but now the internet has a 21st century version of that old piggy bank.'s tanya rivero helps us save like a kid again. >> reporter: one of the lessons from the current economic meltdown is careful what you buy, especially if you don't have the money. but the credit crunch doesn't mean we still can't go on that vacation or buy that new gadget. it just means we should be smarter about putting aside the money to do so. that's where sites like smartypig.com promise to help. it's one of similar websites like mint and thrive focusing people on how to save. smarty pig is simple. set up a free account, choose a savings goal, and put the extra money away. smarty pig will keep track of how much money you need to save and how long you need to save it. and if you have a large goal and need some extra help, smartypig allows you to chip in via facebook or myspace. with the click, i'm tanya rivero, abc news. >> to start using that piggy bank, head to abc2news.com you. get to smartypig by checking out the links mentioned on our on air section. >>> she gets fired only to

but, then, later came the sort of second class of muppet characters, kermit and miss piggy, fozzie bear, et al. can you talk about how henson and company came to the, you know, let's create a new class of characters, are there similarities that you can draw back to, personalities, similarities you can draw back to the original "sesame street" characters, does miss piggy represent a more evolved big bird, something zany like that, but always was the core "sesame street" and then came the muppet show crowd, a totally different class. >> okay. okay way back, when jim henson joined "sesame street" in 1969 and long before that, jim henson had an idea for a variety show, starting puppets. and had sketches of it in his sketch book and he talked to a lot of people about it and, in fact, on the day that carol spinney interviewed for big bird and oscar jim told him about the idea for a network show involving a cast of "muppets" and the show was in development in his head for a very, very long time and it became sort of like english dance hall comedy, came as a result of all of the tv networks in

on your summer cooling bills and 10 ways to got your kids ready for the fall without breaking the piggy just led to abc2news.com -- head to abc2news.com. >> franky ford is the answer. we'll talk more about the oldy goldie tonight at 11:00. >> thanks for joining us. we're back at 11:00. have a great night.

piggy banks? bottles you put your coins it? take our exercise equipment back, unused suits?tuart: whose money is it? it is not the government's. you can't make that case, quentin. you can't. >> all i'm saying is they are acting the way companies act. use it or lose it. they are taking lead from the private sector. >> this is a total perversion of state abandonment laws. they were acted so that property wouldn't lie fallow. it is not so i can't use my gift card i want to use two years from now. no reason i can't hold it two or three years. stuart: a lot of them do not have an expiration date. i make that choice when i buy the card. the retail are makes the choice. why should the government come in and impose an expiration date? >> because two wrongs make a right. in other words, they will take the money from somewhere and i would rather have them take it from people that are knowledge. stuart: this is tongue and cheek from you, i know you do not believe that. >> i do believe that. stuart: am i right again, lisa? >> you are right. it is abuse of the government's legislative po

. >>> plus, ready to fall without breaking your piggy bank? higher unemployment equals competition.ome advice for rising above the rest. so all you have to do is log on to abc2news.com and check out our financial survival guide. >>> time now to take a look at news to your health. lawmakers attempting to amend a sweeping bill to cover abortions. the amendment says congress may not impose requirements for coverage of abortion except where a woman's life is in danger or the victim of rape or incest. lawmakers say there's no way an overhaul breakthrough will happen before the august recess. >>> and how about this? a controversial plan to curb the obesity rate in our nation. a new tax on fatty foods is being proposed now by the urban institute. the group says by the year 2015, 40% of us will be obese, which is double the rate from 40 years ago. critics argue the proposed 10% federal tax on fatty foods wouldn't be fair since people who are not overweight would also have to pay up. >>> yesterday we hit our two degree guarantee. temperature 87 degrees. we blew out a lot of the clouds and it

plus, ten ways to get the kids ready for fall without breaking the piggy bank. all you have to do is log on to our website at abc2news.com and click on our financial survival guide. >>> new at 11 tonight, constellation energy has taken a huge financial hit. profits dropped nearly 90% in the second quarter. tonight at 11, we'll look at what this could mean for your money. >>> plus, how scammers are taking advantage of coupon clippers in these tough economic times. abc 2 works for you so you don't fall victim. the stories and much more tonight at 11. >>> and we are watching a line of thunderstorms move out of the baltimore area and move over on to the eastern shore. starting to clear out of there as well, though. we'll see improving conditions over the next couple hours storms move off the coast. a gorgeous day in store, 88 degrees. that's your 2-degree guarantee. mostly sunny skies. we'll have an increased chance of showers and thunderstorms on sunday afternoon, with a high of 87. it looks like a warm week ahead with highs in the upper 80s, hitting 90 by tuesday,

