air force. >> i try to picture them and who they are and all they did for the military. >> today we remember all of them. >> the noa service is sad, to think that a soldier is here and there is no family, no friends. we don't know why. all that we know is that a flag covered his coffin. so we offer him the respect and the honor that he deserves for serving his country. we are now his family and he's being buried with his comrades in arms. mission well done. god bless. rest in peace. >> special programming and content all this week to honor our veterans. "cnn newsroom" continues right now with ali velshi. doctor. >> have a fantastic afternoon as always. i'm with ali velshi. i'll be here the next two hours. i'll guide you through the maze of information coming our way. we'll track what's going on at

home and around the world and you get access to some of the brightest minds who can explain what it means today and the impact beyond today and show case the best ideas in innovation and philanthropy and public education. i want to help you have figure out what's going on around you fits into your life. here's i have. a legend is dropping by our studio, john legend, the grammy-winning songer, song writer and philanthropist here with an important life lesson for college students. president obama returns to indonesia where he spent part of his childhood but a dark cloud is hanging over his visit. ash from an erupting volcano forces air force one to make an early exit. how do you track the mental health of troops after they return? there's a new app for that and changing technology. it's today's "big i." american children are being marketed and sold for sex in american cities. that's a quote from the head of the national center for missing and exploited children.

it's a fact that none of us likes to think about but advocates and local cops and federal agents think about it every day and that's how we get stories like this one. a coast-to-coast crackdown on adults who allegedly forced kids as young as 12 into sexual slavery. operation cross country v went down over three days in 40 cities involving more than 2,000 law enforcement officers from every level all part of a nationwide network called innocence lost. in the latest sweep rescued 69 children and underage teens. almost 900 adults have been arrested, at least 98 alleged pimples. since it was launched in 2003, 1250 kids have been saved. the numbers are staggering but we want to understand how it happens and how the good guys stop it. kevin perkins is the assistant director of the fbi's criminal investigative division and joins me now from our studios in washington. kevin, thank you for being with

us. tell me how you characterize what has happened. this three-day sweep has netted a lot of results. have you put a dent in the scourge of child prostitution in this country. >> >> i believe we have. i appreciate you having me here to talk about this important issue. if there's one child on the street being exploited for sexual exploitation that's one too many. we were able to rescue 70 children over the weekend who have been exploited, who have had their lives damaged. this is really an investigative effort by the fbi and our state and local partners across the country to rescue these kids. that's our first mission here. >> kevin, it's kind of hard to believe in this society that kids can get forced into prostitution. what happens in a kid's life that they are absent the normal things that kids do that allow them to slip into prostitution largely undetected by people around them? >> and i think that's a key point, they are largely

undetected. these are children from dysfunctional backgrounds. these are children who are very vulnerable. and the people who conduct this criminal activity target those, prey upon those kids. they initially give them food, shelter and some sense of well-being and then begin the exploitation. that's what lures them in and what's so important that we get to them before they do. >> how young were you seeing? >> we've seen as young as 11 years old and all the way up to 17. >> and in these cases are the parents involved? >> many cases no. and that's part of the dysfunctional background. many times these kids are alone or they're from broken dysfunctional family backgrounds that puts them on the street, that gets them out to where nobody is caring for them. and these criminals see that and they provide a need in this kid's life. >> are there adequate laws to deal with the people you arrested in. >> i believe there are. the vast majority of the

individuals arrested in these cases will be prosecuted at the state and local level. there will be some prosecuted at the federal level and there is a title 18 statute against child exploitation that carries sentences up to and including life without parole. >> have we historically been successful prosecuting people at least in recent years in this sort of thing? >> we have been been successful and achieved several life sentences out of these matters. >> what happens to these kids once they're rescued? >> when the kids are rescued as in this weekend it depends on the state they're in. fbi and local state law enforcement officers will have turn the children over either to that state's social welfare agency child protective services or if there's a family structure which the child can go back to that's appropriate they'll be returned to the family. >> tell me how you end up catching these perpetrators. >> well, there's any number of ways. and the thing that has to be -- you think about is while it was

only this weekend, there was a lot of work by our state and local partners that led up to this weekend. a lot of intelligence going after these individuals. we target specific areas where they know this type of criminal activity is prevalent and then work toward a takedown such as this. this is the fifth one. we'll be doing another one. >> good work. thanks very much and thanks for the participation of all those that worked with the fbi. kevin perkins assistant director of the fbi's criminal investigative division talking about this amazing sweep. singer/song writer john legend passionate about education. when he talks about it he's not one to hold back. today's "sound effect." >> for black americans, we weren't deemed valuable enough to educate throughout the history of america. >> that's society's fault? >> it's been society's fault. we were slaves for a long time and we were in segregated schools for a long time and for a long time black americans weren't valued enough to think that we were worth investing in in this country.

part of this is a legacy of that. >> not just education he feels passionate about. he wants to light a fire under you when it comes to giving. coming up, the singer/songwriter and filth an tlopist talks about the latest push to get money into the hanlts of those in need. i can't believe i used to swing over those rocks... took some foolish risks as a teenager.

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passionate about education for some time and even showed up unannounced at howard university one day to lecture at a class on education in black america. that's john legend you just heard performing "shine." he wrote that song for "waiting for superman" a new documentary about the need for education reform. he joins us from our new york studios. good to see you. welcome to the show. >> good to see you, ali. how are you? >> i'm good. what's your passion about education for people who don't know? what's your connection to education? why do you want to talk about education? >> well, i feel like education is so important when we talk about making this country one where equal opportunity is real, making this country one where justice is real, social justice. and when we talk about fighting poverty and breaking the cycle of poverty we feel like education is the key to do doing that. for too long where you lived, where you grew up, what neighborhood you're from, what color your skin is, the income

your parents have determined what kind of education you were able to get in this country. we believe the only way for us to have true equal opportunity in this country is to make sure every kid has access to a quality education. >> you went to one of the great historically black colleges, part of you, mtv and the college boards program but surprised some students there. you went in and gave a guest lecture. what was that like? >> that was fun. i got the surprise from the students at howard university in washington, d.c. we talked about issues of civil rights and social justice particularly as they pertain to the struggle for black americans to get a quality education throughout the years. and we had a great discussion. it was fun. >> you said something interesting there. you said avoid the soft bigotry of low expectations. what did you mean by that? >> yeah. i was actually stealing a quote from former president george w. bush when he was talking about education reform. part of the obstacle we have to overcome is sometimes we expect

too little from kids from poor neighborhoods and from the wrong sild of the tracks. we expect them not to do well. and if we expect low things from them, then usually we'll be rewarded with that kind of result. but if we expect high things from them and we put the systems in place to make sure that happens, then we actually have been shown to -- that great schools and great teachers can achieve amazing results with kids that people didn't believe in before. so we've got to stop that cycle of low expectations and low results. >> you played a big role in "waiting for superman" by singing. what after looking at education for this long and after being involved with that project, what do you think the biggest thing or things we can change are that will help public education in this country? >> well, i'm excited. first of all, the film "waiting for superman" has helped spur an important conversation in this

