several key races. he jumped in during the massachusetts senate race and two gubernatorial contests in knowledge knowled new jersey and virginia. organizing is sending around an e-mail to supporters reminding them there are only 190 days until the midterm elections and telling them while some republicans might, quote, be measuring the drapes for their new offices they can a avoid that electoral nightmare some republicans already think will happen. dan lothian, cnn, the white house. "cnn newsroom" continues right now with ali velshi on capitol hill. >> thanks, tony. i'm going to be with you for the next two hours. as i am every weekday. but we're doing things a little differently. this is the russell rotunda at the united states senate. we are here today because officials from goldman sachs are testifying before a senate committee about the role. what role, if any, they had in the collapse of the financial system. at least the near collapse of the financial system. and they are trying to explain

exactly why they shouldn't be treated any differently, why action shouldn't be taken against them here at congress. testifying in front of a senate subcommittee. we're going to speak to one of them in a moment. really and most importantly, why should you care about mold again sacks? well, if you got a mortgage, if you got a 401(k), then you've got a stake in what's happening right now on the hill. the big question, did goldman sachs make the recession, the one that we have all suffered through, worse than it would have been? plus, hundreds of thousands of women say they got a raw deal at walmart. now the nation's biggest retailer could face the nation's biggest class action employment lawsuit. also, if you're wearing bluejeans right now, those jeans might have contributed to an environmental mess. we'll show you a denim diss a center. but first of all, back here on capitol hill. history gets made on the floor of the u.s. congress but this is where the work gets done. the senate and house buildings, members grill witnesses and every so often some feet get

held to the fire. this is one of those days. and there are some feet being held to the fire here or some of them right now. looking at them, the current or former top executives, wall street investment bank goldman sachs. as you know, watching cnn, goldman stands accused of helping turn a garden variety recession into a worldwide economic melt down or having a part in that. i'll spare you for now but what the senate subcommittee is claiming and what the s.e.c. ver separately is charging, is that goldman peddled mortgage backed investments that goldman themselves was betting against and maybe even engineered them to fail. take a listen to one of these senators. >> you are the bookie. you are the house. you have less oversight and less regulation as you all began this wild, wild west of traunches, waterfalls, equity traunches, residual, warehousing, as you began all that, you had less

oversight than a pit boss in las vegas. >> i said i would avoid the jarg jargon. i never said anybody else would. goldman says it didn't mislead anybody. it lost more than a billion dollars on its own investments. ceo lloyd blankfein testifies. he says, we didn't have a massive short against the housing market and we certainly did not bet against our clients. joining me now is democratic member of the investigation subcommittee ted kaufman. thank you for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> this was the face of wall street. >> right. >> so many people are angry and so many people are looking for someone to blame for making this recession into something worse than it was. >> exactly. >> are these the right people? >> i think we've had a series here. senator carl levin, put together a good senate hearing. we started out and talked to washington mutual, the largest bank to fail. how did they fail. why did they fail. then we talked to the regulators. finally we spent last friday

talking to the rating agencies. how did these 10,000 of these securities that are aaa rated end up as junk. the final piece of puzzle is, the folks on wall street. they maybe these mortgages up and send them up to wall street. wall street put together and package and sell them. that's the part that i think we're focusing on and the committee has done a great job putting together e-mails. one of the things, ali, the big point i make, we know from washington mutual 90% of the home equity loans were stated income loans. >> you don't have to prove what you earn. >> you can go in the bank. >> so i guess the question that our viewers want to know. who is to blame for this? if you don't have to prove your income, who's fault is this? p when you have something this big. a lot of people. >> reporter: involved. they went you and fraudulently gave their income. that's fraud. they should go to jail if they committed fraud. the rating agencies, what they did was wrong. what the banks did, washington mutual did and putting these

things together when they could tell. and finally, when wall street is sucked one out around the country and sucked in these mortgages and made emphasis on bring them in, i don't care about the quality, i'm not going to find out that, they're to blame, too. finally, et cetera a regulators. >> senator, it occurs to me that over the last decade or longer, the mood around here has not been one to regulate wall street. regulating wall street feels like it's coming in t way of business, at least that's how people behave. >> you're absolutely on point. that's what happened. they said we don't need to have regulation. essentially going to a football game and saying these referees keep blowing their whistles and stopping things, let's get the referees off the table and let's play football. you know what happens there. first pile up, second pile up, you wouldn't want to be in it. what we're dealing with right now, today, is what went on on wall street. how much were they responsible? they like to tell you, look, all we did was collect these

mortgages and pick them up. >> they're saying we were the brokers. we were the guys in the mid. >> good guys. really they were a gigantic sucking sound that to people, get me more mortgages, i know i can sell them. don't worry about the quality. >> tell me about the e-mails, the vice president named in the s.e.c. suit which has nothing to do with you guys. >> exactly right. >> 2007 e-mail, he says the subprime business is totally dead and the poor subprime borrowers won't last long. he also says, what if we created a thing which has no purpose, which is absolutely conceptual and highly theoretical which no one knows how to price. it's a little like frankenstein turning against its inventor. he testified this morning that he's just doing his job. >> exactly. that's the scariest part. i hope that isn't true. i hope that people at goldman sachs, i hope they knew. because these are the smartest guys going. they knew what they were doing. they didn't have all this thing

go south all of a sudden and nobody knew. very kor flul. >> you asked that. is this like a hurricane. >> right. >> we had these people come in, the housing market, it was terrible. like the companies, they give incentives to people in order to rate things, aaa. when we go out to washington mutual. don't worry about whether it was correct or not. they say the example, there was a frenzy, everybody was doing it. i've been around this place for 30 something years. every time somebody starts saying everybody does it, ali. >> i think so it's good that we spread this around from buyers to rating agencies. there's a lot of blame to go around. >> i tell you what, one of the things we did, we passed a lot of money earlier this year to make sure we catch anybody involved in fraud and we put them in jail. we need to make sure thisser in happens again. >> we're going to talk about this more this afternoon. senator ted kaufman, i know you have to go back and have that discussion. we're going to continue talking about this, but there's

other news we want to tell you about. deep sea race against time. what you're looking at is a robot sub. it's 5,000 feet below the gulf of mexico. and it is trying to shut off a massive oil leak and fend off an environmental business sass center. her man 1,000 barrels of boil leaking in every day until it gets shut down. i've got the lightest and photos which gives the term bird's-eye view a whole new meaning. he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. also available in small, easy-to-swallow petites. citracal. [ female announcer ] it's red lobster's festival of shrimp... a chance to get everyone together for a night where everyone gets just what they want. combine two or three favorites, from new creations like crab-stuffed shrimp and pecan-crusted shrimp to classics like decadent shrimp scampi.

it's everything you want in a night out. starting at just $11.99, during the festival of shrimp. i'm ed whitacre, from general motors. a lot of americans didn't agree with giving gm a second chance. quite frankly, i can respect that. we want to make this a company all americans can be proud of again. that's why i'm here to announce we have repaid our government loan, in full, with interest, five years ahead of the original schedule. but there's still more to do. our goal is to exceed every expectation you've set for us. we're putting people back to work, designing, building, and selling the best cars and trucks in the world. with our 100,000-mile,

5-year powertrain warranty to guarantee the quality. and the unmatched life-saving technology of onstar to help keep you safe. from new energy solutions. to the designs of tomorrow. we invite you to take a look at the new gm. and you'll dump your old mop. but don't worry. he'll find someone else.

