Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Shooting at University of Texas Austin; President Obama Holds Another Backyard Talk; U.S. Soldier Accused in Killings; Former President Jimmy Carter Hospitalized Due to Unknown Ailment; CNN Equals Politics Update; The Help Desk; Jimmy Carter Hospitalized

Aired September 28, 2010 - 12:00   ET

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

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: At the top of the hour, we continue to follow news from Austin, Texas, where the University of Texas remains on lockdown. Witnesses say one gunman ran towards the campus library firing a number shots. Police tell us he was firing shots from an AK- 47. Police say this person later shot and killed himself. They're still working to eliminate the possibility of a second gunman.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF ART ACEVEDO, AUSTIN, TEXAS, POLICE: Right now we have APD, SWAT, UTPD, Travis County, our SO SWAT, and DPS SWAT elements that are conducting secondary searches of the buildings and the inner perimeter. We also have EOD explosive dogs that are going to be searching those buildings inner perimeter to eliminate any possibility of any explosive ordinances that might have been left behind by one or more suspects.

And I think it's really important to emphasize what Chief Dawson (ph) just said, that although there are reports of a second suspect, what we're doing right now is being methodical to eliminate the second suspect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Last hour I spoke with a professor who saw the shooter heading towards the library.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROF. RANDALL WILHITE, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS IN AUSTIN: Well, I did. I was leaving the on-campus hotel coming to teach my class this morning, and I thought I heard four or five gunshots to my left, but I couldn't be sure.

I saw students sort of scrambling along 21st Street, right at University Boulevard, on the campus, as if there was a gunman. And then I looked to my left, and, in fact, there was a man who was running with a -- like a dress suit on, a dark suit with a white shirt and a black tie, or something similar to that. It was sort of a fog.

But he also had a ski mask on and had what appeared to be an assault rifle, and had been firing shots. And then when I pulled up in my car, he was sort of right in front of me, and didn't stop running, but turned in my direction, fired, like, three shots into the ground, to the left of my car, and kept running down 21st Street towards the center of the campus.

I immediately made a U-turn and went back and reported it to the University of Texas Police. But he appeared to be able to shoot me and others, but wasn't choosing to do so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: The good news here, police say no one else that they know of has been hurt. So far, no second gunman has been found. The mayor of Austin saying people in the city should feel safe to go about their daily routines, but the campus remains on lockdown.

President Obama heading to the back yard of the typical American family to talk about the economy. He's in Albuquerque, New Mexico, right now, will be hitting several states doing these backyard meetings.

And CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, one of the outstanding reporters in the field of politics, is standing in the field.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hey, standing in kind of a pasture, actually.

GRIFFIN: Suzanne, I couldn't resist. Sorry.

MALVEAUX: In a pasture, a horse pasture right across from the home where he's going to be visiting.

The president just arrived a couple minutes ago. He's going to meet privately with a family.

This is the kind of thing, Drew, you know, they work with local official, the White House, to identify a family that really illustrates the ways that the administration's policies are working for them. So they've identified the Cavalier family.

Andy Cavalier, he is a veteran, a disabled veteran. The wife, Etta (ph), she's been teaching in the school system for 36 years. She's a counselor at the high school. They have six kids.

We're going to hear their story how the administration has done a good job when it comes to education, taking care of veterans, in helping out their family. There are about 30 or so that are gathered in -- outside, just outside the house, for this little kind of town hall we have come to recognize and see.

It's all a part, White House officials say, of the president trying to show he's in touch with the American people. He understands. He gets the situation and the crisis that people are feeling.

This is the first of three states, Drew. We're going to cover three states in one day. The second stop is going to be the University of Wisconsin at Madison. That is where it's going to be a dramatically different scene.

We are expecting, perhaps, what we saw two years ago, during the campaign, a week before the presidential primary back in 2008, 15,000 people gathered at this university setting. Obviously, the president is going to be trying to get the energy, the juice that he had once before, to get young people out to vote for midterm elections.

