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American Morning
State Department Warns of Violence in Mexico; Health Care Final Battle; Peter Graves Dead at 83; Runaway Prius Claim in Doubt; Families Split Over Shocking Murder
Aired March 15, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. It's Monday, March 15th.
I'm Christine Romans, in for Kiran Chetry today.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us.
Here are the top stories that we'll be telling you about in the next 15 minutes.
Murdered in Mexico. The State Department warning Americans to stay away from border towns at the height of spring break season after two Americans were shot and killed in a drive-by shooting.
ROMANS: The White House predicting that this is the week for health care reform. But even a man who counts the votes in the House says Democrats -- well, they're not there yet. Republicans are threatening to go through the bill, literally, line by line to buy some more time.
ROBERTS: And hundreds of thousands of homes remain in the dark this morning across the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic. Heavy rains are still soaking the region from Connecticut, all the way south to West Virginia. Winds reaching hurricane force at JFK Airport in New York Saturday night. There was a gust measured 75 miles an hour. It may be days before everyone's power is back on.
ROMANS: But we begin with what was a weekend of carnage over the border in Mexico. This morning, the State Department is warning some Americans working in Mexico to send their families home after drive-by killings of a consulate employee and her husband. Police say they were found murdered with their baby still in the back seat. That baby was not harmed.
Rafael Romo is following this from the CNN Center -- Rafael.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: Christine, all three people connected to the American consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, were shot and killed in broad daylight. In both cases, they were chased by armed gunmen who apparently knew who they were looking for.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROMO (voice-over): The shooting happened right across the street from city hall in Ciudad Juarez. According to Mexican authorities, two Americans, Leslie Enriquez, who was an employee at the American consulate in Juarez and her 34-year-old husband, Arthur Redelfs, a detention officer with the El Paso Sheriff's Department, were shot and killed after a short car chase through the streets of the Mexican border city across from El Paso, Texas.
Police found the couple's 3-month-old daughter in the back seat. She was not injured.
JOSE REYES FERRIZ, MAYOR, JUAREZ, MEXICO: Foot patrol police officer stationed a couple miles east of where the incident took place, he saw the two cars, one chasing the other and shooting at that car.
ROMO: On a separate incident, 37-year-old Jorge Salcido, the husband of U.S. consulate's Mexican employee, was also killed Saturday afternoon. Two children, ages 4 and 7 were injured in that shooting and transported to the hospital according to local authorities.
FERRIZ: The second killing was a state police officer, investigative police officer, married to a Mexican working at the U.S. consulate and they were both at a children's party earlier that morning.
ROMO: The U.S. State Department has authorized the departure of Americans working in U.S. consulates in six cities along the U.S./Mexico border until April 12th while they investigate the incidents and assess the threat of violence.
The White House issued a statement saying President Obama is deeply saddened and outraged by the news of the attacks and murders. The statement also says, "We will continue to work with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his government to break the power of the drug trafficking organizations that operate in Mexico and far too often target and kill the innocent."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMO: And reacting to the news, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the shootings underscore the imperative for our continued commitment to work closely with the government of President Calderon to cripple the influence trafficking organizations at work in Mexico.
Employees at the six U.S. consulates along the Mexican border have been given permission to leave Mexico and return to the United States for a period ending April 12th -- Christine.
ROMANS: All right. Rafael Romo in Atlanta -- thank you.
ROBERTS: OK. We know that you've heard this one before, but this could really be the final week in the health care battle. It seems like we've been say that go since July. The White House is saying that it will have the votes to make it the law of the land, even though as of right now, the numbers are not there. Republicans are vowing to keep it that way with the numbers not there.
Both sides got in a few final shots on the Sunday talk shows.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), MINORITY LEADER: They tried to do this in June and July last year. If they had the votes then, it'd be -- it'd be law. They tried to pass it in September, October, November, December, January, February -- guess what? They don't have the votes.
DAVID AXELROD, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISOR: I think we will have the votes to pass this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Our Kate Bolduan shows us where we stand right now in this make or break week for the president's health care plan, redact (ph) number 14. She's live at the White House for us this morning.
Good morning, Kate.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, John.
Yes, absolutely. It sounds like we are repeating ourselves. We promise.
The White House is definitely making the push and you heard from just that bit of sound, but you get the sense that it really is crunch time. Democrats are really laying it all on the line, making this a pivotal week for health care reform.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN (voice-over): White House heavy-hitters made the talk show rounds with one simple message: this is the week for health care reform.
AXELROD: I think people have come to the realization that this is the moment, and if we don't act now, there will be dire consequences for people all over this country.
