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Santa Barbara Burning; Cutting $17 Billion Worth of Programs; Banks' Bottom Lines Revealed; Farmers Weather the Money Crunch; Talking Wind in Windy City; Ambassador of Abstinence; Teens & Sex; Stress Test Explainer
Aired May 07, 2009 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Trying to beat back a dangerous wildfire in Santa Barbara, California. Five hundred acres and growing unchecked in the coastal city. More than 5,000 homes evacuated and undetermined number destroyed or damaged. High winds, low humidity and gusting winds have been driving the flames. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger holding a news conference any minute now. We will bring that to you live.
But first, a quick report from Kara Finnstrom on the front lines.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARA FINNSTROM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the big worry out here today is once again the winds. Forecasts are for those winds to gust up to 65 miles per hour, possibly at points during the day. And that could pick up some of these hot embers and spread this fire even further.
We have been watching this house behind us burn. Just one example of the many homes here that have been completely destroyed. We watched the top of this roof actually collapse in and it's now burning, as you see, through the doors on the ground below.
No official estimates yet as to how many homes were completely destroyed, but as we have driven through some of these neighborhoods, we've seen 10 to 12 of these homes destroyed ourselves.
More resources will be coming in today. Whereas yesterday they had three aircraft up attacking this fire from the air, today there will be 16. So the hope is to get more forces in on the ground, more forces in the air, and to hopefully try and gain some control over this wildfire.
Kara Finnstrom for CNN, Santa Barbara.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Well, and CNN iReporters have been showing us this fire as well. Look at the smoke pouring out of that canyon.
Dan Lindsay sent this iReport to us. The steep terrain, the dry brush, put that together with high temperatures and low humidity and a spark, and you have got real trouble. Wildfires also a problem in parts of Arizona. Check out this dirt devil stirring up smoke in Santa Cruz County. This is near the Mexican border. The National Forest Service says another fire covering about 4,000 acres destroyed three homes and caused third- degree burns to one individual. Three other smaller fires have been contained.
So a bit of good news there.
(WEATHER REPORT)
HARRIS: Money matters. Major stories developing today involving your tax dollars and the health of the nation's banks. The government releasing results from the so-called stress tests for big banks, and President Obama proposing billions in spending cuts as he fills in details of his budget proposal.
Our correspondents will delve into the details and put it all into perspective for us. White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux, Senior Correspondent Allan Chernoff will join us from New York in just a couple of minutes. And Stephanie Elam, who you see here, of our money team is at the New York Stock Exchange.
And let's start with the budget. President Obama recommends cutting 121 federal programs. He says the cuts will save almost $17 billion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK H. OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now, none of this will be easy. For every dollar we seek to save, there will be those who have an interest in seeing it spent. That's how unnecessary programs survive year after year. That's how budgets swell. That's how the people's interest is slowly overtaken by the special interests.
But at this moment, at this difficult time for our nation, we can't accept business as usual. We can't accept anything less than a government ready to meet the challenges of our time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joining us live now.
Suzanne, great to see you.
What do we know about the president's proposals?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Tony, it's pretty much outlined here. You can get a sense of what kind of cuts and programs are going to be eliminated.
Seventeen billion dollars, you mentioned, over the course of a year or so. One of them at the top of the list, it's an F-22 fighter aircraft. They anticipate saving about $2.9 billion. You may recall the presidential helicopter as well, the suped-up version caused quite a bit of catastrophe. The president saying he didn't need all that much, the new version. So they're cutting that. That's $750 million.
And you've got to take a look at some of the programs that are going to affect your families. We're talking about the Safe and Drug- Free Schools Communities state grants. They're looking to cut that. That's in the tune of $295 million.
And then, finally, they want to close down the Yucca Mountain nuke site. That is something that the Bush administration wanted to see happen. The Obama administration following suit. Some $91 million in savings.
Obviously, Tony, these are the kinds of programs, things that people are going to be taking a look at. You know, where do you get the funding for your kids' programs? Those kinds of things.
The Obama administration, many senior administration officials say, look, these programs aren't necessarily effective, not cost- effective. Look to find them elsewhere -- Tony.
HARRIS: And to the cuts here, and the big picture, what does this really represent, Suzanne? Is it all that much in the overall budget?
