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Alabama Killings: "Worst Mass Murder by Single Gunman in Alabama History"; Germany School Shooting Leaves 16 Dead Before Gunman Killed by Police; West Virginia's Road to Nowhere; Discovery Launch Scrubbed; Big Battle Over Merit Pay; Rare Picture, Long Hidden Message to President Lincoln Both Found

Aired March 11, 2009 - 14:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. On a stretch of Texas highway, who's the cop and who's the robber? Some drivers will tell you law and outlaw are one and the same.

And where in the heck is the rest of this road? Don't you feel good that your money is paying to pave the way to absolutely nowhere? Why isn't this job project pushing forward?

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live in the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Who decides how to spend taxpayer dollars? In the head-to-head fight over earmarks that's "Issue Number One." President Obama says that cost isn't the problem, accountability is. And if your counting on the stimulus to cure what ails the economy, well one of its biggest backers says it will help, but may not be enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: So I believe success breeds success. We start rolling with one million, two million, 2.5 million jobs, and that will cause an up roll spiral of success and even more jobs created. But as has been said by the economists, to us in that room, and Mark here, we have to keep the door open to see how this goes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, how goes Wall Street after yesterday's run of the bulls. Pretty black actually, a rally this morning pushed the Dow back about 7,000 for a two - well for about a minute or two, I guess. Plus, 12 points there, Dow industrials right now.

Let's turn back to the stimulus. The road to recovery won't be smooth. We know that. It won't be short and won't necessarily lead to - well, anywhere. Our Special Investigations Unit found a case in point in West Virginia.

Here's our Drew Griffin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): This is it. Corridor H, a massive four-lane highway literally in the middle of nowhere. $21 million of stimulus, and job creation money is coming to this project. But you should know this about it. When I tell you it goes nowhere, believe me, I am not making it up.

HUGH ROGERS, CORRIDOR H CRITIC: We're standing right here.

GRIFFIN (on camera): We are here?

ROGERS: Yes. Now, it's proposed to go on, you know, up like that.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): And even when completed, Hugh Rogers, a conservationist, who has been fighting Corridor H, says it will still be a road to nowhere, with nobody on it.

(on camera): But, Hugh, I'm looking out at this four-lane road. It's 6:00. The height of whatever there is, rush hour. There's nobody on it.

ROGERS: Need was not...

(LAUGHTER)

They went through a lot of contortions trying to explain what the need was.

GRIFFIN: Here's another part of that road to nowhere. This built outside of the town of Baker, and as you can see, nobody's on it.

(voice-over): This is hardly a new project. It began in 1965, and added on here and there ever since. Corridor H was to be a 100- mile-long economic engine. A stimulus for West Virginia. In reality, it remains a chunk of four-lane highway here, a bit there, some pieces connecting towns to towns, but no economic stimulator so far, says waitress Janet Straudman (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It doesn't seem like it, no.

GRIFFIN: Over the project's long history, West Virginia's Senator, Robert Byrd, has earmarked hundreds of millions of dollars to Corridor H. A $9.5 million earmark for the road is tucked into the big spending bill the Senate just passed, with that and the $21 million in stimulus cash, the stop-and-start highway is about to get just a little bit longer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The stimulus money is in this area. It's a $21 million project. And it's basically two bridges between two existing contracts that we have going on. That fills the gap and makes the usable section.

GRIFFIN: As for job creation? West Virginia can't say how many jobs the new construction will create, or save. Or really, how many jobs will be generated if the road ever really becomes the promised economic pipeline. That's OK, because even if no one uses the road, West Virginia says Corridor H is absolutely vital for national security. Remember the U.S. Capitol is two hours from here. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If something happens in the D.C. area, for instance...

GRIFFIN (on camera): Evacuation route.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Evacuation route, right.

GRIFFIN: Right. Except for this: Evacuees would have to travel in narrow, winding, 20-mile road in Virginia to get here. And Virginia says it has no plans to connect to Corridor H. Drew Griffin, Wardensville, West Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: It was a smooth landing as far as the emergency landings go. It happened just a few minutes ago, live on our air. This pilot was having trouble with his six-seat Piper Lancer aircraft. He had been circling for almost an hour, getting rid of fuel, trying to figure out what he was going to do.

