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Woman Tweets Abortion; Last Push for Health Reform; New TSA Chief Nominee

Aired March 08, 2010 - 10:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The top of the hour right now. We're getting conflicting reports about whether Adam Gadahn has been arrested. The American-born Gadahn is a mouthpiece for al Qaeda. Senior Pakistani government official says that Gadahn was arrested in Karachi but a U.S. intelligence official dismisses that report.

Retired General Robert Harding is President Obama's pick to run the TSA. That's according to an administration official. The nomination is expected to be announced today. The TSA has not had a permanent administrator since the end of the Bush administration. Harding spent 33 years in the Army, most recently headed a defense and intelligence contracting firm.

And if you think it's costing you more to fill your tank, you're right. Prices at the pump have jumped almost a dime a gallon over the past two weeks. Experts say it's got nothing to do with the demand, it's just gas prices catching up with the price of crude oil. A check of prices across the nation shows gas cheapest in Cheyenne, Wyoming, $2.47 a gallon. And most expensive, Honolulu.

Here's something you don't see and hear every day. An abortion play by play. Not exactly something to tweet about, is it? But Angie Jackson did. She actually put it on YouTube, too. Take a listen to the very public abortion that's got more than 125,000 YouTube hits.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGIE JACKSON, TWEETED HER ABORTION: Yes. I'm having an abortion right now. It's not that bad. It's not that scary. It's basically like a miscarriage. I'm live tweeting my abortion on Twitter. Not for some publicity stunt or attention or to justify this to myself. I am at peace with my decision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: So what motivated Angie to end her pregnancy? She says she used an IUD for birth control, but it failed. She also said that her pregnancy nearly killed her and her doctor told her not to have another child. So the 27-year-old Florida woman took the abortion pill RU-486, pulling this private information out there for everyone to see. And it's gotten a lot of reaction. Positive, negative, even threatening.

So why tweet about it? Angie joins me now live from Tampa. So, Angie, did it take a while to come to a comfort zone that you wanted to do this? Tell me how you eventually decided this is how I'm going to do it and I'm going to let everybody see it happen.

JACKSON: Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm a blogger, and I'm actually writing a book "Birth and Death, Life of a Newborn Cult" about my experiences. And a talk about a lot of controversial and hot button issues every day. So for me this wasn't even that different. This was just an extension of continuing to talk openly about taboo subjects in a way that just by sharing my own story allows other people to share theirs or to talk about how they feel.

PHILLIPS: Let's go ahead and look at another chunk of that live tweeting that you did as you were having an abortion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACKSON: Yes, it had the potential for that embryo to become a fetus, to become a person. Hypothetically. It could have been a person that was made up of my boyfriend and my DNA. But it was more likely to kill me. And you're not going to shame me, you're not going to silence me. I do not feel sorry that I saved my life. I do not feel sorry that I stayed here for myself, for my boyfriend, for my kid that I've already got.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: What did your doctor say was going to happen to you if you tried to carry that child?

JACKSON: Well, when I had my son who is four now, I had a tremendously difficult pregnancy and 98-hour back labor. My doctors advised me to avoid becoming pregnant again, which is why I had an IUD inserted in my cervix. However, there is no 100 percent effective form of contraception, not even tubal ligation or vasectomy. And so I had prepared that if I became pregnant anyway I would have an abortion because the risks were too high for me to continue a pregnancy.

PHILLIPS: As you well know, we've been looking at all the various comments, both negative and positive to what you did. These are really harsh. But people wrote in and said they called you all kinds of names from being a whore to someone who just couldn't keep her legs closed, they called you a baby killer. I mean, it's even hard for me to say these things because some of the e-mails and the responses were so brutal.

How did that make you feel? Did that bother you? Did it make you think twice about what you did?

JACKSON: Actually, if anything, it showed me more how important it is to talk about taboo things or to talk about personal things. About half of American women will have an unintended pregnancy before the age of 45. And one in three American women will have an abortion sometime during their childbearing years. And yet this is something we almost never talk about or at least we talk about the political aspects, but not the individual women.

