Transcripts For CNN 20100310

checking stories new this morning. the ceo of continent many airlines says his company has a plan it avoid federal fines for delaying passengers. they'll just cancel flights. the new fine, meant to keep you and me from sitting on the tarmac without sitting there for hours. the transportation department responded says continental should do a bet are job of schedules flights and crews. >> amazing. tabloid celebrity lindsay lohan is suing e-trade saying one of its commercial, the one that debuted during the super bowl is taking a shot at her. the ad when one of the talking babies is saying that, there's a fat milkaholic lindsey. she claims it's a swipe at her. see what you think. >> and that milkaholic lindsey wasn't over? >> lindsey? >> milk a what? >> well, the tabloids have thoroughly reported lohan's drug problems stints in rehab other problems and lohan's lawyer argues that "lindsey, the name, itself is essentially i.d.ing her client as in oprah or madonna. >> that's a stretch, but -- i didn't even think. >> i mean, the words get over -- come to mind, maybe. >> did you eve think of lindsey lohan when you saw that ad? >> no. never known lindsey lohan to drink milk. i'm sure she does. i just never heard about it. >> lohan is -- >> christine romans, minding your business." that old song comes to mind -- ♪ where the jobs are >> there are some jobs, believe it or not. a survey called job openings and labor turnover survey that shows in january things got a little bit better. 193,000 increase in job openings to 2.7 million job openings by the end of the month. that sounds good. an improvement, yes. compare that to december 2007, of course, when he 4.4 million job openings at the end of january. back to 2005, 5.6 million job openings, still not a melt healthy job labor market but it is healing. the available jobs today, candidates per job, five people competing for every job, there's six workers for every job opening. it shrunk a little bit. shrunk just a little bit to more like 5.5 comparing to 1.7 in december 2007. look, still not a healthy labor market but competing with half a less person tore that jobs. jobs in education and heath care created 13,000 more, in hotels and restaurants and economist says that shows confidence. putting people to yorkhotels and restaurants that shows the consumer is not as freaked out as before. job losses in arts and entertainment and in government, believe it -- government jobs, creating so many jobs in government to have a little bit less there is not really that much of a surprise to me. >> christine romans, "minding your business." thanks. >> sure. we'll be right back. mmm hmm, i know it's sort of my weakness - i always keep it in the house well, that and boston crème pie, white chocolate strawberries, ya ya - oh! and key lime pie i've already lost some weight [ female announcer ] yoplait light - with 28 delicious flavours at about 100 calories babe, what are you doing?! ♪ [ crowd cheering ] [ male announcer ] competition... it pushes us to work harder. to be better. to win. but sometimes even rivals realize they share a common goal. america's beverage companies have removed full-calorie soft drinks from schools, reducing beverage calories by 88%. together with schools, we're helping kids make more balanced choices every day. ♪ we love getting our outback dirty. because it seems like the dirtier it gets, the more it shines. the subaru outback®. motor trend's 2010 sport/utility of the year®. hurry in to the subaru love spring event for great deals on all models. now through march 31st. 26 minutes after the hour. we're back with the most news in the morning, and it's time for an "a.m. original" something you'll see only on "american morning." finding it hard to stomach what's happening in washington these day, you're not alone. seems more politicians than ever are hopelessly out of touch. let's face it. the government, many say, is broken, and we don't exactly have a great track record when it comes to electing the right people to run the country. carol costello was wondering if maybe it's time to tweak the system. >> i am taking this opportunity to officially announce my candidacy for the return of state senator hiram monserrate. >> reporter: a typical story. booted out of the new york state senate after convicted of a misdemeanor for assaulting his girl friend. part of the attack was captured on an apartment surveillance tape, yet he is positive voters will re-elect him. tuesday he announced he's running on a yes, we can ticket. to his critics in politics? >> i think the pot calling the kettle black for anyone in the government pointing a finger. >> thank you very much for your support. >> reporter: some political observers are aghast but not surprised. >> they're very quick at justifying actions that most of us would have to apologize for. >> reporter: and rarely do they just go away after justifying their actions. south carolina's governor admitted to an affair, to lying to vote but he has resisted calls to step down. confident of voter support. >> i'm not going to be railroaded out of this office by political opponents or folks that were never fans of mine in the first place. >> reporter: the a battle cry long echoed by u.s. congressman charlie rangel, accused of failing to pay taxes and violating house ethics rules. >> in order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections -- >> reporter: he finally stepped down as chairman of a powerful committee. >> stop the thievery -- >> reporter: but the congressman elected 20 times, did not apologize or resign. gut check. is it time to tweak the system? >> the average voter would love to see through the persona projected by the consultants in the tv ads. but how do you do that? >> reporter: more politicians. example -- right now each member of the u.s. congress represents roughly 700,000 americans. far too many voters for their elected representatives to get to know. so instead of 435 house members, why not elect 10,000? >> the smaller the unit is, the more likely it is that people will get to know the candidates and they'll vote not just on the basis of party, but on the basis of the character of the candidates. >> reporter: imagine you actually meeting the person that you elect to office? some of you may scoff at the thought of electing 10,000 members of congress, but, the idea keeping a representative constituency rather small actually came from george washington himself, because he forced the reality of what we're dealing with today. in other words, he thought that -- that a representative should represent no more than, let's say, 50,000 people. maybe it's time to re-assess. maybe it is time to tweak? >> well -- the country was a lot smaller back then in the days of george washington. >> reporter: no. he foresaw its growth and it's in the constitution maybe representatives, lawmakers, should re-assess thing as the population grows and kind of adjust. >> i wonder if he foresaw the growth of the budget and the budget deficits and debt and how you're going to pay for 10,000 members of congress? if such a tweak happened if they were to reduce the size of the constituency that congressman or congresswoman represent, a long way off. anything else voters can do in the interim? >> reporter: well, actually, i did talk with two psychologists who specialize in politics and they told me if a politician is unable to be reflective, which means you have to actually watch the politicians speeching while they're running, if he or she has an inability to be reflective or admit he or she was ever wrong about anything, or if they refuse to apologize for any wrong at all, it's probably not a good idea to vote for these people. if you have voted them into office, please, please, don't do it again. >> carol costello, thanks very much. >> reporter: should i mention the blog? >> i can or you can. go ahead. >> reporter: i'd like to know what you think about this. cnn.com/amfix. is 2 time to tweak the system? do you think electing more politicians is the answer? love to hear what you think this morning. >> wonder what the answers are going to be, carol? taking a guess. >> one person says, yeah, we should elect more people. get that one on the air. i don't think you'll see many of those, carol. thanks. time for this morning's top stories. a suburban philadelphia woman who authorities say calls herself jihad jane indict and charges she conspired to support terrorists. also accused of plotting to kill a swedish cartoonist who drew images of the prophet mohammed. and arrested several people suggested to have plotted with her to attack that cartoonist. eric mossa says he never grope or sexually harassed a male staffer insist heg resigned for two reasons. a a possible recurrence of cancer and, b, the democratic party that forced him out because of his stance against health care reform. he appeared on "larry king live" last night and the white house calls his claims, "crazy." toyota investigating two are in reports of sudden acceleration. one a prius driver on the san diego freeway, the other, a new york woman who smashed into a stone wall when it suddenly accelerated. more than 11 million neem this country are currently collecting unemployment. that price tag is $10 billion a month. 6 million americans out of work since september. but today the senate is likely to pass another jobs bill that could ease pressures ever the recession extending benefits up to 99 weeks. how much would that cost? $66 billion. and it's atting to the fiery debate over how to get our 12.5 trillion dollar debt under control at the same time acknowledging these are very tough times for people who don't have a job. here to break it down in washington for us, pete morissi and our own christine romans, thanks for jumping in on this. first of all, since the program's inception, receiving unep employment benefits, haven't seen anything as long as 99 weeks. calls this unprecedented. what's going on? >> usually 26 weeks. state funded. administered by the state, 26 weeks. now you can get up to 693 days of receiving unemployment benefits by government. the idea here is that frankly the economy is so fragile and so many millions of people, kiran are out of work, they have to do something to stop the bleeding with the labor market. the big question now is, okay. maybe that's the right thing to do now and during the recession, but at what point do you have an exit strategy? are you going to be a country that's going to keep putting a band-aid on the labor market, instead of fixing the labor market? that's what they are. a band-aid to help people through, not actually out there getting that person work. so you know, 693 -- 99 weeks on unemployment benefits is an incredibly long time and people are askings question, when do we pull back and how do we do that or progressive economists saying maybe we need to, this is going to be part of the new safety net for this any economy. >> what are the implications peter as we look at this unprecedented extension, 99 week, almost two years of people receiving unemployment benefits? >> people start to view these benefits as a permanent part of the safety net and plan around them. during the carter and ford years we had a job market similar to the one we are now entering, and people started abusing the benefits big time. they started basically losing their jobs almost on purpose so they could go to school. or they could run -- one guy ran for public office on unemployment benefits. it you're we found in the '80s these kinds of benefits actually encourage unemployment. >> this is something that a few people have said, we heard jon kyl talk a republican senator saying perhaps this is a disincentive, then talked to a woman like on the program last week, i sent my resume everywhere, looking for a job. run the gamut from what i did do to trying to get a job at starbucks or mcdonald's and i cannot get job. >> hey, unemployment benefits. great. this is how i'll propel my family into the middle class. for many people, talked to a guy the other day using unep employment ben foits pay his mortgage. he was still able to pay his mortgage. a guy in the university of chicago, robert scheiner, 1 positive 1.5% of unemployment rate is because people are less likely to go out and retrain or take a job that's below their