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Contenders for GOP 2012 Nominee; Serial Killer at Work?; Obama Touts His Budget
Aired February 28, 2009 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: This is Saturday, the 28th day of February, hello to you all. Glad you could be here, I'm T.J. Holmes.
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, hello everybody. You know, it's never too early to ask who will be the republican nominee for president in 2012. Well today we find out the current crop of contenders.
HOLMES: Also, a construction site reveals what appears to be the work of a serial killer.
NGUYEN: And live from the operating room, a grueling surgery to separate conjoined twins is broadcast live on television.
HOLMES: President Obama used his message to the nation this morning to push his budget plan, agreeing in his weekly internet address that it won't be easy to get a $3.6 trillion budget passed, but he says that budget represents the change he promised.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: I work for the American people, I didn't come here to do the same thing we have been doing or take small steps forward. I came to provide the sweeping change that this country demanded when it went to the polls in November.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now the republicans' online response warns about the budget's effect on the future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RICHARD BURR, (R) NORTH CAROLINA: Every time congress and the president spend a dollar, it's actually a dollar plus interest that our children and grandchildren will have to pay back. We must remind ourselves of this fact every single day. Unfortunately, Washington is in a state of denial. Our spending habits haven't gotten better. They have only gotten worse.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Health care costs are a big part of the president's budget and his agenda. Checking his schedule for the week, President Obama hosts a White House forum on health care reform on Thursday. NGUYEN: Also on the president's agenda, Iraq. Friday President Obama announced his plan to pull the majority of U.S. troops out of Iraq by August 31st, 2010. That's about two thirds of the 142,000 troops currently in Iraq. And about 50,000 would stay behind to help with the draw down. Now the plan got support on Capitol Hill from a somewhat unexpected source.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) ARIZONA: I believe the president's withdrawal is a reasonable one, I think the plan is reasonable. Given the gains in Iraq and the requirements to send additional troops to Afghanistan, together with the significant number of troops that will remain in Iraq, and the president's willingness to reassess based on conditions on the ground, I am cautiously optimistic that the plan as laid out by the president can lead to success.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Well, some leading democrats say they were surprised by the president's plan. Senior senators including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid say the force left behind is larger than they expected.
HOLMES: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki says Iraqi forces have proven their ability and are ready to assume full security responsibilities from U.S. troops. President Obama and al Maliki chatted after the president made his announcement at Camp LeJeune yesterday. The prime minister says they agree the U.S. needs to provide more military equipment and weapons to help fight insurgents.
NGUYEN: We know the plan, combat troops out by late 2010, the rest out by New Year's Eve, 2011. That deadline comes from an agreement between the Bush administration and Iraqi leaders. But as CNN pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence reports, moving any troops out of Iraq is a challenge.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There is no moving day for the U.S. military, they'll leave Iraq gradually, most of them next year, after the Iraqi elections. But it can take a month or two to move even one brigade and this is tens of thousands of troops, millions of tons of equipment. The pentagon has been testing possible exit routes through Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait.
ADM. MIKE MULLEN, JOINT CHIEFS CHAIRMAN: We have looked over many, many months now at options and not, quite frankly, wanting to be pinned down to one path.
LAWRENCE: President Obama says 30 to 50,000 troops will make up a transitional force after August 2010. They'll have three missions, train and advise Iraqi troops. Meaning they'll embed with them and could be in the line of fire. Two, protect U.S. assets like civilians and reconstruction teams that could mean defending them, and three, directly going after terrorists which could put them at risk. Do non combat troops accurately describe what these troops will be doing?
BRIG. GEN. MARK KIMMITT (RET.), U.S. ARMY: No. Every one of these soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines are operating in a combat zone.
LAWRENCE: The U.S. and Iraq agreed to remove all American troops by the end of 2011. Retired Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt agrees with the secretary of defense that keeping some troops past that date would be good for Iraq.