BOLDUAN: The House of Representatives is expected to vote later this week on the Senate version of the Democratic bill that passed last December. After a contentious nine-month struggle, the White House is predicting victory.
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We will have the votes, and this time next week, somebody will walk out this door and you'll be talking about not a proposal in the House, but something that the president is ready to sign into law.
BOLDUAN: But House Democrats need 216 votes to succeed, and they have yet to reach that magic number.
REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC), MAJORITY: We don't have them as of this morning. But we've been working this thing all weekend. We'll be working it going into the week. I'm also very confident that we'll get this done.
BOLDUAN: This partisan battle is far from over. With midterm elections coming up in November, the GOP is vowing to fight until the end.
BOEHNER: We're going to do everything we can to make it difficult for them if not impossible to pass the bill.
BOLDUAN: If House Democrats can squeak out a victory, the Senate will then have to approve any changes through a process known as reconciliation -- allowing the Senate to send a final bill to the president's desk with a simple majority, not the 60-vote supermajority that would otherwise be required to overcome Republican opposition. Democrats call it an up-or-down vote. Republicans call the procedural maneuvering something else.
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: There will be a price to be paid to jam a bill through, the American people don't like, using a sleazy process.
BOLDUAN: While Republicans say reconciliation will "poison the well" for future bipartisan efforts, Democrats seem willing to take that risk.
AXELROD: We're going to have 10 million more people without insurance coverage in the next 10 years. This is not the future the American people want. It's not the future they deserve and that's worth the fight.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BOLDUAN: And President Obama is taking that fight on the road today, heading to Ohio a little later this afternoon for another campaign-style event to pitch health care reform. And introducing the president this afternoon, we're told, is this sister of a woman who wrote President Obama a couple months back about losing her health care. The president read that letter in a meeting with health insurance -- health care executives and CEOs and you can expect, John, that her story will be a focus of his speech today.
ROBERTS: All right. Full coverage of that later on on CNN.
Kate Bolduan for us this morning at the White House -- Kate, thanks so much.
BOLDUAN: Thanks, John.
ROBERTS: Seven minutes after the hour.
New this morning, President Obama plans to send an overhauled version of No Child Left Behind to Congress this morning. The White House says President Bush's education policies actually forced schools to lower their standards to meet federal requirements. The White House plan reportedly places a premium on preparing high school students for college and their careers.
ROMANS: Plus, Yemen says its air force has hit a suspected al Qaeda hideout ahead of, quote, an "imminent attack." Officials say the strike targeted a group of suspected militants who were planning to hit a strategic installation inside Yemen, likely a response to the country's crackdown on suspected terrorists.
ROBERTS: And an avalanche in British Columbia sweeping up dozens of snowmobilers and spectators. Two people were killed and dozens more were injured. Authorities say the victims were two business partners from Alberta. Canadian police say that human activity on the mountain triggered that avalanche.
ROMANS: It is eight minutes past the hour. Let's get a check of the morning's weather headlines. That means Rob Marciano who's in Atlanta.
Rob, I couldn't -- some of the trees looked like weeds that have just been plucked out of the ground just with no effort almost from this storm on the east coast.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, large trees as well.
Good morning, John. Good morning, Christine.
Yes, take a look at some of the video both out of New York and then Connecticut -- similar scenes in both spots really up and down the east coast. Power lines down making for a dangerous situation with live power lines and huge trees just toppling over, as Christine mentioned. So, not only a dangerous situation but thousands of people still without power and you got to get the chainsaws out just to clear some of the roadways.
Same deal up in Connecticut. And you couple that with some flooding issues and you got some problems. And this tree, that's got to be 60, 70, maybe 80 years old, crushing cars and taking more power lines down.
All right. How high were the winds exactly? Seventy-eight- mile-an-hour winds in Robins Reef. JFK International is seeing 75- mile-an-hour winds. Out in the Hampton, 70; Fire Island, 67; and Breezy Point, nice name there, 67-mile-an-hour winds as well.
And we're going to be breezy again today mostly across parts of eastern New England. You see these showers continue to rotate in with this storm that, boy, just refuses to leave. It will do so slowly but surely. More so tomorrow.
Today, we still have a threat for seeing winds gusting to 50 miles an hour in spots -- maybe an inch or two of more rain. And certainly we're going to see airport delays. We're already seeing over -- actually over two-hour delays right now already at LaGuardia.
So, travel is going to be a little bit dicey again today. We'll talk more weather in about 30 minutes. Christine, John, back up to you.
ROMANS: All right. Rob Marciano -- thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: You bet.
