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Will Israel Attack Iran?; Jobless Rate Drops; Komen Foundation Reverses Decision on Planned Parenthood Funding; Grosse Pointe Murder Mystery; Second Teacher Arrested at California School; NY Giants Rookie Beat Cancer; Wall Street Wannabes Crowd Class

Aired February 03, 2012 - 15:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: It is the top of the hour. Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon.

January saw more hires and fewer people fired. Bam -- not for that, but for this. Colorado is getting hit with a big winter blast and it's causing a travel mess.

And then in Egypt, the deadly fighting that started at a soccer game three days ago still going on.

It's time to play "Reporter Roulette."

All right, we begin with those new jobs numbers and CNN's Ali Velshi -- Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Don, let me give you some perspective on this job growth.

I want you to just put aside the unemployment rate for a while because there are lots of reasons why that's not the most effective way to look at this. The most effective way to look at it is job growth, the number of jobs lost or added in a given month. Let's go back to January of 2011. You can see all through 2011, we gained jobs in America. It was off to a strong start and then we started talking about a double dip recession, the issues in Europe became more serious, our debt crisis became an issue, the debt ceiling debacle that we had in the United States, the downgrade, all that happened in the late summer.

And companies were getting hesitant about hiring more people because of an uncertain economy. But you can see starting in late summer and into the fall, we have had strong growth. In fact, from October through January, it's been a trend, a steady trend upward culminating in January, where we added 243,000 jobs.

The vast majority of those were private sector jobs, which is what you want to see in a healthy economy.

Now, how does it all affect the political landscape? Well, you can see that Republicans have been using President Obama's job creation record against him. And as you and I have discussed many times, jobs are the intractable problem of our time. That's the most important thing that we have to look at. So if you just take the number of jobs that were lost since President Obama took office, you come out with 4.6 million, 4.6 million jobs lost in America since President Obama took office, whether or not you want to hold him responsible for that. How many jobs have been recovered since then? -- three-and-a-half million jobs, that's the accumulation of all of those 16 months of job growth.

Now, that leaves you with 1.2 million jobs that were lost since President Obama took office that have not yet been recovered. Now, if you divide that 1.2. million jobs by the number of months between now and November 6, Election Day, what you find is that you have to come up with 130,000 jobs a month for President Obama to make the claim by Election Day that all the jobs lost on his watch have been recovered.

And we look at the strength of the job creation that we saw today, it makes it entirely likely that you could see an average of 130,000 jobs or better created every month. So that is a political reality that Republicans will have to tackle over the course of the next few months.

Now, remember, there's no guarantee we're going to create jobs at that pace. It's entirely likely that Europe could offset us or something else could happen, but that's the reality we're looking at as of today -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Ali Velshi, thank you very much.

(WEATHER UPDATE)

LEMON: Next on "Reporter Roulette," Ben Wedeman -- CNN's Ben Wedeman is in the Egyptian capital of Cairo, a deadly day of protests sparked by angry soccer fans.

Ben, walk us through what's happened there today, please.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have seen a continuation of the...

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, so a little technical difficulties there. That happens, live TV. We went away. And now we're back and we're talking to CNN's Ben Wedeman.

He's in the capital of Cairo, Egypt's capital. He was telling us about the deadly protests, the deadly violence that went on. And now it is sparking some angry protests now.

You were in the middle of your thought. Please continue, Ben. All right. So we don't have Ben Wedeman.

All right, listen, we will fix this. Ben, we will get back to you, so we will make sure that this signal is tight and everything is OK.

So let's move on now. We will get back to Ben in just a bit.

Sorry about that, viewers, but as we say, it happens. It is live television here.

Let's move on now. One of the country's most successful charities bows to backlash. Susan G. Komen for the cure will restore funding eligibility to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screenings. Komen wanted to dump Planned Parenthood because Congress is investigating whether the group used tax dollars for abortions.

But the immediate outcry only got louder over the past three days. This isn't the first time the Komen Foundation rubbed some people the wrong way. Many were angry to learn that the group spent donor money to sue other charities that were also using the phrase for the cure.

Now, in the middle of this firestorm, some Komen donors are worried about where their money is actually going. But the watchdog group Charity Navigator gives Komen high marks for its financial score and its accountability to donors.

In the 2010 fiscal year, Komen brought in $311 million. It put more than 80 percent of that into program expenses, which is considered very good for a nonprofit.

