hello everybody. welcome to the cnn center in atlanta, georgia, for this saturday, march 20th. i'm t.j. holmes. >> and i'm abbie boudreau. >> it is getting down to the wire in washington, d.c. the house is set to debate tomorrow and then vote on the senate version of the bill. they are still, however, both sides, chasing down votes. democrats need 216 to pass it, republicans need 216 to defeat it. not clear how close either side is right now. handful of democrats have not said publicly how they are going to vote. president obama, he's going to capitol hill this afternoon to give them a bit of a pep talk, maybe a tongue lashing depending how you see it. we are covering it all for you. ed henry is at the white house for us, and there is our brianna keilar. she is pretty busy up there today. brianna, hello to you there. we're trying to keep up with all these news conferences, these meetings that are going on up there.

describe the scene. >> reporter: well, there's a lot going on right now, and at this very moment what you have is something called the rules committee, t.j. we've talked about how we don't normally pay attention to this, but we are today because they're laying out the blueprint for this expected vote tomorrow. you know, the house, they have to vote on these senate health care bill. it's this massive thing i showed you last hour. this is what passed on christmas eve in the senate. this is the long bill everyone talks about. and then what you have is the changes that house democrats have written, the changes to this big bill. and the way they are going to set this up, they're making it official today, something we've been talking about for a few days now is this thing called deem and pass. what they would do is basically slap these things together so that they can pass them as a package sin stead of taking individual votes on the bill and the changes, and this allows house democrats some political cover so they don't have to vote for this massive bill that has a lot in it that they don't like. they get to vote for the whole package, all of which, of

course, republicans say amounts to a government takeover of health care, but, of course, democrats, and we're going to be hearing this all day today and tomorrow on the floor, say that this is historic and it's going to make a big positive difference for americans. >> and i don't want to get into it and you know we'll be talking about it next week, what then happens to that reconciliation bill that needs to be taken up in the senate. but that's a whole new debate that we'll get into next week. but on this current debate at least, abortion seems to be playing -- not seems to be, it is playing such a big role and a factor in this debate and whether or not this thing is going to pass. >> reporter: it is. there's a minority group of democrats who are against abortion, anti-abortion democrats, and they are on board with the health care reform bill that passed the house in the fall. but they are not on board with this senate bill because the language in this bill governing abortion is looser than the one they voted on in the fall. so they say this is not okay. we're going to vote no on this,

and at this moment you have -- you know, we heart bart stupak who is supposed tofer a pre ed conference this hour. it's been postponed and we're trying to find out why, maybe there's some movement as they talk to leadership maybe about a possible deal, but what you have that complicates this is dozens of house democrats who are for abortion rights, and they say no way. if this gets stricter, this language, we are done, we're walking. >> we seem to, and some people don't want to hear about the sausage making, quite frankly, what goes on behind the scenes. are you losing your bill? we get into the debate about what's happening but a lot of people want to know, if this thing passes and the president signs it, how does this affect me directly and how quickly will i see the results of this? >> reporter: you want to know, am i going to be paying more money? am i going to be paying less money? let's break it down.

if you're someone like me where you get your insurance through work, this is how most americans get their health insurance, according to the nonpartisan congressional budget office, these are those people who work up the price tag, they say roughly speaking you're going to pay about the same. okay, you pay about the same as you're paying now for your premiums. what about if you're someone who buys your insurance on the individual market. there's a lot of places where there are freelancers and they have to go out on their own and buy their own insurance. it all depends on how much money you make. if you make $88,000 or more per year for a family of four, then you're considered to be making a pretty decent living and you're buying your insurance on the individual market, you're going to be paying more. but let's take a look at the people who buy their insurance on the individual market and as a family of four they're making less than that, cbo says generally speaking they are going to be paying less. these folks are going to be getting a government subsidy to help them pay for insurance and they're actually going to be told they have to pay for

insurance. some of these folks, t.j., normally, this would be if they had insurance now compared to having insurance in the future. some of these folks don't have it so of course it will cost them more because they will be paying for insurance. >> brianna, thank you for breaking it down. so there's a lot at stake for the white house. president obama's personally trying to shepherd this bill through the house. our ed henry following the president today. ed, not exactly what you had planned. >> reporter: that's right. we had our bags packed for guam, indonesia, and australia, and in fact early tomorrow morning the press corps was going to be going a couple hours ahead of the president. he was going to leave late morning. all that has been delayed at least until june. this is the president's top domestic priority. a lot on the line. the president has had a lot of hands-on involvement here. white house aides say since monday the president has had 64 contact with various wavering democrats. he was making calls yesterday on

