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American Morning
Palin Continues To Dodge Questions About Potential Presidential Run; House Passes Tax Cuts For Middle Class; NY Motorists Stuck in Three Feet of Snow; Tough Medicine for Economy: Social Security and Military on the Chopping Block; Lebron Brings the Heat; Moms "Just Say No"; Travel Forecast; New "Golden Girls"
Aired December 03, 2010 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us on this Friday. It is the 3rd of December. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. I'm John Roberts. Thanks so much for joining us.
Today's top stories --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS (voice-over): Buffalo buried, heavy snow shutting down part of the New York State Thruway yesterday stranding hundreds of drivers on the road. Some locations saw as much as 3 feet of snow. We've got today's forecast just ahead.
CHETRY (voice-over): Sarah Palin isn't doing many interviews these days, but our Jim Acosta caught up with her at a book signing in Iowa yesterday. We're going to show you a bit of the back and forth between the former governor of Alaska and Jim.
ROBERTS: Cleveland booed and booed and booed, and LeBron James, though, (ph) he folded. Oh, it was terrible, 38 points. Total domination in his first game back in Cleveland at a Miami Heat uniform. We'll have all the highlights and the hostility from the Cavs fans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY (on-camera): Up first, though, thunder snow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY (voice-over): It's a very unique phenomenon, and probably shocks you when you hear it. That was what it was like yesterday in parts of Buffalo. The New York State Thruway, actually, closed down, shut down for hours. It reopened overnight. But drivers had to endure many cold and hungry hours stranded in the Buffalo Area. And this is an area that can handle snow. Cars and 18-wheelers, moms, truckers, backed up and buried in 3 feet of the white snow.
(SHOUTING) (END VIDEO CLIP)
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: That was what it was like yesterday in parts of Buffalo. The New York State Throughway actually closed down, shut down for hours. It reopened overnight, but drivers had to endure many cold and hungry hours stranded in the Buffalo area. And this is an area that can handle snow. Cars and 18-wheelers, moms, truckers, backed up and buried in three feet of the white stuff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to be home. I mean, they're all home from a snow day and I've been working for -- I've been up for like 24 hours. I want to go home.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From the official throughway radio, it was saying, oh, traffic is heavy, it's stop and go. And we'd been stopped dead for six hours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Here's the capricious nature of lake-effect snow. While the north end of the city got a dusting, less than a couple of inches, the southern end got slammed. And even in a place like Buffalo, there is such a thing as too much snow in too short of a time and more of it in the forecast today.
CHETRY: And for that, we check in with Reynolds Wolf in the Extreme Weather Center for us with a look at what it's going to be like today for Buffalo and other parts of the country. Hey, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey guys, it's going to be kind of like Groundhog Day, same song, second verse, the same trend Saturday in through Sunday.
I haven't checked the schedule yet, but it'll be interesting to see if the Buffalo Bills are actually playing on Sunday. A journalist here in the studio brought that up. And that'll be an interesting game if that's the case. You can see the areas shaded in green, those are your lake-effect snow warnings in effect in Buffalo and Erie, back over towards Syracuse, at least points north along 81.
A lot of people -- actually if you get on those roads, you're not going to have a chance of moving whatsoever. People still have a stand still on parts of 90 all due to the snow.
You were talking about kind of the feast or famine you have with lake-effect snowfall. What better way to show you than on radar? All points south, it is just absolute snow action. Some of this actually coming up as a little bit of rainfall right over the lake itself, but when it gets above Lake Erie, the loft is coming down in snow and it will continue as I said into Saturday, Sunday, even into Monday for that matter.
Into northern Michigan we go. Traverse City getting the lake- effect action. The snow will be coming down along parts of 75, driving is going to be a real issue for you. And it's also going to be an issue at the airport. In Minneapolis, afternoon snow may give you a few problems. Also wind in Newark, Denver, and Cleveland could leave you with about a 30-minute to an hour delay in some spots.
Plenty of sunshine in the southeast, snow in the Sierra Nevada, into the Rockies. As you wrap it up, 42 your high in Salt Lake City, 25 in Minneapolis, 59 Atlanta, and 43 in New York.
OK, you're up to speed, guys. Back to you.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Reynolds. See you again soon, the travel forecast.
Now to politics and the battle in Washington with tax cuts with your paycheck hanging in the balance.
CHETRY: Senate Democrats are planning to vote tomorrow on extending tax cuts for the middle class. It's very unlikely to pass, though. Republicans want all of the Bush-era tax cuts extended even for the highest income earners.
So is there a compromise in the cards? Brianna Keilar is live on Capitol Hill. I guess some of the indication that maybe they were still talking whether they were supposed to take the vote earlier and they chose to postpone it.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And they were supposed to vote on that number of items was what we were hearing. But what we'll be seeing tomorrow now votes on two different bills, one that would extend -- these are Democratic-backed. One that would extend the Bush-era tax cuts for couples making $250,000 or less.
