first, they can't believe it. wonder what they have to do to keep it. then lots of hugs and some even burst into tears. >> merry christmas to you. >> oh, lord, have mercy. thank you. are you sure this is real? >> i am se it's real. it's real. >> you couldn't have picked a better person. >> i can show you a picture of my tree that i took yesterday and it has not one present under it and my 15-year-old son is, like, wondering what we're going to do for christmas. >> random act of kindness. i love that. i love that. the secret santa says he was inspired by another mystery santa in kansas city who helped the needy. great story. ali velshi picks it up from here. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com you have a fantastic afternoon. good to see you, my friend, don. and we do have good news. you're looking at a picture of the statue of liberty on the tip of southern manhattan. it's overcast today and it is a

very happy day for many people in new york who didn't think they'd see this. we start with breaking news right now $7.2 billion worth of breaking news. you cannot buy justice, but it will buy a lot of peace of mines for thousands of innocent investors who were fleeced by bern. y madoff. i don't know if the press conference is still going on. it was moments ago when i came in here. i understand from my producer it just wrapped up. it announced the largest civil for give you are. it represents the proceeds of a bernie madoff investor who wasn't fleeced. he was one of the successful ones and became a target of the madoff victims' trustee. here is the word from the chief federal prosecutor from new york. >> a few minutes ago a manhattan federal judge approved a settlement agreement between my office and the estate of jeffrey picower represented by his widow, barbara picower. the agreement resolved a complaint we filed this morning seeking to recover the profits that the picowers received over

the course of 35 years from bernard madoff, monies we now know were the proceeds of the largest ponzi scheme in all of history. >> $7.2 billion from one person's estate. jeffrey picower, he died october 25, 2009, just over a year ago. he was found dead in his pool by his wife. the coroner said it was a heart attack. his contribution means madoff victims now have recovered more than a third of the $20 billion they lost. you may have heard bigger numbers, but the actual cash that was invested, that was lost was about $20 billion, or about $65 billion if you count what investors thought that they earned. picower was one of those guys that had taken money out and he took out $7.2 billion more than he invested. cynthia friedman lost $3 million and they join me from new jersey. you two were victims of bernie madoff. what does this do for you?

two years and a couple of days after you first got the news that you had been fleeced of money that you had invested with him for years. how do you feel today? >> good afternoon. we're gratified that the trustee had the settlement, suing up to $80 billion, but what doesn't give -- what the press does not cover is the fact that there are hundreds of innocent parties who are old, impoverished, can't afford lawyers who are terrified currently getting sued by the trustee, and this is not fair. the fact of the matter is that the trustee has now recovered or will shortly about $9 billion from various parties and the allowed claims are only $6 billion. so what's happening to the other $3 billion? is it really necessary to sue people in this particular case who can't afford to pay any money in just because they're innocent victims and their own particular situations led to this? >> we should clarify this for

our viewers, there are those who withdrew less than they put in with bern madoff and those that withdrew more than they put in with bernie madoff and the trustee is suing those who have more. this is the biggest one. when you add $7.2 billion to the $.5 billion that has been recovered and we're up to $9 billion of the original $20 billi billion. they're going after about 400 of these investors who took out more than they put in. >> but, right these are old, they're in their 70s, they're 80s and their ill and lost their life savings. he has enough to cover the allowable claims. we've had people crying on the phone to us that they're talking about bankruptcy. people who lived their lives responsibly and never even thought that word was in their consciousness and it's a shame. leave the innocent, poor -- the people didn't use it as a piggy bank and mrs. picower should be commended for doing the right thing. >> by the way, she was.

the prosecutor, the u.s. attorney and the trustee's office did say she should be commended for giving back every cent that they took out of this thing. how do you determine, how do you distinguish between the picowers who got $7.2 billion and are giving all of that back and others who got money out, but weren't as wealthy as the picowers? >> it's simple. the people that got back 90% returns or even 50% returns which were the picower, the chases, the innocent victims in a good year got 10% to 12%. we had no clue, no idea and we lost our life savings two years ago. it was a horror story and now they're repeating it again with 400 victims who cannot even protect themselves. they don't even know the first thing about going to a lawyer and they don't have the money for it with the $10,000 to $15,000 retainer. it's sad. >> cynthia, do you fall into that category? are you being called upon to give money up?

>> our personal accounts we lost -- we did not take out as much as we put in our personal accounts. >> are you going to see any of this money? >> i don't know. according to the bankruptcy suits it takes ten years or six years for the estate to be settled. so none of this money according to what we know, will be distributed for years to come so it won't even help the victims in the near future. >> according to the u.s. attorney, this money will be distributed in his words this morning, less than an hour ago, as fast as humanly possible. so hopefully you will see a check and hopefully as more and more of this money is recovered those who can at least afford to hand over more money will be spared that situation. thanks very much for joining us. we wish you continued luck in your search for the money. >> thank you. whatever else this new year has in store, we know that our income tax rates are likely not going to be going up and our payroll tax will likely go down and millions of the long-term unemployed will have access to

federal benefits. in less than three hours, president obama is due to sign a $ 00 billion compromise that almost died in the house yesterday before an astonishing comeback and landslide approval at midnight. so now lame duck lawmakers can head home for the holidays, right? no, not by a long shot. there's the repeal of don't ask, don't tell and the senate is expected to vote on tomorrow. they can vote on the s.t.a.r.t. treaty, but the senate intends to. on wednesday members voted to the cut off debate and proceed to a final vote, though it's not clear when and remember, that's a treaty. so 67 votes are needed to ratify it. senate republicans vowed not to vote on anything until the tax cuts passed and the government was funded past tomorrow. none of the usual appropriation bills have passed and the late of the stopgap spending runs out at midnight. the house passed a bill to maintain current spending through the end of the fiscal year, but $1 trillion senate bill imploded when republicans

turned against him. a chief complaint was earmarks. pork, many of which were inserted by republicans. >> today's sound effect is from a man who feels he is being muzzled. julian assange, the founder and boss of wicky leaks is out of prison, but not quite a free man. while he fights extradition to sweden in a sex crimes case, he's confined to a supporter's estate and forced to che ed td with police every day. he stood under a blue sky and declared solidarity with the person he says he's never met and that would be u.s. army private who is accused of trafficking in secret u.s. documents. >> i never heard the name bradley manning until i saw it in the media and that is right because in the end that is the only way which sources can be guaranteed that they are protected, if even the journalists don't know who they are, but we do see that he is

embroiled through these allegations, that he is somehow involved in this, but we don't know whether that's true or not, but we think we should do our part to help anyone who has been embroiled unfairly in our publishing activities. >> assange says wikileaks has offered $50,000 to manning's legal defense fund, but just last week the bradley manning support network said that funds promised in july still hadn't come through. it hasn't been proven that manning leaked anything to anybody. now to other developments we're following for you. a massachusetts jury has ordered tobacco company lorillard to pay $152 million in all to the estate to a woman who died from smoking. this was the first case to tackle the company's alleged marketing tactics of the '50s and '60s handing out free cigarettes to children outside housing projects. lorillard did lure kids in that way and did cause marie evans to become addicted and die of lung cancer at the age of 54.

