look so good. you have futures down here pretty sharply, kyra. it's probably indicating maybe a 200-point decline for stocks for the dow when things open. quite frankly, you've got stocks that are under the weather because of what the fed said yesterday and disappointment quite frankly that, yes, the fed did provide another stimulus, but they also said there was significant downside risks that remain to the economy, that's what's got markets around the world concerned. the hong kong stock average closed down more than 5%. european stocks down sharply, as well. futures in this country, down. the significant downside risk to the u.s. economy is what is specifically rocking markets here. operation twist stimulus. operation twist is what they're calling what the fed said they were going to do. change the mixture of what kind of treasury rates lower.

but overall that idea that the fed thinks that there are still significant downside risks, kyra, that has people unnerved. stocks are down. oil is down big. gold is down, as well. so, you're seeing a real movement out of some of these commodities and stocks today on this idea that the economy is not out of the woods yet, kyra? >> we'll look for the numbers in 28 1/2 minutes, thanks so much. the threat of a new government shutdown an intense round of voting rejected a spending bill and the move surprised even the republican leaders. kate baldwin joining us now from capitol hill. so, kate, the government due to run out of money at the end of the month. tell us what is happening behind the scenes. >> here we go, again, kyra. quite a blow for house republican leadership last night. in a vote, the final tally 195-230. 48 republicans, almost 50 house republicans joined with an overwellming majority of house democrats to reject this bill. this measure, just to give a

little bit of background. this measure is to keep the government running through mid-november. it also included additional funding for federal disaster relief to help with all the natural disasters, the flooding the hurricanes, the tornadoes, the wildfires that the country has faced recently. that's the background. here's the problem that house republican leadership faced. it was in two-part. democrats oppose the amount of funding for federal disaster relief. they said it was inadequate and oppose the fact that house republican leaders requiring that part of that disaster relief money be offset and be paid for by cutting money from another program, they said, was a job creator. help create more fuel efficient vehicles. the other problem that they had. this may have been a bit of a surprise. there is a big group of house conservative republicans that opposed the fact that this overall bill, the overall spending number didn't cut spending enough. so, those were the two problems that house republican leaders faced and, bottom line, you said it. the government is to run out of

money by the end of this month. that's a week from this saturday. the clock is ticking. i'll tell you this really quickly and read you a short statement from eric cantor. tried to be reassuring that the government would not shut down and went on to say the following. we are trying to affect change in a way that we spend taxpayer dollars. that is what this whole thing is about. no one is denying anyone disaster aid if they need it and we're trying to be responsible and do the right thing. right now they're threatening another government shutdown and many americans do not have the appetite for that right now, kyra. >> kate baldwin on the hill, thanks so much. others believe an even higher power is guiding it. they say it's the invisible hand of god. at the bottom of the hour, an interesting conversation about faith and finances. republican presidential candidates are facing off in a debate tonight and our paul ste steinhauser has new poll numbers that go along with it.

>> mitt romney, texas governor rick perry one and two in the polls right now. perry basically on top of all the national polls since he jump under to the race for the white house nelast month. look at the new numbers out that came out last night. the state next to massachusetts where mitt romney was governor, he is well ahead of everyone else and well ahead of everybody else in new hampshire at 41% of the support out there. way ahead. look at that 27 points ahead of ron paul who is in second place. they hold a first primary that comes right after iowa. let's go to the next number. this is in florida. kyra, look at this one right here. perry slightly ahead of romney and this poll from quinnipiac came out this morning. it comes before tonight's showdown. this is the second debate in florida. this one is going to be in orlando and shows how important florida is becoming in the

battle for the nomination. it is really becoming a power player in primary politics, as well, kyra. >> little bit of another talker that is going on, shall we say, rick santorum. i can understand why the guy's not really happy with google right now. >> yeah. this has been going on for a while but he got so upset yesterday he finally decided to talk about it. also republican presidential nominee. candidate, not nominee. listen, if you google his name, you won't come up with his official bio. the first thing you're going to see on google is a description of him, a fake description of him that has to do with animal waste or sexual waste and it's not too flattering. i'll let you google it because i don't want to talk about exactly what it says right here on air. santorum said yesterday enough is enough. he urged google to do something about it. they could have taken care of this a while ago. google comes back and says google searches are a result or a reflection of the content

available on the web. users who want content removed from the web should contact the master of the web page directly. this one not ending so quickly, kyra. a lot of comedians have had some fun with this one. >> it's not easy being in the public eye. run your name and you never know what will come up. all of us can identify with that. oh, boy, your next political update in about an hour. paul, thanks. for all the latest political news, go to our website cnnpolitics.com. for the first time in more than two years, a pair of american hikers wake up to freedom. they could not get down those steps fast enough. shane bauer and josh fattal bounded down the steps of that airplane last night into the arms of their loved ones. their arrival in the middle eastern country of oman came hours from being released from an iranian prison. they spent a week lobbying

iran's president for their release. bauer and fattal were arrested and convicted of spying after crossing iran's border. 20 years after convicted of killing a cop and unprecedented legal twists and turns, troy davis was executed, but the controversy over this case will not go away. martin savidge joining us with more. what a dramatic night. you thought it would happen at 7:00 p.m. eastern time and hours and hours later, still had not had an answer. >> a lot of emotions. and all sorts of emotions felt throughout the evening. you know, a headline in the atlanta paper that starkly summed it up and it basically said drama and then death. troy davis had been scheduled to die, as kyra said, at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. his supporters gathered outside the state prison in jackson and others around the world when his attorneys made a last-minute appeal to the u.s. supreme court and the high court began considering the case. first it was minutes and then dragged on into hours and those who had maintained that davis

was innocent of the 1989 crime began to see, just perhaps, a chance the supreme court would stop davis' death. it would not be that way. as the court of nine justices eventually denied the appeal and davis' sentence was carried out four hours after it was originally scheduled. he was pronounced dead at 11:08 p.m. according to witnesses. he proclaimed he was innocent right up until the very moment that he died. >> he asked his family and friends to keep praying, to keep working and keep the faith and then he said to the prison staff, the ones he said who are going to take my life, he said to them, may god have mercy on your souls and his last words were to them, may god bless your souls and then he put his head back down, the procedure began and about 15 minutes later it was over. >> anne macphail is the mother of the police officer, mark macphail. here's what she had to say after that sentence was carried out.

