as you heard the president on to rome and then to africa. anderson cooper will be traveling with president obama while he's in africa. you can see anderson's exclusive interview monday night at 10:00 p.m. eastern. >> and thanks to joe johns for being with us at the end of the week. >> it was my pleasure. >> and of course, join us again next week. thanks so much for joining us on this american morning. right now here's "cnn newsroom" with heidi collins. happening this hour, the new gm revealed. the automaker announcing it's now out of bankruptcy. and compared to iwo jima, an african village. a pennsylvania swim club now fighting charges of racism. it is friday, july 10th, hi, everybody, i'm heidi collins, you are in the "cnn newsroom." the new general motors, any minute now we should be getting details about the automaker's move out of bankruptcy.

it came pretty quickly too. the majority owner now, though, the u.s. government. gm's future beginning with more castoffs from the past, as in new job cuts. we are looking at live pictures out of detroit right now, awaiting for fritz henderson, the chief executive officer getting ready to speak. you see all of the cameras getting set up there. as soon as he begins talking, we, of course, will bring it to you just seconds away. in the meantime, oh, here we go. let's go ahead and go straight to him. >> the photographers take your seat or move back a little bit. we'll get started. good morning, everybody, and good afternoon and good evening for those of you joining us from other parts of the globe. welcome to once again we're coming to you from the general motors headquarters at the renaissance center in detroit. we have some very important announcements to make this morning. we only have a short amount of time, we'll get to them very quickly. you will have a chance to ask questions obviously in the room,

but also for those of you on the phone, when you're ready you can push star one and cue up to ask a question. and those of you online have the ability to send us their questions, as well. so without any further adieu, we'll get started. let me present the president and ceo of general motors. >> thank you, steve. thank you very much. thank you for joining us this morning. it's an exciting day for general motors. today marks the beginning of a new company, our company, one that will allow every single employee, including me, to return to the business of designing, building, and selling great cars and trucks and serving our customers. there's nothing we want to do more than that. a lot of people thought we couldn't move through the 360 sale process as we did. i want to thank everybody involved for the effort to make it happen. from the gm team, our team of excellent advisers, and more importantly to the u.s. and canadian government and the taxpayers in the u.s. and canada who have been the key part of making this happen.

we deeply appreciate the support we've received during this historic transformation, and we'll work hard to repay the trust and the money that so many have invested in gm. the last 100 days has shown everyone, including ourselves that a company not known for quick action can in fact and indeed move very fast. starting today, we want to take that intensity, the decisiveness and the speed of these last several weeks and then transfer it from the battlefield triage of the bankruptcy process to the day-to-day operation of the new company. and this will be the new norm at general motors. all of you have copies of our press release, so i won't go into any detail about the make-up of the new general motors. instead, i'd like to talk for a few minutes about my three priorities to the new gm. three simple ones. customers, cars, culture. and let me take them in that order. first, customers, i place them

first because they need to simply be our top priority, our only priority in many ways. at the new gm, we need to make the customer the center of everything, and we're going to be obsessed with this. because if we don't get this right, nothing else is going to work. it's that simple. with the quality gap, substantially eliminated, one of the new frontiers in the automotive industry, we think is going to be customer service, true customer service, which makes it that much more important that we make the customer the center of our universe. we're committed to listening to our customers, responding to consumer market trend, empowering the people of general motors who are closest to the customer to make decisions and seek opportunities every day for direct communication between our customers and employees at every level starting with me. next week, we're launching a tell fritz website for consumers or anybody actually to share their ideas, concerns, suggestions directly with a senior management. i'll review and respond to input every day.

of course, other executives and i will continue to reach out to customers through our ongoing electronic communications. starting in august, thank goodness i'll go on the road every month to meet with consumers, dealers, suppliers, employees, and others in the u.s. and abroad who directly impact our relationship with customers and key partners. and i'll be asking other members of my management team to do the same. this is something i've done throughout my career and i welcome this opportunity again. together and individually, we need to listen to the questions, ideas, and concerns of the people who matter most. these are the people who own and drive general motors cars and trucks. and use that information to build better cars and trucks and provide better levels of service going forward. i am personally committed to being closer and more available to consumers than ever before. more importantly, we're determined as a leadership team to make gm owners the most excited and loyal consumer base in the industry. our focus on consumers will also extend beyond gm, through gm,

and through our great dealer network. with a significantly leaner and healthier network both we and our dealers will be able to focus more resources in providing customers with the best level of service. our dealers have committed to making the changes necessary to improve the total customer experience for gm vehicle owners. we're working on new ways, for example, to make car buying even more convenient for consumers. including an innovative new partnership with ebay, for example, in california, an experiment if you will, which is intended to potentially revolutionize how people might actually buy vehicles online. consumers will actually be able to bid on vehicles just like they do in an ebay auction, including the option of a predetermined buy it now price. think of it reinvented for the online consumer. we'll be testing this and other ideas with our dealers over the next few weeks and hope to expand and build upon them in tin the coming months. in all cases, our goal is to

make the shopping and buying process as easy as possible for gm customers on their time and on their terms. stay tuned. second major focus for gm that we have as a leadership team is really simply about cars. i've said many times in the last 100 days and throughout my career, there's never been a successful turn around in the global automotive industry without a focus in both the cost and revenue sides of the business. you have to do it on both sides. to win, we need to stabilize and, in fact, grow our business around the globe and particularly here in the united states. and that means building more of the gorgeous, high quality fuel efficient cars, trucks, and crossovers the consumers want and getting into the market faster than ever before. to that end, we plan to launch 10 vehicles in the u.s. and 17 outside the u.s. actually over the next 18 months. we are going to drop the word competitive from our vocabulary in the area of product development. going forward, our aspirations,

our objective, and the objective of tom stevens, the entire product development organization is create products that consumers can judge as best in class and anythingless is just simply not acceptable as an aspiration. we may not always reach this level. and the goal is to have our vision is clear, to design, build, and sell the best vehicles in the world, something that general motors has known for many years ago and something we need to reestablish. one way we'll achieve this goal is by focusing on, for example, in the u.s., four core brands, chevrolet, cadillac, buick, and gmc. and populating these four brands with just 34 name plates next year down from 48, getting every name plate right. this emphasis on fewer better entries will enable us to devote more engineering and marketing resources to each model, like the products we're launching in the u.s. this year. vehicles like the smoking hot

chevrol chevrolet camaro and our cts sport wagon. and the products we're launching around the world, the chevrolet cruise, asia pacific, and the oval astra. a continued emphasis on the environmental technology. we're road testing preproduction chevrolet volt, electric vehicles now. we plan to bring the car to the market before the end of next year. we announced a new small car last month to be built right here in michigan. it will add to our growing portfolio of u.s. built highly fuel efficient vehicles and restore about 1,400 direct jobs in this country and many more indirect jobs. in this country and our home state of michigan. this was a business decision. it's about producing fantastic beautiful small cars and earning a return on it with highly

competitive manufacturing facilities and labor agreements. we're making advance battery development core competency for the new gm. you can expect the additional news this summer, we've made a number of important announcements, and we will continue to bang the drum, to make sure that we get our job done in terms of advance battery development. in short, the products and technologies we're launching this year and next are clear demonstrations of our long-term commitment to an exciting design, great fuel efficiency and world class quality. these are the cars, trucks, and crossovers that will put us back on the consumer shopping list and the road to profitability and success. finally, we're working to change -- we must change the culture of gm. with a focus on customers, products, speed, accountability, and risk taking. there's a lot of work to do here, we need to start at the top. we have a new board of directors, general motors, led

