Program Note: Tune in tonight to hear Joe Johns' report on lobbying and the financial industry. AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Joe Johns and Justine Redman
AC360°

It may be a recession on your street, but good times are rolling along K Street in Washington DC – otherwise known as the home address for lobbyists.

Health care has become one of the most crucial political issues of 2009, and more than $293 million has been spent on health care lobbying so far this year. At this rate, 2009 looks like it will set a new record for lobbying.

The heat is still on, as the future of health care reform rides to a large extent on the power of individual members of congress. Today Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced he will introduce a bill including a "public option," when only a few weeks ago, a "public option" was considered as good as dead. These last few days, TV airwaves have been a seeming barrage of politicians and pundits frantically pushing their agendas. Whether it's Reid or other pivotal Senators such as Olympia Snowe, with every move they make, a frantic dance of lobbyists has preceded it.

According to figures published by the Center for Responsive Politics, there are currently 3,185 lobbyists working all sides of the health care issue. Congress has 535 members. That means there are nearly half a dozen lobbyists for every elected official on Capitol Hill on this topic alone.

Representatives from the health care industry say all those lobbyists are carrying important messages in the policy debate. "The American people need to hear from us what we're for," says Karen Ignagni of American Health Insurance Plans. "We also need to correct the record to make sure people hear from us where the record is wrong, and we will do that."

But during his presidential campaign, Barrack Obama was highly critical of the influence of lobbyists in Washington. Now that he's president, critics say that by launching the health care debate, he is helping put money in the pockets of the same lobbyists he railed against.

And what exactly are lobbyists are pushing for? Everybody's got a different angle, and the most active lobbyists are those advocating for the business interests with the most to win or lose. It's not surprising, then, that the pharmaceutical and health product sectors are spending the most on health care lobbying.

TOP SPENDERS ON HEALTH CARE LOBBYING THIS YEAR:

1. PHARMA, the Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America: NEARLY $14 MILLION

2. Blue Cross/ Blue Shield: NEARLY $12 MILLION

3. Pfizer: NEARLY $11 MILLION

But that's not all. The industry has also been very generous in its donations to politicians. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, members of the Senate Finance Committee, who have been especially influential in health care reform, have received big bucks. Committee chairman Max Baucus (D, Montana) got more money from the health insurance and pharmaceutical industry in the last election cycle than any other Democrat currently in congress. Senator Baucus told CNN, "No one gets special treatment" because of that, and money "plays no influence" in how he makes his decisions.

In this election cycle, of the top 20 congressional recipients of health care donations, 5 are members of the Senate Finance Subcommittee on Health Care who have all been critical of the industry:

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D, Arkansas) $412,450

Sen. Charles Schumer (D, New York) $349,650

Sen. Ron Wyden (D, Oregon) $317,500

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) $206,187

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, Michigan) $163,990

All together, the dollar amounts may look staggering to people struggling just to pay their own medical bills. But to the industry, what they're spending on trying to get their way is only a fraction of what they fear losing in whatever reforms the government may eventually make.

Joe Johns | BIO
CNN Correspondent

Former Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards talked a campaign aide into claiming he fathered a child born to Edwards' onetime mistress, sources familiar with the issue said Monday.

Edwards admitted to his affair with Rielle Hunter in August 2008 after months of denials, but said he could not have been the father of Hunter's daughter, who was born the previous February. Former Edwards staffer Andrew Young has said he was the girl's father - but has recanted and says he made it because he believed in Edwards, lawyers and others familiar with the matter told CNN.

Young was married with children when he claimed to have fathered Hunter's child. He never signed any affidavits or legal papers, however, and reversed his claim after Edwards, as one of the sources put it, dropped Young "like a hot potato."

The news comes as a grand jury in Edwards' home state of North Carolina is investigating payments made to Hunter - who had been hired as a campaign videographer - by the former senator's campaign and supporters. Hunter was photographed entering the courthouse where the grand jury was meeting in August.

Keep Reading...

This is a former slave house on Friendfield Plantation, where Michelle Obama's family has roots.