>> it sounds awful. but kind of relief that it is over for me now. i kind of have to digest all those things that have happened and today, too, which was very, very hard. so, i just have to work on that so my mind and i be alone and realize what everything happened and how it ended now. >> davis' supporters who gathered outside the u.s. supreme court saw it differently. his conviction was based on the statement of witnesses, many of whom since his trial had reca recanted their testimony. the crowd shoud ted, no justice no peace. this case focused attention on the death penalty in this country that we have not seen in a long, long time. >> we'll talk about that next hour. is it possible to become more of a campaign issue as we approach presidential election. marty, thanks. as you can imagine, the troy davis case made waves around the world, too. zain verjee has been watching

the headlines. so many people, zain, coming out and speaking about this from former presidents all the way to the pope. >> right. that's exactly right, as well as archbishop desmond tutu all weighing in and all saying, stop, don't do it. let me just give you a flavor of the international news headlines. this is the international business times and they say troy davis execution a miscarriage of justice based on racial discrimination. now, this goes on to say troy davis' execution has been hailed as a miscarriage of justice and, yet, another illustration of racial discrimination, but despite calls from activists, politicians and even religious figures, the u.s. state of georgia went ahead and executed the young man, even though doubts over his 1991 murder conviction that saw him become a symbol for global efforts to end the death penalty. take a look at "the guardian." troy davis and the state of american justice. that's the headline.

it says while the calls for troy davis' reprieve poured into georgia from all over the country and the world, the likelihood is that a minority of those callers spoke while the call s reacted more than the mot famous named person who picked up the phone today. >> zane vergery out of london, thanks. talk about special delivery. a couple cincinnati bengal football players were on the receiving end of a package of high-grade marijuana. compliments of nasa. an old satellite about to fall back to earth. where and when it will arrive is still a guessing game. that's next. the postal service is critical to our economy--

delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it.

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well all year we are introducing you to truly remarkable people. everyday people changing the world. today cnn is announcing the top ten cnn heros for 2011. be sure to logon to cnnheroes.com and vote for the cnn hero that inspires you the most. take you to a story now we're just uncovering in libya. one of our crews there has apparently come across evidence of radio active material unguarded and dangerously available to anyone. we're told with bad intent. ben wedemen joining us on the phone just outside of the town

of saba. ben? >> yes, kyra, we're a 15-minute drive northeast of the city and we've come across two warehouses full of thousands of blue barrels, some of them marked radio active on the ground in one of the warehouses we found several large plastic bags full of what appears to be yellow powder, which had been closed also with this radio active paint. also at the site, we found something that gives you a reading on radio activity, as well as films. as you may have seen in movies they're used to give an indication of the level of radio activity. now, it was lightly guarded. i stress the lightly by about three to four guys in their late teens, early 20s. in fact, officials of the ntc came to us last night saying that they had found this site and that they were curious and

somewhat concerned about the content of it. >> ben -- >> we arrived at the site -- yes, kyra. >> anyone idea who owns this? >> well, it was a military site. we've been through some of the offices and it was clearly something belonging to the libyan military. we haven't found any documents yet indicating the nature of the site. it's mostly just sort of run of the mill military paperwork. but there is an office where we found, for instance, protective still on coat hangers and we found in the trash rubber gloves that had been used fairly recently. they weren't too dusty or anything like that. so, clearly, it was some sort of facility belonging to the libyan government until quite recently there were people manning it, but, of course, day before yesterday is when the ntc forces

took over. >> ben, as you get more information, please, call into us. appreciate that. ben wedemen calling into us from just outside the town in libya there. well, checking stories across country now. late last night in tacoma, washington, striking teachers said they agreed to a new labor deal, thanks in part to the governor who helped broker it. teachers will ratify the agreement today and could be teaching by tomorrow. a couple cincinnati bengal football players being questioned now about a package allegedly containing marriage that was mailed to their home. police found six more pounds of pot inside the home of jerome simpson and anthony. a church giving away $30,000 to its parishioners. the church's pastor says it's their way of giving back. so, keep your eyes towards

the sky because nasa expects more than two dozen pieces of dead satellite to actually fall towards earth some time tomorrow. cnn's john zarrella tells us where it could land. >> reporter: the clock is ticking. some time after midnight tonight, if nasa's calculations are right, an old, dead satellite will reenter the earth's atmosphere and burn up, most of it, but not all of it. about half a ton will make it through. >> there are some pieces that are made of stainless steel and titanium and beryllium that have very high melting temperatures. those pieces will survive. we have a list of about 26 pieces and they range from a few tens of pounds to a few hundred pounds in size. >> reporter: you heard him right. some of the chunks of junk could be hundreds of pounds, but there's no need for you to run out and buy a hard hat. nasa scientists in houston say there's very little risk that any of the debris from the 6 ton upper atmosphere research

satellite could hit you. >> you could be hundreds of miles off in where it's coming down. >> reporter: harvard astrophysicist says the space agency is probably right because much of the earth is water. >> this is not like the old sky lab scare of the '70s when you had a 70 ton space station crashing out of the sky. this thing is only 6 or 7 tons. so, i agree with the folks in houston. that it's really nuthing to be terribly concerned about. >> reporter: parts of sky lab did hit western australia in 1979. so, where will this one come down? well, no one knows. even minutes before reentering the atmosphere, nasa won't be able to pinpoint the exact location. the satellite is traveling so fast it covers thousands of miles of space in just minutes. right now the impact swath covers portions of six continents. >> part of the problem is the spacecraft itself is tumbling in

unpredictable ways and it is very difficult to very precisely pinpoint where it is coming down, even right before the reentry. >> if the thing happens to come down in the city, that would be bad. the chances of it causing expensive damage or actually injuring someone are much higher. >> reporter: one thing is certain. once it hits the atmosphere, 50 miles up, it will take only a few minutes before the surviving pieces hit the earth. >> so, john, not much warning or heads up, shall we say, for people hoping to dodge some of this fast falling junk. >> no, not at all. no heads up hardly at all. once it hits, it won't be until it hits the atmosphere that nasa knows exactly where it is going. although they did say this morning that it will hit some time tomorrow afternoon u.s. time, but it will not be over north america at that time. you know, kyra, they say there's a 1 in 3,200 chance that someone

on the earth will get hit by a piece of debris. but a 1 in trillions chance that it would be you as an individual. i don't understand that statistic stuff, but that's the way they put it. >> basically, it's just, it more than likely is not going to happen to either one of us, john. thanks. >> exactly. >> we'll follow up tomorrow for sure. thanks so much. well, kirstie alley's weight strugger has been tabloid fodder for years. but now the actress says she lost 100 pounds and she'll tell us how she did it.

