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Tapes Released of Hudson River Landing; Congress Holds Hearings on Peanut Butter Recall; Ruth Bader Ginsburg Hospitalized; Obama Speaks Out about Faith, Energy; Jump Starting Justice Programs; Jobless Claims Soar; A Chance to Live for Young Iranian Women; Facebook ID Theft

Aired February 05, 2009 - 13:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHESLEY SULLENBERGER, PILOT: We can't do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Which runway would you like to see?

SULLENBERGER: We're going to be in the Hudson.

KYRA PHILLIPS, HOST (voice-over): "We're going to be in the Hudson." U.S. Air Captain Chesley Sullenberger pulling off the landing of the century. We've seen the pictures. Now hear the words that the flight crew and air traffic controllers in those heart- stopping moments.

Insults on top of injury. FEMA warns ice storm victims that, if the cold doesn't get them, their emergency food kits might.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Well, strap yourself in for a busy couple of hours here in the NEWSROOM. We'll be talking a lot about faith and politics and how the new president is trying to make the two work together.

Plus an update on a story that outraged us: a 93-year-old World War II vet frozen to death in his home. His power cut off, his electric Bill unpaid. Turns out had he money, lots of money. And wait until you see where it all went.

First up, though, we all know how this story ends. Today we're hearing how it started, when U.S. Airlines Flight 1549 was a plane in peril. Taped conversation between the pilot and air traffic control is now public. It boiled down to chatter to a kind of greatest hits, shall we say, and it's a trip through the plane's last minutes before the pilot ditched it in the Hudson River. Fascinating stuff. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SULLENBERGER: This is cactus 1549. Hit birds. We've lost thrust in both engines, returning back towards La Guardia. LOU ROMANSKY, AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER: OK. You need to return to La Guardia. Turn left, heading about two, two there.

sugarcane: We'll do that.

Royalty; Death; Britain; Princess Margaret: Copy to (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Got an emergency returning. It's 1529. He -- bird strike, he lost all engine. He lost the thrust in the engines. He's returning immediately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1549, which engines?

ROMANSKY: He lost thrust in both engines, he said.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got it.

Cactus 1549 couldn't get in. Do you want to try to land runway one three?

SULLENBERGER: We're unable. We may end up in the Hudson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cactus 1529, it's going to be left traffic to runway three one.

SULLENBERGER: Unable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. What do you need to land? Cactus 1529, runway four is available if you want to make left traffic on runway four.

SULLENBERGER: I'm not sure we can make any runway. What's over to our right? Anything in New Jersey, maybe Teterboro?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Off to your right side, it's Teterboro Airport. You want to try to go to Teterboro?

SULLENBERGER: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Teterboro, stand by. La Guardia (UNINTELLIGIBLE), emergency in-bound.

Cactus 1529 over the George Washington Bridge. Wants to go to the airport right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Going to our airport, check. Does he need assistance?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It was a bird strike. Can I get him in for runway one?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Runway one, that's good.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cactus 1529, turn right 2-8-8. You can land runway one at Teterboro.

SULLENBERGER: We can't do it. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, which runway would you like at Teterboro?

SULLENBERGER: We're going to be in the Hudson.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry. Say again, Captain?

Cactus 1529, radar contact is lost. You won't (UNINTELLIGIBLE) Newark Airport, about 2 o'clock in about seven miles. You'll fly 4-7- 18, turn left 2-1-0.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who wants to go (ph) 27-18? I think he said he was going in the Hudson.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Unbelievable. The pilot, as you heard, cool as a cucumber, the crew unflappable. Larry King talks to all of them Monday night, nine Eastern. And they'll be taking your calls.

And a shocking new turn in the nationwide salmonella outbreak. FEMA warns that some of its emergency meal kits handed out to ice storm victims in Kentucky and Arkansas may contain recalled peanut butter. And it's asking the Pentagon to rush 600,000 MRE meals, ready-to-eat, as you know, to those states as replacements.

Military MREs are not affected by the recall. That warning comes as the Senate Agriculture Committee holds hearings on the outbreak. Among those testifying, the mother of a 10-year-old boy who got sick.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GABRIELLE MUENIER, MOTHER OF INFECTED CHILD: He became violently ill and was in tremendous pain, a pain that no child should ever have to experience and one, as a mother, I will never forget.

