excuse. she doesn't have -- >> larry: no. what a tragedy. thank you sharon murch and katie callaway hall. bill clinton monday night. we now turn things over to our partner here, right here in los angeles covering all the news of the day and a big program coming up in an hour as well, here's anderson cooper and "ac 360." >> larry, thanks so much. tonight, a major break in the yale murder mystery. an arrest in the murder of grad student annie le. we also have new details about the suspect, raymond clark. we'll look into his past revealing almost two different people. some say he was quiet, unassuming, but others tonight, painting a far darker picture. that's him in court. >> we begin though with a new war of words in the health care debate. another fire fight that has nothing to do with health care reform itself. it started with the question for house speaker nancy pelosi at her weekly news conference, she was asked whether she was

worried about how harsh the political atmosphere had become. here's what she said. >> i have concerns about some of the language that is being used because i saw -- i saw this myself in the late '7 o's in san francisco, this kind of rhetoric. it was very frightening. and it created a climate in which violence took place. >> speaker pelosi appearing to tear up, talking about the murders of a gay civil rights activist and member of the san francisco board of supervisors and the city's mayor. her answer triggered immediate backlash. here is bonn jajohn bainer. >> now, listen, this whole issue of race that people tried to raise over the last week or so and this ib sin wansin situatio the people opposing the president's policies are

motivated by race, capped off by former president carter's remarks over the last couple days. i reject this resounding. >> the rhetoric increasingly heated, candy crowley tonight has "the raw politics." >> good morning. >> reporter: the speaker of the house says some of the things she's hearing in the health care debate border on dangerous. >> i saw this myself in the late '70s in san francisco, this kind of rhetoric. it was very frightening and created a climate in which violence took place. >> reporter: to review, the pro reform side including the president has been called socialist, marxist and unamerican. those against the president's plans have been called wing nuts, fringe groups and racists. republicans accuse democrats of stoking a false racism charge to diminish honest opposition. democrats say for political reasons, republicans won't condemn the clearly racist signs and words at some protests.

oh, how the white house wants to put a lid on this one. they've been trying since sunday. >> i don't think the president believes that people are upset because of the color of his skin. >> the president does not believe that -- that the criticism comes based on the color of his skin. >> reporter: and today the vice president chimed in from iraq. >> as you approach the resolution of an incredibly controversial issue, ideologically, politically and every other way, it usually finds excesses grow from that. but the president does not believe, nor do i believe that it's racially based. >> reporter: it's no the president is above a good partisan fight. he was out there today proving. that. >> i heard a lot of republicans say they want to kill a m-- but when you ask the folks what exactly my plan does, they've

got it all wrong. >> reporter: here's the problem, beyond the four walls of that rally, who's listening? the side show, the debate about the debaters droundz out the president at a critical point in his bid for health care reform. >> all of the background noise, the conversation behind the conversation hurt his ability to get his policy agenda implemented. >> reporter: and a bitter side show on one of the most politically toxic topics turns off moderate, less partisan voters and makes the opposition more opposed. >> all of a sudden, accused of being racist for expressing those concerns, you know, it further polarized an already polarized debate. >> reporter: there is bipartisan agreement on this people say on both sides say the health care debate is the nastiest in decades. only one thing missing. >> this is not about black and white. this is about insuring america. >> reporter: oh, yeah, health care. candy crowley, cnn, washington. massachusetts congressman

barney frank joins me now. barney nancy pelosi, is that an appropriate comparison? >> well, i wasn't there. so i couldn't say exactly. i would not make the comparison myself. i don't think -- one thing they did is personalize it. there is a very personal dispute there. dan white who murdered harvey milkin and george michone had quit and then wanted to come back and they were blocking him from doing it. so it wasn't a generalized homophobia that. that may have accounted for him getting a light sentence for the cold blooded murder of two people, obviously premeditated. but i -- you had that very specific grievance when he was denied what he wanted. >> you're trying to focus on financial regulation reform. it is any different trying to

get something done now compared to in past years? i mean is it any more or less partisan behind closed doors? we see what's happening on the streets. what's happening behind closed doors? >> well, it's more partisan in the house, less so in the senate. i know that senator dodd, the senate chairman has been having, i think, constructive conversations with senator shelby. what happened is this -- there's been a movement in american politics. i entered politics in 1972. we had a lot of moderate to liberal republicans, senator ed brook and frank charger. and i worked with a lot of republicans. and in many cases i was against a kind of intrenched democratic organizational leadership. but american politics have changed. it used to be we would say we have southern democrats who are more conservative than those who are republicans. that is no longer the case. to some extent, the american political science profession, if you go back years ago, has gotten our wish. the parties are much more rationally divided now. but with a great deal more anger. i do think that trend really began, and i think newt begin

trich was explicit about this. newt gingrich said we republicans will noefr take power if this is seen as a set of debates between people of good will who differ. he said he forced out bob michel who had been republican leader. he was kind of contempt shoe us of the moderate and mainstream conservative republicans who believe that, say, well, we're friends after 6:00, et cetera. and he said, no, we have to say to the democrats, they're corrupt and immoral and disloyal. that inagenendependered engend reaction. there were two other factors. first of all, we're in very bad economic times right now. and people are more likely to be angry and listen to anger in bad economic times. it's not just bad economic times. some of the most respected institutions in america, the financial giants because this is a country that really kind of fumbles worship capitalism in an unrestrained form for many years, they collapsed and the government is complicit in not

having prevented the collapse. so you have a lot of people throughout who have lost faith in the institutions in which they were supposed to have faith. the other thing is this -- there are fewer and fewer people getting the news from walter cronkite or newspaper where everybody gets it together. we're very polarized in how we get our information. on the whole corn sernservative they're listening to public radio and others are doing internet and we have our cable orientations. but you're in the middle. but you're in the minority. so what happens is this -- people talk to people who agree with them. i'm con fronted by people who say well i'd like to get this done from the liberal side, but i have to compromise, they don't understand why i say. that because everybody they know agrees with them. and the same is true on the right. >> that's -- we're definitely seeing that more and more. we have to take a short break and talk more after this break. the congressman is going to be joined by republican congressman mike rogers and david gergen in

just a moment. can you join the live chat online. a huge break in the yale murder mystery, an arrest today. a lab technician was rained today. this is my small-business specialist, tara. i know landscaping, but i didn't know how wireless could help my business. i just don't know how wireless can help my business. tara showed me how i could keep track of my employees in the field and get more jobs done faster. i was blown away. i'm blown away. only verizon wireless has small-business specialists in every store to help you do business better. we should get you a hat. now buy any blackberry, like the new tour, at our lowest prices ever,

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she compared today's angry protest to anti-gay rallies in the 1907's that preceded the assassination of two political leaders. is speaker pelosi's warning unfounded? >> i think it is. you have to remember what this is all about. i have represented conservative blue collar district in michigan. listen, every single person is going to encounter the health care system. and when you talk about a fundamental change, i don't care if you're a cancer survivor or maybe your mother is a cancer survivor or you know you're going to have health issues this impacts you deeply personally. and i think what people in the political talking head arena have absolutely misjudged, these are justage people. i have seen housewives show up and people who have -- they're not angry. they're very, very concerned. so, yeah, i do. i mean are there those? absolutely. "the weekly standard" did a piece where they said 7 out of the 10 town hall violence episodes involve the unions. that's that organized political event. but the episodic where people

are showing up, those are just average people, the little guy who is saying wait a minute this scares me and scares me a lot. >> david, there's been plenty of rhetoric in past decades. people called president bush hitler. is this just part of that same game? >> i think it's -- i think it's -- no, i think it's worse, anderson, than it has been in a long time. look, i want to do what people said. i do not think racism is driving the opposition to health care. what i do think is there are radical elements on the fringes of both sides and the expressions that we're now seeing, the signs and some of the, you know, the pictures of obama and that sort of thing, i think probably have increased the threat levels that the secret service is dealing with. i know that there have been threat levels elevated in the past when this has gone on. but it is also -- if you have a chance to walk through the newly restored lincoln museum in

springfield, illinois, there's one room in there if you walk in there you'll see cartoons in that area depicting him as an ape and baboon. there were sort of animalistic sort of things. they were horrible. they represent a lot of what happened in that time. it's important to remember what happened to lincoln in april of 1965. >> there is rhetoric used against the president and then to define his policies that often misrepresents them. the term death panels comes to mind. >> well, you know, the debate has shifted from health reform to insurance reform. that's the first thing. president obama's plan is humane. it's compassionate. it's for the impoverished, it's for the elderly. it's a plan for social justice. and people are now scared by label him as a communist and death panelist and socialist. you're actually get ago way from

