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American Morning
Tax Plan Is Possible Game Changer; Obama on "Mythbusters"; Suspect Arrested For Plot To Bomb Military Recruiting Station; WikiLeaks Supporters Hack Web Sites of Those They View as Opposition; New Tests May Diagnose Child Food Allergies More Accurately; Fewer Americans File for Jobless Benefits
Aired December 09, 2010 - 07:59 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 Thursday. It is December 9th all day long. I'm Kiran Chetry.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, I'm John Roberts. Thanks for being with us.
Here's what we're talking about this morning. Tough talk from the White House today. It's warning congressional Democrats to support the president's tax cut plan or risk another recession. We're live with team coverage.
CHETRY: WikiLeaks supporters are calling it Operation Payback. No one who crossed the whistle-blowing site is being spared. Hackers reportedly taking out the Swedish government's web site overnight. Sarah Palin's web site hacked, as well, along with Visa and MasterCard. In a moment we're going to hear from the father of jailed WikiLeaks father Julian Assange.
ROBERTS: Forty inches of snow and counting in upstate New York. Freezing in Hot-Atlanta. Frosty in Florida today. What's going on with the weather? Rob Marciano and the extreme cold snap that's gripping the country right now.
CHETRY: But first, with the clock ticking on the lame duck Congress the White House now engaged in a full-court press trying to seal the tax deal.
ROBERTS: Yes. Democrats are still furious over the compromise so the administration is turning up the heat with top White House economist Larry Mummers saying Congress this, quote, "If they don't pass this bill in the next couple of weeks it will materially increase the risk that the economy would stall out and we would have a double- dip."
Break it down now with Christine Romans. She's here in New York with us, and Suzanne Malveaux, who's live at the White House.
Suzanne, let's go to you first. Is the president planning on going to Capitol Hill just down the street to try to lobby his party members himself?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, he certainly could in the future, at least before the lame duck session is over. I had a chance to talk to Robert Gibbs. We've been exchanging emails all morning about the president's schedule. He has a busy schedule today, but he may make that effort later in the week or perhaps early next week.
Clearly, Robert Gibbs says that, look, you know, the president feels very confident that he's been engaged here, that he's reached out to the leadership both in the House and Senate side. He's been making phone calls over the last 48 hours. So, trying to twist some arms, if you will.
It may be useful for him to go on the Hill personally. We saw that worked for at least some Democratic lawmakers when he was trying to push for the health care reform package. So, that is something that they are considering.
But last night, he was on the phone, a conference call with some of his staunchest supporters who've now become his critics, those in Organizing for America, part of the DNC, to try to make his case here. One of the things that he said to Democratic lawmakers is, look, he believes that he's absolutely confident that he came up with the best deal possible at this time, that that is the political reality.
There are a lot of Democrats, as you know, John and Kiran, not yet convinced of that. It could be likely that we see this kind of tax cut deal actually approved in Congress, largely by the Republicans and not the Democrats, but this president, this White House making it very clear that they're going to try to sell this as hard as possible before that vote happens.
ROBERTS: See if he can get it done.
All right. Thanks very much, Suzanne Malveaux.
CHETRY: Now to Christine Romans.
ROBERTS: Christine's here.
CHETRY: Christine's here as well -- because we're talking about what some of the experts are saying, the money experts, on whether or not this is going to make a difference, whether or not this package of tax breaks, as well as, you know, the stimulus is going help our economy?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: So, here's what Goldman Sachs says. Goldman Sachs says the deal is significantly more positive for the economy, will boost economic growth by up to one percentage point next year.
Moody's Analytics says it changes the near-term economic outlook. It could cut employment to 8.7 percent next year, as opposed to unemployment falling to 8.7 percent in 2012.
A lot of the economists from the very beginning have said there are good stimulative things in this package, most notably the unemployment benefits. That's money that goes directly into the economy. Also, that payroll tax holiday.
If you make -- for example, if you make $40,000 a year, you're going to get $800 more in your paycheck next year. That's money --
ROBERTS: That's significant.
ROMANS: That's money you'll either save or spend depending on your personal situation. But it's money that goes into the economy.
Look, the politics of this and the economics of this -- the economics are right on from Summers. You know, there are concerns that the economy was going to stall out sometime next year and not pick up until 2012.
The politics of it are great, though. Look at this -- we're all talking now about the risk of a double-dip, what this does for the middle class, the near-term stimulus of it, and now, we're not talking about the fact that the whole complaint from the very beginning has been that the president gave up too much, less than stimulative, to get the stimulative part of it. That's the politics have changed.
ROBERTS: Don't look over here, look over here.
ROMANS: Right.
ROBERTS: It goes against what they were saying before, that no, there's not going to be a double-dip.
ROMANS: Yes, you're right. And we've been assured that, no, we don't think there's a risk of a double-dip. We don't think there's a risk of a double-dip.
Now, he's saying there was more of a risk of a double -- there's always been a risk of a double dip, depending -- how much is that? Is that 20 percent chance? Is that a 15 percent chance? But we do know that the economic recovery has been slow.
One thing about the payroll tax holiday that -- I keep going back to this. The deficit cutting commissions have said, let's have a payroll tax holiday in the near-term to ease the pain for the pain that's going to have to come longer term. Everyone wants to stimulate the economy in the near term but to try to rein in these deficits in the longer term.
