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Chinese President at White House; Chinese Contracts Worth $45 Billion; Health Care Repeal Vote; American Kids Plunging into Chinese Culture; Getting Ready to Retire

Aired January 19, 2011 - 11:00   ET

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

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7, I'm Carol Costello.

CNN's big stories for Wednesday, January 19th.

A fireball shakes Philadelphia. Utility workers were trying to fix a leaking gas main when they touched off a tremendous explosion. One utility worker was killed, five other people were injured.

A Brazilian man is recovering today after he spent 16 hours under mud and rubble. The journalist who caught the rescue on tape had no idea the trapped man was a friend. More than 700 people have died in Brazil's flood disaster.

Doctors plan to move Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords to a rehabilitation facility in Houston on Friday. That information in an e-mail from the congresswoman's parents. Giffords' mother also writes her daughter has scrolled through photos on an iPod and she's reading cards from fourth graders. Giffords' husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, always upbeat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK KELLY, GABRIELLE GIFFORDS' WIFE: She is tough. I mean, they've seen how tough she is from the time she showed up here in the emergency room and how tough she is today. And I am certain that she'll be -- she'll be back stronger than ever. I don't know if that's in two weeks or two months, but it's coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: We hope so.

Pomp and politics today at the White House. President Obama rolling out the red carpet for America's biggest economic rival. Chinese President Hu Jintao, in his first state visit to the United States, kicked off with this carefully choreographed welcome ceremony on the south lawn of the White House.

We heard from both leaders, setting the tone for what promises to be very complicated talks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PRESIDENT HU JINTAO, CHINA: Our concentration as partners should be based on mutual benefit. China's future and destiny are increasingly tied to those of the world. And China/U.S. relations have become closer.

Our two countries should seek to learn from each other through exchanges and achieve win-win progress through cooperation. This is the right approach for us to develop our relations.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We also know this -- history shows that societies are more harmonious, nations are more successful, and the world is more just when the rights and responsibilities of all nations and all people are upheld, including the universal rights of every human being.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So there you have the leaders of the world's two biggest economies. They face a range of issues to tackle, including human rights, as you just heard, and currency controls.

Let's bring in our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry.

Ed, can we kind of boil this down? I mean, what one thing does the president hope to accomplish?

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, he hopes to create some U.S. jobs. And, in fact, in the last few moments, White House officials are announcing that as part of these talks, China has agreed to spend a lot of money buying, for example, Boeing aircraft, about 200 Boeing aircraft. It's going to be about $19 billion.

And that, all told, that when you walk through various trade deals that are going to be announced here in the next few hours, it's going to be worth $45 billion, about 235,000 U.S. jobs right here. And so, obviously, the president, he did this when he was overseas in November. He was in India, other countries throughout Asia, trying to announce some of these trade deals to try to say, look, he understands there are a lot of Americans skeptical of these talks with the Chinese president, Americans who see this stubbornly high unemployment rate and, frankly, see too many U.S. jobs being shipped overseas.

And so I think they're going to try to push back during this visit on that by saying, look, there are also some trade deals being worked out here that are going to bring some jobs right here to the United States -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about those skeptical Americans, because many Americans aren't so fond of China. The president is pulling out all the stops. You know, there's a private dinner, a meeting with business leaders. There was a 21-gun salute. There will be a lavish State Dinner.

I mean, this kind of welcome is usually reserved as a reward for America's staunch allies. Why does President Obama feel this kind of lavish welcome is necessary for President Hu? HENRY: Well, quite simply, because President Obama believes that China is a staunch ally. These two countries do not agree on everything, and they obviously have sharp differences on issues like human rights and just the basic fundamental freedoms that Chinese citizens do not have. But by the same token, these are the two major economic superpowers.

I mentioned some of the trade deals they're working out. They have other differences. Obviously, there's still a huge trade imbalance. These export deals being announced today still are kind of a drop in the bucket, compared to what China is able to export, frankly. And they still have divisions over currency.

But let's not forget given that given the tensions in the Korean Peninsula just a few weeks ago, it was the U.S. reaching out to China that the U.S. believes helped defuse some of those tensions. So, look, this is not a perfect relationship, but this is now the eighth set of one-on-one meetings these two presidents have had since Barack Obama took office, and so they think that they are allies.