you're piggy backing, how did you come one the name for tour? >> i didn't. they came up with it for me. >> it's funny. >> i would have come up with the bruce bruce tour. somebody creative wanted to do that. >> now stimulus tour brings about a question, are people spending the money with the way times are to come out for entertainment these days? >> people want to laugh. i don't know about rap shows, but when it comes to comedy, people needs to laugh to keep from crying. i haven't had a weak show or a show that didn't do well. everything doing well for me, people come home happy and tomorrow face the world again. >> the stimulus package concert is tonight. it's going back to its past. a lot of history there. >> known for being clean. >> i might get a little edgy tonight to make it interesting. not like you think, just edgy but clean. i think funny is funny, you don't have to use a lot of profanity to make people laugh. it doesn't matter your race, color, i can make a baby laugh. >> you made me smile when you walked into the room. you have an engaging smile. >

and one day you go in there and that bank's heavy, it's a good-sized piggy bank and you know you putey in there, there's nothing. >> out to the lines. vicky in florida. hi, vicky. >> caller: hi, nancy. i absolutely love you and your twins are beautiful. >> i'm blessed. i am blessed. and you know, they're coming up on 2 years old. i can't believe it. >> caller: you're an inspiration to me. i watch you every night. i have been dying to ask this question for months. >> okay. >> caller: with the evidence of decomposition in the car and the nanny, which i think is a bunch of bs, how and why are they not explaining how that baby got in the trunk of that car? >> you know, excellent question. it's because they don't want to touch that one with a ten-foot pole. jean casarez joining us from "in session." everybody talks about what happened in the trunk. did she have tape over her mouth, was she gagged, was she purposefully killed, but what about why she was in the trunk to start with. >> we haven't seen it yet, but the defense is doing to attack the forensic evidence. they're going to say the

>>>> ihinki'i'd like to piggy ck on something eleanor said that this congress seems to be one of the demoatic congresse've seen. from the very outset they've aed every move the presint has madeince he ce into office. there's alread talk about tm chopng up orot passing portions of the health care policy. e energy policy they've passed satol hi as usual lan with pork and incentives, and the cap and trade poli is a pocy knows evhere else it'seen triedone where energy corporations have cheated and it's been largely infectual. there's been dcuss whether ben bernke should rema his position as head of the fed. ere's a lot of dissention and nervousness but theongressnd obama despite a lot of the promisese made is having a ry difficult time getting a majority demratic congress to go alon with the this he wants to go, and i think that's shocking to e white house and to the american people. >> which whatyou're saying, bria may lead into thetial answer eect from eleanor wr to what gallup says. i'm looking at the poll gallup di the idents truman there nixon an average honeymoon period of 26 month

piggy, pig, pig, pig. you don't have to eat it. don't order it. you think this is healthy?maybe that's god's way of sorting out the stupid people. it's not polite to talk about politics or religion, but today they come together so perfectly they make blood shoot right out of my eyes. in new jersey, the garden state, where they apparently are growing corruption, the f.b.i. arrested three may yours, for state assemblymen and a partridge in a pear tree and two rabbis in an an international money laundering scream. the group trafficked in everything from human organs to fake designer handbags. those aren't handbags! those are children's tonsils! bus loads of suspects were taken to the f.b.i. newark's field oforts, including ridgefield mayor anthony swarez who was reportedly charged with agreeing to accept a $10,000 corrupt cash payment for his legal defense fund. accepting an illegal payment for a legal defense payment. the other two may yours were charged with taking bribes. the f.b.i. said their cooperating witness laundered $3 million through rabbis and their charitable orga

. >>> former attorney in texas use public funds as a private piggy back? it is a story we broke and tonight new details and surprises. in texas, and several other states, it is legal for police to spend money seized from crime suspects but did this d.a. go too far? he used the cash to pay the secretaries to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars. gary tuchman tonight is keeping them honest. >> reporter: joe frank garza was a district attorney in south texas who gave his secretaries shockingly large bonuses. he says he had good reason to write them checks totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars. >> they were my eyes and ears in the community. >> reporter: he wrote the three women checks worth more than $1.1 million saying they were loyal and exceptional workers. the money came from a so-called forfe forfeiture fund. many states including texas allow police and d.a.s to spend the money so law enforcement can benefit from such arrests. but they're supposed to spend it on quote official purposes. the current district attorney of the county beat garza

