he wanted to look well for one group of people, his fans. he wanted to embrace and love his fans, more than any performer i'd ever known. >> larry: did he have hair? >> he had lost a great deal of it. >> larry: with the pepsi fire? >> yeah, but then what happened was he used tissue expanders in his scalp which are balloons that blow up the scalp and what they do, they try to cut out the scar. because he had lupus, every time they would do it, the bald spot would keep enlarging. he went through a lot of painful procedures with these tissue expanders until i put a stop it it. i said, no more tissue expanders. he had to wear a hat all the time. it was painful for him. >> larry: without the hat, what would he look like? >> a big raised ball on top of his head from the expand of tissue that was cut out. you get too much strek back with the scar. >> larry: did you see him one time without his hat? >> of course, i did. he would have a scratch in the back of the scar. the scar would get worse. i had to put a stop to it. i told michael, we have to sto

to treat women over 50. she once said she would look for an older man -- under man to bring up her children, there is no word about who will look after the twins. >>> briefly, a reminder of the main news, all 160 passengers and crew have died as a caspian airlines plane crashed in the north of iran. it was flying from the iranian capital of tehran to armenia, with mostly armenian passengers. no official cause of the crash has been given. iran has an aging fleet of planes and international sanctions make it difficult for them to obtain replacement parts. there have been a series of air disasters recently. thank you for being with us on "bbc world news." much more anytime you want it on bbc.com >>> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles. funding for this presentation was made possible by -- the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, the newman's own foundation, and the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. macarthur foundation.

you want to look at those offers carefully. if you have one credit card with a very high interest rate, it may very well make sense for you to transfer that to a lower rate card. you have to be aware that some credit issuers are charging higher fees now for the balance transfers. >> that's right. >> you want to be sure and do the math. that can take the bite out of it. >> right. i love that. okay. we had credit card reform. remember that, you know, the president signed off on that way back at the end of may and i thought life was going to get better but, clearly, the numbers are getting worse. it's obvious people are making mistakes with these credit cards. what are the biggest ones? >> well, the biggest ones are failing to stay current on your payments. i mean, that's when your interest rates can really go up and you can start to see extra fees. we've seen some credit card companies that are lowering your available credit balance so that when you start -- you may go over the limit without realizing it. >> right. and that's alwa

i think you have to look at the language. and i think it's absolutely correct there is just an incredible lack of details right now, so it's very, very difficult to make fundamental judgments. but i do think it's something investors need to watch for. >> we'll leave it there. tony fratto, great to have you on the program. michael ysshikami, we appreciate your time. up next an exclusive interview with the ceo of constellation brands. he'll explain why some big changes the company is going to be announcing are going to impact the efficiency and profitability of constellation brands. stay with us. >> announcer: here's a look at some of today's byrnes and losers. >>> welcome back. constellation brands is making a big change to its distribution network. the liquor company is consolidating, moving from more than 15 distributors in the united states to just four. that will exclusively sell constellation brands products. for more on the announcement and the latest on the company i'm joined right now in a cnbc exclusive by the presiden

we're also going to have to look at aid to local government. we're also going to have to look at employee compensation. >> the governor needs to sign up to $750 million in spending reductions by labor day, and he wants your input. he is urging members of the public to comment on the budget situation on a new website to find it. just head to abc2news.com, and look under links. >>> meanwhile, the state is cutting more than $40 million from the university of maryland system. chancellor william kerwin is talking with the president of the system's campuses to decide what to do. the board of regents vote today to allocate cuts among the institutions. kerwin will report back on how the cuts will be allocated before they're due to the state july 31st. >>> yesterday we told you virginia was closing 18 of 42 rest stops because of a lack of money. now comes word that maryland will close two welcome centers because of budget cuts. sidling hill exhibit center west of hancock is now set to close august 15th. it opened in 1991, and has a four-level geological

dramatic new details about what happened when paramedics rushed to jackson's home. the shocking look at what authorities believe led to his death. we'll show you what happens when someone is given the powerful anesthetic, propofol. >>> also, joan rivers speaks out. it's all caught on tape. she curses, she's mad, she bites it guy. but why? what is behind joan's freakout caught on tape? >>> and the olympic swimmer who has become the butts of a lot of jokes. the poor guy just couldn't keep his swim suit on. definitely will not want to miss this hilarious story. >>> that is your "show biz tonight news break." tv's most provocative entertainment news show firing up at the top of the hour here on hln.