COSTELLO: I think every celebrity or politician who is of Chinese descent is invited to this State Dinner. Can you sort of run down the guest list for us?

HENRY: You know, I wish. They are keeping that as a tightly guarded secret.

First lady Michelle Obama, about, I think, 4:00 p.m. Eastern, is going to come out and talk a little bit about the guest list, talk about the menu. You know, all of these details are part of the stagecraft that everybody really wants to know.

One important factor I want to point out is there's sort of this scaffolding over my shoulder there on the North Portico, around the North Portico of the White House. That's where later tonight, President Obama and the first lady will welcome President Hu for the State Dinner.

And there were some reports suggesting that scaffolding was put up there so that President Hu would not see some of the protesters that are across the gate. You might hear them out there yelling, "Free Tibet!" some other human rights causes out there.

That's not the case. Actually, that scaffolding is up there for any state visit that is here. I saw it up there when President Sarkozy from France came. It's there for security purposes because it's out there in the opening. We're talking right now about the fact that these two presidents are going to be out on the north lawn for a few hours for this greeting, and so that scaffolding is there as more as a security precaution so that people out in the open can't see exactly where these two presidents are.

COSTELLO: Got it. Got it.

And, you know, we are hearing rumors that Jackie Chan will be one of the guests, and Yo-Yo Ma will be on hand, and a host of others. I'm sure you'll get the full list for us a little later.

HENRY: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Ed Henry, live at the White House.

Thank you.

A full schedule, as you heard, is set for the president and President Hu. This hour, they're expanding bilateral talks to include some of their other top officials.

Then at 12:20 Eastern, the meeting with the United States and Chinese business executives.

At 1:05 Eastern, the two presidents will hold a joint news conference.

The glitz and glamour gets under way officially at 6:00 p.m. President and Mrs. Obama host an elaborate State Dinner in honor of the Chinese president.

Of course, trade is one of the biggest points of contention between the United States and China. And Chinese President Hu has come bearing gifts to the tune of billions.

Christine Romans joins us from New York with more on that angle.

Tell us about the jobs that might be created out of this State Dinner, if you will.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Ed mentioned $45 billion in deals. The White House telling us it will support, not create, but support 235,000 jobs. And I think it's kind of telling, Carol.

You talk, Carol, about the skeptics who look at, say, $45 billion in trade deals and say, yes, but, how real is that? You know? And what does that do, really, to repair what many people think is lots of lost jobs in this country, as so much of our manufacturing has gone overseas?

I think it's sort of telling that the first thing that a White House official was telling us that was one of the successes of these trade deals was a promise from the Chinese that they would use legal software on government computers. Now, they've promised this before, but it's been a big complaint of American business owners who say, look, how are we supposed to feel that China is letting us into their market when, in fact, the Chinese government itself uses counterfeit -- intellectual property is -- an intellectual property scofflaw itself?

This time, the White House says it's different. This time, the Chinese say that they're actually going to commit money to buy legal software and actually have a software legalization program with the government. It's just one small thing, but the White House says it's significant, quite frankly. But it just shows you kind of this relationship between business in this country and doing business with China.

COSTELLO: Well, let's talk a little bit about the Chinese currency, because a lot of people are upset about this. I think Americans want the president to say some very tough things to China. But what stick does America carry that will work with China?

ROMANS: Well, and that's a pretty good question, because, look, the Chinese, as we know, do what is in the best interest of a harmonious China, for the best interests of China and its own social stability. So we have asked, the United States government, and the Europeans and others have asked many, many times, we need a slow and gradual appreciation of the Chinese currency. It needs not to be pegged to the U.S. dollar, so when the dollar goes up and down, that means China still has an advantage in the global marketplace. And its exports to us are still having an advantage over ours.

I mean, depending on who you talk to -- and I think this is a good way to look at it -- depending on -- if you're talking about a 100-mile racing between the U.S. and the Chinese, if you look at the currency, critics would say the Chinese are starting somewhere on the 25th mile or maybe even the 40th mile, the way that they have. And that's something that needs to be ironed out.

