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Hampden-Sydney College: Helping to Prepare the Men of Tomorrow for Their Futures; Keeping the Flame of Olympic Glory Alive by Helping the Children of the World; Consignment Store Resurgence in Economic Downturn

Aired February 23, 2010 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Coming up after our top stories, we are going to get responses from our panel on independent voters and voting in general taking responsibility for broken government by getting out and actually voting.

Here is what I have got on the rundown right now. A major American auto maker actually adding jobs. That is news. GM says it will add 1,200 jobs to its Lordstown, Ohio plant to gear for the launch of its newest small car, the Chevy Cruise.

On Capitol Hill, the U.S. sales chief for Toyota is on the hot seat in the first of a series of hearings. James Lentz said Toyota's gas pedal issues are not a sign of a deeper electronic problem. Lawmakers are skeptical.

Also on the Hill, the Senate is moving forward on a $15 billion jobs bill. It gives businesses a tax break for new hires. We're going to talk about this with Christine Romans in just a few moments.

But first, we're going to talk about broken government, our coverage this week about finding about what about government is broken and what you are saying about broken government. Let's look at a poll. This is a poll asking about trust. Do you trust always or most of the time, Federal government, 26 percent of you say yes, state government, 33 percent of you say yes and local government, 52 percent of you say yes. So as you get closer to the level of governing that affects many of your services, you are more interested in government. You trust local more than you trust state government and more than you trust Federal government.

Let's have this discussion about trust and voting with Christine Romans, my co-anchor from "Your Money" with Roland Martin, a CNN contributor and John Avlon. He's an author and a contributor with thedailybeast.com. All of you thank you for being here again.

First of all, let me start with you John. You follow independents very, very closely. One of the things that we just saw in Casey Wian's piece is that to some degree, it is trickier to be an independent, but honestly, John, if I am choosing to be an independent, why do I get a say in who the Democrats or the Republicans pick for their candidates? If I want to have a say in it, I've got to join that party. And by the way, John, that is how it works in most of the rest of the world.

JOHN AVLON, AUTHOR, "THE INDEPENDENT NATION": But the Constitution doesn't mention political parties and they're effectively middlemen. The idea that you need to join the party in order to participate in our democracy seems to be fundamentally un-American. It has functioned this way for a long time. The parties have been -- they're playing by industrial age rules. The problem is, I don't think they're waking up to information age reality. You've got a generation growing up. We have a multiplicity of choice in everything and yet politics is the last place where we are supposed to be satisfied between a choice between brand A and brand B. It doesn't fit the way most folks live. It doesn't fit the way they think and that's why they're demanding alternatives and registered independent in larger numbers than ever before.

VELSHI: So Roland, what's the point? You got two candidates running for a particular office. You don't like brand A or brand B. Is it really going to make a world of difference that you get brand C?

ROLAND MARTIN, HOST, WASHINGTON WATCH WITH ROLAND MARTIN: Yes, it is going to make a huge difference and when you put up barriers to entry up, that is the problem. If you want to be an independent candidate running for Federal office or statewide office, you have to frankly be independently wealthy in order to do that, because they freeze you out of it. If you look at the public financing system that we have here. I mean, it is geared towards Republicans and Democrats.

But furthermore, here's what's interesting. We saw this in the 2008 election, when it came to Michigan and Florida. The Supreme Court had already ruled that frankly the parties are these private entities who control their own primary, so, they are locking people out. The system was set up for Democrats and the Republicans figured out hey, we can control the whole ball of wax, freeze everybody out and protect our turf by enacting this. And so, that is exactly what we have seen, so, they are all in this whole boat together.

You are right, if you are the kind of person like me, where you might want to vote for a Republican here and a Democrat here, basically, they don't want you. They force you to wait until the general election to actually have a choice, but you are only choosing between a Republican and a Democrat.

VELSHI: What do you think, Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, I also think that a lot of people look at the Republicans or the Democrats and they say they are independent, because they don't think any of these people are going to work for them. They think the career politicians and the system the way it is regardless of the parties is simply not working for them.

As I have said a million times, Ali, if the economy is broken, it only magnifies the voter discontent and the feeling among people that, look, these are the same people who were presiding over record homeownership, who were presiding over deregulation, who were presiding over the growth of Wall Street as we know it and now suddenly, they are screaming that we need, you know, we need all this accountability.