country about what's needed and what's happening when people go see the film is they're connecting on a human level with the children in the film and the parents. and too often we blame the victims in this situation. we assume that the kids don't want to learn. we assume that their parents don't care about what quality education they have. and if you think about those things on the face of them they're ludicrous because we know most parents want the best for their kids and we know most kids don't go to school hoping to fatal and hopiil and drop ou. now we need to make sure every kid has access to the option of getting a quality education. that means leadership in the school systems and in the actual schools. then that means making sure a quality teacher is in every classroom and in setting those expectations high, doing whatever it takes, having the passion, having the accountability to make sure that whatever we're doing is working for the kids and we're seeing that all around the country these things are working and we just have to extend that so that

more schools are able to do that. and i work with a school here in harlem called the harlem village academies and we're seeing amazing results that we're able to achieve by doing those things -- setting expectations high and making sure every child has a quality teacher, great leadership to ensure that the kids are learning and teachers are accountable. we have to have the political will to do it an we have to fund it correctly and as citizens we have to clamor for that. >> let me ask you about something else that you're involved in. you're involved in a charity called 50 days of giving. tell me about that. >> i'm working with western union actually. everyone knows western union does money transfers. one of the things they're trying to do is transfer some of the money that they've made over the years to communities that need it. and they're allowing customers and people all around the country to vote and say this is where we think this money should go. some of the organizations are

unicef, c.a.r.e., boys and girls clubs of america. vote where that money should go. i'm glad they're giving their customers and i'm giving my fans the opportunity to give back just by going to a website and getting involved in becoming more aware about what the charities are doing. >> you've been a participant in cnn "heroes" one of our proudest moments every year on thanksgiving. >> absolutely. i'm going to be back. >> i just heard you're going to be back with us on thanksgiving day. >> absolutely. i'm excited about that. you all are doing great work highlighting the work that so many people are doing around the world to improve people's live. ordinary people doing extraordinary things. we're glad to be able to help recognize them. >> we're honored to have you here. thanks for you. you are not an ordinary person but you're doing extraordinary things and it helps a lot of people connect because a lot of people like you who may not be thinking about issues like education and giving and by seeing you involved in them that might spur some action. thanks very much. john legend, i'm a big fan.

it's an honor to have you on the show. >> thanks, ali. listen, there is nothing more red hot in this economy right now than commodities. we're going to tell you all about them next. everybody has been talking about them. first a quick quiz. which of the following is not an officially traded commodity? which does not trade on an exchange? kotdon, tea or coffee?

. just before the break i asked you which of the following is not an officially trade s. commodity on an exchange, kotdon, tea or coffee. the answer surprises a lot of people. it's tea. take a look at everything on this table. i've got coffee, okay.

you can see that. the price of coffee is up substantially. in fact, the coffee prices -- 2.13 a pounds for anybody who cares about this. this is silver at a 25-year high. gold talking about this above $1400 an ounce. even sugar is up at a 3-year high. commodities across the board are up. crude oil, the biggest ingredient in our gasoline, is at its highest price since 2008. that's the year by the way our gas climbed above $4 a gallon. it was lot higher then but the fact is we've already been warned. i told you about this yesterday that gas prices are probably going up in this country. the real question is why are all these economies going up in price? christine romans you may or may not know started her career as a wee commodities trader all those years ago and she understands it better than anyone and joins me from new york to talk about this. never a simple answer because

all commodities trade for two reasons -- one is because you need the coffee or the sugar and the other is betting on -- the other is speculation. we used to think speculation is a terrible thing but it's necessary. so some people speculate. they may never need the coffee or gold but are buying it because they think it will give a better return than investing in something else. >> or it's a safe haven. a hard asset they can know and feel as the value of the american dollar for example is falling. all of these commodities are priced in dollar. so as the value of the american dollar decreases it takes more of those to buy the same amount of oil. is your shirt made out of cotton? >> that is one of those things that's been going up. >> and i brought my favorite -- as you know my favorite accessory to any meal, bacon. which is up -- you're not the only one who can bring a prop on a money story. 200% bacon is up over the past year or so.

you're talking about $4 a pounds, $4.45 a pound for bacon now and all of the fast food chains are having to look at their bacon input prices. whole foods where i bought this frankly has not raised its prices yet but this is something eventually that could affect you. two reasons. supply and demand and quantitative easing. >> you always bring up this qe 2 thing. a lot of people saying this decision by the federal reserve to put $600 billion into the economy over the year may be up to $900 billion is going to cause inflation and it's related to commodities. please draw me a picture and line between quantitative easing and the federal reserve and commodities. >> it's cheapened the dollar which makes all of these other things more attractive to speculators and more expensive to people who have to use them or are buying them because they're priced in dollars. also, we do have supply and demand issues for a lot of these things. for oil, no.

believe it or not, there's not increased demand for gasoline at this point. so a lot of what you're seeing -- a lot of people talk about $nin90 a barrel crude. when you look at coffee, caffeine is at a 13-year high i keep saying and one of the reasons is frankly wet weather. in vietnam, colombia and parts of central america the green coffee crop, that is a traditional supply and demand issue there. when i talk about bacon and meat, it's at 30-year highs in some cases here because the input wheat and corn, what you feed to make -- to feet the animals is high. also in the case of bacon, the recession decreased demand for bacon so farmers didn't raise -- >> same with cotton. in the recession people bought less cotton so fewer farmers made it. but now the demand is up. but we had flooding in pakistan and china where they make all this cotton.

this is the issue with commodities. there are two issues at play and one of them let's talk about it for a second. you look at china and asia without china and look at india, they're all growing 6% or 8% or 10% at that rate. very populous countries growing at that rate. this is plain old demand. >> there's a drought in russia that had affected the russian corn crop. so you add in big demand from emerging middle classes for corn and for wheat and for bread, inputs for bread and also the inputs for wheat. and when economies become middle class they tend to want to eat more meat. all of this happening against the backdrop of nervousness about the global economic recove recovery and money moving into the economies. it's remarkable. that $1400 an ounce gold is interesting. silver not the all-time high but higher. it was higher in the '80s in the superinflationary period of the '80s.

>> you like my props? i've got silver. >> i love your props. you need an armed guard to walk around with that silver. >> with the gold that's there. >> let me say when we look at the consumer price index we don't see a big spike in food prices yet. it's not there yet. >> it's happened very recently, yeah. >> and some -- because the economy is not growing gang busters, some producers don't want to pass on the higher prices to consumers because they're afraid consumers will pull back again. so watch carefully. i think you'll see mcdonald's raising prices and higher coffee prices and other places maybe absorbing the cost increases. >> for people who don't think they're interested in currencies or the value of the dollar, this is a very good example because all of these commodities are priced -- including oil, by the way. this is my fancy oil barrel. all of these are priced in dollars. when it can buy less the cost of these go up. love drawing on your experience as a commodities reporter and

seeing the bacon. if you want to talk more about it i guarantee we'll talk more about it this wend weekend on your "money." christine is author of "smart is the new rich" available now on book shelves. a cruise ship is still stranded off the west coast of mexico. the carnival "splendor" lost power after the engine room caught fire yesterday. no one was hurt. the ship is on rating on auxiliary power but 3300 passengers going without air conditioning and hot food. some refugees are returning to myanmar now that post election violence is easing. about 10,000 fled to thailand at the height of the unrest. the san francisco board of supervisors, their city council essentially, was expected to voted to to ban most fast food happy meals at least in the current form. critics say they don't meet nutritional standards and the

ban is expected to win final approval today with enough votes to override an expected veto by mayor gavin newsom. an erupting volcano forces air force one to make an early exit from indonesia. why i'm really excited. because toyota developed this software that can simulate head injuries and helps make people safer. then they shared this technology with researchers at wake forest to help reduce head injuries on the football field. so, you know, i can feel a bit better about my son playing football. [ male announcer ] how would you use toyota technology to make a better world? learn how to share your ideas at toyota.com/ideasforgood. no calorie sweetener granulated with fiber. sweet! [ female announcer ] tastes like sugar and has 3 grams of fiber per tablespoon. use it almost anywhere you use sugar. even in cooking and baking. sweet! [ female announcer ] splenda® granulated with fiber.

