why are they importing them? >> you have to remember something. a lot of people are afraid of snakes, but some young kids who want to try to raise an animal, they see the little snakes in the shop. kids are fascinated about seeing snakes in the wild. they're fascinated about picking up a snake. i tell people a python gets about two feet long when it's bigger. in 1972, i almost lost my little index finger when i got bitten. when a python bites, they cannot let go because their jaw muscles freeze. you have to wait 30 minutes until they can let it go. i still say, to credit the zoo and reputable folks who do educational programs to teach people why not to have one of these things. but remember something. reputable breeders throughout the country, and there are several, by the way, that help us a great deal in preserving certain types of pythons that could become endangered. the state of florida is doing the right thing. whether it should be a federal

law or part of the lacey act, that's about extinction of species, that sort of thing. this is not a problem in every state. the problem we have with lions and tigers, yes, there are some of these in every state. but we're going to pass these laws for these animals very, very shortly. >> okay. jack hanna on the python today. we'll follow up and see what the state of ohio does with the other animals. thank you so much, sir. i appreciate it. top of the hour. watch this. welcome back, i'm brooke baldwin. a couple stories we're watching for you now. rescue crews are looking for survivors of the cruise ship wreck off of italy. also, you'll see a lot of blackouts on the web tonight. a young girl is denied a kidney transplant and the alleged reason is sparking all kinds of debate today. i want to begin with dan rivers

on giglio island in italy with the very latest on the cruise ship crash. dan, we saw some lights popping up behind you earlier. are there rescuers in the water right now? >> reporter: i don't think they're in the water, but they're certainly around the wreck. you can see there are ships out there circling the wreck, still. again, through the night they'll go looking for more survivors, but realistically also expecting to find more bodies. they found five more today, four men and a woman all aged between 50 and 70. so that brings the death toll, sadly, to 11 with 23 people still missing. meanwhile, there's been real drama in the story of the captain, recordings of his conversations with the port authority were leaked earlier on in which you could clearly hear the official from the port authority be rarating the capta for looeg the ship and ordering

him to get back on and ensuring the passengers were safe. and the captain apparently seemed to be resisting that idea. it's not quite clear why. some suggestion now that he may have given a blood test after he was detained to see if he was drunk or had drugs in his blood system, but certainly he now is under house arrest rather than detainment as prosecutors look towards possible charges. he's facing the possibility of manslaughter, charges of abandoning a ship which could carry 15 years in prison. >> possibly 15 years in prison. and dan, how many people are still unaccounted for? >> we have 23 unaccounted for. the biggest group is a group of germans, the german foreign ministry saying 12 germans, but there are a whole bunch of other

alternatives, french, italian, americans. they're all still missing, we don't know who they are, including this american couple tonight. >> i talked to friends of the american couple and he said it was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime. carnival cruise line stock prices are plummeting after the wreck of the concordia. what are investors saying? >> investors, brooke, are hitting that sell button. shares of carnival down 14% because of the financial damage the company could suffer. carnival itself is estimating the loss could go up to $95,000, but that's just from the cost of concordia being out of service all year and the cost to fix it. it doesn't even count the possible personal injury claims, the lawsuits, the insurance deductibles from ship damage. that could reach into the tens of millions of dollars, and not to mention the damage from the company and the cruise line. and of course the number of

people who may be scared away from taking a cruise. brooke? >> i'm sure a lot of people as a result of this will not be cruising. perhaps some will. maybe there are deals to be had. i do want to ask you about the fact we are hours away from a blackout on the internet. wikipedia, reddit, stage ing a blackout. what's the story? >> this is about a bill making its way through congress to stop piracy, brooke. everybody agrees piracy is a problem, but the problem is nobody can agree on how to stop it. this is sorks p arpa, and what to do is to stall copyright infringement. google, for example, could be punished if a piloted show is

put up on youtube. even time warner, the parent company of cnn, they all believe piracy leads to lower revenue and job cuts, but tech companies say they're concerned about senscensorship and that this bi could wreck the internet as we know it. it's still got a long way to go, though, brooke. hearings in the house have been delayed, so the longer and longer this is drawn out, everyone lobbying for each side has more time to push their preference forward. this bill has a ways to go, i think, brooke. >> allison kosik, thank you. a story of a three and a half year old girl who so far has been denied this kidney transplant. her mother says it's because she's developmentally disabled. why does she need the kidney? >> she was born with a disease called wolf-hirschborn syndrome.

