out where it belonged. a ministry's mission work. >> thank you so much. >> you're so welcome. >> i so appreciate it. >> i'm so glad. after i found out where it goes to, i'm even more happy about that. >> to have the right people come along and find the money so shortly after it was missing is just -- it is just, you know, it's the lord's money and he takes care of it. >> we want to leave you on an upbeat note. cnn newsroom continues now. the man is back. >> i'm ali velshi with you. here's what i have on the rundown. one of the most shocking murders in american history. getting to the truth behind the john lennon tragedy 30 years later. social networking for toddlers. it's really out there and big enough to be today's big "i." news your losers. a new push to make weight loss surgery available to the masses. if you believe we're not alone in the universe today's a big day for you.

somewhere, some kind of living thing must exist outside our own tiny planet. if you think like that, this is your day. one hour from now, nasa will make an announcement relating to the search for evidence of extra terrestrial life. let me say right now, we do not expect to hear they discovered real live aliens. instead, we think we're going to hear about microbes from a lake in yosemite national park. scientists scooped them up, took them to a lab and what happened there might rock your world. remember this. look at this. all right? it's every chemical element known to mankind. the ingredients for everything we have. only six of them, hydrogen, oxygen, fight ro jnigh nitrogen and phosphorous support life. one of them, though, arsenic, there's bacteria that lives in arsenic.

yosemite, the yosemite bacteria the scientists found thrives on arsenic which is a deadly poison to the likes of most of us. see arsenic over there, the one colored in orange. the deadly poison we're talking about here might sustain life. that knowledge, alone, could greatly expand the horizons of extraterrestrial search teams. they have been busy. it was last month the researchers found the first planet to come from outside our milky way galaxy. here's an artist's rendition of it. take a look. only yesterday the "journal nature" posted the earth shattering news the universe may have triple the number of stars as we first thought. the new astronomical number, 300 sextillion. i turned to ourd g go to expert mind blowing science. bill nye the science guy.

we have two minutes to get some sense what we're talking about, what we think is going to map at this nasa announcement. when i think of alien life i think of big green beings. that's not what we're talking about. >> no wooer, we're talking abou something equally unusual. there's bacteria that apparently have not only found a way to not get killed by arsenic, but in their dna they have replaced phosphorous with arsenic. you had that ingredients for everything chart. i have my own here. >> nice. >> here's the periodic table. here's the thing we want you to get. is that arsenic -- won't take but a moment. phosphorous and arsenic are right above each other. right vertically on the periodic table. so they're electrons, the things that cause the chemical bonds between them and other atoms are nominally the same. here's the big question. does it mean that these bacteria

evolved separately, like in the big picture, is it possible that there are other living things here on earth that do not share a common ancestor with you and me? one of the striking things -- >> in other words, are there aliens among us? really? >> yes. exactly. is it possible that you and i have dna, bacbacteria, everybod that infects us, all the things that make us sick, giant squids, dna, oak trees, everybody's got dna. is it possible this type of bacterium is from a different source or found a way to use chemistry that we have not imagined yet? >> is it possible -- did this just come before us? in other words, we could be co-existing with some different kind of life? >> and so then it enables us to ask different new questions about life elsewhere. if we are able to detect something in the atmosphere of

one of these new -- new to us -- exoplanets, planets around other stars, perhaps we will find evidence of other types of living things. and these questions help you understand your place in space and this i guarantee you enriches your life. >> you did do that. >> knowing the earth goes around the sun enriches your life. >> you did do that in two minutes. i can't see from here, bill, does your bow tie have the periodic table of elements on it? >> yes, it does. it was a gift from the guy at the chemical heritage institute. chemical heritage foundation, excuse me. they're good guys and they celebrate the passion, beauty and joe of chemistry. >> very good. bill, great to see you. talk to you again later. bill nye the science guy explains to us what we are expecting to hear later on. we'll stay on top of that for you. our sound effect today is a soccer shocker. uncharted territory for the premiere event in the world's

most popular sport. you may have seen it live on cnn. the governing body of the world cup announcing where the games will be held in 2018 and 2022. competing for the 2018 cup were russia, britain and the combined entities of spain and portugal and belgium, holland. the 2022 race was among japan, australia, south korea, qatar and the united states. here are the verdicts. >> the 2018 fifa world cup, 2018 fifa world cup, ladies and gentlemen, will be organized in russia. the winner to organize the 2022 fifa world cup is qatar.

>> russia and qatar, neither of those two countries has hosted a world cup before. the u.s. had had the honor in 1994. the president then bill clinton was in zurich to lobby for 2022. that didn't work out for the u.s. there's always 2026. now to a blood sport. politics. house democrats plan to tack le the future of the bush tax cuts today on permanently extending the breaks for families making $250,000 or less. republicans on the hill call that a nonstarter. they are demanding the cuts be extended for folks in all tax breaks including the rich or they will block all senate legislation that comes up in this lame duck session. president obama and vice president biden are meeting with a select group right now. the country's 23 new governors getting handshakes and well wishes. just in case anyone's forgotten, though i know the president hasn't forgotten, here's how the

party breaks down. 18 of the governors are republican, 4 are democrat and 1 independent. rhode island's lincoln chafee. a new orleans police officer has been hit with the maximum federal sentence in connection with the danziger bridge killings. he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and failure to report a crime. after fellow officers shot citizens days after katrina. four other cops have taken plea deals in shootings and cover-up. hunter reports for his eight-year sentence in march. 60% of americans google themselves regularly to keep track of their online rep. a florida college student is really glad he did before any s.w.a.t. teams could take him down. check out these two pictures. guy on the right is a murder suspect. police put out a wanted notice showing the guy on the left, our unassuming working two jobs student. turns out both are named zachary

garcia, both born march 6th. with names one letter different and birthdays one year apart, the guy who's not wanted for murder thinks this probably could have been prevented. >> everybody makes mistakes and i work at publix. i might get somebody's sub wrong. for somebody to get that wrong, it's not a sandwich. it's somebody's life you're playing with. >> no comment from the sheriff's department that messed up and no arrest of the wanted zachary garcia. it was a murder that shocked the world. john roberts talks with the doctor who struggled to save john lennon's life after he was shot nearly 30 years ago. his gripping words are coming up next. s going to need a day job. we actually have a lot of scientists that play music. the creativity, the innovation, there's definitely a tie there. one thing our scientists are working on is carbon capture and storage, which could prevent co2 from entering the atmosphere. we've just built a new plant to demonstrate how we can safely freeze out the co2 from natural gas. it looks like snow. it's one way that we're helping provide energy

with fewer emissions. singcheck the news onlinek the it'weather, check the timelping provide energy check the wife, check the kids check your email messages eck the money in the bank check the gas in the tank check the flava from your shirt make sure your pits don't stank check the new hairdo, check the mic one two 'cause i'm about to drop some knowledge right on top of you you check a lot of things already why not add one more that can help your situation for sure check your credit score free-credit-score-dot-com free-credit-score you won't regret it at all! check the legal y'all. anncr: offer applies with enrollment in triple advantage. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] print from any mobile device so your ideas can be there even when you're not.