KIMMITT: I think we just need to stay flexible so that when 2010 and 2011 roll around that we are of a mind and our Iraqi partners are of a mind that we want to finish the job, not simply end the mission.
LAWRENCE (on camera): That end the mission is a reference to how President Obama put it during his speech. Now ironically, more troops could be going into Iraq before they start coming out. Next week the pentagon could announce another striker brigade and some more marines as part of the normal rotation. Chris Lawrence, CNN, Washington.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: The plan for Iraq certainly will be a hot topic with secretary of state Hillary Clinton as she travels to Europe and the Middle East. She leaves tomorrow. Stops include Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian territories. She'll meet with a Russian counterpart in Geneva, Switzerland on Friday.
NGUYEN: We are barely past 2008 and politicians on the right are auditioning for 2012. It's happening at the conservative political action conference, or CPAC as it's called in Washington. The group takes a presidential straw poll today and contenders include rising young stars like Governors Bobby Jindal and Sarah Palin. Now old hands are jockeying as well, branding the new president a socialist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR: I'm afraid I know where the liberal democrats want to take us. And as they try to pull us in the direction of government dominated Europe, we're going to have to fight as never before to make sure that America stays American.
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: I listened carefully to the president's speech that night. I think it is the boldest effort to create a European socialist model we have seen, I think it's quite clear what his values and his attitude is.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP) NGUYEN: Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh is the keynote speaker later today. Live coverage right here on CNN, 5:00 eastern, 2:00 pacific.
Well you know a lot of talk about the CPAC conference, but what exactly is it. Well I want to tell you. CPAC stands for conservative political action conference. Its website boasts that it is the largest annual gathering of students, activists and politicians. CPAC is organized by the American conservative union and the first event was back in 1973. Past speakers include Ronald Reagan and former Vice President Dick Cheney.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HOLMES: We'll turn to Amsterdam now where investigators looking at turbulence as one possible cause of this week's Turkish airlines crash. This turbulence according to investigators they believe came from the rushing air that apparently was whipped up by a larger jet that landed moments ahead of this crashed Turkish plane. The plane crashed just short of the runway near Amsterdam's main airport killing nine people, four Americans among the dead. 126 people survived that crash.
NGUYEN: North Korea claims it is about to put a satellite into space. But U.S. officials believe the launch is really a provocative missile test, one designed to get the attention of the new U.S. president. More from pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARBARA STARR, CNN SR. PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): U.S. spy satellites are watching this North Korean missile launch site 24/7. The U.S. is gathering snippets of communications and radar readings, everything U.S. officials say is now pointing to a North Korean missile launch within days. It's believed North Korea is planning to launch a type odong 2 missiles. What the U.S. doesn't know is whether the missile will carry a satellite meant to go into orbit or be fired as a long-range ballistic missile that would be a threat to the U.S. There are renewed questions about whether the U.S. military's multibillion dollar system of radars and interceptor missiles in Alaska and California could shoot down an incoming North Korean threat. The pentagon's former chief weapons tester is skeptic in chief.
PHILIP COYLE, FMR. DIR., DOD OPERATIONAL TEST AND EVAL.: Quite simply the public statements made by pentagon officials and contractors have often been at variance with the facts at hand.
STARR: Even Coyle's successor says it's not absolutely certain the U.S. could shoot down an incoming missile.
CHARLES MCQUEARY, DIR., DOD OPERATIONAL TEST AND EVALUATION: If the North Koreans launched an attack against us this afternoon, we wouldn't say we need more test data before we decide whether we're going to launch against and try to intercept that we do. We'd see how to the system works and we'd find out.
STARR (on camera): So if North Korea launches a missile, will the U.S. even bother to try and shoot it down? Well U.S. intelligence officials say they will try to make an assessment within seconds of a launch about whether the missile could fly long enough to be a threat to the United States or whether it will fall harmlessly into the ocean and be a dud. Barbara Starr, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: We'll stay on top of that.
Listen to this, they're on schedule, doctors are wrapping up what is going to be a 15-hour surgery to separate conjoined twins.