White House -- you know, a senior administration official who we talked to earlier today, among the list of successes for this meeting, did not mention currency.

COSTELLO: All right. Well, I'm sure it will be talked about in the days to come, though.

Christine Romans from New York.

Thank you.

The United States and China don't see eye to eye on politics. The countries are also polar opposites when it comes to raising and educating children. We'll look at China's way of doing things at the half hour.

Repeal and replace. That's the mantra for Republicans today as the House votes on a repeal of the health care reform law. The measure is expected to pass, but it has little chance of getting through the Senate.

Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash joins us from Capitol Hill.

And Dana, what has the tone of the debate been like so far?

DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It has been -- the tone has been toned down, so to speak. There is no question about it. You heard last week, Republicans and Democrats, alike, Carol, saying they're going to focus on the policy here and not on some of the language we've heard in the past. Somewhat during this debate to repeal, but obviously big time last year during this debate. We have not heard it very much at all.

Simply, mostly talking about the idea from Republicans' point of view that they don't think that this is good for people's jobs, that this is bad for the economy. And from the Democrats, we're hearing a lot of personal stories about, from their perspective, how people have been helped and will continue to be helped by this law -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So what happens next?

BASH: That is the big question, because we do expect this to pass -- this being the bill to repeal this health care law. We do expect it to pass the House. But as we have talked about so many times, Carol, we don't expect it to get much further than that, because Democrats do still control the Senate, and Republicans would need 13 Democrats to agree with them to pass any amendment that would push this through the Senate.

We don't expect that to happen. But what we do expect, coming back over to the House, is that tomorrow, House Republicans are going to instruct five committees that have jurisdiction to deal with the replace part of this.

What would Republicans want to do if they were able to are actually get this repeal done? How would they want to construct the health care laws in this country?

So we are going to be seeing instruction for that. We are going to be seeing committee hearings, probably five committees to deal with this.

But, look, I mean, in some ways, it's kind of a parallel universe, because they're going to be talking about this, and we don't expect to actually see fruition. But what Republicans are doing is keeping a campaign promise that they are going to at least try to do this -- repeal this health care law that every single Republican campaigned on.

COSTELLO: All right.

Dana Bash, live on Capitol Hill.

Thank you.

Senator Joe Lieberman has been a Democrat, an Independent. In the last presidential election, he endorsed the Republican candidate. But now his political career is coming to an end.

Sources tell us Lieberman will not run for re-election in 2012. He'll announce his decision in a news conference that will happen in the next hour. And when it does, we'll bring it to you live. That should happen around 12:30 Eastern. Haiti's former dictator, "Baby Doc" Duvalier, charged with corruption and possible human rights violations. We'll look into what's next in the case.

And the markets have been open more than an hour and a half now. Let's get the latest on the Dow. The Dow is down just a bit, as you can see there. The Nasdaq down about 20 points.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier, also known as "Baby Doc," is facing charges. He was allowed to return to his hotel Tuesday after being escorted to a Port-au-Prince courthouse for a hearing.

The charges relate to final corruption and could include human rights violations. From a legal standpoint, it's all -- well, it's all just a bit confusing.

CNN's John Zarrella is in Port-au-Prince.

So, John, the next move is in the judge's hands?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. In fact, Carol, just finished a few moments ago an absolutely fascinating interview with Reynold George, an attorney representing Duvalier who actually was in the court yesterday with Mr. Duvalier, and in many cases, spoke on his behalf.

He said that the charges against him are a quarter of a century old. There's a statute of limitations. They have no merit.

I asked him then, "Well, what exactly did they say he did?" And they said that, basically, he stole money from the country. That was the charge that was brought against him.

As we know, at this point, all of that, and whether they actually formally charge him is in the hands of another judge -- another judge, and that could take some time to sort out. But what's also fascinating here is that he said that Duvalier is free to come and go as he pleases. He could leave Haiti, if he wanted.

