have sources in this city. >> i just spoke from someone inside aleppo and given me new information. >> let's start with that. >> you were showing and i like that map with the neighborhoods here because the very dire situation is happening in salahuddin right now. the people aren't able to get food or bread or fuel. >> that's what ivan was saying. >> if you can't get bread or those basics then you leave. >> if you can't you, out of desperation start breaking into stores. that's the situation with salahuddin right now. what's interesting about aleppo is there's a lot of contrast. there's this neighborhood where the situation is terrible for the people there and residents who are not, who don't want to be involved in the fight, they leave. you have other areas where

there's no fighting. it's tense and the people are hoping the fighting doesn't reach them but it's a very odd situation where there's, it's a bit of a schizophrenic picture here and then two kilometers away you have a major war zone. it is overall tense but very different from one neighborhood to the next. >> i was talking to ivan and i said who has the upper hand? i said it seems like the rebels have the upper hand. >> he said no. i wouldn't characterize it as the upper hand. >> they are taking over police stations, softer targets. from what i'm understanding from the people on the ground because what's hard for us so to get a birds eye view. we can get from one neighborhood to the other an idea of what's going on but it does, if you look at all these neighborhoods

but in many the rebels do control major arteries and major streets. these are local fighters. as i was telling you yesterday you hear from their accents, these are people from aleppo. they are in their own neighborhood. sometimes they are hit and run operations. you'll see them go into the old quarter, hold the street for an hour or longer. you'll see the video of that and it will appear as though they are occupying central aleppo but probably not. >> let's back up for a second. we've talked and i think it's important to reiterate that the geographic significance. you have lebanon, israel, jordan, iraq smack down in the middle is syria. >> this is the other side of the equation. you have iran on one side that is a friend of this assad regime

that wants to keep the country in its fear. making sure for them that the bashar assad regime goes down and doesn't have an ally is the most important thing at this point. they are making no secret of the fact they are helping the rebels. >> i just want to stay on the story. it's so important we're talking about syria and i appreciate you doing this every day with us. thank you. we're also tackling big stories, including this. who is the greatest threat to america? the folks in charge of keeping us safe are revealing the terror watch list. blackout across india. 6 600 million people, the

equivalent of two united states without power. booted from twitter. our coverage is it fair or foul? as comedians joke about congress, hear what lawmakers are doing or not doing just before their summer vacation.

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that said, here i go. michael phelps won the silver medal in 200 meter butterfly. this medal is number 18 for him overall. this now means he is tied the record for most medals ever. he's expected to swim for yet another medal later this hour as a member of the u.s. 200 free style relay team. if he medals there, he has the record. also, i'm going to talk to missy franklin. we'll talk to this stand out swimmer's high school swim coach. he's known her since she was seven. here is what i want to know. was there one moment when she was itty bitty that he realized she would be a swimming star. also, when twitter shuts down the account of one of its members, it's not national news but a journalist got the boot

and then he went a step further and tweeted out the e-mail address of one of executives of nbc sports apparently at twitter that's a no-no. they have re-instated his account saying the complaint, the person that issued the complaint has retracted. i talked to him just last hour and asks why he thought twitter shut him down in the first place. >> i didn't share someone's private e-mail address. i didn't share the address of their house or phone number. of course, online bullying is a very serious thing. i wouldn't want to share any information that could lead to anything that might represent a physical threat to anyone, at least of all an executive for nbc. i shared an e-mail address. e-mail is different from a phone call or sharing physical address. it's a very uninvasive means of

communication. >> guy adams speaking with me after back on twitter. the olympic tape delay as you outraged as well. you're flooding facebook and twitter. nbc ran a promo revealing missy franklin's win moments before airing her taped delay victory in that 100 meter backstroke race. why so much outrage. it's the same deal every four years. >> reporter: one of the most talked about upsets of the olympics so far may be michael phelps loss in the 400 individual medley. it happened saturday just before 3:00 p.m. eastern. nbc didn't broadcast the race until six and a half hours later. primetime in the u.s. >> i understand the old time business rationale for that but in the internet it's out moted.