the real issues. talk about end of life care, most of end of life care actually does not extend life. it extends suffering. it increases bills. you know, we are the only profession in the medical profession, the medical industry is the only industry that does not obey the laws of supply and demand in capitalism. because doctors, you know, a doctor said that a doctor's bed is the most expensive technology. you have a minor chest discomfort because you had an argument with your wife and you go to a doctor and before you know it, you had an ekg, a stress test, a 24-hour monitor and if you're unlucky, angioplasty and afrpg yoe gram which does nothing to extend life even if did you have the disease. so we have a big issue here. we're not looking at the $700 billion that sprent on unnecessary tests. the $2 2.5 million surgeries th

are not required. the fact that there are four times many health care lobbyists in washington as will are congressmen. we're getting away from the real issues. i think president obama's plan is really a good one. >> congressman frank, you had an encounter famously now at this point with one person in a town hall to be held. i want to show that to our viewers very quickly. >> why do you continue to support a nazi policy has obama has expressly supported this policy? why are you supporting it? >> it is a tribute to the first amendment that this kind of vile contemptible nonsense is so freely propagated. ma'am, trying to have a conversation with you would be like trying to argue with dining room table. i have no interest in doing it. >> when you hear former president carter saying that the majority of the opposition to the president is rooted in racism or the majority of the

rhetoric he is hearing, do you agree with that or agree with congressman roth wloerz saying, look, the vast majority of this is people expressing deep-seated concern. >> neither of the above. the woman who asked me that question was a advocate. she came out of deep lunacy. i will say these are the people that called george bush hitler. i ran against one who said the queen elizabeth was a drug dealerment my response was i didn't think she dressed nearly well enough to be a drug dealer. but here's the mistake i think conservatives have made and they're paying for it now. that is they were happy to see -- yeah, there were angry average people. but there was some crazed people. there were lunacy people. there were people from very right-wing groups that are not part of mainstream conservatives. they were very happy to let them go out and attack democrats. then they began to worry because oh, wait a minute, we have more rational arguments. and they wanted to pull back

from the death penalties and et cetera. by the way, the democrats made it previously. there is a reluctance on the part of mainstream politician to repudiate the angriest and least rational and least logical and unfairest people in their own wing. and that's a mistake. i wrote a book about it years ago. you got to -- you know, one of the hardest things to do is stand up to people that tell you they're your allies. you have to sometimes differentiate yourself from your friends. the main opposition to this health care plan is not of that sort. but the conservatives made the mistake of not differentiating themselves from it and indeed enjoying the fact that democrats were getting hit with it. >> congressman rogers, what about that? i want you to spont respond. is the har mucher rhetoric driving the debate and influencing congressmen? >> no. i think, you know, the sexiest part of that debate is whether they can get that, you know that, sign that i think the vast majority of americans don't identify with and don't understand. i mean when the code pink people were protesting during the

president's speech, i mean i wish my good friend barney frank would have stood up then and said how wrong it was. >> i did, mike, excuse me. that is totally unfair. >> it is not unfair. barney, let me finish. and that's the problem. this heated part of it, yes, there are those folks on both sides of the aisle that are people that we would take pause and say, wait a minute that, is not a great way to express your point. but here's the problem. when i think -- i think what barney and others have missed, these are just average people who are scared. they're the ones paying the credit card bills. they're paying their mortgage bill. they're showing up for work every day. and they don't see a way out of this. and they see this big government coming in and saying i'm going to run your health care. you mean the same people that couldn't get water to katrina, the same people that couldn't process the cash for clunkers transactions are now going to take care of my sick grandmother. i think that's what people miss. these are average people who are truly concerned. >> i want to respond to that set of partisan distortions.

mike rogers is simply wrong. i did stand up to code pink. i chaired committees when they harassed witnesses and the republicans were in power and ordered them to sit down and told them i would have the police remove them. i don't know why you would make things up. we're trying to have a serious discussion. i've been very critical. by the way, i'm not missing anything. i know who lives in my district and i know who they are. i know the people that come to my town hall -- >> but those people are very small percentage. >> they are the ones i was talking about. you say i don't -- i miss it. i don't miss it. in fact, you weren't listening to what i said. i differentiate. i know there are a lot of people with legitimate concerns. i disagree with them but i hear them. one important part of the conservative movement, fox news, in fact, was criticized by fox news for being rude to a la are you sure advocate holding pakt of the president as hitler. so there is an element in the conservative side that failed to differentiate. >> whether is rudeness enough? my argument is maybe we

shouldn't be rude to each other at all. there is a serious debate that we should have here that concerns 270 million americans who may lose their health care. i think that's a -- we should have that debate. and sometimes it will be charged. it doesn't have to be rude. >> mike, look, we would were stopping that debate got interrupted by the right-wing attacks, not the mainstream conservatives, on the president and health care plan. and too many conservatives were happy to sit back and let it happen. now i hope we will resume that debate. >> we got to go. >> people think that wasn't a good tactic. >> i'm sorry, we got to go. i'm sorry we didn't have more time for this. congressman frank and congressman rogers, david gergen and deepak chopra. president obama deciding to cancel a missile shield for eastern europe. also, new photos of the lab technician under arrest for the murder of a yale grad student. of course, they're erie now, that's him on a facebook page. new details about his relationship with le including reports of text or e-mail messaging between the two. resee.

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>> larry: we have details about the man police say killed the yald grad student annie le. first, erica hill has a 360 bulletin. the oeb administration is overhauling a plan for mace will defense shield. the president says the change of gears is based on an updated intelligence assess bment iran's ability to hit europe with missiles. he says the rezindz system will be cheaper and more effective. republicans say it is bad for national security. in indonesia the country's most wanted terror suspect was killed in an overnight raid. his terror network is blamed for nearly every major attack in

indonesia in the past decade including the hotel bombings in jakarta two months ago. the thous day voting to deny all federal funding for the community organizing group a corn. the move comes after a hidden camera video was released showing a corn employees advising a couple posing as a prostitute and a pimp to break the law. and fossils in northern china discover a tiny t-rex. it roamed the earth 125 million years ago, stood 9 feet tall and weighed 150 pounds. slim. the giant t-rex evolved millions of years later was as much as 100 times bigger. even the small one though, i don't think i would want to meet in an alley. >> 9 feet tall. still, nothing to -- >> nothing to sneeze at. >> coming up next on "360," huge government checks at a isolated checkpoint s it helping the economy or bleeding taxpayer dollars? it's the border crossing bo

boondogg boondoggle. also later, profile of the yale killer. friends speaking out and so are the police. a live report coming up. as washington continues the debate over health care reform, aarp has chosen a side-- yours. we're fighting to guarantee that you'll never be denied coverage because of your health or age. to prevent anyone from coming between you and your doctor. and to make sure patients don't take a backseat to insurance companies. because at aarp, we believe your health is worth fighting for. learn more at aarp.org.

>> larry: tonight a young lab technician sits in a new haiven jail cell on $3 million bail and charged with strangling annie le. his arrest was not a surprise. he's been a person of interest for a couple days. he's its only suspect in a murder that attracted national

attention. clark was arrested at a super 8 hotel earlier this morning. ed body of annie le described as a brilliant student was found inside a wall at the yale medical school building on sunday. and what would have been her wedding day. we're learning a lot more tonight about the accused and what may have triggered the brutal crime. with the latest now, here's tom foreman. >> reporter: arrested and brought into court facing a murder charge at just 2 4shgs ray clark was not asked for a plea just to be understood his rights. his answer, two words. >> yes, sir. >> reporter: others, however, are saying much more. the police chief won't talk about reports of messages between clark and the murder victim, annie le. but he makes it clear the lab where they both worked is where the violence was born. >> this is not about urban crime. this is not about university crime. it's not about the domestic crime. but an issue of workplace violence which is become a growing concern around the country. >> reporter: 20 minutes away in clark's hometown, the idea of

some sort of workplace eruption is puzzling for old high school classmates. >> he was incredibly nice. he was sweet. he came off as very caring. >> reporter: michelle knew him as a fun loving and athletically gifted boy with kind and giving parents. even before a local paper reported it, she knew firsthand about a long ago police investigation into accusations that clark forced his then girlfriend into having sex with him, no charges were filed. so michelle never thought much of it. >> you know, he never was arrested or anything like that. but it just -- it just didn't -- it seemed like there was a problem within the relationship and, you know, something between them two. >> reporter: police will not talk about that incident now saying that they are only sharing information with new haven detectives. it is all painful for kaitlynman. she, too, knew ray clark as a standout baseball player.

