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Washington Bleeds Red Ink; Banking on Bernanke; Coroner Confirms Michael Jackson Died From Overdose; Cost of Clunkers
Aired August 25, 2009 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone.
It is Tuesday morning, the 25th day of August. And here are the top stories for you in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Washington spends more than it takes in. One deficit projection goes up a couple trillion, another goes down by a similar amount.
A veteran prosecutor will examine CIA tactics. Did interrogators commit crimes to keep America safe from terrorists?
Court documents finally reveal Michael Jackson's cause of death. Today's big question, will the singer's doctor face criminal charges?
Good morning again, everyone. I'm Tony Harris, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
The CNN NEWSROOM is all about the Benjamins this morning. Not enough of them means Washington is drowning in historic amounts of red ink. We will look at the new federal deficit projections for the next 10 years.
And the money man. President Obama wants Ben Bernanke to stay on for a second term as Fed chairman.
We are covering issue number one, the economy today, with CNN's White House correspondent, Dan Lothian. Christine Romans at the business desk in New York. But let's start over at the New York Stock Exchange with Stephanie Elam.
And Stephanie, look, however you slice the numbers here, we are talking about an enormous amount of debt in the CBO's 10-year deficit outlook. But the number, let's be honest here, is coming in less than anticipated, correct?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and you're still talking about numbers you can't even really fathom, Tony. Being less than that, being less than gargantuan. It's really, really hard to put your hands around it.
But we did get two budget updates today. The Congressional Budget Office, that estimate saying that they expect $7 trillion in deficit over the next 10 years.
Now, the CBO is like Congress' official scorekeeper. And this number that we're looking at here, it's better than previously projected. And the reason why is because they anticipated more financial bailouts and bigger losses at the FDIC because of failing banks.
So, basically, what they had, they were planning for the worst, but the economy is now stabilizing. Then on the other hand, you have the White House Office of Management and Budget, and they expect the 10-year deficit to hit $9.05 trillion. That's worse than its previous estimate, so it's really hard to balance this one out.
And they're saying that the White House estimate for the economy has gotten worse. The White House sees unemployment hitting 10 percent this year and economic growth next year being slower than expected. And that could mean that more government spending to help the economy will be necessary, but it will add to the deficit.
But there's one thing that both of these agree on. Both sides see the deficit this year around $1.6 trillion, which would be the highest since World War II -- Tony.
HARRIS: Wow.
OK, so, again, no matter how you slice this, the numbers are gargantuan, huge. Markets don't like deficit numbers and certainly not these numbers.
How are the markets likely to respond to the numbers today?
ELAM: Well, a lot of this, you know, it comes out to the fact that we knew that the number was going to be huge. The Office of Management and Budget points to the cost of rescuing the economy from the deeper-than-expected recession as a major cause for the jump, but for the most part, Wall Street knew the number was going to be massive. That part was already there.
And if you look at why the deficit is so high, the deficit is the difference between what the government is spending and taking in. The government is spending on big things, like extending unemployment, benefits, bailout, health care, all of these things. Meanwhile, the government isn't bringing in as much in revenues, and that's because people have lost their jobs and they don't pay as much in payroll taxes, they're not getting all that income, and so that starts hitting state budgets, too. So that's why we're in this situation and that's why we ultimately care about this.
HARRIS: What's happing with markets? Where's it now?
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
HARRIS: Stephanie, appreciate it. Thank you.
ELAM: Sure.
HARRIS: President Obama may be all about change, but he wants Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to stay put.
White House Correspondent Dan Lothian is with the president today on Martha's Vineyard.
Dan, good to see you.
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, Tony.
HARRIS: Over the last few weeks, you know, it appeared pretty clear that this morning's reappointment was really more a question of when and not if. Is that correct?
LOTHIAN: Well, that's correct. I mean, there had been a lot of speculation as to whether or not Bernanke would get to keep his job. He was called -- met with the president, actually, last week, I'm told by a senior administration official, on Wednesday, where the job was discussed. At that point, the president did offer the job, again, renominate him to another four years.
As to the timing of it happening today, a senior administration official telling me that they really wanted to sort of clear the air here. Because of all that speculation of whether or not he would keep the job, they decided they wanted to put that to rest. So, that's why the president came out.
They also felt by renominating Bernanke, that he was someone who could really continue the stability in the market, would decrease any possibility of disruptions to the market. So, that's the reason that the president decided to re-nominate him -- Tony.
HARRIS: All right. Dan, appreciate that.
We want to talk a bit more about Ben Bernanke. You talk about right place at the right time, Ben Bernanke is a scholar of the Great Depression and seemingly knew the right buttons to push to avoid a repeat of 1929.
All right. Let's talk to CNN's Christine Romans. She's in New York with us.
And Christine, good to see you.
What did he do here, Ben Bernanke? What worked?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: He did so many things that we didn't even know existed. You know, $6.4 trillion overall of Fed emergency measures, $1.3 trillion of them actually deployed in the economy, everything from backing up the commercial paper market, to injecting dollars into foreign central banks in the very height of the crisis, to backstopping government debt from the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. All kinds of different things that they did to try to get money into the system to prevent a collapse.
And many say that his efforts and the efforts of other foreign central banks and stimulus and all these other things together actually prevented a collapse. And they say, look, here's this depressionary expert who ended up helping stave off a depression. But others say that he was too slow to recognize that this was all building and burning.
And I want you to listen to something that he said May 17, 2000, Tony. He was asked again and again by many of us, what about this subprime crisis? This doesn't feel right.
This is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: We do not expect significant spillovers in the subprime market to the rest of the economy or to the financial system.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Ouch. That's the Fed chief, who is the Depression expert, who, there, in the middle of all of this happening, was still saying the subprime crises -- he and many, many others who said the subprime crisis would be detained.
So, you will hear, I think, when he goes through the nomination process, you'll hear some of this questioning about, now, how do you know for sure that what we're doing right now is the right way forward?
HARRIS: Yes.
Aren't we coming up on the anniversary of the Lehman Brothers collapse?
ROMANS: God help us, yes.
HARRIS: Yes. Yes. So, my question is, you know, critics have suggested that he could have, he should have done more to save Lehman Brothers.
What's your take on that?