i'm telling, he was beginning to look like the nose was normal again. total collapse of the cartilage. >> larry: in the last photos we've seen, his nose has been built up, right, he's looking better? >> yes. >> larry: was he still working at that? >> no, because i think we got to the point where he was very happy with the way he looked. filled in the cheeks a little bit. what i do with an individual patient is what i do. and what i do is just restoration work. i don't think people should look like, again, anything that's been altered. >> larry: you're not a plastic surgeon, so are you extending yourself when you do things like this? >> no, i invented injectible aesthetics. for better or worse, it's what i've been doing since 1979. i'm not extending myself. yes, plastic surgeons invented everything including the wheel. >> larry: are you on the war about injectables? >> the fda, they've gotten it approved without knowing what happens once they're injected under the skin. when you inject something synthetic under your skin, whether plexiglas, your body wil

to position themselves. you could look at the agriculture etfs, as i mentioned the energy, the financials, the tech, pretty much across the board. >> scott, does it matter. i'm going to take the other side. does it matter it's energy in particular? we're putting emphasis on this. you want to see leadership, but can it be health care, another name outside of technology at this point? >> it could be. but as we pointed out, oil is such a huge portion of the s&p. now stacy makes a great point, we've seen volatility buyers in oil names, but haven't seen directional option trades. and that may be the -- this may be a situation where it's the dog that doesn't bark is important. what this may be saying is people don't have an opinion about oil because we've seen so much volatility that even bad earnings news from oil is going to be discounted. people may well say -- oil's back above, well above $60, and we're going to -- we're going to focus on earnings going forward because now oil's fully priced. >> there's a little bit of a bac

you've got to look at all at set classes. what are the asset classes i must be exposed to in the second half of 2009 and 2010? it's not just stocks, is it? >> no, it's not. you need to be in emerging markets, have some exposure to commodities, maybe some smaller cap stocks, but especially the international markets in general. later this year the developed markets should be rebounding as well and we want to be in those. >> all right, gentlemen, great conversation as always, we appreciate it. thanks. bruce, tony, take good care. now a look at some other stories we're following on the "closing bell" ticker. stifel knick o'laus upgrades american express tie hold from a sell. concerns about amex's loan losses subsiding because of a drop-off in delinquencies. stock was strong today up 5% at 23.47. emc raises its takeover offer for date o. domain by 3.50 a share. this new bid is valuing the storage device maker at 33.50 a share. that's $2.1 billion total. the offer tops the deal data domain has agreed to with net app for $1.9 billion

to the broadcast. tonight we take a look at afghan strategy with andrew exum. he was in afghanistan for a month helping general stanley mccrystal with his assessment of the war effort and his recommendation for-to-the american leadership. >> if you look at afghanistan, there's a lot of reason to be pessimistic, to be very sober minded when looking at it, but on the other hand, i think a properly resourced strategy, especially one that builds capacity within the afghan government has a chance of success. but this is the 11th hour. at this point, we can't do anything in afghanistan that does not build capacity in the afghan... in the afghan government and in its institutions. ment. >> rose: we continue this evening with the "new york times" youngest and newest columnist in, he was ross douthat. >> the biggest long-term problem for the republican party right now is that all of the demographics that it's strongest in are shrunking and it's not just it's strongest among white, the white population is this ringing. it's strongest among white christians. the white chri

but, you know, have you to look in the long run at this thing. the linux based systems have been out for a long time, we'll have to see if they have the support for applications and when businesses look at these things they're going to look at that, and as some of our commentators see in the story, they're going to look to see if they can deal with the centralized control and the security, the kinds of things that have been built into windows over the few years. >> susie: so are you saying that microsoft doesn't need to worry about google? >> microsoft can never sit back and not worry. it's the king of the hill and everybody will be nipping at its toes. where they do have to worry, i think the net book is a short timer, i think we get bigger and better mobile phone smart phone devices, and google is a big player there, so is microsoft. so is palm, apple, there are a lot of players there. that could be the next wave. >> susie: i'm sure you'll keep us post on all that. thanks, scott. thanks scott, new york bureau chief scott gurvey. >> jeff: remembe

he was not actually looking at what he appears to be looking at. lots of people have shown it. >> schieffer: i saw the videotape. i don't know what was going on. but i must say i loved the caption in the "washington post" >> i just wouldn't want to be him at the dinner table. >> schieffer: what do these two people fellows share in common? they're both men. >> a little fun there. but the other picture was the picture from africa. he was back in his ancestral home for the trip. you know, he went to see the port where they brought slaves in. he compared it to nazi concentration camp. so that was a big moment. for him. and certainly had his family with him. and then at the same time kind of encouraged the world to spend more money on hunger. >> schieffer: 30 seconds left. i'm going to just ask you both quickly, will there be a health care bill this year? >> i'll say yes. >> schieffer: you think yes. >> maybe by the end of the year but not before the august break. >> schieffer: all right. thanks to both of you. we'll be back in a minute. trust is at the

