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Flight Arrivals Increasingly Delayed; Stopping Chicago's Teen Violence

Aired October 08, 2009 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. It is Thursday, October 8, and here are the top stories for you in the CNN NEWSROOM.

A key Senate health care bill makes the cut on cost. Plus, an insurance company goes to court so it can charge you higher premiums. The war in Afghanistan, terrorists strike outside an embassy in the heart of Kabul today. Kids killing kids in Chicago. Now, millions of federal stimulus dollars will target teenagers most at risk of violence.

Good morning again, everyone. I'm Tony Harris, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

The push for health care reform gets a shot in the arm. Democrats say they are encourged by the estimated price tag on a key Senate proposal, $829 billion over 10 years. The numbers are in, so what happens next? Congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar live now from Capitol Hill. And Brianna, any word?

I'm sorry, once again. Okay, we don't have her. We'll get back to her in just a second. And now we can talk to her. Let's get you now to Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill.

And Brianna, I guess I got a couple of questions for you. First of all, any word on when we will get a Senate Finance Committee vote on this bill?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we just learned from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, he spoke on the floor a short time ago, we're expecting that vote to come on Tuesday. So, you know, one of the concerns that some members of the Senate Finance Committee, including that key Republican, Olympia Snowe, who really is the Democrats' best chance, seemingly only chance at getting some Republican support at the committee level for this. She wanted time to read over exactly what that nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office put out in its estimate. And so, she's going to certainly get that time now that the vote is going to be on Tuesday.

HARRIS: Got you. And okay, so what does the CBO say about this bill?

KEILAR: It says, Tony, that this bill, over 10 years, will cost $829 billion, and that it will cover at estimated 94 percent of Americans. I know that price tag sounds awfully hefty, but it is conservative when you compare it to the other price tags for the other bills before the Senate and the House.

This is significantly below that $900 billion mark that President Obama has set out there, Tony. And because of that, I have to tell you yesterday, when this announcement was made of this price tag, there was sort of a collective exhale. You could almost feel it from Democrats on this committee, including the chairman on the committee, Senator Max Baucus.

So, why is it so important when it comes to this bill? Well, it's really seen as the best chance. And we've been saying this, the best chance without a public option. It's got remember that health care co- op plan. This is seen as the best chance to move a plan for overhauling health care through the Senate. And now, with this number that has come out from the Nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, it's just another sort of political shot in the arm that people can jump behind because they were so concerned that this would be too expensive.

HARRIS: Brianna, is it deficit neutral? That term we've been kicking around since the start of this debate.

KEILAR: It's not only deficit neutral, it actually would reduce the deficit over 10 years by $81 billion, and that is something the Democrats on this committee and Chairman Baucus are particularly happy about -- Tony.

HARRIS: Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill for us, worth the wait. Brianna, thank you.

And coming up, we will go outside the Beltway as one insurance company sues a state so you can pay more.

And let's fast forward now through our other top stories. Live, from the House Financial Services Committee now, lawmakers are looking at a bill -- there we go -- that would enforce tough new credit card rules in December instead of February. That's because banks are jacking up interest rates and fees and cutting credit lines to beat the new law.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER WELCH (D), VERMONT: Just as with credit cards issued to consumers, the near-monopoly of big banks and credit card companies has led to abuse. The amount of interchange fees collected by big banks tripled from 2001 it to 2008 from 16 billion to $48 billion. Eighty percent of that money goes to 10 banks, not 10 percent of our banks, but to 10 banks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Some disorder in Detroit to tell you about. One police officer estimates 50,000 people turned out to get federal help for rent. There were just 5,000 applications available. Pushing and shoving broke out. About a half dozen people were actually trampled. Unemployment in Detroit running around 17 percent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's people all over the place. This is getting crazy out here. We need help here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My concern is that everybody is down here and they've been down here all night and might not get a chance to get the application to apply for the grant. And that's very sad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: I'm going to show you some pretty amazing pictures here. A typhoon tore across the length of Japan's main island today. At least, two deaths reported so far. The storm's top winds, 90 miles per hour with 30-foot high waves. Schools, airports, trains across the island shut down. Toyota and Honda closed their factories for the day.

A brazen suicide attack in Afghanistan. A car bomb detonates in the diplomatic heart of Kabul killing at least 13 people and exposing just how vulnerable the city still is. Live now to CNN's Atia Abawi in the Afghan capital.

