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Some Question Whether America Has Seen Benefits From Stimulus Thus Far; What To Do If Your Car's Dealership Goes Under; Brazilian Supreme Court to Hand Down Ruling Tomorrow That May Affect Sean Goldman; Chrysler's Bankruptcy Process Hits a Snafu; Seattle Man Finds His Mother After 43-Year Separation
Aired June 09, 2009 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Now here are some stories happening right now. This hour, Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger is in Washington. You remember him. He's talking about the so-called miracle landing of his U.S. Airways airliner on the Hudson River. Flight 1549 was brought down in January when a flock of Canadian geese knocked out both of the engines. Those live pictures for you right now.
The National Transportation Safety Board is opening a three-day hearing on the growing threat posed by collisions because of bird strikes. In fact, many bird populations have increase in recent decades. And at the same time, there are rising numbers of commercial flights.
A Guantanamo Bay detainee indicted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in east Africa is in New York today to face criminal charges. Ahmed Ghailani is the first detainee held at Guantanamo to be transferred to the United States to face criminal prosecution.
Black, Latino and Asian lawmakers are highlighting minority health concerns at a Capitol Hill news conference today. The lawmakers want President Obama to focus more on racial disparities reported in medical treatment as part of the health care overhaul.
The FAA plans to improve inspection of pilot training programs at regional airlines. The move follows last month's NTSB hearing where testimony revealed critical cockpit errors proceeded February's crash of a regional airliner near Buffalo.
North Korea threatening a merciless offensive. That's what's happening this morning. The communist nation's hot rhetoric apparently aimed at deterring punishment after Pyongyang conducted a nuclear test last month. Now, U.S. Intelligence sources say North Korea may be about to undertake a new round of missile launches.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Spy satellites over North Korea have observed vehicles and other activities at West Coast missile launch sites indicating Pyongyang may be preparing to launch a long-range missile capable of hitting the U.S. and medium-range missiles that could hit Asian neighbors Tensions are on the rise. North Korea just accused the south of sending patrol boats into a disputed area off the Western Coast. And off the eastern port of Wonsan, shipping has been banned until the end of the month.
The Pentagon joined the tough U.S. talk, making clear Defense Secretary Robert Gates...
GEOFF MORRELL, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: ... is sick of responding to North Korean provocations by making concessions that get you back to the status quo ante only to see this all unfold again.
STARR: Gates is now looking at military options if North Korea doesn't stop its nuclear program.
MORRELL: He has tasked his policy team with trying to figure out creative and prudent ways to bolster defenses.
STARR: Morrell wouldn't be specific, but what about stopping North Korean weapons experts on the high seas. Denying Pyongyang that cash flow. Experts warn it will get very nasty.
JOHN PARK, U.S. INSTITUTE OF PEACE: The North Koreans would not view this as something that is standard procedure or supported by international law. For them it would be akin to a violation of their sovereignty and as they stated a declaration of war.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We got correspondent Barbara Starr joining us live. Barbara, what does the U.S. think Pyongyang's goals are here? I mean, it is pretty hard to tell.
STARR: It is hard to tell, you know, and that's why they're taking it all so seriously, because who knows. But one theory that the U.S. intelligence community is seriously beginning to look at, Heidi is that North Korea is in some sort of succession crises. Kim Jong-Il has been quite ill and he recently designated his son to succeed him and maybe they think some of this is a lot of maneuvering at the highest levels of that regime which we don't understand here in the United States to position and jockey for power. So it's partially that uncertainty about where North Korea is really headed that has the Obama administration so concerned.
COLLINS: All right. Understood. Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Thanks so much, Barbara.
The families of two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea are hoping for an act of clemency from the communist government. The families of Laura Ling and Euna Ling are urging the government to show the young women some compassion. Both journalists were sentenced to 12 years in a prison there with hard labor. The U.S. could send an envoy to help negotiate their release.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MIKE CHINOY, FMR. CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you have this very dangerous dynamic of confrontation that has been building, it's partly because I think the North Koreans by the end of the Bush administration came to the conclusion they really weren't getting what they bargained for in their dealings with the United States and then you do have a succession process with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il who had a stroke last August who is trying to lay the groundwork for his youngest son to succeed him and all of this I think is combined to make the North Koreans very, very tough.
And as David pointed out, the Obama administration doesn't want to play the same games, again. In this case, if it can be defined as a humanitarian issue separate from the bigger issues, there might be a possibility of sending someone. The fact that the parent company that these women worked for is run by Al Gore who is a very senior figure, who can get on the phone to Barack Obama if he needed to might be appealing to the North Koreans and I would assume that there had been some back channel discussions about whether somebody would go and how and what kind of - what they would have to say or do to try and win their release. These women are not useful to North Korea rotting in a gulag. They're useful as pawns to extract something from Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: Mike Chinoy, our former correspondent there, talking about the situation, the panel discussion that took place last night on "Anderson Cooper 360."
And the United States has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, as you know. Sweden represents the United States interest there.
