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Administration Warns of Dire Results if Bailout Not Passed; Bush to Address Nation on Bailout Plan; Media Access Limited to Palin; Homeless Man Dies After ER Neglect
Aired September 24, 2008 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Greed? Maybe. Bad decisions? Surely. But fraud? The FBI is on the case of the faltering financial powerhouses.
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Where do you put your money now?
DEBBIE INGHAM, LOST SAVINGS: I feel like taking the money out and putting it under the mattress.
PHILLIPS: Bailing out the account holders. Is anybody guarding the nest egg? Your assets are safe to a point, but you've got to know the rules.
Mildred Heath has been enthused about the newspaper biz for 85 years. At 100, age still doesn't make much difference.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: She's got a lot of advice for us, too.
Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. And you're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Well, damage is done, and while Congress wrestles with the treasury and Fed and White House over how best to fix it, the FBI is trying to get to the bottom of it.
Sources tell CNN Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers and AIG and their executives are being investigated for possible mortgage fraud. In the meantime, four more central banks are joining forces with the Fed to pump another $30 billion into the world's credit markets.
Warren Buffett sees gold in Goldman Sachs. The Oracle of Omaha is sinking $5 billion into the now-tarnished investment bank and may sink $5 billion more.
Another day of hard sell on Capitol Hill. This is Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, warning another congressional committee of the risks of not passing a $700 billion bailout.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BEN BERNANKE, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE: The credit system is like the plumbing. It permeates throughout the entire system, and our modern economy cannot grow, cannot create jobs. It cannot provide housing without effectively working credit markets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Lawmakers in both parties are far from sold. And it's not just the price tag. President Bush may try to turn up the pressure with a primetime speech to the nation. We're going to let you know if and when that's confirmed.
But for now, let's get right straight to CNN's Allan Chernoff, who's watching the bailout fallout from his post in New York.
Allan, are Bernanke and Paulson panicking?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: You know, Kyra, you could make that argument. Ben Bernanke is one of our foremost experts on the Great Depression. They both have said, Paulson and Bernanke last week, they essentially were looking down an economic abyss, and they're very worried that lending in this country is just going to freeze up and lead us into a severe depression.
But we haven't seen that much evidence of that happening just yet. Lending did freeze up briefly last week. It's eased up a bit this week. We don't see companies left and right going bankrupt just yet. Maybe they are panicking just a bit.
PHILLIPS: Will $700 billion really save us from tough times?
CHERNOFF: I've been thinking with the economists for the past few days. And many of them are predicting that, even if that $700 billion package were to be approved today, we would still have a serious recession. Confidence has been shaken. You need confidence in order to have lending back and forth between banks, companies, the government. And confidence is not back just yet.
PHILLIPS: Well, and now we're talking about a crime scene. The FBI investigating Fannie, Freddie, Lehman, AIG. What will this reveal?
CHERNOFF: Well, our understanding is that this is in the very, very early stages. So it's a broad look at this situation. In fact, AIG told us that they -- they know very little. They have no details just yet. And we've heard from one source that Freddie Mac basically didn't even know about this happening just yet.
There is a problem. We are trying to find criminal activity, because a lot of what's going on here has not been regulated. There are no rules for some of these investments that the firms were engaged in here.
Sources in the legal community say it's most likely that we would have the Justice Department have the FBI focusing on statements that companies may have made to reassure investors at a time when perhaps they knew their situations actually were quite dire. That's probably going to be the area of focus, once they get into it.
PHILLIPS: All right. Allan Chernoff, thanks so much.
Meanwhile, it's a fairly quiet day on Wall Street. Investors aren't really overjoyed with the prospects out of Washington, but they're not freaking out either. We're going to check in with our Susan Lisovicz at the bottom of the hour. Dow Industrials down about 15 points right now.
Well, work hard, save your money, enjoy your retirement. It sounds simple. But even if you never took out a subprime mortgage and never made a risky investment you, too, can lose big in the current financial meltdown. CNN's Chris Lawrence has a case in point.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAWRENCE: Debbie Ingham is out $20,000 after her bank went belly up.
INGHAM: But it's OK to bail out the corporations that made bad business decisions for billions of dollars?
LAWRENCE: Nevada's Silver State was the 11th bank to fail this year.
INGHAM: I'm like, "Oh, my God. I have everything there."
LAWRENCE: Everything minus that $20,000.
