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Twin Suicide Attacks; Timetable on Health Care; Lehman Execs Blamed; Making Their Mark

Aired March 12, 2010 - 09:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Friday, every one. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, in for Kyra Phillips.

Let's get started right now. $657 million a judge could ok a settlement for Ground Zero workers who got sick.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUHAMMAD TAHIR UL-QADRI, MUSLIM SCHOLAR: -- terrorism is terrorism. Violence is violence. It has no place in Islamic teaching.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Fatwa against terror. A Muslim scholar takes a stand and may risk his life.

And the education crisis. Cut backs not just in some districts. Now a nationwide problem. What can be done for our kids?

Our correspondents are also working on these stories. Reza Sayah is in Pakistan where terrorists targeted troops but mostly killed civilians. Suzanne Malveaux is on the health care reform beat with news of a voting deadline. And deaths from pregnancies are on the rise. Elizabeth Cohen looks at the reasons why.

Coordinated suicide attacks in Pakistan today have killed at least 37 people. The blasts were aimed at military convoys, but most of the victims were actually civilians crowded into the streets just before Friday prayers.

CNN's Reza Sayah is live in Islamabad, Pakistan this morning.

So, Reza, what happened and where is this exactly?

REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fredricka. This happened in Lahore. Back-to-back suicide attacks seconds apart targeting military personnel in Lahore.

The area where this happened is called the containment area. You're going to fine a lot of military installations here, military facilities, and residential neighborhoods where soldiers live.

Police say these two suicide attackers were on foot packed with about 10 pounds of explosives each. They each targeted separate military vehicles. By the time the explosions were done, police say 39 people were killed, more than 90 people were injured. Five of the killed were soldiers.

But, Fredricka, as is often the case, most of these victims, civilians.

WHITFIELD: And why Lahore is so significant here?

SAYAH: Well, Lahore is the second largest city in Pakistan. It's cultural capital. But what's significant here is this is the second attack this week in Lahore targeting security forces and it comes after relative blow when it comes to wide scale suicide attacks in Pakistan.

We've also seen some remarkable success on the part of Pakistani security forces against the militants in recent months. But this is a harsh reminder that beating the Taliban is not going to be easy. Clearly they're capable of launching devastating attacks.

And Washington is watching very closely. They know very well that without peace and stability in Pakistan, winning peace in Afghanistan is going to be very difficult -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Reza Sayah, thanks so much for that update.

Meantime, President Obama is being briefed today on the security situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan. He is meeting with his national security team. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates are taking part. Gates, you'll remember, made an unannounced stop in Afghanistan earlier this week.

Tightened security and fears of violence in Israel. Israel has sealed off the West Bank for 48 hours preventing Palestinians from entering Israel. Israeli police are restricting worshippers from entering a mosque for Friday prayers.

Jerusalem site is holy to both Muslim and Jews, and it's where clashes broke out last week. The violence was sparked by deadlock in peace talks and by its inclusion of two West Bank shrines on a list of national heritage sites. It's also coming after Israeli -- the Israeli decision, rather, to build more housing in Arab East Jerusalem.

And a new timetable for health care reform. Earlier this week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Democrats were getting close to a deal. Now we know just how close.

CNN White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins us now.

So, Suzanne, yet another White House deadline for health care reform that actually might not be met? Or are they optimistic?

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The White House is trying -- the president is trying very hard to push this deadline, Fred. And White House aides who I've spoken with this morning are saying look, he is trying to build this momentum. They don't want this thing to drag out into May.

There are a couple of key deadlines that -- at least some dates that are on the calendar that are critical for the White House. First and foremost is the one that's coming up March 18th. That's when the president leaves for Indonesia and Australia. He's hoping that part one of the process gets done, that the House passes the Senate version of health care reform before he leaves the country.

If it doesn't happen that could slip to March 28th. That is when the House and the Senate take their Easter recess break. The hope is that at least part one of this is going to get done in the next couple of weeks.

It's a White House strategy, Fred, that is very consistent. We have seen the president push for it, use some artificial timetables, deadlines to move lawmakers. We saw it in August, the August recess, they missed that deadline. They also missed the one at the end of the year, but what was interesting, Fred, was that it did motivate the Senate -- at least the Senate -- to pass their version on Christmas Eve.

