Cutting cholesterol, a new and promising weapon against the fight of cardiovascular disease and the makers we bind it. The devastating problems General Motors has gotten worse. Gm expects to take a massive 750 Million Dollars charge this quarter for the cost of recalling and repairing 1. 5 million cars with faulty ignition switches. Thats on top of a new recall for 1. 3 million recalls that may see a sudden loss of power steering and another late recall friday of trucks and suvs for potential problems with transmission coolant lines. The cheer checktive mary barra will testify on capitol hill. Late todays her repaired remarks were released and says the auto maker holds itself fully accountable but cant say why it took so long to identify them. With families of the victims expected at tuesdays hearing, look for tense and emotional testimony in the house. Meanwhile, on wall street, gm stock fell nearly 1 . Its down almost 16 this year. Here is eamon javers with a timeline of the troubles at gm. Reporter what did General Motors know and when . Those are the questions being asked about a faulty ignition switch. Answers are emerging from documents released from the auto maker and congress. In 2001 gm became a ware there was a serious problem with select vehicles. In 2002 delfi says gm approved the part knowing it didnt meet they are enter specifications. In 2003 a dealer technician observed the car stall after the ignition switched off while driving. These are in contrast that they only knew of the defect in 2004. Gm under mary barra issue as recall for over 1. 5 million vehicles. Sparking regulators a launch a formal investigation. This month, national highway Transportation Safety add machine station demanded detailed answers to 107 questions to determine if gm properly followed the legal processes and requirements for reporting recalls. And just last friday, gm added almost 1 million vehicles to the recall totaling more than 2. 5 million worldwide. Tomorrow barra will be on capitol hill. Why did it take so long to recall vehicles that had a faulty part leading to at least 13 deaths and where were regulators during this time . Joining us now to talk more about gm is colin langin. Good to have you with us. Apart from the moral or ethical dilemmas presented by these cases, what overall is your estimate of the total cost of resolving this situation for General Motors . Specifically the ignition defect . Yeah, sure, i mean, overall right now they Just Announced after the close today that theres about a 750 Million Dollar impact for the actual repairs. The ignition is actually probably only very small portion of that. It was really more the subsequent recall impacting that. I think the other major piece of this puzzle that well see out over probably the next year or so will be the potential, you know, investigation from the department of justice. If you looked at the recent settlement for criminal penalties with toyota, it was 1. 2 billion. That was about the timeliness of notifying. Gm will probably face a similar risk because of the delay and reporting issues. Colin, how do you think mary barra will do on capitol hill . She apologized and said she wants to do the right thing. Do you think she can do anything to repair g ms reputation tomorrow in front of lawmakers . I think she has a tough job ahead of her, but i think shes done a good job so far. Hes been open, responsive as much as they can be as they are continuing the investigation. Shell be facing tough questions tomorrow and quite frankly, doesnt sound like they have all of the answers yet, but doing a good job of communicating openness and responsiveness and being apologize get tick, which is important in terms of managing the longterm brand impact here. The General Motors is inoculated for incidents that occurred before 2009. But there are reports today that General Motors say set up a Reimbursement Fund of the Current Company giving money back to the stub or bankrupt estate. Have you heard anything about that, and what do you think of that as a way to make things, if not right, at least better . I mean, its clearly an option. I think what you said is mostly correct. Since any incidents that occurred before bankruptcy, which is the majority of the incidents, as far as we know, they wouldnt be legally liable for. So this would be gm trying to do the right thing. Well see when or if they make that kind of announcement, you know, could come, you know, with coordination from the department of justice settlement or Something Like that. Its clearly a possibility they could do Something Like that. There are so many question marks and issues, uncertainty hanging over General Motors and yet, from the investment point of view, you still like the stock. Tell us why you like it at 34 and i understand you got a 51 target on it. Yeah, if you look at the stock, its been down 9 since the news happened. Its about 5. 