Well, it's the same people, Republicans and Democrats who were there all along the way and I think there's a healthy dose of skepticism from people who say, how am I supposed to think that any of these guys are going to be able to fix it for us? VELSHI: Hold this thought for a second. Hold on one second John.

Today, we are looking at things from the perspective of you, the viewer, the voter. I want to take something that came in on Facebook from Lauren who says policies that are determined by lobbyists instead of scientific evidence, public good, and plain old common sense. Obviously, she is stating that is what the problem is.

John, let's just talk about that for a second. Is that an overgeneralization or are lobbyists too influential in Washington?

AVLON: Well, it is a representative concert. I mean independent voters overall, and I think the American people in general see there's too much hyper partisanship. There's too much spending and there is too much of this corrupt influence of special interests on our politics, which is effectively hijacked our politics. And that is what a lot of this anger is directed at.

I would like to say one thing. Independent voters in particular, they have long been fiscally conservative, but socially liberal. There are (INAUDIBLE) for the Democrats but too socially liberal for the Republicans. So there is a mainstream going on here as well that's not just a matter of the anger we see when there's an economic downturn. That has been a trend that's growing for a long, long time as the parties have gotten more polarized.

VELSHI: Hold on folks. I got some breaking news I want to give you right now.

CNN is just learning and we're getting this in from our John King, that Vice President Cheney has suffered a mild heart attack. It was determined through stress tests after he was hospitalized yesterday with chest pains. We were reporting that he was in hospital. He remains in hospital right now. He underwent a heart catheterization and he is expecting to -- he is expected to be released within the next couple of days.

Vice President Cheney did suffer a mild heart attack. He's had four of those previously over the past 30 years, but John King is confirming that stress tests did confirm that he has undergone heart catheterization and expects to be released within the next two days.

We're taking a quick break. We'll continue our conversation when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I want to bring you up to date on what we just heard. John King has confirmed for us that Vice President Cheney did suffer a mild heart attack prior to his hospitalization yesterday. A stress test did reveal that would be a -- I'm just recalling here. It might be the fifth heart attack he's had now in 30 years. He did undergo a heart catheterization. He is not going to be released from the hospital today, but he does hope and expect to be released in the next couple of days. We will keep you posted on that as we get more information.

I want to go back to my panel talking about broken government here, Christine Romans, Roland Martin and John Avlon.

I want to start with Christine, because there is one example, Christine, that we have seen in the last 24 hours of some aspect of Washington that came unfrozen, some little bit of partisan, bipartisanship that showed its face. Tell us about this jobs bill that has passed.

ROMANS: A whiff, a little whiff of bipartisanship and be very careful. A very cool breeze could just blow it away. This is the Senate jobs bill, a $15 billion bill that made it past procedural vote yesterday, five Republicans crossed the aisle including Scott Brown from Massachusetts, one Democrat did not, Ben Nelson of Nebraska to move this thing forward. This is what did it Ali. I want to show you quick, it is a tax break for hiring the jobless.

This means that companies would get a break on their share of the Social Security taxes for new employees and if they keep that employee a year, they get another $1,000 tax credit, some other tax breaks there for capital depreciation, also new highway and transit program money through this year and it excludes the jobless benefit extension. As you know, this is something that liberals and progressive economists have really been pushing for, because 1.2 million people are going to lose their jobless benefits in the next few days alone.

Here is what is driving this whiff of bipartisanship I think. You look at this animation. It's from a woman named Latoya Latoya Edbeque (ph). She was an American University grad student. Ali, you and I interviewed her once. She puts this together and got an A. It shows county by county, the joblessness stain spreading across the country. When you look at it, anything that is red and purple shows higher rates of unemployment. And you can see that red and purple start to spread from even before when the recession began in late 2007. This goes all of the way to the end of 2009.

Watch, Ali, how that stain starts to spread and gobble up the yellow. Those yellow areas are places where the unemployment rate is perfectly comfortable, where people have jobs, where the economy is working for people. As you can see this shows the economy is not working for people and I think that is what these senators and Congress members frankly face when they head to the polls in the fall. They face an electorate that is in a very uncomfortable situation.

