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The Fix is In; Pentagon's New Direction; Paying for the Promises; American Arrested in Haiti.
Aired February 01, 2010 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips. Good morning, Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, you guys. And thanks for starting your February off with us, 9:00 in the east, 6:00 in the west. Let's get you caught up on the news right now.
Haiti's children of disaster. Americans trying to give them a new life. Others saying wait, these kids still have a life in Haiti.
Powerless. Frozen. Parts of the southern plains would sure like to see the stuff melt. Spring might seem like it's an eternity away.
And imagine taking your daughter to see the doctor only to learn he has a lot more than a medical degree in his past. He's also got a rap sheet as a violent sex offender. How on earth does that happen?
And we are beginning with Toyota's putting the pedal to the metal with a fix for those sticky accelerators.
Deb Feyerick's all over it. Going to tell you when you might hear from the company and how long that fix is going to take.
Then Barbara Starr is going to fill us in on a big change at the Pentagon. The way America fights wars, getting a strategic makeover.
And it's budget day in D.C. Hurray. We promised it won't you to sleep. We're going to tell you how the $3.8 trillion plan is going to affect you.
Well, it's about time. The parts are on the way. So what took so long? Toyota now says that dealers should have them pretty soon so they can start fixing those gas peddles on millions of recalled cars.
CNN's Deborah Feyerick live for us in New York this morning.
So Deb, how exactly is Toyota trying to fix the problem now?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're trying to fix the problem by putting in a new part. And I spoke to the head of U.S. sales just this morning. He said that the parts are on their way. They should be arriving at dealerships any time between today or tomorrow, but certainly by the end of the week. Now the big headline, of course, is that after 12 days the car giant knows why the accelerator pedals are sticking and they can now fix them, and that's good news, of course, for some 2.3 millions affected car owners.
An hour ago, Toyota released a video on YouTube -- it was a little more than an hour ago actually -- with a statement by the head of sales for Toyota in the U.S. It was his first public comment since the recall 12 days ago.
Toyota says the problem stems from a friction device from the gas pedal. And that's what gives you the sort of steady drive. But in some cars over time, Toyota says, the materials used, the wear and tear and environmental conditions cause the pedals to stick rather than release smoothly.
Now when there's too much friction, the pedal doesn't return as quickly as it's supposed to, or in the worse cases it sticks and the car doesn't slow down, instead it accelerates unexpectedly.
Now Toyota says it has created what's called a precision cut steel reinforcement bars. It's not too big. It's about this big. It's going to be installed in the gas pedal assembly. They say it will reduce the surface tension and eliminate that friction.
Now according to Toyota engineers have rigorously tested this new part which is being shift to dealers along with directions on how install it. Toyota says the dealers plan to stay open late to fix the problem affecting more than two million cars. That includes popular models like Camry, the RAV 4 SUV.
What's more, cars with this problem will not be manufactured this week. Toyota planning to fix the accelerator pedal so that once cars do roll off the assembly line, they don't end up right back where they started.
So Kyra, when you think about it, though, the number of hours that it's going to take to fix this, takes about 30 minutes to install this new device. So basically, think about it, about a million hours and more just to fix the problem. Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Deb Feyerick, putting it into perspective for us. Thanks so much.
And of course Toyota owners want to know two things -- when can they get them fixed and what took so long. Well, Toyota's U.S. president had some answers on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." Here you go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIM LENTZ, PRES., TOYOTA MOTOR SALES USA, INC.: From the time we stopped the sale of our product, announced the recall, stopped the sale of our product, and actually did something unprecedented by stopping the manufacturing of the product, so that we could insure that we had a supply of parts, all of our resources, moving towards taking care of customers as rapidly as possible. To us, what's most important right now is making sure that customers understand we have the fix and that we're going to take care of their cars as quickly as we possibly can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: All right, so how quick is that? Well, Lentz says that dealers should be getting the new parts this week. We'll follow it for you.
A missile test aimed at Iran. Well, not physically aimed at them. More intended to mess with their minds. But the intercept test missed its target. That missile test is just one act aimed at ramping up pressure on Iran.
General David Petraeus has talked about sending more ships into the Persian Gulf. There's also talk of sending more arms into the area. Major change for the military is on its way, stepping away from the old two-war strategy. It worked for a quarter century.
CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, with more. Barbara?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Kyra. You know, you talked a minute ago about it being budget day in Washington. It's not going to put you to sleep when you consider that the defense budget that will go to Capitol Hill today, $700 billion, and it will indeed be spent differently, because backing up that number is a new military strategy.