How in the world could a seemingly purposely healthy child get so sick in such a short amount of time? Once the lab results finally came back and he was diagnosed with salmonella, the picture became a little clearer. After six terrorizing days and sleepless nights in the hospital, filled with antibiotics, anti-fungus drugs and no food or drink, his wrecked little body finally stabilized to a point where he could come home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, that outbreak, believed to have killed at least eight people and sickened hundreds more, is blamed on a peanut processing plant in Georgia. That plant is now under criminal investigation.

So here's what we know right now. What are lawmakers doing to protect us from future salmonella outbreaks? What kind of charges could officials with the Georgia plant face? And if they're found guilty of any wrongdoing, could they spend any time in jail? And what about fines? CNN senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, keeping a close eye on this story for us. She joins us now live from New York.

Hi, Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.

Kyra, the purpose of this hearing -- there was a hearing today on Capitol Hill. The purpose was, was that members of Congress want to hold the FDA's feet to the fire. They want to know how in the world could this happen? The FDA is supposed to be out there to protect people.

So one of the particular points of outrage, Kyra, is that it has been discovered that the Peanut Corporation of America did their own salmonella testing and found salmonella but still shipped out the product, and those test results were not given to the FDA.

So take a listen to this exchange between Senator Tom Harkin and Steven Sundlof from the FDA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN SUNDLOF, FDA CENTER FOR FOOD SAFETY: For the most part in a routine inspection, those records may not be revealed to us because the company is not -- is not required to give us that information.

SEN. TOM HARKIN (D), IOWA: Well, it seems to me that is one gaping loophole.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So let me explain that loophole a little bit more.

When a food company does its own testing and finds something terrible like salmonella, they are not required to tell the FDA. So in this case, the Peanut Corporation of America found another lab to test it that said it was fine. Obviously, not all of it was fine, because a lot of people got sick. And once they got that second lab test, they just shipped it on.

So the FDA, in response to congressmen's questions said, yes, these laws are antiquated, they were written in 1938 -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Now, Elizabeth, you've been looking into this for weeks. What are the penalties that this company could face?

COHEN: Right. You look at what's happened here. You have eight people dead. You have more than 500 people sick. What's the penalty for that? Well, the way that the laws are written, the penalty is a $1,000 fine and/or a year in prison. That is it.

PHILLIPS: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, sure appreciate it.

We're just getting word now in out of Washington. Apparently, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been hospitalized. Let's get straight to the phone. Bill Mears, he's our CNN Supreme Court producer.

Bill, what do we know?

BILL MEARS, CNN SUPREME COURT PRODUCER: Hi, Kyra.

The 75-year-old justice had surgery today for what doctors were saying was apparently early stage pancreatic cancer today. She's expected to stay in the hospital for about seven to ten days.

The court says in a statement that she had no symptoms prior to what they're calling an incidental discovery of the lesion during a routine checkup. The tumor is described as small, about a centimeter across in the center of the pancreas.

And Justice Ginsburg had cancer diagnosed ten years ago, for rectal colon cancer, from which she recovered without any -- apparently, any problems with that. But now we're hearing that the 75-year-old justice is hospitalized again for surgery for pancreatic cancer.

PHILLIPS: Any -- I know that this story is just developing, Bill. You're just getting information. Do you have any idea how long she'll be in the hospital, how long the surgery will take, any type of reaction on how intense it will be?

MEARS: The surgery's concluded, the court says, and they expect her to be in the hospital for about seven to ten days.

PHILLIPS: All right. Seven to ten days. And she's already had the surgery. So how's she doing? Do we know?

MEARS: We don't know. We don't know how she's doing. Apparently, she's doing good (ph). There were no indications of any problems or any complications from the surgery. We haven't gotten any word from the hospital itself. This word on the surgery is coming from the court itself.

So we hope to get more from the hospital about the seriousness of this diagnosis and what kind of future treatment she's going to be undergoing.

PHILLIPS: Got it. Bill Mears, thanks so much. Let us know when you get more information.

