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Arsonists Strike Again; Octuplets Births Raise Questions; Cold and Powerless; President Obama's Sales Pitch; Big Family, Big Questions

Aired January 31, 2009 - 16:59   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have people on our lakefronts and so on, that we don't know if they're alive or dead.

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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Boy oh boy. Deep freeze. People suffering. People dying, as a matter of fact. An ice storm with no relief in sight.

Fire starter -- a city terrorized again by arsonists. Still out there, new fears tonight that it is far from over.

Multiple questions. How and why was a young healthy woman, already the mother of six, implanted with eight more babies?

Plus, a racy dance team causes a stir in the community and on the Internet tonight. We'll show you the video that has everybody talking. And we'll ask, would you want your daughter doing this? Tonight, we're hearing from you, the viewer, on this one.

The news starts now.

Good evening, everyone.

Tonight, from the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Don Lemon.

You know, the situation is so bad in some parts of the country that U.S. troops have been deployed to help thousands of Americans trapped right now in freezing cold and darkness. It is literally a life and death situation after one of the worst ice storms in recent memory.

This killer storm has already taken at least 42 lives. The severe weather stretched from Texas to Maine, but the worst was from Oklahoma to West Virginia.

Kentucky was especially hit hard. Thick, heavy ice coats everything in sight. And you can see it right there in the video. More than a half-million people are without power, and about 200,000 are without water. The governor has called up all of the state's Army National Guard units and FEMA is rushing generators and emergency supplies to stricken areas.

We go now to CNN's Susan Candiotti. She is live in Louisville, Kentucky, where many people are facing another night without heat, without light.

And Susan, also without water.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's for sure. It's not going to be comfortable for a lot of people still in this area.

We moved out of Louisville a little bit. We're giving you a little snapshot view of the city of Glenview, in the suburb of Louisville.

First want to show you what we're talking about. The trouble started here in Kentucky with six, seven, eight inches of snow throughout the state. Then it turned to ice, then it turned to snow.

And this is what the result is. You see this beautiful sight, icicles on the tree. But, you know, this is a thin branch, but we're talking -- I'm going to show you what happens, of course, when they rest on the power lines, when they rest on the trees, and then branches break.

This is what it looks like in just this one neighborhood, all kinds of branches down back here. You see the bark showing on the treetops there where some of those snapped off as well. And then the result is they break down the power lines.

They broke this power pole, this utility pole right down here. And that is what has caused all the power outages, situations like this.

So the governor of Kentucky asked for help. Help has come in from several states, including the state of Georgia. That's where these utility crews are from, from those power companies there.

These guys have been at it all day long, all over parts of this section of Kentucky. They're at the top there. They replaced the pole, the utility pole, the primary line up on top.

The transformer will -- it goes down into the transformer and down to the service lines, and eventually will re-power the homes in this particular neighborhood. But in the meantime here, it is a ghost town.

The place is cleared out because these people happen to have enough money in many cases to move into hotels or to stay with other family members. That's what's happening throughout the state of Kentucky. If you're not going to shelters, that's another option.

But some people who have gas but no power are toughing it out at home. We visited such a couple in Louisville, and they said they're just getting by with what they have, using canned foods. That's what they're eating, or going out to eat to those few restaurants that have generators that are keeping them up for business.

And this is -- one woman said it's really not so bad. Kind of like an adventure. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have lots of candles for light, flashlights. We have lots of backup batteries because the same thing happened in September. We were out of power for six days.

CANDIOTTI: For Hurricane Ike.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, for Hurricane Ike. And we've been -- we saved some of our food. We put snow in a cooler and saved some of our food from the refrigerator.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CANDIOTTI: And so these workers will continue to try to do their best to restore power as quickly as they can. The estimates are maybe seven to 10 days. It could take longer in some areas.

The hardest hit area, Don, is in the western part of Kentucky, where so many people are out of power. They are out of water. They are, in some cases, out of food.

And FEMA is moving in food and water to first emergency workers, to hospitals, to nursing homes, to shelters, take care of those people first. And then in the coming days after that, they will try to move in some food to folks who are living in homes and toughing it out down in that part of the state.

LEMON: Yes. So many people suffering.

Thank you, Susan Candiotti.

We're expecting a news conference this from Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear. We will monitor that when it happens for you, and bring you any information from that.

Also, our Jacqui Jeras, you see here there. She is here tracking the cold front. We're going to have her forecast just ahead.