And then there would be a second one that would increase that cap to $1 million. But there was this agreement that seemed to be in the works where Republicans and Democrats were going to be voting on some other tax-related items and that fell apart late last night. It seemed like it could be a key to perhaps a compromise.
And so now negotiations continuing, and you have both sides staking out their positions. As you mentioned, Kiran, Republicans who want all tax cuts extended, and Democrats who want it for the middle class and those making less money.
And we're seeing this in the House, as well, which yesterday passed that extension for folks making $250,000 or less, not expected to pass the Senate. And because of that, House Minority Leader John Boehner called it this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN BOEHNER (R), OHIO: I'm trying to catch my breath so I don't refer to this -- this maneuver going on today as -- as chicken crap, all right.
(LAUGHTER) But this is nonsense, all right? The election was one month ago. We're 23 months from the next election, and the political games have already started trying to set up the next election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: But what you're seeing here, and we've heard this from Senate majority leader Harry Reid is Democrats saying, we're going to have these votes. We are sticking up for the middle class, that's what they say, and we are going to try to paint Republicans as they have before in the past as holding these tax cuts for the middle class hostage to tax cuts for the wealthy.
They're saying they care about millionaires and billionaires and they're really trying to make that difference. But, of course, there are some Democrats, you guys, who are on the side of Republicans in this. And the fact is Democrats would have a very hard time passing this partial extension.
CHETRY: Brianna, these machinations we're seeing in both houses of Congress, do they accurately reflect how Americans are feeling about the tax cuts?
KEILAR: If you look at one of the most recent polls, this comes from CBS News, it's pretty different. Let me tell you about this. It shows that -- if you look at who wants to continue tax cuts for all Americans, 26 percent. This would be across the board.
Continuing these tax breaks for families that are just making that $250,000 or less, you have a majority there, 53 percent, and then just 14 percent say they should expire for all.
Obviously Congress leaning more towards continuing tax cuts for all Americans rather than letting them expire. So no, there is certainly a bit of a rift between the polls and what you're seeing here in Congress.
CHETRY: Brianna Keilar this morning, thanks.
Also new this morning, it is day two of the hearings on the "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the Senate. Today leaders from the army, navy, air force, and marines as well as the coast guard will speak. Yesterday the secretary of defense as well as the chairman of the joint chiefs supported the end of the policy. Senator John McCain remains firmly against changing the policy.
ROBERTS: Two top aides to the John Edwards for president campaign are talking to a federal grand jury. Ex-spokesperson Jennifer Palmeri and former deputy campaign manager Jonathan Prince testified yesterday. The Justice Department is trying to find out if the campaign illegally paid off Edwards' mistress and the mother of his child Rielle Hunter.
CHETRY: She's not saying if she's running for president in 2012, but Sarah Palin did answer one question yesterday. ROBERTS: She was on her book tour in Iowa where Jim Acosta had an interesting exchange with the former governor of Alaska. And Jim, you've come into contact with her in the past. What does she have to say this time around?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, she's doing some retail politics here in Iowa. As you know, John, she's talked about whether or not she may run for president. She says she's considering it.
But as you know, she is a contributor to FOX News, does not do many interviews with other media outlets. But fortunately for us, we were allowed to observe her book signing yesterday up in Spirit Lake, Iowa. There was one tiny problem in the room that the book signing was going on in, the music was turned up very loud, presumably to drown out any questions we would ask.
And out of nowhere, the music suddenly stopped so we decided to ask her a question about her presidential ambitions.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Any chance you're closer to an announcement on running for president?
SARAH PALIN, (R) FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: Am I doing interviews? I thought I was talking to the nice people and listening to music.
ACOSTA: We're nice, too.
PALIN: Not always, but maybe you are.
ACOSTA: Are you getting any closer?
PALIN: No, not any closer yet, no.
ACOSTA: Any comment on what Governor Romney said last night on "The Tonight Show"?
PALIN: What did Governor Romney say on "The Tonight Show"?
ACOSTA: He said he couldn't imagine quitting as the governor of Massachusetts, I was curious to what you thought.
PALIN: OK, you're done.
ACOSTA: OK.
PALIN: Sir? Were you the one who turned off the music?
ACOSTA: I did not turn off the music. No, Governor, I would not do that, I promise.
PALIN: These Iowa people, they've got my back.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ACOSTA: And for the record, we should point out, we did not turn off that music. That was somebody else in the room.
But getting back to Iowa, she talked about how the people of Iowa have her back. I have to say that the people in Spirit Lake where this book signing was going on had a positive response. There was some 500 people, more than 500 people lined up to get an autograph of her books. And that was in a town of roughly 5,000 people. So just a sampling of how popular she is in a very conservative part of Iowa.
CHETRY: How long is she going to stay in this tightly-controlled media environment if she does want to run for president?