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♪ strawberry fields ♪ nothing is real >> it was a day many of us will always remember. december 8th, 1980, the day john lennon was gunned down in front of his new york apartment building. mark david chapman spoke with lennon then shot him several times. lennon was rushed to the emergency room of the nearby roosevelt hospital. john roberts recently spoke to the doctor who tried to save m lennon's life and broke the news of his death to yoko ono. >> two police officers came -- he was holding him like the firemen hold. the other one yelled, gunshot wound, no vital signs. >> reporter: dr. steven lynn was the director of emergency services at roosevelt hospital. >> he was lifeless. he had no pulse. no blood pressure. he was unresponsive. >> reporter: lennon was wheeled into a trauma room.

lynn opened his chest and with lennon's heart in his hand tried to massage back a pulse. doctors transfused massive amounts of blood but as fast as it went in it leaked back out. >> after trying for about 10, 15, 20 minutes, it was clear that nothing could be done and john lennon was pronounced dead. >> reporter: 11:10 p.m. doctor lynn knew what had to be done next. the devastating task of telling yoko ono that john was gone. >> she was sitting in a little room right off the e.r. >> reporter: hospital administrator sandra cschoen wa with ono. >> she was in shock and anticipatory because at that point she was expecting john could be saved i'm sure.

>> i probably said something i have very bad news. in spite of all of our efforts to save your husband we were unable to and he died. >> reporter: ono was devastated. >> she was literally lying on the concrete floor of our emergency department hitting her head against the wall. i put my hands behind her head fearful she was going to hurt herself. >> wow. powerful stuff we haven't heard before, john. great reporting in there. there will be a full special on this. the idea yoko ono was hoping john lennon might be saved, the nature of his wounds, those gunshots, would that be different today? is anything different? i mean, he was -- it was in central park, very close to the hospital. could he have been saved 30 years later if this had happened? >> yeah, you know, medicine was very good in 1980. they got him to the hospital as quickly as they could. in fact, two police officers said we can't wait for the ambulance, we've got to get them there now. they put him in the back of a squad car and had him at

roosevelt hospital probably within five or six minutes of the shooting taking place. as you heard from dr. lynn there, he was already most of the way there if not all the way there by the time he got inside. i said to dr. lynn, as good as medicine was in 1980, if he had today's technology and able to apply it then, would you have been able to save his life? he said extent of the trauma he suffered, because chapman was usiing hollow point bullets. he said we were pumping his heart, infusing blood into his veins but there was nothing to pump blood from the heart back out with. all of the major vessels were gone. whether it was 1980 or whether it was 2010 there was just nothing they could do to save his life. >> you're a guy with a great background in music, covering

music, reporting music. john lennon's influence -- he's one of five people or ten people in all of music history in america, in the world who has this kind of influence on music today. do you still think john lennon influences music today? >> he absolutely does. yesterday on "american morning" we ran a piece with the lead singer of the alt rock group oar. he wrote a song a couple years ago titled "dakota" when he wrote with his wife outside the dakotas and took a look at got hit by all of these feelings and pens a song in 45 minutes sitting on a park bench across the street. he told me he hasn't run into a modern day influence who isn't influenced by beatles or john lennon. >> no doubt that's true. john roberts, thanks for this. see all of john's reporting on

lennon's death, exclusive recordings, rare interviews this saturday and sunday night starting at 8:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. worth watching. i want to take you to the house of representatives right now, debate has begun on the extension of the bush era tax cuts. as you know, the democrats want to extend it for everybody who earns $250,000 or less. families who earn $250,000 or less. republicans want it extended for everyone. we'll cover this very closely for you. all right. listen to this. we just found out the federal reserve gave tons in overnight loans to major banks and wall street firms during the wall street crisis. just how much? take a guess. how much it gave out in overnight loans. "a" $9 billion, "b" $9 billion or "c" $9 trillion. think you're right? i'll tell you on the other side of this break. 16 minutes could save you 16%. 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. ♪

♪ born in the usa before the break we asked you during the financial crisis how much money did the federal reserve give in overnight loans? a, $9 million, b $9 billion, c $9 trillion. $9 trillion in overnight loans during the financial crisis. these loans are made after the 2008 collapse of bear stearns. the real goal was to help the nation's bond markets trade normally. let's put the cost of those loans in perspective. look behind me here. each one of those little piggies is the equivalent of that huge $700 billion bailout. the rescue. the amount of money the fed gave to businesses in overnight loans is 13 times each one of those bailouts. who did this money go to? biggest recipients, merrill

lynch, citigroup and morgan stanley. foreign banks, too. swiss banks ubs and uk's barclay. harley davidson, mcdonald's, general electric, caterpillar. christine romans, my co-host, joins me from new york. we reported on this at the time. we didn't know where the money was going. we reported a major change for the first time ever in the history of the federal reserve, they had announced they will be the banker of last resort. if companies need much and the credit markets have frozen up, because when mcdonald's and ge need money they don't walk to the local bank and ask for a loan. it has to map in this international credit market. it wasn't happening. the fed became the banker of last resort. >> not just the central banks of the united states, the u.s. central bank, became the central bank to the world. look at barclay's enand ubs. this is a fed more aggressive than we've ever seen.

we've never seen a central bank take on such responsibility. the fed would say we averted a great depression because the fed was moving quickly getting an awful lot of money into the system. we' detractors will say this amounted to another bailout to wall street. all of these loans are backed by collateral, have been paid back. the benefit here was the very low interest availability of money at a time when money had seized up completely. >> there were two issues. one is, low interest. at that time even paying interest wasn't going to get you that money. we should explain overnight loans. these are loans that often banks make to each other overnight. to keep everybody liquid. and those weren't happening. banks weren't trusting each other to loan money. so banks and companies needed to get money, short-term money, not big loans to build plants and things. this is operating money. >> this is the shortest kind of term. when you saw the companies on

the screen there, the banks who were using the overnight lending facility the fed was putting out there, they were using another commercial paper project. you might recall we talked about commercial paper suddenly here. this is where big companies, they borrow overnight to pay their bills. borrow because they know on friday they're going to get a certain amount of money in from their customers or whatever. so that very short-term financing had frozen up. they had payroll they had to make. some cases you had major american corporations who had to pay their workers and suddenly couldn't find the source of money to pay them with. the fed stepped in to make sure main street got paid, too. >> what are we supposed to think of this now? with hindsight, did we think this was a system that really worked? or do we never want this to happen again? what's the view of how this all happened? >> it was an amazing gamble. it had never been done before. size and scope of it is what surprises a lot of people who watches this. there was a fantastic money on

