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'Broken Government'; Desiree Rogers Stepping Down; Winter Storm Cripples Northeast

Aired February 26, 2010 - 14:02   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Here's what I've got on my "Rundown" right now.

He's not the White House deputy press secretary, but he did play him on TV. "West Wing" actor Bradley Whitford played Josh Lyman. You'll remember that -- if you're a CNN viewer, you're probably a political junkie, so you probably remember that.

What would he do to fix our broken government? Why would we even ask Bradley Whitford? Because we're thinking outside the box this week to try and find solutions to our broken government.

Plus, at tragedy at SeaWorld. We've got new details, new video, new reaction, and a lingering question -- what do you do with a whale that kills?

Also, schools called off, flights are cancelled. Flights are cancelled, New Englanders are ticked off. Are they ready for spring? They were ready for spring months ago.

All right. We're tackling broken government this week. We're asking you -- we've been asking you on social media, we've been asking you on the blogs, do you think government is broken? And how specifically do you fix it?

And every day this week we have taken a different perspective on how to fix it. We're not whining about broken government, we're trying to fix it. We've got more out-of-the-box fixes for broken government in this hour, and it's from the next generation.

But first, I want to bring in our panel, our "Broken Government" panel. There. You're looking at four students who have been listening to our coverage of "Broken Government." Clearly, they follow it very carefully.

We have also got other people. You've seen them all week on our show, our expert panel talking about what's going on in government, listening to all of this. Christine Romans is in New York. She's my co-host on "YOUR $$$$$." You watch us on the weekends on CNN.

Bay Buchanan, former national treasurer, is with us. And Karen Tumilty is "TIME" magazine's national political correspondent.

I want you three to hold on for a second while I talk to this panel and ask them questions. First of all, I want to put it to our panel.

From the left of your screen, Jennifer Sarpong. She is focusing on sociology -- or socioeconomics at Emory University. Next to her, Tracy Yang. She's an anthropology major, wants to get into medicine at the University of Georgia.

Then Lucas Puente. He's an international affairs and finance major at the University of Georgia. And finally, Jonathan Miller. He's a graduate student in public policy at Georgia State University.

I'm going to start over at the other end, on the left side, with Jennifer.

Jennifer, do you think government is broken? And what do we do to fix it?

JENNIFER SARPONG, STUDENT, EMORY UNIVERSITY: I do think government is broken, and it's broken because its people are broken. We've been asking is government broken all week, but we need to be asking, are the American people broken?

And the way to fix that is to invest in principled leadership. There has to be a generation that rises up -- hopefully our generation and the generation above us -- that can't be bought, that is really focused on doing what it takes to get the people where they need to be, versus giving it to corporate interests.

VELSHI: Can't be bought, not giving it to corporate interests.

I want to take it over to you, Tracy.

Tell me -- you study anthropology, actually. This is a little bit about humanity and human behavior and evolution.

What do you think about government? Is it broken? And how do you fix it?

TRACY YANG, STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA: Well, I don't think government is necessarily broken. We need to remember that the inefficiencies are built into our system, that our founding fathers made our system of checks and balances, and it wasn't necessarily meant to have a quick fix for every solution.

But I do feel like there -- obviously, we have been talking a lot about partisanship and a lot about corporate interests, districting, and all of these issues. But I feel like it's really important, speaking for our generation especially, to think about the long-term effects of these huge issues that we are trying to deal with. What are the long-term solutions? How should we be looking towards the future? And what sort of short-term sacrifices might we, as an American public and our generation, need make to get to that goal?

VELSHI: Oh, Christine is going to love have a following-up on that with you, long-term solutions, not worrying about short-term sacrifices. I know her well enough. I know she's waiting to get in on this.

Lucas, you are an international affairs and finance major at the University of Georgia. Your thoughts?

LUCAS PUENTE, STUDENT, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA: I agree with Tracy. I think there has to be a balance though between the effectiveness of our policies and also immediate action.

Obviously, Congress has been slowed significantly in the past year and a half with some tactics employed by both parties, but I think we can get over this and come up with some wise, pragmatic policies that can have long-term success while also getting to a short-term fix as well.