ACOSTA: You know, I think that is the big question surrounding this non-campaign she's running right now. She has basically a year and a couple of months before the Iowa caucuses. If she's going to jump into this race she's going to make that decision before then.
But she doesn't have a whole lot of time. And quite frankly, the people of Iowa, have this very unique caucus process here. And they're not really into candidates who sort of dodge questions from the media and avoid the general public except for these tightly- controlled settings. So I don't know if that's going to go over quite well in Iowa.
But for right now as all of us have been talking about for the last several weeks with the reality TV show and now the book, she has this sort of unconventional way of reintroducing herself to a lot of Americans out there, keeping her name out there. So this is working for her for now, but just how long this is going to work, that's the big question.
ROBERTS: Jim Acosta for us this morning in Des Moines. It's a great part of Iowa up there in Spirit Lake. Did you get a chance to visit the University of Okaboji while you were there?
ACOSTA: I did not. We didn't have any time for that either.
CHETRY: Maybe you two could go ice fishing.
ACOSTA: It's starting to feel like the Iowa caucuses.
ROBERTS: Jim Acosta this morning, thanks. We should point out the University of Okaboji is a fictional university that the folks in that area have created and they have T-shirts and towels.
CHETRY: You were trying to trick Jim?
ROBERTS: No, wondering if he picked up a souvenir while he was there.
CHETRY: LeBron James rubs it in, brushing off the boos and dominating on his old court in Cleveland. He didn't even need the fourth quarter to put up 38 points.
ROBERTS: Worried about the nation's financial future? You're not the only one. How far, though, are you willing to go to fix it? "TIME" Magazine's Michael Crowley took a hard look at some hard decisions and he joins us right after the break.
CHETRY: Also, fourth graders in the 21st century technology, pens and papers, so yesterday. The iPads are in. Where is this happening, and how are they using it? It's 12 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: It's 14 minutes past the hour. We have more now in our top story. Buffalo's digging out from a big lake-effect snowstorm. They actually witnessed thunder snow.
ROBERTS: That's pretty amazing. Only seen that once before. Let's get the report from the ground, find out what it's like there. Jaclyn Asztalos form our affiliate WKBW joins us this morning.
Jaclyn, how is it where you are?
JACLYN ASZTALOS, WKBW-TV CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning. The snow has stopped. And as you can see, the throughway is -- it's very crowded. There's a lot of people on it. Now it just opened about an hour ago after two days of frustration for drivers. Some of the drivers were on the throughway in their cars for more than 15 hours before the throughway authority and state police and emergency workers brought them off into -- what they were calling a warming shelter.
Now, the tempers were high throughout the whole day yesterday I was out here. And because of that, the New York State throughway authority is being questioned about their procedures during lake effect storms, and the officials there are going to meet and they're actually going to talk about changing some of those procedures because people are so upset about this two-day ordeal.
Another thing I wanted to point out is lake-effect snow. A lot of people that aren't from this area or live near a lake, they don't know that lake effect snow is very isolated. So it caused a lot of problems. Because in one area of western New York, it was clear, and just a dusting of snow, then you would drive into a wall of snow, and that's where the accidents happened and occurred. And that's where it stopped traffic on the interstate. But the good news is here that everyone is safe. There was no injuries, and the throughway is now open. Back to you.
CHETRY: Yes, and Jaclyn, it's interesting because you said that they're being questioned about why it was closed and what their procedures are like. I mean, they're used to, you know, far larger lake-effect snow events than this one. Do we know why they had to shut down for this one?
ASZTALOS: Well, you know, there was rain the day before. So it downpoured, and then it turned into ice. And there was a sheet of ice on the ground. Then it snowed. So I think it caused a lot of accidents, and that's what caused most of the problems. Sometimes when it just snows, it's not as slippery, but there were so many accidents, they couldn't keep up with the accidents and the snow coming down, so they just had to shut down the throughway. But again, they're looking at that process.
ROBERTS: Jaclyn Asztalos from WKBW for us this morning. Jaclyn, thanks so much.
Well, President Obama's deficit commission is expected to vote on its plan today, one that could cost the average taxpayer an extra $1,700 a year and cut the nation's deficit by $4 trillion over the next 10 years. It targets some of the so-called sacred cows of the budget and requires you to swallow some tough medicine to cure this nation's spending problems.
Michael Crowley is the deputy Washington bureau chief for "Time" magazine. He's broken down those sacred cows in this week's "Time," which you can grab now in the newsstands.
Michael, great to see you. Let's put up the first graphic here. Because when we talk about three sacred cows, you're talking about the military, social security, and tax deductions and exemptions. Let's tackle the military first. Take a look at this.
Massive budget, $664 billion, an 80 percent increase since 2000. But they're looking at a couple of ways to cut at least these littoral combat vessels. $600 million for those. Those are potentially on the chopping block as well as $13 billion for Marine amphibious landing vehicles. Very difficult, though, Michael, to touch anything in the Pentagon's budget.
