All that and more coming up. We have headlines with julie hyman. Herbalife says fourthquarter profits were up 10 . Net income increased to 123. 5 million. Panera bread beat estimates. King digital entertainment, the maker of candy crush, is beginning an adventure of its own in the path to becoming a public company. They filed to raise 500 million. Back to you. We begin this hour with attention on the global front. It was a bloody day in the ukraine where at least nine civilians and four Police Officers died and more than 150 injured. The mayor of kiev is urging people to stay away from the government and said they will move to clear about 20,000 protesters. With more of what is at stake, we are joined by a former u. S. Ambassador to the ukraine. He joins us from washington, d. C. It is great to have you with us. Talk to us a little bit about the situation that we are seeing in kiev and escalation that we are seeing in terms of violence. It is a pleasure to be here. This is a crisis of nearly three months standing. It kept going when president Viktor Yanukovych decided not to make a trade deal with the eu. He decided he was forced to clear the streets in late november. He failed and is trying again tonight. You have had experience in this region. Is there anything historically that you can draw upon that can help us get through this point where they can find some resolution . There are two ways this crisis could be resolved. By massive crackdown or by a serious concession by the authorities. President yanukovych has alternated between on the one hand offering half concessions or, on the other, trying to crack down but being unable to do so. Tonight he is threatening to crack down against the opposition and the protesters stay in the streets so it is unclear if he can do this. The real what i wanted to ask you is who you fault more at this point, president yanukovych or the Opposition Leader . This crisis is the direct result of the increasing oppression by the president. There would not be thousands, tens of thousands, in the streets today if he had not tried to crack down on the demonstration which was originally against just european integration. His regular use of repressive tactics is what puts people in the streets. This is a crisis he has created. Russia has been playing a role here. Shoring up their bonds. Russia, in terms of their role, what should it be . Mr. Putin is an authoritarian and would hate to see a real step towards democracy in ukraine so he is encouraging president yanukovych to crack down on the demonstrators. There could be a peaceful resolution to this. A resolution consistent with ukraine values. If president yanukovych were go to a constitutional change that would make the Prime Minister independent to the president and offer that. You were there during a time in kiev that was known as the orange revolution and you were involved in a lot of events that really led up to his presidency. What can we learn about that time and what we saw there and apply it to what we are going through today . That is a good question because there was a serious protest when i was ambassador and that protest ultimately led to a political compromise which led to a new president of ukraine. It involved constitutional change so that the people giving up authority knew that he would not be allpowerful. That was a solution that worked in 2004 and a solution that could work in 2014. Do you anticipate that constitutional change will have to be a part of any resolution at this point . There are other possibilities. Yanukovych could step down and permit early elections to the presidency. Those elections are scheduled for 2015 but could happen this year. Let him agree to give up some of his powers. Give the opposition Real Authority and then the protesters will clear out. We addressed a little bit of the role of russia. What about the European Union as a whole in this region . What should be their role and are sanctions necessary at this point . The European Union is the great model for ukraine to follow. This crisis began when the president walked away from a trade agreement with the eu. Eu has more influence in ukraine than the United States because it has the ability to offer incentives that we do not. Ukraine would very much like this trade agreement with the eu and eventually become a member. As for sanctions, i believe that if there were sanctions on corrupt officials in ukraine visiting the United States and the eu applied financial sanctions against the assets of ukrainian officials, this would encourage the Ukrainian Government to make the political compromises necessary to a peaceful resolution. You mentioned the United States. What is their role . The United States share the same interests as the eu in seeing the revolution of a democratic ukraine. We do have influence as the worlds leading power but we cant offer the ukraine incentives like the eu can. Our role is important but not as important as eu. This is a crisis that was created within ukraine and is a crisis that should be resolved by ukrainians. Outside actors should have little influence. What would be your first step in trying to bring some resolution to a situation that has escalated . What would be your first step here . I would tell the protesters to stop any violent acts. Stop throwing molotov cocktails. Stop throwing stones. I would tell the government to take all ammunition out of the hands of the police. There have been deaths of protesters with real bullets. Stop the violence right now. The president had invited the leaders of the opposition to talk tomorrow. Let those talks take place. Let the president