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American Morning

New Findings on Breast Cancer; Report: No Electronic Flaws; Berlusconi Under Fire; Government Steps Back from Mortgage Business; Bath Salts Crackdown; Chipotle Hiring Under Microscope; USDA: Eggs are Healthier Than You May Think

Aired February 09, 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: Good morning. We have breaking medical news for you this morning, and it could change about everything we know about breast cancer treatment. More aggressive might not always be the best way to go on this AMERICAN MORNING.

We're at the top of the hour here now. Hello to you all on this Wednesday, February 9th, and welcome to AMERICAN MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us. Bundle up. We have some crazy weather out there. A foot of snow or more in some places in the Midwest this morning. And behind it, this massive blast of cold air that's moving east. We're live in Oklahoma City in about five minutes.

HOLMES: Also ahead this hour, breaking news from the financial world. Could the government be getting out of the mortgage business? A possible plan to get rid of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Our Christine Romans will be along talking to her sources this morning. She'll give us updates on a breaking story this morning.

CHETRY: First a story everybody cares about. Everybody knows somebody, whether it's a family member or friend or yourself dealing with breast cancer. And now there are some new interesting findings that could change the way doctors treat breast cancer. We know this is a disease that affects tens of thousands of women every year, one that hits close to home for millions of American men and women.

HOLMES: This new study says maybe some people with breast cancer may be able to avoid the painful and complicated surgery removing the lymph nodes. Dr. Sanjay Gupta here to help us out with this. Dr. Gupta, good to have you on this one. Put it in perspective. How big of a deal is this?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This is a very big deal. And it's sort of reflective of a trend occurring in surgery, particularly breast cancer surgery for some time. For a long time, the surgeries were really aggressive, someone that developed breast cancer. The breast was removed. A lot of the surrounding tissue and these lymph nodes underneath the arm were also removed.

Over the decades it's become less invasive and now people think of what's known as a lumpectomy, removing the cancer and also the lymph nodes. What they're saying now is taking out the lymph nodes really may not be necessary at all. And that's a big deal for lots of different reasons.

Let me just tell you when someone develops a cancer they'll inject a little dye into the cancer. Their question is where would the cancer go if it started to spread? It would go to lymph nodes. Then they'd biopsy the lymph nodes. If it came back with cancer they would remove all the lymph nodes, a very morbid procedure.

And what they say now is you don't need to do that. You can look specifically at the survival rates in people who have lymph nodes removed versus those who didn't and you find little different, 17 lymph nodes 92 percent, just two to see if the cancer is there in the first place around the same percentage, right around the same survival rate. You may not need that procedure anymore.

CHETRY: This is amazing, and the reason why this is huge is actually the -- we're talking about increase in survival rates, which is amazing but also in life and quality of life after the surgery. When you get the lymph nodes removed there's a lot of side effects to this.

GUPTA: No question. People underestimate that and say I'll just have some lymph nodes removed. I talk to a lot of patients who say that's probably the single thing that changed their life the most after this surgery.

The problem is something known as lymphedema. They allow lymph to circulate. If they you get it your swollen and painful and more likely to develop infections. So women imagine having this procedure relatively young in life and literally for the rest of their life they are -- they may not work the way it used to. You can look at all the various symptoms as a result of procedure.

So I've actually had people complain about that aspect of it almost as much as anything else if not more.

HOLMES: We have to let you go, but will this change the way people are treated for breast cancer? And how do you go back from that mentality I want everything out of there and say maybe we don't need to. Even for the patient, they'll say get it all out.

GUPTA: The culture is going to take a while to change. That's a good question. I think one to two years, but that thinking that less can be more is starting to catch on.

HOLMES: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, good to have you in the studio with us.

CHETRY: Nice to see you. You're a tough guy to get a hold of.

GUPTA: So polite.

(LAUGHTER)

Coming up we'll speak to Dr. Monica Morrow, the senior author of this study and surgical oncologist at one of the leading cancer centers in the world in New York. They're already doing this at Sloan-Kettering. So we'll talk more about how this works and as you said how long before we see that on a broad scale.

HOLMES: That mentality changing might take a while.

