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American Morning
U.S. Military Could Incorporate Motion-Sensitive Controller; Guarding Our Ports & Coasts; Retailers in the Red
Aired December 26, 2008 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: Is today the day shoppers will be well- armed with returns today and many stores are offering big markdowns, extended hours and online deals.
And get them while you can. The 2009 Sarah Palin calendar is moving up the charts. It's now number two on amazon.com. The 13- month calendar features family photos and snapshots from the campaign trail. The cover shows the former Republican vice presidential candidate with a gun slung over her shoulder in front of an American flag. That's just amazing, isn't it?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I guess the local photographer in Alaska took the pictures, and she assembled this calendar, and it's doing quite well. She's going to make money on this.
JOHNS: And this thing is going way beyond politics, isn't it?
(CROSSTALK)
JOHNS: Folk hero, maybe, I don't know.
COSTELLO: Yes, maybe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, ready, set, return. Shoppers are heading back to the stores this morning in a post-Christmas rush. CNN's Allan Chernoff is live at the Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, New York on Long Island.
How are you doing, Allan?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Joe.
Hey, you know, we have been missing you. The shopping has been going on for 2-1/2 hours here, not that many people returning. But the people here, they are here for the deals. And we're talking deals with a capital D. First of all, 60 percent off here at JCPenney, bringing a coupon 10 percent to 15 percent on top -- $10 to $15 off on top of that. The bargains are plentiful here. We have one shopper who is very proud of herself.
Deborah, how much did you spend this morning?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: $101.25.
CHERNOFF: OK. And for that, you have gotten exactly what in that bag.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've got five pair of corduroy pants, four cotton tops, two watches and a beautiful vase.
CHERNOFF: All for $101?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fabulous. Very good.
CHERNOFF: Can't beat it?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cannot beat it.
CHERNOFF: Now, were you shopping here on Black Friday? The day after Thanksgiving.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never do Black Friday.
CHERNOFF: No?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never.
CHERNOFF: That's for the amateurs?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's for the amateurs.
CHERNOFF: Today is when the pros come out?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's about it. That's when the pros show out.
CHERNOFF: OK. And I think it's true. The deals today -- Thank you, Deborah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My pleasure.
CHERNOFF: The deals today actually are simply outstanding. Carol, Joe, that is the one positive thing that we can say about this absolutely lousy holiday retail season. The retailers have got plenty of merchandise. They need to move it, and they're asking the consumers to come on in and help them with mega discounts.
Joe, Carol, back to you.
JOHNS: Yes, that is a way to look at it, isn't it? Bright side?
COSTELLO: No. I mean, the prices are so low now. I think if we just wait, they'll be giving away items for free.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hang us to take it off the showroom floor, right?
COSTELLO: Exactly.
JOHNS: It's all good.
COSTELLO: Yes. JOHNS: Gerri Willis is here "Minding Your Business," talking about making your New Year's financial resolutions.
I always try not to make resolutions, because I never keep them.
WILLIS: You don't? Well, I guess, that's a good point. If you can't keep them, there's no point in making them. But I think this year more than ever, people are thinking about how can I fix my money situation. I have too much debt. I'm trying to save more. How do I do it? We're trying to help. We're answering your questions on a blog this morning.
Let's start with the first question from Don who asks -- "Is a 401(k) or an IRA really a good deal if there is no match from the employer? Since all withdrawals are taxed as ordinary income, any capital gains or dividends are going to be taxed at a higher rate?"
Well, Don, I feel your pain here. If you don't have the employer match on your 401(k), it's not a real incentive to save. But let me mention something to you. Investing has to be a habit not an option. And if you stop putting money into your 401(k) now, because you're not getting the employer match, it's going to be hard to return to investing.
You know why? You'll get used to that extra money in your checking account. You'll think, well, why should I do this anyway? I'll wait until the stock market turns around. I'll wait until next year. You'll continue delaying, and you won't have the money you need for retirement.
Let's go to question number two. "Do you know if they will allow us to defer our 401(k) and IRA minimum distributions for 2009? We are 74. And this would help to preserve some of our savings."
Now I want to mention. This is a question that a lot of seniors have out there, because there are rules that require people like Pauline to take money out of their retirement savings each and every year while the situation they're in this year is that those investments in stocks are down 40 percent and 50 percent, so they would have to cash that out. Take that loss. They don't want to do it.
The good news is Congress passed a bill that works for 2009. You can defer in 2009 but not 2008. You're going to have to stay because the Treasury Department may come across with even more help for folks right now, but we're going to have to wait and see. So next year is good. This year still a question mark.