qualifications because they have such long unemployment benefits. for the most part economists tell me there is a 40% long-term unemployed on these long benefits, but most people, i mean, the average length of unemployment is 280 days. not 693 days. most people, the average duration is much shorter than the unemployment benefits we're giving. >> peter, this morning, robert, one of your colleagues an economics professor at chicago, believes they're subsidizing unemployment, having a substantial impact on the jobless rate. what do you think? >> i absolutely agree. put it in perspective. we'll spend more than gdp. absurd amount. that 1.5% is the beginning. it grows from there. become as way of life. almost like the old welfare problem. people never pull themselves up. they just become residing to the fact they'll be on unemployment for very long periods of time. also, the administration uses this instead of taking the very strong substantive steps it needs to take to create a viable job market. namely, fixing the regional banks and fixings trade deficit the reason there's not enough work. not enough business or customers. >> just like this guy was talking to, paying his mortgage with it. isn't it a quick way to get money moving through the economy? >> you could say that, but you also could set the retirement age at 60 rather than 65. think what that would create. not paying people to work is a short term paltive doesn't help the economy grow and in the end, everybody will be worse off. >> what about the news today christine talked about be in her "minding your business" segment last block, about the fact there are more jobs? not compared to 2007, as you pointed out, but there are more jobs out there right now. are we seeing this turnaround, unemployment rate the fact there have been 40% of people looking for a job more than six months? >> the economy is recovering. we've likely hit bottom on the job losses. however we're not going through a period like the period after the oil embargo through the mid-80s. under employment. unsatisfactory jobs. the english major that works 40 hour as week, now that student has graduated and driving a cab. h ph.d.s triving cabs were common in the late '70s. a lousy job market, people grossly under employed until we get at the root causes of slow growth in the united states. the u.s. economy is downsized by 9 million jobs. now looking at adding 100 million, barely enough 20 keep even with new high school graduates. we freed to do something to lift the economy parametrically. >> what happens when these extensions run out? they aren't going on forever? >> no. and people are going to have to either find a new job, take a job below their skill set. cobble together free lance work. i want to be clear. there are a lot of people who have been long too unemployed. as a country we have to figure out what to do about it. >> thanks so much. john. coming up on the most news in the morning a loud rally, public arrests and wanted posters. the scene outside of a health insurance conference. is the health care debate getting out of control? 38 1/2 minutes after the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. it's 41 minutes participate the hour right now. president obama as we know is rolling up his sleeves hitting the streets talking up his final push for health care reform. meantime, thousands are rallied in washington against what they call insurance industry bullying. >> they were there to make a mass citizens' arrest. our jim acosta is live in washington for us this morning. jim, you're awfully familiar with the health care debate. got a lot of coverage. >> reporter: yeah. >> this was one for the book, wasn't it? >> reporter: got wild out there, and the health care advocates labor groups who stamped this rally, they wanted the health insurance industry to learn one thing at their conference this week. running out of space inside a big luxury hotel doesn't mean you can keep the reform debate from getting really loud. [ chanting ] >> reporter: the protesters marching through the streets of washington in favor of health care reform wanted to do more than just make some noise. >> are we going to arrest these corporate criminals? send them packing? >> all: yes! >> raise your right hand, and repeat after me -- >> reporter: organizers of the rally informally deputized the crowd to make a citizens' arrest, executives of several major health insurance companies then carrying wild west style wanted posters showing ceos of company, protesters trying to push and shove their way inside this ritzy hotel where the industry was holding its annual policy conference. >> stand right now is where protesters are actually trying to ent are the conference that the insurance industry is holding right here in washington. police are standing in the way trying to hold back what is a massive crowd. police did grab about few protesters bus released them minutes later. the spokesman says he's seen this before. do you think it's getting out of control when you see wanted posters for ceos? >> we don't pay a lot of attention to all the different things that people are posting on websites and on the blogs and different attention. we're focused on what we can do as an industry to make the health care system work bet are. >> reporter: not everybody at the conference was from the industry. health care expert mark pauly says the current reform bill before congress would actually be better than nothing. >> a better attitude is probably to pass something and fix it up later. although it's not the -- >> reporter: not the perspective of the folks running this conference. >> i guess not. it's gotten to the point where it's a dear thing i think, whether it be better to scrap it and start over, but i'd be willing to work with anything. >> reporter: among the demonstrators, 10-year-old marcellus owens protesting for his mother who lost a battle with a lung condition that got worse right after they lost her job and her health insurance. >> does any of it make any sense to you? >> not really, because my mother, she was sick, and she was sick to the point that she should have gotten the medical attention even if she didn't have health care or not. >> reporter: brave young man there. the insurance industry is well aware of this. the closing session at the industry's conference this week is on public. on reform. john and kiran, they are well aware that the congress is closing in on what is a very crucial vote. >> all right. maybe we'll see more protests like that one. >> reporter: we will later today. expecting a week of this stuff here in washington. so fasten your seat belts. >> all right. thanks so much for that. rob marciano has the travel forecast after the break. coming up in ten minutes, ever wonder what happens when you hand over the keys to your car for the valet parking? wait until you see this one. jeanne moos coming up. with 4g from sprint, i can download files up to 10x faster than 3g... outside. i can stream the movie airplane to my cell phone... at the airport. i can have a crystal-clear videoconference with my clients... ...muffin basket or something... ...while working offsite, or share five high-speed connections for online gaming... while enjoying the great outdoors. [ video game sound effects ] eat it, yoshi! what can you do with 4g? experience 4g from sprint. it's more than a wireless network. deaf, hard-of-hearing and people with speech disabilities good morning to north carolina. 49 degrees. >> drinking the coffee? >> wired in the morning! >> connectivity there. later on today, 66 degrees cloudy with rain. the most wired city in america. means you can probably get on the internet without any problem. >> i got you. >> some places where i've been -- >> sometimes we're the most wired city in america. the 24 hours starbucks. >> definitely the most wire program. >> true. 48 1/2 after the hour. time for your "am house call." stories about your health, al w allowing parents to strap babies to their chests. a warning about baby slings saying they can cause babies to suffocate. officials say the slings have been linked to at least 70 infant deaths. also a check of this morning's weather headlines. we turn 20 rob marciano in the extreme weather center. what a pretty sunrise. please, back to the -- there you are. i looked over there and there was an empty chair. i thought, wow. >> rob looking out the window. checking on the weather. >> good morning, guys. you know, if i had a window to see a sunrise, i could tell you, but i don't. i can tell you this, though. when i came into work early this morning it was raining pretty good outside in atlanta. one of the sore spots of the country weatherwise. a big area of really disturbed weather. a complicated area setting up. what it means a good third the country in rather unsettled weather here over the next 48 hours or so. very unsettled across north atlanta, north west of the city. some of the suburbs there. smirnoff, throughout marietta lasting through the afternoon. wouldn't be surprised to see flooding puddling on the roadways slowing down traffic for sure. new york and boston, another day, maybe two of nice weather. what's coming to d.c., not up in philly and new york. enjoy it. in the mid to upper 50s today and no expected delays at least the at the new york airports. atlanta, charlotte because of rain and chicago, minneapolis and houston, low clouds and a little rain as well. after the rain pushes through the southeast today, another threat for severe weather as some energy comes out of the plains, and arkansas through parts of mississippi and louisiana this afternoon and tonight, could see rough stuff. keep an eye on that. back up to you. >> try to get you a window. okay? >> please. >> ten minutes to the top of hour. the things you can say. >> oh, but you just can't. in the control room this morning. the control room. >> kind of an oxymoron, isn't it? >> well, i'm not going there. say it's 54 minutes past the hour. time for the most news in the morning with jeanne. when you hand your keys to the valet parking, i cross my fingers and hope for the best. >> never know has can happen. hoping no scratches or dents in the car when it gets back. as jeanne moos shows us, that may be the least of your worries. >> reporter: when you park, this is how you want the attendant to drive your car. but this is how it was done -- at a st. louis garage. at a hyatt hotel, no less. it was like valet choreography. valet cinematography. under the name valet underground it was posted on youtube, got rubber? later removed. but it's hard to remove this from your mind. enough to give you the dreaded valet phobia. like in "ferris bueller's day off" the attendant took the car then took it for a joy ride. pretty soon it was airborne. we saw no airborne cars at the hyatt garage. and the valet parking company in charge there at the time has since been replaced and apparently not on account of this. turns out there are similar valet stunts on youtube. this one entitled "don't tip a dollar at yankee stadium." >> oh! >> unbelievable. >> reporter: actually, tom believes it. back in this college days he used to valet park in washington, d.c. >> except the guys i worked with were either drunk or high. >> reporter: and those guys sometimes took the cars for joy rides. out on the highway. >> weren't of our guys actually hit a person, smacked right into a pedestrian. >> reporter: tom's advice -- >> ever since i valet parked, i tell all of my friend and family, just don't do it. >> reporter: but if you do, check the mileage before and after, and tip. $5 ensure there will be no joy ride? >> right. >> reporter: that's five bucks per attendant on duty. >> extortion. >> reporter: or maybe distortion. tom remembers one valet. >> who had eaten mushrooms. psychedelic mushrooms before driving a car. i can't imagine what that's like. >> reporter: we can only imagine that mushrooms and doughnuts don't mix. jeanne moos, cnn. new york. >> what kind of people was that tom hanging out with? >> can't imagine nap would be a good five bucks well spent, right? to ensure your car isn't getting doughnuted around yankee stadium. >> if you can assure that. or just brink the clunker. >> or take the subway. top stories coming up. i mention i'm going to the bathroom more often. he checks it out. good thing. turns out... my urinary symptoms -- such as going frequently, trouble going, flow starts and stops... and going often at night -- are due to bph, also called enlarged prostate. he says over time, avodart has been shown to shrink the prostate, improve urinary symptoms, and reduce the risk of prostate surgery. only your health care provider can tell if your symptoms... are from bph and not a more serious condition... like prostate cancer. do not donate blood until 6 months after stopping avodart. tell your doctor if you have liver disease. rarely sexual side effects, swelling or tenderness... of the breasts can occur. avodart is for men only. women should not take or handle avodart... due to risk of a specific birth defect. today's the day to talk to your doctor... about your urinary symptoms and find out... if avodart is right for you. good morning to you. it's wednesday march 10th. glad you're with us on this "american morning." i'm kiran chetry. >> and i'm john roberts. thanks for being with us this morgue. top stories today. it wasn't groping. it was tickling. former new york congressman eric massa denies having sexual contact with a staffer. why he left congress, latest live from capitol hill in a moment. 