how did you spend your summer, haters? besides anonymously posting mean things about a young girl singing a song, i mean. so you're back, rebecca black. good for you. congratulations on your success and your new song and all you critics just try to lighten up and let's all keep partying, partying, yeah. >> yeah! >> on the "riduculist." on the front line is the prosecution's case as open and shot as it seems. the tsa says their body scanners don't cause cancer, but they're of penn state not going to taste them. . are they right? the bottom line on america's place in the world. china trying to become the superpower. what does the super committee and the president need to do? let's go "outfront." i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight, the market slid nearly 200 points today.

the reason, fear and uncertainty. fear of europe and fear of the super committee. we are counting down to a huge moment for america on a day our commander in chief was warned china's military is building up with one main goal, taking on america. i'll get to that in a moment. first, the super committee is exactly one week away from its deadline to cut a minimum of $1.2 trillion from america's deficit. today was a day called critical by some lawmakers. the meetings have ended. there is no word on a possible deal. now, nearly 80% of americans don't expect the super committee to do its job. but no deal isn't just a chance to roll our eyes and say, hey, we knew it all along. no deal is bad for america. no deal means rising interest rates down the road and a halt in job creation now. we need a deal, and a deal is not hard to strike. we've shown one way repeatedly

on this show. that's to roll back the bush tax cuts for everyone, raising 2.8 trillion, and then cut 2.8 trillion in spending. yes, that is pain for everyone. but nothing like the pain if we do nothing. and that size of a deal would make a big difference. world markets would celebrate. the one-for-one bush tax cuts for spending cuts is just one option. there are a lot of ways to get a deal done. while congress dithers and plays politics, our commander in chief is getting whack-a-moled by china. you're looking at a live picture of the president addressing the australian parliament. he's talking a lot about the role of china and the role in america. you can see they're listening, very closely. today he said he would station more u.s. marines down under. the unspoken goal, to scare china. the problem is china calls the shots in australia now a.

congressional advisory committee to say says the white house and congress must focus on china's military buildup as their defense spending has tripled. china is rising. china is actually now australia's number one trading partner. china wants to take over america's role as ruler of the pacific. the pacific is where the future is because it's where the people are. the president's trip through asia is an effort to remind asia that america is still the world's superpower. the one way to help it stay that way is not by speeches to the australian parliament. that might help. it's for the super committee to do its job. peter navarro is an author of "death by china" and professor at uc berkeley. the president is speaking live in canberra. you think the super committee's inaction could speed china's rise, right? >> absolutely, erin. we've got gridlock in

washington, d.c. we don't know how to deal with the economy. my view is the super committee, if it said the best jobs program was trade reform with china, they'd get it right. the fact of the matter is, erin, china is already a stronger industrial power than we are in terms of nuts and bolts and weapons systems. over times, within five to ten years they'll have the weapons system to push us right out of the pacific. there's one missile that's really interesting called the bammer. it has one sole purpose. it's aimed at killing the american aircraft carriers in the pacific. they want us back to hawaii, erin. >> pretty amazing. for those who say, who cares? here is why we care. 90-plus percent of the trade around the world goes by sea. whoever controls the seas controls the world economy. that's still the united states at this moment. do you think, peter, their military is a real and present

danger to the united states right now? >> without question. the reason why obama is in australia right now is there's a vacuum there in terms of american leadership. it's not just australia that wants him there, it's japan. it's south korea. it's vietnam is totally freaked out about what china is doing. it's all about what john king said in the previous hour about petroleum in the south china seas. china wants us out. they would like to also at some point take taiwan. it's been a long-term goal. and you're absolutely right. the strait of malacca is where 70% to 80% of china's oil comes through. they fear at some point if we get into problems with them, our aircraft carriers could shut that down. so they want us out. they're developing the weapons systems. guess what erin? they get their weapon systems from stealing them from the pentagon, whether it's their airplanes, missiles or aircraft carriers. that's what they do, they steal

