time for me to hand this thing off to the clipboard carrier himself, mr. ali velshi. >> you are too good to me. good to see you,s as always. i'm ali velshi. i'll be with you for two hours today and every weekday afternoon. i'm going to try and take every important topic we cover and break it down for you. give you a level of detail that will help you make decisions about where you travel, how you spend your money, what you earn and what you put out on the internet. let's get started. here's what i've got. what if i told you your kid was on heroin. you should be shocked. what if i said your kid text too

much? no shock there. similarities between hooked on her w han win and hooked on texting. title ix, equal opportunities. but some schools are allegedly find a way to skirt title ix. this hour the obama administration is doing something about it. we look back on the life of civil rights pioneer dorothy height and look ahead as to who might fill her shoes. who will the next crusader be? top story. if you're stuck in an airport, city, continent thousands of miles from home, the two most beautiful words in whatever language you happen to speak are, progressive resumption. progressive resumption. those words appeared on a flight departure screen at charles due gal airport today. the best day for european travel since that icelandic volcano erupted last wednesday. 14,000 flights or just over half of the usual weekday traffic. here's the big picture. this sweeping red blob is the

danger zone. you can see it extends to newfoundland and canada. this is where volcanic ash is rampant. planes are few and far between. some airlines the danger is exaggerated by civil aviation authorities. the blue lines here, see those? that's normal trans atlantic air routes. these ones here. they haven't been normal for six days now. you can see most of southern europe, most of it except for this, is in the clear. most of france, all of france is in the clear. scotland is actually okay today. spain is where a british warship picked up 300 stranded civilians today along with 300 british troops on their way home from afghanistan. this is an issue. wounded troops or trooping coming home can't get back either. germany looks socked in. planes are being allowed to take off and land under visual flight rules. i was hoping to get in more than 300 flights today. travelers in frankfurt are ready but they're not celebrating yet.

>> we checked in through the internet late last night, at 1:00, and i found my name confirmed, my seat and everything. so i'm taking a chance. >> what are you going to do? i mean, it's a volcano. someone can say when it's going to stop, when it's going to start, that would be great. but you have to roll with it if you're going to fly internation international. there's going to be things that come up and you have to be ready for it. >> i hope that it go well. i got to get home. >> how do you feel about the whole ash cloud that's going on. >> what can you say? ashes to ashes. >> ashes to ashes. at least he's got a sense of humor about it. here's what you can't see on the maps p. the mash rig a lot of the ash right now is below ground and 20,000 feet. most of it is clear, above 20,000 feet, which means the ash is sinking. this means there are a lot of airports that are closed but the airspace above it is open.

the uk, for instance, denmark, are examples of that. way over on the western side of this graph. take a look over here where the air traffic is heavy. well, let's go all of the way over here if you zoom right into that, you will see cnn's richard quest who is at newark liberty airport in new jersey. yesterday he was at jfk. as many of you know richard is based in london. appears to me he is airporting hopping to see if he get a flight back home. if you are one of those people like richard who did have a booking to get back home you might have to wait longer than you thought you were going to wait after the flights resume. >> what we're seeing from here, good afternoon from newark, ali. the story, as the crisis moves into the next phase. it says passengers whose flights have already been canceled are now trying to either be wait listed or confirmed on new seats. now, look behind me. this is a group of people who

have been waiting for jet airways, which flies from india via brussels up to new york. what has happened, of course, is that over the past few days, they've been flying via athens instead. now, these passengers have been here for some four days. they're starting to get extremely testy. voices have been raised. but, of course, it's understandable, ali. they've been waiting four days. jet is now flying again via brussels, so planes will be leaving. if we go down to the far end of the terminal, there you see sas, you see lotanza and passengers are checking in. they have so far managed to accommodate all the passengers who were booked and who were waiting. the issue becomes, of course, are they well. well, don't get too excited,

ali. the issue becomes as more passengers now know the airports are open, more will come. finally, british airways, poor british airways, three flights to heathrow, three flights canceled. v virgin atlantic has one flight it it's hoping to get out tonight. this is a crisis that is really starting to focus and droi drill down on the uk if. >> so here's the issue. if i have a paid ticket that i've not missed my flight, let's say it's for this weekend. as they try and catch up with all those people like you who have missed their flights, i'm actually going to get priority over you. in other words, people have current tickets who haven't missed their flights are going to be able to get out there and travel. guys like you have missed their flights have got to wait for the first available seat? >> that is it in a nut shell. confirms go first. that's the way it has to run. after the confirms, you get those people who are wait listed

and standing there. but the order in which you are wait listed depends on a variety of issues. depends on what class you're in, business or economy. strength of your ticket. ultimately everybody is going to get home. that's what the airlines are very keen to tell me. but a friend of mine who is just waiting to get back to europe was told, well, if you want to be confirmed back to europe, you're going to wait until next week. however, come to the airport tomorrow or the next day and we'll probably get you on. i couldn't afford, ali, to keep coming back to the airport every day so i've chosen to take a confirmed seat on sunday. i'm going back via frankfurt. >> if wheel we're talking somebody taps you on the shoulder and says, mr. quest, we have a seat for you. in the middle of a conversation i bet you will get on that plane and go back to london. >> ali, if somebody says to me, mr. quest, we have a seat for you, i can't stop, excuse me,

nice to see you. my bags are down there. see you later. >> richard quest hopefully on his way back to london. we will check in and continue on that story as it develops. we'll keep you posted as those flights start to take off. president obama is sharpening his rhetoric. congress is investigating. this is a critical week for financial reform. christine romans and i are going to dive right into it.

christine romans joins me now from new york. christine, i don't tend to love congressional testimony and hearings. but particularly when they're on, you know, sort of arcane topics. there's one going on right now that's talking about the failure of lehman brothers, a very important topic if we want to learn about how to avoid these things in the future. particularly important this very week after we've seen charges -- s.e.c. charges against goldman. tell me what's going on on capitol hill. >> it's true, ali. i do love these actually. i listened to two goldman sachs

conference calls today and i'll well into this house financial services hearing. i'm fascinated. this is what we're talking about here. this is one as one congressman said, autopsy for lehman brothers. that's why it's important, because you want to make sure this doesn't happen to another patient, especially when the rest of us are all picking up the tab, right if so this is what the treasury secretary said, timothy geithner. basically, this is how he described what happened to lehman is so important for financial reform and making sure that we fix the problems we have that led to these collapses. let's listen. >> imagine building a national highway system with two sets of drivers, the first group has to abide by the speed limit, wear seat belts, buy cars are anti-lock brakes. the second group can drive as fast as they choose, with no safety features and without any fear of getting pulled over by the police. imagine both groups are driving on the same roads. that system would inevitably

cause serious collisions and drive drivers following the rules of the game would ineftly get hit by drivers who weren't. a system like that makes no sense. we would never allow it on the roads, so why do we allow it in our economy. >> ali, i know you love a good comparison. >> i do. that's a good one. i like that. >> it shows you the obama administration is seizing on sort of the new found fire over the hearings into lehman brothers and the goldman sachs charges from friday to really push for their version of financial reform now some 18 months after the collapse of lehman. >> i were goldman, i'm not loving this press, they're not a company that generally loves press. last year when the ceo got press it came back and bit them in the ankles. >> the ankles. >> today coming out with earnings of $3.5 billion for three months, some way, wow, that's great. they must be breathing a sigh of relief at goldman. i'm thinking that's not news they probably wanted to have out there today.