6,000 toyota documents turned over to congress by an attorney who once defended toyota for a living saying they proved the automaker kept safety problems from the public and routinely defied the lay and claiming the company has a secret file called books of knowledge containing every damaging detail. listen up. you want to stick around for this one's how long will your sex life xwlaft a new suddy shows it depends on your health now. especially for men. elizabeth cohen joins us to tell you what you can do to add more time to your sexually active clock. we begin with a curious case of eric massa. trying to set the report straight on his sudden resignation as well as allegations of sexual misconduct with his staff. easier said than done. two intervies with larry king. in them he raise more questions about his seemingly curious behavior. >> reporter: start with ma massa says, his reaction to something that broke yesterday's"the washington post" that first reported that massa was under investigation for allegedly groping male staff members. in the earlier interview yesterday, massa said, yes, he did grope, but insisted it wasn't sexual. it was a tickle fight, and then told larry king this -- >> you acknowledge that at your 50th birthday party you groped a male staffer? what is this all about? >> well, when four guys jump on you to wrestle you, to prove that you're 50 years old, anything can be called anything, larry. and what it's all about is innuendo. >> you said, "not only did i grope him, i tickled him until he couldn't breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me." so you did grope someone. right? >> larry, when you grab someone and you're wrestling, i don't know how to describe that word. so if that's the word you want to have an entire debate about, then i can't stop you. >> no. i'm just asking. you said you groped -- so a lot of people associate groping with sexual. >> well, it wasn't sexual. period. >> okay. >> reporter: again, kiran, we've not heard from the alleged victims of this sexual harassment. we're only getting one side the story here. >> did he explain why it is he's leaving? >> reporter: he seemed to say it was a number of things. seemed to say it was his health baushgtspotentially has a recurrence of cancer. also seemed to say it has to do with the fact when you buck your party, you go by the wayside. because, of course he was planning on voting no on health care, but he also said earlier yesterday he wasn't forced out. so we kind of heard many of the different things he's been saying over the last few days. >> also some tough words for rahm emanuel and went on saying he was confronted by him in the shower and on and on and on, and after the congressional hymn and -- is he backtracking on any of that this morning? >> reporter: i know, i wouldn't say backtracking. he had for rahm, a sarcastic apology. he said i have an apology. he said rahm was the son of devil spawn, that he would basically give anything for a vote, strap his children to the front of a locomotive. that's what massa said. yesterday he said, i owe rahm an apology. he wouldn't strap his kids, he'd strap mine, meaning massa's. came back with an insult. on the heels of the allegations over the weekend, rahm confronted him in the showers of the congressional gym not wearing any clothes because he was planning on voting no on the presidential budget, but we have to tell you, kiran, a couple white house sources say that incident never happened, period. >> all right. as you said, it's a strange saga, and gets stranger as we hear from him more. we'll talk more about that coming up. thanks, 7:0 eastern. craig crawford from "the washington post" political reporter will join us. new details emerging about woman from suburban philadelphia who is facing charges of terrorism this morning. officials claim that colleen la rose called her jihad jane and use the internet to recruit jihadist members and planning to kill sweden artist who angered muslims for drawing the head of the prophet mohammed on the body of a dog. the indictment of jihad jane shattered any thought we can spot a terrorist just by appearance. so who is this woman? what are we learning about her? our susan candiotti is live in pennsylvania this morning. what do we know? >> reporter: hi, john. authorities have said this is a woman who kind of lives on main street. in fact, she does live on main street in penceberg, pennsylvania. that's about an hour or so north of philadelphia. here's her house. this duplex. it's a two-story right here. lives up on the second floor on that balcony you can see. her apartment is where the wind chimes are. not many people around this town we spoke with so far know much about her. they remember, one does, going to a halloween party with her a couple years ago, but this is how another woman reacted to hearing about the charges. shench . >> she scares the hell out of me. sorry, but it scares me, because i have three young kids. and it scares me. >> reporter: we do know this additional information. we know she has two arrests in her past both from 1997. one of them is for a dwi, nor forepassing a bad check, both in the san antonio, texas, area. she is reportedly divorced and moved from texas to philadelphia back in 2004. we discovered information she was very active online. we found evidence of this a number of internet postings including one dated february 2008 in which she is writing a message to some unknown individual, unknown to us. and it starts off -- asalam alaikum, which means peace with with you. you make me so happy. i cannot put into words how much you make my life complete. inshallah, one day i will be at your side. four months after that posting interka indicated she desperately wanted to help the suffering of the muslim people. she's also known to be an online follower of another group called revolution muslim dotcom. that is a group led by an american muslim in new york city. he is known to be an al qaeda sympathizer and supports osama bin laden. he also supports a tax on americans overseas, and, in fact that group calmed the alleged ft. hood shooter, nadidal hasan hero. we understand she had a boyfriend with whom she lived with the same initials. those initials showed up in the prosecutor's indictment as having had his passport taken by colleen larose. she mot here. been in custody since october at the federal detention center in philadelphia and an arraignment is expected in about a week from now. john? >> susan candiotti. thanks. in less than ten minutes' time we'll break down what this case tells us about the changing face of terrorism, talking to the director of law and security and tom fuentes of international operation. eight minutes past the hour. a check of the weather headlines. rob marciano is in atlanta. good morning. a little weather down there. rain this morning? >> heavy rain across the southeast, guys. some trying to get north. i think you guys will squeeze another springlike day across the metro metro -- metropolitan. once this system moves out, another batch of energy, severe weather in place for parts of louisiana, arkansas and missouri. chicago, a little rainfall as well and snow expected in the mountains. 56 in atlanta. 73 degrees in dallas. 70 in memphis helping charge up the atmosphere for the potential severe weather this afternoon. 57 in new york. know nice day four guys. you deserve it. might even squeeze two days out before the rain starts later in the week. much more weather in about 30 minutes. don't know in we deserve it, but we'll take it. thanks. 19 after the hour this morning. a big change for the biggest bank when it comes to overdraft fees. christine romans is "minding your business." and reports on thousands of documents turned over to congress by a former lawyer for toyota. documents that he claims prove the car company kept safety problems from the public and routinely broke the law. 55 after the hour, you heard that sex is good for you, but we'll tell you how your health determines how good and long your sex life will be. how long -- can you expect to -- whatever. you're watching the most news in the morning. i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. when i grow up, i'm going to go there. i'm going to work with kids. i want to fix up old houses. 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[ female announcer ] together we can discover the best of what's next at aarp.org. youtube didn't exist. and facebook was still run out of a dorm room. when we built our first hybrid, more people had landlines than cell phones, and gas was $1.75 a gallon. and now, while other luxury carmakers are building their first hybrids, lexus hybrids have traveled 5.5 billion miles. and that's quite a head start. ♪ 12 after the hour. this morning telling you about someone who may well represent the face of terrorism. a woman from suburban philadelphia who calls her jihad jane. colleen larose is accused of trying to recruit islamic plotters to kill on behalf of terrorists claiming her appearance would help her blend in. does this tell us anything about how terrorist, recruiting? here to help us understand, former fbi assistant director of international operations. look at this woman colleen larose goes by the handle of jihad jane. 46-year-old blond hair, blue eyed. she fits the profile. what do you make of this? >> john, there have been some women who have become jihadists in the past, but i think that the fact of the way she went about her business, going on the internet, blatantly calling attention to herself, there's no indication that al qaeda central or whether it be al qaeda in yemen or other main al qaeda groups actually recruited her. looks like she was trying to send out messages to whom it may concern, i'm available for jihad. >> wow. i mean, in your experience, as tom was saying, other women have been involved in terrorist conspiracies here in the united states, but does she represent something brand new? does she represent a new threat that now law enforcement has to deal with? >> maybe. i mean, what it is, an indicator there's always something else coming down the road that might be a threat to us. but as a large category that we have to worry about, absolutely not, i would say. we should always have been aware women could be used. we've seen maybe three or four women come across our terrorism trials in the united states. one case now in belgium a woman who's rather a high-profile woman saeshted with terrorism for a long time, but we haven't seen a large number of women, no. >> do we know anything how she came to her radical views? something about her background? from texas, involved in meiner cri minor crimes. nothing to lead you to believe she would reach out to jihadists around the world offering her services? >> no clue what caused her to become that way or afterwards herself as becoming available. i agree with karen. it's an anomaly, no a great trend. look at the vast majority of terrorists, they have been young males, and that's true actually with violent crime in general. the profile of most violent criminals is young male. and they either grow out of it or change