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Details Emerge of Buffalo Plane Crash; Bill Clinton Supports Stimulus Plan; Calculating the Impact of the Stimulus Bill; Stimulating Schools and Education; Detroit Deadline Loomms Over Automakers; A New Way to Find Doctors; Wildfire Suspect Arrested
Aired February 16, 2009 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN HOST: Pushing forward with the plan to pull the economy out of the ditch. Tomorrow the president signs the stimulus, so then what? That's one question we're pushing forward today.
And it's turn around time for GM and Chrysler. What's their survival plan? It's due in D.C. tomorrow. The White House, gearing up for that, and so are we.
Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Well, we have some Stimulus 101 for you today. How much cash from the multi-billion-dollar Bill will go to you directly?
Also this hour, did a Texas high school fail eight of its students? Parents of special-needs students are flabbergasted. Why weren't they evacuated during a bomb scare? The principal's explanation: compassion.
Imagine $787 billion being thrown off a hotel balcony. Well, for weeks, all eyes were on the balcony, but now they're on the street. A day before President Obama signs his recovery and reinvestment plan, cities and towns, counties and states all over America are scrambling to get their share.
The signing ceremony takes place tomorrow in Denver at the city's Museum of Nature and Science. That's meant to highlight the coming investment in renewable energy.
Now, here's your piece of the pie. Trust me, it's in here somewhere. There's $212 billion in tax breaks; $267 billion in so- called direct aid, jobless benefits, health insurance, et cetera; and $308 billion for projects meant to spur the economy or further Democratic priorities.
Now, the tax breaks break down to a $400 credit for most workers, a patch in the dreaded alternative minimum tax, a temporary extension of the child tax credit, and new incentives for home and car buyers, and a boost in the higher education credit.
Now, here's where it gets interesting. Just about every locality in America has a wish list and a plan for its share of the stimulus. And as big as the package is, it can't fund everything.
We're going to be following the dollars in the weeks and months ahead, but let's start in Missouri, Montana and Nebraska.
The Show Me State has 34 transportation projects in the pipeline, expected to create some 14,000 jobs at a cost of $510 million.
Montana has a $3 billion list of projects and one potential bottleneck. The state constitution says the legislature has to make spending decisions, though lawmakers may try to fast-track the process.
Now, Nebraska, well, it stands to collect almost $279 million for roads, bridges and the like, but has $370 million worth of items on its to-do list. Stay tuned.
Well, for all the details that we've been bringing you -- I hope you got all of that -- there's got to be some things about the stimulus package that you still want to know. Right? So e-mail us at CNNnewsroom@CNN.com. Our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis, will track down some answers for you.
In fact, she's already been hard at work. Some questions that people have already sent in.
Just one, Gerri, here: how much will Unemployment and Food Stamp benefits be increased? That comes from Sharon in Florida.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Well, Sharon, let's start with those unemployment benefits. It will be extended and increased. There will be an additional 20 weeks, plus an additional 13 weeks if you live in a high jobless state.
Now, the benefits themselves will rise by about 25 bucks a week on top of the $300 per week that the average unemployed person gets right now. So you can see extended and raised.
The Bill includes a provision that would increase Food Stamp payments by 13.6 percent. So, for example, a family of four would see an additional 80 bucks on top of the $588 per month they receive currently.
And don't forget: an important part of the stimulus, the government will help you pay for health-insurance coverage if you were laid off between September 1 of last year and December 31 of this year. They're going to subsidize your COBRA payments by 65 percent for up to nine months. So that's an important part of the package -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Gerri. We've got lots of e-mails, as you can imagine. I know you'll be with us for the next two hours, taking those questions.
WILLIS: That's right.
PHILLIPS: Appreciate it, Gerri, so much. WILLIS: No problem.
PHILLIPS: And two of the Big Three U.S. carmakers are tightening the bolts on their long-term survival plans. At the White House, meanwhile, the president believes that overseeing the industry overhaul is too big a job for one person, even a czar.
CNN's Dan Lothian brings us up to speed now.
Hi, Dan.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello.
Well, you know, tomorrow is the date when General Motors and also Chrysler have to come back to the administration and say, "This is how we plan to pay back the billions of dollars that the government has extended to us. This is sort of the plan for the future that we have in terms of turning the auto industry around."
And as that is taking place, the administration is announcing that -- you know, they talked about having that car czar. Well, that would be one person who was going to oversee, from the administration's point of view, the restructuring and bringing some of the auto industry back to life.