Joe Johns | BIO and Justine Redman
AC360°

In many places across the South you can walk in the footsteps of slaves, and if you understand the history, it is not a happy journey. The same is true at Friendfield Plantation outside Georgetown, South Carolina.

It's not exactly "Gone With the Wind," but what makes this overgrown 3,300 acres of marsh and pine trees stand out is this: The family of first lady Michelle Obama believes her great-great grandfather was held as a slave here and labored in the mosquito-infested rice fields.

It makes Friendfield Plantation a symbol of something more than servitude. It's the symbol of something that's never happened before: One important segment of an American family's journey from the humiliation of slavery to the very top of the nation's ruling class.

CNN recently was the first television network allowed to visit the plantation and shoot video. It's not a museum. It's just private land, still with shadows of its past.

Friendfield's most distinctive historical feature, perhaps, is the dirt road known as Slave Street.

Keep reading...

Editor's Note: For more on the case for and against legalizing marijuana, tune in tonight to hear Joe Johns' full report on AC360° at 10 p.m. ET.

Inside the licensed and legal cannabis garden in Portland, Oregon.

Joe Johns, AC360° Correspondent
Justine Redman, AC360° Producer

We're in Portland, Oregon, working on our story about the case for legalizing marijuana, and we arranged to go see a garden where licensed and legal marijuana is grown to to provide medical marijuana for designated patients. The owner gave us the address, and soon we were driving through a quiet Portland neighborhood, trying to imagine how there could be a pot farm in such a tightly residential area.

We drove straight past it the first time. It was just a quiet little house. But when you walk round the back, the smell of marijuana hits you full on. Past the tall gate is a well-tended, manicured garden of 24 young plants. By the end of the summer it will look like a jungle as the shrubs get to be taller than a human being.

You have to wonder about security. A narcotics officer told us that they got most of their leads on cannabis grows because of tips from neighbors saying they can smell it. For anyone in the neighborhood, it would be pretty obvious what was going on in this backyard, and it was easy to imagine people climbing the fence and stealing the plants. The garden owners said it was a concern, and sometimes they build up the fences a bit higher, but that barbed wire would just attract more attention. Mostly they just relied on friendly neighbors and a fierce-looking gardener.

Rick Strandlof said he was an Iraqi war veteran, went to the Naval Academy and was a marine.

Strandlof spoke out on behalf of war veterans.

Joe Johns | BIO
CNN Correspondent

Charismatic and inspiring, people seemingly couldn’t get enough of the compelling personal story he had spun – that he was a graduate of the Naval Academy, was at the Pentagon on 9-11, and was injured in combat in Iraq. For much of 2008, the people of Colorado believed this purported war hero - a forceful public advocate on behalf of veterans and a vocal critic of the Iraq War. He also worked tireless to elect anti-war candidates, appearing in several political ads.

The only problem? It was all a lie – down to his name. Rick Duncan was really Richard Strandlof.

We spent three days basically following up on a lot of fine reporting in Denver by KUSA's Jace Larson and the local newspapers. As you can probably imagine, reporting on someone who had moved from state to state, and spent a good amount of time living as somebody else, is a little tricky. The CNN Research Library found over 300 people with the name Rick Duncan in Colorado alone.

We had to cross-check and confirm a lot of stuff ourselves - contacting the Pentagon, the Naval Academy, members of Congress, the FBI, local veterans, prosecutors, and many others - to try to establish that Strandlof wasn't who he said he was. I even talked on the phone with a man who identified himself as Strandlof's ex-boyfriend (Strandlof is gay).

Many of the people we talked to felt betrayed and even a little embarrassed that they had fallen for Strandlof's con. Now that the truth had been uncovered, many of them were reluctant to appear on-camera because they said they didn't want to interfere in an on-going federal investigation into whether Strandlof swindled anybody. No charges have been filed, and it’s not clear whether any ever will be.

Only one person agreed to an interview - Lt. Col. Hal Bidlack, who had used Strandlof in his campaign ads last year in an unsuccessful bid at Congress.