their mind, but the women of the past have been either followers or supporters lending material support, not trying to take on the leadership position, as she was trying to do by her e-mail messages. >> karen, according to some reports in which neighbors of hers were interviewed, some signs maybe not everything was right. some neighbors said she talked to her cats all the time. they knew her as the "crazy lady." inevitably when you look at this, like major nidal hasan, dots can be connected, but can you connect those dots to terrorism and do law enforcement officials need to be aware of has? even though you have someone from a physical description looks almost identical to you. blond hair. you've got brown eyes, she has blue eyes. they have to look at this in a different way? >> actually i think law enforcement did a good job on this. a way to recruit either reached out to or reaching out to something she did, but the fbi was on top of this, monitoring it. it tells you that, yes, there are a number of people who are unstable in some way or many of them eventually become associated with crime and many with terrorism, but you can't assume that everybody who's unstable is going to go that way. instead, monitor the actual behavior. that's what the internet did. >> tom, karen says the fbi did a good job here and certainly she has been arrested, but she also posted a comment on youtube. she was out there on the internet. in a fairly overt way offering services trying to recruit people. someone like her determined to fly below the radar what kind of challenge does that pose law enforcement and does law enforcement as result of this need to start rethinking the way they pursue potential terrorists? >> john, there's only so up rethinking you can do. if the fbi starts looking to people who talk to their cats there won't be enough agents if they have 100,000 agents they won't be able to track that. there has to be a reasonal level of dot connection, if you will. once those cartoons were published, in this case, in sweden, almost two years ago. june 2007, and later jihady wep sites offered up to $150,000 rewards if individuals would go to sweden and kill the cartoonist and offer even more money if they slaughtered him like a lamb, to quote some of the jihadi websites. that brought a lot of people out of the woodwork who may normally have not risen to the level of violence. i'm not saying she was motivated by money. could just be unstable and her neighbors might be right, but you just don't know and there's so many indications in hindsight when we look at people who have done something violent or attempted to do something violent, as in her case what level you're going to have. and, of course, the irish authorities, they just arrested seven people in connection with a similar related plot to go to sweden and kill that cartoonist. so a lot of individuals around the world came to the attention of law enforcement in a number of countries. the case out of chicago not related to this one, at first hedley intended to go to copenhagen and kill people, a newspaper editor for the cartoons there. so these cartoons that have created so much ire in the muslim world, unfortunately, the fringes of that have decided to try to kill the people responsible. >> seems every day, a new challenge for law enforcement. great to see you both. thanks for coming in. coming up now on 19 after the hour. stay with us. it is 20 minutes now after the hour. it is. time for "minding your business." >> christine is here talking about overdraft fees, "minding your business" this morning. us a said before, you just can't let it happen to you. once you do, it's just -- >> overdrafting -- >> bushing money. >> insulting. giving money to your bank. look, no overdraft fees anymore for debit buys from bank of america. bank of america, of course, you and i have a big investment in bank of america. they said starting june 19th, new accounts, no overdraft fees. you go and try to overspend on your debit card, you will not be able to. in august, for existing accounts. i'm wondering why it's taking so long. a little more money from us in the meantime. if you go to the atm and try to take money out and there's not money in the account it will say, you are overdrawn on your account. do you want this money still? it's going to cost you $35 in a fee, and say there clearly, that you were pay $35. one of the beefs of a lot of people for years. you didn't know. all of a sudden you were just -- overdrafter and over by overdraft fees again and again. it's $ 3. here it is. $3 in fees for every $1 in overdrafts. >> didn't let me guess. >> go ahead. pretend you didn't hear that. >> what group, john, spends $3 in fees for every $11 they ov 1? college kids. bank of america credit cards, won't be able to do that anymore. reminds me, raises the question, how much money of these kids spending in fees on their credit cards, or that you're spending for your kids on their visa and credit cards? going it try to shut that fee machine down for these -- >> also it happened a lot between the hours of 11:00 p.m. and 3:00 in the morning. >> bet you're right. you take off $20 and get a $35 fee. >> right. even if it's $3 for every $1. thanks, christine. did toyota conspire to hide information that said that it had a safety problem? one stone saying, yes. we'll find out that story next. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] the cadillac cts sports sedan. one of car and driver's 10 best for the third year in a row. ♪ and now, for qualified current lessees, cadillac announces the new luxury collection lease. cadi own a small law firmw and i'm a much better lawyer than i am an accountant. so, when i wasn't getting paid as quickly as i would like, i did what came naturally. i threatened to sue. turns out, that's not the best way to keep clients. so i went looking for answers online at openforum.com it's a place where i can talk with other small business owners like thomas and connie and learn about tools like acceptpay. it's a new way to bill online that can help me get paid much faster, without the need for any legal intimidation, which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling... sort of like these super comfortable socks made from the soft, supple wool of alpacas. looking good. thank you. owners are asking questions. owners are getting answers. and american express open is building the tools they need. tools like acceptpay, which lets owners take their accounts receivable online. acceptpay. invoice digitally. get paid faster. only from american express open. welcome back. 24 after the hour. an original you'll only see on "american morning." >> bringing you it's story of a former attorney for toyota who claims the automaker conspired to conceal evidence from the public about safety problem. he also says thousands of company documents that he's turn over to congress will prove it. deb feyerick is with us tracking the latest developments on this story. he claims he has thousands and thousands of pages of documents. >> he does. as he says, he knows where the skeletons are. it's the lawyer who defended toyota brought by people hurt in automakers's calming him a disgruntled employ by toyota, but he has ales to say and a lot people are listening. >> reporter: when demetrius left his job at the top lawyer for toyota he walked out with a nealy $4 million buyout and something perhaps even more valuable. internal documents. 6,000 of them, some potentially damaging. >> not potential. they are. they are very damaging, because these documents can be used to establish liability against toyota. >> reporter: biller, who defended the auto giant in liability cases from 2003 to 2007 is now accusing toyota of withholding information it was legally required to turn over during lawsuits. >> in was a regular pattern of practice of not producing memos, minutes, reports, e-mails. >> reporter: the document, now the focus of hearings on capitol hill, include e-mails and memos biller sent to toyota officials concerning so-called books of knowledge. highly secretive data and testing records allegedly generated by toyota engineers on everything from rollovers and roof safety to sudden unintended acceleration. are the documents you have seen, are they a smoking gun or worse potentially? >> reporter: the committee chair says the documents show a systemic disregard for the law. >> the materials, i must admit, is very, very disturbing. >> reporter: toyota defends its action saying, we are confident that we have acted appropriately. if so far the company has fought to keep the documents confidential and away from court cases like penny green's. >> we were going to the movie, and i didn't make it. >> reporter: penny greene was 17 when the 1997 camry she was driving swerved, rolled ober and landed upside down. >> i remember when i opened my eyes my nose was, i felt like it was almost touching my belly button. i was so curled up. >> reporter: greene never walked again. >> the roof didn't withstand the roll like it was supposed to. >> reporter: the settlement, $1.5 million. and tms concluded it would be better to pay a premium to settle the case and avoid producing the books of knowledge. given all relevant toyota documents, the attorney had no idea how close it came to uncovering toyota's alleged secrets. >> they were very careful to keep the design information and very important information in japan out of reach of our system. >> reporter: toyota says these are trade secrets. do you feel that way? >> saying they're trade secrets doesn't mean you get to keep them secret from the court system. >> reporter: so why has the judge ordered all information produced didn't he produce it? he says he tried and was told not to by his superior who told him. >> we have to protect the client at all costs. i said even if that means committing criminal acts of violating the law? and he said, yes. >> reporter: asked about biller's charges, toyota says mr. biller continues to make inaccurate and misleading accusations about toyota's conduct that we strongly dispute and will continue to fight against vigorously. before leaving toyota four years ago, biller had a nervous breakdown caused he says by stress. still he's confident his e-mails left a trail saying he tried to change toyota. >> the documents speak for themselves. i know what happened. i know exactly what happened. i know the names of the people who are responsible for it. where the skeletons are hidden. >> reporter: at for penny greene, if a judge finds toyota did hide documents, all i want is justice. take responsibility for their actions. >> reporter: and greene's lawyer is asking a judge to review biller's documents to see if toyota should be health in contempt. yes, toyota is doing biller to keep quiet and biller for conspiracy against toyota. >> congress wants them. >> nhtsa wants them. books that could show how toyota was developing a product what was right with it, wrong with it. what they were trying to get fixed. the lawyers just didn't have access to it. >> difficult to keep it under wraps now. >> oh, no way. it will be very interesting. >> deb feyerick this morning. thanks. crossing the haft hour here on this morning's top stories. eric massa speaking out about the sex wabl harassment allegations swirling around him. he called the allegations that he groped a mall staffer "not true." insisting he got into a tickle fight with staffers. defense secretary robert gates says some of the u.s. force involved in the afghanistan surge could actually leave the front lines early. gates who is in afghanistan, said any withdrawal would have to be conditioned based. president obama says u.s. troops could begin to start coming home from afghanistan in july of 2011. intelligence officials say the number of people on the government's no-fly list doubled since the christmas day attack on a detroit-bound plane. according to the associated press the list has grown to,000 names and includes names associated in yemen and people who may have had contact wit alleged christmas bomber. we just mentioned, former new york congressman eric massa is responding to allegations of sexual misconduct and trying to clear up confusion about exactly why he's resigning. on larry king last night he had a laundry list of reasons. let's listen. >> i am leaving because i have to