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Schools Face Big Cuts; The Massa Mess; Prius Owner's Nightmare Story
Aired March 10, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Let's take a look at our top stories right now.
U.N. and Iraqi officials now say the first results from Sunday's elections should be released tomorrow. Election officials had hoped to have some results out by today. The complicated ballot is slowing things down -- 6,200 candidates are up for 325 seats in parliament.
Build it now; that was the rallying cry of hundreds of construction workers at Ground Zero yesterday. They want a faster pace for the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site. A Friday deadline is set to work out a new rebuilding schedule. A money dispute is holding up part of that project.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIC MASSA (D), FMR. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: I can't fight that, represent my district and run for re-election and the health care bill and, oh, by the way, I may have cancer. I've got to prioritize my life. But here's what it's about. I took responsibility for my life because clearly somebody, somebody on my staff thought that I did not deserve to be in Congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: He's had some explaining to do but ex-congressman Eric Massa's reasons for retiring still confuse more than actually clarify. At various times over the last week Massa had pointed to health reasons, a Congressional ethics probe and fellow Democrats wanting him out because of his health care reform stand. Then there are the allegations that he sexually harassed staffers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, CNN HOST: You said, quote, "Not only did I grope him, I tickled him until he couldn't breathe and then four guys jumped on top of me." So you did grope someone, right?
MASSA: So -- Larry, when you grab someone and you're wrestling, I don't know how to describe that word. So, if that's -- if that's the word that you want to have an entire debate about, then I can't stop you.
KING: No, I'm just asking the -- you said you groped.
MASSA: Yes, you know --
KING: A lot of people associate groping with sexual.
MASSA: Well, it wasn't sexual, period.
KING: OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Hours before his Larry King interview, Massa is saying a different tune to Fox news's Glenn Beck saying that he did grope a male staffer.
And actor Cory Haim has died possibly of a drug overdose. That's what Los Angeles Police are saying right now. Haim was 38 years old. You might remember him from '80s movies like "License to Drive" and "The lost Boys." He co-starred with Cory, Cory Feldman, in several movies and a reality show as well.
Making tough choices on education. Across the country we're hearing the same story, communities forced to make big cuts. We saw the protests last week during a nationwide day of action. Students and parents upset over the fate of their schools.
Here's an example. In Kansas City today, they're voting on a plan to close half the schools in the district and let hundreds of teachers go.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN COVINGTON, SUPERINTENDENT, KANSAS CITY, MO. SCHOOL DISTRICT: Right now making these cuts is the only recourse that we have. It's a decision, although it's painful, it's a decision that I'm hoping that my school board is going to make on Wednesday. We can't operate a school district at half capacity in terms of student enrollment.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: We're talking about public primary and secondary schools. Kansas City is not alone in this by a long shot. Jeanne Allen is here to talk about the uncertainty facing schools and possible solutions. Jeanne is president of the Center for Education Reform.
Good to see you.
JEANNE ALLEN, PRESIDENT, CENTER FOR EDUCATION REFORM: Good morning, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: OK. Well, is this appropriate or extreme when we talk about closing half of the public schools in a single district?
ALLEN: It is actually one of the best things we could be doing for kids in our country today.
WHITFIELD: Why? ALLEN: Because for far too long we have tolerated not just mediocrity but failure and the superintendent, you just heard from, in Kansas City like so many around the country are finally saying something they should have said a long time ago - enough is enough. This is not about adult jobs. If we want a jobs program, let's talk to Congress.
Education is about educating. And the reason you have fewer than half the schools in Kansas City at capacity is because the schools have been bad for so long, not because of the kids, because the quality of education just hasn't been good.
WHITFIELD: But then do you worry about the kids, the fate of the kids? Where do they go to school if half of the schools are closed? Doesn't that mean putting them in the remaining schools, crowded classrooms? How is that a solution?
ALLEN: No, actually it's an opportunity to rethink education and we can do it right now today. What the superintendents have to do is they have got to rethink who goes to what school. Why do we send kids to school based on zip code? Maybe we need to give parents an opportunity to engage in the process, Fredricka, by choosing schools that best meet the needs of their kids.
