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The Real Cost of Health Care; Stats Show More Jobs Available; Better Health Key to Having Better Sex; New Developments on Jihad Jane; AT&T Unveils "It Can Wait" Campaign

Aired March 10, 2010 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: That was a kick-off to the show if I've ever seen one. That was fun, a musical introduction with Tony Harris.

Thanks, buddy.

I'm Ali Velshi, as Tony said, and I'm going to be with you for the next two hours today and every weekday. I'm going to try and take every important topic we covet -- cover and break it down for you. I'm going to try and give you a level of detail that will help you make important decisions about your voting, your spending, your safety, your security, and in this case, your health care.

Here's what I've got on the rundown right now. Let me start with a little advice for you. If you're going to pick a nickname like Jihad Jane, there's a good chance someone's going to track you down. And that is exactly what happened. We'll tell you who she is, and we've got an exclusive conversation with her ex-boyfriend.

Plus, if you're not worried about health-care reform because you think your insurance plan is secure, have I got a breakdown for you. Your payments are going up. Do you know how much it costs you and your employer to cover your health care? I've got the numbers. I've got specifics, and they're going to leave you feeling a little queasy.

Also can your kids break down the Pythagorean theorem? Do they know the difference between a stanza and a couplet? Well, they'd better, because some new standards are the table, and they could affect your child and your school, no matter where you live.

Plus, we know texting while driving is dangerous. We've heard the warnings over and over again. But if the latest ad campaign doesn't convince you to stop, well, nothing will. You've heard of a last will and testament. You've heard of last rites. Today you're going to hear about last texts.

All right, if we had a nickel for every health-care story or interview or debate that's aired in the past year, we could cover everybody and balance the budget besides, but most Americans have coverage now through their work. Most of it does come through our employers, and that brings me to a breakdown you probably haven't seen but you should have.

Take a look at this. The human resources consulting firm Towers Watson calculates that for 2010, the average price per employee of an employer-sponsored plan is $10,200. So, that's the amount, the average amount, that your company and you are going to pay to insure you and your dependents for health care.

Now, typically, that $10,200 divides up this way. The employer pays about 80 percent of the premium; you pay about 20 percent. So, that means 20 percent of about 160 million people who are insured through their companies is paid out of this. So about $2,000 and change is what you pay for health care for you and your dependents. That's an average.

But that is not the whole story. Take a look at this. Employees -- that's you -- your out-of-pocket costs are rising, too. And the way you are paying -- these are, by the way, in companies for, you know, about 3,000 employees or higher -- the way you're paying for this is that you've got increased co-payments for brand-name drugs. If you want the brand name rather than the generic.

Also the premium for your dependents is increasing. Your deductibles for many services and products that you get are increasing, and you are probably finding offers and incentives for behavior that will keep you healthier. And that's everything from healthier lifestyles, preventive medicine, testing more frequently.

So, those are some of the changes you're likely to see.

Now, let's talk about premiums for a second. Where do your premiums go when you pay and your company pays for your health care? Ninety-two percent of your premium, of that $10,200, goes toward the cost of health care itself. That makes sense. Fair enough.

Eight percent goes for processing claims, customer service, profit for the company, and clinical programs for employees. Basically, this all falls under administration costs.

Now, again, everything I've just talked about applies to health insurance from your employer, not just any employer but large companies, companies big enough to do what they called self-insuring. They buy policies specifically designed for them from major health- insurance companies. Those firms, by the way, cover 160 million Americans, give or take.

Far fewer Americans get coverage from smaller employers or buy it on their own and for themselves. But that is a whole different universe, and we're going to break down those numbers for you another day. I promise we'll do that. But this is about employer-covered health insurance.

I want to talk more about the pressures facing those 160 million people, the potential impact of health-care reform, how their companies are dealing with it.

This is a guy who knows this stuff inside out. He's going to be here in a second. Ron Fontanetta is a senior consultant at Towers Watson. This is the consultancy that provided us with these numbers. Ron joins me from New York. Ron, thanks for being us and thanks for walking me through understanding health-insurance premiums, because in this debate that's part of what is confusing to people. If I'm covered and I get health insurance through my employer, why am I worried about this health-care reform debate at all?

RON FONTANETTA, SENIOR CONSULTANT, TOWERS WATSON: Ali, you know, there are a couple of very practical issues, even under the current environment, notwithstanding that employers cover, as you noted, at 80 percent on average.