ROBERTS: From "Mission: Impossible" to the movie "Airplane" -- a look back at the life and career of actor Peter Graves who passed away yesterday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROBERTS: Twelve minutes after the hour. We're back with the Most News in the Morning.
Fallout from a church sex abuse scandal in Europe could have damaging effect on the Vatican. Allegations of sexual abuse against Catholic priests have surfaced in Austria, the Netherlands and Ireland, but it seems to be growing the fastest in Germany, the Pope's home country. It was revealed last week that a priest accused of abuse continued pastoring at Munich's archdiocese back in 1980s, that's when Pope Benedict served as the archbishop there.
ROMANS: Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has been released from a South Korean hospital. He checked in Saturday with a stomach virus. The 86-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner is visiting Seoul for meetings with South Korea's president and to attend a forum on security.
The wife of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is coming home from the hospital. Sixty-nine-year-old Landra Reid had surgery Friday -- one day after a tractor-trailer rear-ended her minivan on a highway near Washington, D.C. She suffered a broken back, neck, and nose. But she is home.
ROBERTS: And Peter Graves, star of television's "Mission: Impossible" has passed away. He suffered an apparent heart attack just days before his 84th birthday. Graves was mostly known for serious roles but his fans of the movie "Airplane" will tell you he had a knack for comedy as well. This morning we're looking back at his life and career.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROBERTS (voice-over): Peter Graves was the original Jim Phelps on TV's "Mission: Impossible" in the late '60s. While his six-season run never made him a superstar, the spy gig gave him global appeal, thanks to international syndication.
PETER GRAVES, ACTOR: Most actors in life are remembered most particularly for one or two roles. It doesn't bother me at all to be thought of as Jim Phelps or to be strongly identified with him.
ROBERTS: Graves reprised the role for the series revival in 1988.
In real life, he was the younger brother of "Gunsmoke" star James Arness. Graves was born March 18th, 1926 in Minneapolis. As a young man, he worked in radio and later served in the Army during World War II but didn't see any combat. Graves was also a gifted musician, playing the clarinet and the saxophone.
At the University of Minnesota, he met his calling, acting, and his lifelong love, wife Joan Endress. Together, they had three daughters.
Eventually, Graves followed his big brother to Hollywood, first landing small roles on television. He adopted his maternal grandfather's name as a way to distinguish himself from Arness. His big break came in the movie classic, "Stalag 17." Graves played a Nazi spy living among American POWs, a string of other parts followed.
PETER GRAVES, ACTOR: Somehow, my career has always taken different turns to do I find very interesting things. I'm lucky that way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Best known for playing authority figures, he was hesitant to parody himself in the film spoof "Airplane," at first turning down the role thinking it might end his career. He later changed his mind and audiences loved him as the zany pilot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lost into weightlessness, these astronauts may look like they're having fun.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Graves added new dimensions to his resume hosting Discover, the World of Science, and A&E's biography. Unlike Mr. Phelps who got his mission instructions from a tape recording, Graves dictated his own script with the successful career that didn't self-destruct and lasted more than a half a century.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Peter Graves died at the age of 83. 16 minutes after the hour. We'll be right back, stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: There are real doubts this morning about a California man's claim that his Toyota Prius accelerated out of control last week. A congressional memo confirms Toyota and Federal Safety Investigators have examined the car and they can't re-create the problem. Still, 61-year-old James Sikes insists his 2008 Prius hit speeds of more than 90 miles an hour on a San Diego interstate while he was standing on the brakes. More on these new developments from our Susan Candiotti.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): John and Christine, good morning. This draft congressional memo obtained by CNN makes it sound like an incident involving a runaway 2008 Toyota Prius might not have happened the way the driver said it did. So who's right?
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): A draft congressional memo seems to take some steam out of Jim Sikes' self-described wild ride in his 2008 Prius and even had 911 and the California Highway patrol running to his rescue.
JIM SIKES, PRIUS OWNER: The gas pedal felt kind of weird and it just went all the way too fast.
CANDIOTTI: Sikes relived it for our Ted Rowlands.
SIKES: I was in the 80's somewhere, and I kept hitting the brakes, kept hitting the brakes and it was not slowing down at all, it was just accelerating.
CANDIOTTI: Yet, after two hours of trying to duplicate what happened on Sikes' own car and another exact model, Federal Investigators and Toyota came up short. A draft memo says every time the technician placed the gas pedal to the floor and the brake pedal to the floor, the engine shut off and the car immediately started to slow down. Experts say that's a key safety feature of the car. So if Sikes says the accelerator was stuck and he was pressing hard on the brake, why didn't his car slow down?
