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nasa scientists discovered a micro-bacteria in a california lake that had arsenic instead of phosphorous. what that does, tony, is raises the possibility that there could be atmospheres on other planets that don't have phosphorous. and that leads to the possibility that there could be life on other planets. so that's what this is all about. that's what this press conference is going to be all about in a couple hours, tony. i'm sorry if it's not what you wanted to here. don't blame the messenger. >> i won't do that. >> that's the deal. >> i thought we were looking for "et." i thought we were looking for the things chase people around in those alien movies. we're looking for microbes. i'm disappointed. not in you. good to see you, sir. let's take a look at top stories right now. police say a person of interest in the shooting death of celebrity publicist ronni chasen shot and killed himself when detectives tried to question him.
>> reporter: well, tony, first of all, can we just applaud nasa for a second for writing a really good press release? >> the last couple have been great. you're absolutely right. >> reporter: you know, the blogosphere is runni ning wild h this announcement. let me tell you what this is really about. first of all, tony, i know you might find this difficult to believe, i'm not a scientist. for you, i'm going to play one on television. >> appreciate it. >> in order to sustain life, let's go back to sixth grade science class. you need six things. carbon, phosphorous, hydrogen, nitrog nitrogen, oxygen and sulfur. what if, tony, you got rid of phosphorous and you added arsenic? and you could tell that this was not my handwrites. originally. all right. so you got arsenic instead of phosphorous. it had previously been thought arsenic was too toxic to sustain life. well guess what?
iowa or new hampshire you know what that means. they're getting closer and closer to those contests, early presidential contests. one other thing i should point out. the newly elected governor of iowa, terry branstad, says any republican serious about trying to win the iowa caucuses which is in february of 2012, a little bit more than a year from now, they have to show up in august. this coming summer at that presidential straw poll in iowa. which is a huge fund-raiser for the republican party in iowa. if they're not serious about winning the iowa caucuses then they shouldn't show up at that iowa straw poll. if they are serious they have to be there, have to attend, invest and go out there and start campaigning in the 99 counties of iowa. look, the presidential season, the election season as you well know, tony, is upon us right now. >> yeah. wolf, i want to circle back to this idea of what to do about the bush era tax cuts. because i'm looking at something that just crossed.
pictures, information, insight you won't find anywhere else. cnn newsroom with tony harris. anything can happen. as you know, by now, steven hayes has been sentenced to death for his role in that brutal home invasion murder, a mom and her two daughters killed. in a home invasion in connecticut. cnn's producer is on the phone with us, he was in the courtroom earlier today and he heard the witness, the victim packet statement from dr. petit and he also heard the statement from steven hayes as
and i think we're just happy, you know, that our hard work is getting acknowledged, but the biggest association as far as music, you know, in -- i'm going to shed a tear. >> i'm a failure. i'm a failure. i failed. >> as you can see, a lot of them just in disbelief, craig ferguson there surprised with his nomination for his "spoken word" album. tony, the music industry, of course, knows how to turn anything into a party. they did it last night with this third annual grammy nominations concert. >> let me ask you this. the live telecast on cbs might draw more attention than usual from the fcc. maybe you can explain that to everyone. >> well, it's because, tony, there's a song called "f you" that's getting grammy love.
of winning it. >> i can't believe, in fact, they chose a country the size of connecticut with one city. what we did in 1994 being the best attempted world cup, i mean, even to this day no other world cup has been more attended than the u.s. 1994. so i'm very shocked. >> reporter: the u.s. fans were baffled, really, because they say the united states is stadium ready. they don't have to build all the facilities, the transportation is here. the huge demographic spread of interests from different countries, immigrants, people here, ready to root for not just the united states. so they're unhappy, though. tony, they acknowledge it was likely the soccer authorities wanted to take the sport to a new area, the middle east, where the world cup has never been held. >> yeah, but we need to continue to grow soccer here in the states. that is disappointing. richard, appreciate it. richard roth for us in new
year for "love the way you lie." that's his monster hit with rihanna. you know that song. eminem is also up for album of the year which, tony, he's never won despite winning grammys in the double digits over the course of his career. also singer/songwriter producer bruno mars is behind him with seven nods follow ed by jay-z, lady antebellum, rihanna, cilo green, katy perry each got four. "showbiz tonight" there as the nominations were announced. the stars were naturally psyched. take a look. >> i'm very excited. >> you should be excited. four nominations including it says right here album of the year, katy perry "teenage dream." >> they're telling me that is a big deal. i feel like a big deal. >> do i have seven for real? did you read that right? like i said, we worked so hard
the juice going in the system. the surprise here, tony, is the extent of the loans. i mean, $9 trillion is a breathtaking amount of money. how do we know this? because the fed has released documents. you're seeing some companies there. the fed has release ed document that show there were american companies that benefited from emergency loans as well, the months leading up to the crisis and after to keep the engine of the american economy running. we have 21,000 transactions we can now scrutinize. the fed, by law, was required to release to the public and now we're all going over it trying to see what was happening behind closed doors at the fed during those dark days a couple years ago. >> that is because it -- we talked about this a lot at the time. the commercial paper sector had essentially seized up. >> yes. >> maybe quickly explain what that is which explains why companies like mcdonnealcdonald need this money. >> there's this borrowing that
from recruiters now, based on my resume still being poessted. with the job market the way it is, people are starting to make calls and active about hiring. >> we'll know whether the bet to add extra staff pays off at the checkout counter. maggie lake, cnn, new york. hello, again, i'm tony harr harris. top of the hour at the cnn newsroom where anything can happen. here are the people behind today's top stories. severe weather in the northeast has many people trying to dig out. we will get the story of one man trapped in his car for hours. is there anyone out there? we're expecting an announcement later today on the possibility of life in outer space. we will find out just how big a deal it really is. you're online right now. we are, too. the world cup's elections are one of the top stories trending right now. we will get reaction to a couple
no home, he wanted to die. so that is just, i think, was unbelievable. we also heard from steven hayes today. i have been saying on television, we're not going to hear from him. he has everything to lose. but apparently he wants to die. that is what he told the judge today. >> he did? >> he did. he said, he committed these heinous crimes. he said he was remorseful. he apologized to the family. he said he, you know, that he welcomes death and i think that that was what was most striking about his testimony. he looks different in the courtroom. he's not this heavy set guy anymore. he's very thin. he's lost a lot of weight. he has a beard now. he looked pitiful. >> sunny, then it was the judge's turn. >> it was the judge's turn. usually, tony, in death penalty cases you do hear the judge impose a death sentence. in connecticut it's not a recommendation from the jury. it's a verdict. he was going to have to impose that sentence unless he completely set it aside.