Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Banking Heads Set to Testify; Preparing for the Worst; Watching the Money Trail; Chris Brown's Squeaky Clean Image Tarnished
Aired February 11, 2009 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN ROBERTS, HOST: Turns out you can teach an old dog new tricks. A ten-year-old Sussex Spaniel named Stump became the oldest best in show with the Westminster Dog Show. He came out of retirement only last week, wound up with the top prize, beating out six other group winners last night, and our congratulations go along to Stump.
He won sporting breed in 2004 and then caught some disease and was languishing about and his trainer just said, one week to go, let's see if Stump has got another turn there on the green carpet and he did.
CHETRY: I know. And practically coming back from the dead to win, you know, the biggest championship in dogs.
ROBERTS: And in dog years, he's 70 years old.
CHETRY: That's right.
ROBERTS: So that would be like winning...
CHETRY: Exactly.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: He's so cute anyway, so congratulations to little Stump.
ROBERTS: Yes.
CHETRY: Thanks so much for joining us on this AMERICAN MORNING. We'll see you back here tomorrow.
ROBERTS: Right now, here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Heidi Collins.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. A very busy Wednesday in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's a look at what we're watching now.
Broken heartland. A tornado rips through Oklahoma. At least eight people are dead. Major destruction left behind. And worries now about what could be next.
Working overtime to get Americans back to work. Closed-door negotiations on a final stimulus bill go late into the night. Where the plan stands right now.
And they cooled their jets. CEOs take the cheaper way to Washington. Waiting there, lawmakers, demanding accountability for your money.
Let's go ahead and get straight to the banks this morning and the billions of dollars for them. What happened to all that bailout money? Next hour the execs will be in the hot seat.
Our congressional correspondent, Brianna Keilar, standing by now with the very latest on all of that.
So, Brianna, are we expecting pretty big fireworks there today?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, we sure are, Heidi. You can tell by the sheer amount of video equipment behind me that this hearing today is getting a whole lot of attention.
The top eight or -- the CEOs from eight of the top banks in the U.S., who have gotten money from the Troubled Asset Relief Fund, the very unpopular Troubled Asset Relief Fund, coming here to Capitol Hill, very much in the hot seat. You can see things really picking up here, getting pretty busy. We've got some members of the public lining up down at the end of the hallway. They're going to be going into this hearing.
But what you have is these CEOs who are going to be facing questions about how they accepted billions of dollars in assistance, while also facing accusations now that they spent some of that money on -- on lavish vacations or events and on bonuses.
And I've gone through some of the introductory testimony that's already online that they are going to be giving today before this House Financial Services Committee. And they acknowledge the public outrage, but there's no mea culpa. There's no real apology, so we're going to see if that really is enough, Heidi, for this committee.
And I think what really sums it up and why it's not only these CEOs that are on the hot seat, but lawmakers feel this way as well, is some of them on this committee, a lot of them, voted for this Troubled Asset Relief Program. So, they feel...
COLLINS: Right.
KEILAR: ... you know, a little bit embarrassed by the fact that some of these CEOs and these companies may have gone ahead and done these things that have gotten so much negative attention because a lot of Americans out there are having a hard time making that cognitive leap between the rescue of Wall Street being really the rescue of the greater economy.
COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. It is going to be a very interesting day. We'll keep up with you, Brianna Keilar, at Capitol Hill for us this morning. Thanks so much.
You really don't want to miss this. CEOs in the hot seat on the Hill, getting grilled about how they used government bailout money. We're going to have live coverage of the House committee hearing coming up next hour at 10:00 Eastern.
And after the half hour, we'll get more insight on the bank bailout funds from Vice President Joe Biden's chief economic adviser, Jared Bernstein. He is actually in the president's economic daily briefing every day. It's happening right now. We're going to talk to him just as soon as that is over.
COLLINS: Now to the stimulus. Closing in on a compromise. Could this be the day the House and Senate come to terms on an economic recovery package? Lawmakers and the White House chief of staff worked late into the night trying to negotiate a deal and are back at it this morning.
They're trying to get the bill down to $800 billion. The House version, as you may remember, stands at $820 billion and the Senate, $838 billion. That bill passed yesterday afternoon with three Republicans joining Senate Democrats for the vote.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R), PENNSYLVANIA: In light of the very severe need to take action to avoid a depression, I thought my duty required that I do just what I did.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The president knows this is a tough sell. And the remedy could be tough to take.
Let's bring in our White House correspondent now, Suzanne Malveaux, for more on this.
Suzanne, exactly what is the White House strategy on all of this?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, it's really a full-court press. You may call it shuttle diplomacy. We saw yesterday, nine hours, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel was on the Hill. He was going between offices on the House side and the Senate side, trying to make sure that the Democrats come up with some sort of compromise.