That's actually one of the reasons half the schools in traditional public schools in Kansas City have to close, because 29 percent of public school students went to places like charter schools. Some went to private schools. Others left the city in search of better education.
And those who couldn't or didn't know about their choices stayed stuck in those schools not working. So what's education about? It's not about jobs, it's not about staff, it's about kids and we can do this right, right now today in Kansas City, in Rhode Island, in Atlanta, and if we don't do it we're going to be facing even a higher dropout rate than we already have which is bumping up against 40 percent nationwide.
WHITFIELD: OK. So if you eliminate half of the schools, it also means a decision has to be made about what teachers to let go, what teachers to keep. How do parents or even school kids get any kind of reassurance, the same system that's closing the schools or have allowed them to stay open, you know, fire or hire, et cetera, they're making the decisions about which teachers perform the best, which ones need to stay?
ALLEN: That's exactly right.
WHITFIELD: How can parents trust the system?
ALLEN: That's exactly right. They actually have no reason, not very much reason today to trust the system because their kids are not doing very well at all. And when it comes to a new resurrection like this, if you will, the public school system, what an opportunity to say who's the best? Who teaches English the best? Who really knows math? Who loves the kids and loves history and can put those things together?
And by the way, let's not just hire them because they have some ironclad union contract, let's hire them because they know and they're willing to be paid for performance. We need to be rewarding teachers for success.
WHITFIELD: And so what kind of timetable do you attach to this? How does a parent or a student kind of measure progress? In a year we need to start seeing performance, you know, grades go up. I mean -
ALLEN: Right.
WHITFIELD: How do you know it's working and for how long?
ALLEN: Right. And we have state standards, we have district wide tests and they have local tests. The bottom line is those kids when they go back to school in September, which hopefully will be because their school is now set up designed to help them and they're accountable for results. In one year you should see your kid going from level X to level Z or level A to level H.
You need to expect, if you're a parent, progress every year. If your child is not making progress, the vast majority, 99 percent of the time, it's not because your child can't learn, it's because they're not being taught.
WHITFIELD: Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform, thanks so much for your time. I appreciate it.
ALLEN: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: At least one group of students doesn't support the pink slip approach to education reform. Central Falls High School students in Rhode Island held a candlelight protest last night. Remember this school? It's where the superintendent fired all the teachers and ordered no more than half be rehired. Students say this reform plan is taking a toll on them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: To lose one teacher in 2009, the soul of the school, part of it was taken away. Now to lose 50 percent or even more than that, I really don't know where these students would be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: The superintendent is sticking by her decision. She points to the fact that the school didn't graduate half of its seniors last year.
Firing teachers in Rhode Island, a plan to close 29 out of 61 schools in Kansas City. Radical steps to improve student performance? What do you think? We're talking about these controversial moves on the blog this morning. And we want to know what you think. Go to cnn.com/Fredricka and post your comments. I'll read some of those comments on the air in the next hour. Terrorism takes root in the suburbs. Federal prosecutors say a Pennsylvania woman used the online name "Jihad Jane" to recruit terrorists for overseas attacks. They say that she even planned to carry out one high profile assassination herself. CNN Homeland Security correspondent Jeanne Meserve joins us now with more on this developing story -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, the government alleges that there were other people involved. The indictment mentions five unindicted co-conspirators and quotes electronic communications with some of them about the murder plot but also about recruitment to jihad and fund-raising.
We've been told by law enforcement sources that her arrest last October was kept under wraps to protect an investigation, and yesterday seven people were arrested in Ireland, reportedly for targeting the same individual, the Swedish artist Lars Vilks, whose cartoons of the prophet Mohammed on the body of a dog led Al Qaeda to put a price on his head.
A government source familiar with the case said Larose was in contact with committed jihadists in south Asia, eastern and western Europe but this indictment does not mention any association with a specific terror group. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And so what more can you tell me about who is this woman exactly?