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let's get straight to your "showbiz headlines."

kirstie alley says she feels back to normal. she's 60 years old now and she tells "people" magazine that after she was on "dancing with the stars" she just kept on dancing, every day. thee credited the weight drop to her new organic diet. after giving sarah palin her own reality show a series about her favorite hair salon in wasilla. the series premiere and finale were last night since the only two episodes made were aired back-to-back. disney world in orlando will host the first avatar land will begin by 2013. with two more avatar films on the way, we may see more in the future. global stock markets selling off and we're expecting the same thing in just a few minutes. alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. what is causing all these investers to get pretty nervous today. >> the reason, the sad state of

the economy, kyra. when the bell rings in about five minutes, expect the dow to drop at least 200 points. nasdaq and s&p are expected to drop 2% today. this is the following the action that we've seen overseas and asian markets closed down 2% to 5% and european markets losing 5% each. part of the reason we're seeing this worldwide selloff is because of what the fed said yesterday. a lot of things that are hitting growth here in the u.s., including issues overseas and then overnight some reports came out. weak manufacturing reports from china and europe and, you know what, when you put everybody together and you put china together with the u.s. and europe, all these countries really drive the global economy and we're all in the same boat. jobless claims fell by a fewer number than wall street had been expecting, not hoping to give anyone inspiration to buy into the market today, kyra. >> let me ask you what is going on with hp. that is also making some news today. >> it is. talk that the board may kick out

its current chief executive. they may end up bringing in megwhitman. that corporate celebrity who is best known for running ebay, as well as running for governor for california. she earned ebay from a $5 million company into one with an annual revenue of $8 billion. at this point, hp not commenting. shares of hewlett-packard 7% on that news. has been ceo for only less than an year, he had trouble giving hp an identity at this point and hewlett-packa hewlett-packard, you know tried this tablet computer and that didn't catch on, recently it killed it. hp at this point considering getting rid of hardware business. computers don't make much any more, they're trying to push into software. this is one of the companies that was really, really strong and has had quite a downfall recently. >> opening markets in just about a minute and a half. we'll take it for you.

also, have you logged on to facebook recently. big changes and not everyone is really happy about it. we'll explain why that's taking place, next. ♪

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announcer: cook foods to the right temperature using a food thermometer. 3,000 americans will die from food poisoning this year. check your steps at foodsafety.gov. all right. any second now, there we go. dow industrials actually the numbers just popped up after the opening bell. ran about 30 second ago. dow industrials already in negative territory. we were worried about this because the talk has been that it's going to be a pretty bad day and the numbers are continuing to go down. alison kosik is watching it for us. we'll talk to her. is she ready? let's do it. alison kosik we were guessing it was going to be a pretty bad day today. look, the numbers have taken off in a pretty negative way. already down 161 points. >> exactly. and falling as we speak. we're close to 200 points now

down on the dow. we got an indication that this would happen yesterday here in the u.s. markets. when the fed came out with its statement after having its two-day policy meeting announcing this stimulus program to buy, to sell-off its short-term bonds and buy longerterm bonds and something that wall street had expected. in its statement, the fed pretty much said expect the economy to continue to be weaker in the future and that kind of sentence, when wall street reads into it, it's not good. what happened after that? asian markets closed lower 2% to 5% and watching european markets lose 5% each. a lot of this is just sort of feeding off each other and as we see the dow down 234 points. >> and diving. alis alison, please, stay up for us. appreciate it. facebook is holding faith conference and today we'll hear about pretty big changes but if you've been on facebook already

you've seen changes that have taken place. dan, tell us exactly what's new. >> kyra, first of all, let me say any time facebook made changes in the past, always a bit of a learning curve and some growns but this time it is a bit different. facebook has 750 million users and a lot of them are ticked off. let me talk to you about the two major changes that you're now seeing on the facebook page. they have fundamentally altered the way you experience the site. when you go to what is called the news feed, they have changed their formula and changed the theiring aal rhythm. they're deciding for you what is most important. second, they have added what is called a ticker, that is on the right-hand side of the screen. all the real-time updates that your friends are doing, you're now going to see on the ticker. people think these changes are

confusing and they don't quite understand them and some people think that the site is now a bit cluttered. the question is whether people overtime will accept them or facebook will have to make some changes. we'll have to see what happens, kyra. >> you're getting in the idea of what mark zuckerberg is going to say today. can you brief us on that? >> well, this is the annual f8 conference. this is the conference for developers. no doubt zuckerberg will talk about the changes, but also expected to make major announcements, specifically with regards to music. we believe that soon you'll be able to listen to music right on facebook and share music with your friends and experience music in a virtual way in realtime with your friends and that is supposed to be the major announcement today and also make it easier to share video with your friends and also some changes to facebook credits. that's the currency that people use on facebook as well as changes to its mobile offerings. the activities started at 10:00

a.m. local time and mark zuckerberg taking the stage here live in san francisco. we'll update our audiences later in the day, kyra? >> we'll wait for it, dan, thanks so much. christina warren writes for the tech website mashable.com. some users are already coming forward and saying they're annoyed by these revisions. what exactly are they saying and what have you been receiving as feedback? >> well, in nashville we ran a poll, i guess it was two days ago asking people if they love or hate the new design or if they're ambivalent and so far 10,000 people have responded and 75% of them said they hate the new look. a lot of people said it's changed how they use the site and they can't find news the way they used to. if things don't change back, other users a little more understanding. saying they'll get used to. the general consensus is unhappy. >> do me a favor and stand by. alison kosik i have to bring you

in, we're watching these numbers. the dow is just tanking down 316 points. since you and i talked a few minutes ago, it just keeps getting worse. the feds spoke yesterday and we're seeing the reaction. >> exactly. and when we talked about what the fed did yesterday, announcing the stimulus program. you know, a lot of people taking sort of two sides with the stimulus program. it's sort of being dubbed operation twist. what that means is that the fed is going to go ahead and look at its trillion dollar balance sheet and take $400 billion and sell $400 billion worth of short-term bonds and buy longer-term bonds. the idea is to push down long-term interest rates and try to spark more people to refinance their mortgage and get people to invest and expand and hopefully hire. hopefully this round about way that the fed is thinking they can get businesses to hire. when you think about where the economy is right now, we need jobs in this economy. this is kind of a way around it to kind of spark that kind of

job creation. but many people are saying, you know what, this program, this big program that the fed announced yesterday is really not going to do enough. besides that, besides this program, the fed came out in its statement yesterday saying that we could be in for a rough one as far as economic groelwth goe. when you see that kind of statement from the fed, that can really spook the markets and that began the selloff yesterday when we saw the dow fall. we saw that selloff yesterday and we're seeing it continue today following in the footsteps of markets overnight and the asian markets and european markets right now, kyra. >> we'll keep watching it. dow industrials down 317 points. it is going to be an ugly day, plain and simple. we'll tell all of you, our viewers -- go ahead, alison. >> no, go ahead. i'm agreeing with you. you'll see the selloff kind of feed, everybody sort of feeding on what happened on the overseas markets and it's really hard to see where this will stop, at