And just yesterday, 25 Democrats and one independent in the Senate sent a letter urging the Komen Foundation to reverse itself.

And one of the leading voices has been New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg, who applauded today's decision. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D), NEW JERSEY: Today, the interest of women's health prevailed over partisan politics. The Komen Foundation did the right thing. They reversed the decision that cut Planned Parenthood's funding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Kate Bolduan joins us now live from Capitol Hill.

Kate, let's talk about the political to restore this funding, specifically from Senator Lautenberg, as we just heard.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You heard it right there from Senator Lautenberg himself, but he was one of 26 senators, Democratic- leaning senators, that penned a very strongly worded letter to the Komen Foundation yesterday criticizing its decision to pull funding, as well as asking them to reverse it.

So it seems pretty clear that the pressure in part from these senators, as well as others and the public seemed to have somewhat of an impact as they have reversed their decision. I have been told by a source close to the discussions that the Komen board really started talking about an exit strategy or way to change course, if you will, last night.

And we heard from Frank Lautenberg there, but also saw in a statement from him this morning that the senator spoke with the founder, Nancy Brinker, this morning. And the conversation is described as really passionate.

So you see that things have changed course, but all in all, Don, from the perspective up here, not surprisingly, Democrats are putting out statements today applauding this reversal and applauding the change in their decision.

I have not gotten a lot of reaction from Republicans, though the Republican reaction I have gotten, I have received some criticism that the Komen Foundation is backing down. Just real quick, Don, one statement I received from a freshman Republican, Renee Ellmers from North Carolina, she called the reversal hollow and weak and that she was disappointed that the Komen Foundation isn't cutting the funding for Planned Parenthood.

LEMON: Well, that's what I wanted to ask you because you were mentioning the Republicans. Some have said -- have denied it, but was there really political pressure behind this decision? That's the million-dollar question here, that both sides are going no, no, no, there wasn't political pressure or blaming the other side for political pressure, if there was any.

BOLDUAN: I think those questions remain. And I think they will continue to be asked for days and weeks to come.

But I can say from the perspective of Capitol Hill, Republicans say that they had absolutely nothing to do with this decision by the Komen Foundation. It is an independent foundation and they can make their own decisions. But aside from that, we know a couple things working up here on Capitol Hill.

We know that Republicans in the past have long tried to cut funding for Planned Parenthood, federal funding for Planned Parenthood. This is aside from the Komen Foundation because many Republicans they don't want to see federal dollars going to any organization that provides abortion services, even though by law any federal money cannot be spent on abortion services. That's one thing.

And we also know that still ongoing, there is a House committee investigation into Planned Parenthood led by a chairman of a House subcommittee, Republican Congressman Cliff Stearns. He's looking into how Planned Parenthood has used this money and wants to know if Planned Parenthood has used this money in some fashion to support abortion services.

I did get a statement from Cliff Stearns following this today. In part, he says, reiterating the question that you had, he says very clearly, "I was not involved in either decision by the Komen Foundation," but goes on later to say that he will continue his investigation into Planned Parenthood's use of taxpayer funds.

So while maybe this Komen issue may be going away, the question of Planned Parenthood still remains in the spotlight by many up here on Capitol Hill.

LEMON: And that was the catalyst, at least one behind this, was that investigation. And some people if there is something illegal going on, maybe we should stop our funding of this. So we have to move on now. We have gone a little bit over here. Thank you very much, Kate. We appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: OK. Thanks, Don.

LEMON: Coming up, the Obama administration warns Israel could attack Iran in the spring. But what's behind the rhetoric?

Plus, the men who want President Obama's job are gearing up for the next fight. Candy Crowley breaks down the chances one of them might drop out after tomorrow's matchup in Nevada -- Nevada, excuse me.

Stay right there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: As we have been reporting here on CNN, we got new job numbers today and there was improvement. There was improvement -- 243,000 new jobs were created last month.

Unemployment shrank a bit down to 8.3 percent. But consider this. For post-9/11 veterans, the unemployment rate is nearly three percentage points higher than the overall rate, more than 11 percent.

