Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
U.S. Economy Sputters; Five Year After Hurricane Katrina; Opry History Saved From Flood
Aired August 27, 2010 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, this morning, the government confirmed what many of us are already feeling. The so-called recovery sputtering. Government figures show that growth in the second quarter was 1.6 percent, that's not as bad as expected but still pretty anemic, and what's worse, the steeped plunge from the 2.4 percent that had been previously estimated.
So you take that disappointing news and you combine it with high unemployment, and a sliding stock market and you can see why more people are worried about a double-dip recession. In fact, those concerns are so great that economists will be weighing every word today from Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.
Let's try and break it down. Cnnmoney.com's Poppy Harlow joins me from New York. So Poppy, what do we take away from all these numbers?
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Sure. Well, we will get to those remarks. We have them here. We read through them, from Ben Bernanke speaking right now in Jackson Hole. But look this report, the GDP reported it anything but (INAUDIBLE) but the reason this is important is the most accurate gauge we have of the output of the U.S. economy, the life blood of this economy, as you see on the chart right there.
In 2008, beginning of 2009, our economy was shrinking at a pretty considerable rate and it began to pick up after we had the stimulus plan in the middle of 2009. But look what we've seen, those blue bars that have fallen off, for the last three quarters, the latest number this morning, only 1.6 percent growth. To give you some perspective, when we have a healthy economy like the mid-90s, our economy gross at about 3.5 percent, and businesses want to see at least two percent growth before they hire.
Businesses not hiring, more and more foreclosures, people facing their own personal debt, businesses and people feeling the pain across the board. That's why Main Street cares about this number. We talked to people, Kyra, from California out here to New York to ask people how their personal economy is. I want you to take a listen to what they have to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was a self-employed individual for the past eight or nine years, and with this economic down turning I basically had to shut my business down and go back to work as an employee. You know, there are a lot more for sale signs up in neighborhoods and such. I mean, I've got a lot of friends who have been out of work for a while.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Food prices, gas prices, you know, we're hopeful that things certainly aren't going to get any worst.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Living hand to mouth. It's been really stressful. Like, really, completely a lifestyle change, economically. Thinking twice about everything that we do, and having to say, no, to the kids, daddy doesn't have a job, and, no, you can't do that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be very tight. I can live, I can eat, I can house myself, but I don't think I can enjoy the pleasures of traveling as much as I would like to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My friends, neighbors, and the people that I love, just the people in the community that are suffering.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Suffering, living hand to mouth. You heard it from them in their own words, Kyra. That's why people care so much about this number.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, what's the government's response to all of this.
HARLOW: We're all looking at the government. What more will they do? Will there be more stimulus? The administration has been criticized for stimulus not working as it should have. Will there be a bailout for small businesses, the president pushing Congress to push some aid for small businesses. I want to take you to some key remarks that Ben Bernanke is making right now in Jackson Hole.
He leads monetary policy in this country and he says what action the government will take. He says, "look, we know that the economic recovery is worse than expected and the growth is quote "less vigorous than we expected," housing still a big problem but here's the key. He said, "we expect that growth will pick up in 2011, but we expect it will pick up then and, he said, not only does the Federal Reserve, the government have the tools to fix this, we're going to fix this."
That's instilling some confidence in the market. That's why you see some face on Wall Street. But Kyra, the main thing we have to focus on is Main Street, and you heard it from them, no one feels secure. This number makes the situation a whole lot worse, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Poppy, thanks.
HARLOW: Got it.
PHILLIPS: Two big storms churning in the Atlantic ocean and getting stronger. Hurricane Danielle now a category 4, and then on its heels, tropical storm, Earl. Reynolds Wolf is tracking it all for us. Reynolds. REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I tell you right now. it is really Danielle that is the real powerhouse. As I mentioned earlier, it is the strongest storm on the planet and there's nothing in its way in terms strong wind shear.
It's got very warm water on its path, which means it may intensify a bit. Category 4 expected but then it's going to past to the east of Bermuda if it follows true to the latest storm path from the National Hurricane Center.
As we venture into Monday, into Tuesday and Wednesday, it is expected to move a northeast trajectory, moving out over cooler water and then it's going to lose a lot of its power. So that is the forecast for that particular storm.