(WEATHER BREAK)

CHETRY: New this morning, more trouble for Lindsay Lohan. How many times have we said that? This is kind of sad. The L.A. district attorney's office says they will charge her with felony grand theft today. Lohan is accused of leaving a jewelry store with $2,500 worth of jewelry, a necklace and not paying for it.

Lohan's attorney says that her client is innocent and they will fight the charges. Lohan who is still on probation for a drunken driving conviction could face up to three years if convicted of this felony count.

HOLMES: And some hope now that maybe some of those police officers and firefighters who were fired in Camden, New Jersey, could get their jobs back. Well, 160 officers and firefighters were let go last month trying to close a budget gap there in the city. FEMA could now offer about a $5 million grant that could help fund the rehires.

This would only, however, we believe, apply to the fire department. The city council struck down a property tax hike proposal to help pay for some of the rehires. The city council is going to meet again today to try to revise the budget proposal. So maybe, maybe there's some hope some of those guys could get their jobs back.

CHETRY: The president finally kicking the habit, the first lady telling reporters that the president hasn't had a cigarette in about a year, and that she's proud of him for conquering his habit. Michelle Obama says their daughters Sasha and Malia are getting to the age where the president wants to be able to look them in the face and say he doesn't smoke.

HOLMES: Also a story out of Mansfield school district in Texas. The report was that they were trying to make mandatory Arabic classes for some of the students. This was through a federal grant they were awarded called the Foreign Language Assistance Program.

But now the school district coming back and saying the classes will not be mandatory. The early grades will be, though, exposed to elements of the Arabic language among the state mandated curriculum and in middle school and high school the Arabic course will be offered as an elective.

We did reach out to the school district and got this statement. "Some have raised questions and concerns about the district's implementation of the grant. Therefore Mansfield is slowing the implementation process and will be seeking input from parents in a variety of ways."

CHETRY: Coaches talk a lot about commitment, about teamwork, about caring about someone beyond yourself. This next story goes beyond that. HOLMES: This is a great story. We know so many coaches are sometimes father figures to their players and sometimes go out of the way for them, but you have never heard one like this. We bring in Jason Carroll here now with a story we all love, the Wake Forest baseball coach giving up a kidney.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This isn't about words but about actions, incredible story here. Kevin Jordan was actually selected by the New York Yankees in the amateur draft but Jordan decided to play baseball for Wake Forest University. That decision may have actually saved his life.

Earlier this week his coach Tom Walter donated a kidney to Jordan. Both are now recovering at Emory University hospital in Atlanta. Coach Walter is up and walking and made a visit to his outfielder yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM WALTER, COACH, WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: I would do it again 1,000 times out of 1,000.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: A little over a year ago Jordan was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that eventually led to kidney failure. The search was on for a donor but none of Jordan's family members were a match.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN JOHNSON, FRESHMAN, WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY: We tried about all the people that we knew that -- as donors. The coach came up in a clinch. He came through and his was a match. We're just thankful and happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Jordan says he already feels a different not having to be on dialysis. He'll need to be on medication, though, to keep his new kidney functioning properly. But his doctors say that shouldn't stop the star athlete from competing again. Expectation are Jordan will resume playing in the 2012 season.

Coach Walter plans to be back at work and in the dugout when Wake Forest plays its first game of the season against LSU next Friday. Both the coach and Jordan will be speaking at a press conference a little later on today, Kevin Jordan already saying he's up feeling better saying that he can eat again, munching on M&Ms, he was saying. Coach Walter always being the coach saying I want you to take it easy. Make sure you take it easy.

CHETRY: Did they get the whole team to test to see if it's a match or was it just the coach?

CARROLL: Here's what happened. Basically when they went through the process, the coach went to the family and said if you have can't find a match I'll go in there and do a test for you. And so he did and that's how it worked out.

CHETRY: Amazing.

HOLMES: Great story this morning. Jason, thank you so much.

CHETRY: Coming up on "AMERICAN MORNING," the government has ruled. They issued a report and say they know why all these runaway Toyota problems happened and nothing to do with a faulty electronic problem in the car. It's just that many mistook the gas for the brake. There are some people, though, who just don't buy it.

