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U.S. Combat Mission to End; Hurricane Earl Strengthening; The Success of Hamburger U; "Fixing Our Schools;" Love After Lockerbie
Aired August 30, 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: Severe weather worries for the eastern U.S., a pair of hurricanes right now churning far out in the Atlantic Ocean. One already blamed for creating deadly rip tide conditions from the Florida coast all the way to the Jersey shore.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. TOM GILL, VIRGINIA BEACH LIFESAVING SERVICE: The rips are pulling as hard as we've seen them all summer long. It's an extremely dangerous environment for good swimmers and deadly for bad swimmers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Lifeguards up and down the Atlantic coast had plenty of job security this weekend. Saturday, in Ocean City, Maryland, nearly 250 swimmers had to be rescued from the pounding waves. The search for one swimmer who is still missing has been called off and further south red flag warnings greeted thousands of beach goers on the Virginia coast.
More than 100 people had to be pulled from the strong undertow of the rip currents there but luckily no reported fatalities. Not the case though in Coco Beach, Florida, where Brevard County's ocean rescue squad was unable to reach a drowning swimmer in time. Officials are warning people to stay out of the rough Atlantic waters in light of the heavy and potential deadly surf.
Now, as bad as the rip currents spawned from hurricanes, Danielle have been, some fear that the waves spun from Hurricane Earl could be even more powerful. Did that make sense what I just said?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It does because Danielle.
PHILLIPS: That didn't make sense to me.
MARCIANO: Well, here's the deal. Danielle didn't come close to the U.S..
PHILLIPS: That's the way I should have said. Danielle didn't even came close but Earl is moving close to us for Labor Day weekend.
MARCIANO: So all that makes perfect sense. And to get a storm, here's Danielle, still a hurricane although is starting to lose it's tropical characteristics now into the shipping lanes but never even came close to the U.S., so but the waves propagate obviously hundreds of miles away from the storm and that's what we saw over the weekend with those dangerous rip currents which will continue today.
Now, what's going on with Earl, this is now a category 2 storm. Here over the Leeward Islands, the British and U.S. Virgin Islands and now Puerto Rico, the eastern flanks of the island beginning to feel the effects of Hurricane Earl, which is a category two storm with winds of 110 miles an hour, and it's heading to the west-northwest and the forecast track of this now from the National Hurricane Center is as follows.
To get it to hurricane category 3 strength, major storm status, and then category 4 strength and then shoot the gap between Bermuda and North Carolina. But that doesn't guarantee it's going to stay off the coastline. It's in this shaded area, which is the margin for error in day four and five, which is 200 to 300 miles. So Thursday and Friday, which will be dicey for the outer banks and potentially the northeast and New England.
So this forecast is going to be very, very important going forward, Kyra and at least folks living in the areas want to have some sort of a mental checklist of going over what you need to do in the event a hurricane comes your way because that's a distinct possibility as we get later into the week.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Rob.
Well, the East Coast is dealing with that hurricane. Residents of the New Orleans area wrapped up a weekend of remembering the turmoil of Katrina.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PHILLIPS: Church service giving thanks five years after the Hurricane overwhelmed the city's levees. This is St. Paul's Episcopal Church in the Lakeview section of New Orleans. The church was flooded by Katrina and sat under eight feet of water for three weeks. This commemoration of Katrina also had its, shall we say, wild side.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PHILLIPS: As we know, this is how New Orleans really celebrates. This was the city's official commemoration of the hurricane's five-year anniversary. Somewhere in that crowd, the mayor is strutting his stuff. President Obama and the first lady were also there. The president told the crowd he's impressed by the resilience of the city's resident in the five years since Katrina. He says construction on a fortified levee system should be completed by next year.
President Obama is taking stock of another American milestone. It's unfolding half a world away. Tomorrow, U.S. troops will formally end their combat mission in Iraq. It's a major turning point in a bloody and controversial war. And the president will underscore it's importance with an address to the nation.
More on President Obama's speech in just a moment.
But first we want to focus on Iraq. There are ominous signs of what will happen when the last U.S. troops leave at the end of next year. It appears Iran is already getting ready to step into that void. CNN's Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence has been embedded with soldiers living right on the Iraq/Iran border.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Now the clock is really ticking on American troops in Iraq. 18 months to beef up Iraq's border patrol before all U.S. forces plan to leave. Then what
(on camera): How big of an influence did Iran have in what goes on here?