put real concessions on the table. What is your fear . This is three months and counting and the death toll is mounting. What is your fear in terms of what may still be yet to come . It is clear that the situation has already included violence, violence which has not been part of ukraines history for the past 20 years. There are hotheads on both sides who might be interested in seeing increased violence. That is a real danger. I believe there are also people of sanity in the government and the opposition and they can reach agreement. The core to that agreement has to be a serious concession by the president which we have not he has not been willing to do. Ambassador, thank you for your time. Coming up, you will meet an chief executive raising millions to invest in cannabis businesses. Youre watching taking stock. Welcome back. I am carol massar. Marijuana has taken another step towards legitimacy. The u. S. Government issued guidelines which allowed u. S. Banks to offer accounts and other services to businesses in states where medical or recreational pot sales are legal. Banking groups say the guidelines dont go far enough. My next guest is the ceo of Privateer Holdings which invests in Legal Cannabis businesses. Thank you for having me. Did you think you would be here four years ago . We have been in this industry for four years and i never wouldve imagined it wouldve moved as quickly. I wasnt prepared for the volatility and velocity of change. Everything is moving so quickly. How did you get here . You were analyzing Technology Firms. I was the coo of a subsidiary of a silicon valleybased bank. I looked at lots of different plans. I came across a Technology Company in the medical marijuana industry. I became fascinated and started to do boots on the ground research. What did you find . I went out and talked around the country and world. In the medical marijuana states. I talked to growers and dispensary owners and people who make different types of products. In canada, israel, spain, and the netherlands, trying to find out the product because there are no analysts research. We had to do it the oldfashioned way. It was a new industry. An industry that had a lot of problems certainly. A lot of unprofessional managers and unsophisticated Business Plans but one of the big changes is that the plans and people and strategies are Getting Better. You leave your job analyzing Technology Firms and you decide to start a venture firm that invests in cannabis businesses. That is right. I was driving from San Francisco to san jose one day and listening to a radio show debate. I thought, i wonder if there is going to be Financial Firms or private equity in this industry . By the end of my ride, i thought, of course there is. I started calling Business School friends from yale and other partners and told them i want them to quit their jobs and come join me. You got people to do it. I did. Tell me about im imagining, i read somewhere where you spent half a Million Dollars in your education. I have a College Degree and two postgraduate degrees. I have a successful career. That is something that concerned us early on our reputation. Would we be tainted by going into this industry . We left that risk two years ago. What did your parents think . You left a good job and you are doing what . It wasnt the career path they expected for me. They are older. They missed the whole 1960s revolution, they were older than that. It was an interesting conversation but even they have friends who had used medical cannabis for a legitimate reason. They were able to wrap their arms around it and understand. Investors have wrapped their heads around it and they have given you money. How much money do you have to play with and what kind of companies are responding to investing . We are close to 7 million in july. We will go out and raise, not more than 50 million, but probably not that much less to invest in the Legal Companies around the world. In the u. S. , we wont touch the products, wont package it or distribute it. In canada, one of our subsidiaries has a product. We are in the process of getting a license to process packages and distribute cannabis across canada. We heard about banks Offering Services to businesses where pot is legal. Is that a good thing you want to see . It is progress. It is not the progress we were hoping for. Banking has been a significant issue for us in the United States. It hasnt been a problem in canada and in the u. S. It has. We have been kicked out of two banks and every time it is a long process. With our clients, i have been in the room full of a Million Dollars in cash and it is not a comfortable feeling. It feels wrong. It creates a target for crime. These companies are looking for bank accounts, thats it. Before you and i got going, you said you got a lot of proposals that came in. How big of an industry do you think this is . 3 million maybe for this year. Based on what you were saying on momentum and the types of businesses that are coming to you, how big of an industry do you think this is . You can look at it as a gray market and a black market. We dont divide it that way. We think about cannabis as an industry throughout the country. We size it about 40 50 million. Worldwide it is almost 200 million. How quickly does it ramp up to that . We will see conversion to the legal market. It does make it legitimate. Brendan kennedy, the ceo of a Venture Capital firm investing in cannabis businesses. A major deal in the pharmaceutical. Forest labs has agreed to be acquired by actavis. It is a big win for one wellknown investor. That is coming up. A big deal in the healthcare sector is a big win for carl icahn. Actavis has agreed to buy forest labs. Icahn stands to earn more than 1. 