INGHAM: I don't even -- I barely make that in a year, in my job. I mean, that's how important that money is to me.
LAWRENCE: Debbie's a school bus aide. It's taken 27 years of marriage to save $120,000. When her husband had his identity stolen, she put their money in her name, divided into accounts. When the bank failed, the FDIC added those accounts and chopped off everything over $100,000.
(on camera) Where do you put your money now?
INGHAM: I feel like taking the money out and putting it under the mattress. I don't think anything is safe anymore.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Financial planners say couples should open a joint account or keep individual accounts at several banks.
LEONARD GOODALL, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER: You can go down the street and have another bank or a third bank. Each of those would be separate. If you had accounts in each of them up to $100,000, each of them would be guaranteed.
LAWRENCE: The FDIC told Debbie she could get a percentage if Silver State's assets are sold.
INGHAM: That's it. That's if they sell anything, when, could take years. LAWRENCE: Debbie's money is part of $20 million in uninsured deposits. It could have been worse. Customers withdrew a quarter of a billion dollars in the two months before Silver State failed.
(on camera) The bank did have somewhat famous ties. Senator John McCain's son served on the board of directors for Silver State Bank. He was part of an auditing committee that would oversee the books, but Andrew McCain resigned from that position for personal reasons just two months before the bank collapsed.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, Las Vegas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Yesterday we asked you what, if anything, you're giving up to cut back? Well, you let us know. We're going to read some of your e-mails later this hour.
Live pictures now in the race for the White House. We're waiting for Barack Obama to step up to the podium here as he gets under way with a rally in Florida. We're going to have live coverage for you when it starts. Obama's spending time in Florida now, prepping for Friday night's debate with John McCain in Oxford, Mississippi.
His Democratic running mate, Senator Joe Biden, well, he's on the trail today also. He is in Ohio and Indiana.
Now Republican candidate John McCain is spending the day in New York, where world leaders have gathered at the United Nations. He and his running mate, Sarah Palin, are meeting with the leaders of Georgia, Ukraine and India and with U2 lead singer and humanitarian activist Bono.
Palin has separate meetings with the presidents of Iraq and Pakistan, also. And then this morning McCain had this to say about the country's financial mess and the government bailout plan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Most Americans feel very strongly that this isn't their fault, but it's Wall Street and Washington collusive insider relationships that have caused the great part of the problem.
So any package that we come up with has got to have transparency, accountability, CEO responsibility and obviously be in the best interests to the people of this country who are going to pay $10,000 per household in order to take the necessary measures to restore our economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Now, a bit later in the hour we'll tell you some new questions about the McCain campaign Rick Davis and his ties to mortgage lender Freddie Mac. Barack Obama's slight lead over John McCain is a bit wider today in our latest national poll of polls. Forty-nine percent say that they back Obama; 45 percent support McCain. Six percent still haven't made up their minds.
The poll of polls is an average of five different surveys, and yesterday Obama had a three-point lead.
Now join us Friday night when Obama and McCain face-off on the issues. Who's going to come out on top? Well, we've got the best political team on television for your front row seat.
And can see Governor Palin converse with world leaders at the U.N., but you can't hear a word that she's saying. This is about as close as the media was allowed to get, rather. No questions, no answers. Just pictures and flashing bulbs. We're going to talk with White House correspondent Ed Henry about the wall around Palin in just a few minutes.
Need to fill 'ER up? Better line 'ER up. Finding gas is still something of a treasure hunt right now for drivers in the southeast. And once you find it, expect to wait.
Still no relief for the Atlanta national area, hit particularly hard by the post-hurricane shortage, as lots of people have had to take mini-road trips, even, to fuel up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I drove, well, my house is 21 miles from the Kentucky line, Robinson County.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: About eight to 10.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eight or 90 -- 90 miles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just glad I can find gas in Kentucky, because I'd be down there sitting at home watching TV if I couldn't.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Those folks been out of gas in Nashville. And they're coming here, so they very easily could run our supply out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Georgia's just gotten a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency to sell gas with a higher sulfur content. Normally, it's banned to help fight smog. Analysts are mixed on this, on whether it will be any sort of short-term help or not.
And a House decision yesterday won't provide any relief any time soon, but a ban on offshore oil drilling will expire at the end of the month. House
Democrats had wanted to attach conditions for any new drilling to a big spending bill. But they finally backed off to get the bill through Congress. The House is expected to pass it today and the Senate later this week. Democratic leaders say that voters will effectively decide the drilling issue come November.