kr you cannot use your campaign account as a piggy bank. should note just before we went on the air, politico and i think some other outlets got a letter from ensign's lawyer saying that ensign, in fact, paid $96,000 out of his own personal account, not campaign money, to cynthia, doug hampton and their two kids as some sort of a restitution. so, you know, this story just keeps getting deeper and deeper and deeper and more and more trouble for ensign. >> isn't there something about her -- i'm sorry. about the senator possibly or his office getting a job for her son or son-in-law or somebody in the family as well? something that would look, at least at the very at least, not even involving criminality, like a little bit of nepotism in this case? >> there's a political consulting firm with links to some officials in the national republican senatorial committee. which until last year ensign was running. that's the committee to get republican senators elected. >> right. >> a consulting firm that doug hampton was given a contract with. and one o

almost the 14% drop last year, but no need to rob the piggy bank of our equity to make up grades thatatter. here's the scoop from lxtv's open house. >> today i'm going to show you how to upgrade the value of your home he using technology and gadget, i have a whole table of gizmos here. let's get started in the kitchen. one of the easiest ways to take your kitchen to modern, use the same appliances. make sure they are energy star rated. in the long run, they will save you cash. in today's home, surveillance is key. you can go out and spend thousands of dollars on a kit or check this out. you can buy this baby monitor that allows me to do the same thing. completely wireless so i can set the camera up anywhere. it has night vision and i can access it through the web. i'm sure you've heard of home automation or smart home technology, often it can cost thousands and thousands of dollars to access appliances and lighting from one central location. i found out how to do it pretty inexpensively and really easily. these are call smart home links. anything you plug in, you plug into one of thes

whether it's in a bank savings account, under the mattress or a piggy bank.etimes the market stinks to high heaven. bear markets happen and when they happen you want to have a lot of cash. i think cash is one of the most underrated investments because nothing feels as good as being in cash when the market comes down! and then when the market bottoms you can put your cash to work trying to find bargains. there's always a bull market somewhere. and i promise to find it for you on "mad money" on cnbc. i like to say there's always a bull market somewhere and i promise to find it for you on "mad money." i'm jim cramer. see you tomorrow. >>> i have some road rules. stocks and high dividends can make for great investments in a troubled market. nothing protects you from downside as a safe dividend. they are a defense dividend. in a bad market a good defense could be your best offense. but remember, all dividends were not created equal. always be suspicious of stocks with ultra-high dividend because they often don't get paid. a outside dividend can be be a red flag, a

whether it's in a bank savings account, under the mattress, or in a piggy bank.to have cash on the side. sometimes the market is just awful. sometimes the market stinks to high heaven. bear markets happen, and when they happen, you want to have a lot of cash. honestly, i think cash is one of the most underrated investments, because nothing feels as good as being in cash when the market comes down. and then when the market bottoms, you can put your cash to work trying to find bargains. there's always a bull market somewhere and i promise to try to find it just for you on "mad money," weeknights, 6:00 and 11:00 eastern on cnbc. introducing the all new chevy equinox. with an epa estimated 32 miles per gallon. and up to 600 miles between fill ups. it's the most fuel efficient crossover on the highway. better than honda cr-v, toyota rav4 and even the ford escape hybrid. >>> i like to say there's always a bull market somewhere and i promise to try to find it just for you right here on "mad money." i'm jim cramer. thanks for being on the special show. see you tomorrow.

whether it's in a bank savings account, under the mattress, or in a piggy bank.the side. sometimes the market is just awful. sometimes the market stinks to high heaven. bear markets happen, and when they happen, you want to have a lot of cash. honestly, i think cash is one of the most underrated investments, because nothing feels as good as being in cash when the market comes down. and then when the market bottoms, you can put your cash to work trying to find bargains. there's always a bull market somewhere and i promise to try to find it just for you on "mad money," weeknights, 6:00 and 11:00 eastern on cnbc. i'm sorry. i can't hear you very well. announcer: does someone you know have trouble hearing on the phone? dad. dad, let me help you with that, okay? announcer: now, a free phone service shows captions of everything a caller says. i'd like to make an appointment to see the doctor. announcer: to learn more about captioned telephone, call 1-800-552-7724 or go to our website. i'll see you at 3:00! announcer: captioned telephone - enjoy the phone again! [ quack

treasury is a piggy bank for large institutions, for the aigs, the citigroups, the bank of americas of the world. now we get to an institution that serves the little guy needs some help. . >> but this is a problem, though, because every bailout then causes the very next bailout, because somebody can say, well, you bailed out those guys. why don't you bail out these guys? if we bail out cit, who is next in line? every time we do it, we find out that it's not limited to the systematically important banks, not limited to the big guys. now it's everybody step in line and get your bailout.. >> isn't it failure a part of our system? if you're going to have an efficient-free market system, isn't failure part of the system? >> i completely agree that failure does have to be par of the system, and the only issue i'm raising is the message this sends to small businesses when we have been there over and over again with an open hand to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars for the big guys, and when somebody is helping the little guys needs some help, money that seems negligible compared to