Meantime, firebugs have struck again. This time just outside the city of Coatesville, Pennsylvania. At least four suspicious fires were set early this morning. Residents, of course, are traumatized.

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ELIZABETH SWING, ARSON VICTIM: When I was on the phone with 911, he discovered that an area rug right inside the back door was on fire. And while he put that out, he discovered that it was on the deck outside.

And we got out of the house. And the back door of our house was on fire. Someone had pulled the trashcan up from the curb, because it's trash day, and put it on our back steps and set it on fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, city leaders in Coatesville have appealed for state and federal help in coping with the arson wave. The fire last weekend destroyed 15 row homes in the city, displacing almost a dozen families. The community has been terrorized by about 30 fires over the past year. One person has been killed. A local reporter will join us a little bit later on. She's been following this story. She'll give us the latest on the investigation.

An update now on yesterday's deadly tourist bus crash near the Hoover Dam. Seven people were killed in the wreck.

Arizona safety officials now say five more passengers face life- threatening injuries. Four others were also hurt, including a motorcyclist who crashed trying to avoid the bus. The Chinese tourists were returning to Las Vegas from a sightseeing trip to the Grand Canyon when their bus overturned about 25 miles south of the Hoover Dam. A team of federal investigators is looking into the crash tonight.

Now we go to the economy and President Obama's strategy to fix it. Today, the president made a hard sales pitch for his economic stimulus package, hoping to sway Republicans who aren't convinced it is the way to go.

We go live now to the White House and CNN's Elaine Quijano with the very latest.

Hello, Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Don.

Well, President Obama tried ratcheting up the pressure on lawmakers, trying to get them behind his economic recovery plan.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO (voice-over): Even as President Obama again pushed his massive economic stimulus plan...

BARACK H. OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Americans know that our economic recovery will take years, not months, but they will have little patience if we allow politics to get in the way of action.

QUIJANO: His administration was dealing with another distraction -- more tax troubles. This time for the president's pick for Health and Human Services secretary, former Senator Tom Daschle.

AMY HOLMES, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: So he's well acquainted with a lot of these disclosure rules and Senate ethic rules. Tom Daschle knows better.

QUIJANO: The Senate Finance Committee says Daschle did not report income from the use of a car and driver and more than $80,000 for consulting work. The committee also found he deducted chartable donations to groups that didn't qualify as charities.

Daschle has since paid $150,000 in back taxes and interest.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While it's an embarrassment, until we hear and unless we hear Democrats expressing concern about this, he will be confirmed.

QUIJANO: Both the White House an Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed confidence Daschle will be confirmed, but he's the second Obama cabinet pick to be bogged down by tax problems, as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was before his confirmation.

The distraction comes as the president is trying to focus on pulling skeptical Republicans on board with his economic policies. So far, no luck in the House, where the stimulus bill passed without a single Republican supporting it.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: The bill is passed.

QUIJANO: And Republicans in the Senate, which takes up the bill Monday, remain weary, accusing Democrats of wasting taxpayer dollars.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: The bill they presented and which House Democrats approved this week along a party line vote, looks more like a trillion-dollar Christmas list.

QUIJANO: But Democrats could get a victory in the Senate. An Obama administration official says Republican Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire is the leading candidate to become commerce secretary. If Gregg is picked and the Democratic governor picks a Democrat to replace him, that could potentially give Democrats the magic number, a 60-seat majority in the Senate, big enough to overcome a Republican filibuster.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUIJANO: And an Obama administration official says the decision on the commerce secretary post could come as early as Monday -- Don.

LEMON: Elaine, thank you very much.

And don't miss the CNN "Money Summit" tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. CNN's Ali Velshi and some of the sharpest minds in money take on the $800 billion-plus economic stimulus plan. It is a big number, and we're asking bigger questions. You don't want to miss that, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.

President Obama is congratulating the Iraqi people today on their historic election. Millions of Iraqis cast their ballots for crucial provincial council seats. It is the first election in Iraq in four years, and unlike the vote in 2005, the mood was optimistic. There was little violence, and Sunnis, who boycotted the last election, were out in force.

Another notable difference, nearly a third of the candidates were women. Early results are expected next week.

Octuplets born this week to a mother who already has six kids and took fertility drugs. What was she and her doctors thinking? And what do you think?