Not so much worried about those old two wars, one big conflict in the Middle East, another big conflict in Asia. Now very much worried about emerging threats, cyber wars, cyber attacks, terrorism. Even the threat posed by global warming, which can lead to water shortages which can lead conflict. And humanitarian relief.
Look what is going on in Haiti right now. The U.S. has some 20,000 troops committed to that relief effort. It's not a war, of course, but it's a war to save people, it's a humanitarian war.
So these are the kinds of things the Pentagon says it needs to start focusing on, even while they worry about Iran, even while they do all those missile tests. A lot of focus now on looking ahead at what they call this new emerging threats, and how do you deal with all of them at once. A tough challenge -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, in light of the president's speech last week, Pentagon also getting ready for the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" hearing tomorrow. Could we see changes?
STARR: You bet. Absolutely. We've learned that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, in fact, later this morning calling the chiefs into his office here in the Pentagon, closing the door and saying we will support the president's plan to support repeal the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" laws which of course prohibits gays from openly serving in the military. We know the chiefs have a lot of concerns about it. They're worried it'll be disruptive to the force, in their view. But stay tuned. Tomorrow morning, Capitol Hill, again, the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mullen and Defense Secretary Gates will go before the committee and have an hour of questioning about the plan to repeal the law and the way ahead. How to make it all work.
The bottom line, Kyra, is the chiefs, no matter what, will salute smartly, say they support the president, and try and figure out a way to make it work. Kyra?
PHILLIPS: All right. We'll follow up. Barbara, thanks so much.
Plus appearing more likely like the Obama White House will bend to local outrage then move the terror trials out of Manhattan. They say that no decision has been made on where to try self-proclaimed mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or four other Guantanamo detainees.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID AXELROD, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: The president believes that we need to take into consideration what the local authorities are saying. But he also believes this. He believes that we ought to bring Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and all others who are involved in terrorist acts to justice, swift and sure, in the American justice system.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: What we need to do is deny these people a show trial. We need to proceed to interrogate them which we couldn't do -- obviously with the Christmas bomber. I mean, Larry King would have a more thorough interrogation of one of his witnesses than the Christmas bomber had. The Justice Department -- this is really dangerous nonsense.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Residents near the federal courthouse in Lower Manhattan say that the area has suffered enough and should not have to deal with the logistical and emotional nightmare of a trial.
Among the possible sites, prisons and military bases, even the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
So who gets what? The president unveils his budget next hour. The copies are already on Capital Hill and nearly $4 trillion is what we're talking about. And you're probably asking, why should you care?
Well, remember all those promises in the State of the Union speech? Now we'll know how exactly they'll be paid for.
CNN's senior congressional correspondent, Dana Bash, live on Capitol Hill this morning.
So, Dana, you're actually going through everything, line by line, is that true?
(LAUGHTER)
DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Well, look, this is just one book of several that just arrived on Capitol Hill. But I want to show you where I am.
This is the House Budget Committee room. And this is where the president's budget director will come tomorrow for his first hearing and he'll face lawmakers and try to discuss and explain all of what is in here and what the president's priorities are.
But I have something pretty cool for you. We take you behind the scenes. We are going to take you behind the curtain, literally. Come with me, just going to put this down. Come with me and I'll show you what's going on here in the House Budget Committee room.
We have Democratic staff and the chairman himself, the House Budget chairman, going through, as you said, line by line. They just received the budget. They are going through it line by line to see exactly what's in it.
This is what you all do and what they do every year when they get the president's budget, no matter who the president is.
Now I want to come over and actually talk to the chairman, Mr. Spratt.
Mr. Spratt...
REP. JOHN SPRATT (D), SOUTH CAROLINA: Good morning.
BASH: Good morning.
SPRATT: I am not getting up.
BASH: No, please. Please have a seat. You have a lot of work to do here. Now I was trying to explain this to our viewers earlier that obviously this is the president's budget, it's his priorities, but it's you all in Congress who have the power of the purse. So what is your job here?
SPRATT: Since 1921. Since 1921, the president has the power, formal power, to propose a budget to Congress. But from (INAUDIBLE), Congress has held the purse string. We are the ones who really rode and provide the budget based upon what the president requested.
BASH: So just because the president is asking for specific things in here -- increases in education spending or maybe more difficult things like spending freeze -- doesn't mean he's necessarily get it.
SPRATT: We pass judgment on all of the president's proposals.
BASH: Now, let me just ask you real quick about the spending freeze. As you know, it's pretty controversial with the Democratic Party. There are some Democratic lawmakers who say it's the wrong thing to do. That they're philosophically opposed to freezing spending at a time of economic crisis.
