alison kosik, thank you very much. we'll check in with you all morning long. >> lots of tickets still to be sold. you don't need to live in new york to know about this lottery institution. have a listen. >> good evening, everyone, for the new york lottery, i'm yolanda vega. >> you bet, yolanda vega will join us to talk about not only this record breaker but the last time she was in on calling the numbers for the record breaker. what's the secret? >> i just met her this morning. it was like the most exciting part of my morning. >>> incredible video. look at this a tornado picking up a school bus and tearing it to shreds. kids were inside that bus just minutes before, and they had the bus driver to thank for saving their lives. if you are heading out the door, you will want to set the dvr for this one. >>> and you will not believe how close it came. look at these pictures, video, a motorcycle dodging a car that spins out of control. there's the motorcycle, will you find out how this ends in a moment. exactly as planned.

alison kosik looks at the ripple effect. christine, i ask you this every time. >> i know you do. >> so give us the big picture here. >> the big picture is that the economy is adding jobs. companies are hiring and the government lost only about 6,000 jobs last month. so it was private sector hiring. companies hiring that drove the jobs number. this is the last year, carol. 2011 i want to show you. last spring things are pretty strong. we were having 200,000 jobs gained every month. in the summer it got real slow. we were worried about a double dip recession. picked up again in the fall. now we have revisions. the bigger picture is a little bit better. you have better than expected january, february, now it's 8.3% the unemployment rate. there were jobs created in business and professional services. there were jobs created in mining. we see that every month. there were jobs created in health care, in social work. there were jobs created in computer systems design and technical consulting. you saw jobs last in retail, for exampl

but as alison kosik explains... 3 --reporter pkg-as follows --it &pmight sound like a walk ii th &ppark-- free laundry, fresh home cooked meals, a familiar bedroom.but for most so--alled boomerang kids-- living with mom aad dad usually comes with a price..hhnks to the recession-- the percennage of kids moving back ome is at a 50 year high.in 2010-- more than 21-percent of adults were living with their parents. that's a big jumm from just ten years arliir. most of those kids though aren't getting a free ride.according to a new pew research center studyy- 48 percent of kids paid rent to their parents. almost nine in ten pitched in for household expenses-- like buying groceries or paying for utilities.and while most help with the bills-- nly 8-percent say they regularly &pget money or financial assistance from their families. all of those expenses add uu. almost 8 in 100young adults livvng at home say they can't that's compared to 55-percent with tteir parenns.but bunking according to pew-- more than . - thrre quarters

alison kosik tells us about ome outrageous tax deductions ... including some that actually worked.ed. --reporter pkk-as follows -- you've probably taken tax deductions for giving money to charity -- donating clothes or furniture to goodwill -- or on the interest on your mortgage. but cnn-money came up with a piit of the craziest deductions that accountants have ever seen -- and some of them actually worked. first -- here are a few examples that didn't make the cut...a doctor tried to claim the playboy magazine subscription for his waiting room was tax deductible -- his accountant disagreed.another person tried to write off her dog's hip replacement.but she didn't need the dog for medical purposes... so that was a no go.and one music band added up the tens of thousands of dollars they spent on recreational drugs during their summee tour... in hopes that their accountant would include that.you can probably guess that he did not.but there are some crazy submitted to the government. first -- two business partners in the phoenix area only communicate by carrier piggon. and after a ton o

i'm alison kosik. analysts expect that february sales of existing and new homes could see growth in the previous month. new home sales topped expectations for the pace of existing home sales rose to the highest level since the end of the home buyers' tax credit in 2010. but prices are at their lowest levels in ten years. and the housing market isn't likely to significantly strengthen until the prices bottom out. we'll also get readings on housing starts and building permits. construction starts remained at a low level. there are a couple of interesting earnings we'll track this week. we'll hear from business bellwether, fedex. another consumer confidence, tiffany is expected to post results. and food company general mills. nike, and darden. finally, nominations for the world bank presidency are due this week. the newly-elected chief will take over when robert zoellick ends his five-year term in june. all of the world's previous presidents have been american. and the next one is likely to be, as well. t

alison kosik, thank you. we'll be talking about that next big number tomorrow, the government unemployment number released. next to arwa damon in bay ru. you are reporting from neighboring lebanon on what's been happening in syria. you were in syria. you're reporting on more violence and news of a government defector. >>> that's right, and that would be the deputy minister of oil. he just released his defection video as they are being called. and he defected, he said for a number of reasons, but at the forefront was, of course, due to the violence. take a listen to what he had to say. >> translator: i do want to end my life servicing the crimes of this regime. you have inflicted on those you claim are your people a full year of sorrow and sadness. denied them their basic rights to life and mumity and pushed the country to the edge of the abyss. >> hussameldin is currently in hiding in an undisclosed location. when asked to take into consideration how difficult it is for government officials to defect, quite s

