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Will Relations with Cuba Truly Change?; Details Sketchy on Small Plane Crash in Florida; Kidnapped Captain to Return Home Today; Casualty of Housing Crisis: Unsaleable Homes; Variety of Issues to be Discussed at Americas Summit; Inexpensive Health Insurance Options Are Available; Economy Prompts People to Strike Out on Their Own; Grateful Dead Says Obama Inspired Them to Reunite; Mexican Drug Cartels Recruiting U.S. Teens as Drug Smugglers
Aired April 17, 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: Tony, thanks.
We are pushing forward to the Summit of the Americas. Cuba is not on the guest list, but it's sure to be on the radar when President Obama arrives in Trinidad and Tobago.
The captain of the Maersk Alabama will soon set foot in the home state of Vermont. You'll see it live right here on CNN.
Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Shunned but not ignored. As a non-democracy, Cuba has been never been invited to the Summit of the Americas, but it will be a big part of this one.
President Obama and 33 fellow heads of states are converging on the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago, just off the coast of Venezuela. Mr. Obama wants to talk about the region and the world's economy, specifically job creation, trade promotion and a coordinated response to the recession.
But lurking in the background, the hemisphere's relationship with Cuba. Mr. Obama lifting bans on travel and money transfers to the communist island by Cuban Americans but not by Americans in general.
Speaking at a shadow summit in Venezuela, Cuba President Raul Castro says his government is willing to talk about, quote, "everything: human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners, everything, if it will help improve relations." Mr. Obama points out a 50-year freeze won't thaw overnight, though.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We talk about the ban on U.S. travel to Cuba. But there's not much discussion of the ban on Cuban people traveling elsewhere and the severe restrictions that they're under. I make that point only to suggest that there are a range of steps that could be taken on the part of the Cuban government that would start to show that they want to move beyond the patterns of the last 50 years. (END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Let's bring in our own John Zarrella, now in Miami.
John, will freer travel open the door to bigger things? I mean, that's one of the main questions we're all asking.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Kyra, there's a lot of things at play here. The meetings in Trinidad, clearly Cuba is the elephant in the room, with a lot of Latin American presidents wanting to bring Cuba back into the fold. The United States saying, "Well, what's -- wait a minute. There's reasons why they're not in the fold."
What you're seeing now is the United States made the first step. Yes, it's going to help the Cuban people reach out to their brothers and sisters, their family members there. But does it go much beyond that?
Until Cuba does something -- and you know, in 25 years of covering the Cuba story, I've heard things from not just Raul Castro but certainly Fidel Castro over the years where they'd say "We're willing to talk," but that's not what President Obama said in his remarks just now. The Cuban government has to do something more than just talk.
So we have to see what happens next. If the Cuban government does something substantive to then allow for telecommunications companies, all of those things that President Obama says he wants to allow to happen in Cuba.
PHILLIPS: Well, you bring up an interesting point, John. You've been covering this story for 25 years. OK. Let's go back even before that, back when our relatives visited Cuba, you know, when it was sort of a Vegas style playground. We found all kinds of old pictures about even a Fourth of July parade there in Havana.
What do you think? I mean, could there be a point where it could go back to that time and that American companies would get in there and invest?
ZARRELLA: Well, that would, of course, require lifting of the U.S. trade embargo, the 50-year trade embargo. And that is clearly not going to happen. There's certainly still a lot of resistance. It's not going to happen right this minute.
There's certainly a lot of resistance amongst members of the Cuban American community down here. The representatives in Congress, Cuban American representatives and others because Cuba has not demonstrated its willingness, as far as human rights issues, its willingness to do things as far as the political prisoners. All of those freedoms that -- and beside, the embargo is codified by the Helms-Burton Law. So it's not just a stroke of the pen that Obama can do to lift suddenly the embargo.
So unless there's some substantive changes on the island, that's not likely to happen. And that is the big, big issue that Fidel Castro and now Raul Castro have railed on for years and years that it's the embargo that has to be lifted but not likely to take place unless there's substantive change on the island.
PHILLIPS: John Zarrella, good to see you.
Coincidentally, these diplomatic baby steps come on the 48th anniversary of the botched invasion known forever as the Bay of Pigs. On this date in 1961, roughly 1,300 Cuban exiles trained by the CIA came ashore in southern Cuba and were promptly killed or captured by Cuban trips trained and armed by the Soviet bloc.
U.S./Cuban relations were bad before. Well, they were much worse after and suffered even more during the missile crisis one year ago.
A small plane slams into a neighborhood. We're following a developing story today outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida. As you can see, the twin engine Cessna hit what appears to be a small house, which has been virtually cut in two by the impact. A Fort Lauderdale city spokesperson says that there were four people on that plane. No word on their condition. No word whether anyone was in that house.
