Transcripts For CNN CNN Tonight 20091121

meperor. >> was that embarrassing? let me ask you a question. was it any less embarrassing than this? >> that's it for me. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in "the situation room." up next, cnn tonight. tonight, republicans and democrats in the senate get set for a fierce battle over health care. >> a little bit of bait and switch going on there. >> as one old senator used to say, like the devil hates holy water. >> but can a handful of renegade democrats kill president obama's dream of health care overhaul. more cancer confusion. first it was mammogram guidelines. now women face new recommendations on when to be screened for cervical cancer. who really wins with a new screening advice, women or the health care industry? also, student uprising. >> this is what democracy looks like. >> university students in california stage a campus takeover to protest soaring tuition costs. and thanks for joining us tonight. the health care overhaul is about to face a critical test vote in congress. the senate will be in session tomorrow. that's right, a saturday. not just any saturday, but the saturday before the thanksgiving holiday. the fact that they're not already heading home for the holiday is a sure sign of the pressure democrats are feeling to push the health care overhaul through before the end of the year. today democratic leaders were desperately trying to secure support from members of their own party. dana bash has the story. >> reporter: behind the scenes it's a democratic scramble to secure 60 votes needed to start the senate health care debate. >> we're not assuming a thing, we're working hard to bring all democrats together for the 60 votes necessary to proceed to this historic debate. >> and all eyes are on one of the last democratic holdouts, the senator inside this office, blanch lincoln of arkansas. >> senator blanch lincoln's office. >> reporter: phones are ringing off the hook, constituents trying to get through to influence her vote. >> yes,ma'am, i'm sorry about that. well, we're getting a lot of people calling. >> reporter: lincoln holds the power to stop president obama's top priority in its tracks or let it proceed. he's got a tough re-election battle next year in a state obama lost in 2008 by 20 points, and conservative voters now worry that health care bill spends too much and gives too much power to the government. democratic leaders are well aware of her political pickle, but try to pressure her with this argument. >> i would say to senator lincoln that i believe most of the people in arkansas will be relieved and happy to see health care reform. i think the failure to pass a bill is not good for america, it isn't good for any of us in congress or those standing for re-election. >> reporter: another democratic senator who hasn't formerly announced her vote is marry landrieu of louisiana. photos show her going through the 200-plus page health care bill. one thing she'll find is a sweetener democratic leaders added to help persuade her, $100 million in medicaid assistance she's been trying to get for her home state of of louisiana still struggling from katrina. she has deep concerns about many things, the cost of her party's health care bill and the fact that it includes a government-run health insurance option. she opposes that. still, the sense we are getting from her and her office over the past couple of days is she is leaning towards voting yes, sir with her party tomorrow night. >> one of those other dem contracts holding out has made a decision at this point, correct? >> reporter: that's right. nebraska senator ben nelson announced earlier today that despite the fact that he also has many concerns about his party's health care bill, he too will vote to bring this bill to the floor to start debate. in fact in his statement he said if you don't like a bill why block your own opportunity to amendment it. unclear if any of these senators will vote yes at the end of the day. there's a big fight that will take several weeks on the senate floor. >> tomorrow only the beginning, thanks. we talked about the fact that the senators are working an occasional saturday. sometimes working an occasional saturday, even every saturday may be normal for you, for a lot of americans, but not for the u.s. senate. in fact it's a rare event made even more unusual because of the upcoming thanksgiving holiday. >> the majority leader has scheduled a vote for saturday at 8 p.m. >> the song says saturday night is all right for fighting. >> there is going to be a vote on saturday night to start debate. >> reporter: and so with the clock ticking on the legislative year, senators brace for yet another rare saturday session in an attempt to kick off their health care debate. >> congress is going to have to break their 15 to 20-hour workweek and work like every hard american, work on a saturday. >> that's right. >> reporter: former senate staffer turned humorous plays to the public's skepticism about capitol hill's performance. when asked one month ago in a cnn poll do you approve or disapprove of the way congress is handling its job, 69% disapprove, less than a third approve. >> ironically this one is right pr br thanksgiving. the republicans want to kill this turkey. >> reporter: this weekend will mark the 97th saturday session of the u.s. senate since march of 1968. previous saturday votes were called on key government spending bills, tax bills, impeachment, and in the summer of 1994, the democratic senate leader called a saturday session to debate health care. former director of the senate radio tv gallery, larry jansic says there are many reasons to call members in on the weekend. >> it might be a bit of an opportunity