we can talk about these things on twitter and twitter becomes a giant spoiler machine. >> reporter: the twitter verse lit up. more than 25,000 tweets with the hashtag nbc fail. 2500 in just one hour including can't believe michael phelps came in fourth again just like ten hours ago in the same event. and phelps lost nbc drrksulater. >> nbc gets hammered over this every four years. it's in a box. it pays billions of dollars for the right to carry the olympics and only makes money if it puts the most popular sporting events in primetime which means tape delay. >> reporter: primetime is where nbc makes its money. they charge $725,000 for a single 30-second spot. in a statement, nbc sports group

chairman said this audience number for the london opening ceremony is a great early sign that our strategy of driving people to watch nbc in primetime is working. the opening ceremony was the most watched in the history of the summer games. so was the first night of competition when phelps experienced the agony of defeat. nbc says it's live streaming hundreds of olympic events on the web. >> it's hard to find it. you got to go through a bit to sign up for it. >> reporter: what's the answer? do you just want to say come on and stop complaining? >> i think some of the people who are complaining on twitter maybe have a bit too much time on their hands. >> reporter: things likely won't change unless people flock to catch the games online instead of waiting for the primetime olympic experience. hospitals using generators. you see the candle here.

miners are stuck underground. trains not running. we're going to take you to india and explain how many people are out of power, next. ♪ [music plays] ♪ [music plays] ♪ [ male announcer ] its lightweight construction makes it nimble... ♪ its road gripping performance makes it a cadillac. introducing the all-new cadillac xts. available with advanced haldex all-wheel drive.

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have you been paying attention to what is happening in india? they have suffered a huge blackout. seven states totally in the dark. do the math. i'm talking 600 million, maybe 620 million people affected. i know that's just a number. really what hit, this is what hit it home for me. let's say you're looking at the world. this is just to put this number in context. imagine a black out that affects all of us here in the united states. add onto that central america and all of russia as well. that's 617 million people. that's just that northern part of india or another example is

imagine this massive power outage that affects all of eastern europe including russia here and the united states. that's about 609 million people. all in the dark. all at the same time and that's india right now. also this. you worry about the congress that they're doing. >> they're doing too good of a job. >> they need to take a break. they need to pat themselves on the back a little more. >> i love those guys. comedians. you know them. they're joking about congress but lawmakers are racing to get some things done before their big summer recess. also, republicans and democrats just reached a deal on something. it impacts every one of us. [ male announcer ] it's a golden opportunity...

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personal income rose last month, but you weren't spending those extra bucks. the commerce department says consumer spending in june was flat but income rose just half a percentage point. that's the best paycheck improvement since march. alison kosik has today's help desk. >> we're helping you plan for retirement. it's never too early to start. with me is liz miller. listen to this question. >> my question is regarding 401(k). i have one going now. i'm not sure what my target percentage should be that i'm

contributing that. i'm 30 years old now. in order to retire comfortably, what should i be trying to put away. >> isn't that the money question? >> it is. first of all, at 30 years old if you can afford to, you want to put the maximum in. it's great deferred income. it's proven to be a great long term investment for retirement. the second part is does your company make a match. i always tell young people goal one is to put enough aside to get the entire match your company might be giving to a 401(k) or call that an associated profit plan. you really want to save enough to hit that. at 30 years old if you can do it, max out that 401(k). >> should it be the only investment for people? a lot of people think i'm contributing, that's enough. >> you want to get the free money from the company, but then you might want to switch over to a roth because of the tax free benefit you get down your road. one day you'll have to pay the taxes and it might be at a higher rate. i love the idea of getting the

free money and switching to the roth and if you have money go back and fill up the rest of the 401(k) and put everything you can in there. >> if you have an issue you want our experts to tackle, upho loaa 30 second video. last time we checked americans had a pretty low opinion of congress. take a look at the numbers with me. a record low. 11% of americans gave congress a thumbs up when we asked them. 11%. i guess you'd count these two guys among that small minority. >> too good of a job. >> they need to take a break and pat themselves on the back. >> you don't have to be such straight shooters. you have a hard job. you don't have to be so honest. >> those are our concerns.