MESERVE: She's 46 years old, blonde, green eyed, a convert to Islam according to a law enforcement source. We know that before moving to Pennsylvania, she lived in Texas. In 1997 she was arrested there for drunk driving. There was a warrant for her arrest for writing bad checks. She was prolific online, according to the indictment.
In one YouTube posting she called herself "Jihad Jane" and said she was desperate to do something to help the suffering of the Muslim people. CNN has also learned that Colleen Larose was a subscriber to the YouTube channel of the radical U.S.-based Muslim revolution.com, but how and why she became radicalized we just don't know the answer to that yet. Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: All right, Jeanne Meserve. Thanks so much from Washington.
Colleen Larose may have been known as "Jihad Jane" on the internet, but how did her neighbors know her? We spoke to some of them in Pennsburg, Pennsylvania.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILLIE JO SOGRO, COLLEEN LAROSE'S NEIGHBOR: It was two years ago that my kids were at their Halloween party. She was kind of weird. I mean she looked nice, but then there was a strange vibe that you got from her.
It was something about her that just irritated me. I got my kids, I didn't want my kids to be there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: We're staying on top of this story. CNN crews are out working their sources. As soon as we uncover more details about "Jihad Jane," we'll bring them to you.
We're also hearing more about that scary Prius ride in California straight from the man behind the wheel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello. This is 911. Do you have an emergency?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My car can't slow down.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Well, the wild ride ended. The story however keeps going. The driver shows us exactly what happened.
And Michael Vick says he's moved on, but it looks like his past isn't going anywhere
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center. We have a severe weather threat not only across parts of Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana but right now a severe thunderstorm watch for the Dallas-Ft. Worth metroplex. Weather is coming up.
Stay right there. CNN NEWSROOM is coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, the connection between sex and longer life.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I looked at my body floating in the water and imagined I was a beautiful nurse. I knew this was wrong. I was a boy not a girl.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: A private choice with very public consequences. CNN's broadcast premiere of "Her name was Steven," Saturday and Sunday night, 8:00 Eastern time.
"I can't slow down." Desperate words to a 911 operator from a California man. He said the accelerator on his Toyota Prius got stuck, sending him on a terrifying ride.
CNN's Ted Rowlands pick up the story outside San Diego.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): We're with Jim Sikes, the gentleman who was in his 2008 Prius down here in San Diego County when it went out of control saying that the accelerator, Jim, apparently just sort of took on a life of its own.
JIM SIKES, PRIUS OWNER: Correct.
ROWLANDS: Explain, what happened?
SIKES: That's exactly what happened. I was actually heading east on interstate 8 in San Diego and I pushed the gas a little extra, in fact very hard to pass a car that was coming on the freeway. And as I did that, it just - the gas pedal felt kind of weird and it just went all the way to fast.
ROWLANDS: Then you called 911?
SIKES: Yes.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, 911 CALL)
911 OPERATOR: This is 911. Do you have an emergency?
SIKES: My car, I can't slow down.
911 OPERATOR: You can't slow it down?
SIKES: No.
911 OPERATOR: What kind of car are you in? I heard a Toyota. What color is it?
SIKES: Blue?
911 OPERATOR: Blue.
SIKES: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: What kind of Toyota? What kind of Toyota?
SIKES: Prius.
911 OPERATOR FEMALE: A Prius.
SIKES: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: And what's going on, is your accelerator stuck?
SIKES: Yes.
911 OPERATOR: Yes.
SIKES: Yes, yes. (END AUDIO CLIP)
SIKES: I was actually going around cars and came close to hitting one semi truck. And I was speeding up faster at that time. I was in the 80s somewhere. And I kept hitting the brakes, kept hitting the brakes, and it wasn't slowing down at all. It was just accelerating.
ROWLANDS: What was the sensation like?
SIKES: It was an odd sensation. I felt it in my foot. I pushed the pedal and it just kind of felt like it just moved on its own. That's the only way I can describe it. It moved on its own and then took over. It was pushing harder than I was.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP, 911 CALL)
SIKES: I'm trying to control the car.
