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CNN Live Sunday

Is Economy Getting Better, Worse?; New Pope Inaugurated

Aired April 24, 2005 - 11:00   ET

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

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


FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It is 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. out west. Welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at CNN's global headquarters.
Ahead this hour, is the economy getting better or worse? A new poll out today with numbers that just might surprise you.

This man was a self-professed energy hog. Now he has solar panels. Find out why he made the switch.

And she tried to sing the national anthem.

She didn't quite make it, but that's not the end of the story. Her moment in the spotlight got even worse. But first, a look at the top stories.

Pope Benedict XVI is now formally invested with the power of the papacy. Inauguration ceremonies took place at the Vatican several hours ago. In his homily, the new pontiff pledged to pursue the will of God and called for Christian unity.

The death toll in Iraq continues to climb after another deadly round of car bombings. Among today's attacks, twin bombings in Tikrit. The blast killed at least six people and wounded more than two dozen others at the city's police academy. Four of those killed were police officers.

Vice President Dick Cheney is getting ready for a meeting with the son of the former Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated a couple of months ago. Cheney and Saad Hariri will meet in Dallas. The vice president's office says Cheney will offer his condolences to Hariri.

Pope Benedict XVI begins his first official day as pontiff. His inauguration mass was resplendent in ceremonial tradition. Draped in gold and wearing the official papal ring and seal, the new pope blessed the crowd who gathered to witness what was once called a coronation. In his message today, the pope said he intended to reach out to other faiths and put his own will aside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE BENEDICT XVI (through translator): My real program of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen together with the whole church to the word and the will of the Lord, to be guided by him so that he, himself, will lead the church at this hour of our history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The pope took a short ride around St. Peter's Square as well in a pope mobile to greet world dignitaries and others who attended today's event. CNN's Jennifer Eccleston was also there and joins us now from Rome -- Jennifer.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Fredricka. The solemn inaugural mass of Pope Benedict XVI as you said is now over. And while the mass drew from centuries of tradition, the new pontiff's homily was very much a modern message and in that message he said the church is an instrument for dialogue and not only dialogue among Christians which he referred to as one flock with one shepherd, but a dialogue, an open dialogue with other faiths, people he called believers and nonbelievers. He said the Catholic Church was a living vessel for the young, a church that is alive, a church that is very vibrant.

Now as he entered St. Peter's Square this morning, he was greeted by great applause. He was given the fisherman's ring and the woolen pallium -- that's the shawl -- both symbols of his papal authority and the new pontiff received more applause after he mentioned the name of his dear friend and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II and he said he felt the presence of Pope John Paul II everywhere and he said that the late pope was now among the saints.

Of course, as you mentioned, the highlight of this mass had to have come when the new pontiff, Benedict XVI, got into his open-top popemobile and made a short trip around St. Peter's Square. It was his first major interaction with his flock and as you can imagine with the pope out there and with the dignitaries visiting from across the world, heads of state, kings and queens and also a U.S. delegation which was led by Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, the president's brother, that the security was indeed very tight. We know that 7,000 security officers were on hand and that the Rome's airspace, the airspace above Rome and some of its airports were also closed -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And, Jennifer, while we're seeing the invited dignitaries that were present, what about the general public, the thousands of pilgrims who converged on St. Peter's Square as well to witness the event?

ECCLESTON: That's right. They say the Vatican is saying that upwards of 350,000 people came to St. Peter's Square this morning to take part in this celebration. It was a very solemn occasion. It was very respectful, but when the pope started to talk, when he started to deliver his message and when he started to talk about the movement of the church, the direction he'd like to lead the church, it started to become more excited and you saw, of course, a lot of clapping and you saw some singing and calling out of names. And as you can imagine, the overwhelming majority of pilgrims that were there today, apart from the Italians, were the Germans, pilgrims from his home country and the Italian government in order to ease their ability to walk around and to get my by here in Rome, they brought down some volunteers from the German-speaking areas of northern Italy so they could facilitate some of those German tourists that were here, tens of thousands and upwards of 100,000, perhaps -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Jennifer, like Pope John Paul II, he attracted a number of very young people. Is that something that was evident in this crowd for Pope Benedict?