Meanwhile, he's keeping the faith, but President Obama is tweaking the rules for government support of religious groups that offer social services. On day 17 of his administration, he's also preaching the gospel of energy efficiency.

CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux gives us chapter and verse on both.

I still want to know if it's possible, this talk about making the White House go completely green. That might take decades. Look how long it took to rebuild the news conference area for you guys.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It might be kind of slow going, Kyra. The computers too, at the White House press office where they're set up, also kind of slow.

But I want to tell you one thing that the president emphasized here. Obviously, he was talking about the thousands of green jobs that he believes this economic stimulus package will create.

But he was also giving a directive to the Department of Energy, saying that he wants to make these appliances, appliances that we use every day -- washers, dish dryers, microwaves, that type of thing -- to make them energy efficient, that he wants to get on that by August of 2009 or so.

And he's making his case, he's trying to tie all of this into the economy, saying a healthy economy will be one that saves energy. And he is also, Kyra, if you take a listen to what he said, expressing some frustration here at kind of the pace that Congress is willing to change, to move forward on this legislation that he believes is critical, not only for energy, but also to jump-start the economy.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Washington may not be ready to get serious about energy independence, but I am. And so are you. And so are the American people. Inaction is not an option that is acceptable to me, and it's certainly not acceptable to the American people, not on energy, not on the economy, not at this critical moment.

So I am calling on all the members of Congress -- Democrats and Republicans, House and Senate -- to rise to this moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: So, Kyra, he's not just talking about energy there. You really get a sense of the frustration and the emotion here. This is a new president who is now working with Congress in a very different kind of relationship than he had before.

We know that President Bush had a lot of push and pull with members of Congress in terms of trying to get things done. You can feel the frustration of President Obama when he delivered those remarks, that he needs the House and the Senate to come together on this economic stimulus package. They are debating those issues behind closed doors. He himself is getting involved in reaching out to Republicans and Democrats.

But you get the real sense, Kyra, of what it is like for this president now, who is turning to them and saying, "This is a critical time. I need you guys on-board here" -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Suzanne Malveaux live from the White House. Suzanne, thanks.

What would you ask the president? In keeping with his pledge to have the most open and accessible administration in American history, Mr. Obama welcomes your comments right here the White House Web site, WhiteHouse.gov. But you can also e-mail us, MailToTheChief@CNN.com. We're going to pass your questions on to the White House, see if we get some answers, and we'll read them on the air.

And don't forget: the "Q's" and "A's" will be hot and heavy at the daily White House media briefing. It's now due to start at 2 p.m. Eastern Time. You'll see it live right here on CNN.

And remember that line about sausage and the law and the risks in watching either being made? Well, for the fourth day in a row, we're watching the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grind its way through the Senate, and we may soon see a final product.

Senators are split, of course, not only on price tags and priorities, but on tactics. Some of the action is purely for public consumption, by the way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: I find it, really, rather amazing that the senator is holding up a bill, holding up a bill. It's theatrical! Did you ever do that when George Bush was president and he sent down a bill twice as big as that? Did he ever do that? Did he ever -- because you can do that. That's theatrics. You can do that.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I will put my ability to speak my mind to my party up against anybody, including you, Senator. I have been on this floor many times arguing with the past administration about policies I disagreed with. I don't recall you doing that a lot, but I don't question your motives as to why you're doing what you're doing. I'm here today...

BOXER: Let me ask you a question...

GRAHAM: No, it's my time. I'm here today to point out the fact that this is not bipartisanship. This process that is -- we're engaging in is not smart. We're not working together. We're about to spend $800 billion or $900 billion, and nobody's got a clue where we're going to land and we've got to do it by tonight.

So I am telling you right now that, if this is the solution to George Bush's problems, the country is going to get worse. If this is the new way of doing business, if this is the change we ought to believe in, America's best days are behind her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now, the real work is taking place behind closed doors. Among senators actually poring over the measure line by line, one of those is Republican Susan Collins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: Let me say that originally I was looking at a $650 billion package. The president did -- did convince me yesterday that a larger package would be good, but I cannot support a package the size of what the House passed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Think you'll get this done today?

COLLINS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You do?

