we heard about is treasury bills. ali, what do you do if you're heavily invested in treasury bills? >> again, this is one thing we put up as caveat, we don't know what will actually happened. if you're invested in a bond fund, mutual fund, bond fund manager will be trading in and out. if you're invested in bonds themselves they don't if you can wait, trade if you don't do anything prior to maturity.

can you just hold onto them. there's security in bonds if you hold them for their duration. the issue here is for the issue we are of the bond. in this case u.s. government or state or municipality. they may have trouble raising money going forward. they may offer higher interest. if you had to trade your bond, you would get less money for it. if you get stuck with bonds, interest rates go up, holding bonds you may end up stuck holding them long-term. if it's a bond fund, those could do well as a result of appear fund. a downgrade which may happen independently of whether or not we raise the debt ceiling, debt limit and default, which happens if we don't. >> such great information. i have to tell you both, i hope we're still not having this conversation come august 1st. i know i don't want to be having it. i'm sure a lot of folks watching at home hope we're not having it. >> it's good we're talking about it. what we don't want people to do is panic unnecessarily. poppy and i will be here and our whole team will be here to let you know when things are going

south. don't do more damage than good by doing something prematurely. >> i'll be calling you ali august 1st. don't forget cnn.com is a wealth of news and information on the debt standoff and everything else that affects your bottom line. our sound effect today from norway, more shock and revelation in, unspeakable hate. heard from the lawyer of anders breivik who said the suspect was surprised he could set off a deadly bomb and open fire on a nearby island. the lawyer said breivik took some kind of drugs before hand and now is very tired. his fellow norwegians are devastated. among them muslims and others in his war on multi-culturalism. >> it's horrifying. i can't even describe it in words. it's really horrifying that he actually killed so many young people because he hates us.

it's really horrifying. >> this whole case indicates he's insane. he's in a war. he says the rest of the world, especially the western world, don't understand his point of view. that in 60 year's time we all will understand. >> anders breivik's father has spoken out as well. he told a reporter in france, and i quote here, rather than killing all those people, he should have taken his own life. the recession threatens to erase decades of gains by minorities. the troubling findings next. dif. roc® multi-correxion 4 zone moisturizer with roc®retinol and antioxidants. lines, wrinkles, and sun damage will fade. roc multi-correxion. correct what ages you. ♪ you are my sunshine ♪ my only sunshine ♪ you makes me happy ♪ when skies are grey

♪ you'll never know, dear ♪ how much i love you ♪ please don't take my sunshine away ♪ [ male announcer ] as long as there are babies, they'll be chevy's to bring them home. ♪ is best absorbed in small continuous amounts. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs.

citracal. sir, can you hear me? just hold the bag. we need a portable x-ray, please! [ nurse ] i'm a nurse. i believe in the power of science and medicine. but i'm also human. and i believe in stacking the deck. a new study by the pew

research center paints a grim picture. the gap between whites and minorities worse. take a look. the breakdown of net worth in 2005 and 2009, median wealth of white households 20 times that of black households and 18 that of hispanic households. blacks and hispanics disproportionately hit by the economic crisis. let's go to sandra endo who joins us live from los angeles with more on that. hi, sandra. the gap between whites and minorities is age old but the recession acted as a catalyst to make it wider? >> that's right, randi. the gap is as wide as it's been in 25 years of the housing market was the biggest hit in the west. that's the biggest reason the pew research study said there's such a disparity in household wealth. take a look at this. according to the study the median household wealth among

hispanics fell 66% from 2005 to 2009. black households suffered 53% drop in net worth and whites suffered 16%. now, the standard also shows the median wealth of hispanic households. 5,677 for african-americans compared to $113,000 as a median wealth for white households in 2009. it's important to note household wealth means assets such as car, home, savings, minus the family's debts like loans and credit card bills. it's not really family income per se. for a lot of people trying to strive for the american dream, they put a lot of their money into their homes. >> they sure did. >> other white families or black families, hispanic families were not very diverse in their portfolio. two-thirds of their entire wealth was put into the family home in terms of real estate.

