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search warrants in hand. will they find any evidence that sheds light on how the pop star died. only one republican supported sonia sotomayor's nomination to be a supreme court justice. will more republicans support her when the entire senate votes? president obama is putting aside what he calls distractions and focusing on health care reform. he has to tackle skyrocketing costs to convince the skeptics. homeowners across the nation desperate for good news. good tuesday everyone. i'm melissa francis. this is my better half. >> i like to hear that. i'm contessa brewer of msnbc. glad you're here. frnlth it's the economy. it could an effect an estate worth billions, the michael jackson case. right now things look pretty grim for dr. conrad murray, michael jackson's personal

physician. >> police sources tell msnbc news murray administered a powerful sedative, propofol to jackson the morning he died. now police are executing search warrants at his home and office. >> drug enforcement agents entered murray's home in a gated community a few hours ago. let's get to jeff rossen who is following the story. >> reporter: been a lot of questions about where dr. conrad murray is. minutes ago i got off the phone with an official from the las vegas metro police who confirms to nbc news that conrad murray was at home in las vegas when they came in to execute that search warrant. we're told they're looking for documents and possibly computers, though the search warrant is sealed. it's unclear exactly what they're pulling out. they are at dr. conrad murray's home in las vegas inside a country club, a gated community, just a few miles away from the vegas strip and also his office. he has offices in houston and las vegas. as you know and remember from that video from last week, dea

agents and local police searched his houston office just last week. now the lapd and federal agents are back here in las vegas to execute this. he is at the center of this criminal investigation according to court papers, a manslaughter investigation, though no charges have been filed yet. his lawyer maintains that he did nothing wrong, that he did not administer anything to michael jackson that would have killed him, though nbc news has learned through law enforcement sources that dr. conrad murray did supply michael jackson and administer propofol to michael jackson on the very day he died. and the ap is reporting that michael jackson had been using propofol, that's diprivan -- commonly known as diprivan -- to go to sleep. basically he'd go on this iv overnight and wake him up by taking him off the iv in the morning without being monitored which is extremely dangerous. >> dr. murray's lawyer when he said the doctor hadn't given

michael jackson anything that should have killed him. a very careful use of words there. jeff, i know you're staying on top of this. appreciate that. i still have big questions about this story here. what's going to happen to dr. murray? was michael jackson doctor shopping, looking for professionals to give him what he wanted. are concierge doctors -- >> is that what we're calling them now? >> apparently that's what they are. they're people that get hired out to the biggest bidder. >> this is what health care has come to. >> are they at more risk legally than regular physicians? >> to answer these questions, let's bring in susan filan, former prosecutor. let's look at the business of concierge doctors. first of all, they seem like they're putting themselves seriously at risk. he could conceivably go to jail. >> up until now it's been pretty difficult to level any kind of a manslaughter charge against a doctor. but in this case, this may prove to be the exception.

what we would be looking at here is an involuntary manslaughter charge. the basis for that would be some kind of act that was so risky and known to be so risky to this doctor that he should have known, that he shouldn't have done what he did and didn't advise his patient of that risk. in other words, he didn't do it on purpose, didn't do it intentionally. what he did was so risky that it caused his death. the key is what did cause the death of michael jackson. until we know that, all of this is speculation. >> so if the propofol did not contribute to michael jackson's death. if the toxicology reports don't seem to indicate that, is there still any liability for dr. murray for having administered what in essence is an anesthesia that really should only be used, experts say, in the a hospital in an operating room. >> it would be difficult to justify why you would use this at home. >> it's not prescribed for home use ever. >> the word that they used was contribute. the word i used was caused.

if the diprivan contributed to the debt, what else caused it? if it was a distributing factor and something else the doctor gave contributed, and it was combination that caused, he's still on the liability hook. >> as a bigger issue, here you have the celebrity. it happens all the time. celebrities want to surround themselves with yes people. they choose friends, get rid of family who are willing to stand up and say no, they only want assistants and professionals around them who is going to say yes. in this case, if you're a celebrity people, if you're a concierge doctor, are you at more risk because your only boss is also your patient? >> look, if you are basically a street corner drug dealer with two letters after your name, m.d., you are potentially inasmuch trouble as that drug dealer that we routinely bust on the street corners. i think things are going to change after this case. >> all right.

