Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Business, Labor Leaders Gather to Discuss Job Creation; Afghanistan Discussion Dominates Congress Activities; Health Care Bill Continues to Be Addressed

Aired December 03, 2009 - 10:00   ET

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

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And from Main Street to Pennsylvania Avenue, unemployment is dominating the discussions. The jobless rate is at a 26-year high. The White House is holding a job summit today and we got some new numbers for you.

Take a look at this now. We begin with numbers that came out this morning. The tally of newly laid off workers has fallen unexpectedly for the fifth straight week. Now that could be an encouraging sign that the job market is slowly improving. The new number, 457,000. It's the lowest total in nearly 15 months.

Today the economy is job one at the White House. The jobs forum will try to create work for some of the 16 million Americans who are now unemployed. The unemployment rate 10.2 percent is once again the 26-year high we've been talking about.

So the Obama administration is gathering business and labor leaders today to discuss job creation. In all 130 visitors will pour into the White House for today's summit. They are considered top leaders in business and academics and they'll explore ways to put Americans back to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What I think the president wants to do is hear from them on the type of environment that we can have that would allow for that hiring to take place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Administration officials say they don't expect any major policy announcements to come out of today's meeting. There's no question the jobs picture is grim. We want to talk a little bit more about the White House summit going on today.

CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow is in New York for that. Poppy, good morning to you. Yes, this is something that we've been waiting to see happen. The president announced it a while ago.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: People want to see action. They don't want to just hear the talk.

HARLOW: Yes. They don't want to see a room full of business leaders that all have jobs and they don't have one. You're exactly right, Heidi. A little bit of backlash we saw. Some protests and gathering last night around the country with people talking about hey a summit is one thing. We want to see action.

What we're going to find out tomorrow is how many jobs this economy shed last month. The expectation remains really grim. Take a look at what we're expecting. Another 114,000 jobs to have been lost last month alone. Unemployment expected to remain high at 10.2 percent. That's the highest level in 26 years as you said.

And critics say it raises the question of the effectiveness of the stimulus plan. Of course, earlier this week we saw the Congressional Budget Office saying the stimulus have saved or created between 600,000 and 1.6 million jobs. It's a huge range. And what this does, Heidi, is this really underscores how difficult it is to get an accurate count of how many jobs are actually coming out of that stimulus spending.

But when you ask many Americans, a lot of them don't see hope. We went to an employment office in New York here in Harlem to really gauge what's going on and here's what they told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm having trouble finding a job. I've been looking - I've been to like 23 to 25 places and whatever Obama and the administration is saying is not showing up here in New York City.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've sent so many resumes and applications out. I'm not getting a single call. Not a single response.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We hear jobs, yes. But there are so many people applying for the same positions that very few get selected.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm seeing people get jobs. I mean, they're here. They've been looking for work for one or two months and then all of a sudden I don't see them anymore. They're gone because they got the job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right. So the consensus may be some more jobs but competition is stiff, Heidi. Get this number. There are now six workers competing for every vacant job in this country right now. Heidi.

COLLINS: Wow. Unbelievable. What do we expecting then to come out of this summit today? Because it is an issue that we talked about for a long time. It's not about saving jobs really.

HARLOW: Yes.

COLLINS: That would be great, too. It's about creating them.

HARLOW: Right. Exactly.

It's about jump-starting hiring and how you do it from big businesses like the head of Google and the head of Disney are going to be there. But small businesses on the agenda today, on the agenda, you got small business, green jobs but small business is really key here. Because when you look at the numbers, small businesses employ more than half of the workers in this country and take a look at what's happened.

And over the last year, two million jobs at small businesses have been lost. We see hiring there at a standstill and there was actually a recent survey of about 200 small business owners. What they said is that 24 percent of them will not start hiring until the second quarter of next year. Another 22 percent, Heidi, won't bring on anymore staff until 2011.

So you can see why the president is calling for the summit. There's a lot of urgency to grow jobs. I think the remaining question we'll be watching this afternoon, Heidi, is what is going to come out of it. Any action or just talk. You can see more about that as the summit goes on this afternoon on CNNMoney. Heidi.

COLLINS: All right. Very good. We'll check that out. Poppy Harlow, thank you.