♪ who's that lady? ♪ who's that lady? ♪ sexy lady ♪ who's that lady? [ female announcer ] used mops can grow bacteria. swiffer wetjet starts with a clean pad every time. and its antibacterial cleaner kills bacteria mops can spread around. swiffer gives cleaning a whole new meaning. ♪ lovely lady oil spill in the gulf of mexico is growing. the satellite photos from nasa, take a look. it shows what it looks like from space. the spill is that white snake like area. it's about 35 miles off the coast of louisiana. it was caused by a rig that exploded and sank last week. here you see a close-up of the outer edge of the spill. it's the white area in the photo, in the right side of the photo. look at that. here's another look from space. satellite picture from the european space agency. u.s. coast guard says despite the fact the spill is getting

bigger the weather is cooperating for now. the wind is blowing the slick away from shore, thankfully. there is concern that winds could start blowing towards shore later this week, which is why the desperate effort to shut that leak off. right now at 5,000 feet below the surface remote controlled robot submarines are trying to trigger what's called a blowout preventer. that might have been a the cause of the leak. 450-ton valve at the well head designed to shut off the well. if it works, this could be over in a day. if it us then't work, this is a problem. then they're going to have to resort to a longer procedure involving one or more relief rigs that would drill deep wells nearby to push mud and concrete into the gushing cavity to stop the flow of oil. that could take weeks. one person we talked to said it could be more than a month. do you know what a black swan is? not the bird. in financial circles a black swan can strike fear into the heart of the most fearless

investor. my next guest says goldman sachs might have fallen into its clutches. we're going to discuss this more when we come back.

welcome back. i'm ali velshi reporting from capitol hill where a senate panel is looking for goldman sachs, whether they made the financial crisis worse through

questionable and obscure business deals. let's take a look at the bigger picture here. my next guest says there is a disconnect between the way goldman executives say themselves and their company and the way the rest of the world sees them. he's the author of "staubing the black swan." in fact, in financial circles a black swan refers to unexpected hard to predict events that can have a big impact on companies and markets. ken, thanks for being with us. you say goldman sachs tried to avoid the so-called black swans. but in the end they might not have been able to. what do you think by that? >> the iron ay is they did a fantastic job trading in 2007 and 20,000 2008 and they made profits when so many peers failed. they haven't escaped the clutches of the black swan because they don't understand how they fit into the political reality that follow tsz aftermath of the worst financial crisis in 75 years.

as i point out in the book, when a black swan strikes you may have a very limited amount of time to make key decisions. so far, i'm not sure whether they're making the best decisions they could be. >> well, you know, i kind of think until this s.e.c. charge was leveled against them that they allegedly cheated one client for the benefit of another. goldman sachs didn't really seem to invest a lot of time or care into what the rest of us mere mortals simply thought about them. is that the disconnect that you're talking about? >> one disconnect is the way they present themselves to the world. they describe themselves as being a client focused firm. and that's true to a large extent. but when the senators are asking them questions about whether they should put their clients' interests first, their answer is, look, we're intermediaries and our job is to show prices. i think there's a disconnect in how they articulate their client focus and what we seem to be seeing happening notice transactions. >> ken, in the end does any of this matter?

christine romans is here with me in d.c. we've been covering this together. as distasteful as it may seem, ultimately they're accused of one little thing by the s.e.c. most of what they did wasn't -- isn't even said to have been illegal. >> well, it doesn't matter. i think it does, because the country is thinking about financial regulatory reform. and there are rules in that reform package that could change the way the large financial institutions operate. we live in a democracy and people have a view on when financial institutions unleash too much volatility. you know, when that happens and when the government needs to come in and bail out institutions there is a political price to be paid for that. >> you have hit on something interesting. this is where christine and i were saying this is where the culpability may lie. in good times, exotic financial instruments and derivatives and goldman and other companies

used, good times seem better. it magnifies positive results and strong markets. and in bad times it may have magnified the negative effect of mortgage failures and a weak market. >> well, you know, look, i think the volatility that we face in the world is the price we pay for operating in markets. we get a lot of innovation and a lot of benefits. one of the points i try to make in the book is because we operate in markets there are going to be future black swans an that's why decision making needs to take into account this risk. but here's something to think about in terms of financial regulatory reform, if the volcker rule goes through, then big banks, including goldman sachs, will not be able to conduct the same amount of proprietary investing. that will be a big deal. in 2009, almost 90% of profits were from trading an investing. those rules could have a significant implication for major financial firms. >> by the way that bill that you're talking about may go to a vote again later today.

conditi ken was talking about the v volcker rule. that is in some people's minds will replace the repeal of glass stegall, the chinese wall that separates activities that banks can talk part in using your money. by the way, you can get much more information about these sorts of issue on "your $$$$$" saturday at 1:00 p.m. eastern and sunday 3:00 p.m. eastern with christine and me. she is with us today. let me give you a check of the top stories here on cnn. a little good news on the the economic front. home prices in february posted their first annual gain in more than three years. there is a downside. the gain actually fell short of analyst's expectations and those analysts warned that prices could fall further before they start gaining again. remember, interest rates could go up at the same time. if you're making a decision about buying a house, take that all into consideration. in france, no vacation for man yeel nor aga. he left miami and arrived in

paris to face money laundering charges. he laundered some $7 million in drug profits by buying luxury apartments in paris. noriega faces up to ten years in prison if convicted. a solemn ceremony for three pittsburgh police officers gunned down. all three of their names are to be inscribed on the national police memorial. their deaths last year marked the single deadliest day in the history of the pittsburgh police department. okay. when we come back, you charge me how much for what? that is a question one woman practically screamed after looking at her hospital bill. how to make sure the same thing doesn't happen to you.

when linda galway found out she needed surgery to save her vision she scheduled the surgery immediately. our senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen explains.

>> you recently had an experience when you were in the hospital that really blew your mind. >> well, when i got out of the hospital and got the bill. yeah, i definitely had an alarming experience. i received my bill. and i noticed some items that were totally inflated. for acce forceps, disposable. >> what went through your mind. >> i was outraged. i said, listen, i'm a physician, this is an instrument that you're going to throw away. and i encountered a very arrogant young man from the billing department who basically said, when you sign consent for the procedure, you allowed us to charge you anything we wanted to. >> and so you then went on the internet to see what it would cost to get a pair of forceps from a medical supply company. >> yes, i did. >> show me what you found. >> a forcep similar to the one i

had, $1923. >> you paid $863 but you can buy it from a medical supply company for $192. >> yes, yes. that's very troubling. >> well, what i'm going to do is i'm going to go to the american hospital association and ask them, please explain this mark of up to me. >> i thoroughly agree with that. >> so the mark-up on these forceps was more than four times what it would cost to get it from a medical supply company. why, four times? because people want that, people want to know why. >> i think everybody understands the notion that when you buy something, let's say like a steak and you want to have a really nice steak dinner at home. it's a lot less expensive to prepare it and enjoy it at home than it is out in the rest rant. >> if they want to charge you $863 for a disposable piece of equipment, they can do it. >> the hospital has to be able to bring in more money than it spends or it won't be there for

the next patient. >> elizabeth joins us now. first of all, elizabeth, i thought the steak analogy was interesting. what kind of forceps? >> these are the time of forceps used. these are for the eye. you can see they're plastic, they feel like a ball point pen, basically, the doctor squeezes them to make the forceps work. nothing electronic, totally mechanical, it's not goldplated. nothing here sans $863. >> can somebody go online and buy the supplies they need for the procedures and take them in. >> she proposed that. if you want to mark up your supplies four percent, allow me to buy and them bring them to the hospital. we brought ourses, in a sterile case here. you could conceivably bring it in in your sterile case. was betalked to the hospital association. here's the case they came that. we talk to the hospital association, no way, we're not

going to let people bring in their own devases. we don't even let people bring in drugs. if you're a diabetic and you go into the hospital you can't use your own insulin. they give you insulin and you can get that tins lynn they gave you is way more expensive than the insulin that you buy on your own. >> if i were marking things up four times as much i would also not want you bringing things in. >> exactly. >> people find this stuff fascinating. good to see you. let's get over to chad mou. we are going to show our audience fresh pictures from nasa that show the magnitude of that oil slick in mexico. we've been following this closely. i was fascinated to see you can see this oil slick from space. >> it's still leaking. right? so the slick is getting larger, although they're putting dispursement tons slick itself. kind of like spraying grease lightning or, you know, liquid cleaner or 409 on a greet spot. you can clean up the grease.