Some of the heat that I've gotten has certainly showed me what the cost of that silence is. Is that when a woman does want to discuss it, she's - the reaction is quite strong.

PHILLIPS: What would you do if you got pregnant again?

JACKSON: Of course the goal is to avoid that. I mean, my health conditions have not changed. And if I was pregnant again, I would, of course, have another abortion.

PHILLIPS: Final question. What made you decide to do the RU- 486? Is that something you discussed with your boyfriend? How quick did you make that decision? Why that route?

JACKSON: Sure. I investigated - I looked at a couple of web sites, one of which is imnotsorry.net which includes a lot of personal abortion stories. And I read how different women had felt. I thought that the RU-486 abortion pill at home would be a more natural and comfortable experience. I was also too early in my pregnancy to be eligible for a surgical abortion. I was only four weeks. And so RU- 486 was the medically recommended choice.

PHILLIPS: Angie Jackson, very interesting. It definitely caught our attention. I actually didn't believe that you actually did it until I saw it. And it's pretty fascinating, the reasons that you have for doing it. And we're going to follow the video and the continued responses that you've gotten. You've also received a lot of support for what you did as well to sort of demystify what it's like to have an abortion.

Interesting. Angie Jackson, thanks for your time.

JACKSON: Thank you so much for having me.

PHILLIPS: All right. We heard Angie's story. Let's talk more about her method of abortion, this RU-486 pill. And joining us to talk more about that, also about getting access to it, the safety of it, CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen.

As you can imagine, we received a lot of response about even doing this story because abortion is such a controversial issue. And we really didn't want to get into a debate about abortion but rather look at what people are doing now, using social networking. And it brought about a lot of questions about RU-486 that we don't hear a lot about.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I think there's some confusion. People might think it's the morning after pill. But this is something very different. This is a way that you can have an abortion up until about nine weeks pregnant. That's according to planned parenthood. So up until nine weeks pregnant, you can use RU-486, which is also called Mifeprex.

It's basically a way to have an abortion via a drug rather than having a surgical abortion. And the way that it works is that a woman takes a pill that kills the pregnancy and then three days later she takes a pill that expels that pregnancy. So that's the way that it works.

PHILLIPS: What are the risks?

COHEN: There are some serious risks. About one in every 100,000 women who takes this has a fatal infection, a kind of infection called sepsis. So there are some serious risks. And that's why places like Planned Parenthood really spell it out on their web site that you take these pills at home as Angie Jackson just said but you have to follow up, usually about 14 days after you've started the process.

So this has to be medically supervised. You don't just go home and do it. You have to keep up with your doctor.

PHILLIPS: And a lot of people were confused that wrote in thinking it was illegal, but it is legal.

COHEN: It's legal.

PHILLIPS: She went to Planned Parenthood and got it.

COHEN: Right. It's legal. Planned Parenthood offers it. There are probably other people that offer it, too. But it's legal in all 50 states.

PHILLIPS: Elizabeth Cohen, thanks for the insight. Well, we want to know what you think. Just go to my blog, CNN.com/Kyra. Post your thoughts. We'll read some of those later in the hour.

The battle for health care reform. President Obama taking his campaign on the road in what may be his last ditch push for an overhaul. Let's get a preview of his speech next hour. CNN White House correspondent Dan Lothian, just outside Philly there, in Glenside, Pennsylvania, so what do you expect to hear from the president, Dan?

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I was talking to White House aides and they tell me what the president will be doing is essentially getting this big push outside of the beltway, reaching out to the American people. He'll let them know what health care reform will mean for them and also what it will mean for small business owners as well.

But one thing that aides are really touting today that the president will be focusing on is an analysis by Goldman Sachs that the White House says shows that premiums will continue to go up because big insurance companies have no incentive whatsoever because there's no competition at all. And so the president will be hitting hard not only on Wall Street, but also big insurance companies.