part of the disease sher kidneys don't work well. the hospital told her, well, i don't think we want to put her on the list for an organ because she has a developmental disability. that's what the mom says. so she's fighting that. >> i know enough about transplants to know there are priority lists, but is it ultimately up to the hospital to say, sorry, but we don't want to give it to you. >> the hospital does get to decide who they put on the waiting list and who they don't. the mom says that the hospital also said the drugs your daughter has to take after the transplant could interfere with what she's already taking, but she says the main reason they gave is because she has a developmental disability, and we feel because of quality of life issues, this organ should go to somebody else. the hospital has gotten a lot of pressure all over the internet. people are really, really coming

down on this hospital, and she said the hospital has called her recently and said, come on in, we're going to have another meeting. >> another meeting. you've been in touch with the hospital. what does the hospital say? >> the hospital says, look, in the past we have given organs to children with developmental disabilities. they're also reviewing the policies to see that they're in line with the hospital policies. they can't speak to this fully, but those are two of the over-arching things they have to say. these issues are tough. do you give it to someone with a shorter life expectancy? would you rather save that organ? children's organs are really scarce? or do you give it to someone who may live to be 100? it's a tough decision, and these parents feel she's being discriminated against because she has a developmental disability. >> when is the meeting? >> i don't know. i don't even know if the parents know at this point, but i'll let you know the result of this one way or the other.

still ahead, a woman finds out her husband is cheating and allegedly drives hundreds of miles to confront the mistress. you're going to see how this one ended. plus, polithe government ta steps to warn iran, don't push it. plus, we could be on the verge of $5 price hikes are already here? and this has a lot of you talking. >> hi, darling, how you doing? i dreamed about turnip greens in california. >> paula deen famous for her hearty recipes admits she has type 2 diabetes. why did it take her three years to reveal that fact, and why is she getting paid for coming out with that? back to you in a minute. [ monica ] i'm away on a movie shoot

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if it's interesting and happening right now, you'll see it. kraft foods announcing 1600 people across america will lose their jobs this year. the move is all part of its plan to split into two different companies, one for snacks, the other for groceries. aaa says gas nationwide 3.39 a gallon. that's up 30 cents from this time last year and the highest price they have on record. if that isn't bad enough, experts say it could hit $5 a gallon by this summer. saudi arabia's oil minister

is trying to pump more oil to keep the price from going totally out of control. >> my goal is to respond to emergencies worldwide, to respond to our customer demand. and that is really the focus. our focus is not who dropped out from production but who wants more. >> the defense begins, what's been called now egypt's trial of the century. he is accused of corruption and ordering the killing of protesters. they are seeking the death penalty. he is 86 years of age in poor health. he is wheeled in and out of court each day on a gurney. and the man charged with killing a 7-year-old georgia girl pleads guilty and a voids the death penalty. i'm talking about ron braun. he will be facing life in prison without parole. this little girl last seen january 2nd near a complex where

she and her family lived. her body found in a trash compactor later. tips from the public led to his arrest. a governor face a recall. wisconsin democratic party says it has gathered more than a million signatures to oust president scott walker. they said they have the signatures. they have more than what they need to recall walker. these are mammoth waves here in ta hehiti. chris bryan uses a slow-motion camera to catch these surfers riding them and hanging ten. now this. all of a sudden i was sitting up. my cat was growling and the other one was freaked out. >> reporter: a young woman who criticized the iranian

government and promoted women's rights is shot to death in texas, and so far this mystery is stumping police. but investigators do know of a phone call she had at the very moment she was killed. we'll have that story in two minutes. plus the obama administration is apparently doing a lot to avoid confrontation with iran, including secret backchannelling. at the heart of this whole thing, 20% of the nation's oil. 20%. ugh. [ zipper, heavy breathing ] ♪