There's another question from Pauline. Do I have that right? No, Anonymous. "I have found out that my mortgage company had gotten my account mixed up with someone else who is filing for bankruptcy." Ouch! "They inadvertently place my account in bankruptcy status. I contacted the mortgage company and they have admitted their mistake. They have also notified the credit bureau of the error, but to no avail. With all of this taking place, that bankruptcy is still on my credit report. What can I do?" All right, well, so, here's the deal. The good news is your mortgage company already knows what's going on. You don't have to deal with them. But do you need to send a certified letter to these credit agencies, these credit bureaus who control your life, frankly. They're responsible for what kind of job you get, what you pay for your insurance, how much money you can borrow and at what interest rate. So you need to send a certified letter proving that this is not your bankruptcy.
Get your mortgage documents together, copy them so they can see the letters, the paper trail you have with the mortgage company. Maybe if you don't have one, you can write them and ask for such a letter, and they have to take it off. Because if they can't prove it, they have to take it off.
JOHNS: That's just brutal.
WILLIS: It is brutal. But it happens more than you would think. There are lots of errors on credit reports. I think something like one in five have errors. You need to check your own. That's a good financial resolution. Check your own credit report this year, because you want to make sure the stuff is right.
JOHNS: Could you imagine having a bankruptcy on your credit and it's not your bankruptcy?
WILLIS: Yes, appalling.
JOHNS: That's nutty.
WILLIS: Got to fix it.
JOHNS: Yes, you got it. All right.
COSTELLO: We're fixing things this morning.
JOHNS: All right, keep those questions coming. Gerri will be online all morning. Ask her your financial questions, anything you want to ask. Just head to cnn.com/am.
COSTELLO: I know a lot of you are traveling today, and there's some nasty weather coming our way in many parts of the country. Let's head to Atlanta and Reynolds Wolf. He's tracking some of the storms out there.
Good morning.
(WEATHER REPORT)
COSTELLO: All right. Thank you, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You bet.
COSTELLO: Wii is in combat. What a video game is doing in a war zone? The serious business of using a Wii-mote on the battlefield.
And are we at risk? America's border security. The serious holes in our defense. It's eight minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peter!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you sleeping on the job?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. There's a bug on my line, and I'm trying to suffocate him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Peter, I like you. But I need you to be more than just I can get out here. It's your job to watch for any toys that could be hazardous to children. Now look sharp.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: He looks like us this morning. That's the "Family Guy"'s version of quality control. But it wasn't toys dominating the holiday season, it was video games. Get this, video games sales are up 22 percent so far this year. And one of the hottest game consoles out there, still Nintendo's groundbreaking Wii. And now the U.S. military is taking notice.
Chris Lawrence is looking at the possibility of developing the controller for combat -- Chris.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Joe, Carol, so many young soldiers grow up using these controllers, so the learning curve is so fast.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): A gun in one hand and a Wii in the other. It's one possible image of the 21st soldier. Engineers are modifying the video games remote to move military robots.
PETER WILL, ROBOTICS EXPERT: It's this natural hand-eye coordination. It's not looking at the keyboard or typing, and getting the motions from typing.
LAWRENCE: The army uses robots to dismantle explosives and keep soldiers at a safe distance. But the controllers are big, bulky and the operator has to focus on 40 or 50 buttons. That's a potentially deadly distraction during battle.
The Wii remote would use an infrared beam to instantly match a soldier's motions with the robots movement. Potentially, it's small and light enough that the infantry could use it. To say send robot into a building ahead of troops. But the Wii's greatest benefit could be its biggest drawback. The same way gamers accidentally throw controllers into their TVs, engineers have to account for a soldier's natural body twitches. So the goal --
BOB QUINN, VICE PRES., TALON ROBOT OPERATIONS: Is to make sure you're not having misguided, unintentional movements of the body, make those changes in the robot and have the robot act chaotically because it's sensing that it's being moved when the soldier really has no intention of moving it.
LAWRENCE: Bob Quinn works for the company that's helping integrate the Wii. He says developers still have to extend the range of the controller and make sure its signal can't be hack.
QUINN: And allow for the soldier to be able to make those movements without the enemy bringing out their own controllers, and taking over control of the robot.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: The company tells me you can turn the prototype into a working unit within a year. The Pentagon doesn't move quite that fast. The army has to test it, allocate the money so it would probably be at least three years before it's available to soldiers -- Joe, Carol.
