never quit. >> neveruit. thank god. >> i'm determined that i'm going to -- that i'm not going to be like this for the rest of my life. >> reporter: military leaders like to say they do everything to help the wounded. in the case of roamy kamar gcht o we will see if that's a promise kept. barbara starr, cnn, tampa. >> never quit. "cnn newsroom" continues right now with ali velshi in new york city. that's the way to start the week. have a good one, ali. >> good to see you. looking forward to seeing you back in person in atlanta. >> i'm ali velshi, as tony said. for the next two hours i'll guide you through the information going on at home and around the world. you'll get access to the folks who can best explain what it means today and the impact beyond today. we'll showcase the best ideas in innovation, philanthropy and

public education. my mission, help you figure out what's going on around and how it fits into your life. let's get started. on the rundown, a crucial moment for don't ask, don't tell. the senate taking it up again just ahead of a crucial vote. we'll look at the policies turbulent history and possible outcome. plus, his job. his heart. or both. a closer look what might have triggered a big 10 coach's heart attack this weekend. and when sentenced now, they won't just look at the perpetrator but the price tag. considering the cost of prison in the judge's bench. supporters say it's about time. critics say it has no place in the justice system. well, the recession is over. in fact, the national bureau of economic research, the folk whose decide when it starts and when it's over says it's been over a long time. more than a year. they say it ended in june of 2009. making it the longest recession since world war ii. when a lot of americans are probably saying, well, it doesn't really feel like it's

over. the national bureau of economic research declined to call the end of the recession when they had a chance to do it in may. they didn't feel like there was definitive enough proof at the time, but this declaration means an end to any current growth. well what it means, if there's anything else that turns around it will be a separate recession. no more talk of a double dip recession. by the way, the last time there was a double dip recession, some people say it was in the early '80s. others say two separate recessions with a rovy in between. bottom line, whether or not the recession is over it's hard to understand why, because it doesn't feel like it's over. for a lot of people, who are still out of a job, the recession feels very, very real. so let's talk about that a little bit. let me explain this with the managing director of the economic cycle research institute, written a book and basically his organization, it's what you do for a living. you track economic cycles, recessions and recoveries. were you with me before the

recession started and told us we in recession before anybody else called it, with me last spring and summer when you said the recession is over. do you agree with, first of all, this? >> in april '09 we said the recession would end in the summer of '09. so we do agree with this. and we have been saying it was june or july. i totally accept the june date. why it's important is because the national bureau of economic research is an objective, using an objective methodology. we all have our feeling, we'll get to in a second, but they're use an objective scorecard for when the economy is expanding, con tragting in a recovery or recession, and it ended in june of '09. let's be clear what that means. all it means is that the economy made it into the recovery room. okay? and started a process of healing. now, anyone who a has been in that situation and made it into a recovery room knows that it still really, really, really hurts when you're in the recovery room, and we're still

there. be very, very clear. that's a big part of the reason wyman on the street right now is going to say, who are these guys saying that? >> who made them the boss? are they -- they take their time about this. never tell you the recession ended last month. it's always -- >> always rearview mirror. right. this time it took 15 months to see the end of the recession. that's actually faster. that's an improvement over the previous two recoveries, where it took 20 months. >> to see it? >> yes. >> it's still the longest recession since the great depression. back to what you said. a lot of my viewers will say it doesn't feel like we're out of a recession. how much has -- in an economy like ours which prior to the recession was so driven by consumer spending, how much does how you have to feel, how you feel about the economy are to do with the actual state of the economy? >> it has something to do with it. and -- but your perceptions of

what are going on actually lack. just the same way going into the recession, there was a lag rec nation we were in recession. i mean it lagged by at least half a year, if not more, for most people, including the markets. so in this recovery, the objective data, you see gp. we've recovered 70% of the gdp that was lost during the recession. >> before the recession we're back to -- >> no. in the gdp, shrank. recovered 70%. recovered 50% of production lost. >> all the stuff we make? the value? >> yeah, factory outlet. recovered about 50% of income lost during the recession for the nation. >> right. >> about 40% of sales for the nation. these are all -- >> all of that's in the right direction? >> the right direction. here's the problem, why it feels no good and like there's no recovery. you've only recovered 9% of private sector jobs lost during the recession. >> where most people feel it.

>> absolutely. confidence is all about your job. if you're working, you're going to feel kind of good. if you're -- not if you're looking for a job, not getting one, it's a depression. >> be clear. you can have economic recovery without corresponding job growth? >> hard to imagine that possible. yeah. and we've had that actually in the beginning of the last recovery, in 2002 and '03 a lot of fear of a double dip recession. >> call it a jobless recovery. >> right. back when, you remember bill clinton campaigning against george bush senior, going on, it's the economy, stupid. we were in recovery but the jobs not there. it was a jobless recovery. that resonated. >> where do we go now? these guys said if we have another downturn, it's not a w anymore. the reality is, where do you think we're going? unlike the mber. >> the forecasters. >> you actually look ahead. all the data we have now, a month ago everybody was talking about a double dip recession.

now there are things that look better. where do you think we are going with this? >> we're in the direction of this economy, it's to the down side. it's growing, but it's growing slower. okay? and we were able to see that at the beginning of the year looking at leading indicators. where the growth rates started to turn down. >> the opposite of lagging indicators, tells you what happened in the past? >> yes. leading, look forward a little bit. coincident, thing like gdp, tree production, employment, telling you right now outside your window and lagging could be something like business failures, interest rates. things like that. leading indicators, growth rates coming down since the beginning of the year. we forecast a slowdown in the economy. economic growth starting by midyear. you've seen gdp start to throttle back. jobs growth start to disappoint further. growing but slower than you want it to. now, that directional call remains intact. we do not see a reacceleration in sight. however, the really important

thing is we're also not forecasting a new contraction, a new recession yet. we don't see that yet. there's going to be one, but it's not eminent. >> interesting. okay. you often get it right -- always get it right. we, you know, good to hear from you. thank you for being with us. of the economic cycle research institute. >> there you go. >> i know it by it's letters. we'll talk more about this recession later on and also talk about something on all of your minds. that is tax cuts. what are we doing with the bush era tax cuts? it started on a yuta national guard shooting range and bass blown offbase by high winds. the machine gun fire destroyed at least four homes and forced folks out of nearly 2,000 more. the flames were sparked by ammunition fired during a training exercise. a matter of fact military spokesman and an emotional evacuee giving two sides of this developing story is today's "sound effect."

