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Immigration Debate Heats Up; Grilling Goldman Sachs
Aired April 28, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And then they go on to talk about what is the -- what people up there are basically having them take a look at, at this point. They're saying that the highest priority is to keep and build the trust of the 400 million who use the service. These new products and features, they say, are designed to enhance personalization and promote social activity across the Internet while continuing to give users unprecedented control over what information they share."
So the basic idea here is they're saying you know what, Kyra? This information is already public for people who want to find it. There are certain way to find it. But the senders are saying it shouldn't be automatically pulled by any web site at all. What should happen instead is you should have a chance to opt in whether you want that web site to pull your information and coming up later this hour, we'll talk about how you can protect your privacy, Kyra.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Good, that's what we're looking forward to. Thanks, Josh.
LEVS: Thank you. You got it.
PHILLIPS: President Obama on the road today to sell Wall Street reform. He says that every American would benefit from safeguards that could prevent another near collapse of the financial system. He's also criticizing Republicans for blocking its debate in the Senate. President Obama makes his pitch in Illinois and Missouri today.
Passengers on a diverted Delta flight finally get to resume their trip next hour. The Paris to Atlanta flight was diverted to Bangor, Maine, yesterday after a security threat.
David Stansberry, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence specialist has been detained. He's accused of claiming to have explosives onboard. No explosives were found. Federal law enforcement sources says that Stansberry blamed a sleeping pill for his behavior. Stansberry is expected in court today.
The Coast Guard is ready to take a drastic step to derail that massive oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico right now. They want to set it on fire. They want to burn some of that oil before it hits the coast. The burn start in just about an hour. That slick is just about 20 miles away from Louisiana now.
PHILLIPS: Arizona has a new immigration law. Police ordered to check citizenship, but the effects are being felt all across the country. We're seeing protests in several cities including Chicago where protestors were arrested for blocking an immigrant detention center. (INAUDIBLE) the threats of lawsuits and boy scouts.
San Francisco has banned government travel to Arizona and California's reviewing the contract with Arizona companies. Attorney General Eric Holder says the Justice Department is reviewing the law right now. That measure is getting a lot of attention in Washington and last hour, several members of Congress held a news conference to talk about the need for better border security, calling for National Guard troops to be deployed. Next hour we're going to hear more from house Democrats.
Here's the law that we're talking about. It basically makes it illegal to be illegal. Police are required to check citizenship of anyone that they think might be in the country illegally, no papers, under arrest, but police are prohibited from using race as a reason. Also it places greater penalties on companies that knowingly hire undocumented workers.
And here's a biggie. Any citizen can sue the state or local government if they think the law isn't being enforced. That could be trouble for one Arizona sheriff who says he's just ignoring it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF CLARENCE DUPNIK, PIMA COUNTRY, ARIZONA: The very controversial part of this law which will be challenged immediately is this reasonable suspicion. That is going to be declared in my judgment unconstitutionally vague.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Here's what the president said yesterday in Iowa.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This law that just passed in Arizona, which I think is a poorly-conceived law. You know, you can try to make it really tough on people who look like they "might be illegal immigrants."
One of the things that the law says is local officials are allowed to ask somebody who they have a suspicion might be a legal immigrant for their papers, but you can imagine if you are Hispanic- American in Arizona, your great-grandparents may have been there before Arizona was even a state, but now suddenly if you don't have your papers and you took your kid out to get ice cream you're going to be harassed. That's something that could potentially happen, that's not the right way to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Immigration reform is a priority and he's challenging Republicans to get onboard with Democratic plans. Last hour Republicans responded. CNN's Lisa Des Jardin live in Washington this morning. So Lisa, is this law going to lead Congress to do something and how soon? LISA DES JARDIN: Kyra, suddenly the answer is maybe. I talked to a swing senator just three weeks ago. Get this, just three weeks and that swing senator laughed when I asked her, do you think immigration could come up this year. She says there's no way because the next issue that we have to deal with is energy and climate change.
But as you've been reporting and a lot of our listeners know, immigration suddenly is bumping climate change and energy, maybe even off the table altogether. Here is what Senate majority leader Harry Reid told us just yesterday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HARRY REID (D), NEVADA: Immigration and energy are equally vital to our economic and national security, and we've ignored both of them for far too long. I'm committed to doing both this session of congress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DES JARDIN: Immigration, Kyra, was not something that Harry Reid was talking about just a few months ago, but now it is definitely on the radar at least in Congress. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: OK. So, maybe they want to do something this year, but is that even possible? I mean, look at health care. That took a year.