It's home, but it's a far cry from what it used to be. The folks in Galveston, Texas, finally get to return to see what's left after Hurricane Ike.
Can you imagine still being on the job at 100 years old? You're going to meet Mildred Heath, apparently America's oldest worker. And you're going to find out why she's never bored.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: And this just in to CNN. We're being told that the president is going to address the nation tonight on the bailout plan. Apparently, Elaine Quijano is getting information there from the White House.
What are you getting from -- from your sources, Elaine?
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, the primetime address to the nation will take place about 9:01 Eastern Time. It will take place in the Cross Hall of the White House. President Bush speaking, expected to speak for about 12 to 14 minutes or so, trying to make the case for this administration's $700 billion financial rescue plan.
Now, the administration has been blasted, really, from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for this plan. We heard some of that yesterday in the testimony by the president's point man on the crisis, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Some of the fiercest opposition, though, coming from members of the president's own party, conservatives in particular, who say that this price tag is simply too big. It puts taxpayers on the hook for too much money, and some argue that it's a betrayal of a belief of core conservative principles of free markets.
Well, yesterday President Bush dispatched some top officials to Capitol Hill including Vice President Dick Cheney, as well as chief of staff Josh Bolten, to try and quell some of those concerns.
But the overall sentiment along the GOP House members is that this is very -- they're very skeptical of this plan. They call it a bailout. They question why public money should be going to bail out private firms. Clearly, Kyra, President Bush has some convincing yet to do -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, we'll all be listening; that's for sure. Elaine Quijano, thanks so much.
Meanwhile, Governor Sarah Palin's crash course in foreign relations this week was a big part of our news meeting this morning. She met with Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday and is having sit-downs with several other leaders.
And we're trying to figure out how to report on these events where the media gets little access. Here's what was going around the idea table this morning come -- well, come be a fly on the wall with us, rather.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The question is, how do she do yesterday on the international stage?
WALT, COPY EDITOR: This package sounds like it spells out the Palin thing pretty well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It did. It did. It talked about her meeting with...
WALT: Keeping the media out.
PHILLIPS: Ed Henry's really good live, and we have good chemistry. We could -- if we are kind of bugged by the whole what's up with no cameras we could do probably a little fast Q&A with Ed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that what you were about to say?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A blurb.
JIM, LEAD WRITER: Wrapped in bubble wrap until the debate and then gets Biden...
PHILLIPS: What's your guys -- what's your biggest question about that, everybody? Just the fact that -- like if I -- if we to have our best two questions with Ed, what would we want to do?
SONYA, SEGMENT PRODUCER: We want to see what she says. It's not an unprecedented thing. They even do it for the president, at certain things, though. They won't allow cameras in, and the media does the same thing. They say, "Well, if you're not going to let us have an editorial presence, then we're not going to show your PR pictures."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you're texting questions?
PHILLIPS: Yes. I texted in, to say here what we're talking about. Will you go leave with us? And I just typed in all the questions you guys just talked about.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: All right, Ed. That's why your ears were burning this morning. Now, let's put that chemistry of ours to work. A Q&A.
HENRY: I didn't know I was such the focus of your morning meetings. And I also -- well, Walt, the copy editor, the check's in the mail for saying I did a good package last night. Thanks, Walt.
PHILLIPS: That's right. We were watching the piece last night. It got us all talking, of course.
HENRY: Sure.
PHILLIPS: And you know how I love to have Q&A with you, because you always have the inside scoop. You've always got great sources.
So here are our questions. Here's what we all want to know. No. 1, have we ever seen a barrier like this around a vice-presidential candidate, even a presidential candidate? I mean, some were saying it's like the Great Wall of China surrounding Sarah Palin. You know?
HENRY: Sure.
PHILLIPS: We can't hear anything.
HENRY: Well, in fairness to some extent there has been. I mean, from covering the White House, sometimes particularly we're overseas covering President Bush, there will be events where he'll be with a foreign leader. And we'll be told we can bring in a television camera but we can't bring in a reporter or a producer. So there's no person who can shout a question. And the networks, all the U.S. networks, the five of them will stand up and say, "Look, we're not just going to show these pictures without the ability to ask questions, because then it's almost like a propaganda device."
That's happened with Republican and Democrat presidents. The networks stand up.
