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American Morning
Government Recalls Some H1N1 Vaccines for Lack of Potency; White House "Cautiously Optimistic" About Health Care Reform Going Through; Crunch Time for Health Reform; Ben Bernanke: "Time" Person of the Year; Surviving the Trip to School: Threats Teens Face in Rough Neighborhoods
Aired December 16, 2009 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome. It's 7:00 here in New York on this Wednesday, December 16th. Glad you're with us on this AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us.
Here are this morning's top stories. The senate is trying desperately to vote in the sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system by Christmas time. That's just two weeks away, though. Not much time especially when not every Democrat and independent is on board, so exactly how close to a deal are we? We're live at the White House today.
CHETRY: Hundreds of thousands of swine flu shots for babies and toddlers now recalled. The CDC says the shots are not dangerous but less potent than they should be. Many of them have already been given, so how do you know if your child is actually protected from H1N1? Our Elizabeth Cohen joins us to look into that.
ROBERTS: Plus, for teens in the nation's toughest neighborhoods, the trip to school is becoming a fight for their lives. In our weeklong look at teens and violence, Our T.J. Holmes walks the streets of Chicago's south side with two high school students to see up close the dangers that they face every day.
That's ahead in our "A.M." original series, "Walk in my Shoes."
CHETRY: But first this morning, what could be the future of your health care now at a critical stage, President Obama saying he's, quote, "cautiously optimistic that reform is within reach." But as it stands right now, he lacks the 60 votes need for a bill to survive the Senate.
There are concerns about the abortion language in the bill, also the lack of publicly-funded insurance plans. Those are among the main sticking points.
Our Dan Lothian is live at the White House this morning, and the president making a big push, speaking about this, trying to salvage a deal. What's the latest?
DAN LOTHIAN, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He really is, because the stakes are high for this administration. The president wants, and some would say, really needs to get this top domestic agenda through the Senate, and that's why you're seeing this push, trying to get senators to hammer out some kind of a bill. But even the White House and certainly congressional leadership admitting that there's still a lot of work that has to be done.
However, the president says that he's pleased with what they have on paper so far, that there is something there that will insure some 30 million Americans, that health reforms are in place that will prevent some of the abuses. And the president laying out in stark terms, what will happen to the American people if health care reform is not passed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: If we don't get this done, your premiums are guaranteed to go up. If this does not get done, more employers are going to drop coverage because they can't afford it. If this does not get done, it is guaranteed that Medicare and Medicaid will blow a hole through our budget.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LOTHIAN: So the Democrats really need all 60 votes in order to get away from a Republican filibuster here, and that's why the president and this White House is pushing so hard to make sure everyone can get on the same page here.
And the president again also pointing out what we will get in the end will not be perfect, that everyone won't get everything that they want, but this White House believing that this is the best time to get something done -- Kiran.
CHETRY: So after the meetings with the Democrats, is the president more or less optimistic that this can actually get done this year?
LOTHIAN: Well, very good question, and in fact Robert Gibbs, the White House spokesman, was asked that yesterday. He says the president is cautiously optimistic this will get done, but again admitting that there's still work to be done.
That's why you see the White House pushing Democrats so hard. No one is celebrating yet, but the White House cautiously optimistic.
CHETRY: Dan, thank you.
And also, stay with us, because coming up in less than ten minutes, we're going to be speaking with Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner. He has fought hard for the public option. He also wanted an expansion of Medicare. Both of those things now appear to be out of the Senate bill.
Is he will be to give all that up to pass a bill, and would he consider it real reform? We're going to find out when we talk to him live. ROBERTS: Also new this morning, second it was the Salahis, but first it was the Dardens. The White House tried to explain how another pair of uninvited guests ended up shaking hands with the president
They weren't exactly crashers, though, like the Salahis were. This time two tourists from Georgia, Harvey and Paula Darden, were apparently led into an invitation only Veterans Day breakfast. The White House tells CNN they did it as a nice gesture for a veteran and his wife who showed up a day early for a tour of the White House.
They went through all the appropriate security screenings, unlike the Salahis.
CHETRY: Congress demanding answers about a major security blunder. There will be a hearing today to find out how the TSA let a top secret airport screening manual end up online for all to see.
Some experts called it basically a how-to guide for potential terrorists. The TSA says it was an older, out of date document that was posted on the web.
ROBERTS: Iran claims to have successfully test-fired missile capable of reaching parts of Europe. Iranian state television broke the news this morning. The surface to surface missile has a reported range of 1,200 miles. That puts Israel and several American military bases within its reach.
CHETRY: Also, Washington city council voting to legalize same- sex marriage, D.C.'s mayor promising to sign the bill. This measure passed easily 11-2. The bill still has to go to Capitol Hill where Congress has a final say over it because they have the final say over all the district's laws.
Gay marriage opponents say they will try to get lawmakers to overturn that bill.
ROBERTS: Hundreds of thousands of H1N1 flu shots for babies and toddlers have been recalled. Tests indicate the vaccine doses lost some strength. CDC officials say kids who got shots are not at risk.
Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us from the CNN center in Atlanta. If it's not a safety problem, why is the vaccine being recalled?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: John, it is now a safety problem, as you said it is an efficacy issue. They are concerned that these lots of vaccine are not as powerful as they should be.
