Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
From Gitmo to Illinois; Americans Arrested in Pakistan; 2009's Dumbest Business Moments; U.S. Teens Fight; Americans May Live Longer; Small Business Survival
Aired December 15, 2009 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Tuesday morning to you. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. It's December the 15th. I'm John Roberts.
ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everybody. I'm Alina Cho. Kiran Chetry has the morning off.
Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes. CNN is learning the White House will announce an Illinois prison will soon house detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We're live at the White House with details.
ROBERTS: New details this morning on the five young American men arrested in Pakistan. Authorities say they wanted to wage holy war, but here at home, youth coordinators say they were hard-working and wholesome. So, what went wrong? We'll speak to someone who knows them and their parents. It is his first live television interview.
CHO: Plus, the CDC says 16 young people are murdered every day, many by somebody their own age. So, what's behind the brutal violence?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And if I got to jump, I was by myself. And I was -- I found myself (INAUDIBLE), and then they said, like, yes, OK, we're going to spare your life today and that scared me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Ahead in our A.M. original series, "Walk in my Shoes." Our T.J. Holmes talks with students on Chicago south side to find out why so many teens are turning to violence.
But we begin this morning with a developing story. And a critical step towards President Obama's promise to close the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. Today, the White House will announce the tiny town of Thompson, Illinois, will be the new holding tank for some suspected terrorists.
Our Dan Lothian, live at the White House.
Dan, good morning to you. A controversial decision for sure.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. It really is. You know, there are some who believe from a safety perspective that this is dangerous. It's a threat to national security because you are housing these terror suspects right here on U.S. soil.
On the flip side, though, this is really seen as a boom for this community that has been struggling for quite sometime. This is a facility that was opened in 2001. It remained empty for a number of years and has been under-used. And so, by bringing -- I'm told by a senior administration official -- up to 100 detainees from Gitmo to the facility, it's expected to inject about $1 billion into that community and also, up to 2,000 jobs.
But certainly, there will be a lot of controversy behind it. The White House is quite aware of that. Today, they'll be meeting here, officials with the governor, with the senator from Illinois, to go over this decision. But no doubt, it will be a difficult one to sell.
CHO: So, Dan, of course, the big question is when will this transfer start? Any idea when it might start?
LOTHIAN: We have not. I have asked to find out if we could be told exactly when they will be making those transfers. Obviously, they will be purchasing this facility, the federal government will be. So, that will take time. And certainly, soon after that, these detainees will begin to be transferred from Gitmo, Guantanamo Bay in Cuba to Illinois. But we don't have a date, a time yet on when that will happen.
CHO: Well, we'll be waiting for that news.
Dan Lothian, live from the White House for us -- Dan, thank you.
ROBERTS: Breaking news from Baghdad this morning: several car bombs detonating today. Police and Iraqi government officials reporting five people dead, 16 injured, three blasts, one after the other occurring overnight near the capital city's Green Zone. That's where the U.S. embassy and many Iraqi government buildings are located.
The top U.S. commander for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is on a diplomatic mission this morning in Pakistan. General Petraeus is telling CNN's Arwa Damon that President Obama's time line for Afghanistan does not mean that the U.S. is about to abandon the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How do you convince other major players that the U.S. does have the staying power?
GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: I think at the end of the day we have to come back to why it is we are engaged in the region in the first place. Why are we in Afghanistan? And, of course, it is because that is the location in which the 9/11 attacks were planned. We've got to insure that that can't happen again. (END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: General Petraeus also telling CNN one way Washington hopes to build trust with Pakistan is through $1.5 billion in aid over the next five years.
CHO: New developments this morning in the mystery of those missing White House e-mails. Guess what? They've been found. Computer technicians uncovered 22 million e-mails from 2003 to 2005 that the Bush administration claimed were lost because of an I.T. failure. Well, they just turned up after two watchdog groups sued to make them public.
But it could take years to actually see them. The National Archives will go through all 22 million to figure out which ones can be released under the Freedom of Information laws -- 2014 before we see those.
ROBERTS: If you were in Archive and someone came in and said, "Alina we've got a little project for you, 22 million emails."
CHO: I can barely get through the e-mails on my BlackBerry, you know?
ROBERTS: Happy reading.
CHO: It's going to take a while.
ROBERTS: Five minutes after the hour.
Also new this morning, an airline blaming the pilot for a flight that literally fell from the sky back in February, killing all 49 people on board and one person on the ground. Cogan Air said the crew of Flight 3407 from Newark to Buffalo did not respond properly to stall warnings. The cockpit voice recorder transcript shows the captain and the co-pilot shared their fear of flying in icy weather just minutes before the plane went down.