>> these fires are an occurrence that happen occasionally during training. that's why we have on-site equipment to fight it with pumper truck, black hawk helicopters as needed. it initially behaved like anything fire without having to call outside authorities to exist. >> every years for years they set that mountain on fire, and it's never come that close, but so many times over 34 years that we have watched and just waited to see fire coming over the ridge and thought we would get out. it finally happened. they finally did it. for them to say they checked the weather conditions is baloney, because it was a hot, dry wind last night. it's blown all week out here. it was blowing this morning. so they are full of baloney when they said they checked the wind conditions. >> hundreds of firefighters are

battling this thing on the ground and from the sky. the last update we heard from authorities, the fire burned about 10,000 acres in less than 24 hours. utah's governor says firefighters are making progress against the flames. generally, congress tries to avoid hot button issues in the weeks before an election. not this year. don't go away, because don't ask, don't tell is heading for a pivotal vote. we'll talk about it when we kuk bam.

it's been 17 years since president clinton signed a compromise on the issue of gays in the u.s. military and settled essentially nothing. tomorrow the u.s. senate plan as vote that could spell the end of

don't ask, don't tell. or could just be another footnote in a long and painful controversy. the 1993 policy allows gays to serve in all the armed forces, so long as nobody really knows they're gay. or nobody acknowledges they're gay. republicans filibustered a 2010 measure thording a repeal. it's far from clear supporters can round up the 60 votes needed to press on. a mighty force is leading the karg for change. at the top, president obama who campaigned against don't ask, don't tell, but says it's up to congress to end it. defense secretary robert gates asked congress back in february to let gays serve openly. he was joined by joint chiefs chairman mike mullen. today senate majority leader harry reid is railing members to follow the lead of the house, which voted for repeal in may. now, it's important to note that capitol hill isn't the only battleground. less than two weeks ago a federal judge in california declared don't ask, don't tell to be unconstitutional. the judge says it violates the

first and fifth amendment rights of gay and lesbian service members and wrote defendants face the burden at trial of showing the don't ask, don't tell act was necessary to significantly further the government's important interests in military readiness and unit cohesion. defendants failed to meet that burden. nevertheless, the policy remains pending further court action, or congressional action. that brings me to the main event. main, by the way, as in the maine state represented in the senate by susan collins and olympia snowe, considered the best hope of don't ask, don't tell opponents to break with gop leaders and vote for repeal. and that is why this woman -- wait for it. there you go. lady gaga, plans a rally this afternoon in portland. ms.gaga, if that's what you call her, quite outspoken. an advocate of an all-inclusive military will speak at 4:00 p.m.

eastern at gathering organized by service members legal defense network. in case this whole story couldn't get crazier in terms of cast of characters involved, bring in cnn's chris lawrence following this from his post at the pentagon. chris, you can talk about the upcoming senate vote or talk about lady gaga, let's talk about the repeal of don't ask, don't tell. >> reporter: exactly. i mean, the feeling i'm getting here at the pentagon is the military officials aren't exactly gaga over gaga. a couple of the senior officials were asked this morning, do you plan to watch this rally, and they said, no. not really. but they are going ahead with their own plans, really. the pentagon has several working groups that have been working for quite some time now looking at all aspects of how this would be implemented. they're not saying it will be, but if it is changed, they want to have some plans in place so that it's more seamless rather than problematic. they're looking at housing. how people would live together.

entitlements, benefits. even questions of public displays of affection. all of that's being looked at. at the same time a few months ago they sent out surveys to all the troops asking them their feeling on different questions, you know, around the don't ask, don't tell policy. those are now all in, they're looking at results of those, and then they sent out more surveys to family members. i was just told as of today about 38,000 we've, husband, family members, have sent back their surveys about their feelings on the matter. and that really plays into this debate on capitol hill right now, because some senators and congressmen are saying they want to wait until these findings are in and want to hear what the pentagon has found before they go ahead with a vote. >> it is a blatant message of disrespect to our men and women in uniform that congress is

unwilling to even wait to hear from the force has to say on this important matter before pushing ahead with a controversial political voteless than two months before an election. >> reporter: a lot of -- obviously a lot of opposition on one hand. on the other, some of the supporters of repealing don't ask, don't tell say look at other countries, such as iran, pakistan, north korea. they all forbid homosexuals from serving openly in the military. some of our staunchest ally, britain, canada, israel, allow gay people to serve openly in the military. >> we'll follow it closely. all the more interesting. lady gaga's involved. we'll check in later. chris lawrence in washington. a nasty fight in washington over extending the bush tax cuts. we've been talking about that a lot. bottom line, what's better for the economy? i guess in some circles what's better for voters? we went out and asked a bunch of economists what they thought.

you'll hear their answers after this break. it's just outside of lancaster. sure, i can download directions for you now. we got it. thank you very much! check it out. i can like, see everything that's going on with the car. here's the gas level. i can check on the oil. i can unlock it from anywhere. i've received a signal there was a crash. some guy just cut me off. i'll get an ambulance to you right away. safely connecting you in ways you never thought possible. onstar. live on.

all right. ym your money, today your taxes. at the center avenue bitter fight in washington these days which is saying something, given all the bitter fights in washington. in 110 days the bush tax cuts are set to expire. the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003. the white house wants to extend them for most americans, but not for the top 2% or 3%. our friends at cnnmoney.com did a survey and found letting the tax cuts expire is raising fears. that means tax rates, personal tax rates going up. i want to break it down with you with my good friend jeanne

sahadi, sudies this day in and day out and knows about this. you have your own studying about the affect of tax cuts on the economy but you've spoken to economists. what did they say? >> the chief economic conducted a survey. 60% said the most important thing congress can do to help the economy, extend all bush tax cuts. not just middle class but everybody. some said 10% just do it for the middle class. 13%, asked before the small business lending bill had gotten on track, increase lending to small businesses. 60% is a pretty big number for -- it's more like -- it's a fear factor. let's not make things worse. it will make things worse if we -- >> lem how, explain this. how does it make things worse? we're talking about returning tax rates to what they were under the clinton administration, which, by the way, was a prosperous period for america. no correlation between those tax rates and the lack of prosperity. what's the fear of making it worse? i'm not editorializing, asking

what the fear is? >> a psychological fear, one. two, people's resources are -- there's no wealth effect going on. there's a non-wealth effect going on. psychologically, to know i'll have even less money next year isn't going to do great things for people. i'm not spending a lot now. i may spend less if i have less money to spend. i was doing a story on you business owner, hit the most, kill small business if we do this. democrats say that's nonsense. in fact, neither party gets a pass on that one, because the tax data doesn't prove either of them out, but i talked to a maul business owner who said we feel under assault. a lot of things coming at us. state level, local level, others passed not just on the income tax level. >> get it from all sides. things irroeroding income or se

of prosperity. cities and states increasing taxes. they get the delayed response to the recession. but then, it's just not free. bottom line, if you extend tax cuts for everybody, you will pay for it somewhere? >> sure. >> until 9 economy rebounds, right? >> correct. the cdo had an interesting study. it's a mixed bag if you extend tax cuts and continue to do stimulus. short term, could help the economy. long term, actually harm economic growth, and the reason is we're going to add to our debt. already pretty high. and looking out ten years, 20 years, that means we're pay more and more interest on that debt. and we're going to have less money to invest in things that are good for country competitively. so it's the mixed bag picture the cdo portrayed. estimates are proximate. >> you generally have a good handle on things. the reality what to do now, the next steps, very hard to get your head around. >> right. >> what i get troubled by, watching tv and watch people who say very obviously, this is what

you need to do, whether it's extend tax cuts or not, it's just, nothing's that obvious right now? >> no. interesting thing. deficit, in general, don't like we're not going to pay for the extensions. look, if it's so good for stimulus to extend the tax cuts, put them up for competition with other deficit finance tax cuts and see what warrants? that's not going to happen. theoret theoretical. should we pay $3 trillion over three yes to extend for middle class or take it and spend is on something more effective? that's not going to happen. >> a conversation you and i have had several, after one conversation i discussed on tv it is not clear that the lack of those tax cuts is having a negative impact on the economy. i stated -- >> lack of -- >> it's not clear, if you let it expire, it's going to have a negative effect sievely because we've not seen that prosperity

effect, that wealth effect. people thought was misrepresented as me saying i'm leaning against extending the tax cuts. >> you're saying -- >> just saying, we lack a lot of evidence here. >> yes. we lack evidence, but we also -- i was telling tony harris earlier, there is no fiscal decision that lawmakers are going to make going forward that's not going to be extremely difficult. you have to balance and the economy and -- >> extend the tax cuts you pay for it somewhere else. changes when the economy change. for now, you got to make decisions. jeanne sahadi, senior writer at cnnmoney.com. do yourself a favor, this election is upon you. planning to vote, read jeanne's stuff about the impact of tax cuts. go in educated, not making voting decision based and bumper stickers that sound appealing. tune in saturdays and sundays here on cnn. we discuss this much more than most people ever wanted to talk about taxes. football season is here. here.