JOHNS: Are you ready for a holy iPod? An Italian priest developed an application that will allow iPod users to download their prayers directly to their handheld. Now the faithful can get in on the mobile craze, too.
COSTELLO: Interesting.
JOHNS: OK.
COSTELLO: Just how safe are our ports? After the Mumbai terrorist attack that began with a gunman in small boats, see the new plan to beef up American ports before it's too late.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: Top videos right now on cnn.com. Most popular -- talk about your bad dogs. Check out this pilfering pooch. Security cameras in this supermarket catch a dog entering a store's front door and making a beeline straight for the dog food isle. He grabs a raw hide bone, runs straight out the back of the store.
Also the guys at jibjab.com have come out with their review of 2008, looking back at the bailout and the election and plenty of political corruption, all the while keeping tongue in cheek.
And operation Baghdad pups. A look at an organization bringing poor, orphaned dogs out of Iraq to the United States, reuniting them with U.S. soldiers they have bonded with during the war. And those are your top videos on cnn.com.
COSTELLO: Keeping American borders safe is an absolutely massive job. And all too often the focus on the borders we share with Mexico and Canada, but the U.S. has tens of thousands of miles of coastline, too.
Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is looking at the enormous challenge out Coast Guard faces.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The attackers slipped into Mumbai undetected on small inflatable boats. We all know what happened next.
It underlined a security challenge for the U.S.
THAD ALLEN, COMMANDANT, U.S. COAST GUARD: I don't think there are adequate resources in the Coast Guard or the country, for that matter to completely guard 95,000 miles of coastline.
MESERVE: But to lower the risk, the Coast Guard is proposing that all vessels arriving from outside the U.S. be required to give advance notice. A more controversial measure would require mid-size ships like some ferries and fishing vessels to carry an automatic identification system, or AIS, which acts like a transponder, so they can be identified and tracked.
DEBBIE GOSSELIN, WATERMARK CRUISES: I cannot envision how that will enhance security for our country.
MESERVE: Debbie Gosselin's firm conducts boat tours in Annapolis, Maryland. If the new proposals are adopted, she predicts she will have to install transponders on five boats at a cost of 10 to $20,000 apiece. She questions how that will reduce the risk on a summer day when thousands of recreational boats are on the water.
GOSSELIN: All these little white dots are recreational vessels. None of these boats will be required to have an AIS.
MESERVE: And any one of them could pose a threat. But at Coast Guard sector Baltimore, the view is different.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You'll see that's that the Lady Tramp which is a bulk carrier, carried sugar, which is either -- which is offloading in the port of Baltimore.
MESERVE: AIS gives the Coast Guard a virtual view of large ships like the Lady Tramp in the harbor. If more mid-sized vessels carry transponders, security patrols can spend more time looking at small vessels and other possible threats.
AUSTIN GOULD, COMMANDER, U.S. COAST GUARD: What it will enable us to do is identify what we refer to as the anomaly, what's unusual in the port, what doesn't belong. Who's not broadcasting AIS that should be?
MESERVE (on camera): There are an estimated 17.5 million recreational boats in the U.S. The Coast Guard has suggested they be more tightly regulated. But there's been a lot of pushback. The proposals on midsize ships don't ensure security, but they may take us a step closer.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: As 2008 comes to a close, we're looking at the biggest stories of the year. Today our number five story is the three-day terrorist siege of India's financial capital, Mumbai. More than 160 people died along with nine of those gunmen. Indian police are holding the tenth who authorities say has admitted to his crime.
We will be revealing our number four story on Monday here on AMERICAN MORNING. And you can keep up with the entire list online, the address, cnn.com/yearinreview.
JOHNS: Millions of people are headed to the mall today to use that new gift card. So what's the bottom line this shopping season? And what's the good news here?
Plus, do you ever think of your boss as a big bossy beast? You may be right. New connection between males, bosses and monkeys. It's 20 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: This is Garden City, Long Island. Lenny Kravitz nailed it. It ain't over until it's over. So, is it over for the nation's retailers? Chrystia Freeland, the managing editor of "Financial Times" here to talk about it.
So how bad was it this time?
CHRYSTIA FREELAND, MANAGING EDITOR, "FINANCIAL TIMES": It was pretty bad. I think that what has happened is Americans very abruptly realized they have been consuming more than they have been producing. And we saw already in the fall in October and November, that post- Thanksgiving period, people really have realized that they have to at a personal level save more.