VELSHI: You worked with Barack Obama when he was in Congress. Is that correct?

PUENTE: Yes.

VELSHI: And what did you do with him?

PUENTE: I worked as an intern, so sort of the usual tasks.

VELSHI: The usual stuff interns do?

PUENTE: The usual task of answering phones, giving Capitol tours, et cetera. But I also did some substantive work with the economic and financial team.

VELSHI: Hey. Well, I'm a big fan of interns. I think they do great substantive work.

Jonathan Miller, you're studying public policy. This is right in your bailiwick. This is exactly what you're looking at.

There couldn't be a better time. The country is your lab right now.

Tell me what you think.

JONATHAN MILLER, STUDENT, GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY: Well, I appreciate that.

As a student of government, I think there's -- I don't think government is broken, but I think there's a lot of disincentive to not tow the party line. Voters aren't going to punish our elected officials for playing partisan politics. There's no reaction from the voters to say if you don't tow the party line, we're going to take you out of office, so I think that's something we need to talk to our voters about and really emphasize negotiation and making concessions.

VELSHI: Very interesting.

Roland Martin is not here, but he has been focusing all week on the role of the voters. OK. So we don't have one opinion here. You don't all think government is broken. Some of you do, some of you don't. Some of you think it's the people, some of you think it's the rules.

We're going to bring in the rest of our panel when we come back, and we're going to try and find out if right now, today, we can't do something that solves the broken government in this country. Or for those of you who don't think it's broken, if we can't make it better.

Stay with us. We're coming right back after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Breaking news out of the White House. This is a name that you probably know.

Desiree Rogers, she is the fairly well-known social secretary to the president. She is stepping down.

Ed Henry and John King have confirmed that Desiree Rogers is stepping down. She has been featured in a number of magazine articles and on television. She was most recently in the public eye because of the situation surrounding the Salahis having found their way into the White House.

We don't know the details of what has caused her to announce that she is stepping down, but we will get that very shortly. Ed Henry and John King are confirming for us that Desiree Rogers is stepping down as the White House social secretary.

We're going to continue our discussion on broken government. We just had a fantastic discussion with a panel of students who are talking about whether government is broken and what can be done to fix it. You can see the students on the left from Emory University, the University of Georgia and Georgia State University.

On the right, you can see, on the top, Christine Romans, my co- host on CNN's "YOUR $$$$$," Bay Buchanan and Karen Tumulty.

Let's have this discussion with you.

Christine, I think it was Tracy who was talking about long-term solutions and not emphasizing the short term. And you always say this.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I know. I say this. I'm like a broken record here.

We keep pushing our problems forward, and we have too many lawmakers who are looking toward the next election cycle because that's the nature of the beast. And these big issues keep getting pushed ahead, and our debt is what I'm really talking about -- our debt and our entitlement programs and things that we really need to address, because they are going to become issues sooner rather than later. Also, Jennifer said something I thought that was pretty interesting. She talked about a leadership gap, Ali. And I think that is a really a very insightful comment, because, look, whether it was covering immigration reform in 2005, health care reform today, regulatory reform that we are talking about again, the very people who are supposed to be crafting the solutions today in many cases are the same people who crafted the solutions last time, and the solutions the time before that. Solutions that had unintended consequences.

You never hear somebody stand up and say, 15 years ago I was pushing for financial market deregulation, and I was wrong. This time, this is what I have learned from my mistakes and the legislative mistakes that we have made, and now we should do it this way.

You never hear that, but I think the American people know that some of the same folks, the same leaders who were there all along the way crafting rules, rules that, in many cases, in some cases, turned out not to work out so great, now they are trying to craft the fixes. And I think that causes a lot of cynicism.

VELSHI: Karen, let me ask you something. On this conversation about doing things now and knowing the long-term effect of it and focusing on the long-term, isn't that what health care reform is? Health care reform is not a fix for this week or this year. It wouldn't even take effect for a few years.

Clearly, that didn't go over so well with the American people, or hasn't so far.