her son was emotional over the ruling. >> if i had my choice i'd rather have my mom here. i would rather to have go back in time and not have lorillard give her free cigarettes when she was 9 years old and get her addicted to cigarettes and ultimately cause her death. >> lorillard says it will definitely appeal the ruling. north korea upping the rhetoric in seoul, south korea, warning south korea against staging live drills in the next few days. it will hold them near yeongpyeong island. the two south korean troops and two civilians were killed in that attack. north korea says if the drills go ahead, it will launch another military attack. cnn's wolf blitzer is accompanying new mexico governor bill richardson on a diplomatic visit to yong p-e p yong. much more in the situation room starting at 5:00 eastern. husband is taking steps to

remove avastin as treatment for breast cancer. patients are using it as part of the chemo regimen won't be affected immediately and it's still an approved therapy for lung, brain and kohl on rectal cancers and e vast inis not just as effective on metastatic or spreading breast cancer. the tea party is planning an even more active role in the political race especially for the race in the white house. we'll talk about one event being put on the calendar today that could have an effect on who emerges as the republican nominee.

cnn is your home for politics and we have something big to tell you about that could have a bearing on the 2012 presidential race. we all know the tea party movement has had a big effect on the political debate in this country and especially on the midterm elections. a short time ago we announced that cnn will partner with the tea party express for a key debate on gop presidential hopefuls. cnn political producer shannon travis has more on the big event. >> some like to say the republican presidential hopefuls are trying to cozy up to the tea party movement looking for

support. this news they just announced may have them trying to endear themselves to the tea party movement even more. take a look at what's on the ticker right now. as you mentioned, cnn will be teaming up with the tea party express to host a first of its kind tea party debate. it will be the week of labor day on 2011 this year. tampa is important because it will be where the republican national convention will be, where the person who emerges from our debate and from the race itself will actually be nominated. so this is making a lot of news, a lot of people are talking about it. we've actually reached out to a number of tea party groups to inform them and we're inviting tea party activists to be a part of this debate to send in questions, tickets and what have you. it will be talked about by a lot of people muching like the youtube debates that we've had in the past and we're happy to be partnering up with the tea party movement. i've been covering it for a while now. >> we don't have participants yet, but by then we will and it

will be a good debate. shannon, thanks for that. >> no problem. you're getting the new year's resolutions, going to the gym. >> what should you invest in next year? we'll take a look in just a minute.

to all of you, the end of the year means, you know, christmas and holidays and things like that. to me, it means checking your portfolio. with all of this talk pt economy not doing so well i need to show you how different types of stocks did this year. bottom line, the stock market did very well in 2009 and it's doing very well now. what should you invest in? before i tell you, let's back up a second. let me show you a chart of how

the markets have done. i've gone back to 2007. take a look there. october 9, 2007. the reason there are three lines, that's the dow, the s&p 500 and the nasdaq. you'll notice they move the same way. the dow hit 14,000 and that was its high, through 2007, 2 into 2008 and 2009 that was dropping. march 9, 2009, you can see there the dow hit -- where is the dow, 6,547. that was the low of the market. look at that, since then it's just been growing and growing and growing and right now the dow, the s&p and the nasdaq which represent a lot of the stocks that you invest in are as high as they've been since some point in 2008. they've done well. so what does this mean to you? what are you supposed to do with all of these charts? this is for me, what do you do with it? i talked about what to invest in with ned riley. he's a chief investment strategist on my weekend show "your money" listen to what he told me. >> let's take a look at some of the best performers over the

last year in terms of industries, not in terms of stocks, but in terms of industries. 34% for industrial materials, hardware, up almost 30, media, same thing, software. take a look at the worst. even the worst didn't do that badly. we had a massive run-up in 2008. look at some of the worsts utilities up .75%. so what do i buy in this case, ned in do i buy the worst performers or do i buy the best performers because they're on a run? tell me what my viewers should be thinking about. >> someone philosophically said buy the dogs of the dow, the stocks that have been down in the last two years because they'll go up. i'm still very hot on technology stocks. i've been advocating to people they buy these for qs which is the top 100 stocks in the nasdaq index and basically, just to get to a cross section of everything. it gives you healthcare and biotech and it gives you big

technology companies and that's the index that's beaten the s&p and beaten the dow. it's up almost 25% in the last 12 months and close to the performance of gold and this is a diversified group of stocks. people will own 100 stocks, but the key is they're buying growth. unit growth will be critical over the next two to three years because the market i think has discounted some of this economic recovery and we'll be looking for those unit growers that clearly can capitalize on demographics as well as global economics. >> for my viewers who are not spending a lot of time in the investment world. when you say growth they mean value. don't look for stocks that might be undervalued based on what the rest of the industry is doing. look for companies that are actually growing. they'll get more revenue from the customers and they'll translate more of the revenue into profit. >> and that is very true, ali. this is what's been going on with the tech group. as a matter of fact, the unit group.

take apple, for example, the ipod and the rest of the products that produce. they've produced revenue growth which translates into a very strong profit growth and the stock price has done very well. the one critical element which is exciting is the fact that the profits overall of corporations have grown faster than stock prices, meaning that the stocks are more inexpensive today than they were a year or two years ago. >> for more of that conversation and some details about how to invest, be sure to tune in to your bottom line each saturday morning at 9:a.m. eastern. and "your money" airs saturdays at 1 p.m. and sunday 3:00. one of bernie madoff's investors agreed to pay back $7.2 million. his wife settled this paying back more than a third of all of the money lost by other investors in madoff's ponzi scheme. the money will be paid out to those swindled investors as soon

as possible. two coalition members have been killed in iraq today. one was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern afghanistan and the other by a roadside bomb in the south. nasa is in the middle of an important shuttle test right now. they're filling space shuttle "discovery" external fuel tank to find out why it cracked last month. filling the 545,000 gallon tank takes most of the day and it is scheduled to launch february 3rd. tiger woods through the eyes of his brother. he talks about the pro golfer and their strained relationship and why tiger may have lost his way. that's coming up next. for itchy dry skin.

try cortizone 10 intensive healing. the strongest itch relief medicine now has three vitamins and seven moisturizers. feel the heal. more than a year after the scandal that tore down tiger woods' carefully crafted public image the father of two is now divorced, struggling to get his golf game back and launched a pr campaign to re-polish his image. for the first time we're hearing from his older brother, earl woods, jr., while he admits he hasn't spoken to tiger since 2006 he offers his perspective on tiger's life after their affairs and after their father's death. >> earl woods, jr., is the

oldest of three children from his father's previous marriage. >> i had a conversation with tiger when he was little and he said we don't do anything half-assed, you're either all or not at all. >> his older brother noticed a change. >> when he turned pro it became more difficult to have time with him and since then, it's, like, it's almost as though we don't measure up. i haven't spoken to tiger since 200 6. we've sent him a couple of letters and i tried to call a couple of times just to update him with what's going on with the family because we are family, and i've gotten no response. >> you haven't talked to your brother, your blood since 2006. now there has to be something else going on. was there some tension of some kind?

why would he just cut the family off? >> there were reports that i had borrowed money from him and not paid him back. there was a family argument that split the family up and none of that's true. >> in fact, the last time he says he saw his little brother was at their father's funeral. he was gracious enough to allow us to join us on the jet to take my dad to kansas to bury his remains and i remember we came off the jet, walked down the runway, hugged, hey, how are you doing? he went that way with the entourage and we went this way and that was the last i ever saw him. >> earl woods, jr., said their father's death had a major impact on tiger. >> what i saw was that he lost a part of himself. i think that our father was a part of tiger so much that when he passed tiger became lost. that he didn't know how to fill that void. >> that was t.j. holmes reporting. we reached out to tiger woods'

management company and there's been no response to the comments made by his oder brother earl woods, jr. be sure to check out "downfall," it airs this saturday at 10:00 and sunday at 10:30 p.m. eastern here on cnn. two congressmen working together to protect your privacy online. who they are and what they're doing when we come back.

breaking news. the estate of one of bernie madoff's most successful investor has agreed to pate government a whopping $7.2 billion. it's money paid by madoff to jeffrey picower who died last year. it will pay the money as soon as possible to investors. prrz is expected to sign a

