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Rutgers Student Filmed Having Sex Commits Suicide; Congress Heads Home to Campaign; Genetically-Altering Pigs to Produce Less Waste; Scientists Find Planet that Could Sustain Human Life; Hollywood Legend Tony Curtis Dies; Fischer-Price Recalls 10 Million Toys; AIG to Repay $182B Bailout; Free Lunch Fattens Kids

Aired September 30, 2010 - 11:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there, Kyra. Thank you so much. They serve a lot of liquor I think at the U.S. Open.

All right. Kyra, we'll talk to you again soon.

Yes, we are starting anew here this hour. Live from Studio 7 here at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, let me tell you what we've got on the rundown for this Thursday, September, 30th.

We have to start this with this horrific story out of Rutgers. A freshman at the school apparently jumps to his death after a gay encounter is secretly streamed live on the Internet, and two classmates are now facing charges.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I read it online, I was like -- I was shocked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Also coming up, food made in a laboratory. Scientists want this little piggy to go to the market, so maybe then he could go straight to your dinner plate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What I can tell the American public is that no food from a genetically engineered animal will go on the market unless the FDA has demonstrated --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And we've got a new planet to tell you about, a planet where possibly they're doing a newscast right now as well. An Earth- like planet they found in the so-called Goldilocks Zone, that means it's not too hot, it's not too cold there, it's just right, maybe for life.

Hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes, in today for my good friend Tony Harris.

Those stories and a whole lot more, including your comments, right here, right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, we want to start now with that story out of Rutgers. A lot of grief and outrage this morning. A lot of people asking a lot of questions, and we're starting to get more answers, more details about the apparent suicide of that Rutgers University student, 18-year-old Tyler Clementi. He apparently had a sexual encounter with another man that was secretly streamed online.

Want to head to our Stephanie Elam, who is in New York for us following this story.

Stephanie, hello. A lot of people just really outraged that someone would take the length this guy apparently did to put this live online of his actual roommate.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's such a horrific story for so many reasons, T.J., especially when you look at the fact that there's a loss of life in part of this, and it's just three young lives that are now being impacted because of this.

But from what we can tell, Clementi was, by all accounts, a sweet, young man. He was a gifted musician. He was a violinist.

And the Rutgers freshman posting this message on his Facebook account before he took his own life. He wrote, "Jumping off the GW Bridge. Sorry."

Now, a body has been found floating in the Hudson River. It was found yesterday. Police are now working to identify if it is, in fact, the body of Tyler Clementi.

Tyler's roommate, however, Dharun Ravi, along with another student, are charged with invasion of privacy in the case. This is what Ravi actually tweeted about Clementi: "Roommate asked for the room until midnight. I went into Molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."

And on another day he wrote this: "Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat with me between the hours of 9:30 and 12:00. Yes, it's happening again."

Now, earlier, we spoke to law professor Paul Callan about Clementi's death. He says the problem is that the Internet can be a dangerous tool that allows kids to strike out whenever they feel like it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROF. PAUL CALLAN, SETON HALL UNIVERSITY: When we were growing up, there would be a gossip circle, and maybe somebody would be talking about somebody else. It stopped there. They broadcast this on the Internet, destroying this young man's life and his reputation, and now the lives of three young people are going to be destroyed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: And in a case like this, you know, these are really young people here with lives full of so much promise. And now when you look at it, it probably did not occur to these people that this could become such a tragic event and that there was such a huge invasion of privacy here. And that's what everyone is talking about now, is whether or not there needs to be stiffer rules about who can and what can be posted on the Internet -- T.J.

HOLMES: Stef, how is the campus right now?

ELAM: Obviously there's a lot of shock. I mean, people are just devastated by this news.

We do have a statement coming from the president of Rutgers, Richard McCormick. And it reads this way: "While there is a lot of information being communicated, we don't have all the facts in this case. This young man was reportedly the victim of an incident that took place in one of our resident halls last week. Two fellow Rutgers students have been arrested and charged with invasion of privacy for their actions in that incident. If the charges are true, these actions gravely violate the university standards of decency and humanity."

And obviously we're working to get more from the campus, but it's not a surprise, T.J. People are just shocked that this would happen. Eighteen years old is so young, and to feel so violated that he felt like this was his only way out, that's what's just really shocking everybody here. And hoping that something can come out of this, because right now, it just seems so unfair.