And Atia, I understand the Taliban is already claiming responsibility.

ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, the Taliban has come out to say that they are responsible for the suicide attack. They've even named the suicide bomber on their website. But actually the death toll has risen from 13 to 17. At least 63 people injured. The suicide bomb actually occurred in front of the Indian embassy, an area that has very tight security. It's also an area where the interior ministry of Afghanistan is located.

But the tight security is because just last year, July of 2008, another car bomb also attacking the Indian embassy, killed over 50 people. But today's attack was the fifth suicide attack in Kabul in the last two months. And Kabul actually usually considered fairly immune when it comes to the violence throughout the country -- Tony.

HARRIS: Atia, that's interesting. You mentioned the Indian embassy not an embassy of one of the western countries that the Taliban considers invaders.

ABAWI: Absolutely. But to give a short history lesson, the Taliban obviously -- it's nothing new to our audience that they have a connection with Pakistan and Afghanistan. They have a history with Pakistan. And obviously, India is Pakistan's biggest rival. So right now the fear among Afghans is that both India and Pakistan are just using Afghanistan as a pawn in their decade-long rivalry because right now in the last few years, we've seen a friendship blossom between the Afghan government and the Indian government. And obviously, the Taliban do not like that.

HARRIS: Wow, okay, Atia Abawi for us in Kabul.

And later this hour, Atia will be back and she will somehow us how Afghans are reacting to coalition forces being in their country for eight years. And we also hearing from you, the many of you, who called in with your comments about the war in Afghanistan. We will be playing many of your comments throughout the next two hours.

And with so many people looking for jobs, many stay at home moms are realizing they need to get back to work. Up next, Christine Romans looks at the challenges facing them.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: New jobless claims are at their lowest level since January today. The Labor Department says 521,000 new applications were filed last week. New claims have dropped now four of the last five weeks.

Now, the recession in the meantime is pushing many stay-at-home moms into the work force, but for many, they're finding the jobs just aren't there. No big surprise in that. Here's CNN's Christine Romans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Meet Kathryn Gutowski, stay-at-home mother of four. Car-pooling, laundry, homework. For 11 years, she juggled it all.

KATHRYN GUTOWSKI, JOB SEEKER: I think anyone who's had four children under 7 knows a lot about juggling.

ROMANS: Before she was a mom, she was an attorney. And it's time, she says, to get back to work.

(on camera): One child in college and another going into college and two more a few years behind that. I mean, financially it's probably important to have a job as well, right?

GUTOWSKI: Oh, it's very important. I mean, I think like most American families, the equity in our home, our college savings, our retirement savings have plummeted. And, you know, I've had the luxury of being home all these years and with my kids. But that's not a luxury I'm going to continue to have.

ROMANS (voice-over): She knew this day was coming. She's kept her skills polished, her license up to date, she volunteered.

GUTOWSKI: I started to respond to job postings on the Internet. And I would send out a resume and I would hear absolutely nothing.

ROMANS: She looked for a job for a year before she found a program at Pace Law School for lawyer moms like her.

AMY GEWIRTZ, DIRECTION, PACE LAW NEW DIRECTIONS: There's a concern right now because they've out of the work force. How am I going to manage the family-work life balance? How am I going to do it? And this gives them a way to get their toe in the water.

ROMANS: She landed an externship in a college law admissions office. Think of it as an internship primarily for stay at home moms. Companies as diverse as Goldman Sachs and Sara Lee have similar programs called returnships. But while Kathryn is trying to get back in, many working moms have no choice. They cannot take off time to raise their kids.

SYLVIA ANN HEWLETT, ECONOMIST, CENTER FOR WORK-LIFE POLICY: There's a tremendous decrease this year in the number of professional women taking that kind of time out because they feel under the gun on the earnings front.

ROMANS: Kathryn says she'd advise her daughters to keep one foot in the work force when they have families.

GUTOWSKI: I would say, "Do something, do something part-time, teach. Do something, but never find yourself in the position where you've been completely out for 10 years."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: All right, as Congress examines health care reform, one insurance company is actually suing a state to raise its rates. What's going on?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Supporters of health care reform point to a case in Maine as an example of why it is needed. An insurance company is suing the state to raise its rates. The story now from CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Elizabeth Beane is what the health insurance industry calls an individual policyholder. As a self-employed social worker, she has to buy her insurance on the open market.

