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Fox News Analyst Encourages Woods to Embrace Christianity; Meet the Stand-Up Economist; Hate Mail from the KKK; Alleged Holocaust Museum Shooter Dies
Aired January 06, 2010 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we are pushing forward with a special investigation now. We all want to believe in something, right? We all want to feel good about ourselves, lead lives of good health filled with good deeds.
This desire, this philosophy actually led me to a fascinating investigation into a chain of yoga and wellness centers call Dahn Yoga and its founder, Ilchi Lee. It has thousands of members who claim it has changed their lives. But now Dahn Yoga is under attack. Former employees, two of whom you are about to meet, claim that the organization is a high-level cult.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): The promises at first sounded perfect.
JESSICA "JADE" HARRELSON, EX-DAHN YOGA EMPLOYEE: I believed the greater goal. I believed that we were there to do good.
PHILLIPS: Promises made by leaders of a nationwide chain of yoga and wellness centers called Dahn Yoga. It is a booming business, claiming half a million current members worldwide.
JOSEPH ALEXANDER, VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLIC RELATIONS, DAHN YOGA: In our 30-year history, we have helped millions of people live healthier and happier lives.
PHILLIPS: But now former employees allege abuse.
LIZA MILLER, EX-DAHN YOGA EMPLOYEE: People were screaming. People were throwing up. People were running away.
PHILLIPS: They talk about accusations of rape.
HARRELSON: He just slowly took my clothes off of me, and pushed me where he wanted me to go.
PHILLIPS: And a brother remembers a death on a mountaintop retreat.
ALLEN SIVERLS, BROTHER OF FMR. DAHN YOGA MEMBER: I can't describe the pain. Until this day, we are still affected by this. I just can't describe the pain.
CROWD: I love you!
PHILLIPS: Most Americans have probably never heard of Dahn Yoga, nor its founder, a Korean businessman named Ilchi Lee. Ilchi Lee is seldom seen in public. That's why this is event is packed. It is the dedication of Dahn Yoga's Moggle (ph) Earth park. Moggle meaning Mother Earth. According to this video, Ilchi Chi Lee is the messenger of a new creation story.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Knowing that all of the humanity needed to hear Earth's message, he set out for America.
PHILLIPS: This was part of the spiritual message that drew in college students like Jade Harrelson and Liza Miller. They started out as members and soon became employees. But they began to question what they believed. What had been promised as the path to enlightenment began to look like a cult.
HARRELSON: They prey upon people like me who are ignorant about the way that money works.
PHILLIPS: What started out as a few hundred dollars grew into payments of thousands as the training advanced. And to pay the bills, they took out student loans, giving the money straight to Dahn Yoga.
HARRELSON: My superiors and the masters at Dahn encouraged me, and were actually the people who taught me to take out the student loans.
PHILLIPS: How much money?
HARRELSON: I would say, in total, my total expenses for Dahn came to about 40,000 dollars.
PHILLIPS: However, Dahn Yoga's head of public relations says no one was ever coerced to spend money they didn't have in order to advance within the organization.
ALEXANDER: We make no excuse and no apology for the fact that we are a business. So they have misinterpreted natural business cycles, natural business goals as some type of undue pressure.
PHILLIPS: But these former employees say they believe some of the money they spent, which was supposed to help the world, instead supported an extravagant lifestyle, like these expensive homes in the Sedona mountains, and this stable for Arabian horses.
RYAN KENT, ATTORNEY FOR EX-EMPLOYEES: As far as I can tell, the need for growth is designed and intended to provide more money to Mr. Lee, rather than any spiritual goal.
PHILLIPS: Ryan Kent represents 27 former Dahn Yoga employees who are suing the organization, calling it, quote, a totalistic, high demand cult-group, which manipulates its members to serve Ilchi Lee's financial interests.
Characteristics heatedly denied by Ilchi Lee's attorney, who says the suit is little more than a money grab by disgruntled former employees.
ALAN KAPLAN, ATTORNEY FOR ILCHI LEE: Let's make it clear, my client, Ilchi Lee, is not a cult leader and Dahn Yoga is not a cult.