There are certain segments of our population, notably lower-wage workers, 365 retirees, that even under the current state find their ongoing monthly contributions less and less affordable. So it's not unusual, for example, in certain sectors of our economy that as many as 20 to 25 percent of employees may decline coverage even under employer-sponsored plans today.

The question will become, of course, if we do see health-care reform legislation, how that might change, how employers view their future role, and whether they will amend those programs in more fundamental ways than we've seen in recent years.

VELSHI: All right. But they have already started to do that, even without the specter of health-care reform.

I want to come back. I want you to stay right there, Ron. We're going to come back and talk about the changes. It may feel like you're paying a lot more for your health insurance through your company, but you might actually be paying a bigger share of the cost of that insurance. You might actually be getting a little less for it.

Let's continue this conversation with Ron Fontanetta right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I looked at my body floating in the water and imagined I was a beautiful nurse (ph). I knew this was wrong. I was a boy, not a girl.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: That's a very private choice with very public consequences. CNN's broadcast premiere of "Her Name was Steven," this Saturday and Sunday night at 8 p.m. Eastern. We're going to be talking a lot more about that over the course of the next couple of days.

All right. Ron Fontanetta joins me now. He's a senior consultant with -- with Towers Watson, a big human resources consultancy in New York. He knows, really, a lot of the detail about health care. Ron, I want to talk to you about the increase in the cost of health care and the increase in the cost of health-care insurance. They're not the same thing. Health-care inflation, up about 10 percent in 2010, I guess is what you're projecting. Health insurance only expected to be up about 7 percent. Why the difference?

FONTANETTA: That's true, because many employers will take actions to mitigate the underlying inflation curve. So, for example, if an employer would experience 10 percent inflation prior to any plan changes, they may adjust your annual deductible, they may adjust certain co-payments or...

VELSHI: Let's actually put that up, because you told us about a few of those things, the things that we're most likely to see because health care is going up more than the companies want it to go up. Let's walk through these things. These are the most likely ones you're going to see, right?

FONTANETTA: Right. So as an example, generic drugs in this country have been fairly flat in terms of their price increases, but brand-name drugs have risen closer to 10 percent a year in recent years. Employers are much more likely to discriminate in terms of asking employees to pay much more for brand-name drugs because of that pricing dynamic.

Similarly, as employers look at what they can afford to pay towards the cost of health care, they are increasingly differentiating between the subsidies that they provide for employees and the subsidies that they provide for dependents. And now there's about a 5 to 7 percent spread between the two. We expect that that spread's going to be closer to 10 percent over the next couple of years.

VELSHI: So, just to put it another way, you said the average is an 80/20 split, roughly. The company pays 80 percent of the premium, you pay 20. But the proportion that you pay for your dependents is higher.

FONTANETTA: Correct. And we think that that trend is actually going to be exaggerated in the coming years as employers struggle with what they can actually afford to contribute towards the cost of this very valuable benefit.

VELSHI: And we know what deductibles are, and we know that we -- you end up with changes to your deductibles in many cases. It's usually up. It means you're paying more for certain things.

But tell me about that last one, incentives -- I short of put it in my short form, incentives for staying healthy. But you gave me more detail about this when we talked before.

FONTANETTA: You know, we're seeing a ground swell movement that's really been going on for a number of years in terms of employers making some pretty substantive commitments and investing in employees' health. And why do they do that? You do that for very practical reasons. Healthier employees mean more productive employees, mean more engaged employees. And given the epidemiologic trends we're seeing in this country, it's a scary proposition if someone doesn't pay attention to this.

So as employers decide on how they support health care, they are increasingly realizing that, if individuals take on certain accountable behaviors to control such attributes as blood pressure, as weight, as cholesterol levels, they are likely to be much healthier in the coming years and much less likely to have much more significant chronic conditions that tend to account for a large portion that is spent in any given year.

VELSHI: All right. What happens, given the health care proposal that the president wants to put through, if he put it through, what would happen to all these numbers we've just discussed: the $10,200 that it costs to insure the average person, the proportion that the employee pays, the changes to health care? What's likely to happen under the present scenario?

FONTANETTA: We're still going to see health-care costs increase. You know, the question depends at what rate of increase.