>> this is him right here? >> yep. >> reporter: and a fellow member of a high school club to promote understanding of asian culture. she does not believe he could have killed annie le. are kind of guy was ray clark in high school? >> friendly all the time. sweetheart. totally. >> reporter: so what happened? if police are correct, somehow her job as a researcher and his job taking care of the animals that she worked with brought them into a collision in the basement of this building a little more than a week ago with tragic results. bail for clark was set at $3 million and his attorney is not talking. many students of yale are breathing easier with the arrest. but many friends of annie le and ray clark have just as many questions about how this murder came to pass. >> tom, you mentioned the questions that people have about what happened. obviously, is there any reason to believe the questions will eventually be answered?

>> reporter: i don't know, anderson. authorities here notice that mr. clark very quickly invoked his right to not incriminate himself. remember, they had to get a order from a judge to bring him into custody. so they could take the dna sam tomz learn more about what happened. and as far as we know, there were no witnesses to this crime. so if he's the right guy and if this in fact goes to trial as expected, i think we'll be looking at a lot of scientific evidence, possibly if there are message that's some people rumored between phones or something between them that may help create the picture. but in the end, the question will be whether or not if he is the guilty person, he wants to tell the story of what happened in that room. otherwise, anderson, i think all we may ever know is what science may be able to tell us. >> tom, thanks. one medical student who didn't want to identify herself on tv says she was in the lab with clark just three days after le disappeared. here's what she told cbs news about his behavior and the area where they worked. >> he did such a good job of

hiding any sign of nervousness or anything out of the ordinary when i was in the room with him alone on friday night. the rooms in the basement were sound proof. so even if annie had been screaming, nobody would have been able to hear her. >> we're getting two very different portraits of le's alleged killerment let's talk about the suspect, his relationship with le and a possible motive. with me now, lisa bloom and prosecutor and stalking expert rhonda saunders. we heard police say this is a case of workplace violence. that still -- that term still encompasses a lot of motives. >> yes, workplace violence can encompass everything from stalking, from conflicts within the workplace itself. it could be related to the type of work that she was doing. i mean there's so many different

motivations out there. and right now i think everything is pure speculation. we really don't know. we just have the edges of the puzzle. so it's very hard to try to pinpoint what exactly is going on. was there stalking? was there a relationship within the workplace? was it work related? we don't know. >> because i mean we do know he had a girlfriend that he was reportedly going to marry. she was obviously about to get married. she was supposed to be married on the day her body was discovered. but beyond that, you know, we have conflicting reports about what kind of person he was as we always do in a case like this. >> absolutely. and osha just released some figures that over two million americans are subjected to some type of workplace violence every year. so this is not an unusual phenomena. i think we're just starting to live in a more violent society. >> lisa, when the police were saying that he was just a person of interest, i mean i guess, what, they have to say that

because they can't name him as a suspect yet until they get dna evidence which parentally they now have. >> that's correct. and now they have that and, of course, he's been arrested and accused of the murder. let me say flat out, i'm not buying this workplace violence theory. i'm really not. i know we have limited information at this point. a typical case of workplace violence is a disgruntled employee who is fired and comes in a gun and starts shooting everyone. this is a case of a young man, if he's good for this crime, who put his hands around the neck of a beautiful young woman and killed her, a kind of killing that would take two to five minutes, extremely intimate, brutal kind of crime. we also don't know yet whether she was the victim of sexual assault or not. the police have been mum on that point. i'm just not buying that this had to do with mouse droppings and whether she was wearing the proper booties in the lab. that doesn't make sense to me. i think more facts are going to be told in this case. we're going to learn this was a jolted lover or he was interested in her and she rejected him. something of that nature. >> rhonda, the fact this was

strangulation, i mean it is, as lisa said, an extremely personal way to kill someone. >> absolutely. it's very personal. they have to actually approach the person. it isn't like using a gun where they can shoot a projectile across the room. but i disagree that you can't quantify it as workplace violence. because many workplace violence incidents involve a domestic partner, showing up at the workplace or something gone wrong in the workplace itself. so over the umbrella of workplace violence, this is something that could fit within it. >> right. it's technically a workplace violence because it happened in the place where the two of them worked. but this isn't the type of workplace violence that we usually see. and i think the police chief wants the people in that community, where i lived for three years myself, to feel comfortable. that this is an urban crime, yale university wants everybody to feel comfortable this they can feel safe around campus. this, to me, smacks violence against women when you look at it on its face. and by the way, the fact he was in the asian awareness club when

he was in high school, not of asian dissent himself, the victim being asian-american, i think that is also relevant when you look at the case. it's very suspicious to me his level of potential interest in her. >> no doubt we're going to learn a lot more in the days ahead. lisa bloom, rhonda saunders, thank you. next, is it money for nothing? protecting the country or wasting a fortune? washington is pouring millions into a remote checkpoint. why? we're keeping them honest. later, the breaking news inside philip garrido's home. new pictures at the home of jaycee dugard's kidnapper. for chase customers.priy it lets you choose what purchases you want to pay in full to avoid interest...with full pay. and those you split... you decide how to pay over time. if having a plan matters. chase what matters. create your own blueprint at chase.com/blueprint.

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but they're getting a wind fall from washington. "keeping them honest" here is drew griffin. >> reporter: we knew this one we had to see to believe. but after driving for hours, we thought we might never see it. we have blown to billings, montana, we've been driving for five hours through a country that has more antelope than people. and i tell you, we've done the bridges to nowhere, roads to nowhere. this may be the topper. it was supposed to be $15 million to replace what appears to be a perfectly fine border crossing station, especially when you consider the bureau of transportation's statistics say this border crossing station in skobe, montana, sees fewer than 20 vehicles a day. it's not that you could just call this border crossing slow.

here i am in the middle of the day sitting in the middle of the road. there's nobody here. it's even quieter here, the border crossing at white tail, montana. the bureau of transportation statistics say they get fewer than two vehicles a day. yet, this, too, was to see a $15 million upgrade thanks to the federal stimulus bill. >> i think everybody was pretty well blown away that their spending $32 billion in this county. i believe they need to update, but that is just a crazy number. >> reporter: keeping them honest, we wanted to find out why so much money was suddenly heading to montana's sleepy northern border, especially when you consider these crossings are so lightly used they're actually closed at night. could it be politics? since the democrats took over in the senate, montana's two

democratic senators have become very powerful. senator max waucaus is chairman of the senate finance committee and john tester is on the homeland security committee. and both took credit for the millions allocated out here in a joint press release saying they pushed homeland security for the stimulus spending. this is good news for all of montana and especially communities across the northern tier, senator baucus said in that release. senator tester said the spending would pay off for generations to come by creating new jobs and opportunity that will benefit all of montana. and just this week senator tester reiterate the his support in a statement saying to his spokesperson -- >> reporter: the department of homeland security even told us that security concerns, not

politics, drove this decision to spend on the ports. >> we feel the ports like all of the ports of entry are a vital part of that network of security that we invest and the investments we're going to do are a critical step in insuring we can perform our mission. >> this man's family has been farming this land for generation. his land is adjacent to the border crossing. in winter, entire days go by, he says, where you won't see a single car. an idea to build a new border station that sees fewer than 20 cars a day at a cost of $15 million tax dollars, he says, could only have come from washington. >> well, when you're spending someone else's money, the cost is no big deal, right? if i was spending your money, why do i care? as long as you have a big pocketbook, why do i care? the accountability that we need to have and the sensibility and the common sense needs to apply

here. i mean the senators did a fine job as far as getting money for northeast montana, absolutely great. but would it be wiser spent on something more useful to the public generally? >> reporter: perhaps more useful than a sleepy border crossing that actually goes to sleep every night. >> so, drew, where does the project stand right now? >> anderson, just hours after that dhs official was on camera with us defending this program, homeland security put it all on ice for at least 30 days until she can review just how these decisions were made. she said, she wants "further transparency" in this process. so a big change there. >> do we know why the change of heart? >> i -- there was some press reports. certainly we were on the case. but i think the kicker, anderson, was that another democratic senator from a border state, north dakota, sent the

homeland security secretary a note saying you're spending money like a bottomless pit. that got her attention. and i think that pressures what led to it. >> all right, drew, thanks for the report. next, doctors and dollarsment one md takes on health care cost saying greety physicians are to blame for the problems. plus, breaking news, new photos that expose the shorible conditions inside and around the california home where jaycee dugard was forced to live for 18 years. can you imagine living in this place? a smidge? y'know, there's really no need to weigh packages under 70 pounds. with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service, if it fits, it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. cool. you know this scale is off by a good 7, 8 pounds. maybe five. priority mail flat rate boxes only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship.