A city spokesperson says the plane reported trouble seconds after taking off from the nearby Fort Lauderdale airport and went down while trying to return. It was reported to be heading to Fernandina Beach, Florida. That's near Jacksonville.
Chad Myers has been following it for us and will give us a little more of a look at it through Google.
What do you know, Chad?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It was trying to take off at 11:13 a.m. and basically got about a mile from the airport, tried to turn around. And one of our iReporters, Kyra, saying that one of the engines was actually on fire.
On Wednesday, tax day, that plane actually left from Cozumel and landed in Fort Lauderdale. That was two days ago. Today it was trying to make the trip up to Fernandina Beach. And that's where the end of that flight happened.
We'll take you a little bit closer, and I'll show you what I believe is happening here. Probably either Runway 8 or 13. Both of them kind of head a little bit to the east. The wind was very gusty today: 17 miles per hour off of the ocean.
And we'll zoom right down into the airport. There it is. Two choices for runways here: one to go almost east or a little bit due north of east. A little due north. And then one a little bit south and east, and the plane, in fact, just ended up right here in this neighborhood at this point. So it really at that point in time never had a chance to make it back to the airport.
There are your winds: 16, 17, 18 miles per hour. That's the direction the plane would have been trying to take off. That's kind of using the wind to help the plane go up.
Now, this airport, this FXE, this executive Fort Lauderdale Airport is still open. This did not happen at FLL, the Fort Lauderdale major international airport. This was one of the executive airports there in the south Florida region.
And we do know that it was a 421, a Cessna twin-engine, very high-performance aircraft, pressurized. It can fly -- obviously, it flew very well two days ago, all the way from Cozumel to Fort Lauderdale -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Chad, thanks.
Ben Stinson, one of our iReporters, he actually saw that plane going down. He lives just a few blocks from the site of the crash. Ben joins us on the phone now.
Ben, tell us what you saw.
BEN STINSON, WITNESS (via phone): I saw pretty much what you guys just described there. A lot of planes take off towards the east from that executive airport. And this one was very low, banking to its right towards the south.
And I could see the engine was on fire. The right engine was on fire. And it made it back heading west, but it started kind of fishtailing a little bit and dipped below the roof line, from what I could see, and then black smoke just right after that.
PHILLIPS: Were you able to get closer to the scene? I'm looking at one of your pictures right now. Do you have any idea if any of those four people on board were able to get rescued?
STINSON: From what I saw, there's no way.
PHILLIPS: OK. Did you see if there was any remaining parts of that aircraft? Or...
STINSON: There was a couple of scraps of metal that had kind of -- looked like they came through the house and were burning in the road, but I can't imagine anybody could have survived that.
PHILLIPS: Ben Stinson, I can't imagine having to watch something like that and not be able to do anything about it. But we sure appreciate your iReport. Ben Stinson.
Profits and losses. The latest earnings reports from Citigroup and GE are a mixed bag but still better than expected.
Citigroup reported an initial profit of $1.6 billion in the first three months of the year. But when you factor in certain stock deals and an accounting change, Citigroup actually posted a loss of just under a billion dollars. It's complicated, but again -- then again, better news than expected from a bank that got a lot of your taxpayer bailout dollars. General Electric posted a first-quarter profit of 2.9 billion. That sounds good these days, but keep in mind that those earnings are down 35 percent from a year ago. Again, though, they beat Wall Street expectations.
Looted, damaged and left for dead. The state of millions of American homes, homes that might never, ever be sold. It's an ugly angle to the housing crisis that you haven't heard much about until now. CNN investigates straight ahead.
And the one Somali pirate who survived the Maersk Alabama hijacking will reportedly face justice in New York. That's the word from a U.S. official, according to the Associated Press.
New York likely chosen was because the FBI office there has experience dealing with cases in Africa that involve crimes against Americans.
The suspect is believed to be younger than 20. If he's under 18, well, that will complicate the process. No charges have been filed yet. There is a chance that he'll get life in prison.
And of course, Captain Richard Phillips' trial and tribulations are over. He's due back in his hometown just a little later today. TGIF probably never rang so true in Underhill, Vermont, as it does today.
CNN's Deb Feyerick is live in Burlington, awaiting his arrival.
Hey, Deb.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Kyra.
And you know, there really is a great sense of anticipation and excitement. The family of Captain Richard Phillips counting down the minutes until his plane lands here at Burlington International Airport in Vermont. He arrives in about 3 1/2 hours.
Now, Captain Phillips was -- he left Mombasa last night about 10 p.m. at night on board a private jet. He was supposed to return with his crew. However, he was delayed after the ship he was on after being rescued by Navy SEALs actually had to respond to another ship that was under assault by pirates in the Gulf of Aden. Now, it did delay his return here to Vermont. However, the people of Underhill don't much seem to mind.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK MIDDLEBROOK, UNDERHILL, VERMONT, RESIDENT: I think everybody is happy he's coming home safely and just praise God he's here.