The problem is what makes sense for us as individuals and households to save a little bit more, spend a little bit less is having pretty devastating effects in the aggregate on the economy as a whole.
JOHNS: So now the stores are trying to get all the stuff out so they can bring the new stuff in. What else can they do? It seems like they have dropped to rock bottom the prices.
Is there anything else they can do?
FREELAND: Well, what can I do apart from lowering the prices? I mean, I think that retailers are really very hopeful about the weekend between Christmas and the New Year. And one explanation, I think perhaps sort of crossing their fingers and whistling in the dark more than anything that retailers offered for the bad numbers in December was that there were fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than last year.
So they're hopeful that this weekend between Christmas and the New Year might give them a little bit of a bounce. And it might. But I think the overall trend is undeniable, which is that Americans are having a harder time getting credit, and are more conscious of the need to rein back. People are losing their jobs and they are conscious rightly that more people are going to lose their job in the New Year.
JOHNS: So now there's this campaign to try to get the tax-free holiday type things going on around the country. People even talking about going to Barack Obama and asking for a little help on this.
Are these things effective? I mean, do they really work?
FREELAND: Well, I think what is going to be really effective and what will have a major stimulus effect on the economy is the huge stimulus package which Barack Obama and his economic team are talking about.
You know, we're in a situation where the government as it were had become the spender of last resort. And if the government as Obama and his economic advisers are saying inject a trillion dollars into the economy, that's one heck of a stimulus. But that's not going to come until certainly the end of January.
JOHNS: We've seen some retail stores very well known names go bankrupt like Circuit City for example. Are we expecting to see more of that, or do a lot of these stores actually sort of plan for bad times and start scaling back?
FREELAND: I think it's almost impossible for anyone, be it a retailer or a bank or any other kind of business to fully plan for what happened. It's been really unexpected. And the huge freeze in global economic activity, which really happened following September 15th when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt was unpredicted by anyone apart from a few gloomy economists. So yes, I think there will be more bankruptcies.
JOHNS: So bright spot coming forward, anything? Good news?
FREELAND: Cheap gas price.
JOHNS: Oh, there you go. Well, that's a good thing. But a lot of people say when the gas prices went down, there was a little bit of a spike in retail sales so people started taking some of that gas money and using it to shop. But this didn't have that big of an effect, did it?
FREELAND: Well, that's right, because people also are seeing other declines in their incomes. You know, we're seeing some big companies, FedEx for example, which are actually cutting salaries. And I do think there is the anticipatory effect of people being really, really concerned about losing their jobs, homes which a lot of people were using effectively as a bank account are no longer operating that way. People have seen home values decline. So I do think that we're going to see for some time the spending patterns of American consumer change. And the U.S. consumer spending was 70 percent of American economic activity so that's a big hit to the entire economy.
JOHNS: Where is the bottom?
FREELAND: If I knew that question, Joe, I would be running a multibillion dollar hedge fund rather than chatting with you. But I would say the consensus forecast is that next year will be really, really pretty dire, but that you could see the beginning of an economic recovery at the end of next year. The question is how robust that recovery will be?
JOHNS: You're talking about three-quarters or four quarters?
FREELAND: I'm not going to go that far.
JOHNS: OK, great. Thank you so much, Chrystia Freeland. Always good to see you, of course.
Back to you, Carol.
COSTELLO: Just about half past the hour now. Here are this morning's top stories. Parts of Washington state still coping with record snowfall this morning. Right now winter storm and blizzard warnings are out in Colorado. Up to 20 inches of snow forecast along with 80-mile-per-hour wind gusts so expect travel delays today out west.
Eartha Kitt has died. The singer, dancer and actress became an international symbol of sensuality, famous for her catlike purr. She died after a long battle with colon cancer. Eartha Kitt was 81 years old.
And New York Governor David Paterson is feeling some political heat, but he says he is in no rush to name Hillary Clinton's replacement. Much of the talk about Hillary Clinton successor has set on Caroline Kennedy who is campaigning to fill the seat. Paterson says that won't happen until Clinton is confirmed as secretary of state.
And now, it's just a sad story, a shocking story. Police in California say a nasty divorce triggered a Christmas Eve shooting rampage that's left eight people dead.
Chris Lawrence is following the story for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Just minutes before midnight on Christmas Eve, a visitor came to this home intending to burn it down.
KIM RANEY, COVINA POLICE CHIEF: There was a knock at the front door, and the gentleman dressed as Santa Claus was at the door carrying a large wrapped package. LAWRENCE: He carried no gifts. Just two guns and a homemade flame thrower.
