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American Morning
First U.S. Face Transplant Successful; Cell Phone Jam Expected on Inauguration Day; What Would Disgraced Illinois Governor's Defense Be?
Aired December 17, 2008 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: We are just crossing the top of the hour now and here are this morning's top stories.
With global demand for gas and oil tanking, Saudi Arabia's oil minister says OPEC is slashing production by a record two million barrel a day. OPEC, producer of 40 percent of the world's oil, is looking to shore up dramatically falling oil prices.
The head of the SEC is criticizing his own agency this morning for failing to spot the investment scheme run by former Nasdaq chairman, Bernard Madoff. SEC chairman, Christopher Cox, says there were many instances over the course of a decade that should have been flagged.
Illinois Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. says he has given information to the U.S. attorney's office about alleged wrongdoers for at least a decade, including details about alleged wrongdoing by Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The Jackson spokesman says that that does not include the current investigation over Barack Obama's Senate seat. Jackson is rejecting the label of informant.
Barack Obama expected to announce more cabinet picks today, including Colorado Senator Ken Salazar as interior secretary and another former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack for secretary of agriculture. Yesterday, Obama named Chicago public school head Arne Duncan as his education secretary, but says it's not because Duncan is a great athlete.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I just wanted to dispel one rumor before I take questions. I did not select Arne because he's one of the best basketball players I know. Although I will say that I think we are putting together the best basketball-playing cabinet in American history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: And breaking medical news, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic announcing the successful transplantation of almost an entire face. It is the first surgery of its kind here in the United States.
Our senior medical correspondent is joining us from Atlanta this morning. She's got details. Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic said that they were going to do this. They've been planning on it for quite a while and now we find out they did it.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. They have been talking about this for sometime, John. And what's exciting is that the other three transplants that have been done before, they were just parts of the face, part of a nose, part of a lip, that kind of thing.
What's happened here is that 80 percent of a woman's face has been replaced. Now, we don't know much about this woman who has had the operation. She wants her privacy respected. All we know is that this is the old one we're seeing there, not the new one.
What we do know is that she suffered some kind of trauma. And we don't know exactly what kind of trauma. But they go and found a cadaver who matched her as best as could possibly be matched. They take the face from the cadaver and they basically do microsurgery and suture it onto her.
Over time, hopefully what will happen is that this woman will have control of her face in the same way that she did before her injuries. That's what's happened in the other transplants -- John.
ROBERTS: Yes. You know, we heard about this. But we haven't had any details on it. They're keeping things very, very close to the chest until this press conference later on today. But what's the success rate so far? I mean, it's a very rare procedure. It's only been done less than a handful of times. What are the other outcomes been?
COHEN: You know the other outcomes it's been interesting because the concerns that you have with this kind of a procedure is rejection. Just like with a kidney transplant or a liver, the patient has to take anti-rejection drugs. The patient could go into kidney failure. The patient could get all sorts of infections. So those are the kinds of things that they want to watch out for.
With so few cases in the past, it's hard to really talk about success rates. But those are the things they watch out for.
ROBERTS: Yes. I mean, if true what you're talking about rejection, if you've got a kidney transplant and you reject the kidney, you can potential get another kidney. But if you reject your face, what do you do?
Elizabeth Cohen this morning, thanks.
COHEN: Thanks.
ROBERTS: Aside from the impressive medical science, the operation raises a lot of ethical questions for doctors. All transplant patients commit themselves to a lifetime of drugs, as Elizabeth was saying, drugs with severe side effects. It can shorten a patient's life by as much as ten years. But there's a lot of other things to consider as well when you're talking about the face.
Joining me now on the phone is Dr. Arthur Caplan. He's the chairman of the University of Pennsylvania's medical ethics department.
Doctor, you have said that you were against this entire procedure. Thought it was unethical a decade ago when they first started talking about. How are you feeling about it now?
VOICE OF DR. ART CAPLAN, CHAIRMAN, DEPT. OF MEDICAL ETHICS, UNIV. OF PENN: Well, I think, the techniques, John, have improved to the point where it makes sense to try this now. The management of those drugs Elizabeth was talking about has greatly improved over the past decade. Getting the dosage down and being able to micromanage the microsurgery to reattach nerves and muscle give you a real shot at a functional face.
It's also the case, if you look at the people with disfigurement, they really are suffering horribly. I mean, I and others felt giving drugs that might kill you. That's one thing if you're going to get a heart transplant. It's another thing to just improve the quality of life. But it's important for the viewers to understand this kind of facial disfigurement what they're talking about, these are people who don't come out, who basically stay at home, have a huge suicide rate. They're really up against it. I think that persuaded me too, the ethics of trying it.