it's being sprayed by helicop r helicopte helicopters, planes, boats and it's getting into the oil itself. mixing the oil up with the waves. and then that oil kind of falling down to the ground either to the ocean floor or it gets eaten by microbes that live in the ocean naturally. so that's good. look at these pictures because this is what you were talking about. how the dark spot there on the bottom right from the european space agency, how it's not just one big puddle. it's been blown around a number of times. there are currents out there. so this slick is now -- looks more like a snake rather than a circle. let me go one very, very quickly i want to take you to the forecast page and i'll show you what the winds are going to do over the next couple of i das. oil spill, there you go. winds offshore, good news. by later on this week, bad news. high moves to the east, winds are from the south. winds push that oil onshore. ali? >> that's what we've got to be careful of. until we get this thing closed down, this is going to continue to be a problem. let's talk about cars. we've been talking about --

we've had good news over the last few weeks. now we've heard fromford. you know the focus? that has helped the carmaker get back on track getting the assembly lines and the bottom line in order. the boss of ford, allan mullally standing by. we're going to talk about him about whether or not the worse is behind us.

what a difference ten months makes. when gm emerged from bankruptcy last summer it was on shaky ground. last week the carmaker announced early repayment of $7 billion in federal loans and today more good news. they will spend $900 million in investing in upgrading five at north american plants. overhaul is going to let the plants start building next generation more fuel-efficient engines. the best part is gm says it will add or save more tan han 1600 j. the bulk of the money, $400 million, will go to gm's factory in upstate new york, tonawanda. ontario, canada. the folks in defiance, ohio, $115 million. bedford, indian narks $11 million. bay city, michigan, plant, $32 million. on top of all of that gm says it might just return to profitability this year. speaking of profitability, one of gm's big three brothers is raking it in.

a big u-turn from this time last year for ford. joining us from company head ours if in dear born, michigan, ford's president and ceo allan mullally. good to see you again. thanks for being with us. >> you're welcome. >> you and i have talked about this over the last few years. when it looked grim, when it looked endless, when the future of the auto industry looked very, very uncertain. are we at a point where when we're looking at your results, we're looking at gm's announcements, we're looking at chrysler, are we thinking that maybe we've got an industry that possibly is growing again in america? >> well, clearly, ali, in ford's case, this is a result of all the actions that we put in place three years ago to create an exciting viable profit, growing ford by focusing on a complete family of vehicles from ford and every one will be investment class. see the way the consumers have responded to this new ford lineup and the quality is just fantast

fantastic. those are the results we're seeing today. >> you talk about quality. when you and i first talked soon after you took over at ford, quality was an issue, major issue for ford. even though it was part of the tag line for ford, quality was an issue. where are you now with that? >> well, our latest result on both the customer satisfaction portion of quality in addition to the technical aspects of things gone right or wrong, we have just moved into the leadership in the industry and in terms of our quality in the consumers' eyes. so, you know, all of that work, you know, quarter after quarter, is really paying off with the highest quality in the industry today. >> what are people buying? what are people most reacting to? >> well, it's very interesting, ali, because they like all of the vehicles. the smaller ones, you know, the new fiesta, the focus, the fusion, the taurus, the crossovers, the edge, escape, very popular. but also still very popular are

the larger vehicles, especially the ranger and the f series and e series transit vans. i think the thing that people can count on with ford is you can get the vehicle that you need and want, no matter what the size, know that each one of those is best in class in terms of quality and fuel efficiency and safety and the very best value. >> let's talk. when we come back i know you've been traling recently. i want to talk about the rest of the world where the auto industry might be growing here. it's really growing there.

a few minutes ago i was telling you about money general motors was focusing. bedford, indiana is getting $111 million, not $11 million. i'm back with allan mullally, president and ceo of ford motor company. allan, we know that there's remarkable growth in other parts of the world. in fact, some of your great results were driven by growth in asia, growth in brazil. tell me about that. i know you were in india recently and trying to make ford sort of a bigger player there. >> well, absolutely. in ford's case, henry ford set up for it, to operate in all the countries around the world. and we are so pleased to be accelerating the offering of all of our ford products and all of those markets. clearly the united states and the americas are a very important market, it's large, it's growing. same way in europe. but the fastest, the smallest

but the fastest growing is clearly asia pacific. and we have a good presence there and now we're introducing all of these fabulous ford vehicles in indiana and also in china. they just love the ford brand. >> i'm going to take you off topic for a second. one time when you and i talked, you then headed over to capitol hill here, and you and your colleagues in the auto industry took quite a beating. >> i remember well. >> you remember that, right. and now the folks at goldman are the subject of their attention today. any advice for folks taking a beating on capitol hill? >> well, i think the most important thing is to -- is to really try to help everybody understand that where you are and where you're going. in ford's case, we were honored to be there, ali, because we weren't asking for the precious taxpayer money. we were supporting our competitors at the time, that clearly were bankrupt. and if they would have gone into receivership they could have taken the entire industry and the united states from a recession and a depression.

so it was -- i was very honored to represent ford. and i was very pleased that everybody -- the reception that we got that they really appreciated that ford issic whatting great products. they had a great plan to create a strong business. they're very supportive of ford. so i think the most important thing is to continue that dialogue so everybody really understands where you are and where you're going. >> we're glad those times are not still with us when we were worried about the auto industry collapsing. good to see you again. >> great. good to see you. >> allan mullally, president and ceo of ford. let me give you an update of the stories. the reason i'm here, senate subcommittee investigating the role of investment banks in the financial crisis. the panel brought in current and former goldman sachs executives to the hill today. that mess has hurt the value of homes and the ability to pay for them across the nation. your home might be one of them. and president obama continues to push for a financial overhaul. he urged the senate to get back to work and put the interest of

the country ahead of the party after a reform bill failed yesterday. the president also launched a bipartisan task fost today to rein in the deficit and tackle the debt. the deficit by the way, the shortage of how much the government takes in, versus how much it puts out is projected to reach $8 trillion over the next ten years, contributing to the nearly $12.9 trillion of national debt. and here's an interesting one. charlie brown and his gang are off to a new home. their rights have been sold to a new york-based brand management company iconics for $175 million. this will enter them into a partnership with a family of peanuts creator charles shultz who died in 2000. imagine making less than the person sitting next to you. imagine getting promoted less frequently than the person next to you. imagine the only reason for that is your gender. that's what a lot of women are saying. women who work for walmart, still do. i'll tell you about it.

walmart could soon face the largest class action employment lawsuit in u.s. history. it's all got to do with an allegation that female workers were paid less and promoted also than their male counterparts. hundreds of thousands of current and former female workers with ban together in the lawsuit. it's been okayed by a federal appeals court. the court was divided. i want to talk now to ted

butroes, he's a lawyer for walmart and lisa bloom, cnn legal analyst. ted, thanks for joining us. basically the appeals court, the 9th circuit court of appeals in san francisco has said this case can go back to a lower court and can be joined by lots of people. more than a million women now can join this lawsuit against walmart. what's your take on this? >> well, ali, thank you. first of all, the courtesy jested a number was a lot less, more than 500,000. but we think the court made several crucial errors that it raised very important issues for the supreme court to review. this case has dramatic implications for employers around the country, companies that do business in the united states of all sizes, and would make class actions almost instantaneous in n many cases. >> what is the issue? the law side apart, issue is that the allegation is that walmart paid women less than men for the same job and promoted

them less than men. what's the answer to that? >> the answer to that is it's false. we haven't reached the merits of the case. we're a long way from that. but walmart showed this is back in 2003 when the certification issues were dealt with, 90% of the stores, there was no difference statistically between men and women in pay. in some stores women were paid more than men. to lump everyone together in a big case is no fair. it's the dissenting judges said it's unprecedented. we think the supreme court will want to look at the case because it's so important to so many people and businesses, we want fairness in the system but this is unfair to everyone. >> lisa? >> you know, i don't want the plaintiffs in this case although i am an employment discrimination attorney. class aks are the holy grail of discrimination cases. if you can get up to 1.5 million people certified as a class you are talking about potentially billions of dollars of damages. the court by a narrow margin,