MICHAEL CROWLEY, DEPUTY WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Absolutely. The $13 billion is total for a whole bunch of those vehicles just so your viewers understand, but they're still very expensive ships. Secretary Gates says we don't need them. The Marines very rarely land anywhere in vehicles like that. The littoral ships, we have total naval supremacy right now. In fact, America's military budget is roughly as large as all the other nations in the world combined. And even if you don't count the spending for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we're up something like 65, 70 percent in the last decade.
But politically speaking, no one has wanted to touch the Pentagon budget for the last 10 years. Republicans are very gung ho about military spending, and I think even Democrats in the last decade who have said maybe the military is a little too big, privately they might think that. Politically, they don't really want to be vulnerable to the charge that they are anti-military. So the political system has sort of allowed these weapons systems that we don't necessarily need that are often way over budget to be getting built without much restraint. And their personnel costs are soaring at the same time.
ROBERTS: Yes, you know, anything that could ever be seen to be weakening America is definitely something that carries with it a lot of political risk. Something else that's been called the third rail of American politics on more than one occasion, particularly during election years, social security. Let's put up the graphics on this.
The budget for social security -- we've got the wrong graphic up here. If we could put the correct graphic up, it says $703 billion in 2015, then we can put up the other one, it goes negative, 2037. We're going to need to cut benefits 22 percent in order to stay solvent.
A couple of proposals out there that have been put forward to try to bring social security under control. Tax the rich more and raise the retirement age. Now, we've raised the retirement age in the past, but this idea of taxing the rich more, probably not going to fly in a Republican-dominated House.
CROWLEY: Right. That's one reason why doing anything right now is going to be so hard. Because I think the feeling is that you would have to have a compromise where you would raise taxes a little bit, cut spending a little bit. You have one party in particular that's really feeling it. So Republicans are not interested in compromising on tax hikes right now.
Key thing about social security, it is not causing the deficit right now. It's actually in pretty good shape at this very moment. But looking ahead a few years, you are -- it suddenly kind of falls off a cliff. So the thing to do is to try to make small changes now and phase them in slowly so you don't have a lot of sudden pain. So the question is, can we kind of get ahead of this problem before it really blows up? And it's not clear that -- particularly, Republicans don't want to raise taxes, Democrats really don't want to raise the retirement age either. So you would have to both sides kind of have to swallow a bitter pill and there's not a lot of evidence to that right now.
ROBERTS: And is there any appetite to reform social security? During the Bush administration, they talked about it. The idea didn't go anywhere.
CROWLEY: Right, John. I think that, you know, you had a Republican president and a Republican Congress that was quite generally speaking loyal to that president. Bush couldn't even get the Republicans to hold a vote on his bill. That thing was kind of a political fiasco. And I think there's almost no appetite right now within the GOP to try to move to private accounts and away from a government-run social security system.
ROBERTS: Michael, the other sacred cow you talk about, tax deductions and exemptions. They go in for a total of $1.1 trillion. And the big sacred cow there, $130 billion each and every year for the mortgage interest deduction, which allows a lot of people to own homes. Some of the suggestions in bringing that down, eliminate all deductions and exemptions and reduce tax rates to as low as eight percent in some cases. Tell you, when it comes to that mortgage interest deduction, that really is a third rail, as well.
CROWLEY: Absolutely. There's some polling that shows support for that deduction as high as 80 percent. I think that the way to do this would be as part of a broader tax code reform. This is something the commission proposes. So knock out all the exemptions and loopholes, people are going to say, but don't take this, don't take that. The child tax credits for buying a Prius, for instance. But what you would get in return is a simpler tax code with lower rates across the board for everyone. The lowest category, the lowest income bracket would go down as low as eight percent if this works. You wouldn't necessarily -- we're probably not going to sweep all the exemptions out of the tax code. And as far as the home mortgage deduction goes, you know, a likely possible scenario would be that you lower the cap. Right now, you can deduct interest on the mortgage up to $1 million and do it for multiple homes.
ROBERTS: Right.
CROWLEY: You can see a scenario where it's a lower cap, a smaller mortgage you can deduct. You can't do it for your beach house. And so, and you phase it in very gradually.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CROWLEY: So if you're a homeowner right now, don't worry that it's going to disappear in a year.
ROBERTS: What's your bet that any of this is going to happen?
CROWLEY: John, I think that Congress will probably go for some low-hanging fruit. But really major, painful reforms are hard to see right now. Republicans are not in a mood to compromise. Democrats are standing their ground on things like the retirement age and everyone is afraid, for instance, that senior citizens who don't like seeing anyone go near social security. Unfortunately, I think it's quite possible we're going to have to wait until a fiscal crisis really seems to be right around the corner. The fiscal commission is saying that day could come any time.
ROBERTS: Right.
CROWLEY: But I don't think people feel like it's really going to be tomorrow. And so as is so often the case in Washington, we may have to wait for crisis to be right around the corner before there's real serious action.
