raisin bran getting 26, you see the big problem in this. food manufacturers can just say, hey, we're going to add fib perp we're going to add calcium to this, just as additives. then the score goes up because it's all just a mathematic alpha rhythm, not necessarily base and exactly how healthy something is, drew. >> oh, poppy. i just anticipated by kids asking for ice cream for breakfast instead of raisin bran, but it does sound good. thanks a lot. "cnn newsroom" continues right now with ali velshi. drew, thanks very much. you have a good afternoon. drew said, i'm ali velshi. for the next two hours and every day i'll guide you through the maze of information coming your way. together we will learn what is going on at home and around the world. you'll get access to the folks who can best explain what the news today means and its impact beyond today. i'll showcase the best ideas in innovation, philanthropy and public education. my mission, figure out what is going on around the world, thousand fits into your life. get started right now. we're following two major developing stories this hour.

coming your way, backhoes and bulldozers up and running again in israeli settlements in the west bank and they're casting a dusty cloud over the peace process. will the resumed construction talks derail -- will the resumed construction derail the peace talks. also two discount airlines announcing plans to tie the knot on the same week continental and united states become one airline. with fares and fees already surging what are these new unions in the sky meaning for you? i've got people who know. let's start with that conversation. once again, a familiar name in air travel is disappearing. not really going away. airtran, a discount carrier based in orlando being bought by southwest. the dallas-based carrier known for doing things its own way and quite successfully, too. southwest is paying roughly $1.4 billion in cash and stock, but when you figure airtran's debt and lease obligations into the price, more like $3.4 billion. at the moment, each carrier flies to 69 u.s. cities.

southwest is quite a bit larger. last year southwest blew nor than 100 million passengers while airtran flew about 24 million. look at aircraft there. southwest has about 544 aircraft. airtran about 138 aircraft. the vast majority of boeing 737s making it easy to have standard maintenance. if regulators and shareholders approve this will be the third major airline consolidation in two years. united and continental are due to close their merger days from now this week becoming the largest airline in america. today that title belongs to delta, which acquired northwest in 2008. enough with the facts and figures. what about fares and fees? time to bring in my q&a partner richard quest in london. from dallas, rick seaney, the ceo of faircompare.com. richard, start with you in europe. a lot of experience with discount airlines. generally speaking the merger of two airlines means, could mean -- could mean -- higher

prices. not always the case. in this case what does it mean when it's two discount airlines? >> i think the thing to remember is why southwest is buying airtran and the reason they're buying it is to buy market share. by buying this carrier it is getting a hot roll straight into atlanta hartsfield, because airtran is such a big player there. it is also buying coverage and route coverage into the northeast united states, to boston, to new york, to washington. those key routes where southwest has had presence but has not been dominant or indeed not able to get much of a footprint. buy airtran and you start to make huge in-roads into the northeast corridor and the whole eastern seaboard of the united states. >> now, rick seaney, southwest likes s ts to sight something calls -- the route brings fees and prices doin on the routes. is that likely to happen?

>> i think it's likely to happen to some degree, but i think the economy is going to dictate more than southwest. if all things were equal in the economy, they would actually spur on more with lower prices but i'm not so sure the next two or three years hold much in for that. the interesting thing about this is that they pick up 100 destinations now. legacy airlines actually go about 200 destinations in domestic u.s. so it's still not quite as big as it might look. >> and, rick, tell me, we know we've been -- you follow this closely. fees and fares have actually been edging up over the last few months. is that trend likely to continue, say, until the end of the year? >> i think it will. you know, southwest doesn't have any bag or change fees but they have other fees. they picked up $ 00 million in q2 in other fees. you'll see fees continue to go up. that's what the airlines want. southwest will be the lone holdout. i assume airtran won't have a bag fee here in about a year. >> rick good to see you.

richard quest, great to have you back. we'll be doing q&a on thursday. send us your questions we'll answer them for you live on thursday afternoon around 2:20 p.m. eastern time. good to see you both. thanks for joining me. our sound effect comes from a side of air travel nobody really likes to talk about. delta connection flight 4951 was en route from atlanta to white plains, new york, late saturday night when the flight crew noticed something wrong. here's what the pilot told air traffic control. >> 51 -- >> approach, go ahead. >> yeah, we can't -- on the check list and talking to our maintenance at approach, or our dispatcher and we have not been able to get the landing gear down. our preference would be to proceed over to jfk and ask you for emergency landing over there. and if it's not completely obvious, just want to confirm,

we are declaring an emergency. >> not completely obvious. you got to like that about pilots and air traffic controllers. doesn't sound all that urgent even when it is. in case you wanted something more urgent, check out the tone of the flight attendant as the plane was about to touch down minutes later. >> get ready for impact. >> heads down. stay down. heads down, stay down. heads down, stay down. >> whew! [ cheers and applause ] >> sort of makes you appreciate what the flight attendants and piltsz are there for. doesn't it? only the right gear was stuck. that was the right wing tip, if you saw it, was throwing sparks off as landed. everybody got out safely, and nobody was hurt. congratulations to the pilot and the staff on getting that one down. bad news for the president, for president obama's mideast peace offensive. after a ten month freeze israel resumes settlement construction in the west bank. what now? stay with me. i'll tell you on the other side.

a setback for the u.s. brokered mideast peace talks. renewed construction of the settlement in the west bank urging not to end a moratorium during talks in washington earlier in the month. those talks the first between the israelis and palestinians in nearly two years. jewish settlers in the west bank marked the end of the construction freeze by releasing thousands of blue and white balloons, the color of the israeli flag into the air and broke ground on a new kindergarten. the israeli moratorium came to an end midnight sunday. for the palestinians, it's settle settlements are a major

settlement to peace because they take place on land the palestinians insist are part of their future state. in response, palestinian president mahmoud abbas strongly urged israel to continue the freeze for three or four months to allow time for talks about the matter. yesterday he said negotiations resumed earlier this month would be a "waste of time" unless the ban on construction remained in place. for his part, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu called on abbas to stick with the talks. obama administration officials are vowing to keep the peace talks on track and repeated america's opposition to expanding the settlements. now it's time for a disturbing story involving u.s. troops in afghanistan. charges alleging that a rogue group of hashish smoking soldiers killed afghan civilians for sport. posed with their dead bodies. even collected human bones as souvenirs. drew griffin of our special investigations unit has been working on this story. >> reporter: ali, most disturbing is the facts laid out by the soldiers involved themselves.

cnn obtained the interrogation tapes of four of those soldiers. the u.s. military charged five with premeditated murder. seven more face charges ever covering up the killings and illegal drug use, all of them u.s. soldiers. members of the 5th combat striker brig grade based at ft. lewis washington. today one of the accused schedules to face a court-martial hearing, corporal jeremy worelomorlock. on the tape you'll hear, under command of staff sergeant calvin gibbs accused took an afghan plan from his home, stood him up and killed him. >> we had this guy by his compound. so we walked him out and sat him in place. okay, stand here. >> he was fully cooperating. >> yes. >> was he armed? >> no. not that we were aware of.