alison kosik is with here with more.for the company, carol, it really is a big deal. it marks a new ear r you remember the late steve jobs was against, against paying dividends. he liked hoarding cash instead. the new ceo says, you know what, 1$100 billion, it's more money than we need to run the company. apple will start paying quarterly dividends this year. it's also buying back $10 billion of its own shares over the next few years so what it's doing is spending about $45 billion of that 100 billion over the next three years, yeah, some analysts are saying it's a small bone that's being thrown to instors, especially since you look at sales of ipads and iphones are likely to produce that much in new cash this year. this is the world's biggest company in terms of stock market value and now it's finally continuing to -- now it's beginning to sort of throw a bone to shareholders in terms of this buy-back and dividends. >> so how are apple shares doing now? >> okay, so apple shares are up about 1% right now. they're getting

alison kosik has advice for us though. allison?yra, there are plenty of scams thought as we get ready to put our taxes together and do the fun of putting our taxes together. the irs is warping taxpayers about scams on everything from phony refunds to tax preparers who may not be so legit, shall we say. if you wiped up getting an e-mail, a text message or even a social media message that claims to be from the irs looking for personal or financial information, the advice is, guess what don't replirks don't open any attachments or click on any links. check urls, too scammers wind up setting up fake websites using common misspellings of rem jet web addresses. the irs does not contact taxpayers through e-mail, either through u.s. -- and they only contact you through u.s. mail as a first contact or contact you as a second resort by phone. now, you can forward the suspicious e-mail or link to phishing at irs.gov or if you get a phone call from someone claiming to be from the irs, call the irs at 1-800-829-1040 to verify this person is an

i'm alison kosik in new york. >>> the drilling rig operator trans ocean took something of a knock onay's session. this was after criminal charges were filed against employees in brazil. it follows an oil spill after the country's coast last november which posed a major threat to brazil's ecosystem and local businesses in the area. both companies disputed the allegations. chevron says that it never reached the shore or affected marine life. the employees, including executives, could face 21 years behind bars and up to 31 years in the case of chevron's head of brazilian operations. the lawyers have been saying that prison would be a last resort here. each employee is ordered to post over half a million dollars in bail and turn in their passport or chevron has had to pay $110 million in fines since the spill four months ago. >>> andrew? >>> now, nina, on the subject of natural resources, three of the world's biggest energy giants are discussing a plan to export liquefied natural gas. bp, exxon-mobil and conoco-phillips hope to open up reserves that currently have no route to china or an

here's a preview of what we can expect today and also what happened yesterday from alison kosik. >>> a quiet session on wall street tuesday. investors mostly held their positions after monday's big rally, though the major averages did post a modest downturn at the end of the day. a mixed bag of economic reports also head wall street, taking a more cautious tone. at the close, the dow slipped 43 points to 13197. the nasdaq ticked down just a fraction. tech stocks buoyed by another charge in apple shares, which hit a record high above $616 apiece during the session. the s&p 500 lost .25%. >>> home prices in the u.s. fell to their lowest point since january. case-shiller says prices tumbled almost 1% since the start of the year. analysts say it adds further evidence just how bumpy the recovery is for the housing market and will continue to be. when it comes to the broader economy, americans remain just as upbeat in march as they were in february. the confidence board says consumer price rose after dipping last month. americans were concerned about inflation, mostly because of rising gas

i'm alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. >>> let's take a look at u.s.ely to open when they get trading in 4 1/2 to 5 hours from now. we have modest gains for the futures markets. not a stellar performance by any means. the dow is up by 0.2% in premarket trading. the other two markets up by a smidgen less than that. >>> the united states financial services firm, mf global billion the country's eighth biggest bankruptcy ever after investors panicked over the amount of risky european debt that this company had on its books. here are some of the details that came out of the testimony in washington on wednesday. $1.6 billion in client money has been unaccounted for since mf global went bankruptcy. the hearing focused on $175 million worth of transfers and whether customer funds were improperly used. one person believed to know the details is edith o'brien, the assistant treasurer at mf global. she wasn't very forthcoming in her testimony. take a listen. >> on the advice of council, i respectfully decline to answer based on my constitutional right. >> o'brien

