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New Coffee Party USA Political Movement Kicks Off; City in Missouri Shutting Down Half of Public Schools; New iPhone App May Help Fight Crime
Aired March 13, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, there, everybody. From the CNN Center, this is CNN Saturday Morning for March the 13th. It's 10:00 a.m. where we sit here in Atlanta, Georgia. It's 9:00 a.m. on the south side of Chicago. Not showing the south side now. That's a tower cam of ...
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: A little bit of fog.
HOLMES: Maybe a little rain.
BALDWIN: Maybe a green river a little later.
HOLMES: That's right. The big St. Patrick's Day.
BALDWIN: Chicago River going green today.
HOLMES: What time is that happening?
BALDWIN: I don't know. Reynolds knows.
HOLMES: Hey there everybody. I'm T.J. We are happy to be here this morning.
BALDWIN: We are with it. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thanks for starting your day with us. Hopefully you're more together than we are currently this hour.
OK, we're talking coffee this morning, not necessarily the kind you drink with your cream, your sugar. I don't know how you take it. This is the coffee party. This is a movement, they're calling it a grassroots movement, started on Facebook. There's something like 150- plus members, a lot of people getting together.
Today is the day they're really kicking this thing off coast to coast, coffee shops. Who are they, what do they want? What are they doing. We'll have the answers for you this hour.
HOLMES: If somebody likes flight delays, even worse, canceled flights, stuck at the airports, sometimes on the runway, sitting, just like that, two, three, four, five-plus hours. Well, help is on the way. A passenger bill of rights is what we're talking about, what's in it for you.
And also we'll talk to someone about how the airlines now are going to try to possibly combat that passenger bill of rights.
Something else this morning, a lot of people want to find discounts on free items -- excuse me -- you can't find a discount on a free item.
BALDWIN: Guess not.
HOLMES: But you want discounts and free stuff. It might be right next door and your cell phone can actually help you find that stuff. We'll talk to you about that a little later.
But first, a quick check of some of the top stories this morning. Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger in the hospital in Seoul, Korea, this morning apparently with some kind of stomach issue. The doctors telling CNN all signs are normal for the most part, so nothing life-threatening here.
The hospital will keep him maybe overnight, release him tomorrow. Kissinger 86 years old, over in Seoul for a security forum.
BALDWIN: And still counting those votes in Iraq. Elections were last weekend. They're still counting in that parliamentary election held last Sunday. And 500 workers on two different shifts counting these votes 24 hours a day.
In fact, we spoke with Arwa Damon last hour out of Baghdad and she told us that Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's coalition is leading in five provinces. Voters are still deciding who will fill those 325 seats in Iraq's parliament.
HOLMES: Authorities saying actor Corey Haim had a fraudulent prescription when he died and it was actually linked to a major illegal drug ring. The attorney general's office is trying to find out how he got that prescription. Haim died Wednesday at the age of 38, a cause not yet determined.
Haim's mother now asking for donations from fans to cover the expense of moving his body back to his native Canada.
A turn to health care reform now. President Obama delaying his trip to Asia this week just so he can stick around just in case he needs to make a last-minute push for a struggling health care plan. Both Houses of Congress have agreed to move toward a vote.
And we're hearing a final vote could happen within ten days. It looks like House Democrats softening their pledge a bit to let the public review the final health care overhaul package online for 72 hours before the vote.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer now says they'll give the public as much notice as possible and that the proposed house and Senate bill have been online for some two and a half months now.
Well, President Obama and the Democratic leadership expressing confidence over health care reform. Republicans, you guessed it, not really. They're turning to their newly minted Massachusetts senator and savior, Scott Brown, to apply the brakes. He makes his debut today as far as delivering the first Republican response to the president's weekly radio Internet address.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. SCOTT BROWN, (R) MASSACHUSETTS: Somehow the greater the public opposition to the health care bill the more determined they seem to force it on us anyway. You know, their attitude shows that Washington at its very worst and that the presumption that they know best, and they're going to get their way whether the American people like it or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Well, you certainly heard of no child left behind. Now getting a bit of an overhaul today. Today in his weekly Internet and radio address, the president says he is getting ready to send lawmakers basically a blueprint to help update the elementary and secondary education act.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Under these divide lines, schools that achieve excellence or show real progress will be rewarded and local districts will be encouraged to commit to change in schools that are clearly letting their students down.