by our new chairman ed whitaker with us here today. i've asked ed to come up and make a few remarks. ed, please. >> all right. in the middle of this transition here now over to ed whitaker who is the new chairman at the new gm, if you will, we were just listening to fritz henderson, the ceo of general motors announcing several new changes and changes in policy, changes in language, even challenges in some vehicles, let's bring in our christine romans, part of our cnn's money team who has been listening to all of this. a few surprises for me, anyway, christine, we have heard this is going to be happening today, coming out of bankruptcy, we were expecting fritz henderson to say this is what the new gm is going to look like. he's talking about the three priorities which are customers, cars, and culture, right? >> well, this is a company looking forward and executives of this company have been leery of using the word bankruptcy for

a long time. it's not something that they want to -- they are launching a new gm and that's what this press conference is about. exiting bankruptcy and launching the new gm. with these three focuses as you pointed out, customers, cars, and cultures. but the new gm, some call it government motors because you own 61% of it, american taxpayers, there will be fewer brands, sleeker, leaner company, chevy, caddy, gmc, and buick. and this is a company that's reinvented itself in 40 days and now has to prove it can compete and hold on to market share. market share has been shrinking for this company for some time. ford is, frankly, has been do g doing, you know, eating into some of its market share, ford hasn't had to take any of the government loans that gm had to. you can see it's declined steadily since 1980. this is a much smaller company than it used to be. and this is a ceo of this

company who is trying to look forward and talk about the new general motors, what it is going to look like and how it will succeed, heidi. >> talking about those new cars. 10 domestic new cars? >> and some of them will be small cars. and i want to be very clear. 16 plants and facilities and 20,000 workers will not be a part of this new gm. and a lot of debt will not be a part of this new gm. so they have left an awful lot behind, including some other brands that will sell or dismantle. so the new gm is much leaner, but that means over the next month or next year or so, some of these plants will be closing down. >> no question about that. well, we are continuing to follow that story, obviously, as usual right here on cnn. meanwhile, we also have timothy geithner talking today. so christine, break us down all of that if you would because the derivatives over the counter derivatives, make it make sense for the people at home. >> you're going to hear a lot about otc derivatives, over the counter derivatives, they are not traded on exchange, not

regulated. the global market is like $450 trillion, that is way bigger than the world's stock market. these are things traded between companies, between third party investors and alike all around the globe that are not regulated and in some cases we don't know how much risk they could be posing for certain companies that might be important to the american or world economy. so the treasury secretary wants to see some smart, focussed regulation of over the counter derivatives for the first time ever. he's going to be testifying about that. now, look, these are not corn futures. corn futures are regulated by the commodity futures trading commission, they're on an exchange, these are very complex financial swaps and derivatives that are traded among banks. and in some cases it's very difficult to know what the, what the fallout would be -- the cascading effect of some of these things. so they want to be able to have a better picture of this. and for many, many years, this market has grown wildly with

very little supervision. the treasury secretary would like to change that. >> well, we will be watching all of that, as well. christine romans, thank you for handling a variety of topics this morning. and we want to remind everyone that begins at the top of next hour. we'll keep an eye on it for you and bring you any new developments from there. meanwhile, four weeks ago, they headed for the polls, and ever since thousands of iranians have poured into the streets in a show of defiance. can the reformists force change in iran. and heidi, it's been yet another day of record heat across much of the nation. coming up, i'll let you know if that heat's going to last over the weekend. that's only moments away. see you then.

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in iran, days of relative calm shattered as protestors once again defied the government. thousands of demonstrators

headed to iranian university. of course you may remember in 1999, again, they were pushed back by pro-government militia and riot police. protestors are outraged over the outcome of iran's presidential election, which they say was rigged. we've been telling you about this for weeks now. in fact, hundreds of people have been arrested, protestors say they are not giving up. cnn's reza sayah has been monitoring the developments over at our iran desk this. is heating up again. >> yeah, we hadn't seen street protests in about 11 days, but i think demonstrators took advantage of that anniversary and hit the streets again. we've been getting new video in throughout the overnight hours. let's go ahead and show it to you at the iran desk. this is one of the pieces of video overnight. this gives you an idea of how many people turned out on the streets. nowhere near the numbers we saw in previous weeks, but based on eyewitness accounts were saying

about 3,000 people showing up. we tried to gather at revolutionary square about 5:00 p.m. local time yesterday. that's where they were met at thousands of security forces according to witnesses, the security forces managed to keep them out of that location, but they didn't quit. they went neighboring streets, neighboring areas, lots of aggressive chants, chants of death to khamenei, the supreme leader, death to the dictator. and one chant we hadn't heard before, and this is significant. ayatollah khamenei's son, there's been lots of reports he's taken over the besij, so a lot of chants directed at him. things quieted down over night. and some neighborhoods louder than before. but the first street protest we've seen in a while around 11 days. >> yeah, absolutely.

we are going to continue to follow that. in fact, we're going to be talking later on, reza, with someone who has a view inside, if you will. he's an author and a scholar, and like you actually witness some of thee protests in tehran. he'll be coming up in a little while talking more about the government's show of force. meanwhile the michael jackson investigation, we're going to have the latest on that for you coming up in just a little while. the surprising statistics and some of the alarming consequences, as well. we're back here in the "cnn newsroom."

♪ i'm starting with the man in the mirror ♪ ♪ i'm asking him to change his ways ♪ detectives are looking into his prescription drug history as you well know by now. there is speculation that prescription drugs, especially sedatives could've played a role in jackson's death. l.a. police say they have spoken to doctors who have treated jackson over the years, but they're waiting for toxicology tests to determine a cause. >> are we dealing with homicide? dealing with an accidental overdose? what are we dealing with? i'll wait to see what the coroner comes back with, and

once he comes back with his determination, it'll be much clearer and very open way. what our course of action will be. >> a source close to the family tells cnn the jackson family knows the investigation could turn into a criminal case. the michael jackson case is putting the spotlight on prescription drug abuse, it's a serious problem that affects lots of people from all walks of life that we thought we'd talk a little more about today. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joining me now. let's put it in perspective. how bad is this problem? >> the problem is very bad. it's sort of like the elephant in the room. i think many, many families can relate to what happened to michael jackson, maybe not quite in those proportions, but prescription drug abuse right now is a factor in many people's lives. in 2008 last year, the cdc said the prescription drugs replaced heroin and cocaine as the leading drugs involved in fatal overdoses. that's in cities, rural areas,

that's all over. let's take a look at really startling statistics, from 1999 to 2004, overdose deaths from drugs like vicodin and oxycontin went up 142%. that's overdose deaths from those drugs there. what's interesting during the same time period, overdose deaths from heroin went down 9%. so what you're seeing is that prescription drugs, which many people, heidi, think of well, how bad can they be? a doctor prescribes them, right? >> well, yeah because the doctor may prescribe them, but they tell you how many to take and when. >> right. >> but in talking a little bit more about this, how do people get ahold of the stuff? i think we hear about these prescriptions that, you know, eventually run out and usually the ones that are highly addictive like some of the ones you just mentioned, you can only get so many of them. and still it seems many are able or the work that system? >> right. exactly they work the system. people do things like doctor

