defending his father. levy was found murdered in a washington park. although another man is on trial for that crime, chad condit tells nbc his father was also punished by all the speculation. >> it was too good of a story to pass up, so to speak. a congressman, a disappearance, sex, murder, and people ran with that. but from day one gary and my sister and i said gary didn't do anything. he had nothing to do with the disappearance of chandra levy. >> there are new doubts today about the guilt of a texas man executed during then governor george w. bush's term. ten years ago, claude jones was executed for the killing of a liquor store owner. now a dna analysis on a hair from the crime scene found it did not belong to jones. in fact, the hair may have come actually from the victim. they're continuing to look into that case. new developments in the

democrats' interparty debate over whether to extend the bush tax cuts for people making more than $250,000 a year and to compromise with republicans. most democrats want tax cuts extended for the middle class only. before heading to japan after the g-20 summit, president obama left some wiggle room. >> my number one priority is making sure that we make the middle class tax cuts permanent. i continue to believe that extending permanently the upper income tax cuts would be a mistake and that we can't afford it. and my hope is that somewhere in between there we can finds some sort of solution. >> there's been a backlash since white house senior adviser david axelrod signaled a compromise saying we have to deal with the world as we find it. but even agreeing to a tax cut extension for the richest

americans would not be the end of it. the question then becomes for how long. joining us now joy ann reed, nicole kurakowa. the president has said he doesn't want to permanently extend the tax cuts for the wealthy but it does seem, ari, he's leaving the door open. >> clearly leaving it open. david axelrod is using broad language, deal with reality. we all have to agree on that but what is the reality? one reality is that you get the economy moving most by doing middle and lower income tax cuts because when people get that money they spend it. people who make millions you have give them a check for $500 or $2,000 doesn't make a big difference. the economic arguments are not on the side of compromising. i think it's weird to do all this signaling. the white house as you know complains a lot about media coverage. the president is trying to talk about india and security council and asian meetings and meanwhile they have very top people flaming the discussion here.

it doesn't make sense. >> joy ann, is it a mixed message because the president says to extend the tax cuts for people making over $250,000 would be fiscally irresponsible but he's leaving the door open for compromise. >> yeah. it's a mixed message, chris, and a mixed message that is inexplicable. part of the problem this president has in terms of approval ratings is not so much republicans opposed to him which is somewhat normal. but in his own base, people who put their lives on hold to get this guy into office, they doesn't know what principle he's willing to fight for. eugene robinson got this in his column today in "the washington post." is there an issue where this president is willing to draw a line in the sand and say these are my principles and what i ran on and not preconceive things. the vast majority of americans in every poll do not support extending the tax cuts for the richest 2%. i don't get this as a negotiating position.

>> former house speaker newt gingrich seems to be declaring victory already. here's what he said at a fund-raiser in dallas at the conservative institute for policy innovation. >> my prediction is the economy will improve next year because there will be assistant on the tax code and in fact yesterday -- and this is a great tribute to the republicans and to pete sessions in particular. yesterday axelrod, the president's adviser said, we will probably sign a bill that says no tax increase on any american at any level because after all the republicans won. >> nicole, is it premature for him to be declaring victory? and if indeed this ends up happening, that they extend the tax cuts for people making over $250,000 a year, you have also have the president making personality phone calls to about 1 hundred incoming members of congress. he's going to have that meeting next week with the leadership. he does seem to be extending a lot of -- sort of putting a lot of olive branches out there to try to signal compromise. does it put republicans in a

position where they have to compromise as well? >> absolutely. yeah, i think it is very premature for newt to be signaling victory on this. but at the same time, i think it's actually clever for them to have conceded this because this is one of the few areas -- tax cuts is one of the few areas republicans own. their approval rating on this is way above that of the democrats in terms of issue handling. and quite frankly, the election was about where are the jobs. and so extending the tax cuts, that helps small businesses and that's something that will start to answer that question. >> although there does seem to be a discorrect even in the republican party. some people say they can make a deal where it's only extended for a certain number of years. john boehner has argued you can't extend this tax cut for people making $250,000 for a year. why would they hire people when they're not sure it won't change anyway? >> the republicans are going for broke here. they see as newt says, no reason