RANEY: An 8-year-old girl at the party ran to the front door, opened the door.
LAWRENCE: And he immediately shot her in the face. Police say the fake Santa stepped inside and shot anyone he saw. The family ran screaming from anywhere they could.
LT. PAT BUCHANAN, COVINA POLICE: Through windows, through doors, through windows upstairs off the roof. We talked to almost everyone and any place that they could escape. They were throwing furniture out the windows as we understand.
LAWRENCE: Police say this man set the house on fire, changed out of his Santa suit then drove to his brother's home and killed himself.
ROSA ORDAZ, FAMILY FRIEND: It's almost like he planned it, you know, for him to come and do this on such a special night.
LAWRENCE: Investigators say he did. They think Bruce Pardo was upset over his recent divorce. This home was owned by his ex-wife's parents, and friends say it was well known the family would be having their traditional Christmas party that night.
(on camera): And it was tradition that may have made that little girl open the door in the first place. Every year for this party, a neighbor dresses up as Santa and comes over to help get the kids in the holiday spirit.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: It's 30 minutes past the hour. Topping our Friday "Political Ticker." Barack Obama's incoming chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel may be subpoenaed in the Rod Blagojevich case. Blago's attorney is asking state law makers for the subpoena in an effort to prove that the governor did not try to sell Obama's Senate seat.
New plans for Barack Obama's inauguration, the city is converting huge sections of the capitol's giant parking lot to accommodate thousands of additional buses. Official say as many as 10,000 charter buses will be allowed to park in the city. Earlier plans had the busses stationed at sites outside Washington.
Well, is this the calm before the term? Barack Obama is being unusually private during his holiday vacation in Hawaii. CNN's Ed Henry is following the president-elect. But it's hard to tell if it's more work or play.
ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Joe, Carol, Merry Christmas from Honolulu, where President-elect Barack Obama and his family are celebrating the holiday. It may seem exotic for a lot of people. You know, the surf boards, the sand, the splashing water but there really are some timeless traditions for the holiday even here in beautiful Hawaii. In fact, we're told that the President-elect has a Christmas tree in the ocean side home where he's celebrating.
I did some investigative reporting. It's a real tree. It's not a fake one. We're also told they'll be doing some family time. A traditional meal. I'm not waiting around for my invite to go over to the president-elect's house so I'm sort of making other plans. I have been getting a lot of teasing from a lot of you anchors saying that this is kind of a sweet gig to be covering the president-elect for a couple of weeks in Hawaii.
But I tell you, it's probably not much different from what you're doing. I'm just going do sit down on the beach. I'm going to kick back, going to throw on my shades. I got some Hawaiian beads. I even got a special Hawaiian Santa hat that I'm going to throw on to be festive. I'm going to have that. And there's called Spam Wasabi. I've never tried it before but a lot of people here like it. It's sort of Spam wrapped up with rice, almost like sushi. And I'm going to be digging into that.
Not too bad, a little salty. But also the weather is really amazing, but I'm sure it's not much unlike the weather in New York right now, right? Sorry, I didn't mean to rub it in too much.
Merry Christmas, Joe, Carol.
JOHNS: It's not that bad here.
COSTELLO: Yes, it is.
JOHNS: Yes, I know.
In Australia and many European nations, today is boxing day, but it's also the first day of Kwanzaa, the seven-day nonreligious festival celebrates African culture and traditions. President Bush has released his formal Kwanzaa message to the nation, marking it as a time to celebrate the many contributions of our African-American citizens.
The big kids available but not forgotten. In our special series, "Baby Quest," we'll show you why older kids looking for families face special obstacles. It's 32 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHNS: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING.
For many people, starting a family is life's biggest blessing. But infertility affects more than seven million couples here in the U.S. So all this week we've been looking at the way people are now using cutting edge technology, including in vitro fertilization and even high tech adoptions to make their dreams come true. We call it "Baby Quest."
COSTELLO: And today with thousands of children in foster care we are asking how hard is it to adopt? Superstars like Angelina Jolie and Madonna make it look easy.
Jason Carroll goes inside one adoption agency to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To those who know him, Jahmon is an ideal teenager. He works hard at school. Writes poetry.
JAHMON, TEEN FOSTER CHILD: Only one person was left and that was me. And to this day I'm still holding (inaudible).
CARROLL: He also plays a winning game of ping pong. A parent's dream. But for Jahmon, finding new parents is still his dream.