LT. COL. JOHN HOWERTON, U.S. ARMY: Well, I think it's huge. Iran didn't sign a security agreement like we did. Iran didn't have a responsible drawdown of forces like we do. Iran didn't have a timetable to be out when we do.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Out to the tarmac and then on board the black hawk, we fly all of the way out to Iraq's border with Iran. Together, a small group of Iraqi and American troops man the remote rugged outpost, Umsa(ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to pay attention to the fact that we have a mildly aggressive nation right next door, a nation that has interests here.
LAWRENCE: So soldiers have to be extremely careful they don't cross the dividing line, which doesn't divide much at all. For years people live on top of what's now an arbitrary line between Iraq and Iran.
1ST LT. WILL SWEARINGEN, U.S. ARMY: Difficult situation because you have villages, family ties as well as tribal ties in both countries.
LAWRENCE (on camera): Just a few years ago, pars of the border were wide open and completely unprotected. Iraqi militants back by Iranian money controlled a lot of what came into the country.
Now there are numerous stations like this one where Iraqi officials keep an eye on their own border.
(voice-over): The Department of Border Enforcement is better, but the border itself, too big. It stretches for 1,500 kilometers, nearly 1,000 miles, and U.S. commanders accuse Iran of using Iraqi truck drivers to smuggle weapons to militants.
(on camera): The thing is everything is connected. Iran's influence starts at the border but spreads deep into the provinces and cities like here in Nasiriyah - (voice-over): And that's where Iran is buying even more influence. Iran is getting water and electricity through Iraqi family whose own government can't keep the power on.
HOWERTON: As soon as they continue to accept that, they're not producing it themselves, and it becomes an economic battle as well as a military battle.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Neither of which is one where American troops can engage their rival.
HOWERTON: I mean, we can't fight Iran.
LAWRENCE (voice-over): Yes, there's no Iranian troops here and obviously no war between the two countries. The U.S. military has no control over whether the Iraqi government provides basic services, so they're concentrating on strengthening the border patrol and encouraging those border officials to build better relationships with the people that live here.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, in southern Iraq.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And tomorrow night, President Obama will deliver a major address on Iraq from the Oval Office and he will also discuss Afghanistan and the broader war on terrorism. CNN will carry the president's speech live, followed by a breakdown of his remarks with Wolf Blitzer in Washington, Anderson Cooper in New York and Dr. Sanjay Gupta in Pakistan. CNN tomorrow night begin at 8:00 Eastern.
Teachers in Rhode Island are back at work after a very public mass firing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
The first time that I had ever gotten my name called out in that auditorium was when I graduated from there, so to have my name called out for doing something that was wrong was like surreal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: What's changed at Central Falls High School as the new school gets under way?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Fix our schools. Those three words will drive much. What you see on CNN this week because as America's children return to school, CNN has a mission. We sent reporting teams across the country to document the education crisis in America and most importantly we're going to shine the light on success stories that can empower us to offer our children so much more than they're getting right now.
But before we talk answers, let's take a closer look at the problem. The education crisis is an issue that starts right down the street at schools in the hearts of communities nationwide. 7,000 high schoolers drop out every day, one dropout every 26 seconds. Dropouts are more likely to end up in prison, more likely to be unemployed, and where we used to excel in education, we're fighting to keep pace with the international community.
On the latest global standardized test, American teens place 17th out of 30 nations in science and 24th in math. So consider this a call to action. Let's really try to do something about it.
Teachers at a failing Rhode Island high school are back at work after they were fired. That school board gave all of them the ax in February in a drastic move to get the school back on track. Stephanie Elam headed to Central Falls High School to see what's changed this year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They can't do it. It's disgraceful and disgusting.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daniel Amadio. Stephen O'Claire (ph).
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A demoralizing moment earlier this year for the teachers of Central Falls High School in Rhode Island. Wearing red to show their unity, one by one, their names were called and they were fired.
The Board of Education had decided that to fix the persistently low performing school, all of the teachers need to go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our teachers should have a voice in the transformation of the high school.
ELAM: For the last 11 years, language teacher Jo-Ann Boss has educated the students in this diverse working class neighborhood. As a graduate herself of Central Falls High, she deeply understands the community.