the way to george mason university in northern virginia where he had a big rally. he's also been doing some one-on-one meetings, and he's going to be on the hill later today and the pitch basically was laid out at this rally yesterday where he's urging his fellow democrats to put politics aside and do what he believes is right. >> it's a debate that's not only about the cost of health care, not just about what we're doing about folks who aren't getting a fair shake from their insurance companies. it's a debate about the character of our country. about whether we can still meet the challenges of our time, whether we still have the guts and the courage to give every citizen, not just some, the chance to reach their dreams. >> reporter: but the message of putting politics aside doesn't

always resonate with some of those wavering democrats, especially from conservative districts facing re-election in november and very worried about republican charges this is going to cost too much, the government is going to have too much of a role. what the president is talking about there when he's mentioning people being able to reach their dreams, white house pointing out what's at stake here, 32 million people who don't have insurance now, they say would get insurance. if you currently have insurance, as brianna was talking about, you couldn't be pushed out by insurance companies if you get sick. you will no longer have to deal with pre-existing conditions, for example. so the white house is basically trying to make the case that there's a lot of good in here despite all of the controversy that democrats can take to the voters in november, abbie. >> and do you happen to know if the president has any plans for sunday if the house does pass the senate version? >> reporter: it's still all a work in progress. the rally he's having with house democrats later today, that closed door meeting changed about three or four times in the last 24 hours in terms of the timing, where it's going to be.

i think the plans on sunday are still a work in progress, but the bottom line is i have been told by top white house aides this president is making clear in private he's not planning to take a victory lap on sunday if the house passes this. he knows as you and t.j. have been noting, the senate still has a big step in the days ahead to finish this job. i'm told he will make some public remarks on sunday but he will not have some big pep rally or something at the white house. >> all right, ed henry at the white house. thank you so much. the people who are still undeclared are the one who is could determine the future of your health care. so you probably wondering who they are, how you can find out more about them. josh levs tracking that for us. hello, there, josh. >> hey there again, t.j. let me step in the picture a little bit. the big picture that shows everyone, we have photos of many, many, many remaining

undeclared representatives who are the ones that everyone is focusing on today. they are the hot ticket in washington, and we have numbers for you in the next screen. in the end it's a handful of people at this point who will make this determination. the way we have been tracking it is by how many democratic no votes would be needed if the bill were to be killed. they would need 38 and they have 29 currently. we're basically looking at nine people can swing the vote one way or another and we are tracking them. we've been actually following this for you for months and especially in recent weeks where these various representatives stand. i'm going to give you a few examples right here. this is one example, representative marcie kaptur. one of the things she's been looking at closely is what brianna has been talking about, some of the specific language in the latest bill involving abortion. this is barron hill from indiana. we have some information on him. his main concern and this is interesting because it's a

reminder of how complex these bills get, he was concerned about an excise tax exemption for some medical device manufacturers. one of hi concerns. he's looking at that specific language here as well. let's get to two more of the undeclared who ultimately could be holding the future of health care in their hands. representative ron kind of wisconsin. he has been waiting to see the bill. he's talked about costs being a factor. one more over here on the magic wall and that's representative michael capuano, a democrat from massachusetts. you might not think a lot of democrats from massachusetts would be wavering on health care. he has expressed various questions but we're not sure what it is he's focusing on at this point to determine his vote. how can you find the full list and learn about more of all of them? let's show you that on the web. that's cnn.com. house democrats where they stand on the health care bill and it actually has the entire roster of the democratic party in the

house there where they stand and what is still needed. it's on cnn.com. it's a little complicated to find so i posted it for you on my facebook page. it's at facebook.com/josh levs cnn right now. you are seeing my blog right there. we're also talking about it on twitter, josh levs, cnn. good chance to join discussions today. what do you think about the final hours before the big vote tomorrow? what do you think about how this whole thing has shaken out? i will be here for several more hours today and we will update the numbers as they come. back to you. >> we appreciate you. a lot of interest in those guys you were showing on the screen. one more refresher on this compromise health care plan. insurance coverage would be extended to an additional 32 million americans. it would expand medicare prescription drug coverage and increase tax credits. insurance companies would not be able to deny coverage for pre-existing conditions. and your out-of-pocket expenses would be limited. a small business, the self-employed, and the unemployed could purchase coverage through health