>> those are our concerns. >> those two guys spoke to cnn to promote their new movie. they will be live next hour. just a short time ago, senate majority leader harry reid did announce a deal to fund through next march. dana bash. i know this means we he not have another standoff as we did right before the all important november elections. >> that's right. this is first and foremost to avoid a government shutdown. the fiscal year ends september 30th. that's a month before election day. both sides want to avoid a prospect of a shutdown because it's really a jump ball politically who it would help or hurt. neither wants to take that risk so close to election day. a second reason they made this deal that won't be voted on until september is everyone realizes they will have a lot on their plate between now and the

election. the bush era tax cuts expire and the spending cuts have to be dealt with. >> they still have to vote on it but this still isn't the orderly fashion they are supposed to do these things. we were likening this to cheating on your homework. >> if that's true, there's a lot of cheating on your homework and it's been going on for decades. this is congress's main job. they need to fund the government. they are supposed to do that by passing a dozen spending bills but not getting their work done. it's not unusual. it happens under democratic and republican control. i want you to look at this. our producer allen did some research and digging. 15 years ago, 1997, was the last time congress funded the government without a stopgap measure. in the last years they agreed to a budget only three times.

you wonder why will ferrell have things to joke about. i'm going to a screening of that movie. >> very nice. i hear mr. blitzer has a cameo. >> i'm sure he does. >> have fun. i can't wait to see it myself. you e-mail and wrote letters, you made calls and they listened. consumer federation of america has just released its annual list of the top consumer complaints bill disputes and service problems with your phone, satellite, internet, electricity gas. the number five spot utilitieut. number four, retail sales. number three, few things made your blood boil more than unf unfinished jobs and shoddy work. what are the top two complaints? the answer on the other side of this break.

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the annual list ov top consumer complaints were released. you thought about this.

the top two here for a third year in a row, billing disputes. it's never fun. fees, mortgage related fraud and abusive debt collection tactics earned credit an debit cards the number two spot. the number one complaint is your car, autos. shopping for cars, going in for repairs. being sold lemons were among your biggest gripes. now forget the dorm room expenses. forget the spilled beer, frat parties, food in the college cafeteri cafeterias. florida may become the first state with an all online university. how does this work? >> that was all the fun. >> i loved the food in the ca cafeter cafeteria. >> this is a completely different idea. what the florida board of governors is trying to do is have this all online university and nickname it online u. what the state is trying to do is find way to make a more educated work force. it's tough to deal with budget cuts that make it so the state

can't afford to build these new school buildings. another option on the table includes pulling together some of the best online classes from other universities and making it available to everyone. there are critics saying with an all online university students lose that sense of belonging by getting an entire education online. they say alumni are less likely to make donations. people say students have come to expect online options and like the convenience tafactor. the discussions go on. >> online u. i've read about this before at other places. there are other schools offering classes online such as what? >> you name it. there are online universities. these classes online that you can take where you can take a class on obama care.

you like astro biology and even more traditional stuff. you can take off of these things from a new online education company that offers free online courses with some big name universities. this all started out at four schools with university of pennsylvania, stanford university and university of michigan and princeton. they are adding more of these big name universities like duke university. >> we don't utter the d word. excellent university. just down the road. thank you so much. here is phrase we have seen women and children first. in this case of a ship wreck i was about to say is that how it went down. hello again. it's been a while. >> it's been weeks. >> let's talk about this because

you read this article. you hear women and children first. the captain must go down with the ship. maybe not so. >> it appears wcf as the article says, women and children first only applies in the captain yells it then it is every man for himself. i read the entire article. national academy of sciences, you should have be there with me talking about 16 ship wrecks were women better, were kids better. >> in terms of survival rate. >> you might not believe the graphic because children only 15% and crew members 61%. are they just getting on first. they think crew members know better what to do than passengers. they have been trained. they know where to get the life jackets and how to go up and down. 44% for cap patains make it off where women and children don't.

