Page 6 - Phi Rick News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Far, he says, there has been no response, somewhere in the neighborhood $560 billion what is we are hearing so far. we'll send it over to rick for more. rick: from libya to syria where anger and resentment seem to be growing on both sides of the violent protests there. this is amateur video as hundreds of demonstrators flood the streets, just hours after a speech by the syrian president, bashar assad and the speech was yesterday and instead of announcing reforms, a lot of people expected him to do, and hoping that he would, assad blamed the protests on conspirators, leland vittert is following...

Heather, how many workers are really affected? >> reporter: we're talking about 350,000 applicable union workers. they're affected by the move. it includes safety workers, teachers, nurses, along with other government workers. and you heard a lot about the union battle in wisconsin, you mentioned that, the past couple of weeks. not as much from ohio. but that is where the legislation, in fact, in some ways is tougher. unlike wisconsin it would extend union restrictions to police officers and firefighters, and here's some of the other things in the bill. it eliminates automatic pay increases an...

Too many. 2011 is shaping up to be another bad year. >> grandpa, just wanted to give you my thanks for being a great influence in my life. >> reporter: the pain of suicide still haunts former marine sergeant dana o'brien, his grandson, corporal daniel o'brien, hanged himself in july 2009. >> i don't think i'll ever be the same again. there's a knot raging in my gut. and it's probably going to stay there. >> reporter: o'brien was one of 52 marines who died by suicide in 2009, a record high. in response to the exploding numbers, the corps launched an aggressive program to combat the problem. lie...

Someone who has committed side? -- suicide? >> the program may be seeing result, in 2010 marine suicides dropped 30 percent, at the same time, in the army national guard and reserves, the numbers nearly doubled. >> we don't know that there's a single cause out there, and there can be a single response in trying to turn this around. >> major general ray carpenter is baffled by the increase, particularly since more than half of suicides were among soldiers who had never been deployed. >> we think that we're seeing a societal problem, and frankly, that the army is the canary in the mine shaft her...

This. what do the family members hope to achieve with the additional fund something. >> the total cost of the memorial was expected to reach $60 million when it's all done, $20 million has been raised privately, the state of pennsylvania, giving in 18.5 million, and congress has already provided $10 million. now, the 3.7 million that the families are asking for right now will help to build the next phases, which include key components of the memorial's infrastructure, visitors' center, and eventually what you see here, a tower of voices, which will house 93-foot tall wind chimes. >> no one wil...