911 OPERATOR: OK. Have you tried to put the car in neutral?
SIKES: No.
911 OPERATOR: Can you try that?
(END AUDIO CLIP)
ROWLANDS: You didn't try to put it into neutral.
SIKES: No. I was afraid to try to put it in neutral. I was holding onto the steering wheel with both hands, 94 miles an hour in a Toyota Prius is fast.
ROWLANDS: Why didn't you turn the car off earlier?
SIKES: Because it wasn't safe. Those are very windy roads and I didn't know if I hit the button if the steering wheel would lock or if the wheels on the car would lock.
ROWLANDS: Is there any doubt in your mind that the floor mats had nothing to do with what happened?
SIKES: The floor mat had nothing to do with yesterday's event, period. The floor mat didn't move. I won't drive that car again. I mean I have no problem with Toyota, just I won't drive the Prius. There's obviously a problem that needs to be corrected.
ROWLANDS: Jim Sikes' Toyota Prius right now is at this Toyota dealership in El Cajon, California, just outside San Diego. Toyota released this statement saying they are sending a technician here to take a look at the car and to help out in any way they can. Meanwhile the U.S. Department of Transportation is also sending inspectors here to not only look at the car but also to meet with Jim Sikes, to hear about his ordeal.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, El Cajon, California. (END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: A Toyota spokesman issued a statement Monday night. It said the automaker had been notified of the incident and has sent a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the report and to offer some help. Toyota has recalled more than eight million vehicles since January, including some Prius models, but the company said the Priuses might have breaking issues, not acceleration problems.
Clarence Ditlow is executive director of the Center for Auto Safely. He is joining us now from Washington. Good to see you.
CLARENCE DITLOW, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR AUTO SAFETY: Good to see you.
WHITFIELD: OK. So this driver says, you know, there is a problem that needs to be corrected. Is he right? Does this mean the recall perhaps need to be expanded as a result of this latest incident?
DITLOW: There's several issues here. First of all, the recalls are proving to be ineffective because there's at least 60 consumers that have gone in for repairs and then have had sudden acceleration incidents after the repair has been made to the vehicle.
So the issue for this Prius is it needs a better recall than the one that it has, which is just for the floor mat.
WHITFIELD: OK. So let's take a look. We're talking about eight million Toyotas that have already been recalled for everything from the floor mat, we're talking the brake problems, accelerator problems, these are all the vehicles, fairly, you know, late model Toyota vehicles with these various problems. And you're saying in large part the fixes have been completely ineffective. Does that mean recalling these eight million vehicles again?
DITLOW: Yes. Toyota is eventually going to have to recall all of the vehicles again to take care of electronic problems in them. Because when you look at it, they fixed the accelerator pedal, they fixed the floor mat, they fixed the brake on the 2010 Prius, but what they haven't fixed is the electronic controls.
WHITFIELD: And you do believe that that is a problem that is being underscored right now?
DITLOW: We do. The Toyota vehicles are one of the most complex vehicles on the road today. They all have one common theme, advanced electronic controls. And that's where the inspection and the focus ought to be, on the electronic controls, not the floor mats.
WHITFIELD: Is it your feeling that Toyota has known about this problem for a long time and is only now addressing this issue, rather late in the game?
DITLOW: Yes. As soon as Toyota introduced the electronic throttle control in the 2002 model year, complaints shot up fourfold, insurance claims shot up on the vehicles and so the one common theme is electronic throttle controls and sudden acceleration go hand in hand.
WHITFIELD: Is it your feeling that people with any of these vehicles should stay off the road or do you feel like it's an anomaly, that there may be a problem here and there but everyone who has a Toyota that may be on that recall list really might be safe to drive their vehicles.
DITLOW: Yes. Two things for consumers. One, go in and get the floor mat recall done because that can cause some incidents. Number two, practice shifting into neutral in that vehicle and get it out of gear so that the power is cut off to the wheels. The individual in San Diego was not able to do that or he could have brought it to a control much sooner.
WHITFIELD: And use of the hand brakes still once you put the vehicle in neutral?
