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Site of 9/11 Trial Moving?; Winter Storm Blasts the South; Hocking College Students Dealing With Racial Death Threats

Aired January 29, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Checking our top stories, President Obama unveiling his new plan to create jobs. He's doing it in a city that's struggling with an 11 percent unemployment rate, Baltimore, Maryland. The president will propose several tax-cutting initiatives including one that gives businesses a $5,000 tax credit for every new employee hired this year.

Toyota reportedly found a fix for the safety problem that forced it to recall millions of cars. The Wall Street Journal reports that Toyota has designed a spacer that would be inserted into the gas pedal to prevent it from sticking. The device is reportedly awaiting government approval.

The man who's confessed to killing a Kansas abortion doctor may soon know his fate. Closing arguments begin today in the murder trial of Scott Roeder. He admits to gunning down Dr. George Tiller last May but Roeder says the killing was necessary to save unborn children. The jury is expected to get the case later today.

In New York, dread and outrage has been building. At issue? Well, the government's plans to hold the 9/11 terror trial in Manhattan. But this morning we're hearing that the White House may bend to public pressure and move that trial elsewhere.

CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux has been working her sources. Suzanne, what do you know?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, we know that the White House and the Justice Department are under a tremendous pressure to move the location of that trial of Khalid Sheik Mohammed from Manhattan to some other place. We've heard from the mayor of New York, Michael Bloomberg, also the governor, Governor Paterson complaining that this is not the right venue.

Well, I spoke with White House officials this morning who say, you know what, there are some considerations going on, some conversations taking place to potentially move the trial site. One senior administration official saying that "Conversations have occurred within the administration to discuss contingency options should the possibility of a trial in lower Manhattan be foreclosed upon by Congress or locally."

One point that they're making, Kyra, however, is that the president and the administration is not backing down on supporting the attorney general, Eric Holder, on the decision to hold Khalid Sheikh Mohammed in a civilian criminal court, not military tribunals, but White House officials saying that they believe he can be tried in the United States safely and securely.

We don't know if that's going to be in Manhattan necessarily, but Bill Burton said yesterday, a White House spokesman, that the "President agrees with the attorney general's opinion in that in November he and others can be litigated successfully and securely in the United States of America, just like the others have, just like Richard Reid. Currently, our federal jails hold hundreds of convicted terrorists and the president's opinion has not changed on that."

But Kyra, what is notable here, if you go back, you listen to the attorney general, Eric Holder's comments, back in November when he explained why Manhattan, he said a number of things. He said it was a tough decision to make, could have been other locations, but it was a hardened area, he said, very secure. Literally you can take terrorists, alleged terrorists from their jail cells to the courthouse under tunnels, that type of thing.

But he also said what was equally important was that this is very symbolic for a lot of the victims of September 11th, the fact that this is happening in lower Manhattan makes a difference here, that it would send a clear signal that justice would be done.

So that was a big decision back then, Kyra. It is a big decision, a big switch if it doesn't happen. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: We'll follow up and see what the decision is. Suzanne, thanks so much.

Meanwhile on the hot seat over Iraq, former British prime minister Tony Blair testifying right now before an independent inquiry in London. He's explaining how Britain got involved with the Iraq war, his relationship with President Bush and the reasons that he felt going to war with Iraq was the right decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY BLAIR, FMR. BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: This isn't about a lie or a conspiracy or a deceit or a deception, it's a decision. And the decision I had to take was given Saddam's history, given his use of chemical weapons, given the over million people whose deaths he called, given 10 years of breaking U.N. resolutions, could we take the risk of this man reconstituting his weapons programs or is that a risk that would be responsible to take?

And I formed the judgment, and it's a judgment in here, it's a decision. I had to take the decision. And I believed and in the end so did the cabinet and so did parliament incidentally, that we were right not to run that risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Blair says that the U.S. and Britain had slightly different views about why a war was necessary. He says the Bush administration favored regime change while the British government was more focused on Iraq's ambitions for weapons of mass destruction.

