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Fargo Faces Record Flooding; Mexico Battles Drug Violence; Web Site Hires Homeless for P.R. Effort; Natasha Richardson Death Draws Attention to Head Injuries; President Obama Answers Internet Questions; Officials Trying to Curb Flow of Illegal Guns, Drugs Between Mexico, U.S.; Saving Too Much Can Be Damaging Emotionally

Aired March 26, 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 ANCHOR: And we're pushing for answers in more ways than ever. Presidential news conferences are so Tuesday night. Today, you asked the questions in a town hall for the 21st century.

High tech's no help against high water in Fargo. They're counting on sandbags, prayer and more sandbags as the Red River rises.

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

Well, let's talk about a web connection. The Internet helped put Barack Obama in the White House. And today he puts the White House on the Internet like never before. You may have been one of the tens and thousands of people who uploaded questions for the president's online town hall, which just wrapped up a few minutes ago. The subject was the economy, of course, in all its forms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: When can we expect the jobs that have been outsourced to other countries to come back and be made available to the unemployed workers here in the United States?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me talk more, first of all, broadly about what's happening in the job market. We have had just a massive loss of jobs over the last several months. The kind of job loss we haven't seen at least since the early '80s and maybe since 1930s in terms of how quickly we've seen the economy shed jobs. A lot of that is prompted by the financial crisis and the locking up of the credit markets.

And that's why when we are -- when we talk about dealing with this credit crisis and the banks, I just want everybody to understand: it's not because we are overly concerned about Wall Street or a bunch of CEOs. It's because, if we don't fix credit, if we don't get liquidity back to small businesses and large businesses alike who can have that -- use that line of credit by inventory, or to make products and sell services, then those businesses shrivel up, and they start laying people off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. PHILLIPS Well, if the president didn't answer your question, we just might. White House economic advisor Austin Goolsby joins me next hour. We're going to put some of the town-hall postings to him.

And don't forget, you can always send your question straight to us: MailToTheChief@CNN.com. We push your e-mails forward to the White House aides and experts who have the answers.

Dragging the White House into the Internet age hasn't been easy. Just ask the guy who's doing it. His name is Macon Phillips, and I will ask him about it when he joins us here in the NEWSROOM later this hour.

And if you've watched the economic meltdown and thought, well, there ought to be a law, the secretary of the treasury agrees with you. For the second time in three days, Timothy Geithner sat before the House Financial Services Committee. He's asking for broad new powers to police the murky world of hedge funds, derivatives. Complicated stuff that grew up outside the banking laws.

Geithner wants a risk regulator to make sure that no single firm or single deal can bring down the whole system. He wants to be able to take over financial companies other than banks before they collapse. He says the problem with a patchwork of laws is apparent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIMOTHY GEITHNER, U.S. SECRETARY OF TREASURY: Financial products in an institution should be regulated for the economic function they provide and the risks they present, not the legal form they take. We can't allow institutions to cherry pick among the regulators and shift risks to where it faces the lowest standards and weakest restraints. And we need to recognize that risk does not respect national borders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. PHILLIPS: Well, for now at least, Republicans are leery of expanded government powers and the costs. We're still awaiting details of both.

And it turns out that the economy shrank a little more than we thought at the end of last year. The Commerce Department says that the GDP -- that's gross domestic product, by the way -- slipped 3.6 percent in the final quarter of '08. That initial reading was 6.2. It's the biggest quarterly drop in 26 years.

And the job picture worsens, as well. The label -- Labor Department, rather, says that first-time claims for unemployment benefits rose to 652,000 last week. The so-called continuing claims now top 5 1/2 million. That's another record, by the way.

Well, in North Dakota, a disaster that could break records. Floodwaters have driven people from their homes across the state, including Fargo, the biggest city, and Bismarck, the capital. And it's going to get worse. By Saturday, the Red River in Fargo is expected to reach its highest recorded level, breaking the record set in 1897.

Our iReporters keep letting us know just how serious the situation is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK KURTZ, IREPORTER: Just today we have, looks like, blizzard conditions. It's very (INAUDIBLE). So nobody is going to work or going anywhere, actually. You can see a lot of the river coming up, and I can see a lot of ice moving, like -- I think this storm has slowed the water down but still, it's going to come regardless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. PHILLIPS Well, CNN Radio's Steve Kastenbaum is in Fargo. So is our Chris Welch. He's actually running the camera for us. So Steve, tell us what it's like in the neighborhood that you're in right now.

STEVE KASTENBAUM, CNN RADIO CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra.

I'm in an area that's seen as being critical to keeping the Red River waters back right now. It's a residential neighborhood. It's a little bit south of the center of town. And there's a bend in the river here, but that bend no longer exists. The water as it rose created a giant lake here. And all of the houses that are against the property where the river would be, they all have dikes in their backyards now.