$858 billion tax deal into law. the bill extends the bush-era tax cuts for two years and unemployment benefits for 13 months. four republican senators who support a repeefl don't ask, don't tell will vote with democrats to let the bill proceed as long as congress passes a stopgap spending bill. susan collins, olympia snowe, lisa murkowski and scott brown will vote tomorrow on the ban on openly gay and lesbian people in the military. the house voted to overturn the ban on wednesday. one democrat, the other one is a republican and both are teaming up to make sure americans, especially kids are not abused when they go online. our congressional correspondent brianna keilar has more on the unexpected privacy "the end of privacy." ♪ ♪ ♪ >> you know that catchy '80s song by rockwell, popular debads

before facebook, twitter and google were even around and the lyrics speak to the internet age of where we now live where everything we click on is tracked by online advertisers. on capitol hill, a bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling for privacy guarantees led by strange bedfellows, ed markey, a massachusetts democrat and joe barton of texas who is is about as conservative a republican as you'll find. >> we are in an internet age, but i still think the basic premise of the frontier where you have a door and a peephole and you don't know if your ranch unless you want them to come in your home, i think that simple concept should apply to the internet. >> markey says the place to start is with kids and he's planning to introduce a bill in the new congress that stops online tracking of children's activities. >> when you have constituents contact you, what kind of horror stories are they telling you? >> well, people are concerned

that it's the wild west with regard to children, that they don't fully understand what the impact will be on them later in life when all of this information can be gathered about them, what they did as kids and used against them as adults. that's the real concern. >> he wants privacy guarantees for children that prevent companies from collecting certain information and a mechanism that will allow parents to delete information each after it's been collected. internet companies concerned congress will stifle their bottom line with a heavy hand are vying for a seat at the table. laf leventhal is with the government watchdog opensecrets.org. >> how much money are we talking about that the internet companies and online marketers are spending here on capitol hill. >> computer companies, internet-related companies over the past two years have spent around $120 million annually, and we fully expect that in 2010 that they're going to spend at

least that much, if not more in terms of federal lobbying dollars. >> and since they're spending that much money, we wanted to talk to some of the stakeholders. we got in touch with yahoo! , microsoft, google, twitter, facebook and all of them declined our request for interviews about how they're lobbying congress. a lot of them gave us written statements saying that they're implementing some of their own do not track settings and that they're looking forward to working with congress on this, but here's the thing, there is a tension here, there are companies that make their money off of advertising. there's a lot of money in it. information is a commodity and members of congress are hearing from some pretty upset constituents and there's an outreach factor here, ali. >> is that outrage factor enough to put this on an agenda of things that have to get done in congress? because certainly people are getting the impression that nothing gets done in congress unless it's a gun to somebody's head and everything is grossly partisan. could this actually get done?

>> it could. now, is it going to get done in january or february in i don't think anyone's saying that. we're looking at serious other big fish that congress is looking to fry, dealing with the deficit or house republicans who want to try to repeal health care reform, but this is an issue that not only do you have that public outrage factor. i think this is an issue that's popular with a lot of americans, but we talked about those strange bedfellows. you have a lot of republicans and a lot of democrats behind this and because of that, that may be a recipe for actually pushing something through congress, but it's going to be difficult. it's going to be pretty technical and it's going to take some time. >> all right. brian a thanks very much for that. we'll continue to follow that in and amongst all of the other things you're following in congress. they've killed more suspected militants. we'll go globe tech trekking to islamabad for a live update after this. [ male announcer ] think you can only charge one thing at a time...?

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time to go globe trekking now. it's time -- it's going to be a tense weekend on the korean peninsula. that's because north korea has warned the south that it will launch a military strike if the south goes ahead with live fire military drills near yeongpyeong island there over the next few days. yeongpyeong island is where the attack took place last month. tensions are already high over the north korean shelling of the island which is just off the coast of north korea. now, new mexico governor bill richardson is in north korea in an attempt to cool things off. wolf blitzer is the only u.s. television journalist traveling with him. is wolf in that picture? yeah, there he is on the right and there's a "new york times" reporter as well. they spoke -- wolf was -- is

with bill richardson. he said the governor has already met with both sides to talk about key issues. >> it sets the stage for a more important meeting tomorrow that richardson will have with the chief nuclear negotiator of north coria, the man who invited him -- richardson here, they'll have a meeting tomorrow and there will be a big banquet in richardson's honor tonight. so i think they're pleased that the discussions have moved forward. >> you can see more of wolf blitzer's report on "the situation room" starting at 5:00 eastern today. to pakistan where three suspected drone attacks occurred in the tribal region. that's the region that borders afghanistan that you can see there in the orange. cnn's pentagon correspondent is in islamabad, chris lawrence. he joins me live from there now. chris, what's the latest? >> one thing that this shows is want only is the u.s. both

increasing the frequency and the intensity of drone strikes, but they're now expanding into new areas of pakistan in a very big way. all three of these strikes follow another strike yesterday, all in the kaibur area of pakistan. two officials confirmed this to us. this is an area where you have not seen very many drone strikes, if any. most of the drone strike froms been confirmed to south and north waziristan where they're hiding out and regrouping and coming over into afghanistan, but i am told that the drone strikes in those areas have been so relentless that a lot of the militant his started to fan out to other areas and the u.s. had been pressing to try to expand its reach in going to some of these other areas where the militant his gone. so again, it's an area where we had not seen drone strikes and now you're talking four in less than 48 hours. >> how does this go over in

pakistan? by our count at cnn this is 106th drone strike in 2010. some of them get suspected militants. some of them get people who the pakistanis say were not suspected militants and some of them get civilians agreed upon by all sides, people who were civilians. >> reporter: ali, the whole issue of drones is like the worst-kept secret in the world. here in pakistan publicly, the pakistani officials called the drone strikes unhelpful because of the damage they can cause and especially as you mentioned when they hit innocent civilians, it causes a backlash. the u.s. government won't even acknowledge them, even when you talk to the sources on background, they just will not touch the drones. the u.s. officials will deny, deny, deny, but as we saw from a recently released document from the wikileaks release just a few weeks ago where we read some of the diplomatic cables, it's a situation where publicly the

pakistani government will condemn and privately they are giving their consent to some of the drone vibings and the u.s. will publicly come out and say we aren't doing it, but it's a known fact that the u.s. is the only entity with the capability to launch these missiles from unmanned planes in these areas, ali. >> of course, in a week when the president came out and talked about improving the necessity of improving relations and trust with pakistan, i understand that a cia spy to pakistan, an american spy has been recalled. >> reporter: that's right. again, going back to leaking of information, this bureau chief, his name was put out there and it started to circulate around. there were even some protests where you can see people with signs with his name on it. he started to receive death threats and so he was recalled back to the united states back from the station here. it just shows how this is a precarious situation in pakistan. a lot of the pakistani officials

here that we've spoken to will tell you, although the u.s. will be focused on the border in militants there, they say there are a lot of other militant groups in the heart of pakistan that are not necessarily involved in going over the border to fight in afghanistan, but they're directly targeting the pakistani government in the state here. >> chris lawrence, our pentagon correspondent in islamabad, the capital of pakistan. to west africa now, ban ki-moon has called on the incumbent president of the ivory coast to step down following a disputed election that took place there last month. he said any other outcome would make a mockery out of democracy. the country's independent electoral commission declared watara the winner over president bagbo. it's the country's constitutional council that invalidated those results. at least nine unarmed protestors were killed by security forces yesterday in the country's largest city. the u.s. and other countries have given bagbo, a deadline to