This just handles the near term. No one is handling the long term yet. So, that's the challenge we still have.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: So, but they're going to have to bring this whole debate up again, because these tax cuts are not permanent. They again expire in two years, right? Come back in two years.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Yes. Critics were saying they're just kicking this down the road until the U.S. is bankrupt.
ROBERTS: Nobody is going to be raising taxes in an election year. I don't think.
ROMANS: No, they are not.
ROBERTS: All right. Thanks, Christine.
ROMANS: Sure.
ROBERTS: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is sounding off on the economy and he's sounding a lot like a presidential candidate as well, blasting the federal government for failing the American people. He says too many Americans are suffering while politicians in Washington continue posturing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (I), NEW YORK CITY: What is clear, though, is that the country is growing more and more frustrated with the government's inability to keep the country more prosperous and more fair, and more skeptical that the jobs we need are coming soon. As families struggle to get by, they have seen little but partisan gridlock, political pandering and legislative influence pedaling, finger point, blame games and endless attacks. Put simply, when it bombs creating jobs -- government hasn't gotten the job done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: What many people read is potentially a sign he may throw his hat in the ring for 2012. Bloomberg outlined his own strategy for turning the economy around. He wants to cut business taxes to prevent companies from moving overseas and he says we have to open our borders to more trade.
CHETRY: So, we might be looking at two New York City moguls, Donald Trump and Bloomberg, that may throw their hat in the right.
ROBERTS: Michael Bloomberg. It could be an interesting election. But it's real tough to run as a third party candidate.
CHETRY: Sure is.
Well, extreme weather now and snow burying cities around the Great Lakes this morning. Upstate New York -- check it out. They are shoveling their hearts out in Buffalo, in Syracuse. They broke a daily snowfall record three days in a row -- 44 inches buried the city since Saturday.
ROBERTS: And it's not just the Northeast, the freezing weather is stretching all the way to the South. That's a live look at what is nicknamed Hotlanta, not too this morning. Temperatures only made it into the mid-30s there yesterday. And they're trying to stop a crop crisis in Florida, where citrus fruits can't handle anything less than 28 degrees -- 23 is in the forecast.
Rob Marciano is tracking it all from the extreme weather center in cold-lanta this morning.
Good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys.
Yes, some records set across parts of Florida yesterday. Take a look at the numbers, well below freezing in some spots, like Gainesville. Orlando got below freezing at 31; 31 in Melbourne; and 32 degrees in Vero Beach.
Citrus crops OK. Damage not material, according the consortium down there. Vegetables seeing a little bit more in the way of damage. But, today, the good news is a little bit of rainfall and cloud cover. And that kept the temperatures up overnight.
Raining right now into Naples and Fort Myers. Temperatures in Miami, as you can see, in the lower 60s. Temperatures in Orlando at this time yesterday were right at the freezing mark, if not below it -- a good 10 degrees warmer because of the moisture that moved in last night.
All right. A little bit further to the North, we have some moisture coming off the Great Lakes. We highlighted that, another day of lake-effect snows, although it will begin to wind down, but temperatures not really warming up, teens and 20s this morning start your day and there, the lake-effect snow bands in Cleveland are just to the east and south of Cleveland.
Another Alberta clippers nipping across the Great Lakes, that will not bring a whole lot of moisture but will bring our next shot of cold air and another one behind that, a pretty decent storm shaping up for the weekend, guys. It will mean snow for some, rain for others, and a whole lot of wind comes Sunday night and Monday, and a whole lot of cold air again come Monday and Tuesday of next week. We'll highlight that storm track in the next half hour.
Back up to you guys.
ROBERTS: Where's all this wind heading?
MARCIANO: You get a little piece of it up there. The eastern third of the country is going to get a piece of this storm. It's going to wind up pretty good and the winds will be whipping across the Northeast and the cold air will drive all the way down to the South.
CHETRY: OK. So, if you mama ducks are listening, get your ducklings in a row, because the winds are coming again.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: Buckle. All right, guys.
CHETRY: Thank you.
Well, there's a new study out this morning about the number of people driving either drunk or on drugs. It's actually down. That's the good news. But more troubling is that 30 million people in an average year do drive while under the influence.
Breaking the numbers down, Wisconsin and North Dakota topping the list for drunk driving. Rhode Island and Vermont have the highest rates for people drugged driving.
So, let's take a look at the other end. Utah and Mississippi, the lowest rate of drunk driving. And Ohio and New Jersey, the lowest rate of drugged driving.
Overall, the rate of people driving drunk dropped from 14.6 percent between 2002 and 2005 to 13.2 percent between 2006 and 2009. So, over the same period, those driving on drugs fell as well from 4.8 percent to 4.3 percent.
ROBERTS: Yes, about the same decline, it looks like.
Well, this one makes you want to hurl just looking at this -- a cruise ship crawling back to land this morning after a high seas nightmare for its passengers and crews. It was heading from -- to Argentina from the Antarctic. It was on a southern cruise when it was slammed by a monster wave that damaged the ship's engines.
These are the seas that it's sailing back in. Now, you can see that below the waterline, the hull is coming right out of the water here.
All of the 88 passengers onboard are Americans. No injuries have been reported. Though, you can bet that they are probably hugging the great white toilet there.