cnn money about this. one of the executives of one of the wall street firms disputes the size of this and says some of this were rolling loans so the money got counted two, three, four, five times. the $9 trillion is shocking all of us. he points out the system worked like it was supposed to though on a much bigger scale than we ever thought a. >> for people who don't like the federal reserve, this is somewhere where it came in handy. thank you. christine romans, my co-host. christine is author of the new book called "smart is the new rich." let me bring you up to speed at top stories we're following. the house is debating whether to censure charlie rangel for ethics violations. he said his actions for sloppy, stupid, but never krupmt. a u.s. soldier was sentenced

for nine years in prison for taking place in a so-called sport killing in afghanistan. he will by allowed to stay in the army and cooperate with pro prosecutors. he's the first of 12 soldiers facing charges in the case. the defense could rest in the trial of accused of kidnapping elizabeth smart. brian mitchell is charged with kidnapping smart in 2002 when he was 14 years old. smart walked out of the courtroom yesterday during testimony about his desire to have children with his victims. closing arguments are expected to wrap up next week. he was known as king james. i'm sure they won't be rolling out the red carpet tonight in cleveland when lebron james treks out in a miami heat jersey. out of the very best america had to offer. ingenuity. integrity. optimism. and a belief that the finest things are the most thoughtfully made -- not the most expensive. today, the american character is no less strong.

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clevelanders have been waiting for this day for five months since lebron james advocated his throne, abandoned his hometown and went to play for the miami heat. things could get heated tonight. james' first homecoming in a visitor's jersey. this is what it looked like in the hours and days after james announced he was leaving. mark mckay is in cleveland waiting anxiously like everyone else. what's it looking like? >> reporter: ali, there are snow flurries in the air outside and air of uncertainty inside this basketball arena affectionately known as the q as cleveland awaits the return of lebron james five months after he gave the city, this team and their fans the cold shoulder. lebron james knew that this day would come. the day that he strolled out of the visitors' dressing room and on to his former home playing

court. once cleveland's favorite son, james is now enemy number one. which makes returning a tricky proposition on a number of levels. >> going to be very emotional for myself. i have a lot of great memories are that city. so many times, ups and downs and you know, a lot of things that i've done in my life i give a lot of thanks to that city, a lot of thanks to those fans for giving me the opportunity to not only showcase my talent but grow from a young boy to a man. >> reporter: when james announced he was leaving for miami cavs fans took to the street to burn his jersey. with lebron now returning wearing a jersey he chose to change, authorities are concerned. the cleveland organization is confident in its game plan for security. >> we have probably one of the most secure buildings in sports. you know, to that regard. and this is basically measures we take relative to any event that takes place here.

we have -- we're one of the few buildings in sports that have magnetometers at all the entrances, whether it be public or private. >> reporter: to understand the passionate fan is a science all to itself. dr. lisa is a psychology professor at cleveland state university and likens cavs fans who are angry at lebron to the end of a beautiful love affair. >> i've been thinking of this as sort of a bad breakup. when something like that happens, at the end you become focused at what happens just at the very end rather than the seven great years that lebron gave to the cavs and this area. >> reporter: lebron james will receive a chilly reception upon his return here to cleveland from the wintry weather outside of the arena to the icy stares that will surely greet him inside by a cavaliers fan base left in the cold with his move to miami.

>> let him play ball, let him get up out of here. let him go back to miami and lose like they've been losing. who cares. >> i think it's going to be tough, but i'm there to win a basketball game and understand how passionate fans are about sports. so you know, i'm ready for whatever response i'm going to get. >> reporter: for many clevelanders it wasn't that lebron james left northeast ohio, it's the way he left. basically dissing cavs fans with that national television audience, or i guess an audience, presidential-type announcement. tonight the cavs fans have their say. >> lebron says i'm ready for whatever they shout. the fact is, this isn't just a bunch of people who are mad. they have increased security as a result of his return tonight. >> reporter: very much so. the nba will add security, local authorities will be on hand. the q as it's known is the only arena in the nba that has magnetometers at every single entrance for the past five

seasons. they feel confident in the security measures they have. we'll see how it turns out tonight. >> we'll keep in touch with you on this. losing wakt is not an easy thing to do for anybody. some turn to surgery to shed those pounds. that's not an option for everyone. new rules may change that. gland. the best in nutrition... just got better. even better nutrition -- high in vitamins d, e, and b12. a good source of vitamin a and b2. plus omega 3's. and, 25% less saturated fat than ordinary eggs. but there's one important ingredient that hasn't changed: better taste. better taste. better taste. yum! [ female announcer ] eggland's best. better taste -- and now even better nutrition -- make the better egg.

half past the hour. latest developments in the days. major stories. nasa is about to make a big announcement related to the likelihood of life beyond planet earth. we have bill nye the science guy on stand by to boil down the news as it is beamed down from nasa. charlie rangel faces his punishment for house ethics

violations today. hay apologized for his actions and pleaded for a reprimand. the 11 counts against him included failure to pay taxes on a vacation home. soccer's world cup won't be coming to united states any time soon. qatar beat the u.s., japan, south korea, and australia to hold the world's largest sporting event in 2022. the 2018 world cup was awarded to russia. the food and drug administration is set to vote tomorrow on who is eligible for weight loss surgery. until now the procedures have been reserved for the most severely overweight, but that could change. senior medical correspondent elizabeth cowen here with the details on this. i understand this has something to do with lap band surgery? >> a couple different ways to do obesity surgery. one is you use this device called the lap band that makes your stomach smaller so you can't eat as much. there are certain guidelines as to how big you need to be in order to get this surgery. insurance companies pay attention. if you don't fit the guidelines,

they're not going to pay for it so you can't get it. >> what do we think the fda is going to do? >> allergen asked them to bring down the guidelines. if you're 5'8" inches tall right now, you can get the insurance company to pay for this belt if you weigh 230 pounds or more. under this new proposal you'd have to weigh 187 pounds or more. look at those numbers and it tells you how big you need to be to use this thing. >> you mentioned a company name, allergen. this is an interesting thing in medicine. you can see why a company would want this to happen, bring the weight down, allergen gets more business. the stock is up today. the fda, the chair of this panel looking at this owns stock in the company. >> right. ideally you would want the fda folks considering this to be completely neutral. the chairwoman owns $10,000,

