9 U.S. Troops Killed in Afghanistan
LEMON: Well, this just in. Remember the story in California where the officials there were making so much money, hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, and the people who lived there really got upset about it when they found out? So this is just in. And this investigation. Someone close to the investigation confirms to CNN that eight current and former city officials from Belle, California, have been arrested. They were arrested this morning in connection with a probe conducted by the L.A. County district attorney's office. This is according to the "L.A. Times." The D.A.'s office is examining whether various financial transactions in Belle amounted to thefts of public funds. It means stealing people's money. The office is also looking into allegations of voter fraud and whether the high salaries earned by city officials and others were legal. We'll check into that. This just in to CNN from Belle, California. In the meantime, let's go overseas now and talk about our men and women in uniform. Nine of them lost their lives today in a helicopter crash in the southeastern part of Afghanistan. This all happened just days after parliamentary election where the Taliban had so much violence, and were able to close down polls and keep people from the polls there; and also one year from now we're expected to pull out of Afghanistan and to start pulling out. Nine U.S. service members killed. Officially, we don't know what happened, but the Taliban is taking responsibility. To the ground now in Kabul and CNN's Ivan Watson. Ivan has said this is the worst violence we have had in that war this year.</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This has been an escalating war, and this case, Don, of a helicopter going down, you usually get a spike in casualties when these types of accidents take place. A military spokesman here is saying they saw no evidence of hostile fire. They're still investigating the cause of the crash. A Western defense source telling CNN's own Atia Abawi that this resulted in the deaths of nine U.S. servicemen. As you pointed out, that makes it the deadliest year yet of this nine-year conflict Afghanistan for U.S. troops and coalition troops. And if you look back over the years, the casualty list has gone up year after year. A hundred fifty-five dead in 2008. American troops. Three hundred thirteen American troops killed in 2009. And now 350 and the year is not through yet. Now, when you ask Western military commanders why are the casualties going up, they say because there are more troops on the ground and more battles as a result with Taliban insurgents. U.S. troops on the ground increased by 30,000 this year as a result of a decision by the Obama administration, but one consequence of that is more violence and more civilians caught in the cross fire. Take a listen to what this analyst had to say here in Kabul.</s>CANDACE RONDEAU, INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP: The violence in this country has risen exponentially, and it's really affected Afghans, obviously, in the biggest way. Obviously, there's also been a lot of casualties on the U.S. and NATO side, but I mean, you've got thousands this time of civilian casualties, and it keeps going up. I mean, there's some 30 percent increase in violence in this last while in civilian casualties. And that's really significant.</s>WATSON: And, for example, Don, just today we're getting reports from Afghan officials of five Afghan construction workers killed by a roadside bomb, northwest of the Afghan capital -- Don.</s>LEMON: Ivan Watson, Kabul, Afghanistan. Ivan, thank you very much for that. Technically, we may be out of a recession. The recession. They say we got officially out of the recession last summer, but is there a so-called double dip on the way? A new CNN poll of economists says they aren't so worried about it. We're going to explain that to you, and why.