so is that where you want to be looking, healthy balance sheet? > i think you want to be looking at healthy balance sheets primarily. and i think the bad thing is that some of the companies that people think are healthy today like some of the banks, you know, a lot of -- there's a lot of commercial real estate that's still got to get refinanced pape couple of trillion dollars over the next two years. >> that's what i'm worried about too. >> i don't think that's over yet, and i think in the back half of this year we're going to go from worrying about citicorp to worrying about a lot of the regional banks. you can't bail every one of them out. >> that's the thing. because a lot of companies have exposure to the commercial real estate market you that don't necessarily think of right off the bat. and so if we were to see a real shoe to drop this is going to be broad-based impact. >> and i think it will make people rethink, oh, well, are these banks really safe? and if they're not then where does credit go from here? because you can't keep running $2 tr

that's something to look forward to. . >> reporter: i'm sharon gibala live where they are tuning up for the third and final day of the african-american heritage festival. >>> taking a look at fourth of july celebrations in washington d.c. . >>> a big celebration for the african-american heritage festival wrapping up today. >>> sharon gibala is here with more on what is going on including anita baker there, in vogue was there. >> reporter: sound crews on behind the stage setting up and it kicks off with noon with gospel heading your way, we have mary wright here telling us more. >> we're excited to have the partnership with church of christ. health and wellness, financial empowerment and getting more information and resources to help you. >> reporter: you said that tent and area is the heart of the festival. >> we know the entertainment is a draw, but we want people to leave with resources, get screen for things plaguing our community and how to look for jobs and advance their careers. it's important. >> reporter: tell us how can people get here? parking can be tough. >> we don't encoura

>> i think you've got to look at yum as more of an international play. now that china's stimulus has been working better than in the u.s. it's about a quarter to 30% of revenues. you might as well go in now and get some of those revenues going forward. i think it's got greater legs and not just chicken legs, if you know what i mean. >> can we extrapolate the quarter on yum to other fast food casual dining players? >> we saw ruby tuesday's last week came in with really good numbers. yum was way better than expected. i think you have to look and see that the consumer is trading down, and this is just further proof of that. add to that the commodity costs are coming down, and i think you have dinner and a movie, something for trading after dark here. >> just real quick, i think burger king is something that's overlooked, despite the creepy mascot. better earnings growth and cheaper ps than everyone else in the space. >> yeah, but the creepy mascot, that's why it's cheaper, right? >> it's creepy. i don't want him. i don't like him. >> good point, patty edward

plus, can retailers pass the back to school test? we look at the winners and losers in the retail world.. as parents and kids gear up for the new school year. and....the latest harry potter movie makes its way to theaters...why fans and studios are expecting a lot from the boy wizzard...these stories and more all ahead on this edition of first business. bahoric compound caught a bit friday on tap as the dow jones industrial average rallied almost 7 percent and a few weeks old loans and it is if three for friday as we hear from three financial companies in the u.s.. if a couple of them here bank of america and city group to set the tone for the market had one friday in looking ahead to next week if the date malcolm plans that will continue to support with caterpillar 3 m and coca-cola as the dow breaks above six month highs. we have to get too big of america and general electric that third one is a big financial company despite it has is birds and aerospace and industrial utilities. the back to school season.. is the next big test for retaile

. >> the economic crisis has forced me to look back and look into it and dissect it to say, this is what we need to do to change it to do better. just a touch of parmesan. >> todd english opened his first restaurant all of 20 years ago. today he is offering 1989 prices for his meals during his throwback tuesday. >> i love the fact that we are going back. looking at the business, we have become a better business people again. >> a few blocks away, another top chef has crafted a new strategy. todd and his chef damon came up with a way to make good use of their private dining road, not booking nearly as many parties lately. >> when the seats are empty, we are losing potential revenue, so what can we do to fill our spots when normally on an even night it wouldn't be filled. >> everything on the menu is $10. including drinks. usually, it books a room for $35 a person. >> we wanted it to be inexpense i have inexpensive to draw a group of a crowd that currently aren't coming to craft. >> one restaurant gave away a two-course dinner one night. >> it would be easy for me to sit here and say, i ho