And in prepared excerpts that were released to us a few minutes ago, the president is expected to say, "they're OK with people being priced out of the health insurance because they'll still make more by raising premiums on the customers they have. And they will keep doing this for as long as they can get away with it." So we expect the president to have some harsh words, again, on those insurance companies.

They've been talking about that now for quite some time. Just last week at the White House, the president and his HHS secretary talking to these CEOs of insurance companies, telling them that they need to justify these rate increases. So we'll hear more of that here today as the president pushes for health care reform.

PHILLIPS: Well, obviously this crowd at Arcadia University from which you can tell is similar to what we've seen at previous health care speeches, right, Dan?

LOTHIAN: That's right. You know, it's a mix of some students here, you also have the typical - you know, the politicians who line up in the front row. But, you know, what's interesting here this time is that we saw some medical professionals coming in with their lab coats on. We saw that last week. They were next to the president at the White House. Last year we saw them in the Rose Garden for a health care event as well.

You know, I asked the White House aide about this last week, and he did not specifically address why they decided to do it. You know, this TV moment of putting them in these lab coats.

But what he did point out is that the president wants the American people to know that the medical professionals who are on the front lines every day who really see some of the downsides of a broken system as they see it, they support what the president is doing. And so they want to put them out there front and center so that the American people can see it.

PHILLIPS: All right, Dan. We'll follow it. Appreciate it. We're going to have live coverage actually of the president's speech this morning. It's due to get under way at the top of the hour, 11:00 Eastern, 8:00 Pacific.

Still ahead, a couple of stories on your wallet and your welfare. First up, a retired general may embark on a new mission. His job, keeping your safe the next time you fly.

It looks like it won't just be the temperature rising this summer. We're going to look at the grim outlook for rising gas prices.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hello again. I'm Rob Marciano. 57 degrees the high temperature expected in New York City. 62, getting over 60 in D.C. haven't done that since the end of January. Last month and a half has certainly been chilly. 69 degrees expected in Atlanta and 60 degrees in Dallas. We do have a storm that's coming into the plains and we do have a severe weather threat across the parts of the panhandle of Texas. I haven't said that in a while either. Much more weather details coming up in about 40 minutes. Stay tuned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Are we talking about that - are we plugging that broadcast? OK. Can we move to 14b? That would be great. There's a radical plan on the table right now in Kansas City, Missouri. The school district there might close almost half its schools. That proposal calls for closing 29 of 61 schools to deal with a $50 million budget short fall. Superintendents talking about cutting 700 jobs. That's more than a quarter of the payroll. The school board votes on that plan Wednesday.

And you can expect the community to have a lot to say about this plan before then. Superintendent John Covington with me now on the phone from Kansas City. Mr. Covington, do you see this plan passing?

JOHN COVINGTON, SUPT., KANSAS CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT (ON THE PHONE): Kyra, that's certainly our hope. We're working really hard to work with the board to make sure that they have all the information that they need. By Wednesday to ensure that they are able to deliver a favorable decision.

PHILLIPS: Well, what do you support? What do you think is the best thing to do right now? Nobody wants to see schools shut down.

COVINGTON: Well, that's true. Any time you talk about closing schools, whether it's two schools or 29, it's always an emotional issue for a school district and/or community. However, with us facing a $50 million shortfall we're going to have to do something that's really radical to keep schools open.

Right now we're spreading ourselves much too thin. As a result, the ineffective - or the education that we're providing to our young people is certainly ineffective.

PHILLIPS: Well, I was looking, and I understand that your district worked to make education a priority by improving the schools and you were integrating your districts. This resulted in Olympic- sized swimming pool, a recording studio, a lot of creative things that you put together for the students. So do you think maybe the district was a little too aggressive on its spending and now the students are suffering?