For the majority of schools that fall in between, schools that do well but could do better, we will encourage continuous improvement to help keep our young people on track for a bright future, prepared for the jobs of the 21st century.
And because the most important factor in a child's success is the person standing in the front of the classroom, we will better prepare teachers, support teacher, and encourage teachers to stay in the field. In short, we'll treat the people who educate our sons and daughters like the professionals they are.
Through this plan we are setting an ambitious goal. All students should graduate from high school prepared for college and a career no matter who you are or where you come from. Achieving this goal will be difficult. It will take time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The president also says that the nation that out- educates us today will out-compete us tomorrow.
And from tea, now we're talking coffee. A new political movement is billing itself as an answer or possibly an alternative to the tea party officially kicks off today. They say what they want is action not rhetoric in Washington.
Our Deputy Political Director Paul Steinhauser is here on more as to what this coffee party means. And Paul, I pulled their mission statement. First line, "Coffee Party USA aims to reinvigorate the public sphere." What needs reinvigorating do they say?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: That is the whole difference it seems between the coffee party and the tea party, which has been around for 14 months. They have similar grievances, Brooke. They both feel the federal government is not very responsive right now to average Americans.
But while the tea party wants to have less government, limited government, the coffee party doesn't want to downsize Washington. They just want to change it and make it work for average Americans.
Take a listen. We spoke with Annabel Park. She is the founder of the movement. Here's what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNABEL PARK, FOUNDER, COFFEE PARTY USA: Just like in the American Revolution, we're looking for real representation. We don't get feel represented by government right now, and we don't really feel represented well by the media either.
So it's kind of a simple call to action for people to wake up and take control over their future and demand representation. And it requires people standing up and speaking up. And that's what we're encouraging people to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: So, Brooke, we are at a coffee establishment, a pretty popular one here in Washington, D.C. You can see this meeting is about to start. They say they're going to have up to 50 people attending.
Coffee party activists say they're going to have 350 to 400 events across the country similar to the one right here. And this is, as you mentioned, kind of the first test for them. They've got over 150,000 people on Facebook right now, but this is kind of the national kickoff for this fledgling movement, Brooke.
BALDWIN: Paul, what about the tea party? What are they saying? I think some of the criticism, as you mentioned Annabel park, the founder of the coffee party movement, and she was working with the Obama campaign in 2008, is it fair to say -- I know coffee partiers are saying no, we're right in the middle, but some are saying they're a little bit on the left.
STEINHAUSER: It's a very good point, very good point. Annabel Park does admit she worked as a volunteer for the Obama campaign and before that for Democrat Jim Webb back in 2006 when he was running for the Senate.
But she says the coffee party isn't in line with either the Democrats or the Republicans. As you mentioned, tea party movement, what do they think? I've talked to people at CNN and a bunch of the organizers from the various tea party groups. And one of their points is they say they are grassroots, that they were from the bottom up. They say the coffee party is just the opposite, not grassroots, not organic, it is from the top down. And they also point to Park's work with the Obama campaign back in 2007 and '08.
Brooke, first test, I guess, right here. This is a brand-new movement, just two months old, so I think the jury -- the verdict is still out on this. I think we'll keep an eye on both the tea party movement and the coffee party movement and see what happens.
BALDWIN: We'll have to wait and see if the coffee talk turns into political action. Paul Steinhauser in D.C., thank you.
HOLMES: Well, a school district taking some drastic measures now that they are $50 million in the hole. But some are saying it is too little, too late. A school district, yes, having to close about half of its schools. We'll get into that story in just a moment.
BALDWIN: Also ahead, a new call for iPhone owners, a crime- fighting network trying to keep neighborhoods safe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(WEATHER REPORT)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. It's the wake-up call from one Kansas City, Missouri, school district that's been sending shock waves across the country. The school district's governing board voted to close about half of its school districts at the end of this school year and cut some 700 jobs.