Ice, whiteouts, pounding rain. We knew it was coming and, boy, it was delivered. The southern plains getting the smack down. 142,000 people without power in Oklahoma, and snow messing with Texas, canceling flights and shutting down roads there. More than a foot of snow in Lubbock and nearly all of i-40 in that state was closed.

Jacqui Jeras, once again, very, very busy.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, yes. Now the storm is trying to pull out of the plains states and it's going to be messing with the mid-south. And you know, we're still focusing in on this i- 40 corridor, in particular where we'll see the worst of the icing conditions. Just north of here is where we're going to see some of the heaviest snowfall accumulations.

And then on the south side of the system we're dealing with some real stormy weather. Not much really in terms of severe storms but some torrential downpours and that's causing some problems at the airport as well. Snowfall accumulations are going to be really heavy in this narrow band. We could see anywhere between six to 12 inches here. And the brunt of the storm kind of focused in on this area for today and over here for tomorrow.

So places like Raleigh-Durham, Richmond, Virginia, as well as Norfolk could start to see some of that heavy snow. And then on the southern tier of all of this here is that's where we're going to see the icing. And accumulations in places like Nashville as well as Memphis are going to be around, maybe a quarter of an inch to half of an inch and that certainly will turn the roadways into ice skating rinks and could cause some power problems but it won't be quite as bad as what they were dealing with in Oklahoma as well as Texas.

So here's the big picture for today. This storm system will continue to be a focus. We'll also watch for flooding across the southeast. In fact, we already have some flood watches posted here for the one to three inches were expected tomorrow. The rest of the country a little more tranquil. Windy conditions in the northeast and could cause some airport delays and travel problems are just starting to get there.

Denver, we've got some fog. Baltimore, over an hour because of the winds and Houston because of those thunderstorms. So more details on this storm and we've got some amazing pictures for you. We also want your I-reports. So send those to us at iReport.com -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Jacqui.

It's not the typical writing that you see on a college bathroom wall. Words serious enough to chase two students away make a whole campus feel edgy and bring in the FBI.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We want to check out what's happening on cnn.com. There's actually section we want to tell you about. It's called news pulse that helps us kind of gauge the most popular stories online right now.

And this is what you're logging on to. The most popular story on the news pulse, Obama, here's $5,000, go hire someone. President Obama, as you know, called last month for a new tax break to spur job creation. Well, critics are blasting him for offering no specifics. You can read more about that right here at cnn.com/newspulse.

Second most popular story right now, best economic growth in six years. And then here's a story that we've been talking a lot about, police believe they found the remains of a lottery winner. You can't make this stuff up. It's like the plot of a mystery novel but it's real life. You'll want to check that out third most popular story on cnn.com.

You can click right on to news pulse and you'll see what others are reading on cnn.com, helping us gauge what you've most interested in reading about. Just go to cnn.com/newspulse. That page updated every 15 minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, you know all kinds of stuff has been written on bathroom walls of college dorms, but at Hocking College, just southeast of Columbus, Ohio, something totally different and chilling. Someone wrote that black students would be killed on February 2nd. A sick prank or a real threat? The school, at least two students and the FBI aren't chancing it.

Steve Wainfor from our affiliate, WCMH takes us to the campus.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE WAINFOR, REPORTER WCMH (voice-over): Tucked away in the rolling hills of Hocking County is the Hocking Technical College. With a student body of just about 6,500, news travels fast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It kind of bothers me a little bit. I'm not a big fan of that kind of thing.

WAINFOR: What is bothering most of the students is an incident at the Hocking Heights Residence Hall. A racial slur was written on the mean's bathroom wall. A lot of students were disturbed by this, while others just said it's part of college life.

WHITNEY BARTON, STUDENT: There's a lot of immaturity around here. I mean, a lot of kids are fresh out of high school. They're just being student.

WAINFOR: Whitney Barton lives in Hocking Heights and says some students have had enough and they're leaving campus.

BARTON: Yes, he just left today because of what's going on. He's going to go to AOU (ph) now.

WAINFOR: The Hocking College administration listened to the students and are in the process of amping up security by having more safety patrols, putting in more surveillance cameras around campus and offering to temporarily move students out of Hocking Heritage Residence Hall. An aggressive plan students feel comfortable with.