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we turn to our series on medical malpractice. president obama said he is open to changes in medical malpractice. he singled out a city in texas that spends more on health care than anywhere else in the country. he spent more per patient than the mayo clinic. >> there's a town in mcallen, texas, where costs are actually a third higher than they are at mayo. but the outcomes are worse. >> that caught our attention, especially when we learned that texas is supposed to lower patient care costs because they passed laws reducing malpractice lawsuits. so why is care so expensive in mcallen? we found a doctor who says he knows why. >> reporter: this heart surgeon says the price for medical care in mcallen, texas, is just way too high. and he's paying the price for speaking out.

do you think you're committing professional suicide? i do. i have. the results are plain. >> all right. >> reporter: dr. lester dike doesn't put most of the blame on malpractice lawyers or insurance companies for the rising medical costs here, he blames his colleagues. >> a lot of doctors here are practicing in a way that treats a patient's like atm machines and essentially extracts the maximum amount of profit from the patient. >> reporter: dr. dike spends much more time relaxing on his ranch because he says other doctors are angry at him and stopped referring him patients. his practice, he says, is down 70% since he started speaking out a few months ago. >> i am being black balled. the only way they can pressure me to stop doing what i'm doing is essentially cut off my referrals and try to make me quit practicing. and it may succeed. >> hello? >> reporter: other doctors in mcallen acknowledge they're not happy with his charge that physicians here are excessively concerned about profits.

gastroenterologist carlos cardenas. >> i think he's a great doctor. >> reporter: do you feel he's right about this? i don't think -- i think that, you know, i think he's wrong because the overwhelming majority of physicians in this community practice good medicine. >> reporter: he says there is no organized effort to stop referrals to dr. dike. but there is no doubt about this fact, per patient costs are astounding. mcal sent second highest health care cost in the nation. only miami costs more. but mcallen is in one of the poorest counties in the u.s. the average worker here makes about $12,000 a year. yet, incredibly the average health care cost for a patient in this county is almost $15,000. what medicare spends for the typical patients in mcallen is almost double what it spends in average patient nationwide. so what's going on in mcallen? >> the doctors are able to profit not just from being physicians like we have traditionally, but by ordering

tests on equipment that they own or x-rays on equipment that they own or sending patients to facilities that they own or have a financial interest in. >> extra tests and services to patients are often referred to as utilization. >> i think that we may have high utilization because we care for a lot of very sick people later in their disease that require more care. and if you require more care, you're going to have more utilization. >> reporter: the doctor works in a mult are a modern hospital in town called doctors hospital. he is one of the doctor owners of the hospital. that is also criticized by dr. dike. >> they value money more than their patient's well-being. >> it hits me viscerally because i know it's not true. >> there's enough ethical doctors in town that still continue to send me patients, not many, but i think enough to make a living. not by much. and if there isn't, then i'll retire. i've been here a long time. i've done well. and, you know, i can just quit. >> gary tuckman, mcallen, texas. >> who knew?

next in oin our money hour, cnn monday summit. we'll try to point you in the right direction moving forward. money & main street starts at 11:00 p.m., nine minutes from now. new documents reveal how much cash michael jackson's mother is getting to support herself and her kids. now susan boyle is singing in american soil. her u.s. debut with the rolling stones, our shout of the day. you're the colon lady! diarrhea, constipation, gas, bloating. that's me! can i tell you what a difference phillips' colon health has made? it's the probiotics. the good bacteria. that gets your colon back in balance. i'm good to go! phillips' colon health.

breaking news, a first look inside a california home of kidnapping suspects philip and nancy garrido. the house has been condemned. investigators also revealing tonight cadaver dogs have picked up a scent that indicate that human remains are buried on the property. the couple has plead not guilty to kidnapping jaycee dugard. bernie madoff's beach house

in new york sold for more than his $8.7 amillion asking price. the proceeds will help to repay victims of madoff's massive scheme. and michael jackson's mother receives more than $86,000 a month from his estate to support herself and her three grandchildren. a judge approved the payout to catherine jackson last month, anderson. >> wow. all right. erica, time for the tonight's shot. susan boyl sechlt in america. she is singing for the stones. listen. ♪ drag me away >> yep. wild horses. >> giving it her own boyle touch. she was performing at "america's got talent." "wild horses" is on her album due out just before

thanksgiving. get in line. >> preorder. >> preorder. >> can you see all the most recent shots on the website, ac 360.com. coming up, cnn money summit. is the recession really over? a panel of experts weighs in. you've worked all your life. as the decades have past, the promise of medicare has always been there.

and aarp has fought to guarantee none of the benefits you earned were ever taken away. today we're continuing that fight by protecting your freedom to choose the doctors and treatments you need. and to have your tax dollars go towards your care-- not insurance company subsidies. you've done your work. and we'll keep doing ours. learn more at aarp.org.

hey, i'm anderson koomy. >> and i'm alley envelope shi. two top aches head, the economy and you. >> it's been a year since lehman declared bankruptcy. that plowed the american economy deep near recession and cost you money. >> everyone felt the effects as the crisis rippled through the job, housing, and stock markets. >> in the hour ahead, we'll figure out what happened over the past year and point new the right direction for the year and years ahead. our panel of experts will give you the tools you need to profit and even prosper. tonight on this cnn "money summit: money and main street."

a year after the lehman, good and bad news. ben bernanke says the recession is very liky over. bad news, not all economists agree with him. a new poll shows 86% of the people still feel we're in a recession. more than three quarters of all americans say it's a bad one. but it's not all doom and gloom. things are improving in some areas very quickly. we'll be discussing this tonight with our panel. senior editor lea gallagher, stephen reid, christine romins and "money" magazine senior writers walter upgrade and donna rosado and ryan mack. >> thanks. first, how did we get here? one year ago this week america's subprime cross-iisis became a financial crisis. mortgage defaults became in a matter of days something much

bigger. money, september 15th, 2008. wall street is in a panic. lehman filing for bankruptcy after no one would buy it. the immediate fallout, already skiddish credit markets around the world freeze. banks won't lend. not to businesses, not to each other. >> many lenders have been reluctant to provide credit. >> without the flow of money, the entire global financial system is at risk. >> good evening, we begin with breaking news about the crisis on wall street. >> the credit system in this country is coming to a halt. >> that day the dow closes more than 500 points lower. >> americans are as worried about bailing out wall street as they are about not bailing it out. >> enter the u.s. government and fast. the next morning a staggering $85 billion bailout of aig, american international group. >> government -- >> government intervention is not only warranted, it is

essential. >> within days, then treasury secretary henry paulson is working on a bailout, $700 billion to keep the financial system afloat. >> this needs to be big enough to make a real difference. >> today is a -- >> but many americans are outraged that wall street is being safe, rewarded for the misdeeds. the economy is now the issue of the presidential election. >> make sure that we protect taxpayers. >> a lot of us saw this train wreck coming. >> congress defeats a rescue pack oj on september 29th. the dow has its biggest point drop in history that day. urgency mounts. and on october 3rd, a bailout bill passes. the plan, government pumps money into banks hoping the cash will be used to make loans and get credit flowing again.

by mid october, progress. the global credit squeeze begins to loosen somewhat with banks lending to each other. though some businesses still can't raise enough money and are losing customers. when businesses lose customers, americans lose jobs. the recession deepens. new hope, though in, early november. >> president obama will become the president lekt -elect of th united states. >> america elects a new president who soon will be thrust into a new economic crisis. this time it's the auto industry in desperate need of government cash. >> right now in today's circumstances, we can't do it alone. >> with mounting business bankruptcy, job losses and home foreclosures, investor confidence craters and stock losses mount. by march 9th, the dow is down 40% since lehman filed for bankruptcy. but this marks the bottom. or i should say at least we hope that marked the bottom.