Finally came down here at City Airport on the Eastside of Detroit. Did a really good job bringing it down. He steps out immediately. Gets on the cell phone. Firefighters arrive. All good in a day of flying.

New details now in a deadly shooting spree that killed 11 people in Alabama; a local district attorney says that the gunman, Michael McClendon, was keeping a list of those who had done him wrong. That list was found in McClendon's home. It included places where McClendon and his mother had previously worked.

There's also word that McClendon once trained as a police officer in the town of Samson where some of those shootings took place. Before killing himself, McClendon left 10 bodies scattered across two rural counties near the Florida state line. Some were his family members, including his mother, others, complete strangers. Two of the dead include the wife and young daughter of a sheriff's deputy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEPUTY JOSH MYERS, GENEVA CO., ALA. SHERIFF'S DEPT.: I was on duty. I was in a different area of the county. I was heading this way. We got another notified on the radio that a trooper was chasing a suspect that had fired shots. I went to Geneva, to Reliable, to assist. While on scene at Reliable, I called a friend and he come and checked on my family and he told me to get home. And I came home and found my wife and my daughter had been killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: That gunman had no criminal record, but had quit his job just a week ago. The shooting spree is being called the worst mass killing by a single gunman in Alabama history.

Drew mentioned earmarks early on. You saw his investigation. Some call them pork. Or other four-letter words I won't repeat. Thousands of them found their way into the $410 billion spending bill that President Obama is signing today.

They're individual projects promoted by individual lawmakers, with little or no input, or oversight from anybody else. The president says they're not all bad. But the process has to be opened up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The future demands that we operate in a different way than we have in the past. So let there be no doubt, this piece of legislation must mark an end to the old way of doing business. And the beginning of a new era of responsibility and accountability that the American people have every right to expect and demand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: But what exactly counts as an earmark? Does it really add to a bill's bottom line? Josh Levs here to talk us through it.

Hey, Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there.

Yes, that's actually a good point you're talking about, bottom line. A lot of people don't realize the way it really gets sliced out. And in the end, it's all your money, right, public money.

Check this out, behind me. If you want your answers, here they are. CNNmoney.com, "Earmarks: Myth and reality". We talk you through the basics. But there's one section I want you to see, so we have it on a graphic for you. Let's go to that.

This, if you hear us using earmark, this is what we're talking about. "Most typically an earmark is defined as a slice of the money allocated to an agency that a lawmaker or the president has requested be set aside for a specific project."

That part you knew. But look at this next one which talks you through how the money actually gets there. Earmarks are not additional spending. They're a portion of the total amount lawmakers have agreed to spend for a given year. So, for example, right now, we're talking about this huge $410 billion spending bill. Well, of that, lots of lawmakers have come in and tried to get portions of it in what are called earmarks.

And it's not just subjective. Check this out. There is a Web site, the White House has right here. OMB, it's Earmarks@ OMB.gov. They specifically say, there are earmarks. This is how they operate. So it's not all in hush-hush or secret. Check this out, Kyra. I wanted to show you this. Look at this.

This is Politofact.com, one of my favorite Web site. That does reality checking. They say what is an earmark. Zoom back in, because I want to get out of the picture for a second. I want to show you something. Check it out. What is an earmark? Watch what happens. They spend all this room attempting to answer what is an earmark. It goes on and on and on. And the reason is that over time, the House and the Senate, and the White House, have used different terms for what earmarks are. That has allowed lawmakers to make all sorts of competing claims. In the end, what's CNN calling an earmark? Just what I showed you, right here at CNNmoney.

PHILLIPS: Yes, but if you look at pork, if you look at fat, it's an easy definition. It's synonymous. So, what's going on?