MALVEAUX: It represents a very, very small amount. I asked the director of OMB, Peter Orszag, that very question this morning. It really is less than a half of one percent of the $3.5 trillion budget. And here's how he responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER ORSZAG, WHITE HOUSE BUDGET DIRECTOR: Well, $17 billion by anyone's accounting is not chump change. It's true that our fiscal future depends mostly on health care and the rate at which health care costs grow, which is why we want to get health care reform done this year in a way that brings down costs. But it's also true that $17 billion a year in unnecessary or wasteful or inefficient spending doesn't make any sense. We don't need the Department of Education to have a permanent representative in Paris, France, costing us $630,000 a year.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Tony, the government is completely willing to explain what these cuts mean and where you can go. And if you don't want the short version, all the details are in this one.
This is 80 bucks and it's five pounds. But the good news is, is that you can actually get it online here, Tony. But that's got all of the details for you there about what this government is trying to do with our money.
HARRIS: Well, thank you, Suzanne. If nothing else, I can use it as a doorstop or as a barbell.
White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux for us.
Thank you, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Thanks.
HARRIS: The government today will tell us which big banks are in relatively good shape and which ones don't have enough of a cash cushion.
Senior Correspondent Allan Chernoff joining us now from New York.
And Allan, the Obama administration has already leaked really much of the info. Which banks are on the list and what does it mean for us?
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, we should all recognize, first of all, that none of these banks are going under. If you have money in any of these banks, your money is safe, insured by the FDIC.
So "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting and we have confirmed as well that among the banks that are going to be asked to raise more money, Bank of America, Citigroup, GMAC, Wells Fargo. No big surprises over there. So that's really the list that we have right now.
Other banks are going to be given a check and say, OK, you guys have enough capital, including American Express, Bank of New York Mellon, JPMorgan Chase, and Goldman Sachs. But it's important to note that this is not going to change anything if you're a customer of one of these banks, and the government is not going to let any of these banks fail.
HARRIS: Well, the banks that need to raise some more capital, how do they go about doing that?
CHERNOFF: What the government wants them to do is try to issue stocks either to private investors or to the public. They can sell assets so raise money.
For example, Bank of America is trying to sell one of its private banks, a subsidiary, First Republic Bank. They've had that on the block.
They also could sell toxic loans, those rotten loans. They can sell them for whatever amount of pennies on the dollar they can sell them for. The government would love to see that.
And here's the really important part of this whole program. They can convert that preferred stock into common stock.
Remember, when these banks took TARP money, in return they issued preferred stock. We, as taxpayers, hold that preferred stock. We've been getting dividends on it, more than $2.5 billion so far, and now, if the banks need to, they'll be able to convert that into common stock.
And Tony, this is important. The common stock, that counts in terms of a cushion against potential future losses. Preferred stock doesn't. The common is really what's most important here.
HARRIS: Well, is there a risk to U.S. taxpayers here, Allan?
CHERNOFF: Yes, there is. And that's critical here.
We've been getting nice dividends, as I said. It's really $2.6 billion so far. If a bank were to convert the preferred to common, well, all of a sudden, we're no longer getting those dividends. And all of a sudden, we're becoming a common stock holder of these banks.
That means we take on the risk of other common stockholders. And as you know, these bank stocks, boy, they have been volatile. I mean, some of them have plunged, a lot of them have come back. But that's assuming a lot of risk for taxpayers. So that's something to consider here.
HARRIS: OK, Allan. Appreciate it. Thank you.
You know, several new numbers help us measure the money slump today. Claims for jobless benefits took a surprising tumble last week -- 601,000 people filed for the first time, a three-month low. Recent weekly numbers suggest the wave of layoffs may have peaked.
Productivity jumped at an annual rate of .8 of a percent for the first quarter. Increasing productivity can indicate higher profits on the horizon at low inflation.
Profits not in the picture at General Motors. GM says it lost $6 billion in the first quarter. Revenue fell by almost half.
With all that to consider, investors certainly have a lot on their plates today, and it is no surprise that we're seeing some volatility on Wall Street. Stocks opened higher, but are now, we understand, selling off.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
HARRIS: And just log on to CNNMoney.com for all of your financial news. Find out how to get creditors off your back if you're being hounded by collection agents.
Armed and dangerous -- a community is on high alert.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Middletown, Connecticut, on high alert right now. Police are warning Wesleyan University officials and local Jewish leaders to be extra vigilant following the fatal shooting of a student. The suspect is still on the loose.
Police believe he may be targeting the school and Jews. The suspect is identified as 29-year-old Stephen Morgan. They believe he disguised himself with a wig and shot 21-year-old Johanna Justin- Jinich at her job at a bookstore.