KAREN TUMULTY, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "TIME": Well, here's the problem. And I think if you take all the suggestions of the panel, it gets right down to this underlying tension.

To do things that fix problems in the long run, which is the way we want our legislators thinking, you almost always have to do things that cause pain in the short run, whether it's forcing people to give up government programs that they like, whether it's raising their taxes. And that is -- so lawmakers are going to be punished by inflicting pain in the short run if they try to fix a problem in the long run. And I don't know how you get around that basic kind of contradiction in our system.

VELSHI: Let's ask Bay.

Bay, you have been in government. You have advised presidents.

How do you deal with that very specific problem? We have short- term problems, we've got an angry electorate. We've got a fatigued country from being put upon economically. And we have long-term problems.

What do you do?

BAY BUCHANAN, FMR. NATIONAL TREASURER: Well, there's no question, it's an inherent problem in the sense that all these guys', number one, concern -- all the fellows in Congress -- is get re- elected. So they are looking real carefully at the what the polls are showing on different issues and different votes. But I think the key is to get new, fresh blood into the system, because they are less concerned.

You know, you take the young congressman that you were just interviewing. I don't know if their whole focus is staying in Congress for 40 years. Once you have been there 12 years, you don't know anything else, and so you want to stay.

But I think if you get fresh, new blood -- and I think that's what Americans see. I think they see it's time for a turnover.

People who have lived the problems, they see what these policies have done to their communities and their families, and they're going to come back and shake everything up. I think that that's possible.

VELSHI: Let me ask this panel of students.

Put up your hand if you, at this point in your lives, you would consider running for office and holding a political -- OK. So, all right, four of you. That's a good sign.

Let me ask you, Lucas --

TUMULTY: I would vote for them.

VELSHI: What's that? You would vote -- there you go.

TUMULTY: I'll vote for them.

VELSHI: Lucas, do you trust newer politicians, as opposed to those who have been around for a while? Does that make a difference for you?

PUENTE: It does. I actually am personally inclined to favor the new blood.

I think D.C. has a lot of kind of old ties, and having new influences can really be helpful. Obviously, we saw that a lot in the 2008 campaign.

President Obama campaigned on the idea of change, and that was immensely successful. And I think that has to be continued, that bringing in new ideas and new perspectives, and also being in touch with the everyday people who are facing these problems. And a lot of people in D.C. have unfortunately lost sight of that.

CHANG: And I agree. And I think it's also important that our generation keeps sight of the fact that we need to continue to be voting and having a voice. And we were -- you know, our generation was excited in 2008 and voted in extremely high numbers. And with the midterms coming up, I really hope that we continue to do that.

VELSHI: Yes. I mean, the bottom line is that what it comes down to. People have got to stay involved.

Why don't you guys all stay there.

If I could ask my panel of experts, too -- Christine, Bay and Karen -- to stay there as well. This is just such a great, helpful conversation. Please just stay there for a minute.

We're going to have more out-of-the-box fixes for government from the new generation right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I just want to update you on some breaking news. We're still trying to find out what the background is on this.

But Desiree Rogers, the White House social secretary, is going to be stepping down. You will remember Desiree Rogers. She was involved, most notably, in the recent attempt -- well, successful attempt -- by the Salahis to get into a White House event that they weren't on the list for.

That's the Salahis posing with the president.

But she is the well-known social secretary of the White House. We are getting word from Ed Henry and John King that she is stepping down from her position.

We'll bring you more on that and why it's happening as soon as we have it.

Right now, I want to continue our conversation about broken government, whether it's broken and what we can do to fix it.

We have a fantastic panel here. You can see them on the screen from Emory University, the University of Georgia and Georgia State University.

And we have Christine Romans, Bay Buchanan and Karen Tumulty.

I want to go to Jonathan Miller. He's on the extreme right of your screen. He's a graduate student in public policy.

So much of this, when we talk about government being broken or not broken, there's a lot of good policy going on. There are a lot of good people like yourself who are in government, and they're working and they're trying to get the work of the people done.

Is government broken or is politics broken?

