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American Morning
Toyota Suspends Sales; Obama's State of the Union Address to Focus on Economy and Jobs; Finding Peace in Afghanistan: Taliban Crucial to Ending Eight-year War; West Rehoboth Stimulus; Online Rewards Scams
Aired January 27, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Wednesday morning, and thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. I'm John Roberts on this Wednesday, January the 27th.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. Here are the big stories we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
Toyota taking extreme measures to tackle a pretty big safety problem, accelerator pedals getting stuck, forcing the largest automaker in the world to shut down plants and even suspend car sales. It's a developing story impacting millions of Americans. We're getting a live report from Washington in a moment.
ROBERTS: A big night and a big challenge for President Obama in his first State of the Union address. He is putting the focus back on the economy, hoping to get his presidency and his party back on track, heading into the midterm elections. We'll preview the president's speech just ahead.
CHETRY: And all this week we're unleashing hundreds of journalists digging deeper and examining how the government is spending your stimulus dollars. We found one community known for its beaches and boardwalks getting millions of dollars to rebuild a famous stretch of walkway and we're asking the question, is this stimulus or waste?
ROBERTS: Let's get you started this morning though with the stunning decision by Toyota to stop selling many of its most popular cars. A week after recalling 2.3 million vehicles because of a problem with sticky gas pedals, the largest automaker in the world is now ordering dealerships to hit the brakes on the sale of eight different models. That represents 57 percent of the company sales.
Several plants have been ordered to shut down too. Our Allan Chernoff is live in Washington this morning.
Allan, a drastic move by Toyota, 57 percent of the autos that it makes, it's really an extraordinary number.
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, it is exceptional, John. These are vehicles that the company recalled six days ago. Recalling, well, that's a pretty common step. But to take them off the market? Absolutely exceptional.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF (voice-over): Toyota is putting a "not for sale" sign on some of the most popular vehicles in America. Eight models are affected. All were recalled just six days ago because the accelerator can get stuck in a partly depressed position, or it may return too slowly to an idle position.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's so unusual. It's not just a recall, which is expensive. They're actually going to stop selling some of their most popular models which means they're going to lose a lot of money.
CHERNOFF: The models affected include RAV-4, Corolla, some Camrys, Avalon, Matrix, Highlander, Tundra and Sequoia. In a statement, Toyota said, "Helping ensure the safety of our customers and restoring confidence in Toyota are very important to our company. This action is necessary until a remedy is finalized."
All of the vehicles are made in North America. Plants in Indiana, Texas, Kentucky and Canada. Toyota says rather than immediately stopping production, it will keep assembly lines running until next week to allow time to notify suppliers, and then it will fix all vehicles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whether they lose their customers is really what's totally at stake here. So it's clear they have a problem. It's clear they have a quality problem, and what will define how well they rebound is how well they handle this.
CHERNOFF: Toyota's problems may present an opportunity for troubled American auto companies to gain sales, especially since many consumers received Japanese vehicles as more reliable than American cars.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHERNOFF: We can compare this to the Tylenol recall of 1982, when Johnson & Johnson pulled Tylenol after pills had been tampered with and poisoned and people actually died from them. In that case, Johnson & Johnson was hit short term but long-term its image was very, very strong, and it's certainly possible that will happen here. But right now, Toyota's image, certainly hurt very much, John. People, as you know, have always thought of Toyota cars as being of very high quality.
ROBERTS: All right. Allan Chernoff for us this morning with the latest news on the Toyota recall and stopping of production and sales. Wow. Big time.
CHETRY: It is a big story. A lot of people affected.
Well, another big story we're following this morning is the president's first State of the Union address and the political stakes, quite high this time. The president will try to rally his party after some major setbacks.
ROBERTS: It appears that voters, left, right and center don't like where he's taking the country. In a new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll, half of those surveyed disapprove of the job that the president is doing compared with 49 percent who approve.
Our Suzanne Malveaux is here to preview the president's speech. He's got a lot of work to do tonight.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Those are some stunning numbers, when you actually take a look at it.
ROBERTS: Yes.
MALVEAUX: And the president, the administration, they're very aware of what they're dealing with here because he's got to go in there and kind of deliver this yes, we can, type of message, this image, the excitement that he had from the presidential campaign that they've essentially lost. And they acknowledge that.
They realized that one of the things they have to do is try to capture the spirit of the young people and those independents that we saw during the campaign, during the election. And that's why we're going to hear some really critical messages, things like taking care of the middle class families, tax credits, things that aren't that controversial for children or taking care of the elderly.
We've learned something new this morning, an additional $4 billion for education. And then there's also things for the conservatives as well because he's trying to address their needs, the independents and those Republicans. So he's talking about those freezing discretionary spending in certain areas and also freezing those top salaries among White House officials because, you know, the bottom line is he wants to prove, hey, look, I get it, I understand your concerns.
CHETRY: And you know, another big deal about the situation is trying to recapture as you said the yes, we can. The country's certainly changed since then. The country has changed since there was so much excitement around the inauguration of our first African- American president.