shopping so you go to dr. smith, say my back hurts, get a prescription for demerol or oxycontin, and when he says this seems a little strange, you move on to doctor jones. and they're trying to put controls in there so that can't happen, but that does happen. but also what happens is people are prescribed these drugs for legitimate reasons, don't take all of them, put them in their medicine cabinet and then their kids takes them, and then the drugs get traded. also the internet. there was a study done by the center of alcohol and substance substance abuse. they found that half of them would sell you them by faxing a prescription. >> yeah, no question. i imagine there are treatment programs, though, for prescribed drug abusers, if you will, just like alcohol and illegal drugs? >> there are. but they are expensive, there aren't as many of them as there should be, and it's also interesting. this is a good thing, is that

prevention programs have moved on to start including messages about not overdosing on prescription drugs. it used to be the just say no things were all about elicit drugs. you can see here where the kid is talking about -- >> great commercial. >> very powerful commercial, very powerful psa where he says this is from my hysterectomy and look at what he's selling to his friends. >> thank you, elizabeth. also, it has been compared to iwo jima, taken back from the taliban, we've got a live report coming out of afghanistan in a moment. taking its rightful place in a long line of amazing performance machines. this is the new e-coupe.

this is mercedes-benz. wellbeing. we're all striving for it. purina cat chow helps you nurture it in your cat with a full family of excellent nutrition and helpful resources. purina cat chow. share a better life. to wall street now, we are looking at a lower open to stocks on this final trading day of the week. a spotlight focussed on the largest automaker and the rebirth. gm has been talking about it all morning. stephanie elam with more on the

early market action. a lot of clapping right now, stephanie. good morning. >> a lot of clapping for sure. an exciting start to the day, but we have a lot going on. the major averages set for a lower start this morning after the dow managed to edge up four points yesterday. once again, focus is on general motors. in the last couple of hours we learned they have emerged from chapter 11 bankruptcy, after a six-week journey for the automaker, the government will own 50% of the company. tempers are flairing inflares that aig may be paying bonuses to executives. the insurance giant has been talking with a newly appointed compensation czar about the bonuses which could be paid out next week. and also in washington this morning, treasury secretary timothy geithner is expected to propose new regulations on over the counter derivatives because they are so difficult to place a value on and a monitor. the administration is encouraging greater use of standardized contracts. in the u.s., four large banks

control over 90% of the derivatives market. so with all of that in mind, let's take a look at where the numbers start and right in the red. the dow off 54 points, 8,130, nasdaq off 6 at this time. and in about 30 minutes, we'll await the latest reading on consumer sentiment. analysts expect the index to have dipped in june from the previous months as investors remain jittery about spending their money. that's something we hear a lot about, heidi. >> yeah. everybody's jittery about spending their money these days. sure do appreciate that. thanks. we are expecting president obama's arrival in rome shortly on his way from meeting with pope benedict at the vatican. the president wrapped up his first g8 summit last hour with a news conference. the summit ended with a pledge of $20 billion over the next three years to increase food production in developing nations. >> wealthier nations have a moral obligation as well as a

national security interest in providing assistance. we've got to meet those responsibilities. countries in africa and elsewhere in the world that are suffering from extreme poverty have an obligation to use the assistance that's available in a way that is transparent, accountable, and that builds on rule of law and other institutional reforms that will allow long-term improvement. >> after meeting with the pope, the president heads on to gana, and anderson cooper will be meeting up with him there. you can watch his special monday night at 10:00 eastern.

the obama administration is willing to hold talks with taliban commanders holed up in northern pakistan. the officials say pakistan has offered to broker the talks

aimed at negotiating a cease-fire in afghanistan. in exchange, the pakistani government wants the u.s. to use its influence to reign in pakistan's main rival, that would be india. pakistanis accuse india. senior u.s. officials tell cnn the u.s. is willing to raise those concerns with india. two u.s. marines are dead in fighting in southern afghanistan. both were killed fighting the taliban in helmand province. the first week has been largely successful with the marines taking new ground. cnn was with those troops in helmand province. >> reporter: flying with the u.s. marines into an area of helmand province that was once considered taliban land. just five days after operations strike of the sword began, the governor of helmand stepped into a district he could not before. because it was too dangerous.

raising the afghan flag over the district, a symbol of new governance and change. it was a moment that was likened to iwo jima by larry nicholson. a moment that they hope will symbolize a turn in the war here. this castle was built in the 1700s during the time of the father of afghanistan. for the past several years, this castle in this district was occupied by the taliban. but today the u.s. marines and the coalition forces gave it back to the government and the people of helmand province. for the past three years, they were under strict taliban control. now this district of around 2,000 waits to see what its future holds. some hopeful, but many skeptical. they have seen this all before. coalition forces coming in and quickly leaving and the taliban always making their way back. but this time, the troops and the government promise to stay and build institutions and most

importantly trust. >> translator: i tried to reassure the people that until our own afghan forces can stand on their own two feet, the international forces will help us. >> reporter: although the people believe the governor is a kind man, this elder points the finger at him, still distrustful of the afghan government. villagers in helmand like the ones here have in the past turned to the taliban for protection. feeling at times it was their own choice. but the forces hope to show these men that there is an alternative to their current existence. >> translator: you can see with your own camera what terrorism is and what al qaeda is. you can see a deficient school, a deficient clinic, deficient district, deficient roads. people don't have the matter or means of living. >> reporter: and although troops haven't met much resistance yet, general nicholson warns this is only a week into the operation. and like the villagers, the

taliban have their own expectations. >> so perhaps the taliban is also expecting us to leave. and i think once they understand that we're not leaving, i think in some cases they will test us, come back at us and try to get back to the population. >> reporter: and it's the population who will have to choose. a decision that will determine the country's future. >> and live from kabul, afghanistan. atia, this has been a costly week for the u.s. military, as well, in afghanistan. but wondering what you're noticing from the afghan people by the way of their thoughts on this new effort by the u.s. marines. >> reporter: well, heidi, we have to remember that this area that has been handed back to the government is also an area where they have seen coalition forces before. they have been promised before that these coalition forces would stay and help but there wasn't enough manpower back then and then they left. and these villagers had to deal with the taliban.

those who did side with the coalition were punished. and right now they're skeptical, waiting to see if these coalition forces in the afghan government will hold on to their promise. and what we heard from general larry nicholson with the u.s. marines are they are there to stay, to build institutions, and to build trust and to prove to these villagers that they are the choice rather than the taliban. heidi? >> all right, atia abawi. we do appreciate the update. and the casualties punctuate, total of 11 died in attacks this week alone. the bodies of several of those killed in action this week arrived at dover air force base. admiral mike mullen was there to honor the fallen. 643 american troops have died since operation enduring freedom began in 2001.

always relatively quiet now in china, major mosques remain closed today in the wake of violent demonstrations there. at least 156 people were killed, more than 1,000 injured on sunday. that's when ethnic tensions erupted, who predominantly muslims and china's majority. nearly one month after the election in iran, the protests may have savings and loaned down a bit, but certainly not over. we'll take a closer look at what's going on in iran and the impact it may have on the country's president.

disturbing allegations of racism are being investigated this morning of a private swim club.