But I do think that it will force employers to step back and ask some fundamental questions. First, what is our ongoing role in health care? Do we have a need to continue to sponsor health care programs if there are solutions, post-health-care reform, for individuals that, for example, do not readily exist today? They will also...

VELSHI: In other words, would a company maybe say, "We're not going to continue with this plan. We'll give you some money. We'll pay a little extra, but you go to the market and get insurance for yourself. "

FONTANETTA: There is a cohort of employers that could take that proposition. What's stopping many employers from doing that today is the fact that there's not a legitimate individual marketplace today that's affordable and that allows for everyone access, including those with pre-existing conditions. Should that dynamic change, it may cause some employers to rethink their role and their proposition around health care.

For those that continue to support health care, and we think many will, it will raise some questions around how do we design those programs? And particularly if there's changes in the tax treatment of these benefits.

VELSHI: Yes.

FONTANETTA: One of the attributes that's being considered is that, at some level going out a few years, we may see a tax cap on these benefits, where the full cost is no longer deductible.

VELSHI: Right.

FONTANETTA: That likely will drive employers to rethink how they design their programs in ways that keep their costs below the tax cap.

VELSHI: Ron, it must be fun to be able to actually talk about this in a way that makes sense and that isn't highly politicized. It's just the facts. We really appreciate you coming on and sharing just the facts with us on health care.

Ron Fontanetta, he does this for a living. He's a senior consultant with Towers Watson, a human resources consultancy, one of the biggest in the world. Thank you for joining us.

FONTANETTA: Thank you.

VELSHI: All right. When we come back, Christine Romans standing by, right there. She is my co-host on "YOUR $$$$$." Hey, we got some good news. We got some good news on the job market. There are more job openings out there for you if you're looking for a job. Christine's going to tell us about it when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. Christine Romans standing by. She's my co- host on "YOUR $$$$$" every weekend on -- on CNN, but she joins me every day on this show to talk about stuff.

And, you know, Christine, a year ago we used to have to tell people, one day it won't be all bad news. It will start to become better news. And the stock market's doing a lot better. We're getting some stability out of the housing market. And while it is still very dire, there are a couple things you're looking at today which indicate some improvement on the job front.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

VELSHI: Let's talk about that.

ROMANS: Yes. Let me say, while it is still very dire, it's incredibly important that you preface it with that, because we get a lot -- you know, people are telling us it doesn't feel very good out there.

So look, this is what we know. The Labor Department released these monthly statistics in December. Want to show you what it looked like in December.

This is a map of all the states where the unemployment rate was rising, just in December. Look at all that red, Ali. The unemployment rate was rising in 43 states.

Flash forward to January. The unemployment rate rising -- that's all red...

VELSHI: Wow.

ROMANS: But the unemployment rate rising in January in fewer states, in 30 states. I think those two are a pretty dramatic representation for you...

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: Red is bad. It still means that more than half of the states are having rising unemployment, but it's better than 43. Now, another report, this is from the job openings and labor. It's another survey.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: There have been -- there have been discussions, and there are an increasing number of people who come out there and say all of this increasing unemployment benefit, extending it, it makes people lazy and makes them stay at home and not get jobs. And one of the responses you and I both had to that was the number of applicants for every available job. You got new data on that.

ROMANS: Sure, we do. We know in the month of January, we know that there were actually job openings that increased 193,000, 2.7 million job openings in this country.

You know, the labor market is firings and hirings, so there were job openings. So then, look, you -- you take that apart. You look at what that looks like. The number of candidates per job, that means there are 5.5 applicants for every available job in this country.

Let me say that again. There are 5.5 applicants or candidates...

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: ... for every job. Compare that with before the recession. Before the recession we had job openings of 4.4 million in December '07. We only had 1.7 candidates per job.

VELSHI: So it's you and somebody else up for the same job. You have to be better than somebody else. Now you've got to be better than five people, 4 1/2 people.

ROMANS: I know. And you know, whenever I say this, OK, so before this it was six applicants for every job, until these most recent numbers. So the numbers are going in the right direction.

But whenever I say this on television, Ali, whenever I say, look, it's you and five other people competing for every job opening, I get a lot of e-mail and a lot of Facebook and Twitter responses. Some people say, "I don't feel like that."

And just today on Twitter, or on Facebook, from Scott. This is what Scott said. "I swear, there's always at least 20 or more in line with me." You know, by in large these people that we've been talking to on social media today do not believe that 5 -- that it's getting better in terms of the number of people that they're up against.