VELSHI: I think this is a key point. John, I'm going to go to you on this. If this weren't the story, if that map that we just showed you were not coloring in the way it did, if we did not have a 10 percent unemployment rate and 15 million or more people unemployed, would all of this, I don't like political parties and I don't want to have to register to vote for who I want to vote for, would it matter substantially less?

AVLON: You would not be seeing the huge anti-incumbent feeling in politics right now. No it is directly related to the economy. Demagogues always do well in a down economy. They end up firing up peoples' fears, but I do think the larger trend of independents has been going on for the last 20 years. That is larger issue than the economy. That is a larger demand for the fact that the parties seem out of touch with the way most folks think about politics and want to live their lives. But when the economy goes bad, demagogues do well, extremism erupts.

VELSHI: Well, Roland, (INAUDIBLE) on my Facebook responses, there doesn't seem to be a lot of dispute that people would like greater freedom to vote for the best candidates. Some said term limits. You argue that sometimes you get a good person in there, so you don't want term limits. You argued that in last hour. Here's the bottom line. How do you change, just give people more freedom to vote. Is it even possible?

MARTIN: I think it is possible what you are talking about. You are talking about dealing with the whole issue of state law, because remember, you have jurisdiction over setting dates of various primaries. So there is a way to go about this if people are willing to fight for it. But Ali, look at your poll, 52 percent of folks polled say they trust local government more than state and Federal. But when you look at the turnout, you have more people in presidential election, second highest number is the state election and the lowest local, so they say local matters most.

VELSHI: You were making that point. Mayoral races, you pointed out a few of them with 18, 19, 20 percent turnouts in major American cities.

MARTIN: (INAUDIBLE) a governor or presidential -- so again, the people closest to you matter the most, but you vote to least. Those who matter the least, you vote the most.

VELSHI: To everybody's point here, Roland has been very clear in his coverage and he's going to continue for the rest of the week in saying, don't blame everybody else, don't point fingers at everybody else, voters. You got to point some fingers at yourselves. John, great to see you. We'll see you later in the week. Roland, great to see you as always. Christine you can see with me every day here on "Your Money," on this show and you can see us on the weekend on "Your Money." Christine, did I just take over an entire week of shows with "Your Money?" Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. We will stay on broken government all week.

I want to bring you up to date with something we just reported to you about Vice President Dick Cheney. John King from CNN has confirmed that Dick Cheney did suffer, former Vice President Dick Cheney did suffer a mild heart attack. He was admitted to hospital yesterday suffering from chest pains. A stress test was conducted on him, did determine that a mild heart attack had been suffered. He has had a heart catheterization and he expects to be released from the hospital within the next couple of days. We'll be back in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I'm missing Chad, and I don't know what is going on in the world of weather. Let's go to the weather center where Chad is standing by. Chad what have you got for us?

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: Give me some customized winter for the end of week in Toronto, too, because that's where I'm going to spend the weekend. We're going to check in with Chad. He's got a very interesting "Off the Radar" today. We'll get back to that in a few minutes.

I do want to tell you about some news that we have got in now. We have confirmed, John King from CNN has confirmed that Dick Cheney did suffer a mild heart attack. We told you yesterday that he was admitted to hospital suffering from chest pains. What we have now is that he did suffer a mild heart attack. He underwent stress tests and catheterization of his heart and he's not going to be released from hospital today. Apparently, he is doing well, hopes to be released within the next couple of days. We will keep you posted on that. John is working that story. We will bring you the latest that we have on that. But Dick Cheney did suffer a heart attack. He had suffered about four of them over the course of the last 30 years.

Let's check out some other top stories. A series of aftershocks hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti today, toppling some buildings damaged in the deadly earthquake last month. A 4.7 aftershock was followed by a second smaller quake just a few minutes later. No reports of deaths or injuries.

Some good news for General Motors. The auto maker says it's adding jobs 1200 jobs to its Lordstown, Ohio plant. The move comes as GM gears up for the launch of its newest small car, the 2011 Chevy Cruise. Production is expected to start in the third quarter of this year.

And what would Buddha say? Well, you can now Tweet the Dalai Lama. That's right. The Tibetan spiritual leader has joined Twitter. It was launched yesterday, the day after he met with Evan Williams, one of Twitter's founders. One report says he attracted over 55,000 followers in just two days. You can tweet him at Dalai Lama.