So the White House believes -- aides say they believe this is a plan that is working. At the same time, they've had meetings with this president, with the Democratic leadership, with the chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. They keep hearing the pushback, saying look, give us the time we need, March 18th is too soon, not necessarily going to work.

The White House at least is trying to show some flexibility. Take a listen to Robert Gibbs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Our hope is to get this done as soon as possible. If it -- if it takes a couple extra days after a year, it takes a couple of extra days.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So you're backing off the 18th date?

GIBBS: No, I'm -- I am saying that the president wants, as does everybody here, wants to get this done as soon as possible.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: And Fred, we've learned from a senior administration official that the president has expressed some willingness at least if he had to delay his foreign trip by a day or so. If it was important to be here in Washington and to be a part of critical negotiations that he would be willing to do that.

We've seen it in the past back in September. We also saw it when he was taking his Hawaiian vacation, his holiday, that he was able to stick around a little bit longer to finesse things, to make those things work, so obviously the Obama administration and its president firstly is trying to show as much flexibility as possible to try to push these lawmakers to get this thing done -- Fred. WHITFIELD: All right, Suzanne Malveaux, thanks so much. It seems as though the Associated Press is concurring on that kind of reporting saying that President Barack Obama actually will be delaying, we understand, the Asia trip from March 18th to March 21st to work on health care reform.

All right, the wife of Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is in serious condition following an accident on I-95 just outside Washington. Sixty-nine-year-old Landra Reid broke her neck, her back nose but it is not expected to need surgery.

Reid's daughter Lana Barringer was also injured in the accident but was released from the hospital last night. Police say that Reid's Honda Odyssey was rear-ended by a tractor trailer. The rig's driver was charged with reckless driving.

A New Jersey man who used to work at nuclear plants is believed to be a member of al Qaeda and now he is accused of murder. Officials in Yemen say Sharif Mobley shot and killed one security agent and wounded another as he tried to escape a hospital there.

He eventually was taken into custody. Yemeni authorities detained Mobley earlier this month as part of a sweep for terror suspects. It's not clear why he was in a hospital.

Mobley worked at several nuclear plants and had cleared background checks as recently as 2008.

Eight and a half years after 9/11 a federal judge could approve a $657 million settlement today for Ground Zero emergency workers. The settlement must be approved by emergency workers as well.

The city of New York will pay the money to settle more than 10,000 lawsuits. Workers say they became sick working in the World Trade Center dust and debris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. JACQUELIN MOLINE, DIRECTOR, WTC MONITORING AND TREATMENT PROGRAM: Every program has seen the same thing, and that's problems with the upper airwave and nose, the sinuses, the throat, the lower airway, asthma, reactive airways, cough, persistent heartburn that's just very difficult to treat, doesn't go away.

Often those three diseases come together. We're seeing people with post-traumatic stress disorder or post-traumatic stress symptoms, anxiety, depression.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: That settlement will come from a $1 billion insurance fund established by Congress.

And we're seeing some preliminary results now from Iraq's weekend election. Just five of the country's 18 provinces reporting so far. Results show the prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki's alliance is winning in at least two of them. That group apparently feels confident enough to begin talking about putting together a coalition government.

The partial results also show a close race between al-Maliki and his opponent.

Lehman Brothers was the biggest financial train wreck in banking history. A new report tells us how the train got off the track and exactly who was driving. That story in three minutes.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And parts of Florida this morning looking like a train wreck. Central Florida yesterday getting hit hard with a couple of tornadoes. The severe weather threat continues today. And we'll run it down the CNN NEWSROOM comes right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Blame it on the bosses. A new report says the failure of Lehman Bank was caused by its top executives and its auditor making bad decisions.

Our Christine Romans is in New York.

So, Christine, give us details on this report.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A real scathing 2200 pages from the bankruptcy examiner. Essentially this is what they found. The Lehman demise was all the doing of Lehman, its auditor and frankly the failure of regulators to catch some of these things.

Look, the report's findings includes a serious lapse by top executives, accounting gimmicks including the use of something they called the Repo 105 to move about $50 billion in debt off of its books. They say the company withheld information.