>> so you pulled him out of his place? >> he was -- inside, kinds of by his -- and he said [ bleep ] off, a little ways close to the far side of security. so i don't even know what the [ bleep ] was going on. >> oh, okay. i understand. >> and then -- >> where did you stand him? next to the wall? >> like next to the wall, like, behind cover and the grenade went off and you wouldn't feel a lot. -- for this guy and you know, he pulled out one of his grenades. american grenade, you know, popped it. throws the grenade and -- kills this guy. >> did you see him present any weapons or was he aggressive at you at all? did he -- >> no. not at all. nothing.

>> okay. >> corporal jeremy morlock's civilian attorney. >> i want you to tell me that this didn't happen. that this isn't true. can you? >> that three people were not killed? >> reporter: that members of the u.s. military didn't go out and three afghan civilians were killed for sport. >> you have -- you have the -- from what i understand -- the case file. you know what the witnesses in that file say, and what they say in their videos, but i -- that's what it sounds like. >> ali, the army alleges three civilians were killed between january and may of this year. morlock's attorney says his defense will lay out a scenario where his 22-year-old client,

jeremy morlock was brain damaged from prior ied attacks heavily using prescription drugs and smoking hash and under's influence and feared his commanding officer, staff sergeant gibbs. gibbs' attorney has not return calls to cnn. and a fear of calvin gibbs by others and a smokg has laced with opium almost on a daily basis. the pentagon is not commenting on the case beyond the charges filed, but cnn also learned the soldiers did take photographs, described as looking like hunting trophies with their kills, and the pentagon ordered an attorney involved in the case to return the photographs to military investigators. obviously they fear those getting out. corporal jeremy morlock is the first to answer charges in court. his article 32 hearing just about to get underway out on the west coast at fort lewis washington near tacoma. >> what an incredible story, drew.

we'll stay on top of of that to find out what come out of the hearing. thanks for bringing that to us, drew griffin. $42 billion set aside for small business. the white house hoping to get something else in return. i'll tell you straight ahead. she's back. christine romans. my partner in crime. she'll join me on the other side of the break. big oil and their backers are spending millions to scare us. saying it costs too much to break our dependence on oil. what they're really doing is putting our security at risk. my big brother went to iraq to keep us safe. he came home in a flag-draped coffin.

america lost another hero. big oil wants to talk about costs? don't let big oil lie to you about what our dependence really costs.

okay. in about half an hour president obama will sign a small business tax incentive bill. the bill includes abouts 12ds billion in tax cuts for small business and a $30 billion fund designed to give community banks more incentive to lend to those small businesses. all in the hope of creating jobs. my partner in crime christine romans sbak. what a treat to have you back. >> hi, ali. >> the treat is, that you walked by my desk this morning and

were -- trying to get my blackberry to work. wasn't working properly. you were telling me -- >> davp badgering you. put town the technology. talk about what's in the bill. this is a bill, they want to create half a million jobs with this. it's hard to target how many. they want to deliver jobs. what's in here? exciting things. a $30 billion lending fund at the treasury department. ultra cheap loans available for small business. $12 billion in tax breaks over the course of a decade. tax breaks for all kinds of different things. some is technical a few years ever gains, profits, pay income on the profits and things southern south a couple bad years -- >> idea, saving company some money. look, we know, you and i both discussed ever the stuff wrong with the economy the one most important to fix is jobs. in this country, small businesses have typically, traditionally, been at the forefront of hiring, creating new jobs. >> yes. >> i don't know whether this is such a different recession that that's changed.

we're hoping if you give tax breaks, small businesses a little extra, they'll use it to employ people. >> hoping that. at the same time, small businesses i talk to them, first thing they say, i need a confident customer. i want the tax breaks. would like cheap capital. >> not getting more stuff and do more stuff if nobody's buying. >> not big a new piece of equipment if nobody is buying my product. the tax breaks, buying new equipment. the latest cnn corporation polls, corporation polls, three quarters of americans say it feels like we're still in a resergs. one-third, still a serious recession. you know, the recovery, recession, rather -- nch >> 15 months ago ended. >> yeah. what's going on here? well, the small business needs a competent consumer. getting excited about at ali's desk. how do you buy a confident consumer? this particular tax bill? is it something else we don't know about? is it the first economic stimulus? something else after that? we can't write a bill that just

corrects everything. >> tells you we have to be confident. >> right. >> it is interesting, though, because some say businesses aren't hiring people because they haven't got k5078ers and the other side, people say businesses aren't hiring because they can't lend. can't get access to credit. this bill is trying to address credit as well. >> some say businesses aren't hiring because of a lot of uncertainty in the regulatory environment. trying to figure out health care reform. cross the treasurerhold and things like that. the threshold. sitting tight after two very tough years trying to hold on not necessarily grow, and a lot of people treading water because they feel that's the way to go, but this money available to community banks. >> yes. >> that's where the oxygen gets going through the economy. so that's where the administration and many others are hopeful you can get money moving, it can get into the hands of the bankers and bankers tell me they want to lend. some banks have the second look person. denied a loan. >> somebody looks as it again. >> so keep plucking away, folks.

>> great to have you back. >> nice to be back. >> see you every day and then on saturday and sunday on "your $$$$$" as well. you can join us on saturdays add 1:00 p.m. eastern, sundays 3:00 p.m. eastern on "your $$$$$" where we talk endlessly about this stuff, anything to do with money. bringing you up to speed. southwest airline is buying airtran for $1.4 billion. the move allows southwest to compete with delta at delta's home base in atlanta. the world's busiest airport and increases southwest's stake in other big cities like new york and boston. the deal still needs approval from shareholders and government regulators. a 112-year-old levee along the wisconsin river is failing putting as many as 100 homes in danger of flooding. people downsfreem near the city of portage urged to find high are ground. officials say the sand levee began giving way last night under pressure from rising waters. the river is expected to stay above flood stage for several days. and the leader of an atlanta area megachurch vows to fight

lawsuits he coerced four young men into sexual acts. bishop eddie long addressed his congregation. >> i feel like david against goliath. but i've got five rocks and i haven't thrown one yet. >> married and led a march against gay marriage in 2004. you seed label all over the place. organic. what does it mean and does it make a difference to your health? launching special series. etocracy, mind, body and wallet, when i come back.

cnn is taking a cross country food journey all this week. a special series, etock kraeshgs mind, body and wallet. getting fresh answers how our food is grown. the choices we make impact our health, state of mind, our budgets and talk about the pure joy of eating. this hour talking organic. according to the organic trade association in 1990 americans spent a billion dollars on organic foods and beverages. a little over 20 years ago. last year that number was 24 billion dollars. almost $25 billion. are organic products good for you, taste better or worse? john zarrella went to plantation florida for the story. >> reporter: take a look at this soil. rich in organic matter. it's perfects for growing organic products, and that's exactly what dan howard is doing back there. he's putting in his first crop of green beans. howard has seven acres here.

he'll get about 1,400 bushels of beans. i imagine when you're farming organically, soil preparation is pretty key? >> oh, very important. in fact, the world of organic farming is soil building. it's a constant effort to increase the organic matter in your soil. >> reporter: before beans, this field was for decades an orange grove. it's filled, howard says, with left behind organic matter, but it takes more than just good soil to label a product organic. >> they're getting a crop that's grown naturally without the use of chemicals, chemical fertilizers or chemical spray inputs, and that's it in a nutshell. >> reporter: dan's beans will start showing up in super markets just in time for thanksgiving, because of higher labor costs from hand weeding and restrictions on what dan can use to control pests, his beans

will cost a lot more. you've got a pound and a half of beans here, and you've got 12 ounces of beans here. these are $1.96 and these are $4.99. >> that's right. these are -- it is. it's a big difference, and that's a limitation for a lot of people to buy organic. >> reporter: we went with sonya angel a licensed dietitian to a local public supermarket. >> now in terms of nutrients, there isn't really a significant difference between the nutrients of buying organic or non-organic, but it's the fact that these are safer, because they don't have the pesticides in them. that's the big difference. >> reporter: if you want organic but budget is a limiting factor, sonya's tip, buy spinach, blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables you don't peel. >> the ones you peel, not so much important. >> like the bananas. you don't have to worry about pesticides on the bananas because you're -- >> peeling them off.