COVINGTON: Well, that happened almost 15 to 20 years ago, I guess, as a result of the desegregation case. Schools were given, you know, Olympic-sized swimming pools, recording studios in an attempt to recruit students back from the suburbs, back to the urban core. And that wasn't really successful.

And so as a result of that, and the school district received to do a lot of the things that it was able to do during that time, spent $2 billion on public education in Kansas City. And when you look at the amount of money spent and then compare that to measurable student academic achievement, those funds certainly didn't have an impact on student achievement.

Now we've come full circle and we're really having to make some changes to see to it that once and for all, the schools in Kansas City are transformed to the point where children can get what they need to be successful. PHILLIPS: But how do you do that if you shut down half of the public schools? What are you going to do with the children that attend these schools?

COVINGTON: Well, right now in terms of capacity, we are running about 61 percent of our elementary schools were utilizing the space there, we're utilizing about 40 percent in the middle schools and about 40 percent or less than that in our high schools. So it's not like our children won't have facilities to attend each day. It's just right now we're running double the capacity. Which is causing a tremendous strain on the school district's finances.

PHILLIPS: Well, you just don't want to see the children suffer and the strain on the students. John Covington, the superintendent there in Kansas City, Missouri. We'll definitely follow up on the story. Appreciate your time today, sir.

COVINGTON: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Identity crisis and the war on terror. Pakistan says they've captured an American-born member of Al Qaeda. The U.S. says no so fast. The latest on the confusion surrounding Azzam (ph), the American.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Vice President Joe Biden in the Middle East right now. He arrived in Jerusalem last hour. Israel is the first stop on that trip. Later the vice president will meet with Palestinian Authority leaders. Then it's on to Jordan. The stop in Egypt has been postponed.

Ben Franklin getting a facelift. The U.S. Treasury rolling out a new design for the 100-dollar bill next month. Of course, Franklin is still on the front. It's an effort to stay ahead of counterfeiters. We've already seen the same types of changes with the 5, 10, 20 and 50. The C-note is the largest bill in wide circulation.

Some information to the question that's long haunted human kind. Just exactly how did the dinosaurs become extinct? A team of scientists theorize it was the massive asteroid strike upon the earth 65 million years ago that led the dinosaurs' demise. The point to 125-mile wide, 24-mile deep crater in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula as the, "smoking gun."

Do they have them or don't they? We're talking about the uncertainty surrounding the reported arrest of Al Qaeda's American- born mouthpiece, Adam Gadahn. The Pakistanis say they got Gadahn and arrested him yesterday in Karachi.

As for the U.S.? Not so sure. Pakistan under intense pressure to capture Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders and as you may remember, Gadahn is a 31-year-old California native and Muslim radical. He's documented his extreme beliefs Al Qaeda videos espousing the terrorist's cause. There's a $1 million bounty on Gadahn's head, complements of the U.S. Justice Department. CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson has been on the story since the beginning. So, Nic, why all the mixed signals? And do we know yet for sure if indeed Gadahn is in custody?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, we don't know. I mean, what's really fascinating about all of this, of course, is that he released a new videotape just yesterday calling for more attacks on the United States. A rally to arms for Muslims telling them they don't need just to attack U.S. military bases but they can attack other places, other government buildings, other facilities, to be creative about how they do it.

So the very fact that he has a videotape espousing this radical view coming out the same day that he's reported to be captured is slightly surprising. But the two sources we have so far from the Pakistani government, senior sources, both say this is the man. That they've got him. There could be the possibility that there's been a confusion over the names and there is another American Al Qaeda member who's been captured in Karachi.

But as we've seen, the Pakistani government has been stepping up, particularly in Karachi, catching Afghan Taliban and now it seems, perhaps, an Al Qaeda member at least. It is puzzling. We haven't heard more from the Pakistani government today. Puzzling as well that we haven't heard more from U.S. officials.

