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cnn's bonnie schneider for the latest on the storms causing major problems again across the northeast. >> it's been week after week consecutive huge nor'easters. now some of the airports are reporting delays, over five hours at laguardia right now. five hours in newark, new jersey. teterboro, the runways are closed. >> we rarely see that, absolutely closed. >> and then in philadelphia, 2 1/2 hours. philadelphia, washington, d.c., you will see some, a little more movement because a little less snow is occurring there. this is just the beginning. that's what is so complex about this storm. it's coming in two parts. so we have the advisories posted all the way across the eastern seaboard, not just for this morning, but the advisories across new york and into boston go straight to thursday. for northern new england, we'll still be talking about the storm through tomorrow afternoon. >> wow. >> when it's all said and done, you have to see there's going to be a whole lot of snow mixing in with sleet at times this afternoon. when it tallies up, we'll be looking at a foot or more. this dark purple in connecticut, that's 20 inches of snow. we could seeover a foot in many areas. blowing and drifting snow and getting heavier tonight. for those of you driving, that's when it's going to get worse. >> the pattern is interesting. the last few storms, they're in the washington and philly area, but they move up here and new england gets hammered at the tail end. >> absolutely. we got slammed in atlanta with snow and ice a few weeks ago. then they work their way up the coastline, as you said, and then explode in intensity with wind, snow and rain and what's interesting about this storm in terms of the accumulations, we're watching the movement of warm air working its way through. that will also bring what we call a wintery mix. so during the day you might get sleet, maybe little snow, but tonight when those temperatures drop and the cold air comes in behind it, it's all snow. that's when we'll be shoveling out. >> i got out from a flight this morning. i landed and they were saying good thing you got out because they were canceling flights. looked perfect this morning. in philly and new york, it got worse than they expected. >> i think it came in earlier. there were two pieces of the storm. so we definitely saw the snow come in first through areas of warn wash and philly and work its way into new york. unfortunately the snow is going to be a big problem as we go through the afternoon for the day today. >> bonnie, thanks very much. we'll stay on top of this. if you are traveling today, please check with the airline to see what the situation is where you have to be. a day after president obama told us the future is ours to win, he's visiting a town that spans the generations. man to whack, wisconsin is home to three home grown companies that make things geared toward clean or renewable energy. moments ago he spoke at orion energy systems which he was citing as innovative in the 121st century. >> back in 2003, one of the largest employers around, miro, moved their operations abroad. and that must have been a really tough time for this town. and this community. jobs were lost. families were hurting. the community was shaken up. and i know from illinois, my home state, when a town loses its major employer, it is hard to bounce back. a lot of the young people start moving away. looking for opportunities someplace else. you fast forward to 20 is 1 and new manufacturing plants and new hope are now taking route. part of the reason the unemployment rate here is four points lower than it was at the beginning of last year. that's good news. >> he's talking about the local unemployment rate, not the national unemployment rate. last night the president described america's fiscal distress and many other challenges an as a modern day sputnik moment. in 1962 a 20-pound chunk of the sputnik 4 landed in man to work. none of the words applies to the serious business at hand nor certainly to my good colleague ed henry who joins me live from the white house with more on the president's visit, his vision for the next couple years. ed, let's talk a little bit about last night's speech, that's history. that's a speech for broad themes, the president -- depends where you fall on that. he did that. now he moves into this budget phase. he has indicated that there are going to be investments and there are going to be cuts. >> right. that's what this is going to come down. mitch mcconnell, the senate republican leader yesterday was saying in joking that he believes investment is really a latin word for washington spending and that basically this is just a way for the president to cloak more government spending in the idea that he wants to invest in the future. there's going to be a big battle about that. i think that's what's interesting in what you just played, it follows perfectly in what the president was doing last night in talking about good news, optimism. this was a page out of ronald reagan's playbook, morning in america, 1984, his re-election campaign. i think back to the president's vacation in hawaii an aides were telling us one of the books he was reading was a biography by lou cannon who kronalled ronald reagan for a long time "a role of a lifetime." ronald reagan had a gift of connecting with the american people. this president has struggled somewhat with that. he also found a way to get through those midterm elections of 1982, a recession. this president now dealing with that as well. while a lot of people have made the connection to the clinton state of the union in 1985, certainly parallels there. i think that optimism, that look, there's good news, we're turning the page, that's part of what they were trying to do last night. very reaganesque to say, look, the last time he did the state of the union, it was a national emergency, things were falling apart, worried about another great depression. he's trying to make a delineation that things have gotten better, not good enough. there's still a lot of room to grow. when you talk about unemployment being four points better in this one state, that's good news. it's reaganesque to be optimistic and keep looking forward. >> let me parse this investment conversation. really the president may lose control of this message if republicans continue to label his use of the word "investment" as government spending. the way the president and his team look at this is that, if you invest in things that will create businesses, become profitable, for instance alternative energy, and employ people, the return to the economy is greater than if you didn't invest in it. so the idea is that something comes back to you in competitiveness or jobs or the fact that all those people are employed or those companies are paying taxes. >> yeah. look, this is a president who has taken a beating from republicans in the past couple years for allegedly not having an environment that's good enough for the investment community, not having enough certainty for the business community. you've heard that argument again and again and again. now he can maybe turn that around and say, hold on a second, i'm trying to talk about corporate tax reform that will help the business community get nor certainty about what taxes they're paying but also whether they can use some tax cuts to hire more people. talking about clean energy here in the wisconsin stop. again, maybe these companies can hire more people if they're getting tax credits, et cetera. i think to go back to the clinton analogy, this president may relish a fight over, quote, unquote, inslemt. while the republicans and michele bachmann with the tea party express last night are going to say this is just more spending, we have to deal with the debt and the deficit. that is a problem. but this president may look back to '95, '96 when bill clinton was fighting with newt gingrich and saying, look, we've got to cut some things, but other things we need to spend on and nurture. i'm not saying that argument is going to work. i'm saying it worked somewhat for bill clinton. that's part of the reason why he came back. and maybe now, if it looks like the republicans are cutting too much and it's going to choke off the economic recovery, that's an argument this president is willing to make. whether it works or not, we'll find out. >> ed, good to see you. ed henry who has been working around the clock actually. take a look at that. that is the dow jones industrial average. boy, it's almost 20,000 -- 12,000. why did i say 20,000. that's wishful thinking. 