BARTON: Yes, it's good that they're stepping up and taking care of it because there would probably be a lot of people very upset if they didn't do anything.

WAINFOR: The Hocking College Police Department is working closely with the FBI during this investigation. As for the students, most feel safe here. With the new safety plan in place, they should feel that way even more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: All right. As we've heard, at least two black students aren't chancing it and they have actually left the school. The university isn't taking this sitting down. We're talking now with Hocking College president Ron Erickson joining us on the phone. Hopefully we'll talk with a student as well.

So President Erickson, first of all, when you heard about this, what was your first reaction and how quickly did you react to these threats?

RON ERICKSON, PRESIDENT, HOCKING COLLEGE (via telephone): Obviously, we were very disappointed and shocked at the nature of the message that happened last and we put an incident team together as quickly as we could to begin to respond.

PHILLIPS: And I understand you've actually brought in a special counselor to deal with this. Could you clarify what that is about?

ERICKSON: Yes. We do have a fine counseling staff already here at Hocking College, but we did want to bring in additional resources for the possibility of an increased demand for their services. So we were able to enlist the participation of counseling faculty from Ohio University, which is our sister institution.

PHILLIPS: So President Erickson, let me ask you, you've got about - I just want to clarify the numbers. You've got about 6,300 students, 400 of whom are African-American, is that right?

ERICKSON: That's what the estimate is, yes.

PHILLIPS: Got it. So Jasmine Saunders, you're joining us on the line now. You are one of the black students that attends that college. Can you tell me, first of all, your reaction to what's happening right now on your campus?

VOICE OF JASMINE SAUNDERS, HOCKING COLLEGE STUDENT: I was actually very surprised. I knew there was always graffiti in our restrooms, I just never thought it would go to this extent. So it very much surprised me considering that it was my first day as a hall director that it happened. So surprising.

PHILLIPS: So do you fear for your safety, Jasmine, as a black student?

SAUNDERS: No, I o not fear for my safety. I believe Hocking College is taking every step measurable to make sure that the situation is taken care of. As soon as they heard about it, they were on it and they were taking care of the situation. If anything happens, it happens, but I believe we'll be able to take care of it within minutes.

PHILLIPS: Well, but how - just the fact that that graffiti was on the wall, the fact that the threats were there to kill these black students, even naming a date of February 2nd, what are race relations like, Jasmine, on that campus? Give us a reality check. Obviously there is some racism that exists, but how prevalent is it?

SAUNDERS: As of right now, everyone is getting along. The past two years I've been here, I feel everything has been OK, everyone has been pretty friendly with me. I haven't seen anything.

I've just heard things from people who said that they have experienced a couple people not wanting to talk to them because they might have been African-American, Hispanic or even some of the black students who don't talk to some of the white students. But it's not really that big of a deal on campus.

PHILLIPS: Not a big deal on campus. President Erickson, are you surprised that this is a mentality that exists, whether it's a small number of people or a larger number of people, just the fact that this 1950s mentality is even hitting your campus?

ERICKSON: Well, surprise, perhaps not. Certainly dismayed. I myself am the parent of biracial children and so even as a parent I've certainly experienced bigotry and prejudice against my own children.

PHILLIPS: Wow.

ERICKSON: But we're certainly taking every possible measure to make sure that this kind of thing does not happen again.

PHILLIPS: Well, it hit us close to the heart too and we hope that we can somehow bring about a message that whoever did, this we'd like to see them caught and held accountable. I know the FBI is now involved.

Jasmine Saunders, thank you so much. Also President Ron Erickson. President Erickson, will you please keep in touch with us and let us know how this goes and if indeed you do find these pretty cowardly people that did what they did.

ERICKSON: We certainly will, thank you.

PHILLIPS: Jasmine, thank you.

SAUNDERS: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Now voices of hope. Victims of the earthquake break out in song, living in the streets but staying incredibly strong. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Bill Gates says that he can save millions of lives and he's putting his money where his mouth is again. Gates and his wife announced their foundation is giving $10 billion for vaccines. That's billion with a b.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL GATES, BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION: We've been spending a lot on vaccines. Even that commitment won't cover all the needs, so we need the governments, both in rich and poor countries, to come along. But millions of lives have been saved with this commitment, over eight million additional lives will be saved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, $10 billion for 8.7 million lives. Seems like a good deal. The plan is to develop and deliver vaccines for things like TB, pneumonia and AIDS.