CHO: And it could be the biggest product recall ever. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is recalling a variety of roman window shades and roll up window blinds, up to 50 million products affected industry-wide. There's a risk infants and toddlers can strangle themselves. The products are sold all over the country in discount shops like Wal-Mart and Big Lots, to hardware stores like Ace and higher-end retailers like Pottery Barn.
Since 2006, five deaths and 16 year strangulations are being blamed on roman shades, with another three fatalities blamed on the roll up blinds since the year 2000.
ROBERTS: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will stay in the hospital until at least tomorrow. Doctors are also urging him to cancel public appearances for the next two weeks. The 73-year-old was hit in the face with a statuette at rally in Milan on Sunday. He suffered a fractured nose, two broken teeth, and several cuts. Police do have a man in custody. CHO: And actor Grizz Chapman of "30 Rock" fame announcing he's undergoing dialysis and needs a kidney. Chapman said yesterday he was diagnosed a decade ago with high blood pressure and learned two years ago that he was suffering from kidney disease. Now, he's going to the public to raise awareness. Chapman also said he's not leaving the NBC sitcom.
ROBERTS: What do Dick Cheney, Brad Pitt and Warren Buffett have in common? How about President Obama? A new study of the president's family tree says the billionaire investor may be his distant cousin. Back in 2007, Lynne Cheney revealed that President Obama and her husband share a common relative back in the 17th century. And Brad Pitt was pegged as President Obama's ninth cousin.
CHO: Incredible. Who knew?
ROBERTS: Six steps to Kevin -- seven steps to Kevin Bacon.
CHO: Six degrees of separation to Kevin Bacon. Yes, there are always six degrees.
You know, Sanjay Gupta is saying that we are living longer these days, that's good news, right? But we all want to know how to get there. So, he's going to be up telling us how to live a longer, healthier life. That's coming up in our next half hour.
ROBERTS: It was five students that were arrested in Pakistan. Do they have ties to terrorist recruiters? Were they self- radicalized? Were they even plotting terrorist attacks at all? We're going to talk with the man who knew from a mosque in Virginia. He'll be joining us in just a little while.
Eight minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
There are new developments this morning in the case of five American students arrested in Pakistan. Authorities there said they watched videos of Americans being ambushed in Afghanistan and wanted to be a part of those attacks. But here at home, a youth group says they saw men with bright futures that did not include murder.
Joining us now from Washington is Mustafa Abu Maryam. He's a youth coordinator at the Islamic Circle of North America mosque. He knew the five gentlemen.
How familiar, Mr. Maryam, were you with these five people?
MUSTAFA ABU MARYAM, KNOWS FIVE VIRGINIA MEN ARRESTED IN PAKISTAN: I was very familiar with them. You know, we had a lot of fun together. You know, we played basketball. We go swimming, camping and the like. And you would see them in the mosque, and they always look like regular kids. I mean... ROBERTS: Right. So you spent a lot of time with them. How would you describe their personalities? Did they ever seem to you at any point that they could be mixed up in something like this?
MARYAM: No, sir. It's still hard to believe. As the facts are developing from the case, you know, I'm still taken back by the whole scenario. But I always seen them as goofy kids, you know?
ROBERTS: Right.
MARYAM: Very career-oriented, very community-related. And I'm hoping it's not true. But, we'll deal with things as they are.
ROBERTS: Had they ever mentioned to you at any point what was going on in Afghanistan or Iraq? Or did they ever talk about holy war or what they saw as the plight of Muslim people overseas?
MARYAM: No, sir. I mean, this -- these -- in our group discussions, we never talked about ongoing conflict. We never talked about anything outside of our community. It was real worship- oriented. And it was really basically the things in your personal life.
ROBERTS: Wow.
MARYAM: And it never -- I mean, if you know the mosque, and you know how Muslims treat the mosque, we try to be centered off the worship of God, you know, a man and his family, et cetera.
ROBERTS: Right. Now, you got involved in the case when the five men went missing. You went with the families of the students to the FBI for a meeting. Can you tell us about that meeting?
MARYAM: Absolutely. I was all there. I was there, me and the families, we were tossing around information. We -- it was a very defining moment for us. We made the decision together to what steps we would take.
And still to this day, all those moments are just going and replaying through my mind. And we -- I was most certainly there.
ROBERTS: Did the families ever suspect that this might be going on? You know, when they went missing, what were their thoughts? What were their thoughts around it?
MARYAM: Well, you know, I know four of the families really well, and I know one, you know, not so well. But we were all sitting there looking at each other like what is going on? And once we came across the video, we took immediate action.