How are you going to handle that?
SPRATT: Well, it's one thing we can do to begin bringing the deficit down. We are looking for two things here. We want to see the economy and jobs going up and the deficit coming down.
And with respect to the deficit coming down, we need to be able to say to the Congress, to the American public, into the financial markets, all, we are -- we have a plan in place to gradually work down the deficit. And in fact you see the effects of it in the president's budget and want to see and put the same affects in the budget that we report to the House.
BASH: Thank you very much. Thank you for letting us in behind the curtain here literally. Thank you, everybody.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We wanted to give you an education.
BASH: All right. All right. That sounds like a good education.
And Kyra, so this is what's going on here now that the president's budget is here at the Capitol. This goes on here, as I said, every year. It is a lot of work and it is...
PHILLIPS: But we never get this inside look. I love it.
BASH: I know.
(CROSSTALK)
PHILLIPS: You went behind curtain number one. There is only one curtain.
BASH: Exactly. Curtain number two, that's for a different time.
PHILLIPS: Exactly.
BASH: These aides behind me that are really looking through this, and they're going to help brief other members of the committee and other members of Congress on exactly line by line what the president is really asking for in this budget -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Great stuff. Thanks, Dana.
All right, budget director Peter Orszag says that the budge will help bring down the deficit while boosting jobs. Well, that was the talk right there in the budget committee room there with Dana Bash.
It's a tall order. And a big part of the plan is the $100 billion jobs bill. Well, he talked about it earlier today on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING." Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PETER ORSZAG, DIR., OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET: It will include a variety of things, for example. The new jobs and wages tax credit that president spoke about which help spur job creation among small businesses would be included within that $100 billion. That's about a third of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: All right. We want more details. As we said, President Obama is going to be talking about this new budget, 10:45 a.m. Eastern Time. You can see it live right here in the next hour.
Were they doing the work of Jesus, helping Haiti's orphaned children or profiting from the hardship? Ten Americans now charged with child trafficking. We're going to tell you what they face.
ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center. A rough week last week for the central part of the country, and the mid-Atlantic. Now all attention shifts to the southeast for potential flooding.
Weather is coming up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, they say that they were doing the work of God and wanted to help the orphans of Haiti. Now 10 Americans in Haiti could go before a judge today.
Haitian officials accuse them of being child traffickers. The Americans from an Idaho-base charity. They were arrested Saturday at the border with the Dominican Republic.
CNN's Karl Penhaul is in Port-au-Prince with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They say they were answering Jesus' call. Now these American Baptists stand accused of trafficking 33 Haitian babies and children.
The Americans denied the charges and say they believed the kids were orphaned or abandoned. But some were not orphans at all and were trying to go home to their parents.
Haitian authorities and aid workers say Haitians police allowed the Americans out of their jail cells to talk to CNN.
LAURA SILSBY, NEW LIFE CHILDREN'S REFUGE: Now we believe that we've been charged very falsely with trafficking, which of course that is the furthest possible extreme because, I mean, our whole hearts here, we literally all gave up, you know, everything we had to -- I mean, income and use of our own funds to come here to help these children.
CARLA THOMPSON, NEW LIFE CHILDREN'S REFUGE: God is the one who called us to come here. And we just -- we just really believe that this was his purpose.
PENHAUL: Team leader Silsby admitted the children had no documents, no passports nor official permission to leave.
SILSBY: They really didn't have any paperwork. And my -- this is again probably a misunderstanding on my part, but I did not understand that that would need -- that would really need to be required.
PENHAUL: The children between two months and 12 years old have been temporarily housed here at SOS Children's Village by an Austrian charity in Port-au-Prince. Spokesman George Willeit said initial investigation show at least 10 of the youngsters have at least one surviving parent. He's now responsible for trying to reunite the families.
GEORGE WILLEIT, SOS CHILDREN'S VILLAGE: Some of them for sure are not orphans. Because immediately as she arrived here, the other girl, she might be 9 years old, was crying loud, I am not an orphan, I do have my parents. Please call my parents.
PENHAUL: We met 10-year-old Benatine Poulime. She'd been on the Baptist bus and was clearly frightened. She gave us the phone number of her mom Adriane Poulime. In a brief conversation, the woman said she'd agreed to hand over her only daughter to the Americans and said she believed her child would be schooled and be well-cared for.
"I said that I wanted to be off the bus but they told me I had to stay. I was crying. I said I wanted to go to my mom," she says.
(On camera): At least 10 of the children have either a mother or a father. And they have the phone numbers of their mothers and fathers.