to back down. i think this is a frustration you see not just with the left and obama but third way today criticizing the idea that the white house would compromise here because when you give away the store then there is no negotiating. this isn't negotiation, right? this is the signals that the republicans are going to get exactly what they want and haven't even been sworn in yet. >> i wonder joy-ann, is this an opportunity for both sides to send a signal to the american people, a signal we know they want, which is that washington is not all about gridlock. washington can work together. the left and the right can compromise. is this an important test case in terms of starting to regain the confidence of the american people? >> i mean, i think it would be if tax cuts were the principle thing that people voted on in the past election. i think overwhelmingly we saw in the exit polls were jobs but in the same exit polls where the majority of people said yes they're going to give the republicans an opportunity to create jobs, there was no support for this particular policy. i think there are other places

like education where republicans and democrats can agree and work together but on this particular issue, the president is going against the will of the majority of the american people and compromising before they even get to the table. now, he is saying -- the white house is saying they're not giving away their position. but i think just the mixed message and sort of muddy message, it's not about compromise. it's about capitulation. >> joy-ann, nicole, ari, thanks to all of you. more than 100 new freshmen heading to capitol hill. how will they get their voices heard on day one of school so to speak? senator-elect richard blumenthal is getting ready for what's ahead. plus dogs have become everyone's best friend when it comes to dealing with our bed bug epidemic but say it isn't so. new doubts about just how effective these sniffers are. ♪

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tomorrow -- actually sunday president obama returns home from his four-nation economic and good will tour of asia but he comes home essentially empty handed unable to secure that long-sought free trade deal with south korea. world leaders remain at odds over massive debt especially the united states now closing in on $14 trillion. i'm joined by cnbc's amon afterers. as you know the budget office is projecting a federal deficit of 1.3 trillion just for next year. what does that mean for the average american? >> it's really scary. american is sort of basically like a blind man inching up to the echblg of a cliff. we know the cliff is there but don't know where exactly and when we'll fall over it.

here's how the u.s. balances its budget now. basically we sell treasury bills to investors including foreigners like the chinese and other people interested in buying t bills. and when we do that we're borrowing money from overseas to finance current deficits. at some point though the buyers of those bills may wake up and say we don't think this is a good deal anymore. the united states might not be able to pay us back. at that point if that ever has that's the nightmare scenario. that's when interest rates skyrocket and the united states suddenly finds itself in a position of not being able to borrow all that money anymore and when we have a fiscal train wreck in this country. the problem is we don't know when that's coming. it could be a year from now or 30 years from now. it could never happen. >> what they're trying to do obviously is stave that off. the president's debt reduction xhiks hcommission has put out proposals. cut discretionary spending to twen levels. raise social security retirement age to 68 by 2050, to 69 by

2075. rewrite the tax code, including eliminating all exemptions. is there any sort of widespread agreement on any of these or other major provisions about what really could make a big difference here? >> no. there's widespread disagreement about all of these. the key is you look at the two guys who unrolled this. you have erskine bowles and alan simpson. neither one of them is a current office holder. that's why their names are on this report. they're grabbing on to the third rails of american politics here with both hands. this is the kind of thing that elected officials get the willies about because there was a huge outcry both on the left and the right about these proposals. on the right they don't like this because they see it as a major, major tax hike. on the left, they say, hey, wait a second, you're gutting social security, medicare, the safety net we need for the old people and the weak in this country. this is the kind of thing that's

great for an academic debate but politicians are really unlikely to do anything like this exact report this week. the problem is they've got to do something. and so the idea behind this report was to put out something that could be a starting point for negotiations going forward. but there's going to be a lot of negotiating between now and whenever anything ever gets enacted if it does. >> cnbc's emon javers. joining capitol hill may feel like the first day of school. the new class of incoming freshmen will be greeted by a fractured congress, massive deficits. we were just talking about that. and the mandate of a nation to get the economy back up to speed. senator-lekt richard blumenthal a democrat from connecticut who bead back wwe executive linda mcmahon who help the democrats keep a slim majority in the senate. you have decades of state level experience, but anyone who has ever gone from state government