ROBERTS: You know, I saw you commenting in a "New York Times" article in which you said that if this doesn't work out because, you know, as we've said, if you reject a kidney or something like that, you know, you can potentially get a second kidney transplant. Same thing with a liver. But if you reject the face or if it doesn't turn out, you know, the psychological impact of this could be such that you suggested that they should provide, in a case like this, for the potential for assisted suicide?
CAPLAN: I did. And I'm going to stand by that. I think it's one thing to go through life with a terribly distorted, mangled, injured face. It's another thing to have it slough off in a failed experiment and no one hopes, by any means, that we're going to have to deal with that, but that's always a possibility of rejection of this transplanted face.
And you would be there almost unable to eat, unable to breathe. You have to do it artificially. I think you have to go in here saying to the person who tries this, if you get in that situation, we would be willing to either not give you treatments that would keep you going, or maybe give you a lot of morphine to push you out of the picture to help you to die. And I know that pushes you right up against the wall.
ROBERTS: Wow.
CAPLAN: I know it's a radical thing to say, but imagine living with no face.
ROBERTS: Yes. I mean, talking about assisted suicide as a potential option if the surgery doesn't work. Wow, that's been denied. KAPLAN: It's not something that I think anybody has ever said. It's not something I've said before. But I think the misery involved and the failure here it's almost unimaginable to ask somebody to keep going on and on and on that way.
ROBERTS: Wow. Dr. Arthur Caplan raising a lot of pertinent issues here. Thanks very much for being with us this morning.
CAPLAN: My pleasure.
ROBERTS: Of course, we're going to keep following the story for you. A press conference coming out of the Cleveland Clinic a little bit later on today. We'll have that for you here on CNN.
Can you believe that?
COSTELLO: Well, I can understand where he's coming from.
ROBERTS: Yes.
COSTELLO: I mean, you know, would just be horrible if your face is what you present to the world.
I mean, just stupid things. When you're a teenager, you have a blemish and you're ashamed to go out in public. I mean, just imagine.
ROBERTS: But what other medical procedure would you offer assisted suicide as an option if it doesn't work out?
COSTELLO: Well, he did mention, you know, trouble breathing and trouble eating and other physical...
ROBERTS: My goodness.
COSTELLO: ... you know, besides just the vanity of it. So, it's just awful. My heart goes out to her. And I will be praying.
ROBERTS: Hope it works.
COSTELLO: Yes. I hope so, too.
Turning now to business news. World markets rallied early this morning after the Federal Reserve slashed interest rates to a record low between zero and 0.25 percent. Both President Bush and Barack Obama hope the move will kick-start an economic recovery.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I feel a sense of obligation to my successor to make sure there is not a, you know, huge economic crisis. Look, we're in a crisis now. I mean, we're in a huge recession. But I don't want to make it even worse.
BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: We are running out of the traditional ammunition that's used in a recession, which is to lower interest rates. They're getting to be about as low as they can go. And although the fed is still going to have more tools available to it, it is critical that the other branches of government step up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Christine Romans is "Minding Your Business." She joins us this morning. So, will it work?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. It was dramatic, it was historic. But what does it mean for us? I mean, and will it work?
I mean, what it's supposed to do is it's supposed to make the cost of borrowing cheaper so that you're out there borrowing more money, using that money, spending it and get the economy going.
In a normal -- in a normal downturn, that's what we do. And we've seen the fed cutting rates now for 15 months but it hasn't helped the economy that we can see, at least. We haven't seen the economy get better. In fact, it's getting worse and the fed said that we are in danger of having the economy grow weaker.
COSTELLO: Because people are afraid to spend money.
ROMANS: Well, right.
COSTELLO: You could charge me zero interest but that's not going to make me go out and spend money if I'm afraid I'm going to lose my job.
ROMANS: Exactly. That's exactly the point.
And what the fed is trying to do is trying to get out ahead of that and trying to lure us out there with these cheaper rates. Now these cheaper rates are going to translate into cheaper rates for the things that you usually should.
Adjustable rate mortgages are tied back to this fed rate. Credit cards, home equity lines of credit, business loans. It doesn't help if you're not getting those loans if it's cheap to borrow but you can't get the money.
So this is the real conundrum here for the fed. It makes borrowing more affordable and that should encourage spending. But is it and will it? So far, it hasn't. So the historic and dramatic nature of this I think is the news then.
Less so what -- what another rate cut means for us and more about what this says about where we are right now. The fed saying that the government is going to continue to buy up treasury securities. That could help us longer term because it could help drive mortgage rates lower. So I think a big part of this is will mortgage rates continue to fall next year? That could be something that helps us.