so it's no surprise by that going down with plummeting equities and erosion of sales prices all across the nation, we were hit the hardest. >> now, randi, asian households also took a hit because a lot of their household wealth was actually more than white families. according to this study, their median household wealth dropped from $168,000 in 2005 to $78,000 in 2009. keep in mind the geographical demographics here because a lot of asian families also live out here in the west in states like california, places hard hit by the housing market. randi. >> sandra, this data is from 2009. any idea whether or not the situation has improved or gotten better since then? >> well, according to the study, randi, there is possible good news because of the fact the study was taken in 2009. the last two years or so the housing prices have stabilized a little, have bottomed out. hopefully and optimistically

speaking that gap could have stabilized as well or hit rock bottom. clearly there's only upwards mobility to go hopefully. that's fingers crossed out here at least. >> all right. sandra endo in los angeles. thank you. up next, she lost her 4-year-old son to a hit-and-run driver and then today was punished for being the one who walked him across the street when it all happened. we'll tell you how a judge punished this young mother next. every day, all around the world, energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe

and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas. abacked by the superguarantee®? anfind a businessnt only& suonline.s®. on your phone. or in the book. go to superpages®. and let the good guys save the day.

it's a story that's been creating a lot of buzz. frankly a whole lot of outrage a young georgia mother whose

4-year-old son was killed by a hit-and-run driver is being held responsible for the 4-year-old boy's death. why in not because she drove the car that hit him but because she led him jaywalking across the street. today she was sentenced. david mattingly was at the sentencing and joins me at the courthouse. raquel nelson faced up to three years in jail. what did she end up getting? >> randi, she faced three years in jail as a maximum. there were three charges against her, all misdemeanors with maximum one year sentence each. so she was looking at the possibility of the maximum sentence of three years in jail. she had made a national plea hoping to get to the ears of this judge to please not separate her from her surviving children. today apparently the court was listening. no one was interested in her seeing any jail time at all.

when it came time the prosecution stood up and said they recommended probation. the judge said that's what they were going to do. they recommended one year of probation, 40 days of public service, no fine at all. basically, the bottom line here. she lost her child but she will not lose her freedom and she can go back to those children today. >> david, how did they react once she learned her fate? >> we listened to a lot of very emotional pleas from friends, colleagues and co-workers who went before the court to say that she was a very good and loving mother, very hardworking, that she did not deserve to go to jail. there were a lot of tears as that was going on. but when the verdict came out and the judge said that she would be going home today, there was a brief round of cheers and then when it was all over everyone had to go hug her and cry just a little bit more. when she came outside, someone asked her the question, are you

satisfied with the verdict and here is what she had to say. >> i'm walking out of here. i don't think i could be any more satisfied with that. thank you. >> reporter: that is right to the point. again, randi, this woman who has already lost so much will not be losing her freedom. >> david mattingly there in georgia, thanks. i want to bring in attorney george stein. he's not involved in this case but he does specialize in dui, vehicular homicides in georgia. george, first of all, what do you think of this sentencing? >> well, this judge is very smart and articulate. i think she was well advised to take a look at this. have you to look at the whole picture not just the statute itself. when you have a mother that's been victimized by the ultimate loss, the loss of a child, gosh, that's got to be the ultimate punishment of that's enough punishment right there.

>> how unusual is this kind of case? >> it's very unusual. the reason is the vast majority of states in our country don't have second degree vehicular homicide. they have the felony version of this statute that says if you're impaired or you're drunk and you unfortunately kill somebody then it's a crime and it's a felony and it's a big one, too. you're normally facing 15 years in jail. very few states have this second degree scenario, where there's no insobriety and back dooring the statutes, which is the case here. 99% of the time when a person is charged with vehicular homicide they are in a car and kill somebody of they are not merely a pedestrian. >> what's surprising is this woman, the mother, was facing three years in prison and the man who hit and killed this little boy got six months in jail. >> that is hard to reckon with.