HOLMES: This is happening in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. I think we still have this live picture up, yes it is live there in Saudi Arabia. We even had an eye in this emergency room, this operating room all morning. These conjoined twins are joined at the pelvis and the chief surgeon, we spoke to him right here on our show this morning. He said the boys had been successfully separated. The two shared intestines, urinary and genital tracts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ABDULLAR AL-RABEEAH, KING ABDULANIZ MEDIAL CENTER: There was only one external genital organ which had to be dealt with carefully and assigned to one of the twins and also we have planned also a future reconstruction for the other twin. However when we talk about the hormones and the potential fertility for both twins, we are expecting both will be functioning well in the future.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Again, Saudi TV carried that surgery live. Those doctors and hospitals known for doing these, that doctor you talked to there, he has 20 of these under his belt already.
NGUYEN: What's so amazing about it, not only that they can do this but that they've done it time and time again successfully.
HOLMES: Successfully. We'll keep you posted about this latest case of these conjoined twins which should be wrapping up right about now.
NGUYEN: All right, in other news, a dusty construction site in Albuquerque could hold the key to solving the mysterious disappearance of more than a dozen people.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: All right, this may be a little bit much to stomach in the morning but listen to this. A construction site in Albuquerque, New Mexico appears more like a killer's graveyard by the day.
HOLMES: More and more corpses are being found there, a suspicious fear that the dead could be victims of a serial killer. CNN's Gary Tuchman reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At a construction site west of Albuquerque, New Mexico, police are making horrifying discoveries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have identified the remains of a 13th victim.
TUCHMAN: The remains of 12 other people were found here earlier this week and earlier this month. But who exactly are these victims?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Several years ago we noticed the increase in number of young women missing.
TUCHMAN: Two of the bodies have been identified and indeed they had been missing for years, one of them is Victoria Chaves who was last seen in 2003. Another is Gina Valdez last seen in 2004. She was three months pregnant. Her father is Daniel Valdez.
DANIEL VALDEZ, DAUGHTER'S REMAINS FOUND: It's hard to remember back the last time that I hugged her. And as always, wishing that I had been able to hug her more.
TUCHMAN: Police say both victims had prior histories that included prostitution. He knew his daughter had issues, but Gina Valdez's father is heart broken.
VALDEZ: I knew that the more bones that they found, the more chance that my daughter would be in that group.
TUCHMAN: Authorities are still investigating the scene, where the first remains were found by a woman walking her dog in an area where a developer was digging culverts to divert floodwater.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: See we have scrapers and equipment out there, as dirt is being taken off inches at a time, we have detectives and criminalistics personnel that are out there with rakes and shovel.
TUCHMAN: Pat Brown is a criminal profiler.
PAT BROWN, CRIMINAL PROFILER: You have 13 bodies that are pretty close by, you absolutely know you have a serial killer. It's not going to be likely that you're going to have three different serial killers and they run into each other and throw the bodies in the same place.
TUCHMAN: Police haven't been able to identify the other victims. But say it's likely they were all women. They don't know if all or some of them were prostitutes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is your true name Gary Leon Ridgeway?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes it is.
TUCHMAN: But it certainly wouldn't be the first time a serial killer has targeted prostitutes. One of the most notorious, Gary Ridgeway, the so-called Green River killer in Washington state who pleaded guilty to killing 48 women who were mostly prostitutes or runaways. Gina Valdez's father now has a wish.
VALDEZ: I would like for them to find out who it is, number one for the streets to be safe and everybody else's daughters to be safe.
TUCHMAN: Meanwhile investigators will continue looking for other people's daughters. Gary Tuchman, CNN, Atlanta.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: In Washington State, a sheriff's deputy there is pleading not guilty to assault for the beating of a 15-year-old girl. This is jail surveillance tape of the November incident, just released yesterday. A 31-year-old deputy claimed that the suspect assaulted him by kicking her shoes off in his direction, as you saw right at the very beginning of the video. The county prosecutor says what follows is criminal and clearly excessive force. Repeated calls to the deputy's lawyer for comment have not been returned. The second deputy who is also in this picture has not been charged. In fact we're told he was a trainee. The girl was in custody for an auto theft investigation.