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houston police are desperately trying to find clues in the killing of a 30-year-old medical student. she was driving home from work when she was shot in the head. her car then crashed into this garage. friends tell police she was of

iranian descent and was very active in promoting iranian women's rights. we get more from kahu affiliate. >> reporter: between the crash and the gunshots, sydney kohlville got a rude awakening. >> my cat was growling and the other one was freaked out. >> reporter: she called 911 as did several others after walking outside and find ag woman dead in her car. >> she walked outside her garage and sees a car there outside her garage door, still running. she goes over and sees the victim over the console. >> reporter: investigators can't figure out if this medical student at mba anderson was followed home or if someone was waiting. >> she was driving around this back drive back here, and as she made the turn is apparently where she was shot. >> reporter: police tell us the iranian native was on the phone with an ex-boyfriend as the shooting happened. >> he heard a loud thud. he doesn't recall hearing any

gunshots but a loud thud and a screeching noise. he said it sounded like somebody, you know, driving away. >> reporter: am reasmarina lope she was with that ex-boyfriend when he heard it all. >> she screamed for her life, he heard screeching. he hard a gunshot. >> reporter: and there was what sund sounded like a getaway. >> i heard screeching like someone getting away. >> they're wondering if the person's background is connected at all to this shooting. they don't have a motive noir suspects it. i'm talking about the threat by a ran to block the strait of hormuz and thus bottle up a chunk of the world's oil supply. i can tell you this. it is not on the obama administration's back burner. they are using all kinds of

means to tell iran's leaders, don't do it. jill daugherty for us now live at the u.s. state department. you know, jo, when we hear the phrase back channel communications, obviously our ears perk up. what's going on? >> reporter: well, they have these back channels. and one of the reasons they need them is because the u.s. and iran don't have any official diplomatic relations. so how do you talk to them? there are a variety of ways. the swiss represent u.s. interests, you can talk through the swiss, you can talk through the iraqis, you can talk through the turks. tl there are a number of different countries. the latest we heard from u.s. officials is there was a letter from the u.s. ambassador to iran saying essentially what the united states has been saying in public, but it is very important to get this message across, and that is exactly what you said, don't even think about blocking that. it's a highly dangerous situation, very, very narrow

strait. you have big ships, you have huge amounts of oil. in fact, 60% of the world's oil is shipped around the world on ships. so it's very, very important that that's not blocked. and the question, brooke, is that are they getting this message? >> well, speaking of the message, you put on your piece that you wrote that it's actually hard to know exactly who is calling the shots for iran, correct? >> reporter: precisely. iran really has -- i think you would have to say numerous power points. we think of president ahmadinejad as a person we pay a lot of attention to, but actually, when it comes down to it, he has very little power in iran comparatively. the person who really does is the supreme leader, the ayatollah hamana. and they are at odds with each other. there is a power struggle going on. so if you get a message to ahmadinejad, it does not

necessarily mean it will get to the ayatollah and vice versa. and there are other groups that support each of them. and one of the key groups, of course, is the revolutionary guard corps. they have their own navy and they are involved along with the regular navy in the strait of hormuz. but they are much less -- let's call it -- disciplined, and that could be the difficulty. >> one part that may seem, though, counter-intuitive is if iran decides to bottle up this strait of hormuz, they would be hurting themselves, wouldn't they? some call this potentially economic suicide, so why would they do that? and the people in charge of their nuclear program, are the rules that severe? >> they are quite severe, and iran is being hurt. is it enough to stop them from continuing in the development of their nuclear program? they say it's for peaceful purposes. the u.s. and the west say it is

not, it is designed as a bomb. but are they shooting themselves in the foot if they block the strait of hormuz? yes, they would be, but one thing they're doing right now is they're trying to intimidate the rest of the world. don't go forward with any of those sanctions, it's not working. but in this kind of cat and mouse and increasing pressure from iran, it could get very, very dangerous. so what the u.s. is trying to do is make sure there is no room for miscalculation, that iran knows precisely that this is a red line, as the defense secretary said. >> okay. jill daugherty, thank you. still ahead, we're going to take you back to the huge cruise ship story out of italy. to do that, we're going to speak to a member of the dive unit in florida to find out what the crews are going through to find members of that wreckage?

