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American Morning
Health Care Town Hall Tempers Rising; Why the Health Care Debate Stirs Passion; Foreclosed Homeowners Face Fines When Banks Walk Away; Children As Casualties of War in Afghanistan; Woodstock: Then and Now
Aired August 13, 2009 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome. Glad you're with us this morning on this AMERICAN MORNING. It's Thursday, August 13th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. A lot on the agenda this morning and here are the top stories we'll be breaking down for you in the next 15 minutes.
Hundreds of U.S. Marines on the offensive in southern Afghanistan trying to seize control of a Taliban stronghold and protect voters in next week's president election. CNN's Barbara Starr is monitoring developments for us live from the Pentagon.
CHETRY: President Obama is getting ready for another road trip to pitch health care reform. But at town hall meetings yesterday in Pennsylvania, Iowa and Maryland, senators were again were again shouted down. Now we've even some White House supporters are criticizing how the administration is handling things. Dan Lothian will break it down for us.
ROBERTS: And the Federal Reserve says the economy is leveling out, suggesting the recession could soon be over. Some good news for your job and your money. Christine Romans "Minding Your Business" this morning.
CHETRY: We begin with the fight for Afghanistan on a critical military campaign for the Obama administration. Right now, U.S. Marines and Afghan forces are engaged in a fierce battle with the Taliban for control of a strategic town in southern Afghanistan.
Our Barbara Starr is live at from her post at the Pentagon. And, Barbara, this fight comes at a very crucial time for Afghanistan.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Kiran. One week from today, Afghanistan holds presidential elections. The Taliban are vowing to disrupt those elections. The U.S. is doing everything it can to make sure the elections are secure. U.S. troops, as you say, Marines now in the fight in the strategic southern city of Dahaneh in Afghanistan, southern Helmand province. Some of the video we are showing our viewers is really extraordinary. This video, some of it taken at night by the Associated Press as they move into the area with the Marines. Casualties in southern Afghanistan have been heavy in recent weeks as the extra U.S. troops have moved. President Obama, of course, sending 21,000 additional U.S. forces to the war in Afghanistan. All of the efforts now really over the next several days very intense to make sure those elections one week from today do come off and that they are free and fair as much as possible in Afghanistan and that the Taliban don't disrupt them -- Kiran.
CHETRY: And, of course, we heard from General McChrystal about the challenges there, about the Taliban having the upper hand. We hear about the battles going on there. Will we be seeing more U.S. troops heading over there soon?
STARR: You know that is really the question on the table right now. General McChrystal finishing up that assessment about what else is needed for both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and, of course, President Obama.
This is the question everybody is asking. There are indications that General McChrystal will ask for some additional capabilities, intelligence, counter IED, to try and get a handle on that IED threat that is facing U.S. troops.
But the critical question, Kiran, more combat troops? It's already up to 68,000. Many people are skeptical saying you can't have too heavy a U.S. combat footprint in that country. The people there will resent it. But there are a lot of indications that what they have there still is not enough -- Kiran.
CHETRY: Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon this morning. Thank you.
ROBERTS: President Obama is getting ready for round two of his health care road show. He's heading west tomorrow for town halls in Montana and Colorado. And the debate is growing more passionate across the country.
Senator Arlen Specter facing more tough questions at a town hall meeting at Penn State yesterday. Hundreds of people in Hagerstown, Maryland booed and hissed Senator Ben Cardin shouting, "just say no." And Republican Senator Charles Grassley got an earful too at town halls yesterday in Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R), IOWA: I'm not going to do anything that's going to nationalize health insurance -- or, I mean, nationalize health care in America. I don't intend to do anything that allow government bureaucrats to get between you and your doctor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator Grassley, please forgive my teleprompter here. I have heard your recent rhetoric about how we all want the same thing as Obama health care reform. I disagree on every level. There is nothing in that bill that I would agree to and we have to stop giving ground.
Government isn't the answer, it's the cancer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Right now, as Dan Lothian reports, the White House is working hard to stay on message.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't know. You don't know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't know.
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (D), PENNSYLVANIA: Seventy-four is going to be written off because they have cancer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why don't they take the health care being forced down our throats.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You don't trust me?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: There's a lot of noise in the health care debate, some of which the White House is calling misinformation that could muddle the message.
(on camera): And is there any concern that if this misinformation machine continues and the record can't be corrected as the White House would like it to be that it could potentially make it more difficult to get health care reform processed?
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We'll get -- the debate is dominated by something that's not true, of course.
LOTHIAN (voice-over): But White House spokesman Robert Gibbs hopes public support for health care reform will hinge on the facts.
GIBBS: I don't think the president believes, though, that when all is said and done that those people will make their decisions on something that is false and something that has been presented as false.