I spoke to Middletown's mayor last hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR SEBASTIAN GIULIANO, MIDDLETOWN, CONNECTICUT: It looks like he targeted her. The concern for the Wesleyan community and the Jewish community, in general, I think, both of which she was a member of, I think was developed out of evidence that the police may have gotten when they executed search warrants on his car, on the motel room he was staying in. And something turned up that caused them to believe that there might be a threat beyond her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: University officials have told students to remain indoors and staff to stay home as well.
Our National Correspondent Susan Candiotti is heading to Wesleyan University right now, and she joins us by phone en route to the school.
And Susan, if you would, can you describe for us what you're learning in terms of the level of real concern in that community and particularly the campus of Wesleyan University?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's certainly, Tony, a high level of concern. I mean, look, how unusual is it to virtually shut down a campus, telling the students not to go to classes? Now, their classes are over. They're now waiting for their final exams. Those have not yet taken place.
But to tell students not to leave their residences, not to leave buildings on campus, telling staff to stay inside, that's highly unusual. So there's a lot of worry there at the present time.
We've also spoken with a head of a local synagogue, and he told us that they've canceled all their activities, at least for the next day or so. They're in constant contact with the police so that if they do have any meetings, any gatherings, that they first contact the police to make sure they're aware of what they do. Needless to say, nerves are a little shot right now.
HARRIS: Yes, absolutely.
And Susan, I'm also concerned -- what is the information that's been developed on the suspect and his relationship to the victim?
CANDIOTTI: Well, this is very interesting. As the mayor himself told you, they're learning more about what they might have picked up from the motel where he was staying, from the car that he was using. So obviously we're going to be digging into exactly what that is that led them to believe that he could have been targeting her beyond their relationship on campus.
We also know that, evidently, they were students together, reportedly, at New York University, NYU, at least a couple years ago. And there may have been an incident that happened back then, where he may have bothered her at that time.
But the information even reportedly may go beyond that, that that they had some kind of a tie in Colorado. Authorities have said that there appeared to be a relationship both in Connecticut, New York and Colorado.
HARRIS: And Susan, one more question and I'll let you go. What is the evidence so far suggesting that this suspect, this shooter, might be a threat to the larger Jewish community?
CANDIOTTI: They haven't said exactly what is indicated other than what the mayor told you so far, and that is something perhaps that they found in whatever they discovered during those search warrants.
HARRIS: OK. Susan, we'll let you continue travels. And as soon as your available with more information, just give us a heads-up and we'll get right to you.
Our Nicole Lapin is here now with a bit more insight into the Wesleyan shooting.
And Nicole, what do you have for us?
NICOLE LAPIN, CNN.COM CORRESPONDENT: It's all hands on deck here during this breaking news situation.
Tony, you have to remember, of course, that the students just finished up their spring finals. So they actually haven't started finals yet. They finished up their classes. So the school is trying to get out a lot of information via their Web site, Wesleyan.edu. It took a while to load this thing, but you can see it's almost like a police blotter, the series of events as they happened.
We're also monitoring "The Hartford Courant," which is the major newspaper there. They're playing the news conference that happened earlier today, in case you missed it. They are also reporting the city of about 48,000 people is pretty empty at this time. The campus is barren as well.
And we're also remembering the victim in all of this here. A Facebook page quickly put up for this 21-year-old student. I want to read you just a couple of comments here.
"What a beautiful girl," people are saying. "What a senseless tragedy." "My condolences are with her and her family. I hope they find whoever did this."
Tony, we are monitoring Facebook, we're monitoring the Web sites.
We're also reaching out to these Jewish communities on campus. About 27.2 percent of the campus population is Jewish. That's about 700 students. So we're trying to see how they're banding together right now. HARRIS: OK. Any new developments, just let us know.
LAPIN: Absolutely.
HARRIS: Thanks, Nicole. Appreciate it.
A pregnant British woman is waiting to learn her fate as she sits in a prison in Laos. Our reporter is right outside the prison, and we will bring you the update.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: A deal has been struck in the case of a pregnant British woman jailed in Laos. Our Arwa Damon is at the prison in the southeast Asian nation and she joins us live.
Arwa, what can you tell us about the deal?
ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, the deal was signed between the government of Laos and the U.K. Effectively, it is being called a prisoner transfer agreement. And what it means is that if and when Samantha Orobator is in fact brought into court, tried, and then if she's convicted, she can actually be transferred to the U.K. to serve out her sentence. And that is actually coming as a great relief to a number of people who have been involved because of her situation.