MALVEAUX: Yes, that's absolutely right. And how did they lose that? How did they lose that sense of excitement?
I mean, clearly there's not that sense of hope, there's not that sense of optimism. And the president not only wants people to believe that you can believe and have faith in him, but also in the role of government. That's what the campaign was all about.
ROBERTS: So who are his guests tonight and who will be giving the Republican response?
MALVEAUX: Now this is what we love to guess about and find out who's going to be the first lady's guest. A couple of them, very interesting here. This is Sergeant's Kimberly Munley and Mark Todd. They are heroes, the Fort Hood shooting, as you know, the massacre...
ROBERTS: Yes.
MALVEAUX: ... killing 13 people. Well, these were two police officers that took matters into their own hands and clearly saved lives. Munley was actually wounded in the rescue effort, but they're going to be there with the first lady and that's certainly an honor to them. And then, of course, the GOP response is going to be even more interesting. About five minutes after the president speaks, new governor of Virginia, Bob McDonnell, and this is symbolically huge.
ROBERTS: Oh, yes.
MALVEAUX: Because, you know, this was a state, Virginia, Obama managed to capture during the presidential election, the excitement. McDonnell got those independents back two to one. The Obama supporters did not come out and support the Democratic candidate. And so he's very important symbolically.
And Joe Wilson. I've got to tell you, Joe Wilson, congressman from South Carolina, doing his own response on Facebook, asking people to weigh in. He, as you know, was the one who famously said, "you lie, you lie." He wants to set the record straight as well.
ROBERTS: I think his response will be more than two words longer.
MALVEAUX: I have a feeling it's going to be a lot longer than that.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Suzanne.
CHETRY: Suzanne, thanks so much.
And, of course, CNN is going to be carrying the president's State of the Union address. It's live and our prime time coverage begins at 8:00 tonight with the best political team on television.
ROBERTS: What do you want to hear from the president tonight? We want to know. Go to our blog at CNN.co/amFIX and tell us.
CHETRY: In about 15 minutes, we're taking a closer look at where your stimulus dollars are being spent. Our Christine Romans has uncovered millions going to rebuild a famous stretch of boardwalk. Is it stimulus or is it money spent just miles down the road where people make less than $20,000 a year?
ROBERTS: Other stories new this morning to tell you about, two key players in the AIG bailout. The former and current treasury secretaries will be on Capitol Hill today. Henry Paulson and Tim Geithner will answer questions about their ties to big banks. They'll also be grilled about an alleged attempt by the New York Fed to cover up payments that AIG made to firms like Goldman Sachs with taxpayer money. Paulson is a former Goldman chief, and Geithner was in charge of the New York Fed at the time. CHETRY: And the man who brought you the undercover ACORN videos may now be in big trouble for another attempted political stunt. Four men in all charged with attempting to tap the phones in Louisiana, Democrat Mary Landrieu's district office. One of them James O'Keefe is believed to be the same person who posed as a pimp, you may remember in a video, to solicit tax advice from the community organizing group ACORN. Our Brianna Keilar is going to be getting a live report on that coming up in our next hour.
ROBERTS: And as we come up on eight minutes after the hour, let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. Jacqui Jeras in the extreme weather center.
Hi, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, guys. The stage is being set at this hour for a major winter storm to hit the southern plain states by this time tomorrow morning. As we take a look at the radar, you can see some area of rain and snow into the southwest. But this upper low is going to take a little trek over towards Texas and bring in a lot of moisture. At the same time, arctic air is going to be coming in from the north and that's going to meet together. And we're very concerned about problems with icing and heavy snow in places like Oklahoma City.
We'll have more on this storm a little more on today's weather. That coming up a little later in the show. Back to you guys.
CHETRY: Jacqui, thank you.
Well, still ahead on the Most News in the Morning. After eight years of war in Afghanistan and no end in sight, can Western leaders find a way out? Our Barbara Starr reports, coming up.
Eight and a half minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to AMERICAN MORNING. Eleven minutes past the hour now. We get a quick check of some of the other stories new this morning.
And tensions running high this morning on the Korean Peninsula. South Korea on high military alert after trading artillery fire with North Korea near their disputed sea boarder. This happened earlier today.
A South Korean news agency is reporting that the North started the fight. North Korea now warning that there is more to come as tense standoff comes a day after North Korea declared a no-sail zone in the disputed area of the Yellow Sea.
ROBERTS: Chaos on the streets of Haiti today. Starving survivors crushed and trampled yesterday in a desperate battle to find food. U.N. peacekeepers fired pepper spray to hold back thousands of people who charged the barrier food distribution center in downtown Port-au-Prince. Thousands of people left hungry, many saying they have only eaten about once every three days since the quake struck over two weeks ago.
CHETRY: Well, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will not be attending President Obama's first State of the Union address tonight. Instead, she's in London, and that's where she'll be meeting with world leaders today about the growing threat of Al Qaeda in Yemen.