ROBERTS: And tell me about that video.
MARYAM: Well, I can't comment on the video. I look forward in the future -- maybe presenting my thoughts on the video. But I can't comment. ROBERTS: You know, I'd take it, you know, maybe you can confirm this. If I say this was the video that Ahmed Abdullah Minni, who's one of the five, was looking at. This was U.S. soldiers being ambushed, being attacked in Afghanistan, and apparently, according to law enforcement sources, he was -- he was writing comments about that sharing those comments with other people?
MARYAM: I can't comment on the video.
ROBERTS: OK.
MARYAM: It's -- I look forward in the future presenting my thoughts on it.
ROBERTS: OK, yes, not a problem.
Look, let me ask you if I could, Mr. Maryam, about this issue of Islamic radicalization. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a recent speech that homegrown terrorism is here on U.S. soil. She pointed to a number of recent examples, the Fort Hood shooting, the shooting at the Army recruiting center in Arkansas, the New York terror plot, and another one in Dallas, Chicago, six Americans arrested in Somalia.
Is this becoming a growing problem in America?
MARYAM: I would say that radicalization does not happen in the mosque. And I think -- if we really want to understand this issue, a solution-based understanding, a solution-based reaction, then we should support our mosques, because the mosques are the positive influences for these children. As it relates to radicalization, we are working very hard to look this situation straight in the eye.
ROBERTS: Let me ask you this question. If it doesn't happen in the mosque, where does it happen and how do you fight it then?
ABU MARYAM: Well, we are looking at that as leaders in the Muslim community. We want to learn from this issue. We want to combat extremism wherever it grows. And you know, cyber terrorism is a real concern. We need your help and law enforcements help in combating cyber terrorism. You know, you cannot learn religion off the internet. You know, you can't look at a few images and make a determination or shape or outlook on life on what you see on the internet. And I think that we should, as a community, as Americans -- as people in general, wherever hate grows, hate is not acceptable, and violence is not a good reaction.
ROBERTS: All right. Mustafa Abu Maryam, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks for being with us and sharing your thoughts. Appreciate it.
ABU MARYAM: Thank you, appreciate it.
CHO: You know, it's the end of the year, this time of year, we always like to do those best of and worst of lists. So, what are 2009's dumbest moment in business. Would you believe, 5 nights of Jay Leno made the cut. Find out why, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Good morning, Capitol Hill, where it's cloudy and 48 degrees today. Mostly cloudy, and 55 will be the high a little bit later on. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. The Supreme Court directly behind that building will take up a case that could decide whether your boss can look at text messages that you send from your work telephone. The case centers around a California police officer who sent sexually explicit text messages to his girlfriend from his government pager. The federal appeals court in California ruled that when his boss reviewed those texts, that violated the fourth amendment, which protects from unreasonable searchings.
CHO: If you are waking up with a cup of Joe this morning, listen up, if you drink coffee and tea you could be lowering your risk for type two diabetes. A new study out of Australia shows that drinking four cups a day can reduce your chances from 35 to 45 percent, and it doesn't even matter if you pick regular or decaf.
ROBERTS: Of course, drinking four cups of coffee a day can have other effects.
CHO: It could make you a little jittery.
ROBERTS: Everything in moderation. And listen to this, Australian scientists have discovered an octopus in Indonesia that actually carries around coconut shells and uses them for shelter. You put the octopus in the coconut. The researchers believe it's the first evidence of a tool ever being used by an invertebrate animal. Scientists were able to film a veined octopus, picking up discarded coconut shells from the ocean floor, emptying them out, and carrying them up to 65 feet before assembling them to use for a shelter.
CHO: But, does the octopus know what it is doing?
ROBERTS: Seems to.
(CROSSTALK)
CHO: Your favorite story of the day. You love this. It's interesting.
ROBERTS: It's pretty extraordinary. Hermit crabs, they go around and they find used shells and they dock inside of them. But this octopus is carrying things over to a little coral reef, and setting up a nice little area there.
(CROSSTALK)
CHO: They are smart. Anyway, Christine Romans here with the sort of the best or maybe worst business moments of 2009, right?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This is courtesy of our friends at CNN money who sat there with the brain trust and figured out what were the dumbest things that happened -- had to narrow it down to ten. Who could narrow it down to that few.
Okay, number one, we are going to give this one to the Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein. And the Goldman Sachs PR strategy, in general, it tried to get out there and show that Goldman Sachs was trying to help the global economy, that Goldman Sachs was not the bad guy that everybody was making it out to be in the wake of the bailouts, and then the Goldman Sachs CEO off-handedly said to a Times Atlanta reporter that well he had to get going, he was going off to do god's work. And that did not play very well. God's work for $43 million a year.