The government and the drug company ran some tests on these lots as they always do, just routine tests, and they found that they were 12 percent below the point where they should have been in terms of efficacy of the vaccine. So they're telling doctors, don't use this vaccine. Instead, send it back to Sanofi Pasteur.
So let's look at basics so that parents can know what vaccine they're not supposed to get. Again, this vaccine was made by Sanofi Pasteur. It's for children ages six months to three years old, and it's 800,000 doses. They can't tell us exactly where it ended up. Chances are it probably ended up in various parts of the country -- John.
ROBERTS: So Elizabeth, for parents whose children might have had this vaccine, what should the parents do?
COHEN: First thing is not to worry. Again, no safety concerns here. And the CDC tells us they're very confident that even though this vaccine was slightly less powerful than it should have been, that your child is still protected against H1N1.
But remember, kids this age are supposed to get two vaccines about six weeks apart. So what you want to do in this situation is remember to get that second vaccine. You ought to be doing it anyhow, but especially in this case, get that second vaccine.
ROBERTS: We've seen this a lot with recalls is that not everybody gets the word, so not everything is returned, whether it's tainted meat or whether it might be a vaccine. Is there a possibility some children could still get this vaccine?
COHEN: Sure, it is possible. Doctors have been told to return it, but it's absolutely possible that it's still sitting in doctors' offices and they might still be using it for a little while longer.
So be an empowered patient. When you bring your child that age in for a flu shot up to six months to three years, say is this Sanofi Pasteur, and if so, is it one of these lot numbers?
The lot numbers, there's too many for me to go through right now, but if you go to CNNhealth.com you can look at the different lot numbers. If you're getting your child vaccinated, print this out, bring it with.
ROBERTS: Put them all up on the Web site, very easy to get in there.
Elizabeth Cohen, thanks for that. Good tips this morning.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, if you thought the cost of a college education was already getting expensive, check out what's happening in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It's on the verge of becoming the first city in the nation to approve a one percent tuition tax for students attending one of its colleges or universities. It's called the fair share tax. The mayor says it will raise $16.2 billion. Critics are arguing it will actually drive students away from the city's universities.
ROBERTS: Tiger Woods' famous friends apparently can't get a hold of him. Charles Barkley telling HLN Woods has changed his cell phone number. Barkley says he's concerned because, quote, "You need to talk to somebody else who's famous and has been through things like this."
Spike Lee also says Woods should take advantage of his friends who are used to being in the spotlight.
CHETRY: We've all seen and heard them, the annoying, loud commercials. The good news is the House voted yesterday to turn down the volume, approving a bill to stop TV ads from playing at a louder level than the programs they air on.
The measure was drafted after lawmakers discovered loud commercials were a common complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.
ROBERTS: School requires a lot of effort. You've got to study for tests, you've got to learn things, you really have to have your game on.
But what happens when the hardest part of school and the most difficult, dangerous part of school is the walk home? With so much violence in Chicago schools, our T.J. Holmes took a look at those questions raised by all this, and he's got his latest installment in our special report "Walk in my Shoes" coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
In the Army now, and we're going to make a soldier out of you. coming up at 7:40 Eastern, the next chapter in "A Soldier's Story." Jason Carroll follows Private Will McClain through boot camp.
CHETRY: President Obama is struggling to keep Democrats united behind health care reform in one way, shape or form when the Senate Democrats need every Democrat on board and, of course, Independent Joe Lieberman as well.
They've abandoned the public option to get this to go forward. They've also abandoned the expansion of Medicare. But are these compromises going to really mean it's reform in name only? It's a question that some liberals are asking this morning.
Joining me now is Democratic Congressman Anthony Weiner of New York. Thanks so much for being with us.
REP. ANTHONY WEINER, (D) NEW YORK: Good morning.
CHETRY: Congressman, we've had you on many times. You pushed hard for the public option. You also are in favor of this expansion of Medicare, lowering the age at which people can get into it.
The Senate bill seems to keep changing. Last week they took out the public option, added this provision to expand Medicare. Now it looks like they're going to drop that provision. In your mind what's happening here?
WEINER: Well, what's happening is that every time conservatives or those that are concerned about cost step forward and say they have a problem, they take out something that helps reduce cost.
The public option was something that increased competition for private insurance companies and drove down cost. They took it out. Expanding Medicare to allow people not just 65, but 64, 55, the most expensive group to insure, get covered under Medicare and now that's been dropped out.
What's puzzling about all this is the very same people that say they're concerned about cost are the ones responsible for stripping out cost-savings measures, so it really is a frustrating process to watch going on in the Senate.
CHETRY: Right. But now, for example, though, Joe Lieberman said, after thinking about it, at one point he actually spoke in favor of expanding Medicare, he says he thinks it's going to make costs very, very expensive for Medicare, for the existing people insured. He's worried that really it's unaffordable. What do you think?
WEINER: Frankly that's wrong. And remember, this proposal was added at Joe Lieberman's suggestion, and it made some sense, because you're taking those who are most expensive to insure, those between 55 and 64, and say let's put them into a lower cost plan like Medicare.