for the majority leader to exercise a power play and demonstrate in that way to his own party and to the members of the opposite party his resolve to move this issue forward. >> reporter: are lawmakers running up the light bills in the senate chamber so far this year? here's what we know. out of the 324 days, the senate has met 165. they met one sunday in january and one saturday in february. in fairness, members of congress do spend a lot of time traveling to their home districts and they're essentially in a permanent campaign for re-election. erica, there was talk that the senate might meet sunday too but that would be even more rare. there have been only 31 sunday sessions since 1861 but they'll be back at their desks monday, the monday after thanksgiving. >> of course. not the monday before. louise, thanks. unemployment increasing in 29 states last month. 13 states now have jobless rates above the national average of 10.2%. those numbers coming today from the labor department and could mean big trouble for the president. just one year after barack obama's historic election, voters are now identifying him with the biggest problem they face, the economy. suzanne malveaux has the report. >> reporter: despite some economic indicators suggesting the economy has turned a corner, a cnn poll shows a whopping 82% of the public believe economic conditions are poor and the question of who to blame is taking front and center. just look at the grilling timothy geithner got from republican lawmakers. >> you have to take responsibility for your decision. >> i take responsibility for anything i am part of doing. i'll be happy to do that. but i can't take responsibility is for the legacy of crisis you be queathed this country rz the blame seems to be shifting. americans are less likely to point to republicans for the economic mess and instead are angi angry at the democrats. the same poll shows 38% blai the g -- blame the gop. that's down from may. paul steinhouser says that's bad for the democrats and president obama. >> these numbers are troubling for the president. it's going to be harder and harder for this white house to blame the previous administration for the economic woes. this economy is turning into barack obama's economy. this recession is turning into barack obama's recession. >> reporter: americans are still very much divided over whether the president's economic policies are actually working. 36% say they have improved economic conditions. 28% say they have made things worse. 35% say what the white house has done has had no effect. one of the reasons americans are dissatisfied is their concern and the ballooning federal budget deficit. two-thirds believe the government should be working harder to balance it. >> even though we're in a time of war, americans think the deficit needs to be brought down. the war is not an excuse. >> reporter: of course who gets the credit of the blame for the state of the economy could cost the democratic party as whole, erica. we're talking about three times the democratic members suffering tougher elections next year as compared to the republicans. so clearly if the voters see them as part of the problem or part of the solution, it's going to make a huge difference. >> talk about a lot of pressure there, thanks. i want to share some other poll numbers with you as well. you heard some of those numbers. the latest gal updaily tracking poll shows the president's approval rating at 49%. this is the first time those numbers have slipped below the 50% mark in that poll. diplomats from the u.s. and five other world powers meeting into in brussels to map out strategy with iran. a european union official said there was no talk of imposing sanctions. tehran rejected a deal aimed at reducing the amount of raw material it has for building a nuclear bomb. president obama has wander iran there will be consequences if it fails to accept the plan. still ahead, the top republican on the senate budget committee joins us. also more new cancer screening guidelines for women. they're turning conventional wisdom on its head. plus outrage on campus. students taking to the streets over huge tuition increases. we'll speak to some of them. red and black. red, well, no one wants that. black, on the other hand, has strength. black is always in style. it's what business looks best in. black is where growth and success happen, and it's easier to get there and stay there in ontario, canada. especially with our competitive tax rate. ontario, canada. the world works here. hey thanks for the window seat. oh please. you got the presentation? 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(announcer) print online...you upload your document -- we'll take care of the rest. critics of the most dramatic attempt to change health care in generations are digging in their heels predicting dire consequences to the entire country, especially among small businesses. also sending billions of dollars in tax hikes and medicare cuts. senator judd gregg is in the thick of the health care debate and joins us this evening from capitol hill. good to have you with us. >> thank you for having me on. i appreciate it. >> i know you said you do believe the bill will pass. obviously the vote tomorrow is about the debate but you believe ultimately it will pass. what will it take for you, sir, to get behind it. >> you'd have to start again. i genuinely believe we need health care reform but it has to be done on a step-by-step basis and thought fully, not in a way that expands the size of the government by $2.5 trillion. that's how much it will cost when it's fully implemented. >> some of those numbers are up for debate. >> no, that's not debatable. it comes out of the cbo. >> the number