At the same time here at the White House, you had the president who was hosting what's called the Blue-Dog Democrats, those fiscally conservative Democrats, conservatives who they desperately need, obviously, for the economic stimulus package, to push it forward and to also influence some of those moderate Republicans.
There was more than 40 or so that were here at the White House. And we were told in no cocktails, no hors d'oeuvres or anything like that, Heidi. Our White House producer, Xuan Thai, also working her sources, saying that people inside of that meeting very frustrated. They wanted to know what happens to long-term projects, like reforming Social Security or Medicare, things like that.
The president responding, saying those are going to be difficult things to deal with. What we need now is to make sure that we get the economic stimulus package and that means perhaps even voting against some of the things, the interests, in your own districts to get this thing through.
So, obviously, they're under a lot of pressure when they talk to regular folks. And that's the other part of the equation, Heidi. You see President Obama every day now, outside of Washington, talking to real people. Yesterday in Fort Myers, a guy who works at McDonald's was saying how he needed greater benefits.
There was a woman recently unemployed who was pleading with the president. She said she wanted her own kitchen, needed her own bathroom. We saw the president hugging her at some point. And later today, President Obama is going to be traveling to a construction site.
All of this is really meant to take this debate out of Washington, out of the food fight between Democrats and Democrats or Democrats and Republicans and simply say, look, this is a situation that involves real people. I get it. Therefore, push for this stimulus package, Heidi?
COLLINS: All right, Suzanne Malveaux, outside the White House this morning. Thank you.
And President Obama is beginning his 23rd day in office with a briefing and a meeting with his senior advisers. In about two hours, scheduled to visit crews on a construction site in Springfield, Virginia. This afternoon, he's set to meet with his defense secretary.
Now to that tornado in Oklahoma. And the calm after the storm. A tornado warning is lifted in the central part of the state. But residents must deal with the extensive damage left behind by the deadly storm.
CNN's Samantha Hayes is joining us now live from the hard-hit town of Lone Grove.
Samantha, good morning to you.
SAMANTHA HAYES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Heidi. It is hard hit. Now that the sun is up, people are getting a look at just how bad it is. This is debris from a building, from the old Chamber of Commerce building that yesterday morning was standing.
There's office chairs everywhere. There's overhead lighting. I saw a computer and a toilet on the other side of the foundation, but the building was essentially blown off its foundation. All the debris has been spread back to that house behind me.
And, Heidi, I recently just talked to a man who has family who usually lives in that house. And fortunately they weren't there last night. They were somewhere else around here. And they did survive, but the house where they were staying was apparently blown down around them, and a lot of people seem to have stories like that. Even though they live in a part of the country here that is accustomed to dealing with tornadoes, they haven't seen anything like this, and the damage is extensive and many homes are destroyed and many businesses, too.
The Oklahoma Emergency Group, the state agency, is going out to some of these areas. They have some roads closed off because they're worried that they may need to perhaps recover more bodies. Eight people did not survive this storm last night. We know that for sure. And dozens more were injured.
So it's going to be a tough day in this town in Oklahoma. And we're finding out more as we go on. But lots of people coming, taking a look. You can see how heartbroken they are to see their homes and their businesses destroyed this morning.
COLLINS: Boy, I'm sure they are. All right, Samantha Hayes with a look at Lone Grove. What a mess there behind you. Thanks so much.
Want to turn it over to our meteorologist, Rob Marciano, now, standing by in the weather center with more on this.
So the area we're talking about here, Rob, Lone Grove, I guess about 90 miles from Oklahoma City?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It is. And just to the east of Lone Grove is a town called Ardmore, and that's right along I-35 and that was also hit, not nearly as many injuries, but more substantial homes. Getting some fresh, live pictures in. We can pop these up, and these are -- these are from our affiliate, KOCO. Again, they're live so it'll be lagged at times. But, obviously, a well-built house here...
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: ... made of brick and at the very least, the top floor of it, certainly, torn up pretty good here. So, aside from the trailer park that was destroyed in Lone and the area just west of here, obviously, more well-built structures also heavily damaged.
So the National Weather Service will certainly go out here along with the recovery team to analyze just how big this tornado was. Initial reports last night were that it was about an eighth of a mile wide. There was warning at about 14 minutes in advance before this thing came through. But to have this strong tornado, just to have a tornado in this part of the country, in Nebraska, in February is rare.
I think the last time this happened was in 2000 and the last deadly tornado to happen in Oklahoma, in February, was back in 1975...
COLLINS: Really?
MARCIANO: ... and that was two tornados in one day and that's the only time it's happened since we've been keeping records in the last 50 years. So certainly a rare event.