You might be able to see behind plastic. That's covering several feet of sandbags. But the public officials say, that's not tall enough. So they're going to bring in about 1,000 volunteers today and raise the dike yet another foot. There's been a call for more volunteers today. Get this, Kyra, they want to fill another 300,000 sandbags today.

K. PHILLIPS Now, Steve, I can actually see behind you a number of people walking behind you with sleds and, of course, all their snow gear. You know, are families and kids actually taking an opportunity to have fun? Or is all of that being used to evacuate and get stuff out of the homes?

KASTENBAUM: They're actually using the sled, Kyra, to take sandbags off of pallets that are in front of the house and transport to areas that they feel need to be shored up right now.

At the moment, there are no volunteers behind us at this particular house, but they've been in this neighborhood for days. And the buses keep shuttling them in. And when the volunteers leave, the families that live here don't stop the work. They keep going.

In fact, the owner of this house told me they have been at this for more than a week now, and he put his own little gauge in the ground behind the dike behind me. And he told me just moments ago that, since yesterday, he's seen the water rise two feet right behind his house.

K. PHILLIPS Wow, CNN Radio's Steve Kastenbaum. Steve, sure appreciate your work in Fargo for us. Chad Myers also keeping track of what's happening right now with this extremely serious flooding. He joins us from the CNN severe weather center.

Chad, you know, you've been following this for 24 hours now, watching the water rise. We see Steve and now families: the entire family getting involved in trying to help with the sandbagging efforts.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And I'm afraid, Kyra, that some of these water levels are only going to stop rising when the water goes over the levees and down the other side. Otherwise, if the levees were still there, if the levees were higher, that water would just go higher.

Here's another threat here. I know we only talk about a couple of towns, but there are so many towns that are affected. The entire state of North Dakota, part of the state of South Dakota and part of Minnesota. So just because we're not talking about you, just send us iReports and we'll try and talk about your town, because we know more misery out there than what we can actually show.

One more thing I also want to talk about is that the cold that he was talking about, he was talking about how it's so cold out there, treacherous to work in. But that is freezing some of the water rather than washing down some of the water. That may actually be slowing some of the rise of the rivers. That could actually be some good news, although it's perilous to go out there and try to work in it.

Something else going on in Denver. There is a major blizzard going on out here. And they're going to be a foot of snow if not more in some spots. And then, if you get south of Denver into Pueblo and into Oklahoma, we could see 15 to 20 inches of snow with winds at 40 miles per hour.

So we're going to take to you Denver here, bring you all the way in to some Weather Bonk cams, right into Denver proper. There you see the downtown itself. We'll spin you around. And there are cameras downtown. There's Broadway and Colfax right there. And this is what it looks like: still OK in the downtown areas. But you get outside, you get away from the city, and things are beginning to freeze up. And we will certainly get every roadway froze up after sunset tonight. I know it doesn't look like the sun is out but it's helping just a little bit.

I really need everybody inside if you can get there, ready to go, all your bread, all your milk, all your water, by 4:00 or 5:00 p.m. tonight. This is going to be blizzard. They're already shutting down 200 flights at Denver's airport today so far -- Kyra. K. PHILLIPS Chad, appreciate it.

MYERS: Sure.

K. PHILLIPS Chad's also been talking about the small town of McGee, Mississippi. Terrifying moments there just shortly after dawn as a tornado flattened dozens of homes, businesses, even a church. At least 17 people reportedly were injured there. And at the church, only the doors to the sanctuary were actually left standing.

That town had about a ten-minute warning before that storm hit. McGee is about 40 miles southeast of Jackson, where some of the injured were taken for treatment.

And then hours earlier, another tornado struck just outside Meridian, damaging nine homes there. No injuries reported.

Well, drugs, guns and mass graves. We're seeing more of them on both sides of the U.S./Mexico border. A growing drug war and a mounting death toll. Our Anderson Cooper is joining me live straight from the border.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

K. PHILLIPS Well, as Mexico's drug war rages on both sides of the border, how threatened are you and me and every other American? CNN posed that question to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, continuing her two-day trip to Mexico. She's visiting police in Mexico City today to show U.S. support for their battle against drug cartels.

We asked the secretary if the growing drug violence directly threatens America's national security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: It's not an immediate problem. It's -- it's a terrible law enforcement problem. We have some of our cities along the border where the violence has washed over, and people are being killed and kidnapped. So we do have a law enforcement problem.

But this is more about trying to act proactively. You know, why would we want this to go on, especially when President Calderon and the Mexican government are doing everything they know to do to try to defeat this violence?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. PHILLIPS CNN's Anderson Cooper just south of the border right now, where mass graves are increasingly dotting the landscape. Anderson's riding along with the Mexican military, and he joins us now on the phone.