that we have is $840 billion. but it's a large number. >> that number is a 10-year number with the program starting in the fourth and fifth year. if you take ten years when the program is fully implemented throughout the whole ten years, it's $2.5 trillion so that number is sort of a bait and switch number. >> depending on which side you're on the numbers will play a little differently. >> it's big. it's big. you can agree on that. >> there you go. i know that one of your biggest concerns with the health care bill, one of the reasons you'd like to start over is when it comes to small businesses. what is it specifically about this bill that has you concerned for small businesses. >> well, there are a variety of things. first off there's a penalty, it's basically a tax, which all businesses will have to pay if they don't insure their employees. secondly, the way this is structured, there's a tremendous cost shift onto the small business insurance plans so that their premiums are going up dramatically. our estimates in new hampshire, for example, are moderate income families will see premiums jump between 30 and 40% with this plan and that comes right through the companies. that's an expense which either companies have to pick up or the employee has to pick up, but in either case it's very expensive. let me give you an example. a guy came up to me when i was in new hampshire last week, i go back every week, and he said i have a company with 15 people. we're growing, we're doing well. i asked my accountant how much is this bill going to cost me. he was looking at the house bill. he said $200,000 is what his accountant told him. he said that means instead of adding a couple of people, i'll have to reduce a couple of people and i don't want that but that's the impact of this thing because of the penalties, because of the fees and the sur tax. >> so if you were to start over in a perfect world, which you said that would get you behind the bill, should there have been more of a focus in your view on the actual cost as opposed to we hear about the number of americans who will be covered. what's more important, coverage or cost? >> well, they're not exclusive, you know. the purpose of this bill should have been to cover all americans and at the same time reduce the cost. unfortunately the way they approached it was because they basically wanted to cover everybody with a fairly rich plan, they didn't do anything significant to bend out your cost curve like controlling junk lawsuits, like allowing employers to pay people a differential if your employees pursue a healthy lifestyle like stopping smoking and things like that, instituting very significant efforts in the area of rewarding health care delivery verz quantity health delivery. they didn't do any of those things which would have bent out your cost curve so the two aren't mutually exclusive. i had a proposal to do this. >> is that something that you feel that you and your fellow republicans could bring up in the debate and could successfully fight and lobby for? >> that's exactly what we're going to try to do. we're going to try to do it by amendment. as you know, we didn't see this bill. the first time we saw it was two days ago. it's 2,000 pages. >> have you made it through all 2,000, because i haven't. >> no, no. but i calculate it out. it's over $1 billion a page and that's pretty darn expensive. so we're going to amend it. we're going to put up a lot of what we think are constructive amendments to try to make it a better bill, to get cost controls more effective, to allow insurance across state lines, to make sure that small employers are incentivized. > >> how successful do you think you'll be. >> not too successful. we only have 40 votes. this is an issue people who have the votes win the day. the democratic party has supermajorities in both houses and the president has invested basically his political status and domestic policy on passing this massive expansion. government through health care expansion. >> although you do have some folks teetering on the fence there. >> i would hope so. i would hope so. i think if you look at this, it's just not good policy. it's not good policy from a standpoint of the government spending another $2 spoken 5 trillion that we don't have, which means we pass that debt on to our kids. it's not good policy because it's going to undermine health care delivery. it's going toned up too much federal bureaucracy and the decisions that you make on your health care and also stifle innovation. so i would hope people would look at this and say, well, we can do a lot better so let's take another shot at it. >> we will be watching and listening this weekend. i know you'll be a busy man along with your fellow senators. thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. the love gov, turns out his days may be numbered. south carolina lawmakers say they will formally consider the impeachment of governor mark sanford. a judiciary committee is expected to begin efforts to oust the republican governor. a vote could come as early as next week. sanford is accused of negligence for leaving the state without telling his staff or the state government where he was going. sanford returned five days later and the married governor confessed he had been to argentina to see his lover. up next, oprah, in case you've been living under a rock, is saying goodbye. so what is next and will anyone be able to replace her as the queen of talk? 