What's a little different now is this is a candidate, not someone who's actually president of vice president. Doesn't have the trappings of office. And it's a little curious also, because when you think about it, the whole world tour that we're seeing with Sarah Palin this week is about her getting out there. The campaign wants to roll her out. They want to showcase, in their view, that she is prepared to be vice president, and can hold her own in these meetings.
And that's why it was curious yesterday when, initially, they were saying, "We're not going to allow reporters in to potentially shout questions." They eventually did let those reporters in. But there were no questions that were eventually answered anyway, so it became almost moot.
But I think the point is, that amid this back and forth, there are now questions about maybe is the McCain camp a little more concerned about Sarah Palin's experience in private than they have been letting on publicly by, you know, setting up maybe not a wall but at least setting up some barriers here to her answering questions.
She had more meetings today, and once again she didn't take questions. And I think at some point, while she's still new on the stage, she's going to have to start taking some of these tough questions.
PHILLIPS: No doubt. And just looking at this videotape of her, Ed. And we were asking this in our morning meeting. What did she say to Hamid Karzai? Karzai, rather, the president of Afghanistan?
HENRY: Sure.
PHILLIPS: Someone said, "Oh, she asked Hamid Karzai about his kids, the family." HENRY: Right.
PHILLIPS: I mean, do we even know if she had in-depth conversations about foreign policy with any of these leaders?
HENRY: We don't know for sure, because the cameras were only basically let in for about 30 seconds. I mean, that's what the viewer doesn't always get when we're just showing them a little bit of tape.
The meeting went on for much longer than 30 seconds. So yes. McCain aides say that they did talk about more than just Hamid Karzai's son, his relative newborn. Instead, they also talked about Afghanistan, Pakistan, the situation of the war there, obviously.
In the meeting with Henry Kissinger, that also went on longer than the 30-second photo op. And with Henry Kissinger she talked about the situation in Georgia, Russia, NATO. Some big issues. But we're not really being let in to see more than a 30-second snippet. So it's unclear exactly how much depth they're going in.
I should also point out, in fairness, though, that the Obama camp, the Biden camp, they're keeping reporters pretty much at bay, too, at a lot of these kinds of photo ops. Not -- they're not totally the same but similar events. They don't always allow a lot of give and take in questions, as well.
Because we are now at a stage of the campaign where neither side wants this free-wheeling debate, because they don't want a gaffe on either side. This is too late in the campaign for an unscripted moment.
Again, what I think, though, is a little different about Sarah Palin is that her -- you know, their campaign wants to get her out there to show she's ready for primetime. So that's why I think at some point they're probably going to have to start putting her out there more than just in 30-second snippets to kind of show that -- whether or not she can withstand the questions.
And when she's in that debate with Joe Biden one-on-one, she's not going to have safety net. It's just going to be the two of them, and she's going to have to stand up and do it.
And it should be noted, her allies, including first lady Laura Bush, just told Zain Verjee a short time in an interview that she thinks, the first lady said, that Sarah Palin is tough, tenacious and that she can handle the questions. That's why some conservatives are saying why put up a wall? Get her out there, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Sure. And you bring up a great point: we're all looking forward to the debates. That will definitely tell a lot.
And in all fairness to, you know, talking with Henry Kissinger, you and I both know this. We've spent time with him. That's never a short conversation. You have to get in-depth with Henry Kissinger.
HENRY: Hard to get a word in edgewise. PHILLIPS: Yes, exactly. There's a lot of listening in that conversation.
All right. Ed Henry, great to see you.
HENRY: I'm looking forward to tomorrow's meeting.
PHILLIPS: Yes. Trust me. You'll be a topic again.
HENRY: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Ed.
Well, a man goes to ER on Friday. He is actually pronounced dead early Sunday. But in the interim no one checks on him. So what went wrong? We investigate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Thirty-four hours in an emergency room with no care. Thirty-four hours, that's what a man, reportedly homeless, went through in Canada. And the outcome, tragic.
Here's CTV's Murray Oliver in Winnipeg.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MURRAY OLIVER, CTV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At 3 p.m. Friday Brian Sinclair came by taxi to this emergency room. Thirty-four hours later, still in the waiting room, he was found dead.
DR. BROCK WRIGHT, WINNIPEG HEALTH SCIENCES CENTRE: There was reason to believe at that time that the patient had passed -- had been dead for some time. We don't know how long.