The next one on the line is going to be Earl, a tropical storm now but it is also forecast as it pushes a bit more into the west to move into an area with minimal shear and very warm water, and by the time we get to early on Wednesday, at 2:00 a.m., winds are expected to be 115 miles per hour, gusts at 140, and that means this storm could also, possibly, become a major hurricane.
Again, the second one of the season. But that's not all. Take a look at what we have right off the coast of Africa. We see even more development coming right off the coast. This particular area may be our next named storm. That one will be Fiona, would be the name of that particular storm.
Again, Kyra, it is the time of the year that the tropics are active, and that is certainly the case today. Looks like it's going to be a busy time as we enter the fall and getting closer to the end of the season, November 30th. Back to you.
PHILLIPS: It always is. Thanks, Reynolds.
WOLF: You bet.
PHILLIPS: Well, it's been five years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the gulf coast. Nearly 1,800 people died. So many more were left homeless and we've witnessed a lot of pain since the summer of 2005. A lot of progress, too. Here's some i-reports on gulf neighborhoods then and now. of Mexico neighborhoods then and now. A flooded street transforms into a road that's bone dry and bustling. Humvees are gone, the debris big and small has been cleared away for new homes and parks. The before and after snapshots are just a glimpse of how much that region has recovered. But it's still a work in progress.
I was there when the devastation hit, side by side with a general who was called in to save that city. Russ Honore and I went back three years later to the same places, the same moments that defined his mission.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS (voice-over): August 29th, 2005, mother nature strikes, levees break, and 80 percent of New Orleans, Louisiana, is under water.
Here comes the rescue.
PHILLIPS: All hell breaks loose.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I never lived like this.
PHILLIPS: Lieutenant General Russell Honore is about to take on one of the most difficult operations of his career.
(on camera): Sir, I've got to ask you, we have been seeing some really dramatic videotape come in within the past hour and a half, and we're seeing dead bodies on the street in New Orleans.
VOICE OF LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, U.S. ARMY: People couldn't get out in time and this caused a lot of perish, and it's a sad sight to see, and we are pushing hard now.
PHILLIPS: Did you have any idea what you were in for back then?
HONORE: No. It was overwhelming. But, the information you gave us was information we didn't have. So we took that information and we followed up on it.
PHILLIPS: Did I surprise you?
HONORE: Yes, you did surprise me. Because we knew there were people at the convention center but we had not gotten a clean report on what was going on there.
PHILLIPS: So when you got here and you saw all of the hundreds of people, and the babies and the dead bodies, what went through your mind?
HONORE: Well, we got to get these people out of here.
PHILLIPS: This it. This is the spot where everybody saw what you were made of.
HONORE: Well, they got a glimpse of reality.
PHILLIPS: The world was now introduced to the cigar-chomping no-nonsense John Wayne dude.
HONORE: Some word didn't get out to all of the troops, and this was the place to fix it because this was the place that we came into a sea of humanity, of people suffering, the elderly people, women with babies. We did not need to be pointing guns at them.
PHILLIPS: It's not just the three-year anniversary of Katrina. It's deja vu.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a significant search and rescue capability that we have assembled with the National Guard and with northern command. PHILLIPS: Have you thought about this, general. Here we are, three years to the day, and we're listening to Michael Chertoff, talking about another possible catastrophic hurricane in the same city.
HONORE: The timing and the evacuation is key. And then the ability to get the troops in here after the storm. Because when the storm goes north, it keeps you from keeps you from coming in. That's going to be the challenge of getting folks in here. After every storm we have the same problem.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Problems that residents of the lower Ninth Ward can never forget.
(on camera): Well, Here's my question. $126 billion was funneled into the gulf coast. You come to the Ninth Ward here and you still see devastation.
HONORE: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Where did the money go?
HONORE: I don't know because you see a lot of this work right here is being done through philanthropy, through this new construction.
PHILLIPS: Not government money?
HONORE: Not necessarily government money.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Sure, we're seeing some homes being rebuilt. What about the hospitals?
(on camera): Are these hospitals ready or not?
HONORE: These hospitals are not open, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: They're still closed. All of them.