5 billion in gross profits. For more on what the deal means to the health care industry, i am joined by an experienced Healthcare Investor and analyst. Also joining us is meg tirrell. It was interesting to watch this because both of them went up. You see more and more of that. Shareholders are clearly rewarding buyers. You see with a Company Called valiant who does deal after deal. The target Company Stock is going to rise but when you see the buyer stock also rise, you know shareholders are onto this because the deals are creative. People are wondering where growth is going to come from and are doing deals, they are giving shareholders signals. They have to have products. So when they do a deal like this it is the bottom line right away. Right now investors are paying for growth. There are limited numbers of assets. The easiest way is to buy. You are starting to see investors rewarded and if investors incentivize acquisitions, youre going to see more of it. Icahn has been a busy man over the last few years. It is not his first time at the rodeo. He has them playing in this biotech space for some time. He got into this a long time ago. He has gotten into a series of biotechs. He sold the company for 20 billion a couple of years ago. He lost his Top Healthcare investing executive. It is interesting seeing carl still in the stock, sticking with it. Six months after this new ceo comes in, he sells the company and that is a huge thing for him. What does this do for the pharma space . It continues the theme of consolidation. You see more deals in larger companies. You now need scale to compete and you will see more of this. In the largecap sectors, they are going the other direction. In this sector, you are seeing a lot of tieups. Does that mean putting Certain Companies on our radar . Is there anyone in particular . Anyone who has product and is something that resembles a pipeline is a target. More companies today just with stocks rising these are companies that people are watching that are in generics. These are companies that all the people are talking about it for a while. People were kind of speculating. Who wins . The pharmaceutical companies . It is a great time to be Healthcare Investor. I say investors win. Thank you for joining us. Still ahead, a city in north dakota gaining one new permanent resident every four hours. Next. This is taking stock. Lets take a look at the headlines. Confidence among Home Builders plunged. Bad weather depressed sales. They sunk from 46 to 36. Cocacola posted fourthquarter sales that missed the forecast. The tonight show with jimmy fallon debuted to 11. 3 million viewers, according to nbc. This is the second biggest audience for the tonight show since 2009 when jay leno stepped down for the first time. Now to north dakota. The Shale Oil Boom is bringing prosperity and reason for pause in that state. The state added 1800 new millionaires just last year alone. An influx of permanent residents, about one every four hours in the city, has put a strain on services and housing. Williston, north dakota, is the most expensive place in the country to rent an apartment. A onebedroom, one bath apartment can cost more than 2000 per month. With more on how the city is coping with the changes, the honorary mayor ward koeser joins us over the phone. Great to have you here. Talk to us about the changes. I was there about two years ago and it was crazy. There was so much activity. Where are we today . The activity is still going on. I predict in this last year we probably increased our population about 20 . We have a lot of people coming here to find work. It is the land of opportunity. The challenge that we really get faced with is finding Affordable Housing for them. What are you going to do about it because that was the problem two years ago . I visited many camps and there were developers Building Properties but it wasnt keeping up with demand. Two years later, it is still not keeping up with demand so what are you folks hoping to do here . We are working with developers. The city has to get the infrastructure in place. We have to put the roads, the water, and the sewer in. We bonded for about 100 million this year just to keep ahead of that. I know last year we permitted 1500 apartments. The Census Bureau has said the last two years we are the fastestgrowing city in the country. I dont think you could be the fastestgrowing and really keep up with what is happening. We are trying hard and continue to try hard and do the best we can. It still is an issue for us. When i was there i visited one of the local coffee shops and hung out with a bunch of folks. There were a group of locals that they did want to talk to me because they have seen the booms bust before. Is that part of the cautious Movement Forward in terms of developing real estate and infrastructure . It is, especially if you are an investor. The oil industry is notoriously cyclical and that makes it more difficult for the investment that we need. Whether it will be a boom or bust, no one really knows that. It doesnt seem like therell be a bust in the near future. We are moving forward as if it is for real and that it will continue. You have to make some projections before you make those big investments. Or do the necessary Municipal Bond offerings. What kind of expectations you have in terms of this boom cycle . We feel comfortable that it should last at least 20 years. We are drilling about 2000 wells a year that are going into production. We have about 40,000 wells to drill in the area. At the