to the federal government admits that there is a big difference there. and you're also going into a smaller majority for your party. i don't think anybody is disputing the fact that there is this huge ideological divide. how worried are you about being able to get things done? >> i am concerned about getting things done because the american people, frankly, are frustrated and angry and understandably so. and that's one of the messages from this election cycle. angry and frustrated with the lack of results in washington. and i know about getting results because i do it at the state level fighting for people, standing up for them, using the legal system to get results against big tobacco or internet predators. and i think that's what they want in washington. and i'm ready for the learning experience and the challenge and it will be both. >> let me ask you have about a couple of things that we've talked a lot about and that have been in the news a lot. for example, taxes. do you have support a compromise for giving tax breaks extensions

to the highest earners, over $200,000, people like john boehner arguing if you just do it for a year or two you don't have the effect of creating jobs? >> i feel very strongly that we need to be serious about cutting the deficit and reducing the national debt, and we must provide tax cuts now, immediately for the middle class. >> for everybody? >> no. for the middle class. but avoid those tax cuts or extending them -- the bush tax cuts for people in the wealthiest 2% category of the country. and i would oppose an effort to extend those tax cuts to the wealthiest 2% or families earning more than $250,000. because the results would be a very, very serious, even catastrophic addition of more than $700 billion to the deficit. >> were you disappointed when you heard the president and david axelrod sing s. signal they might be open to compromise on this.

>> >> what i heard was secondhand and third hand. i want to know firsthand what their view is. the president has been very strong in his advocacy of tax cuts now for the middle class, which i support, and his opposition to extending those tax cuts, the bush tax cuts to the wealthiest 2%. so far as i know, he continues in that position. >> what about the deficit? we were just talking about that and the presidential commission recommending sweeping cuts across the board. for those of you who are coming in this year in particular and the message from the voters being so very clear to get the economy back up and running, do you think it's your responsibility to make those tough choices? and do you have like the -- like is the wrong word. do you accept many of the choices that you're seeing from the deficit reduction commission? >> very complex subject that is very difficult to reduce to a three-minute or 30-second answer. but generally, i feel that these proposals leave a lot to be desired. they will be attacked from both

the right and the left. they will have trouble gaining the 14 votes that they needed even to be proposed in the final report. and in general, i feel in many respects they are very seriously misguided because they make the wrong choices. we need to get serious about cutting the debt and the deficit, but it can be done by attacking many of the special interest giveaways and the tax breaks that right now cost us very serious money and in fact undermine what should be our priority, the priority of getting america back to work. just one example. right now we lose $200 billion over a period of time through tax loopholes that encourage, indeed reward companies for sending jobs overseas. there's a sweetheart deal with the pharmaceutical drug companies costing again $200 billion over a period of years that bars negotiation with those companies for medicare drug prices. the va can negotiate, medicare

cannot. $200 billion. the subsidies or hidden subsidies and special breaks for the energy interests -- oil and coal and gas. again, tens of billions of dollars. and of course the subsidies for agri business which the erskine bowles and simpson proposals did address in some respects that involves these giveaways to agri business. some of them don't even grow anything. these -- >> i want to get one more question in if i can. >> these kind of special deals with special interests are what we should be addressing. >> it is a complicated subject. let me ask you to take off your senator-elect hat and put back on your attorney general hat. the world i think was watching what happened in connecticut last week and that is the case of the brutal home invasion and triple murder. the lone survivor dr. petit said he definitely did not want a plea deal that would have put the defendant in prison for life without parole. the jury gave him the death

penalty, gave steven hayes the death penalty. but in a state that rarely executes anyone, some legal analysts say it will be years if not decades before appeals are exhausted. do you think that the will of dr. petit and this jury will actually come to pass? or was this whole trial essentially an exercise in futility? >> i have to believe that it will, because i have confidence in the legal system. and i was involved in the execution -- the last one that occurred in connecticut, michael ross, who was similarly convicted of a very heinous, horrible crime. i believe that the death penalty was equally appropriate for hayes in this case. and as attorney general, i would fight to uphold the verdict and implement it as i did in the michael ross case. >> senator-elect richard blumenthal. good to see you. good luck heading out to washington. thank you so much. >> thank you. break something news in the search for missing 10-year-old

zahra baker. police are ready to give details about what they're calling valuable new evidence. a facebook prompting promol to reopen a cold case. time for the "your business" entrepreneur of the week. this man wantsed to turn his love of west virginia white water rafting into a business but there were several similar companies saturating the market. he approached the owners of three of them and they merged into adventures on the gorge. ♪