Anderson, we've been talking a lot about the 5,000 troops, the 1,200 federal police officers -- officers sent into Juarez to bring down the brutal murders that have been happening there and the sexual abuse against women.

Why is it working and what kind of power have they been given to actually take down the bad guys?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is remarkable the change in Juarez. I mean, Juarez is a city now -- it's a militarized city. You see convoys of Mexican military units on patrol. We just went on a patrol with one unit. They ride in the back of pickup trucks with .50 caliber machine guns. They've got Kevlar vests on, their helmets on. I mean, it's a militarized zone. It's very strange to see in a city that kind of atmosphere.

But it has had an impact. I just met with the mayor of Juarez, who said that the murder rate has fallen the last couple of weeks and, in particular, the last couple of days, during the worst of times they were having as many as ten murders a day. Now they only average one or two every couple of days. So they have seen a change.

The question is, how long can that last? How long will these military units be deployed for? And, you know, military sent into one area. Drug cartels are nationwide in Mexico. And they, you know, move their shipment routes. And as long as there's demand in the United States, they'll find a way to try to get those drugs into America.

K. PHILLIPS And now you're heading over to where those mass graves are. Is that correct? And what are you -- what are the questions you're asking? What is it you want to know? What are you finding out about the -- is it still a problem at -- you know, at this point even with the military in there?

COOPER: Well, you know, what's interesting, the mayor was just saying that they had 800 unidentified bodies last year. It's -- soldiers in this drug war, the narcotraffickers who have -- who have infiltrated in Juarez and infiltrated all areas of society here. You know, they're running gun battles in the streets in the past -- past year.

And a lot of people wind up dead. Their bodies are never claimed, and they're literally dumped into these -- buried in these mass graves on the outskirts of town.

It's a stark reminder of the face of this war, of unclaimed bodies, unidentified victims. It's something which Mexicans have gotten used to seeing but people in the United States are just kind of -- especially who don't live in border areas but in some of the states farther away from the border. They're kind of waking up to the reality of what's going on here.

K. PHILLIPS So Anderson, we see the U.S. supporting Mexico on many levels and giving advice to Mexico on many levels. And here we are dealing with a tremendous drug problem and a spill-over of cartels and drug running and weapons running between Mexico and the U.S.

So you see the military get involved in Mexico, but here in the United States, I mean, the laws are totally different. I mean, the military would have to be federalized, and you've got to talk about rules of engagement and posse comitatas (ph).

So you tend to wonder, could this eventually be something that we could see in the U.S.? Could Mexico be advising our country on how to deal with drug issues and how the military has actually worked for them? COOPER: Well, it certainly is working for them in Mexico. You know, I think there's a lot more skepticism of that in the United States. And the Obama administration has been loathe to militarize the southern border, though as you know, Texas Governor Rick Perry has requested federal military troops, National Guard troops or military troops down along the border.

You know, when you talk to people in the border states, thought, there's a lot of reticence on that. They see it as sort of -- they're happy about the increase in law enforcement. They'd certainly like to see more of a focus on the border. But there's a lot of, you know, commerce along this border.

This is -- in El Paso, which is the city right across from Juarez, I mean, you have families who live on both sides of the border. We have people crossing over on both sides to shop. And a lot of them feel a militarization of the border isn't necessarily the right -- the right step. Certainly, there are others who disagree.

But at this point, it's not a step the Obama administration seemed willing to take. It certainly wasn't a step that the Bush administration was willing to take. They are sending more federal agents down to the border. They are looking to increase the amount of money, equipment that -- that is given to Mexican authorities to try to battle this problem. But it's -- it's certainly a long way from -- from ending.

K. PHILLIPS Anderson, tremendous work. Thanks so much for calling in for us.

COOPER: Thanks, Kyra.

K. PHILLIPS You can be sure to tune in tonight for an "AC 360" special, "THE WAR NEXT DOOR." Anderson reports live from the U.S.- Mexican border. That comes your way, 10 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

Well, the sudden death of actress Natasha Richardson has raised a lot of attention about a problem you might not be aware of. You may think a bump on the head isn't all that serious, but it actually can be life-threatening.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

K. PHILLIPS It was a simple business idea, employing homeless people to stand on street corners and pitch a Web site. But it turned into something quite different.

Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tim Edwards says alcohol and drug abuse left him strung out and homeless. For the last five years he's been a fixture on Houston's street corners, begging for money, a life Edwards describes as dehumanizing and empty.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

LAVANDERA: Then, two months ago, father and son marketing entrepreneurs Sean and Kevin Dolan (ph) walked into Edwards's life. They came armed with a video camera and a plan, to test out an Internet advertising strategy: using homeless people to create a viral buzz for their Web site.