A developing story that we're following. A Guantanamo Bay detainee indicted in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa is in New York today to face criminal charges. Ahmed Gilani is from Tanzania is the first detainee held at Guantanamo to be transferred to the United States to face criminal prosecution. He has been held at the camp in Cuba nearly three years.
The CIA is asking a federal court to keep its interrogation records classified. Director Leon Panetta says releasing those records compromises national security. Critics of the agency say some of the interrogation methods amounted to torture and others say those actions brought out useful information that protected Americans. Panetta says he is not trying to spare the CIA any embarrassment. He insists making the records public and feeds Al Qaeda ammunition for its propaganda war against the United States.
To economic news now. Chrysler may have one last chance. Italian carmaker Fiat says it won't walk away from a controlling stake in the troubled automaker despite a Supreme Court decision that throws the deal into limbo. And happening now, live pictures from a Joint House and Senate committee hearing underway to discuss the Troubled Asset Relief Program and the health of banks.
And speaking of banks, the watchdog group says banks stress tests taken need to be done all over again. Christine Romans is joining us now. Before we get to the stress test and that whole issue, there is news just out now about T.A.R.P. money, tell us a little bit more about that, Christine.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Heidi, just into us now, we've been waiting to find out if banks would be allowed to repay their T.A.R.P. money, their bank bailout money. You know, many of them have been chasing under the scrutiny of the government. They didn't like some of the strings that were being attached to taxpayer money and so indeed now the treasury has announced that they expect $68 billion, $68 billion with a "b" of your tax money to be returned to the Treasury from 10 big banks.
Among them Morgan Stanley says it will pay back $10 billion. BPB bank in North Carolina is also going to be paying back some money as well. So the banks that want out from under the federal bailout, the bank bailout, some of them will be allowed to start repaying their money and indeed Morgan Stanley will be repaying $10 billion here as soon as they can, Heidi.
COLLINS: Wow, it's really interesting how this is all breaking down, definitely. And then the stress test deal, was that a big fat waste of time?
ROMANS: Well, not a waste of time, but what the congressional oversight panel is recommending, essentially, is that maybe they might have to take a second look at this if the economic situation in terms of jobs in particular continues to deteriorate. It's another example, you're talking to Josh Levs earlier, it's another example where the government underestimated how things might get. The watchdog saying that it basically wasn't stressful enough that they may have to do over some of these stress tests if condition worsen. And it's likely that there are more tests for banks with toxic assets. Essentially the worse-case scenario of those stress test was 8.9 percent unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is 9.4 percent in this country right now and bank losses very closely track, Heidi, unemployment.
Because if somebody loses their job, it's not very long before they're not paying their car note, they're not paying their mortgage ---
COLLINS: Of course.
ROMANS: And this is where the losses come in for the banks. So we'll be hearing that joint economic committee is holding a hearing on this. Caroline Murphy is the chairwoman of that, they're going to be talking about whether we might need to do stress tests again, whether they were stressful enough and frankly just the whole status of the T.A.R.P. program. T.A.R.P. has become a household word, hasn't?
COLLINS: It has. It has. I'm just stressed out just even talking about it.
ROMANS: Well, one thing you could think about is the $68 billion of taxpayer money going back to the government and there's a lot of other issues about, you know, did taxpayers get enough return on that investment but does returning it so quickly maybe deny taxpayers a little bit of return? But we know that the public has said, we want our money back. And so a lot of these banks really want to give the money back, too.
COLLINS: Yes. Understood. All right. Christine Romans, thank you.
I want to take a moment now, speaking of your money, let's look at the big board, why don't we? Dow Jones industrial average is down just a little bit there. Six points or so and resting at 8,759. We'll continue to watch stock market for you always right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Meanwhile, turning to the future of your health care. House democrats today are set to unveil their plan for reforming the system. It includes a requirement for everyone to have some form of health insurance.
Also a government-run insurance plan to compete with private insurers. That particular aspect of the plan has been a nonstarter for republicans in Senate negotiations on healthcare overhaul.
As you can probably tell, reaching a consensuses on health care reform is certainly no easy task. President Obama can just ask the last democrat in the White House. CNN's Jim Acosta explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PRES. BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES: We can't afford to put this off.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If President Obama wants some advice on navigating the minefield of health care reform, he can talk to his secretary of state who as first lady pushed her own plan and got pushed back.
REP. DICK ARMEY (R), TEXAS: I listened to the chairman's opening statement and I do share his intention to make the debate in the legislative process as exciting as possible.
HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: I am sure you will do that, Mr. Armey.
ARMEY: We will do the best we can.
CLINTON: You and Dr. Kevorkian.
ACOSTA (on camera): You were there for the Clinton healthcare battle?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was there in the war room for the Clinton healthcare battle. I have the scars to prove it.