rate of 2000 units, it will take about 20 years. Technology has been Getting Better and improving so there are a lot of people who believe there will be more wells in that drill. That will remain to be seen. We anticipate it being a Strong Economy for 20 years or so. Talk to me when you walk around because i remember when i was there, it was crazy. There were trucks everywhere. You couldnt find necessarily there werent enough restaurants to kind of go eat out. What has changed . I think were better off today than we were a year ago. Just as an example, i believe we had 13 restaurants get built last year. We got a temporary truck bypass and in 2014, we will have a permanent truck bypass which will get a lot of these trucks out of town. I think things are little more sane and predictable as you would find in a normal busy town but it is still very busy. There are a lot of people coming here. A lot of people looking for work and finding work. We decided to deal with this position of how to find housing for this people. You still have the man camps that the Oil Companies put up . There are still 9000 of them in the county. There are probably about 5000 of those that are full. What weve seen happen in the past eight months, we are finding more families live here. We like that. Man camps are an important part of the puzzle of what is going on here but you have a hard time building the community on a man camp. If you have just a guy here, you dont have a spouse that might be a nurse of hospital. You have these 50,000 people who are needing to use the emergency room but you dont have enough nurses in there because the guys come here without their spouses. That is a good point. There was a lot of single guys or family guys that came to work for a few months and then go back home. Mayor, thank you for your time. Thank you. Coming up next, are you saving for your childs college . Why a 529 plan may not be your best bet. We will give you a unique perspective coming up. Now to ur series called the playbook for your pocketbook. We focus on how to best save for college tuition. Many parents choose to invest in a 529 plan. There was nearly 204 Million Dollars lost. Our next guest helps oversee the assets. 529, there was a ton of money going into these plans and so there is a lot of people who think they are a good idea. It is a ton of money but only a statistic that the average account has about 20,000 in it. That is not going to take you very far for college. That is interesting. You know the benefits that are out there. They talk about the Tax Advantages of that. That is true . Up to a point. The real tax advantage of the 529 plan is the planning. The big benefit for the plan is for a wealthy parent or wealthy grandparent to put 20,000 away with their spouse immediately. Put that money in when the kid is still swaddled. You are going to need time to build enough money to pay tuition down the road. The problem with a lot of these plans is that the options they have are not very good. The performance is not really good. For me, it comes down to performance. If you look at performance and track against other investments, that tells me clearly whether this is a good idea or not. The whole notion that you invest for college 18 years out and you will put it into a bond fund, you are never going to get there. Unless you start with 140,000, then it is great. It takes it out of the wealthy persons estate and gives it to the grandchild or child or what have you. The options are terrible. I much prefer the idea of getting your kids money, as much as you save, into a very Aggressive Equity Fund and just let it ride. What are some of the funds you are suggesting . I did this for my kids way back when they were getting ready to save before college. I put it with a fund called vanguard capital opportunities. The manager still run something called Primecap Odyssey Growth fund. Low fees. You have to put your money into an Aggressive Fund if you are going to make enough to pay for college. What about the tax consequences . The notion of all these tax savings is good up to a point. If you find a good growth fund, you will more than make up in Performance Plus some what the taxes might take away from. I dont let the tax tail wag the dog in any of my investments and i can say with certainty that i would do better putting it into this growth fund outside of the 529 wrapper. Are there some plans that could make sense because you see the performance . They are not well managed. The best is to go for a very lowcost index option. In new york, you have two options. You have a list of Vanguard Index funds and portfolios. They run about 17 basis points. You also have what they call an advisor option from anywhere between 70 and 90 basis points and the performance is worse. There is no reason you want to put your money into an advisor plan. Any other funds . I am a big believer in having an investment in health care. Vanguard Health Care Funds is the other fund that i own for my kids. Low fees and great performance. You talked about forest labs. Vanguards fund is the largest shareholder in forest labs. We will see a big pop tonight. Any other funds . The only other one i would add is vanguard dividend growth. Low cost, battleship companies. You to think about that when youre planning for these investments. Potentially the amount that you do stack up or add up could affect your Financial Aid, could it . It could. As long as it is in the plan, it would not affect your Financial Aid too much. Again, states, colleges, everybody has a different plan. You need to know what is going on and not only in your own state, but you have