(LAUGHTER)

LEVS: I know, you would think so. We have a few examples here. Take a look. These are things that did go through the earmark process. So they are earmarks, in that sense. You know all about this, right? The honey bee factory in Texas; pig odor research in Iowa, $1.7 million; $1 million for cricket control in Utah, close to a million there for sustainable energy in Las Vegas. These are all projects that individual lawmakers came and they said, of the $410 billion, I want this much to go to this project. Hence, as far as we're concerned it absolutely meets the definition of earmarks, and the White House, too. That's what they're saying, Kyra. Yeah, those are earmarks.

PHILLIPS: Cricket control in Utah? OK, right on.

LEVS: Maybe people there have problems with crickets.

PHILLIPS: A million bucks to smash the crickets. All right. Thanks, Josh.

LEVS: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: The White House briefing due to start any second now. We'll dip in when Press Secretary Robert Gibbs steps up to the mic.

Some Texas cops accused of pulling non-white people over. Making them hand over their cash. It's a story that we started for you last hour. We're about to hear from the reporter who helped break it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: East Texas, the junction of Routes 59 and 96. A dusty crossroads where a civil rights suit alleges that is police officers are highway robbers. Where they actually pull over non-white drivers, threaten them, and illegally seize their cash, their jewelry, even their cars.

We told you a little bit about Tenaha, Texas, last hour. Well, the mayor has given us a statement about all of this. Quote, "We're in the business of enforcing the law. When this lawsuit is over I would like to speak to the press further. I'm not able to do it while the lawsuit is pending."

Mayor George Bowers, by the way, is named as one of the defendants in that federal suit. This incredible story was brought to our, and the nation's attention by "The Chicago Tribune's" Southwest Bureau Chief Howard Witt. He's been covering racial justice issues in the South for some time. Howard, great to see you.

HOWARD WITT, SOUTHWEST BUREAU CHIEF, "THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE": Happy to be here.

PHILLIPS: I had a chance to talk to one of the attorneys. Obviously we're just getting statements from the mayor with regard to this. He won't come on. But what seems to be at issue here is this state's asset forfeiture law. My question to you is, are police officers operating legally under this asset forfeiture law? And taking these things from individuals that haven't even been charged in many cases and never convicted?

WITT: Yes, the police and local district attorney there say they are operating within the law. And it appears as if they are. Texas has an asset forfeiture law similar to many other states, and it basically allows police to seize assets that are used, or suspected in being used in commission of a crime. The law as it currently exists does not require a person to have been convicted of any crime, or even charged with any crime, before the police can actually seize their assets.

This is a loophole that Texas state senator now is even right now just introduced a bill yesterday in the Texas legislature trying to close this loophole based largely on what's happening in this small town in East Texas.

PHILLIPS: OK, interesting. You said they operate suspecting that these individuals did something wrong. So right now, it's legal for a police officer to go, hmm, OK, nice car, OK, we could have something there. Let me pull them over, let me figure out a way to do that. Maybe I should ask you, how are they pulling these individuals over?

WITT: Well, the probable cause to pull them over appears to be traffic violations, so in some cases they accuse somebody of speeding, or crossing the centerline, or something like that.

PHILLIPS: Got it. So, do they need probable cause to say, let me see how much cash you have? Let me see your jewelry?

WITT: Well, apparently not. I mean, this is going to be at issue in this lawsuit, as it makes its way through the courts. Essentially what the police are doing, once they pull somebody over, they do a search, they discover that they may be carrying, you know, several thousand dollars in cash, or they have jewelry or other property. The police then give them an offer that basically the people can't refuse. They say either you sign this document in which you voluntarily waive your right to all your cash and property, or else we're going to charge you with money laundering.

Well, even though the charge may be trumped up, the victims in this are usually out-of-town drivers, and they don't want to face the prospect of having to come back multiple times to this town, hire an attorney, try to fight to clear their name. So, they basically make a calculation that, I guess I just better sign away my property or else I'm going to have to come back here and fight these criminal charges. PHILLIPS: But don't the officers need proof that they were money laundering? I mean, I would think -- I didn't take -I'm not money laundering, so I'm going to - you know, up yours, I'm out of here. You've got no proof.