HOLMES: All right. Stephanie, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

We're going to look at some of the legal issues of this case now and bring in our legal contributor, Midwin Charles, from "In Session." That's on our sister network, truTV. She's joining me now from New York.

Midwin, hello to you. Let's -- first of all, let's --

MIDWIN CHARLES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, T.J.

HOLMES: -- take the apparent suicide out of the equation and let's just say, yes, they taped this happening in the room and the young man did not apparently kill himself. Take the emotional part out of it. What kind of charges would they be looking at just if they had taped him secretly?

CHARLES: Well, I think you would still be looking at invasion of privacy, though I think from a defense perspective, at least his roommate would have a viable defense, because he lived there. That was also his dorm room.

So, you have to say that he could videotape anything going on in his room. But I think what makes this case particularly worse is the fact that it was broadcast on the Internet.

HOLMES: So, Midwin, now let's bring into the facts certainly an emotional part of the story, is that the young man apparently killed himself. But does that actually change or increase the severity of any charges that could be coming against his roommate?

CHARLES: You know, I don't think it does. The Middlesex County prosecutor has said that they're still investigating the case, so we don't know what other charges might be coming down the pike.

But when you look at a case like this, it's very difficult to say that it was foreseeable that this young man would kill himself as a result of this broadcast. So I don't see any sort of manslaughter or murder-related charges being attached to this. But I do see the fact that the charges carry -- the invasion of privacy charges -- a sentence of as much as five years. I don't know whether they'll get that much given the outcome of what they've done.

HOLMES: And Midwin, it sounds in your first answer there as well, it might not even be a sure thing that there is an invasion of privacy because this was the roommate's room as well.

CHARLES: At least with the charge with respect to the roommate, Dharun Ravi. Now, I don't know about the other young woman, Molly Wei, whether that defense would work for her. But there clearly was intent to disparage this young man because his roommate actually posted messages on Facebook saying, "Watch at this time. He's going to be having a gay interlude. Yay."

So there's definitely intent to disparage his character and disrespect him. So perhaps those charges would work.

HOLMES: All right. Midwin Charles, again, our legal contributor from "In Session." That's over at our sister network truTV.

Midwin, we appreciate you, as always.

CHARLES: Thank you, T.J.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, your congressmen and congresswomen are out of there. They are headed home to campaign.

Our Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash though, she's still in Washington.

Dana, they headed out of there a little earlier than expected, so this must mean they've got all of their work done and they could head on home. Right?

DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm sorry, are you living on planet Earth, T.J.?

HOLMES: Yes.

BASH: No, I'm just kidding. Look, you know how the first rule in medicine is do no harm? Well, that applies to politics too, big time.

And we talked to a slew of lawmakers as they were getting ready to leave yesterday, and it was pretty clear they felt the longer they stayed here in Washington, the more harm they were doing to their political prospects, especially Democrats.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LOUISE SLAUGHTER (D), NEW YORK: Everybody wants to be home. Everybody needs to get home.

BASH: Why is that? You said everyone wants to get home. Why?

SLAUGHTER: Because they think they can do more good at home than they can sitting here.

REP. TIM WALZ (D), MINNESOTA: I'm always more comfortable being at home, I think, especially now, making the case for why they should give me another shot at it. And when I'm not there, it's easier to say things that I can't defend.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: It's like we're in "The Wizard of Oz" in Washington, and we're pulling the curtain back behind the wizard when we go back to our districts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And Democrats blame Republican obstructionism for the gridlock that made them throw up their hands and say let's just go home a week early. But I talked to many a Democratic lawmaker in a quiet corner this week, T.J., who admitted they know people are uneasy with some of the big things Democrats have passed, from economic stimulus to health care, and they need to get home and explain and defend it ASAP.

HOLMES: OK. A lawmaker there just said he could do more good at home, but a lot of people would argue you could do some good in Washington if you make sure you renew those tax cuts so we don't get hit with another bill coming up at the first of the year. I mean, when they come back now, they've got limited time after the elections to try to get the tax cut situation worked out.

So what good is he talking about he's going to be doing at home?