ACOSTA (voice-over): Mike ()served in the Clinton healthcare war room. He believes the Obama White House have learned from the Clinton administration which tried to dictate a complicated healthcare plan to Congress.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to have to muscle it through and you will have a tough battle and it will probably come down to the last vote or two.
OBAMA: It's time to deliver.
ACOSTA: This time around the president is offering guidelines to Congress, letting lawmakers work out the details, but even that tactic has ruffled feathers. Iowa republican Charles Grassley said on his twitter page "when you're a hammer, you think everything is a nail. I'm no nail." Other GOP leaders are swinging away Mr. Obama's proposal offering Americans the option of joining a government healthcare plan.
SEN. MITHC MCCONNELL, MINORTY LEADER: We will we deliver what people like about the care that they already have.
ACOSTA: Then there are the special interest groups.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We will not wait another moment to fix our broken health care system.
ACOSTA: Those who want a plan covering all Americans.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This government run plan could crush all your other choices.
ACOSTA: And those who don't.
STU ROTHERBERG, RUTHERBERG POLITICAL REPORT: These elaborate plans are picked apart. With all the groups involved, some people invariably feel that they are giving too much and getting too little.
ACOSTA: The man first tapped and then scrapped as Mr. Obama's health czar told the National Press Club, he's nervous.
TOM DASCHLE, FMR. SENATE MAJORITY LEADER: Well, I think there's only a 50/50 chance that something's going to pass. I would like to think. I honestly, as deeply as I believe in this, I would like to think it was better than that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: CNN's Jim Acosta joining us live from our D.C. bureau to talk a little more about this. Jim, a lot of sticking points there with the president's plan. We hear that word socialism a lot being thrown around certainly by critics of an overall health care plan. What's the deal? What are there specific issues that we can point to that are really standing out?
ACOSTA: Well, you can call off the red scare. What the president and the congress are talking about doesn't really come close to socialism, Heidi. But the battle lines are being drawn and they are being drawn over two main points. One is how to pay for this plan? For right now, the White House, the Congress really have much in terms of details as to how to pay for this plan. The other big sticking point is this option of a government-run health care plan.
The White House basically wants to present Americans with an array of choices, sort of like when you go to your employer and they present you an array of healthcare choices. A choice between several different HMO plans. The White House wants Americans to have a choice between their own insurance company and a government-run health care plan. What republicans are saying no, no, no, that kind of choice could wreck the entire system because it may drive a lot of people out of those insurance programs and into the government program and then they believe that will lead to socialized medicine.
COLLINS: Yes.
ACOSTA: But we're a long way from being down that road just yet. There are a number of proposals on Capitol Hill right now, Heidi, over in the House, House democrats have a plan in the Senate. Senator Ted Kennedy has his own plan and so the real trick here, the threading of the needle that needs to be done here, as Senator Max Bachus has put it, is trying to come up with something that makes everybody happy.
COLLINS: Yes. Good luck.
ACOSTA: Yes, exactly.
COLLINS: All right. Jim Acosta, we're watching very closely all week long here with health care reform. Certainly.
In a few minutes, we'll be taking a closer look at the pros and cons of the government sponsored health care insurance options. So be sure you stick around for that.
Meanwhile, stormy weather across the midwest. Take a look at this video now that came in to us from Missouri. Rob Marciano back with us today. Can we expect more of the same? What's the scoop, Rob?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: Certainly, actually very early shot this morning out of D.C., with a lot of lightning strikes, rough weather across the northeast this morning and another thunderstorm watch issued for central Kansas, could see some tornadoes later on today. We run it down when the CNN NEWSROOM comes right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor back on Capitol Hill today. She limped through a packed calendar yesterday just hours after breaking her ankle at New York's La Guardia's airport. The injury may have softened what is otherwise a high-stake round of meet and greet with lawmakers.
Senator Mary Landrieu, signed Sotomayor's cast. You see that there.
Fellow Louisiana and republican David Vitter was even more welcoming.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. DAVID VITTER (R), LOUISIANA: I wanted to make sure you're perfectly comfortable, once I heard about the accident, we arranged a few things.
JUDGE SONIA SOTOMAYOR, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: Oh, I'm so grateful. I hope you all note some republicans are outside, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Despite the chuckle, Vitter said the meeting left him with very serious concerns. Sotomayor continues her meet and greets today. Next hour she also receives the formal endorsement of law enforcement groups who will announce their support of her.
In Virginia, democrats have raised record funds for the governor's race. But today the three candidates will face dismal turnout at the polls. The prediction, less than five percent of registered voters will cast votes today. The democratic nominee will face Republican Bob McDonald in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's third spin right behind me there was trash and leaves and stuff blowing around.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We were seeing debris and then a trampoline went through the air and then at about that time we saw a bunch of 2 by 4s that hit the car and thankful it wasn't any higher than that because it could have gone through the windshield.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Yes. Plenty of cleanup today in southern Illinois after a severe storm swept through. Survey teams are assessing the damage now and trying to determine if any tornadoes touched down.