ROBERTS: All right. Christine, thanks so much for that.
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: It's 10 minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.
COSTELLO: Massive cell phone traffic jam.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The federal authorities have no other choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Millions of people expected at the inauguration, just like on New Year's Eve, but it won't be so easy to send your friends a photo from the scene. Why the government could block your cell service.
You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Fourteen minutes after the hour. With millions and millions gathering in Washington for Barack Obama's inauguration, the list of potential problems is growing. Too many buses, too many people and too many cell phones? Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve tracking this end of the story from Washington.
Good morning, Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. If you think you're going to be able to snap a picture of this inauguration on your cell phone and then send it instantaneously to your grandmother, you may be in for some disappointment.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): At the stroke of midnight last December 31st, revelers texting holiday greetings via cell phone overwhelmed the system. Messages weren't received until hours into the New Year. But just wait until the inauguration, which could bring millions of cell phone users to downtown D.C. calling, texting, surfing the web, sending photos and sharing video.
JOE FARREN, SPOKESMAN CTIA: Imagine a brilliant 85-degree, beautiful blue sky, July 4th weekend. Now, imagine at the end of that weekend, everyone leaving the beach at the same time. Picture what the roadways would look like in that scenario. That could be what our wireless network looks like.
MESERVE: The bottom line, expect delays and disruptions, even though the wireless industry is spending millions to boost capacity in Washington. More lines are being installed, so existing towers can accommodate more traffic and portable cell phone towers will also be brought in to enable more calls to get through.
Emergency personnel communicate by radio. But as a back-up thousands are being outfitted with point to point cell phones which don't need towers to work. And some first responders will be given priority access so their cell phone calls will go through first.
But a cell phone can have a different role in a security incident. In Iraq, cell phones have been used as detonators. A former Homeland Security official says in certain circumstances, that means cell service could be intentionally disrupted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could find yourself in a situation where if there is a credible threat, the federal authorities have no other choice but to disable all but the essential first responders' communications equipment.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: If the inauguration goes without a security hitch, there are things attendees can do to ease the strain on the wireless system. Text, don't call. Texting takes less bandwidth and your message is more likely to go through. And if you shoot pictures or video, save it. Don't send it. Share it later.
John, back to you.
ROBERTS: You know, he was talking about if there was a incredible threat they might jam the cell phone frequencies. But every time the presidential motorcade goes out, we saw this with President Musharraf in Pakistan as well, there is a cell phone jamming vehicle that goes out with the president. That's what saved Musharraf's life when somebody tried to attack him with a bomb. But is there the potential that they may sort of create an umbrella, a zone around the president or maybe, you know, a quarter of a mile or so, where cell phones don't work.
MESERVE: Well, the Secret doesn't talk about its protective measures. I know we've been talking about it internally here at CNN with some of the people who traveled with the president a lot. And there is some thought that there is something like that that goes on when he travels. But as I say, nothing on the record.
ROBERTS: All right. Jeanne Meserve for us this morning. Jeanne, thanks so much.
MESERVE: You bet.
COSTELLO: Well, she loves her big brother so much she's auctioning them off on eBay. And they're fine with that. The three of them are here to explain.
It's 17 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Top videos right now on CNN.com. Most popular, ever seen a striped rabbit, a blood-sucking bat, or a hairy spider the size of a dinner plate? Scientists are discovering thousands of new species in the Mekong Delta region of Asia. The area has not been studied thoroughly before because it's so remote. So we're left to wonder what else is in there? Also, the city of Paris says no more tips for nude models. So angry naked models braved the cold weather in protest. The models say they barely make ends meet in the unrecorded tips that they get from art students.
And can you guess how much money Santa Claus makes? It turns out that it's quite a spread. A mall Santa's salary can range from minimum wage to $175 an hour depending on how good they are. And that's what's most popular on CNN.com.
COSTELLO: I'm still getting over the angry naked models. BECAUSE you know, it's bitterly cold across the United States. We may have our own angry naked models, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We might? What's going on up there in New York?
COSTELLO: Be helpful.
No, this is in Paris, it's not in New York. Darn.
MARCIANO: Got you. Yes.
Well, certainly if you were naked across much of the three quarters of the country, you're talking about some angriness for sure.
Cold air again and some storminess heading up the east coast or really the Appalachians right now. Some snow, a couple inches possible across upstate New York. Two, three, maybe four in spots. This is mostly north of the bigger cities.
We saw a little bit of snow yesterday. One to two inches across parts of New York and Long Island, up the I-95 towards Bridgeport and Providence as well. But this will come to an end a little bit later on today.