ELIZABETH BEANE, INSURANCE CUSTOMER: It went up from $450 a month to $550 a month, $1200 over the year.

ACOSTA: Which may explain why she's rooting against her insurance company, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in a high profile legal fight with the state of Maine, a fight that's been dragged into the center of the nation's health care debate, a fight Maine's attorney general Janet Mills says she'll win.

JANET MILLS, MAINE ATTORNEY GENERAL: We'll go after them. We won't stand still for this.

ACOSTA (on camera): The fight boils down to this. Earlier in year, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield proposed a rate increase for its individual policy holders of 18.5 percent. The state of Maine which has the power to regulate those rates said no, lowering that increase to 11 percent. So what did Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield do? They took the state of Maine to court.

MILLS: That wasn't enough for them. They're going back for more, and I just can't believe basically the greed of it. In this context, in this economy.

ACOSTA: This is greed?

MILLS: In my view, yes.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Mills says she was floored by Anthem's explanation, that 18.5 percent increase was what the company needed to make a small 3 percent profit.

(on camera): It seems like the gist of what you're saying is the nerve of these guys?

MILLS: Yeah. It's outrageous. Hello, it's a recession.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Anthem is owned by WellPoint, one of the nation's largest insurance carriers. WellPoint made more than $2 billion in profits last year. In a statement to CNN, a company spokesperson said, "The level of increase reflected the medical cost trends for our individual market members and included a modest pre-tax operating margin of 3 percent to cover profit and unanticipated risk."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So let's fix health care.

ACOSTA: The company repeated the industry's call for health care reform measures now pending in Congress that would require all Americans to get coverage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If everyone is covered, we can make health care as affordable as possible.

ACOSTA: Anthem argues Maine's approved increase of 11 percent will result in no profits for the company, but Maine's attorney general says not so fast.

MILLS: In Maine alone, they paid almost a million dollars to their Maine executives in one year alone. And that is an issue in this case.

ACOSTA: Elizabeth Beane says she is already spends a third of her income on health care, leaving her nothing for retirement.

BEANE: Where is my retirement account? The CEOS of Anthem, I'm sure they have no worries about their retirements, because I'm funding it for them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: All right, let's get you caught up on our top stories right now. Republicans are turning up the heat on New York Congressman Charlie Rangel. They pushed without success a measure to force Rangel to give up his committee chairmanship. He is under an ethics investigation over his financial disclosure forms and income taxes. Rangel's committee is responsible for writing tax laws.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Can you continue to serve as chairman with this investigation?

REP. CHARLIE RANGEL (D), NEW YORK: Yes, I can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK, 33 people are under arrest. Federal agents are looking for another 20 suspects in an e-mail scam. Authorities say the suspects tricked people out of their bank account numbers and passwords. The scammers then emptied the accounts. Most victims were customers at Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

A rare and quite large blue diamond fetched $5.7 million at auction today. Let's take that full. Can we take that full? OK. Four rivals waged a two-minute telephone bidding battle at Sotheby's in Hong Kong. The price not even close to a record. A rare blue sold for $7 million last May in Geneva.

President Obama will consider sending more troops to Afghanistan. We're listening to all angles from Afghan people to your viewer phone calls. We're back in a moment.

And you parents -- well, don't want your teen drivers texting, eating or using cell phones while behind the wheel, but one driving course piles on the distractions, and those young people, those drivers can actually see the consequences. Our reporter Jacqueline Sit of our affiliate KWTV has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BAILEY WALLACE, TEEN DRIVER: My mom's going to kill me. I have done this, and I was like, this is nuts.

JACQUELINE SIT, KWTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bailey Wallace loves to text her BFFs behind the wheel, but a crash course with a course of distractions.

WALLACE: It was absolutely crazy.

SIT: This high school senior, along with a dozen other students, are driving on a closed course pushing the pedal to the metal while eating.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Open them up, pull them out. A little bit faster, come on, we're going to be late.

SIT: Handling rowdy riders and texting behind the wheel.

WALLACE: I couldn't even get my password into my phone. I have a touch screen phone, and you have to look at it. I couldn't even get my password into my phone to start a text message because of the guy sitting next to me sitting here going like this over and over again, and playing with my radio. It was -- there was no way.

TAYLOR DOCTORMAN, TEEN DRIVER: It wakes you up.