fight simultaneously cancer, my opposition to the health care bill and a belief that my party has become what it campaigned against. it's a very, very clear situation. >> well, the massa mess may be democrats shoot themselves in the foot ahead of upcoming elections. how big a problem is it? a blogger for cq politics.com and a national reporter for "the washington post." great to the have you both with us to talk about it. i don't know about you, many people couldn't stop watching yesterday as the more questions were asked of the former congressman, different answers came out. what do you make of all this? let me start with you craig? >> yeah. you know, i've been covering this town for 25 years and thought i'd seen it all, but if nothing else, this tickle defense to sexual groping is really new and brings to mind years ago when jim ryde, speaker of the house dealing with allegations against members and we asked him about it. he said, you know, we have about the same percentage of criminals and wrongdoers in congress as we do in the public at large's we're a representative body. so until yesterday, bosses who grope, tickle and wrestle their staff had representation. >> yeah, and, chris, do you think that this reflects poorly on the democratic leadership? congressman massa and his two interviews he did yesterday? >> i think, kiran, most people say this guy, i don't want to borrow a sarah palin term here, but i will, has gone rogue a little bit. it's clear he's not listening to what the democratic leadership or what the white house has to say. he gave a lot of answers in that clip you played with larry king. the simple fact of this is, she leaving under the cloud of scandal. he is resigning amid allegations, barring these allegations he would not be leaving congress. the idea he's leaving somehow because of the health care debate, the party has gone in the wrong direction, it's off track, they're minor things. this is someone who would be in congress today were it not for these groping allegations. i do think, though, the problem for democrats is context. eric massa, david paterson, charlie rangel all in the space of a week. politics doesn't happen in a vacuum. that doesn't help them. it tarnishing it's brand broadly. >> right. craig i want to ask about that. there have been, analysts have said, the bottom line, it's a double standard. congressman charlie rangel's ethics violations, the investigation into alleged ethics violations should also mean that there should be pressure on him it leave, yet you know that if you take a look at what is against massa right now in terms of what he may or may not have done and what congressman rangel may or may not have done, pelosi shouldn't be supporting rangel either. >> and they sat on those allegations against rangel for well over a year, before pressuring him to at least resign from his chairmanship. and a question how much the leadership, at least pelosi, actually wanted him to leave. also the timeline i think is going to be important for when did the leaders know about massa's problems? because two things in the news yesterday. one that massa put out. >> about steny hoyer know about the situation? >> yeah, and text messages saying there might be e-mails or text messages with staffers which recall old fights with the other side, mark foley a few years ago and how soon did they know about this? they go as far back as year, which we've heard are in some of the reports and leadership knew about it. that's when they might get in trouble. the best thing for them now is, this guy's coming across a bit paranoid and maybe a little off base and a lot of the public will say, nobody can be responsible for that. >> and one of the other things that's interesting, chris. political article yesterday as well as others that have said that there's sort of been an every man for himself attitude right now because we are heading into the midterm elections and congressmen especially and congresswomen want to get re-elected whether or not they actually listen to what their leaders want them to do at this point is up in the air. how big of an impact is the impending 2010 election? >> almost impossible to overstate how big an impact it is. mid-term elections, elections in general matter. a volatile political environment, seeing scott brown elected in massachusetts there is a level of panic that exists. remember, too, barack obama is not the barack obama of january 2009, 365 electoral votes, thought to be shepherding in a huge progressive majority. at that point if he told house democrats or senate democrat we're going to do this it usually got done. big exception the health care bill. these people are out for their own political survival and he no longer carries the sway that he once did. that's a problem, because then you have lots of splintering messages, kiran, you point out. a lot of members trying to say what they think is the right thing without a broad national message. could be problematic in a mid-term election. >> why is it that barack obama of 2009, january, isn't the same one now? why doesn't he hold as much sway as the president? >> i think his big problem is, back in the campaign i thought, when he's governing, he'll have a great difficulty maintaining both liberals and independents. that they will be tough to meld together once he's governing, and i think that's the problem. i figured he would at least keep one of them. part of his problem is, he's lost both liberals and independents, and hasn't managed to at least keep one of those, until he figures out some way to put that campaign coalition back together for this congressional election, which as chris mentioned is going to be difficult, because they're all out for themselves. i think he's going to continue to have these problems. >> thank you both for your perspective this morning. thank you. another runaway toyota claim. the hood of a prius smashed in, a stone wall pulverized pap woman claiming it took off before she could even get out of her driveway. did floor mats have anything to do with this one? telling coming up. 39 after the hour. recently a whole new kind of cloud came to st. cloud, minnesota. 18 minutes until the top of the hour. stories new this morning to tell you about. toyota will investigate the second runaway prius claim in as many days. it happened in westchester county, new york. a woman coming down her driveway when the car suddenly took off, shot across the street and pulverized a stone wall. the 56-year-old driver hospitalized but her injury, not believed to be life threatening. now we're hearing it's 911 call from the driver inside of a runaway toyota on a busy california free wa that happened monday. that car reached 94 miles an hour before a patrol officer helped slow it down and turn off the engine. >> how fast are you going? >> 80 something. >> you're going 80 miles an hour? >> 81 now. >> 81? and it's still stuck? >> yes. >> the driver, jim sykes, said the floor mats did nothing to cause this and he was afraid to put the car in neutral. >> the national traffic safety association sent investigators. and a bill introduced yesterday in the house allowing to you debit earthquake donations if you make them by tax day. if you already filed experts say fill out an amendment or wait until next year to claim the deduction. from the first closet to the smithsonian, michelle obama donating her inaugural gown to the smithsonian institution. the one shouldered white chiffon creation will be on display in a new gallery at the national museum of american history and part of a first lady's exhibit. and tabloid celebrity lindsay lohan suing e-trade saying a commercial that debuted during the super bowl is taking a shot at her. have a look at the commercial and you decide. >> and that milkaholic lindsay wasn't over? >> lindsay? >> milk a what? >> the tabloids have thoroughly reported lohan's drug problems. lohan's lawyer argues the name lindsay alone essentially i.d.s harry client in much the same way as oprah or madonna pretty much tell hue is being talked about. >> good luck with that lawsuit. >> i've never heard lindsay without the lohan on the end. >> call her -- >> maybe i missed it. >> call her a buth of other nicknames. i haven't heard this. >> i didn't even think of lindsay when i saw that ad. rob will be along in a few minutes with the morning travel forecast. and in ten minutes' time, time or an "am house call." this morning, talking sex. get your attention? how good it is, how long it will last. not for a single time but -- >> oh -- >> 45 before the hour. ne knows . ♪ get down tonight that's about to change. so you'll pay for the tour, but i have to change my name? no, you're still kc, but from now on, they will be the sun life band. it's funky. sooner or later, you'll know our name. sun life financial. good morning to all the folks in little rock, arkansas this morning. right now looks like it's fairly hazy, cloudy. 58 degrees. later on today it is going to be sunny with a hi of 78 degrees. not bad. >> 48 past the hour. a quick check of the weather in other parts of the country today's our rob marciano in atlanta for us. hey, rob. >> good morning, kiran and john bp a bit of a mess. a widespread convoluted mess through the eastern third the country. in spots it's quiet. other spots kind of nasty. some of the rain trying to get to the northeast. having a hard time doing it. new york, already today. a couple spritz and sprinkles in d.c. falling apart rapidly. go further south to get the bulk of the moisture. raining heavily across parts of central alabama in through north georgia. including the atlanta metropolitan area, beginning to fill in. not really going away anytime too soon. flash flood watchies posted. and potential severe weather across parts of missouri little rock, in between sunshine louisiana. favored this time of year, this area. tennessee valley, in march and april. a quiet february. quiet start for january and february because, well, the storm track pretty far south and the gulf of mexico cool because it's been so cold this winter. hopefully that will continue to be the case. with the strong el nino jet stream, i have a feeling our severe weather season will ramp up fairly quickly. back up to you. >> thanks, rob. meanwhile a look at our top stories in a couple minutes. why did a democratic congressman resign days before the potential final battle over health care? it's beginning to sound like even he doesn't really know why. why his answers led to even more questions, live in washington. 25 minutes after, the vote out. whether growing the size of congress is the answer to fixing it. also at half past the hour, the only person conan o'brien decided to follow on twitter. she went from a handful of followers to being able to pay for her wedding with it. ♪ [ woman ] nine iron, it's almost tee-time. time to face the pollen that used to make me sneeze, my eyes water. but with new zyrtec® liquid gels, i get allergy relief at liquid speed. that's the fast, powerful relief of zyrtec®, now in a liquid gel. zyrtec® is the fastest 24-hour allergy medicine. it works on my worst symptoms so i'm ready by the time we get to the first hole. and that's good because the competition's steep today. new zyrtec® liquid gels work fast, so i can love the air.