(WEATHER REPORT) COLLINS: Yes. Yes. It definitely sounds like it. All right, Rob. Keep us posted on that definitely.
MARCIANO: You got it.
COLLINS: Appreciate it. Rob Marciano in the weather department this morning.
Moving ahead now in the Mideast, but which direction? The election is over, but what's next isn't really clear. Our senior political analyst weighs in live from Jerusalem.
ANNOUNCER: CNN NEWSROOM brought to you by...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN, the most trusted name in news. Now back to the CNN NEWSROOM.
COLLINS: Israel's two largest parties are both claiming victory today after parliamentary elections but since neither party got a clear majority of seats, both leaders are now trying to build coalitions. Unofficial results show the race between ruling party of Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and the Likud Party of Benjamin Netanyahu nearly tied. With 99 percent of the vote counted, Livni's centrist Kadima Party had 28 parliamentary seats, while Netanyahu's conservative Likud had 27.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TZIPI LIVNI, KADIMA PARTY LEADER (Through Translator): Today we have won.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, FMR. PRIME MINISTER, LIKUD PARTY LEADER (Through translator): With God's help, I shall head the coming government.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: And ultranationalist third party candidate could determine the country's new leader by deciding which party to support in a coalition government.
The U.S. officials are closely watching the vote in Israel, of course. The Jewish state remains a key Middle East alley.
CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider is following the race for us in Jerusalem. He's joining us now live.
So, Bill, was there some type of mandate from Israeli voters in this election?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Heidi, you'd have to say it was a mixed mandate.
COLLINS: Yes. SCHNEIDER: Tzipi Livni, the leader of the Kadima Party, got the largest number of votes which means there was a vote really to keep the peace process going but the big gains were made by the right, by Benjamin Netanyahu and his party, and that means that Israelis are exasperated.
They feel as if they've tried all the alternatives. They tried negotiation, accommodation. They tried unilateral withdrawal. Now they say security comes first. But they're not quite willing to give up entirely on the peace process.
COLLINS: So, then, where does this really leave the peace process?
SCHNEIDER: Well, the Israelis say what they need is a Palestinian partner for peace, and they don't see one right now. They've had wars with Hezbollah and with Hamas and they want to know where are the moderate Palestinians that we can make a deal with? To Israelis, the first step in any -- in any peace process has got to be weakening Iran. Because Hamas and Hezbollah are both clients of Iran.
And for that, really, they want to make common cause with the United States so that there can be some action on the Iran front.
COLLINS: So, when you mention the United States, is it likely, then, that there could be conflicts between the new Israeli government and the Obama administration?
SCHNEIDER: Well, the Obama administration, like the Israelis, gives high priority to Iran. The Obama -- President Obama says he wants to try diplomatic negotiations with Iran. And the Israelis I speak to are willing to go along with that. They say fine.
The one point of conflict is this -- Israelis are pressing for a timetable. They want to say to the Americans, go ahead, we'll support you. Negotiations, if they work, we'll be delighted. But we want to know how long you're going to give those negotiations to work and what you're going to do after that deadline is met and they haven't really stopped Iran's nuclear program.
COLLINS: Yes. And it seems to be a very touchy subject, too, because we did hear the president saying that not only negotiations, but potential direct eye-to-eye, face-to-face conversations with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It's interesting to learn about what the Israeli position would be on that, a leader who doesn't basically believe that the holocaust ever happened.
SCHNEIDER: Yes, that's right. Israelis, of course, have no respect for or connection with Ahmadinejad. The Iranian government, they say, is the biggest threat on the horizon for them, but they're willing to allow negotiations, anything that works, to try to stop Iran's nuclear program.
Right now, Iran looms much higher on the Israeli agenda for both the public and the government leaders, and there I include both Netanyahu and Livni. Iran looms much higher as the next big policy issue, much higher even than the peace process, because the Israelis believe there can be no progress on peace until Iran is weakened.
COLLINS: All right, well, it is a very sensitive topic. Obviously we will be watching those elections. Thanks so much, Bill Schneider, joining us live from Jerusalem this morning.
SCHNEIDER: Sure.
COLLINS: A series of attacks by Taliban militants in Afghanistan. At least 23 people are dead. The attack today hit government buildings in the capital Kabul and a prison just north of the city. At least 69 other people were wounded. The Taliban says the attacks were in retaliation for what it called mistreatment of prisoners in Afghan jails. The head of the NATO-led security force in Afghanistan said the attacks show, quote, "the real face of the Taliban."
The coordinated attacks struck just ahead of a planned visit by special envoy Richard Holbrook. Yesterday Holbrook was in Pakistan where he met with government leaders there. The talks focused on the war in Afghanistan and U.S. concerns about terrorists hiding along the rugged Afghan/Pakistan border.