DITLOW: You use the brakes - the service brakes should do it if you shift into neutral. If you can't get it into neutral, apply the hand brake and the service brake as the Prius owner did, but above all else, I mean you really need to put pressure on Toyota if you see any glitch in the electronics, complain, take it in, have an inspector look at it.
WHITFIELD: Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, thanks for your time.
DITLOW: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: Michael Vick, the profile in courage being honored by his teammates and the NFL, but the award isn't sitting well with animal rights activists.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now. In Haiti, one relief mission winds down today. The hospital ship "USNS Comfort" will leave the earthquake ravaged country. Over the course of seven weeks, the ship's military and civilian medical personnel treated nearly 900 people. Land-based hospitals in Haiti have now taken the lead.
And a sex tape supposedly showing John Edwards could land his former aide in jail. A judge is giving Andrew Young until Friday to explain what he did with the tape. He wants to know if there are still any copies that haven't been turned over to the court. The judge says there are discrepancies with Young's account. Young is being sued by John Edwards' mistress, Rielle Hunter.
And Michael Vick honored as a positive role model. Animal rights protesters showed up at the awards ceremony in Baltimore. Vick, of course, served time in prison for his involvement in dog fighting, but he says he has moved forward. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL VICK, EAGLES QUARTERBACK: I feel like I've done everything that I said I would do coming out and moving forward. And that's most important to me. And my peers felt like I was doing the right thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Vick's teammates on the Philadelphia Eagles picked him for the courage award. Each NFL team picked a representative.
A taste of spring in late winter in western Oklahoma. A tornado wipes out four homes and a barn near Hammon.
And the man who pointed the finger at David Letterman is pointing a finger now at himself.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Say it isn't so. Snow in Las Vegas? Well, it happened yesterday in the southwest portion of the Las Vegas Valley. Take a look at those images right there. The snow left roads slick and snarled traffic. In parts of Oklahoma, they're assessing the damage after a tornado touched down Monday near Hammon. Storm chasers captured the twister as it shattered buildings and picked up debris. Oh, my, aren't they close. No injuries were reported in all of this. Some wacky weather now just about everywhere as spring makes its arrival, Rob.
MARCIANO: Yes, and that energy that came out of Oklahoma with that tornado that touched down in Hammon remarkably is now kind of slowing down, kind of weakening. It's going to team up with something that's going on, another piece of energy that's coming out of the Rockies. This time of year the jet stream is still moving pretty fast and we still have a lot of cold air left over from winter, so we get things moving quickly and we can get severe weather breakouts one day after another.
Here's what's left over of that storm that rolled through Oklahoma. Some rains in Minneapolis, back through Chicago. We're starting to see those taper off and spreading out towards Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., but this isn't really amounting to a whole lot. So it's beginning to kind of spin itself out with the exception of the southeast, where we're starting to see a fair amount of rain. Actually we've been seeing it for about four hours now from Birmingham to Montgomery, back up through Atlanta.
Rain of the moderate and in some cases heavy variety so some localized flooding is going to be the case here for the next couple of hours before we start to see this thing wind itself out. Once it does, we'll get in some clearing and then the next piece of energy, which is coming out of the Rockies and spinning in through Texas.
This is one that's really moving and already we are seeing a storm prediction center watch boxes for severe thunderstorm watch that's in effect until 3:00 local time and already we're seeing a thunderstorm roll through, about to hit Ft. Worth. It will get through northern Dallas and Denton in the next probably about 30 minutes, Fredricka, so that's our next batch of weather that we're watching in through Dallas. It will move through Arkansas and eventually in through Louisiana and Mississippi as well.
So that's the latest from here. We'll keep you posted as these storms roll across the U.S.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Rob. I know you spent a little bit of time in Florida, as have I, especially in south Florida. Lots of draw bridges, intercoastal waterways, et cetera. Well, trouble on this one right here.
Images from our affiliate, WSVN. This is Pompano Beach. And this is the east Atlantic Boulevard Drawbridge. A little difficult to see here but you see that crane to the right, a ladder from the fire department. Yes, those are workers right there. They're actually stuck. Live pictures right now, stuck at the top of the drawbridge.