COLLINS: I do. But who knows?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Now the House version came in at $819 billion, and not a single Republican supported it. The Senate measure, as of this morning, had topped $900 billion.

Want a new reason to stimulate the economy? Just look at the new job numbers, or should I say jobless numbers? The number of Americans filing new jobless claims surged last week to a much higher than expected 626,000. That's the highest level in more than 26 years. We haven't seen numbers like this since October 1982 when the economy was in a steep recession.

The number of Americans continuing to claim jobless benefits is now at nearly 4.8 million. That's the highest on record.

Let's see how Wall Street's taking all that news. Checking the big board now. The Dow industrials up 114 points. We're going to keep tabs on the market until the closing bell and update you a little bit later.

Once again, we want to remind you of our developing news we got about 15 minutes ago. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized for surgery for pancreatic cancer.

Elizabeth Cohen now joining us live with more on this type of cancer.

Apparently, she just went in for a checkup, and doctors discovered this. But she also had been diagnosed for cancer in the past, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Right. And so it's unclear at this point whether this pancreatic cancer is a brand-new cancer or is -- is a metastasis, is a sign that another cancer that has spread. But often pancreatic cancer, it just comes up on its own. It is not a metastasis. It is not something that's spread.

The really difficult thing about pancreatic cancer is that often it is -- the cancer is there, it is spreading, and it happens, and you don't even feel the symptoms. So people don't have the weight loss. They don't have yellowing of the skin, and the cancer is there. And of course, the survival rates with this cancer, as with many other, depends on how early you catch it. And as I said, it is often not caught early. When it is caught early, 37 percent of the people who catch it early, they're still alive five years after the diagnosis. When it is caught late, only 1 percent of patients are still alive five years after the diagnosis -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll continue to follow it. Let us know if you get any information from your sources there up in the doctor world. Elizabeth, thanks so much.

The president and the power of faith. Mr. Obama outlines plans for faith-based initiatives and vows his ideas will not collide with the Constitution.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: On the agenda today, God in the White House. President Obama invoking divine intervention and diverse voices. It's his new version of faith-based initiatives.

So what does that mean? Well, it means things like expanding outreach to the Muslim world, abortion reduction, and perhaps changes in the way that religious groups that take federal money can operate.

Reverend Jim Wallace will be a member of the advisory board to Obama's Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. He's the founder and president of Sojourners, the nation's largest network of progressive Christians.

Good to see you, Reverend.

REV. JIM WALLACE, PRESIDENT, SOJOURNERS: Hi, Kyra. How are you?

PHILLIPS: Good. Good to see you.

WALLACE: Great.

PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what. Why don't we get straight to what Obama has said point-blank, about faith-base initiatives? And I'll get your reaction.

WALLACE: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: First, if you get a federal grant, you can't use that grant money to proselytize to the people you help and you can't discriminate against them or the people you hire on the basis of their religion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: OK, so it makes sense if you listen to it that way. Right? According to the Constitution, if you're a group, and you're getting federal funds -- federal funds is taxpayer money -- then you should respect separation of church and state. Right?

WALLACE: Well, the way that he wants to do this will respect the separation of church and state.

I was in the Oval Office with him just an hour ago with all this counsel, 15 of us. And he said these are his priorities, to make sure low-income people, poor people are included in the economic recovery, and the stimulus package. Poverty as -- poverty reduction as a goal of this administration; reduction of abortion; fatherhood; inter-faith dialogue. These were the priorities.

Now, the hiring question, we've got to find a balance between reserving the mission and the identity of faith-based organizations, because if they can't be who they are, they won't be effective. And non-discrimination in any kind of services that have federal funding. So we'll find a balance.

The focus today wasn't on hire; it was how to make poor people a priority in the economic recovery, how to make fatherhood important, how to reduce the number of abortions in this country.

And this is a council of diverse people. They won't always agree. And the president's saying, "I want you to disagree, even with me, but I want to listen to your expertise on how to -- how to reduce poverty in our poorest neighborhoods and even overseas, how on foreign policy, how to stop shouting at each other and find a way for religion to be a healing and positive force and not a divisive and conflictual [SIC] force."

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, that all sounds wonderful, of course. But let's deal with the reality of things.