i'm always going to briv you something fun. even football's not always fun and games. could the stress in football cause heart attacks? we'll ask an expert when we get back. ocid most calcium supplemts... t adththod it's dif - alcium crhea

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call for details. the switch to chevy starts at chevydealer.com. over the weekend michigan state's football team celebrate add victory in overtime by beating notre dame by just three points. but after the game, spartan head coach mark dantonio went to the hospital suffering from symptoms of a heart attack. he's expected to make a full recovery, but can a down to the wire game be too much for the heart? elizabeth cohen joins me now in atlanta. elizabeth, your thoughts on this? could that kind of stress have brought on a heart attack? >> talking to cardiologists they say, yes, that actually can happen. any kind of stress, whether

excitement kind of stress, or a bad kind of stress, can bring on a heart attack, if there is underlying heart disease. we don't know antonio's health history, but the cardiologist i talked to said if there is any even sort of building up of plaque in the artery, the excitement can bring on -- well, even without that blockage, excitement brings on what's called the catacolamine surge, hormones surge through your body, make your heart race, pump fast. any underlying heart disease that can spell a heart attack's we're told dan tone ye went to the hospital, had actually had a heart attack and they needed to do surgery to open up one of his arteries. >> as we learn about heart attacks we learned there are so many things that can cause them. is this -- how tight is that causal relationship? i've heard if you ingest too much fatty food at one sitting, you're in a high-risk category, it can give you a heart attack. is it stress or is it something

else? >> it can be all sorts ever things, but certainly stress is one of the biggies. for example, if someone has underlying heart disease and plays a game of basketball, maybe they've played basketball all they're live, but that one game can be what puts them over the edge if they have underlying disease. one of the things that's interesting, ali, about heart attacks is that they don't all feel the same. we expect people to fall on the floor, holding their heart. what's called the hollywood heart attack. it's often not that way and we actually have a terrific interactive on cnn.com where we got real heart attack victims to specifically describe what they felt. this is dwayne here, and he said, dwayne marcus. he said he just had mild pain. wasn't a hollywood heart attack, but he actually had had a heart attack. >> some pea say it feels like anxiety or a racing pulse. this coach, antonio, he waited a while before getting treated. is that normal? >> yes. cardiologists tell me they see that quite a bit.

someone has, say, a little discomfort. feels a little nauseous. they think, i'm okay. i'll take an antacid. if it gets worse i'll go in. it's not unusual for someone to have the symptoms and wait before they go to the hospital. >> a documentary is coming up on your book, "the empowered patient" which i love. it's just -- it's so usable, the information on there. tell me about the documentary. >> the documentary is terrific. we talk to real empowered patients who saved their own lives, or saved the life of someone that they love by being an empowered smart patient and advocating for themselves under difficult circumstances. october 2nd and 3rd, 7:00 p.m. you've got to watch it. you've got to learn how to save your own life sometimes. >> elizabeth, thanks so much for that. good to see you. see you back in atlanta. our senior medical correspondent, elizabeth cohen. crime. we all know it doesn't pay. it actually costs. it doesn't necessarily only cost the person committing the crime. should judges consider the cost of putting someone behind bars

or on probation which sentencing criminals? judges in missouri are doing that now. some people say, absolutely not. what do you say? let's talk about it on the other side. [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time... time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze... my eyes water. but now zyrtec®, the fastest 24-hour allergy relief, comes in a liquid gel. zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air®. ♪ [ mom ] game time is all about the traditions. it's all about the tackles and the touchdowns... and watching my boys do what they do. but for me, it's even more than that. game time is about our time. together. [ female announcer ] get low prices on all your favorites for the game. save money. live better. walmart.

hey, this conversation caught my eye. a heated debate under way in missouri now about whether jumps should consider the cost of sending someone to prison when they are sentencing someone to prison. judges in that state have been

considering that option the past month. according to the "new york times," put the practice into effect. the guideline, not mandatory. they are simply guidelines. now, a computer was developed to help them out. the defender's conviction code, criminal his trill and background fed into the computer. the computer spits out a range of recommended sentences and the price tag for each one of them. information also includes a likelihood of that criminal in question being a repeat offender. the prosecuting attorney denounced the move saying "justice isn't subject to a mathematical formula." missouri judge gary oxenhandler take as different view saying, "this is one of 1,000 things we look at about the tip of a dog's tail." right now missouri is the only state to have this policy, but some legal experts predict policy similar to this one will start showing up in other states. missouri officials say there's no way the system would come into play if a case involved the

sentence of a life in prison or a death sentence. the computer model does not attempt to compute the cost of capital punishment. all right. interesting topic. i wouldn't mind hearing what you have to say about that. check in with me, facebook.com/ali velshi@cnn. and will the goals be accomplished by the deadline? what are they? i'm going to tell you about them when i come back. my choice is clear. claritin-d. nothing works stronger, faster or longer for allergy congestion relief without drowsiness. get claritin-d at the pharmacy counter. live claritin clear. it was a real shock. i remember being at the hospital thinking, "i should have done more to take care of myself." you should've. that's why i'm exercising more now. eating healthier. and i also trust my heart to lipitor. [ male announcer ] when diet and exercise are not enough,

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we bring you up to speed on the top stories we're following right now on cnn. top republicans are urging delaware senate hopeful christine o'donnell to explain

what she meant when she said she dabbled in witch craft. the statement made on bill mahr's show "politically incorrect." o'donnell cancelled a couple tv appearances but later joked about that. that's coming up. and mixed review for the parliamentary vote. an independent watchdog group applauds a relatively high level of voter participation. the same group says many afghan was denied the right to vote due to security and lack of logistical areas. many lost hope in light of the fraud of last year's election. and in portland, maine, singer lady gaga headlining a rally calling for the repeal of don't ask, don't tell. the military's ban on openly gay troops. a showdown over the law is expected in the senate starting tomorrow. two moderate republicans seen at key votes in the debate from

maine. globe trekking. poverty and the united nations effort to reduce it as never before in history. ten years ago a u.n. summit laid down eight very ambitious steps aimed at making the world a better place to live for everybody. not just the middle class or the super rich. today those world leaders are back at the u.n. for a summit on what is called the millennium development goals. it's really interesting stuff, worth looking into. looking at progress made and setbacks that may have set back some of those goals making them unachievable by the deadline that is set for five years from now. here's how u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon put it at the end of today's opening session. >> translator: we are here because a fight for more prosperous, stable and equitable world is at the heart. itself, part of the mission of the united nations. we are here because ten years ago meeting here at the highest

