[Velshi:] All right. I want to go to Jim Acosta. He's in Washington, D.C., around Dupont Circle, where advocates in favor of health-care reform have gathered today to protest along with Howard Dean, former Vermont governor. Jim Acosta is on the line with us now. Jim, what's going on there now?
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Correspondent:] Hey, Ali, we are standing right outside the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, right outside of Georgetown in Washington, D.C., and the reason why we're out here is there is a very big protest in favor of health-care reform that just wrapped up here. The reason why the protest was happening here is because the insurance industry was having one of its annual policy conferences right here in Washington, where they had executives from all over the insurance industry gathered to talk about health-care reform. As we know, it's in a very critical stage right now between the White House and the Congress. And there were several hundred protesters gathered here just a few moments ago. Police made some what I would call ceremonial arrests, where they took some folks into custody and then released them a few minutes later. But essentially, folks were gathered right up here at this police barricade that I'm standing in front of, and they were forcing their way, at least attempting to force their way, inside the hotel room for about 10 to 15 minutes. That is why the police out here made some arrests. But all in all, this was a fairly, I think, peaceful and organized protest. There were there were several speakers who talked during this event. They actually called for a citizens' arrest at one point, Ali, of the insurance industry executives who were represented here. They actually deputized or had a ceremonial deputizing of hundreds of protesters out here. And then at one point, they said, "OK, let's go inside and get these guys." And we all thought they were going to physically come inside of the hotel. That is when they made their way towards those barricades, and the police stopped them and made some of those, as what I would call them, ceremonial arrests. But, Ali, it's wrapping up right now. All around, a peaceful protest that's definitely breaking up now, Ali.
[Velshi:] All right. We've got you on TV now. We're hearing you through the phone, but you are on camera right now. Any counter protests that you see, or is it this one group that has organized this protest? There aren't people sort of getting into it with each other there, are there?
[Acosta:] There were there was definitely some bumping that was going on between bumping that was going on between the police and the protesters. [on camera] Police took those unruly protesters into custody briefly and then released them. This was a this was a protest that was staged by health-care reform advocacy groups like Health Care for America Now. Several labor groups were out here. And this was a noisy, rowdy protest. No doubt about it. There was no counter protest, but what I can tell you is, I did see some folks who were here with the insurance industry conference inside the hotel coming outside, sort of taking a look around, and then going back inside. And at one point the hotel staff and the D.C. Police Department, they were actually talking about locking the doors to this hotel, so folks could not come inside the hotel. So, they were concerned, at least for a brief period of time, that this was going to get out of control, that people would start to storm the hotel, but in the end that did not happen. Just a few few detentions, you could call them.
[Velshi:] Right.
[Acosta:] Ceremonial arrests, I would call them, for a few moments, and those folks were released. But essentially, this was just a very big, noisy protest. We don't see these a lot in Washington these days, but especially around the issue of health-care reform. This was definitely one of the larger health-care reform protests that I've seen, Ali, here in Washington.
[Velshi:] Well, I know when I was on the CNN Express, the Health Care for America Now was sort of an umbrella group for a lot of organizations that support health-care reform. They would have some people go out to some of the Tea Parties. Again, almost a ceremonial presence, because there would be a few of them versus hundreds or thousands of tea partiers, but they sort of had an ongoing process.
[Acosta:] Yes, yes. And what was most striking about this rally OK, I'm sorry, Ali, if you've got to wrap it up, I'll send it back to you.
[Velshi:] No, go ahead. Finish your thought, Jim.
[Acosta:] The one thing that I thought was really striking about this rally was that the signs that were being held up by these protesters actually said, you know, "Wanted for Arrest," and they were wanted posters, essentially, for these insurance executives. And under those pictures of these different executives, it would say, you know, "wanted for the deaths of 45,000 Americans every year." So as this issue is really coming to a head here in Washington, what we're finding is that the pro-health-care reform folks are really, in very stark language, putting it out there that they want to see health-care reform passed, even almost to the point of going over the line and creating wanted posters for these executives.
[Velshi:] Yes.
[Acosta:] And, you know, and when you talk to the insurance industry about that, which I did. I asked them about that, and they said, "Well, this is just part of the debate, and we're trying to work through it." And, you know, that's essentially what we got from the insurance industry's side. But this was a noisy protest. But it's largely wrapping up now, Ali.
[Velshi:] All right, Jim, thank you for bringing that to us. We appreciate it. Jim Acosta outside the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, D.C. All right. Let's talk about houses for a second. There's a list here I want to show it to you. It is called the Housing Opportunity Index. It's put out by "Forbes." It takes into account in any particular city the foreclosure rate. Obviously, if there's a low rate of foreclosures, that's better for the housing market, because there aren't more houses on the market to sell. And it combines that with the expected increase or decrease in housing prices. So I want to go through the top five on "Forbes" housing opportunity list. No. 1 on the list is it's not the highest scorer, but the housing opportunity number for Pittsburgh is 85.1. The reason "Forbes" likes Pittsburgh is because it rates it doesn't have a whole lot of foreclosures, and it does look like there's there are enough houses there but not too many, so that prices might go up. No. 2, Louisville, Kentucky. The score there, 84.3, just a little bit below Pittsburgh. Very low foreclosure rates. That's what gets Louisville to the top of that or toward the top of that list. Houston, Texas, this is an area we've been talking about a lot. A lot of Texas is actually doing very well. Seventy-three point two. The issue there is that it's got strong industry: a lot of energy- related jobs. People are moving to Houston and Austin and Dallas and places like that. So, you're seeing the possibility of housing price increases. Let's take you to the MinneapolisSt. Paul area. Again, very, very low unemployment in some of these states around here. That brings it to a score of 84.9. You can see just below Pittsburgh. And finally, I want to show you Indianapolis, which has look at this a score of 95.7 on the index. This is homes are quite affordable right now. There's housing that is accessible to a lot of families who have sort of a median income. So a lot of people, you don't have to be very rich to get a nice house in Indianapolis. What if you don't live in one of those top markets? Well, you might have a problem, particularly if you owe a lot on your mortgage and you need to try and get rid of the mortgage. Let's bring in Christine Romans. She's my co-host on "YOUR $$$$$." You can watch us on weekends. Christine, what do you do if you're not in the fortunate position of buying a house in a great market?