For example, I was talking to a young woman, a young lesbian. She was working for a Baptist organization that counseled troubled kids. This organization was getting federal funds. She told the organization, "Look, I'm a lesbian, but I really want to help these troubled kids. I have all this experience. I want to be a counselor."

They said, "OK, sure, no problem."

All right, so she starts working for the organization. The next thing you know a picture circulates of her and her partner, and she's fired. So -- and her thought is, you know, "Why -- why can't I be gay and work for an organization that gets funds from the government if I'm just doing my job? Why do they have to judge me on my sexual orientation?"

WALLACE: Well, first of all, faith-based organizations have different policies. I'm -- I run a faith-based organization, and we hire gay people. It isn't a problem for us. The key thing here...

PHILLIPS: But what about the groups, Reverend, that get federal funds that say, "No, sorry, not going to hire gays"?

WALLACE: Well, the key thing here is faith-based organizations, to be effective, have to be consistent with their own mission and their own identity. So that will be different things in different cases. I think this can be worked out.

There are two goals here. Both are important. Preserving the faith and integrity of those organizations is critical or they won't be productive.

PHILLIPS: So how -- so how do you do it?

WALLACE: And the other is how do you do nondiscrimination? There's no proselytizing with federal money, no litmus test of faith. That's real important. So we can -- there will be task forces. We'll figure this out.

The most important thing, though, is how can the faith community partner with this administration to both support and challenge, where necessary, to achieve these goals on poverty reduction, abortion reduction, fatherhood and interfaith dialogue? These are big, big issues.

The council is very diverse. It will be a working council. It's interfaith, and I think it's going to be exciting.

PHILLIPS: And I totally agree. And I don't mean to keep going back to the initial point that I was -- because the...

WALLACE: Yes, there are disagreements on that issue.

PHILLIPS: Yes, the issues of -- right, of discrimination and race, whether it's sexual orientation, or your color or your religious belief. You know, that is sort of this -- the big debate that's going on, that sort of tricky constitutional issue.

And so how are you going to advise the president on that? I mean, you're saying that that's what you hope to work out and hope to find a balance. But how do you do that? How do you respect the Constitution and nondiscrimination laws when it comes to giving religious-based groups federal money?

WALLACE: Right. First of all, there are many partnerships already going on where the government funds, faith-based organizations around the world. World Vision, Catholic Relief Services, these groups have been doing great work around the world with very few examples of problems. So it's working pretty well so far.

You don't want to disrupt those partnerships when $10 million more Americans are about to be pushed into poverty.

So how do we take what's kind of a messy status quo legally and make it more clear? We'll do that overtime.

But you don't want faith-based organizations -- if they can't hire people of their own faith, they'll cease to be unique, faith- based organizations. You don't want -- you can't tell the rabbis they have to hire more Catholics or the other way around. There's got to be a way for a faith-based organization to retain its identity. What does that mean? How does that happen? How do you be nondiscriminatory is also a valid goal.

PHILLIPS: Right.

WALLACE: I think we can reach some compromise here to protect the effectiveness of the partnerships and the identity of the organizations, and respect the Constitution at the same time. All those are important. Let us work on it. We'll try to find some answers.

PHILLIPS: OK. I'll tell you what, while you're working on it, you find answers, you promise to come back and talk to me. Because I think that that's the beauty of this conversation. I think everybody wants to see more diversity and less people being discriminated against.

WALLACE: Yes.

PHILLIPS: And the Obama administration says, "Look, that's what we're going to do."

WALLACE: The diverse -- the council is very diverse. Great conversation today, great time with the president, great time afterwards. This is going to be exciting and, I think, take us forward.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Reverend Wallace.

WALLACE: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Great to talk to you.

Law enforcement strapped for cash. Do cops deserve some of that stimulus money? We're going to go a little deeper.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Does justice need a jump start? Billions of dollars in law-enforcement grants are tucked in the stimulus bill that's now before the Senate. The big question: do they belong there?

Here's CNN's homeland security correspondent, Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Police protection may be an essential service, but in these tough times, even the essentials are being trimmed.

CHIEF JOHN TIMONEY, MIAMI POLICE: Police departments all across the United States are no longer hiring. Some are laying off police officers and civilian support staff.