And from Tim, "It sure wasn't me these days. Trying to get a job is like trying to win the lottery."

The list goes on and on from people who say they wish they only had...

VELSHI: Yes. ROMANS: ... 5.5 people going with them for a job. They feel in their fields, especially if it's manufacturing or in other -- in other areas, they feel like it's far, far more than that, Ali.

VELSHI: I put the question up, as well. Let me show you what I got from Jeff on Facebook. He said, "Maybe human resources only looks at 5.5 resumes for a job and shreds the other resumes."

And then Lulzim says on Facebook, as well, "Does not feel that way to me. I'd say double that number. The job search is not any easier, and it seems like there's a lot more people competing for the same position."

So, you know, the facts are there, but it is, depending on where you're looking...

ROMANS: There's economists -- there's economists, and then there's people. The economists will look -- and you and I talked to them. They'll say, "Oh, look, for the people who are not the long- term unemployed, there are opportunities. There are -- there are actually food fights going on for the very top talent, maybe a half of 1 percent in every -- in every field."

And you hear that...

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: ... and the economists say it's true. And then you talk to people, and they say, "I'm at the end of my rope. I am now late on my mortgage. I have got to get a job."

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: "I'm now taking a 40 percent pay cut. You know, I can't make ends meet." So there's the reality what people are telling us and there are what the numbers are showing, and there's a big disconnect, I think, there, Ali.

VELSHI: Yes. That is the reality...

ROMANS: Tell us more about it on Facebook, too.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: Because this is a really interesting discussion. And we talked a lot last week about credit checks, and everyone got fired up about it. We want to hear more what you think. Twitter and Facebook. I know Ali, you're asking people, too. We want to know what you think. So let's continue this conversation.

VELSHI: And both of us, you can find us on Facebook. At Christine Romans is Christine's Twitter. Mine is @AliVelshi. You can watch both of us, by the way, Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

All right. President Obama just wrapped up a chat with the Haitian president, Rene Preval. The focus is how Haiti is doing nearly two months after that devastating earthquake that killed more than 200,000 people. President Preval thanked the U.S. and the rest of the world for what he termed "material and psychological support."

New revelations about the company at the center of a huge food recall. The FDA says Basic Food Flavors knew a plant was contaminated with salmonella but continued production and shipments for a month. The company makes HVP, hydrolyzed vegetable protein. It's used in everything from tofu to potato chips. There's information on what is being recalled at www.FDA.gov.

And actor Corey Haim has died. Doctors say it appears to be accidental, possibly a drug overdose. "The Lost Boys" star and '80s heartthrob had struggled with addiction for years. He was 38 years old.

And when we come back, you need to stick around for this. It's not something we do every day on this show. We're talking about sex. Birds do it, bees do it. Humans apparently do it better. Elizabeth Cohen is going to break that down for us when we come back. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time for our daily sex segment here. We don't do a daily sex segment.

Sex.com, one of the most valuable Internet domain names. I managed to get business into this. The sex.com goes up for auction next week after the previous owner defaulted on its debt. Escom LLC paid a reported $14 million for the Web site back in 2006, but the company failed to repay its debt which was owned to DOM Partners, a New Jersey-based lender, that helped finance the deal.

So Sex.com will be sold as-is, in what is the equivalent of a foreclosure sale.

If you're not preparing to go and buy it right now, then just stick around, because we're going to talk a little bit more about sex. Our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, joins me now to talk about sex and what you can do now to improve sex later in life.

And I'm just going to go out on a limb here and you're going to say something about eating better and exercise.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes!

VELSHI: Right. OK.

COHEN: OK, let's go.

VELSHI: I need to eat better and exercise, because it's going to change my life. Now you have my attention.

COHEN: Exactly. Now I have your attention.

What these researchers tried to do is they looked at, all right, who's having sex in their golden years?

VELSHI: Right.

COHEN: Like, what will ensure that you will have sex in your golden years or at least improve the chances?

So, what they did is they broke into men and women...

VELSHI: Right.

COHEN: ... unhealthy versus healthy, and the unhealthy ones had heart disease and diabetes, whatever.

VELSHI: Right.

COHEN: So look at the men. The unhealthy ones were having good sex until age 67.

VELSHI: Right.

COHEN: The healthy ones were having good sex until age 72. Now, which one do you want to be? Right?