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[ 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. time now for the big i, ideas and innovations that can change your life. who would have thought the latest touch screen technology might already be obsolete. that's yet wizards at m.i.t. do

stuff. they've come up with an interactive screen. check this out. the hand is not touching anything. it's just moving things around. we talked about this when we discussed the microsoft kinect. the new gaming technology that allows you to do things without touching the screen. you just have to be near to control it. this is by die. it can eliminate contact with surfaces. we've seen this in the kinect video game, but instead of having cameras like the microsoft device does, this one has sensors right on the screen itself staring you in the face. it also allowious to connect 3d images. amazing stuff. joining me to talk about this is, mit researcher. raabe sh. he's great at telling us regular folk who don't understand the science of this why it's useful. it's definitely neat, no question about that.

tell me how this can be useful. >> certainly. we're familiar with touch screens now with our phones and devices. >> right. >> but ye need to be to get out of that, we need to change things whether it's for design or for advertising, for interacting with our information. it should be something like we're holding an object and playing with it. >> and that's what this is designed to do, right? this is the first year where consumers have really started to see this interactivity. it's obvious that people are going to say to you many times kind of like the kinect on the microsoft xbox. how is it like that and how is it different? >> so, with kinect which is an amazing technology or to stand off and use it because there's a camera on the top. >> right. >> what is happening now, they're becoming photo sensing, so the whole surface of your screen, whether with the computer screen or tv screen is sensing light the same time it's

emitting light. so what we are doing is converting it and doing a very clever design of hardware and mathematics so that we can capture 3d information of what's in front of this lcd screen. >> do you foresee this having specific applications or becoming ubiquitous where screens of the future will read you? >> certainly. i mean, if you think about the screens we know how important it has become to see the studio screens and previous screens and the same thing should happen for 3d interaction as well. right now we didn't even have touch a couple of years ago and now we have multi-touch and now we need to go into a 3d world. >> when do you think we will start to see applications like the ones you guys have been working on? >> i mean, no -- you can see a lot of technology as i said is already here and the fact that the pixels are becoming smaller and the fact that the frame rate is going up allows us to do

clever things because what we are doing in the bi-directional screen. for every old frame we're showing the image and for every even frame we are capturing it. >> i see. we're showing an image and capturing an image. in terms of technology, it's almost already there and our key mathematical insight allows us to capture information that was previously available in a two-dimensionsal format and now in a three dimensional format. >> it's gotten past it that guys like me can imagine the possibilities. i'll leave it to you guys at the mit labs. >> come back with more of your fantastic inventions. if you want more information on his work, i've linked it to my blog at cnn.com/ali. some stories we're following for you right now. the estate of bernie madoff's most successful investors has agreed to pay the government a whopping $7.2 billion. it's money paid by madoff to jeffrey picower who died last year.

picower's wife settled this, paying back a total value that amounts to more than a third of all of the money that was lost by other investors in madoff's ponzi scheme, about $20 billion in cash was lost. you hear 65 billion a lot, but the actual cash investment was 20. this is 7.2. the government says the money will be paid out to those swindled investors as fast as humanly possible. more republican senators who support a repeefl "don't ask don't congress passes a stop-gap spending bill to keep the government funded first. aides tell cnn, they will vote tomorrow on it tomorrow. the house voted to overturn the ban on wednesday. general motors recalling about 100,000 new suvs because of potential problems with the seatbelts. the model that's they're recalling are the chevy equinox, the gmc terrain, the cadillac

srx. a compact crossover suv. in testing, a seatbelt anchor on the driver's side failed during secondary impact. gm is sending letters to owners to let them know what to do about the recall. big doings on capitol hill as congress gets toward end the year. we'll look at the big issues still on the table. eds. call now to find out how a medicare plan from unitedhealthcare medicare solutions may have the coverage you're looking for. and now is the time because december 31st is the last day you can switch plans. 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 that may be right for you. call now and tell us about your situation. we can help you select the right medicare plan. with some plans, we can help you enroll right over the phone.

i'm looking for help paying for my prescriptions. [ male announcer ] that's a part d prescription drug plan. tell us about your prescriptions and we can help you select the right plan. for complete coverage, you can combine a medicare supplement plan with your part d plan to help cover hospital and medical expenses. i need something nice and easy. is there a single plan that combines medicare parts a & b with medical and drug coverage? [ male announcer ] absolutely. a medicare advantage plan can give you doctor, hospital and prescription drug coverage for nothing more than what you already pay for medicare part b. now that's easy and affordable. call unitedhealthcare now. tell us about your situation. we can help you choose the right plan for your needs. [ male announcer ] are you reconsidering your medicare coverage? now is the time to take action. you only have until december 31st to make sure you have the coverage you need. unitedhealthcare medicare solutions.

december 31st is coming soon, that's why now is the time to review your medicare coverage. call unitedhealthcare to learn about medicare plans that may be right for you. with some plans, you can enroll right over the phone. don't wait. call now. cnn's chief political correspondent joins me now from washington. hi. >> how are you? getting out of town is a lot more difficult than it sounds like. at least when you're congress. the senate has some things that

a lot of folks would like to get done before they leave, and among them, the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. the new treaty between the u.s. and russia. they need senate approval for that. they need 67 votes for that. and it looks as though they may in fact start, if you'll pardon the pun. they may start s.t.a.r.t. here and get to some debate here. the question is, there are the republicans have said, listen, we'll talk about anything but the first thing we have to do is the tax cut bill. check. they got that finished last night in the house. it is going to the president. and some way to fund the government while they get the permanent bills. they were supposed to have them october 1, at the beginning of the fiscal year. they don't have them yet. a sort of omnibus, a big old bill. a trillion dollars went down in flames because support fell off. here's to keep the government working until we can get back to work january 15th or whenever

they decide to do it. so those two, before republicans do anything else, they want those two things taken care of. they're working on that spending bill. some sort of stop-gap measure. then you have s.t.a.r.t. and john kerry who heads the committee trying to spearhead this. richard lugar, a republican, both think it stands a chance. there are republican who's say why can't we -- this is too important. there's not enough time for debate. let's put it off until january. they want the kind of debate they insist they need. don't ask don't tell. not dead yet. that repeal that would allow lesbians and gays to serve openly in the military. there is now what they call a stand-alone bill. that's all it would do. repeal don't ask don't tell. it is already passed in the house. a vote is set for it on saturday and there are enough republicans who say i'm for it that could join with the democrats to get it on the floor. but they say, first we have to

take care of business and do that spending bill. so everything is, one thing is attached to the other but they actually appear to be making some progress here and may in fact do some of this and get out of town. i think the really big question mark may be the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. >> they're making progress like a snow ball make progress on a slight incline. everything is so tied to everything he will. i don't know how you keep this all together. >> let me tell you, when people say it's so slow. do you really want them to do this fast? in some ways, you know, we're talking trillions of dollars here, a missile treaty with the russians. what's so bad about slow? but sometimes it is a little agonizing to watch. >> i hear you. good to see you. your next political update is an hour away. this you have to see. a college marching band scores with a kicky halftime performance. you have to check this out. not just because one of our team members went to the school we're talking about it. y not add one e that can help your situation for sure -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com check your free-credit-score-dot-com