PETER VALDES-DAPENA, SENIOR WRITER, CNNMONEY.COM: Maybe what was happening was not that his engine was overpowering the brakes but his brakes were incapable at that point of overpowering anything.
CANDIOTTI: The same memo says his brakes were worn out. It doesn't say whether they were that way before or after the incident. A Toyota investigator told congressional staff it does not appear to be feasibly possible both electronically and mechanically that his gas pedal was stuck to the floor and he was slamming on the brake at the same time. What does this mean for Jim Sikes?
VALDES-DAPENA: It is possible that he's a liar. It is also possible that he simply misunderstood what was happening with his car.
CANDIOTTI (on camera): Sikes says he's sticking to his story and adds that his lawyer will have more to say about this later today. John and Christine?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: So, Sikes' Prius is on a recall list. Here's more on an "AM" extra, Toyota's list for floor mat pedal entrapments includes 2004 to 2009 model of the Prius, Sikes as a 2008. He has said there was nothing wrong with his mat and his Prius is not on the sticking accelerator pedal recall list.
In all, Toyota has recalled now 6 million vehicles to fix both of the potential problems and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has identified 52 deaths possibly linked to runaway Toyotas. "The Wall Street Journal" reports the recalls could cost the company more than $5 billion over the next year. ROBERTS: A 12-year-old boy arrested and charged with the murder of his father's pregnant fiancee. Should he spend the rest of his life behind bars without the opportunity of parole. Our Jason Carroll is looking into it in our new special series "Growing Up Behind Bars." It's part one coming right up. 22 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Your top stories are just five minutes away now. But first, an "A.M. Original," something that you will see only on American Morning. Today, we are looking at an unprecedented legal case in New Castle, Pennsylvania.
ROMANS: A 12-year-old boy could become the youngest person in the U.S. sentenced to life in prison without parole for allegedly killing his father's pregnant fiancee. Only "American Morning" is talking with both the victim's family and the young boy's family. Jason Carroll joins us with part one of our series "Growing Up Behind Bars."
This is a tragic story on all counts, but it raises some troubling questions about a child this young in our justice system.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think that's what a lot of people can't get their head around, you know, the age of this young boy. There's actually been a significant legal development recently. The last court proceeding on this particular matter was actually just on Friday. The judge has now 20 days to determine whether or not the young boy will be tried as an adult. Two families awaiting a decision in a case that has stunned a small town in Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL (voice-over): One year ago, Debbie Houk was looking forward to the arrival of a grandchild. Her daughter Kenzie was expecting a baby boy. Houck never imagined this would end up being the only place to visit them.
DEBORAH HOUK, KENZIE'S MOTHER: It shouldn't have been her.
CARROLL: Last February Kenzi Houck was shot to death. She was eight-and-a-half months pregnant.
HOUK: You feel like take a blanket to cover her because I know she's froze but she's not there and I have to realize that.
CARROLL: As Kenzie's family struggles with her loss Chris Brown says his world has also been shattered. He was Kenzie's fiancee, the father of her expectant child and, one more thing, Brown is also the father of the suspected killer, 12-year-old Jordan Brown.
CHRIS BROWN, JORDAN'S FATHER: I get up and go to work and come home and lose everything, Kenzie, the baby, and now Jordan is facing potential life imprisonment without the possibility of parole as an adult. CARROLL: Jordan was an 11-year-old fifth grader at the time of the killings. Now 12 he could be tried as an adult if convicted, it's believed Jordan would be one of the youngest ever sentenced to life. A punishment Kenzie's family says he deserves. One his father says he does not.
BROWN: Anybody being put in my position would have to ask themselves, what would you do? Would you turn your back on your own son because somebody else believes he's guilty? Not me.
HOUK: If it means him going to prison for life, like I said, he's serving one life sentence. He took two lives.
CARROLL: A year ago, Jordan lived in this farmhouse in western Pennsylvania with his father. Kenzie also lived there with her two daughters from her previous relationship. Prosecutors say February 20th last year, before leaving for school, Jordan got his youth model 20-gauge shotgun, walked into Houk's bedroom and shot her in the back of the head while she slept.
CARROLL (on camera): According to police after Jordan shot Kenzie, he took the spent shell casing and threw it out into the woods. Then they say he just walked out to the road and caught the school bus.
CARROLL (voice-over): Prosecutors say his possible motive for the killing, Jordan was close to his father and may have been jealous of Kenzie, an allegation his father strongly denies. Every day he visits Jordan at the juvenile detention center where he's being held.
BROWN: He still asks about Kenzie. He sheds tears. He cries. He misses her. He misses the girls.