BASH: Good -- I think what he was talking about is trying to explain some of the things that they have already done. They have done a lot of things. The question is whether or not that's a good thing or a bad thing, especially for those key Independent voters who are so critical in any election, but especially in this election, T.J. But, you know, Democrats, you mentioned, they punted on trying to extend middle class tax cuts, which is something the Democrats said was a huge priority. They did so primarily because of diversion within their own ranks.

But take that aside, you know what they did yesterday before they left. They voted to keep the government running. They had to do that because tomorrow is the beginning of the next fiscal year.

Congress left without giving the president one of the dozen spending bills that is required. I mean, that's the basic function of Congress, to fund the government. They didn't do any of that before leaving Washington.

HOLMES: OK. OK. I'm back to Earth now, Dana. I appreciate your reality check.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLMES: We can only hope, can't we?

Dana Bash, good to have you. Thank you for sticking around, at least in Washington, and doing your job. We do appreciate that. Thank you so much.

BASH: Thank you.

HOLMES: We'll talk to you here soon.

Well, coming up, little piggy, that little piggy, may go to the market. Only after, though, being genetically altered. We're looking at the pros and cons of genetically-altered bacon.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: CNN has been taking cross-country trips this week. We have sent our reporting teams all over the place this week, and our mission is to get fresh answers about how our food is grown, how the choices we make impact our health, our state of mind, our budgets, and the pure joy of eating.

We have teamed up with the new CNN.com food destination Eatocracy.com to bring you "Eatocracy: Mind, Body and Wallet."

And on that front, some say it's the future of pig farming, genetically-altered porkers. Why? And is this safe?

CNN's Allan Chernoff checks out a swine research facility to get some answers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: There's definitely a smell of swine around here. (voice-over): Even though the pig smell at the Swine Research Facility at the University of Guelph, it's the visitors who need to wash up, explains animal science professor Richard Moccia.

(on camera): So you're telling me I need to wash up, shower up, disrobe --

PROF. RICHARD MOCCIA, UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH: In order to visit our pigs.

CHERNOFF: To meet a pig?

MOCCIA: Absolutely.

CHERNOFF: We are now sparkling clean and ready to meet our pigs.

It looks just like a pig.

MOCCIA: It looks, sounds, acts identical to a normal Yorkshire pig.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): But it is different, genetically. To create this pig, scientists here added an E. coli bacteria gene and mouse DNA to a normal pig embryo. They call it an enviropig.

(on camera): I mean, actually, the idea is that someone like this could end up on a dinner plate.

MOCCIA: Certainly one of the goals of the technology is to produce a pig which could be consumed by humans and enter the food change. We have done extensive testing though on the various internal organs and different meat cuts from the enviropig, looked at the nutritional content. They're identical to a normal Yorkshire pig.

CHERNOFF: These are the ninth generation of enviropigs. The first one was conceived here back in 1999, but not until 2007 did scientists apply to the FDA for approval for these kinds of pigs to be eaten.

LARISA RUDENKO, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION: What I can tell the American public is that no food from a genetically-engineered animal will go on the market unless the FDA has demonstrated that it's safe.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): But the original idea was not to create a bigger, tastier pig.

(on camera): Why create a pig like this?

MOCCIA: To try to control and reduce the environmental footprint of pig farming around the world by reducing the amount of phosphorous that the pig produces.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): Phosphorous is a nutrient that helps the pigs grow, but that they can't fully digest. So much of it comes out in their manure. Farmers use that manure as fertilizer. When it rains, some of the manure runs off into the watershed, meaning plenty of phosphorous gets into our rivers and lakes.

(on camera): Phosphorous promotes algae growth. Too much phosphorous in a body of water like the Speed River here in Guelph that flows into Lake Erie can cause algae blooms that suck up all the oxygen and destroy habitats for fish and other aquatic life.

The enviropig's genetic additions allow it digest more phosphorous. About 50 percent more, according to researchers. That means half as much in its manure, and that's why it's called enviropig.

But the head of the Center for Food Safety, an organization promoting organic agriculture, says hog farming needs to change, not the pigs.

ANDREW KIMBRELL, CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY: It's a completely novel cell invasion technology where we are crossing the boundaries of nature as no other generation has before.