Remember, she is pregnant. The circumstances surrounding her pregnancy are very unclear.
She was detained back in August, accused of carrying around a pound and a half of heroin. And in March, they said that she was around three months pregnant. The math just doesn't add up because authorities here are insisting that she was not impregnated, at least not sexually impregnated, while she was in jail -- Tony.
HARRIS: Wow. All right. Boy, that is still a pretty convoluted story.
So, once again, the very latest on the deal and what happens next?
DAMON: Well, so now that that deal has been signed -- and also another thing to point out that happened today that was pretty important is the fact that she was finally appointed a lawyer here in Laos. There have been other lawyers from the U.K. that have tried to gain access to her, most of them from the U.K.-based charity Reprieve. And we spoke with one of them, Anna Morris.
She spoke with that lawyer that the government here appointed for her. He went in, saw her for about 10 minutes, and is expected to go back and see her some more tomorrow.
Reprieve lawyers are hoping to be able to work close to him, especially when the case goes to trial. That is basically the next step. We don't know an exact trial date. We're expecting it to be sometime next week. But what everyone is hoping is that now that the lawyer has access to her, that perhaps some more light is going to finally be shed on exactly what happened, not only in terms of how or why was she detained, if she was in fact carrying the heroin, why was she doing it, was she coerced into do it, but exactly what happened inside that jail? How did this girl end up pregnant.
And, of course, many people are imaging the worst -- Tony.
HARRIS: Yes. And plenty more questions than answers at this point.
Arwa Damon for us.
Arwa, appreciate it. Thank you.
And new questions today about claims that a U.S. air strike killed civilians in Afghanistan. Military officials say they found no evidence of large scale civilian deaths in the Farah province. The U.S. says about a dozen civilians may have been wounded. A senior military official says Taliban militants may have killed as many as 15 civilians with grenades and blamed the deaths on the U.S. air strikes.
We all know the nation's budget needs to be cut. Where would you chop?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: The president's budget request and his proposed cuts certainly the top stories. You can see it there at CNNMoney.com. CNN is your source for the latest financial news. Just check out CNNMoney.com for the latest financial news and analysis.
As we do, we want to take a look at the Big Board. We are three hours on the nose into the trading day.
As you can see, the Dow has started out in positive territory and then turned south. And the Dow down 75 points. The Nasdaq is down 34 points as well.
President Obama's proposed budget cuts would target all sorts of program in hopes of saving $17 billion. He just announced the cuts this morning, and already some lawmakers are upset, including some inside his party.
Josh Levs is here with that part of the story for us -- Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tony, what do you think, you going to buy a copy of the latest budget?
HARRIS: Well, I would probably -- it would be cheaper to buy a real barbell as opposed to using that. But, yes, I mean, if I need some heavy reading over the weekend, right?
LEVS: Why anybody would pay for it in this economy is a marvel to me.
HARRIS: Exactly.
LEVS: Although maybe the government could use it to pay off some debt. I don't know. I'll tell you this, it's free. Just go to OMB website. You really can't miss it.
Now we've been talking today about the fact that there are some complaints already. And last hour I told you about a complaint from Representative Mike Ross, who was concerned about this program here called Even Start. Now I had looked into this after President Obama announced wanting to drop funding for this early education program. I found that in 2004, Representative Mike Ross complained that President Bush should not do that.
So we've now heard from Representative Ross this morning. He's a Democrat. Let me show this graphic with his quote just sent to me, Tony, minutes ago. He says, "Even Start is a valuable program that focused on ensuring low-income children under the age of seven get a fair start in life. While I believe we must cut spending in order to address our national debt, it should not be done at the expense of our children or their futures"
So the point here, Tony, already we're hearing from Democrats, as well as others, saying they have problems with some of these proposed budget cuts. Of course, the Obama administration is saying, hey, we have reasons. These programs aren't working well enough. But this is the kind of debate that's ahead in Congress.
HARRIS: And talk about the debate, we're also -- we've started the debate at our blog page, haven't we?
LEVS: Yes, you know, the debate is taking off. It's the exact same idea over here. Let me show you this. I mean we opened up the blog lines early on. Tony's new blog. You can't miss it. CNN NEWSROOM. You've got to go to it. It's very cool. Federal budget right here. So we're asking you today, what would you cut? What are your thoughts on these?
I'll show you, Rusty Minter says, "why in heck are we spending billions of dollars for census when our country's debt is at code red."
