Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.S. Soldier in Custody in Iraq; Taking on the Taliban; Seeking Answers in Buffalo Crash; Health Care Reality Check; Overhauling Health Care; President Obama on Employee Health Costs; The Help Desk; Atlanta: Hub to the Mexican Drug Cartels

Aired May 12, 2009 - 11:59   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Remember that massive coal ash spill last December in Tennessee? Well, it dumped more than five million cubic yards of gray toxic muck over 300 acres. Well, the Environmental Protection Agency is taking charge of the cleanup under an order signed yesterday.

The spill damaged or destroyed 40 homes in Kingston, Tennessee. That is west of Knoxville. It came from a retention pond used to store byproducts from burning coal.

New information coming in about the U.S. soldier accused of killing five of his fellow troops at Camp Liberty near Baghdad.

Let's get you live now to our Cal Perry. He is in the Iraqi capital.

And Cal, what are you learning?

CAL PERRY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're hearing more and more details from the U.S. military as the hours go by. We have a name of the shooter, John M. Russell. He's a sergeant based out of Germany and he was coming to the end of his third tour. Certainly, ,that's something the U.S. military is going to look at, these length of tours, how often these guys rotate in and out of country and whether that causes too much stress on them.

I want to read you two quotes, Tony, that kind of make your hair curl a little bit here. This is from Major General Perkins, who is the spokesman for multinational forces in Iraq.

He said, "The commander of Sergeant Russell had taken his weapon away. He had been referred to counseling the week beforehand, and throughout that process his commander determined it would be best for him not to have a weapon."

So, when he went into that clinic and he shot those other five U.S. soldiers, he did not have his own weapon. He had somebody else's weapon. Unclear as of right now how he got that weapon, whose weapon it was, and how the military was able to let this happen.

HARRIS: Cal, do we know whether or not the sergeant had spent any time at that clinic before the shooting?

PERRY: Well, what we understand from General Perkins is that he had not spent time at that clinic, but what he had done was received counseling through his chain of command. He had spoken to a chaplain, we are told. He had spoken to commanders. They were handling it within the unit, but he had clearly been referred to the clinic. But again, by the time he got to the clinic, he walked in there with a loaded gun, and you know the rest of that story -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, exactly.

Cal Perry for us in Baghdad.

Cal, appreciate it.

To the other war zone now, Afghanistan. The city of Khost, a fierce battleground today. U.S. forces taking on Taliban militants, including several suicide bombers.

Live to our Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr.

And Barbara, I read one description of the fighting there as pitched battles going on. Has the fighting ended?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, U.S. military officials say that it is beginning to wrap up now. Some four to six hours of fighting across the city of Khost as a number of suicide bombers, at least five that the U.S. military can identify, engaged in a number of strikes across the city.

Now, Khost is not just another Afghan city. It's very strategic in its location. As you can see on the map, it sits very close to the Pakistan border. For years, this has been a route by which insurgents come across from Pakistan into Afghanistan. It's been a Taliban stronghold for years.

So when this fighting erupted, the U.S. military tried to tamp it down very quickly, but by all accounts, it really was pitched battles across the city. They say they think they're getting a handle on it now -- Tony.

HARRIS: Boy, OK. And Barbara, just for my clarification, because it sounds like we will be doing some reporting from this area for a while, Khost or Khost? Because I've heard it pronounced both ways this morning in the NEWSROOM.

STARR: Yes. I'll tell you, Tony, you know, for many people there are a lot of different pronunciations. We stick with Khost. That's generally how one hears it pronounced with the U.S. military.

HARRIS: And I'm sticking with you.

All right. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon.

Barbara, appreciate it. Thank you.

STARR: Sure.

HARRIS: Three months ago, Continental Flight 3407 crashed into a house in Buffalo, New York, killing 50 people. Now transportation officials are meeting in Washington to search for answers. Today's hearing started with this commuter simulation of the final two minutes of Flight 3407.

As CNN's Allan Chernoff tells us, the pilot was not trained as fully as he could have been, even though his training met standards.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: John, Kiran, it appears the pilot was not trained as fully as he could have been, even though his training did meet FAA standards.