After more than two weeks of death, injury, hunger, violence, misery, chaos, you name it, pure hell with more to come. So where do Haitians find it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SINGING)

PHILLIPS: Isn't that remarkable? This moment of Zen brought to you by the Haitian people. It was outside a hotel in Port-au-Prince last night. Pretty remarkable stuff.

Top stories. The 9/11 trial could be moving from Manhattan. The Obama administration is now considering it. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has been concerned about trial costs and disruptions there. 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others are facing justice.

The family of Abraham Shakespeare felt it was a tragedy. They say after he won $17 million in a Florida lottery, people started taking advantage of him. Now, nine months after he went missing, police believed they found his remains buried under concrete. A woman who says Shakespeare gave her a million dollars as a gift has been a person of interest in his disappearance.

NASA workers honoring fallen colleagues today. The day of remembrance events being held at the Kennedy Space Center. And some good news for NASA, it's expected to get $6 billion more in the president's new budget, but it's not enough to follow through with moon landing plans.

PHILLIPS: Oh, you've seen all kinds of brick and mortar type of projects funded by the stimulus but there's a more human side. Projects that give people, real people a second chance. That's the case that places like the central city concern in Portland, Oregon. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Today, I'm pleased to announced that we're awarding more than $500 million to 85 centers in more than 30 states and Puerto Rico that are providing critical care to so many folks with nowhere else to turn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They come to us homeless. They come to us addicted. They come to us in mental health crisis with serious physical problems. And what we're looking for is a transformation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am a recovering addict. I have two and a half years clean and sober. I am currently a full-time student working on my bachelor's degree on photography and design.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Half of our staff are former clients themselves and live in our own communities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You had, I had the treatment support. I had the medical support. I had the housing support. I was approached about becoming a member of the administrative directory advisory board and I was voted in. My first experience with the clinic was through the Central City Concerns Recovery Center. And I received acupuncture at the clinic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What acupuncture does is help with withdrawal symptoms. So acupuncture helps people deal with these symptoms in an effective way and we're not using other substances to do it. The other thing we use it for a lot here is pain management.

I've actually been to a bunch of places, and with this, with the treatment center that I went to, I was still in the community.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People who have often been traumatized by the medical system and maybe been made to feel less than worthy all of a sudden are treated with a kind of dignity and respect.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do maintenance, and so it may not sound like much, but like fixing somebody's heater or, you know, a switch in their room, it really - I mean, they're really grateful for it and people took care of me when I came through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Over a 10-year period we're going to save the community, including the hospitals, ambulance, emergency services, about $17 million in costs. But that's $17 million in savings over what it cost to run these programs and build this building.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'd like to be a "National Geographic" photographer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My whole life I've pretty much taken from society, and now I can, you know, be a part of society. It feels good.

(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: And the federal stimulus plan won't win any popularity contests, but there are a few things that many Americans are in favor of. Programs like that, as you saw. So a CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll finds that 70 percent approve of the tax cuts. Nearly three in 10 disapprove. 80 percent give a thumbs up for road and bridge projects. 20 percent give it a thumbs down. And with the nation's unemployment at 10 percent, this may be no surprise. 83 percent say money should be going to people who lost jobs. 17 percent disapprove.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about how your stimulus money is helping or not helping across America. We're going to the local level here, talking with three mayors. The mayor of Laredo, Texas, Raul Salinas, also Mayor James Baker of Wilmington, Delaware and Elkhart, Indiana, Dick Moore joining us. Three cities, three mayors, three stories about your money.

Thanks, guys, for being here.

Mayor Salinas let's start with you just because most recently we did the story about the last little bookstore in Texas. You know, it's been tough. You've had to deal with the literacy problem and then we hear that you're losing your bookstores. Has the stimulus money helped you at all with regard to fighting the illiteracy problem?