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we are now getting word of a major press conference scheduled for this afternoon in connection with missing 10-year-old zahra baker. police in north carolina found skeletal remains yesterday that are believed to belong to the 10-year-old. she has been missing for more than a month. and a 16-year-old cold case involving a 15-year-old girl who vanished outside a roller rink on long island has now been reopened and it's all because of facebook. joining us to talk about both of these investigative crime reporter michelle sigona. good morning. i know you've been on the phone with police. what do you know about this news conference later today? >> i was told earlier this morning that the hickory police have significant evidence to

help advance czzahra's case forward. they will not say if the possible remains found on wednesday are in fact zahra's. but word out of the scene it is appearing they may have pretty significant evidence that may be leaning in that direction. so 4:00 this afternoon we will know a lot more about this case. >> much of the investigative focus has been on alissa baker, who is zahra's stepmother. you wonder if this new evidence puts more pressure on her. >> i think it definitely does. i think at this particular point from what we've learned she has admitted to writing that ransom note which is oddly bizarre, especially with the fire that had broke out, the two 911 calls that took place on the day zahra went missing. moving forward there seems to be a lot of little missing links. and i really feel that investigators sort of have this laid out and they're starting to fill in those blanks, starting to kind of pick alissa's brain

if she is in fact cooperating behind bars right now and also moving forward with the father, picking him up, putting him behind bars. he posted bail. seeing where he goes at this particular point. so there's a lot of twists and turns in this case but it's definitely something si think especially with her prosthetic leg found just a few weeks ago, there are definite clues that could help bring it forward. but they don't have to move very quickly because they know where the key players are. >> let me ask you really quickly about this report i saw that zahra's biological mother has flown in with a film crew from australia. what's going on with that? >> investigators again, they will not talk about this at all. that was another question i asked them this morning. it is -- it seems to be the case that she did in fact fly in town. she may possibly be with a film crew. possibly maybe they paid her way to help her get over here. i'm not too sure. i have not personally seen her. but the fact that she is -- could possibly be in town helping in this particular case, working with investigators is obviously -- it's a good sign but very sad sign.

>> let's talk about kelly morrissey's case. she was 15 years old and went missing from a roller rink in long island, new york, way back in 1984. then police just saw something on facebook and this cold case may be warm again. what happened? >> well, it appears that there seems to be a group. and so some of the folks in the group that were a part of the roller skating rink -- customers, employees -- people that -- this case that was really close to their hearts apeyer you pier to be commenting and recalling and reliving some things. personally i feel this is a great tool for investigators to reach out to these people requestioning them. a lot of time has gone on. some of these folks are parents now. so having the thought of possibly losing a child or holding some information even if it's a small little nugget, they are going to be able to reach out and sort of revisit this case. and this is a great, great tool for all cases, all cold cases out there. i see it all the time, chris. you see it all the time. all of these groups and fan pages. >> it is amazing. >> good luck to this case.

>> no kidding. michelle, always good to see you. thanks for joining us. a double agent twist in the high profile russian spy ring. details on who broke the case. but now they need to know where they're going to find that person. it's not her. and it's a big day here at rockefeller plaza. people getting up early to watch the tree arrive. and as if that's not enough, bon overy visiting the "today" show rocking out to promote the 13th album called simply "greatest hits." . [ woman ] you know, as a mom,