HONORE: They are not open because the bureaucrats are still arguing.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): And the arguments don't stop there. How about the infamous levees.
(on camera): I can't believe that this is the old and the new. I mean, the difference is unbelievable.
HONORE: It is certainly better than what it was. Is it good enough, I don't know. I know one thing, if you live on the other side of that wall, you need to evacuate, and if you can't, then somebody needs to help you evacuate, a family, a friend, a neighbor, the local government, the local police or the state government needs to get you out of there. That's what I know.
PHILLIPS (voice-over): Actually, that's what we all know now. (END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Now, that was 2008, but we want to know what he thinks now. General Russel Honore with lessons learned from Katrina and what still needs to be done, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Remember that? I sure do. That no-nonsense Lieutenant General Russel Honore taking the reins in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It has been five years since the storm that FEMA calls the single most catastrophic disaster in U.S. history.
The general would agree with that too. He is joining me again, once again live from New Orleans. General, I remember that moment when you were walking down that street. You scared the hell out of me.
HONORE: Good morning, america. How are you doing?
PHILLIPS: But what we really know is you have a soft heart among that tough exterior, but you definitely got down to business, as we saw, the minute you touched down in that city, but I remember having that first interview when you were in flight being called in to save that city. This was your city.
General, what do you remember from that moment when you got the call from North Com, "Honore, you're going. We need you to do something?"
HONORE: Well, I hope we were up to the task. I knew the task would be hard and we need to hurry up and get there. We arrived on Wednesday morning at 9:27 in the morning, at the Superdome on a Navy Seahawk helicopter, and from then on it was continuous work, to try to get the people out of the city and save lives and conduct search and rescue.
PHILLIPS: And I remember interviewing you and telling you, sir, do you know there's dead bodies on the ground, that people are not surviving, and when you and I connected, you said you hadn't even gotten that word yet. So once you touched down and really saw how bad it was, did you say to yourself, oh, my, god, this is like being in the middle of a war zone?
HONORE: Absolutely, and the role that the media played - because you were places that we hadn't gotten troops into or we hadn't got clean reports out from the city because they couldn't talk to the state. The communications was broke. So we used that information to act on.
PHILLIPS: Now, when you and I talked five years later. We went back there a couple of years ago together again, to those same places, and you were still frustrated by a couple of things. Number one, the hospitals. You said to me, "Kyra, the hospitals aren't open yet. They're not even thriving like they should be." How do you feel about the hospitals now?
HONORE: Well, the good news, we got a commitment for the V.A., the Veterans Administration, and the state has resolved the issue with the federal government, and they're building a new big charity hospital and a new V.A. hospital that's going to be bigger and better than the previous complex. So there's something good coming out of it.
The other thing that's happened, Kyra, because of the absence f big charity, many of public hospitals and (INAUDIBLE) community based clinics, as it will turn out, with the help of the federal government - the federal government made this happen. They put a lot of money in here to keep health care going when the city was going through its initial rebuilding.
As a result of this, the health system in New Orleans in years to come will be years ahead of the rest of the country, when it comes to community-based health clinics and the big charity and the new V.A. hospital will be state of the art.
PHILLIPS: Well, that's better news than what you and I talked about just a couple of years ago. Now, how about those levees? Give us a reality check. You never mince any words when it comes to the status of that project, and, really, could New Orleans survive another Katrina with that levee system right now?
HONORE: You know what, Kyra, those levees are a lot better. They're a lot stronger. The Corps of Engineers have done some engineering work, they put some gates in to keep the water from coming into the canals. They've reinforced them, but you and I both know, and history has shown a levee will give you early warning, will give you protection, but when that levee becomes threatened either by surge of water or water from flooding, you need to evacuate.
They are better, significantly better but I don't know if they'll ever be good enough to stand up to a category 4 or 5 storm that pushed 20 or 30-foot surge into the lake (INAUDIBLE). I'm not sure if that will work. So people have to be prepared to evacuate. They certainly can feel safer now but I would not trust my life on a levee, particularly when it comes to a point of being over topped.