When we come back, we're going to bring you up to speed on what is going on on Capitol Hill. There is testimony underway right now, the first of three hearings having to do with Toyota, what it knew, when it knew it. Brianna Keilar standing by right there. We'll go to her after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time for "Off of Radar" with our friend Chad Myers.

In the last week or so, some of you may have noticed, those of you who follow us on social media, that we have been very aggressively getting information out through Twitter and through Facebook to try and keep you up to speed with what is going on, on our show and what information, things that you want us to talk about. You have found something very interesting in how to keep up with all of this.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I find break news on the tweets. I find when people are on the plane saying oh, my God, my plane just lost a wheel and then all of a sudden, (INAUDIBLE) What plane was that? Where was this guy on? And this website is fantastic. It is called spy, s-p-y, dot appspot.com, a-p-p-s-p-o-t.com and I just found out that you're actually going to go some Queens, University.

VELSHI: That's right. That is my alma mater. I am speaking to them on the weekend.

MYERS: Did you know that tickets are almost sold out. I put in over here, I put Ali. I put in CNN and they found out all of the things that you are doing and people are tweeting about you.

VELSHI: So in fact it's telling us that we are going to be speaking to the president of Hampton Sidney University very shortly. He is actually here, but this is stuff that people are saying about me or whatever subject you put in there.

MYERS: If you're on Twitter (INAUDIBLE) on Yahoo! News,. If you're putting this in, even if you are only doing it to your friends, I can see you. Big brother is watching. I'm not big brother, but.

VELSHI: So that is app --

MYERS: appspot, a-p-p-s-p-o-t. Just like that.

VELSHI: Very good. (INAUDIBLE) and please keep on sending us information at Ali Velshi or on the official Ali Velshi Facebook page. And for those of you who need tickets to the weekend event, there are a couple left. I want to just ask Kelly, what you've got for me, my executive producer.

Let's just pop into the Capitol Hill, the hearing for Toyota.

This is Jim Lentz. He's is the head of Toyota USA sales.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

JIM LENTZ, TOYOTA: -- with the support of a new chief quality officer for North America and our other principal areas. We will ask independent outside experts to evaluate the findings to make sure that we meet or exceed industry standards. We are expanding our network of technical offices in the U.S. so we can gather information faster and respond more aggressively to incident reports. And we will install advanced brake override systems in all of our new models making us one of the first full line manufacturers to offer this customer-confidence feature as standard equipment.

Additionally, we are announcing that we will install this system on an expanded range of vehicles including Tacoma, Venza and Sequoia models who are capable of accepting this new software. We had previously announced this system would be installed in Camry, Avalon, Lexus ES and IS models. These actions underscore that Toyota is going above and beyond what is necessary in terms of vehicle modifications and repairs to ensure that our customers can be completely confident in the safety and reliability of their cars and trucks.

Chairman Waxman, subcommittee Chairman Stupak and ranking members as well as members of the committee, these are only some of the steps that we are taking to earn back the confidence of Congress and the American people. Our 200,000 team members, dealership employees and suppliers in the U.S. are the backbone of that effort. I am confident that we will succeed in restoring customer trust in our quality, safety and reliability of our vehicles. Thank you very much. I'm ready for your questions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. Lentz. Chairman Waxman for questions, please.

VELSHI: All right. That was Jim Lentz you were listening to. He's the head of U.S. sales for Toyota in the United States. He is actually the head of Toyota Motor sales which is the division that deals with selling Toyotas. He is testifying today. Tomorrow, you're going to hear from the president of Toyota right from Japan but Jim Lentz.

One of the arguments that he is making is that this is not a bigger problem than it is. The problems that Toyota has had with the acceleration is not a signal of something deeper, an electronic problem. There were testimony this morning that was in direct contravention of that from somebody who says she was a victim of this. She drove for six miles unable to stop her car and she thinks that it is more serious and it has nothing to do with floor mats and the pedal getting stuck. We're going to hear a lot more about this when we come back.

Now, listen to this. A bronze star, a Rhodes scholar, a Harvard MBA, the first African-American president of a small liberal arts college in Virginia but Christopher Howard's resume does not stop there. Here he is, and I am speaking with him when I get back. You're going to want to listen to this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I haven't started my interview and I'm already loving my guest.