very weak and by most expectations it will remain weak for many months to come in at contains too wary consumers. and taking a look at the scorecard for your kid a sustained rally s and p 500 of 9% nasdaq up 25% in coming up in the show run talk to one money manager who stays he would hold on for more days will tell you why coming up a little bit later. but put him on the charts as well and really take a look and find out welcome happening in your portfolio. the latest response to the market meltdown by the stock cops is to permanently ban a type of trade called naked shorting....a technique that allowed people to bet a stock would drop in price without ever actually borrowing the stock. it's one of many actions taken by the securities and exchange commission in recent months, ranging from trading rules to investigative tools, looking for fraud. robert khuzami is the director of enforcement at the securities and exchange commission. a report on what went wrong at the s-e-c with madoff has not been completed, but tomorrow on the show, khuzami talks about how enforcement is changing. even if madoff had not occurred

hung around with, we don't really know. >> it would be fair to say alan ripka, we are are inclined to look at ex-boyfriends and ex-husbands and ex-whatevers, but he has not been named a suspe suspect, but what would you also tell him to lawyer up? what would you advise him to do at this point? >> the obligation from law enforcement to strike out everyone. if i were defending this person, i would depend on the fact there's no physical evidence, no witnesses. three other children with this woman. >> well, at least one other. >> we believe at least one in which there's been no prior history of any violence concerning that child. and it doesn't make any sense to assume that he murdered this woman and took this child. this appears to be a crime in which someone wanted that baby and a wannabe parent who couldn't have their own children should be the ones who are the suspects. >> okay. susan moss, again, we cannot indict this man. we don't know. what are the other options here? >> there may be other options, but they probably are fantasy. this guy has more crimes than i have rhymes. of course you

the better their balance sheets get, the freer they will be to start spending again. so let's look at the housing data that came in today. all right. we've got new home sales came in with a surprise. they were up 11% from may to june. and that is the third month in a row. a little tiny increase here. and then this is really a surprise. up 11%. the market thought it was going to be up maybe 2% so now running at 384,000 homes sold per year. that's the third straight month of increases, nice thing to see, isn't it? and now comes the to be sure. to be sure, new home sales still running way below year-ago sales. down 21% versus june of 2008. do we have that? yep, you see june 2008, a much higher rate than here. so they're down 20% or so. but you know what? i'll take it. one reason that new home sales are off still from a year ago is that foreclosures on existing homes have thrust a large numbers of homes on to the market at fire sale prices that cuts into sales of new homes. in fact, sales of existing homes as opposed to newly built homes account for 85% of the housing market. let's tak

you have to look at this fundamentally. for the first time in a long time we've seen a string of fairly good pieces of news from companies. it started with goldman sachs. then it extended to intel. csx the railroad company also had some positive comments as well. credit card companies making some positive comments today in terms of their delinquency. that also helped. so you get little pieces of information. and remember, the main thesis of the bulls. and that is that these companies have become cost-cutting giants. they have been so efficient that any little boost to the top line, any comments that their top line is going to get better will translate more effectively to the bottom line. and that is why we're getting the rally, and don't let anybody else tell you any differently. tradertalk.cnbc.com. there's the closing bell. you know who's next. maria bartiromo. >>> and it is 4:00 on wall street. do you know where your money is? hi, everybody. welcome back to "the closing bell." i'm maria bartiromo on the floor of the new y

>> you have to look at what exelon's saying. they're saying our reliant acquisition is worth $270 million. one dollar a share. we just announced last week our reliant acquisition is going to make $400 million in the last eight months of 2009. you have to ask yourself, is something that makes $400 million in eight months really worth only $270 million for the entire franchise? i think the answer to that question is pretty clear. it certainly is clear to nrg shareholders. >> they say, however, in the market, for example, these kinds of retail businesses are valued far lower than that. that ultimately there's a great deal of volatility. >> well, there is some volatility in the business. the great thing about the volatility is that it's a countercyclical business. right now while we're mired in the depths of this great recession, they're doing the best they can possibly do. for nrg's business they've allowed us to increase in 2009 from $2.2 billion to $2.5 billion which is a pretty good result in this environment. >> how is it they'r

this is a time now to look forward and to seize the opportunity that we have had. let's all work together for a broadebrighter future. [applause] >> thank you, everyone. thank you for being here. thank you so much. we are so thrilled that we can finally celebrate this victory and i am so excited to be able to get to work for the people of minnesota. i received a very gracious call from sender: maator coleman a le while ago. we agreed it is time to bring the state together. over the last 8 months, as the nation has watched this all on fold in this state, minnesota and have earned the right to take pride in the transparency and the thoroughness of our process and in the integrity of our election officials. during at the same time, families have continued to face real challenges. even though we are thrilled and honored by the face that the people of this state have placed in me, i am also humble, not the just by the closeness of this election but by the enormity of the responsibility that comes with this office. we have a lot of work to do in washington, but that is w