from us. >> apparently when the helicopter went down the night of osama bin laden died, some say the pakistanis let them look at our technology there. >> it's amazing what we put up with. >> thank you very much. it is something that gives you a food for thought. it makes you wonder if congress is really going to step up to the plate and deal with this problem. let's turn to representative kristi noem, republican congresswoman from south dakota. thank you for being with us. the president speaking now in australia at this very moment. congress warned today about the rise of china's military power which can only get stronger so far as their economy is growing and lending and ours is not growing and borrowing. is the super commit see going to do its job. >> the more debt we continue to accumulate, that's who has been borrowing our bonds. this super committee needs to

come for ward. it's time to do our job in washington, d.c. and do something that offers solutions. >> you are a member who has been staunch in your belief that we don't need tax increases. mr. toomey came on this show, member of the super committee and said he had come around to the idea that the wealthiest americans would when they got through the loopholes and lowered the tax rate end up paying more after the super committee did its deal. >> i always said i'm not in favor of raising tax rates, but certainly in favor of a system which could mean eliminating loopholes that have been around for decades. if we can make sure we have a more fair system, absolutely, i would support that. the only thing i'm not in favor of is increasing tax rates that will drive companies to look overseas. we need jobs in this country. >> it sounds like you're saying something that is significant and perhaps conciliatory which is, all right, you'd rather have a lower rate. if you got rid of loopholes and that ended up some people ended up paying more all in, that's all okay, so you could get new

revenue? >> i said from the beginning when i started running for congress and when i served in the south dakota state legislature, i'm coming here to reform taxes. we shouldn't be picking winners and losers with the government. that's what we're doing with our tax code. >> in direct answer to the question, you would be okay with some people paying more after. >> absolutely there will be more people paying more dollars in taxes. >> what are you doing to get the super committee to get a deal done? we're hearing every day, they say they're going to do a deal and we're getting really close to the deadline and there's a lot of finger pointing going on. there's got to be a deal. so what are you going to do to get them to get it done? >> we've got the pressure on. i'm the freshman liaison to the leadership team. the leadership team knows how the freshman class feels. we want them to offer something that's a real solution, something that really will fix

our problems in this country. we've been very vocal about that. we're expecting them to bring forward results. if they don't, lit be very disappointing for us and we'll have to deal with sequestration at that point. >> i'm curious before we go, there was a letter put up that 100 congressmen and women signed, 60 democrats, 40 republicans, it said put everything on the table, whether that be new revenue in the form of taxes or spending cuts. but you didn't sign that, did you? >> no, i don't believe i did. there are hundreds of letters circulated around here every day. that doesn't sound familiar to me. >> thank you very much. appreciate you taking the time to join us tonight. >> i appreciate it, too. let's bring in john avlon, cnn director. john, are we going to get a deal done? >> look, we better. the reality is there's increased pessimism on capitol hill. i can't believe given the stakes of this that congressman noem didn't know whether or not she signed the letter. we've got 150 congressmen and women saying go big, we've got your back. that's the urgency we need. time is ticking. that $4 trillion remark seems

like a distant probability, more like they'll barely get through with 1.2 if we're lucky. >> and that just doesn't do much for you at all. you come right back to the table. >> no. >> i'm just curious. that letter was an important letter, the one she didn't recall signing. you had all those people sign it. i'm curious what you think about the significance of that. she did just say she was for some people paying more in taxes to do a deal. >> she did. and that is where -- that is where the give and take can occur. if we can agree on closing loopholes to raise revenue without raising taxes, that's a way for us to get some revenue on the table and offset it with spending cuts and entitlement reform as well. look, democrats on the far left don't like the entitlement reform. republicans don't want to see loopholes closed unless they're offset. as we know the path that you've discussed, you can overlay bowles-simpson and the gang of

six, we know the path. what we need them to do is go big now. right now what's troubling is you're starting to hear voices for both parties say let's do the minimum and kick the big deal until after the election. china would be laughing at us all the way. we're self sabotaging when it comes to dealing with really difficult problems. >> they would be laughing if we don't get it done. john avlon, thank you. still "outfront" newt gingrich surging in the polls. will new revelations about his dealings with freddie mac stop the momentum in his track. we have a new number for how much he was paid. bizarre details about a mother whose child is missing in washington state. the website she might have signed up for just before he disappeared. the man who allegedly fired two shots at the white house arrested in pennsylvania today. ♪

