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American Morning
Mafia Crackdown: FBI Arrest More Than 100 Mobsters; Kidnapped Baby Reunites with Family 23 Years Later; Detroit's Tough Love School Sheriff; Giffords Aide Recounts Chaos
Aired January 21, 2011 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: But hello to you all. Thank you for being here. I'm T.J. Holmes alongside Kiran Chetry this morning.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Great to have you with us. We're also talking this hour about what seemed like, really, a season finale from "The Sopranos," but actually, it's real life crime stories. More than 100 mobsters rounded up. We're going to speak to someone who knows all to well what it takes to bring down this many criminals, former prosecutor, our own Eliot Spitzer.
HOLMES: Also this morning, we've been talking a lot this week about cities and states just flat out broke right now. And one city and one school district in Detroit, one of the most trouble in the country, we're going to be speaking to the person responsible for trying to turn it all around.
CHETRY: First though, a remarkable reunion, a stolen baby taken when she was just 19 days old, ended up solving her own crime, and she's back with her family this morning, talking about it, and certainly, not a baby anymore. For the first time, we're seeing the family altogether, mom, dad and daughter, and we're hearing from Carlina White who was kidnapped from a hospital in New York City in 1987.
HOLMES: But that little girl as she began to grow up said some red flags started to go off. She was kind of a teenager and the person she thought was mom couldn't come up with a birth certificate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLINA WHITE, REUNITED WITH MOTHER AFTER 23 YEARS: You know, start typing in Yahoo! and Google, like different articles like anything that pulled up in 1987, which any child missing. I came across the article and the baby picture just struck me because even though I didn't see my baby picture when I was that young, looking at it, it looked like my daughter. I just kept on -- I stayed on that article for like a good two hours.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And you heard her explaining it there. This is a new photo we are getting of the family that was separated, again 23 years ago, together again. This is a brand new picture we're just getting. Going to have more on this story with our Alina Cho coming up in just about 20 minutes.
CHETRY: That's just amazing, the whole family back together and catching up on lost time. The mom saying she wants to know everything about all of her relatives. So we'll have much more on that.
Meantime to Tucson, Arizona, now, and more promising developments this morning as Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords continues her recovery. And she's doing so well that she was actually able to get some fresh air. This is a picture of her in her hospital bed with her husband, Mark Kelly, at her side, and she was able to get a view of the beautiful mountains in Arizona and do some of her physical therapy outside.
Less than two weeks after surviving a bullet to the head, she is traveling from Tucson to Houston to continue her recovery. Giffords' husband says the family looked at several rehab facilities and settled on Memorial Herman in Tucson because it specializes in head injuries like the one that Gabrielle Giffords suffered.
Our Thelma Gutierrez is live in Tucson with more on the recovery. Her husband says he believes she is going to walk the halls of that hospital and thank everyone who helped her in just a few months, a pretty remarkable prediction.
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Kiran. You know, for those of White House have been out here watching her progress, every day it seems she hits a milestone. And yesterday imagine what that must have been like to go outside for the first time in two weeks to feel the sunshine and to do some of the therapy outside as she looked on to the Catalina Mountains.
Again, first time since the shooting and probably the last time that she will see those mountains for the next several months while she's in intensive rehab in Houston. Dr. Peter Rhee talked to us yesterday. He was out there with her as she was on the helipad in her hospital bed doing some of her therapy. He says he couldn't be more pleased with her progress.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. PETER RHEE, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, UMC TRAUMA CENTER: We were able to take her to the helicopter pad today outside and show her the -- give her some fresh air and give her some sunshine. She was able to see the Arizona mountains, hopefully the last time before she comes back from Houston.
But we did our physical activity out there. We did our physical rehab out there, where we assisted her in her standing and help her get her balance and so on like that. She's able to stand now with assistance. She's not independent at this stage. She can't walk at this point. But we feel that she'll be able to do some of those activities in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GUTIERREZ: Now, Dr. Rhee says that in about four hours, he, her ICU nurse, her mother, her husband, Mark Kelly, and several members of her staff will leave the medical center here, go by ambulance, they'll make the trip across Tucson to Davis Monthan Air Force base and then board a Challenger aircraft and they will fly about two hours to Houston. From there, Kiran, they land, they will take another helicopter to the memorial center where she will begin intensive rehabilitation.
CHETRY: That in itself is an exhausting journey for somebody who has been through what she's been through. But they're very positive, and that's great. Thelma Gutierrez for us this morning, thanks so much.
HOLMES: And you heard Thelma talking about there, where Gabrielle Giffords is going now. She is headed to Houston to the rehab facility. Our Elizabeth Cohen has been there the past several days and spoke with the chief of neurosurgery there.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You've heard that she's scrolling through an iPod and can pick out colors and she's relating to her husband. What other kinds of things are you going to look for as you get here to assess how she's doing?
