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American Morning
Gunman Open Fires on Florida School Board; Canadian Military Called to Rescue Stuck Divers; Vegas Bellagio Casino Heist Caught on Tape; What Families Lost in Recession; "Facebook Of Philanthropy"
Aired December 15, 2010 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Good Wednesday morning to you. We're halfway through the month already. It's the 15th of December. Thanks for being with us. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. We have a lot going on this morning. We want to get you caught up.
A bizarre scene at a school board meeting in Florida. A gunman first ranting then spray painting the walls before opening fire on board members. Every horrifying moment was caught on tape. How it all began, and the tragic ending in a moment.
ROBERTS: Icy roads, mountains of snow, hundreds of drivers stuck in the bitter cold for 24 hours. The military called in to pull them out along the Canadian border. The latest in the rescue efforts. The arctic plunge in the east and the snow that will just not stop.
CHETRY: And it's like a scene out of the movie. Call it "Oceans" one. An armed robber walks into the Bellagio in Las Vegas, walks out with $1.5 million worth of casino chips. How did he pull it off? And was this the first time?
ROBERTS: Up first, a gunman opening fire at a Florida school board meeting. The dramatic -- and that is a really sort of understated word to use, standoff, ending in a hail of bullets caught on a live Internet video feed of the meeting.
CHETRY: Yes. It started when Clay Duke armed with a handgun and a can of spray paint, got up from the back of the room where he was sitting throughout the meeting and began ranting. He then pointed the gun directly at the superintendent and open fire. Board members hitting the ground, hiding under their desks, and amazingly even though he was shooting right at them, no one was hurt. The bullets missed all of them at close range. And in the end, Duke took his own life. And we have to warn you the video you're about to see is disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIAM HUSFELT, SUPERINTENDENT, BAY COUNTY: He made up his mind and you could tell he was going to die. My concern was how many people was he going to take with him.
CHETRY (voice-over): Cameras were rolling, recording every chilling moment. 56-year-old Clay Duke, first spray painting a "V" on the wall, then pulling out a handgun on Bay County school board members.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You may leave. You may leave. And you can leave. Six men stay. Everyone else leaves.
CHETRY: Then in a bizarre moment, school board member Ginger Littleton tries to stop Duke, hitting him with her purse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No.
CHETRY: At that point, school superintendent William Husfelt knew things were about to get worse.
HUSFELT: He came up over towards the backside of us and started saying somebody's going to die in here. You know, that I'm upset, I'm mad. You fired my wife. My wife lost her job, my family -- he was just rambling. We didn't know what he was talking about.
CHETRY: Husfelt tried to reason with Duke not knowing the gunman was about to snap.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just listen to me for a minute. I don't want anybody to get hurt. And I've got a feeling is what you want the cops to come in and kill you because you're mad. Because you said you're going to die today. But why? This isn't worth it. This is a problem.
Please don't. Please don't. Please.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Unbelievable scene. He was shooting and he missed all of them. He was then shot and wounded by the school board's chief of security. That's who shot him off camera in the knee. He was not fatally wounded by that shot, but then officers say that he turned the gun on himself. He was transported to the hospital but he died.
ROBERTS: What is really most extraordinary about watching that video is how calm the school board members were. Bill Husfelt was trying to reason with him very calm. Another fellow on the board too, right up until the time that he leveled the gun at them.
CHETRY: Right.
ROBERTS: And you could see the panic set in.
CHETRY: But even then, they did the right thing. They all went underneath the desk, and he also -- and you're going to be talking to him a little bit later, Bill Husfelt also said I'm the one that signed the papers, let everybody else go. Because he was complaining --
ROBERTS: Yes, your argument is with me.
CHETRY: Yes, about his wife being let go. She'd worked for the district. And just a bizarre scene and the fact that all of it was caught on camera. A lot of questions still remain this morning. ROBERTS: Husfelt said that when Duke first pulled the trigger, he thought he had been shot. And he said his thoughts went to his kids and that's when he really got upset. But then he discovered that hey, he missed. My God, how did he miss? And then thankfully, the chief of security was there and took him down.
CHETRY: Unbelievable.
Well, at 7:10 Eastern, in just an hour, we're going to be joined live by Superintendent William Husfelt and also the board member, Ginger Littleton. You saw here in the video as well. She was the woman who tried to stop Duke by hitting him from behind with her handbag. They're going to join us with more on this bizarre and tragic ending to that school board meeting.
ROBERTS: Wow, bunch of lucky people there.
Extreme weather now. They're getting it again. Another huge lake effect snowstorm tearing across the Midwest and upstate New York. Up to 15 inches of snow expected by tonight on top of all of that snow that's already on the ground and wind chills that remain 10 degrees below zero.
CHETRY: It is just a mess out there and they're still getting pummeled in northeast Ohio this morning. Two feet of snow and counting in some of the areas already hard hit. Many schools in the region are already out of snow days for the entire year. And we're at December 15th.