least for today. if we get good news from somewhere, that could stop this kind of selloff, but i don't see that happening any time soon. >> we'll keep our fingers crossed. in the meantime, alison, thanks so much. another story developing for us. i just talked with ben wedemen by phone just a moment ago outside the town of sabha in libya. he found evidence of radio active material. ben wedemen on the phone with us, again. ben, any idea who this belonged to? i know you came across it on this military base and is there any signs that it has been used? >> yeah, this is, as you've said, not a military base. what it appears to be is yellow tape, which is one of the sort of uranium compound that is one of the precursors that eventually after much refining can become radio active material

or nuclear material for a weapon. but it's really just the initial thing. now, according to the international atomic energy agency, they are aware, or were aware of this site that it did contain nuclear material or atomic material and, in fact, we did find one piece of hand written paper that said 350,000 tons declared. which would indicate that somehow this is what libyan government, when it in 2004 decided to come clean on it, nuclear weapons program, declared that they possessed this material. they say yellow cake. obviously, the site is lightly guarded. at this point i just had a conversation with a field commander who said they are very eager for the international community to come in and help them identify this material and,

they hope, take it away from here because it's relatively close to the city and they're worried it could cause an environmental disaster, if there was any sort of explosion on this site. kyra? >> can you tell us exactly who has been guarding this and what they've told you with regard to what it was going to be used for, if it's been used at all, ben? >> well, we've seen evidence that there has been activity on this site. we found a garbage bag with gloves, rubber gloves in it, which clearly had been used qui quite recently. now, the ntc, the rebels took over this site just yesterday afternoon. and, so, it's clearly been abandoned for a few days, but not too many days because it was only day before yesterday that this area fell to the rebel fighters. and, so, now, it's guarded by a

dozen fighters that have come in to try to improve the security here. it's not just yellow cake, it's also a lot of very old surface to old missiles and nearby kr s crates and crates of rocket launched missiles. this is typical of what we've seen in traveling around libya. arms depots wide open to whoever wants to come in. this is a big difference given that it contains radio active material. kyra? >> ben wedemen calling into us from the town or just outside the town of sabha there in libya. we'll continue to follow that story as you find more information. also, we're watching your money and the numbers right now. not looking good on wall street. still in negative territory and dow industrials down 286 points, it's expected to get worse. we're watching the numbers closely. she has kind of funny looking toes.

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well, we're just a few minutes into trading on wall street and investors brace for what could be a pretty rough day. looking at the big board right now dow industrials down 322 points. christine romans we sort of expected it wasn't going to be a good day. can we rally or is going to get worse? >> look, late yesterday you had the fed come out and announce its new stimulus measure called "operation twist." what the fed said about the economy late yesterday, the fed said that there are significant downside risks in the u.s. and that really spooked investors. to the rest of the world, that means that the u.s. is facing a rough patch in its economy and it comes at a time when europe is facing problems from greece and china is showing signs of slowing down. around the world, you have this sort of fear that it's hard to find good news. it's hard to find any good

reasons why economies are going to be growing robustly and unemployment is going to decline. that's what you're seeing in this market. overseas, you saw markets move down overnight. the hang seng index was down. it shows you an awful lot of fear. shanghai down almost 3% and tokyo down, london down and paris down 5% each. here in the u.s., before the markets even opened, we had losses for the year. the s&p 500 is probably, kyra, the stocks in your 401(k) probably most closely match the s&p 500. the s&p 500 for the year was already down about 7%. you can see the stock market has been telling us that there's fear about just how anemic the u.s. economy is here right now and nothing that the fed said yesterday has swayed those fears. again, what i'm hearing from my sources and from economists and from people who were watching the mood in the market, they're

having a hard time finding anything looks good about the global economy. most recent piece of economic news, the jobless claims report. slightly people filed for unemployment benefits but still 423,000. that's too many in a healthy economy. >> dow industrials down 345 points right now. christine, we'll keep talking. no matter where the markets close today, a lot of people believe it's god's will. according to the baylor religion survey that came out this week, 20% of americans, or one in five think that god controls the economy. paul froze is a sociology professor at baylor and co-authored that survey. paul, let me ask you, if there is a significant number of people out there think the economy works because god wants it to work, how do these people explain what we're seeing today? the reasoning behind such a horrible economy. is it that god is punishing us? >> that's a good question. complicated question.

the baylor religion surveys are great because they have lots of questions about god and what we're finding, as you said, about a fifth think that god is guiding the economy. but those fifth also think that god is an economic conservative. so that god favors the free market, lack of government regulation, low taxation. so, it could be that these people also believe that when the market is not doing well, that there's something going on with the government interfering in this. for these people, god's plan is for the economy to do well. >> now, economic conservatism, as you say, becoming a matter of faith. how did this all begin? >> that's a very complicated question. >> am i asking too many complicated questions for a four-minute interview? i guess this would take an hour. much deeper conversation. >> well, you know, i do have something to say on this point and that is kind of popular

narrative is that a lot of religious believers began to vote republican in the '80s for value reasons. things like abortion and then later gay marriage. what we're finding in these latest results is that a lot of these religious americans also have faith in economic conservati conservatism. they see that as a value. >> well, you sort of touched on my next question, you write about this split between how more or less religious people view economic policy being evidenced by political rhetoric and you kind of went there a little bit when you were talking about certain issues. explain that more when obama speaks or a michele bachmann speaks. >> sure. i just want to clarify before i go there that i'm not talking about religious versus nonreligious people. i'm talking about people who have different ideas about god. for instance, most americans believe god but most people

think god is controlling the united states and guiding the united states. where as other religious believers don't think that. so, i think you can see this in the rhetoric of the presidential candidates right now. so, for instance, a rick perry or michele bachmann, they talk very directly about god and they link that directly to their economic conservatism. and for the people who are probably going to vote for them, they think that economic conservatism is part of their faith. whereas, take president obama, he also, of course, quotes scripture and talks about god, but doesn't really link god to any economic policy. i think that's a big difference you can see in their rhetoric. >> paul froese, thanks for joining me tonight, or this morning. you can read more about the baylor religion survey on our belief blog, cnn.com/belief an if you like, join the comment. dow industrials down 360 points

cht we kind of braced for an ugly day. back in just a moment. the postal service is critical to our economy-- delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it.

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looking at the dow industrials, we're continuing to watch trading on wall street. down 353 points. going to be a rough day. we are going to follow it with christine romans and alison kosik throughout the morning. quick break.

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let's check in first with kate bolduan. >> after a surprising vote in the house and a blow to house republican leaders, congress is inching closer to another government shutdown. more details at the top of the hour. >> watching the big selloff in stocks. the dow jones industrial down about 351 points. the reason, the fed, job seekers. the people who are job creators don't see much to be happy about this morning. the inside track on how kate, the duchess of cambridge, is being prepared by the palace for her future royal role. >> thanks so much.