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the number tonight is 80. that's the age 25% middle class americans say they'll have to work to until they're able to retire. a headline from a new survey

conducted by wells fargo. the problem is the average life expectancy in the united states is just over 78 years. that basically means people are expected to work until they die. now to politics. newt gingrich is the latest republican to surge into the polls. you know what happens when that happens. well, the snipers come out. they are out in full force. he's under intense scrutiny for his dealings in particular with the government-backed mortgage giant freddie mac. grinning rich was paid at least $1.6 million according to a report today by bloomberg news. that's way more than previously reported which was about $300,000. what did he do for that $1.6 million? that's what the scrutiny is all about. >> mr. speaker, bloomberg is reporting today you earned $1.6 million from freddie mac. what did you do actually -- >> offered strategic advice over a long period of time. >> how much did you spend on a monthly basis for doing that kind of work? sounds like a lot of money. >> first of all, it wasn't paid

to me. gingrich group was a consulting firm that had lots of people doing things. we offered strategic advice. >> you didn't -- >> sure, but i don't know the amounts. >> is the $1.6 million figure correct? >> i don't know. we're going back to check. >> it's a big number to not remember. a good number for strategic advice, isn't it? it's a sensitive subject for conserving who blame much of the financial crisis on poor lending by freddie and its little friend fannie. gingrich has harshly criticized it. stephen mcmahon is a democratic strategist. cheri jacobus is a republican strategist in d.c. we have our own david gergen with us at all. steve, let's be clear. no one is saying anything about this is illegal. but is it routine to get that kind of money, $1.6 million for consulting, strategic advice, a little bit of that and a little bit of this? >> it's actually more routine than most americans know. members of congress all the time go through the revolving door. on the other side they're

greeted by contracts for strategic advice which means using your access and power to try to get somebody a better deal than a regular american can get. that's the challenge for the former speaker, is to explain why it is he took all this money, what it is he did for it and how it is that fits with his notion of radical transformational change. frankly it looks just like business as urinal. >> cheri, how big of a problem are the freddie mac payments are they? >> i think it's a bit of a paper tiger. when you stretch the years, it's actually less than what a lot of firms here in town make quite frankly. it didn't go to him, as he said. the reason he's unfamiliar with some of the details of it, erin, he does have employees, and i know this. this was just one of many of their clients. he also said the advice he gave them they didn't listen to. he said he warned them about the bubble and basically said you have bad lending practices. we know a lot of people were warning them. maybe they thought perhaps if

they were paying him he would give a different response. i don't see this as a problem. i see this as making something out of nothing. >> hmm. what do you think, david gergen? >> a couple of things. first of all, what we're seeing is when you're a candidate who is down fifth, sixth or seventh, people don't pay a lot of attention to you. when you come up and you're a challenger as he is now, you get this kind of scrutiny. this is only the beginning of the scrutiny. there will be a lot about his personal life before it's over. on the facts as we know them about this situation, i happen to agree that it does not seem to me he's done anything that is improper, much less illegal. he was hired -- i think it's objection able that these government agencies were paying people so much. he was one of many people. i think congress is going to try to put a stop to that. i think his only danger is if he mischaracterizes what he did or misleading people and he's found

out. as to taking that much money over a long period of time, it doesn't rise to the level of something that usually causes a bunch of political trouble. >> it is amazing how we're the only country with a fannie and freddie and our homeowner ship isn't as high as other countries that don't have these generous mortgage deductions and we can't seem to get rid of them. let me throw this poll up and get each of you to respond. take a look at newt gingrich in a runoff against obama. mcclatchy maris poll, dead heat. steve? >> it demonstrates what we all know. 2012 will be a lot different than 2008. in new hampshire, president obama won new hampshire in 2008 by nine points over senator mccain. it's a classic swing state. what you're seeing really in this poll is two things. number one, mitt romney has been campaigning in new hampshire for quite a long time. this is barack obama versus another candidate. whether the other candidate is

mitt romney or newt gingrich even, it's going to be a close race because it's a close state. i think that's all we're seeing here. >> david gergen, any chance for someone else to rise? someone pointed out the other day it's not just been rick perry, herman cain, michele bachmann and now gingrich. earlier there was sarah palin and also donald trump. is there anybody else to come to the top? >> i don't think so because i think we've run out of alternatives. isn't this sort of the last one standing in terms of the alternatives? maybe i missed someone like santorum, maybe huntsman can catch fire in new hampshire. i think newt gingrich has acquitted himself in these debates as well as anybody else. probably second only to mitt romney. very strong in the debates and very steady. he'll come under this additional scrutiny. there are a lot of reporters out there who are laying for him. think think he's going to face some tough stories. we'll see where it goes.