CHERNOFF: These little piggies will never go off to market, but their great, great grandchildren just might if regulators give the OK. If so, their ability to reduce pollution in our waterways could sustain another food source -- fish. Imagine that, a pig that protects fish.

Allan Chernoff, CNN, Guelph, Ontario.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: And as always, remember, go to CNN.com/Eatocracy for more stories on healthy eating. It's also where you can learn more about how to unlock the "CNN Healthy Eater Badge" on Foursquare.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, at 23 past the hour, let's take a look at some of the stories that are making headlines.

Members of Congress are returning home to campaign for midterm elections. They couldn't agree on a budget before they adjourned, however. So early this morning they passed what's called a stop-gap measure that's going to keep the government up and running for another two months at least.

Also, take a look at this here. A sightseeing bus that was full of kids and their parents crashes through an overpass guardrail. It flips, lands on an interstate embankment. This happened outside of Washington.

The driver was killed. A dozen people injured. State police still looking into the cause of this accident, which happened yesterday. Also, 190,000 troops on standby in India. A court ruled today that Muslims and Hindus must share a disputed holy site. Thousands have died in sectarian violence since Hindu extremists razed a Muslim mosque there in 1992.

A quick break. I'm right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HOLMES: Also coming up, Michael J. Fox talking to CNN about what it's like to live with Parkinson's. You're going to hear from him coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Tonight at 8:00 Eastern, right here on CNN, an interview with Michael J. Fox. The movie star and TV star, he's battling Parkinson's Disease, as many of you know and he's been fighting for years to try to find a cure. The actor sat down with our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta, telling him what it's like living with this disease every single day.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., I can tell you for Michael J. Fox it began as a sort of twitch in his pinky finger. As we now know that ultimately led to the diagnosis of Parkinson's Disease. There's still so much about this disease that we still don't know. For example, what causes it? And why would it affect the man right around the age of 30 like Michael J. Fox? Well, Michael and his foundation are trying to address some of these questions and we sat down to talk about that, as well as what his life has been like for the last 20 years since he was diagnosed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL J. FOX, DIAGNOSED WITH PARKINSON'S DISEASE" There's a clear period around '93/'94, about two years after diagnosis, where I just got it. I just accepted it. I realized that, you know, there's an old saying that my happiness grows in direct proportion to my acceptance and an inverse proportion to my expectation. You know, it's just about this is what it is and so now what?

GUPTA: So once you were not in denial, you think you were happier?

FOX: Yes, absolutely. When you can look at the truth of something, then that's what it is. It is what it is. Now you have options. The only thing I don't have a choice about is whether I have Parkinson's. Everything else is my choice. And that's incredibly liberating. Much more liberating than the physical constraints of this disease are limiting.

GUPTA: Are there things you particularly miss that you can't do? I mean things that you say, god, I really just wish I could do this still?

FOX: Actually no. I do everything that I ever did before. Yes, I know. I play hockey, I play golf, I play guitar, I paint with my kids. If it seriously eliminated or restricted or adversely affected my ability to interact with my kids I think that be something that would be something that would be hard to deal with.

I go back to my reasons for starting this foundation. If you -- I use this analogy a lot, but I think it's really apt. If you step off a curb and hit by a bus, the impact on your life is immediate and catastrophic and you have no options. You're just the effect of what happens there. With Parkinson's it's like, you're crossing the road and you get stuck in the middle. And you know the bus is coming. And you can't get out of the way. So you can kind of freak out and go this bus is going to hit me at some point, even though you don't know how fast or how big or whatever. But you will be stuck in that result, that this bus is going to hit you. Or you can use the time you have before the bus gets there to change the route and that's what we try to do. Methodically, but with degree of urgency, try to connect the dots and get this done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUPTA: T.J., it was absolutely a captivating conversation. He's a remarkable guy, very inspiring. And you can watch the entire interview tonight 8:00 p.m. Only on CNN.

HOLMES: All right. And thanks to our Dr. Sanjay Gupta. As he mentioned there, you can see more of the interview will be right here tonight, 8:00 Eastern Time.

Astronomers say they have found a planet that's very much like our own, Earth. But will it be able to support life as we know it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It's being billed as a big discovery out in space. Scientists say they have found the first Earth-like planet that actually might be able to sustain human life. Josh Levs is here.