So we asked him, well, what does he intend to do?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REYNOLD GEORGE, LAWYER FOR JEAN-CLAUDE DUVALIER: If he want to leave this country this country, nobody -- nobody has the right to tell him to leave. And as a matter of fact, the judge asked him not to stay. And I was amazed. I was surprised when the judge asked him, "When are you leaving?"

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: And his answer was he has no intention of leaving. He's going to stay in the country. They're going to fight the charges. They're preparing one of his homes right now, his old home, so that he can move back in and go ahead and stay.

Another thing that was fascinating, Carol, was we asked about, what were his intentions of coming here? Why did he want to come here?

So much had been said that he only wanted solidarity with the people, but that that really was not something that many people believed, that was really the case. And he indicated that, well, if Mr. Duvalier wants to get back into politics, he could get back into politics. If he wanted to run for president, this attorney said, he could run for president.

So I asked, "Well, does he have those intentions?" AND he said, "Well, no, he doesn't have the intentions of running for president, but he can certainly do whatever he wants because he intends to stay here in the country."

They have no new court dates set at this point, but, basically, at the behest of the court, whenever they ask for him to show up, he'll have to show up in court. But at this point, he's supposedly staying in Haiti to fight these allegations against him -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I'm just amazed he still has a house there after 26 years of being away.

I mean, if all of what the lawyer said is true, then why is Haiti going through all of these -- I mean, why bother with him appearing in court and talking about charges and whatever?

ZARRELLA: Yes, I think that's still the big question, because, in fact, the judge asked, point blank, according to his attorney, "When are you planning to leave?" And that's what brought up all of this, well, he's not going to leave. He's planning to stay.

So the court was even trying to just get him out of the country, it appeared, hoping that he was just planning to leave. So, why the government is going through all of these gyrations right now, maybe it's simply they had to do something, they had to show that they are going to try to bring him to justice, even if, perhaps, at the end of the day, they find that they can't do anything against him because of statute of limitations.

No mention, also, Carol, of any human rights violations charges coming up at all. It was strictly that he stole money from the country. But, the attorney said, they never presented any evidence against him in the court at this particular point in time.

COSTELLO: John Zarrella, live from Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS REPORT)

COSTELLO: Amazing video of a snowplow at work when something unexpected happens.

Jacqui Jeras is tracking the hottest stories on the Web.

So what happened?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm going to preface this by saying nobody was hurt.

Take a look for yourself. This is trending right now on Facebook. It's also trending on Break.com.

Snowplow, driving along, doing its job. Oh, right in the hole.

This is in Calhoun, Georgia. And what happened is, apparently, there was a gaping hole already in the parking deck. It's like a layered parking deck, and the snow covered it up, so the driver didn't see it.

COSTELLO: Oh, that driver is so lucky, because if that hole went down farther, he'd be in big trouble.

JERAS: Right. I know. So, thankfully, he wasn't injured. That was some good news.

Two tons of gravel carried in that truck, too, by the way. Yes, scary moments. But wow, you just can't stop watching it, can you?

COSTELLO: I can only imagine how you'd feel if you were the driver. It's like, what happened?

JERAS: We can't identify him in there. Nobody knows. But he's not hurt.

COSTELLO: That's a good thing.

JERAS: Exactly. That's right.

COSTELLO: OK. So another big story there.

JERAS: And we have, like, snowplows in Georgia, right?

COSTELLO: I know. And that one is out of commission.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Another interesting story on the Web, the next generation of passenger planes.

JERAS: Yes, I know. This is really interesting.

We found this on "The Huffington Post." A lot of people looking at this.

NASA unveiled three concept designs. And the main thing that you say have to have here for qualifications is that they have to be quiet and they have to be energy-efficient to be planes of the future. And there you can see one of the designs. Each design has to fly up to 85 percent of the speed of sound, has to be able to fly 7,000 miles in one trip, and carry between 50,000 and 100,000 pounds. Look at those. Those look like stealth fighters, don't they?

COSTELLO: Yes, very streamlined. Very modern.

JERAS: I know. When I look at this one, I worry a little bit about balance issues.

You know that one -- yes, this one, where it's got the two different -- so I don't know if one's passenger and one's cargo. You know how sometimes if your flight isn't full, you've got to move all the people around and that kind of thing?