i don't know that we know all the facts and circumstances behind this case, but that was a real sweet deal. i don't know how to say it any different than that. this man, as i understand it, was charged with vehicular homicide in the past as well many years ago and has a penchant for doing these things. he some alcohol on board, prescription medications on board. for him to get that sentence was either a stroke of luck or fantastic lawyering and negotiating. but as far as miss nelson goes, it truly is a case of unintended consequences, where in my opinion the victim is being prosecuted for a crime that doesn't exist in many states. >> she has the option here of going for a new trial. would you recommend that she does? and if so, why? >> well, in principle, she

absolutely positively should. because for a judge during sentencing to say you have this option means a lot. it speaks volumes. i think it's a hint the from the court, randi, saying to this defendant, look, this doesn't seem exactly fair. you ought to take this offer up and go and have another trial. that seems to me to be the right thing to do. but does this woman have the energy and zeal and wherewithal to really do that, or does she just want to resume her life and get back with her kids and get out of the media's attention. hard to say. >> we'll see what her lawyer decides about that. george stein, thank you for weighing in on this with us. appreciate it. time 24 minutes past the hour. time to take a look at top stories. president obama warning washington not to consider compromise a dirty word. the president discussed the debt ceiling crisis on national television last night. house speaker john boehner

responded saying he he's done all he can do to reach a consensus. congress has a week to come up with a solution to the crisis. otherwise the u.s. could default on loans and lose its good credit rating. democratic congressman david wu of oregon says he will resign from the house of representatives. on sunday house democratic leader nancy pelosi asked for an ethics investigation of wu accused of making unwanted sexual advances towards a fund-raiser's daughter. wu served seven terms in the house. a plane crash in southern morocco killed 78 people according to the news agency. the aircraft belonging to royal armed services crashed into a mountain when it attempted to land at a military airport five miles away. local sources are saying bad weather may be to blame for this. who do you think has been affected by the recession more, men or women? the answer right after this. [ female announcer ] experience dual-action power,

with listerine® whitening plus restoring rinse. it's the only listerine® that gets teeth two shades whiter and makes tooth enamel two times stronger. get dual-action listerine® whitening rinse. building whiter, stronger teeth.

finally, there's a choice for my patients with an irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation, or afib, that's not caused by a heart valve problem. today we have pradaxa to reduce the risk of a stroke caused by a clot. in a clinical trial, pradaxa 150 mg reduced stroke risk 35% more than warfarin. and with pradaxa, there's no need for those regular blood tests. pradaxa is progress. pradaxa can cause serious, sometimes fatal, bleeding. don't take pradaxa if you have abnormal bleeding, and seek immediate medical care for unexpected signs of bleeding, like unusual bruising. pradaxa may increase your bleeding risk if you're 75 or older, have kidney problems or a bleeding condition, like stomach ulcers. or if you take aspirin products, nsaids, or blood thinners. tell your doctor about all medicines you take, any planned medical or dental procedures, and don't stop taking pradaxa without your doctor's approval,

as stopping may increase your stroke risk. other side effects include indigestion, stomach pain, upset, or burning. if you have afib not caused by a heart valve problem, ask your doctor if pradaxa can reduce your risk of a stroke. losses as a a mancession.

the longer men are out of work, the harder to get back in the game. poppy harlow in new york with the latest numbers for us. poppy, how do the membership compare to women when it comes to job loss? >> significantly worse when you look at the recession for men than women. there was a study that came out that found that 20% of american men today are not working. that is up from 7% in 1970. this isn't men without a job. this is men on disability, prison, counting on wife's income. that's a troubling statistics, about 14 million unemployed americans. when you look at the recession, i want to you take a look at what we're going to pull up on the screen for you. men lost 4.5 million jobs in the recession. women on the other hand lost 2.1 million. why is that? in large part, a lot of jobs lost are manufacturing and construction jobs. those are male dominated joshs. when we look at today, post recession, so-called recovery,