at it and the other way to look at if you look better system we tend to reward, we don't reward states that do more, our cost share sunset 25 percent state and local and no less than seven represent federal share and we have the option to go up to 100% heretofore is our best and is what triggers the next level. rees said per capita impact to go to 1910 and obviously katrina was off the scale and made sense but oftentimes i find that we don't look at it from the standpoint of not only the consequences of how much more is the state doing with their own money that is offsetting the cost to the federal government and only going to see the cost shared go up when is it reaches a certain per capita were in a very tight narrow part of that disaster so i am looking at how the cost sharing not only ones because of the size of the disaster by how you use it as a capability of encouraging state and local governments to a better job of managing disasters? i got acid this by the wise man, one of this as the directors of fema and asked me is there anything if they could reimburse the state and i said

to be here. love the new look of "fast money." china has done well. dr. to take her committee and go at a you can to china about the stimulus that they've enacted there. the stimulus is working in china. auto sell as are up, 36%. home prices are now up as of june. factory orders are improving. so i think china is the place to be. if we don't get our act together in the u.s., more money is going to migrate to china. one of the areas i think you need to look at when you look at china is smaller cap company names. these are names that are not state-owned enterprises. many of the largest investments like fxi primarily own these large state-owned corporations that aren't really for the shareholder, they're for the state governments. i think as somebody who believes in the entrepreneurial spirit, we look at small cap. a small cap etf hho done well this year up 50% versus fxi around 40%. a place to look at. >> you know i'm a believer, we know china has decoupled. small caps, i'm concerned about the corporates in china. the small cap level, it's as atrocious as i

to know about artscape. >>> good morning. you are taking a look at what is going to be the biggest thing going on this weekend, artscape. it's in fact, the largest art festival in the country. lots of people will be in the baltimore area to enjoy that. they have already set up the booths, but that is just one of many several streets that are closed down today to accommodate artscape. so just make sure you get out there and enjoy that this weekend. good morning, it's friday july, 17th. i'm patrice harris. >>> let's see if we can enjoy artscape this weekend, based on the weather. meteorologist steve fertig is here to fill us in. do you usually go to artscape. >> yes, i do. i didn't know that. i just learned that. >> it's the largest. >> i didn't know it was the largest. >> the largest in the country. baltimore is on the map. >> and the weather will cooperate very decently after today. today there may be snarm thundem concerns throughout the day. look for more clouds later in the day. 86 by noon. it's going to be a hot one as we quickly warm up getti

again, thank you for the opportunity to speak here today. and i look forward to answering your questions to. >> thank you very much, mr. hill. thanks to the entire panel. this is interesting testimony. i look forward to my own questions and those of the committee. mr. mcraith, i'm going to put you on the spot for the first question. in pennsylvania, we had a company that in 2001, reliance of pennsylvania, maybe you're familiar with it, mr. steinberg who took the insurance proceeds of that and that allowed him to play the role of a multimillionaire, speculator, benefactor of the working school and art maker. is that correct? do you recall that transaction? >> i'm certainly familiar with the company. i wasn't familiar with the work and school. >> subsequently that company defaulted on bonds and bank debt your and had chosen a federal regulator of its own choice because it was a holding company. how would you say the affect of what happened there with that particular company, is that a failing of the state regulation, state to state wax would that have oc

is there any obvious correlation someone can point to and say look, these laws do that? >> no. cities and states with strict gun laws don't have lower homicide rates, no. >> exactly. that's going to allow them to keep raising it. something else people are weighing in on, right here behind me it's about the media. a lot of people think what are the latest findings about the correlation between exposure through violence in the media and the violent behavior of youth today? have you seen clear correlation s between the exposure to media that contains violence and violence on the streets? >> well, it's not a very healthy culture that we live in. violence pervades for example hollywood to rap music. so it's certainly not a helpful thing. to say that that's the reason why there's higher rates of violence, that's a little bit of a stretch, i think. >> nothing concrete you can point to and say clear correlation there? >> right. >> so, professor, if you looked at this and we say that we gun laws we can't to as, as a society, reach a on what will make a difference on this. i know plenty o