ROBERTS: It's going to be a longer school year. It won't be finished until July. This cold snap is literally stretching from one end of the country to the other from Canada to the Key West. Winter hats and coats out across the Sunshine State. Cities all over Florida broke or flirted with record lows yesterday, and they will again today.
CHETRY: Meantime, the search continues for cars and people in them buried in the snow this morning after a brutal and blinding snowstorm left some drivers stuck in some cases for an entire day near the U.S./Canada border. Take a look at the size of the snowdrifts. Cars totally covered. Some people ran out of gas and the plows were even unable to get through. More than 300 people spent a frigid night like this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's one thing to be in a whiteout. I've been in a whiteout before where it's like, you know, a 10-second gust of wind that came over. But this continued for 12 and 14 hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Plows are stuck, fire trucks are stuck, police vehicles are stuck. It's just a mess.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Some people were rescued on snowmobiles, Others airlifted to a warmer place by the Canadian military on choppers and transport plane. And you know full well what Canadian weather is like. A lot of people said we can handle this, but it was this layer of black ice that made it nearly impossible to drive.
ROBERTS: That was difficult weather, even for Canada.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: And usually you just break out the snow shoes and do whatever you need to do. But that was tough yesterday.
Rob Marciano is in Ohio yesterday. He's making his way back to Atlanta slowly. He stopped in Louisville, Kentucky, this morning where it's barely cracking the double digits. Rob joins us now.
Good morning, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, guys. This cold snap as you mentioned affecting everybody from the Canadian border to temperatures in the freezing -- below freezing across southern Florida. And in the middle, we've got bitterly cold temperatures and a little storm that wants to crank up across the southern plains and tap some moisture from the Gulf of Mexico. So as that happens and this cold air is in place, well, you can just imagine what's going to go down here later on today and tonight.
It's currently six, or at least that's what it feels like in Louisville, Kentucky. Feels like it's five when you factor in the wind chill in Cincinnati. It feels like minus six in Indianapolis. But for our purposes over the next 36 to 46 hours, it's what the actual temperature is as this moisture comes in.
Right now, the real temperature is 12 degrees in Louisville. Obviously that is well below freezing and will support frozen precipitation. And here's where that precip is. From Memphis back through Montgomery and Birmingham, this is going to intensify throughout the day. The pink you see on the map there, that is a mixture of rain, sleet, freezing rain, and some snow. And that will be moving into this colder air and begin to fill in as we go out throughout the day today.
So, here are the watches and warnings today through tomorrow. The pink is the winter storm warning that's posted for much of Kentucky, including Louisville and Lexington. The Ohio and Tennessee valleys here over the next 36 hours will be under the gun as far as seeing some intense winter weather. And they're not the only one. We're going to see a storm across the four corners in the Intermountain West and continues to be windy across the northeast.
The time line is this here in Louisville and Lexington. Snow starts this afternoon. It turns to a mixture of sleet and freezing rain overnight tonight. And then by this time tomorrow, guys, we could see one to two inches of snow, crusty snow and ice not only on the grassy surfaces, but on the roadways because it's been cold enough to basically defreeze this ground. You're not going to see a situation where the frozen stuff hits the ground and melts. It's going to be here for quite some time. Back to you guys in New York.
CHETRY: And as we said, some of these towns and cities out of snow days already. I mean, this is unreal.
MARCIANO: It's been quite a start to the winter that hasn't even arrived yet. That's for sure.
CHETRY: I know. Officially, I guess, it's several more days away. Thanks, Rob.
Well, talk about a freak storm. This is a tornado two weeks before Christmas in Oregon no less. It tore a five-mile path through a southeast town, southeast of Salem around lunchtime yesterday damaging dozens of buildings, tearing roofs off a few of them and lifting some homes clear off of their foundations. No reports of anyone seriously hurt. It is the first tornado of 2010 in the state and only the fifth they've seen in the past decade.
ROBERTS: Also new this morning, that critical Senate vote is scheduled for today on the tax cut deal that impacts every American. The deal brokered by President Obama and Republicans was debated well into last night. And while it is expected to pass the Senate, it's not clear what will happen when the measure reaches the House where opposition to it is far stronger.
CHETRY: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted bail but is still in a London jail for now because a lawyer who represented the Swedish prosecutors filed an appeal that still keeps him behind bars. Mr. Assange is wanted in Sweden on alleged sex crimes. The next hearing is scheduled to take place within two days.
Meanwhile, filmmaker Michael Moore is somebody who offered $20,000 out of his own money to help bail out Assange. He says that if WikiLeaks did not exist that we would not know about war crimes that took place at the hands of the U.S. government and military.
ROBERTS: Well, here's the story that's bound to get a lot of attention today. A man may have been cured of HIV in Germany. Researchers there report that back in 2007 the man who also had leukemia had his immune system wiped out with chemotherapy and radiation. Then he received a bone marrow transplant. Now three years later, the patient remains HIV free. One AIDS doctor here in the United States says it's probably a cure, but it does come at a bit of a price.
CHETRY: They have to wipe out the immune system completely, which many people don't survive to begin with. So they say biologically it may be a cure, but it doesn't look like it's going to be a viable treatment option.