since world war i it's gotten better. it appears that corsets and hoop skirts didn't float well. you would dress up. it appears the clothing was not good for swimming or survival. it may have taken them to the bottom of the ocean. >> those contraptions look awful. they would bring a gal down. >> the titanic was not normal considerations of voters. 70% of the women survived on the titanic. 20% of men survived on the titanic. that's not happened in any other ship wreck. >> i'm sure you would say brooke take the rescue boat. >> i'll take this floating board. $6 billion in aid for survivors of september 11. that's what one judge is saying. you will not believe who you

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$6 billion. from whom? not just al qaeda but iran, hezbollah, bin laden and the bi laden. a judge issued a default judgment since the defendants never responded. >> very happy. relieved and i felt some justice for michael and his death and everyone that we lost that day. >> trial attorney renee rockwell is live with me. welcome. >> thank you. >> this $6 billion, do you think there's any chance that these families will see a slice of that? >> the question is do they really want the money? the money would be nice but they wanted vindication. lawyers work, they put in their blood sweat and tears and they'd like to see a return at the end of the day. if assets can be located in the united states then they are seizable. this was a default judgment. you got to wonder maybe the government, maybe the parties

from the other side, the defendants did they really care. they did not even put up a fight? >> we're talking, how do you seize assets from hezbollah. are they seizable? >> no. the judgment is worth the paper. you're going to say give me the 6 billion dollar. if assets can be located in the united states there are ways to get that money. i would imagine that the lawyers will be trying to equiconnect t dots. is this an organization that's legitimate that's thriving in the united states or is this a facade and really part of bin laden's empire. >> if you're working with these families, what would you tell them? >> get a private investigator out and see if they can connect the dots like i said. i think that it's a pie in the sky. i think they wanted this case closed. there's a big judgment. i don't think at the end of the day you'll see anything. in the event somebody does

uncover some connections, don't forget homeland security is looking for that all the time in the realm of money laundering and weapon ships. it's not something that could never come to fruition. i would imagine that somebody will be interested in trying to get the big pay out at the end of the day. >> thank you so much. also, we need to mention that the u.s. government has nod found that iran or hezbollah has any involvement in the attacks on 9/11. iran has denied any link to that terror disaster either. mpblt she's becoming america's sweetheart. missy franklin winning gold medals and giving her hometown something to smile about. we're about to get a little dirt from her very, very proud high school swimming coach. joins me live, next. nah, he's probably got... [ dennis' voice ] allstate.

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american swimmer missy franklin is making pretty big waves even being called the female version of michael phelps. perhaps it's going to be he's the male version of missy franklin after this is said and done. franklin may just be getting warmed up. her high school swimming coach joins me live from denver. coach, welcome. i just want to tell everyone you may coach her now, but you met her when she was all of seven years old. i just wanted to know, do you remember the moment when you knew this young pupil of yours was destined for greatness?

sdp y s >> you could see a little spark? her. she wanted to get to the wall first and loved to race and was bubbling and having fun when she was a seven and eight years old. >> is there any moment when you said she's it? >> i think when she turned, when she was around 11 years old that's when things started to really spark. she started breaking national age group records and then qualifying for olympic trials at 12. i think that was a huge break out. >> at 12. i hear she's turned down some lucrative endorsement deals so she can compete at your high school. when i hear that i think that says a lot about her character. tell me what she's like when she's not smoking her competitors in the pool. >> i think missy is the person you see on the interviews and

camer cameras. it's a bubbling, high school teenager. she has fun. she enjoys life. she's out there and she's just an incredible person. what you see is what you get. >> you know, nick, i do hear, did a little homework on this swimmer of yours. i hear she is a huge bieber fan. he said heard she's a fan of mine. now i'm a fan of hers too. congrats and she retweeted and said i'm dying over there. i can't believe this. she's a little excited. be honest, what's more exciting the gold or the beebs? >> with her she's probably excited at the beeb. that's every teenager girl's dream, so is olympic gold. they are probably pretty good challenge for each other. >> she's a world champion swimmer. she's all of 17.