Or over here, James Howells. "In general, I approve of the cuts that President Obama is making. It's a start. But the U.S. government is bloated with greed, corruption and redundancy."
Quickly let's look at my Facebook page. Frank Flores, "all politicians and lobbyists should have their salary cut to federal minimum wage so they can understand what it's like for the rest of us."
And finally, a brand new Twitter page. It's a funny name. This person's going by NeckedChicken. However, has a serious point. "Redundancy piled on redundancy. Government's layering of new programs on top of old ones inherently creates duplication and costs." You know, Tony, that's just a Twitter thing. It's hard to take it seriously when you go by the name NeckedChicken. But he does have a point.
And you can weigh in. Let's show everybody the pretty graphic.
HARRIS: Oh, boy.
LEVS: Let's show everybody how you can do that. You've got, first of all, there's the Facebook. There's the Twitter.
HARRIS: Very good.
LEVS: But on top, CNN NEWSROOM blog. And we have a great picture to represent that blog. The Tony blog is what we call it around here.
HARRIS: There's a rumor I'm getting a Facebook page.
LEVS: Is there? Well, it's about time. I know I'm a hypocrite for saying that. It's what everyone said to me when I started.
HARRIS: Josh, thank you.
LEVS: You bet.
HARRIS: Let's delve a little deeper into the politics and the president's proposed budget cuts. Eamon Javers is a financial correspondent for Politico.
Eamon, good to see you.
He's joining us from Washington.
You know, we've started to hear some of the back and forth already on this.
EAMON JAVERS, POLITICO FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
HARRIS: What kind -- frame this for us, if you would, please. What kind of debate do you see coming on this budget?
JAVERS: Well, you will be shocked to learn that Democrats are largely going to support President Obama on this. And Republicans are going to criticize this and saying that it's an enormous deficit that the president is running up and enormous amounts of spending. And that's why you see the president coming out today and hitting hard the idea that they are cutting $17 billion worth of spending out of this budget this year.
And he highlighted some of the programs that are sort of easily understood by American voters as kind of ridiculous. You know, the Department of Education has a liaison officer in Paris. Why are we spending money on that one, for example? We have an outdated radio system that is completely useless in the era of GPS and yet we're still spending $35 million a year on it. We can cut that. So the president is saying he is going through this budget line by line to cut, but Republicans are still going to harp on the fact that we're seeing a trillion dollars a year or more in deficits going into the out years here.
HARRIS: Are we really talking about the easy things? You talk about stuff that's understandable. But is that the easy stuff? Kind of the low-hanging fruit and he's going to save some of the real hard choices, we're talking about Medicare and Medicaid -- that's coming down the road, isn't it?
JAVERS: Right. And those are intense and complicated political battles that involve armies of lobbyists on all sides. And, you know, members of Congress pitted against each other in sort of a death battle for control of billions of dollars on Capitol Hill. That's not an easy lift.
Some of these other things are a little bit easier to cut, even though, as you point out, that some of them do have defenders. There are members of Congress, if this spending is coming into their backyard, who are going to go to the mattresses to defend it. And they really think that this is good spending and they're going to argue for it, no matter how ridiculous it seems on the outside. Another example is that the president's talking about cutting a redundant engine for a fighter jet that the Pentagon wants to plan (ph). He says the Pentagon's got an engine for this jet already. It doesn't need a second engine. They like the engine they have. Let's not waste the money on that kind of thing.
HARRIS: It's interesting because maybe you pointed something that we can look forward to in this debate. There are probably some real issues, some cost issues that are flying under the radar right now. Anything that you're looking at or you've got an eye out for moving forward in this debate that may be under the radar now but has potential to really blow up into a big debate moving forward on this debate?
JAVERS: Well, in a $3.5 trillion budget, there's a lot of stuff that has the potential to really blow up. As we saw with the bridge to nowhere a couple years ago, any one of these spending programs can become sort of a symbol of wasteful government spending. But the Obama folks have to be really careful about the stuff that's in the stimulus spending. That $700 billion. That was sold to the American public as something that's going to help get the economy going again. And if the stimulus spending turns out to be spent on wasteful or silly-seeming projects, that could be really a political negative and have a lot of blowback politically for the Obama folks. They've got to keep a very careful eye on that pot of money.
HARRIS: Well, let me spin it a different way. That's a good point. As we see more signs -- and it's an optimistic spin on this question to be sure -- as we see more and more signs of the economy starting to improve, will this administration be placed under more pressure to cut more and spend less?
