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Volcanic Ash from Iceland Interferes with Air Travel; Millions of Homeowners Facing Foreclosure Despite Obama's Promise to Help; New Robot Does Laundry; A Look at Some Americans Succeeding in the Recession

Aired April 17, 2010 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: World travel in turmoil, most of Europe declared a no-fly zone, and the volcano causing it shows no signs of cooling down.

Also this hour, millions of hard-up homeowners facing foreclosure after the president promised to help. Our financial expert has the keys to keeping your home.

At 4:00 Eastern time, fallout from the failed Russian adoption. Has sending one boy back to Moscow derailed adoption hopes for other American families?

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM live this Saturday April 17th. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

WHITFIELD: If you're heading for Europe this weekend or planning to pick up someone from Europe, you know what a nightmare it's going to be. Thousands of flights have been grounded because of volcanic ash coming from Iceland. Ash can cause jet engines to shut down. That's the biggest worry.

So few, if any planes are taking off, and no one has any idea when things will get back to normal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH SAUNDERS, STRANDED IN SAN FRANCISCO: Our flight was yesterday evening and it was canceled. And yesterday they told us they were going to rebook us on a flight on Sunday, but then that got changed and they told us Tuesday evening. The spokesman from British airways said it changes hour by hour really. So nothing is confirmed until you get on a flight, I think.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And those who are able are making other travel arrangements. They are taking cars, buses, trains, even ferries to get where they want to go. The rest have to find another way in order to get there in airports or whichever city they find themselves in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are staying at a hotel. We had to pay for a hotel. The airline wouldn't pay for it. We tried to get out. I'm always hopeful. I work for an airport in Philadelphia. I know sometimes something will happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: It's very inconvenient for a lot of folks. What makes it even more complicated, Jacqui in the Weather Center, is there is no telling when this ash will discontinue this spewing. It could go on for days, if not weeks, right?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. We can predict which way the winds are going to blow and where that ash plume is moving to, but we can't predict how long the volcano will continue to erupt. This could literally go on for months.

There is another volcano called Katla. And history has shown us that every time the one that's erupting now erupts, Katla erupts. And that one is actually an even greater concern because it's in a more populated area and there is a greater flood threat with that one.

So a lot to be determined here, and certainly thousands and maybe millions of people impacted. This is flightradar24.com. This shows the flights not going on in Europe. Everything has been down to the south. We've seen flights from Spain to Italy and towards Turkey. We haven't seen anything up to the north yet.

This literally just happened right before you came to me. I see one airplane in the Netherlands which surprises me. We have to monitor this situation. I don't know if this is a fluke, a radar error, perhaps, or if we have a plane going on.

WHITFIELD: Jacqui, let me stop you there, and we are going to talk again, because Netherlands, let's talk about a couple from the U.S. they live in Richmond, Virginia. They left their four kids at home so they can enjoy a trip to Europe.

Here they are in the Netherlands and they are stuck. They can't get back. They are on the phone, or Steve Patterson is on the phone with me now.

Steve, give me an idea. You and your wife, you're there, safe, it's been a great trip. You had no idea that you would be stuck for this long while your kids are stateside. And your kids are under the care of your entire community it has come together while you're stuck overseas?

STEVE PATTERSON, HE AND FAMILY TRAVELING TO GET BACK TO VIRGINIA, (via telephone): Yes. That's right. I literally over the last three days spent hours on the phone and e-mails just trying to coordinate extending childcare. So we had a lot of folks jump in and help.

It definitely is challenging, you can imagine. We had a great time here. We've been here for eight days now. We were supposed to go home yesterday. That flight got canceled. We got booked on another flight today. That obviously got canceled. We are now on a Monday flight. We are hoping we'll be lifting off. There are lots of challenges.

WHITFIELD: So much uncertainty. So Monday night flight. Meantime, your four kids all under the age of nine. How is it that your community has come together? How is it you are being comforted while you are stuck in the Netherlands? How do you know your kids are being cared for as best they can be?

PATTERSON: Well, first off, we trust and know they are being cared for by a couple of friends from our church who think like- mindedly as us. But also my wife's mom is en route tomorrow to watch them for a second time. She's really been a hero.