Well, they're doing away with that notion of a car czar. And instead, they're putting together a task force. It will be headed up by Larry Summers, who's one of the top economic advisers for the president, and also Timothy Geithner over at treasury. And they'll also include people from the Energy Department, labor, transportation, even bringing in Ron Bloom, who's a nationally-recognized restructuring effort.
And the idea here at the White House, again, is to -- not to put all of this on the shoulders of one person, this car czar, but rather to spread it out over all these various experts who can deal with different parts of this big problem, which is to turn this auto industry around, which has been ailing now for so many years, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Dan Lothian, appreciate it.
So what would you ask the president? Well, in keeping with his pledge to have the most open and accessible administration in American history, Mr. Obama welcomes your comments at the White House Web site, WhiteHouse.gov. But you can also e-mail us. Here's what we started, MailToTheChief@CNN.com. We'll take your questions, pass them on to the White House, via the site, hopefully get answers. And we'll read them straight to you right here on the air.
Now more details are coming out about the last seconds of Flight 3407, and they're terrifying. Investigators studied the flight data and voice recorders over the weekend. The devices logged the plane's erratic, violent moves and the pilot's actions just before Thursday night's crash near Buffalo, New York.
CNN's Allan Chernoff has the latest. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A major focus of the investigation right now: how severe was the icing on Thursday night just outside the Buffalo Airport and also, should the pilots have kept the plane on autopilot?
Bombardier, the manufacturer of the Q400, actually recommends that pilots use the autopilot, even in icy conditions, unless the icy conditions are severe. And the indications we have thus far is that the icy conditions that night were actually not severe.
Now, we also do know quite a bit about the final seconds of this flight. And they are just absolutely horrifying. What the pilots did was they extended the wing flaps, as all pilots do. That is designed to give the plane a little lift as it slows down to approach for the landing.
But when the wing flaps were extended, something went terribly wrong. All of a sudden, the nose popped up 31 degrees, and then slammed down by 45 degrees. Just imagine that. Up, then down.
And the roll of the plane must have been horrifying. To the left, the plane rolled 46 degrees, and then all of a sudden to the right, by 105 degrees. That's beyond vertical.
Inside of the cabin, the passengers were pushed down by double the normal force of gravity. And the plane literally fell out of the sky, falling 800 feet in only five seconds. The final seconds must have been just simply terrifying.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, Buffalo, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And straight ahead, what's a former president to do now that his wife is on the world's center stage?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Would you ever be comfortable being a house husband?
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: No, I have to go to work. I'm too much of a Calvinist. If I don't work everyday I get nervous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: It's a good thing he likes to work. We're going to have more on our exclusive interview with Bill Clinton. John Roberts takes him on, just ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: A fireball streaks through the Texas skies. Was it falling space junk or something else?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Hillary Clinton is in Japan, the first stop of her first overseas trip as secretary of state. Her message: diplomacy under the Obama Administration will be vastly different from that of former President Bush. She said the emphasis will be on building international relationships to tackle such issues as the global energy crisis, climate change, and clean energy.
Clinton's trip may be overshadowed by a traditional issue: North Korea. Today is the 67th birthday of North Korea's autocratic leader Kim Jong-Il. The government is vowing to carry out another test firing of its longest-range missile.
Before leaving on the trip, Clinton had warned North Korea against any provocative action. The issue will likely be high on the agenda during Clinton's other stops in South Korea, China, and Indonesia.
And another longtime U.S. adversary celebrating today: Cuba. On this day 50 years ago Fidel Castro was sworn in as Cuban prime minister. That event came, of course, just a few weeks after Castro's guerrilla force toppled the Batista government on January 1, 1959.
So what about President Obama and his views on North Korea and Cuba? His tone is more conciliatory than former President Bush's. Mr. Obama has said that he's willing to hold direct talks with North Korea, possibly including Kim Jong-Il, but North Korea must agree to abandon its nuclear weapons.
Now, on Cuba, President Obama calls for more engagement with Havana, and he's indicated that he's willing to hold talks with Cuban President Raul Castro. Also, he's called for freedom for all Cubans.
Now with Hillary Clinton in Asia, what's husband Bill Clinton up to? Well, for one thing, he's talking with CNN's John Roberts on just about everything under the sun, including how President Obama is doing, if he sees himself as a good house husband, and some very spiffy cowboy boots.
John joins us now live from New York.
You know, there is a good boot shop in Austin where you were. Did he send you down this way?
ROBERTS: There's a lot of boot shops there. I bought a pair of boots not dissimilar to the ones that he has. I got them at a boot shop in Jersey, of all places.