The particular district we're talking about makes up mostly inner city kids. It's an example of some of the drastic steps being taken to improve student performance and scale back costs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUPERINTENDENT JOHN COVINGTON, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI SCHOOL DISTRICT: No one likes closing schools. It's hard. It's tough on families, and it's certainly tough on our community. Closing schools and making the remaining schools much stronger academically is unquestionably the right thing to do. We operate far too many schools.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Other struggling school districts across the nation are watching to see if the superintendent can pull off this move. If he does, other districts could possibly do the same thing.
We want to take a closer look now at what's happening in Kansas City. I want to talk to a guy who's had some 30 years covering what's happening in this particular Kansas City area, political reporter for our affiliate KNBC Michael Mahoney joining us this morning.
It's good to have you here to put this in some perspective.
MICHAEL MAHONEY, KANSAS CITY TV ANCHOR: Good to be here.
HOLMES: So tell us on this first part, has it calmed down a bit? People were of course so upset and shocked to hear about this. Are people starting to calm down a bit, the emotions starting to subside and people realize that the district had no other choice but to do this? Or are people just still upset?
MAHONEY: No, it hasn't calmed down. The news of this drastic cutback in the number of schools here has been publicly discussed for several weeks. People have known the superintendent here was going to do this since he came. The plan came out several weeks ago. School board voted to approve it on a five to four vote.
The next day, the Dr. Covington comes out and says OK, now we're going to change the schools but probably change the way the school day works. He's now advocating for a much longer school day, perhaps something that starts at 7:30 in the morning and runs as late as 5:00 in the afternoon, perhaps later.
HOLMES: Wow.
MAHONEY: He's thinking about Saturday school in this district and thinking about year-round school. He says there's no necessary reason or apparent reason now just to take three months off.
HOLMES: Wow.
MAHONEY: So there are more changes that may be coming. He'll reveal the details that element of the plane in maybe ten days to two weeks.
HOLMES: OK, Michael, help us understand, a lot of people around the country are hearing this and it was a shock to them. But you've been covering this for a long time. This is nothing new to parents in that district.
It seems like for so long the district failed to make moves that were necessary, maybe some incremental steps, and now they were left that they just had to use an axe and chop.
MAHONEY: That's exactly right, T.J. And one of the things -- one of the reasons this is happening is it's not economic in the way that most people would feel it to be in school cuts in their own towns.
This is a district that has recently just several years ago had 32,000 students in it. Now it has 17,000, a little over 17,000. So they've got 60 buildings for 17,000 students. The more appropriate size for a district with that kind of enrollment would be around 30 buildings, maybe 35 or perhaps 40.
So they have had a shocking decline in enrollment, T.J., over the last few years. They've got lots of buildings that are half full, many of them with very small classes, and that's why they're making these decisions.
This district and the school board has had governance problems for a long, long time. The school boards have not made the moves they needed to over the years, and so rather than ending up using a scalpel to do this piece by piece, now they've got to take it by an axe.
HOLMES: I'm glad you made that point, that so many students will have to be packed into other schools and classrooms will be overcrowded. People are saying no, this will fill up some classes that were half full in the first place.
Another point, I was shocked to read, less than a third of the elementary kids in this district were reading at grade level and the scores, the testing, these students have been underachieving. But money over the years hasn't necessarily been the problem. They seem to have got a lot of funding. They've got new technology, maybe some upgrades to buildings. I even read about a swimming pool, an Olympic- sized pool that somebody got, but the schools continue to fail. Why?
MAHONEY: You're right, T.J. In the late '80s and early '90s, the Kansas City, Missouri school district was involved in the desegregation case where the state of Missouri ended up putting $2 billion into the physical plan of the Kansas City, Missouri, schools hoping that improving the buildings and getting things up to date would improve the test scores.
That did not happen. Test scores have continued to decline. The school system is on provisional accreditation.
And when you're talking about reading at grade level, somebody told me the other day, we're not talking about making all the kids in the Kansas City, Missouri school district rocket scientists. We're just trying to get them proficient at the grades they're supposed to be at.