What is the most difficult part of not having an adopted mother or father?
JAHMON: I believe that is the support and comfort.
CARROLL: That's what you miss the most?
JAHMON: Yes. I miss that.
CARROLL: Jahmon is 16. At the age of 8 he was removed from his mother's home and put in foster care. He has spent years living in group homes waiting for adoption.
What is the waiting like? What has it been like?
JAHMON: The waiting is like very, sometimes very depressing.
CARROLL: Jahmon has never given up. He's attended meet and greets with prospective parents only to see younger children get more attention.
JAHMON: You're calling out for like a family. So it's very heartbreaking when you don't hear no response.
CARROLL: Jahmon is one of 30,000 teenagers nationwide waiting for adoption. New York state officials say he'll likely age out of their system because most parents are reluctant to adopt older children. But one government survey says for every teen in foster care there are six families willing to adopt them. So why are older children still waiting for families? One adoption advocate blames a bureaucratic system that focuses more on screening out bad parents than recruiting good ones.
JEFF KATZ, ADOPTION ADVOCATE: The culture of it is they tend to treat everyone with suspicion.
CARROLL: The head of New York's child welfare agency says the state's first priority is keeping children safe.
GLADYS CARRIOR, NY OFFICE OF CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES: See all of us have heard horrors of children being adopted by you know inappropriate people.
CARROLL: While Jahmon waits, poetry helps him escape. He's written a book of poetry and competes in local competition.
JAHMON: It's your love that makes me love you.
I like to write about my life. It can be about anything (INAUDIBLE).
CARROLL: And he still likes to dream about the family he wishes he had.
JAHMON: I'm just looking for a decent family that can show love, caring and help me with my dreams of success.
CARROLL: Jason Carroll, CNN, Dobbs Ferry, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: With thousands of children in foster care right now hoping to be adopted, some agencies are turning to the web to help find families for kids including the New York state adoption service. They post videos of kids ready for a new family.
Here's 16-year-old Amanda from New York telling her own story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AMANDA, 16-YEAR-OLD: My idea of a family would be pets and other kids.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you had a magic fairy with a magic wand that could give you three wishes that you wanted, what would your three wishes be?
AMANDA: To be adopted. To have a pet. And to have fun.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: If you're interested in adopting Amanda go to the New York state adoption service Web site. You can find the link at cnn.com/am.
COSTELLO: Well caught on tape, senior citizens in desperate straits shop lifting. A disturbing new trend. It's 39 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Oh, yes, attention holiday shoppers the race is on for the best after Christmas deals and the many unhappy returns. CNN's Allan Chernoff is live at the Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, New York on Long Island.
Allan, the store doesn't really seem to be that crowded. ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: It's not that crowded. But, you know what? The people who are here, they are getting some incredible deals. Buy one, get one free for body oils, actually I was just looking at this, maybe for my kids. Tootsie Roll flavored lip balm. Believe it or not, I think they will love that. What else do they got? What else? Junior mints. Sugar Daddy lip balm. I guess, I'm no sugar daddy but anyway, at buy one, get one free, I think I can afford to be that way.
50 percent off here, on and on, the store here, we're at JCPenney by the way. The store here is entirely, entirely on sale. And a lot of shoppers are enjoying the bargains.
Myrna and Steve, you've been here since when?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 6:00.
CHERNOFF: 6:00 in the morning. That's a little early to shop, but you know what, the store was open a half hour before you even got here.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, man, I missed it.
CHERNOFF: What have you got?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, an ornament and --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A nativity scene.
CHERNOFF; A nativity scene. And now this is most definitely the day to buy your nativity scene because Steve got it for --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 75 percent off.
CHERNOFF: 75 percent off.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can't beat.
CHERNOFF: You can't beat that although I understand over at Macy's, you got a food processor?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. $32.
CHERNOFF: But that was -- $32, but that was only 20 percent off?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, so the better deal is here.
CHERNOFF: 20 percent off. At 20 percent off, you can do better than that today. The deals are amazing. That's the positive side of a lousy retail season.
Carol, John, back to you.
COSTELLO: I keep thinking if we wait long enough, everything will be free, you won't even have to pay for it.
JOHNS: They can pay us.
CHERNOFF: The way things are in retail land, that's certainly a possibility. They certainly do want to clean out and as you see, we weren't even able to hold on to Myrna and Steve. They're out shopping. They don't want to miss anymore bargains.
COSTELLO: They're keeping our economy rolling. Good for them.
(LAUGHTER)
CHERNOFF: That's right.