12,000. it pushed past the 12,000 point for the first time in 2 1/2 years. it did that a little earlier today, may do it again. take a look at that. things have settled a bit now ahead of the federal reserve's policy statement later today. they meet every six weeks or so. in about an hour we'll hear from them. no major changes expected, certainly no changes to interest rates. analysts will be looking the see how confident the members of the board are. if you want to know why that matters, it's because the federal reserve collects a lot of data that you and i don't see. they have a better gauge than we typically do. we'll give you updates on any big moves. don't pay too much attention. it will probably cross 12,000 again. oh, what a familiar feeling for toyota. the world's biggest carmaker has announced another huge recall. it affects 1.5 million cars in all, nearly 250,000 of them here in the united states. the issue is a potentially loose fuel pressure sensor in some lexus is and gs sedans. model years 2006 to 2009. if you own one of these, what do you do? for now keep checking your mailbox. lexus says when it has all the parts it needs to make repairs, it will send an official safety recall notification to you. make sure they have your addresses f. you have any questions, call a local dealership. official cause of death in the elizabeth en anyone case, the texas girl reportedly missing three weeks ago. according to her autopsy, she died as a result of asphyxia and strangulation. police already have their suspect in custody. so far just charged with kidnapping. he's a family friend and a father of the kids enin was babysitting the night she disappeared. lives have been lost in a coal mine explosion in northern colombia. others may be trapped in the rubble. the state government says a buildup of methane gas caused the disaster. an explosion at the same mine killed 32 people back in 2007. richard quest is our quarterback at the super bowl of economics. wait till you see who he has been hobnobbing with. we're going to davos, switzerland, right after this. very little research on guns and violence, the connection between the two in the last 15 years. "the new york times" wrote a great article in the subject. we want to hear from you. head to cnn.com/ali or facebook and twitter pages. give me your input. do you think there needs to be more research on guns and violence? we'll read a few of your comments later in the show. which means i get an even more rockin' hotel, for less. where you book matters. expedia. t adwiwiout food al t >> man: diving to 4,000 meters. >> boy: go down, down, down. down. straight. go straight. no, to the right. to the right. >> go to the right, go to the right. >> whoa! >> whoa! >> what is that? >> man: well, that's a, uh... i don't know. >> whoa. >> can we call him blinky? >> woman: expert teaching. deeper learning. together, we are the human network. cisco. uh-oh. [ male announcer ] when diarrhea hits, kaopectate stops it fast. powerful liquid relief speeds to the source. fast. [ male announcer ] stop the uh-oh fast with kao. hobnobbing with the world's elite at this year's world economic forum is my esteemed colleague and my slightly luckier than me colleague richard quest. check out his introduction to what some people call the super bowl for economists. >> reporter: d stands for decision makers, destination, davos. each year at the end of january the elite from government, business and finance take their limos through this tunnel. they've been making the same journey for 40 years, all in a bid to find some common ground. a is for the alps, high up in the swiss mountains they come to create lofty goals. v is for value. at davos, there's always a lot of talk. does anything actually come of it, or is it just hot air? when you talk about values, it's all too easy to take sheep shots at the annual meeting as a gab fest for the global elite. the fact is there is value in people who have the power to change things coming together. o is for organization. this is where everything will take place, in the new enlarged congress hall where improving the state of the world seems to have taken on industrial proportions. the congress center has had a revamp. there are new lounges, nooks and crannies with suitable 21st century themes. s is for skis whether it's downhill or cross-country. there's plenty of them here in davos. just don't think of ever using them if you're here for the economic forum. for me, it's more suits than skis. >> i think this is yours. skiing may be off the agenda, here we can still learn an economic lesson or two. >> classical, slow but always forward. >> reporter: classical, slow but always forward. heaven forbid you move backwards. >> you should always go forward. you called me and i came backward. >> reporter: life. a moral we could all do well to learn. >> i love the fact that richard does one of these stories for us every year. if he had to come to the conclusion that it was a colossal waste of time then we wouldn't spend all the money sending him to davos. he has to come out and say important things are done here. it's an invitation-only event, the world economic forum in davos. how is it that you continue to get these invites? >> reporter: you are such a bitter man when it comes to this particular event. some day i promise you you'll be grown enough to come to davos, ali. >> i will have grown hair by then. >> reporter: let me tell you what's been happening. you'll need it, either that or a strong hat. let me tell you, away from the frif volatility, the serious stuff. we just had president medvedev who has been going the opening session report. president medvedev is talking about the bombing, of course, in moscow. he says that the terrorists had hoped that the russian president would cancel his visit, he said. but russia knows its responsibilities. now, ali, the russian president is sketching out a picture in which he says the russian economy is open for business. they're looking for international investment. and he says, they want -- they're happy to listen, ali, but they don't want to be lectured. here you have an economy, russia that is oil and gas rich, flush with funds and now sending the gauntlet down to the international business community. >> quick question for you. we have evidence in the united states, we've seen new home sales up, the stock market, the dow crossing 12,000, we've seen unemployment stubborn, but started to see jobs created. but the rest of the world has different things going. china is still soaring in terms of growth. so is india. europe still has problems. britain came in with a gdp that was negative all of the sudden. what is the mood at davos? are we post crisis, post talking about double dip recessions or are we still muddling through? >> reporter: no, i think you're all of those things and more. the theme of davos is the complexity of the issue. two years ago it was get out of the mess. last year it's what would the rebuild look like. this year it's china with fast growth, but inflation. the uk heading towards stagflation. the rest of europe, low growth. the united states with a budget deficit and a state of the union and questions about investment and austerity. it's the balancing act between east and west, north and south, post globalization. i can't remember a davos where i have waded through the treekal of what is the issue, what is the core here as much as this year. but the fact everybody is going through this agonizing process can only perhaps be to the good. >> richard, i'm glad that you got it all under control there for us, leaving me to be able to deliver important financial news to our viewers. have an excellent time. we won't be seeing you on q&a this week, richard, because you're there. we'll get back on track next week? >> reporter: next week. >> very good. richard quest at the world economic forum at davos. he'll have lots more reporting as the course of the week goes on. as banks take turns inventing new fees and hiking existing buns, you may think there's no escaping their dirty tricks. we have found eight banks that you may find a little easier on your wallet. get your pen and paper or ipod or whatever it is you use out. i'll tell you about them on the other side. every patient's past. and because the whole hospital's working together, there's a family who can breathe easy, right now. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's toughest healthcare questions. and the over 60,000 people of siemens are ready to do it again. siemens. answers. 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[ high male ] fizz, fizz. as banks take turns inventing new fees and hiking existing ones, you may think there is no escaping their dirty tricks. cnnmoney.com found eight banks with zero atm fees, free checking and high yielding accounts, relatively high yielding accounts. the list includes internet banks like ally and brick and mortar banks like capital one. the whole report is on cnnmoney.com. ally is an online, no monthly maintenance fees, no required minimum balance, free to use any atm. the rates, 1.05% annual percentage yield with a balance of at least 15,000. if you don't, it's .5% annual percentage yield. you can't easily deposit checks at a branch or by phone. that's a little inconvenient if you deal with checks. if not, don't worry about it. ing direct, free checking account, no atm fees on 35,000 atms with the all point network. person to person lending through its site or mobile app. quarter percent apy with a balance under 50,000. if not, 1.2% t. cons, of course, you don't 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yourmoney.com. tune in to "your bottom plin" with christine romans saturday at 9:30 eastern and my show saturday at 1:00 and sunday at 3:00. google says it's going ton a hiring bing this year. the company expects to beat its 2007 hiring record when it hired more than 6,000 employees. executives are looking for top talent across the boorpd and around the globe as google pushes forward with dif vears phiing the products it offers you. new home sales jumped 17.5% last month to their highest level in eight months. that is substantially better than analysts expected compared to a year earlier, december sales were down more than 7%. the commerce department says the median sales price rose $26,000 last month to $241,500. remember, though, new homes are a very small proportion of the homes sold in this country, under 10%. congresswoman gabrielle giffords now in a rehab facility in houston after being released from incentive care. 18 days after being shot in an assassination attempt, doctors have upgraded her condition from serious to good. she was well enough to watch some of the state of the union speech on tv last night. you graded the president's state of the union address on my facebook and twitter. ed henry joins me next to go over some of those report cards. stay with us. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp... medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65, but it doesn't cover everything. in fact, it only pays up to 80% of your part b expenses. if you're already on or eligible for medicare, call now to find out how an aarp... medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company, helps cover some of the medical expenses... not paid by medicare part b. that can save you from paying up to thousands of dollars... out of your own pocket. these are the only medicare supplement insurance plans... exclusively endorsed by 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and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan. you'll get this free information kit... and guide to understanding medicare, to help you choose the plan that's right for you. as with all medicare supplement plans, you can keep your own doctor and hospital that accepts medicare, get help paying for what medicare doesn't... and save up to thousands of dollars. call this toll-free number now. as we mentioned earlier it's day one of the economic forum in davos, switzerland. everywhere you look ceos, world leaders and economists. trying to solve problems continuing the playing the world. one thing on their minds is health care. our own medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta had exclusive access. he was invited to be part of a panel. he joins us live from davos. sanjay, we don't normally associate with world economic forum with health care. what's the global concern about health care that they're talking about with you? >> reporter: right, ali. it seems like you should be here instead of me enjoying this beautiful cold setting. health and health care obviously is a big issue when it comes to sort of predicting economic development and economic impact over all of some of the issues that are brought up at a world economic forum like this. so both in the developed world and developing world, they sort of think about davos, as i found out, as an informal, unofficial opportunity for various groups to get together with regard to health and chronic disease, for example, everything from food industry executives who can talk to government regulators perhaps about the fact that, look, we don't want to be regulated, but we do agree we should lower the amount of fat, the amount of salt, the amount of sugar in our foods. pharmaceutical industry, sort of some of those same discussions. and also really defining what some of the problems are and looking at solutions. it's a solutions oriented forum, ali. >> most of these sessions and meetings are private, closed. you were part of a closed door meeting that focussed on personalized medicine. what does that mean and what did you talk about? >> reporter: well, it was a closed door session in part because i think some of what was discussed are things that are proprietary to some extent, developing new technologies, for example for being able to sequence your genome, for example, your genetic code. the idea it trook a trillion dollars to do this several years ago and ten years to do it. now it's something that could be accessible literally around the world and you can have your genes sequenced for about $1,000. that's becoming reality. what exactly to do with this information and will it be any part of the solution toward preventing many of thighs diseases that are costing so much money, again, around the world, was sort of the focus of the meeting. i was moderating the panel, francis collins, head of the nih, jonathan roth berg who you may have seen on the cover of "forbes," people like that getting together and hammering through some of the issues and solutions. >> getting back to the money, these dna tests, these at-home genetic tests are becoming a lot less expensive and a lot more accessible to people. are they a reliable predictor of disease? are they the kind of thing that the general public should start to get involved in the they can afford? >> reporter: i don't think so yet, ali. some people will disagree with me on that particular issue. let me put it to you like this. if the average risk of someone developing diabetes in the united states where you are was around 23%, ali and you went and got one of these tests and found out your risk was, in fact, 30%, so 7% higher than average, what would you do with that information? would you make significant lifestyle changes? should you have already given the average risk of difficult bee tease? we don't have the technology yet to say you are for sure going to develop this problem and you should do x, y and z. also there's a concern if your test comes back negative, you don't have the genes for diabetes, you might take a false sense of comfort in that even though your risk is still about 23%. i think we're not there yet. people say as we sequence more people, the tests will become better, but not yet. >> that will be interesting to see. sanjay, have a fantastic time. keep an eye on richard quest. make sure he gets a little work done in between all those soirees. >> i'll do that, keep him healthy. you graded the president's state of the union address on my facebook and twitter accounts. ed and i are going to go over those. take a look at the dow, just missed it. i was going to show it to you. it was just at 12,000 again. it went back down again. don't concern yourself about it. it's an interesting piece of news we'll talk about later. [ male announcer ] introducing listerine® zero™. we removed the alcohol and made it less intense. ♪ now people everywhere are getting a deep clean and fresher mouth without the intensity that kept them away. it still kills bad breath germs for a whole mouth clean. but it's never felt so good. ♪ new listerine® zero™. deep clean. less intense. the #1 dentist recommended mouthwash brand, listerine®. 37 minutes after the hour. happening now, a day after his state of the union speech, president obama is taking his jobs message to wisconsin where he's touring businesses. secretary of state hillary clinton is urging the egyptian government to be open to reform and allow peaceful protests. today police turned water cannons an teargas on protesters for the second straight day. yesterday at least four people died in clashes. i'll talk more about that in a little while. as moscow observes a day of mourning for victims of the airport bomb blast. president dmitry medvedev. last night president obama presented his report to congress on the state of the union. in conjunction with this i've been asking you to fill out the president's report card on his address. joining me to go over your grades is straight a senior white house correspondent ed henry. let's start with a few topics that many viewers agreed upon. first of aushlgs immigration. let me read you some of the stuff that came to me. von luck says obama has no intention to secure our border with x-mo. steve says obama wants to make as many citizens/voters as he can from illegal immigrants. ed, most of the immigration comments were like this. the president got some good applause for saying some things about immigration. what's your sense of it? >> well, i think the second one, this notion ha the president wants to turn illegal immigrants into legal immigrants so he can get votes is something not supported by facts, we should say. but on the first one, i think it's probably a more thoughtful one that has a lot more resonance with people who have criticized this president which is the fact that there are a lot of americans who believe he has not gotten serious enough about securing the u.s. borders first and then maybe you can do some sort of comprehensive immigration reform. on that point i was intrigued as we were focusing so much last night on who was sitting next to each other and who was clapping when that john mccain seemed to leap up i believe at one point over immigration reform. because it's been obviously a very difficult issue in arizona. he has moved and shifted ever so slightly on that issue and highlighted a lot more border security in the last re-election race. maybe this is an issue these two men can work on. there was a lot of talk about the race about them coming together on climate change or immigration. maybe finally as the president said last night we focus on sitting together, who is going to stand together the next day, the next week, et cetera, that may be an issue where john mccain and this president could come together. >> ron hall game the president mostly, a bunch of categories, he gave the president mostly ds and fs. he gave him an a on don't ask don't tell. he said the president has exerted sound leadership in this area. most of the grades for don't ask don't tell were proetity positive. >> this is something he got done. people like a winner, even if they're not completely on board with them on the issue. i think part of the reason we saw it finally go through in december during that lake duck session is the public mood has shifted on this, certainly a lot since bill clinton had a very emotional divisive debate about it at the beginning of his presidency. i think attitudes have changed ever so slightly in this country and helped push it through. i think as well last night the president by jumping on something that didn't get a lot of attention, but was a very interesting little note in the speech is when he said, look, it's time now that don't ask don't tell has been repealed, for colleges to let military recruiters back on their bases. a lot of i've very league schools had the recruiters leave because of this divisive issue. now that issue is mostly cleared up, maybe we can get recruiters back on campuses. >> ed, did you get any sleep last night? you worked really late and i saw you on "american morning" this morning. >> you tweeted about it. i slept a few hours. i have it better than the president. he had to go to wisconsin a few days after his bears lost to the packers. they handed him a couple of jerseys when he landed, the governor. it's also on twitter that basically in the press file there in wisconsin the locals have had some hot dogs in there. the hot dog ones are yellow and green, the packers' colors. the packers fans are rubbing this in to the president and his entourage. >> my friend, ed henry, our senior white house correspondent with the stakeout. do you like to text and