Medicare, remember, has only one percent overhead compared to private insurance companies that have a 30 percent overhead and profits. So he CBO said it would have been less expensive and common sense said it would have.
But frankly that got dropped because the health insurance industry continues to hold an enormous amount of sway over this. They said they wanted it out, and lo and behold it's out.
CHETRY: So does it make sense to go ahead with a bill and vote for it if it doesn't include a public option or Medicare expansion?
WEINER: Look, I don't believe that you should let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and unlike some people in this town I actually want to get health care reform passed.
But when we go into a House-Senate conference, one of the things a lot of my colleagues will be asking are what are the things we do to improve choices consumers have, make some competition for the insurance companies?
I'm not prepared to say that we should throw out the whole process, but I have to tell you something, we are at a point -- there's an expression that a camel is a horse created by committee. If you look at what it's created in the Senate, it would be a horse that would look like a giraffe or an elephant because it's gotten so far away from the principles we wanted.
But remember, we are going to be covering millions more Americans, we are going to be protected from insurance companies' abuses, so it's not like there aren't good things happening, but this bill has certainly gotten worse. CHETRY: All right, well, that's interesting, because you're sort of echoing some of the sentiment of the White House, the president saying similar things.
He also said everything he originally wanted in this bill is there, that it's deficit neutral, that it bends the cost curve, that it covers 30 million Americans that would not have insurance, and also, as you just, said, that it would help bring some reforms in there to prevent abuse in the insurance system.
The president really wants this bill, but there are some liberals who are saying this is reform in name only. In fact, former DNC chair Howard Dean says scrap this thing and start over again, that it's not even reform. What do you think?
WEINER: Well, I reserve the right to join him at the end of the day. This does have to get better.
Look, what Governor Dean has said is not wrong. We started in the wrong place. We're trying to see everything we can possibly do to protect the private insurance companies in this process, when we really should be doing is seeing how it is that we get them to contain cost as well. Every step of the way it seems like we've taken away the fulcrums that help hold cost down.
CHETRY: Right.
WEINER: And I want to remind -- I want to remind you something, and that is the president of the United States at the beginning of this process and throughout the campaign for president said he wanted the public option in.
CHETRY: That's right.
WEINER: Well, he's the president, and I would hope that he could persuade this conference committee that's going to be formed now between the House and Senate, once the Senate passes it, to try to put some of those things back in.
CHETRY: It doesn't appear he's going to do that, though. He seems he's --as he said yesterday, he's happy with the progress made. He doesn't seem to care if there's a public option or if Medicare is expanded. What do you want to hear from him?
WEINER: Well, what I want to hear from him is an understanding that it's not like we're going to be coming back here next year or the year after. Remember when Medicare was passed 44 years ago, there were many people at the time who were in Congress and in the public who said, you know what? Let's start at 65 and then grow it in the years to come. That was 44 years ago, and even to this day we haven't added another year of expansion. So I think this is an opportunity and if we don't get it right here, we're not going to be given the chance to do more later on.
CHETRY: And a lot of your colleagues are racing, racing, racing. They want this done before the Christmas break, so we'll have to see how it goes.
Congressman Anthony Weiner, always great to talk to you. Thanks for joining us this morning.
WEINER: My pleasure. Thank you.
CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back at 16 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Christine Romans here this morning at 19 minutes after the hour and "Minding Your Business." Just got news that "Time's" person of the year is Ben Bernanke.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Drum roll, please. The depression era scholar now running the Federal Reserve Bank, and actually under -- in confirmation hearings, confirmation process right now getting a little bit of pushback from Bernie Sanders from Vermont...
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: ... who is against him and some other folks have been saying that they're going to give him a rough time in the confirmation process. But Ben Bernanke clearly over the past year and a half has had trillions of dollars, trillions and trillions of dollars of our money at his fingertips.
CHETRY: He's had a tough job.
ROMANS: That he has been pushing and pumping into the economy. Usually the fed chief is someone who is, you know, will he raise rates, will they lower rates? He runs the Federal Open Market Committee over at the fed. Now this is somebody who's fighting for the -- you know, the political future of the Federal Reserve Bank, the power of the fed. Some in Congress wants to take, strip some of the power away, but he is someone who through numerous different bailout programs has been in charge of making sure that we pump all this liquidity, this money into the economy to keep it from hitting a depression. The depression scholar who supporters say prevented a second depression.
Now the hard part comes for Ben Bernanke, though. Because now he's got to reel all this in, and that's what many of the scholars look at and say that's really the most difficult part because he's got to get it all in without causing another shock to the system. So "Time's" person of the year, Ben Bernanke. Some people call him "helicopter Ben," because he once said if the economy needs money, I'll just drop it from a helicopter and get it.
CHETRY: The quote from "Time" is, "The story of the year was a weak economy that could have been much, much weaker. Thank the man who runs the Federal Reserve, our mild-mannered economic overlord.
ROMANS: And he is mild mannered. And, you know, I did a piece maybe six or eight months ago where I went back and found all the things he had said when the housing bubble first started. And he said, and I have the tape, he said, "The subprime crisis will not spread into the rest of the housing market, and it certainly will not hurt the over all American economy. So he was wrong.
CHETRY: But do you agree -- right. But do you agree with what "Time" said that this could have been way, way worse? They picked him as "Time" person of the year.