african-american and hispanic children from a summer day camp reported hearing racial comments when they went swimming at the valley swim club. the club is located in a mostly white suburb near philadelphia. the camp director says the club canceled their swimming privileges and refunded the camp's nearly $2,000. the club denies any allegations of racial discrimination. its director told a philadelphia tv station the children "fundamentally changed the atmosphere at the pool." so we are very curious to know what you think about this story. we are certainly inviting you as always to check out our blog page. go over to cnn.com/heidi. you see a synopsis of the story. why are these black kids here quote african-american children turned away from a private swim club? we will stay on top of that and welcome your comments once again, cnn.com/heidi. and we're back in a moment.

we don't -- >> nearly one month after the vote in iran, protests are still going on, as you can see there as well as here in the u.s. students filled the streets of washington yesterday, rallying for iran. and nearly 3,000 protestors took to the streets in iran, some getting into clashes with police. i want to talk more about that now. this situation, the very latest in an american foundation journalist is joining us. to give us a little bitd more insight here. we continue to get the pictures in, we continued to hear of

these protestors. but yesterday we heard some chanting, i think that we haven't really heard before talking about death to khamenei, the supreme leader. we've heard similar comments to that before, but not against his son. tell us a little bit more about that relationship and why people of iran would be so concerned about the son of khamenei too. >> no, absolutely. that is a new chant as your correspondent reza sayah pointed out. khamenei is the son of the supreme leader ayatollah khamenei. the supreme leader has veto power over much of the state. and he has been chief of staff to the supreme leader's office, essentially running his office. but they also, the story that has he merged in iran, is that he has taken over the hard line basij militia and has been the master mind between this crackdown on protestors.

and from the very beginning of the election dispute, there were many in iran saying that he was the man behind this massive rigging of this election, as well. in a way this man who had been working behind the curtain to use a persian term has been exposed. and i think that's quite significant. >> yeah, very interesting. does that make the supreme leader himself less powerful? >> i think the supreme leader has certainly been diminished by all of these events over the past month. the supreme leader likes to think of himself as an arbiter. he was never much of a balancer, he did lean towards the conservatives. but in this particular instance, he overtly went behind a particular presidential candidate mahmoud ahmadinejad in the preelection period and in the post election period, as well. and many of iran's senior clerics, some of the grand

ayatollahs have disputed him publicly. >> i wanted to know, we have learned here that obviously the supreme leader seems to be the one who was really calling the shots over the president and talking about ahmadinejad, we've always known that. if the supreme leader is losing a bit of his power, if you will, what does that say for the president ahmadinejad? >> well, i think both men are certainlyup@ di actions now. the important thing to remember, however is they still have the instruments of force at their disposal. so while they may have lost a certain amount of legitimacy within the institutions of the islamic republic, to put it brutally, they still have the gun. and they still have the forces at their disposal. so while we're paying a lot of attention looking at the cracks within the ruling structure of the islamic republic, one thing we need to look at very closely is are there any cleavages within the securities services?

still maintain that kind of power. >> good point. i want to ask you quickly before we go, though, about something one of our other guests talked about this week. from the university of florida. he said that he expected to see some type of reshuffling of the cabinet. he went so far as to say that possibly he would be considering bringing in some of the opposition members to that cabinet. what are your thoughts? >> i would find it, you know, hard to believe that ahmadinejad would bring in any of the serious opposition members. but i know him well and he's an excellent scholar. and i think his larger point is that ahmadinejad and khamenei are going to try to walk this back a little bit. because at the end of the day, they realize that the system is in crisis and they're going to need to bring in some of the more reform-minded forces. but i think what they'll probably do is bring in some of the more pragmatic conservatives

rather than the more serious opposition forces. >> more of an appearance sort of move. all right, we sure do appreciate your time here today. clearly this is not over and we will continue to follow it here at cnn. thank you. >> thank you. cover up allegations levelled against a pair of u.s. senators. nevada's john ensign admitted he had an affair, but now the husband of his mistress says there is much more to the story. you have questions. who can give you the financial advice you need? where will you find the stability and resources to keep you ahead of this rapidly evolving world? these are tough questions. that's why we brought together two of the most powerful names in the industry. introducing morgan stanley smith barney. here to rethink wealth management. here to answer... your questions. morgan stanley smith barney. a new wealth management firm with over 130 years of experience.

an update now a story we first told you about yesterday. four people are charged in connection with an alleged scheme to dig up graves in an illinois cemetery and resell the plots. investigators say more than 300 graves were emptied. earlier police thought it was only about 100. they found bones and headstones scattered in another part of the cemetery. this has been, as you can imagine, an emotional scene for family members who want to know if their loved ones were moved. the fbi and forensic scientists and local funeral directors are helping with the investigation.

certainly a lot going on in "newsroom" and cnn crews are in place to break it all down for you. let's begin this morning with ed henry straight from rome. hi, ed. >> hi, heidi. president obama about to arrive at the vatican behind me for his first audience with pope benedict but first he gets emotional about his father's ties to africa. i'll tell you what got him emotional in just a few minutes. >> it's empower me friday and today we'll help you fight your insurance company when they refuse to pay. i'll have that at the top of the hour. hi, i'm gerri willis in a rough job market you need to use any edge you can to land a position and many job seekers are tweeting their resumes. i'll have that at the top of the hour. also a swim club in philadelphia facing accusations

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$96,000 for mental that's the amount paid to a woman and her family who had an affair with nevada senator john

ensign. now her husband is speaking out. cnn's brian todd has the story. >> reporter: three weeks after senator john ensign admitted to an affair with a campaign aide whose husband worked in his office, new information and allegations of a cover up. speaking publicly for the first time, doug hampton, ensign's former administrative assistant whose wife cindy was treasurer said on the nevada political program face-to-face that his wife received a hefty severance payment. >> how much? >> that, i don't know. >> she's your wife. was it more than $25,000? >> absolutely. >> a lot more? >> yes. >> it was a lot more than $25,000? he has serious issues, because that was never disclosed. >> reporter: ensign's attorney said payments were made last year but by senator ensign's parents who were concerned about the hampton's well being.

in a statement on the senator's behalf, his attorney says in april 2008, senator ensign's parents both made a gift to their children in the form of a check totaling $96,000. each gift was limited to $12,000. the payments were made as gifts, accepted as gifts and complied with tax rules governing gifts, none of these gifts came from campaign or official funds nor were they related to any campaign or official duties. senator ensign has complied with all applicable laws and senate ethic rules. but analysts say the reemergence by hampton and discussion of money being exchanged dolittle to put senator ensign's political problems to rest. >> you had allegations, did he pay hush money? how much did he pay? why did he pay it? these are all questions that could develop and further engulf

him as a political figure. >> reporter: tom coburn of oklahoma who earlier confronted ensign about the affair to try to stop it believe the hamptons deserve restitution. but he categorically denies that any payments be made to doug and cynthia hampton. here's some of the other stories we're watching right now. illinois senator roland burris expected to announce he will not run for re-election. he was a controversial choice by now former governor rod blagojevich to fill president obama's vacant senate seat. one person is dead this morning in the traditional running of the bulls in pamplona, spain. you can see a man in a striped shirt being gored. the 27-year-old spaniard later died at the hospital. this is the first death in the running of the bulls since 1995. investigators taking a closer look now at a coleman in