It's just five weeks away. They need a push. They need a surge. That's what they're trying to do, is to get those folks to come out -- minorities, young voters -- come out in the next five weeks or so to try to support the candidates, really important races for the Democrats not only in New Mexico, but also in Wisconsin.

The third stop, Drew, is going to be Iowa. That is where he's going to be holding, again, one of these backyard discussions about tomorrow morning or so -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: Suzanne, all of that carefully scripted, of course. Not so scripted is this whole drama about the White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.

Is he or is he not going to run for mayor? What can you tell us? When is he going to leave the White House?

MALVEAUX: Well, you know, there's a lot of palace intrigue around that, but we are pretty confident, pretty sure -- multiple sources telling CNN that he does plan to run for the mayor of Chicago, that it's very likely. He could make that announcement as early as Friday.

We even saw the president yesterday kind of giving him a public nudge, saying, look, if you're going it decide, decide quickly. We think that is just days away, right around the corner.

The deputy chief of staff, Peter Rouse, we expect that he is going to step in as interim chief of staff until the president decides who he's going to pick next. But a lot of White House folks saying, look, Rahm Emanuel, nicknamed "Rahmbo," is someone who is irreplaceable. So we'll have to see.

GRIFFIN: OK. Thanks, Suzanne. We'll look for your reports later in the day.

An American soldier in custody today in Iraq. Specialist Neftaly Platero is accused in the shooting deaths of two other soldiers in his company. They are Specialists John Carrillo, Jr., of California, and Private Gebrah Noonan, of Connecticut.

The military offered no motive for the shootings. They took place in Faluja last Thursday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PAUL MENCHACA, JR., SLAIN SOLDIER'S UNCLE: Went down there, like I said, not to get killed in combat, you know, but to get killed in his own barracks was just a shame.

DANE STREET, SLAIN SOLDIER'S FORMER COACH: His big hair matched his big personality. He loves experiencing life, and it was great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Chris Lawrence is our Pentagon correspondent, now at the Pentagon.

Chris, can you shed any light on this?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Drew, we've now learned that there were actually four soldiers involved, and at some point they got into a pretty heated argument. Now, we don't know what the argument was about, but we do know at one point it was just verbal, not physical.

And then Specialist Platero allegedly pulled out his gun and started shooting. Those two soldiers that you just mentioned were killed, and a third soldier was wounded. Now, we're told he's going to recover. So at some point there will be a soldier who can come forward and sort of describe exactly what happened.

Here's the thing. The Army sent condolences to those two soldiers' families saying that they were saddened by the tragic events, but Specialist Carrillo, his mother says when the Army team came to her house at 1:00 in the morning last Friday to notify her that her son was dead, they never mentioned how he was killed.

She says it wasn't until the following Monday that she figured out that it was friendly fire. She says they never mentioned it. She says, "It was very devastating. To find out that my son was killed or shot by a fellow soldier is unbelievable. The military should be embarrassed."

We have got some calls out to the Army to find out exactly how this happened, or what may have gone wrong in that notification process -- Drew.

GRIFFIN: All right, Chris. We'll look for your updated news later on today. A terrible story, no matter how you look tat. Thanks so much.

Chris Lawrence at the Pentagon.

We're going to go back, I believe, to Albuquerque, New Mexico -- is that right, guys? -- where the president is in the back yard of a home. He's shaking hands.

This is one of his backyard events that he has been holding. Trying to show, we're told by Suzanne Malveaux, that he is in touch with the average American. There's a couple of average Americans there shaking his hands, and one of them saluting. We'll be right back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: That's a live picture of the president shaking hands in the back yard of an Albuquerque, New Mexico, home. He's going to speak any moment, and we'll bring that to you right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: President Obama is speaking live to a group in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the back yard of the Cavalier family. Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you so much for being here.