Meanwhile, a popular artificial sweetener saccharin no longer considered a potential health risk. The government actually removed it from the EPA's list of hazardous substances. The sweetener can be found in popular diet drinks, in chewing gums, and mouthwash. It was labeled a potentially cancer-causing substance in the 1980s, but a reevaluation found that is not the case.
ROBERTS: Coming up, a brazen bandit makes off with $1.5 million in casino chips from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Got to reminisce the devotion (ph) to "Eleven."
How did he do it? Well, it wasn't quite as involved as George Clooney and crew? Was it a repeat performance? A live report from Las Vegas just ahead.
CHETRY: Actor Ed Norton creating a Web site so that you and your friends and everyone who wants to give back can do it easier. It's our big stars big giving series and he talks with our Alina Cho.
ROBERTS: And "Viva Tequila," Mexico's world famous drink now has a place to call its own. And it's not your local bar either.
It's 11 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Thirteen minutes past the hour right now. Police in Las Vegas this morning searching for a gunman who pulled off a Hollywood- style heist at the Bellagio hotel on the Vegas strip. He made off with $1.5 million worth of casino chips.
ROBERTS: The surveillance cameras caught the robber running out of the Bellagio to his getaway motorcycle. Police suspect the same man struck a different casino, the Sun Coast last week.
Our Casey Wian is following developments for us live in Las Vegas. And you don't want to rob a casino, you just run in, pull a gun, and run right back out. It would seem you don't need all that elaborate planning that they did in the movies.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, there have been 10 casino robberies in Las Vegas so far this year. And Las Vegas police say the one that took place at the Bellagio behind me yesterday really takes the cake and in terms of how brazen and unusual it was. As you said, a man pulled up on a motorcycle to one of the valet parking areas of this high-end casino, and he walked into the craps area, bypassed the cashiers' booth where the cash was and took casino chips. Here's how police say the robbery went down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. CLINT NICHOLS, LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPT.: He then entered the casino and went directly to a craps table where he confronted several patrons with a firearm. He told everyone not to move and he took approximately $1.5 million worth of casino chips. The suspect then ran back out of the casino following his original route, jumped on his motorcycle and exited westbound on Flamingo at a high rate of speed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIAN: Now, as you mentioned, a few days ago there was a robbery at the SunCoast Casino, which is off the strip, about 20 minutes from here. In that case, the robber walked in, also wearing the motorcycle helmet, a different-colored one, a silver one this time, but police suspect it was the same robbery suspect, that in this robbery previously, he actually walked up to the cashier's booth and received $20,000 in cash or some amount, slightly less than $20,000 in cash.
Now, what's interesting about the robbery yesterday at the Bellagio, this $1.5 million in casino chips, some of those kips were - chips were very high denomination chips, up to $25,000 on a single chip, and those high denomination chips have security devices, many of them, implanted in them. And casinos have security procedures with these chips to make sure that the - if there's a robbery that these robbers aren't going to be able to cash them in either at their casino or at another casino.
They wouldn't talk about what specific measures are employed in this case, but they seemed fairly confident that this robber's not going to get away with a lot of cash, even though he took $1.5 million worth of chips - John, Kiran.
CHETRY: You know, that's what a lot of us were wondering. I mean, is there some system in place because, I mean, technically - I mean, if - if you steal the money, obviously, you make off with the money. But the chips, you have to go back to the scene of the crime, right, to try to cash them in?
WIAN: Right. And that's one of the theories that investigators are looking at. There's the possibility that this guy may have had an accomplice who's a gambler known to these casinos. Maybe he passed off these chips right away to this person who he's helping to cash them in right away before police were onto their trail.
But casino employees dialed 911 while this guy was still in the casino. They also questioned many of the patrons who were at that craps table, and one police official told me the information they got was a little bit sketchy because you can imagine the level of sobriety among the patrons at a Las Vegas casino at 10 minutes to 4:00 in the morning.
CHETRY: Believable. Yes. And, you know, it's actually surprising, you'd think that they - their security measures are much tighter than what, apparently, we saw on that videotape.
Casey Wian for us this morning in Las Vegas. Thank you - John.
ROBERTS: So how did the robber manage to walk in calmly, wearing a motorcycle helmet, commit the crime, and run back out?
Tom Fuentes is a former FBI Assistant Director. He's not a CNN contributor. He joins us now from Washington.
Tom, it's pretty extraordinary, as Kiran was saying, they have all of this elaborate security at all of these casinos and you can foil it simply by wearing a motorcycle helmet and walking into the casino.
TOM FUENTES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: That's true, John. I think the expectation on the casino's part is that the theft is going to occur either at the counting rooms or somewhere involving where the cash is exchanged. They wouldn't have expected the chips to be taken in that manner.
And it is surprising that there wasn't at least security at the front door to - to keep him from running out the door with chips or cash, depending which he - he would've obtained.
