Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange Arrested in London; Tax Cuts for All Through 2012; Elizabeth Edwards Stops Cancer Treatment; Major Fire Tears Through Two Historic Buildings in Baltimore; Consumer Reports: AT&T Worst Wireless Carrier; Aspirin Could Cut Cancer Deaths; Fed Stuck with Bad $100 Bills; Michelle Rhee & Students First

Aired December 07, 2010 - 07:00   ET

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

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. And thanks so much for joining us on this Tuesday the 7th of December. I'm John Roberts.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: And I'm Carol Costello in for Kiran Chetry this morning.

Here are this morning's top stories. WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, arrested this morning by London police. He's facing rape charges in Sweden and is expected to make a court appearance later today. We are live in London with the late breaking developments. That's just ahead for you.

ROBERTS: Tax cuts for all through 2012. Congressional Republicans reaching a deal with the president extending the Bush-era tax breaks. If the plan passes, everyone will maintain their current tax rate, even the richest Americans. And not everyone likes that, including the president himself. We're live at the White House with the latest.

COSTELLO: Burning in Baltimore right now, and I mean that literally. A major fire, the second big one in just 12 hours, this one tearing through two historic buildings in Baltimore's cultural district. Much more ahead on that city's twin infernos.

ROBERTS: But we begin the hour with Elizabeth Edwards. We followed her fight against cancer every painful step of the way, and now sad word this morning that Elizabeth Edwards, the estranged wife of former president candidate John Edwards has stopped being treated for the disease.

Her family's saying doctors have advised her that further treatment would be, quote, "unproductive." Dr. Sanjay Gupta is with us now. And so what does this all mean, Sanjay, this idea of -- for her, at least, of stopping treatment and, I guess, just deciding to live out whatever she has left of her life and in as much comfort as possible?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR: It's a tough decision, obviously, for patients, their families, and their health care providers to make together. You know, it's not so much that she's stopping treatment. She's still going to get treated for her symptoms of her disease. But the focus, it's safe to say, is no longer on trying to treat or cure the cancer specifically. And that's really what this is. And, you know, these decisions happen all the time. It's sort of a risk-benefit analysis. She was diagnosed back in 2004, and 2007 it spread to her bones, this breast cancer, and now most recently to her liver. And I think that's what prompted this.

For most people, John, and we talked about this quite a bit, the five- year survival for breast cancer is about 88 percent, ten-year survival is about 80 percent. So the numbers are still pretty good across the board. But for every patient, it's a different disease. And in this case they decided it's time to just focus on keeping Elizabeth Edwards comfortable.

ROBERTS: So when you say, Sanjay, focus on treating the symptoms as opposed to the disease, her breast cancer spread to her bones, which can be extraordinarily painful.

GUPTA: Yes, and she released a statement recently yesterday saying she's not in pain now. So, you know, having adequate pain control that also is not overly sedating, treating nausea and vomiting. There may be respiratory problems if the lungs start to become more filled with fluid. Fluid can also build up in the abdomen.

These are types of symptoms that are often associated with this -- with this stage of the disease. But, again, it's just sort of focused on mitigating those symptoms.

ROBERTS: Is there something to be learned, Sanjay, about what's happening with Elizabeth Edwards in the way she's dealing with it?

GUPTA: It's a great question, John. She's been very open about this. And I think one of the things she said early on that really struck me, and, you know, there's breast cancer in my family. I think a lot of people have dealt with this. She did forego screenings for a period of time after the birth of one of her children.

And, you know, she was open about this, I think a lot of women out there may say I've skipped a few mammograms myself. And no one's indicting anybody here, but you know, I think it's important, it's an important reminder here to not, you know, if you can catch this disease earlier, you might have a better chance of treating it earlier, as well. So I think that's the message.

ROBERTS: And with the confusing recommendations to over when a woman should get a mammogram --

COSTELLO: Or if they show anything.

ROBERTS: Yes. A lot of people a little confused about it.

COSTELLO: Yes, it's not a perfect screening test. And I think that's part of the confusion. You wish you had a perfect test that could tell you with more clarity. But we don't have that. Short of that, this is a pretty good test for wide-base screening. And the recommendation is still start them at age 40.

ROBERTS: Dr. Gupta for us this morning. Sanjay, thanks so much.

GUPTA: Thank you.

