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Wildfires Devastate Australia; Obama Plans Defense of Stimulus Bill; Living on Food Stamps; GOP Mortgage Rate Proposal; U.S. Weather Warms Up

Aired February 08, 2009 - 14:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Twenty-five years, it's gone! I worked so hard to get that house!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Firestorm down under, powerful winds fuel flames in Australia, scorching nearly a half million acres and killing almost 100 people.

Food stamps becoming a lifeline for more Americans as economic woes hit. This hour, what it's like to live on a food stamp budget.

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a purpose to why I'm here. I pray to God that I never forget where I came from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: This is a great story we want to share with you, two brothers who didn't forget the community where they were raised. They educated themselves to be doctors in the U.S. to help out their disease and poverty-ridden homeland half a world away.

Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Their story and others this hour in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Australia under siege by raging wildfires. At least 96 people have been killed, some of them burned alive in their cars while they were trying to escape. The fires are burning out of control in the southeast, in Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia. Reporting from the hard-hit town of Marysville, Jane Cowan with Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE COWAN, AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORP. (voice-over): This is what used to be the main street of Marysville.

JOHN THWAITES, MARYSVILLE, AUSTRALIA, RESIDENT: Marysville's disappeared. It's all gone. Ninety-eight percent has taken of in the fire.

COWAN: What didn't burn simply melted. House after house has been turned into rubble.

JUDY JANS, RESIDENT: And you watch one house after another just burst and blow up.

COWAN: This is all that's left of the Marysville school. In the force of such fury, those who survived could only wonder in disbelief -- and call home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll tell you about it later, doll.

DI JAMES, RESIDENT: The headlight, the torch and the keys to my beautiful, beautiful, lovely shop, which is also gone. Nothing else. But we're all alive, so that's good.

COWAN: There are people unaccounted for. Now it's up to police to work out how many didn't make it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So far as you know on Hill (ph) Avenue, there's no one else there?

MIKE WASLEY, RESIDENT: I had seen some bodies, but -- yes. We weren't able to save them or anything. We just found them that way.

COWAN: In nearby Kinglake, the mood was equally grim.

ROSS LANDISO, KINGLAKE, AUSTRALIA, RESIDENT: The fires were everywhere. My dad was involved in a four-car collision there and I couldn't get him out and he's still dead in the car there.

RICHARD HOYLE, COUNTY FIRE AUTHORITY: The road to Kinglake is riddled with motor vehicles involved in accidents and burned out.

COWAN: Here, too, countless homes have been lost.

GREG LOCH, RESIDENT: We lost the house. (INAUDIBLE) about five minutes (INAUDIBLE) to the ground. Twenty years to build it and five minutes to wash (ph) it down to the ground.

COWAN: And good news has become relative.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Register with them, with Red Cross, and they can provide you with a good meal and you can go and have a shower. And there are plenty of facilities down there for you, OK?

COWAN: The shock and trauma of this day will be harder to fix. Jane Cowan, ABC News, Marysville.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And in this country, strong words from an Ohio sheriff still resonating after yesterday's rescue of 130 people on Lake Erie. A huge ice floe, something like eight miles long, broke off along the Ohio shore. Authorities say a 65-year-old man fell in the water and died of an apparent heart attack. This is a popular place for ice fishing, but authorities say it was just too dangerous for any of them to be out there.

Listen to what a local sheriff said about the fishermen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF BOB BRATTON, OTTAWA COUNTY, OHIO: In our financial status going across the country, this was wrong. These people endangered lives of volunteer firemen, the United States Coast Guard. I have estimated already, we're well over $25,000 for this, and I'm sure that's going to climb. I'm sorry a man lost his life out there today. These people should have known better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And now listen to what one of those rescued fishermen told CNN last night.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CORY COMAR, RESCUED FROM ICE FLOE: He doesn't know the situation. First of all, there was an icebreaker, a boat that drove through around 9:00, 10:00 o'clock, broke the ice up, allowed the ice to be able to give way. So the combination with the wind and the icebreaker made the situation. This situation normally doesn't happen. This is the first warm day we had. The ice was at least 16 inches thick. And you know, we pay taxes. He had to do his job. And it's very disappointing to hear him say that. He should -- you know, it's part of his job. I'm sorry that we had to have him do his job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, later this hour, we'll hear from some of the other rescued fishermen, and we'll hear more of what that fired-up sheriff who talked to me yesterday had to say to a local television crew, as well.