REV. RICK DANIELSON, UNDERHILL, VERMONT, RESIDENT: I can't wait to -- to welcome him back home, back to his hometown and to his family. And the town is just thrilled beyond belief, as you can imagine, that he was rescued. And we're delighted that he's on his way home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FEYERICK: And of course, there are lots of questions that the captain hopefully will answer after he arrives home. How was he treated by the pirates during the five days of captivity? What happened after his failed attempt to escape? All of those things. And hopefully, we'll get some answers around 4:30.
Now Captain Phillips will get a chance to sleep in his own bed in his home. And you just have to wonder, Kyra, whether that went through his mind many times while he was on that little boat for five days -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, Deb, we hope you get a chance to talk to him. We'd love to hear from him. Deb Feyerick, thanks so much.
Well, a plane plunges from the sky. A home is virtually cut in half. The pictures are staggering. The story still developing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: There's so much hail in Texas panhandle that you need a snow plow to move it. And in the upper Midwest, water is the big problem there: rising water.
Right, Chad Myers?
MYERS: Absolutely. I just want to take you to this video here. We'll just do this first.
Because this is kind of a culvert area. This hail came down around Lubbock so hard yesterday, and then it floated down into this low area here, and the cars got stuck. Looks like a mudslide. That, in fact, that is hail piled up. See how this is a low area. And it all just ran right down into that area. And firefighters had to rescue people from that event that they had there yesterday.
What happened in Denver and what is still happening in Denver, out here in the foothills and higher, 16 to 19 inches of snow so far, and it is still snowing. Especially Denver right now you're 39 and raining at the airport. That's east of town. But still, pretty much a rain event so far.
It's going to get colder. The low is going to come down. You're going to get snow in Denver for sure. But it's the foothills and the higher elevations out to the west and, you know, I mean, all of those places. Evergreen. You never know when winter is going to stop in Colorado. And sometimes it just doesn't want to.
And then for the hail -- the hail we talked about yesterday that was in Lubbock could very well be moving into Houston later on today. Here's the rain showers and thunderstorms. And that box right there, that is a tornado watch box in Houston metro area. You are right smack dab in the middle of it. We'll keep watching -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Chad.
MYERS: Sure.
PHILLIPS: Well, a guy lives in a lakeside mansion for months and doesn't pay a dime for anything. Talk about squatting in style. How did he get away with it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: You know we're in a housing crisis. You know there are millions of homes out there sitting empty and unsold. But did you know that many of those homes might never be sold?
Our special investigations unit correspondent, Drew Griffin, found out why.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's a whole different class of homes across the country that so far no one is counting: unsaleable. Foreclosed and left for dead.
THOMAS POPIK, CAMPBELL COMMUNICATIONS: About a third of all foreclosed properties have been so damaged, either by the previous owners or by criminals coming in to loot after the foreclosure, that they no longer qualify for standard mortgage financing.
GRIFFIN: From his tiny office in southern New Hampshire, Tom Popik surveys houses of realtors nationwide, and what he says he's discovered is a national trend that regulators in Washington haven't yet seen.
POPIK: In many cases it costs so much to rehabilitate these properties that it's just not cost effective, and the properties are eventually going to be bulldozed.
GRIFFIN (on camera): This looks like it's been sitting here vacant for quite a long time.
POPIK: It was vacant for a while.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): This foreclosed house in Nashua, New Hampshire, is one of 29 in this city. Four years ago the sale price was about 200,000.
POPIK: This house is not livable until code enforcement releases it and says it is.
GRIFFIN (on camera): So whoever buys this...
POPIK: Has to bring it up to compliance with national ordinance.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): And take a look at these foreclosed homes in Atlanta: boarded up on the outside. Inside, trash everywhere. Walls ripped open. Even a toilet on the living room floor. DANA ASH, ATLANTA REAL ESTATE BROKER: A lot of the homes have been vandalized. A little scary going into them. The power is out. A lot of them are boarded up.
GRIFFIN: It's not just foreclosed homes in less affluent areas that have been badly damaged. Some very pricey homes are in terrible shape, as well.
(on camera) This house actually had two kitchens: one, the main kitchen. The other was for the entertainment room. This was it. Took out all the appliances, all the cabinets, and just left.
And outside it's even worse.
The foreclosed owner here even ripped out and hauled off thousands of dollars in custom stone work, just to stick it to the bank.
So if I'm getting foreclosed on, I'm mad, I'm ticked off at the bank, my final fist shake is going to be take the water heater, sell it, and throw a hammer through the wall.
POPIK: Unfortunately, in many cases, that's what happens.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): A spokesman for the Department of Housing and Urban Development tells CNN that unsaleable homes are a relatively small part of the national inventory of foreclosed properties but that the worse the economy is in a particular region, the more distressed the foreclosed homes are likely to be.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Drew Griffin joining us now.
How come we haven't heard more about this until now?