And also this report found an auditor failure saying that Ernst & Young basically was performing professional malpractice, in the words of this report.

Bottom line, the report found the conduct of Lehman executives, "ranged from serious but non-culpable errors of business judgment to actionable balance sheet manipulation."

It was eight months from the time this company, Lehman Brothers, was hitting record highs and having record profits until the time it collapsed. And as you know, the failure of Lehman was essentially what put the world economy and the world financial system over the edge, Fredricka.

This report also points a finger at JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup saying that these two investment banks actually accelerated the slide of Lehman Brothers because of their demand for -- to be paid some collateral.

Now, look, the responses from all of the people named here and -- and basically blamed here by this report range from "no comment" to "they haven't commented" and "get to us" to "we didn't do anything wrong."

Ernst & Young, by the way, says that its last audit of the company was in November 2007. This collapse happened in 2008. And they say it was a result of a series of unprecedented adverse effects in the financial market.

Again, every one saying that they did not do anything wrongdoing here, but this report -- Fredricka, this is a scathing report that paints a picture of a company that came unglued, a company that had too much leverage, a company that was messing around with too much debt.

And it also blames the investment banking model, Fredricka, of the United States that it was just too much risk in the system.

WHITFIELD: All right. Lots of depths to that report. All right, thanks so much, Christine Romans. Appreciate that.

Well, take a look at this now. A destruction in Polk County, Florida. Downed trees, high winds, and power outages all part of the severe weather that swept across the region yesterday. Several homes were damaged by a suspected tornado.

Our Rob Marciano is in the severe weather center. And is it still suspected or do, I guess, people -- investigators of this weather scene believe that, you know, the damage is indicative of, yes, indeed, a tornado?

MARCIANO: Yes. Well, they'll go out there today and they'll take a look at it and they'll determine that. But the pictures tell the living story which is about 35 to 40 people, you know, had to find somewhere else to sleep last night and won't be sleeping in those homes for some time to come.

(WEATHER REPORT)

WHITFIELD: Yes, if you think it's bad today, just wait until the weekend, folks.

(LAUGHTER)

MARCIANO: Such a pessimistic outlook, but you're right.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: Hey, I'm just telling like it is.

MARCIANO: All right.

WHITFIELD: Based on what you're telling me. All right, Rob, appreciate it.

MARCIANO: See you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, the White House press corps getting a service call for their coffeemaker by -- who is that guy? Those two guys -- take a look at who's bringing the cream.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now.

The tale of the tape. Heading back to court this afternoon, a former aide to ex-presidential candidate John Edwards has been told to show up in a Pittsboro, North Carolina courtroom. The judge wants Andy Young to reveal what he did with the videotape allegedly showing Edwards and Rielle Hunter in a sexual encounter.

We'll have more on this story in our next hour.

And the manager for actor Corey Haim says an autopsy reveals that he had an enlarged heart and water in his lungs when he died on Wednesday. An exact cause of death, though, has not been determined. The coroner's office is waiting for toxicology test to determine exactly what killed Haim.

And at the White House star power and coffee. Actor/producer Tom Hanks and producer Steven Spielberg were there for a screening of their new HBO series, "The Pacific." Hanks even checked on the espresso coffeemaker that he apparently bought for the media briefing room a few years ago. And he joked that the news folks, well, they're not cleaning the pot. And he actually promised a new one.

Homes for Haiti. Shelters the U.S. is sending built to last during the reconstruction. That story in less than 90 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: It's a race against time before the rainy season hits Haiti. Tent cities put up after the earthquake just can't handle the elements. So the people at the U.S. Agency for International Development are delivering homes for Haiti.

CNN's Jill Dougherty takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): This is really the model size.

DAVID HUMPHRIES, CHF INTERNATIONAL: This is what we call a transitional shelter. It's a temporary home. It's designed to last for up to one to two years.

DOUGHERTY: This is earthquake proof.

HUMPHRIES: This is nailed together. It's a triangular structure so when the -- one that shakes, the whole thing will shake. And the whole building will shake together. And it has given it, it can move, it can vibrate.

DOUGHERTY: How much does this cost? Let's say just the structure itself. HUMPHRIES: The overall cost is around about $800. And not designed for a family of five people, which is the average family size in Haiti.