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cnn entertainment correspondent brooke anderson joining us now with the latest. brooke, how did the big announcement go for her today? >> reporter: it went pretty well, erica. she made it tearfully. she was pretty emotional as she expressed her gratitude to her fans and her viewers. she thanked them for enriching her life beyond measure, welcoming her into their homes and then she explained why now, why she is ending her show after the 25th season in september, 2011. let's take a look at what she said about that. quote, i love this show. this show has been my life and i love it enough to know when it's time to say goodbye. 25 years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. it's the perfect number, the exact right time. no question this woman is a trail blazer, has had an incredible run with this show. listen to this, 42 million viewers tune into the show every week. her fortune is estimated at more than $2.5 billion. take a second to wrap your mind around that. $2.5 billion. i mean the woman is incredible. the show is seen in 145 countries. she's very influential. and a lot of her loyal viewers and fans are truly going to miss her. but erica, i've got to say before the panic sets in, i don't think this is oprah's final farewell. sure, she probably will take a much-deserved break but this is not a woman who's going to sit around eating bonbons for the rest of her life. she is launching her own cable network, the oprah winfrey network. there is much speculation that she is simply going to kind of move her show to that network. erica, i've got to say that would probably be a really smart idea. what better way to bring attention and eyeballs to a start-up network than her show. >> definitely wouldn't hurt. but she's still going to leave this big void for a lot of folks, most of them around 4:00 on a weekday. of is there any word on who might take her place? but who might take the time slot? >> you're right. people are throwing around ellen degeneres' name. she's hugely successful with her own talk show and she's even said on her show that oprah called her to personally deliver this news. so it almost seems like oprah may have been passing the torch. who knows. tyra banks, that name has also been tossed around. she's become quite the media mogul herself. and sarah palin, erica. and you know sarah was on oprah's show on monday, really avoiding the question when oprah asked if she planned to have her own talk show. so who knows. that could potentially be something happening there. she could be a talk show host one day. she did not say no. and then people have also batted around the name michelle obama. so like you say, who will kind of step in, there may be a new daytime talk show leader, but really oprah is irreplaceable. i think everybody knows that. >> she is. although we've got almost two years to speculate, so you can't be done tonight. >> and she said she's going to knock our socks off over the next two years. >> you can catch much more on oprah's announcement tonight on "showbiz tonight" on our sister network hln. a tragic accident on miley cyrus's tour. one person was killed when one of her tour buses overturned on a virginia highway this morning. miley cyrus was not on board the bus at the time of the accident. the bus hit an 'em bank maenlt and flipped over. it was one of four traveling from new york where the 16-year-old performed last night. another person was taken to a local hospital with minor injuries. talk about a terrifying train ride for one oregon man. aaron bailey was separated from his 3-year-old son during the height of rush hour. a platform camera caught the incident on tape. you can see it here. the little boy walks off the train but then the doors close before bailey can get off to be with his son. a good samaritan comes to the rescue holding the little boy's hand until dad is able to catch a train back. only the longest seven minutes of his life. he did get back there, though, tearfully hugging his son and that stranger. he's looking for the woman he calls his guardian angel to say thank you, one more time. just ahead, new confusion and new outrage over new cancer screening guidelines for women. first it was mammograms, now we are talking cervical cancer. also it may feel like a scene from the 60s. college students taking over a campus building but the anger today is over money. green shoots. recovery. they say with fingers crossed that the worst is behind us. maybe it's time to get back in the market. but different this time. with more control. and more freedom. why not visit td ameritrade? online, over the phone or in person at a branch. get a feel for their straightforward, objective approach. try out their tools, their research, their help. it's time to take advantage of new opportunities. it's time for td ameritrade. there are new guidelines tonight concerning cervical cancer screening for women. the american college of obstetricians and gynecologists now says women don't need a pap test screening until the age of 21. the guidelines for follow-up exams are changing as well. as brooke baldwin reports, it is the latest new piece of information on what's been a very confusing week for women's health care. >> reporter: in a single week, two sweeping changes recommended for women and health care. two medical panels calling for a delayed start and reduced frequency of screenings for both breast and cervical cancer. >> actually i was kind of relieved to see these new guidelines. >> while some patients and doctors may feel fewer tests are counter intuitive to good health, one doctor says it's time for a culture change. >> you know, i did try actually to tell patients, oh, you don't need to come in every year, i'll see you in two year, and they don't like that. it makes them nervous. >> reporter: when it comes to cervical cancer screenings, are the doctor agrees that less is more. the american cancer society estimates there will be 11,270 new cases of cervical