Log on to Twitter, MySpace, Facebook or ireport.com. Tell us what you're thinking. I want to know. I want to put your responses on the air. Become part of our community here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So this next story we're going to tell you about here, it was already eye-popping. In fact, it was almost unheard of. One woman gives birth to eight healthy babies. But that seems to be just where this story started. Certainly not where it ends. It turns out the mother of the eight newborns already had children, and lots of them.

CNN's David Mattingly filed this report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eight babies, one mother. The news was startling enough. And then we learned the mother already has six children at home, and that's produced a frenzy of questions.

ED SULEMAN, OCTUPLETS' GRANDFATHER: She's fine. The babies are fine. Everybody's fine, except us because of you.

MATTINGLY: The grandmother told the "Los Angeles Times" that the mother had undergone some kind of fertility treatment, why we don't know. Hospital doctors say the mother came to them in her first trimester, and they advised her she could selectively remove some of the fetuses. She declined.

(on camera): What kind of a risk was this woman taking when she chose to have these babies?

DR. MICHAEL TUCKER, REPRODUCTIVE PHYSIOLOGIST: In my mind at that point, with seven and ultimately eight babies on board, an extreme risk.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Reproductive physiologist Michael Tucker says the case goes against modern fertility treatment practices of limiting multiple births. He says the case will be scrutinized for how fertility drugs might have been used or how many embryos might have been implanted.

TUCKER: Somebody who's already known fertile, to transfer more than one or two embryos is -- is quite, quite unreasonable, to say the least.

MATTINGLY: Guidelines of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine says doctors normally would not implant more than two embryos at a time for any woman under 35.

(on camera): Her age has not been confirmed, but with eight new babies, she now has a total of 14 children. So far, she's trying to hold onto her privacy, but through the California hospital where she's recovering, she called the octuplets a miraculous experience.

(voice-over): But the questions about these births address more human concerns. The baby's grandfather says multiple births were not part of the plan. SULEMAN: She did not seek to have more children. She thought she was going to have one more child, and it happened.

MATTINGLY: And the surprises continued up until delivery on Monday. Mom thought she was having only seven babies. She was carrying so many that the eighth escaped detection until the landmark C-section.

David Mattingly, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Well, later this hour, the questions that I have, that you have, we're going to pose them to a renowned fertility specialist. Some very tough questions coming up within the next hour.

And we want to know what's on your mind tonight. What do you think about this story or any of the stories on our broadcast? Make sure you log on to Twitter, to Facebook, to MySpace or ireport.com. We want you to be part of our community, so log on and send us your responses.

We want to get back now to our developing story. Hundreds of thousands of people in Kentucky are trying to recover from a crippling ice storm.

Our Susan Candiotti took you there live just a little bit earlier. Now we're going to go to Jacqui Jeras, who's tracking it.

(WEATHER REPORT)

LEMON: You know, it was a rough first week on the job, but at least he has one, because we have news of unprecedented layoffs in this country. A Republican rejection of his economic stimulus plan. We're talking about the president.

Our Poppy Harlow is in the house to talk live about the challenges facing the new president.

Plus this...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got some championships out of it. But I don't at the end of the day, when you're in that dark room, you know, those dreams aren't really worth it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. So here's the question: was winning the Super Bowl really worth the price? One former NFL player speaks out. We'll get into his brain about this one.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Let's get back to the economy in Washington, D.C., now. President Obama spent a lot of time on the economy in his first full week in the White House. He scored some big victories, but his biggest achievement got no support from Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: I, Timothy F. Geithner...

JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... "do solemnly swear..."

GEITHNER: ... do solemnly swear...

LEMON: Finally, the president has a secretary of the Treasury.

OBAMA: That deserves some applause.

LEMON: Geithner was dogged by tax problems. By Tuesday, he was on the job announcing new Treasury Departments rules restricting lobbying. Meantime, his boss went to the Hill, hoping to garner Republican support for a stimulus package.

OBAMA: We had a wonderful exchange of ideas.

LEMON: But just one day later, the president learned his reach across the aisle was in vain. His stimulus plan passed, but the GOP had snubbed it.

OBAMA: All those who live in fear that their job will be next on the cutting blocks, they need help now. They're looking to Washington for action, bold and swift.

LEMON: "Sober" is how President Obama describes his meeting on Wednesday with top CEOs. Later in the week, the president scolded Wall Street CEOs for getting and giving big bonuses while their companies floundered.