And nasty weather in Missouri brought plenty of lightning, heavy rain and winds, too, wow. That almost looks like a small hurricane. Rob Marciano joining us now to tell us a little bit more about what on earth is going on weather wise. Hey there, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: I got a couple of spots, Heidi, that have shown some activity this morning and seems much like what you just showed in Missouri were pretty happening across parts of the northeast. This is a line of thunderstorms that spawned a couple of or thunderstorm warnings both in D.C. and Philly and now it's moving off shore but still flipping eastern Long Island and parts of Connecticut heading towards the extreme outskirts of eastern New England, Islip up through New Haven certainly seeing some action at this hour.
As far as some of the travel delays, I want to show you this. This looks pretty impressive. These continue to line-up. Baltimore, BWI, that's topping the list there at 1:15. Still JFK 3:30 and La Guardia 1:15 and Newark 1:45. Teterboro, Boston all similar. Philadelphia seeing 45-minute delays and Denver and Washington, D.C.
All right. Quick shot, I thought we had a little picture there of what's going on in D.C., but we'll get to that in just a second. All right. Off to the west, we have a freshly issued severe thunderstorm watch until 3:00 p.m. local. This includes eastern parts of Kansas, including Kansas City, Missouri. Pretty heavy thunderstorms rolling through just north of the i-70 corridor and these will probably refire back in this area later on this afternoon and that is a cause for concern for folks who live in northern Oklahoma and central and southern Kansas. Severe thunderstorm weather here that could produce tornadoes, pretty high probability of that according to the storm's prediction center right now and a moderate risk of seeing that sort of kind of action later on this afternoon.
95 degrees for the high temperature in Dallas. It will be 81 degrees in Kansas City, 89 degrees and you kind of see where the line is as far as cool to the north and warm to the south. That is stationary boundary is. It's really been there for a good couple of weeks. And ripples of energy have been firing along that stationary boundary that could cause thunderstorms to pop. And There is a little shot of the capitol. That's not so bad. Looked a lot worse earlier this morning. They had some serious thunderstorms going through the nation's capitol. Now, it looks like the calm after the storm.
COLLINS: I'm just bummed out, very personally, for golf reasons. I can't play golf when it's about 80 and you said it's going to be 90 here. So, I'm out.
MARCIANO: You're not a high maintenance golfer like that. I can see you putting on the storm -
COLLINS: Oh, done that. Rain's good, the heat bad. All right. Rob, we'll check back later. Thank you.
MARCIANO: OK. You got it.
COLLINS: We are looking at the pros and cons of a government- sponsored health insurance option. Coming up in just a little while.
Also more on a story we've been blogging about. We've been getting a lot of response, too. The Brazilian custody battle. Little boy taken from his father and has been in Brazil for about five years now. That custody battle and what is happening with it. We're going to be hearing from a very close family friend and look at all these responses too. About 100 or so we've gotten. That close family friend will tell us more about the story and some information on what could be happening in the case this week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COLLINS: President Obama wants a government-sponsored health insurance option as part of his healthcare overhaul. It's an idea that congressional republicans are not buying. But what would be in such a plan for you?
Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here now to break it all down for us. OK, what's in it? I'm sure it's a really simple answer.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's not a simple answer but you can try and look and simply imagine if you're out shopping for insurance and one of the options is an insurance that is run by the government. So, you could purchase that or if you get insurance through your employer, your employer could purchase that. Now, some politicians say that is a fabulous idea and others say that's a terrible idea.
COLLINS: Right.
COHEN: So let's hear from two politicians now. First, we're going to hear from Orrin Hatch who thinks it's a bad idea and then we're going to hear from Tom Harkin who thinks it's a good idea. So let's take a listen.
COLLINS: OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN ORRIN HATCH (R), UTAH: There is no way we can pay for a public plan option because that would put the government between you and your doctor.
SEN. TOM HARKIN (D), IOWA: Both about coverage and cost because we believe with the public option plan that would act as a cost check on the insurance company. And I think that's a good thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COHEN: All right, now, since we heard first from Orrin Hatch who is against this public option plan. Let's take a look at what some of the cons are. Let's take a look at what folks say is a bad idea about a government-sponsored health insurance option. The concern is that the quality would be poor. That the government would be telling your doctor what to do and that you wouldn't get good care.
Another concern is that there would be unfair competition. The government can underwrite the cost of this care and they have huge buying power and the concern is that private health insurance companies will go out of business and that everyone will all of a sudden end sort of by default end up on this government insurance because it will be less expensive. All right. Those are the cons.
Let's go over the pros, according to some of the democrats who like this idea of a government-sponsored health insurance option. It would be cheap. So if you're one of the 46 million people who doesn't have health insurance, you're saying, wow, this could be very inexpensive for me and it could be affordable. And when health insurance is affordable, theoretically people will buy it and they will insure themselves and they won't suffer the consequences of being uninsured the way they do now.
COLLINS: Yes but is it more affordable for everybody?