Also, just ultimately our hope is in god who is in total control of all this, even though we are not. We are hopeful there will be a way soon for us to get back.

WHITFIELD: Good thing your kids are in good hands. You've got friends, family, neighbors, church members all taking care of your kids. Now it's an issue of you figuring out how to get back home. Are you calling the airline on an hourly basis? How do you keep tabs to find out whether your Monday scheduled flight is still a go?

PATTERSON: At this point every couple of hours I'm checking the Web site to make sure we're still on. As of an hour ago it was still saying, hey, we're on. I realize that could change any minute. To a certain extent we are at the mercy of the airline.

And my hope this morning in putting out something on iReport at CNN.com was maybe someone will have an idea or resources, or if not, just share our story and hopefully help other people.

WHITFIELD: Well, thank you so much for reaching out to our iReport and letting us know your story. I'm sure in a lot of ways you're inspiring other folks who may be stuck or are waiting for their loved ones to return. You're putting it in perspective and remaining calm.

All the best on your travels, safe travels. Hopefully you get on that Monday scheduled flight.

PATTERSON: Thank you so much.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much. Airport closures caused by this volcanic ash are forcing a whole lot of dignitaries, as well, to cancel plans to attend the planned funeral of Poland's president tomorrow. President Obama is still scheduled to attend, but White House officials are keeping an eye on conditions.

Meantime, the Polish president was killed along with more than 90 other people when his plane crashed a week ago in western Russia. Today, about 100,000 people filled Warsaw's main square to attend a memorial and funeral mass for the many victims.

The state of black America, how are community leaders and elected officials tackling critical challenges like health care, unemployment, and the achievement gap at school? We are finding out this week during the National Action Network's convention.

The National Action Network was founded by the Reverend Al Sharpton. Some of the most prominent leaders are actually getting together for an exchange of ideas. That's what they did today. Here is at least one of the highlights.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES CLYBURN, (D) SOUTH CAROLINA: We are losing our kids right around the seventh grade before they get to an HBCU. We talk about elementary and secondary, elementary one through sixth, secondary nine through 12. But at seventh and eighth grade is where we are losing them. And we have got to zero in on that. That's what we are trying to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That was Congressman James Clyburn there. He was one of the participants of this panel. Joining us right now from New York, our own CNN contributor Roland Martin.

You also played as the moderator for today's discussion. Today put a punctuation to a four-day conference of this action network. Give me an idea how today may have solidified some of the goals and what the next year ahead is going to be like.

ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, Fredricka, actually, this particular event, Reverend Sharpton was talking about this several months ago. We broadcast it on TV 1 where I host "Washington Watch."

The whole point was we wanted to not just talk about these particular issues, what President Barack Obama should be doing, but also getting commitments from people when it comes to a particular agenda.

As so opposed to having a discussion where you talk about 50 million different things, we broke it down to three distinct areas, politics, economics, and social/cultural.

What we dealt with was getting people to commit to what are they going to do in terms of organization over the next 365 days, but also the people watching at home, online, and in the audience. And so that's what the challenge was, because we need to have lots of these conversations.

There have been black America events before. And as I've always said, that's been about meet, talk, disperse, as opposed to this, which was about meet, mobilize, act.

WHITFIELD: So a lot of recognizable folks there. I see Tom Joyner. There are authors, there are professors of HBCUs, congressmen.

MARTIN: NAACP, Urban League, people who run organizations, because it's very easy to have people in academics, but you've got to have infrastructure. So by having the Urban League and NAACP, they have staff, people, members, chapters, 100 black men. That's the difference, because it's easy to say, folks, do something, but they say, where do I go?

WHITFIELD: You talk about the political, economic and social/cultural avenues here, these are things Marc Morial with the Urban League, Ben Jealous at the NAACP have been tackling and continue to tackle on a regular basis.

Why this conglomeration today for example over the course of four days? Why is this particularly important and pivotal? How might this reset an agenda for the next coming months?