what's the least that happens to someone like this? wouldn't he lose his license to practice medicine? isn't that kind of the risk as well if you're going to be a concierge doctor of this type? >> risks are lawsuits, loss of license, dea action, law enforcement action, criminal liability, civil liability and certainly what about his reputation. i think this is a wake-up call, not only to the celebrities, but to the public in general, that if you're going to doctor shop, you may want to have somebody else with a check and a balance in place to make sure that what you think you want is actually in your best interest. >> that's a great point. >> but again, people who are -- have malignant narcissim, they don't want anyone to counter them. they want to do what is best for them. always good to have you, susan. let's get a check of the economic headlines. general electrics say profits are improving this year but losses from bad loans stemming from the credit crisis will continue into 2010.

the second time this year ge, our parent company, has opened the books to investors wary of the struggling unit's financial help. melissa, i know you have a lot of perspective on that. >> bank of america plans to down size. "wall street journal" reports the largest u.s. bank is planning on shrinking the company's 6,100 branch networks about 10%. a private research group says consumer confidence is slipping this month. worries about the job market caused confidence, the index to fall to 46.6%, nearly four points lower than last month. once again, president obama is making a public push for his health care reform plan. >> he's holding a tell-it town hall for members of the aarp, the retirement group. one of the biggest issues facing seniors is what it costs at the end of your life. they're staggering.

aarp is a powerful lobbying group. let's bring in john harwood. why does he think it's important on this particular issue of health care to bring in the seniors. >> reporter: he hasn't been talking about those end-of-life issues. that's one of the big issues in the backdrop of the health care debate. seniors are a large voting constituency. they went for john mccain, not barack obama. they're very at tuned to health care issues. one of the challenges for the president is convincing people who already have health care that they ought to support what he's doing. seniors tend to be relatively satisfied with their health care. what he's been talking about so far is those assuring folks on the tele-town hall, people are talking about taking mon any from medicare, that's for providers, not beneficiaries. he has to mount a public campaign now that this drive to get something through the house and senate by the august recess has shifted into a lower gear. >> john, the issue that has

taken center stage here is this idea of only spending money on health care practices that are deemed effective. and you know, it's come up that for seniors later in life you might look at different procedures that say that's not considered effective, maybe only has a 30% chance of working. >> he's talking about giving hip surgery to a 90-year-old who has thunderstorm nall cancer. >> but if it's you or your grandmother and you would have gotten that service before, obviously by cutting it, that's going to make a lot of people unhappy. this is the flash point right now, isn't it, john? >> there is no question about it, melissa. by the way, my mom had hip surgery two days ago. mom, hope you're feeling better. >> did you know that? >> this is why it is so difficult. the president himself has raised this about his own grandmother. she had terminal cancer, she had a hip replacement near the end of her life. who is going to say no to barack obama's grandmother or your grandmother or my grandmother? it's a tough issue that

politicians aren't talking about even though it's a huge part of the cost problem. >> forbes.com has this article that talks about how much we spend. medicare it says spends $100 billion each year on the patient's final year of life, $100 billion for that final year of life. and some of these key points in the house bill would say to patients, all right, you need to be informed about how to write your advanced care directive. that is, do you want to be resuscitated or not? should they use a feeding tube? they want people to be instructed how not to prolong their lives. >> who is going to choose to do that? >> what you're describing there is how everyone tiptoes around this issue. i was at a health care seminar in madison, wisconsin, a couple months ago and talked to politicians in both parties. who is going to say no to that elderly grandmother? all the politicians said, not me. the question is whether health

care practitioners themselves can bubble up best practices and comparative effectiveness studies and use those to change diagnosis and implementation. i wouldn't be too optimistic that's going to happen any time soon. >> a lot of people are worried about what the implication is for this. >> john harwood, thank you so much for joining us. we appreciate it. coming up, are democrats worried a delay in health care will give opponents a chance to regroup and perhaps a delay could mean demise. up next, a senator on the health care committee answers our questions. fresh signs the housing market is on the mend. does this mean your house sitting on the market could sell soon. we'll tell you why in a live report. how do you keep people paying their gym memberships in hard times? >> hard times. >> that's bad. you said it. i didn't. why are some american cities getting the similar lus money to pay to keep cops on the street? find out where the money won't be going. it's the economy right here on msnbc. - ( microphone feedback ) - whoa. hi, i'm john.