(voice-over): When Flight 3407 was about to stall, an emergency system called a stick pusher activated to push the aircraft's control column forward. Yet the pilot, Marvin Renslow had never been trained in a flight stimulator to respond to a stick pusher emergency, only in the classroom. An experience gap that may have been a factor in the pilot's failure to save the aircraft.

DOUG MOSS, STALL RECOVERY EXPERT: I think that's a significant problem. You can study it academically all you want to, but you really need to develop the proficiency, the skill, the muscle memory required.

CHERNOFF: Colgan Air said, "We stand by our FAA-certified crew training programs which meet or exceed the regulatory requirements for all major airlines and include training on emergency situations."

The FAA concedes its requirements aren't exact enough to demand stick pusher training in a flight simulator.

MOSS: The FAA generally trains to a standard of routine line operations with only a minimal tolerance for deviation outside the norm. They don't focus at all on the edges of the envelope which if they were to do that would be costly, but I think it would improve the overall competency of airline pilots.

CHERNOFF: Veteran pilots tell CNN today's cost-conscious regional airlines need to provide more training because many of their pilots are far less experienced than those at the major airlines. The Regional Airline Association counters that the Buffalo tragedy notwithstanding its flights are safer than ever.

ROGER COHEN, PRESIDENT, REGIONAL AIRLINE ASSOCIATION: The training standards for regional airlines, mainline airlines, network airlines, low-cost airlines, all identical under the exact same protocols, all approved in the exact same category by the Federal Aviation Administration.

CHERNOFF (on camera): Pilot training will be among the issues to be discussed at the National Transportation Safety Board hearing. Also Captain Renslow's history. Colgan Air says it is true that Captain Renslow failed five pilot examines, but ultimately he did pass his test and receive full accreditation to fly the Q-400 aircraft.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: That was our Allan Chernoff reporting.

This hour, President Obama. A beautiful shot of the White House. The president is meeting with business leaders about ways to cut health care costs. We hope to hear from him soon about the ideas they've come up with.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: If you filled up lately, you know you were paying more this week than you were just 10 days ago. Why is that and how high will the prices go?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The growing Taliban threat in neighboring Pakistan is the focus of a hearing under way right now on Capitol Hill. Nuclear- powered Pakistan is an important U.S. ally. Special Representative to the region Richard Holbrooke is stressing that.

In his address to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Holbrooke is emphasizing Pakistan's strategic importance and the difficulties ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD HOLBROOKE, SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE, PAKISTAN & AFGHANISTAN: This is one tough issue. For those of us -- and I see at least two people on this podium who served in another war, in a distant land, in another long ago, this is as tough as anything I've ever seen before, anything I've ever worked on. We are in Afghanistan and Pakistan because of 9/11, because al Qaeda and its allies are camped out in western Pakistan and have pledged and promised and predicted and threatened to do it again to us and other countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: The U.S. has poured billions of dollars in to helping Pakistan fight insurgents, and the Obama administration wants to spend billions more.

Health care -- the costs are rising each year for you and your employer. President Obama met with the business executives at the White House last hour to discuss ways to cut costs. It is part of the president's effort to overhaul the nation's health care system. Two meetings on health care in two days for President Obama.

Jill Dougherty joins us live now from the White House.

And Jill, where does today's event fit into efforts to reform the overall health care system?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's described, number one, Tony, as a town hall, and it's with unions and also employers. And what they're looking at is what they're calling innovative ideas for saving on health care costs. And they're looking at things like wellness programs, things that would deal with smoking cessation, obesity, et cetera. The idea is that you want to get at these prevention areas and also at chronic diseases that end up costing a lot of money.

And as you mentioned, this is the second day. Yesterday, the president was meeting with six major health care trade organizations, and they made a promise. They said that within 10 years, they're going to be saving -- taking steps to save $2 trillion.

The question here is, will that actually happen? And this morning on CNN, Kathleen Sebelius, who is the secretary of HHS, Health and Human Services, was asked that question. Here's how she answered it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHLEEN SEBELIUS, U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: I'm hoping that they are sincere about what they say inside the room and outside the room. And what they committed to yesterday was a voluntary pledge to not only reduce costs starting right away, but also to work with the president.