CARROLL: Under Pennsylvania law, anyone over age 10 accused of criminal homicide is charged as an adult. The state has about 450 juveniles currently serving life sentences. According to juvenile justice experts we spoke with, nationally there are more than 2,500. Jordan's fate will be decided any day now by a judge.
BROWN: He's never, never lied to me about anything. I have no reason to believe that he's lying right now.
CARROLL (on camera): Maybe he loves you so much he doesn't want to disappoint you?
BROWN: No. I've had private talks with Jordan. Had he had any knowledge of what happened that horrible day, he would have told me.
CARROLL: If Jordan is tried and convicted as a juvenile, he will be able to walk free at age 21. A sobering thought for Kenzie's family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To put him away as a child and him be out at 21 is absurd. But we're not the judge.
HOUK: I have lost my daughter and my grandson. Death is final. Nothing is going to bring her back or him and justice needs to be served.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Love you, baby.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, Chris Brown is so committed to defending his son, Jordan that he has lost job and has gone through all of his finances. Supporters have started a Web site to help him raise some money.
The Houks obviously not pleased when they heard about that saying the focus should be less on Jordan's age and more on the crimes that were committed.
After speaking to both families, one thing is very clear, there are no winners in this. Both of them -- both families are suffering.
ROMANS: The grieving on one side and then looking at this look boy and realizing the adult thing he's accused of doing. It's irreversible be. It's all irreversible.
Jason Carroll, thanks.
Tomorrow, Jason has part two of our series "Growing Up Behind Bars." Should young criminal be jailed for life without parole? That question is headed for the Supreme Court. What could the court's decision mean for America's legal system. Find out tomorrow right here on the Most News in the Morning.
ROBERTS: Checking out your top stories now as we cross the half hour, it's all eyes on Wall Street this morning. The NASDAQ and the S&P both starting the week at 18-month highs. The DOW not too far behind that, but with just two weeks left in the first quarter and earnings down, futures are showing all red arrows right now pointing to a down opening on Wall Street.
Another battle could be brewing for insurance giant AIG. It plans to hold on to $21 million in bonus payments to former employees today. At the same time though it is giving out $46 million to members of its financial products unit, the same group responsible for trades that brought on the government bailout of AIG.
The Chinese government reportedly warning Google partners to look for a backup. This after Google says it is almost one hundred percent sure that it will close its Chinese search engine following stalled Internet censorship talks with the government.
It could pull the plug very soon but Google -- but closing Google's operation is a much more delicate process. The company fears its Chinese employees could face retaliation from local authorities. Christine?
ROMANS: John, it's up, it's down, it's good, it's not good. What is going on with the American economy? Reports last week had retail sales up 0.3 percent in February but consumer confidence still in the tank. So, is this a recovery or is there a fear there's another recession ahead? We have two schools of thought this morning. Joining us from Florida is Ned Reilly, the CEO of Reilly Asset Management, and here in New York Peter Schiff is the president and CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, he's running for a Republican Senate seat in Connecticut.
Gentlemen, good morning. Welcome. I have to start off by saying you both sound like you live in a different country from the way you will approach what happens next. Ned, you're from the country of Florida right now, so we'll go to you first.
You think that things are looking good. You have bright prospects for stocks, and you think this economy is snapping back nicely. Tell me why.
NED RILEY, CEO, RILEY ASSET MANAGEMENT: I do, Christine. From the employment situation, we have reduced the number of people losing jobs. This month we are actually going to start to create jobs on the plus side of 50,000 to 100,000.
Everyone says the consumer is dead -- retail sales are running at a 3.5 percent rate, real GDP is running at a four percent rate. Profits year over year are growing at 35 percent.
Everybody starts talking about the deficit. You should look back in time -- the deficit got to about six percent of GDP back in 1980. I think the same case today, we're going to see a diminution in the percent to GDP of the deficit as we move into 2011 and 2012.
ROMANS: Peter Schiff, he has been talking about the deficit and concerns about government spending and the government being too involved for -- you've been telling me this for two years.
PETER SCHIFF, AUTHOR, CRASH 2.0: Ned is as optimistic on the economy now as he was right before it fell off the edge of the cliff.
The problem in our economy is more air being blown back into the bubble, and it won't stay there. The fact that consumers are spending more money now, that's part of the problem. We need to be saving money. The problem in our economy is not a lack of spending but a lack of savings and a lack of production.
And everything the government has done in the last year, year and a half has interfered with the market's attempt to restore balance to our economy.
ROMANS: Do you think there could be a double dip recession, that we could go back down the hill again?
SCHIFF: It's not really a double dip. It's the same recession, more aptly, a depression. We have a little bit of a blip as we're spending more borrowed money, but we're digging ourselves into a deeper hole. We have to pay a huge price for phony consumption and bigger government.