DES JARDIN: Right. So he's committed to getting it done. What does that really mean? Well, let's break down the real issues here. I think it's a long shot, to be honest for immigration to happen this year, here's why.
Number one, there's no republican who is engaged yet on this issue, and the last time they tried this they had several Republicans including John McCain willing to make compromises. Right now there's no one. The second point is that schedule. There are only 12 weeks left, Kyra, really before Congress hits September and you know, once September hits an election year, it is tough to pass just about anything because all these guys will care about is trying to keep their job which, for many of them, could be an uphill climb in this environment.
And one last thing I got to try to sneak in, Kyra, on your show. I'm going to be following all of this today, all of the immigration up and downs and some Wall Street action in Congress today, too. Twitter me or watch me on twitter or follow me on twitter at lisad CNN. So you don't have to spell that French last name.
PHILLIPS: That's right. We all had to practice how to say Des Jardin.
DES JARDIN: Right. Right.
PHILLIPS: - for so many years. You make it easy. All right. We'll get everybody follow you on twitter. You let us know if anything big happens.
DES JARDIN: Definitely.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Lisa.
DES JARDIN: OK.
PHILLIPS: Arizona's new law has led to travel warnings from the Mexican government now telling citizens to be careful if they're planning to visit Arizona. They say that tourists should be prepared for unprovoked harassment by Arizona police.
Meanwhile, there's been a rush the Mexican consulate in Phoenix. Some people are ready to move back to Mexico. Others are getting things in order just in case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALFONSO NAVARRO, DEPUTY CONSUL OF MEXICO: They say that maybe the family head, the mom and dad is arrested while working and they are deported, they want to be ready in order to reunite the whole family in Mexican soil.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: What they're doing is getting Mexican citizenship for their American-born kids so if they're deported the kids can legally move to Mexico with them.
Coming up at noon, the economics of the law and the calls for an Arizona boycott. We're going to hear from the San Francisco lawmaker pushing the business ban and from the head of Arizona's hotel industry.
A Wall Street giant accused of greed, and a panel of outraged lawmakers accused of grandstanding. It was a Washington prize fight and here's your ringside seat. Executives of Goldman Sachs spent 11 hours on the hot seat, trading punches with senators that accused them of, "unbridled greed." Most offensive to the lawmakers, Goldman's practice of steering investors into the housing market and then betting the firm's money against the market.
Goldman Sachs made billions of dollars in the housing meltdown but Wall Street's largest firm denies any wrongdoing and its CEO said that investors came looking for risk and, "that's what they got."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Is there not a conflict when you sell something to somebody and then are determined to be to bet against that same security?
LLOYD BLANKFEIN, CEO, GOLDMAN SACHS CHAIRMAN: In the context of market making that is not a conflict.
LEVIN: You have the responsibility to tell that client of your adverse interest. That's my question.
DANIEL SPARKS, FMR. GOLDMAN SACHS EXECUTIVE: Sure. Mr. Chairman, I'm just trying to understand -
LEVIN: No, I think you understand it, I don't think you want to answer it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You had less oversight than a pit boss in Las Vegas.
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: There's no doubt their behavior was unethical.
SPARKS: Regret to me means something that you feel that you did wrong and I don't have that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: And there was a lot of fire, but was there much illumination? Outside the hearing CNN's Christine Romans caught up to the firm's CEO. He concedes that some changes do need to be made on how Wall Street does business.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): What will you do to be different? How are you going to -- do you need to be regulated better? Regulated more? What were the mistakes?
BLANKFEIN: I think on the mistakes, we were part of a system that introduced too much credit and too loose credit and which served to build up the bubble.
ROMANS: Right.
BLANKFEIN: And we played a role in that. We financed companies that were perhaps a little bit too leveraged, and you know, we did real estate transactions that may have been too leveraged and that played a role in creating the bubble which ultimately broke and, you know, the consequences of the last two years bear that out.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Blankfein says that he supports the Democrats' proposed financial reforms in general. The final details of the bill are still being hammered out by democratic and Republican negotiators.