what is going on now in terms of employment and why is there such a lack of employment? we spoke to the ceo of manpower, a firm that helps employ people globally around the world. here is his take. take a listen. >> well, we have an issue. there is no doubt about it. the longer we have this long-term unemployed even for what would be considered entry level skilled position, the shop floor is not going to be the same shop floor for that person left two and a half years ago. new technology put in place, how you have to read a cad drawing or 3d dimensional drawing. we're still going to have this kind of skills mismatch, what companies are looking at for the highest skills and what's in the marketplace of the u.s. is not alone in that it's just exacerbated because the low demand in the u.s. >> randi, if you talk about men or women post recession, it's the lack of skills. lou at google, case in point. this is the company that announced 2011 would be their

biggest hiring year yet. they have been 1500 and 2500 open jobs. they told us there's a huge lack of engineers in the united states, not enough people with the right skills that could go needs. they said the talent pool is pretty small. that's troubling when you look at trying to get a jobs recovery. >> yeah, it sure it. poppy, a lot of big companies are hiring. are the guys getting the jobs compared to the women or no? >> the guys are getting the jobs. this is so interesting to look at the numbers. let's look first at three areas where men are doing much better than women. this is manufacturing, retail and finance. okay. post recession, the blue, that is men. men gained 250,000 jobs since the recession ended in those sectors. women have lost more than 430,000 jobs in those sectors. even in sectors where women gained jobs, men had more. look at education, business, health services, women gained 691,000 jobs. pretty good.

we could use more. but men, randi, have gained over 800,000 jobs. you call it the mancession. it was indeed but in the recession men are getting jobs more quickly than women, which is troubling for women. it is interesting to see that transition now and obviously that changes as we progress. men right now are getting the jobs out there. >> all right. well at least somebody is getting the jobs. that's a good thing. poppy harlow in new york. thank you, poppy. two atf officials admitting to making mistakes today. we will tell you what they are not admitting to right after this. ♪ [ whistles ] ♪ [ cat meows ] ♪ [ ting! ] [ male announcer ] travelers can help you protect the things you care about and save money with multi-policy discounts. are you getting the coverage you need and the discounts you deserve? for an agent or quote, call 800-my-coverage or visit travelers.com.

♪ let me make you smile ♪ let me do a few tricks ♪ some old and then some new tricks ♪ ♪ i'm very versatile ♪ so let me entertain you ♪ and we'll have a real good time ♪ [ male announcer ] with beats audio and flash, you can experience richer music and download movies straight to the new hp touchpad

with webos. it is 33 minutes past the hour. let's take a look at some of the news and other headlines you may have missed. the august 2nd deadline to raise the debt ceiling one week away. the political war surrounding it continues to rage. president obama addressed the nation on television last night usualing viewers to pressure elected officials to work out some sort of compromise. the president singled out house republicans saying this is, quote, no way to run the greatest country on earth. house speaker john boehner responded congress won't give mr. obama a blank check. democratic congressman david wu of oregon says he will resign from the house of representatives. on sunday house democratic leader nancy pelosi asked for an ethics investigation of wu accused of making unwanted sexual advances toward a fund-raiser's daughter. wu served seven trms in the house. it's back to work for nfl players after the end of a lockout that threatened to

derail the 2011 football season. players ratified a 10-year deal yesterday. according to the league schedule the rest of the week will be dominated by business of deferred rosters, signing drafts and rookies, camps in preparation for preseason games. two atf officials admitted they made miss tea during the controversial gun runners program. they des putined claims the agencies knowingly let guns walk into mexico. they testified on capitol hill before house oversight committee chairman issa of california accused the obama administration of stonewalling the investigation saying the department of justice continues to withhold information. your post office could be slated to close. postmaster general patrick donahue release add long awaited post office study of nearly 3700 post offices that may be closed to reduce red ink. they include outlets in all 50