PHILLIPS: What is bow training?
MILLER: Bow training would be a series of repetitive motions to -- over and over again.
PHILLIPS: Bowing over and over like this. Liza says it drove her to the brink of exhaustion, just to reinforce her dedication to the group.
MILLER: We actually had to do 3,000 at one point, which took about ten hours. And we didn't eat or drink during that time.
PHILLIPS (on camera): Ten hours of bowing, no eating, no drinking? Did people pass out? Did they get sick?
MILLER: People were rolling around, moaning, crying, wailing. There was a lot of emotional distress.
PHILLIPS: And nobody at any time said, this is crazy. This is ridiculous?
MILLER: If we were to come out and say things like that, we would, again, be refocused to ourselves and our problems.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Alexander says that depiction is simply untrue.
ALEXANDER: Generally people do a smaller number of bows, and they build up to more. I know of no one who does 3,000 bows on a regular basis.
PHILLIPS: But allegations against Dahn Yoga and Ilchi Lee don't stop at money and abuse.
(on camera): We just want your side of the story, sir.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now it is on the website; Dahn Yoga boasts an impressive list of scientists and politicians who applaud the work of Ilchi Lee. And as you can imagine, CNN has been inundated with feedback, both pro and con, from Dahn Yoga employees and members since word of our investigation first became public, all praising the benefits of Dahn Yoga and insisting it is not a cult.
Well, there is a link to Dahn's official response at CNN.com/NEWSROOM. Even so, there are serious allegations about not only Ilchi's behavior, but that of Dahn Yoga as a whole. A former employee talked to me about some of Mr. Lee's alleged behavior, allegations that have nothing to do with yoga techniques.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Well, just before the break, I told you about my special investigation into a chain of yoga and wellness centers called Dahn Yoga, and its founder, Ilchi Lee. Thousands of members claimed that Dahn Yoga has changed their lives. But now it is under attack.
I continued my discussion with the former employees who claim the organization is a high-level cult. One former employee claims that Dahn Yoga's founder, Ilchi Lee, sexually assaulted her.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRELSON: He just slowly took my clothes off of me and pushed me where he wanted me to go. And I numbly, like a robot, just responded.
PHILLIPS: Why didn't you tell him to stop?
HARRELSON: I had been so taught and trained that he was a holy person, a holy object, and he was my connection to divinity. And, again, just to say no to him, and to refuse him was to refuse everything that I wanted for myself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, the attorneys for Mr. Lee deny any sexual assault took place and they say that they are confident this claim will be dismissed in court. Our special investigation continues tonight on "CAMPBELL BROWN" at 8:00 pm Eastern.
Now to a screw up that could have been disastrous. That is a quote attributed to President Obama from his closed door woodshed meeting on the failed attempt to blow up a US airliner. He wants reforms in handling and analyzing intelligence. We now expect an unclassified version of a report of what went wrong to be released tomorrow.
In the meantime, there is tighter screening at airports, a closer watch on visa-holders, and lower criteria for watch and no-fly lists. That means those lists are going to get a lot longer.
OK, it's a small price to pay for greater security, but this scene at Newark on Sunday is a less than shining moment for the TSA. The feds are taking full responsibility for security cameras that weren't recording when a man entered a so called sterile gate area the wrong through an exit.
The terminal had to be shutdown for hours and thousands of passengers re-screened. No real threat was detected. TSA is promising to make sure that cameras are rolling and recording everyday.
A suicide bomber under pressure. We are going to hear from the family of a double agent who blew himself at a CIA post in Afghanistan, taking seven CIA officers with him.
It was the e-mail of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Samuel Morris' telegraph system saw its first successful test on this day in 1838. Across two miles of wire came the cryptic message, the patient waiter is no loser.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, temperatures well below freezing in Tampa, Florida. In Miami, the coldest for the Orange Bowl ever. Snow predicted for the Panhandle. The weather world turned upside down in the Sunshine State. And it is threatening the state's huge fruit and vegetable industry now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm John Zarrella in Vero Beach, Florida, in an orange grover, where orange growers across the state have been keeping a close eye on the thermometer.