ROBERTS: Now - now, I asked this question, Tom, as a - as a motorcycle rider who has on occasion has walked into a convenience store or at a gas station or something like that with his helmet on, because he's too lazy to take it off, it doesn't really raise any suspicion, but should casino workers have been suspicious that this guy is walking into the casino with a full coverage helmet on, a pair of overalls? Should that have raised some sort of an alarm?
FUENTES: Well, you would think so, but it is Las Vegas, so I'm sure that those casino employees have seen everything under the sun. You know, normally in Las Vegas, they're used to motorcycle stunts, where they jump over buses and do other crazy things and don't walk in and commit robberies.
But I think it just was the - the sheer audacity of it and the sheer surprise. He walks in, he's in that casino less than two or three minutes, and I think everyone was so stunned that they - by the time they reacted to it, he was out the door and driving away.
ROBERTS: Now, a very similar M.O. to a robbery at the SunCoast Casino back on December the 9th. Should they've be - have been alerted? You know, watch out for a guy in a motorcycle helmet and a pair of overalls walking into your casino because he might be out to rob you?
FUENTES: Well, I think so. And, if nothing else, you have the chance of a copycat. I mean, they might be the same person, they think that might be the same person, but it could be somebody that saw that report on the news and thought, wow, you know, anybody can do it. Just like now, you could have copy cats in the days or weeks ahead, having watched this one be taken successfully.
But the other robbery involved cash. The person left with almost $20,000 in cash from the SunCoast. They've had 10 other robberies this year involving cash in Las Vegas. So for him to take the chips, you don't know if he intended to take the chips or what he's going to do with them next.
ROBERTS: Right. The question is to whether or not this fellow acted alone or maybe there might have been some sort of inside component to this job, whether there was a, you know, a so-called lay off man who was watching the craps table, called and said, OK, they've got a lot of chips there. Now's the time to hit it.
Do they normally carry, you know - I mean, $1.5 million worth of chips at each table?
FUENTES: Well, I think that's not surprising. There's a huge amount of cash and chips at play at any given time in Las Vegas at various - especially at the large casino hotels, the high-roller type place like the Bellagio. So I think the amount of money is not necessarily surprising for Las Vegas.
ROBERTS: And what about the idea that he acted alone? Do you think that this - that he could've just walked in, just walked up to any table, or do you think there might have been somebody inside who was tipping him off?
FUENTES: Either way, he could be just a lone fool that walked in, walked out with chips that are going to be hard to get rid of, or it could have been a well-planned operation with multiple people. And especially someone on the back end who would fence those chips or say, OK, I can -
ROBERTS: Right.
FUENTES: -- I can gradually reintegrate those chips and give him 20 cents on the dollar or 10 cents on the dollar for the chips, and he still would make off with a sizable amount of money.
ROBERTS: Now as to sort of reintegrating those chips, as you just said, our Casey Wian said some of the - some of the bigger chips, and these went up to denominations of $25,000, may have some sort of radio frequency tag embedded in them. Will - will he be able to pass those chips off fairly easily, or might he have a problem?
FUENTES: No, you'd have a problem with those. So we don't know the percentage of chips that were of the smaller denominations, you know, $100 or $500 amounts, and every single chip may not have a device in it for tracking. Inside people at the hotel would know which chips do and don't.
ROBERTS: All right. Well, we'll see where this goes.
Tom Fuentes, always great to talk to you. Thanks for joining us this morning.
FUENTES: Thank you, John.
ROBERTS: Kiran.
CHETRY: Coming up, frosty gets thrown under the bus, literally, and now a bus driver is paying the price for a snowy street prank.
Plus, a surprising look at the impact that the recession has had on American families. If you're living it, probably not much of a surprise, but there are some shocking numbers out there that we want to tell you about, how Americans are doing today. Stephanie Elam joins us after the break.
It's 22 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Twenty-four minutes after the hour now. And some of the stories that got us talking in the newsroom this morning. Jon Bon Jovi, the newest member of the president's team. He's now a member of the new White House Council for Community Solutions. Also on the council, the CEO of eBay and other high powered executives. Their mission to advise the president of ways to mobilize citizens to solve specific community needs. The rocker says he's honored and looking forward to helping out.
CHETRY: He mobilizes a lot of citizens who want to come out and see his concerts, right?
ROBERTS: Yes. Hundred and fifty - well, how many tickets did they sell? 1.8 million tickets last year?
CHETRY: Something insane.
ROBERTS: Not bad.
CHETRY: He's a top grosser, right, this year?
ROBERTS: Yes. He was almost $150 million.
CHETRY: Well, the president is on to something then.
Coming in February, it's man versus computer on "Jeopardy." This is going to be pretty interesting. Former "Jeopardy" champion, you remember Ken Jennings, among those who will face off on the computer - on the game show against a computer. And it'll be part of a series of showdowns between two past champions and an IBM computer named Watson. Watson has already passed the test given to human contestants who are trying to get on the show.
ROBERTS: They're not going to have Wolf Blitzer? Didn't he - wasn't he a champion? No. Oh, oh.
CHETRY: Poor Wolf.
ROBERTS: Oh, it's the other way.