>> thanks so much to all. still "outfront," the latest developments in the penn state child rape case. is the case against jerry sandusky as open and shut as we first thought? we looked into it and we have the bottom line answer for that. the tsa says the body scanners you go into don't cause cancer but they refuse to theft them. how safe are they? it's the weekly tradition on this show. that means the camel report is next. so would it be hump day without the camel report? this week corinth, mississippi,

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some thought australia might fall. but we dusted ourselves off, we picked ourselves up, we rebuilt, and thanks to the extraordinary generation of troops, we went on to victory in the coral sea and add midway and at miln bay. and when that war was won, and

as another raged in korea, our countries forged a new alliance. we pledged our collective defense for the preservation of peace and security. and that's a promise we've kept ever since. as i said in parliament earlier today, our alliance is rooted in the bonds between our people and the democratic values that we share and our commitment to stand with each other through thick and through thin, no matter what. and that includes afghanistan. i know many of you served there, including proud members of the 1st brigade like generations before you, you've lived and served alongside your american colleagues day in and day out, and you worked together so well, it's often said you can't tell where our guys end and you guys begin. today i want to say thank you,

thank you for a job well done. thank you for your incredible sacrifices. thank you for your family's sacrifices, and welcome home. [ applause ] others among you served in iraq, and on dangerous missions around the globe. among us today are families whose loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice in today's wars. and this morning, the prime minister and i paid our respects at the australian war memorial, and in that magnificent space, i saw the roll of honor with the names of your fallen heroes, including those from afghanistan. and to their families, i say no words are sufficient for the

depth of your sacrifice. but we will honor your loved ones by completing their mission, by making sure afghanistan is never again used to attack our people. and i am confident that we are going to succeed. now, here in darwin and northern australia, we'll write the next proud chapter in our alliance because the prime minister and i announced yesterday some of our marines will begin rotating through these parts to train and exercise with you and to work as partners across the region for the security we all want.across the security we all want. today, on behalf of the american people, i want to thank the people of this community for welcoming our men and women in unifo uniform. we are grateful for your friendship, and we are grateful for your hospitality. so we're deepening our alliance.

and this is the perfect place to do it. i know the training conditions around here are tough. at least that's what i've heard. big open spaces. harsh weather. bazies. snakes. crocs. in fact, i was just present ed with the most unique gift i've ever received as president. crocodile insurance. my wife, michelle, will be relieved. i have to admit that when we reformed health care in america crocodile insurance is one thing we left out. but there's another reason we're deepening our alliance here. this region has some of the busiest sea lanes in the world, which are critical to all our economies. and in times of crisis, from the bali bombings to east timor to

relief after a tsunami, darwin has been a hub, moving out aid, caring for victims, making sure that we do right by the people of this region. and that's what we're going to keep doing. together. going forward, our purpose is the same as it was 60 years ago, the preservation of peace and security. and in a larger sense you're answering the question once posed by the great banjo patterson. of australia he wrote, "hath she the strength for the burden laid upon her? has she the power to protect and guard her own?" well, generations of australians and you, its men and women in uniform, have given your answer. and america has been honored to stand with you as allies with an

enduring commitment to human freedom. on this 60th anniversary we are saying together, proudly, yes, we have the strength for the burden laid upon us and we have the power to protect and guard our own here in the asia-pacific and all around the world. so thank you all for your extraordinary service, and thank you for representing the very best of our two countries. god bless australia. god bless america. and god bless the great alliance between our two peoples. thank you very much. thank you. >> we've been listening to u.s. president barack obama and the australian prime minister julia gillard on their visit to darwin in northern australia. this was in fact an address to