It became clear to me and producer Joneil Adriano that if we were going to get to the bottom of it, we had to pursue an interview with Strandlof himself. By the time we started digging into this story on Monday afternoon, Strandlof was in fact already sitting in jail. Not for any alleged fraud, mind you, but on unrelated traffic charges from an incident in 2008. But even more urgently, we learned that Strandlof would likely be released the very next day.

Given his past history of moving around, and the difficulty of getting a permanent address or phone number for him, we knew that we had to act fast if we were going to get to Strandlof before he was released from jail. So we talked to Senior Executive Producer David Doss about how to handle it, and we decided that the best way was to use CNN's vast world wide resources. I wrote a letter to Strandlof requesting an interview. Joneil emailed that letter to a CNN producer based in Denver, who then printed it out and sent it off with a messenger.

The letter was hand delivered to the Colorado Springs jail around 9:00 p.m. local time on Monday night. Strandlof was scheduled to appear in court at 8:30 a.m. the next day. There was no guarantee that he would even see the letter before he got to court. But at least we made the effort.

On Tuesday, Strandlof was indeed released. He plead guilty to the traffic violations and was sentenced to time served (he had been held since May 19). We continued working on our story without hearing a peep from Strandlof.

Then on Wednesday evening, just as we were finalizing on our story - a surprise. Strandlof contacted me by e-mail and said he might be interested in giving an interview after all. He wanted to get his side of the story out. I talked to him on the phone a couple times. And then Strandlof decided to do it. We arranged for him to get to a studio in Denver, and he was on our air later that night - his first interview since being released from jail.

The decision to come clean on national TV probably wasn't an easy one. I give him credit for doing so and talking about it after all this.

Justine Redman and Joe Johns
AC360º Producer and Correspondent

Grilled at a Senate hearing Wednesday, the President of Chrysler couldn't answer a question about whether 15 Chrysler employees stand to get $20 million in bonuses.  Keeping them honest, we want to know the answer too. Please send us your confidential tips to AC360KTH@CNN.com

Here is an excerpt from a Senate committee hearing yesterday on GM and Chrysler plans to close dealerships, and how to protect dealers and consumers:

SENATOR MCCASKILL: This is a difficult question, Mr. Press, but I looked and I have - we've gotten some information that came to us back channel about the DIP budget, and this is the debtor in possession budget in the bankruptcy. And it talks about the budget for the old company. And what troubles me in there, there's an acknowledgement that there may be up to 15 employees of old Chrysler working on this bankruptcy and there is a pool in this budget of up to $20 million for bonuses.

I can't imagine what kind of kick in the gut that would be if we were to learn in the next two weeks that some of the old Chrysler folks - which are getting paid their salaries, which they should, you guys are doing hard work.

But if there's $20 million in bonuses for as few as three to five people that are associated with old Chrysler, I think that would be a huge - I mean, I think the pitchforks would come out and I think there would be a real problem.

And I want - I know I asked you about this yesterday. Have you learned anything more about that and can you shed any light on that?

JAMES PRESS, CHRYSLER PRESIDENT: No, Senator. I did make an inquiry. We were not able to find testimony. I can only speculate and I think that would be inappropriate at this time. And I will do my best to see if we can find out concretely what that information is relating to.

SENATOR MCCASKILL: Well, I misspoke yesterday. It wasn't in testimony, but it is in a preliminary DIP budget, debtor in possession budget, that has been circulated and has been talked about and I believe your CFO has referred to it in various meetings. So I think we need to get to the bottom of that and sooner rather than later. I know everything is on a fast track here, but that needs to be, also.

Amanda Dinnigan, 10, is paralyzed and on a respirator after a car accident two years ago. Her parents were trying to sue GM for an alleged defective product.

Joe Johns | BIO
CNN Correspondent

This was one of those stories that sounds almost bland until you start putting in names and faces and conflict and drama. And then it hits you in the gut.

We did a "real impact" piece on the GM bankruptcy, focusing on a family out of Long Island that had had a horrible auto accident –now suing, or trying to sue, GM for an alleged defective product.