OLIVER: It might have been even longer if another man waiting hadn't called for help. His family works in health care. He asked we disguise his identity.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We went to tell the nurse. The nurse said, "We'll go and check." Nobody ever checked on him. My wife grabbed the security, and I was with her. And he went up to the fellow, pinched him on the neck and lifted his head, and he was obviously dead.
OLIVER: Health authorities say Sinclair spoke with aides and cleaners but never checked in at the main desk.
WRIGHT: The challenge for us right now is to explain how it is that somebody could be in the department for 34 hours and not have made it to the triage desk area.
OLIVER: Brian Sinclair was 45-year-old aboriginal man, a double amputee in a wheelchair, what many would call a street person. Possibly easy to ignore in a busy inner city ER.
(voice-over) Sinclair's brother lives on the street. He seems resigned to the loss.
BRADLEY SINCLAIR, BROTHER: I wish he wasn't too late. I can't do nothing. I can't bring him back to life.
OLIVER: At this Winnipeg mission, folks say the homeless often feel ignored in hospitals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They treat us like garbage over there.
GARTH REESOR, SILOAM MISSION, WINNIPEG: Yes, I think they're ignored many times. They're invisible, is the word we sometimes use. They're just -- it's like they're not seen.
OLIVER: Invisible on Friday, now Sinclair is top of the agenda at legislature.
GARY DOER, MANITOBA PREMIER: We admit to the people of Manitoba that it went tragically wrong.
OLIVER: Nurses are supposed to check on everyone waiting in the E.R., but this time, that didn't happen. An investigation will ask why.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And no word on why Sinclair went to the E.R. in the first place. Authorities have not released a specific cause of death.
John McCain accusing Barack Obama of profiting from troubled mortgage lenders Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Now there's word of a connection between McCain's campaign manager and one of the companies.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: And welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.
You're live with us right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
1:31 Eastern time. Here are some of the stories we're working on right now.
Just minutes, ago CNN confirmed that President Bush will make a televised speech to the nation aimed at pushing Congress to pass the $700 billion financial bailout plan. The president's speaks just after 9:00 Eastern and, of course, CNN will bring it to you live.
And they're not coming back -- well they're not coming back to much. But they are coming back. People from Galveston, Texas, now returning to their homes nearly two weeks after Hurricane Ike struck. Some makeshift aid stations have already been set up.
And in North Korea, getting back to the nuclear business. The chief U.N. nuclear inspector says the North plans to restart a reactor in a week or so after previous pledges to disable it. The U.S. is telling the North Koreans to back off. Lawmakers continue to iron out the details of that $700 billion bailout plan and stocks are finally gaining some ground thanks to a little help from a famous billionaire investor, a good friend of Susan Lisovicz's as she joins us now from the New York Stock Exchange.
Hey, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Still trying to pin him down for an interview, was on the phone with Omaha just the other day, Kyra.
Well the "Oracle of Omaha" has said that he tries to be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy when others are fearful. So Buffett is buying in this fearful market. Goldman Sachs is $5 billion richer because of it. Berkshire Hathaway, the company that Buffett controls, will purchase shares in Goldman. It's the first big move into financials by Buffett since the credit crisis erupted a year ago. He's getting it cheap. Goldman shares have lost half their value over the past year. That vote of confidence helping send Goldman shares right now up 4 percent.
Congress, meanwhile, continues to wrestle with that billion dollar -- $700 billion bailout plan. The chairman of the Federal Reserve today used even more serious language, saying that the financial system faces a grave threat if action is not taken soon.
But, stocks are pretty calm today after seven triple digit moves in the last seven sessions. The Dow Industrials, maybe the Bernanke bounce, up 46 points or about half a percent. The Nasdaq is up 1 percent.
We got some home statistics from the housing sector. Existing home sales, biggest part of the market, fell more than expected, down more than 2 percent in August. Prices last month tumbled a record 9.5 percent from a year ago. The National Association of Realtors says the pendulum in the mortgage market has swung too far. People are having a hard time getting a mortgage. And that is the credit crunch, folks.
Finally, General Motors says it's planning to put its Hummer truck brand up for sale. Funny thing happened to Hummer sales once gasoline hit $4 a gallon -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: I still don't know why anyone needs that type of vehicle anyway. But that's a whole other discussion.
LISOVICZ: All these would be Rambos.
PHILLIPS: Exactly. It's just that they're trying to be cool. That's what happens what you have a mid life crisis.