6-5, ruled there was appropriate class certification for this very large group. they believed based on 120 affidavits that it was possibly they could prove in court women were not promoted because they were women. some women said they couldn't be promoted if they couldn't lift a 50-pound bag of dog food to a management position. the bigger issue is that we know there is a glass ceiling for women. perhaps at walmart, perhaps not. certainly across the united states women are still grouped in the lowest lef levels of employment where we're doing pretty well but in the upperer lo echelons we're still not represented appropriately. >> i think the company does a lot of things. it's one of the few companies that really moves the needle on conserving energy, made lots of things much more affordable for americans and increased the stand car of living for a lot of people. you guys have paid out a lot of money for sex discrimination lawsuits in the last decade or so. what's the best way to do this?

walmart does not want to go through life with a reputation of a company that doesn't treat its employees the right way. >> walmart has been a leader in fosters women sus cessful in the workplace. it is true that companies are working hard to try and make oh it easier for women to succeed. walmart has been a leader in that. it's been awarded many honors for the efforts in this way. in this kind of a case we think this class action is not the right way to deal with it. it's sprawling. it's unfair. it violates many legal principles. but we want to be fair to the workers at walmart across the board, and walmart is working hard to be a leader in making women a success in executive positions, management positions and throughout the company. and i think other companies are, too. this will make it more difficult for companies to do that. this kind of class action, that's why we're going to have the supreme court to review the issues. >> ali, if i could -- >> lisa, go ahead. >> the plaintiffs of course still have to prove their case.

this has been going on since 2001, for nine years. they still have to go to trial and prove their case. it is potentially a big award against walmart if they can prove it and win. >> that's your point, ted. we're not in the merits of the case yet. it will be interesting to hear. great to see you both. thank you. lots of backlash over this new arizona illegal immigration law. you've seen the protests. now one major u.s. city wants to boycott the state. and it's not the only one. and it's not the only one. i'm going the tell you about it. ,

we're seeing more backlash today from arizona's new law cracking down on illegal immigration. it moved beyond the streets and beyond the state of arizona. over 800 miles away in san francisco. a resolution will go before the board of supervisors there to stop doing business with the state of arizona. city attorney dennis herrera has led the call for the boycott. >> i think it's the only way to spur folks to appreciate how draconian this law is for them to be a tangible price to pay for instituting what is no doubt a draconian law. now, even in the boycott is approved by the board of supervisors, it's unclear what would have to be done for it to actually take effect. san francisco mayor, gavin newsom, he's called the new arizona law inexcusable and unacceptable, but he argues a total boycott of the state is, quote, an extraordinary comment -- an extraordinarily

complicated matter. phoenix mayor phil gordon who plans to file a lawsuit to block the new law has asked san francisco to hold off so it won't hurt residents who depend on the state for employment. but it's not just san francisco leaders. leaders in mexico have also demanded a boycott and so has civil rights leader al sharpton. former arizona governor and homeland security head, janet napolitano, said she has deep concerns about the law. >> the first thing to be done is for the justice department to review whether the law is constitutional, under the laws governing the supremacy claws and under the laws gov are preemption and the case law governing preemption, so that i think is really as you suggest the first thing that needs to be done, is it constitutional or not. >> back in arizona a petition drive is being organized to put the measure to a public vote. and some may day marches that were already planned are being

rebranded under the banner we are all arizona. all right, you wear them all the time, but have you ever stopped to think how they're made? we'll show you how your denim might be polluting a city half a world away. relief orthoticsl's back n with shockguard technology give you immediate relief that lasts all day long. dr. scholl's. pain relief is a step away. and transforming it an impossible dream? with olay, challenge what's possible. challenge skin creams costing up to $700. olay regenerist outperformed them. challenge the leading prescription wrinkle regimen with olay pro-x. clinically proven as effective at reducing the look of wrinkles. and challenge 7 signs of aging with all-in-one olay total effects. love how you see and feel about yourself more than you dreamed possible. olay, challenge what's possible.

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they have 35% of your daily value. oh, samples. mmm. fiber one. cardboard no. delicious yes. think about your jeans, your blue jeans could be bad for the environment? one town called blue jean capital of the world might be paying the price for producing your pants. emily chang shows us the dennen

industry's dirty secrets. >> reporter: on the banks of the pearl river mrs. leo expresses amazement at the transformation of the waterway he calls home. "i can see what the pollution has done," he says. "the water has turned dark and black." the river has sustained chinese civilization for ages, but civilization hasn't been kind to the river lately. turning it into a dumping ground for debris, even carcasses and industrial waste. upstream is shintao, blue jean capital of the world, with 200 million pairs sewn here every year. this satellite image from greenpeace shows the river from hundreds of dennen factories run black. if you look at the river bank here, it's simply covered in trash, a lot of it scraps of blue dennen. blue-jean-clad consumers around the world may have no idea how destructive denim production can

be. so, this is what blue jeans look like at the very beginning. it's just plain white cotton thread. that white cotton is now being lowered into this boil vat of dye, and when it comes out, it will be that dark, indigo blue color we all know very well. the process released tons of wastewater daily, a cocktail of dye and bleach. the factory boss says most of it is recycled. "if we didn't pay attention to the environment, the communist party would shut us down," he says. he admits some waste is not recycled and claims he doesn't know where it goes. you don't have to look far for a clue. so, this is the edge of the factory property, and you can see, there are several pipes leading directly from the factory property and into the pearl river. greenpeace recently surveyed pipes from other factories in the area, and says all contained heavy metals, organic pollutants and chemicals.

>> they are dangerous, because they are persistent. they will stay a long -- for very long in the environment. they accumulate in our body and they are toxic to us. >> if there's a lot of heavy metals, you know, obviously they, you know, toxic, they are carcinogen carcinogenic, and they disrupt the endocrine system. they affect, you know -- they cause, you know, cancer of different organs. >> reporter: local doctors say it's difficult to link pollution in the pearl river directly to adverse health conditions, though parts of the river have been declared unsuitable for human contact. the local government says it plans to invest $5 billion in wastewater treatment and implement a series of regulations, requiring companies to pass wastewater tests imposing random inspections and fining factories that exceed pollution limits, vowing to shut down or prosecute violators, but a top official claims it's hard to regulate.