ECCLESTON: It was, lots of young families. Lots of groups of teenagers that had come down together with either their church organizations or with youth groups and we also saw a great many young people from the United States coming over again with priests from their parishes and from their communities. So yes, again, as we saw with a tremendous outpouring of affection for the late pope during his funeral mass and of course before that, when his body was lying in state, there were a tremendous number of young people in their teens here to celebrate not only the life of the late pope, but also the emergence of a new pope, a new pope that has already promised to continue dialogue with him as was the reign of Pope John Paul II.

WHITFIELD: Jennifer Eccleston, thanks so much from a very windy Rome.

Insurgents in Iraq are taking aim today at targets in Saddam Hussein's hometown. Twin car bombings at a police compound in Tikrit killed at least six people and wounded more than two dozen others. Many of the victims were police officers. The blasts came minutes apart. In a separate incident, a member of Iraq's transitional national assembly narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a car bomb exploded near his convoy. The attack happened on the road from Mosul to Baghdad. And yesterday an American sailor was killed by a homemade bomb while conducting combat operations in Fallujah. CNN's Ryan Chilcote is keeping track of all the latest developments and he joins us now from Baghdad. Ryan.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, one of the things people are discussing here is whether that violence or whether the absence of the formation of the government, the delay that we're seeing here in the political process in the formation of a new government is somehow affecting the increase in violence and there's a real debate underway. I think what people agree on, however, is that it is important at this point to try and get that new government to establish as quickly as possible simply because many Iraqis are fatigued at not having a government.

This first experiment they had in the democratic process, these landmark elections on January 30th, they have not yet accomplished what the Iraqi people want. They wanted a government in power. It's been three months. So that is one, perhaps, thing that military officials here both amongst Iraqis and U.S. officials are looking at as a way out of this violence.

And there's another aspect, which is that a lot of people in the U.S. military and the Iraqi -- amongst Iraqi politicians are hoping that this new government, they can get it formed as quickly as possible and that it will include some individuals, at least, that will -- that people in the resistance here, that are fighting U.S. forces and Iraqi forces can identify with. That way maybe they'll support the political process as opposed to using weapons to execute their will.

WHITFIELD: Ryan, I recently spoke with an army officer who described the situation involving the latest spate of insurgency attacks as being a lot less organized than what was previously noticed in months. Is that something that your sources are telling you as well?

CHILCOTE: I think -- I think that's a very debatable point. Other military officials will tell you that what they're doing is choosing their battles, quite literally. They're choosing targets that are not as easily defendable. They're choosing civilians and they're choosing the Iraqi military as opposed to targeting the U.S. military in ambushes. What they're doing is using roadside bombs, vehicle bombs and suicide bombers because it's really hard to stop those kinds of things, but I'm not sure that what we're seeing so far is a lot less organized than what we saw earlier. What we're seeing is a spike in violence. It's been going on now for about 10 days and it really has created the definitive end to the lull that was created almost immediately following those elections back in January -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ryan Chilcote from Baghdad, thanks very much for that update.

A desperate American military mission that ended in tragedy is being remembered this weekend. Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of operation eagle cloth, the mission to rescue 52 American hostages who were being held in Iran. Mechanical problems and bad weather doomed the mission after it got underway, but then it turned into a fiery disaster when a helicopter collided with a transport plane at a desolate rendezvous pot in Iran. Eight American troops were killed. The hostage crisis started when a mob seized the American embassy in the Iranian capital. In late 1979 one hostage was freed because of illness after the rescue attempt. The other 52 Americans were released as Ronald Reagan was being inaugurated as president back in 1981.

Here's a question for you this Sunday morning. Do you think the economy is getting better or worse? The Gallup people have asked that very question and have the answer coming up.

And this man's energy bill was up to $800 a month. No kidding. How he lowered it straight ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Turning our attention now to the public pulse. A new Gallup poll reflects some opinions that could cause concern for President Bush who is spending this weekend at his ranch in Texas. CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins us from Crawford with details. Hello, Susan.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back, Fred. Good to see you. Of course as you know, President Bush focusing on his second-term agenda. He's really been looking at Social Security reform, immigration, tax reform, things like that, but, of course, as you mentioned before, gas prices sky high, some Americans expressing frustration here. Let's take a look at the new Gallup poll. Really, Americans split on the president's job performance. When asked how is Bush handing his job as president, 48 percent said they approve, 49 percent say they disapprove.