Holbrook is the Obama administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Change to tell you about this morning in Zimbabwe now. President Robert Mugabe has sworn in his bitter rival Morgan Tsvangirai as the country's new prime minister. This new unity government between two opposing parties is part of a power-sharing agreement reached back in September. Zimbabwe has not had a ruling cabinet since the political fighting began over election results in March.
He called it a delivery for President Obama. So how close did a Louisiana man with a rifle come to the commander in chief?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Very quickly now we want to get back to the weather situation. Boy, yesterday, very, very tough day for people of Oklahoma. Rob Marciano joining us now with more on the tornado that hit there. Rob?
MARCIANO: Yes, we've had live reports from just west of Ardmore, and that's where the fatalities happened. But now we're getting fresh pictures in out of our affiliate KOCO and there was another tornado that struck just to the north of Oklahoma City in Edmond, which is a more substantial bedroom community with more well established homes there.
You can see the damage there. So, these are -- these are brick -- at the very least, brick facade homes, well-built homes, in some cases over million dollar homes, that were damaged by this other tornado that rolled through around the same time in a different part of the state there yesterday evening and through last night. No fatalities at this point being reported in this community, but certainly substantial damage to some high-dollar homes there in a community that's just to the north of Oklahoma City. Again, want to stress how rare this is this time of year, Heidi. Typically severe thunderstorms with tornadoes will strike a little bit more to the south, across the Deep South to have a tornado of this -- to have any tornado in February in Oklahoma is rare. To have one of this size and strength, do this sort of damage, and have fatalities, that's only happened twice in the last 50 years.
COLLINS: Wow.
MARCIANO: So, certainly unusual event and today we'll hear more about the stories and the National Weather Service is out there certainly to assess both of the tracks of these two tornados and determine how strong they were. But the pictures obviously tell a lot of the story.
COLLINS: No question about it. All right, eight people dead, at least so far, that they have been able to determine.
Rob, we'll stay on top of the story with you. Thank you.
The search is on for a missing 5-year-old girl from Florida. Authorities issue an AMBER Alert for Haley Cummings yesterday. Her father's girlfriend says she last saw Haley at their home north of Orlando Monday night. The family says someone snatched her right out of her bed and they're completely devastated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RONALD CUMMINGS, FATHER OF MISSING GIRL: I know somebody took my little girl. I'm a sorry piece of trash that will be wasted when it's all over.
TERESA NIEVES, GRANDMOTHER OF MISSING GIRL: Just whoever took her, let her go, bring her home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Haley is about three feet tall with blonde hair and pierced ears. She was last seen wearing pink shorts and a tan shirt.
A possible threat to the president. D.C. Police arrested a Louisiana man who allegedly had a rifle in his car near the U.S. Capitol yesterday. According to authorities, Alfred Brock drove up to a barricade and said he had a delivery for President Obama. Now he is charged with having an unregistered firearm and ammunition.
If you can't dodge the layoffs plaguing our economy, what's your next move? And it's like the opposite of giving a toast. Why the outpouring of anger in Kentucky.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: All right. There is the opening bell for Wednesday. And, boy, everybody's really hoping we don't have anywhere near the situation that we had yesterday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average down by nearly 382 points by the time the trading day was through. So we will continue to watch those numbers very, very closely here. A lot of people saying it was all in reaction to Timothy Geithner's announcements regarding the overhauled TARP plan.
So, again, world markets are down today in an apparent frenzy over yesterday's huge selloff on Wall Street. Nearly every major market in Asia plunged sharply. And Hong Kong's Hang Seng recorded the biggest dropped closing down 341 points. And in afternoon trading in Europe, Britain's FTSE was down 50 percent, while German's Dax slipped 0.4 percent. Investors are fearful whether Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's revamped bailout program will work. Critics complain Geithner did not provide enough detail in his announcement yesterday. He offered this explanation to a Senate Budget Committee hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TIMOTHY GEITHNER, TREASURY SECRETARY: One of the reasons why we laid this out in general terms today is because this is enormously complicated to get it right, and we're going to try to get it right before we lay out the details. And on these elements and others we're going to come and consult and explain exactly the kind of considerations we're trying to balance and give you our best judgment on how we can solve those things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: All right. So one day after the Dow industrials' biggest point loss of the year, Susan Lisovicz joining us now from the New York Stock Exchange with more on whether we might be looking at a rebound today. Of course, that's what we'd like to think, right, Susan?
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, investors are sticking their toes back in the waters. A little nibbling going on in the first minute or so of trading. Heidi, yes, I mean the Treasury secretary saying that, you know, he wants to be very careful about it. That the first $350 billion was -- had a lack of transparency. A lot of folks were very upset with the lack of accountability. So, he wants to be very careful.