ROBERTS: Yes. You're a politician, you certainly don't want to upset senior citizens because they are, if nothing else, a reliable voting bloc. Michael Crowley this morning --
CROWLEY: That's right. They're called the third rail.
ROBERTS: All right. Michael Crowley this morning, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
CROWLEY: Thank you.
ROBERTS: Good article in "Time" magazine too about the sacred cows.
CHETRY: Well, we are checking on the sacred little panda. The newborn giant panda cub that was born in Atlanta. How's he doing? When are they going to name him? Look, he got some hair since the last time we saw him. He also gained a couple of pounds. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-six minutes past the hour. He's tiny and he's healthy. No, the panda. The baby panda. There he is.
ROBERTS: I'm not so healthy.
CHETRY: There he is. He's a month old, the Atlanta zoo. He weighs just two pounds.
ROBERTS: Got a little fur now.
CHETRY: Yes, last time we saw him he was just pink, no fur, and he only weighed about 11 ounces, I think. Anyway, he is less than 14 inches long, but it's average for a bear his age. The unnamed panda is the only panda born in the U.S. this year. And as per tradition, he's going to be named when he is 100 days old.
ROBERTS: Just when you thought that it couldn't get any better than the Snuggie -- you got one of these -- it's called the "Forever Lazy." And it's described as a fleece, footless onesie with a hood.
CHETRY: I like that. I like that better than the Snuggie.
ROBERTS: Basically it's a pair of fuzzy overalls. Its creators are marketing it as an alternative to a blanket and they say they've already sold more than 10,000 of them. By the way, the makers of the Snuggie have sold more than 20 million of those.
CHETRY: We're over the Snuggies.
ROBERTS: Seriously, it looks like a jumpsuit.
CHETRY: I love that. That's nice.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: That's nice.
ROBERTS: That's all it is, is a jumpsuit.
CHETRY: But it's fleece. How great is a fleece onesie? Look at that thing.
Anyway, well, there's no more pens and papers at two West Virginia elementary schools. Under $100,000 pilot program, they got every fourth grader an iPad. How lucky are the kids at the school. The kids get an e-mail address too, so that they can send their assignments to the teacher and the young students are certainly no strangers to technology.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My sister, she actually has an iPod touch.
FRANK CARY, PRINCIPAL, WEIRTON HEIGHTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL: They're tired of the paper. This is exciting. It's got color. It brings it to life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: The only thing is the typing. You know, they're going to have to still learn how to type.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: It's harder on the iPad.
ROBERTS: You know, a friend of mine runs a school for recording arts and his whole curriculum is done on the iPad.
CHETRY: It's pretty cool.
ROBERTS: It's amazing the way that thing is changing the way that we educate people.
It was like he never left Cleveland except for the uniform. And the really loud booing, of course. LeBron James owning the court, dominating the Cavs in his return home. The highlights live from Cleveland just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Time for a look at our top stories. Drivers chilled to the bone. Some waking up in their cars or trucks this morning. They were stranded on the New York state throughway in upstate New York for as long as 12 hours after a storm dumped three feet of snow on the Buffalo area. Forecasters say more snow, as much as an inch per hour is possible in some areas this morning.
ROBERTS: The WikiLeaks web site is back on line this morning. A U.S.-based domain name provider shut down the site because of multiple cyber attacks. WikiLeaks back up now using a company out of Switzerland to host its web site.
CHETRY: And still no movement from Congress while your paycheck hangs in the balance, the spirit of compromise took a hit yesterday when Democrats in the lame duck House voted to let tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire. It's a move that angered incoming House Speaker John Boehner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), OHIO: trying to catch my breath so I don't refer to this maneuver going on today as -- as chicken crap, all right. But this is nonsense. All right. The election was one month ago. We're 23 months from the next election, and the political games have already started trying to set up the next election.
We have an honest conversation at the White House. About the challenges that we face to get out of here and to take care of what the American people expected. And to roll this vote out today really is just -- it's what you think I was going to say anyway.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: In the meantime, Senate Democrats plan to vote tomorrow on a pair of bills to extend the Bush tax cuts.
ROBERTS: It's going to have an interesting tenure as speaker of the House.
He came home when he brought the heat and so did the fans.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: At 6'8", (INAUDIBLE) number six, Lebron James.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Lebron James came out to the sounds of the imperial march and a chorus of boos. Returning to Cleveland for the first time in a Miami heat uniform.
CHETRY: He was able to brush off the boos and the bad vibes. He actually scored 38 points and it was just a rubbing (INAUDIBLE) outscoring the entire starting five of his old team. Carol Costello live for us in Cleveland this morning. The sports papers in Cleveland aren't being kind to the Cavs saying that they really just laid down and just let this team win. I mean not even any hard fouling, nothing, nothing. They just lost.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Stop it, Kiran. It's too painful to talk about. I think that all the booing and all the profanity that came from the crowd actually fueled Lebron James to his best game this season. In fact, a lot of sports analysts said this was the old Lebron James. This is how he plays normally. He hasn't been playing well with the Miami Heat, but boy, he came out in full force here in Cleveland. And yes, if we have that videotape.