But you know, he was down there hosting his Clinton Global Initiative University, at the University of Texas. He gathers young people together to try to figure out how to approach the problems of the world and give back to the community. So we the opportunity to sit down with him for 15 or 20 minutes and had a great conversation with him, too, Kyra. PHILLIPS: I know you started off with John McCain just recently coming forward and saying that Obama is off to a, quote, unquote, bad beginning. How did he respond to that, and did he say to you, you know, "If I were president," which many times he's done, "this is what I would do"?
ROBERTS: I've never known Bill Clinton to ever say, "If I were president, this is how I would do it."
PHILLIPS: If I were president right now. I should have specified. I know you're a stickler on words.
ROBERTS: No, no. I've never known him to say that more than five times in a single paragraph.
But the comment was made by John McCain with John King on "STATE OF THE UNION," in which he said that he believed that Barack Obama, the president, got off to a bad beginning with the way that he handled the stimulus bill, charging that the president did not reach out across the aisle to Republicans, embrace some of their ideas. He said, basically, all of the Republican ideas went down in a party line vote.
President Clinton, not surprisingly, completely disagrees with Senator McCain, believes that Senator Obama [SIC] did, in fact, reach out across the aisle, as I think history will show that he did. Were the Republican ideas fully considered? Well, that might be up for some debate.
But the president did take a moment to say that he thought that President Obama was doing exactly the right thing, and of course, he went into lengthy detail about why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: If I were in his position today, I'd be doing what he's doing. Why? Because the problem with the economy is the housing decline led to the general decline in values. Assets are going down. The only -- this stimulus is our bridge over troubled waters until the bank reforms kick in.
He did the right thing. He did everything he could to get Republican support. He took some of their tax cutting ideas.
But if you look at this bill, it is designed to do three things, and it does all three. It puts money in the hands of people who need money to survive. Unemployment benefits, Food Stamp benefits, tax cuts.
Second thing it does is to give money to state and local governments so they don't have to lay a million people off or raise taxes. Either one would be bad for the economy.
The third thing it does is create new jobs. And I think, given the Congress he had and the environment and the speed with which they had to move, I think he did a fine job with it. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Oh, John, he so wants to be president again. But aside from that, did he take any -- I guess there's been criticism that, look, we're in this bad economy not just because of the Republican administration. He was no angel, too, when it came to handling the economy. Did he take the hit?
ROBERTS: Well, you know, "TIME" magazine actually has an article out this week in which it names 25 people most responsible for the financial crisis. Bill Clinton is among those people, and he's among other such luminaries as Angelo Mozilo, the former head of Countrywide; Alan Greenspan; Christopher Cox, who heads up the SEC; Phil Gramm, who was one of the authors of the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which President Clinton signed. So they pointed at Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act as one of the reasons. Also the Commodities Future -- Futures Modernization Act and, as well, a community reinvestment act which encouraged people to loan money to people in lower-income neighborhoods so that they could own homes.
President Clinton said, listen, none of that had -- in his opinion, had anything to do with the financial crisis that we're in. He did say that if he had made one mistake, it would have been that they didn't more closely regulate or do something about those exotic financial instruments known as derivatives, which not even financial experts really fully understand.
But he did say that he didn't really believe that he set the stage for this. Some of the things that he signed into law, perhaps, have a little bit of a tripwire effect or trickle-down effect. Perhaps that might have happened.
But, you know, in the "TIME" magazine article, it's interesting that you can click on these -- these individual shots of these people, and they're up against like a police lineup, so they look like fugitives. He came in No. 23 out of 25. So not a lot of people ascribing a whole lot of blame to him for the straits that we're in now.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, let's step aside from policy for a minute and have a little fun. You know, a lot of us working women want to know this. And I know you asked him the question. Can he be a house husband? His wife is now taking center stage as secretary of state.
ROBERTS: She's over there. She's in Japan today. She's heading to China, Indonesia and South Korea, as well, to talk with leaders of the Asia Pacific region nations.
But "U.S. News & World Report" did -- commissioned a survey last week in which it asked a group of women, what do you think the proper role for President Clinton should be while Hillary Clinton is secretary of state? I asked him about that. Let's listen to the question-and-answer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBERTS: "U.S. News & World Report" this week commissioned a poll, surveyed a bunch of women in America, asking what role you should take on with your wife as secretary of state. Thirty-seven percent, the greatest number of women said, house husband. Wondering what you think about that?
CLINTON: Well, you know, it's funny. I told her when she left that I wished now that I was an ordinary citizen, because I wish I could go with her and be there when she comes home at night and do for her what she did for me when I was president. But it's not in the cards. I -- we're doing the best we can to work through this and do the right thing.
ROBERTS: Will you ever be comfortable being a house husband?
