they think that this is going to catch fire, if you will, as a campaign slogan? >> as a campaign issue certainly. we will see this on the trail no doubt, suzanne, because it is a battle for the next four months. in congress, don't expect it to go anywhere and the house republicans are going to have a vote at the end of the month to extend tax, the bush era tax cuts for all. and along with some of the guidance on the comprehensive tax reform for next year, and they do not, and that means that you will have a stalemate on this issue, and that is exactly what the white house expects. here is what the president had to say earlier. >> my message to congress is this, pass a bill extending the tax cuts for the middle-class. i will sign it tomorrow. pass it next week, i'll sign it next week. pass it next -- you get the idea. [ laughter ]

. >> well hashgs is not the bill that the house republicans plan to pass, and so since they control the house of representatives, you are going to have a standoff and that sets up a campaign season fight, suzanne. >> and he said that he's cut taxes for small businesses 18 times. the president a lot of times has been criticize that he does not talk about what he has done already and is that the kind of olanguage that we will hear to take the attention and the sting out of the jobs report? >> sure. and he also said that he's cut taxes for middle income americans by $3600 and that includes health care reform and the payroll tax extension, and the measures in the stimulus. this tax cut argument, itself, is designed to further the president's argument that he is looking out in their terms for the middle-class. the bottom line is that they are trying to frame this debate in a way to say that, look, the president wants to help out the

middle class, and the only reason that he can't with the tax cut is because republicans are adamant that it also applied to upper income americans and they're blocking the tax cut extension and the gop is saying, no, it is the president who is blocking the tax cut extension, because he's refusing to go along during tough economic times. the bottom line, are they are trying to, you know, shift the focus away from the bad jobs report? no doubt it helps to do that, and it is also part of the large ercampaigned theme about fairness and the two different philosophies of the economy that we have heard the two candidates framing for the last few months, suzanne. >> thank you, jessica yellin. voting rights on trial today in washington. this is why texas passed a law in 2011 requiring voters to provide a voter i.d. and many march the obama administration blocked the law saying it is unfair to the minority voters and then texas sued the government saying that

the motives are political. the trial starts today and a real test of the voting rights act of 1965 which essentially safeguards minority voting rights. i want to bring in ryan haygood who is director of the participation group at the naacp fund and first of all, talk about, ryan, the core issue here that people want to know. they are getting it of ensuring the integrity of the ballot that people should be able to vote. >> sure. thank you for having me on the show, suzanne. what is the what is at issue is three judges in texas will be considering if the voter i.d. law will affect the voting rights. our naacp legal defense fund represents three young students who had voted in previous elections using the only form of i.d. they had, student i.d., and texas' proposed law does not allow for the use of student i.d., but curiously will for the

concealed handgun licenses, but it is our view that the minority voter i.d. law will affect minorities in the state of texas. >> and the supreme court has already held that voter i.d.s are constitutional and several other states such as kansas and wisconsin and other states are allowed to require photo identification to vote, and texas must not be treated differe differently and must have the authority of the other states to protect the integrity of the elections. >> the question is not the authority to pass the measures, but the real question is whether states like texas have the authority to pass laws that are discrimination. by their own data 600,000 registered voters in texas do not have the photo that texas is requiring. 70,000 of those are latinos and a clear impact of the racial

minorities in texas and not all of the people in texas and registered voters in texas have the same access to photo i.d. as others in the state. >> we are hearing from attorney general eric holder, and supporters saying that the critics are going after him because of the fast and furious controversy that the gun running sting there. do you think that this is politically motivated here? that he has the point? >> well, the truth is that suzanne, attorney general holder took an important position against texas' photo i.d. law when he recognized it would be discriminatory to the racial minorities and the fact that 170,000 registered latinos don't have a photo i.d. and the fact that texas has not established a record to justify passing a photo i.d. as restrictive as texas' will be, it is going to show a racial impact on the minorities and that is what is

before the court this week. >> thank you for your perspective. this is what we are working on this hour. you can't get on the internet? you are not alone. we will tell you why what the fbi is doing cut off internet access for thousands of users. can you imagine working to 70? well, one retirement expert says 70 is the magic number. he was a darling the of conservatives when he gave a speech at 13, and now jonathan kroen crohn is a supporter of president obama at age 17. i will talk to him about why he changed sides. [ male announcer ] research suggests the health of our cells plays a key role throughout our entire lives. ♪ one a day men's 50+ is a complete multi-vitamin designed for men's health concerns as we age. ♪

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chances are you logged on to the computer today to do some surfing and check the e-mail and about 200,000 of you might have been out of luck and knocked offline. don't blame the computer. it turns out that there is a nasty virus out there affecting computers all over the world. i want to bring in dan simon from san francisco to talk about it. the good part of this, you say it affected a small group of people, computer users, about what out of the 2 billion-plus internet folks out there. >> it was a couple of hundred thousand globally and maybe 45,000 here in the united states, but i have to tell you that i have been monitoring the reports, and, you know, thus far, we haven't gotten, you know, major reports of people really being affected by this. so i think that you can credit that to a pretty good public service campaign over the last few days and people have been going online and checking things out. but we should tell you that suzanne how it all started. it starred back in 2007, and it

was not like this was an overnight thing. this started five years ago and some cyber criminals from estonia were able to infect 4 million computers worldwide and they got malicious software. that software took, you know, computer users unknowingly to fraudulent web sites and the fraudulent advertising. the fbi were able to break it up, but what they quickly discovered, suzanne, if they got rid of the bad servers if you will, it will knock people off of the internet. so they replaced the bad servers with their own servers and a temporary band-aid and now the band-aid is coming off. so if you didn't get the software taken care of, of course, you can't connect to the internet. >> how should you if you don't have an internet connection, what should you do today? >> well, that is a good question. you know, the best advice i think that we can give folks is that they can call the internet service provider and hopefully

they can walk them through it. they can also take their computer if they have the time to a computer repair shop and maybe a third al teternative is you have a computer, a spare computer to check out the resources and take it to put some software on a flash drive and transfer it over to the infected computer, but i would suggest calling up the internet service provider. >> yes, it does sound like a lot of work. are there other bugs out there like that? >> well, not na we that we are of. this is a clever scam. i'm certain that other people are thinking creatively in terms of how to do something like this, but in terms of this kind of malicious software being spread in this manner, i think that this was an isolated incident, but certainly, when it comes to the smartphones and the security and the computers, there are a lot of threats out

there, so make sure you have the latest, you know, virus protection program on your machine and your smartphone. >> all right. thank you, dan. extreme heat keeps hopscotching around the country. first the midwest that suffered and then the east and now it is a place usually known for the natural air conditioning which is the pacific northwest and the southwest is hotter than usual. chad, explain to us why this is happening all over the country and any relief? >> 124. >> are you serious? >> death valley. >> where is that? >> california. >> oh, my, 124. crazy. >> and the humidities are low, and i understand it is a dry heat, but still it is 124. and the weather has shifted. the big jet stream has changed direction, and we are getting the heat now back in the west and actually a little bit more where it belongs, 110 in vegas and seven degrees above normal and not breaking a record at 110, but it is warm. 112 in phoenix, and 95 in medford, and it is not bad in