>> no. well, no, they say they are doing a good job for their clients and you can see from their earnings they are and that really matters to them and also the economy has been strong. but on those two conference calls, one with wall street analysts and one with the media, two hours apart, you heard a goldman that was having to bat back an awful lot of serious questions about what happens next for this company and what kind of reputational risk there is. you know, they were the gold standard. right? they had kept themselves above so much of the crisis in the years and they had many say they are among those ended up pretty much unscathed by the implosion of mortgages in particular, right? except they weren't. because now they've got all this. >> it's almost like toyota. i think in 2010 we're going to look at two companies that were at the top of their game and largely unscathed by the things that were going on to their competitors and then both of them end up taking major

reputational hits. >> you know, someone recently said, i heard somebody called goldman sachs now the philip morris of financial services. and that's not a compliment because you can remember before when philip morris was making a lot of money but had to change the name to altria because of all the bad press about cigarettes. now you've got goldman sachs which ones was a very revered name now also, you know, all these jokes about it out there. this is the earnings. revenue up 36%. profit $3.5 billion, up 91%. compensation, the company made a note in its call that compensation is 43% of their overall revenue, which they said is an all-time low, even though that looks like an awful lot of money. all-time low for the first quarter because that reflects new realities in the operating environment they're in, meaning a lot of public pressure about goldman making so much money when the rest of america is hurting. >> come back in an hour. we're going to chat about how much women get paid versus men

for the same jobs and some of the gains women have made in the working world. we'll talk to you about that. christine romans, my cohost on "your $$$$$" which you can watch right here on cnn, 1:00 p.m. saturdays and 3:00 p.m. sundays. both times eastern. does your teen text? that's a selly question. after the break we're going to read between lines. trust me, there is a message there for parents. it's not the same old warnings about texting that you've heard before. these ones are more serious.

if you're a parent of a teen i imaginer, no shock. these day, text messaging maniacs. folks at the research center and university of michigan found that the typical teen sends somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 texts a day and presumably they've got a similar number coming in. then you've got a sizable number of kids sending more than 100 texts a day. that's over 3,000 a month. and, yeah, this is a big jump in a short amount of time. the percentage of teens who text their friends daily doubled between 2006 and 2009. here to talk about teens and texting with us is vanessa van patton, founder of radicalparenting.com. excellent title. good to see you. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> we probably shouldn't be too shocked as we said about the numbers. what's the new danger? what is out there that parents didn't have to be worried about that they really now should pay attention to? >> you know, i think that now more than ever we're seeing a generation that's extremely

socially illiterate. social cues that adults are picking up on like eye contact, facial expression, voice tone. teenagers has trouble picking this up. that's a problem for them to develop their real person-to-person relationships. >> when i was talking about this earlier i was saying there might be some connection to your kid being hooked on heroin. what are the similarities? >> you know, we're seeing a lot of this social addictive behavior. for example, teenager will be texting their friends and it's almost like a social tether to each other. when they're sleeping they hear that buzz and they almost need to have that phone in front of them to see what's going on. that's a social addiction that we're seeing very similar to a loft actual drugs. >> let's talk about what you should do. you've got advice for parents. first of all, how do you know when your kid is texting too much? in a lot of ways this is how they communicate, for better or for worse. what's too much? >> you know, the study that came

out said 50 text messages a day is average. the kaiser family found indication said 7.5 hours a day is the amount teenagers are spending a day with technology. too much is up to your household. think carefully about what is being inhib bitted, sleep, homework time. on average kids who spend the most hours have a "c" average, a lot less than what parents should be expecting from their kids. for them the tips are, number one, to make a downstairs charging station. a lot of kids have their phone by their night stand. all night they hear that buzzing going on. taking the phone and putting it downstairs. number two, there is no reason for a kid to have unlimited texting on their plan. i know that it can be more cost effective for parents but it's sending them the wrong message. to have them pay for it or have a limit on that is really important to teach them boundaries. >> and third one, this one is one even i have difficulty with. this is a lesson some of us grown-ups can take. you're talking about electronic

free time around electronic free zones. >> yes. you know, in my house hold, the dining room was an electronic free zone. we had to drop our phones in a basket before we walked into the dining room. it's a good way of encouraging kids to, okay, leave the phone at home and talk to my parents or my siblings face to face. the last tip, of course, is to actually have a no electronic time in your house. saturday afternoon, they can do anything but it can't be online or on texting. >> all right. that is for some parents going to be as much as a challenge as it is for kids. so you don't sound like a bunch of people talking about kids these days, you've got some ideas for teenagers who trying to manage this. >> yes. so our teen writers actually did an experiment with them and had them guess how much time they spend online. they underestimated it by 2 1/2 hours. >> wow. >> we really recommend for teenagers, sometimes you don't realize what that time suck is doing. open a time log. how much you're spending on

texting, how much you're spending on facebook to get an idea of what you're doing. this is for both teens and parents. blame your parents. you know, parents are a great way to sort of be the scapegoat. if you're online and you don't want to be online anymore and you're feeling pressure from your friends, say, gosh, you know, my mom is making me get off. i'm sorry i have to go talk to them or i have to go to dinner. great excuse. >> brill want. excellent. i have learned things, armed with new information. vanessa, good to talk to you, founder of radicalparenting.com. thanks for being with us. let me give you a check of the top stories here at cnn. president obama travels to west virginia this weekend to deliver the eulogy at a memorial service for 29 miners killed this month. explosion at the upper big branch mine was the worst u.s. coal mine disaster in four decades. since then mr. billiobama calle more oversight. 8-1 vote, struck down a law banning videos that shows

violate to animals. it showed pit bulls attacking other animals. the humane society says it will ask congress to adopt another ban on sale of such videos. kurdistan's president fled the capital after violent protests earlier this month. the president of belarus says he and his family are now under his personal protection. those now in charge in kurdistan says if he returns they'll throw it in jail. coming up, is the worst of the volcanic ash mess over or the volcanic ash mess over or only started? [ male announcer ] competition...

parents, check your kids' candy and i putting the word candy in quotes. researchers say your kids can get nicotine poisoning from tobacco products that look like candy. here's cnn's medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. >> this is generating a bit of buzz and quite a bit of controversy by r.j. reynolds, camel products called orb stick strips. look at them. just looking at them you get some idea of why there are some buzz and some controversy about this. they look a lot like candy. these are nicotine candice or devices in some way that are not intended to help someone stop

smoking but really to give them a kick if they have a nicotine craving. that's the way they are marketed. one of those little orbs, as they're called, as enough nicotine to approximate a signature brett. therein lies a problem. if a child were to get their hands on this, a child between the ages of 1 and 4, for example, and eat one, just one, they would probably feel pretty sick, nauseated, they they have vomiting, have a headache. if they were to eat civil, up to ten, this could potentially be lethal. again, you're carrying around products that could potentially be problematab m problematic. we took some of those criticisms directly to the makers of this product and said, what of it? you have these nicotine things that look like candy. what about this concern? and they said a few things. they said first of all if you look at the packaging specifically it's in child resistant packaging. if you look at accidental poisoning across the board, in fact, things like cosmetics in the home, medications in the