All right, on the move this week, President Obama. He's planning to pitch his economic stimulus plan on the road. Tomorrow he'll hold a town hall in Indiana, explaining how the package will actually boost the economy. He's also giving a hard sell to senators, urging them to pass the plan quickly. Friday, members pared more than $100 billion from the bill, a compromise forged by moderates in both parties who felt the package contained too many spending projects.

So what's next for the stimulus? Despite Republican opposition, the Senate is on track to pass the compromise package on Tuesday. Then it goes to conference committee to iron out differences between the House and Senate versions. President Obama takes his case to the American public in a primetime news conference tomorrow evening. He says he'd like to have the bill on his desk by Presidents Day, which is February 16th.

So what's in and what's out of the bill? The package still includes $14 billion in Pell grants, $3.5 billion for energy-efficient federal buildings and $7.5 billion for education grants. Here's some of what's been taken out -- $25 billion for education, $16 billion for school construction and $122 million for the Coast Guard cutters and icebreakers.

So some key Republican backers of the bill are getting a shoutout over the airwaves. CNN's Elaine Quijano joins us now from Washington. What is this all about, Elaine?

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, we're talking about radio ads taken out by the liberal interest group Americans United for Change. And these are radio ads that are going to be running in just a couple of states, but really meant to push back, basically, against criticism of these Republican senators who do support President Obama's economic stimulus plan -- those senators, Arlen Specter, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe.

Now, these ads basically start off by citing those staggering job loss numbers from last month, nearly 600,000 jobs lost. And the ads end by thanking these Republican senators for their support. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The first job of my administration is to put people back to work and get our economy moving again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell senators Collins and Snowe to support the Obama plan for jobs, not the failed policies of the past.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Well, that was actually a television ad, if I'm not mistaken. That is essentially the same sentiment being expressed there. Nevertheless, while those Republicans may support the bill, other Republicans remain adamantly opposed to it, arguing that there's simply too much wasteful spending contained in the legislation.

Here's Senator Richard Shelby.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R), ALABAMA: We're going down a road where it's uncharted. We're going down a road to disaster. We've never seen this kind of spending ever, and there's a lot more to come. There's got to be some other way better than what we're doing -- not the socialist way, but to try to get our free markets working again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Now, President Obama is going to try to counter that message. As you noted, he's going to be hitting the road. He'll have a couple of town hall meetings Monday and Tuesday first in Indiana, then in Florida. He's going to be basically visiting communities that have been particularly hard hit in this economic downturn -- Elkhart, Indiana and Fort Myers (ph), Florida, two towns where the unemployment rate has really soared. And in between, as you noted as well, Fredricka, there will be his first primetime news conference set to take place tomorrow night -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: OK, Elaine. And what about the other priorities, which were getting banks to lend and helping people who are facing foreclosure?

QUIJANO: That's right. This is separate now from the economic stimulus bill. What we're talking about is the rest of that financial rescue money. You'll recall that this was the huge $700 billion financial rescue package that was started under President Bush. Well, there's still $350 billion left to spend, and the initial announcement from the Obama administration was to have come tomorrow, Monday, from Treasury Secretary Geithner.

Now we're told that because the administration really wants the focus to be on the stimulus plan, and also, Secretary Geithner wants to talk to some senators on Capitol Hill, that, in fact, they're going to push it back a day. So instead of Monday, we're now expecting that financial rescue plan to be announced on Tuesday -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, very busy week straight ahead. Thanks so much, Elaine, appreciate it, from the White House.

Vice President Joe Biden -- well, he's heading back to Washington after his first overseas trip. He laid out the Obama administration's new foreign policy vision at a security conference in Germany this weekend. A top Russian official calls the vice president's stance on major nuclear issues and relations with Russia, quote, "very positive." Biden said war (ph) leaders (ph) are ready for a new look.

Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius could be nominated for secretary of Health and Human Services. A senior Obama administration official says Sebelius is very near the top of the list of possible candidates for the job. Sebelius was an early supporter of Mr. Obama in Kansas. She became a favorite of consumer advocates during her years as state insurance commissioner.

And how would you like a 30-year fixed mortgage at just 4 percent? We'll tell you about the idea that some lawmakers have to fix the housing crisis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Well, many laid-off workers are struggling to make ends meet in this recession. Millions of them are relying on food stamps, in fact. But even that can be tricky. To get an idea of just how difficult it is, Sean Callebs is living like he's on a foot stamp budget.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You may not realize how much you spend at the grocery store until you're in dire straits. Thirty-one million Americans need food stamps to make ends meet. In Louisiana, for instance, one person out of six receives government help in keeping food on the table. Louisiana officials know it's humbling.