ROMANS: Oh, yes. Many people say that if without -- there were mistakes made along the way. But without all of these people and the extraordinary efforts that they did, you know, many people thought the lights were going to go out in the American economy. There were people in power who were saying...
ROBERTS: We'll remember that meeting that they had.
ROMANS: ... calling home and saying, honey, can you go and get some money out of the ATM machine today? I mean, that really was happening.
ROBERTS: Remember that meeting they had at the White House in the waiting months of the Bush administration. The markets are frozen. Everything could collapse in days if we don't do something.
All right. So, Ben Bernanke "Time's" person of the year. Christine, thanks so much.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
ROBERTS: Text messages, we all send them and we all send some personal messages along with the work messages when we've got one of those devices that our employer gives us. So can work peek into your phone, your BlackBerry, your iPhone and whatever?
Take a look at what you're saying? We'll discuss that coming up next. This could be headed to the Supreme Court. Attorney Paul Callan will be us in a couple of minutes.
It's 22 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. If you're getting your kids ready for school right now, do you ever worry that they will get there and back safely?
CHETRY: You know, we all have that thought at the back of our minds. But for some teens in rough neighborhoods, that really is an everyday threat that trumps almost anything else. And we want you to see their struggles firsthand.
Our T.J. Holmes took the trip with two students on Chicago's South Side. He's here now with day three of his original reporting "Walk In My Shoes." And it's amazing, for most of us, we can't picture that this is really happening. T.J. HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don't even think about it. A lot of parents they take them -- I mean, walk them to the bus stop. The yellow bus picks them up, takes them to school. No problem. A lot of other parents drive their kid up to the front door and watch their kid going to front door.
CHETRY: Right.
HOLMES: That's not the case for a lot of these kids. I mean, forget about the test that you have in Algebra in fifth period. That's no problem compared to your first challenge of the day, simply getting to school.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: This takes you where?
ERIC NIMELY, CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT: This takes me to the "l".
HOLMES (voice-over): It's not yet 7:00 a.m. And 17-year-old Eric Nimely is facing his first test of the day, getting safely to school on Chicago's South Side.
NIMELY: Everybody gets on the bus and sometimes coming home we are fighting, you know, stuff like that on the bus, things like that.
HOLMES (on camera): You actually switched routes to school because it got so bad?
NIMELY: Yes.
HOLMES (voice-over): To walk in Eric's shoes is to get a glimpse into a world where getting to school is all about survival.
(on camera): How would you describe that neighborhood for somebody who doesn't, you know -- doesn't know it?
NIMELY: It's rough, yes.
HOLMES (voice-over): Like 95 percent of the city's public school students, Eric is responsible for getting to school on his own. He says he tries to travel with friends to avoid trouble.
NIMELY: If you don't have any friends, you're going to get -- I'm not saying you're going to get picked on, but it's like a group of guys standing on the corner, and you're walking. If nobody knows who you are, I mean, like they're going to say something to you.
CHARLES ANDERSON, ASST. PRINCIPAL, TEAM ENGLEWOOD HIGH SCHOOL: We definitely want to protect them from violence.
HOLMES: Charles Anderson, assistant principal at Eric's Team Englewood High School says it's not uncommon for kids to get jumped, robbed or worse in the tough neighborhoods of Chicago, where during the last school year, 49 public school students were killed. (on camera): You're almost securing a perimeter around a few blocks around this school.
ANDERSON: Yes, we are. But you know, it's worth it if we can get a kid to feel comfortable to come to school and then we can help them focus on their education.
HOLMES (voice-over): Principal Peggy Korellis-Byrd says it's hard for her teachers to break through that tough exterior, kids have to keep up.
PEGGY KORELLIS-BYRD, PRINCIPAL, TEAM ENGLEWOOD HIGH SCHOOL: It's very hard to sort of drop that wall and maybe not be so tougher on guard in school. So we have to break down a lot of that.
HOLMES: But as difficult as mornings can be, students say the afternoon journey home is even worse.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we'll be walking down the street, there will be people hiding in cars, jumping out of cars. That's what the clowns do.
HOLMES: It's 6:00 at night when 16-year-old Amber Ward heads home from Manley High School on Chicago's west side.
AMBER WARD, CHICAGO PUBLIC SCHOOL STUDENT: I'd be scared because I ignore people. When they try to talk to me, I just keep walking. And that makes people so mad these days, people will do anything. I'll be feeling like they're going to pull out a gun and shoot me from the back. So when I keep walking, I always do like this, you know, keep looking back.
HOLMES: For Amber, it's a three and a half block walk to the bus stop where we wait 15 minutes.
WARD: And I sit in the back so I can see everything ahead of me.
HOLMES: And along with sitting in the back of the bus so she can spot danger better, once off the bus, she tries to keep an eye out for who might be hiding in the dark on the side streets.
(on camera): We just passed a dark alley and here we are, I'm coming up on the corner. A couple of guys just standing there, doing who knows what.
What do you think when you walk past a group like that and you're walking down the street by yourself, it's dark. There aren't a lot of streetlights out here, you know?
WARD: I'm so used to seeing it. I mean, I'm used to guys standing on the corner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.