seattle, because it is quite nice, because it is near the ocean. the puget sound water coming n and seattle only 77 today and i saw that tongue and cheek, because spokane, 96 to 100 there. it has been hot all over the east coast and i don't have to tell you that, because there was a cold front and it brought storms. good news with the cold front, because it took the temperatures down 15 to 20 degree, but a bumpy ride for some people. you asked the question how it happened and last week the ridge of high pressure was over the middle part of the country and then eventually shifted over to the east. now it is actually digging a trough bringing down cold air from the northwest and allowing all of this ridging, and the high pressure and the heat to be in the southwest and also even up into the northwest. that is how all of the shift pattern happens, and it looks like we will be in a slightly and i would say similar pattern to this and it could change a couple of degrees for the next ten days, and what you see is what you can get, and new york city, middle 80s, and that is

going to sound good to where we are. >> i never thought that the 80s would sound good. >> okay. chad, thank you. >> you're welcome. stick around for this, because it is one of the most amazing survival stories coming out of the utah wildfires. this is phoenix, a baby golden eagle severely burned when the fire hit the nest. it jumped out and fell 25 feet where the rescuers found the eagle and now this bird is recovering. too early to tell whether it is going to be able to fly, but it looks like it will survive and rehab will take at least a year. we are routing, routing for it. news also as well in the entertainment world. tom cruise and katie holmes have now announced an agreement in the divorce settlement, and kareen wynter will join us live from l.a. what do we know about this, and it seems fast when you think about it how things go at least in hollywood. >> it absolutely is. you nailed it, suzanne, when it comes to i divorce and high profile divorces of this nature

and these things take time, and katy holmes filing for divorce on june 28th and seeking sole custody of the couple's daughter 6-year-old suri at the time, and so the fact that it all transpired today has surprised a lot of people. let me get to a statement from katie holmes and tom cruise' and rather katy holm's attorney says that the case has been settled and the case has been settled and we are excited for katy and her family and are excited as to watch as she embarks on the next chapter of her life. and tom cruise says we are committed as parents to accomplish what is in our daughter's best interest. we want matters of the family private and respect for each other's commitment to our respective beliefs and support each other's role as parents. a lot of the behind the scenes discussions and in fact, over the weekend, the paparazzi snapped foe tes of her going back and forth to attorney's office and both sides have kept

mom since that filing of june 28th when she was seeking sole custody of little suri, and the fact that this has all happened right now is really surprising. tom cruise has been out of the spotlight and shooting a movie in iceland and photograph ed on his private jet but people are wondering what the contents of the divorce settlement is going to be, and don't hold your breath, because it will be iron clad, and no details revealed to the public and a confidentiality agreement signed, and that is where it stands between katie holmes and tom cruise. >> so we don't know if she gets sole custody of the daughter? >> el, that is a good point, and because we don't know the details of the divorce, one can surmise that holmes will have a significant amount of time in terms of the custody just by the way that the statement was spelled out from her attorney saying that they are thrilled. that is what she has been

fighting for all along to have that upperhand in terms of raising their daughter suri. and you can see the photos there, and they are snapped together around new york city, but that is where it stands. nothing in terms of details, but one can surmise here that she will be having a significant amount of time with her daughter, suri. >> all right. kareen, thank you. appreciate it. so a question here, are you going to have enough money to retire at 65? well, a new report finds that retiring at 70 more do-able, but who wants to work longer? we will talk to the woman behind the report.

it is a dream that a lot of americans retire at 65 and start living the good life, but the

recession has now put that further out of reach for a lot of us. and lisa has just finished a study saying that if we wait until we are 70 years old to retire, we have a better chance of having a good retirement. she is the director of the center for retirement research at boston college and i have to say, professor, this is not the number we wanted to hear. 70, a little bit more time to work here. how did you come up with this? >> well, the goal was actually to make people comfortable with the notion of working longer, and most people say i don't want to work until my 90s, so we thought if we did a careful study showing how much longer it would be, it would be attainable. so for people to maintain the same standard of living they have once they stop working. >> some people say you need $1 million to retire, and how does that relate to working until 70? >> well, we don't think of in terms of absolute dollar amount, because if you think about it, low income people don't need $1

million and high income people need a lot more than $1 million, so it is in terms of what percent of the repreretirement earnings do you need. that number we work with is around 80%. >> 80%. okay. and the biggest retirement mistake that we make. what should we do? take a lump sum from the employers or put it off? >> i think that the biggest mistake that people make is to grabbing the social security benefits as soon as they become available at age 62. if people can work until age 6 -- 70, the monthly benefit is 75% higher than at 62, and that will give you a much larger secure base on which to build, to support yourself. >> and if you were to stop working at 65, and retire at 65, instead of 70, would you be in danger of not living the way that you are ak kccustomed to?

>> yes, i believe that our estimates show that the approximately half of the households will not be able to maintain their standard of living if they retire at age 65. so that the moving from 65 to 70 brings the number up to 86 which is what we view close enough to the whole population. so if the population as a whole could retire at 70, most people could support themselves in retirpt. >> botm toll line, we have to work longer now? >> we do. and we understand that not everybody can do it. some people have health issues and some people have spouses with health issues and some people's jobs are outdated, but for the great bulk of the population, working longer is really the way to have a secure retirement. >> okay. we will keep working. thank you, professor. appreciate the study. >> my pleasure. >> sure. he became the superstar of the conservative movement al at 13, and now at 17, he supports

some liberal causes and also backs president obama, and we will ask him why. don't forget thae you can watch cnn live at work on cnn.com/tv. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and save you up to thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs. call today to request a free decision guide to help you better understand what medicare is all about. and which aarp medicare supplement plan works best for you. with these types of plans,

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with all the good years ahead, look for the experience and commitment to go the distance with you. call now to request your free decision guide. this easy-to-understand guide will answer some of your questions, and help you find the aarp medicare supplement plan that's right for you. six more american troops have died in afghanistan. officials say they were killed by an improvised explosive device in the east earn part of the country. it was a deadly weekend across the country overall. 26 civilians were also killed by roadside bombings. two international troops were killed as well. feds are searching for a georgia banker who went missing last month with $17 million of

investor's money. authorities are accusing the man from embezzling from the bank. they thought he was suicidal and he had written a letter saying he would kill himself by jumping off of a ferryboat, but now they say that he owns property in guatemala and venezuela and may be on the run. and massachusetts congressmanb barney frank made history being the first member of congress in a same-sex marriage while still in office. the couple wrote the vows saying that they pledge to love each other and be each other's best friend in sickness and in health, in congress or in retirement and whether it is for richer or for poorer, under the democrats or the republicans. and so jerry brown and arlen spector and others dropped their party at one point. and now here is another one. jonathan crohn who fired up the

conservative political action committee, cpac who at age 13 launched himself into conservative super stardom. check it out. >> the conservativism is not about the party. because the party is merely the shell. it is the inside, and it is the filling that really means something. so, i want to get that straight. and but in the book, i have defined conservativism and as it fits upon four principles, respect for life, respect for government, and personal responsibility. >> and now jonathan crohn joins us right here in atlanta. good to see you. >> good to see you. >> tell me about when you look at that tape and you see the performance and the thoughts and the political leanings, what do you feel? >> well, you know, i think that when i was 13, and i gave that speech, i really feel that i didn't really understand what i was talking about and it was