SAMMY GUILLORY, LOUISIANA DEPT. OF SOCIAL SERVICES: We've done everything we can to remove that stigma. We don't feel there's such a stigma. In times of need, you just have to seek help.

CALLEBS: Here and in other states, food stamps have been replaced by this less obtrusive government debit card.

To better understand this life, I'm going to spend February living on the maximum amount one person can get for food stamps.

(on camera): Never have I had to pay so much attention to every single thing that goes in the basket. I have $176 to live on the entire month. That's all 28 days. Break that down, it's about $6.25 a day.

ARKESHA DARENSBOURG, FOOD STAMP RECIPIENT: I buy it in a bag like that.

CALLEBS (voice-over): Arkesha Darensbourg and her three children depend on food stamps off and on. She says it's tough to make ends meet. But she's going to show me how to stretch a dollar.

DARENSBOURG: You have to squeeze in a lot of things. You can't get name brand items. You have to get store brand.

CALLEBS: The challenge is eating healthy and eating enough.

(on camera): There's 32 ounces here, and there's 16 here. I'll get two of these.

So that's 30 cents each. That's not that great, is it?

DARENSBOURG: No. What about mac and cheese?

CALLEBS: I guess I'm going to big-time.

DARENSBOURG: This is 89 cents.

CALLEBS: I like that. That's in my window.

DARENSBOURG: You think you're getting a good deal, two for this, two for that. In reality, you're really not.

CALLEBS: Because it adds up quickly.

DARENSBOURG: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

COWAN (voice-over): That's right, just $105 and change for the rest of the month. Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: All right, Sean is keeping a blog about his experiences living on food stamps, and you can read more about it at CNN.com/us. Just click on the link to his blog. And you can e-mail Sean, if you'd like, for your questions at asksean@CNN.com. Lots of places to go to inquire and ask a few questions.

All right, well, too many of us do it. Short on cash, so you use your credit card. Well, you keep doing that and you might head straight toward debt crisis. So you want to look for these symptoms. You're unable to make the minimum payments. You borrow from one card to pay another. You're frequently charged late fees or you're going over your credit limit. You use plastic out of necessity, rather than convenience, and you forgo contributions to savings and retirement plans because of your debt. If you meet some of those criteria, you need to step back a little bit.

"The Wall Street Journal" online has some tips for you. Move balances to credit cards that charge 0 percent or low introductory rates on balance transfers. Just make sure you're keeping tabs on that interest rate, however. Find a pro. If your debt is truly getting out of control, seek help from a credit counseling agency. A good counselor should be able to help you cut spending and draft a plan to pay off what you owe.

Get a rate break. Call your credit card company and simply ask for a lower rate. Most companies are willing to work with you. After all, they'd rather get some payment rather than no payment. And remember, bankruptcy, while it is an option, it's always a last resort. The law was revised in 2005, making it tougher for anyone claiming bankruptcy to do so without an attorney.

All right, if you have money, it's a home buyers' market, they say. But millions are worried about simply keeping the home that they're actually in right now. CNN's Susan Roesgen looks at a plan to help on both fronts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We all know that if you can do it, this is a great time to buy a home. Prices are way below what anyone would have imagined a couple of years ago. But GOP leaders in the Senate are talking about locking down the home mortgage rate across the country to just 4 percent for a 30-year loan. According to the proposal, the savings for the average family would be around $400 a month. That's nearly $5,000 a year. Realtors like Beth Ryan say the flood gates would open for many more potential buyers.

BETH RYAN, REALTOR: We have buyers that are on the sidelines and can't make decisions, and that, I believe, would prompt them to move forward and get out there and start looking some more.

ROESGEN: But mortgage lenders are making it tough for many people to qualify to get a loan. Steve Daniels, a senior writer for "Crain's Chicago Business," says lenders don't want to get stuck with any more bad loans. STEVEN DANIELS, "CRAIN'S CHICAGO BUSINESS": The days of easy credit, when anybody with a pulse could get a loan, were bad and led to this situation. On the other hand, if you are late with one utility bill payment over the course of your lifetime, you shouldn't be dinged for that.

RYAN: Would you like to see the basement?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

ROESGEN: Right now, a 4 percent mortgage cap is just an idea, not one that potential home buyers can bank on. Susan Roesgen, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, his poster was a hallmark in the presidential campaign, but now the artist who created the hope images for President Obama is in trouble with the law again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, here's what's popular on CNN.com. Pope Benedict talked by phone today with German chancellor Angela Merkel. She has criticized the pope's reinstatement of a bishop who claims the Holocaust never took place.