JAVERS: Yes, they absolutely will. And although the stimulus stuff has already gone through. And going in -- politically, they're going into the 2010 midterm congressional elections, they want to have members of Congress have the opportunity to go out and hold a press conference in some -- in front of a building or a bridge or a road project that's being built with stimulus money to say, here we are turning this economy around right here in our congressional district. This money is being spent. And you can see it. It's tangible. So, politically, that stuff is going to continue to happen because it's got an enormous power multiplier going into the 2010 cycle.
HARRIS: That's good stuff. Eamon Javers for us from Politico.
Eamon, as always, great to see you. Thanks for your time.
JAVERS: Thanks a lot.
HARRIS: Recession, swine flu, the ups and downs of the weather. American farmers getting hit from all sides. CNN's Sean Callebs reports from Bucklin, Kansas, where money and main street intersect.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is no special effect. This is a young wheat field buffeted by punishing winds. A stark reminder, no matter how bad the economy, farmers are always at nature's mercy.
ROB SELLARD, KANSAS FARMER: This is even so dry, it's gotten hard. There's no moisture left in it. And without the moisture, this wheat is going to continue to die.
CALLEBS: For generations, the Sellards have farmed Bucklin, Kansas. Rob and Sylvia (ph) now own a whopping 14,000 acres. That's nearly 22 square miles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A farm community is really we consider the backbone of America. You know, we work every day.
CALLEBS: It's not easy or cheap. It cost a fortune to plant wheat last fall. The spike in oil prices driving up the cost of oil based fertilizers.
SELLARD: You know, four or five years ago we were buying $350 to $400 a ton fertilizer. This wheat crop here, when we fertilized last August/September, fertilizer was $1,000 to $1,000 a ton.
CALLEBS: Grain prices are low compared to last season. Sellard can sit on his harvest and hope the price goes up, but he has to pay to store it. The Sellards also raise blank Angus cattle that make those tasty steaks that corporate execs have always spent so lavishly on.
SELLARD: And with the fears in Wall Street, people have stopped eating out so much. Less beef is sold. Foreign countries, you know, they're struggling too, so we don't have the export.
CALLEBS: Exports are slowly improving and the Sellards do have the option of hanging onto their prize cattle until prices improve. What farmers do have is a lot of expensive machinery and repairs keep them busy.
SELLARD: If you were buying a new one it's going to cost you probably about $240,000.
CALLEBS: In this economy, there's no money for a new tractor, so Sellard has to squeeze all they can out of this one.
There is some good news. Crop prices have been good the last couple of years. But falling stock prices, the credit crunch, many say things will get worse here before the economy turns the corner.
KELLY ESTES, JOHN DEERE DEALER: You know, it always starts on the East Coast and West Coast and then it just kind of comes in. And by the time it gets here, we're hoping that that title wave is a ripple effect.
SELLARD: This plant should be opened up, very green. You know, a plant goes into survival mode. These plants have shriveled and curled up.
CALLEBS: Oh, gotcha. He's trying to hang on.
SELLARD: He's trying to hang on.
CALLEBS: Just like the American farmer.
Sean Callebs, CNN, Bucklin, Kansas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And you can see more money and main street stories tonight with Roland Martin, no bias, no bull, 8:00 Eastern on CNN.
And you heard the wind blowing out in those fields in Sean's report. Can we harness that power effectively?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Got some breaking news into the CNN NEWSROOM. You see the pictures on the right side of your screen there. That's Manny Ramirez. Sort of a superstar outfielder really for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
And if you're a fan of baseball, here's another black eye for that great sport. Manny Ramirez has been slapped with a 50-game suspension -- you know what's coming next -- for violating Major League Baseball's drug policy. The league announcing that news today. The suspension takes effect immediately. This information coming from the office of baseball's commissioner, Bud Selig.
Again, Manny Ramirez, who has been a hit in the city of angels, that's for sure, he's really been a star there. Came over to the team from Boston in 2008. Pretty lengthy holdout in his contract negotiations. Signed a new deal but now has been slapped with this 50-game suspension for violating -- say it with me now -- Major League Baseball's drug policy. Another black eye for Major League Baseball.
Right now President Obama is scheduled to talk with an interesting trio about education reform. He is meeting with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Reverend Al Sharpton of New York. That meeting in the Oval Office could be over in a little over 30 minutes. And we will see if the mayor, Speaker Gingrich or the Reverend Sharpton have anything to say following that meeting.