So the Dolans (ph) offered Tim Edwards $100 a day to advertise PimpThisBum.com, and he accepted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had to make it kind of edgy to get that exposure and have people talking about it.

LAVANDERA: The marketing experiment has turned into a mission to help one homeless people at a time. As Web traffic jumped, the Dolans (ph) set up a donation section. Edwards gets all the money. People can buy him a cheeseburger or pay for him to get laser hair removal, among other things.

Some homeless advocates worry Edwards is being exploited, but Edwards says becoming an Internet sensation is a gift.

TIM EDWARDS, HOMELESS: I'm drinking myself to death under a bridge. I'm watching my friends die left and right. So what do I got to lose? So to everybody who thinks that I'm being exploited, I ask you to think again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at that, baby. I ain't seen this in years. We got skin under here.

LAVANDERA: The makeover of Tim Edwards on the verge of his 38th birthday is in full swing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You ain't getting this shaver back from me.

LAVANDERA: Fifty thousand dollars in donations, but most importantly, this drug and alcohol treatment facility in Washington state is treating Edwards for free. He hosts nightly Web chats with hundreds of followers. That's where we caught up with him.

(on camera): All right, Tim, thanks so much for doing this.

Right now, you're dressed, you know, like you're on your way to a job interview.

EDWARDS: Actually, it was kind of -- shaving off the beard and everything was a symbolic act of change, against embracing the change. And you know, I'm entering a new stage in my life.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): When Edwards leaves the rehab center, he says he'll try to find a job and a home. Big steps toward feeling human again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

K. PHILLIPS Well, PimpThisBum.com was supposed to be a money- making business, but it's become a nonprofit venture now, looking to expand around the country. The site has already started lining up help for another homeless person, a friend of Tim's who's been on the streets in Houston.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

K. PHILLIPS Well, the sudden death of actress Natasha Richardson last week has many people wondering, "Could this happen to me?" It's this week's "Empowered Patient," and CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen helps us determine when exactly to take that seemingly harmless -- harmless bump on the head, which we've all had as kids, as well, and you're not quite sure what to do, you should take it a lot more seriously, shouldn't you?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And you know what? Many people have learned from Natasha Richardson's story that did not end so well, obviously, to take those bumps more seriously.

I want to tell you about a little girl named Morgan McCracken (ph). She had a bump on her head. She was playing baseball with her dad Tuesday of last week. And he hit a drive line that ended up on her left temple. He felt terribly, obviously. But she seemed perfectly fine. She seemed fine for two days. She went to school. She didn't have a headache, nothing.

But then her parents were watching the Natasha Richardson story on CNN on Thursday, so a week ago today. And they said, wow, Natasha Richardson felt fine for a period of time after her hit, too. And they started to worry.

Well, they went to go upstairs to kiss Morgan good night, and she said, "Mommy, Daddy, I have a headache." And so they took it very seriously because of -- because of Natasha Richardson. They called the pediatrician, who said, "You need to go to the emergency room." And by then she had a much worse headache.

To make a long story straight, she's doing much better.

Let's take a look at some of the images of Morgan's head. On the left you can see this white sort of pool of blood in the upper right- hand corner of the one that says "pre-op." It's sort of like half moon shaped. That's blood that was accumulating between her brain and her skull. It had no place to go except to squish her brain.

On the right, after they had emergency surgery to drain it, she was just fine. But Doctor Alan Cohen (ph), who operated on her at Rainbow Baby and Children's Hospital in Cleveland said that if her parents hadn't brought her in right away, she would not have woken up the next morning.

K. PHILLIPS Oh, my gosh.

COHEN: So this is to tell you that people have these, what's called a lucid interval. A lucid interval. They're fine for hours or even days, and then that bleed really starts going. They get a headache. You need to act quickly.

K. PHILLIPS Wow, that's great advice. You just don't realize. You think of how many times you fall and hit your head or you have a headache, you take an aspirin.

So how do you know, then is it the headache that triggers that you should see a doctor right away? Do you wait for a headache, or do you not wait for a symptom?

COHEN: You know, I think the bottom line is, if you're worried, just go to the emergency room. I mean, it can't hurt.

But if you're sort of trying to figure out maybe the bump wasn't that bad, let's take a look, these are the signs that you want to look for. These are red flags.

If someone is experiencing dizziness, vomiting, headache or confusion, those are red flags that maybe you ought to be going to the emergency room right away.

Now, again, those things may not happen right away. For Morgan, it took 48 hours for those to show up. So don't stop being vigilant. You've got to be vigilant, really, for a period of days.

K. PHILLIPS Do certainly people need to be more vigilant? Like older people or younger people?

COHEN: Yes, absolutely. Older people are first on the list. When an older person hits their head, you need to be much more watchful of them. And there are other people, as well. People on blood thinners, because a little bleed in the brain can turn into a big bleed if someone's on blood thinners.