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if you know me, you know that's my ring tone. i have the theme from hawaii five-0. time for odds and ends. some incredible footage from the football field. this is incredible. not your typical play of the day. in fact, our all-stars are the university of hawaii marching band. the fight song is the theme from hawaii five-0. they've been blasting that theme during games but this season they went all out. check out this marching band. getting ready for that kick. you can't tell what they're doing but then this giant place kicker takes shape. still blasting away with the instruments the whole time. the band moves this christmas across the 50 i can't recall and has them boot a giant football past the goalpost. it we all knew how this was going to end. it is very good though. now to one company they hope is good as gold. the first good gold to go

vending machine in a mall in boca, florida. the world's first was in abu dhabi. there are some across europe now. insert cash or plastic. choose the weight and whether you want it in bar or coin form. and then eureka, out pops your nicely boxed gift or investment. keep in mind with the price of gold just off record highs, you you won't walk out with half of ft. knox. at today's level, this ten gram piece would run you $450. barely bigger than your camera's memory card. the next u.s. city where gold to go is going? glitter gulch itself. las vegas. that makes sense. take your winnings, go buy some gold. you can't buy justice but $7.2 billion will buy a lot of piece of mind. for thousands of people fleeced by bernie madoff, the largest for if f

foreif it you are. it reps those who weren't fleece asked thus became the target. here's the word from the chief federal prosecutor in new york. >> a few minutes ago, a manhattan federal judge approved a settlement agreement between my office and the estate of jeffry picower represented by his widow. it resolve a complaint we filed this morning seeking to recover the profits that they received over the course of 35 years from bernard madoff. moneys we now know were the proceeds of the largest ponzi scheme in all of history. >> so jeffry picower was one of the most successful of madoff's investors. he ended up taking out $7.2 billion more than he invested. he was a rich guy to start. with he died october 25th, 2009. he was found in his pool by his wife. the coroner said it was a heart attack. his contribution, or his wife's decision to give back everything they got means that madoff victims have now recovered almost half of the $20 billion

that was lost. cynthia and richard freeman lost $3 million. they join me now on the phone from west orange, new jersey. cindy and richard, one would expect people like you who had lost the money to think that this is great. a good outcome. but you have reservations about the way this whole process is working. >> right. we see this as good news and bad news. the bad news is that despite all the money that the trustee has recovered, there are still hundreds of innocent people. many who are old and sick and who have very little money are being caught back. are you aware of the latest breaking news pertaining to this? >> tell me about it. >> we just found out that representative scott garrett of new jersey, the incoming chairman of the house financial services, introduced a bill to protect ordinary investors of madoff from further callbacks by the trustee. can i read a brief excerpt from the statement? >> sure. >> when investors see the seal of approval, they should have confidence in the account statements they receive. these ordinary investors who

knew nothing about the fraud and should not be held to a higher standard than the federal government which in the case of the s.e.c. missed the madoff fraud and the irs used these statements to gladly tax us. >> so your contention is that people who made some -- basically trustee has separated this into two kinds of people. people who got back less than they put in, like you. and people who got back more than they invested with madoff, like jeffry picower whose estate has given up the $7.2 billion. how do you distinguish? at what level do you stop with who you go after? >> representative garrett's bill suggests, if the ordinary investor that had no culpability. that had no idea what was going on and had no reason to know anything was going on. because the s.e.c. didn't know it and -- >> right. even the prosecutor today said, the u.s. attorney said this guy, picower should have known because of the size of returns he was getting. but ultimately, most investors

didn't know. they may have suspected something was up but how would you really know? >> you didn't. there was nothing. the statements looked legitimate. if you don't tone stock and have it in your hand, in your name, and you let the investment companies buy it in street name, you don't know. you have no proof. >> and richard, you were one of these people who thought you were invested all these years in a conservative investment. you didn't think it was some great thing. it was something that was stable. >> it turns out i was jealous of all the people in the 1990s who were getting 30% returns year in year out. they were getting 10% to 12%. i was happy but i was jealous of them to tell you the truth. >> you're a perfect example of why this is a complicated story. it seems obvious we should be happy that there's $7.2 billion going out to people who lost money. but you bring us another side of the story. that is, there are some people who may have gotten in more than they invested but they had no idea they were doing anything, or that those were ill gotten gains. and the government is pursuing

them. about 400 cases, by the way, are being pursued of people who got more money out of it than they invested. thanks very much to the two of you and we hope things work out. >> thank you. whatever else the new year has in store, we know our income tax rates won't be going up. our pay roll tax will be going down and million of long term unemployed will have access to federal benefits. in a little less than two hours, the president is due to sign an almost $900 billion compromise that sailed through senate on wednesday and almost died in the house yesterday before an astonishing come sgak land slide approval at midnight. now lame duck can head home. right? there's always repeal of the don't ask don't tell which passed the house on wednesday for the sengd time. the senate is expected to vote on it tomorrow. the house can't vote on an updated arms deal with russia but the senate intends to. on wednesday members voted to cut off debate and proceed to a final vote but it not sure when.

that's a treaty so 67 vote are needed to ratify it. two-thirds. senate republicans had vowed not to vote on anything until the tax cuts passed and the government was funded past tomorrow. none of the usual bill have been ensxakt the latest stop-gap spending runs out at midnight. the house pass ad bill to maintain current spending but a trillion-dollar senate bill imploded when republicans turned against it. a chief complaint was ear marks. pork barrel spending. many of which were inserted by republicans. today's sound effect is from a man who feels he is being muzzled. julian assange, the founder of wikileaks is out of prison but not quite free. he has one of those bracelet things. while he fights extradition to sweden, he is confined and forced to check in with police every day. he has had to post a six figure bail so today he could stand in the snow under a blue sky and declare sol dwart the person he says he's never met.

that would be the u.s. army private accused of trafficking in secret u.s. documents. >> i never heard of the name bradley manning until i saw it in the media. that's right. because in the end that is the only way which sources can be guaranteed that they are protected. if even the journalists don't know who they are. but we do see that he is embroiled through these allegations, that he is somehow involved in this. we don't know whether that's true or not but we think we should do our part to help anyone who is being embroiled unfairly in our publishing activities. >> assange says wikileaks has offered $50,000 to manning's legal defense fund but the bradley manning support fund was complaining last week that funds that wikileaks promised them in july had not arrived. let's point out, it hasn't been proven that manning leaked anything to anybody. we'll keep following this. to some other developments. a massachusetts jury has ordered

tobacco company to pay $152 million in all to the estate of a woman who died from smoking. this was the first case to tackle the company's alleged marketing tactics of the '50s and '60s, handing out free cigarettes to children outside housing projects. the jury found the company did lure kids that way and did cause marie evans to become zpiktd die of lung cancer at the age of 54. her son was emotional over the ruling. >> if i had my choice, i would rather have my mom here. i would rather be able to go back in time and not have the company give her free cigarette when's she was 9 years old. and get her addicted to cigarettes and ultimately cause her death. >> the company said it will definitely appeal the ruling. north korea is upping, warning that south korea should not stage any live fire military drills in the next few days. take a look at that island. you can see it there.

yeonpyeong island. it is seven miles off the cold of north korea. seoul has said it had exercises at the same island that was shelled by north korea last month. in that shelling, two south korean troops and two civilians were killed. north korea said if the drills go ahead, it will launch another military attack. now cnn's wolf blitzer is accompanying bill richardson on a diplomatic visit to pong yang. much more from wolf starting at 5:00 p.m. eastern. democrats are chomping at the bit to finish debate on the new s.t.a.r.t. treaty. the nuclear cord with russia would reinstate the arsenals and cut the number of deployed weapon that each country can have. some republican senators say s.t.a.r.t. shouldn't be brought to the floor for a vote with so little time left in the session but harry reid insists it so important, it needs to be tackled before the christmas break. one year after the president

ordered 30,000 more troops to afghanistan we get unprecedented access to the soldiers fighting this war. a sneak preview of cnn's documentary, "a soldier's story." [ male announcer ] are you considering a new medicare plan? then you may need help finding the right plan for your needs. call now to find out how a medicare plan from unitedhealthcare medicare solutions may have the coverage you're looking for. i'm looking for help paying for my prescriptions. [ male announcer ] that's a part d prescription drug plan. tell us about your prescriptions and we can help you select the right plan. is there a single plan that combines medicare parts a & b

with medical and drug coverage? [ male announcer ] absolutely. a medicare advantage plan can give you doctor, hospital and prescription drug coverage for nothing more than what you already pay for medicare part b. now that's easy and affordable. are you reconsidering your medicare coverage? now is the time to take action. you only have until december 31st to make sure you have the coverage you need. call unitedhealthcare to learn about medicare plans that may be right for you. with some plans, you can enroll right over the phone. don't wait. call now.