™ welcome back. it's seven minutes to the top of the hour. time for your "a.m. house call." there's a new study out this morning, so men and women, listen up. >> it's a study that shows the healthier you are now, the more fun you'll have when you turn out the lights later in life. elizabeth cohen is live from atlanta this morning with the details. hey, elizabeth. >> good morning. this study from the british medical journal makes two things clear -- it's good to have sex and it's good to be healthy, so let's look at exactly what they found. they took at look at 55-year-old men and said, okay, how many more years of a good, happy sex life does a 55-year-old man have? it depends on how healthy or unhealthy he is. if he's unhealthy, he only has about 12 more years of a good sex life in front of him. healthy, 17. so there you go. you can see if you are healthy, you will have five more years of good sex, all the more reasons to exercise, eat right and do all the things you're supposed to do. similar kinds of results for women. if a woman at age 55 is unhealthy, she's only looking at about a decade of good sex in front of her. if -- if she's unhealthy, ten years. if she's healthy, she has 13 years ahead of her. so again, all the more reason to stay healthy. kiran and john? >> we have women a shorter period of time than men do after the age of 55. what i thought was fascinating about the study is researchers also found that women didn't exactly miss it if they didn't last as long. why do men have a longer sex life than women do? >> there seems to be two reasons. viagra and biology. there's sort of an evolutionary biological theory that a 70-year-old man can father a child. a 70 years old woman can for the have a child. there's a difference in the sex drive because there's a difference in the outcome. and viagra is here, it's been out for 12 years and the other drugs that followed it. machine get levels of health that women don't get. >> what's the bottom line when it comes to an overall healthy lifestyle and its link to sex? >> you know who? there have been dozens of studies, kiran that show people who are sexually active tend to be healthier. it's a chicken/egg thing. the bottom line is that it's good. if you go for cnn.com/empower patient, you'll see a whole column i wrote about this. the bottom line is the people with pour active sex lives tend to have lower blood pressure, tend to have less heart disease and tend to have lower rates of certain times of cancer. >> another reason to hit the gym. thanks, elizabeth. good morning on this wednesday. it's march 10th. welcome to "american morning." i'm kiran chetry. >> and i'm john roberts. new developments about a pennsylvania woman who calls herself jihad jane. she's charged with recruiting people on the internet to carry out jihad. we'll have the latest in this investigation. former new york congressman eric massa is denying he touched a male staffer in a sexual manner. he's offering another take on why he quit congress. brianna keilar is following the developments. thousands of internal toyota documents have been turned over to congress by an attorney who once defended toyota for a living. he insists they proved the automaker kept safety problems from the public and reteenly defied the law, and when he tried to obtain court orders to turn over documents, this is what he was told by toyota supervisors. >> he said, well, you're not screwing the client, you have to protect the client at all costs. i said, even if that means committing criminal acts or violating the law? he said, yes. >> more on the documents that may seriously damage an already staggering automaker just ahead. first, though, new developments are emerging on a woman from suburban philadelphia, who's now been indicted in an alleged terror plot. officials claim the woman calls herself jihad jane. she allegedly used the enter net to try to recruit fighters and also was allegedly plotting to kill on foreign soil. our jeanne meserve is live in washington. how far did she get? >> her name is colleen larose, and the indictment says she traveled to europe to train to kill a target. the indictment doesn't name him, but a government source says it was the swedish artist lars vil vilks. the indictment says larose had an on, and writing in an online communication at that point that only death will stop me here, that i am so close to the target. we do not know why she came back to pennsylvania, but that is where she was arrested about two weeks later. she has been held quietly while the investigation continued, an investigation which yesterday resulted in the arrests of seven people in ireland, although the alleged murder plot did not come to fruition, sources say larose was successful raising money and recruiting men and women. >> what else have you learned about larose? >> she's 46 years old, blonder, green-eyed, a convert to islam. we know before moving to pennsylvania she lived in texas. in 1997 she was arrested there for dwi, and there was a warrant that same year for her arrest for writing bad checks. she was prolific online, according to the indictment. in one youtube posting she called herself jihad jane and said she was desperate to do something to help the suffering of muslim people, but how or why she became radicalized, we just don't know at this point. >> thank you, jeanne. thousands -- according to the associated press, the no-fly list has nearly doubled since the attempted christmas day attempted bombing. >> there are now 6,000 names on the list, it used to be 3,400. people associated with al qaeda are included, al qaeda in yemen, people who may have been contact with the alleged christmas bomber. massa denied that he sexually groped a male staffer, saying the contact came during tickle fights. there it is on the screen. brianna keilar is following developments for us. brianna, the explanations seem to be convoluted and confusing. >> and bizarre, john. you see eric massa saying what's happened is much more innocent than reports would indicate. listen to what he told larry king last night. >> alternate your 50th birth die party, you groped a male staffer. what is this all about? >> well, when four guys jump on you to wrestling to prove you're 50 years old, anything can be called anything, larry. what it's all about is innuendo. >> you said, quote, not only did i grope him, i tickled him until he couldn't breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me. so you did grope someone, right? >> larry, when you grab someone and you're wrestling, i don't know how to describe that word. so if that's the word that you want to have an entire debate about, then i can't stop you. >> no, i'm just asking the question. you said you groped. a lot of people associate groping with sexual. >> well, it wasn't sexual, period. >> okay. >> and important to remember here, john, we really only have one side of the story eric massa's, because we haven't heard from any of the victims of this alleged sexual harassment. >> some people may be wondering why a 50-year-old is engaged in tickle fights anyway, but did he explain would you say he was leaving? >> he's had so many explainations, he said his cancer may have come back. he said he was forced out by the white house by democratic leaders because he was going to be a no vote on the health care issue. he said this would tear his family apart. last night he really threw all of these things and made a stew out of them when he was talking to larry king, though earlier in the day in another network he said he hadn't been forced out. >> he had some tough words for rahm emanuel over the past few days, is she saying anything about emanuel this morning? >> listen to what he said last night. he sort of had a sarcastic apology for emanuel, because over the weekend he had said that rahm emanuel was the son of devil's spawn. he said he would tie his children to a train to get the vote that he wanted. massa said actually i owe him an apology, and she said he wouldn't tie his children to the train, he would tie mine to a train. this came on the heels of white house sources saying that shower episode, where massa said that emanuel confronted him in the gym showers on the budget, and this comes on statements saying that incident didn't happen. >> didn't the white house spokesman saying that all these allegations were crazy the other day? >> and we're hearing that -- crazy crazy, we've heard that from democratic leaders as well. some people say that eric massa's feud is gist one more example of how broken government is. at :25 after the hour, carol costello wondering whether it's time to tweak the system. could we fix the problem by sending more politicians to washington? you won't believe who came up with that idea, an "a.m. original" you don't want to miss. we're checking in with rob marciano to see what's cooking around the country. hey, rob. >> good-looking day to start things off in new york city, but south and west is where the action begins to pick up. a good chunk of the central third of the country is dealing with weather. from chicago down to atlanta, that's where we're seeing some of the action. down across the south it's in the form of some thunderstorms. they had some heavy rain, tapping the moisture from the gulf of mexico. there are some flash flood watches that have been posted. air and ground travel will be slow. and then once that moves out, later on this afternoon, sun will recharge the atmosphere in places like louisiana, arkansas and missouri, and we'll probably see some severe thunderstorms break out. it's getting towards that time of year when that starts to happens. 70 degrees in memphis, 58 in chaus, 57, another good-looking day for you in new york city. we'll try to do it again tomorrow, and then rain heads in toward the big apple closer to the weekend. more details, john and kiran, in about a half hour. >> it's been great. we'll take it where we can get it. out there on the bike, with the kids attached, just don't take the corners too hard. thanks so much, rob. last week sarah killen had three followers on twitter. now she has over 19,000. we'll find out how conan o'brien changed her life. an attorney who ones defended toy yoita, turning over 6,000 pages of documents about safety issues. is it the smoking gun? we'll find out. 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>> definitely could be the smoking gun. congress is now reviewing them. a lot of people want to read through them. the person bringing them forward is a lawyer who defended toyota in liability and negligence cases brought by people hurt in toyota vehicles. he's accusing the car maker of playing by its own rules time and again. toyota says this is a disgruntled employee, but what he's saying has a lot of people listening. when dmitemetrius biller left h job as a top in-house lawyer, he walked out with a nearly $4 million buyout. perhaps something more valuable -- internal documents, 6,000 of them, potential damaging. not potentially. they are very damaging. these documents can be used to establish liability against toyota. >> reporter: biller, who defended the auto giant from 2003 to 2007, is now accusing toyota of holding information it was legally required to turn over during lawsuits. >> there was a reg pattern and practice of not producing memos, minutes, reports, e-mails. >> reporter: the documents now the focus of hearings on capitol hill, including e-mails and memos biller sent to toyota officials concerning so-called books of knowledge. highly secretive data and testing records allegedly generated by toyota engineers on everything from rollovers and roof safety to sudden, unintended acceleration. are the documents you have seen, are they a smoking gun? or are they worse, potential? committee chair ed towns show -- >> the material is very disturbing. >> reporter: toyota defenses its action, saying we are confident we have acted appropriately. yet the company has fought to keep the documents confidential and away from court cases like pennie green's. >> we were going to the movie, and i didn't make it. >> pennie green was 17 when the camera swerved, rolled over and landed upside down. >> when i opened my eyes, i felt like my nose was touching my belly button. >> reporter: green never walked again. >> the roof didn't withstand the weight of the care like it's supposed to. >> reporter: the case settled, the summary biller sent to his bosses, quote, tms concluded that it would be better to pay a premium to settle this case and avot producing the books of knowledge. green's attorney jeff embrey had no idea how close it had come to uncovering the alleged secrets. >> they were very careful to keep design information and very important information in japan out of reach of our system. >> toyota says these are trade secrets. do you feel that way? >> saying they're trade secrets doesn't mean you get to keep them secret from the court system. >> reporter: so why, if biller knew all information was ordered to be produced, didn't produce it? he said he tried and was told not to. >> he said we have to protect the client at all costs. i said even if it means committing criminal acts? he said, yes. >> reporter: toyota says mr. biller continues to make inaccurate and misleading allegations about toyota's conduct that we strongly dispute and will continue to fight against vigorously. before leaves toyota four years ago, biller