WITT: Apparently they don't. Because according to the documents, the affidavits that the officers sign, it's enough for them to simply say that we suspect there is this money laundering. They use that leverage against the folks to get them to voluntarily sign away their property. So, it seems like quite a loophole.

PHILLIPS: Wow. Well, I'll tell you what, we have to wrap up and head to the White House because Robert Gibbs is going to give the press conference.

But I tell you what, Howard, I want to follow up with you. If you don't mind, will you stay in touch with us? Because I want to see what happens with these cases, if indeed that law changes in any way and if indeed this police department has been acting illegally.

WITT: Sure. Be happy to do it.

PHILLIPS: Great job, Howard. Appreciate it.

Let's take you live to the White House now, Robert Gibbs.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: ... on earmark reform throughout his tenure in Washington, no pun intended, has been quite clear. He's called for greater transparency, that names be attached to earmarks, but has also said that this is a process that can and - and - and reasonably should be reformed.

I think that's exactly what the president talked about today. I think it's also - objectively, looking at the process, we have seen a decrease in the number of earmarks over the past several years. That's part of good progress.

But as the president said today, it was time to take change one step further. He talked about increasing - increasing the transparency that's involved, having - I mean, half the reason - part of the reason we get into these problems is we have what you had today, was an - an appropriations bill that, first of all, should have been completed by September 30th of 2008. It's now March the 11th, 2009.

It's also a piece of legislation that contains nine of the 13 appropriations bills all lumped into one.

The president spoke today that Congress instead should have bills go through a regular process, be considered one by one. Going through that regular order, increasing that transparency will increase the scrutiny on individual earmarks; that will necessarily cut down the number that are seen in pieces of legislation. And I think the president was clear that, if there are earmarks that get through the process that he thinks are unnecessary, he - he will work on a vehicle to remove those from our spending priorities.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) is that he can request they be removed, and it goes to Congress, and they can just shove it in a drawer.

GIBBS: Right.

QUESTION: Another way to do that is for him to - the president to have the authority for that list to have to come up for a vote.

GIBBS: To be considered under a certain timetable.

QUESTION: So why wouldn't he come out and endorse that...

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: Well, I think that's - I think, if you look closely at his remarks, he looks forward to working through a process that allows that to happen. And I think the budget...

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: Well, I don't have the remarks in front of me, but I think he was pretty explicit that if - if the process - if something got through the process, you could at that point consider a separate piece of legislation to do that.

Obviously, you mentioned this - you know, it's one thing to stand up and pound your fist - and certainly the president has done that - about a process that he believes is out of control. Now we have to work with Congress to institute reforms that - that can work, because, as you mentioned, it doesn't do anybody any good to send up a rescissions package that goes - is a piece - becomes a piece of paper in somebody's file drawer.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

GIBBS: That's why - well, I'd - he would like to work with Congress to figure out a process to make something like that possible. That's why the director of OMB mentioned yesterday in testifying to Congress that if - that his department is - is looking through the spending bill, will make a recommendation - staff will make a recommendation about proceeding further with that.

But, you know, I - and, you know, don't take my word for it. You rarely do anyway. But...

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: Me?

GIBBS: I don't mean you personally, I meant you all. But, I mean - I know. Did that hurt? Did that seem stunning?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

GIBBS: OK.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

(LAUGHTER)

GIBBS: No, no, the - but I think that, you know, look at somebody like Norm Ornstein, who's followed Congress and watched the process of - of appropriations go back and forth, and understand that - that today marks - I think what he said was the beginning of significant - or continued significant reform on this process.

Obviously, we've seen the process in - in past years get out of control, and the president is encouraged to take steps to bring about some control.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Robert, we understand that the president will be meeting with the Chinese foreign minister on Thursday. To what extent will the naval confrontation this week overshadow that meeting? And, secondly, will the president bring up China's currency with the foreign minister? And as an addendum to that, to what extent will that be important at the G-20 meeting, as well?

GIBBS: Well, let me say that the foreign minister will meet with Secretary Clinton today, will meet tomorrow with National Security Adviser Jim Jones, and - and they will both meet then with the president.