Well, today, President Obama unveiled a $5 billion plan to get vets back to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our veterans are some of the most highly trained, highly educated, highly skilled workers that we've got. These are Americans that every business should be competing to attract. So we're going to do everything we can to make sure that when our troops come home, they come home to new jobs and new opportunities and new ways to serve their country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And now CNN's Barbara Starr shows us what vets face when looking for work.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Military veterans crowd this Washington, D.C., job fair, hoping to find work. Among them, young veterans aged 20 to 24. A staggering 30 percent of them are unemployed. The job picture is not getting better.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're scheduling interviews for that today.

STARR: Marines Corps Lieutenant Colonel Ken Crabtree, a financial specialist, is leaving the Marines later this year, and already he's looking for work.

LT. COL. KEN CRABTREE, U.S. MARINE CORPS: With the current economy, I definitely don't want to leave up to chance that I'm going to just fall into a job.

STARR: Understandable anxiety for all veterans. Last month the unemployment rate for male veterans who served in the current wars was nearly 12 percent, much worse for female veterans, 21 percent. The national average is 8. 5 percent.

So Crabtree's first stop, like most here, learning to write a resume that highlights military skills that will interest a potential new employer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a -- it's a process.

STARR: Former Marine Kevin Schmiegel runs veterans job fairs for the Chamber of Commerce. He says vets must be savvy.

KEVIN SCHMIEGEL, U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: They need to start thinking about where are the jobs, not just thinking about going to their home towns, but where are the states where there's low unemployment.

STARR: To improve things, experts say business must commit to veterans. The White House has called on the private sector to hire or train more than 100,000 veterans or spouses by 2013.

BRAD COOPER, JOINING FORCES, WHITE HOUSE INITIATIVE: This effort here is one tool in the toolkit. STARR: The Veterans Affairs Department sponsored this job fair. It required each employer here to be ready to offer at least 25 jobs to veterans. A total of 6,500 jobs are available. Interviews are on the spot.

Twenty-seven-year-old former Marine Alex Ellis may have just gotten the break he badly needs. He left the Marines Corps in 2007 after serving in Iraq. The only job he's been able to get since, part-time security guard.

(on camera): You go up to a booth. Tell me about that.

ALEX ELLIS, VETERAN: I just ask if -- if they were hiring police officers, and they said that they were, and they handed me the paper and said if you fill this out we can get you in for the physical and the written test on February 4.

STARR (voice-over): He's been checking out what's available here with local law enforcement agencies.

Navy veteran Aaron Isaac is about to get called in for his own job interview.

AARON ISAAC, VETERAN: I have high hopes because, I mean, you already know like the interview, if -- if you already have the interview, then that means they like you. All you had to do is go in there and show them why they like you on paper.

STARR (on camera): There was good news at the end of the day. That young man you met at the end of the piece, Aaron Isaac, he walked out of the job fair with a job offer from a federal law enforcement agency.

Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right, politics now.

Mitt Romney walking back some remarks that got him in hot water. As we reported since Wednesday, Romney said he isn't concerned about the very poor in America. He said they're covered by a so-called safety net. That was just part of his statement.

CNN's Candy Crowley, our chief political correspondent, Candy Crowley joins us now.

Let's listen to what Romney told an interviewer about his controversial comments, Candy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was a misstatement. I misspoke. I have said something that is similar to that, but quite acceptable, for a long time.

And when you do I don't know how many thousands of interviews, now and then, you may get it wrong. And I misspoke, that simple.

QUESTION: What did you mean to say?

ROMNEY: Well, what I said was that my focus, my primary focus is on helping people get into the middle class and grow the middle class.

We have a safety net that cares for the poor. I want to keep that safety net strong and able. The wealthy are doing just fine. But we really need to focus on the middle-income people in this country.

And you know what? If people are going to go after me when I make a mistake, when I slip up in a word I say, even though I say I got it wrong, sorry, that's not what I meant, well, that's going to be part of the political process. I understand it and I accept the consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Candy, can I ask you something about this? Do you remember the president's lazy comment and people said, oh, that was taken out of context, the other side.

Is this the case now with Mitt Romney? Many people are going to say I understand what the president meant by lazy, but now they're not going to understand what Mitt Romney meant by this. Is this the same sort of thing that we're dealing with? Is he right in some way that everyone is looking for a gotcha moment?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Here I think is the problem with this particular gaffe or whatever you want to call it. It is out of context.