level the international community promised to spare no effort to free the entire human race from want. >> we have more success stories than ever before. the transmittive impact of the mbg is undeniable. this is an achievement we can be proud of, but we must protect protect these advances, many of which are still fragile. and the clock is ticking. we have much more to do. >> okay. here are the eight goals of the millennium development project, millennium development goal. number one, eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. two, achieve universal primary

education. number three, promote gender equality and um po you are women. three, promote gender equality and four, reduce child mortality. five, childhood disease, six, combat hiv-aids, seven ensure environmental sustainability and eight, develop global partnership. so far the u.n. says significant progress in reaching the goals has actually been made. for example, reducing poverty by half is actually with reach. 1.6 billion people now have access to clean water. malaria prevention is expanding. now, as i said, there are serious shortfalls. millions of children are not getting enough food and are underweight. there's been little overall progress in subsaharan africa and little flog reducing the death of mothers and infants in birth. the summit runs through

wednesday and is connected to the opening of the u.n. general assembly. turning now to france. cnn's challah ga lardie, an exclusive interview with carla sarkozy. in an unauthorized biography quoted as saying michelle obama told her life in the white house was hell. she joins me right here in new york for more on this. you had a conversation with her. an interesting woman. finds her way into controversy dwight regularly. >> she does, and when she came to new york, she came with the head of the global fund, the fund to fight aids, tuberculosis and malaria. the interview was based on her work as an ambassador for the global fund, but, of course, tell-all books that came out in france with all this talk about her potentially using police files to spy on rivals inside the palace. it doesn't sound like a soap opera anymore. it's like "dynasty" back in the '80s. the big news in the united states, you mentioned about something relayed in the book that she said or reportedly said

about michelle obama that when she met her, michelle obama reportedly said life in the white house is hell so i asked her about that specifically, and this is how she answered. >> of course, michelle obama never said such a thing. i'm happy to tell you very frankly that this is not an authorized book. no one -- not only one book that came out about me was authorized. i never read the book. i never knew about the book, but i do live in france, and france is a free country, where anyone can you know, fantasize and print it. so, of course, i could do something legal, but first of all it gives a lot of publicity to all of those books and second of all, it's not in my principle. you know? i'm a democrat. i believe that everyone is allowed to say, write and say what they want, but i'm happy to disassociate myself. >> disassociate. >> disassociate myself. not only from that book, from

all books and, of course, mrs. obama never said such a thing. >> okay. i was wondering if she was going to actually outright deny that, and she disassociated herself, but she did then say that she does not -- she didn't relay that michelle obama says life in the white house was hell ngts and she said what was written in it was without her consent. the title makes more sense in french, by the way. "carla the ambitious," saying she was abusing power. uncovered a blot to oust her and, therefore, used some of these powers, secret police files and spying on text messages ever people inside of the palace who might not have wanted her there. she is denying all that and saying i haven't even read the book. >> interesting. you did talk to her about the work she's involved in at the u.n. a very, very important week. the whole world is descending upon new york as the world's leaders and delegates get together for the opening of the

u.n., but what did she have to say about those goals that they're trying to achieve? >> that this is new to her. she's not like a lady diana or angelina jolie doing it for years. basically, with the framework of her role as first lady of france. she's very much concerned about the transmission, specifically the transmission of the aids hiv virus from mother to child. which, of course you know, is preventible. when you mentioned those millennium development goals, interesting you underlined the fact so many of them have not been met, and that as you know a country like china skews the averages all over the world. >> yes. >> she is one of the ambassadors, one of the celebrities, of course you know, it's been a huge strength lending her name to a cause. >> good to see you in new york. see you back in atlanta. >> great to see you. check these out, by the way, definitely not your grandpa's stadium. what sports arenas of the futuring going to look like. fascinating. i'll show you that on the other side of the break.

okay. . s of people around the country watched football this weekend. in honor of the gridiron. today's big eye is all about the stadiums of the future. i love great stadiums. start with these designs submitted by al ber spear and partner as part of cutter's bid

for world cup 2022. all the world cups before that have been decided upon the middle eastern country can get well above 100 degrees when the world cup is held. that kind of heat challenged designers to come up with a cooling plap so so the stadiums presented here will be cooled using solar energy in order to guarantee optimal match conditions. you can see that on the top. all stadiums are easily accessible by public or personal transportation. qatar is trying to host it. the decision in december. camp new stadium getting a face lift. these pictures from foster and partners. that's the company. they plan to expand seating from 100,000 to 160,000. right now it's just 100,000. the brightly colored mosaic outer skin will be wrapped around the building and extend to the new roof. this stadium getting new

facilities including hospitality and public facilities and on match nights the stadium will actually glow. to china. the new sports park by populous. it will be located in the historic center near beijing. made up of a series of titanium shells and will include a 30,000 seat stadium, 8,000 seat arena along with multiuse buildings. the designers said the inspiration came from nearby caves that are symbolic of the rich cultural heritage of the region. for more access to these pictures and artist renderings of these head to my block cnn.com/ali. we posted the links and information for you there. mike huckabee you know him, he says the republican establishment is getting spanked and that it deserves it. that and more in our "cnn equals politics update." coming right up. with the help of visa digital currency. which lets troy reiners,

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it is time now for a "cnn equals politics update." cnn senior congressional correspondent dana bash is in washington. what is crossing the political ticker right now? >> reporter: i remember back at the end of 2007 and the beginning of 2008 following then relatively unknown former arkansas governor mike huckabee around iowa. and he always kept things interesting with the way that he spoke, his colorful language. that has not changed. he said over the weekend i think the republican establishment in d.c. is getting spanked and deserves it. you can watch that video on cnn.com/ticker. second item for you is somebody who has a similar feeling about the republican establishment.

may not use that same language. that is republican senator jim demint. he has really ingered some of his colleagues in the republican establishment by supporting -- successfully supporting conservative candidates through the primaries. many republicans say if you feel this way put your money where your mouth is. help us get the people elected and in the case of delaware christine o'donnell that's what he's trying to do today. his political action committee put up a new ad to support her saying she stands up for us and not washington. last on the ticker, something that we want to he will it you about that we first reported earlier this morning, ali. that is right here on the ticker the fact that the house republicans are going to unveil their agenda on thursday. here in the story you can find discussions that myself and congressional producer deirdre walsh have had with republican strategists saying this is one of the missing ingredients in trying to get republicans

elected, giving voters a reason to vote for republicans, not just democrats. we're also talking to republican strategists saying this is fine, this is good, but they really want to focus on what some call the 80/20 strategy. what is that? meaning the election is 80% about democrats, 20% about republicans and from the perspective of many republicans they want to keep it that way. they think they have a lot of anger they want to ride against democrats. >> interesting strategy. all right. good to see you as always. thanks very much. we'll have another political ticker update for you in the next hour. okay. a 3 million-year-old whale, a mass chicken dance and 33-hour kiss. pucker up. odds and ends up next. it's a sale. nothing beats a sale! wrong move! you. you can save up to half off that sale when you name your own price on priceline. but this one's a deal...trust me. it's only pretending to be a deal. here, bid $79.