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here is a look at your money minute on wall street at this hour. right now the dow is trading lower on the day, down 31 points. the s&p is down as well. if nasdaq positive. negative earnings out this morning. consumer sentiment not so great. traders not in a positive mod right now. not terrible, though. had a big rally along the way. we'll give back 31 points. that's okay. >> we need an optimistic outlook. judge sonia sotomayor is on track to become the first hispanic justice on the supreme court. >> the senate judiciary committee voted to approve

sotomayor 13-6 this morning sending her nomination to the full senate. senator lindsey graham was the only republican on the committee to side with the democrats. >> yoining us democratic senator tom carper. senator, when it comes to a full senate vote, do you think you'll see more republicans joining with the democrats to support sonia sotomayor's confirmation? >> i certainly hope so. i expect that will be the case. habit half dozen years ago former president bush nominated john roberts to be our chief justice of the supreme court. i along with 21 other democrats voted for him. i think judge sotomayor brings a lot to the table. good student, won a scholarship to princeton, yale law school. ended up as a litigator, prosecutor. spent more time on the federal bench as a district court judge and appeal court judge than i think anybody in the last 100 years who has been nominated to serve on the supreme court. a lot of people tried to trip her up during the hearings in the last couple weeks.

she came through it all just flawlessly. a great choice. my hope is a number of people will join senator graham in voting for her. >> senator, i want to turn your attention to health care for a moment. the ap reported monday night that the senate finance committee is close to striking a five-partisan compromise on the bill. it doesn't include a public option or call for employer health care mandate. what do you think about that? is it too watered down for your taste? >> this is hard to get done because it's a bipartisan bill. what passed the house is not what came out of the health education labor committee, not a bipartisan bill. that slows it down. the president wants a bipartisan bill. i want a bipartisan bill. the president said he won't sign a bill that increases the budget deficit. he says he will not sign a bill that doesn't reduce the cost. with respect to the public option, the important thing is we have something in the legislation to make sure the competitive forces work, market

forces work. it can be a public plan, something we kau cooperatives, a full dash back plan that we pull off the shelf. >> a bill that doesn't include a public option, is that okay with you? >> as long as we have a mechanism or several mechanisms in the legislature to hold the feet of the private sector to the fire to make sure the competitive forces work, i think having the medicare prescription drug program with 90% approval by seniors and coming underbudget the last four years. >> it makes it an easy target for the republicans. they're basically mocking the democrats for trying to rush through on this and saying, and this was on the house side, basically the republicans have an easy case to make when they say it does nothing to ameliorate the underlying cause of why so many people in our nation can't get health care, and that is it costs too much, and it keeps growing at exponential rates. >> if you look at a number of places around the country, mayo clinic, cleveland clinic where

the president was last week, intermountain health care in utah, kaiser permanente in northern california, they deliver better results for less money. they have a number of things in common. they focus on primary health care, two, they focus on coordinating the delivery of that health care, number three they focus on not fee for service, but focus on the patient, not on the quantity of service, but quality of service. all the patients have electronic health records. somewhere a pretty good idea as to what's working to reign in health care costs. what we need to do in our legislation and in the future is emulate that to incentivize more of that. >> senator, thanks so much for joining us today. we appreciate it. home sales may not be what they were a year ago but are on the rise in some parts of the country. >> sa new report shows may home prices with the first monthly rise since the summer of 2008. let's bring cnbc's diana olick.

i've heard no less than five people trying to press you on a bottom on the market. have you caved in. >> it's not a question if i cave in. it's not my job to make the news, not to call my news. if you want to talk about prices, i'm e' happy to do that. >> tell us about prices. >> this is a positive report. no question about it. you're seeing these month to month increases. there are see sobl factors in home prices. historically prices always go up in the spring time. i could explain to you why. i has to do with who is buying homes. that's why year over year is much more important. that said, we are for four months in a row seeing those analyzed year-over-year price drops improving. if you remember back in the fall -- >> wait. when you say you're seeing those price drops improving. >> less worth. as in they were down at record levels, 18%, 19%. every time we got on tv every month we were saying it's