NGUYEN: Here's something people have been asking about, will President Obama raise taxes on small businesses? We have a reality check on that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: 40 days in office and some already want to throw President Obama's economic policies overboard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got people in congress we have got people in the senate who don't even read the bill before they vote on it! For me, that is not representation.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Well, I guess to their defense, it was 1,100 pages right. That's no excuse. This tea party yesterday in Jacksonville, Florida mirrored others held around the country to protest the president's economic policies, specifically what critics call out of control spending. Tea party organizers say they want better decision making with their hard-earned tax dollars. You're getting a chuckle out of this?
HOLMES: It was the Arizona tea. We get the idea.
NGUYEN: They're doing what they can. It's all about the symbolism here.
Well you know it was one of the big arguments on the campaign trail and its back. Yep, the claim that President Obama's economic plan will raise taxes on small businesses.
HOLMES: CNN's truth squad tackled this topic during the campaign and our own Josh Levs now revisiting it in this reality check.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSH LEVS: Check it out, this is what the truth squad did last when we did a fact check about this. Would Obama hike taxes on small businesses? Here's the idea, here's what's going on now. Several republican lawmakers have been making this argument about the president's tax plan. I'll give you one example from this week.
SEN. JUDD GREGG, (R) NEW HAMPSHIRE: So if you've got a restaurant where you have a small business, a small software company that's growing or you have a garage or you've got an automobile dealership, or you're a realtor, you're a sole proprietor and you're getting hit now with a tax rate that's going to jump from 35 percent up to 41 percent. Well where do you pay for that? You lay people off.
LEVS: All right, here's the idea. Let's get to some facts here. President Obama is not proposing raising business taxes. What he does, he says he'll raise income taxes on couples making more than $250,000 a year. Let's go straight to the summary from the associated press. They sum it up really well. They say would Obama raise taxes on small businesses? Most job producing small businesses would not feel that pinch at all. Most would probably get Obama's tax breaks from the middle class. Here are a few important facts about this. You've got 6 million businesses in the U.S. that have employees about 20 million don't. And the tax policies that are estimated there are about 660,000 taxpayers who report business income and fall into those tax brackets whose rates would go up. Many of them have no employees. The short version here, making this real simple, we're talking about a small fraction of small business owners who might see their taxes go up under this plan and guys most would probably get a tax cut.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Next hour Josh investigates President Obama's claim that his housing plan will not help people who bought homes that they cannot afford.
HOLMES: All right, the budget is big, $3.6 trillion. Coming up, we will break down which Americans are coming out winners and those who say they're losing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: It's half past the hour on this Saturday. Here's what's happening right now. Fortune magazine reports that super investor Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway lost $11.5 billion in value last year. It's only the second time Berkshire has declined in Buffet's 44 years as CEO. 2001's drop was attributed to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
President Barack Obama defends his $3.5 trillion budget plan unveiled on Thursday. The president says lawmakers may find it difficult to pass but voters gave him a mandate for change.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, who's winning and who's losing in the Obama budget? Our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley with a breakdown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is not a book of numbers, it's a seat change.
ROBERT REICH, (D) FORMER LABOR SECRETARY: This is a transformational budget, this is the first budget I have seen since the Reagan era, since Reagan's first budget that really made a fundamental statement, we are going in a different direction folks.
CROWLEY: A leading republican voice actually agrees with the analysis, with considerably less enthusiasm.
NEWT GINGRICH, (R) FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: I think it is the boldest effort to create a European socialist model we have seen. I think it's quite clear what his values and his attitude is.