now if you didn't get out of the market at the bottom, it's been a nice ride back. major u.s. markets, let's look at the s&p 500. 500 major u.s. companies. since that bottom on march 9th, they have risen about 45%. the value of the stocks have risen 45% giving you 10% gain for a year which some people consider a perfect git gain. more good news, the combination of low home prices, low interest rates, and a tax credit for new home buyers as helped stabilize the housing market. but the national unemployment rate, there's a problem. it's still -- it's 9.7% right now. hundreds of thousands of jobs are being lost each month. en that very fact is keeping u.s. consumers from fully re-engaging in this economy. let's have that discussion with my panel. ryan, you worked very closely with the people we're talking about right now. you're a financial adviser. are people feeling that this recession is over and it's time to get in? or are people still holding back? >> people are still feeling very anxious. they're skeptical. they're looking to the

government for answers, too much as far as i'm concerned. i have to say, you look at the march 9th lows. those that stuck it out, they're happy right now. those who bailed out, they're learning difference between real and paper losses. >> people still feel we're in a recession. if you look at the money flowing into investments, since the beginning of the year, more than 90%st money going into mutual funds is actually going into bond funds. so i think people aren't quite aware of these opportunities that are now exist in the stock market. >> stephen lee, you follow this closely. this market might be up 10% for the year at this point, up 45% or more since march 9th. is it too late for people finally waking up to say i need to get into this market? >> i think it's not necessarily too late to buy stocks. but it really depends which stocks. i think it's much too late to buy any stock whatsoever. but i think if you have the right stocks, if you have -- i believe in commodities at this particular point in time. i believe in franchises like a

johnson & johnson. it's still probably okay to invest in this market. but don't get carried away. that will be my advice. >> go back to the 9.7% number. there is a big group of people in no position right now to be putting new money in the stock market. they're trying to stabilize and repair their balance sheet, repair their situation and move forward and worried about their jobs. you can't invest when you don't have money. you have people trying to find opportunities right now. it's the right time. another big group of people in no position to find the opportunities. >> let's see if we're half empty or full people. let's look at job losses since the beginning of this recession. january '08 is the first move the recession. but can you see up until august they were still contained. and then the bottom started to fall out. by january of this year, we had lost more than 700,000 jobs in one month. but then it started to pull back. it started to taper back. and in august, which is the most recent month for which we have this statistics, only 216,000 jobs were lost.

what am i saying? donna? only 216,000 jobs lost. we think of that as a good thing. how do you bring an economy like ours back when you're still shedding 100,000, 250,000 jobs a month? >> that's right. whether you feel better about the economy gendz on whether or not you have a job or not. and it's been a duel economy here. if you are in certain industries, actually, you held up pretty well. we've been looking at where the jobs are. we all know health care jobs, education, and some energy, and even tax jobs held up pretty well. but certain things like manufacturing and, you know, median has been decimated. you can't bring it back without the jobs. and some of the government stimulus programs have been aimed at developing jobs in some of the critical areas like environmental and energy. >> we'll take a good detailed look at not only where the jobs are by industry, but where they are in the country geographically. we also have a housing issue. we continue to. it does appear that these low

interest rates, the fact that there are lots of homes available for sale, that people need to sell at fire sale prices and this ib sencentive for new buyers has helped the market. >> it has absolutely, by all indicators. prices are turning around. sales are up. but you have to remember, a lot of the sales are driven by forced sales. they're people in desperate situations and they have to sell. and you also can't remember -- can't forget that there is a foreclosure rate that is escalating pretty significantly. and so that's linked to jobs and the consume cher is a big, big part of this economy that is still yet to recover. >> stephen? >> and also, in addition to the unemployment which is a hideous problem in and of itself and getting worse, and by some measures if you count people partially employed, 16%, i mean that's the number. not working and only partially working. in addition to that horrible, horrible fact is also the fact that consumers are now saving. they're scared.

they've seen a sea change. so money that otherwise might be going into the economy is not -- >> what we're going to have a discussion about today is in all of those places how you take advantage of that. where you put your money for investments, whether it's stocks or whether it's precious metals. i know you have stuff to say about that, stephen. or whether it's bonds cash. how americans have changed the way they spend. and more importantly, how you deal with this market when it comes to where you live, how you train, and whether or not it's time to buy a house. we've got all of that lined up for us. but anderson, we'll have more with the panel ahead. we're going to head now over to you. >> thanks. more with the panel. we're also heading to st. louis to meet a grun of ordinary investors. not one is an investment professional, i should tell you. yet, they have profited handsomely from the rebound in the stock market. the 45% jump in the stork market we mentioned earlier has this group worth over $1 million. an i-report from two kids in new york inspired by this recession. take a look. >> me and i are going to give it

to you very slowly. ♪ money, money here comes honey ♪ the snow is in recession force pors please don't be in deep depression ♪ ♪ money, money it got started ♪ >> i lost my breath. what can we do today to help you for your future? at bank of america, we take our obligations extraordinarily seriously. we have many traditional savings products for our customers as well as products that you will not see anywhere else. we encourage our customers to use the website because there are so many great features. by doing add it up, you get discounts on your purchase. you know, the greatest program we have right now, is the keep the change. keep the change gives customers the opportunity to save in a different kind of way when they use their debit card - at no cost. it's free.

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we were looking at a couple moments ago. the market plunged 46% from a year ago to when it bottomed out on march 9th. the portfolio of our next guests are doing better. they only lost 33%. but when it costs you $362,000, it hurts. for members of the club in st. louis, it was a scary loss. what did they do? the same thing they've always been doing. these people meet for an hour and 15 months once a month. they have a strict agenda, to make money by beating the stock market. >> gentleman, it's 7:00. we're going to call the meeting to order. >> they're an investment club with 34 members, each contributing $75 a movement every member gets one vote to buy or sell. the majority rules. they're not stock brokers and dhoent work at finance. to them, this is mostly a hobby. but they do know their stuff. right now they have over $1 million in their portfolio. >> our market value of our

stocks at the end of monday, september 7th, was $1,118,000. >> he started the club three years ago with $6 o and a paper ledger. they wanted to learn about investing. >> actually, i'm lying. we got together to play poke eastern drink beer. that's why the first couple years we didn't really make money. >> that changed, ray says, after they joined the national association of investment clubs who offer classes in investing back in 1976. since then, the club has grown steadily. the goal is to make an 15% return on the investment and despite fluctuations in the market, they've done it consistently. >> i learned basically if you want to make money, you better understand how it makes money. it isn't a paycheck you bring home. it's what you do with that paycheck. >> ray estimates his share is worth $250,000. they've done better through the invest am club.

for their trackor record, it's outstanding. >> it's not rocket science. >> the fundamentals are simple, invest on a regular basis. >> are there any buy motions? >> and they diversify. they own 17 stocks in 13 different industries. >> we're now up to about 27.4% of small cap stock. >> they say to buy quality over quantity. and most of all, be patient. >> when we buy a stock, we buy with the idea we keep it for life. how's that? the best stock you'll ever own is when you never have to sell. >> they look at how stocks will perform five years down the line, not five weeks. that's why the recent down turn didn't concern the members too much. >> we were down this past year just like everybody else was. it did not discourage us. we know that there are peaks and valleys in the market and it always comes back. it always comes back. >> they firmly believe it, so they keep investing. >> we have a motion to buy 200

shares of dow chemical at market. all in favor, please raise your hand. >> i have fun making money. you name me somebody that has fun losing money, i'd say he's a different kind of person. >> i'm joined now by ray barr from st. louis. you suffered big losses like everyone else during the september through march market plunge. but you stuck it out when a lot of others bailed. why? >> i think because we, as far as the market is concerned, you have to realize that it has its peaks and valleys. and, therefore, the experience of the club is obtained through being in is club is important. a club is really an organization of many national clubs throughout the nation. and they learned through education, training, and the tools that were given to us to make a successful. >> what's the benefit you think for an individual investor to be in a club? >> well, it's a learning process. you learn from other clubs and other people how they invest, when to invest, whether to stay in, when to possibly withdraw. but the bottom line is be

patient. sh cautious with your investments. >> your individual investing style, is that different from the investments your club puts money into. >> yes. it would be different. each member of the club, we've got 34 members, each one is different. the club meets once a month. therefore, we can only invest once a month. we can only sell once a month. whereas the individual investors, like i said, there are 34 of us, we can make decisions for ourselves. most of the guys in the club will be a little bit more aggressive in their investments. i think the club is really needs to stay within the scope and be a little bit more conservative. 12 to 15% is fine. individually, i'm sure there's others in the club doing better than. that there's probably others not doing as well. >> before i give it over to the panel, do you have any stock tips for me, ray? >> personally, i like the idea of keeping balance between large cap, medium cap and small cap. right now we're really interested in dow chemical and also rofin sinar technologies

and tractor-trailer supply. that's small cap. medium cap, i like pfizer. large cap, i can think of emerson, johnson & johnson. there are more on the conservative side. they won't get you to 15% but it gives you peace of mind. >> ali is taking notes. >> i absolutely am. that is fascinating. congratulations, ray. i have donna rosato to ask a question. >> so you hold on to the stocks for life. but you must have some rules for when you do sell. i wonder if there are any stocks that aappreciate yat thawed decided to sell vein a particular rule that you use to determine when you're ready to sell? >> for example, maybe stock took off and we got a couple right now in that situation. probably next month we'll probably shave off a little bit. probably 30 years ago a broker i knew, he was my broker, he said sometimes it's good to take half off the table, let the rest ride. now do we do that? all the time? no. sometimes you have to take all off the table. and go a different direction.