ROMANS: And many of the people inside when that was all happening and going down -- literally going down and figuratively going down -- said that they didn't have any other choice. I mean, I think we're going to see the history books are going to write what was the fallout from Lehman and whether that was the right or wrong choice. But when you chart this economic crisis, that is the point right there, the Lehman crisis. When Lehman went down, that's when all hell broke loose, and that is -- that's' a technical phrase, quite frankly, in economics -- all hell broke loose, and I think everyone would agree that's when it happened.
I think you're going to have whole college courses that are going to be written on this in MBA school...
HARRIS: Oh, good point. Yes.
ROMANS: ... and the like going forward. So, it's only been a year, and we are still -- Tony, we have so much work to be done. I think that's what the president -- the president today was talking about bold, persistent experimentation. You heard that phrase.
That's a phrase from FDR in 1932. FDR said to his critics -- he said, "I promise you bold, persistent experimentation." If it doesn't work, we're going to try something else.
I think that shows you the magnitude of the problem here. And now what the Fed chief has to do, he's got to unwind all this stuff. He has got to get all these trillions out without messing everything up again, but also doing it in time before the dollar gets hurt and you have inflation and all these other unintended consequences.
It's going to be tricky.
HARRIS: And that's moving forward here, the real challenge. Isn't it the truth that anything that Bernanke has put in place here, could it all be undermined by -- look, you mentioned it -- inflation, deficits?
ROMANS: Yes. We don't have -- inflation is not a problem right now, thank God. But you mentioned those deficits. I mean, those numbers are just heart-stopping when you look at them.
And if you go to the CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, CBO.gov, do it on the next break. Go to CBO.gov.
On the very front, they show you this chart that shows the size of the deficit in relation to the economy. That's what's really interesting, even more than kind of the numbers. It's approaching 12 percent of the size of the economy, and that's -- and you can see in our lifetime it's never been like that. That gives you some perspective, I think of just how big it is.
HARRIS: What's the site again?
ROMANS: It's CBO.gov. Look in the break.
HARRIS: Yes. Yes. Yes.
ROMANS: There's some good stuff on there.
HARRIS: We'll put it up on the monitors so everyone can take a look.
Christine, appreciate it. Thank you.
ROMANS: OK. Bye-bye.
HARRIS: And coming up in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM, Ben Bernanke's second act. What does he do for an encore? I'll be talking with CNNMoney.com's Jeanne Sahadi and Politico.com's Eamon Javers.
Drug after drug -- new details about the overdose the coroner says killed Michael Jackson.
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(WEATHER REPORT)
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HARRIS: In the hours before his death two months ago, Michael Jackson was given anti-anxiety medications and a sedative, but what finally killed him was a lethal dose of the anesthetic Propofol. "I apologize for that shot." That's according to preliminary findings from the Los Angeles Coroner's Office, released an affidavit yesterday.
CNN's Thelma Gutierrez has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This 32-page document released in Texas revealed there were lethal levels of the powerful drug Propofol in Michael Jackson's blood at the time of his death, according to preliminary findings of the Los Angeles coroner. The police affidavit says Dr. Conrad Murray, Jackson's personal physician, told detectives he had been treating the star for insomnia for six weeks giving him an IV drip with 50 milligrams of Propofol diluted with Lidocaine every night.
Murray worried Jackson was becoming addicted to Propofol. In an attempt to wean him off, Murray put together other combinations of drugs and succeeded in putting Jackson to sleep for two nights prior to his death.
On June 25th when those drugs failed, Murray told detectives what he did hour by hour. He said around 1:30 in the morning, he gave Jackson 10 milligrams of valium. At 2:00 a.m., he injected Jackson with Ativan, an anti-anxiety drug. An hour later, the sedative Versed. At 5:00 a.m., more Ativan. At 7:30, more Versed.
Murray says he monitored Jackson's vital signs the entire time. According to documents, at 10:40 a.m., after repeated requests and demands from Jackson, Murray administered 25 milligrams of Propofol, and Jackson finally went to sleep.
After 10 minutes, Murray says he went to the bathroom and was gone for two minutes. When he returned he says, Jackson was no longer breathing. Murray says he administered CPR until paramedics arrived, but those efforts proved futile.
(on camera): Dr. Conrad Murray's attorneys released a statement saying, "Much of what was in the search warrant affidavit is factual. However, unfortunately, much is a police theory. Most egregiously, the timeline reported by law enforcement was not obtained through interviews with Dr. Murray, as was implied by the affidavit."
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: You know, it is still not clear why Michael Jackson was taking so much medication, but Dr. Drew Pinsky tells CNN the toxicology results suggest he had a serious problem.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. DREW PINSKY, HOST, "CELEBRITY REHAB": I don't make that he's treating insomnia. That's for sure. There is simply no rational basis for this combination for the treatment of insomnia, there's no protocol on earth that would include these substances. However, what I also draw from this is that he probably was tolerant and potentially even addicted to these substances, and maybe in withdrawal, which is why he could tolerate doses that literally would take down an elephant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Wow. OK. We continue to work this story. Next hour, our chief medical correspondent will show us exactly how the drug Propofol is used and why it is considered so dangerous.
It is the end of the road for Cash for Clunkers. The program's impact and the piles of paperwork still left to do.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And let's get to top stories now.
President Obama today nominated Ben Bernanke for a second four- year term as Federal Reserve chairman. The president called his actions on the global financial crisis bold and out of the box.
Former vice president Dick Cheney says CIA interrogation techniques at the center of a new investigation saved lives and prevented terrorist attacks. Attorney General Eric Holder has ordered a probe of whether the interrogation tactics broke the law.
Details ahead in a live report from Washington.
Liftoff, take two. NASA planning to launch the Shuttle Discovery at 1:10 tomorrow morning. That's after scrubbing today's early- morning liftoff because of thunderstorms. Discovery set to deliver thousands of supplies to the International Space Station.
If you still have a clunker at home, you might need to hold on to it for a while. The Cash for Clunkers program has run out of gas for now, even though car dealerships now have until 8:00 tonight to get their paperwork in.
Just how well did the program perform?
Our Josh Levs is here to show us.
OK, Josh. What do you have?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Tony. They keep extending the deadline.
HARRIS: A lot of paperwork to get in.