to know what is going on in the other 49. The bottom line is check that there are options out there. Thank you so much. Coming up, David Beckham put Major League Soccer on the map playing for the la galaxy. Now he is ready to run his own team. We will meet two mls star players next. Next month, Major League Soccer will kick off its 19th season. Its continued success rests on the soldiers of brad evans who plays midfield for seattle. I spoke with two players about what enabled the growth of the beautiful game here in america and how it could translate to success on a global scale at the upcoming world cup in brazil. I think it is a very exciting time to be involved in Major League Soccer. You see with the world cup being this summer some of the marquee names are coming back to the United States and playing in our league. It is taking off and growing. I know myself as a player, i love playing in the mls right now because it is an exciting time. Do you feel momentum in the u. S. In terms of soccer . In terms of participation, growth of teams. Participation has always been there at the youth level but now you are seeing it exponentially grow beyond that. There may be some more teams. To say it is not where we want to be is not valid. We are in a great place right now, especially both of us are very fortunate. He plays in front of a sellout crowd for a few years. It puts pressure on us. I think the crossover in season tickets is only about 10 . We should be able to have what the seahawks have that championship. It feeds us. There is pressure. You are seeing the shift now with the new ownership that are coming into the league that are paying insane amounts of money to have a team. They are putting stadiums downtown, there is public transportation, bars, everything you can ask for with a big production of the game. That will help elevate where we want to be. How do you look at somebody like David Beckham who put so much attention to the sport . He came at a time in 2007 when it was not that great of a time. He brought a spark. He is going to own his own team and people look at mls now. I look at some of you like landon donovan. A big legacy. He is another guy like beckham who paved the way for a lot of players like us. He has been the face of the league. He is a guy you can look at that stage and played his entire career in the mls and he has done amazing. I know me and brad both look up to him and we are thankful that he has played so well and done a lot of things for us. What is the challenge for you guys to be following in someones footsteps . It is being committed to mls. Mls is committed to both of us and resigned our contracts and it is up to us to show why we are here. That goes to the international stage, proving that the mls is getting players that could advance. That shows a whole world we dont have to go to europe to play and come to mls and grow as a player and continue to build what guys like donovan have done and beckham. Do you think the mls is putting out enough money to attract the right players . They are starting to. We are seeing a kind of tipping point. You see guys like Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey coming back and getting paid very well. I think in the next couple of years, you will see guys really come back and mls is going to be the Choice League of top players. Do you envision staying in the u. S. Your entire career . I hope i can stay. I want to stay. It is about the situation. I think every player is different and every players life and situation is different. For me, right now, my situation is best to stay in mls and play here in america. Unless something drastically changes, i see myself staying here and playing my whole career. I want to ask about something that we have talked about a lot which is about gay athletes. You have michael sam come out he could be the first openly gay athlete in the nfl. Is this a nonissue in terms of sports . Does it matter . No, it does not matter. When i talk to robbie and found out, i couldve cared less. That is the type of person i am. If he came into our locker room, just like in the galaxy, it would have been a nonissue. It is a nonissue. It is good that there is a conversation out there . It has to start somewhere. You saw Jason Collins and then robbie and now you see michael sam coming and it paves the way for athletes who are hopefully more comfortable. Once michael sim is drafted and comfortable in a team and performing well, then you see guys more comfortable in coming out. Has there always been that comfort . I dont think there always has been comfort but that is perception. It takes somebody to actually do it and once that happens and the media and people see that this really is a nonissue. This is not a big deal at all. I think once people start to see that, it doesnt really become a story. It is part of everyday life. It is more of the norm. How do you think you will do as a team and individuals for the world cup . We have a difficult group. We play ghana, portugal, and germany. Ive seen it in all the articles. There is no shying away from it. We all admit it will be a difficult task but i think we all truly believe that if we play well and play our best, there is no reason why we wont advance. Who scares you the most . Ghana, portugal, germany . I dont think anybody really scares us. We played against germany in an exhibition and had a good result against them. Ghana is a team that has beaten us the past two world cups so it feels like a redemption game. If you start off ghana we can do well. Major League Soccer play starts on march 8. That does it for taking stock. Have a good night