>> i can't answer that question in the abstract because i would have to look at what the state of the state's law was on that question, and what the state said with respect to that issue. i can say that the question of the number of weeks that a woman is pregnant has been that approach to look at a woman's... was changed by casey. the question is: is the state regulation regulating what a woman does an undue burden? and so i can't answer your hypothetical because i can't look at it as an abstract without knowing what state laws exist on this issue or not. and even if i knew that, i probably couldn't opine, because i'm sure that situation might well is rise before the court. >> holman: another abortion opponent, texas republican john cornyn, pointed to the "washington post" article from may. it reported white house officials were reassuring liberal groups about sotomayor's record on abortion rights. >> there was a "washington post" it goes on to say, "white house press secretary said the president did not ask sotomayor specifically about abortion rights during their interview." is that

to you? >> like i said yesterday, he was always very thin. he didn't look frail to me. n michael without the makeup. unlike a lot of people without the makeup and kind of being made up as elaborate as he often was when he went out and he looked okay to me. you know, at that -- you know, i think i probably wanted to see him look well and so i did. >> larry: what are your thoughts about the will in. >> you know, there's so much, i think, chaos that's going to ensue for the next few months if not years. >> larry: a challenge by the wife, maybe? >> maybe. i think ultimately, all of us who care, and i know the ex-wife and i know the family all hope that the children's interests are first and foremost. >> larry: what about michael jackson will you most remember? >> i'll remember that he was a friend, first and foremost. that's kind of my thinking, that i've lost a great friend. he was also a brilliant and iconic artist and his talent was rooted in a lot of anguish. if you knew him, he knew that and he talked about that. it was painful to watch, but probably also in part what i

i think you also want to look into financials very cautiously. that's something that you could get some opportunity but you really need to proceed with caution. but certain areas at the lower end of the consumer, the consumer's not dead, but he is damaged. sought lower end there. and i think you also want to look at not integrated oil but some of the exploration companies that are part of that long-term capital outlay. so i think there are opportunities. i do believe the market will be higher six to twelve months from now. but i would be surprised if there is some -- the economy is going to be stimulus driven for a while. and you're right, we want to see revenue and we want to see real demand and real growth drive a lot of these. >> that's the thing. because people question the rally. you really haven't seen that substantial a change in fundamentals when you look at earnings, it's really a cost-cutting story. and when you look at even the housing market, yes, we've gone three good months of existing home sales, but you don't have dramatic shift in

time to stop trading. jim, you look great. i love to see ow a friday. why is gm still trading? why is aig trade something if either of these companies have gone bankrupt, they have thot officially gone bankrupt, but -- >> they couldn't put it bankr t bankrupt. >> one of the things and it's interesting because garry is ahead and i was reading his old book and healks about the notion and maybe there should be umpires and the government and the exchanges should be -- that stock will be san celled. worthless. they said the aig stocks will most likely be worthless. these are chops for people. this is just reading the gm's out of bankruptcy and thises meaningful? it's meaningless. someone has to protect the regular guy. they are mucmore worried about protecting the guy who makes millions of dollars. the stock should be cancelled. has nothing to do with gm. >> people are getting squeezed. two people on each side of every trade. >> it's difficult to short, but whoever is selling it and selling it will make a lot of money. it's not a stock. it's buy ag i lottery ticket for a lottery th

maybe you could give this to us in writing. when they lookt the books at merrill lynch, they realized there was a $9 billion shortfall according to mr. lewis. and then there was a $12 billion shortfall. my question to you, and i hope that you'll get this back to me in writing. how did it get from 12 billion to 20 billion. >> that is one i cannot give you in writing, i do not know. what i heard was a call with the losses were 18 billion, there are 22 billion and what i said to people, this takes my breath away. when the market here is that -- all that i could say to you is, at the end of december -- and november were the worst months in the marketplace. this was the worst month for the economy, if you look at what was happening economically, this was the worst in terms of the credit and the bank losses. when i was looking at this i was not surprised that this could have happened so quickly, but i do not have an explanation. you have to get this from merrill lynch. >> i can see this if we're talking about millions. we are talking about billions

in recent years, we have to look more at the system. the major airlines have come to rely heavily on code share arrangements with the so-called regional airlines to connect large, midsize and small cities in the u.s., in canada, in mexico to their international hubs. this is resulting in exponential growth of the regional sector of the industry. still the major carriers exert a great deal, almost total pressure on the regional airlines to provide their service at the lowest possible price. they control ticket pricing and schedules, and they regularly move line between the regional partners. this exacerbates breaking the chain of pilot experience, couple that with 160 or more bankruptcies in the airline industry and airline pilots leaving the industry because there's been no way to protect and retain that experience in the cockpit. we start over again and again. some of the major airlines even today are outsourcing their flying to the regionals, and laying off their own pilots, losing those decades of experience in the profession. these e

