our money expert jennifer westhoven is here. it looks like an extension of the jobless benefits is on the fast track. >>> we've been talking about this so long. a lot of people counting on these benefits. maybe you. maybe someone you know. senators passed the bill and it could be voted on in the house as soon as today. so this could soon be reality. we'll see how fast they can get it to the president. unemployed people would get an extra 14 weeks of benefits. could be up to 20 weeks if you live in one of the red states here where unemployment is considered high. this comes just before october's unemployment report where we could see the jobless rate hit 10%. the bill also contains benefits for home buyers. i'll fill you in on that in just a few minutes. natasha? >>> thank you very much. you have got to see the video of a prison attack, an amazing twist. a surveillance camera shows an inmate at a tampa area prison attacking a 64-year-old guard here putting him in a chokehold and then, get this, other inmates, as you're watching h

our money expert jennifer westhoven is here. so the fed wants to make it a little more fair. >> yeah. these fees are not rules by a long shot, robin, but it's the federal reserve. they're a little more -- they're made up of banks so they're not exactly -- >> you're being very careful with your word choice. >> i think you might be tempted to think or see headlines, ooh, they're cracking down. no, but what they are doing is they're going to try to protect you from some of the most outrageous gift card policies out there. so that is some good news in a bad economy. these rules will not apply to this year's gift cards for christmas so it's well beyond that. but dwo eliminate any junk fees. just to check your balance, they'll charge you a fee from that. suddenly you thought it was $100 card and it's only worth $99. also, there's not going to be any dormancy fees for at least a year. sometimes you put it away, you think i'll wait until there's something i really want from there. the next thing you know they're charging you fees becaus

our money expert jennifer westhoven is looking out for you. so your urge is to go, yeah, but what's the catch? >> there really isn't a catch, just that you might have to take a little bit of action to make sure it happens to you. but this could be the end of a $35 fee for a $3 cup of coffee. that could never happen to you again starting july 1st. the fed just announced this new rule that says banks can no longer just automatically put you into their overdraft fee programs, right, where they are hoping to make big money off your little mistakes. so the new rule is none of those huge auto overdrafts on your debit card and at the atm. it doesn't apply to checks. people say, look, if i make a mistake on a check, it's important enough to me, i'd rather have you clear it and pay the fee, so that part's fine. if you go to the atm, sometimes you're at a different atm and can't see the balance, maybe you make a mistake or sometimes you got the math wrong in your head, you buy something little, you get dinged for a huge fee. now just like robin said, th

here is money expert jennifer westhoven. give it! >> there's all these websites out there just, like, we heard this, we heard that. they've got leaks about black friday deals. walmart is confirming some of the deals it will have on that day after thanksgiving. one is a blueray player about $78. a lot of analysts predicted the prices would go under 100 at door busters sales. a plasma high-def tv about 600 bucks and kids' pjs about 3 bucks. i've seen some reports, unconfirmed, that apple will have some big black friday deals. last year they had some that were apparently puny, but if those leaks are true, they would be pretty big this year. something to watch out for. >>> this morning on your way to work, driving your kids to school, are you in one of the safest cars on the road? this is the insurance industry where they're looking at the new car. so they literally go buy all the new models of popular cars and they just crash them, see how they do. 19 cars and 8 suvs did the best in the crash tests. volvo did very well, also subaru and

and our money expert jennifer westhoven is here. an american car has been named the best on the road. >>> this is a big win for ford and really for detroit, right, because any good news is a psychological boost for that town. the fusion was named the motor trend car of the year and the magazine says ford did a great job of redesigning and upgrading. every version got some kudos and motor trend even said the fusion, you should consider it on par with the toyota camry and the honda accord. and those are two bestsellers, so those are some great words. i'm sure they're celebrating at ford when they got the news. they're celebrating now, robin, or they have a hangover. >>> one of the biggest problems, we all know, the job market. one of the reasons is small businesses are having a terrible time getting loans and most job growth comes from small companies. you know, how can they grow if they can't get any loans? help is on the way from several places. goldman sachs and warren buffett are investing $500 million together to help 10,000 smal