At number two, the stimulus reporting oops, this White House pledging transparency on all things stimulus, but the stimulus reporting as we have reported to you again and again, is full of mistakes, revisions, confusion and decimal point errors. The biggest decimal point error being to one firm that got 10.4 million dollars, but according to the stimulus reporting it got 1.4 billion dollars. What's a decimal point between friends, right? What does have to do with transparency, frankly nothing.
And this is another great one. I personally love this. Well, as some of you guys know the secretary took his first trip to China as treasury secretary, and he spoke to business school students, Chinese business school students in Peking. And they asked him about U.S. debt, you know, this is a really big issue for the Chinese. And he said our debt is safe, very safe. Seriously. The Chinese students erupted in laughter. For a number of reasons I am sure.
And then also dumbest moments in business 2009, naming food after a software, the Windows 7 Whopper. You remember we talked about this. It was 2120 calories. It was 8 dollars or something they sold in Japan. I mean, come on. I mean, marketing. I don't know. That one made the list as well.
ROBERTS: A pretty big turkey burger.
ROMANS: Not that one. That one was - I think it was two pounds of beef. And then the final one, Chris Farley in DirecTV ads, years after his death, this is something -- they resurrected him from one of his old movies, and you know, people found this very appalling, and unsettling. They did not think it was funny. They did not think it was - they just did not think it was tasteful at all, tasteful or funny. So that one made the list as well. The late Chris Farley, in DirecTV.
CHO: Who thought about that one, honestly.
ROMANS: Even after complaints, it kept airing. That was what was so interesting about this. See, this is courtesy of our friends at CNN money.com who spent a whole long workday having fun going over the dumbest moments in 2009.
ROBERTS: Of course, now DirecTV has got Lady Gaga as their pitch person.
CHO: Now, that's smart! ROBERTS: That's interesting. Thanks, Christine.
ROMANS: All right. So, that's it. We got a few more weeks for more dumb moments.
CHO: Tiger Woods is the world's best golfer, of course. He is also the sports world's richest pitch man, you know, he makes $100 million a year, maybe not for long, maybe he will. There is no denying he is worth his weight in gold to the PGA, the networks, the brands he represents, but we want to break it down, Tiger by the numbers. What exactly is at stake here. You may be surprised.
ROBERTS: And we have the latest installment of our special series this week, "Walk in my Shoes." T.J. Holmes talks to some teenagers who tell us why they fight. Stay tuned for that. It's 24 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Checking out our top stories this morning, a developing story in the Philippines. Thousands of people on the island of Luzon are being evacuated right now near an 8,000 foot volcano that is threatening to erupt. Mount Mayon is oozing dark orange lava and shooting plumes of ash into the sky overnight. The government raising the alert level two notches below a major eruption.
CHO: Some very serious questions this morning about the safety of CT scans, more commonly known as cat scans. Two new studies now suggest they deliver far more radiation than previously reported. They may actually cause 29,000 cancer cases in this country alone each year. Half of those patients dying. 20,000 people get CT scans each day in America.
ROBERTS: President Obama meets with Senate Democrats at the White House today, every single one of them to press for health care reform by Christmas time. The senate bill currently lacks a public option. A compromised plan that would have allowed people to buy into Medicare at age 55 could also be scrapped. Still, Democrat leaders are looking at the glass as half full.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
I am confident that by next week we will be on our way to forward this bill to the president.
Before we leave here, in the next couple of weeks or less, we are going to pass national health care insurance reform for all Americans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman has threatened to join a Republican filibuster if a new compromise is not worked out. He is one of the 60 votes the Democrats need to get the bill passed and he is not happy with this provision to buy into Medicare at age 55, even though he used to support it.
CHO: That's right. Well, he reserves the right to change his mind.
ROBERTS: Somebody's carrying around a pair of flip-flops in Washington today. Across the country, teen violence is ripping apart families and entire communities. The centers for disease control says 16 young people are murdered in America every single day, and many are killed by someone their own age.
CHO: You know, it's something that we have heard time and time again. And we wanted to understand why so many are turning to violence. Our T.J. Holmes talked with some high school students on Chicago's south side to get inside their heads and get some answers. He is here with day two of our AM original series called "Walk in my Shoes."
T.J., I mean a lot of it has to do with the fact that they don't have really great role models, right?