He was trying to say what he just said. And it also relates to the president talking about lazy. And that is that it plays into the sort of caricature that people set up. So if you don't like President Obama, you think that he is arrogant or that he doesn't care about blue-collar workers or whatever it is, and so when he talks about lazy Americans, that sort of plays into your preconceived notion of this president.

When Mitt Romney says something that sounds completely (INAUDIBLE) to caring about poor people, it feeds into that character of him, impression of him by critics that he in fact is too rich and too detached from real life to be able to be president.

So it isn't so much that you make the gaffe. It's the gaffe that you make.

LEMON: Very, very good, very good analysis there. I like that. And it's a political year and you have to choose your words carefully. Basically, I guess that's what we're saying here.

CROWLEY: You do. And Mitt Romney sort of said as much. Look, I understand it.

He's not in the boardroom anymore. He doesn't have an hour-and-a-half to have a meeting to explain what he means. He's got five minutes on television.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Did they put this fire out, his people, or no?

CROWLEY: No, because it will come back up in a commercial. Absolutely, it will come back out again.

But something else will happen. And so it won't -- we won't be talking about this for the next six months, but will definitely come up again in the fall.

LEMON: All right, let's talk about what you and I will be covering and the entire CNN will be covering this weekend, the Nevada caucuses tomorrow. What should we expect there, Candy?

CROWLEY: If all the polling and reporting is correct, we should expect that Mitt Romney will win rather handily.

Why? Because he has kept up his ties there since the last time he ran in the Nevada caucuses. He did very well the last time around and he's got momentum coming out of Florida, although momentum hasn't meant a lot so far in this. Everybody came out of the race and immediately lost the next one. But, nonetheless, I think Nevada we would all be thunderstruck if Mitt Romney doesn't win them in some fairly handy fashion.

LEMON: Yes. I could just listen to your analysis all day and talk with you. Can we do that? No, we can't? Oh. CROWLEY: Oh, go on.

LEMON: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: You know what? I will be watching you throughout the evening here on CNN and all this weekend, Candy Crowley.

Don't forget to catch Candy's "STATE OF THE UNION" 9:00 a.m. Eastern Sunday right here on CNN.

And up next, Israel could attack Iran in the coming months, that strong comment from America's top defense chief. And now Iran's supreme leader has a stern warning for the U.S.

We're going to live to Jerusalem for reaction, David McKenzie standing by. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Let's focus now on a story coming out of the Middle East, lots of chatter on this one today.

First, we reported yesterday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta thinks Israel might attack Iran's nuclear program maybe as soon as this string. Then, this morning, Iran's supreme leader upped U.S. concerns by saying any attack on Iran would be detrimental to America.

Then this from Israel's defense minister:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EHUD BARAK, ISRAELI DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): Dealing with a nuclear Iran will be far more complex, far dangerous, and far more expensive in blood and money than stopping it today. In other words, those who say in English later may find later is too late.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's bring in CNN's David McKenzie. He's in Jerusalem now.

David, question is, with all this heated chatter that we have been hearing, what is the mood in Israel tonight?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the mood is tense here in Israel.

But this isn't the first time that we're hearing leaders make these sort of direct statements, Don. It's really a war of words, chatter as you put it nicely. It's really all the leaders saying that we must not take a military option against Iran off the table.

And Ehud Barak, the defense minister, he said last night -- and you saw it there -- that there is this immunity stage they feel that Iran might have when they develop nuclear weapons to a certain point that Israel cannot have an effective strike against them.

But the worry that analysts have is that all this talk by Israel, which might just be diplomatic talk to try to push sanctions against Iran, will actually ratchet it up to such a level that something might happen, so very dangerous times in a way, people are thinking right now -- Don.

LEMON: All right, so rhetoric, or is there a sense action is going to have to be taken, will it be taken?

MCKENZIE: Well, I don't think we're at that stage yet.

And also the point is that this is rhetoric. We don't really know very many facts about what Israel is thinking about the Iranians' nuclear program. They're saying that they're willing to strike, that their timeline is -- quote -- "shorter" than the United States.

But when you take the rhetoric of Israel and then the rhetoric of in fact the supreme leader of Iran, here's something he said today at a rally about Israel itself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI, SUPREME LEADER OF IRAN (through translator): The Zionist regime is really the cancerous tumor in this regime, and it needs to be removed, and it will be removed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: Well, there he said basically that he wants to get rid of Israel.