another record price drop. guess what? no records in the past four months. the price drop now for the 20-city composite was 17%. last month it was down 18%. so we're improving on the downside. >> getting worse less quickly? >> right. >> gotcha. that's not really much of a silver lining. >> well, it is. it definitely is. seeing that price improvement is important. prices always lag behind sales. we're seeing sales improving. as long as prices keep coming in the upward direction, no, we're not going to see positive prices, not going to see appreciation any time soon. at least we're not in free fall anymore. >> if you're in a valley you have to come up the other side. you're still below -- you're going up. >> she didn't say we're going up. >> yeah, from a negative. >> a second derivative. we're going to draw it after the show. >> looking at the glass in a different way. >> thank you diana olick. we appreciate it. >> i'm going to get a lesson after the show. >> we'll do calculus. do some second derivative work. we'll have wine when we do it.

it will be great. let's talk about houses. a home explosion in northern kentucky. a security camera across the street caught the whole thing. firefighters say the home which was vacant was blown about 20 feet into the air. they think a gas leak is to blame. >> developing story we're following, federal authorities searching for another member of the north carolina group charged with plotting violent jihad overseas. details ahead. scary new research on why you better put your cell phone or blackberry away before you get behind the wheel. what to do if your bank doesn't give you a loan. you could raise the roof in protest like one guy. we'll see him just ahead on "it's the economy." it with memberships and fees. but not walmart. they have hundreds of generic prescriptions for just $4 for up to a 30-day supply and no gimmicks. save money. live better. walmart. could save 'em hundreds on car just telinsurance.e geico

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federal prosecutors say one member of a north carolina group that sought to wage violent jihad is still at large. won't say who he is or where he might be. seven others are already in

custody. police say the group was plotting terror attacks overseas. >> daniel patrick boyd, the 39-year-old drywall contractor is accused o of being the ringleader. he trained in afghanistan and fought in the '80s and '90s. two of his sons were also arrested. for every $7.00 the departments requested, only $1.00 was approve. new york, houston, seattle and pittsburgh are among those getting no cash because the justice department decided other cities needed it more, cities like kalamazoo, michigan. a new study suggests texting while driving can be just as dangerous as drinking and driving. honestly, do we need a study to tell us that? >> no. i still do it, though. >> what? >> it's terrible. i shouldn't admit that. >> no, you shouldn't. >> i know. >> this is how bad it is. maybe if i tell you this, you'll stop. the virginia tech transportation institute observed truck drivers, professionals who

should know better, over more than six million miles. they're finding when you text, you tend to take your eyes off the road longer, making the risk of a crash 23 times more likely. if you're just dialing your cell phone, it's six times more likely. >> as opposed as sitting there trying to type on teeny little buttons. >> don't you think when you're getting ready to do that, this is super dangerous? >> i'm usually at a light. i'm going to stop doing it contessa, i swear. i'll never do it again. when we return, is the recession over? i think it is for me now. maybe for some. will it affect you? we'll take a closer look. the daring lengths some gyms go to to get their members in. >> this is a good story. >> what if someone suggested you would look better naked? would that get you into the gym and also to shell out $30, $60

for a membership. >> a lot more than that. >> in manhattan at least.

it's the economy on msnbc. i'm contessa brewer. i had a quick b calculus primer at the commercial break. >> i'm melissa francis of cnbc. first let's take a look at where the markets are trading. dow jones industrial average coming back a little bit. it's lower, but not as low. >> actually that's not. but so close. >> s&p is down a little more than two points. the nasdaq is up eight. not bad. ready for things you can understand now? a sports club working on ways to get you working out. they want you to shell out the big bucks for their membership fees even though times are tough and money is tight. so they've got these creative ads to lure you, entice you. >> i saw the ads. it's going to work. i'm definitely signing up. the latest on the michael jackson case now that police are investigating his personal

doctor. it is a big business. today the senate judiciary committee voted 13-6 in favor of confirming sonia sotomayor for the nation's highest court. >> one lone republican, south carolina's lindsey graham gave sotomayor a thumbs up. here is what lindsey graham told her during the confirmation hearing. >> we're 200-something years old as a nation. this is the first latina woman in the history of the united states to be selected for this supreme court. now that is a big deal. >> here is what graham said today. well, we're going to work on getting that sound to you. let's go to pete williams who has been watching the hearings all day. any idea what lindsey graham said today? >> yes, after he said that. he said if she will inspire young women, particularly latina