Christopher Howard, first African-American president of Hampden- Sydney College in Virginia, which is the tenth oldest college in the United States. I mean, it is one of three all-male colleges in the United States, by the way. He was born and raised in Texas. He is a graduate of the Air Force Academy. He was a Rhodes Scholar, a Harvard MBA, worked for a couple of "Fortune 500" companies. Worked at the University of Oklahoma, he was vice president for leadership and strategic initiatives there. And by the way, is a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserves, has a bronze star for action in Afghanistan. And has just written this book called "Moneymakers: Inside the New World of Finance and Business."

I don't know what this man does in his spare time, but welcome. Thank you for being with us.

DR. CHRISTOPHER B, HOWARD, PRESIDENT, HAMPDEN-SYDNEY COLLEGE: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

VELSHI: What are you doing having left a major research university going over to a very small, all-male liberal arts college that doesn't actually have a lot of minority students?

HOWARD: That's a great question. We are doing what we have been doing since 1775. We're forming good men and good citizens all in an atmosphere of sound learning. And you know, it's a tough time for boys in higher education and we're getting it right. We have done it well for over 200 years and we are doing it right now.

VELSHI: Is that a euphemism for boys who have had trouble or is this just a different atmosphere to learn in?

HOWARD: No, no, it is not boys that are having trouble; we have exceptional students who come there. I think, in general, boys might be having a more difficult time than women in higher education, but we are educating all sorts of boys and getting it right. In a day and age when a lot of schools are having difficulties, I'm just saying that we are doing it better than a lot of other schools.

VELSHI: Who is supposed to consider going to an all-male school? Who should be thinking about that?

HOWARD: Well, anybody who is looking at going to a great school period should look at Hampden-Sydney College, just like they should be looking at Morehouse College for example. And that's people that want a challenge, they want to be serious-minded, they want a great education and go into great professional graduate schools and great jobs. Those are the people that should looking at Hampden-Sydney College.

VELSHI: Yes, and it is in Prince Edward County in Virginia and it was a place that actually closed all public schools for five years in the late '50s -- the point I am getting to here is African-American head of a school in an area that was not particularly welcoming to African-Americans at all. They closed the public schools down so that African-Americans would not be able to go to those public schools.

Are you changing the picture a little bit?

HOWARD: Well, I think that by definition, by showing up I am. But (INAUDIBLE) the entire community of Hampden-Sydney College, black, red, green, purple, doesn't matter, but it's not lost on me. Not only was Prince Edward County -- the school was part of the Brown versus Board of Education decision, I am the great, great grandson of a slave. But yet and still, because of the great country we live in, we can transform and we can change.

So we are all about a great education. And I think my face, looking the way that it does, does show a significant amount of progress but building on things that have happened before.

VELSHI: You know, what we do know today is we've got an unemployment rate around 10 percent, a little less than 10 percent. If you have a college education it is cut it in half, that unemployment rate. What's your message out there to people who are hemming and hawing whether an education, particularly a liberal arts education is actually going to help them in a tough economy?

HOWARD: Well, it's a wonderful statement, you mentioned I have a military background. You train for what you know, you educate for what you don't know. We don't know what jobs are going to be important in the future, but we know that they're going to be jobs that are going to require critical thinking, practical reasoning and a good sense of being able to write well, speak well and good quantitative reasoning skills.

A liberal arts education like Hampden-Sydney College or your Amherst, your Williams, et cetera, are going to give you that and that's going to help you going forward. Whether you go into professional school or graduate school, before that you're going to be ready when you leave a place like Hampden-Sydney College and that's something that's important to every young person out there.

VELSHI: Not out of fashion in this time, even in this tough economy.

HOWARD: Not at all. Not at all.

VELSHI: And I'm one of them. I'm just trying to get --

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: This book, "Inside the New World of Finance and Business," what a different world and new world it is.

HOWARD: Very much so.

VELSHI: If somebody had written that book five years ago, I would have said, what is new about finance and business, but this is -- it is a new world. What, in your opinion, is the biggest change in the world of finance and business right now?

HOWARD: Well, I think that we are recognizing that, as Jeff Immelt said, my former boss at GE, there's been kind of a reset, you know. That the ability to access debt like we did years before, the hedge funds, the private equity funds going out there, it's zip (ph) and I think the government is going to be here to stay in terms of looking over shoulders and making sure that people behave.

Maybe if they got liberal arts educations and did a little bit more philosophy, we would be in better shape, but I think that it's a much more of a holistic view of the business these days.