HOLMES: Also, it could be your favorite fast food chain, but there's a major crackdown happening that you need to know about. It's 12 minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Fifteen minutes past the hour right now.

It took 10 months and a team of NASA engineers and the government says it solved the problem. It knows why Toyota had those sudden acceleration issues.

HOLMES: And you may remember this: Toyota recalled about 8 million vehicles because of this. They were blaming sticky pedals and bad floor mats for the accidents. Others were suspecting there was something wrong with the cars themselves, an electronic problem.

The government says that is not the case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAY LAHOOD, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: The jury is back. The verdict is in. There is no electronic-based cause for unintended high speed acceleration in Toyotas.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: Well, this controversy not over though. There are some who say that this is flawed.

Deb Feyerick joins us now.

So, some of the consumer groups say there's just no way that this many hit the gas instead of the brake.

DEB FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, that's exactly right. I mean, this is not over, not by a long shot. Certainly not for thousands of people who say they could not stop their car from speeding out of control no matter how hard they pressed the brakes.

Well, NASA engineers scrutinized 280,000 lines of Toyota computer code. They've bombarded a handful of cars with electromagnetic radiation. They could find no evidence in any electronic failure.

Now, this vindicates Toyota to the extent that its electronic throttle control system has been ruled out as a possible cause of this unintended acceleration. All the Toyota cars now have the system in which the gas pedal basically talks to the engine by electronic sensor, not by a mechanical connection. That's why this ruling was so important.

Now, still, the company has paid nearly $49 million in civil penalties for failing to notify drivers quickly enough their gas pedals could either stick or become stuck under the wrong sized floor mats. Federal safety regulators who took a lot of heat also seemed relieved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD MEDFORD, NHTSA DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR: We found when the complaint alleged that the brake didn't work, or that the incident began when the driver stepped on the brake, what most likely happened was pedal misapplication.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: Well, pedal misapplication in case you're wondering translated, that means driver error. Critics and class action lawyers I spoke with yesterday say this study flies in the face of evidence and is an injustice to the American people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN KANE, SAFETY RESEARCH & STRATEGIES: This is simply a rewrite of history. In fact, if we look back at the testimony both from Toyota and NHTSA just months ago, they've indicated that sticky pedal was, in fact, never a cause of unintended acceleration. And I don't know how it could be.

Sticky pedals are only slow to return. There's no evidence whatsoever. What we're asking for is show the evidence. What's the evidence that sticky pedal has caused unintended acceleration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FEYERICK: Now, all these folks have that lengthy report. Federal safety regulators are now considering mandating brake override systems in all vehicles. This way basically if someone passes the gas and the brake at the same time, well, the brake wins.

They're also considering standardizing those keyless ignition systems so there's only one way to stop the car. They're also thinking about having all cars get those data recorders, so-called black boxes on airplanes.

And in case you're wondering, Toyota stock prices jumped yesterday up 4 percent. So, definitely sort of good news for Toyota. But, you know, people are basically saying, are you calling me crazy because I know what happened? So, it's still going to go --

HOLMES: Secretary LaHood, he seemed so emphatic in coming out and saying absolutely the jury is back. FEYERICK: Yes. And, you know, they took so much heat for this when all of this happened. Basically, they were accused of not doing their job. They were accused of ignoring consumer complaints. They did studies.

And people said, you're flawed. It's sort of a government agency. You're not doing your job.

So, this kind of felt good to them because they had this guy from NASA basically saying,, look, we can't find it. You know, is there a possibility? We don't know. But we can't find it.

HOLMES: All right. Deb Feyerick, not the end of it. All right? Thanks so much.

FEYERICK: Not the end of it.

CHETRY: New developments this morning from Europe. Prosecutors are making a formal request now to put Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on trial immediately for allegedly having sex with an underage prostitute and abusing his power in trying to cover it up.

Berlusconi is still denying any wrongdoing. He's calling it political mudslinging of these accusations.

Our Dan Rivers is live for us in London with breaking details.

So, they can call for this. But does that mean that the prime minister -- the sitting prime minister -- could face trial now?