MILLER: You know what? I think it's just too easy to revert back to a gridlock. When we talk about the deficit and the economy, I think a lot of times it's easy to say here are our talking points -- Democrats spend, Republicans cut taxes. But I think we need to reform the conversation and say, why are we doing that?

You know, in this deficit, why are we spending? Is it because of a Keynesian economic theory, or what are the backgrounds there? And so I think when we talk about, is government broken, we need to reform our conversation and say --

VELSHI: How? How do we do that? Tell me how we do that. How do you reform the conversation?

You've heard the conversations. You're studying it. What conversation would you like to see us having on television, in the newspapers, in magazines? What would you like us to discuss?

MILLER: You know, when I think about it, I kind of go back to, well, it's too easy to categorize the Democrats as saying they spend. I think if we could have Obama or somebody giving almost an economics lesson to the American people, I think that could go a long way, or having a theory debate instead of just kind of reverting back to these --

VELSHI: You'd put us out of work, Jonathan, if we had them doing that.

(LAUGHTER)

VELSHI: Bay Buchanan, is there a danger here that this fear of the old -- of people who have been here for a long time doing it the old way, lots of call for term limits, is there some danger that we might throw the baby out with the bath water because we think -- we associate all our problems with old politicians, with old habits?

BUCHANAN: No. I happen to believe term limits is a great idea. I think this idea that, I've been here 30 years, I know how it works, I know the ways to get things done and that's why I'm valuable, is nonsense.

I think the founding fathers were very clear that what is in the best interest of the nation is citizen government. And there was an interesting poll CNN did and broke today where 56 percent of Americans now think that government is so big, that it really threatens their rights.

And I would be interested in the young people's thoughts, because previous to this, young people thought that is where the answer is, is the government. And it looks now that Americans are beginning to think, look, get out of my way and back off, because I can handle it. It's a real realignment I see here, Ali.

VELSHI: Jennifer seems to address something very clearly here. She's right on the left of your screen.

Jennifer, you talked about leadership. What has to be done? The leadership is going to come from your generation, although we would like some from some people in the older generation.

What has to be done to encourage your generation to be leaders, to get out there, first of all, and vote consistently, but to be leaders in what some people see is a broken system?

SARPONG: Well, we actually brought up an interesting topic a while ago, which was conversation, and that also requires listening. I think that politicians have gotten to the concept of talking in conversation, but not really listening. And I think that to get the young people involved, we have to know that people are hearing our voice.

I think that politicians should definitely reach out to hear what young people are saying. I think that's why the Obama campaign was such a success, because it almost made it seem like we are listening and we can help change things.

And I think even with the health care debate yesterday, there might have been a lot of talking, but I'm not sure how much listening there really was going on. And I think that's what's going to make the difference as far as leadership being raised up. Have people who you know can hear their voice and actually raise them up to speak, as well as listen. Not just speak.

VELSHI: What an interesting point. And your generation, the beauty of this is that, today, you can listen in more ways than you could ever listen before because of social media, because of communication.

We're out of time for this discussion, but what a great discussion that we're having. It's sending chills down my spine to know that people are this committed and this energized after we have talked about broken government for a week. Some people still think we can fix it.

Christine, Bay and Karen, it's been a pleasure to have you here. We will of course continue to have you on our show, but what a pleasure to have you here daily to help us understand how to fix broken government.

And to our students, Jennifer Sarpong, Tracy Yang, Lucas Puente, and Jonathan Miller, we'd like to have you back a lot as well to comment on what's going on and how you can fix it.

What a great, great conversation from all of you. Thank you so much.

Unfortunately, we do have to move on and talk about some things that many of our viewers are very concerned about right now -- another crippling winter storm in the Northeast.

It may look like pretty pictures. There's Allan Chernoff digging out of the snow. A lot of people can't get places that they need to get.

We'll update you on that with Chad Myers.

By the way, Allan is shoveling snow for a reason. The city of New York didn't just employ him to clean the snow outside of Central Park.

We'll check in why in a moment.

Stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. Here's a picture of Central Park.