Speaking of cold, check out these record lows. These are actual low, no wind chill. Minus 13 Simpson. Montana, Harlem, Montana minus 35 and will moderate a little bit today. Eleven in Minneapolis, 23 degrees in Chicago, and 26 in Kansas City.
Another shot of rain coming into the southwest. This is going to mix with the cold air, and we have winter storm watches posted for parts of Iowa and through Chicago as well.
Speaking of Iowa, quick check of this. Ankeny, Iowa, they're running out of salt or they're looking for help. So Tony's Spices, who makes garlic salt, donated nine tons, Carol, of garlic salt to the town for their snow-melting purposes this winter.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Tony.
MARCIANO: Huh? That's a town. It smells good. You better believe that.
COSTELLO: I know. That would be tasty, kind of, without all the dirt.
Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: All right. See you, Carol.
ROBERTS: Now they've got to spread mouthwash all over the streets, though. That's the next phase.
What kind of defense could there be for a lawmaker allegedly trying to sell a Senate seat? A top criminal defense attorney is here to tell us how the Illinois governor might get off Scott-free. Bob Bennett joins us coming up.
It's 23 minutes after the hour.
"Memo to the President."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm 25 now. Most people my age have already started their careers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: From the front line to the unemployment line, so many young veterans back for more can't find work. Is it fair?
You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You told us at your first press conference after the election that you were going to take a very hands-off approach to filling that spot. Over the weekend, the tribune reported that Rahm Emanuel, your incoming chief of staff, had presented a list of potential names.
BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT: John, let me just cut you off, because I don't want you to waste your question.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Barack Obama there blocking the question about the man accused of trying to sell his old Senate seat, Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois. Members of an Illinois House panel will meet again today to determine if they have enough to impeach the first state official there in 175 years. The governor's attorney says he's not guilty. He's going to fight it out in court and he is not going to step down. So where will all of this end?
I'm joined now by one of the nation's best known white collar criminal defense lawyers, Bob Bennett. He's live in Washington for us.
Bob, it's good to see you. How much trouble do you think that the governor of Illinois is in?
BOB BENNETT, AUTHOR, "IN THE RING: THE TRIALS OF A WASHINGTON LAWYER": Oh, he's in a lot of trouble, John. There are tapes. He's on those tapes and he's speaking very graphically. So he's in a great deal of trouble.
ROBERTS: At the same time, you say that there's a little bit of this pay to play or patronage, I guess, aspect of politics across the nation. Yesterday in "The New York Times" you said, "Washington is full of people who call themselves ambassadors, and all they did was pay $200,000 or $300,000 to the Republican or the Democratic Party." If he hired you, Bob Bennett, to defend him, what kind of case would you present?
BENNETT: Well, I think assuming it went to trial you would shoot for jury nullification. In other words, I think the elements of a violation are clearly there. But you would want to show to the jury that somehow he's being unfairly singled out because it is pretty much the order of the day that you pay to play in politics.
And what I meant by that quote is that, you know, there are many people appointed to be ambassadors who are of questionable qualification but who have made substantial contributions to one party or the other. So I would try to emphasize that.
I don't suggest to you that that will prevail or work. But my experience is that when a jury hears you on tape saying things like this governor said, there's not much hope. And his best hope is to try to work out some sort of a bargain with the prosecutor so he's not in jail for 25 or 30 years.
ROBERTS: What about these impeachment proceedings? Yesterday they were stalled a bit. Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in charge of this case, said he was concerned about the witnesses that they might bring in to an impeachment hearing. Blagojevich's attorney wanted to be there. Might these impeachment proceedings go away altogether?
BENNETT: I think they might very well be put on hold. I don't really know. But thinking of the prosecutor is, and I was a federal prosecutor, is you never want your witnesses saying things outside of the grand jury initially. And you don't want them speaking in different forums. Very few people can talk twice and not have some inconsistencies in what they say.
ROBERTS: Bob Bennett, it's good to see you this morning. Thanks for your analysis on all this.
BENNETT: Thank you, John. And happy holidays to you.
ROBERTS: Same to you. See you again soon. Thanks, Bob.
COSTELLO: It's 30 minutes to the after the hour now. Breaking news this morning. We're waiting for pictures of the first successful face transplant in U.S. history. Doctors in Cleveland say they replaced 80 percent of a trauma patient's face. The forehead and chin left intact. Surgeons used a cadaver's face for the transplant. The doctors say after the swelling goes down, the patient could look like a cousin of the donor.
Dozens of passengers safe from dangling gondolas in a ski resort in Canada. Police say a tower supporting a cable snapped, leaving some passengers stranded for hours. Witnesses say one car was suspended over a creek. But authorities say everyone got down OK.