I don't know about you, but it is still hard for me to believe that the ageless and active front man for one of the biggest hair bands is lying in a hospital bed struggling, fighting for his life. We'll take a closer look at what happened to Bret Michaels.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN severe weather center. Not a whole lot of severe weather today as far as tornadoes go, but severe spring snow across parts of the northeast and big winds coming across the inner mountain west, will emerge into the planes tomorrow. Weather is coming up in about seven minutes.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. We're getting breaking news from the Supreme Court, we're being told in a five to four vote that the court ruled on the fate of a 75-year-old cross that's sitting on federal land. CNN's Kate Bolduan has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You can very easily drive right by or mistake it for a forgotten billboard in the middle of 1.6 million acres of desert, but inside is a cross boarded up by order of a federal judge, a cross creating a huge constitutional controversy.
(on camera): How many miles do you guys travel from your home to come take care of the memorial?
Well, we're not really - we don't really take care of it now because of the box, but we're 160 miles away from it now.
BOLDUAN (voice-over): Henry and Wanda Santos have been the unofficial caretakers of what has been known as the Mojave Memorial Cross, first erected in 1934 by their friend, a World War I veteran to honor fallen soldiers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We just love our veterans and we feel that they should be honored.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And this is right here in this little piece of our world that's how we did it.
BOLDUAN: But it also sits in the Mojave National Preserve, government land and some now argue that cross is violating the constitutional guarantee of separation of church and state.
Well, what Mr. (INAUDIBLE) wants is neutrality and a complete remedy here.
BOLDUAN: Peter Eliasburg is the ACLU attorney for Frank Bono (ph), a former ranger who worked in the preserve. The man who filed the original lawsuit. While Bono (ph) is Catholic and a veteran, he says the Mojave cross should go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the government to say we're going to impose on each and every one of you veterans this religious symbol even though for many of you it is not your religious symbol, that is not an appropriate expression of religion in public life.
BOLDUAN: Jewish and Muslim veteran groups support Bono but attorneys for the veterans of foreign wars and the Sandozes say the cross is a historical memorial, not a religious symbol, warning the outcome of this case could have far-reaching implications. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the first one that's going to the Supreme Court and they want to make sure this one prevails so that all of the veterans memorials with religious imagery across the country can be protected.
BOLDUAN (on camera): Why not just take this memorial, same cross, same memorial and just move it to a less controversial location?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was put here by the veterans, for the veterans of our wars and that's where it should stay.
BOLDUAN (voice-over): In recent years the Supreme Court has taken a case by case approach on this issue, allowing the 10 commandments to remain on public property in a Texas case, the same day, ruling a display of the 10 commandments in a Kentucky courthouse unconstitutional. With its caretakers anxiously standing watch, it's now up to the high court to decide the fate of this cross.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope it won't be too long before we'll be able to look at the cross again instead of a stupid box.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really. We'll repaint it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Kate Bolduan joins us now live from Washington, with the answer. We set it up and we didn't say it. Kate.
BOLDUAN: You're wonderful, Kyra. It's so hard not to do that. So thank you so much and those oral arguments, that whole piece that was back in October and today we finally got a ruling, a very close ruling, 5-4. We just heard this from the court, 5-4 that this cross does not violate the constitution, Justice Kennedy writing the ruling for the majority. He was joined by his conservative counterparts, Justice Stevens writing the dissenting opinion in this case.
What this really means and, as we said it in the piece, the court has taken a case by case approach ruling very narrowly as to not make broad pronouncements on this very sensitive constitutional question and it appears from this ruling that they did a very similar thing. They ruled that this cross can stand as it has been for the past 75, 76 years and this opens up the door because they've narrowly opened up the door for kind of continuing to encourage more lawsuits to be filed but they've ruled narrowly here, but this cross does stand.
If I can, Kyra, just reading one sentence from the dissenting opinion from Justice Stevens says it's very important hearing his words these days, he wrote in part, a very long dissenting opinion. He writes "such measures as the remedy that they came up with." We can talk about that later, would not completely end the government endorsement of this cross, favoring the cross and the cross would remain designated as - favoring the cross and the cross would remain designated as a national memorial.
So he says this is not completely remove the government's endorsement of religion. The majority however says this did not violate the Constitution. There's our ruling today.
PHILLIPS: Got it. Thanks so much.