The service people were doing some work on the bridge, somehow it got stuck there and they are stuck very high above the Intercoastal Waterway there and now a rescue is under way. It looks like they're all calm, cool and collected but you see the firefighter on the ladder there and somehow trying to negotiate those workers getting off that drawbridge that is stuck open. Nicer view there of what we're looking at.
You can see it's a pretty sizeable drop, pretty scary stuff there. But right now rescue efforts under way and those service workers who are about to be rescued look like they are quite content and calm there, no panic that we can see from this live picture. Much more on that effort as we get the information.
Now, a message for the insurance companies. President Barack Obama is back on the road today, pitching his health care plan to the people. We'll take you there live.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A funny thing happened on the way to the laundry room. A sudden act of motherhood. One woman has a baby, and it came right out of left field, apparently. That's right, she had no idea that she was pregnant.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: This afternoon, President Barack Obama takes his health care reform pep talk back on the road. The destination, America's heartland. CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux is live with a preview. So, Suzanne, what should we expect to hear. Anything different today?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Fred, we're definitely going to hear fired up, ready to go. That's something the president is going to resurrect from his campaign days. It's not surprising this is all going to sound, look and feel like a campaign event. It's the same thing we saw in Philly just on Monday. He's really trying to give a sense of urgency here to get Congress to pass health care reform legislation. He is trying to rally a populous message, if you will, this message against the insurance companies. Those big premium hikes that he has been rallying people against, trying to make sure that this is something that members of Congress feel pressure to deal with this in an urgent manner.
He's also going to be addressing this new initiative, talking about providing some support for private auditors to take on the fraud and the waste in dealing with Medicaid and Medicare. All of these things, Fred, really meant to put pressure on members of Congress to get something done in the next two weeks or so. There is still a lot of back and forth in that. It's far from certain that this is going to work, but this is certainly part of a two-prong strategy the White House is fully engaged in.
Fred, one of the things that is happening as we speak, the secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius, she is addressing a group of insurance lobbyists here in Washington, D.C., for their annual conference. We've just gotten some excerpts of her remarks. She has been meeting with these insurance heads for the last couple of weeks, putting pressure on them to change their practices.
One of the things she's going to address this group, she's going to say you have a choice. You can choose to continue your opposition to reform or, she says, you have another choice. You can choose to take the millions of dollars you have stored away for your next round of ads to kill meaningful reform and use them to start giving Americans some relief from their skyrocketing premiums. That's going to be the message from the Health and Human Services secretary, Kathleen Sebelius today. It's also going to be the message of the president.
Clearly, they are trying to find something that resonates with the American people so Congress can move forward on this legislation. Fred, very much the next two weeks is a critical window for this administration to see whether or not this is going to get done. Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Suzanne Malveaux. Thanks so much from the White House.
And of course you can see the president's health care reform pep talk today in St. Louis live as it happens right here on CNN. It's expected to begin just after 4:30 Eastern time.
You know how sometimes you swipe your debit card and the transaction goes through, even though you don't have enough money in your account? Well, it sounds convenient on the surface until the fees start to snowball and your two-dollar coffee becomes a $200 coffee.
Well, those kinds of debit days are over.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look at our Top Stories right now.
The criminal case involving David Letterman has been settled, and someone is going to jail. Former CBS news producer Robert Halderman was accused of trying to blackmail the talk show host over sexual affairs Letterman had with female employees. Halderman pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny and will serve six months in jail and perform community service.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT HALDERMAN, DEFENDENT: Again, I apologize to Mr. Letterman, his family, to Stephanie Burkett, her family, and certainly to my friends and family. I will not be doing any interviews, and I thank you all for your patience.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID LETTERMAN, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": Talk to you about a segment of my life here that began six months ago. I found myself in some legal trouble and pretty quickly it was turned over to the district attorney's office here in Manhattan.