cancer this year, but of that number, a tiny fraction will be girls younger than 21. that is good news, according to the society's chief medical officer, and a reason for doctors to start testing more conservatively. >> cancer control is a relatively new science. as that science evolves, doctors are going to become much more aware that the science exists and perhaps a little bit more conservative in their use of screenings. >> reporter: while dr. otis brawley says doctors may test less frequently for cervical cancer, he disagrees with reducing the frequency of mammograms and he emphasizes the need for additional screenings for colon cancer in men and women. >> the major problem in the united states is really more than half of people who should be getting that screen for which there's no question it reduces risk of death, more than half the people who should be getting that screen aren't getting any kind of screening. >> reporter: meanwhile, the doctor is hopeful the new guidelines will encourage dialogue between patients and doctors and lead to a more holistic approach. >> it's really changing the way we look at doing a gyn exam on a patient, the health care of a woman. it's not so generalized, it's really more focused on each individual patient, which is really, i think, welcome change for both the patient and the physician. >> reporter: brooke baldwin, cnn, atlanta. for more now on the new women's health care recommendations, i'm joined by dr. thomas hertzog. he also is the spokesman for the american college of obstetrics and gynecology concerning these new cervical cancer screening kbi guidelines. also dr. manyia. dr. hertzog, i'd like to start with you. in the findings, the american college of obstetrics and gynecology says because of frequent screenings the incident is down 50% over 30 years. with numbers like that it would sound like this is a good reason to keep up frequent pap tests. >> well, you raised a good point. it's obvious that there's concern whenever you revise any guidelines. but i want to point out the college has been very careful about how these guidelines have been formulated. this is really based on the science. and the science shows that we do want to continue screening. and this is not to in any way impugn screening but to screen those who most need it. we've identified groups that do not appear to benefit from screening, and in fact this is money that we can then use for other purposes, such as vaccination and prevention, which is also important. >> dr. mania, you said earlier that you were irate over these so clearly you disagree with those reasons. >> i agree. we already use those guidelines in terms of what we need to treat and we don't. we already know the instance tents of cervical cancer in younger patient population, we already know it is almost nil, but what we're doing is not only screening for cervical cancer, if you change your thinking and in terms of protection and give you the knowledge and power, in order for you to tell them, look, it is important for you to use, you know, safe sex as a method to try to prevent these low-grade and high-grade lesions, then that's the thing that's important. we're not changing really anything. what you're doing is really negating care, i feel like that. >> how is it specifically negating care? >> i think that if you're telling a 21-year-old, let's say, for instance, first of all, think about this. gardasil. gardasil is the hpv vaccine which is done for preventive medicine. we as the american college of op stet tricks and gynecology rep that begins at the age of 9. so we're saying, yes, it's important for you to get the vaccine but it's not important for you to get a pap smear. a pap smear will identify mild precancer cells. although we might not treat it, maybe it will change your attitude in terms of preventing it later on in your future. >> so we hear a lot about -- to jump off of that, we hear a lot about preventive care, dealing so much with this health care reform discussion. we're hearing a lot about how important preventive care is. if we're actually recommending that a woman have preventive care a little bit less often, there is any concern at least on your end about the risk that you could miss something or even that a woman might say i don't need to go every three years, maybe i'll just wait five. >> well, let me respond just for a second to some of the points that were raised because it's very important to understand that the vaccinated population is actually included in these guidelines. they're to be screened just like everyone else. the message is do not do screening. we need to continue to do screening and that's part of the vaccination message as well. so let's not confuse the two issues. i think that's a very important point, is the vaccine only prevents 70% of cervical cancers, so we need to continue to do screening in this population. and i also think that you need to divorce what's done at an annual visit from actually having an annual visit. no one is impugning, once again, the annual visit. what they're saying is what's actually done needs to be done in a most cost effective manner. >> that's the reason a lot of women go on an annual basis. >> that's true, but -- >> is there any concern that maybe women will not in fact continue with that annual visit with their ob/gyn for that preventative care? >> it is absolutely a critical concern, but it calls for better patient education, and that's why it's great that you have this forum tonight. but we need to educate our patients about what the correct screening intervals are and what the value of an annual visit with an ob/gyn is, and those are separate issues. >> i want to bring dr. miniya at the end. the guidelines aren't that