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Flight 3407 Victims Mourned; Bad Economy Threatens Businesses, Lifestyles; Obama Still Committed to Bipartisanship; Cause of Buffalo Plane Crash Still Unclear; California's Draconian Budget Cuts
Aired February 14, 2009 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you very much, Fredricka Whitfield. Always a pleasure to see you.
What happened? That's the question. Was it ice, mechanical, human error or a combination that caused Continental flight 3407 to smash into a home? The very latest from investigators tonight.
Stimulus, shmimulus. An economic boost to the economy, or as critics say, an overspending plan? When will you see more money in your paycheck, or for some, a paycheck at all?
And one year out, police investigating the Northern Illinois University massacre have yet to release their own report, so CNN does some investigating of its own, unraveling the mind of a killer.
And the two sides of Lincoln. Which one is honest? Is he the man we learned about in grade school or someone we don't know at all.
The news starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARY JANE LUCE, WITNESS: After a few seconds of silence, we heard this huge explosion and the house shook. So we ran toward our back windows, which look out towards the house that was hit, and we could see flames rising high into the sky.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Wow. Good evening, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. We start with new details that are emerging in the crash of a commuter plane near Buffalo, New York, on Thursday night. But the new information raises more questions about what really happened as Continental Connection flight 3407 suddenly fell from the sky as it was preparing to land. Perhaps most interesting in all of this is that investigators say the plane did not appear to have divvied -- have dived -- excuse me -- nosedived first into a house into the town of Clarence Center.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN CHEALANDER, NTSB BOARD MEMBER: There's been a lot of reports of the airplane coming nose down into the house in the accident, eyewitnesses reports and so forth. And what we've found are all four corners of the airplane. We have found the cockpit, the tail section, both wings and engines, and they're where they should be if an airplane was laying flat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All 49 people on board the plane and one person on the ground were all killed. The process of removing bodies for the crash site has begun, and completing that grim task will probably take several days. We'll be on top of the story for you. Straight ahead, we'll dig deeper into what could have happened to flight 3407 and the clues investigators are desperately searching for right at this hour.
But first, we're starting to hear from the family members whose loved ones were on Continental flight 3407, putting real faces on this incredible tragedy. Shirlene Thiesfield's brother was piloting that plane, she spoke with CNN's Larry King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARRY KING, HOST, "LARRY KING LIVE": What was he like?
SHIRLENE THIESFELD, PILOT'S SISTER: He didn't change much. He was a great person. He was a wonderful father. He was very involved in his church, in his community. He loved life. He loved sharing his life with his family and friends and involved them. He had a passion for flying. And he'll be -- he'll be missed.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And this is Rebecca Shaw, the co-pilot. Her mother talked about her passion for flying, as well.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LYNN MORRIS, REBECCA SHAW'S MOTHER: She was light. She loved to fly. It was her passion. She just -- she just loved flying any time she could be in the air. She was an amazing woman. She came very, very far. She -- you know, she was just full of energy. She'd try anything, do anything, was up for any new experience. And she just loved life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: We're also learning more about the passengers on that plane. Twenty-four-year-old Madeline Loftus and 14 others were on their way to a women's ice hockey game in Buffalo.
CNN's Ines Ferre is in Clarence Center, New York. Ines, tell us a little bit more about what you've learned about these people.
INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, well, Don, let me tell you, I'm here at the ice hockey arena at Buffalo State College. This is exactly where Madeline Loftus -- her friends called her Maddie -- would have been today. This is where her friends gathered today to play an alumni game. She was coming to participate, take part in that alumni game. Maddie was an avid hockey player. In high school, she had been the first female in her town to participate in the boys' hockey team because she loved it so much. And in college, she played 47 games here. She was even an employee here at the hockey rink while she was in college. Her friends described her as somebody who was always smiling. And they wanted to play this game today despite the ups and downs these past couple of days. You can imagine the emotions that her friends have felt. And they said, We had to do this because Maddie would have wanted us to.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a very hard time for her teammates, for her friends, for her family.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... just being an awesome teammate, a beautiful person, always smiling and always upbeat, and you know, ready to cheer you up if you were having a bad day. And she was just amazing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FERRE: And after the game, they huddled together. They lit 10 candles -- 10 was Maddie hockey number -- and they had a vigil right in the middle of the ice rink. It was an emotional game for them. They said they really wanted to participate in it, but as you can see, it was also emotional. And the future alumni games are going to be now called Maddie's Games -- Don.
LEMON: All right, Ines. Thank you very much for the report. We certainly do appreciate it, and we wish (SIC) all the people who knew her well. Thank you.
President Barack Obama and Democrats are calling the stimulus bill the first step on the road to economic recovery, but Republicans still insist it is too big, too expensive and simply won't work. Congress passed the $887 billion plan yesterday mostly along party lines.