DAN RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, not necessarily. Basically, what they've done is forward -- the prosecution has forwarded these documents -- abuse of power and the allegation that he slept with an underage prostitute. They've put that before a judge.

The judge now has five days to consider the evidence. She can either decide, yes, OK, we'll fast track this. He will be indicted and stand trial much more quickly than normal.

Or she can say, no, this needs to go before a kind of preliminary hearing where we hear all the evidence in detail and hear arguments on both sides. Or she may decide that this is, in fact, under the jurisdiction of a different court completely and pass it over to someone else. There's a lot of ifs and buts in all of this.

CHETRY: Yes, certainly, a difficult, you know, for Italy right now, facing that with their -- with their sitting prime minister dealing with these very lurid allegations.

Dan Rivers for us this morning -- thanks so much. T.J.?

HOLMES: Well, Kiran, coming up on this AMERICAN MORNING. It's like cocaine. It's like ecstasy. One big difference, though: it's legal. Tell you how some in Congress now hope to crack down on one easy to get narcotic. Also, you know it's incredible. It's edible. It's also healthier than maybe we once thought. The egg myth. We're cracking it this morning.

It's 20 minutes past the hour on this AMERICAN MORNING. Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Twenty-four minutes past the hour.

They are the two biggest pillars in the housing market: Fannie and Freddie. And they've been propped up by the government ever since the mortgage meltdown.

Well, this morning, there's word that the two could be phased out. The problem is how do you do this and not affect housing prices and the ability to get loans.

Christine Romans joins us now with more on this.

It's very tricky.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's tricky. It's a big undertaking because you want -- the government wants to be supporting home ownership, making it available for everyone so that you have all people available to get a home if they have the ability to pay it back, but you also don't want the -- you don't want the government propping up the home loan market and allowing banks to give really terrible loans out, which is what happened.

So, what do you do here and how do you get the taxpayer out of the business of supporting the mortgage market? How big is it? Well, nine out of 10, 90 percent of the home loans -- 90 percent of all homes in this country mortgages are filtered through the government either through Fannie, Freddie or from the FHA. Taxpayers paid to rescue these two big ones -- I mean, $100 billion, $200 billion.

And we got to make sure that this just doesn't happen again. We got to be careful, though, that this is slow, so it doesn't kill an already very fragile housing market, because if you don't have big government help propping up the housing market, you basically could have higher borrowing costs and lower home prices.

What are the options? Well, Ed Henry has confirmed that the White House on Friday is going to release a white paper with three kinds of options. One: get out of the mortgage market. Get out. Two: backstop loans to some degree. Three: only backstop loans during periods of so-called "market stress."

What do Fannie and Freddie do? So, you go to the bank and get a home loan. Fannie and Freddie buy or guarantee that loan, package it up into -- it's packaged up in securities, sold off into the secondary market where investors are, you know, are buying and selling it. Fannie and Freddie guarantee that if you go bust on your house, they're going to make that loan whole so that this investors' market can continue to operate. Without that, who steps in? To what degree? Is this still a healthy secondary market for homes? Is there still enough money available for everyone to get financing who wants to buy a home?

These are all questions that have to be thought out but there's politics also. Remember that the Republicans have been calling for the U.S. to get out of the home loan market. You know, my colleague Ali Velshi will point out that in Australia and in Canada, they have similar rates of home ownership -- they don't prop up their housing market.

So, very tricky stuff here. You'll see three options from the White House this weekend. It forces the debate. It forces Republicans also to come up with some ideas of their own, exactly how to do it.

Quick check of the markets. Your market -- morning market up -- I say this wrong every day. "Minding Your Business" morning market check: Dow up 71 points yesterday, still above 12,000, folks. NASDAQ and S&P 500 also up higher yesterday.

HOLMES: What's it's actually called, the morning, what, market what?

ROMANS: I don't remember.

HOLMES: OK.

CHETRY: Call it the morning market matchup.

ROMANS: Brian, what it's called?

CHETRY: The morning market check.

ROMANS: The morning market check. It's easy. It's easy to remember.

CHETRY: I can tell you need more coffee, but perhaps because it's so expensive, you can't afford it.

ROMANS: You're right. It will be up 10 percent, your coffee price.