I think it's a very different dynamic. I think that health care leaders understand that the current path of paying more every year, getting worse health results doesn't work, that the American people are demanding change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOUGHERTY: And the way all of this fits together, Tony, it's a puzzle, a Rubik's Cube, in a way, because U.S. health care is so fractured. You know, you have so many different systems, plus you have Medicare and Medicaid and things like that. So what they're doing is trying to take these group issues, put them together and, ultimately, by the end of the year, end up with health care reform.

HARRIS: OK.

Jill Dougherty at the White House for us.

Jill, appreciate it. Thank you.

You know, it is bad enough your 401(k) looks more like a 201(k). the recession is also taking a toll on Social Security and Medicare. An annual report due out today is expected to show they'll run out of money even sooner than projected.

Just a year ago, last year, trustees said Social Security would start paying out more than it collects in 2017. And the trust fund would be depleted in 2041.

The forecast for Medicare was even more grim. It was projected to run out of money by 2019. Is there hope for a turnaround in the housing market anytime soon? Gerri Willis is at the National Realtor Conference in Washington and she tells us what she's hearing.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Home prices tumbled yet again. The National Association of Realtors say they fell 14 percent in the first quarter. The median price now? Listen to this -- $169,000.

That downbeat news comes as realtors huddle over housing strategy today in Washington.

Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis took part in this morning's panel.

Way to go, Gerri. Here's the thing -- at the conference today, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan announced news on the FHA.

What can you tell us about that?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Well, that's the Federal Housing Administration. That's right, Tony. And this is an important institution because it stands behind more mortgages than, simply put, any private institution. It is the market. He says next week -- this is Shaun Donovan, who runs the Housing and Urban Development Commission -- he says that as early as next week, there will be an announcement that FHA is expanded by $400 million, and you can be thankful this is not going to be your tax dollars at risk here.

He's talking about using money from fees to sponsor this, so an expansion of the program that is making homeownership available to Americans across the country. The announcement coming in a couple of days.

And on the consumer front, something else, Tony, you should know about. That $8,000 tax credit that we have talked so much about...

HARRIS: Very popular.

WILLIS: ... which is -- yes. And it's intended to really make those new homeowners out there, those people who want to buy first time, to really get out there and buy. There's a suggestion that it's going to be changed, opened up a little bit so you can get that money when you close your loan, use it for closing costs, possibly. We'll have to wait and see how that works.

We also asked Secretary Donovan what he makes of the glimmers of the market. You know, we've seen some improvements in some of the numbers. You mentioned one that's down, but pending home sales, up.

We've seen other indicators in different markets, California and otherwise, some improvement. So we asked Chairman Donovan, "Do you believe these glimmers are real? Is the market ready to turn around?"

Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAUN DONOVAN, U.S. SECRETARY OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT: We've definitely seen early signs that the housing market is stabilizing. Sales volumes, as you just said, have increased somewhat in the past few months. We've also seen substantial declines in prices begin to abate across the country. So I think we've seen early signs.

But we need to see a couple more months of good data before we can truly conclude that we've hit bottom in the market. And I do expect, based on everything that we've seen, that we should be out of the housing slump certainly by the end of the year, if not sooner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIS: So that is some very good news, I think. Secretary Donovan saying he sees the bottom of the market, the recovery coming at the end of the year, which is very good, very good, indeed.

One other program though, Tony, I want to tell you about that he talked to us about today, you know, minorities really got hit by the mortgage crisis harder than just about anybody else. He says there will be more spending for education coming, coming up in the coming months, to educate people about mortgages and what they need to do. And also a more intense focus on fraud, which has been a big problem in a lot of these programs, as well as in the FHA.

So there's lots going on here. We've got about 3,000 realtors here running around who listened to our program this morning. It's very interesting. A lot of debate on when we're going to recover, what it will take, and what you can expect in the future if you're a homeowner.

HARRIS: That's a lot of information there. Good stuff.

Gerri, good to see you.

WILLIS: Good to see you, Tony.

HARRIS: Now, get back and make those folks in that room even smarter. Thanks, Gerri.

You know, with gas prices up so much in such a short period of time, we need to take a look at what you can do to protect your wallet here.

CNNMoney.com's Poppy Harlow has our "Energy Fix" from New York.