President Obama calls it a major milestone. He says he will sign it shortly, but he cautions that the stimulus by itself won't solve the economic problems.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Once the plan is put into action, a new Web site, Recovery.gov, will allow any American to watch where the money goes and weigh in with comments and questions. And I encourage every American to do so. Ultimately, this is your money and you deserve to know where it's going and how it's spent.
This historic step won't be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but rather the beginning. The problems that led us into this crisis are deep and widespread, and our response must be equal to the task.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: So where is that $787 billion going? Well, pay close attention. I'm going to tell you now -- $267 billion of it will be used for direct spending, things like food stamps and unemployment benefits, $212 billion comes in the form of tax cuts. Most people will get a $400 tax credit. Couples will get $800. And $120 billion is to improve infrastructure, patching up roads, bridges and buildings, $100 billion is set aside for education, $30 billion will be spent on energy projects to create so-called "green jobs."
While the nation waits for the stimulus bill to jump-start the economy, millions of Americans are doing all they can to pinch their pennies. A lot of people are. Well, CNN's Gary Tuchman met a Phoenix family, Linda and Chris Metzger, who are cutting back and scaling back. But their new lifestyle is threatening some of their favorite businesses.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the store where the Metzgers bought much of their furniture and were planning to buy more. The fact they and so many other families in the same predicament have stopped shopping there has led to the store announcing it is about to shut its doors. And then there was the Metzgers' favorite bistro. Good customers like the Metzgers stopped eating there. It's now an empty space. And next to the bistro, a store called Storables (ph) just announcing it, too, is going out of business. And on the other side of the restaurant, the Little Blue Choo Choo toy store recently closing its one other store and fighting the good fight to keep this one open.
CHRIS METZGER, LOST JOB: We're just going to keep going and try and survive as much as we can.
TUCHMAN: As for the Metzgers, they are now a bit more hopeful. Chris has a new sales job. Linda is trying to close the roughly $100,000-a-year gap by starting a home genealogy business. At seven months pregnant, it's hard to look for a job.
METZGER: I'm scared. I'm nervous. But again -- I'm looking around, and it's everywhere.
TUCHMAN: It's the economic ripple effect now consuming so many in its path.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: That was Gary Tuchman reporting.
President Barack Obama and his family are back in Chicago this weekend, their first trip home since he was sworn into office. And our Suzanne Malveaux is there, too. Suzanne, is it a quiet week for the family? Any talk about stimulus anywhere?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a quiet weekend, Don. Obviously, they're spending Valentine's Day together. It's really a chance to catch up with family and friends. You know, he still has a home here in Chicago.
And one of the things, obviously, that the administration is looking at ahead is selling this economic stimulus plan and actually signing it into law on Monday, also looking forward on Wednesday to outline some of the ideas that he has when it comes to helping people stay in their homes -- Don.
LEMON: You know what? There's been a lot of talk. The president trying to reach across the aisle and all of this talk about bipartisanship, but he got really no support from the GOP. I've been hearing some Democrats and some critics saying, You know what? He just needs to jettison that idea. It's not going to work. In order to prove -- to come out of the gates strongly, he just needs to get rid of the idea of bipartisanship. Have you heard anything about that? Is anyone in the administration responding to that?
MALVEAUX: Oh, sure. There's a lot of talk inside the White House about what he should do next. Publicly, President Obama is saying that he's going to continue to reach out to Republicans. We saw him making phone calls, visits, these kind of things, even a Super Bowl party at the White House with Republicans and Democrats alike.
I had a chance to talk to a couple of those Republican congressmen after the Super Bowl party, who said, you know, It's not really going to make a difference. You know, We had pizza and ice cream. Our kids were there. We had a great time. The president was gracious. But certainly, they're looking at the economic stimulus package and saying, Look, you know, this is not something that we can sign onto. I spoke with Mary Matalin just yesterday, the Republican strategist, and she said, you know, Obama should stop trying to treat us like a cheap date, was what she said.
But Obama aides say that they believe that if he continues to be civil and respectful and he continues to reach out to Republicans, that ultimately, they are going to win when it comes to the message that it's going to be the Republicans that are going to look like the obstructionists.
President Obama is going to be getting out there. He's going to be traveling, bringing his message directly to the American people, which seems to have really turned the tide, at least last week, when a lot of people seemed to sign onto this on the Democratic side and outside of Washington.
And the other thing that they say is that they're going to basically cherry pick and see if there are other issues that they can agree with with some Republicans, not everybody, but some, maybe energy, maybe climate, things like this, work with Republican governors. Those are the kinds of things that they're going to do, Don. But they're not saying that they're going to give up on this. Obviously disappointing, but they think that bit by bit, you know, this is going to change.