A Republican leader is offering an alternative to President Obama's job summit. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has launched what he calls a real job summit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: Our focus has been on how do you get small businesses and entrepreneurs in the private sector to create permanent good jobs in a world market competing with China and India and that's fundamentally different than the kind of phony stimulus approach of big bureaucracy, trickle-down bureaucracy. We think doesn't work. But build up free enterprise does work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Today the summit will take place in Jackson, Mississippi. Yesterday it kicked off in Cincinnati.

The Senate is expected to vote on health care today specifically considering four amendments to the nearly $1 trillion reform bill. Now, the first vote is on covering preventive services for women's health. A Republican alternative calls for abortions to be excluded from coverage. There's also a vote on amendments concerning $460 billion in Medicare funding targeted in the reform bill.

We have been keeping an eye on testimony about Afghanistan this morning. As you see there, Secretary of defense Robert Gates is speaking right now. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and also joint chiefs chairman Admiral Mike Mullen are appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations committee right now. They're taking questions on the president's plan to add 30,000 troops to Afghanistan. They are also discussing the president's draw down timetable. That was the hot topic during yesterday's testimony.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Will we would we withdraw our forces based on conditions on the ground or based on an arbitrary date?

ROBERT GATES, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We will be in position, particularly uncontested areas where we will be able to begin that transition.

MCCAIN: Let's suppose you're not.

GATES: I think we will be in a position then to evaluate whether or not we can begin that transition in July.

MCCAIN: Which is it? It's got to be one or the other. It's got to be the appropriate conditions or it's got to be an arbitrary date.

GATES: We will have a thorough review in December 2010. If it appears that the strategy is not working and that we are not going to be able to transition in 2011, then we will take a look at the strategy itself.

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: I think it's fair to say that if the president could have concluded that this was an old war that could be wound down and walked away from that would certainly have been an easier choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: NATO ministers are meeting in Brussels today, considering the president's plan for Afghanistan. The president requested more international support, of course. Italy's government says it is ready to commit an extra 1,000 troops to the mission. That would be part of the expected 5,000 troop increase from NATO nations.

Protests against the escalating war in Afghanistan unfolding in several U.S. cities. Demonstrators chanted and waved signs in downtown Philadelphia. In Chicago, about 200 protesters gathered for a march outside of the federal plaza. One mother says she's demonstrating to honor the memory of her son who was killed in Afghanistan.

And in Minneapolis, dozens of people marched through downtown streets during rush hour yesterday. They said they wanted to disrupt traffic to show their opposition to war.

Let's get back over to Rob Marciano now in the Severe Weather Center to talk a little bit more about blustery conditions in the northeast, right?

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: At the White House new security measures are in place following the apparent breach at last week's state dinner. The White House says its staff will now be stationed at the security checkpoints to make sure there are no mistakes with the guest list. Meanwhile the so-called party crashers have declined an invitation to testify this hour at a House hearing investigating the debacle. The committee chairman says if the couple is a no show they may be subpoenaed. The White House has also rejected a request for its social secretary to testify at a House hearing.

A former governor's controversial decision to grant clemency to a man who police say turned into a cop killer. Our Drew Griffin caught up with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, who says it was the right thing to do at the time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Tiger Woods has joined the list of celebrities and I'm sure you have seen before and also politicians issuing public apologies for their "transgressions." Well, this morning we wanted to know. You have to fess up if you want to take part in this. What is one of the worst things that you have had to apologize for?

We are asking you to confess but you got to go to cnn.com/heidi in order to do that. We're going to read some of those responses coming up a little bit later on in the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Former governor Mike Huckabee is standing by his decision to commute the sentence of an accused cop killer nine years before the tragic incident. Maurice Clemmons allegedly shot and killed four police officers at a coffee shop in Washington state on Sunday. Two days later, Clemmons was shot dead by police.

CNN's Drew Griffin has more on Clemmons rap sheet and Huckabee's decision in 2000.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT (voice-over): County prosecutors in Little Rock say they were never notified. Governor Mike Huckabee was even considering commuting the sentence of Maurice Clemmons and if there were, they most certainly would have been on record opposing it.

Former chief deputy prosecutor Warren McCormick says no way, after just 11 years behind bars. Should Maurice Clemmons had his sentence commuted, had his sentence reduced or ever been released on parole. And he told that in writing on the record to the parole board every time they asked.

(on camera): Here's what you wrote. Objection. Clemmons is a violent habitual offender. This is apparent from his new 2001 conviction. This is in November of 2001.