DOUGHERTY: This could be expanded to almost any size, right?

HUMPHRIES: Yes. And we -- in this instance, this is a kind of 50 percent scale model. It will only extend by 20.

DOUGHERTY: And this is steel?

HUMPHRIES: Steel roofing so the rain come -- that could soak and so you have to get it coming off. Hopefully we'll be able to gather to use as drinking water from the rain. They have to use it for that.

DOUGHERTY: And yet this material is fascinating. You said this is one sheet?

HUMPHRIES: Yes. They come into rolls. The sheets -- one sheet will be able to cover this -- you know a bigger, a proper transitional shelter through size one.

DOUGHERTY: What's the sense of urgency right now about this?

PAUL WEISENFELD, USAID: It's -- the sense of urgency is tremendous. Having the materials delivered to people by May 1st is a race against time.

DOUGHERTY: How quickly can you get them set up? This really changed the situation for people.

WEISENFELD: These houses can be put up in a day to two days. Depending upon how many people you have. If you have four to six people, you can do it in a day.

DOUGHERTY: This does give you a very good idea of how bad it is and the conditions that they're living in.

WEISENFELD: It's -- living conditions like this is -- you're susceptible to the elements, you're susceptible to diseases.

HUMPHRIES: The point in this sanitary, safe, you know, weather resistant, wind resistant, earthquake (ph), is so people can live in them for several years in this kind of situation while full reconstruction takes place.

Frankly, it's a huge improvement on the living condition in a lot of cases. If you go to some of the slumps in Haiti, and people are living in, you know, brick walls, some rusty tent, you know, it's pretty terrible conditions.

So to have something that's safe, sanitary, designed to international standards, it's a big improvement.

DOUGHERTY (voice-over): Jill Dougherty, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: We live in a time of medical breakthroughs and discovery. So why are American women facing an alarming spike in troubled pregnancies? We'll take a closer look at some of the risk factors a little bit later.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Fredricka Whitfield.

WHITFIELD: On Wall Street, the Dow and S&P 500 are hovering near 15-month highs, that is.

Let's go to Stephanie Elam to see if stocks will push even higher today.

Good to see you, Steph.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good to see you, too, Fred.

We may have a little bit of a push higher today. We're expecting a modestly higher open. A surprise increase in retail sales shows that even with all those blizzards, all of that snow, shoppers still found a way to do some shopping, and they did it probably from home. And that's a good sign of the recovery.

Sales rose by three-tenths of a percent in February. And if you take a look at what's going on down in Washington, President Obama plans to nominate a new vice chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Published report say the president will tap Janet Yellin, the current president of the San Francisco Fed. If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the second highest ranking Fed official and replace Donald Cone who is retiring.

And 825 manufacturing jobs are coming to Charlotte, North Carolina. Siemens, which is a German industrial company, plans to build a new plant in Charlotte, North Carolina. And that is where those jobs are going to come up so that's good news down there in North Carolina.

And to maybe not so good, if you plan on flying British Airways the week before Easter, you could be in for some delays. The carrier's cabin crews are actually planning to strike for seven days and they plan on doing it leading up to Easter. It kind of gets the point across when you do when people plan to travel a lot.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: You definitely get some attention.

ELAM: This after talks with management -- yes, you definitely do. And of course the people they want to get the attention of is not necessarily the passengers but it helps to get management's attention because it messes with the bottom line. But they're making changes after talks broke down with management. That's the issue there.

The airline is training 1,000 workers to stand in for cabin crewmembers. All right. So, the markets are open. Let's go ahead and take a look. The Dow on the upside by 16 points, 10,627, some modestly higher, and Nasdaq up a third of a percent right now.

And finally, Fred, before I go --

WHITFIELD: Yes.

ELAM: Everyone out there who is all about Apple and their new products, the wait is coming to an end. The company's newest product, the iPad can now be pre-ordered online. But don't expect to have the device in your hand until April 3rd, that's the day that it hits Apple store shells.

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh.

ELAM: It's not just because you order online, you can get it any earlier, but I have to say, I'm intrigued.

WHITFIELD: I am, too.

ELAM: I have to stop by when people got it. I'm very intrigued.

WHITFIELD: I love the whole page turning element, you know, of it that there are certain apps there, you know, you can get and you just read the newspaper. Almost like a traditional kind of travel.