$25,000 worth of allergen stock. the fda knew this and issued her a waiver and said, you can be on the committee but can't vote. they couldn't find anyone else available with the appropriate expertise. >> what do you do if you think you're a candidate for this or looking forward to the new regulations because it brings it down and makes you eligible to get this paid for, what should you be thinking about? >> here's where you want to be an empowered patient. there's more than one way to do obesity surgery. do i really want to have the lap band? that's what you want to think about. it's not the most popular way for having obesity surgery. for some people it's not the best way. that's one of the questions you want to ask. let's talk a little bit about the risks of getting the lap band. there are several of them. they can slip. you put this thing on and the band an slip. it can spontaneously deflate. it has to be inflated with saline. it can erode over time. getting back to those questions,

is this the right type of surgery for me? because there are other types of surgery. you also want to think through who's the right doctor for me? some doctors do this as a side business. you want someone who does this all the time and then also you want to think through, you know, once your stomach shrinks no matter what kind of surgery you have, you have to be on a whole new diet. you cannot overeat. if you're not good at doing that -- >> i've always thought of this as fairly extreme when nothing else worked. >> when you tried diet after diet and they haven't worked. some people get this and are limited to what they can eat and have a difficult time. >> this is friday we're expecting this to happen. >> that's right. >> we'll keep a close eye on it with you. it's deadly and unlike any weapon of its type in history. the army's new smart rifle. [ male announcer ] humana and walmart are teaming up to bring you a low-price medicare prescription drug plan

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if anything, i thought i'd get hit by a bus, but not a heart. my doctor put me on an aspirin regimen to help protect my life. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. check with your doctor because it can happen to anybody.

it is time now to go globe trekking. the u.s. army calls it a revolutionary weapon that makes american soldiers more lethal and safer. i'm talking about the xm 25 smart rifle. now being used for the first time on any battlefield in afghanistan. the army says the shoulder fired grenade launcher can kill an enemy hiding behind walls or other cover. it uses an array of sights, assess elements like air pressure, sends the data to a microchip embedded in the shell before it's launched. so soldier could program a shell to explode just over an enemy hiding behind a wall.

showering lethal fragmentations over the hiding area. just a few of the rifles are in country now but the pentagon plans to buy 12,000 beginning next year. to russia, vladimir putin's outrage over the latest wikileaks. one state department cable released, defense secretary of state -- defense secretary robert gates is quoted saying that russian democracy has disappeared and the government was an oligarchy run by the security services. putin dismissed the complaint calling gates deeply misled. also in an interview with cnn's larry king, putin says he'll make a concerted decision about whether he'll seek the presidency again in 2012. and our last stop in globe trekking. ivory coast. still no runoff in the election. the country remains in the grips of anger and violence. one electoral commission member became so outraged ed he tore u the ballot.

you'll likely do it and so do i. posting status updates on social media. now toddlers can do it too. d med 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 to someday help meet the world's energy demands.

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♪ ♪ it's the lexus december to remember sales event, and for a limited time, we're celebrating some of our greatest offers of the year. see your lexus dealer. whether it's facebook, twitter, linkedin or all of the above social media is one of the biggest ways to stay connected. i use it all the time.

now your baby can, too. i'm not talking about facebook or twitter. i'm talking about something called iobr. it's the first social media tool for toddlers. it's really more of a communication tool, but it's, yeah, kind of a keeping people updated. here's how it works. a child simply places one of these three blocks you'll see into a corresponding shape. all right? they have a triangle, a square, a circle. when it's time to eat the child places the square red block in the square. now, it's connected to somebody else who sees it. some other kid. now the kid wants to brush their teeth. they place the little round thing with the toothbrush in the little circle. the other kid sees it. now the kid wants to tell the other kid that they're connected with that they're sleeping so places the triangle into the little triangle and other kid sees it. it represents the activity they're about to do. the communication is nonverbal. no surprise. since we're talking about

toddlers. this is designed by two finnish designers and based it on a popular children's toy, a shape sorting box. it makes sense because it has a working device toddlers already understand. they have been using the device with their own children. you don't have to complicate yourself with it. basically there's two ends of it. there's somebody, one kid, one household at one end and another kid in another household at the other end and is the middle is the internet. they say it will work anywhere as long as there's internet available. they've had it up and running for a couple weeks now and say it's been a huge hit with their kids. no word yet on whether this will be made available to the general public and whether or not you're going to want your kid to learn about these status updates so to speak. at such a young age. learn more about this new device by going to cnn.com/ali. i'll link you to it. both sides taking swipes at each other during debate over middle class tax cuts take place

in the house. they're debating whether to extend the bush era tax cuts. democrats want to extend the cuts for americans making under $250,000. republicans want to extend them for everyone. we'll keep you posted on how that debate plays out. also the word today is wikileaks founder julian assange may be hiding out in great britain. here in the u.s. critics call him a terrorist for publishing top secret documents on the wars in iraq and afghanistan and america's diplomatic relations. the man convicted in the 2007 murders of a connecticut woman and her two daughters will pay with his life. the judge said he wrote the sentence for himself in flames. only the father escaped. on capitol hill, senator john mccain says now is not the time to repeal the policy banning gays from serving openly in the military. but pentagon chief robert gates disagreed during a senate hearing today. top brass from the army, navy,

air force and marines will address the committee tomorrow. waiting all the night for an autograph. who are people in spirit lake, iowa, lining up for? we'll tell you in our cnn political update. ♪ i'm gonna get my hair cut ♪ even if i have to cut it myself ♪ ♪ i'm gonna get my hair cut ♪ even if i have to cut it myself ♪ ♪ but it makes me out of breath ♪ ♪ when you say ♪ ♪ love is a game -♪ a game for two -[ ring ] ♪ love is a game i want to play with you ♪ [ female announcer ] introducing the dell streak 5 pocket tablet exclusively at dell.com and best buy.