MARTIN: Because this was specifically about give me one thing you are going to work on and then you want people to work with you. And so thousands of folks watching on television, commenting online. I have been hearing since the election folks saying, hey, I want to do something. The president's slogan was "Yes, We Can." It was about hope and change.

As I travel across the country, people said I want to do something, but I don't know where to start. So here is an opportunity to say, what do you care about? Do you care about mentoring? Do you care about jobs for ex-felons? Do you care about education? Do you care about, frankly, a black man not taking care of their children?

And so here is an opportunity for leaders to say this is what we are going to do. Not these grandiose five-year plans, but here is what we're going to focus on over the next 12 months.

And then now our job is to hold them accountable. I made it clear on blackAmericaweb.com, on my show, we are going to come back 90 days and ask people who made commitment, what did you do, where are you going?

WHITFIELD: So to keep track of the commitments made today in order to go back in 90 days to say this is what you promised, this is what you proposed to do. How are you coming along?

MARTIN: We are. So the point there is folks made the commitment. So we are right now compiling what people said they are going to do.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Example on what some of those things are?

MARTIN: First of all, you had Congressman James Clyburn said the $1 billion settlement for black farmers. He believes that will be approved by Congress in the next 30 days. Marc Morial said they will be opening opportunity centers to retrain ex-felons.

Then you have the NAACP made it clear they will work with criminal justice. Reverend Al Sharpton said they are going to target six states to mobilize voters to vote when it comes to the midterm elections. Jeff Johnson of BET talked about using his nonprofit to really deal with education.

And Albert Dobson of 100 black men, they are going to expand their mentoring program to reach 1 million mentors for young black men. He said they have 500,000, they want a million more.

Now, what my job is, what Tom Joyner's job is, we are going to use our platforms to bring them back every 90 days and say where are you with this? What are you doing?

Because at the end of a year, if the people who came to this forum, who made a public announcement as to what they want to do, if we look back a year from now and they've done nothing, they are going to be exposed as hypocrites and as people who all simply want to talk. Now they have to be held accountable by the people. My job in media is to hold them accountable.

But also, Fredricka, the people at home. People can't sit back and say let President Barack Obama do it, let Congress do it, let organizations do it. They have to change their communities, themselves, their houses, the streets, their blocks, neighborhoods, the city, state, and the country. It has to happen bottom up.

WHITFIELD: All right, CNN contributor Roland Martin, thanks so much. And in 90 days when you do your first follow up, we want to be along, because we want to hear about the progress report you'll share with us.

MARTIN: "Washington Watch" 11:00 a.m. every Sunday. And trust me, I will be tough with some of these folks. I guarantee you.

WHITFIELD: Done deal. Thank you so much.

MARTIN: Thank you so much.

WHITFIELD: Can anyone improve relations between the U.S. and Iran? Maybe this guy right here? We'll introduce you to the one guy who is trying to take a shot at it, sort of.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We hear a lot of news about Iranian nukes. We don't hear a whole lot about Iranian hoops, as in basketball. One Iranian NBA player is starting to get some attention. He's working hard to make people look past the politics.

CNN's senior United Nations Correspondent Richard Roth has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD ROTH, SR. UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: The end of the long grind of an NBA season is in sight for Hamed Haddadi. The center is the only Iranian to play in the NBA. On this night Haddadi and his team are in New Jersey playing the worst team in the NBA, the Nets. That means a better chance for Hadat to get in the game.

ROTH (on camera): What kind of player is he and why haven't you played him that much?

LIONEL HOLLINS, MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES COACH: As anything in life, you have to earn the right to be above the guys that are ahead of you.

ROTH (voice-over): In the NBA, a country's nuclear policies don't determine playing time. The U.S. government had to sign off before the league could accept Haddadi. Now a two year pro, Haddadi draws praise from his American teammates for hard work and fun spirit.

RUDY GAY, MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES: I have had the chance to be around him for two years now. He is honestly one of my best friends on the team. He is a great guy.

ROTH: Haddadi has sampled barbecue ribs and country music in Memphis in the American south. Haddadi also turned the tables.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are having a kabob fest with the Memphis Grizzlies. Haddadi gave me the first taste of Persian food.