i'm jennifer westhoven. the bill that was passed by the senate is meant to extend jobless benefits up to 20 weeks. well, that's helped for a lot of people, but they also tucked something in there if you're thinking about buying a home. now, you should know that economists say that that big $8,000 tax credit, it has helped stabilize the housing market for now. the irs says so far about 1.5 million people are trying to take advantage of it. but it was due to run out at the end of the month. but it has now been extended. it will last all the way through june. now, you know the first part. first-time homebuyers qualify for up to $8,000 back in your federal income taxes. but here's what's new. if you've been in your home for more than five years and you own your home, and maybe you've been thinking, i'd like to move, but the housing market's pretty difficult, well, you could qualify for a $6,500 tax credit. the senate also raised the income cap up to $225,000 for a couple. >>> okay. you want a smartphone, maybe o

jennifer westhoven is looking out for you. jen, hundreds of thousands of pounds have been recalled already. >> i think a lot of times in the recall you go, well, i don't have that kind so i'm not going to worry about it. listen to this because it was sold as store brand meat so you might have this in your freezer and it's something to be really careful of. two people have died. 28 have been sickened by e. coli. three of them have kidney failure, all according to the cdc. again, store brand meats. you want to check your freezer to make sure you don't have any of this meat. we have this picture here of fairbank farms but you're not going to see that on the label so don't even think about fairbank farms. what you have to think about is the stores where it came from. i'm going to give you a partial list, b.j.'s, giant, price chopper, shaw's. there are a lot of stores, too. it was originally sold in the northeast, but they sold it from there on. they send it out to their other stores. so people have gotten sick in south dakota, min

our money expert jennifer westhoven. it could be anyway. >> good morning. they're trying to explain what's going on. tim geithner is saying, look, of course -- of course we care about the deficit. a record 1.4 trillion dollar deficit is too high. but he's saying we're noth start fighting it right away. the priority is to rescue the economy first. this is on nbc's ""meet the press"," the obama administration is focusing on growth and job creation. that's one economic theory, that when nobody is spending, when businesses aren't spending, when fami families aren't spending, the government has to spend to keep the economy from collapsing. again it's just one philosophy of this. tim geithner says he supports the efforts in congress to extend unemployment benefits and the home buyer tax credit and i hope if you're watching you know we've been following this so closely. maybe we'll have news on that this week coming out of washington. chrysler is shrinking again, buying out another 23,000 workers. this week, chrysler is going to lay out a five-year plan to try to

jennifer westhoven is here. what was the deal?oldman sachs bankers should just give up their bonuses and i guess put them into a pool to help people who are in foreclosures. one of the reasons that they are upset is goldman got some of the bailout money. take a listen. >> break them up, break them up. >> that was about 150 people gathered outside goldman headquarters in washington, d.c. the building they have there, their headquarters is in new york. goldman did get about $10 billion in bailout money. sips then it has paid all that money back so it is a different situation than aig where they were giving out bonuses but haven't paid the money back. >>> don't go looking to get cases of coca-cola at costco for a little while. the two companies are having a fight over prices, so you won't see many coke products at the costco warehouses. the two sides are still talking to see if they can agree, but basically costco said in one quote that coke isn't giving them low enough prices that they can then pass on a good deal. obviously costco'

money expert jennifer westhoven is here.o some of the lawmakers were really rough on him. >> yeah, robin. this is one of the meetings where the mud was flying. some of the house members say they wanted him to quit. they're in a meeting of the joint committee today. some lawmakers almost seemed to blame geithner for the bailout or rescue depending on your point 0 of view. if you remember, geithner didn't office this. that came from hank paulson. it started before obama was even in office. so it was very overtly political. keep in mind all of us may hate the idea of the bailout but geithner pointed out that it likely saved the financial markets and the economy from other collapse. geithner says treasury is working to close out that program as soon as possible. robin? >>> jen, thank you. people who plead no contest or guilty to minor offenses are going to be asked to provide $25 in groceries instead of a $25 fine for court costs. >> i think a little bit of charity, they learn there are other needy people out there. sometimes we