>> reporter: if you're wondering about flavor, we had publix chef saute organic beans an conventionally grown beans. you should try a taste test, too. i'll keep my opinion to myself. john zarrella, cnn, plantation, florida. >> i'm totally loving this etocracy thing. complete coverage, head to cnn.com/etocracy. on there you'll see a feature called 5 at 5:00. i was on that feature a couple days ago talking about foods that make me smile and cry. coming up in the next half hour, how to get your organic food as a discount. oliver stone's new wall street movie is a big hit for him and me. we'll talk about the movie. my big moment on the screen coming up next. my special guest, a.j. hammer. before rogaine, my solution to the problem was to go ahead

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in case you're wondering, if i couldn't talk about the movie a little more, i'm actually going to. gordon gekko, got out of prison. rolling in money again. oliver stone's new movie "wall street: money never sleeps" did very, very well at the box office. a.j. hammer, host of "showbiz tonight" on our sister network, hln. nice to see you on the show. the movie did well? >> how does it feel to have the number one mother at the box office, ali? >> happy about that. >> $19 million is what is took in. actually respectable, on many levelsone, it's an all-themed film. there was a new family film out,

usually those reign supreme at the box office. and it was mostly adults over 30, about 65% of the audience was an adult audience. 50/50 male-female split. when the original came out, that film took in about $4 million. ali, this was great. i should point out, a personal best for director oliver stone. he's nerve her a number one opening at the box office and this is the most money any film he's ever done has opened at. so -- >> you followed it closely. you had a chance to talk to oliverstone? >> i did, about many things but began our interview with the most pressing question of all. we should roll that out right now. >> you cast my colleague and friend ali velshi in this film. one question -- what were you thinking? >> ali was fun to work with. he's bright. he's happy. he's upbeat. he represent as very important point of view in the film but i love his argument with anthony who's also on. i told him he could be a star. i said, get out of atlanta,

though. snay new york. this is where the action is. >> reporter: absolutely. i'd like to quote from you this interview with ali. you said when i saw you i knew that bald dome was going to go all it's way. >> atlanta, go all the way. >> reporter: for me, and i've known ali for year, just a natural. it's not as easy to do as people think. >> no, it's very hard, and he's bright. you know what it is? he's interested. at least conveys that he's interested in the world. >> now, oliver stone, ali said he hopes you stay in new york, because this is where the action is. and here we are in new york, coincidence? i wonder what's going on? >> i want to be available when the casting calls come in. >> did you do a back-end deal? can you go in and renegotiate your contract? >> try me as a cab driver next time. >> point, not that easy to simply be yourself in a film. >> harder than i thought 20 be me. i thought it would be natural. i was doing the stuff i was

doing on tv. i was nervous, a little tougher and intimidated by directors movie sets. you've done it before. you know? >> i have, just to pat you on the back. really, ali, this is about you. milk it while we can. the number one movie at the box office. when the camera stopped rolling, sitting down with oliver he went on to say how good he thought were you and how fun to work with. you bring a great perspective. back to 2008, all that happening in wall street that impacted what was done in this movie. you were iconic pup don't seek it out, but it was the case. >> happy if i nerve verify to do what i did in 2008, reporting that news none of us understood at that time. thank you for that. great to see you. come back and see us again. >> congratulations. number one. >> always catch a.j. show excellent. "showbiz tonight" on our sister network hln. thanks. >> you got it. the taliban. afghanistan looks to its future drawing on its past. building its first, believe it

or not, first modern railroad. going globe trekking to afghanistan after this break. and launched behindtheburner.com. we create and broadcast content and then distribute it across tv, the web, and via mobile. i even use the web to get paid. with acceptpay from american express open, we now invoice advertisers and receive payments digitally. and i get paid on average three weeks faster. booming is never looking for a check in the mail. because it's already in my email. [ but aleve can last 12 hours. tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hours. and aleve was proven to work better on pain than tylenol 8 hour. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? good, how are you? [ male announcer ] aleve. proven better on pain.

time now for glob trekking. in the midst of the war against the taliban, afghans are building their first modern railroad. this comes as powerful neighbors struggle to gain rights to afghanistan's vast iron, copper and other mineral deposits. ivan watson is there with more on this story. >> reporter: a sight not seen in afghanistan in nearly a century. a locomotive rolling down the tracks. this nearly completed railroad, a symbol of hope for a country

suffering through 30 years of war. >> this good news, and this connect afghanistan to world, and i want to, that train, for all of afghanistan. >> reporter: the last time afghanistan had a railroad was in downtown kabul in the 1920s. today this rusty little locomotive is all that's left. >> yes. transported by this train. >> reporter: a museum curiosity for visiting afghans. have you ever seen a train before? >> no. in afghanistan, no. this is the first time. >> reporter: due to poverty, isolation and conflict, afghanistan skipped the age of railroads. afghans went from riding horseback to traveling by car. relying on trucks to ship goods down a dangerous network of roads. but the 75 kilometer-long

railroad in northern afghanistan could revolutionize transport in this land blocked country. this new railroad is part of an effort to build a new trade corridor from central asia to southeast asia, across the war-torn country of afghanistan. if they succeed in extending the railroad it makes shipping cheaper and safer and more energy efficient than traveling by truck. investors say railroads will be essential. if afghanistan is ever to tap into vast deposits of mineral resources. >> the mining sector here is potentially huge and whether it's iron, copper or coal, and there are markets across the region that are desperately seeking to import materials from afghanistan. >> reporter: this month as state mining companies from china signed a proposal to build a $ billion to $7 billion railroad

across eastern afghanistan, but the proposed railroad runs right through taliban country. it may never be built, chinese officials say, if the growing insurgency isn't stopped. afghanistan's newest railroad would be a juicy target for taliban attacks. it is heavily guarded by armies of police protecting this latest train project from becoming yet another sad exhibit in afghanistan's museum of tragic history. >> ivan joins us from kabul. good to see you. good story. tell me, you sort of ended on that idea because it runs through taliban country it may never get built. how do they address that? the obvious solution is subdue the taliban. that's not happening as easily as everybody would like. >> reporter: no. if anything, the violence is worse than ever, ali. i asked the head that chinese state mining company, you know, how are you going to protect and