The problem on Wall Street was that there was a lack of details. Basically knew the parameters of what was happening with the new and improved bank bailout package, and the markets sold off. As soon as that text became public, even before the Treasury secretary started speaking, the stocks fell off a cliff. So, basically, investors want specifics over exactly how the new plan to unfreeze the troubled credit markets will work.
And financial shares sold off sharply yesterday. The big focus again today as the heads of eight major institutions testified before Congress about the Treasury rescue plan. Leaders of Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, among others, will also face some hostile questioning about executive pay and how they've spent their share of the bailout money. Should be must-see television. And we'll have it.
COLLINS: Yes.
LISOVICZ: In the meantime, well, we're hearing of more job cuts this morning. Nike said it may be cutting 1,400 jobs or roughly four percent of its global workforce as part of the restructuring as the sporting goods maker. Meanwhile, applied materials, which makes stools for making computer chips cutting about 2,000 jobs on The Hills of a $130 million quarterly loss. But we are not seeing losses on Wall Street in the first three minutes of trading. The Dow is up nearly 50 points or 0.6 percent. Ditto for the Nasdaq and the S&P 500.
Ringing the opening bell today, worth mentioning, Heidi, Meade Johnson, which is a spin off of Bristol-Myers, it's the world's biggest maker of baby formula. I mention this, because it's the first IPO on Wall Street since November. Ten years ago, we would have maybe about 450 companies. IPOs coming to the marketplace. Last year, we had six. How things change in a bear market.
Heidi?
COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. All right, and Susan, we are going to be watching all of that very closely today, especially those hearings of the CEOs. Thanks so much.
We've got to get to this breaking news, quickly now, because we want to take you back to the same area that we've been talking about in Oklahoma. These pictures coming in from our affiliate KOCO. There you see a house on fire. Again, this is the same area that was hit by the tornadoes known as Lone Grove, about 90 miles from Oklahoma City. Rob Marciano joining me now as well to talk a little bit more about this.
Rob, we really don't have any idea as to why exactly that house may be on fire. But we also know this is the area where the tornado went through. Eight people were killed.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, eight people were killed in this tornado. One of four reports that we've gotten in Oklahoma, we've been showing pictures of the two with substantial damage. And as you mentioned Lone Grove there just to the west of I-35, about 90 miles south of Oklahoma City is where we had the fatalities, and mostly in a trailer park area. And then obviously significant damage to more structured homes as well.
And this fire, I have no idea why it caught on fire. But certainly whenever you're in a storm-ravaged area, you've got trees that are down. You've got power lines that are down, in many cases live power lines that are down and it doesn't take much to spark a flame. And certainly as dry as it has been down there, it doesn't take much for something to go up in smoke. So, this not caused directly by the storm, Heidi, but certainly the aftermath.
Now, on the left there, when we had that split screen, you saw some aerials from our same affiliate, KOCO, who just does one heck of a job, by the way.
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: This is likely from Edmond, which is closer to Oklahoma City, about northwest of Oklahoma City, pretty much a bedroom community of very nice homes, high-dollar homes. And we'll get some more information, Heidi. I think we're going to go to break or you're going to take it back from me, and we'll be right back.
COLLINS: Yes, Rob. Actually, what we're going to do is we're going to continue on here, but we are going to keep our eyes on those pictures and try to figure out what may have happened there. Certainly we don't want to speculate. But, yes, there's an awful lot of cleanup going and Rob has been telling us all morning long, the winds are likely to be an issue today as well when that cleanup is going on. So we'll keep our eye on that. House is on fire there. Again, Oklahoma -- near Oklahoma City, about 90 miles away or so, both Lone Grove and Edmond have been hit pretty hard by these tornadoes. So we will keep our eye on that for you.
Meanwhile, a new Bourbon Street in Kentucky. Check out this bit of alcohol mismanagement. Protesters mass-splashing Bourbon on the front steps of their statehouse. They're making this river of whiskey to protest a new proposed sales tax on alcohol and cigarettes. Senate leaders there hope it will help reduce a $456 million shortfall. But protesters say razing the tax will only drive down sales.
A desperate need for jobs sends some 5,000 protesters into the streets in Missouri.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PROTESTORS: What do we want?
PROTESTORS: Jobs!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Steelworkers and their supporters marched past the steel plant in Granite City. They say for the first time in its 130-year history, the plant is idled because of the drop in the demand for steel. 1,600 workers are laid off and they see a domino effect now across the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLENN KAGE, UNITED AUTO WORKERS LOCAL 136: When you look around, you go to circuit city, out of business -- Best Buy, money down. AT&T laying off. Across the board, we're feeling the economic impact of our job losses. We're the consumers that keeps the economic engine of this country running.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The protesters want a Buy-American provision in the economic stimulus bill that would require rebuilding the country's infrastructure using American-made products.