LEMON: All right, not jettisoning it yet, but we'll see. Only time will tell. I know it's a cliche, but only time will tell. Suzanne Malveaux in Chicago, we appreciate it. MALVEAUX: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: And CNN's John King will have more on the stimulus plan and its political fallout tomorrow morning, "STATE OF THE UNION" -- "STATE OF THE UNION," John King, 9:00 AM Eastern only here on CNN.
Meantime, a follow-up on the saga involving former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. It turns out Roland Burris, who's now the senator, the man Blagojevich appointed to Barack Obama's Senate seat, was solicited to contribute money to the governor's campaign. Now, that's a fact that Burris did not reveal when he testified before a state impeachment committee. Burris now says he was contacted three times about donating or raising cash for the governor, but he says he refused the requests because of the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Now, as you know, Blagojevich was later impeached and removed from office in part over claims he tried to sell the Senate seat to the highest bidder.
What happened to flight 3407? We're digging deeper into the search for clues. Also this...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The degree of self-destruction and anti- social behavior at the end, of really scary behaviors, was just phenomenal. And at some point, after you look at all of those records, you U.S. troops have to wonder, What does a mass murderer have to do to get noticed?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: You probably are looking at that face, going, How do I know that guy? Well, we're going to tell you. Warning signs, too many of them missed -- one year after a Valentine's Day rampage at Northern Illinois University, chilling clues into the mind of the shooter, a special investigation you'll see only here on CNN.
Also, we want you to be part of our show tonight. Make sure you log onto Twitter, FaceBook, MySpace or iReport.com. Tell us what you're thinking. Your responses will show up on the air.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAREN WIELINSKI, HOME DESTROYED IN PLANE CRASH: You know, I shouted first, in case anybody was out there and then just kind of pushed what was on me, part of that off, and crawled out the hole. I had heard, like, you know, a woman crying. And I -- when I came out of the hole, you know, the back of the house was gone. You know, the fire had started. I could see the wing of the plane. And Jill (ph) was over to the side, you know, crying, of course, hysterical. To me, it looked like the plane just came down in the middle of the house, and unfortunately, that's where (INAUDIBLE) He was a good person. Loved his family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Oh, man! Can you imagine being in the house and that happening and then losing your husband? Unbelievable.
Well, now medical examiners have begun removing the bodies. I just want to tell you that was Karen Wielinski. She's the wife of Doug Wielinski, the man killed on flight 3407 when it crashed into the house.
And as I was saying, the medical examiners now have begun removing the bodies from the site of that Thursday night plane crash near Buffalo. The process will probably take several days. That's what the NTSB says. They also say visual inspection of both engines appears to show they were both working at the time of the crash. A more thorough picture of what went wrong won't emerge until inspectors separate the plane wreckage from the house it fell on.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHEALANDER: It's a tough scene because you've got a house and an airplane and people all together in this one -- this one wreckage. So it's a very painstaking process, and they're working sometimes with just small, little instruments just to knock pieces of dirt off and get pieces of airplane, and so forth.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: So we're digging deeper into this story tonight, going over the mechanics, the weather at the time, all of it. I want to turn now to our Bonnie Schneider. Bonnie, when the crash happened, it was cold, it was snowy. And they were dealing with some factors that could contribute, could mean ice. Tell us what the weather was like and how that might have contributed to it.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Don, we can show you -- or I want to show you a radar loop of what it looked like last night when we had the plane crash. There's the crash site. And notice the winds coming from the southwest. That allowed more of what you see on the map in the color pink, more of the moisture that's kind of a mix between rain and snow appear on the map. So you can see that behind me, as well. The winds coming from the southwest added more of a moist flow.
Now as we come back to the graphics, I want to show you that we're experiencing now different weather in Buffalo. Winds are coming from the northwest, so you have cold air aloft and cold air at the surface. The problem is, when you look at this region of the country and you talk about areas and percentages of when you see the most ice -- check this out really quick. The Great Lakes region right through here is where you have 50 percent of the time, you have icy conditions aloft. And that's because of the moisture from the Great Lakes, Don. So geographically speaking, this part of the country is really at risk for icy weather in terms of landing and also ascent.
LEMON: So that deicing and all of that, you've got to be really careful in that area when it comes to dealing with that.
SCHNEIDER: That part of the country, yes. Wet clouds.
LEMON: All right. Bonnie, thanks. We'll check back a bigger forecast in just a bit. We appreciate that.
As I said, we're digging deeper into this crash, so let's dig even further into the horrific plane crash near Buffalo. Justin Green is an aviation attorney. He's litigated dozens of major aviation cases. He's also a former military pilot, and he holds a commercial pilot's license. So Justin, you are -- you can definitely talk to us about that.