plus this -- >> he's playing dirty, dishonest politics. we don't need someone who promotes lies and stands behind those lies in order to get elected president. >> just a little taste at how nasty this gop race has been getting as they blast newt gingrich on the trail. get this, they impressed upon rodney to release his tax returns and reveal his income. we'll be back.

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jim a kcosta is following mitt romney today. we know he had something to say regarding his income taxes. >> reporter: as you know, brooke, we've been trying to pin down the former massachusetts governor for weeks on whether or not he'll release his tax records. for the first time today, he said essentially he's going to release last year's tax returns sometime in april. we can talk about the timing of that in just a few minutes, but that revelation there prompted a question about what tax rate, what effective tax rate mitt romney pays, and here's what he had to say. >> the effective rate i've been paying is probably closer to the 15% rate than anything because my last ten years i've -- my income comes overwhelmingly from investments made in the past rather than ordinary income or rather than earned annual income. i got a little bit of income from my book but i gave that all away, and i get speaker's fees from time to time but not very much. >> reporter: now, why is this

revelation interesting? well, put it in the political context of what the democrats have been talking about for several months. president obama has been talking about tax fairness. he's pointed to people like warren buffett who pays a tax rate somewhere in the neighborhood of 15%. actually, warren buffett pays a 17% effective tax rate, he told the "new york times" last year. so mitt romney is essentially where the super rich are in terms of paying a tax rate. where do middle class earners fall when it comes to this tax right? brooke, it's somewhere between 8 and 10%. that number is very difficult to pin down, but it's safe to say that mitt romney is paying a tax rate that is lower than what middle income taxpayers are paying, and that, of course, is something the democrats have been waiting to hear for months and months now, and they're seizing on it now. >> i was going to say, isn't this simply red meat for the obama reelection campaign, a, and b, you mentioned the significance of april. what's the significance?

>> reporter: right. well, the significance of april is he may have locked up the republican nomination by then. if he waits until april, he can wait until after south carolina, florida, super tuesday, you name it, and then he comes along in april and says, here are my tax records. well, by then this thing may be wrapped up, and that's why newt gingrich said he should go ahead and release his tax records now. you heard rick perry talk about this last night. gingrich said he may do that later on this week. but he's stick to go his guns. it sounds like he may wait until april, brooke. >> we'll wait until we see anything that could be red meat for president obama. still ahead, democrats make a big announcement today about their convention and also president obama's speech. but first, a woman finds out about her husband's cheating, then allegedly hops in a car, drives 250 miles to confront this mistress, but is this a crime of passion or is this

premeditated murder? sunny hostin is on the case. she's next. ów?iñwç?çyiñóóñ

on the case now, a crime of possibly passion here. fast, unthinking, out of control, but just how long can that state of mind last? that may be at the heart of this murder case where a wife allegedly gunned down the other woman. investigators say shannon griffin was in marriage counseling with her husband roscoe when he told her he wanted a divorce ask he would not give up his mistress. police say shannon griffin, who used to work at nasa, then drove 250 miles, you see the map, all the way to the missouri home of

the mistress, shooting her two times from four feet away. they say the mistress' mother witnessed the attack. sunny hostin always on the case with us. sunny, she has been charged with premeditated murder. does the defense have any standing when they say the defendant drove 250 miles to her home? >> she's facing premeditated murder, and they sometimes say she's insane, but the law says you have to do it immediately, you can't have any in flexiflex. four hours in a car gives one plenty of time to think about something, right, brooke? i would say this insanity plea isn't going to be viable for her, it's not really going to be viable. perhaps an insanity defense, but temporary insanity?