[ female announcer ] introducing the dell streak 5 pocket tablet singcheck the news onlinek the weather, check the time check the wife, check the kids check your email messages eck the money in the bank check the gas in the tank check the flava from your shirt make sure your pits don't stank check the new hairdo, check the mic one two 'cause i'm about to drop some knowledge right on top of you you check a lot of things already why not add one more that can help your situation for sure check your credit score free-credit-score-dot-com free-credit-score you won't regret it at all! check the legal y'all. anncr: offer applies with enrollment in triple advantage. don't want to deal with a lot of flibbity-flab or mumbo-jumbo. sounds like you need to name your price. no gobbledy-gook? never. do i still get all the dagnabbit coverage i need? sure. we give you a quote and you can adjust your price up and down to find something that works for you. ♪ this thing is okey-mcsmokey skiddly-doo.

great! i think. diggity. oh! still not sure. the "name your price" tool. only from progressive. call or click today. . . . . strategic stop for sarah palin book tour. john king joins me from washington not the place you would go if you were any other author not writing a political book or planning to run for president. >> iowa is first in something. let's think through.

what is iowa first in? presidential caucus. sarah palin is greeting iowans and deflecting questions. our jim acosta tried to ask a few. we're watching into the afternoon and evening hours

expecting that decision later today. and finally a big tax debate going on in the house of representatives. the democrats are pushing a proposal to extend the bush era tax cuts for middle class americans. for $250,000 below. the administration is open to an extension of all the tax cuts for two or three years. as those negotiations play out two leading conservative voices are saying forget about any temporary extension let's have new legislative. mike pence and congressman demint. that's a great discussion. the issue here is that it's clear why some people want tax cuts and why some think it's hard for the economy but it's hard to do that but speak out of the same mouth about reducing the deficit. >> there's a fundamental math question. sometimes we make politics too complicated. if you cut taxes that's less

money coming into washington. that's one of the questions. >> the one advantage is we start to see forecasts for economic growth for the united states for next year, i saw one today for 2.7%. we were thinking 2%. that could help. the one way you can cut taxes and cut deficit is if you have economic growth and everybody is work. you can't bank on it. >> let's pray for growth. you and i will stay out of the politics. we'll pray for growth. >> that's right. good to see you. cnn is committed to keeping you inform on all the political news. your next update is one hour away. we'll tell you who announce ad multimillion dollar plan to construct a full scale noah's ark. after this. [ female announcer ] this is not a prescription.

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♪ we're back. all right. well time now for odds and end. some americans are busy sending tweets on their ipads or talking on blackberries or facebooking, others not year yet. 130 years after the telephone was invented the small town of iowa hills, california is finally getting its first phone lines installed. more than 50 people have signed up for phone service. if you have any friend call them in a couple of years when they get cable and remind them to watch me on cnn. yesterday kentucky governor announce ad plan to construct a full scale noah's ark tourist attraction based on biblical descriptions. it will be the center piece of a theme park constructed by ark

encounter and answers in genesis. the announcement was met by criticism by some groups but the governor says the project will create jobs and have a multimillion dollar impact on the economy. if you don't like being insulted avoid spokane, washington. an electronic crosswalk in downtown spokane, the sign looks like it's giving pedestrians the bird. they are going to fix it. but crews say they have to clear the streets first. until then stay classy, spokane. i'm ali velshi with you for the next hour. life on other planets. we're about to know more. nasa has an announcement that's got the universe abuzz. in q and a, with the world drowning in a flood of leaked documents, is exposing corporate secrets good or bad for business and for all of you?

the search for answers to the education crisis. we just mind find a few today with bright minds gathered right here in atlanta. if you believe we're not alone in the universe, that somewhere, some kind of living thing must exist outside of our own tiny planet today is your day. any second now nasa will make an announcement about search for extraterrestial life. we think we'll hear about microbes. remember this it's every chemical element known to mankind. i'll show this to you. mark will help me. this is the periodic table of the elements. everything that's made. every kind of life we know has these elements in it. the ones there in yellow only six of them, hydrogen up in the

cop corner. hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, these are fundamental to supporting life. the yosemite stuff tlooifs on arsenic which is a deadly poison. it occurs all over the world but not good for us. now the knowledge that something, some being, some sort of life is using arsenic to survive could greatly expand the horizons of extraterrestial search teams and they have been busy. last month researchers found the first planet to come from outside of our milky way galaxy. this is an artist's rendition. the journal "nature" posted the news that the universe may have tripled the number of stars we first thought. the new number, 306 tillion. let's talk a little about the implications of what we think nasa is going to announce

momentarily. we don't know for sure. let's find out -- we'll find out together. bill nye the science guy is back. dr. tarter is at the sfei. she was the inspiration for jodi foster's character in "contact." let's go nasa. >> from earth that was discovered that does something very unusual. terrestial life but not life as we know it. this research was funded by the astro biology program which focus on the origin of life, distribution of life and future of life on earth to inform us as to how we might search for life and evidence of life in other places in our solar system. nasa has had a long history of

funding origin of life research. in fact we're celebrating our 50th anniversary this year. the research that's going to be presented here today shows the goals of our program and our interest in the origin of life and life in the universe. i would like to introduce dr. simon, the lead author on the paper to fill us in on what she did and what she found. >> thanks, mary. as mary probably knows and as many of my colleagues would agree w-i'm always interested in exceptions to the rule. what i'm going to talk about here today is not that much different than another exception to the rule. and so i've discovered -- i've led a team that has discovered, something that i've been thinking about for many years. i've been thinking about an idea of substitution. what does it mean to be substitution. what does it mean to are toxics. i led a team that discovered a micobe.

all life we know requires six elements and the critical pieces we're familiar w-dna, rna or the information technology, the protein which are the molecular machines and lipids which separate you from everything else. so by discovering, we discovered in our organism that can substitute one for another. i want to give us a little bit in an astro biological context or life in a planetary context what this could mean to us. i would like to introduce to you today the bacterium gfa-j1. these are not little pots to. they are microbes that scientists call bugs but they are not bugs. this is a bacterium that looks

ordinary, this is a type of a micrograph that many of have seen but it's doing something extraordinary. we'll talk about that. but first, let's find out where this micobe is fun. it's in california, east of the sierra, outside of the yosemite park. a very interesting environment. we'll take a look at that. please roll that footage. mono lake has very high levels of arsenic and teaming with life. the inhospitable environment teams with life with bacteria and algae and is a major stopping point for my gaer to birds on their way through the united states. we went to look for an interesting microbe. let me tell you a little bit how we did this. if you want to look for an organism that can substitute one

element for another you want to think where that is abundant. it's abun dan nt in mono lake. we think about the periodic table. arsenic life just below phosphorous on the periodic table they have the physical size that's very similar. physical size of the atom. actually, the fact that this chemical sim later and other things that i would be happy they discuss at length with folks, it lends insight into something that arsenic is toxic because it looks like photos ferous. so our cells can't tell the difference. that's very interesting to me as a biochemist. i went to look for this particular micobe. we took the mud from mono lake and wanted to see if anything would grow if we took that mud and gave it an laboratory

environment that was rich in everything it needed, sugar, vitamins, not that bad for us, and we added no phospherous. what did we find? we found this microbe ordeal with the toxicity of arsenic but it grew and thrived. that was amazing. nothing should have gone. put your plant in the dark. it doesn't grow. so something grew. now we wanted to find what was happening. so we measured the insides of the cell, we took the cells and measured the total arsenic concentration. then we found that the arsenic was associated specifically with a band of genomic dna.