LOTHIAN: But even as the president was trying to set the record straight at a town hall in Portsmouth, New Hampshire Tuesday, his own facts were fuzzy. This is what he said about the AARP.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare. I guess I just want seniors to be clear about this.
LOTHIAN: While the AARP agrees it would never support a bill that undermines Medicare, in a statement, it's chief operating officer called any suggestion of an endorsement "inaccurate." Gibbs cleaned it up this way.
GIBBS: I don't think the president meant to imply anything untoward.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just misspoke?
GIBBS: Right.
LOTHIAN (on camera): The White House says that these town halls the president has held have been valuable, a way to inform and to knock down what they see as false information about health care reform. So the president hits the road again this weekend with town halls in Bozeman, Montana and Grand Junction, Colorado.
Dan Lothian, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: And the CNN truth squad is fact-checking some of the claims being made about the health care reform bill like this one that popped up twice during Senator Arlen Specter's town hall meeting on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On page 58 and 59 of this bill which gives the government access to private individual bank accounts at their free will...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now, we're retired agents. We worked long and hard for what we have. And, sir, if I want to spread my wealth around, it will be to my children, grandchildren, to my community, to my church, of my choosing. I do not think the government has the right to do that. I would think I have to brush up on my constitution, but I would think that's unconstitutional.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: OK. So the question -- will the health care bill let Uncle Sam into your bank account? The truth squad's verdict on that one? False.
The provision the woman cited does not affect individuals. It affects the companies involved in medical billing. The purpose of the provision is to set up a standardized payment system between insurers and doctors offices. So, no, ma'am. It won't be in your bank account.
And as always, we want to know what you think about the louder than ever health care debate or anything else that's on your mind. Just dial up our show hotline at 1-877-MY-AMFIX. That's 877-692-6349.
CHETRY: Well, a wildfire burning near California's Santa Cruz mountains forcing hundreds of people from their homes. It started last night. It's been moving very quickly already burning 2,000 acres. Firefighters say they don't know how it started and they don't know when they're going to be able to get it under control. The mandatory evacuations were ordered overnight. ROBERTS: Former Vice President Dick Cheney discussing his years in office and appears ready to tell-all in his memoir. "The Washington Post" reports Cheney felt President Bush stopped taking his advice in the second term. And Cheney is quoted as saying the statute of limitations has expired on many of his secrets. Cheney's book is due out in 2011.
CHETRY: We know one person who won't be watching Tiger Woods try to win another major at the PGA this weekend -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Chavez blasting golf on his live TV program calling it a "bourgeoisie sport." He also said that golf carts are proof of the sport's laziness. "The New York Times" is now reporting the Chavez government plans to shut down two of the country's best-known golf courses.
ROBERTS: He also suggested that riding a golf cart was a sign of laziness as well.
CHETRY: Yes. That's what we just said. But you like to walk the course.
ROBERTS: Yes. I do. I prefer walking.
CHETRY: But you admit it is bourgeoisie.
ROBERTS: I don't know if bourgeoisie but, I mean, certainly it's -- it's a game that a lot of people like to play. Let's put it that way.
You can't win on this argument, so I'm not even going to try.
Christine Romans coming up right after the break. Is the recession over? We'll find out. Stay with us.
It's eight and a half minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Eleven minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. We have Christine Romans with us.
So we heard, you know, the reporting yesterday, when they asked a bunch of economist, many of them or most of them, in fact, said that the recession is over. Are people on Main Street feeling that?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a big question and they're not going to feel it for a while. The Federal Reserve in its minutes or yesterday had its big meeting and it didn't change interest rates. But the Federal Reserve said essentially that things are leveling out.
So, again, this isn't growing gangbusters, folks. This is stabilization, signs of leveling out. This is what the Federal Reserve said in particular. They said, "Information suggests that the economic activity is leveling out. Conditions and financial markets have improving further in recent weeks. Conditions in financial markets, household spending has continued to show signs of stabilizing as well."
So financial markets and household starting to stabilize again. But, look, that's -- as I said, that's not growing gangbusters. This is the fed, at least, signaling to us that the worst might be behind us.
Next step, talking to employers, Watson Wyatt Worldwide is a company that's an HR consultant. And this is what they're finding and this is going to be what affects you first.
Are companies going to stop those hiring freezes? Are they going to stop being so defensive in the next year? They found that 33 percent of surveyed employers are going to unfreeze those salaries in the next six months. Seventy-nine percent are going to unfreeze salaries within the next year. That's good news for people who've been sticking around for the past year and a half or something and haven't had a salary increase. And 70 percent of the people who were surveyed said that they plan to start hiring in the next year -- people who have...
CHETRY: Seventy percent?