But of course, when you get somebody like this, if you've got him, you really don't want to tell the world because you can use his information to your advantage. The longer you keep it secret and keep confusion around his arrest, the better it is for you to catch people like Bin Laden and others. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: It would be, though, significant for the U.S. and for Pakistani intel if, indeed, he was captured, right? There's a possibility of getting good information from him?

ROBERTSON: The very real possibility of getting very real and useful information. Actionable information that could lead to the arrest of others in a short space of time, information on Al Qaeda's courier networks, on the Taliban courier networks, on safe houses, on associates. Somebody like Gadahn would be an absolute trove of information. And this is information he may not reveal immediately but perhaps over time, even though he won't realize it.

He'll perhaps be asked to look at a picture of a certain person. And he will be able to say who that person is. That can then go in a pool of information that the FBI and others already have, and that can be used by them again on other operations. So even though he doesn't know the importance of the information he's providing, it's fitted into a big jigsaw, if you like.

One FBI official recently described it to me as each bit of information is a grain of sand. Out of those grains of sand we build a beach. So it is that way, pain staking, but small pieces of information corroborating other sources and allowing the targeting of other Al Qaeda figures or perhaps other Afghan Taliban figures as well, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Nic Robertson, keep us updated on the story. We appreciate it.

And attacking the interrogators in Pakistan. A suicide bomb attack in Pakistan's second biggest city targeted the special investigations agency. That's where they interrogate suspected militants. The blast in Lahore killed 11 people. 60 others were injured.

And let the count begin in Iraq. Millions of Iraqis cast their ballots in parliamentary elections over the weekend. The U.S. ambassador to Baghdad says the elections went very, very well. That happened despite dozens of attacks by insurgents aimed at keeping people from voting. President Obama offered these words of encouragement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We support the right of the Iraqi people to choose their own leaders. And I commend the Iraqi government for putting plans into place to ensure security and basic services for the Iraqi people during this time of transition. We know that there will be very difficult days ahead in Iraq. There will probably be more violence. But like any sovereign, independent nation, Iraq must be free to chart its own course.

No one should seek to influence, exploit or disrupt this period of transition. Now is the time for every neighbor and nation to respect Iraq's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: The first preliminary results are expected in a couple of days. But the transition President Obama was talking about could take weeks, even months.

Better late than never? President Obama makes his second choice to lead the transportation safety administration. We'll have a preview just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: We're learning more now about President Obama's latest choice to lead the Transportation Security Administration. CNN's Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve has a preview on the man that should be confirmed. That was a big problem for the president's last TSA nominee as we remember, Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This one - his name is Robert Harding. He's a retired Army major general. Had 33 years in the military. A lot of it focusing on intelligence. For four years he was director of operations at the Defense Intelligence Agency. Held a variety of other posts relating to intelligence including at one point coordinating counter drug strategy with various government agencies, including a couple of components of the Department of Homeland Security.

But on his resume we don't see any reference to aviation, any reference to transportation. Those, of course, the bailiwick of the TSA. It may be that in the wake of that Christmas day bombing attempt they want to get someone who's very strong on the intelligence side of the House. He certainly appears to have that, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We will follow up, definitely, on his appointment and his background. And we will take that live at noon as soon as it happens. Jeanne, I know you'll be following it as well.

Still ahead, a couple of stories about your money and the news may sting. We're going to tell you why you may need a little more patience waiting for your tax refund.

Then, more pain at the pump. Could we see a big spike in gas prices even before the summer? One expert says buckle up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Checking in on CNN.com in the News Pulse page. A lot of times we like to gauge what you're logging on to. The most popular stories right now. It's updated every 15 minutes. We like to fill in the gaps in case we haven't covered these stories for you.

Right now, it looks like online the most popular story, all about the Oscars. From the first story to the third to the fourth on down, you've got good writes on best actor, Jeff Bridges. Best actress, Sandra Bullock. Top movie, Hurt Locker. Goes to show a lot of interest about the war in Iraq, that specifically of the EOD, those guys that put out those roadside bombs on a regular basis. Most popular story right now, looks like it's all about the Oscars.