When you look specifically at the economy, that's when you see a greater deal of frustration here. The question is when it comes to economic conditions, 31 percent say it's getting better, 61 percent say that it is getting worse and when you look at the breakdown, you also see that Americans increasingly have become more pessimistic about the economy. If you look back in January, it was 42 percent that believed that economic conditions were getting worse, 48 percent in February, 50 percent in March and now we're looking at 61 percent.

Fred, of course, the big issue on a lot of people's minds is the concern over those rising gas prices. Tomorrow, President Bush is going to be meeting with Saudi crown Prince Abdullah and that is one of the top things that they're going to be talking about, the Saudis role in perhaps trying to bring some of those gas prices down. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Look forward to that. Suzanne Malveaux from Crawford, thanks so much.

Well, do you think it's too late for snow, perhaps in the year? Well, not in Michigan where a spring snowstorm, rather, has hit. All right. Well, we don't have those pictures for you right now but when we do get them, we'll be sharing them with you a little bit later.

In other stories making news across America, a tragic skydiving accident over Florida yesterday. A man hit the wing of the airplane of the airplane he had jumped from. The force of the collision severed both of his legs. Amazingly, he managed to maneuver his parachute, but he did die later.

Oh, no! Well, not quite singing the tune in full there. A very unfortunate pair of flops there for that young lady, Caroline Marcel. She tried to sing the American national anthem at an exhibition hockey game and then you saw she left and the she came back with the words, but then she slipped on the ice. It was a disaster all the way around for her.

Well, apparently she did get a chance to show she could get through the entire star-spangled banner singing the anthem on Sunday's GOOD MORNING AMERICA on ABC.

All right. Let's check in with Rob Marciano, Rob, no snow pictures to share out there.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You would think your time away we'd have all those glitches evened out for a smooth report.

WHITFIELD: That's good.

MARCIANO: No pictures up, but we've had them on and off all morning. It's been snowing heavily in places like Detroit and Cleveland and there's snow on the ground in those spots. This is the radar picture looped over the last hour and there you see the white in Detroit, snowing heavily there with 32-degree temperatures, sticking, certainly along the sides of the roadways and probably becoming slushy right now and look how far south it is. We'll widen the shot just a little bit. We've seen snow showers as far south as north Georgia and parts of western South Carolina. So this has been a very impressive storm really from the beginning where, during the week, it spread severe weather across the midsection. Now it's pulling down the cold air behind the system and spreading winter like weather on April 24th across parts of the great lakes.

Rain this morning in through New York, now pushing up through Boston. That's the warm side of the system, but again, the cold side is bringing in temperatures as cool as 54 for a high in Atlanta today and that does not include the wind. So it will be rather chilly. For our friends getting up with us across the southwest, a little rain in Salt Lake City, maybe a little rain and mountain snow across the Colorado Rockies. That's the latest from the weather department. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. We'll be right back. I'll toss back to you Fred. See things just don't get it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well how about if I tell folks we'll be right back. All right, thanks a lot, Rob.

Well, this horse just broke a fairly impressive record. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A quick wrap of news around the world now. The president of Ecuador left the country days after being forced out of office by a week of violent protests. Lucio Gutierrez was ousted on Wednesday. He headed into exile in Brazil with his family. He's the third president of Ecuador since 1997 to be forced out of office before finishing a full term.

North Korea engaged in some saber rattling to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of its military today. The communist country promised to bolster its nuclear deterrent and said it would wipe out American forces if the U.S. tried to invade. The U.S. has been trying to renew negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons.

In Hong Kong, a race horse named Silent Witness has built a legendary record. Already rated the best sprinter in the world, Silent Witness won today's queen's silver jubilee cup, winning 17 races in 17 starts, breaking the U.S. record for most consecutive wins.

It's not just gas prices that have Americans dealing with high energy costs. Heating and cooling their homes takes more money than ever these days, but as CNN's Peter Viles found out, that has a lot of people taking a second look at low-cost solutions that used to be attractive only to committed environmentalists.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet Dan Mirisola, old school energy hog. There's an RV in his back yard and not one, not two, but three big trucks out front, and yes, that's a Harley by the three-car garage.

DAN MIRISOLA, SOLAR HOMEOWNER: I pay like $600 a month for gas for my trucks. So she -- you know, I hate that.

VILES: And then there's the house, a 6,000 square foot mansion with central air that eats about $9,000 worth of electricity in a year.

Were you looking at your power bills and going, this is out of control?

MIRISOLA: I was dying. $800 bill, ahhh! You know, it was like murder.