alison kosik expllans why it'sseasierrthan yoo might think. 33 3&--reporter pkg-as follows -- still usingour default passwordd you might want to ccange that.the most ommon way hackers get into your system... or even large corporate syytems... is by simply guessing youu password. the problem is our passwords are a little too predictable. in fact, a new study from "trust wave ' found that bout the word password.the most common for business systems is password-one with a capittl p. and theee's ood reason ffr its popularity.it has nine characters, enough to satisfy comppexity requiremmnttsfor most systems....along with a but it's juut too easyy o guess.so, are yoo doomed to &pget hacked? not necessarill. you can protect yourself by making yourrpassword a it more complex.trr using the "at" symbol instead of an a, password longer, ann include characters that are not petters or numbers...this increases the possible character combinntions-- making it hhrder to crack. also, stay away from the &pobvious.or skip thh passworr altogether.technology now lets pou use log-in methods that arreuniquely you

" in the upper right dropdown menu for money-dot-com for more info and updates on policies.i'm alison kosikyork. cnn.scrrpt----- they're the last people you would expect to crash anything. anything.she said helll francis hello joihn joihn the queen f england and her husband crass a wedding.how the royal couple knew where to go... and what the groom did... fter he reccvered from shock. shock.as outrage grows over the shooting death of trayvon martin... rallies are being held all over the country. where people are gathering today in baltimore. baltimorr. [ male announcer ] for making cupcakes and deposits at the same time. for paying your friend back for lunch from your tablet. for 26 paydays triggered with a single tap. for checking your line, then checking your portfolio. for making atms and branches appear out of thin air. simple to use websites, tools, and apps. for making your financial life a little bit easier. simple to use websites, tools, and apps. pohn leopold due in court to &f3 3 33 3 3

next i want to go to alison kosik at the new york stock exchange.now we're talking about a few things that will apply to all americans. you have the price of gas. let's talk about the gas prices. i know they're hitting $4 in a couple states. where is that? >> reporter: exactly. you're right about that, brooke, more and more states are joining that $4 gas club. we put together a map showing you, in the red states, that's where gas is above $4, the yellow states showing where gas prices are within a few cents of $4. this accounts for about a third of the country's total population. that's a lot of people. we saw a reprieve, but just barely. we saw gas prices fall for a few days last week. that didn't last. the national average still sitting at $3.80. but one analyst says prices should peak soon because gas supply is actually pretty strong, so the question is will there be tensions to take control of oil prices. >> that's a huge variable. i guess in the meantime we'll say what we have to say. in terms of something else, i know a lot of people are savin

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. so, will it be number five today, alison?oking that way, that at least it could start that way. the bulls are revving up. we're about 40 seconds before the opening bell rings. dow futures are pointing about 60 points higher. this recent stock runup that you've seen is happening because there have been several generally upbeat reports on the economy. for one, that jobs report last week. it showed solid gains and then this morning we got retail sales numbers for february showing a pretty good gain there as well. now wall street is going to be looking to the fed to acknowledge that there are improving parts of the policy. policy makers are holding their meeting today. interest rates are expected to stay at historic lows. investors want to see what the fed is saying about the economy, if the fed is more confident and if it will consider any new stimulus measures. the eu signed off on greece's bailout. yes, it keeps greece from defaulting at least for now. once again, looks like we're starting off in the green. the dow up 21 point

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. what do we complain about the most though, alison?e seem to complain the most about things that are in the kitchen, carol. that's kind of understandable. there are a lot of gadgets in there. a lot of stuff can malfunction. you know what people complain about the most, appliances? stoves, dish washers, refrigerators, followed by baby equipment, toys, and then shoes. shoes, you ask? yes, i wondered about shoes as well. some are actually easy to fall in. in fact, kids' shoes sometimes have these decorations on them that can fall off and become a choking hazard. now these complaints are actually sent to the consumer product safety commission. there's a reason for this list of whines, because the cpsc looks for patterns and patterns in how many problems are being called in. some of these complaints actually lead to full-on recalls. did you know that the cpsc actually gets about 600 complaints a month. carol, people getting that annoyed where they call in or write in saying, i don't like this appliance, i don't like this pair of shoes. >> s

alison kosik sizes up the new fee. >> reporter: hi, john.basic free checking account seems to be getting closer and closer to extinction. wells fargo said today it's going to be introducing a $7 monthly maintenance fee on customers in six states who already have accounts with them. these are customers in new york, new jersey, connecticut, delaware, pennsylvania and georgia. and this goes along with the move that wells fargo made in 2010 when the bank did away with free checking for new customers. but it's not just wells fargo doing. this this really seems to be a trend. bankrate.com says 55% of all checking accounts have fees now. that's up from 24% in 2009. all right. so here's a sampling of some of those fees. they really run the gamut. chase charges a hefty $25 fee for its most basic checking account. a similar account at smaller t.d. bank will cost you about $4 a month. hey, but the free checking account still lives at capital one. keep in mind, though, these are just the minimum fees. and these fees go up for more complex accounts and o