WARD: See that? That's what I'm talking about. This is crazy.
HOLMES: And you're just used to it, huh?
WARD: I'm used to it.
HOLMES (voice-over): Along the way, Amber points out a drug house.
(on camera): What's going on with that house now?
WARD: It's abandoned, so a lot of people will just be out there selling drugs, playing dice, doing what they do.
HOLMES: Tell me what they do.
(voice-over): And Amber's final rule of the road -- walk fast.
WARD: If I would be by myself, I guarantee you I would have been a Jackson (ph). I guarantee you.
HOLMES: It's only when Amber catches sight of her house 45 minutes after she left school, she knows she's back in safe territory.
(on camera): So that's a successful day, right? You made it?
WARD: Yes, I made it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Yes, you made it. That's a success. So it doesn't matter if you made a C-minus on your test during the day. You get home safely. When she saw that house, it was a relief. And in the way we were walking like a leisure stroll through the neighborhood, she said, if I was by myself, I would not be just lounging around with you.
ROBERTS: What should you do walking through the neighborhood?
HOLMES: You know, you wouldn't -- none of us would feel comfortable walking through that neighborhood on our own, and to think that this 16-year-old girl has to do this night in night out by herself. All I can say you can see it's dark out there on the street.
CHETRY: Yes.
HOLMES: I mean we've had alleys.
CHETRY: Yes.
HOLMES: It's a long walk. You wouldn't feel comfortable anybody you cared about walking by themselves.
CHETRY: So why is she by herself? Meaning, why can't a couple of buddies walk with her? Maybe who live in the same neighborhood and what about her parents?
HOLMES: They try to do that as much as possible, so many of the kids. They are -- it's amazing how smart the kids are about being strategic about their route. You saw Eric in the beginning. He changed routes. It takes him longer to get to school now, but it's a safer route to do. Walk to the block, catch the bus, catch the "L," and walk a little more. He has to do that.
But some of the kids, yes, they try to do it in groups. But just like Amber, you saw there at the end, some of her friends - they have different practice schedules after school, one has to be over here, one is over there, sometimes they live - they're so spread out around the city as far as where they live, their neighborhoods.
ROBERTS: A 45-minute commute. That's a long period.
HOLMES: That's a long way. But they try to do it, but they can't always do it. But that's just a little glimpse of what happens every single day for these kids.
CHETRY: Wow, it is amazing. And tomorrow we're talking about a scientific approach or at least trying to understand teen violence a little better.
HOLMES: Yes and some doctors and - a little disagreement in the community about what it takes to help. But some doctors say some of the way the kids that are acting out, you can clearly explain it with a development of the brain. Kids essentially have a gas pedal and no brake at this age, and sometimes we don't get it. We don't realize the brain is developing some of those emotional sensors that help us slow down.
We don't develop that until our early 20s. So to hear the doctors explain it, you know, OK. But still, which is exact and thrown into a volatile environment, that's when you have so many of the problems that we see in places like Chicago.
ROBERTS: Great personal look at what those kids go through. Thanks, T.J.
HOLMES: No problem. Thank you.
CHETRY: All right. Well, we're coming up on 31 minutes past the hour. A look at top stories this morning.
Another deadly attack against Afghanistan's police force, a roadside bomb ripped through a police convoy in western Afghanistan killing at least four officers, the deadly blast came just hours after a suicide bomb rocked Kabul, killing eight people at a hotel popular with westerners.
ROBERTS: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is expected to leave the hospital today, three days after he was attacked at a public rally in Milan, doctors ordering him to lay off important public activities for the next couple of weeks. The 73-year-old leader suffered a fractured nose and two broken teeth in Sunday's assault.
CHETRY: And Gitmo is going to America, the Obama administration announcing yesterday it will move up to 100 terror suspects from the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay to a federal prison in Thomson, Illinois. How do the folks in Thomson feel about it? Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VICKY TRAGER, THOMSON RESIDENT: The impact is going to come more from the new people coming into the area, the new residents, new visitors, new tourism. Restaurants will be full.
REP. AARON SCHOCK (R), ILLINOIS: Changing the address of Gitmo will not eliminate the hate that these terrorists have for our country.
REP. DAN MANZULLO (R), ILLINOIS: Gitmo is surrounded by waters and sharks and Thomson, Illinois is surrounded by melon fields, soybeans and corn.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: There you go. Illinois congressman Dan Manzullo who represents the county containing the Thomson Correctional Center. He will join us live at 8:30 Eastern and help us dig deeper on the issue.
ROBERTS: On the docket for the Supreme Court, a case that could change the way you use that Blackberry or iPhone that your boss gave you. A police officer in California is suing after his chief read text messages that were sent from a work pager. Some of those were sexually explicit messages to his girlfriend. But the bigger picture, what could this all mean for your privacy? Here, in the "AM Breakdown" this morning, attorney and media law professor at Seton Hall University, Paul Callan. Good morning to you.
PAUL CALLAN, PROFESSOR OF MEDIA LAW, SETON HALL UNIVERSITY: Good morning, John.
ROBERTS: So the issue here is the fourth amendment, protections against unreasonable search and seizure. It applies potentially in this case. What do you think?