VILES: So Dan and his wife did the smart thing. They installed solar panels on the roof. Suddenly those $800 bills dropped to less than $100 a month.

MIRISOLA: For the first two months, Edison kept coming out here with criminal people thinking we were stealing.

VILES: They're not stealing power. They're making it, even on a cloudy day. Look closely. The electrical meter is spinning backwards. That means the Mirisolas are producing more power than they're using. So what's happening to that electricity? You're giving it back to them?

MIRISOLA: My neighbors are using it right now kind of thing.

VILES: Solar made sense on this house because of a combination of factors, temporary rebates and tax credits and soaring energy costs.

MIRISOLA: People never used to talk about their utility rates. They used to be $10, $15, $20, $30 a month. Now it's not uncommon to see peoples' electric rates being $200 $300, $400 a month.

VILES: California's governor is pushing to put solar panels on a million California rooftops.

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (CALIF): It's good for the taxpayers. It's good for businesses and it is great for the environment.

VILES: After rebates, Dan Mirisola paid roughly $38,000 for his solar system, and figures it will pay for itself in four more years.

MIRISOLA: Because I'm looking forward to, in four more years, having free electricity. That's cool.

VILES: Now if only Detroit could make an electric-powered pickup truck.

Peter Viles for CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: At the bottom of the hour, RELIABLE SOURCES turns an eye on issues facing the news media. Howard Kurtz has more on today's topics.

HOWARD KURTZ, CNN ANCHOR, RELIABLE SOURCES: Coming up, the world's press greets the new pope and the results aren't pretty. Hard-liner, conservative, rigid, authoritarian. Are journalists giving the former Cardinal Ratzinger a fair shake or letting their liberal colors show?

Plus the TODAY show grapples with a disclosure that its experts on the late of the cameras and computers are being paid by the manufacturers and Karl Rove has some words for the fourth estate. That's all next on RELIABLE SOURCES.

WHITFIELD: All right. We'll be looking for that. Coming up, we'll bring you some more insights and sound from this morning's papal inauguration. This is CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com


Aired April 24, 2005 - 11:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: It is 11:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 8:00 a.m. out west. Welcome to CNN LIVE SUNDAY. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at CNN's global headquarters.
Ahead this hour, is the economy getting better or worse? A new poll out today with numbers that just might surprise you.

This man was a self-professed energy hog. Now he has solar panels. Find out why he made the switch.

And she tried to sing the national anthem.

She didn't quite make it, but that's not the end of the story. Her moment in the spotlight got even worse. But first, a look at the top stories.

Pope Benedict XVI is now formally invested with the power of the papacy. Inauguration ceremonies took place at the Vatican several hours ago. In his homily, the new pontiff pledged to pursue the will of God and called for Christian unity.

The death toll in Iraq continues to climb after another deadly round of car bombings. Among today's attacks, twin bombings in Tikrit. The blast killed at least six people and wounded more than two dozen others at the city's police academy. Four of those killed were police officers.

Vice President Dick Cheney is getting ready for a meeting with the son of the former Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated a couple of months ago. Cheney and Saad Hariri will meet in Dallas. The vice president's office says Cheney will offer his condolences to Hariri.

Pope Benedict XVI begins his first official day as pontiff. His inauguration mass was resplendent in ceremonial tradition. Draped in gold and wearing the official papal ring and seal, the new pope blessed the crowd who gathered to witness what was once called a coronation. In his message today, the pope said he intended to reach out to other faiths and put his own will aside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE BENEDICT XVI (through translator): My real program of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen together with the whole church to the word and the will of the Lord, to be guided by him so that he, himself, will lead the church at this hour of our history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The pope took a short ride around St. Peter's Square as well in a pope mobile to greet world dignitaries and others who attended today's event. CNN's Jennifer Eccleston was also there and joins us now from Rome -- Jennifer.

JENNIFER ECCLESTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good evening, Fredricka. The solemn inaugural mass of Pope Benedict XVI as you said is now over. And while the mass drew from centuries of tradition, the new pontiff's homily was very much a modern message and in that message he said the church is an instrument for dialogue and not only dialogue among Christians which he referred to as one flock with one shepherd, but a dialogue, an open dialogue with other faiths, people he called believers and nonbelievers. He said the Catholic Church was a living vessel for the young, a church that is alive, a church that is very vibrant.