COSTELLO: Yes. That always makes me uncomfortable.

JERAS: Yes. I hate it when that happens. Don't move me. This is my aisle seat.

COSTELLO: Interesting stuff, Jacqui. We'll get back to you.

JERAS: OK.

COSTELLO: Everybody has their own way of doing things. We'll explore American and Chinese cultural differences in raising and educating children.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The American and Chinese presidents are in meetings at the White House. President Hu Jintao arrived this morning to all the grandness of a state visit, his first. President Obama treats him to a lavish state dinner tonight. And in between, the two meet with reporters and lead a meeting with Chinese and American business executives. Already, officials report a $45 billion export deal for the United States.

China's way of doing things is a lot different than Americans. Perhaps the most timely example is parenting. Yale law professor author Amy Chua has set up a firestorm with the new book "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother." She contends American parents are too soft and coddle their children, causing them to underperform.

Chua took a hard dictatorial approach with her girls. No sleepovers. No TV, ever. No computer games, either. An A- is actually a bad grade. She expects all A+s. Music practice goes on for hours. Chua talked with CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING" about how her approach moderated over the years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY CHUA, AUTHOR, "BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER": I think there are strengths and weaknesses to both the Asian and the western models. They're almost mirror images of each other. There are real strengths, though. I really think so. I mean, I think there's a question that we're all confronting, which is, where does true self-s treatment come from? You know, I'm a little surprised. It's almost like if the idea of striving for excellence is a bad word.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR, "AMERICAN MORNING": Right, because you put too much pressure on the kids --

CHUA: Yes, and that's true, by the way. I agree with that. If there's too much pressure, if you get to a point where people are cracking and they're miserable, you've got to pull back. That's the point of my book in a way. You know, I retreated. But, short of that, if there's love -- I mean, for many, many people, having high expectations, learning that you can do something that you thought you couldn't, I mean, that's a great feeling.

Once you have that experience, in the future you think, wait a second, I once thought I couldn't do something. And through hard work and not giving up, I learned I could do this. So, you know, this is a good lesson. And also not making excuses. I find it interesting that these are called Chinese values. You know, hard work, and don't give up, and don't make excuses, take responsibility, be self-reliant. I mean, the way I was taught. Because I think of those as really fundamental American values.

So in some ways I think the book is really, sort of, where should we go? Maybe we need some sort of hybrid, some sort of balance between you know, what I see as -- maybe what we've moved to a slightly overly-permissive, overly-coddling Western model. Somewhere between that and the other extreme, which is this overly strict, you know, it's got to be the violin or piano model, which I definitely moved away from myself, because I thought, happiness for the child, having my family stay together is the most important thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Parenting is hard. I think that's the bottom line.

With China primed to be a major world power of the 21st century, some American kids are plunging into Chinese culture head first.

Here's CNN's Stan Grant in Beijing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STAN GRANT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His mother didn't want him go. His friends thought China was just scary. Six months, on though, 16-year-old Spencer Langerman is getting the full dose of China 101.

SPENCER LANGERMAN, "SCHOOL YEAR ABROAD" STUDENT: Definitely, my friends and family were like, when I came they were like, don't like the Chinese brainwash you like into communism and like, the kind of censorship.

GRANT (on camera): People are still saying that to you?

LANGERMAN: Yes. GRANT (voice-over): The boy from Manhattan now sits in the shadow of Chairman Mao. Spencer learns the communist version of Chinese history, he speaks only Chinese in class; he's fluent, sometimes now, even better than English.

LANGERMAN: I have been like, really, wow, what's the word? My English has gotten worse since I've gotten to China.

GRANT: It's all part of this unique program. Take a kid out of an American school, put them in a regular Chinese classroom and place them with a Chinese family for one year.

Spencer is one of nearly 50 American teenagers here building a bridge between the world's superpower and its fast-emerging rival.

LANGERMAN: I think the opinion of China and the United States is really kind of off. And a lot of the idea of China is kind of flawed. There's a lot of thoughts about, like, China is kind of backwards and really rural and not like, modern. And obviously, that's wrong. We're here in like this super-modern city. It's been really interesting. It's been really fun.