>> ray bahr, it's good to have rules about when you sell stocks. thanks for sharing your experience and advice with our viewers and some of us i think learned something from this as well. let me show you information that fidelity gave us about 401(k)'s and americans and how they changed their investment habits over the last year because of this recession. i want to start with this pile of money. that's what there was before this recession came into place. but let's look at about the middle of 2008. this is what the average fidelity 401(k) looks like, 76% of it was in stocks. 18% of it was in cash. allowing for some opportunities to buy more stocks if prices were good. about 6% was in bonds. now let's take a look, fidelity gave us information about how that's changed. so this is the before. 76, 18 and 6%. take a look at what happened now. and this is about the middle of # 009 that the percentage of stocks decreased. 68% of the money is in stocks. a lot more in cash. 24%, almost a quarter of the portfolio is in cash. and 50% more is in bonds.

from 6% to 9%. so americans have become more defensive. they have become a little more conservative. we're not quite sure whether they changed those allocations or they were changed for them about it market. but walter, you sort of beat this drum a little bit that while we're looking for opportunities and while this may be a great time for investment opportunities, people have to be secure. stle to protect themselves. >> they do. they have to have stocks. but you also need something to cushion you in the event of down turns. you need bonds for that. so, for example, those figures show that people to some extent losses in their stocks but also have been going more into bonds. but you still have to do that based on your age. the older you are, maybe the more bonds you want. and before the down turn, what we saw was a lot of people had way too much in stocks and unfortunately, they didn't realize it until they took the hit. >> ryan, do you this for people. do you manage their money. what do you think of this investment club? >> it's discipline. they understand the bigger picture. there are going to be peaks and valleys. they understand. that the simple fact that they

understand one, they're here to learn. they learned a lot just by simple fact that he was able to outline the mentality of when he wants to get in and when he wants to get out of stocks. these are things that we all could use in every one of our portfolios. >> let me show you information from fidelity about who's investing in their 401(k). markets like this can really scare people out of the game entirely. what's interesting here is in the 0 to 29 age-group, only 44% of those qualified to have an ira or a 401(k) are investing. that's interesting. as you get into your 30s, that number jumps to 62% and then 68%. it peaks for those people who are 50 to 59. 71% of people, perhaps judging that they're getting close to retirement when they really need to make money. and from 60 to 64, 68% of those who can invest in the 401(k) will do it. then from 65 to 69, that number starts to go down a little bit. interesting that those at the earliest stages where they can absorb as much risk as they can

are not taking full advantage of. >> there are studies that show there are 26,000 d$26,000 in th account. that is simply not enough. we're not saving enough for retirement. we just aren't. and especially when we're talking about health care costs. that's one of my big concerns. people have been scared away from the market over the past year. so maybe some of those young people are saying this isn't for me. look, i was better off not being in it. and people still aren't preparing well enough. i know that walter and donna and ryan talked about. this we're not ready, are we? >> there's an interesting phenomenon that ch is 401(k) inner shah. a surprising number of employees do nothing. they leave money on the table. they don't take advantage of the match. if you look at the number of the people that are 100% in stocks still, it's a mi yort. but those people, there are many of them, that are still in 100% stocks even after what we've been through. that just goes to show you -- >> they don't go to the computer and change it. >> it is self-directed investing. in people say i set it up and

leave it there. there is a real lack of investor education in a time like this. this is the 401(k)'s biggest test really. >> you taught us a great class at one point when you were saying your son was in fifth grade. >> so long ago. i don't want to say how long ago. >> give us the basic lesson. you dug out the lesson. very simple. >> i mean the lesson is, if you ask a bunch of young kids, fifth graders, you know, what companies do they know? what investments do they know? you'll get answers like johnson & johnson, nike, certainly any fifth grade boy knows nike. i mean there's no doubt about it. mcdonald's if i didn't mention, coca-cola, maybe if they're a defense buffs, lockheed martin. any fifth grade girl will say gold. i want to own gold. >> coming up next, a young couple put their negotiating skills and their savvy to work and bought their first home using the government's new tax

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we talked about the stock market. but if you own a home, that's

where your overall wealth is tied up. there search less to be a bottom or bounce off that bottom. that could change in the year ahead, however. according to this research poll, 79% said they expect home prices will be the same or higher. 22% expect them to be lower a year from now. nationwide, one thing that is helping potential new home own serz buy is the first time home buyer tax credit. people like alex bower and his fiancee are now proud owners of a three bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom house in yorktown, va va. >> they consider themselves fortunate to be new homeowners rather than home renters. >> we're extremely blessed. it's not every day, you know, that a couple our age gets to see their first home start from scratch. >> this young couple thought about buying a home together in the newport news virginia area. they even went out with a realtor. when they couldn't find anything in their price range, they on theed to remain renters.

>> we were dumping a lot of money into a home. and it just really wasn't worth it. >>al sex a nuclear engineer and ashton is an administrative assistant at a hospice. even after combining their salaries, they were unable to find a home that was within their budget. until they learned about the government's $8,000 tax credit program for first time home buyers. >> if you didn't have the tax credit, we wouldn't have had the money to buy the house. >> the tax credit nearly covers the entire down payment. >> i love it. it's my french door refrigerator which w. the bottom freezer. it's my pride and joy. >> instead of a two bedroom rental, the soon to be newlyweds live in a new home, a three bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom town house with garage and a backyard. >> we can put both of our cars in here. >> and it's not a budget buster. the monthly mortgage is onlied 1dz 50 more than they paid on rent. many americans like alex and ashton benefitting from this

particular program. national association of realtors says that nearly two million americans will qualify for the tax credit this year. according to industry experts, extending the tax credit will continue to help the fragile housing market. as of now, however, it is set to expire at midnight on november 30th. bursting the housing bubble has been painful process for many americans who lost their homes. but for others, people like alex and ashton, the combination of a dramatic drop in home prices historically low interest rates and government programs such as the first time homeowner tax credit made the dream of homeownership a reality. >> alex and ashton join me now. congratulations on being new homeowners. ashton with, the market as it is now, why did you both decide to start looking to buy a home? >> well, as you know, we were renting our apartment. so we figured we didn't have a home to sell. so it would be the best time to

go out. so we didn't have anything to sell. so we just wanted to go in. >> alex, what is the process like for applying for the tax credit? >> the process was pretty simple. went to my dad's tax guy who actually does my taxes before this. i just got out of college. so i went to him. he mended my 2008 taxes, put it in the mail and came within five to six weeks, i think. >> and it's amazing, alex. your mortgage is still within your budget. it's only $150 more than what you were paying for rent. it seemed like you gave yourself a good cushion. >> yes. we didn't want to overspend. we want to, you know, take out a loan and have a house mortgage that is over our spending limit. we didn't want to cut off our daily life, our friday and saturday night. we want to still have money to spend. >> how is your dog settling into the new house? >> isaac is loving it. he's still getting used to the backyard. i think he's so used to being

walked on a leash all the time. so he's adjusting well, though. i think he'll definitely benefit from having a home. >> i'm sure he likes the brand new freezer as well. >> oh, yeah. >> we're going to have more after a break. first, ali has numbers on newport news, virginia, the area where they bought their home. >> i can't believe they didn't want to overspend. i want to hug these people. i wish everybody would think like that. the metropolitan area that they're in is the newport news met toll tan area. they've only seen a drop in prices about 4% over the course of the last year. this is interesting, whether or not it's time for you to buy has got to do with where you are and whether your area has seen a drop like most areas in red or increase like those areas in green. now this is just a sample bl. take a look at some of the areas and the drops that we've seen in prices. las vegas, that's a poster child. this is an area that had huge, huge runups and increases in its prices. drop in las vegas over the

course of the last year has been 39.7%. now that doesn't mean it's not going to drop more. but that's always worth considering when you're thinking about buying. another very hard hit area, harder hit than las vegas. let me stop that for a second and point into that. that is ft. myers, florida. we constantly hear about florida, again clshgs is a big spate lative play has really seen a lot of price drops. take a look at the price drop in ft. myers. 52.8%. some might say and some have said that florida ends up being a good buy because of the amount that home prices have lost. i want to show you a state that is near to my heart, davenport, iowa, has seen the biggest increases. it is the metropolitan area with the biggest increases over the last year. look at that, 30.6% higher. if you're a buyer in a place like that, you want to consider runup has already taken place.