investment of $6 billion to $7 billion? he said we signed an agreement, two years for a fecesability study if the security isn't better we have to definitely re-examine whether or not to build this jind new railroad. ali? >> ivan, you mentioned the chinese. we know iran is involved. is the u.s. involved? potential partners in this railroad? >> reporter: well, there are a number of different projects. the u.s. state department has been pushing this idea of building this north-south corridor through afghanistan to link up central asia and south asia. so it's been sponsoring, for example, bridges between afghanistan and former soviet republics like tachs stan trying to open up trade across this war-torn country. a lot of people argue, if you want peace you need the neighbors to buy into it for them to have a reason to have stability and peace, for them to be basically making money. it's an interesting development to have the chinese coming in

potentially putting down billions of dollars and ideally you would want other countries, like pakistan and iran, which might be tempted to arm insurgents instead to work for disarming them and try to make money off this country instead of funding fighting here. >> yeah. an interesting dilemma. whether trade and commerce actually does more than the war efforts, we'll have to wait and see. ivan watson, thanks for joining us from kabul, afghanistan. usually the expression is, expression phonesy an insult, but not today in our big i, an invention that turned the smartphone into something that could save people's eyesight. m. come on. isn't it time an auto insurer gave it to you straight? that's why you should talk to state farm. but not yet. first, talk to any one of the 40 million drivers who already have state farm. 40 million. yeah, that's more than geico and progressive combined. by a lot. 40 million drivers, more savings,

and discounts up to 40%. where else are you gonna get discounts like that? but first, talk to your neighbors. chances are, they're one of the 40 million. then call a state farm agent or go online for a free discount double-check. they'll find you discounts you didn't even know you deserved. like discounts for having a safe car. so go ahead. check with your neighbors. then call a state farm agent at 1-800-state-farm or go to discountdoublecheck.com. ♪

today's big i is all about is, an m.i.t. team developed a cheap portable i examination system requiring a smartphone and $2 plastic dense attachment. huge po neshl developing countries that lack expensive optometry equipment, but as we've learn ar wash in mobile phones. as a result you can use mobile phones as a diagnostic. nearly 700 million in the

developing year have uncorrected vision impairment that affects things they have to do every day, and it ups their risk of blindness if not treated. an associate professor at the m.i.t. media lab. the famous m.i.t. media lab. he joins me now. ramish, interesting, we don't have doctors everywhere or labs or clinics everywhere, but cell phones have been able to go where people can't go all through the developing world. why not put a dying nofrg tool poor eyeglasses on to a smart phone? >> exactly. exactly. i mean, all we have a a dollar clip jon eyepiece that goes on top of your che phone. you look through. click on a few buttons it calculates and gishs you data for eye prescription for near sightsedness, farsightedness an stick ma tim. >> interestingly enough, doesn't need to read your eye do to it. it's giving you something to look at and you are using the phone to -- the response is from

you as data to the phone? >> exactly. i mean, the key here is that for cell phones, resolution improved to such an extent, because people want to watch hd movies on their cell phone display, that the pixels have gone to micrometers half the width of a human hair and cell phones can start doing tasks that could previously be done only by the highest end scientific instruments. >> tell me how it works. you put your eye up there and wrap are you doing or seeing when you look at the screen? like when you go for an eye test,determining whether it clear or fuzzy? >> right. put, the task is challenges because you discern which line is sharpest. this thing still costs hundreds of dollars to make it happen.

on the other hand what we have done, as we have blurriness or -- >> ramissh. hood on one second. the president of the united states is at the white house, signing the bill we told you about earlier into law. this is the small business tax breaks. let's listen in while he does that. >> i am thrilled to be here on what is an exciting day. i want to begin by recognizing the members of congress who fought so hard to pass this bill on behalf of america's small businesses. a lot of work was involved in this obviously, but there are a few folks who are here onstage i want to make sure to acknowledge. first of all, my dear friend and my senator from the great state of illinois, senator dick durbin. a champion for businesses in louisiana and around the

country, senator mary landrieu is here. >> okay. we'll keep one ear on that. our producers will, to let us know if the president says anything we need to bring to your attention. for the moment, thanking a bunch of folks and then will sign this into law. back to ramish, associate professor at the m.i.t. media lab. showing us a chart when i left you on your left, my right saying that while that is still used, this phone is using its resolution, this technology that you've introduced uses the phone's resolution and the input of the user to determine your eye prescription in a place where you otherwise can't get access to an optometrist or ophthalmologi ophthalmologist? >> exactly. and deciding which line is sharpest, when you look through this phone it will show you a set of lines. and you go to those lines.

when there are a line, you hit. so because we're making this into something more objective, anything is line lines, the reserves are more accurate. >> when is this available and how will it be available? used to download be apps for a certain amount of money. this is a little different. it's a hardware app? >> yes.app. >> yes. so the clip-on is extremely chip. you can buy it for a dollar or two. and our initial goal is to make it available in countries where more than half a billion people have -- lack corrective vision. initial goal is to provide the software app for free and provide the clip-ones to ngos. but i think we are -- this is an indication that the phones can now be used beyond pure communication or microand by using the hardware of the phones now i can imagine where we have

an hardware app store where you might by a dollar or two clip-on in the hardware app store and that can be used for health and productivity. >> thank you for reminding us. part of the point of this is if you're hard of sight, it contributes to a literacy and that contributes to poverty. i love the work that you do at the m.i.t. media lab. for more information go to my blog, cnn.com/ali. is the recession over yet? analysts say yes. a lot of other people say absolutely not. that's sure to make a big difference in the upcoming election. our cnn politics update coming up next.se i could go to quickenloans.com and sign all of the paper work i needed to take care of. and it didn't have to be between 9 and 5 -- which doesn't always work for me. the people at quicken loans really care. it was nice to being able to call them whenever i needed to answer questions. they were on it. they were on top of everything. quicken loans made everything super convenient and easy. so the fact that they could work with my schedule was just wonderful.

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see your local chevrolet dealer. it is time for a cnn equals politics update right now. cnn national political correspondent jessica yellin at the cnnpolitics.com desk in washington. good monday to you. what's crossing right now? >> hey, ali.

my favorite race to watch is in california partly because there is so much money being spent there but also because i'm from california and you cannot get over the negative ads. it's worth going to youtube to check out the negative ads. the latest polling there shows that the democrats are actually pulling ahead in the state. jerry brown run for governor against meg whitman. she spent $119 million of her own money. up by five points in the l.a. times survey. barbara boxer, senate candidate, up eight points. but the republicans on both sides say, hey, hey, hey, too early to tell. they say this poll looks too heavily at democrats. they are counting democrats to turn out more than they expect. it's still very early days. go to youtube, check out the ads. ali, why does everyone in washington care so much about the census when most of us just find it annoying when they knock on your door? here's why. a new survey found that base

tond demographic results, based on how much the population is changing, it looks like so-called red states are going to pick up more votes than some so-called blue states. so remember, we determine how many people go into the house of representatives based on population and more red states are gaining population than blue states right now. among those that are going to pick up some new vote, arizona, georgia, nevada, south carolina, utah, and washington. some of those that look to lose some, massachusetts, new jersey, new york. also be losing votes in the electoral college if all of this holds up. and then, ali, i put in the category of you needed a poll for that? i don't need to tell you this, that most economists say that the recession has ended but 74% of americans in our latest survey say they don't feel like it's over. >> right. >> big news? not really. >> and until they do, it's the same thing going into a recession. until they do they don't open up their wallets and start spending. that gets us into the same pickle we're in.

jessica, good to see you as always. your next update is just an hour away. all right, save some dough and get some free food. we'll show you how after the break after we continue our specific series eatocracy, mind, body, and wall lit. i love my curves.