ROMANS: ... freeze on hiring right now. They plan to start hiring them next year. I spoke with nine CEOs yesterday -- fascinating. Three of them said that they are actually hiring right now.
ROBERTS: Really.
ROMANS: But six are not. And six of them still in a very defensive position but looking ahead with a great deal of caution. CEOs, small, midsized businesses from all different kinds of different businesses still quite cautious. Still with an eye to Washington, still worried about political risks, still worried about taxes, still worried about...
ROBERTS: Yes. It's going to take a while for all this to shake out.
ROMANS: I've got to admit.
ROBERTS: You've got a "Romans' Numeral" this morning?
ROMANS: I do. It's 4,136.
CHETRY: 4,136, right?
ROMANS: 136.
CHETRY: OK.
ROMANS: 1,136 is dollars. And this has to do with some of the reasons why we seem to be crawling out of this or at least leveling off. This is every American's share of the federal budget deficit, which topped yesterday in July...
ROBERTS: This is just the deficit, not the debt.
ROMANS: Oh, yes. This is just the money we're spending that we don't have right now in our budget situation. $1.27 trillion is our federal budget deficit in July.
ROBERTS: Wow.
ROMANS: You know, four times higher than any record...
ROBERTS: So what is our share of the debt up to? 34,000, 35,000?
ROMANS: Oh, gosh, 35,000, maybe 38,000. I have to run that one but...
CHETRY: But what does it mean for the average American when we have a budget deficit of $1.27 trillion?
ROMANS: It means we're spending so much more money than we take in that someone has to pay for it somewhere. And how are you going to pay for it?
You either pay for it with lower services eventually, or you pay for it with higher taxes, or some combination of the two of those things. Or, the economy grows so strongly in the next few years, more strongly than we've ever seen it before that you don't end up having to pay for it. I don't think anybody is really thinking that's part of the scenario. But it's some combination of those three things is how you end up paying for it.
CHETRY: All right. A little bit later, we're going to talk about how local school districts are trying to figure out creative ways to pay for it...
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: ... because they're out of money.
ROMANS: I'll tell you how they'll pay for it. You, me...
ROBERTS: Yes. Things will get real bad.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: Wait until you see Christine's report on that.
CHETRY: Pay to play.
ROBERTS: You know, we see all of this anger and we see all these emotion at these town halls on health care. Coming up in the next couple of minutes, we're going to talk to a couple of people who really have their finger on the pulse of what people are thinking about what is driving all of them.
I mean, look at this. This woman being taken away by the police here in... CHETRY: We're going to speak to her a little bit later in fact.
ROBERTS: Yes. We'll be talking to her too. So, this is your place for the health care debate. We'll get you all the information you need to know to make reason decisions on all of this.
Fifteen minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. The debate over health care reform has clearly touched a nerve in this country. Many Americans with no particular passion for politics are suddenly inspired to show up at these town hall meetings. So what is it about this issue that has so many people so fired up?
Jacquelyn Mitchard, a contributor with "Parade" magazine, she joins us from Boston. You will also recognize her as the author of the best-selling novel "The Deep End of the Ocean." And Ronnie Polaneczky is a columnist with the "Philadelphia Daily News." She joins us this morning from Philadelphia.
It's great to see both of you this morning. And, Ronnie, why don't we start with you because Pennsylvania has been the center of some of the most rough and tumble town hall meetings. We saw what Arlen Specter has been going through for the last few days.
RONNIE POLANECZKY, AWARD WINNING COLUMNIST, "PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS": Oh.
ROBERTS: What are you hearing from people as you sort of, you know, get a sense of what they're thinking? Why are they so fired up?
POLANECZKY: You know, when I think about it -- I think beyond sort of the obvious questions that people have about how will we pay for something this big, I think it really does come down to issues of -- people have -- they're sort of a fundamental belief that if you just live your life right, you will never find yourself in dire circumstances.
I really believe that's sort of the underlying bedrock here. That if people would just get off their duffs, get their job, which would have good health care than the rest of us wouldn't have to carry the water for you. But I think the people who feel that way are either people who have insurance that they have been lucky enough to never have to test to the max, or they are people who have had some luck. They've just been lucky in terms of circumstances.
But I do think that they're sort of -- there's a bit of a class divide. And I think beyond that people also don't want to think that maybe luck has as much to do with some of this as it does.
ROBERTS: Right.
POLANECZKY: They want to think that they're not that vulnerable. And I wonder if that's not touching just a deep core of terror about how vulnerable we can all be just walking around in the world. That's my thought.
ROBERTS: Jacquelyn, what are you sensing about this? Because people are involved in this. They're fired up about this like few things they have been in the past. Why has it touched such a nerve?