to politics. not with health care issues. >> hold on. when you look at the stats, combat veterans, 50% more likely to use tobacco. 37% of soldiers and 36% marines. what they find is the individual whose go into the very worst situations are far more likely to smoke. it seems to me when you want to eliminate smoking, instead of answering the question, what help do they need to drives them to smoking, wouldn't that be smarter? >> it also might be smarter to make sure our va hospitals be fully staffed, that veterans get their benefits. steve didn't complain about that. the fact of the matter is it's true. the soldiers in the more stressful frontline positions tend to smoke. that stands to reason. the question is smoking ultimately in the interest of the truths? all the health care experts inside the pentagon and the secretary of defense will come out on the side of that. >> this is the problem with nationalization of health care. the minute other people cost us money, we think we can tell them how to live their lives. you are too heavy, put tt cookie dow

to you. we hope you're doing well. >>> we are looking at a clear stand on the doppler. had a clearing of the skies last night. we saw some clouds the beginning of yesterday evening. it started to clear out. 49 degrees in pennsylvania. 20 degrees warmer downtown. we see the variable temperatures this time of year. 63 degrees out at the airport. 72 degrees on the shores of ocean city. we are looking at a 44 degree dewpoint reading. this is a late winter or early spring breeding. a dry air mass is in place. around a central maryland, a dry air mass is dictating the things. our high today is 84 degrees. we are looking at and 83 degree reading around ocean city today. mostly sunny skies. out of the northwest with the clock was flow of high pressure. winds on the bay will be out of the northwest at 5-15 not in some places. pour water will be 1 foot. no concerns for boaters today. the record high was set back in 1954. the low was around 58 degrees. we are not very far from that. most of our suburbs are around 857 degrees. the winds are stay out of the northwest. we are saying

it was initially to look into barry's actions and stems from a city contract awarded to his then girlfriend look into contracting done by all 13 members if the investigation takes him there. >>> wall street is on a whipping streak as a number of companies have released better than expected earnings reports. courtney reagan is live with today's business headlines. good morning. >> reporter: good morning. it hasn't been quite as rough for the earning season, at least yet, that many people thought we would have. futures are sharply higher thanks to what we heard from intel last night. the chipmaker reported better than expected earnings as demands for computers has picked up. that spread the asian market higher overnight. europe is also positive today. earnings will take a backseat to economic data today with reports on consumer prices and industrial production, we will also get the minutes from last month's fed meeting this afternoon. the dow will start off at 8359 after gaining 27 points on tuesday. the nasdaq rising six points to 1799. >>> and boeing is reportedly cutting about 1,000 defens

>> yeah, because it's going to look like a powder puff room otherwise. sean: you're saying don't let your wife design the house, step up, stand up to her. >> certain rooms you guys should work together on, things you feel are important to you, you should probably take control. take control. take control. sean: take control. tv's. >> take control. because they would rather have -- you probably should split that. if you can cook. if you can't cook -- sean: what about the warning machine and drier? >> that's for the housekeeper. sean: not everybody has a housekeeper, keyshawn. you're going to vote republican in the next election? >> are we finished with the show? sean: all right. good to see you. thank you for being here. coming up our conspiracy series is back. is there a werewolf on the loose in wisconsin? residents say it's been lurking for years. we took our cameras there. that story and much more coming up straight ahead. . could buy 300 bottles of water. or just one brita filter. ( drop plinks ) brita-- better for the environment and your wallet. a day

some of the things we're going to have to look at, we're going to have to look at end of life care no matter what your age is. no matter what your age is. to what extent should the fund heroic measures that do not immediately improve or extend life. that's based upon the physicians determining that, not based upon some government employee determining that. so we need to recognize that, because that's a big part of cost. yes, we need to be able to get a lot of administrative costs down, leverage technology. if we're going to have to spend money on technology, we've got to require people to use it as a basis of getting paid. if we spend all the money on technology and say, gee, we'd like you to use this but you don't have to use it, that doesn't make any sense. same thing like evidence-based medicine. we need to be able to tie medicare payments and federal government program payments to that or else it's nothing more than a recommendation. and that won't work. >> david is going to be with us for the next two hours. we're going to be talking about this and other issues. >> any comments o

i'm trying to look on the bright side of life. out of seven is a great entage. >> let me give you a factoid. pawe brought that thing up from 17 to 20, we would have hit the bottom of the 1990 downturn. >> i will start calling you dior. >> a long way to go with housing and getting back. >> i see that you are buying energy and technology. why are you buying energy if you are worried about that stuff? >> keep in mind i could be wrong on the short-term and that's all within the correction that i'm talking about in the context of an ongoing bull market. when investors start to get wind of the fact that the economy recovers, oil prices are going back to $75 and probably higher than $75 and technology, spending on technology and equipment and software in the economic reports that you look at for 2010 will be strong. technology and energy are the two places to be as soon as we get through the period of consolidation and correction or whatever you want to call it. >> thanks, gentlemen. appreciate t. straight ahead, earnings versus numbers.