ELAM: When you travel, you just take it. I'm thinking if you travel, you just slide it into your bag --

WHITFIELD: I like that.

ELAM: And don't have to worry about the big heavy -- you like that?

WHITFIELD: I'm thinking they're thinking of us when they developed it.

ELAM: I think they were.

WHITFIELD: We like the convenience of it all. All right.

ELAM: Definitely.

WHITFIELD: Steph, thanks so much. However, I'm --

ELAM: Sure.

WHITFIELD: I'm not going to be standing like in line once it --

ELAM: Yes, I know.

WHITFIELD: Shows up in the stores, because you know that's going to happen. We will be doing that story, too. I'll just wait. ELAM: Yes right, next week, or April 3rd. Exactly.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Thanks, Steph.

ELAM: Sure.

WHITFIELD: All right. General Motors is giving a reprieve to hundreds of dealerships originally slated to close as part of a bankruptcy plan. Today, those dealerships learned the terms of their new deals. GM is sending out letters that could include things like mandates for what models the dealers have to carry. One other concern for those dealerships is supply. Since they were scheduled to close, it could take months before they start getting new cars to actually sell.

All right. The stimulus brought you some money. Now, it's messing with your taxes. Some people's returns are getting rejected. Others owe money that they don't know about. Our Josh Levs is here with do's and don'ts for your taxes this year in light of the stimulus. Oh, it sounds so confusing.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you got it, Fred. It is kind of confusing. And you know what, our tax system, in general, is just complicated. And so what happens this time is you have this massive stimulus. They can change the economy, and what that means that it also changed opportunities, that also is bringing along some new hassles for you at tax time. So, what we're going to do right now is talk for a few days. It's going to get complicated. So, what you don't know at the top, I'm going to do at the end of this is show you a place online that you can go and get all the information you could possibly need to talk you through how your taxes are different this year.

Let's start off with this one. I want to you see what we're getting here. This is something forbes.com is pointing to. It's interesting. They're talking about how some people's returns are being rejected this year, and here's why. Here's what's going on. A lot of people, especially some retirees and veterans who were disabled, did not realize, Fred, that they were getting a $250 payment that you're seeing there. Since, they did not realize it, they did not claim it in a certain way, and now there's this back and forth about whether they really did know or didn't know, but what's been happening is the IRS is actually rejecting some these returns all together saying it didn't do it right.

Some of these people find they have actually to go back now and claim that which they didn't even know they got in the first place. Here is another example of something going on. Married couples got $800 as part of the stimulus. It's big opportunity that they got. Each working individual could get up to $400. So, some married couples got $800. Guess what. In turns out that in some cases, they actually weren't supposed to get the full $800, and yet they did. And that's causing some tax hassles as well.

What we're seeing here. This is an interesting story from Detroit. What they're saying you need to do is something called a schedule M, which you might not ever have even heard of. What you need to do now is go back and take a look at that and make sure that you are actually getting the amount that you are supposed to get -- WHITFIELD: Because in other words, they want it back.

LEVS: They might want something to back, and you might have actually gotten --

WHITFIELD: They didn't deserve it.

LEVS: You might have gotten too much of it along the way, so they might be taken that out of something else and you might say, hey, what's going on with my money. It's possible you got too much from the stimulus. But a third point that I want to make here because I don't just want to focus on the negative.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

LEVS: This is actually really good. It's about an opportunity. We can show you this. This is really good. Look at this. Some businesses can make whopping tax refunds that they didn't know about. We have a story on CNNMoney about one guy getting like $150,000 back from taxes that he wouldn't have gotten otherwise and this is why. Small businesses and other businesses now, as a result of new changes from the stimulus, can go back and claim losses.

You can actually recover some stuff going back five years. Usually, the law has been two years.

WHITFIELD: Oh, wow!

LEVS: The stimulus extended that because it's such a rough economy. You can look at your losses. You can go back and claim some things that you actually paid to the federal government. Going back five whole years to absolutely do that and take advantage of it. Now, like I said, really complicated, Fred, right? --

WHITFIELD: Yes, it is complicated, but you know what, I'm paying attention --

LEVS: I know.