VELSHI: What a pleasure to have you here. Thank you so much. HOWARD: Thank you very much, Ali. Appreciate it as well.

VELSHI: We appreciate you taking your time. Wish you continued good luck in your endeavors, although after that resume, I don't think you don't need any luck.

HOWARD: Thank you.

VELSHI: Chris Howard joining us now, he's the first African- American president of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.

When we come back, we're going to go out to Mark McKay again. He's out in Vancouver to tell us what is going on right now that you need to pay attention to, and a very important contest that's coming up tonight.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Give me an update on the medal count right now at the Olympics.

The United States has a total of 25. Germany has a total of 21. You can't see this on the end of your screen, but Germany has 21, Norway has 14, the Russian Federation has 11, host country Canada, which really wanted to do better than that is running at 10 right now. Does look like the Americans are in quite a lead.

There's one American gold medalist who is not competing in Vancouver. He's using his fleeting fame to make a lasting change. Mark McKay is in Vancouver for us.

What's that story about, Mark?

MARK MCKAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Ali, many Olympic medalists here in Vancouver will be heard saying they want to give back once these games are done. Four years ago, Joey Cheek gave while at the Torino Games and he set quite an example for all Olympians to follow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOEY CHEEK, THREE-TIME OLYMPIC MEDALIST: The work that I'm doing now, the things that I'm learning now, all of it still relates to that donation in Torino.

MCKAY (voice-over): Joey Cheek's journey has landed him on the campus of Princeton University. The latest stop on a 4-year odyssey actually formulated eight years ago in Salt Lake City.

CHEEK: In 2002, I won a medal and had this really brief, bright experience with media, but I realized that your time is just fleeting where people actually care about what an Olympian has to say.

MCKAY: So when he won the 500-meter speed skating gold in Torino in 2006, he would have his voice heard by donating his $40,000 U.S. Olympic bonus money to "Right to Play," a charity helping refugee children.

CHEEK: Being able to make that donation gave me a chance to try to do something constructive with this sport that I'd spent my whole year -- my whole life focusing on.

ANGELA RUGGIERO, WOMEN'S U.S. HOCKEY TEAM: When I heard that Joey had donated his money, I thought it was phenomenal. The fact that he could really kind of take a step outside of himself and say this money will benefit all the kids in "Right to Play" more than it would me.

MCKAY: Cheek didn't just put his money where his mouth was but his time as well, traveling to Zambia with "Right to Play" and Chad with the Red Cross where he realized he wanted to do still more.

CHEEK: As soon as you make the transition from, I'm just trying to help, to, hey, we should stop these people from being slaughtered -- now you're making a political statement. Now you're becoming an activist.

MCKAY: He helped form "Team Darfur" and began lobbying in Washington and China for an end to the genocide in that African country.

CHEEK: There's nowhere else for them to go. And if aid doesn't come from us, people starve to death.

MCKAY: His mission has brought him around the world and back to the Olympic movement. The president of which, Jacques Rogge, he criticizes for failing to hold China to their human rights promises during the 2008 Beijing Games.

CHEEK: He's always fond of saying that, you know, individual freedoms are implicit in the Olympic charter, which I think is just sort of code for meaning, if we write them down, we don't have to actually enforce anything we say.

So, I've unquestionably thought that the IOC has been failing in their responsibility. I don't think you can get the benefit of the ideals without living up to them.

MCKAY: The IOC responded to the criticism of Rogge by saying, "The IOC is simply not the appropriate organization to tackle broader issues that are not games or sports related."

Cheek is actually majoring in Chinese at Princeton, but he's become a global student. He's a skater, after all. He's used to going in circles.

CHEEK: I've gotten to be an activist on the world stage. I've gotten to be sort of a hero and sort of a villain. And I've got to be a student at one of the best schools in the world.

So I feel like I've gotten to live a lifetime of experiences in the last four years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MCKAY: Suddenly seems that life is pretty good for Joey Cheek four years after he starred in Tornio, Ali. You know, many athletes are not comfortable under the role of a role model, I think Cheek embraces that one.

VELSHI: Wow. I mean, I got to tell you, we have heard this type of story with other people, be to see somebody who embraces it that way, that's inspirational and that's remarkable.

Mark, good to see you and thank you so much. Mark McKay in Vancouver for us all through the Olympics.