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with professional-grade research. and some of the most powerful, yet easy to use trading tools on the planet. it's investing with intelligence and cold hard conviction. e-trade. investing unleashed. we're just getting this breaking news. we told you that a judge was going to sentence a 22-year-old former college student for hacking into sarah palin's e-mail account when she was running for vice president. well, that federal judge has sentenced the university of tennessee student david kernall

to one year and one day in federal custody. his defense lawyer had said, look, he actually just sort of guessed what her pass work was. it was just sort of a prank. sarah palin and her daughter bristol had said this was a really tense situation for their family. the federal judge sentencing him to one year and one day in federal custody. some other stories making headlines right now. the u.n. is asking the world for $164 million to fight the cholera outbreak in haiti. that disease has killed more than 700 people so far. the woman who allegedly received lewd photos and text messages from brett favre reportedly met with nfl investigators. she has alleged he sentence texts and pictures two years ago while he was with the jet. big losses for the u.s. postal service. they lost 8.5 billion we're told last year.

say it isn't so. in unnew york city building, a dog reportedly detected bed bugs in more than a dozen apartments but fiscal traces of the little critters were found in only five. in other words, the dog are giving false positives. and check this out. almost 700 students and faculty at a new jersey school tried to break the record for the world's biggest pie fight. in the process, they were able to make about $10,000 for a local soup kitchen. boom, come on, there you go. supposed to get it in the face, not on the back. a new twist in the real life russian spy ring. we're now learning it may have been a russian double agent who blew their cover. and that man is now on the run. nbc's chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell has the story. >> reporter: he is credited with recruiting the bond woman of this tail anna chapman and nine others to live under deep cover in the u.s. until they were arrested and sent home by the

fbi. russian newspapers identify their spy master as a double agent who apparently defected to the u.s. last summer. now reportedly under fbi protection from a russian hit man, named after the assassin from stallin's secret police who stabbed leon trotsky with an ice pick in mexico in 1940. >> whenever an important defector comes to the united states, of course he worries about his security. but the cia is very good at reset ling these people, giving them false identities and hiding them. >> reporter: prime minister vladimir putin, once a spy himself, sounded deadly serious about the double agent this summer telling reporters the russians had been betrayed by a traitor. putin added "sellouts always end up in a ditch either drunk or drugged. the other day one such traitor kicked the bucket, exactly like that, abroad." but in this country experts say the defector would be given a

new identity by the fbi and cia. for them a double agent is a huge prize. >> it means that the head of counter spy operations for these -- for the russian intelligence service -- you know, the old kgb, has defected to the united states. and if that's true, that's a big blow to the russians. >> reporter: making the most of her role in the cloak and dagger drama is chapman, now a celebrity back home, posing for russia's edition of "maxim" magazine, launching a luxury boutique and an app so peek can play poke wer a virtual anna. she even has her own action figure. u.s. officials won't comment on any of this but don't deny pulling off what could be one of the biggest victories for u.s. intelligence since the end of the cold war. now that george w. bush's memoir has actually been out there for a couple of days and

people are actually reading it, there are some fascinating new revelation s., not the least of which is the section that paints the senate minority leader mitch mcconnell as a hypocrite. the book "decision points" explains that while publicly he accused the democrats of endangering america by trying to pull out of iraq, privately he was actually asking the president to pull the troops out to help republicans in the elections. here the editorial from the kentucky courier journal. it says unless he is prepared to call a former president of his own party a liar, mr. mcconnell has a choice. he can admit he did not actually believe the iraq mission was vital to american security regardless of what he said at the time or he can explain why the for tunes of the republican party are of greater importance than the safety of the united states. let's bring in our company, joy-ann read, nicole kurakowa and airy melber.

>> it's difficult. as the relative of someone serving and done two tours in iraq i would love to get to the bottom of this. i haven't read the president's book yet. i think we as americans deserve a full accounting. >> a local station tracked him down and he wouldn't deny the story. what do you want him to say? >> there are so many competing concerns. i would like his honest opinion. i would like his honest assessment because we've lost so many soldiers over there and veterans day was yesterday. the best quote i heard about veterans day was i support our troops. i believe they should be safe, legal and rare. >> interesting, interesting. the editorial said as a headline, ari, mitch mcconnell's true colors. does this show his true colors or are we just looking at a case of political reality? this is not the first guy, if he did this, who has done this. >> it's one of these cases where we have a politician who is now out of power and done with his entire career. so i don't think president bush