try capzasin-hp. it penetrates deep to block pain signals for hours of relief. capzasin-hp. take the pain out of arthritis. well, a brief homecoming for president obama in indonesia today. the president said it was a little disorienting to visit the place he spent several years as a young child because it's changed so much. the president pointed to indonesia's growing economic and strategic influence as a big reason for expanding trade and security ties with that country. indonesia as you may know is the world's largest muslim country. the president was asked about his outreach to the muslim world

in a news conference. >> our efforts have been earnest sustained. we don't expect that we're going to completely eliminate some of the misunderstandings and mistrust that have developed over a long period of time. but we do think that we're on the right path. >> this is the second leg of the president's trip. he's cutting it short because of volcanic ash from the eruption of mt. merapi which we've been talking about for a couple of weeks. that eruption has already killed 156 people and displaced thousands since it began last month. >> you don't realize how populated these islands truly are. indonesia, there are people everywhere all along this. and we know this has the ring of fire. right there is where the big tsunami earthquake happened and there was another earthquake just a few weeks ago that happened right there. all the ring of fire. you can even see the crease here

google earth where this abduction zone is going down. part of the earth's crust is being absorbed or covered up by another -- >> where the friction occurs is where the earthquakes develop. >> where you get lava and magma below and wants to erupt. mt. merapi. that's where the president is. the problem is the boxes here where the ash is. you cannot fly a jet plane through ash. >> we discussed that with the iceland volcano. >> the ash melts in the jet because the jet is so hot. then as the air is ejected out of the back of the jet, it in fact coagulates or hardens on the back and then you have completely ground that engine to a halt. that's something you don't want with your jet. you fly a lot. you don't want your jet stopping in midair. there's mount merapi. i have two different levels. one the surface level to 25,000 feet where the ash is blowing a little toward jakarta. the other ash plume is actually

blowing down toward australia, 45,000 to 55,000 feet. that you can flow around. >> down in the low part you can't get through it. you can't takeoff and land. >> that is down there but the jakarta area is over there. so the president was able to get out of there before -- i have one more map that i'll do real quickly because this is out of the european satellite. there is mt. merapi. it's a green cloud but it's color enhanced. the ash cloud is coming this way. >> and jakarta is over there? >> over there. >> we'll keep an eye on that and australia, that upsets quanltd y you -- qantas. the extra orlando story of a teenage girl abducted in the middle of the night from her home and sexually abused by her kidnapper for months. you heard the name. elizabeth smart back on the stand today. ♪ client comes in and they have a box.

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today's "crime & consequence" starts with more wrenching testimony from elizabeth smart, the young woman originally from utah kidnapped out of her own bed in salt lake city in june of 2002. her tormenter was or is brian david mitchell. today she talked about an encount wer a homicide detective months after she was kidnapped and months before she was freed. the cop seemed suspicious smart testified but went away before he learned the truth. yesterday smart testified that mitchell told her he had planned her abduction for months so that she could join him and his wife in a, quote, celestial marriage. she told the court and i quote again -- i remember him saying i have a knife to your neck. don't make a sound. get out of my bed and come with

me or i will kill you and your family. smart said mitchell raped her daily at the very least. mitchell's lawyers don't dispute the facts but say he was and is crazy. in michigan the assistant attorney general who launched a personal crusade against a gay university student has been fired. the student wasn't suspected of or connected with any crime but in a venomous blog, he accused him of pushing, a quote, radical homosexual agenda. it caught fire when he appeared on cnn and soon after he was suspended. his bols defended his first amendment right to speak his mind. a lawyer for the student wants him not only fired but disbarred. afghans know a thing or two about farming and have been doing it for centuries. why are american farmers now being sent to that war-ravaged country as advisers?

time now for "globetrekking." the first stop afghanistan. imagine if you can what it would be like to wake up every day and go to work at a country that's been at war for more than 30 years. that's life for afghans. a vast majority of farmers working in the fields as they've done for centuries. now american farmers are in country sharing what they know about modern farming. it's part of the overall u.s. strategy aimed at winning the war and the hearts and minds of the people. cnn's jill dougherty now with a look at how it's working. >> interrogation team, aem be with you guys.

>> reporter: we're in eastern afghanistan with advisers working for the u.s. agriculture department. 80% of afghans are farmers, so boosting the country's agricultural industry is crucial to the u.s. strategy here. >> and i'm an orchard manager for my folks back home. >> reporter: this 24-year-old man is far from his almond far in california. >> that's kinds of my real life job but for right now i'm focused here. >> reporter: he's teaching old farmers new tricks. >> the elders get a little rambunctious sometimes and say, hey, kid, what can you teach me? i agree. i fever. >> make sure your orchard floor is clean and all the fruit that isn't infected is removed. >> reporter: did you have learn something today? "some new ideas on how to keep insects at bay" this man tells me. >> a lot of times the father passed on to the son. if the father died in some war that knowledge doesn't get

passed down. >> reporter: why would you pick up from sunny california and come to sunny afghanistan. >> >> i just kind of had to look at myself and say what do i want to do? as an american and farmer where can i serve? >> reporter: his dream is to help afghan farmers to move from living off their crops to selling them. in kabul, pakistan, maybe even india or dubai. it could take a while, he says, so he's signing up for another year in afghanistan. jill dougherty, cnn, wardak province, afghanistan. >> jill joins me now from new york. jill, how do you measure success in this sort of endeavor? >> i think probably sustainability, because these are short-term projects, ali, meant to jump-start things, get people working, give them some money, get them some education. also it's civilian projects around the country. but it's really the sustainability. and that's the question. this is part of the civilian surge as we're calling it.

and if it doesn't continue, that could be a major problem because after all, you know, the key to this is getting people self sufficient so that they don't turn to the taliban such as growing poppies. >> right. and part of that is, though, american farmers going over, i'm assuming, use much more sophisticated techniques. can we get that to happen in afghanistan? >> you know, i was watching what gary was up to. it's not very sophisticated. there are some basic things that he was talking about. grafting. i'm not a farmer but some really basic concepts because, as he pointed out, for 30 years they've been at war and all of that knowledge you would think these guys who are much older than he is would have, they don't have. so a lot of it's very, very basic and can be translated. >> all right, good to see you. thanks very much. i know you have a series of these very interesting stories on afghanistan. we'll run them all week. jill dortdy joining us from new york. mental health among u.s. troops is a huge problem.

it's more serious than i even thought. check out this question. what percentage of troops returning home develop serious mental health problems within three to four months of their return? 10%, 20% or 30%? the answer after the break and a potential solution. ng ] ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ daylight comes [ dogs barking ] ♪ i'm on my way ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ working my whole life away ♪ another day ♪ another dollar [ commearlier, she hady vonn! an all-over achy cold... what's her advantage? it's speedy alka-seltzer! [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus rushes relief for all-over achy colds. the official cold medicine of the u.s. ski team. alka-seltzer plus. copd doesn't just make it hard to breathe...