PHILLIPS: And just to wrap it up, if you don't mind, Russ, one thing that happened when you and I were there during Katrina, in the midst of all of this craziness and National Guard troops being strapped, you got word that your son, a soldier as well was going to be coming home. We've got a video right here of that moment. I know you had a lot of emotion at that time because here you were dealing with Katrina, yet your boy was coming home from the war. What was that like for you? I remember coming in on the helicopter, and you weren't saying much, but I knew that this was on your heart.
HONORE: Yes, it was, and it was symbolic of the fact, Kyra, that the Mississippi Brigade, the 155 brigade was also in Iraq and the Louisiana brigade, the 256 brigade and would you believe today as we stand here, the Louisiana National Guard 256 brigade is back in Iraq again and due to come home in about two months.
So that was a very surreal moment, I was glad to get him home. He came back and Sgt. Mike Honore worked with me for two days, driving a vehicle for me for Hurricane Rita, as did all of the Louisiana National Guard. They came back and found their families and went to work. Great group of troops.
PHILLIPS: Well, your son is just like you. You are both very strong, straight forward good men. Great to talk to you again, general. It's always a pleasure.
HONORE: Bless you.
PHILLIPS: Once after the floodwaters swallowed a landmark in Nashville, Tennessee, well, there's reason to celebrate and sing now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PHILLIPS: This circle, a reminder that legends born on the Opry stage and today it's the symbol of a city's rebirth.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking top stories. Former president jimmy carter is on his way back to the U.S. with an American who had been detained in North Korea. The Boston resident had faced eight years hard labor for entering that country illegally.
A car bomb exploded outside a Mexican TV station today. (INAUDIBLE) that was the building that was damaged but there were no deaths or injuries. The blast happened in the same state where authorities found 72 bodies this week. Officials believe it was a drug cartel that killed those people.
Federal investigators found Salmonella bacteria in chicken feed at the two Iowa farms linked to the outbreak in the egg recall. Officials say that the feed could have become contaminated in a number of ways.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, honey, I got a song that I wrote specially for you. Just for you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's called "Hey good looking."
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: And you know who he wrote that for? You just saw her. June Carter. Legendary stuff from the Grand Ole Opry. Hank and June are gone but their music is immortal, and the spot on the Opry stage where they stood and so many other legends stood is still with us, too. Hallowed ground in American music.
I remember the great flood back in May, left the Opry under four feet of water and shut down the huge hotel complex nearby and it also did more than $2 billion in damage to that city and it killed 22 people in that state, but Nashville's coming back. One great example of the city's resilience is the Opry complex. The hotel is rehiring employees they had to lay off after the flood and the Grand Ole Opry House will reopen September 28th, that's ahead of schedule.
And now, a key part of that opry stage is back in place, it's the historic wooden circle where Hank, June, Elvis, Johnny Cash and so many others stood and where future legends will stand. It's a symbol for the whole city's return from ruin.
Josh DeVine from our affiliate, WSMV reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
JOSH DEVINE, REPORTER, WSMV: The song itself was short and sweet, but the sentiment is long overdue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the first step towards normalcy, I think.
DEVINE: The Grand Ole Opry members Brad Paisley and Little Jimmy Dickens welcomed the famed center stage circle back to it's rightful place.
JIMMY DICKENS, COUNTRY MUSIC ARTIST: I don't think it ever looked this good before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you're right.
DICKENS: And I'm just wondering what it will look like when it's finished. It will be beautiful.
DEVINE: On May 2nd, floodwaters filled the Opry, damaging everything it seemed, except the six-foot circle. Those who showed up to grab it first and mourn the rest. Paisley was there just days after the flood.
BRAD PAISLEY, COUNTRY MUSIC ARTIST: It felt like watching your church be demolished. I mean, it just felt that sacred and that (INAUDIBLE) somehow and to see them take this to this degree and make it this much more beautiful in the end. I mean, it's going to be 10 times better than it was.
DEVINE: This circle might just be a small part of the Opry's multi-million dollar recovery but easily it's the most significant part, point both to the Opry's past and now to its future.
MAYOR KARL DEAN, NASHVILLE: This a great iconic institution and this is a great moment. The Grand Ole Opry is a huge contributor to our history, to our identities and to our traditions, and having it restored and operating is a great boost for the city.