CROWLEY: Losers include upper income seniors who will pay more for prescription drugs. Farmers with sales over $500,000 who will lose their subsidies, households making over $250,000 will get a tax increase. One person with taxable income of $200,000 will pay on average $6,000 more. A family of four with a $500,000 income will see their taxes go up on average $11,300. Also hitting the upper brackets, a tax increase on capital gains and limits on deductions including mortgage interest and charitable contributions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's a horrible idea, a really horrible idea.
CROWLEY: The Obama administration says people will give anyway, but charitable organizations squeezed by higher demand and fewer contributions worry they can't take another hit.
KEN BERGER, PRESIDENT/CEO, CHARITY NAVIGATOR: Discouraging the wealthiest from giving in this way could be devastating for some charities. We've already gotten estimates that a couple hundred thousand charities may close their doors as it because of the economy. Then you add stuff like this and it becomes all the more frightening.
CROWLEY: Winners, middle and lower class taxpayers and the poor. According to the office of management and budget, on average a family of four making $76,000 would see their taxes lowered by $800. The same family making 35,000 would see taxes reduced by $1200. They would also benefit from huge spending increases in education, energy and most of all new health care plans as yet unspecified.
BERGER: This country is no longer taking this road, call it for want of a better term right road, we're taking more of a left of center road. But it's a road that we have to take because of the big problems in front of us.
CROWLEY: It is the end of Reaganomics and the beginning of Obamanomics. Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: And President Obama has made education, health care and energy three of his priorities. What do you want to see him do to make our country smarter, healthier, greener? Join us today at 4 o'clock eastern, to talk about it in depth. Our guest is former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders. Also we'll break down President Obama's plans, read your comments and answer your e-mail questions, so send them to us. Our address, weekends@cnn.com. Again, be here 4:00 eastern. We're probably going to be using some of your questions even on air.
NGUYEN: An executive arrested in a billionaire's alleged scheme to defraud investors has been released on bond. Laura Pendergest- Holt, Stanford's financial chief investment officer is charged with obstruction of justice. She's accused of lying to SEC investigators. Prosecutors say Holt is one of the few people who knows where the $8 billion allegedly stolen from investors are hidden. The SEC has accused the company's CEO Allan Stanford of conducting a massive ponzi scheme, but he's not been charged with any crime.
A victim of another alleged ponzi scheme, Nobel Prize winner and holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. Brian Todd reports on how Wiesel would like to see Bernie Madoff punished.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It now appears that even the world's best known holocaust survivor didn't touch the conscience of Bernard Madoff.
VOICE OF ELIE WIESEL, NOBEL LAUREATE THURSDAY: Psychopath. It's too nice a word for him. I would simply call him a thief, scoundrel, criminal.
TODD: Elie Wiesel says his charitable foundation lost more than $15 million to Madoff's alleged ponzi scheme that he and his wife quote, "Gave him everything in their personal savings." How, in a panel discussion hosted by Conde Nast Portfolio, Wiesel said a mutual friend got them together.
WIESEL: He made a very good impression. We had dinner together. But we had no idea, of course. I know that we checked the people who had business with him, and they were among the best minds on Wall Street. The geniuses in the finance field. I am not a genius in finances.
TODD: Wiesel's misfortune touched off a sensitive discussion. Like Wiesel Madoff is Jewish and some experts believe he perpetrated a common white collar scam called affinity fraud.
PROF. JACK COFFEE, COLUMBIA UNIV. LAW SCHOOL: You get the trust and confidence from investors because you share the same religious, social, cultural, national background as they do and they tend to trust people who are like them.
TODD: CNN spoke to Madoff's attorney who wouldn't comment on that. Wiesel does not believe this was affinity fraud but when asked how he thinks Madoff should be punished if he's convicted, the Nobel Laureate gave an unforgettable answer.
WIESEL: I would like him to be in a solitary cell with a screen, and on that screen for at least five years of his life, every day and every night, there should be pictures of his victims, one after the other after the other, always saying, look, look what you have done to this old lady, look what you have done to this child. Look what you have done.