i don't think so. >> she shot the mistress. do you think the husband can testify against the wife? does husband/wife privilege come into play here? >> that's a great question, and people ask me that all the time, can my spouse be forced to testify against me? not forced to testify against you, but the spousal privilege lies with the spouse. so he can choose to testify against her or not. the privilege lies directly with him, so if he chooses to testify against her, he certainly can, brooke, and we may very well see that in this case. >> okay. we'll follow it. case number 2, we've been talking about this for a while. we're talking about this teacher from montana. we have two men in custody. this is lester van waters on the left and keith spell on the right. still, sunny, still no body. these two may have been charged with aggravated kidnapping. now the fbi is asking for the public's help in finding sheri

arnold's body. how crucial is it to investigators to actually have a body to then go after these men? do they have to have a body, sunny? >> well, look, you don't have to have a body, right? we're talking about a case right now on "in session," the case of michigan versus stewart where the man allegedly killed his wife without a body. there is no body to be found. prosecutors do it often. i wouldn't say it's rare, but it's always better to have the body because you have to prove to a jury that someone is actually dead. you have to prove to a jury what happened to the person. and what better story teller than the victim himself or herself. so certainly in these days of sort of the csi effect where juries want to see dna, they want to see bodies, they want to see autopsy results, it's difficult to prove these cases, brooke, but not impossible. my guess is that the fbi is investigating this. the fbi probably has a little more information that they're releasing to us in the media, and hopefully we'll have some

relief for her family soon. >> yeah, we know the fbi is involved. they've been looking at these different burial sites and different pieces of farmland in two states now. sunny hostin, thank you very much. we're going to talk to you now about this ship. it's the size of a skyscraper. divers are searching for survivors or bodies. what happens when a diver finds a body, good or bad. first, back in 90 seconds with free advice about your credit report ask your 401(k). back in a moment. [ wrapper coming off a vending machine waffle ]

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time now for the help desk where we get answers to your financial questions. donna risotto is senior editor of money magazine. thank you both for being here. susan says, i've heard items on your credit report older than seven years are dropped. is that true? >> there's a lot of confusion about that. it's true that late payments or debts that go unpaid do stay on your credit history for seven years. but it really depends on what that negative item is.

if it is an unpaid tax where uncle sam gets really upset about that, it could be on your credit report for about 15 years. if it's a bankruptcy, it will be on your record for 15 years. you want to keep good credit habits, things that in the near term will help you a lot more. pay your bills on time, don't rack up a lot of debt and keep debt at a manageable amount. if you do those things, they should diminish in a reasonable amount of time. >> kathy wrote in to us, i'm 34 years old, i have a 401(k) worth around $30,000 from an old employer. i'm thinking about cashing out the 401(k) and use the funds to purchase a home or pay interest loans that are at about 9%. am i crazy for considering these options? >> she's not crazy but i would reconsider it. she's going to pay a penalty for

withdrawing early and then she'll pay taxes on all of it. so that $30,000 is more like $20,000. retirement is very expensive and she needs time to compound that $30,000. pension rz gois are going away. i don't believe the people who say social security won't be there, but benefits do shrink. 9% is very high. go to direct loan to try to reduce that number a little bit. everybody wants a house, but i don't think it's as high priority as americans put on it. there's no shame in renting. put aside what she can for that down payment. i don't see the markets skyrocketing any time soon, but really, leave that retirement savings alone. >> thanks for your advice, and if you have a question you want answered just send an e-mail any time to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com.