OBAMA: That is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful.

LEMON: Lilly Ledbetter brought cheers to the Capitol on Thursday. The president signed the Fair Pay Act in her honor for standing up for equal pay for women.

And a day later, the president establishes a task force aimed at helping the middle class.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: That was the week that was. And the struggling economy, of course, dominates President Obama's daily agenda. And every day this week it seemed like another big-name company was cutting jobs.

Our Poppy Harlow of CNNMoney.com joins us now from Los Angeles.

Unprecedented layoffs. And it seems to get worse every week, Poppy. POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: You know, a stunning week for even those of us who work in this business, Don, and talk about it every day, finishing January on a very somber note.

If you look at the stock market, the worst week, the worst month, the worst January ever for the Dow and the S&P. And you see all those companies on your screen? They all announced job cuts. Some of them thousands. Want to talk about a few in particular here.

We're talking about blue chip companies, folks, the pillar of this country, really. Names like Caterpillar, based in Peoria, Illinois, really critical to that town. And it cut 22,000 jobs last week alone. Boeing, another Illinois company based in Chicago, cut 10,000 workers.

Look at Starbucks. It's closing 300 stores, and it is cutting 6,700 workers, Don.

These are more than just numbers, as President Obama has said. These are real people, real jobs. They have families that rely on them.

And then when you add it all up, Don, more than 145,000 job cuts were announced last week alone. It's unbelievable.

LEMON: Yes, it is unbelievable.

Let's get back to Washington, because we were talking about the president's week. The president and the Democrats and folks who helped him shape the stimulus package say that it will actually add jobs or create jobs in this economy.

Republicans don't necessarily believe that. Why?

HARLOW: They don't believe that because a lot of them think that what's included, a lot of what's included, billions and billions of dollars, are not going to projects that will start quickly. They call them shovel-ready projects.

And you heard President Obama saying this week bold and swift action is needed. And a lot of Republicans say this may be bold, but it's not swift action.

You saw in the House, no Republicans backed this measure. President Obama gathered with Republicans on Tuesday asking them, please, can you back this? None of them did. And Don, 11 Democrats in the House voted against it.

In the Senate, there's no filibuster-proof majority. And this is going to probably hit the Senate floor this week. So it will need at least two Republicans in the Senate to back it for it to go through.

That's a big challenge. And then, again, if it doesn't pass, you have to focus on the confidence of the American people with a big battle like this in the Senate.

LEMON: Really unbelievable. You said Caterpillar, 22,000 jobs. Boeing, 10,000. HARLOW: Unbelievable.

LEMON: And I'm hearing some companies are shortening their workweeks. And that means a cut in pay as well.

Poppy Harlow, we appreciate it. Thank you very much.

We'll go more in depth tonight on the stimulus package, on that plan, at 8:00 p.m. Eastern with our CNN "Money Summit." The CNN "Money Summit." Ali Velshi and some of the sharpest minds in money take on the $800 billion-plus plan.

It is a big number. And we're asking bigger questions about it. You don't want to miss it, 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.

More suspicious fires overnight in central Pennsylvania, where locals have already seen a rash of arson cases just in one community. Now other communities are apparently targeted. What in the world is going on?

We will dig deeper for you.

Plus, lots of kids, lots of questions. Why did a mother of six turn to fertility treatments to have even more babies?

We want to know what's on your mind tonight. Make sure you log on to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, ireport.com.

We care about you. We care about your responses. Send them in. We'll get them on for you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well, firebugs have struck again. This time, just outside the city of Coatesville, Pennsylvania. At least four suspicious fires were set there early this morning. One homeowner says someone pulled their loaded trashcan up from the street, to their porch, and set it on fire. Officials have appealed for state and federal help in coping with the arson there. The fire last week in Coatesville was one of the worst. It destroyed 15 row homes, displacing a dozen families. The community has been terrorized. About 30 fires just over the past year. One person has been killed, an elderly woman.

Jennifer Miller is a reporter with the Daily Local News in Coatesville. She joins us now by telephone.

Jennifer, thanks for joining us. You've been keeping us updated on this, following from the very beginning. When I talked to you last weekend you said police and city leaders had no leads and from what I gather, they still don't. It's increasing to other communities.