Well, a northwest storm moving eastward, (INAUDIBLE) in the Rockies, severe spring storm brewing in the plains and Rob Marciano is still a very busy man.
MARCIANO: Yes, this storm, Kyra, had winds of over 120 miles an hour in the higher peaks of the Sierra Nevadas, across part of Lake Tahoe getting over to Reno, a very, very windy, powerful storm and they had high elevation snows as well, but the winds will be the big concern today, especially as it emerges out of the great basin into the four corners. Not only wind watches, but fire watches out as well because it's been fairly dry and those winds obviously can whip up flames pretty much in a hurry.
Seattle, Portland, down to Salem, San Francisco, back over to Salt Lake, this is a pretty big storm. So not only powerful but large and expansive and it will be a merging of the plains in just a day or two. So we'll be watching that, certainly.
Now, across the northeast, this is the same storm that brought us that severe weather over the weekend and it's just been so slow from start to finish and it just refuses to go out to sea. It started to do that now with some snow beginning to wind down but the damage already done, as far as snow fall goes. 10 to 20 inches total expected. Winter storm warnings still up. These are some of the numbers that have come into the CNN severe weather. That's Nashville, Vermont. 20 inches, are you kidding me? Jericho, Vermont, got a foot of snow? It's a cold place, but they've already seen the trees and flower bloom like the rest of us and to get snow this time of year is certainly unusual. This not unusual - we'll be watching this, Kyra, tomorrow as the storm emerges out of the Rockies for the potential of seeing severe weather both tomorrow, Friday and potentially into Saturday as well. Back over to you.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: Yes.
PHILLIPS: She was considered a soft-spoken giant of the civil rights era. Tomorrow President Obama will get a chance to praise Dorothy Height when he delivers the eulogy at her funeral. Yesterday hundreds turned out for the national council of National Council of Negro women. An organization Height led as president for more than decades.
During her career Height worked in the shadow of Martin Luther King, Jr., fighting for civil rights and she later made her mark in the women's movement. Height died last week at the age of 98.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: President Obama is on the road and on the stump today. He's pitching Wall Street reforms in Illinois and Missouri and says every American will benefit from safeguards that could prevent another near collapse of the financial system. He's also criticizing Republicans for blocking that debate in the Senate.
Anti-government anger boiling over just outside Bangkok. Riot police blocking streets and using both real and rubber bullets to keep thousands of protesters from entering the capital city. The demonstrators called red shirts for what they wear and trying to unseat the prime minister. They say that he runs an undemocratic government which he denies. Police say one of their own died from friendly fire. Eight protesters were also hurt.
Unmanned drone attacks have been successful against militants without risking the lives of American pilots. It's easy to see why the Pentagon likes them. But are these unmanned flights legal? That's the question today on Capitol Hill as members of the sub house committee - or the House sub committee take a closer look.
The issue is pretty timely. President Obama used the unmanned aircraft more times last year than President Bush did in his entire time in office.
I don't know about you, but it's still hard for me to believe that the ageless and active front man for one of the biggest hair bands is lying in a hospital bed struggling and fighting for his life. We'll take a closer look at what happened to Bret Michaels.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PHILLIPS: You remember that classic power ballad from Poison. Can you believe it came out 22 years ago? It's hard to believe. The guy who sang it, Bret Michaels has been going strong for a long time from Poison to reality TV. I mean, the guy the girls had to have on "Rock of Love," remember? He's definitely not your typical 47-year- old man and that makes his current battle kind of hard to fathom. The rocker's apparently suffered a bit of a setback from the massive brain hemorrhage that put him in the hospital.
One of the side effects of that brain bleeding? Seizures. Let's talk more about it with senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen to tell us more about the hemorrhage.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Let's start at the beginning. Let's start with what exactly what happened to him and what it all means. Now what he suffered from is called the subarachnoid brain hemorrhage, which is a fancy way of saying a bleed in the brain. And if you take a look at this animation that we have, you can see basically what it looks like literally bleeding from one of the vessels of the brain. Usually the bleeding occurs between the brain and the covering of the brain.
Now, why does this happen? Let's go over some of the common causes. Now I want to be careful. This is not necessarily the cause of Bret Michaels' brain hemorrhage. We don't know. Nobody is saying anything. Perhaps his doctors don't even know, but a sharp blow to the head can cause this. We saw that with actress Natasha Richardson last year. And also cocaine abuse can cause it and also just a blood vessel bursting. In other words, you have a blood vessel that kind of swells up and bursts. There are several other causes and those are just three of the common causes.