WARREN MCCORMICK, FMR. CHIEF DEPUTY PROSECUTOR: Yes, sir. You let him out. That's correct.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): By 1990, Maurice Clemmons at just 18 years old already had three felonies to his name. A violent teenager. Records show just before his fourth trial Clemmons threatened a judge, injured his own mother by throwing a lock that hit her. He tried to grab a guard's pistol and even took a metal hinge off his door and hid it in his sock to use it as a weapon. He was considered so dangerous that the trial judge had him shackled to his chair.

(on camera): He needed to be shackled.

MCCORMICK: That's the one word that came to my mind or remembered about him was that he was mean. That he was shackled in court. And deputies placed behind him while he was trying because he was such a security risk.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): The jury found him guilty of burglary and theft and along with sentences for his three previous felonies, Maurice Clemmons was sent to prison to serve more than 100 years. He was just 18 years old. Young as he was, he was plenty tough.

(on camera): Even behind these prison fences, Maurice Clemmons continued to lash out violently. His prison record is filled with violations, aggravated battery, assault, theft, drug possession, even at one time, concealing a weapon.

LARRY JEGLEY, PULASKI COUNTY, ARK., PROSECUTOR: Over and over again. Failure to obey. Engaging in sexual activity. Failure to obey. Possession or introduction of drugs. Firearm. Somehow or another. I'm not sure.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Firearm.

JEGLEY: Yes.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): The records don't know what that firearm was. Larry Jegley is Little Rock's prosecutor. He says the man his office put away for life should have never, ever gotten out and anyone who bothered to read Maurice Clemmons record, his criminal record in court, his violent record in prison, would have never allowed this man to set foot outside of prison. So who does he blame. After all it is the parole board that recommended Maurice Clemmons be released but Jegley says he doesn't blame the board. He blames one man.

JEGLEY: Those are clemencies from 1996 through the middle of 2004.

GRIFFIN: Jegley says mistakes were made with Clemmons. Warrants missed. Even in Washington state, bail granted. But none of it would have happened without the governor's signature.

JEGLEY: He needs to bear responsibility for that.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Nobody else?

JEGLEY: No. No. We did everything that we could do with him and got him sentenced to 108 years. Mike Huckabee with the stroke of the pen undid that and left us to our devices to try to deal with him.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Governor, hi. Drew Griffin. (voice-over): We spent days looking for the governor trying to get his side of this story. We finally tracked him down at a college in Jacksonville, Florida, where the governor was giving a speech. We asked him did he know how violent Clemmons was before he cut his sentence short? Surprisingly, the answer is yes.

(INAUDIBLE) entire file.

GRIFFIN (on camera): Was it just this few pieces of paper?

MIKE HUCKABEE, FMR. ARKANSAS GOVERNOR: No, no, no. It was a file this thick.

GRIFFIN: Did it tell you the violations he had in prison, the assault, every bit of his record -

- in prison and the fact he tried to slip a piece of metal into court?

HUCKABEE: I looked at the file. Every bit of it. Here was a case where a guy had been given 108 years. Now if you think that 108 years sentence is an appropriate sentence for a 16-year old for the crimes he committed, then you should run for governor of Arkansas.

GRIFFIN (on camera): You're looking at this nine years later and trying to make something as if I could look into the future.

HUCKABEE: I wish I could have. Good lord, I wish I had that power. I wish I could have done that but I don't know how anyone can do it.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Drew Griffin, CNN, Jacksonville, Florida.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: We also want to reiterate, Clemmons was actually out on bail in Washington state at the time of the shootings this past Sunday. According to Seattle times, Clemmons had been in jail in Pierce County for the past several months on a pending charge of second-degree child rape. He was released from custody on a $150,000 bond just days before the shootings even though he was facing seven additional felony charges. We have reached out to Pierce County superior judges Thomas Felnegel and John McCarthy. No one has returned our calls for comment in the case.

Anthony Sowell pleads not guilty by reason of insanity to the death of 11 women in Ohio. He was arraigned this morning by video hookup from the Cleveland jail. Sowell was indicted earlier this week on 85 charges including murder, rape, and corpse abuse. Investigators have found 10 bodies and one severed head in Sowell's home. The FBI searched another of his former homes yesterday but did not find anything.