For those of you not familiar with it, this is the northeast corner of Central Park. This is Columbus Circle. And the vantage point here is CNN. This is where CNN is at Time Warner Center in New York.

So you're looking across Columbus Circle, into Central Park. That's the upper east side.

Somewhere right around here -- this is like a postcard. It's beautiful. Somewhere in here is Allan Chernoff.

I'm trying to exactly see him. If he were to wave his hands I might see him.

But let's actually come over here, because we've got a camera that's actually on him.

Allan is a man's man. You are going to see this guy doing all the hard work you can possibly do. He's a family man, so he was doing this at his house last night after reporting the news.

Now he's at Central Park shoveling the snow.

Allan, I just heard that Central Park has now hit its record snowfall for any one month, and you can see it. You are right in it.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SR. CORRESPONDENT: That's true, Ali. And the rumors are not accurate. The city has not hired me to shovel out all of Central Park.

There is a reason that I am shoveling, Ali. Let me show you, because this has been a very interesting snowstorm.

The snow that's coming down right now, it's light and fluffy. Look at that. Easy to toss away, no problem.

But let's go down a little bit deeper and you will see what fell last night, because, as we get deeper, it's still pretty light. But right here -- Tom, you can push in here -- it's very, very crunchy, and you really have got to push your shovel in to get -- oh, my goodness.

This probably weighs, I'm guessing, 20 pounds. And that's what I was shoveling in my driveway last night, really heavy, gunky stuff. And that is what we had last night -- very, very wet snow.

It was also weighing on the branches here in Central Park. You see it sitting there. Last night, a big branch fell, killed a man, a 56-year-old man. And also, another branch fell on a city bus.

The police actually cleared out Central Park, so very dangerous stuff. Now, that heavy snow, it also has brought down a lot of power lines. And about an hour north of where I am standing right now, in Orange County, lots of homes are without power.

In fact, about 250,000 homes in New York State are without power. We're talking about Orange County, Southern Dutchess County as well. The utility there, Central Hudson Gas and Electric, says that they will be out of power -- some homes will be out of power through the weekend.

VELSHI: Wow.

CHERNOFF: Ali, very severe stuff, this storm. It looks beautiful here, but a lot of people are going to be impacted for days.

VELSHI: Important to note that the power lines don't go down in Manhattan because power lines in Manhattan, in New York City, are underground. But when you start getting into places where the power lines are above ground, that's where it gets affected.

OK. Don't -- you don't have to keep shoveling there.

I want to just remind you of something, by the way. I was just looking at this big picture of Central Park.

It's the southwest corner of Central Park. I think I misinformed you, but my good friend and producer in New York, Jeanne Block (ph), just called us to tell us I gave you the wrong perspective.

This is the southwest corner. That's where Allan Chernoff is digging out.

And let's go to Chad.

(WEATHER REPORT)

VELSHI: There's another kind of junkie that watches CNN and that is a political junkie. If you love politics, CNN is the place to be. If you're a political junkie, you probably were also a "West Wing" junkie like I was. Take a look at this. This is Bradley Whitford.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRADLEY WHITFORD, "WEST WING" ACTOR: It is frustrating to me right now that were' at a point where it seems we need a super majority to get something passed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: He played Josh Lyman on the "West Wing" involved in negotiations and making deals and all that sort of thing. Now I'm talking because we are thinking out of the box on fixing broken government, I am talking to him about what he would do if he were the real deputy secretary to the, secretary to the president.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP "WEST WING" WARNER BROS. TELEVISION)

WHITFORD: Forget my bluntness and I say this with all due respect Congressman, but vote yes or you're not evening going to be on the ballot two years from now.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: How do you figure?

WHITFORD: They're going to lose in the primary.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: There is no Democrat running against me.

WHITFORD: Sure there is.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Who?

WHITFORD: Whomever we pick.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: You are bluffing.

WHITFORD: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I'm in your own party.

WHITFORD: It does not seem to be doing us much good now, does it?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Against an incumbent Democrat. You go to the press and endorse a challenger.