MESERVE: Timoney says fewer cops mean more crime, because bad guys are less likely to get caught quickly. And some predict more people will turn to crime as the recession drags on, making the situation even more grim.

Enter the stimulus plan. It would breathe new life into two grant programs slashed during the Bush Administration. The Community Oriented Policing Services Program, or COPS, pays a portion of officers' salaries allowing policing agencies to staff up. In the Senate stimulus bill, COPS gets $1 billion. Another $2 billion would go to law enforcement grants used for equipment, overtime and training.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), JUDICIARY CHAIRMAN: The last administration spent billions of dollars for law enforcement in Iraq and they paid for it by cutting out billions of dollars for law enforcement in America. I'd like to see the money go back to law enforcement in America.

MESERVE: Critics say the number of jobs created by these grant programs would be too few, the time frame too slow, the benefit too small.

REP. LAMAR SMITH (R), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Those may be worthy programs but they're not going to be the job generators, the job creators that we need. We're looking for money that is going to be spent to create jobs immediately this year when the economic crisis is at its peak.

MESERVE (on camera): These grant programs are very popular with police chiefs and mayors, particularly now when their budgets are under serious stress. The president and democrats in Congress like them, too, making it likely that the programs will be brought back to life either in the stimulus bill or outside it.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

PHILLIPS: All eyes on the White House briefing room. Today's Q&A is to get underway at 2:00 p.m. Eastern, the top of the hour. You'll see it live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A report out today shows that a record number of people are collecting unemployment benefits. Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange breaking down all the jobless numbers for us.

I guess we should have expected that, right?

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I think that we should. But you know, and we continue to be shocked by some of these numbers, Kyra. And the latest shocking number is the number of people filing for first-time unemployment claims. Last week, 626,000. A lot of folks were talking about those ice storms that we've been reporting and that maybe a lot of people wouldn't be able to make these claims. Well, perhaps that number would have been even higher if the weather had been a little bit more moderate. That number, by the way, is the highest since 1982 when the economy was in a deep recession. Biggest increases in Wisconsin, Rhode Island, Virginia. And people getting extended benefits, that is for one week or more than one week, is now just under five million. That's the highest number, ever. And folks can - the good news here is that Congress extended those unemployment benefits so you can, in fact, draw upon them a little bit longer.

In terms of latest round of layoffs, we're hearing from the big cosmetics company Estee Lauder after reporting quarterly earnings that were down 30 percent, the CEO says the economy is not expected to improve in the short term. A lot of big talk about the lipstick economy, people are buying lipstick, but not much else. Even Estee Lauder is hurting.

But we are seeing stocks are overall higher, Dow up 73 points, NASDAQ is up 22. So real nervous time here for the markets, Kyra. Not only - you're laughing.

PHILLIPS: You know why? Because everybody's making their comments about how we're all soon going to be out of a job and we're going to be right there in there in there. And it is actually not that funny.

LISOVICZ: No, it's not that funny. You know, I think that even when we did see terrible times but people were buying some things, going to the movies - we're seeing real lifestyle changes, Kyra. The bottom line is people are eating more at home. They're downsizing. That's why McDonald's has been able to do well. But you know, it's kind of a sign of the times when Estee Lauder, big maker of lipstick, says it is having problems here and overseas as well.

And - but the overall market is higher right now, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Well, I guess that's a good sign, right? A little light at the end of the tunnel.

LISOVICZ: Well, there's a lot - you know, there's a lot of talk about what the stimulus package is going to look like and the talk today is whether this controversial type of accounting, mark-to- market, whether that will be changed as a result to try to move these terrible toxic assets off of bank balance sheets and to improve the health of our nation's financial system which, obviously, would be a key point in restoring this economy to much better health.

PHILLIPS: Susan Lisovicz, thanks so much.