Yep, he did it. His signature poof and the crowd went wild, showering him with boos. And of course, there were chants of profanity throughout the night. People said things like "Akron hates you, Akron hates you. The signs were pretty clever. Some were very interesting. I'm going to show you a series of signs here and read you my favorite. Lebron lequitter, leloser, le-liar, le-traitor.
I think that was the most clever sign at all but like I said, the chanting got pretty rough at times especially when they started chanting "Akron hates you." But like I said, Lebron James took it in hand and as you said, Kiran, scored 38 points. I asked him if any of the chanting bothered him at the press conference after the game. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEBRON JAMES, BASKETBALL PLAYER, MIAMI HEAT: There's nothing personal. You know, it's a basketball game. And I had to maintain my focus. No matter what's said or what's done throughout that game. It's nothing personal. At all. To me, to the fans. You know, I don't hold any grudges. You know, they came out to support their team. Support the Cavaliers in any way possible to try to get anybody, myself or any of our guys unfocused on what the task was.
So, you know, they tried anything. So it's nothing -- I don't have any hurt or hard feelings about this game from these fans. I wish them the best.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The best news from here is Cleveland fans for the most part did behave. The security measures worked. Nothing was thrown on to the floor. There were few squirmishes in the stands, people throwing beer on those fans who are wearing Miami Heat shirts. I think there were three misdemeanor arrests outside of the arena, but other than that, no problems. As for whether the fans had their cathartic moment, I don't know, John and Kiran, I think the hatred remains.
ROBERTS: I tell you, you can see why Lebron gets the big bucks because he was focused like the proverbial laser. But what did the fans there have to say about his return?
COSTELLO: Well, you know, we asked a few fans, especially more than a few fans, people were actually coming up to us because they wanted to talk to the camera. I've never experienced that before. But here's some of what they had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is who he is, you know. I mean, he quit on us, he left, he frauded the city. You know, by stopping other players from coming to Cleveland. And so now it's like, you know, "I ain't got no more energy for him. He's useless now."
COSTELLO (on camera): When Lebron was laughing during the boos, what went through your mind?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It made me pretty angry. I wanted to wipe the smirk off his face.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, we don't like him. We don't want him here, but we don't have to be rude.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Wipe the smirk off his face. And that was this thing. The more the crowd booed and shouted profanity at Lebron James, the more he smiled and laughed and made a few more shots. But one fan actually told me, John and Kiran, that they were glad this night happened. And that soon it will turn into kind of a fun rivalry between the Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers. And the city of Cleveland maybe, finally can move on.
ROBERTS: We'll see. But one thing we do know is that Lebron jetted back to nice, sunny Miami and it's snowing there in Cleveland this morning. So --
COSTELLO: Yes, he was out of here quickly. ROBERTS: He was. Thanks, Carol.
CHETRY: All right. Thanks, Carol.
Well, listen up, parents, if you're feeling frazzled and you're burned out, and then the school calls and says, "can you just volunteer for this one other event. We just really need you to come by for maybe a couple of hours." Well there's some who are now saying, just say no to all volunteering.
We're going to talk to two moms who have certainly been there and done that. 37 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Well, an old mantra popping up at schools across the nation, just say no but it has nothing to do with drugs or alcohol. It's actually the cry of overwhelmed parent volunteers who say that helping out in their child's school basically took over their lives. Two moms who finally said "enough is enough" join us now with different takes on how to manage it.
Sarah Auerswald is a blogger in Los Angeles and also a former PTA president. Welcome. And Karen Bantuveris is from Austin, fed up with the logistics. She actually created a Web site to make it more manageable and meaningful. Karen, welcome to you as well.
BANTUVERIS: Thank you. Welcome.
CHETRY: I want to start with you though Sarah because you wrote in a blog, "L.A. Times," which is pretty interesting -- what I'm about to say is not very PC, so get ready. "Moms, stop volunteering so much." You say that you really found it impossible to just scale it back so you went cold turkey off the volunteering. Explain what your life was like that prompted you to write the blog.
SARAH AUERSWALD, RECOVERING MOM VOLUNTEER: Well, I was PTA president. I was going to meetings all the time. I was, you know, dragging my kids along, getting them a baby sitter so I can volunteer and they were getting resentful. I was getting a little burned out and then I got a lot burned out and it was just -- it was too much.
CHETRY: You say that they had actually broke up your marriage in some ways, right? That you were always frazzled and always over scheduled and it took a huge toll in your personal life?
AUERSWALD: No, no. It didn't break up my marriage, but it did take a toll and my husband was also, you know, I think this is too much. I think you need to scale back and I found out I couldn't scale back. It was really all or nothing.