had a nervous breakdown, caused by stress, he says. still he's confident his e-mails left a trail, showing he try to do change toyota. >> the documents speak for themselves. i know what happened. i know exactly what happened. i know the names of the people responsible for it. i know where the skeletons are hidden. >> reporter: as for pennie green, if a judge finds that toyota hid documents -- >> all i want is justice for that. >> reporter: right now green's lawyer is asking a judge to review the documents to see whether in fact the company should be held in contempt. in case you are wondering, they're battle lawsuits. toyota is suing biller to keep quiet, and biller is suing toyota as well. >> as you said, congress and nhtsa wants to see they documents. >> it will be interesting to see where the problems were in all its vehicles. >> how soon might they become publicly available? >> right now they're under seal. it's unclear. that's the best answer i can give you. >> thanks so much. and of course you've been following the lightest on this story. if you'd like to do the same, log-on to cnn.com/toyota. the number of millionaires has increased quite dramatically. christine romans, "minding your business" is up next. we love getting our outback dirty. because it seems like the dirtier it gets, the more it shines. the subaru outback®. motor trend's 2010 sport/utility of the year®. hurry in to the subaru love spring event for great deals on all models. now through march 31st. coming up at 20 minutes after the hour, it means it's time for "minding your business." the number of millionaires going up? >> gwen stephani is probably in this club, i would venture. >> no doubt. >> very clever, kiran. >> where's the snare drum and the cymbal? >> under the desk. look, the millionaires' club grew pretty fisly. in fact the news came out a year to the day after 12-year lows in the stock market, we all thought the world was going to end, right? peet with a net worth of over $5 million did very well, up 17% last year. that group now counts the 80,000. these are, in case you don't know, the ultra-high net worth individuals, not including their primary home. how about net worst over $1 million that grew to 7.the million americans. what if you're considered broadly affluent, those are people with over $500,000, not counting the primary home. those grew to 12.7 million. this is all from a group called the spectrum group in chicago, that handless affluent behavior and buying patterns and the like. here is what's happening. these people are much more likely to have much more exposure into financial instruments, so this last year has been really fantastic for them. the middle class and upper middle class, much more exposed to real estate, much more of their wealth is in their home and they have really been hit, so this group less likely to be so tied to their house for their economic well being. >> because they're including their house in the net worth. >> right. >> if you were just an everyday, lig on main street, trying to save some money, you couldn't make any money by putting money in the cd. the interest rates were so low, so how do you make money? >> the safe plays didn't work. also, it's a jobs thing, too. so many people are involved in finance for how they're making their money and growing their money. in the upper middle class, it's the job. the job is still the driver, and the job situation has been very bad. that's why you're seeing this rift between the middle class and upper middle class, and then this group that's ultra-high net worth. >> you're saying the way the stock market has been growing up, is it creating a new bubble? >> i don't know. that's a good question. no one expected we would so 68% gains in the s&p 500. this has helped this high net worth group for sure. it's down dramatically from 2007. in 2007 you had my gosh, much more -- many, many more people, the peak the.2 million people who were considered this rich group. >> but you're talking about that quick growth, within one year jumping 67%. >> yesterday i was reporting that 16% of people were comfortable with their retirement, the next day i'm reporting there's more millionaires. this is the upsidedown world we live in. >> thanks, christine. last week sarah kill neismt had three followers, and now more than 19,000. she's going to join us next. hey! increase in 6 months. pete, back it up! ( marker squeaking ) when business travel leaves you drained, re-charge with comfort suites. spacious rooms, free hi-speed internet, and free hot breakfast. comfort suites. power up. now stay two separate times with comfort suites... or any choice hotel and earn a free night. book at choicehotels.com. hi, may i help you? yes, i hear progressive has lots of discounts on car insurance. can i get in on that? are you a safe driver? yes. discount! do you own a home? yes. discount! are you going to buy online? yes! discount! isn't getting discounts great? yes! there's no discount for agreeing with me. yeah, i got carried away. happens to me all the time. helping you save money -- now, that's progressive. call or click today. the problem with the then lieutenant governor now governor david paterson, he may have violated ethics laws as governor. i thought, wait a minute, that was a requirement to be governor. wasn't that part of the package? paterson says he refuses to stand down, he's not quitting. i thought, who does he think he is? leno? >> two zings in there. he's right. >> every day another layer of the onion comes off. top stories just four minutes away. something you'll see only on "american morning" if you're finding it heart to stomach what's happening in washington, you're not alone. more are out of touch, according to their constituents. we did a week of series on it. our government is broken, and we don't have a stellar record. so our carol costello wondering if it's time to tweak the system. she joins us live from washington. >> i'd like to tweak our audience, because you elect these people. you would think that all politicians would fight to overcome that horrible image. many are, but there are more than a few who don't seem to see it. is it time we tweaked the system to find voters to make better choices. as i said, you put them in office. >> i am taking this opportunity to officially announce my candidacy for the return of state senator hiram monserrate. >> reporter: a typical campaign wish unless you know the back story. hiram monserrate was booted out of the new york state senate after convicted of a misdemeanor for assaulting his girlfriend. part of the attack was captured on a surveillance tape, yet he's confident that voters will reelect him. to his critics in politics? >> i think it will be the pot calling the kettle black for anyone in government pointing a finger toward hiram monserrate. >> reporter: some political observers are aghast, but not surprised. >> they're very quick at justifies actions that most of us would have to apologize for. >> reporter: and rarely do they just go away after justifying their actions. south carolina's governor admitted to an affair, to lying to voters, but he has resisted calls to step down, confident of voter support. >> i'm not going to be railroaded out of this office by political opponents or folks who were never fans of mine in the first place. >> reporter: it's a battle cry long echoed by charlie rangel, who's accused of failing to pay taxes and violating house ethics rules. >> in order to avoid my colleagues having to defend me during their elections -- >> reporter: he finally stepped down as chairman of a powerful committee, but the congressman elected 20 times did not apologize or resign. gut check. is it time to tweak the system? >> the average voter would love to see through the persona projected by the consultants in the tv ads, but how do you do that? >> reporter: more politicians. example. right now each member of the u.s. congress represents roughly 700,000 americans, far too many voters for their elected representatives to get to know. so instead of 435 house members, why not elect 10,000? >> the smaller the unit is, the more likely it is that people will get to know the candidates and they'll vote not just on the basis of party, but on the basis of the character of the candidates. >> reporter: because you'll actually get to know the candidates. i know, some of you are scoffing at the thought of so many members of congress, but the idea of keeping a representative constituency rather small actually came from george washington himself, because he foresaw the reality of what we're dealing with today. so the idea here, john and kiran, is if, you know, smp represents a smaller number of people, that smaller number of people can make better decisions, because they can actually get to know the candidate. >> i'm trying to think of how 10,000 representatives could get anything passed. can you imagine? >> well, you know, i asked people for comments and our blog lit up with many comments, very interesting. i'm going to read you a few. if you want to join in, cnn.com/amfix. candy said the last thing we need is more politicians, move lobbyists will give us more corruption, less regulations and bigger deficits. but here's the other thing, and john pointed this out in the 6:00 hour of "american morning." he says, i've heard worst ideas, but the cost of running such a body could be astronomical so the new electees would need to accept lower pay and scaled-down benefits. that's the thing, you know, how many staff members does the average representative have, john? >> probably about 15 or 20, i would think. >> that's right. >> that would make for a big tickle fight. >> whoa. >> i had to laugh at that one. >> this is what we're taking about that this morning. is that pitiful or what. >> if you had a smaller constituency you represented, perhaps you wouldn't need so much staff members, perhaps you wouldn't even need to have an office in washington. maybe you could do all of your work online. >> here's the thing, too, a lot of smaller municipalities where constituency is smaller, they're part-time jobs, pay something along the lines of $6,000 to $10,000. maybe that's the model. office space as tight as it is, i don't know where the heck you'll put 10,000. >> they wouldn't even have to go to washington. >> that's why they invented skype. carol, thanks so much. this is time for this morning's top stories, a suburban philadelphia woman has been indicted on charges she conspired to support foreign terrorists. colleen larose is also accused of plotting to kill a swedish cartoonist. authorities say they arrested seven people who are suspected of plotting with larose to kill that cartoonist. parents say it was a tremendous relief to finally hear their voices. relatives say that the three hikers were hiking in iraq's northern kurdistan region in july when they accidentally crossed the border. iran still claims they're spies. according to law, the charges could result in a death penalty. and congressman eric massa admits to having physical contact with a male staffer, but tells cnn's larry king there was nothing sexual about their tickle fights. >> you said, quote, not only did i grope him, i tickled him until he couldn't breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me. so you did grope someone, right? >> so -- larry, when you grab someone and you're wrestling, i don't know how to describe that word. if that's the word that you want to have an entire debate about, then i can't stop you. >> no, i'm just asking the question. you said you groped. a lot of people associate groping with sexual. >> well, it wasn't sexual, period. >> okay. well, the tickle episode is one of several explanations that massa has given in several days. conan o'brien has been sort of laying low since his short-lived "tonight show" gig ended in january, but he has popped up on twitter. he was having fun with it. >> on friday he sent on the this tweet -- i've decided to follow someone at random. she likes peanut butt are and gummy dine osauers. sarah killen, your life is about to change. she had a handful of twitter followers. after that her page exploded. she just broke 20,000 followers a few minutes ago. here for the "a.m. breakdown" sarah killen and her fiance. was koenen rite right? has life changed? >> absolutely. a complete 360. >> in