CHETRY: Oh, yes. And I'm sure the ice sculptures are definitely ruined this morning.
ROBERTS: Yes. Ship expected to arrive back in Argentina early tomorrow.
CHETRY: I'm actually surprised it doesn't happen more often, you know, given where these ships go and where they cruise.
ROBERTS: Those yes, those are rough, rough seas. Oh, my goodness.
CHETRY: Well, hang in there guys. Hopefully your nightmare is open soon.
Meanwhile, the bomb factory will burn. A federal judge clearing the way for authorities in southern California to destroy a home that's said to contain the ever largest cache of homemade explosives. There's a look at it. Police say it's simply too dangerous for bomb squad to even enter it. Some area residents will be evacuated. Part of the interstate closed during the controlled burn. By the way, it's in Escondido, California.
ROBERTS: And actor Wesley Snipes can now be seen in prison gray. Snipes reported overnight to a federal correctional facility in Pennsylvania to begin serving a three-year prison term for failing to file tax returns.
CHETRY: Supporters of WikiLeaks waging an online war. They're hacking Web sites of everyone who's opposed or criticized them, including the Swedish government, MasterCard, Visa, Sarah Palin.
ROBERTS: Possibly CNN.com as well.
A tragic fire at a prison in Chile. More than 80 inmates killed. How it started and why the president of Chile says it might have been prevented.
It's 10 minutes now after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
ROBERTS: Later on today, we could learn more about what went behind closed doors at the Nixon White House. A throng of records will be made public, among them, 265 hours of tapes from February and March of 1973. Among the topics the ceasefire in Vietnam, American POWs and, of course, as it was raging at that time, the Watergate scandal.
CHETRY: Eighty-one inmates killed in a fire at a prison near Santiago, Chile. It started after inmates began to riot yesterday. The president of Chile is calling the conditions at the San Miguel prison inhumane. It was built to hold 1,000 inmates. When the fire broke out, the prisoner count at the facility was nearly 2,000.
Well, China is calling the U.S. arrogant for supporting Nobel Peace laureate Liu Xiaobo. The jailed dissident will be honored tomorrow at a ceremony in Oslo, while he's serving an 11-year sentence in China for inciting subversion. Beijing calling him a common criminal, saying that the Nobel Prize is a, quote, "western plot against the Chinese."
And Sarah Palin and the Swedish government have something in common this morning, WikiLeaks supporters have hacked both of their Web sites, the so-called "Hack-tivists" calling it "operation: payback," a show of support for jailed WikiLeaks chief, Julian Assange.
Yesterday, Palin's site was shut down several times after just a week after the former Alaska governor said that Assange had blood on his hands. Also, credit card giant Visa also knocked off line yesterday after announcing that they will no longer process payments to WikiLeaks. And MasterCard suffering the same fate for severing ties as well with the whistle-blowing Web site -- John.
ROBERTS: Well, the attacks appear to be the work of a group that calls itself Anonymous. So, who are these online hackers and how far might they be willing to go?
Let's bring in Noah Shachtman, he's a contributing editor at "Wired" magazine and the editor of the magazine's national security blog, "Danger Room."
So, what do we know about Anonymous, Noah?
NOAH SHACHTMAN, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR, WIRED MAGAZINE: We don't know that much. They started out on this online bulletin board 4Chan. And they've been sort of up to a bunch of pranks over years. They attacked Gene Simmons from KISS. They attacked his site.
ROBERTS: Now, why would anyone do that, though?
SHACHTMAN: Yes. I know. It's basically because he supported the recording industry. They tried to rig the "America's Next Top Model" competition for a favored last.
ROBERTS: So, this is getting a little bit more serious because they're now launching denial of service attacks against major companies like Visa, MasterCard, Post Finance, which is a Swiss bank. They're threatening to target Twitter. They targeted Sarah Palin. There are threats to target CNN.com even.
NOAH SHACHTMAN, EDITS NATIONAL SECURITY BLOG 'DANGER ROOM': Yes. No. It has gotten more serious. They went after the Australian government a couple of months ago for what they saw as internet censorship. And there are sort of vetoes (ph) of internet freedom, right, that they want information to be free.
ROBERTS: Yes.
SHACHTMAN: That runs through all of this pranks or attacks or whatever --
ROBERTS: So, how do they do this?
SHACHTMAN: Basically, it's pretty simple.
ROBERTS: I mean, in ways that we can understand.
SHACHTMAN: Yes, I know. This is actually pretty simple. You download a really simple piece of software that basically gives them control of your computer and then your computer kind of begs these websites at a zillion times a second to please pay attention to me, please pay attention --
ROBERTS: So, basically, you recruit a whole bunch of computers around the world that all try to log into this website at the same time.
SHACHTMAN: Right. And that basically takes it down.
ROBERTS: Traffic jam.
SHACHTMAN: Yes, exactly. ROBERTS: Spokesperson for the group Anonymous talked to the guardian newspaper in the UK, and here's what he said about all of this. It goes to the side of censorship that you were talking about. They said, quote, "we disagree with any form of censorship on the internet. If we let WikiLeaks fall without a fight, then governments will think they can just take down any sites they wish or disagree with."
So, is there a real war for freedom of speech being fought here in cyberspace?