5 billion of the market cap. If you look at the costs, they are less than 2 billion. There is a bit of over reaction and quite frankly, we like the stock quite a bit before the recall news. Over the next few months, youll probably see a bit of impact on the market share. They are handling it well. None of the current products are affected. I think their sthhare will boun back and they have an awful lot of new product this year. The subsequent recalls, after the ignition switch, are they bigger and more costly in someways . Yeah, they are probably more costly recalls. The actual ignition according to other companies is around 2 to 5. Labor costs is probably low. Really depends on the complexity. Other recalls are more complicated. I think what gm is trying to do, make sure there is no additional recall headlines lingering throughout the rest of the year and i think there is trying and actually being responsive to potential issues to show they really are trying to change the way they act relative to the history. Thank you for being with us tonight. Hes an auto analyst. Thank you. Investors can thank janet yellen for closing out the First Quarter on a high note. She made reassuring comments about keeping Interest Rates at record low levels for sometime to come. The nasdaq and s p ended the quarter with gains. A different story for the blue chip dow stocks. Up for march but down nearly 1 for the first three months of 2014. Here is a look at todays closing numbers. The dow surged 134 points, the nasdaq rose 43 and s p added 14 and just six points shy of its alltime high. More now on Janet Yellens market moving comments and her willingness to show a different more movement of the peoples style to market watchers. Steve liesman reports. Reporter following her speech in which she suggested the fed will keep the easy monitory policy in place. Janet yellen did who no fed chair did before her, put on a welders mask as she toured a jobs training facility. Its part of a promise yellen gave in a confirmation hearing in the fall. She said she would never forget there are ordinary americans behind the statics and ensure the efforts to secure the economy, which was highly controversial during the financial crisis have popular support. Yellen took a page out of a playbook mentioning ordinary people, like a woman unemployed for a long time. Thats what doreen pool learned after she lost her job processing medical insurance claims just as the recession was getting started. Like many others, she couldnt find any job despite clerical skills and experience acquired over 15 years of steady employment. Her predecessor pioneered the idea Teaching College courses on Monetary Policy throughout the country, but yellen seems to be embracing the technique from the beginning and in a more down home way. Yellen made news on Monetary Policy. I think this extraordinary commitment is still needed and will be for sometime. And i believe this view is widely shared by my fellow policy makers at the fed. That sent stocks higher and bond yields lower because it meant the fed could keep Interest Rates lower for longer. For nightly Business Report, im steve liesman. Still ahead, apple versus samsung, one of the fiercest corporate rivalries heads back to court but google may have the most at stake. This is it, deadline day to sign up for a new Health Care Plan under the Affordable Care act in time for coverage to kick in be may 1 and today didnt go so well. With so many lastminute hopefuls trying to enroll before midnight. The federal Health Care Dot glove website reopened the marketplace to get more people signed up. With so Many Americans signed up for a new plan and more likely to enroll today, a lot of the Nations HealthInsurance Companies have already benefitted from the Affordable Care act. As Bertha Coombs explains, they may even have more to look forward to. Reporter by noon the healthcare. Gov site saw 1. 2 million visitors, a crush of lastminute enroll ling after appeals by the president on talk shows and social media to get people to sign up. A push has been aimed at them. Everybody wants to get them into the pool. Reporter for Health Insurers a larger mix of healthy young people lowers the risk the industry will lose money on Affordable Care act plans. The whole numbers game for them is what do these new members look like . How much will they cost us in terms of medical care and who you do we factor that into the pricing for next year . Reporter well point is optimistic about the profit outlook. Others like aetna more cautious. Investors are bullish on the sector while the s p rose over 1 year to date, ensurers gained nearly 7 and analysts say the stock will likely see more gains. It looks like the insurers priced their Insurance Business correctly, which means that there is probably some upside in terms of earnings potential for the rest of the year. Reporter another positive for insurance earnings, the Medicare Advantage program, proposed rate cuts look lower than some estimated. Giving that were going into a Midterm Election year, i would be surprised if there would be cuts in any aspect of health care. Final Medicare Advantage rates will be release in early april but final aca numbers may not come for awhile. With people experiencing glitches on sites being given up to two more weeks to complete their applications. Bertha coombs, nightly Business Report. More health news you should know about, an experimental class of cholesterol lowering drugs, showing promise for up to 70 million americans suffering from heartrelated illnesses and could generate 3 billion in annual sales for the companies racing to get new medications to market. Dominic chu has the details. Reporter the American Heart Association says cardio vo s ca disease kills more than any. For decades fighting high cholesterol is taking statten drugs like crestor and zocor and l irk patro. If you suffer from high cholesterol, there is a new drug. Instead of stanton chemicals, they are proteinbased. Stantons curve the cholesterol and Companies Like amgin and pfizer are working on them, but there is a catch. Stantons are usually taken orally and cheaper because generic versions available. The newic