GRIFFIN: Popik, he forecasts what's going to happen next. He's looking at 1,000 realtors that he surveys. And he says that the gurus in Washington, these housing experts that say this is a small problem just don't know about it yet. They just have not seen this problem, because they're not in touch with what's happening on Main Street.
And on Main Street, Kyra, this is what's happening. Either vandalism or people are so frustrated they are just ripping their houses apart, kind of as a last act of frustration.
PHILLIPS: And you're saying it's happening all across the country?
GRIFFIN: All across the country. Blighted areas...
PHILLIPS: Blighted areas.
GRIFFIN: ... really bad, right? But this -- you know, you saw that home that we were in, $700,000 home.
PHILLIPS: Gutted. All right. It shows -- well, it shows the emotion in what's happening right now. Drew, thanks.
Well, we know that one person who found a dream home probably -- well, he didn't pay for it. Police say that Steven Hawthorne squatted in a $750,000 lakeside mansion just outside Chicago -- get this -- for eight months. The home was in foreclosure, just like the pieces Drew was talking about.
Police say that it took a while for them to get permission from the mortgage company to enter. Well, during that time, Hawthorne moved in a couple big screen TVs, somehow got free gas and electric, and basically acted like he owned the place.
The final straw came when he started using city water.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DETECTIVE JOHN SIZER, SUGAR GROVE, ILLINOIS, POLICE: The public works department shut the water off and put a lock on the valve.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then what happened?
SIZER: He cut the lock off. We put another lock on. He cut that one off. We put a boot on with a lock. He cut that one off and put his own on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Hawthorne is charged with theft of water and criminal damage to government property. His driver's license lists an address in nearby Aurora. We don't know much else about him, other than that he's now squatting in jail.
Cobra, health insurance for when you're out of a job. The problem is, when you don't have a job, chance are you can't afford it. We're going to look at the options you might have.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: And that developing story outside Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where a small plane has crashed into a neighborhood. The twin-engine Cessna hit what appears to be a small house, which has been virtually cut in half.
Fort Lauderdale city spokesperson says that there were four people on that plane. No word on their conditions and no word on whether anyone was in the house.
A city spokesperson says the plane reported trouble seconds after taking off from the nearby Fort Lauderdale Airport and went down while trying to return. He says it was heading to Fernandina Beach. That's near Jacksonville.
In a little more than two hours, President Obama due to land in Port of Spain on the Caribbean island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. So why are we showing the flag of Cuba? Because the U.S. is lifting a Cuban travel ban for Cuban Americans, because Cuba has allies at the upcoming Summit of the Americas. And because the U.S. secretary of state says she welcomes an offer by Cuban leaders to talk about everything, including human rights.
This year's summit is the first to be held -- the first to be held in the Caribbean, practically on the doorstep of Cuba's best friend and ally, Venezuela.
Well, the issues President Obama faces at this summit may affect you right where it hurts: your wallet. Josh Levs here to point out some of the top concerns on the president's agenda -- Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, Kyra, it's interesting. We were speaking with the international desk today, kind of coordinating here. And we want to offer everyone a really good digest of what to look out for. All these top issues could get (ph) you.
We're going to put some video right here on this screen. We're going to kind of zoom you through the region. I'm going to talk to you about some of the top issues.
First of all, with Mexico. You hear about this a lot. Drug violence, a big concern facing the United States right now; also immigration. Every time we ask people what concerns you, we're always hearing about immigration.
We're going to zoom over to Cuba now, because there you were just talking about this. And one of the issues we're going to hear here is about the embargo, trade embargo. We're hearing that a lot of Latin American officials are going to ask President Obama to start lifting that embargo. We're going to hear more about that.
Zoom down to South America. A few more things for you to know about heading into the summit. Oil. Venezuela. Venezuela is one of the countries that's affecting the world oil market. There could be important discussions about that, could affect the price of gasoline everywhere.
And two more I want you to see. We're going to go over to Colombia. And Kyra, you know this is a big deal. Narcoterrorism and concerns about the drug wars and drugs in Colombia in general working their way upward into the United States.
Finally, we're going to zoom over to Brazil. Check out Brazil. One of the big issues there -- very large country. A big concern is trade. And this is not just limited to Brazil. But actually, as we zoom back out, throughout the entire region there are critical trade issues all he way from Mexico down.
Keep in mind, you've got CAFTA -- the Central American Free Trade Agreement -- and also NAFTA, something that President Obama himself had slammed during his campaign. Throughout this region there's a lot of trade that affects the United States all the way down to the price of goods you buy at the grocery store. All these things will come up in the next few days, Kyra, at that summit.
PHILLIPS: All right. Josh, thanks.
LEVS: You got it. Thanks.
PHILLIPS: Cuba wasn't invited to the summit, but its presence is definitely being felt, especially after reaching out to its longtime rival. The U.S. and Cuba weren't always rivals, though. Before the communist revolution, Cuba seemed as American as, well, baseball.