states and washington, d.c. most have so little foot traffic. employees ample less than two hours a day and average sales less than $50 a day. family and friends gathered to bid the final fairwell to amy winehouse, the singer acclaimed for talent but infamous for erratic behavior, arrests and drugs was found dead in her apartment. the autopsy has not established a formal cause of death and a toxicology test is pending. the new york u.s. attorney has charged four men in terrorist gun plots. they accused the men of trying to import heroin into the united states to provide funds and guns for taliban, hezbollah. one indictment accuses two men of traveling through europe and southeast asia to arrange deals to acquire more than 1100 pounds of heroin in the u.s. and thousands of weapons including anti-aircraft missiles for use

by hezbollah. today prosecutors are holding news conference to provide details on the indictments which we will bring to you throughout the day. solar energy, swedish furniture and a pool. you'll be surprised what these things have in common and how they could help you cash in. we'll break it down in 90 seconds. [ male announcer ] megared omega-3 krill oil from schiff. unlike fish oil, megared softgels are small and easy to swallow with no fishy smell or aftertaste. try megared today.

all right. let's face it. a lot of things are getting more expensive. coffee, gas, car, even your morning bacon and cereal.

in today's big breakdown, we're looking on the sunnier side of things. believe it or not, there are products that are actually getting cheaper. yes, that's true. according to time.com, volkswagen is bucking the economic trend. while the price tag on other cars is getting higher the german company cut its base price on the jetta and pa sat. ikea cut. for you and me that means deeper discount on maze of products by 2 to 3% this year and not just this year but next year as well. we all know about the housing situation, right? it's a buyers' market. home prices dropped by one-third, which is more than they did during the great depression, just in case you're keeping track. if you're looking to go green, look to the sun. the cost of solar panels decreased by 15% over the first quarter of this year alone. all you book worms, you'll love

this. the ereader, kindle cheaper, $114 or 3g version for $25 more. the word is the price tag could drop to under $100 by christmas. get that list ready. for you movie and tv buffs, there is this. 3d tvs. last july 47 to 50-inch 3d tv would cost $900 more than a normal 2d flat screen. now 3d versions are $400 more. even debit cards are getting cheaper. providers are lowering or attaching fees to reloadable prepaid debit cards actually. netflix is a mixed bag of prices. members of the popular combo plan will pay more. people who want their one dvd at a time service are saving $2 a month. hey, it's something, right? if you need to cool off, it's a good time to buy a pool. sales of inground pools have

actually plunged by 75%. poolmakers are cutting prices and throwing in freebies to make a splash. finally rounding out the top ten things getting cheaper, believe it or not, spaceflight. even the price of rocketing into space is coming down to earth. remember space ex which launched first private rocket into space in june. its rockets and commercial race to space is expecting the price of space to plummet by one-half. according to them it could cost $100,000 to send a person into orbit. okay. so it's not exactly cheap but cheaper. that's good news. millions of dollars of u.s. taxpayer money in the hands of the taliban. how did it all happen? a live report from afghanistan right after this. only one calcium supplement does that in one daily dose. new citracal slow release... continuously releases calcium plus d for the efficient absorption my body needs. citracal.

it's the cleanest, clearest water. we find the best, sweetest crab for red lobster we can find. yeah! [ male announcer ] hurry in to crabfest at red lobster. the only time you can savor three sweet alaskan crab entrees all under $20, like our hearty crab and roasted garlic seafood bake or snow crab and crab butter shrimp. [ jon ] i wouldn't put it on my table at home, i wouldn't bring it in. my name's jon forsythe, and i sea food differently.

in norway police began releasing the name of victims killed in the attack. the lawyer said his cloint was a little bit surprised he was able to carry off the bombing and shooting rampage that killed 76 people last friday. he also says he thinks his client is insane. >> this whole case indicates he's insane. he's in a war, says the rest of the world, especially the western world, don't understand his point of view but in 60 year's time we all will understand. >> the lawyer says it's too early to say if breivik will plead insanity.