our money expert jennifer westhoven is here with good news in a bad economy. we like this, jen. >> this is going to be a holiday season where i know a lot of people are trying to save. but when it comes to pending, there will be great sales. sears, they're starting what they call black friday now. if you don't want to wake up at 4:00 in the morning on the friday after thkdz gifg for that craziness, every saturday through christmas they'll have doorbustder deals to get you in the door. one is this saturday, for example, a 42-inch plasma for 500 bucks, 150 off the normal price. over at walmart, they're cutting more toy prices. they already started but now some of the toys will be less than 10 bucks. toys "r" us has new incentives, too. they're really stepping up the price wars out there. you can get some good deals. >>> your favorite charity, it may not be able to help as many people this holiday season. donations are expected to fall by about 9%. that's according to "usa today" this morning, citing a charity group. and it's expected to be a bigger drop compared

money expert jennifer westhoven is here. that's a staggering number. >>> this may be taking a lot of lawmakers by surprise a. new report says -- you remember just two weeks ago, we've been talking about this, the new law passed giving 14 to 20 weeks more. very helpful for a lot of families to get through the holidays. but according to this report, maybe some lawmakers didn't read the fine print. they were doing all these extensions, drafting them on to a bill that expires december 31st. and the new report says that expiration date still holds true so unless congress does something fast all the benefits would run out on january 1st. the timing pretty awful for every job, richard, there are six people out there job hunting. back to you. >> at least. and so i guess is it hopeful they will probably pass that extension we hope, i guess. >> this is a group so we have to see what congress makes of this as well. >> right. it will be quite a debate. no doubt. jennifer westhoven, thank you very much. >>> plenty of fireworks over the h

melissa long here for jennifer westhoven. let's talk about today's extension. >> we have the president expected to sign the bill today after it passed the house and senate this week, and it will extend benefits in all states for 14 weeks. and then in states with a rate higher of 18.5%, you're going to get an extra six weeks of benefits. the bill could also boost the housing market because it extends the first-time homebuyer tax credit to june 30. it also extends a credit for current homeowners to buy a home if they've lived in their current home for at least five years. again, a possible stimulus for a very troubled housing market. and possibly three fronts, because we're going to tell you how businesses may also get a break under the new bill. that's coming up in ten minutes. >> melissa, thank you. >>> the h1n1 virus is now the most dominant flu in the world. that's from the world health organization. it has seen more cases in europe and parts of asia. in the southern hemisphere, the number has dropped as summer starts there

jennifer westhoven is looking out for you. you're talking about a recall of a million of these strollers. >>> yeah, and this is really dangerous, robin. 12 kids have lost a fingertip. they've had to have them amputated. >> that's awful. >> yeah. it's the umbrella stroller. it's nine models of the maclaren that sold in the last 2e7b years so they're common. the consumer products safety commission says it's a real easy fix. there's a little hinge and what they'll do is put a plastic cover right over the hinge. if you need more information get that free from the company, by the way, go to our webpage cnn.com/robin. we have all the links for you. >> where are these sold? >> all over the place. these are one of the most common brands of strollers out there. >> thank you. >>> one of the d.c. snipers' ex-wives believes she was his ultimate target. john allen muhammad's execution is set for tonight. the supreme court rejected his final appeal but virginia's governor could step in. ten people died. muhammad's accomplice, malvo got life

jennifer westhoven has the inside scoop. give you the run down. good morning. >> how would you like to be the proud owner of stuff owned by madoff? i don't know. all kinds of his personal items are going up for sale. boogie boards used at their beach home. post-it notes. fur coats. a blue satin mets team jacket. on the back, madoff. his rolex is up for sale. one of the models is called a prisoner's watch. >> how many did he have? >> 17. >> that's just one brand. all the money will go to madoff's victims. it is going to go for some good. robin, you're cooki ining the ty right? >> i'm working. someone else is cooking. >> the good news for everybody out there who is cooking and spends a lot of time on this, it's going to cost you less. the american farm bureau sent out shoppers to get average prices. for ten people the bottom line is about $42.91. they were looking at all the ingredients. one of the main reasons they said it's going to be cheaper is because milk costs less. also a 16-pound turkey, the price is down. what got more expensive? pumpkin p