But again a lot of analysts are saying that what Israel is doing is trying to push its allies toward pushing sanctions against Iran. The most important strategic ally of Israel is, of course, the U.S. And Israel is very much paying attention to what the secretary of defense said about when they might strike. And there is this game going on right now, Don, but it's a very dangerous game.

LEMON: David McKenzie, Jerusalem, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Now to a murder mystery that has gotten very bizarre. A mother is found dead in an alley. And her husband is a person of interest, all right, but the case now involves an alleged sex dungeon and a possible paid hit. Sunny Hostin "On the Case." What's going on? She will tell us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, this one reads like a detective novel. As a matter of fact, it has more twists than a seedy detective novel. OK, pay close attention.

We told you last week about Jane Bashara. She was found strangled in the back of her Mercedes in a Detroit alley, miles from her wealthy suburban community. Now her husband, Bob, is labeled a person of interest. A man claims a murder was a paid hit. And allegations have surfaced that Bob Bashara leads a double life. Complete with a mistress and a sex dungeon in the basement below a bar.

Got all that? And there are reports of bags of sex toys. Not kidding.

Sunny Hostin, on the case.

Sunny, this has to be a shocker to Bob Bashara's rotary club. This was a successful couple, two kids, happy by all accounts. What in the world is going on here?

SUNNY HOSTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It really remarkable. And news has been breaking on this case, you know, hour to hour. What we now know is that yes, Bob Bashara has been named a person of interest, not a suspect, just a person of interest by the police department. But now we hear that Joe Gentz, a man by the name of Joe Gentz, who apparently was a handyman for some of Bashara's numerous properties, commercial and residential.

He has come forward and he has claimed that Bob Bashara has paid him $2,000 to kill his wife. He claims that he killed Jane Bashara in their home and then apparently drove her in her car and dumped her car where it was found in Detroit. However, police are saying he has given some conflicting stories and, of course, Bob Bashara maintains his innocence. He has denied the murder-for-hire plot.

LEMON: Yes.

HOSTIN: But Bob's attorney has admitted that indeed he is the owner and operator of an S&M club that is in the basement of a bar that he owns.

LEMON: Hey, Sunny? Sunny?

HOSTIN: And that Bob Bashara frequently had parties there.

LEMON: Before we get to that, which is very interesting, I've been seeing this story everywhere and every time I read about it, I go, what? It's like a TV made -- what do you call it, made for TV movie or whatever. Movie of the week.

HOSTIN: Yes.

LEMON: So let's get back to this man that police have in custody, who claims Bashara paid him $2,000 kill his wife, as you said. In a news conference, though, Bob Bashara's lawyer tried pretty hard to discredit that man. But why would someone voluntarily implicate himself in a murder? Does that make his story more credible or less so?

HOSTIN: Well, at this point, Don, we don't know enough about his story, we don't know enough about his confession, we don't know enough about the man, but what we are hearing is that his roommate convinced him to come forward with this confession. We're also hearing that the roommate then brought certain items to the police department, including a cell phone and a pair of boots to corroborate the story.

So we're still learning more and more information about this man and his alleged confession. So at this point, we don't know if it's credible, but we do know that he is -- has been meeting with police and is cooperating with them.

LEMON: OK. And we want to make it perfectly clear here, Sunny, as you said, and I said Bob Bashara has not been charged but he's only a person of interest.

HOSTIN: That's right.

LEMON: Right? Named by police. The question is, as you mentioned, the dungeon, and -- when look into the report you hear, you know, about the toys and the hefty bags full of alleged sex toys, allegedly, that they removed from this thing.

This report of a secret life, reports, as they only are now, would that taint a jury?

HOSTIN: Well, if it even gets in front of a jury because some of these things are just so highly prejudicial. A judge may keep them out and exclude them from a jury. But - you know, let's say in the court of public opinion, I think people are really, really shocked because all we heard about was, how this couple had been married for 26 years and had these two lovely children and were very much in love.

Now we're hearing a lot more that could go to motive, that could explain the circumstances surrounding her murder. So it's just so shocking, I think, for those of us that had been watching this story.

LEMON: Certainly is. OK. That will be covered over and over again. And you'll get to the bottom of it.