MAYOR RAUL SALINAS, LAREDO, TEXAS: Well, while I'm very disappointed what happened with the bookstore in Laredo. We've been working very hard to get petitions. The reason the bookstore was closed was not because of Loredo economy, it was closed because of business decisions with the corporate headquarters.

But we've had a number of petitions, but I don't think that's had an effect. But I am very confident that in the near future that we will have a new bookstore in Laredo because there's a lot of enthusiasm. We're on the border. But maybe we can find a way to maybe get some stimulus money. But what we have done, we received over $209 million and that's going to generate and has generated 700 jobs for us in Laredo.

And that's important because it has a ripple effect. When we got two major projects, one was a mobility program at Quatro Vientos (ph). We also, $48 million for a utility plant, Jefferson Plant in Laredo. Those are creating like 700 jobs, those projects. And that's important because it has a ripple effect on other commercial businesses. So it's very impacting.

We have a very good economy in Laredo. Our unemployment is at 8.6 while other cities along the border, for instance, McAllen is 11.2 unemployment, Brownsville at 10.5 so we have been very, very fortunate and the money that we have received has been very positive because it is stimulating jobs and is helping us for infrastructure purposes. PHILLIPS: OK. What about James Baker, mayor there in Wilmington, what do you think, sir? How much money did you get and is it working for you? Is it giving you jobs?

MAYOR JAMES BAKER, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE: Well, it's helped us, but we're a little different in the sense of the amounts of money that we have received thus far. Ours has been about $22 million. We received money basically in categorical grants. We got CDDB or community development funds, we got neighborhood stabilization funds and we got money to prevent homelessness, and that ranged about $7.2 million.

Then we got $10 million for energy programs, which are dealing with the Honeywell Corporation over a five-year agreement. We're putting in solar, we're putting in LEDs in our lights and doing our water-sewer plant and some other -- municipal complex, we're doing solar.

And then we got about $570,000 for summer youth program, and we got about $4.9 million for -- some of it was for 16 police officers. We did our community development and child development program. We funded that out of some of that money.

And we had another program in there that came out of that money, but essentially we've seen about 200 jobs out of this. But what we really need, and this is just me, I think the money needs to stop going just to the states. It needs to go to the mayors and to the county executives, and we would see...

PHILLIPS: Directly to the cities.

BAKER: Yes. If we see that, I can guarantee you a big boost in jobs and activities.

PHILLIPS: Here's what I find interesting. You know, Mayor Salinas, you got $209 million, Mayor Baker, you got $22. Dick Moore, mayor of Elkhart, Indiana, you got about $41 million. I'm only seeing you guys reporting hundreds of jobs. You would think for millions and millions of dollars, you could create thousands of jobs. I don't know, Mayor Moore, is that just not possible?

MAYOR DICK MOORE, ELKHART, INDIANA: Well, I think there's a misconception about the number of jobs that are created. If you use a factor of $40,000 creates one job, that's erroneous. When you create one job or maintain one job, you most likely create or maintain five jobs and maybe even more.

Whenever we get the money to do a project here in Elhart, Indiana, we have to buy the pieces and parts from places all over this country. And that puts somebody to work building those pieces and parts. Somebody else providing the raw materials for those pieces and parts. Somebody else transporting those pieces and parts. So when you look at it overall, it creates a lot of jobs.

I estimate that our $40 million that we have here in direct and indirect stimulus funding will probably create around 5,000 jobs, and I hope even more.

PHILLIPS: Now, Mayor Moore, Elkhart, Indiana -- the president of the United States, you've hosted him there, right there in your spot. Did he remember you? Did he come through for you?

MOORE: Yes, he did. He certainly does remember us and mentioned us in his State of the Union message as well. Yes, it's been very good.

We -- it's almost mind boggling to think where the money has come from, but I mentioned a little while ago that it's indirect and direct. About $10 million in direct funding coming into our city to do the projects that we need to do.

And you've got to put -- again, you've got to look at it at putting the whole program together. You're creating jobs and you're repairing, maintaining, replacing and even building what the public owns. The highways, the infrastructure, all of these things that most of this money is going into are owned by the general public. So, we're using public money to do the job that we need to do. No fluff and no pork. These are things we'll do with local taxpayers' money if we would not be receiving these funds.

