here to end the guessing, the secrecy, the mystery is scott cohn and a special guest. scott?, kelly. you know, we've been crunching numbers for months looking for a state whose business climate is solid as a rock. 50 states, 56 metrics, 10 categories of competitiveness. who is america's top state for business? dekalb school of the arts choir, tell us, please. ♪ georgia, georgia ♪ the whole day through ♪ just an old sweet song keeps georgia on my mind ♪ >> reporter: from stone mountain, let's take a look at georgia's climb to the top. for eight years in a row -- >> our top state among america's top states for business is -- >> reporter: -- we've criss-crossed the country. >> i've been standing outside all day long. >> reporter: putting every state to the test. >> america's top state for business 2012 -- >> america's top state for business 2013 -- >> reporter: and this year, a new champion -- georgia. the peach state, the cream of the crop. with 1,659 out of 2,500 points. it's a big jump from georgia's eighth-place finish last year. georgia's best category, its workforce, tops

the ones at the very bottom, our scott cohn is rounding them up for us, what they need to become morefriendly. they got their eye on the prize for 2015, scott? >> reporter: that's right, kelly. we are still in georgia the top state for business. we told everyone about that yesterday. we are at the varsity, which builds itself as the largest drive-in. they serve two miles of hot dogs every day. i had my share, good stuff. yes, there are 50 states. we rank every one [ music playing ] . >> connecticut, the constitution state may want to amend its business climate. connecticut comes in 46th, down a foch from 45th last year. it's one of the most expensive states for business and for life in general. at 47th alaska with the worst state economy and some of the highest calls. state 48 is west virginia. it's legal and regulatory climates verge on hostile business. one reason the state ties for last in access to capital. hawaii, last year's bottom state for business climbs, just barely, to 49. it's one of america's most expensive states. though that does buy the top quality of life. america's l

scott cohn, who does this study every year is live at the top state. scott?k about a smart audience, there's interesting guesses out there. and we'll see where these people have them right. remember, we rank all 50 states on 56 metrics in ten categories of competitiveness. im time for the runner-up. here is state number two. >>> texas, the lone star state is number two this year. texas scores 1641 points. that's an improvement over last year when texas also finished second. but texas is second to none for consistency. in the eight years we've been rating the states, a three-time winner of america's top states for business. 2008, texas. >> 2010, texas, and 2012. >> yeah, you've got it, it's texas. >> governor rick perry has practically invented the personal war between the states for jobs. >> texas is calling, your opportunities awaits. and he relishes the competition. >> it makes you get up every day and work harder. we don't take any time off. >> the best category, the economy and infrastructure, and texas comes in-second for technology and innovation. the w

scott cohn is in that state right now with a look at what this annual study is all about without revealinger: that's right. we're going to keep the suspense up over the next 24 hours or so. this is the eighth time we've done this. 56 metrics for all 50 states in ten categories of competitiveness. here's how it works. the competition is growing. >> this is texas governor rick perry. >> reporter: growing nasty. >> when you grow tired of maryland taxes squeezing every dime out of your business, think texas. >> reporter: which states back up the tough talk? >> why is our arizona-based company relocating manufacturing to upstate new york? >> reporter: we put all 50 to the test in our exclusive study. we measure the cost of doing business, including taxes, wages, utility and rent, the economy, where are the jobs going, which states had the healthiest housing markets and the healthiest balance sheets, infrastructure, roads, rails, ports and airports. which state has the best workforce and the best quality of life? we look at technology and innovation, including scientific, medical and agricultura

senior correspondent scott cohn is live in the top state, which he will reveal -- oh, you're going to able to go back and forth and talk yesterday scott because we tried to figure out, you know, if it was texas every year, we have to sort of look at different things, or virginia, why wouldn't virginia win again. was it virginia last year, scott? >> last year was south dakota actually, which surprised a lot of people. and it was -- and it was because south dakota last year was because of the low costs primarily, which always carries the highest weight in our study. but i want to tell you a little bit about, this is the eighth year that we've done this. a couple years ago we ranked rhode island number 50. and the state since then came out with about 28 pieces of legislation, business reform legislation, specifically aimed at moving the needle in the rankings. connecticut, the business and industry association there has set a goal now, because they've done poorly year after year, of being a top 20 state by 2017. so we'll start to see now if any of these efforts are paying off. let's get

scott cohn reports on one that finds itself on top of a new study ranking america's top states for businesses. >> reporter: the recession hit the people of georgia where they lived, literally. georgia over built, over built badly. then the state lost more than 300,000 jobs in the housing market a mainstay of the state economy crumbled. at the worst, georgia lead the nation in foreclosures, one in every 300 homes and as late as 2011 the republican governor had this year's state of the state address. >> business is closed. buildings are vacant and the newspapers that serve as the legal organs for their counties were filled with foreclosure notices as families lost their homes. >> reporter: so what is georgia doing now on top of the eighth annual cnbc rankings of states for top business? for one thing, capitalizing on the built in advantages, even during the worst of the crisis, georgia had a well developed infa sti infrastructure. rise income may to 7.2% but that means lots of available workers in a right to work state. more important, those workers are finding jobs at one of the fastest rates