", of course, we know what's in the pipes. every factory is supposed to register, but there are so many," he says. "what's exactly in the wastewater, i don't know." residents don't either. in a dirty riverside pond, this villager catches fish with his bare hands. if he doesn't eat it, he'll send it to a local market where they mr. leo might bring it home for dinner without knowing whether or not it's contaminated downriver from the blue jean capital of the world. emily chang, cnn, china. okay, it's 2:00 p.m. here in washington, d.c. here's what i've got on the rundown for you. there's a reason i'm reporting from capitol hill today. top brass at goldman sachs under the microscope. the question is, did they help push wall street over a cliff by betting against main street? plus, we're minutes away from hearing from president obama. he's on twoday swing in the midwest trying to persuade people jobs will come their way. will he believe them?

you think technology is only for the young? think again. i'll show you a story that proves you are never too old to be a pioneer. back to why we're here. on capitol hill, we're up to our mortgage-backed assets, and we are waiting for a senate vote to push forward two bills on wall street. it combines partisan politics and 21st century capitalism and raw emotion. at issue on the senate subcommittee, are mortgage-backed investments that goldman sold a lot in and eventually lost faith in and made a lot of money betting against. some have called the apparent conflict of interest unseemly at best and fraudulent at worst. here's how democratic senator claire mccaskill put it -- >> all of you were loving life. you were chasing each other. what you worried about most was a bad article in "the wall street journal" not a regulator.

you were chasing compensation. you were chasing your colleagues and other investment banks. and you were trying to make a killing. but let me just tell you, you think it's so complicated and you think you're so smart, any street gambler would never place a bet with a bookie or a house with the record that is revealed in the documents that this committee has gathered. now, goldman for its part said it didn't mislead anybody, and by the way, it lost more than a billion dollars on its own housing-backed investments. we expect to hear soon from ceo lloyd blankfein, but in his prepared testimony he says, i'm quoting, we didn't have a massive short against the housing market and we certainly did not bet against our clients. christine romans is with me in town for this as well. we've been sort of in and out of the hearings. >> right. >> coverage ing it all. there's a lot more to it than you see from the surface, a

whole lot of people yelling and goldman sachs people defending themselves, at its heart there's a real difference in the way the world is perceived. >> oh, yeah, there's the way that the senators believe that goldman sachs should have behaved and the way the traders say they were doing everything they were supposed to do and they didn't anything wrong. the credit was loose. people were loaning a lot of money out there and this created a bubble and the traders on this mortgage desk in particular were just doing what goldman sachs traders do, making money. >> at risk of -- every time i even bring this up, i get all sorts of e-mails and comments about where i stand on this. what is there to say for the fact that these were traders? they were in the middle of transactions between people that wanted to bet against the market and people that wanted to bet in favor it, housing market, mortgage-backed security? is goldman right or wrong on this? >> when you look at the e-mails a few of them given out by the senate committee, four of them

given out, you know, they're pretty interesting. it shows positions where goldman sachs is gloating about making money on a declining housing market. but they have thousands positions on those, some that went one way, and some that went another way, and the traders are trying to explain it. and one senator said you pretend it's a hurricane that just happened. it didn't just happen. this was something that you were participating in and the actual contracts that you were writing were part of the whole bubble. don't you see, it wasn't the hurricane that happened to you. it was something that you were a part of and you helped create and they wouldn't really acknowledge it. >> is it true? if i bet that the tree is going to fall because it gets hit by lightning and you bet it isn't going to get hit by lightning. there's two sides to every bet. did goldman do anything that exacerbated or created or worsened the recession that we're? >> there's what we're trying to figure out here, right? some people who say, a longtime critic of goldman sachs said

they were a financial meth lab, spewing out these toxic contracts that allowed some companies to hide their exposure so that when things started to come unglued, it made it worse because we didn't know where people stood. there wasn't visibility and transparency and it made it worse some of these very complicated contracts and those needed to be reined in. but goldman sachs is not out there writing mortgages to people who had poor credit and that's the bottom line, i mean, that's where it starts and then all the way down the line there were a lot of things that the were happening that all came together to make a real -- one thing about this, ali, as we watch all this, it's like reliving the world coming unglued, too were going back through all of these things is really -- >> but you and i are nerds about these. we want to know all the details. to our viewers who don't really live around derivatives and understand it is, is there some good reason that everybody else should care what's going on in this -- and, by the way, you better say there is, otherwise it's a wasted trip up here. >> no, it really is. the one reason -- you are a nerd

and it takes one to know one i like to say. the reason they want to know what is happening here today because we don't want it to happen again. >> right. >> you are hearing a lot of casino references today, if there's something, some risk in the system that needs to be regulated and overseen, then we need to figure out what it is and figure out what the problem was and make sure it doesn't happen again. why does it matter to you? also because we're really getting the inside, in-depth look at how it works and a lot of people don't know how it works and this is the way that wall street works. >> you can make bets on anything you want in the world. >> and then you make bets on bets and you sell the bets and then you make bets on packages of bets and then you bet on shorts that you've made -- >> i love how she figured this out. your first job title was derivatives reporter. >> these are changing all the time and right now i'm sure there's a financial product being engineered that we'll have a hard time trying to figure out and understand.

>> good to see you. we'll spend a lot more time with you today. good to be in person, it doesn't happen that much these days. president obama hits the road on another main street tour in just a few moments he'll try to energize iowans which, by the way, is what my co-anchor is, about the economic recovery. he acknowledges it's been uneven for some folks.

i'm ed whitacre, from general motors. a lot of americans didn't agree with giving gm a second chance. quite frankly, i can respect that. we want to make this a company all americans can be proud of again.

that's why i'm here to announce we have repaid our government loan, in full, with interest, five years ahead of the original schedule. but there's still more to do. our goal is to exceed every expectation you've set for us. we're putting people back to work, designing, building, and selling the best cars and trucks in the world. with our 100,000-mile, 5-year powertrain warranty to guarantee the quality. and the unmatched life-saving technology of onstar to help keep you safe. from new energy solutions. to the designs of tomorrow. we invite you to take a look at the new gm. president of the united states is in ft. madison, iowa. let's go right to him and listen in.

>> robert was telling me i may get my facts wrong here, but even two years ago you had only 200 employees. now we've got 600 employees 2 years later, and this plant supports more than 350 other jobs throughout lee county. so, your manufacturing base for some of the most advanced wind turbines in the world. each one is as tall as air force one is long. each is capable of generating enough power for hundreds of homes, just by harnessing the wind. so, what's going on here, what each of the employees at simemes are involved in are tastaking yr claim on america's future and ft. madison's claim on america's

future. that's why i came here today. one reporter said, why iowa? well, i love iowa, first of all. wouldn't have been president if it wasn't for iowa. it's close to illinois. but, also, i want to come here because to talk with folks like you about the economic hardship and the pain that this town has gone through and so many people are still feeling is important, but it's also to talk about the economic potential. lately we've been able to report some welcome news, after a hard two years. our economy is finally growing again. our markets are climbing. our businesses are beginning to

create jobs again. now, in too many places, though, the recovery isn't reaching everybody just yet. times are still tough in towns like ft. madison. and times are still tough for middle-class americans who have been swimming against the current for years. before this economic tidal wave hit. so, even as we took steps to rescue our economy and recover from this crisis, we also wanted to take steps to rebuild our economy on a new foundation, a firmer foundation for long-term growth and prosperity, to create conditions so that folks who work hard can finally get ahead. and that means making our schools more competitive. it means making our colleges more affordable. yes, it means making health insurance affordable and giving families and businesses more choice and more competition and more protection from the worst abuses of the insurance industry. and it means commonsense reforms that prevent irresponsibility of

a few on wall street from threatening the dreams of millions on main street. but the reason we're here is because it also means igniting a new clean energy economy that generates good jobs right here in the united states. now, we've talked about this for decades. we talked about how our dependence on fossil fuels threaten our economy, but after all the talk, a lot of times our will to act rose and fell depending on what the price of a gallon of gas was at the pumps. during the summer when prices went up, everybody was all for clean energy. and when prices went down, suddenly all of a sudden people forget about it. so, we talked about this problem for a long time. how it threatens future generations. we talked about the issues of how the climate's changing. we talked about how threatened our national security, because we're dependent on other countries for what makes our country run. dependence that grew deeper with

every passing year, and meanwhile we talked, other nations acted. from spain to china, other nations recognize that the country that leads the clean energy economy will be the country that leads the 21st century global economy. they were making serious investments to win that race and the jobs that come with it. and some you may have heard me say this before, i don't accept second place for the united states of america. and that's why -- that's why our energy security has been a top priority for my administration since the day i took office. we began early last year by making the largest investment in clean energy in our nation's history. it's an investment expected to create or save more than 700,000 jobs across america by the end of 200 -- 2012. jobs manufacturing next-generation batteries for

next-generation vehicles. jobs upgrading to a smarter, stronger power grid, jobs doubling america's capacity to generate renewable electricity from sources like the sun and the wind, just like you do here. and that investment was all part of the recovery act. this facility took advantage of that act, advanced energy manufacturing tax credits, and we were just talking, robert and i were talking about the fact that part of what's allowed us to have these new platforms and these new molds is this tax credit. it allowed you to add equipment and boost output and hire new workers right here in ft. madison. so, in the midst of the economic turmoil, the recovery act helped make it possible for america to install nearly ten giga watts of new wind-generating capacity last year alone, and that's enough to power more than 2.4 million american homes. so, when people ask you what was the recovery act about? what was the stimulus about? it was about this, this plant.