Also tomorrow, Secretary Clinton will be attending a summit critical to the future of Afghanistan. And the goal is to draw a blueprint for Afghan forces to eventually take over responsibility of their country. But as our Barbara Starr reports, that all depends on one key player who will not be at the negotiating table this week.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, the conference will bring together military and civilian leaders to look for a solution in Afghanistan. But the Taliban won't be at the table, and what they decide may be crucial.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STARR (voice-over): More than eight years of war in Afghanistan. World leaders will gather Thursday for another international conference. Representatives of 60 nations will meet in London to focus on that well-used phrase, the way ahead in a war that is not going well.
ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: As you know, more U.S. forces are headed to Afghanistan to increase pressure on the Taliban and reverse a deteriorating security situation.
STARR: There will be talk of sending more troops and more trainers for the Afghans. But after so many years of war, this conference will focus heavily on trying to reach a peace with at least some Taliban fighters. Senator Carl Levin just returned from Afghanistan.
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), CHAIR, ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Another thing to watch is whether or not President Karzai and we can come up with a program for reintegration of those lower level Taliban which will chip away at the power at the Taliban and help to support the efforts of the Afghan security forces.
STARR: U.S. commanders acknowledge the need to bring at least some lower level Taliban leaders into the political and social fabric of Afghanistan. General Stanley McChrystal, the top military commander, when asked if the Taliban could play a role in the future of Afghanistan said, "I think any Afghans can play a role if they focus on the future and not the past."
(on camera): But reality remains harsh. U.S. troops continue their push into Helmand province in the south. The next target? The Marjah area, yet another Taliban stronghold. And across the border in Pakistan, in North Waziristan, bad news. The Pakistani military has told the U.S. it's delayed further combat operations here. (voice-over): That will give insurgents more time to consolidate and possibly launch new attacks into Afghanistan. U.S. military intelligence calculates the Taliban now have shadow governments in 33 of 34 provinces, raising questions about whether they see a need to even come to the negotiating table.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STARR: By all accounts, CIA drone strikes against Taliban and Al Qaeda targets in Pakistan are continuing at record levels, a key weapon in fighting the insurgents before they can cross the border into Afghanistan, which is still struggling for that way ahead -- John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: Barbara Starr for us this morning. Barbara, thanks.
Still ahead on the Most News in the Morning, we are shining a light on the federal stimulus this week. Your tax dollars to repair a boardwalk in a seaside town? Christine Romans takes us there.
Is it truly stimulus or government waste? We'll let you decide.
It's 15 and a half minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's eight and a half minutes after the hour now, and we're "Minding Your Business" this morning. This week, we are devoting much of our airtime to the stimulus project.
It's a plan that's a whole lot more expensive this morning. Yesterday the Congressional Budget Office revised the cost from $787 billion to $862 billion, mainly because of increased spending on food stamps and unemployment benefits.
Now, the plan is designed to help put America's most deserving back to work, but a lot of you watching are skeptical when it comes to the stimulus. A new CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll found the majority -- 54 percent of you say that it has helped bankers and investors, 23 percent feel that it has hurt them, and 22 percent say it's had no effect.
CHETRY: And so for the White House there is this problem of perception when it comes to whether or not the stimulus is actually helping out.
Our Christine Romans is taking a look at where some of this money is going. You just got -- your job just got a bit harder because of this additional stimulus we've been talking about, but you're focusing on one very popular beach resort today.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We went to Delaware to see a community where there was a big -- a very big, multimillion dollar stimulus project and a very, very tiny, tiny stimulus project next to it and to ask people which one is waste, which one's good, and -- and which one is going to real stimulus down the line? And we found one woman who said both of these projects are making a difference in her life.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: How long have you lived here?
ELEANOR WHALEY, VICE PRESIDENT, WEST REHOBOTH COMMUNITY LAND TRUST: About 20 -- about 20, 25 years.
ROMANS: Wow!
ROMANS (voice-over): Eleanor Whaley lives in a West Rehoboth, Delaware, where most people make less than $20,000 a year and some homes have no running water. Whaley, thankfully, does.
But after her bathtub cracked a couple of years ago, it leaked water and ruined her insulation.
WHALEY: And my husband tried to fix it up, you know, paint it up or whatever, but as the water came down, it ruined all of that, and...
ROMANS (on camera): So the heat -- the hot air in the house just goes out.
ROMANS (voice-over): It took $230 a month to heat her small home, but today her bathroom has been repaired and her bill is down $40, all thanks to your stimulus money.
Whaley is vice president of the West Rehoboth Community Land Trust and helped to get a $130,000 stimulus grant to weatherize homes here. It's also training residents to do the work themselves.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's stimulus in terms of giving people a better standard of living, and hopefully it will actually put some people into the economy on a long-term basis.
ROMANS: But this isn't the only stimulus program helping out Whaley and her neighbors. Just two miles down the road is Rehoboth Beach, a summer resort for Washington's elite.
It may be the dead of winter, but the beach is hopping with construction workers rebuilding the town's board walk with $5.5 million stimulus dollars.
ROMANS (on camera): This project wouldn't be happening right now without the federal stimulus dollars?