CLINTON: No, I have to go to work. I'm too much of a Calvinist. If I don't work every day I get nervous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: All right. And we have a feeling that behind closed doors, he may want to be offering his advice on a regular basis to his wife, which leads me to my next question, John. You know, Hillary Clinton is going to be surrounded by pretty well known men for big negotiations, like Senator Mitchell and Ambassador Holbrooke. You know, is he concerned that these guys might overshadow what his wife is going to want to do?
ROBERTS: Before I tell you the answer to that question, I should point out that yes he did, indeed, consult with his wife, Hillary Clinton, secretary of state, about her trip to Asia. So some of the thoughts and ideas that she's bringing with her came out of conversations with him.
As to the point about the envoys, yes, a lot of people have been thinking about this idea. You've got such high-profile people who are such strong personalities in their own right: Holbrooke, Mitchell, Dennis Roth. Also, Joe Biden gave that big speech in Munich on foreign policy the other weekend. Will she sort of get elbowed aside?
And he reminded me, saying, "You've got to remember, John, that she appointed these people. It was her idea to appoint them." She -- he believes that they're all going to work as a team. He says as long as there's not a lot of sharp elbows out there, they continue to work as a team, everything will be fine.
The only thing to watch for here is that those envoys will report both to the secretary of state and directly to President Obama. So we'll see if they can play as a team. We'll see if they play well together or if they start throwing a bunch of sharp elbows in foreign policy.
PHILLIPS: All right. And to wrap things up, I mean, we know that Hillary wears the pantsuits, right, and Bill wears the boots in the books. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC: "These Boots Are Made for Walking")
CLINTON: ... Democratic primary, and I made (UNINTELLIGIBLE). And Sylvester Reyes -- yes. Sylvester Reyes, the congressman from there, has been my friend for many years and knew I loved cowboy boots. And he took us into the airport hangar. We had the last rally and he had 50 boots out there.
So the student body gave me a pair of boots called 1883. That's the designation. And they have soft supports inside. It's almost like wearing running shoes. I felt like a wuss. They were almost too comfortable to be cowboy boot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So -- so I had to cut this clip, because we're watching your interview, and all of a sudden we hear him rambling about all his various pairs of cowboy boots. What did you ask him that got him going off on all his boots?
ROBERTS: Well, like many things with Bill Clinton, all you have to do is say "hello," and he gives you a five-minute answer. I said, "Hey, Mr. President. I like your boots." And I was about to say, "I've got a pair very similar to them, and they're the most comfortable pair of shoes I own." And it wasn't until about four and a half minutes later that I got a chance to tell him about my boots, because he went -- everything with President Clinton is a story, which is what makes him such a fascinating interview.
PHILLIPS: Yes.
ROBERTS: You can ask him any question, and he's got a great story for you.
It wasn't just me who was fascinated with the boots, either. Because the person who was standing in the shot there, that was Ann Curry from NBC, who was interviewing him after me. And she was there with her camera, taking the close-up pictures of his boots.
PHILLIPS: Yes, she's taking pictures of the boots. See, she wanted the boots, too. All right. Well, we like your interview better. John Roberts, thanks so much.
ROBERTS: Pleasure, Kyra. We'll see you again.
PHILLIPS: All right.
Well, important news for your health now. Consumer guide to rank America's top docs. Is yours one of them?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIKA HERRERA, DAUGHTER: He told me, "Look. Look up at the sky."
And I was like, "There's nothing there."
He said, "There was a ball of fire," but when I looked up in the sky, there was nothing there already.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Oh, it's the kind of sight that heats up emergency phone lines. You can see it right there. A fireball spotted in the skies over Dallas over the weekend.
A helicopter was actually sent up to look for any wreckage, but nothing was found. One thing we know, thought: it's not space junk, at least not any of that new stuff. And U.S. Strategic Command says that the burning object was not debris from the U.S. or Russian satellites that collided last Tuesday either. So Chad, what do you think?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And why are they saying that, you ask yourself? Because it wasn't moving as slowly as a Russian satellite junk would be moving. Only 8 kilometers an hour, or second, if it was space junk falling out of the sky.
But these meteors, these white meteors, these giant things hit the earth, hit the atmosphere much faster. Forty to 60 kilometers per second, and that was going faster.
PHILLIPS: So what do you think?
MYERS: It was a big meteor.
PHILLIPS: Definitely for sure?
MYERS: Definitely. They may not find any of it, though.
PHILLIPS: All right.
MYERS: They may not find enough of it, because there's probably nothing that actually hit the ground. But if you do find it, it's worth a lot of money. It's worth more than gold.
PHILLIPS: It is?