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in today's "odds & ends," a 3 million-year-old whale has turned up at the san diego zoo. how lucky. a construction crew was digging up a storm water tank when it stumbled on the well preserved fossil. it was confirmed as authentic by a pail yen toll gist already on-site assigned to the project as a precautionary measure. the skull and vertebrae are intact. next this one you have to listen to carefully. two men in new jersey have set the record for the longest continuous kiss. matt daly and bobby kent kissed more than 33 hours in a tenth on the campus of the college of new jersey. it was streamed live online. according to the guinness book of world records they had to stand in a public venue. just for the record, the guys are not a couple. they're just friends. just because you can't really get enough of it, video of a masked chicken dance, all part of the kickoff for the 2010 oktoberfest in cincinnati.

ufc fighter led the dance on fountain square. all right. it's a new hour. i've got a new rundown. if you thought "an inconvenient truth" was controversial, you haven't seen anything yet. a new film that pulls no punches when it comes to america's broken schools. chris rock said it best. there is a difference between being rich and being wealthy. it's not easy building wealth in america. we'll look at building up wealth and building up families and america. christine o'donnell is the inspiration for the word play. we'll stir the pot a little with this one or maybe i should say we're going to sir the called

ronl. >> they say the recession was over last year making it the longest recession since world war ii. this organization, the nbr is considered by many to be the arbiter of recessions in this country. in may they declined to put an official date on the end of the recession. why are they doing it now? simply put, there's more information out. more information on gdp and personal income. some of the things that we lost in this recession. i'm going to talk more about this now because this information is stuff he was talking to me about that since the recession, since the beginning of the recession, we've made up 50% of the gdp that we've lost. we've made up about 50% of industrial production. that's a measure of everything that we make, stuff made in factories. 50% of the country's income. 40% of sales that were lost. look at that bottom line, 9% of the jobs we've lost. this is what you're telling me have come back. that, jobs are where the rubber

hits the road for most americans. this is the managing director of the automatic cycle research institute. lie the nber they're in the business of watching recessions. >> but we forecast them too. so that's a little different. one little factoid there on the gdp list, that's -- we've recovered 70% of gdp lost during the recession but it makes the disparity all the greater when you look at what kind of jobs we've recovered. only recovered 9% of the jobs lost during the recession. >> if jobs were not your touch point or your biggest concern and you looked at this economy you would say we're out of the recession. but when you don't have jobs you lose houses and have foreclosures. >> it's important. the national bureau and process we're going through which we do in dating recovery and recessions globally is very objective. they're giving a different weight to jobs here.

they're not giving it short shrift. the fact is we have recovered 9% of the jobs that were lost during the recession. the reason it doesn't feel good is because you have 91% left to recover. we've made it into the -- the economy made it into the recovery room by the summer of '09. but just because you're in the recovery room, you don't feel good. you still have a lot of healing to do. we're continuing to do that healing. and so that is where we are here. the important other element here -- it's a little technical but it's important to note. we moved from this nasty part of the business cycle which is the business part where everybody is firing and you fire and sales go down and production go down and firings go down, we've moved away from that and we were losing 750 million jobs a month during the heat of that. >> 75,000. >> 750,000. now we're in the virtous part. doesn't feel like it because the jobs aren't there. we have 750,000 this year.

it is for sure way too slow and we are already slowing down again, which is a big problem. >> look at this. the bottom line is while you and i both discuss that the unemployment rate is not something to get fixated on because we want to see job creation and job loss numbers but the fact is unemployment is higher today than it was when the recession ended. >> it peaked out at 10.1% in fall. >> after the recession. and come down. >> we've seen that happen. ? the last three cycles, the last three recoveries we've had the so-called jobless recovery where gdp starts clearly going up but in the early -- >> how do you account for that? that work is done by somebody. so you're increasing output and sales and economic activity and yet you're not hiring the people -- >> there's a whole -- each cycle is slightly different but there are general themes. productivity gains -- >> we all work longer and are

scared for our jobs so when the boss says you work longer -- >> the guy next to you or the lady next to you gets fired and you work twice as hard. that's a productivity gain. that's what that is. >> less money for more work. >> your co-worker gets fired and you do more work. that is prakd ift gain. that's when it means in econ yoe speak. the other thing is you ship a lot of manufacturing jobs abroad. those don't come back. we've seen that happen. these are so-called structural changes. in the current cycle, a big structural issue is we had a housing bubble prior to the recession. it employed a lot of people, building houses, financing houses, doing all kinds of funny things with derivatives, paper and all these things. they are all out of a job. now that we're in a recovery, this recovery, this economy isn't demanding that kind of work. so they are long-term unemployed. >> so if i'm trying to get ahead of this trend, if i don't want to hear it from guys like this -- >> leading indicators. >> tell me -- because we focus a

lot on lagging indicators, history, things that happened in the past. you look at unemployment last month that's done, that's happened. tell me the leading indicators. what does it tell you about where this economy is going and position myself not to get run over by a truck but prosper. >> the moment was at the beginning of the year where the growth rate in these leading indicators started to turn down. anticipating a slowing of the economy down. >> be clear on that. growth rate means it's growing. >> correct. >> but it's growing more slowly. >> and this is -- what you said is crystal clear. however, it is lost on half of the professional economists in this country, okay. because this is a debate i've been having behind closed doors all the time. there's a difference between a growth rate throttling back and the level of something falling. and right now every single -- >> the difference is going slowly because you're in traffic versus putting the car in reverse. we're moving forward. we're just slow. >> it may be slow and steady wins the race.

the old turtle and the hare. and there -- we had concerns about double-dip recessions in the beginning of the '90s. turned out to be the longest expansion in our history. there was a lot of angst at the beginning of the '90s about double-dip recessions and in the 2000s. consumer confidence in both cases was very, very jumpy. however, we slowly pulled it together and we're able to put together decent expansions in both cases in terms of duration. >> to be fair because they'll blog about how i'm talking up the economy and ignoring the signs. and things are bad. there is a possibility -- we're not out of the woods. >> now i'll get you the other side. every time you have a slowdown half of the time you go into a recession. that's a fact. so if you look over the last half century, the slowdowns in this country, half turn into recessions. that's the reason why you have to take this current situation in the slowdown extremely

seriously. but you can't forecast by analogy. that doesn't work at all. leading indicators say it's premature to say we have a new recession. we have to stay tuned. you can't predikt the predictors. >> you are the guy to study this. thanks very much for being with us. the managing director. all right. listen, this is an interesting story. it started on a yuton national guard shooting base and blown off base but so far machine gunfire destroyed four homes and forced people out of 2,000 more. apparently sparked bayh ammunition fire during a training exercise. an emotional evacuee giving his side of today's story. >> these fires are an occurrence that happen occasionally during training. that's why we have on-site equipment in order to fight the fire with trucks and tanks and black hawk helicopters as

needed. this fire initially behaved like any fire we would put out internally without calling outside authorities to assist. >> every year for years they set that mountain on fire and it's never coming that close to herriman. but so many times over 34 years that we have watched and just waited to see fire coming over the ridge and thought we'd get out. it finally happened. can't believe it's finally did it. and for them to say they checked the weather conditions is baloney, because it was a hot, dry wind last night. has blown all week out here. it was blowing this morning. so they are full of baloney when they said they checked the wind conditions. >>. hundreds of firefighters are battling this thing on the ground and from the sky. the last update we heard from authorities, the fire has burned about 10,000 acres in less than 24 hours. utah's governor says they're making progress against the

flames. are we waiting for a hero to save our schools? a new film sets out to turn our education system around. we're going to give you a prae view when we come back. gecko: gd news sir, i jugot ae anople really love our claimservice.