different from the existing guidelines which stem from 2003. >> right. >> so there really isn't that much difference in terms of how often you may get tested. i think we may have a graphic for people to look at. so why the concern now? >> that's what i would like to know. why is the concern now. >> why is this so much more upsetting when you said they're really not that much different. >> the treatment is not different. the guidelines say if you are under the age -- an adolescent is described as somebody under the age of 20. for those girls that are the guidelines, in terms of the treatment of, let's say, mild precancer cells, we don't have to treat them because the incidence of them developing cervical cancer in the future is almost 0%. however, the followup is different. sometimes it's six months, sometimes it's a year. responding to what dr. herzog just said, how are we going to get our patients in the office to educate them in terms of preventing all of those dysplasias and even get knowledge when you don't have to come to me until the age of 21 and some of my patients even start at 14 for activity. >> we should point out the guidelines do say if you're sexually active, obviously, you need to -- >> within three years also. >> it is a debate that probably a lot of people are having, not just watching on this show but also that they're having in their home homes. we appreciate both of you sharing your time with us tonight. thanks. just ahead, the woman accused of cutting in line at a walmart and attacking police officers has her day in court. we'll see what she has to say in this racially-charged case. plus scenes straight out of the '60s, except they're from this week. students protesting over dramatic fee hikes, slashed programs and job cuts on campus. we'll speak with them directly. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 introducing new schwab etfs, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 the etfs that you can trade online tdd# 1-800-345-2550 through your schwab account - for free! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 yup, schwab clients can trade any of these tdd# 1-800-345-2550 new exchange-traded funds, online... commission-free! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 trade large-cap... for free. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 trade small-cap... for free. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 trade international... for free. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 trade one, trade a few... tdd# 1-800-345-2550 ...for free! tdd# 1-800-345-2550 only schwab clients. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 only online at schwab. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd#1-800-345-2550 now, the president and congress are moving forward... with reform that includes the best ideas. backed by america's physicians. nurse leaders and nurse practitioners. america's hospitals. prohibiting cuts to medicare benefits. protecting your choice of health care professional. covering preventive care, and closing the prescription gap, to reduce out-of-pocket costs. ♪ and then there is the voice-recognizing, text-out-loud-reading, turn-by-turn-direction- giving sync® system ...in the all-new taurus from ford. 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(announcer) we speak car. we speak innovation. introducing the all-new taurus from ford. drive one. i hired him to speak. a lot of fortune 500 companies use him. but-i'm your only employee. we're going to start using fedex to ship globally- that means billions of potential customers. we're gonna be huge. good morning! you know business is a lot like football. i just don't understand... i'm sorry dick butkus (announcer) we understand. your business could use a pep talk. visit fedex.com/peptalk angry demonstrations at university of california campuses today as students protest a massive tuition hike in that state. demonstrators clash with police at uc berkeley. they also occupied a building. police arrested three protesters inside. students and faculty are outraged over the university board of regents decision to increase tuition by 32% over the next two years. students also staging sit-ins at several other university campuses. among them ucla. joining me now, two students who took part in those protests. caitlin, a fourth year political science major, and christopher santos, a third year psycho biology major also at ucla. good to have both have you with us. christopher, you helped organize some of the protests. when did you first get the idea that this could really call attention to what you see as an unjust rate hike? >> i mean we had the idea even before the year started. we had a walkout on the first day of school when ucla and a lot of other ucs started because we already knew that the president tried to sneak in the proposal of a 32% fee increase in the summer when nobody was around and when he knew that nobody would create any chaos around that because it was just unacceptable. so we had the idea. we started planning in the summer. and we have been planning ever since. >> and caitlin, do you feel that so far these protests have had an effect? they're certainly getting you noticed. >> yeah, i definitely think to the media attention counts. it shows we are not going to let this slide by without us protesting and showing how upset we are. >> what ultimately can you overturn. they have voted on this 32% which the regents say will help stem cuts in courses, which i know there have been a number for you guys. also a third of this will actually help for financial aid and that students with a household income below $70,000 will not have to be concerned about these cuts. their fees will be fully funded. do