drive or eat and drive? maybe even read and drive? we are not recommending that. but in today's big i, we've got a possible solution coming up right after the break. to keep in balance after 50, i switched to a complete multivitamin with more. only one a day women's 50+ advantage has gingko for memory and concentration plus support for bone and breast health. a great addition to my routine. [ female announcer ] one a day women's. ♪ 100 ways to enjoy pringles. ♪ 100 crisps, 100 ways. ♪ everything pops with pringles. basic. preferred. at meineke i have options on oil changes. and now i get free roadside assistance with preferred or supreme. my money. my choice. my meineke. the second straight day of massive antigovernment protests in egypt trigger a heavy police crackdown. demonstrators directed their outrage at long time president mubarak demanding he step down after 30 years on the job. the unrest poses a tough dilemma for the united states. how do you balance protesters' calls for democracy, something we think is important in the united states, with u.s. strategic am lies to -- strategic ties to a key ally in the united states. ben wedeman has been on the streets following this since things started. ben joins us from our cairo bureau. ben, when you were covering what was going on in tunisia, the resignation of the head of government there, the concern was that this starts to spread to other countries. that's exactly what's happened, spread to the most populous country in the nation. tell me what's going on. >> reporter: ali, today the demonstrations were smaller than they were yesterday, but what we're seeing is a real harsh crackdown by the police on these demonstrators, the ministry of the interior put out a statement this morning saying no -- any public demonstrations would not be tolerated, and so we saw them using teargas, batons, kicking, punching, basically dragging people from the crowds to arrest them. so a real harsh crackdown on the situation. and talking about u.s. foreign policy, i talked to one woman who said you need to tell your government that they're making a big mistake here because the majority of egyptian people are against this government that's been backed by the united states since the late 1970s. they feel people in washington just aren't listening to the voices of ordinary egyptians and they're listening to the head of state, somebody most egyptians seem to be saying these days they want him to go. >> this is becoming more and more complex. that remains the question, will what happened in tunisia happen in egypt. ben, thanks very much. we'll stay on top of this with you. 47 minutes after the hour. checking the latest developments, fresh off last night's state of the union speech, president obama is taking his jobs message to wisconsin where he's visiting several companies th. many parts of the country are in for more snow today. forecasters are predicting a quick-hitting storm will coat most of the northeast and parts of the south by tonight. airport delays are already being reported in new york. some smaller airports shut down entirely. the national weather service says including areas like hartford, connecticut and boston, could see as much as ten inches of snow. singer jimmy buffett stunned fans when he tumbled off a stage during a sold-out concert in sydney, reportedly landing on his head. the daily telegraph says the singer was rushed to the hospital. the hospital did not give out details but listed him in stable condition. if you work some places in this country, you likely drive to work. according to the latest census date tax 76% of people commute to work using a car, spending an average of 25 minutes commuting to work. imagine if you were able to get that 25 minutes back, to work, to eat, to text, to read, even a little extra sleep in the car? sound dangerous. there's new technology. today's big i. it is called safe road trains for the environment or the sartra project. check out this animation. you're driving down the street and see this train of cars, like a convoy, the truck-style vehicle in front of the line. it can be anything. the train leader is able to control your acceleration, braking and steering using wireless technology in that vehicle and in yours. if you join that trine, they can control what you do. you send a request to the leader of the convoy. you're able to sit back and relax while your car is pulled in the convoy. when you want to leave, you send a request to the leader. you go on your merry way. the system automatically closes the gap your car created by leaving. this technology has got four major benefits. safer roads, cuts congestion, that's one of them. two, it creates safer roads. three, it lowers carbon emissions. and, of course, four, all of that stuff you can do instead of driving. let aels talk about a system like this coming to the market. the project is being tested out. l just last month, the technology was test nd sweed in sweden. they say it worked. this could be interesting. i could imagine going on a particularly longer drive, it's like cruise control on steroids. don't steer, don't look. do whatever you want. check out the technology on my blog. this is an interesting one. i'm going to post it on facebook and my twitter account. what do you give the first fan ever the chicago bears when he's visiting green bay? john king is up next to show us what the president got. # !e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!e!ee 1:53 on the east. that mean it's's time for a political ticker. a lot to talk about. john king joins me from the political desk in washington. john, senator demint is moving forward on his bill to repeal health care. >> you remember last night, ali, it was mostly civil, a lot of bipartisan talk at the state of the union. it's back to partisan business. jim demint, conservative from south carolina, a favorite from the tea party. he introduced the senate version of the repeal of the health act today. they're pressing ahead. the house has passed repeal. 34 co-sponsors for senator demint on that one. several republican on the ballot in 2012. they did not co-sponsor that, interesting calculation by them heading into the reelection cycle. as you noted before the break, the president is in wisconsin today. you might remember, everybody, he's a big chicago bears fan and the packers beat the bears on sunday. so the new republic governor on hand among others to greet the president of the united states with a packers jersey. this is what we call all politics is local. president took it in good fun. he did say, though, we'll get you next year. the president not packing away from his bears next time around. why is he in wisconsin? he was at a solar plant there to pitch one of the proposals in his state of the union address. he says 80% of america's power needs to come from clean energy by the year 2035, also more electric vehicles on the road, the president pressing that agenda. sno coincidence, wisconsin was a big obama state in 2008, just elected a republican senator and governor. the president is looking at the 2012 map thinking, i better go back to these places and make some friends. >> john, great job last night. always great to get your analysis on things line the state of the union. watch john every day 7:00 p.m. eastern "john king usa." your next update from the best political team on the television is one hour away. any idea on how that piano, that piano, any idea on how that got there? that's a 600-pound piano sitting on a sandbar. moisturizing lo. only aveeno has an active naturals triple oat and shea butter formula that soothes, nourishes and restores moisture. women saw improvement in all five symptoms of winter skin in just one day. beauty you can see and feel. that's being comfortable in your own skin. aveeno skin relief. and now get dermatologist recommended relief from severely dry skin with eczema therapy. new from aveeno. discover the power of active naturals enough plastic water bottles to stretch around the earth over 190 times. each brita filter can take up to 300 of those bottles out of the equation. if you are planning a vacation anytime soon, you may want to be careful. trip virzer released the 2011 list of dirtiest hotels. topping the list is the grand resort hotel in pigeon forge, tennessee. 87% of travelers said no thanks on returning. if you're looking for a hotel with chewing tobacco spit oozing down the halls and corridors, spiders actively making webs in every corner of your room, carpeting so greasy and dirty you wouldn't want to sit your luggage down let alone walk around barefoot, by all means stay at the grand resort, a quote from somebody who stayed there and posted on trip adviser. the grant hotel responded vowing to get its name off that list. >> we're taking this very seriously, and we are going to have this back to being what it was at one time, the grand hotel and convention center. >> let's head to biscayne bay in south florida. look at this. look at this. how in the world did a 600-pound piano end up on a sandbar? that is the highest point sort of in that bay. no one seems to know. no one saw how it got there. but get this, there are no plans to remove it. wildlife and conservation says unless it's a danger to wildlife or boaters they are not responsible for removing such item tsz. so if you are there and you have some good fingers, by all means, take a shot. good news for one man in oak lawn, illinois. yesterday i told you about johnstone, father of two who was fired because of wearing a packers tie in honor of his grandmother who was a big fan. homewood chevrolet stepped in and offered him a salesman job after hearing the story. >> something about feeling better. i'm so happy right now. i'm so thankful. >> not quite sure how those guys got away with firing him. snow, sleet, freezing rain made for a difficult morning. the northeast looks like a nightmare evening commute. yet another storm is blanketing