Caroline Kennedy getting a big dis from "The View's" Joy Behar who said having the name doesn't mean you have the experience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY BEHAR, "THE VIEW" CO-HOST: We fought a war to get away from royalty. And yet we have the Bush royal family, the Clinton royal family, the Kennedy royal family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Ouch. Behar was a loyal and outspoken supporter of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama over the course of the presidential election.
Tens of thousands of American troops will be returning home from war during the Obama administration and then they will be fighting for a job. A recent survey showed that the unemployment rate was three times the national average for men and women returning from war. Here's CNN's Chris Lawrence with today's "Memo to the President."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mr. President, your troops are scared. Not of battling insurgents in Iraq but of fighting for a job in this economy.
STAFF SGT. MATT MCGRAW, WORRIED ABOUT FINDING A JOB: Do I have the skills available to beat out other civilians?
LAWRENCE: Staff Sergeant Matt McGraw is still worried after finishing a tour in Iraq.
MCGRAW: I'm 25 now. Most people my age have already started their careers.
LAWRENCE: McGraw is leaving Ft. Benning and the Infantry. He says companies used to go out of their way to hire veterans. That was before all the layoffs and cutbacks.
MCGRAW: Nowadays it doesn't seem like that so much. Nowadays they're more prone to you know hire whoever is going to give that productivity. Exactly, because of the economy. It's just scary.
LAWRENCE: A 2007 VA study found that combat veterans who recently left the service had more than twice the unemployment rate of non-veterans. So troops are reenlisting and the Pentagon says all branches met or exceeded their recruiting goals last month. Staff Sergeant Michael Lemasters just re-upped for another reserve deployment rather than go back to what he really wanted, running his own one-man trucking company.
STAFF SGT. MICHAEL LEMASTERS, RE-ENLISTED IN ARMY RESERVE: I'm 42. I've never seen it this bad.
LAWRENCE: The job market is better for vets with skills defense contractors covet. But how do other troops convince companies that what they learn here -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready up. You'll fire two rounds to the body and one to the head.
LAWRENCE: - applies in the office.
CHAD SOWASH, VETCENTRAL: We're not trained as infantrymen to be marketers. You know, let alone market ourselves.
LAWRENCE: Drill Sergeant Chad Sowash helps run VetCentral, one of several groups that matches veterans with jobs. They're picking up the slack from federal programs eliminated under the current administration like America's Job Bank. When you take office, they're hoping you see a need to help veterans transition from the battlefield to the boardroom.
SOWASH: One of the things I would like to see is some programs to help them better understand what they have to give back to these Fortune 500 companies.
LAWRENCE (on-camera): Repeatedly during the campaign, President- elect Obama promised to bring troops home from the war in Iraq. A lot of them are now wondering whether peace includes at least the chance of landing a good job. Chris Lawrence, CNN, Ft. Benning, Georgia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Tomorrow's "Memo to the President," Afghanistan. Once the forgotten war. Now a new focus on putting down the Taliban and finding Osama Bin Laden. But is a surge the right answer?
And we want to hear from you. Send us your own "Memo to the President." Go to cnn.com/am and click on the I-report link and tell us what issues you think the president-elect should tackle first.
ROBERTS: Well, it's 34 and a half minutes after the hour now. And time to fast forward about stories that will be making news later on today.
Bernard Madoff, the man accused of the biggest ripoff in history, a $50 billion dollar scam, will be in court today for a bail hearing. That will be at 2:00 Eastern. It comes as the head of the SEC slams his own organization for failing to detect the scam.
Another indicator of just how bad the credit crisis is today, Morgan Stanley expected to post its fourth quarter earnings before today's opening bell on Wall Street. And we're getting word that it is not expected to be pretty.
Parents of the so-called American Taliban, John Walker Lind, are holding a news conference. Their son is asking President Bush to commute his sentence. Lind, who grew up in California, was captured in November of 2001 in Afghanistan and later sentenced to 20 years in prison.
And watch out for more shoes. President Bush this time with heels maybe, Go Pink activists will protest outside the White House with shoes to protest the war in Iraq. That happens today at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.
The women against the war taking their cues from the Iraqi journalist of course who fired his shoes at the commander in chief over the weekend. Carol.
COSTELLO: Brothers for sale. Courtesy of their sweet little sister. They're all here to explain. It's 35 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: She's doing what every little sister wishes they could do. She's going to sell her big brothers. It's going to work out for everybody, at least she hopes so. They get dates and she's getting some cash for the holidays. Joining us now from Austin, Texas, are Kristin, Rob and Ryan Walters. Welcome to all of you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Carol.