COSTELLO: The Edwards family says Elizabeth is resting at home with family and friends. She's also posted a message to her supporters on Facebook. It says "You all know that I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces -- my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope. These graces have carried me through difficult times and they brought more joy to the good times than I ever could've imagined."

Back in July of this year, she talked with Larry King about her long, painful fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": Is resilience something you learn you have when misfortune occurs?

ELIZABETH EDWARDS: I think that's probably true of a lot of people. You know, who --

KING: How do we know how we'll handle something until we have to handle it?

EDWARDS: You don't. And I think most people -- I don't think that I'm special in any way. I think most people do pull themselves together, do what it is they need to be done.

Sometimes you're thrown through a loop for a little while, and then you start to reclaim. I think it's getting back on the right path. That's the hard part. You know, you can't let yourself go down the chasm. You have to really get yourself back on the right track.

KING: Was the worst when they first told you?

EDWARDS: The worst?

KING: Mentally?

EDWARDS: Mentally the worst was when I very first heard. I just didn't know what to expect. I didn't know whether the information -- how bad the information I was getting was. Not how bad is it, not how bad the information is, but how bad the cancer is.

And I had a great oncologist, Lisa Kerry, who was telling me if you see a bone scan and lights don't look like a Christmas tree or like Larry King's backdrop then you're in good shape, you know. That means that you've got contained locations. It's when it starts being really bright that you -- and so she gave me some landmarks to -- but still it was scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: Well, the family's statement released yesterday said that Elizabeth Edwards was in good spirits. And as Sanjay said, she is not in pain, at least not at the moment.

COSTELLO: Other big stories this morning about your money and how much of it you will give to Uncle Sam. The president and Congressional Republicans announcing they have reached an agreement to do three things -- extend the Bush-era tax cuts for everyone for two years, extend emergency jobless benefits through 2011, and cut payroll taxes by two percent for every worker through the end of next year.

Here's what the president said about the agreement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I know there's some people in my own party and in the other party who would rather prolong this battle even if we can't reach a compromise. But I'm not willing to let working families across this country become collateral damage for political warfare here in Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: To give you an idea how the payroll tax holiday would impact your take-home pay, a person making $40,000 a year would save $800 in taxes, a couple earning $70,000 a year saves $1,400. Let's go live to Washington to Ed Henry now. You know, it sounds good, but many people were concerned because this whole deal is being paid for by deficit spending.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we're talking about a price tag between $600 billion and $800 billion. There's no way to pay for it. Both sides get a little something, some goodies in here. And yet we're just going to be expanding the federal debt, something that Republicans ran on cutting the debt in those big midterms, and that the president coming out of the midterms said he got the message and he's got this debt panel that's going to clean all this up.

But the bottom line is in the short-term they're still dealing with an extremely slow economic recovery. The president realized he had to take some sort of dramatic action here. And let's face it, fellow Democrats in his party are not happy about this. I'm told the meeting where the president sort of broke the news to Democratic leaders, because, remember, this deal was brokered between the president and Republican leaders like Mitch McConnell in the Senate.

And the bottom line is, it was a very tense meeting here at the White House I'm told. And the president basically said, look, I'm not happy with everything in here, especially having to break his bedrock principle of only standing up for tax cuts for the middle class, people making $250,000 or less. He had to give in on also extending tax cuts for the rich.

He said, look, I'm not completely happy, but it's the best deal we could get. Take a listen.

And so anyway, the bottom line is that moving forward here they're going to have a hard time selling this. And that's why Vice President Biden is going to the Democratic caucus in order to try to sell it today. And I was told by one top Democrat it could be a very lively caucus.

COSTELLO: It could be a lively caucus, but what are the chances that Democrats in the house and the Senate will go against the president?

HENRY: Well, I mean -- I think they are going to be hard-pressed, make a lot of noise, but at the end of the day they're also running up against the clock. We're coming up at the end of the year, people going home for holidays. Congress is wrapping up this lame duck session. The president wants to move on to other things like the new START treaty, trying to repeal "don't ask, don't tell."

And I think the president was also staring at the fact that Friday's unemployment numbers were particularly bad, 9.8 percent. He had to take some short-term action despite the long-term debt questions.

And also, looking forward, if he had done nothing and all of these Bush tax rates had expired, everyone poor, middle class, and rich would've seen tax increases come January 1st. The president wanted to avoid that at all costs.