COSTELLO: Allan Chernoff, thanks.
You know, in tough times people do some desperate things and there's another new disturbing trend on the horizon. Senior citizens are shoplifting.
CNN's Kyung Lah reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You better watch out, you better not cry.
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To the sound of holiday cheer, the shopper weaves in and out of grocery aisles, then she stops, leans down and slides something into her purse. She leaves without paying for the stashed items. This woman is 69 years old, stopped by private undercover security guards. Increasingly, she is one of a new generation of Japan's shoplifters. Those over the age of 65.
(on-camera): With the cooperation of the grocery store and the security company, we placed cameras up above the aisles and hid them in our shopping carts and we quickly learned how big a problem shoplifting among the elderly is for this store.
(voice-over): The security officer watches this 80 year old man. He pays for some items but not everything. I'm so sorry, he tells them. I live alone, my wife is in the hospital. This man has stolen medicine for an upset stomach. And remember the 69-year-old woman? She stole some food for dinner.
I feel sorry for them, says security officer Takayuri Fujisawa.
TAKAYURI FUJISAWA, SPUJ SECURITY OFFICER (through translator): When I talk to them, they don't have enough money for food. Japan slipped into recession this winter as the global financial crisis collides with rapidly aging Japan. The trend of elderly thieves is alarming the government.
The government reports that the number of people over the age of 65 has doubled in 20 years. Yet crimes committed by the group has increased at a much higher rate, five times. In northern Japan, police say the total arrests of the elderly exceeded arrests of teenagers. Morio Mochuizuki runs private security for thousands of stores across Japan, he says the average shoplifter is now elderly.
MORIO MOCHUIZUKI, SPUJ SECURITY (through translator): They're spending Christmas and New Year's alone, says Mochuizuki.
LAH: Not only are they alone, they're also living longer than ever says Kazuo Kawakami, a former federal prosecutor. He calls the new crime trend the result of pressures on an aging population.
KAZUO KAWAKAMI, RETIRED FEDERAL PROSECUTOR (through translator): The main reason they shoplift is poverty and loneliness. The traditional Japanese family is gone and now elderly live alone.
LAH: Police usually issue warnings to elderly shoplifters like this woman but in most cases, the stores don't even report the petty crime and a service oriented culture that respects it's elderly yet deeply frowns on crime. It's a clash of ideals. The 80-year-old man is helped to his bicycle by the store security. The officer bows in respect, hoping the elderly man has learned his lesson and will return as a good customer tomorrow.
Kyung Lah, CNN, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JOHNS: CNN NEWSROOM is just minutes away, Alina Cho is in the CNN Center with a look at what's ahead.
ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there, Joe. Good to see you.
Here is a check of what we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM. He came to the party dressed as Santa Claus, he left as a cold- blooded killer. A ruthless crime spree that spared neither the young nor the old. A live report is just ahead.
Strategy of the season, slash prices and pray for bargain hunters. Desperate retailers try to turn around a dismal shopping season. And days without power, months of winter still ahead and new problems could loom for those wrapping up their holiday travel. We get started at the top of the hour right here on CNN.
Joe, back to you.
JOHNS: Thanks, Alina.
How would you like to get duped into showing up somewhere only to get handcuffed? A controversial sheriff's new show is causing an uproar, "Smile, you're under arrest."
Ever want to call your boss a big hairy beast, well now you can and you would probably be right. A new connection between bosses and monkeys. It's 48 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO, MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA: I want to thank all the actors for joining forces to help law enforcement get these guys in jail where they belong. All I want is to take these fugitives off the streets.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So we've set up a fake promotional company and we sent out mailers to specific fugitives that we targeted around Arizona. In that mailer, we've explained that they won $300 and all they have to do is come down to our event and pick it up. When they arrive at the event -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This guy has to believe this is the best day of his life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're making it better and better and better until we put them in handcuffs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: From the headlines to prime. One Arizona sheriff known for controversial tactics is now getting his own reality show. And it's not just inmates and criminals who are unhappy about it.
Entertainment correspondent Brooke Anderson has the story -- Brooke.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Joe and Carol, he calls himself America's toughest sheriff, his critics claim he's unethical and out of control. Now Sheriff Joe Arpaio is unapologetically going Hollywood in a new reality show.
ARPAIO: This is a very dangerous assignment to go after fugitives. You never know what's going to happen when these guys are wanted.
ANDERSON (voice-over): Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, one of the most controversial sheriffs in the country.