SILSBY: OK. I can tell you our heart and our intent was to help only those children that needed us most. That they had lost either both mother and father, or had lost, you know, one of their parents and the other parent had abandoned them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, the law in one city wonders if it has an underground fight club on its hands. And when I say underground I mean in the garage with the doors shut. Disturbing video that turned up, where else? On YouTube. And it's raised all kinds of red flags.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking top stories now.
A female suicide bomber killed at least 40 people, injuring more than 100 others in northeastern Baghdad. That target Shiite Muslim pilgrims planning to mark a holy day. There have been several attacks on Shiite pilgrims in the past few days.
Police in California bracing for a possible crime spike. California plans to release as many as 6,500 state inmates within the next 12 months. A new law aimed at cutting expenses allows for early release.
The state says sex offenders, gang members, murderers or other violent criminals are not eligible for early release. Already more than 138 inmates have been released within the last week.
Marking a milestone. Say happy birthday to Frank Buckles. He turns 109 today. Buckles is last surviving American World War I vet. He was a 16-year-old ambulance driver in that war. And this footnote, Buckles was working in the Philippines during the outbreak of World War II. He spent 3 1/2 years as a prisoner of the Japanese.
All right. We're going to check our severe weather across the country. Rob Marciano joining us right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: First day of spring when -- spring is, what? March 20th? Yes, that seems like an eternity from now if you live in the southern plains, but if you're in Oklahoma you could be looking at freezing fog this morning to go along with the ice that'
Storm and ice storm is blamed for the seven deaths there. Thousands of people still don't have power.
And the Midwest and the east aren't exactly getting off easy. So what's happening out there?
Rob Marciano at -- you know, Rob, I don't mean to throw you for a loop. I just got an e-mail from my parents in San Diego saying they just felt a small earthquake.
So have you seen that yet by chance?
MARCIANO: I haven't seen that pop up on our list.
PHILLIPS: OK.
MARCIANO: But we'll get on that. Angela, if you could check out the...
PHILLIPS: There we go. Angela, check out earthquake in Southern California...
MARCIANO: Angela, get on the USGS and we'll -- you know. They get them. No doubt about that.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MARCIANO: Angela, USGS site? How are we doing? Yes. What the -- the magnitude? She says we got one. 4.8. So that is enough to shake mom and dad.
PHILLIPS: Wow.
MARCIANO: And we apologize for that.
PHILLIPS: OK.
MARCIANO: But I think...
PHILLIPS: No. That's all right. So we have 4.8. Angela, thank you so much. I love -- yes, she's giving me the wave. You're the gal. I love it.
There we go. It's happening as it unfolds. So 4.8. The question is how big is that? How much damage could that have done. I'm trying to, you know, maybe we'd get my parents up here for a live report. They can help you.
(LAUGHTER)
MARCIANO: Yes. Let's put them to work.
PHILLIPS: Put them work.
MARCIANO: I mean, you know, ordering off the menu here already.
PHILLIPS: Yes, exactly. All right, let me know if you find out anything more. Thank you.
MARCIANO: All right, you bet.
PHILLIPS: And thanks, Angela.
(LAUGHTER)
Well, we're going to go to Washington now where we're awaiting President Obama to discuss his proposed budget, nearly $4 trillion worth with plenty of deficit.
We're going to bring that to you live as it happens next hour right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
And a desperate plea of help from a British couple held by pirates in Somalia. We're going to tell you what they told a reporter.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, stocks fell last week and the Dow barely held above the 10,000 mark. Wall Street is ready to rebound today.
Stephanie Elam is at the New York Stock Exchange with a preview of the trading day as the opening bell is rung.
Hi, Steph.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kyra.
Yes, it's a new day; it's a new week; it's a new month, and a lot of people are saying thank goodness for that because Wall Street is coming off its worst month in nearly a year with the S&P 500 falling nearly 4 percent, but today, we're expecting a higher open. Thanks to some upbeat earnings and economic reports, and we are higher right now.
Personal incomes rose last month more than expected as with the income at world's largely publicly traded company, that will be Exxon Mobil. They made more than $19 billion last year. No doubt, when you hear a number like that, you think that's a giant, really large number, but that's not really so much the case for Exxon. Remember, this is the company that earned a record-breaking $45 billion in 2008. Exxon's fourth quarter earnings did drop by 23 percent, still ahead of expectations.
Exxon shares are moving higher by about 2 percent today. Also, Kyra, you're talking about this earlier, Toyota. They shares are finally getting a boost. The automaker says it has a plan to fix the sticky gas peddles which led to the recall of more than 2 million vehicles in the U.S. Toyota shares are up nearly 2 percent, and they are moving higher as this obviously is a big news for them. They fell in 14 percent since the recall was announced more than a week ago.