Now as he entered St. Peter's Square this morning, he was greeted by great applause. He was given the fisherman's ring and the woolen pallium -- that's the shawl -- both symbols of his papal authority and the new pontiff received more applause after he mentioned the name of his dear friend and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II and he said he felt the presence of Pope John Paul II everywhere and he said that the late pope was now among the saints.

Of course, as you mentioned, the highlight of this mass had to have come when the new pontiff, Benedict XVI, got into his open-top popemobile and made a short trip around St. Peter's Square. It was his first major interaction with his flock and as you can imagine with the pope out there and with the dignitaries visiting from across the world, heads of state, kings and queens and also a U.S. delegation which was led by Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, the president's brother, that the security was indeed very tight. We know that 7,000 security officers were on hand and that the Rome's airspace, the airspace above Rome and some of its airports were also closed -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And, Jennifer, while we're seeing the invited dignitaries that were present, what about the general public, the thousands of pilgrims who converged on St. Peter's Square as well to witness the event?

ECCLESTON: That's right. They say the Vatican is saying that upwards of 350,000 people came to St. Peter's Square this morning to take part in this celebration. It was a very solemn occasion. It was very respectful, but when the pope started to talk, when he started to deliver his message and when he started to talk about the movement of the church, the direction he'd like to lead the church, it started to become more excited and you saw, of course, a lot of clapping and you saw some singing and calling out of names. And as you can imagine, the overwhelming majority of pilgrims that were there today, apart from the Italians, were the Germans, pilgrims from his home country and the Italian government in order to ease their ability to walk around and to get my by here in Rome, they brought down some volunteers from the German-speaking areas of northern Italy so they could facilitate some of those German tourists that were here, tens of thousands and upwards of 100,000, perhaps -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Jennifer, like Pope John Paul II, he attracted a number of very young people. Is that something that was evident in this crowd for Pope Benedict?

ECCLESTON: It was, lots of young families. Lots of groups of teenagers that had come down together with either their church organizations or with youth groups and we also saw a great many young people from the United States coming over again with priests from their parishes and from their communities. So yes, again, as we saw with a tremendous outpouring of affection for the late pope during his funeral mass and of course before that, when his body was lying in state, there were a tremendous number of young people in their teens here to celebrate not only the life of the late pope, but also the emergence of a new pope, a new pope that has already promised to continue dialogue with him as was the reign of Pope John Paul II.

WHITFIELD: Jennifer Eccleston, thanks so much from a very windy Rome.

Insurgents in Iraq are taking aim today at targets in Saddam Hussein's hometown. Twin car bombings at a police compound in Tikrit killed at least six people and wounded more than two dozen others. Many of the victims were police officers. The blasts came minutes apart. In a separate incident, a member of Iraq's transitional national assembly narrowly escaped an assassination attempt when a car bomb exploded near his convoy. The attack happened on the road from Mosul to Baghdad. And yesterday an American sailor was killed by a homemade bomb while conducting combat operations in Fallujah. CNN's Ryan Chilcote is keeping track of all the latest developments and he joins us now from Baghdad. Ryan.

RYAN CHILCOTE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, one of the things people are discussing here is whether that violence or whether the absence of the formation of the government, the delay that we're seeing here in the political process in the formation of a new government is somehow affecting the increase in violence and there's a real debate underway. I think what people agree on, however, is that it is important at this point to try and get that new government to establish as quickly as possible simply because many Iraqis are fatigued at not having a government.

This first experiment they had in the democratic process, these landmark elections on January 30th, they have not yet accomplished what the Iraqi people want. They wanted a government in power. It's been three months. So that is one, perhaps, thing that military officials here both amongst Iraqis and U.S. officials are looking at as a way out of this violence.

And there's another aspect, which is that a lot of people in the U.S. military and the Iraqi -- amongst Iraqi politicians are hoping that this new government, they can get it formed as quickly as possible and that it will include some individuals, at least, that will -- that people in the resistance here, that are fighting U.S. forces and Iraqi forces can identify with. That way maybe they'll support the political process as opposed to using weapons to execute their will.

WHITFIELD: Ryan, I recently spoke with an army officer who described the situation involving the latest spate of insurgency attacks as being a lot less organized than what was previously noticed in months. Is that something that your sources are telling you as well?