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Don't have good role models, don't have a lot to look forward to down the road. So, if you think you don't have anything to look forward to, then you don't have anything to lose and so you don't mind fighting. Maybe, that's not a big deal for you. I mean, so many of us, you all remember going to school, taking that algebra test, I mean you worry about that stuff, you worry about a paper you have to turn in.
Can you imagine worrying about that stuff but also looking over your back all day, worried getting safely to school. Also, many of us, I mean, you get ready for school in the morning, you pack that backpack, you are putting in notebook, paper, pens and pencils. Well, can you imagine as well, having to throw in a box cutter or some mace to protect yourself. It sounds so foreign to many of us. It's their everyday reality in some parts of Chicago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES (on camera): How many in this group, and you can give me a show of hands if you want to, how many of you all have been in the past year, have been in a fight, physical altercation of some kind? All five of you in the past year have been in a fight of some kind.
HOLMES (voice-over): For these Chicago teens, fighting is a way of life.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like that every day at school. There is not a day you don't see somebody bumping someone and not getting into an argument over petty stuff.
HOLMES: Not an accidental bump, but a move meant to intimidate.
HOLMES (on camera): Why is it so important to be big man on campus?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are a big guy, you try to keep that reputation. So if somebody bump you, you will automatically say something to them, because you are going to feel like you just got treated like a punk. HOLMES: Has anything gotten more serious?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Once I got jumped, I was by myself, and I found myself fighting 15 girls. And then they said "We will spare your life today" and that scared me.
HOLMES (voice-over): What these Chicago teens tell us is not unusual. In fact, nearly 40 percent of Chicago public school students were involved in a physical fight.
LILA LEFF, FOUNDER, UMOJA STUDENT DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: High school is about young people scrambling for power and influence.
HOLMES: Lila Leff leads a program that in part tries to stem teen violence. She says kids are vying for power and prestige everywhere.
LEFF: In some high schools, the currency is how much money your parents makes, or what car you're going to drive when you're 16, or what college are you going to get into because you're taking five AP classes. And in some cases the currency is your representation.
HOLMES: Because for many of these teens, a representation is all you have -- 85 percent of the Chicago students live below the poverty line. Gangs, guns, and drugs are all too common in poor neighborhoods.
HOLMES (on camera): Have you all witnessed some kind of violence, shootings?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I've seen my brother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It happens every day and mostly over petty stuff.
HOLMES (voice-over): For these teens, the daily threat of violence is all too real.
HOLMES (on camera): You all have to carry -- you carry stuff around when you are outside?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, I do.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course. If you don't carry --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You might as well lay down, and dig your grave yourself.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What don't carry?
HOLMES: What do you carry?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I carry a taser and mace.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I carry a mace, box cutters, and scissors.
HOLMES (voice-over): These teens have developed a tough exterior in order to survive.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I told my mom I got into an argument with a girl, "you didn't fight her? Get your scared self out of my face, then.
HOLMES: An attitude youth violence expert Dr. Karl Bell says is no surprise.
DR. CARL BELL, PSYCHIATRIST: The parents are scared something will happen to the kid, and that fear turns into anger and the anger gets transferred to the kid, and the kid is told defend yourself, because if you are a punk, people are going to try you.
Less' program tries to change that thinking. Teaching students leadership skills to help resolve conflicts without fighting. These give teens say it's helping them.
Amber was suspended 15 times for getting into fights during her freshman year. Now a junior she said she worked hard to keep trouble at bay.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I start looking at a lot of situations different, I started looking at a lot of fights different, like when people come to me, I will be thinking in my mind, is fighting her worth it and. You will get ten days out of school and it's not even worth it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: "Not even worth it." Some programs are showing results. They have better graduation rates and more kids getting into colleges as well. And guys, we are going to be more on the series in the next couple days, including examining the teenage brain. Some doctors say there is a very simple reason for why kids act out. That brain is still developing.
And quite frankly, this is not a clinical term, he said "teenage terrorists" to the point that you have gas pedal and no break at that age. You are starting to develop all these reactive emotions and no way to slow down.
CHO: You can go one of two ways, and it depends a lot really on good role models.
HOLMES: Yes, absolutely.
ROBERTS: That's where a really mentor comes in handy to teach you how to deal with a situation.
HOLMES: Yes, some of the programs are showing results. So we're going to be talking about some solution as well over the next couple days. ROBERTS: Great report this morning.
HOLMES: Thanks so much.
CHO: Thanks, good to see you.
You have to be living under a rock really to not have heard about what is going on with Tiger Woods. For the past several days and weeks he has been embroiled in the sex scandal. So can he be an effective pitch man? And what exactly is he worth to the PGA, the networks, and the brands he represents?
He is a billion-dollar man, really. We're going to talk about that.