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okay. before the break, i asked this question. what percentage of troops develop serious mental health problems within three to four months of returning home? sometimes the answer is a trick. this is no trick. it's 30%. 30% of troops have serious mental health problems when they come back. now, mental health is complicated. i'm not going to try to encapsulate it. but mental health issues, in order to diagnose and properly treat them, the best way to do

it is to know what somebody is suffering from, how they're suffering on a very regular basis. but how do you do that? if i come back and think things aren't right, how do i account for how i'm feeling? if i think back my view may not be accurate. maybe i won't do it as regularly. people keep journals. what happens if there was an app on my smartphone that i can use and sort of reminds me to check in and give some estimation of how i'm feeling on an ongoing basis? that would help in the treatment. that app exists. let me introduce you to two gentlemen. one is the developer and psychologist. he's with the t-2 mood tracker app and dr. robert chula hea. basically this is a digital journal. perry, let me ask you first how does it work? >> well, ali, in your introduction you hit it right on

target. basically, this is a smartphone app that we built to help soldiers, servicemen, families and veterans actually do the type of assessment that you were talking about around psychological issues and mtbi or traumatic brain injury. we do have -- >> sorry, go ahead. >> i was going say we do that specifically by allowing them to rate their moods in a very quick, easy and efficient manner using a touchscreen scale on the app. that gives them the opportunity to maybe -- you might call it take their emotional temperature. after they've done that, they are able to evaluate themselves in one of several areas. it could be post traumatic stress, anxiety, traumatic brain

injury, depression, a number of areas. and it's important that people be able to do this because research has shown that they can actually begin to feel better by paying very close attention to how they're doing. >> okay. that was going to get me to the next question. robert, let me ask you about this. what can you have actually do with this information? on one level it helps people feel better. are there treatment option sls because you have this data? >> right. so i'll use the analogy of the tri-quarter that dr. mccoy used to use in the old "star trek" series. while that tri-corridor was a bit larger in the form factor than a smartphone, it was essentially a handheld device that allowed captain mccoy to capture medical data. 300 years ahead of its time, smartphones and the application that we call moodtracker does a similar thing. it allows a person to literally capture electronically their feeling states and allows health care providers to get more

presils information about how a patient is doing. >> i may be concerned about the fact we're not so sure about security in this digital world and here i am going to on an hourly basis enter my emotions and feelings and mental state. how do you address that? >> well, that's a concern. it's a very big question that many people ask. if you think about it, though, when you are rating yourself or rating your moods, taking your emotional temperature, that is information that is your information that belongs to you. and as long as it remains on your phone, it certainly is private. and since it's your information, if you think about if you have took your temperature at home and you wanted to share that information with a friend or family or even post it on your social network, you could do that. that information belongs to you. the security issues come up when that information is transmitted to a health care provider. then it is the health care

provider's responsibility to make sure that that data is safe. >> i want to emphasize this is not a diagnostic tool. it gives the person a way of tracking their feelings but an actual diagnosis needs to happen with a sit-down consultation with an actual provider. >> so if it's a tri-corridor you still need the doctor to make some sense of what it means. thanks so much for being with us. thanks, guys. if you want more information on the t-2 moodtracker application head to my blog cnn.com/ali. and i'll ling you to it. democrats won two more house seats. republicans are talking about the transition and the new poll may be a wake-up call for senator menendez. [ male announcer ] the next big thing from lexus is not a car. it's the idea that a car that will never have an accident may be possible. in pursuit of this goal, lexus developed the world's most advanced driving simulator,

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republicans preparing to take control of the house of representatives in january but some house races are still being decided. standing by in washington with the latest on politics -- i don't see peter. i just see mark. good to have you back. >> my voice finally came back. i don't know where it was for the past week but so much for the midterms or maybe not. as you said, we still have seven house races that remain unresolved at this point. they're still being contested. they're all democratic incumbents and this spells a lot of trouble for democrats. they've already lost 60 house seats. very well expected that that number is going to climb but they did get some good news today. two democrats, two incumbents

won. first one is jerry connelly. he represents a virginia suburb or rather d.c. suburb here in virginia and up in washington state just north of seattle rick larson won as well. so democrats got some good news there but we still have seven races unresolved. in addition to that republicans did very well and they won but now they have to learn how to transition and in fact greg walden, who is a republican from oregon, is overseeing those efforts. our own deidre walsh has an informative story up on cnnpolitics.com. republicans understand this was such a change election that four freshman republicans are going to be on this transition team. it just goes to show you that the house republicans right now realize that where they are right now is because of these freshmen winning. in addition there's going to be a freshman put at the leadership table. in addition, it was a bad midterm election for democrats. it doesn't look so good in 2012 either and peter has got that. >> actually, the man who chaired

the senate democrats' effort to pick up seats in the senate this cycle bob menendez, a new jersey senator who was elected in 2006, a new poll from quinnipiac has his approval ratings upside down. only 28% approve of the job he's doing, 40% disapprove. up for election in 2012. he'd better get started on the next campaign if he's going to be reelected. i talked to a smart republican insider up in jersey today. there were four names that came up. interesting. tom kaine jr. who ran against menendez and lost in 2006. the son of former governor tim kaine. that name a gold standard in new jersey. joe ka role yos. also john crowley. and jets owner woody johnson. all of those guys could challenge menendez in the next cycle. ali. >> thanks, guys. goods to talk to you and good to see you, peter. mark, glad to have you back in the mix. in an hour we'll have our

next political update. our fantastic i-reports team hunting for i-reports from every country in the world. we don't have them yet. which countries still have countries that have not -- which have continents have countries that have not submitted i-reports to us yet? north america, south america, africa, europe, asia antarctica or australia? pick two. i'll give you the answer on the other side. [ female announcer ] imagine skin so healthy, it never gets dry again. can your moisturizer do that?