So, let's go ahead and show you these early numbers here as we get the week, month, day, up here at the DOW up 62 points, 10,131 there you can see; NASDAQ higher by nine points at 2,156; the S&P 500 is higher now as well, Kyra, so hopefully if there is some magic in the world, it will stay this way by the time we get to the close. We saw that last week, but we would start off higher but would not make it to the close, so let's see.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thank you, Steph.
But putting more Americans to work is that job one for President Obama. He emphasized that priority in the State of the Union speech and underlines it next hour when he formally unveils his proposed budget, but can he deliver for the millions of Americans who desperately need a paycheck. Christine Romans and the CNN money team have this memo to the President.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mr. President, you've now put jobs front and center.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010.
ROMANS: But can you really create jobs, and how?
OBAMA: Hey, guys.
ROMANS: In December, you visited this career-training center in Pennsylvania's Lee-High Valley. As the same center today, former marine, Barry Hessinger, is hoping he training will help him find new work after losing his job in carpentry.
BARRY HESSINGER, STUDENT: We were building more houses than we could handle three years ago, and just -- within a couple months, it totally died down.
ROMANS: Barry's job is just one of 7.2 million lost in this recession. That's a lot of people out of work. It could take years to recover from the loss. Mr. President, where do you begin?
OBAMA: We should start where most new jobs do, in small businesses. We can put Americans to work today, building the infrastructure of tomorrow. We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities.
ROMANS: But some critics think those jobs won't come fast enough.
PETER MORICI, ECONOMIST, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: The President is not making sense when he pitches green jobs or sending mothers back to college. Quite simply, that's the economy in the future. In the here and now, we need to bring back a lot of the jobs that were lost during the recession.
ROMANS: When you took office, Mr. President, the economy was losing on average close to $700,000 jobs a month. Sure, that's slowed down, but unemployment has jumped to 10 percent, and the unemployed are getting frustrated.
DIANE SWONK, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MESIROW FINANCIAL: One of the biggest worries we have right now is not only generating enough jobs to lower the inflation (ph) rate which is going to be difficult, but also re-engaging those people who have been already unemployed for more than six months.
ROMANS: Think of it, nearly 40 percent of the unemployed have been out of work for more than six months, and only about 58 percent of the entire adult population is even working right now. That's the lowest level since the early 1980s. You say help is on the way, Mr. President, but Americans need jobs now. That's why Barry Hessinger has given up on construction and has gone back to school for physical therapy. He is getting free tuition funded by the stimulus package you signed last year.
HESSINGER: It feels good to finally get into a career where I think that I will be working every day.
ROMANS: Mr. President you called on Congress to come together on a jobs bill, and you have said you wanted it on your desk right away. Americans are waiting, and many cannot afford to wait much longer.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Christine Romans joining us live from New York. Can't wait very much longer, Christine.
ROMANS: No, they really cannot. You know, employers, Kyra, are starting to hire some temporary workers, and that's often a first step the companies are just beginning to see the economy get better, but you're going to hear a lot about perm lancers, permanent freelancers. Companies that have these huge pool of people that choose that opt to put them on full-time. They don't pay their benefits. They don't have to give them job security because we are all just so eager to get the job, right?
Also consider this, Kyra, we did this math. If the economy creates 200,000 jobs a month consistently, it would take until the year 2016 to get everyone back to work who lost a job in the recession and to absorb the new workers who every months are coming into the workforce. Last month, the economy lost 85,000 job, so we haven't gotten there yet. When we do finally get jobs growth, we're going to need to have it for a period of years before we can eat through this overhang for all of these workers looking for work, so it's a tall order still, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Tall order for us too keeping up on everything. Thanks, Christine.
ROMANS: Sure.
PHILLIPS: Here at CNN, we have been following the stimulus money to see how your tax dollars are being spent. Today, we are crunching the numbers on the latest claim from the White House. That 600,000 jobs were created by stimulus dollars just in the final three months of 2009.
Josh Levs once again the stimulus desk. Yes, it's not gone away. We are keeping it going. Try and break it down for us.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we will be here all week here, and I'll do my best to break it down for you right now, because we all know what they say about -- let me do this, I'm going to start off with that big figure, the 600,000 figure that you keep hearing, and there you go, here it is, right here, so this is the figure that recovery.gov is reporting right now and that the White House is pointing to. What' they're saying is that in the fourth quarter of 2009, basically 600,000, so 599,108 jobs were funded by the stimulus.