LEVS: Yes. And that's one thing dealers are concerned about; right? I mean...
HARRIS: And getting paid. Yes. Yes. Yes.
LEVS: There were some stores that were trying to cut back. Some dealerships were trying to start stopping maybe on Saturday.
(CROSSTALK)
LEVS: Hey, Tony, you ever had a car like this? Take a look.
HARRIS: What is that? I can't see. You know I can't see. What is that?
LEVS: Oh, come on. Zoom way in.
HARRIS: Oh, no, never.
LEVS: Yes, unfortunately that one was...
(CROSSTALK)
HARRIS: Is that a holdover from Woodstock?
LEVS: That is 1983. So, no, maybe (INAUDIBLE), but this one wasn't.
So, this is unfortunately one of the ones that was beyond clunker and couldn't make it. But we do have some great stories there. Let's get straight to these statistics. I want everyone to see overall how it played out.
What we have right now are the numbers that the government had as of yesterday morning, so clearly not done there. You can see, 625,000 cars already worth $2.58 billion in terms of -- not the cars themselves, but how much the government was going to be shelling out in those rebates.
Well, we also have an analyst that's given us these stats having looked at how it's going so far. He's saying that he is expecting this total of $750,000 cars -- and you can see there, it's an analyst for Ford Motor Company -- and he's saying that when he looks at what cars are out there on the road, that will be two percent of the approximately 42 million fuel-hoggers, as we're putting it on CNNMoney, that are out there on the road.
So, clearly, it's not like the majority of people took advantage of it. But hundreds of thousands of people doing any kind of car exchange in this economy is really something big -- Tony.
HARRIS: Hey, do we know what the most popular cars were in this program? LEVS: We do, yes. There's a great spread of this. Let's zoom back into the board. I'll show you some of these.
Again, this is all from CNNMoney, that's put together a great spread.
We have, first of all, some trades that individual people made. That guy wasn't able to make anything.
This -- see, I like this trade. This is someone who traded in a 1990 Lincoln Town Car for a 2009 Dodge Caliber. This one reminds me of the car from "Hunter," though.
HARRIS: Ok.
LEVS: Now we can get one more example.
This is the 2002 Isuzu trade-in for a 2009 Jetta. The most popular ones are really just a lot of the most popular cars that are on the road.
You can see over here, Toyota Corolla was one of the most popular ones. Also the Honda Civic. And also, you know, talking about the environment, the Prius, the Toyota Prius, among the top 10. We won't know finally until next hour -- rather, until it's all tabulated in the coming days.
HARRIS: Sure.
LEVS: And next hour, Poppy has got more for us. She's looking at what happens next, how sharp a sales decline the industry is bracing for. Plus, Tony, keep in mind, the government now shelling out billions of dollars that we all pay for long term.
Poppy Harlow of CNNmoney is going to be along with that next hour.
HARRIS: All right. Can't wait for that.
Josh, appreciate it. Thank you.
You know, we are learning more about some harsh interrogation techniques used on terror suspects and what the former vice president thinks about them.
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(BUSINESS REPORT)
HARRIS: A mock execution, a threat to kill family members, simulated drownings. The Obama administration is investigating whether the CIA interrogation techniques broke the law.
Former vice president Dick Cheney says harsh interrogations helped keep the country safe after 9/11.
Elaine Quijano has the details from a newly declassified report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Interrogators threatened to kill the children of accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. The 2004 CIA inspector general's report, though still partially redacted, says, "According to this interrogator, the (blank) interrogator said to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed that if anything else happens in the United States, 'We're going to kill your children.'"
The report also reveals a technique not previously disclosed that an interrogator "... reportedly used a pressure point technique. With both his hands on the detainee's neck (blank) manipulated his fingers to restrict the detainee's carotid artery until the detainee started to pass out."
And new information about a gun and a power drill used to scare Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri, suspected of plotting the deadly bombing on the U.S.S. Cole.
Quote, "The debriefer entered the cell where Al-Nashiri sat shackled and racked the handgun once or twice close to Al-Nashiri's head." And later, "The briefer entered the detainee's cell and revved the drill while the detainee stood naked and hooded." The debriefer did not touch Al-Nashiri with the power drill.
The report's release comes after a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which called the details outrageous.
JAMEEL JAFFER, ACLU: If threatening a prisoner with an electric drill isn't torture, I'm not sure what is.
QUIJANO: The report also suggests waterboarding got Khalid Sheikh Muhammad to talk, saying he, quote, "provided only a few intelligence reports prior to the use of the waterboard."
Late Monday, the government released other declassified documents former Vice President Dick Cheney requested, arguing they would show the interrogation program saved lives. The CIA analysis says information from detainee interrogations helped thwart a number of al Qaeda plots, and arrests disrupted attack plans in progress. What's not clear from the heavily redacted documents is whether that information was obtained through controversial techniques like waterboarding.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Elaine Quijano joining us now from Washington. And Elaine, give us more, if you would, of the reaction from former Vice President Dick Cheney to the decision to investigate the CIA interrogations.
QUIJANO: Well, as you can imagine, it's a pretty strong reaction. The former vice president says that the CIA, Tony, deserves people's gratitude, not to be what he calls the targets of political investigations or prosecutions. And he slammed the Obama administration in a written statement, saying, quote, "President Obama's decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate and possibly prosecute CIA personnel and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the CIA to the White House serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this administration's ability to be responsible for our nation's security."
Pretty forceful statement there -- Tony.
HARRIS: Boy, I'll say. And if you would, talk to us about the changes the Obama administration has ordered in the interrogation of these terror suspects moving forward.
QUIJANO: Right, well, there's going to be a new unit. Officials are calling it the High-value detainee Interrogation Group. Basically, this is a team made of officials from different agencies that will handle the questioning of high-level prisoners.
Now, the White House National Security Council will have oversight, and this group will have to follow the guidelines outlined in the Army Field Manual on interrogations. That manual, as you know, Tony, prohibits techniques like waterboarding -- Tony.
HARRIS: Elaine Quijano for us in Washington. Elaine, thank you.