JENNIFER MILLER, DAILY LOCAL NEWS: That is true. Local officials have had persons of interest for some time since the fire started over a year ago. No official suspects or anything like that. While nearly 40 arsons have occurred in the city of Coatesville in the last year, this has become a county-wide crisis. In the last 17 hours, Chester County has experienced four arsons in three municipalities, none of which are Coatesville. However, the municipalities are in very close proximity. It appears either the Coatesville arsonists are expanding their territories or authorities could be dealing with copy cats.

LEMON: Your heart goes out. You can only think about the people involved. The people who live there and in Chester County. How are they dealing with this? I know they were asking questions of city officials last weekend. What are they doing now?

MILLER: The level of fear among residents is really indescribable. For at least a week, residents have been calling for city officials to implement a curfew. The city officials said they were waiting for some sort of direction from law enforcement to say whether a curfew was necessary. Law enforcement has given the OK for the curfew, so right now it's up to city officials to actually take that action, which I think many residents are looking for.

LMEON: And not getting a lot of sleep. People, if they're lucky enough to live with someone, they're sleeping in shifts.

MILLER: That's correct.

LEMON: Jennifer Miller, we appreciate your joining us. Thank you very much. We hope they get them.

Very sad story happening. We want to turn to another story that peaked a lot of people's interest this week. Let's talk about the mother in California of six who underwent fertility treatments and gave birth to octuplets. We're told all eight children are doing well today. And they're breathing on their own. But the story is raising ethical questions.

I'm joined by Dr. Scott Slayden, a fertility specialist here in Atlanta.

First off, how did this happen? How can a woman who is healthy, already has children, even twins -- why would someone implant her with eight children?

DR. SCOTT SLAYDEN, FERTILITY SPECIALIST: First off, I appreciate you having me here. We don't really know. We've heard that the embryos were implanted. We don't truly know how many were implanted. That is the story on the street, let's say. There were many other ways this could have happened, actually.

LEMON: So invetro-fertilization? Was it IVF or some other form?

SLAYDEN: We don't know. We don't know the patient's name at this point, as far as I'm aware. So it could have been IVF. It could have been other types of fertility treatments.

LEMON: Then shouldn't someone have said no to this woman?

SLAYDEN: Well, it depends on what they knew about her. She could have told them her entire medical history. And it would be a bit unusual to put that many embryos into somebody with that many babies. That's between the doctor and the patient and her unique circumstance, which we don't know yet.

LEMON: Unusual, but not illegal. If someone did that on purpose and planted eight embryos into the woman. Not illegal?

SLAYDEN: Not illegal. Based on the unique circumstance of that individual patient, which would be nice to find out. And I hope one day we do.

LEMON: OK. At this particular time, to be very careful with the next question, we don't know if anything was going on -- but it seems a bit unusual. There are questions out there about what was happening behind the scenes with this family and with the parents or the fertility company.

SLAYDEN: Correct. There's a lot of assumptions we can make. We can play different scenarios. Was there an agreement between the patient and the doctor, did she want to have many patients (ph)? There's many angles to look at and we need more information.

LEMON: Was she capable of raising all these children now?

SLAYDEN: Right. Still unknown.

LEMON: Unknown. Should the doctor be more precautions or restrictions or rules placed on fertility treatments? If someone goes in for a similar treatment?

SLAYDEN: I have a real opinion about it. The American Society of Reproductive Medicines has opinions, too. We have guidelines that we try to follow based on generalized guidelines of how many embryos to transfer. For example, if we were doing IFV on a woman who is 33, we would typically put in two embryos. We would even allow a patient to put in one embryo, if she so desired, to prevent twins.

But when you look at all the patients, many of the very, very unique and personal situations you can have, there may be conditions where you would transfer more embryos to somebody than the guidelines would say based on unique individual circumstance.

LEMON: Quickly here. If you're watching, you know, we're going to get responses on this. People have been weighing in on this. We'll get to that next. But will this cause people to look into what happens in this and possibly people make changes because the system will be changed?

SLAYDEN: I'm worried about it. If changes are made based on the one case, and this one case is so unusual that we shouldn't base changes, then it's going to hurt other patients who actually need more than the typical amount of embryos transferred.

LEMON: So stay tuned.

SLAYDEN: Thank you.

LEMON: Yes. Dr. Scott Slayden, we appreciate it.

As we said, we want to know what's on you're mind tonight. We've been asking your questions. Already you're weighing in.