CHETRY: It's a high pressure. The button doesn't work, you know? The button is -
ROBERTS: Mexico City's new tourist - he's probably watching this on the treadmill and was like -
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: -- throwing things at the TV.
Mexico's newest tourist attraction now open for business. The Tequila - I'm getting choked up just thinking about this. The Tequila Museum celebrates the country's national liquor, the fruit of the agave plant. Visitors will be able to see step by step how tequila is made. They can also enjoy Mariachi music and some 400 brands of tequila, hopefully over several sittings.
CHETRY: I'm surprised they actually didn't have this before, a Tequila Museum.
ROBERTS: Yes. Everything takes time.
CHETRY: I guess so.
Well, you know rock salt is so last winter. Now, crews in Tennessee are using a mixture of beet juice and brine solution to prevent roads from icing over. They say that if sprayed when the temperature's dropped below freezing that it does the trick. It's said to be biodegradable, non-corrosive, environmentally friendly, you know? And the streets get their share of iron for the day.
ROBERTS: What - what is it about the beet juice that's -
CHETRY: I know they say that potato juice, as well, can be used to prevent the freezing, so -
ROBERTS: Starch, sugar, whatever?
CHETRY: Yes, probably the sugars.
ROBERTS: We'll find out the scientific basis behind this and pass it along.
Why did the bus driver cross the road? To mow down the snow man. The hit-and-run cost the driver his job after this video was posted on YouTube. Look at this - and knocked it down.
Students from the University of Illinois placed the snow man on the road to see what would happen. They expected that somebody who was in that lane might run it down, not a bus driver who decided to cross a lane to do it. Of course, now, they're feeling guilty about the bus driver losing his job and they've started a "Save the Bus Driver" Facebook page.
CHETRY: Good luck with that.
Still ahead, we'll take a look at how the recession's affected the average family from your paycheck to what you buy. Find out what elements were hit the hardest.
ROBERTS: And we follow a California teen from his high school football field to basic training. Our Jason Carroll with "A Soldier Story", just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Welcome back. We're crossing the half hour right now, time to get you caught up on the top stories.
This is amazing video of tragic ending to a school board meeting, bullets flying. Police say 56-year-old Clay Duke spray-painted the wall -- there you see it -- at the Bay County board meeting in Panama City yesterday, and then opened fire on the board members. Incredibly, none of the school officials were hit with any of the bullets. The entire ordeal was caught on tape. A warning, the video you're about to see is graphic and disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This isn't worth it. This is a problem. Please don't. Please don't. Please --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to -- don't you understand?
(GUNFIRE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Duke was shot and wounded by a school board security officer. Police say he then fatally shot himself. It's still not clear what the motive might have been. And what you're looking at there is another member of the board who came back in after he told her she could leave, tried to swat the gun out of his hand with her purse. And obviously, she was not successful. But in the end, again, incredibly, no one else but the gunman hurt.
ROBERTS: That woman, Ginger Littleton, and Bill Husfelt, who's the chairman of the school board, will be joining us in about 45 minutes time to tell us in person what their ordeal was like and you can just imagine what they went through.
Digging out cars buried in snow. Amazing video of Ontario, north of the border, where a brutal storm left more than 300 people stuck in their cars for more than 24 hours. Lake effect snow still blasting places like Upstate New York and Ohio. And bone chilling cold is settling in over more than half the country this morning.
CHETRY: Police in Las Vegas were looking for an armed casino bandit who made off with about $1.5 billion worth of gambling chips and a brazen robbery at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino. You see the surveillance video here, it captures the gunman wearing a full-face motorcycle helmet bolting from the casino and then escaping on a motorcycle. Police say the robbery took all of three minutes. They say the suspect may have pulled off a similar heist at another Vegas casino last week.
ROBERTS: Well, a new report out this morning revealing the impact that the recession has had on you and your family.
Our Stephanie Elam in for Christine Romans this morning, and she's "Minding Your Business."
Good morning, Stephanie.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. This is something that a lot of Americans will say, yes, seriously, we know that this is what it was like. But this, sort of, puts into context.
If you take a look at this report coming from the Rockefeller Foundation and Yale University, they're saying 93 percent of American families were hit by at least one -- what they call substantial economic shock, from March 2008 through September 2009. So, they're saying the shocks were things like drop in wealth or earnings. They're also pointing to the fact that they had to spend more on necessary items -- things they couldn't live without, including medical needs, that was on top of the list.
They're saying there was a drop in household wealth. That means their investment took a hit. Also, home values, as we know, also taking a hit there.
And they said nearly 70 percent of the households that they surveyed said they were hit with some of these unexpected shocks -- meaning medical bills were on top of that drop in earnings power.
Also, what's also interesting about what they found in the study is that taking a look at the middle class here. And they're saying for families, that makes somewhere between $60,000 and $100,000 a year. For those families, they say they couldn't meet at least one basic need during that period. Meaning, they couldn't pay for food. They couldn't pay for shelter. They said they couldn't pay for their medical care. That is a really huge deal.