So, it's been a great benefit to us and it will continue to be so. We just have to remember that this is not an Elkhart, Indiana, stimulus program, that there will be some things that will be lagging. The first time -- people that go back to work to get a job through this program will certainly go back to providing for their needs sustained, their essential needs, and it will be some time before they'll be able to have those things that they want.

So, the industries that will recover the quickest will be those that provide the things that we need. And there will be a little bit of a lag to those industries that provide the things that we want, but that will surely come.

PHILLIPS: Mayor Salinas, we report on the Mexican drug cartels and how that's been a huge issue in the state of Texas. Have you been able to feed any of that stimulus money into anti-drug efforts, the cops, anything on that regard there as you deal with things on the border?

MAYOR RAUL SALINAS, LAREDO, TEXAS: Let me tell you first of all as a former FBI agent, spending 27 years of my life as a career FBI agent, I understand the border needs. And they keep talking about -- Washington keeps talking about protecting the border is a priority. I can tell you that we received a few thousand dollars for equipment, but I was disappointed at the same time that we did not receive money for cops to sustain and protect the border.

You know, when people were talking about -- were starting talking about homeland security, I was dealing with hometown security because that's where it starts. We are the first line defense for our nation, and Mayor Moore is absolutely right. We're on the ground. You know, we're doing everything we can to protect our citizens. The border is very important, not only because of the cartels, but because of threats of terrorism.

I am looking forward -- and I know that the administration is trying very hard and hopefully when I was in Washington last week talking to the attorney general, it's important that we get more boots on the ground. If we're serious about security, we need to concentrate those areas that are potential danger to the American people.

PHILLIPS: Mayor Baker, a final word. We'll leave it with you. Listening to what the other mayors had to say, is there a frustrating -- I know you were pretty frustrated with all the cumbersome paperwork when it came to the stimulus money. What else has been challenging, and what else would you like to see?

BAKER: I really enjoyed the president's speech and the things he's talking about in terms of looking at the taxes, in terms of dealing with all of the various issues of unemployment and all of that.

I just think the formula of going to the cities directly and going to the counties directly is a better way of going about it than through the states. That's my only argument. We have cooperation with the state on certain projects that we're doing right now, but we could do things very quickly if we got it directly from the federal government.

I agree with the two mayors in terms of all we're trying to do. We know the country is in a very difficult time, and we can get out of this. We need to work together, and that conservative-liberal fight down there in Washington needs to stop. I think that's idiocy. It doesn't matter what you believe, it really matters what you're trying to do for the betterment of the country.

They have separated themselves from us by constantly -- I watch TV all the time and all you hear are commentaries arguing about what the president said or meant and Republicans and Democrats and conservatives and liberals. Who cares? I want our city to boost up and get going.

PHILLIPS: Absolutely. Forget about the bureaucracy, the debate, the politics. James Baker, Raul Salinas, Dick Moore, you guys are right there working with the people making things happen. It was really great to talk to all three of you. I really appreciate your insight today.

MOORE: Thank you very much.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, gentlemen.

SALINAS: Thank you.

BAKER: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: You bet.

Well, this morning encouraging news on the economy. We like hearing that, right? But here's the question. Is it the light at the end of the tunnel or just the light of an oncoming train?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The economy is just about everyone's number one concern, and what we all want to know is if the recovery is on track. Susan Lisovicz, not quite that simple.

(LAUGHTER)

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, but this is a big report. This is -- Kyra, this is the mother of all economic reports. GDP. We now have two straight quarters of growth, pretty much guaranteeing the recession is over.

Fourth quarter GDP jumped at a faster-than-expected 5.7 percent annual pace. That's the strongest in six years. It comes off of four quarters of decline.

Let's remind you about those dark days. The low point, this recession, the first quarter of 2009 where we saw a decline of nearly 6.5 percent. So, this is huge, Kyra. What helped at the end of the year, businesses restocked their inventories. You may have noticed stores just weren't stocking as much because people weren't buying as much.