JACQUELYN MITCHARD, FORMER SPEECHWRITER FOR DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: Because it's going away. Among people I know, this is priority one. You look at the paper for jobs and very few of them offer health care benefits now that the employer even contributes any portion of the pay toward -- toward the health care that the people can buy. What I pay for in health care as the self-employed person is enough to pay a mortgage and a car payment every month.
ROBERTS: Yes. We should point out, you've got seven children, right?
MITCHARD: To cover myself and...
I have seven kids, and it also covers my husband. And it's not trivial. And it can be taken away at any moment. It's for -- you know, we hear all these little slogans about how government isn't the answer, it's the cancer.
Well, you know, health insurance is for the healthy and the wealthy. You know, it will cover you if a window falls on you when you're walking down the street in New York, but not if you have something actually wrong with you like a bunion or a heart murmur -- you know, the things for which people actually need health care.
ROBERTS: And, Ronnie, you had -- Ronnie, you had some personal experience with this. I read a column that you wrote. I don't know quite how long ago it was.
You said that you were laid up with foot surgery. Your daughter had an accident in one of her sports pursuits.
POLANECZKY: Right.
ROBERTS: And you ran into one insane week, as you called it, that could have put people into financial difficulty.
POLANECZKY: Right. Right.
ROBERTS: You're fortunate enough to have health insurance, though.
POLANECZKY: I did. I had -- I had fallen, I broke my foot. My daughter two days later had a concussion. So we were in a hospital E.R. twice in 48 hours. Thank goodness, she's OK.
But we were able to because of our insurance to get her an MRI. It was the second concussion she had in six months, by the way. She's pretty sporty. She's very athletic. And, you know, with my foot, I needed surgery.
Now having said all that, even with what I think was really pretty good surgery, we ended up paying out of pocket probably close to $1,800 to $2,000.
ROBERTS: Wow.
POLANECZKY: And some of that was just additional help I needed getting around. I couldn't drive anymore, so I had to take cabs everywhere.
There were deductibles on the physical therapy. My daughter -- there were some deductibles on some of her tests. And that was with good insurance and that was not catastrophic injuries.
ROBERTS: Yes. So you could imagine how it would be if you didn't have health insurance?
POLANECZKY: Absolutely.
ROBERTS: And, Jacquelyn, when we look at these -- you know, these town hall meetings across the country and the way that people are so passionate about this and the amount of disinformation and misinformation that's out there, is this an issue that is ripe for fear mongering?
MITCHARD: It really is. And it's absolutely silly the nonsense that is put forth that government is not the answer, it's the cancer. Well, who -- who -- what kind of insurance do lawmakers have and who provides it?
You know, the government provides it and it's darn good insurance. And there's no reason that people should be afraid of lawmakers saying don't put the government between you and your doctor.
We all wish we lived in a world of 40 years ago in which the same doctor that delivered your baby has delivered your grandchildren. But it's not that way anymore. People don't work 30 years for the same company. They might have five jobs in a lifetime and they might need to go to five different health care providers. And they're lucky to have one at all because a great many Americans, you know, a significant percentage pay out of pocket for health care insurance and deny themselves care for serious things.
I threw open this on Facebook last night just to my community at midnight. Sixty people answered questions about health care and they said...
ROBERTS: Wow.
MITCHARD: And only two of them said that they were satisfied with the health care that they had.
ROBERTS: Yes. Well, you know, it's -- people are satisfied with the health care they have. Other people aren't, but nobody wants anything to change.
Wow, it's really -- it's a difficult debate, but we thank you both for being with us here this morning to share your experiences and to talk about what you're getting for people. Jacquelyn Mitchard and Ronnie Polaneczky, great to be with you this morning. Thanks so much.
POLANECZKY: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Appreciate it - Kiran.
MITCHARD: Thank you.
CHETRY: All right. Well, it's 24 minutes after the hour. When we come back, we're going to tell you this very interesting phenomenon that seems to be happening to more and more people. First, your bank forecloses on your home. Then to add insult to injury, you find out that you're still on the hook for even more cash. Alina Cho explains why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- seven minutes past the hour right now.
You know the soft housing market is giving rise to a new trend that we're seeing more and more where the bank actually returns the foreclosed home back to the owner.
ROBERTS: Wow. It's no corporate act of kindness, though. A new phenomenon is taking hold and it's putting the homeowners who thought that they were out back on the hook. CNN's Alina Cho is here this morning. She's got one couple's story in an AM original.
Good morning.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning, guys. You know, the bank actually never takes the title at all. It's such a fascinating, a disturbing trend and it's happening a lot.
You know, everyone knows the housing crisis has caused a record number of foreclosures. But there is something else happening that frankly surprised a lot of us around here.