SHACHTMAN: Well, I think there's a lot of different ideas of freedom speech, right? And I think there's a new component to it which is not only expressing yourself but kind of going after the other guy that and that's kind of new. We've seen it a couple of times in state versus state kind of warfare with the Russians and the Georgians, the Israelis and the Palestinians, but this is in the state at all (ph). These are just (ph) bunch of guys.
ROBERTS: So far, it's only been denial of service attacks, but is there the potential that this war could get even nastier and maybe start to tread into the realm of the dangerous by them going deeper into these websites and actually hacking into them, maybe stealing information or removing security blocks that are there so that other people could get in?
SHACHTMAN: Yes. I mean, that's always a possibility with any hacker group, but I wouldn't, you know, get all hot and bothered about it right away.
ROBERTS: But what about companies? Are they prepared to fight this battle?
SHACHTMAN: Well, look, you know, Joe's hardware who happens to have a website does not have to worry about anonymous going after them.
ROBERTS: Sure.
SHACHTMAN: You know, we're talking about big major companies here. Time Warner, MasterCard that have pretty sophisticated computer security defenses.
ROBERTS: So, where could all of this be heading?
SHACHTMAN: Well, I think, look, it's showing that a very small group of people loosely connected over the internet can have like pretty major geopolitical impact. And that's new and interesting, and somewhat frightening, and in some ways, exhilarating, too.
ROBERTS: It's a whole new world out there. Noah Shachtman, good to see you this morning.
SHACHTMAN: Thanks for having me.
ROBERTS: Thank you so much. Well, the stepfather of Julian Assange is talking about all of this, and we'll be hearing what that's all about coming right up. It's now 17-and-a-half after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Yes, it is weird. So, why even -- well, it can be a real hassle trying to travel with a family pet.
ROBERTS: Yes, this is definitely weird.
CHETRY: Especially if the family pet is 1600-pound buffalo named Bailey. He can be seen right here. He is so cute.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: Bailey is so cute. His owner drives him around town in an old Pontiac with the roof torn off, and he just hops in there, the little dog, too. And one day, he hopes to take himself on the stampede circuit, but can he do tricks, you asked?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on. Lay down. Lay down. Lay down. oh, goodness. You take up so much room. Hey. That's my baby.
CHETRY: He was apparently bottled fed. So, you know, that is his daddy. That's his daddy. And daddy wants to take his baby for a ride. And they are very creative about doing it.
ROBERTS: What does a 1600-pound buffalo drink out of a bottle?
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Anything he wants to.
CHETRY: A lot of milk.
ROBERTS: Call it iCaroling. Check this out. The Northpoint Community Church iBand put on a Christmas concert in Georgia using only virtual instruments, drums, bells, guitars, synthesizer, and percussion on iPads and also on couple of iPhones. How many folks there --
CHETRY: Pretty cool. I'm just scared that 20 years down the road, kids aren't going to know what instruments are. What is a drum? I have all of this on my iPad.
ROBERTS: You know, Northpoint is actually the church that I go to in Atlanta, and their house band, they're just amazing. They put out this Christmas CD that's fantastic.
CHETRY: That is amazing. So, these guys aren't the house band? They're just having fun.
ROBERTS: They could be members of the house band. Obviously, they're musically inclined.
CHETRY: Pretty cool.
President Obama is also the myth buster. To the joy of millions of nerds, the president popped up on the popular show last night. A show that he said makes science fun. Many challenge the guys to below up something with a solar ray. It aired right after a new study basically said that American kids are just C students in Math and Science.
ROBERTS: And grab a snickers or grab a bottle of wine? Wal-Mart is now looking at installing wine vending machines in its Pennsylvania's stores after several other stores got them. You can choose for more than 50 different varieties of wine. The machine requires customer's, of course, this (ph) driver's license. Got to have identification. Even take a breathalyzer test before they can buy a bottle.
CHETRY: I guess, it's all matter of convenience.
ROBERTS: I guess. I guess, it's like you buy a Coke out of a vending machine versus buying it off the store shelf. So --
CHETRY: Yes. There you go.
Well, some children are easy prey for bullies. They don't have to be, though. Coming up part one of our series, "Empowering Our Kids." We're going to see how two teachers had an idea to help these most vulnerable students take a stand and take the target off their backs. Coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Twenty-five minutes past the hour right now. A lot of people ask how do you fight back against bullies. It's a question that a lot of parents and schools are grappling with, and we wanted to come with some solutions. So, our first part of our series, "Empowering Our Kids," we take a look at a program that was started by two teachers who noticed that the kids getting bullied often lack the social skills to know how to deal with the bullying. So, they're trying to give these kids the tools they need to stand up for themselves. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, everybody. How was your week at school?
CHETRY (voice-over): A simple question, but in this Mamaroneck, New York class, some troubling answers.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: As being bumped by this kid.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A boy?
UNIDENTIFIED KID: Yes. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. And what is he saying to you?
UNIDENTIFIED KID: He's saying like swear words at me, and he keeps trying to punch me in the face.
CHETRY: So, he's here to get some help. Eleven-year-olds Michael Cohen and Colin Horton are no strangers to bullying.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: We get picked on so many times.
MICHAEL COHEN, 6TH GRADE STUDENT: We've been bullied and most of all name-calling.