so we isolated the genomic dna. we measured that there was arsenic there. then we could tell that the arsenic wasn't just stuck, it was in a type of chemical environment or nearest neighbors looked like it was behaving like phospherous. it's like sitting at a dinner table with you and your neighbors and we might see how you're around. it looked like it was arsenic. we me surd it as arsenic. let's look at an artist rendition of what's going on in that cell. here we're seeing the beautiful elegant structure of the double helix of the dna. the phosphate.

that's the backbone of the dna. what we think is happening, all the evidence we collected suggests is that instead of these we'll see these orange light orange balls disappear and represented by green balls we see that arsenic would be substituting for phosphrous and the backbone of the dna. you can see how critical this might be. so, what i've presented to you today is a micobe doing something different than life as we knew about it. i was taught all life we know on earth, all life kbhoe of is here so far and if there's an organism on earth doing something different we've cracked open the door to what's possible for life elsewhere in the universe. and that's profound. and to understand how life is

formed and where life is going. >> we'll keep listening to that. until this moment i hadn't met anybody more excited about science than bill nye. we'll take a quick break. they will explain what she was talking about, what those microbes are and whether this means we've actually discovered alien life. when we come back we'll have more on this. stay with us.

all right. one of the best movies ever, "close encounters of the third kind." i'm joined by mill. >> i and also the head of the planetary society and dr. jill tarter. she was the inspiration foro i can foster's character in "contact." bill nye you have been dethroned as the guy most excited about science. this woman was very interested in this. i want to show you the elements, ingredients for everything chart. i want to show you where arsenic is. right above it is phosphorous. you were telling us this about

an hour ago. basically we found living, evidence of living beings that have swapped out phosphorous for arsenic which we would think of as being toxic and we couldn't live with. tell us more about this. >> it's arsenic for phosphorous not furious for arsenic. it's all good. the thing that is striking, we didn't think that was possible. we thought it would kill you even if you're a microbe, we thought that would do you in. but, apparently, if you're the right microbe it works okay. so this gets to you ask new questions. could it be that the elements, the requirements for making a living thing maybe aren't that hard. maybe it's not as hard as we had heretofore thought. you and i rely on the same type of dna. but perhaps you can put anything

in that periodic column table if the conditions were right, everything over here you could put -- you could change one for the other, arsenic for phosphorous. if you may remember there's a couple of science-fiction stories that has silicon exchange for carbon which is not so easy. this idea that it's to substitute things changes the way we look at living things and changes the way we think about what's possible. >> like your -- what you thought of as the possible world has now been expanded. there's a great description, bill of the science. jill, let's take it out of the science realm and discuss the implications of this. first we were talking about microbes. they looked like potatoes. what does this mean in terms of alien life? by definition this is alien life because it's not like bill said

like everything else that we think of that is life. >> i'm not so sure i would go along with the alien life. this is an adaptation of life as we know it. doing something that we didn't think could it. just an indication that life is far more adaptable than perhaps we give it credit for. but what this does, perhaps, is expand the habitable real estate out there. it's really intriguing. and what would have been even more intrigue is to have, seen something that was on this planet a second genesis, independent evolution of a different type of life. what is being demonstrating is an adaptation, substitution, which is intriguing and fabulous. >> which means you don't think it came from somewhere else or it's a different sort of life than we've been used to?

in other words not a sort of, it's hard to use this terminology it's not a life that exists parallel to life of organisms as we know it? >> no. i suspect on that panel as they go further, you will be hearing from steve benner who does synthetic technology, the life he's creating in the lab. i don't think anybody is willing yet to say this is an independent life. >> i see. okay. interesting distinction, bill. but as jill said and as you said earlier, it could help us recharacterize what we think of as life. in other words does that mean that some of those planets we eliminated as possibilities for having habitable life we may have to re-evaluate and there's something out there that we didn't think about because we didn't think those environments could sustain life? >> there's very few planets that we eliminated the possibility of life. i got to else you in the scientific community.

maybe venus. that's bad for us as living things. but there could be all kind of different types of life that no one of thought about and this experiment, this demonstrations changes the way we look at things. no one would have thought you could live in arsenic very well until very, very recently, until the paper was peer reviewed. it's very exciting and it changes the way we'll look for life elsewhere. our argument is the more you know about this sort of thing, it affects the way you view what i like to call your place in space. your life is enriched by knowing the earth goes around the sun, especially if you like your gps or television or eating food growing in sign effect sophisticated ways. this is one more tiny step, perhaps, in our understanding of the role of dna and how it affects life on earth. if these sorts of microbes have

evolved independently without the experiment, you know they did the experiment and showed it could be doerngs now you might go looking for, let's say, for example an arsenic laid environment find them occurring naturally and then you might find another type of life a second genesis. independent of us. it would affect the way we think everything about living things. >> dare i st.? >> it would change the world. >> it legitimizes the stuff you do, jill, because you have to have hope that there's something else out there that the rest of us are too small minded to even consider. continue with the good work that you do jill and bill nye has changed his bow tie. exciting day. it's a new discovery. partisan bickering is the order of the day on the house floor right now as they debate

whether to extend the tax cuts. democrats want the bush era tax cuts extended only for the middle class families make under $250,000 a year. republicans are adamant that the cuts should be extended for everyone. usa soldier was sentenced to nine years in prison for taking part in so-called sport killing of civilians in afghanistan. robert stevens was busted down to private but loud to stay teenager. he'll cooperate with prosecutors. he was the first of 12 soldiers facing charges. the defense could rest in the trial of a man charged in kidnapping elizabeth smart. he kidnapped smart in 2002 when she was 14 years old. smart walked out of the courtroom yesterday during the testimony about mitchell's desire to have children with his victims. closing arguments are expected to wrap up by the end of next week. wikileaks is setting its sights on corporate world. would pulling the curtain back on corporate world be bad for

business? we'll talk more about that after the break. ♪ [ female announcer ] yoplait's real fruit and the goodness of dairy gives you a little slice of happy. and happiness comes in 25 delicious flavors. yoplait. it is so good.

we're here together in the cnn newsroom. held jobs richard. >> hello. anything you can do, i can do better. each thursday ali and i discuss the hot topics in business, in travel, in innovation and importantly nothing is off limits. today forget wikileaks, where wikileaks corporate secrets.

>> wikileaks is hinting it has another document dump coming early next year but this time they say it will be confidential communication at a large u.s. bank. so it made us wonder would spilling secrets about a bank or business be good or bad for business? richard, i went first last time, so age before beauty, you go first now. >> absolutely. hair before those folliclely challenged. at first blush you think it's a good idea. let everything out into the open. transparency. openness. secrecy. get the illegal stuff out. and then all of a sudden you remember whistle blowers. don't forget proctor and gamble in the 1940s. general motors and volkswagen, hewlett packard spying on their board of directors.