Good to see you, Poppy. Help us here.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Tony. Yes, it's not last summer all over again. The analysts pretty much agree that gas is not going to hit 4 bucks again this summer. But today, interesting news. Oil topped 60 bucks. And when oil goes higher, so do gas prices.

There are some ways out there that folks can hedge their bets. One option is you lock in the price of gas. You can go to different Web sites. One is MoreGallons.com right here. You can do that, but the catch here, the downside, obviously, is if prices fall, then you're stuck with gas that you prepaid for and that you overpaid for.

But there's another Web site we want to tell you about, an interesting theory here. PetroFix.com, here's the Web site.

Basically, you buy a plan, and what this does, Tony, is it caps your gas price for three months to up to 24 months. Now, if prices go up, what this company does is they pay you the difference. But if the prices go down, you're not locked in, Tony. So you pay the lower price at the pump as well, so it doesn't lock you in.

HARRIS: Well, what's the catch here?

HARLOW: There's always a catch, right, Tony?

HARRIS: Yes.

HARLOW: There's always a catch. There's no guarantee you're going to save money, because you have to pay for the plan up front.

It's a premium of about 30 cents on every gallon that you set that price at. Now, that's also on top of what you're going to pay at the pump. So here's an example.

Take a look there. Let's say that you lock in about 100 gallons of gas a month. Gas in your area right now costs $2.30. If prices rise 50 cents and they stay that high for three months in a row, the company is going to pay you back $150.

But you've got to subtract the up-front costs from that, Tony. Your up-front cost is 90 bucks. So, overall, you save $60. However, if gas prices go down, sure, you're paying the lower price at the pump, but you're out the 90 bucks that you paid this company.

So, we headed out -- one of our great producers here headed out to the streets yesterday to ask people about this. They were confused. We were confused. Some folks who got it weren't even sure it was for them.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know. To me, it sounds like a give and take. It's kind of like the stock market. It's a hit or miss.

So I don't really know. It could benefit you, but it could also be a disadvantage at the same time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's like hedging. I wouldn't do it. It'd take my chances.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It makes sense if you can gauge where you think gas is going to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: If you guess, well, I guess this could be good for you.

We also talked to an expert at Edmunds.com. He said, listen, it probably doesn't really make sense for most people since no major spike in gas prices is expected, Tony. We're inching higher, but not like what we saw last summer.

HARRIS: Wait a minute. We're talking about 14, 15 cents here over the last two weeks.

HARLOW: Yes, about 20 cents over the last two weeks or so.

HARRIS: Thank you.

HARLOW: Add it up. I don't have a car, Tony. So you feel the pain. I take the subway. That's how it works.

HARRIS: That's so smart. I guess I can down here if I really wanted to.

Poppy, appreciate it. Thank you.

HARLOW: Sure.

HARRIS: I just don't want to.

Atlanta, Georgia has -- I just want to gripe about it. Atlanta has become an important stop for Mexican drug traffickers. We're going to show you just why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: President Obama sat down with business executives today to discuss cutting health care costs for employers. The president is also banking on big savings from the health care industry to pay for his reform efforts.

CNN's Kitty Pilgrim has a reality check for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KITTY PILGRIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A coalition of doctors, drug makers and other health care providers lined up with the president to make a public pledge to lower health care costs. Both sides agree the plan is better than taking no action at all. But even if those cost savings are realized, there are 46 million uninsured Americans who will need coverage of some kind. That will be expensive. Powell Howard studies medical care with the conservative think tank Manhattan Institute.

PAUL HOWARD, MANHATTAN INSTITUTE: Even if providers are saying, we're going to lower costs over the next 10 years, the money for a coverage expansion about the same amount is going to be coming out of taxpayer dollars.

PILGRIM: President Obama's plan anticipates savings could come from standardizing insurance forms and increasing information technology like electronic medical records. That could take time. And even under this plan, health care costs will continue to rise, points out the public advocacy group Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.

PETER PITTS, CENTER FOR MEDICINE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST: Taking $2 trillion and somehow, you know, magically moving the numbers around to make it look like costs aren't going up as fast, again, it may be a political victory. But at the end of the day, will it really, in essence, change the paragon of the health care crisis in this country?