ROBERTS: He still has the money, but what about the future and his earning potential then?
And Ali Velshi on the road with the CNN Express. He's talking this morning about one southern family who's thriving despite the depths of the recession. Ali's report is coming right up.
It's 35 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHO: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
He's bigger than golf and bigger than sports, really -- he is a brand. Now Tiger Woods is stepping away from the sport that made him the first billion-dollar athlete. And a loyal sponsor is now bailing on him, Accenture.
Joining us to talk about the impact this could have is "USA Today" sports business reporter Michael McCarthy. Michael, good morning. One PR executive called Tiger Woods the best example of a walking individual corporation. He makes $100 million a year, $92 million of which come from endorsements. He's really the sports world's biggest pitch man.
Break it down for us.
MICHAEL MCCARTHY, INVESTIGATIVE AND SPORTS REPORTER, "USA TODAY": Alina, he is the gold standard. He is Madison Avenue's new Michael Jordon. Nike is his biggest deal. That comes in at around $30 million a year. Accenture Electronic from what I'm hearing might have been number two. That was a $20 million deal. This company tied its entire image to Woods.
Electronic Arts and Gillette, two more deals.
CHO: And again, we are talking a lot of money. Some people might think he gets a lot from winnings, but that's only really $7 million or so. And $92 million comes from endorsement endorsements.
And clearly we've seen a fall from grace. Nike is standing by their man, though. Why?
MCCARTHY: Nike's business is tied to Tiger Woods. They weren't in the golf business before Tiger came along. So they will be absolutely the last sponsor to jump ship.
However, other sponsors are on the fence.
CHO: And we could see more to come in the coming days.
I want to talk about the PGA tour and TV ratings. When Tiger Woods is in contention over a weekend, ratings can go up as much as 50 percent. So the TV networks and the PGA tour are about to renegotiate their contracts. Without Tiger playing, what does that mean?
MCCARTHY: It's bad news for the PGA tour. They're probably going to get less money from the TV networks.
And Alina, everybody talks about the "Tiger effect." We could be looking at the "Tiger recession," even the "Tiger depression." Everybody involved in golf could potentially lose hundreds of millions of dollars from their cash cow being missing.
CHO: And included among those are his fellow golfers. I found this incredible. Since Tiger Woods entered the PGA, prize money has quadrupled to more than $275 million. One player said he sent his kids to college because of Tiger Woods. So what's at stake here?
MCCARTHY: That's a great point. The players are more depressed about this then anybody. They know that prize money goes up is Tiger is around. Prize money goes down if Tiger is not around. Prize money goes down because you have less sponsors, less advertising, less everything. They need Tiger Woods for their own wallets to be back in the game.
CHO: One quick question, crystal ball -- what are your sources saying about what Tiger Woods needs to do next? Some are saying he needs to get out there and talk.
MCCARTHY: What I am hearing now is he should keep his mouth shut. Everybody is saying he should go on "Oprah" and spill his guts to "60 Minutes." But what if his confession takes three days? We don't know if this story has bottomed out yet. We might go on "Oprah Winfrey" tomorrow and then a new round of headlines emerges, and what's Tiger going to do, go back every week, every couple of days?
So he should make sure that all the bad news is out and then start telling his side of the story.
CHO: He has been on the front cover of the "New York Post" for 17 days. We will have to wait and see what happens. Michael McCarthy of "USA Today," we thank you for your perspective. Thank you for joining us.
MCCARTHY: Thank you.
CHO: John? ROBERTS: Got some bad weather out there, flooding in the south and cold air moving into the northeast. Our Rob Marciano tracking it all in our weather center in Atlanta. He joins us in just a couple of minutes. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Good morning Atlanta, Georgia, where it's cloudy and 62 degrees right now. Later on today a few showers and a high of 60.
CHO: Look at the fog.
ROBERTS: Yes, it was like that yesterday.
I have to make a correction. I thought that it was Lady Gaga in the new Direct TV ads.
CHO: Christine Aguilera.
ROBERTS: But somebody emailed and said no, it's not. It's Christine Aguilera.
CHO: It's the blond hair.
ROBERTS: They look almost exactly the same.
Apologies to all you Lady Gaga fans out there. I have this unique fascination with her myself.
CHO: I think a lot of people do, including the queen of England.
ROBERTS: Obviously, I have to get my facts straight about her, though.
(LAUGHTER)
CHO: OK.
(WEATHER REPORT)
ROBERTS: I'm not the only one who mixed up Christina Aguilera and Lady Gaga.
CHO: Oh come on.