we told you about this before, those tiny navy divers are blasting holes in this stricken cruise ship to try to find any survivors. today they did recover five bodies, raising the death toll to 11, some of them wearing life vests. we wanted to get a better idea of dangers they face and methods they could be using, and for that we're turning to this man. this is randy lopez, dive unit member for the tampa police department, and i know you've been diving for 12 years with the unit. these navy divers den natutonate

explosions on the side of the ship, three under water, two above. how tricky is that? >> this is extremely tricky for the divers. the skills they had to have and the training they had to go through to be able to do this is unbelievable. the technical aspect of these divers penetrating into that ship is unbelievable. especially in the dark water and the conditions they're moving into now with the weather starting to get a little worse there. there's been reports that the ship is shifting and stuff like that. these are very dangerous times for these divers. >> can you be specific? tactically, what are some of the dangers they face? you mentioned the dark water, perhaps they could get entangled. what else? >> obviously, going into anything like this, the divers themselves are a risk. they have to be tethered, you have to have a line. you don't know the layout of the

ship so it's like being put sbu a maze blind folded but without the ability to, gosh, i can pull my blindfold and i'm all right. these guys are in an environment where they 100% rely on their equipment and training to be able to do this. with these rooms going from room to room where they move into, so they have to be very, very skilled in order to be able to do a good accounting of each one of these rooms they go into. unfortunately, finding people that have been deceased but recovering those bodies to the families so we can put closure on this thing. >> and there are still 24 people missing. let's say they try two survivors in a chamber that wasn't entirely flooded.

good luck that they. i'm going to take you under niece this because you can see they're ready for cold divers. i'm going to put this yimt on and bring you to safety. i can only imagine having to go from there to actually find ag survivor, which would be amazing in itself and then to be able to actually bring them back under water and bring them back the same direction you went in. if that's the only way to do it, that would be amazing in itself. my hats off to those divers because they have their work cut out for them. >> absolutely. one other element, i was reading one of the papers that says there are also concerns -- think about it. you go on a cruise and bring plenty of vaubluables left behi. there are fears of looters coming upon the ship. is that a concern, fear for the

divers? >> security has to be an overwhelming concern for everybody. but i think more what you have to focus on is less about the valuables and more about we're trying to preserve human life. if there are still human lives there, that's the number one thing we have to be concerned with. secondly, the divers have to be concerned about themselves and their safety. then you start expanding your concerns out from there. the first concern has to be finding the survivors and finding the deceased, and the second is the safety of the divers that are performing this task. >> of course. as you mentioned, hats off to these divers, and my hats off to you as well, randy lopez. appreciate it. now this. take responsibility for yourself, give it a little thought and stick to what you know. >> this lady has a lot of talking today. she has made a fortune off of

recipes and reveals she is a diabetic. why she comes out now three years after. right now this is trending. that's what's next. at liberty mutual, we know how much you count on your car, and how much the people in your life count on you. that's why we offer accident forgiveness, where your price won't increase due to your first accident. we also offer a hassle-free lifetime repair guarantee, where the repairs made on your car

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what, or i guess in this case i should be saying who, is trending today. paula deen, with her much known love for butter or bacon, she

admitted she has type 2 diabetes. >> i came home and told my family and my husband, i'm going to keep this close to my chest for the time being. because i had to figure things out in my own head, i had to give time to think about it, because at the time, i tell everything. i could have walked out and said, hey, y'all, i have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and walked away. i had nothing to give to my fellow friends out there. >> deen has become a spokesperson for a new program that according to the company helps find simple ways to manage everyday challenges associated with type 2 diabetes, including lighters versions of the foods she loved. in the past i've heard so many stories that let diabetes

controlled their lives. i didn't want to let this slow me down. i wanted to take control and have a delicious time doing it. in the past, fellow chefs have criticized deen for her rich and heavy recipes. joy behar asked anthony boyer deign who called her the most dangerous person in america. listen. >> your cooking is [ bleep ] bad for you. that's what he said. >> well, let me tell you something, girlfriend. maybe it is bad for you. i think people have a misconception of southern food. i think that people think we eat fried chicken, biscuits and gravy every day, when in fact we don't. in the last ten years i've had a chance to travel and see what other sections of our country do. we eat more vegetables than any other areas i've been to. >> you deep fry the okra. >> of course.