Also, be very careful about drunk people who hit their head. And the reason is actually quite simple. Drunk people are acting confused and disoriented anyhow, so you don't know, after a bump on the head, if they're confused or disoriented because of the hit or because of the alcohol. So don't take any chances. Just bring them to the E.R.

K. PHILLIPS Thanks, Elizabeth.

COHEN: You're welcome.

K. PHILLIPS Fireside chat for the Internet age. You may have taken part in the first online town hall at the White House. Now meet the president's point man for new media.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

K. PHILLIPS Well, don't blame the system. Fix it. That's the plea from Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in his second trip before the White -- White House (sic) Financial Services Committee in three days. He's asking for new federal powers to regulate the 21st-century financial system and mitigate the awesome risks. Republicans want to hear the details, but most agree something has to be done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. SPENCER BACHUS (R-AL), FINANCIAL SERVICES COMMITTEE: In the last year, we have witnessed unprecedented interventions by the government to commit trillions of taxpayer dollars to save "too big to fail" institutions. The taxpayer continues to be given the bill as the government continues the cycle of bailouts. One way to end the cycle would be to allow for an orderly liquidation of complex financial institutions that are not subject to the statutory regime for resolving (ph) banks administered by the FDIC.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. PHILLIPS Well, that orderly liquidation power is among Timothy Geithner's proposals.

Well, President Obama went high-tech today, taking questions submitted over the Internet. The economy was a frequent topic, but he also went off-script to mention another popular question e-mailed to the White House Web site.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We took votes about which questions were going to be asked, and I think 3 million people voted, or -- 3.5 million people voted. I have to say that there was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation.

And I don't know what this says about the online audience. But I just want -- I don't want people to think that -- this was a fairly popular question. We want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. PHILLIPS Well, that town hall was part of a White House effort to harness emerging media formats. We're going to talk to Macon Phillips. He's the White House director of the new media. He's the man behind President Obama's first online town hall. Macon, were you surprised to see all the questions about legalizing marijuana?

MACON PHILLIPS, WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF NEW MEDIA: Well, we were pleasantly surprised with the response overall. I mean, it was really beyond our expectations. We had over 100,000 questions from around 100,000 people who voted, on average, 36 times. And we saw a lot of questions in there. But I think you saw the president answer the most popular today, and we got a good sense of what's on people's minds during this economic crisis.

K. PHILLIPS: Well, Macon, let me ask you, seriously, because it must be tough. I mean, here at CNN, we go through so many viewer e- mails. And, you know, we have a whole department that has to deal with, you know, the really good questions and also all the wackos. I mean, how do you know, OK, this is a legitimate question. We really need to pay attention to this person. We need to answer this, versus, the, OK, these people are just messing around with us?

M. PHILLIPS: Well, we had it even easier because we opened it up and let people weigh in on that. So, the tool that we had on whitehouse.gov let people submit questions, but it also let people stop by and choose questions that they liked or choose questions that they didn't like. And over time, we got to see what some of the most popular ones were. So, for us, for a while, it was really just watching and seeing what happens. It was pretty exciting.

K. PHILLIPS: Wow. OK, so, I'm going to be honest with you. We've been soliciting a bunch of e-mails from our viewers. We call it "mail to the chief," and I've actually been logging on to your Web site and going straight to the liaison part and entering these questions. And I haven't heard from you yes. I haven't heard from anybody yet.

And we've been doing this for a while. So, take me through the process. Are are you getting so overwhelmed that you're jammed? You know, how are you figuring out who to respond to immediately and who you can't respond to?

M. PHILLIPS: Well, so, we have a bunch of tools that we use, both through the forums on the Web site, but also in this case, the "open for questions" tool was a new product that we rolled out. And it was part of that effort to better engage with people online.

Again, using the Web site visitors themselves to help us understand what the most popular questions are is a great way to cut through just the incredible volume we have coming, and it's certainly going to continue to be a challenge for us. I think it's been a challenge for every administration to deal with the incoming correspondence. And given the president's online following and the new technologies, we're just going to have a bigger problem...

K. PHILLIPS: Wow.

M. PHILLIPS: ... but this was a good first step to really creatively engage with them.

K. PHILLIPS: OK, so, Macon, give me a visual here. Let's say I go to your Web site, like I've been doing. I type in my question. I put my name, my e-mail, all that kind of stuff. OK, tell me where that e-mail goes and then tell me the process of that goes forward from that point on answering that question, like, who looks at it? Is it in a whole room with a bunch of different people? Do some go to the president, some not go to the president? Kind of explain the process to me.

M. PHILLIPS: Sure. I think that there's two processes to understand here. The first had to do with today's online town hall. We used the "open for questions" tool that allowed people to submit questions that were then publicly available for anyone to review and vote up and down. There's also ways you can e-mail the White House, either through "contact us" forms through an e-mail address, and that's handled by the correspondence department here in the White House and they are developing technology systems to analyze that stuff.