And there are still concerns about hackers using FaceBook to solicit money from users. A Seattle-area man says someone impersonated him to get money from his friends. FaceBook says fewer than 1 percent of its 150 million users are affected.

And implicated by a surveillance video, a criminal canine -- not that picture there -- there, that picture -- has returned to the scene of the crime. It turns out that the dog seen stealing a bone from a Utah grocery store is a Siberian husky named Akira (ph). She apparently wandered away from her family, walked into the store, took the bone and then ran back home. And after the video surfaced, her family brought Akira back to the store and paid for the ill-gotten treat.

And the artist who created the famous hope poster of Barack Obama is in trouble with the law. Boston police arrested Shepard Fairey Friday on two outstanding warrants. He's accused of tagging property with graffiti. He was on his way to the opening of his first solo exhibition at the Institute of Contemporary Art. The Associated Press has already accused Fairey of copyright infringement for that image, saying the poster is based on an AP photo.

All right, let's check in with our Jacqui Jeras in the weather center. Huge warm-up, at least in many parts of the country.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: This is fantastic.

WHITFIELD: What's your favorite location to be...

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: I know. It's confusing.

JERAS: Sixty-seven. It is. But you know, the thing that you worry about when it's February and you've got weather like this, you know something's going to give eventually.

WHITFIELD: Yes, that's right.

JERAS: Yes. And so unfortunately, we think severe thunderstorms...

WHITFIELD: Don't get used to it.

JERAS: That's right, don't get used to it. But unfortunately, it usually means severe weather, and we're going to probably see a little bit of that today in parts of New Mexico, Texas and also in the panhandle of Oklahoma. And then again on Tuesday, I think we have a more significant risk of seeing some severe weather in the nation's midsection, so just a heads-up as that all develops.

Right now, it's not severe. It's just some nice rain showers and some snow in some much-needed areas, especially across parts of the Southwest. Phoenix, you're getting a couple of sprinkles, but that's about it. We're looking at a little snow there in the higher elevations. There are winter weather advisories in effect in all the blue areas. We're expecting probably around the range of two to six inches of snowfall overall.

But check out the Sierras We've got the great red there. We're talking one to two feet of snow between now and Monday morning. And it's been so dry out west, this is welcome news. The skiers are happy. And we've got a series of storms that are going to be pushing in from the west. And there you can see the next one just off the coast, and that's going to be bringing in some heavier rain across parts of California for tomorrow.

Today, we'll be watching for these severe storms to develop, really not until late this afternoon and into the evening hours. Large hail and damaging winds the primary threats, but isolated tornadoes are a possibility. And it's this area where we'll be more concerned about those tornadoes come Tuesday.

Let's talk about some of these temperatures. Oh, it feels good, doesn't it? It's 71 degrees in Dallas. It's, you know, 70 in Memphis, 68 degrees in Atlanta, 71 in Orlando. We're going to be seeing 80s in south Florida over the next couple of days, so really feeling fantastic. Enjoy it while it lasts. But overall, we think the trend throughout much of the upcoming week is that we're going to see these same above-normal throughout much of the southern tiers of the United States.

Now, let's talk a little bit about what's been going on down under. Of course, the fires that have just been burning across parts of Australia, extremely devastating situation. I put the heat signature satellite picture here for you on Google Earth just to show you where some of the worst areas are.

Down here is Melbourne, and those fires are starting to burn into some of the suburban areas. Really hot, dry, windy conditions are going to prevail here again today, just making that fire danger, unfortunately, extremely critical again. Very hot in interior parts of Australia, too. Alice Springs, by the way, looking for a high today around 98 degrees. So no immediate relief in sight there -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: OK. Too bad. That's really terrible, devastating situation...

JERAS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Deadly. All right, thanks so much, Jacqui.

All right, how those fishermen found themselves on floating ice.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, news that's happening right now. Wildfires in Australia are claiming more lives. Officials say 96 people have died. Many victims burned to death inside their cars as they tried to flee the fast-moving flames. Police suspect some of the fires were deliberately set.

President Obama is planning to pitch his economic stimulus plan at a town hall in Indiana tomorrow. Friday, Senate members pared more than $100 billion from the bill, a compromise forged by moderates in both parties who felt the package contained too many spending projects. A vote is expected on Tuesday.

All right, that compromise stimulus deal is not sitting well with everyone. Some Democrats in the House are not happy with the cuts made by their colleagues in the Senate, and some Republican lawmakers say the package doesn't cut enough.

Senator John McCain was asked if he supports the plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), FMR PRESIDENTIAL CND: I can't because I think it's the greatest transfer of not only spending but authority and responsibility to government. I think it's a massive -- it's much larger than any measure that was taken during the Great Depression.