d.c., baltimore, philly, new york, and boston metros. on the right, you're looking at philadelphia. what is that on the left we're looking at? that's new york on the left. we're already talking hours-long delays. really serious ones at major airports, potentially four to eight inches of wet heavy snow up and down the i-95 corridor, students have been stacking up the snow days this year. new york city has declared a weather emergency. they learned their lesson after not daoing that several weeks ago if you recall. federal employees in and around washington are being told to leave two hours early to try to beat the worst of it. bonnie schneider is on top of this. what's going on? >> we have an update on the airport delays. right now philadelphia 2 1/2 hours. also delays 5 hours 5 minutes, 15 minutes, newark, new jersey. a lot of cancellations. people are just giving up and trying again tomorrow. what do you do when if's five hour snz. >> laguardia, for instance, can't catch up enough to get out of it. if you have travel problems, go ahead. what else does it look like? >> it looks like the strorm is coming in a one-two punch. started off this monk with kind of a dusting of snow. then it got heavier. sleet is mixing in right here on long island, also toward southern massachusetts. that's because there's warm air coming up from the south. then to the back of it, look ats all the snow into west virginia and kentucky, that's headed to the northeast. you'll see a changeover occurring. this is what makes it so treacherous for travel. you could be driving on the long island expressway. it's snow, then it changes to the sleet. then it changes to rain again. how do you keep track of the changing weather situation? in the 20s across new england and we're watching for unfortunately a lot of accumulating snow. the computer models are just going up and up in terms of numbers. we could see up to a foot of snow into new england of ten inches, maybe even more as we go through. if you're wondering if this is normal, no, it is not. we are looking at fwa15 inches above normal for philadelphia, for example, in terms ever the crazy winter we're having. worse for new york city, 27 inches or more above normal, what we normally see. >> that is incredible. >> not a typical winter. >> they're getting slammed. these kids are going to get an extra week of school because of all they've missed. we'll check on what's going on for the rest of the afternoon for travel. if you are wn of those people traveling, call the airline, airport, find out what's going on. washington, as bonnie says, might be icing up today, but at last night's state of the union, the mood was practically warm and fuzzy. both parties following through in the call for civility in the days after the tucson shootings. reviews ever the seating arrangement were mixed. some loved it, some didn't. then there's the take you're about to hear in today's sound effect. >> it's not a new experience to sit next to a republicn. it's not like they're from mars or uranus. sitting next to a republican is pretty much much like sitting. >> that was congressman brad sherman of california. seems like a funny guy in general. in a radio interview yesterday he admitted he didn't have the date for the speech confirmed. there's no alcohol available at the state of the union and he spoke glowingly of beer goggles. other big stories today, the dow has pushed past 12,000 for the first time in 2 1/2 years. there it is. been trying to get this picture for you all day. every time we go to the dow it's moved off of 12,000. it's been fluctuate ago lot. don't worry about the round numbers but it is something that hasn't happened in a while. things have settled a bit now ahead of the federal reserve's policy statement. should come out in about ten minutes. the fed is meeting. they do this every six weeks or so. no major changes are expected from the fed. we are not expecting any changes in interest rates. but analysts are looking to see how confident the federal reserve board is in the improving economy. they look at a lot of data in the meetings and come out and tell you, are we looking at economic growth? inflation? what are we expecting? we'll watch wall street and update you on any moves. oh, what a familiar feeling for toyota, the world's biggest carmaker, has just announced another huge car recall. it affects 1.5 million cars in all. nearly 250,000 of them here in the united states. the issue is a potentially loose fuel pressure sensor in lexus is and gs sedans. model years 2006 to 2009, if you own one of these, what do you do? for now you just keep checking your mailbox. lexus says when it has all the parts it will send official safety recall notifications, make sure the company has your mailing address. with antigovernment protesters swarming the streets of cairo for a second die, police have started to crack down. water cannons, tear gas, sticks, fists. everything employed in today's demonstrations. meept, the government reports four people guy dyed, more than 100 security forces injured yesterday. a mine explosion has killed 23 people in northeastern colombia near the border with venezuela according to colombian national radio. several others may still be trapped. the state government said a buildup of methane caused the disaster. an explosion at the very same mine killed 32 people back in 2007. have you ever wanted to hijack a government web site or a university web site or steal some data? you might not need a lot of know-how. you might just need a little cash. after the break, the world's most famous former hacker joins me with the latest apparent hole in the internet. check this out. there has been very little research on the connection between guns and violence in the last 15 years or so. the "new york times" wrote a great article on the subject. we want to hear from you throughout the show on gun research. head to my blog or go to my facebook or twitter pages. give me your inu.put. do you think there fleeds to be more research on the connection between guns and violence? ♪ it's true. you never forget your first subaru. basic. preferred. at meineke i have options on oil changes. and now i get free roadside assistance with preferred or supreme. my money. my choice. my meineke. anybody can spend a few bucks an put up a web site, but what if you could hijack someone else's site for less money than it costs you to make your own web site, prospects for mayhem are huge. that's why security is losing sleep over this web site. it purports to sell secret information from or a administrator access to a variety of sites. you can see them listed on the left t left, belonging to the u.s. military, the italian government, a chinese university, the state of michigan, an eclectic mix. look at the prices on the right, mark. just show them the prices. you can get full site administrative control for 99 bucks, 35 bucks. this is crazy. one called level of control, the other price. these columns full price administrative control is a popular offering, starting as low as 99 bucks. commandeering a u.s. army site is ail little more expensive, setting you back $499 if you believe the seller isn't also a scammer. the issue now is whether now or in the not too distant future anybody with the price of a pair of shoes can buy you, your web si site, your palace words. kevin knows a lot about internet security and its short falls real and imagined. in his younger days he penetrated some of the most complex computer networks in the world and p spent five years in prison because of it. today he's a sought-after expert and consultant. he joins us today from las vegas. kevin -- >> hi, ali. how are you? >> good to see you. i have to say, i didn't realize -- i thought we were concerned about people taking over entire systems and cyber attacks and cyber warfare. this is much simpler. this almost flies under the radarment radarment. i didn't know you could buy administrative access and passwords. >> it's kind of a new trind. before it was buying credit card numbers and bank accounts and people's social security numbers. now it's gone to military, government, and university web sites. >> first of all, this site says i can buy administrative access to a military site for 499 bucks. is that even true? >> it's hard to really tell. there's a lot of misspellings. the guy who drafted this shopping list should have used spell checker. >> right. >> it's really hard to tell if he's a cammer. he offers other services. he'll hack any site for 10 bucks, if it's high profile like the "new york times" it might be more money. he'll -- you'll pick a company and he'll scan that company's web site for vulnerabilities for only $2. this guy is kind of making it a business to break into major companies and government web sites and basically selling it online. >> there's a bunch of universities listed here. 55, 80 bucks. what would that get me? are these sites in danger? >> well, of course. what he's selling is full administrator access. if that particular site has customer records like people's names, social security numbers, e-mail addresses, e-mail addresses are extremely valuable for spammers. personal identifyi ining numberr identity theft. he put in a shopping list, calling it high value informations, and the price would be higher. you would sell those for -- at the high end ever the road. >> right. he has things for $400, $500 he's selling high value stuff. is this not illegal, kevin? >> of course it's illegal. but also not only does it show that the criminals are able to openly set illegal access, it goes to show you that the sites, these government sites, are insecure because i suspect that this fellow is not that sophisticated. i think he used what we call an automated tool to break into these sites. so you know why do they have such shoddy security? they need -- >> that's the obvious question. if you're one of these companies or universities listed on his page that somebody can buy access to