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try nourish plus haircare. only from aveeno. stories making news today, roughly half an hour, pope benedict addresses the german

parliament. mahmoud ahminedjad addresses the u.n. general assembly around noon and 2:30 eastern in cincinnati, president obama takes up his jobs bill. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com it's just about the top of the hour and this morning, we begin with politics and your pocketbook. wall street plunging more than 300 points. down 372 points and washington may be teetering on the brink of gridlock. kate bolduan will talk us about the threat of a new government shutdown, but first, christine. well, why is the market tanking to this point right now? >> well, you know, you look around the world and i ask traders, why shouldn't it be? they can't find any reasons to be optimistic about the direction of growth in the u.s. and the rest of the world. one trader told me, congress is dysfunctional, greece near

default and china is slowing. also got oil down sharply. gold down sharply. it's as if investors are jumping out of all sorts of different products at the moment here just getting out of the way of the market. a dow down 369 points. we've seen a lot of volatility over the past few months. it's not that unusual to have a triple digit move, but this would be the third day in a row down for stocks. it hinges on what the fed said yesterday. the fed announced operation twist. a new short-term stimulus for the market, but what investors and market participants are saying, these days, it's not about what the fed or government can do to make things better, it's they have to do things so that it doesn't get worse. the fed also yesterday, three keywords everyone's talking about. significant downside risks facing the u.s. economy. banking stocks. most everything is down.

banking stocks, financial stocks really getting hit as are the big, heavy cyclical stocks, the companies that do better or worse depending on how the economy's doing in general. >> thanks so much. let's go to washington now and the threat of that new government shutdown. it was a tense round of voting and lawmakers in the house rejected the spend iing bill. it's a move that surprised even the republican leaders. kate bolduan's been talking about that from the hill. the government due to run out of money at the end of the month. tell us about the inner workings here behind the scenes. >> house leaders are scrambling. they worked late into the evening and this morning to really figure out what's next and that is not clear. the vote was 195-230. 48 republicans, 48 members of the majority of the house actually voted to reject this bill. joining a majority of the democrats in the house to reject this bill. this is a bill that's very much needed because it would -- the government continues to --

>> all right, we've lost our connection there with kate bolduan on the hill. we will work to reconnect. are we back? kate? i apologize. go ahead. >> can you hear me? >> yes, we're okay. >> apologize for that. >> someone didn't like what i was saying. here we go again. this is a bill, a short-term spending bill that comes with additional funding for federal disaster aid. the country's been dealing with flooding, tornados, wildfires, that everyone agees is needed, but here's the problem. house republican leader rs are dealing with two problems. one on the democrat side. democrats are not happy with the amount of funding for fema. they are also not happy that house republican leaders are demanding some of the money be off set, being paid for from a program called job creator.

it helps to make more fuel efficient vehicles. on the other side, there's a big group of house conservative republicans not happy with the overall number. they say it doesn't cut spending enough. they're scrambling to figure this out. they are trying to assure the public they don't believe there will be a shutdown. number two republican in the house, eric cantor, he told republicans, told reporters that last night and said that. he said, we're trying to affect change in a way that we spend taxpayer dollars. that's what this whole thing is about, he says. no one is denying anyone disaster aid if they need it and we're trying to be responsible and to do the right thing, but as you said, here's the key. the government does run out of funding a week from this saturday. the house and senate are supposed to go on recess starting friday, tomorrow. they're scrambling now to try to figure out what to do. house republicans are threatening there may be a weekend session. >> thanks and we're continuing

to watch those numbers plunge. dough industrials down 333 points right now. christine romans, obviously, the fears have not gone away and then after the we heard from the fed yesterday, it only renewed those fears and we're seeing the result here. >> what we need to return is confidence. that's something in short supply. when you hear the fed say significant downside risks remain, when you look at greece, no matter what happens right now, it will be painful for europe. china's manufacturing, three straight quarters in a row. the chinese engine, which has been so support, has been limping along, that as well. so around the world, you look for bright spots and you see a lack of confidence. we know companies have $2 trillion of cash on the sidelines and in a few weeks, we're going to start getting

their quarterly report cards and many analysts are telling me companies aren't going to be showing such great profit growth. they road the wave by cost cutting and a little improvement, but can't ride it much more. so, where does the confidence come from? there's also a lack of confidence to sort of dove tail on what kate was talking about. lack of confidence in washington. a lack of confidence in the political process that i think has been highlights since the downgrade from s&p and the whole brings man ship over the debt ceiling and there's concern about the supercommittee deadline. just a very profound lack of confidence and abundance of caution. >> you say we're looking for those bright spots. what are the bright spots we need to see? when can we expect a turn around? what needs to happen to see that turn around?

>> here's a good bit of analysis from ken bro goff. he said it's going to take a period of ten years, but it will happen. there will be a recovery. maybe not know, but it will happen. he said the next president will take credit for that probably wrongly because it's going to happen no matter what, but there will be a recovery. what's happening now is we can't imagine that day because we still know too many people that don't have a job. we don't feel secure in our own job. we're watching our retirement benefits sort of dwindle. you've had the s&p 500 down 7% for the year before this happened, so you're negative on the year probably in the stocks and your portfolio. it's just kind of eating away at us, but it will get better. time heals all wounds in the economy and that's what we have to just be waiting for. i don't know what's going to be that thing that triggers the confidence to return, but when it happens, i predict the little bell rings, you can see a lot of

money moving off the sidelines. >> all right, christine romans, we're still going to watch those numbers. we're going to check in with you every so often through the next 45 minutes. thanks so much. once again, dow industrials in negative territory. expecting a pretty bad day. in new york, protests are expected today in manhattan as iranian president ahminedjad is scheduled to speak before the general assembly around noon. this is video from last year and the anti ahminedjad protest. a group called united against nuclear iran says it wants to make sure the iranian never get a nuclear weapon. all eyes will be on the iranian president as he makes his speech. the palestinian push for state hood is going forward. richard roth covering the big stories out of the u.n. today.

you remember when we spoke last year and what a controversy that created, wondering if it will any different this time around. >> well, i've been here for several years of the president's remarks and i think some of the pizazz or luster or crazyness has gone out, but it's notable we've had this revolution sweep through the middle east world and protests did take place months ago in iran. egypt, libya, that has not happened in iran. the president of iran has often said there should be people's freedom should be defended, but not really through these mass protests. the iranian leader has made many iraqs that have caused diplomats to walk out of the general assembly. in an interview last night with iranian television, he talked about the relationship between u.s. and iran. >> iranian and americans have no problem with each other and

today, a large number of iranian are living in america and there are americans who have chosen to live in iran. both groups have no problem with each other. the problem of relations between the countries is because of american politicians and rulers who have unilaterally cut off relations with iran. >> the iranian leader was timing his appearance here to hopefully in his view, get the release of those two u.s. hikers. ahminedjad is not exactly as popular in other circles high up in iran, so he's fighting battles on different fronts. he's hoping to get an image boost here in the united states, but the release of two u.s. hikers is probably not going to do much considering the suspicions about iran's nuclear program and his inflammatory remarks. >> we will be waiting for the speech and we'll talk i'm sure before and right after. for the first time in more than two years, a pair of american hikers wake up to

freedom. as you can see, shane bauer and josh fattal couldn't wait to get down those steps and down the arms into their loved ones. their arrival in oman came just hours after being released from the iranian prison. american leaders had spent nearly a week lobbying for their release. they were convicted of spying. coming up, higher education for higher incomes. a new study suggests that american universities prefer students with money instead of those needing financial aid. we're going to tell you about a church in nnew jersey that's just giving it away.