for more than a year cnn has been following the stories of three u.s. military recruits. a mother who makes the tough decision to leave her baby in order to join the army. an 18-year-old fresh out of high school, pursuing his dream. and a career soldier on his second combat tour in afghanistan. jason carroll gives as you sneak preview of what it is like for these three to be in the army during a time of war. >> in the fading light of a cold december evening barely one full year ago, the president of the united states boards marine one. and then air force one for a trip to west point new york. >> ladies and gentlemen, the president of the united states. the 33-minute speech he is about

to deliver will affect the lives of every cadet in eisenhower hall. >> as commander-in-chief, i have determined to send an additional 30,000 troops to afghanistan. >> along with every man and women s.e.c. or about to serve in the united states military. for more than a year, cnn has followed three of the soldiers. together they tell a story of how the president's decision to expand the war in afghanistan affects the people most directly in harm's way. >> come on. you've got it. come on. you've got it. >> she joins the army leaving behind a 2-year-old daughter with a husband wondering how he can do it alone. >> here we go. almost done. >> sergeant randy shorter is a husband and father of two. just 32 years old, he is already

a veteran of two combat tours. now he is about to return to afghanistan to an area the military calls hell on earth. >> and then there's 18-year-old will mclean who weeks from tonight may find himself carrying out the president's mission, into the very heart of afghanistan. >> jason carroll joins me now. we've watched as you've put these stories together over time. i guess we all go into stories about the military with our own preconceived notions. what surprised you most as you followed these three? >> you know, there were several surprises along the way. again, just to reset the clock here, the reason why initially i got involved in the series and wanted to do it, i don't come from a military family, ali, and i wanted to give people like myself and other folks out there a real chance to see what

military life was like. what surprised me was the dedication. you hear so much about this. the dedicated soldiers. when you see what you really have to go through to become a soldier, the sacrifices you make as a recruit, all the way up to folk like sergeant first class randy shorter who is on his third combat tour of duty. the sacrifices these men and women make and have been making evidence to past few years during these wars, it is really incredible. i think that was the thing to me that was the most surprising to really witness. >> jason, these are not people who earn a lot of money. sure, there are some interesting financial benefits to being in the military. very little of which makes it worth putting your life on the line. did you ever just ask them why? why to this woman who leaves her young child and her husband behind? there are ways to make money, albeit a tough economy, without ways to risking your life. is there a consistent driving force? >> you know, i think it is different reasons for different people.

la tricia rose, the driving force behind her getting involved was economic. i mean, very little out there in terms of a way to earn a living. la tricia rose saw this as a better way for her family. for will mclean, the very young recruit, 18 years old, from a small town. he wanted out. he saw very few opportunities. he saw this as a way of serving his country and getting out of a small town. forerandy shorter, different again. hisser in a was a military man. a little tradition that was involved as well. so i think there could be very different reasons for why people ultimately get involved. as you know more than anyone else, we're at a time of war. so the strikes so much higher now when these folks get involved and join up. when they do it, they're dedicated and i think that was the thing again that was most surprising to me to see. >> they sure are. whenever i see them shipping out at the airport, i wonder if they had i'm staring at them for any particular reason. i'm staring at them to see if i can figure out what their

motivations are, what drives them. we enjoy the work you've done on this. thank you very much. be sure to watch the one-hour documentary. tracking these retruth every step of the way. you learn things you didn't know. "a soldier's story" at 8:00 p.m. eastern both days only on cnn. imagine the scenes playing out across the country right now as thousands of servicemen and women return home just in time for the holidays. again, you think you know what it looks like. we're going to let you in on the heart of all of it. know diamond. together we'll make her holiday. that's why only zales is the diamond store. where you can get up to $1,000 off now through sunday.

top stories. in the estate of bernie madoff's

most successful investors has agreed to pay the investors $7.2 billion. this is money paid to jeffry picower who died last year. his wife settled this paying back in total, more than a third of all the money lost by other investors in madoff's ponzi scheme. picower was one of the successful investors. he ended up drawing $7.2 billion more than he made. the government says the money will be paid out to those swindled investors as soon as possible. president obama expected to sign the tax cut compromise bill in about 90 minutes from now. the house finally passed it late last night along with sentencing bush era tax cuts. this bill extends emergency unemployment benefit for 13 months. cnn has lettered that senate republican leader mitch mcconnell will be at the signing ceremony next hour. we will bring that to you live. the senate might be getting closer to voting on the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. democrat john kerry says they have the votes to move ahead with the debate and then the vote but there is still other businesslike don't ask don't tell and a temporary spending

measure to keep the federal government running. that could delay action on the nuclear treaty. if you travel as much as i travel, then i've got something for you after the break that will come in very handy. a way to sxreed understand signs written in other languages and all you need is this.

thousands of servicemen and women are on the way home in time for the holidays. 2,200 service members expect to come through the jackson international airport today alone. on sunday, 5,000 more military personnel flying through atlanta. this is a big hub for military personnel who come back this way. a lot of commercial and chartered flights that bring people to and from atlanta. for all the traveling i do, i mostly see military personnel. this happy homecoming is going on across the country. there are many other airports because these people are connectioning and getting to their home bases. reynold joins us. he has more for us. it is always exciting when you see bunches of these troops. we all end up on flights with individual troops and they often get a round of applause. when you're at the airport and you see the uso bringing them through and people responding to

it, it is always something, reynolds. >> reporter: no question about it. let's be honest. these are america's best. speaking of america's best, we have one of them right here with us. your name? >> pfc madden. >> reporter: where's home? >> massachusetts. >> reporter: where have you been? >> i've been at ft. bening since august 10. six, seven months now. >> reporter: you've been away from home for quite a while. >> yes. it's nice to be here. >> reporter: you have to be excited. >> i'm really excited. a lot of family. >> reporter: what are you looking forward to snowfall. >> the biggest thing is my fiance and my nine nieces and nephews. i'm big on family. >> reporter: what about the food in the armed forces? is it, does it leave a little to be desired? >> i won't miss it at all. i'll have some good food, 18

days and then i have to eat it all over again. >> reporter: where are you headed after the 18 days? >> to ft. knox, kentucky. >> reporter: thank you for serving your country. happy holidays. these guys come through points like this, the uso, actually has about half a million guys. men and women that will come through here. when they do they get a little taste of america before they head back to their families or they may be headed back to the other way, the battlefield. they check in. if you look at some of the name, people from texas, from kentucky, florida, obviously here in georgia, illinois, ohio. from all over. let see. some from the air force, the navy, the army, the marines, the coast guard. they're all here. when they do come in, they have a couple of options. they can sit down in these great leather recline order one side or they step up in the chow line. and i'll tell you, as great as this stuff happens to be, i want you to see something else. take a look at this video that we have. this is what it is all about. this video we took a short while