We can need yourself and think about what that means. That's the figure for the fourth quarter of 2009, but let's just skip to the three months, because I want to break down for you what that actually means in terms of how the jobs came about. This is it right here. These jobs were funded, not necessarily created or saved. Let me explain to you how this work. What the White House asked groups to do out there, all these agencies out there that got stimulus funding were asked to report how many jobs were funded in that quarter by the stimulus money.
But these agencies did not have to say we would never have these people otherwise if it was not for this money. All they had to say was they used the money to fund these jobs. Now, it's quite possible that they wouldn't have been able to hire these people otherwise or hold on to them because they didn't have to say that. They only have to say it was funded.
A spokesman for the White House joined us in the newsroom last night, and he said in terms of getting some people back to work, clearly the stimulus can be called a success. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JARED BERNSTEIN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, V.P. BIDEN'S OFFICE: The act is having its intended effect, creating and saving jobs across this country for teachers, for cops, for construction workers, and making some key investments in the President's top priorities for the future, talking about clean energy, education, health care, and etc.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: As you can imagine, Kyra, a lot of Republicans are not necessarily agreeing with the White House on that. What you are seeing a lot of them pointing to, first of all, is this figure right here. That unemployment in America remains at 10 percent. A lot of them saying, look if this $862 billion package were really having a major difference in terms of job, we wouldn't still see the figure at 10 percent in terms of unemployment.
You also hear specific complaints about some of the President's plans. His cap and trade plan, they he is not doing enough for small businesses. They complain that he is expanding the size of government and should be using money in other ways. One of the top Republicans, John Boehner talks about this yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), MINORITY LEADER: The policies that are coming out of this administration have caused us to lose more jobs, so we have to change those job-killing policies if we expect the economy to get going again and put Americans back to work. (END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: So, you all know, my favorite thing is to be able to look at claims and give you really hard, concrete answer. The fact is, in this case, you are dealing with hypotheticals. What would happen if we had not have this plan, if instead this maybe this government money was spent elsewhere, would it have created even more jobs? That one never know.
But those are the figures that we can give you up to this point so far, Kyra, in terms of what the folks out there are reporting they are doing with that stimulus money.
PHILLIPS: All right, Josh, and what part of story you following that today for us?
LEVS: Yes, we got a lot of breaking down for you today. I'm going to talk to you next hour -- this is an interesting one. It's about the project that's helping the people who are helping the unemployed. We will show you how much money went into that and how many jobs it has created so far, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Sounds good. Thanks, Josh.
LEVS: You got it, thanks. PHILLIPS: First commandment for reporters cover the news -- don't make it. We're going to tell you when, where and why the pilot of this plane did just that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Top stories this hour.
The fix is in. Toyota Motors announcing this morning its plan to address the more than 2 million vehicles in the U.S. with faulty accelerator pedals. The company says replacement parts are already being shipped to dealers. They will stay open longer, their hours, rather, to try and correct the problem for the customers.
Rush hour traffic taking a strange turn this morning on the New Jersey turnpike. The pilot of a single engine plane making an emergency landing on the north bound lanes near Cherry Hill at Philadelphia suburb. Ironically, the plane was flying to help provide traffic reports for Philly media out let's. Nobody was hurt.
Civil right icon and founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Dr. Joseph Lowery in the hospital in Atlanta this morning. An 88-year-old minister was admitted over the weekend for difficulty breathing. Friends say Dr. Lowery is in the intensive care unit as a precaution, but his condition is not serious. Last August, President Obama honored Dr. Lowery with the presidential medal of freedom.
And we stay in history, seven years ago today, a horrible scene playing out in the skies over Texas. Seven astronauts died when space shuttle "Columbia" broke up on re-entry. Remember the cause of that accident, a piece of foam installation broke up during launch, and that damage the ThermoTile coating on one of the shuttle's wings.
And 50 years ago today, Greensboro, North Carolina, four African- American college students stood up for justice by sitting down at the counter at the Whites Only Lunch counter (ph) at Woolworth's. There's no turning back after that. And what was the affect of that today? We're going to talk about that next hour with some very special guests.
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PHILLIPS: A desperate plea for help. A British couple high jacks off Eastern Africa in October are pleading with their government. They've told an interview that they were within days of being executed by the pirates who boarded their small yacht. Rachel Chandler (ph) has been separated from her husband Paul and is asking for him.
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RACHEL CHANDLER, HELD HOSTAGE IN SOMALIA: As I said before, I need to be with Paul. it's -- we are husband and wife.