One person says, "I think the idea of one woman having 14 kids with no husband is ridiculous. What were the doctors thinking?"

We're not sure if the doctors even know, right Doctor?

SLAYDEN: Correct.

LEMON: The Single Girl says, "The mother of 14 needs to be evaluated. But the doctors who OKed the fertilization should be fined. She needs an economic bailout."

Likely not to happen.

SLAYDEN: Probably, not. She'd have to talk to Obama about that one.

LEMON: Talking Ship says, "There should be a law against mothers of more than three from using fertility drugs."

Do you agree with that?

SLAYDEN: No, I certainly the don't.

LEMON: Moms Who Save says, "I know some people don't have good judgment, but how did the doctors, clinics, et cetera, allow her to go through the process"?

And we just talked about that.

SLAYDEN: One day, we'll find out.

LEMON: We'll find out.

Doctor, thank you for helping me.

SLAYDEN: Thank you so much.

LEMON: We'll get more questions off camera and see if you can answer.

SLAYDEN: All right.

LEMON: Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, iReport.com tell us what you're thinking. We'll care about your responses. We'll get them on the air.

Was winning the Super Bowl worth this price?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TED JOHNSON, FORMER NFL PLAYER: I got championships out of it. I don't know at the end of the day when you're in that doctor room, those injuries aren't really worth it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: One former NFL player speaks out. Are athletes, like him, practically killing themselves just to stay in the game?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK. Well, tomorrow is a big day, Super Bowl Sunday. But tonight, we're not going to give you the stats on the game or the previews. Instead, we're going beyond the game, beyond the field, and straight into the athlete's brain in a story that's garnering a lot of attention. Is it really worth the price of staying in the game?

Let's go to Tampa, Florida, with CNN's Sport, Larry Smith.

Larry, thanks for joining us.

Larry will join us in just a little bit.

Anyway, before we go to Larry, we're going to try to get him back up -- let's go to Dr. Sanjay Gupta who reports on researchers studying the links between concussions and long-term damages. He's going to talk about that more coming up at 7:00. But we're going to play it for you now and see if we can get Larry back from you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANDAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ted Johnson does not hide from the sun anymore. His head, once as battered as the helmet he wore as a New England Patriots linebacker for ten seasons no longer hurts every day.

JOHNSON: Got a nick there.

GUPTA: But it took three years to stop.

JOHNSON: I got championships out of it. At the end of the day in the doctor's room, the rings aren't really worth it.

GUPTA: Super Bowl memories are only worth it, if you can remember them.

JOHNSON: I almost forgot what I was like before, before the hits. I couldn't remember. I just lost myself for the last three years.

GUPTA: Johnson once laid such a hard hit he cracked an opponents helmet in two. But after too many such collisions, it was his suddenly solitary world facing fracture. Considering electro shock therapy as a last resort, he met a Chris Nowinski, former football player at Harvard, who turned to professional wrestling after college.

JOHNSON: I said, I don't know what's wrong with me. He goes, I'm going to tell you my symptoms and see if they match, you know, see if you recognize them -- mental fatigue, physical fatigue, irritability the sleep disorder, the cognitive deficiencies, do they match? I was like all of them match.

CHRIS NOWINSKI, CO-FOUNDER, SPORTS LEGACY INSTITUTE: I realized when I was visiting the doctors they weren't giving me answers about what was wrong with my head. So I got every original study ever done on multiple discussions and what it does to you. I read everything. There was a ton of evidence showing that concussions lead to depressions. Multiple concussions lead to Alzheimer's disease.

GUPTA: Nowinski led Johnson to Dr. Robert Cantu, who diagnosed the linebacker's post-concussion syndrome but also warns him of a bigger threat, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (ph), also called CTE, which seems to cause early onset Alzheimer's disease in athletes who suffered multiple concussions.

DR. ROBERT CANTU, NEUROLOGIST, SPORTS LEGACY INSTITUTE: The really terrible thing is a lot of these people have this progressive even after they stop the activity that caused it.

JOHNSON: The fact of the matter was guys were dying because they played sports 10, 20 years ago.

NOWINSKI: Chris Nowinksi and Dr. Cantu joined to form the Sports Legacy Institute, asking athletes to donate brains among death for research into CTE.

Johnson was one of the first to agree.

JOHNSON: My main reason for talking about this is to help the guys that were already retired that didn't know what was wrong that are getting divorced, going bankrupt, can't work, depressed, don't know what's wrong with them.