The president looks forward to discussing issues of mutual concern with the Chinese foreign minister, including our global economic crisis, and the incident involving the boats of - of the two countries will be on that list for discussion.

I don't - I don't think it will overshadow it, but I think the president will continue to make clear our country's position.

QUESTION: Is currency an area of mutual concern? GIBBS: I'd - I would probably put that under the global economic crisis and a number of other issues that will be on the agenda that the president looks forward to talking to the foreign minister about.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Robert, following on what Jennifer was saying about gentle rhetoric from the president today, when you mentioned that Congress didn't get 9 out of 13 appropriations bills done, that's obviously a Democratic Congress. His fellow Democrats failed to get those bills done last year.

Now, Mitch McConnell today, the Republican leader, was saying that when you add up the $787 billion stimulus, you add on the $410 billion the president is about to sign for the omnibus, it's $1 billion an hour in 51 days. The American people look at that. Is that really change to the way Washington is working?

GIBBS: Well, I probably shouldn't engage an individual senator who ran Congress for a number of years where deficits set records. And I - I won't do something like that today. I mean, I...

(LAUGHTER)

QUESTION: Tomorrow maybe?

GIBBS: Or later in this briefing.

(LAUGHTER)

The...

QUESTION: The president is signing these now. Regardless of what Mitch McConnell did before the president...

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: Hold on. Let's not - I'm asked about the debt every day. That's not - not exactly - let's not exactly put...

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: No, I - well, according to some in the Senate, it was last hour's business. The president has proposed a return to fiscal sanity and a path towards fiscal responsibility.

Look, here's what I would say. I will - I'll break my campaign promise and engage the senator from Kentucky and any senator or representative in Congress. There - it is certainly within one's right to criticize the budget. That's - we get that.

You know, I think the best way for him to put forward a budget that we can look at and debate and see whether there's honest accounting, whether we take into account natural disasters, paying for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the possibility of continued financial stability, investments in health care, education, and energy independence, the best way to do that is for Senator McConnell and anybody else to put forward a budget plan that does those things and puts ourselves on a path toward fiscal responsibility.

I think that's the best way to have the debate joined. It's an important debate that we're having, and I think it's important that, as Mr. Buffett said, we work constructively together to try to solve our economic challenges. But that's all part of the process.

QUESTION: Why did the president apply a different standard of this is last year's business for this legislation, when on things like TARP, when he was president-elect, he reached out to then-President Bush and said, "Look, we need to authorize the other $350 billion," even though TARP was last October. It was clearly last year's business.

GIBBS: Let's be fair, Ed.

QUESTION: I am.

GIBBS: OK. Well, let's - let's understand, how does the next $350 - I'm sorry, $350 billion get triggered?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) triggered by the president (OFF-MIKE)

GIBBS: No, it gets triggered by the Senate - the Senate had to - I'm sorry, one house of the Congress had to basically authorize the re-spending of that money. So that was something that was put in by last Congress at our request, certainly.

I mean, this - you know, but it's not - trust me, having listened to some of those phone calls, it wasn't a one-sided deal. You know, triggering an additional amount of money in order to be spent in the current isn't last year's business.

QUESTION: But there are a whole host of things like that that President Bush - you've said you inherited from President Bush, but you're not running away from them, like Iraq, timetable. The president followed through on that, said we're going to remove them.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: OK. The question is, on this piece of legislation, the president used the principle, "This is last year's business. So even though it's got all kinds of things I don't like, I'm going to sign it anyway," OK?

There are a whole bunch of other things he got from President Bush that he doesn't like, either. And he's going to - you know, President Bush didn't want to have a timetable in Iraq, but President Obama came in and said, "We're going to put that timetable. I campaigned on that." Well, he campaigned on earmarks, as well, pulling them out of these bills. Where is the consistency?

GIBBS: I'm having - I'm having a lot of trouble connecting the dots in your - I mean, I suppose the president could have come in and assumed that people weren't in Iraq, but I don't understand your analogy.

QUESTION: I'm saying this legislation is last year's business, but he's signing it into law this year. He could have vetoed it. Why wouldn't he veto it?