JO-ANN BOSS, CENTRAL FALLS HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: I think that people know that the school is there but it's not a priority. Number one is survival.
ELAM: In 2009 the graduation rate was just 47 percent. The dropout rate was 37 percent, and only seven percent of 11th graders were proficient in math.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If a school continues to fail its students year after year and doesn't show improvement, there's got to be a sense of accountability. That's what happened in Rhode Island.
ELAM: Dale (INAUDIBLE) also a Rhode Island native has taught science at the high school for years.
(on camera): How did it go over here? I can only imagine. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not very well.
It was a reactionary statement. I don't believe that the teachers needed to be fired period.
ELAM: But now the teachers are back. Over the summer, the teachers union and the school district quietly negotiated the rehiring of the teachers who still have concerns about their role in revamping Central Falls as well as aptitude testing mandated by no child left behind. Opponents argue and forces teachers to teach to the test rather than educate.
BOSS: We don't make the test the curriculum. The problem is when that when it falls apart it falls on the kids and it falls on the teachers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most jobs don't give a multiple choice yearly to test the progress of their employees.
ELAM: For Dale and Jo-ann, returning to the classroom without any resentment isn't a given but it is the a goal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We want to be there for the students. Resentful, I'm going to put it out there, yes. Nervous, I'm very nervous. I'm very anxious.
ELAM (on camera): How do you go from how you felt then to the school year now
BOSS: Well, first off, the first time I ever got my name called out from that auditorium was when I graduated from there. So to have my name called out for doing something that was wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jo-Ann Boss.
BOSS: It was like surreal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The people that agreed that I need to be fired has never been in my classroom, never spoken to me. As a matter of fact, my name was pronounced wrong. It was just so devastating to hear all these teachers that have been dedicated and working there for 30 years that I know and love, and their names aren't even pronounced right. It was devastating.
ELAM (voice-over): Painful lessons these teachers hope they never have to learn again.
Stephanie Elam, CNN, Central Falls, Rhode Island.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, crews in Chile are beginning to drill a shaft to get to those 33 trapped miners but they're still looking at months before a rescue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: Checking top stories. Crews in Chile today begin drilling a rescue shaft for those 33 trapped miners but it could take up to four months to get those men out. For the first time, family members had a chance to speak directly to the miners.
New developments surrounding the planned Islamic center near Ground Zero. Grassroots group of American Muslims will hold a news conference next hour. That group will talk about the release of a public service announcement responding to the controversy.
And Hurricane Earl is a category 2 storm right now churning in the Atlantic. Forecasters believe it could strengthen and impact areas from the Carolinas to Cape Cod over the Labor Day weekend.
A team of women are making it in the men's world of automotives. We're going to meet the group that's designing cars of the future with green technology.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, a team of women are boldly driving into what many brand a man's world, designing cars of the future using renewable sources. Our bold Carol Costello tells us their story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here I am sitting in front of an electron spin resonance spectrometer.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Debbie Mielewski remembers what it was like to be one of the first female chemical engineers at Ford Motor Company 24 years ago.
DEBBIE MIELEWSKI, TECHNICAL LEADER, PLASTICS RESEARCH: They would guard the men's rest room for me so I could run in there and go and not make the hike across the building to the women's rest room.
What about the size of the seats.
COSTELLO: Mielewski no longer needs to sneak into the men's rest room. Today, she leads a team of women all engineers designing cars of the future using green technology, recyclable and renewable materials like wheat straw an soy.
MIELEWSKI: My group went from working with all men to working with all women. It has been a big change.
COSTELLO (on camera): Was it difficult at times?
At times. I remember some times in the past where I was the only woman in a meeting, and I would have an idea and maybe everybody would ignore that idea and then a man would say that idea and they would call him doctor, even though I had my Ph.D. as well.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Today when it comes to women in the automotive manufacturing industry, still only one in four workers are female and just over one in 10 auto executives are women. Why don't more women gravitate to this field, do you think?
ANGELA HARRIS, ENGINEER, PLASTICA Research: I think it's just not a traditional career path, and you really kind of seek it out when you are a woman. It's not like engineering gets presented to you at the high school levels.
ELLEN LEE, TECHNICAL EXPERT, PLASTICA RESEARCH: I think things are starting to come around in education but it takes a while for all of the women to go through their education and then filter in. So it doesn't change over night.
COSTELLO (on camera): What do you bring to the field that men don't? Do you think?