SIT: Taylor Doctorman was another distracted driver.

DOCTORMAN: I'm not used to driving and texting. So, I'm not one used to having one hand on the wheel either. So, I was kind of, like, also over the place.

WALLACE: Missing three out of the four red lights were pretty good enough for me to say, don't do it.

SIT: All this is a push in putting down your phone and slamming your brakes on bad behavior.

WALLACE: There's so many things that can happen on their own without you having an influence on them, so why would you add to the problems? Why would you sit there and dig for the food in the back seat or text while you're driving? It can wait. It can wait until you're done.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Boy, after taking the course, the teens said they would never text while driving again. Hopefully that's a lesson learned.

President Obama will consider sending more troops to Afghanistan. We're listening to all the angles here from Afghan people to your viewer phone calls. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: President Obama holds another war strategy session tomorrow on future plans for Afghanistan. The sensitive issue of troop levels may be discussed. The war is increasingly unpopular here in the United States, but what's the situation in Afghanistan since the U.S. invasion? CNN's Atia Abawi reports from Kabul.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ATIA ABAWI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Eight years after the Taliban were toppled here in Afghanistan, the situation is nowhere near where the Afghan and the international community expected it to be. We're seeing a resurgence of Taliban, we're seeing a government not recognized by all of the people and we're hearing from military commanders on the ground that say they still have insufficient troop levels to get the mission done.

(voice-over): In 2001, the world expected a change and hopes were high. Today, many believe those efforts were squandered and even those who work for the government say the situation is getting worse. "The people of Afghanistan," Said says, "want the international troops to respect our cultural sensitivities and to bring a just government. The government we have now that is corrupt. They are cheating and harassing the people and we need the international community to bring a change." President Karzai has promised to deal with corruption, a promise he's made for years.

(on camera): There have been improvements in these last eight years. You would not have heard music playing during the Taliban regime. You would not have seen women walking on the street and you would not have seen little girls going to school, but when you talk to Afghans they say those improvements came but in the last couple of years, the situation has been reversing.

(voice-over): Change still visible in the capital, but outside of the city limits, there's been little improvement. "Women in the villages have been left behind," Humaira says, "Compared to those here in the capital. They are not allowed to go to school. They have not allowed to leave their homes. If they do have a chance to get out, they must cover themselves in a burqa. Life is very difficult for them in the villages."

Afghanistan has been called the graveyard of superpowers, but this war was seen differently by most Afghans and government officials, especially when they compared to the Soviet invasion of 1979 that lasted nearly a decade.

GEN. ABDUL RAHIM WARDAK, AFGHAN DEFENSE MINISTER: At that time the entire Afghan nation was against the Soviets, the total population. In this case, I mean the U.S. -- first of all the U.S. population is not considered an occupier. They're considered as a friend and ally.

ABAWI (on camera): This country has seen one war after the other for the past 30 years, and the Afghans are sick and tired of it. But they know that they still need the international community's help, that they need to be relieved of the insecurity and instability, that they need jobs and infrastructure and they feel that it's the international community who can help them right now until they're able to stand on their own two feet again. Atia Abawi, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: A key to success in Afghanistan may lie across its border in Pakistan. That's where al Qaeda's leadership is believed to be hiding. Pakistan's ambassador to the United States tells CNN his government stepping up its role in the war.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUSAIN HAQQANI, PAKISTANI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: The Pakistani military is prepared for a bigger offensive than in the past, but you realize that this is very difficult and forbidden terrain. It's like doing a military operation in the Grand Canyon. And so a lot of preparation is need.

And the guerrillas are people from the terrain, understand the terrain better. In the past there have been military operations. That were not fully conducted. They didn't have professional soldiers. They had local militias, so they failed. This time we are putting in our best troops, better trained soldiers. At the same time, we intend to provide them air cover and we have started air operations to soften the targets.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: We're taking a pretty simple approach to gauging your reaction to the Afghanistan story. If you've got a view on the war strategy, get it to us. Call us, e-mail us, tweet it, leave it on our Facebook page or show blog page. If there's an easier way to hear from you, let me know. In turn, we will do everything we can to get your views on the air. So far, hundreds of you have called us with smart compelling comments. Here's a sampling.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIPS)

CALLER: Hi, Tony. Tony, I believe the wars are not winnable. Bring our men and women home to protect our skies, our waters, and our borders. Please bring them home. Thank you.