GRANT: Spencer tells me he always thought China was cool. Living here hasn't changed that. The Chinese kids, he says, are just like Americans. They love sports. He says, they kick his butt on the basketball court. They like western movies and music. But in the classroom that's where the differences begin.

LANGERMAN: Their approach to education is really a lot. They just memorize, memorize, memorize; study, study, study. And I feel like they're not really -- they don't really like have discussions.

GRANT: It hasn't all been easy. Like any kid, he gets homesick, and then there was moving in with a new family.

LANGERMAN: We had a one-week orientation when we first got here where we just got to kind of meet the teachers and adjust to the people. And then we went to the host families and that was kind of shocking.

GRANT (on camera): Just settling in?

LANGERMAN: Yes. So the first month of just being with the host family and living in the --

GRANT: Everybody was sort of --

LANGERMAN: Yes, it was definitely difficult and it was tiring. Really physically tiring to just be like doing Chinese all day.

GRANT (voice-over): He's right at home now, though, happily chatting up at the dinner table like any family. His surrogate Chinese parents never graduated from high school and work in a local market. They live in a modest apartment, small in size, but big on hospitality. FENG LI, HOST MOTHER (through translator): He's like my son. I always chat with my son. Now I chat with Spencer. I wash two son's clothes and cook two son's favorite food.

GRANT: And Spencer has a 13-year-old host brother who teases like all little brothers.

(on camera): What did you think when you first saw Spencer, when you first met Spencer?

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. And look like girl.

GRANT (voice-over): and he's teaching his big brother a lesson in Chinese chess. Spencer hasn't yet won a game, but each move, he hopes, brings his homeland of the United States and his adopted home, China, that much closer.

Stan Grant, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: In the next hour, CNN NEWSROOM we'll look at the flip side of the situation. A Chinese student who's getting an education here in the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Look at this. Out in Colorado for a weather conference, and what are Reynolds and Rob doing?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They're studying, Carol.

COSTELLO: Yes, they look like they're is studying. Discovering new weather technology and all that stuff.

JERAS: Yes. That's Rob Marciano in the gray there. We've got Reynolds Wolf in the blue. And this is like a new craze, I guess.

COSTELLO: What is it?

JERAS: Well, it's like a snow bike, basically. You have little tiny skis on your feet and you sit down on this thing, and instead of wheels you've got a little blade there, you know, like a ski blade.

COSTELLO: Oh, I'd love that. Because on skis, I just fall over.

JERAS: This may not help you. I'm not sure, Carol. Well, you'd go a lot faster, I'd think. It's hard to stop on these things.

COSTELLO: Oh, I'd love to go fast. That's my problem. I'm on skis and I go -- and then I fall down at the end.

JERAS: Yes, the wipeout might be worse on that thing, do you think? COSTELLO: I don't know. It looks fun.

JERAS: It did. And I guess you just carry it right up on the ski lift, bring it with. It must be pretty lightweight. Anyway, yes, they're there for a conference, though. It is legitimate.

COSTELLO: Yes, really.

JERAS: No, it really is a great conference. And you do learn a lot of different things. Weather, obviously impacts all the skiers. And mountain forecasts can be tricky from time to time.

COSTELLO: That's right. And you know.

JERAS: That's what we're doing today. Trying to figure out how much snow they're going to get in the Rockies and Colorado.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COSTELLO: So, how big a nest egg do you need to be comfortable in your retirement? We'll show you how to plan for the future even if that future isn't so far off anymore.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We'd all love to retire in our 60s, but for many people that doesn't seem financially possible right now. Stephanie Elam is here to tell us what to do at every age to make sure you are ready for retirement.

Take it away.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Carol, we want to make sure we help people out as they're getting along in age to figure it out.

So the percentage of workers who actually said they plan to retire at 70 or older has tripled in the last decade. That's according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute. So if you don't want to work in your 70s, you've really got to start with that first job.

So we spoke with Mary Beth Franklin from Kiplinger's Personal Finance and she calculated that if you save just $10,000 at an 8 percent annual return at age 25 and don't contribute anything else for the next 40 years, at 65 you'll roughly have $242,000 saved. But if you start saving the same amount at age 35, you'll be left with just $110,000. Quite a big difference there.