NOWINSKI: I've seen the stories every day about guys falling on hard times or getting arrested doing crazy things. That used to be a guy who had it all together. I'm wondering if the concussions play ad role.

GUPTA: Some day, one of those guys could be Ted Johnson, better now, but still at great risk to get CTE.

JOHNSON: I get the thoughts out of my head. I've filled my quota for bad days in this lifetime in the last three years.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Boston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. Larry Smith is back joining us from Tampa.

Larry, we heard Ted's stories and a number of other stories within that piece. Where is this on the player in the league's radar?

LARRY SMITH, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Right now -- the players right now if you talk to current players, they don't want to hear it. Even Ted Johnson said if he had this kind of information back when he was still playing, he doesn't know what he would have done with it. He understands that even he was doing further damage to himself by continuing to play despite the concussions.

The Sports Legacy Institute was able to examine the brain of former Philadelphia Eagles defense back, Andre Waters, who committed suicide at age 44, and that of former pro wrestler, Chris Benwall (ph), who killed himself after he killed his wife and young son. The brains of both showed signs of CTE.

LEMON: How is Ted Johnson doing today?

SMITH: Today he's doing better. Again, it's a long road for him. He's made great strides in his progress.

LEMON: Larry will join us to talk about other activities going on there.

We appreciate you joining us, sir.

We're also going to look into the science that researchers are looking into when it comes to head injuries and concussions for players.

First, "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer starts after this program.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Thanks, Don.

We have a big show coming up at the top of the hour. Among my special guest, the new chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Diane Feinstein. My big interview with Jimmy Carter, the former president of the United States. We go behind the scenes. Also, we're going to be speaking to the Gwen Eiffel (ph), she's got a best seller out on Barack Obama and his ability to do what no African-American has done before him, to become president of the united states. More of my special exclusive interview with the former pilot of Air Force One. We go behind the scenes.

All that and more coming up at the top of the hour right here in "The Situation Room."

Don, back to you.

LEMON: Thank you, Wolf. 6:00 p.m. eastern at the top of the hour, "The Situation Room" on Saturday with Wolf Blitzer.

We all love Facebook and other social networking is sites. So do the criminals. We'll tell you how they're using your friends to fish for your personal information.

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LEMON: If you're on the Internet, you have a computer, you have seen this happen. It could have happened to you already. It seems that there are a lot more scams than usual out there aimed at stealing your identity. It's not your imagination. Some of these scams are really very elaborate. They can draw you in, thinking you've won a prize for taking a survey or even an I.Q. test. But sooner or later, they start asking for personal information. That's where they get you.

Christine Durst is cofounder and CEO of StaffCentrix, a company that specializes in work-from-home employment. She's an expert on how online scams, especially the ones known as phishing, p-h-i-s-h-i-n-g. Thank you for joining us.

CHRISTINE DURST, CEO, STAFFCENTRIX: You're welcome.

LEMON: You know, it seems the downturn in this economy has really caused a sharp rise in these phishing scams, am I right?

DURST: You're right. It has. As a matter of fact, Panda Security just recently released a report indicating that in September of 2008, the number of malicious programs online that are intended to steal people's information more than tripled. And it went up to over 31,000 per day.

LEMON: Wow. OK. So give us some warning signs, if you've been targeted by one of these phishing scams.

DURST: Well, if you've been targeted, one of the things that you need to look out for, phishing sort of comes in its own disguise. They're earmarked by disguising themselves to look like authentic sites.

LEMON: Urgent, right?

DURST: Right. It's urgent. It's desperate. It requires your attention now. Most of us have received e-mail that comes from a bank where we don't even have an account, for example, telling us that we need to update our security information. Or we see information that comes in from eBay, an e-mail that comes from eBay saying you need now to change your password. So there's that sense of urgency.

But what they're looking for you is to, of course, enter your password, enter your Social Security number, your bank account number, your credit card number, anything that's going to enable them to access your information so that they can get their hands on your assets.

LEMON: People will do whatever they can to try to get your money. Remember the old Nigerian scam that would come in the mail, now it comes in e-mail. We have money waiting for you, but first you have to do this for us.

DURST: Exactly. And the more wired we get, the more vulnerable we are. We're attached to the scammers in so many different ways now.

LEMON: Christine, give us some help. How do people protect themselves?