WHITFORD: No, sir, we're going to do it in person. See you won with 52 percent, but the president took your district with 59 and I think it is high time we come back and say thanks. Do you have any idea how much noise Air Force makes when it lands in Eau Claire, Wisconsin?

We're going to have a party, Congressman. You should come. It's going to be great and when the watermelon is done, right in the town square, right in the band gazebo, you guys got a band gazebo? Doesn't matter, we'll build one.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Josh!

WHITFORD: Right in the band gazebo, that's where the president's going to drape his arm around the shoulder of some assistant DA we like and you should have your camera ready. You should get a picture of that, because that's going to be the moment you're finished in Democratic politics.

President Barlett's a good man. He's got a good heart. He's doesn't hold a grudge. That's what he pays me for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: It takes you back to a time when political junkies had something, that kind of drama inside the White House, inside the beltway, inside the political system, but it was drama. Bradley Whitford is the character who played Josh Lyman who was the deputy chief of staff to the president in "West Wing."

We wanted to think outside of the box. This is a guy who had to understand how to play a character that's very much like real life characters. So I asked him about broken government. I asked him that if he were the deputy chief of staff to the president for a day or a little longer, what would he actually do given today's situation?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFORD: Well, the first thing I would do, because it is -- because it is a moral imperative, an economic imperative, a human imperative, is get health care done. I think we can't afford to live in a country that does not have universal -- you know, if I pulled out a gun right now and shot the cameraman, the Constitution would give me a lawyer. But if I -- and I would have health care by the way for life in prison. If I lose a job and my kid gets cancer, I am out of luck. We can't live in a country like that

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: One of the things I asked him is how he learned about government, what he learned about government on the show and what he enjoyed the most. Here is his answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFORD: One thing I really enjoyed about that show and one thing I did suddenly just because I was an actor in a successful TV show and because I have always been interested in politics, suddenly I have access to these politicians and I got to meet them.

I would never want to be a politician. I have no desire to act that much. But the thing I really admire that I think is heroic is the question they face every day is how dirty do my feet have to get without disappearing in the mud in order to get an inch of what I really want done? And I think from the outside, no matter what your political point of view, you get -- you get thoroughly frustrated when you don't get everything you want. And the process is a very complicated one and you know. We live in a country with a lot of people who, you disagree with.

But I do feel -- I don't want to make apologies -- but I do feel is a very dysfunctional political. You know, I worry that our country will, you know, as the world speeds up with communication and transportation. I want to make sure that our country is as nimble as it needs to be and I worry in the way that we have dealt with the debt, the way that we've dealt with health care, with these urgent issues, it worries me that I want -- we need our country to be nimble.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: All right. With Bradley Whitford playing the deputy chief of staff in the White House, was art imitating life or was life imitating art? I asked him how he prepared to play that role. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFORD: I think a five-minute conversation with Rahm Emanuel just sort of got the character right there for me. No, it was an amalgam of people, George Stephanopoulos' book which came out about his time in the Clinton White House was extremely helpful to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: That was Bradley Whitford. He played Josh Lyman on the White House, part of our way of dealing with broken government with alternative viewpoints.

All right, combating illiteracy with donkeys. You heard right, meet this week's CNN hero next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Bringing you up to speed with some of the top stories we are following here at CNN right now.

In Washington, White House social secretary Desiree Rogers plans to step down. The White House official tells us she will be gone in a month or two. You may remember her name coming up after a couple crashed the White House state dinner back in November.

In Tacoma, Washington, a man shot and killed a special-ed teacher as she walked into her elementary school this morning. Police later killed and shot the man. Police say the shooter and victim knew each other, but their relationship was unclear. The teacher had reportedly gone to court to get an anti-harassment order recently.

And in Washington, Democrats are taking a hard look at reconciliation to pass health care reform. It's as tricky process to pass a Senate bill needing only 51 votes instead of the 60 that is needed to avoid a filibuster. Expect Republicans to be furious if the Democrats try it. During the president's health care summit yesterday, the two parties didn't find that much to agree upon.