western kentucky this morning. eight minors were injured in an accident involving a train. none of the injuries are considered serious. exciting day for general motors. today marks the beginning of a new company, our company, one that will have every single employee, including me, to return to the business of designing, selling great trucks and serving our customers. nothing we want to do more than that. >> the new gm launched this morning. the ceo talking about the direction of the firm, which you as the taxpayer, has majority interest in. cnn's poppy harlow is here with details of the automaker's evolution. poppy, good morning to you. >> good morning, heidi. general motors emerging after six weeks in bankruptcy and we

the taxpayer in by $50 billion for this company that is going to be smaller and virtually debt free and we're going to own 61% of it. here's what we know. three priorities for the ceo, customers, cars and culture. they're going to keep four brands, chevy, cadillac, buic and gmc and keep about 4,100 of their dealers and what you're looking at there is the decline in market share. we'll get to that in one minute here but general motors market share has fallen for decades. for decades now they have been struggling, heidi, and they have under 20% market share. heidi, they're down from having 50% market share at their peak and that's the whole goal. make cars and make people buy more of them than they are right now. >> make money. that's how business usually works. if this new gm will turn things around enough. >> that is the big question and what we also know, is that more job losses are ahead. you have to trim down the

company and make it a smaller company and they're going to do that and going to try to be a stronger company by eliminating about 20,000 of their workers, heidi. what we are going to see, too, with a lot of new products rolling out of general motors. they're going to roll out ten new vehicles in the united states. they're going to roll out 17 new vehicles across the world over just the next 18 months. an aggressive goal and what you hear from the ceo. we are going to move very quickly. take a listen to what he said this morning. >> products and technologies we're launching this year and next are clear demonstrations of our long-term commitment to exciting design, great fuel efficiency and world class quality. these are the cars, trucks and crossovers that will put us back on the consumer shopping list and the road to profitability and success. >> all right, but obama's head of the auto tax force steve ratner said this week that a company cannot be truly viable if it continues to lose market

share. that is the huge question for general motors. can they do it, heidi? >> i have to ask you, quickly. i want to see pictures of these cars. there was one next to him in the press conference. have you seen what some of them are going to look like? >> we didn't see any of the new ones. we'll look at those as they come out and fritz will be talking to folks on the road about what they want. he will head out next month to talk to them, heidi. all about getting back to the customer. we'll dictate the models as they come, heidi. >> well, poppy harlow, we appreciate that. we have to get to this right now, president obama getting ready for his meeting in rome with the pope. you see the line of dignitaries there and we also have ed henry, our white house correspondent, traveling with the president on the ground there in rome. we'll be checking in with him very shortly. just keeping our eye on the president's travels immediately after the g-8 summit.

one more major economic story to tell you about now. aig trying to prevent more bonus payout backlash. "the washington post" reporting they asked the obama administration to approve millions of dollars. the payments are scheduled to go out next week. aig doesn't need approval because they're linked to contracts from last year before it received aid from the bailout fund. but executives still are reluckitant to pay without official approval. an earlier round of aig bonuses sparked taxpayer and lawmaker outrage. family members left to wonder where are my loved ones? that's the scene near chicago where police uncovered a scheme to resell grave plots. and now say more than 300 graves were dug up. four people have been charged and cnn's cheryl jackson has more on the story. >> reporter: what has happened

in this african-american cemetery has caused outrage. famous celebrities like emmett till and their graves are undisturbed but others are heart broken by what they found. >> this is where my brother is supposed to be. what do you do when you can't find your family members? >> reporter: police say at least 300 bodies were ripped from their graves and many crush under to piles with the cement vaults they were buried in and also their graves could be resold. >> he's supposed to be at -- there's nothing over there. no tombstones and not even no flowers. just like they recut grass. >> reporter: four employees of the burr oak cemetery have been charged with felony, dismemerment of a body. facing those charges are carolyn

towns and maurice daily and terrance knicks and the careless treatment of the people who were supposed to be resting here in peace on sacred ground. >> i came across bones, clear parts of skulls and parts of legs or arms. and they're just laying all in different places around here. there are piles that have been dumped here. >> they're not human to me. >> reporter: and dora montgomery has more than a dozen family members buried here. >> my grandson, sister, my brother, my mother, my father, my sister. to me, they don't have no heart. >> reporter: the fbi from all over the country will be involved in this investigation and that forensic people from all over the world will be involved in this investigation that is expected to take several months. we know the suspects are still in the cook county jail. we don't know whether or not they have attorneys, but two of

them are cooperating with police. cheryl jackson for cnn alsip, illinois. 1 billion hundred hungry people in the world. g-8 leaders hoping to make a significant cut with the food initiative. the details announced as the summit wrapped up today. the world leaders pledged $230 billion over the next three years to increase food production in developing nations. african leaders were at the summit table today. >> to have entire continents like latin america not adequately represented in these major international forms and decision making bodies is not going to work. so, i think we're in the transition period. we're trying to find the right shape that combines the efficiency and capacity for action with inclusiveness and my expectation is that over the next several years you'll see an

evolution and we'll be able to find the right combination. >> so, next up for the president today, we are actually looking at live pictures directly out of vatican city as the pope prepares for his meeting with, excuse me, as president obama prepares for his meeting with pope benedict. right now, as you can see by these photos that are being taken inside vatican city meeting with the cardinals and meeting with the pope is pending coming up shortly and our senior white house correspondent ed henry is covering that angle for us as we look at these fascinating pictures right now, ed, i'm not sure you can see them as the president is getting ready to sit and talk for a moment with the cardinals. tell us what you know about what will happen next. he will talk with the pope. >> that's right. good morning, heidi. certainly an important agenda. they want to cover a lot of ground, important subjects. they want to talk about, for example, israeli/palestinian

peace. trying to broker that. something the president has been talking about in the early days of his administration and something the pontiff has been pushing for around the world and he just made a trip to the middle east himself a few weeks ago. also, they're going to, obviously, talk about the hot button social issues back in the united states where president obama doesn't exactly see eye to eye with the church, to say the least, in the fact that he supports abortion rights. what we've been told in advance by senior white house aides is that what president obama plans to do is similar to when he talked a couple months ago to try to stress that contrary to some of his critics he doesn't believe he has a radical agenda on abortion and he will try to bring people together to try to reduce the number of abortions in the united states and another issue that is quite interesting that you would not expect discussed at a meeting between the president and the pope is the financial crisis. in the last few days the pope put out a statement where he was

saying that he is expecting world leaders to show, to add more authority over the financial markets in the days ahead because of the pain that the financial crisis has caused so many people around the world in terms of throwing them into poverty and the like. so, the financial crisis, as well, is now expected to be on the agend waw the pope urging, we're expecting president obama, to have the united states, obviously, play a lead role in adding some of that authority and making sure that markets are better regulated. heidi? >> it would be wonderful to have godly intervention into the financial crisis around the world. that is for certain. ed, i'm just curious very interesting discussion to me to be talking about prose balma meeting with the pope and discussing these different issues. what about obama's official church? >> back home he has not selected one in the washington, d.c., area. he had expected to do that by

