there's still ground left to be planted in the peoria, illinois, area. you go out about 40-mile radius. there's still ground unplanted right now if you go into that heart of illinois area eye tell producers where corn i know is waist high or better. they can't believe me when i say that because i know that for a fact. >> your waste is awful low, al. coming over today, i saw two things for sure. we are growing roads like cread crazy because construction is everywhere, and the biggest corn i saw was maybe about shoulder high on me. the crop looks great. agree with some of the experts right now. it looks great for mother's day. it doesn't look eat for the 4thof july. all the way from peoria clear here to south bend. >> now, corn, most critical time is probably the tasseling and whenever the ear shoots out and that sort of thing. depeck op -- depending on which weatherman, some are predicting we aren't going to have as much rain. it will be real dry and maybe we won't get corn language the nick that we need to produce the airs. what do you think, gary? i kno

peoria is caterpillar country.irm is based here and many smaller companies are suppliers. but not excel which diversified even before the downturn. half its sales are now exports. but the key, the ceo says, is in hiring versatile workers and sticking with them. >> our commitment to our employees, our employees are committing to the organization and step out of their traditional work roles and do whatever it takes to get the job done. >> reporter: that means the foreman, jeff sapp often works clean-up. >> usually a maintenance job. since we have slowed down some, we are able to do it take it on ourselves. >> reporter: workers are cross train ed those who run machines are some times designing new ones. >> you can't one day say that your employees are your most valuable asset and then, the next day, slash 20% of them. if there are other ways around it. >> reporter: carson says there could be future layoffs. his crystal ball is no better than anyone else's. but his bottom line is. even amidst the heat of unprecedented

he'll try to encourage congress to get over the political pros churing that always plays well in peoriaking. one more quick note, senator max bachas, the head of the finance committee he's been speaking to the president every day and we learned that they timelines, they talked about the progress they say they're making but we don't know exactly if the president will reflect that in his remarks. they claim they're making a little bit of progress but not many details yet. >> is it still down to three republicans, max bachus, chuck grassley, and mike enzy? >> three republicans, three democrats. what we saw today that was really important is that another republican, orrin hatch, conservative of utah, peeled away from this group. he is part of that committee too and has a record of trying to work in a bipartisan way on other kinds of health care bills over the years. today he said that what he's seen is that it looks too expensive, too big, and he doesn't believe that max bachus, who is the democrat from montana who's been in the senate forever, doesn't believe he's getting the flexibility f

money, this is the kind of company able to put them together so that the guy with a good idea in peoriae big markets they may not understand and get the money so they can get their idea on the street. that was great when the economy was strong and everyone was hiring and retail sector was booming. but then when things started to turn south, now the loan quality is deteriorating as well. and they were beneficiaries of the bailout last fall. they got a little over $2 billion, but they've been shut out of the financial rescues since then. here's where we are now, waiting to find out whether they officially got this alternate financing. >> is it also true a lot of the money for cit tra to make these loans came from big wall street firms? >> it came from the capital markets, yeah. they've been shut out of the capital markets. things have been really crazy. they've also been, frankly, making fewer loans already over the past six months than they had the year before. in a way, they've already -- it's not as if the spigot would be shut off. they've already pulled back. but it's that factoring,

catherine mehan peoria, arizona. 106. has over 50 hats. she's known as the hat lady.ell, concord, north carolina, 100. still goes on a tractor and tills the garden. secret to longevity is vitamins, exercise, and having his own teeth. now you know that is an advantage. we have catherlean, lavender of eutaw, alabama. 100 years old today. retired attributes her longevity to lots of water and eating vanilla ice cream every day. that's it, that's all. now back to meredith. >> all right, wird, thank you very much, sir. up next, al under water and searching for sunken treasure. @ >>> back now on a tuesday morning. day two of "today takes a vacation." coming to you from key west, florida. al actually snuck out of new york a few days early. you've been down here over the weekend. you had a good adventure. >> i absolutely did. spent some time with some guys living out childhood fantasies while they go searching for -- all righty. so we're going to find some gold today? >> yeah, man. today's the day. >> everybody ready? >> all right. >> we're tracking a wreck 35 miles off the c

i went to peoria, illinois. there was a project there at the airport which is critical to their economic future. funded by the stimulus bill, creating good-paying local jobs right in the heartland of illinois. more than $23 billion has been made available to fund over 6,600 shovel-ready transportation construction projects, 3,200 are underway. and if the senator from louisiana has his way, we'll stop right there, we'll start cutting back on these projects right now. that's his idea of economic recovery. over $369 million has been put into rural water systems. i can tell you, representing a state with a lot of small towns, like louisiana, they need this money to make sure their wawrkt their drinking water, is safe for the people who live there. the senator from louisiana said enough said, let's start cutting back on that. $2 million has been moved out to state governments and community organizations for weatherization and energy efficiency on low-income homes. half a billion in overdue cleanup of superfund sites.

catherine hamen peoria, arizona. 106. has over 50 hats.die. frank mitchell, cod,ornc north carolina, 100. still goes on a tractor and tills the garden. secret to longevity is vitamins, exercise, and having his own te h.te that that is advantage. calethaner,catheran, lavender on eutaw, alabama. 100 years old today. retired attributes her longevity to lots of water and eating vanilla ice cream every day. that's it, that's all. now back to meredith. >> all right, wird, thank you very much, sir. up next, al under water and searching for sunken treasure. hmmm... well... naaa... yeah! calculating for getaway. ♪ find your way to a perfect destination at busch gardens... and water country usa... where family-fun surrounds you... and world-class rides astound. start at buschgardens.com. if we don't act, medical bills will wipe out their savings. if we don't act, she'll be denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition. and he won't get the chemotherapy he needs. if we don't act, health care costs will rise 70%. and he'll have to cut benefits f