insurance exchanges. and states would be able to choose whether to ban abortion coverage. the plan scales back and delays a tax on high cost insurance plans. republicans say the democratic plan won't do much to stop rising medical costs. they also say it would lead to higher premiums and taxes for middle class families and big medicare cuts. >> we want to remind you, we are counting the votes this weekend. you can follow our special live coverage as this decision comes down to the wire all day tomorrow right here on cnn. >> there's nothing to do but watch and wait. the red river is expected to crest this weekend. cnn's reynolds wolf is keeping a close watch on the water level in moorhead, minnesota. >> reporter: how right you are, abbie. we're looking at the potential of this thing cresting at 37.5 feet, which is well above major flood stage, but still just shy of the record that was set last year at 40.8 inches. we have the full story for you coming up, plus a major winter storm has got an eye on parts of

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the first day of spring, and some people are dealing with a foot of snow. this is oklahoma we're talking about. got a big snowstorm going on there right now, and it comes on the heels of a warm spell. temperatures were in the 70s yesterday in oklahoma city. so they're a bill confused there right now. to the north folks on the red river hoping hundreds of thousands of sandbags will keep floodwaters out of their homes and businesses. the red river keeps on rising. expected to crest tomorrow a few feet below last year's record level. right now in fargo, north dakota, and moorhead, minnesota, all they can do is watch and wait. our reynolds wolf is there, a part of that watching and waiting right now. we talked about it's supposed to not crest at that record level, but even if we're talking about getting close to the record level, that's a lot. >> reporter: yeah, it is.

i mean, you know, you were talking about feet, like a foot of snow that we might see in the central plains later on today. let's stay on that train. when it comes to feet, t.j., 18 feet, when the red river of the north gets up to 18 feet, that's major flood stage. we're possibly going to be 20 feet above that, probably a little shy, around 37.5. in speaking of feet, this area about a year ago we had water fully covering this from where i'm standing. the water was up to about year, right about to my waist. obviously it's not quite that high at this time and we do anticipate the river to come up just a little bit more during the late afternoon, overnight, and into tomorrow before spilling back. something else i want you to see, t.j. get a shot right there. we have chris davis with us. chris, show america that big chunk of ice we see on the side of that bridge. that's one of the big dangers we have is when it gets caught in the floodwaters it's going to be pushed upstream, it hits the bounds of this bridge, but what happens is you're having it not just here but this scene is

playing out on all these other bridges up and down this river for 550 miles. what we've been seeing, the reason why the water has been going up, is right here in front of me where all you can see at home. all the snow. we've had some temperatures warm up quite a bit. we've had a very rough winter and, of course, when you have a rough winter, that means you often have snow. the snow tends to melt when temperatures go up. they have been going up, snow melts, goes into the river, and that's why we've been having the flooding issue. the thing that make it is so different from the mississippi river or any other river around the world is this one is a very small river. it threads a ribbon up to the canadian border. it's not a deep or big river so it doesn't have a deep channel. when do you have flooding, things tend to fan out. as we flew in yesterday, i can tell you that it is mind boggling just to see how expansive the flooding has been. right here behind me, again, chris, i don't know if i'm in a good position for this or you can get it, bear with me,

america, you can see the sign says 14.3 inches. that's a road that goes below that bridge. obviously no one is going to be driving on that today. gives you an idea how deep the waters are. you see the light in the foreground an just through maybe just the bottom of the bridge, you can see a little more of the ice that keeps flowing to the north. speaking of ice and flooding, let's go to the weather maps quickly. green is the color, not white, but green, you will see all over those maps. as you see those maps, those are the places where we have the watches and warnings in effect. dealing with those not just here but as far to the east as chicago. another story we started off with was the heavy snowfall possible in the central plains, up to a foot of snow we could be dealing with in parts of oklahoma. already had them two feet of snow in colorado. seems like ski season will never end. as we look ahead at the rest of the forecast, very dry for you and sunny, springlike, as it should be because spring officially begins this afternoon. nice out to the west, but in the center of the u.s. is where you have the rough weather. certainly the intense flooding. major flooding still here in

moorhead, minnesota, and across the way this fargo, north dakota. we'll keep a sharp eye on it for you. >> reynolds, we appreciate you, as always, buddy. building up america. how a global effort is providing jobs for americans in small town alabama. at sharp, our goal is to reproduce every color in the world on tv. introducing quattron quad pixel technology. it adds a fourth color, yellow, to the standard rgb color system, creating a vast array of colors you can't see with your tv's three color technology.