Let's move on now we're just getting word that a second teacher, Sunny, has been arrested at the Los Angeles School where 23 children were lured into posing for picture while blindfolded and gagged. We talked about this yesterday. Roaches on their faces or holding spoons containing a bodily fluid. Have any new details been released on this second -- on this second arrest?

HOSTIN: It's remarkable. We have learned from CNN's Tom Larsen who interviewed Captain Mike Parker with the Los Angeles sheriff's department that a second arrest has been made with respect to a second teacher at the Miramonte Elementary School. The teacher has been removed from the classroom. We do not know if this is related to the first case. So we will learn more information. Apparently the sheriff's department is going to release additional information at 1:00 p.m. today Pacific Time.

LEMON: And you know, what I find interesting, I'm sure a lot of did, and investigators as well. Turns out the Los Angeles teacher who is charged with taking those lewd photos of students was investigated way back in 1993 and the "L.A. Times" is reporting, Sunny, a girl accused Mark Breny of trying to fondle her but prosecutors also nearly dropped the case. Why did they do that? HOSTIN: You know, it's just remarkable because you wonder if he had been perhaps arrested and taken out of classroom at that time that we wouldn't still be hearing about this alleged abuse. Well, Sandy Gibbons, a district attorney spokeswoman, said in a statement that the case was rejected because there was insufficient evidence to prove a crime had occurred. They didn't elaborate more than that but we do know that a 10-year-old girl did report that he tried to fondle her in a classroom. She reported it to her mother. Her mother reported it to the school who then in turn turned it over to the police department, but they did not find enough evidence sufficient to go forward on any charges.

LEMON: All right. Sunny Hostin is on the case. It's Friday. Sunny, have a great weekend. Thank you. Appreciate it.

HOSTIN: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: Up next, a teenager survived a tragic car wreck, but lost her entire family. Now the loved ones she left are speaking exclusively with CNN about how the girl reacted when she found out.

But first this. There is a supersized rematch in Indianapolis today. The New York Giants battle the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI. But for one player, the struggle on the field may pale in compare ton to the battle he fought with cancer.

CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta has more in this week's "Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mark Herzlich has come a long way in a very short time.

MARK HERZLICH, NEW YORK GIANTS LINEBACKER: We need to win and that's what we're excited about. We're excited to be here as a team and playing in the Super Bowl is unbelievable.

GUPTA: The rookie linebacker for the New York Giants is focused on beating the New England Patriots, but his story has been a focus of the media leading up to the NFL championship. That's because some say his being here is somewhat of a miracle.

Herzlich was expected to go far. As a junior at Boston College, he was named his conferences 2008 Defensive Player of the Year. And he was projected to be a first-round draft pick. But all that came to a crashing halt in May of 2009 when he was told he had a rare form of bone cancer called Ewing's sarcoma.

HERZLICH: When the cancer came, you know, it wasn't just, you know, my Super Bowl dreams are dead. Well, it was all my football dreams were dead.

GUPTA: Herzlich was determined to fight the cancer. But after two months of chemotherapy, doctors wanted to remove part of his thigh bone. Then he found a doctor who was willing to try a rare treatment for this type of cancer. Radiation therapy. HERZLICH: My dream was to play football again. I knew that radiation was -- and keeping my leg was going to be the only chance I would have at playing.

GUPTA: The treatment worked and a little more than four months after diagnoses, Herzlich was declared cancer free.

HERZLICH: Football drove me every second of every day.

GUPTA: Herzlich returned to Boston College the next year and even though he wasn't drafted, he was still picked up by the New York Giants. And now he'll be playing in the biggest game of all.

HERZLICH: I think the biggest thing, you know, coming back from cancer and coming back to play football, you know, all that kind of sits in the rearview mirror now as we're getting ready for the Super Bowl. There are such things as dreams coming true and miracles, and I believe that this is one of them.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Let's get you caught up on everything making new this hour. Rapid fire. Let's go.

Drama in Egypt. And we're getting word that two American tourists kidnapped in the Sinai Peninsula are now free and we're told the kidnappers in exchange for the release of the Americans demanded that some detainees be freed by the Egyptian government. It's not yet clear whether that deal happened.

The family of a girl orphaned by the mass pileup on the Florida interstate Sunday speaks exclusively to CNN. The girl, Lidiane Carmo, lost her mother, her father, her sister and uncle after smoke from the brush fire near Interstate I-75 triggered the crashes. Now seven others were killed in that crash 22 more were hurt including Lidiane who is an illegal immigrant from Brazil.