ROBERTS: No, there are entire careers are on the Internet and people are saying who is that...
CHO: Ok, try me.
ROBERTS: I should know these things though.
CHO: Well, some might argue that it's ok to make a mistake every now and then you know, I make plenty of them.
ROBERTS: Who would argue that? CHO: Nobody.
ROBERTS: Nobody I can think of.
CHO: Hey, listen, you know we're living eight years longer according to a new government study.
ROBERTS: Really.
CHO: This is good stuff yes, I mean, it's encouraging.
ROBERTS: I feel like working these hours and I feel like I've knocked about 15 out of my life.
CHO: This just may shave a year or two off.
ROBERTS: I'm 27, you know and...
CHO: Hey, listen, so you know, Sanjay Gupta is in the house.
ROBERTS: It's always good to have him coming up.
CHO: You want to know how to live longer and make sure you spend those years living healthy? Sanjay will tell you how to do it so that's coming up.
Forty-seven minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Play my note.
CHO: Jason Mraz.
ROBERTS: Jason Mraz, yes.
CHO: I've never heard this one, though, I like him.
ROBERTS: The Remedy?
CHO: Yes.
ROBERTS: That's good.
CHO: It is.
ROBERTS: So the "Remedy" is the experience, you may know some of the lyrics too. Lady Gaga and Christina Aguilera are still having a problem.
CHO: Up next with The Most News in the Morning, new research suggests Americans may live a lot longer than the government's projections. That's up to eight years longer.
ROBERTS: And while on the surface that seems like it's very good news, it does have the implications for the economy our workforce, our health care system.
We're paging CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. You know that I've so...
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I so rarely get to give good news and right away you're stealing...
ROBERTS: Well and here's the thing I'm concern with right, retirement, right? I am afraid that the money will run out.
GUPTA: Yes, you're not going to get to retirement.
ROBERTS: I'm afraid that money will run out before the years...
GUPTA: It's all about you, isn't John?
ROBERTS: The longer I live, the more minute I live.
GUPTA: Well...
ROBERTS: Bargain the money out there.
GUPTA: Well, it's funny that you say that because the people who really establish these new numbers -- I'm going to tell you what the numbers are in terms of life expectancy in a second. But they were the Census Bureau and the Social Security Office because they are trying to figure out what this all means to them.
ROBERTS: Hey, according to this test we took, I'm going to outlive you.
GUPTA: Well, that (INAUDIBLE) very surprising.
ROBERTS: Remember that.
ROBERTS: Well, you need to get more sleep though, by the way.
There are a lot of advances going on obviously on medicine both on the treatment end as well as the prevention end as well to try and extend life span. So that's probably where a lot of this is coming from. But again, the Census Bureau, and the Social Security office more importantly are trying to figure out the impact of that in terms of their costs.
The numbers, though, a lot of people have been waiting for this -- in terms how people of you -- how much longer people will be living by the next 40 years -- over the next 40 years, they think for women the life span is going to be around 93 years old and for men 86; so up to eight years longer overall.
The bad news which John already alluded to is they expect that will cost about $8 trillion more by the year of 2050 as well.
CHO: Yes.
GUPTA: Obviously taking care of people and social security as you mentioned that people will have to delay their retirement age, there's going to be a lot of cost.
CHO: Yes.
GUPTA: And not to mention population demographics.
So we are just not built as a society that can handle people -- having more people over a certain age than under the age of 50.
CHO: Yes, but Sanjay, as we pointed out, I mean, living longer is one thing and living healthier sometimes is another. So how do you do that?
GUPTA: Yes, exactly, you know and because there's this image near the end of your life, you imagine nursing homes and hospitals.
CHO: Right.
GUPTA: That's sort of how a lot of us think of old age, especially in this country.
CHO: Yes.
GUPTA: But there are a lot of countries around the world that don't think of elderly people or old age simply that way.
You know, I had a chance to travel all over the world looking at some of these cultures. There are these places called Blue Zones, and they are doing things differently in these places. We are not talking about fancy procedures, techniques through medicine. They just live their lives slightly differently, and it really adds to the life span overall.
You're looking at Costa Rica over there. This is a place that had the lowest middle-age mortality of any place in the world. They will talk about their diet, high in protein and low in fat. They have a type of squash leaf that has a lot of natural Niacin in it which can raise your HDL, (INAUDIBLE) cholesterol. The (INAUDIBLE) diet has 750 percent more calcium. Sot they don't get the arthritis and osteoporosis and all that.
Also, another place that I think is worth pointing out -- in Greece, Ikaria. This is true because we researched this a bunch of times. But know one there really gets dementia. You don't see people who have dementia.