REP. BARNEY FRANK (D), MASSACHUSETTS: They talk about this wasteful spending. Let me talk about it. I'll be flying out of here this afternoon to go to New Bedford, Massachusetts, where they're about to lay off cops and firefighters. That's the wasteful spending that my colleagues are talking about, money to go to the states to keep them from laying off cops and firefighters, money to help keep teachers going. Those are jobs. There seems to be this notion that if you hire someone to do something useful, that somehow becomes social spending and it doesn't count.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Earlier this weekend, we asked you to send us your questions about the stimulus plan. Our Josh Levs posed some of the questions to economist Jeff Rosensweig.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dixie (ph) says, "Republicans keep saying the answer is to cut taxes. What good will that do for the families that are out of work? How does this create new jobs?" We've also got another one here. "In order for a tax break in someone's paycheck to work, they must be drawing a paycheck in the first place. So that's from Christine.

We have this ridiculously complicated tax code in America. Is there some way that people will be helped by tax cuts, aside from the hope that it will lead to job creation?

JEFFREY ROSENSWEIG, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Well, you know, we already had this experiment. We spent something like $168 billion last spring on these kind of tax cuts, and as economists, we weren't able to measure any positive effect on the economy. So I think the questioner is actually quite astute.

What I am worried about is people that are either out of work, about to fall out of work, or getting such a low wage or part-time employment -- there's a rapid increase in people who want to work full-time but can only get part-time employment. They're making so little that they're really not paying taxes anyway. So we really need to focus on getting people to work in full-time jobs that pay enough that they even have to worry about taxes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, the economy is expected to be a big part of President Barack Obama's first primetime news conference. That comes your way tomorrow night 8:00 PM Eastern right here on CNN.

In Afghanistan today, the military says two U.S. soldiers were killed while trying to disarm a roadside bomb. The soldiers were part of a convoy accompanying the governor of Helmand province. He was traveling to a village to talk to residents about alternatives to opium farming. Three Afghans were also killed in the incident, including a police chief.

Iran's former reformist president says he'll challenge hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June elections. Iranian media report today that Mohammad Khatami has thrown his hat into the ring. Khatami was Iran's president between 1997 and 2005. He's credited with relaxing some of the country's cultural and social restrictions.

A fragile truce between Israel and Hamas militants violated again. Today, militants fired two rockets into southern Israel. No one was hurt. Militants also fired rockets into Israel Friday. Israel quickly responded, launching an air strike on four tunnels and one weapons storage facility in Gaza.

The violence comes just two days before Israelis elect a new government, and the Likud Party, which favors a harder line in peace talks, is leading in the polls. Its leader, Benjamin Netanyahu, vowed today that he will not give up the strategic Golan heights in any peace deal with Syria. The candidate for the ruling Kadima Party, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, is not ruling that out. Israel captured the Golan heights from Syria in the 1967 war.

Earlier, we told you about that icy rescue on Lake Erie in this country. The U.S. Coast Guard plucked 134 fishermen from a giant ice floe on Lake Erie yesterday. Reporter Colleen Wells of CNN affiliate WTOL in Toledo has more on the rescue, plus an on-camera interview with that frustrated sheriff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COLLEEN WELLS, WTOL (voice-over): The fishermen stretch for thousands of yards, with help coming by boat and air, mutual aid rushed to the semi-frozen waters of Lake Erie working for hours bringing the stranded fishermen back just a few at a time.

MARK HAMMER, ICE FISHERMAN: The wind got ahold of the ice. It catches it everywhere, and it's a lot of drag. It just forced it towards Canada, opened up a crack.

WELLS: Fishermen say there was a crack in the ice, but they knowingly crossed it with a wooden plank to go fishing. But an offshore wind picked up and the ice block they were on started drifting, and that bridge back to shore fell in the icy waters.

HAMMER: The plank was gone, and there was 100 yards of water, open water there. So pretty much wait for the boats. There's nothing else to do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I seen everybody stand in one spot, not moving. I figured something was going on. And the helicopter.

WELLS: Many of the stranded fishermen were on four-wheelers with expensive equipment. Rescuers wouldn't take that back, so those fishermen looked for their own way out, driving some seven miles where the ice hadn't yet cracked.

Ottawa County Sheriff Bob Bratton said that made the rescue operation incredibly widespread. He's angry because he says these fishermen knew the risk since they crossed the cracked ice.

SHERIFF BOB BRATTON, OTTAWA COUNTY, OHIO: You're tying up emergency services. The helicopter that'll be coming over by Coast Guard -- $4,000 an hour to operate that thing. So yes, I'm a little frustrated. I'm a little bit upset right now.