We've been trying to do more of these, A, just to get me out of the house. It's a very nice house that they provide for me in Washington, but at times, you do feel like you're in the bubble. And so every once in a while I need to just get out of there and have a chance to talk to folks, and listen to them and answer questions, but also get suggestions and advice about what's happening in the country. And so instead of doing all the talking, what I want to do is maybe just provide a few opening remarks and then basically have a conversation with you about things that are important to you and important to this community, important to this state.

There is one thing I want to focus on, though, if you don't mind in my opening remarks and that's the issue of education.

We have gone through, obviously, the toughest economic situation since the Great Depression. And no state has been untouched. No group of people has been untouched by the devastation.

We lost eight million jobs. The financial sector almost completely melted down. We almost slipped into a great depression, and so we acted very quickly to try to stop the bleeding. And we've had some success.

An economy that was shrinking, was contracting by six percent when I was sworn in, it's now growing again. We were losing 750,000 jobs a month when I was sworn in. We've had eight consecutive months of private sector job growth.

So we're making progress and we're moving in the right direction, but in addition to the immediate crisis that we're dealing with, one of the challenges that I think everybody around the country when I talk to them recognizes is, we've got to have a long-term plan for how we make sure America remains the number one economy in the world and how we make sure that we still have opportunities for middle class Americans to prosper and to expand, to be able to support their families and send their kids to college, and retire with dignity and respect. And how do we provide ladders for people who aren't yet in the middle class to be able to get into the middle class? How do we help small businesses grow? How do we help make sure that our large businesses are the innovators that are designing the new products that we're able to sell overseas?

You know, the issue of how we stay competitive and are able to succeed in the next generation the same way that previous generations have succeeded, that's a question that I think a lot of people have been asking themselves for a long time. Because keep in mind, even before this financial crisis, we were slipping in a lot of ways.

From 2001 to 2009, during that eight-year period, wages, average wages for middle class families, actually fell by five percent. Think about that. People's real incomes were actually falling, and this was at a time before the crisis, so supposedly the economy was growing and things were going pretty well. In fact, people's incomes were falling.

During that same period of time, job growth was the most sluggish that it's been since World War II. So part of the reason I decided to run for president was because we had all of these problems that we hadn't been dealing with for a long time, even before the crisis hit, that we had to deal with if we want to stay competitive for the 21st century.

And the number one issue in terms of us succeeding as an economy is going to be how well we educate and how well we train our kids. Nothing else comes close.

Now, the truth of the matter is, we used to have, by far, the best education system in the world. We were the first nation in the world to have compulsory public education. And so as people were moving off the farms, moving into the cities, moving into industry, suddenly they were able to get the training and the skills they needed for an advanced industrial economy.

And we had the best universities in the world and the best colleges in the world, and we had the number one -- we ranked number one in the proportion of college graduates in the world. We now rank 12th, and that's just happened in a generation.

We went from number one to number 12 in the number of college graduates that we have. Even folks who didn't go to college still got a good education.

My grandmother, you know, she was an amazing woman. She passed away a couple of years ago. But she never went to college.

She worked when my grandfather went off to World War II. She worked on an assembly line making bombers. She was like Rosie the Riveter. And then when my grandfather came back, he got the GI bill to go to college, but she didn't get the GI bill, so she went to work.

She started off as a secretary. She ended up as a vice president at a bank in Hawaii. And despite the fact she hadn't gone to college, she was so well prepared in terms of math and reading and skills, that she could end up getting an executive position, working her way up from being a secretary.

Well, now we rank 21st in science education in the world, and we rank 25th in math education in the world. So the trend line is that we're not at the top in terms of college graduates, we're not in the top of science, we're not in the top at math. We've got a third of our students who enroll who never graduate from high school. And all this means, that not only is it bad for the young people who aren't getting this education -- typically, a high school grad gets paid about $10,000 less than a college grad, and over the course of a lifetime it means hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income -- but it's also bad for the country as a whole, because we don't have as many engineers and we don't have as many scientists. We're not inventing the new products that are going to make all the difference in terms of how well we succeed.