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my grocery bill isn't wasteful spending. my heart medication isn't some political game. our retirement isn't a simple budget line item. i worked hard. i paid into my medicare. and i earned my social security. now, instead of cutting waste and loopholes, washington wants to cut our benefits. that wasn't the agreement. join the members of aarp and tell washington to stop cuts to our medicare and social security benefits. a network of possibilities. excuse me? my grandfather was born in this village. [ cellphone translating ] [ male announcer ] in here, everyone speaks the same language. ♪ in here, forklifts drive themselves. ♪ look at the map. okay. [ male announcer ] in here, friends leave you messages written in the air. that's it right there. [ male announcer ] it's the at&t network. and what's possible in here is almost impossible to say.

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all year, we've been bringing you some remarkable people. today, cnn is announcing the top ten heroes for 2011. logon to cnnheroes.com and vote for the one who inspires you the most. last night in tacoma, washington, striking teachers say they've agreed in part o a new labor deal. teachers will vote to ratify the agreement today and could be teaching by tomorrow. a couple of cincinnati football players being questioned about a package allegedly containing marijuana. it was mailed to their homes. police allegedly found six more pounds of pot inside the homes in kentucky. pass the collection plate and grab some cash. a church in kentucky is giving

away $30,000 to parishioners. the pastor says it's his way of giving back. money talks, especially for college students. a new survey suggests that admissions to american universities are easy for those who can afford to pay their tuition. christine romans, you've had a busy day today. this is just yet another sign of the tough economy. >> it is, i sit here and tell you all the time about how a higher education is a buffer for you against unemployment. the unemployment for people with a bachelor's degree is like 4.6%, half the national average. you've got to go to college, but this new survey, they surveyed admissions officers, more than half admitted that they're looking for students who can pay the full cost with no financial aid. they don't want kids that have to worry about getting financial aid. more than half said that.

why? because of the economy. they're getting pressure from administrators they need to make thur sure they're going to get paid and money can trump smarts, grades, even your student record in some cases. 10% of cases, it's more important to have the cash on hand in the bank than it is to have the straight as. that shows you that if you have money, you have a better chance of getting in, although there's another edge. that some students do have an edge that isn't financial. they're looking for minority students. athletes, veterans, children of alum alumni, international students and you'll appreciate this one. men over women for balance. even if they're grades and their academic record aren't as good because there are so many smart, overachieving middle class girls going to college whose parents can afford to pay. >> i don't like they're picking less qualified men over women

that are smart and way above the average mark. it took us a while to break the glass ceiling. we don't want to go backwards. >> i guess that must be a sign of our success. not in all cases. mostly, your record trumps everything else, but it shows you the financial straits the country is in. a lot of kids are having to drop out because they can't afford the last year or there's such a scramble for financial aid. schools are having to give so much. more than half the admission officers in this inside higher education survey admitted, yep, they're looking for kids who can pay in full. >> dow industrials, still in negative territory, down 316 points. you're watching the numbers for us. thanks, christine. how does a royal know how to act like a royal? in kate middleton's case, she's getting some crash courses. we've got the details.

plus, death threats against gerard butler. the actor opens up in showbiz headlines. [ female announcer ] lactaid milk is easy to digest. it's real milk full of calcium and vitamin d. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk.

kate middleton has only been a royal for a few months, but it can be pretty tough work, so guess what? she's about to get some tutoring. max foster actually went to the class. he's going to tell us what the duchess is going to go through. that's why max is so well behaved and such a classy man. >> so poll light. i wish i had gone to the classes. calling it a program and the duchess will become a princess and she'll ultimately become the queen if everything goes as

planned, so there's lots to learn. this program involves learning about the charitiable causes of life. tutorials, one-on-ones with people. experts in the media, government, the r arts and also essentially getting to know the charities that she might want to get involved in. because royals defined by their causes, really, so she's going to be finding out about them and we'll expect an announcement about who she's supporting. huge amount of interest at having kate on board. she brings so much media interest. >> and princess diana, she came forward and talked about there was a lack in this type of training. she was so young and inexperienced. what did she say and is that why we're seeing these royal lessons now? >> well, you wonder, don't you? she did famsly complain to

friends that she was thrown into being princess of wales overnight and wasn't given any help. this is different. we saw this during the wedding, actually. diana was told that she just had to have the wedding she was going to have kate middleton, however, completely organized hers, so there does seem to have a shift in the way palaces treat their young royals now. looking at the royal wedding list, she asked for money to be given to charities. bullying charity, she was said to be bullied at school, so maybe that's a cause she's foal low. she's very interested in army widows and military wives and how she can support them and also, arts and young people. how you can use arts to unlock the potential of young people. we saw that on her trip to l.a. recently. she's in training. >> kate said that she was bullied? >> yeah, she we want to a school for a short period of time, a

secondary school, and rumor has it that she was bullied there and moved quickly on to another school. she's given a lot of support to anti bullying charities. she never denied it. >> and look at her now. max, thanks. doctor going on trial for michael jackson's death is getting support and sympathy from someone who's been there himself. a.j. hammer has the details for us. hey, a.j. >> yeah, as the conrad murray trial gets rolling in los angeles, it's really raising a lot of questions about the behavior of personal physicians when you have celebrities involved. kareen winter got an interview with dr. kipur, who was accused of illegally providing drugs to anna nicole smith. he's now expressing sympathy for dr. murray. he was acquitted of the charges he faced, but here's what he had to say about murray.