Saddling up to help stamp out childhood illiteracy. CNN's hero of the week journeys deep into remote Colombian fields where almost 30 percent of children under 16 have limited or no access to schools. His mission includes two unlikely helpers.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUIS SORIANO, CNN HERO (through translator): In the villages, life goes on in a stationary way, there is no change. Reading has made me laugh and dream. It has also shown me things I want to see in my lifetime.

Alphabeto (ph) and I share the fact that we always lived here.

My name is Luis Soriano and my classroom is not traditional. My Biblio Burro consists of books placed in saddles on top of my donkeys. It's not easy to travel through these valleys -- the burning sun or too much rain. You sit on a donkey for five or eight hours, you get very tired.

It's a satisfaction to ride to your destination. We go to places that are not on a map, where a child has to work or ride a donkey for up to 40 minutes to reach the closest school. When they learn how to read, the child discovers a new world, like I did.

Someone once said to me, "You've educated a lot of people. You read them the donkeys like no one has."

These children need it. Of course they want to learn. That's what keeps motivating me to ride.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: Luis Soriano's work has providing reading instructions to more than 4,000 children. To watch his complete journey or to nominate someone that you think is changing the world, go to cnn.com/heroes, cnn.com/heroes.

All right. We are going to in a moment do what we often like to do at this time of the day and go to Ed Henry for "The Ed Henry Segment". He's our senior White House correspondent. There he is. We'll be right with him in a second. If you want to follow me on Twitter @AliVelshi.

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VELSHI: Ah, it is that time again, I feel it and our viewers feel it and his few Twitter followers feel it, too. This is Ed Henry. He is our senior White House correspondent. You see him on TV a lot always going on, but we always have him here for a special reason, because he takes us inside. He shows us how a bit of that sausage is made.

So Ed first of all, fantastic to have you back as always.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Ali.

VELSHI: Few things to talk about here, Desiree Rogers, the social secretary at the White House. You brought us some information that she is stepping down. What's that about?

HENRY: That's right.

John King and I both confirming that Desiree Rogers will be stepping down in a next month or so. I think the significance of course, people are going to immediately take the headline that she was caught up in that Salahi mess where that couple was able to sneak into a state dinner. Obviously, that did not help her around here.

But I think the real significance when you take a step back and you talk to people in the corridors of power, this is the first real Chicago power player in that sort of tight knit circle around the president and the first lady. She was close to both the president and the first lady, still is to really leave. And I think while the Salahi mess obviously has to be a factor in something like this, she told the "Chicago Sun-Times" which first broke the story, she wants to pursue other corporate opportunities.

But I think there may also just be the factor in general when you talk to people around here from that circle of Chicagoans, they are very tired. They have been at it now for over a year and it may sound like a short time when you go back to the campaign. President Obama was running for almost two years. Some of these folks have been going at it for up to three years and frankly, they are tired. Things have turned a little negative on some things and we are going to start seeing people like this walking away, Ali.

VELSHI: And the other story that's interesting about somebody else who is walking away from something and that is the New York governor saying that he is not going to run again for re-election. He's been saying very adamantly that he was running again, even though he was sort of swimming upstream.

HENRY: Here is the kind of behind the scenes things here at the White House which is that he had been pushed a few months back in this big "New York Times" piece where people close to the White House were basically saying this is a dead man walking. He's got no chance of winning in a Democratic primary against Andrew Cuomo, the attorney general here, powerful, a lot of money, campaign money in the bank.

White House publicly has always kind of distanced themselves from that, but I had a conversation about the White House aide a couple weeks back and basically asked him about the Cuomo and Paterson dynamic that was being set up before all this and basically the aide cracked -- wait, is Paterson still governor? Is Paterson still in the race?

I think it just so -- it shows you behind the scenes, they thought that this guy should get out of the way for a long time. They were never going to say that publicly, first African-American governor of New York. They don't want to make this any messier than it's been, but the fact of the matter, there is no love lost between this White House and the New York governor.

VELSHI: And he was the lieutenant governor. He came into office when Eliot Spitzer suddenly resigned. So he was sort of an unlikely character for governor in the first place He was a long time legislator in the state of New York.