CHETRY: Does this happen in the classroom?
MICHAEL COHEN: Well, usually, it happens at recess.
CHETRY: And they have something else in common. A diagnosis of high-functioning autism. Their mothers say it makes them targets.
What as parents, as mothers, goes through your head when you have to deal with this?
EILEEN COHEN, MICHAEL'S MOM: You just want to run and protect them or run to the school and scream at someone.
SUSAN HANDLER, CO-FOUNDER, SOCIABLE KIDZ: OK. Let's practice again, one, two, three.
A lot of children who are on the spectrum just tend to take it, you know, or they'll fight back, but physically fight back. They just don't have the right skills or techniques. They don't know what to do.
CHETRY: Teachers Susan Handler and Monica Weber started the company, Sociable Kidz, to give these students the tools they need to face bullies in school.
HANDLER: What we're going to do now is we're going to practice using our "I" statements like I am upset with you. I don't like what you're doing.
CHETRY: What are some other coping mechanisms that you give the kids here to deal with if they're being picked on a school?
HANDLER: We have mirrors. So, we look in front of the mirror because, sometimes, when you're talking to somebody, you don't know what you look like. And so, they practice that over and over.
UNIDENTIFIED KID: I don't really like what you did, so I want you to stop.
HANDLER: Excellent.
CHETRY: They also practice through role playing.
HANDLER: I want you to stop.
MONICA WEBER, CO-FOUNDER, SOCIABLE KIDZ: It's a very safe environment. And they know, OK, I'm not going through this. I'm not the only one that's experiencing this.
CHETRY: Colin and Michael's moms say the classes are making a difference.
JESSICA HORTON, COLIN'S MOM: They're helping him believe in himself and not believe all of the bad things.
EILEEN COHEN: It's really helped Michael to stop and think before he reacts.
CHETRY: Michael says he's already tried out his "I" statements at school.
MICHAEL COHEN: I said, I don't like what you're saying. So if you -- so if you hate me a lot, why don't you leave me alone then?
CHETRY: Did it work?
MICHAEL COHEN: A little.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: The progress can be a little bit slow, but the mothers of the boys say they're thrilled that they're actually putting some of these skills to work in the classroom and outside of the classroom at recess. They also say the most important thing, the teachers say is that the kids actually gain some self-confidence because the kids that have been attending these classes together have developed a little circle of friends and hear positive things from one another and compliments and know that they're accepted. And so, that's really helping their self esteem.
ROBERTS: It's a nice to see, because when a child is bullied, it just really tear them apart inside, really tear down their self-esteem and their confidence. But, is there any evidence to suggest that kids who are in the autism spectrum are more likely to be bullied than other kids?
CHETRY: Well, anecdotally, yes. When they interview parents in the study, they found 94 percent of the parents that were interviewed with children on the autism spectrum say that their children were victims of bullies. Autism Speaks, which is an advocacy organization, is actually now funding a study to try to get some more concrete answers about whether or not being on the autism spectrum makes you more likely to be bullied.
ROBERTS: What else are you going to be talking about?
CHETRY: Well, tomorrow, this is really fascinating. They're saying -- this was giving kids who get bullied the tools to deal with the bullies. Our next piece is not even -- the person who came up with this program called Roots of Empathy, they never thought it actually was to target bullies, it was just to make people, in general, more empathetic and aware of other people's feelings.
They bring a baby and a mother into the classroom starting at the age of two to four months, and the kids get to know this baby. And they actually learn from the baby how to be more empathetic, and this actually dropped bullying. It's dropped people -- the kids who aren't paying attention. It's brought out kids who are shy or may have a stutter, and it's really transformed the classroom. They want to try to bring this onto a bigger scale.
ROBERTS: Looking forward to that. Tomorrow morning, right?
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: Excellent. Great.
Well, it's a snowstorm for the history books. Places around the Great Lakes are buried. It's been snowing for more than 120 hours straight in Syracuse and 44 inches have come down since Saturday. They closed schools there.
CHETRY: Cyber warfare, Wikileaks supporters call it "Operation Payback." Hackers taking down the Swedish government's website overnight, Sarah Palin who had criticized Julian Assange, her site also shut down, Visa and MasterCard as well.
ROBERTS: And a warning from senior White House economic adviser Larry Summers to his Democratic colleagues. Summers said there's a risk of a double dip recession if the tax cut is not approved. That is despite a message for months from the White House that such a possibility was not likely.
CHETRY: A 21-year-old construction work from Baltimore in custody this morning for allegedly trying to below up a U.S. recruitment center with a fake bomb after linking up with an FBI informant.
ROBERTS: The bomb was constructed by the FBI so they knew that it wasn't going to be a problem. The suspect is a U.S. citizen named Antonio Martinez. He first got the attention of the feds on Facebook. Our Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: John and Kiran, another allegation of homegrown terrorism, another military target, another FBI sting, another arrest.
A Jihadi video on the Facebook page of Mohamed Hussein, along with posts like this -- "I love Sheik Anwar al Awalki. I don't care if he's on the terrorist list," a reference to the U.S. born cleric now a leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Mohamed Hussein's real name is Antonio Martinez. He is a U.S. citizen, 21, a convert to Islam, and he's now facing two terror charges. ROD ROSENSTEIN, U.S. ATTORNEY: The defendant approached three other people and asked them to participate in his scheme. All three turned him down and one of them actively tried to talk the defendant out of pursuing his plan.