now. you'll remember given reverend wright and the controversy in the presidential campaign, the president essentially left the church and has been sort of practicing his spirituality and his faith sort of at camp david and on his own with individual ministers, according to white house officials. they were expecting to pick a periaierisarish or church somew the washington, d.c., area, but they have not been able to settle on one yet. this is a burseinpersonal decis. the president and the first lady very concerned about the security problems it presents for churches when the first family visits, metal detectors have to be added for parishioners coming in and the like. they mostly have been doing their practicing of faith in private, as i mentioned, eeth thart white house or camp dave would spiritual leaders and that's something you would expect would come up because the

president's personal faith is, obviously, a very important issue that he'd want to discuss with the pontiff. >> absolutely. what's next for the president? we know that he is going on to ghana, correct? but the people of kenya maybe not so happy about that. >> well, since the president has roots in kenya, some people in kenya saying they have been hoping that his first trip as president to a majority black african nation would be to kenya. the white house has been saying that the president wanted to go to ghana first, in part, because of the government there. because the growing democracy he wants to use that as sort of an example for the rest of the continent in the days ahead and he's going to be giving a speech to the the parliament in ghana where top white house aides say he will hit on that theme a lot. people in africa demanding more of their leaders throughout the continent and not allowing some of the bribery he was talking about this morning in terms of

food aid and some of the corruption to continue to dominate the continent and push for a new day in the continent. quick stop in ghana, but he will give that speech to the parliament and interview to our own anderson cooper while he's there. we'll hear a lot about that in the next few days, heidi. >> hour white house correspondent on the ground there with the president in rome today. ed henry, thank you. president obama's meeting with the pope taking place very shortly, we'll bring you pictures from the vatican just as soon as that meeting happens. live pictures for you right there. beautiful, beautiful shot coming to us today. meanwhile, a day trip for day campers and in tears at accusations of racism. the outing to a pool that's raised questions and debate.

all they wanted to do was go for a swim. instead, they were banned from the pool. now the head of pennsylvania's human relations commission says he's going to investigate what happened at that swim club in suburban philadelphia. cnn's susan candiotti has the story. >> reporter: swimming once a week at the spacious huntington valley club near philadelphia. it sounded ideal for 65 kids described as black and hispanic at creative steps day care summer camp. >> i was excited. the parents and children were excited. >> reporter: but when the youngsters showed up at the pool june 29th, after the day camp

signed and paid a $1,900 contract, this happened. >> the children came running down the hill saying, ms. wright, ms. wright, those people up there are saying what are the black kids doing in the pool? >> reporter: her son was sitting outside the pool and heard white adults say this. >> why are these black kids here? then they were saying, oh, i'm afraid they might do something to my children. i am afraid they might try to steal some of my stuff or harm my children and i was like amazed they would say something like this because we're like just like your kids. >> reporter: mrs. wright says the swim club's director said he was embarrassed and held an emergency board meeting and called her back the next day that they could not come back. >> he said that the membership said let the chips fall where they may. >> reporter: marcus, i see tears falling down your face. why does this make you cry?

>> because this is kind of like sad that people are still thinking like this. i felt these days were over. >> this is 2009. children should not be subjected to that. >> reporter: the swim club's director is quoted by local media saying the day camp kids "changed the atmosphere and complexion of the club." a club member reacted. >> i'll ask for the club member's resignation today because i think the comment that he made, although taken out of context, was probably one of the stupidest comments i ever heard. >> reporter: he claims the club was simply overcrowded, not racist. two other unidentified day camps also got the boot. senator arlen specter put the club on notice in a letter. without getting into all the legal issues, it is my suggestion that you promptly reinstate the contract and welcome ms. wright's group back

to the pool. whether they accept is up to them. the club denied that race had anything to do with their decisi decision. "we underestimated the capacity of our facilities. our valley club deplores discrimination in any form." susan candiotti, cnn, pennsylvania. >> on our blog we're asking you what you think about this story. do you believe the pool was crowded or some hints of racism and all that happened at that pool. let's get on over to the blog right now because we have gotten quite a few responses in on that. cnn.com/heidi. first one here says hearing the children give their reactions was so heartbreaking. children should not have to deal with this. i'm angry such a thing could still happen to hear adults overtalking like this is shameful. bigotry is still around with us, even in 2009. also this one, people see what they want to see, has anyone

stopped to think that maybe this wasn't a racial remark but only a way to identify a group of people our law enforcement and government officials separate and identifies people in this matter every day just maybe this remark wasn't racist. what you'd like to say about this story, go to cnn.com/heidi and tell us what you think. meanwhile, now $96,000 for your son's mistress. that's what the parents of nevada senator john ensign paid. they say it was just a gift. but the woman's husband thinks there's more to it. @@@@@@@@@@@@@

as you well know, we have been covering the president's travels. right there you see the pope and the president of the united states. quite interesting pictures for us to be able to be bringing you live right here on cnn. directly from vatican city. we are understanding, at least from our correspondent ed henry who is traveling with the president that they will be discussing many issues. one of the first and foremost issues the situation with israel, palestine talking about the relations there and what more can be done.

boy, oh, boy, how would you feel in a meeting like that with the pope and all the cameras flashing inches from your face. fascinating, fascinating pictures to see. there will be other issues they will be addressing. some may be personal ones, according to our correspondent ed henry who has been telling us about if the president will speak to the pope about his choices with religion and his thoughts and his position on abortion, of course, being one of them. so, again, we will continue to follow these pictures and this story as the president travels from here with these meetings with the pope on to ghana in africa, of course. i believe it's more of the discussions and issues that will be handled with the pope. we'll center around that as we talk more about poverty and food crisis in the developing nation. i believe those were intrpteres that may have been sitting down

with the pope and the president at that table just moments ago. really great stuff coming out of vatican city. we'll bring you any more pictures as we get them. allegations of a cover up being made against two u.s. senators. nevada's john ensign admitted to an affair last month with one of his staffers and now that woman's husband is saying he was paid off. he also says oklahoma's tom coburn was involved. >> he paid severance to dear wife out of his pocket. >> to my knowledge, that is correct. >> how much? >> that i do not know. >> she's your wife. was it more than $25,000? >> absolutely. >> a lot more? >> yes. >> ensign and coburn deny any wrongdoing, but his attorney said ensign's parents sent checks totaling $96,000 to doug hampton, his wife, cindy, and their two children. he said those payments were made out of concern for long-term

friends during a difficult time. new calls for south carolina's governor mark sanford to resign. a few dozen people gathered at the state house taking part in a resigned or impeached citizen's rally. the rally came two weeks after sanford returned to work after disappearing for six days. sanford revealed he was on a round daview with his mistress in argentina. while the affair is a private matter, the governor should resign for abandoning the state without passing authority on to the lieutenant governor. today is empower me friday when we take your health care questions and, boy, this one is a duzy. how do you fight your insurance company? well, people want some advice on that, i bet. senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen joining us with more on this. our first one comes from natasha who says this. i was referred to as an

in-network allergist who billed me for a $314 consultation. my insurance company has refused to pay for the consultation claiming that i was referred to see an allergist only for allergy testing. now that i'm stuck with that bill, how do i refute the charge? so, what can she do? she was referred for the consultation, but got the testing. what did she get? >> she probably feels a little david and goliath here, she's fighting this big insurance company. she says she's referred to an allergist and she had testing and a consultation with the allergist, which is usually what happens and then the insurance company turned around and said, no, you were referred only for the testing. you weren't referred to have a consultation with this allergist. we're not going to pay for his consultation which she says costs about $300. what does she do? it's natasha versus the big insurance company. she doesn't want to pay that $300 something. we talked to some experts and