home, are much more likely to lead to an accidental poisoning versus nicotine. and finally, they say, look, we weren't marketing this specifically to kids. now again, take a look at the packaging there and in many ways it does look like candy. and i think that's why this controversy will continue. this is not the first time something like this has happened. in fact, if you remember, we talked last year about the fact that president obama signed a new bill basically allowing the fda to regulate all sorts of tobacco products. the products here that we're talking about actually were approved before that law went into effect or already starting to see interest from lawmakers saying let's look at this product more specifically and figure out if there's a problem here. and they point to a couple of things. first of all, that about $36 million a day is spent in advertising nicotine products. a lot of that advertising is directed towards children or seemingly so, 90% of smokers who become lifelong smokers begin smoking before the age of 19. so i think that this is

something we're probably going to talk about for a little bit. again, this isn't the first time this has happened. as more details come to us about what's happened with this particular product we'll certainly bring them to you. back to you. all right. thanks a lot, sanjay. chad is following weather and, of course, the biggest story that's affecting a lot of people on both sides of the atlantic ocean, this volcanic ash and the flights. definitely look to be more flight on that screen than we saw yesterday. >> no question about it. and there are clusters of flights. and that tells us that certain airports are open. even that plane right there. that is going to toronto. klm flight 695 from amsterdam to toronto on its way above 35,000 above the cloud, any potential ash cloud. got through a safe zone. airport here open. istanbul, very open if other planes, if you want to go to flig flightradar24.com. and what this doesn't tell us, like our flight explorer does,

is that we can click on a plane and it will say how high it is and where it's going. here it will tell you what flight it is. what's the number it is. that's how i know that that's, you know, the klm flight. so you can go on there and then go on to flight stats or flight where and it will tell you what it's doing, where it's going. i'm telling you, there's not a seat on any one of those planes empty. >> everyone is relocating. >> just stuck. half the planes leave today should left. most of those planes would have been full anyway. now you have three days. >> this is what richard was telling us. if you had a book for thursday or friday, and you're going out on that flight, somebody who is bumped off a flight last week is still wait for that tl to be availability. these days as we know, flights don't fly empty the way they used to. airlines don't make money that way. >> load factor, how many people are actually on every plane, somewhere between 80 and 85% are now on today's flights.

if it's 100 seats on a plane, 85 are going to be taken by people with tickets. there's going to be 15 extra ones for stand-byes for people who were sitting there waiting since thursday. so you only have 15 slots to get on to that plane. obviously some planes get bigger, but 300 equals 45 slots. >> not like the old day where's they keep extra planes around. one of the things richard was saying if you want a confirmed seat and been bumped, you have to wait until next week. if you are standing at the airport, you might be one of those 15. what a hassle that is to sit around. >> and a trickle-down effect. that plane right there might have been on the ground for four days. it probably should have been in tokyo, but on the way to beijing on the way to honolulu and that plane was stuck on the ground. you've grounded an entire fleet of airplanes that can't do other things and you also have pilots and crew that may not be in the right place for the right flight because they were going to leave on a dc-9 or whatever and the pilot can't fly a dc-10 and

there's no dc-9 there for him to fly or no md-88 for him to fly. >> the lucky part for us is we haven't had a great deal of sever weather in the u.s. so we've been able to track it. anything serious? >> we will have a day tomorrow and thursday. the biggest potential for tornadoes so far this year. we could have 20 or 30 tornadoes on the ground during the day. not at one time but during the day. >> you will be checking it for us. chad myers. when we come back, women have come a long way in sports but there's still a long way to go. today we've got major new developments in the title ix amendment aimed at ensuring equal opportunities for female college students and athletes. a lot more for a lot less.

very shortly we're going to pop into the white house. vice president biden is going to be talking about some changes to the title ix amendment and how they're working -- there are

some schools working around title ix and how we're going to deal with that. let me talk about title ix itself. here's how the amendment reads. no person in the united states shall on the basis of sex be excluded from part in participation in, be denied the bennetts of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. the 1972 title required that gender, equity and sports programs that receive federal money. universities based three requirements to prove they were complying with the law in order to get that federal money. number one, the proportion of male and female students participating in sports at the university was equal, pus proportion a. number two, the university -- hang on a second. let me get my notes here. the university was expanding opportunities for women students in sports. number three, that the university was meeting the athletic abilities and interests of women students.

back in 2005 the bush administration changed that third quirmt allowing the university to prove they were meeting the athletic interests of women by carrying out surveys of student interest in sports. here's the problem with that. ncaa and women sports advocates said a low response to those surveys could be interpreted as indicating a lack of interest in sports, when actually it might just indicate a lack of availability. people weren't checking off the box that said they're interested in playing such and such a sport because it wasn't available to them at that university. we're going to be talking to -- we're going to be listening to the vice president coming out and announcing some changes to that very shortly. i just wanted to give you a little background. on to another story. 131 down, just 3 more to go. that's how many shuttle missions we have and how many are left if latest one just ended this morning after a few delays. i'll bring you details and we'll show you again that picture perfect landing.

bring you up to speed. police are investigating the death of the president of the colorado rockies baseball team. they found kelli mcgregor in a utah hotel room. the death toll in last week's earthquake is above 2,000. disaster is raising questions about building standards. more than two thirds of the schools in hardest hit area were totally destroyed or critically

damaged after the government launched a huge school inspection last year. half of the 28,000 flights scheduled through european airspace today are expected to take off. that said, by day's end, more than 95,000 flights will have been canceled since that volcanic ash started grounding planes last week. the rain stayed away from kennedy stays summer this morning letting the space shuttle head in for a landing. check that out. watch that for a second. come on in. it's going to be beautiful. there we go. yesterday bad weather kept the crew orbiting an extra day after their mission to the international space station. if you think you've seen it too much, there are three more of these left. three more shuttle launches and then the project is over. so get into it. the power of the internet just took a massive jump forward. talking about quantum broadband, coming up after the break. i'm going to break it down for you.

one thing i love to read about and learn about and share with you are big ideas, people with big ideas that can change the way things happen in the world. i want to call it the big "i" and it's concept of using quantum fis sicks to beef huh your internet aspects and security. if that sounds like a geeky science fiction concept, it is. basically quantum broadband is

super fast and it is super secure. it's been used by the military and the secret service for a couple of years now. but the lab at the -- the cambridge lab of toshiba research in europe has expanded this technology. brett me break this down. when you use the internet, you are sending information basically from one computer to another computer. when that information is sent, it is encrypted. in other words, it's secured so most people can't read it. i don't want to get into encryption but the encryption can still be hacked by bad people. your information can get stolen. we know that happens all the time. with quantum broadband, that information can be encrypted so that it is virtually unhackable. let me explain why. basically you heard of quantum theory, right? it contends you cannot measure something without somehow disturbing it. quantum broadband is eavesdropping. it's the holy grail of eavesdropping.

if you're sending an e-mail from one computer to the other, quantum technology would be able to immediately detect if someone else were listening in or somehow hacking in or trying to access your information. once that eavesdropping for lack of a better term, is detected, the encryption key, which is the code which encrypts this message is immediately changed. the information is kept safe. we're not talking and every day texas information or e-mails. quantum broadband is used to keep big files like video clips and conference calls that are important and secret completely, completely safe. you'll hear more about that. that's today's big "i." another story, civil rights matriarch dorothy height passed away today at the age of 98. is there a need for civil rights activists like dorothy height in this post-racial america?

i know. i know. you don't think we're in a post-racial america. stick around.