Take a look at these old pictures we found. U.S. baseball teams actually used to hold spring training in Cuba. And Cuba was also a vacation destination for a lot of Americans, filled with resorts and casinos. Nothing like a little roulette in Havana. And here's something you definitely don't see now in Cuba, a Fourth of July parade honoring America.
We also dug up these old travel brochures advertising Cuba as the place for sun and fun. Plus, one of the most renowned American writers, as you know, called Cuba his home for 20 years. And as you can see here, Ernest Hemingway had friends in high places. Hemingway stayed on for a bit after Fidel Castro's communist revolution in 1959 and then later left.
Now, Cuba's a much different place. Those palatial hotels, casinos, other sites now crumbling all over Havana.
Push forward next hour. Our man in Havana, Morgan Neill, looks at why Cuba looms so large over hemispheric politics and what may be changing in the not-too-distant future.
Well, it's Friday. Are you ready for a little empowerment? Today's the day that we answer your questions about getting the most out of your health care. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to talk about where to find affordable health insurance if you lose your job. Key word, of course, is "affordable." We already know you saved one of your e-mailers hundreds of dollars a month in her drug costs.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We cut her prescription bill down from about $400 to $50 -- $400 to $50 for one month.
PHILLIPS: Oh, I thought it was 100. You brought it down even more.
COHEN: No, it was more than I thought. I know, that's what I said the other day, but it was even more than I thought.
PHILLIPS: She's loving you.
COHEN: She is loving us. And so, we are here on "Empower Me Fridays" to solve your problems. We're taking viewer questions, and actually, this question, I think Kyra's going to read it.
PHILLIPS: Is it the one that comes from Chris in California?
COHEN: It is Chris in California. PHILLIPS: All right. Let's take a look at it. She actually writes and says, "We lost our business. We've had to recently let go of our health insurance. My husband and I are nearing 50 years old with no major health issues. Where can we get some/any health insurance coverage?"
COHEN: We actually found some pretty affordable coverage for Chris and her husband. Some people are scared. You're getting into 50s. They're going to sort of charge through the nose. We shopped around and found a pretty good deal.
So, take a look at this. With the help of the folks at ehealthinsurance.com, we found a policy for $377 a month, and that's for two people. Office visits cost $30. Prescription drugs cost $15. Now, if Chris or her husband needs a procedure like a surgery in a hospital, there is a $5,000 deductible. But this is quite a good policy for everyday things, especially since, when you start getting into your 50s and 60s, you do start using more prescription drugs.
PHILLIPS: But what about if they can't afford $377 a month? I mean, they lost their business.
COHEN: Right. Exactly. And so, we asked the folks at ehealthinsurance, all right, we want rock bottom. We want even cheaper than $377.
And they came up with a $270 policy that's just for catastrophic care to cover you, God forbid, if something huge happens. But $270 a month for two people is really not too bad, and if you can -- it's, obviously, times you are tough -- get at least catastrophic coverage. You don't want to be caught in a situation where you owe a hospital tens of thousands of dollars.
PHILLIPS: But catastrophic doesn't cover doctors visits and drugs.
COHEN: That's right, so we came up with another solution for them.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: Let's go on with another question. Let's see how many solutions you come up with.
COHEN: This is it. I think we're at the end here. We came up with another solution because, as Kyra said, catastrophic care isn't going to cover everyday costs. So, if someone goes to needymeds.com, you can get help with your prescription drug costs. You can get free or discounted drugs through that Web site.
Also, negotiate fees with your doctor. This sounds so sort of strange to a lot of people. But you can say to your doctor, look, I just lost my job. I don't have any more health insurance. Can I see you for, say, $40 an office visit?
I know someone who managed to negotiate that price. And doctors, surprisingly, really will say yes. They don't want to lose you as a patient. They know that you're probably going get another job at some point. And in the meantime, doctors, we've been told, are usually quite happy to see you for a discounted rate while you're waiting for the next job.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thank you so much, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Oh...
PHILLIPS: Yes?
COHEN: ... and people can send us more questions.
PHILLIPS: Yes, to...
COHEN: We want to help more people and solve more problems.
PHILLIPS: Do we go online to your "Empowered Patient"...
COHEN: No, you send an e-mail...
PHILLIPS: OK.
COHEN: ... empoweredpatient@CNN.com. Send us your problems, and we will solve them or at least try.
PHILLIPS: Elizabeth is standing by.
COHEN: We are.
PHILLIPS: Thank you.
All right, something else Elizabeth is going to join us to talk about. This is next hour. A urology center in South Dakota is contacting about 5,700 patients with some pretty bad news: They might have been exposed to hepatitis and HIV. Sound familiar? We already talked about it at a V.A. hospital in Miami.