the troops. you had the joint news conference yesterday. this was in fact a short speech. certainly compared to the other speeches that mr. obama has delivered on his very brief trip to australia. what they are doing in darwin is essentially reaffirming that troop commitment which mr. obama announced yesterday in cambera. 250 marines will be arriving by next year. ultimately that number will increase to 2,500. it is a very small but a very symbolic commitment of u.s. forces in the asia-pacific region. one of the biggest troop deployments in fact to australia since world war ii. mr. obama touched on world war ii, talked about darwin's being essentially australia's pearl harbor. for the history there. that was back in 1942 when darwin was bombed by japanese forces. more bombs actually dropped on darwin than pearl harbor by

comparison. that is when the alliance was formed. he also talked about the 60-year bond of the anzus treaty that is the australia-new zealand, united states treaty where an attack on one country is seen as an attack on all three. it was evoked for the very first time after 9/11. australian troops were mobilized as part of that treaty agreement between the three countries. mr. obama really didn't touch on what the essence of this trip is all about. ultimately, it is about china. he mentioned briefly the sea lanes there in the asia-pacific region being crucial to the united states and the u.s. allies in the region. he said darwin is a hub of that. and the increased troop presence in the region will be all about the preservation of peace and security. one final note, he did talk about that very unique gift which he had received once he arrived there at the top end, as they call it, in australia,

there in darwin. he received crocodile insurance there from the chief minister of the northern territory. if he is killed by a crocodile, which seems very unlikely, mr. obama's wife, michelle, and the two children will receive $50,000. right now the president meeting with the australian troops, shaking a lot of hands. that is what he said he would like to do. did not want to make a long speech. he kept to his word. now a lot of photos being taken, a lot of hands being shaken. and right now that is where we will leave it. we'll take a short break. for our viewers in the united states you will return to programming already in progress. for the more fortunate viewers at cnn international, we'll be right back after this.

>> well, it's still hard, although i must say sandusky's ridiculous press conference where he admitted showering with the boys has made the prosecutor's job a lot easier. but even so, the prosecutor still has to prove a specific crime was committed at a specific place ten years ago. you're going to have -- these involved children, by the way, from the second mile program. they're children who had problems to begin with. they were in foster homes, a lot of them. a lot of them were in group homes. that's why they went into the second mile program. now ten years later a prosecutor's going to have to rely on the recollection and memory of that witness to testify. and it's hard because of the passage of time. >> and the thing you're saying that would really make it easy and open and shut is really not that easy. you would need mike mcqueary, the assistant coach, who allegedly saut incident, you'd need him to come forward and the boy who was there that night to come forward. two people. >> exactly. you'd like to see the victim and you'd like to see corroboration.

you don't always have to have that. maybe we'll get to this later. but the mcqueary case is starting to blow up a little bit too because mcqueary's saying i report td to the police, i reported it to the administrators, and they're saying no, he didn't. so now you've got an issue at trial. they're going to say mcqueary's a liar and the faculty or the administration backs us up on that. so you've got a problem with a corroborating witness already. >> jeff herman, how difficult might this be? you have been through this many times, spending a career on it, going through it in priest situations where i would imagine corroboration was not frequent. >> right. right. i mean, the typical child sex abuse prosecution is inherently difficult because typically there's no eyewitnesses and there's no physical evidence. it's the classic he said, she said. but in this case i think that sandusky's not going to walk away here. this is a he said, he said, he said, he said situation. there's a lot of victims out there. which i think will come into this case. there's going to be an accumulation of evidence that is going to be a mountain, that's

going to be too big for sandusky's defense to climb over. and also, i think sandusky's press conference, if you want to call it that, created several problems for him. first of all, by issuing the denial that he did, he's just going to encourage other victims to come forward who might have stayed in silence. so i think you'll see more victims. >> and -- >> number two -- i'm sorry. >> i just want to say, jeff, you were contacted by at least one of the victims in this case. i don't know whether you're going to be working with them formally or not. maybe you could tell us about that. are they one of the eight? or are you hearing about more boys coming forward? >> well, what i'm talking about is just typically what happens when you have a predator who denies abusing children, the other victims that may be out there say you know, what it's time for me to speak up. and so i think just because of his denials we'll see other victims come forward. and then of course we have him admitting he was taking showers with boys. that in and of itself makes the prosecution's job a lot easier here. and then also i just think his entire scope of his -- of his