Clarifying a confusing message. Members of a panel that outline new breast cancer screening guidelines just two weeks ago face-off with lawmakers. We'll have the latest. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Checking out top stories now. Terror suspect Najibullah Zazi is due in federal court today in New York. He, this Colorado man, arrested in September after allegedly having ties with Al-Qaeda in Pakistan. Authorities say Zazi planned to be in New York on September 11th of this year with the intent of using an explosive device. Authorities say he pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges.

New York lawmakers have rejected a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. The vote in the Senate was 38-24. It is viewed as a huge victory for those opposed to gay marriage, of course. Opponents say the outcome could influence gay marriage votes in other states.

A marriage of a different kind. Comcast and General Electric. The owner of NBC are joining forces. They announced a joint venture worth more than a combined $37 billion. The deal will eventually give the cable company control of NBC Universal creating an entertainment power house. Of course, regulators must first approve.

Now to the controversy over those recent breast cancer screening guidelines. Members of the task force that made those recommendations were doing a bit of back pedaling yesterday on Capitol Hill. You remember the guidelines advising women ages 40 to 49 not to get routine mammograms. Our medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has a closer look now at the hearing which got pretty heated.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lawmakers began with their personal stories about breast cancer. A Congressman who lost his aunt. Another whose wife had breast cancer. A Congresswoman said she doesn't understand how a federal task force suggest that women in their 40s don't need regular mammograms.

REP. SUE MYRICK (R), NORTH CAROLINE: Because to me it sends the wrong message to women. It's saying you don't have to be vigilant. You don't have to take care of yourself. You don't have to do preventive care and the reason that concerns me is I'm a 10-year breast cancer survivor. I'm one of those that would persevered literally to find, you know, my own cancer because I knew something was wrong with my body.

COHEN: According to the recent report from the U.S. preventive services task force, mammograms are highly inaccurate. For every 1,000 women in their 40s who get mammograms, two cancers are found and 98 false positives are found. The report says women then need to have invasive procedures to check out a positive mammogram and they worry unnecessarily when the mammogram turns out to be wrong.

The vice chair of the task force defended the group's guidelines.

DR. DIANA B. PETITTI, PREVENTIVE SERVICES TASK FORCE: It carries special emotional weight because of the consequences of the diagnosis have in the past involved not only death but the prospect of mutilating surgery. COHEN: And one Congressman did defend the task force.

REP. JOHN SARBANES (D), MARYLAND: But to put our head in the sand and not look at the signs it seems to me would be a serious mistake.

COHEN: But most who testified on Capitol Bill today were critical saying the recommendations could put women in danger.

JENNIFER LURAY, PRESIDENT SUSAN G. KOMEN: We know that mammography is an imperfect tool. We must close the technology gap and come up with better methods.

COHEN: Elizabeth Cohen, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: From high school to boot camp. We're tracking one young man's journey from student to soldier.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins.

COLLINS: Today at the White House, the Obama administration will host a jobs summit. Among those taking part, 130,000 leaders in business, labor and academics. Their goal: explore ways to create jobs and reduce the highest unemployment rate in 26 years.

Let's break down that unemployment picture now. CNN's Stephanie Elam is here to crunch those numbers and provide a bit of perspective. So Stephanie, the need to jump-start hiring, pretty obvious.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think that's the no-brainer out of all this.

Just to highlight what's go on here, Heidi. We do have new numbers. Taking a look at the weekly jobless claim numbers and that number came in at 457,000. That's actually 5,000 less than expected. That was less than the 480,000 that analysts were expecting. And its also a 15-month low.

But take a look at this chart on the screen next to me. Look at where we were when the recession began which was December of 2007. We had an unemployment rate of 4.9 percent. That's a healthy unemployment rate. Anything that's 5 percent or lower is considered full employment for the U.S. economy.

Fast forward to October of this year. You can see we got to 10.2 percent. Just so many people dealing with the fact they've been without jobs. On top of that, if you look at how many jobs have been lost month by month, you can really see the pain here was hit in January of this year. That's when 741,000 jobs were lost in just one month. That's a massive number. That was the peak of it.

And if you compare it to October of last year when we had 380,000 that were lost versus October of this year with 190,000 jobs being lost, still big numbers but moving in the right direction for those particular numbers.

The other issue that we have to take a look at, you talk about 15.7 million people losing their jobs this year out of work right now, and 5.6 million have been dealing with this unemployment situation on a long-term basis. And then if you think about it as far as job vacancies for each job that's open, Heidi, we're talking about six people who would like to get that job. Overall, it's really a rough picture.