MIKE CONLEY, MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES: He took me out to a Persian restaurant when we were in Vegas in the summertime. The food was different, but it was good.

ROTH: Persian music greeted the Grizzlies in practice. And the Nets' own big man from China was in the house for Chinese culture night. Earlier this year Haddadi played diplomat. He shook hands with an Israeli player on Sacramento, a no-no back home.

Haddadi wants to talk only hoops, not nukes. His family lives in Iran.

HAMED HADDADI, MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES: I'm not happy what is happening in my country, but my job is basketball.

ROTH: Haddadi got in against Jersey, eventually tying his season record for playing time in the victory. He is looking forward to the summer when Iran will play the favored United States in the world championships in Turkey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to win.

ROTH (on camera): Do you tell them that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, all the time.

ROTH: Who will win, the United States or Iran in the world championships later this year?

HADDADI: I don't know. We'll see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROTH: He did set a new career record Monday night for minutes played, 18 minutes and 11 points scored. He's a project, as it is said in the league. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: He's also a consummate diplomat. We can see that by not willing to answer the question about who will win.

What about his family? Any idea whether his family would get an opportunity to come stateside to see him play?

ROTH: That's still -- he is very close to his family. I think they'll see him in Turkey, if they are lucky, when they play the United States in the group meeting. But he definitely steers clear of any political questions.

WHITFIELD: Thanks, Richard Roth, appreciate that. That is a fascinating story. I like that one.

Perhaps some people won't like this one -- another recall for Toyota. This time it's one of the company's minivans. We'll tell you what the problem is.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Another look at our top stories right now. More troubles for Toyota. The automaker is recalling 600,000 Sienna minivans because of possible corrosion in the cable that secures the spare tire. The recall covers 1998 through 2010 models sold in cold climate states.

And the number of bank failures in the United States this year is now at 50. Federal regulators have shut down eight more banks. Three are in Florida, two in California, and one each in Massachusetts, Michigan, and Washington.

And the death toll from China from this week's earthquake reached 1,339. Several hundred people are still missing. Wednesday quake had a magnitude of 6.9. It was centered on the Tibetan region in western China. More top stories in about 20 minutes.

And did you hear this week that Dr. Jack Kevorkian is doing something he doesn't do much anymore, speaking out publically about his belief in a person's right to die and physician-assisted suicides?

The retired pathologist, dubbed "Dr. Death," claims to have participated in more than 100 assisted suicides of seriously ill people. He served eight years in prison for second degree murder and was released three years ago. In a rare interview with CNN's Anderson Cooper, he responds to critics who say he is playing god.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of people, as you know, say, look, you're playing god.

DR. JACK KEVORKIAN, ASSISTED SUICIDE ADVOCATE: Isn't the doctor who takes a leg off playing god?

COOPER: You're saying doctors play god all the time.

KEVORKIAN: Of course. Any time you interfere with a natural process, you're playing god. God determines what happens naturally. That means when a person's ill, he shouldn't go to a doctor because he's asking for interference with god's will.

But of course patients don't think that way. They want to live as long as possible and not suffer. So they call a doctor to help them end the suffering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Did you hear that this week? Earlier we asked you to weigh in on Dr. Kevorkian's comments by going to my blog. Here is a response from Michael Armstrong Sr., saying "The doctors are playing god by prolonging death." So he agrees with the philosophy of Dr. Kevorkian. Send your comments to my blog.

Also, we've got financial questions far our financial expert Ryan Mack who will be with us. Go to my Facebook page or blog to submit your questions. Already we are hearing from many who want to know about the latest news about foreclosures this week, what to do with your tax refund.

And what about the overage fees many of you are facing from your banks? We'll get some of those questions to our expert later on this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We are back right now, and we're going to talk about answering some of your money questions. Ryan Mack is with us now. He is the president of Optimum Capital Management.

Ryan, I have a few things I want to talk to you about, including what to do with your tax refund. A lot of folks do they spend it or invest it? At the same time, there are some fees they are facing at their banks.

Let's talk about Goldman Sachs first. Goldman Sachs has been charged with fraud. And for many people who have had some foreclosure problems, and this is all about the mismanagement of foreclosure cases, will this in any way change the road forward if you're in trouble with your home mortgage?