All right. I'm going to get on an aside here -- I'm just curious -- we're going to read some of these e-mails from people who have been talking what they've been giving up because of the financial hardship, Susan. Has anyone come up to you there on floor or within the financial world, and said, man, it's even hitting me, too. I know numbers, I know money, but I have had to sell my car, I'm walking more, or it's affected my family?
LISOVICZ: Well I mean I think it has hit people here very hard. Kyra, people are fearful of losing their jobs. A lot of people have lost their jobs. This is huge. And I know a lot of them. It's been happening for some time here. So they just want to hang on.
PHILLIPS: Yes. It's a tough time.
All right, Susan, we'll talk again. Thanks so much.
Meanwhile, here's some of what you have written in to us.
Simpson writes: "I retired last year. Now have to give up eating out and there'll be no family vacation next year. I also had to give up my weekly golf game."
Oh, Simpson, I can feel that.
Adam says: "I graduated college in May and still haven't found a real job. I've had to sell my car, pay $800 to get out of my lease, and move back into my mother's house."
Oh, at least it's not your mother-in-law.
And Brianne wrote this: "This year has forced me to give up purchasing books, music and movies. I am a book aficionado and although it's painful not to buy a book when it comes out, I have forced myself to use the library."
And we're still waiting for Barack Obama to step to the podium here in Florida. He's going to be holding a news conference. We will bring it to you live as soon as he does.
And in his battle with Barack Obama, John McCain has accused his Democratic rival of profiting from Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the huge mortgage lenders caught up in the credit crisis. Now the "New York Times" reports that Freddie Mac paid a firm owned by McCain campaign manager Rick Davis tens of thousands of dollars until it was taken over by the government. The McCain campaign has used the financial crisis in attack ads even against Obama. And the Arizona senator had this to say Friday at a campaign stop in Wisconsin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: While Fannie and Freddie were working to keep Congress away from their house of cards, Senator Obama was taking their money. He got more, in fact, than any other member of Congress, except for the Democratic chairman of the committee that oversees him. People like Senator Obama have been too busy gaming the system and haven't ever done a thing to actually challenge the system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: McCain's campaign spokesperson doesn't dispute the payment to the Davis-owned firm, but she does say that Davis stopped taking a salary from the company two years ago and his work did not affect McCain's position on policy matters.
Check out our Political Ticker for all the latest campaign news. Just log on to CNNPolitics.com, your source from now to November and of course beyond.
Well it's not the same Galveston that they left nearly two weeks ago. But it's a start. Thousands of people forced out because of Hurricane Ike began arriving early this morning to see what was left. They had been told to bring plenty of their own supplies. Power and water are still pretty spotty, and there's no place to get medical help. There are places to get food, water and ice though.
Also, FEMA is helping people register for disaster assistance. And there's a place where people can check their e-mail and also use the phone.
People in that part of Texas are getting some decent weather this week, at least. If the A.C. isn't working, they can open the windows and get a little fresh air. Sure beats the rain or the Texas heat.
Right, Chad Myers?
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: North Korea flexing some muscle, moving closer to making good on threats to restart its suspended nuclear program. The U.N. nuclear agency removed seals and surveillance cameras from a nuclear facility at North Korea's request. And the U.N.'s chief inspector says that the North planned to reactivate the plan within a week. The White House is urging the North Koreans to back off. And one U.S. diplomat even says that they might just be trying for an edge in long-running nuclear talks.
Friendly, respectful. Words we don't often hear from Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But we're hearing them now. He talked with CNN's Larry King before his U.N. speech yesterday, and he sounded more diplomatic than he has in recent memory.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD, IRAN (through translator): We are interested in having relations that are friendly and respectful. We prefer that, and propose that. But it is for the American government to decide what choice it wants to make. And whatever choice they make, we will also, well -- take measures and organize our efforts accordingly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Ahmadinejad talked tougher in his U.N. speech, saying -- quote -- "the American empire in the world is reaching the end of its road." He also mentioned criminal Zionists, but he stopped short calling for Israel to be politically wiped off the map as he has done in the past.
Candles and tears at college in southwest Finland today, a day after a student went on a deadly shooting rampage before killing himself. Ten other people were gunned down, eight of them female students. And today Finland's prime minister is calling for tougher gun laws in a nation that ranks in the top five in civilian gun ownership, and that has seen its second deadly school shooting in less than a year. Police questioned the shooter a day before that rampage because of this video that he actually posted on YouTube, but they had to let him go. Now Finnish officials are calling for a probe into how police handled this case.