DEVINE: The Opry will celebrate it's welcome home, September 28th. The lengthy line-up includes Trace Atkins, the Charlie Daniels band, (INAUDIBLE) Josh Turner, Paisley and Dickens.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And repairs to the rest of the concert hall are still going on but officials say the beloved building will be ready for the Opry's 85th birthday celebration in October.
Credit classrooms may not translate to bad grades. A group of researchers say it's time to rethink class sizes but a lot of parents are sounding off about that saying they don't want their kids fighting 30 other students for teaches' attention. We're talking about it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Class sizes are getting bigger in schools all across the country. You can blame slashed education budgets and teacher layoffs on that, but there is a new wave of researchers actually cited by "USA Today" that says parents don't necessarily need to worry about that because of link between class size and student performance is murky at best.
If that goes against your gut, you're not alone. There's been a decades long push against smaller sizes. Back in 1993, there were about 24 students in an average elementary school class. That sank by four kids by 2007. But as that number rises again in some money- starved schools, a lot of the parents, teachers and administrations are fighting it.
CNN education contributor Steve Perry joins me to dissect this whole issue of class size and does it really matter. What's your take?
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: It doesn't really matter. What matters most is the quality of instruction. What pushes student performance more than anything else and what we found over decades is good teachers produce good results. The research they're talking about --
PHILLIPS: Even with more students in class? One teacher can make a impact, say, on 30 kids versus if they just had 15?
PERRY: If you think about college, many of our college classes went anywhere from 30 to 400 students.
Take it back a step. The research that we're talking about that really fueled this whole push for class size took place in Tennessee. It's called The Star Research in which they found low-income students in kindergarten and first grade performed a little bit better in classes that were 15 and 17, better than those in 22 to 25.
However, after about 25 years and billions of dollars, what we find is that America's 24th overall in performance internationally in science and math, and we find the very population that was supposed to benefit from this, largely low-income students from historically disadvantaged populations like African-American males are graduating at a rate of about 45 to 47 percent.
So, this has been a failure. We need to focus on what matters most, which is having qualified, caring and capable teachers in the classroom.
PHILLIPS: Okay, but tell me how a teacher can give 30 kids the attention that 30 kids need, versus just 15.
PERRY: Think about the difference. First of all, we're not talking about the difference between 15 and 30. What we're talking about is the difference between 24 and 27. We're talking about bumping some of the classes up by about three students. So, the three students is negligible overall.
What the teacher's job is to provide them with a compelling and engaging lesson, one that inspires children to want to participate in learning. The problem that we have here is the teachers that are in the classroom are not of the caliber that we need. We need more qualified, hard-working teachers. There are many, many teachers giving all they can, but the results are not lying to us. Our children are underperforming; we are looking at a generation first in many generations to come up less likely to be literate than the generation that came before.
And here we are with an opportunity to make a change. The economy, actually, has been one of the best things to happen to education because what it's done is it's begun able to separate the wheat from the chaff. We have begun to see what happens when we don't have cash-flush economy. When we actually have to look at results to determine whether or not people continue to get paid.
Now we're starting to see what the most innovative solutions are, and we're beginning to push both educators and families to look at education differently.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, this is just one of another -- or a number of topics we're going to talk about next week. As you know, we're focusing on fixing our schools and you are going to do a number of segments.
But we've also got you going out and doing house calls, shall we say.
PERRY: Oh, man.
PHILLIPS: And before we get to a little bit of the sound - yeah, oh, man is right. When I heard about all these kids, I'm thinking, "Oh, Lord, I want to hear about how you're going to fix this?" You are sort of the Dr. Phil, but Dr. Principal. Tell me about the family you visited?
PERRY: I went out to visit a family down here in Georgia, and I got the opportunity to spend some time with them, and really their children. Getting an understanding of what it is that they're doing to do well in school. What we talked about is how we can do an educational makeover in a home. Better utilize the time and space and get more out of their children's performance just by making some changes at home.
We're not going to change the school they go to, and we're not going to change their teachers. Just make changes to the schedule and some other things. Really, really exciting.