The U.S. lost almost 600,000 jobs last month alone. If you are suddenly handed a pink slip, would you know what to do next?
Joining us now from New York to help you brace yourselves if it happens to you, Farnoosh Torabi. She's a senior correspondent with the Financial News Web site, the street.com.
Farnoosh, thanks so much for being with us, because, you know, this really has happened to an awful lot of people. And I think sometimes the instinct is to panic and to not really try and collect yourself and figure out what needs to happen first. So, we have a bit of a list for people. We're going to start with the first one that says this -- know exactly what you are entitled to.
What are you talking about here?
FARNOOSH TORABI, SENIOR CORRESPONDENT, THESTREET.COM: Well, if you were lucky not to have gotten a severance, know that the typical severance path is about two weeks pay for every full year that you were an employee. So make sure that you are getting what you are entitled to. Referred to that old handbook you got on the first day at work. Know also that if you had any accrued vacation, you should be entitled to that. If you had any vested stock options, usually have up to 90 days to redeem those.
COLLINS: Right.
TORABI: And something for contractors out there, if you had a contract and you were laid off before the term ended, you should be able to get your money for the remaining time on the contract.
COLLINS: Of course, also don't forget to sign up for those unemployment benefits as well.
TORABI: Absolutely.
COLLINS: And then you should check on your health insurance. Make sure that is secure.
TORABI: Right. If your employer was sponsoring your health insurance when you were an employee and the employer is still offering health insurance and the employer is not bankrupt, you are entitled to C.O.B.R.A. and you want to apply for that, usually within 60 days giving you basically health insurance for the next 18 months. But it is pricey, Heidi. It's usually 102 percent of the cost that your employer is paying. It can be anywhere from $400 a month for an individual to $1,200 a month for a family.
So some alternatives are to look at your spouse's health care plan. Maybe you can piggyback on that. Perhaps join your union or a professional organization to get some group rates or if you're an individual and you're still healthy and you're single, an individual policy for shopping around for rates can be still be -- can be a better price for you than C.O.B.R.A.
COLLINS: OK, got it. Hold on to your 401(k). Boy, this is a -- this is a tough one.
TORABI: I know. Because I know the temptation is to just withdraw that money, because you're scared about how you're going to make ends meet. But remember your 401(k) is for retirement and not for a rainy day. So, two things. You can either leave it in the account where it exists and just have it sit, then roll it over into your new job, your new employer's 401(k) plan, or roll that over through a direct transfer into an individual retirement account, an I.R.A., in which you can still contribute money annually.
COLLINS: OK, very good. And we wanted to mention this last one, because sometimes people forget. They immediately go on a job search, but then they don't remember that they can get reimbursed for some of those expenses?
TORABI: Absolutely. Tax day is not so far away. So in the meantime, as you're looking for a job, know that some things like a new printer to print out resumes, paper and ink to print out your resume, the mileage you use to look for a new job, all of those things can be deductible and you want to itemize those when you go to fill out your taxes, hopefully before April 15th.
COLLINS: Yes, hopefully before...
TORABI: Hopefully.
COLLINS: ...April 15th. All right, Farnoosh Torabi, we sure do appreciate that. Some really good advice for a lot of people who are going through a tough time right now.
TORABI: Thanks, Heidi.
COLLINS: Appreciate it. One of Vice President Biden's advisors in the daily economic briefing right now, but as soon as it's over, he's going to come talk to us about the stimulus bill and how your money is being spent for the financial bailout.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Quickly now, some new video just coming in to us. The aftermath of this tornado that rolled through central Oklahoma. Looking at pictures of obviously the cleanup that has begun. Eight deaths that we know of so far in the area of Lone Grove. We've been keeping up with Rob Marciano on what is expected today. But if you live through something like this, it is likely something that you will never forget. Let's listen to one of the survivors coming to us from Lone Grove.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
I stopped. I had my daughters hide in the bathtub. (INAUDIBLE). I could see it coming, but I didn't know exactly which way it's going to go. So I got them in a safe place. After it passed, I came out to check the family and the friends the best I could last night, but with the devastation, you couldn't get around. Plus, law enforcement, emergency management trying to get around and do their jobs. But a lot of the family members' houses are blown away, trailers and things. Luckily none of our immediate family was hurt severely. But other people weren't so lucky.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COLLINS: All right. So, obviously, a lot of cleanup going on today in the area of Oklahoma. We've been mentioning with Rob Marciano, Edmond and Lone Grove, the area that we just heard that gentleman speaking from. So we'll be continuing to follow that today. High winds are a big problem there for the cleanup.