>> what do you think of this story? send me a tweet. by the way, "u.s. today" reports she's dropped a clothing size since her diagnosis. rick perry will be in "the situation room" with wolf blitzer. wolf is joining me now. a good tease, what will you and the texas governor talk about? >> he made a point last night of speaking of sort of 59 length about turkey, a nato ally, been an ally for decades basically since nato was almost established. in fact he at one point suggested the turkish leadership were a bunch of islamic terrorists. we'll go in depth. did she want to rethink some of what he was saying. the turkish foreign ministry issued a blistering statement saying he doesn't know what he's talking about, he doesn't understand a key ally in the mediterranean, so we'll discuss that. we'll also talk about obviously

mitt romney and his decision to go ahead in april and release his income tax forms, suggesting today that most of his income is investment income, paying 15% tax on that as opposed to the maximum of 35%, which you and i and everybody else making over a certain amount of money have to pay on income, on salaried income. not that mitt romney is doing anything wrong or illegal, but just a sensitive issue when you pay 15% as opposed to 35% in terms of your income. >> right. we'll see you in seven minutes. webb wrb. thank you very much. still, while i have you, the president returns to the football field this fall. he will have a couple thousand friends cheering him on. the democratic national committee announcing that bank of america stadium in charlotte, north carolina will be where president obama accepts the nomination. the dnc hoping the stadium, the carolina panthers call home will be filled with supportest just as -- remember 2008 -- mile high stadium in denver?

that was packed with people. the stadium has a lot of blue seats. >> it provides more opportunity with 74,000 wonderful blue seats, by the way. not that we wouldn't have been here if the seats were red, but the blue seats helped push us over the top, but it provides an opportunity with 74,000 seats to include carolinians and americans from all across the country and the region to come here and witness a great moment in history when we renominate the president. it's slated to start september 3rd in charlotte. speaking of the president, he could soon go head to head with republicans over your taxes. that bite, we're talking about it again, both sides facing a deadline before cash disappears from your paycheck. jessica yellin is next. .. medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses.

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the number being 11. only 11% of americans polled by cnn approve of the job congress is doing. so let's talk about one of the first orders of business in this new year, the payroll tax cut extension. they have until the end of february, next month already, to decide whether or not to keep your social security taxes at the 4.2% or let them rise to 6.2%. democrats want millionaires to pay more to offset the difference. republicans want to trim government agencies to help pay for that. what about those of you who need a job in the first place? that is where the president comes in here. jessica yellin, chief white house correspond. unemployment has dropped gradually over the last couple months, but that's not the huge headline. white house concerned -- are they concern that's not really resonating? >> i would say they think those numbers are penetrating to some extent. the latest poll indicates the numbers are getting through. look at this one graphic. if you look at the bottom number

there, the number of people who think that the economy is doing abysmally, has dropped 13 points since november. so bottom line, people think it's less awful than it was. now, that's not great, but what the white house realizes is that people -- what that says a that people see a trend that maybe things are slightly improving, and what the white house wants to do is get the president out there showing that he knows things are still imbalanced, could get worse, but he's working toward improvement. >> what about the jobs, though? we know the president met with his jobs council today. what did they recommend? >> a whole host of things, but some of the headlines are they recommended improving the education system in the u.s., so folks are more prepared for skilled jobs. headlines, they recommended overhauling corporate taxes. and two points getting a lot of notice, because they overlap with republican priorities, rely la torrie reform to ease

business concerns, and more domestic energy production. in the white house briefing today, jay carney argued that the white house has streamlined regulations and increased energy production focusing on clean energy, but reps say democrats aren't doing enough on either front. >> there's the jobs issue and the payroll tax issue. what is the white house doing -- we know it's a february 29th deadline on the whole payroll tax issue. >> the president has the bully pulpit, but it's up to congress to make the deal and pass that payroll tax cut extension for the whole year. both democrats and republicans say they want to do it. the senate isn't even back in session until next month. so all their staffs are talking, the white house is looped into discussions that are ongoing with congressional staff, but the main thing the president has is the bully pulpit. he's going to be pushing