CALLER: Hi, my name is Steve, and I'm a Vietnam-era vet, disabled, proud to have served. And a lot of people that say we should pull out of Afghanistan. I've got one thing to say to them, remember 9/11. We're there for a purpose, and we've got to stay there to fulfill our purpose for our future generations. Thank you.

CALLER: Tony Harris, the United States should stop wasting precious blood and treasure on the ill-conceived war on terror being waged not only in Iraq and Afghanistan but around the world, including on U.S. soil. Instead, we should develop a worldwide strategy to end terrorism by addressing the political issues that have driven various political movements worldwide to adopt terrorist tactics.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HARRIS: It's just really compelling stuff, and as always, thank you. Let's get you now to Rob Marciano in our severe weather center. And Rob, I know you're focusing at least this time around on the possibility for some flooding in the Midwest.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: You know what? I want to come back to this after we sort of lay out the details of what you're talk about here, because, you know, there are some leading factors into delays and why we get them.

There is, as Rob is mentioning, a new report today which says one in 10 airline flights is at least two hours late every day. Now, the average delay nowadays is 41 minutes longer than 1990. Good, but I'm more interested in the figures from last year compared to this year.

The Brookings Institution study found you're most likely to arrive late in these cities. Check this out: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami, Atlanta, San Francisco. A lot of cities there. You're talking about the Northeast. You're talking about a big Midwest hub and a big West Coast hub. Brookings says you are most likely to be on time in Salt Lake City, Honolulu, Detroit, Phoenix and Washington, D.C. And look, Rob, a lot of these delays really are caused by weather in one hub city or another hub city, and then you get the domino effect of flights not being able to get out to get to these other bigger cities.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and you know, when you think about all the planes that are trying to get to one city at a time, the ground stops that you see just...

HARRIS: Yes, yes, yes.

MARCIANO: They won't let you take off...

HARRIS: Right.

MARCIANO: ... because they have to clear basically the parking spaces at the airport you're trying to get to, so I don't know what the solution to the problem is. I'm hoping there's people a lot smarter than I am on this to try to figure it out.

HARRIS: Yes, you and me both. Appreciate it, Rob. Thank you, sir.

MARCIANO: OK.

HARRIS: Small groups making a big impact in Indonesia following last week's devastating earthquake and floods. We will take you inside the relief effort.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: On Wall Street, investors took a break today, but today they're in a buying mood, and it's because of a new report showing some Americans are in a buying mood as well. Did I misread that in some way, shape or form?

Let's get to Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. And Susan, are we talking about retail sales here?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are. But I'm coming to you today from Time Warner Center uptown...

HARRIS: That's a beautiful building.

LISOVICZ: ... which includes -- that's right. It includes a busy upscale mall. So, that's what we're going to talk about, shopping. The pace of economic recovery, Tony, as you well know, depends on how we spent.

And today we have some signs that we're spending just a little bit more. Retail sales rose one tenth of 1 percent in September. Now, I know that doesn't sound like a lot, but it's the first gain, according to the study from Goldman Sachs, since the summer of 2008.

HARRIS: Wow. I like it. LISOVICZ: Yes. Limited posted a sales increase for the month. It owns Victoria's Secret and Bath and Body Works. Target, Macy's and JCPenney posted declines, but the declines weren't as big as expected. The holidays, bottom line, still expected to be weak, but things are better, not worse. And that is a factor.

In today's rally on Wall Street, that's why investors are buying. The Dow is up nearly triple digits right now, above 9800. Nasdaq and S&P 500 each up better than 1 percent as well -- Tony.

HARRIS: It seems whenever we get close to the Dow 10,000, it just gets a little squirrely there on the Street.

LISOVICZ: It sure does.

HARRIS: It really does. You know, our spending...

LISOVICZ: A little resistance there.

HARRIS: Yes, there really is. The idea of spending here, it really translates into profits outside of the retail sector. You remind us of that all the time. Any news there?

LISOVICZ: Yes, because we're right on the cusp of earnings season. So, we're going to be hearing from all sorts of companies, not only retailers. Alcoa, for instance, the giant in aluminum production. Think about all the things we consume, which covers everything from soda cans to automobiles.

Well, it kicked off the earnings season with a surprise profit after three quarters of losses. Alcoa says its key markets are stabilizing.