PHILLIPS: It's interesting if you look at his back ground. He had the incident on stage where he took a spill, there was there some equipment. You know, he's lived a hard life, that's true. He's been quite the party man for a number of years, but is there always a reason for a hemorrhage?
COHEN: You know, it's interesting. There is not always a reason. And in fact, 10 percent to 15 percent of the time they don't know what causes it. Someone has a bleed in the brain and they don't know what it is. Other times they can point to some kind of congenital condition, a condition someone was born with. Other times they can point to prescription drugs that someone is taking. Other times someone might have like really rampant out-of-control high blood pressure, but a lot of times they just don't know.
PHILLIPS: So how do people usually do after a hemorrhage?
COHEN: You know, there's a huge range. Some people, unfortunately die from a brain hemorrhage. We saw that when that happened with Natasha Richardson last year. Other times people suffer some paralysis or some other problems. Other times people have seizures and you know what, sometimes people just walk away. I mean it's hard to believe that you can bleed in your brain and just walk away OK in the long term, but sometimes that's what happens. So, of course, we'll be hoping for that for him.
PHILLIPS: That was the lesson we learned from Natasha Richardson and she had a blow to the head, with that accident, felt fine and then - boom.
COHEN: Yes, doctors call that, it sounds a little coarse, but talk and die. That people have a blow to the head and they say I'm OK. Don't worry about me and then they die. They don't realize it. They don't realized what kind of trauma they've experienced. All right. Elizabeth, thanks.
COHEN: Betrayal of trust in the Boy Scouts of America. A victim comes forward and dark, terrible secrets are revealed. So why was this American icon ordered to pay millions of dollars and we'll have the story and the man at the center of it.
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ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Kyra Phillips.
PHILLIPS: This story has outraged us in the same way that the priest sex abuse cases have. It's yet another situation where parents trusted their kids to a mentor, thinking that their child was in a safe haven. Well, on Friday a bombshell decision. An Oregon jury ordered the Boy Scouts of America to pay $18.5 million to a man who was sexually abused by a former assistant Scout master. Smoking gun? Well, a number of things, but secret files of abuses that had gone on for decades were revealed. The attorney that took on this tremendous case, Kelly Clark, and the victim? Kerry Lewis, and he joins us on the phone.
Kelly, let's start with you. You took on a mammoth institution here, the Boy Scouts of America, that for decades has had a squeaky clean reputation. What made you think that you could take this on and win.
KELLY CLARK, CHILD SEX ABUSE ATTORNEY: Well, two things. First of all, of course, before the law all parties are equal. So, it doesn't matter whether you've got a giant corporation or the Boy Scouts of America or something in between. All parties are equal before the law, and I believe that.
And then secondly I have absolutely fantastic co-counsel, Paul Monas, who knows the Boy Scouts backwards and forwards and has been involved with them in litigation against them all over the country. So, between the two of us, I don't think we had much pause about trying to hold the Boy Scouts accountable for what we viewed as clearly wrongful conduct.
PHILLIPS: You and Paul got your hands on these documents, and I've been looking through some of them. One in particular where you actually see cases that were made about alleged sexual abuse. And I'm looking at some of the Boy Scout memos here, and it talks about action or recommendation. And in this one document it actually says, well, "he does not anticipate any criminal charges and believes the matter will be settled quietly."
What's disturbing here is "the matter will be settled quietly," and we're talking about members of the Scouts here, leaders in the Scouts, that not only offended allegedly once, but twice, three times and they were still with these boys.
CLARK: Right. There was a certain sense in which the attitude seemed to be we want to keep it quiet. Certainly, that we don't want to get this out in the public domain that we've got this problem. And to be fair to the Scouts most of the time they would take those people and make them ineligible to re-register in scouting. But we found too often they would put them on probation or these guys would show up in scouting later on, two, four or five years later, and so the system wasn't working, essentially.
PHILLIPS: Kerry Lewis, you were very brave to come forward. What finally made you decide to do that and take on the Boy Scouts?
KERRY LEWIS, ABUSE VICTIM (via telephone): Talking to my parents. They helped me to stand up for myself, and I originally got in contact with Kelly to be a witness for another case.