PHILLIPS: Okay, now did I just hear we don't have that sound or we do? Oh, we do? OK, let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it too late? I mean, they're already in middle school. Have we already missed the boat?
PERRY: That's a great question. Is it too late?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have established some very weak skills here.
PERRY: That's a great question. Is it too late because they're in middle school? The answer's absolutely not. In fact, it's at this time and in high school when it's most important for parents to engage their children. It's at the time they want it the least that they need it the most.
Right here. So, the first --Mom took a deep breath. Why did Mom take a deep breath?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just weighing it.
PERRY: This thing makes you scared? It makes me scared, too. It's a big marker.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: All right. What's the deal? They have the three kids, and they sort of let the kids dictate their schedules. And what you're saying we need to have them more on a schedule? Explain to me what you did here.
PERRY: What we talked about was, this a family that has some very bright kids. I want to make that clear.
PHILLIPS: Self-starters?
PERRY: Well, not self-starters.
PHILLIPS: Oh, okay.
(LAUGHTER)
PHILLIPS: They need discipline but smart kids.
PERRY: Right. They're smart kids. And they do relatively well in school.
But we are going to take this children from good to great. And so the way we're going to do it is we're impart some structure, we're make some changes in how they study and we talk about that.
PHILLIPS: What were they doing that got you nervous?
PERRY: Well, they were going to bed at 1:00 and 2:00 and 3:00 in the morning.
PHILLIPS: What, on a school night?
PERRY: Yes.
PHILLIPS: Why did the parents let them do that?
PERRY: Well, I don't know that we got that far. But they did say they understood there was something wrong with it.
PHILLIPS: Okay.
PERRY: And one of the things that also happened was we talked about how the children can make some -- just little changes in the way they study. But the biggest issue is the follow-through of the parents. You saw mom took a deep breath. I took out the white board and she was --
PHILLIPS: "Uh-oh. You're giving me a regimen, and I don't want that."
PERRY: And, I pulled out the white board and the marker, right, because we're high tech at CNN. With the big marker and the white board, we got down to business. And we started talking about what it will take in order for the children to be successful.
And, you know, they have a child, who we'll say, expresses himself. I'm a principal. I don't play with kids. And so you get to see me in my element. You get to see me really doing what I do for a living, which is talking to children, let them know -- like this particular child, David. David wanted to have an opinion. And I explained that "it's really cool that you want an opinion, but it's too bad you don't have one. You are a child." There are grown people at this table.
PHILLIPS: Right now, Mom and Dad tell you what -
PERRY: That's it. He said, "So, I don't get a say?" "No, isn't that great? You just sit there, and you listen, and everything will be all right." You get to see that. You get to see how we use our time with the family to help them move forward. PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what, a lot of families are going to be tuning in to how you do that, because hearing the before and eager to see the after. I look forward to this next week.
Thank you, Principal Perry.
PERRY: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: All right.
We will tackle the issue of fixing troubled schools and possible solutions all next week, like I mentioned. We want you to be a part of the conversation as well. Do you have questions about your child? Just ask Principal Perry at CNN.com/kyra. He's our education contributor, as you know, and he's going to join us starting Monday to answer some of your toughest questions.
All right. Winning with Facebook and Twitter. A 21-year-old uses social media to earn a seat in the Oklahoma state house representatives. I bet Steve Perry has something to say about this remarkable student. We're going to talk to her live just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Checking top stories.
Compelling home video from nearly a half mile underground. The 33 trapped Chilean miners in good spirits send a taped message to their families.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): I want you guys to know that we're tranquil down here. We want to get out of here. We're not going to stay down here. We want to get out of here. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): This guy doesn't want to get out of here because then he'll have to take a shower, and this one hasn't taken a shower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): Many thanks to the people who are outside working to get us out. We hear you guys working.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: We promise to stay on that story for you.
Also, Hurricane Danielle a powerful Category 4 storm in the Atlantic. It's expected to lose steam over the weekend. Right behind Danielle, Tropical Storm Earl. Forecasters say that Earl could become a hurricane by early tomorrow.
Former NASA chief Sean O'Keefe and his son Kevin have returned to Washington to recover from a plane cash. It happened earlier this month in Alaska. Five people died, including former senator Ted Stevens.