Josh, let's call them up. We've got some neighbors out there.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's only 20 light years away. Not too bad, right? This actually is pretty cool. What we have for you here is a video based on this announcement. There's this artist rendering. Take a look at this. This artist rendering of what this is.

This is a constellation called Libra. This is a star that researchers have been studying, Gliese 581. There are a bunch of planets there. There are six of them. And one of them, which is newly discovered is called Gliese 581G. It is squarely in the middle of what they're calling a habitable zone where they believe liquid water could exist on the planet's surface. And that's why it's getting this moniker "Goldilocks," the "Goldilocks" planet because there have been other planets that were an in area that was too hot, or some that were in an area too cold. This one, they believe, is just right, just in the middle and that humans could survive there. It could potentially be inhabitable.

I will show you a couple things that we have from NASA.gov. There are some images they've put up right here that give you the basic idea. We're over here on Earth. This is our solar system. This is Gliese way out here, Gliese 581. And G is right here. When we were saying there were planets too hot or too cold, you can see this what they believe "Goldilocks" area. There are also some very important differences from Earth which these scientists laid out.

Here's a clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVEN VOGT, U.C. SANTA CRUZ: This planet doesn't have days and nights. Wherever you are on this planet, the sun is in the same position or the stars in the same position all the time. It keeps one side facing towards the star and that's fairly warm and the other side is in perpetual nighttime.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: Perpetual nighttime, right. So you'd have to be in one spot if you want light, another spot if you want dark.

They also say that idea of being inhabitable doesn't mean that humans will thrive there, but they think that based on little they know now it seems possible that maybe they could. And T.J., I will tell you, they are saying that this could be just the beginning, that there's reason to believe that out there they may be finding many more systems like this, including some potentially habitable planets.

So you know what, maybe a little hope in a new frontier there.

HOLMES: OK. Maybe I got a little ahead of myself there at the beginning.

Josh, all right.

LEVS: Maybe a little.

HOLMES: We appreciate you. Thanks so much.

We're taking a look now at some of the other stories that are making headlines.

Congress high-tailing it out of town, leaving Washington and hitting the campaign trail, but not before voting to keep the federal government open just for the next two months, at least. A vote, however, on that contentious issue we've been hearing a lot about, to extend the tax cuts. Well, that vote, not going to happen before you get to vote for them in the midterms. They're going to have to hold that of until after the election.

Also Fisher-Price recalling about 10 million products, including try cycles, baby play areas, and high chairs. The toymaker says it has received complaints of choking and cuts from these toys. Go to our web site CNN.com for a full list.

Also Hollywood leading man Tony Curtis has died. The Oscar- nominated actor may be best known for his roles in "Spartacus" and also "Some Like it Hot" with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe. He, of course, the father of Jamie Lee Curtis. Tony Curtis was 85 years old.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It is time now for your CNNPolitics.com desk update. Mark Preston with the Best Political Team on Television joins us now from D.C.

What you have crossing, Mark? Hey there, buddy.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, T.J., how are you, man? Look, talk about bare-knuckle politics. Let's talk about New York. You have the governor's candidate up there, the Republican nominee, Paladino, Carl Paladino, who threatened a "New York Post" reporter last night. He got into his face. Let me set up the scenario for you, T.J.

Mr. Paladino, in the last couple weeks has had to acknowledge that he had a child out of wedlock because of an extramarital affair. Mr. Paladino came out and said, look, my opponent Andrew Cuomo, had an affair while he was married. Fred Dicker of the "New York Post" approached him last night, this was all caught on camera. You can see it on CNNPolitics.com. He said, look, show me the evidence. The two got into a little bit of a scuffle. It is great viewing and you can read a little more about it on CNNPolitics.com.

T.J., Congress is leaving, they're heading home to campaign for the next month or so. But Democrats say that they are going to focus in on House Minority Leader John Boehner. Boehner is the Ohio Republican who would be the speaker of the house if Republicans take back the majority in November. They said that they're going to do this full-blown national ad campaign. They're going to try to paint him as a Washington insider.

And really it has this broader goal that Republicans are cozy to lobbyists, at least this is what the Democrats are saying, that they are cozy to lobbyists and the fact is that Republicans have just as much invested here in Washington, D.C., as Democrats do, and should have to as well take credit and fault for the nation.