MESERVE: Martinez allegedly plotted to attack this armed forces recruiting station in Catonsville, Maryland, outside Baltimore. He mention Nidal Hasan and allegedly said "Every soldier that we see in uniform will be killed on the spot, they will be killed until they stop waging war against Islam."
The FBI tipped to Martinez's plan by an informant provide a fake bomb. Wednesday morning when he tried to detonate it he was arrested.
WILL ECKENRODE, WITNESS: We had no idea what was going on. And the whole parking lot just became swarmed with police.
MESERVE: Last month the FBI ran a similar sting against a man in Portland, Oregon who allegedly wanted to detonate a bomb at a Christmas tree lighting. Martinez was concerned that he too was being set up, but he decided to proceed with the plot despite multiple efforts to dissuade him. Officials say the stings are not entrapment.
JANET NAPOLITANO, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: There are rules that govern them and they are done very carefully and the FBI abides by those rules, law enforcement abides by those rules, but they are important tool to have.
MESERVE (on camera): This is the latest in a lengthening string of domestic terror case. But law enforcement officials say in this case the public was never in any danger but law enforcement officials maintain the plot could have come to a very different conclusion if they had not intervened and Martinez had found others with similar intent. They do not expect additional arrests. John and Kiran, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: Jeanne Meserve is Washington this morning.
CHETRY: Supporters of WikiLeaks waging a war against anybody who crosses the whistle-blowing site. The stepfather of the chief of WikiLeaks wants the world to know that he is proud of his son. Brett Assange raised Julian from the age of one. In an interview with Australia's Seven Network, he said he knew right from the start he knew his stepson was destined for greatness.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRETT ASSANGE, JULIAN ASSANGE'S STEPFATHER: He was always very independent. And he certainly wouldn't take no for an answer. He fell out of a tree once and broke his arm, and I remember that he was lying there in what appeared to be great deal of pain. He didn't cry or anything like that, didn't want to show his emotions.
He always stood up for the underdog. I remember that. Like with his school friends. He was always very angry about people ganging up on other people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTS: Take a look at this. An Antarctic cruise ship crawling back to land after a high seas nightmare. The ship was heading to Argentina from the Antarctic when it was slammed by a monster wave. This is the trip back. Take a look at that, the ship coming out from the water line there. All of the 88 passengers on board are Americans. No injuries reported. The ship expected to arrive back in Argentina early tomorrow, which is not a moment too soon I can imagine for those folks on board.
CHETRY: That wasn't the monster wave that hit that broke the windows and caused the damage.
ROBERTS: The seas look to be at least 40-feet there.
CHETRY: They are giving it away -- 16 billionaires signing on the pledge to donate most of their fortune to charity. That includes Mark Zuckerberg who recently donated $100 million to a school district in Newark, New Jersey. The list now includes more than 50 billionaires, including George Lucas as well as New York mayor Michael Bloomberg.
ROBERTS: Coming up, no energy drink for you. Officials in suburban New York are considering a ban on energy drinks for teenagers.
CHETRY: And the fear of food allergies coming up the new standards for do, that hopefully will help kids and parents make better food choices. It's 36 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back. It's now 39 minutes past the hour. Back in the day your mom would bake brownies for you to bring to school, pack a peanut butter sandwich for a class trip. Not anymore because of food allergies and more and more kids who are deathly allergic in some cases to certain foods.
But while the danger is real, getting an accurate diagnosis is not easy. There is one report out now saying that more than half of diagnosed food allergies are really just perhaps a sensitivity to certain foods, and some brand new guidelines will help parents make better decisions in what to avoid but what the two allow their children to eat.
Joining us now is Dr. Hugh Sampson. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. My daughter has food allergies as well, and she had the skin tests like a lot of children do, the blood test, and it was determined she couldn't have milk. And then upon further review we found out that, indeed, that's something we could bring back into her diet.
So what were the results of this study when it comes to figuring out what your child truly cannot eat and what they may be able to put back in their diet?
DR. HUGH SAMPSON, MT. SINAI MEDICAL CENTER: I think what the guidelines have done is shown us that many of these tests are not as specific as many people believe. What this does is give you a good outline what needs to be done as far as what kind of questions and the history are important to help guide the further diagnosis, and then also showing that the skin test alone or the blood test alone doesn't give the final answer. It requires some interpretation.
CHETRY: Backing up just a little bit -- the way parents find out their kids are allergic their children have a reaction to certain foods. At a very young age I gave her peanut butter and she broke out in hives. So then the parents avoid that. What's the process now by which you should figure out what foods your kids should avoid?
SAMPSON: It's important to get that history. We know that with different kinds of foods the natural history varies. So with peanut allergy only about 20 percent children will outgrow. With milk allergy, for example, 80 percent will eventually outgrow it.
So it's important to talk to your physician, get the appropriate evaluation, which may be a blood test or a skin test just to document that, in fact, it was specifically the peanut butter. In this case it's pretty obvious. All the time it's not that obvious. Then appropriately follow it over time.
CHETRY: The interesting thing about this, you say there's a lot of people self-diagnosing. A few years back you're telling people what to avoid, now you're telling people it's OK to bring these foods back into the diet. Why is that?