you believe that you can get something overturned, caitlin, and if so, how? >> i don't know at this point how we can get it overturned, but i think we can work with the regents and develop a much better relationship with the regents to show that this isn't okay. we've been lobbying them and talking to them for a while now and they still put this on us. i think we need to work with them in the future to make sure this doesn't happen again. >> christopher, do you feel that they're listening to you? that they hear you? >> that the regents are listening to us? >> yeah. >> well, i believe not because we did pull a comment on the morning of wednesday and they were just looking down and not paying attention to what the students were saying. so not only that but bypassing the 32% increase they're definitely not listening to us and they're definitely not aware of a lot of problems. they keep saying this is going to cover all students, low income students, therefore getting a lot of communities here at ucla, a lot of communities like the middle class community, are not going to have access to this university. >> you mentioned some undocumented students. they will not be covered. they're not eligible for financial aid. caitlin, i know you're from one of those many middle class families that's also going to be hit by this. you say you're not eligible for financial aid but your brother is going to school next year. how does this affect you? can you take out more loans? how do you deal with that? >> yeah. i'm going to have to take out more loans. my brother is starting uc berkeley in january. and my parents are going to have a really hard time paying for both of us at the same time going to the university of california, especially with these fee increases. i'm graduating in spring so luckily that will be over quickly. it's going to be a lot harder and will affect choeices in the future. >> christopher, if you can't get this overturned, what's next? is there a less expensive option where you can finish your schooling? >> for my case, i mean people have been saying that there's options other than the uc but i think we really need to think about that and i came to the uc because it was a public higher institution. i did not know that i was enrolling in a semi private institution. and, therefore, i think i have a right to say in this university. i started here since my freshman year. i don't believe that it's right for the regents or anybody else to tell us that, well, if you can't afford ucla, just go somewhere else. this is my university and the students' university and we are staying here. >> christopher, caitlin, thank you both for your time tonight. >> thank you. just ahead, fact or fiction. the controversy over the number jobs actually created by the massive stimulus plan. we're going to take you where the rubber meets the road. that's next. it was a horrible feeling, like i couldn't catch my breath. i couldn't believe i was actually having a heart attack. i remember being at the hospital, thinking about my wife. i should have done more to take care of myself. now i'm exercising, watching my diet, and i trust my heart to lipitor. 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(announcer) have a heart to heart with your doctor about your risk. and about lipitor. this just coming into us at cnn. a plea deal has been reached in the case of a woman accused of cutting in line at walmart and assaulting police. heather ellis took the stand today and denied all charges in the 2007 incident. as part of her plea deal, we understand she has pled guilty to disturbing the peace and resisting arrest, both misdemeanors. she's been sentenced to yun year unsupervised probation and is required to take an anger management class no less than two hours and must also spend four days in the county detention center before the end of this year. again, heather ellis pleading guilty. coming up -- not pleading guilty, coming up with a plea deal. turning now to something on the minds of millions of americans, jobs. there has been so much debate over just how many jobs the obama administration stimulus plan has created or saved. the white house actually now wh away from its initial claim of creating 600,000 jobs. there are, though, some jobs being created in this country. kitty pilgrim has the story of one young college graduate starting her career thanks to the stimulus. >> reporter: allison barber graduated from colorado state university last may, in one of the worst fields to find a job, construction management. she was surprised when a denver area company, flush with stimulus money, recruited her after attending a college job fair. >> a lot of our projects that castle rock has going on right now are stimulus funded and so that made, you know, a lot of money available to hire new employees like myself. >> reporter: castle rock construction company says it was able to save 40 to 50 jobs using stimulus money it received for three projects. alison is managing two projects that will give her work through july of next year. when she says she is grateful for the work. colorado has an unemployment rate of 6.9%. compared to a national average of 10.2%. >> there's no doubt about it that our industry is, you know, been greatly influenced by all the money that is flowing from the stimulus package. >> reporter: the obama administration is under attack from republicans in congress who claim it is overstating the number of stimulus jobs created. and significant errors have been found on the list of stimulus jobs on the government website recovery.gov. on thursday, testifying before the house oversight and reform committee, earl devigne, the head of the government watchdog agency for the stimulus program, admitted