MYERS: For way -- oh, yes. Way, way more rare than gold.
PHILLIPS: OK. Well, we're all going to be in search for the meteor now.
MYERS: It would be nice if it was falling out in California, because then you could fall in the snow and you could actually see where it melted it.
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: All right. We'll track it. Thanks, Chad. Well, will it be a quick fix for the economy or at least put the brace on the recession? We're answering your questions on the stimulus plan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, this may be Presidents' Day, but President Obama's day is tomorrow. And that's when he's going to sign the stimulus package that he says will soften, maybe shorten the worst recession in generations. It will happen at the Museum of Nature and Science in Denver.
Tomorrow's also the day that General Motors and Chrysler have to show Washington their plans for profitability. Now, Mr. Obama is said to be planning a task force, not a car czar now, to oversee the carmakers' overhaul.
Well we asked you, what do you want to know about the stimulus package. Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis here to answer your email questions.
Gerri , let's get right to it. This one come from John. He says, "Will the $8,000 homeowners credit apply if I bought a house in October, 2008?"
WILLIS: Well, John, unfortunately you missed it by a couple of months. The $8,000 tax credit applies to homes bought between January 1st, 2009, just this year, and December 1st, 2009. Remember, tax credits reduce your taxes dollar for dollar. We usually talk about deductions, they reduce your taxable income. The good news is there's no requirement to pay the tax credit back as there was in the original version. It's temporary and refundable for first-time buyers.
So, John, you just missed the deadline.
PHILLIPS: Bummer.
All right, here's Janet in Missouri. She says, "I'm a homeowner, and I want to know what is the stimulus package going to do about people that are already in their homes and want to keep it? I have an adjustable rate and my payment could get so high I might not be able to make the payment."
WILLIS: Right. Janet, well, I feel your pain here. You know, we've been talking about what's in it for homeowners, and on Wednesday, President Obama's expected to make a statement about what's going to happen with homeowners, how they're going to help the housing crisis. And there's some suggestion out there the government will follow the FDIC's model. That's when governments were willing to stand behind loans, so banks were willing to make modifications to those loans. But we just don't know yet.
In the meantime, I have to tell you, mortgage interest rates are very, very low. You may be able to get a new loan out there right now, and not even have to wait for what the government wants to do. PHILLIPS: All right. One more for you, Gerri, if you don't mind. "Will we be getting a check in the mail with the stimulus package like the stimulus Bush gave us last year?"
WILLIS: Well, not so much. It's a tax credit, so you won't be getting a check in the mail.
Let's take a look at what that tax credit looks like. It's $400 for individuals, $800 for working couples, for 2009 and 2010. And this is - again, this is a tax credit for folks, for the singles who make $75,000 or less and couples who make $150,000 or less.
But no, you're not getting a big fat check. I think the government thinks you'll spend more money if you get it a little bit at a time.
PHILLIPS: All right. Gerri Willis answering your email questions for the next 90 minutes.
Again, Gerri, thank you so much. I appreciate it.
WILLIS: My pleasure.
PHILLIPS: Well, a big chunk of the president's stimulus package goes to education, and it couldn't come at a better time. Many cash- strapped school districts are facing painful cuts.
Our Kate Bolduan reports on what stimulus daughters - dollars, rather, could mean for them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The new secretary of education, Arne Duncan, toured an Arlington, Virginia, high school to make the pitch for why education dollars matter in the stimulus package.
ARNE DUNCAN, EDUCATION SECRETARY: There's nothing more important we can do than create facilities that our students need to learn and reach their full potential.
BOLDUAN: About $80 billion of the total $787 billion package goes toward K-12 public education. We went to Arlington School Superintendant Rob Smith to find out what that money means to his district.
(on camera): What in this school, as an example, could you use with stimulus - do with stimulus dollars?
ROBERT SMITH, SUPERINTENDANT ARLINGTON SCHOOLS: We know we need to do some work with the roof system.
BOLDUAN: OK.
SMITH: We know we need to put in a sprinkler system.
BOLDUAN: OK.
SMITH: And we know we need to rework the entire heating, ventilation, air-conditioning system. And that's the work that needs to be done. We know what we need to do, so we're ready to spend the money.
BOLDUAN (voice-over): Smith says, even without considering construction costs, Arlington schools are facing an $11 million to $18 million budget shortfall this year and they're looking at cutting everything from school books to busses to staff to make things meet.
Education leaders say school districts across the country are making this staple painful decisions.
ANNE BRYANT, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL SCHOOL BOARD ASSOCIATION: Our school boards tell us that they are facing shortages in terms of teacher layoffs, cutting programs. It's not just, you know, nice-to-do programs, it's the very core of teaching. It's the very core of raising student achievement.