We've been here for a few weeks, and we're learning a lot about what has been done in the past and the challenges that people continue to face, mining through the substantial amount of data that we have. But we're bringing a lot of new tools online. I think what you saw today with "open for questions" is just one of those.

K. PHILLIPS: So, final question: Has there been one memorable e-mail that all of you have just said, oh, my gosh. Did you see this?

M. PHILLIPS: We get all sorts of stuff. But I...

K. PHILLIPS: I can just imagine.

M. PHILLIPS: You know, for me it's always really fun to see people from locations that I've been. I'm from Huntsville, Alabama, and we got some questions from Alabama during this. So, just the idea that we can bring people from outside D.C. to the White House through the Web site so the president can answer their questions right here is very exciting to us.

So, just seeing the names and the locations just from outside of the city was thrilling to us. And certainly, there's a variety of questions. Everybody has their favorites. But we're looking forward to doing it a little bit more.

K. PHILLIPS: Good, well, we look forward to getting inside there and seeing how it all works. Macon Phillips. By the way, no relation. Thanks a lot, Macon.

M. PHILLIPS: My pleasure.

K. PHILLIPS: Actually, if we were related, I might have an inside vibe (ph) there to the White House. Maybe I should work that. All right, Macon, thanks a lot.

M. PHILLIPS: Take care.

K. PHILLIPS: All right, obviously, the president didn't have time to answer all of the questions sent to the White House Web site. So, Josh Levs is here with a look at what the president did address and some of the popular questions that he didn't get to. Hey, Josh.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I loved that interview, by the way. I've always wanted to know the process. When you submit the questions, what do you end up getting?

K. PHILLIPS: I know. Who looks at it, who decides, you know, who's going to answer what, does the president ever see those e-mails. I mean, can you just imagine -- you see all the e-mails that you get.

LEVS: Oh, exactly.

K. PHILLIPS: I mean, imagine what the White House is getting. My goodness.

LEVS: I know. Me and then President Obama. I know, it's incredible, the count that we get around here.

Let me show you what did happen today, because a lot of people didn't get to see everything. The whole thing ran here on whitehouse.gov. You couldn't miss it. We don't have the numbers yet, but check this out. This is how many questions ultimately they got: 92,000, pretty much 93,000 people submitted 104,000 questions and cast 3.6 million votes on which ones should be asked.

Now, while you look at those numbers, I'm going to tell you President Obama answered only six. Actually seven if you include he himself bringing up the marijuana question. And he pretty much used each one as an opportunity to talk about one of the major topics they were looking at today. I'm going to show you a clip here of one of them, which was a video submitted by a few people asking about paying for college.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Our question is, what proposals do you have to make college more affordable and to make student loans easier to get? And when will your national service program be available so we can take advantage of the scholarship? Thank you, Mr. President.

OBAMA: That was pretty well done.

(APPLAUSE)

Well, I am very excited about the possibility that we may be able to get national service done in the next few weeks. National service was a priority for me during the campaign, partly because of my own biography. I found my calling when I became a community organizer working in low-income neighborhoods when I was 22, 23 years old. And it gave me a sense of direction, a sense of service, it helped me grow. It helped me give back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEVS: And Kyra, I tell you, the White House said earlier today that if this went really well, we could expect to see more on other topics beyond the economy, kind of in that "fireside chats" concept. Given the way today went, initial reactions, we could see a lot more of this coming up.

K. PHILLIPS All right. Sounds good. We'll track it. Thanks, Josh.

LEVS: Thanks a lot.

K. PHILLIPS Tens of thousands of questions were submitted to the White House Web site. So, next hour we're going to pick some of the ones that he didn't get to and put them to Austan Goolsbee, one of Mr. Obama's top economic advisers. We also want you to send your questions to us. What do you want to ask about the president's budget and the economy? E-mail your questions to mailtothechief@CNN.com.

The guns look scary enough on their own. Imagine them in the hands of murderous drugrunners. They've got their hands full right now, full of U.S. weapons. We'll investigate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

K. PHILLIPS Well, there's never been a piece of currency like it. You're seeing the first coin to feature readable braille, put on sale today by the U.S. Mint to commemorate the 200th birthday of its creator. Braille, as you know, is the system of forming letters with raised dots, used by the blind. The National Federation of the Blind is out with a new report, too, saying that fewer than 10 percent of legally blind Americans can actually read braille. It says that schools now expect blind students to use recorders and voice- recognition computers, and that's leaving them virtually illiterate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

K. PHILLIPS Drugs go north, the guns go south. A deadly exchange across the U.S.-Mexican border. Mexican drugrunners using big guns from America in their war against the police. Here's CNN special investigations unit correspondent Drew Griffin.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Had it not been for one good tip, this 50-caliber Barrett rifle firing rounds as big as your palm could have easily gotten into hands of the narco-killers in Mexico.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. Four or five Barretts have already made its way south.