STAN MILLS, COMMISSIONER, CITY OF REHOBOTH BEACH: Absolutely. Meaning there would be no workers here, there would be no workers potentially even getting paychecks, so this is -- this is...
ROMANS (voice-over): City commissioner Stan Mills says the boardwalk, parts of it more than 50 years old, was in bad shape.
ROMANS (on camera): So when you heard about the stimulus project, you immediately thought, we have a shovel-ready project just waiting for federal -- federal dollars. We could people to work right away.
MILLS: Yes. Absolutely.
ROMANS (voice-over): Mills says besides creating jobs now, a new boardwalk will mean more tourists this summer. But stimulus dollars for tourism?
The project landed on a Republican list of wasteful projects and a local citizen, a Democrat, staged a small protest.
ANGEL CLARK, REHOBOTH BEACH RESIDENT: It doesn't make sense to me, the -- the concept of using money to -- to build this boardwalk when it was already functional.
ROMANS: But back across town, Eleanor Whaley says the boardwalk project is important for her livelihood. She works in the resort town, like many of her neighbors, and depends on tourism.
ROMANS (on camera): Some people say this whole stimulus thing is a waste.
WHALEY: I don't think so (ph).
ROMANS: This isn't a waste for you?
WHALEY: Oh, my God, no. I think it's the best thing that could have happened to -- not only for me but other residents that's living here in the community.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: Both of these projects have very, very different goals and price tags, and not everyone believes they'll provide the economic boost they're looking for, but they're getting money flowing into both of these communities, and that was the whole point of the stimulus. And -- and folks who support these projects say they're going to have a long-term benefit as well.
The bottom line? Rebuilding the Rehoboth Beach boardwalk is -- is costing just over $5.5 million. The Delaware Department of Transportation tells us it's going to create the equivalent of 31 full time jobs. They say equivalent because sometimes more people are working there, sometimes less, some of these are part-time jobs. All together, 31 full-time jobs.
And the West Rehoboth Weathering Project, a much smaller project, $130,000. It's created one full-time job -- that's the construction manager, but then a lot of those people are getting the first real work experience on a resume than they've ever had in their lives, and that you can't just measure how valuable that's going to be.
CHETRY: The other thing too is, I mean, you can't measure -- as you talked about the difficulty of measuring jobs is the -- the fact that the tourism industry is what drives that area, and so if the boardwalk is in a shambles and tourists don't go there, that's jobs lost as well. ROMANS: But critics keep saying that tourist towns should not be getting this kind of money. This should not -- this should not be going for tourist towns. That's something that the businesses should support and that, you know, making a pretty town prettier -- you know, people like Angel Clark in our piece is a Democrat. She said, look, we have to pay for this. You know, the country is paying for making a pretty town where, arguably, wealthy people go prettier.
ROBERTS: All right. Christine, thanks so much.
CHETRY: Thanks, Christine.
ROBERTS: Good -- good story this morning.
Tomorrow in AMERICAN MORNING, a bridge built to make residents safe, but why are folks in one small town calling it a complete waste of their money?
The Stimulus Project all this week only on CNN and at cnn.com/stimulus.
CHETRY: Coming up next on the Most News in the Morning, a new scam catching even smart web surfers off guard. What you need to watch out for. We're going to show you next.
It's 24 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Twenty- seven minutes past the hour right now. Time for an "AM Original", something you wouldn't see anywhere else.
And we're talking about online shoppers and the fact that they need to be careful. A lot of those pop-ups that offer you cash rewards are really just ripoffs waiting to happen.
ROBERTS: And clicking on these pop-ups can mean membership to a supposed discount club that you didn't ask to join, unauthorized charges to your credit card along with it.
Our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis, is here with an "AM Original". Good morning, Gerri.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Good morning, Kiran and John. Good to see you guys.
Whether you're online shopping, sending somebody flowers or buying movie tickets, you've probably seen cash back offers. They pop up on the screen after you've entered your credit card number and finalized your purchase.
You think you're getting a good deal, but New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is calling this post transaction marketing a online scheme that has cost consumers millions of dollars.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIS (voice-over): Millions of Americans who shop online are unsuspecting members of online discount clubs.
SEAN PAINTER, ONLINE SHOPPER: I feel tricked.
EILEEN GIBSON, ONLINE SHOPPER: I felt deceived.
WILLIS: Eileen Gibson bought a book online when an offer popped up.
GIBSON: I thought, wow, I'm going to get money for spending money? And, of course, I clicked on it.
WILLIS: After Sean Painter bought movie tickets on Fandango, a mysterious recurring charge appeared on his credit card statement.
PAINTER: I didn't see any checked boxes or anything that would make me aware of anything I was enrolling in other than buying two movie tickets.
WILLIS: One click, Painter was directed to another company's website and enrolled in its rewards program. He says without his authorization, the company, Webloyalty, charged monthly fees to the credit card he used to buy the tickets.
WILLIS (on camera): Isn't this illegal?
BEN EDELMAN, HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL: The companies that make these services claim that they've told you everything they needed to tell you in the fine print.
WILLIS (voice-over): But everywhere else...