Right now, the temperature is hovering right about 42 degrees. That is significantly higher than where it was early this morning. Here in Vero Beach, it stayed right about 30, which is actually pretty good news.
The concern for the growers across the state, not just the farmers, but the strawberry growers, the tomato growers, is that the temperature will drop below 28 degrees for more than four hours. If it does that, then, certainly in the orange groves, there can be significant damage.
But, right now, it looks as if, for the most part, they were able to get through at least this night without that kind of severe cold for that prolonged a period of time.
But when you talk to the farmers and growers in Florida, they will tell you that they haven't seen this kind of cold weather over the state, for the prolonged period of three or four or five days, in at least 20 to 25 years. You have to go back to the mid to late 1980s to see this kind of cold over that many days.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: This time around he won't be back; California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today delivered his last State of the State Address. Bottom line? More pain ahead, as the state faces yet another massive budget deficit. But somehow, the governor remains optimistic about California's future.
A big drag on California's budget problems is a poorly performing school system. If not fixed, and quick, the state could see 700 million dollars in federal tax money go down drain.
CNN's Casey Wian has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): California public schools are being described as dismal, sad, hemorrhaging, in crisis, frightening, and unacceptable. Those aren't the words of school critics, but of state school districts describing themselves. The California School Board's Association plans to deliver a stack of letters from its members to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Wednesday, urging him not to make further cuts in education funding to reduce the state's budget deficit.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are doing things like closing schools, increasing class size, especially at the lower grades, where it is so important to have as much of that one-on-one contact as you can have when you're trying to teach kids how to read. You are completely disintegrating the support system for schools, whether it is counselors or librarians or nurses in every school.
WIAN: The groups says, during the past two years, California has made largest per pupil cuts in education funding than at any time since the Great Depression. To stop the bleeding, the state legislature is about to overhaul its public school system to make California eligible for 700 million dollars in federal Race to the Top education funding. Its controversial provisions include allowing parents to remove their children from under-performing public schools and enroll them in a school of their choice, giving parents more power to force changes in school, and requiring weaker schools to conform to new federal guidelines.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is somewhat embarrassing, I think, for the state of California to have to have the federal government, President Obama, come in and say, here's how should fix your schools in California. I think that is a problem. But I don't see other solutions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For too long, we in Sacramento have, to an extent, looked the other way when it comes, in particular, to dealing with students in California who have languished in persistently under- performing schools.
WIAN: Governor Schwarzenegger visited one of those under- performing but improving schools Tuesday.
GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: You want to basically say in education, we don't want to take it any longer. The status quo is not acceptable. We can make changes.
WIAN: As Schwarzenegger begins his last year in office, the former movie star is asking California's media to shift the spotlight away from him to the state's under-served schoolchildren. On Friday, he will unveil his last budget, which, as of now, is 21 billion dollars in the red.
Casey Wian, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Checking top stories now. Democratic Senator Christopher Dodd of Connecticut is bowing out, announcing a short while ago he will not run for a sixth term in November. Dodd has been under fire for controversial financial dealings and trailing GOP rivals in recent polls.
A hearing this afternoon for Baltimore's embattled Mayor Sheila Dixon. She's asking for a new trial after being convicted last month of embezzling about 500 dollars worth of gift cards, gift cards donated to the city for needy families. If the conviction stands, she could be booted out of office.
Still no recovery of two bodies from the wreckage of a Lear Jet. It crashed yesterday while trying to land outside of Chicago. At a news conference moments ago, federal investigators said they still don't know what caused the crash.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: And this just in to CNN. You may remember back on June 10th, that shooting that took place at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. That shooter, who survived, actually, a gunfight with a security guard who ended up dying, James Von Braun, a white supremacist, 88 years old -- we are getting word now that he died in prison. Once again, James Von Braun, 88-year-old white supremacist -- you may remember, as we were learning more about this shooting, we saw his website, and acts of racism that he had been tied to in the past. We are getting word now that he died in prison.