Want to get back to one of the other major stories that we have been following today. Lawmakers are working on the details today on that massive stimulus bill. And, plus, we'll be hearing this morning about how the so-called T.A.R.P. funds have been spent. So, just how do we keep tabs on the hundreds of billions of dollars pouring in through these programs?
Joining us now is Vice President Joe Biden's chief economic adviser, Jared Bernstein.
Thanks so much for being with us. I know that you have just came from this economic briefing that you are in every day. Do us a favor, tell us a little bit about how it goes. And particularly on a day like today, when we are in day two of the overhauled T.A.R.P. hearings, and also a potential vote on this massive stimulus plan.
JARED BERNSTEIN, CHIEF ECONOMIST AND ECONOMIC POLICY ADVISER TO V.P. JOE BIDEN: Well, today it didn't go, because we didn't have the daily brief because the president and the vice president are traveling today. Once again they're going to talk to families who have been beset by the downturn that we talk about, day in and day out here in statistical terms.
We say 600,000 jobs were lost last month. The unemployment went up to 7.6 percent. These numbers mean a lot to me as an economist, but to go to these towns where you're facing double-digit unemployment, where you see the upset in the lives, in the economic lives, of working families, that puts the sense of urgency in this plan that so many of us really feel right now.
COLLINS: Let's talk about T.A.R.P. for just a moment. Since that meeting did not happen today, we were looking for a little bit of flavor on what goes on behind those closed doors. This is sort of a new thing for the president to be doing.
Really not smooth sailing. I think a lot of people would agree for the new Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner yesterday, when he unrolled at least portions of this overhauled T.A.R.P. plans. Look at this from "The New York Times" editorial today, "Unfortunately, the rest of his speech invited at best, healthy skepticism from the markets, the public, and lawmakers, and at worst, more mistrust."
Then from "The Wall Street Journal," "Judging by the hissing in financial markets, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's opening act as rescuer in chief yesterday was a bomb."
When are we going to get all the details?
BERNSTEIN: Look, it seems like a little bit of a pile-on at this point. I mean, there's no way we're going to gauge economic policy and its success or implementation by one day of results in stock markets. I'd much rather see the market go up every day, but that's not going to happen. We don't consider that a legitimate metric by which to judge this plan.
You want a little flavor of those meetings? I've been in those meetings with Treasury Secretary Geithner. He often attends. And this guy knows financial markets inside out. There's a lot of people who know that. He also knows public policy. And he's got a plan here. We need to give him a chance to articulate this plan. He's got a plan here that is, I think, very thoughtful, really quite deep, and goes much further than anything we've seen yet in terms of transparency and in terms of analysis --
COLLINS: But the question was, Jared -- forgive me, the question was when are we going to hear it?
BERNSTEIN: It's going -- that's a great question and you're going to hear that in coming days and weeks, and the sooner the better. We absolutely understand the urgency. But, you know, this is some fairly technical stuff that Geithner can talk about all day long. The important thing is that we begin to communicate, much like the president and vice presidents doing today on the stimulus package, to begin to explain to the American people how this plan is going to work. And keep your eyes open, because that kind of explanation will absolutely be forthcoming.
COLLINS: All right. Everybody's waiting. That is for certain. Regarding the stimulus plan, we are hearing there is a potential vote that could happen today for the $838 billion package. We have also heard throughout all of this, as we continue to listen to the Republican side of things and the Democratic side of things, not exactly a compromise just yet.
Is there also the potential that this could not be the end of the money trail, if you will? When will the administration go back to Congress for even more? I think the president left the door open for that in his press conference the other night.
BERNSTEIN: Well, you certainly never want to close the door based on an economy that a year or two years from now may be looking different than we expect. But our forecasts here are that this plan is going to significantly reduce the rate of unemployment by a couple of points. And save or create 3 million to 4 million jobs.
And, by the way, I know it's -- it's easy to be skeptical about precisely these types of forecasts, but this kind of thing really isn't rocket science. We know that if we let a contract to repair a bridge, to fix a road, to weatherize a home, for smart meters, to invest in health I.T., that's going to be job creating and there's 11.6 million unemployed people out there that we'll be awfully happy to hear about those types of jobs.
COLLINS: All right, Jared Bernstein, we are watching all of it happen on a very, very busy financial day, if you will, right here at CNN. We have all of those hearings, live. Of course, Jared Bernstein, Vice President Biden's chief economic adviser. Thanks for your time. BERNSTEIN: Thank you.
COLLINS: And again stay right here on CNN to see the CEOs defending their spending of the bailout funds. We'll be live on Capitol Hill next hour when top execs of some of the larger banks who got bailed out will be in the hot seat.