melissa long's in for jennifer westhoven.o i wonder if the argument's about, well, you know, are they in a crowded place where they're going to spread the flu or is it because they have money? >>> let me tell you more about the angry and those angry about the decision. the wall street giants got the doses, as you mentioned, the h1n1 flu vaccine and it's for at-risk employees. in order to get the vaccine, the company must have a medical staff. so you have hospitals, universities, the federal reserve also getting doses for the high-risk employees. the state health department says giving such high doses is a great avenue for vaccinating people at risk but of course the outrage is growing. senator chris dodd, the democrat, saying, and i directly quote, the vaccine should go to people who need them most, not people who happen to work on wall street. as you know a lot of shoppers have been frugal lately buying just what they need. apparently you need shoes, pumps, boots, sneakers, shoe sales are up. robin, have you been contributin

our money expert, jennifer westhoven is out of breath, because she's just sitting down. you know, a lot of people go uncounted in the official number when it comes to unemployment. i guess it's easy to understand. when you think about the biggest count that we have are the first-time unemployment numbers. but what about the people that have run out of benefits? >> that's right. >> that's called the big stretch. >> people right in to say i know 10% doesn't feel right, that it's higher than that. what's going on? people aren't getting counted. that's true, because that's just the official number. there's ways they do it. for example, they don't count you if you've stopped looking for work. are you technically unemployed if you're just staying home and not trying anymore? when jobs are this scarce, it can be very discouraging to be out there every single day, trying and getting no all the time. some people just give up. you also don't get counted if you're underemployed. that means maybe you want a full-time job, your family needs a full-time job but all you can find is a p

our money expert jennifer westhoven has more on this proposal, what it will mean for your savings.>> good morning. thanks, robin. you know, you can guess his side of the back story here, right? his side is, hey, based on what happened, economic collapse, the bailout, the fed clearly didn't live up to its responsibilities in the past, so he believes that it can't do the job well of overseeing banks and consumer protections so he says forget it. you're done. he wants to strip the fed of all those powers and instead give that job to the government with a raft of new agencies. hmm. that's according to this morning's "washington post." but dodd says in his view it's necessary to protect the economy. >> we will end for all time, i hope, too big to fail. those words should only be used again in historical context. we cannot allow the collapse of a few firms to threaten the entire economy of our own nation and others around the globe for that matter. >> remember, the fed -- i think a lot of people think of it as the government but it's not. ben bernanke, the chief of it, he is appointed by

jennifer westhoven introduces us to churches in cyber space. >> thanks, holly. it seems you can do almost anything online these days. what about using your computer to meet with your higher power? a lot more people are doing it. we have a lot more people revisiting the whole concept of what church means and how do age-old rituals like baptism and communion, you who do they work in the virtual world? we wanted to ask these questions. we're going to talk to the pastor of lifechurch.tv to get some insight. craig rochelle, thanks for joining us. let's say it's sunday morning. when i imagine church, i see those high ceilings, people are singing, everyone together is kind of aspiring for something else. how do you create that in front of the computer? >> we tried to answer some of those questions a few years ago when we started, and we were blown away at how people could actually worship along and have genuine community and connect in a very spiritual and very real way with an online church. >> and what about the sacraments, which, you know, for some people i think th

our money expert jennifer westhoven is all over this one. >> good morning. walmart wants to make sure that when you think about black friday you think about getting your crazy deals on and that safety is not an issue at all. that it's all handled. the "new york times" reports that walmart hired crowd experts who have done events like the olympics and the super bowl just to make sure they have different plans for every store. but the biggest change that you would see -- and this could make a difference if you're somebody who likes those doorbusters -- instead of waiting outside and then everybody stampedes into the tvs and pcs when with the doors suddenly open, walmarts are going to open a lot earlier, thanksgiving overnight, so you can meander into the store whenever you want and there will be a line inside. you get in that line. the line is supervised so nobody will be cutting. and people get aggressive when that starts to happen. when 5:00 a.m. rolls around, the line is inside, everybody is in place. things are calm. i think it will be a change but it will