statement fits the classic pedophile profile. and the commonwealth i think will bring in a behavioral psychologist to show that this is the kind of actions that a predator takes. >> i think the most shocking thing was when he was asked if he was sexually attracted to young boys he had to repeat the question as if he didn't understand what it was. paul callan, you've looked into the fact that even without a criminal conviction there could still be -- these boys could still receive compensation, punitive damages. how much in sex abuse cases? obviously, jeff just did a case with $100 million. >> jeff's case is an example of how juries react in these cases. they award enormous amounts of money. first of all, you get compensation for the injury you sustained through the sexual abuse. if there are psychiatric problems that these kids had later in life, they get compensate yaitded for that. but then if there's a case against penn state the specter of punitive damages. a jury can say we're going to

punish the university to send a message that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated, and they can award a huge sum of money. >> 20, 30 million -- >> they could award that much. i don't know that it would be sustained by the courts. but clearly you're looking at the specter of multimillion-dollar verdicts in this case if other victims come forward. indeed, even just with these eight victims. >> paul, jeff, i hope you'll both come back as we try to make more sense of this and figure this story out in the coming days. thanks to both. >> next here, bizarre details emerge about the mother of a baby missing in washington state. and the website that she may have signed up for just before her child disappeared. and a woman severely injured in a teenage stunt gone wrong. her life almost ended. but this is a story of recovery. we'll be back. [ stu ] yeah. it's electric. i don't think so. it's got a gas tank right here. electric tank, right over here. an electric tank? really, stu? is that what you pour the electricity in? it's actually both, guys. i can plug in and go 35 miles gas free, or i can fill up and go a whole lot farther.

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will be giving away passafree copies of the alcoholism & addiction cure. to get yours, go to ssagesmalibubook.com. we do this at the same time every night. our outer circle. we reach out to our sources around the world. and we begin tonight in syria, where a group of military deserters calling themselves the free syrian army attacks an important government complex near the capital. ivan watson is in istanbul, turkey. ivan, what is the message of the free syrian army? >> reporter: erin, we talked to a member of this so-called free syrian army, a lieutenant who deserted and is now in exile here in istanbul. he says his colleagues attacked what he described as a branch of internal security in damascus

that he said was guilty of crimes against the syrian people. the message, that these branches will be targeted in the future, a stark warning to the syrian government and to the international community that syria seems headed towards an armed civil war between rival factions in that country. erin? >> thank you very much, ivan. and now to afghanistan, where president karzai began the tribal elder meeting we told you about yesterday. he had a speech that set strict limits on the future presence of american troops. nick paton walsh is covering it. nick, what were the terms? >> reporter: erin, the limitations that president hamid karzai put on the american presence here are basically the formalization of complaints about the nato presence that we've heard before from afghan officials. he wants an end to night raids by u.s. special forces and ends to searching of afghan homes and says that americans here won't have the power of arrest over afghans. karzai is trying to both sound like a nationalistic leader who will defend afghan interests while at the end of the day

accepting that he wants the u.s. and afghanistan to have a long-term military alliance. erin? >> thank you very much. bizarre details emerging about the mother of a missing 2-year-old boy from washington state. sky metalwala disappeared 11 days ago. that's when bellevue police say his mother, julia biryukova said she ran out of gas just seat of seattle. according to cops, she left her son in the car and took her 4-year-old daughter with her to get help. police later test-drove her 1998 acura integra. they said it was full of gas and nothing was wrong with it. after more than a week of searching and several hundred tips, police are now taking a closer look at the mother. a profile using her name has been spotted on a website called seekingarrangements.com, a website where sugar babies go to meet sugar daddies. brandon wei joins us from las vegas. there's obviously no wrongdoing vis-a-vis the website alleged

here. i'm just curious. could you explain what a sugar baby is. why would a woman be on it? >> a sugar baby is defined as a younger woman who usually wants to meet a wealthy man to take care of them. in this case they are sugar daddies. so i suppose julia joined this website looking for a person, a wealthier guy to take care of her. >> is it typical for single mothers to be using your site? >> yeah, it is, actually. the single mothers happen to be the second biggest largest demographic of users. 10% of our users are in fact single mothers. >> so what can you tell us about the activity on the account that uses julia biryukova's name, when she logged on, when was it opened? was she dating with anybody or involved with anybody? >> well, all we can say is that the account was created in late july of this year and she logged in as late as yesterday night around 11:00 p.m. >> she logged in as late as yesterday night.