for 80 or 90 or $100. how easily can you solve that problem? how easily can i say if i'm the department of defense site he's selling access to a particular site for $400, how quickly can i stop that from being perpetrated? >> well, it depends. it depends on the vulnerabilities but i suspect that again this kid used an automated tool so it should be quite easy if they actually audit their security issues. the problem is with application security -- in this case, we believe that there's a language that you use to communicate with databases and he was able to manipulate this language in such a way to gain illicit access to these sites. this a common technique hackers use to break into companies. if these military -- department of defense, the military and these businesses actually do a security audit, hire a company, have people that are inside look for these security problems, then hopefully they won't be in the next shopping list online. >> you said it used to be credit card stuff. boy, we've all been through the experience where somebody's lost our credit information, someone we subscribe to. now i'm worried what if my company is one he can sell access to? that means my employinformation employer has or anything i'm a member of that information can disappear for less than a few hundred bucks. >> yeah. but you've got to look at it, this guy is add tiedzing a shopping list f. your company is on that list, you'll probably find out quickly and be able to close that loophole. what is the real window of exposure? well, you were hacked but now how quickly are you going to find out about it because this guy is trying to sell access to your company's assets online. >> everybody check out the list. kech, good to see you. innovation, education, infrastructure. president obama said those are the keys to job creation. he talked about it in his state of the union address last night. maybe you heard it. do the titans of business agree? we'll tell you, next. taking the lead. that looks like davo, switzerland, to me. # ready sensei. hey tough guy, that cold needs alka-seltzer plus! it has the cold-fighting power of an effervescent packed in a liquid-gel for all over relief! hiyah! dude! forum in davo, switzerland. thousands of ceos, world leaders and economists are there to solve problems facing the world. one of the biggest issues on their mind worldwide is job trai creation. poby harlow spoke with some of the leaders today in our "taking the lead" report. >> reporter: it's actually here in switzerland, a tiny town in the middle of the alps where a number of lawmakers from around the world and ceos from literally across the globe are gathered to talk about the economy, what they're deeming the new reality. a very big part of that is jobs. it's hiring not only in the u.s. but in europe, still clearly a jobs crisis in the united states. president obama addressing that as the key point, the focal point, of his state of the union address on tuesday night. saying we need three things for job creation. he spoke about innovation, the need to be the best innovators and the most educated and also the need for infrastructure. well, the companies here, their heads are the ones that need to do that hiring. the private sector needs to hire in a substantial way. and when you look at the latest numbers it's astonishing private companies have about $2 trillion in cash that they are sitting on waiting to hire with. we wanted to know when will they hire? what's the jobs outlook? >> you hire if you see opportunity. that's why i think opportunity is so important. jobs of course is the currency for politicians but also for companies. if you look to, what is a healthy environment, a cohesive societies in which you can operate and experiment? job is a currency we need to take serious. >> we invested last year $3 million in united states in 2010 in our brands. that investment inbe variably leads to jobs. >> every time i talk to a ceo, it's about, yes, we need to add individuals, upgrade our talent, focus on retention. >> reporter: do you expect a job pickup, a meaningful one, this year? >> i think we will see an improvement compared to the past 12 months. >> i expect that the u.s. is going to create about 150,000 jobs per month this year. but 150 is just increasing the labor supply so it's not going to lead to a significant reduction in the unemployment rate. unemployment will remain a problem for many years. >> i'll say it's going to be a lot better than 2010, but when we're seeing that trend come into 2011, i'm pretty optimistic about this year. >> reporter: and ali i thought it was very interesting when one of those executives said jobs is a currency we need to take very seriously. it certainly is. i also had a chance to speak to tom donahue, the head of the chamber of commerce in the u.s. he was very clear on his point, that is that this administrator he think sz still overregulating with wall street reform, with health care reform. he says that creates uncertainty and that is a big reason why he says we are not seeing the hiring at the levels that we need to in this country right now. but a lot of opinions here on jobs and hiring, our full coverage from davos on cnn money. ali? >> polly, thanks very much. let me bring you up to speed on the stories we're following. the federal reserve just wrapped up its first open market committee meeting ever the year and issued an updated policy statement. we're expecting it any moment. analysts and investors are waiting to see how confident the fed seems in the improving economy. the markets are pretty confident ahead of the statement. the dow topping 12,000 for the first time in nearly three years. in other business news, new home sales jumped 17.5% last month to their highest levels in eight months. that is much better than analysts had expected. compared to a year earlier, december sales were still down 7%. the commerce department says the meetian sales price, the price at which half of all new homes were sold, higher than and half lower than, rose $26,000 last month to $241,500. but very few of the houses traded in america are new houses. less than 10%. we've got an official cause of death in the elizabeth annan case, the 15-year-old texas girl reported missing three weeks ago. her body was found monday. according do her autopsy, she died as a result of asphyxia and strangulation. police already have their suspect in custody. so far just charged with kidnapping. he's a family friend and the father of the kids who annan was babysitting the night she disappeared. the northeast getting hit with yet another round of severe storm, travel already a mess. we'll check the weather situation with bonnie schneider when we come back. stay with us. to my grandkids, i'm nana. i'm friend, secret-keeper and playmate. do you think i'd let osteoporosis slow me down? so i asked my doctor about reclast because i heard it's the only once-a-year iv osteoporosis treatment. he told me all about it and i said that's the one for nana. he said reclast can help restrengthen my bones to help make them resistant to fracture for twelve months. and reclast is approved to help protect from fracture in many places: hip, spine, even other bones. [ male announcer ] you should not take reclast if you're on zometa, have low blood calcium, kidney problems. or you're pregnant, plan to become pregnant or nursing. take calcium and vitamin d daily. tell your doctor if you develop severe muscle, bone or joint pain, of if you have dental problems, as rarely jaw problems have been reported. the most common side effects include flu like symptoms, fever, muscle or joint pain and headache. share the world with the ones you love! and ask your doctor about reclast. or call 1-866-51-reclast. year-long protection for on-the-go women. ennen. # this just in. the federal reserve coming out with its news as we expected, interest rates remaining unchanged, that means the federate is between zero and quarter of a percentage point. that means the prime rate is three percentage points higher than that. that will affect what you pay on your loans. let me tell you what the fed did say. they study all the economic data and they said right now that progress towards its objectives, economic objectives, is disappointingly slow, that the economic recovery is continuing but it is insufficient to change labor conditions. that's their way of saying not enough is going on fast enough to get that unemployment number down, to get more people employed. a bit of a pessimistic review. looking at the market, it's dropped a few point onz that news because everybody kind of expected that that's what they'd say. bonnie tells me we've got a huge audience of people in the airports right now because a lot of people are stuck. i got out of luaguardia this morning, everything was fine. there must have been people behind me thinking it's not that bad. all of a sudden the snow comes into philadelphia, new york airports, now headed to new england, and it shut down travel. >> it did. it really hit hard. the winds picked up. that's why we're seeing so many delaysment let's show you how long the delays are. if you're stuck at the airport, you're not alone. ground delays 5 hours and 5 minutes at laguardia, also newark, new jersey, philadelphia, 2 1/2 hours. let's go live and see what it looks like with the snow-covered streets of philadelphia. we can show you it is very snowy. wow, look at the visibility, extremely poor. snowfall rate was this storm have been coming in at one to two inches per hour. this is a very intense nor'easter. philly is looking snow covered and unfortunately is not over yet. check out the radar. first the snow, then comes the sleet and a little bit of rain mixing in as suspects are warmer to the south. some of the warm air coming in with this typical nor'easter, sweeping in the warm air. then we have the second part, round two. it's not over yet. all of this snow coming across west virginia, virginia, north