[Christine Romans, Cnn Business Correspondent:] And you know, Indy and Pittsburgh are on a lot other lists, too.
[Velshi:] Yes.
[Romans:] There's something going on in Indianapolis and Pittsburgh, for all those of you who live out there. And what are you supposed to do? Up until now, the government's efforts to avoid foreclosure, Ali, have been focused on keeping you in your home. But now there's a new program that will be launched, or an extension of the original program will be launched April 5 that's meant to help you do a short sale, help you get out of the house that you just can't get you can't afford this house, you know? You can't try to stay in it...
[Velshi:] Right.
[Romans:] ... because you are never going to be able to afford it. It's called the Home Affordable Foreclosure Alternatives program. It's essentially getting paid you get paid for a short sale. The borrower gets $1,500 relocation assistance to help them move on. The lender gets $1,000 in a servicing bonus. What is a short sale? If you have a buyer for your house, right? But the buyer is willing to offer much less than you paid for the house and that you owe the banks.
[Velshi:] Right.
[Romans:] And so, the lender's got to take a hit and agree to for you to sell this house at a lower price. Here's some of the rules. Who's eligible? It's got to be the principle residence, first-lien mortgage. You've got to be seriously delinquent. Here's the here's the rub, Ali. So many people have kept kept up on their loans that they don't even look at you until you're seriously delinquent in a lot of these programs. The unpaid balance has to be under that adjusted, you know, jumbo level of $729,750, and your monthly mortgage has to be over 31 percent of your gross income.
[Velshi:] OK.
[Romans:] So it's a new program, the HAFA mortgage program,
[H-a-f- A. Velshi:] Let's talk about this for a second. So foreclosure is the worst thing that can happen to you. And if you this is all things that can happen to you if you can't pay for your house. So foreclosure's the worst. Perhaps the best is what you call a deed in lieu of you know, you give the bank your house. You don't owe them anything. It's all just done; you walk away. The short sale is kind of in the middle. But people ask me this all the time. If you do a short sale and the bank basically lets you walk away, even though you haven't fulfilled your obligation to them, this does hit your credit score.
[Romans:] It does. It really does. And I was just talking John Alzheimer from Credit.com, and he was saying any any way you try to get out from under a bad mortgage is going to hurt you. A short sale is best for your neighborhood, Ali, because you're working with the banks. You're not going to strip out. Nobody is going to strip out all the appliances and hurt this house. You know, the bank is probably going to keep it up so they can sell it again. You've got or you've got a buyer in the short sale, right? So that's the best thing for the neighborhood. But it could hit your credit score 200 points. If you're 750 or higher, John Alzheimer says and many people say this, as well, you can you can reasonably expect, if you have a decent credit score but you have to walk away from this financial contract, 150 to 200 points off your credit score. But it's better than a foreclosure, because you could turn around and be in the market to borrow money again in three to five years. And that's not what happens with the foreclosure.
[Velshi:] All right, Christine. Thank you for that. It's a good piece of information. Because a lot of people have to consider this option, as bad as it is. Christine Romans, my co-host on "YOUR $$$$$." You can watch us on Saturdays at 1 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3 p.m. Eastern. I want to go out to Brooke Anderson now. She's got news just in on that case of the alleged extortion of David Letterman. Brooke, what have you got?
[Brooke Anderson, Cnn Entertainment Correspondent:] That's right, Ali. Robert J. Halderman of the David Letterman extortion case is expected to plead guilty in about 45 minutes or so in a Manhattan court to attempted extortion. Now, this guy has obviously struck some sort of plea deal, because this will carry reportedly six months behind bars; may be able to get out with good behavior a little bit earlier. Also will be on probation for about four-and-a-half years. Will have to perform a ton of community service. Halderman, who is a CBS news producer, originally pleaded not guilty. He had been facing a whopper of a charge of attempted grand larceny, and that would have carried that would have meant he could have been locked up for 15 years if he had been convicted of that. Just to refresh your memory if you have forgotten, Halderman is the guy who is accused of trying to extort David Letterman for $2 million, saying that he would disclose that Letterman had affairs with female staffers. Letterman then just nipped it in the bud, went on air in October and said, hey, here's what's happening. I have had affairs with staffers in the past. I'm not currently having sexual relations with any of these women, but I will not be victimized. And then Letterman's ratings shot up. Halderman originally pleaded not guilty back in October, but he has struck some sort of a plea, and in less than an hour we're hearing that he will plead guilty. He is not currently working for
[Cbs. Velshi:] All right. Very interesting information, though, that, you're right, there seems to have been some sort of negotiation. It seems prosecutors were not prepared to let him without either setting an example or do something in response to these allegations. Interesting, we'll stay on top of that. Brooke, thank you very for joining us. Brooke Anderson on the news of Joe Halderman perhaps offering a guilty plea in the next hour or so. We'll keep you posted on that. When we come back, we'll talk with senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen. She's continuing her study about how different people, people with different ethnicities, are affected by common health concerns. When we come back, we're going to talk about Alzheimer's.