Now, state health inspectors found that the Siouxland Urology Center in Dakota Dunes was reusing medical products that should have been tossed after one use. A note on the facility's Web site says that the risk of exposure is small, and it's giving patients free blood tests to screen for viruses. Elizabeth Cohen is going to come back to talk to us about this story next hour.
Still rolling in dough. Even in this bad economy, an entrepreneur is making big bucks. And here's the twist: He's only a teenager. I'm going to talk to him about it live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PHILLIPS: Layoffs, pay cuts, vanishing benefits, these are tough times for workers everywhere. So, a lot of people like the idea of just chucking it all and finding a way to be their own boss. Well, take a lesson from a young man barely out of high school. Nineteen- year-old Billy Jinks runs a multimillion-dollar company, and it all springs from a boyhood love of limousines. Billy lives in Phoenix -- or joins from us from Phoenix. Is that right
BILLY JINKS, 19-YEAR-OLD BUSINESS OWNER: Yes, that's correct.
PHILLIPS: OK, good. Sorry about that. So, Billy, I mean, how did -- you say you got interested in limousines as a young kid. How did that happen?
JINKS: Just business trips with my parents and family, things like that. We used to take them to the airport. And I just grew a fondness for them and really enjoyed them and kind of got hooked on them.
PHILLIPS: Must be nice to be cruising out in a limo at a young age. That's pretty nice, Billy. So, how did you -- at what point did you decide to start your own business? I mean, how did it all begin? How old were you? And how did you know you were on to something?
JINKS: When I was 15, we decided, my parents and I, we decided to build our first car. We built our first limo in the end of '04 and started the beginning of 2005, started Lexani.
PHILLIPS: Built your own car? How did you build your own car?
JINKS: We actually designed it and had it manufactured in a company in California.
PHILLIPS: Really? So, what's so unique about your cars versus other limos?
JINKS: Just little things we like to do. All of our cars have upgraded, you know, fancy chrome wheels, billet grills, Bluetooth, things like that, little features.
PHILLIPS: And how do you get the -- how did you get the initial funding to do this? Was this money your parents had saved, and people started chipping in on this?
JINKS: Yes, well, my parents helped me. Obviously, I didn't have credit yet. So, my parents helped me. We got our first loan, a commercial loan for a limousine, and purchased it that way.
PHILLIPS: And so, what's the secret to your success?
JINKS: I think it's just dedication and hard work. Most of our business comes from referrals and people seeing our vehicles and the service we provide.
PHILLIPS: So, who is it that's taking -- or taking up on your limos? What type of clientele? Because that's, I mean, obviously, people need cars for certain events and this and that. But you know, we're in tough economic times. But where's all your business coming from? JINKS: That's what's kind of unique about Lexani is, we have such a diverse fleet. We have sedans, limousines, buses, things like that. And we do all different things -- nights out, casinos, shuttles, dinners, parties, anything, pretty much.
PHILLIPS: So, have you started a retirement fund?
JINKS: Not yet. I have a savings, but not yet.
PHILLIPS: All right. Retirement fund is next, and then comes the girlfriend. Billy Jinks, congratulations.
JINKS: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, we're all feeling the recession in our daily lives, and we learned that this week that more than six million people continue to draw unemployment benefits. And that's a record high.
But Americans aren't taking it sitting down. Many are finding ways to just make themselves more marketable. Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange. You know, Susan, we've talked before about people going back to school, but once again, you call in on the morning meeting, and you say, guys, listen to this.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, that's right. It just goes to show the resilience of Americans these days. They are investing in themselves, and they're educating themselves. And, Kyra, a good example of that is Rosetta Stone. It makes interactive software for folks to learn languages. It went public yesterday.
Companies don't go public when business is sour. Huge demand for it. Shares were up 40 percent yesterday, and the CEO basically told me that the business is recession-proof.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM ADAMS, CEO, ROSETTA STONE: It's very affordable, and you get a great return on your investment. So, people have come to us all over. And in this kind of environment people want to improve themselves and make themselves more marketable. And language training is one of the ways to accomplish that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LISOVICZ: And you know, Kyra, there was another company that went public this weekend. IPOs are very rare. There's only been four this year. And it was Bridgepoint Education, which among other things offers college degrees online. So, folks are definitely investing in themselves.
PHILLIPS: And real quickly, what languages are the most popular, and can you even put a language to a certain job?
LISOVICZ: Well, you know, it's very predictable the most language -- the most popular -- Spanish, German, French, Italian, Japanese. I think what's telling, Kyra, is what's rising: Mandarin and Arabic.
And it points again to the fact that people aren't only doing this for their personal betterment. They're doing it to make themselves more marketable. You think about business opportunities in those two regions, and then you understand why people are learning those languages.
PHILLIPS: I remember my journalism professor telling me, my gosh, more than 20 years ago, learn another language. And sure enough, it got me my first job. Great.
LISOVICZ: That's why people are doing it.