If you come down, still within the top 15, three ways to save money this spring. There you go. You can go to CNN.com, right there the News Pulse page for all the latest information. Every 15 minutes it's updated.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The early bird gets the worm, or so the saying goes. If you filed your taxes already, don't expect a refund right away. In fact, many states are delaying this year's refunds. Stephanie Elam in New York with the details. How long are people going to have to wait?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kyra, for some, it's going to be a few months at most. The issue here is really money. States are just running low on funds.

Hawaii is delaying its refunds until July 1st. North Carolina is slowing down its refund checks, but isn't giving a specific timeframe. New York, they're just saying delays are possible. And analysts say other states may be slowing down the process but are doing it quietly. In most states, you can check the department of taxation's Web site for an update on your individual refund. We are talking about the state refunds here, not the federal government, Kyra. PHILLIPS: All right. So, a lot of states have been given millions of dollars in federal stimulus money, right? So, hasn't that helped at all?

ELAM: Yes, sure. The problem is the budget problems that these states face are massive. The Center on Budget and Policy says budget short falls this year and next year could be close to $400 billion.

Unlike the federal government, states have to have balanced budgets. Most states have cut programs and are furloughing workers. But that just isn't going to be enough. The tax refunds give states a little more money to work with for now. Essentially, it's basically an interest-free loan that you're giving to the state and you don't get much say in it at all.

All right. Taking a look at what's going on on Wall Street. Not much going on today. Stocks rallied last week. We don't expect too much today, even though McDonald's did post a nearly 5 percent jump in February sales. That's got the stock up a little over 2 percent right now. As for the Dow, down four points, 10,561. NASDAQ up three at 23.29. Pretty much doing a little of that flat-line dancing, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Nothing like a little flat-line dancing. Can you compare it to break dancing in any way?

ELAM: Break dancing, that's when it's really volatile. Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Got it. I can picture it now. Thanks, Stephanie.

American motorists, buckle up. Gas prices could get ugly. We've already seen the national average climb ten cents a gallon over the last couple of weeks. The Lindberg (ph) survey shows prices around the country, and right now they're hovering around $2.75 a gallon. But brace yourself. There's already talk prices could shoot up to $3.50 a gallon by Memorial Day.

Let's get a closer look from chief business correspondent Ali Velshi in the CNN NEWSROOM by his favorite barrel.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The barrel is back.

PHILLIPS: The barrel is back. It's never left, Ali. It just kind of moves around the NEWSROOM.

VELSHI: It does. It moves around the NEWSROOM. I have not had an occasion to bring the barrel out until today, Kyra, partially because there's stuff going on, I want to tell you about with the price of oil and partially because you and I have more fun than most people.

Now, you know my producer is saying in New York -- you know I have, like, labels. Like metallic things that go on the barrel. He claims he sent them to Atlanta. I can't find them. So, we now have paper numbers.

I want to show you, here's the point. Gas prices, you just pointed out, up about 70 cents a gallon from a year ago. And we're in spring. We're in winter/spring. Not in the time when people actually start driving. There are a couple of things acting on the price of gas.

The biggest one is the price of oil. Not more demand for gas. We're not driving more, Kyra. The issue is, obviously gas moves with the price of oil. Check this out: $81.50 is where oil settled on Friday. We're not in a recession. But most people think we kind of are. Oil is $70 to $80 in a recession, Kyra. What happens when the economy is actually booming and we're not car pooling and not saving on how much we drive and we decide to drive big gas guzzlers again?

What's happening is as the economy starts to improve, a lot of speculators are saying, oil is going to get more expensive. There's going to be greater demand. There's greater demand in China and India. That's pushing the price of oil up.

Here's the bad news, Kyra. That 70 cent increase in the price of gas over the last year for a gallon or the 10 cent increase over the last two weeks? Most experts say that's not even fully factoring in this increase in the price of oil. The fact that oil is above $80 a barrel. When you said it could get up above $3 nationwide by Memorial Day, a lot of people think that's entirely, entirely possible.