LISOVICZ: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: There's cold wintry weather all over the map today. Check out this scene from one of our iReporters, Alina Hahn from Indiana. She says that her hometown gets a lot of snow in the winter, but not usually this much. Hahn says just about every store in her area was closed after the big snowfall and her husband couldn't even make it to work this morning. He got stuck on the road.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Another troubling turn in the nationwide salmonella outbreak. FEMA is warning ice storm victims in Kentucky and Arkansas not to eat peanut better in emergency meal kits the agency handed out. The outbreak is blamed on a peanut processing plant in Georgia. Officials there are now under a criminal investigation. Authorities say that some products in that plant tested positive for salmonella, but they were shipped after retesting negative. Plant officials deny any wrongdoing. At least eight people have died in that outbreak, more than 500 others were sickened; hundreds of products have been recalled.

So what does this young Iranian girl and countless others like her have in common with some of her peers in the West? Poverty? Crime? Sexual abuse? A remarkable film reveals how some are given a chance to live.

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PHILLIPS: Big election boost for Iraq's prime minister. We got results from last weekend's provincial elections and the coalition loyal to Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki. He came in first in nine of 14 provinces. His party won 38 percent of the votes in Baghdad, 37 percent in Basra, Iraq's second largest city. Saturday's vote is seen as a warm-up act for national parliamentary elections to be held later this year.

Now the Iraqi prime minister's success at the polls is a setback for Iran. Iraqi parties with close ties to Iran came up short in key races, a sign that nationalism appears to have trumped religion in many cases. An undercurrent of anti-Iranian sentiment could be heard during the campaign, including the Shiite-dominated south. Some candidates even campaigned using the phrase "100 Percent Iraq" to assure voters of their independence from Tehran.

Well, think of Iran and what probably comes to mind is this eccentric president or its controversial nuclear program. Right? But Iran is also a country of ordinary people, struggling with many of the same problems existing in the west, including poverty, crime, and sexual abuse. A new extraordinary film on a group of young Iranian women looks at their journey back from the abyss.

HLN's senior writer Asieh Namdar reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ASIEH NAMDAR, SENIOR WRITER, HLN (voice-over): "The Glass House" gives a glimpse of life in Iran like we've never seen. Director Hamid Rahmanian chronicles the lives of four young women struggling to overcome years of sexual abuse, drug addiction, and neglect. The saving grace and their refuge, a one-of-a-kind rehabilitation center in Tehran called Omid e Mehr.

HAMID RAHMANIAN, DIRECTOR, "THE GLASS HOUSE": This is hopefully story to show to the world and educate about a side of Iran that has been absent in the media. NAMDAR: Samira's eyes tell her story of drug addiction. Police contacted her Omid e Mehr after finding her unconscious in the street. She says she was raped by family members when she was seven and suffers from memory loss from a blow to the head. Twice engaged and miserable, she goes from one bad relationship to another.

Mitra was abandoned by her mother as a child. She find escape in her creative writing. She's starving for her father's approval and love.

Nazila, also abandoned, finds an outlet in singing rap.

MELISSA HIBBARD, PRODUCER, "THE GLASS HOUSE": Her lyrics are just incredibly empowering and strong and really give a voice not only to her situation but to all the girls at the center.

NAMDAR: Through education, 18 months of training and therapy, most of the girls here learn to live again with confidence, hope and big dreams.

RAHMANIAN: This center is all about empowerment and teaching these kids to say, no.

NAMDAR: The woman who started the center is western-educated Marjaneh Halati. She's a social psychologist who lives in London. She comes to Tehran to see the girls on a regular basis.

(on camera): Were there any safety concerns for yourselves, for these young girls?

HIBBARD: Our access was absolutely open. We - in terms of the center, we had complete access to all the girls. We weren't out to make a film about the political situation in Iran, but rather the social situation of these girls.

NAMDAR (voice-over): Omid e Mehr says its mission is to nurture the voices, the hearts and the minds. To give women who might otherwise end up in jails or hospitals the chance to transform their shattered past into new beginnings.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: You what I was amazed, is that the Islamic regime, the Mullahs, actually allowed for this sort of dark side of Iran to be shown.

NAMDAR: Well, Kyra, the government has absolutely no control of this center, which, again, is called Omid e Mehr. All contributions, all the funding for this center is through private contributions. The Iranian government, by my conversation with the director and producer, are happy that there is a center like this that is actually helping these young women.

PHILLIPS: And so how are the girls doing now?