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top stories now. a final push by president obama to get congress to pass health care reform. he's heading to capitol hill today to meet with house democrats. the house is expected to vote tomorrow on the senate's verse of the bill. democratic leaders say they're confident they will have the votes they need, but they're still trying to convince fellow democrats who are straddling the fence. if you're booked on a british aways flight this weekend you might want to check the flight schedule. the company says it's operating about half its flights because of a cabin crew strike. the walkout scheduled to last more than two days. pope benedict xvi is

responding to the child abuse scandal highwathat's rocked the catholic church in ireland. he released a letter apologizing to victims abused by priests. we'll have more on the pope's response in a live report from rome just ahead. of course, another check of our top stories just 20 minutes away.

time to build up america. we're looking at the places where jobs are being created and how they're being created and which communities are thriving. tom foreman visited montgomery, alabama, where foreign cars are creating domestic jobs.

>> reporter: just south of montgomery at the gleaming new hyundai plant, almost every minute another new car rolls off the line. and just about as often you can find someone like yolanda williams singing the company's praises. >> i love it. i enjoy what i do every day. >> reporter: did you ever have any idea you would be making a living from a car industry in southern alabama? >> no, i never dreamed it. it's changed a lot of people's lives down here. >> reporter: winning this massive economic prize over other states that wanted it had local leaders scrambling at one point making sure hyundai new how transportation services, power grids, and most of all the local community could and would meet all their needs. >> so this location was great. >> reporter: and they made sure you had everything. >> everything. >> reporter: the land, the communications, the transportation. >> reporter: yes. utilities. >> reporter: and it seems like it's working. >> it is working. it's working for them, working for us. >> reporter: last year hyundai was one of three car companies to increase sales in america.

the success for the community -- >> so you're just looking it see if there's anything wrong with this piece. >> reporter: good jobs. >> it means the world to me and i know a lot of other people feel the same way. >> reporter: how secure do you feel in your job? >> i feel really secure. i really do. >> reporter: enough to buy a house, enough to move forward? >> i have. >> reporter: hyundai doesn't make everything it needs, so that means that lots of suppliers have sprung up all throughout this region to make bumpers and sunroofs and dash boards and that has created many more jobs. about 800 have come from mobis, another korean company that followed hyundai here. i'm guessing a lot of people are pretty happy about this. >> yes, we are. as a matter of fact, i'm one of them. >> reporter: in all, local officials estimate more than 20,000 jobs have rippled out from the hyundai deal. building up south alabama one job, one car, one minute at a time. tom foreman, cnn, montgomery.

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a lot of wheeling and dealing in washington this weekend. house republicans and democrats are both chasing votes before they take up senate version on health care reform tomorrow. even the president is getting in on the act. he plans to go to capitol hill in just a few hours to try to wrangle more votes for the bill. lisa with cnn radio helping us keep track of it all. lisa, now you read this whole bill. it's about 2500 pages or so. what are some of the things we might not have heard about in the bill? >> i think this gets to the guts

of what a lot of the american people want to know. they know the broad strokes perhaps of this bill, but let's talk about three things many americans may not know are in the bill. number one, did you know in this health care bill it allows employers to raise or lower your premiums by 30% or 50% based on your health? based on things like cholesterol levels, based on your weight. this is called the safeway plan, and the idea is to encourage wellness, but your premium could go up and down based on whether you neat meese health goals in this bill. number two, there's a sweeping government program in here for long-term care. those are for people that maybe have a stroke or some other thing happens to them healthwise that renders them unable to function on their own. this is a huge cost of health care right now. the government would start a massive government insurance program and there's a little bit of shell game going on with the money. so it's called the class act. it's something to watch. third, if you ever plan to eat out again, be are ready to see

exactly the calorie count you are seeing. this health care bill requires all chain restaurants in the country post the calories of what they're serving. that's not just big chain restaurants, that's everything from starbucks to outback steakhouse. maybe the most visible change in your life actually from this health care bill. >> so i have two questions for you real quick. how long did it take you to read this whole thing? number one. and then also, i mean, should people really be -- can people in congress really expect regular people like us just to go through this, read this whole entire thing and spot these kind of things that aren't typically being reported on every single day? >> reporter: no, and i hate to say it but i think sometimes they don't want everyone to read what's in these bills. sometimes because it's complicated and because sometimes the ideas are unpopular, and i don't think every member of congress has read this bill page by page. they certainly i think know what's in it more than usual. how can a regular person read it? go to rules.house.gov.