One of the youngest prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay is now back home in Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED JAWAD, RELEASED GUANTANAMO PRISONER (through translator): I'm very happy. I can't even fit into my clothes. I spent a long time in jail. Thanks to God. I'm very happy to be back with my family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Mohammed Jawad may have been as young as 14 when he was detained. He was accused of injuring two U.S. troops and their Afghan translator with a hand grenade. A military judge found that Jawad initially denied throwing the grenade but changed his story after Afghan authorities threatened to kill him and his family. We're told he wants to go back to school.
Partial results are now in from Afghanistan's presidential election. They show the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, and his leading challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, neck and neck. Abdullah has been accusing Karzai of rigging last week's election. That's on top of other alleged irregularities.
Our Atia Abawi reports from Kabul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIA ABAWI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Intimidation, violence and ballot stuffing. Afghanistan's elections were marred from the start, and now allegations of fraud are flying. Presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah alleges that President Hamid Karzai's campaign is blatantly stealing the election in front of the world's eyes, and the repercussions will be severe.
DR. ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, AFGHANISTAN: I think the survival of Afghanistan is at stake. And I don't see a future for this country. The level of disappointment of the people had reached a state that you cannot reverse it.
ABAWI: Already, hundreds of complaints have poured into the Electoral Complaints Commission, which several dozen labeled as high priorities. The ECC, chaired by a Canadian, says it will delay result announcements until they have investigated each complaint.
Dr. Abdullah warns that it's not just democracy that will fail in the eyes of his countrymen if fraud is not addressed. But the international mission in Afghanistan itself will be at stake.
Here at a pre-election rally, the energy and excitement was overwhelming as thousands showed up in support of Dr. Abdullah. The fear now among officials is that this positive energy will turn into something more violent if the results are seen as illegitimate.
For his part, a spokesman for Karzai's campaign says it has its own concerns, but it is not airing its grievances publicly.
WAHID OMAR, KARZAI CAMPAIGN SPOKESMAN: They are making irresponsible comments, and this is disrespectful to the process. This is disrespectful to the mechanism, which is in place, which is the institution, and this is disrespectful to the votes of the people.
ABAWI: Here at a store in the capital, Afghans are worried.
"If fraud was involved in the election," Weis says, "I don't think the situation in Afghanistan will improve. It will probably get worse than it even is now because everyone is looking out for their own needs, not the country's."
Dr. Abdullah says that he will do what the people ask him to do.
ABAWI (on camera): And what if violence breaks out? What will you do?
ABDULLAH: I'll try to prevent that. I'll try to prevent that, but all I can promise that I'll be with the people.
ABAWI (voice-over): Potentially ominous words if the people choose to take to the streets. Afghan and international diplomats want to prevent such a scenario and are hoping to make a deal. But Abdullah says, "Deals with the Karzai government is what has prevented the country from moving forward."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Our Atia Abawi joining us live now from the Afghan capital of Kabul. And Atia, what more can you tell us about today's partial results?
ABAWI: Well, what I can tell you is that this was out of 10 percent of the votes that were cast on the day of the election. But although it seems like President Karzai and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah are neck and neck, we have to remember where these numbers are coming from. Many of the tallies are coming from provinces that have supported Dr. Abdullah. And provinces that have supported President Karzai, no votes have been counted just yet.
So, we might see a huge discrepancy between the two as we get figures from those southern provinces, those provinces where we see most of the American troops at the moment and coalition troops. Only 1 percent of the votes in Kandahar were tallied, zero from Helmand because right now, it's been too dangerous to bring the ballots back to Kabul. So, we might be seeing a big, big difference as the days go by -- Tony.
HARRIS: Got you. OK, Atia Abawi for us in Kabul.
You know, it is a make-or-break month for health care reform, and we're taking you around the world to see the pros and cons of health plans in other countries. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has lessons from Ireland.
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HARRIS: A quick recap of our top stories right now. Congress and the White House are out today with new deficit projections for the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office lowered its estimate to $7 trillion. The White House budget office raised its projection to $9 trillion.
An alarming prediction about swine flu. A government panel says 30,000 to 90,000 people could die from the H1N1 strain this fall and winter. Most of the victims expected to be children and young adults.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR TOM BARRETT, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN: We have a cabinet meeting that I stopped in. We're going over the budget stuff, and had a lot of correspondence that I was going through. Slowly, we'll get back in the saddle. So, it feels good to get back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Now, yesterday was his first day back at work after he was beaten with a metal bar, a tire iron after he intervened in a domestic dispute. The suspect in that case is due in court this week.
Summer is winding down, but health care reform is still a hot topic during this make-or-break month in the debate. Emotions were running pretty high inside and outside a town hall meeting in Illinois yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am here on my own volition, by my own free will as my God-given right!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Wow, OK. An overflow crowd turned out for the meeting. It was hosted by Republican Congressman Mark Kirk in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Organizers scheduled a second meeting to accommodate the crowd.
And we are listening to more voices and views on health care reform. Today, lawmakers are holding town hall meetings in Oklahoma City, Germantown, Maryland, Reston, Virginia and Fairfax, Virginia. Our correspondents and affiliates are of course covering the meetings, and we will bring you details of the debate and the discussion.
The health care overhaul under debate in the United States right now is similar to what Ireland implemented a few years ago. So, how is it working there? And what lessons can the U.S. learn from the Irish? Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey there from the Global Cancer Summit here in Dublin, Ireland. We've been out here for a few days now, but I couldn't help but think about health care reform back home.
About five years ago, Ireland found itself in the same position that the United States is in now, trying to reform their health care system. So, I took advantage of a unique opportunity to sit down with the health minister, find out where Ireland stands, what went right and what went wrong.
GUPTA (voice-over): In Ireland, everyone has access to health care via a taxed public plan, but half choose to spend additional money on a private plan.
(on camera): Why does that happen? So, if you have access to the public system, is it not good enough for 50 percent of the people like you say?
MARY HARNEY, IRELAND MINISTER OF HEALTH: They do it for choice of facility or choice of doctor or choice of accommodation, better quality accommodation -- single rooms in private hospitals, for example. And speedier access in many cases, more routine procedures can be done much more quickly if you have access to private health insurance.
RICHARD SALTMAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY: In the public sector, one can wait up to three years for a hip replacement or a corneal lens transplant.