really more of me repeating a lot of what i have heard, you know, throughout my life in georgia. georgia is a very conservative state, and a lot of conservative people in georgia so i felt when i gave that speech, it was just me saying though things that i had heard in the home state for so long. >> why do you suppose you were so embraced and became a figure of the political movement? >> well, it is really, because in conservatism, there is not that many young voices and full of a lot of older white men, and that is the stereotype for conservatives, right, so a lot of people felt if they could have a young kid and a young jewish kid on top of that be a part of the conservative movement, it would be a big bonus for the conservative movement and look fresher in your face. >> why the change? >> well, after i gave the speech, and after i wrote a book, after that, i really kind of took some time off and i wanted to think about everything

that i had written and see if i really, if it was really me believing that or if it was something that i had come up with and had heard from other people. so i started reading the philosophy and focusing on the other things, and philosophy is what did it for me, because i started to read the german philosophers like emanuel kant and others and started to become more interested in something else, and it gave me a breather from politics and took my mind off of that and gave me a new way of looking at things. >> you write in the article here, because i want to quote you here, because it is a tear cal in a way, and you say, now i'm just another white comic book collect iing sort of jewis nerd who has never been laid. >> and i love that wonder woman mug right there. >> two nerds together. >> two peas in a pod, but i feel

for me, it is life should be about, and your political opinion should reflect who you are as a person and not what ideology you embrace. i want to be myself and have fun with my life and do what i do. >> and what is the reaction here, because you are headed off to nyu and you are, you know v a new life ahead. and how do people respond to you and conservatives respond? >> well, the conservatives have not responded nicely and a couple of responses to them, and i address them in the piece that i wrote for is alon yesterday, but some the responses have been vicious and daily collar has been mean. one of the articles said that my glasses are thick-rimmed glasses and so so i deserve criticism f that. and it is like a bully on the schoolyard and fox news said i should be left in the woods as a baby and things like that, but the majority of the responses have been nice and especially from the center and from the left or from more of the

center-left as well. >> it is possible, jonathan and you say that you have gone through the transition and more open in terms of different ideas, do you think that you could change again? sometimes they say that people as they are older, they become more conservative. >> a lot of people say i'm a liberal now and i did not say that. i just said that i have more left leaning opinions than i did before and i have a lot more left leaning opinions right now than right leaning opinions, of course, but i feel i'm jonathan crohn and i have my own opinions of things, and those opinions might change just like anybody's opinions might change. i just want to be jonathan crohn and do what i want to do. i want to write more humor pieces and satire and i have more fun of that. >> and get a date. >> that would be absolutely wonderful. >> everybody has the right to e and be themselves. thank you for being with us. >> thank you. and just hours ago,

president obama extended a plan to extend tax cuts for people making $250,000 and under a year.

all right. we have a political riddle for you, what is the difference between a tax cut and a tax increase? of course, it depends who is selling what. president obama says he wants

one-year extension of the bush era tax cut s fs for the middle-class, and mitt romney calls that a massive tax increase. i want to bring in jim acosta our national political correspondent and talk about it. jim, we know that both sides are clearly trying to sell the message here that resonates with the american people. >> right. >> and romney campaign obviously responding even before the president spoke at the white house, and what did they say? >> well, you know, suzanne, they put out a brief statement from the campaign spokeswoman andrea saul and we can put it up on the screen for you and it is what the republicans have been saying all day, and pretty much throughout the debate of whether the bush tax cuts should be extended and for whom. this is a statement from andrea saul released earlier this morning saying basically that president obama's response to more bad economic news is a massive tax increase and shows again that the president does not have a clue how to help americans get to work again and he help the middle-class. it is interesting that one thing that is important to work out

that mitt romney was at one of the fundraisers in new hampshire and one of the fundraisers shawna shepherd, one of our producers on the scene got a recording of mitt romney talking to wealthy donors at the fund-raiser saying that he also wants to be out there looking out for the middle-class, and that he is not so much worried about the wealthy donors and he said in his words they are doing just fine. it is interesting to see the president targeting the middle class voters today, and we will hear more of that from mitt romney. you saw it in the statement from andrea saul and perhaps more of it later in the week when he will be in colorado tomorrow. >> jim, tell us why that is so important the middle-class and clearly going after the independence and those in the swing states and already the opposite polar ends have made up their minds. >> right. i mean, this is where the battle lines are going to the og tini

for the fall campaign. it is going to come down to the independent voters and middle-class voters and in the end, that is where this election is going to be decided, and so, you know, you saw over the weekend, that the president surrogates are going after mitt romney's wealth. that recent disclosure that was in vanity fair that mitt romney had the offshore holding in bermuda that was not fully disclosed previously. you saw robert gibbs saying on "state of the union" sunday that mitt romney doesn't shop for banks based on the nearest atm, but where it is best to put his offshore holdings. so you know, this going to be going on for some time, and both sides will be targeting the middle-class and sounds like what the democrats and team obama is saying that they want to portray him as mr. one percent, and that means going after the wealth and the donors and we will see more of that as the days move on, suzanne. >> and jim, finally, extending

the bush tax cut is not going the pass. was this really a political theater on both parts and both sides? >> yeah, i think that is what it is. i mean, this -- right now, as the president said earlier, we are at a stalemate, and this election, if it is even possible will break the stalemate, and however you could look at the way that the likely breakdown of the senate and the house will play out, and we may have a stalemate after november. but both sides are basically say saying at this side, suzanne, that the american voters out there have a choice and about which direction you want to go and that is what both campaigns are being up front about at this point. they have a choice coming up in november, and they will have to make the choice accordingly and it is basically a choice between two visions for the future. if you want to see those bush tax cuts made permanent for all americans, then mitt romney is the guy. if you are with the president and you think it is only the wealthy who should have the tax

cuts extended, then president obama is the guy, and that is basically where a lot of the issues are going to play out, suzanne. >> all right. we will see which way it swings. thank you, jim. good to see you. if you are looking for life insurance, how do you find the policy that is right for you? well, that is what poppy harlow and the help desk team are talking about today. >> hey, there, everyone. here at the help desk today we are talking about insurance and life insurance specifically. with me are ryan mack and carmen wong ulrich. take a listen to this question. >> i'm a mother and i have a job and so i have a question regarding life insurance and what is the best route for me. >> well, life insurance can be expensive if she is not getting it through work and what is the take? >> go for the term policy and term insurance is a lot less experience, because it is a simple product and works like the auto insurance and you pay a monthly rate and if you pass away within a certain period of time, a term, that money comes the you, and she makes a point, i have a job and making money even if you are a stay at home parent, it is important to real

realize that someone if you when you go, will have to pay for the services that you give the family. so even you need term insurance and it is important to keep that even if you go to a employer, because with this job market once you are let go, that insurance goes away and as you are older, it is important to keep your own policies as well. >> and predatory insurance pr practices are more common than the predatory lending practices. predatory lending is more impactiful, but predatory insurance, you will be surprised with people having two or three policies and it is about affordability and need. >> how do you vet the policy? >> are they a-rated policies and go to web sites with different insurance analysis type questionnaires to fill out so when you go into the office with the right information and i need only $250,000 and when they try to sell you $2 million, you can walk away. >> you don't need it. >> savvy consumer. >> thank you. if you want a question that you want the financial experts to

tackle, upload a 30-second video to the help desk@ireport.com. imagine getting a check in the mail and you cash it and then asked to return the money. that is happening to millions of people who are getting unemployment checks. this is $100,000. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank. no nonsense. just people sense.