TODD: When we asked him to respond to that, Madoff's attorney said he understands where Wiesel was coming from, but says Madoff who is under house arrest has not yet been indicted so there is a presumption of innocence. Madoff's attorney says if that presumption is quote overcome in legal proceedings, the courts will level a fair punishment.
(On camera): When we asked for an overall reaction to Wiesel's comments, the attorney Ira Sorkin told us what they've said before. That this is a great tragedy and they're doing everything they can to assist the government in recovering funds. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
(WEATHER REPORT)
NGUYEN: Another newspaper falls prey to the economy and the internet. Now the big question, will any printed papers be able to survive?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: The logic is simple. Why pay for a newspaper when you can read it online for free? The digital age and the recession are creating tough times for papers.
HOLMES: The latest casualty the "Rocky Mountain News," after nearly 150 years, it printed its final issue yesterday. It's not the only paper struggling for survival here now our Howard Kurtz.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HOWARD KURTZ (on camera): It's hardly breaking news that the newspaper business is in deep trouble.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Certainly not good news for any of you and certainly not good news for Denver.
KURTZ (voice-over): The Rocky Mountain News which has been around for 150 years is publishing its last edition, despite four Pulitzer prizes in the last decade, the Rocky couldn't survive its competition with the Denver Post.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Denver can't support two newspapers any longer.
KURTZ: But in a larger sense, the Colorado tabloid fell victim to the forces that are crippling the industry. Advertising and circulation keep dropping in the face of a nasty recession. Many people use online services such as Craigslist rather than the old- fashioned classifieds, and most papers give away their journalism on the internet where people have come to expect free news content. And where meager advertising rates won't support sizeable reporting staffs. The Rocky is just the first domino to fall. Hurst says it may close the San Francisco Chronicle unless it can obtain deep spending cuts and it will close the Seattle Post Intelligencer if a buyer can't be fond soon.
Bankruptcy is spreading like a virus. First Sam Zell, the Chicago mogul who bought the Tribune Company had the firm file for chapter 11. And that affects not just the Chicago Tribune but the Los Angeles Times, Baltimore Sun and a number of television stations. Then the Minneapolis Star Tribune filed for bankruptcy protection and the Philadelphia Enquirer and Daily News wound up in bankruptcy court this week with the judge promptly ordering owner Brian Tierney to roll back his $232,000 raise.
Can the patient be saved? Former CNN president Walter Isaacson argues in "Time" magazine that newspaper websites should copy Apple's ITunes, charging small amounts for news stories instead of songs.
(On camera): There are other proposals out there such as turning papers into nonprofits with sizable endowments like universities. But one thing is certain, newspapers are locked in a struggle for survival. Howard Kurtz, CNN, Washington.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Embracing diversity, apparently generating some complaints in Britain. Some parents are critical of a one-handed children's TV show host. Look at this. A Carrie Burnell seen on the right there, was born with a right arm that stops just below her elbow. Parents say she is scaring their children or complain that her appearance leads to uncomfortable discussions about disabilities. BBC it supports Burnell and stands behind its decision to hire her.
NGUYEN: If you are pinching pennies and itching for a shop fest, we have got the details on a store everyone can afford.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) NGUYEN: Ok, so it's not buy one get one free, but it is close. A New Jersey car dealer, yes, car dealer came up with a novel sales pitch. Buy an SUV and get a new car for $1.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To try to reach for the top level we have to move more metal. And one way to do that is by buying one and getting one free.
STEPHANIE KRAWCHECK, CUSTOMER: You only get one with a Buick, here you are getting two. And you can't pass that up when you have a teenager going to drive.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
NGUYEN: Are you ready to jot it down? It's happening at this Hyundai dealership in Toms River, New Jersey. Here it is, in order to qualify for the almost freebie ride, shoppers have to buy Hyundai's expensive SUV the Veracruz. So you have to buy that SUV. It costs $37,000. I guess if there is a catch, you heard it right there. The near freebie, the Hyundai Accent sells for more than $13,000.