ROBERTS: These people have fish diet right?
GUPTA: Fish paste diet, a lot of anti-oxidants. And they talk about the teas that they drink quite a bit as well. Also people walk everywhere on this island of Ikaria, for example. They simply walk everywhere.
They believe in this idea of having physical activity all day long as opposed to a spurt at the gym and then sitting the rest of the day. It makes a huge difference in blood flow to the brain and decreasing some of these age-related diseases. CHO: So it's not the (INAUDIBLE)?
ROBERTS: A little bit of alcohol everyday is good.
(CROSSTALK)
GUPTA: But you're right, you know. You want to live long, live functional and then suddenly you're out.
ROBERTS: He is chastising me for not getting sleep, we were e- mailing each other at 1:00 in the morning.
CHO: I know.
ROBERTS: You have to take your own advice doctor.
CHO: I was deep in REM sleep at about that time.
ROBERTS: As I recall, he advised me by saying, "It was about work stuff."
CHO: It always is.
ROBERTS: I was trying to downgrade the...
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: Ali Velshi on the road with the CNN Express. A southern family thriving despite the recession; he'll tell you how they're doing it. Coming right up.
Fifty-four minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. Our Ali Velshi on the road again; this week he is riding the CNN Express down south and talking to people about the recession, the recovery and how they're managing.
CHO: Yes, this morning he has the second part of his series, "Recovery Road". Ali joins us live in Cheraw, South Carolina this morning. Good morning, Ali, nice vest.
ALI VELSHI, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Alina. I know you were going to be there this morning so I needed to be fashionable.
Cheraw, South Carolina, by the way, is the birth place of Dizzy Gillespie. A great little town about ten miles south of the state line; it's an area that has been in decline for sometime because this was such a heavy manufacturing area. And then, of course, those jobs have been disappearing for a long time.
So Cheraw has been trying to reinvent itself. And in the course of this recession, we ran into a family that runs a small business here, a pharmacy. They are taking advantage of these tough times to try and make things a little better for themselves. Take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is my mom and dad's office.
CHRIS BRIDGES, PHARMACY OWNER: This has been in existence instance the 1890s. When I came down here 21 years ago we discontinued the name because nobody knew who Chris Bridges was.
VELSHI: Is that stuff -- is that usually also covered by insurance.
L. BRIDGES: Yes. All of this is covered by insurance.
C. BRIDGES: This is a business that is very anxious to know what the administration and Congress are getting ready to do with the health care.
VELSHI: You watched the whole situation change that pharmacies were. They were all independents and now so many people depend on chain pharmacies. What do people tell you the service difference is?
LISA BRIDGES, NURSE: Well, one of the things is free delivery. And the fact that sometimes chains get so busy, they don't have that personal touch.
C. BRIDGES: We have expanded and have a new pharmacy we opened two months ago. We did have to acquire some financing. It was a little more difficult than I thought it would be to be honest, especially since the banking loans were supposed to be a little easier to obtain after the administration provided the stimulus money.
How do we find our way?
L. BRIDGES: Through this recession, I guess it's managing our money, just watching just about every penny that we send.
We've had to make some changes in our staffing but not major. The Lord has been good to us in that effect.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is one of our new offices. We're going to let one of our new employees that's from Texas...
L. BRIDGES: We have gone through this whole year without making a lot of changes, like where people are laying people off, we have not had to lay anybody off.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Alina, John -- one of the themes that we hear a lot about around here is because we have seen the decline in jobs over town -- over the last decade in this region, there isn't a sense that government is going to come and rescue that situation. A lot of small businesses need to take matters into their own hands. But as you heard, issues about financing and loans do tend to dominate a lot of these small businesses' concerns. This is one example of a family that's been able to take advantage of a tough situation. Obviously there are many that haven't been able to that -- Alina, John.
ROBERTS: All right. Where are you headed next, Ali?
VELSHI: We're headed to Columbia, South Carolina -- different story over there, government town and students. We'll be talking to some students who just graduated to try and see what their opportunities look like -- john.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to it. We'll see you tomorrow. Thanks, Ali.
CHO: Hopefully jobs.
You know, lots of stories to talk about including Ali's bus tours, Sanjay and John's bromance one day on e-mails.
You want to continue the conversation on today's stories, go to our blog at CNN.com/amFix.
ROBERTS: That's going to wrap it up for us. Thanks so much for sitting in today. Great to see you.
CHO: Thank you. Nice to be here.
ROBERTS: We'll see you back here bright and early again tomorrow morning.
Right now the news continues with Heidi Collins in the "CNN NEWSROOM".