What kind of markets? Sales to auto. The auto sector grew. It sees aluminum demand growing in the near term, although it still sees weakness in construction.

And so, you know, depending on what we hear over the next couple of weeks, Tony, depends on whether we'll probably just get closer to 10,000, Dow 10,000, or go above it.

HARRIS: You know, and maybe you can help me make sense of the employment numbers so we get word of first-time claims. The weekly claims number being down last week, and then that seems to be a pretty good indicator of some slow improvement in the labor force, the jobs market. And then you've got to balance that out against the September report and 263,000 people losing their jobs.

And I'm having a hard time keeping track and trying to integrate everything and figuring out what it all means. So, maybe you can help me with that.

LISOVICZ: Well, I mean, I think the bottom line is that job losses are still high. Those numbers, those weekly numbers show that things are slowly improving. But it's one of the reasons why consumer spending remains weak. HARRIS: Yes, yes.

LISOVICZ: It's not as bad as it was, showing some signs of life, but it's not going to be a robust recovery with an unemployment rate like that.

HARRIS: I'm just trying to figure out, are we -- have we flattened out? Are we starting -- I just -- Susan, appreciate it. Thanks for your help. See you next hour.

And gold is on a record-setting pace. Find out why by logging onto CNNmoney.com.

And let's get you caught up on our top stories right now. President Obama has postponed a meeting with the Dalai Lama until the president visits China in November. The spiritual leader of Tibet is in Washington to receive an award. The White House says the postponement was a mutual decision.

Hear what the Dalai Lama has to say about that. Our Wolf Blitzer has an exclusive interview with him this afternoon at 6:00 p.m. Eastern time.

Yes, indeed, shake it, aww, shake it like a Polaroid picture. This is not your usual basketball dance team tryout. Come on, now. These are 60-plus folks hoping to take the hardwood for the Heat's Golden Oldies Dance Team. The group performs at many of the team's home games.

And as we showed you at the top of hour, there was much frustration, anger and chaos in Detroit. Thousands of people lined up for a chance to receive stimulus money and were turned away.

Here's Natalie Sentz of CNN affiliate WDIV.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATALIE SENTZ, WDIV-TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sky 4 shows one of several entrances. Fights and faintings forced officials to call in disaster relief from Salvation Army.

GEORGE, PARTICIPANT: It was bad. I mean, there was people all over the place, and then you couldn't get here. We were lined up in traffic for 45 minutes, some of our trucks getting down here.

OLEFTHA, APPLICANT: It was chaos and commotion, and people yelling because they didn't have enough people to pass out the applications.

JOHN, PARTICIPANT: There were some people that were a little confused as to what was going on.

SENTZ: What's going on started last month. That's when people started filling out this homeless prevention application. Word got out to last-minute stragglers lining up since late last night for a photocopied piece of paper. YVONNE, APPLICANT; Look, there's people all over the place. This is getting crazy out here. We need help here.

SENTZ: Help will come in the form of $15.2 million in federal grant money awarded to residents of the city of Detroit, but there's 50 times more people applying than money available, making the paper well worth its weight in gold.

ASIA, APPLICANT: My concern is that everybody is down here, and they've been down here all night, might not get a chance to get the application to apply for the grant. And that's very sad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Detroit police said they had to shut down the entire process because the massive crowd created a safety hazard.

South Side Chicago tired of violence and the empty promises. We examine a new mentoring program, then hear from neighbors, one in particular, and plenty of blog comments from you. We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Teen violence in Chicago, it is a problem attracting national attention, including from the Obama administration. One plan to stop the violence uses federal stimulus dollars to mentor at-risk kids.

The story now from national correspondent Gary Tuchman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the head of the Chicago Public Schools. Ron Huberman has come up with a controversial plan to try to stop the violence.

RON HUBERMAN, CEO, CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOLS: We have the dollars, and we've started.

TUCHMAN: It's controversial because tens of millions of federal stimulus dollars will be spent targeting schoolkids who are at the highest risk of getting in trouble.

HUBERMAN: These 10,000 kids are our toughest kids in terms of the ones that we need to reach.

TUCHMAN: Ten thousand is a small percentage of all the kids who go to Chicago public schools. But the school chief analyzed specific acts of violence over several years to collect data about what happened, when and where it happened and who did it, to identify the students most likely to hurt others or be victims themselves. Each of them will be assigned a 24-hour mentor and offered a part-time job.