WELLS: The sheriff says the fishermen won't likely be ticketed, although many admit they knew the danger.

HAMMER: We all knew what could happen. I mean, it's -- we've been crossing -- the crack's been open for a week. We've been crossing it on a piece of plywood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there's -- in the back of my mind -- so I didn't -- we're fishermen, so...

WELLS: Colleen Wells, News 11.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: The U.S. Navy is still trying to get a 9,600-ton warship moving again. The USS Port Royal (ph) ran aground on a rock and sand shoal Thursday off the coast of Honolulu. The latest attempt to free the missile cruiser took place early today. Tug boats and a salvage ship pulled for four hours but with no success. Now back to the drawing board.

All right, two 4th graders in South Carolina face possible criminal charges after being busted with marijuana at school. Investigators say the 10-year-olds traded the pot between themselves and also tried to sell it to other kids during the day for pie, bubble gum and money. Well, now investigators are trying to figure out how the drugs got into the hands of the kids in the first place.

And just after the break, a story that is a true inspiration, how two brothers fulfilled their father's lifetime dream and the documentary that captured all of it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, this bad economy has Starbucks thinking value meals. The CEO of Starbucks has announced plans to start offering breakfast food and drink combos at discounted prices. Starbucks faces stiff competition from McDonald's and Dunkin Donuts as people look for cheaper cups of coffee.

The Catholic church is getting hip on line. The church has launched a Web site called Behindthecollar.com. It features priests and seminarians explaining what drove them to their vocation. They also answer questions about their day-to-day responsibilities and what life is like being celibate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This virtual reality, if you will, enables people who maybe are questioning, but maybe you don't want to take that step and ask a priest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, people with questions can follow up on FaceBook, MySpace and YouTube for answers.

All right, let's check in with our weather picture. Jacqui was very happy about all the sunshine throughout the South, particularly here in Atlanta. We need to warm up the rest of the nation, too.

JERAS: I was going to say, come on, I'm not alone! WHITFIELD: I know.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: ... wearing T-shirts and shorts...

JERAS: I know!

WHITFIELD: ... and got their convertible tops down.

JERAS: I know. One of our assignment guys came in with sunburn today.

WHITFIELD: No, he didn't!

JERAS: Yes, he did! Chris Friedman (ph), you know who I'm talking about!

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: All right...

(CROSSTALK)

JERAS: ... SPF-15 or better. Absolutely. You got to have the sunscreen, even in the middle of winter. Those sun rays are strong out there.

Temperatures in the 60s and 70s at this hour. Isn't it fantastic? Way above average by a good 20 degrees for some of you -- 74 degrees in NOLA, 73 in Houston right now, 68 in Atlanta. Check out Charlotte, North Carolina, 73 degrees. It's fantastic!

You know, these warm temperatures spread even up north into the Plains states, believe it or not. We had a plethora of record highs yesterday, and I think we'll break some of those again today. You know, 41 in Chicago is not too shabby, as well as 40 in Kansas City. We've got 51 in New York. We've already hit a record at Islip, New York. This was about 10:00 o'clock this morning. You know the temperatures still have been going on up. And we'll likely see some 80s by tomorrow into southern Florida. So really great that this is going to be sticking around for a couple of days.

But there is cooler air coming in from the southwest, and that is going to be clashing with some of this warmer air. Right now, it's pretty benign. We're just looking at some occasional rain showers. Here we've got snow into the higher elevations. Some of that snow's going to be heavy at times, yes, north of the Phoenix area on up into the Sierras. We could see one to two feet in the Sierras before all is said and done. We've got a series of these storm systems coming on through.

Now, today we could see some severe weather as that storm approaches. We're really looking at a pretty small area, you know, panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, on into eastern parts of New Mexico, maybe squeaking into southwestern Kansas. But as our next system pulls on through -- and we've had this warm air a little more time to percolate in this area -- we think we could see more significant severe weather with the threat of tornadoes in the nation's midsection come Tuesday. So just a heads-up for that.

Kind of blustery to go along with this system, by the way, too, Fredricka. We've got wind advisories in effect from Houston down towards the Brownsville area, where winds will gust 40, maybe even 50 miles per hour at times. So take it really easy, especially if you're traveling along the east-west highways.

WHITFIELD: That's dangerous.

JERAS: A little bit, yes.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Jacqui. Appreciate it.