Also, exports surged and business spending on equipment grew. Consumer spending, usually the driver behind economic growth, was up only modestly.

But I'll tell you one thing, we are seeing growth here on Wall Street. And it's welcome news, Kyra, because we've seen five triple- digit sell-offs in the last nine sessions, so check it out. The Big Board, the Dow, the NASDAQ, S&P 500, each up about 1 percent, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Let's keep things on an up note. To all our viewers, ladies, gentlemen, everyone that's tuning in now, I just want you if you don't mind to stay with us here for a moment, stop what you're doing. This is Susan Lisovicz's last day with us, and I just want to do a little "This is your life." Let's take a listen for a moment.

(LAUGHTER)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

LISOVICZ (on camera): Could clear the way for Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler lookalikes to light up the screen or possibly the television set once again. But whether today's writers could pull it off with the Southern style and grace of Margaret Mitchell remains to be seen.

Susan Lisovicz, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: And you talk about grace, that is Susan Lisovicz, ladies and gentlemen. Grace, class, smarts. And the moment that I'll never forget -- she was the only reporter on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to track down the president of the United States. Folks, it was called what we like to call a kick-ass moment in television. Let's go ahead and listen to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISOVICZ: Do you think it's warmer than on Capitol Hill right now?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LISOVICZ: Yes, I'll never forget that. I think we went live, Susan Lisovicz, for about ten minutes because nobody here at the network could believe that you were able to work your way through that crowd.

LISOVICZ: It was actually 40 minutes, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Were we live for 40 minutes?

LISOVICZ: Yes. It was all unscripted. You know, I tell you, that photo that we're seeing, that shot went around the world because President Bush was only the second sitting president to visit the New York Stock Exchange. And so there was mayhem on the floor, even more than usual.

And I only recently learned the story here. There was only one photographer on the floor. He was standing on a ladder. Such a great guy. He was calling my name to face the camera so I could have a memento but I was live on the air, I didn't hear him. The president heard him, looked up, waved and that shot was used in countless newspapers around the world. And in fact, yes, it was just...

PHILLIPS: We should point out too, Susan, that's what's been one of the most amazing things about you in all the years that you've been here at CNN. You're not just the gal at the New York Stock Exchange talking about our money. You've covered disasters, hard news, you've done amazing features, you've done it all.

And you're the only one to get the president that day and ask him one of the tough questions when he was getting hammered on Capitol Hill for issues concerning the war.

Bottom line, we are going to miss you, Susan. You're one of the most remarkable women I've ever met here at CNN, and I thank you for making me better at what I do.

LISOVICZ: Oh, I'm a click and a call away for all of you. I really appreciate all the calls, the e-mails.

And just one last thing about the president. That was an unscheduled visit, Kyra, and my sources told me he wasn't going to come unless the market was rallying, and the market rallied that day. And he dropped in and the market is rallying today.

PHILLIPS: And you rallied for us, boy, for 40 minutes on live television. We're going to miss you. We love you.

LISOVICZ: Likewise.

PHILLIPS: You're a great person, Susan Lisovicz. All right.

Well, does Alaska need better broadband service? The Feds think so and we'll have a report from the CNN Stimulus Desk to tell you all about it.

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PHILLIPS: We're going to our Stimulus Desk now. This hour's focus spreading broadband capability across rural Alaska. So, good move or questionable? Josh Levs, what did you find?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is an interesting one. When you take a look at the thousands of projects we've been looking at, there are all sorts that are interesting and doing interesting things for communities. The question for everyone to decide is what's worth stimulus funding and what's not. That's subjective, that's up to you.

What I want to do now is tell you about this one we've learned about in Alaska. This is our screen that's looking at some of the projects we're showing.

We'll zoom into this area of southwest Alaska. In that area, sort of centered around this area called Bristol Bay, it's largely populated by native villages. What you find in those areas is there aren't many roads. There's a lot of things that we and the rest of the country are used to having, and we have some video to show you what the area is kind of like.

One thing they don't have a lot of is very strong Internet access. There is a project I'm going to tell you about that is offering now $88 million that's going to be creating 80 jobs along the way. What they're doing is they're building much faster broadband for that entire area using some of the more advanced technologies.