COSTELLO: Ed Henry, thanks.

ROBERTS: The tax cuts affecting the markets this morning. Our Christine Romans following that for us. Just a point of clarity because a lot of people say that we're not fully describing the tax cuts, et cetera, that everybody who makes up the $250,000 will keep the Bush tax cuts. But the surcharge that would've been placed on people who earn income above $250,000, that's not going to happen.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right. And people get this payroll tax goodie in their check. That's going to be for a family of $40,000, that's going to be about $800.

But the long term unemployed are getting 13 months of an extension. These are people who have been out of work up to 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, 13 months. This is kicking the can down the road. That's a $57 billion price tag. You look at the estate tax goodies in there, that's $80 billion or $90 billion for the estate tax, about $57 billion for the long-term unemployed.

We haven't solved the problem here. In 13 months you'll have the same issue with millions of people underemployed or unemployed without a place in the economy. This doesn't fix anything. It's a big patch.

COSTELLO: But wait a minute. The Republicans are saying that this will create jobs. This is the answer. And we will solve our unemployment problem.

ROMANS: One thing about the unemployment benefits in particular, they're quite stimulative. And so when you look at this package, about half of it is considered long-term stimulus and other half is short-term stimulus. The other half is not considered short term stimulus that will add to our deficit. The unemployment benefit part of it is stimulus. That money goes right into the economy. Every dollar spent for a jobless check is $1.60 to $1.90 of short-term stimulus. But the president only put 13 months in there. And this is what I can't get a clear answer on, why 13 months for unemployment benefits but so much longer for people who are very wealthy and for the estate tax patch? Why that discrepancy?

COSTELLO: Because it's two years for the Bush tax cuts extension.

ROMANS: Right. And 13 months we'll be having a conversation about the 99ers, people who are wearing out 99 weeks of unemployment benefits and alike.

ROBERTS: Christine Romans this morning, thanks.

ROMANS: Sure.

COSTELLO: New this morning, Defense Secretary Robert Gates in Afghanistan right now. Gates touched down at Bagram Air Force base after meeting with leaders on Sunday. Gates will spend time with the troops and then he'll meet with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. His visit was not announced.

ROBERTS: Some lawmakers want proof that airport x-ray machines are not exposing passengers to dangerous levels of radiation. Members of Congress are calling on the Transportation Security Administration to release reports of inspections done on the machines. They're worried about health risks if an x-ray were to malfunction.

COSTELLO: What is up in Baltimore? Two infernos in downtown Baltimore in less than 12 hours, a pair of historic buildings were engulfed in flames overnight in the city's cultural district damaging three restaurants, pretty good restaurants too.

Just hours earlier, flames and thick black smoke leapt from a building in Baltimore's adult entertainment section. Amazingly enough, with all the flames and smoke, no reports of serious injuries in either fire, and also no word on what might have caused them. But lots of damage there this morning.

ROBERTS: And some business owners won't be very happy this morning.

Well, a U.S. airways jet from Newark to Phoenix forced to land in Pittsburgh because of -- OK, wait for it, a dog.

COSTELLO: A terrier alert.

ROBERTS: It was a terrier alert, yes.

(LAUGHTER)

It was on the terrier watch list. A 12-pound Manchester terrier named Mandy got loose, bit a passenger and then a flight attendant after her 89-year-old owner opened the door on her crate. The flight did continue on to its intended destination without Mandy or her owner. COSTELLO: Well, Mandy's sedatives were wearing off, John, and Mandy was becoming upset, so her owner took her out of the crate and Mandy became even more upset, and Mandy went on a terrier alert.

(LAUGHTER)

In southwest Florida, cold temperatures has farmers scrambling to protect citrus from the frost. They're covering some crops with a cloth to ward off the chill. Citrus farmers there are still reeling from record losses last year.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: Still to come, big breaking news this morning, the chief of WikiLeaks under arrest, surrendering to police in London this morning. He's expected in court later today. We'll have a live report for you on the breaking developments.

ROBERTS: And she might be just about the most polarizing figure in public education today. Former D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee talks about changing the system without taking political sides.

It's 15 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: It's coming up now on 18 minutes after the hour. WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange is no longer a fugitive. Assange surrendered to police in London this morning, expected to make a court appearance today to face rape charges in Sweden.