either has a very good record of being completely truthful at every interval of the iraq war. we had problems with wmd but having said that there's very little reason to think he would make this story up for his autobiography. that makes senator mcconnell look bad. and the larger point for the politic of course is two or three years ago you and i would have been talking about what is the president going to do about iraq, what are we going to do about the middle east. these were the number one issues. the economy changed all that. so i think it's interesting we have a feud in the republican party about how to wind down the war in iraq which of course is an area where i think barack obama was right as a candidate. he gets less credit about it now because we don't talk about it anymore. >> joy-ann, if you agree that george w. bush had no reason to make this story up, are you nevertheless surprised he would go there? >> well, not necessarily. i mean, george w. bush did come to washington as -- claiming to be an outsider even though he is the son of a president. so i'm not sure what his relationship was with the very much insiders like mitch

mcconnell. mcconnell has proved himself -- for all the talk about incoming speaker boehner, he's one of the top actors on the republican side. the top priority is to make sure president obama doesn't get a second term. it is rather shocking, though, because one of the hall marks supposedly of the republican party is concern about the troops and seriousness and soberness about national security so it really makes him look pretty bad. i have to agree with ari. i'm not sure george w. bush is covered in glory regarding iraq either. >> do you think, nicole, when most americans hear something like this, they're disgusted by it, upset by it or shrug their shoulders and say more of the same? >> absolutely disgusted by this. one of the concerns about having a volunteer militia it's ended up who has gone to die. it hasn't been wealthy east coast ivy league graduates. it's poor and minorities. they were used as political cards.

i think it absolutely disgusts people. >> thanks to all of you. have a great weekend. >> thank you. all right. i only want to ask this question but i must. could white briefs, a cowboy hat and boots only be the look in the white house after the 2012 election? it is a long shot to say the least but new york's own robert burke otherwise known as the naked cowboy says he is running for president. listen to what he told politico. >> it takes hard work for one guy in a pair of underwear in the freezing snow year after year to build an american icon. to me, it would be no shame to have the naked cowboy literally working in the white house as the naked cowboy. it's american. >> did he say it's america or it's american? >> american, i think. >> okay. well, we'll see how that goes. meantime, a new jersey college student, tyler clemente, who tragically took his own life after a bullying incident went too far. experts say they fear copycat

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psychological experts say they're worried that kids who are now or who have become the target of bullies may be more likely to imitate others who have responded to it by committing suicide. the concern about these so-called copycats stems from a rash of highly publicized suicides. one of the most prox nent as you'll recall involved rutgers university student tyler clemente who threw himself off the george washington bridge after his roommate used a web cab to publicly broadcast images of clemente having sex in his dorm room. are people inspired by someone else to commit suicide? joining us dr. paula clayton of of the american foundation of suicide prevention. thank you both for coming in. there is for better or worse dr. clayton and incredible awareness

of these suicides, many of them from gay youth and many who have been bullied. is there a real phenomenon of copycat suicides? >> oh, absolutely. there are more than 50 studies that show that if a suicide is sensationalized, extensive in its coverage, et cetera, that there are other suicides that the follow. so there is such a thing as copycat or bullying. >> and i guess when i was that age, when i was a teenager, they were only reported if they were geographically close because we didn't have the internet. we didn't have the reach of cable. we didn't have so many opportunities for people to know what was going on in other parts of the country. so now is it almost a case where you have something like what happened with the rutgers university student that you could be looking at almost anywhere else? >> yes, absolutely. it's really frightening because of that. i mean, it used to be that as you say it was contained in a single little area. but now instantaneously it's all

over. and so the vulnerable kid can copy that. >> is it a case, doctor, where you think if you are vulnerable, if you're hurting and you see that as a potential way out? what is it that would spark someone to say, well, he took his life or she took her life, i'll do the same. >> right. a lot of people look to peers for how to cope with something. i think in the absence of other more positive coping mechanisms, a person may go from zero to ten. i feel bad, therefore i will kill myself. what people need to realize is that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem and that there are many other positive ways that someone can deal with it. i think friends and family and parents and teachers need to be involved and be able to recognize what is causing someone to think about suicide and that this is not a positive coping mechanism. >> and i think, doctor, that there's always a very good

opportunity in situations like this to remind parents, to remind friends, to remind educators of the things that we could look for in these kinds of situations. what are they? what might be a clue that someone might be reaching out for help? >> well, 90% of suicides are done by someone who is suffering with a mental disorder. and the most common one is depression. drug and alcohol abuse add to it, but depression is the most common. so when you're looking for warning signs, you're looking for kids who have changed and who have stopped doing the things they used to like to do and withdrawn, they get pessimistic about the future. that's the kind of kid that then becomes vul nashlg. >> how do you separate, dr. su, a typical temperature who frankly is moody and suddenly they were your best friend and suddenly they're too cool for you and a kid depressed. >> you want to look for pattern of behavior.