COHEN: Well, they haven't priced it yet. You know there's no price plan. You can't go online and see how much it will cost.
COLLINS: Yes.
COHEN: The theory is that, you know, these millions of people who are uninsured they can't afford insurance. Right? They go and they just can't afford it. So this will be something less expensive that theoretically they could afford.
COLLINS: Yes, OK. Well, obviously, we already have a form of government insurance for seniors. A lot of argument about whether or not that's working very well. But is that the model that they're kind of looking at all this?
COHEN: In some ways, it is the model and it is interesting, Heidi, to hear people talk about, wow, government-sponsored health care. Oh, my goodness, we had that for more than 40 years in the form of Medicare for the elderly. Now, some people would say isn't it wonderful? I mean, before the 1960s that if an old person got sick, wow, they were really out of luck if they can't afford insurance and now they have insurance. Other people would say wow you know Medicare doesn't work terribly well and it has cost over runs and the care isn't as good as it should be.
COLLINS: Well, when ask you have a government option like this, there are definitely winners and losers. I don't know how clear cut they are. But tell us a little bit more about that.
COHEN: Well, theoretically some of the losers would be doctors and hospitals in this because the government might say, OK, doctors and hospitals, we're going to insure all these people and you're going to serve them for less money. So doctors and hospitals might suffer. The winners might be people who now can't afford insurance. With the government option, they might be finally able to afford it.
COLLINS: Doctors kind of become government workers at that point?
COHEN: No, because they would also be theoretically be private health insurers who would be out there, too. So this wouldn't be sort of a socialist system where you would only have government insurance. You'd have government insurance and you have private company number one, and number two, and number three and number four. So these doctors would be working for all of those insurance companies.
COLLINS: Yes. Wow. Oh, it's a big, big issue.
COHEN: It's a big issue. It certainly is.
COLLINS: We're going to be following that. We're breaking it all down for everybody, trying to do that everyday. All right. Elizabeth Cohen, sure do appreciate it. Thank you.
COHEN: Thanks.
COLLINS: When car dealerships go under. What you need to know before you trade in your old ride for a new one.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Heidi Collins.
COLLINS: Your money and how the government spends it. That's the focus this hour on Capitol Hill. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner facing senators' questions about next year's proposed budget. Geithner, you may remember, has had chilly exchanges with lawmakers. He's faced grillings over his unpaid taxes, the bank bailout and the economy.
President Obama focusing today on how the government plans to pay off its enormous tab. He's going to be talking about what is known in Washington as the pay-go, or pay as you go system. President Obama says it's based on a very simple concept. You don't spend what you don't have. If we want to spend, we need to find somewhere else to cut.
One more story about your money. The hundreds of billions of dollars that make up the stimulus package, the Obama White House said it would pay big returns. Are we seeing any so far? CNN White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux takes a look at that.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Obama is promising to put more Americans back to work this summer.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The goal here is to create or save 600,000 jobs over the next 100 days.
MALVEAUX: Whether Obama can deliver on this promise is another story.
TAMI LUHBY, CNNMONEY.COM SENIOR WRITER: The information that we're getting now, the 150,000 jobs that were created in the first hundred days and the 600,000 jobs that will be created in the next hundred days, those are based on formulas. So that's fuzzy math at this point. They don't know how many jobs have actually been created.
MALVEAUX: Vice Presidential Economic Adviser Jared Bernstein disputed this.
JARED BERNSTEIN, VICE PRESIDENTIAL ECONOMIC ADVISER: This is a absolutely tried and true economic methodology.
MALVEAUX: But the administration had already had to do some back pedaling. Back in January, when the president was selling his $787 billion economic stimulus package, he promised to save or create between 3.5 to 4 million jobs over the next two years. That was based on the assumption that unemployment wouldn't go above 8 percent. But with unemployment at a 25-year high of 9.4 percent, Bernstein acknowledged they had incomplete information and got it wrong.
BERNSTEIN: Our forecast seemed reasonable, and now looking back it was clearly too optimistic.
MALVEAUX: But the White House is continuing to shop the silver lining. This on the latest unemployment numbers.
OBAMA: This was the fewest number of jobs that we have lost in about eight months. So, it was about half the number lost of just a few months ago and a sign that we're moving in the right direction. MALVEAUX (on camera): President Obama also defended his administration against what some say is a slow start to get that money to create jobs and those certain projects. The president saying he would rather put in safeguards to protect American taxpayer money from potential boondoggles. Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COLLINS: Let's talk cars. No matter what happens with the bankruptcy of Chrysler and GM, more dealerships will be closing their doors. Yes, that can mean deals for consumers, but there are also reasons to be careful. CNNmoney.com's Poppy Harlow has the breakdown from New York. Good morning, Poppy.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hi, Heidi. Warning for anyone thinking about trading in their car. This is a problem at dealerships across the country, not just Chrysler or General Motors dealerships.