Atika Shubert is outside of the courthouse. She's monitoring all the developments in this case. So what's happening during the court appearance? What's happens afterwards?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, at the court hearing today, he is expected to request release on bail. And then we'll have to see whether or not he fights this arrest warrant. That's the big question at the moment. Is he going to fight it? If he does, then another hearing has to be scheduled within 21 days.

Now, there's a number of ways he could try and fight this arrest warrant. Basically he could say that, for example, he doesn't -- that he won't get a fair trial in Sweden, that these are trumped-up charges. Or even he could even argue on humanitarian grounds if, for example, he's threatened with solitary confinement. These are all ways he could attempt to fight the arrest warrant by basically saying he won't get a fair trial in Sweden. But we don't know what he's going to do. That hearing is going to be happening in just a few hours. We don't know if he's inside the courthouse yet, but we should be hearing about that hearing soon.

ROBERTS: We should mention for clarity here, Atika, that none of this has to do with the whole issue around WikiLeaks, but certainly pressure being brought to bear against Julian Assange from a number of different fronts. SHUBERT: That's right. This -- this arrest warrant is strictly about the alleged sex crimes committed, allegedly committed in Sweden. And it's important to point out, he has not been charged with these crimes. In fact, he is wanted for questioning by the Swedish prosecutors office. So really we're at the very beginnings of any sort of legal case happening here. But WikiLeaks and Julian Assange sees all of this as part in parcel of the many attacks that are happening on WikiLeaks. This include the legal challenges, not just the Swedish case, but, of course, the U.S. government has said that they are looking into possible prosecution of Assange and WikiLeaks because of the release of those documents. But there's also been political pressure from Senator Joseph Lieberman, for example, in the United States, who managed to pressure Amazon servers to drop the WikiLeaks from their servers or even technical issues. WikiLeaks has been dealing with massive cyber-attacks on its site. So WikiLeaks sees this legal case as all part of that.

ROBERTS: Right. And, of course, Julian Assange denying any wrongdoing in the Swedish case.

Atika Shubert for us this morning outside the courthouse there in London. Atika, thanks.

COSTELLO: Still to come, more bars and more places? Yes, right. A cell phone carrier getting some dreadful grades for its service.

ROBERTS: And a flawed facelift for the new Benjamin's. The government forced to quarantine more than a billion brand new high- tech $100 bills. We'll tell you why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Well, here are some of the stories that got us talking in the newsroom this morning. You don't have to tell many iPhone users, but Consumer Reports -- this is Consumer Reports says AT&T is America's worst mobile carrier.

COSTELLO: No.

ROBERTS: Consumer Reports. It's not me.

It ranked dead last in general as well as in every city last year. It was at the bottom in almost every category except for text messaging. U.S. Cellular got the highest marks. AT&T said the company's taking the news, quote, "seriously."

I know they've been working hard to try to improve service. In some areas they have, but obviously still lacking.

COSTELLO: They have a long way to go.

Maybe it was his tribute to the late Leslie Nielsen. Somebody forgot the words to the national anthem. So sad. Before the kickoff of Sunday's Chiefs/Broncos game. You must listen.

COSTELLO: Oh. Maybe it was the echo you hear when you're on a football field and it confused him because when you --

ROBERTS: Who's that? Was that Enrique Cardosa (ph)?

COSTELLO: No, it's good you asked. That was Mike Eli of Kansas City's Eli Young Band. Although he probably wishes we would not advertise his fan name on television. But we must. He did kind of recover. But as you heard, the damage was already done, because the crowd was laughing.

ROBERTS: Poor guy. But you know, hearing yourself back, because it's almost a second later it comes through the p.a. system that if you get caught up in that, it can really screw you up.

COSTELLO: But he should have practiced.

ROBERTS: Well, if you think he had problems, take a look at poor Rudolph here, because down goes Rudolph. Oh, yes. The ninth reindeer couldn't clear the traffic light at the Christmas parade in Richmond, Virginia. Seemed to happen in slow motion. Let's play it for you again. Here's Rudolph. Here's the traffic light, and pop goes his head.

COSTELLO: I mean, some poor child probably traumatized for life from witnessing that.

ROBERTS: Oh, the red nose wilt. The crowd screams, no! Rudolph torn and coming down and no playing any reindeer games anymore.

COSTELLO: No more play of any reindeer games. Poor Rudolph. I love that.