in depression we talk about low mood or irritability that lasts for a period of time. while a normal teen has fluctuations in hour to hour or day to day in depression you see for two weeks or more a person has difficulty concentrating. maybe the grades are slipping. they're apathetic, they're not hanging out with their friends they used to and not taking self care and their grooming has gone down. with the suicide rate as high as it is and third leading cause of death among people 15 to 24 -- >> third leading cause? >> i think it's after accidents and homicides, i think it's important that we don't dismiss this and say this is a copycat situation but really understand that young people are hurting, that bullying -- there should be a zero tolerance policy and there should be more coping mechanisms taught through video and role playing and groups in schools. so there are things that can be done to teach kids this is not the only way out. you're feeling pain but there can be an end that does not involve suicide.

>> i hope if nothing else people are realizing this excessive bullying can be a life and death situation. thank you both for coming in. and an update now on a story we brought to you about that book, about pedophiles sold on amazon.com. now colorado police are investigating its author. philip ray grieves, even as they say they will protect him from threats. the book has been removed from the online retailer's website. we'll be right back. etfs? exchange traded funds? don't just give me ten or twenty to choose from. come on. td ameritrade introduces commission-free etfs with a difference-- more choice. over a hundred etfs.... ...chosen by the unbiased experts at morningstar associates. let me pick what works for me. for me. for me. the etf market center

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retailers are hitting shoppers early and often. walmart offering free shipping for nearly 60,000 gift items includes toys and electronics. retailers are posting black friday ads online. sears started its black friday sale two weeks ago will open for

five hours on thanksgiving morning that is the first time in their 80-year history. will these ploys convince you to shop now. i went on walmart's website to see if a little something i have been looking for is there. does this mean they are going to get business? >> walmart is the world's largest retailer. they set the precedent. this is what consumers want. they are not going to buy anything online unless there are free shipping offers. you have to give people another reason to go to your store. >> black friday, of course, the internet can do everything. there a website black friday 2010.com. let me give you a couple of examples. sears is offering a washer and a dryer for $199 a piece.

target is offering not just a toaster, but a hand mixer for $3. what do you need to know? >> they could be in limited quantities and you get there and they could be out. that is the retailer's ploy, get you in there. this is a warmup. the idea is to get consumers in the spending frame of mind. get them out there. entice them. there is a psychological aspect to shopping. combine that with pent up demand and people are responding. they are buying electronics, apparel, toys. particularly if the quantities are limited and won't be around later in the season. >> there is indication consumer confidence is up. are you taking a bigger risk this year to wait until later? a lot of people say i'm going to see if the prices keep going down. >> you generally have the big uptick of black friday.

you have the uptick a little earlier this year because of the deals. 30% of people have already shopped. >> 30% of people have already shopped? >> they started. they haven't finished. you get another mad rush right at black friday and a couple of weeks before christmas. you'll see the deals now and before black friday and at christmas. >> i always think i'm going to get started early and i never get there. >> we are a nation of p procrastinators. next week congress returns for a lame duck session. i report live from capitol hill on tuesday and wednesday. right here jansing & co.

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good friday everybody. i'm contessa brewer. the big story today, setbacks in seoul. the g-20 summit, world leaders trying to get on the right track, right some wrongs, even out imbalances in the global economy, but in the end what was accomplished? >> there is an instinct to focus on the disagreements because otherwise these summits might not be very exciting. it is a bunch of world leaders sitting around intervening. >> there was drama, no deal. no trade agreement with south korea. american companies were counting on this. what could have been the biggest bilateral trade deal in a decade. u.s. manufactures are desperate to find new markets for their products. ford drive that point with