>> i don't think he's a monster. he's a physician. a cardiologiscardiologist. he meant well. he has a patient base that he's done a lot of great things for. i don't think he's a monster by any means. >> and he also says he doesn't doubt murray had the best intentions, but did say it looked like murray walked into a very bad situation and that's why he is where he is now. >> what's up with these death threats against gerard butler? >> he wants to clear the air on this. if you listen to butler, the story doesn't amount o much. he has a new film coming out where he plays a hells angels member where he converts to christianity. it's based on a true story, so a movie about a christian converting muslim orphans is causing controversy and several outlets were reporting death

rhetts against butler. "showbiz tonight" caught up to butler and he says the story is a whole lot of nothing. >> no, that's not true. that's not true. i was talking about i'm a previous experience on 300, that happened a little bit. then somebody suddenly, that's what happens when you do a thousand interviews. >> so just a lot of confusion according to gerard there. >> brad pitt, apparently some confusion here. he had made some comments about jennifer jennifer aniston, now, this could possibly impact his new movie? >> there had been speculation that these comments could keep women away from the film. i'm not sure it's going to be a leadoff of impact. of course, we're talking about the recent interview pitt gave where he said he was living a boring life before he met

angelina jolie. pitt has since tried to clarify saying he was talking about his own problems, he wasn't targeting jen. he told matt lauer on the "today" show he was trying to say something nice about jolie. it looks fantastic. >> i saw the trailer, too. i have the itch to see it as well. thanks. want anything breaking in the entertainment world? a.j.'s got it, every night. "headline news." coming up, rick santorum not happy with google. you'll see why.

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georgia executed troy davis last night for the killing of a police officer. witnesses say davis told the officer's family he was not responsible for the killing. iranian president mahmoud ahminedjad addresses the u.n. general assembly about an hour and a half from now. his appearance comes one day after iran released two american hikers and the dow joining a huge global selloff. futures down 312 points. worries over the world economy and weak jobs report prompted the slide we're seeing right now. all right. political buzz. rapid fire look at the best political topic at the day. playing today, democratic national committee member robert zimmerman, comcast bureau chief and will cain. mitt romney tells "usa today" that he hopes sarah palin jumps into the race and says -- all

right. so, should he be a little careful what he wishes for? will? >> no, i'm just surprised he's being so transparent. i've said should sarah palin get in, the biggest fist bump would be romney. she splits it up three ways. they also have claims to the tea party vote. leaving mitt romney with the rest. i think he should -- he would be very excited. he should just be a little careful about cheerleading it. >> robert. >> will absolutely nailed it. for romney to encourage sarah palin to the race is his political version of fantasy baseball because he needs sarah palin to divide the tea party vote and undercut rick perry. as long as romney believes in the future of social security

and science and climate change, he's an outsider. >> robert t. >> >> i agree. it would be a gift that would keep on giving for romney and the reason why is because of all the messages we heard a few moments ago. but having sarah palin in the race makes romney look like the grown-up in the room. so, you know, mitt romney is crazy like a fox if in fact sarah palin gets into the race. >> worldwide protests over troy davis' execution. what do you think? will the national debate over the death penalty become a campaign issue? >> clearly, the issue of the death penalty should be addressed in the legislative process. there are so many states that have to rewrite their laws. in the case of troy davis, so many eyewitnesses recant their testimony. so change is the process. unfortunately though, there is not the political will by either party to address this issue and there's not sustained public

demand. >> will? >> 64% sh, that's the number to know. 2010 gallup poll, the percentage of americans that support the death penalty. only 29% oppose it. while we can expect politicians to sometimes not take up popular issues, they will never take up unpopular issues. there is not political will and therefore, it won't be an issue in this campaign. >> robert? >> it's always an issue in the presidential debates. lawrence brewer, does anyone remember who he is or was? he is the person that took james byrd jr., wrapped him around a chain, put him on the back of a truck and drove for five miles and decapitated him. he was executed just last night. just very interest iposition of who may have been innocent and someone that plead. >> 20 seconds on this one.

if you google rick santorum's name, the first result you'll get is not his personal website, but a fake definition of santorum. sexual by-product that's a little too graphic to talk about on our show. what's the worst thing that would come up with if we googled your name, robert z.? >> thanks for putting me first. a few years ago, a rather prominent blogger kept referring to me as botox bob zimmerman. >> is it true, bob? is it true? >> i have nothing against it. in fact, i'm saving up for it, but i haven't had any work done yet. >> will, go ahead, fess up. what kind of plastic surgery have you had? >> none. my favorite topic, me. if you were to look me up, i would imagine you'd see some string of liberal bloggers who said who is this kid that doesn't have enough respect for eliot spitzer when he debates

him on this ill fated show, or who is this rhino in support of gay marriage? >> oh, boy. robert, i'm scared to ask. if we googled your name -- >> this overweight black kid who thinks he can dance on national television. when i googled my name a couple of days ago, that's what came up. i can dance, maybe not like some people out there, but i can dance. >> cue the music. >> let's see. >> believe me, he's moving it right now. >> i'm writing him in for "dancing with the stars" for next season. >> a dancer, a guy with botox and a guy that looks like he's 16. this is fantastic. see you, guys. >> i put on my big boy tie. facebook is holding its annual fake conference and apparently, we're going to hear about a lot of major changes, but if you've been on facebook recently, you've probably already seen a bumpbl of

changes. dan? >> facebook has 750 million users and they managed to tick off a bunch with their new changes. they have fundamentally changed the interface when you logon. first of all, the news feed, what they've done is taken the most important posts or the posts you think will be important and put those on the news feed, then established this ticker on the right hand side of the screen. these are all the realtime status updates. some think these changes are confusing and they wished they could go back to the old facebook. the company thinks that over time, you'll appreciate them and get used to it, we'll just see what happens. mark zuckerberg here taking the stage in a couple of hours. this is the f8 annual conference. he'll talk about some of the changes and new features that will be unveiled shortly. >> mark zuckerberg, you have an idea of what he's going to say.

>> we think facebook is really going to expand its music offerings, where you'll be able to listen to music on facebook and share your favorite songs and maybe even experience music with your frepds in realtime. that could be a very innovative part of the site. also expected to make video offerings, and perhaps the long awaited ipad app that i know many people would like to see. there hasn't been an ipad app for facebook, at least an official one. again, taking the stage in a couple of hours. 1:00 eastern time. will be showing that live or at least sending it back to our folks in atlanta and we'll be updating our folks later in the day. sounds good. we'll take it. >> it's a terror group you may never have heard of, but it has been stepping up attacks on u.s. targets and troops in afghanistan. now, the u.s. is calling on an ally for help. you can't change the way banking works.