how long did it take me to read it? probably this one was the last one i read. it probably took me working until 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning every night for three weeks. my friend randy once told me this story. how does a cat eat a millstone? and the answer so that is one lick at a time. and that's how i read the health bill. >> lisa, thanks so much. we really appreciate it. >> well, that was an interesting pay to put it. >> i wasn't really expecting that. >> i wasn't expecting that. i'm still trying to get over that actually. lisa, reading the bill one lick at a time. the health care reform passage, let's say it does. you're one of the millions of people out there who need insurance. are your problems solved just like that? let's ask dr. sanjay gupta. >> reporter: well, the caveat you have to talk about is that no one knows exactly what this health care bill is going to look like if it passes, what the

final form will actually be. but it's worth talking about the various layers to this bill to some extent and how these layers will go into effect because if you're the average consumer, you're thinking how might this affect me and when will that happen. let me talk about some of the immediate changes first. some of the things that will happen sooner rather than later is that there will no longer be any annual caps. let's say you have some sort of health care problem but the insurance company says we have a yearly limit in terms of how much we will pay or a lifetime limit. those sorts of caps will go away. also, this pre-existing conditions which we've been talking about for more than a year. people will not be able to be discriminated against based on pre-existing conditions when they go to buy health care insurance. now, the way they're going to do that interestingly is they will create these high risk pools around the country and subsidize those high risk pools so they can pay for the insurance for people who have some sort of pre-existing condition. young adults covered to the age of 26. again, pretty obvious there, but really those kids who maybe just graduated from college, haven't gotten a job yet that provides them health care insurance, up

until age 26 they can continue to get that coverage and drug discounts for seniors. we spent a lot of time talking about this, the doughnut hole. basically what this means, imagine a doughnut, your health insurance kicks in as you eat through the first part but you don't have any coverage as you're going through the hole. it doesn't kick in again until you start eating through the other part of the doughnut. that hole is what they want to shrink. that's what so many people are talking about here. if you're thinking about this, you think when does the vast majority of health care reform as we've been hearing about it kick in? a lot of it really is four years from now, 2014. lots of things happen at that point. first of all mandated coverage. you will have to have health care insurance or pay a fine. how do you get there specifically? these health insurance exchanges which are set up around the country. think of them as supermarkets where you can go and find a private plan that might work for you. if it's still too expensive, keep in mind there's going to be no discrimination. so even if you have some sort of

medical condition, they can't discriminate against you based on that, and there will be tax credits for consumers. if the price of the health care insurance has been the issue all along, getting those tax credits will certainly help there and, finally, this idea of medicaid expansion. this idea that childless adults living near poverty may also be qualifying for medicaid and to help get them on some sort of health insurance plan as well. but again if you're at home you're thinking i really need an operation over the next couple weeks, i'm uninsured, i don't know how this is going to happen, you know, really pay attention to this. it's unclear exactly how that will affect you but it's going to take some time before these plans go into effect. back to you. >> thanks, sanjay. opponents of the health care are voicing their concerns loud and clear on capitol hill. at noon tea party activists kick off a rally protesting the plan. cnn's sandra endo is there and it looks like there's quite a few people behind you, sandra.

simply put, why are tea party groups opposed to this measure? >> reporter: they're basically here to make their voices heard. they say they want congress to listen to the people. that's why they've come by the bus loads. you can see all the demonstrators here from all across the country and they're carrying signs, chanting. you can hear the preprogram behind me and pretty much we're right on the doorstep of congress. the capitol is right here and they're pretty much demonstrating to make their voices heard to denounce this health care reform plan, and their goal, they say, is to pressure specifically undeclared lawmakers to make sure they vote down this bill and now i'm joined by the organizer of this rally, jennifer. thank you so much. what is the message here for you guys today to tell congress? >> the message is that we want this bill stopped. this is not what the american people want and our congressmen and congresswomen need to listen to the american people because they really mean it this time. >> reporter: do you think lawmakers are listening? do they hear the voice of the american people? >> i think they do. there are some that do. there are a great deal that