And so they've got a great deal of academic problems. What they're hoping is by closing all these schools they can save some money. They'll get class sizes that are going to be in the mid-20s, which is within an acceptable range in the state of Missouri, and they're going to see if a smaller district can educate kids better than this largest district that has not done it literally for generations.
HOLMES: Michael, I know you've been doing this for a long time. You've seen a lot of stuff similar to this happen, if you will. I'll let you go, but if you were a betting man, would you say we'll be back talking about this in another five, ten years for another fix, or this fix is going to be the one to get the district back on track?
MAHONEY: Everybody out here, T.J., is hoping the district improves. But every time it seems they've hit bottom, they find another subbasement below. So people are concerned out here.
HOLMES: Michael Mahoney, I'm so glad we had you on this morning, certainly somebody with a whole lot of experience covering this story all those years. Thanks so much for being here and we'll talk to you again down the road.
MAHONEY: Thanks, T.J.
HOLMES: Well, a supposed link to autism in children put to the test. Also, hung up about how your neighborhood is? There's a new iPhone app for that, just like there's an app for everything else. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, flooding could be a problem for some folks in Pennsylvania today, in particular, four counties in western Pennsylvania under some flood warnings right now. A lot of runoff from of course some rain coming down, but also all that snow that was piled up is starting to melt. That's the bigger problem.
A state of emergency in Pittsburgh, as well, the Ohio River could reach flood stage by sometime tomorrow morning.
BALDWIN: Florida dealing with some flooding, as well. In southwest Florida this morning, after some flash flooding put parts of Cape Coral totally underwater yesterday, drainage issues adding to the problem for drivers, as you can see. Some people found themselves in deep, deep trouble.
Meantime, not just one tornado, two tornadoes touching down in Florida, Polk County, Thursday night. That is according to the National Weather Service. One condo complex near Haines City got slammed by this thing and more than 20 homes were damaged.
HOLMES: A federal court says there's not enough evidence linking autism in children to mercury in vaccines. This ruling means families of children diagnosed with autism will not be entitled to compensation.
Congress set up a special committee in 1986 to address claims over vaccine safety. Attorneys for the families now say they will appeal the ruling.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: It can give you directions, find you a date, speak every language out there, just about. And now it can track a criminal.
Mario Armstrong joins us with info on an app. These phones, there's an app for just about everything. You've used it before to find a date. But on these other things this thing can do, which do you want to talk about first, this new neighborhood watch, this high- tech version of neighborhood watch?
MARIO ARMSTRONG, CNN TECHNOLOGY COMMENTATOR: Yes. That's exactly right, T.J. It is a neighborhood version of being able to have your own crime watch in the palm of your hand. So let's first talk about one called spot crime. Spotcrime.com is the website, so even if you don't have a mobile device, you can use these tools on the web. But T.J. what's happening here is back in the day a few years ago, law enforcement agencies would be able to really communicate with community citizens via e-mail or text.
Well, now we're finding that we can get law enforcement data right onto our hand-held device so we can actually look at the types of crimes that are happening, all types of crimes from robberies to vandalism to theft to shootings, in an instant on our mobile device and see maybe new neighborhoods we're visiting, maybe places where we're putting our kids to school or places he we might be traveling to understand what type of crime is happening in those areas.
HOLMES: All right, OK. I guess it would be helpful if you're trying to look for a new neighborhood to move to and you want to see what kind of crime is there. That could be helpful. Could it actually help you nab a criminal in some way?
ARMSTRONG: It could and it has helped you nab a criminal in some ways. In some cases what's happened -- well, let me tell you. There are two incidents. One, somebody actually stole a phone that has a GPS tracking system in it and so they were caught later because they did other things.
But how these applications can help you is you're going to actually take a photo of an individual, to some extent. You can take a photo of a certain situation, and you can also look up things like national sex offender registry.
So you can't really take a picture of someone right now and send that in. We're not at that point. I don't want to scare anybody.
HOLMES: OK.
ARMSTRONG: We're not there yet, but I can see that coming at some point.