Well, I think we're really persistent and really passionate about it. Everybody here feels that we have to leave a good legacy for our children.
PATTI TIBBERNHAM, TECHNICAL EXPERT, PLASTICA RESEARCH: We had a meeting a couple of weeks ago, and a guy came in and looked at our group and he said do they only let women work here, and I said "no, only the smart ones."
COSTELLO (voice-over): Between the five of them, the team had been awarded ten prize patents, even so they can still have to toot their own horn.
LEE: I have noticed when many men think some fact is true, they are maybe 50 percent true, they say it with confidence and everyone believes them. A woman can be maybe 95 percent sure of something and she'll say, "well, I think it's this, and so they may not tend to notice. I really tried to change my ways and be more confident.
COSTELLO (voice-over): How will you inspire the passion in your daughters for science and engineering?
I think to some extent we already have. Because we often have events here. My daughters are very excited every time when I mention who maybe coming in to see the labs. So they get all excited.
I think Ellen's daughters drew her on her mother's day card with a beaker and a little test tube in her hand. So they're catching on.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Carol Costello joining us live from New York. So tell us more about this team of women, dynamic team of woman, shall I say and how they support each other, Carol?
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I was jealous, Kyra. Five women working together, all day long, they feed off each other's idea. They support one another. I ask them, do you see each other outside of work? "Oh, yes, we have picnics together on the weekends." You know, everybody knows each other's husbands and boyfriends, they counsel each other on personal things and on workplace things. So it's really a team of women and they've been very successful at Ford.
PHILLIPS: And it's interesting because you are working on this series "Making it in a Man's World," and it seems like well, it was more than 25 years ago we were taking classes in college about breaking the glass ceiling. You know, we were the unique ones who kind of give you this business. You would think that we wouldn't - I don't know that we would be addressing this issue as much, but you made the point that we still struggle in many ways in certain businesses to get our way in there.
Well, just something Ellen said that struck me. She said, "when you're in a meeting and women might be 95 percent sure of an idea but they'll begin the sentence with "I think this is a good idea and this is the research I have," and "I believe it's going to be," and the man will say, even though he's 25 percent sure the idea is a good one, I think this is a great idea and he doesn't say I think, he says " I know this is a great idea and we should move forward on this.
Interesting, you know, women really have to change the language that they use in meetings so people take them more seriously and really listen.
PHILLIPS: Well, you and I sure don't have an issue with that kind of language, do we? We always get straight to the point.
COSTELLO: No.
I think we're a bit fool too forceful sometimes.
PHILLIPS: Yes, I agree. We've been called on that. That's why we've been separated.
I know, they put me in another city.
Well, talk to you tomorrow. Look forward to the next piece. Thanks, Carol.
COSTELLO: Sure.
PHILLIPS: Well, you've got education questions, and we're trying to answer all of them. And our CNN Education contributor Steve Perry is weighing in as we address fixing our schools all this week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Fix our schools. Those three words will drive much of what you see on CNN this week because as America's children return to school, CNN has a mission. We sent reporting teams across the country to document the Education crisis in America and most importantly we're going to shine the light on success stories that can empower us to offer our children so much more than they're getting right now.
But before we talk answers, let's take a closer look at the problem. The education crisis is an issue that starts right down the street at schools in the hearts of communities nationwide. 7,000 high schoolers drop out every day. That's one dropout every 26 seconds. Dropouts are more likely to end up in prison and more likely to be unemployed.
And where we used to excel in education, we are fighting to keep pace with the international community. On the latest global standardized tests, Americans teens placed 17th out of 30 nations in science and 24th in math. So consider this is call to action.
We hope we're all going to be able to do something about it. We have been asking for your input, too, and you have been sounding off. That's for sure.
CNN education contributor Steve Perry joining us live from Connecticut to answer your questions. Let's go ahead and get right to it.
Steve, this one comes and asks, "My wife is a high school teacher, and I'm a substitute when I can. Our area of concern is threats that we receive from students and no respect for authority. These threats are verbal abuse and in some cases physical abuse occurs. Our teachers are afraid. When parents are called in for a conference, we find many parent don't care or say they will talk to their child with no results. When America's education system fails, teachers are fired, but what were anyone do about parents?"