GIBBS: Let me give you last - let me give you yesterday's answer. The president believes that, despite protestations, that appropriations bills designed to be completed before September 30th of the previous year are last year's business.

I think any reasonable look at the appropriations process would understand that. The president believes that, moving forward, dozens and dozens of appropriations bills will cross his desk, because he's asked, first and foremost, that Congress not lump large bills together. And to be fair, that's done virtually every year. Six to nine of these appropriations bills get glommed on at the very end or go into overtime in order to do that.

That changing the rules going forward were important, because the president was - is best able to have an impact on that legislation moving forward. That's what the president enumerated through transparency and a full set of earmark reforms that I bet, when we look back on a year or two from now, we'll see a decrease in the number of spending projects, just as the president has asked that we put ourselves back on a path toward fiscal responsibility through a budget that will cut the deficit in half in - in just four years.

Yes, ma'am?

QUESTION: Earlier in the Oval Office this morning, the president said, "We're doing a very good job of stimulating the economy here at home." Is the president ready to...

PHILLIPS: Do you want to continue to watch the White House briefing? Go to CNN.com/live where we're streaming it right now. We're going to take a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Kyra Phillips.

PHILLIPS: New details now in a deadly shooting spree that killed 11 people in Alabama. A local district attorney says the gunman, Michael McLendon, was keeping a list of those who had done him wrong. That list was found in McLendon's home. It included places where McLendon and his mother had previously worked. There's also word that McLendon once trained briefly as a police officer in the town of Samson where some of the shootings actually took place.

Now before killing himself, McLendon left ten bodies scattered across two rural counties near the Florida state line. Some were his family members, including his mother, others complete strangers. The gunman had no criminal record, but had quit his job just a week ago. The shooting spree is being called the worst mass killing by a single gunman in Alabama history.

Then in Germany, a 17-year-old gunman dressed in black stormed into his former high school today and opened fire. Ten students and three teachers were killed. The gunman killed another person as he left the school, then hijacked a car and drove to a nearby town. He killed two bystanders there before he was shot dead by police. It's the latest in a series of school shootings in Germany going all the way back to 2002.

Let's head out to Florida now. Developing news regarding the space shuttle. Looks like that launch has been scrapped. John Zarrella working the details for us now.

John, what have you been able to find out? Go ahead, John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra, the details right now are very, very thin. We're waiting for more information from NASA. But we're waiting for details right now from NASA, Kyra. The details are very, very thin.

But what we are finding out is that, apparently, at some point during the fueling of the liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the giant external tank, there is a leak that has developed on the hydrogen side. That could not necessarily be a very good thing. So they went ahead and they scrubbed the launch today.

They had for awhile continued fueling the oxygen side of the tank. But again, they have now officially scrubbed for today. Trying to get some more details on exactly what happened out there at the launch pad, where that leak is. We don't know on what side, if it's in the vehicle or if it's in some of the apparatus from the fueling side.

This mission was supposed to be a two-week mission to the International Space Station. It had already been delayed well over a month because of concerns, paper-thin cracks in the main engine valves that fueled the main engines. So until NASA worked through that problem, they had scrubbed and continued to delay this mission. So now, another delay in the launch of the Space Shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station.

We'll continue, Kyra, to work those details and bring them to you as we can on just exactly what has happened and whether this is a showstopper for perhaps just 24 hours, or if this is going to mean even longer, more extensive period of time that Discovery is grounded - Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, what a shame. It's such a beautiful day. Usually weather is a problem. Now you have the perfect day, John.

ZARRELLA: Yes. Absolutely perfect weather today, Kyra, no question about it.

PHILLIPS: Hopefully it will happen tomorrow when they get that leak figured out.

John Zarrella, thanks so much.

Some ideas hate the idea, others love it. While merit pay splits the classroom, it's got a major supporter now: President Obama.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, if he hasn't already, President Obama soon will sign $410 billion spending bill ensuring the federal government won't run out of money before the end of the fiscal year. But in light of a few thousand earmarks inserted by lawmakers at both parties, the president also promises new rules and restraint. They're not all bad, he says. But future earmarks need to be public - publicly justified, that is, with public aims.