WHITFIELD: If I fall into any one of those categories.

LEVS: And there's more, so what we've done here. Let's go on my screen because what I've done is I linked up four stories for you. It's at our blog right now. It's at CNN.com/josh, and I put it on CNN.com/Fredricka. It's also at Facebook and Twitter, Josh Levs CNN. What I want you to do. Take a look at all the articles we have posted for you there, compare them to your financial situation, and I'm telling you Fred, if this goes well, a lot of people out there will start to discover, if you have a small business that you can claim more than you thought you could. Unfortunately, you might also learn that you got a little too much stimulus money in the year and you have to pay a little bit back.

WHITFIELD: At least if you are the small business owner which we know a lot of small businesses are struggling right now, and they've been able to stay afloat at all. This is going to be really helpful if making get back together on that one, right?

LEVS: Anything you can get back. I mean, especially at this time, people are looking for everything they can get.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

LEVS: The stimulus should give you as much as you can get out of it to absolutely take advantage of it and get every penny you can for sure.

WHITFIELD: All right. Fantastic. Thanks so much, Josh.

LEVS: Thanks so much, guys.

WHITFIELD: Thanks for bringing that to us.

LEVS: You got it.

All right. This is a story about hoarding, and it's a real doozy. A house pile high and the, yes, that's what you think you're seeing. Bird cages right there. Are they anywhere to actually sit or stand. In about four minutes, we'll tell you about the surprise humane society workers got when they started to unloading these bird houses.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now. A Columbus, Ohio man accused of attacking children goes to court today. Police say the man has been targeting kids at a Wal-Mart store since January, punching them in the back of the head with a key sticking out from his closed fist. The mother of one of the victims chased down the man after her son was hit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I asked him where did he hit you, and he said my head, and I'm - so, he hit him in the back of the head. I took the hat and I see he's bleeding and so I'm hysterical.

WHITFIELD: The woman says her son had a laceration but was not seriously injured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: A car crashes into a candy shop. It happened last night at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Take a look there as the driver said another person ran a stop sign. He said he tried to avoid him and drove into the building. The shop owner's son was the only person hurt.

The Massachusetts State Senate has unanimously passed an anti- bullying bill. The bill would ban bullying at schools and student cyber bulling as well. School principals would have to report bullies to police if the principal believes charges could be pursued. The bill gain support after the recent suicides by two students said who have been tormented.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What we don't have right now is a comprehensive plan. We have community by community school district by school district trying to handle this issue, and we want to try to set state standards just like we do at the curriculum. Let's do it with the anti-bullying as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The bill now goes to the State House.

And computers, love them or hate them, are they casting a spell on student's ability to master a key skill? We'll tell you in less than 90 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: There are hoarders, and then there's a woman in Belleville, New Jersey. She has hundreds of birds in her house. Floor to ceiling and wall to wall. See right there. Humane Society workers say her case block was so big there were only two spots in the house where a person could actually sit -- the bed and the toilet seat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is one of the worst I've seen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just due to the fact the amount of birds in the house. There are cages stacked to the ceiling. There's no way that you can actually get up there and give them food and water.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The other woman who lives over there said she never heard the birds either.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How's that possible?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know. To have that many, and not hear them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow. Workers were also a bit shocked to find the woman's 97-year-old uncle simply standing there behind a wall of cages. They also found more than 300 dead birds in a couple of refrigerators, and it's not clear what if any charges the homeowner will actually face.

Computers enable students to work faster and more efficiently than ever before, but is this classroom staple now eating away at student's ability to spell. Jamie Gray with our affiliate KWWL in Iowa went to a college in Dubuque to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE GRAY, KWWL REPORTER: We tend to grow up using computers. It's like someone called the spell check generation. So I decided to come to Clark College with a white board and a marker to see can they without a computer.

GRAY (voice-over): We took 10 college students, gave them each four words.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't like this word.

GRAY: Three commonly used and commonly misspelled --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think it's too --

GRAY: That spelled right, by the way.

And one from a spelling bee practice list --

To see how they would do without a word processor. Yes, definitely notice his students use spell check but don't get a human second opinion.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You rarely see common spelling errors, although, you do see the homonym errors, led for lead. Words that sound exactly alike, because, of course, the computer doesn't always know the difference.