EDELMAN: It says $10, $10, $10, $10, $10 off, but in this one place they do mention that they'll charge you $12.
WILLIS: Three internet companies, Webloyalty, Affinion and Vertrue were blasted in a Congressional report last November for engaging in aggressive sales tactics and charging consumers millions of dollars for unwanted services.
Under scrutiny now by the New York State Attorney General's Office, subpoenas have gone out to the web companies and to 20 retailers that investigators say pass along its customers' account information in exchange for lucrative contracts.
WILLIS (on camera): Are these retailers -- are they complicit in this? Are they part of the scam?
EDELMAN: Right. The retailers are absolutely part of this. The retailers have decided to let their customers get cheated in exchange for a cut of the profits.
WILLIS (voice-over): Some retailers have ended their contracts with these companies, and all three, Webloyalty, Affinion and Vertrue tell CNN they're changing the way they do business.
Still Chuck Bell of Consumers Union says even with heightened enforcement consumers need to be ever vigilant.
CHUCK BELL, CONSUMERS UNION: The internet is sort of the equivalent of the Wild West, and it takes the sheriff a while to get there. The new scams are constant -- are being developed partly because technology advances very rapidly and there's a huge financial incentive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIS: Fandango says it can't discuss the matter while the Senate committee review is going on.
But the three Web companies tell CNN they've made significant changes. Customers who want to sign up for their services are now required to enter their full 16-digit account number. This will alert consumers that they're actually making that separate purchase. But it doesn't go far enough for New York's attorney general, Andrew Cuomo, who will be announcing agreements for further changes later today.
CHETRY: Just got to be careful out there, you know?
WILLIS: You have to read everything. You can't click and not think -- it's buyer beware, but at some point the regulators have to step in.
CHETRY: Gerri Willis for us -- thanks.
WILLIS: My pleasure.
CHETRY: Right now, it is 30 minutes past the hour. It means its time for your top stories.
And a big one today: Toyota telling its U.S. dealerships it has to suspend sales immediately on eight of its best selling models. It's the world's largest automaker. They're trying to get to the bottom of a safety issue with accelerator pedals getting stuck.
And just last week, Toyota recalled more than 2 million vehicles to try to fix the defects. Several Toyota plants have also been ordered to shut down until the problem is fixed.
Also new this morning, the cost of the government's economic stimulus plan just went up by $75 billion. With unemployment sky- high, some wonder how so much cash is creating so few jobs.
So, we're tracking what the government is doing with your money from the CNN stimulus desk. We're going to be taking you live to a well-known American city where a shocking one-third of the population now lives below the poverty level.
And jobs and the economy, a major focus of President Obama's first State of the Union address. He retooled his message and it will be aimed directly at middle class voters. Tonight's speech comes at a time when support for the president's policies and his leadership is dropping -- John.
ROBERTS: In his State of the Union address tonight, President Obama will address the threat of al Qaeda launching an attack against the United States with bioterror weapons. Just yesterday, the independent commission on weapons of mass destruction gave the government an "F" for failing to deal with bioterror threats.
Joining us now from Washington is the chairman of that commission, former Senator Bob Graham. And Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, he is a senior fellow at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He has a new report out this week that says the threat from al Qaeda goes well beyond bioterrorism.
Senator Gramm, let's start with you. In terms of what the president is going to say about bioterrorism tonight, do you have any inside information? What do you think he needs to say?
BOB GRAHAM (D), FORMER U.S. SENATOR: Well, what he should say is that bioterrorism is the greatest threat that our nation faces -- more so than, for instance, the threat of use of a nuclear weapon and that we are not well-prepared. In fact, we are almost zero prepared to respond to that attack.
And then, if the president would outline some of the steps that he is going to initiate, such as a major effort with state and local governments to build up our public health services' ability to alert us to a biological attack, that we're going to start building a warehouse of therapeutics that will be necessary to treat people who have been affected. Those would be examples of the kinds of aggressive steps the president should outline tonight.
ROBERTS: Rolf, you heard Senator Graham say that he thinks the greatest threat is bioterror. Your report that came out this week, though, suggests something different.
ROLF MOWATT-LARSSEN, BELFER CENTER FOR SCIENCE & INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS: On the one hand it does, in the sense that it describes how al Qaeda was looking at high-end WMD attacks, including bio and nuclear terrorism. But I would agree with the senator, exactly what he said about the threat, and I would stress that in our response, the most important things and what I tried to inspire in my report, is the need for a sense of urgency, a very determined effort to prevent these threats. And most of all, approach it with a -- with a great deal of imagination.
ROBERTS: But you do suggest in your report that al Qaeda remains determined to get their hands on some sort of nuclear weapon.
MOWATT-LARSSEN: Yes, absolutely. The group's highest aspiration is to create another situation in the United States that occurred after 9/11. And to do that, they need to have a spectacular attack. And the bio and the nuclear options are, I think, very high on their -- we know it's very high on their priority.
ROBERTS: Senator Graham, you know, when you look at the latest al Qaeda attack, the Christmas morning attempted bombing of an airliner, you could think to yourself, well, it's a long way from having a bomb sewn into your underwear to acquiring either a nuclear weapon or some sort of sophisticated bioterror weapon that would exact mass casualties.