RYAN MACK, PRESIDENT, OPTIMUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: There's definitely been a lot of mismanagement from all sides, as we've seen from Goldman Sachs story. And a lot of individuals out there are going through a lot of difficulties just trying to pay off, and the foreclosure seems like that number is a troubling figure for the U.S.

But really we want to direct you to some of the things we can do to make sure individuals at home watching, that there are options for them to stay in their pieces of property.

One of the main things I always like to tell individuals is that if you're going through foreclosure, if you don't want to sell, because that is the last resort, you can do a short sale, do a deed in lieu of foreclosure. But if you choose those options, read the fine line to see if you're going to be responsible for the deficiency. However, if you want to stay in your home, remember banking representatives are getting tens and hundreds of call from people in the same situation you are in. So they're wondering, can I trust this person, can I not trust this person? It's up to you to establish trust.

WHITFIELD: How do you do that? How many times have we heard people, they're in trouble. They reach out to their lender, and they get the runaround.

Then we just learned this week that only one home is saved out of ten that certainly are lost to foreclosure. That can't be comforting at all for the person trying vigilantly to save their home. What do we learn from that piece of news this week, and how do we move forward if you're in trouble with your mortgage?

MACK: One of the problems with the legislation, even though I did approve of the loan modification program, was that it was not mandated for the banks to actually modify your loans. The banks have a choice whether they are going to put money in U.S. treasuries and get a return of one percent, two percent loan, or give you the loan and risk not getting that money back.

So again, establishing trust means I'm going to create my own budget, collect my income statements and my check stubs, and go to them with a plan to say I'm not just going to ask for this. I'm going to let you know I have a plan to try to pay these loans back.

And in addition, you have to be persistent. Sometimes it depends who you talk to on a certain day. Was the banking representative having a bad day? Did you send certified letters in the mail? Did you talk to them face to face and hound them to say I have a plan. I'm being responsible.

They have a lot of different programs like special forbearance where if you have individuals who lost their jobs or increase in living expenditures that they didn't plan for, they might be able to get a temporary reduction in payments or eliminate those payments in one or two months. It's up to you to make sure you're budgeting and paying your loan off more responsibly.

WHITFIELD: And the flipside to that, to say you're not in trouble with your mortgage but you want to have a mortgage, is now a good time to purchase a home?

MACK: Let's go back to 2000. In 2000 and 2001 when the stock market crashed money went to gold or the real estate market. Everyone thought it was the perfect time to purchase a home because the market dictated it.

We have to reverse that. We cannot allow the market to dictate whether or not it's good for us to purchase a home. As we see, a lot of specialty mortgages, interest-only and ARMs, really came from trying to supply consumer demand. So what we have to do is ask, is my FICO score 750 or higher? Yes? WHITFIELD: Hold that thought, because we are going to take a short break. When we come back, I want to ask you about what you recommend people need to do about their tax refunds. Sometimes people spend it before they receive the check. Your recommendations what to do about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We are back answering some of your money questions. Today we are going to focus or in this segment right now we are going to focus on what to do with your tax refund.

Ryan Mack is back, financial expert and the president of Optimum Capital Management. You've got a pretty good roadmap for us. You've got your refund. What do you do with it besides spend it?

MACK: First of all, if you got a refund, congratulations, you just gave the government an interest-free-only loan.

WHITFIELD: You don't like refunds. You need to calculate it more precisely.

MACK: Exactly. That's the first thing.

Second of all, once you get your funds, you have to figure out, as opposed to spending, you have a lot of things you can do is do you have an emergency fund, six to nine months of living expenses? Capital and liquidity is crucial in this economy.

Do you have credit card debt you need to pay down? Average APR is basically around 13 percent, and that's savings you're not getting by not paying savings to the banks.

In terms of putting money into the IRA, you can put $5,000 into an IRA. Another great thing, you can start a business. You can go to various websites and for $200 to $300, you can get your own NLC. I just took somebody down the other day, a good friend of mine, and $200 we helped him start a weatherizing company at Home Depot.