HOLMES: All right, this has got a lot of other Big Brother type stuff happening with these iPhones. It seems like everything's getting -- you know, I mean people want to be able to do more, but these things seem awfully intrusive.
ARMSTRONG: The Electronic Privacy Institute has come out. You know, the privacy center has come out. They've said, look, this thing is really kind of toeing the line a little bit. Not only may it be something useful for citizens, but it can also be useful for the criminals themselves.
But they're also saying, look, not all data can be trusted, so how do we know? If Mario Armstrong's name shows up on a database that shouldn't be there, that could be something that my privacy could be intruded upon.
And that's some of the worry spots that we have. So whether or not this data is really, really solid and validated data and whether or not we're crossing any lines beyond what's already publicly available.
HOLMES: All right, let's move on to free stuff.
ARMSTRONG: OK.
HOLMES: You can find stuff that might be right next door, you didn't even know it. How does this work?
ARMSTRONG: This is great. You just got off your honeymoon, right?
HOLMES: Yes. So we need free stuff.
(LAUGHTER)
ARMSTRONG: You need some free stuff that's my point. You just paid for a wedding and so you're looking for free stuff.
So, the website is called Yoink. And you can go right to that Web site, you can register for free. But T.J., what this is, is all about looking for free stuff right near you. So you can either give things or you can get things.
How it works on the mobile is you pull up the area that you pull up the area that you live in and you can see how many items are actually available for you to pick up. So I've seen all types of stuff, man, dog beds, I've seen 15-inch computer monitors, I've even seen slippers. I don't know if I want to get someone's slippers but --
HOLMES: Have you seen anything you really want? Anything you really want or just crap people trying to get rid of?
ARMSTRONG: I've seen a couple cool things.
HOLMES: What's cool to you?
ARMSTRONG: It's not really cool. It's practical. I need a new clothes dryer. My dryer has broken, and I found someone actually giving away a clothes dryer.
HOLMES: OK.
ARMSTRONG: Hey, man, I'm keeping it real. I need this free stuff.
HOLMES: He's supposed to be cool guy. He's picking up clothes dryers.
ARMSTRONG: I have all the gadgets covered. It's the practical things in my tech life that I need T.J.
HOLMES: Just ask us, we'll send you something.
ARMSTRONG: I'll just go to Yoink and find it. HOLMES: We appreciate it. Thank you so much. Of course, Mario Armstrong joins us every Saturday with the scoop on the latest technology. We'll see you again soon.
Quick break and we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: When we talk about Iraq's elections and counting the votes this weekend, what happens in Iraq's national elections could very much so have an impact for us right here in the United States.
You see, the vote counting has been going on around the clock ever since last Sunday. Who's following this for us? CNN's Arwa Damon in Baghdad.
And Arwa, I know last hour you told us former Prime Minister Nouri al-Aaliki was leading in several of the Baghdad precincts. My question, kind of twofold, one, do we have any update as far as numbers, and two, I want you to explain to our viewers if you will why Baghdad, I think it accounts for some fifth of the parliamentary seats of the council of representatives, why that could prove to be such a crucial win.
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's start with the first part of your question, and that would be we don't have any updates. We do, however, have the independent high electoral commission saying that they are for the time being retracting the result of one of the southern Shia provinces that they posted earlier.
Let's put it simply by saying that this has been to a certain degree a fairly chaotic, very frustrating, and very slow process. These initial results are meant to encompass 30 percent of the vote. However, because of political pressure, because it has taken such a long time, we're seeing results that are being released at numbers like 18 percent, like Baghdad that you just mentioned there, for example.
Baghdad is very important not only because it equates to about 68 seats in parliament, but also because it is very much considered to be the heart of the country.
Now, these initial results we're seeing for Baghdad do show Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in the forefront. That can, however, be misleading because it depends on which election centers they are tabulating the votes from. If they are from predominantly Shia parts of the capital, naturally the vote is going to swing towards the prime minister.