I have a lot of questions, so let's get through these very quickly. We're hearing that it could have been, and most probably it was, ice. In your estimation, what do you think it was?
JUSTIN GREEN, PILOT, AVIATION ATTORNEY: Well, I'd just like to say to start that, you know, it's really too early to say with any sort of certainty what caused the accident, and it's really not fair to the pilots and passengers and to the other victims on the ground.
LEMON: But looking at the probability and all of the factors that were going on -- the wet snow, the ice, and all of that.
GREEN: But I will say that they clearly were in icing conditions, and from what the NTSB has released so far, the pilots knew they had encountered icing conditions. And there seems to be indications that they had decided to fly out of the conditions, but they apparently made that decision too late.
LEMON: OK, so you fly out. And you know, I've been on planes, Justin, when they've had to be deiced two times, and depending on -- I think once even three times, depending on how long you sit on a runway. Do you know what in that area -- like, what they do, I mean, how many times this plane was deiced, if it was deiced?
GREEN: Well, the ice didn't happen on the ground. This is -- the ice occurred in the air. And as you heard, the icing conditions at the time were very bad.
LEMON: But the chemicals are still on the plane. I mean, even when it's deiced and the ice goes away, the chemicals remain on the plane, thus keeping, you know, ice from building up, even when the plane is in the air, correct?
GREEN: At some -- to some degree, but not -- not in the icebox, was what pilots call the Buffalo area. And the rime ice that forms on the leading edges of the wing and the leading edges of the vertical fin is -- and the horizontal stabilizer is not going to be controlled by the remains of the chemicals they put on on the ground.
LEMON: OK. So -- all right. So were they too low to the ground in order for the pilot or the co-pilot to sort of do some correction, or that's not so? GREEN: Well, what happens -- I mean, obviously, they were not because I believe that this pilot was very experienced and would have saved the aircraft, if he could. But what you have to understand how severe an emergency this can be. You know, there's two types of stalls. You could have a stall -- a wing stall, which all you have to do is add power, drop the nose, and you should fly out of it. The other type of stall you could have is a horizontal stabilizer stall, which is the T-tail at the back of the aircraft.
LEMON: OK.
GREEN: That's going to pitch the aircraft over. And the emergency procedure for that is not drop the nose, add power, like it is a wing stall.
LEMON: OK.
GREEN: It's actually to pull the flaps up and pull back on the power. If you do the emergency procedure that you do for a wing stall and you have a tail stall, you're going to exacerbate the problem.
LEMON: OK, I have really, Justin, five seconds here because I have to run. But is it a different sort of training for the prop plane as to -- or a plane that has an engine, a bigger type engine?
GREEN: Well, the anti-icing is different.
LEMON: OK.
GREEN: This uses is a boot, and you really have to stay ahead of the aircraft with regard to icing.
LEMON: OK. So you've got to be even -- I don't know...
GREEN: More vigilant. More vigilant.
LEMON: That's what I was looking for. Justin, thank you. We appreciate it.
GREEN: Thank you.
LEMON: All right.
Well, you knew this was coming. Postage is going up, and we'll tell you when and how much.
Also, bottoms up to the bad economy. Lots of people are going the back to school, bartending school, to try to recession-proof their career. We'll have that coming up for you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: No mail for you! Remember that? Oh, we're going to talk about the Post Office. And you knew it was coming. Stamp prices are going up again. In May -- in May, first class postage will jump from 42 to 44 cents. The Postal Service blames rising production costs. But as a spokesman points out, you can buy "forever stamps" -- "forever stamps" -- at the current price and use them, and you guessed it, that price will last forever. So you knew it was going to happen, so no more mail for you, maybe, if you don't pay the price of that postage.
Not much of a Valentine's Day for California lawmakers. They're scheduled to meet in a couple of hours to vote on tax increases and budget cuts. But big increases and big cuts they're talking about. The state faces a $42 billion budget deficit. And as CNN's Kara Finnstrom reports, nobody's happy about any of the options.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BOB TURNER, FURNITURE STORE OWNER: This is what I like, the smell of the wood, the feel of the letters -- I mean, the feel of this -- of this -- this is -- this is -- this is just -- doesn't get any better.
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bob Turner an Avan's (ph) Furniture go way back. Turner started working here at age 15 and has owned the store for 20 years. He says its future has never been more uncertain.
BOB TURNER: This is uncharted waters. We've never seen months that were so slow. People just aren't coming in the store. And the ones that do come in, they look around, but it's just easy not to buy furniture right now.
FINNSTROM: And Turner says California's proposed state budget could make matters even worse. One key measure, a hike in the state sales tax by 1 percentage point. Turner says at high-end stores like his, it's another deterrent for already skittish customers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just wondering I this was a little bit more money than this one.