BOLDUAN: And the very core of the argument for education stimulus dollars. But some experts, like Frederick Hess of conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute says, without reform any additional funding is throwing good money at a broken system.
FREDERICK HESS, AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE: Unfortunately, what we see in this package is what we've done for 40 years in education, which is more of everything. More technology, no guarantees that we're even going to think about how to use it to increase productivity.
BOLDUAN: Superintendant Smith disagrees. He says long-term change can't begin if they don't survive the short-term.
(on camera): Arlington public schools, like districts across the country, is still waiting to hear how much money it might get from the stimulus. This is one of the district's 34 schools you can be sure is fighting for its own piece of the pie.
Kate Bolduan, CNN, Arlington, Virginia.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: When it comes to Detroit, the keyword, viability. GM and Chrysler have until tomorrow to file their plans to stay afloat with the Treasury Department.
Susan Lisovicz in New York with more on the looming deadline.
Hey, Susan.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.
We knew that deadline would come around quick and it is. They have to prove, General Motors and Chrysler, must prove to the government by tomorrow that they have a worthy turn-around plan. Otherwise, there's the serious risk that one or both could do the previously unthinkable and that is file for bankruptcy.
GM received nearly $13.5 billion from the government in late December, while Chrysler received $4 billion. And conditions in the industry have gotten considerably worse in the weeks since then as job losses mount. The deepening recession cut their car sales in half last month.
"The Wall Street Journal" reports GM is poised to offer the government two options. Neither of them would come cheap. The first would call for the Treasury to commit billions more in bailout money to fund the carmakers' operations. The other is to guarantee some of GM's debt as part of a bankruptcy filing. Some argue that reorganizing under bankruptcy protection is actually the best way for the company to slash costs and eventually return to profitability. But it could lead to more job cuts. And GM announced just last week there would be 10,000 workers that would lose their jobs.
The viability plans are supposed to include concessions from all groups tied to the automakers, including their workers. But GM's talks with the UAW broke off late Friday due to conflicts over healthcare benefits for retirees. The talks are resumed yesterday, continuing today, but no word on if the two sides are making any progress. Suppliers are included in the concession talks as well. And in the last couple of hours, we've received word that nearly 800 jobs are being cut at the steering division of Delphi.
Meanwhile, the Obama Administration not expected to appoint one person as the so-called car czar but rather create a presidential task force on autos overseen by Treasury Secretary Geithner and Larry Summers, whose the chairman ever the National Economic Council.
As for Wall Street, well, GM shares finished at $2.50, Kyra. This was a stock that was trading at $90 a decade ago. Financial markets closed today in observance of Presidents' Day. When they reopen tomorrow, the Dow will be coming off its worst weekly performance on a percentage basis since the average hit its bear market lows in late November. The Dow is now down 10.5 percent this year - Kyra.
PHILLIPS: It's tough. We'll keep talking, Susan. Thanks.
LISOVICZ: You've got it.
PHILLIPS: Roland Burris is the new U.S. Senator in Illinois for one month now, but controversy isn't fading away. Illinois Republican leaders are calling on him to resign. This happened after Burris acknowledged he was asked to give money to former governor Rod Blagojevich's campaign. Burris says that he refused and he says he didn't mention it, despite being asked at the governor's impeachment hearing if he had spoken with associates of the governor. Burris says that today he's done everything required of him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. ROLAND BURRIS (D), ILLINOIS: There was no change of any of our testimony. We've followed up, as we've promised the impeachment committee. We have done everything here that we said that we were going to do. So, the information has been reported in terms of the - that this was done because of - there was a Fed statement, is absolutely, positively not true.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Illinois Republican State Representative Jim Durkin isn't buying a word of it.
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JIM DURKIN (R), ILLINOIS STATE HOUSE: It's very disturbing and it's very sad that we're still continuing on with this matter. But the fact is, Mr. Burris not only swore under oath before the committee that he would tell the truth, but he submitted two affidavits to this committee. And each one of them is inconsistent with the other. At some point in state government, we're going to have to tell people that when you get before a committee and that you are sworn in to tell the truth, we're going to take it serious.
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PHILLIPS: Blagojevich was accused of trying to sell President Obama's old Senate seat. He appointed Burris to the seat before he was removed from office.
Well, you've heard, of course, of ranking restaurants and hotels, but doctors? We're going to tell you how one woman's obsession with finding the best physicians could benefit you.