All right, well, just after the break, a story that is a true inspiration, how two brothers fulfilled their father's lifetime dream and the documentary that captured all of it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, this is a story of remembering where you come from. Two Kenyan brothers are in this country studying to be doctors, but they're also fulfilling their father's dream of building a clinic in their remote home village to fight AIDS, the disease that actually killed both of their parents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a purpose to why I'm here. I pray to God that I never forget where I came from.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The brothers' effort to build a clinic in Lwala, Kenya, is a subject of a documentary. They are here with us today, along with the documentary's producer. Milton Ochieng is a resident at Washington University school of medicine in St. Louis, joining us from St. Louis. Good to see you. His brother, Fred, is a third year medical student at Vanderbilt University school of medicine in Nashville. And he's along with Barry Simmons, the director and producer of the documentary "Sons of Lwala," all of them joining us from Nashville.

Good to see all of you, gentlemen. Jambo (ph).

(LAUGHTER)

MILTON OCHIENG, AIDS ACTIVIST: Oh, jambo! Wow!

WHITFIELD: Well, Fred, let me begin with you because, I mean, it was -- it's huge enough that you would find your way out of Lwala, Kenya, western Kenya, a very remote village, and pursue your medical degree in the U.S. and remember about your words that you exchanged with your father about coming back. When you came to the U.S. to pursue your medical education, all the while, you were thinking about home? Or Milton, let me begin with you.

MILTON OCHIENG: Oh, you meant Milton.

WHITFIELD: Yes. Since you were the first one, right?

MILTON OCHIENG: Correct.

WHITFIELD: OK. Sorry about that. So Milton, you know, the whole time, you were thinking about home even while you were carrying out your studies here in the States.

MILTON OCHIENG: Yes, definitely. You know, I never really forgot about home because it's such a special place and the people from Lwala are so special. And you know, for me having grown up in Lwala, you know, you -- in Lwala, you belong to everybody. You belong to the community. You belong to the village. And because they had sacrificed so much to get me to the U.S. to go to college, and you know, go on to medical school, I really never forgot about them. Having seen firsthand the devastation that the lack of access to health care was wreaking on our people, I really, you know, always had that at the back of my mind and there was always constant reminder of that difficult year...

WHITFIELD: And a few things about that. We're look at video now of you kind of touring, you know, a home there in Lwala. You talk about how people did a lot with a very little and the sacrifices they made to make sure that you were able to fulfill -- you know, carry out this full scholarship that you got from Dartmouth College at the beginning, before going off to medical school, everyone in town, whether they were related to you or not.

They had a harambe (ph), or a fund-raiser, trying to make some money so that you could actually get that plane ticket to come to the States. Tell me about the medical conditions or the health conditions of your community and why it was important for you to not forget them.

MILTON OCHIENG: Well, you know, Lwala village is a small rural community -- no electricity, no running water. The nearest hospital is, you know, over 30 kilometers away. That's the nearest hospital where you could get any sort of surgical intervention. And so if somebody fell sick, you'd have to put them on the back of a bicycle or on a wheelbarrow push them almost 45 minutes to the nearest paved road, and then flag down a taxi and try to get them to the nearest hospital, total taking over two hours of travel. So we had people who passed away, you know, bleeding in childbirth or such other complications, and I just never could forget that.

WHITFIELD: And there are so many details in between, but then fast forward. Here you are in medical school now at Vanderbilt, and you decide that, You know what? After a retreat with some other fellow students in Nicaragua and seeing the building of a clinic there, you say, Wait a minute. I can do this at home, but it takes money to do that, it takes resources to do that. How were you able to get it going?

MILTON OCHIENG: Well, you know, after, you know, having been, just as a second year, you know, sophomore at Dartmouth College and having seen firsthand that, you know, Whoa, just as a college student, I could do this, then I got in touch with my advisers at Dartmouth College, and then fast forward, also some of my advisers at Vanderbilt.

And then I told my dad, Hey, you know, all -- you know how we've always talked about, you know, wanting a clinic for the village? I just have the idea. And so -- and then I got in touch with Fred and I told him, OK, you know, you're the one who's going to be in charge of fund-raising. So my dad put together the list of -- sort of the first proposal, you know, $25,000.

WHITFIELD: Wow.

MILTON OCHIENG: And then I told Fred he was going to be in charge of getting us that money.

WHITFIELD: So then, Fred, at this point, did you say, Are you crazy? How are we going to do this?

FRED OCHIENG, MEDICAL STUDENT: Oh, yes.

WHITFIELD: Or did you see it as a possibility?

FRED OCHIENG: No, I mean, I thought Milton was a little crazy because I'm the shy one, you know? So how was he expecting me to go around asking people for money to raise $25,000, you know?