ago. parents waiting, excited, and finally, their son comes home. we've sustain sons and daughters come up the escalators, their moms and dads and parents. when the families reunite, there is nothing quite like it. they're home for the holidays. a short time and they're making the most of it. >> i've seen it a few times, reynolds, and it is fantastic. i'll be at the airport later today so hopefully i'll get to see it again. we'll keep an eye on more of these troops coming in. i want to come to chad. where is the snow? >> we're getting rain in san francisco and could be 100 inches of snow in the sierra. that's eight feet or more. l.a., san francisco, three hours. >> ground stop means -- >> no planes are allowed to take off from l.a.x. while they clear the air space of the planes already in the air themselves don't want too many planes circling around and around. that's the spot that could pick up the 100 inches of snow before

it is all done. and where it is not going to snow. where it will rain, it could be flooding and mud slides. do you have your ipod with you? >> right here. i love this. i travel and i want to know how you understand things written in other languages. >> i have an app for that. word lens. look at the video. we want to play the song, "it's magic." there are the words behind. look what's in the phone? english. look. you can even still see your hands. >> that's crazy. the words change as she moves. there it is. it translates the text. >> that's brilliant. what a great travel app. >> the one cool one at the very end, it shows a parking sign that says do not enter, whatever it is. >> it does the literal translation. >> right. beach closed. recent attack of shark. that's a good one. that's a usable one.

>> tongue bolivian with a sauce spicy of anchovies. next thing. clothes optional in this beach. very interesting. it reads the words and translates them. >> the letters all flip and they become english or the other way, back to spanish. >> you can just download this. you're traveling and you don't need an internet connection. >> i love it. brilliant. that's an excellent off the radar. i'll have to get myself one of those. don't strikes in pakistan. they've killed more suspected militants. we're going globe trekking for a quick update.

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happening now, in about an hour president obama is expected

to sign an $858 billion tax deal into law. that bill extends the bush era tax cuts for two years for everybody as well as the ability to apply for extended federal unemployment benefits for another 13 months. a number of other things that will be beneficial to you in that tax bill. there's bernie madoff from march of 2009. the estate of one of bernie made yourself's most successful investors has agreed to pay the government a whopping $7.2 billion. money that madoff paid to investor jeffry picower. he with drew that money over time. picower died last year and his wife settled with the government. the government said it will pay the money out as soon as possible. and happening now, 120 marines are arriving back at camp pendleton in california. these marines participated in disaster relief after the pakistani floods. they were also involved in the seizure of the ship magellan

star. time to go globe trekking. it will be an intense weekend. north korea has warned south korea that it will launch a strike if it goes ahead with military drills near yeonpyeong island. it is just off the coast. seven miles off the coast of north korea but part of south korea. the tensions are very high. it killed four people. . in governor bill richardson is in north korea invited by the country to attempt to cool things off. cnn's wolf blitzer as you see on the right. only u.s. television journalist traveling with him. we heard from wolf earlier by phone. he said the governor has met with both sides to talk about key issues. >> it sets the stage for a more important meeting tomorrow that richardson will have with the chief nuclear negotiator of north korea. the men who invited him. richardson here, they'll have a meeting tomorrow. there will be a big banquet in richardson's honor tonight.

so i think they're pleased that the discussions have moved forward. >> more from wolf from north korea tonight. let's to go pakistan. three suspected drone attacks killed someone suspected militants today. all three strikes occurred in the tribal region bordering afghanistan. you can see in it orange in the middle of the screen. the pentagon correspondent chris lawrence is in islamabad and joins me live. >> reporter: the key to these strikes which makes them different is exactly where they occurred. it shows that the u.s. is increasing not only the frequency of the drone strikes but also expanding into areas where they weren't using them before. these were two pakistani intelligence officials tell us that all of these three strikes occurred in the khyber region. they say there was another drone strike in that same area last night. this was an area we hadn't seen zone strikes before.

most had been further south in the with a zeroa area. some of the militant were starting to fan out to other areas and the u.s. had requested the ability to expand the drone program into other areas like khyber. >> how is this going over? this whole idea of these zone strikes? they are reported as successful when they're successful but we know sometimes they get militants. sometimes they don't get militants and sometime they get innocent civilians. >> reporter: exactly. i mean, you know, this is a situation where publicly, the pakistani government calls them unhelpful. they condemn them. as you said, they do hit civilians from time to time and that causes a lot of unrest. a big back lash against not only the u.s., but also the pakistani government as well. publicly, the american officials, u.s. officials won't even admit they're using drones. it is sort of deny, deny, deny.

the u.s. is the only fwhags that sort of capability in the area. sometime this spills out publicly. the top u.s. intelligence chief, the station chief of the cia's office here in islamabad had to be recalled to the united states. he would be the person who would sort of oversee drone activity in this area. but he operates covertly. what happened was, a local pakistani man sued, and this person was named in a lawsuit because this man says his son was killed in a drone attack. once his name became public, the bureau, the intelligence community said he was receiving death threats and it was unsafe for him to stay here in pakistan so he had to be ready back to the u.s. >> still tricky relationship between the u.s. and pakistan. one that the president said earlier this week in his report, his evaluation of the situation in afghanistan and pakistan, one that still needs to be worked on. great reporting. thanks very much.

our correspondent, chris lawrence in islamabad. the pakistani capital. let's to go west africa. the secretary ban-ki moon has called on the president to step down following a disputed election. he said any other outcome would make a mockery of democracy. the independent electoral commission claimed the man the president over the existing president. but the country's constitutional council invalidated those results. at least nine unarmed protesters were killed yesterday by security in the country's largest city. the u.s. and other cities have given him a deadline to leave the country or face sanctions. public education in this country is broken across much of it. many blame teachers but how much responsibility do parents carry?

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to low school test scores. some of the problems are with the parents. check out this poll. in your opinion, which is a more important factor in derrelling whether students learn in school. the school or the students' parents? 22% of the national poll says it is the school. 76% overwhelmingly says it is the parents. if ask you public school teachers, the public school students' parents, they actually think it is parents as well. let me be clear. whether we're talking about teacher or parents or schools, we're not here playing the blame

game. we want to keep on examining what the problem is in our schools. joining me now, the executive director of parents united for responsible education. and steve perry, our education contributor and the principal of capital prep magnate schools. i'm so used to you telling me it's teachers. i know you've done a lot of research and you think there's a role parents can play. that's a given that parents to have play a role in their education. what can they be doing in the face of a public education crisis? >> one of the thing parents can do is they can help set up an environment at home that's conducive to studying. i am the one who talks about teachers being responsible for what's happening in our school and education in large part. there is a role each of us can play whether member of the government or the parenting corps. we have to do what our part is so we can move toward a better school system. >> the issue is, julie, teachers

are paid to be teachers and to go school. school administrators are paid to do that. parents, particularly in this economy, sometimes to have work two jobs. what parents can do can't be consistent across the board. so what can parents do that at least provides the basic support mechanism for kids to succeed in schools? >> well, of course, parents have a sacred obligation, really, to make sure their children get everything they need in life. that includes an education. there's no skipping the parents' responsibility. the fact is that the schools can't take on fixing a family if a family needs fixing. they can't really reach out so far beyond their school boundaries. so we all need to work together. we talk about parents, school partnerships. sometimes that's a cliche and we need to make that a reality. >> when is it not a cliche? what examples have you seen where an intervention in terms of remarkable involvement by

parents really changes, not just their own students' performance but the way a school is running? >> well, a boy in chicago, we have a great example of that in our local school councils which are bodies that are elected by the parents and the community to have a say in what happens in the school. that really motivates parents to get into the school. to bring their voices to the table. and to work the teachers to make sure that what is happening in the school is going on well for children. parents really need to be empowered at the school. and sometimes they don't feel that way. we have a lot of security in our schools. sometimes parents come into the school and they don't feel as though they belong. so we do need ways of making people, making parents feel more a part of the school so they can be better partners with teachers. >> we were just doing a story in california where parents are taking over a school. schooling is complicated. should parents be doing stuff as