DURST: There's some things that you definitely should do. Make sure that you have a good, up to date antivirus program on your computer. Something like Norton or McAfee, for example. And if you get it, don't just install it. Make sure that you put the settings in so that they're updating on a regular basis. Because the viruses change every single day. And it's those Trojan viruses that will infiltrate your computer and steal your information.

LEMON: And never, ever give personal information to someone you don't know over the Internet. DURST: Absolutely, not.

LEMON: Christine Durst, we appreciate it. Thank you very much. Have a great weekend.

DURST: Thank you. You too, Don.

DURST: It began as a joke about selling all their possessions and starting over. But as medical bills piled up, the joke turned into a harsh reality. A Georgia family went on eBay to auction off the entire contents of their home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Life threw us a curveball, so we're willing to sacrifice these things and put our children first.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing's more precious than the kids. Not a sofa, not a TV.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Beautiful kids. Look at that. Well, they got a generous offer, this family. Most people would say it's even better than what they had asked for. So why are the sellers balking? Coming up, tonight at 11: 00 eastern, you'll hear from the family on why they might turn down this offer. We're going to talk to them.

Too racy for high school dance routine? A Georgia school board says yes, and now the coach and the girls are in a world of trouble. And we'll show you that racy video. You don't want to miss it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN STEVENS, IREPORTER: Things are tough. Still haven't found a job. I've applied for over 80 jobs and either the people don't call you back and when you follow up with a phone call, they don't return your calls or they tell you they've actually stopped hiring and they've cut back themselves. So things are very, very tough on the job front. I mean, I've even applied at my local Walmart and Target stores. And the answer I get is, we can't hire you. You have too much experience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: John Stevens, one of our iReporters.

We feel you, and we thank you for sending that.

Describing the difficulties he is facing, you are facing in your job search.

Again, thank you and we wish you look. And while it's never a good idea to lie on their resume, some people are finding they have to actually play down their skills to get an interview. You know, dumbing yourself down. They're doing it to their resume.

Here's Kristin Thornson of CNN affiliate KBCI in Boise, Idaho.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTIN THORNSON, KBCI REPORTER (voice-over): Online, in the newspaper, or down at the department of labor. Whatever source used to find a job, applying is usually always the same, starting with your resume.

LYNN COMPTON, FORMER BUSINESS OWNER: It's frightening. It's frightening.

THORNSON: Lynn Compton owned her own business for years in Boise, but she recently had to close up shop. Now she's looking for a job at a time when more than 50,000 other Idahoans are doing the same.

COMPTON: I have sent out my resume to a lot of people and it's never even been looked at.

THORNSON: The Idaho Department of Labor admits more job seekers are having to dumb down their resumes in order to even be considered for a job they most likely are overqualified for.

JOHN RUSS, IDAHO DEPARTMENT OF LABOR: Sometimes we have to do that, just to get our foot in the door.

THORNSON: Russ tells me, lying on your resume is never good, but learning to tailor your qualifications to fit a job can be helpful, even if it means you have to a change a previous job title or leave out skills that job may not require.

RUSS: A lot of times if we do dumb it down, you know the employers willing to give us that shot to prove our worth.

THORNSON: The Idaho Department of Labor says once you get an interview, those skills you may not have included in your resume can come out. But to get there, you have to start here. And that's something this job seeker says she's learning fast.

COMPTON: We're getting around to where you're fitting more of their expectations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Wow. It's a good video, but it is a little racy. You know Beyonce, famous for her music and her moves, you can see that. That video really doesn't raise many eyebrows, why? But similar stuff at a Jonesboro High School basketball game in Georgia has led to major controversy. School officials say dance teams' moves, well, they went way too far. Have a look.

(VIDEO)

LEMON: Well, that's only just the beginning of it. It goes on.

Administers say these moves were completely inappropriate. and you know what, the dance team there has been disbanded. Their coach has been removed. Parents are angry and they're trying to figure out how the dance ever got approved.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The official at the school saw the routine, but there was no costumes involved and there were limited -- there was limited props and not the -- and the entire routine was not reviewed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At what point did somebody should have said, let's stop this, turn the music off. At what point did that happen? It didn't happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Administrators are looking into it.

We are taking your comments on that and more.

I'm Don Lemon, here at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. We'll see you at 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. Eastern.

Here's Wolf Blitzer right now with "The Situation Room."