here are four things that natasha can do in this situation. the first thing she needs to do is get the paperwork. she needs to get the referral from her family doctor to the allergist so she can show that to the insurance company. she needs to appeal to the insurance company, maybe multiple times, but experts tell me that usually if you appeal and appeal again, usually you will win. usually the insurance company will say all right, they'll just pay the money as long as there is maret to the case. she can ask the original doctor for help. look, he sent me to this allergist and now i'm stuck with this big bill. can you please do something to help me and oftentimes doctors will help in that situation. finally, when all else fails, get a lawyer. lawyers can take these cases on because they can make money off of them because oft whn a lawyer signs a letter an insurance company will pay and sometimes there's extra money in there for the lawyer. >> we may need a lawyer in the studio right now, things falling

all around. the lawyer is not going to take the case pro bono or anything. you're going to be paying for that, too. >> not necessarily, because sometimes in these cases there is extra money when he goes and gets that money then the insurance company has to pay for the hassle they've given you. >> hope fall that is the case. this is exactly why people get frustrated. she is supposed to get the testing. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen. thank you, elizabeth. for decades michigan was riding high on the fortunes of the auto industry and then the bottom fell out and jobs disappeared. now, the state is setting its sights on hollywood. ♪ [ female announcer ] arthritis targets your body where it's weak. where it's vulnerable. ♪ tylenol arthritis works with your body to block the pain, without interfering

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i think i'll go with the basic package. good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke. want to show you these pictures just in to us at cnn. coming to you out of london,

central london, live pictures, in fact. you're looking at smoke coming from a building and we're telling you about this simply because we don't know very much. we're trying to figure out exactly what is going on here. but, apparently, there are quite a few firefighters in the area. we actually have one of our correspondents there trying to figure out what's going on. we are learning from the london fire brigade that they got a call about this fire. a four-story building. if you happen to have any idea about the geography of london or familiar with the city, deem street is what we're talking about here. some sort of commercial establishment, but they have 12 fire engines and 55 firefighters at the scene and the pictures are pretty interesting coming out of there. we'll continue to keep our eye on that for you and let you know what's happening there for you just as soon as we learn more. a new general motors born today. a leaner company now after emerging from bankruptcy in six weeks.

the government taking a majority stake in the automaker, which still has a tough road ahead. the new company will bank on four brands to help it return to profitability. >> our vision is clear, to design, build and sell the best vehicles in the world, something that general motors was known for many years ago and then something we need to reestablish. one way we'll achieve this goal is by focusing on in the u.s. our four brands, chevrolet, cadillac, buick and gmc. and populating these four brands with just 34 name plates next year down from 48 getting every name plate right. >> he says they will launch a website next week to allow customers to share concerns and ideas with senior management. happening right now on capitol hill, treasury secretary timothy geithner appearing before two house committees. he's talking about the president's plan to change financial regulations. we are monitoring that for you and, of course, bring you any

news out of those hearings. meanwhile, the treasury secretary wants more rules on unregulated derivatives that are so difficult to value and to assess their risk. stephanie elam is at the new york stock exchange now to make it all make sense for us. i love when we have you do that. hi, stephanie. >> hi, heidi. we know what happens usually you say a word like derivatives and people say i don't know what you're talking about. these tools are a huge part of the marketplace, actually, and they have really been blamed for what is going on with the economy right now. now, a derivative is essentially a financial contract that's derived from an asset. this could be something like a stock option offered by a company. they can be used to hedge against economic risk, as well. lots of home heating companies, for example, they'll buy their oil during the summertime because that's when the prices are low betting that prices will probably spike during the cold, winter weather or as an individual investor you may pay a discounted price for stocks,

but you can't go in and cash it in for a certain amount of time and the idea of being there that you hope the price rises during that time frame. however, those are derivatives in their most basic forms but they can really become very complex, especially when you start hearing words like credit default flops and mortgage-backed securities. those credit default swaps are blamed for nearly toppling aig and mostly composed and traded by a private financial institution. so, because of this, you're told you're getting a certain asset at a great price but you have no way of knowing what the true value is because of the complex composition. that's why you're hearing the treasury secretary today saying they want to make this much more clear. >> that would be great, we appreciate that. and, also, the treasury secretary seems to just want to make things easier, possibly, for everyday investors, is that accurate? >> yeah. there's really no reason people should buy something they truly

don't know the value of. want to help prevent market manipulation and fraud and make the contract more standardized. they will go through the same clearing house and everyone will go through the same way and that's what they're hoping will happen here. i know it's a confusing one. let's take a quick look at the numbers here on wall street where we have a mixed day not much off the flat line. the dow 8158 and nasdaq up 6 points at 1759. so, a mixed start to the day so far, heidi. >> could be a lot worse. all right. stephanie, sure do appreciate it. thank you, happy weekend to you. >> you, too. people in california who have ious issued by the state have fewer places to redeem them now. at least two major banks, that's wells fargo and bank of america will stop accepting the ious after today but more than 60 credit unions will still accept the paper. you remember the state started giving out ious last thursday to conserve cash while lawmakers

try to close a $26 billion budget deficit. all right, i want to get back to central london right now because we've been showing you live pictures coming out of there about this fire that is going on. we could still see the smoke, obviously, and the london fire brigade is telling us they got the call at this four-story building and a lot of firefighters on the scene there. in fact, one of our correspondents jim bolden is in the area. i believe we have him on the phone to try to tell us more about this. jim, what do you know? >> heidi, you can see the smoke from this building right in the heart of the historic soho district of london and very thick, white, gray smoke billowing into the sky. four-story building an 18th century building and very historic area. many tourists in the dean street full of cafes and bars and the center of the film industry and music industry, as well. i can see over a half dozen fire trucks and here are some

ambulances and i'd have to say at the moment the scene is pretty calm. they have evacuated the area and evacuated a lot of the pubs and restauran restaurants. we have been pushed back two blocks from the fire, heidi. >> jim, appreciate you being there. let us know if anything develops and, in fact, if you find out what may have caused all this. we sure do appreciate it. reporting live from london for us, jim bolden on this fire that is going on right now. we're still trying to figure out exactly what is happening here. meanwhile, with unemployment rate higher than 14%, michigan is desperate for jobs. despite auto industry woes, there is hope from an unexpected place. cnn's poppy harlow explains. >> reporter: don't be surprised to see george clooney next time you're in michigan, they agreed to make major motion pictures in the embattled state as it works

to reinvent itself. >> we're focused on diversifying our economy, for example, and create an economy, whether it's filmmaking. >> you stay away because if i have to come back here again, it is going to be ugly. >> reporter: clint eastwood's "grand torino" takes place 45 miles. studios that hire local workers rather than bring in their own crews. sounds great, but here's the problem. even though michigan has a skilled labor force, most don't have any experience working on film sets. >> okay. >> reporter: enter the center for film studies. started in march, the school gives michigan workers a chance to hone their skills to meet the needs of movie execs. >> i don't think hollywood woke up this morning and decided, hey, let's go to michigan. they're coming to michigan because the tax incentives are here. >> these are normally painted black. >> reporter: it isn't cheap, it

costs 5 grand. 75% of the workers in the program are getting a free ride, thanks to funding from michigan's no worker left behind program. at this class, construction workers that are used to building homes are learning how to build sets. >> it seems like the movies are coming here. there's a demand for carpenters i want to be, we're right at the front of it right now. i want to be right there. >> the real mission, pure and simple, leave a legacy of jobs. >> poppy harlow joining us live from new york with more on this. how much more of a movie mecca is michigan really becoming? >> not a movie mecca yet, heidi. but crossing its fingers and hoping to become one. we're seeing a lot of progress. 35 movies were filmed in michigan last year, that brought in $125 million in revenue for the state and that is up, heidi, from just about $2 million in 2007. so, they're making progress and the real hope there from a lot of those carpenters and the teachers at the school that i talked to, their hope is that

once they get this up and running, michigan will start producing its own films and the writers and the directors and the people xhoo who can build the set. wouldn't it be interesting to see it from the motor city to the movie city, right? we will see, but the state doing all they can to bring hollywood in. >> yeah, well, i understand when why. poppy harlow thank you. can you tweet your way to a new job? how twitter may be a great tool in your search strategy. in six different ways?