get more money advice from jennifer westhoven on "morning express with robin meade." you think, can you get in trouble for throwing paper during a ticker tape parade? some people did k just that during the yankees parade here in new york, but they may have picked the wrong paper to throw. uh-oh. ♪ o christmas tree >>> the capitol hill christmas tree has begun its journey to washington. the 3 is an 85-foot blue sfrus harvested from the mountains of northeast arizona. the 7,000-pound tree is now on a statewide tour of arizona and will arrive in washington on november 30th. the tradition of having states provide a capitol christmas tree started nearly 40 years ago. this is the first time the tree has come from arizona. >>> someone paid about $54,000 for the hat worn by the man who shot lee harvey oswald. jack ruby's fedora was on the auction block in arizona. the auction came weeks before the 46th anniversary of the event. >>> for most of his career images like this at the 2006 masters have been hard to come by for phil mickelson. usually it's tiger woods getting the bes

money expert jennifer westhoven here talking about that.ood news for ford today. >> good news for ford. and they've been looking a little bit better. they got some good ratings in "consumer reports" lately for quality. now here comes the bottom line. a billion dollars in the latest quarter. and of course that's from their sales all around the world. they also did better here at home in north america. i tell you, that is rare. detroit hasn't been doing well at home for quite some time. they've been losing money. so for the first time in four years, ford made money in the united states for the quarter. of course that's partly because of some of the big sales due to cash for clunkers helping the ford focus, the ford escape. you may not think of that as a green car but it met the rules. ford believes it will do fine even though the program is over. it says it will be solidly profitable in 2011. that's good news for not just detroit jobs but detroit spirits in a way. >> absolutely. i spent a lot of time in detroit inside the gm facility and it p

jennifer westhoven's here. this is kind of difficult because it's not just under one brand name here. >> yeah. you know, if you've got this in your freezer, a lot of times people put it away, forget about it. people have gotten sick in massachusetts, maine, connecticut, new hampshire. if you want to check about this, if you live in the northeast, and you bought store brand ground beef at any of these grocery stores, b.j.s, trader joe's, there's a few more local stores, too, you can either take it back, just throw it out. just don't eat it. the code to look for est 492. if you don't have time to go ahead and grab a peb, check our website, cnn.com/robin and it's in the looking out for you section. be safe. >>> cit has filed for bankruptcy. one of the biggest bankruptcies in u.s. history, headlines over the weekend. you may be thinking cit, i've never heard of them. this is a huge behind-the-scenes lender in our economy. they are the lender for more than a million small companies out there. trying to get through h

but jennifer westhoven's here.ng to show you that they were rough on him. >> of course, people are angry about the bailout or rescue, depending on how you feel about it. some telling geithner he should quit, almost blaming him for the whole package, which was engineered by hank paulson. geithner said he, too, hates the idea of the bailout, but that it likely saved the financial markets and economy from utter collapse. he did say they're working to close that program out as as soon as we can. that was his quote. >>> you know how once a year you've got that meeting with your boss. then at the end, they tell you what your pay raise is going to be for the next year. well, you just might get a little raise. a survey showing that more companies willing to spend a little bit. last year's average raise was just 1.8%. but this year, it's going to be 2.5%. last year of course, most of the headlines were about job cuts and reduced hours, so things looking better. robin? >> thank you. >>> all right. fit nation. in today's fit

i'm jennifer westhoven looking out for you. >> thank you, jen. you can get more money advice from jennifer westhoven each week day on "morning express with robin meade" from 6:00 to 10:00 eastern. >>> its writer got slapped with a dwi. his recliner is on ebay. and you won't believe how high the bids are getting. >>> a robbery suspect is in critical condition after a group of people reportedly beat him up. phoenix police say justin pear broke into an apartment late friday night and tried to rob a man at gunpoint. when pear told the men not to move or he'd shoot the man took off. and that's when neighbors stepped in. >> when i came out i seen the gun, i told my kids, get me my bat. and i went out there, we cracked him with the bat >> he deserved whatever he got. he pointed a gun at us saying give us your money. he meant business. >> three victims had minor injuries. pear has a skull fracture and other life threatening injuries. >>> a marine who recently returned from afghanistan says he was a bit overwhelmed by the reception he got from a third gra