here's your look ahead at these big financial stories with alison kosik and poppy harlow. >> hi, fredrickaa full slate of housing data this week showed that the most depressed area of the u.s. economy may have bottomed out, but it still has a long way to go. we learned that sales of previously owned homes are up almost 9% compared to a year ago, while new home sales are up more than 11% over the last year. prices also appear to be stabilizing. and a surge in building permits indicated that new home building should pick up in the months to come. poppy harlow now has a look at what's ahead in business news. poppy? >> thanks very much, alison. well, the business world will be watching closely as president obama's controversial health care reform goes on trial next week. the supreme court will listen to three days of arguments for and against the affordable care act. the court's decision will have major business, economic, and political implications. insurance premiums could change if the court strikes down the mandate that all americans must buy insurance, and some small businesses complain t

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. alison, i know that goldman stocks kind of sank yesterday and goldman responded. so is it going to get worse? >> let's talk about that response first. yeah, goldman sachs actually coming out in full damage control mode defending itself. ce oh, lloyd blankfein, president gary cohn sending a letter saying our response is best through how we help our clients and our commitment to their long-term interests. he points to the internal surveys that most employees don't feel the same. 89% of the workers there say they put their clients first. goldman sachs says it has reached out to smith and company executives say, hey, we weren't aware any of this was going on, that he had any misgiving until that letter came out in "the new york times." carol? >> so you work on wall street every day. is this letter -- i mean, i know it's goldman saying it's not indicative of what goldman does, but a lot of people feel it's indicative of what the entire industry does. >> you know, it depends on who you ask.

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. i would say four out of the five letters you just throw it away. why is the post office doing this? >> yes. it's all about money, suzanne, and for the usps, it's all about finding new ways to make money because the postal service really needs to generate more mail to deliver because it's losing a lot of money. so the usps is looking to small businesses to do that. making it easier for the businesses to send out marketing materials, what we like to call junk mail. they've developed a tool that's making it easier for these companies to find you so they can send you more stuff to pile up on your kitchen counter. this new tool i.d.s customers by their zip code so they don't need your zam and address. the usps says it could bring in at least $1 billion. this plan, by the way, has already been in the works for several months. i don't know if you have noticed an uptick in the amount of junk mail you have in your house. >> yes, i have. >> it's already brought in $150 million for the postal ser

i know alison kosik's going to address that more closely. but this is a stark contrast his campaign has been trying to draw with mitt romney, the man they expect to be his eventual contender in the general election. as you know, romney has said that he believes the housing market should be allowed to hit bottom and he has a different approach to dealing with the foreclosure crisis in this station. that's not the entirety of romney's position, but that's part of what he said. so here the president will outline some steps that his administration is taking to help homeowners, implicitly drawing a contrast with mitt romney on this all-important day, on this housing issue that's so important to voters, suzanne. >> all right. jessica, we'll be paying close attention. see if you can get one of those questions in, there in the front row. alison, the president, as jessica mentioned, is announcing some initiatives, specifically to help homeowners. can you tell us what's new in the plan? >> okay. so what this plan looks to do, suzanne, is it looks to h

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange.u know what, it's not just at&t. it's not just about money. even though money obviously is a big factor of this. at&t's trying to boost its profits. but it's also facing a space issue, meaning there's only so much wireless network available for their customers. you know, think of how much data our smartphones and our ipads use. you know, they use -- we use lots of data when we download our video and music and our apps. at this point what's happening is the party's over. at&t's unlimited data plan is not going to be unlimited anymore. once you use three gigs of data a month, what at&t is going to do, it's going to download your speed. it's going to -- meaning it's going to slow your download speed. you can always bump up to a more expensive plan, though. that's obviously what at&t is hoping that you're fwoing going to wind up doing. they did get rid of unlimited data for new customers back in 2010. now it applies to existing customers, too. >> okay. if smartphones jam up the wireless ne