the claim the stimulus created or saved 600,000 jobs was inaccurate. >> i have no doubt there's a lot of jobs being created. i think it could be above or below 640. i think missing reports might drive the job numbers up. and i think there's enough inaccuracies in here to question the 640 number. >> reporter: the white house touted its job creation figures a few weeks ago to show the $780 billion stimulus package already is reaping benefits. while congress looks into that, alison is simply grateful for the work, no matter what the duration. >> a lot of them may look like short-term projects, but a job is a job. if any jobs are created, i think the stimulus package is doing what it's meant to do. >> reporter: now, 10% of those who have gotten stimulus funds have not yet submitted reports. the stimulus website claims to have saved or created many hundreds of thousands of jobs. castle rock says they were not able to create any jobs. their stimulus money was to save jobs. at least 50 jobs, they think, erica. >> they can count 50 they saved. overall, how do you actually count or track the number of jobs that have been saved as a result of the stimulus? >> that's the great question. because it's a very inexact science. you can't really tell how much business would have dropped off. it's really -- you know, speaking with castle rock, they said they think 40 to 50 but they can't possibly have an exact number on this. >> so working for a small company like that, it's tough to put a number on it. just ahead at the top of the hour, sitting in for campbell brown tonight, rick can shez will join us. hi, rick. >> how is it possible a case like this can come to fruition? think about it, people jump in lines all the time. this happened at walmart. there's breaking news on this story. this thing got so nasty that there were members of the naacp protesting. there were people were swastikas and banners and flags on the other side. there's talk of 15-year sentences. and now there's this plea deal that apparently has been made. but this is interesting. because the jury already had the case. so how is it possible while the jury's hearing the case, they come up with some kind of deal? and what does that tell us about facts of the case? we got a correspondent -- in fact, two who are standing by who are going to join us in just a little bit and break down what's gone on in the courtroom. a lot of folks all over the country are following this. the other big story is the imam that everyone's been talking about who may have had ties to nadal hasan may have driven him to the edge. this muslim preacher, this imam, who really is two things. first of all, interestingly enough, very americanized. an imam who was americanized. and also very radicalized. what was his effect on the accused ft. hood killer? we've got an exclusive report tonight we're going to give you right here and look forward to having that for you. >> looking forward to that. a few questions you brought up i know a lot of people want answers to. we'll be watching tonight at 8:00. thank you. tonight, we offer private first class phillip canavas, awarded a bronze star with valor and a purple heart. his story is next. and now, heroes. it is our tribute to the men and women who serve this country in uniform. tonight, we honor private first class phillip canavas who suffered serious injuries from a grenade blast while serving in iraq. despite injuries, he rushed to the aid of his fellow soldiers and helped save their lives. now, his story. >> reporter: private first class phillip was returning from a patrol mission in iraq last december when an armor-piercing grenade was thrown into his vehicle and exploded. >> when the explosion happened, the only thing i heard was a thud, because it was so loud it took my hearing right away. >> reporter: as a driver and medic, he knew his first priority was to get his fellow soldiers to safety. >> there were four of us. as soon as we got to a safe area, everyone stopped and i jumped in the back of the vehicle and started working on the gunnery. i knew he was hurt the worst and i wanted to make sure he was taken care of. >> reporter: the medic didn't realize he suffered extensive injuries. >> both my ear drums were blown out. i had a pretty good concussion. and i had quite a bit of shrapnel in my left arm and leg. >> reporter: last april, private first class canafax was awarded a bronze star of honor and a purple heart for taking care of his fellow soldiers. >> when i was told i would receive the award, i was surprised. i didn't know i'd done anything to deserve any kind of award. i just looked at anything i'd done as doing my job. it was just part of -- part of the -- being a combat medic. >> reporter: today, he continues to undergo treatment for war wounds. >> i've had four surgeries since then. i've had one surgery immediately the night we got hit to take out some of the bigger pieces of the shrapnel. then i've had three surgeries to repair my ear drums so i could get some hearing back. >> reporter: and he continues to serve his country, trading combat boots for hospital scrubs at the brook army medical center in san antonio. >> i think the most difficult thing has been adjusting to working in a hospital and having to interact with having limited hearing. the most rewarding thing is seeing patients that come in here initially that are hurt or sick that need help, and then seeing them get better over time. and are able to go back like nothing was ever wrong. >> the private will continue to serve the military at the brook army medical center while recuperating from his injuries. we wish him all the best. we would like to thank all the brave men and women in uniform. now, to everyday heroes. cnn will s