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i took emergen-c. with 1,000 milligrams of vitamin c and energizing b vitamins, it made every performance count. emergen-c. feel the good. okay. right before the break i asked you about i-reports. what continents still have countries that have not submitted i-reports to us? i named all the continents here and asked you to guess which two are left. let's show you.

africa and australia. that does not mean we have not received i-reports from them. it means there are countries in these two continents that have not submitted i-reports to us. and our i-report team is on a mission to get i-reports from every country in the world. let me talk to katie hawkins gar about that, a producer with cnn i-reports. >> we call it the i-report global challenge. the mission is to get an i-report from every single country in the world. at the beginning of this year we realized we had about 50 countries left and we can totally do this. now we're down to 12 countries. >> and waunt to get this by when? >> we would like to by the end of the year. we're not putting that pressure on ourselves but that would be excellent. >> what are the countries? >> like you said we have two regions. oceania, which is the area outside of australia. there we have ker batty, micronesia, naru, palau and tonga and several in a cap.

cape verde, guinea, equatorial guinea. >> we're going to put the word out there. the great thing about this tool we use it in breaking news and getting opinions and use it in getting a real pulse for what's going on. we're a global organization. we want people in every country sending us stuff. >> in this case we're getting interesting stories. personally i haven't heard a lot about these countries and that's what the challenge is about to learn about these lesser known places. so we're using twitter. we're going on other sites like flicker and youtube and looking for people who have visited these places and reaching out. >> keep us posted on how that goes. that is part of what makes up the global place that it is. upload video. go to cnn.com/i-report. it walks you through the whole thing. i'm ali velshi and with you for

the next hour. here's what's on the rundown. a detroit prosecutor pushing for a law to put parents in jail if they don't show up for their parent/teacher conferences. a legend drops by our studio, john legend. the grammy singer, songwriter and fiphilanthropist here about life lesson to college students. president obama returns to the country where he spent part of his childhood. we're catching up with a few old friends who remember him as an youngster in indonesia. here's a big story today. it's a shocking story. american children are being marketed and sold for sex in american cities. that's a quote from the national center for missing and exploited children. it's a fact that none of us like to think about. but advocates and local cops and federal agents think about it every day and that's how we get to stories like this. a coast-to-coast crackdown on adults who allegedly forced kids as young as 12 years old into sexual slavery. operation cross country v went down in three days over 40

cities involving more than 2,000 law enforcement officers at every level. they're all part of a nationwide network called innocence lost and their latest sweep rescued 69 children and underage teens. almost 900 adults have been arrested at least 98 alleged pimples. since it was launched in 2003, 1250 kids have been saved, 625 traffickers tried and convicted. the number are staggering but we want to understand how this happens and how the good guys stop it. kevin perkins joins me now. the assistant director of the fbi criminal investigative division and joins me from our studios in washington. kevin, this operation has a five in front of it. that means it's the fifth one -- the fifth sweep that you've done like this? >> that's correct, ali. and it won't be the last. as long as we have child victims out on the streets and as long as we have people perpetrating this type of a crime, we'll keep working to clean the streets of these folks. >> the numbers are a bit staggering, though. in america we have kids who are

put into child slavery, put into sexual slavery. what's the profile of the victims? what's the profile of these kids? >> many of these kids they can be runaways. they can be children that are suffering from some type of substance abuse issue. essentially they are kids from dysfunctional backgrounds who are targeting, specifically targeted by individuals and lured into this type of trade. they're lured in either by drugs or alcohol or basic necessities of life, food and shelter. >> you mentioned earlier whether he we talked that you have rescued kids as young as 11 years old. where are the parents? >> in many cases, there aren't. in many cases -- most cases these kids are coming from a dysfunctional type of background and we rely heavily after the fact on various social service agenci agencies, child protective services to assist us in finding safe environments for these kids after this is over with. >> and how is this -- how does this happen? who takes control of these kids? how do they ends up in sexual

slavery? >> what happens is these individuals -- the people who perpetrate this crime will target these individuals. they'll lure them in with some type of enticement. and then when you think about it to a 13-year-old or 14-year-old, the world is a big place. they're moved city to city many times, town to town. they get in a position where they rely on these people for their very existence and they're afraid and scared of trying to leave. so that's why these types of operations with the national center for missing exploited children with our state and local partners are vital to rescuing these kids and bringing them to safety. >> how many of these -- what proportion would you say of these kids are reported as missing? i know it's missing and exploited and they all fall into the exploited category. in some cases have they disappeared either undetected or uncared for and living in another city doing what they're doing without somebody actually looking for them? >> that's a big concern for us because we do run across those types of situations where a

child goes missing and nobody knows. we come across these children when we do these sweeps and they have no background. they have no one to claim them. it's a very sad situation and it just goes to show you how vulnerable some of these children are. >> good work on this. thanks so much for joining us on this and congratulations on another -- a fifth successful sweep. kevin perkins is the assistant director of the fbi's criminal investigative division in washington. singer/songwriter john legend is passionate about education. when he talks about it he's not one to hold back. that he today's "sound effect." >> i feel like education is so important when we talk about making this country one where equal opportunity it real, making this country one where justice is real, social justice, and when we talk about fighting poverty and breaking the cycle of poverty, we feel like education is the key to doing that. and for too long in this country, where you lived, where you grew up, what neighborhood you're from, what color your skin is, the income your parents

have determine what kind of an education you were able to get in this country. and we believe the only way for us to have true equal opportunity in this country is to make sure every kid has access to a quality education. >> that's a bit of my conversation with john legend from last hour. i'll have more on that interview just ahead. parents, you can either show up or get locked up. it's a bold new idea from one tough as nails prosecutor doing her part to help fix our schools. her idea in her own words after the break.

a prosecutor in detroit is proposing a unique way to fix our problems with public schools, put parents in jail. you heard me right. wayne county prosecutor kim worthy is pushing for a new law that requires a tend at least one parent/teacher conference per year or possibly face three days in jail. worthy's office says it would be the first law of its kind in the nation. she wants it to be a statewide law throughout michigan but starting by targeting just detroit right now. it's not made its way through the state house let alone the county commission or council but kicking up a lot of controversy. one says the prospect of jailing parents is quote inappropriate on a lot of levels. pro tem gary brown has another take on it saying --

i've been hearing a lot from you on my facebook page. facebook.com/ali velshi cnn and post your thoughts on this idea. kim worthy joins me now from detroit to talk about this a little more. thanks very much for being with us. did you have mean this or were you just trying to be provocative? >> no, i meant it. that's not my reputation. prosecutors have a key. education is the key. and if these parents are not involved in their children's education, if the children are truant or not going to school there is a high link they'll be involved with juvenile delinquency. that's why prosecutors are very concerned. i really believe this can pass. i hope it will pass. and it's not just going to jail if you miss one conference. you have four opportunities to go to a conference within a year and then it's even diverted then -- and we offer services and all kinds of things to get that parent to understand the importance of getting their child in school. if they refuse the services, if

they don't go to a conference within four times a year, then jail is an option. >> so you're not really as a prosecutor suspecting that you're going to see a lot of parents going to jail? you're suspecting it will more of a hassle to stay out of jail than to go to your kid's conference? >> that's correct. there are already laws on the books in michigan alone that can send you to jail for 30 days if you don't send your child to school. what i'm proposing is less stringent than the parental responsibilities on the book in most states. for example, the government tells you you have must have your child inside for curfew laws. the government tells you you must have your child in a seat belt or car seat. the government says you have to send your child to school at least in michigan from 6 to 16. the government people are saying already tells you how to deal with your children anyway. this is not anymore than already required by law. >> what's the reaction so far to your proposal? >> mixed. a lot of people like it. it's either hot or cold, no gray area. a lot of people like it or the people who don't talk about