. >> scott cones's twitter followers called cohn-heads have tweeting their guesses with the #topstateseck it out on cnbc.com. scott is at a secret location today, not in a canoe this time. scotty? >> that is the scariest graphic, sue. we know from our countdown thus far that north carolina is number 5, nebraska is number 4. who is number 3? and where the heck am i? america's top state for business. a little more hints about that coming up next on "power lunch." are the largest targets in the world, for every hacker, crook and nuisance in the world. but systems policed by hp's cyber security team are constantly monitored for threats. outside and in. that's why hp reports and helps neutralize more intrusions than anyone... in the world. if hp security solutions can help keep the world's largest organizations safe, they can keep yours safe, too. make it matter. >>> our senior correspondent scott cohn is counting down cnbc's top states for business. time now for number 3. scott, take it away. >> reporter: hi, sue, a lot of people probably take it for granted, but this is a really beautiful

scott cohn is in the top state with a preview and a friend. so, who is going to be america's top state for business this year? we're not going to tell you yet but we are tweeting about it. we're hearing from a lot of you on twitter at #topstates and we want to keep hearing from you. this is a serious issue, issue of competitiveness among the states. every year we tweak our metrics to capture all of the issues out there. one of the things we looked at closefully technology and innovation category is agriculture. the critical issues of competitiveness there, it's important, it's a huge industry, $7 billion a year in federal grant money, cutting edge stuff, competition between the states is intense. talking genetics, biotech, gps-guided planting. >> the precision of the satellite connected to the seed tracker is so good that they can just save so much money, be so much more accurate. these inknow vation, new economy factors are affecting agriculture. >> that's robert atkinson of the information technology and innovation foundation. we've got a lo

where in the world is scott cohn? ing ready town vail the eighth annual ranks of the states. he joined us from the mystery state with a preview. hi, scott. >> 30-plus years in television, this is a first, going live from a canoe. i'm told there are a lot of locations very similar to this in america's top state for business. we're going to have one of our first -- our first diabolical hint later on during "closing bell." we do have fun with this, but this is a very serious study, something we start early on in the year. 56 metrics of all 50 states, in ten categories of competitiveness, which i will try to recite from memoli. they are the cost of dos business, economy, infrastructure, quality of live, work force, as well as technology and innovation. let's see. access to capital, cost of doing business. i think i'm -- business. we weight the categories based on how much the states cite them in the marketing materials. basically we're testing all of the states' claims we'll reveal it tomorrow, and lots more about our meth

our scott cohn has been working the story. what do we know?> one thing is this investigation got even more challenging, bauer we're all talking about it. which could explain the pretty public questions. one theory i'm now hearing is they saw the stories coming up, and made a last-ditch attempt to shake him loose. >> i've done absolutely nothing wrong. that's why i've been fully cooperating with the fbi agents and i'm happy to do so in the future too until this gets resolved. for right now, and hopefully it will be soon, about you for right now i can't talk much about it. >> gambler billy walters seen here in 2010 says he is innocent and it is preposterous to think otherwise. carl icahn says he's never given out inside information and his record is un3w4re78ished, but the trading here does raise some eyebrows. take a look at the stock of clorox in 12011. in february carl icahn reveals he's committed at a 9% stake and the stock go up. july 14th, he launches a full-blown takeover bid, but look just before that, the little bump right before that.