CHETRY: That's right, bad news for your caffeine addiction. We just got a little price here: Dunkin' Donuts, now Folgers raising their prices. Christine has talked about this. Commodities going up, coffee one of them, cocoa beans of them. Ten percent -- nearly 10 percent these brands announcing that. That's on top of a 9 percent increase we saw last summer.

The company says it's to make up for the rising cost of raw beans. It's unclear when the new price tag will reach the grocery store shelves. This is just if you're going to buy -- where do you buy Folgers? At the grocery store I guess.

HOLMES: Folgers, yes.

CHETRY: That's what I use.

HOLMES: Do you really?

All right. People always ask this is never coffee in this mug. It's always water.

CHETRY: No, I want to know if you hand potted that yourself because it's quite a mug.

HOLMES: No, this is from my director Deidre in Atlanta. She made this for me. Thanks again, Deidre.

CHETRY: Very cute.

HOLMES: Well, coming up on this AMERICAN MORNING, I'll show you a picture here, a semitrailer. Look where it ends up. And, yes, somebody was in that car. We'll tell you where this was and how this all came about.

CHETRY: Also, new developments from Cairo. A leading opposition group talking about what it wants and it's not an absolute hold on power.

Twenty-eight minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Good morning, especially to you folks in Oklahoma City. Live picture there. The area expected to get another six to 10 inches of snow there. They're already ahead of where they should be for most average winters and snowfall. But just one of a number of places expected to get a lot of snow today.

Rob Marciano will be along with the full forecast here in just a few minutes. Meanwhile good morning to you all once again. Thank you for being here with us on this "American Morning." I'm T.J. Holmes.

CHETRY: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad to have you with us this morning.

Just in. We have some new developments right now in the crisis in Egypt meaning they are just coming over right now. And we just want to let you know what's going on. First of all people still out in Tahrir Square today vowing they will not leave. At the same time, the vice president Omar Suleiman just speaking publicly and saying, "We cannot put up with the situation for a longer time. The crisis must be an end as soon as possible."

There's also word of the potentially police back out on the streets. We're going to continue to monitor all of that. Meanwhile, the leading opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood is speaking out as well this morning saying it is not seeking total power, that it will not even put forth a presidential candidate but rather the group wants to participate, not dominate.

Again as we said, protests are continuing to pour into - protesters pouring into Tahrir Square this morning demanding that the current president leave after three decades in office. Egypt's new vice president again warning about these demonstrations and the prolonged protests. So we will continue to follow this this morning and take you there live as we get new developments.

HOLMES: Meanwhile, back to this country now, Vice president Joe Biden, he is announcing a $53 billion plan for a high speed rail. So it covers some 1,900 miles, he said. And compared it to building the interstate system. Now, I know the question you're asking. How in the world are we going to pay for this? Well, The Obama administration is promising to show how when the budget is revealed next week.

CHETRY: A proposal in Congress to protect your privacy when you fly. Some lawmakers want to make it a crime for TSA screeners to share images taken by full body scanners. Those caught doing it could face up to a year in prison or a fine of up to $100,000.

HOLMES: And some of you fliers find the most bothersome part of it in flying is that you have to pack all the liquids three ounce bottles in the little Ziploc bags. Well, there's a California chemistry professor that you should be rooting for. He says he has possibly developed a special liquid scanner that could be used at airports. He invented a way to actually scan the chemical content of wine without uncorking the bottles, but that technology could possibly be used to get you through the line at the airport a little quicker. He has demonstrated it to Homeland Security how he could use this method to scan for explosive liquids. The new scanner could possibly be tested within a year.

CHETRY: They're calling it bath salts but it's not what you think. It's not something you have pour into the tub to relax. The corner store down the street from you could actually be selling synthetic drugs capable of giving a high similar to cocaine or ecstasy, over the counter. Right now there's not much you can do to stop it because these substances in these tiny paper packets there you see are perfectly legal in most cases. Alina Cho is here with a look.

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's extraordinary and it's surprising that it's gone on for so long, frankly. You know, the name sounds innocent enough, bath salts but don't let the name deceive you because they're really not. But you can legally buy them in most states. Experts say their effects can be as powerful as cocaine or ecstasy. Psychotic episodes, hallucination, suicidal thoughts that have resulted in death.