HENRY: That's right and let's not forget, New York is very close to Canada, which I know you're from and I brought this sweater, because of Canada winning last night against the U.S. hockey team. And I should give credit to Adam Lavine (ph), one of your fellow Canadians who works on national security unit here in the Washington bureau and Robert Gibbs yesterday placed a bet with the prime minister's press secretary, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper that if the Canadians won, Robert Gibbs would wear a sweater just like this to a press briefing. But we are being told it is not going to be the on-camera briefing unless he surprises us in the next few minutes of the briefing. It's going to be one of those gaggles that's off camera. Some people may think maybe he's weaseling out a little bit. But I think in fairness for Robert Gibbs, if he walks up to that White House podium with a Canadian sweater, I bet you there would be conservatives saying that was sort of an un-American White House. You know the kind of language --

VELSHI: I hear you. You are sort of -- you're cross national, so you can do that.

HENRY: I am honoring you both with a Canadian sweater and with the bio page. You've got all kinds of accolades. I didn't know how powerful you are, Ali.

VELSHI: You just thought I was a fun guy.

HENRY: You are a fun guy.

VELSHI: Thanks. The show is not the same without you, so we hope you're here with us every day.

HENRY: I appreciate you joining me show for a few moments.

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HENRY: it's my show and you don't even have your name on the show.

VELSHI: But you got your name on the segment. That's how we know he's here, "The Ed Henry Segment" every day at this time.

Ed, good to see you, my friend.

HENRY: Thanks Ali, have a good weekend.

VELSHI: We're going to continue to cover a number of stories, one of them that we've been covering for this whole show is in the last few days is that whale. This is the whale that killed its trainer on Wednesday. We're going to have more on the news that we heard a little while ago, a press conference from the CEO of SeaWorld in Orlando. Interesting press conference. I will tell you more about it when I come back.

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VELSHI: All right. JetBlue has canceled all of its flights because of a computer problem. They can't print any tickets.

Chad is following this. What have you got, Chad?

MYERS: What I have Ali is that from the FAA, ground stop from all of JBU, all JetBlue flights because of computer failure. That does not mean necessarily that they are cancelled. That means that they can't take off. We had 87 planes in the sky for a while; now we have 75. I have seen this little plane right there on the ground in Austin, on its way to Ft. Lauderdale not able to take off because of this computer failure. They are only saying it should last an hour, but we will see. Some of the computers don't come back up every once in a while for a while.

So we will watch it for you. All JetBlues, if you are trying to take off, you are going to be stuck there for a little while. If you are in the air, you are fine. There is no problem landing and there is nobody is in any danger.

VELSHI: It's not a safety problem, OK, good to know so don't worry about it. They are on it. We will bring you the up-to-date situation on what is happening with JetBlue.

Thanks, Chad.

When we come back, I'm going to give you the X-Y-Z on what to do with a killer whale. Stay with us.

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

By now you are probably aware of the tragedy that unfolded at SeaWorld on Wednesday. Trainer Dawn Brancheau killed by a whale named Tilikum. People are shocked, appalled, outraged, but not nonchalant. I haven't seen that reaction until today.

I was quite stunned this afternoon as we here at CNN aired a live news conference called by the CEO of SeaWorld, Jim Atchison. When he spoke, he was sterile, detached and at times defensive. Among his gems, Atchison deflected questions from a persistent reporter asking about two prior killings the whale had been involved in, as and I quote this, "not relevant to this altercation." Not relevant? In what world? And how exactly is this an altercation? Someone died.

Atchison seems to be intentionally avoiding important questions about whales in captivity and the safety of their handlers. He went on to ask for privacy for the SeaWorld family.

Let me tell you something. Privacy is a buffer that a family can ask for, a corporation can't. So it's a request that should be ignored entirely. All eyes should be on SeaWorld and the question of whales in captivity and this doesn't matter whether you're of the free the whales mentality or not.

The issue deserves discussion so Mr. Atchison, consider your request for privacy denied.

Let's take it over to "RICK'S LIST" now.