i want to look through these again. hold on. just trying to get the numbers.. 28 cents a share, net income of $2.7 billion. and the top of the report, taking a look at some of the things -- the bid/ask is moving immediately. 36.70 on the bid. it was a 36.20 on the close after yesterday, up about $1.60. 36.70 to 37 opinion. >> and earnings, we saw this with the gold marn numbers, the amount that it -- the earnings per share were reduced by the payment they're saying was 27 cents. without t.a.r.p., would that have been 28 or 27? a loss of 27 for the tarp repayment. the fdic's special assessment, that created a loss of 10 cents. so we'll weigh you through and get numbers on that because -- >> but since the last time we saw this, the analysts usually know about the t.a.r.p. so the clean number is probably still the 28 cents which is -- you know, i hesitate to say it, you know, it's eight times, they beat it by a factor of seven. people were saying that they had to beat this handily because of the runnup that we've seen. 28 is strong

the next one begins, you begin to look at those numbers pretty closely. >> stand by. i want to remind our viewers, 10:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow morning, we'll be here, we'll be covering this hearing. the history of the next supreme court justice will take place. you'll see it all unfold throughout the coming days right here on cnn. stay with us for that. 10:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow. much more with jeff, ed and candy. we'll talk about the cia. what's going on right now? >>> and the former vice president dick cheney, lots more right here on "state of the union." you have questions. who can give you the financial advice you need? where will you find the stability and resources to keep you ahead of this rapidly evolving world? these are tough questions. that's why we brought together two of the most powerful names in the industry. introducing morgan stanley smith barney. here to rethink wealth management. here to answer... your questions. morgan stanley smith barney. a new wealth management firm with over 130 years of experience. >>> justice department has just reacted offi

>> we need to look closely to make sure that this nominee is committed to a non-political objective judgeship. that she will be a neutral on player in the ball game, not take sides -- umpire in the ball game, not take sides. megyn: thank you for being here. we look forward to watching. stay with us this weekend as we prepare for the hearings. bret baier and i will co-host a special this weekend "the judging sotomayor." we have been working on this for several weeks. you will learn facts about her that you have not heard anywhere, some of which are fine-opening. -- eye-opening. we will have wall-to-wall coverage starting for you next week. bill: good luck, sunday night. in washington, they are also talking about a possible second stimulus. opponents of the first plan had another idea. they say small business provides 70% of the jobs. eric cantor want to see more investment and help from that sector. >> now is not the time to say, we need more of the same, because we know it did not work. this economy is owned by barack obama. this is the prescription that the obama administration brought forwa

things continue to look very good over there. company says that it appears the economy is beginning to stabilize, but eric schmidt did come up a little short as far as what the company sees in terms of an overall economic turn-around. i should mention going back to ibm for a second, 17 deals signed on the quarter. over $100 million. on the services side of the business. really this idea of a slowdown in i.t. or enterprise spending, ibm certainly is not feeling the pinch there. going back to google, the company is saying that mobile is an increasingly important part of the company's business, and it all looks good on that front. you know, this is -- this is good news. we're seeing google trade down a little bit, probably because that whisper number on the top line was substantially higher than what google had reported. remember, that expectations were so low headed into this quarter, i think a lot of people are looking for a top-line beat and it really didn't happen to the extent that some investors were hoping for and we're seeing

to step out in front. i think that necessarily entails saying, look, here are some definite lines. to go this way, not that way. he needs to take the political heat for some of this because people -- because the democrats in congress are getting nervous about having to take -- >> this is down to seven people, four republicans, grassley and hatch, a couple other people. olympia snowe. >> he's got to rein in the troops. you saw in today's "washington post", they quoted david axelrod as saying he's taken the baton. if you think about like that track and field -- >> you think that's wrong. >> no, no, i think it's right, but he's risking a lot. if you think about it during -- we're almost looking forward to the midterm elections, and if he loses health care, it's almost as if he is risking whatever the legacy of his presidency is going to be. if he loses health care and he's the person who is the fourth leg of that relay race and he loses, what happens during the midterm elections? >> let's turn the pillow over to the cold side. suppose the republicans get blamed for killing health care