CALLAN: Well, yes, I think it does apply in this case, because in this case it involves a governmental worker, somebody who works for the city of Ontario. Clearly the courts have held that the fourth amendment to the constitution applies to government workers when the government tries to search them. But the real question ultimately here is, could the government - was the government required to get a warrant to search this police officer's text messages, or was, as an employer, were they allowed to search without a warrant and that's the crux of the case.
ROBERTS: So the officers who were involved in this case say that they were told by a supervisor, OK, you've got this, it's for business, but it's OK if you use it for personal use. It's a little bit, you know, you can text back and forth with people. The city says it had written policies in place, but the Appeals Court ruled in their favor. So is there an expectation of privacy, regardless of what the manual says?
CALLAN: Well, I think you're right on to why we have to wake up and watch this case. You know, any time the Supreme Court weighs in on text messaging, we're doing exchanging billions of text messages in the United States, or e-mail, we have to pay attention.
And I think the court, the lower court has basically said that there is an expectation of privacy. And that even if an employer has a manual that says, we have the right to inspect your text messages if you're using a company phone, we have the right to look at your e-mail if you're looking at a company computer.
If your supervisor comes to you with a wink and a nod and says, you know, we're not really going to look that closely at it, the lower court said well they may have waived their right to inspect and you now have an expectation of privacy. This is very, very big for employees across the country because everybody's got a cell phone, everybody's got e-mail, and let's face it, John, people are all using work e-mails for personal purposes.
ROBERTS: So the fourth amendment may apply in this case because it was the government that was involved, it was the police department. What about here though at CNN? At the Callan law firm? Can people have a reasonable right to expect that their communications on company devices will remain secret and protected by the fourth amendment?
CALLAN: Well, people are sometimes surprised to hear that the fourth amendment to the U.S. Constitution about search and seizure only protects you from government searches. It doesn't protect you from private employers. So if CNN wants to inspect your e-mails, they technically have a right to do so, and if they've issued a cell phone to you, they probably could look at your text messages as well.
However, if by custom and practice they don't do it, and if a supervisor says to you, we're really not going to look at these things, I think this Supreme Court case may stand for the proposition that the employer might be giving up his rights. So we're in an evolving area of the law. Americans want their privacy in this area, and it's time for the Supreme Court to weigh in on this.
ROBERTS: Yes, we've seen a couple of cases in the past when an employer taps into private communications of its employees. There was that Houston case where two employees were saying things about work. The supervisor gained access to the Facebook account - they were doing Facebook, the supervisor gained access to the Facebook account said, hey, I don't like what I'm seeing here. Tried to fire them. The courts came in and said, you can't do that, because you didn't have access. But if you're using company equipment, is that access assumed?
CALLAN: Well, the traditional rule in the workplace has been you have no expectation of privacy. Your employer has got an HR manual that says we own the computers, we own the e-mail, and you can't exchange personal e-mails on these medium. But I think by custom and practice there's now getting a waiver of these employee rights and maybe you have more of an expectation of privacy in that area.
The Houston's case by the way stands very much for that proposition, because there, the employer broke in, using a password that maybe he shouldn't have had access to. And the court came down hard on Houston for doing that.
ROBERTS: Speaking of courts, this was in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, notoriously liberal. What do you think is going to happen when it gets to the Supreme Court?
CALLAN: The Ninth Circuit is very, very liberal. We have a much more conservative Supreme Court. I would expect probably a more conservative decision from the Supreme Court, except for one thing. This is an area the court is very sensitive about. It's technology, you know, there was a study that came out today, John, that said we've exchanged over a billion text messages in the last year.
From 2008 to 2009. the amount has doubled in terms of text messaging. So it's a new communication area. The Supreme Court is going to be looking very carefully at it. This might be one where they agree with the Ninth Circuit.
ROBERTS: This is one a lot of us will be watching very closely.
CALLAN: Yes.
ROBERTS: Paul, it's great to see you. Thanks for coming in.
We got 38 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: 40 minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the most news in the morning. You saw him enlist, and now the real fun begins, I guess, if you can call it fun. That is basic training.
ROBERTS: Our Jason Carroll followed Private Will McLain through the first few weeks of Army boot camp and witnessed a young man sweat and bleed and become a soldier with a cause bigger than his own. Jason joins us now with that story. Good morning.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fun, you'd have to put in big air quotes like that.
CHETRY: Yes, we're being tongue in cheek. Nothing fun about basic training.
CARROLL: Nothing fun about it and I think Will McLain is beginning to learn that. You know the sergeant, the drill sergeants who are out there, they have a very serious job. They have to turn these men and women into soldiers. And they have just about nine weeks to do it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go!
CARROLL (voice-over): It's week three of basic training for Will McLain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three. CARROLL: McLain and 193 new recruits have entered what's called the red stage.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you going to do that in combat?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get up!
CARROLL: The emphasis? Physical training. PT.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, that was like one and a half miles. Are you seriously coughing and crap?
CARROLL: The voice always egging them on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You better sound off, one, two, three.
CARROLL: Drill sergeant Joseph Rix.
DRILL SGT. JOSEPH RIX, U.S. ARMY: Just trying to get them ready when they get to that first unit if they have to deploy. They have a bit of a head start more than what we did when we went through basic training.