If you trade in your old car, here's what could happen a few months later. You find out your dealer went under. They never paid off the loan on your car to the creditor. That's a big issue, Heidi. No hard numbers here, but Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety told us this is a huge problem. They said this could be a bloodbath. They said it could devastate your credit. If you don't pay it off, you could be sued because the original loan is still in your name, and this isn't always intentional on the part of a dealership that is closing. Sometimes their creditors freeze the assets, and the Iowa attorney general's office said they're worried they'll see more of this with all these dealerships closing across the country.
Starting today, Heidi, as you know, 789 Chrysler dealers won't be able to sell new Chrysler cars. They may close, and GM has said it's going to end its agreement with thousands of dealers, Heidi. That could be a big issue.
COLLINS: So what can you do? You walk in to buy a car and you really want it. How do you find out whether that loan has been paid off? How do you protect yourself?
HARLOW: What the experts tell us, don't trade in your car if you owe money on it. Try first to sell it yourself. Probably get more money that way, anyway. If you can't do that, you don't have the time, ask the dealer to provide you a check upfront for your loan payoff, so that's ready, Heidi, when you close the deal. You don't want to leave these things hanging, especially if you don't know what the fate of your dealer is going to be.
COLLINS: If it's already happened to you, do you have any recourse?
HARLOW: You can contact your lender, explain the situation and provide the paperwork. You might want to try to pay off that loan if you can because you don't want to get sued. But if you can't afford to pay off the loan, you want to contact your credit agency in writing and make them aware of the situation. Also get in touch with the DMV and your state attorney general, and they'll help you file a claim to get back some of of that money that you may have to pay out. But the harsh reality here is what we're hearing from states across country is some people have ended up in bankruptcy because they can't make the payments on the car they traded in and the new one they got in exchange. Heidi.
COLLINS: Very good advice. I'm not sure everybody knows about this. Poppy Harlow, we appreciate the breakdown today.
HARLOW: You're welcome.
COLLINS: The very latest on a New Jersey dad fighting to regain custody of his son from the boy's Brazilian stepfather. We are also reading some of your comments and we have gotten a whole lot of them on this case from our blog.
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COLLINS: A New Jersey father waiting five years for his son. Now he must wait until at least tomorrow when the Brazilian supreme court may make a ruling on the custody case. Just a recap on the story. Sean Goldman was taken by his mother to Brazil. She later remarried and died in childbirth.
The boy, who is now nine years old, has been living with his stepfather's family. Sean's father, David Goldman, who you see there, spoke on CNN's "Campbell Brown" about what would happen if tomorrow's court hearing goes against him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GOLDMAN, SEAN GOLDMAN'S FATHER: It won't be over. I've been kicked in the teeth since day one when he was abducted and I began this fight. I have to keep going. He's my son.
You know, every parent who has a child and they tuck them in at night or her in at night and they wish the best and only the best and they will always protect that child and do whatever they can, but most of the time they don't have to prove it. And I'm in the proving grounds to myself and to my child and I have to get him home, and I will do whatever I have to. I never stopped to save him.
CAMPBELL BROWN, HOST, "CAMPELL BROWN": Do you think that your story would be the same if you were Sean's mother and it was his father who had taken him to another country? Do you think there's a double standard here?
GOLDMAN: Well, I mean, apparently so far, Brazil seems to favors mothers right off the bat and they treated cases in the Hague Convention as basic custody cases where they always feel the mom gets the child. Tragically, there is no mother any longer. Now, here comes new guy, no relation to my son, and he's got more legal claim of custody than me, his own blood, living father who's loved him.
When my son was first taken, he was crying all the time. He wants his dad, he wants his dad. "Where's my dad?" And no one seemed to mind because he had still been there and no one returned him and now a man, again, who has no blood relation to my son and he has more legal claim of custody than his own living father.
BROWN: David...
GOLDMAN: Can't be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: And a note here. We had secured an interview with a spokesman for Sean's stepfather on the show for today, but he ended up canceling this morning. We have also put in a request for the president of Brazil.
And one guest who did accept our request is joining us now from New York. Mark DeAngelis is a friend of David Goldman and a cofounder of BringSeanHome, a Web site that has gotten a lot of activity. Mark, thanks for being with us.
Listen, we have been hearing a lot about what could happen in court tomorrow. For our viewers at home, remind us what that is, and your level of confidence that this could actually move the story along and help Sean to be reunited with his father.
MARK DEANGELIS, COFOUNDER, BRINGSEANHOME: Thank you for having me, Heidi. Well, we really don't know. We know there will be a ruling tomorrow out of the Brazilian supreme court. Eleven justices will convene and issue some sort of ruling. The potential scenarios that could play out after that, it really runs the gamut. We really just don't know.
Really, the only issue they have before them is a case that was brought, or a petition that was brought to them by a political party in Brazil, and this is regarding a constitutional issue, a constitutional challenge to the Hague Convention. Not necessarily specific to Sean's case. Well, it is and it isn't, but it affects the other Hague cases. There's 50 other cases, and 65 other American children who are trapped down in Brazil.