PHILLIPS: I know it's not easy to talk about, but if you don't mind, just to put this in perspective for other parents who -- maybe their son comes home and might say something that has them a bit concerned. How did this happen? Did the Scout leader -- how did he embrace you and get your trust. And at what point did he cross the line with you? LEWIS: He was active in all parts of my life. He became a mentor over a period of a couple of years. He gained my parents' trust. He was from our church. He always had advice for me. He was somewhat of a hero to me.
PHILLIPS: And was there ever a moment where you thought, oh, this is not right. Something is just not right about what he's doing?
LEWIS: Right after the initial incidents happened.
PHILLIPS: Did you ever say something to him?
LEWIS: No. I never said one word.
PHILLIPS: Did he scare you?
LEWIS: No. Not really.
PHILLIPS: Kelly, what do you think it was about Kerry's testimony that helped in this case?
CLARK: Kerry was incredibly authentic with this jury. He let down all the guards. He told them what he was afraid of. He told them what he could and couldn't do in life and where his handicaps were. And he owned up to his own mistakes and some things that had happened in his life that he wasn't proud of.
He was just incredibly authentic with the jury, and I think in a trial where there wasn't a lot of that, I think Kerry's authenticity really cut through kind of like a hot knife through butter.
PHILLIPS: Wow!
A final thought, if you don't mind. Kerry, if a parent is listening to this, their son wants them to join the Boy Scouts, what would be your advice to the mom, to the dad, to the young boy who is excited about getting involved? What would you say to them as they think about joining the Boy Scouts?
LEWIS: I think the Boy Scouts is a good program. I like the Boy Scouts. They just need to be updated. Have your child and yourself get sexual abuse training if the Scouts are not offering it, which I don't believe is still mandatory yet, to go somewhere else and seek out that training yourself if you have to, and just apply the training.
PHILLIPS: Kerry Lewis, appreciate so much you calling this in. Kelly Clark, great job. You and Paul really held your own in court. Appreciate your time.
CLARK: Thank you so much.
PHILLIPS: The Boy Scouts are planning an appeal and won't comment specifically about the case, but they say, quote, "The Boy Scouts of America continues to be deeply saddened by what happened to this plaintiff in this case more than 25 years ago, and the Boy Scouts of America has a rigorous, nationwide system of checks and balances in accordance with local laws which keeps out the program those individuals who should not be leading youth."
So, you ever wondered hey, why does Facebook need to know that about me anyway? Apparently, some lawmakers have seen the questions Facebook's asking, and have some questions of their own about your privacy.
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PHILLIPS: President Obama on the road today to sell Wall Street reform. He says every American will benefit from safeguards that could prevent another near-collapse of the financial system. He's also criticizing Republicans for blocking its debate in the Senate. President Obama makes his pitch in Illinois and Missouri today.
Passengers on a diverted flight finally get to resume their trip next hour. The Paris to Atlanta flight was diverted to Bangor, Maine, after a security threat. Derek Stansberry, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence specialist, has been detained. He's accused of claiming to have explosives onboard. No explosives were found. A federal law enforcement sources says Stansberry is blaming this on a sleeping pill. Stansberry is expected in court today.
Unmanned drone attacks have been successful against militants without risking the lives of American pilots, and it's easy to see where the Pentagon likes them. But are these unmanned flights legal? That's the question today on Capitol Hill as members of a House subcommittee take a closer look. The issue is timely. President Obama used the unmanned aircraft more times last year than President Bush did in his entire time in office.
We'll be back in a moment.
Actually, let's hang on for a minute. Attention all you Facebookers out there, all 400 million of you. Some changes might do more than reconnect you with your grade school friends that fell off the radiar -- radar, rather in 1977. The changes might compromise your privacy, and many of you are worried it could happen and now some senators are also.
Josh Levs is here. And, Josh, let's talk about how to keep your online self safe and secure.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes because you know, last hour we talked about the four Democratic senators who on top of everything else on their agenda, they've decided it's time to go after Facebook.
But you can kind of see why. There are people concerned about the changes. All of a sudden, Facebook is everywhere in a way it wasn't before. Pretty much, hundreds of Web sites have this Facebook bit on it. What they are concerned about now is what Facebook has done with three specific Web sites where when you get there, if you're signed into Facebook, it automatically pulls your profile information, information on your friends. So, what I'm going to do now is how you can block that from being done and how to get more information online. Let's zoom in. By the way, lots of information on CNN.com. This is just one of the many examples where we have the story about the changes at Facebook.