CARROLL: On this day, after a quarter mile run, McLain has time for a quick break, while outside.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've done a total of 25 pushups and run one lap. Get up.
CARROLL: A private who cannot make it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get up!
CARROLL: Gets no coddling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hurry up. Oh, man, here we go again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get inside and get him in here. Move.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, lift!
CARROLL: McLain and the others finally drag him to a bunk and he recovers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hurry up and get him up!
CARROLL: Later, more would stumble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You better get it up, private.
CARROLL: Carrying 40-pound duffel bags.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pick it up!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now put your pistol belt back up, specialist! You're not this any more. It's gone already.
CARROLL: This time -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get it up, private.
CARROLL: It's McLain's turn on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know he was in your ear whispering some words of encouragement, shall we say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can go with that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We can go with that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't take it personally. They're just trying to make you a better person, a better soldier.
CARROLL: Then a crucial test of whether their training has paid off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get thumbs up. (INAUDIBLE)
CARROLL: Their mask must come off as this chamber fills with tear gas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three.
CARROLL (on camera): Now he's going to have to come back and do it again?
DRILL SGTBASHIR ANTHONY, U.S ARMY: Yes, he'll have to go back and do it again.
CARROLL (voice-over): McLain and the others tough it out, 30 painful seconds.
(on camera): Must have felt like an eternity inside.
MCLAIN: It felt at least five minutes. At least. You're there, OK, open the door, open the door, open the door.
CARROLL (voice-over): It's a boost of confidence for McLain, who met another goal since we last saw him. Losing weight. Ten pounds in just three weeks.
MCLAIN: I'll have to go get some new pair of pants before the end of this.
CARROLL: McLain also finds he's good at hand to hand combat, winning two matches. His battle buddy, all Army recruits are assigned one, Demetrius Daniels cheers him along.
(on camera): So do you balance each other out?
MCLAIN: Well, he's fast and does all those PT things. DEMETRIUS DANIELS, BATTLE BUDDY: He's a smart guy, and he helps me. Sometimes I'm overwhelmed with helping other people out on the team.
CARROLL (voice-over): Their training is also about team work. So when one private doses off during weapons training, everyone pays the price.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three.
CARROLL: Punishment, what drill sergeants call corrective training.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep your back straight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Privates, if you isn't realized, I've got nothing but time. Get off the ground!
CARROLL: This lesson on teamwork...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You all should not be sleeping, man.
CARROLL: ... McLain just beginning to learn.
MCLAIN: You know, I try to be independent and I do a lot on my own, but going through boot camp, you can't be like that, man. It really teaches you to use teamwork, and then you really got to look deep inside yourself and realize this is what you want to do.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, despite all the struggling that you see going on there, none of the recruits from Will's company actually dropped out. On average, the army tells us, just about 7 percent of all recruits dropped out of basic training this past year.
ROBERTS: You know, it's - it's tough, but they're preparing them for the real world. You're carrying a 90-pound pack through the mountains of Afghanistan at 8,000 feet, you're going to need that basic training.
CARROLL: They've got to be able to do it.
CHETRY: And the tear gas - I mean, if you know what it feels like, so that they're prepared if it would happen to them in battle.
CARROLL: Well, it's about trusting - it's about trusting your training, trusting your equipment. These are the lessons that you've got to learn now. You don't want to be learning them if you're deployed.
ROBERTS: I - I went through some training in preparation to get embedded for the Iraq War and did the - the tear gas house.
CARROLL: It is tough, isn't it?
ROBERTS: It's real tough. It is. That 30 seconds feels like it lasts a lifetime.
CARROLL: Feels like an eternity.
CHETRY: All right, Jason, thanks so much. And, by the way, you can follow "A Soldier's Story" online or leave a comment on Jason's blog. Just head to cnn.com/amfix.
Forty-six minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
An update now to a story that CNN has been following for months - the death of Latino immigrant, Luis Ramirez. He was killed in a fight in the small town of Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. That was 18 months ago.
This summer, in her "LATINO IN AMERICA" series, our Soledad O'Brien followed the trial of two white teens accused in Ramirez's death. She is back now with new developments in the case.
So you went to Shenandoah, went back and took another look at this.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
ROBERTS: What did you find there?
O'BRIEN: We camped out in Shenandoah, as we covered this trial, and now there's some very big movement in the case that many people perceived was just closed, had just ended.
We told the story in our documentary "LATINO IN AMERICA" about Luis Ramirez, 25 years old, undocumented immigrant living in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania. Now, there are federal indictments against the two young men who really just were - ended up getting convicted of simple assault, and also, more startling, I think, for a lot of people, four police officers as well are now under indictment for...
ROBERTS: Wow.
O'BRIEN: ... really bungling the investigation and getting in the way of it. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Shenandoah, Pennsylvania - a place that's welcomed immigrants for generations. And then one night in July 2008 -
CRYSTAL DILLMAN, FIANCE OF VICTIM: Truly, in my heart, I believe they beat him up because he was Latino.
O'BRIEN: Crystal Dillman's fiance, Luis Ramirez, was walking down this street when he came across a group of white high school football players.