jennifer westhoven is here. we're seeing more proof how bad the job market is. >> thank you, richard. just about half an hour ago we found out that more than half a million americans filed for unemployment for the first time, so we're still at the lowest levels for the year. minutes ago more layoffs, aol said it will cut about a third of its workforce, about 2300 jobs. these new numbers come as we find out a million americans may lose their benefits in january unless congress does something because of the big mistake, you remember that new law passed two weeks ago, supposed to mean 14 to 20 weeks of unemployment benefits. but it's part of a bigger law that expires december 31st. a nonprofit group says a mill lob people would ends up on their own, no job, no assistance. richard one expert told cnn that getting a job right now, your charnss of getting a job are the same as getting into harvard. >> we're expecting a bitter fight to begin today over the health care reform bill that senate democrats just unveiled yes

our money expert jennifer westhoven is here. that sounds like good news.ou say not in all cases. >> this is one of those -- i want to say it's good news. you're going to see headlines that say it's good news. really it means we went from an "f" to a "d." it's improvement. if you owe more on your house than it's really worth, it's called under water. in the latest quarter, fewer people are under water. i guess that's good. by fewer, what we mean, though, is that it went from 23% down to 21%. that's still a lot of mortgaged homes that are in trouble. plus, this was put together by zillow. they said one of the big reasons that the number went down is because a lot of the people who were under water last time lost their home to foreclosure. so they're not counted in the numbers anymore. still, they did say home prices had stabilized in their latest reading on prices. so that's a good sign. but, you know, it's really hard to read the housing market lately. i can tell you all these numbers and show you signs of improvement, but there are plenty of people who bel

what gives, money expert, jennifer westhoven?hat they don't want to buy a lot of toys but they're scared. retailers are worried that you might not spend. look, they're in trouble, too. they can't afford to get stuck with a lot of leftovers. they can't do a lot of over-ordering. so they've been ordering in small batches instead. we're seeing it in toys. but it goes for all products. this is the mechanical hamster that runs around in a mill maze and eats food. when it goes to the bathroom, which isn't messy, there's a little flushing sound. >> oh, how cute is that? >> they say you can even kind of train them. they have a computer chip in there or something. but it may be hard for you to find them for the holiday. other toys are getting hard to find like mattel's mind flex and barbie fashionista. >>> maybe you'll get to thanksgiving on time this season if this trend keeps up. airlines had their best on-time rate in six years in september. that is good news for fliers. but it's not necessarily because they suddenly made some changes

our money expert jennifer westhoven is looking out for you. the extension cleared another hurdle yesterday, right? >> this is one step closer to reality. and i know a lot of people are going, when is it going to be real? not yet but actions happen. the senate hammering out this bill for up to 20 more weeks of jobless benefits that could help millions of out-of-work americans through the holidays. in fact, we're at nearly a record now. in some places you could get 99 weeks of benefits. the bill in the works would also extend that first time home buyer credit through june. a lot of republicans signed on for that part of the bill. the whole thing would likely cost about $20 billion. so it's expensive but lawmakers want to get this done before friday. on friday is when we get the big employment report and the headline could very likely be that we're at 10% unemployment. so that would be the worst since about 1983. we've been watching that very closely. so i think they want to be very sen sensitive to the plight of americans in trouble. your favori

our money expert jennifer westhoven has more on how this would work. good morning. >> good morning.hink you hear higher taxes and you go, whoa, what are they doing? are they cutting into my paycheck again? yes, but the democrats only for the risk. harry reid is considering higher taxes on the rich to help pay for health care legislation. that's from a democratic source. by rich they have a new definition f. you make more than $250,000 a year. so one option they're looking at or he's looking at would be to raise payroll tax that is go to medicare. right now that's about 1.4% of your income. no final decision has been made but of course we keep watching as the health care debate goes on and here we see an idea that could have a direct impact on your paycheck. >>> so you go to the pharmacy, maybe to pick up some medicine, some snacks, are you checking the expiration dates on all your products? i don't always remember to. well, maybe we all should. cvs is going to pay $875,000 settling claims in new york that its shelves had all kinds of old, expired products -- eggs, milk, over-the-cou