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: The question there is not about parents. It begins with the school culture. If there's a school culture that exists in which children feel they're in charge and the adults are not in charge, that's the adults' responsibility. Just because a parent has a child doesn't necessarily mean they're equipped to raise a child. However, we are educated, certified and prepared to educate children. So, if we can't control children in our school, then the question is really not about what we're doing, not about what a child is doing.
PHILLIPS: Well, you have also seen, too, how students can be very abusive toward teachers. And there's got to be, depending on where you live and what school, there's got to be some sort of disciplinary action to tell that student they can't get by with that.
PERRY: Kids do that when they feel like they get away with it. You've seen kids talk to their parents that way. I'm saying when a child understands one, that you care about them and two, you're not playing with them, you don't have those issues. We don't -- people don't threaten teachers in my school. That's again, the condition of the environment within where the children are being educated. When the children are in a structured, caring and committed environment, they don't go around threatening people. They might get mad and they might say some foolish things, but in the end, they're kids and you can correct that behavior in a hurry.
PHILLIPS: Second question: "Get rid of the tenure system which blindly protects ineffective, high-wage earning teachers who teach the same thing year after year at the expense of allowing new innovative teachers who earn much less to enter the systems."
PERRY: I don't know that it's about getting rid of it, but it's about making sure that a teacher has to work to maintain it. You don't just get there because you stayed alive for three years. Because in many school systems, all you need to do is get satisfactory evaluations for just three years, and you are tenured. Which means it takes two years and anywhere from $100,000 to $200,000 a year to remove that teacher.
So, tenure can't just be the result of you outliving the other teachers. It has to be based upon a teacher's performance. She or he has to show that they in fact impact student performance by what they do in the classroom, and in many cases outside the classroom in the way they do homework and other activities that make the school culture a more effective one.
PHILLIPS: All right. Talking tenure, now talking unions. This question: "To improve the classroom learning technique, you must get rid of unions for teachers. Then eliminate all sports and make sports a private option fully paid for by the parents. Then we can spend all of the tax money on school buildings and tools for learning, along with exceptional competing salaries for good teachers." What's your take on that?
PERRY: Yes. That's silly.
(LAUGHTER)
PERRY: When parents send their children to school -- I mean, that's just silly. Sometimes people say things, and it just doesn't make much sense.
When parents send their children to a high school, they expect them to participate in extracurricular activities. When you go to a traditional college preparatory school that's a private school, the expectation is that you will participate in at two after-school activities. It's one method of colleges being able to determine whether a child can be successful because of time management.
The same option should be available for public school students. And salaries are not what determine a teacher's effectiveness. Study after study has shown that's not the case. So, in fact, we don't need to study anymore whether or not salaries are what drive students' performance because we also made the (INAUDIBLE) how much water it takes to get wet.
We know that good teachers are determined by their effectiveness in the classroom, which are often determined by what we use to measure them. Which in this case are standardized tests. Until such time as there is another method, salaries are not the answer. And taking sports away from kids is just silly.
PHILLIPS: Dr. Perry, you have also been going on some house calls. Tell us about your education makeover you're going to have for us this week. PERRY: I'm telling you, at least one of the education makeovers brought tears to my eyes. To watch a family make some simple adjustments in their home, just simple adjustments in their home that are going to make a major impact on their child's performance -- folks, I'm telling you, you have to see this. If I hadn't seen it, I wouldn't believe it myself.
PHILLIPS: We look forward to it. Thanks, Steve.
So, as dozens of you send in comments about how to fix our schools, we have a team of experts here at CNN who figured out a way to actually compile your comments and turn it into Moral (ph). Digital producer Derek Dodge joins us now to talk (INAUDIBLE) and explain exactly what it is. Derek?
DEREK DODGE, CNN DIGITAL PRODUCER: Hi, Kyra.
Well, it's nothing too technical. What it's called is a word cloud. And we're using the Web site Wordal (ph).net. It is just a really fun way of looking at what you are telling us and showing it in an interestingly visual way.
So, the idea is this. We asked you earlier this morning how do we you fix our schools? If you go to the main page of CNN.com right now, you will see a story by Stephanie Chen where you can read about ideas from teachers. And you can scroll down to the bottom and submit your comments.
We are taking those comments using Wordal.net, and we're making them into this really cool word cloud. So, what are we looking at here? We see the word school in really big letters. So obviously, that is the word that was used the most. We have other words here like money, teachers, education. So, these are the key themes we're seeing in the comments you're sending us.