GRAY: When it comes to getting handwritten work --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know this one.

GRAY: and handwritten shirts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I still see the same areas that I saw when I started teaching years ago, and so, do they learn one from another? Probably somebody has to do a big expensive study on that from they to find out.

GRAY: We will stick to the more economical white board.

Together the ten students had a 60 percent average.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, this is really bad.

GRAY: Two spelled all of their words correctly, proof perhaps the one professor is saying, computers change some things but haven't destroyed intelligence altogether.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're great aids for thinking, writing, and creating.

GRAY: By the way, all these tricky words came from the internet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Okay. So, has using a computer made you a lazy speller, or has it actually helped you? Send us your comments at CNN.com/Fredricka, and we'll read with some of you had to say in our next hour.

All right, let's talk weather. Pretty nasty stuff, particularly in the southeast, but now apparently a lot it is heading to the northeast.

Our Rob Marciano is in the weather center --

MARCIANO: Yes not a good day.

WHITFIELD: -- and boy those rainstorms are going to be nasty.

MARCIANO: Yes, we got a couple areas -- a lot -- three areas to look at so not a good day to be a lazy meteorologist just to play off the theme of the last story. I've got a couple of things that are -- that kind of combine energy forces and really make a mess in the northeast.

But let's break down what's happening right now. You've got this, which brought severe weather or at least severe thunderstorms across the Alabama area from Huntsville to Birmingham early this morning. Some rough weather growing through and now we're kind of back filling some of these storms that are flowing through Birmingham again.

So right now these are not severe but they are causing some flooding problems across Nashville and in through parts of the central and eastern Tennessee; also a tremendous amount of flooding yesterday throughout parts of Florida. And we are seeing more rain through Tampa, east towards Orlando, and this line is driving south towards Ft. Lauderdale in West Palm Beach and in through Miami.

Speaking of some of the rainfall tallies -- and there are some isolated amounts that are -- are higher than this. But these are some records; 3.2 in Vero Beach Florida yesterday, 2.6 inches in Orlando, Fort Myers, 2.1 and there are some isolated amounts where we've seen four and five inches of rain during the day yesterday.

And obviously we've got more rain coming in to the Florida area throughout the day today. It's getting closer to Miami where they're having the play to Blue Monster this weekend.

D.C., Philly and New York, not a big deal right now. But as we go through the weekend, things are going to get a little bit more interesting as what's happening down across the southeast, begins to roll up the Eastern Seaboard and really cranks up in the form of some -- some winds and some rain. So these two guys get together and we'll see rain and some snow-melt as far back as parts of Des Moines, Iowa and that's going to create some problems.

As far as the northeast is concerned, we'll have wind as well (AUDIO GAP) create the beach erosion and the heavy rain on top of the snow pack. At least in interior is going to create some flooding. And some of our computer models are pumping out, 2, 3, 4 even over five inches of rainfall in the D.C. area over the weekend.

So that's going to, obviously create some problem of its own. Right now though, the flood watches are posted for the spine of Appalachians and back through parts of Ohio, because of the snow melt as well. Inland areas of west of I-95 because of the snow-melt. And then all the way to the coast because of the heavy rain that this storm is going to produce over the next 48 hours.

If you are traveling over the next couple of hours, in Minneapolis seeing a ground stop until 9:00 a.m.; Philadelphia seeing an hour and 15 delays; in San Francisco, one hour and 45 minutes delays; New York and Atlanta seeing about 30 to 40 minute delays. So on this Friday, you are trying to get a weekend getaway hopefully it's out west.

WHITFIELD: Yes, because you won't be getting away from it if you stay on the East Coast.

MARCIANO: No.

WHITFIELD: All right.

MARCIANO: You bet.

WHITFIELD: Standing up and speaking out, a Muslim scholar condemns terrorists who kill in the name of Allah.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHEIK TAHIR UL-QADRI, MUSLIM SCHOLAR: Terrorism is terrorism and violence is violence it has no place in Islamic teachings.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: We'll look at the shock waves rippling to Muslim world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A crowded market turned bloody in Pakistan. Here's what we know right now. A pair of suicide bombers set off explosives in Lahore this morning. At least 39 people are dead. Lahore is Pakistan's second largest city. The bombers were targeting military convoys in the city but most of the victims were civilians and as many as 95 people were injured.