she's a founding matriarch, a change maker in american history. dorothy height, a crusader for racial justice and gender equality died this morning at the age of 98. her list of accomplishments in her life is unparallel. she was the president of the national council of negro women for 40 years. she memed organize freedom

schools in mississippi at the height of the segregation battle in the south. her work was key in struggles for school desegregation, employment opportunities and public accommodations. add to that mrs. height was awarded the presidential honor of freedom and the congressional gold medal in 2004. as we think about the many achievements that dorothy height accomplished in her lifetime, you have to wonder who does that now days? who keeps that torch going for racial and gender equality? it's a battle that ms. height herself says we all need to take part in. >> there's a lot of work for us to do to make freedom and equality a reality. and that teaeach of us can make difference. >> making a difference not only benefits african-americans and women but benefits the country as a whole. joining me to talk about this is my good friend donna brazil. great to see you here. >> thank you. >> you -- dorothy height was hospitalized a few weeks hospitalized a few weeks ago,

and when word first came out of on that, you went to see her. >> yes, i wanted to go to the hospital to say hello. dr. height had just an uncanny ability to remember the last conversation. and she had taken ill, a and alexis herman was over there, and many of us, congresswoman eleanor holmes norton, we all wanted to be around her. we wanted to keep her spirits going, and often it was dorothy height that would look to us and continue to give us assignments. she wanted us to continue to work on the black family reunion. she wanted us to continue to reach out and build bridges. she was a phenomenal woman. >> the black family reunion is an interesting concept. it's an idea that throughout all her battles, you know, whether it was voting, civil rights, she still felt the emphasis was on the family. >> absolutely. >> and so many problems today are family related. >> she wanted to create this atmosphere so that people could come together on the washington

mall to celebrate family, to celebrate each other. >> right. >> to bring their family and little children. and she created all the pavilions so that people would be inspired to tell their stories, to talk about education and health care. dorothy height was a woman who was an informal adviser to just about every president, from franklin roosevelt to the president. she would call and say i want to talk about civil rights and health care and women's equality and she answered the call every time she was called. >> and she hosted a viewing party for the first african-american president. but she was not a believer as many are not that we're in the postracial mode. how does a new dorothy height come along? i want to talk about the next generation of civil rights leaders after the break. ( tires screeching ) there's never been a better time...

( tires squealing ) to have bad tires. come to meinekand save $20 on two or more tires. at meineke, you're always the driver. good day for me because one of my good friends and somebody i really respect is here in the studio with me, donna brazile. sad day because she's here talking about the passing of dr. dorothy height and her many achievements in her lifetime. who is going to carry the torch and fight for racial and gender equality the way she did for her entire lifetime? we are seeing a passing of that generation that was involved in the height of the civil rights movement. >> yes. and sadly last week we lost dr. benjamin hooks. he will be buried tomorrow in memphis. he was another one who just gave

up his life to civil rights. the first african-american judge in the deep south. the first fcc commissioner, and also he was someone who helped to keep the movement alive. you know, ali, the civil rights movement is an ongoing struggle for equality for all americans. and when you look around today, you see not only the national council of negro women continuing dr. height's legacy, but the naacp just, you know, elect a new leader in -- >> a woman. >> ben jealous, he's also part of the generation of leaders. and you look on capitol hill, barbara lee, the chair of the congressional black caucus, you have pamela harris who is running statewide in california, kendrick meeks running statewide in florida. >> but is there grassroots support for that idea? because if you're young, you haven't seen the civil rights issues that -- that these people like dorothy height and ben hooks, saw. >> well, but, you know, civil

rights was not just about breaking down barriers. dorothy height and leaders of her generation didn't see just the barriers, they also saw the opportunities. they were visionaries, and so civil rights today comes in all forms. equal pay as you mentioned earlier. that's an ongoing struggle for women to, you know, enjoy equal pay. the struggle for gays and lesbians to have equal rights. that's a struggle that's a civil rights issue. education is a civil rights issue. health care was a civil rights issue. the economy is a civil rights issue. it continues today with new leadership and blood. >> are you seeing new entries to that, you named good, vibrant young people, but at the broadest stretches of these, in the places that the civil rights movement used to recruit at colleges and churches and neighborhoods, do you see young people saying i need to make a commitment to this?

>> absolutely. i am on college campuses, and last week i was up in rhode island and the young people are creating a campaign of service to go back into the community to basically talk about education and health care, to bring more young people together. this past weekend in north carolina, the leaders of the student nonviolent coordinating committee gathered to celebrate their 50th anniversary. they're reaching out. the movement goes on. dorothy height was a champion for the civil rights and equality. she leaves a deep legacy. >> well, we're going to continue to honor her today so that people can realize some of the freedoms that we enjoy today, for all of us are because of the struggles for the people that had gone before us. thank you for being with us today to honor her. >> she would tell you the best way to honor her is to serve, to answer the call. >> donna brazile is a cnn contributor. the massive volcanic cloud isn't the only thing over the air in europe. finally more flight are over. is the worst over?

and in this day and age women are still making less money than men. when will we finally bridge the gap? i'll bring back my colleague, christine romans, to talk about this, and let me tell you, she never holds back on this discussion. and you will not believe what some people are going to do to get your stimulus tax dollars. especially some small airports. more flights mean more stimulus dollars no matter how short those flights might be. got to stick around for this. it's our special investigation. all right, cheers and applause breaking through iceland's volcanic ice cloud today. half of europe's flights back in the air. a limited flight began yesterday, germany, lufthansa, many more taking to the skies. as you can see, take a look at the map, a lot of airports have reopened across europe, major ones in france, italy, germany and spain to mention a few. other countries that have not reopened their airports have reopened the airspace because the ash cloud is now below 20,000 feet so planes can fly above it even if you can't take

off, austria, norway, sweden, luxembourg have open airspace. across the channel in britain, out of luck, heathrow and gatwick remain closed and many others do as well. thousands of passengers are stranded in the uk. cnn's gary tuchman joins us now from the volcano that is causing all the problems. he's been our best authority because he can turn around and tell us whether it's still spewispew ing or not. you can confirm if it's spewing, and apparently it looks like it's snowing as well. >> reporter: yeah, you see the stuff spewing from the sky, it's not ash, it's snow. it's snowing in iceland and it feels like winter a lot even in the springtime when we're two months away from the summer. and it's the volcano behind me, and i'm no expert, but i can tell you it is still erupting.

however, i have talked to a man who is an expert on volcanos a short time ago. he's a professor at the university of iceland, one of the renowned experts on volcanos in iceland and he tells me over the last three days their readings show that the eruption have weakened compared to the first three days, so his quote to me that all means that is usually a good sign that the worst is over, however, he also emphasizes there's no guarantees. either way it's still erupting and spewing ash, and that's one of the things we've seen in the country, most people, 95% of the population, totally not affected by this, because the winds have blown to the west where the capital is, reykjavik, where the airport is, the airport has been opened, full operations. the small percentage of the population, 315,000 in iceland live to the south and the east of the volcano, that's where the winds and ash have been going and that's where we were going yesterday to get a look at it. it was a really nice day yesterday, cold but sunny. and you had the great curtain in front of us, and literally you drove into the curtain and there it turned into night.