Well, merit paper for teachers - just raising the issue can put a scowl on some educators' faces. But supporters, including President Obama, thinks it's a good way to motivate teachers to be their very best. More on the debate now from Ted Rowlands in Los Angeles.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

A.J. DUFFY, PRESIDENT, UNITED TEACHERS LOS ANGELES: What is going on here is a travesty.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): During his break from his battle on layoffs with the Los Angeles School Board, the head of the second largest teacher union local in the country told us, President Obama has it all wrong if he thinks merit pay will help public schools. A.J. Duffy, president of the United Teachers of Los Angeles, assumes the program will rely on standardized test scores.

DUFFY: What we've done with public education today is narrowed the curriculum so that teachers can legally teach to the test. We've done that at the expense of science, of social studies, of the arts.

ROWLANDS: But many others, including the president, see it differently and say merit pay would help motivate and retain good public schoolteachers.

OBAMA: Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay. Even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom.

ROWLANDS: High school English teacher Matt Taylor said, there's no fair way to judge a teacher.

MATT TAYLOR, HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: Teaching is an art, not a science. And it's very hard to quantify and put a dollar amount on every single teacher or most teachers for what they do in the classroom.

ROWLANDS: But many parents who showed up to support teachers at the Los Angeles layoff protest also support merit pay.

GINGER BOWER, PARENT: I think it's paying teachers to be creative and instilling learning so that children can be able to excel on the test.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I absolutely believe they should be paid on a merit basis. It's very much like a corporation, whereas you get bonuses for doing well and achieving certain measurable goals.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, as part of his education plan, President Obama also wants longer school days and years to help American children compete in this world.

Well, if you're looking to get a job as a substitute teacher, good luck. Schools are getting more applications than they can even handle. Some big cities are even setting limits. New York stopped taking applications in October. Chicago closed applications at 7,000. Detroit only has openings in bilingual education. And L.A. also has trimmed the number of slots open to substitute teachers.

So is the economy driving you to drink? We're going to show you a new website that may have you rethinking your drinking.

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PHILLIPS: Well, the bar where everybody knows your name is still pouring drinks, but guess what. Eddie Doyle isn't. For 35 years, Doyle tended bar at the Bull and Finch in Boston, the real-life model for the TV show "Cheers." Well, then came the recession and unfortunately, a pink slip for Doyle. He says he'll use his free time to write a book, though. So don't worry about him. He's going to tell all his stories about the pub's regulars, and he says that there are a lot more eccentric, by the way, than Norm and Cliff.

The economy, as the old saying goes, it's enough to drive you to drink. Well, guess what. According to some reports, a lot of people actually are drinking more. Or at least not cutting back on their booze. Well, perhaps coincidentally the National Institutes of Health, they're just launched a new website right here called, "Rethinking Your Drinking."

Its - one of its features is actually a quiz to assess your habit. Well, guess what. Our whole team took it this morning and let's just say we're all definitely rethinking our drinking.

Let me show you how it works. You go to the front page of the website and it's got all kinds of areas you can click onto about, "How Much Is Too Much," "Thinking About a Change," "Tools," "Resources," "Support for Quitting."

But here's how you get started. You actually, right on the front page, hit the "Get Started," and it asks you questions about your patterns. So what we did, we clicked in. It says on any day in the past year, have you ever had, for men, more than four standard drinks in a year; for women, more than three standard drinks. We plugged in, of course, that. And think, think about your typical week. On average, how many days per week do you drink alcohol? On a typical drinking day, how many drinks do you have?

We plugged in those numbers. It's actually a combination of all of us. Guess what, it came up higher risk. Drink more than either the single-day limit or the weekly limit. You're either at the higher risk, higher risk or low risk.

Well, then we popped on "Higher Risk," what does that mean? Among drinkers with your pattern, exceeding the single-day limits only, about 20 percent have alcoholism or alcohol abuse. All of our eyes definitely opened to that. Because, of course, you think, there's nothing wrong with a couple days a week, you're going out to dinner, you're having dinners in your home. You really don't realize what the effects can be.