It wasn't a game. It was a shame for the New York Jets. Oh, my God. The New England Patriots rolled over the Jets 45-3 last night in their battle for supremacy in the AFC. Tom Brady, what an amazing guy, he threw four touchdowns. The Pats now have won 26 straight home games in the regular season. New England ran its record to 10-2, and Tom Brady's amazing.

ROBERTS: He is. Oh, those poor Jets.

Well, it's almost that time of year again. Get ready to drop your pants.

COSTELLO: What?

ROBERTS: O the subway that is. Yes. It's the annual no-pants subway ride. It takes place in New York and other cities on January 9th. The performance group Improv everywhere puts it together every year and people are being encouraged to RSVP on Facebook. This time around they're trying to make the event even bigger than it has been.

COSTELLO: I thought you could get arrested for that.

ROBERTS: Depends what you have underneath.

COSTELLO: OK. Coming up, let Hertz put you in the driver's seat of a new electric smart car. We'll tell you when they'll be available for rent and where you can find them.

ROBERTS: And a frightening close call at Boston's Logan airport on one of the busiest travel days of the year. A runway collision between two JetBlue flights narrowly averted. We've got those stories coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The morning's flying by. Good morning, again, everyone. Crossing the bottom of the hour.

Oh, it's chilly here. I guess it's chilly pretty much everywhere in the country, except maybe for California. High temperatures struggling to get out of this 30s today and much of the eastern half of the country.

ROBERTS: A lot going on this morning, so let's get you caught up on all of that. Here are this morning's top stories.

You get a tax cut and you get a tax cut. President Obama striking a deal with congressional Republicans to extend the Bush tax cuts for all, including the wealthiest Americans. They will not be taxed extra on income above $250,000. The deal includes a 13-month extension of long-term unemployment benefits and cutting payroll taxes by two percent for every worker through the end of next year. Now becomes the hard part, convincing Democrats to go along with it.

COSTELLO: It's been a wonder drug for heart disease, now a British study suggests aspirin just might be a lifesaver for cancer patients too. British researchers found adults who took low-dose aspirin daily reduce their risk of dying from common cancers by 21 percent. But experts warned it's premature to recommend people start taking aspirin specifically to prevent cancer because, of course, taking too many aspirin can cause bleeding and other problems.

ROBERTS: And how about this? Hertz plans to offer an electric version of the tiny smart car for two for rent in three major cities in the coming months. The electric smart car will be available in New York City starting on December 15th. In Washington, the first quarter of 2011, and in San Francisco on the second quarter of next year.

COSTELLO: The big news this morning, Julian Assange is expected to appear in a London court today. The founder of WikiLeaks arrested by British police this morning after turning himself in. He's now facing rape charges in Sweden.

ROBERTS: Yes, Mark Ellis is the executive director of the International Bar Association. And he was kind enough to come in this morning. You flew in from London last night.

DR. MARK S. ELLIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, INTERNATIONAL BAR ASSOCIATION: I did.

ROBERTS: It's good to have you here.

ELLIS: Thank you.

ROBERTS: So what goes through the process, what happens in the next few days with Julian Assange?

ELLIS: Well, now that he will appear this morning with the magistrate court based on this arrest warrant, he'll have an opportunity to determine or decide whether or not he wants to accept this extradition request or he wants to fight it. If he decides he wants to fight it, they'll have about 21 days for him to make that case.

And then the court will determine whether or not he's going to be set free or whether he's going to be extradited to Sweden. It's a fairly straightforward process under this European arrest warrant procedure. So it's not that complicated.

COSTELLO: These charges that he's facing in Sweden, I've heard so many conflicting stories about them. I mean, some people say that it's a set-up because of, you know, the web site he runs, WikiLeaks. Tell us more about these charges.

ELLIS: Well, the charges was based on what the Swedish judicial authorities or the prosecutor felt was the sufficient prima fascia evidence. That is evidence that suggested that he was involved with this type of criminal act, rape specifically and they want to bring him to Sweden and in essence have him, give his side of the story. And therefore, because he was not in Sweden, this is where the extradition started taking place.

COSTELLO: So it involves three women?

ELLIS: It does. Well, I think two women. We really don't know all the facts because it really hasn't been set forth in public. It will be when the case moves forward. But it's specific to this particular case. It doesn't involve the WikiLeaks issue yet.