it almost looked like a solar eclipse with the article coming from the sky. it was like a snowstorm like i'm in but it was ash. it got in your hair and your eyes and we wore a mask. people are not evacuating but they are wearing masks. it's unbelievable because everything is a muddy muck and there's a lot of farmers and livestock and farms have been ruined because they've now had at least two or three of the ash storms that have come down and you can't start cleaning up because we don't know how long the volcano will last offer the ash they'll get. it's a very difficult time for the landowners in that portion of the iceland, ali? >> gary, you made an interesting point there that people in reykjavik sort of not affected by it, the plume is going up and over, you know, some of the parts of iceland and, in fact, the airport in reykjavik is operational and you can get there and get to other places from where you are. >> reporter: well, that's right. i mean, you can fly from reykjavik to new york to boston, that's where iceland air flies, nonstop flights every day, everything's been operating.

you also throughout this whole thing -- this is something a lot of people don't know -- you can get to the united states to europe, but a limited number of seats, and to reykjavik and north america and that's the irony. the mountain behind me that you can't see because of the snow is causing all the trouble in the world, but here on this island nation it's causing almost no problems except the tiny percentage of the population to the south and east of us. >> to be clear, can you see that the volcano is still spewing ash? >> you know, the cliche, ali, that, you know, when you go to any city, people like to say, just stick around a while, the weather will change, that's a cliche, but here it's literally true, because two hours ago we could see the volcano perfectly and we could see the ash coming up and spewing and so we know it is. and we spoke with the volcano expert that flew up there earlier and said the same thing. but that's the important thing to tell you today, for the last three days he is seeing that it

has improved from the previous three days and he said that's a very good sign but no guarantees that it's over. >> all right, gary tuchman, quite possibly cnn's heartiest journalist. i hadn't seen him in this environment before at a volcano with a snowstorm, now i think i've seen everything. gary, good to see you. stay safe, and wear a mask if you go anywhere near that volcano. all right, a woman's work is never done. or equally compensated. the gender pay gap still exists in 2010. it's bigger than some of you think.

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if you experience a sudden decrease or loss in vision or hearing. it's time to take a deep breath... and ask your doctor if viagra is right for you. all right, these days everybody is paying close attention to their paychecks, however even today women are seeing nearly 25% less in their paychecks than men are, probably a number you've heard before. today president obama is acknowledging national equal payday. basically we're a quarter of the way through the year and women get paid a quarter less than men do. let me just show you this another way. we know that women get paid 75 cents on the dollar, here's a man, he earned money all year. let's say he earned $50,000. if you're a woman to earn the same $50,000 took until today, april 20th, because you're earning 75 cents on the dollar, 75%, obviously this is not in every single job, but it is

still an accepted statistic. let me break down the numbers for you. according to the census women make 75 cents compared to men who make a dollar. let's talk about women's pay over the years. this will show it to you. from 1995, here's where we -- we look at this. do you know what, i don't really understand that. let me see if i can see what it says. all right, women's pay -- i can tell you this much from the graph -- it's gotten better over the years but it's not doing nearly as well as men's. here we go. red is men's and, you know, i don't even know what this is. let's skip that entirely. i want to talk to some people about it, because that's what you want to hear, marcie greenberger joins me now and cnn's christine romans to talk a little bit about this. marcia, let's talk about this. are we making up? because i think i've heard these figures before, it sounds familiar to me, that women make around 75 cents on a dollar, 77

cents on a dollar. >> you know, these are statistics that have been around, you're right, nor a long time. it was 78 cents, now it's 77. we're not making the progress we need to make. that's the bottom line. it is excruciatingly slow, and let's be real about this. especially in these tough economic times, women and men, really, rely on a woman's paycheck. the whole family gets cheated if women don't get equal pay. >> okay. let's talk about where we've made gains, though. women are as educated as men are now, as many women graduating with college degrees as men are. we have seen women representing fully half of the american workforce now, something we haven't seen since the days of world war ii. we've seen all sorts of employment gains, so, christine, why does this one persist? >> well, it's interesting because we have to ask the question why, why is there a gap? even when it's the exact same

job, the same job, there is this gap. why is that? is it discrimination, play a role there? does the fact that women maybe have to drop out for a time and so they lose some job time in the middle? does that -- does that play a role there? there are some labor economists, ali, who have told us that women don't negotiate for raises the same way that men do, that's a small little -- that's a few cents there. trying to figure out how you come up with those cents and how you try to narrow that gap. one thing about the recession that's very interesting, it's been called the man-cession and the he-cessin because so many high-paid construction jobs have disappeared, actually it leaves women with fewer choices in the workplace. because if your partner or spouse loses that job, now you're even more tied to the money you're bringing in and are less likely to take risks. and on several different levels, i this ink, there have bethink

interesting developments happening in those numbers. >> marcia, what's the issue here? when i'm talking with just getting paid for the same job, we still know that that disparity exists. is this not illegal? >> well, that's a good question. it is illegal, but the question is, can women enforce the law? do employers pay attention to the law? do they even review what their pay practices are to make sure what they're doing is fair? you could say women need to be better negotiators, and i'm sure that that's the case in some circumstances, but what about the employer who has the information? about what women actually get paid compared to their male counterparts. often women have no idea what their co-worker's getting paid. >> right. >> and the employer doesn't allow to it be discussed. there's a new law, the paycheck fairness act. it's pending. it's passed the house. it's waiting to pass the senate. it would give women those kind

of negotiating foole ining tool. it would prevent them from being retaliated against if they try to get better pay and try to get that information and are turned down. just as was said, in these tough economic times, it's very, very hard to put the burden on a woman and say, you know, be out there, be aggressive. >> yeah. >> people are worried about aggravating their employer and losing their job. >> christine makes this job all the time, if you are like christine, a working mother, and you're called upon to work and you're in demand, it is tough for women out there to sit there and say, and by the way, at this critical point in my life where maybe i have a spouse who is unemployed or a house that's under water, i am going to take you to task for what you're paying me. i guess it's a really tough one to overcome. >> the ceiling for women is lower than it is. i agree with you completely, marcia. >> sorry. >> she's absolutely right, the employer has the information. in many cases what they are worried about is their bottom line, if somebody is going to

take less than what worth, fine. is it fair, "a"? is it legal, "b"? is it right? and is it good for society? women have an 8% unemployment rate, men have a 10% unemployment rate right now. on the surface, great, women are doing better than men in the recession. but i think all of us agree that no one is really doing great in the recession. your job security is down. you have fewer choices. we hear this all the time from people who say they have fewer choices. they're worried about flex time. they're told again and again, make sure you have face time at work, make sure you are telling your boss your recent contributions because you don't want to end up on a bean counter's list of a job to lose. it's a lot of pressure for many women. it makes it harder to go out and be aggressive on the raise or the promotion. >> all right. i think we need to study this a little further. not study, i think i've studied it enough, we need to examine it further. it strikes me a whole discussion about the discussion about financial regulation reform. there are enough rules on the book but there aren't enough cops on the beat for companies

to know they have to this do stuff, so maybe we need to spend a little time with it. we'll invite you both to spend time with us, christine romans, my co-host on "your $$$$$," and marcia greenberg, thank you both for joining us and talking about this. >> thank you. >> thank you. all right, one family thought their dreams were dashed when the banks wouldn't give them a loan, and, strangely, that actually became the key to their success. we're going to check in. there he is. tom foreman is on the cnn express, looking for stories that are helping "build up america." he's do the a great one for us.