. >> piggy backing off of what mark said, some leaders on the hill, democratic leaders on the hill are saying, look at the president lean in, put his shoulder in a little bit more, something could happen. but it's also about expectations. when we talk about the numbers, the expectations of this president are very, very high. he came in, people were expecting him to change the world, and to see a little bit of a tug of war with the republican party is one thing. but within your own party, that's causing the problems. >> i think you're right. there were also a lot of promises made on the campaign trail, and he took on a lot as well. so it's not just people's perception about what they want him to achieve. mark, let's talk about supreme court justice sonia sotomayor -- nominee sonia sotomayor. she handled herself well during last week's hearings, but there are some ranking republicans who are wanting to delay her confirmation process. why? >> well, don, you know, what they're looking for is a smoking gun. we won't see a vote this week. they want another week to look into her history as a

i mean, fishies, porkes p,in piggy, is it that hard?>> yes. >> it was not a not a porcupine. >> my bad. >> david patterson's team is building the web site itself at the marine biological laboratory in woods industrial, massachusetts. >> it is one of five primary institutions working on the encyclopedia. >> these two, these are a completely different species, they cannot be similar. >> so smithsonian is involved. >> the smithsonian institution, harvard university, field museum, ourselves here at the marine biological laboratory and aiuonportsom of libraries. >> today, the site has basic web gepart for 1.4 millio species, the goal is to flesh them out. ian wilson will contribute his own research on ants, all 14,000 species. >> the ants are mounted on little slivers of paper. >> little ant shish kabobs. >> that's right. >> the larger group will come from you, the public. >> a lot of out there have a lot of enthusiasm and using their cameras and they have great eyes and they have lots of knowledge. >> but according to garrett boresy directo

savings rates up and energyy pces up an wagestagnant an crerett cacardimits flat anand ee home equity piggy bkk ne, a d't see good news in terms of consumer s speing any time soon. hangng sd thth, , vi impressed with how consumer eleltrtrons agnsnst e backdroro held up an inin particular, the ararea we inin wchsroviding great cocostfffficnt services and we give you fivive million pieces y cacan' g on blble sasateitit anand the notion ofof people ending more time atat home o ou of necessityty becauseofof l le digressiononarspspd suggest one of the cororne t tha benefit by this very difficiculcoconser spendidi e envonment. >> a good se at end of that forecast. >>>>e brought it home. good to see you. see you at the 4th anannirsrsy. >> always great to be at the alma mater. >> take aooooktmetals. they have beenenebounding and a bit of a a weaker ddolr.r. stococks holding their own andn positive. what does the rtt of the trading day okok like e fo investors. have mavens fromboth sectors t tl you. >> the i iide track onn nascar and how isis amerericss spt ovovhahaulg business? we get bind the wheh

we have new home sales up 11% and existing home sales up 3.6% and home prices are up and that's my piggy bank. i love that. >> that's right. >> and the low interest rates. what are your thoughts on what's happening in the market? >> home affordability has come down dramatically. i always use california as the example because the home prices were the highest there to get a house that was $6,000 and to put 20% down you had to put a lot of money down and carrying cost was $11,000 a month. now that same home in the $250 range and your interest rate is lower and that carrying cost $1,500. for a whole lot of people, what this recession has meant is an opportunity to get into a home and that's what you see playing out across the country. maybe prices will go down further but it's affordable now and they'll be in it for 5, 10, 15 years. the trick here is interest rates. they're starting go up. if they stay in that 5% range, you'll see more of this and that will drive this recovery back and cause people to build homes and cause people to be able to sell their homes and get their mortgages paid of