PILGRIM: Health care groups like the American Medical Association and Medical Technology Association advocate preventive care, such as obesity prevention programs. A low cost solution they endorse in a letter to the president. "Billions in savings can be achieved through a large-scale national effort of health promotion and disease prevention to reduce the prevalence of chronic disease and poor health status, which leads to unnecessary sickness and higher health costs."

But it relies on a theoretical assumption that the American public will moderate its unhealthy lifestyle.

Kitty Pilgrim, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Well, the debate over reforming health care attracted protestors to Capitol Hill today. A handful of demonstrators calling for government run health care disrupted a Senate Finance Committee hearing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Chairman . . .

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The people at this table have failed Americans for 30 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) and we'll stand in recess until the police can restore order.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want single payer at this table. Health care is a human right. We want guaranteed health care. No more Blue Cross' double-crosses. We want guaranteed health care. No more (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No more Etna or Cigna bosses. We want guaranteed health care. We want to see our doctors when we need and get our pills and our guarantees. We're tired of private insurance (INAUDIBLE). We want guaranteed health care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Guaranteed health care. OK.

Let's do a little more on this. Jay Gellert is president and CEO of the insurer Health Net. He was one of the industry leaders who met with President Obama yesterday to discuss cutting health care costs. And he is with us from Washington.

Jay, thanks for your time.

Let's see if we can get some good work done here today. You are aware of the sentiments of that woman. You are certainly aware of the heat surrounding this topic. Why were you in the room with the president yesterday? And it must be said in a way that maybe your industry wasn't in the room just about 16 years ago. What's changed here?

JAY GELLERT, PRESIDENT & CEO, HEALTH NET: Well, thanks for having me, Tony.

HARRIS: Our pleasure. Our pleasure.

GELLERT: The president challenged us at the health care summit to come forward with tangible proposals that would cut the cost of the system. He indicated at the summit that with those proposals, we could guarantee health care for all Americans. We met with the president to indicate our willingness, all of us, to commit to meeting those cost requirements so that we can get health reform done this year.

HARRIS: Jay, what is the tough decision? Honestly, what is the tough decision that your industry has to make moving forward with cuts that, you know, aren't the low hanging fruit here but really significant cuts moving forward. And, honestly, if you'll be honest with us and give us one or a couple that really drive this point home. This is what we have to do as an industry, what we think we can do as an industry, to significantly impact costs in the system.

GELLERT: First of all, I think all of us feel the alternative of doing nothing is a much tougher option. The tough choices we'll have to make involve changing our operations and our processes so that we can standardize administration, make it more efficient, make it more responsive and we can only do that aligned with doctors and hospitals. We have to look at the way we reimburse to make sure that we actually encourage doctors and hospitals to provide the highest quality, most cost effective care.

That means turning upside down all that we do. And it means doing it in a way that works not only for us, but works for the entire delivery system. That's real tough to do. No one has done it before. But we've come to the conclusion that that's the only way that we can make health care work for Americans.

HARRIS: Are we talking about sort of a radical shift here where we're talking about more of a preventive health care system instead of what many describe as an illness and disease management system?

GELLERT: Well, that's part of it. Americans have done a great job curbing smoking. Unfortunately, in many cases, we've replaced it with obesity. We need the same kind of nationwide effort on the obesity front if we're going to be able to have health care for all. We also, though, can't rely entirely on prevention. We have to make the care system more cost effective, too, because we can't think that prevention alone will stop the need for care.

HARRIS: Got you. And, Jay, I want to thank you for your time. I would love to have you back to discuss this in more detail, but the president is speaking on this very subject now.

Let's listen in.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Families are geared up to go ahead and start solving some of our extraordinary health care system problems.

Yesterday we focused a lot on cost. One element of cost is that where companies are able to take initiatives to make their employees healthier, to give them incentives and mechanisms to improve their wellness and to prevent disease, companies see their bottom lines improve. And so what we've done is to gather a group today, some of the best practitioners, prevention and wellness programs in the private sector.

You have companies like Safeway that have been able to hold their costs flat for their employees at a time when other companies are seeing double digit inflation of their health care. You've got terrific innovations that companies like Microsoft where they actually have used home visits of doctors to reduce the utilization of emergency room care and are saving themselves millions of dollars. We've got the Hotel Employees Union that has been taking data and working individually with providers, as well as their membership, working with the employer and the employee, as well as the providers, and seeing huge reductions in some of the costs related to chronic illnesses.