GUPTA (voice-over): Mary Harney says many waiting lists have been cut from years to just a few months. But tough choices still have to be made. (on camera): If you look at sort of the silos of how they predicated health reform, they talked about decreasing costs and increasing access. Can you do both? I mean, if you increase access, can you really decrease costs across the board, as well?
HARNEY: Well, it's possible only if you reduce the number of procedures or the cost of those procedures.
GUPTA: Some will say that's rationing.
HARNEY: No matter how much money you put into health, no matter how good your system is, you'll always have more patients than you have capacity at any one time. And it's a question of how quickly can you prioritize the treatments for all patients, whether they're urgent or not so urgent.
GUPTA (voice-over): No matter what country you're from, Ireland or the United States, it seems to always come down to cost.
(on camera): People say the Medicare system in the United States is going broke; they say it'll be broke by the year 2017. It's very expensive and hard to maintain budgets. Same problem here in Ireland?
HARNEY: Yes. And we have -- we spend -- this year we will spend over 40 percent of the money we will raise in taxation in the country on public health care.
GUPTA: Forty percent?
HARNEY: That's an incredible amount of money, and therefore, if we're going to do that within existing budgets, then we have to get smarter in the way we provide treatment.
GUPTA: And it is worth pointing out that every physician in Ireland has to accept all types of insurance, including the public insurance. Overall, Minister Harney thinks things have gotten better here in Ireland. Waiting times are shorter. Everyone is insured. But as you can see, it has come with a tremendous cost.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: All right. You will find In-depth coverage of the health reform debate on our Web site. Take a look at it here. You can check the facts, find a town hall meeting near you and read the proposed legislation. Just go to CNN.com/healthcare.
And here are some of the stories we're working on for the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. President Obama reappoints Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term.
And mind-blowing new estimates out today on the amount of government red ink. Our panel discusses deficits and money matters.
A sobering scenario. Federal officials say tens of thousands of Americans could actually die from swine flu. Elizabeth Cohen explains what you need to know when deciding on vaccinations for you and your children.
And out of work in California. The state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, but there are some bright spots.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: It has been almost four years since the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. The storm that swept away so much also brought new hope to a troubled school system.
CNN's Sean Callebs has an update on education in New Orleans, after the storm.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The floodwaters washed away so much here; so much lost. But they also washed away a crippling problem: a terrible public school system.
Todd Purvis is principal of the KIPP Central City Academy.
(on camera): Right now, it's Louisiana and Mississippi, always at the bottom (INAUDIBLE) in public education. Are you optimistic that's going to change?
TODD PURVIS, PRINCIPAL, KIPP CENTRAL CITY ACADEMY: I'm very optimistic. I mean, when I talk to teachers and families, especially teachers that, you know, were trying to (INAUDIBLE) here, I tell them and I firmly believe that New Orleans in five or ten years will be looked to as the model for how you reform an educational system.
CALLEBS (voice-over): Donnell Bailey says before the storm, he did poorly in a poor public school. He failed fourth grade and says he never thought about his future.
DONNELL BAILEY, STUDENT: I actually thought the storm was a blessing in disguise.
CALLEBS: The storm forced an education overhaul from the ground up. This man, Paul Vallas, who turned around schools in Philadelphia and Chicago, is driving the change. And he's in a hurry.
PAUL VALLAS, SUPERINTENDENT, RECOVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT: In the Recovery School District alone, the last two years we saw an increase in test scores in every subject at every grade level.
CALLEBS (on camera): Vallas inherited a district where only about four in 10 kids graduated from high school. In fact, so many students were failing so badly, the state had taken control over about 85 percent of the district schools.
Well, Vallas is now spending millions of federal dollars that are pouring in, giving kids laptops and offering smaller class sizes to give more one-on-one instruction.
But perhaps most importantly, he hired a small army of young, motivated teachers from across the country through the organization Teach for America, some of whom replaced veteran teachers who were considered underperforming.
VALLAS: They bring a certain energy, and they bring a certain, you know, personality and drive into the schools that really creates a culture of high expectations.
CALLEBS (voice-over): As for Donnell Bailey, that's why he calls the storm a blessing.
BAILEY: The thing that changed were my teachers. Teachers, obviously, like, the expectations were more higher, you know, and my teachers expected me to live up to these expectations. So, like, the drive that my teachers gave me, it really pushed me up to that level.
CALLEBS: In fact, Donnell's new public school teachers pushed him so hard and he did so well that he received a scholarship to a $17,000-a-year private school. It's a good story.
(on camera): It's a winning formula of motivated teachers, renovated schools and new laptops. But they're not all good stories here.
By state law, if students don't pass an exit exam at the end of eighth grade, they're not promoted to high school.
(voice-over): Kirtisha (ph) Davis studies at home because she failed that test and can't enroll in school. Her mom says Kirtisha has a learning disability, difficulty retaining information, and she doesn't want the 15-year-old to attend the eighth grade for a third time. And says the district isn't providing adequate tutoring and other resources that might give Kirtisha a chance for a high-school diploma.
(on camera): What's your big fear? Are you worried that Kirtisha could fall through the cracks, get frustrated and simply drop out?
DANA DAVIS, MOTHER: Well, I feel that she's already falling through the cracks. I mean, she's already three grades behind.
CALLEBS (voice-over): The new education czar, Paul Vallas, says the situation is disappointing and, no, not every student is succeeding. He doesn't like graduate exams.
VALLAS: I've always felt that you give the high-stakes test, and if a child does not pass all, you know, all the components of that test, then you conditionally pass the student if the student has hit other benchmarks.
CALLEBS: And the district's long-term goal...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who's going to college?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to college. CALLEBS: For families here, that's been an all but unthinkable goal. Only about 7 percent of New Orleans public school kids graduate from college. That's right, just 7 percent.
So, some things never change here. Once again, it's hurricane season, and thoughts of Katrina are always here. But there is now hope because Katrina did bring Paul Vallas and his army of new teachers here, and there's hope of a brighter future for the kids.
Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: So much work to be done, and some key positions still not filled in the Obama administration. The help-wanted sign is out at the White House.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: A whole lot of job vacancies still in the Obama administration. The president has secured confirmation for only 43 percent of 500 senior policy jobs.