The supreme court could issue a ruling very specific to that constitutional challenge and not even go into the merits of the Goldman case, or they may jump in and issue more sweeping ruling that may have a direct impact on when and if Sean Goldman comes home. We'll see.
COLLINS: We have spoken with the assistant secretary of state for Latin American affairs, David Aaronson (ph) just yesterday talking about that political party, and him saying that they really have no merit and no position in this case, though. Very curious still to everyone who's trying to figure this story out -- how they were able to get that, you know, that ruling even looked at and how they were able to be heard in this case and what their place is.
After we hear from David, like we did just moments ago, I wonder, you, as his very good friend, you have watched this whole thing for five years go round and round. How is he really doing?
DEANGELIS: Well, he's a good friend. He lives around the corner from me in New Jersey, and I know him very, very well and it's been horrible. It's been a horrible experience. I remember when it happened and it seems like it was ages ago. Here we are, June 9, 2009 and a week away from the five-year anniversary of Sean's abduction.
And what is most remarkable is since the original abduction five years ago, we now have a second abduction. The federal judge who issued his ruling a week ago ruling that Sean should be ordered home that there have been two illegal abductions of Sean Goldman, and now we're ten months from the date of Sean's mother, tragically. And yet, still, the legal maneuverings in Brazil continue. They seem endless and we just want it all to end. And David, he's strong, he is doing well under the circumstances, but he wants the nightmare to be over.
COLLINS: What do you tell him to keep him positive? I'm sure he looks to you for a lot of things like that.
DEANGELIS: I'm sorry, could you repeat that?
COLLINS: What do you tell him to stay positive? What do you offer him by way of support?
DEANGELIS: Well, he's fortunate that he has a great family and a great group of friends and he also has a support network that has grown tremendously, really, in the last six months since the story became more public. And I think that's what gives him strength, even if we look at the five years that this has lasted, for the better part of that, he was really on his own with just his immediate family and friends. And he's got hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of supporters.
COLLINS: A lot of that because of this Web site that you created. I mean, we're talking about Congress, attorneys, we heard a little bit from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. When you talk about ways of support, what other tools could be employed here? Any idea on that? Are Sean and David anywhere closer to being reunited than they were five years ago?
DEANGELIS: We believe they are. We think we've made good progress. At the end of the day, the support is great. The fact that the American government has stepped in at the highest levels to support -- to support David and Sean is tremendous. But here we are today, and Sean is still not home.
We're hopeful that we're close and we all feel the momentum that is built around this cause, and the way that people have come together to support this issue has been tremendous. And I think that will make a difference. The media has been very supportive, and we feel like we're closer. But until Sean gets on that airplane to head home, we won't believe it until we see it.
COLLINS: Probably the safest way. There have been so many disappointments, we're aware of them. Mark DeAngelis, very good friend of David Goldman's in all of this. We appreciate you coming on today. Thanks so much.
DEANGELIS: Thank you. COLLINS: We should let everyone know we have been hearing from you at home on this story. We have been asking you to comment on our blog. Let me give you a little bit of a response to this, because we've gotten well over 100 of them.
This first one coming in from Gabriel. Now you can see here, she says "I'm Brazilian, and I'm ashamed at how my country is handling this situation. If the main issue is the wellbeing of a child, the longer they wait, the harder it will be for him to readapt to living with his father in the United States."
Another one that says this, this from Joann Hendrickson. "This father could alleviate some of his emotional pain by asking Brazil for permanent residency. Living in Brazil, he could share these important years with his son instead of in a courtroom. The priority is time to be a father to his son and that time is quickly running out."
The next one here, quickly, from Florida, Jane Mav (ph) "The father should just hire a professional to go in there and take the child back. He's tried the legal avenues for years since the child was kidnapped by his mother to no avail. It's time to just go take back what is rightfully and legally his. Waiting on wheels of justice? Why? It seems like they lead nowhere." We sure do appreciate all of your comments on the blog. We'll bring more of them to you.
In the meantime, though, talk more about this story. For all his life he believed his mother was dead. Forty-three years later he learns that she is, in fact, alive.
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COLLINS: Chrysler expected to exit bankruptcy yesterday, but now the automaker's rise through Chapter 11 has taken a bit of a detour. Susan Lisovicz following it from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Hi there, Susan. We were saying yesterday that would have been really fast to come out of bankruptcy like that.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Heidi. It just points out to why Chapter 11, the bankruptcy process could take years. It's because so many parties think and know they're getting a raw deal. That's what happens when a company is bankrupt.
What happens is a group of Indiana pension funds who say they're getting 30 cents on the dollar in the bankruptcy process appealed to the nation's highest court, and justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg delayed the sale of Chrysler to Fiat, where the Italian automaker would have a significant stake. Now we're waiting to hear is whether Justice Ginsburg would end that stay or whether the full court will hear it.
More drama in Detroit and in Washington, I should say, too.