DR. DONG KIM, CHIEF OF NEUROSURGERY, UT MEMORIAL HERMAN: Well, first of all, we'll be doing a thorough neurological examination. There's multiple parts to that. Then just as important, it will be a medical evaluation to make sure there are no other issues. If you're asking about kind of what functions we think about for a patient overall, those are some of them.
Other things we want to think about are facility with speech, how clear somebody's comprehensive is, motor facility. Are they able to walk? Cognitive processing becomes important at some point, calculations and so on. So there's a host of neurological functions we will be thinking about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And we will be checking in with our Elizabeth Cohen live there for us in Houston.
CHETRY: Now to the snowstorm that's snarling traffic this Friday morning. It started about 1:00 in the morning our time here in the northeast, and right now the snow is falling pretty hard and fast yet again. We have live radar showing where it is stretching all the way from New Jersey up to Maine.
HOLMES: We can also show you a live look outside, what's happening right now in New York City. The snow is coming down. It's gorgeous if you're not trying to go somewhere.
CHETRY: That's right.
HOLMES: It's really is a beautiful shot, Columbus circle right outside where we are. Boston do we have that picture up this morning? If we do not -- we do not. Sorry to make a liar out of me.
(WEATHER BREAK)
HOLMES: Turn to Stephanie Elam, turn to jobs now and the economy, the president making some changes. We're going to find out about it officially in a little bit.
ELAM: This is all in an effort to sort of keep things getting warmer with the business community. Because you may remember the beginning of his presidency he got a lot of backlash from the business community. We were in the throes of the recession and a lot of businesses felt that the president and his team were just too harsh.
Now he's trying to make things better. He's been working on that. He's expected to announce today that he is putting Jeffrey Immelt, the CEO of General Electric, at the helm of his new White House board. It will be called the "president's council on jobs and competitiveness." Immelt has served for two years on a board that was previously in line with this. It was led by the former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker. That was the president's economic recovery advisory board.
Now he's taking over, and in what he wrote in "The Washington Post," Immelt says there are a few things he wants to do, focus on manufacturing exports and free trade. Basically saying that the United States, if they're going to be competitive, if we're going to be competitive, we've got to sell our goods overseas and do more of that, and also looking to innovation as well.
So this is all a move to try to improve things and keep businesses hiring, getting small businesses -- because remember, most of the jobs in the country are not from big companies, they're from small businesses, and to get that innovation out and get the small businesses moving.
CHETRY: And big businesses, Google.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right.
CHETRY: Some changes at the top.
ELAM: Changes at the top there, a lot of people talking about this all around the world. If you take a look at it, the CEO Eric Schmidt is stepping down. He's going on. He says he has other things he wants to do. He'll stay on as executive chairman. Larry Page, who's one of the co-founders, will take over the CEO job. He actually held it before. Sergey Brin will stay there as well. He's no longer going to be president. It was taking too long to get through the approval process to make decisions, everything is fine, we can move on and make these changes. When you take a look at what Eric Schmidt said he's like adult supervision no longer need. That's what he tweeted out.
Nice numbers that they reported for the fourth quarter, very strong growth, up 26 percent. Google's looking pretty good in the number factory right now. HOLMES: He served his purpose there. These were very young guys when they got into the game and created this company and needed the adult supervision. Take the training wheels off now. Good to see you.
ELAM: Thank you.
CHETRY: It's championship weekend in the NFL, so are you ready? It will be the New York Jets and the Pittsburgh Steelers facing off for the AFC championship title in Pittsburgh on Sunday. The Steelers have won two of the last five Super Bowls. As for the Jets, they have not been to the super bowl in 41 years.
HOLMES: Also for the Bears, no pressure here, but a presidential visit is on the line. The NFC championship game, these two rivals going at it for years and years, hundreds of games in history between the two, the Green Bay Packers and the bears going at it in the title game. They've met 181 times in the past.
Important game here however -- the president in all likelihood said he will make it to Chicago if they do -- excuse me not to Chicago, to Dallas where the Super bowl is happening if they do win that game.
CHETRY: We have a lot of Bears fans around here. Stephanie wrote "Da' Bears."
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: We have somebody who can do the entire super bowl shuffle and sing it word for word.
HOLMES: We'll pull that video out.
ELAM: I only know the 49ers song. They rap, like back in the day, Montana. I told you I said when I was growing up.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: All right, still to come, the police could not find her, but she found her own way home after 23 years, a woman who was kidnapped as a baby, back with her mom and dad. And she's sharing more on her amazing story.
HOLMES: Also, "Meatball" and "Carwash" are now in police custody. Who?
CHETRY: And "Bagels."