COSTELLO: Hi. Before we start, Kristin, I'm going to read to our viewers what you put on craigslist. You said "Hi, I'm a 14-year-old girl in a wheelchair and I need spending money for Christmas gifts. With my disability I can't baby-sit or wash cars, or other things that require the use of legs so I decided to auction off a date with my handsome twin brothers. So Kirsten, when you approached your brothers about placing this ad on craigslist, what was their reaction?
KIRSTEN WALTERS: Well my brother, Rob, was like - he thought it was kind of a good idea. But Ryan wasn't as positive on the whole thought.
COSTELLO: Ryan, why not? Why weren't you so positive on this?
RYAN WALTERS: I don't know. I like my bubble. And I was afraid this was going to - I was all for the date. As big as this has gotten, it's not really my preference. But I'm fine with the date.
COSTELLO: You're fine with the date? OK, so you say it's gotten big. So Kristen, how big of an offer have you gotten so far?
KIRSTEN: Right now, the highest offer is I believe at $300.
COSTELLO: And you guys have a system. You actually go through all of the offers coming in. And you all decide who's going to go out with your brothers, is that true?
KIRSTEN: Pretty much, I guess.
ROB WALTERS: Basically what we're doing is the whole idea of this thing is obviously to get her as much spending money because she can't do things like other kids can do, like mow a lawn or go get a job and this kind of thing. So the whole idea of this is you know to raise as much money as possible for her to give gifts. Of course, it's not something that we ask for. It's something that she came up you know by her own. And of course, we support our sister and the things she wants to do.
COSTELLO: How much are you hoping to raise?
ROB: We don't have a set limit that we're hoping to raise. We're just looking to get her a little bit of holiday spending money and have a good time while doing it.
RYAN: It's just all in good fun.
COSTELLO: And hopefully you'll get good dates too. So if someone wants to donate, where can they go on craigslist to give a donation?
KIRSTEN: On Craigslist, they have actually - I have this Bank of America account I set up - that my parents set up for me a few years back to help get like medical supplies and stuff. And so we put the number and the name of the account on there. So people can use Bank of America to donate.
COSTELLO: Got you. And it's Craigslist in Austin, right?
KIRSTEN: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK. Thanks all of you for joining us. You're really nice brothers. Because, man, you're lucky, Kirsten. And good luck to all of you. Thanks for joining us.
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: A couple of good-looking brothers as well. They should fetch a pretty penny, I would think.
Starting right now, you can vote on cnn.com for the top ten stories of 2008. The countdown begins Friday, December 26th. Number one will be revealed on New Year's day. Just go to cnn.com to vote.
And more from our special series, "Layoff survival guide." Today Gerri Willis tells us what you need to know about qualifying for unemployment benefits.
And whether you're jobless or unemployed, you're probably worried. And for some, it's outright panic so guess what for those folks we got a survival guide for recession panic. 42 minutes now after the hour.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was monitoring the scan you just interfaced. You are terminated.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Terminated? No, no, it wasn't my fault, sir. It was needles. Needles was behind the whole thing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You were cooperating. You knew.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Read my lips.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, please I cannot be fired. I'm fired? Oh!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: With the economy in recession, companies large and small are downsizing. And more Americans are getting laid off or fired. In our special series this week, Gerri Willis offering advice for surviving a layoff. She's got your blog questions this morning about qualifying for unemployment benefits and she's here now to share all that. Good morning.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Good morning. Good to see you guys. Yes. That's what it feels like right there, right. You get the notice. It's terrible. We're getting questions this morning from folks about how unemployment works in some cases.
From Lauren in New York. "I was an accountant for the past three months and suddenly I was laid off. Before that I never worked. Can I receive unemployment benefits?" Well, Lauren, I got to tell you the rules differ from state to state. For most states, they require that you work four out of the last five completed quarters. So you wouldn't make the limit. In New York, it's a little looser. You have to work for two calendar quarters and earn at least $1,600 in one of those quarters. So go to the web, check it out in your state, maybe you have this question and you're not in New York and you're somewhere else but you'll be able to find the details on the web.
Dionne from Vermont asks, "I've been self-employed for 30 years. Now my clients are all holding off. And for the first time since 1978 my income has vanished. Am I entitled to any sort of unemployment benefits?" Again, devil in the details, you want to check your own state but by and large, your employer has to pay into the system for you to take money out of the system. And since you're self-employed, you're probably have not done that. You probably are not eligible for benefits. Bad news there.