The next dip is going to be much bigger than the one in 2008 and we're not going to get out of it.
ROMANS: Ned, you're not as concerned about the deficit spending. I want you to explain to me why you think we're going to get our deficits, our debt as a share down -- as a share of our economy down. How? You're going to have to have big, huge, mega growth to do that, aren't you?
RILEY: Well, first of all, let's look at it. The GDP, the percent of GDP and the deficit is a numerator and denominator case. If GDP is growing, if corporate profits are growing, tax revenue increased. And as the economy strengthens, you have less going out for unemployment insurance, food stamps, and everything else.
This has happened since the beginning of time. For the last 100 years, 100 years we're in the biggest deficits during the bottom of recessions.
SCHIFF: None of that has happened. There is no economic growth. Ned, the government -- the deficit is $1.5 trillion a year. The federal government is spending almost $4 trillion a year, crushing the life out of the economy. There's no way our economy can grow with the government.
RILEY: It is not.
SCHIFF: Sure it is. Wake up and look at reality.
ROMANS: You guys, let me tell you --
RILEY: I'm looking at reality -- four percent growth, 30 percent profits.
SCHIFF: What is growing?
RILEY: I'm looking at people --
SCHIFF: Ned, all that's growing is the size of government and the size of our debts. We're not producing more stuff. We're not manufacturing more products. We're borrowing and spending more.
RILEY: Peter, study history.
ROMANS: We're talking about the macro here, and people are sitting there saying, wait a second, these are two very different perspectives on the economy. What does it mean for me getting ready for work with a mortgage to pay?
Ned, your forecast, what does it mean for the person going to work right now?
RILEY: For the person going to work right now it's still going to be a concern about job security and earning enough money. And Peter is right. The savings rate in this country is too low. People have been using their home equity and their net worth grown by the stock market basically.
These things are improving. Net worth in the household factor has gone up 14 percent because of the stock market improvement.
SCHIFF: But it's not going to stay up.
RILEY: It's a fact.
ROMANS: The person getting ready -- and frankly, there's a lot of people getting up this morning who are not going to work. What, peter, does your forecast mean for them? Higher taxes, lower services?
SCHIFF: Unfortunately, it means higher taxes, much higher inflation, higher interest rates, the stock market rally not real. The housing market has a long way to fall. It's a real big problem.
The government is making it much worse. Unfortunately, your biggest enemy if you still have a job is Washington, D.C. They're destroying the economy. They're borrowing all the capital out of the economy. There's nothing left for the private sector.
ROMANS: All right.
SCHIFF: We can't grow the government and the economy at the same time. We have to make a choice. I want to grow the government -- I mean, the economy, and shrink the government.
ROMANS: News flash.
SCHIFF: I want to grow the economy.
ROMANS: Peter Schiff, thank you so much, CEO of Europe Pacific capital. Also candidate for Republican Senate seat in the state of Connecticut.
Ned Reilly, Reilly Asset Management, who is incredibly optimistic on the stock market. Ned, thank you so much, for both of you for your polar opposite forecasts on the economy and where we go from here. John?
ROBERTS: Isn't that why Truman wanted a one-armed economist?
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: On the one hand, on the other hand --
RILEY: I was going to say that.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Up next, our"Building America" series continues with a look at Montgomery, Alabama. The plan to save the city center seems to be working. Could other cities learn a thing or two from them? It's 38 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: A couple years ago that was our summer theme song. The next installment of our "Building Up America" series takes us due south to Alabama. Unemployment across the state remains high, but there is an economic bright spot right smack in the middle of Alabama's capital city. CNN's Tom Foreman is live for us in Montgomery this morning. Tom, how are you doing?
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm doing well, John. How are you? I'm back in the town where I started off my television career about 30 years ago. So it's been very interesting to look at the changes here.
And you know, John, last month we were in Austin, Texas, which is doing better than the national average. Now we're in Montgomery and in Alabama all week, which is doing worse than the national average, but that's important, because the whole point of the building of America series is to find people who are finding ways to make it better despite the hard times.
And right here in the heart of the capital that is what we found. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: When the weekend is rolling, Dreamland Barbecue is rocking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hamburger, French fries, chicken fingers, we do it all here, man.
FOREMAN: And you'd never know a recession was in swing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, all right, how are you all doing?
FOREMAN: With Bert Miller working the floor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Doing good. We've been very blessed.
FOREMAN: Despite statewide unemployment over 11 percent above the national rate, Montgomery's riverfront is building up even as the economy stays down, the result of a concerted effort to bring government, private industry, and consumers together.