HUBERMAN: We don't label students. We don't share the information with the schools of who these students are. The only people who know who these kids are are the individuals involved directly in their intervention.

TUCHMAN: On Chicago's South Side, in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, there is desperation for anything that might work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Being caught in the middle of violence, coming home from school right now, that's my main concern.

TUCHMAN (on camera): In the Chicago public school system's own literature on the violence in this city, specific mention is made of this area in the Back of the Yards neighborhood. Not only is there gang activity here, but three gangs that hate each other compete on these very same streets for influence and members. It's a recipe for unrelenting violence.

(voice-over): What this program won't do is work with perpetrators who are no longer in school. Which is what this aunt of a 4-year-old is very concerned about.

(on camera): Do you think a lot of kids in this neighborhood have parents who are gang bangers?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes.

TUCHMAN: A lot?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I think majority of them.

TUCHMAN: So you're saying the majority of the kids' parents in this neighborhood are in gangs?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): But there are many adults in this neighborhood and elsewhere who are signing on as mentors, ready to offer support to become positive role models for 10,000 kids before it's too late.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: The teen violence in Chicago was the focus of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" last night. Part of the discussion involved a local resident and CNN's education contributor talking about who is ultimately responsible for solving the problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": When you see Arne Duncan here, who, you know, is a good guy, he's trying hard, when you see Eric Holder here, and you know, they come in on a big case like this, is this something the federal government can really do anything about?

STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: I don't think that this is a federal government issue. I think that they spoke and said essentially what Rod Page would have said and anyone else in their position would have said. I think that this is a local issue. I say it with all due respect to Ms. Allen. She and the members of that community need to own that they can change this. They need to acknowledge their own power within their community. Their churches, their religious orders, their fraternities and sororities. These are the people who live in Chicago.

We can all sit here and pontificate about it, and I could talk about it from Hartford, Connecticut. But in the end, when we all leave and go back to what we need to do, this sister and those people who are there in her community have to own responsibility that every single time those schools are allowed to persist, and the children come from that community's homes -- when we do not own responsibility for our children, our children act irresponsibly and dangerously.

COOPER: Do you think this community can change what's happening here?

JANICE ALLEN, CHICAGO RESIDENT: Yes, it can. Yes it can, with the right people and the right things being projected to them instead of them being afraid. And not only they're afraid, we're afraid.

COOPER: You're afraid on the streets?

ALLEN: I'm not afraid, but I'm afraid of my children and everybody else's child because if your child gets hurt, my child is hurt. And if that child hurt, I'm hurting because I know their parents and that household is hurting.

So, it's not just my child personally. It's all our children needs help. Needs help. And we've got all these politicians, all these big people saying this and that. Nobody's coming to help our kids until something like that happened.

And why do we have to go through this as a parent? You know, it's not fair. And then our kids are dependent on us to see them through. Sometimes, we just don't have the answer. We just keep praying and praying, Lord, keep covering them, and in the blood of Jesus they walk to and from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK, look, we are keeping you busy on our blog, and you have been weighing in on the Chicago teen violence story in big numbers. Josh Levs is following that for us.

Josh, what are you hearing?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, you know, there's a lot of passion about this as we were seeing right there. And we are hearing from a lot of people, hundreds and hundreds. They keep coming in. Let's go right into the blog. I'll show you some of the latest. We were talking to you here about Chicago violence.

This is Rita saying to us, "The Taliban and Chicago street thugs both kill and destroy and terrorize their own people for no other reason than because they can." Drawing a comparison there. Now, look at this. I want to show you this. This is from J.B., who says, "Five out of 10 cops are corrupt, three out of 10 know the corrupt ones and do nothing about it."

Now, clearly, we're not saying that's an accurate statistic at all. The reason I want you to see this, Tony, is a lot of people are writing us similar things, that they do not trust police, and they don't want to turn people in because they think those people will be back out on the streets in three or four days after that. And all of a sudden, they'll be the ones carrying out their own version of justice.

A lot of mistrust in police. This is one of the big obstacles police face in Chicago.

Take a look at this here. This is from Carol, who says, "Children that are expelled from schools for violence should not be allowed, recycled, back to the same schools that they had problems with. These kids should be sent to a jail so they do not disrupt the learning environment and the lives of the students who do want to learn."