Her aunt recalls the 15-year-old girl's reaction while she was in the hospital.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUCIANE BOUTIN, 1-75 CRASH SURVIVOR'S AUNT: On Monday when she is awake, she asked where's mom, where am I, where is daddy, where're (INAUDIBLE), what are me doing here? Where is the others? I'm the only one in this hospital? The other ones in the other hospital? Where is everybody?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So sad. It's still not clear if Florida will pay for Lidiane's medical bills. The family says the governor made that promise to them, but his office has not confirmed that to CNN.

Five people have been indicated in California -- indicted, excuse me, in California in an alleged human smuggling operation. Federal agents estimate 1,000 people were brought across the border from Mexico in the past two years. Agents say they paid $2,000 to $4,000 each and were locked in trunks or hidden compartments under the hoods of cars that were driven across the border.

A Michigan teenager has decided to leave his high school after it suspended him for not cutting his hair. JT Gaskins, a leukemia survivor, was growing it for charity. His school said his hair didn't meet policy standards. Well, Gaskins was going to donate his hair to locks of love which gives hair to cancer survivors.

Up next here on CNN, she is an actress, a comedian and now a candidate for president of the United States. Find out which party Roseanne may be representing, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It is time now for our "Political Pop" and believe it or not. Roseanne Barr is running for president. The comedian made her announcement on Twitter saying she filed official paperwork to run for the Green Party nomination. A Green Party official tells CNN that Roseanne understands the values and positions of the party well enough to promote the platform.

But we have to ask, with Mitt Romney and the president showing off their vocals, their vocal talents, you know where we're going here. Can she sing?

Is that fair? You know, she did apologize for that, and I think I saw a report a couple of months ago, she said that was -- if she had a do- over on that, she would do it over, but anyway she's running. There it is.

"THE SITUATION ROOM," Wolf Blitzer, coming up at the top of the hour. Wolf joins us now with a preview.

So you have Newt Gingrich on the show today, Wolf?

WOLF BLITZER, ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Right. Newt Gingrich is joining us. We have a wide range of subjects we're covering with the former speaker, the Republican presidential candidate. We'll get his reaction to what Leon Panetta is now saying about a possible Israeli airstrike against Iran's nuclear facilities. We're talking also about his reaction to the Susan G. Komen for the cure decision to once again start funding Planned Parenthood.

Certainly going to get his reaction how much credit, Don, does the president of the United States deserve for the positive jobs numbers that were announced earlier today? The unemployment rate going down. So we're talking about all that. A lot of politics as well. The interview will air in "THE SITUATION ROOM" in the next hour. I know you're looking forward to it -- Don.

LEMON: Of course I am. And great interview. Watch Donald Trump, all of it. You always do great interviews, though.

Thank you, Wolf Blitzer. We will be watching, sir.

Coming up in this hour, mistakes made in the boardroom, lessons learned in the classroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN MONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: What's the demand like for this class?

PROF. MARTIN HAUGH, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY: Oh, it's huge. The first two weeks of the semester, loads of students are sitting in the aisles here, standing up. We can't take all the students.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The hottest job on Wall Street now, risk management. It may sound boring, but it's got students lined up around the block.

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LEMON: All right. Time now for "Tomorrow's News Today." Let's fast forward, shall we?

Scandal scarred Megachurch pastor Bishop Eddie Long has become a king in this ceremony you're looking at. The video is unusual, but you'll see my interview tomorrow about why many say it's also offensive. I speak with Rabbi Hillel Norry during the 11:00 p.m. Eastern hour on CNN. You don't want to miss that. A lot of people are talking about that one.

People who work on Wall Street, though, aren't all that popular right now. But that's not keeping a whole new generation from hoping there are still fortunes to be made playing there.

Poppy Harlow found a whole lot of these young hopefuls cramming into a college class on, of all things, risk and how to manage it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW (voice-over): A jam-packed house for a grad course at Columbia, in of all things financial engineering.

HAUGH: If you know you're not going to take this class, can you please make up your mind shortly. There's a lot of --

HARLOW: Some of these kids hope to be the future titans of Wall Street.