we'll talk a lot more about housing after this break. the customer's interest and providing them with security. total security protection is a feature that comes with all of our credit cards. if there is a fraudulent purchase, anything that you are unaware of, we have a guarantee that we'll refund those funds to you. we don't expect you to pay for something you did not buy. it gives customers a piece of mind knowing that, you know what, if i lose my card the bank is going to take care of me with total security protection. to reach in your wallet you have the card that's going to be best for you. (leslie) with bank of america, my responsibility, and our collective responsibility, is to make sure customers understand the value that they're getting from our products. you know, really get them the right credit card for them. we want people to be in a better place financially tomorrow than they are today. i think it's just really paying attention and listening to the customer more than we ever have done before. so, we really what we are doing now is making more of a welcome call to say, "here's your new credit card account, here are some things you want to know about it, and welcome to the bank."

we're back with our panel. new homeowners who found a way to make a current housing market work for them in part by being good negotiators in addition to using the $8,000 tax credit from the government for their down payment, they negotiated a $5,000 discount from a builder, $1400 credit from the real estate agency, alex, are you just a born negotiator? how tough was all this negotiation? >> i think i got it from my dad. he always taught me to negotiate on everything from beds to cars to houses especially. >> we hope there are many more stories like yours. alex and ashton in their new home. one of the things they talked

about is the interest rate that they paid. it's an important calculation right now. there are a lot of people interested in buying a house but are worried about where their home prices are going to go. first of all, let's take a look at mortgage rates. this is a 30-year fixed mortgage. some of you will remember in the 80s it was close to 17% for a 30-year fixed mortgage. that has been in decline for quite some time. we're now not only at the lows since the '80s, we're at historic lows right now. a 30-year between 5% and 6% range. now here's a calculation that has to come into play if you're planning on buying a house. take a look at a house that's $250,000. assuming you're taking a 30-year fixed mortgage. 20% down. interest rate of 5%. your total paints over that 30 years will come up to about $386,511. let's say you wait a year and that house goes down a little bit from $250,000 to $240,000. but the interest rate has gone up to 6.a%. and there are some people think

that interest rates are so lou low now thashgs bound to goup. the total payment over 30 years has become $436,885. tough to make that calculation when waiting for home prices to go down. christi christine, interest rates may be the steal of the century. >> they are. most important thing is job stability. as they both said, they have secure jobs. that's incredibly important. the appetite to afford the payment on this house. you really have to take a good hard look at. that too many years we got house that's were just too big for us. we couldn't afford them if there is a change. we still have to have a cushion and investing for the future. if everyone can go back to basics. sounds easy now. but we forgot the lessons. then, yes, it is a good time to buy. >> it's especially good for first time buyers. the key thung is what ashton said. they had no home to sell. they were not caught up in this market at all n fact, they were priced out of the huge boom that made it impossible for many americans to even own a home at all. so this is the people that are

going to benefit. and this is really the spark of what's going to turn around the housing market. i think that the $8,000 tax credit is really doing its part to stimulate this kind of buying. just the kind of thing that is prompting this activity. >> i think it's great that people can take advantage of this program. i see already the housing industry is trying to push a program to increase it to $15,000 and make it for anyone, not just first time home buyers that can stay in a house for two years. we're kind of getting back to the situation where before we were enticing people to get into houses with a, you know, an adjustable rate mortgage that escalates. and now we're enticing them in with the tax credits where they're getting subsidies from other taxpayers. you have to say, all right, they're over. let's let the housing market actually recover. >> let's talk about that market. for just a moment, let's look at where we are. let's go back to the beginning of this recession. back to -- it started in december of '07. let's start in january of '08. prices were around $190,000. they went in '08.

and a year ago when lehman brothers failed, they were back to around $190,000. then dropping a fair amount until january when houses were about $164,000 median. and now we see an improvement. we're at 178,300. whether you look at stock market or the houses, we see this pattern a bit. we're talking about investing and housing. the last big topic we need to tack until this hour is jobs. now let me show you something. we got some smome numbers. they projected out what the job situation is going to look like a year from now in the united states. so they've gone from middle of 2009 to the middle of 2010 and made projections. everything here that's in orange, dark orange or red are states that are projected to lose jobs across all sectors. so you can see the only standouts here are texas, maryland, and the district of

columbia. they're slated to gain jobs on average. but that's all sectors. what if you take out everything else and you just leave education and health care? these are two areas that we know there's been growth in. ashton is employed in health care. take a look at how this map changes. this is job growth in all sectors between 2009 and 2010. take a look at health care, you have very few dark orange states. you have a few that are orange. and most states are gold or yellow which means job growth across all states. we're going to have more on this discussion about jobs and the type of jobs and where they're going to be when we come back on the cnn money summit. i've helped somebody. you know, it makes me feel pretty good. we're offering a solution for a customer

that maybe has to choose between paying their credit card or putting food on the table. our main objective is to reach out to the customers that are falling behind on their payments. a lot of customers are proud and happy that bank of america actually has a solution to help them out. i listen. that's the first thing i do is i listen. you know what, what happened? what put you in this situation? we always want to make sure that we're doing i'll go through some of his monthly expenses, if he has a mortgage payment, if he pays rent. and then i'll use all that information to try and see what kind of a payment he financially can handle. i want to help you. bank of america wants to help you through this difficult time. when they come to you and they say thank you aj, for helping me with this problem, that's where we get our joy from.

seven million americans are out of work right now and thousands are jobs still being lost every month. here is the scary part. manufacture the jobs may be gone for g a man you're about to meet is one of the casualties. he lives in long mont, colorado, which "money" magazine named one of best 100 places to live. even so, he has been laid off more than once. each time, he found his family's security shrink. finally, he decided to start over in a job as different from his first career as can you imagine. >> cedar is my favorite smelling wood. cyprus has a nice smell to it. my favorite is doug fir. just because of all the sap that runs through it. >> he knows lumber. 20 years he's been selling wood to colorado home builders. in the housing boom went bust, so did the only career this 36-year-old father of two has ever known.

>> we were building at 30% above average. that's a lot of houses per year that we were putting up. and it stopped. >> that's when eric did something drastic, he went from two by foirz and timber to bed pans and blood pressure monitors. >> i'm basically starting over. instead of a 16-year-old, i'm a 36-year-old starting over in a new career from the bottom. >> starting over and starting here. >> but you want to hold it down. >> a three-month course to become a certified nursing assistant at this local community college. >> i think he has -- unlimited potential. and i think that he has a lot of job opportunities. >> what he won't have is a big paycheck. eric is taking a massive pay cut, almost 50%, to shift from lumber to nursing. >> you know, i want to get into the health care field for myself. i want to immediately get into a location that has at least decent health insurance at a reasonable rate. i'm willing to pay 25% of my pay to get that health benefit. >> taking a job that pays a

fraction of your former salary is becoming increasingly common. adding eric to the ranks of the underemployed, word for less money or below their skill level just to have a steady paycheck. >> i had to put an a in. there. >> when eric lost his job, the insurance bill jum toppeded 12dz 00, butting health benefits out of reach. >> i think we're okay right now. we haven't had any major medical issues. i know that if we did, it would be pretty much financially devastating to us. >> another blow to a family that's already had to downsize their home. >> we went from a 2,000 square foot finished house with a 500 square foot finished house to this which is 900 square feet. that led eric to try for a new career in nursing where he'll be following in his wife's footsteps. they inspired think 16-year-old daughter to pursue nursing as well. >> and you pushed down on the heart, what happens? >> circulation. >> there you go. >> not yet employed, eric says

he is hopeful and has enough perspective to offer some advice. zbh don't be afraid. if you have to do something that you've never done. you may not like it. you may have to try something else. but don't just sit there. try something. >> good advice. don't ab frayed. eric joins me now from denver. eric, where are you in your job hunt right now? >> i'm waiting to hear about a from two locations. hopefully today or tomorrow. >> has it been tough moving from a job in lumber sales to a nurse's assistant? >> yes, it has been. i feel that not knowing the future going into the nursing field whether it will be something i can accomplish or something i wasn't going to like at all. it was -- it was a little stressful. >> do you like it? >> i do. i love it. >> what do you like about it? >> i like the care that i'm able to give to people. like i love the opportunity to be able to help somebody. at the end of the day knowing that i was able to help make

somebody's day a little brighter. >> eric, we're going to bring our panel in on this in a moment. i want to toss it over to ali. >> it's great, if you want to try something, just go ahead and try it. i think his bet is correct about going into health care. we showed you what job growth in all sectors according to moody's economy.com will look like next year between 2009 and 2010. here's what it looks like if you're looking at health care. obviously much better prospect for you, those yellow and gold mean that there will be job creation. another area that you should think about if you want to get a start is government. take a look at this. this is that original map of job growth in all sectors across the united states from the middle of 2009 to 2010. let me show you what it looks like when you move it over to government jobs. the map is even more optimistic than health care. there are no dark red states here or dark orange states, a few that will be losing jobs. the majority of states in the united states will be adding government jobs. remember, a government job can be many, many different things. we'll talk about that in detail

when we come back. you're watching the cnn money summit, "money & main street." t now called add it up. add it up is a way for a customer to shop online and earn extra cash back. we do have a power rewards program. where you earn points for that cash back to be automatically put back into your checking account. every purchase that you make, you're going to be earning points back. so, i mean, we find ways to help customers save money. that's my bank of america card. that's the one i want to use. as the decades have past, the promise of medicare has always been there. and aarp has fought to guarantee none of the benefits you earned were ever taken away. today we're continuing that fight by protecting your freedom to choose the doctors and treatments you need. and to have your tax dollars go towards your care-- not insurance company subsidies. you've done your work. and we'll keep doing ours. learn more at aarp.org.