you can't tell anything else, though, in terms of how much money she was asking for or something, as some women do? >> her profile basically states she's expecting a guy who can afford a budget of about $3,000 to $5,000 a month. and that's pretty typical. some girls do ask for upwards of $10,000 or $20,000. so i would say she's actually being very reasonable. >> all right. well, thank you very much. we appreciate it. to try to get to the bottom of this very strange story. well, a woman severely injured in a stunt gone wrong recovers and saves the boy responsible from a life in prison. she's "outfront" next. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 let's talk about fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 there are atm fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 account service fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and the most dreaded fees of all, hidden fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 at charles schwab, you won't pay fees on top of fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no monthly account service fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 no hidden fees. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 and we rebate every atm fee. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 so talk to chuck tdd# 1-800-345-2550 because when it comes to talking, there is no fee. ♪ ♪ ♪ when the things that you need ♪

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it was a night like tonight in new york, cold, dark and wet. in november 2004 victoria ruvolo was driving home from seeing her niece sing. just a few moments before she got home something impossible to imagine happened. a 20-pound frozen turkey thrown by a teen from a passing car came smashing through her window as she was driving. she almost died, was in a coma. and then she did something that no one expected. her book, "no room for vengeance," is just out. and really a stunning read. and she joins us now. thank you so much for coming out. >> oh, thank you for having me here. >> so tell me, first, just what happened that night. i know you don't have any memory still, right? of the exact moment. >> oh, no, i don't have no memory whatsoever. like you said, i was going to see my niece sing. and then i was going home because the rain became a rainy wet snow.

and i wanted to leave and get home because i don't like to drive in the snow. and that's all i remember. and i didn't wake up till a month later. and i was already in the rehab hospital. i don't even remember the wonderful hospital that took care of me. >> your recovery was miraculous. people thought it would take an incredible amount of time. >> oh, yeah. >> and you were in great physical shape. there were physical reasons for it. but then there was one really significant mental reason. tell me why you decided to not hate the person who did it to you. >> well, you know, and it's funny because dr. robert goldman, who wrote the book and we're in there together, he actually never believed me when i said, when they told me about the incident, when i was in the rehab hospital, that i actually said, do those kids realize how much they ruined their lives as much as they ruined mine? he never believed that i ever said that until he went to interview everyone and was amazed that i actually said that. so you know, i just truly

believe that, you know, to me it just seemed like such a stupid, ridiculous act. what -- you know, and finding out that they were kids just knowing that it wasn't meant for me and it was just a stupid, ridiculous act. >> and these were kids who had stolen a credit card from a family car, a family who was at the movies, they went to the grocery store, bought a turkey, they got scared, and then one of the kids threw it out the window. that kid is ryan. he was the one who was going to go to jail. here's what he had to say about you. >> i told her i'm so happy that she's doing well and i'm so sorry. i just want her to go on with her life. and i love the woman. she's a wonderful person. >> you and he now do something sort of together, a program to help kids like ryan. >> well, we did that, you know. his -- ryan's community service was to speak to other kids about his stupid, ridiculous act and

actually try to help them not to do that. and that was a program created by dr. robert goldman called the t.a.s.t.e. program, stands for thinking, anger management, social skills, and talking empathy. and ryan would speak at the first class, thinking errors, and i would speak at the last class, which i still do. ryan had to do that for his community service for one year, but then he continued and volunteered for an addional three years. >> but he could have gone to jail for -- >> yes. >> -- maybe the rest of his life. for 20-plus years. >> yes. >> and he didn't because you went to the judge and said, don't do it. >> actually, i spoke with the d.a., and i actually -- which they all thought i was nuts and looked at me and said, what, are you crazy? you're just too easy. but they listened to me. i just couldn't see how taking a child who did a stupid, ridiculous act and putting him -- sending him away for 25 yearou