HOLMES: "Bagels" is in there as well. We are talking about the mobsters and they're oh so creative names. A major crackdown called the biggest in FBI history. It's 11 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: We're at 14 minutes past the hour.
You love "The Sopranos," Tony Soprano even a sympathetic character in a lot of ways. He's a family man. These guys, I don't know how sympathetic you're going to be to them. They're the real life guys, more than 100 alleged mobsters rounded up, a dragnet that stretched from Florida to Rhode Island.
CHETRY: They even had to go over to Italy to get one. The FBI says it is their biggest mob bust in history. Our next guest knows how much hard work goes into that arrest. Eliot Spitzer, a former prosecutor, now host of CNN's "Parker Spitzer." Thanks for getting up with us this morning.
ELIOT SPITZER, CNN HOST, "PARKER SPITZER": My pleasure.
CHETRY: It's interesting. I mean, obviously years of hard work, wiretapping. All of this, you know, and you have the indictments right there in front of you.
SPITZER: Show everybody how much paper there is. I don't know if it means they're big cases but a lot of paper, anyway.
CHETRY: Right.
But yesterday, it was a bit of a dog and pony show. They paraded them out in front of the cameras. You saw them being handcuffed in public. I mean, it seemed like a day of gloating for the FBI.
SPITZER: And deservingly so. But here's the point I would make. A lot of defendants, biggest day in terms of the number of mobsters they dragged in on one day. But the question is, are these the biggest names they've ever gotten.
You know, you had the era of John Gotti. You had the era of Paul Castellano, Carlo Gambino, people who ran whole industries, trucking, carding, the fish market. That was an era, 10, 15 years ago, when the mob dominated whole sectors of businesses. Now what we're seeing is this is more traditional, 30, 40 years ago mob activity, street level, gambling, extortion. The murder charges go way back. So yes, this is sort of your grandfather's mob, not the mob of 10 years ago.
HOLMES: Which is worse then?
SPITZER: Ten years ago, it was worse. I don't say that because that's when I was a prosecutor. But I think you talk to the people, both prosecutors and defense attorneys, they will tell you the mob was more powerful 10 years ago than it is today.
CHETRY: But there were rumors or, you know, the buzz, the myth that it was pretty much -- that there was really not much of an organization and they say that these busts, these high profile, they say they got all of the members of the Colombo head family, show that it's still alive and well.
SPITZER: When you bring a bust like this down, you want to claim you decapitated one of the major families, in this case the Colombo family. But here's the thing, the mob will always be there.
You look through our history past 100 years. There has always been a mob. It changes its name, it changes ethnicities quite frankly. We are, you know, the lore of "The Godfather" has given us the sort of one image of what it's all about, "The Godfather," "Goodfellas," "The Sopranos." It changes in form. It will always be there preying on the lowest, the most vulnerable groups in our society who need money, the loan sharks, who then get organized. It will always be there. This is a big, big case, a bunch of cases, 16 different indictments, but I think the mob structurally was more powerful 10 or 15 years ago.
HOLMES: This sounds dramatic, but what are the real chances of getting these guys off the streets? And is it more difficult to bring such a big indictment like this versus going after these guys one by one?
SPITZER: Well, it depends. There are a lot of little indictments in here too. Most of these guys will cop pleas. You know, they're involved in loan sharking. They're involved in sort of petty extortions. There are some sort of remember on the waterfront where the ILA, the longshoremen's union was saying you want a job, you got to sort of kick back some of the money to the mob. That still goes on in certain union locals, something that is in videos. Takes some money out of the pockets of hard-working folks.
CHETRY: Right.
SPITZER: Those things you have to go after.
CHETRY: And Holder yesterday really made a point, the attorney general. He said you're talking about $500 million that's basically a mob tax --
SPITZER: Right.
CHETRY: -- being taken out of our economy because of what you're describing.
SPITZER: Coming up with these numbers is always a little bit of a back of the envelope calculation but it's big money and, you know, there is a moment when every piece of garbage in New York City was run through a trucking company that was controlled by the mob and they put a tax on it. They realized about 50 years ago, 30 years ago maybe, that it was better to make money the way John D. Rockefeller did, which was to have a monopoly and take five percent of everything, rather than to take the big $100 loan and hit somebody over the head with a baseball bat. So they organized these industries and they were smart businessmen. Now, prosecutors and, you know, I did this for a while, trying to push back at them, take those sectors back, and that is the battle that goes on.
HOLMES: Where has the focus been? People here, Justice Department, the attorney general involved. We've been dealing with so much having to do with other things, terrorism and what not in this country. How much emphasis have they been putting on the mob over the years?
SPITZER: Not a lot. And you know what? That was the right thing to do. You never say we don't care about it.
HOLMES: Yes.