Johnson & Johnson has been a leader in this area since 1978. Pitney Bowes has been taking similar approaches. It's seen millions of dollars in savings to their bottom line. The Ohio Department of Public Health has been doing terrific work with respect to their state employees, as well as spreading the message across the state. And then REI, which has been to be fit since they're a fitness company, has been doing work that allows them to provide health care coverage, health insurance, not only to their full-time employees, but also to their part-time employees. Every single employee is covered, but part of the reason they're able to do it is because they put a big emphasis on prevention and wellness.

So what we've done here today is to gather together some of these stories and best practices to make sure that they are going to be informing the health care reform discussions that take place here in Washington.

There's no quick fix. There's no silver bullet. When you hear what Safeway or Johnson & Johnson or any of these other companies have done, what you've seen is sustained experimentation over many years and a shift in incentive structures so that employees see concrete benefits as a consequence of them stopping smoking or losing weight or getting exercise, working with providers so that the provider incentives are aligned with the employee incentives as well and changing the culture of the company.

Now, if we can do that in individual companies, there's no reason why we can't do that for the country as a whole. Part of what we want to do here, starting here today, is to lift up these best practices so other companies can identify and potentially implement them, but also to make sure that when we think about how we're going to reform health care system as a whole, when we think about things like Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements, when we think about how we can make the system more efficient, that we're not just doing this in the abstract, but we're actually taking proven measures that have been applied in the private sector and seeing how we can apply those, for example, to federal employees and our employee health care system. All of this designed to save taxpayers money, save businesses money and ultimately make the American people healthier and happier and make sure that we're getting a better bang for our health care dollar.

So it's been a terrific conversation. This will be part of the ongoing process that we're developing over the next several months. And I appreciate all of you for participating in a wonderful conversation.

All right. Thank you, guys.

HARRIS: There you go. Some tape from the president's meeting actually last hour. Continuing discussion on health care reform. You heard him say there are no quick fix, no silver bullet to this problem. Today's meeting actually brought in some business leaders. Brought them into the discussion to talk about ways to cut costs. The president's, his latest effort, his latest conversation on health care reform in the country.

We have all got some financial concerns these days. And our financial Help Desk is addressing your questions, including one from a businessman trying to choose a bank. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So why don't we do this. Let's turn now to the financial Help Desk. Today's advice deals with picking a lender and building credit after bankruptcy.

WILLIS: We want to get you answers to your financial questions. Let's get straight to The Help Desk. Hilary Kramer is an AOL Money coach. And Gary Schatsky is the president and founder of objectiveadvice.com. All right, guys, let's get right to those questions. The first one's from Mark in Colorado who asks, "I have a small business and I'm in the process of refinancing my commercial real estate loan. Should I be concerned about the financial condition of the banks I apply to? Once I get the loan, should I worry about the bank's condition?"

Hilary, interesting question. Normally we're talking to people who are putting their paychecks into a bank, what should they do. But this is someone who has a commercial loan. What should they think about?

HILARY KRAMER, AOL MONEY COACH: Always think about a bank that has a very healthy balance sheet. Excellent, excellent health and that looks very strong because that bank will be more flexible in dealing with your loan or your refinancing. The worst condition a bank is, they don't have the money to loan out, so they're going to be difficult. It's going to be a long process. So go with a healthy bank. And then once you have the loan, most of the time it's securitized out. So if your bank does happen to fail, don't worry, they'll still be collecting. A monthly check will find out.

WILLIS: Right. And securitization, of course, means that it's sold to other lenders.

KRAMER: That's right.

WILLIS: One other great thing to do, bankrate.com has a safety and soundness ratings of banks if you want to look up just how safe your bank is.

Kristina in Colorado has another question. "My husband and I are going through a bankruptcy and are determined never to open another credit card. What can we do to build our credit back up after this bankruptcy?"

Gary, interesting question.

GARY SCHATSKY, PRESIDENT & FOUNDER, OBJECTIVEADVICE.COM: Well, you know, obviously you're quite limited in terms of your ability to borrow. But often people are looking at secured credit cards and that's a situation where you're putting up a sum of money and then you're granted a credit card and it can help your credit score. Clearly you don't want to get into the same situation. So you don't want to be borrowing money you don't have. But building up your credit is crucial and a secured credit card is probably one of the best ways.