Amanda Dinnigan, just 10 years old, was riding in the third row seat of a GM SUV in 2007 with mom driving, when the vehicle slammed into a tree. Amanda had her seatbelt on... but instead of protecting her the way seatbelts are supposed to do, her parents say it snapped her spine.

Now Amanda is now paralyzed and breathes with help from a respirator. She has to be hoisted into and out of bed. And the parents are suing GM and other companies in the line of production because they allege that there was a flaw in the design of the seatbelt.

For a parent - and I'm a parent - the first thing you think is OMG.. OMG.. OMG. In an instant – just like that – you go from worrying about the everyday things that were part of the routine - whether it was just making it to school on time, or just having quality time together or when to take your kid shopping - to this:

Is my daughter going to live? Is she ever going to walk again? And how do I pay for these medical bills? Will have to sell my house? How do I get Medicaid payments to help cover the cost? It's enough to make you think twice when you climb in your car and strap on the seat belt - regardless of whether it's a GM vehicle.

But just to be clear here. the story is not about pointing fingers at GM – because there has been no trial. Theres been no finding of liability. All there is right now is a lawsuit.

The problem we present in the story is whether Amanda's parents ought to be able to make their case and recover damages if GM is found liable.

The way bankruptcy laws work–cases like Amanda's may go to the bottom of the list of priorities to be paid. That's because in a bankruptcy, the company is supposed to get a clean slate so that it can start over.

So when the government forced GM into bankruptcy - one of the families that may have already lost a lot may lose more, and is now asking how this is fair.

Joe Johns | BIO
CNN Correspondent

Today the Democrats, who used to be tattooed as the party of gun control, started making it look like they're not so willing to wear that tattoo anymore.

So when Senator Tom Coburn attached a provision to allow guns in national parks, a bunch of Democrats went along with it. Ok, some were holding their noses.

But the truth is some Democrats have finally decided that politically at least there is a real risk when you dismiss the concerns of guys in parts of the country like West Virginia and Oklahoma. In those states, people go to gun shows for recreation. It's part of the culture.

So ok, it might sound strange to people living in big cities worried about criminals with guns when they hear about this thing.

After all, national parks are places where you take your kids. But they are also places where you go camping and if a bear or wolf or coyote comes calling, you are gonna wish you had a gun around. That's part of the logic.

Plus there is the idea that depending on what state you are in it could be perfectly legal to carry a weapon. But when you go into the park and you still have your gun and you can be arrested.

Gun rights supporters have been trying to change this for years.

On the other hand, gun control folks - who are the Democrats' more traditional constituency - have been going bonkers over this provision.

So today's vote is quite a turnabout. Go figure.

The twist is that Democrats were pretty much forced into this because the gun provision was attached to the big credit card reform bill that the President wanted by Memorial Day. And - surprise! - the Democrats went along with it.

This is a very different Congress from the group that the last Democratic president, Bill Clinton, faced when he was elected.

Not saying that's good or bad. Just different.

Check out a preview of the AC360° Special "Extreme Challenges: the Next 100 Days." The full special airs this Thursday at 11p.m. ET.

CNN's Joe Johns reports on witness intimidation and Anderson Cooper talks with Rep. Elijah Cummings about the problem.

President Obama vowed to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell rule on gays in the military. Why hasn't it happened? Joe Johns reports.

Joe Johns
CNN correspondent

After covering the long investigations and dramatic trial, it's pretty amazing that the government is now withdrawing charges against convicted Senator Ted Stevens. You just have to wonder what it's like for the people on all sides of this horrible case. On one side there is Sen. Ted Stevens—the grouchy Alaska Senator everybody in Washington loved to hate. On the other side–the federal prosecutors trying to bag the biggest fish the Justice department had reeled in in years.

Stevens had been convicted on seven counts of lying on Senate ethics forms, after prosecutors accused him of failing to disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars of "freebies" from an oilfield services company. In December, however, an unnamed FBI whistle-blower accused prosecutors of withholding evidence from the defense, and now the Justice Department has asked a judge to dismiss the charges.