Our Louise Schiavone looks at some key positions not yet filled.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOUISE SCHIAVONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Help wanted, directors of the Agency of International Development, Customs and Border Protection, Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The latest head count from a team of academics shows that fewer than 50 percent of policy-making positions requiring Senate confirmation have been filled.
DAVID LEWIS, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Well, it means that a lot of the agencies of government that are driving important public policies that have consequences for the lives of millions of Americans don't have leadership at this point.
SCHIAVONE: The White House Transition Project calculates that 210 days into the Obama administration, with 385 confirmation-required policy-making executive branch jobs on the line, President Obama has nominated 243 candidates, and the Senate has confirmed 193, about half of the total. The White House concedes...
BILL BURTON, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: Do we have some more hiring to do? Sure. But are we able to make a lot of progress with the team that's in place right now? Absolutely.
So, I think that moving forward, the president feels good about his team, and he's going to continue to put together a strong team.
SCHIAVONE: In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley, says, quote, "There's every reason to be concerned. The president deserves to have his full complement of staff in the different agencies," end quote. One factor slowing the process, nominees with background problems, like former Senator Tom Daschle. His Cabinet appointment was derailed by tax troubles. In the meantime, notes the conservative Heritage Foundation, the president has appointed numerous policy czars.
BRIAN DARLING, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: TARP czar and a Great Lakes czar, they have all these different czars, a car czar and numerous other czars who are making very important, critical decisions of the government, but they don't have to go through Senate confirmations.
SCHIAVONE: And the prospect of a policy czar overriding them, says one analyst, may well discourage good candidates for some of these executive Cabinet positions.
(on camera): The record shows that the Obama White House is no farther behind on appointments than recent administrations. Historians say it just reflects the massive scope of the U.S. government.
Louise Schiavone for CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
And new information about a gun and a power drill used to scare Abd Al-Rahim Al-Nashiri, suspected of plotting the deadly bombing on the U.S.S. Cole.
Quote, "The debriefer entered the cell where Al-Nashiri sat shackled and racked the handgun once or twice close to Al-Nashiri's head." And later, "The briefer entered the detainee's cell and revved the drill while the detainee stood naked and hooded." The debriefer did not touch Al-Nashiri with the power drill.
The report's release comes after a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which called the details outrageous.
JAMEEL JAFFER, ACLU: If threatening a prisoner with an electric drill isn't torture, I'm not sure what is. QUIJANO: The report also suggests waterboarding got Khalid Sheikh Muhammad to talk, saying he, quote, "provided only a few intelligence reports prior to the use of the waterboard."
Late Monday, the government released other declassified documents former Vice President Dick Cheney requested, arguing they would show the interrogation program saved lives. The CIA analysis says information from detainee interrogations helped thwart a number of al Qaeda plots, and arrests disrupted attack plans in progress. What's not clear from the heavily redacted documents is whether that information was obtained through controversial techniques like waterboarding.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Elaine Quijano joining us now from Washington. And Elaine, give us more, if you would, of the reaction from former Vice President Dick Cheney to the decision to investigate the CIA interrogations.
QUIJANO: Well, as you can imagine, it's a pretty strong reaction. The former vice president says that the CIA, Tony, deserves people's gratitude, not to be what he calls the targets of political investigations or prosecutions. And he slammed the Obama administration in a written statement, saying, quote, "President Obama's decision to allow the Justice Department to investigate and possibly prosecute CIA personnel and his decision to remove authority for interrogation from the CIA to the White House serves as a reminder, if any were needed, of why so many Americans have doubts about this administration's ability to be responsible for our nation's security."
Pretty forceful statement there -- Tony.
HARRIS: Boy, I'll say. And if you would, talk to us about the changes the Obama administration has ordered in the interrogation of these terror suspects moving forward.
QUIJANO: Right, well, there's going to be a new unit. Officials are calling it the High-value detainee Interrogation Group. Basically, this is a team made of officials from different agencies that will handle the questioning of high-level prisoners.
Now, the White House National Security Council will have oversight, and this group will have to follow the guidelines outlined in the Army Field Manual on interrogations. That manual, as you know, Tony, prohibits techniques like waterboarding -- Tony.
HARRIS: Elaine Quijano for us in Washington. Elaine, thank you.
One of the youngest prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay is now back home in Afghanistan.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED JAWAD, RELEASED GUANTANAMO PRISONER (through translator): I'm very happy. I can't even fit into my clothes. I spent a long time in jail. Thanks to God. I'm very happy to be back with my family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Mohammed Jawad may have been as young as 14 when he was detained. He was accused of injuring two U.S. troops and their Afghan translator with a hand grenade. A military judge found that Jawad initially denied throwing the grenade but changed his story after Afghan authorities threatened to kill him and his family. We're told he wants to go back to school.
Partial results are now in from Afghanistan's presidential election. They show the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, and his leading challenger, Abdullah Abdullah, neck and neck. Abdullah has been accusing Karzai of rigging last week's election. That's on top of other alleged irregularities.
Our Atia Abawi reports from Kabul.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIA ABAWI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Intimidation, violence and ballot stuffing. Afghanistan's elections were marred from the start, and now allegations of fraud are flying. Presidential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah alleges that President Hamid Karzai's campaign is blatantly stealing the election in front of the world's eyes, and the repercussions will be severe.
DR. ABDULLAH ABDULLAH, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE, AFGHANISTAN: I think the survival of Afghanistan is at stake. And I don't see a future for this country. The level of disappointment of the people had reached a state that you cannot reverse it.
ABAWI: Already, hundreds of complaints have poured into the Electoral Complaints Commission, which several dozen labeled as high priorities. The ECC, chaired by a Canadian, says it will delay result announcements until they have investigated each complaint.
Dr. Abdullah warns that it's not just democracy that will fail in the eyes of his countrymen if fraud is not addressed. But the international mission in Afghanistan itself will be at stake.
Here at a pre-election rally, the energy and excitement was overwhelming as thousands showed up in support of Dr. Abdullah. The fear now among officials is that this positive energy will turn into something more violent if the results are seen as illegitimate.
For his part, a spokesman for Karzai's campaign says it has its own concerns, but it is not airing its grievances publicly.
WAHID OMAR, KARZAI CAMPAIGN SPOKEMAN: They are making irresponsible comments, and this is disrespectful to the process. This is disrespectful to the mechanism, which is in place, which is the institution, and this is disrespectful to the votes of the people.