SPITZER: But after 9/11, the FBI switched a lot of resources to terrorism as they needed to, as they should. And so, I think part of the message that the attorney general, Eric Holder, wanted to send yesterday, was yes, we're doing terrorism stuff but we're not going to forget about these traditional areas of FBI prosecution.
CHETRY: You mentioned that changing ethnicities, these are the five Italian crime families.
SPITZER: Right.
CHETRY: And one also Italian crime family in New Jersey.
SPITZER: Right.
CHETRY: What about some of the other recent years we've seen the growth of the Russian mob or, you know, Asian gangsters. I mean, are they putting as much emphasis.
SPITZER: Oh, yes.
CHETRY: And is that as big of a problem?
SPITZER: Yes, it's been a huge problem from the drug gangs of East Asia, some of the gangs out of the Caribbean, Latin America, those are historically, in fact, more violent in the way they deal with both witnesses and prosecutors. A lot of successful prosecutions have been brought by not only the FBI but the Manhattan D.A.'s office. State prosecutors around the nation. So yes, this needs to be a big area of concentration as well.
HOLMES: Well, we appreciate you dropping this off to us today.
SPITZER: I can see you reading for 10 days.
HOLMES: We'll look through it if nothing else just for the names. And what was your favorite again?
SPITZER: Whiney and lumpy.
HOLMES: Whiney and lumpy.
SPITZER: Yes. Sounds like the seven dwarfs. I've got "whiney and lumpy," the AKAs are always the best part.
HOLMES: It's good to see you this morning. I appreciate you coming out here.
CHETRY: Nice to see you.
SPITZER: Thank you.
CHETRY: Well, we are going to take a quick break. Oh, by the way, watch Eliot, "PARKER SPITZER" weeknight, 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN. Thanks, Eliot.
SPITZER: Thank you.
HOLMES: He just gave us a thumbs up when he saw the promo.
CHETRY: Yes, they got it in there.
HOLMES: Well, still to come on this AMERICAN MORNING, America's most troubled public school system. It's in the hands of one man. We'll tell you who he is, where he is, and if he can fix it.
CHETRY: Also, changes Apple made to the iPhone. Why some tech types are very upset about them.
You're watching AMERICAN MORNING. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Something they haven't been able to do for years, just enjoy a family meal together like they were never apart. The woman in the middle sitting at the table with her real-life family for the first time in 23 years. The odds say this happy reunion never should have happened. She was kidnapped as an infant just 19 days old, and somehow found her way back home -- solved her own missing person's case.
HOLMES: That's amazing. So many people were looking for -- Alina Cho, I'll bring you in. So many people were looking for her and she found herself. It's odd.
ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's unbelievable. I mean, what are the odds of this? And imagine how much hope this gives to those families out there --
HOLMES: Yes.
CHO: -- who are in a similar situation. You know, it really is an inspiring story. You know, Carlina White says everything is brand new. It's like being born again.
Now, that may seem odd coming from a 23-year-old woman, but it's not when you know her story. It was an inspiring reunion more than two decades in the making between a woman who was stolen as an infant right there on the left in the middle now, and her birth mother and father. Now for the first time, we are hearing from Carlina White and her mother who have 23 years of catching up to do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLINA WHITE, KIDNAPPED 23 YEARS AGO: This is always what I wanted ever since I found out that, you know, that lady wasn't my biological mother. (END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: Well, the story made national headlines back in 1987. That's when little Carlina White, a 19-day old infant, three weeks old, was taken to a Harlem hospital for a high fever and was snatched by a woman dressed as a nurse. There were no leads. And the case eventually went cold. But her mother who always kept her baby's photo on the dresser held on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOY WHITE, CARLINA WHITE'S MOTHER: I just always believed that she would find me. That was something that I always believed in myself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: You know, Carlina talked about growing up in Bridgeport, Connecticut, just about an hour's drive from the life she was supposed to have in the Bronx, New York, 45 miles away with her real family. She now has a baby of her own and, in fact, it was when she got pregnant at age 16, that she really started to question, really started to wonder about her identity when she asked the woman she thought was her mother for a birth certificate, so she could get prenatal care and her so-called mother couldn't provide one. So she turned to the Internet.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLINA WHITE, KIDNAPPED 23 YEARS AGO: I just, you know, started typing in Yahoo and Google like different articles, like anything that pulled up in 1987, with any child missing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHO: What's incredible, guys, is that when she called the center, she actually said, I don't know who I am. But what's fascinating about her search on the Internet, she said when she saw photos of herself as a child, of course, initially she didn't know it was her, but what she saw was her daughter. She said the photos looked like her daughter and that's when she really triggered something in her.
But imagine, you know, I was talking to some friends about this, I'm not so sure that even if I had all of those doubts, right? Well, I don't really look like my family. OK, maybe they can't provide the paperwork, that I would have had the wherewithal to actually go on the web and start searching, to have really those doubts like that and to do that. Good for her and I mean, to solve that case herself is just so remarkable.