VELSHI: Sure.

COHEN: I mean, there you go. Exactly. That's worth some fruits and vegetables. Right?

VELSHI: They were the ones who were exercising and eating their vegetables.

COHEN: Exactly. Exactly.

VELSHI: What does it look like for women?

COHEN: For women, it's a little bit different, similar principle, though. Health -- unhealthy women, sorry, were having good sex until age 65. Healthy women were having good sex until age 68.

VELSHI: Why are men having longer sex life than women?

COHEN: There are two answers: biology and Viagra.

VELSHI: Right.

COHEN: And so we'll take the biology first. OK, women at menopause have this sort of like whump in hormones. They just plummet.

VELSHI: OK.

COHEN: However, men, sort of all their life the hormone levels gradually go down.

VELSHI: Right.

COHEN: So that helps men in that area.

VELSHI: OK.

COHEN: And Viagra, men in their elderly years can pop a Viagra or Levitra or whatever.

VELSHI: Right.

COHEN: Women don't have that same drug to take.

VELSHI: Very interesting. All right. Now let's get to the -- get to the important part, the advice. If you want to be having sex longer, what do you do?

COHEN: Stay healthy. Whatever will keep your heart healthy...

VELSHI: Right.

COHEN: ... will also keep your -- the rest of you healthy.

VELSHI: OK.

COHEN: So if you go to CNN.com/EmpoweredPatient, you will see ten reasons why you should have sex, because if you -- it works both ways. If you have a lot of sex, you seem to be healthier; and then the healthier you are, the more sex you'll have.

VELSHI: All right. All right, very good advice. Excellent. Thank you for that.

COHEN: Thanks.

VELSHI: Elizabeth Cohen telling you how to have sex for longer, meaning longer in your life.

COHEN: Right. Right.

VELSHI: You should just -- I should just not attempt to tag this. Just say good-bye.

COHEN: Good-bye. Good to see you, Ali.

VELSHI: All right, let's take it over to Jacqui Jeras. She is in the weather telling about what is going on here. About half the country, we've got rain going on. Jacqui, what's going on?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: That's right, it's hard to be serious after that. Hello.

Not only do we have rain, but we also have some flooding going on. We've got some new pictures that we just got in for -- from our affiliate out of Des Moines. This is from KCCI-TV. And the Des Moines River and Raccoon River both starting to come out of their banks.

This is the Raccoon, and there's an ice jam here. And so that ice jam is bringing those river levels up, especially upstream. Some flooding along the Fleur (ph) Drive area, as well as along 63.

Let's go ahead and show you these river gauges. So, you know, you have these ice jams which have been developing here, but we've also had a lot of snow melts in the last couple weeks. On top of that, rain has been pushing into the area, so we're real concerned about what could happen even more so down the line.

Let's go ahead and check the river gauges here. This is Fleur (ph) Drive, and we'll pop that one up for you and show you what we're expecting here. And there you can see, there's the river gauge. And this is where we are now. We've been on the up and up here on Wednesday, but by the end of the weekend and early next week we could be approaching a major flood here. So that is of great concern.

And it's not alone, just in Iowa; this is also happening all over the Midwest and into the Red River Valley.

In addition to flooding, we're also watching severe thunderstorms that are moving across Texas. A new thunderstorm watch for parts of Louisiana up into Arkansas as well as into Missouri. So, severe thunderstorms. Hail, the big threat, but we can't rule out tornadoes. And we'll continue to monitor that situation, as well -- Ali.

VELSHI: Jacqui, thank you so much. We'll check in with you a little later in the show.

All right. Who is Jihad Jane? You've been hearing about this woman. Who is she? We're going to listen to -- we're going to find out about who she is, and we're going to hear specifically from her former boyfriend when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. Take a look at this woman. Her name is Colleen LaRose, and she's from Pennsylvania. Federal prosecutors say she called herself Jihad Jane, and Fatima LaRose in Internet postings. She's been indicted for conspiring to provide material support to terrorists and conspiring to kill a person in a foreign country.

Now, LaRose was arrested in Philadelphia in October. No arraignment date has been set, and she's being told at a federal detention center there. If convicted, LaRose could face life in prison and a $1 million fine.