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walked into this restaurant or going to see this movie. as a special series, eatocracy, mind, body and wallet. they promote healthy eating. digital producer derek dodge has details from a farmer's market in atlanta. take a look. >> we're at peachtree road farmer's market in atlanta, georgia, where i'm going to demonstrate for you how to use foursquare to promote healthy eating. get out and support their local farmer's market. you can check in at one of over 6,000 farmers markets in the united states on your phone at foursquare. find your location. check in and download the cnn healthy eater badge. you said these ones are spicier, right? >> they are. sometimes around the seeds, there might be a little bit more eat to them. >> seed. let's try the sun dried tomato. on your mobile phone you come to farmer's market and check in. let's your friends know online where you are. if you check in like this one

you're going to get a special cnn healthy eater badge. it's a fun way to come out to farcer's market. >> you checked in on foursquare? >> yes. there's my healthy eater badge. >> excellent. you get your choice of several prizes today. you have a box of whole wheat pasta, mustard greens, pumpkin, pesto. >> thank you so much. >> absolutely. >> ali, so go to foursquare.com/cnn and follow us and go to farmer's markets and you can download the cnn healthy eater badge when you check? >> free stuff. discounts and free feed. good to see you. a new run down, a new hour. we're following two major developing stories. two airlines are announcing plans to tie the knot on the same week that continental and unite rd one airlines. what are these new unions in the sky mean for you? i'll tell you. also, backhoes and bulldozers are up and running

again at an israeli settlement in the west bank. will the resumed construction derail mideast peace talks? once again, a flarl time disappearing, not really going away. airtran, a discount carrier based in orlando, florida, is being bought by southwest. the dallas-based carrier known for doing things its own way and often quite successfully. southwest is paying $1.4 billion in cash and stock. when you figure in air trans's debt and lease obligations the price comes to $3.4 billion. at the moment, each carrier flies to 69 u.s. cities but southwest is quite a bit larger. last year, for instance, southwest, which you can see on the west, flew more than 100 million passengers. airtran on the right flew 24 million passengers. southwest flew 544 aircraft. airtran has 138. the vast majority of both of those aircraft, however, are 737 s, making it easy to maintain team. if regulators and shareholders

approve it will be the third airline consolidation in two years. united and continental are due to close their merger in days from now. today that title belongs to delta which acquired northwest back in 2008. enough with the facts and figures, what about fares and fees? joining me now from dallas is rick, the ceo of faircompare.com. rick tracks airfares and he has seen them going up along with fees. what's the effect of two discount airliners joining hands? does that do what we normally think happens when airlines consolidate, taking fairs up, or not necessarily in this case? >> it's not necessarily true, it's hard to tell because we haven't seen one of these in a while, or ever, to my knowledge, actually. they are setting typically the lowest price point. these airlines have plst gotten much more sophisticated. if they see their planes

completely full they're going to raise their prices just as high as their legacy brethren. >> let's talk about southwest effect. when they go into a new market, they can sometimes bring the prices down as the other regular gas si airlines try and compete with them. we trying to see that. the prices going up or are we likely to see some prices going down? >> absolutely. some will go down. test the markets with the new southwest brand, especially atlanta with no bag fees out of atlanta. i expect them to do all sorts of weird and wonderful marketing things. more importantly, they're going to go three a couple of antitrusts. the reservations systems are different. this is not going to be an easy merger. >> let's talk a little bit about the fees group mentioned fees. let's talk about fairs and seens, you've seen ste difficult increases in saircraft.

tell me a little bit about some of the fees and fares. >> yeah, i mean, fees are going to be there. if people think that fees are going to go away, forget about it. people are going to have to start getting used to getting around these fees. we're going to see the legacy airlines continue with these fees. we're talking $9 billion projected this year in these fee revenues p. it's not going away. interestingly enough, airtran has a lot of these fees like bag fees and a change fee which probably will go away. so consumers on airtran are fixing to get a little break on pricing for sure out of all of the cities they fly out of. bottom line, fees are not going to go away. >> thanks very much. we'll follow these dwobmentes closely and see ho they end up affecting our viewers in the airline countries. our sound effect comes from the side of air travel that nobody really wants to think about. delta connection flight 4951 on route from atlanta to white

plains, new york. the flight crew noticed something wrong. here's what the pilot told air traffic control. >> 4951. >> 4951, new york approach. go ahead. >> yeah. we can't -- we've been running down the checklist and talking to our maintenance that approach our maintenance and dispatcher and we have not been able to get the land gear down. we should be able to proceed over jfk and ask for an emergency landing over there. it's completely obvious, i just want to confirm, we are declaring an emergency. >> that didn't sound all that urgent. that's because that was the mark of an experienced pilot. >> check out the more urgent tone of a flight attendant who had to con slins those passengers that they were not yet out of danger. this is as the plane was touching down, minutes later. >> heads down! stay down!

heads down! stay down! [ applause ] b. >> you can see there, the right landing gear was stuck. that was the right wing tip you saw so sparks, throwing off some sparks. everybody got out safely. nobody was hurt. fighting hunger in the classroom could be the answer of failing grades and discipline problems at our schools. we'll talk about how to fix this problem, free of charge.

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i want to are bring you some news we're working on getting confirmation on. reuters is report that north korean leader kim jong-il has named his son as a general in the country. this is being reported according to reuters by official state media in north korea. it's first mention of the son who is considered the heir to kim jong-il. and it says he named his sister to general, as well. so we're trying to find out whether this is a step in the succession of kim jong-il. we'll get more information to you on that as soon as we get it. our cnn team working to confirm that report. cnn is taking a cross-country food journey this week. kind of feel like i'm taking a cross-country food journey every week. we sent reporting teams to every part of the country and beyond. our mission is to get fresh answers on how the food is grown, how the choice we make has impact on our health, state of mind and budgets and pure joy

of eating. we're also taking our chock talk segment into the school cafeteria. we talk about public education every day. for many needy kids their only meal of the day is a free or reduced lunch at school. what about breakfast? a lot of people say it's the most important meal of the day yet half of students who qualify for free school meals are actually not getting breakfast. joining us now is gary davis. he's the founder of the got breakfast foundation. >> good to see you. ali. 22 million eligible children in this country, eligible for breakfast and lunch. 18.5 million of these children are participating in the lunch program, yet 10 million are being served breakfast. most of these children are in need children who come from families who are deemed poverty. >> tell me why they're not getting it, the kids are plot taking advantage of it or the schools are not supplying it? >> combination of many circumstances. first, the cafeterias are too small to accommodate the entire

school op population for breakfast. for lunch, they have staggered lunch periods. for breakfast, it's not practical. get off the school bus, rush into the cafeteria. 20% can be accommodated. more important, once a child gets to adolescent stage, no matter how hungry he or she may be, the last meal may be the lunch the day before. they don't want to show the peers that they're hungry. >> how big a problem is that? for how many people is the only meal they get at school? >> well, right now we have food-insecure children. the amount of food-insecure children in this country is approaching 15 million food-insecure children. in many cases, the only meal they get is the lunch. but all of them could be receiving breakfast and lunch every day. and sadly, there's a tremendous shortfall there. >> what about the efforts to get breakfast to kids who can pay?