Now, I had never been involved in anything like this in my life, and I was concerned and full of anxiety and nervous and worried. The people in the district attorney's office said this will be handled professionally, this will be handled skillfully and appropriately. Well, the matter was resolved today, and they were exactly right. It was handled professionally, skillfully and appropriately.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Separately Halderman admitted he tried to extort $2 million from letterman to keep quiet. Halderman says he was outraged that Letterman had an affair with his former live-in girlfriend.
And a Kentucky mom might have been a couple of minutes late picking up her son from school. Well, she had a last-minute chore at home. Childbirth. She delivered her brand new son right there in the house alone, cut the umbilical cord herself. And get this. She said she didn't even know she was pregnant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY BOTTOM, MOTHER: I was on the pill. I was -- my monthly as normal. And I had lost a lot of weight, like 40 pounds, so I just thought I was gaining all that back. I'm just trying to get used to having another one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Wow! The little surprise is doing just fine. Get this, mom didn't go directly to the hospital, she actually picked up her other son from school first. Glad everyone is healthy and happy. New hope for troubled 20-somethings, now about to move beyond their past transgressions and into the workforce. All thanks to a new program helping to build up America. CNN's Tom Foreman takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Out on the east edge of Austin, rebuilding America starts with rebuilding lives.
Meet the latest class of the Skill Point Alliance Construction Gateway. Funded by city and county tax dollars, this is an innovative five-week training program to turn the unemployable into the employed.
(On camera): It's a big deal to you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. A very big deal. This is the beginning of the rest of my life.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm excited, even though it's really intense.
FOREMAN (voice-over): The target is individuals over the age of 18 who ought to be entering the workforce but who have little hope of doing so because they dropped out of school or wound up in jail or had some other problem.
Sean Gomez, for example, had been in and out of prison for robbery by the time he was 25.
SEAN GOMEZ, GATEWAY CONSTRUCTION: There was no work. It was nonexistent, I mean, to me. For people like myself.
SYLVESTRE VILLARREAL, SKILLPOINT ALLIANCE: Yet if you follow the basics and always do the basic right, everything else falls in place.
FOREMAN: But then he ran into Sylvestre Villarreal, who recruits students for the Construction Gateway Program, scouring homeless shelters, unemployment lines.
VILLARREAL: I look for two things in a student that I feel that will benefit from this, and the second one, which is just as important, is an individual that is going to be a good employee.
FOREMAN: Once in, they are taught the boot camp basics of construction work -- showing up on time, doing what you're told, the language of tools, and rules of building. All with the goal of helping not just them but the broader community, too. TOM SERAFIN, SKILLPOINT ALLIANCE: We need new people coming in the pipeline, and one of the things that Construction Gateway does is that. Fills the pipeline with entry-level construction workers.
FOREMAN (on camera): People who we -- who absolutely need you to economically and physically rebuild America.
SERAFIN: Absolutely, absolutely. FOREMAN (voice-over): The result? Close to 90 percent of Construction Gateway graduates who had little hope of a job before entering the program are employed within days of graduation. And they stay that way.
(On camera): How confident are you that you'll get employment once you leave here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hundred percent.
FOREMAN: It certainly worked for Sean. He has been on the job for seven years and is now a foreman on an electrical crew.
GOMEZ: This right here is the sole reason why I'm employed today.
FOREMAN: The program takes only a 100 students a year but that's a 100 doing good work. Good for them and good for their communities, too.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Austin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Carry an umbrella today if you're in the south and are heading outside and that includes I guess parts of the southwest as well. Rob Marciano in the Weather Center. Rob?
(WEATHER REPORT)
WHITFIELD: All right, very good, Rob. Remember last time we spoke I was telling you about an incident in Pompano Beach, Florida.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
A drawbridge kind of stuck in the upright position there with some workers who were on the bridge, stuck as well. You see the pictures right here from our affiliate WSVN.
Well, some good news here. While you saw the fire truck ladder that was kind of suspended about 30 minutes ago, they have actually rescued two people from that location there. You see one of the service workers on that bridge being rescued and now climbing down that ladder.