$4.3 billion was paid by u.s. companies to whistle blowers. sound good so far. how would you like your secrets to be published somewhere? never mine if it's not illegal but just confidential, private, embarrassing, commercially sensitive. the truth of the matter is that secrecy and confidentiality is very good when its yours, but of course when it's somebody else's let it all hang out. wikileaks should be well and truly plumbed. >> there's no love for banks. 60 seconds. wikileaks exist solely to publicize is secret information on governments and business, to embarrass them. the website's controversial founder julian assange says he's going after a big u.s. bank next saying that exposing bad behavior among corporations will help ethical ones thrive. i'm curious as to what wikileaks might have that would take down

a bank or two. u.s. banks are already up to their ears in scandal, faulty disclosure paper work, what more can wikileaks possibly reveal? that big banks pay their executives more now than they did before the u.s. government bailed them out? richard you can't embarrass somebody who has no shame. unless wikileaks has something very special it may be promising more it can deliver. if wikileaks wanted to expose information relevant to public it's one thing. but assange comes across as a man with a grudge. >> once again you've missed the point. the point is not whether it's in the public good but whether or not it should be released. we'll argue about that in the future. all right. >> guess that means it's time for the quiz and the voice. hello, voice. >> gentlemen it's time to put that expensive anchor tv dental

work. "time" magazine talks the leak of documents is top leak of all time. what's number two? watergate? valerie plame as cia agent? the mcchrystal's war plan. or ""twilight"" movie details? >> ali. >> yes. >> watergate. >> you may remember the watergate, deep throat revealed himself in 2005. question, two are you ready injulian assange, is the public face of wikileaks. what use did he use when he started computer hacking at the tender age of 16. freedom fighter, b, mendax,

moros or nemesis? >> ali. >> take a guess, given his general take on the world i would say d, nemesis. >> you would be wrong. richard quest. >> i would say mendax. >> correct! . >> what is a mendax. >> contrary to popular belief mendax is not a personal high again product for males. it's taken from the latin of nobly untruthful. fess up. you had no idea? >> absolutely none whatsoever. >> all right. next. final question, gentlemen. it's one of the closest guarded corporate secrets of all time. what is the code name of coca-cola classic's secret formula? is it a, merchandise 7x, coke

plan x, redgold or formula number 3. richard quest for the win. >> i'm going formula number 3. >> wrong. >> we can't let quest win on that. i'll call it b, coke plan x. >> also wrong. quest. >> merchandise 7x. >> is correct. >> merchandise 7x. the failed new coke formula was called merchandise 7x-100. quest you're the winner. until next time good-bye. >> remember we're here each week thursdays on quest means business, 1900 gmt. >> and in the cnn newsroom at 2:00 p.m. eastern we need your topics coming to our blogs. cnn.com/qmb or cnn.com/ali. what do you want us to talk

about next week. >> see you richard. >> see you. it's deadly and unlike any weapon of its type in history. the army's new smart rifle being used in afghanistan. we'll show you how it works and why it's so important next in globe trekking. ♪ [ male announcer ] let's be honest. no one ever wished for a smaller holiday gift. ♪ ♪ it's the lexus december to remember sales event, and for a limited time, we're celebrating some of our greatest offers of the year. see your lexus dealer.

let me bring you the latest developments in the day's major stories. nasa out on big announcement on possible life beyond what we know. researchers say strange bacteria that uses arsenic instead of phosphorous as its nutrient expands the scope of finding new life on earth and possibly beyond. the house is expected to

vote on extending bush era tax cuts for those making $250,000 or less. the gop wants extensions for all taxpayers. soccer's world cup won't be coming to the united states any time soon. the middle east nation of qatar beat out several other nations to host the world's largest sporting event in 2022. the 2018 world cup was awarded to russia. time for globe trek. the u.s. army calls it a revolutionary weapon that makes american soldiers more lethal and safer. i'm talking about the xm-25 rifle. the army says the shoulder fired grenade launcher can kill an enemy hiding behide walls. it can assess elements like air pressure and sends the data to a

microchip that's embedded into the shell. the soldier can program the shell to explode over an enemy hiding behind a wall, shattering lethal fragmentation. thing pentagon plans on buying more than 12,000 of them beginning next year. let's go russia. prime minister putin outrage over the latest wikileaks leak. putin dismissed the complaint. putin says he'll make a concerted decision whether he'll seek the presidency again in 2012. our last stop the ivory coast still no winner in the country's runoff presidential election. the results were rejected after the electoral commission had

said the incumbent president was defeated. they took the action because the results were announced after a set deadline. one commission member a supporter of the president became so outraged that he tore up the ballots. check out this tweet. it says, quote, hey colonel, your scholarship, your scholarship's the secret ingredient missing from my recipe for success, got the grades, drive just need the cash. how those few words got one student a whole lot of money coming up next. retiring or losing your employer's retiree health benefits? then it's time to start thinking about your medicare coverage. call now to find out how an aarp medicare plan from unitedhealthcare can help make your next step easier. medicare has two parts, parts a and b to help cover a lot of your expenses. like doctor visits, and hospital care. but they still won't cover all of your costs. now's the time to learn about plans

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in full disclosure here i have as you might guess from my physic an unnatural affinity for fried chicken. a student from long beach, california had a tweet that was so finger clicking good that it won her a $20,000 scholarship. the 17-year-old amanda russell is the winner of the kfc tweeting conset of. she beat out 2800 applicants that tried to tweet their way to cash. kfc said 140 characters or less why you should get the scholarship. here's her winning tweet. hey colonel your scholarship's the secret ingredient missing from my recipe for success. got the grades, drive, just need the cash. kfc is giving out 74 more scholarships for next year. check out kfc scholars.org for more information.

if you haven't seen the movie, "waiting for superman" you should. it's going to be something that people will refer to whether you agree with free miss of the movie or not. now that could have been there, highlights some of the problems within the public school system throughout the country. etd occasi education crisis is so bad that one-third of students will not gratd. it increases to half for hispanic and african-american males. the united states is the only industrialized country where young people are less likely to earn a high school diploma than their parents. we look at ways to turn these stats around and fix our schools. joining me is judith picken, senior vice president of the boys and girls club of america. thank you for being here. you have hosted today a town

hall meeting where you tried to have discussions about what you can do. you hosted it here in atlanta. tell me who attended and what you discussed. >> we had a wonderful town hall meeting and it was co-hosted by boys and girls clubs of america and participant media and paramount pictures spurred on because of the "waiting for superman" documentary. we showed clips from the film itself for our dialogue. it was a rich discussion. >> what did you come away with? >> first of all, it was such a diverse audience of participants. so we were well represented. the metro atlanta chamber of commerce was there. so, it was a great mix of participants. and the purpose was to allow the community to understand that they definitely have a role to