why is that happening? >> well, it's, again, it brks one of -- we propose universal mandated classroom breakfast. the key to feeding the kids breakfast every day is to mandate classroom breakfast. bring the breakfast to the children. we can't depend upon the children going to the breakfast because it just doesn't work. so we propose a classroom breakfast initiative. school districts that are trying classroom breakfast, such as san diego, milwaukee, newark, knowledge knowledge, they know they increased from 22% to over 90% if. the difference in discipline, the difference in test scores and eventually graduation rates is gigantic. >> so you think that this issue of feeding kids properly can really, really improve their performance? >> we know it can. in maryland, maryland meals for achievement, every year when the state of maryland test their students they feed every child in their school district

breakfast each day so that they will test higher. so it's proven. wherever schools implement classroom breakfast they do better in school, less discipline problems and we're filling empty stomachs. >> gary davis, good to see you. founder of the got breakfast foundation and the founder and ceo. for complete coverage by the way of eatocracy, head to cnn.com/eatocracy. straight ahead, missionaries who don't go to far off lands. stay with us. we'll have that on the other side. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 absolutely. i mean, these financial services companies

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obama signed the small business aid bill after nearly a year of discussions. it gives $12 billion in tax breaks and creates a $30 billion fund that community banks can access to lend to small businesses. if you want to understand why this matters so much to the president and to the rest of this, it boils down to jobs. small business is often called the engine of job growth in america. and the white house is hoping to create half a million jobs with this program. the economics are pretty simple. you lend money to a small business so we can expand and, in turn, hires workers to fill that expansion. in this case, the argument is that a credit crunch still exists for small businesses. this will help those businesses borrow money and help them do that. this isn't being welcomed by everyone. credit valt ant the real issue. it's the lack of customers, lack of consumer spending. no customers, no real need to expand your business. taxes and jobs are the two hottest election issues. when you hear the word missionary you probably think of someone working in a far off third world country but these days we need domestic

missionaries more than ever and the black church is stepping up. soledad o'brien has met one man who rallies black americans to celebrate their own communities. >> i'mjackie robinson of missions. >> leroy barber is a man with a calling and president of mission here. >> we do not see through our eyes or hear through our ears. >> reporter: it's a year long ministry and volunteer program for christian young adults in the united states. >> there is a goal for people coming to know jesus. there is probably another strong goal of things are not right in the world, and i want to be a part of making them right. >> how many african-americans are involved in mission year's missionary work. >> generally 5% of year or less sometimes. >> why does it matter? >> i don't think it's good for a kid growing up in a urban neighborhood to only see white faces coming to serve. >> this is where i'm staying right now. >> reporter: 22-year-old harold

boyd left his chicago home to spend the year in atlanta. he lives on $12,000 that he has to raise himself. >> i do believe that with every relationship that i've built, that i will be showing people that i'm in the same struggle as you can. >> i don't have all the answers. >> reporter: he's the only minority on his team. it's not surprising when you consider the vast majority of missionaries are white. >> in terms of the missionary percentage of african-americans, it's far less than 1%. >> reporter: jim sutherland studies missionary work and the black church. >> many black churches do a fairly good job of taking care of their own local communities, but the vocation of missionary in the african-american church is essentially off the radar. it's basically not there. >> reporter: so why are there so few african-americans who are involved in missionary work? >> i think the way missions is traditionally done is you raised a port to do it. >> money. >> money.

how you work outtaking a year off, which means not working, not earning an income. it's a hard deal. >> reporter: for many afri african-americans it's difficult to make this enormous financial sacrifice. for harold boyd, it's worth the sacrifice. >> what really inspired me with the work of missions, of being able to see what's out there and see what people need, i'm not going to stab anybody with the gospel. here, here, have it. you know. but i'm called to serve here. i'm going to serve. >> reporter: reporting for "in america," soledad o'brien, atlanta. the black church has fought for civil and human rights and is now waging a war on doubt. "all mighty debt" coming october 21, 9:00 p.m. eastern. flood waters pour in a wisconsin neighborhood. we're going do check in with the cnn severe weather center to see what is next. sorry i'm late fellas.

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about right now is portage, although south of town is where we've been focused most of the day. now, i just talked to the dnr. greg matthews of the dnr told me what was going on. there is a levee and it's not like we think about in new orleans. this is a sand and wood and nothing else structure that was built by farmers back in 1890. 1890, to keep the water out of their farm fields. no one has really updated this thing since then that because there hasn't been a big enough flood really to worry about it. portage, the city here, protect tethed by the levee, completely fine. everything up here completely fall. it's the smallish areas that could be flooding here, especially near a town called -- an area called blackhawk. and blackhawk is where we're seeing boils, think about the word, in the levee. that means water is so pressurized on the water side, the riverside of the levee, it's

pushing itself through and under the dirt or the sand and it's bubbling out the other side. so it's boiling out, literally out the other side. wtmj, our of fillaffiliate is td they're taking pictures and sending them to us. we will get that video as soon as we can. we will get that to you showing you what's going on there in the south areas of portage, wisconsin. all of that water still has to go someplace else. it's not just going to stop in portage. it has to go all of the way down the river and as it's goes down the river, other places downstream will flood as well. something else we've been looking at significantly bigger issues here in honduras and anythi nicaragua where matthew stopped. came in, came in, came in, bang, it's done. some of it's thunderstorm activity trying to reform here in the southern caribbean. or at least western caribbean. and it could, especially to the computers, could drift its way

on up into some very warm water. this is unused water here. we love to see big storms out here churn for days. uses up all the hot water. then there's no more real chance of cat 5s out in because the heat is all used up. the heat content in the gulf of mexico is not used up. if we see something build in the gulf of mexico in the next couple of day, it could be something to watch for florida. >> chad, thanks very much for that. bad news for president obama's mideast peace offenses after a ten-month freeze, israel has resumed settlement construction in the west bank. that was something the palestinians say would make them walk away from the talks.

time for "globe trekking." nato tear strikes killed 15 militants in pakistan's eastern tribal area. it happened over the weekend after insurgents attacked an afghan security post and fled across the border into pakistan. nato defended the strike on grounds of hot pursuit, saying it has the right to cross a few miles into pakistan airspace if its forces are attacked. pakistan says the attack violated the sovereignty. it's not clear which militant group crossed into afghanistan but nato believes they were member of an al qaeda-linked group. israel, a setback for the new u.s. brokered mideast peace talks. israel resume the construction in the west bank. the obama administration had urged the israelis not to end a ten-months moratorium. those talks were the first between israelis and palestinians in nearly two years. cnn's paula hancock is following developments. she joins us now from jerusalem.