And let me just close it with this, you know those loud commercials that people are just very upset about, you're watching the TV program, goes to a commercial, Congress is on the verge of passing or approving legislation that would end that. Congress will expect in a lame-duck session to reconcile differences between a House and Senate bill and then this time next year you will have the volume modulated whenever it's switching to a commercial -- T.J.

HOLMES: Yes, cause I think that's the concern that's most on the minds of Americans. Those commercials are just too loud, are they not?

PRESTON: They are.

HOLMES: I'm glad they took this up.

PRESTON: Jobs, foreclosures and loud commercials.

HOLMES: Yes, loud commercials. It's right up there.

Mark Preston, we appreciate you and appreciate you throwing that one in there. We need to know what they're up to up there in D.C. All right, Mark, thanks so much. We'll talk to you again, buddy.

And your next political update coming your way in an hour. And for the latest political news, you know the spot, CNNPolitics.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Daytime host Kelly Ripa, she has a message she wants to get out there. She wants women to know about ovarian cancer and how Kelly Ripa explains how she was inspired by personal tragedy in today's "Impact Your World."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLY RIPA, OVARIAN CANCER RESEARCH FUND: Hi. I'm Kelly Ripa and we can make an impact on ovarian cancer.

At some point, someone along the line, either in your family or in your neighborhood, will be diagnosed with this disease and if it's caught early enough, it is entirely treatable. But there's still little known about it.

A childhood friend was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and unfortunately, succumbed to the disease because she didn't recognize the warning signs until was it was too late and that's when I really got involved.

Join the movement, impact your world, CNN.com/Impact.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, welcome back.

We're going to check out your money now, starting with CNNMoney.com. Of course, this is all -- the only place you need to go for all of your money news. You see the top there, the Johnson & Johnson CEO is actually up on Capitol Hill and he is admitting the company made a mistake. This has to do with a recall of some popular children's medicines and other things that was earlier this year in the springtime. We're going to have more on that at the top of the hour with our Elizabeth Cohen.

Quick look at the market here -- 37 points down, the Dow is, as we speak. We still got some time, though, to get back in the black for the day.

But I want to turn now to what happened about two years ago this month, AIG received its first government bailout. Now when all was said and done, again, two years ago this month, the insurer ended up receiving about $180 billion. Now AIG says it has a plan to pay the money back.

Alison Kosik, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with the details for us.

All right, $180 billion, that's a lot of money. Are we going to get it back with interest?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, it is a lot of money, but AIG says that we, the taxpayer, could make this money back and make a profit, too. You know, AIG and the government came up with a deal last night. They basically set a clear path of how AIG is going to pay back the government in full. And this is one big bill, because the government has an 80 percent stake in AIG right now.

Now the biggest part of this plan is going to be to swap the government's preferred AIG stock to common shares and then sell them on the open market. This, of course, is going to take a lot of time. AIG also has to pay back the loans that it got from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

And, in case you're wondering, AIG is getting all this cash because it's selling its assets to make up this cash to go ahead and pay back the government. And by the way, this happening much earlier than expected -- T.J.

HOLMES: Like you said, this is going to take time. Do we have any idea how much time we're talking about here?

KOSIK: T.J., you know, this could take years. But think about it, AIG wants this to happen really fast. It wants to get out from underneath the government at this point. It wants to be an independent company.

You know, once the conversion of these preferred shares happen to common shares, the government's going to have $1.6 billion AIG shares and these aren't going to be sold on the open market all at once. So this will all take time.

Also, the stock sale is going to really depend on a lot of external factors like AIG's performance and the market conditions as well. Hopefully, this exit strategy that's going to be happening now could also windup drawing in some private investors to put some money into AIG. This could only boost AIG's balance sheet and make this whole process happen faster as well.

This whole deal that we heard about since last night definitely giving AIG stocks a nice boost. They were up almost 6 percent earlier. Now they backed down a bit. Now they're up about 3 percent -- T.J.

HOLMES: Alison, thank you so much. Thank you so much.

KOSIK: Sure. Thank you.

HOLMES: Coming up, here's what we have coming for you in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM.