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in shop talk a new documentary friday takes a look at how some parents struggle to get their kids into charter schools. it's called waiting for superman directed by david guggenheim, who is no stranger to controversy. he's the same guy who directed "an inconvenient truth." >> you think most of the kids

here are getting a crappy education? >> i don't think they are. i know they are. >> reporter: documentary filmmaker davis guggenheim has a message for america. >> if we don't fix public schools for everybody, we're in trouble. >> reporter: the 46-year-old director knows how to get his message across. his late film earned $50 million at the box office, won an oscar and sparked an international debate over global warming. if lightning strikes twice, his new film "waiting for superman" would do the same for public education. cnn caught up with guggenheim at the sundance film festival where his movie was the first acquired by a major movie studio. >> the system we built works really well for the adults like the unions and the bureaucracy and even the parents. but it's not working for the kids. >> reporter: the film follows the lives of five children as they wait for their number to be called in a lottery, a bing yoe style drum determines which have kids into the best schools. an eye-opening moment for guggenheim. >> i drive past three public

schools on the way to take my kid to a private school. when i drive by those schools it haunts me we aren't doing enough for every kid. >> something is wrong in the education system. >> reporter: education reformer jeffrey canada and billionaire bill gates tell cnn they participated in the film because of their concerns. >> we have a school day that's too short, a school year that's too short and we've gotten lots of teachers who should not be teaching children. >> reporter: and to offer solutions for the future. >> today the internet gives you that opportunity to watch the best lectures in the world. they're out there for free. if you take advantage of those resources, you can be broader and deeper than any of the kids in my generation. >> among 30 developed countries we rank 25th in math and 21st in science. in almost every category we've fallen behind. >> when i'm watching these things you always have to have some skepticism. >> reporter: wary of one-sided documentaries, jerry fernandez from the hollywood reporter says

superman has more to do with in shirg change than blame. >> the filmmakers and studio are helping this doesn't just spark a public debate but actually sparks some reform. >> reporter: fernandez, a father himself, says his greatest concern is that moviegoers 'guilt might keep them from buying a ticket. >> almost like i know this is out there but do i really want to go and stick my face in it? because then i either have to do something or i'm a total schmuck. >> reporter: hoping to avoid this problem, the film has struck deals with several corporate sponsors to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars in books and school supplies for every 10,000 people who see the film. this way, everyday people can be the superheroes public schools are waiting for. >> it takes a lot of outrage and a lot of good examples to say, yes, we can do this. >> reporter: kareen wynter, cnn, los angeles. are you too busy surviving

to save? we're hearing that in way too many african-american households these days. stephanie e. lamb has news about that and solutions. stay twice... earn a free night! two separate stays at comfort inn or any of these choice hotels can earn you a free night -- only when you book at choicehotels.com.

all right. almighty debt is a black in america special that we're airing on cnn. one of the things that we're looking at is the fact that if you are struggling just to pay your bills and get by in life, you are not establishing wealth for another generation. you're really not establishing wealth at all. that is an issue facing many americans these days and it is statistically even a bigger issue for black families. the numbers show it is exceedingly difficult to grow that kind of wealth. stephanie, my good friend is

here. you've been studying this. >> this is something i know about because i happen to be a business correspondent and happen to be black. i'm aware of both sides of it. it's a huge problem. blacks are not doing what they need to to make sure they put away for retirement and for our kids. we found one family doing their part to make sure they're leaving for their kids and something we can all learn from for sure. chris rock has joked about black people and their money. >> shaq is rich. the white man that signs his check is wealthy. wealth is passed down from generation to generation. >> reporter: there's a sad truth in his humor. studies show black people tend to chronically make less, save less and pass less money on to the next generation than their white counter parts and if you don't have assets, you can't pass them on. >> give us lord our daily bread, amen. >> reporter: marvin and kathy

dickerson are making sure their family doesn't follow the same pattern. >> one or two bad moves and it's going to follow you. >> reporter: married nine years they started planning finances well before welcoming 6-year-old kalen and 3-year-old myers. >> we knew we had to invest because we knew one day we were going to have kids and we wanted our kids to have more than what we had. >> reporter: the dickersons developed a budget, paid off their debt, began investing and set up a will, a trust and 529 plans to pay for their kids 'college educations. >> we can pass that wealth or those assets on to our kids with a $1.5 million tax exemption. >> reporter: but this family is the exception. according to the brookings institution, the median net worth of black americans is about $28,000. compare that to $140,000 for the median household nationwide. what were your parents saying to

you to make sure that it was so important. that you knew it? >> you work, you save. >> reporter: while marvin is a spender, kathy is the saver. so they make all big financial decisions together. >> kathy had a guiding principle. if she spent $100 she got a headache. as we got married and had more resources you can add another zero. it was like a few thousand dollars. >> reporter: valerie coleman morris who focuses on financial literacy for women, young people and people of color points to a couple of reasons black americans are so far behind creating wealth and passing it on. >> money is still a very much off limits topics but in the african-american family it's almost taboo. the second is the 401(k). we're not parts sitting and when we do we're contributing far less than other people. in addition there is this overwhelming need to become more financially literate and we aren't. >> i'm not talking about rich.

i'm talking about wealth. >> reporter: but it's more than just talk for the dickersons. it's a way of life. >> and you really have to love chris rock because he always says it a simple way and truthful for a lot of people. >> it's very hard to understand that in a place where you're struggling. if you're dealing with day-to-day expenses thinking about wealth for the next generation is interesting. the family you talked to, this isn't a black thing. the will, many americans without a will. most people don't have a trust. the idea of a 529. sounds like they've taken simple steps. not high science. >> they also found a financial adviser realizing they had more assets they need to take care of. part of the reason why this is such a problem is the fact that you've got blacks at recessionary levels of unemployment. talking earlier, no matter if we're in a recession or not, blacks are lifg under recessionary unemployment.

50% higher for black versus white regardless of the education level. that's part of the issue to. there's also more parttime and less access to 401(k) and when we do have access to 401(k)s we're not using them. on the facebook page i've had a lot of comments. one of my classmates who is also a business journalist said this is so great to talk about saving but it's so hard for many black families when think they about their debt. >> debt elimination is really the starting point. great discussion. >> and i have to say valerie has one good thing. she said either talk about it now or fight about it later. that's for everybody. >> good advise. black churches by the way have historically fought for civil and human rights. we know that. now it's waging a war on debt. so watch the special that stephanie is involved in "almighty debt: a black in american special" october 31st right here on cnn. bring you up to speed on top

stories. bp's ruptured oil well now permanently sealed. but the gulf coast clean-up is going to continue indefinitely. crews finished work on the long awaited bottom kill over the weekend and pro noujsed the well dead. even so national incident commander thad allen says it will take a while to remove oil residue from marshes and beaches. a huge salt lake city fire started during a national training exercise. it sparked a fire at a national guard camp and high winds spread the flames. it burned 3500 acres overnight and four homes destroyed. the governor says firefighters are making progress. would you eat genetically modified salmon? the food and drug administration is holding a hearing today on whether to allow the sale of salmon injected with growth hormones. the hormones allow the fish to reach maturity in 16 to 18 months instead of the normal 30 months. critics fear the fish could be unhealthy over time.