WHITFIELD: Wow. And you actually were, in part, able to do that. And then here steps in your buddy. You know, Barry, you guys meet and the conversation goes and you are fascinated, Barry. You're a television reporter in Nashville, and you are so fascinated with them, you say, You know what? I'm actually quitting my job and I'm going to do a documentary on all of this?

BARRY SIMMONS, DIRECTOR, "SONS OF LWALA": Yes, not the most well-thought-out decision.

(LAUGHTER)

SIMMONS: But I met Milton -- Milton, remember, we met just down the road here at a coffee shop...

MILTON OCHIENG: Yes.

SIMMONS: ... and he was selling me the story. He pulled out these blueprints, and he said, You know, Barry, I want to build a clinic. I said, Milton, how are you going to do that? And he goes, I'm not sure. And you know, I was thinking about us doing a feature story on the local news. And then I thought, you know, this really has potential to be a wonderful platform for him to raise money, and doing it one time on the newscast won't probably do that for us.

So I thought, Well, you know, I'm about to turn 30, and I want to have a legacy, too. You know, I want -- when my kid asks me some day, you know, What did you do with your 20s and 30s, I want to be able to say that I did something that mattered. And so I just jumped on board.

WHITFIELD: Wow. And so by -- what did you discover by helping to tell this story, thread all the, you know, pieces that these guys had commandeered.

SIMMONS: Yes, it was just a fascinating journey, you know? I mean, one thing that struck me was their willingness to jump into something that was messy, you know? It wasn't a game they would necessarily win. They knew that they may lose. And that just really spoke to me. You know, it's all -- it's really easy to jump in when you know you're going to win, and these guys were willing to do something really hard, really inconvenient and...

WHITFIELD: So Milton, huge payoff is, after all these efforts, you end up getting the money. You end up getting the clinic built. Tell me about how gratifying it's been, what kind of medicine you've been able to carry out at this clinic, which is now in your hometown. Sadly, you parents are not here to see the fruits of your labor, but give me an idea of what you've been able to accomplish in Lwala.

MILTON OCHIENG: Well, it's been wonderful, you know, the amazing support that we've had from people here in the U.S. It's been just an outpouring of love, all the way from New Hampshire to Nashville to California, every medicine foundation (INAUDIBLE) And what we've been able to accomplish with their help is, you know, up to this point, we've seen over 30,000 patients, and you know, 65 percent of those are kids under 5. And 85 percent of the patients that we've seen, you know, have been seen for free.

WHITFIELD: You are saving lives in your home town, your village.

MILTON OCHIENG: It's really just remarkable. We now have over 300 patients who are on anti-retrovirals. And you know, had this clinic been available, you know, a year or two prior to my parents falling ill, you know, maybe they would have lived to see this day and celebrate it with us. But be that as it may, you know, we turned it around and we are now glad that we are using, you know, what we are blessed to have to make a difference in other people's lives.

WHITFIELD: Boy, you all have brought giving back a whole new meaning, brought it to a whole new level. The documentary is "Sons of Lwala." Milton and Fred Ochieng and Barry Simmons, thanks so much to all of you. Asante sana (ph).

MILTON OCHIENG: Oh, asante sana, Fredricka!

WHITFIELD: All right. All the best. Much more on the NEWSROOM straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, foreclosed homes can often turn into eyesores. Yards become overgrown, broken windows don't get repaired. Well, a California man had enough, so he started a Web site to publicize problem houses and the lenders who are failing to maintain them. It's called Lenderoffender.com. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK MCKINZIE, HOME OWNER: I live directly next door to a home that actually has entirely black lawn, and it's been that way since April of '07. The garbage that's piling up, the garbage that you can see over the fence tops -- I'm putting lenders on the spot in the hopes that they will actually start taking notice of these properties.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: OK. So one lender did. After spotting one of its eyesores on the Web site, it sent landscapers to the home and planted a whole new lawn.

Much more straight ahead in the NEWSROOM an hour from now. YOUR MONEY, meantime, starts right now.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST: This is an emergency edition of YOUR MONEY. I'm Christine Romans.

Your financial security depends on your job, and American jobs are disappearing fast. Employers cut 598,000 jobs last month. That's the most jobs lost in a single month in 34 years. The unemployment rate now stands at 7.6 percent. That means that more than 11.5 million of you are now out of work.

The numbers underscore the emergency facing this young administration. President Obama says his stimulus will create or save three to four million jobs, but will it work and is it enough? The unemployment line grows longer every week, a staggering 626,000 new claims for unemployment just last week, a level not seen in more than 25 years -- Ali.