automated hay loaders, that's keeping one family afloat during these hard economic times, but there is more to this story and we'll go to tom foreman, there he is, standing in front of my beloved cnn express in pratt, kansas, what do you got for us, tom? >> reporter: well, we moved down the road, we're in greenberg, kansas, pratt is up the road. we were in kingman before that. here's an interesting thing about kansas, you may know, but a lot of our viewers may not, many states survive by really aggressively recruiting outside business, whether from other states or from other countries to come in and set up shop. that creates new opportunities, new jobs, and some of them are

very, very successful at that. kansas is not one of them. kansas gets very little outside help when it comes to building things up. that's why they rely on people inside the state, and their initiative, and the story we have today is of one family that has really taken that bull by the horns, and they are succeeding in a big way. in a shower of sparks and hot metal, terry and debbie shrog are building success at canon ball, ten years ago they opened shop to make one of terry's inventions, a fully automated hay loader and they are turning them out as fast as they can. why do you think your business is doing well when so many others aren't? >> well, i think, number one, is we have an excellent product. and we have personal contact with almost everybody we sell to. >> reporter: but there's more. the shrogs could not get a loan when they started, so they paid for everything. that kept them from getting too

big, too fast, or sinking money into buildings or help, and it prepared them for hard times. so, you didn't have the loan money to work with, but you also didn't have the debt to be saddled with. >> that's correct. with us, since we've always worked out of our pocket and always made our cash flow work, i think we weren't hit with that when all the banks started tightening up on their money. >> reporter: at wichita state, the small business development center says such homegrown success stories are critical to this state's rebound. because, david may says, only a tiny fraction of new jobs come from out-of-state companies moving in. so, what makes the difference between a small business that succeeds and one that does not? >> i think the biggest thing is probably customer focus. and it really starts with, i think, identifying a real need that exists and going after it and meeting that need and really taking an outside-in approach to

the market. >> reporter: he should know. back in the late '50s two of the school's graduates borrowed $600 to start pizza hut. and 20 years later, sold it for $300 million. canon ball is not that big, but it provides 18 full-time jobs with $3 million in annual sales and -- >> if i was 20 years younger, i'd double the size of it. >> reporter: it could be that big. you have that much business? >> oh, yeah. i could double it. >> reporter: for a farm equipment maker in the middle of a recession -- >> come on, beauty! >> reporter: -- not a bahadur vest. >> come here. >> reporter: in addition to all those full-time jobs, ali, they have four part-time jobs there. they sell all across the country, largely based just on their reputation as a great maker of the bale loaders and when they are not making those, they make the grain wagons which is used by all the wheat farmers out here, it's a successful

business, ali, that they have built up despite all the obstacing obstac i lies and they are doing well. >> the stories are very real and i've spent many months on the bus having seen them firsthand. and you are out there really looking for the stories of success across america? >> reporter: oh, yeah, and they're not that hard to find really. when i was talking to mr. shrog yesterday, one of the things he said that he truly believes the basics of bouncing back on the economy are basics in the country and a lot of us know from heart. come up with a good product. stick with it. hire good people. and work hard. >> yeah. that last one you can't escape. >> reporter: from the beginning he's done the work of two or three people, it makes a difference. >> take care of the bus. i miss it. i'll join you one of these days. >> reporter: thank you. we'll keep your seat warm for you. >> tom foreman, "building up america."

the shocking death of the president of the colorado rockies. police in soialt lake city, uta said keli mcgregor was found dead this morning. we'll bring you more details. if you don't count a fraud charge from the s.e.c., goldman sachs, said it earned $3.5 billion with a "b," a 91% increase from a year ago. the bank said it's the reflection of growth across the economy. it also said it is innocent of any wrongdoing in its mortgage-backed securities deals. and president obama is planning to attend a memorial service for the 29 west virginia coal miners killed in an underground explosion on april 5th. it will take place sunday, and vice president biden is expected to be there, too. mr. obama, we're told, will give the eulogy. is the volcanic mess ending, or is it just the beginning? there might be something to find out about that. chad is checking that and the weather. we don't want anything... ...to slow us down.

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all right. time for "off the radar" with chad. we've been following this volcano. some excellent pictures that you've got, but you're tracking who is coming in and out of airports. >> you know, when we named this "off the radar" five months ago, we had no idea that all the planes would be off the radar. really kind of an ironic thing. yes, there are planes flying today, about half of them, somewhere in there, in that ballpark. people are still not getting to where they need to be, that's the story. i have amazing pictures. i want to bring this to you. >> wow. >> lightning inside the volcanic ash plume. now, you got this think of this. this is, like, a million people all rubbing their feet on the same nylon carpet. >> right.

>> and all of a sudden you touch each other and the sparks are flying. this is shear and these particles of ash and debris all rubbing up against each other and when they rub, they create static electricity and eventually just like a thunderstorm, the static electricity has to discharge and it discharges to the ground. there are some fantastic shots, also the "boston globe" has great shots as well. look at that. >> that is incredible. >> i guess, fire, ice, ash and smoke, i don't even know to go with all of that. you would think that must be photoshoped. that can't possibly be real. >> do you suspect that's what the end of the world will look like? or the big party before the end of the world? >> it isn't 2012 yet. >> yeah. that is crazy. >> well, you are our man all things volcano. this is what gary tuchman if he stays up late might be able to see. is it fairly constant? >> when there's eruption and a lot of push to the atmosphere and all the ash particles get

jostled around, that's when it happens. not on a normal day, but certainly when the first eruption happened. >> the flights that you were talking about, 12,000, 14,000 flights? >> hard to tell. but they're saying they are canceling flights. you can fly over almost all the airspace. you can fly over it. >> you can get on top of it. >> the airspace above 20,000 feet and above is clean. it's a matter of getting there. >> all right. very good. we'll keep on watching it. excellent. it could be the end of the world. for almost a week now, we've been talking about planes that can't fly. airports bulging with stranded travelers. coming up next, an airport that is begging for flyers -- begging for fliers -- no volcanic activity involved in this. no apparent reason even to exist. drew griffin joins me with a special investigation. benefit that may qualify you for a new power chair or scooter at little or no cost to you. imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your

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well, it turns out that the cardinal rule of real estate applies to airports, too, location is everything. big cities have big, busy airports. small towns have small, sleepy airports. and clarksburg west virginia, you've got to see this airport to believe it. drew griffin saw it. he walked around it. he flew out of it. and he joins me now to tell us all about it. why would this airport be news worthy? >> i'll tell you why, number one, the federal government has no money. number two, we're giving it to this airport. and, number three, nobody uses this airport, and if you don't believe me, watch this piece.