Two U.S. manufacturing giants with huge quality issues. Your child's toys and medicines are in play here.

Also, on your next trip to the grocery store, you may want to check for high fructose corn syrup. It's in many of the packaged foods you buy and it's often blamed for your weight gain. We are serving up facts about this controversial ingredient.

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HOLMES: CNN this week has been taking a bit of a cross-country food journey. We've sent out reporting teams all over the place to get some fresh answers about how our food is grown about how the choices we make impact our health, our state of mind, our budgets and quite simply the pure joy of eating. We've teamed up with a new CNN.com food destination, Eatocracy.com, to bring you "Eatocracy: Mind, Body and Wallet."

Well, childhood obesity rates, they've doubled over the past 20 years. CNN special investigation finds the U.S. government may be contributing to the problem with its free lunches.

Kate Bolduan reports.

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In San Francisco, Dana Woldow saw a crisis unfolding in her son's middle school cafeteria.

DANA WOLDOW, SCHOOL FOOD EXPERT: There was not a single thing being sold at that time that I would have wanted my children to eat.

BOLDUAN: Woldow then became a school cafeteria crusader. Taking on what she calls the carnival foods schools were feeding children every day.

WOLDOW: Soda and potato chips and hamburgers the size of your head.

BOLDUAN: She found a friend in the district's new school nutrition director, Ed Wilkins. ED WILKINS, SFUSD NUTRITION DIRECTOR: It was hard. A lot of people weren't quite ready for the big changes that would have to take effect.

BOLDUAN: But they persisted. It took years, but eventually replaced junk food with healthier fare.

WILKINS: We have salad bars. Fresh fruit and fresh veggies in every school every day. We have zero percent transfat. We have whole grain breads.

We've made a lot of changes, even given the challenges and constraints on the program we face and certainly, funding.

BOLDUAN: And funding is a problem, it costs a lot more to serve fresh produce than the convenient bag of chips. The federal government helps by reimbursing schools if they offer free meals to low-income students. And here's what they get in return, $2.74 per lunch.

WILKINS: And quite frankly, we've found it costs us about $3.68 based upon what we were serving now.

BOLDUAN: Government funding doesn't cover it all, so schools have to find a way to make up the difference.

WILKINS: Which, of course, is a problem in a lot of ways because every dollar that has to be supported by the general fund is a dollar out of the classroom.

BOLDUAN (on camera): So often schools serve the cheaper and unhealthier alternative. A study last year found 94 percent of meals served in schools failed to meet USDA nutrition guidelines. So it's no wonder a separate study suggests children who take part in the National School Lunch Program are more likely to gain weight than their peers.

TOM VILSACK, SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE: School lunch and school breakfast is one area where we can absolutely improve.

BOLDUAN: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and the Obama administration requested an additional $10 billion for the school lunch program, but Congress has cut that by more than half offering a 6 cent increase per student.

(on camera): At the very same time, school food advocates describe funding as being criminally underfunded.

Do you agree with that?

VILSACK: Now, you say 6 cents, but the reality is when you start multiplying 6 cents by 31 million children, it's a fairly substantial amount of money that can be used creatively.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): To help in that effort, the USDA supplies more than 100 commodities to schools nationwide at a reduced rate. Unfortunately, Ed Wilkins says few are up to his district's standards.

WILKINS: I have not used in our program a lot of the commodities just because of the quality.

BOLDUAN (on camera): So many people say we're doing our children wrong by what we're feeding them in school. USDA, Congress, we need help and it's up to you because you've been turning a blind eye.

VILSACK: It isn't just up to government. I mean, the reality is that everyone needs to be engaged in this.

BOLDUAN: You're saying it's time to stop the blame game.

VILSACK: The blame game doesn't get us anywhere and we have to have everyone recognize we all have a responsibility. USDA is not going to solve this problem, school districts by themselves are not going to solve this problem. Collectively, we absolutely can make a difference.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): These school food champions agree, saying their district is proof healthy and high quality is possible. But they're begging the federal government to put its money where its mouth is.

WOLDOW: Maybe we've gone as far as we can go in the absence of better funding. We can't afford the sustainably raised apple, but the fact is we have an apple now and not an apple turnover. And that's how we measure progress.

BOLDUAN: Kate Bolduan, CNN, Washington.

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