CHETRY: I got you. So were people angry at you, Sarah, that you backed away so much after, I'm sure they came to rely on you. AUERSWALD: Well, yes, I mean, people just expected I think but I found also in the volunteering world, no matter what you do, no one -- someone will always be unhappy with you whatever you've done.
So, I was -- you know, I had to start taking care of myself and my family first.
CHETRY: And Karen, let me start with you about what you did. You also felt overwhelmed, which is understandable when you're doing so much volunteering, in some cases also working. You've actually tried to make it more manageable by getting organized. Explain what you did.
KAREN BANTUVERIS, FOUNDER AND CEO, VOLUNTEERSPOT: Absolutely. So I was a school volunteer and a working mom and I kept noticing that my Blackberry was filing up with reply all e-mail request over whose turn it was to help at table time or help at recess. And the more I talked to working moms, we were all overwhelmed with the communication about volunteering. And then I would talk to the moms who are PTA leaders and they were upset that it was always the same people helping all the time.
Well, for me it was a disconnect and it really made sense that we just needed an easier way to include more parents. Everybody wanted to help but it was difficult to perhaps get to a clipboard sign up sheet or deal with the communications.
So I started the web site called volunteerspot.com and it helps anybody, the homeroom mom, the PTA committee chair to small nonprofits organize their volunteers and invite people to sign up is as easy an outline party invitation and what we found is that more parents are signing up, more parents are helping at school and working parents are finding it a lot easier to find a place to help, because they can quickly find a place in their schedule if it so needs and if they can't come in person, they can find something -- supplies they can bring or food they can send to an event.
CHETRY: It's interesting you talk about that as a solution because what some people fear is you know, getting sucked in, meaning if you do, you know, dip your toe into the water, you're going to be the one that everybody relies on for everything. And when you said is you found that by getting it online and being able to see the schedule laid out in front of you and you know what the time commitment is that you can actually get more people doing it.
Absolutely. And as a working parent, as a busy parent, it's very easy to say, "gosh, I have a little time Thursday afternoon, it looks like my kids' class needs some time or the school needs some help in the coffee room, I can go in and make that commitment for one hour and feel good that that one hour made a big difference in my school and for my kid to see me at school.
CHETRY: And Sarah, you say that just going cold turkey actually made a huge difference. You found time for yourself. Your kids are less resentful as well because they weren't getting stuck with babysitters. But what if everybody took a stand and stopped volunteering? I mean, schools really do rely on it. If every parent did that, what would happen?
AUERSWALD: Well, of course, I mean I know that better than anyone and that's why I kept saying yes to everything because every need is real and, you know, especially L.A. budget cuts are everywhere.
Of course, we need this, but if you have people like the five of us who were doing everything at our school, you know, you don't want bitter, resentful people at your meetings and doing your things. That doesn't help anyone. You need to have -- you need to step back so other people can step in.
CHETRY: You said your kids at one point were saying to you, mom, why do you always have to be the one doing everything? I know it can be tough. Sarah Auerswald and Karen Ventaveros, thanks to both of you this morning for sharing your input.
ROBERTS: Another round of snow from the Dakotas down to the Carolinas. Plus, down south, it's all about the bitter chill. Reynolds Wolf has your travel forecast coming up next. Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: Eleven minutes down to the top of the hour. Chicago, where right now it's clear and cold, 21 degrees, later on today, mostly cloudy. The high's only going to be 31.
CHETRY: Winter's certainly here. It's 49 minutes past the hour right now. Reynolds Wolf keeping track of all the weather for us from the Extreme Weather Center in Atlanta. Hey, Reynolds.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, guys, you know, the big weather story today has got to do with the lake effect snowfall in parts of Buffalo. You might think snow in Buffalo, it's kind of typical, isn't it?
Well, it is. But the amount of snowfall that we've been getting there really is just mind boggling. We already have lake effects snowboarding is in effect in Buffalo southward to Erie, and the just the northeast of Cleveland.
And the thing is, although we have in some locations 2 to 3, maybe even 4 feet of snow on the ground, more is on the way. We might see the snow last through the weekend and then into early next week. Radar shows it picking up across parts of Lake Erie.
Again, the heaviest activity actually south of buffalo at this time, and right along, again, just the northern shore. We're going to see that continue, but then when we make our way down towards Cleveland, we could have some snow there too.
It's interesting as the game fizzled out last night. The snow began (inaudible). It's going to cause a few delays there, 30 minutes to 60-minute delay. In Denver and Newark, we've got the wind. You know, we've had issues with wind in parts of the north east for the last couple of days.
Today will be no exception. In Minneapolis, the snow should really get under way into the afternoon and then might cause a few backups, too so just keep that in mind. In terms of your national perspective, things look fine towards much of the west coast until north of the bay area and then running into scattered showers.
If you're making a drive along I-5, it's great but then northern California, hit that area and then into Oregon, you will see highest elevations heavy rain and then some snow especially in the Sierra Nevada. Back in the central Rockies, snow continues for Jackson Hole. The snow is going to really begin piling down, but certainly not in comparison of what we're going to see in parts of say the corn belt.