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labor department says that the states overpaid $14 billion in jobless benefits last year which is about 11% of all benefits paid out. now the government wants the money back. felicia taylor is at the new york stock exchange and felicia, i cannot imagine that is going to happen. what are they going to do? >> well, suzanne, it is not an isolated event and happens in many states and varying degree os. this is usually an administrative error and not on purpose on the part of the government or the employer or the employee or all three. and the government is making a massive effort to recoup some of the funds and it is $14 billion and most of the money ends up in three types of people who are not eligible for the benefits to begin with. those who are not actively searchping for a job.

you cannot be collecting benefits and not looking for a job. those who were fired or quit l voluntarily from something, or someone who continues to file claims even though they have returned to work. so jobless benefits do have the second highest rate for improper payments after the national school lunch program. but the majority of the benefits do go to people in need. according to u.s. census bureau, they kept 2 million americans out of poverty, and so they do serve an important role, and they do affect people who are effected. >> and what about if they cannot pay them back? >> that is a situation where you don't want to be in. some states can have the repayment waived or they have to have a mean to pay it back and that the error was not intentional or set up a payment plan for the person and they can garnish the wages or deduct it from the tax returns. it is a mountain of paperwork, but it can be hard to do.

the labor department historically has one quart over the recoverable payments recovered. so it is a lot of work to try to get the money back and frankly, trying to prove it is very difficult. suzanne. >> i imagine, it is costly as well. take a look at the stock market. how are they doing over the weekend? >> well, you know, we had the horrible jobs number report on friday that is a little bit of hangover into the monday trade, but the sell-off is somewhat muted. the dow is now off just about 40 points. it is really carry through from the number of last friday and corporate earning season that kicked off with a alcoa, and not expecting great results for the second-quarter profits which has a lot of concerns still out there with regards to europe and what is happening in the debt crisis. so it is going to be a volatile week unless we get good news on the economic front, which i'm not sure about. >> and we will hang on, hang on this week. well, if you have a baby at your house, you should go out to get a pet, and preferably a dog,

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we were talking about this on the break. healthier in what ways? i love those pictures. they're beautiful and you can tell the baby really loves the dog. >> exactly. very cuddly. how can you not like that? the study in finland looked at kids and ear infections and other respiratory infections and thought, gee, does it mat fer the child has a pet in the home and which kind of pet? the findings are really quite interesting and stunning. the numbers are pretty big. what they found is that kids who had a dog as a pet when they looked at the several months that the study lasted had 31% more healthy time. in other words, they were healthier 31% more of that time than the kids who didn't have any pets. with cats, it was 6% more healthy time. >> why the difference? >> it is not entirely clear. it could have something to do with the hygiene hypothesis that you don't want to keep your kids really clean because then their immune system doesn't develop

right and dogs as we know can be quite dirty. maybe these dogs were bringing in more dirt than the cats were. it is not entirely but it does seem clear from this study that having pets seems to keep the kid healthier when it comes to upper respiratory infections. as a mom you want everything clean but maybe it's not the greatest idea. kids who live on farms have fewer allergies than kids who don't. >> let's talk a little about that. what if your kid is a kid that might be allergic to a pet? i would imagine you don't want to go out and get a dog or cat right away until you have all of that sorted out. >> right. i imagine parents might see this and say my kid gets ear infections a lot. i'll get them a dog. you might not want to move so fast because it could be that your child has an allergy to dogs or cats so you don't want to be bringing in something that they're already allergic to but it is an interesting thought and something you can speak to the pediatrician about. might my child have fewer infections if i brought a pet

in? >> i wonder if there is an emotional component as well because you see that picture and just the warmth, camaraderie between the little baby and the pet and learning empathy and things like that. >> that's true. it's a great point. anything that makes us happier often makes us healthier. maybe that's it. >> all right. thanks. you don't have any dogs? >> we don't. four children is enough. i couldn't handle it. >> all right. thanks. >> thanks. when you think of playgrounds you often think of kids but now there is a place for adults to play and stay in shape as well. shape as well. we'll take you there.

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today is a big protest day. thousandus of set to demonstrate against pakistan reopening nato supply routes into afghanistan. about 20,000 demonstrators could be seen traveling in more than 300 vehicles from lahore to the capital islamabad for today's protest. the nato supply lines reopened last week after secretary of state hillary clinton apologized for the killing of 24 pakistani soldiers in a november air strike by u.s. fighter jets. several stories caught our attention today. photos as well. take a look at this. performers covered in body paint barely anything else were at the world body painting festival healed in austria over the weekend. some 200 artists from more than 40 countries showed off their designs to win prizes. pretty cool. now to italy these are soccer players from the parma

football club exercising on the beach in their speedos gearing up for the 2012-2013 season. earlier today taiwan tested 26 missiles in a live fire military drill. only two of them missed their target, an improvement from earlier tests. it's significant because mainland china about a hundred miles away considers taiwan a renegade state. here's a new way to keep people healthy. new york building playgrounds for adults. got to love it. a plan a lot of people are welcoming. >> we have too much idle time on our hands in new york city. >> helping me stay in shape. >> right now we need recreation for everybody, for everyone. for humans. you know, things for them to do. >> while there have been sort of outdoor adult fitness that could have been in playgrounds since the 1930s in the last few years we've started to come up with newer applications.

>> you got yankee stadium right there. you got cars right there moving so it's not like an indoor gym where you just hear weights dropping. it's kind of like you're outside. before you know it you're done with your workout. >> people playing basketball over there. people running over there. people doing pushups, pullups, dips here. at times people need to clear their thoughts. this is a great place to clear your thoughts. >> not bad. we really care about people making a place like this. >> guy looks good right here. he got me out here. as bad as he looks he got me out here. i look better than him but inside i'm a little weaker. working on the cardio. >> society shares a big cross when people are not in shape or ill. there are very practical reasons to encourage people to exercise in parks for free. >> one of the best things ever just to see something like this. this is like an adult jungle gym, an adult facility so really a good thing to have and definitely should have more. >> we let the world run our

time. you have to take sometime for yourself and that's what this place is all about. that's what i love about this place. i get to fill my time. >> i think i'll spend some time at that outdoor gym there. looks good. >> thank you so much. hi everyone. happy monday. i'm brooke baldwin. a lot of news to get you started. feels like groundhog day. president obama is proposing once again to raise taxes on folks who earn a quarter million or more dollars a year. in the process, the other 98% of the country would have their taxes stay the same rather than going up as they're scheduled to in 2013. instant big issue here in the election campaign. here was the president. >> if congress doesn't do this millions of american families including these good looking people behind me could see their taxes go up by 2200 dollars

starting january first of next year. >> so is the president proposing a tax increase as mitt romney is saying or yet another tax cut as the white house would have you believe? jessica yellin is at the white house. jessica, actually are you in the white house? >> no. >> somewhere in new york perhaps? you're in new york. >> yes, new york. >> which is it? increase or cut? >> well, it depends i guess who you ask but this is what the president's proposing is an extension of the current bush tax cuts for everybody who makes below $250,000 for regular -- for folks who are family and it would be in the president's words essentially a continuation of the fairness policy that he's trying to campaign for on the campaign trail for the last few weeks and the central framing of this campaign for the next four months. here is what the president had to say earlier, brooke.