PHILLIPS: Yes. Susan Lisovicz, appreciate it. Thanks so much.
LISOVICZ: You're welcome.
PHILLIPS: Well, President Barack Obama is trying to breathe new life into America's economy, but he's already performed one amazing feat. He's resurrected the dead.
(VIDEO CLIP -- GRATEFUL DEAD CONCERT)
PHILLIPS: That's right. The legendary band reunited during the presidential campaign to perform "Dead Heads for Obama" concerts. Now, The Dead says those concerts have inspired them to go on tour for the first time in five years. And as you probably know, the band has been one of the world's biggest concert draws since the '60s.
So, will the new tour create an economic boost for the 19 cities they'll rock? The Dead's drummer, Mickey Hart, joins me on the phone from Albany, New York, where they're getting set to play tonight. Mickey, are you awake and ready to go?
MICKEY HART, DRUMMER, THE DEAD (via telephone): Oh, yes. I get up early.
PHILLIPS: Oh, no, we know the truth on that, Mickey. I think we got you up about 15 minutes ago.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: Listen. This really is a tough time economically. So, that's why we wanted to talk to you. It's unbelievable to see the turnout already as you begin your tour. Do you think you're going to be able to contribute some type of economic boost to the 19 cities that you're going to?
HART: Oh, no doubt. Oh, when we come to town, you know, and our constituents, the Dead Heads, come to town, it's a major boost for the economy of any community, of course.
PHILLIPS: Are you seeing the same crowd size that you did, you know, decades ago?
HART: Yes. I many, the young folks and middle age and silver hairs, you know, they are many more generation, you know, of fans, you know, once you start, you know, in the '60s, and you keep a lot of your fans, and the new ones are coming up, the sons, the daughters, sisters, brothers, you know. And they want to experience the same kind of the feeling of a Grateful Dead concert. So, we get a very large cross section at our concerts.
PHILLIPS: "Dead Heads for Obama" concerts. Why are you an Obama fan?
HART: Well, Obama's a real human being. I mean, he's the great hope. And, you know, he offers us a future. We were pretty desperate there for eight years. And the country, we thought, was going down a really wrong path. So, you know, this guy can, you know, bring back America, what's left of it, anyway.
And we all agreed on that. That was the first thing we really agreed on in many years. And that kind of brought us back together again. So, you could credit President Obama with our reunion tour because it kind of happened organically, and we played a benefit for him, then another one. And then we looked in each other's eyes, and we said, hey, we really don't have that big of differences because the music is so grand, and this is what we're supposed to do. So, that, in, you know, in a backhand kind of way, he's really responsible for all of this.
PHILLIPS: Wow. Well, I'll tell you what. I'm going to do research. I'm going to try and find out if he's got the Grateful Dead in his iPod. Mickey Hart joining us live on the tour there. Grateful Dead coming back, saying they owe it all to Barack Obama. Great talking to you, Mickey.
HART: Thank you for asking.
PHILLIPS: All right.
HART: Have a great day.
PHILLIPS: You, too.
Well, speaking of The Dead, none of the Grateful Dead's music made the list of popular funeral songs. And leave it to the Brits to take a poll.
Here's part of that list. First up, my writer Ed Perry's (ph) pick for his Irish wake, "My Way" by good old Blue Eyes. And then, yes, I know, this one's obvious, Bette Midler's tear-jerker, "Wind Beneath My Wings."
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PHILLIPS: As my director likes to say, that is enough of that.
Well, after Ms. Bette Midler, it's "Time to Say Goodbye" by Sarah Brightman and Andrea Bocelli, and then "Angels" by Robbie Williams, and finally, "Over the Rainbow," sung by Eva Cassidy. Sorry, Judy. Well, none of these really spoke to me and the rest of my team until we got to the songs that have moved up the funeral charts. This was our unanimous favorite.
(MUSIC PLAYING -- "HIGHWAY TO HELL")
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: More now on that Cessna 421 that crashed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, landing on a home, literally splitting it in half. There's been some discrepancy with regard to how many people were on board that plane.
Joining us now on phone, though, is chief of fire rescue for Oakland Park, Florida, Donald Widing. Chief, what can you tell us with regard to how that plane went down and how many people were on board?
CHIEF DONALD WIDING, OAKLAND PARK, FLORIDA, FIRE RESCUE DEPARTMENT (via telephone): Well, this incident, unfortunately, was very traumatic. It was a very hard impact from the -- by the aircraft. At this point, we are not able to determine with absolute certainty how many souls were on board the aircraft.
We have done our primary search, and we have concluded that we have not found any survivors in this aircraft wreckage. We have searched the residence. We have not found anyone inside the occupancy that was involved.
PHILLIPS: OK. So, nobody was found inside the home of that crash, so it appears that nobody was killed inside that home. Is that right?
WIDING: That's correct.