FINNSTROM: Avan's, which delivers its own furniture, would also feel the slap of a proposed 12 cent jump in the gasoline tax.
BOB TURNER: The cost of us delivering furniture is something that we can't pass on to the customer. The cost of running these trucks is just huge.
FINNSTROM: Turner's other concern, the budget's proposed massive cuts to education. Two of his four boys are in California colleges.
BOB TURNER: There's fewer classes. There seems to be fewer teachers. And it's difficult to get the classes that they need.
FINNSTROM: UCLA economist Dan Mitchell says the proposed budget cuts are deep and widespread.
DAN MITCHELL, UCLA ECONOMIST: You are a school teacher who's laid off, you're certainly going to feel the pain. If you are a person with a disability, now you have problems getting a health care provider. And so yes, you're going to see -- you're going to see real pain in a lot of these programs.
FINNSTROM: And the pain will be much worse if the federal stimulus package doesn't provide the relief state lawmakers are counting on. So Bob Turner and his wife, Ann, are seeking solutions. She's going back to school to be a chef.
ANN TURNER, GOING BACK TO SCHOOL: All of our eggs are in one basket, and the way the economy is right now, if, heaven forbid, something did happen with the furniture store, then we're just all down the tubes.
FINNSTROM: And he's trimming employee hours, switching to energy-efficient lightbulbs.
BOB TURNER: And we changed them all out to compact fluorescent.
FINNSTROM: And just hanging on.
BOB TURNER: It's just getting to be an unbelievable quantity of things that we have to deal with and be profitable.
FINNSTROM: Kara Finnstrom for CNN, Lancaster, California.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right, Kara. Appreciate that .
One year out, police investigating the Northern Illinois University massacre one year out have yet to release their report, so CNN does its own investigating, unraveling the mind of a killer.
Also, what was really behind Lincoln's quest to free the slaves? The answer might surprise you. We'll take a closer look at the two faces of Lincoln.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK ELLIS, FRIEND OF CRASH VICTIM: We go to places that I could only dream of. Every time she would go she would do things spiritually to bring her closer to the earth, to bring her closer to God.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CNN NEWS ANCHOR: Rick Ellis remembering his friend, Susan Whaley, one of the passengers killed on flight 3407 on Thursday night. The 55-year-old woman who helped lead prayers at her synagogue was returning to Buffalo after a vacation.
We have new details now on the crash of flight 3407. Despite earlier reports, the National Transportation Safety Board says the Continental Connection commuter plane does not appear to have gone nose first into a home in Clarence Center, just outside of buffalo. The investigators say the tail, nose, and wing tip positions appear to indicate the plane was flat on the ground.
The prevailing theory is a rapid accumulation of ice on the wing. The NTSB says warning devices in the plane alerted the crew to a potential stall, indicating the craft was losing aerodynamic lift. Losing aerodynamic lift -- I'm sure we're going to hear a lot about that over the coming days and months. Ice on the wings can suddenly and dramatically reduce a plane's ability to fly.
The plane crash near buffalo was no survivable. It would be a mistake to assume all plane crash victims are doomed. Statistically more than 75 percent of passengers do survive. Mental attitude is often the difference between life and death.
Ben Sherwood has studied survivors of all kind in all kinds of situations. His observations and conclusions are the subjects of the book "The Survivors Club."
Ben Sherwood joins us from Los Angeles.
Thank you for joining us. We hear about the accidents. The ones we've heard of before this one, everybody on board the plane survives. That's usually what happens. This one was unusual, not survivable. But there is hope if aren't fortunate enough to be in a plane crash.
BEN SHERWOOD, AUTHOR, "THE SURVIVOR'S CLUB": It was a terrible crisis two nights ago. A terrible disaster and nobody had a chance. But the statistics about air plane safety are very persuasive. 76 percent of the passengers in serious crashes make it out alive. What you do or do not do in one of those emergencies can make the difference between surviving and not surviving.
LEMON: What you do and not do really comes at the very beginning of the flight when we all should be paying attention. But, Mr. Sherwood, not everybody does and that can make all of the difference.
SHERWOOD: That's true. 60 percent of us get on the plane, put on our earphones, look at our Blackberrys, read a magazine and try to go to sleep. We pay no attention to the safety briefings. We treat traveling in an airplane like riding on a bus.
The truth is, you should be looking for your primary and back-up exit. You should have a plan in the event of a crisis. And you should know that the first three minutes of flight and the last eight minutes, that's when 80 percent of the accidents happen. What you do in those instances, your intention, your actions can save your life. You only have 90 seconds to get off the plane in a survivable crash. 90 seconds. Every second counts.