Ron Caster from California asks, "Hey, it's bad enough to apply for unemployment, why is it so hard to get through to them on the phone?" I have heard this everywhere. When we were in Yonkers last week at a jobless center there, folks were talking about how, I can't get through on the phone line to get anybody to help me. There are no places you can go physically anymore. It's all online or on the phone. Well I can tell you this, California allows you to apply for benefits online if you like. You can do that instead of wading through those hold times. I hear they're particularly bad in California where the jobless rate is just through the roof.
ROBERTS: Yes. Anybody could figure that half a million people lost their jobs in the month of November. Phone lines are going to be jammed.
WILLIS: Yes. Again devil in the details here. These unemployment programs are administered by state, not nationally. So you really have to look at the rules in your state before finding out exactly how they're going to impact you.
ROBERTS: All right. Good answers to good questions. Thanks, Gerri.
WILLIS: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Gerri is going to be blogging throughout the show by the way. So send her your questions at CNN.com/am. She'll be back on-line in just a moment.
Tomorrow, the long-term plan. How do you survive over the long haul and get the next job?
COSTELLO: And this morning, a stunning new twist from the investigation that has taken down Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. Investigators revealing Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. who was hoping to take over Barack Obama's senate seat has been ratting on the state's disgraced politicians for years. Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John. Carol. For at least the last decade, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. has been providing information about alleged corruption in his district and state to federal law enforcement officials. Including information about Rod Blagojevich, the governor. Now, according to sources close to the governor, it doesn't pertain to this current investigation against the governor but rather something that happened in 2002 when he was running for governor for the first time. Congressman Jackson was approached, asked for a $25,000 donation for the Blagojevich campaign. At that time, Jesse Jackson's wife, Sandy, was looking for the possibility of getting a job as the director of the Illinois State Lottery Commission. Jackson did not give the donation. His wife did not get the job. And according to these sources, when Governor Blagojevich got his job, he saw Jesse Jackson and told Jesse Jackson, something to the effect of look what would have happened when you gave the $25,000. Ultimately, Jesse Jackson told authorities about the conversation. He also talked to them about other alleged corruption that took place but this obviously is what's getting the most notice at this point.
Jesse Jackson said he did this because he's a good citizen. He said it's nothing unusual to inform authorities when there is alleged corruption. But it raises the question of why just last week Jesse Jackson said that when he wanted to become senator, he met with Blagojevich, he expected a fair process. Why would he expect a fair process with Blagojevich that he had such a bad experience with him back in 2002? We don't know the answer to that just yet. John and Carol.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS (voice-over): The hell is over.
JOHN WALSH: We needed to know. We needed to know.
ROBERTS: He finally knows who killed his beloved little boy. We're live where John Walsh got the news. Why him? Why now?
Plus, recession panic. Has it hit you? We have the fix. American Morning's recession panic survival guide. You're watching the most news in the morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROBERTS: Eight minutes now to the top of the hour. Our down economy not only taking a toll on your pockets, but psychologists say it's also driving some people to steal, used drugs or even resort to violence. It's a condition that some are calling recession survival panic. Joining me now to talk more about the condition Jeff (),a clinical psychologist in New York. Jeff, you probably see a lot of people in your practice who are dealing with being laid off or fired or worried about their jobs. How much anxiety is there out there?
JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, there's a lot anxiety out there, John. A new study by the American Psychological Association says almost half the respondents are concerned about whether they'll be able to keep their jobs, whether they'll be able to keep their homes, whether they can even feed their families. So, there's a lot of anxiety. A lot of depression out there and people really are panicking. I mean, it's just a natural emotion to have at this point.
ROBERTS: So what about this recession survival panic that we talked about just a second ago? How much concern is there about potential rise in crime particularly in big cities, a rise in violence, a rise in alcohol or drug abuse?
GARDERE: Well, there's a lot of concern, because we know when people are emotionally aroused like that and it's not really a natural state that they tend to get depressed. They tend to get anxious. Again, respondents in this American Psychological Association study, over 60 percent said that they were irritated, that they wanted to commit some sort of violence and we see some of these things playing out in road rage. We saw it at that Wal-Mart situation if you remember where people were just went in with a group mentality, herd mentality and one fellow got trampled and killed. So, there is a lot of that arousal that is making people act in very unnatural ways. They tend to medicate with alcohol and drugs. So, it's a very serious problem that mental health experts are seriously looking at.
ROBERTS: What about marriages and other close interpersonal relations? You know, finances can be a point of conflict in marriages all the time? Will it be exacerbated because of the current economic situation?
GARDERE: Well, that's a great point John because we do know that one of the number one issues that we see in couples' counseling is this whole issue of finances. So, when that happens, there becomes a lot of dysfunction between the couples. It exacerbates the problems they already have. So, we're already seeing studies that show that people perhaps want to become divorced can't divorce because they can't afford to separate the marital assets such as the house because of the underwater mortgages. So there's just a lot more tension between husband and wife.