Pakistan's government has been touting their crackdown on militants over the past few weeks. They say they have captured several top Taliban leaders.

Meanwhile, a new condemnation of Muslims who kill in the name of Allah; it comes from an influential Islamic scholar who could be risking his life by denouncing the terrorists.

CNN international security correspondent Paula Newton has a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): There have been other Fatwas condemning terrorism. This one is different. Sheik Qadri is a renowned Muslim scholar and has a major following, also his Fatwa is in English, it's on the Internet and it cites the Koran to beat terrorists at their own game, especially when they claim to be doing the work of Allah or God.

Sheik Qadri cites verse 205. "Allah does not like mischief and violence." That means, he says that --

UL-QADRI: Terrorism is terrorism. Violence is violence. It has no place in Islamic teachings.

NEWTON: Stripping terrorists of their moral authority, he cites the Koran that even a sacred goal can never be achieved by following an evil or criminal path.

UL-QADRI: They are leading towards hell fire.

NEWTON: Now, the question is whether the Sheik Fatwa will have credibility on the street.

Some Muslim leaders are warning that government outreach programs to battle extremism aren't working.

FAISAL RAGA, FAITH AND COMMUNITIES FORUM: I can't see it. I can't see it where, you know, where it's stopped or there's been piece of work which essentially said, they have stopped somebody from doing this kind of work.

NEWTON: And others say it won't work to just try to shoot down extremist thinking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rather we need to have that engagement with them and need to understand exactly what their thinking is for us to be able to deal with these issues.

NEWTON: And does a fatwa stand a chance in the face of this? Radical preachers citing the Koran as they preached jihad -- against nonbelievers or (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are what, compassionate towards the Kuku far (ph) no, they are hatch toward the Kufar (ph) -- and it can never be surpassed.

NEWTON (on camera): Many say this fatwa is a real start but it will need support from other leaders if it has any hope of winning over Muslims around the world.

Paula Newton, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: And we've got a lot going on in the CNN NEWSROOM. Let's check in with our reporters to see what they're working on for the next hour. We begin with Samantha Hayes.

SAMANTHA HAYES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. I have more details, new details in fact on more school closings around the country. I'll have that report at the top of the hour.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I'm Suzanne Malveaux at the White House. President Obama has announced that he is postponing his trip next week overseas to Indonesia and Australia to stay for three more days to try to push forward health care reform. I'll have more on that at the top of the hour.

ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center. Yesterday tornados tore through Florida. More severe weather expected today and the northeast gets into the act for flooding rains this weekend. All that in the next hour -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you, ladies and gentleman. Also ahead, truth in journalism: Barbara Walters takes on "The National Enquirer" and we have the blow by blow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Here's another health concern and it may send a shiver through young Americans who actually plan to have families. According to a new report the rate of severe complications in pregnancies has taken an alarming jump.

CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen takes a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's rare to die from pregnancy or childbirth in the United States, but it does happen and the numbers are on the rise.

Let's take a look. In 1987 for every 100,000 births, 6.6 women died. In 2006 for every 100,000 births there were 13.3 deaths. That's obviously a big difference and it far exceeds the goal that's been set forth by the U.S. government for 4 deaths for every 100,000 births.

What's particularly disturbing is that these numbers are very different based on a woman's race. Take a look at these numbers. When you're looking at white women, you're looking at 9.5 deaths per 100,000 births. When you're looking at black women, you're looking at 32.7 deaths per 100,000 berths.

Now again, as I said it's rare for a woman to die in pregnancy or childbirth, but experts agree that these numbers are higher than they should be and they're particularly disturbed that the numbers are on the increase. Why do they think the numbers are on the rise? A couple of different reasons here. One is that obesity is more common than ever among women of child-bearing age and with obesity comes diabetes and heart disease and other things that can really make for a tricky pregnancy.

Another reason is that caesarean section rates are on the rise. Caesarian sections come with risks like blood clots.

Another reason, more and more women -- or more and more everybody -- but in this case more and more women are uninsured and when women are uninsured, they have a very tough time getting good prenatal care, which makes it more risky during their pregnancy and during childbirth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)