And then one other thing I think is interesting here. They point out that for these families, they're now more vulnerable to other shocks, simply because of the fact this took out their floor, their safety net. Now, there's less that they can borrow from friends. They don't have maybe their cushion, their savings cushion there anymore.
And if you take a look at these families who have gone through this, nearly half of households say they couldn't go more than two months before dealing with some sort of hardship. And then on top of that, one in five would suffer hardship in two weeks, while only 30 percent said they could make it six months. So, it shows you just how dire a situation this has been for American families.
CHETRY: And if you're talking about somebody with a six-figure income, I mean, at least the family with six-figure income saying they couldn't meet a basic need. Can you imagine what it's like for, you know, the working poor?
ELAM: Right. And that's exactly what they wanted to illustrate by this study. It's like, look, this has reached very far across all economic levels here in the United States. And on top of that, if it's been this bad for the middle class, just imagine the pain that this meant for so many Americans out there.
ROBERTS: Wow. Stunning, the results.
ELAM: I know. It's going to take a long time for people to recover from this recession.
ROBERTS: Yes. Thanks, Steph.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Appreciate it.
ELAM: Yes. Have a good day.
CHETRY: All right. Well, coming up next, a soldier story, and something you'll see only on AMERICAN MORNING. Jason Carroll following a high school teen from the high school football field into basic training.
CHETRY: And actor Ed Norton talking to our Alina Cho about his latest project, making charity fun and addictive. Hear how he's doing it, coming right up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: Thirty-eight minutes after the hour. Not too long ago, Will McLain was playing high school football in California dreaming about a career in the NFL.
CHETRY: Certainly must seem like another lifetime because Will is now in the military and we followed him all the way from high school gridiron training to basic training.
And Jason Carroll with "A Soldier's Story" this morning.
You've been following Will. He's got a lot of ups and downs over the past year. It's going to be interesting to see how he fared.
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. He's had some struggles there and you remember we caught up with him even before basic, remember, way back in high school. It's been a long road for this guy. You know, we've watched Will McLain transform himself into a solider during the past year, but in order to that, you have to begin somewhere.
I want you to take a look. Here's a taste of how it all started.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL MCLAIN, U.S. ARMY: I'm William McLain, Jr.
CROWD: Yes, drill sergeant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You sure you understand?
CROWD: Yes, drill sergeant.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Congratulations on your enlistment into the military!
CARROLL (voice-over): Just 12 hours after taking the oath, Will finds himself half way across the country at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Check out your bags.
CROWD: Yes, drill sergeant.
CARROLL: Basic training begins now. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any and all electronic items take them out and hold them up in the air. You are not authorized to have the following items, drugs and narcotics, aspirin, vitamin, cigarette papers, water pipes, drug paraphernalia, cocaine, coke spoons, roach clips, gambling devices, playing cards, dice, all that crap is gone.
McLain!
CARROLL (on camera): What do you think about this recruit?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He looks to be a bit overweight, sir. He looks to be not in good physical condition. And that's going to be a challenge for him down the road.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Small, regular. Have a seat there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You will lay those down flat, do you understand?
CROWD: Yes, drill sergeant.
CARROLL: Any surprises or anything that --
MCLAIN: I expected there to be tons of paperwork, there was, of course. I expected them to come yelling on the bus. They did. You know? I mean, I'm surprised I haven't had to do push-ups or anything yet. So, that's always a plus.
CARROLL: Well, it's coming.
CROWD: Yes, drill sergeant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do not share bunks. One private, one bunk. You understand?
CROWD: Yes, drill sergeant.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And let's go, let's go. Hurry up.
CARROLL (voice-over): Day one is almost over.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go. Hey, you two right here.
CARROLL: The prospect of a good night's sleep is at hand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get up. Let's go!
CARROLL: Well, maybe not.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is going on? Hey, what are you doing? Let's go, let's go. Let's go.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Well, those are just a few clips from a one-hour documentary that we put together for you. It's not just Will that you'll see on this one-hour doc, but also, Latricia Rose, a young mother who's struggling to be a soldier in order to care for her family; and Sergeant First Class Randy Shorter, a combat veteran fighting an ever- changing enemy in Afghanistan. So, we've got three soldiers, as you both of you guys well know that we've been following for a period of time that we've put together in a one-hour documentary. I'm very excited to bring it to you.
ROBERTS: You've got some great stories there. You really do.
CHETRY: We're excited to find out how it ends for Latricia. She has child care issues. And then Sergeant Shorter being -- for so many tours away from his family.
CARROLL: Followed him over to Afghanistan. So, we've got it all for you. We've got it ready for you.
ROBERTS: All right. Good deal. Looking forward to that.
CARROLL: You bet.
ROBERTS: AMERICAN MORNING, by the way, is going to air a one-hour documentary tracking military recruits every step of the way. It's called "A Soldier's Story." It airs Saturday, December 18th at 8:00 p.m. and again on Sunday, December 19th at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
CHETRY: Still to come this morning: Rob is going to along with this morning's travel forecast. It's still bad in many, many parts of the country due to the wind, the snow, and the bitter cold. We'll be right back.