play. that none of us, because of the magnitude of this problem, can settle it by ourselves. there is much work to be done. so, the community at large has a role to play. you know, many, many years ago the community used to be your extended family. >> right. >> and the african proverb that it takes a village to raise a child holds more credence now than ever before. >> absolutely it does. >> so we can't allow anybody to sit on the sidelines. >> what can all of these groups do? i sort of get that some of it is obvious. in boys and girls clubs for instance promoting the idea that people have somewhere to go, that have some supervision, that has activities is helpful. it keeps them away from not doing those things. what kind of learning did you get about what these different groups can do to support a failing education system? >> we can make sure there's a supportive, caring adult in the life of a child. somebody can be there to mentor them, to believe in them, to tell them that you will graduate

from high school, or you will go to college and you will get a good job one day. so, unless there's a caring adult that has high expectations for them, that can raise that bar, that believes in them, that can build their self-esteem, to understand that this is really a possibility that they can go to college, that's absolutely a necessity. we need to take more time in the lives of our children. we can volunteer at a local organization like a boys and girls clubs. we can have participation in church or any other civic organization. but there has to be caring adults in the life of a child. that's critically important. >> that's a good role for everybody else who watches these things saying i'm not a teacher or school administrator. what can i do help solve the problem. judith thank so you much. >> we need them to be part of the education equation. people think of the schools or family or caregivers but the part of the community that is often overlooked is the community based organizations.

>> good point. judith thank very much for being with us. let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories. days to go before the bush era tax cuts ends. republicans want all taxpayers included. the man convicted in the 2007 murder of a woman and her two daughters will pay with his life. the judge wrote the sentence himself. prosecutors say he and an accomplice raped and strangled the mother, molested one of the girls and set the home on fire. senator john mccain says now is not the time to rephilly policy preventing gays to openly serve in the military. robert gates disagreed. top brass from the military service will address the committee tomorrow. cleveland's former favorite son hits the hardcourt tonight

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that's going to make a lot of sense to you, the heat is on. first the world cup selection committee. their announcement today of future host countries has raised a couple of eyebrow, particularly for the 2022 tournament. the desert republic of qatar. first world cup held in the middle east. first with state-of-the-art cooling systems at training

playing and fan venues. why? because it's hot there? average high in june and july, 106 degrees. it's a dry heat. russia got the nod for 2018. it knocked off three european rivals. time may heal all wounds. nearly five months since hometown star went to miami. now tonight city can welcome him back. the hoops hero turned evil villain. the heat is not on just yet but it is going to get hot later on in cleveland. what's going on? >> i can tell you, it's very appropriate that you come to us with that. the heat son. how about heated return, will it be cheers or jeers on the front

page of the cleveland pl"clevel deale dealer". that's the question. how will he be treated. remember the scenes stengthens here in cleveland when fans were burning lebron's cavs jersey when he came out with the decision to go south florida. there was a lot of anger back then. there's some feeling, certainly the feeling of the organization that the cavs have moved on but have the fans? it really depends on who you ask. we're looking forward see how it will all come down in the coming hours. >> at the quicken center there's security center. tell me what's going on with that? >> well, first of all, every fan that walks in here for the past five seasons they've had to walk through a metal detector to get from the outside in. this is something they are so proud about. there will be added security.

plain-clothes officers with uniformed officers. nba is adding security. when it comes to concession you won't drink your alcoholic beverage out of a bottle. everything will be put into the plastic cups. there's an interesting question. we got to wonder about lebron's pre-game ritual. it could set this place on fire. if he does what he normally does is the chalk toss to really fire himself up, could it have an opposite effect tonight. lebron is kind of silent on that whether eem continue that ritual here at the q. >> thank you. president obama welcomes some new faces to washington but not all of them could necessarily be considered friendly. your cnn political update coming up right after the break. [ female announcer ] imagine the possibilities with stelara®.

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it is time for a cnn political update and possible positive movement on those tax cuts we've been talking about. john king joins me now from washington with the latest. debates wrapped up in the house, john? >> the house is voting today. that's on one proposal. the democratic proposal. they concede it's a political vote to say the democrats want to go on the record to say they want to extend the tax cuts loin for middle class americans, everybody else above $250,000 should see their taxes go up. the administration has a team. the house teams have a team. plus republicans from both sides who are beginning to hear a general outline.

most of the democrats seem resigned they are going have to accept probably a two year extension of the bush tax cuts. the question is what do the democrats get? do they get an extension of the unemployment benefits. do they get any other job incentives that they want to put into the tax code. what we're beginning to hear is a lot of jittery democrats are worried the white house won't stand in the fight long enough to get everything they want. here's another example of the jitters on the left. moveon.org, they spent a lot of money campaign ads, they are putting up a new tv ad and the theme of the ad is we want the old obama back. they have several of their supporters saying what happened to that guy we helped elect back in 2008. one woman in the ad specifically says mr. president please do not compromise with the republicans about extending the bush tax cuts. you see some liberal anxiety. the governor did get a look at the new political landscape.

he invited the newly elected governors to a luncheon at the blair house. he made a joke saying he sees some democratic friends out there but not as much as he hoped. the president said we'll have some partisan fikts down the road. if you have a problem call me directly and i'll help you out. >> part of the new bipartisan washington. >> i got you back now. >> i was going to say part of the new bipartisan washington. tell me a bit about what you good lined up for the show tonight. you have an interesting discussion about taxes and deficits. >> two leading conservative voice. mike pence. jim demint. they have their own proposals today let's permanently extend all tax cuts. they want to do even more than the republican leadership is trying to negotiate. we want to talk to them about.

then if you want to do that, they don't have the roets for that, the president will veto that anyway, if you're going have that discussion that will cost washington a lot of money. what about the deficit, the long term debt. >> we'll tune in for it tonight. john king, usa tonight at 7:00 eastern. cnn committed to keeping you informed on all the important political news. your next update is just an hour away. why is congress balking on extending the tax cuts. i'll tell you right after this. [ male announcer ] it's simple physics...

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extending unemployment benefits. if nothing is done up to 2 million people could lose the temporary support they sfref the federal government. on average $300 a month. again what we're seeing is partisan posturing without fully appreciating the big picture. republicans insist any benefits extension must be funded with budget cuts elsewhere to address the party's concern about deficits. democrats are holding out for a deal that would include bush era tax cuts for the middle class while cutting them for those wealthier. $300 may not southern like a lot of money but it cube lifeline for a lot of families. what's more the congressional budget office estimates for every dollar spent on one employment benefits the economy gets back almost double in increased activity because the jobless immediately go out and spend their benefits on basic needs, fueling economic growth. on the flip side allowingho