government intrusion. and i point out to them all the time what i said already. there are laws on the books much tougher already and we already have parental responsibility laws on the books as well. >> anything that triggered you to think about this as a solution? >> yes, it was. there was a case that happened here some months ago and we have now convicted the 12-year-old boy or 12-year-old adolescent, person for committing blatant murder in the first degree on someone in the middle of the night at 2:30 in the morning. and when the police went to that child's house, the parents had no idea where that child was. and i'm not saying he sneaked out one day. they had no clue where he had been for days. and he hadn't been in school. he already had a school truancy or conviction on his record. there goes that direct link. >> you're talking a little bit about responsibility and discipline and making sure we know where our young people are in school. public schools serve that purpose if they're not fully educating somebody as some

critics would say, they're at least accounting where these kids are and giving them some sense of being in one place. >> that's right. when you choose to have children you ought to be responsible. also let me say one more thing. you're exempt if your child is performing above average in all classes. i'm not talking about you. you're exempt if you're sick or infirmed and cannot get there or communicating the school with some other matter, e-mail, snail mail, phone calls. so we're truly talking about that parent who has no interest in or is not participating in their child's life in any way about. >> where is this proposal? is it likely to face some sort of deliberation? >> well be i know detroit city council is looking at it very seriously. one suggestion that's been made is they might try to instead of passing or writing a new ordinance that they might try to attach it to the parental responsibility law that's already here on the books here in detroit. i'm going before the wayne county commission i believe this week or next week. and i've also been to the detroit public school -- detroit

school board. i'm going to be going to other cities as well. i'm just starting with the largest city in my county. >> kym, thanks for joining us and explaining it in detail. doesn't sound as harsh when you talk about it as the headlines show it. remember to go on to my facebook page and give me your sense of it. so far it's like kym says, people are on one side or the other. kym worthy a prosecutor in wayne county, michigan. you probably know john legend as an entertainer but when he showed up unannounced for a class at howard university it wasn't to sing. [ j. weissman ] it was 1975. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale

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♪ tomorrow starting now man, that guy is good. john legend best known for his music but he has been passionate about education for a long time. he wrote the theme song for the documentary "waiting for superman." it's a new documentary about the need for education reform in the public education system. he even showed up unannounced at howard university one day to lecture to a class on education in black america. earlier today i asked him about that. >> yeah, that was fun. i got to surprise some of the students at howard university in washington, d.c. we talked about issues of civil rights and social justice particularly as they pertain to the struggle for black americans to get a quality education throughout the years. we had a great discussion. it was fun. >> you said avoid the soft bigotry of low expectations. what did you mean by that? >> yeah. i was actually stealing a quote from former president george w. bush. when he was talking about

education reform. part of the obstacle we have to overcome is sometimes we expect too little from kids from poor neighborhoods and from the wrong side of the tracks. we expect them not to do well. cnn -- one other note. john legend will be one ever the performers on this year's cnn "heroes" tribute on thanksgiving night at 8:00 p.m. eastern. let me bring you up to speed with some of our top stories. a bird, a plane? no. but the unidentified object that appeared at dusk in the skies off southern california yesterday looked like a trail left by a missile. the defense department says it didn't fire any missiles and the faa says it didn't approve any commercial launches. we'll keep you posted on that. in iraq hopes are high for a breakthrough in a stalemate now in the ninth month. iraqis held nationwide elections back in march but winners never managed o to patch together a company. two main power brokers, the

current and former prime ministers met yesterday and are expected to meet today in baghdad. in san francisco this could be a grim day for the mcdonald's. that city's board of supervisor, essentially the city council, expected to ban most of the kid-friendly offerings from mcdonald's over nutrition concerns. the mayor promises a veto but the board apparently has the votes to override him. imagine you're on a nice cruise in mexico when a firebreaks out, the ship loses power and you are stranded. happening now in the pacific. [ woman ] you know, as a mom,

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>> it's very rare. cruises, aside from the fact it's a lot of people and sometimes get sick but that's rare. >> you're a flier. i'm a cruiser. >> i would love to be a cruiser. we can't get cruises from atlanta to new york. >> it's a long trip down the chattahoochee and a bumpy, too. this boat was supposed to -- carnival cruise supposed to leave l.a., bump along here. i looked at the itinerary. fun days at sea. >> they're having fun days at sea. >> not sure where that category gets in. back to cabo and back home. several days, lovely time. eat and drink all you want and everything is fun. you send the kids to kids club. there's a 214 foot slide on this boat. but it needs water to get pumped to the top. they don't have that. >> the firebreaks out in the aft engine room. because it's a diesel generated

boat. the diesel is burning to make power to give energy to the engines which are electric motors with the motors to the wheels, the wheels go. there's not a real diesel engine running a diesel train. same idea here. when you get a fire and all of a sudden lost power, you've lost generators and everything there is to have. they are just off the coast of ensenada. they're not far. they're 55 miles away from being towed in. the coast guard is there. they're sending supplies. they had food the whole time. the problem is they can't cook anything. there's no heat or air conditioning. they did get running water back to the -- because i heard yesterday there were no running water and no usable flushing toilets. that sounds like a nightmare. >> but they're close and safe. >> safe and fine. they'll get towed back and get their money back and another free cruise but how do you get your week's vacation back from

your company, right? you have two weeks' vacation, you use one of them here and stuck on a boat that doesn't go anywhere. plus, too, when a boat starts to sit up against the waves it can rock back and forth. it doesn't point into the waves but rocks back and forth. you can actually get some maybe seasickness. >> sounds like it's going to have a good ending. quick question. where did president obama spend several years of his childhood? if your answer is hawaii, you're only partly right. i probably feel about 30. how is it that we don't act our age? [ marcie ] you keep us young. [ kurt ] we were having too much fun, we weren't thinking about a will at that time. we have responsibilities to the kids and ourselves. we're the vargos and we created our wills on legalzoom. finally. [ laughter ] [ shapiro ] we created legalzoom to help you take care of the ones you love. go to legalzoom.com today and complete your will in minutes. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side.

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time now for "globetrekking." our destination indonesia where president obama is right now. that's where he spent some four years of his early childhood before moving to hawaii. cnn's suzanne malveaux traveled there recently and spoke with some of the president's boyhood friends who knew him as barry. >> reporter: when barack obama lived in jakarta indonesia, he was barry, the big kid with the big smile always running around the neighborhood boys. this was his friend who lived around the corner from obama's first home. >> barry very energetic. >> reporter: energetic? >> boy. >> reporter: obama's first house in jakarta where he lived for three years is largely hidden

behind concrete. and they're paving the street now? >> yes. >> reporter: for his arrival, yes? >> i think so. >> reporter: yes, for the last 40 years, a dirt road leading to obama's home. now a makeover with friendly neighbors eager to see the 6-year-old who grew up to become the american president. just down the street is obama's first elementary school, a catholic school, st. francis of assisi. obama's first grade teacher remembers a sweet kid who helped her erase the blackboard. >> translator: his mother took him to school every day. she walked him to the front gate. obama was a good listener. >> reporter: she likes to think his success now has something to do with his indonesian experience. >> translator: his attitude, his leadership maybe comes from the neighborhood he used to live in. this was a small area but full of diversity in every aspect. that might affect his personality as a president.