So, what did she allegedly do? The Justice Department said LaRose and five unindicted co-conspirators recruited men on the Internet to wage jihad in South Africa - I'm sorry -- in south Asia and Europe. Women were also allegedly recruited who had passports and the ability to travel to and around Europe. Fascinating story.

Let's bring in Susan Candiotti. She's been on the story and she's got an interesting new development in it. Susan, tell us a little more about this.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have an exclusive interview with the man in Pennsylvania, anyway, who seems to know her best. This man, who works and owns a satellite power company here, or they make radio towers for AM radio stations, he used to be her boyfriend -- he was her boyfriend until this happened. And she moved here from Texas to live in this apartment building in his home with him in his home with him, back in 2004, and she's been here ever since.

Until the day -- the day after he says his father died, when she suddenly picked everything up, left here, and took all her clothes with her and left without a trace, without an explanation. He said he was absolutely flabbergasted. This is someone who had been helping him even take care of his elderly father who was very, very sick. And shortly after he died, that's when she left.

I asked him about his reaction to the charges. He said he couldn't believe it. Listen up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI (on camera): You've heard about these charges. They're saying she was also known as Jihad Jane, she had postings on the Internet. Talked about plotting to kill someone.

KURT GORMAN, FORMER BOYFRIEND OF COLLEEN LAROSE: It sounds crazy. It is hard to believe. Hard to believe. Just doesn't sound like the person that I knew so -- just doesn't -- doesn't seem like her personality.

CANDIOTTI: In what way?

GORMAN: Well, if you're a nice person taking care of an elderly man there, I mean, that's -- doesn't in my mind go with somebody who wants to hurt somebody else. Why would you take care of somebody if you wanted to hurt people? So, it just seems like a conflict.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Now, again, this man Kurt Gorman, said his ex- girlfriend had no hobbies. She stayed at home. She played games on the computer. She also listened to music videos, but he said she really had no friends here.

So, he was clueless that anything was wrong, until suddenly he got a phone call from the FBI last summer not long after she left. They came over. He wondered what in the world was going on. He was worried about her, he said, and then they started asking him the same kind of questions we were, what kind of things was she doing on the computer, that kind of thing.

Eventually, he went to testify before the grand jury to talk about what he knew. And that's when he learned by then she was already in FBI custody. But I asked him, did he really think she was capable of pulling off like this?

VELSHI: All right. Well, when we come back -- stay right there. We'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll get an answer to this question. We'll find out if this woman, Jihad Jane, was really ever a serious threat. What possibly got her into this whole business.

Susan Candiotti, right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. Susan Candiotti's back with us again. She is following the story of Colleen LaRose in custody right now known as Jihad Jane.

Susan, do we have any sense of -- clearly you didn't get much sense from the ex-boyfriend. How did she get involved in this? How did he get tied up into alleged terrorist activity?

CANDIOTTI: You know, he's absolutely clueless about this, and this is a man who spent day in and day out with her for five years. Now, he acknowledges he's a workaholic and he didn't know what she was doing at home on the computer. He thought she was just playing video games.

So, he said he didn't know anything about how she could have gotten involved in the online postings that we've now heard about, where she was allegedly trying to draw people in and become a jihad. So, I asked him, did you really think she is capable of what she's now being accused of. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GORMAN: She wasn't no rocket scientist, so -- I don't mean she -- it's hard to say what somebody thinks there, how much they know. But it's not like she was a -- you know -- she was limited in her capacity there, so, I mean, I'm -- I don't know how, you know, much thought she could actually do on her own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: Now, he did say that she had suffered from a bit of depression, he said, that she had lost her father and her brother to cancer. And so this was very hard on her, and he said now, of course, the loss in his family as well. So, he said, I don't know, maybe this had something to do with it, but he didn't really know for sure, Ali.

VELSHI: Susan, in your reporting of this story in the last day or so, have you got some sense whether she was actually considered a serious threat?

CANDIOTTI: Well, I can tell you that according to federal prosecutors and law enforcement officials with whom we spoke, they think that she was a serious threat. They believe that she was part of a conspiracy, no doubt about it in their mind. Of course, we'll have to see the evidence play out in court.

VELSHI: All right, Susan Candiotti, our national correspondent, in Pennsbrook, Pennsylvania. As always, a pleasure to have you on our show. Susan Candiotti, thank you.

Let me give you the Top Stories that we're following right now at CNN.