CHETRY: And so now the big question is will this woman who raised her all these years face charges? Is she the one that they think took her from the hospital at 19 days old?
CHO: Well, I can tell you officially, that authorities aren't identifying the suspect. The woman who has been identified in some of the tabloids says that she's going to go to Connecticut and sort it all out. We'll just have to wait and see. All authorities will say right now is that the investigation is ongoing. So we're following it.
HOLMES: Right. But the result, no doubt, right now, the important one, the family is back together.
CHO: Oh, absolutely, without a doubt.
HOLMES: Alina, great story. Appreciate you this morning. Thanks so much.
CHETRY: Your top stories are just a little more than two minutes away, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords reaching a big milestone today in her amazing recovery.
HOLMES: And a lot of people filing their taxes right about now. Everybody wants as many deductions as possible, but we've got some you need to avoid.
Twenty-seven minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, good morning, Washington, D.C. A gorgeous shot of the Capitol, where the country's work is being done with a new era of civility, I'm told. But some lawmakers, as we've seen this week, didn't get the memo. Nonetheless, beautiful shot this morning of the nation's capitol.
Hello to you all on this AMERICAN MORNING. Bottom of the hour here. I'm T.J. Holmes.
CHETRY: And I'm Kiran Chetry. Here are the top stories this morning.
Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords just hours away now from leaving an Arizona hospital. Yesterday she had a chance to spend some time outside, here's the picture, getting a chance to look at the mountains. She still is in her hospital bed, but she was doing some physical therapy outside as well and she is heading to Houston where her aggressive rehabilitation will continue.
HOLMES: The former British prime minister, Tony Blair, he's in the hot seat once again today, he's been getting grilled by a panel that is investigating his country's role in the Iraq war. This is the second time he's been before this group. He's called back actually. They wanted him to clarify some testimony about some conversations he had with President George W. Bush.
CHETRY: And some tiny changes on new iPhones have some tech types steamed. Apple now uses tamperproof screws in the casing, it makes repair tools rare and expensive. It also keeps non-Apple techs from fixing them, although some say that you can Google, I think it's called a pentagonal screwdriver, it's you know, five little points, and they can send you one and you can be on your way. They say look, Apple likes to control everything, why can't we even get our phone fixed where we want to.
HOLMES: Give them the Web site for the screw as well?
CHETRY: Google it.
HOLMES: Apple is loving you right now.
CHETRY: Well, coming up, we've been telling you this week about a looming crisis in this country, crisis in your home, your particular town or city, many cities and towns, of course, red ink right now, they're just flat out broke. These are the top five cities with the biggest budget deficits. Number one, New York City. Estimates $2 billion in a budget deficit. Followed by D.C., Chicago, L.A. and San Francisco.
CHETRY: Number 13 on the list, Camden, New Jersey, we've talked about this week, it's of the most dangerous cities in the U.S. and this week nearly half the police force had to turn in their badges because of a multimillion-dollar budget gap.
Also in Ohio, because of that state's deficit, one lawmaker introducing legislation that would repeal a requirement that schools provide tuition-free all day kindergarten.
HOLMES: Also, Detroit as well. Budget woes forcing the city to put its education system on the chopping block. Schools could soon close in classroom sizes could just swell.
Our Poppy Harlow is here. This has been a debate for years in that town. How do you save it and do you save Detroit schools?
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: How do you save Detroit? This is about the future of the city, the automotive industry isn't what it was. You can't graduate high school or not even graduate and work in the auto industry anymore like you could. This is a system that's been in crisis . I've been following it for more than a year now.
But the Detroit public schools have a 57 percent graduation rate. It is abysmal, it's much worse than the numbers tell. We spent a day with the man who is literally waging an all-out assault trying to fix this system. He was put in place, you see him right there, by the governor, to overrule the school board, do whatever he needed to fix the hundreds of millions of dollars in terms of the budget gap and also fix the system in general.
Some call him, his name Robert Bob, a villain. Other people call him a hero. And what he is doing is really taking no prisoners, closing schools left and right. Take a listen to him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW (on camera): You closed 59 schools, more than a quarter of Detroit's public schools, and that has angered parents and teachers. Why did you need to make that move? ROBERT BOB, DETROIT SCHOOLS EMERGENCY FINANCE MANAGER: For financial reasons and the fact that, you know, we have a declining population. I think, you know, we're going to anger more individuals in the next few months because I'm going to close somewhere between 20, perhaps - maybe 40 schools in the next few months.
HARLOW: Additional or included in that 59?
BOB: Additional schools.
HARLOW: Wow.