>> reporter: when his family moved into a more upscale neighborhood, 9-year-old barry went to this school. it's a public school that during the u.s. presidential campaign some news outlets incorrectly labeled as a madrassa or radical muslim school. his classmates here recall obama stood out in many ways. they say he was a boy scout, couldn't stand kids who cheated in sports and he could hold his own. i understand he was teased a little bit because he looked different. >> yes. some of the kids teased him. but he liked to tease also. >> reporter: four years living in indonesia and it seems everyone who knew barry has a story to tell. for this childhood friend it was a fight over a toy gun. >> he took me very high. >> reporter: and dropped you? >> yes. >> reporter: if you see him are you going to remind him he picked you up and dropped you? >> yes, of course. my pain -- >> reporter: still hurting? >> yes.

>> suzanne joins me now from new york. it's interesting what his teacher said about how he grew up in this diverse neighborhood going to a catholic school in a country majority muslims. i was going to say barry -- barack obama writes about this in his book. he discuss s. the fact that there might have actually been he said some influence on his character by growing up and spending some time, four years in this rich diverse environment. >> sure. one of the things that he talks about too -- he wrote about in his book and sometimes talks about in his speeches and documents during the campaign he talked about it too is indonesia really made an impression as a young child as a boy because he grew up seeing poverty, seeing different kinds of people the way they lived. and going back to his homes in indonesia relatively, they lived fairly well compared to some of the neighbors but you did get a chance to see some of the pictures of those homes there. one was really a kind of garden type home where it was open to the sky and he had a lot of pets. he had a lot of friends.

so they were doing relatively well. but he was exposed at an early age to people who didn't have a lot and would come and play with him. so those are the kinds of things, i think, the lessons he took away from indonesia. and his teacher mentions that as well. >> it took his visit to get the road paved, the road he grew up on. generally speaking were people very positive about him and think it's good for indonesia that america has a president who spent time there? >> i was there in march and they were thrilled. they were absolutely thrilled the idea he was coming. so, yes, they pulled out all the stops. they were paving the road in front of his house. there were people who were building construction. you had kids learning songs in school and that kind of thing. there is incredible enthusiasm. i know some of it has been tempered over the last couple of years because of the last two cancellations. there is a sense, a feeling here that they're not as important as they thought they were going to be in his life. clearly what they want and what they want from the president is

they want the whole family there, not just the president but they want the first lady, the kids, sasha, maliyah to come back and see where he grew up and take it in because they feel like he's one of their own and want to feel that's the same for him and he said -- >> that was a canceled trip. even this trip he had to cut short because of this volcanic activity. they wanted to get that plane out before they got stuck with the volcanic ash blowing over them. good to see you as always. come spend a little more time -- >> good to see you. they're hoping next year they'll get back to them. >> suzanne malveaux joining us. our white house correspondent but joining us from new york today. in which country right now is an estimated one child in four -- one in four living in a household that doesn't have enough food? france, the u.s. or spain? the answer and you'll meet someone whose job it is to do something about it when i come back with today's "mission possible." he had everything he neededew to be a leader in this company. [ william ] after a couple of months,

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on today's "mission possible" i'm going to answer that question about kids in need of food in a moment but first i want to tell a story with some numbers. and in this case it isn't a happy story. according to the chronicle of philanthropy donations to the biggest charities in the united states dropped by 11% last year. to some extent it's understandable given the economy. but you want some context for that? it's the biggest drop in the 20 years that the chronicle has been counting. the last time thing were anywhere near this bad was in 2001 when the amount we doe donated dropped by 3%. even the wealthiest dropped 34%, a lot considering those

households used to give more than $84,000 a year on average. united way down 4.5%. the salvation army down more than 8%. i want to bring in fill zappata. he's in chicago. i want to throw out one more number. i asked a question before i went to the break. in what country is more than one in four kids living in a household that doesn't have enough food? i said spain. i said france and i said the united states. you know the answer? >> yes, sadly, i do. it is in fact the united states. >> yeah. i mean, i was surprised. that number seems huge to me. give me some context. you're with feeding america. give me context. you run 200 food banks. you've seen a massive increase in demand. is that really true? one in four kids is growing up in a house where there isn't enough food and they have to look elsewhere to get food? >> yeah. one in four children in this country is struggling in a household where hunger is very

prevalent. the usda estimates that is 17 million children. we're able to reach about 14 million of them but there are still children falling in the gap. and we do whatever we possibly can do to get as much food out into the system as possible. >> let's do a quick easy economics here. your demand has gone up and your supply has gone down. your donations has gone down. >> we're actually in a situation -- feeding america is one of the rare charities where donations have relatively remained steady. that's donations of food, in-kind product from corporations and commodities from the federal government and financial donations. but what has just sky rocketed, as you have indicated, is the amount of demand. we have food banks in markets across the country where demand is up 50, 60, 70% in some cases and they're fighting this day in and day out. >> let's talk for a second about the people who have been on

unemployment for a long time. we know some six million people or so have been on unemployment insurance for more than six months. there are many who have been on longer than that and dropped off -- they don't get any more benefits. >> yeah. they're referred to as the 99 r 9999'e 99'ers. if you think about people who fall into that category people in late 2007 or 2008 that have filed for unemployment insurance, they're coming to the end of that right now and feeding america and our food banks are bracing for impacts in the first part of next year where we're more likely to see an even larger increase of people seeking food assistance. >> let's talk a little bit about what we can do as a society. you can -- there are food drives going on this time of year. you need consistency in those food drives. we have a new election. we had a midterm election. we're going to have a new congress. what can they be thinking about

to try and deal with this crisis? >> one of the things that's important to stress here is hunger is not a partisan issue. we're able to work at feeding america with representatives on both sides of the aisle here to make hunger a pertinent and important issue that people need to support. but right now we need congress to pay attention to the child nutrition bill, to pass that bill so that we're increasing access and primarily access to child hunger programs across the country. that's primarily school meals, wic, summer programs, weekend programs, so kids have access to food. >> thanks for keeping a focus on it. senior vice president of communications for feeding america. if you want to know more about the organization or how to donate head to my blog cnn.com/ali. i'll link you to it. president obama in indonesia today. that's where our ed henry is staked out and tell you why he's forced to make an early exit.