don't, but we're starting to see as congresswoman bachman and other congress people that are here today, they're starting to see that but we have a lot of work to do to convince these other people that this is not the message that the american people want. >> reporter: this is not only the tea party organization. it's a coalition of people. who are we expected to hear from today? >> we're going it hear from actor jon voight, people from americans for prosperity, tea party express, all kinds of everyday americans coming from texas to pennsylvania to california, all across the country. >> reporter: and as our anchor was asking, she was asking why specifically do all these people out here today -- why don't they like this health care reform bill? >> the reason they're denouncing it is because they're very concerned about first of all how their care is going to be. my husband has parkinson's disease. one of the problems is it's an ongoing progressive disease and in the future we know that our medical care is going to be limited. it's already happened and with medicare and medicaid and

they're very fearful of their coverage and what's going to happen to them. >> reporter: this is not the only protest that's going to take place. this group is going to go to their house of representatives all throughout the day to pressure them to vote this bill down and they're planning a candlelight vigil later this evening. they say they will be here for the vote tomorrow. >> wow. it looks like quite the scene out there. thank you so much, sandra. now, for the latest on the health care debate and if you want to find out where every house member stands on the plan, go to cnn.com/healthcare. pope benedict xvi is breaking his silence on the child abuse scandal that's hit the catholic church in ireland. today releasing an 18-page pastoral letter apologizing to the victims. he says i have been deeply disturbed by the information which has come to light regarding the abuse of children and vulnerable young people by members of the church in ireland, particularly by priests and religious. cnn's diana magnay is joining us

live from rome. this was kind of a long letter. we talk about 18 pages here. so what, i guess, were some of the main theme and messages and who was he directing those to? >> reporter: hi, t.j. you're right, it is a long letter, but for a man who generally speaks in pretty complex theological prose, this was really pretty much straight from the heart. one of the main messages is an apology he says to the victims of abuse and their families, you have suffered grieve ously and am truly sorry. he acknowledges the mistakes made. he acknowledges that people in ireland have lost faith. he says i know some of you find it difficult even to enter the doors of a church after all that has occurred. this is a letter to try to encourage the faithful in ireland to regain their faith

and hope. saying he understands what went wrong and is making efforts to clear it up. t.j., if you, as so many victims groups are in ireland, and some of his critics are looking for resignations on the parts of irish bishops, that is certainly not in this letter. >> what else is out there right now. you talked about what is missing, but what else has been the criticism of this letter so far? yes, big step in putting it out, but, of course, there are going to be others, including some victims out there, who don't think he went quite far enough. >> reporter: absolutely because the church scandal isn't just confined in ireland, it's going on in germany, switzerland, austria, and the netherlands. he didn't refer to the widening scandals in those countries at all, especially in germany which is his home country. after this letter came out there was a press conference and the spokesman talked about that and said, lirsen, the pope deals with these situations case by case, the situation in germany, the context in germany is different to the one in ireland and he will deal with that when

the time comes. obviously, this irish sex abuse scandal has been going on for quite a long time and the investigation into that scandal is fairly involved, fairly in depth. in germany the rev lations onel started in january. >> diana, thank you so much. building up america. how a global effort is providing jobs for americans in small town alabama.

all eyes are on capitol hill today. president obama making a personal appeal to house democrats to pass the landmark health care reform bill. the vote set for tomorrow on the table right now, a huge reform package that cleared the senate back in december as well as another $65 billion in compromise changes to that measure. seven more banks were closed by the fdic on friday. three are in georgia. the others are in ohio, utah, alabama, and minnesota. this brings the year's total to 37 banks closed since january 1st. a federal judge has turned

down a $657 million settlement for people who got sick from dust and ash after the world trade center fell on 9/11. the money would have gone to some 10,000 first responders, but the judge says the deal did not contain enough money and shortchanged ground zero workers. he wants now more negotiations. well, a wave of student suicides being called a public health crisis at cornell university. there have been six confirmed or suspected suicides at the ivy league school the past two semesters. >> the stress of classes and whatnot, it can get you to that point and cornell has -- it's so big and you really have to push yourself to go out there and get to know people. you just get lost and you get lonely and i can see why people would want to jump. >> we have been knocking since friday, been knocking on every residential door reaching out to individual students and in groups. >> the university is also

posting guards on bridges and other spots around campus. cornell saw a cluster of student suicides in the late 1990s, but in other years university officials say such cases were within or below the national average. well, stay with us. we've been talking a lot today. it's the first day of spring, ri right? >> yes, and it feels like it here. >> but elsewhere. >> not so much. >> we'll show you where they're expecting a foot of snow and reynolds wolf keeping an eye on the red river. compare a well equipped lexus es, to a well-equipped buick lacrosse.