People whose homes have gone into foreclosure are finding out months, even years later that the very banks that seized their homes are now walking away from them. It's leaving the homeowner confused and worse stuck with thousands of dollars and bills.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): When Dellan and Valerie Sharp found out the bank was taking possession of their home after they defaulted on their mortgage, they thought it was the worst days of their lives. They were wrong.
DELLAN SHARP, HOMEOWNER: We could spend 45 days in jail over this housing issue.
CHO: Does that seem ridiculous to you? D. SHARP: It does to me because it's like we don't own the house.
CHO: They do own it. In November of 2006, a judge agreed the Sharp's home was the bank's property and should be sold at auction. The couple moved out. But a year later, they learned Bank of America never followed through on the foreclosure.
In a statement, B of A told CNN, "The bank has not foreclosed on the property and the customer still holds the title." The Sharps are shocked and the practice is perfectly legal.
JOSIAH MADAR, NYU FURMAN CENTER FOR REAL ESTATE & URBAN POLICY: A number of the foreclosed properties have very little value left in them by the time they're reaching the end of the foreclosure process. And if it's going to be more expensive to follow the foreclosure all the way through and take the property, they just won't do it.
CHO: It's happening in cities across America, banks walking away from so-called toxic titles. The Sharps are facing thousands in fines from the city of Buffalo, New York for property violations and unpaid taxes. That's on top of the thousands they've already paid in court fees.
(on camera): I mean, look at this.
(voice-over): Daniel Benning works as a housing court mediator. He calls the vacant homes vulnerable targets.
DANIEL BENNING, HOUSING COURT LIAISON: These are attractive to persons of criminal intent.
CHO (on camera): Because they're empty.
BENNING: They're empty. The bank refuses to allow anyone to move in, but they refuse to do anything to the property as you can see. And it affects not only this property but the properties next to them.
CHO (voice-over): The city of Buffalo even filed a lawsuit alleging 37 banks that walked away from foreclosed homes are responsible for the city's loss in property tax revenue and an increase in police and fire costs. As for the Sharps?
D. SHARP: When you look and you find that something you thought was gone is still there, OK, now it's what's next?
CHO: Well, what is next?
D. SHARP: We have no idea.
VALERIE SHARP, HOMEOWNER: No idea.
D. SHARP: We have no idea.
(END VIDEOTAPE) CHO: Their next court date, by the way, September 29th. We should mention that this is happening across America, but the hardest hit cities are rustbelt cities -- places like Detroit and Flint, Michigan, Buffalo, Cleveland and Youngstown, Ohio -- places really that have older housing stock that aren't as worth as much. So the banks really don't think it's worth their while, guys, to pay all these administrative legal costs to go through on foreclosing on a home.
It's really incredible. And as I mention, it's happening across America. It's a growing, disturbing trend.
CHETRY: And are any of these cities addressing the issue, doing anything about it on their own?
CHO: Well, what's interesting is it varies from state-to-state, county to county, city to city. In Cleveland what they're doing is one judge is actually allowing homeowners to use the money that would otherwise go toward fines, toward fixing up their homes so they could potentially move back into their home or sell it.
But in most places across America like you look at the Sharps, this couple in Buffalo, they're on a hook for thousands of dollars in fine. They're paying for property violations, really for broken windows, vandalism, arson in their case. And they weren't even inside the home.
ROBERTS: Wow. They're also -- they're on the hook for property tax violations. And listen to this. If your house is ordered demolished, the homeowner has to pay for that as well and that could run $60,000.
ROBERTS: You know, maybe by -- you know, shining a light on all of this we're going to have to change (INAUDIBLE).
CHO: Well, we -- we hope so, certainly.
ROBERTS: Alina, thanks so much for that.
CHO: You bet.
CHETRY: Well, it's just half past the hour now. Checking our top stories this morning.
U.S. Marines and Afghan forces are now battling the Taliban for a control of a strategic town in southern Afghanistan. They're trying to secure the area before next week's presidential election.
Meantime the Taliban being blamed for two roadside bombings in southern Afghanistan that killed 14 civilians.
ROBERTS: An international search now under way for a cargo ship that disappeared after its Russian crew reported being attacked in the waters off of Sweden two weeks ago.
The Maltese flag cargo ship Arctic Sea was on course for Algeria when the 15-member crew reported a group of masked men had boarded the ship. Russia's president says all necessary measures will be taken to find the missing ship and if necessary, free the crew.
CHETRY: Well, starting Saturday don't be surprised if you're asked for your date of birth and gender when you make airline reservations. The federal government is expanding its secure flight program. The Air Transportation Security Administration plans to start using that information to check passenger lists for terrorists on all domestic flights by next year.
ROBERTS: More than a million children in Afghanistan have been orphaned after decades of conflict. Most of them forced to fend for themselves. It's the side of war that we don't often see.