president obama is on the second stop of his asian tour, indonesia. he lived there for four years when he was growing up but apparently won't be able to stay as long as he planned. cnn senior white house correspondent ed henry join us on the steakout in jakarta. >> reporter: this is one where the president even if he's jet lagged and tired on this asian tour, just shellacked in the midterm election back home. but even he can't stop from blurting out now and again it's pretty cool to be president. the perks are not bad. he came here to jakarta. and this is sort of -- if

something could go wrong, it's gone wrong. he's planned this trip three times. first time it got canceled because of the health care debate back in washington. second time canceled because of the gulf oil spill. he had to focus on that. third time, it's been shrunk down to less than 24 hours. and even then it's now going to be shrunk down even more. you've got this volcanic ash spewing out of a mountain here. and it's basically unsafe to fly in certain areas. and so the white house has been keeping a close eye on this and it looks like they're going to have to shave the trip down even more, cancel some events to get him safely to south korea because experts say that the volcanic ash can wreak havoc on jet engines. on top of that, when the pl president first landed it's pouring rain. you can see he's talking low. he's tired. i'm tired. we're 12 hours ahead of you. you don't know what time it is. it's understandable he's jet

lagd but then he reminisced about being a boy here in jakarta, growing up for four years. once he started doing that and talking about what jakarta used to look like, he said the perks of being president not too bad. >> the first time i came here was in 1967. and people were on bedcheks which for those who aren't familiar is a bicycle rickshaw thing. if not that they were on bemales which were sort of like little taxis but you stood in the back and it was very crowded. and now as president, i can't even see any traffic because they block off all the streets, although my understanding is the jakarta traffic is pretty tough. >> reporter: that reminded me of when i was in one of my favorite cities las vegas last year with

the president. he was raising money for senate majority leader harry reid and the president was staying at caesar's palace. he had stayed there as a candidate for president. he said i thought i had a pretty good suite when i was candidate but now i got the upgrade as president. i found out later that the suite that he stays at in caesar's palace is about 22,000 square feet, it's got a private patio and a private pool for anyone who stays there. some might call it the rainman suite. i call it the ali velshi suite because i know you travel in style. even when you have the perks of the presidency you can't stop certain things like volcanic ash. the president may be getting out early and i am too. see you tomorrow. >> what dedication, though. what dedication. that guy files his report live or on tape from wherever he is. i hope he's getting pretty good digs while he's in vegas. changing topics, he's been on the defensive before. now republican chairman michael steele is at it again.

senior political editor mark preston, so happy to have him back. he lost his voice and missed us for a few days but he's back and has an update. >> hey, how are you? just late last month we were talking about michael steele and his faite. michael steele said to me at the time in an interview as far as his critics were to go, look, the fact of the matter is don't criticize me about raising money when you have told donors not to give to me. he's at it again in an interview with npr. he said as far as his critics go, "they don't want me in the job. there's a concerted effort ever since i got the job to get me out of the job." michael steele who hasn't said if he's going to run for the chairmanship of the rnc is clearly taking some public statements that would leave us to say otherwise he will run and we know privately he's been making phone calls about it. kind words, though, from newt gingrich about hillary clinton. there's been a lot of talk about who will replace robert gates as

defense secretary. on "good morning america" today, newt gingrich addressed the fact what if it was hillary clinton, the current secretary of state. here's what he had to say. she's knowledgeable and tough and she would be a very aggressive defender of the military in terms of what it needs, its budgets and concerns. he said she would be a terrific defense secretary. we've come a long way since the republican revolution in 1994 and hillary care and of course the government shutdown. then this might be one guy you might want to party with if you want to smoke pot. last night governor arnold schwarzenegger in california said no one cares if you smoke a joint or not. of course this was in an interview on the "tonight show." of course as our viewers know, the california voters out there just rejected proposition 19, which would have made pot legalized. we do know it's legalized for medicinal purposes in california. basically what schwarzenegger is saying, even though he didn't

endorse prop 19 when it was on the ballot, he said who really cares. >> very interesting. it was defeated. that was one of the ones -- there were four ballot measures in four different states talking about legalizing marijuana. good to see you. cnn is the home of the best political team on television. stay with us for the next political update in about an hour. a lot of us are obsessed with cell phones. a lot of us have smartphones with everything but the kitchen sink on it. yesterday microsoft windows mobile was released yesterday but which mobile operating system ranks number one? sim biian on nokia, rim or blackberry, apple on iphone or microsoft mobile? ♪ [ upbeat instrumental ]

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okay. it's not always -- let me tell you what i was going to talk to you about before the break. i ask what is the most popular operating system on smartphones, symbian by nokia, rim on blackberry, apple on iphone or microsoft mobile? i was surprised by this myself. it's actually -- let's unveil this big new board. no, we're not going to put it -- it's on the screen. it's on the screen. symbian by nokia. i thought it was a big board -- isn't there a big board of this? can't i have my big board? that's what i'm looking for. look what a difference this is. this is symbian by nokia on this

side. research in motion is the next biggest. android last year had a big share of the market but not so much this year. then you can see how it goes along from there. so very interesting stuff. i want to introduce mario armstrong. you know him. he's a digital lifestyle expert to talk about the unveiling of microsoft mobile seven operating system. mario, tell me about this system and what it offers. >> yeah, hey, ali, how are you? so i have my hand on the samsung focus, which is unof several models that are going to be coming out with the new operating system from microsoft, this windows phone 7. this is basically a total departure from the previous versions of mobile's operating systems. if you ever had a windows phone before you used to have to have a stylus and looked like your desktop. had a start button, program menus. you don't have that. they have totally rewritten the

scripts and banking their future on this. >> other than guys like you and me do most people who buy smartphones or mobile phones go in there saying i want this operating system? other than apple which operates in a different sphere to some degree. do you not buy it because your provider is offering this smartphone? is this really going to drive people? >> absolutely. it's a great question. but absolutely. there is a segment of the marketplace that's absolutely going to be driven by this. on my radio show i'm constantly hearing from listeners what phones should i get, what applications do i need, what kind of operating system has the applications that interest me the most? so a lot of people are asking these questions maybe not as detailed as they think they should or just don't know. but they're certainly away there are more than just the iphones to choose from and want to make the smart decisions about mobile phone technology purchases. >> in your minds, iphone -- blackberry kind of defined the space in which you do business on your pda and apple really

defined the space in which you really enjoy it. are those lines all blurring and everybody coming together? are they going to look more similar or are these offerings very different still? >> great question. i think what you're getting at is two different things. one is on the handset side. how do they look. i'm holding up an iphone 4 and window 7 device. both are touchscreen, look very beautiful. before, a couple of years ago, iphone had the lead in how that phone looked. now that's changed. so the manufacturer -- samsung, hdc and others have moved quickly to mimic the look of iphone. but on the software side, i think that's where the game changer really becomes now you're talking about what applications can i use? does it connect quickly to microsoft for me and all of those things? those are the decisions people have to ask. this is definitely a good thing for windows and microsoft to get in the game even if it is a little late. >> love your passion on how much

you know about this. thanks very much for being with us. digital lifestyle expert. it's not always easy to be a kid and can be downright dangerous. i'll talk about the threat to kids that gets worse when grownups try to ignore it.

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to make ends meet. there may be cases in which children living abroad are trafficked into this country to work as sex slanchs but according to the justice department child prostitution is a very american phenomenon usually involving teenage runaways or abandoned children as young as 11 coming from broken homes and suffering abuse. both girls and boys fall victim to sexual exploitation. other chimed prostitutes are victims of forced abductions or even pressure from their own parents. either way the vast majority of children involved in formal prostitution rings are trafficked by pimples. they often force victims to travel long distances from their homes often across state lines making it easy to ploexploit th because the children are away from friends and family. the exploitation of american children as one official puts it 21st century slavery. this continues to go o