how do students at your high school, how do they feel about just sharing a pool or how do you think they will next swim season sharing a pool with a gold medallist? >> i think it's an incredible opportunity and they feel so fortunate. just to have missy around she's such a wonderful person and a team person that she's just great in the pool. she doesn't expect any special treatment or anybody else to treat her differently. she's wonderful with her friends and she just a great teammate. >> i know a lot of people by now know her story. they nowhere you're sitting is auro aurora, colorado. it's a city that's still reeling over that tragedy. how much does missy's win really mean for this city? >> you know, i think it just helps a little helps a little bit with maybe lessening the hurt and sorrow for the victims and maybe brings a little bit of a light of some

great things in the world. from such a positive person like missy dedicating her races to the victims of such a senseless act, i think, you know, especially coming from missy who i'm sure it really comes from her heart and it's just a wonderful thing and maybe brings some light in this world. >> i just love her smile. and i just have to remind myself this young woman is just 17. coach nick frasersmith, thank you so much. missy franklin's high school swimming coach. we appreciate it. >> great. thanks for having me. who is the greatest threat to america? the folks in charge of keeping us safe are revealing their new terror watch list. chile. this is the first leg of our world challenge with the cadillac ats. this is actually starting to feel real now. [ ross ] this is the perfect place to test the ats's advanced aerodynamics. [ derek ] we've got crosswinds, tailwinds, headwinds. aerodynamics is all about keeping the car planted on the road. you are going to get hit by stuff, so don't freak out. [ screaming with excitement ] and move out now.

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when it comes to grocery prices, we could be in for some pretty bad news here. nearly 30 states in disaster mode including iowa where christine romans is talking to a man in the midst of this drought

crisis. christine. >> reporter: brooke, the drought in the midwest is getting worse. all 99 counties here in iowa have been declared a disaster. this is a crop a real d disappointment for a lot of corn farmers who haven't seen something like this since 1988. neil has been farming for 12 years. this is your corn, neil, what happened to this plant? >> this whole field here ran out of moisture. the plant wanted to reproduce and start its pollination process to produce an ear of corn where we get our kernels of corn, and it never produced an ear because it ran out of moisture. so the plant decided i don't have enough water, i'm not going to make an ear. >> this is a shame because this is some of the richest farmland in the world. this is good black iowa dirt. three feet deep. and look at the cracks here. i mean, you just have not had enough rain. >> some of these cracks you can almost stick your arm down into. i've never seen that before. we expected a real good crop this year. the u.s. planted the most acres we've ever planted before. and now it may turn into one of the worst crops. >> reporter: after 1988 a lot of people tell me you have to have insurance in some cases.

so do you think farmers are going to be able to bounce back from this? >> well, farmers are very resilient. and we choose to do what we do. we're not asking for sympathy or empathy from anybody. crop insurance will help, but we don't know for sure whether we're going to trigger a loss. it's pretty variable. some fields are in decent shape. fields like this one are in pretty poor shape. time will tell. the problem is we have to pay for all these expenses to put a crop in months ago. now we might not collect much money from the crop itself. >> reporter: and you have all kinds of bugs and var mints that feed off of corn that's in distress. last year what yield would you get. >> over 200. >> reporter: what about this year? >> less than 50. >> reporter: brooke, we won't know what the yield will be until they pull this out of the ground maybe in four or six weeks they'll get in here with the combine. until then, what we do know, food prices will go up because this is stuff that runs so much of the processed food, so much