and each new wind farm has the potential to create hundreds of construction jobs and dozens of permanent local jobs in communities just like ft. madison. robert, we were talking about the fact, you know, who is catering the food here at the factory? you know, that's suddenly a whole bunch of business for the local grocers. they've -- folks who were installing the electricity here. additional work. so, there's a ripple effect that occurs. and one study suggests that if we pursue our full potential for wind energy and everything else goes right, wind could generate as much as 20% of america's electricity 20 years from now. that's right. 20%. and secretary vilsack was telling me that iowa is at the cutting edge. iowa's already hit that mark, hasn't it? because of governor culbert and

his predecessor, tom vilsack. it may be a reality right here in iowa. this state already generates a higher percentage of its electricity from wind than any other state. and that number's only growing. that number is only growing. and as extraordinary as this facility is, here's the thing. wind power isn't a silver bullet. it's not going to solve all our energy challenges. there's no single energy source. the key is to understand that this is a key component, a key part, of a comprehensive strategy to move us from an economy that just runs on fossil fuels to one that relies on more home-grown fuels and clean energy. i believe that we can come together around this issue and pass comprehensive energy and climate legislation that will ignite new industries and spark new jobs in towns just like ft.

madison and make america more energy independent. our security, our economy, the future of our planet all depend on it. this is what's possible in a clean-energy economy. and while it may not feel like it every day when you punch in to all the folks that work here at siemens, i want you to understand you are making it possible. you are blazing a trail. you are showing america our future. and someday our children and our children's children will look back at this factory, this moment, and they will be proud at a generation that chose in a time of crisis to place its bet on the future and to reopen factories and restart assembly lines and retrain workers. a generation that chose once again to step forward and meet the challenges of our time. that's what this represents. that's what you represent, and we could not be prouder. so, thank you very much, everybody. god bless you. god bless the united states of america.

>> how come we never got music when we stopped talking? that's the president he's in ft. madison, iowa. let's take a quick break. when we come back, look who's here. ed's with me. we're here in the same place and we're going to talk about -- about -- there's so much going on right now. let's take a break and ed and i will continue our conversation. i think i'll go with the preferred package.

good choice. only meineke lets you choose the brake service that's right for you. and save 50% on pads and shoes. meineke. we should have tweeted or announced that we were going to do in earlier because normally it's about 2:40, 2:42 every day. >> i'll put one out there. i took a picture of you without the jacket. >> the sun was beating down on me, it was getting hot. >> i wanted to ask you about the sun because i was trying to

figure out where the reflection is stronger, this dome or that dome. i think it's this one. i think it's this one. >> scary. i'll move over so you can see it. >> i was just teasing. >> no, we have a makeup guy trying to get control of the whole situation. >> do you know what i've noticed before we get to the president. i never noticed on television but up close the glasses have a red tint. he changes the glasses every day as a subtle accessory here. >> i'm glad i am rubbing off on you. because you are looking very nicely put together these days. >> talking business, this is a busy day in washington. i'm here because of the goldman sachs testimony, but there's also a vote later on in the senate about financial reform. the president is out. this is part of his -- his main street tour. >> yeah. white house to main street tour. >> white house to main street tour. >> i think, you know, when you take a step back, the president is talking today about energy. he had some money in the stimulus last year to promote energy programs like this, wind turbine manufacturing plant, now employing 600 people. a couple years ago he was noting the plant was basically shut

down. so, there's some jobs there. he's trying to rebuild the economy step by step. if you take a step back from energy, though, and look at the big picture, i was just talking to a senior white house aide a while ago, saying, look, about a year ago at georgetown university, the president gave a major speech about the economy and laid out four pillars, and one of them was bringing back jobs. they are starting to turn the corner, but still a long way away. but they got the stimulus going and they are making progress. health care reform, they got it done. crushing small businesses and consumers. it will take a long time to implement it, but they got it done. number three, the third pillar was wall street reform, the regulatory reform. the reason the democrats are bringing the test vote up again today they think the republicans are again vote no and block it and look like they're on the side of defending wall street. it's not a good thing. >> that's a hard line to walk for republicans. on health care it was an easier line because they fully represented a constituency that didn't want what the president was doing, but in this case it's a tough one. >> you're right. on health care the republicans definitely felt they had the american people on their side.

there were some politipolls, but by and large they felt like philosophically they could win the argument, even though the president won the debate in the end the republicans think in the long view the health care reform might not be what the president hopes it will turn out to be. but on wall street reforms even republicans when you talk to them privately, they know they don't have the public on their side. >> this hearing going on right now, certainly nobody even if you disagree with what form the reform is taking, nobody wants to be seen as somehow standing up for goldman sachs and those guys. >> that's right. and so the bottom line there will be more debates and test votes and filibusters and cloture votes and the sausage making behind you but in a couple weeks it's likely it will be broken and the president will get a wall street reform bill of some kind. three out of the four pillars are done. the fourth one was big energy reform. >> right. >> that is has really stalled because in large part republican senator lindsey graham said he's pulling out on the bipartisan deal. >> let's remind the viewers. lindsey graham and john kerry and joe lieberman were together

going to come out on monday morning and announce this plan to deal with climate change. lindsey graham pulls out and says that because the administration looks like it's focusing on immigration reform, the climate thing's not going to get done and theoretically it's doing it in protest. >> right. he's got some legitimate facts on the point that immigration has vaulted up. it's a controversial issue. >> yep. >> hard to deal with, and once you put that on plate, getting energy reform, which is also tough, dealing with climate change. >> yeah. >> to get a deal, you sort of muck up the works maybe and it's hard to get something done. you talk to democrats and they say, wait a second, it was lindsey graham urging the president to get immigration reform on the docket. he and chuck schumer, the democrat, got a bill. and they got a meeting with the president a few weeks back and they kind of feel that lindsey graham is protecting john mccain, for example, his mentor who back in arizona does want want to deal with the immigration issue, pretty controversial. one time john mccain was middle of the road on immigration and now he's got a republican primary fight and he's moving to the right on immigration and other issues and lindsey graham

rejects it and says no way, it has nothing to do with john mccain, he thinks they're trying to take on too many issues too fast. >> it's a strange way to protest something, though. >> the bottom line, though, is lindsey graham was the only one working with the white house on either energy or immigration reform and it's unlikely they'll get either right now. i have other things for you, i heard your accommodations in d.c. was not that good, so i got you white house toilet paper. as an anchor -- >> they had white house toilet paper. >> it was pretty bad. and you got white house rose garden soap as well. we want to keep you clean. >> white house toilet pain and soap. >> senator chambliss has a set of these. i snow senator chambliss has a couple of those. >> i like that. check that out. >> to go with your vast collection of neck wear. >> this is excellent. i will enjoy these and wear them in good health. you presented me in atlanta with a tie which i was wearing yesterday. >> true. >> pretty soon everything i'm

wearing will be courtesy of ed henry. >> it will be an improvement. >> i wonder if senator chambliss has one of these? he's coming up to talk to us about a lot of the things you were talking about. good to see you away from the perch. >> a lot of people are saying that i should give you a man hug. to cement the bromance. >> a chest bum? bump? >> no, that will be later. do i have time, kelly? we'll be right back. to collect your answers. opening your door can open doors to other things in your community, like better education and better healthcare. the census helps determine how 400 billion dollars will be spent each year to help open doors in your community. it's 10 simple questions that take about 10 minutes. and the answers are confidential. open your door to your census taker. we can't move forward until you give your answers back.