GRIFFIN: Call it the worst free trade imaginable. Mexican drugs easily flow north. American guns and ammunition flow south. An illegal trade that ATF agent and former New York cop Peter Forcelli says is like nothing he has ever seen.

PETER FORCELLI, ATF SPECIAL AGENT: And those weapons are being used by drug cartel members and people that are involved in drug trafficking in a war that they're having with the Mexican authorities, be it the military and Mexican police...

GRIFFIN (on camera): A war?

FORCELLI: Pretty much, yes, and in some of the battles they're actually winning.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Guns are hard to buy in Mexico. It is why the guns fueling the drug war are bought north of the border. ATF agents comb gun shows like this one in Phoenix or stake out gun stores, where they've arrested girlfriends, illegal dealers or just opportunists hoping to cash in on the gun and ammo smuggling trade.

(on camera): And this is the ammo for that? FORCELLI: Yes, yes. In fact, the last time we worked one of these shows, we seized 8,000 rounds of this type of ammo and approximately 19 of these firearms just in two days.

GRIFFIN: And those 50 caliber guns are showing up on the streets of Juarez, Mexico, like this street, Gatsamala (ph), next to a day care center, where a commander of the police department coming out of his home and getting in his car was gunned down right here with the largest weapon you can legally buy in the United States.

I assume he's your friend?

JUAN ANTONIO ROMAN GARCIA, POLICE DIRECTOR, JUAREZ, MEXICO (through translator): Yes. He was the person behind me, the second in charge here.

GRIFFIN (voice-over): Last March, we met Juan Antonio Roman Garcia, the police director in Juarez shortly after his friend and second in command, Francisco Salazar (ph), had been gunned down with that American-bought gun.

Juarez police officers like Ceasar Quitana are literally afraid their small-caliber, government-issued rifles are no match for the narcos.

OFC. CESAR QUITANA, JUAREZ POLICE DEPARTMENT (through translator): I think most of us feel scared just to bring this with us.

GRIFFIN: And just two months after we met Commander Garcia he, too, was gunned down, police say by narco-terrorists using an AK-47, a gun most likely bought in the U.S.

Drew Griffin, CNN, Juarez, Mexico.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

K. PHILLIPS Well, ambushed, terrorized and nearly killed. A San Diego-area family saw firsthand the growing violence south of the border. Gunmen abducted Debra and Chris Hall, their two kids a year and a half ago while the family was vacationing in Mexico. They got out with their lives but also a lifetime of nightmares. CNN's Randi Kaye spoke to them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBRA HALL, ABDUCTED IN MEXICO: I thought they were going to kill us, and that they were covering us up with a sleeping bag so that they wouldn't get blood on them.

CHRIS HALL, ABDUCTED IN MEXICO: I tried to cover my daughter with my body to protect her.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Did you talk to her?

C. HALL: Yes. KAYE: What did you say?

C. HALL: Just kept telling her, sorry.

DIVINIA HALL, ABDUCTED IN MEXICO: I really thought we weren't coming home. And I was kind of facing my own mortality.

I was OK with the fact that I was with them and that if it was my time to go it was my time to go. At least I was with my family, and I knew that they knew I loved them, and I knew that they loved me, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. PHILLIPS Well, it's a terrifying story. You're going to hear all of it in the next hour.

And be sure to tune in tonight for "AC360"'s special, "THE WAR NEXT DOOR." Anderson Cooper reports from the U.S.-Mexican border. That comes your way 10 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN.

The water's rising by the minute in North Dakota, and in the next couple of days, parts of the state, including Fargo, may see the worst flooding in more than 100 years.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER SONDAG, IREPORTER: We have our sandbag dike that stretches basically from this neighbor's fence, goes all through here, and you can see kind of curves back there behind the trees. And people just bringing bag after bag after bag after bag.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

K. PHILLIPS Well, as the waters rise, the situation is getting more serious by the minute in North Dakota. Chad Meyers joining me now with the latest on the flooding there. We were thinking it was 41 feet, but not really. You're saying about 25?

MYERS: Well, 41 feet is from the bottom of the measuring stick. The flood starts at 18. And so we're going to be from 41 to 18. That's how much the water's going to be, about. And you just said, how much is that?

K. PHILLIPS Yes. Can you put that in perspective for me? Because I'm sitting here thinking...

MYERS: What's that?

K. PHILLIPS The White House.

MYERS: The White House. You know where the water would go up to the White House? All the way to there. The entire bottom half of the White House would be flooded at 25 feet. And what we have here is a town that lies in a valley, yet Fargo is a little bit higher than the valley itself.