alison kosik is joining us from the new york stock exchange. f with that story first, alison. all of those people are vying for that amount of jobs there. what actually happened at that plant? how did that go down? >> yeah, it's really amazing. ge says its job's website was inundated with applications. 230 positions opened on the website in louisville, kentucky. it began taking those applications online at 6:30 in the morning yesterday. some of the local jobs pitched in to help people apply as well. but in two hours, suzanne, 5,000 people put in applications for these jobs. the website wound up shutting down for a few hours because of a glitch and it was later fixed but by late afternoon 10,000 people applied for these positions. so you wonder why this stampede. the unemployment rate is higher than the national average. it's at 8.8%. just amazing. >> why was ge doing all of this hiring? is it a sign that the economy is coming back? >> you know, part of it is, yes. the economy is coming back, picking up, more demand for products but there's somet

what's the best thing to do, alison kosik.eing. >> it's a burning, burning question, isn't it, kyra? the goal for everybody doing their taxes is to reduce their taxable income, and the amounts you can deduct are adjusted each year. it's important to stay on top of the changes. whether you're a first time filer or a pro at filing your own taxes. almost two-thirds opt for the standard deductions. single filers can deduct $5800. married couples filing jointly can deduct $11,600. and heads of households can deduct $8,500. they list additional deductions for the blind. >> so, which rout do most people take in filing their taxes? >> okay, so the irs is going to allow you to deduct certain medical expenses, mortgage interests. taxes, charitable contributions as well as tax preparation fees. when it comes to deducting donations, it's important to keep records. collects all of your deductions. for cash donations. you're going to need a bank statement or written acknowledgment from the charity. be careful if you donate clothing, furnitu

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. i've got the dinosaur version here. you tell me what's going to be different from what i have here and what we're going to see later this afternoon. >> reporter: oh, yeah. so the pressure is certainly on apple to come up with something snazzy this time around. but remember, the ipad 2, which replaced the original one, only had small incremental changes. but expectations are higher this time. and apple feeds this frenzy by being notoriously tight-lipped. but the word on the street is this new ipad is going to have 4g connectivity, it's going to be faster than the current 3g network. word is it's going to have siri and its screen resolution is said to be double the current ipad and it's said to have a better camera and longer battery life. it sounds like it could put my ipad 2 -- it could become a doorstop like yours, suzanne. do you have the original one? >> yeah. kind of an expensive doorstop. but, yeah -- so you would get the new one, yes? do you think? >> reporter: would i get the new one? i'm really happy with this o

alison kosik at the new york stock exchange. alison, how bad are things looking?know what, it feels like ground hog day all over again, doesn't it, with no end in sight. the national average for a gallon of regular sitting at $3.74. what we're seeing are these small sort of penny increases every day. you know what, it really adds up fast. gas prices are up 14% just this year and we're only two months into 2012. many areas are already seeing that $4 sticker price at the gas pump. in california and alaska, hawaii, around here in new york city as well. fed chief ben bernanke was on the hill and he mentioned it. gas prices could cut into spending. many consumer spending. he thinks that would only be temporary. the market is also seeing it that way, too. that's why you're seeing some of the gains limited as well. as for today, as for the broader market, it looks like stocks are going to start on a higher note, slightly higher today. first time jobless claims came in as expected. also china's mfrgs sector is expanding. little good news to give a little bump to stocks in

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. . >> good thing he doesn't have to face his boss today, right? we're talking about greg smith. he resigned today as an executive at goldman sachs. people resign every day. what made this interesting was instead of sending his notice to the hr director, he sent it to the "new york times" and in it he said goldman is all about making money for the firm, not its clients. he talked about it as being destructive and how it makes him ill. he talked about ripping clients off over the past five months. i've seen managing directors refer to their own clients as muppets. goldman is not just any firm, i'll tell you that. it's a wall street firm with a gold-plated reputation known for having a very tough work ethic. goldman made a statement today defending itself, saying it disagrees with greg smith saying they're only successful if their clients are successful. i've gotten comments from someone saying, what happened to blow off steam to your boss than turning to the "new york times" for a diatrib

alison kosik is at the new york stock exchange. >> no, no, no. especially if you're looking to take out a loan. no banks have been charged with this yet. but the department of justice is doing a criminal investigation. no word on which bank it's looking into. there's also al civil suit. authorities want to know if banks tried to influence how interest rates go up or down, more specifically. they want to know if banks manipulated what's known as this rate. that's the rate that is set in london each day to determine how much banks charge each other to borrow money. and that, in turn, influences the interest rates that are charged on loans taken out by every day people around the world. meaning rates on more gantgages credit cards, student loans or bondage bondages. other countries are involved in the investigation as well. carol? >> what happens if they're found guilty of manipulating interest rate? >> one analyst said banks could be on the hook for billions of dollars. criminal charges and individual lawsuits are also a possibility.