. >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontliis provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund, with grants from jon and jo ann hagler, on behalf of the jon l. hagler foundation. and scott nathan and laura debonis. >> my name is brittany smith, and i'm nine years old. it's tough because my mom and dad are poor. my dad just lost his job. it's kind of hard for us. monday i tried getting in the shower, and it was cold. i put the hot on all the way and no cold, and it was freezing. it felt like shoving your face in a bunch of snow. it was freezing! the hot water shut off because we didn't pay the bill in time. it was overdue. >> so what's the next bill due? >> electricity. it

." >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major funding is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund, with a grant from the orfalea foundation. >> it's time to send a message to washington: stop spending money we don't have. how can we afford this tax? ...big corporations and the richest two percent. >> what's at stake is the future of america. >> it costs us, and taxes us, too much. >> american future fund is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> ryssdal: i knew right away this wasn't going to be the usual story on campaign finance. one of the first surprises was finding myself driving the dark streets of denver with attorney alan schwartz, who shared kind of a strange experience. >> it was early january of 2011, and m

." >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major funding is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to buildina re just, verdant and peaceful world.additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund. with grants from scott nathan and laura debonis, and millicent bell, through the millicent and eugene bell foundation. major funding for this program is provided by the kendeda fund. >> chicago is now under full national security. >> a no-fly zone is in effect, except for the world leaders who are landing at o'hare, as president barack obama and a number of world leaders... >> hockenberry: it was a big weekend in chicago. last spring, the president was in town, along with the leaders of nato, to discuss threats to global security and nuclear proliferation. at a huge convention center, the eyes of the world were wching. >> ...that demands g

." >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontline is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund, with a grant from millicent bell, through the millicent and eugene bell foundation. major funding for "the suicide plan" is provided by the john and wauna harman foundation. (geese honking) >> it was a beautiful morning. the sun was out. and he said this was the day. he brought out this wretched rusty revolver. and i ran a cleaning rod through it to make sure that it was all right. he seemed a little uncertain as to just how to hold the weapon. if you tried to aim the weapon toward the top of your head, the trigger guard would interfere with your chin. so we concluded that i

." >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major funding is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund. >> in massachusetts, in a political fight that ted kennedy probably never imagined... >> kennedy's seventh campaign has become a desperate struggle for survival... >> this year he in his toughest race ever against a political newcomer... >> it's youth versus age, the senate's leading liberal against a wildly successful venture capitalist. >> we get a call from the boston police. and they say, "it's a mad scene down here." >> (chanting): we want ted! >> narrator: it was the night of their first debate. >> "we're going to have to get you an escort to get into the building." they had eight or ten motorcycle police officers there to guide

. >> frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. and by the corporation for public broadcasting. major support for frontline is provided by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information is available at macfound.org. additional funding is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening public awareness of critical issues. and by the frontline journalism fund, with a grant from millicent bell, through the millicent and eugene bell foundation. major funding for "the suicide plan" is provided by the john and wauna harman foundation. captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >> for more on this and other frontline programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline. frontline"the suicide plan" is available on dvd. to order, visit shoppbs.org, or call 1-800-playpbs. frontline is also available for download on itunes. they believed they could face any hardship. weather any storm. t buthing could prepare them... for this. fro