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in a rough job market you need all the help you can get to

find a job and twitter just might be able to help. personal finance editor gerri willis joining us now live with more on this. so, gerri, twitter is not just for telling the world every detail of everything you do. >> right, aside from sending out tweets about what restaurant you have gone to and your take on jon and kate, there is a new twist on twitter. you are looking for a job and you want to get new job postings sent immediately. you want to be a twitter or check out tweetsmyjob.com. >> that sounds a little profane. you know you're right. but here's how you would use it. you would get these job postings sent directly to you and they're not just from dotcom companies. they're from ge, cisco. send your resume back to them by tweetmyresume.com. now, these two sites they belong

to the same company but if you are looking for a job, a good thing to check out. if you decide to use twitter to get job postings, make sure what you tweeted in the past is appropriate and make sure if your current employer is on the follower list they'll see what you're following. instead, think about creating a new twitter account for the following. >> this is so much fun. what are some of the other benefits of using twitter? >> saving money. getting details. that you might not have known about otherwise on restaurants, clothing check out coupontweet.com. everything from groceries to restaurants and car rentals and here are some other general twitter coupon fees at coupons and at moms who save. some companies like big airlines jetblue, delta, they're advertising special travel deals on twitter. jetblue had a $9 fare new york

to nan tucket. it is was a special one-week deal, but something you might want to check out. you definitely want to see that. you just sign up for those things. >> one way or was there a return? >> it's one way. that's how jetblue signs their tickets. $9, even one way, that's a great deal. you can go to fair compare. they're tweeting deals to people. you have to get on it, i guess. >> what about some twitter don'ts. i mean, you have to know what you're doing on this a little bit, don't you? >> listen, online scam artists. we've seen them on the web and telephone and they're luring victims to get rich and work at home schemes. companies promise to pay twitter users hundreds of dollars to tweet, but they have to sign up for a free training kit buried in the fine print it says you're going to be billed $100 every month. you think it's free, not so much. in reality you're buying a moneymaking scheme but really

getting ripped off. heidi? >> still getting the e-mails i have been telling you about, too. that i have become the beneficiary to millions of dollars from baron in norway or something. >> ignore that. >> i keep hoping, maybe, maybe that's real. >> delete button, that's what it is for. >> gerri, sure do appreciate it. thank you. >> my pleasure. michael jackson's death. new allegations now about his use of prescription drugs. what investigators are uncovering. 90s slacker hip-hop. ♪ singer: buckle up, everybody 'cause pu're taking a ride ♪

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next week millions of people will tune in to the confirmation hearings of sonya sotomayor. the witness list is beginning to take shape. a white firefighter from connecticut, he was the lead plaintiff in a reverse discrimination case rejected by judge sotomayor. judge sotomayor's ruling was overturned by the supreme court just last week. the democrats witnesses include new york mayor michael bloomberg and former fbi director louis freeh. according to a new research corporation poll 40% of americans want sotomayor confirmed and 40% say they're opposed to her confirmation. if she is confirmed, sotomayor the first latino to serve on the high court. as you can see, sotomayor's confirmation hearings right here

on cnn followed the pointed questions about her background, rulings, controversial comments and speeches and it will all happen live on cnn next week. let's head over to reynolds wolf standing by in the severe weather center now. >> come on over! >> sadly, people are looking for some serious shade in texas. i mean, this is just getting relentless. >> take a look at this. we had record highs set up from just yesterday. 109 in wichita falls. you look at abilene and even austin getting into the triple digits but check out mcallen texas three days of record heat and just yesterday 104 and they could deal with more of that today with 104 expected in dallas and houston with 97 degrees and further north you go a little bit cooler the weather becomes like 89 degrees in kansas city and back over to chicago, 82. little bit cool in this area and one reason why is because the cloud cover we're seeing and not

only the clouds, but a few scattered showers and few embedded thunderstorms. there's the chance, heidi, that some of this stuff could get fairly severe, especially along this area of low pressure and back into parts of the central plains and going to be that moist air that feeds up from the gulf of mexico combine would the daytime heating that could make for rough stuff, including some delays. if you're hoping to fly back to chicago, get your weekend started, you might have a few issues there. into parts of south and central florida, showers a possibility and we may see the rain drops stick around to tomorrow. we have the shuttle launch tomorrow evening and might have a delay there and as we make our way back towards the west, not much in terms of precipitation but the surfing is going to be great this weekend. that's a look at your forecast, let's send it back to you, heidi. >> i love it when you can get the shuttle and surfing forecast in the same sentence. >> one always goes with the other. >> all right, reynolds, thank you. the final resting place for

michael jackson. wi where will it be? family members have their own thoughts.

new details coming out now in the michael jackson death investigation. here's what we know. sources tell cnn the jackson family knows the probe may turn into a criminal case. investigators are looking into jackson's prescription drug history. and l.a. police say they have spoken to doctors who have treated jackson over the years,

but police are also saying they are still waiting on toxicology tests to determine a cause of death. where will michael jackson's final resting place be? it's still not clear what the jackson family has decided, but our ted rowlands tell us the neverland ranch could be a possibility. >> an attorney for the jackson family has inquired about burying michael jackson at neverland ranch, something jermaine jackson told cnn's larry king last week he'd like to see happen. >> i would love to see him here. >> do you have a place for him here? >> yes, there's a special place right over near the train station right over there. >> reporter: to bury someone on private land in california, there are two steps. first, you need what's called a certificate of authority for the state cemetery and funeral bureau, that's no big deal, just fill out this two-page application and shell out $400. the other thing you need is approval from the county, which

in this case, is santa barbara. at this point, no one from the jackson family contacted the family, if someone does, they say it's possible they'll give the okay. >> we have had no formal application either from the jackson family or from the property owner and, at that point in time, we would review the application and make a determination. >> reporter: what's unclear is if everyone in the family wants neverland to be jackson's final resting place. joe jackson seemed to shoot it down when asked about it in the days after jackson's death. >> that's not true. that's not true. >> reporter: the bottom line here is that people burying individuals on private land just simply doesn't happen very often. the last time it happened in california was when ronald reagan was buried at semi valley, that's a different county than santa barbara county. those folks in santa barbara said they've never seen it happen. if they get an application, they'll veview it. they're not against it. they don't have a template to move forward, so it could take some time.