So that took us to, "Rethinking Your Drinking." And this section that was on the left side of that page, because it actually asks you, like after you look at your pattern, OK? You have an option here on the left side about what to do. "Are You thinking About a Change?" "Strategies For Cutting Down." "What's the Harm?" You know, "How Risky is Your Drinking Pattern?"

So we decided to click onto the tips of things to try. It actually had some pretty creative ideas of what you can do to monitor your drinking by keeping track, count and measure, set goals, pace and space, include food, avoid triggers. Triggers is pretty good, we thought.

Let me pan it over here and show you a little built more of what that says in that section. This is really touchy, but here we go. So look at this part.

"Avoiding Triggers," What triggers your urge to drink? If certain people or places make you drink even more when you don't want to, try to avoid them. If certain activities, times of day, feelings trigger that urge, plan something else to do instead of drinking. If drinking at home is a problem, keep little or no alcohol there. Some of this is pretty basic, but there were great ideas.

Anyway, in this economy it's really tough. We talked about the fact that alcoholism is on the rise. It's a great website to click onto, brought to you by the National Institutes of Health.

All right. It's also got a lot of other - say that again? Oh, OK. Well, we're going to talk about this long storied history of the high five. You may remember, it was a new low. We actually told you about a school crossing guard banned from high fiving the kids. Sounds pretty ridiculous, right? But now it seems that it's more sensible heads have prevailed.

In a nod to International Women's Day, well, we've been recognizing female leaders from around the world, here's a few more of the women currently in power.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Quick update now to that story we told you about yesterday. A town council in Australia had banned a school crossing guard from high fiving the kids like he had done for 18 years. Well, a parent had complained about the contact. So authorities said the hand slaps distracted him from his duties. Well, guess what. We got an e-mail from the guard's son. He tells us the high fives are back on, as long as they happen before the kids step into the road.

And as always, "Team Sanchez" back there, high fiving his team on a constant basis because they make him look so good.

Hey, Rick. What you got today?

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Well we're looking at Mexico again. I mean, I know this is kind of like one of the favorite stories that's being examined all over the United States. And there's real questions as to - look, part of what our mission is, is to separate fact from fiction. And when you see these screaming headlines about Mexico about to become a failed state or Mexico in collapse, you start to wonder whether this is the truth or just a story that's easy to tell from this side of the border.

So we're asking experts, ambassadors, people who know Mexico, is it on the brink of being a failed state or not. And you know the old thing your dad and your mom always told you, if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem? It's also probably a relatively important question to ask, given the fact that it's a country just to our south. So we're going to do that.

And we're also going to be talking a little bit about Britain. England - you know, what the republicans say is Obama wants to spend his way out of this problem that we have. There are some historians who say, well, that's exactly what the British did after they were beaten and battered and bankrupted after WW II. We'll look at that model and compare it to what's going on in this country, too.

As my son Robby (ph) would say, Kyra, we're going to try to be real smart today.

PHILLIPS: It's not a problem for you. Thanks, Rick.

SANCHEZ: All righty.

Stick around. We'll show you one of the last known photos of President Lincoln.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, it's a discovery that got admirers of the nation's 16th president extremely excited today. Is this one of last picture taken of Abraham Lincoln before he was assassinated? Well, an expert on Lincoln photography thinks so. He says, it appears to show Lincoln, who is the tallest president at six foot four, in front of the White House. The photo turned up in an album owned by the family of Ulysses S. Grant. If it turns out to be true, it would be one of the only 130 known photos of Lincoln.

Also, check this out. A long hidden message has been discovered actually inside Lincoln's pocket watch. A watchmaker was repairing the timepiece in 1861 when he heard about the attack on Fort Sumter that started the Civil War. He inscribed a message about the attack on the inside of that watch. Lincoln never saw the message. It was discovered by the National Museum of American History after it got word of the message from one of the watchmaker's great-great- grandsons. I love that kind of historical stuff.

Rick Sanchez takes it from here. We'll see you back here tomorrow.