So you 20-somethings out there, make sure you are enrolled in your 401(k) plan and maximize your employer's match cause it is free money after all.

And moving up into your 30s, Franklin says take a portion of each raise and 15 percent of your gross income and put it towards your nest egg. If you're buying your first home and want to borrow from your 401(k), you can take up to $10,000 penalty free but you will still owe taxes on it. Keep that in mind, make sure you understand the terms and fees for borrowing from your 401(k) and know that if you lose or leave your job, any loan is due in full.

Now moving on to your 40s, Franklin says look to your employer's investment advice programs to see if your savings are on track. If not, you want to make sure that you can make the changes while you still have maybe 20 years left to work.

COSTELLO: You still have time in your 40s, but what about if you're in your 50s and you're in your 60s and you realize you might not be ready or able to retire by 65. What kind of action plan should you come up with?

ELAM: Sadly, this is a common situation, Carol, that we hear about a lot. And a recent Wells Fargo survey said 190 bucks, that's all many in their 50s have to look forward to each month in retirement. So start to play catch-up on your 401(k) contributions, that's probably going to be enough for you on a monthly basis.

So Franklin says if you're 50 or older, you can now put up to $22,000 in pretax money in there, that's an extra $5,500 a year. And if you leave your job or you get laid off, at age 55, you can start to take penalty free from your 401(k), but you'll still owe taxes on it.

And finally, in case you were wondering, the magic age, 59.5, that's when you can access retirement accounts with no early withdrawal fees -- Carol.

COSTELLO: The magic age.

So how much is enough to retire on? I know, Stephanie, you're going to be showing us how to calculate how big a nest egg you should have. That's coming up right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We're back with Stephanie Elam.

And Stephanie, you've got some great ways people can figure out how much money they need for retirement. So I'm really curious about this, take it away.

ELAM: Yes, indeed. If you are looking for some advice, this Friday and Tuesday, January 25th, the National Association of Personal Finance Advisers, along with Kiplinger's are sponsoring Jump Start Your Retirement days where from 9:00 to 6:00 p.m. Eastern time you can get information from financial advisers on saving for retirement. There's the number and the website is right there on the screen.

Of course, we're also really fond around these parts of the calculators on CNNMoney.com. You can do it right from your computer right there. You can plug in your income, your age and your savings and see how much you'll need to save so that you can retire at 65.

But it's a good time to do it now. You know, it's a new year, get it going, Carol. Get all your finances in order there.

COSTELLO: I'm trying. It's just so hard to get everything together and sit down and actually figure it out. But once you do all of that and you are sitting down, it's easy, right? Right?

ELAM: It's much easier to do it now than it is to, say, do it at age 65.

COSTELLO: Quite true. OK, I'm running home right now.

Stephanie Elam, many thanks.

ELAM: OK, good.

COSTELLO: One term as American's top diplomat may be enough for Hillary Clinton. Mark Preston of "The Best Political Team on Television" live from the Political Desk in Washington, what's crossing right now?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, hey, Carol. Is Hillary Clinton going to stay? Is she going to leave? Well, on the "Today" show this morning she hinted that perhaps she's looking at life after public service. In fact, she said I've said on many occasions I'm looking forward to returning to private life, something I haven't had the experience of for a long time now.

Let's look at this CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll. Americans have a very high favorable rating of Hillary Clinton at this time, 66 percent. Well I compared that to what her favorable rating was back in March of 2007 when she was running for president, only 49 percent. So Hillary Clinton clearly is well regarded by Americans at this time. It will be interesting to see if she ever runs for president again in 2016.

COSTELLO: Well, that was what I was just going to ask you because all those rumors were running around like maybe she'd replace Joe Biden as President Obama's vice president in 2012 and maybe she'd run for president herself. But --

PRESTON: Yes, the whole replacement rumors were just -- that's what they were, they were rumors. In fact, they were silly. That could never have happened.

There will be a lot of pressure on her should President Obama win in 2012 or should he even lose in 2012, would she run in 2016? A lot of people would want her to run. The question is will she run at that time. A lot of people would have liked her to win the last time, but look, Democrats have the White House now.