There's a couple of things going on here. First of all, this is the big screen that has the key numbers for you to look at in this case. It's a project that's $88 million creating just for doing that 80 jobs in the process. But Kyra, what they're telling us is that they believe it will ultimately create more jobs in sort of a trickle effect, right? If you get more people in these areas that don't have access to the Internet or very fast access to Internet available right now, then they will be able to start doing other kinds of jobs. They say it will ultimately link together 9,000 households, two hospitals, 63 village clinics, 72 schools and they believe that the ultimate effects of that will be bigger.

So, one of the things that we're taking a look at among the many projects, and again that's $88 million, and this is where we are at in our total. Keep in mind the entire bill for the stimulus is now $862 billion. We've now, Kyra, looked at about 10 percent of it. The total dollar figure that's under review by CNN. We have now looked, Kyra, at $8.3 billion of that stimulus, where it's going. We have examples all over the country.

In fact, let's see if we can get back -- can we get back to the full map of the country with the green and yellow dots? That's going to show you some of the projects we have been looking at throughout this week and a lot more to go throughout today. Kyra, back to you.

PHILLIPS: Josh, thanks.

A pet in a precarious position. A dog stuck on an ice flow in the middle of the Baltic Sea. We don't know how he got on, but we're going to show you how he got off.

I'm CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras. Speaking of winter weather, we'll have the latest on the ice and snow in the Plains and tell you what the storm is going to do to your weekend plans. That's coming up with your forecast.

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PHILLIPS: Talk about one lucky dog. Somehow this guy ended up on an ice flow. Where do I go, where do I go? He went on a 75-mile journey before being rescued. A Polish research ship in the Baltic Sea saw the little thing wagging its tail and they saved him. The crew lowered a pontoon and grabbed him. A vet checked out the dog. Believe it or not, surprisingly, this little guy is in good condition. Nicknamed Baltic by the crew, he's now become the ship's mascot.

Let's talk about that swift kick of winter right in the nation's midsection. Oklahoma on ice and in the dark right now. Emily Woods right there in the thick of it, too. She joins us once again. She's with our affiliate KWTV. Hopefully not slipping on that ice as much as you were an hour ago, Emily.

EMILY WOODS, KWTV CORRESPONDENT: It's getting a little better, Kyra, because now we have a ton of snow covering the ice, but it's not better for motorists. Let me show you the types of conditions motorists are driving on here in Oklahoma City right now.

This is what one of the good streets looks like. A solid layer of ice now covered with a solid layer of snow. We're right off Interstate 44 here in Oklahoma City. You can see there are still some cars out this morning trying to make it through town, make it to work, wherever they may need to be.

But the Oklahoma Department of Transportation this morning issuing a statement and asking people please stay home if you don't need to be out, it's really that bad for us. We have city trucks and state trucks out working and spreading salt and sand, but they just can't match these conditions that we're dealing with here in Oklahoma City. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Emily Woods. Appreciate it, Emily

Jacqui Jeras, how soon could it get better? Is it going to get worse? What can we tell Emily?

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Okay, Jacqui, thanks so much.

More right after the break. Stay with us.

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PHILLIPS: Top stories today.

President Obama unveiling his new plan to create jobs, and he's doing it in a city that's struggling with an 11 percent unemployment rate. Baltimore, Maryland. The president will propose several tax- cutting initiatives, including one that gives businesses a $5,000 tax credit for every new employee hired this year.

Toyota reportedly found a fix for the safety problem that forced it to recall millions of cars. The "Wall Street Journal" reports that Toyota has designed a spacer that would be inserted into the gas pedal to prevent it from sticking. The device is reportedly awaiting government approval.

The man who confessed to killing a Kansas abortion doctor may soon know his fate. Closing arguments begin today in the murder trial of Scott Roeder. He admitted to gunning down Dr. George Tiller last May, but Roeder says the killing was necessary to save unborn children. The jury is expected to get that case later today.

That does it for us. We hope you have a great weekend. But hey, the day is not over yet. My main guy, Tony Harris, picking it up from here. Are you ready, Tony? It's Friday.