You remember when he entered in the museum, he started firing at people, and the security guard there inside of the museum, Stephen Johns, was killed in that gun battle. And now we are getting word James Von Braun dying in prison at the age of 88.
We are still learning more about the suicide bombing last week in Afghanistan that left seven CIA officers dead. The brother of the double agent bomber tells CNN's Nic Robertson the attack was, quote, of character. He says his sibling was under pressure.
Nic is reporting in Jordan and joins me on the phone. Nic, what else are you learning?
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the family is saying that he was put under pressure by the government here, by the intelligence services. And they say it happened because during the war in Gaza last year, he became very angry about the situation, passionate. And he joined a military group of doctors. He was a medical doctor who offered their services to go to Gaza, to help the people there.
He was after then, according to the family, he was picked up by Jordanian services, questioned. And then, after that, he told his family he was going to Turkey to finish his medical studies.
They later discovered that wasn't true. Now a senior source here in Jordan has told us that they believe he had gone to Pakistan. And when he got to Pakistan, he contacted the government here by e-mail, offering information which they tried to lure him to help verify some of this information in Afghanistan, with the help of the United States.
Now, the family says that after he left, they didn't know anything else about him, had no idea what happened to him, until they got a phone call very early in the morning a couple of days ago. They said that the phone call came to the father. It came from an Afghan man speaking poor Arabic. And they say that the father of the family said your son is dead. He died in an operation attacking the CIA, that he is a hero. But, however, this is bad news for you, and you will just have to deal with it.
This is what the family says they have been told. Right now, the family feels under a lot of pressure and scrutiny, with questions they can't explain, how did the son end up there? Why did he do this? And they feel under pressure, as well, from the government. At the moment they can't speak out. And they feel that there is a responsibility here for the government, because they put the son under pressure to go. That is what the family is saying, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: We keep hearing under pressure, under pressure. Can you describe more, Nic, about what you mean by that?
ROBERTSON: Well, it is very interesting. His brother, who we talked to -- we talked briefly with his father, and we talked with his brother. And his brother said, if you push -- if you put a cat in the corner -- this is his analogy -- it will do just about anything. What they are saying is that while his brother was in the custody of intelligence officials, they feel there was a lot of pressure exerted on him. And they are implying that the pressure was to go to Afghanistan or go to Pakistan for the government.
This is what they feel. They don't have any evidence of this. They feel that it is -- him going there, what he has done, is out of character. They do, however, say that he was -- that his views became quite strong and extreme after the war in Gaza last year.
PHILLIPS: Nic Robertson reporting for us. Nic, thanks so much.
It is a somber homecoming for America's war dead. And now the families of the fallen have a new place to turn to for help during a tough time.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
KYRA PHILLIPS: Those are three of the fallen heroes from the war in Afghanistan. More than 900 men and women have died in serving in Operation Enduring Freedom, and more than 4,000 have fallen in Iraq.
When the bodies of these men and women come home, they are greeted by a solemn ceremony, as you can see, at Dover Air Force in Delaware. It is called a dignified transfer. Every one of these coffins means that there is a family suffering a tremendous loss, and starting today, families who come to Dover have a new place to turn to for comfort and help. Colonel Robert Edmondson joins me live from Dover Air Force Base. He actually commands the U.S. Air Force Mortuary Affairs Center. I'm curious, Colonel, this has to be one of the toughest jobs in the Air Force?
COL. ROBERT EDMONDSON, U.S. AIR FORCE: Well, good afternoon, Kyra. It certainly is a tough job, but it is a great honor to do it. It is hard work, but it is not hard to do it.
PHILLIPS: Tell me, I know that this center has now expended and it's because of the unfortunate increasing number of men and women we are losing in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. So, put me in the mindset -- I lost, you know, a son or a daughter or a husband, and I'm in your center, and I'm waiting for that body to come home. What are you able to offer me now in that center?