>> it is a stalemate in this town in washington between two very different views about which direction we should go in as a country. nowhere is that stalemate more pronounced than on the issue of taxes. many members of the other party believe that prosperity comes from the top down so that if we spend trillions more on tax cuts for the wealthiest americans that that will somehow unleash jobs and economic growth. i disagree. >> and there you have the fundamental debate of this election, brooke, because of course republicans would say as you point out it's a tax increase on the very wealthy and on what they call business creators. this is essentially what the two sides want to be debating or td president wants the two sides to be debating between now and november 6th. >> so we've had this conversation before. why this figure $250,000?

>> partly because that is the number president bush used during his presidency. some of the democratic party argued the number should go up to anybody making a million dollars or below and now it's been locked in at 250 by the president and the white house because that was the president bush number and the number they've been using to date and it sounds more in their conception reasonable and low. the bottom line is they want to be able to argue that regular americans are denied their tax cut because the gop insists it only get extended if the wealthy get their tax cut so y'all regular folks aren't getting that because the gop insists the very rich get it too.

obviously the republicans see it too. >> appreciate it. want to go to washington and talk to our cnn contributor, he writes at "the new yorker" and, ryan, let me ask you the same question. why are we having this debate we had two years ago, this issue about the $250,000? why can't our lawmakers on both sides of the aisle settle this thing and move on? >> well, these tax cuts have been fought over since 2001. the back story is when they were passed in 2001 they had an expiration date for complicated parliamentary reasons. they were set to expire ten years later. now, in 2010 right after republicans won the house of representatives, obama and congress agreed to a two-year extension of those tax cuts. that of course kicks it to december 31st, 2012, so these tax cuts will expire right after the election unless congress and

the president can agree on what to do about them. >> you believe that is really going to happen by the end of the year? >> no. >> no. >> i mean, frankly. the president -- remember the two strategies of this campaign. >> and so does mitt romney. >> i disagree there. i think obama wants this to be a big ideological debate and wants the american people to have a clear view of romney, the republican ideology versus the democratic ideology. frankly, mitt romney's strategy is a little different. he wants to keep details of his policy proposals as simple as possible. he wants the public focused on an up or down vote about how obama has handled this economy. so watch as these two guys scramble in the coming months. you'll see obama constantly coming back to setting up a choice between the two candidates where romney is going to say obama has failed. he's not working. we need to replace him. there is a difference between the two of them strategically

there. >> stand by. i want to run through for the viewer here just a really good foothold, brief history of tax cuts if you will. so the bush tax cut establishes these new tax brackets at 10% and 15%. and the rest of the brackets sort of slid down by about 3%. so there's your tax cut right there. when as you pointed out, ryan, the bush tax cuts expired in 2010 we had this whole debate along the lines of the one now. the compromise looked like this. everyone had their tax cut extended two years, adjusted it on wealthy wage earners tor ere in protection for the unemployed but if and when there is a compromise what do you think it'll look like? >> it is actually an interesting question, brooke, because frankly if congress were to settle the bush tax cuts before the election, it would actually make a broader tax reform and entitlement and deficit package, in washington what's been known as the grand bargain, not just

the tax cuts but everything. all the tax and spending issues the parties disagree about it would make it a little more difficult for that to happen after the election so would take away the bush tax cuts as a point of negotiation. so obama did something strange today. he said i want the bush tax cuts settled before the election and then after the election we'll have a big negotiation over tax reform. doesn't quite make sense because it's probably going to be able to do tax reform if the bush tax cuts are still on the table after the election. so frankly i think the president knows there is no chance of this passing through congress but wants to have the argument, his whole strategy is he wants the american people to settle the deadlock in washington, to choose one ideology over the other. that's what this is really about. >> so if it doesn't happen by the end of the year, when, with the lame duck congress? >> then it's tricky terrain. you could do it in a lame duck congress or they could extend them for a few months and then you could use those few months

to settle the issue. remember, a year ago today the president and baer ended their talks on a grand bargain. they were tantalizing close to settling this. >> but it didn't go anywhere. we'll just have to continue this conversation and see when something happens, when the compromise can happen. ryan liza, cnn contributor, good to see you. president obama and mitt romney may be neck and neck in a lot of polls but when it comes to cash romney is king for now. the republican along with his party's national committee raised more than $106 million bucks last month. president obama on the other hand, $71 million. in an e-mail to supporters the obama campaign said thanks for the best month of the election but in the very next paragraph warned republicans are way ahead. we have a lot more for you on this monday. watch this. the feds are tracking down a

banker who's accused of faking his own suicide and ripping off investors whose multimillion dollar scheme and now we're hearing why he may still be alive. i'm brooke baldwin. the news is now. the mystery is baffling doctors -- children dying but no one knows why. dr. sanjay gupta is there uncovering a big piece of the puzzle. plus, mickey and minnie come to north korea and in this radical shift the rogue nation's new leader goes disney? and bashar al assad says the u.s. is behind the violence in syria and the u.s. fires back with the usual response. i was teaching a martial arts class and having a heart attack. my brother doesn't look like a heart attack patient. i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. [ male announcer ] be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. i'm a fighter and now i don't have that fear.

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a georgia man once hailed as a small town hero is now accused of being a big-time crook who may have faked his suicide to hide his trail. back in 2010 banker aubry price took over this failing community bank in a town about 170 miles southeast of atlanta. the securities and exchange commission says price used this bank to get more money which he lost in bad investments to the tune of $17 million. the s.e.c. says in total price bui bilked $40 million from investors over the last four years and now he is missing. his last sighting? florida. >> he boarded a ferry from key west to ft. myers and subsequently we do not know whether he exited that boat

willingly or if he actually got off the boat in ft. myers. >> and cnn's david mattingly joining me now. what a story. >> what a mystery. >> his acquaintances said he was going to try to kill himself yet investigators think he is still alive. why? >> well, he sent out this letter that showed up about three weeks ago today, and that's when the news hit that he was going to try and kill himself because he got into a string of bad investments, lost all of his money, and was just going to end it all. right now it seems that his family is the only one that believes he carried out those plans. and you heard some of them right there from that investigator who was talking about them. his plan was to get on a ferry in key west, a ferry that went from key west up to ft. myers, and during that voyage he was going to slip over the side and commit suicide. they were able to confirm that he actually purchased diving weights to assist him in going to the bottom. that's about all they can confirm. they were able to see that he scanned his ticket when he got

onboard the ferry but there is no record of people getting off the ferry so they can't confirm that he got off or where he might have gone after that. but they do know he is a man of means. he told his wife three weeks ago on saturday that he was going to guatemala to do some business with a telecommunications company. well, that never happened. and now we find out that he's got property in venezuela. he is a man of means. obviously because of what's been going on here the allegations possibly a man of capable of very elaborate deception. >> you sort of ran through what the alleged scheme would be. does he have kids? chlgts he has a family. they are the only ones who believe right now that he did carry out his plans for suicide. the way this all worked according to federal authorities is that he -- there was a failing bank in south georgia. he set up an investment company to take control of the bank so he was in charge of the