UNKNOWN MALE: Yes. CHANDLER: And we have always been together. We look after one another. We are now -- I am 55. I am 56 years old, sir. My husband is 60 years old. We are not young people.
UNKNOWN MALE: Correct.
CHANDLER: And these people are treating us so cruelly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The pirates are asking for ransom or a swap of other pirates for the British couple.
A strategy shift for Afghanistan, NATO nations feeling energized by last week's conference in London. Our, Frederik Pleitgen joining us now live from Kabul, Afghanistan. So Fred, what are we hearing about these major changes in NATOs strategy? What exactly are we talking about?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The interesting thing that's happened now is that since the London conference, America has been able to persuade its NATO allies here in Afghanistan to take more risks. What you've been seeing in the past is you've been seeing American soldiers and British soldiers get a lot more out of their armored vehicles, partner with the Afghan forces go into battle with the Afghan forces.
Whereas other NATO nations here in Afghanistan have been doing much less; they've been staying inside their armored vehicles and not mingling with the local population, training Afghan forces only inside secure bases and not going into battle with these Afghan forces.
What's happened since the London conference is that nations like Germany for instance which has a very big fighting force here in Afghanistan -- about 5,000 soldiers on the ground -- have said they now want to do what General McChrystal wants them to do. They want to go into the field, they want to battle together with the Afghan forces.
And one thing that I'm hearing from a lot of NATO allies and also from the U.S. is that never before in Afghanistan has NATO had such a coherent strategy, which basically all nations here have latched on to. So certainly that is something that's a very positive sign for General McChrystal, for the U.S. Forces and something where a lot of NATO countries say they believe right now this is a window where they might be able to achieve serious progress here in this country.
PHILLIPS: So Fred, how will NATO soldiers on the ground actually change their specific missions?
PLEITGEN: Well, basically what's going to happen is that a lot of the soldiers right now have been going on patrol alone, they'll be doing that with Afghan forces which really -- what's going to happen is that they're going to be living with the Afghan soldiers, they're going to be mentoring these Afghan soldiers in battle. That's something that -- to the extent that it's going to be happening right now -- has not happened in this country before. The thing that NATO believes is going to happen because of this is that the Afghans are going to get up to speed a lot faster. They'll be able to take over security a lot faster. And also it's going to give NATO and its allies a whole lot bigger presence here in this country. Because what's been going on in the past is that in many cases, NATO soldiers have gone into areas, cleared those areas and then the Taliban have come right back as the NATO soldiers withdrew.
Now, as the Afghan forces are able to pick up speed quicker, partner with American and other NATO allies they'll be able to stay in those areas and keep those secure, they hope, in the long run.
PHILLIPS: All right, Fred Pleitgen, live from Kabul. Thanks, Fred.
Life is a beach -- huh? You couldn't tell by looking at Virginia Beach? About nine inches of snow on the ground there, it looks like it's not going anywhere either, not anytime soon thanks to those cold temps. And yes, winter is not going anywhere; the East Coast and Midwest as about as cozy as a giant meat locker.
Rob Marciano, show us you're maps.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You got it. Hey listen, now you put me on the spot from the last broadcast because your parents called in with breaking news.
PHILLIPS: Oh yes, the earthquake.
MARCIANO: The U.S. yes doesn't typically send out any information until they have better data to have one of the experts take a look at it and we've got about a -- and it was pretty good actually about -- about a ten-minute delay with these quake that your folks felt.
All right. San Diego, Tijuana, about 60 miles southwest of Tijuana, a 5.0 magnitude quake. So a decent one, a light shaking felt around the Mexico and California border including parts of San Diego. Pretty shallow at about three and a half miles deep, but a 5.0 not necessarily strong enough to do a tremendous amount of damage, at least, being this far offshore. So, anyway, southern California residents, something that they wake up to on a semi-regular basis; but clearly with the recent news across the Caribbean, any sort of shaking felt anywhere near the U.S. is a wakeup call, no doubt.
All right, you're waking up to some morning fog. And some of it freezing across parts of Oklahoma and in through northern Texas. But temperatures will be slowly rising above the freezing mark as we go through the next few hours.
Looking at the showers and thunderstorms rolling through parts of Florida and that will be the case today and really through the rest of the week. This is the outlook for the month of February and the southern tier with the strongest El Nino type of set up, looking for above-average temperatures -- above average rainfall across parts of southern California and also into the Gulf Coast.
Guess what tomorrow is, Kyra?
PHILLIPS: What is tomorrow?
MARCIANO: It's Groundhog Day. Come on now.