Why should all of this matter to people back home in America? First of all, the government that emerges from these elections is going to dictate the direction that Iraq is going to take. Is it going to stay on this path of democracy, if that's what we want to be calling it? Is it going to move towards being a secular nation? Or is it going to move towards being a more conservative religious state that is largely allied with Iran? And any sort of instability in Iraq throughout this entire process of vote counting, of government formation, will potentially lead to more violence, and that, of course, directly impacts the U.S. military's ability to stick to that timetable of U.S. troop withdrawal. Brooke?
BALDWIN: Absolutely, direct impact, of course, on the U.S. military, and this government would be the government that the Obama administration would be working with. Arwa Damon for us on the latest on the Iraqi elections. Arwa, thank you.
HOLMES: Well, one day after two suicide blasts killed at least 44 people in Pakistan, another up with today. At least 13 people dead in this one, dozens of others injured.
The violence comes as the Pakistan cracks down on Taliban militants. Today's attack happened about at a secretary checkpoint about five and a half hours north of Islamabad. The Taliban is claiming responsibility.
After 11 years in a holding pattern, the passenger bill of rights could soon be on the books.
BALDWIN: Fasten your seat belts. The airlines are threatening to make it a bumpy ride.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, a lot of you have been stuck on a plane going nowhere fast. This story is just for you. After years of being talked about, it appears that some passengers are starting to get some rights. We had bills making their way through Congress. A passenger bill of rights, could be approved by the Senate. The bill would do some of those things you see there.
And none of those options were available at least for our next guest. Kate Hanni joins us this morning from Napa, California. She spent ten hours on a plane that led her to quit her job and take up the cause to form a coalition for an airline passenger bill of rights.
She joins us this morning. Ma'am, thank you for being here. She is joining us via Skype this morning. First of all, I guess how has your -- are you pleased with how your movement has been going? Again, you quit your job to take up this cause, so are you happy with the result so far?
KATE HANNI, ADVOCATE, PASSENGER BILL OF RIGHT: Even though I'm broke, I'm very grateful to the Senate that we are finally going to see a formal airline passenger bill of rights maybe as soon as Wednesday of this next week.
And airline passengers can -- and we have 27,800 members who have helped us get to this point. It's been three years and two months of 4:00 in the morning till 11:00 at night work every day for not only myself but many of our members. And we're very grateful that the Senate is finally taking our bill to the floor for a vote. HOLMES: Now, there are also some rules the Department of Transportation already kind of passed and put in place. They're going to be implementing them by April. This whole rule people are talking about, conditional be stuck on a plane more than three hours on the tarmac without being given the option to take off the plane. If so, the airline will be fined some $27,000-plus per passenger.
It appears some airlines are going to just start canceling flights, or at least they're threatening to do that. Now is that certainly within their prerogative to do so? Did you see that move coming? What do you think about it?
HANNI: We did see that move coming. And these are idle threats. If they do something like that temporary, that's retaliatory against their best customers, then shame on them, because they know what the solutions are.
They know that years ago they had extra planes available if there was a mechanical breakdown. They did not over-schedule the way they do now, which forces planes to sit on the tarmac almost every day in New York.
And so the airlines have had complete control over this problem, and they know what the fixes are. It may cost them some money in the short term, but they know what the fixes are, they know how to solve it, and they know how to take care of passengers. They just haven't been doing it.
HOLMES: From the airline's side, you called it retaliatory, but doesn't it make fiscal sense for them, if it could cost them quite frankly millions of dollars per plane that's out there more than three hour, why not just cancel it to save money?
HANNI: Well, because they don't make any money if they cancel flights. So it's actually counterintuitive to a good business model toll cancel all your flights just so you don't have to pay a fine. Wouldn't it be better to solve the problem, which is solvable, and put your passengers in a good, healthy place on your planes inside the cabins and continue flying the flights?
All they really need to do is move some of those flights into the midday where there aren't so many flights, because it's the morning and the late afternoons that really cause 90 percent of all of these long tarmac events.
And then occasionally you have extreme weather, but even in those conditions there are solutions to not keeping passengers trapped. They know what they are. They just don't want any regulation that would protect us or that might impact the way that they've been operating business as usual since Detroit in 1999.