carolina, this all moves to the east as the low advances eastward. that's what we're watching. you will see that changeover. in connecticut up into boston where we'll see the changeover at times where you'll have snow changing to sleet and back to snow. and heavy snow tonight, particularly for new england where the temperatures will stay in the 20s. that's what we're watching closely. the advisories for the northeastern sections of new england extend all the way through thursday afternoon. your advisories through the tri-state area will be ending early in the morning tomorrow, but still it's going to be just a big mess out there as this low continues to work its way to the north and east. and it is a classic nor'easter, the low is traveling up the coast. >> tell me what that means again. >> the nor'easter gets its name from the winds. the winds are coming from the northeast. usually it tracks up the coast and fending on the proximity to land depends on whether you see all snow or rain. if it's furnl west, you might see more snow. that's what's been very tricky with this particular storm. we've really seen that track shift and shift again. this particular storm will bring a mix. so we will start off with snow, sleet and then more snow on the back side of it as that cold air really comes in tonight. >> bonnie, thanks very much. for those of you stuck at the airport, get some good reading material. when i was at laguardia, they have ipads mounted there you can play around with. >> that's great. >> it is what it is. there's been a change in the condition of congresswoman gabrielle giffords. i'll tell you more on the other side of the break. if you are just tuning in, here is what you missed. president obama is taking his jobs message to wisconsin today. he toured a solar energy center there, touting it as the type of innovation america needs. >> we need to get behind clean energy companies like orion. we need to get behind innovation. that's how we'll meet the goal i set last night and make sure 80% of america's electricity comes from clean energy sources by 2035. >> the president is visiting two other businesses that he says promote the type of innovation that he was promising in the state of the union speech last night. congresswoman gabrielle giffords is now in a rehab facility in houston after being released from intensive care earlier day, 18 days after she was shot in an assassination attempt. doctors have upgraded her from serious to good condition. debbie wasserman-shultz, a friend of giffords, says she was well enough to watch some of the state of the union speech on tv last night. her husband mark kelly called the development exciting. parts of the northeast are bracing for another winter storm already starting and raging until tomorrow. the snowstorm is already causing major delays at some airports. the faa web site reports new york laguardia and newark are both seeing delays averaging about five hours while philadelphia international is seeing delays of about two and a half hours. if you've got plans to travel north or from the northeast, check your airline first or you'll be spending a lot of time at the airport. ♪ go on hit me you've heard of him. you might have seen him as the emcee on the golden gloebz award ceremony. wait until you see ricky gervais back in the 1980s. you are not going to believe your ears. we've seen some remarkable pictures coming out of egypt today, the second straight day of protests calling for the president who's been the president for 30 years to step down. heavy police crackdown, water cannons, batons, egypt is the arab world's most populous nation. look at the streets there, protesters say they're inspired by none straigss in tunisia which forced that country's longtime leader out of office and to flee the country. michael holmes from our sister network cnn international here with us. michael, you have covered this extensively not only from here and for cnni but you've been in the region. >> yeah. >> here's the tricky question, not what's going to happen and what's happening, remarkable in and of itself, but the u.s. has a tricky situation. do they support popular uprising which you think we would support, or do you support the government because they're ally snz. >> it's a very dicey situation for the administration. what's interesting, as you say, i've spent a lot of time in the arab world, what they'll say to me in various countries, the u.s. pushes democracy in iraq, we want to see free and fair democracy here, and then in tunisia there's an encouragement for the popular uprising. but when it comes to our allies, those who serve our foreign policy interests, they're not part of the conversation when it comes to the spreading of democracy, having the free and fair elections. >> which is what makes people think america can be inconsistent sometimes in its foreign approach policy. >> absolutely. when the u.s. wants to be taken seriously in that part of the world -- i've had friends in iraq say, you say that about us, but look what's hatching there, look at the saudi arabia, the other regimes that don't get pushed towards the same thing. >> let's talk about tunisia for a second. you must have had the same reaction whas i did, this leade was forced to flee. up heard of in a dicta torial arab nation. >> it's a first. >> what's happened to him?rabia. a lot of his family has fled, we've seen the villas they lived in, the opulent lifestyle. they basically pillaged the economy to live the lifestyle. he's gone to saudi arabia, some in montreal canada. what happened is the interim government has issued arrest warrants for the former leader and members of his family, for economic things, odd ones like carrying weapons and for meanting violence on the streets. those arrest warrants are out there. interpol is it involved. we'll see what happens. on the streets, there's a gained mistrust of the interim government because it's formed by and large by the -- they're saying this is the same government we had before by a different name. >> last night in the state of the union, the president spoke about iraq and afghanistan. let's talk a bit about afghanistan for a second. general david petraeus has come out and issued a letter basically to the troops with a fairly positive picture. >> yeah, he has. you know, the idea of -- i talked to a general yesterday in theater there, and what they're saying is the idea of drawing down, being out by 2014, that is doable. the mission will not be done by then. it won't happen in that time frame. there's too much to do. and from the -- winning hearts and minds is not up to the u.s. military. it is now up to the afghan government. that trust on the street does not exist. the government is seen as corrupt, full of dronyism. there's warlords for goodness sake in the government. last time i was there i was talking to eye policeman in kandahar. he gets people to put his papers in, they say there's a $500 fee. there's not. that's the sort of grass roopts corruption that's endemic. >> before you go, i want to leave you with lighter fare. ricky gervais, his stint as a rocker. >> channeling david bowie. >> back in 1980. ♪ time now for the big breakdown, and i do mean big. today the nonpartisan congressional budget office revised upward, sharply upward, its budget deficit forecast, the new figure $1.5 trillion. almost all of the increase comes from the tax cut deal that the white house signed with congress in the last days of 2010. as you know, it extended for two more years the bush-era tax cuts that were supposed to go up this year and added unemployment benefits and a payroll tax cut on top of it. here's an even bigger breakdown for you. take a look at this number, $14.3 trillion. that's the u.s. government's credit limit as set by law and habitually raised as our couple lated debt rose even higher. it's due to be raised even higher in the next few weeks, why politicians are racing to see who can cut spending faster. here's the catch. by law or by choice, they are focused on a very small slice of the total budget. 76 cents out of every dollar the federal government spends goes for things that can't be cut. medicare, medicaid, social security and so-called entitlements, plus interest on the money we borrowed before. what is left is called discretionary spending. most politicians want to exempt part of that for defense and homeland security. some tea party lawmakers are targeting the education department, the energy department, transportation department, justice department. if you really want to lose your sleep, check out another forecast. this one by the government accountability office, the gao. this one is fascinating. put together on our site money.com by our senior writer. the gao predicts that by 2020 when you take everything out that you can't cut, the slice of cuttable spending, including defense, will be down to 8 cents on the dollar. the government is going to have to run on 8 cents on the dollar. entitlements and interest will take up 92% of federal spending. that's why this is an issue that we have to confront. on capitol hill today where president obama addresseded issue earlier, law mangers are trying to cut a sliver of discretionary spending that we would never miss, public funding for presidential elections. this was a post-watergate reform. nowadays many office seekers reject public funding because they can raise more money on their own and they don't have to stick to specific restrictions if you don't take the public money. listen to a bit of today's debate. >> earlier this month, i read articles about president obama's reelection campaign plans. on raising upwards of three-quarters of a billion of dollars. nothing can accommodate that level of spending. that is why i believe the president's strong opposition to legislation abolishing a system the president himself found unworkable in reality is profoundly hypocritical. >> mr. schock, talk about having it both ways. he comes