EDMONDSON: Well, it is a great point, and I can't propose to put myself in that position, because I have certainly never experienced that, but having hosted 1,500 families here since the policy change in April, I can tell you very often more than anything, they are in a state of shock.
And what we provide here is a trained staff of chaplains and counselors and mental health professionals that can help them in any way they might need as well as casualty assistance officers who can assist them in preparation of funeral arrangements if they'd like to do that while they are here.
PHILLIPS: What do you think has been the toughest part for you as you have talked to families and been in the center, and sometimes spending time with them -- what are they talking about? What is going through their mind, or usually a pretty silent moment?
EDMONDSON: Well, it truly runs the gamut. Everybody grieves their own way, and we have seen it all in the year I have been here. I think that the toughest thing is realizing that the sacrifice they have made is permanent.
And there's no making it better. Their lives have changed forever. So, it is the realization of this every time we have a family here, and of course, we don't have all of the family here. There is extended family and friends, so it is a tremendous price that the families pay, and we want to do all we can to help them not only now but as they go forward in their lives.
PHILLIPS: You know, what really struck me and also my producer, and I mean, really caused a lump in the throat is seeing the part of the center that is specifically for the kids.
EDMONDSON: Yes, that is absolutely right. We have had a center before that we hosted families, but it was more or less a nice room.
What this new center brings to you is those specialized areas so that when we have multiple families here, they don't have to be in the same room together necessarily. We do have a child care facility in the facility. We have a separate area that families can meet for private counseling or be alone. They can enjoy a meal. We have a meditation room if they'd like to be alone or meet with a chaplain, and we have a kitchen area.
So, that's really what the facility brings to us. This is the ability to separate the families and meet their needs individually versus trying to deal with them in a corporate group setting.
PHILLIPS: You know, covering a war, being in their country is one thing, but I have actually never sat in a center like that and watched those bodies come home. It is such a different reality.
Do you think that now we are able to see that video, see those ceremonies that it will in a way show Americans just the sacrifice -- I think that a lot of people become desensitized, Colonel, to the wars. Do you think that this has any type of benefit, being able to see this now and talk about this for other Americans maybe not associated with the military?
EDMONDSON: Well, it is hard for me to speculate on the national impact of it. I can tell you it is a personal family decision, and about half of the families here do invite public media. We certainly invite you to come the next time you are here. We would love to have you here, Kyra. And you can experience for yourself.
I can't speak on the national impact, but I can tell you that having been here for many, many, many of these, it is a moving experience that I'd invite you to come to participate in.
PHILLIPS: Well, it would be an honor to come visit. Colonel Robert Edmondson, we appreciate your time today.
EDMONDSON: Thank you very much.
PHILLIPS: To update you on the breaking news we brought you a couple of minutes ago if you are tuning in. You may remember that gun battle that took place back on June 10th in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. You remember 88-year-old James Von Braun, the white supremacist who was named as the shooter in what killed the security guard there in that museum.
We are getting word that that 88-year-old alleged gunman has died in prison. You may remember the guard that was killed in that shootout was Steven Tyrone Johns. And it took a while for us, as that news was unfolding, as we were seeing ambulances and actually bodies being taken to the hospital, and it was then that we learned that a security guard had been shot and killed and yet the alleged gunman 88- year-old white supremacist James Von Brunn had survived. And now we have word he has died in prison.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Move over HD TV, and make way for 3D TV. Now you not only have to keep up with the remote, but also the 3D glasses and some popular channels are gearing up to start streaming 3D programming right into your living room. Errol Barnett joins me now from Atlanta with the details. I want to know how expensive these TVs are going to be. That's a whole other part to this story.
ERROL BARNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra, I don't think you do, actually. It is coming out of the Electronics Show, and yes, the 3D-HD TV rules are heating up, and why? It's because the big names -- Sony, Panasonic, Samsung -- they've all agreed and decided to release 3D televisions and make them available for the general public this year.
Previously, what prevented this from being possible was that you had to wear the big clunky goggles. Well, technology has improved. 3M, in fact, has been able to develop technology where you can watch 3D television without having 3D goggles on.