OK, let's get a check of top stories.

That chest pain that former VP Dick Cheney felt yesterday, it was a heart attack. His office says lab testing revealed that he had a mild heart attack, but the statement says he's felling good and expected to be discharged in the next day or two. The 69-year-old Cheney has suffered four other heart attacks over the past three decades.

In Arizona, one man is dead, another is injured, both shot after allegedly driving a stolen car onto the Luke Air Force Base. The base says the pair rammed through one security stop and headed for another, that is when security officers opened fire. No evidence of terrorism.

In Washington, Toyota's American sales chief is on the hot seat on Capitol Hill. James Lentz told lawmakers that Toyota's gas pedal issues are not a sign of a deeper electronic problem. The Transportation Secretary, Ray LaHood, says his teams are still investigating the possibility of an electronic glitch. Tomorrow, Toyota's global president will take the witness seat.

In St. Louis, the pro-wrestler known as "The Undertaker" was burned during a pyrotechnics mishap. As part of his performance, he enters the ring as fireballs explode, but on Sunday there was a timing mistake. A spokesman for World Wrestling Entertainment says the performer, whose real name is Mark Calloway, is doing fine.

And consumer confidence has taken a nosedive this month. The conference board which measures this reports that the index has plunged to 46 from January's 56.5. A score over 90 represents economic stability. A board official says the low score reflects Americans' ongoing worries about jobs and business conditions.

All right, we're going back to Austin. That's what we're doing in just a moment for today's "Building Up America" report. There he is --Tom Foreman, over his shoulder, the CNN Express. We'll hear what he has to say in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: That music just makes me jealous, because it is part of our "Building Up America" series. Tom Foreman is live in Austin, Texas, with the CNN Express. Austin is a remarkable, remarkable town in a state that is actually doing particularly well in this economic climate.

What are you learning in Austin, Tom, and how are you enjoying the bus?

TOME FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as always, being on the road is a lot of fun, Ali, and they miss you down here.

I will tell you this, Texas is doing remarkably well and Austin well within Texas. And one of the reasons that is happening, I think, is something that you really understand as an economics guy, a finance guy. The simple truth is when things become bad in a market that also often represents an opportunity. For example, if housing prices plummet, well, if you are someone trying to buy a house and you've saved money, that opens the door for you to do so at a real bargain rate.

That is what the story is about today. As we've looked at people trying to find ways to get through, we found a woman who found a remarkable way to make good come out of this bad economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA GAYNOR, SMALL BUSINESS OWNER: I would imagine, if you were really creative, you could make a bunk bed out of them.

FOREMAN (voice-over): If there is one thing Lisa Gaynor knows, it is this --

GAYNOR: There is a story behind everything.

FOREMAN: And hers is about foresight, opportunity, and building up when everything seems headed down.

About ten years ago, Lisa's family moved back to her home state of Texas. Her husband, a consultant, traveled for work, and she had a good job with a big corporation in Austin. But then came bad news, Lisa was let go.

GAYNOR: Really knocked the wind out of my sails and I had no idea where to go. That was my identity, that was who I was.

FOREMAN: With nothing else to do, Lisa started decorating her new home by shopping in consignment shops. But few had the nicer items she wanted. She had seen high-end consignment shops in other cities, and she thought this could be a good time to open one here. And lately, that's proven particularly true.

GAYNOR: People are having to be smarter with their money and they're having to make different choices. So, historically, only 10 percent of the consumer population is really aware of or open to the idea of consignment shopping. And I think what the recession has done is changed that.

Can I help you find anything?

FOREMAN: She'd never owned a business before, but with the encouragement of local business groups and friends, Lisa launched "Design It With Consignment."

GAYNOR: I sell things that are owned by other people or have been previously owned by other people. It doesn't mean antique, it doesn't mean used, it doesn't mean beat up.

FOREMAN: It does mean bargains.

GAYNOR: Retailed for $13,000 and we've got it for $3,500.

We've got this for, what, $800?

Even if it was thousands of dollars just a few years ago, these things now sell for like $300.

FOREMAN: Most items sell for 50 to 75 percent less than they did new.

GAYNOR: Lots of sold signs. I like that.

FOREMAN: And the recession that has taken so many jobs has been turned into an opportunity for Lisa and her five employees.