jennifer westhoven is looking out for you this morning.a half million pounds of ground beef have been recalled. >> yes. we talked about this story early in the week. it's gotten bigger. according to the cdc, 28 people sick, two people died after eating the ground beef. you might have it in your breezer if you bought store brand beef at any of these stores. bj's, acme, trader joe's. you might have heard us say that it was sold in the northeast earlier in the week. that's true. but now people are getting sick all across the country, all the way to california, because the stores didn't know that this was contaminated and sometimes they'll ship product to their other sister stores. so it's spreading. the contaminated beef came from fair bank farms, new york, but you won't see that on the label. to check your ground beef, if you have any of the store brand beefs, we have all the codes for you, cnn.com/robin. make sure it's safe before you serve that to your family. >>> if your phone just wonked out yesterday, you might have been part of the mas

jennifer westhoven joins us. talking about things produced abroad. a home product. >> a big win for ford. talked quality ratings had gone up this year. really all of detroit hurting for some good news. this really is some for ford and for detroit's morale. the fusion was named the motor trend car of the year. the magazine says ford did a great job of redesigning and upgrading. they gave every version of the ford fusion kudos and said you should consider it right on par with the toyota camry and honda accord. took me by surprise. not bad, not high praise, richard, but it's okay. >> when it comes to some of the make, sometimes that is not bad. >> i still think that's a great win for ford. the big thing is ford has been pulling ahead of the pack. they gn need to borrow taxpayer money. really the deal is how will gm and chrysler do? still, right a good sign in detroit. we'll take it. >>> here's other good news in a bad economy. one of the biggest problems in the job market, as we know, that small businesses can't get loans. and this sounds simple, but si

jennifer westhoven, thank you. >>> what about this story? how young is too young for social networking websites? there are a few hard numbers on this. but researchers say more and more preadolescents are using myspace, facebook. just three years ago 61% of 12 to 14-year-olds said they had an online profile. some scientists say the websites could damage kids' relationships and brains and cause internet addiction. have you thought about that? others though, they say this is just harmless stuff here. >>> right now, voters deciding critical close elections. in fact, in one race, a woman might become the first openly gay female elected mayor of a major u.s. city. >>> plus, a mother describing the horror of watching her baby fall right in front of a train. there's the video. amazingly, the baby is okay. >>> we told you it's election day for a lot of you. we're talking about atlanta, voters there could elect their first white mayor in more than three decades. mary norwood is one of the front-runners and lisa borders and reid. no n. new york city ma

i'm jennifer westhoven looking out for you. >> thank you, jen. you can get more great money advice from jennifer each weekday on "morning express" from 6:00 to 10:00 a.m. eastern. >>> oh, its rider got slapped with a dwi. now his motorized recliner is on ebay, and you won't believe how high the bids are getting. >>> a robbery suspect is in critical condition after a group of people reportedly beat him up. phoenix police say justin pear broke into an apartment late friday night and tried to rub a man at gunpoint. when pear told the man inside not to move or he'd shoot, the man took off. that's when neighbors stepped in. >> when i came out, i seen the gun. i told my kids, get me my bat. i went out there, we cracked him with the bat. >> he deserved whatever he got. he pointed a gun at all of us, saying give us your money. he meant business. >> three victims had minor injuries. pear has a skull fracture and other life threatening injuries. >>> southwest airlines is saying it's sorry for kicking a mother and her toddler off a flight. the crew booted t

i'm jennifer westhoven. we start with the shooting tragedy at ft. hood, texas. here's what we know. a local muslim leader says in a recent conversation with major nidal hasan he seemed almost incoherent. he said hasan never expressed anger toward the army but said something didn't seem right about him. investigators say hasan fired more than 100 rounds from two hand guns yesterday. 13 people were killed. two dozen of the 38 people wounded are still in the hospital. many are in intensive care. hasan, who was shot four times by a police officer, has been taken to brook army medical center in san antonio. he's in critical but stable condition and is under heavy guard. the flag-draped remains of the 12 soldiers and one civilian killed thursday were flown to dover air force base in delaware last night. autopsies are being done there. >>> it's not clear whether religion played any part in the ft. hood attack. muslim leaders are speaking up and they're among the harshest critics of the alleged gunman, nidal hasan. some not only condemn the crime, they also say they are okay with having mor