The Senate is expected to pass legislation today extending unemployment benefits through the end of the year. The nearly $140 billion bill. It also extends C.O.B.R.A. health insurance benefits over the same period. It staves off cuts of Medicare cuts to doctors, and it extends $26 billion in tax breaks to businesses and individuals. Conservatives say the price tag is too high.

Honored at last, about 175 former civilian women pilots received the congressional gold medal for their service during World War II. They were member of the women Air Force service pilots, created in 1942 to fill all sorts of flying jobs at home which freed male pilots to go to the front. Fewer than 300 of them are still alive.

Bank of America is getting a jump on new federal rules for overdraft fees. Starting this summer, B of A customers won't be able use their debit card if they don't have enough funds in their account. If they try to make an ATM withdrawl, they will first have to agree to pay a $35 overdraft fee. Federal rules take effect in July. Will first ban banks from charging overdraft without first getting an OK from the customer. I've got some things to say about all this in the next hour.

And texting and driving. A lot of us are probably guilty of it. I have done it. I'm a little embarrassed about it. It's a habit that is more dangerous, believe it or not, than drunk driving. A chilling new campaign to get teens to think twice before they text behind the wheel, and I think it's going to be very effective.

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VELSHI: All right. It isn't too late. It isn't too late to learn about the dangers of texting and driving, Blackberrying and driving, messaging from your car. We talk about texting, but it's really any amount of communication. The reason we concentrate on texting it's because it's what young people do and it is very, very dangerous.

Let me show you this. Let me just show you this. And there are a lot of different studies about this thing, but they all come to similar conclusions. If you drive drunk, you are four times more likely to get into a cash than if you were not drunk. If you text while you're drunk -- if you text while you're driving, you're eight times more likely to get into an accident.

This is according to the University of Utah. There are several studies and the numbers are different, but the bottom line is, texting is extremely dangerous while you're driving. There's a new campaign that's being launched to convince people not to text, not to message, not to be distracted while they're driving. A remarkably effective way of communicating this by reading one's last text before an accident. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was the unfinished text message that my son was typing when he drove off the road and died of a massive skull fracture.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the text message that caused our car to then change my life forever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the text -- for me -- that my sister was reading right before she flipped her and was killed on impact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: All right, texting and driving, it can wait. You see at the bottom there. AT&T is involved in this.

I'm joined by Steve Hodges. He's the regional director for AT&T from New York City, and on the left, Merry Dye, joining me on Skype from Springdale, Arkansas. Mary, tell us the story about your daughter, Mariah.

MERRY DYE, DAUGHTER DIED WHILE TEXTING AND DRIVING: Well, it was the day before her graduation, and she finished getting her hair done and she picked out her dress and her gown. And she had some free time, and she had an invitation to see a minor league game by one of the players that she had made friends with. She was on her way to Springfield, Missouri, to watch this game, and made it as far as Niosho which is about an hour from here.

And she was getting directions on where she was going, and texting back and forth. And, you know, the last text that she received was "where are you at"? And she was responding to that, and eyewitness reports said that for no apparent reason, she lost control of her car and she crossed the center median and flipped and hit the bridge and then flipped into oncoming traffic, skidding across the edge of the bridge rail and falling into the oncoming lanes.

VELSHI: Okay. Did you have a view on texting and driving before this happened? Did you really think of it as a very bad thing?

DYE: Oh, absolutely. We even went to the length of -- my husband was given an e-mail that was extremely graphic. It made me throw up. And we sat down with our daughters and said, you know, this is what happened. Don't do it. We reminded them constantly. And she was just determined that she was a pro and she could multitask, and it wasn't a problem for her.

VELSHI: Steve, it's a problem for a lot of people. We all sort of think we can do it. As I said at the beginning of this, I have sent a message while -- while in control of a car. I don't typically do it when I'm moving, but it's happened. You don't sense of how serious it can be. Tell me what you're doing to try to get this message out.

STEVE HODGES, REGIONAL DIRECTOR, AT&T: First, I'd like to thank Merry for -- I'd like to thank Merry for coming on and telling her story, because I think it goes a long way for people to hear these stories. It takes a lot of courage for her to come out and do it, and we think it's really important and will really help the campaign getting out there.

Essentially, what we've done we've listened to our customers for quite some time and we're trying to figure out how to get the message across. We've done it through market research, we've done it through focus groups, we're listening to Facebook -- our customers on Facebook.