BOB: I mean -
HARLOW: So you're almost cutting the number of Detroit public schools in half?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: You know the reason he's doing that is because enrollment in these schools is half of where it was a decade ago. Parents are fleeing Detroit, they're taking their kids to the is suburbs, to those schools. So he has no choice. He has a budget deficit that is $327 million. But the teachers, a lot of them don't like this. They don't agree with him. They're terrified of bigger class sizes. And they criticize him because he has not closed the budget gap. The deficit has actually gotten bigger on his watch and that is a big criticism for a lot of teachers. One we spoke with, Edna Reaves, a high school teacher. She has been teaching in the system for 24 years. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EDNA REAVES, DETROIT PUBLIC SCHOOLS, HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: He hasn't achieved what he came here for, and that's to reduce the deficit. It's grown since he's been here. And I have a problem with that. I cannot give you an excellent mark if you haven't accomplished your task. That will hold him to the same standards I hold my students to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Holding him to a high bar, gives him a C, barely passing. For his part, Robert Bob says "look, I inherited this deficit. It was twice as big as I thought when I came in." But this has gotten so contentious in Detroit that the school board sued him last year for academic control and they won. There are school board meetings where they're screaming at him, saying this man is a villain but he's trying and he's the first person in decades to actually say "I'm going to do whatever it takes to fix this school system."
And you look at him with these kids. He tutors two kids at an elementary school in Detroit. You look at him and they've clearly made their mark on him in just a personal story. He grew up on a Louisiana sugar plantation and he said public education was my only way out. For me this is not just professional, this is personal. So really trying to change the system.
CHETRY: Wow. A lot of tough choices. I mean, Detroit's, one example, a huge example, of just what's going on right now and how difficult it is. And some people are saying can the federal government come to the rescue?
HARLOW: I don't know. That's the question. And you put someone like this in power and look how contentious it's gotten. I said "did you expect to be sued by the school board." He said "every major change we've made I've been in court, there's been a lawsuit about it." And that's what you get when you take a job like this.
HOLMES: So we're all pulling for Detroit.
HARLOW: That's for sure.
HOLMES: That's been hurt for quite some time.
Poppy, we appreciate you. We appreciate you putting a focus on what's happening there. Thanks so much.
Well, coming up, he was standing next to Gabrielle Giffords when she was shot. He was shot himself. He is now recovering. He will be here to talk to us.
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HOLMES: Thirty-eight minutes past the hour now on this "American Morning." He was standing right next to his boss when she was shot in the head. Ron Barber is who I'm talking about. He is the district director for Congresswoman Giffords. He was shot himself that day. He saw others around him, his colleagues, friends, falling to the ground, shot as well.
All of this happening around him while so many people still trying to figure out exactly what was happening. Ron Barber is his name. He joins me this morning from Tucson, along with his wife. I appreciate you both taking some time out with us, still all these memories are fresh, just two weeks ago, so much has happened, but thank you so much for your time.
Mr. Barber, let me start with you, let me ask, the extent of your injuries and how are you doing now?
RON BARBER, WOUNDED IN TUCSON SHOOTING: Well, I'm doing better. My wounds are healing. I was shot in the face and the exit wound is in my neck and those wounds are healing quite well. I still have a fractured jaw, but that's healing as well. My - the shot to my thigh or groin that went out my buttock, because the wounds are pretty much healed, a little bit more work to be done there.
And then the transplant or grafting of the vein from my right to left leg where the bullet shattered my femoral vein, that's healing. My remaining problem physically at least, is my ankle to my foot, it still has no feeling in it.
HOLMES: Wow.
RON BARBER: So I have some work to do there to get the feeling back.
HOLMES: And the photographer there is kind of panning out and we're able to see it there. Sir, I know you've had to kind of remember this story in your own mind and also people have been asking you to recall it. So, I'm sorry to have to do so, but let me ask, sir, if you don't mind, tell me how close were you standing to Congresswoman Giffords when that first shot rang out?
RON BARBER: I was standing probably less than a foot away from her. We were in our normal position for a "Congress On Your Corner" event. As she greets the constituents I stand beside her to help facilitate any further follow-up action after we've had the conversation and I was standing right next to her when the gunman came past on my left and raised his gun and shot the congresswoman in the head.
HOLMES: Sir, could you make out - I mean I imagine this was happening so quickly, but could you make out something was going on, something was wrong, just as this young man started to approach and even before you maybe even saw a gun, could you even comprehend what was taking place?
RON BARBER: I don't think I knew anything was happening until I saw him come past me and almost immediately he fired his gun and then he swept his gun around shooting as he did, probably shot 15 or 20 bullets in a very short period of time, sort of panning the people in the immediate area, shooting me and as I understand it, Judge Roll, shot our wonderful outreach director Gabe Zimmerman who fell between myself and the congresswoman. It was pretty horrific and it was over, seemed very quickly, but it's still very vivid, unfortunately, a very vivid memory.