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PHILLIPS: Well, Peanut Corporation of America, the company blamed for the nationwide salmonella scandal, is taking steps to protect itself from liability. The company has filed for bankruptcy protection and that could limit the ability of consumers who got sick or whose loved ones died to recover damages. The Consumer's Union says that the company's maneuvering underscores the need for Congress to give the FDA more muscle to impose fines and penalties.
And you know about her tell-all restaurant guides, now Nina Zagat focusing attention on ranking a more serious subject: Doctors. What impact could that have on your healthcare? Well, Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to talk about on what she's planning on doing.
I mean, we always look at Zagat - or Zagat or - I always have to remember.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's like tomato, tomato.
PHILLIPS: Yes, Zagat, exactly. And to look at restaurants and know where to go. And now all of a sudden, healthcare?
COHEN: Right?
PHILLIPS: I mean, what gives her that type of ability to do that?
COHEN: Because she asks patients what they think. She doesn't go to the doctors herself, she asks patients what they think. It's really similar to the "Zagat's Guides For Restaurants." So, patients can go online and say, I saw Dr. Smith and here's what I think. And they give ratings.; Angie's list does that - you see it there. Yelp does it; several sites are doing it these days.
The difference with Zagat's is that it's only available to customers of WellPoint, which is a health insurance company. So not everyone will be able to read these, but certainly there are plans for expansion.
PHILLIPS: OK, but how do you know you can really trust the sites, because you don't really know all the people that are making the comments?
COHEN: That's right. So, like, if I wanted a doctor and I asked you, I would trust your recommendation because I know you and you're a reasonable person.
PHILLIPS: Sometimes.
COHEN: Sometimes. But when you go online, you have no idea who these people are and that's why doctors are not huge fans of these sites. So, I wrote a whole "Empower Patient" about this, about how to sort of decipher these ratings online.
So take a look at two pieces of advice. First of all, you want to look for specific things that people are saying. So if someone says, for example, Dr. Smith operated on my right leg when he was supposed to operate on my left leg, that might be a red flag that you want to pay attention to. Because that's very specific. But if you get a generality like, boy, Dr. Smith is a jerk, that's probably something worth ignore, unless you see it repeated by several hundred people. A doctor who is a jerk for one person might be fabulous for another person.
So, you can get more tips on how to read these ratings and make sure that they're trustworthy if you go to cnn.com/empowerpatient.
PHILLIPS: Well, that's true. Jerks attract jerks. Anyway, that's another story.
But what if the doctor, him or herself, could go on and write all these amazing things about themselves or a disgruntled employee could go on there and completely try and sabotage one of the doctors. I mean, how do you avoid that?
COHEN: That, you know what? That can happen and I'm sure that that does happen. But these sites that - they have software so that maybe you can go on once and write something glowing or go on once and trash the doctor. But if you do it over and over they're going to catch you. So a lot of people worry that some - I don't know, the doctor's ex-wife is going to go on and write 30 different things trashing him. The software will catch that.
PHILLIPS: That would not be good.
COHEN: Right. They say the software will catch that. You can do it once, but you can't do it more than once or else they'd catch you.
PHILLIPS: Well, it's pretty interesting.
COHEN: It is.
PHILLIPS: They're moving from the restaurant into the medical field. We'll follow it.
Thanks, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
PHILLIPS: Well, new developments in those raging fires Down Under. Police now have a suspect in custody, we'll tell you about it.
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PHILLIPS: Tempers are running high Down Under. Authorities arrested a 39-year-old man believed to have set at least one of the fires that has scorched southwestern Australia. A judge has ruled that Brendan Sokaluk's face cannot be shown by the media, nor can his address be reported, but it's still circulating across the Internet. He's accused of starting a fire that killed at least 21 people. The death toll from the wildfires has climbed to 189. Many people died after waiting too late to flee those flames while trying to save their homes.
The number of fires burning has dropped, but it's still a dicey situation. Firefighters dealing with the hot, dry conditions. Chad Myers, of course, is following it for us.
And you know, Chad, the judge made the order not to release his name and address, but as you can imagine, all the people that are pretty ticked off. I mean, he's been getting death threats and all his information is circling across the Internet.
MYERS: Yes. Four thousand people on Facebook on one page trying to get him to be tortured by the government. I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen. But somebody else putting on a $10,000 reward on his head. So, yes, people are quite angry. Well, 200 people are dead from this.