There's been nothing that has been done, and they've kept their word zero times when it comes to taking care of passengers in these events.
HOLMES: You talk about some of the fixes, and they sound simple coming from you, and I'm sure coming from the airlines they are not such easy fixes. And yes, they do cost money, and nobody -- I don't think you would suggest even that they've been rolling in dough and they exactly have a lot of money to be spending. They have to run a pretty tight ship.
Now, just during the past month in February, we saw the big snowstorm, and I was in the thick of this because airlines -- I was surprised -- in particular had never seen it before, just canceled flights when we heard weather was coming. The next day flights were just canceled.
Now, is that a better position to put your passengers in? I mean, I personally would rather sit on the tarmac for three and a half hours if I'm still going to get home tonight versus having a canceled flight and not being able to get home for the next two days.
HANNI: Yes, but remember, many of those airports were closed for two days. You wouldn't have just been sitting out there for three hours. You would have pushed back from the gate and likely gotten stuck on the tarmac because the weather was coming in.
So, yes, of course, we don't get calls from people stuck in airports, or occasionally we do but very rarely, because they have the option of leaving.
But when you're stuck in a plane and your flight is canceled and you're out on tarmac and your wheels are glued to the ground like JetBlue, February 14th, 2007, you don't have any options, and you can't advocate for yourself. And it's unsafe.
So we don't want flights canceled that should not be canceled, but we do believe that proactive cancellation is a way of preventing people from being stuck, and an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure when it comes to being stuck in an aircraft.
I don't know if you remember the woman on the JetBlue flight that went into the restroom and locked herself in because she was claustrophobic and cried for the next eight hours. There are people that simply can't tolerate being stuck that long.
I for one have two children. When you're stuck inside a plane and you can't move and your children want to get up and run around, where do they go?
HOLMES: All right, are you still flying? Any more horror stories from you?
HANNI: I have to fly.
HOLMES: OK.
HANNI: I've had a number of experiences since the original one. You know, I think that there's a solution here that will make the airlines a lot of money and win their best customers back. My family was one of the airlines' best customers. We travel a lot. And our experience obviously changed my life. And for many, many people who have been stuck, they don't want to get on a plane again. And so, I think it really behooves the airlines to stop posturing, stop threatening us with flight cancellations, and look at what proactive strategies are to prevent this from happening.
HOLMES: All right. Well, ma'am, you continue flying. Hope you don't have any more horror stories. Hope we don't get stuck on a plane together at some point because I've been there too. Kate Hanni for us out there in California, thank you so much. Of course we'll follow up with you to see what happened in the Senate.
Thanks so much for being here this morning.
HANNI: And if people need an update, go to our Web site, fliersrights.org.
HOLMES: Sure thing, get that in there, as well. Quick break and we're right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Between ticket prices, snacks, and that much coveted legroom on planes, the airlines have found a way to get even more money from passengers at every turn, it seems. But when it comes to charging you to check your bags, apparently there is a way to save some cash.
Ayesha Tejpar has some tips for travelers "On the Go."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AYESHA TEJPAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Most major airlines charge $25 for the first check bag and $35 for the second. So many passengers are avoiding these fees by getting their luggage onto the planes. But getting everything into one small bag can be a challenge. Packing expert Doug Dyment says the key is to make things smaller.
DOUG DYMENT, ONEBAG.COM: One way, for example, to dramatically reduce bulk is to eliminate liquids from what you're carrying, toothpaste with tooth powder, shampoo with a block of shampoo.
TEJPAR: And how you pack clothing can make a difference. Don't stack or roll clothes.
DYMENT: A better technique is called bundle wrapping, which involves wrapping the clothing around a central core object rather than folding it and therefore it doesn't result in crinkles and creases at the other end of the trip.
TEJPAR: Packing items in your shoes frees up more space, and choosing a color palette for your colors can eliminate bringing multiple pairs of shoes and outfits. Packing small will help keep your wallet bigger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Computers are making us dumb. That story is coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We always dread this time of year here on the morning show.
BALDWIN: It's brutal.