paula? >> reporter: ali, driving around west bank this monday, it was very clear that the settlers have started building once again. we saw it in more than one settlement across the whole of the west bank. and this has caused disappointment to many people, not just palestinians who have called for this freeze to be extended. we've heard disappointed, as you say, from the u.s., european union, united nations, all sides wanted israel to extend this ten-month settlement freeze. we heard from the president, mahmoud abbas, today as well. he was in france talking to president sarkozy. he said he wanted another three or four months. he said the ten-month moratorium on settlement construction happened when there were no talks. so now there are talks, it's even more important. now, of course, it's left palestinian president did a bit of a sticky situation. remember, he did say that f. they start building again, we'll walk away from peace talks. they have started building

again, but now he says he wants another week to think about it. there's an arab league meeting next week. he's going to find out what the arab countries think he should do, have a unified stance against this and figure out if it's even worth having the peace talks with israel while settlement construction keeps going on. ali? >> paula, just give me a little bit of context here. it would seem these settlement talks would have some life on them and all of the parties of it really felt the settlements were going to increase tensions. why is it not a simple matter for netanyahu to say, wait a minute, stop these things until we think we're losing traction in the peace talks? >> reporter: well, the first answer is the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu supported the settlement enterprise within the west bank. and also, bear in mind, his coalition is a fairly right wing coalition, very pro-settler coalition. he's under a fair bit of pressure back home. he can talk to the palestinians

but there are some within his coalition that don't even think he should be talking and certainly don't think he should have greepd to a that ten-month settlement freeze. really he felt a lot of pressure from this side. this fact is he felt more pressure from the rest of the world, the whole of the international community really trying to persuade him to extend this settlement freeze. what he has done is said nothing. he brought out a statement but didn't even mention the word settlement. he's probably hoping this will blow over. certainly it's unlikely that it is going to blow over as the palestinians and the arab countries have such a problem with settlement building on the occupied west bank, land which palestinians want for their future state. ali? >> paula, thanks very much for that. we'll continue to cover this closely along with you. paula hancock in jerusalem. she lost half her sight but he regained all her hope. mission possible is up next. [ male announcer ] the financial headlines

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let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories. southwest airlines is buying airtran for$1.4 million. the world's busiest airport in atlanta. the deal still needs approval from shareholders and government regulators. 120-year-old levee along the wisconsin river is failing putting as many as 100 homes in danger of flooding. people downstream near the city of portage have been urged to find higher ground. officials say the sand levee began giving way last night under pressure from rising waters. the river is expected to stay above flood stage for several

days. and the leader of an atlanta area mega church vows to fight lawsuits claiming he coerced four young men into sex he acts. eddie long addressed the allegations yesterday in his packed sanctuary. >> i feel like david against goliath, but i got five rocks and i haven't thrown one yet. >> long has repeatedly preached against gay marriage. mission possible now, explosion in iraq took marine reservist's eye sending her into a severe and lengthy bout of depression. she went to project odyssey that helps them deal with combat stress. nancy got her hope back and is now bringing it back to these. nancy, good to see you again. you and i met another time when you were going to be here and breaking news kicked our discussion out of the way. good to see you back. >> thank you. >> tell me a little bit about this project.

>> project odyssey is a pdst pretreat, week long, between 14 or 16 male or females. helps them integrate back into civilian life and show them they can still do things they used to do before they were injured mentally. >> what is the stress? what kinds of stress rest you dealing at that point? >> we know a lot of men and welcome home physically injured but we don't see the unseen scars, which is the mental illness they have. stressors could be triggers. smells or scents or tastes. we try to help them cope with those triggers that they have on a daily busy and not let them isolate themselves and give them outdo outdoor activities. >> what happened to you? you signed up for the marine reserves in 2003. april of 2003. >> sure did. >> i guess by about september 2004 you got a pretty last-minute call up. >> yeah. well, i was given 36 hours notice to deploy over to iraq baz my sergeant wasn't able to. i had to take his spot.

which a marine is always ready. i packed my gear and i left. >> sure. >> and 2005, february of 200200i was at my fuel farm. a mortar hit the base pretty close to where i was. due to the injuries, i ultimately losing my right eye because of that. >> you had surgery. you obviously got a new eye and -- but there was more to it than that. you were having trouble. it sent you into depression. >> sure. i was a 25-year-old female, no less, now i had this d disfigurement of not having an eyeball in my head. for four months i wasn't allowed to wear a prosthetic because i had to heal. life still goes on, ready or not. my brother got married, i had to go with that. i completely isolated myself. left myself in the room. like most people, self medicate. i didn't think there was

anything else out there are to me. >> one of the things that you are involved in that help others? >> sure. el with, i got into introduced through wounded warrior through project odyssey, an all female one to help me out. i ended up loving it so much that i ended up going back to school with the help of the wounded warrior project. i wasn't happy with what i was doing until my boss now asked me to come work for the organization and basically start where i started. and that's what i do today, is i have all of these men and welcome into my project odyssey basically show them, listen, this is what happened to me. it took years for me and i'm still healing. i'm in the healing plo process. but that's what it took for me to get that step into life. >> you were a toughie to start with. you described yourself a tomboy. >> definitely a tomboy, four uncles, two brothers growing up, no female influence at all. >> what's this? >> this is -- this is how wounded warrior project started in 2003 by veterans themselves. this is how we welcome the men

and welcoming home. we're at walter reed, balboa, and out in germany where they did a smaller one. basically just saying, hey, welcome home. we know you're injured and we know you don't have time right now but when you get a chance, here are some comfort items, information, give us a call. >> is there usually resistance to getting help? >> yes, there is. >> you're all tough. you've gone over to fight a war. >> we can get through this. i think what really hits you when you're back in the home states, you're like, what do i do now? especially when the military says you're not fit for duty anymore and you joined at 17, you wanted to do this for a career and now what do you do? 21 years old and injured and you have nowhere to turn. that's where the resistance comes and they feel like they're useless comes. >> it's tougher in a recession. >> definitely, yes. >> nancy, great to see you. i'm glad we got a chance to talk. thanks for the great work you do. nancy is a benefits liaison,

former lance corporal in the marines. one of the things that nancy talks about is sometimes there's resistance at getting help. maybe if you know somebody who is a wound eed warrior or if yo are, check out my blog, cnn.com/ali. we posted all the information about the wounded war yoor progr war year program there. sometimes it can be as easy to make a phone call before you're in a system and someone is helping you out. new economic poll numbers could add up to trouble for president obama and the democrats. we'll talk about that coming up next. 1965, a lot of good things came out that year

like medicare. this year, like always, we'll have our guaranteed benefits. and with the new healthcare law, more good things are coming: free check-ups, lower prescription costs, and better ways to protect us and medicare from fraud. see what else is new. i think you're gonna like it.

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feels like forever since i have seen him. hello, ed henry, our senior white house correspondent here for the stakeout at the white house. how are you, my friend? >> i'm doing great. you still living off the high of the wall street movie? this is a big deal for you. it's cool. >> i am waiting to get off the show so i can put my phone back on and take the casting calls that are surely coming in rapidly. >> did you spend the whole weekend watching the movie, getting the tickets receipt up? >> over and over and over. have you seen it yet?