CHILCOTE: I think -- I think that's a very debatable point. Other military officials will tell you that what they're doing is choosing their battles, quite literally. They're choosing targets that are not as easily defendable. They're choosing civilians and they're choosing the Iraqi military as opposed to targeting the U.S. military in ambushes. What they're doing is using roadside bombs, vehicle bombs and suicide bombers because it's really hard to stop those kinds of things, but I'm not sure that what we're seeing so far is a lot less organized than what we saw earlier. What we're seeing is a spike in violence. It's been going on now for about 10 days and it really has created the definitive end to the lull that was created almost immediately following those elections back in January -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ryan Chilcote from Baghdad, thanks very much for that update.

A desperate American military mission that ended in tragedy is being remembered this weekend. Tomorrow marks the 25th anniversary of operation eagle cloth, the mission to rescue 52 American hostages who were being held in Iran. Mechanical problems and bad weather doomed the mission after it got underway, but then it turned into a fiery disaster when a helicopter collided with a transport plane at a desolate rendezvous pot in Iran. Eight American troops were killed. The hostage crisis started when a mob seized the American embassy in the Iranian capital. In late 1979 one hostage was freed because of illness after the rescue attempt. The other 52 Americans were released as Ronald Reagan was being inaugurated as president back in 1981.

Here's a question for you this Sunday morning. Do you think the economy is getting better or worse? The Gallup people have asked that very question and have the answer coming up.

And this man's energy bill was up to $800 a month. No kidding. How he lowered it straight ahead on CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Turning our attention now to the public pulse. A new Gallup poll reflects some opinions that could cause concern for President Bush who is spending this weekend at his ranch in Texas. CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins us from Crawford with details. Hello, Susan.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back, Fred. Good to see you. Of course as you know, President Bush focusing on his second-term agenda. He's really been looking at Social Security reform, immigration, tax reform, things like that, but, of course, as you mentioned before, gas prices sky high, some Americans expressing frustration here. Let's take a look at the new Gallup poll. Really, Americans split on the president's job performance. When asked how is Bush handing his job as president, 48 percent said they approve, 49 percent say they disapprove.

When you look specifically at the economy, that's when you see a greater deal of frustration here. The question is when it comes to economic conditions, 31 percent say it's getting better, 61 percent say that it is getting worse and when you look at the breakdown, you also see that Americans increasingly have become more pessimistic about the economy. If you look back in January, it was 42 percent that believed that economic conditions were getting worse, 48 percent in February, 50 percent in March and now we're looking at 61 percent.

Fred, of course, the big issue on a lot of people's minds is the concern over those rising gas prices. Tomorrow, President Bush is going to be meeting with Saudi crown Prince Abdullah and that is one of the top things that they're going to be talking about, the Saudis role in perhaps trying to bring some of those gas prices down. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Look forward to that. Suzanne Malveaux from Crawford, thanks so much.

Well, do you think it's too late for snow, perhaps in the year? Well, not in Michigan where a spring snowstorm, rather, has hit. All right. Well, we don't have those pictures for you right now but when we do get them, we'll be sharing them with you a little bit later.

In other stories making news across America, a tragic skydiving accident over Florida yesterday. A man hit the wing of the airplane of the airplane he had jumped from. The force of the collision severed both of his legs. Amazingly, he managed to maneuver his parachute, but he did die later.

Oh, no! Well, not quite singing the tune in full there. A very unfortunate pair of flops there for that young lady, Caroline Marcel. She tried to sing the American national anthem at an exhibition hockey game and then you saw she left and the she came back with the words, but then she slipped on the ice. It was a disaster all the way around for her.

Well, apparently she did get a chance to show she could get through the entire star-spangled banner singing the anthem on Sunday's GOOD MORNING AMERICA on ABC.

All right. Let's check in with Rob Marciano, Rob, no snow pictures to share out there.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You would think your time away we'd have all those glitches evened out for a smooth report.

WHITFIELD: That's good.

MARCIANO: No pictures up, but we've had them on and off all morning. It's been snowing heavily in places like Detroit and Cleveland and there's snow on the ground in those spots. This is the radar picture looped over the last hour and there you see the white in Detroit, snowing heavily there with 32-degree temperatures, sticking, certainly along the sides of the roadways and probably becoming slushy right now and look how far south it is. We'll widen the shot just a little bit. We've seen snow showers as far south as north Georgia and parts of western South Carolina. So this has been a very impressive storm really from the beginning where, during the week, it spread severe weather across the midsection. Now it's pulling down the cold air behind the system and spreading winter like weather on April 24th across parts of the great lakes.