Let's take a look here. If we go to school, we can see from Kate2010, "My child attended both private and public schools. The private school was better hands down. What we need to do is keep government out of running our schools."
So, that's one comment. Here's another, under teachers. Lindsay says, "I want to a school of 4,500. Each classroom had 30 people or more in it. We need to hire more teachers. With 30 people in the classroom, no one gets heard."
And just one more here. We've got money: " I don't have all the answers but I do know that throwing money into a system that is not working where bad teachers get the same reward is not the answer." So, send your comments, how do we fix our schools -- CNN.com. We're going to show them to you this way.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Derek.
Well, Tony Harris is turning the microscope on California and Maryland. Can other school systems learn from their highs and lows? With quite a few number-one ranking, find out what Maryland credits for its success.
As for California, it seems to be all about budget challenges. Tony is talking to the superintendent of schools from both states.
The professors don't wear tweed and the halls of education look remarkably like golden arches. But don't wrinkle your nose at hamburger university. Name another school that guarantees every graduate a job.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, it's back-to-school season, and CNNmoney.com's Poppy Harlow joined the crowd. Maybe you haven't heard of the university she chose, but you'll recognize its logo in an instant.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Large coke.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We need more sausage.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM (voice-over): McDonald's serves 60 million people a day, but here at Hamburger U, students don't learn how to flip burgers. The food is actually fake. These students are learning the management skills to make a restaurant hum in a five-day course, grooming them to be owners.
In the first simulation, long lines, frustrated customers and flustered managers, and then the orders get more complicated, designed to test the limits of the operation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More muffins, please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you think this is impacting the customer.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody is upset. You see the manager running back and forth and not really helping. More chaotic than anything else.
HARLOW: So, back to class.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right, my teams. Should we talk about what just happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were friendly, I just wasn't getting my food very quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just really busy. (INAUDIBLE) because she kept sending everybody on break.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did we see high service times?
CROWD: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unhappy crew? CROWD: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unhappy customers?
CROWD: Yes.
HARLOW: So they try again; this time, applying the lessons of the classroom to cut the chaos in the kitchen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are smiling.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's your order, and you're going to need to act this out a little bit -- a little agitated.
(LAUGHTER)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Imagine how that works.
HARLOW (on camera): Perfect! I have to act agitated. Thank you.
Okay, here we go.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, would you like to try an iced mocha today?
HARLOW: I would like cinnamon melts; a bacon, egg and cheese bagel; a sausage egg McMuffin, and a hash brown. I'm just really in a rush.
Pretty fast so far. Let's see if they get the order right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have the bacon egg bagel, we have a cinnamon melt, and we have one hashbrown.
HARLOW: And what about the sausage egg McMuffin?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: C'mon, guys, they said they were in a rush. Let's go. That was a minute and 30 seconds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two Cinnamelts with (INAUDIBLE).
HARLOW: How many McDonald's do you want to own and operate?
GLORIA SCHLEY, MCDONALD'S RESTAURANT MANAGER: As many as I can.
(LAUGHTER)
JONATHAN LEWIS, MCDONALD'S RESTAURANT MANAGER: Our professors teach us, you know, very important life skills about customer relations, and, most importantly, running a multibillion dollar company.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Poppy Harlow joining us live from New York. Poppy, it's amazing. You get a whole different type of appreciation for employees there at McDonald's. A lot of people had no idea that this Hamburger University existed.
HARLOW: I didn't have any idea. I went to McDonald's this morning on the way to work, and I appreciated how nice the woman was to me when I went there. And I thought maybe she went through Hamburger University.
But the funny thing is, Kyra, this school has been around since 1961. It started in an Ohio basement with 14 students. They have been a quarter million graduates now.
And it's no joke. McDonald's says this is the key to our success. They've had executives from other big companies like Target and Wal-Mart come through to learn how just McDonald's trains their employees, and colleges are even now giving their students credit for going through this program.
Every student we talked to and met, Kyra, they took this course a lot more seriously than many of my peers in college, because this what can transform them from being literally a burger flipper to owning a multimillion dollar McDonald's franchise. This, in many respects for them, is their way to the American dream, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: That's a great story. Thanks, Poppy.
HARLOW: You got it.