GRAHAM: It is. But there's also been eight years passed since 9/11, and we know al Qaeda has been working to get a weapon of mass destruction capability. The reason that we believe bio is more likely than nuclear is it is so available. Whereas nuclear is a relatively confined number of units and scientists and laboratories.
Biological weapons are ubiquitous and it's only a matter of time before al Qaeda or some other group master's the technology to weaponize those materials. They already -- as demonstrated by the December attack -- have an effective system of trying to penetrate the United States with those kinds of weapons and then they will use them in a major American city.
ROBERTS: You know, Rolf, in your report, you talk about a 2003 attempt by an al Qaeda cell in Saudi Arabia to acquire some loose Russian nukes, the Saudi government cracked down on that cell and the chatter kind of went away. But in your report, you accuse the U.S. government of misreading al Qaeda's operational objectives. What's the misread?
MOWATT-LARSSEN: I would not characterize the report as accusing the United States government. As a matter of fact, I think the report highlights how effective the U.S. government actions were in disrupting al Qaeda's WMD efforts. But what I am worried about, I'll agree, is that we worry so much about connecting dots on small threats -- which is important, obviously -- that we could get complacent about not putting enough effort to stop the high-end, 9/11-like attack on the United States that al Qaeda would desperately like to perpetrate.
And the fact that the bottom-up type attacks are -- threats -- are occurring should not -- should not take away the effort from also looking at the top-down, centrally-direct al Qaeda attacks, like a bio attack -- as the senator described -- or a nuclear attack.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, we'll be watching the president's speech tonight very closely and see what he has to say.
Senator Bob Graham, as always, Senator, it's great to see you both.
Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, you, too. Thanks for coming in this morning.
GRAHAM: Thank you, John.
MOWATT-LARSSEN: Thank you very much.
ROBERTS: I really appreciate it.
Thirty-six and a half minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. Thirty- nine minutes past the hour now.
We're in the middle of a week-long undertaking here at CNN, to find out where all the stimulus money is going and whether it's doing what it was meant to do: create jobs.
Our Don Lemon is now at the nerve center of the Stimulus Project, it's the CNN stimulus desk.
Hey, Don.
DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning. We're up early here working so I came in just about two hours ago and we got right to it.
What we're going to focus on now, Kiran, we're trying to find out -- we're talking about housing and urban development, because really, getting people back to work is going to depend on what's happening in all those downtown areas in the cities where you live.
This is the overall map here that we're working at our stimulus desk. The yellow ones you see, these are the ones that we're working on. The green, we've got some information about where all of this is going. Specifically, we're focusing on the money, that $158 billion that went to these, sort of, projects here.
Let's take a look. Of course, all of this is coming from our nation's capital, right? That's where all of this money and information is coming from and we're getting some of our stuff.
But this is what we're focusing on: Detroit. And downtown Detroit here, courtesy of our affiliate, WDIV. Of course, Michigan got -- for HUD money, is the number one receiver of HUD money, received about $228 million. But check this out -- $40 million of that is going to Detroit.
And what they're going to do in Detroit -- and I believe we have some video of downtown Detroit -- they're going to try to revitalize those buildings, tear some of them down, raze and put some of them back up to put in restaurants, housing, and what-have-you, and to try to get all of those homes that you see that have been abandoned out of the way so that people can live in it.
So, again, about $40.8 million, specifically to Detroit, and once the phone lines open there, of course, we're going to try to call to see exactly where all that money went, if it indeed created any jobs, if they're razing homes and what they're building. So, we're checking on it.
I'm Don Lemon here at the recovery desk. Kiran, I'm going to throw it back to you, and we'll have some information next time you come to us.
CHETRY: All right, Don, thanks so much -- John.
ROBERTS: There's a lot of middle class angst in America right now, 15.3 million people are out of work. And many believe that Washington just doesn't get it.
Case in point: the people of Youngstown, Ohio. They heard a lot from Barack Obama before he became president.
Carol Costello joins us live in a chilly Youngstown this morning with an A.M. original.
Carol, what a lot of Americans, folks in Youngstown are growing pretty weary of words.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think that's a good way to put it, John. People are angry here, but worse than that, they're disheartened. They like hearing those fighting words from Barack Obama, but they want to hear more than words at this point. When they listen to the State of the Union tonight, they want words. But more than that, they want jobs.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CROWD: Obama! Obama!
COSTELLO (voice-over): Then-candidate Barack Obama was no stranger here. He made 14 campaign stops in Ohio, two in Youngstown.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Youngstown, this is our moment. This is our time.
COSTELLO: Youngstown said yes, we can, 70 percent voted for Obama. Now many feel we really can't.
Mickey Wolfe lost his job in January of 2009.
MICKEY WOLFE, 2008 OBAMA VOTER: They come in this area and make promises when you want to be elected is all great. It's really, really frustrating that, you know -- you know, that we're in this predicament.