SAMPSON: I think that there is much more public awareness of food allergy. When I first started doing this several years ago, people were not that aware and they didn't know how to avoid the food appropriately. Today there's much greater knowledge, so people are doing more self-diagnosing and actually getting off foods they probably don't need to.
CHETRY: They got to try to work with their doctor to figure out whether or not they can be including foods they avoid. The reason we're talking about this we've seen this huge rise in food allergies in the United States, three million children under the age of 18 as of 2007. That's almost a 20 percent increase from ten years ago. Why are we seeing this?
SAMPSON: That's a great question. It seems to be something that's restricted to the westernized or industrialized type countries. We don't see this same thing in areas like China where they eat as much peanut as we do per capita, African countries, Asian countries. So there's something we're doing in our lifestyle that's different that's causing us to develop these allergies.
CHETRY: Are we to clean are we too sanitized between anti- bacterial everything sanitized, sterile environment, vaccines and all the antibiotics. Are we making our bodies unable to fight allergies? SAMPSON: Our immune system is dependent on the bacteria that line our intestinal tract. This is very important for programming the immune system to respond appropriately to the environment. If we suddenly make a change in that our immune system doesn't adjust that quickly, and this may be one of the reasons why we're seeing more allergy and even other diseases.
CHETRY: That is interesting, because you guys do a ton of seven at Mount Sinai, and one of the things you were talking about is possibly introducing parasites into drinking water, obviously in a controlled way, but to figure out because we see in developed countries, I mean undeveloped countries or underdeveloped countries, because they don't have these allergies.
SAMPSON: They are looking at things, such as in this case the egg of a parasite that would not penetrate into the human, but this may reprogram the immune system to react more appropriately to the foods that we eat.
CHETRY: And you think down the road we'll find ways to either come up with a vaccine or eliminate the prevalence of food allergy?
SAMPSON: I'm pretty optimistic. We have a number of different therapies in the pipeline that are in human trials, and I'm very hopeful one of these will pan out.
CHETRY: Yes, because families with kids with food allergies it's a daily struggle. We're learning more and more. Dr. Sampson, great to see you, as always. Thanks so much.
SAMPSON: Thank you.
CHETRY: John?
ROBERTS: Thanks, Kiran.
If you live in one county near New York City, you may have to show your I.D. card before you buy your next Red Bull. A Suffolk County legislator wants to ban anybody under the age of 19 from buying energy drinks with more than 80 milligrams of caffeine per serving. The ban will be the first of its kind in the country. They could vote on it early next year.
Score one for Darwin. Louisiana's high school biology textbooks have survived the latest assault on evolution education. A state education committee voted to approve an industry standard text, one that conservative critics attacked for failing to teach the controversy about evolution.
Well, it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas and feel a lot like February here in the Big Apple. Extreme cold is causing problems from the Canadian border all the way down to Disney World. Rob Marciano has got a look just ahead.
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CHETRY: That's "Glee". It's big in this.
ROBERTS: They -- they did this on "Glee" this week.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: Well, it is cold outside. So I don't think there's a lot of "Glee" in Atlanta this morning; 20 degrees -- 20 degrees, its four degrees warmer here in New York this morning. But don't worry about it because you guys are going to be warmer actually for your high today, 45 degrees for a high in Atlanta. Well, we're only going up to 32.
ROBERTS: No. Not exactly high in Atlanta, though. The snow still burying cities around the Great Lakes and far away from the U.S. this morning, it's been one for the history books in Syracuse where they broke their daily snowfall record. Three days in a row, 44 inches have buried the city since Saturday. They even had to take the dramatic step of closing down the schools.
CHETRY: Wow.
Well, snow has not -- have even shut down the Eiffel Tower. These are pictures out of France. This is from our friends in CNN's Paris Bureau shot this morning. They are hoping to reopen at least the first floor but they have to be able to clear away the snow before they can do that.
Rob Marciano is in the Extreme Weather Center for us. So winter is starting early -- Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and you know they had similar weather last year. Although they haven't seen that much snow in France or in Paris in over 20 years and -- they don't want to be throwing salt down on the Eifel Tower. You know I start crowing (ph) that thing too early it's been around a while. I want to keep it.
Thirty-nine inches of snow in Burton, Ohio, how about that? In Pennsylvania, three feet; Chester -- Chesterland, 29 inches and other parts of upstate New York has seen similar numbers with this lake- effect snow event that is finally winding down.
Teens, 20s across the major metropolitan areas and this number and this weather really hasn't changed much in the past couple of days, a couple of flurries and certainly breezy and chilly. But the lake-effect snows are starting to wind down in Cleveland up to Buffalo and Syracuse which as you mentioned set some records there.
This is not lake-effect. This is a little Alberta clipper, not a whole a lot of snow with this but certainly some colder air behind it and that will reinforce what's already very chilly across the Midwest right now.
Very chilly air across parts of Florida but a little disturbance rolling through south Florida, kind of saved them bringing in moisture, a little bit of light rain and that cloud cover keeping temperatures up today. And that made for a little bit of easier time for farmers down across the central and southern Florida as opposed to yesterday where record lows were set. Thirty-seven degrees was the record low in West Palm Beach; Ft. Lauderdale all -- all the way to 39, 32 and zero and 31 degrees below freezing obviously in Orlando.