The economy is such now that no town is an island. No state is either.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's exactly right, Tom.
FOREMAN: Congressman Bobby Bright was mayor when the city launched the plan, convinced that growth, even on the outskirts, would suffer if the city's center continued to struggle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The suburbs tend to be driven by private developers.
FOREMAN: But if that center isn't solid -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the center is not solid, then the services of that city weaken, they thin, and sometimes they thin to the point of being ineffective.
FOREMAN (voice-over): So the local governments, the chamber of commerce, and developers started building around a riverfront stadium and the popular minor league baseball team, refurbishing old warehouses, luring new businesses with opportunity and tax incentives. For developers like Jerry Kaiser, it was a breakthrough.
FOREMAN (on camera): How much has this area changed?
JERRY KYSER, JERRY KYSER BUILDER, INC.: Up until about two years ago this was just two railroad tracks, dilapidated building, nothing going on down here.
FOREMAN: But now --
KYSER: This is going to be a restaurant.
FOREMAN: The spaces are filling in with meeting rooms, luxury apartments, restaurants, a Hank Williams museum, all drawing tourists, locals, and dollars.
The economy of this country is not good right now.
KYSER: That's correct. I can't imagine if we had not had this downturn in the economy what we would have down here right now. We have a great, great start. We've created a lot of jobs in here. If we can make this happen now, we're going to be on easy street when this thing is over.
FOREMAN: And for a lucky few, that already feels like their address.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: There is no question that there have been efforts like this for a long time. As I said, I started out here and I saw them many years ago to revive the downtown. They all seem much more piecemeal than this particular effort on the waterfront.
Also, there's no question there's a lot of progress still to be made in much of the rest of downtown. Everybody else can see that. But it does look like this effort is a way to build up that area and then build out from it, and it actually looks very promising. We'll see how it goes. John?
And it's quite interesting and impressive, and actually, it's sort of inspires good feelings when you see entrepreneurs looking at this down economy as an opportunity as opposed to a disaster.
FOREMAN: That's exactly what they're doing, John. And I think in many ways part of what forced the issue down there was the fact that it was -- it was bad for a long time in terms of a lot of empty buildings sort of going nowhere. I think that helped spur this a little bit ahead of the current recession so as the recession hit they said we have to stick with it. You have to keep building with it and that's something that we're hearing all over this country.
People are saying that in a recessionary time that's not the time to pull back. That's the time to keep moving ahead --
ROBERTS: Exactly.
FOREMAN: -- in part because if you really want to recover you've got to have something to recover with.
ROBERTS: A lot of good deals available in this economy as well. Do they still remember you down there, Tom?
FOREMAN: Oh, I started back here right after college, so, I'm not sure if I can remember the early '80s -- so it's been a while. But these are my old stomping grounds. This fountain back here by the way just so you know designed by Gustav Eiffel the guy who built the Eiffel tower.
ROBERTS: Yes -- really.
FOREMAN: A little history about Montgomery.
ROBERTS: It's a --
FOREMAN: Yes.
ROBERTS: -- it's beautiful fountain. Tom, thanks for bringing us that story this morning.
FOREMAN: It's really a beautiful place.
ROBERTS: All right, 46 minutes after the hour.
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ROBERTS: Good morning, New York, as the wheels go round and round to the music of Abba. They're being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in a big ceremony here in New York tonight.
The temperature right now is about 42 degrees. It's raining. It's going to stay rainy today and the highs only going to get up to about 46 but apparently maybe later in the week if you're -- if you're good Santa Claus will bless you with some good weather.
ROMANS: That was the first album I ever had with the real album. An Abba album, I played it over and over -- I didn't even -- I thought they were in the Hall of Fame. I mean, come on, it's Abba, right?
All right, let's get a quick check of the morning's weather headlines. That means Rob Marciano and he's in Atlanta. I bet he would prance around his little boyhood home, the bunk beds, playing the Abba, right?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, yes. I did a lot -- I did a lot of prancing when I was a kid. Yes, Christine, all right John, we'll give a little example of that at the end. Oh, we're not going to have time for the prancing.
Prancing through 78-mile-an-hour winds, boy that's -- that will blow you over for sure, Robins Reef, New Jersey. JFK, 75, like -- these are hurricane-force winds gusts over the weekend and certainly enough to do a tremendous amount of damage.
Some of the video coming out of Rhode Island -- stunning stuff, trees down, power lines down and flooding on top of that and that scene repeated throughout much of the Northeast and New England. Seven inches of rain in spots, so we still have flood warnings that are posted because of the rivers that are swelling up because of the rainfall.