COSTELLO: Youngstown, once a booming manufacturing town, has been in an economic black hole for decades. According to the Brookings Institution, 33 percent live below the poverty level. And Youngstown has one of the highest foreclosure rates in Ohio.
MAYOR JAY WILLIAMS, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO: Politics is always at play.
COSTELLO: Mayor Jay Williams ran as an independent candidate in 2005 and won.
(on camera): Are people angry here?
WILLIAMS: There's a sense of frustration that Washington, in general, just isn't getting it.
COSTELLO (on camera): He says, while Youngstown has benefited from the president's stimulus plan, the city needs even more financial help. But its application for stimulus money set aside to ease urban blight was rejected by HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development. And Youngstown isn't happy. The local newspaper summed it up this way, "HUD to Mahoning Valley: Drop dead."
The Obama administration says that's unfair. Noting Youngstown has already received $52 million in stimulus money -- money it said created or saved thousands of jobs. The auto industry bailout also preserved jobs at the city's General Motors plant.
JARED BERNSTEIN, V.P. BIDEN'S ECONOMIC ADVISER: You could certainly find pockets throughout this country where we would very much like to have done more. But we believe we've done a lot to help.
COSTELLO: Over at Ball Busters, a local pool hall, the only kind of help they're looking for is in finding jobs. When the president speaks on Wednesday night, they want more than help, they want a plan.
(on camera): So, you want to hear, they want to hear from Barack Obama a plan.
JIM KROKOSKI, BAR OWNER: Exactly. Outline it.
COSTELLO (voice-over): And then tell the country how he's going to pay for it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: It sounds so simple, doesn't it? Come up with a plan, outline the plan, and then implement it and, bingo, there will be jobs here in Youngstown, Ohio. Of course, it's not as easy as all of that.
And, John, I'm going to go back to Ball Busters tonight. I'm going to sit down. I'm going to watch the president's State of the Union and see what people have to say. See if Barack Obama is saying the right things to at least ease some of the pain in this area of Ohio.
ROBERTS: All right. Carol Costello, heading back to her favorite place tonight. We look forward to your reporting tomorrow. Carol, thanks so much.
If you're suffering...
COSTELLO: I do like Ball Busters.
ROBERTS: I can -- I can tell. Yes. I'll let you get out of the snow this morning, too. Thanks, Carol.
COSTELLO: It's a pool hall.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: OK.
ROBERTS: OK. We'll -- again, we look forward to seeing that report tomorrow.
Well, if you're suffering from middle class angst or just have something to say about it, sound off on our blog at CNN.com/amFIX.
CHETRY: Something for the Christmas reel as well.
Tomorrow on AMERICAN MORNING, a bridge built to make residents safer, but why the people in one small town say it's basically a complete waste of their money? "The Stimulus Project" all this week only on CNN and at cnn.com/stimulus.
ROBERTS: It's 45-and-a-half minutes after the hour. Jacqui Jeras has this morning's travel forecast right after the break. Stay with us.
CHETRY: In ten minutes, it started as an "American Idol" audition then it ended up taking on a life of its own. Our Jeanne Moos with the song, pants on the ground. Forty-six minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Forty-eight minutes past the hour. Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. It's time for your "AM House Call", and this is pretty interesting, there is a new study showing there's a steady drop in hearing loss in people ages 45-75. Experts say the likely reason, fewer noisy jobs, better ear protection at work sites, and also better medicine to fight certain diseases that can rob you of your hearing. Scientists though warn that this doesn't mean you should blast music from your iPod for hours on end.
ROBERTS: About 10 percent of pregnant women admit taking herbal products in their first trimester of pregnancy, a critical period of a child's development. Researchers say this is a potentially concerning problem because there is just not enough information on the effects of herbal products on unborn children. The most commonly reported product juice was ginger to help ease morning sickness.
CHETRY: Forty-nine minutes past the hour. We get a check of this morning's weather headlines, our Jacqui Jeras in the extreme weather center for us this morning. Hey, Jacqui.
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, guys. You know, today, overall not looking too terrible, but we're real concerned about what's going to happen by this time tomorrow. We're looking at an upper level disturbance here across parts of the southwest and what's going to happen is that this is going to travel toward the plains states and turn into a major winter ice storm. This could literally cripple this area in terms of travel, and leave people without power for as much as a week at a time.
Major ice accumulations expected here, especially along the I-44 corridor, up into the Tulsa Area. All you really need is maybe a quarter of an inch or so of ice to start causing power outages and bringing tree limbs down. We're expecting more than that, maybe a half of an inch, possibly even higher than that. On the backside of the system, we're going to be seeing some heavy snow into Northwestern Oklahoma as well as Northern Texas. Up to a foot of snow can be expected.
So, as the system comes out of the southwest and moves into the nation's midsection, it's going to start hooking up with this cold air and that cold air goes below the warm air, so the warm air overrides it, and that's why this is going to be more of an ice event, rather than a rain event or a snow event, so travel tomorrow is going to be real problematic in the southern planes.