So far Florida, Louisiana and North Dakota have taken action. They have banned the drugs. Now Congress is hoping to do the same. In fact, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York recently proposed a bill that would put bath salts on a list of federally-controlled substances.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: The so-called bath salts are nothing more than deadly narcotics and they're being sold cheaply to all comers, no questions asked at store counters around the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: Now, you can buy these so-called bath salts, in Schumer's words, in convenience stores, smoke shops, even on-line. They come in Kool- Aid type packets with names like Red Dawn and Purple Wave. They typically sell for about $20 to $80 a packet. Relatively speaking, it's cheap. Of course that makes them particularly appealing to teens.

And when you think about it, we are very close to spring break time. The salts can then be smoked, snorted or ingested. The White House drugs are also recently put out a warning about bath salts. Poison control centers have reported a sharp rise in calls about the drugs. In fact, more than 250 calls, so far this year. I mentioned spring break because drug enforcement agents are really concerned about this. You know, it's coming up and they're really concerned that if there's not action taken to ban these drugs that there are going to be more deaths.

You know, one person said it's like playing Russian roulette. You just don't know what the effect is going to be. And as I mentioned earlier in Florida, there was one man that tried to rip a radar unit out of a police car with his teeth. There was another one who went after her mother with a machete thinking she was a monster. I mean, you go into these psychotic episodes. And again, one of our viewers asked me, you know, if they are not bath salts, what are they exactly. And one drug expert say really as we've been saying it's a synthetic version of cocaine or ecstasy marketed as bath salts but they're really not.

HOLMES: That is scary. You have no idea what you're getting in that packet. It's amazing this stuff is right now legal in this country. Alina Cho, thank you so much for that. We'll continue to follow up.

Well, take a look at this picture. And to a lot of people you'll be amazed that the people who are in that car, you see right there, are OK. It was two teenagers. This is in Missouri. You see the trailer there, now the truck tipped over and pretty much split their car in two. Crushed the right side, the passenger side of the vehicle. The truck was carrying trash when it tipped over as it was trying to exit highway 141 in Baldwin. But again the teenagers in the car are OK.

CHETRY: And heck out this video. A sinkhole swallows a city dump truck in Houston. The truck was actually there trying to fix problems with the road and the ground just gave way yesterday and ended up with a hole about nine feet deep when you see the whole back of the truck. The driver was not hurt. City officials are blaming an undetected water main break.

HOLMES: All right. We are once again keeping a close eye on the weather this morning. We'll tell you exactly which regions are going to be affected. And going to have a lot of low temperatures but also a lot of snow on the ground in some places. Rob Marciano will be along in just a few minutes.

CHETRY: Also, eggs, are they healthy or not? We're going to say yes this morning and we'll tell you why in a couple of minutes. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHETRY: 40 minutes past the hour. We're following a story about a popular fast food chain under fire by the federal government. Chipotle allegedly hiring undocumented workers. Our Christine Romans is minding your business with more on this. Fake documents that were really - they pass muster.

ROMANS: And they did. They did pass muster. There were hundreds, hundreds of workers at Chipotle Grill in Minnesota who were let go by the company after the government, ICE, sent them a letter saying "We are auditing your employment records and it would appear that you could have people there who are working on fake documents or with documents that are not up to snuff."

So the company having to let go hundreds of people. The company confirming to me. You're seeing pictures here right now, some peaceful protests around the Minnesota stores earlier this week. This was given to us by a union official. Unions, of course, have - they would like to unionize some of these workers. So that's sort of their political angle but that's just some of the protests about it.

So Chipotle facing scrutiny over these illegal workers and letting them go. And in fact, ICE, the government has told them that they're also reviewing their documents and wanting to review their documents in Washington, D.C. and Virginia. So you could see more jobs lost there. This is what Chipotle said. "For each individual we hire we must meet ICE's requirements but we must do so without introducing any practice that could be construed as discriminatory." This according to Chris Arnold from Chipotle.