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said here and we're doing the "the ed henry segment" early. largely because the president was quick. >> in and out. and rolland martin e-mailed and asked whether they are from the white house gift shop. >> i put the cufflinks on. >> they are actually from the gift shop. 14 bucks for cufflinks and a tie clip. >> a pretty good deal. you can continue to shower me with cheap gifts but i know the tie wasn't so cheap. it seems like the president is in a hurry with the white house to the main street tour. is he doing something else? >> three states illinois and missouri tomorrow as well. he's been to pennsylvania previously. someone shouted a question why iowa, and he said, you know, i love iowa. well, it's also because iowa, pennsylvania, illinois, some of these states especially in the midwest, you know, the

northeast, and mid-atlantic working class folks that want to hear about jobs and also very important states in 2012. the president will not say that right now, important in 2012, important in 2010, even though they say they are not focusing on politics, they've always got one eye looking down the road. just back to a second for lindsay graham and the discussion about immigration. the president came out calling the arizona legislation the other day misguided. janet napolitano of arizona said she's got grave concerns about this. there are rallies, legal challenges. the president has said what he said and he doesn't seem to be going any further into this. >> he is not. bill burton, one of his spokesmen, said firms of all, we're all talking about it now and it's signed into law but it won't be immentplemented until the end of july, so a lot of speculation about will there be civil rights problems and the police going over the top, on both sides people are jumping over the top without all the facts because we don't know how it's implemented. it's probably a good decision to

take a step back and see how it plays out in arizona. the president's point is if you don't do something on the federal level other states like arizona will set up their own patchwork immigration system. fair point that's why it's probably worth a healthy debate on capitol hill that i anticipate we'll see later this year. >> all right, ed, always a pleasure to see you and a rare pleasure to see you in person. i like the in-person thing, i get freebies every time i see ed in person. you shu visit more often. >> it could work both ways you're an anchor now. throw me a bone here. >> all right. we'll work on that. good to see you. all right, believe it or not, the goldman hearings are not the only hot ticket on capitol hill. the senate is trying again to tackle new regulations. i'll talk to a member who is not on board. even better nutrition -- high in vitamins d, e, and b12. a good source of vitamin a and b2. plus omega 3's. and, 25% less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. but there's one important ingredient that hasn't changed:

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all right. in a couple of hours in the building right behind me, we expect another senate vote, the second one in two days, on an historic overhaul of financial regulation. it's not an up-or-down vote on the bill itself but advancing the bill toward an eventually vote or stalling it and moving on to something else. yesterday the democrats fell a single vote short of pushing the bill forward, with goldman sachs as a backdrop, the democrats are happy to keep forcing republicans to seemingly oppose reform on wall street. i'm joined now by one of those republicans, senator saxby chambliss of georgia, who has been voting against the efforts to reform. now, that's a tough -- for people who aren't following that, senator, thank you for joining me, by the way. >> sure. >> that's a tough one. why are you voting against

reform? i'm voting against proceeding with a bill that's fundamentally flawed, ali, that will not address the real causes of what caused the collapse in 2008. for example, two of the main players in the 2008 collapse were freddie mac and fannie mae. >> right. >> this bill does nothing to try to bring fannie mae and freddie mac under control. and the housing boom that we saw was -- was largely fueled by -- by those two entities providing the funding and buying mortgages and whatnot and when the bubble burst, they came collapsing down, and we saw the federal government have to put $121 billion into those two entities and there's nothing in these legislation that deals with them. all of us want to control wall street. there has been a lot of greed on wall street, and we've seen time and time again that people are angry for the right reasons about the big salaries, the big bonuses and that sort of thing. all of us want to make sure we bring that under control.

but if we're going to truly have financial regulatory reform, it needs to be done in the right way, and this bill doesn't do it in the right way. >> so, what do we have to do to get that? the bottom line, you're right, this isn't like health care where everybody was moving toward the same goal. here we're all moving toward the goal of financial reform. so, what has to happen to the bill that passed the house that is in the senate right now in order to satisfy you and your colleagues? >> well, what has to happen is you have to have the democrats engage more with republicans, so let's come to the middle somehow. let's don't overreach, number one. let's don't, for example, include community banks and agricultural banks like co-bank that are very small players in the marketplace in the same category with the goldman sachs and the citi corps and the big banks on wall street. but this legislation does that in the derivatives title, for example, a community bank in moultrie, georgia, my hometown,

is treated exactly the same as citibank on wall street in new york city. that's not right. they are not part of the problem. and we don't need a solution looking for a problem for them. so, i think what we've got to have is more bipartisan conversation and more -- a more realistic approach to trying to make sure that somehow we get to the middle as opposed to being in an extreme position where this bill is. >> what do we like? do you like the consumer protections in the bill? >> well, it's another layer of government bureaucracy, while i didn't necessarily think the idea of protecting consumers is nothing but good, this bill overreaches in that area from this standpoint, automobile dealers. all of a sudden they're going to be thrown in the same categry as a bank. automobile dealers were in and out of my office today talking about the fact that automobiles are going to cost more because of the consumer protection provision in here. orthodontists who routinely extend credit to their clients

in putting on braces for 12 months, as i did with my child, they're all of a sudden going to be thrown into a category of having to be regulated because they extend credit for more than 90 days. that's not an intended consequence of this bill. >> i think is -- boy, don't we really have to think about unintended consequences. where you think something is good, we've seen it, we go back to the repeal of glass/steagall and the community reinvestment act, all at the time seemed like something good to dough that would help people and make us more prosperous, we have to look 15 or 20 years out and see what the effect will be. but this is a tough one for you, because we're watching on the screen in front of me, we've got the goldman sachs testimony, unlike health care there is some danger that republicans are going to look like they don't want reform and that's what the goldman people don't want either and the big banks don't want. isn't there a danger you'll get lumped in? >> i don't think so. because i think the american

people understand, republicans want to be tough on wall street. we truly do, and we're ready to do that today, but i don't want to be tough on the community banks in my town of moultrie, georgia, or in any rural community bank in america, and they are not part of this problem. wall street is a problem. let's make no mistake about it. and we're prepared today to enter into provisions that are going to provide more regulation to wall street, tougher sanctions on wall street. but let's don't let that drift down to main street to where a guy goes in to finance a new washing machine or a new automobile, why should he have to pay more in charges to the bank for what some bank on wall street did? that's not what this bill should be designed to do, but that's what it does. >> all right. we'll follow it closely, and if those provisions come your way, we hope you'll be fully engaged in the discussion that somehow we get something that protects everybody. >> we are looking forward to a good bill come out of it. >> senator, thank you very much.