COLLINS: The competition is just so incredibly stiff right now. I know we'll get fresh unemployment numbers again tomorrow, right?

ELAM: We will. Tomorrow we'll get the big November jobs report, now that November is behind us. Overall, what we're looking to see here is that another 114,000 jobs were lost during that period. Again, moving in the right direction but still posting a loss.

Unemployment rate is expected to stay steady at 10.2 percent, but, Heidi, there's some people out there who think we won't get back to a healthy unemployment level of below 5 percent until at least 2014. We'll be looking to get concrete numbers tomorrow to give us an idea of the health of the economy.

COLLINS: Yes. Yes. All right. We'll be watching. Stephanie, thank you.

ELAM: Sure.

COLLINS: Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke is on Capitol Hill today seeking another term. Looking at Senator Chris Dodd right there. The Senate Banking Committee will review his work as head of the nation's central bank.

There's Bernanke. Some ive pictures coming in now. Bernanke did draw anger from missing the warning signs of the financial crisis, but it's quite likely he'll be confirmed.

The nation's biggest lender also got one of the biggest bailouts from the government, but now Bank of America says it's making good on the I.O.U. Susan Lisovicz is in New York with more details on this. So is Bank of America going pay back all of that T.A.R.P. money, Susan?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All $45 billion of it. Bank of America is one of the last banks to repay T.A.R.P. Not surprisingly when you consider that amount. We're still waiting on some others like CitiGroup and some nonfinancial companies like AIG, GM and Chrysler, but repayment is important because it's a sign of better health for B of A.

Why is that? The government would only allow Bank of America to repay it if the balance sheet is in order. Now, the repayment does come at a cost. The company will have to raise some of the money by going to the market. Not to Uncle Sam, not to us, by selling new security. Expect its corporate earnings to take a hit, but obviously this is welcome news on the Street. B of A shares right now are up 2.25 percent. Major averages are mixed. Heidi?

COLLINS: Hmm. The incentive for Bank of America to return all of that money now in credit losses are still a problem. The economy still struggling, of course. How do they see it?

LISOVICZ: Well, I mean, we have talked about this time and time again whether it was Goldman Sachs or whether it's Bank of America, they want the government out of its business. And that includes pay caps. Bank of America also says that it removes the stigma, and that is may help speed up its search for a new chief executive.

The "Wall Street Journal" has a fascinating story today about one contender who pulled out because he didn't want his compensation subject to the approval of pay czar Kenneth Feinberg. If you remember some of the stories, we talked about earlier this year, AIG's CEO -- he had to go through all of these processes to have his salary approved. It ultimately was. But that's not the kind of thing you want.

In any case, that's important as well for Bank of America to have a new CEO. It was supposed to be done by Thanksgiving. Perhaps it will be done by the end of the year. We'll see. Bank of America is in better stead we can say, certainly, than over the past year.

COLLINS: Yes. Watching that one closely. Thank you, Susan.

They had a say in developing a new mission for Afghanistan. Now, they're having to explain it to Congress. This hour, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mike Mullen are appearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Live pictures of Secretary of State for you.

Some of the men and women who will be sent to Afghanistan are very young. Straight out of high school. Today, we are following one soon-to-be soldier as he prepares to leave civilian life behind. CNN's Jason Carroll has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is Will McLain, 18 years old and a week away from taking the oath to enlist in the Army.

WILL MCLAIN, U.S. ARMY RECRUIT: More people in here.

CARROLL: We gave him a video camera to show how he was passing the time. There were lots of parties.

MCLAIN: It's always funny, because even when I'm partying with my friends or something like that they always have to throw those Army jokes in.

CARROLL: How have your friends taking the news so far? What have they been... MCLAIN: They think I'm doing a good thing. Like they figured it's better than just rotting away in Rosamond (ph), you know.

CARROLL: Rosamond, California, Will's hometown. It's in the western Mojave Desert, a large stretch of land with a small population, about 14,000. A place where dirt bike riding is surpassed only by motorcycle racing in popularity. A place Will McLain can't wait to leave.

MCLAIN: I'm kind of glad to be getting out of this little town, you know, because it gets old. There's a lot of things you will miss here.

CARROLL: We met up with Will, his last day at home before he left to join the Army. A day his 12-year-old brother didn't want to leave his side.