ABAWI: Here at a store in the capital, Afghans are worried.
"If fraud was involved in the election," Weis says, "I don't think the situation in Afghanistan will improve. It will probably get worse than it even is now because everyone is looking out for their own needs, not the country's."
Dr. Abdullah says that he will do what the people ask him to do.
ABAWI (on camera): And what if violence breaks out? What will you do?
ABDULLAH: I'll try to prevent that. I'll try to prevent that, but all I can promise that I'll be with the people.
ABAWI (voice-over): Potentially ominous words if the people choose to take to the streets. Afghan and international diplomats want to prevent such a scenario and are hoping to make a deal. But Abdullah says, "Deals with the Karzai government is what has prevented the country from moving forward."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Our Atia Abawi joining us live now from the Afghan capital of Kabul. And Atia, what more can you tell us about today's partial results?
ABAWI: Well, what I can tell you is that this was out of 10 percent of the votes that were cast on the day of the election. But although it seems like President Karzai and Dr. Abdullah Abdullah are neck and neck, we have to remember where these numbers are coming from. Many of the tallies are coming from provinces that have supported Dr. Abdullah. And provinces that have supported President Karzai, no votes have been counted just yet.
So, we might see a huge discrepancy between the two as we get figures from those southern provinces, those provinces where we see most of the American troops at the moment and coalition troops. Only 1 percent of the votes in Kandahar were tallied, zero from Helmand because right now, it's been too dangerous to bring the ballots back to Kabul. So, we might be seeing a big, big difference as the days go by -- Tony.
HARRIS: Got you. OK, Atia Abawi for us in Kabul.
You know, it is a make-or-break month for health care reform, and we're taking you around the world to see the pros and cons of health plans in other countries. Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has lessons from Ireland.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: A quick recap of our top stories right now. Congress and the White House are out today with new deficit projections for the next decade. The Congressional Budget Office lowered its estimate to $7 trillion. The White House budget office raised its projection to $9 trillion. An alarming prediction about swine flu. A government panel says 30,000 to 90,000 people could die from the H1N1 strain this fall and winter. Most of the victims expected to be children and young adults.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR TOM BARRETT, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN: We have a cabinet meeting that I stopped in. We're going over the budget stuff, and had a lot of correspondence that I was going through. Slowly, we'll get back in the saddle. So, it feels good to get back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Now, yesterday was his first day back at work after he was beaten with a metal bar, a tire iron after he intervened in a domestic dispute. The suspect in that case is due in court this week.
Summer is winding down, but health care reform is still a hot topic during this make-or-break month in the debate. Emotions were running pretty high inside and outside a town hall meeting in Illinois yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am here on my own volition, by my own free will as my God-given right!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Wow, OK. An overflow crowd turned out for the meeting. It was hosted by Republican Congressman Mark Kirk in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Organizers scheduled a second meeting to accommodate the crowd.
And we are listening to more voices and views on health care reform. Today, lawmakers are holding town hall meetings in Oklahoma City, Germantown, Maryland, Reston, Virginia and Fairfax, Virginia. Our correspondents and affiliates are of course covering the meetings, and we will bring you details of the debate and the discussion.
The health care overhaul under debate in the United States right now is similar to what Ireland implemented a few years ago. So, how is it working there? And what lessons can the U.S. learn from the Irish? Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey there from the Global Cancer Summit here in Dublin, Ireland. We've been out here for a few days now, but I couldn't help but think about health care reform back home.
About five years ago, Ireland found itself in the same position that the United States is in now, trying to reform their health care system. So, I took advantage of a unique opportunity to sit down with the health minister, find out where Ireland stands, what went right and what went wrong.
GUPTA (voice-over): In Ireland, everyone has access to health care via a taxed public plan, but half choose to spend additional money on a private plan.
(on camera): Why does that happen? So, if you have access to the public system, is it not good enough for 50 percent of the people like you say?
MARY HARNEY, IRELAND MINISTER OF HEALTH: They do it for choice of facility or choice of doctor or choice of accommodation, better quality accommodation -- single rooms in private hospitals, for example. And speedier access in many cases, more routine procedures can be done much more quickly if you have access to private health insurance.
RICHARD SALTMAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY: In the public sector, one can wait up to three years for a hip replacement or a corneal lens transplant.
GUPTA (voice-over): Mary Harney says many waiting lists have been cut from years to just a few months. But tough choices still have to be made.
(on camera): If you look at sort of the silos of how they predicated health reform, they talked about decreasing costs and increasing access. Can you do both? I mean, if you increase access, can you really decrease costs across the board, as well?
HARNEY: Well, it's possible only if you reduce the number of procedures or the cost of those procedures.
GUPTA: Some will say that's rationing.
HARNEY: No matter how much money you put into health, no matter how good your system is, you'll always have more patients than you have capacity at any one time. And it's a question of how quickly can you prioritize the treatments for all patients, whether they're urgent or not so urgent.
GUPTA (voice-over): No matter what country you're from, Ireland or the United States, it seems to always come down to cost.
(on camera): People say the Medicare system in the United States is going broke; they say it'll be broke by the year 2017. It's very expensive and hard to maintain budgets. Same problem here in Ireland?
HARNEY: Yes. And we have -- we spend -- this year we will spend over 40 percent of the money we will raise in taxation in the country on public health care.
GUPTA: Forty percent?
HARNEY: That's an incredible amount of money, and therefore, if we're going to do that within existing budgets, then we have to get smarter in the way we provide treatment. GUPTA: And it is worth pointing out that every physician in Ireland has to accept all types of insurance, including the public insurance. Overall, Minister Harney thinks things have gotten better here in Ireland. Waiting times are shorter. Everyone is insured. But as you can see, it has come with a tremendous cost.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: All right. You will find In-depth coverage of the health reform debate on our Web site. Take a look at it here. You can check the facts, find a town hall meeting near you and read the proposed legislation. Just go to CNN.com/healthcare.
And here are some of the stories we're working on for the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. President Obama reappoints Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke to a second term.
And mind-blowing new estimates out today on the amount of government red ink. Our panel discusses deficits and money matters.