Forty-two minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: It's 44 minutes after the hour.
Pictures out of Athens, Greece, this morning -- a week-long series of protests going on there. Protesting -- demonstrating against the austerity measures that were taken in the wake of that IMF 110 billion euro bailout that was ordered in order to save Greece from economic collapse. Members of the unions represented both the private and public sectors have been sort of tussling back and forth with riot police all day. You can see tear gas there and setting fires, as well. Literally, the entire downtown area has come to a standstill.
CHETRY: Yes, they managed to disperse a crowd a few minutes ago. They were gathered -- and there you see, as well, a big, big group of them. But they say that they're very angry about the wage cuts, the changes in labor laws and that they're going to continue with the strike. It could end up affecting the state hospitals, the airlines, coastal shipping, banks. Taxi drivers are also calling for a work stoppage today. So, a lot of pain being felt in, you know, in parts of Europe because of these austerity measures.
ROBERTS: Yes, they're marching toward the Greek parliament there. So, we'll be watching this for a while. And if we see some more scuffling between police and the demonstrators break out, we will bring it to you just as soon as we can.
CHETRY: Meanwhile, it's 45 minutes past the hour. Here at home, we're dealing with some wicked weather that has continued all week. Rob Marciano is live in Louisville, Kentucky this morning, waking up to some bone-chilling temperatures there, as well. Hey, Rob.
MARCIANO: Good morning, guys. You know, we've moved a little bit farther south from Northeast Ohio yesterday, and it's colder. So, you know that this cold air mass is intense and doesn't want to go away now that we're into the middle part of December. You're not getting a whole lot of help from the sun. So, the cold air is in place, and now you've got a little storm that's developing and can taps in (ph) Gulf of Mexico moisture.
So, Louisville, Lexington, even Nashville for a little time will get some freezing rain and some icing conditions. And tomorrow morning, certainly, going to be dicey and icy here to say the least. All right. Let's talk about current temperatures and what it feels like. The wind chill where it is a little bit freezier, and it feels like it's below freezing in places like in Indianapolis, certainly in Minneapolis it's below freezing. Four degrees is a feels like temperature in Cleveland and six here in Louisville.
The actual temperature is, and that's what the precip cares about. It can't feel the wind chill. We're talking about will this fall in the form of snow or will form in the fall of rain, a freezing rain, you've got to look at the actual temperature, and it's 12 right now in Louisville. It's 26 in Paducah. It's 26 in Nashville. So, that's cold enough to support snow or sleet at least to start. And then we're going to see things change as we go through the next 24 hours.
Here's the moisture across Mississippi and Alabama moving into Birmingham and Huntsville, a very little reports in the way of frozen precip there, but we're going to look for this and intensify throughout the day today, and I think Nashville will see some place of snow fly here this afternoon, and that will be moving up into Kentucky before too long.
Winter storm warnings in effect for Kentucky with 1 to 2 inches of snow and then coating with ice, we expect that tomorrow morning. And that's going to be the issue. And then, once the storm moves through, I think temperatures will stay below freezing here, and that means that it's not going to obviously melt off terribly quickly. Still windy across the northeast. I tell you, the overall pattern of cold and windy conditions continues. That's not going to shake loose.
Really, I don't see the overall pattern, guys, changing until at least Christmas. So, we'll try to get some snow into those who haven't seen snow or at least for the holidays and then maybe get rid of it in January. That would be ideal. But until then, it's pretty chilly here. That's for sure.
ROBERTS: Everybody likes the white Christmas, but we do have our limits, Rob.
CHETRY: All right, Rob. Thanks. MARCIANO: Yes, I understand.
ROBERTS: Thanks, Rob.
This morning's top stories are just minutes away, including, it didn't take Ocean's Eleven, just a guy with a helmet. A real-life casino real guy and a helmet. how he got out of the casino heist (ph) at the Palazzo caught on tape. How he got out of the casino with $1.5 million in chips?
CHETRY: Also, right after the break, "Big Stars, Big Giving," actor, Ed Norton, "Fight Club," "Rounders," "The Incredible Hulk," how he's now raising the bar of giving back with a major online charity drive.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROBERTS: To many people, Edward Norton is known as "The Incredible Hulk's," alter ego, Dr. Bruce Banner, or for his role in a hard- hitting cult classic "Fight Club."
CHETRY: But the two-time Oscar nominee is also a big believer in using the power of social networking to make giving, donations to charity, go viral. Our Alina Cho is here to explain this as part of our special series, "Big Stars, Big Giving." A lot of people know him for those roles, but he is also a huge philanthropist.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, incredible. I mean, he's raised so much money, millions over the years. You know, for Edward Norton, giving back has long been a passion. So much so, he recently created what he's calling the Facebook of philanthropy. It's a new web platform that very well could revolutionize the way people give by making giving fun.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHO (voice-over): In his more than 15 years as an actor's actor, what is less known about Edward Norton is the kind of charitable work he's done off-camera. Along the way, it was something he noticed about how charities often use the internet that's inspired his latest project.