A tainted milk scandal in China rocks families across Asia. New worries today about what it could do here.
And should CEOs cash in when their firms wipe out? That could be a deal breaker on Capitol Hill. We'll get the ins and outs of golden parachutes.
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PHILLIPS: The discovery that could help in the early detection and treatment of ovarian cancer. Scientists say that they found a gene marker that may indicate who will get ovarian cancer and who won't. They found the marker by testing tissue and blood samples from women who have ovarian cancer and others who are cancer-free. All the women with cancer had the specific gene. Ovarian cancer, by the way, kills 15,000 women a year and it's very difficult to detect. The symptoms include bloating, stomach or pelvic pain, difficulty eating and always feeling full.
Well it's time to roll up your sleeves and get a flu shot. The CDC is calling for millions of Americans, including 30 million kids, to get one. And for the first time the government is expanding the age range of kids who need the vaccine. The CDC is now recommending the shot for children six months old to 18 years old. That's who should get the shot. And there should be an ample supply of it this year we're told. More than 143 million doses are being produced now.
Well a toxic milk scandal in China is spreading to Asia, Britain and Africa. And it's raising new concerns now on our shores. Dairy based candies can be found here, which were made by the companies disgraced after the industrial chemical melamine was found in milk powder. Medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is here with the details.
So what do we know?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I brought some candy.
PHILLIPS: I understand I don't want to have any White Rabbit Candy.
COHEN: You may not want this.
In Singapore they went looking for melamine. They actually took candies and other dairy products and tested them. And in Singapore they found melamine in this candy -- White Rabbit Creamy Candies. We went to several stores in Atlanta that had it. We just went in and bought it. So there are concerns now that there are products in the U.S. that could have melamine. The FDA says they are widening their search.
Kyra, at first they were just looking for infant formula to have melamine. Now they're looking at all sorts of dairy products.
PHILLIPS: Now let's remind folks what melamine is, why it's so toxic and also what's it doing in food?
COHEN: It shouldn't be in food. That is the problem. Melamine is an industrial chemical. It's used to make ceiling tiles and counter laminates. And it shouldn't be in food at all. It basically is a protein and it will increase the protein content of, let's say, infant formula. So what they think happened is that some folks who made this formula said, well I got to have protein in there, I'm going to use melamine. It's cheap. Infant kidneys cannot handle that much melamine and that's why those children died.
PHILLIPS: So what are other the countries doing right now?
COHEN: Other countries -- it's interesting -- are yanking products off the shelves. One of our CNN international correspondents got this video, or got the video you'll see soon where they were -- they're just taking stuff off the shelves that's made in China.
That is not the approach that's being done in the U.S. The FDA says they want to test things to see if they even have melamine. Some countries are sort of yanking first and asking questions later.
PHILLIPS: And so -- let's say someone eats the candy. Will it kill them?
COHEN: Right. Let's say someone ate a piece of candy that had melamine in it -- because I want to put this into perspective. The infants who got sick from the melamine infant formula -- they were drinking that formula morning, noon and night. That was all they took in in a given day. And they're tiny, of course. Those babies are tiny.
If someone were to eat, let's say, a yogurt drink that had melamine in it or a piece of candy, if such things even exist in the U.S., it wouldn't be the same thing. They're not getting much melamine and their bodies are of course much bigger.
PHILLIPS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks so much.
He's one of the richest men in the world. What does he think about this economic slump? What would his advice be to you? We're going to ask him. He's going to join us live. Donald Trump -- next hour.
An employee of the month. This lady could win employee of the century. 100 years old and still clocking in.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Mildred Heath has some serious seniority at her job. At any job, probably. Mildred is 100 years old and she's just been honored as America's outstand oldest worker by a group called Experience Works. This newspaper woman is known as the lifeline of her Nebraska town. But, she took at least part of the day off to talk to us.
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PHILLIPS: What are you the most proud of?
MILDRED HEATH, 100 YEARS OLD: Well, the fact that I kept our paper going even when my husband went through periods of sickness. I did it on my own more or less. And kept things going and that meant the (INAUDIBLE), hand presses and all that.
PHILLIPS: Do you have any advice for me as a journalist, Mildred?
HEATH: Well, I think that everybody needs to keep busy. I don't think a person should never stop as long as they live.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: By the way, Mildred's also active in a bunch of groups, including the American Legion and the NRA. She says she's a pretty good shot.