And this was all in the area down here. The fires here. There are more fires in the northern part, but we're talking about Melbourne in the Victoria region, here, and especially around Churchill. That one of the towns that was really the hardest hit. This picture still from the weekend. And every one - every little red dot you see here, that's still a fire burning. That is a hot spot that has been looked at and seen from the satellite picture, identified as still a hot spot. And then the smoke, all weekend, was actually blowing right toward Melbourne, the town right through there. So they could see that haze in the sky and, you know, affecting the sunsets and probably some choking smoke still on the ground as well, although now mixing up a little bit. And we've showed this picture a couple weeks ago, and the number of fires and the smoke was exponentially greater. So they are getting a handle on it, but it's just taken them a very long time - Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, Chad, appreciate you tracking it for us.
Well, it's an agonizing decision for homeowners in the path of a wildfire. Should they run or stay to fight the fires? California has been actually been studying Australia's so-called "Stay and Defend" policies. But now, new questions in light of this month's staggering death toll there.
CNN's Kara Finnstrom takes a look.
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SCOTT GARRETT, LAKE ARROWHEAD RESIDENT: You could hear it coming. And the roar, it sounded like a jet.
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Scott Garrett knew a fire storm was barreling towards his Lake Arrowhead home.
GARRETT: And the wind was blowing like crazy. And all the embers then started raining down.
FINNSTROM: But early on, he chose to fight the fire.
GARRETT: We took my hose and ran it up and we were hooking it from house to house.
FINNSTROM: Garrett's choice is in controversial in the U.S.; a part of firefighting policy in Australia. Supporters of Australia's "Leave Early or Stay and Defend" credit it with saving lives and homes. But now new questions as Australia investigates its deadliest ever bush fires, as they're known down under. Authorities say at least 181 people died, some defending their homes, others trapped in cars. Australia designed its policy to prevent risky last-minute evacuations. Homeowners got extensive training on protecting their homes and fighting fire.
Here in southern California, where firefighting resources are stretched thin and the fire season is long and intense, fire officials in seven different counties have been taking a close look at Australia's approach.
CHIEF BOB ROPER, VENTURA COUNTY FIRE CHIEF: You make the decision before a fire even starts.
FINNSTROM (voice-over): Ventura County Fire Chief Bob Roper reviewed the policy.
ROPER: But only stay and defend if you've done your pre-work to make sure your house is safe.
FINNSTROM: Roper is spearheading a task force that is looking into whether Australia's methods could work here. He says many Californians know there are not enough trucks to defend their rural homes.
ROPER: More and more people are staying and wanting to try to defend their property.
FINNSTROM: But while many fire authorities applaud preparedness, they do not support homeowner defense.
CHIEF MICHAEL FREEMAN, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: And we've had too many close calls, we've had sadly firefighters who have been killed by a wall of fire in a wind-driven fire. Now, these are experienced trained individuals.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't want to put residents in harm's way that way. So, the best thing to do is to make sure they leave early.
FINNSTROM: That battalion chief met with community members last week in Yorba Linda where fire destroyed 118 homes in November and where homeowners want advice from the fire department on how to protect their property.
And Scott Garrett of Lake Arrowhead, he did save his home.
GARRETT: Obviously, I feel pretty good that my home is still here.
FINNSTROM: But the grim realities of Australia show how very real the risk can be.
Kara Finnstrom for CNN, Los ngeles.
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PHILLIPS: High school response to a bomb threat, getting everybody out. Everybody, except two classrooms of kids. Now some of their parents are furious over that special treatment.
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PHILLIPS: Well, this story will not only have you asking, "What the?" but it will probably outrage you, especially if you have a child with special needs. Buda, Texas, Hays High School, a bomb scare forces the evacuation of 1,850 students from a high school building. Pretty much everybody, except some Special Ed students. Yup, eight of them, five with physical disabilities, kept inside.
As you can imagine, parents were pretty ticked off.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LESA GORENA, SON WASN'T EVACUATED: I think there could have been better options. The bus barn is ten minutes away. They could have asked a bus to come over and placed the children on a bus, and then move them to a safer location.
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PHILLIPS: However, the school principal says those special ed classrooms were swept and deemed safe and the kids were much warmer inside than outside in 47 degree weather.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHIRLEY REICH, PRINCIPAL, HAYS HIGH SCHOOL: And if I erred on that, I think I erred on the side of compassion for them because of the timing that we had, because that was such a unique situation.
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PHILLIPS: There's a problem. Bottom line, everyone was evacuated from that building except the eight special needs children. What if something had gone wrong?
And hey, be on the lookout for some really hot wheels. Somebody rode off with one of Lance Armstrong's bikes over the weekend. Three of his teammates lost their rides, too. Armstrong actually broke the news himself on his Twitter feed and offered a reward. Wonder how much it is. And he points out, it's going to be hard for anyone to sell his one of a kind bike, by the way. Armstrong and his crew are competing in the Tour of California this weekend.
The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