what way? >> we were hard up for stuff. i never -- it was very quiet where we were. i was just at home every day. now we're out and doing everything. people have been helping us out and being amazing. >> it really is a life-changing experience. walk us back to how this all started. i think you got a heads-up from the team. how did they contact you in the first place? >> they contacted me via myspace on thursday. i responded on friday and told them, sure. i didn't know i was the only person who got that message, but a few minutes later, he was following me and i had hundreds of followers. >> so, you know, some interesting things have been coming your way as a result of this newfound twitter fame. it's kind of strange, talking about twitter celebrities, but you definitely have become one. somebody sent you a new computer, i guess, because the computer you had been using was somewhat unreliable, but you're also using your exposure for good. you're very much into charities? >> yeah, we were going to do -- we are doing the three-day walk for the cure for breast cancer. we couldn't get anyone to donate any money, so we put the link on there, and we had over $2,500 in a couple dals. >> and you're also now trying to get money for your mom who wants to walk with you? it's the susan g. komen three-day for the cure? >> i'm the team leader, we're on the same team, and you need $2,500 to be able to walk. i want her to walk with me as well. >> so for the two of you, this is also exciting, because it's helped you in planning your dream wedding, because like many celebrities, you're in and out getting freebies. what's that been like? >> it's been amazing. we're not really trying to accept too many things, but people have been giving us wedding gifts and it's helped tremendously. we weren't really going to be able to have a nice wedding. now i can have a wedding dress and a limo, things like that. >> a limo, some wedding bands, you also are getting some wine donated, right? from a california vineyard? >> yeah, three cases of wine. >> wow, look at that. here you are, you're helping out charities, and the susan g. komen isn't the only charity, some others as well, and people are giving back to you. it comes full circle. and as i understand it, you have a new twitter fan. she was out somewhere. tells us about meeting ludacris. >> yeah, a radio station contacted me. i was talking to him. he said they were going to have ludacris in, and i told them how much i loved him, and they said come down. we came down, we met him, he gave us tickets to his concert. >> john, i want to ask you a couple questions about this whole entire thing. what's it been like for you? you guys were basically doing your thing, now you're celebrities and your fiancee's every move is being tracked by 20,000 and counting followers from across the country. what's that like for you? >> it's been hectic, but i'm happy for her. i've taken on her position as a manager for a bit. >> now you're heidi and spencer. >> oh, gosh. >> were you conan o'brien fans before this? >> yeah, we used to stay up and watch his show every night. we were disappointed when he was taken off the air. >> he'll be back, i'm sure. >> yeah. i read an article in the "chicago tribune" the writers say, quote, apparently somebody forget to get her the handbook. she's comporting herself like a decent human being. cut it out, ms. killen, you're making the rest of the world look bad. i read something you were in girl scouts, had a charitable background. is this going to go to your head? or will you continue to be the same person you were? >> i don't think i'm changing at all. i'm glad people think that. i mean, the only thing you can do is continue to be yourself and people like it or they don't. so i'm glad they do really like it. >> well, we're happy to talk to you two. i hope you have a blast at your wedding. i hope you'll tweet the pictures. thanks for talking to us this morning. >> thank you. just before we go to commercial break, too. i had something made up -- of course on twitter there's more than one person to a name. there'site sarah killen out there. here's her twitter page. she has a whole 21 followers. she's still waiting for her life to change, she says. she's going to go to the store and buy some peanut butter and gummy dinosaurs, trying to get some recognition. we'll follow both of them for the heck of it. the job market is looking up. that's next. always well made always well designed now with extraordinary savings come in to save or log on now ethan allen. extraordinary savings. limited time this just into cnn, the los angeles police department says cory ham died this morning. they believe of an aparents drug overdose. he was a team heartthrob in the 1980s, and frequent co-star with cory feldman. dead at the age of 38 this morning. today in our "building up america" series, a success story. christine romans joins us, "building up america today." this is a bright spot, certainly nothing close to 2007 when there were many more jobs, but we'll take the good news. >> tiny brick by brick, small gains in the jobs market in january. the survey from the department of labor shows job openings up 193,000 in january to 2. million jop openings. well, that means there are 2.7 million available jobs today versus 4.4 million jobs available in december 2007. you can see we still have lost a lot of jobs. today there are 5.5 applicants for every job opening out there. you've heard me say there are six people for every job opening, but again, back in december 2007, a healthy labor market is just under two people fighting for every job out there, or even less. quickly where there have been gains in the jobs, education and health care, also hotels and restaurants, which economists say shows more confident on the part of consumers. arts and entertainment lost in jobs, and government as well. no surprise there, because they have been building up just so many. you've heard me say so many times six people fighting for every job opening. this study shows 5.5 people fighting for every job opening. >> not liking the odds. >> but the numbers are moving in the right direction. severe thunderstorms springing up later on today. you'll want to know about this. rob has the forecast coming right up. a rainy chicago this morning, as we take a look where it's 49 degrees, and more showers in the forecast. so bring your umbrella if you're in the windy city today. it will be 58 for a high. and rob marciano tracking all of it for us. you had some rain in atlanta yourself? >> yeah, a lot of rain, much heavier in atlanta than in chicago. depending on how tough you are, you may or may not need the umbrella. ga loshs, and umbrellas, at least in the atlanta metropolitan area, this radar keeps looking worse and worse. brighter colors means more rain and coming down in a hurry. could see up to 3 inches of rainfall by the time friday morning rolls around. some of this is trying to get up toward the north and east, baltimore, d.c., philly, but having a hard time doing so. you folks should remain dry. after that heavy rain moves out, another punch of energy from the rockies into the plains. this has some good dynamics with it. we're thinking that severe storms are a good possibility today from missouri all the way down to the southern coastline of louisiana. we'll be watching for that potential mid to late afternoon. aside from that, atlanta and charlotte will see the biggest problems, and then late rain in chicago, minneapolis and houston may slow you down from time to time as well. it will be 71 in memphis, 59 in northern, still chilly in ohio where some of the ponds are still frozen and if you're a puppy dog, you don't want to be venturing out, you don't know when you'll run into ice. there you go. they can't read. that's the problem. these post the signs, and as much as we think dogs are smart, they just can't read. a little on the young side. he as got a lot to learn. this lesson will be marked down. >> oh, he's shaking. >> cute guy or gal. >> first lesson, learn how to read. >> there's your on blig torrie dog rescue moment of the day. just for the record, the drought in atlanta is officially over, right? >> oh, yeah. without a doubt, we are swimming fine. little leaguers getting major league injuries, happening more obvious. how to avoid those injuries. we have tips coming up. [ male announcer ] we speak car. sure, but do we speak hybrid? yes, we do. and we can say 700 miles on a single tank and epa-estimated 41 mpg city and all the words stick because they're true. we speak the most fuel-efficient midsize sedan in america. yes, we speak car, and apparently quite well. fusion is now motor trend's 2010 car of the year. get in...and drive one. ♪ welcome back. 53 minutes past the hour. more than 2 million kids play little league baseball. >> and many are getting injuries that would put big leaguers on the disabled list. elizabeth cohen joins us with more. what type of injuries are we talking about, elizabeth? >> talking about injuries to the ligaments to the shoulder, that helps you rotate your shoulder. when they're pitching especially, but when they play too much baseball, they can lucien flexibility. there was a study presented by the academy of pediatric surgeon, and a lot of it depended on the position they're playing. what they found is that 32% of the pitchers who they looked at had some problem with shoulder pain or flexibility with the ligament. when you go down to the catchers, it went down to 25%. then when you went to the outfielders, it went to 21%. you can see the pitchers really are the ones at highest risk here, so this is definitely a lesson for parents in little league. of course they should play, but you want to be careful. >> so you want to protect them then. >> exactly. you do need to protect them. >> what do you do? >> well, you know specifically what you do is that the parent ought to be keeping track of how many pitches the child is doing, because the parent can say, wait a minute, my child has gone beyond their pitch limit. the league sets them out. you should know them. the coach may not catch it. your child should not pitch in pain. if your child needs a tylenol or adville to pitch, take them out. take at least three months' rest throughout the year. >> are the incidents actually increasing? they were competitive when we were bulk growing up, but these days kids are really competitive. maybe are they saying feeling fine when they're not? is it a greater sense of competition? >> this study didn't address that specifically, but i don't know much about little league, because i have four daughters. if indeed it is more competitive and they are pushing kids more. here as the problem. if your son is really good, he's at highest risk. it's ironic. if they're good, the coach will put them in more. it's not so much that something terrible will happen now, it's the problems with the ligaments could be a bigger problem later on, could even mean the arm will start to separate from the socket. >> wow, that's not good. elizabeth cohen, thanks. we have :56 after the hour. we're following some breaking news this morning to tell you about. the los angeles police department is telling us today that actor cory ham died this morning, they believe of an apparent drug overdose. he was just 38 years old, a teen heartthrob back in the 1980s, a frequent co-star with the other famous cory feldman. again, cory ham dead at the age of 38, apparently from a dug overdose. also developing right now, after nearly two months in haiti, the navy hospital ship "the usns comfort" and its brave crew now headed home. it left late last night, getting ready for the long trip back to baltimore. the official tally shows that the crew streeted 871 patients, that its surgeons performed 843 different operations, also nine babies were born on the ship during "comfort's" mission in haiti, clun one set of twins. it said the hospitals over the last few weeks were able to handle the patients, so they figured now was the time to end that mission. >> the hospital ship living up to its name. continuing the conversation on our stories today. that's going to wrap it up for us. thanks for joining us. see you back here tomorrow morning. fredricka whitfield continues. >> have a great day today. time to make some doif out west. do you have a job