GAYNOR: Ironically, it has been a boost to my business. We were just reviewing numbers and we have gone up 30 percent over the last two years.

FOREMAN: It's hard work, she's at it six days a week, but it is working.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN: You see what we are talking about here, Ali. In fact, it is working so well for her, that she is hoping to more than double the size of her space. So you see how for many people here, yes, these are hard times, but that finding ways to turn it positive.

VELSHI: Tom, you are by nature an optimistic guy. It is tough for people to get out of the problem that they are in, the misery that they are in when you -- everybody in America knows somebody who has lost a job because of this economy or somebody who has lost a business or somebody who could not get a loan to keep things going. It is tough for people to latch on to the risky measure, even though it might be fruitful for them to do so like the story you just told us.

FOREMAN: Yes, that is true, Ali, but the fact is that it does not have to be something really risky. One of the things we have heard from many people around here -- and trust me, one of the things we are trying to do with the series is to put the hard questions to these ideas, not just saying it is all warm and fuzzy. It is tough. But you don't have to start a whole new business. Almost everybody who is succeeding is saying, you simply to have to be open to other possibilities, another career, another way of approaching your career, trying to do things differently.

We are seeing it in all sort of businesses around here. In fact, have a little bit of video here of another guy who has an idea of commuting around here. A different idea, kind of going back to the past. You can see from that video that that might work out.

VELSHI: Tom, this is what you are doing, this is what "Building Up America" is about, though, right? You are going out there and you are finding examples of people who have changed things for themselves, partially because we are talking about "broken government" all this week and we're hearing about how fed up people are. You're almost are beyond that. You are talking to people who are saying, I am not waiting for government to help me or for corporate America to help me.

FOREMAN: Absolutely, Ali. And we've heard a mixed bag here. There are programs here that have run particularly by the local government that people have thought very highly of.

There have been other cases where people have said, look, forget it. The government is not going to solve it. It is not going to be the solution. We are going to make it happen. You hear it from a lot of people here who say, if nobody else is going to solve it, I must solve it myself and you can sense from so many people here that the optimism that comes out of that and their ability to move forward.

VELSHI: That is excellent. Tom, great to see you. We will see you every day.

Tom Foreman with the CNN Express joining us from Texas.

All right, we're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we'll give you more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I want to bring you up to speed on news we are getting about former Vice President Dick Cheney.

We have learned, CNN's John King has learned that he did suffer a mild heart attack. You know he was hospitalized yesterday. He had his first heart attack 32 years ago. He has had four until this one, this is his fifth heart attack. A stress test did determine that, he has also undergone a heart catherization. He won't be released from hospital today, but he is hoping to be released in the next couple of days. That is the latest on Dick Cheney. He was out and about last week looking quite well, seemingly in good health, but he has suffered a mild heart attack.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: All right. Very good, Chad. Thank you very much for that.

Hey, listen, when we come back, I'm going to tell you about something. If you are not watching the Olympics a lot, there may be 2.5 minutes tonight that you want to watch. I will tell you why when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: And now for "The X-Y-Z of It."

The Winter Games are not just about patriotic pride and Olympic gold, they are about sacrifice. The sacrifice of individual athletes and the sacrifice of families -- early mornings, late nights, weekends, on the road for competitions. Take Canada's Rochette family, mom and dad, Theresa and Normand, had just arrived in Vancouver to cheer on their daughter, who you see here, Joannie in her quest for figure skating gold. But on Sunday, Joannie's mom suffered from a massive heart attack and died at the age of 55.

Did Joannie throw in the towel? No. Just hours later, she was back on the ice -- there she is -- practicing for her short program wearing a black hoodie and black tights. Witnesses say she wiped away tears and took a deep breath as she stepped into the rink. Then she reportedly gave a little wave to her father before starting practice -- there he is. He was the only spectator allowed in the venue to watch.

So, tonight, when Joannie Rochette laces up for the short program, the world will be watching. Fans are cheering her on, not just from Canada, but from around the globe. Even her competitors are rallying in support. She is not favored for the gold, but she is the reigning world silver medalist, and as her agent sys, Joannie Rochette will be trying to fulfill a goal she and her mother had together.

And if that is not an embodiment of the Olympic spirit, what is? I know I'm not the only one who is going to be holding my breath during those two minutes and fifty seconds.

Time for "RICK'S LIST."