NAMDAR: They're actually doing very well. The documentary was from two years ago. So most of them have done remarkably well. Samira is in school. Nazila, the one who you saw singing rap, is studying to attend a training program in London. Mitra, the one who was craving for her father's attention is doing well. Some of her poetry has been published. So the only one who the center has not been in contact with, Sussan, who says she was abused by a family member. But she's 22 and about to have a baby.

PHILLIPS: Wow. It's going to be interesting to see how the Obama Administration deals with Iran.

NAMDAR: It will be very interesting to see, indeed.

PHILLIPS: Asieh, thanks.

Well, all eyes on the White House briefing room. Today's Q&A is to get underway at 2:00 p.m., the top of the hour. You'll see it live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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PHILLIPS: Life on the Internet, where things are often not as they seem. Take, for example, the latest swindle, thieves hacking into Facebook website and issuing urgent pleas for money. Would you ignore the desperate request if it appeared to be coming from a friend?

CNN's Jason Carroll reports.

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JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Facebook has become a popular way to reach out and touch someone in cyber world.

BRYAN RUTBERG: I've reconnected with old friends from high school days, college details, grad school days, people I used to work with.

CARROLL: Bryan Rutberg expected to find old friends. What he didn't expect was for a cyber criminal to find him. What happened to him Rutberg about two weeks ago, when his family noticed something frightening.

RUTBERG: My daughter was alarmed that my Facebook status had changed and I had changed it.

CARROLL: A new message on Rutberg's page read, "Bryan is in urgent need of help." Of course, he wasn't. He was safe at home in Seattle.

RUTBERG: But somehow they had taken over access to the page. I had been locked out. Someone changed the e-mail address associated with the account.

CARROLL: A hacker posing as Rutberg sent messages to friends saying he was robbed at gun point in London and need money to get home. He even left a message with Rutberg's Facebook friend, Beny Rubenstein. Listen to the recording...

RECORDING LEFT FOR BENY RUBENSTEIN: He is currently in London. He is in trouble, he was robbed.

CARROLL: Rubenstein wired $1,200 to London.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not only just a financial thing, but it's also an invasion of your whole privacy and who your friends are.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People really have forgot basic safety. When mom said, don't talk to strangers, that was good advice.

CARROLL: Security experts say there are two ways to better protect yourself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Having anti-virus programs and making sure they're up to date. The second thing you can do is everyone can kind of push some of these companies to do a little bit better job in protecting privacy.

CARROLL: With the help of Facebook, it took about a day for Rutberg to regain access to his account.

RUTBERG: Every user of the Web should be better educated and I think Facebook has a role to play there, as do any of the social networking sites. Letting users know that if their site is hacked, how to respond and giving them an easy way to get in touch with the companies.

CARROLL: Facebook says while the scam affects a small number of users, they're instituting changes that will better notify users when their account is modified.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: An elderly World War II vet frozen to death in his house. His power turned off in the dead of winter. Turns out he had more than enough money to pay his bill. We'll tell you what happened.

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PHILLIPS: We want to get you caught up on this story out of Bay City, Michigan. You may remember a 93-year-old World War II vet froze to death after the electric company cut off his power. Marvin Schur owed them about $1,000. Well, listen to this. We've now learned that he was more than good for the money. In fact, he left his estate of about $600,000 to a hospital. The Michigan governor is looking to change state law now to prevent such power cutoffs in the future.

And another story for "What the ...?" file. A boy in Florida gets a cell phone for his 10th birthday. Well, the next thing he knows he's got a new message. Bing! It's porn. Moving pictures, sound, the whole dirty works. Not exactly the birthday greeting that little young Victor really wanted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) VICTOR DELGADO, GOT PORN ON NEW CELL PHONE: It was just my birthday and no one knew my number. I thought it was disgusting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, Victor's parents have taken the phone away until they figure out who sent that message. Apparently, the previous owner of that cell phone liked porn. Probably went back to the Internet.

Well, if at first you don't succeed, try 770 more times. A want- to-be driver in South Korea has taken the driver test a record 771 time and failed each time. But it's not for lack of drive. The 68- year-old woman took her first test back in 2005, and she says she plans to go for number 772. She's already spent about 3,000 bucks on test fees.