Well, newly active in politics, Miss Florence Washington. The 95-year-old Virginia woman has just registered to vote in her first presidential election. She was inspired by the candidacy of Barack Obama in what she called his we-are-all-one approach.
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FLORENCE WASHINGTON, AGE 95, NEWLY REGISTERED VOTER: I guess my granddaughter will take me down in the car. But am going to vote if I can. If nothing don't happen between me and that time.
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PHILLIPS: Florence was first eligible to vote in the 1932 election and for all you whipper snappers, that was FDR versus Herbert Hoover, by the way.
An Australian woman held hostage by a hefty hog. There ain't no lipstick on this pig, folks.
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PHILLIPS: Well, sometimes these stories just make us say, what the -- and that's pit "what the" segment today. A 63-year-old Australian woman held hostage by a 175-pound pig. Well, the pig named Bruce, wandered out of a rain forest and was fed by the woman for a few days. But he became more aggressive and finally began rammed her bedroom door demanding more food. But when she tried to escape, he bit her arm and leg. She finally got him outside by throwing out the food. A ranger then scheduled to take Bruce away today. This bacon could have been saved by a stint doing sud duty, maybe.
All right. Here's the latest in chicken fashion. I know you're all thrilled to see this. Buffy lost her feathers living in a cramped chicken farm in southwest England. Animal rescuers say that she was two pounds underweight and so bald that she looked over ready. So her foster mom took pity, gave her a little sweater, actually knitted it for her. Now, the hen is clucking her stuff and on to the road to recovery.
Now imagine hanging upside down for two and a half days? CNN's Jeanne Moos has the ups and downs of David Blaine's new illusion.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): David Blaine has survived water, ice, burial, and now -- hanging around upside down?
(on camera): This is your view of the world now.
(voice-over): OK, it may not look like much, but you try hanging upside down for two-and-a-half days.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Five stories high.
MOOS: Actually, it was usually closer to five feet. To pass the time dangling above Central Park, Blaine poses with fans. He signs autographs. Is he reading a newspaper?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When I saw him reading the paper -- I said this guy is crazy.
MOOS: Actually, that was just a photo-op for the paper he was holding. Blaine is constantly giving interviews upside down. Kelly Ripa had the most unusual one.
KELLY RIPA, TALK SHOW HOST: How are you? Hello.
MOOS: When they threw it back to Regis in the studio --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Incidentally, David, check me out. This is a piece of cake. What's the problem?
MOOS: The problem say doctors could be stroke or blindness.
(on camera): Your eyes are definitely bloodshot.
DAVID BLAINE, MAGICIAN AND ENDURANCE ARTIST: I think they are a little nasty.
MOOS (voice-over): So, don't try this at home like a Pittsburgh radio D.J. known as Bubba did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you an illusionist or a magician? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bubba, I'm an idiot.
MOOS: Within minutes Bubba turned red, felt dizzy and soon couldn't take it anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's done. He's out.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's out. How long did he last?
MOOS: A mere 16 minutes. Now imagine two-and-a-half days. So Blaine does get to be upright for bathroom breaks, to attend to his catheter. He stopped eating solids ten days ago to eliminate elimination. There he hangs night and day, still sharp enough to try and steal my watch as he held my arm to stay steady.
(on camera): You've undone my watch. You're trying to steal it, aren't you?
BLAINE: I need to make a living somehow.
MOOS: Yes.
(voice-over): He does crunches to lift his head upright and moves his legs around to help the circulation. Houdini sometimes worked upside down but he was trying to get out of a straight jacket as fast as possible. Watching a guy dangled for hours? Not quite so riveting. At least we can ask him size of questions.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How's it hanging?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How's it hanging?
MOOS (on camera): How they hanging? No, no, no, that's not right.
(LAUGHTER)
MOOS: No, no, I didn't mean they, I meant -- no, no.
BLAINE: Let's hear Dave (ph).
MOOS (voice-over): It's Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Fortunes were bought. Companies broken. The global economy shaken. Now, crimes committed. An FBI investigation adds a whole new layer to the U.S. financial meltdown.
What about the bailouts? If there is anything Congress hates worse than blank checks, it is golden parachutes for CEOs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wouldn't order it for myself. But for kids, I don't think it is a bad thing at all. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Breast is best? Ice cream like momma used to make. Wait until you hear what PETA wants Ben and Jerry's to substitute for cow's milk.
Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live in the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. And you're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