And CNN's chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour traveled to the remote region of Chaghcharan where she found an American woman trying to rebuild the country's orphanages to keep children from becoming easy prey for the Taliban.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the mountains of Afghanistan, a young boy is cast out. And this is how the battle begins.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (Through translator): My stepmother was beating me a lot. And then she forced me to leave the house.
AMANPOUR: Yasin (ph) was just 10 years old when he fled the beatings and the abuse at home.
(on camera): You're just a little boy. It must have been so hard?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Yes, it was very difficult. I was spending my days and nights here and there.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): For months, Yasin wandered from village to village in search of food and shelter. He became a virtual slave to the townspeople. But things changed for him when he arrived in the town of Chaghcharan and met Yaseen Fahreed who works for an American aid group called PARSA.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): He introduced me to the orphanage.
AMANPOUR: Here 150 boys sleep two to a bunk. They wake up to face each day trying their best to bring some semblance of order to their lives amid the desperations that is Afghanistan.
(on camera): Do you think that you're cracking the back of this beast?
(voice-over): My guide inside this world is Marnie Gustavson, an American who grew up in Afghanistan. Mandy, who runs PARSA, has been rebuilding broken shelters in this broken country. She took me to a desperately poor neighborhood on the outskirts of town to met Yasin's mother. She was also kicked out of the house when his father, an opium farmer, took a second wife.
(on camera): Tell me why you can't have your kids live with you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): His father doesn't let me keep them. When he forced me out of his house, then he became like a wolf and my sons had to run away to two different places.
AMANPOUR (voice-over): Yasin's older brother al-Adad (ph) may be in even more danger. The only thing Mandy and her staff learn when they managed to call Yasin's brother is that he's studying in a remote unsanctioned madrassah where the Taliban is active.
(On camera): The two boys struggle, one in a madrassah, the other in an orphanage or being on the street, is that something that you think epitomizes what was going through here in Afghanistan.
MARNIE GUSTAVSON, PARSA: I really do. I really think it does. I can only speculate. But it is certain that madrassas particularly in the southern regions, they're recruiting them for the insurgents. These children will go into the insurgency in some way or another.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: It's the old of story of young children who don't have hope that are often, you know, fertile ground for recruiting for these militant organizations.
CHETRY: And then some of these countries, like Afghanistan, the median age is 17. And so there's a huge amount of young people oftentimes orphaned as Christiane showed us. In many ways, you're right. They don't have hope. Where do they go? And how are they going to get jobs?
ROBERTS: Yes, that's a big problem. Big, big problem in Afghanistan. So how do we keep the Taliban from preying on vulnerable Afghan children? In a moment, we'll be joined by Eboo Patel in Chicago. He's the executive director of the Interfaith Youth Corps and has some very interesting insights to share with us.
It's coming up right up. It's 37 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the most news in the morning. Just before the break, we ran part of Christiane Amanpour's documentary, "GENERATION ISLAM." And you witnessed firsthand the struggle for the young boys in Afghanistan with few paths to choose from, sometimes ending up in schools or madrassas that are known to feed the Taliban and other extremists groups.
So how can these children be guided down a nonviolent and productive path? Joining me now from Chicago is Eboo Patel, executive director of the Interfaith Youth Core. Thanks so much for being with us. You had a chance to see Christiane's documentary as well and take part in it. As we look at the challenge, especially in Afghanistan where the median age of people is 17 years old, unemployment is at 40 percent or higher, what are specifically the challenges, especially for Muslim youth in Afghanistan, to find a way to be productive, to earn a living, and to be a contributing member of society?
EBOO PATEL, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INTERFAITH YOUTH CORE: Right. Well, Kiran, I think the first challenge is how we view these young people. They could become medical doctors or they could become suicide bombers. And the road that they take has everything to do with the education that they get -- the mentoring that they get, which is why organizations like mine, the Interfaith Youth Core, are working all over the world to make sure that young people view their religious identity as something that gives them hope and something that inspires them to live a productive and positive life.
CHETRY: You talk about education as being key and we've seen that time and time again. I mean in the United States, it's the same thing. If you, you know, are educated and you can go on to higher education, your chances of getting a good-paying job, obviously, are much higher. Your chances of being hit by a recession or an economic downturn, much lower.
In Afghanistan, in particular, the challenge with education, not only is the availability of these schools but also what's being taught there.
PATEL: That's exactly right. You know the Taliban is not Islam. Let's be very clear about this. The Taliban is not religion. The Taliban is a sickness. And that sickness infects the parts of society that are particularly weak.
In areas where there is no school, the Taliban sets up a school. So it has the only free lunch program. It has the only health clinic. It has the only educational institution. And families are, a, effectively forced to send their kids there. And, b, feel like they have no alternative.