LEMON: You said it's a myth of hopelessness.
SHERWOOD: The myth of hopelessness is we think that air plane crashes are not survivable. The Continental flight the other night, TWA 800, Pan Am 103, these are the crashes that get a lot of attention where no one had a chance. They're terrible, terrible tragedies. But 76 percent of the passengers on serious crashes can get out, as I said earlier. In fact, if you look at all of the accidents, 95 percent of the passengers on all accidents actually survive.
LEMON: Let's talk about the safety of flying. We hear it is safer than driving. While we know that, we know that. But you feel like you're helpless when you're up in the air and you really can't do anything. Yes, flying is safer than driving, especially if you're flying on a big engine, one of those jet planes. That's safer than flying on a prop plane, like it was the other night.
SHERWOOD: The statistics on jet travel are really incredible. You have a one in 60 million chance of perishing on your next jet flight, one in 60 million. You could travel everyday for the nest 164,000 years before you would, on average, die in a crash.
The statistics for turboprops are different. According to an MIT professor who has crunched these numbers, the leading expert, you have a one in five billion chance on a turboprop. There's a significant difference jet travel and a turboprop like that that crashed the other night.
LEMON: OK. Ben Sherwood, thank you.
And I want to say Ben Sherwood, the author of this book, "The Survivor's Club." But also as a television producer, covered a number of plane crashes, so he has some expertise on this.
And we appreciate you joining us. Thank you, Ben Sherwood.
SHERWOOD: Thanks.
LEMON: We've been asking you for your feedback and here is some of it.
One viewer writes -- Ralph something -- I can't read your name, so sorry. Make it easier for me next time. It says, "Going with ice and air, the accumulation should have been noted and accounted for. A shame for the families and WNY."
Also, another, Tbar, says, "I can't wait until the president signs this bill. At least I can hope to start working soon."
That's about the stimulus package, obviously.
Another viewer writes, "I'm an NIU mom. Red flags always make me sense, in hindsight. Not everyone with mental problems or troubled behavior becomes a killer."
Another viewer writes, "Can you go into the details that were released in the NTSB interview at 4 p.m., thanks.
OK, well, 4:00 p.m. is over. We'll try to go into it a little later, maybe 7:00 for you.
Another viewer writes, "I suspect I won't ever see any stimulus money unless it's leaving my hands to pay it off." There you go. Be a part of our show. Log on to Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or ireport.com and tell us what you're thinking. We'll try to get your responses on the air.
We've been observing the 200th birthday of President Lincoln. We want to tell you about "A Tale of Two Lincolns." Known as the great emancipator, but what was really behind Abraham Lincoln's quest to end slavery? You might be surprised.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A big week for history buffs and students of current events. The nation paused to mark the 200th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birth. The observance included a wreath laying ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial and President Barack Obama and the first lady attending anniversary events in Washington and also in Illinois.
As the first African-American president, Mr. Obama says he feels a special gratitude towards Lincoln, who issued the emancipation proclamation, calling on slaves to be freed.
Both presidents, Obama and Lincoln, served in the Illinois State Legislature about 150 years apart.
But we think of him as one of the most aggressive figures when it comes to racial equality. But was he? Maybe he was. The answer might surprise you. Take a look at this.
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LEMON (voice-over): History has been kind to the 16th president. Monuments erected, even teachers of history place him on or near the top.
(on camera): So who do you think the greatest American president is?
DR. JOHN SELLERS, LINCOLN CURATOR, LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: Abraham Lincoln?
LEMON: Why?
SELLERS: For the ideals for which he fought and stood and successfully reached.
LEMON (voice-over): Students extol his virtues, from honesty...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honest Abe.
LEMON: ... to liberty.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The father Abraham, the great emancipator, come on, how many do you want? I could keep going.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One of the greatest presidents ever. I don't know.
LEMON: Was he really the American hero that we've come to know?
(on camera): You believe, though, that he felt in his heart of hearts, that he felt blacks should be equal to whites?
CRAIG SYMONDS, CIVIL WAR AND NAVAL HISTORIAN: I think he felt as much as any human being of his generation felt. There was embedded racism in the United States in the middle of the 19th century, of course, for most of the rest of the 19th century as well. It was so powerful that to pull one's self out of that by simply intellectual consideration, was an astonishing thing. I think Lincoln came as close to that as anyone that I know.
LEMON (voice-over): History tells us that even as president, Lincoln did not believe blacks should be allowed to vote.
Lincoln Scholar Henry Louis Gates says, "Lincoln's reason for ending slavery were not as morally pure as many of us may have been taught. For one thing, he needed more men to fight on the Union side in the Civil War."