women, this would be a good thing america has changed for the better with her selection. he also said he does not agree with the other republicans on the committee that she would let her own personal biases and prejudices influence her decision. that seemed to be what this debate or discussion was today as they voted, as you say, along a party line vote with one exception to confirm her or to send her confirmation to the full senate for a vote which will probably come next week. and then the question is how many republican senators will she get? five have already said she'll vote for her. it does seem quite clear she'll be confirmed. >> what are some of the other republicans saying, pete? >> i thought one of the most interesting comments came from charles grassley of kansas who said he voted for david suitor, the justice that she would replace. but he says he's always regretted that vote for suitor. he said during the hearing he's had the same pit in his stomach about voting for her as he would

for suitor and he hoped the suitor problem, as he put it would be cured when justice suitor retired from the court. now he says he's not so sure if sotomayor gets confirmed. >> pete, thank you. >> you bet. a big jump in home construction. stock market up 40% since march. "newsweek" magazine says the recession is over. if they say it, maybe it's a sign it's really -- >> it's ooh jinx, like when you put the sports team on the front of "sports illustrated" and say this is the best team ever, that's a sure-fire jinx. unemployment is a big problem for many americans. it doesn't matter if we're out of a recession or not if you're out of of of work. you work for business week, you must think the "newsweek" thing is a jinx. >> whenever i pair with you i say i have a face only a mother could love. >> do radios have mothers? >> is the recession over? >> the recession, the loss might well have abated.

the worst of the wildfire last year and this year might be over. that doesn't mean we're regenerating anything. the problem as you see in that story and economists including ben bernanke and the obama administration is we don't have a story, nothing to hang our hats on. what is it we do anymore? if it isn't internet innovation or mortgage alchemy. >> it requires the pioneer spirit that made our country a giant in the first place. there is a chance -- >> where are we going with te a contessa? >> if we look at what we export, we know it can't be what we did in the past. other countries can make the products cheaper. what about green technology which we're going to need? the world requires to use our resources more efficiently? why aren't we creating incredible batteries and windmills -- >> is there a market for that? >> if you build it, they will come. what do you think, robin?

>> there's a legislativer of hope that that can recharge the spirits and get people thinking about green economic thinking. going back to this daniel gross story, touting a competitor's piece here, he made a great point in that the clinton administration when it convened the economic task force, the word internet was not mentioned once according to larry summers and other people. it tends to come out of the blue and blind side you. we don't necessarily know how premeditated we want to be. it's going to come out of left field in all likelihood. what we do know is we have silicon valley, so do the chinese and the israelis. >> if you look at the '70s, the green movement was very strong there because there was an oil embargo, gas prices went really high. it made it more lucrative to think about using our resources more efficiently. if we're out there begging the saudis to give us their oil --

>> we're not begging right now. prices are much lower. that's kind of the problem, that prices have fallen. >> now we're begging them to buy our debt. either way, where is the big thinking on what gets us to move to the next generation of exports? >> it could happen from an innovation. we could have an unbelievable car or battery come out of left field or necessity could be the mother of invention the way we saw $4.00 gasoline cause a real curtailment of consumption. it's going to happen one way or another. >> let's take it back to a more basic level. friday we have the big gdp number, the first look at that that will shape discussion for a while after that. what do you think is going to happen? are we going to see another contraction? >> even if we're a couple of fractions, a couple basis points down, it is freezing cold comfort for an economy approaching 10% unemployment. we need almost 10% gdp growth to keep up the pace we're at already. >> is it going to kill the rally we've seen in the market.

>> the market is up tremendously since the march 9th lows. >> huge, 40%. >> we haven't seen, as you know following this all the time, there is no revenue growth. this has all been a function of cost cutting. the hope is something catches fires and companies start selling more so they can bank to the bottom line. hope springs eternal. >> all right roben. thank you, thank you. main street versus wall street now. news about the price of oil. the commodities futures trading commission says speculators played a huge role in the oil supplies spike. >> a complete reversal from the earlier commission. today they're holding hearings on the role of big money traders, speculators in commodity trading. last year this very same commission blamed oil prices, the spike of them on the supply and demand. they say that was based on deeply flawed data. the hearing will be determined to determine what will curb trading. this show is about the