>> and get yourself a diamond-studded set of cufflinks from henry next time. >> good to see you, my friend. >> you, too. it's thick and slimy and it's growing in the gulf of mexico. the oil leak is not plugged and we're in a race to fend off an environmental disaster. that's it. the snake-looking thing on your screen. i thought you said carl was our best presentation guy. [ worker ] well, he is. last week he told my team about fedex office print online for our presentations. we upload it to fedex office, then they print, bind, and ship it. the presentation looks good, right? yes, but -- you didn't actually bring carl with you. good morning! but i digress. [ male announcer ] we understand. you need presentations done right. and right now save 20% on all online printing purchases. visit fedex.com/print. [ crowd cheering ]

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now, let's bring you up to speed on the top stories on cnn. a senate subcommittee's looking into the role of investment

banks in the financial crisis. the panel brought in current and former goldman sachs executives asking them if the bank made the recession worse with its risky financial deals. goldman's ceo is denying that the banks bet against its own clients. in europe growing fears of a major debt crisis. greece's credit rate iing was downgraded to junk status and portugal's was cut two notches. they are part of the european union and there's a big fear that the debt crisis in those countries will spread to other eu states that will affect the value of the euro. the market is closed today with losses across the board. and the latest in the oil rig that exploded and sunk into the gulf of mexico last week. in this nasa photo you can see the resulting oil slick all the way from space. that's the right thing on the right side, that looks like a snake. the rig continues to leak about 1,000 barrels of oil a day. for now weather is on our side, but winds could push that oil towards shore, and for more

on that, let's go right to chad in the severe weather center, he's tracking first of all the fantastic nasa pictures i did the know you could see an oil slick from that far up and, of course, the danger of the winds changing, chad, and affecting possibly the coast. >> you know, and they tried to boom the thing. they tried to get booms around it and contain it, but it just became so large that the square footage and your mileage of the boom would just be -- it would be so far out there, it would never have that many booms in the united states to get it all around there. now they're spraying what's called dispersent around there, it's like 409. you spray it on there and it cuts the grease and the oil so to speak and the oil mixes with water more and it floats down into the water rather than floating on top, so you have nasa photos and you have the european satellite photos and it's basically the same picture. the winds are still offshore. they are still blowing from the north and the northwest. the current tries to push it a little bit farther to the east, but there's the wind right now, pushing the oil spill away from

the coast, away from grand isle. but by thursday, into friday, that high moves to the east and the winds are going to be 25 to 30 miles per hour. pushing that water and those winds and that oil back up into the shore. anywhere from grand isle all the way up to biloxi, maybe as far east as destin. the water the water stays out there, ali, and the longer the oil stays out there, the thicker it's going to get. it's evaporating as we speak, it's becoming more of a tar ball and that's good, if it washes up as a tar ball, you can pick it up. the exxon "valdez" never had the chance, the waves took the oil onshore and it was a gloppy, wet mess, so the drier we can get it, the better, the more dispersent they can get on it and float below the surface and eaten by the microbes it's good as well. >> and by the way, about 1,750 barrels of oil, you know, go

into the ocean on a regular basis on a daily basis, that's normal leakage and that's why we'vecrobemicrobes, they eat a certain amount of oil, but if it takes longer to cap, it's a problem. >> if it goes on for weeks, it may never make it on shore. >> chad, thank you, at the severe weather center. you've seen all sorts of protests over the tough immigration law passed in arizona last week, but one city wants to take its protests out of the street and into people's wallets. you could end up taking 4 times the number of pills... compared to aleve. choose aleve and you could start taking fewer pills. just 2 aleve have the strength to relieve arthritis pain all day.

we're seeing more backlash today from arizona's new law cracking down on illegal immigration. it's moved beyond the streets and actually even beyond the state. just minutes ago we learned from attorney general, eric holder, that the federal government may challenge the new law saying that it might be subject to abuse. and over 800 miles away in san francisco, a resolution will go before the board of septembers to stop doing business with the state of arizona. city attorney dennis herrera has led the call there for a boycott. >> i think that the only way to

spur folks to appreciate how draconian this law is for there to be a tangible price to pay for instituting what is no doubt a draconian and predatory law. now, even if the boycott is approved by the board of septembers in san francisco, it's unclear what would have to be done for it actually to take effect. san francisco mayor, gavin newsom, has called the new arizona law inexcusable and unacceptable, but he argues a total boycott for the state of arizona is, quote, an extraordinarily complicated matter. phoenix mayor, phil gordon, who plans to file a lawsuit to block the new law has asked san francisco to hold off so it won't hurt residents who depend on the state for employment. leaders in mexico have demanded a boycott and so has civil rights leader al sharpton. in washington, homeland security and former arizona gov no, janet napolitano, says today she has deep concerns with the law. >> i think the first thing that needs to be done is for the justice department to review whether the law is

constitutional. under the laws governing the supremacy clause and under the laws governing preemption and the case law governing preemption, so that i think is really -- as you suggest, is the first thing that needs to be done, is it constitutional or not? back in arizona, a petition drive is being organized to put the measure to a public vote, and some mayday marches across the country that were already planned are being rebranded under the banner we are all arizona. well, what do washington state libraries and german taxpayers have to do with the billionaires' bet against the u.s. housing market? you'll want to find out, because you've actually got a place. some lunch. you hungry? yeah. me too. (door crashes in) (broadview alarm) (gasp and scream) go! go! go! go! go! go! (phone rings)

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i cannot tell you how many people have asked me why they should care about what goldman sachs did or didn't do with smag called mortgage-backed securities. if you still wonder what the exotic financial instruments have to do with your life, watch what i have to show you and you will not wonder again. my colleague allan chernoff connects the dots from aberdeen, new jersey, to seattle, washington, and trust me you are in there somewhere. >> reporter: this the house that jack bought, an aberdeen heating repairman. jack fell behind on his mortgage, so far behind that he lost the house to a foreclosure. on monday, it was put up for auction at the monmouth county hall of records. >> thank you for inviting me to

appear to today. >> reporter: this is head fund manager paulson, he bet that jack and thousands of other americans would not be able to pay their mortgages. paulson bet right and made a billion dollars. this is goldman sachs the nation's most prestigious investment firm. goldman sachs set up the bet for john paulson. jack's house was one of the cards, and goldman sachs was supposed to be shuffling the deck. german bank ikb bet that jack and thousands of other homeowners could pay their mortgages. ikb bet wrong and lost $150 million. this is the u.s. securities and exchange commission. it said goldman sachs committed fraud by letting paulson pick the cards at the gambling table without telling ikb. >> allegations against goldman sachs are that they sort of loaded the dice, stacked the deck, by designing a portfolio that was weaker than average. >> reporter: the s.e.c. says ikb was a victim, but ikb is not

considered a victim in king county, washington, home to seattle. king county bought one of the investments ikb was selling. it lost more than $20 million. and these are king county's libraries, also victims of that losing bet. >> we did have to scale back the operation of the library system and to look more carefully at all the things that we're doing. >> reporter: king county is suing ikb, the very company the s.e.c. says was a victim of goldman sachs. the county is also suing moody's and standard and poors, those rating agency told king county its were aaa safe. as for jack's house? it failed to generate any bidder at monday's foreclosure auction. it go back to another german firm, deutsche bank. and the big gamblers in the mortgage mess, ikb lost so much money that german taxpayers had

to bail it out. and back here at home, the american taxpayers provided the nation's biggest banks with bailout money including $10 billion with goldman sachs which has been repaid. ali? >> all right, allan, thank you forea very good explanation of why we're all connected to this thing and why i'm here reporting on this today. hey, listen, for some people life begins at 100. i'll tell you about a woman who proves the old saying that you're never too old. right now, there's a nurse saving a life in baltimore. 20 minutes later, she'll bring one into the world in seattle.

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you'll watch this show regularly, then you know i'm a bit of a techie. if you ask anyone who knows me i e-mail more than i speak and that, by the way, is saying a lot. i turned 40 years old, so apple wasn't a fruit when i was in school. evolving technology has always been part of my life. the same cannot be said for virginia campbell. the oregon woman has never owned a computer despite being well educated. she earned her bachelor's degree in english and has been married to a mayor and has always been an avid reader. she bought an ipad this month and it was her very first computer. so what, so did a million other people? but a million other people are not in their 100th year of life, she suffers from glaucoma and that makes reading very difficult, so when she heard about the hype and the holy grail of touch screen she had to have one. it's been a game changer. she has composed 12