>> all right. we're going -- we're having a problem getting that. fascinating story. we're going to cqueue it up. tell me the story. >> here's the story. all the tiny airports across the country, of which this airport is one of them -- >> right. >> -- gets money from the federal government based on how many passengers they can prove took off or landed at their airports, and that's where the math gets really tricky. >> reporter: this airport near clarksburg, west virginia, boasts quick check-ins, free, accessible parking and convenient baggage claim, which is not surprising, because the planes don't exactly queue up at north central west virginia airport. you can park here for free. you can park right next to the terminal. you can park all day and watch, and you may not see a single plane. and if you did stay all day, you'd catch just three commercial departures, carrying on average six passengers.

but, still, the federal government pours money into this airport. $30 million to lengthen the runway in 1999. last year, $1.6 million in stimulus cash. and for the last two years, an extra million dollars, money given to this, and any small airport, that can show it gets at least 10,000 passengers in a single year. get just one passenger less, than magic 10,000, and you'll get a measly $150,000. it's an all-or-nearly nothing program that government waste watchdog senator tom coburn said only could be devised in one place. >> congress did it. we created the incentive to kind of weasel on it so you can get more money. and it's exacerbated now because of the economic downturn. >> reporter: weaseling because at tiny airports across the country like north central west virginia, airport managers do just about anything they can to hit the jackpot of 10,000

passengers and get the government's money. and that includes free flights. >> it was just a little -- >> reporter: ad that said -- >> in the newspaper that said free flights. they were trying to meet their quota and they were, like, 300 passengers short of the -- of the -- >> reporter: so literally a free flight, coming out of a free flight? >> yeah. it was awesome. >> reporter: last december, susan pierson saw an ad in the local paper for a free sightseeing flight. >> this was quite -- quite a thrill. >> reporter: local news was there, too. catching her, her grandson, donovan, and hundreds of others flying a chartered 757 above bridgeport and clarksburg. and where did the flight go? >> it went everywhere. >> reporter: actually, it went nowhere. just up and down. susan and her grandson became part of the airport's 10,000-passenger-a-year count. dozens of airports have been chasing that number as well, in

tierney, nebraska, they saw the sights. and back in clarksburg, the director gets money to fly school students to washington, d.c., for the day to bump up his passenger count. how is that paid for? >> it was through the contributions through the board of education. this is the restaurant. it's closed. >> reporter: busy airport. the airport just got a separate $150,000 grant from the faa to -- well, you guessed it -- to promote itself. no planes, no restaurant. now consider this, the three scheduled departures a day, they do go to washington. but all stop in morgantown, 35 miles away. >> how you doing? >> reporter: i took the flight myself. >> boarding, a quick ten-minute flight. 5,000 feet is the cruising altitude. >> reporter: and no sooner were

we reaching altitude, we were preparing to land. >> lady and gentlemen, welcome. >> reporter: every single person who leaves clarksburg has to take that ten-minute flight. the man who runs the clarksburg airport said he's proud of what it's done to get as much money as possible. >> we had an economic benefit study analysis done, said the economic impact for this community is $300 million, so there's no question that we need this airport. >> reporter: but how can you say that when you've got three flights a day? you can go to morgantown, you can go to pittsburgh, most people do. and obviously the community is not flocking in here? >> well, i think i see that they have in the past. and i'm an optimistic person to think they will in the future. >> that's incredible. i mean, did you come across a lot of airports like this? >> do you know what, nobody knows really how many there are.

senator coburn passed an amendment saying, listen, we need an accounting. >> because nobody knows how many of those airports with more than 10,000 passengers are fudging it. >> how many get the faa money. how many get stimulus money. how many are getting all this kind of promotion money, education department money. there's all this money, ali, as you knowing in. >> is anybody defending this? anybody in a position of power defending this? >> you know, not really, other than, you know, every community deserves an airport regardless of how small, you can't affect rural airports. two airports, they're 35 miles apart. >> that's incredible. >> pick one at least, because you have two sets of tsas, two sets of management and you're building runways. it's unnecessary. >> what a story. all right, well, thank you for that. drew griffin bringing us that very interesting story. all right, there's always some kind of gem coming from the mouth of donald trump, to his personal portfolio, to the real estate theme, and to china's economy. and poppy harlow is joining us

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good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke. colorful character to say the least, but before donald trump was ever into reality shows, he was into real estate and investments and he was basically making a mint until that stopped. recently mr. trump made some time for cnnmoney.com's poppy harlow and as usual, poppy used that time well. hey, poppy. >> hi, ali. i tried. you know, it's interesting, you talk to the donald and i didn't know he was going to open up as much as he did.

we started off with sort of the hard-hitting issues, the commercial real estate market, the downfall as bad as housing, then he got on to china, which he already said on that, but we'll start with housing. take a listen. >> reporter: in terms of commercial real estate in general, the fear is that it will be even worse than the housing fallout. do you think it's possible? >> no, i don't think it will be anywhere near. >> reporter: really? >> i think it will be severe, but nothing, nothing will be like the housing. it almost imploded our whole economy. the housing was a disaster, and it looks like it's now starting to come back. i see house prices are starting to go up, and i think it's a great time to go out and buy a house or an apartment. you'll never have jobs because real estate is the biggest part of the economy. you'll never have building or anything built until the banks start loosening up and they're very hard to get money from. >> reporter: and you said the government has to get more involved than it already is? >> when i say involved, i don't mean get involved in terms of putting up more money, i mean getting involved in terms of making the banks loan money. the problem is with all of the billions, trillions even, that

the banks have taken in, they're not putting the money out. and if they don't put out the money, you won't have job creation. >> reporter: does this country need to be more business friendly in terms of tax incentives for companies to do business here? >> this country is so friendly and the biggest problem we have, like, with china, is that they're sucking money out of this country, hey, look, i know lots of folks in china. they think we are the dumbest son of a bitches in the tworl, all right? they think our representatives don't know what we're doing. they laugh at us behind our back. they take it and loan it back to us. >> reporter: green jobs the president has been touting that since he was campaigning. do you think it would help, would you put your money into alternative energy investments? >> i'm all for green and all the things -- >> reporter: there's one thing to be for them and to put your money there, does it make sense? >> the problem we have, as an example, they talk about saving energy and everything else and

they talk about let's not hurt the atmosphere. china's not doing that. they talk like they are, but they're not. india is not doing that. do you think india says we have to put scrubbers on our chimneys so the coal doesn't pollute the earth? they don't care. they don't care. and it's putting our companies at huge disadvantage and i think something has to be done. >> as you heard, ali, pretty tough on china there, whether it's them importing to us, buying it then buying up our debt or whether it's how china and india handle global warming, ali, i was surprised to hear he was that critical of the way that they do business. >> he seemed critical both of china and the u.s. for what he seemed to imply as being suckered into that continued relationship. >> absolutely. >> very interesting interview. poppy, good to see you, appreciate that. poppy harlow, from cnnmoney.com, you can see her on cnnmoney.com frequently. the spotlight is back on lehman brothers. top financial officials on capitol hill say the lehman

debacle is proof if any is needed that tougher regulation of the financial market is needed. among those testifying, tim geithner and federal reserve chairman, ben bernanke. lehman's bankruptcy triggered the worldwide financial crisis. the obama administration plans to change title nine, the 1972 law that mandates gender equity in sports at schools to get federal funds. universities will no longer be allowed to use only surveys to determine women's interests in sports. the low response could be interpreted as a lack of interest in sports when that might not actually be the case. and in europe, planes are taking off, again, finally despite the massive volcanic cloud. several big airports have reopened, bringing at least some relief to stranded passengers, and right now we're hearing that some flights are resuming out of london airports. we're going to check into that and get back to you very shortly. where is he? is he there? there he is. ed henry, our senior white house correspondent, looking a little surprised he's on tv.

>> reporter: how are you? >> good to see you, ed, we'll come back in just a second. he's got lots to tell us. some lunch.