Rain this morning in through New York, now pushing up through Boston. That's the warm side of the system, but again, the cold side is bringing in temperatures as cool as 54 for a high in Atlanta today and that does not include the wind. So it will be rather chilly. For our friends getting up with us across the southwest, a little rain in Salt Lake City, maybe a little rain and mountain snow across the Colorado Rockies. That's the latest from the weather department. Enjoy the rest of your Sunday. We'll be right back. I'll toss back to you Fred. See things just don't get it.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well how about if I tell folks we'll be right back. All right, thanks a lot, Rob.

Well, this horse just broke a fairly impressive record. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A quick wrap of news around the world now. The president of Ecuador left the country days after being forced out of office by a week of violent protests. Lucio Gutierrez was ousted on Wednesday. He headed into exile in Brazil with his family. He's the third president of Ecuador since 1997 to be forced out of office before finishing a full term.

North Korea engaged in some saber rattling to celebrate the 73rd anniversary of its military today. The communist country promised to bolster its nuclear deterrent and said it would wipe out American forces if the U.S. tried to invade. The U.S. has been trying to renew negotiations over North Korea's nuclear weapons.

In Hong Kong, a race horse named Silent Witness has built a legendary record. Already rated the best sprinter in the world, Silent Witness won today's queen's silver jubilee cup, winning 17 races in 17 starts, breaking the U.S. record for most consecutive wins.

It's not just gas prices that have Americans dealing with high energy costs. Heating and cooling their homes takes more money than ever these days, but as CNN's Peter Viles found out, that has a lot of people taking a second look at low-cost solutions that used to be attractive only to committed environmentalists.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet Dan Mirisola, old school energy hog. There's an RV in his back yard and not one, not two, but three big trucks out front, and yes, that's a Harley by the three-car garage.

DAN MIRISOLA, SOLAR HOMEOWNER: I pay like $600 a month for gas for my trucks. So she -- you know, I hate that.

VILES: And then there's the house, a 6,000 square foot mansion with central air that eats about $9,000 worth of electricity in a year.

Were you looking at your power bills and going, this is out of control?

MIRISOLA: I was dying. $800 bill, ahhh! You know, it was like murder.

VILES: So Dan and his wife did the smart thing. They installed solar panels on the roof. Suddenly those $800 bills dropped to less than $100 a month.

MIRISOLA: For the first two months, Edison kept coming out here with criminal people thinking we were stealing.

VILES: They're not stealing power. They're making it, even on a cloudy day. Look closely. The electrical meter is spinning backwards. That means the Mirisolas are producing more power than they're using. So what's happening to that electricity? You're giving it back to them?

MIRISOLA: My neighbors are using it right now kind of thing.

VILES: Solar made sense on this house because of a combination of factors, temporary rebates and tax credits and soaring energy costs.

MIRISOLA: People never used to talk about their utility rates. They used to be $10, $15, $20, $30 a month. Now it's not uncommon to see peoples' electric rates being $200 $300, $400 a month.

VILES: California's governor is pushing to put solar panels on a million California rooftops.

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (CALIF): It's good for the taxpayers. It's good for businesses and it is great for the environment.

VILES: After rebates, Dan Mirisola paid roughly $38,000 for his solar system, and figures it will pay for itself in four more years.

MIRISOLA: Because I'm looking forward to, in four more years, having free electricity. That's cool.

VILES: Now if only Detroit could make an electric-powered pickup truck.

Peter Viles for CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: At the bottom of the hour, RELIABLE SOURCES turns an eye on issues facing the news media. Howard Kurtz has more on today's topics.

HOWARD KURTZ, CNN ANCHOR, RELIABLE SOURCES: Coming up, the world's press greets the new pope and the results aren't pretty. Hard-liner, conservative, rigid, authoritarian. Are journalists giving the former Cardinal Ratzinger a fair shake or letting their liberal colors show?

Plus the TODAY show grapples with a disclosure that its experts on the late of the cameras and computers are being paid by the manufacturers and Karl Rove has some words for the fourth estate. That's all next on RELIABLE SOURCES.

WHITFIELD: All right. We'll be looking for that. Coming up, we'll bring you some more insights and sound from this morning's papal inauguration. This is CNN LIVE SUNDAY.

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