breivik's father speaking out saying he would have been better off if he killed himself. the father says he feels incredible grief or despair over what happened. he says he'll never have any contact with his son again. it just may be the most egregious example to date of widespread corruption in average american taxpayer money, hundreds of millions of dollars ending up in the hands of the taliban. a year long military task force discovered the money was siphoned from a $2 billion transportation contract to provide money to the troops. a source has briefed cnn about how it all went down. he joins me from the afghanistan capital kabul. david, tell me, please, how did this happen? >> reporter: all this information, randi, is coming from an internal document yet to be released. what it revealed is effectively eight trucking companies the united states uses here in afghanistan to transport all kinds of supplies, foods, weapon to soldiers and civilians across

this country, this represents the bulk of the transportation business here in afghanistan, four of those companies, which were listed as high risk have some part in funneling some of these u.s. taxpayer dollars to various subcontractors. those contractors, in turn, seems by virtue of this report, some of that money got into the hands of insurgent who are providing security one day and then funneling that money to taliban extremists across the border the next. so what we see here is a clear case aflac of transparency in some of this contract and subcontract procedure. the interesting thing is, those eight companies still on u.s. payroll. >> that is a bit disturbing i must say. what's going to be done about this. if they are on the payroll, i guess we're not going to collect this money back. are they going to try and fix this at all? >> well, the officials we've spoken to have basically said

they radically revamped the existing system in terms of awards and contracts in which some of these companies are able to get funds. the existing, previous system allowed for eight companies. the new one will provide for 40. the purpose of that is to lessen the degree to which the united states government is relying upon any one single trucking firm. keep in mind, trucking is a dangerous endeavor. many firms the united states contracted out to has reason to look toward more local companies and provide for some of that local security. so this is clearly a transparency issue but also a safety issue. as we move forward, it seems clear this new program will fix some of the problems but also raises questions as to what other problems are out there. randi. >> david in kabul for us, thank you as always. public outrage over a deadly high-speed train accident has promoted the chinese government to launch a safety review of its

entire rail system. the move was taken after two bullet trains crashed in the southeastern part of the country saturday killing 38 people and injuring nearly 200. the trains collided during a storm after lightning apparently knocked out power to the first train, which was then rear-ended by the second. the exact cause hasn't been determined. people flooded social media with possible cover-up and the safety of the train's system. criminals given dna samples. many have asked do they have to give one. our stream team weighs in next. [ tires squeal ] an accident doesn't have to slow you down. with better car replacement, available only from liberty mutual insurance, if your car's totaled, we give you

the money to buy a car that's one model-year newer with 15,000 fewer miles on it. there's no other auto insurance product like it. better car replacement, available only from liberty mutual. it's a better policy that gets you a better car. call... or visit one of our local offices today, and we'll provide the coverage you need at the right price. liberty mutual auto insurance -- responsibility. what's your policy?

fingerprints for the 21st century, that's what one judge

on the u.s. circuit court of appeals said yesterday as they ruled in favor of taking dna samples of people under arrest without waiting for a conviction. opponents say it violates the fourth amendment to the constitution against unreasonable searches and seizures. the federal government in at least 24 states have some sort of law in place that calls for dna collection before conviction. in new mexico they expanded the law to include all felonies not just violent crimes. it's called katie's law. it took three years to find her killer. he was arrested for aggravated burglary after her murder but no dna was taken because that was against the law at the time. an expanded law and dna sample would have closed the case much sooner and brought closure to her family. is collecting dna of a suspected suspect a violation of her lights. here to talk about it is katie's mother and co-creator of katie's law from brazil. also andy hill retired sergeant

with the phoenix police department. also on the phony, michael risher, attorney for aclu of california. i talked to you about your daughter years ago. i'd like to ask you about this law. should police be able to do that before conviction? >> absolutely. i applaud the third circuit's decision. they see it as we, do it's the fingerprint of the 21st century. we believe this has the power to save lives, prevent crimes, it's no more of an invasion of privacy than a fingerprint because of the way the system has been set up. >> michael with aclu, i'd like you to weigh in there. what is your response to that? >> dna may be the fingerprint of the 21st century for some purposes. it is not a fingerprint, though. when we meet someone, we shake