TVs are also becoming smaller and also e-readers are extremely popular. You've got Barnes and Noble's the Nook, Sony's eReader. Amazon's Kindle is the most popular. Kyra, get this, more people purchased digital books on Amazon.com than physical books for the first time in its history this past Christmas, so expect more of that.
We also want to show you more of the TVs becoming really at-home entertainment centers. This is coming to us from boxy.TV and you can watch television, surf the web, check your e-mails and in some cases turn on and off lights in your home.
But let's say you're outside the home, your navigation system can do much more. It can play the radio and be a small TV monitor. This is from a South Korean company called Sidle (ph) and there is an American company working on this as well.
The Consumer Electronics Show continues through the rest of this week and the weekend. For details, head to CNN.com/cs. Kyra, back to you.
PHILLIPS: Thank you, Errol.
BARNETT: Sure.
PHILLIPS: Well, let's go to our top stories now.
James von Brunn the white supremacist accused of opening fire in the U.S. Holocaust Museum last June is dead. His lawyer tells CNN von Brunn died in a prison hospital in North Carolina at 89. Security guard Stephen T. Johns was killed in that shocking attack for which von Brunn had been charged with first degree murder. He could have faced the death penalty, if convicted.
Other top stories, we want to wrap this one up from Dearborn, Michigan, now. A group of Arab-American high schoolers juniors made up these sweatshirts basically using 9/11 imagery to express class pride. Graduating year '11 looks like the Twin Towers and the mascot looks like a plane. One of the teens behind the hoodies has apologized, says the idea was foolish and naive. The school is not going to punish the kids. Secretary of Homeland Security on the record now, a CNN exclusive. Janet Napolitano tells our Jeanne Meserve that aviation safety is a global responsibility. She says the U.S. has had varying degrees of success in working with other countries to get timely intelligence on passengers boarding U.S.-bound planes.
And Yemen isn't too keen on U.S. troops or any others coming to fight al Qaeda. That's coming from the foreign minister. Americans have been helping train Yemeni security forces and the foreign minister admitted to CNN the government hasn't been as tough on al Qaeda as it should.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: It is a brand new year and your 401(k) is probably looking much better than it did a year ago, but plenty of risks to the economy remain and jobs have yet to return. CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow has more on the outlook for 2010.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM (voice-over): Despite the worst recession in modern history, 2009 was a boom year for the stock market. But when it comes to the real economy, namely your home and your job, there's still a lot of uncertainty about 2010.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think my greatest financial worry for next year is just keeping my head above water. Costs are going up, incomes are not, they're flat or going down, and I don't see any immediate relief in sight.
HARLOW: The 2009 recovery effort was marked by massive government aid -- TARP, the government's bank bailout plan, stimulus spending and Fed action to keep mortgage rates low. But as the government pulls back its unprecedented financial support, some economists worry about what may lie ahead.
LAKSHMAN ACHUTHAN, MANAGING DIR., ECONOMIC CYCLE RESEARCH INST.: I think it's a little riskier for the markets in 2010. There will be a lot more angst simply because the government is pulling back. The problem is we lost a lot, so recovering doesn't mean recovered. It's going to take a few years.
HARLOW: And what about the state of your job?
GARY LOCKE, U.S. SECRETARY OF COMMERCE: The president is most concerned about the high unemployment rate. And until everyone who wants a job has a job, the president and the entire administration will not be satisfied.
HARLOW: And although unemployment appears to have stabilized somewhat, the harsh reality is that some jobs may be lost forever.
JEFFREY JOERRES, CEO, MANPOWER: The pond is drained and companies are looking and saying, why did we have four people doing that or why were we doing that at all? And they were able to consolidate it and there is a whole lot more being done with less, and I think that will continue. People are going to be asked to do a lot more than they were before.
HARLOW: Simply put, if you're one of the millions of Americans searching for work, a willingness to do more could be key.