investment company that solicited funds and in charge of the bank he was supposed to turn around. he was providing his board of directors with falsified statements of what he was doing with the money. now we find out that he either had bad investments or pocketed this money. we don't know exactly what. >> okay. the secretary here says price admitted to some of his acts in a letter, quote, entitled confidential confession for regulators. what is that? >> this was part of a 22-page letter that not only where he was stating his intentions to commit suicide but carrying out this elaborate explanation of what he was doing and what went wrong. and this is what was called "confidential confession for regulators" these are aubry price's exact words. >> okay. the statement goes on from the s.e.c. price admits that he, quote, falsified statements with false returns in order to conceal between $20 million and $23 million in investor losses. when we're looking at the

warrant out for his arrest from the u.s. attorney's office, they're not being very specific on how much was lost investments or how much was stolen. >> needless to say, if they do find him and this could be true, he could face some serious time. >> without a doubt. and there are a lot of people with a lot of money at stake here. >> thank you. thank you so much. a new approach to end the violence in syria. president assad is now blaming the u.s. for the unrest. and his reasons involve gangs. you know, i have done something worthwhile. when i earned my doctorate through university of phoenix, that pride, that was on my face. i am jocelyn taylor. i'm committed to making a difference in people's lives, and i am a phoenix. visit phoenix.edu to find the program that's right for you.

enroll now.

diplomatic envoy kafi annan

has arrived in iran part of the new strategy to end the blood shed. in syria earlier he met with al assad who has agreed to, quote, an approach to end the violence. no details on what exactly that may entail. meantime no letup in the violence there. 30 people have now died today across syria. as the government continues its crackdown. our guest has written a book called "in the lions den an eyewitness account of washington's battle with syria." andrew, welcome. >> thanks. >> i want to begin with something i read, president assad talking to german tv. so he tells them that the u.s. is providing political protection for what he is calling gangs in his country. he says the majority of syrians still support him. my question to you is, is this man delusional, a, and, b, is he

trying to villainize the both? >> yes to both. president bashar al assad in his 12 years in power has ban very unstable, very difficult person to deal with. he has a problem. he has now almost an 18-month-old insurrection going on in the country much of which is armed and continues to blame it on foreign conspiracies led by the united states and israel that back these armed gangs and that somehow it's just going to be brushed aside and that soon the regime forces will sweep them away and to victory. the only problem is for over 18 months the syrian people aren't having it. they know this isn't about armed gangs but about governance in syria and the fact that assad has to go. >> they know despite these words, despite -- i know he has agreed to this plan to end the violence before obviously that hasn't ended anything. is today's agreement going to be meaningless as the last one you

think? >> yeah. notice that annan said an approach. not the one agreed upon in geneva which is out in the press about a transition government. he said an approach. which means assad decided to change the terms again which he has done time after time. he did it with the first six-point annan plan in april. he didn't abide by both deadlines and the problem is that when he doesn't abide by the deadlines he thinks it'san opportunity to negotiate and the problem is that the west went along with it. there were no consequences for him not going along with the plan and it seems like he wants to play around with the new plan as well. >> does he feel like there is any sort of threat of any kind of consequence? is that why he can play around you think? yes, of course, because the obama administration has said for months that military options are off the table or they say for example that this was ahead of the last geneva talks that it has to be explicit assad steps aside. then they do a deal with the russians and, well, it's not

explicit. this is the problem. assad knows the obama administration doesn't want to do anything in syria. it is very complicated. he's calling their bluff and so far as gotten away with it. >> let me add to that. we've heard from u.s. officials declaring he soon will be out of power. here is secretary of state hillary clinton. >> the future, to me, should be abundantly clear to those who support the assad regime. the days are numbered. the sand is running out of the hour glass and we want to make clear to the syrian regime that they need to be willing to end the violence and start the serious business of a political transition. because we have no doubt about the outcome here. we know that the assad regime will fall. the question is, how many more people have to die before that happens? >> days are numbered, andrew. days are numbered.

we've heard the sound bite before. you just pointed out these are sort of, you know, empty words to president assad. >> right. >> so where does that leave us? >> well, notice that the secretary is measuring time with an hour glass and not with actually a stop watch. we had an opportunity to be straight forward about this in geneva. we didn't do that. and the answer to her question is a lot more people have to die according to washington's position in syria before there is any firmer stance. i think in the end that assad will go. i think it is going to be much longer than we thought. the problem is that yes a lot of syrians will die. that's horrific. most importantly for american security syria has one of the largest stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons in the middle east. if that, as the state devolves fan that gets loose it is a threat to our national security and if we continue on our current approach over time as the secretary said we are headed into a situation where those kinds of materials could get loose and that's a danger. >> time for the stop watch not

the hour glass. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> that was quick. hollywood's latest blockbuster divorce already settled. ♪

send a note stay informed catch a show. make your point make a memory make a masterpiece. read something watch something and learn something. do it all more beautifully, with the retina display on ipad.

♪ why do you whisper, green grass? ♪ [ all ] shh! ♪ why tell the trees what ain't so? ♪ [ male announcer ] dow solutions use vibration reduction technology to help reduce track noise so trains move quieter through urban areas all over the world. together, the elements of science and the human element can solve anything. [ all ] shh! [ male announcer ] solutionism. the new optimism. less than two weeks after announcing a split celebrity couple tom cruise and katie holmes have signed a divorce settlement. they say it is in the, quote, best interests, end-quote, of their young daughter. holmes filed for divorce on the 28th seeking sole custody of their 6-year-old suri. that seemed pretty quick for a

settlement, right? >> really, really quick. i think we were all surprised. she filed let's see, june 28th, so it's only been about two weeks. they were married for five years. and they have issued that statement saying they have reached a settlement. i will tell you this was certainly quite a strategy by katie holmes because let's face it. this was her first walk down the aisle but this was not tom cruise's first walk down the aisle. he married mimi rogers and he filed for divorce in 1990. they were married for three years. then he marries nicole kidman and he files for divorce after ten years in i believe 2000. and so he is said to have been caught off guard by katie's sort of legal wranglings because it was no, you know, accident that she filed this in new york because that was very strategic. new york rarely gives joint custody and a lot of new york divorce filings are also kept sealed as opposed to being kept

more public in california. so certainly this is i think what many will see as a win for katie holmes. >> let me read what the pair has released, the statement. they say, we are committed to working together as parents to accomplishing what is in our daughter suri's best interests. we want to keep matters affecting our family private and express our respect for each other's commitment to each of our respective beliefs and support each other as parents. they're saying look this is obviously a private matter between family members but they're in the public eye so a lot of people are wondering when we talk settlement do we know what that specifically means? what exactly are they settling? is it divorce, more than a divorce? will we ever know? >> we will never know because the terms of the divorce are -- of the divorce settlement are confidential. that's what we've just learned and that's no surprise. but let's face it. this needed to be kept private because these are very -- two very high profile, public