MCLAIN: I think it kind of hits him more that I'm leaving. Like, this last week I think it's truly hit them and my family.

CARROLL: Like a lot of high school football players, McLain had dreams of pursuing a career in the pros.

MCLAIN: I could think was that I'm going to go pro, no matter what. You know. And then pretty much, I guess in junior, I realized there were a lot bigger fishes in the sea.

CARROLL (on camera): Yes.

(voice-over): McLain says early this year, he began to really think about the advice from his uncle.

MCLAIN: I know my uncle always use to tell me, you know, you need to have a back-up plan. You need to have a back-up plan. And that's what I figured the most, I would do the best bet (ph).

CARROLL: Will had grown up with guns and always liked the idea of joining the military. So he tried to convince his parents to allow him to enlist before his 18th birthday in May.

MCLAIN: They didn't want to sign the papers and I needed to come back a year later. Like I hate you, you sign the papers. So this way, they made me wait until I was 18 so that, you know, the blame is fully on me. The way my mom worded it, she doesn't want to be responsible for sending me to Afghanistan.

CARROLL: And now with time running out at home, reality is setting in.

MCLAIN: I'd say about a week ago it truly hit me. That's when I forgot how to sleep and stuff. I just pretty much lay there and think about it, oh, man, you know, I'm leaving in a week. I'm leaving in three days. I'm leaving in a day.

CARROLL: For Will's parents, Bill, a construction worker, and his wife Laurie (ph), Will's future now taking shape. BILL MCLAIN, FATHER: We're all worried that he'll come home in one piece. He might be 5,000 miles away. But he knows there's people that care about him.

CARROLL: The next morning came the good-byes. And one last word of advice.

BILL MCLAIN: Head down, brain on, OK? She wasn't looking forward to this moment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Jason is joining us from New York to talk more about this. Jason, it really is stunning it if you ever have the opportunity to go and meet some of these men and women who are deploying for the first time, who are just newly enlisted, at how young they are. Does he actually know specifically if he'll be deployed?

CARROLL: That's one of the questions obviously weighing very heavy on his mind. He fully expects to be deployed. It's not been made official to him yet at this point. He's headed off to Fort Leavenworth, Missouri to begin hisbasic training. We'll follow him through every step of that training as well as some of the others that we're also going to be following through their Army experience.

COLLINS: And the Pentagon giving you pretty good access?

CARROLL: yes. You know, it was tough. We went. We met with some of the officials there at the Pentagon. Several meetings with them. Explained to them what we wanted to do, how we really wanted to follow a soldier through the experience from the very beginning through their training and through deployment, and to chronicle that experience. And at first, they were hesitant, but once we gave them more of an idea of what we wanted to accomplish here, they were on board. So, they're going give us all of the access we ask for. Fingers crossed.

COLLINS: Very good. Obviously not going to be showing tactics, really, but what it feels like for a person going through the experience. We'll have those stories here. And Jason, we sure do appreciate it. Thank you.

What stories have grabbed your interest lately? And which ones are just so over? I have a few ideas.

(LAUGHTER)

COLLINS: We're tracking the rising and falling trends on the Internet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Quickly, want to give you something we've been watching and monitoring this morning. We've been telling you a little bit more about how some of the security measures at the White House may actually be changed due to what happened at the State dinner. You remember that, quote, "party crashers," some people were calling Tareq and Michaele Salahi party crashers. There was a lot of talk about whether or not they were invited, and White House said they weren't.

But then now here's what's going on at the Homeland Security Department. There's a hearing going on. The head of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, made an interesting comment. We want to go ahead and play it for you. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK SULLIVAN, SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: I directed the office of professional responsibility to contact the Department of Homeland Security office of the Inspector General in order to advise them of our investigation. While the investigation remains ongoing, preliminary findings have determined that established procedures related to entering the White House were not followed at initial checkpoint.

An error in judgment, a mistake was made. In our line of work, we cannot afford even one mistake. Although these individuals went through magnotometers (ph) and other levels of screening, their entry into the White House is unacceptable and indefensible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Wow. There you go. With the CIA there, Mark Sullivan. This is subcommittee from Homeland Security Department where they were investigating further -- I'm sorry. With Secret Service. They are investigating further the state dinner where Tareq and Michaele Salahi apparently crashed, and now we're hearing more about some, quote, "mistakes" that were made in that initial checkpoint.