So Stevens' name is cleared, his lawyer says, but amid the accusations he lost his bid for a 7th term. And some prosecutors are probably looking at a bunch of trouble going forward. We’ll eventually find out whether mistakes made in the prosecution were bungling or intentional. About the only thing you can say right now is that this is a story with a moral: “Watch how you use the power of the government – because someone is always watching. And the truth has a way of getting out."

Now that Attorney General Eric Holder has decided to drop the case, a lot of people in Washington are probably looking over their shoulders - and maybe that’s not such a bad thing sometimes.

I covered Joe DiGenova when he was the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. The same job, by the way, that Eric Holder held before becoming attorney general. Here's what DiGenova has to say.

Are existing government rules about human testing good enough to protect people? CNN's Joe Johns reports.

Anderson Cooper talks with a panel about who is to blame for the AIG bonus controversy.

In a letter to the White House, AIG Chairman Edward Liddy, shown here in December, vows to curb bonuses.

Joe Johns | BIO
CNN Correspondent

We've received a couple of documents from AIG about the bonuses.

This first letter is from AIG chairman Edward Liddy, to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner about the bonuses.

The second letter is not as well-known. It is a so-called "white paper" from AIG explaining, among other things, why it had to pay the bonuses. Its pretty interesting stuff –the white paper explains AIG’s concerns about getting sued for double damages in Connecticut, fears of creating a cross default that allows AIG’s counterparties to back out of deals and more.

Joe Johns and Justine Redman
CNN

Officials in Connecticut reacted swiftly and angrily Tuesday to reports by CNN that American International Group is using a quirk in Connecticut law to defend giving $165 million in bonuses to top managers in its Financial Products division.

Unlike other sectors of AIG based elsewhere, AIG Financial Products is headquartered in Wilton, Connecticut.

CNN reported first Monday night on "AC 360" that AIG would be subject to "double damages" under Connecticut law in the event it is sued for not fulfilling its contract to pay $165 million dollars in retention bonuses to workers in its Financial Products division.

The result, simply put, is that AIG could be liable for $330 million dollars if it doesn't pay the lesser amount now. A source with knowledge of AIG's activities said that after getting independent legal advice, AIG reluctantly decided to pay the bonuses instead of running the risk of having to pay massive damages.

The law in question, the Connecticut Wage Act "requires for the recovery of double damages and attorneys fees when wages are improperly withheld and the employer's refusal to pay wages lacks a good faith basis" according to a "white paper" by the company that was acquired by CNN.

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal issued a blistering statement Tuesday saying he intends to investigate, and some Connecticut state lawmakers said they intend to change the law.

"I have significant doubts about the validity of AIG's claims that they are required by Connecticut law to pay these outrageous bonuses," state Attorney General Blumenthal said.

"AIG is shamelessly shielding itself behind the Connecticut Wage Act - a joke of a justification for squandering scarce taxpayer resources," he added.

"My office will carefully investigate the merits of AIG's claims under the Connecticut Wage Act, and will take every step necessary to fight this gross misuse of taxpayer money. Corporate collapse demands accountability - not windfall payments."

AIG has received $170 billion in federal bailout money because of the fear its failure would send shockwaves through the economy.

And while authorities in Washington are still trying to figure out a way to stop AIG's plan to make the bonus payments, Republican state lawmakers in Connecticut were already drafting legislative language to keep AIG from using Connecticut law as an excuse to award such money in the future.

State Sen. John McKinney said, "We are outraged that AIG is using Connecticut Wage laws as leverage to use taxpayer money to pay hundreds of millions in bonuses.

"The proposed legislation would not cut off past bonus payments, but would seek to make clear that anyone who gets bonuses from a company getting government bailout money would not be eligible to sue for double damages under the Connecticut Wage Act," McKinney said.

John King and panelists discuss whether or not the Obama administration's optimism has rallied Wall Street.

Anderson Cooper and panelists discuss whether President Obama has been talking too "gloomy" about the economy.

Anderson Cooper talks with his panel about Senator Judd Gregg pulling out of his nomination as Commerce Secretary.