to reach in your wallet you have the card that's going to be best for you. (leslie) with bank of america, my responsibility, and our collective responsibility, is to make sure customers understand the value that they're getting from our products. you know, really get them the right credit card for them. we want people to be in a better place financially tomorrow than they are today. i think it's just really paying attention and listening to the customer more than we ever have done before. so, we really what we are doing now is making more of a welcome call to say, "here's your new credit card account, here are some things you want to know about it, and welcome to the bank."

before the break, we were talking with eric who made a career move from lumber sales to nursing. we go back to eric and the panel if a moment.

first, an i-report from san jose, california. our guest was working as a business analyst and found out her job was terminated but wasn't concerned about find willing a new job, not with her credentials. >> i casually look at job websites and take sort of the normal approach, i thought, to finding a job. but then as the week progressed with the economy being the way it was, and with the companies sort of being the way they were and the way the positions i was finding, i was finding i wasn't getting very much response. as the weeks progressed, i grew closer and closer. it became more and more stressful, actually, than i actually didn't have very many responses or interviews. i was surprised. i was shocked, actually. >> shocked. eileen did eventually find a job but not through the usual ways. she landed it through a career

counseling session. if the way you're going about looking for a job is not getting results, change things. ali, back to you. >> let's have a look at another one of our polls. eileen is like many of americans, finding out the job search is taking longer than expected to find a job. if you lost your current job how long do you think it would take to phone a new job? 35% said they would find it within a month. 41% said six months. within six months. 11% within a year and 11% said it would take more than a year. as you can see, most people think it will take six months or less. that's a good part of things. let's go back to our guests, eric olingher who has made the change from working in the lumber industry to nursing. congratulations. i like your idea. don't be afraid to try something else. members of our panel have some questions for you. lee gallagher. >> you said you took a pay cut, about 50% to make this move.

i'm just wondering have you looked into down the road, is there room for growth here and to what degree? can you work your way up the ladder and maybe lessen that gap a few years from now? >> right. yes. i plan to go ahead and further my career in the medical field. possibly obtaining my rn license, which is a minimum of two years associate's degree. and up from there, you know, you have physician's assistant, which is a total of six years of college. so the sky's the limit, really on what you're willing to put into it. >> ryan? >> i have to tell you, eric, if i could bottle your spirit and sell it, i think i'd be a millionaire. i congratulate you for that. there's a family out there right now who has a husband or a wife and a child and they might have lost their job and they're saying, you know what, i don't have the time or the money or the patience. i can't change my career or go back to community college. what would you tell that family

outside of just don't be afraid? we need to take your spirit and give that to them. what would you tell that family? >> i'll tell them what i told myself the day before i actually went to class at my community college was, either i'm just completely going to fail at this or i'm going to rise above the situation that has been handed to me and make the best of it. and that's what i did. >> eric, great spirit. i think ryan put it very well. we'd love to got it'll and have more people follow your lead. thanks very much for joining us. best of luck. keep us pofed on how that goes. >> i will. thank you. >> eric has listened to a lot of the stuff we've all talked about, where there is job growth, there is some issue with the fact that we can't have everybody moving from lumber or construction into health care, nursing. you bring this point up all the time, christine. eventually if everybody listened to us, we'd still have a problem. >> there's something big and scary happening in the american labor market and people who are in it know it. when i look at your charts, ali and i see all that yellow when

you talk about texas or health care, what i'd like to see is i'd like to see a lot of different industries where private companies are creating jobs, not just the government and not just health care. it has to be more diverse and broad-based. we're not there yet. it means it will be tricky for the near term. people shouldn't lose home. it's going to be tricky and i think we all have to know that. >> donna, you wallow in this idea of where jobs are being created. you run these numbers all the time. eileen who we heard from and got an i-report from has left i.t., lost her job in i.t. that's a strong area. let me show you quickly before i get the response to it, the top fastest growing jobs according to the labor of bureau of statistics. you might see this change saerl of the recession. network systems and data communications job which is require a minimum of a bachelor's degree are actually the fastest growing on the list. personal and home health aid,

which require less training than a nurse but still in health care requires on the job training. computer software engineers need a bachelor's degree. again, very fast growing. veterinary technologists need an associate's degree and personal financial advisers need a bachelor's degree. does that jive with what you're seeing? >> yes. you need a higher skill level to get those jobs. what you're seeing are the data entry jobs, the programming jobs are outsourced. there's an issue with security there. but the higher level jobs will require more education but they are there. a lot of the help blg care jobs aren't as well paying necessarily but if you have a higher skill level, you'll see something beyond health care and government in i.t. virmal jobs and energy jobs. >> traditional energy and alternative energy. there are jobs required to be filled in traditional energy, natural gas, coal and oil. >> that's right.

>> job security is certainly important going forward but we'll have to think in terms of not just a job but an industry, what sort of skills do i bring to a situation and a willingness like eric to be able to switch around. because the idea that you're going to stay in the same job or industry, i don't think is going to be -- >> regardless of the worst recession we've seen in the last 75 years. that's not a reality of our labor market today. things have changed dramatically we'll continue this discussion with our panel. over to you, anderson. the hands down most important question for you, how is your family doing a year after the financial meltdown? i'll tell you what people told us. i would say convenience is something that the bank of america really has the market cornered on. let me make it easier for you. let me show you how i can make it easier for you. we have the number one rated online banking website. it has an alert system that can text message you, so you're mobile banking, your bank's telling you

what your current balance is. it's telling you if a certain check is cleared. customers that use the internet, use online banking. it all kind of falls in with what you're doing, and it's free. you can pay all your bills online, customers can save tons of time. we have great new image atms. it will give you a receipt which has a copy of the check you deposited. deposit cash, any denomination you don't even have to count the cash, just put it in there. let it do the work for you. and they can have those deposits posted to their account the same business day up until 8 o'clock. you're in control of your finances. now when you talk about convenience, you measure us up to everyone else. well, you'll see we stand ahead of the curve. a year ago in the wake of the lehman brothers bankruptcy, the which he was beginning its free fall. there are signs of a rebound.

what fed chairman ben bernanke calls green chutes. >> we wondered how the recovery feels to you. here's our polling on that. the question, how is your family's financial situation compared to last year? only 9% said better. more than a third, 39% said worse. 52% said the same. >> that said, now is the time to plant the seeds that could help you profit if the recovery takes firmer hold. let's get final thoughts from all the panelists. let's start with christine. >> stabilize, prepare your balance sheet and move forward from there. once you're in a situation where you know you have money to invest and put away for the future, i think there will be opportunities for people. >> steven? >> i think basically the economy may have changed in a very major way. for an investor, that might mean considering other asset classes like precious metals to protect yourself. for someone in a particular job like we heard, it may mean considering something entirely different. i don't -- i think things could

be good coming out of this but i think they'll be much, much different than any of us have experienced. >> lee? >> i agree with steven on that. what's going on in the stock market right now and the greater economy are not necessarily totally linked. yes, we're seeing good signs but we have a long way to go. until there's job recovery, there's not going to be consumer spending and the getter economy will still be suffering. >> walter? >> we're not going to come out of this as strong as other recoveries. it's important to look ahead. start looking for opportunities to take advantage of. >> donna? >> one of the bright spots in this changing job market is a lot of the jobs where the growth are are jobs where people can help industries like education, health care, making the world a safer, more green place. >> ryan, give us free advice you'd be giving your clients who have to pay you for it. >> the big thing in the news is what regulations will come out over wall street. we have to regulate our own personal finances and make sure we're preparing for the worst but expecting the best.