Not just through Minnesota and into parts of Iowa today, but also tomorrow. The snow should continue there. It's 49 the expected high in Kansas City, 32 in Chicago, 45 in Washington, D.C. and a sneak peek ahead at the weekend, expect things to be pretty nice for you in the southeast.
It's 58 the high in Atlanta, 43 in New York, Chicago, the snow will begin later this afternoon and through much of the weekend, Denver 44. Los Angeles by high 68 degrees. OK, guys, let's hand it back to you in New York.
CHETRY: All right, Reynolds. Thanks so much.
ROBERTS: Coming up next in AMERICAN MORNING, thank you for being a friend. Hard times creating a whole new generation of real-life golden girls. Ladies in their 50s, 60s and 70s living together to save money.
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CHETRY: Love the song. I could listen to it all day. It's 52 minutes past the hour right now. Economic times are tough. It just sticks with you. Great -- great song.
ROBERTS: Like "It's A Small World."
CHETRY: Thank you. People are losing their jobs and many struggling to make ends meet, people are making some changes.
ROBERTS: Yes. You might be surprised at how some older women are coping with the economy. They're moving in together. In fact, it's become something of a trend and a reminder of a time, shall we say more golden?
AMERICAN MORNING's Alino Cho here with that story. Good morning to you.
ALINA CHO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Yes, that song is pretty catchy. It takes you back to the '80s, doesn't it? Can you believe it? Golden Girls has been off the air for 25 years. CHETRY: And Betty White is still sensational.
CHO: She is. She is back. You might call these women modern- day golden girls. More and more women of a certain age are deciding, well, that it's practical to become roommates late in life.
They're saving money, of course, which certainly helps in this economy, but in some cases there's an added bonus, friendship.
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CHO: You seem like an old married couple to me.
JEANNETTE BROWN, HOMEOWNER: You know, we sometimes argue that way, too.
CHO (voice-over): From the looks of it, you'd think Jeanette Brown and Olinda Young have been friends forever. Not so. Three years ago, they were perfect strangers who came together out of necessity.
Jeanette needed help paying her mortgage. Olinda, long divorced, have lost her job. So they decided to become roommates.
(on camera): What attracted you to this?
OLINDA YOUNG, ROOMATE: Well, I didn't want to bother my family and I wanted to be able to take care of myself.
CHO (voice-over): Call them modern-day golden girls like the TV show.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Have I got a man for you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No thanks, had one.
CHO: Single women in their 50s, 60s and 70s choosing to live together, to cut down on expenses without giving up standard of living.
The recession, high divorce rates, and the fact that women live longer than men are all reasons according to home sharing agencies across the country why older women are moving in together.
So popular a cottage industry has popped up nationwide. Like New Jersey-based Home Sharing, Inc., a roommate-finding service.
RENEE DRELL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HOMESHARING INC.: I'd say the number one reason is economics and then, of course, there are the other attendant factors like companionship, security, having another voice in the home.
CHO: Jeanette and Olinda attend church together, walk their dogs together, even read their mail together. Of course, it's not always perfect.
BROWN: She leaves the dishes in the sink and I get upset sometimes but, you know, we work it out.
YOUNG: She turns the music on in every room.
CHO: But these two golden girls now say they're as close as sisters.
(on camera): Do you finish each other's sentences?
BROWN: Yes. We learned to do that. We just did that recently. We started finishing each other's sentences.
CHO: Plan to live together a listening time?
YOUNG: Hopefully.
BROWN: I haven't thrown her out yet.
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CHO: They have been living together, by the way, for about three and a half years. You know, home sharing has become so popular for older women there are agencies that cater just to women like Minnesota-based golden girl homes.
You know, it's quite a trend and the economy is certainly one big reason. But another reason, certainly, is companionship. It is nice to come home to somebody else.
CHETRY: They're adorable.
CHO: They are.
CHETRY: But, you know, a lot of -- the studies show when you start to get older and you don't have -- it's very easy to feel isolated. You don't have people and look out for one another in terms of health, as well.
CHO: That's absolutely right. In fact, when it works and it does often work, you know, for Jeanette and Olinda, for example, they're quite close and like sisters they say and going to take a trip together.
Talk about golden girls and it is really great. I mean, the key is asking within of these people who was running a home- sharing agency, how often does the golden girls turn into the odd couple? You know, they said, listen, we're better than first-time marriages. I mean, better than 50 percent.
ROBERTS: Lasted three and a half years.
CHO: The devil's in the details. You know, where do you like the temperature sunset day or night person, all that kind of stuff. Really, you know, how do you live on a day-to-day basis? Those things are important and that's what makes it work.
ROBERTS: They seem to be working it out. Thanks. Great story. CHETRY: We're going to take a quick break. Your top stories are coming up.
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