Let's go over here. I want to show everyone what you've got at your Twitter page, Tony. This is a tweet that you got from Ken in Arizona: "The beating death of the student is awful, but just another casualty of the longest war in American history, the drug war."

HARRIS: Right.

LEVS: And I think we've got time for a couple more here. This is a tweet I got: "Any major city has crime. It's unfortunate for Chicago, as it was in the spotlight for the Olympic bid."

I wanted to point this out because a lot of people were saying they're not convinced Chicago is the worst. And it's not necessarily the worst, but that the attention is going to Chicago.

HARRIS: Exactly.

LEVS: Partly because of that and partly because it's a major city. It affects so many places.

HARRIS: Well, it's because it was captured on video. And it was just...

LEVS: And the video.

HARRIS: ... absolutely -- yes.

LEVS: And the stories are just so powerful and heartbreaking.

OK, we've got just a few left, so let's do this. I want everyone to see where they can weigh in. We've got the graphics for you. The blog is CNN.com/josh. Also, we've got the Tony page, cnn.com/tony. I'm up at Facebook and Twitter, joshlevsCNN. And keep them coming because this discussion, Tony, I'm happy to say, people are listening to each other, they're responding to each other, they're actually contributing ideas. It's actually a progressive discussion.

HARRIS: Right, right.

LEVS: You know, productive, I mean.

HARRIS: Well, and you know, our commitment here, and we've talked about it in the last couple of mornings in our morning meeting, is just to get as many of these comments on the air. If you're going to take the time to write us, if you're going to take the time to give us a phone call, say, on the Afghanistan story, then we're going to try as best we can to get all of your comments on the air as best we can.

LEVS: That's right.

HARRIS: All right, Josh, thank you.

LEVS: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: And here's what we're working on for the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Vice President Biden is reportedly disillusioned with the president of Afghanistan, and he is making his point in those closed-door White House meetings. At issue, pouring thousands more troops into the war zone. We will visit that.

Plus, have you ever had a workplace romance? David Letterman's admitted dalliances have triggered a rush of questions about that, and we will ask the editor of a magazine devoted to women and business about the rules of engagement in the workplace. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And we have new information on the proposed health care bill, centering on a windfall tax. Brianna Keilar joining us live from Capitol Hill. This would have to be work that's going on on health care reform by the House, Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Some new developments coming out of the House of Representatives, Tony. You know, one of the most controversial parts of health care reform is how to pay for it. And Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi just said here in the halls of Congress that she is considering a new way to pay for this bill, that she has the House tax-writing committee looking at a windfall profits tax on insurance companies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: I have asked Chairman Rangel to ask his staff to see what is in it for us in terms of a windfall profit tax on income from the insurance companies, not to deal with premiums, but on income. When we see what that is, maybe that's something we can put in the mix.

But this is very preliminary. It's very preliminary. Let me say that I believe that all of the participants, whether it's the insurance companies or the pharmaceutical industries, have much more they can put on the table to help reduce cost and take us in a downward direction in terms of spending on this health care bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And Speaker Pelosi seemed pretty surprised, Tony, that this information had come out there. This would be a tax on the profits of insurance companies. And the pharmaceutical industry, who she singled out along with insurance companies, they are not going to be happy to hear about this.

These are two, what they're called stakeholders here on the Hill, who have made deals with the White House to basically cough up some savings, to basically give up some of their, I guess, profits or find savings in the system, in exchange for getting millions and millions of new patients, basically a new -- new people buying insurance.

HARRIS: Got you.

KEILAR: So, the idea of tinkering with that agreement, Tony, won't sit well with them.

HARRIS: That's interesting. A couple of questions come to mind. I've only got time for one. How does this idea of a windfall tax on insurance company revenues, profits, compare to other pay-for proposals?

KEILAR: Well, we've been keeping an eye on that Senate Finance Committee bill here on the Senate side. It includes, as you know, Tony, a tax on those Cadillac health-care plans, high-end expensive health care plans, but that hits a lot of union members, a key constituency of Democrats. That's why a lot of Democrats in the House have a problem with it.

And then right now, the House bill as it is being finalized today, Tony, includes a tax on wealthy Americans, families making over $1 million. So, this is dramatically different, very controversial.

HARRIS: All right, Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill. Brianna, thank you. See you in just a couple of minutes, actually.