did you in a special a few week ago, which creates the environment at home that helps? or do parents need to be invited into the decision bhaik how the school is run? >> i think both. i think there are places in which parents in the home can be very, very helpful. something as simple as helping a child do note cards. you may not necessarily know the subject but you can make sure the child is taking notes. when they can explain to you their homework, they have a good understanding of it. a little trick a parent can use. on the same token, parents can play a very meaningful role what happens in the school. in many cases, parents are behind the most fun parts of school. when you think about kids going to band camp or kids being able to participate in activities in the school. when they have technology. in many cases, it is because the parents either lobbied their community and or they went out and got the money themselves. a lot of the fundraising, there are a lot of parents who have a bunch of candy bars in their house that they still have the responsibility of selling. that is what gives the culture and climate of the school. so parents should not

necessarily be held responsible for what is being taught and how it is being taught. we pay and educate professionals to do that. they can make a very big impkt on the culture and climb. and that's what we all walk away from school thinking about. as much as i would like to say it's what we learn in the classroom those relationships that form and parents can do a lot to make that happen in the school. >> that sounds logical. do you agree with that? >> there's so much work to be done. it is going to take all of us to do it. we really do need to be working together more than we are now. and i think that if you can think of it, parent, go to the school and do it. it is going to help your child. it will help other children. >> julie, good to talk to you. thank you for joining us. julie is the executive director for parents united for responsible education. a lovely acronym there. p.u.r.e. let me bring you up to sbeed pe.

the house finally passed the bill late last night. i know what extending bush tax cuts, it extends emergency been puts the for 13 months. cnn has learned that mitch mcconnell will be at the signing ceremony next hour and we'll be bringing it to you live. the estate of one of bernie madoff's most successful investors has agreed to faye government a whopping $7.2 billion. that money will go to investors who were swindled. money paid by madoff to jeffry picower. he died last year. his wife settled this. the money represents more than a third of the money lost to other investors. the government says if money will be paid out to those swindled investors as soon as humans possible. general motors recalling about 100,000 new suvs because of potential problems with seatbelts. in testing a seatbelt anchor on the driver's side failed during something called secondary impact. gm is sending letters to owners that let they will know what to do about the recall. what do you think life will

be like in 80 years? flying cars? teleporting? 80 years ago, people made some predictions about how live would be now. how close were they? as a manager, my team counts on me to stay focused. so i take one a day men's 50+ advantage. it's the only complete multivitamin with ginkgo to support memory and concentration. plus it supports heart health. [ bat cracks ] that's a hit. one a day men's.

i love this stuff. to find out whether predictions come true. about 80 years ago people made predictions about how life would be right now. you have dug these up. >> this was really cool. let's set the scene. we have some pictures of 1931 for you which is great that we can even do that. keep in mind, you've got a couple years after the big crash. you had the great depression, herbert hoover as president. when "the new york times" went

to some visionaries and said what will america be like in 80 years, they were really hopeful for a better time. they wanted to see things be a lot, lot better. let's take a look at some of these predictions. this is now going all over the web. this is one of the main ones. w.j. mayo, well known for the mayo clinic. he guessed the average life span would be 70. we beat that. according to the cdc, the average life span is now 78. so we're doing pretty well. take a look. william ogburn, very well known. he guessed the u.s. population would be 160 million. we've doubled that. my favorite thing from him. look what he guessed. the magic of remote control will be common place. >> he wasn't off by that much. when was it first common. >> it started in the '80s. >> i was only off my by myself 20 years. remote control. i remember.

>> when i was a kid, there was a wired remote for the tv with two rows of buttons on that. >> i've seen pictures of that. you click on it. >> look at this guy. workers will be guaranteed an equitable share of wealth. exactly, especially in this economy, people are saying, what? >> there are systems which have helped that come into place. more democracy in the markets. but i think a lot of people would take issue with that one. >> they were being hopeful. people were struggling so much. and let's get in one more. this is a time when people are fighting about our borders. look at this. arthur compton, national boundaries will gradually cease to have their present importance. he was arguing the world will be so globalized we wouldn't be worried about our borders so much. there might even be these international government groups. clearly that's not what played out but it is interesting to look at that. >> a lot more free trade. it is easier to travel to other places and land and take off and go through custom.

in that sense, some of that -- >> this was pre-u.n. >> yet we still have horrible wars and there are still fought over boundaries. >> but the idea of international institutions. in some ways he's right. the last thing i want to show you. henry ford. one of the biggest name ever in the history of america. he was asked to predict, and he basically said, the only value in predicting is that 80 years from now people will get to laugh at us. take a look at what it is we would be saying and contrast it against reality. so he himself was really smart. >> that was the day before youtube so there is a chance that could have been forgotten. so anything we say today lasts forever. as you know, if you've ever done a blooper on tv. it really lasts forever. >> does it? does it? really? fascinating. >> people dig it out and post on it twitter. honestly, why do you have to keep running that stuff? >> i posted the whole thing -- we've seen. that i posted the whole thing for you at facebook and twitter.

you will see all these visionaries at the time. it's fascinating. >> thank you, my friend. always a pleasure to see you on tv. the tea party planning to take a more active role in the 2012 political race. especially in the race for the white house. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by aarp. when you call now, you'll get this free information kit... with all you need to enroll.

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cut deal. some think it doesn't go far enough. so john bain here will be the enter of the house in january is having to defend his vote today. why is he defending it? because sarah palin among others say this is a lousy deal, in governor palin's words. he said he doesn't like everything in it but he thought it was the best thing at the time since nancy pelosi is still speaker of the house. and you mention ad big event next year. don't make any labor day weekend plans. cnn and the tea party express will co-host a republican president did he know debate in tampa, florida. labor day weekend 2011. that the same city that will host the republican convention so somebody will be looking to come back as the republican nominee. we're looking forward to that event. scrap the vacation plans. and tonight, don't ask don't tell. the repeal of the don't ask don't tell policy. that big vote will come in the senate tomorrow. the key player pushing that bill through has been the independent senator joseph lieberman. he is going to be on john king

usa tonight. and one of the questions we'll put to him, why can't he convince his close friend john mccain to vote yes on repeal? >> that will be good to watchful thank you very much. john king usa tonight. 7:00 p.m. eastern. your next political update just an hour away. billions about to be returned to bernie madoff victims. a story i've been intrigued with since learning about his massive deem two years ago. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com

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for the last three hours we've been reporting news about a massive repayment of victim of the bernie madoff saga. they announced they recovered $7.2 billion from the estate of the late jeffry picower. one of madoff's most successful investors ffls biggest civil for if itture in u.s. history. remember, when this story broke in late 2008, almost everyone

assumed that most if not all of the estimated $20 billion invested with madoff over the years was gone forever. prayer to today's developments, the victims' trustee recovered around $1.5 billion by liquidating some of his assets. today this raise it dramatically. almost half the amount has been recovered. that barbara picower who manages her late husband's estate agreed to give back as the trustee's office, every congressmen she received from madoff's scheme is a huge step in addressing those investors who lost so much. it is far from over. about 16,000 people have made claims. about 2,300 have been deemed legitimate and the trustee is suing some 400 peel like picower who with drew more money from madoff than they had invested with him. unlike the billionaire picower, many of those being sued are not wealthy and they feel government shouldn't be going after them. a sad saga all around with a good bit of news around it today. th