people. what would be more important to a public person than the public image. and so we won't hear much about what happened here but we do know that it's been reported that they were fiercely fighting over sort of scientology parenting. i think when you look at the statement that they just released, the one you just read, brooke, they say they respect each other's beliefs, each other's respective beliefs. i think we can assume that's code for that sort of turmoil that they had in terms of scientology. >> hopefully just putting their little girl as priority number one and leaving it there. thank you. thank you. more news. right now, rapid fire. roll it. federal trial under way today over this new voter i.d. law in texas. the law says texans have to show photo identification in order to cast a ballot, but the u.s. attorney general's office blocked the law saying it could make it tougher for minorities

and the disabled to vote. the texas ag points out at least four other states require photo i.d. for people to vote. lance armstrong is now suing to try to block those doping charges. the u.s. antidoping agency accuses the seven-time tour de france champ of using performance enhancing drugs. armstrong's lawsuits says the agency's proceedings are rigged and accuses the agency of looking to snare a, quote-undevote, big fish to justify its existence. the agency says the lawsuit doesn't have a leg to stand on. no google, no yahoo, no facebook today. for more than 40,000 u.s. computers. cyber criminals infected the computers with malware called dns changer. the fbi set up emergency servers so it could warn users to get rid of it but the fbi servers were shut down at midnight so if you can't get online today now you know why. just call your internet service provider for help. the bulls are running.

pamplona, spain, they do this every year. one american is in the hospital. a 39-year-old man was gored in the leg trying to out run them. 15 runners in total have been hospitalized since the traditional running of the bulls started on saturday. today is a day of mourning in the mountains of southern russia. more than 170 people purportedly died over the weekend as floods swept through the region. survivors are now identifying the dead today. and a criminal investigation is under way into whether local officials did enough to warn people of the incoming wall of water. the mystery here, absolutely baffling doctors. children are dying. no one knows why. dr. sanjay gupta is in cambodia uncovering a huge piece of the puzzle. you can now try snapshot from progressive free for 30 days.

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a mystery illness is killing kids in cambodia and doctors finally have a lead. it turns out a common childhood illness known as virus 71 may be to blame. so far, at least 64 kids have died some within hours of showing up at the hospital. it turns out a good number of them tested positive for the virus, which is a common cause of foot and mouth disease. our chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta is in cambodia. what have you learned? >> reporter: brooke, there are some answers now as to what

might be causing this and specifically in the form of something known as virus 71. what they did was they tested samples in these children. there were 66 children total. they were able to get 24 samples. of those 15 were positive for the virus 71. as you can tell by looking at the numbers, brooke, it's not a complete answer. there's also something else. it has to do with just how deadly this particular illness is. these children, often within 24 hours of being admitted to the hospital, are dying. they often start off with mild fever but then quickly progress. they will develop inflammation of the brain, really catastrophic brain swelling, and then from there something happens to the lungs that doctors told me they've never seen before. the lungs almost are completely destroyed within a very short time and that's ultimately what leads to death. the problem is, brooke, it's very hard to reconcile the virus 71 alone as a cause for all that i have just described. so right now investigators are

continuing to look zeroing in on perhaps other pathogens and also the possibility of some sort of toxicity from a medication or something else that could be causing all of the problems that have been occurring in these children. that's where the investigation is headed right now as more details come to us, brooke, and we'll certainly bring them to you. back to you. >> thank you, sanjay gupta in cambodia. egypt's new president is headed for the first showdown with the generals that have run the country since the revolution. mohamed morsi has called parliament back into session tomorrow, the same parliament the military dissolved last month and military leaders met for five hours yesterday but did not issue a statement. was palestinian authority president yasser arafat poisoned? his wife seems to think so. it was revealed last week that high levels of this radioactive substance were indeed found on some of his clothes and now the green light has been given by the current palestinian leader to exhume arafat's body and try to find out for sure.

how about this for a close call? take a look. you see this 18 wheeler coming toward the gas station? bam. akron, ohio. full speed. police say, you can see it again, they say the semi's brakes apparently went out as it was leaving a highway and the driver managed to avoid the cars at the light. amazing. before he saw it tipping over and crashing inches from this gas pump. the semi was not carrying anything hazardous and no one was hurt. cyber attack, wildfire, even a hurricane. president obama uses his executive powers to keep the government's communications going. how far does his order go? stick around and find out. the medicare debate continues in washington...

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tle while you weren't looking president obama gave the government a new power. this past friday he quietly implemented an executive order that reprioritizes communications through a special white house chosen committee in case of a national emergency. so say a war breaks out or a hurricane blasts the gulf coast. in those cases president obama says, i'm going to quote him, the federal government must have the ability to communicate at all times and under all circumstances to carry out its most critical and time sensitive missions. our guest is the associate litigation counsel for the electronic privacy information center. welcome to you. i guess the first question is does this really give the president ultimate authority here over phones, e-mails, etcetera?

>> well, it actually does give him a lot more authority than we think he had before. congress has been considering cyber security bills for a long time now. they've been in committee for over a year. the president has stepped in, however, and kind of given himself and the department of homeland security increased authority to kind of prioritize federal communications to the detriment of civilian communications so for example my cell phone conversation or yours can be shut down in favor of a conversation between an official at the department of homeland security and somebody in state government. >> say we were having a conversation of our cell phones or e-mails that could be shut down. and in a sense, look. this happened. this executive order came after the president was in colorado because of the horrible wildfires so obviously we need a way to protect communications in crises like that do we not? >> we do. it's a noble mission. in fact, generally we have

agreed with td executive's approach to cyber security. he has a very positive way of dealing with things. for example, he has promoted the idea of having cyber security operatio operations, as opposed to some approaches which have housed it at a government military agency such as the national security agency where we would have no idea what was going on. the executive has been very, very pro civil liberties in that per perspective. however, this is something that should be left to congress to deal with and not executive order let's remind everyone what his first executive order was. this was 2009 and here was the president. >> in order to effect the appropriate disposition of individuals currently detained by the department of defense at guantanamo, and promptly close the detention facility at

guantanamo consistent with national security and foreign policy interests of the united states and interests of justice i here by order -- >> so this is the president who started out wanting to close gitmo which didn't happen and now he is taking authority over our cell communications, e-mails, etcetera. the question to you is, what happened to him? >> well, i'm not sure if we can question something the president has done especially in relation to what you just described because in relation to gitmo he acted to close it down and then congress came back and said you can't. they prohibited funding from being used to take prisoners out of gitmo which is something people overlook. but congress is who we have elected to make the laws. it's in our constitution. it's the branch of authority that we rely on to make laws. i think we still have to rely on that separation of powers principle as kind of inherent to our federal system.