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let's bring in chad. he is -- are we -- it says hurricane headquarters. is that a misprint or are we still looking at hurricanes? >> oh, no. september 10th was the peak. we're still well into hurricane

season all the way until really the end of october and for that matter even into november some years. it is still hurricane igor. you would think by now it's in the cold water and it's over, it hit bermuda, probably tore itself up. bermuda is not very big. didn't tear anything up over bermuda. did knock down power to most of the residents there. had a wind gust in bermuda to 93 miles per hour. that caused things to go down, power lines down and power out to most of the island there. wind gusts till to 85. kind of making a run a little at atlantic canada or the maritimes but only going to kind of make some gusty winds out through here maybe through the fishing grounds and then splash some waves on the atlantic canada and into the maritimes. still seeing some of the waves now making their way on to the shores of america. if you're going to be going out this weekend, coming up this weekend you still could see rip currents out there because of what igor did. one more thing obviously. you just had the pictures here from idaho and from utah of what -- with the fires and winds

and dust storms and everything. wind gusts today about 30 to 40 miles per hour and humidity. look at that number. less than 10%. you can't get anything to get wet when it's less than 10%. no showers at all in the forecast there. so when the winds below like that in very dry conditions, you can see those fires -- those ones that were caused by live ammunition. >> that's a new one to me. let's go "off the radar." >> all right. >> i heard something about finding a new planet that's like earth next year. >> you want to try to find one? >> yes. >> they're trying. we talked about these guys a little bit ago. there's a new study that says look at the number of planets we're finding called extra solar planets outside our solar system. there are many. in fact, there are now hundreds, 200 to 300 as a matter of fact. when do we finally find a planet like earth 2.0? they started looking in 1990.

not too many candidates. finally by '99 starting to see a few candidates. 2003, 2004 and 2005 and through 2009 especially because we have new data coming in in february, those new planets may have to be big enough or for this matter small enough -- it's easy to find big planets because they're big. you can see them. but earth isn't big compared to the others. you want it to be small and warm enough to make water but not hot enough to make that water steam. the water has to be liquid. so they're finding these planets as we go and they predict there's a 50/50 chance all the way down there. that would be may of 2011 -- 50/50 chance by may of 2011 that we find a planet close enough to earth that it could support life as we know it -- >> what did they call it star trek m-clash planet? where you can sustain life. it was similar enough to what humans were used to that it

could sustain life. >> right. and then on the other ones lost in space they didn't care where they were. >> we need to go to a "star trek" convention. >> they have them here in atlanta. 75% chance to find it by 2020 and 95% by 2264. so they think but they're not confident if they think it could take another 200 years. >> in the meantime i'm going to practice my best "we come in peace." chad, good to see you my friend. the clock is ticking on the ambitious millennium gross. millennium.

time for "globetrekking" now. today's issue is global poverty and the united nations campaign to reduce it. ten years ago a u.n. summit laid down eight very ambitious steps to make the world better place to live for everybody. today world leaders are back at the u.n. for a summit on what is called the millennium development goals looking at progress that's been made and assessing setbacks. the self-imposed deadline to reach the goals is only five years away. here is secretary-general ban ki-moon put it in the opening session. >> we have led you to the river. so what are we asking of you today? to stay true, true to our identity as an international community built on a foundation of solidarity, true to our commitment to end the

dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty. >> well, it's not hard to find critics of the united nations but most observers agree that it is making progress toward the eight millennium development goals including eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality. number five is improving maternal health, combating hiv/aids, ma layer yas and other diseases and ensuring environmental sustainability. number eight is developing global partnerships for development. the u.n. points to gr he is in several areas saying reducing poverty by half is actually within reach. also, 1.6 billion people now have access to clean water. and the effort to expand malaria prevention is making significant strides. however, the secretary-general stressed that much work remains particularly in overcoming setbacks suffered including millions of children still not getting enough food and who are

seriously underweight as a result. little overall progress in sub-saharan africa and the goal to cut by half people living in just over a dollar a day is unlikely to be met by the deadline. little progress in reducing the deaths of mothers and infants in birth. the summit runs through wednesday and will be followed by the annual meeting of the u.n. general assembly. to french and the flap involving two first ladies. cnn's hala gorani had a conversation with carla bruni sarkozy, the first lady of france. in an unauthorized biography she was apparently quoted as saying michelle obama told her that life in the white house was hell. here's what the first lady of france had to say about the quote. >> of course michelle obama never said such a thing. i'm happy to tell you very frankly that this is not an authorized book. no one -- not only one book that came out about me was

authorized. i never read the book. i never knew about the book. but i do live in france. and france is a free country where anyone can fantasize and print it. so of course i could do something legal, but, first of all, it gives a lot of publicity to all those books. and second of all, it's not in my principle. i'm a democrat. i believe that everyone is allowed to say and write and say what they want. but i'm happy to disassociate myself -- >> disassociate? >> disassociate myself not only from that book, from all books and of course mrs. obama never said such a thing. >> now, for the record, the spokeswoman for mrs. obama said she never told carla bruni sarkozy that life in the white house is hell. more than 400,000 babies are born with hiv every year. some folks think we can get it near zero in five years and tell us howe.

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all right. we know how to keep expectant moms from passing hiv to their babies. we know how to do that. still more than 1,000 newborns a day enter the world with the virus surging through them. anti-poverty group one thinks that the world can do better and has set an ambitious deadline and there's no time to wait because the clock has started ticking on the campaign no child born with hiv by 2015. that is today's "mission possible." here to fill us in is sheila nix, the executor of one. and an activist for hiv/aids

awareness and her daughter florida who is maybe a budding activist herself. i'm sure we couldn't all fit you here. they're in new york with me. they're in another studio. fortunata you have a remarkable story. you came here from tanzania and found out you were hiv positive when pregnant with florida. florida is not hiv positive. >> no, she's not. thank god, she's not hiv positive. >> so you are out there trying to get that message out, that this is preventable. what's the message you're trying to get to people? what are you telling them? >> well, i was just very lucky. i was one of the few lucky moms who -- this is the most horrible thing that can happen. and for my case, it was i happened to be in the right country at the right time or at the right place if you like at the right time.