of the feed stock, the live feed for livestock, food prices will be going up, brooke. >> and this will affect each and every one of us. christine romans, thank you so much in iowa. and al qaeda is not what it once was, but it affiliates are on the move. i want to talk about the terror report here with elise labott. elise, osama bin laden is gone, of course. so what is the status of al qaeda according to the state department? >> reporter: well, brooke, what the state department says is that the blow from the death of osama bin laden and other key operatives in pakistan and al qaeda, core as they say the main al qaeda, makes the group a lot weaker although it still tries to plan attacks in pakistan and against u.s. troops in afghanistan. what they say is these so-called affiliate groups, not necessarily belonging to al qaeda but affiliated with, sympathetic with, get some kind

of operational guidance from al qaeda, are growing in strength particularly in the middle east. you have al qaeda in the arab peninsula, which is in the gulf. and yemen, which was responsible for that underwear bombing in 2009. and those cargo attempted cargo plane attacks in 2010. and then you have al qaeda in the north africa and al sha bab in somalia. so the smaller groups are harder to track and don't necessarily work in the countries they're operating, but seems they're trying to target u.s. interests around the world. a lot more dangerous now the affiliates. >> yeah. you know, we've covered extensively the arab spring, these popular uprisings throughout the middle east. what kind of effect have those revolutions had on these groups? >> reporter: well, it has a huge effect, brooke, because in all of these countries you have political instability. and that's what gives terrorist the safe haven. in egypt for instance the sanai,

the border between israel and egypt we've been reporting on is increasingly unstable. and secretary clinton in an interview last week told me that this could become an operational base for jihadist. you have yemen operating very intensely. and also other groups in north africa working and taking advantage of this political instability, particularly in syria. >> speaking of syria, what about the violence and the instability? i've been reading -- we talked to former cia operatives infiltrating i know the operation in syria, i was talking to jim clancy worrying about hezbollah coming out of iran here. how worried should we be about that? >> reporter: well, state department says very worried because you had al qaeda in iraq, u.s. troops left and still operating in iraq. but now they're moving over to syria, taking advantage of the instability there. you had some attacks that the u.s. and other countries believe

could be the work of al qaeda and what president bashar al assad is saying he's fighting terrorists. and the concern is that some of these groups are trying to infiltrate the legitimate operation groups. and so you don't really know who to arm, who to help because they're really infiltrating these groups and making it a lot more difficult for the u.s. and others to know who they're dealing with. it's a very concerning situation for the state department. >> right. elise labott, foreign affairs correspondent, elise, thank you so much. finally here, it does seem a system that better detects roadside bombs would be the military's top choice, so why isn't it? this is what a republican congressman wants to know. congress duncan hunter says the urgently asked this and the requests were denied. ordered destroyed after knowing the effectiveness. hunter now wants a congressional inquiry into this. now to my colleague, joe johns,

sitting in for wolf today. "the situation room" begins right now. hey, joe. happening now. one last stop, one last gaffe. mitt romney's overseas trip has the obama campaign snickering. also rick santorum snowed mitt romney's nomination, how far will he go to win the white house? will ferrell and zach galifianakis are with us like to talk about their new movie. wolf blitszer is off. i'm joe johns. you're in "the situation room." right now mitt romney's on his way home from an overseas trip his campaign is calling a great success even though it generated embarrassing headlines at every stop. latest came today in poland when

one of romney's top aides cursed at reporters asking questions. one of them was our jim acosta, who joins us from warsaw. jim, what happened today that the romney team sounds upbeat despite all that's been going on? >> reporter: well, joe, a senior romney advisor told reporters here in warsaw that mistakes do happen out on the campaign trail. but when asked what mistakes were made on this overseas trip, that advisor couldn't name any. instead the campaign says the world got to hear from a candidate who they say speaks from the heart. it's the image mitt romney has wanted voters to see for the last week. the gop contender walking tall on the world stage here visiting poland's tomb of the unknown soldier and later praising the soviet black country for escaping the iron curtain. >> i and my fellow americans are inspired by