ROBERTS: I've heard some stories of people that who are getting divorced, they're living in different rooms of the house and they're both dating different people.
GARDERE: And can you imagine the confusion, the ambivalence that gives to the kids and the family. So it does have that trickle-down emotional effect.
ROBERTS: Well you know what they always say when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. Some people employ retail therapy, but it's a potentially disastrous thing to do if you don't have any income. When does retail therapy become an obsession and how do you guard against it?
GARDERE: Well I think there are a couple of signs to look at. First of all, if you find yourself always depressed or sad and you're looking for that emotional lift from shopping. That certainly is an issue. When you walk out of that store and all of a sudden you lose that high and you begin to feel guilty about it, certainly those consequences are much worse than that emotional lift. And finally, when you find yourself buying that stuff and then you throw it in the closet and then there's all that other junk in the closet that you couldn't use from the emotional buying, then that tells me that you are a shop-aholic or you are emotionally buying too darn much.
ROBERTS: So, you got some tips for people here to act as a safety valve if retail therapy turns into an obsession.
GARDERE: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: You say, first of all assess whether you really need the item. Use the internet to comparison shop and that timing is everything, which I guess would be give yourself - take a beat. Resist that initial urge.
GARDERE: Yes, and that's the bottom line. When you do those three steps, really what you're doing is you are keeping yourself from having that knee-jerk reaction of buying something that you really don't need. It gives you the time to think through the process and therefore that negates that compulsive-obsessive buying that we tend to have. You've got to think through it.
ROBERTS: Yes, because certainly some people may be saying, you know, I'm suffering, I'm hurting, I really deserve this.
GARDERE: Yes, it's the quick fix.
ROBERTS: Yes.
GARDERE: But if you can step back, as you said, then that you helps really think through the process and make a better decision.
ROBERTS: Jeff, it's great to see you. Thanks so much for coming in.
GARDERE: Always great talking to you. Thank you.
ROBERTS: Appreciate it. Will see you again soon. Carol.
GARDERE: All righty, thanks.
ROBERTS: Carol.
COSTELLO: This morning serious questions about where were the feds during the $50 billion Wall Street scam. The Securities and Exchange Commission, the government's Wall Street watchdog, now confessing it dropped the ball for at least a decade. Bernard Madoff, the alleged mastermind behind the big money rip-off is scheduled to go before a judge this afternoon, so why wasn't Madoff stopped years ago? Here's CNN's Joe Johns.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He was a Wall Street genius and pioneer who once proudly proclaimed that there was no way to cheat on the street.
BERNARD MADOFF, ACCUSED OF $50 BILLION SCAM: By and large, in today's regulatory environment it's virtually impossible to violate rules, and this is something that the public really doesn't understand.
JOHNS: But now Madoff himself is accused of breaking the rules big time and the government never caught him until authorities say he admitted his role in an alleged fraud he estimated at an astounding $50 billion. So, where was the sheriff of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission? At first, officials said, they were on top of the case.
LINDA CHATMAN THOMSEN, SEC DIRECTOR OF ENFORCEMENT: And to bring everyone who is responsible for the conduct at the Madoff firm to justice.
JOHNS: SEC chairman Christopher Cox says his agency appears to have screwed up repeatedly, and in a big way. Saying that "credible and specific allegations regarding Madoff go all the way back to 1999." That he's gravely concerned by multiple failures of the agency, and that he's launching an internal investigation.
So, who were the whistle-blowers? Securities executive Frank Casey for one. Back in 2005, he and a colleague, Harry Marcopolis, started looking at Madoff's gravity-defying investment returns and figured something was up.
And Harry said, Frank you know that this can't be right. It's got to be a fraud.
JOHNS: Casey says Marcopolis even took it to the next level, firing off letter after letter to the S.E.C. all but predicting how the Madoff story would end.
FRANK CASEY, "FORTUNE USA": This is a Ponzi scheme, I mean, in giant letters. 36 type instead of 12 type. This is a Ponzi scheme. And he laid out 25, 28, if I can recall, red-flag areas that they need to investigate.
JOHNS: But Casey isn't congratulating the SEC for finally figuring things out. Because they got there too late. After all, billions of dollars apparently vanished through the doors of Madoff's office.
CASEY: The SEC is going to simply come in after the fact and clean up the bodies and the blood. And not prevent the hit. It doesn't serve any purpose.
JOHNS (on-camera): It's not the first time the SEC has gotten slammed for oversight in the last few years. But now, some critics are saying, the case of Bernie Madoff just might turn the place inside out.
Joe Johns, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