EILEEN BURKE, WITNESS: And I heard this screaming and yelling, ethnic, "F" this, Mexican that, speak (ph) this - the whole nine yards.
O'BRIEN: That's what they were saying?
BURKE: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Ramirez and the boys started fighting.
When it was over, Luis was on the ground, barely breathing. Two days later, he was dead.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Do you think about the way he died?
DILLMAN: Every day. I think about seeing him in the hospital bed, and - I mean, I don't wish that on my worst enemy.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): From the beginning, there were questions about how local police handled the case, taking two weeks to arrest suspects despite multiple eyewitnesses like Eileen Burke, a retired Philadelphia police officer.
O'BRIEN (on camera): For the 30 or so crime scenes that you've been involved in in the eight years you were a police officer, how does this one compare?
BURKE: Like a jolt (ph).
O'BRIEN (voice-over): More questions were raised at the April trial of the two young men, Brandon Piekarsky and Derrick Donchak. A third defendant, who took a federal plea deal, testified that Shenandoah police urged the boys to get their stories straight.
Piekarsky and Donchak were convicted of the least serious charge against them - simple assault, and received minimum sentences of six and seven months respectively.
O'BRIEN (on camera): Do you think it was a cover-up?
BURKE: I do believe that it was.
O'BRIEN (voice-over): Now, the Department of Justice agrees, unsealing indictments yesterday charging Piekarsky and Donchak with a hate crime.
The indictment also alleges three Shenandoah police officers, including the police chief, conspired to obstruct justice. One, Lieutenant Bill Moyer, accused of lying to the FBI and destroying evidence, the sneakers authorities say the boys used to kick Ramirez to death.
The officers have pled not guilty.
Lawyer Gladys Limon has been at Dillman's side throughout the case.
GLADYS LIMON, MALDEF: It's been very difficult for her, so this has provided some sense of relief and will provide her with a sense of - of peace this Christmas.
O'BRIEN: Piekarsky and Donchak could have been released from state prison in just weeks. The new federal charges carry a maximum sentence of life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: The case is getting so interesting, as you read the indictment, Eileen Burke, that retired police officer who really saw Luis Ramirez die right in front of her doorstep, said the police would come from other jurisdictions and Shenandoah police were among the very last to arrive. She would beg them, she described for us, for an ambulance because Luis Ramirez was still alive, sort of writhing on the pavement, and no one would call an ambulance, she said. It took a really long time.
This is a woman who's covered many crime scenes, so she's a - a pretty good and reliable witness, many people considered. She said that they never sealed off a crime scene until 2:00 in the morning and that no one ever took her statement and that in fact when she wanted to testify in the actual trial, state trial - she was on vacation. They never called her to be a witness on the stand in the first trial.
ROBERTS: And - and we were talking about this. You say that the circle here is very small and - and - and - well, the circle (INAUDIBLE) is very small and very blatant, too.
O'BRIEN: Well, you know what's interesting? What people would tell us on the street in Shenandoah is this is a small town, meaning that in some cases, one of the officers who's now been indicted, was dating the mom of one of the boys who was one of the accused. I mean, it is a very small and tight circle, and I think the indictment really, is so interesting to follow this case as it goes to trial. It's going to be amazing (ph).
CHETRY: And so - and what is the next step?
O'BRIEN: Well, you know, the officers have pled not guilty, so we will see what happens to them when they go to trial. There was so much information in the first trial from the boys, the young men themselves, that I think it's going to be a really interesting federal trial, absolutely fascinating for sure.
ROBERTS: And you'll be watching, I'll take it.
O'BRIEN: Yes. Well, in America we're now following all the stories that are happening in America, so we'll be on top of it.
ROBERTS: Excellent. Good to have you watching that.
O'BRIEN: My pleasure. Thanks.
ROBERT: Soledad, thanks so much.
It's coming up now on 55 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Well, it's now 57 minutes past the hour, and we're looking at some pretty extreme weather.
We have rain drenching the south. We also have a real, real cold front moving around the northeast. Our Rob Marciano tracking all of it for us this morning. Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, guys.
Yes, it's moving the - the air around quite a bit across the northeast. Hold on to your hats out there. Breezy, blustery conditions across the northeast. The rain across the south and in some cases across parts of New Orleans, flooding rains, that has shifted a little bit farther to the south, so they get a break at least today, but more rains expected tomorrow and into parts of Friday.
All right, lake-effect snow machine cranking just a little bit Upstate New York. Western parts of Pennsylvania, you might see 6 to 12 inches in local spots. Temperatures colder behind this front, but not drastically colder, about where they should to be for a cold front this time of year, 20s and lower 30s for the New York metropolitan area. But the winds are going to do the damage as far as any sort of travel you may have at the airports, wind delays certainly at the New York metros and Philly, Boston and DC to a lesser amount, then another storm coming into the West Coast, Northern California, Pacific Northwest.
The cold, the brunt of the cold air kind of stays north. It doesn't do a whole lot of drifting to the south. So folks who live south of the Mason Dixon Line wouldn't see drastically colder temperature, about 20s and 30s across the northeast. That certainly makes it feel like wintertime. So just dress appropriately.
Guys, back to you.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks very much, Rob. We'll see you again next hour.
The top stories coming your way in 90 seconds. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