thanks for the setup, scott cohn. where does this case go from here?district judge in new york, certainly a high profile cases. what do you make of the case the fact that it's in the press and that may keep them from going further like wiretaps? >> it's curious how it got into the press. certainly the suspects, targets or subjects or simply people of interest, have no reason to be leaking this to the press, so some can say that maybe the government has leaked it to attempt to stir the pot, get information flowing. >> would that work? >> it can work. >> they aren't just smearing the high profile people we're talking about? >> this may not be a matter of mr. icahn himself doing something wrong or alleged to do something wrong. lot of people who work for his organization, maybe an intern said something he or she shouldn't have. >> i come back to icahn and what would he have to gain from sharing that information, and would the government, if they were to try to bring a case, which we know is far from conclusive at this point, would they have to prove that

senior correspondent scott cohn made his way to this year's top state where he joins us now live to tellt all worthwhile, scott. >> good morning to you, scott. >> thank you for your favoriting of that. >> hey, good morning, guys. here we are. we're in the top state for business. we're not going to tell you where i am just yet. but i can tell you that this is a very exhaustive process. as much fun as we had with it in the promos that you showed before the break and everything else that we do over the next couple of days, we've really -- we think that we've developed the most comprehensive study around there about state competitiveness. here's how we decide where we are. the competition is growing. >> this is texas governor rick perry. >> growing nasty. >> when you grow tired of maryland taxes, squeezing every dime out of your business, think texas. >> which states back up the tough talk? >> why is our arizona-based company relocating manufacturing to upstate new york? >> we put all 50 to the test in our exclusive study. we measure the cost of doing business, including taxes, wages, utilit

study makes waves every rear, and scott cohn is live in the top state as the countdown rolls on, and cott? >> oh, no, that's no fun. we have to keep the suspension going. we rank all 50 states in ten categories, thousands of data points go into the study every year. moving along now with state number four. nebraska, the corn husker state, is number four this year with 1577 points and finished fourth last year. nebraska's best category is business friendliness, look at the legal and regulatory climate, third strongest in the nation, but the state finishes near the bottom, 40th, in technology and innovation. nebraska's unemployment rate among the lowest in the country at 3.6%. top individual income tax rate is 6.84%, and the state's sales tax? 5.5%. nebraska's largest employer is warner enterprises, a trucking and logistics company based in omaha. the largest industry is agriculture. remember yesterday we -- remember yesterday we talked about the agriculture technology and how that was going to play into the technology and innovation category. that did not help nebraska this year. techn

scott cohn has breaking news. >> david, the last ditch appeal to wipe out his insider trading convictioneme court denying rajaratnam's appeal a short time ago. he is serving 11-year prison sentence. this also really vindicates the u.s. attorney and his crackdown on insider trading because the things that rajaratnam challenge the wiretap evidence used to convict him and the idea that the recipient of insider trading information has to know that it was obtained illegally. the supreme court denying without explanation the last-ditch appeal. he'll continue to serve his 11-year prison term. the key aereo case, hampton pearson is at the supreme court, we'll have that if it comes out. >> thank you, let's get to the aforementioned bob pisani on the floor. more of what happens moving. >> good morning. gold and oil to the upside. metals to upside. market's on the weaker end, financials are down, some transports are down once again. other than that everybody's talking about what you mentioned, the alibaba details being filled in. what's most interesting about this, to me, people on the independents

. >>> welcome back, our senior correspondent scott cohn has more on the story rocking the world of golfre this is going to go because in part the fact that the information is out there has confounded the fed efforts to try to make the thing go forward. the reason that we know that there is an insider trading investigation going on is from golfer phil michelson who just yesterday at end of the memorial tournament in high high confirmed it and says he's cooperating. listen. >> i have done absolutely nothing wrong and that's why i've been fully cooperating with the fbi agents and i'm happy to do so in the future until this is resolved and for right now, hopefully it will be soon and right now i can't talk much about it. >> michelson has been known to play the stock market and his trading partner, so to speak is billy walters. he is a gambler basically from las vegas, a very successful sports kwbler and businessman from las vegas. he, too, said he did nothing wrong and at issue is holding of carl icahn or at least a holding from 2011. it is clorox. you may remember that he launched a takeov

our senior correspondent scott co cohn is here with the latest. >> he may have hit a snug and this is all for nothing. the snag is that the word is out, potential snag, and that complicates any undercover work in if the feds can get past that. and it would bring together two areas where pete barrara and his company have done a lot of work. 26 people pleading guilty in a single case last year. all indications are that this case is in the fact-finding stage. an attorney for mickelson says the golfer is not a target but mickelson acknowledged this weekend he's answering questions. >> i have done absolutely nothing wrong. and that's why i've been fully cooperating with the fbi agents. and i'm happy to do so in the future, too. until this gets resolved. but for right now, and hopefully it will be soon, but for right now i really can't talk much about it. >> mickelson's trading partner billy walters has declined comment. here's where carl icahn comes in. take a look at a chart for clorox 2011. they launch a bid at $7.50 a share. but did somebody like billy walters and fbi mickelson know ica