HENRY LOUIS GATES, LINCOLN SCHOLAR: But he also thought that it discriminated against poor white mean, that slavery, as practiced in the United States, discriminated against men like his father, who was a dismal economic failure in the slave state of Kentucky precisely because he couldn't compete against other white men, who had the free labor of slaves.
LEMON: Lincoln, at times, advocated shipping blacks off to colonies in Panama and Haiti to start their own society.
SYMONDS: I think, as a professional historian, and as a society, we need to be realistic in assessing who he was. He was a human being. He was embedded in the 19th century context. But his able to rise above that is something that we should give him credit for.
LEMON: It was a black man, Abolitionist Frederick Douglas, who helped to advance the president's views on race and slavery. Eventually, even led him to consider giving blacks the right to vote.
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LEMON: All this week I've been sitting around and talking to folks who talked about Lincoln. One person is a former secretary of state, Colin Powell. He is a pioneer in his own right. I asked for his impressions on President Lincoln.
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GEN. COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: There is no question he was one of the greatest presidents, not just the great emancipator. He had a more important role than just to emancipate the slaves. He had to keep the country together. That was his first goal, to preserve the union. In the process of doing that, he emancipated the slaves as part of his efforts to preserve the union. And we should thank him for preserving the union and emancipating the slaves.
It's unfortunate that we lost President Lincoln because I think the old Reconstruction period would have been entirely different. The great tragedy is that our country, after that war that preserved the union and ended slavery, was able to slip back into a position of racism and Jim Crowe's segregation and all the terrible things that happened for the next 100 years, until we had the second more peaceful civil war, a more peaceful civil war led by Dr. Martin Luther King.
So I think Lincoln will always be seen as a great president. I regret that we lost him too soon.
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LEMON: That's only just a little bit of what Colin Powell and I talked about. You can see more of our conversation in a special news series. It's called "Up from a Past, African-American Firsts." That's tomorrow night at 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. eastern only on CNN. It's a very interesting conversation, very candid. You don't want to miss that.
How are the warning signs missed in all of this?
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The degree of self-destruction and anti- social behavior at the end of really scary behaviors was just phenomenal. At some point, after you look at all the records, you have to wonder, what does a mass murder have to do to get noticed?
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One year after a Valentine's Day shooting rampage at North Illinois University, chilling clues into the mind of the shooter. A special investigation you'll see only on CNN.
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LEMON: A grim anniversary at Northern Illinois University. Friends and family gathered today to remember the victims of last year's campus shooting massacre.
The shooter, a 27-year-old former student, killed five people and wounded 19 others on Valentine's Day before killing himself.
The university announced plans today for a memorial near the site. Five granite slabs surrounded by redwood, white oak, and evergreen trees.
The shooter was Steven Kismirchec (ph). The police file on his cam page has still not been released. Tonight, an exclusive CNN investigation reveals what may have fueled the massacre.
"Special Investigations Unit" Correspondent Abbie Boudreau has a preview of unraveling the mystery of the NIU killer.
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ABBIE BOUDREAU, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Behind the mask, is Steven Kismirchec (ph). He dressed up as Jigsaw's alter ego for Halloween in 2007. Jigsaw is the sadistic killer from the horror movies, "Saw."
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Heed my warning Agent Perez, your next move is critical.
Reporter1: Jigsaw tests his victims by teaching them the value of their lives by torturing them, and making them face possible death.
CNN has learned this would later be a clue that's important to understanding what happened, and why he walked into that classroom and opened fire.
DAVID VANN, AUTHOR & PROFESSOR: It's just amazing that he could that coldly plan to kill all those people.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was so calculated.
VANN: So calculated. Everything was planned out carefully.
Reporter1: David Vann is an author and professor. For nine months, he studied the shooting for a book he wrote about the murders. He wanted to find out if there really were no red flags, like NIU officials told the media right after the shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED NIU OFFICIAL: Actually, there were no red flags.
BOUDREAU: Vann says a law enforcement source gave him access to about 1,500 pages of the investigation. and Vann gave CNN exclusive access to those documents.
VANN: The degree of self-destruction and antisocial behavior at the send, of really scary behaviors was just phenomenal. And at some point, after you look at all of those records, you just have to wonder, what does a mass murderer have to do to get noticed.
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LEMON: That was our Abbie Boudreau, unraveling the mystery of the NIU killer. Much, much more tonight, 11:00 p.m. eastern, a special investigation only here on CNN.
Straight ahead, "The Situation Room" with Wolf Blitzer.
Wolf, what do you have for us?
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Don, we have a full hour of "The Situation Room" coming up at the top of the hours. Among my guests, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy. He wants to review some of the more controversial parts of the Bush administration over the past eight years.
Also, Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, he hates this economic stimulus package. He's here to explain why.