A sobering scenario. Federal officials say tens of thousands of Americans could actually die from swine flu. Elizabeth Cohen explains what you need to know when deciding on vaccinations for you and your children.
And out of work in California. The state has one of the highest unemployment rates in the nation, but there are some bright spots.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: It has been almost four years since the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. The storm that swept away so much also brought new hope to a troubled school system.
CNN's Sean Callebs has an update on education in New Orleans, after the storm.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The floodwaters washed away so much here; so much lost. But they also washed away a crippling problem: a terrible public school system.
Todd Purvis is principal of the KIPP Central City Academy.
(on camera): Right now, it's Louisiana and Mississippi, always at the bottom (INAUDIBLE) in public education. Are you optimistic that's going to change?
TODD PURVIS, PRINCIPAL, KIPP CENTRAL CITY ACADEMY: I'm very optimistic. I mean, when I talk to teachers and families, especially teachers that, you know, were trying to (INAUDIBLE) here, I tell them and I firmly believe that New Orleans in five or ten years will be looked to as the model for how you reform an educational system.
CALLEBS (voice-over): Donnell Bailey says before the storm, he did poorly in a poor public school. He failed fourth grade and says he never thought about his future.
DONNELL BAILEY, STUDENT: I actually thought the storm was a blessing in disguise.
CALLEBS: The storm forced an education overhaul from the ground up. This man, Paul Vallas, who turned around schools in Philadelphia and Chicago, is driving the change. And he's in a hurry.
PAUL VALLAS, SUPERINTENDENT, RECOVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT: In the Recovery School District alone, the last two years we saw an increase in test scores in every subject at every grade level.
CALLEBS (on camera): Vallas inherited a district where only about four in 10 kids graduated from high school. In fact, so many students were failing so badly, the state had taken control over about 85 percent of the district schools.
Well, Vallas is now spending millions of federal dollars that are pouring in, giving kids laptops and offering smaller class sizes to give more one-on-one instruction.
But perhaps most importantly, he hired a small army of young, motivated teachers from across the country through the organization Teach for America, some of whom replaced veteran teachers who were considered underperforming.
VALLAS: They bring a certain energy, and they bring a certain, you know, personality and drive into the schools that really creates a culture of high expectations.
CALLEBS (voice-over): As for Donnell Bailey, that's why he calls the storm a blessing.
BAILEY: The thing that changed were my teachers. Teachers, obviously, like, the expectations were more higher, you know, and my teachers expected me to live up to these expectations. So, like, the drive that my teachers gave me, it really pushed me up to that level.
CALLEBS: In fact, Donnell's new public school teachers pushed him so hard and he did so well that he received a scholarship to a $17,000-a-year private school. It's a good story.
(on camera): It's a winning formula of motivated teachers, renovated schools and new laptops. But they're not all good stories here.
By state law, if students don't pass an exit exam at the end of eighth grade, they're not promoted to high school.
(voice-over): Kirtisha (ph) Davis studies at home because she failed that test and can't enroll in school. Her mom says Kirtisha has a learning disability, difficulty retaining information, and she doesn't want the 15-year-old to attend the eighth grade for a third time. And says the district isn't providing adequate tutoring and other resources that might give Kirtisha a chance for a high-school diploma. (on camera): What's your big fear? Are you worried that Kirtisha could fall through the cracks, get frustrated and simply drop out?
DANA DAVIS, MOTHER: Well, I feel that she's already falling through the cracks. I mean, she's already three grades behind.
CALLEBS (voice-over): The new education czar, Paul Vallas, says the situation is disappointing and, no, not every student is succeeding. He doesn't like graduate exams.
VALLAS: I've always felt that you give the high-stakes test, and if a child does not pass all, you know, all the components of that test, then you conditionally pass the student if the student has hit other benchmarks.
CALLEBS: And the district's long-term goal...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who's going to college?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to college.
CALLEBS: For families here, that's been an all but unthinkable goal. Only about 7 percent of New Orleans public school kids graduate from college. That's right, just 7 percent.
So, some things never change here. Once again, it's hurricane season, and thoughts of Katrina are always here. But there is now hope because Katrina did bring Paul Vallas and his army of new teachers here, and there's hope of a brighter future for the kids.
Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: So much work to be done, and some key positions still not filled in the Obama administration. The help-wanted sign is out at the White House.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: A whole lot of job vacancies still in the Obama administration. The president has secured confirmation for only 43 percent of 500 senior policy jobs.
Our Louise Schiavone looks at some key positions not yet filled.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOUISE SCHIAVONE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Help wanted, directors of the Agency of International Development, Customs and Border Protection, Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The latest head count from a team of academics shows that fewer than 50 percent of policy-making positions requiring Senate confirmation have been filled. DAVID LEWIS, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Well, it means that a lot of the agencies of government that are driving important public policies that have consequences for the lives of millions of Americans don't have leadership at this point.
SCHIAVONE: The White House Transition Project calculates that 210 days into the Obama administration, with 385 confirmation-required policy-making executive branch jobs on the line, President Obama has nominated 243 candidates, and the Senate has confirmed 193, about half of the total. The White House concedes...
BILL BURTON, WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: Do we have some more hiring to do? Sure. But are we able to make a lot of progress with the team that's in place right now? Absolutely.
So, I think that moving forward, the president feels good about his team, and he's going to continue to put together a strong team.
SCHIAVONE: In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid's spokesman, Jim Manley, says, quote, "There's every reason to be concerned. The president deserves to have his full complement of staff in the different agencies," end quote.
One factor slowing the process, nominees with background problems, like former Senator Tom Daschle. His Cabinet appointment was derailed by tax troubles. In the meantime, notes the conservative Heritage Foundation, the president has appointed numerous policy czars.
BRIAN DARLING, THE HERITAGE FOUNDATION: TARP czar and a Great Lakes czar, they have all these different czars, a car czar and numerous other czars who are making very important, critical decisions of the government, but they don't have to go through Senate confirmations.
SCHIAVONE: And the prospect of a policy czar overriding them, says one analyst, may well discourage good candidates for some of these executive Cabinet positions.
(on camera): The record shows that the Obama White House is no farther behind on appointments than recent administrations. Historians say it just reflects the massive scope of the U.S. government.
Louise Schiavone for CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