HOLMES: Ok, so you don't get to pick your car?
NGUYEN: No, you have to buy that particular SUV for $37,000 and then you get the $13,000 car for free, well for $1.
HOLMES: Well you can't say give me the Escalade and the Mercedes C class, you can't do that?
NGUYEN: No. It doesn't work like that.
HOLMES: Ok, sorry, my mistake. Well from discounts to something even friendlier to your wallet. How'd you like to shop in a store where everything is free Betty?
NGUYEN: Yeah, where is that store because I am taking notes. It's true though, but the store won't be open that long, you think. Vanessa Tyler of CNN affiliate WPIX has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VANESSA TYLER, WPIX REPORTER (voice-over): People were lining up even before the store opened. Oscar Rivera, especially.
What are you hoping to get in there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whatever they have.
TYLER: Why not? It's all free. A free store at 99 Nassau Street in lower Manhattan.
DANNETT DENTON, SHOPPER: It's a catch to it. Nothing is free in America. And why are they giving free stuff out.
TYLER: Why? It's a public art project.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Don't you think it's creative? It's a creative way for people to use resources.
TYLER: Artist Afeena Robles and Ana Stein got people to donate all this stuff. And you can have it no strings attached.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you see something that you want and you feel like you really need it, we say you're free to take it.
TYLER: And so they did. Pouring in, pawing over dishes, canvas totes, sneakers plain and fancy, t-shirts with tags reminding shoppers it's all free.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got a print of some kind of nice photographs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got two necklaces for my wife.
TYLER: Oscar picked up some DVDs and a fork set. A portfolio. Who says nothing is free in America?
(On camera): In a world where many things are overpriced this is a twist and for some customers, this could not come at a better time. So no matter what it is, they'll take it.
(Voice-over): It does feel strange getting a receipt for paying nothing. Some people donate their own stuff on the spot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The funny thing is people don't want to just take. They really, I mean people have taken the hat off their heads.
TYLER: Others feel it's about time they get a break.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're paying for Citibank and we're paying for Wall Street so it's nice to get something back.
TYLER: The store will be open a couple of more weeks. Leave your wallet at home.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Yeah but we'll have to pay for the plane ticket to get out there unfortunately.
HOLMES: It might be worth it.
FREDERICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You can't have everything.
NGUYEN: Oh come on, I want the free car, the free stuff.
WHITFIELD: You have to get a plane ticket to get free stuff. Come on! It's all right.
NGUYEN: It takes money to get something for free, right? HOLMES: But we get you for free this morning, that's nice. Hello, welcome.
WHITFIELD: I'm a cheap date today. I'm free.
NGUYEN: Well, not exactly.
WHITFIELD: That's right, you have to invest one hour of your time in the noon eastern hour. How about that?
HOLMES: It will pay off.
NGUYEN: That's some good equity.
WHITFIELD: I think that's fair enough. We have a lot straight ahead including Mexico, heightened concerns about Mexico whether you're traveling there or living along the border, our Michael Ware gets on the front lines of how down and dirty this fight across the border is getting and how it is impacting U.S. cities as well. We're talking about Mexican drug cartels. We're talking about violence and you see right there the loot in exchange and how so many people, their lives are being turned upside down.
Also let's talk about here in this country, Washington, D.C., a lot of activity in Washington, D.C., today not just because of President Obama. Obama as well as the democrats celebrating great popularity but we're talking about republicans now, too, who have converged in Washington in a big way in the conference talking about new leadership, new blood and how the GOP is going to survive if not this year, then at least for another four years as well, and a very I guess happy-go-lucky Washington happy over the first family.
HOLMES: And the portrait. You're going to be showing that today. The new portrait.
WHITFIELD: Yeah, we are going to be showing that. Again, you have to invest one hour of your time in the noon eastern hour and then again later on.
NGUYEN: And then later throughout the day.
WHITFIELD: Three more hours. That's right. We're here for you all day long.
HOLMES: We will see.