PHILLIPS: And a lot of people right now, specifically have been talking about this because we haven't seen gas prices -- I mean, it's something we haven't been paying attention to. We haven't really seen it at a drastic rise. But just lately, all of us have been talking about, you know -- so bottom line, is this just one of those periods where we're getting ready for the holiday and this is kind of --

VELSHI: Right. We do ramp up. It's a little early.

PHILLIPS: Spring break, right?

VELSHI: You do definitely see it. It tends to get high around memorial day. The ramp-up has been a little early. What you can contribute that to is more the price of oil than anything. We've been actually checking whether people are driving more or buying more gas. Absolutely not.

So, as you recall from a few years ago, Kyra, the price of gas is not just a supply-and-demand thing. It's supply and demand plus what people think the raw material, crude oil, is going to cost in the future. And it's that combination.

But I would say the simplest way to explain this is that as the economy starts to improve, the thinking is that the demand for gas and oil will improve and that's why we're seeing this increase. Maybe that's good news. I don't know.

PHILLIPS: Okay. We'll track it. Thanks, Ali.

VELSHI: I'm going to take my barrel back to my desk now.

PHILLIPS: You take your barrel and hit it, all right?

An abortion is one of the most private acts a woman can experience. But Angie Jackson went online to talk about it. She actually tweeted while it was happening. We've asked your opinion. We're going to read some of your e-mails.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Two information technology workers at a suburban Philadelphia school district accused of using school-issued laptops to spy on students have now been put on paid leave. The school district says that the move should not be considered a reflection upon the employees. The case is part of a current FBI wiretap investigation.

A brazen robbery live on TV. It happened at a poker tournament in Berlin, Germany. You can actually see the players scramble when the four thieves stormed in with guns and machetes. They made off with part of $1.6 million in the jackpot. Police described it as an amateurish robbery and say the thieves should be easy to find, though they haven't caught them yet.

Embattled New York governor David Paterson says he isn't going anywhere despite growing calls for his resignation. Paterson telling parishioners of a Brooklyn church yesterday he won't be distracted from the job at hand.

(COUGHS)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. DAVID PATERSON (D), NEW YORK: I don't have any plans to resign. I am working on the business of the people of New York state, the most urgent of which is that we pass a budget that's deficit has now ballooned to $9.1 billion. And at a certain point, I will cooperate with the investigations and will be clearing my name.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Governor Paterson is the focus of two separate state ethics probes. He says he's the victim of rumor, innuendo, gossip and absolute lies.

A three-month-old starved to death. Her parents too busy to care. You won't believe what they were doing instead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A deadly addiction. Not drugs or alcohol, but the Internet. And in one heartbreaking case, it cost a helpless infant her life. CNN's Rosemary Church has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The charges are shocking. Police say a Korean couple allowed their three- month-old daughter to starve to death. South Korean media quote police as saying the couple ignored their dying child while raising a virtual child online. The virtual girl was named Anema, a character in an online role-playing game.

Police say while the couple was spending stretches of up to 12 hours at Internet cafes, their real-life child was at home dying. Authorities say in between visits to the cafe, they bottle fed their daughter once a day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wish that she hasn't gotten sick and will live well in heaven forever. As the father, I'm sorry. CHURCH: Police say the two were unemployed and apparently had lost the will to live a normal life. The 41-year-old man and his 25- year-old wife were arrested and are now in hiding.

While the crime shocked South Korea, the story of Internet addiction surprises no one. South Korea is one of the most connected countries on Earth. At least 90 percent of home have access to high- speed Internet. And almost one-third of adolescents are considered to be at risk for Internet addiction. The government has built a network of Internet addiction treatment centers to fight the epidemic; an epidemic that may have claimed more victims.

Rosemary Church, CNN, Atlanta.