i'm jennifer westhoven.als were held across the country today for some of the victims of the fort hood shootings. hundreds lined the streets of plymouth, indiana this afternoon to pay their final respects to staff sergeant justin decrow, a formal military escort carrying his body through the streets. most folks didn't even know him but they still wanted to come out and say good-bye. decrow leaves behind a wife and child. friends and family are also saying good-bye to captain john gaffaney a psychiatric nurse from the san diego area. he will be buried at the fort rosecrans national cemetery. a funeral is also being held today for private first class aaron nemelka in utah. members of utah's congressional delegation are expected to attend. and a private funeral for staff sergeant amy krueger was held this morning in illinois. she was remembered last night at a memorial. >> i was amy's first commander, and we actually went to afghanistan together in 2003 and 2004 and i think the one thing that you recognize as y

jennifer westhoven, that could affect all americans not just the people in that state. how's that?rob nl. this is the new report showing that all these states are in peril. they're falling dramatically behind in their budgets. you you can see them in the red here. in those states, people are facing higher taxes, they're also massive job cuts. that's what affects all of us because, as they cut all of these jobs and it could be 900,000 jobs, according to pough, that's going to be a big drag on the rest of the economy. now, we're going to change a little bit because we're mostly talking about the states in peril. but there's really some good news in a bad economy in this report when you look behind the numbers. they were also looking at some of states that are doing the best. you see them there in blue. you'll notice many of them are farm states and moody says that iowa and north dakota are actually turning up and out of recession. a lot of it because of the stability in the housing market and because of the farms. because right now prices for farm products are pretty good. so that's

jennifer westhoven is looking out for us. >> as you can imagine, walmart don't want you to have one shred of concern about your safety. they want that totally handled so you can focus on having black friday be fun. to do that, they have to make sure it never happens again. "the new york times" reports walmart hired crowd experts who have done events like the olympics and the super bowl, mega events to get this under control. now, the biggest change -- and this is important if you're somebody who really likes to strat jie, who is up and out on line at 4:00 a.m. those hot, hot door busters, the tvs and pcs, the ones everybody runs for, instead of waiting outside in the cold and stampeding in when the doors suddenly open on friday morning. walmart will be open thursday night overnight, meaning you can come in whenever you want and get online inside the store. plus, the line is going to be supervised. that means no cutting in line, which is actually a really important element because people can get very aggressive. you get mad when somebody cuts in front of you. then when everybody is suddenl

money expert jennifer westhoven is here to tell us what we're looking at. jen, we're seeing more proof that the job market is really bad right now? as if we needed more proof. >> yeah. it's just the latest weekly job report. it came in, bang, the same as where it was last week. more than half a million americans filing for unemployment for the first time. we learned this morning aol was going cutting a significant number of jobs. the real headline this morning, you may remember just a few weeks ago congress signed into law, congress and the president signed into law a bill that would mean an extension of unemployment benefits. but 1 million americans may lose their benefits unless congress does something fast. that law was supposed to mean 14 to 20 weeks more of benefits. it seems like there's been a colossal mistake here. it was basically drafted on to legislation that expires december 31st. that means everyone's benefits would run out on january 1st unless something is done. a nonprofit group says that's about 1 million people who would be on their own wi

. >>> you're watching hln news and views, thanks for watching, i'm jennifer westhoven. funerals are being held today for fort hood victims. friends and family are saying good buy to john gaffaney, he will be buried at the fort rose secretary. and a funeral is under way for staff sergeant justin decrow. and a funeral is being held today for private first class aaron nemelka in utah. and a private funeral for staff sergeant amy kruger was held this morning in illinois. she was remembered last night at a memorial. >> i was amy's first commander. and we actually went to afghanistan together in 2003 and 2004. and i think the one thing that you recognize as you serve with people for any period of time, just like any family, what gets you through incredibly difficult events, is coming together as a family. >>> the funeral for private first class michael pearson will be held later today in midway. illinois and there's also a funeral planned for specialist jason hunt of frederick, oklahoma. 13 people were killed and dozens more wounded after the attacks last week. the only suspe