>> it's interesting to point out, too, liberals love to accuse former president george w. bush of destroying our personal liberties but whose privacy policies do you find more worrisome now -- president bush, president obama? where do you stand? >> president obama definitely has a different take on privacy and transparency. on his first day in office he issued a memo saying that transparency would kind of trump his overall administration. he really wanted documents to be out in the public. however, as an agency, as an organization epic has constantly come up against obstacles and hurdles to getting those documents and assimilating them to the public. so i think there is definitely a difference between what the obama administration has said they were going to do and what has happened in practice. >> so upholding the promise of transparency, are you happy with what he's done or no? >> we believe he's taken steps. we aren't happy with where we

are right now. we really should be a lot further along. >> amie, thank you. she is from california, he is from alabama. together they are the civil wars. their music is described as an intimate conversation without the dinner party chatter. sometimes less is more. fantastic band. it is music monday. the civil wars is coming up. o

they describe themselves as a baby band but i can tell you the sound is anything but little. the civil wars are this folk rock pop duo with pretty big sound for just two people. with a bare bones approach to music their modest melodies are uplifting and at times haunting. on this music monday we give you the civil wars. >> i'm joy and we are the civil wars. >> and you're watching cnn. ♪ i've been waiting for you and you've been waiting for me ♪ >> it's certainly been quite a rollercoaster ride this last couple years as the civil wars. i don't think either of us would ever have anticipated being able to experience all the things that we have in the last several

years. >> that's true. >> but we get to play headli headlining. i'm having my first baby with my husband ♪ won't you take me from this valley to that mountain high above ♪ >> we are definitely a baby band in lots and lots of ways. we just met three years ago, and so we know there's still millions of people out there that don't know we exist and that's extremely exciting to us. ♪ ♪ >> we came from very different and diverse musical backgrounds. i'm from california and he is from balabama. i don't think we ever thought our music could have blended to make the sound of the civil wars. it is really easy for the most

part creating and collaborating with john paul and that's a pretty rare thing when you get into a room with someone to be vulnerable and make art. ♪ ♪ >> one of my favorite things about this band and making music with joy is how much she pushes me to be better at what i do. she's a world class singer. and so i have to, you know, bring my a game every night just to keep up. >> every time we perform there's something different that happens and that's really fun. that keeps me excited for what

we're doing. ♪ >> i'm excited about album number two. whenever we can get around to it. i've got a small but significant change happening very soon. >> we call it the solo project. >> the baby. >> thanks you too. big congratulations to joy who gave birth to a baby boy miles alexander on june 30th. and we have all kinds of different music monday interviews. go to the brooke log. cnn.com/brooke. you can see who we've been interviewing over the past year, year and a half. make sure you comment and let me know what bands you're listening to and who you want me to interview for an upcoming music

monday. mickey, minnie, and winnie the pooh. dancers dressed and performing in north korea as the new leader brings a gift to the young people. disney calls it a copyright infringement. are you too wired? not by caffeine but to your computer? next hour, do not miss this incredible cover story of "newsweek" this month. the connection addiction and how it's rewiring your brain.

we are used to seeing odd happenings out of north korea but this has to be a first. look at this with me. disney characters. i'm talking mickey mouse and winnie the pooh taking to the stage in the world's most repressive society and performing for the north korean leader himself kim jung un. the walt disney company says it did not authorize this in any way so what's going on? let's bring in john park a research fellow at harbors center for science and international affairs. john, wow. you know, this is a man, you and i have talked about him. we know so little about him. does this at all give us a glimpse into his mind, a guy who's got the power over north korea's nukes bringing mickey mouse on stage? what's going on? >> i think this shows another side of kim jung un the supreme leader of north korea. he's multi tasking. you have an attempt -- in one

sense trying a long-range missile attempt in april. that didn't go so well. they failed to put a satellite in orbit. maybe putting the disney characters on stage is a sure bet as a crowd pleaser. right now there is continuity in terms of at least what he is trying to do and that is put his own personal stamp on the new leadership structure. i think one way to look at these characters on stage is that kim jung un rather than fighting the cultural influence coming in, these western cultural influences coming into north korea is actually joining and trying to be ahead of this wave. >> what is this stamp you mentioned supposed to look like? is this more to placate north koreans, a message to the world? what are we to take from this? >> it looks like from the various reports this is very much internally focused. you have the contrast with his father who was something of an afficionada for high arts, cinema, and now with the appeal to disney characters it's like

kim jung un is trying to be more of a populist. north korean state media called this part of the grandiose plan he is unveiling for dramatic turn in the arts. so as much as that sounds like it's very high brow, at the end of the day as we saw with this report and in the footage here they're disney characters. >> not only that we saw some pictures of some of the women performing in, you know, dare i say, sort of stylish wardrobes, strapless gowns, and korean tv now says kim jong un assembled the performers himself. he is officially saying, yep. i'm taking credit for this show. do you think this is a sign of more to come from north korea and the supreme leader? >> i personally think that we will see more of this. it's a very interesting contrast to south korea. south korea is lauded for using cultural influence through something called hallud which is the south korean soap opera, pop

stars. that has influenced the other parts of asia but now north america and europe. so kim jung un may be taking a cue from this incredible cultural influence out of south korea and trying to emulate that and show north korea is at the cutting edge of this type of cultural export though in the initial stages it's focused on his own people. >> clearly as you point out this is a western influence so maybe is this a lesson that even the most repressive regime on the planet can't block the power of western commercialism? >> that's right. if you look at it a lot of the cultural influence in the outside and even china, i think this is interesting to note because we are having u.s. cultural figures, icons we've grown up with, coming in not from the united states, not from ameri america, but from china and increasing commerce with china means the door opens and you can't really control what comes in on the backs of a lot of this commercial activity. so one thing kim jung un can do is take credit and basically say

this is something of a cultural gift to his people. >> it sounds like that is precisely what he is doing. john park, thank you so much. top of the hour here. i'm brooke baldwin. instant issue in the election campaign. did the president propose another tax cut today or tax increase as republicans say? at the white house today you have mr. obama laying out this one-year extension of the already extended bush tax cuts for everyone who makes less than $250,000 a year. now, those above that numerical figure would see their taxes go up. and in the event of a deal, i should say in the event of no deal everyone's taxes would rise here. so here is the president anticipating a scathing gop reaction. >> we all say we agree we should extend the tax cuts for 98% of the american people. all right. everybody says that. the republicans say they don't want to raise taxes on the middle class. i don't want to raise taxes on the middle class. so we should all agree to extend

the tax cuts for the middle class. let's agree to do what we agree on. as we said before, we have heard the same thing exactly two years ago when the bush tax cuts were expiring for the first time. the difference here is an eltion year. dana bash is live for us on capitol hill and why now? why this debate now? >> there are lots of reasons. first and foremost that some democrats i talked to admit this is a change in focus. and a change that, understandably they want to put forward because the big economic issue we were talking about late last week was how the jobs report was so dismal and how the economy is just in a terrible place for the president. so he absolutely used the bully pulpit to talk about the issues they believe according to internal polling and public polling as well really benefits them the idea that middle class americans should get a tax extension and those who are wealthier should not.

and that is with the way that they want to frame the debate when it comes to the economy. >> you mention when it comes to this the polls are on his side. we pointed out today he has the public on his side. why might republicans think this is a winning issue for them? >> brooke, because they feel that history is on their side and that any time the discussions about tax cuts or more specifically tax hikes, any time they can paint democrats as wanting to raise taxes it's bad for democrats. and i just want to show you a quote from one of the top republicans to give you an illustration of how they're framing it on the republican side. this is from the number two republican jon kyl who said president obama's push to raise taxes on those earning more than $250,000 including 940,000 business owners, could not come at a worse time. friday's disappointing job numbers and the continuing crawl of economic recovery indicate job creators are still struggling yet the president would have these business owners pay more in