PHILLIPS: Let's check top stories now. Rescue crews trying to reach the 33 Chilean miners will begin the painstaking process of drilling a rescue shaft. Could take months to pull those men to safety. They've been trapped for more than three weeks.
Forecasters keeping a close eye on Hurricane Earl as the Category 2 storm gathers strength out of the Atlantic. Earl is expected to dump plenty of rain on the Caribbean and could strike the East Coast over Labor Day weekend.
Engineers will start removing the temporary gap - cap, rather -- that has halted the flow of oil from BP's blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico. It's part of BP's plan to permanently seal it.
L.A. builds the most expensive school in U.S. history amid a huge budget shortfall and teacher layoffs. And it was all approved by the voters. Going through the laundry list of perks to see how you feel about the $587 million spent that was on this school.
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PHILLIPS: The most expensive public school in American history opens to Los Angeles students next month. It's costing $578 million. Pretty outrageous price tag, don't you think? We're talking about $578 million on one complex in a state where an entire system is failing, a state with a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall. Thousands of teacher layoffs and a dropout rate that ranks among the worst in the nation.
Officially, it's called the Robert Kennedy Community Schools, but it's earned the nickname the Taj Mahal. It's more expensive than Beijing Bird's Nest 2008 Olympic stadium, pricier than the Denver Bronco's home at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium. So, while so many L.A. schools can't even afford new books and pencils, here's what the RFK complex will hold: a state of the art swimming pool, fine art murals, a dance studio with cushioned maple floors -- even a modern kitchen with a restaurant-quality pizza oven.
No wonder the community is sounding off.
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BEN AUSTIN, BOARD OF EDUCATION: These kids are going to school in a Taj Mahal but run by the same people who brought us a 50 percent dropout rate.
RAMON CORTINES, L.A. UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT: I don't look at this as a school for today. I look at it as a school for the next 150 years.
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PHILLIPS: School officials say that this isn't an either/or situation. They say the voter-approved building account is totally separate from the textbook and teacher budget.
Finding love amid tragedy. When they met, they were bonded by a common sense of loss. Now, the newlyweds will share their remarkable story with us in a few minutes.
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PHILLIPS: You know, we've talked so much in this newscast about the violence and death that plagued Mexico and how the drug cartels influence the military, influence the police force, and, of course, those drug lords and their operations coming over here into the United States.
Now we're getting word -- this is the first we've ever heard of something this massive -- that in Mexico City, apparently, 3,000 Mexican federal police officers have been fired. The commissioner is coming forward and reporting this now. We're talking about 3,200 Mexican federal police fired for either failing to do their work or being linked to corruption. We'll be following up on this story, of course, and bringing you more within the afternoon and, of course, in this newscast tomorrow.
Pan Am Flight 103 erupted into a fireball over Lockerbie, Scotland over two decades ago. But for the families of the 270 people killed, time has done little to soothe the anguish. Their wounds were reopened just over a year ago when the convicted bomber was set free. Scottish authorities said the early release of Abdelbaset Ali al- Megrahi was based on compassion because he was dying of cancer. But there seemed to be little compassion for his victims when crowds greeted him with a hero's welcome in Libya. It was appalling.
The uproar grew louder whether al-Megrahi showed a shocking rebound from these images when he appeared to be on his deathbed. He was supposed to die within months, but now there's word he could live another ten years. And it's appalling that this man who cheated 270 people of their lives is now cheating his own death and justice.
It is also pretty astounding the stories of strength and love that has come out of these horrific stories. We have got one of those for you today. Chris Tedeschi and his wife, Sonia, both lost someone in that bombing. They met at a memorial service and are joining us one day after returning from their honeymoon. Their story was actually featured on the Web site The Daily Beast, and thanks to our friend there, Chris and Sonya they are joining us now live.
We have been watching you guys just waiting to do the segment. Look at you googling in each other's eyes and holding hands.
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PHILLIPS: You haven't left the honeymoon stage, have you?
SONIA TEDESCHI, MET HUSBAND AT LOCKERBIE MEMORIAL: No, we haven't.
PHILLIPS: Well, it's fantastic and amazing and inspiring to see you both.
I want to talk about the wedding in just a second. But let's talk about how you met and how you fell in love. You both suffered a tremendous loss after the Lockerbie bombing. Sonia, let's start with you. You lost your father, right?