He says that people who were hired had twice gone through the document process. They had presented documents and the I-9 form when first hired and they had presented them again later. So this is a question of fake documents overall and it also shows you the shift of the government's enforcement. It used to be a few years ago you saw more workplace raids. Those can be very unsettling to companies and communities and to families when you have workplace raids and there has been a lot of outcry about that.

This is about the paperwork, ICE examining the paperwork and allowing or I guess forcing companies to lay off workers first before you go in there and arrest them. In 2008 that's how many I-9 audits there were 503. 2010, 2,196. Now a couple of pieces of conventional wisdom about illegal immigration that this story does not fit into. I asked Chipotle "were these people doing jobs you couldn't find anybody else to do." And he said "No."

No, that's not true at all. These people filling the low wage restaurant jobs that you always hear Americans don't want to do. Well, no, these were paid higher than minimum wage, and in many cases where available, for benefits. It was a case of faulty documents, fake documents to get these jobs. And he said they don't face a workplace shortage or a shortage of workers.

Advocates for illegal immigration will often say you're going to have to pay higher prices if you don't have illegal immigrants working in the workforce. Well, these people were paid above minimum wage. That doesn't seem to fit there either. In fact, Chipotle is known as a socially responsible company and its stock has been on fire. This is a company that makes an awful lot of money. It has in the industry one of the lowest labor costs as a percentage of its revenue. So critics would say and even some socially responsible fund managers have said it just doesn't feel right that a company that is making so much money, its stock is doing so well, you got people working there who basically don't have any rights and you know, are now out of a job. So it's an interesting story.

CHETRY: It sure is, Christine.

HOLMES: Christine, appreciate you this morning.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

HOLMES: Thank you so much.

CHETRY: Well, maybe the must-have Christmas gift but it's top secret though. This morning we're getting a new look at the first new Elmo. You better start shopping now, Christine. Three of them - they're going to want this thing. Our friends at CNN Money got an exclusive peak at the "Let's Rock Elmo." Hasbro calls it the most interactive Elmo ever. Kids can switch the instruments and Elmo will recognize which instrument he's playing. It hits store shelves in the fall. $69.99. So will it be under your tree? Go to CNNmoney.com for a full preview.

When they say interactive this is not always better for mothers, is it? Those toys just start talking randomly in the corner and jump up. We got the interactive not so hugging bear, you know, from "Toy Story 3." It scares us. It scares us so bad because it's sitting in the corner and it'll suddenly just start talking "I need a hug."

HOLMES: This one looks different. It has new features, right? The Elmo looks the same. They haven't upgrade. Rock 'n' roll guy. All right. Christmas, can't wait.

Coming up, folks, the Patriot Act. Parts of it set to expire -- some key parts. The House has failed now to renew those parts. So does this mean America's ability to combat terrorism has now become compromised?

CHETRY: We are following a major snowstorm, yet again, blasting the Midwest this morning, bringing with it Arctic cold air. Rob's going to be along with the full forecast and the forecast for the rest of the nation, as well.

Forty-five minutes past the hour. We'll be right back.

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HOLMES: All right. Forty-eight minutes past the hour. This is what people are talking about this morning -- Hooters, the restaurant.

(LAUGHTER)

CHETRY: Good wings so to speak.

HOLMES: Could you imagine that a Hooters career could get you ready for a public career as a politician?

CHETRY: I'd say there are probably a lot of similarities. Dealing with the public --

HOLMES: Name two.

CHETRY: -- having to navigate tricky personalities, having to basically let people down gently while not upsetting them, because they're your constituents.

HOLMES: Do Hooters girls do that?

CHETRY: I don't know. I never worked there.

HOLMES: Let me move on to this Tennessee Republican. She is now about to start -- there she is -- she is crediting her Hooters credentials with some of her political success. This is a state representative by the name of Julia Hurley and she says -- she penned this story called "Orange Pride Spotlight" magazine. She penned a story in there, says her time as a Hooters girl helped her win her November election.

CHETRY: Right. Well, she didn't just randomly come out and say it. What happened is she's getting a lot of -- you know, a lot of her political opponents were making fun of the fact that she worked there. And she said, wait a minute, you know, I learned a lot in networking skills and business skills by being a waitress.