ROBERTS: What about the timing of all of this now, Mark? Because those charges were out there, or at least the inquiry into the charges, the allegations out there against him for a number of months now. Interpol suddenly got involved with this red notice. Nothing had changed with that case. Julian Assange continues to deny that there was any wrongdoing on his part. Are you at all curious about the timing of this?

ELLIS: You know, I'm not - I think it's important to make the distinction here. This is a process in Sweden, I think is very straightforward. They looked at the allegations, they determined that there was sufficient evidence to at least pursue this, and so Mr. Assange needs to be there and that's where the extradition process is going. Again, this red notice is not an international arrest warrant. It happens thousands of times a year through Interpol and it's simply saying to the UK authorities, we think there's sufficient evidence to seek his extradition so that we can talk to him.

The real question comes, what happens if he gets to Sweden and the United States or other countries decides to use that as a basis to seek extradition for the WikiLeaks? That to me is the real issue.

COSTELLO: And that to me is the other question is he threatening to release all of these documents. And I know his web site's been crashed and hacked and all that, but there are other ways that you can leak information.

ELLIS: Yes. There is. But the real - for me the issue is when he gets to Sweden, I think there's no doubt that he'll be extradited. It's a fairly again straightforward process under this type of an arrest warrant. He may argue that he shouldn't be extradited because of some fair trial issue. I don't think he has a real strong basis for that.

So let's assume he's then extradited, the focus will be on this particular case. But at the same time, parallel to that will be this movement behind the scenes to say well, he needs to be brought, for instance, to the United States to face charges on whatever the United States wants to bring charges against. That will be the complicated factor. That is much more challenging, much more difficult, and I think the United States or any other non-European member state would have a difficult time extraditing him.

ROBERTS: Mark Ellis explaining it all for us this morning. Mark, great to see you. Thanks so much.

Well, something went wrong with a new batch of $100 bills. Quite a big batch too, there were 1.1 billion of them. It turns out there was a problem printing the Benjamin's. Now all of these high-tech bills have been locked up.

COSTELLO: That's such a strange mistake. Christine Romans is here to explain it all.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: We're not sure what the mistake is. Is it paper? Is it something in the high pressure printing? But there were little gaps left on these bills. These are very high tech bills because the $100 bill is the most counterfeited bill there is. It is also the bill that is in widest circulation outside of this country. It is what people - it is the currency of this country, the $100 bill. I personally don't have any in my pocket right now.

But it is the old version that the fed has ordered printers to continue to print and print more of to make up for the fact that we may not have this new bill out like we thought we would in February. It's 1.1 billion bills now in storage in Washington, D.C. and in Ft. Worth, Texas, we're told. There's a creasing problem on this new high-tech bill, a bill meant to be so complicated that it would foil those counterfeiters. Instead, it sort of foiled us.

And now the February 2011 release date is in question here. The Treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner's it is his signature on that bill (INAUDIBLE) printing that actually print it is a Boston area company, Crane and Company, the company that provides the paper and then these are delivered right to the fed and then the fed, of course, puts them into circulation. So far they are all in storage under quarantine until they figure out -

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: This could end up costing taxpayers a bunch.

ROMANS: Oh, yes, $100, 120 million each of these bills costs 11.8 cents to make. You've got a stack, pallets full of them, 1.1 billion of these bills. Some of them, some of the inspections have found that some of them are fine, some of them are not. How do you go through 1.1 billion little tiny thin little thin $100 bills?

ROBERTS: Very carefully and wishfully. Wish I had that one, wish I had that one. Christine, thanks so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

ROBERTS: Well, here is the school reformer (INAUDIBLE) to the teachers' unions, former D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee blazing her own trail this morning in the hope of fixing public education. She joins us right after the break.

COSTELLO: And bone-chilling cold for much of the east this morning. The arctic blast could shatter records before you head out the door this morning. Rob Marciano will bring you the forecast. It's 37 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: 20 minutes now to the top of the hour. Our next guest sparked great controversy with her sweeping reforms of the Washington, D.C. school systems. She closed two dozen failing schools, laid off hundreds of teachers, and brought private money into the public school system. Now she's taking her reform efforts national through a new non-partisan education advocacy group entitled "Students First."

And Michelle Rhee joins us now.