A deadly tornado slammed into Oklahoma. Now, the storm system is on the move. What can we expect today? Our severe weather center has the answer in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: All right. Quickly, I want to get back to some of these pictures that we are looking at live now from our affiliate there in Oklahoma. The area of Lone Grove and also Edmond, Oklahoma, really hard-hit by this tornado that went through yesterday.
Eight people that we know of at this point have been killed. Several others injured. At least 50 that we know of at this point. Again, our affiliate KACO bringing you some of these aerials shots. This is a home that we were showing you just a little while ago that was on fire. Clearly now that has been contained. Not sure at this point why it was on fire. We see some power lines there, but again don't want to make too many inferences here. We're just not quite sure.
But this is a day of clean-up, so we continue to follow that. And listen to some of the stories from people who lived through this tornado that blew through.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) sink in I think because we just (INAUDIBLE).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Wow. We talk about it all the time, Rob, living through one of those and how incredibly frightening. No matter how much warning you get, it can be.
And we go back to those pictures of that house that we showed just a little while ago that you were helping me out with, and I think we can see now that, yes, it looks like the power pole is directly on top of the house because you can see the lines there, too.
MARCIANO: I don't know, that was a high-voltage power line.
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: So that's a -- that's Lone Grove, right?
COLLINS: Yes.
MARCIANO: OK. So we've got two tornadoes that have done substantial damage, the ones with fatalities in the Lone Grove community, where our reporters live on the scene. And we have been getting some video fed not only from above, but from our actual crew on the ground. You guys can feel free to throw that up at any time when we get that in.
Talk about where this storm is going. Line of thunderstorms, ahead of it, it's moving rapidly, everything now motoring eastward at about 40 miles an hour or so. You can see the wrap-around moisture and the heavy rain through parts of Missouri. This is causing some flash flooding to the West and northwest of Springfield. Heavy thunderstorms in through here. Checking some of the odds out of central Kansas. They're seeing temperatures in the 30s. With winds gusting over 30 miles an hour and rain and snow mixed. Those winds will be going into the area that got hit by the Toronto, so that will hamper recovery efforts.
Warm rains heading into snow and areas that across the north that have seen ice. That will cause some melting. On top of that, we got a slight risk of thunderstorms. That could become severe, although the atmosphere not as volatile as yesterday. But as this thing wraps up, Heidi, just the wind field around this system will create winds gusting to 50 or 60 miles an hour, and that will certainly take down at least some tree limbs if not some fully-grown trees. And we might have a whole another issue east of the storm.
COLLINS: I hope not, but we'll be watching closely. Let us know if we need to come back to you. Rob Marciano in the severe weather department this morning.
More follow-up now from the Chris Brown-Rihanna saga. His squeaky- clean image tarnished after allegation surface the couple is involved in a domestic violence drama.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: More fallout now from singer Chris Brown's weekend arrest, and allegations he attacked his girlfriend, pop singer, Rihanna. CNN's Karen Wynter reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAREEN WYNTER, CNN GENERAL ASSIGNMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Double trouble for music sensation, Chris Brown, who was arrested and released on bail Sunday on charges that he beat a woman. Now the young star has a major endorsement deal that may be in jeopardy. Wrigley Gum has suspected this ad campaign, saying they are, quote, "Concerned by the serious allegations made against him." Brown has also pulled out of the NBA all-star event he was scheduled to attend this weekend in Arizona.
While police have not confirmed the identity of his alleged victim, sources close to both singers tell CNN it was Rihanna, his girlfriend, whose 2007 hit "Umbrella" put her on the charts.
SMOKEY FONTAINE, GIANT MAGAZINE: So here we have these two young superstars, who have perhaps the biggest superstars we have on the pop charts right now, and both of them are going into a mini crisis mode. It seems Rihanna has cancelled her up-coming performance in Malaysia due to personal reasons.
WYNTER: While Brown's arrest have shocked many in the music world, some say the young star is no stranger to domestic violence. In 2007, Brown spoke candidly with "Giant" magazine. Smokey Fontaine was editor-in-chief at the time.
FONTAINE: I mean, the trauma that Chris Brown suffered through as a young child was so severe, he even kind of peed himself as a boy.
WYNTER: Ironically, Fontaine says Rihanna gave her own interview to his publication just months prior, where she disclosed a painful past.
FONTAINE: She remembers loads of arguments between her parents, and she also internalized that pain, and that struggle where she would walk around with headaches, really severe headaches.
WYNTER: Neither singer's camp is commenting at this time and arraignment is scheduled for March 5th.
Kareen Wynter, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Your money, health and jobs, all taking focus on Capitol Hill this hour. We're watching the stimulus, bank bailouts and the Salmonella outbreak.
Plus, tornadoes come in deadly paths through Oklahoma. Coming up, a live report and a check on weather conditions right now. It is Wednesday, February 11th, I'm Heidi Collins. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