Many alternative energy products have been scaled back in recent months, but the wind power industry is moving forward. CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our "Energy Fix" from New York.
Good to see you, Poppy.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Tony, yes, they're talking wind in the windy city of Chicago. The world's largest wind power conference happening right now. And what we do know is that wind turbine installations, of course, they increased last year. A lot of focus on green energy. They were up 58 percent. This year, though, due to the recession, things are slowing down.
As of the end of 2008, about 85,000 U.S. workers were employed in the wind industry. That is a 70 percent increase from 2007. And the world's biggest maker of wind turbines, it's called Vestas, it's a Dutch company, it's bringing jobs to the United States, while cutting them in Europe. Pretty interesting. Take a listen to the CEO.
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DITLEV ENGEL, CEO, VESTAS WIND SYSTEMS: We have actually been holding back investing in the U.S. for a number of years because of the lack of visibility on the energy policies. So we have been manufacturing in Europe and shipping over to the United States. Now we really believe the United States is changed, so that's why we are investing $1 billion over here and creating the jobs over here.
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HARLOW: Interesting, Tony, a billion dollar investment. It should add 2,500 jobs in Colorado. And he told me when I interviewed him, he said, listen, we were just waiting to invest our money in the U.S. until green energy really took the spotlight, which it has.
HARRIS: Wow. Well, you know, that doesn't get around to major criticism of wind power that it is simply too expensive, Poppy.
HARLOW: It's expensive and turbines can't go everywhere. They can't go on a street corner here in New York, that's for sure. The price, Tony, is getting more competitive with coal and natural gas. The wind industry, though, even that CEO, they admit, it's going to make electricity bills go up for a while at least. Analysts we talked -- spoke with really said the technology has to improve in order to bring those costs down. It also has to be on a mass scale.
But the head of GE Renewables, who we also spoke with, said that really is just a matter of time. Listen to him quickly.
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VIC ABATE, VICE PRESIDENT FOR RENEWABLES, GE ENERGY: Wind is now under 2 percent of this country's electricity. It clearly can play up to 20 percent and higher. And you'll see a tremendous amount of innovation if this country adopts a renewable energy standard.
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HARLOW: All right. He said, though, a big roadblock is that the funding might not come soon enough. He even told me, Tony, they haven't seen a dime of that stimulus money yet. Keep in mind the standard he mentioned, the renewable energy standard, is what Congress is considering. It's pretty high. That's getting 25 percent of our electricity from renewables by the year 2025, Tony. So a big, big, lofty goal.
HARRIS: Yes. Yes, it is.
All right. Poppy, appreciate it. Thank you.
HARLOW: Sure.
HARRIS: Bristol Palin has been making lots of news about her unplanned pregnancy. It's led to a pretty active debate. Where should your teen go for information?
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HARRIS: Teen mom Bristol Palin, daughter of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, has a message for her peers -- don't have sex. CNN's Deborah Feyerick reports.
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DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Swarmed by photographers, 18-year-old Bristol Palin walked the receiving line in her new role, the ambassador of abstinence, saying her message to teens is . . .
BRISTOL PALIN: Teens should just wait to have sex.
FEYERICK: The Alaska governor's daughter, gave birth to son Tripp in December, is taking part in a national campaign to prevent teen pregnancy.
PALIN: Girls now, they think that having a baby is like having an accessory on their hips. And they don't realize that it's such a huge responsibility and it's such -- just hard work.
FEYERICK: In February, during a Fox interview, Palin's message on abstinence didn't seem so clear cut.
PALIN: Everyone should be abstinent or whatever, but it's not realistic at all. FEYERICK: She now says her comment was taken out of context and that it's the only way to prevent pregnancy. Her ex-fiance, Levi Johnston, with whom she has a strained relationship, had this take, speaking on the CBS "Early Show."
LEVI JOHNSTON, FATHER OF BRISTOL'S BABY: Telling young kids, you can't have sex, is just -- its not going to work. It's not realistic.
FEYERICK: In 2006, a total of 435,000 children were born to mothers 15 to 19 years old. Slightly higher than the previous year. Thousands more teenage girls chose abortion.
ANN SHOKET, EDITOR IN CHIEF, "SEVENTEEN": Bristol gives a very public face to a real private struggle that 750,000 teenage girls go through every year. It is a tremendous turmoil in young lives.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's nothing to worry about.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing to worry about, huh?
FEYERICK: The campaign, sponsored by shoe maker Candies (ph), debuted on what's being billed as National Teen Pregnancy Awareness Day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to reality.