And several rings of security for an event like this, and apparently at the very first one, according to the Secret Service there, Mark Sullivan, that is where the initial mistake was made. We'll continue to follow that story and any fallout from it.

A lot of us spend a lot of time on the Internet. But what were we all paying attention to this year, and what have people stopped caring about? A new list has some answers for us. Out Josh Levs is looking at all of it for us today. All right, so, what's the deal?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's actually going to be interesting to see the peaks (ph) goes for Salahis. So many people searching them lately. See how long that one lasts.

What this now looks at -- this is interesting. It comes from Google. Looks at the whole year. Let' soom back in here. This is the screen. This is it, basically. It's called the Google Zeitgeist. I'll show you quickly, one example of what they do.

These are Michael Jackson songs. Some of the most searched things throughout this year. They actually show you which songs got the most searches. Biggest one is "Thriller," then "Beat It," "Billie Jean." So, they break down big time what's gotten the most searches, not just overall, but most quickly growing. So, no interest in 2008, or very little interest in 2008, and boom, tons in 2009.

Let's go to the graphic. I want to show you what fastest growing searches were for this year. Michael Jackson, Facebook and then this is where it gets interesting and surprising to a lot of people. Tuenti at number three, which is a Spanish-language social networking site. And this is around the world. You've got 50 countries that are included here.

Twitter, no surprise, and then number five. There is so much talk online about -- what is that -- Sanalika. I want to zoom back in to the screen because I want to show you. This is it right here. Sanalika, right? Number five on Google Zeitgeist is a Turkish system where people get together and play games online in an online community. It's been getting all this traffic, and a lot of Turkish people get there through Google. They use a lot of Google to get their Turkish speaking people around the world.

Now, we also look at what some of the fastest falling search terms were this year. And one of them is right here. Take a look at this video.

(VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: Amy Winehouse, she was one of the five fastest falling search terms this year. And you might see this as dubious, but you actually might see this as OK, too. Might mean a lot fewer people paying attention to the problems that this troubled British singer has been facing.

Also, more video for you. Beijing 2008 Olympics. That's no surprise. Tons of people searched it last year. No one is anymore.

Let's go to the screen. The five fastest falling searches. People stopped caring about Beijing, Euro 2008. Also Heath Ledger, Barack Obama and Amy Winehouse.

And I'm going to end by telling you this. This is interesting. Last year, Heidi, the thing that topped this list, all of a sudden, so many people interested was Sarah Palin. And Sarah Palin is still right now not falling at all. Still one of the big things people are searching for. You can check it out yourself. We posted it all at the blog and Facebook and Twitter. JoshLevsCNN. You can see it yourself. Heidi.

COLLINS: So, we still don't know if the Salahis -- because I know this is your favorite story...

(LAUGHTER)

COLLINS: ... were invited or not invited. We're just hearing from the Secret Service that there was an issue at the initial checkpoint.

LEVS: That's right. And there's so much interest in that. It's all over online. We'll be hearing every detail for a while.

COLLINS: OK. Keep us posted.

LEVS: You got it.

COLLINS: Thanks, Josh.

Storms in the Northeast and snow for the South. Meteorologist Rob Marciano keeping a close eye on all things weather across the country and how they're changing. Hey, Rob.

ROB MARCIANO: Hey, Heidi.

Those storms in the Northeast ,a lot of wind and record breaking high temperatures for parts of New England as that storm exits. Another one on its heels, and that could bring some snow to the South. Weather is coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: The Grammy nominations are out, and Beyonce leads the way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Beyonce nominated for ten Grammys. Taylor Swift wasn't far behind with eight nominations, and the two will go head to head for Album, song and Record of the Year. Maxwell, Kayne West and Black Eyed Peas got six nominations each. Maxwell performed a musical tribute to Michael Jackson during last night's nomination show.

One more time to Rob Marciano. Because if you're in the Northeast, you better get a jacket, basically, right?

MARCIANO: Yes. And hang onto your hats.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Yes. As always, snow days very popular among the kids. All right, Rob. Thank you.

MARCIANO: OK.

COLLINS: We'll take a quick break. Back in a moment here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Tiger Woods is now on the list of celebrities and politicians issuing public apologies for their quote, "transgressions."

(VIEWER COMMENTS)

COLLINS: Remember, we always do want to hear from you. Just log on to CNN.com/heidi to share your comments.

That's it for now. CNN NEWSROOM continues with Tony Harris.