get inside each. and see what you find. if perfection is what you pursue, this just might change your course. meet the new class of world class. the twenty-ten lacrosse, from buick. may the best car win.

hello. >> how are you? >> third party now. >> not at all. you are the party. >> crashing the party. >> you are the party. >> how guys doing? >> we're well. >> happy spring. >> don't you love this time of

year? >> it's my favorite time of year. >> me, too. >> they're not feeling it in oklahoma right now. >> that's true. >> a foot of snow on the first day of our entire weather team will keep us on top of the weather picture as some of us are celebrating spring today. beginning in the noon eastern hour, i didn't say my greetings, did i? i just jumped into the conversation. >> that's okay. >> join me and the rest of the team at noon eastern time. we have a lot straight ahead. we'll continue to keep watch on this intensifying weekend as it pertains to health care. the president will be going to capitol hill. you will be hearing a lot about that all morning long. we'll keep tabs on that and our legal guides will be joining us. we have a lot of fascinating legal stories beginning with -- you know, a lot of folks resort to nanny cams in the home. they go to work and want to make sure their kids are being cared

for. well, there is the case in florida where a nanny cam happened to catch a nanny allegedly being very rough with an 11-month-old and now the family is, of course, up in arms. what kind of legal case do we have here? especially in a state where there are some pretty strong restrictions as it pertains to videotaping somebody without their knowing. our legal guys will talk about whether this case falls into that category. then in rhode island, a lot of teachers very upset with the fact that there were mass firings there. one teacher so upset that she allegedly hung an effigy of the president of the united states, a foot-long effigy, hung it upside down and she's now under disciplinary review. >> wow. >> what will happen in this case. and then something to kind of -- i don't know -- reflect on life and survival, discovery channel is launching an 11-part series called "life." it's extraordinariry. if you love animals and nature you will love this.

we'll be joined by the executive producer and the cinematographer who captured these images. we'll talk about a how they got the images. it's not just holding the camera and waiting ining for it to hap. >> how long did it take? >> this is a five-year project that finally comes to fruition here. i can't wait for you to hear how he was able to get some of these pictures under water. i'll give you a hint. if you're a diver you use a tank, regulator. none of that. he was free diving. you have a pod of whales coming your way and you've got to hold the camera steady. are you going to be watching now? >> well, i like the "earth" series in hd. i love watching that. it seems similar. >> this is couldnntinuation of in a sense. that was in part on inspiration but this takes it further. >> you had me at "hello" anyway.

you've got me now. >> oh. >> we'll see you shortly. >> bye-bye. >> well, an american-iranian is arrested on a trip to iran and two year ohs laterer is still behind bars. ahead, his family's desperate plea for help. stay here.

an american-iranian businessman locked up for two years in iran. now his family pleading for his release from an iranian prison. >> why has it taken so long for the case to come to light?

jill dougherty has the story. >> reporter: 71-year-old raiza tagati has been held in tehran's notorious evin prison for two years. now his american lawyer reveals secret talks. >> we are negotiating terms. my job really is to talk to the government to see what will it take? what do they want? >> reporter: in april 2008 reza took one of his frequent trips to todayen ran to see family and friends. according to his lawyer, an acquaintance asked him to carry $200 to an iranian who needed money. he agreed. iranian authorities arrested him on suspicion of anti-regime activity. >> it's not clear what the accusations are at this time. the investigation, after two years, is still ongoing. >> reporter: two years later the lawyer says he's not been charged with a crime. cases of other americans held like three hikers who allegedly

strayed over the iranian border have been highly publicized but tehgavi's family kept silent. >> blind faith, not knowing it would take this long and unsure of how things work. >> reporter: the iranian who whom he gave the $200 was arrested and convicted of involvement of a terrorist group that blew up a mosque. but the lawyer claims the businessman had no known contact with any terrorist group. the state department admits it has few details. >> we understand he's in poor health. we have not yet received access to him through the swiss protecting power. but we repeatedly have called for and continue to call for his immediate release by iranian authorities. >> reporter: in a twist, iranian authorities invited the lawyer to tehran to discuss the case. >> he has not been charged, prosecuted or convicted. so there must be some quens