hey, look, for a lot of us, our principal investment and we need the home to be our piggy bank, again. i'm sorry, i shouldn't say that. >> that is exactly right, tony harris. listen up, home prices rose in may. >> come on. >> home prices rose in may. and we had not seen a month-to-month increase since the summer of 2006. what's more, in this report, that's a case-schiller report. 20% showed increases. the prices are still cheap. in fact, the economists in this survey say prices are still at 2003 levels. good time to buy. we like the trend. the pace of declines we've also seen a decline in this report. yet, more evidence that the h e home, the housing market, which is the root of this problem here, is bottoming out, tony. >> you mentioned it, good time to buy, if you have a job. here's the thing, the federal reserve just recently said unemployment could top 10%? >> oh, yes. look, it's a good time to buy when you have a job, anything, whether it's a house, a purse, a suit. and that's one of the problems for the overall economy. consumer spending. the engine. in terms of buying homes, ye

medicare should be strengthened for future generations, not used as a piggy bank to fund more governmentgrams. and as for tax hikes on small business owners, this is the very last thing we should be doing to the people who created approximately two-thirds of america's jobs over the past decade at a time when the unemployment rate is approaching 10%. according to the president of the national federation of independent business, some proposals currently being considered in congress could kill more than 1.5 million jobs. and there's strong evidence that low-wage workers, minorities and women, would be the hardest hit. in the middle of a recession we should look for ways to create jobs, not destroy them. we should be looking for ways to help workers, not hurt them. now, americans do want health care reform but they don't want so-called reforms that could cost trillions of dollars that could increase insurance premiums or this could cause millions to end up with worse care than they have now. and they certainly don't want to slap together plan that's paid for on the backs of seniors and small

yet, this is precisely what some are proposing, that we use medicare as a piggy bank to pay a significant portion of the administration's plan for health care reform. well, in my view, it's a terrible idea. and on the 44th anniversary of this vital program that roughly 40 million americans rely on each day, i think it's important to explain why. here's how one of the proposed cuts would work. right now if a senior citizen on medicare needs surgery, his or her hospital stay will likely be covered by medicare. and because health care costs go up each year, medicare provides for annual increases that ensures that hospitals and other providers are able to keep pace with inflation. what the administration and some democrats in congress are now proposing is that we reduce or even eliminate this annual increase, thus, cutting the amount of money we spend on medicare, a drastic measure that would have serious impact on our hospitals and the communities and patients they serve. it would be one thing if these cuts were being proposed as a way of strengthening medicare. the simple fact is that medic

all the insurance people and congress people are using the americans as a big piggy bank.eople die every day for lack of health care. this is a big racket. this continues the cash cow for the insurance people and congress. this is criminal. you have to take costs of health care otherwise it is a big joke. host: taking profit at of health care. guest: we have to emphasize patient choice and the ability for us all to see the doctors we want and provide the care doctors believe is necessary. the real question is, how do we facilitate that? last night we heard from the president was not much detail as to how he thinks the government can step in and do it better and bring down costs so people can have more access. what we do know, however, is the more patients understand what is involved with the procedure the more they understand as far as what options they have are available, the more they can talk to the doctor and allowed their doctor make the decision. that will provide better care. that is the direction we need. casting blame on folks who say, on some -- the president sai

then, that perhaps the other side of the aisle, the pro-choice or the pro-abortion folks are really piggy backing on to a bill that has nothing to do with abortion in order to reach their goals, their aims that they perhaps have been trying to attempt for many years? mr. pitts: they know, in response to the gentleman, they know that if the bill is silent on the issue of abortion, they will control who is appointed to the benefits advisory committee, and they have expressed their intent from the president on down to all the organizations who have lobbied for this health care bill, that they intend that abortion will be a basic essential service. and so they are relying on that advisory committee, on the secretary of health and human service, on the courts, on the administrators to guarantee that this will be provided. friends, this is the big battle for our time. this is the greatest simple rights -- civil rights issue of our generation. if we lose this battle, it's over. now is the time for all citizens to weigh in. if they don't want their tax dollars used to set up this massive abortion

. >> well, i would like to piggy back on dr. dobson's point.s i indicated, in my introduction, i am the president of the american educational research association, which is the largest association of educational researchers actually in the world and aera has now gone into collaboration with other international associations from around the world, to form what we now call the world educational research association, wera and as we were pulling together our representatives from these bodies from across the world, the scholars in the u.s. kept struggling over the question of, we have to make sure that we are able to translate, when we have meetings, et cetera and when we had the first meeting with these scholars, from around the world, it was not only the fact they all spoke english but they often talked, particularly, in europe, of having conferences in english. and, it just seemed sort of a minor detail to them, the idea that somehow people didn't speak more than one language. i think that there are three or four sort of big ideas that i'm going t