ARPAIO: I'm not going to brag but there isn't anybody in the world that doesn't know who this sheriff is.
ANDERSON: His inmates live outdoors in tents regardless of extreme temperatures. And they are forced to wear pink underwear.
ARPAIO: They were stealing the white underwear, smuggling the underwear out of the jail. So, you know what? Give them pink. The other reason is they hate pink. Why would you give 10,000 inmates a color they like?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The deputy is at the front door. He's coming your way. Stand by.
ANDERSON: Now Arpaio and his officers are taking their unusual tactics to television for the new reality series, "Smile, you're under arrest." The team works with actors staging elaborate scenarios to entice wanted criminals out of hiding.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now I want you to model my jail outfit.
ANDERSON: But promises of modeling and acting opportunities, unsuspecting felons with outstanding warrants including DUIs, drug charges and missed court dates show up only to be arrested.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now I got a little bit of a surprise.
ARPAIO: It's kind of fun to show how stupid they are, and as I say, the looks on their face.
ANDERSON: But not everyone agrees the show or Arpaio's participation is fun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is so wrong.
PACO FABIAN, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR "AMERICAN VOICE": That's going to celebrate a sheriff that is frankly scaring this community. A sheriff that has seen violent crime increase significantly in this county. A sheriff that is racially profiling the Latino community and I doubt that the sheriff is going to reflect that.
ANDERSON: Paco Fabian of pro-immigrant organization "America's Voice," asserts Arpaio leads unfair immigration sweeps. An allegation Arpaio flatly denies.
ARPAIO: We're the only ones cracking down on the state's human smuggling law.
ANDERSON: Arpaio is proud of his efforts off and on screen stating his team made hundreds of arrests as a result of these reality show stings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're under arrest, for real.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON: Fabian of "America's Voice" told me his organization is considering putting some pressure on the advertisers of this new reality show. "Smile you're under arrest" premiers on the Fox reality channel this weekend -- Joe, Carol.
COSTELLO: Merry Christmas.
Your boss, the beast, do you ever notice that he sometimes acts like an animal? Well, there might be a very good reason for that. There's a new connection between monkeys and the way your male boss behaves and that could explain a lot. 54 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CARROLL: Does that look familiar? This is a crazy story. By any chance do you have a boss who screeches? Struts around the office. It could be that your boss just can't help himself. He can't help that monkey business. Why is that?
CNN's Sasha Herriman takes a walk on the wild side this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SASHA HERRIMAN, CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Look familiar? That great animal display, spotted somewhere before. According to research, bosses just like animals like to mark their territory, they like to assert their authority. The study carried out at the University of New South Wales interviewed hundreds of management employees in a range of industries in a similar focus on hierarchy.
PROFESSOR CHRIS KNIGHT, ANTHROPOLOGIST: Chimpanzees would go, ooo, ooo.
HERRIMAN: So why would your boss might not actually sound like that, according to anthropologists here in the UK, the meaning is the same.
KNIGHT: It's just showing off how big you are. You can do it in all kinds of ways, you can build huge office blocks just to show off what resources you can afford to waste. And a gorilla, you know, pounding his chest or a chimpanzee tearing off branches is just saying look I've got all this energy which I can afford to expend on just intimidating you.
GILLIAN FORRESTER, PSYCHOLOGIST: And what use is 23 million years of evolution with great apes and have only had a much more recent divergence in the last six million years. So there's going to invariably going to be a lot of similarities in the way that we behave and we communicate and in fact the way we navigate social hierarchies.
HERRIMAN: For bright colored plumage and body parts, power suits and bigger chairs, louder voices that's because being territorial still helps you survive. Alpha males are hard wired to be brash and bossy. But unless you think we have evolved over the last millennia, there are some encouraging news while the nonverbal communication is a relic of our forebears.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 62, 5620.
FORRESTER: One of the major differences between us and great apes obviously is that we have evolved to develop and acquire human language.
HERRIMAN: Well, that's a relief. At least six million years makes a bit of difference. Now where's my banana?
Sasha Herriman, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: You know - JOHNS: Well I was just saying, I can think of some other animals, people I work for, not my current boss, of course.
COSTELLO: Of course not.
JOHNS: I mean, killer sharks, wolves, panthers. Why great apes? Well closest ancestor.
COSTELLO: I guess so. I don't know. Interesting. But I like her last line. Where's my banana?
Anyway, thank you for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. We hope you have a great weekend.
JOHNS: Right now here's CNN NEWSROOM with Alina Cho.