on to this floor to condemn president obama for opting out of the system and then he proposes to abolish the system so that everybody has to opt out. neither president obama nor anyone else can participate. the logic of that is just totally, totally escapes me. >> now, how much money would cutting the presidential election fund save? $617 million. million with an m, not b with a b, over ten years. even if all of those savings came in one year, it would be 0.02% of the federal bunnell et budget. this is why the president said last night, let's not get too carried away with things that don't make too much different. understand the impact. let's talk about guns and violence. did you realize there has been very little research on guns and vie leps in this country in the last 15 year snz there's a great article in the "new york times" on the topic. i posted it on my blog as well as facebook and twitter. we received remarkable -- the feedback we got from you, a ton of responses from you on this topic. here are a few. pete from facebook -- it's not about guns. they are only the tool. the problem is attitudes and a system that alaws us to deflect responsibility. danny says -- yes, there is a knee-jerk reaction and then everybody start screaming with rights. let's do real research and figure it out. tim from facebook -- no tlshgs needs to be more research on the mentality of society. it isn't the guns that kill. it's the people that pull the triggers. if that's the case, then every person who drinks alcohol needs their right to own a vehicle taken away. james writes -- guns do not cause violence. people do. i've heard that somewhere. a gun is like a hammer. nothing hoops until someone uses it. the right to bear arms was referring to the rifles available at the time of the writing of the bill of rights. i very much doubt that today's multiple use of a vierlt of auto mat ick assault weapons was meant to be included. alvin says, absolutely. i think if we put further restrictions nationwide we can possibly save some lives. robert posted this -- as a criminologist i can tell you more research about guns is a waste of time and money. guns are inanimate objects. the focus of our research should be on criminality and criminal prevention. yes, i said criminal prevention. quite frankly we need to focus on growing better people, not on restricting their rights. ross replied -- i think the continued rise in violence with guns is a direct reflection of our nation's families struggling to keep things together. and katherine said this -- no, we don't need more research. we need more common sense and a society that cultivates civility and respect rather than offensiveness and disregard. coming up, i've got a great panel of guests who are going to take sides on the issue of guns and research about guns and violence. we know many of you are watching us with your laptop or smartphone. this is a new part of the show called you choose. i'll give you three headlines. then you vote at my blog on which story you'd like to here more about. first, porn found by a child on a nintendo di game system. we'll show you how. how about a basketball game with a final score of 108-3. it happened in utah and i've got details. or your choice, some incredible and i mean incredible of a 31-legged race by children in japan. when i say 31-legged. i want you to think of some of the biggest three-legged races you've seen times ten. go vote on my blog right now. we'll bring you the winning story in ten minutes. and some of the most powerful, yet easy to use trading tools on the planet. it's investing with intelligence and cold hard conviction. e-trade. investing unleashed. constipated? phillips' caplets use magnesium, an ingredient that works more naturally with your colon than stimulant laxatives, for effective relief of constipation without cramps. thanks. 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[ female announcer ] so book today. freestyle cruising. only on norwegian cruise line. breaking news coming into the cnn's "newsroom." we have confirmed that the don't of homeland security is ending its color-coded terror alert system in april. in its place, dhs will move to a system that focuses on specific threats in geographical areas. it will be called the national terror advisory system. dhs secretary janet napolitano will officially make the announcement tomorrow. they are ended the color-coded system. in the wake of the tragedy in tucson, we heard the inevitable talking points on both sides of the gun debate. you have heard them before. if you remember your high school science classes, the way to figure out who is closer to being right in any particular argument is often scientific. you make a guess, do a controlled experiment and come up with a conclusion. but scientists in the field of gun safety research, when i say gun safety i mean guns and violence, say there is no longer money for such work and they blame one group in particular. the national rifle association. let's go straight to my stream team to discuss this, rachel sklar is joining us from new york. rachel, let me ask you this question. this is not about whether you think there should be more gun control or less or more guns or fewer guns. this is an article that was in the "new york times" saying that scientists say that they are prevented from doing research into this because the nra thinks that kind of research is politicized, that it's all meant to back up one perspective, and that is gun control. >> well, the nra has one perspective, and that is to advance the interests of the nra. so as between the nra, which is a lobby organization, and scientists trying to study a specific sociology cal pattern, i'm going with the scientists. i think the nra didn't like the results so they said it was political. i didn't actually see any indication that a separate third party body said that actually there was political bias in the research by the scientists on guns. but what's clear is that without research it's very difficult to answer those complex questions about, you know, does a firearm in the house make a family more or less safe? and studies have indicated that clearly that a firearm in the house actually is a cause of more danger to family members for gunshot problems. >> pete dominic joins me now. the mrob is, this isn't like breast cancer, aids, something where we one day will find cures and they will advance how we deal with this. there are people who say this isn't scientific. guns don't kill people. they sit on tables. i just took comments from my twitter board and facebook page. so how do you make the argument that there should be bodies who research the relationship between the presence of guns and violence? >> well, first of all, i'll tell you this, ali velshi, i've never been that into the gun issue because i carry two lethal weapons with me on a regular basis, not to mention my razor because you know you have to do a little touchup. but ali, listen, there are studies and you're right it's not science like breast cancer, that's a good argument. but i'm sorry i'm going to have to agree with our other guest rachel sklar. i think studies are important and, yeah, we have studies to show how dangerous having, say, a pool in your backyard is. there are things that we can do, like put gun locks and lock away guns. there's a lot of things that we can learn. but this country, we are so obsessed with our guns and so afraid that somebody is going to take them away, ali velshi, i know a guy who knows a guy who owns 150,000 bullets. that's right. i don't need them. i've got these. but i do like the studies. i think they matter. and the gun lobby and the nra, they're in the top ten of interest groups in terms of lobbying congress. you can't get any legislation pass. >> rachel, that takes us to the larger issue, which is this is aat that pooh subject to alo-- to a lot of people. some believe in their second amendment rights that they can carry guns, those who think there shouldn't be guns anywhere. is there any room, rachel, for this debate to be anything other than polarized? >> i don't think it's a taboo subject. i think the nra has so much power that it's become an unwinnable subjects. it was one of the most pressing things come out of tucson, was hearing a roundtable of experts on a sunday show sit around and wonder, is this going to change anything with gun control? and five political pundits said no, no, no, no, no. and you know it's because it's perceived as a third rail, you're not going to win it in the red states. there seems to be this unwillingness to even address it. >> yeah. >> the constitution doesn't declare absolute freedoms. it's absolute freedoms within the parameters working within a larger society. you know, a small abridgement of the freedom to -- the right to bear arms it seems like a very reasonable trade-off for preventing serious tragedy in society. >> 30 seconds. i want to ask you for a quick response. pete, a lot of criticism about cnn's decision and some support for it to air the tea party response by michele bachmann last night. your thoughts, good or bad idea? quick. >> number one, we've got to get ratings. number two, anytime you can get michele bachmann on television, put her on television, ali. >> rachel? >> she's a fringe member. she's not a national leader. this was the state of the union address. you can report on her response without giving it time as though she is an official elected representative. the republicans picked their person and until the tea party has a complete separate party, you know, on the ballot, i think that that was a mistake on cnn's part to glorify them. >> rachel, pete, thanks for joining us. we'll have this conversation every day on topics you're buzzing about. your choice on the final story of the day. i'll tell you your choice right after this. p. >> now back to the story you picked on my blog, a story you wanted to hear the most about. a brand new segment called "you