HOLMES: Did you even have time to react?
RON BARBER: No. I didn't. I was falling to the ground pretty quickly with the shots to my cheek and to my leg. As I fell, I fell on my side and immediately saw the congresswoman was on her side with her back to me. We were just a few inches apart. And no, there was no time to react. I wish there had been.
HOLMES: Nancy, I have to ask you as well, as a spouse, a lot of people listening to this, cannot even imagine what that was like for you, but tell me how you got word and what your reaction was, not just that there was a shooting, but your husband was one of those who had been hit?
NANCY BARBER, WIFE OF RON BARBER: You know, it's a fear that - it's the instant you hope would never happen. I was just walking out the door to go grocery shopping and the phone rang, you know, it's one of those "oh, should I let it go or not." I picked it up and there was a very calm voice on the other side asking, "are you Nancy Barber, Ron Barber's wife?" And I said "yes." And she said, "there's been an accident" and I said "OK." And she said, "your husband's been shot." I said "OK." At this point going quite numb.
And I said is he still alive, and she said "he's still with us." And I asked where he was, and I said "I'm going to call my daughter. I'll be right there." You know, saying "he's still with us" is pretty scary. Not knowing exactly what that means.
HOLMES: And I know you all have been following closely Congresswoman Giffords' recovery. Will you all be there today as she leaves for rehab?
NANCY BARBER: No.
RON BARBER: No. We won't be there. We had the opportunity to see her yesterday and I really cherished that. She'll be - it will be a lot of activity in and around the hospital to try to get her on the ambulance and to the aircraft. So we'll stay away and let the doctors and nurses and her husband, Mark, take care of what they need to do to get her safely to Houston.
HOLMES: She certainly looked like she continues to get better?
RON BARBER: She sure does. And, you know, I think now the whole country knows what those of us who have worked with her for the last few years know, and that is that she's a remarkable person, very determined, tough. There's no question in my mind that she will recover and be back in Congress and leading us here in Arizona. We're just very fortunate that she's alive.
HOLMES: Well, guys, thank you so much for taking the time and I'm going to go, but quickly, I have to ask, and either one of you can answer this quickly for me, what do you think should happen to the accused shooter?
RON BARBER: Well, I think the legal process is under way. I know that indictments have been filed with the grand jury and charges have been taken with the court.
And I think we'll just let the legal process follow its course and we'll see. I think it's going to probably be a long time before we know exactly what justice will bring in this case.
HOLMES: All right. Was your answer the same, Mrs. Barber?
NANCY BARBER: Yes, it is.
HOLMES: All right. Nancy, Ron barber, thank you for taking the time out. I know it's been a difficult couple weeks for your entire community and certainly for you guys as well. Thank you so much. We look forward to seeing you up and around and I know you want to get back to work, Mr. Barber, but thank you both for your time.
RON BARBER: I sure do. I can't wait to get back to our great team and to continue our work on behalf of the congresswoman.
HOLMES: All right, well, thank you guys, so much.
NANCY BARBER: He just needs to heal a little bit more.
HOLMES: She doesn't want him to go back to work. Do you hear that?
CHETRY: I know. It's a great spirit dealing with all of that and sadness, but keeping it positive. T.J., thanks.
Still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, tax season is in full swing. We want to try to help you out with some deductions, which ones may get you in more trouble than it's worth.
Also, snowy start to the morning commute. Jacqui Jeras is going to have the travel forecast for us as another storm moves up the east coast.
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HOLMES: About 12 minutes to the top of the hour now. Want to get the headlines, the weather headlines from Jacqui Jeras in Atlanta. Is the headline more so 42 below in Minnesota or the inches of snow in the northeast?
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Pick your poison, you know. It's probably affecting more people in the northeast, certainly, but you know, I think I would rather see a little snow out my window as opposed to the 42 below.
Anyway, you know the good thing, too, by the way about the storm in the northeast, this thing is booking, let me tell you. It's moving very quickly. In fact, we're pretty much done with the snow already in New York City.
You know, you can see it on long island a few flurries. Let's go ahead and take a look at a beautiful skyline for you this morning out of New York and there you can see, yes, maybe a couple flurries still coming down now, right.
It came just for the morning commute to give you a little headache this morning but hey, it's the weekend! Keep that in mind, we love the weekend, right. Snow is going to stick with you, though, for another maybe five, six hours into Providence, Boston maybe mid- afternoon and then Portland you're going to have to wait probably until this evening before it quiet downs.
But delays are expected at the airport. We don't have any delays right now, but check your flights because we could see a couple of cancellations or delays, I think. Boston could get over an hour and New York metros as well. Philadelphia, D.C. metros, and even though we're done here with precipitation, it's the wind, yes.