economy. things got better for one guy. call him the king of queen. 49-year-old new york city transit worker from jamaica is a mega millionaire because he won the lottery. aubrey boyce came forward to claim his $133 million prize. lump sum comes out to $54.6 million. better to be lucky than to be good. >> that's true. are you shocked by the amount of tax he pays on that? taxes are enormous. it's crazy. >> probably going to get worse before it gets better. if you're pinching pennies, tough dilemma here. you can pay for your gym membership and give your wallet a workout. ditch the gym. you can run outside, right? >> some sports clubs are relying on a time-honored tradition to lure people into the gym, sexy, steamy ads. >> look at david barton gym. look at that? can we put that up full screen?

>> they're trying. >> steve, you're teasing us with it. >> if you hire one of their trainers, here is the rub, so to speak, you don't have to pay for a membership. >> now we can see it. hello. >> here we have artistic nuns looking at a heavenly body. this is equinox. this is really about art. it's not about, you know, i don't know -- >> sex. >> abs. >> new york sports club wants you to know -- -- wants to know what do you want to do better? and the suggestive -- oh, my. >> she's blinded by the naked body. >> i'm getting old. >> does this make you want to get on a treadmill? >> i'm confused. >> this makes it look like you can work out without leaving the house. >> this looks like an advertisement for a totally

different product, maybe a little blue pill. when "it's the economy" returns, more on the new developments in the michael jackson case. switching gears dramatically here. police searching the las vegas home and office of jackson physician, dr. conrad murray. desperate times call for desperate measures. how one small business owner hit the roof to prevent his business from going under. we know why we're here. to design the future of flight, inside and out.

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dr. conrad murray caught in the cross hairs of the michael jackson investigation. will he face criminal charges? big question there. back in march there were two doctors who treated anna nicole smith. they were charged with conspiracy in her death. >> who is really at fault? celebrities have the means to hire people to surround them and give them exactly what they want all the time. is doctor shopping making it impossible for physicians to uphold the hippocratic oath.

courtney writes a scoop column for msnbc.com. good to see you. when we're talking about dr. conrad murray, how likely is it that he was part of a bigger operation on the part of michael jackson. not only to doctor shop but people shop. to surround himself with people who would give him what he thought he need snd. >> i think it's interesting to try to look at that big picture, how pervasive is it in the medical community for these sorts of operations, for lack of a better word, to take place where you're sort of bending the rules a little bit. it's difficult to blame a doctor in many cases because if it isn't a certain class of substance, there's a lot of latitude in what you can prescribe and how to prescribe it. talking about propofol, for example, it's not illegal to write a prescription for it and get it. but it's highly unusual to do it outside the confines of a hospital or a clinic. so there's a strange gray area

where you can look at somebody's -- a physician's behavior and say, all right, that wasn't criminal, per se, but why are you doing that? that's the question that's not being asked. >> it's especially difficult to justify in this case what could he possibly have needed it for under a medical definition. then you say why would would a doctor do that? >> because they're getting paid cash. it's a good client to have. it comes down to a business decision. there's a lucrative industry, and i think when we've been talking about health care so much, we've been talking about there is an option for some people who can't afford it to have these on-call physicians, on-call access. the question is that really a good thing? the extension of that. the greater degree is what you see in so many celebrities having that access all the time. >> there's a reason as a regular person that you can't walk into a pharmacy and buy whatever prescription drug you want? >> in this case the allegation is he was using this as a sleep aid. basically when he wanted to go

to sleep he was using propofol. when he wanted to wake up, they would turn off the iv drip. >> at the end of the day there are recommendations. where there aren't laws there are recommendations. you don't get in trouble for not following the recommendations. how many times do you take more than a recommended dose of tylenol? you can die from that, too. >> we'll see what's happening with this investigation. courtney, thank you. coming up at the top of the hour, the big picture of the man who takes down republican congressmen to ask them if they believe the president was born in the united states. that's live on the big picture. facing foreclosure. how about holding a bake sale. how one divorced mother of three turned to her inner martha stewart to save her house. you're watching "it's the economy" right here on msnbc. so now we've turned her toffee into a business. my goal was to take an idea and make it happen. i'm janet long and i formed my toffee company through legalzoom.