Meet Elise Hall. She's twenty-one and just won election to the Oklahoma state house of representatives. It makes her one of state's youngest lawmakers. And she's making her mark. Elise won her race Tuesday with help from Facebook and Twitter. She says her supporters would update her Facebook status throughout the day, writing quote, "I just went out and voted for you, Elise Hall. You should, too."
Elise Hall joins us now live from Oklahoma City. Now, Elise, this is amazing. You're going to college, you're 21 years old. You just won this seat. Where did the interest come from?
ELISE HALL (R), OKLAHOMA STATE HOUSE-ELECT: You know, I've always had a love and passion for politics and government and realized that if I want to be able to make a difference for my generation, I needed to do it now. So I decided to run, and had a great campaign and was very excited to win on Tuesday.
PHILLIPS: And what do your parents think? How did they react? Did they support this, right? Because you're in college. They want you to stay focused.
HALL: Yes, yes. They definitely supported every aspect of it. They were there in the good times and hard times. They were very supportive and probably my biggest cheerleaders.
PHILLIPS: Let me ask you. Most students your age in college are blowing their beer money and they're either in a sorority or fraternity and not really focused on their future. That's not every college student, of course, but that's a lot of them.
HALL: It is.
PHILLIPS: Why are you so different?
HALL: You know, I think the main thing is that I grew up in a way that made me live my life in a purposeful way. And for me, my generation is very apathetic and are not looking ahead to see where they want to be in three years or 10 years or 25 years. For me, I wanted to make sure my generation can look back and say "Well, we should have been paying attention when we were 21." I want to be able to live my life when I'm 55 the way I wanted to live it. And part of that was being able to make a difference in the legislature.
PHILLIPS: Well, it's just remarkable. Now, here, this definitely shows your age, the fact that you did so well through social networking. Tell us how that worked, and are you encouraging other politicians to do the same?
HALL: You know, social media is it a great way to quickly and effectively get your message out. You know, in the 21st century, we can't just use social media. We used a variety of methods, the direct mail. But probably the most effective way was getting out and talk to voters.
But it's fast, it's free and very easy to do on the go. There's a couple of other races here in Oklahoma, the governor's and in the Fifth Congressional race that are using social media in a way that lets people now what they're doing, how they're doing, how they can get involved. It's a great way that I think business, politicians, I think everyone needs to use to get their message out.
PHILLIPS: So, Elise, did any older folks say to you, "You're 21, what the heck do you know about politics? How are you going to help me? Where does this come from?" How did you react to those people? What do you ember from what they said to you, and how did you convince them that could you do it?
HALL: You know, I did come up against people that didn't think it was a good idea for a 21-year-old to get involved, but the state qualifications are that you have to be 21 years old. And for me, age isn't really the issue, and I think the thing is that we need to elect people with character and integrity, and that's what I just reminded people of. That it's not about experience or what degree you have behind your name. It's who you are and the decisions you're going to make as a legislator.
And ultimately, it's up to the voters. And apparently the people in House district 100 didn't look at the age of 21 and think it was scary and believe I have the character and integrity to do what needs to be done in our legislature.
PHILLIPS: So, your future plans? Presidency?
HALL: Probably not at this time. We'll take it one step at a time.
PHILLIPS: Need to graduate college first?
HALL: Yes, exactly.
PHILLIPS: Elise Hall, we will follow your progress. I tell you what. I would be so thrilled to have a daughter like you. You're an amazing young woman. Congratulations.
HALL: Thank you so much. Thanks for having me on here.
PHILLIPS: You bet.
We'll be back in just a second.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Five years ago today, Hurricane Katrina was closing in on the Gulf Coast, and an entire region was on the brink of catastrophe without even knowing it. In fact, it took days for the true scope of the disaster to sink in, especially for the government officials in charge. They seemed oblivious to the suffering of people, hungry, thirsty and seemingly forgotten. Who can forget the moment when President Bush actually gave kudos to FEMA director Michael Brown, the man who became the symbol of the government's catastrophic failure? Well, guess what? He's back in New Orleans for the anniversary. Why? He has a radio show in Denver, and he's taking it on the road. Are you kidding me? Do New Orleaneans really care what this failed FEMA director has to say on his broadcast? He's still defending himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BROWN, FORMER FEMA DIRECTOR: As I've said in speeches all over the world that one of the fatal mistakes I made was not making it clear that indeed things aren't moving as quickly as they need to move. When I'm executing mission assignments to ask the Department of Defense to do something, that shouldn't take three or four days. It should take three or four hours.