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call now. okay. a very strange situation i'm not understanding. let's go to paula newton, she's at heathrow airport. i'm understanding that there are 26 flights in the air toward the united kingdom, but that the airspace where they're going has not been opened up yet by -- by civilian airspace authorities. what's the story here? >> reporter: ali, british airways is telling us that they put 26 long-haul flights in the air, that includes flights from the west coast, ali, flights from india, flights from asia, other flights from north america. they put 26 flights, possibly more than 8,000 people in the air, with the hopes to land behind me at heathrow, or london gatwick, realizing that this airspace is closed. they are saying they are waiting for a window of opportunity to land. if they cannot land here, they will land at a european airport close by.

what does this mean behind the scenes? this is b.a. playing hardball. they have put 8,000 passengers in the air telling them that they expect to land in london, but not sure if they are actually going to. b.a. has been furious about the way this has been handled. they do not believe that air corridors through britain cannot be created. they want to land here desperately. we're going to wait a few hours here, ali, and see what happens. >> wow. >> reporter: i think we have to understand these passengers are safe, but in terms of aviation travel, this has got to be unprecedented. >> yeah. >> reporter: when you are telling 8,000 people that you don't know where they're going to land and end up. british airways continues to use the language with us and just says we are hopeful that a window of opportunity will open up. ali, i remind you this airport officially is closed until at least 1:00 local time, it's almost 8:00 now, ali? >> b.a. said they will have another update in a few hours. british airways flew an experimental flight and took pictures and measured before the flight went up and they flew it

and brought it back down and they took more pictures and the engineers analyzed it they came out with a very strong statement to say no damage, no problems, no danger, let us fly. so, very interesting at this point i guess civilian authorities in -- in britain, aerospace authorities, have got to be sitting there saying we have 26 planes headed toward us. we're going to have to make a call on this? >> reporter: but really it's putting pressure on them and deciding, look, can you open up an air corridor that is safe or not? and they're putting pressure on them to be able to do that. and let's remember, what will most likely happen many of the flights if not all will be diverted to paris or brussels, to ma rid, airports that are open right now, but b.a. is putting prerkure on the aviation authorities to say, come, you can't open one corridor and why, ali? they are bleeding money by the minute, companies like b.a. and virgin, the only major european airlines that have not been able

to get flightness the air as of today. >> we'll continue to follow the story. if you are going to india or asia or places like that, maybe they are happy to be closer. we'll continue to follow the story. paula newton, thank you. ed henry standing by at the white house. ♪ wait, wait, you're not at the white house. where are you? what are you sitting on? >> reporter: no, i'm not. i'm at the politics online conference. >> how fun. >> reporter: it's downtown washington, it's called the politics online conference. it's affiliated with george washington university. i've got a cool panel, chad peterson, a virginia state senator, and mike condit, who represents silicon valley in california. and sandy jackson, and i'm going to embarrass her, because she told me before this panel she's moderating, 400 or 500 people in the audience, that she thinks you're a neat dresser and you coordinate it really well, ali. do you want to add anything? >> i do. ali, you are sharp every single day. when we're watching cnn in my

office, we go, wow, that guy, he is incredible! >> reporter: come on, you're just saying that to make him feel good. >> no, honest to goodness, you're fantastic every day. >> do you know what, if she's that astute -- >> reporter: this panel is starting to go off the rails, ali. but people are talking about it, and the congressman was just telling us how much he's been using, you know, facebook, twitter, social media to engage his constituents. you want to give us a quick, 20, 30 seconds to tell us how it's working >> it's working, because the first day i did twitter, i heard from a senator that ran for congress and didn't win, criticized me for the use of what's called earmarks. and, you know, i think earmarks are perfectly good, and being criticized for $300,000 earmarks. >> reporter: right. >> i researched his stuff, and came back and just complimented him on his expenditure of $3 million for one project, $5

million on another. they were good projects. >> reporter: ali, we've been talking about how, you know, for the politicians all around the country, their lives are open books. they always have been, but now because of the social media, you mentioned the projects that are out there and all this openness and transparency can be a good thing but also present challenges, ali. >> you and i have realized the benefits, not so many challenges from doing it. what happens now? you've talked about how republicans tend to use it more than -- than democrats do? robert gibbs got on twitter and i think he had, i don't know, how many tens of thousands of people he had within a day. is this sort of a useful tool for legislating? >> reporter: well, you know, that's something i was just about to ask him. and we will, because, you're right, in recent years we've seen republicans using the social media a little bit more effectively than democrats and for a long time democrats thought that they were sort of leading the charge, if you will. and now we've seen very much more aggressive push from the white house, robert gibbs you

know using twitter a lot getting the white house message out, organizing for america, the president's grassroots message, doing it from outside the white house. both sides are pretty engaged on it, and you played "empire state of mind" on the way to the segment. jay-z, of course, i hear people laughing. >> it's the new theme for my team, right? that's what they played as the yankees -- >> reporter: that's right. >> -- won the world series. >> reporter: ali and i root for the yankees. they are coming to the white house because they won the world series. i see people groaning, i think they are not yankees' fans. some are and some are not. >> white sox. >> reporter: we've got a white sox fan here along with the president of the united states, who is white sox fan. i'm going out on a limb, but when the president welcomes derek jeter and the yankees, he threw out the first pitch at the nationals' game last week, he had a nationals' jacket, but he put on a white sox cap. >> he had to. he had to.

he could not have gone back to chicago without it. >> reporter: he was kind of hiding it. so much for transparency, i guess. >> tour rigyou're right. >> ed, have fun, an astute crowd, especially that woman beside you commenting on my dressing. great to talk to you. >> reporter: he's calling you astute because of what you said. >> thank you. >> have a good time. sandy jackson was the one that said i dressed well. she's very astute. we'll talk to you in a little bit. civil rights matriarch dorothy height passed away this morning at the age of 98. if you don't know about her, you should. her accomplishments are astounding. i'll give you more after the break. and i'm mary anne shula, and i've lost 23 pounds on nutrisystem. nutrisystem silver for 2010, the weight-loss program designed for older americans to lose weight and feel great again! let's face it, the older you get, the harder it is to lose weight.

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well, she's a founding matriarch of the civil rights movement. a change maker in american history. dortth thothy height died this g at the age of 98. her list of accomplishments achieved in her lifetime is unparalleled. she was the president of the national council for negro women for 40 years. she helped organize freedom schools at the height of the segregation in the south, and her work was key for the struggles in school desegregation, voting rights and employment opportunities and public accommodations. she was awarded the presidential medal of freedom, that was the highest civilian honor had back in 1994 and the congressional gold medal in 2004. among on her other many honors

she has 36 honorary doctorates from colleges and universities including harvard and princeton, and as we look at her legacy, she charges all of us to work toward making a difference. >> there's a lot of work for us to do to make freedom and equality a reality. and that each of us can make a difference. >> and miss height certainly she made that difference. the question is who will carry that torch? i'll have more tom to say about that in my "xyz."

time now for "the xyz of it." i want to spend a moment on some unfinished business. not the kind of business i usually cover. this one's more important. nothing less than liberty and justice for all, that was dorothy height's life work. in a statement marking her death at the age of 98 this morning, president obama calls height the god mother of the civil rights movement. in fact, she found her voice decades earlier. protesting lynchings in the new deal days. generations of african-americans and women of all races owe a debt to dorothy height. whether they know it or not. but through her work, though her work is now done, there's a long way to go. thankfully new generations have produced new leaders to face new challenges. i want to leave you with the words of dorothy height her sell, quote, each of us can make a difference. you don't have to be an icon to stand up for injustice. you don't have to win the presidential medal of freedom to speak for freedom and you don't have to wait for someone else to do it for you. here's another favorite