S. TEDESCHI: Yes, I did. My father was killed when I was seven years old. Yes, so it was really hard to grow up without him. But, you know, God can redeem anything and something great has come out of something so horrible. So, yes, I lost my dad.
PHILLIPS: Do you -- can you remember that moment? I know it's a while ago. You were only seven years old. But what do you remember about getting that news and hearing what had happened? Did you even understand that a terrorist had killed your father?
S. TEDESCHI: Well, it was difficult to fully grasp what happened. I remember that night that my mother found out -- it must have been early in the morning. And my mom's cousins came over and then my brother offered to play Barbies with me, so I new something was up.
But then I remember them calling us down and the pastor of my mom's church came over, and I just remember sitting with my mom and staring at the pastor's feet and hearing -- not fully grasping, was he not coming home for Christmas or was he never going to come home at all? So, since he used to travel a lot for business, for a long time, it felt like he was still gone on a business trip but as I learned more and got older and was able to grasp what happened, the reality of it all hit and not having him come back.
PHILLIPS: Wow. And, Chris, this gets a little more complex. It was your stepmom that lost her first husband. How old were you, and what do you remember about getting that news?
CHRIS TEDESCHI, MET WIFE AT LOCKERBIE MEMORIAL: Well, it was interesting. I was 13 at the time that my father and my stepmother had met. So going into the relationship, my father with my stepmother, I had known what had happened. I think I was probably way too young to kind of even also comprehend what exactly actually happened in the bombing, how it happened. I wasn't in any way really able to emotionally attach myself to what had happened to them. But over time, I was able to kind of gain that empathy.
PHILLIPS: Wow. And so, when did you guys actually meet? Was it at a memorial service for the victims? How old were you guys? I love it. I just love how you are smiling and laughing giggling. This is such newlywed love. I hope this stays for decades to come, you two.
S. TEDESCHI: We hope so, too.
PHILLIPS: I think it will. Tell me about the first moment when you met?
C. TEDESCHI: Want me to?
S. TEDESCHI: Sure.
C. TEDESCHI: It's funny, Kyra, because our families have known each other for about 20 years. They have known each other since the bombing occurred, and also have become very close friends during that time. But Sonia and I hadn't met until about two years ago. So, while our families have known each other that long, we just met. Yes, we just - go ahead.
S. TEDESCHI: Every year, we have a memorial service in Arlington National Cemetery for -- to remember on December 21st, and we met on the 20th anniversary. There was a big dinner for the families the night before, and so we met there and we hung out afterwards and spent time -- a long time chatting with Chris and his brother, and just kind of hit it off.
PHILLIPS: And the rest is history.
Now, you know, I have to ask you both this because we have been covering al Megrahi, the fact that he was supposed to die, he was released. Now we're hearing he could live another ten years. I want both of you to answer this. Sonia, does that make you angry or have you found peace with this?
S. TEDESCHI: I wouldn't say either one of those. I would say I feel hurt by the whole situation. It's definitely sad to me that there's not justice being served. And especially I want there to be a deterrent from this happening to anybody else.
I mean, it is horrible to lose your father to terrorism, and I don't want anyone to ever have to deal with that. But if we let terrorists go, you know, there is not going to be a deterrent. So, I'm hurt by it, and each time the story is in the news, it reopens the wound. And Chris is really great in helping me deal with it. But in the end, I wasn't the one to --
PHILLIPS: What do you tell her, Chris.?
S. TEDESCHI: What do you tell me?
C. TEDESCHI: I tell her that I love her.
PHILLIPS: Aww.
C. TEDESCHI: I tell her also that God loves her and I try to just help to support her, and being a person who is slightly closer to a situation than maybe some other person, I think it enable me to really kind of dive in and comfort her.
PHILLIPS: Well, it's incredible what you two have found so many years later, And, you know, my guess is, Sonia, you see a lot of your father in Chris, and that's probably why you love him and admire him so much, and he seems to definitely take care of you like your dad did.
S. TEDESCHI: Yes, he does.
PHILLIPS: Chris, you're a lucky guy.
S. TEDESCHI: I'm lucky, too.
PHILLIPS: Amen. Congratulations to you both, and thank you so much for sharing your story with us.
C. TEDESCHI: Thanks for having us.
S. TEDESCHI: Definitely, thank you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: You bet.
That that does it for us. We're going to take a quick break, and then Tony Harris starts right after this.
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