WHITFIELD: At $200?

MACK: Yes. You get a chalk gun, materials and supplies. These are the type of ideas we have to make sure we start putting money into ourselves as opposed to spending our money and allowing other individuals to make money off the money we are spending for them. We can own these companies people are spending their money at.

WHITFIELD: Sometimes spending is investing.

Our Josh Levs has been entertaining a lot of questions coming our way.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hi, guys.

WHITFIELD: Lay it on. LEVS: Hey, Ryan, thank you for doing this again. This first question plays out what you're talking about. Kevin wants to know, "Can I negotiate my debt on my credit report without going through a debt settlement company?" Ryan, what is your take on the benefits and negatives?

MACK: The benefits are, obviously, back a few years ago if you go through a debt consolidation company, those individuals who went to debt consolidation company paid off their debt more so than those who didn't. So they stopped penalizing individuals for actually going through a debt consolidation company.

If you get your debt consolidated, you do the calculations and you're saving money, it will state on your credit report you went through this debt consolidation report, but your FICO store is not going to go down. So I think it's a good thing.

Before you do that, you might be able to, like calling mortgage industry, call the credit card companies very frequently. I've done it frequently for a lot of individuals, just getting that right person at the right time. They might get that 20 percent interest rate down to 15 percent.

LEVS: But vendors in general it's good to call them. This next question comes to us from someone in the military. She says, "Trying to live on necessities and cut coupons. I own two homes. Should I continue to invest in the stock market?" You're starting off with the knowledge this person is dealing with two homes in this real estate. Is it worth taking some cash, trying to put it in stocks in this economy?

MACK: A lot of individuals always ask, what is the best investment? Is it real estate? Stocks? Bonds? Gold. Is it oil? What is it? The right answer is all of them.

The problem is in 2000 individuals were over-weighted in stocks and didn't have enough real estate. Then we flipped it because the stock market crashed and real estate ran. And now individuals are buying two or three homes and sometimes they may be over-leveraged.

The question I would have to see exactly how much equity she had in the homes. The right thing would be to say, yes, put some money in stocks and make sure you're equally weighted around a broad asset diversified portfolio.

LEVS: If there is a little equity, then turn it into stocks. Thank you, Ryan. Thank you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: People have great intelligent questions, and hopefully this puts them in financial straits. Ryan Mack, Optimum Capital Management, and Josh Levs, appreciate that. Thanks to both of you, and thanks to you at home for sending in your questions.

WHITFIELD: Here is something you probably have never seen, a robot that does your laundry.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We like to take a break for a little fun and a little Zen. And that's where Josh Levs comes in.

LEVS: I've got Zen for you today, her weekly Zen.

WHITFIELD: I love that.

LEVS: You're so excited for this first video. We are always trolling the Internet for the absolute best videos. First one, everyone is talking about it, this guy here, standing in Circular Quay, which if you know anything about Sydney is a very busy play.

And he decides to let anyone come along, toss money in a pail, and do that for him. He gets a full body wax from strangers.

WHITFIELD: Weird until you realize why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My girlfriend put me up to this, roped me into it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That is so painful.

LEVS: Even watching that is painful. It turns out this is a phenomenon now. This guy because he's gone so viral is making it happen. He put in his Facebook application called love for humanity where you challenge your friends to do things, and it raises money for charity. Some people all over the world are watching this man named Dan.

WHITFIELD: Wait a minute. I think he's starting to enjoy it.

LEVS: There are no tears. Don't try this anywhere.

WHITFIELD: He's thinking about the cha-ching that goes a long way and is going to help others, his fellow brethren. What's next? He is a hairy man. That hurts.

LEVS: Now something else crazy, another stunt for you. This one I find a little more shocking. This is from German TV. This is a televised stunt. They built this tower and take an excavator. The excavator is climbing the tower.

And there is a man who is inside it and using the arm to hook into a higher part of it. He moves that up very, very carefully, because if it topples he falls all the way down the length of the building. I would never show this to you if anyone gets hurt, by the way.

WHITFIELD: Why?