It's going to be really gusty back behind that system. The snowfall accumulations, three to five in New York, 47 in Boston and 8 to 14 up in Portland and maybe a little more than that across parts of northern Maine.
High pressure, arctic high pressure, yes, that what's giving you that nice treat across the upper Midwest this morning. That's really controlling all of the plain states and been chilly down into parts of Dallas.
There you can see international falls bumped up a little bit, 38 degrees below zero. By the way, guys, these are the actual temperatures on the thermometer. The windchill index much colder. We're talking 30s below right now in Minneapolis.
CHETRY: Well, all right, so -- but if you live there, you know what to do that is the difference. We would be going crazy.
JERAS: They expect it now and again.
CHETRY: Yes, all right. Thanks, Jacqui.
Well, if all that cold is getting to you, here is a beautiful respite from that. This is Miami and home in this case is the deep blue sea for two green sea turtles released back into the wild after being nursed back to health with the Miami's Aquarium.
One named Petree had been hit by a boat and the other named Butterball got a hook in his mouth. Both of them underwent months of treatment and they are just fine now and going back home to be with their turtle friends. One of them looks like -- there you go, Butterball.
HOLMES: All right, we got 10 minutes to the top of the hour. Coming up next, a former U.S. senator and a potential presidential candidate says Obama's views on abortion shouldn't be what they are because the president is black. We will let him explain this to you.
CHETRY: And something you do not know about George Clooney, talking with Piers Morgan about a health scare that he suffered in Africa. Coming up, 51 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: If you're one of the 50 million taxpayers who itemize your deduction, we have a nice Valentine's day gift for you. February 14th, that is the first day the IRS will begin accepting itemized returns. The extra time is needed because of December's last minute tax deal by the White House and Congress.
HOLMES: All right, so everybody wants deductions, right, Steph? Everybody is looking for tax breaks.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS NEWS CORRESPONDENT: I don't know if people are even thinking about their taxes yet, but they should.
HOLMES: They should be.
CHETRY: Well, a lot of us got our electronic W2s coming out this week.
ELAM: It's says 2010, figure it all out.
HOLMES: No, the deductions you can't take. I don't want them?
CHETRY: The deductions you can't take.
HOLMES: I can't take?
ELAM: Basically.
CHETRY: So you up your chances of getting audited if you try to do it, is that what happens?
ELAM: Good way to put it. Yes, so let's take a look at the first one here. Reimburse job expenses. The basic problem of this is, yes, if your company has already reimbursed them you can't deduct them, too. You can't get a two-for on them that doesn't work. So that's going to work for you there.
Also diets and health club dues is great. It's really great that you're getting slim. That's really great that you're being healthy. Everyone is for that. You can't deduct that either unless the only way it works is if the dieter exercise plan was specifically prescribed by a doctor for a diagnosed medical condition not because you just want to look hot by summer.
It doesn't work that way either. Commuting costs, yes, it is true that if you're traveling for business and going to and fro that's one thing, but just to get from your home to your office every day that doesn't count.
You can't deduct that. You can't deduct your ferry ride. You can't deduct your train ride, none of it, even if it's far. Even if you have to commute from say Atlanta to New York, it doesn't count.
Also, let's take a look at pet care. I know a lot of you folks out there love your animals and they are like members of the family, but you can't count them as a deductible or a dependent there. I know, I really did love my dogs growing up, but you can't.
The only exception there would be guide dogs and service animals. The last one we'll show you for right now is home improvements. We all hear about that. It's better for your house. It's also better to sell your home later.
They're generally not deductible. However you might be able to get a tax break for that so that is one thing that you can keep in mind.
CHETRY: It's a tax break, but you can't say I winterized my home so I get to write off all of this?
ELAM: No, you do not get to do that. But I know it's going to be hard for people who say have two cats that they might want to count.
HOLMES: Strictly, I've tried it already. But you're not supposed to but is it a chance? I know you're not giving this bad advice to folks. ELAM: You could try.
HOLMES: Is it possible you could sneak it through there?
ELAM: You know, what the thing is like - you know, if you make maybe $25,000 or $30,000 a year the chances of you getting audited are probably slimmer than someone who makes a lot more.
And if you have a lot more and you're trying to do this and your cost are probably a lot more that is going to raise a red flag.
CHETRY: And then also the other thing that you talked about a lot that we talked about last year too is if you try to deduct too much you will get hit any way with the alternative minimum tax.
ELAM: The alternative minimum tax is not our friend because basically in short, our salaries have gone up, but that was not been adjusted for and why more and more people are getting hit with that. And that's why people are unhappy, but anyway, keep in mind and get your taxes together and get your files ready. April will be here before you know it.
HOLMES: Don't go too far. I have questions during the break. We're going to take a quick one, your top stories coming up in 90 seconds.
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