>> i haven't seen it yet. i know you're going to be disappointed in me in saying that. i was wondering how much you're saying a.j. hammer to ask oliver stone about your role. >> that was a good set-up conversation. yeah, that was good. you've had a pretty exciting day. not the same as being in a movie. you were there when the president was signing the small biz tax cut. i'm sure for you that was pretty exciting. >> that was pretty exciting for me, ali. i can see from this moment forward pretty much any accomplishment or any news event i cover, anything i succeed at or fail out is going to be measured about your movie role. i can deal with that. >> only on -- only until my next movie role. >> only until -- i thought you were going to say until i'm in a movie. you skipped right past that and said only until your second role. that's good. i see how you think. in all seriousness, i think this will be helpful for small businesses. small business tax cuts. number two, maybe more

importantly, small business lending. ten of billions of dollars to go into communities. you heard this story, you told the stories about how many small businesses will come up to this president, by the way at town hall meetings, i want to hire people, invest in my company and yet i can't get the bank to loan me more money. this money is going to be targeted not to the big banks but community banks all around the country. now, to get it passed, they had to overcome some opposition on the republican side and the president made a big deal about saying that there were two republicans in the senate who eventually supported democrats on this. and that got it through. and what i'm hearing from white house people is you're going to hear the president saying that a lot in the coming days as 4th hits the m campaign trail, hitting four states. he's going to really be laying out the fact that it's republican opposition has been out there. and this weekend, john boehner was on fox news sunday and when he was asked about the pledge to america, the republicans laid out and pressed for solutions on social security, medicare, other big issues, boehner was basically saying, look, this is

not about solutions. talking about the depth of the problem. hearing from democratic adviser, you're going to hear the president jumping all over that. >> let's talking about polls. when we -- before we were in a recession and the public was saying according to polling that we're in one thanks behaved like they were in a recession. they stopped spending. now we're apparently in a recession. new polling numbers suggest that a lot of people still think we're in a recession. 74% say we're still in a recession. 25% say no. is that negativity or affecting how the white house is making decisions? >> well, it's affecting how they're making it because, look, there may be negativity in there. the bottom line is that's what matters more. you know better than anyone, even if officially now we've been told by economists the recession over, it was over months ago. when people are still feeling the recession in their bones, in their pocket books, recession is

still going on for all intents and purposes. that's what the white house, that's how they're operating politically. the second number in the poll that they're also going to pay attention to in the white house is one basically asking do you think the president's policies have made the economy better. when you only have 36% say yes, it's made the situation better, 61% saying no, it has not made it better, this is the president's conundrum. he feels that it's going to take more time for these policies to take hold. does he have -- is it going to take longer than 36 days though? that's when the mid-term elections are coming. they're coming pretty fast. that's why the president has been down the road, four states this week. he's doing to be in new mexico tonight. iowa, wisconsin, as well as richmond, virginia. the next few days you're going to see him really amp this up, ali. >> speak about amping it up, nice job from you, my friend. good to see you again. >> well, you know, i don't know if it's a hollywood style performance but, you know. >> excellent. award winning, no question about that. ed, good to see you, my friend.

listen, we're going to try out -- thank you, yes, we're up for an emmy award tonight. if i don't tell you about that tomorrow, don't bring it up. >> well, yeah. you know, i'm just a little worried that what did oliver stone call you, the bald dome? >> the bald dome is going all the way. >> i'm just quoting him, the bald dome. is that bald dome going to be able to get in the time warner tomorrow? you have to admit, that's going to be pretty big. >> this will always be a part of my life, the stakeout with ed henry. good to see you, my friend. ed henry at the white house. it is time now in case you didn't get enough politics out of ed, time for cnn equals politics update right now with two of my faifd guys, not as favorite as ed henry, but mark preston and deputy political editor paul steinhauser. he knows i love him. at the cnnpolitics.com desk. what's going on? >> ali, you take it away.

you start. i'm just so hurt. >> ali, i don't know how we can approach that. if i'm the second favorite guy, maybe i'll give you a second rate performance. let's talk about some news, ali. enough is enough. president obama, what does he think about rahm emanuel run for mayor? on nbc today he said that rahm is going to have to make a decision quickly about what he's going to do. is he going to run? is he not going to run? when asked by matt lauer of nbc would he endorse emanuel for mayor? the president stepped back and said, look, i think he would be an excellent mayor, but until he makes a decision i'm not going to make a decision about how i'm going to approach it. the president wait for rahm emanuel to pull the trigger first. >> ali, coming up your way in new york, two hours ago we had big news in the gubernatorial battle in new york city. come on and take a look. brand new on the ticker.

one of the republican candidates for governor up there, he an noun nounsed, that's it. i'm dropping my bid. guess what, lazio won the conservative party nomination so technically still on the ballot. but today he said, that's it, no mas. the democratic nominee, the attorney general in new york state, andrew cuomo, we're going to keep our eye thons cs on thi contest. let's talk about a hot political contest in god's country. i know john king would back me up in that. the governor's race is neck and neck. governor gave a very close ally of president obama, statistical statistically, in a new boston globe/unh poll is running neck and neck with charlie baker. very far back. so it looks like it's a neck and

neck race right now between the democrat and republican of massachusetts. ali, again, if we're talking about in trouble in massachusetts it just shows you how bad it is for democrats potentially around the country. ali? >> it does show you there are lots and lots of interesting races here. everybody thinking that the midterms is what people don't way attention to. there are going to be interesting races. the two of you make it remarkable compelling to follow the details of this election. i must say to you. you guys are contenders. >> you've made up for the we love ed henry at the top. we'll give you that. all right, mark, paul, thanks so much. stay attention to the key races and issues heading in. next cnn equals politics update, one hour away. we're serving up the other other white meat.

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in today's mission of word play, we look at what's cooking in the dna labs. our word is trans genic as in -- oh trans as in crossing, genic as in genes. it's not what's for dinner yet but may be in the future. scientists in canada has a pig that looks, acts and smells like the yorkshire pigs that means so much to pork lovers around the world. this pig has extra dna from e. coli bacteria and the mouse. that helps digest. undigest undigest undigested phophorus winds up in

the river which chokes off oxygen needed by fish. the fda is evaluating the transgenic pig but the first gene-altered to food to hit your dinner plate will probably be salmon. you can bone up on all sorts of tasty food sources in this week's coverage on eatocracy.com cnn.com. there is a special video there about what i like to eat, if you want to know a little bit about thanchts wiret . the government says wiretapping is too old school. security versus privacy. my xyz is next. to keep in balance after 50,

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time now for the xyz. theinimal standards of privacy is simple an ideal. today's front page of the "new york times" says u.s. authorities are formulating new ways to wiretap criminal suspect tons internet and other platforms. internet networks, verizons, at&ts and other carriers we americans contract with to make phone call or logon line are already required to enable the government to eavesdrop on us. but now officials from the fbi, justis department, nsa and the white house reportedly want to extend that to communication providers. that means the government could conceivably get a court order forcing blackberry or facebook to let it wiretap your web page. that is a game changer because blackberry and facebook encrypt their data between users. in the case of blackberry it routes data to servicers in

canada. these proposals would force both of them to unscramble and intercept messages for the u.s. government here in the united states. india and saudi arabia have been heavily criticized to ban them because they claim the devigss e-mail encryption poses a national security risk. the u.s. threatened them for threatening the free flow of information. but apparently the u.s. government has no problem with authorities spying on blackberry customers. even bigger concern to the government though is peer to peer, instant messaging software, skype, that sort of thing. those kinds of messages are not routed through a central hub making it that much harder for the government to eavesdrop on suspects. the solution? force developers to insert a ready made back door in their software giving the government instant surveillance access whenever a judge orders it. critics say legally mandated back doors will be exploet ploited by hackers and compromise security. big issue here is the