COLLINS: Definitely. If the court doesn't end the stay, though, how long could this realistically drag on?
LISOVICZ: Speed is very much a very important thing because, you know, the Obama administration says this is not a stand-alone company. It must proceed. Fiat is the best possible hope for some sort of Chrysler to exist. It doesn't deserve any more government loans without it. Chrysler says it cannot -- its suppliers will go out of business.
What happens with justice -- with court cases is, well, we should hear in a day or two whether the court will hear the case, but if the court hears the case, that could take weeks earlier. You better believe this will have implications for GM, which is a bigger automaker and a more complex case. They're watching it very closely, too. GM is already in bankruptcy. The Obama administration says that the real concerns of the pension fund does not outweigh the broader implications of this company going bust. Heidi.
COLLINS: Well, we got that, that's for sure. All right, Susan, we're watching it closely. Thank you.
LISOVICZ: You're welcome.
COLLINS: Forty-three years ago, he was told his mother died, but somehow he uncovered the truth and found out she's alive. Reporter Tanya Mosley from affiliate KING-TV shows us their emotional reunion.
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TANYA MOSLEY, KING-TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A five-hour flight from Illinois to Seattle pales in comparison to how long Rose Marie Hinkley has been waiting for this moment.
ROSE MARIE HICNKLEY, RON STEWART'S MOTHER: I just can't believe this. It's so great.
MOSLEY: Forty-three years ago, Hinkley's three-year-old son, Ron, was taken away by her estranged husband. For years, she searched for him. She never stopped believing that one day, she would find him.
HICNKLEY: That's the way he looked when I saw him last. I think we've all changed, though.
MOSELY: Instead, he found her.
RON STEWART, ROSE MARIE HINKLEY'S SON: I just wanted a photo of her. I thought I'd find out where she was buried.
MOSELY: It was Ron Stewart's wife's, April, that suggested he get a copy of his birth certificate and possibly an article about his mother's death.
STEWART: I was told since I was a little kid that she died in a car wreck.
MOSELY: What the two discovered was that Ron's mother was not dead. She is very much alive.
HINCKLEY: I see him here and it's unbelievable.
MOSELY: Ron will never know why his father took him away or lied about his mother's death. He died several years ago. This is the part of the story that Ron struggles with.
STEWART: I love him regardless because it was just me and him. All these pictures...
MOSELY: There is a lifetime of catching up to do.
STEWART: It's only been real for a couple weeks to me. Been real for 43 years to her.
MOSELY: Children, grandchildren, sisters and brothers to meet. Hinckley says she no longer cares to know why. These are the moments that matter the most.
HINCKLEY: I think it's going to be enough for me just to have him back.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
COLLINS: Ron and Rose Marie will have a good amount of time to catch up. She is staying there for a month.
An art heist unraveled millions of dollars in art and antiquities headed home. Some headed to the Vatican.
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COLLINS: Want to let you know about a new development in a shocking story out of Arkansas. Earlier this month, one soldier was killed and another wounded at a military recruiting center station. Well, today at 3 p.m., Rick Sanchez will talk with the 18-year-old soldier who survived the shooting. He's speaking out for the very first time.
In suburban Chicago, art and antiquities worth millions of of dollars found in the home of a rare books dealer. Police say they were tipped off by a son who feared the thieves had brought some kind of curse on his family. CNN's Susan Roesgen explains.
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SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When he walk into this house, the Berwyn, Illinois police chief said it was like walking into "The Da Vinci Code." These are just some of the Italian manuscripts and artwork found in the home of John Sisto, a rare books dealer that died two years ago at the age of 78. The police chief told his officers to look, but not touch.
WILLIAM KUSHNER, CHIEF, BERWYN, ILLINOIS POLICE: We had everyone walk around with their hands in their pockets, seriously. It's hard to screw up a crime scene if you don't touch anything.
ROESGEN: The FBI inventoried 3,000 items, and it's taken two years just to prove that half of them were stolen. The police were head to the home by one of Sisto's sons, who told them he believed their family was cursed because his father had stolen things from the Vatican. In fact, the art crimes unit of the FBI found medieval documents, some so old they were written on sheep skin, bearing the Papal seal.
BONNIE GARDNER, FBI ART THEFT PROGRAM: By their very nature, they are in the public realm, and the fact that they were stolen and came to the United States, in some way illicitly, deprived those historians and archivists in Italy to study these documents and reconstruct history from them.
ROESGEN: The FBI doesn't know how the artifacts were smuggled out of Italy. But they say that John Sisto seemed to have valued the antiquities for their historic value more than for what they would be worth for sale. If he had sold them, their estimated value is between $5 million and $10 million.
(on camera): The FBI says Italian authorities will take the loot back to Italy later this week. Susan Roesgen, CNN, Berwyn, Illinois.
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COLLINS: The economy is issue number one from Capitol Hill to the Supreme Court. We're covering the stories that affect your bottom line. I'm Heidi Collins, CNN newsroom continues with Tony Harris.