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taking stories across ko across-country, someone is tagging southwest airlines planes and the company wants to know who's doing it. the vandalism began in february. knxb reports the markings appear to be arabic words. in new york city, the controversial islamic center held its first visit last night, displaying a collection of photographs of immigrant children. the developer pointing out the featured photographer is jewish. from newbury, michigan, 99-year-old george harris received his diploma. the state only got around to giving him the sheep skin. he says he hopes his story inspires younger people to stay in school. just minutes ago, the chairman of the joints chief of staff accused pakistan's

intelligence service of helping a terrorist group and its mission to kill americans. the group recently attacked the u.s. embassy in afghanistan and our barbara starr takes a closer look. >> cnn has learned that the cia and pentagon agreed last year that the spy agency would step arm drone attacks inside pakistan against a terrorist network known as the h ara send fighters across the border of afghanistan to kill american troops and attack high profile targets like the u.s. embassy in kabul. it began after general petraeus went to the cia for help acco according to a senior u.s. official. u.s. troops cannot cross into pakistan. cia drones for now are the only way to get to ha qa ni strong held. the obama administration has pushed to go after the

stronghold to no avail. now, u.s. officials are showing little patience to wait any longer. >> we cannot have them coming across the border, attacking afghanist afghanistanis then disappears. >> u.s. officials say elements of pakistan's intelligence services are sheltering the group. once again raising questions if pakistani inaction is risking the lives of u.s. troops. >> been doing this working, supporting proxies for an extended period of time. it is a strategy in the country. and i think that strategic approach has to shift in the future. >> this pakistan border town is the center of concern. they say commanders are headquartered in a religious school here that cannot be

attacked. a pakistani intelligence unit is a short distance away and the afghanistan border is in eyesight. now, the cia director, petraeus wednesday told the pakistani intelligence chief to crack down. u.s. military options remain limited. >> conceivably, you can imagine the united states launching ground raids by special forces or others against the havens. all of those things would require a substantial change in the nature of our relationship with pakistan. >> now, pakistan officials are denying the relationship. their ties to the network, but as you said just a short time ago on capitol hill, admiral mullen said pakistani intelligence and haq aani is are tied together. >> thanks. coming up, the feds call the online gambling site, full tilt, a ponzi scheme.

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millions of online poker players ripped off to the tune of 44 million bucks and the feds are blaming full tilt poker and some of its celebrity players like chris ferguson for taking the profits. prosecutors are calling it a ponzi scheme. greg is a professional poker player. he's pretty stunned by the news. why? >> i know a lot of these guys personally, so if these allegations are accurate and the

player deposits added up to $390 million, but full tilt only had $60 million in cash, then that's a big mistake and a really bad action on their part and since i know some of these guys personally, i'm just surprised that they could be guilty of such a thing. i'm still waiting for the evidence and the proof that these facts as alleged are true, but i'm going to be surprised either way. >> you say you know like howard letterer and chris ferguson. so, you're saying these guys are not shady. >> yeah, and you know, i know chris ferguson probably best of all the high profile people that were involved in full tilt poker and i would just be shocked if he was doing something knowingly unethical because he is just always been one of the most straightforwa straightforward, honest guys i've ever met in the poker world, legal world and scientific world. >> barry boss, the attorney says that the fact that there may

have been mistakes made by management does not mean that a ponzi or that a business becomes a ponzi scheme. so do you believe it was innocent mistakes or did these guys know exactly what they were doing? this is a site that i believe grossed about a million bucks a day at some point, right? >> that would certainly be the estimate that their gross revenues might have reached a million a day at some point in time. i just don't know the facts and i don't accept it as true just because it was alleged by a u.s. attorney. >> you know the business. you've been right inside. you've been the boca poerk champ. have jou ever witnessed any shady activity that's -- activity like what's being alleged here? >> nothing quite like this. we had a scandal a few years ago where one of the other sites, it turned out that a former owner had sold the economy, kind

company, kind of maintained the back door to see the cards and plays. the real issue is that all of this really highlights the need for tough u.s. regular ligs. right now, we're outsourcing the relllation to other countries, other legalities, so we've got costa rica and gibb ralter and so on that are regulating the online poker sites. certainly that's not the countries we would turn to to outsource the fda and decide which drugs are safe and effective. >> but if you regulate, if you've got the government regulate the online, doesn't that change the dynamics of the game? critics have come forward saying yeah, they'll eventually shut it all down. >> that's the whole point. thai been trying to shut it down, but it's still going on and that leaves american consumers at risk because dwoent have anyone to turn to. if these allegations are correct, if full tilt poker was

behave l inappropriately, what do we do about it? they're not in the u.s. we can't sue as consumers and get our money back. that's why we want congress to pass a bill to license and regulate online poker. that's one of the things that a regulator ought to do is require the site to maintain cash reserves sufficient to reimburse the players. the other big site that was taken down on black friday we call it, april 15th, when the u.s. attorneys first filed this indictment was poker stars. their regulator, the al of man, required them to keep that money in cash and all the american customers that were shut out of that site were returned their money. >> right, we'll see what happens with full tilt. >> that was a good regulator. we want the u.s. to be a good regulator like that as well. >> see how this plays out. thanks. alison kosik going to check our money at the new york stock exchange, next.

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stocks plunging after the u.s. fed reserve issued a weak assessment on our economy. dow industrials down 337 points right now. >> and i don't know, when the fed talks, people listen and it's clear now that the fed is really getting more concerned about the economy. what's happened is the fed had this policy meeting yesterday issuing a statement and most of the time, the statement is usually the same. but this time, there was a real change in wording. i want to show you what it is. yesterday's said there are significant downside risks to the economic outlook. that certainly caught everybody by surprise.

because when you look back at what they said in august, the committee now expects a somewhat slower pace of recovery over the coming quarters. you see that small change in language, but that slower pace of recovery versus significant is what really spooked the markets yesterday because it doesn't sound big, but for the fed, it is big. these are the nation's top economists and what they say is sometimes treated as gospel. >> thanks. coming up, meet a remarkable woman who's working three jobs to support her kids right now. hear why she considers herself lucky and the message she has for unemployed americans. kin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno. whose non-stop day starts with back pain... and a choice. take advil now and maybe up to four in a day. or choose aleve and two pills for a day free of pain.

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good job girls. ask your rheumatologist if enbrel is right for you. ron paul making an appeal to fellow veterans in a new ad. mark? >> there's been a lot of talk in this race for the republican presidential nomination about the economy and social security. we haven't really heard any direct appeals to veterans, but we're going to see that today. ron paul is spending $1 million on a new 60-second tv ad where he makes this direct appeal. in this ad, he chose a couple of veterans who talked about how ron paul went to bat for them. these are vietnam veterans, and got them their medals years after their service in vietnam. ron paul is a veteran himself of the air force.

pretty big ad. the ad will be running in four key states. south carolina, new hampshire, iowa and florida as well. i'm sorry, what i was going to make the quick turn on mitt romney. >> a new endorsement. >> a big endorsement and interesting endorsement. we see these candidates rolling out these endorsements every day. but this one's interesting. it's darrell issa. he is the chairman of one of the committees on capitol hill that has oversight over the administration and darrell issa, to say he's attack dog of the obama administration would be very light. in fact, let's listen or look at a couple of things that he has done reports on the obama administration. a report on the obama green jobs program failures. issa has also put another one out called obama regulations putting family ranchers at risk. so big endorsement for mitt romney from an attack dog on capitol hill. >> thanks. that does it for us.