Pretty frightening moments for any of these guys who were working on this latter as it was stuck and they simply got stuck as well but the firefighters to the rescue there. So far, we don't know how many other workers are stuck on that bridge, but so far we do know that two people have been rescued. Good news there. We'll keep you posted on that.
And you'll get rewards for keeping yourself in shape now. We're not just talking about a longer life.
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WHITFIELD: Okay. So there are a lot of good things that come with keeping your body in shape, keeping yourself healthy. Among them, an improved sex life. Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with more on a study that says so. So, what does this new study actually show?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the study looked at who was having sex into their golden years. So, this is looking at senior citizens and how they're doing. You're smiling, so it makes me think you want to hear this.
WHITFIELD: Golden years. OK.
(LAUGHTER)
COHEN: I know you're not headed there any time soon.
But they wanted to know who's having sex into their golden years. So, what they did is they broke it down by gender and then broke it down by who's healthy and who's not healthy.
So, let's look at men. If you're a 55-year-old man who is unhealthy, then you have about 12 more years of a good sex life in front of you. That's according to the study in the British Medical Journal. If you're a healthy man at age 55, you have 17 more years of a good sex life in front of you. So, that's five more years than your friend who is in poor health, has clogged arteries, high blood pressure, diabetes, that sort of thing.
Now, for women, it's similar but a little different. So, let's take a look at that. If you're an unhealthy woman whose age 55, you have 10 more years of a good sex life. If you're healthy, you have 13 more years of a good sex life in front of you.
So, there you go. And it's an interesting look. They don't often do that, sort of look at older people and sex, so this is sort of an unusual study.
WHITFIELD: Why the discrepancies, the differences between men and women, healthy versus unhealthy?
COHEN: There's basically two answers to that. One is biology and one is Viagra. I'll deal with the biology first --
WHITFIELD: Oh. They're cheating, then!
COHEN: They're cheating, exactly. OK, so I'll deal with the Viagra first. They're cheating, that's the answer. Men have Viagra and Levitra and all those other drugs to help them keep their sex life going until they're in the grave, basically. And women do not have a similar set of drugs to turn to.
But there's also the biology. When women hit menopause, their hormones have this rapid sort of boom. They kind of go down very quickly whereas men, their testosterone goes down gradually throughout their life. So, they're kind of in a different situation in their senior citizen years.
WHITFIELD: So is there another way to look at this, that overall more sex, longer means healthier life? Is there a parallel thing?
COHEN: It's a chicken-and-egg thing. Are you having sex longer because you're healthier or are you healthier because you're having sex? Sex in and of itself confers some benefits. Actually, if you go to CNN.com/empoweredpatient, I look at ten reasons why to have more sex. Lower your blood pressure, decrease chances of getting cancer, all of that.
But also if you look at it the other way, people who are healthier are more able to have sex. I mean, it makes sense, right? If you're very, very sick, you're not really having sex. You're not going to do that. You've got other things.
WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, Elizabeth. Appreciate that.
And then after this break, we've got some breaking news involving Jihad Jane. That's the woman out of the Pennsylvania suburb.
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WHITFIELD: Now some breaking news on this so-called Jihad Jane. Our Jeanne Meserve is in Washington with more. Jeanne --
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka, I'm sorry I'm having trouble hearing you. Let me tell you that my colleague, Mike Arlers (ph), has come into possession of a police report about this woman, Colleen LaRose, so-called Jihad Jane.
The police responded to her apartment in May of 2005 for a reported attempted suicide attempt. According to this police report, when the officers arrived there, they found her highly intoxicated, on prescription drugs that had been prescribed to her sister. It was her sister who had called in from Texas to report that Colleen LaRose was trying to kill herself.
LaRose told police when they got there that she did not want to die. An ambulance took her to a local hospital for treatment and evaluation. Those are the headlines from this police report. We'll get back to you with more at the top of the hour, Fred.
WHITFIELD: All right. Jeanne Meserve, thanks so much. In fact, we're just about on the top of the hour. Tony Harris picks it up from here in the NEWSROOM.
I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Much more straight ahead.