COSTELLO: Yes, they do.

PRESTON: You know, just talking about Congress and Capitol Hill and the health care repeal. Look, we're just hours away from House Republicans passing a repeal of the health care bill, but there's a prominent (ph) Republican, Carol, who doesn't think it's a good idea. In fact, the former Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, he's a well regarded heart surgeon says he wouldn't vote for the repeal at this time.

He made the remarks at a press conference yesterday. Bill Frist says he wouldn't have written the bill as it is right now, but he said the fact of the matter is it is the law of the land and it's what's going to be the platform to build upon health care for patients and for the industry for years to come -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Joe Lieberman is expected to make his big announcement soon, right?

PRESTON: Yes, we are just literally probably half hour away from Joe Lieberman announcing he is going to leave at the end of his term, which ends in 2012. Joe Lieberman, he is the Democrat from Connecticut. God, he's been there four terms now; deciding not to run for a fifth term.

A lot of people remember Joe Lieberman was the Democrat who decided to run as an independent after he lost the primary in 2006. We're going to hear from him very shortly saying that he's decided to move on, that's what our sources are telling us -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I guess it's supposed to hit at 12:30 Eastern time. And when Joe Lieberman begins speaking, we're going to take it live for people.

Thank you very much, Mark Preston.

Your next Political Update in an hour. And for the latest political news, you know where to go, CNNPolitics.com.

Cycling star Lance Armstrong is facing new doping allegations. They are in the new issue of "Sports Illustrated." We'll hear from the author of that article.

Also ahead in the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM, he hasn't been in office very long, but Alabama's new governor is already pressing buttons. We'll tell you what he said this week as a Baptist church that has some people pretty darned upset.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: We're online tracking the hottest stories. Jacqui Jeras, she's online too. She's tracking what's trending now.

So, what's trending, Jacqui?

JERAS: Hey, weather stories, Carol. Go figure.

We pulling one of these out of the hat. This is trending right on dotcom. There have been a lot of winter weather out there and people having lots of problems clearing the snow and ice off streets. Well, guess what. An Idaho engineer has a great idea and it's getting the attention from the federal government as well as General Electric.

Basically, these are what they are calling smart roads. And what happens, it's a very strong glass and underneath it solar energy is going to get stored. Think of it as the rearview heating element in your vehicle like the defrost. Kind of does that and melts it off. So this is really exciting.

Still going to start testing this, they think in the spring. But it wouldn't it be great? It would save the nation millions, billions of dollars in sand and salt and snow removal.

COSTELLO: Yes, and it could have helped Atlanta out a lot last week.

JERAS: And New York the week before.

COSTELLO: Absolutely.

Thank you, Jacqui.

JERAS: Sure.

COSTELLO: Topping our big play, new trouble for seven-time Tour de France champ Lance Armstrong. A "Sports Illustrated" report raises new doping allegations. Among other things, a cyclist who rode with Armstrong on a squad in 1995 says Armstrong was the driving force behind some team members deciding to use a banned blood booster.

Armstrong is under federal investigation. He denies using performance enhancing drugs.

David Epstein wrote the "Sports Illustrated" article.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID EPSTEIN, STAFF WRITER, "SPORTS ILLUSTRATED": We know the feds have information that Lance gained access to a drug that was only in clinical trials, it was never approved for use. We know because in November, one of his current teammates' homes was raided in Italy and they found information that suggests Lance's teams recently have maintained a relationship with an Italian physician, Dr. Ferrari, who he previously said he cut ties with after allegations of doping.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: If you can't get enough of NBA star LeBron James on the court, you can soon watch him in a new cartoon series. "The LeBrons" will debut this spring on a YouTube channel and on James's website. The ten episodes will feature four different characters. James as a youngster, as an athlete, as a businessman and as a wise older man.

In New York, a Brooklyn bagel maker has cooked up a different way to get Jets fans fired up for Sunday's AFC Championship game against the Pittsburgh Steelers. Warren Bell is giving away 1 million green bagels to Jets fans. And I'm sure you know that the team's colors are green and white.