And the one thing that came out while we've been listening was essentially one example we asked customers at a focus group to take a look at their last text message, and I encourage everybody to go do this, and really pull it up and take a look at it and, you know, ask yourself the question, is this message so important that I would be willing to get in an accident over or potentially harm myself or others.

And so that was really the foundation of our program. And what people said to us pretty much was, no, it's not. It's just not worth it. It can wait. And so that's the foundation of our program, is it can wait. And so we've got a pretty big program that we're rolling out nationwide to local mediums, particularly on Facebook. We've got a section under the ATT Facebook page where customers can get on and actually take a pledge, and we found Facebook to be probably the best way to do this, because, you know, this is where the youth go --

VELSHI: Where they hang out, yep.

HODGES: -- where we are trying to get the message across.

VELSHI: Okay.

HODGES: We've got a page that we'd like them to go on and take this. And we encourage them to pass it on their friends and try to, you know, convince their peers and friends and relatives.

VELSHI: All right. Certainly one approach. Another approach is a number of states that are actually making it illegal or have made it illegal. I want to talk a little bit more about that when we come back. Steve, stay there. Merry, I want to talk to you a little bit more, not only about Mariah, but about how this is going over with people you're talking to.

Stay with us. Merry Dye is with us and Steve Hodges is with us. We're talking about texting and driving, and we'll be right back.

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VELSHI: This is kind of fascinating to me. The number of deaths in 2008, distracted driver crashes which does not mean texting or messaging, but crashes attributed to drivers who were distracted. Five thousand seven hundred and eighty deaths by distracted drivers, 500,000 injuries.

I am joined by Merry Dye, who lost her daughter Mariah to texting and driving, and Steve Hodges the regional director at AT&T, who is involved in a campaign to try to get people to do that. Before I get back to you, I want to show you a map of 29 states plus the District of Columbia have some sort of ban on texting while driving. They vary to the degree to which they are banned and the degree to which police enforce it.

Steve, what is a better thing to do? Getting the laws consistent in every state or a campaign like this to get people to treat texting and driving the way we have gotten people to treat drinking and driving?

HODGES: I think that the most important thing is to get the message out and let people know the consequences of what could happen, which is really the way we have structured the program in the campaign that we have out there.

We think it is also extremely important that they hear it from the peers and particularly youth. They are going to listen to other kids and friends, that is the primary reason that we are not taking the position to go out with a national TV campaign or, you know, a national -- put it out billboards or things like that.

We think that Facebook is a great way to do it. It is a social network and we want kind of a viral approach where particularly the youth talk to other youth and explain it to them. And we think that bringing real life stories of what could happen kind of helps drive the message home. So, we are all about education --

VELSHI: Merry, tell me about your daughter's last text is part of this campaign.

DYE: Yes, yes. Her last text that she received is "where you at"? Just three simple words, but it changed many people's lives forever. Our family will never be the same. And the problem with the kids, and, you know, it can be any of us, but we seem to always think it will happen to the other guy, and we never think it could happen so close to home.

VELSHI: I think that you are very right about that. Our statistics do indicate that the distracted deaths and texting, and people who admit to doing it do tend to be disproportionately be the younger generation. But they are the people who text everywhere and not just where they are driving.

Merry, is there a way that the campaign gets to Mariah's contemporaries, her friends? How did they receive this message when you talk about it?

DYE: I get mixed response. You know, I have some that say every time I start to pick up my phone and I'm in the car, I think of Mariah and I put it down. And others say, well, but I am safe when I do it. So you have this dichotomy going on, and we just really have got to drive the message home in the hearts that it is not safe for anyone.

VELSHI: Steve, is it logical that we would move toward technology that would somehow disable people from texting while their car is on? HODGES: You know, we are always looking at different ways to keep our customers safe, and you know, whether it be through education or use of technology. But, you know, we are certainly helping, and we will always try to move that along if we think it is a good solution.

VELSHI: All right. Steve Hodges, good to talk to you. Merry Dye, thank you for taking the time out from the horrible lesson that you had to go through to spread the word and prevent others. I think that you will succeed in preventing a lot of people from texting while driving, and we will be happy with you on that. Merry Dye and Steve Hodges.

All right. When we come back, we will talk about some sweeping new education standards being proposed, though they could change the way your kids learn, the way they're measured and what they learn. We will talk about that in detail when we get back.

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