But I want to use this as an example of a Web site called Yelp. That's a very popular Web site for restaurant reviews and shopping reviews. I'm signed into Facebook. And as soon as I got here, I didn't do anything special. I just went to Yelp. Boom! "Hi, Josh, Yelp is using Facebook to personalize your experience" and right here, it will show what my friends' activities. If I click on that, it's going to show what my friends are doing.
Now, how do you avoid this if you don't want Web sites suddenly pulling up your information? There is an X right there that lets you exit out at the top, and that does block you from taking part in some of it, which is what a lot of people want, but that's not all you need to know. Look at this quote I have for you. This is from Facebook, and this is what they point out. You can opt out, you can hit the x when you see that, but "your public Facebook information can still be shared by your friends to these partner sites unless you block the application."
I know it sounds like a lot of technical jargon. What it means is you have to actually go into your Facebook and find the right way to block this application. And I'm making it easy for you because our friends at mashable.com have actually created a way to do that. So, I've now posted on my Facebook page right here. It's JoshLevsCNN. If you go there right now, (INAUDIBLE) how to reach me on Facebook.com/JoshLevsCNN. You can't miss it. If you go there right now, it will talk you through thou block the application if you want to.
But Kyra, as I toss back to you, I'll tell you a piece of advice that I got from someone at Mashable who watches this. He says no matter what you do, he doesn't like to put anything online at all that he wouldn't want his own mom to see. Because the truth is in the end there are so many ways for your info to get out there. Seriously. I mean, if you wouldn't want your mom to see it, don't put it online.
PHILLIPS: I agree. You're taking a risk. That's why I don't do any of it. Yet my stuff ends up everywhere anyway, Josh.
LEVS: Yes, we got you. I'm going to go tweet about you now, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Josh.
LEVS: See ya.
PHILLIPS: We're back in a moment.
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(MUSIC PLAYING) PHILLIPS: Oh, no. There will be no smoking in the boys' room, nightclubs, bars, restaurants for that matter. In Michigan, the state's ban on smoking in public places takes effect on Saturday. Under the new law, people can't light up in places like government buildings or anywhere food or drink is served. A lot of restaurant owners think it will put a dent in their profits. The governor signed a bill to protect people from secondhand spoke. Thirty-seven other states have similar bans on the books.
So, can you imagine the Happy Meal without the happy? Get ready. This isn't a nightmare in McDonald land. Not Mayor McCheese going rogue, no, this is reality in Silicon Valley.
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PHILLIPS: Oh, yes. Doesn't that McDonald's commercial bring it all back for you, too? Come on, you remember being their age. Mom or Dad saying those famous words, McDonald's tonight or maybe Mickey D's. That was a big night out, right?
And that night you would get the source of happiness, the Happy Meal. And of course, the golden ticket, the toy. Get this, in California, a Santa Clara board of supervisors has banned restaurants like mcDonald's for putting toys in kids' meals until the meals meet certain nutritional guidelines. Can you see Ronald McDonald pulling his red hair out right now?
The guy who sponsored this thinks it's wrong to basically use a toy as bait to lure a child to eat food that makes them fat and happy. Basically afraid that Kayla and Zyla (ph), the Happy Meal mermaids are really foul temptresses seducing children into obesity.
I don't' know. I understand the county's point, but it's not like you have to bribe a child to eat a cheeseburger, McNuggets or French Fries, right? You've got to think that some parents are not loving it when your kid is screaming, and you don't have time to cook, look, you'll do anything. Maybe the problem is parents who see Happy Meals as a lifestyle instead of an occasional treat. It just seems like the kids are being punished here, doesn't it?
Senate hearings are aren't known for their entertainment value, but this one was different. Potty-mouthed senators to protestors dressed as prison inmates, Jeanne Moos with some of the antics from the Goldman Sachs hearing.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Wonder which was worse?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you feel about destroying the American economy?
MOOS: Being chased down the hall by protesters and press, or getting pressed by senators?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your own person said they're too smart to buy this kind of junk.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't do the hindsight thing with me. I mean, come on.