injections, possibly an enpi pen. While the concept is Generating Positive chatter in medical circles, many more tests will need to be done before it can be determined if these drugs help reduce the risk of heart attacks. The question is, whether in long term outcome studies, the reductions in cholesterol that are being reported actually translate into lower rates of heart attack and a lower incident of stroke. So there is a lot at stake not just for the Big Drug Company but millions of americans combatting high cholesterol. For nightly Business Report, im dominic chu. Johnson johnson accents a 4 billiondollar offer for the blood testing unit and thats where we begin the market focus. Carlisle group made a bid for the unit in january and Johnson Johnson had until today to agree to the deal. The transaction is expected to close mid year. J and j shares edged up a fraction to 98. 23. Bill ackmans firm upped the stake in fannie mae and freddie mac. The largest shareholder in both of these government sponsored mortgage lending giants. Shares surged about 9 . Fannie mae closed at 3. 9 and freddie mac at 3 pblt 87. Americans cut back on soda at a faster pace last year than in many years, that according to a new report and even diet soda sales are declining. This is the ninth Straight Year of declines for soft drink sales overall. Shares of coke off a fraction to 38. 66, pepsico 8 3. 50. Frozen topped a billiondollar in global sales and it surpasses toy story 3 set in 2010. Shares of disney up 1. 5 to 80. 07. Apple and samsung in court again today. This time they are battling over patented Technology Use in each others smart phones. As morgan reports, its google that could have the most at stake in this legal scuffle. Reporter apple and samsung are at it again facing off in court for the second time in two years over patents. The new case revolving around Design Elements and featured use in the companys smart phones. There is a Third Company thats got a lot to lose, as well. And thats google. Its googles technology in question, specifically the android operating system. Everyone expects samsung to argue that four of these patents that are apple asserting against it it licensed from android and expect the Google Software engineers to testify they have begun development of the features before apple. Reporter android is used in over a billion devices including samsung products like the popular galaxy line so the ability to tap a phone number inside a text message and call it, one of the patents in question were created by google, not samsung. Apple could collect 2 billion in damages if the court rules in its favor but thats a drop in the bucket for the 480 billiondollar market cap company. Instead, the bigger issue is future market share which apple is feeding to samsung. Last year samsung was the Market Leader with one of every three smart phones sold. Apple, with its higher priced phones was second. So a win for apple could impact samsungs devices, and the Technology Google has created for them, forcing changes that could push up costs. Suddenly you can see they are not able to sell certain things they might want to sell or if they can, they have to pay apple a royalty to do so. The pricing goes up and guess what . More dollars in apples pocket. Reporter still questions linger over the legality of software patpatents, written to generally. Its a top pick just heard in a separate case today by the Supreme Court and one legal experts say apple and samsungs faceoff could help decide. For nightly Business Report, im morgan brenham. Caterpillar avoided paying more than 2 billion in taxes since the year 2000 that says the Manufacturing Company used an aggressive tax strategy to shift profits overseas. John harwood joins us from washington. John, tell us, whats the goal of tomorrows hearing . The chairman of the committee has been working with republicans, john mccain among others to shine a light on the tax avoiding by american corporations. Usually perfect legal tax avoiding but things that he regards as loopholes should be closed, and hes going to try to spotlight some of those with the caterpillar problems. Hes making the argument and their subcommittee did an investigation that showed caterpillar spent 55 million on advice from Price Waterhouse cooper that allowed it to avoid the 2. 4 billion in taxes and the subcommittee wants to argue that the irs needs to tighten up, congresseeds to, though thats difficult given how divided it is. There is low odds this will lead to tax reform. Tax reform will be difficult. Both champions of tax reform, people i interviewed in 2013 who said that they were going to each pass a piece of legislation in their chamber, the ambassador to china, he quit his senate seat and dave camp, the republican chairman of the house weighs and Means Committee announced today hes retiring from congress. That tells you the outlook is bleak for bipartisan tax reform. John, for years, a lot of people, lawmakers in washington have been trying to get companies to bring their profits made overseas to the u. S. And invest that money here. Is this at all connected to that whole push . Yes, and what the committee is arguing is that a shell subsidiary was created in switzerland that didnt have any real business function but solely for the purpose of coming to the United States and having taxes paid on them. This is a continuing issue, both parties dont like it. Both parties raised questions about it, although soul solutioe different. The outlook is bleak over the longer run, this is accelerating a con