The river runs through it, so to speak, and then the river runs north. it actually goes up into Canada, up into Lake Winnipeg. I mean, it doesn't go south, like into Lake -- well, into the Missouri River. The Missouri River goes the other direction, down into the Gulf of Mexico.

So, here's the valley where the water is. If the water gets over the levees, then it spills into the city. Then we have a major flood mess. But so far, they think that they can build these levees high enough. The problem is that this water is going to be at 41, maybe higher, 41 feet, let's call it, because that is the forecast, for seven days.

Could you imagine anything holding up to that much water for seven days, let alone an earthen dam or an earthen levee? The water could get under that. The water could be washing that away. If you're counting on that levee to save your life, I'm saying right now, you need to head to higher ground -- Kyra.

K. PHILLIPS All right, Chad. Appreciate it.

MYERS: Did that help?

K. PHILLIPS That did help.

MYERS: Did you like that little White House shot?

K. PHILLIPS Yes, because most of us, you know, in this business have been to the White House. I think a lot of people, you know, around the country have visited the White House. So, when you think, wow, almost to the second level there, that's pretty darn high.

MYERS: Well, because he has very tall ceilings, you know? A regular house, you'd be -- a 2 1/2-story house would be completely underwater if you have eight-foot ceilings, like I do.

K. PHILLIPS Chad, thank you.

MYERS: OK.

K. PHILLIPS That helped.

Well, detained by a cop while a love oned dies. This is a story that had us asking, what the...? And lots of other questions as well. Listen to this.

Houston, Texas running back Ryan Moats was stopped by a cop last week as he was pulled into a hospital just north of Dallas to be with his dying mother-in-law. Moetz explained the emergency, and hospital workers even came out to confirm that it is his wife that ran into the hospital, but Officer Robert Powell still gave him a ticket for running a red light, and then a heated lecture.

Well, by then, it was too late. Moetz's mother-in-law died while he was in the parking lot dealing with that cop. Officer Powell's on desk duty now. So, what's the deal, Officer? Call us if you would like to explain yourself.

By the way, Dallas police have dropped that ticket. Assistant Chief Floyd Simpson says that cops should help people in distress, not add to it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

K. PHILLIPS Well, an update now on the serious flooding in North Dakota. Fargo, the state's biggest city, bracing for what's expected to be its worst flood on record. Forecasters say that the Red River may crest Saturday at 41 feet. That would top the record set in 1897.

The White House stepped into 2009 today with its first online town hall. OK, webcams and e-mails are not exactly new technology, but a first is a first. And for more than an hour, President Obama answered questions uploaded to the White House Web site from YouTube and from a small East Room audience.

New layoffs today at one of the nation's tech giants. Published reports say that IBM is cutting 5,000 jobs, mostly in its services division. That's about 4 percent of its U.S. work force. The company already had a round of layoffs back in January.

And another high-tech company is also cutting jobs. Agilent Technologies makes scientific instruments, and it's laying off 2,700 people, blaming a dropping global demand for its products.

Save more, spend less. You've heard the advice, probably taken it to heart. But it's possible and could be harmful to save too much? Well, some experts say absolutely. Here's CNN's Alina Cho.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The message is everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) suddenly seems like a brilliant idea.

CHO: Save, save, save. In these tough times, that's the mantra. It's always been a good idea. But can we take frugality too far?

JUDY KURIANSKY, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: It is a very negative state of mind physically and emotionally for you to constantly be saying no to yourself.

CHO: Call it saver's remorse. More money in the bank, but are you any happier? Columbia professor Ran Kivetz, who co-authored a study on this very subject, says not indulging enough can hurt you emotionally.

PROF. RAN KIVETZ, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY BUSINESS SCHOOL: This notion that we are missing out on life, in a sense, we're missing out on pleasure, that we're missing some balance, that type of emotion or feeling actually persists over time and sometimes even builds up. CHO: Personal saving jumped from 0.8 percent in August to 5 percent in January. And in some cases, we're saving when we don't have to. So focused on the future, we're not enjoying the here and now.

KURIANSKY: When you're restricting what you purchase and what you give yourself, you're living in a brain state of scarcity, and that makes people depressed.

CHO: So, what's the answer? Continue to save, but don't forget to treat yourself even in a recession.

KURIANSKY: In this tough economy, people feel out of control. On a deeper level buying and indulging in certain small pleasures gives you a sense of control.

CHO: And some people say life is too short to have saver's remorse.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our future isn't that long.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're too old to do that.

CHO (on camera): Bottom line, everything in moderation. Spend a little, save a little. Psychologists say balance your checkbook, but also balance your emotional checkbook. That, they say, will keep you healthy.

Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)