hands with them. we touch their fingerprints. we don't allow them to take a dna sample. we all know dna has our genetic blueprint, sensitive information. that's not something innocent people should turn over to the government simply because the government says they will not perform all the possible tests on it. it's an invasion of privacy and doesn't help solve crime taking dna from innocent people. take it after conviction. one-third of the people arrested are never convicted of anything. the other two-thirds will soon be convicted. they are the guilty ones, the people whose dna we want to have in our databases. it's a waste of resources to take it from innocent people. >> andy hill, does this do more harm than good? >> this does a lot of good. i disagree with michael respectfully. dna is a tool of the past, the present and the future. dna solves crimes from the past, cold cases, cases that could never have been solved. cases in the present when we take people into custody and

immediately test their dna and it's going to solve cases in the future. the dna database main taped will solve a lot of crimes. that's why congress when it passed violence against women's absent in 2005 wanted dna taken because many crimes committed against women, serial offenders that would not have otherwise been caught. it's just a q-tip, that's all you need. it's pretty simple. we do have to safeguard the use of it for law enforcement purposes. >> jayann i want you to weigh in here. you would have learned who killed your daughter years before if his dna had been taken. do you think law enforcement should have every tool they can use available to them? >> i believe that dna is very much like a fingerprint. with respect to michael as well when he says dna contains your genetic blueprint, what goes

into the database is a profile, only 13 markers out of 13 billion in the strand. those were chosen pfl by genetic scientists because they don't have any genetic information other than this. there's nothing in the database of genetic information other than gender. that's why -- there's a lot of other privacy protections built into the system. in the national database, there's no name. there's no social security numbers. there's just code numbers. there's no identifying information. i could go on and on. i'm here for all the privacy protection. >> let me step in here and give michael risher 20 seconds to respond. >> sure. the biggest privacy concern comes not from the profile that's generated but by the fact the government keeps the biological sample for future testing and refuses to destroy it even for people who haven't been convicted of anything. they have to go through a complicated process to destroy it. this is really like if somebody

gets arrested for dui and the police found his house keys in his pob, allowing them to go search his home simply based on the arrest. that's not how we work in this country. there is a presumption of innocence. we have the fourth amendment that stands it was and the tower of the state and we have privacy rights. >> michael risher, jayann, always appreciate you all weighing in on stories like this one. thank you very much. another republican considering a run for the white house. it may not be who you're expecting. cnn political update straight ahead. [ female announcer ] what if your natural beauty could be flawless too? discover aveeno positively radiant tinted moisturizers with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals. give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on to even skin tone in four weeks. aveeno tinted moisturizers.

but i did. they said i couldn't fight above my weight class. but i did. they said i couldn't get elected to congress. but i did. ♪ sometimes when we touch ha ha! millions of hits! [ male announcer ] flick, stack, and move between active apps seamlessly. only on the new hp touchpad with webos. handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year. that's about 34 million pounds of mail every day. ever wonder what this costs you as a taxpayer? millions? tens of millions? hundreds of millions? not a single cent. the united states postal service doesn't run on your tax dollars. it's funded solely by stamps and postage. brought to you by the men and women of the american postal worker's union.

♪ hey, gramps, what do you got in there? well, a trout lure, a set of dentures, broadway albums. you know -- stuff. yeah. about that. that big wheel behind us... yeah? he's got a flat-screen, swivel chairs, and a fridge. oh. hey, man! can we come over tonight? it's surprising just how affordable an rv vacation can be. visit gorving.com and get a free video. or see an rv dealer. go affordably. go rving.

time now for a cnn political update. another republican flirting with a white house run. cnn dependty political director paul steinhauser joining us from washington. all right, paul. i can't take it. who is it, sarah palin or rick perry? >> no, no, neither. how about this name, george pataki, former new york governor. guess where he was last week? iowa? guess where he'll be later this week, new hampshire. >> nice. >> what's the story here? he considered a bid for the white house for the gop nomination in 2008, didn't do it. said no to a run earlier this year, kind of reversed himself. now a spokesman for pataki says he's considering a run. i guess, i guess also keep your eyes on george pataki. talking about congressman wu of oregon his decision not t