WOLF: But it must be done. I mean, you know, it's cold. The daylight saving, not savings.
BALDWIN: I always get it wrong.
WOLF: Yes, it's "saving, saving time." And again, we move the clocks ahead one hour. It's a delightful thing, I guess.
Look at this both ways. One area of bad, you lose an hour of sleep. But here at CNN it's one hour to being closer to being with those you love, because we all get lonely. Oh, my gosh, look at the clock, it's 1:00 in the morning, only two hours of sleep. But knowing you'll lose that extra hour of sleep, I know I'll be here.
BALDWIN: And 3:00 a.m. will be like 2:00 a.m.
HOLMES: So it officially happens at 2:00 a.m.?
WOLF: Just do it before you go to bed.
HOLMES: Yes.
WOLF: And 8:00 at night, fast forward, spring forward so you don't forget. You don't want to set the clock -- there goes the alarm. Better set it -- oh, lost the hour. Better get to work.
HOLMES: We will be here on time tomorrow morning.
WOLF: Please watch anyway. There you go.
BALDWIN: We'll be on at the same time, just one less hour of sleep.
WOLF: Originally it was done to extend the day, the daylight.
BALDWIN: Benjamin Franklin.
WOLF: So the farmers would have more time to work the field. And that extra hour makes a world of difference, it really does. And we'll be feeling that world of difference tomorrow morning at 6:00 a.m.
HOLMES: Thank you, Reynolds.
A lot of us spend a lot of time in New York and often have to use cabs. Apparently we've been taken for a ride. We've been gouged out of some $8 million buck, not just the three of us. But apparently the cabbies there have been overcharging people in a serious way. BALDWIN: So they've been looking at this over the past two years. Who? The city's taxi and limo commission. They are saying, let me give you this number figure, they say cabbies overcharge riders by $8 million by switching, tricky, tricky, switching the meter to double the rate.
So, how did the group figure it out? All thanks to GPS technology. What they found is more than 1.8 trips where passengers were charged with higher rate. And I was reading the article and they said it's not a lot of cabbies, just this core group, and they'r doing it over and over and over.
HOLMES: You always have that feeling, especially if you don't live up there.
BALDWIN: You have "tourist" across your forehead. You know you're going to get taken.
HOLMES: We have been taken.
BALDWIN: Yes, we have.
HOLMES: Coming up next on CNN, it's being called the new go-to drug for stressed-out moms -- medical marijuana. It's the hottest thing sweeping the 'burbs. A CNN investigation is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Imagine the world without computers. We have them here, in your blackberry, your iPhone. When it comes to education, having computers in the classroom for students, you think they work faster, maybe learn a little bit more efficiently than before.
HOLMES: Sounds great. But there's a problem. It's eating away at one of the classroom staples -- spelling. Jamie Grey with our affiliate KWWL in Iowa went to a college to find out what's going on.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JAMIE GREY, KWWL CORRESPONDENT: The kids who grew up using computers, what some might call the "spell-check generation." I decided to come to Clark College with a white board and a marker to see if they can spell without a computer.
We took ten college students, gave them each four words.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't like this word.
GREY: Three commonly used and commonly misspelled.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think it's two ss.
GREY: That's spelled right, by the way. And one from a spelling bee practice list.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Say it slow, "Ostentatious." GREY: To see how they would do without a word processor.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Spell-checker fixes that.
GREY: Professors definitely ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It doesn't look like it.
GREY: Yes, definitely noticing that students use spell-check but don't get a human's second opinion.
PROF. KATHERINE FISCHER, LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, CLARKE COLLEGE: 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.
GREY: When it comes to getting handwritten work ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know this word.
GREY: Handwritten.
FISCHER: I see the same errors I saw when I started teaching years ago. And so do they learn one from another, probably somebody's got to do a big expensive study to find out.
GREY: We'll stick to the more economical white board. Together the ten students had a 60 percent average. Two spelled all their words correctly, proof perhaps of what professors say -- computers changed some things but haven't destroyed intelligence all together.
FISCHER: Great aids for thinking, writing, creating.
GREY: By the way, all these tricky words came from the Internet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