Michelle, it's great to see you this morning. Your goal for this is a million members and at $1 billion in funding over the first year. What are the goals of "Students First"?

MICHELLE RHEE, FOUNDER & CEO, STUDENTS FIRST: Well, we're focused on forming things within "Students First." The first is making sure that there is a great teacher in every single classroom knowing that great teachers matter for every student. The second is to create a choice for parents so that being in an excellent school is not a matter of luck for families but is a matter of fact.

The third is really making sure that we're spending the money where it matters most. We want to move money away from bureaucracies and ineffective programs and into what works. And the last is to really involve parents and the entire community in ensuring that public education improve. We're really in a crisis right now in America, as it pertains to public education. I think most people don't understand the extent to which that this is a problem in this country. And so what we want to do is raise awareness about that.

ROBERTS: So these are all things that you were trying to do in Washington, D.C. and after seeing the reaction there, what's your sense about the political will to enact tough school reform?

RHEE: Well, I think there's not enough political will currently. And that's part of what "Students First" is going to do. You know, you've got lots of interest groups out there right now that are driving the educational agenda. You have textbook manufacturers, you have teachers' unions, and you even have food service people. But the problem is that there is no organized interest group that's advocating sorely on behalf of children within public education. The kind of interest group that's going to have enough heft to shift the balance of power and make sure that we're making policies and decisions based on what's good and right for kids instead of what's good for adults.

ROBERTS: You mentioned teachers' unions there, and I don't think it's any secret that you and the teachers unions weren't the best of friends during your tenure as chancellor there in D.C.. You said in a "Newsweek" article that has the cover story of "Newsweek" this week that you could have done a better job of communicating what you wanted to do with teachers. You say "I did a particularly bad job letting the many good teachers know that I considered them to be the most important part of the equation. I should have said that the effect of teachers "you don't have anything to worry about, my job is to make your life better, offer you more support, and pay you more. So after the experience that you had with the teachers unions, how do you convince them to support your goals of Students First?

RHEE: Well, there's a big difference between the teachers who are in the classroom and the teachers union.

ROBERTS: Of course.

RHEE: Because what I found over the last couple of months is I've heard from people across the country, including a lot of teachers is, you know, I've heard a lot of teachers who are frustrated with the system, who feel like they're not getting the support that they need, who really don't believe in the things that the teachers union themselves are pushing like tenure and seniority protections and those sorts of things because they want to be held accountable.

But they also want to be recognized and rewarded for the work that they're doing. So I think it's important we be able to separate, you know, what some effective teachers believe in public education versus what the teachers union is saying. And that we kind of break up the monolithic teacher voice that's out there. And I think that, you know, our message is simple which is that there are lots and lots of amazing teachers out there who are doing wonderful things for kids every day.

And we should value them, and recognize them, and pay them what they deserve to be paid. But there are also ineffective teachers out there. And for those folks, we need to either quickly improve them or swiftly move them out of the classroom. And the days of giving people a job for life regardless of performance when they're actually hurting kids, those have to end.

ROBERTS: Also in your article in "Newsweek" magazine, you quote secretary of education Arne Duncan who says that the education reform is the civil rights issue of our generation. And you point out that the civil rights movement required confrontation as well as discussion.

And here's what Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers says about that. She says that she hopes that you learned, as we have, that promoting education reform through conflict and division will not serve the interests of children and their educational needs.

So a question that I have is, when it comes to confrontation here in favor of education or reform, what level of confrontation are you prepared to take on?

RHEE: I'm prepared to take on a high level of confrontation and conflict in favor of our kids. Because, look, I'm sure the teachers' union doesn't want a lot of confrontation because they don't want to be confronted with the facts, which are that often times the policies that they are pushing, while they are fine for the adults, are actually not good for kids.

ROBERTS: So it raises the question, are you preparing to go to war with teachers' union?

RHEE: You know what? This is not about a war against the teachers' union. For me, it's about fighting for kids.

And right now, we have a system that is set up to think about what is fair and right for adults, but is not taking into account what is good and right for children. And sometimes those things are in alignment. And when that's the case, that's absolutely great. But at some times, those things are in conflict. And when they are, we always have to choose children and students. But the problem is that's not what the practice has been to date.

If you look at some of the practices that exist in this country, so, for example, one of the things is how we lay off teachers. Right now we lay teachers off based on seniority solely. Because a teachers' union will say, well that's the only fair way to do it. But that fairness is fair to the adults. Because what we end up doing often times is laying off new teachers who are actually more effective than a whole lot of ineffective veteran teachers.