But we can do something about that. The afghan government, in partnership with the international community, with NGOs, with the United States of America, can build schools in those areas. We can look at those young people as potential scientists, as potential poets. We can build the institutions that help them get on that positive path.
CHETRY: It's not just Afghanistan. I mean I was looking at the larger issues in that region of the world, in Pakistan, for example. They say that, you know, it's economics like you said that factor in to where these kids go to school. If they enroll their kids in a madrassah, they get free room, free board, they get clothing.
I mean, this is of course attractive for impoverished families. At the same time what they're learning there isn't necessarily giving them life skills to move on and get jobs. So how do you get into that? How do you penetrate that and make a change?
PATEL: Right. Well, as I was saying earlier, I think that this is a problem that can be solved. If the Taliban can set up a school in a remote region that's teaching hate, that responsible dimensions of the international community and the Afghanistan government can set up a school in that region that's teaching hope.
We have to just care about this issue more than the Taliban does. We can't forfeit a generation of young people in this region to the Taliban. And I believe that that begins with us believing in these young people and making a commitment to invest in their future. And their future and our future are linked.
CHETRY: Eboo Patel for us this morning. Thank you so much. And by the way, we want to let people know that he's put together a list of recommendations about engaging Muslim communities for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings. And you can check it out at CNN.com/amfix on a very interesting things going on there.
Also, be sure to watch "GENERATION ISLAM" with Christiane Amanpour tonight 9:00 Eastern here on CNN. John?
ROBERTS: Well, it was 40 years ago this weekend that people flocked to Bethel, New York for the Woodstock Festival. Wow, can you believe it? Forty years ago. It was a festival that changed a generation. One of the performers, right there, Arlo Guthrie. He talks to our Carol Costello about what's happened since then. Coming right up. It's 43 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. A look at the back of Jay's T-shirt there. "Property of Aerosmith" with Boston in the background. Thanks to our friends at WHDH in Boston for the shot of the skyline there. Sixty-seven degrees going up to a high of only 69 today. Plenty of rain in the forecast as well.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, it's still a mystery about what happened to Steve Tyler. He fell off of the stage but his condition still not really -- they're not releasing a lot of information. I think he's hurt his back, he hurt his neck when he fell?
ROBERTS: We'll send Jay, our investigative correspondent, up to Boston to find out what's going on with Steve Tyler.
Rob Marciano down in Atlanta today checking in to the weather forecast. We got any bad weather across the nation today, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: A little rain in the Northeast. Now Steve Tyler, he may have fell off the stage when he found just how low his band ranked on the all-time list when we were going over that yesterday.
CHETRY: Oh no.
ROBERTS: Hey, actually I've got some news on that. As a matter of that. We need to clear something up.
MARCIANO: OK.
ROBERTS: The reason why that lined up the way it was because the Pew Research folks didn't ask people who's your favorite band of all times. They group did enlist from the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, and '90s, 2000 and they gave suggestions. So not all the bands were included in that. It was kind of like a multiple choice list. Do you know these people, how much do you like, yada yada yada. And that's why the lists ended up the way it was.
CHETRY: Right. The write-in candidates like Aerosmith and U2 might have won, but you know, they didn't put them on the list.
ROBERTS: No. They weren't in write-in candidates. So it was just a finite list, do you know these people, how well do you like them. So.
MARCIANO: That's why I never did well in statistics.
ROBERTS: Not an all-time battle of the bands.
MARCIANO: All right. Well, anyway, we wish the best to Steven Tyler and our friends in Boston.
(LAUGHTER)
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: OK, Rob.
MARCIANO: We can let it stay out there. I don't have a problem with that.
ROBERTS: OK. Long as it stays out there.
MARCIANO: Yes.
ROBERTS: Rob, thanks so much.
A reminder, by the way, that every Friday Rob is on the road for "Rob's Road Show." Last week he was in Tennessee at the world's biggest yard sale. Tomorrow he's in the biggest yo-yo contest in Orlando. But we want you to decide where he goes after that. Head to our Web site, CNN.com/amfix and give us some ideas.
CHETRY: That's right.
ROBERTS: Maybe a sausage festival in Guam or something.
CHETRY: Maybe.
ROBERTS: Right?
CHETRY: Well, probably. I told -- said he should go to Cedar Point where they have crazy roller coasters and see how many he can handle, see how many he can ride during the course of the show without getting ill.
ROBERTS: See if we could get him hooked up to a, you know, wireless camera while he's on a roller coaster.