JOERRES: What companies are looking for in situations like that is intellectual curiosity, the ability to learn and the collaborative agile mindset. That whole OK, I get it, I'm going to do this work. This may not be part of my responsibility, but I'm going to help out somebody else.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Joining us now, Poppy Harlow.
So, what do you think? Is this the new normal?
HARLOW: Well, it is...
PHILLIPS: Slackers beware, is that what you said?
HARLOW: That's a good way to put it, slackers beware.
I mean, we lost 8 million jobs, folks, over the last two years, they're not all coming back. Simply put, employers found people who will do two jobs at once. That's what's happening.
So we went onto Twitter, asked a lot of folks today, listen, are you doing more work just to hang on to your job. I want to read you two responses, Kyra, some interesting writes here.
MarkPeTow wrote, "Oh, for sure, and for less money, too. Seems like I am working twice as much for the half of the money." Tough luck to you.
And VictorX10 wrote in, "Yes, definitely working harder. I have anxiety issues so you can imagine my state of mind right now."
You got to keep your jobs, so people are being asked to do more. Just a reality.
PHILLIPS: Yes, I know. Hopefully, it'll get better. Thanks, Poppy.
HARLOW: You got it.
PHILLIPS: Well, imagine opening up your mailbox and finding this -- hate mail from the KKK, and they want you as long as you are 100 percent white, that is.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right, Team Sanchez, what are you working on for the next hour? RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you know, I have a tendency to pay a lot of attention to what is being said out there, and Brit Hume is a fellow I have respected for many, many years in this business. He was a correspondent for ABC News, wonderful host and anchor for Fox News.
But he got into this Tiger Woods' thing this weekend with the comment he made more as an analyst than a host or an anchor or a correspondent. And the question isn't so much about what he says, cause he suggested maybe Tiger Woods should become a Christian -- I think that's fantastic cause you know what? I'm a Christian and I think Christianity is a fabulous, fabulous religion and faith and I'm proud of mine.
But in the same breath, he talks, Kyra, what Buddhists aren't, or what maybe Buddhism doesn't offer and that's where he kind of stepped on it as some of our dads would say. The criticism has come in. He went back on the air with Bill O'Reilly to try to explain things. Then, of course, the "Daily Show" got into it.
Needless to say, a lot of questions now, not just about what he said, but also about what he maybe should not have said. So, to clear things up on this show, we're going to not only cover that, but I've invited an expert on Buddhism to answer some of our questions about what that religion does or doesn't do.
And I think that this is going to be a pretty cool segment. Look for it.
PHILLIPS: All right, Rick, thanks.
SANCHEZ: All right.
PHILLIPS: Well, there's junk mail and then there's absolute garbage. The latter's been showing up in mailboxes outside of Houston lately.
Andrea Nguyen, from our affiliate KIAH tells us more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's trying to break our a community.
ANDREA NGUYEN, KIAN REPORTER (voice-over): Shocking, offensive and outright racist. These are just a few words used to describe what some residents in this quiet La Porte neighborhood recently received in their mailboxes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. It just leaves me speechless.
NGUYEN: Letters like this one apparently have been selectively hand-delivered without any postage to several homes.
The Doughty's were among those left out. JOSEPH DOUGHTY, RESIDENT: I'm pretty sure that the reason why they didn't come to our house, they must know that we live here and I may be kind of scared because they might do something to us.
NGUYEN: The letter states it's from a local recruiter from the KKK. It attempts to explain that the KKK is a Christian group that believes that the bible is about the white race and not the Jews, and that Christ was not a Jew. It also expresses fear that the white race will become extinct and that race-mixing is a violation of God's law.
It says, quote, "The future of our children and of our people depends solely on us. To join you must be 100 percent white."
It also urges people to act fast and join to ensure the preservation, protection and advancement of the white race.
JOHN HOLLAND, RESIDENT: Get a life. Turn your life over to God, that's where it needs to be. Not hating people, but loving people.