FEYERICK: Sitting next to Palin at a panel in Manhattan was actress Hayden Panettiere with a somewhat different message about sex.
HAYDEN PANETTIERE, ACTRESS: There's nothing wrong with it. It's, as they said, it's human nature. People do it. As long as you're educated, as long as you're safe and you are smart about it.
FEYERICK: The Candies Foundation says Bristol Palin is not a paid spokesman but the company does cover her expenses and also compensates her for taking part in the campaign. Teen star and unwed mom Jamie Lynn Spears was also approached about taking part in the campaign. No response as to whether Spears considered it.
Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.
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HARRIS: So let's consider this for a moment. You have these two young women contributing to the debate on young people and sex. A nineteen-year-old starlet on one hand, a 17-year-old governor's daughter who's now a young mom on the other. That certainly set off a pretty big discussion in our morning meeting about where young people are getting information about sex. Nicole is back with some pretty reliable sites where young people can get some reliable information.
LAPIN: Because think about for yourself, Tony, as a dad. If you believe that your son isn't getting information without you, you're kidding yourself. You are just kidding yourself.
HARRIS: Exactly. I would like to think that he's coming, and my daughter as well, that they're both coming to me or to mom to get this information. But it didn't happen that way for me growing up.
LAPIN: No. And, look, there are legitimate sites out there that you can get frank information by vetted professionals. I want to point out a couple of them. One run by Columbia University. It's nonpolitical. It's goaskalice.columbia.edu. Sex Etc. is another one. It's run by Rutgers University by Teens for teens.
Something else pretty interesting, Tony. I found this to be a more intimate conversation going on through the Birds and Bees Text Line. It's the only one of its kind across the nation. It's in North Carolina. You text a question. That offers a one to one personal exchange of information. It's private. It's unanimous. And it's answered by a real person.
I called them up before I came on. I want to read you just so you get a sense of what they're talking about here. A couple of questions they got in. They went through their log for me. Here's a question from somebody who says, "I'm 14 and going to lose my virginity but I'm not on birth control. Am I at a higher rate of getting pregnant?" The answer that came in via text message. "Yes, you are. A sexually active teen who does not use birth control has a 90 percent chance of becoming pregnant within a year. Use protection. Even if you don't become pregnant, you're at a risk of a sexually transmitted disease."
Tony, here's another one. "If you have sex underwater, do you need a condom?" "Yes," the answer comes in to this teens cell phone, "use a condom to protect against pregnancy and STDs every time you have sex."
Tony, maybe kids are not watching Bristol Palin or Hayden Panettiere, but the conversation is going on in chat rooms, text messages, it's going on online.
HARRIS: That's a good point.
LAPIN: We're linking these sites up to our blog, cnn.com/newsroom.
HARRIS: A heck of a debate in our morning meeting. All right. Thanks, Nicole. Appreciate it.
LAPIN: You're welcome.
HARRIS: As banks sweat out the stress test, we will head to the gym to see how it all really works out.
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HARRIS: You know, you've been hearing a lot about the stress tests banks have undergone. Results are due out today but a lot of people aren't exactly sure how the tests work. So our Adrian Finighan gives the topic a full workout.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ADRIAN FINIGHAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now here at the Bank of Finighan, I cope pretty well with the everyday stresses and strains. OK, I've had a head cold. That's left me feeling slightly off color. But on the whole, my economic biorhythms are normal. But, what if things got worse? Would I be fit enough if the going got really tough?
U.S. banks, of course, have faced a series of stringent tests to find out whether they're fit enough to face the future. Let's find out how I get on.
Now, think of the weights as the number of people out of work. As you can see, I'm coping pretty well, as long as the unemployment rate remains within a comfortable level and people keep paying back their loans. But if unemployment goes above 10 percent, and house prices continue to fall, well then the default rate will get bigger. And I am going to struggle. I need more muscle.
Now, a brisk walk and everything is normal. I feel great. I could even cope with jogging for a few minutes. But what if I'm required to run? Well, I can do that in short bursts, but if I had to keep up for more than a few minutes of this, I just don't have the stamina. I need more energy.
So a workout in the gym has shown me that I need to improve my fitness if I'm to cope with challenging riggers. I'll run a course there will be some banks who will pass the stress test without even breaking a sweat. Most, like me, will be asked by their personal trainer, the government, to improve muscle and stamina.
Adrian Finighan, CNN, London.
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HARRIS: Oh, my. And CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Kyra Phillips.