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"it's the economy" on msnbc.

the owner of an ohio carpet retail chain says he's going to live on the roof of his store. >> al smith says the loan he was approved -- keeps gets pushed back. then he was told he wouldn't get the money at all. now he says he's taking a stand for all the business owners who can't get credit in spite of the bailout. >> just trying to generate some publicity for all the small business owners. because i have some friends in the same boat that have lost their homes and everything. >> al says he's already closed five of his stores, laid off 30 employees. if he doesn't get the loan he could lose hisry maining two outlets. >> see if that gets him closer to getting the loan. let's get real. a story that takes the cake. a new jersey woman facing foreclosure on her home. what does he do? she bakes apple cakes. >> angela logan was trying to sell enough cakes at $40 to make an important payment on the t neck house she's called home for

20 years. >> angela joins us in the studio. >> with these cakes, did you make the important payment on your house? >> absolutely. last thursday i made the payment and sent in the mortgage documents. >> how many cakes have you been able to sell? >> well -- god, i baked at least 200 cakes since i started baking a couple weeks ago. >> tell us how you came up with the idea. it's a cute story. >> well, we were going into foreclosure. we were in foreclosure. >> that's not the cute part. >> no. the cute part is my kids thought we could use the cake to pay the mortgage. we called it mortgage apple cakes. we decided to use this cake to keep us out of foreclosure. i called all my friends to say would you please buy a cake. i'm trying to sell 100 cakes in ten days, by day five or six i had sold 42 cakes. friends and family came and

bought them. >> for how much each? >> $40 apiece. >> how did you come up with the price? >> i looked online to see what they were selling cakes for. my ingredients are better than that. i'm going to sell for a little less. >> it's interesting because melissa and i like talking to people who find a way to reinvent themselves to make money happen, to figure out how to survive tough times. i understand the city, when they found out your story, not so happy. what did they -- you had officers actually coming to your home. >> yes, i did. fortunately -- >> not a commercial baking space. >> right, right. the hilton hotel stepped in and they helped -- they gave me a kitchen to break in. we had so many orders that we couldn't fulfill. break me a wish came in and became the distributors of the cake. we got up to over 500 orders. break me a wish is going to fulfill the orders. we want everyone to know we will get them a cake.

i baked 42 cakes this weekend. break me a wish is hoping to deliver. locally, zoe's break shop, you can pick up from sew's pick shop on cedar lane, a non-profit that hires young women to work who have babies, teenagers. >> there are so many government programs out there right now to help people in their homes, to keep them out of foreclosure. did you try and apply? >> i applied for make me affordable four months ago. it took so long that that was a part of the problem. i was hanging on by my fingernails. things got worse and worse and worse. when they finally said okay, we're going to give you this package and a three-month trial period, i was like oh, my god, we have no money right now. what are we going to do? i stood up in my class and asked friends. i told them my situation about the fiasco with the construction, with the agent taking the money and closing shop because they're having a hard time, too. and people just said, i'll buy a cake. my friends said i'll buy -- my

friends came to my door to buy cakes. >> because there are so many families who for whatever reason end up in the same spot where they're looking at the foreclosure notices and wondering how am i going to keep a roof over my children's head. do you think there's a lesson about being creative and not sticking to the comfortable path, choosing a road less traveled in order to make it work? >> let somebody know you're having trouble. it's like stone soup. everybody came in and contributed. the story of stone soup where everybody was starving in the town. like our town, a lot of people are having a hard time. let somebody know and with the stone soup, somebody said i'm making stone soup. somebody said well, i have a karat, i have this, i have that. i have a piece of meat. after awhile they were able to feed the whole town. i think this is the kind of thing that has happened with this situation, that people saw that i admitted i was having a problem. i told them i needed help.

i said i have something to offer. maybe people have something to offer. let people know and say i need help. so many people need help. they say we understand and that's what happened. >> she's going to come up with $20, i'm going to come up with $20. now i have to taste the apple cake. that's it for this edition of "it's the economy." >> donny deutsche is in for david schuster who will pick up things next. they'll have the man who chased down the truth on the so-called birther. police now searching the las vegas home of jackson's personal physician, dr. conrad murray. th. ♪ it's astonishingly flexible. ♪ unbelievably soft. ♪ and has an amazing material... that's 4x more absorbent than you may need. making fluids seem to... poof... disappear. just like magic.

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