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PHILLIPS: This brings us now to today's blog question. What do you think about a Florida woman's decision to live tweet her abortion? Here's what some of you have been saying.

Amy said, "I believe it's her personal choice. It's every woman's personal choice. I don't personally agree with abortion, but do believe certain situations call for it." Jessica says, "People need to understand not all women can or should have children. How horrible would it have been for her to have died in childbirth, leaving her four-year-old motherless?"

this comes from S.B. "If she has no intention of having any more children, why doesn't she just get her tubes tied? It's an extremely sad publicity stunt she will one day regret."

Remember, we want to hear from you. Logon to CNN.com/kyra and share your comments.

It's the little movie that could. "The Hurt Locker" beats out box office powerhouses to take Oscar gold. We'll check out the other big Oscar winners in just nine minutes.

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PHILLIPS: We've got the threat of severe storms from four corners out West, right? All the way to the southern Gulf coast?

(WEATHER REPORT) PHILLIPS (off-mike): All right, Rob. Thanks.

She shares her moment in the sun with her husband. And we watch it unfold.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MO'NIQUE, 2009 BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS WINNER: To my amazing husband, Sidney, thank you for showing me that sometimes you have to forego doing what's popular in order to do what's right. And, baby, you were so right.

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PHILLIPS: Mo'nique was just one of the winners at the Oscars. We're going to tell you about some other surprises last night, too.

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PHILLIPS: A family of a preschooler at a catholic school in Colorado will have to find a plan B. The child won't be allowed to attend next year because the child's parents are lesbians. The priest says he chose to protect the faith over doing what would have looked like the loving thing to do. So, there you have it. Punish the child. Some Catholics protested the decision.

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COLLEEN SCANLAN LYONS, PARENT: I have a daughter here that goes to school at Sacred Heart. I've had 16 years of Catholic education. This just reached the core of my being as completely wrong. And against the teachings of Jesus.

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PHILLIPS: The priest says that he believes that his church has every right to make these kinds of decisions.

President Obama pitching health care reform ahead of a vote in the House. Just a few minutes from now, he's going to make the first of several planned speeches around the country. You can watch it live right here.

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PHILLIPS: So, you couldn't stay up for the big Oscar winners? Not a problem. We'll run them down for you. Best picture, "The Hurt Locker." The Iraq war drama was not a box office success but was a big hit with the critics. Its director, Kathryn Bigelow, becomes the first woman to win a best director Oscar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHRYN BIGELOW, WINNER OF BEST DIRECTOR OSCAR: There's no other way to describe it. It's the moment of a lifetime. First of all, this is so extraordinary to be in the company of such -- my fellow nominees, such powerful filmmakers who have inspired me and I have admired for -- some of them for decades.

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PHILLIPS: Best actor, famous name in Hollywood, Jeff Bridges. Jeff thanks his actor parents after taking to the stage last night. He received the award for his portrayal for a washed-up country singer in "Crazy Heart." Sandra Bullock won Best Actress for her role in "The Blind Side." She actually plays a woman who adopts a homeless child who goes on to become an extremely successful football player. True story.

And Oscar also shined on Mo'nique, Best Supporting Actress for her role as an abusive mother in "Precious."

Tony, did you see all those movies?

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Man, you know what? I moved recently. I have no cable. I have no television. But I -- you know what? Life is pretty good. I'm just saying I'm really happy for Mo'nique today. She's a Baltimore girl. That performance in "Precious," -- wooo, just thinking about it.

PHILLIPS: All those movies. Jeff Bridges was amazing in "Crazy Heart"-

HARRIS: Oh, yeah.

PHILLIPS: -- such a good story. Sandra Bullock just hit it on the mark.

HARRIS: I think I saw that movie two or three times. It's that good.

PHILLIPS: I love a true story.

HARRIS: Yes, isn't that something? Have a great day, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Tony.

HARRIS: Have a great day, Kyra. See you tomorrow. Welcome back.