LEVS: Apparently, this is a popular show in Germany. In the end there is a huge crowd. It's live. He hooks the arm to the top and manages to move the entire thing all the way up in the air. And apparently it has not been done before. I will tell you this tower was built specifically for this.

WHITFIELD: He's nuts for standing under it.

LEVS: Now he realizes what's going on.

WHITFIELD: This is an incredible ad for the maker of this.

LEVS: An excavator. Ultimately it is. In fact, he is going to the top right now. We are going to pump up the volume high, because you are going to hear the crowd respond when it gets all the way to the top.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: How long did this take?

LEVS: Hours. It took weeks to set it up.

Guys, skip the next video and then go to the fourth one, because I have to give Fred her moment of Zen. This is it right here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: This one has a cappella songs. This is Pachelbel's Canon.

And I did promise the next one. Finally, a useful household robot. It will do your laundry for you.

WHITFIELD: Actually, that will relax me, too. Come do my laundry? Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

LEVS: This is out of Berkeley, a robot doing your laundry. It takes it out, folds it. That would make a lot of people happy. It would be expensive buying one.

WHITFIELD: It pays for itself over time. I dig that one.

(LAUGHTER)

LEVS: Apparently it makes perfect corners. I want everyone to know all the links, everything is in the Facebook address in the middle. Facebook makes it easiest to cull all these addresses and put them in one place. All the links you've seen today plus the previous viral video rewinds and any of your favorites you can post there.

WHITFIELD: That was good. It's a nice escape route many of us like to take.

LEVS: This is our dessert, all the hard news all day.

WHITFIELD: Thanks for the dessert.

LEVS: I'm still relaxed.

WHITFIELD: I am, too. Let me float away.

LEVS: See you, Fred. Bye guys.

WHITFIELD: See you.

(LAUGHTER)

(WEATHER BREAK)

WHITFIELD: High above the earth, checkout time for the crew of the space shuttle Discovery. The shuttle undocked from the International Space Station this morning and the seven astronauts spent a week and a half at the station. Their main job, replacing a tank used in the station's cooling system.

Discovery is scheduled to return to earth Monday.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Coming up at the top of the hour, a special look how businesses that are making it through these tough times are doing it. CNN's Tom Foreman focuses on people who refuse to give up no matter how bad it gets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is about saying even in tough times there are businesses and individuals and communities that find ways to get ahead to create jobs and to create value and do well. And what we are doing is traveling all over this country and finding them and saying, what's your secret, because maybe somebody else can take that secret and make it work in their community, too.

WHITFIELD: And has there been a common ingredient of this secret?

FOREMAN: I think part of it is this. There is a stick-to-it- tiveness about it. These are people saying these are tough times, but you simply cannot give up. You have to keep trying. You look at your assets. Is there something naturally good about your business or talent people are attracted to?

Or is there some opportunity that has opened up because the economy is down. For example we found a woman who opened a consignment shop because she realized a lot of people are trying to make extra money by selling something. A lot of people still want to decorate their homes but can't afford to go over the top, but want nice things. This is a high-end consignment shop and is working.

So the overall overriding characteristic is people are not giving up. They are saying, tough economy? Tough luck. You have to keep trying.

WHITFIELD: This is not just about building up your business. It sounds like it's about building up personal lives, as well. In what way?

FOREMAN: Absolutely. There is a woman we found down in Austin, Texas, who we featured in this show, whose lumber business burned to the ground in the middle of this crashing economy. So she had everything going wrong for her.

And yet she said, look, maybe this is an opportunity. I'm going to rebuild, but if I really want to rebuild, I have to rebuild my point of view about everything, about my life, my business, how it's going to work.

So she looked at all the opportunities out there. She found she could make more money selling green products which she hadn't done before. She started partnering with more business people around the community. She started mentoring more young people.

And what she says she has now is a growing, successful, recovering business she also feels a lot better about.

So that's what this is all about. It's about Americans everywhere saying, we can build up even in difficult times, and they are proving they really can. That's the acid test. We don't go out there and say, just make us feel good. We say, prove it. Prove it can work because that's the secret to building up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: I'll have more news live in 30 minutes from now. Right now, Tom Foreman's special, "Building up America."