PHILLIPS: Oh, are we doing the Punxsutawney Phil is that right. We're going to take a live shot, it's going to come out and tell us what the deal is.
MARCIANO: Exactly, and it's probably going to be cloudy. This is what happened the last couples of years 2006, there was a -- as he saw a shadow so but winter continued. No shadow in 2007, so they had an early spring. Anyway, long story short, he doesn't do too well as far as predicting the weather is concerned.
PHILLIPS: So should we listen to him?
MARCIANO: Well, it's a tradition...
PHILLIPS: Ok.
MARCIANO: ...you know, pomp and circumstance...
PHILLIPS: Even though he's usually wrong we just take it for the sake of the great...
MARCIANO: I'll tell you this, our friends at PETA are making a bit of stink this year so...
PHILLIPS: I heard they want to swap him out for a robot or something.
MARCIANO: Yes, yes, well, they think that he's getting tortured in some capacity.
PHILLIPS: Maybe that's why he's not getting it right because he's being tortured?
MARCIANO: Yes maybe we should pamper him a little bit.
PHILLIPS: We'll investigate.
MARCIANO: Ok.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: See you in a bit.
PHILLIPS: All right, well, two teens slug it out while another records the action. That's bad enough on the surface, right? But it gets much worse. These teens might not have wanted to do this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Teen girls, 14 and 16, fighting on video, posted on YouTube. Hard to watch, yes, but even harder to hear what police in Baton Rouge are saying about this. They claim a guy and his wife were there egging the girls on, even forced one of them back into the fight when she tried to get away.
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CASEY HICKS, EAST BATON ROUGE PARISH SHERIFF'S OFFICE: The type of thing that I could compare this to most would be the situation where we dealt with -- with people who, you know, were dog fighting or cock fighting. Now we're looking at someone's child here. These are children that are being encouraged in this kind of behavior.
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PHILLIPS: There you see one girl allegedly forced back into the ring, so to speak. The 31-year-old man and his wife who hosted this throwdown at their home might be going away for a while. The felony charges could put them in prison for up to ten years.
No one's asking the mortuary to perform miracles but is it too much to ask to put the right body in the right casket?
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BERNARD BLACK, RELATIVE: They took the clothes that were intended for Miss Jackson and put them on the other women and as I said, tried to convince the children that that was their mother.
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PHILLIPS: Oops. No. Afraid it wasn't Emma Jean Jackson (ph) lying there for the viewing in Denver. The funeral home finally found her body, by the way, a few hours before the services.
Wait a second. Who was in the coffin the first time around? Turns out it was another woman named Jackson. Her funeral was January 21st. Her family just assumed she was in the cemetery already.
There's a lot going on this morning. CNN crews on the job and in the field. Let's check in with our correspondents beginning with Suzanne Malveaux at the White House -- Suzanne.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey Kyra. Well, the budget 2011 is going to be released in about seven minutes or so. Already we've got copies that are circulating, but it's embargoed until then. But I had a chance to talk to the director of O&B this morning who did give us a hint. $100 billion for new jobs but also some severe cuts as well; I'll have all those details, Kyra, in just about seven minutes or so. We'll have all the details.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Elizabeth Cohen in Atlanta. Who needs more sleep? Someone in their 20s or someone in their 70s? The answer will surprise you. I'll have that at the top of the hour. POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: And a big announcement from Toyota, the automaker coming out with a fix this morning, Kyra, for those more than 2 million recalled vehicles here in the United States. But what's going to be the long-term impact on Toyota? We're going to dig deeper in the next hour.
PHILLIPS: And in Haiti, an innocent mistake or a despicable case of child trafficking? We're going to take a closer look at today's court hearing for a group of detained Americans.
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PHILLIPS: First up, quick sweep of your top stories.
Let the repairs begin. If you have one of the Toyotas with a problem gas pedal, you ought to be hearing from the company this week. The company says the parts are on the way. Should take about half an hour to fix the problem, and you don't have to pay a dime.
They say they were doing the work of Jesus and wanted to help the orphans of Haiti. Instead, ten Americans in Haiti go before a judge today. Haitian officials accuse them of child trafficking. The Americans from an Idaho-based charity were arrested Saturday at the border with the Dominican Republic. They had 33 children with them.
Which of these highway vehicles doesn't belong? I'm thinking that a four-seater Cessna sitting on the New Jersey turnpike, like a fish out of water. This happened just outside the city (ph). The plane was having some kind of problem. The pilot put down in the highway. No one was hurt. Guess why the pilot and passenger were in the air in the first place? Well, to provide morning rush hour traffic reports.