i received the bad news that i was positive. i was devastated. but then i received a very good news that i could get some treatment and my child's life would be spared. so she was born hiv-free. and the message that i want to give to people is that while there is treatment that can prevent thousands or millions if you like of children to contract this disease from their moms during childbirth. so the message i want to give is to the world leaders to please fund write these programs that would protect the mother-to-child aids transmission. >> perfect time for the message we just talked about the millennium development goals. ten years in, the u.n. leaders are meeting about that. one has a campaign. let's listen to one of the ads that's being broadcast. oh, i'm sorry. we don't have that. if we can get it we'll try to find it. i want to talk to sheila, who is

with me here next to me. you're the executive director of of one. tell me what that message is. fortunata has told us there are ways to prevent this transmission. what do mothers need to know? first of all they need to know if their hiv-positive. >> and if they are they can get treatment to prevent the transmission to babies. the good news is we know exactly what to do and it works. it's a problem that can be solved easily. we have made a lot of progress but we still have 1,000 born a day. >> worldwide? >> yes. >> let's listen to that clip now. we've got it now. >> over 1,000 babies are born every day with hiv and half there die before their second birthday. but the plain truth is, this can

all be prevented. we now have the medicine and the treatment to stop the spread of hiv from mother to child. we can reach the goal of no child born with hiv by 2015. but it won't happen without you. go to one.org and join the movement. add your voice to the 2 million members around the world. together we can stop the spread of hiv from mother to child so no mother has to worry about this again. we're not asking for your money. we're asking for your voice. go to one.org and join us today. >> what a powerful ad. i want to talk to florida kasege. 13 years old, not hiv-positive. you may be one of the most important parts of this campaign, because you're the proof. this isn't just a conversation. you're the proof. you're 13 years old. you're healthy. what have you got to say about this whole thing? >> well, i'm blessed. i'm very blessed to have a

mother that cares and to have a treatment for this, because so many people around the world have hiv and who are pregnant. so they don't know about the treatment, and so i feel very blessed to be basically proof that you can get treatment if you are pregnant and have hiv and you can save your child. so i feel very blelsed. >> you're blessed and you're a blessing to us. sheila, what is the treatment? what do you do? >> you basically take arv -- >> anti-retroviral. >> and take it at certain points of the pregnancy and when you go into the labor. it works. we know it works. the good news is there's ways to get it out there. the global fund, we're asking world leaders to support that. it's a very effective way. it's made a lot of progress in the fight against hiv, tb and malaria. but we believe we can do more. with proper funding no child has

to be born with hiv by 2015. it's possible. >> it's great to know we know the way to do it. we just have to get the word out. the t-shirts are fantastic. fortunata and florida, hard to believe you're mother and daughter. you look like sisters. thank you for being with us. we wish you all the best. thanks for the great message. for more information on the -- on one's 2015 campaign, it's a great campaign. we've linked to their site. go to my site cnn.com/ali. former defense secretary donald rumsfeld ready to release his memoirs. is he going to tell all? ♪ [ male announcer ] every business day, bank of america lends billions of dollars, to individuals, institutions, schools, organizations and businesses. ♪ working to set opportunity in motion.

bank of america. working to set opportunity in motion. words alone aren't enough. our job is to listen and find ways to help workers who lost their jobs to the spill. i'm iris cross. we'll keep restoring the jobs, tourist beaches, and businesses impacted by the spill. we've paid over $400 million in claims and set up a $20 billion independently-run claims fund. i was born in new orleans. my family still lives here. i'm gonna be here until we make this right.

time for a "cnn equals politics update" right now. deputy political editor paul steinhauser and senior political editor mark preston at our d.c. political desk. gentlemen, you got that fancy camera thing going on again. what is going on right now, paul? >> got something brand new. it's not even on the political ticker yet. talk about west virginia and the senate race there. this was the seat long held by the -- robert byrd who died earlier this year. freedom works, it's a conservative group, a grassroots organization that has provided a

lot of the organization behind the tea party movement. i spoke to a couple of the people at freedom works today. they're going to get involved in the race and help with get out the vote efforts in west virginia. they think this is a seat they can grab back in the special election come november from the democrats. that's what i got. mark preston has a lot more. >> a lot of talk about the midterm elections. was the white house engaged in the elections, were they not? clearly the president and the vice president is this week. in fact, president obama is in philadelphia. he's raising money for democrats today. vice president biden is in ohio. on wednesday president obama goes to new york city for the u.n. general assembly but will also raise money for house and senate democrats. biden in massachusetts, maryland and florida over the next few days all raising money for democrats. moving on, let's talk about the past administration very quickly. donald rumsfeld, the former defense secretary, has a new book out. our own alex mooney who is behind me has this story on

cnnpolitics.com. it's going to be called "known and unknown." supposed to hit book stores on january 25th. it's supposed to be about previously undisclosed details and insights about the bush administration, 9/11 and the wars in afghanistan and iraq. in television we call that a tease. in the book world we call that a tease. i'll tell you what, it's got me a little interested in what he's going to write. let's take a quick look at this fantastic picture of the uss ronald reagan. they are memorializing the late president. in fact, these are all sailors right there who spell out the initials rr and the number 100 to recognize his 100th birthday early next year. very cool on cnnpolitics.com. >> i didn't know until you pointed out those are actually sailors. what a pleasure to see you both. mark preston and paul steinhauser. more political updates as the day goes on. "wordplay" taking a wicked turn. we're going to conjure it up for you straight ahead. to give back to society...

felicia jackson promised her late sister that she would take care of her children. but she needed help. i used my american express open card to get half a million points to buy building materials to help build the jackson family a new home. well, i know if my dad was still around, he would have told me, with no doubt... he would have told me it's a no brainer and i knew that from the start. it was an honor. booming is moving forward by giving back.

the topic of today's "wordplay," you've seen it on tv, on the big screen and now in politics. it's subject to all kinds of stereotypes. i'm talking about witchcraft. the dictionary defines it as an act or instance of employing sourcery especially with malevolent intent. in a television appearance 16 years ago christine o'donnell said she once dabbled in witchcraft. now that admission has come back to haunt her so to speak. republican strategist karl rove, a critic of o'donnell, says

churchgoing people want an explanation. supporters of witchcraft say it's a peaceful religion. during the salem witch trials in the 17th century 20 people were put to death in massachusetts for allegedly practicing witchcraft but today many consider it a harmless strategy. millions of readers and moviegoers have enjoyed fictional witchcraft of harry potter. o'donnell for her part is trying to defuse the issue with humor. she says if she were still involved with witchcraft she would have turned karl rove into a supporter. of course there are many supporters of the wiccan religion which a lot of people associate with witchcraft. the holidays are recognized by many employers and authorities as a valid religion. the largest known oil deposit in the world. nowhere near the middle east. you might not have heard of it but it could be a major player in any future energy debate. ♪

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personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. time now for the "xyz." last week i got a chance to return to canada's oil sand fields. never heard of them? the oil sands in alberta province contain the largest known oil deposit in the world, even bigger than saudi arabia, which makes our friendly neighbor to the north america's biggest supplier of imported oil today. the u.s. imports at least 1.5 million barrels crude oil each day from that field. that number is growing. u.s. lawmakers are taking notice of it. while i was in alberta last week republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina and two other senators -- a democrat and republican were giving a tour of the fields by the premier, the equivalent of a governor.

graham told media outlets the oil sand are, quote, a natural treasure for canada and the united states and also said that they are a clear win/win. we've got shared values but we've also got shared needs, end quote. not everyone shares that view. the oil is mixed in the sand. it takes a lot of energy and water just to make it into the equivalent of crude oil. and that extra processing that it takes to refine oil from the oil sand releases more carbon emission into the atmosphere than traditional drilling. because of that oil sand emissions are going to reach 8% of canada's total output which is still minuscule compared to the amount of coal induced carbon emissions put out by the united states or china today. but as worldwide demand for oil grows and the search for new cleaner sources of energy, it's still in its infancy, it's not clear whether concerns about environmental damage will overcome america's desire to buy more oil from friendly stable countries like canada. but as long as we have this huge source of energy right at our doorstep,he