HAUGH: You could easily imagine some sort of unethical trader who knows his bonus is going to be huge if he can make a lot of money and --

HARLOW: What could be their golden ticket, studying quantitative risk management in the school's engineering program? (On camera): What's the demand like for this class?

HAUGH: It's huge. The first two weeks the semesters, loads of students are sitting in the aisles here, standing up. We can't take all the students.

HARLOW (voice-over): Their textbooks might as well be news clippings and balance sheets from the financial crisis.

AARON MILLER, RISK MANAGEMENT STUDENT: If somebody gave us the books of Lehman Brothers or Bear Stearns, then I think -- knowing what we know now we could very well have realized something was wrong.

SUNG-MING HONG, RISK MANAGEMENT STUDENT: AIG, I mean, you know, they had a load of credit default swaps. They were leveraging a lot, too.

HARLOW: To get that first job more than perhaps ever before they need this class.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It definitely would make me more marketable.

HONG: It's definitely a growth area so I think it's something that's good to know.

BOB LONG, PRINCIPAL, DENISON ASSOCIATES: Even through the crisis when headcount has been decreasing risk management headcount is increasing as a big thing. Their numbers are larger than ever been before. The numbers shocked me and I've been in this business for a couple of decades.

HARLOW: They aren't all out to prevent the next financial crisis.

(On camera): Don't these kids just want to make money? Is that why they're here?

HAUGH: Isn't that why everyone is in New York? No. I --

(LAUGHTER)

HAUGH: I think most of these kids are 22, 23, they're thinking about getting a job, paying back student loans.

HARLOW (voice-over): With starting salaries around 150 grand for some, that shouldn't be a problem.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If those assets decrease by just 25 percent and remain on our books, that loss would greater than the current market capitalization of this entire company.

HARLOW: The movie "Margin Call" highlights the importance of quonts. The popularity of risk management represents an ironic shift for financial engineers or quonts. Five years ago this was a group of students that frequently went on to make the complex financial instruments that arguably contributed to the crisis.

(On camera): Do you think you would be on the other side if 2008 hadn't happened making, creating these financial instruments?

HONG: Without 2008, I probably would have focused all my energy -- time and energy into those areas.

HARLOW: If you could have anyone in this room taking this class, who would it be?

HAUGH: I would say the CEOs of the top banks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. There's Poppy Harlow.

Poppy, it's a hot class right now, and students are popping down their tuition dollars to take it. Could this be a case of hot today but so 15 minutes ago by the time that they graduate?

HARLOW: Right. Yes, it's a great question. Right? Is it just a fad? The answer is maybe. We'll see. Right now this is hot on Wall Street. Will it be in a year? Probably. Will it be in five years? Who knows?

If we've learned one thing it is no matter how deep the crisis or how soon we do forget how bad it was, and that we need these risk managers. The thing is that these tools, these financial engineering tools are useful across the board, whether you're going to Goldman Sachs or whether you're going to Google. What we've learned is that companies want engineers and they want these quonts. So it's great for the economy if they're going to be mitigating risks. But if they're not going to be, they'll probably going to get hired somewhere else -- Don.

LEMON: Just quickly before we let you go here, let's take a look at the big board.

HARLOW: Yes.

LEMON: How did today's job numbers play out in the markets?

HARLOW: Yes, take a look at the stocks right now. What do we have? The Dow Industrial is up 150, S&P, Nasdaq, all higher, great jobs report, almost solely across the board great jobs report., 243,000 jobs added. We saw the unemployment rate come down to 8.3 percent. Green across the board since the market opened this morning.

The one standard I would say, Don, is that folks that have been unemployed for more than six months in this country are still suffering. We still got 5.5 million people that had been out of work six months or longer. Their numbers didn't get much better. Also, I think it's always important to point out minorities, the African- American unemployment rate is significantly higher than the Caucasian unemployment rate. That's a problem, same story with the Hispanic rate.

Something we can't forget and we have to pay attention to. And as we've seen throughout this crisis, folks that have a college degree continue to have a significantly lower unemployment rate, about half those that don't. That's a very important point, too. But really a strong jobs report coming off a strong December jobs report. If we can see this momentum continuing, it's a great thing for this economy -- Don.

LEMON: 243,000 added in January.

HARLOW: Yes.

LEMON: Thank you, Poppy,. That's it for me. Thank you so much for watching. Have a great weekend. Now to Wolf Blitzer.

Take it away, sir.