ROBERTS: So --

RHEE: And so again, those are policies that are adult first policies. And what Students First is doing is trying to put the children at the forefront.

ROBERTS: You know, the great dichotomy in this country, Michelle, is that we have some of the best universities, if not the best universities in the world. I think Oxford might have outranked Harvard this year. But at the same time we have so many problems with our public school system and among the 30 most developed countries of the world, we're still ranking in the mid-20s when it comes to science, math, and English.

RHEE: Right.

ROBERTS: You point out in the your "Newsweek" article that this generation that's currently in school now, could be less educated than the generation before it, and that's the first time this will have ever happened in this country.

How much trouble will we be in if we don't reform education and do it soon?

RHEE: We are on a path to be in serious trouble in this country. You know, over the next 20 years, there will be about 123 million high- skill and high-paying jobs in this country. And at the rate that we're moving right now, Americans will only be able to fill about 50 million of those jobs because we are not preparing the next generation of kids to be competitive.

So that means that the vast majority of those jobs will be going to kids in India, China, Korea. That, to me, is absolutely unacceptable. You know, America used to be number one, we used to be the best. I think we can be again. But the only way that we're going to be able to regain our position in the global marketplace is if we fix our public education system.

ROBERTS: All right. I just want to point out too, when I say English, what I really mean is reading.

RHEE: Yes.

ROBERTS: Michelle Rhee, good to talk to you this morning. Thanks so much. We'll keep watching this, see where it goes.

RHEE: Thank you.

ROBERTS: Really appreciate it.

Forty-eight minutes past the hour, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROBERTS: Well, children certainly don't come cheap. It's estimated that raising a child nowadays could set you back $220,000. And that does not include the cost of college. We'll get to the bottom of why it's so expensive, coming right up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Some frightening moments on the ground at Boston's Logan Airport to tell you about. COSTELLO: It involved two JetBlue planes packed with Thanksgiving travelers. And we're just now learning about this incident and just how close disaster came. It's really scary.

Homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve is in Washington.

Jeanne, what happened?

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Kiran, it doesn't get much closer than this. It was the day before Thanksgiving, one of the busiest travel days of the year. And two JetBlue flights narrowly averted a runway collision.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE (voice-over): JetBlue Flight 1264 had just arrived from Austin, Texas, and was holding on a taxi way. The ground controller tells the pilot to taxi to the terminal via Runway 22 right and Taxi Way

C. But instead of taking a left onto 22 right, the pilot took a right and headed for Runway 33 left.

But barreling down 33 left, JetBlue flight 417 taking off for Palm Beach. The ground controller realizes what's about to happen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: JetBlue hold, JetBlue 1264 hold, hold right there. JetBlue 1264 hold, hold.

MESERVE: Flight 1264 hears him, stops, crisis averted.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MESERVE: JetBlue tells CNN that because Flight 1264 never entered an active runway, this does not fit the definition of a near collision. In a statement, the airline said the processes put in place by the airline, the pilots, and ATC -- that's air traffic control -- are designed to prevent and mitigate inadvertent errors.

The system worked. And thank goodness. There were 91 people on board Flight 1264. The airline has not able to tell us how many passengers were on the other aircraft but this was one of the busiest travel days of the year. John, Carol.

COSTELLO: So it's not classified as a near collision but it actually was.

MESERVE: Yes.

COSTELLO: I'm just wondering, what were the consequences for the pilot? Anything?

MESERVE: Well, as far as we know there weren't any. The airline calls this a non-issue. The FAA says it is not investigated.

Interestingly, the president of the union representing air traffic controllers at Logan says the air traffic controller here was a veteran with 32 years of experience, nearing retirement. He gives that controller credit for seeing that the pilot made the wrong turn and taking action to prevent that collision. But, he doesn't fault the pilot here. He says the pilot on top of his game for hearing his call sign in the midst of very busy radio traffic. And he says in other instances controllers make a mistake and a pilot picks it up. It is, he says, very much a team concept.

John, Carol, back to you.

ROBERTS: Jeanne Meserve for us, this morning. Jeanne, thanks.

Top stories coming your way after a quick break. It's now a couple of minutes until the top of the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)