EDWARD NORTON, ACTOR: We were very frustrated by what we saw out there. Everything was just -- we called it like use and drop. You know, it was just a button where you could donate but really like nothing more. And we wanted to communicate more than that.
CHO: Norton and his friends saw an opportunity to shake up how people give online. And he came up with what he calls the "Facebook of Philanthropy." It's called Crowdrise, a fund-raising web platform that's also a community.
NORTON: This is the platform where you plant the flag and say, this is who I am as defined by what do I care about? What am I passionate about? What causes do I support?
CHO: That way is easy. Within minutes, anyone can create a page, start a fundraiser, and ask for donations from friends, family, and perfect strangers.
NORTON: Look, you've got a generation of people coming along who are going to form their own new relationship with the idea of supporting the causes that they care about or changing the world, you know? And these people are not going to do it the way that our parents did it.
CHO: Which is why Norton was mindful to also make Crowdrise fun, putting the fun in fundraising by adding a gaming aspect. Members can earn points, even win prizes.
If you don't give back, no one will like you.
NORTON: If you don't give back, no one will like you. That is our core philosophy. We're a bunch of dorks.
CHO: He's also a celebrity who's enlisted the help of his famous friends who are creating profiles on Crowdrise just like everyone else. Like Will Ferrell who's raising money for cancer survivors.
NORTON: Like you can win a bottle of Will's suntan lotion for a donation to his site, you know --
CHO: And it's quite a picture.
NORTON: Yes, it's a good one. Very sexy.
(LAUGHTER)
NORTON: Very sexy.
CHO: His hope is to revolutionize giving, one web page at a time.
NORTON: I think we really feel like Crowdrise could be something that 20 years from now people take for granted because that's just how you do it. Like, if you're going to raise money for something, that's how you do it, you know?
CHO: That wouldn't be a bad thing.
NORTON: No. You know, I actually, in the beginning, we've said this like it's a pipe dream, but now I actually think it's going to happen.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Cho (on-camera): And if you want to get involved or start a fundraiser, go to www.crowdrise.com. For behind the scenes photos or if you want to get involved in making a difference around the world, you can go to CNN.com/impact or Cnn.com/AMFix. All of the interviews, by the way, from "Big Stars, Big Giving" this year will live on Impact Your World, our partners in this project this year.
But, you know, the interesting thing when I asked Ed Norton, you know, why do you do it? It's exactly like you're sitting at home doing nothing. You've got a busy job already. And he said, you know, beyond feeling a responsibility to give back because I have a voice, it is fun for me. He said some of the most interesting people I've met in the world, some of the most incredible adventures I've had over the years have been through these charitable projects. And so, he really does believe in it, but he also thinks it's a lot of fun.
ROBERTS: Good for him. Who's up tomorrow?
CHO: Tomorrow is Julianne Moore, who is just nominated for Golden Globe for her role in "The Kids Were All Right." We sat down in New York a couple of weeks ago. You know, it's interesting, it was something about her childhood and the way she was raised. She was an army brat. She moved around a lot.
And she saw things that she felt were inherently unfair, bad schools, children living in poverty, and it was that childhood that inspired her to give back. She's now an ambassador for Save the Children, and we'll talk about her work tomorrow.
CHETRY: Looking forward to that. So, you got two Golden Globe nominees, Halle Berry, as well or -- three. Nicole Kidman.
CHO: Nicole Kidman. I know. We got lucky.
ROBERTS: People just need to hang around with you.
CHO: Well, I mean, you know/
ROBERTS: Success just follows you around.
CHO: Well, you know, I'm just saying.
(LAUGHTER)
ROBERTS: Thanks, Alina.
CHETRY: Coincidence or not? Thanks, Alina. Don't miss Alina's one hour special, by the way, "Big Stars, Big Giving." It airs Christmas Eve, 7:00 p.m. eastern and 8:00 p.m. eastern on Christmas Day.
ROBERTS: Top stories coming your way right after a quick break. Stay with us.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this simulated S.W.A.T. team takedown, the bad guy's distracted by a psychedelic green light called a Dazer Laser.
ROBERT BATTIS, LASER ENERGETICS: It's like a flash. The Dazer Laser's capable of blocking your vision entirely.
TUCHMAN: The laser isn't meant to replace guns or pepper spray, it's intended to give law enforcement more options.
BATTIS: If they can take out the vision, they can take down the criminals. They can do it less violently, safer, and they can do it more effectively.
TUCHMAN: Robert Battis says there are plenty of other applications for the device.
BATTIS: It can be used for air marshals. It can be used in applications of the military, in applications that would even be for park rangers, for animal control. It can be used for riots, crowd control. It can be used as security applications.
TUCHMAN: The makers say the technology they use is safe and effective from just a few feet away to over a mile away. And they say it doesn't cause any permanent damage to the eye. Dazer Lasers could be in the hands of our U.S. law enforcement agencies soon.
Gary Tuchman, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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