HOLMES: If people had any idea where I worked before here, I probably wouldn't have this job.

CHETRY: See?

HOLMES: But some of her customers even were part of her electoral campaign. She said it was hard work, had to overcome obstacles, all those things. The general assembly begins its full schedule this week. So, congratulations to her on her win.

CHETRY: There you go.

Well it seems kids are constantly glued to their cell phones, of course, texting all day long. There's a British study that says it's actually a good thing. Really? Well, they found that children who text often have better literacy skills than those who don't, and develop a clearer understanding of speech patterns and rhymes.

I don't get that part because they don't talk. The text lingo helps, too. The daily dose of writing even if often in abbreviations with a ton of spelling errors apparently improves reading and spelling ability.

HOLMES: OK, that last point, maybe I could see that. You're writing a lot more than maybe a kid would normally. But you're not talking to anybody.

HOLMES: Also, the incredible, edible, and healthier egg. We're being told now the egg is healthier than we once thought. USDA telling us that today's egg contains less cholesterol than it did many years ago. So one large egg, today, has on average 185 milligrams of -- yes, a good thing, of cholesterol. That's down from 215 milligrams.

Now, why? They're crediting this with maybe the hens these days are a little more health conscious and they're eating a little better and they're picking their mates a little better. I may have made that last part up, but you get the idea. Maybe a better diet for the hens these days.

CHETRY: Yes. The hens are reducing their cholesterol levels naturally (ph).

HOLMES: Yes.

CHETRY: All right. Fifty minutes past the hour. Let's get a check of the weather headlines are Rob.

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CHETRY: Fifty-five minutes past the hour. Republicans in the House rethinking strategy this morning, after failing to pass an extension of key provisions of the Patriot Act. It was an unexpected setback and one that some supporters believe could compromise America's ability to combat terror.

Jim Acosta joins us live from Washington, this morning, with more on this.

So, what happened?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, sometimes there are strange bedfellows in politics but it may not get more strange than liberal Congressman Dennis Kucinich joining forces with the Tea Party, or at least some of the Tea Party. That's what happened last night when the House blocked the extension of key provisions of the Patriot Act, the law that was first passed in the aftermath of 9/11.

So what provisions are we talking about? Well, take a look. We're talking about a court-approved surveillance on multiple phones, a provision that gives the government access to any tangible thing as it's stated. While doing surveillance and opponents can claim this is what gives the feds the authority to look at your library records.

And then there's the portion that allows secret intelligent surveillance of people from people outside of the United States who are in the United States, who are not known to be affiliated with specific organizations that are involved in terrorism. These are the lone wolves that authorities worry about.

Republicans say there have been plenty of hearings on all of this to renew these provisions but Democrats, like Kucinich and Tea Partiers like Ron Paul say they violate civil liberties.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DENNIS KUCINICH (D), OHIO: The Patriot Act is a destructive undermining of the Constitution. We started this Congress off with a discussion about reading the Constitution. Many of us carry Constitutions with us in our pocket. How about today we take a stand for the Constitution to say that all Americans should be free from unreasonable search and seizure and to make certain that the Patriot Act -- the attempt to reauthorize the Patriot Act is beat down?

REP. JAMES SENSENBRENNER (R), WISCONSIN: The people who have been doing the oversight have been the Republicans, not the Democrats. The people who know this law is making Americans safer are the Republicans. And the Democrats, once again, are complaining.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now Republicans brought this up under a special procedure that required a two-thirds vote and they were seven votes shy of that. They did get a few Tea Partiers to support them like Michelle Bachmann so it wasn't a total Tea Party switchover to the Democratic side.

But, it is likely this will come up for another vote. And the next time a majority votes will only be needed and they will get those votes, Kiran. So it's likely that this will pass before these provisions expire at the end of the month.

CHETRY: But it certainly was interesting yesterday, to see this go down in defeat.

ACOSTA: It was.

CHETRY: Jim Acosta for us this morning, from Washington. Thanks so much.

ACOSTA: You bet.

CHETRY: And we're warming up for the next hour. We're going to take a quick break. Your top stories in 90 seconds.

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