MOOS: There was headshaking, head wiping, and head scratching. But the thing this hearing may be most remembered for was a six-letter word not usually heard at congressional hearings.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Boy, that Timberwolf was one (EXPLETIVE WORD) deal. How much of that (EXPLETIVE WORD) deal did you sell to your clients? You didn't tell them you thought it was a (EXPLETIVE WORD) deal.
MOOS: Committee chairman, Senator Carl Levin, got the term from an internal Goldman Sachs e-mail, not internal anymore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How about the fact you sold hundreds of millions of that deal after your people knew it was a (EXPLETIVE WORD) deal. Does that bother you at all?
MOOS: Didn't bother the media. Some Web sites kept count.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Should Goldman Sachs be trying to sell a (EXPLETIVE WORD) deal?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't say that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, who did? Your people, internally. You knew it was (EXPLETIVE WORD) deal.
MOOS: Former Goldman Sachs, Daniel Sparks, took a couple of swings after that exchange, only to have another senator bring it up again an hour later.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: By the way, this is the same one that your folks called (EXPLETIVE WORD).
MOOS: And six hours later, it came up again. This time, directed at Goldman CEO.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A junk or a piece of crap or (EXPLETIVE WORD) deal.
MOOS: If you were this Goldman Sachs exec, you would sigh, too. All eyes were on him partly because of his nickname --
FABRICE TOURRE, VP OF GOLDMAN SACHS: My name is Fabrice Tourre.
MOOS: The French man is better know as Fabulous Fab.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that how they do it in France, Fab?
MOOS: Protesters dress like convicts were relentless. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't even accept responsibility, a small amount of responsibility.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I firmly believe that my comment (ph) was correct.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do not think that we did anything wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have regrets about doing things that I think were improper.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got no regrets, you ought to have plenty of regrets.
MOOS: The protesters dressed as inmates.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of your money won't keep you out of jail.
MOOS: Ended up being corralled by police as photons (ph) bounced off walls and into each other, talk about the need for regulation.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: The immigration debate heats up, but we want cooler heads to crunch the numbers. Do illegal immigrants push up the crime raters or drive down the number of jobs for unemployed Americans? We're checking the facts in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM.
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PHILLIPS: Here's a suggestion for British prime minister Gordon Brown. Turn off your mike when you get into your car. He forgot, so now he's apologizing after being caught on tape describing an elderly woman that he met on the campaign trail as, quote, "bigoted."
Paula Newton live in Baath, England with details. So, Paula what's the deal?
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Quite a little tremor in this campaign. The social media Web sites are just crazy about this, and Gordon Brown himself seems to have taken this to heart.
Let's start with what happened. He was speaking to a staunch Labour supporter. That's his party, the prime minister's party. She was talking to him about immigration, and then after that, hear what he says on a microphone he forgot he had. Hear what me says on his car on the way out. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORDON BROWN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Six months -- UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can't say anything about the immigrants because you're saying that -- all these eastern Europeans are welcoming in.
BROWN: Good to see you all. Good to see you. Thanks very much.
A disaster. You should never have put me with that woman. Whose idea that was?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know, I didn't see her.
BROWN: Sue, I think. It's just ridiculous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They will go with it. What did she say?
BROWN: Everything. She's just a bigoted woman. She said she use to be Labour.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NEWTON: That apology came very quickly. He called her "that bigoted woman," and just a couple of hours later he was on live radio, Kyra, hand in his head saying, "Look. I apologize profusely to this woman."
It is one of the first big gaffes of this campaign. A little bit more a week to go until voting day. We do that next Thursday here. We'll see how it affects the campaign, but if the reaction is anything to go by, people say, look, we were mortified for him and it changes the way we look at him as a politician and prime minister. Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Who's the reporter that forgot to get the mike back, Paula? Those are expensive!
NEWTON: I'm not sure if they forgot. I'm telling you, he got that word in "bigoted" just before the mike went dead. So, look, I'm sure Gordon Brown is going to be very careful from now on.
PHILLIPS: No doubt. Paula, thanks so much.
All right. It's the top of the hour, 11:00 Eastern time. My man, Tony Harris, stepping in. He's got plenty to say in the mike.
HARRIS: Just assume the mikes are open, right, Kyra?
PHILLIPS: Always. Always.
HARRIS: Always. Kyra, have a great day.
PHILLIPS: OK. See you.