NGUYEN: You may want to be interested in listening to the rest of this show because we have something talking about too cheap to cheat.
HOLMES: What do you do out there? You want to cheat and can't afford to.
NGUYEN: Oh you know it's tough times when you can't afford to cheat. HOLMES: Yes, the failing economy could be saving some marriages out there, Betty. Stick around for this and the sound bite of the day having to do with two feet on a windshield. Stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NGUYEN: All right. So it's a side effect of the recession that hopefully you don't have to worry about. What we're referring to here is cheating spouses.
HOLMES: Yes, they have some tough economic times here that changes things up a bit. You might look at that person you're with and say I can't stand you, I don't want to be with you, but I can't afford to leave you right about now.
NGUYEN: Tough times.
HOLMES: CNN's Randi Kaye with the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This private investigator from Massachusetts has been tailing cheating spouses since he was 16 when his father first taught him the business. But today John Dinitale says business ain't what it used to be.
JOHN DINITALE, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: Surveillance pieces in especially domestic surveillance cases you can see just falling off the charts.
KAYE: In the last year Dinitale has seen a 75 percent drop in infidelity cases.
DINITALE: We've seen what we would consider good sized surveillances that would keep us busy for a week at a time just kind of go by the wayside and I don't think that's any question that that was the result of people of not being able to afford it.
KAYE: In a slumping economy, even hanky panky takes a hit. A full day of surveillance work will set you back about $2500. A full week, $15,000. So some spouses are doing their own snooping.
DINITALE: It's not unusual now where a client will call and say look I've already done all the leg work, I've been checking his blackberry and looking at his text messages, I've been downloading his cell phone bills.
KAYE: Dinitale still gets some surveillance work, but this new recession-style cheating looks different. With corporate America tightening its belts, gone are the fancy dinners out billed to the expense account. Now cheating couples cook at home.
DINITALE: It has to be the economy. I mean, people are just not spending money the way they used to.
KAYE (on camera): John Dinitale says cheating spouses are cheating with a little less style these days. Instead of booking rooms at high-end hotels like the Ritz or the Four Seasons he says they're choosing what he calls the no-tell motels like this one.
(Voice-over): Or in some cases they're skipping the hotel expense completely and just using the car. Dinatale trailed one couple with his partner and will never forget how it ended.
DINITALE: There were no heads in the front seat anymore. I was working with the guy and I said Mark, did you miss that? Did they leave? No. I said well let's just sit here for a second and the next thing two feet come right up on to the windshield and Mark looks at me and says now I know what they're doing.
KAYE: Not all couples are doing that and some are hanging out at the park. It's free.
DINITALE: We'll be scrambling around trying to pick out a good spot where we can set up for video and this would be a typical spot.
KAYE: The economic slump has put a damper on divorce, too. The American Academy of Matrimonial lawyers says 37 percent of attorneys polled reported fewer divorcees during an economic downturn. Divorce lawyers say more couples are sticking it out, not because they want to, but because they have to.
DINITALE: They're staying together because they can't afford to get their own place.
KAYE: As the saying goes in this business, it is cheaper to keep her. Randi Kaye, CNN, Alston, Massachusetts.
(END OF VIDEOTAPE)
NGUYEN: Cheaper to keep her.
HOLMES: We've been looking for some good news in this tough economy. Maybe a good thing is more people are staying together.
NGUYEN: Being forced to stay together.
HOLMES: Ok, even so.
NGUYEN: That could be a ticking time bomb.
HOLMES: Maybe it will work out as the recession and the economy improves maybe the relationship will as well.
NGUYEN: No, you can always hope, right, Fred?
WHITFIELD: You look like the interesting couple, married couple trying to work things out yourself.
NGUYEN: We're a ticking time bomb.
WHITFIELD: Bottom line, it just doesn't pay to cheat, people.
NGUYEN: At all.
WHITFIELD: All right, you guys have a great day. A good honest day, ah?
HOLMES: We will.