WILLIS: You know, a lot of people out there, they want to get rid of the credit cards. But I think people in this society, they need some kind of credit card, a, to prove who they are, to pay for emergency expenses.

Hilary, what do you think?

KRAMER: Credit cards are vital and important for building your credit score because that's how much credit limit that you have. And you want as much as possible. So having many credit cards, but don't go over the limit, that's the way to go.

WILLIS: All right, guys, great answers to tough questions.

The Help Desk is all about getting you answers. Send me an e- mail to gerri@cnn.com or log on to cnn.com/helpdesk to see more of our financial solutions.

And The Help Desk is everywhere. Make sure to check out the latest issue of "Money" magazine on newsstands now.

HARRIS: Mexico's former President Vicente Fox says Atlanta is a hub for Mexican drug cartels. He spoke at Emery University's commencement exercises Monday.

CNN's Brooke Baldwin takes a look at the growing problem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Drugs, weapons, and cold hard cash. It's a lethal combination fueling the Mexican drug cartels. And according to the Drug Enforcement Administration, now a new city has emerged as the staging ground for this deadly trade.

RODNEY BENSON, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, DEA, ATLANTA: Metro Atlanta is a hub for businesses in the southeast. It's also a hub of operations for Mexican organized crime.

BALDWIN: Atlanta, prime real estate for drug distribution according to the DEA's top Atlanta agent Rodney Benson. He agreed to take CNN on a special aerial tour to illustrate how these deals go down, starting with the southern city's web of freeway.

BENSON: You can go east, west, north, south from metro Atlanta, moving shipments and drugs from the southwest border all the way up the Eastern Seaboard.

BALDWIN: Before that can happen, the driver must wait here at truck stops just like this one, often in broad daylight.

BENSON: A truck driver arriving to a place like this will then wait. It could be as soon as an hour. It could be two or three days. Then they'll receive instructions.

BALDWIN: Next, the driver heads to a warehouse. Vincent says there is plenty to pick from in Atlanta. There the drugs are parceled out and sent to dealers throughout the U.S. But the drivers aren't done. They use this same truck to smuggle money and guns back into Mexico.

In 2008 Atlanta led the nation with $70 million in confiscated cash, according to the DEA. And last September, federal agents, along with local law enforcement, rounded up 34 members of Mexico's gold cartel in the Atlanta area alone. Part of a nationwide effort called Project Reckoning. BALDWIN (on camera): If you think drug cartels are keeping their high dollar drug operations in the gritty inner city, think again. The DEA says they prefer the suburbs. They move into quite, middle class neighborhoods just like this one, where they set up shot stockpiling drugs and cash before distributing them.

BALDWIN (voice-over): Last July, a group of men with cartel connections lured a Rhode Island drug dealer to this Gwinnett County home. They chained him, beat him and held him hostage, demanding he pay $300,000 they say he owed. The DEA raided the home before it was too late.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no doubt in my mind that if we didn't act when we did, he would have been dead.

BALDWIN: Three men got caught and pleaded guilty, but the rest escaped. Vincent (ph) says the explosive growth of Hispanic immigrants in metro Atlanta is yet another reason why Mexican cartels come here, allowing them to blend in and disappear, enabling this deadly drug trade to rage on, spreading roots in this southern city.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And Brooke Baldwin joins us now live.

Brooke, here's a question for you. Is there a fear here of drug related violence escalated in Atlanta?

BALDWIN: There is a fear, but it's important to differentiate what kind of fear and what kind of violence we're talking about. You talk to the DEA, you talk to local police, they say, yes, violence is up in metro Atlanta, but it is drug trafficker on drug trafficker violence. Say when a drug deal goes bad and someone doesn't pay up, we're not talking collateral damage. That's when perhaps a neighbor might get caught in the crossfire.

Case in point. Today, police in DEA, those investigating a drug related shooting that left one man dead and three injured just yesterday morning, broad daylight, 10:00 a.m., happening at a home, as I described in the piece, again, in this quiet suburban middle class neighborhood. And again, Gwinnett County where it has a very strong, explosive even Hispanic population.