So, from the Jersey Shore all the way up into Eastern New England this is going to take some time for that water to get down to where it belongs and out in the ocean. And of course, you have the snow melt on some of the higher elevations that's compounding that problem.
We're seeing winds and rains continue to drive in and swirl around this area of low pressure. Most of the steadiest rains and wind will be across Boston and to Portland, Maine. This guy is still sitting here, still spinning. Eventually though, it will head out to sea. But today, just kind of leftovers, one or two inches of rain possible in spots, gusty winds and 50-mile-an-hour winds.
Airport delays, let's check them out. Two hour and 45 minutes delays in New York; an hour delay there in Philadelphia; 30 minutes in Boston, so if you're trying to fly out of New York LaGuardia today, if it's less than a two-hour flight, you may want to just prance your way wherever you're going. Skip it to the pedals.
ROMANS: That was the worst segue in the world. I am so sorry. You are a part of my worst segue of my entire career. Thank you so much, Rob Marciano.
ROBERTS: And there will be no prancing where he is.
MARCIANO: I know. Thank you, John.
ROBERTS: All right, thanks Rob.
MARCIANO: See you.
ROBERTS: Nine minutes to the top of the hour. We'll be right back.
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ROMANS: All right. It's time for an "A.M. Original", something you'll only see on AMERICAN MORNING.
ROBERTS: Just thinking that maybe back in the day you'd be prancing around your room to Credence Clearwater?
ROMANS: I actually was, and Abba. I have very eclectic taste.
ROBERTS: By now, you might have heard of Natalie Rudolph (sic). She's a woman now living her dream as a football coach in Washington, D.C.
And our Carol Costello this morning brings us her story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Oh, how times have changed.
NATALIE RANDOLPH, FOOTBALL COACH: Being a female has nothing to do with it. I love football.
COSTELLO: But, let's face it, D.C.'s mayor would not have announced Coolidge High School's new coach had Natalie Randolph been male. The idea of a woman coaching boys' football has long been a Hollywood fantasy.
GOLDIE HAWN, ACTRESS: Are you sure I'm the right person for this job?
COSTELLO (on camera): So I have to ask you if you've ever seen the movie "Wildcats"?
RANDOLPH: I have seen the movie "Wildcats" a long time ago.
HAWN: You make this point and every girl in the free world will want you.
COSTELLO: The biggest thing in that movie that moved you.
RANDOLPH: Just the fact she went out and did it.
COSTELLO (voice-over): If anyone defines just do it, it's Randolph. She spent five years playing for the Independent Women's Professional Football League then spent two years as an assistant high school boys' football coach. Still, there are doubts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think a woman has any place being the head coach of a football team. I'm going to come across as a sexist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you are.
COSTELLO: On D.C. Sports Radio Lavar Arrington who played for the Washington Redskins says the machismo of the game will be difficult for Randolph to overcome.
LAVAR ARRINGTON, SPORTS RADIO HOST, 106.7, THE FAN: If you can grab the imagination, if you can earn the respect, that's going to be the thing that determines if she's able to have success as a coach.
COSTELLO (on camera): Football is such a testosterone driven sport. How can a woman lead a group of guys who have to be ultra masculine? RANDOLF: Estrogen is pretty strong, too. Testosterone, yes, and male driven, yes, but I think women are just as competitive.
COSTELLO: It's clear she's convinced most of the Coolidge High School Colts --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ms. Randolph is a person that is going to be 100 percent real with you, 100 percent of the time. She is not going to tell you, you know, out of hate or try to put you down. She is going to tell you because she cares about you.
COSTELLO: But what if someone talks bad against the coach?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I will personally have a problem because it's my coach. It's not yours or the school's. This is our Coolidge coach, football coach. We have to do it for her.
COSTELLO: Of course the real test for Randolph, just as it was for Goldie Hawn in that old movie, will be if Randolph's team wins.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: That will be the test.
John and Christine, the number one question people asked me about when I talk about the story with them is, is she going to be in the locker room when the boys don't have any clothes on? Or what if, like, a boy goes to like pat her on the rear end -- I don't think that will happen. And I don't think she'll be in the locker room either when the boys are undressed.
ROBERTS: No question about it, though, she is tough. I think she'll be able to handle the boys just fine.
COSTELLO: I think so.
ROBERTS: Carol thanks so much.
COSTELLO: Sure.
ROBERTS: Three minutes now to the top of the hour.
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ROMANS: All right. That does it for us this morning.
ROBERTS: Yes. We'll see you back again bright and early tomorrow. Meantime the news continues on CNN with Kyra Phillips in the "CNN NEWSROOM". Good morning, Kyra.