And you're right. Had I said that at the time, I probably would have gotten the old hook and pulled off the stage anyway, but the truth would have been out. And I think that's a fatal mistake.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, if you're interested, you can tune into Brownie's "The Michael Brown Show" on Denver's news radio 850 KOA.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PHILLIPS: "Home and Away," our daily tribute to our men and women in uniform who have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq or Afghanistan.
And today, we honor Sergeant First Class Meredith Lee Howard of Corpus Christi, Texas. She was one of two soldiers killed when a car bomb exploded near their Humvee exploded near Kabul in December of 2006. Her comrade, Donnie B., wrote us. He says, "More than a dozen Afghan civilians died. Meredith was just one of thousands of service members that drove that route day in and day out. Meredith was the reason I double-checked my weapons, armor and intel every single time I prepared for a convoy op in Kabul. Thank you, SFC Howard. I'll remember your service and sacrifice for the rest of my life."
If you want to remember a fallen hero service in Afghanistan or Iraq, just go to CNN.com/homeandaway. Type in your service member's name in the upper right-hand search field, pull up their profile, send us your thoughts, your pictures, and we promise to keep all of those stories of your heroes alive.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PHILLIPS: A big steal for a pair of thieves in Key West, Florida. They made off with a priceless gold bar from a museum display case, but as CNN's John Zarrella reports, the golden bar they stole may not even bring them any big bucks. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT(voice-over): The bulletproof glass case sits empty. For more than two decades, until last Wednesday, it housed this gold bar. Visitors to the museum in Key West could touch it, lift it, but you couldn't remove it. At least that's what everyone thought.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After your first five, next ten, 25 years, you start to get to the point where you think this is never going to happen.
ZARRELLA: It did. The surveillance video is remarkably clear. One of two thieves approached the case, does something, then walks away. While the security guard is out of the room he comes back, removes the bar, sticks it in his pocket, and walks out.
ZARRELLA (on camera): Authorities think that the thieves may have been targeting this gold chain but couldn't get the case off. So they came over here. Now, this is bulletproof glass, but somehow the thief was able to snap the glass here at the weak points.
In 1980 while searching for the wreck of a Spanish galley, Mel Fisher and his team of treasure hunters found the Santa Margarita. Both ships had gone down in a hurricane off Key West, 1622. The bar is one of dozens the divers found.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty frustrating. You haven't had the kind of --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I thought by now we would have this one solved.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Even with the video and fingerprints, Key West police chief Donnie Lee says they have very little concrete.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This will end up in somebody's house probably used as paperweight, other than melting it down, which is the worst case scenario for everyone. ZARRELLA: Experts in the recovery of art and artifacts say the thieves likely made a huge mistake. The market is small for high- profile items with distinguishing markings. Robert Wittman, head of the FBI's art crime time wrote the book "Priceless."
ROBERT WITTMAN, AUTHOR, "PRICELESS": We recovered paintings and artifacts that have been missing for many years, 10, 12, 15, sometimes 20 years. And it's because the thieves never could get rid of it. They basically kept tonight their closets. They were white elephants. They made no money out of the deals. They just -- they were stuck.
ZARRELLA: Experts say if these thieves had any brains, the smart thing to do, return the gold they fingered.
John Zarrella, CNN, Key West, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE) PHILLIPS: That does it for us. Have a great weekend. Tony, what do you think? He's not going to keep it as a paper weight. He sold that sucker, has his cash and is in Caribbean.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm so happy so many people who do wrong are just so clueless. You know, it helps? You know?
PHILLIPS: The dumb criminal file.
HARRIS: Hel-lo!
PHILLIPS: Yes, really!
HARRIS: Have a great weekend, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: You, too.
HARRIS: Thank you.