Today's daytime high a little milder but again, we've got a reinforcing shot of cold air with a couple of systems, one that's plowing to the Pacific Northwest. And that one is going to stir up some trouble over the weekend creating a storm system that will dump a decent amounts of snow across parts of the Ohio River Valley, the Allegheny Plateau, the Appalachians. I think the major metropolitan areas won't see snow until the back end of this thing comes through and that mean there will be mostly a rain event, but definitely cold as this thing exits on Monday and Tuesday.
John and Kiran, back up to you.
ROBERTS: Rob thanks so much.
MARCIANO: All right.
ROBERTS: But what's on your iPod play list labeled road trip? With more than 50 million Americans expected to hit the road this holiday season, Pioneer Electronics wanted to find out what's the most popular cruising song is.
You may have been able to guess the number one there, "On the Road Again", Willie Nelson; and "Born to be Wild", Steppenwolf, number two; the Eagles "Take it Easy", well, not for driving around New York City; Number four, The Beach Boys "I Get Around"; and "Highway to Hell" AC/DC.
CHETRY: That's what I always consider number one.
ROBERTS: That's for driving around New York City.
CHETRY: Yes and "I Can't Drive 55" --
(CROSSTALK)
ROBERTS: And that was -- that was the most popular among younger people. "I Can't Drive 55" that's your favorite?
CHETRY: Well, I like "Highway to Hell."
ROBERTS: "Highway to Hell" is a great song. It's good too, that's on my road trip list. Tom Cochran's "Life is a Highway" as well as the Rascal Flatts version of that song.
CHETRY: Yes I also like -- what's the one -- what's the one -- by Jay-Z and Beyonce? You know the one about cruising down the West Side Highway, I love that one too.
ROBERTS: You're asking the wrong fellow here.
CHETRY: Ok, fine.
Well, success for Spacex. The first commercial spacecraft to orbit the earth returned yesterday splashing down the Pacific. The company called "Spacex" launched its Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral. It's carrying the Dragon space capsule. Spacex is hoping to pick up where the space shuttle leaves off next year flying cargo and eventually astronauts to the International Space Station.
ROBERTS: All right, lift off. Fifty-two minutes after the hour. We'll be right back.
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CHETRY: Welcome. Just in to CNN now, good news. Fingers crossed on the jobs. According to the Labor Department fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits. So, breaking that down on the broader issue of unemployment, our Christine Romans joins us now. So what does it mean?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, every week we get this number that shows how many people filed for the very first time for jobless benefits. Last week it was 421,000. That number is still too high.
But we, for so long, have had 450,000 up to 500,000 people every week filing for jobless benefits. 421,000 is better than economists have predicted and it shows this very near-term trend of fewer and fewer people filing for the first time for those jobless benefits.
Also when I look at the continuing claims, these are the people who are filing for their second week or more of jobless benefits that number was the lowest in two years.
ROBERTS: That's nice.
ROMANS: That tells us that there's something happening on the front end here. We talked about this; people who are newly-unemployed or having slightly better time -- newly unemployed having a slightly better time finding a job.
ROBERTS: Help us out here. What level of filing for unemployment benefits would indicate that things are really doing well?
ROMANS: Below 400,000 to start easing in to the unemployment rate and even below that to be a signal that we're growing jobs.
ROBERTS: Did you go back in the day when we had 4.5 percent unemployment? What the jobless claims were?
ROMANS: You always had -- you always had jobless claims --
ROBERTS: Do you know what --
ROMANS: Hundreds of thousands, you always do, because it's a dynamic economy. You always have people coming and going, and coming and going. But this whole 450,000 and higher it was just -- it was too uncomfortable for too long.
ROBERTS: So this is getting close to good?
ROMANS: It's getting close to not bad, which is what we want to see. We would like to see below 400,000 so we can ease into the unemployment rate and we'd like to see job creation, sustained job creation. And we'd like to see people who have been out of work for six months or longer finding a job. And that's still been the problem.
CHETRY: Right.
ROMANS: That will be the story of 2011. It will be the story of people newly unemployed starting to find work and the people who have been out of work for a very long time feeling like they've been left behind and that will be the question of how to fix that.
CHETRY: There's some interesting op-eds saying that even if the economy grows some jobs are just gone because of increased productivity, because they're just not jobs that require a human being there anymore.
ROMANS: I would say that the change in the labor market has been cataclysmic. And they're going to keep trying to figure out where they sit in it for years to come.
ROBERTS: We'll be (INAUDIBLE) Matchbox 20 song, "Back to Good", the theme song for next year. All right.
ROMANS: There you go. There you go.
ROBERTS: Thanks Christine.
CHETRY: Thanks Christine.
ROBERTS: Fifty-six minutes after hour. We'll be right back.
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CHETRY: I want to hear the song. It goes like this.
(MUSIC)
CHETRY: There you go. A little throw back. Janis Joplin this morning.
ROBERTS: The next for the whole hour -- that's going to wrap it up for us this morning. Ok. Enough with Janis.
Thanks for joining us this morning. We'll see you back here bright and early again tomorrow morning.
CHETRY: We sure will. And it will be Happy Friday time.
Meanwhile, "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts right now. Hey Kyra.