And we'll shift gears and speak to Andre Leon Talley. He's editor at large over at "Vogue" magazine. He's got the inside story on the new cover, the first lady, Michelle Obama.
All that and a lot more coming up right here in "The Situation Room."
Don, back to you.
LEMON: All right, Wolf. Appreciate that. We'll be looking for it.
Looking for work? You might want to belly up to the bar.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is about the worst I've seen out there and about the best I've seen in here.
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LEMON: Bottoms up in a down economy. For at least one industry, recession means opportunity. And, no, we're not telling you to hit the bottle, not at all
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LEMON: All right. Well, maybe this one is recession proof. It's bottoms up, as the economy goes down. The financial crisis may be driving some to drink, but it's driving others to look behind the bar for a new career.
CNN's Lola Ogunnaike explains.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The worse the economy gets, the more people drink.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're actually going to make more as a bartender probably than a financial adviser.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got about 250 resumes in one day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is about the worst I've seen out there and about the best I've seen in here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I go and pick up what? Whisky.
LOLA OGUNNAIKE, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPODENT: So across the country, enrollment at bartender schools is up.
JOSEPH BRUNO, DIRECTOR, AMERIAN BARTENDERS SCHOOL: Yes.
OGUNNAIKE: Here, business is booming too. BRUNO: Yes. Things have picked up enormously. We're up a third in enrollment. We're very happy to be accommodating the people that need to go to work.
OGUNNAIKE: How much can a bartender make an hour?
BRUNO: There are bartenders that make upward of $500 a shift.
OGUNNAIKE: $500 a shift?
BRUNO: Yes.
OGUNNAIKE: I'm in the wrong line of business.
Now, I don't mean to pry, but I am a journalist, and can you give me a ballpark figure how much you make a week or how much you make a year?
UNIDENTIFIED BARTENDER: On a good week, I make about 16 to 17 a week.
OGUNNAIKE: You've got to show me how to make some drinks.
Shake it like a Polaroid picture. Back up.
Toe honest, tell me what you think?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Delicious. I taste Asian influences.
OGUNNAIKE: A little Lola love in there.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can see that. I can taste that. I like it.
OGUNNAIKE: If times ever got really tough, would you consider being a bartender?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely!
OGUNNAIKE: Is there a recession cocktail?
BRUNO: A recession cocktail, yes. Tap water.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Breaking news just in to CNN. We want to go to Chicago now and our Suzanne Malveaux. She has some news on the president and when he's going to sign that stimulus plan.
Take it away, Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN NEWS CORRESONDENT: Hey, Don. We've learned from two senior administration officials that he's going to sign the economic stimulus plan on Tuesday and it's going to be out of Denver. The reason why, they want to get the president out of Washington, out of the food fight between the Democrats and Republicans, and show him in a setting where they say that this will really benefit ordinary folks, Americans.
They believe that he is a very good communicator, when he gets out in front of those crowds and actually tells them why this is going to work for them. That is one of the reasons why Denver is the backdrop.
Denver, as a city, has diversified its economy successfully, so that they have energy, bioscience, these type of things. All of these things, according to one senior administration official, at a place that will see the benefits of the bill in hiring workers.
This is all part of the argument that the president is making, Don, that his economic stimulus package is going to create those nearly four million jobs. So that is why he's going to be in Denver on Tuesday.
LEMON: Very interesting, as we were talking about this reaching across the aisle and the president doing it. It's almost appeared, Suzanne, as if he's been on the campaign trail again this week, trying to sell the stimulus plan to the American public.
MALVEAUX: And it's one of those things that has really helped him tremendously when it comes to selling this plan. He is energized. He is excited. People are responding to him. And he also has a chance to interact and hear the stories from folks. We heard from the McDonalds guy who worked for four years there, asking for greater benefits. He was hugging a homeless woman, a secretary who was unemployed, showing that he cares, that he gets it. All of this, important in selling his economic stimulus package.
LEMON: CNN's Suzanne Malveaux breaking some news for us out of Chicago. Suzanne, we appreciate it.
Suzanne saying the president is going to sign that stimulus bill on Tuesday in Denver. 7:00, we'll update you on that and more information into the "CNN NEWSROOM."
Tonight, though, chilling details from a CNN special investigation. One year after the shooting massacre at Northern Illinois University, we're going inside the mind of a killer. So many warning signs missed. And you won't believe what you're going to see and hear tonight. "Unraveling the mind of a killer," tonight, 11:00 p.m. eastern, only here on CNN.
Make sure you joint us at 7:00 tonight, right after "The Situation Room." And of course, we'll be back here at 11:00 p.m. as well after "D.L. Hughley."
I'm Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. We'll see you again. Again, 7:00 and 11:00.
"THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer begins right now.