PHILLIPS: OK. And we were reporting possibly -- or getting word of, rather, possibly four people on board, three passengers and a pilot. And you're saying you just cannot confirm that at this point?
WIDING: That's correct. Unfortunately, I don't have the aircraft flight order that was filed, or the manifest, so I don't know how many souls were on board. I don't know anything about the cargo or how much fuel was on the aircraft. And given the trauma associated with this unfortunate event, it's very difficult for me to make an actual determination until the investigators get here and they start doing their diligence to make that final determination.
PHILLIPS: Understandable, Chief. We'll check back in with you when you do get those details. We sure appreciate it.
Chief Donald Widing there, chief of fire rescue for Oakland Park, Florida. Chief, thanks.
Well, it's not torture if we say it isn't. That kind of describes the Bush administration's stance on interrogating terror suspects. But now that we know more about what was going on, do you think the new president is right to push forward and say no more?
And a school computer puts the kibosh on a student's search for scholarship info. Did an Internet filter work too well, or do school officials have a problem with gay students? We're going to investigate this hour.
Americans teenagers lured across the Mexican border to work for drug cartels. Our Ed Lavandera goes inside the smugglers' dangerous world.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: President Obama and Mexican President Felipe Calderon taking aim at the free flow of U.S. guns in to Mexican drug cartels. In his one-day visit to Mexico City, Mr. Obama pledged to push the U.S. Senate to finally ratify an anti-firearms trafficking treaty from the 1990s. He also pledged to tighten enforcement of existing U.S. gun laws, but admitted that renewing a ban on assault rifles may have to wait.
It's fantastic money for a teenager, up to $5,000 a job, and that may help explain why more and more American teens are being lured by Mexican cartels to be drug runners. But the dangers of being caught, or worse, screwing up on the run, can far outweigh the benefits.
Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Danny Santos is chasing golden dreams in the boxing ring, a long way from the days of this American kid working for a Mexican drug cartel.
DANNY SANTOS, FORMER TEEN DRUG SMUGGLER: I just didn't care. I had like no -- I guess you would say I had no conscience.
LAVANDERA: Santos is one of thousands of American and Mexican teenagers recruited by the cartels. Santos says that at age 15 he was introduced to the drug world at a party.
SANTOS: It was a friend, had a cousin that knew a guy. And that's where it all started.
LAVANDERA: Santos says that guy connected him to drug kingpins in Juarez, Mexico. He started as a driver for a midlevel cartel member.
SANTOS: People feel they can trust you, right? So, then you move on up to something bigger.
LAVANDERA: Something bigger was becoming a cross-border drug smuggler or a mule. The pay, $4,000 for one run.
(on camera): And you weren't scared about driving these drugs across the border? You could just make yourself do it? SANTOS: Yes. I mean, I was -- I can't say I wasn't nervous. But you just can't show it. I mean, you still know you're driving. You still know what you're doing, an American citizen, all that, right? But you've just got to forget about the fact that you have something illegal in the car.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): That started a four-year smuggling career. Santos is 21 now. He says in all, he pocketed about $50,000, making about 20 runs, right through customs checkpoints.
(on camera): Here in El Paso, some 35,000 cars a day cross into the United States. And it's here where drug smugglers are counting on teenagers to blend into this scene.
SANTOS: We've been getting people with drugs on their bodies.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Customs and border protection officials say in recent months, they've seen a rise in the number of teenage drug smugglers, girls and boys alike, many from well-to-do families, mostly American kids, with drug bundles, usually marijuana, strapped to their bodies.
When we watched this girl wearing a bulky sweatshirt on a warm day in El Paso, hands shaking, it raised intense questions from the customs agents.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was so nervous, she was shaking.
LAVANDERA: There were no drugs, but El Paso port director Bill Molaski worries the cartels are refocusing on recruiting kids.
BILL MOLASKI, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: So, wherever they believe that they could be successful or they find a weak point in our defense of the homeland here, they're going to attempt to exploit that.
LAVANDERA: The cartels exploit teenagers by promising fast cash. They recruit the kids from American schools. They even place ads in Mexican newspapers promising teenagers jobs with a good salary and benefits. They can make a couple hundred dollars, up to $5,000, for moving one load across the border.
JOSE RODRIGUEZ, ATTORNEY, EL PASO COUNTY: I think the cartel is always looking for ways...
LAVANDERA: El Paso County Attorney Jose Rodriguez prosecutes juvenile smugglers. He says teenagers don't understand the danger.
RODRIGUEZ: We had a kid here who lost a load and who had some of his toes chopped off.
LAVANDERA: Danny Santos is lucky. He got out. He says he was only arrested once, with little jail time. He spent away most of the $50,000 he made. But others are ready to take his place.
SANTOS: Let's just say they catch them all tomorrow. You know, the day after tomorrow, there's going to be 30 new ones.
LAVANDERA: For many teens along the border, fighting off the temptation never ends.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, El Paso.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