NGUYEN: As an HOA board member John Holland is considering bringing the incident up to other HOA leaders to try and put a stop the letters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, if there's something that can be done, I mean, obviously they should be prosecuted. Grow up. It's a new day and age. Kids -- we don't need to teach our kids that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: There you go. And since mailboxes are considered federal property that only the postal service can use, the USPS is launching an investigation now.
Take my economy please. Get ready to meet a stand-up guy whose turned the recession into a routine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, if I told you that the economy was hilarious, a real knee-slapper, you'd probably grab the remote and click, right? But one stand-up comedian has turned bad business into comedy gold.
Josh Levs introduces us to the stand-up economist.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW": Due to the recession, Americans are eating cheap, unhealthy, fatty foods.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sure the late night kings can joke about the economy.
O'BRIEN: So apparently the recession started in 1957.
LEVS: But who can do this?
YORAM BAUMAN, STANDUP ECONOMIST: You might be an economist if you're an expert on money and you dress like a flood victim.
(LAUGHTER)
If you refuse to sell your children because you think they might be worth more later --
(LAUGHTER)
-- you might be an economist.
LEVS: Yoram Bauman PhD declares himself the world's first and only stand-up economist. While his fellow number crunchers have been busy processing the effects of the recession, Bauman shows up at meetings and conventions to lighten up the mood.
BAUMAN: My dad told me I was crazy. Yoram, you can't be a stand-up economist. There's no demand.
LEVS (on camera): How'd you start doing this? Where'd it come from?
BAUMAN: When I was in graduate school I wrote a parody of an economic textbook. And then I started performing it live and one thing just led to another. It just kind of developed.
I only have a couple of things going for me as a stand-up economist. One of them is low expectations.
It takes a little bit to loosen up. And it's hard sometimes because they don't drink a whole lot, necessarily.
LEVS: Right. You don't have that going for you.
BAUMAN: So that's another disadvantage. But you try, and you know, because they don't get so many opportunities to laugh, I think it is easier to make them laugh once you try.
Microeconomists are people who are wrong about specific things.
LEVS (voice-over): His shtick can also help make fun and sense of economics for the rest of us.
BAUMAN: The (INAUDIBLE) principles all have the exact same translation which is mainly blah, blah, blah.
(LAUGHTER)
BAUMAN: You remember jokes a lot longer than you remember diagrams, equations, lectures.
LEVS: That's why the new book "The Cartoon Introduction to Economics" is packed with his humor.
BAUMAN: Economists go into Chinese restaurants and open up their fortune cookies and instead of putting "in bed" at the end of their fortune cookie, they put "at the margin" at the end of their fortune cookie. That's a geeky joke.
I just keep throwing stuff out there and you know, eventually you're going to find something that sticks. It's kind of what the Treasury Department has been doing for the last year and a half or so. Just keep trying things until you find something that works.
LEVS: And he isn't afraid of bombing on stage.
BAUMAN: People always ask me if I'm afraid of failure, and I'm like, afraid of failure? I used to teach Introductory Microeconomics at 8:00 in the morning.
(LAUGHTER)
-- In Walla Walla, Washington.
If I do comedy and half of the audience is still awake at the end, then I'm like, yes! I got killed! I killed them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: All right, Josh. Does being the nation's first stand- up economist really pay the bills?
LEVS: You know, he says it's getting there. He says at this point it's a significant minority, but nevertheless, a significant portion of how much he makes in general. So he's still having to teach economics, he still has basically his day job.
But I'll tell you, Kyra, those night gigs are picking up. He's getting booked more and more places. We met him at a convention in Atlanta, with more than 8,000 economists who got together. And I said to him, how often do you have the chance to actually get together with economists to make them laugh? And he said they hear about them, they start booking him. Sometimes they'll actually book meetings just to get him. Plus, as you saw, he has humor that the rest of us can appreciate as we have been processing the recession and the difficult times. Get a chance to laugh about it. It feels good.
PHILLIPS: Amen. We can use the humor.
Josh, thanks.
LEVS: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right. That does it for us. We'll see you back here tomorrow.
Rick Sanchez starts right now with CNN NEWSROOM.