CHETRY: We'd love that. Hey, you know, Woodstock, 40 years later? Boy, where's the time gone? Well, Carol Costello's one-on-one with folk singer -- with one folk singer famous for his protest songs. We're going to see what he's up to now. 50 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. The artists who helped make Woodstock famous are now remembering those three days of peace, love, and music back in 1969.
CHETRY: This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of that mega- music festival, the cultural phenomenon. One of its key players is folk singer Arlo Guthrie and he's speaking out still on politics, war, even health care reform. He sat down with our Carol Costello and she's live from our Washington bureau with the story.
What was it like 40 years later to meet him?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He was an awesome guy, very kind, very down to earth. And were you surprised that an anti-war guy is a registered Republican? That was a surprise to me and a surprise to a lot of his fans. We talked about everything from Woodstock, to family, to politics, and just why a hippie of the '60s known for a anti-war song has long been a registered Republican.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Woodstock, 40 years ago now when hundreds of thousands immersed themselves in mud, music, and many of them drugged hoping their shared experience could change the world.
(On camera): What do you remember in those days? Being at Woodstock?
ARLO GUTHRIE, FOLK SINGER: I remember getting there.
COSTELLO (voice-over): In the movie "Woodstock," 22-year-old Arlo Guthrie seemed a bit overwhelmed.
(On camera): How did it change you?
GUTHRIE: I never participated in anything or indulged in anything before a concert again.
COSTELLO: Why?
GUTHRIE: Because at the same time that it was a wonderful double-edged sword where I was in no shape to be performing and at the same time it was the performance of my life. It's freaking Shakespearean to me. COSTELLO (voice-over): He calls Woodstock a single unifying icon that's comes to symbolize bigger more important movements at the time like the civil rights movement and the anti-war movement. And Guthrie is perhaps more well known for his anti-war anthem in film "Alice's Restaurant" than he is for Woodstock.
And yes, this is the Alice's Restaurant, really a deconsecrated church. Guthrie bought it and has turned it to a spiritual community center. If his life sounds like one long stereotypical hippie trip, you're wrong.
(On camera) You know when I told people that I was going to come up and talk with you, the first thing they said was, oh my god, isn't he a conservative now?
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: Are you?
GUTHRIE: I'm never a conservative.
COSTELLO (voice-over): But he is a registered Republican.
(On camera): Did you vote for John McCain?
GUTHRIE: No. My political sort of voting record is not up for public discussion.
COSTELLO: Sarah Palin?
GUTHRIE: I think she's spunk.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Guthrie admires her anti-elitist spunk. You could say it mirrors his own. He's actually a family values kind of guy, married to Jackie for 40 years, plays in a band with his own kids, lives in the same house he bought with profits from "Alice's Restaurant" back in 1969. And as a Republican, he fears a Democrat- controlled country. Besides...
GUTHRIE: I have always been more comfortable being a loyal opposition than a rah-rah, yes, let's go get them we're in power now kind of guy.
COSTELLO: That said, Guthrie is still a child of the '60s, still vehemently anti-war, anti-establishment, beliefs born at Woodstock that have not changed with time.
GUTHRIE: It revived your faith in human beings. It made you feel like you could trust your buddy, even though they were telling you couldn't.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Guthrie told me watching Barack Obama's inauguration was a sort of validation for the Woodstock generation. It's a large part of what they fought for. As a Republican, he doesn't much like President Obama's stimulus package or his health care reform plans but wishes Republicans would come up with better ideas rather than just protesting against those policies.
ROBERTS: There's a lot going on there, Carol. It's a complex web of politics that he's living with these days.
COSTELLO: Well, you know, we often stereotype people. People aren't that simple. They're complicated.
ROBERTS: Yes.
COSTELLO: And you know, they have a lot of different ideas -- Republican or Democrat or somewhere in the middle. But we tend to label them one thing or the other often mistakenly.
ROBERTS: I love the fact that he said he was so high when he went on stage he had no business being there. He wasn't the only one, that's for sure.
COSTELLO: No.
CHETRY: But then he said it was the best performance of my life, double-edged sword he called it.
ROBERTS: Well, at least he thought it was.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: He just wishes he could remember more of it, I think.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: Exactly.
CHETRY: What do they say...
ROBERTS: From what I remember of it, it was the best performance of my life. I'm not sure.
CHETRY: What does it say if you remember the '60s, and you weren't really there?
ROBERTS: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
Carol, thanks so much for that.
COSTELLO: Sure.
ROBERTS: Hey, we continue to weigh in at the health care debate this morning. And of course we've been showing what's been going on a lot of these town halls. A lot of the town halls that we showed you have been focusing on Democratic members of Congress. Well, wait until you see what happened when one Republican member of Congress held a town hall meeting. Candy Crowley reports on Senator Chuck Grassley's town hall coming up in just a couple of minutes. Fifty-eight minutes now after the hour.
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