So does the shooting have Mexican cartel connections? It is still really too early for investigators to say yes definitively. But, Tony, it's just a -- it's not out of the realm of possibilities.

HARRIS: Yes. All right, Brooke, I know you're on top of this story and there may be some new developments as early as later in the day or even tomorrow.

BALDWIN: Tomorrow.

HARRIS: Yes. All right, Brooke, appreciate it. Thank you.

BALDWIN: You're welcome. HARRIS: And once again we want to give you an update on the story we've been following for the last two days here in the CNN NEWSROOM. The U.S. soldier charged, as you know, with killing five of his fellow troops in Iraq yesterday. We learned at the top of the hour from our Cal Perry that he had his own weapon taken away last week.

The is a development that is leading the Army to explore how he obtained the firearm used in the attack. The shooter's name identified as -- the alleged shooter as Army Sergeant John M. Russell. U.S. officials reporting that he killed five people when he fired on other troops at a stress clinic, you know this at this point, at Camp Liberty near Baghdad International Airport.

He is believed to have been at the end of his third tour in Iraq and was soon to be on his way out. Russell is from the 54th Engineering Battalion based out of Bamberg, Germany. A unit attached to multinational division south. And here is a bit of additional information. He is from Sherman, Texas.

We will have all of this put together for you by our Cal Perry. He is n the Iraqi capital of Baghdad at the top of the hour.

Why is former Vice President Dick Cheney going after Colin Powell? Some pretty smart political players talked about it last night and we will share their thoughts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: You know, some days we don't have time to get all of the stories we want on the air in the program, so we're posting them on the blog. When you need a laugh, for example, do you turn to Twitter? Well, maybe you should. Our Josh Levs spoke with standup comedians about how they boil down their humor into tweets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right. Let's take a look at some of your popular tweets here. You have this section called the original "Last Tweets," right?

JOHN HEFFRON, WINNER: "LAST COMIC STANDING": Yes.

LEVS: And you have one here, "guy who always gets killed on Star Trek last tweet": "Got my uniform. The rest of the landing party wearing a different color. Weird."

And then my favorite one. "Married man's last tweet": "About to go into the champagne room. Wish me luck."

HEFFRON: Those are the things that end up people, you know, start passing around and then that's what gets people to go, who is this guy?

(END VIDEO CLIP) HARRIS: It is our blog bonus today. That's what we're calling it. A blog bonus. Just log on to cnn.com/newsroom and click on the face of that handsome young man right there. If you'd like, send us your comments. No pressure, of course. Plus, you get to help choose which tweets are funniest.

Former Vice President Dick Cheney's retirement, boy, has been anything but quiet. He is fiercely defending Bush administration policies, particularly on terror, and striking back at those who criticize them or him. The latest broadside, Cheney questioned whether ex-Secretary of State Colin Powell is a Republican since he endorsed President Obama.

Our political panel talked about it on "Anderson Cooper 360."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: What surprised me yesterday was the way he went after Colin Powell. That seemed to me to sort of take leave of his senses because Colin Powell's, you know, during the Bush administration, was the single most respected member of that administration. He's important to the Republican Party. Why would you want to drive him away?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER 360": But Powell was against Rumsfeld or there was a lot of clashes between Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney was a big supporter of Rumsfeld, no?

GERGEN: Well, that's right. But you would think that when asked the question, do you choose Powell over Limbaugh or the other way around, you would have said, I'm proud to have both of them in the Republican Party. It just seemed to me gratuitous to go after Colin Powell. And by the way, I think separated them (ph) out from a whole lot of Americans who respect Colin Powell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Should Dick Cheney quiet down? CNN contributor and Republican strategist Ed Rollins weighed in with Anderson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED ROLLINS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: I don't think anything can hurt the Republican Party at this point in time. We're in the wilderness for a period of time. I think Dick Cheney's defending himself, defending what he thinks this administration does.

COOPER: Do you think he's helping the Republican Party?

ROLLINS: No, he's clearly not. I mean we've got to look forward, not past. And I don't think anybody at this point in time wants to go back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Cheney contends President Obama has made the U.S. more vulnerable to a terror attack by dismissing some Bush era policies.

We are pushing forward now with the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM with Kyra Phillips.