Today we're expecting to have a few travel problems in the northeast, New York City metros as well as Philadelphia due to the wind. Chicago, we got some snow, lots of lake effect snow showers, by the way, across the Great Lake and San Francisco looking for delays about 15 to 30 minutes because of those low clouds.
The other weather trouble that we're going to have today is what you can't see, that's the cold that's out there. Bitter cold wind chills across the upper Midwest at this hour. We're looking at 20s and 30s below, and it's going to stay cold, and that cold air is certainly on the move. Expect to see that push even into the northeastern corridor over the next couple of days. John and Kiran, this is going to be a big one.
CHETRY: Wow, look at that map behind you, all in the negatives...
JERAS: Yes. Colorful though, isn't it?
CHETRY: Yes, very pretty.
ROBERTS: Lovely shade of purple.
CHETRY: Right. As long as you're not in it. Thanks, Jacqui.
This morning's top stories are just minutes away, including Toyota taking some drastic steps to tackle with top safety problem after recalls tied to accelerator pedals that stick. The largest automaker in the world now suspending sales of eight popular car models. We're going to find out this morning if your car is safe to drive.
ROBERTS: The man who posed as a pimp to solicit tax advice from the community organizing group, A.C.O.R.N. is back, only this time, he is one of the accused of breaking the law, arrested after the FBI says he and three others tried to tamper with the phone lines in Louisiana, the Senator Mary Landrieu's office. We're live with the reaction on that story.
CHETRY: Also, it's a big night for President Obama as he gives his first State of the Union Address. A lot of criticism's coming his way and a lot of big issues to tackle, so what can we expect out of the speech. We're going to have more on that and many other stories at the top of the hour. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Fifty-five minutes after the hour, and as it does every morning, it means it's time for the "Moost" News in the Morning. From politicians to athletes, it seems everyone is singing about pants on the ground.
CHETRY: Yes, it's a song that has now gone viral after a contestant performed it on "American Idol." and as Jeanne Moos shows as the song has become the gift that keeps on giving.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a song that has taken America by the seat of its saggy pants. Four little words.
Pants.
UNKNOWN MALE: Pants on the ground, pants on the ground.
MOOS: On.
UNKNOWN MALE: Pants on the ground, pants on the ground.
MOOS: The.
UNKNOWN FEMALE: Pants on the ground.
MOOS: Ground.
UNKNOWN MALE: Looking like a fool with your pants on the ground.
MOOS: It started as an audition for "American Idol" sung by a guy calling himself, General Larry Platt.
UNKNOWN MALE: Looking like a fool with your pants on the ground.
SIMON COWELL, HOST, "AMERICAN IDOL": I have a horrible feeling that song could be a hit.
MOOS: Soon we were getting hit over the head with it.
Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre rallied his victorious teammates with it.
The Vikings then lost their next game. Jimmy Fallon performed it in the guys of Neal Young.
It's become a T-shirt, a Facebook page, a game, try keeping the pants from hitting the ground.
UNKNOWN MALE: I see people singing pants on the ground all day long. You know who they were, kids with they're freaking pants on the ground and their hats on its own (ph). Don't you understand? Larry Platt is calling you an idiot.
MOOS: Keep your shirt on, even if they don't keep their pants on right. Pants became a prop.
MOOS (on-camera): But you know for sure that pants on the ground has been run into the ground when politicians start singing it.
MOOS (voice-over): A Canadian politician, TJ Burke, a member of the legislative assembly of New Brunswick used pants to attack an opponent.
T.J. BURKE, NEW BRUNSWICK LEGISLATOR: The leader of the conservative party was very clearly caught on the CBC with his pants on the ground. Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, looking like a fool with the pants on the ground. Thank you Mr. Speaker.
(LAUGHING)
MOOS: From a commandeered PA system in Wal-Mart.
To a kid dropping his pants.
To a poodle.
UNKNOWN MALE: Looking like a fool with your pants on the ground.
MOOS: Just wear a belt and quit belting out this song.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Those politicians from New Brunswick are so much fun.
CHETRY: They keep up with pop culture that's for sure.
ROBERTS: I don't understand because I've seen people doing this like across the country.
CHETRY: Pull them up.
ROBERTS: How do they keep them from falling down?
CHETRY: They put heir belts. They let their pant go halfway down, let half their boxers show, and then put their belt really tight so their belt is sort of keeping it halfway up.
ROBERTS: Yet they can still kind of walk.
CHETRY: Barely.
ROBERTS: Physically, I can't figure how it works.
CHETRY: We'll show you after the show.
ROBERTS: It's baffling. CHETRY: We'll try it out.
All right. It's 58 minutes...
ROBERTS: Of course -- what's just as bad are the folks who wear their pants up here too.
CHETRY: Yes. Yes. We have no idea how those stay up either.
(LAUGHING)
Two minutes on the top of the hour.
ROBERTS: Grandpa, stop doing that.
CHETRY: We'll be back with your top stories in 90 seconds.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
UNKNOWN MALE: Madam speaker.
UNKNOWN MALE: The President of the United States.
CHETRY: That's we're going to be hearing later on tonight. Meanwhile, deficits are going up.