So the reason I wanted to raise this is because there are a lot of issues we've been working on in Washington, and a lot of them get a lot of attention. But something that hasn't gotten as much attention is what we've been trying to do, working with states and local school districts over the last two years to make sure that we're moving in a new direction in improving our education system. And let me just tell you a couple of things that we've done.

First of all, we set up something called Race to the Top. And what we said was that if states wanted to get some additional money, some extra money to help their schools, they would have to compete for that money by showing us what it is that you're doing reform the school system so that you get excellent teachers, you have high standards, the schools are accountable, that you're going after the lowest-performing schools and not just sort of skimming off the top.

And as a consequence of this competition called Race to the Top -- we had about $4 billion -- we've ended up seeing 32 states change their laws to reform the system so that the whole education structure works better for our kids and makes it more accountable, and we start providing better training and better recruitment for teachers, and more professional development and additional resources. So it's been a big boost for education all across the country, moving forward on a reform agenda that doesn't just dictate to states, you know, here's how you have to do everything, but it says, here's some criteria for success. If you have a plan to match that, then we're going to help you.

So that's --

GRIFFIN: OK. There's President Obama in the back yard of a home that was picked out by the White House for him to visit in Albuquerque, New Mexico. As he said, he tries to get out of the White House and see what the real folks are doing, how real folks in this country are living and surviving through these times.

The president mixing in a little politics there as he tries to remind the people seated in that back yard, and I guess the rest of us, that we were in hard times before his administration took over. Trying to remind them how hard those times were and that his plan will get us out.

The president's tour continues. Later today he's actually going to Wisconsin for a campaign rally on some friendly turf, the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he had some memorable events during this 2008 election run-up. And then later in the week he will go to Virginia and Iowa.

All part of the president's plan to reach out to the American people and get out of that White House bubble that he admits he lives in at some times.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When we go out to eat, we don't eat as much. You go a restaurant, they serve you too much portion. You don't have to finish it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: Good advice as CNN is taking a cross-country food journey all this week. We sent reporting teams to every corner of America and beyond.

Our mission is to get fresh answers about how our food is grown, how the choices we make impact our health, our state of mind, our budgets, the pure joy of eating. We've teamed up with a new CNN.com food destination, Eatocracy.com, to bring you "Eatocracy: Mind, Body and Wallet."

You hear it all the time. You know, you are what you eat. So it's entirely possible your choice of diet could harm you.

So what's healthful and what is not?

Marion Nestle joining me from New York. You may remember her from the eye-opening documentary "Super Size Me." She's also the author of the book "Safe Food."

Thanks for joining us.

MARION NESTLE, AUTHOR, "SAFE FOOD": A pleasure to be here.

GRIFFIN: Yes.

It's so simple to eat well, just eat well, eat fresh food, and eat smaller portions. But we don't seem to do that. Right? I mean, that's basically it. There's no secret to this.

NESTLE: Sure. My advice is eat less, move more, eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, and don't eat too much junk food. Nothing could be easier, but our entire food system is set up to get us to do exactly the opposite. And mainly, it's set up to sell more food and to get us to eat as much as we possibly can, as many times a day as we possibly can, and then the largest portions that we possibly can. No wonder we're all gaining weight.

GRIFFIN: So what is the solution to this, empower the consumer, or use the power of the government to crack down on the food industry?

NESTLE: Well, you have to do both. People have to understand.

If I had one thing I could teach, it would be that larger portions have more calories. Let me tell you, it's not intuitively obvious. Everybody eats more if there's a lot of food in front of them. So that's one thing.

On the other hand, we really do need to change policy to make our food environment -- to make it easier for us to make healthy choices so that healthy choices become the default. And, of course, those healthy choices have to taste good, or we won't eat them.

GRIFFIN: Yes.

This is where this come into a little bit of a controversy, because, you know, aren't the choices already out there, and if the American public really wanted to buy fruits and vegetables instead of chips and French fries, they would do it?

NESTLE: Well, I wish it were that simple, but it's really more complicated than that. For one thing, the government subsidizes certain kinds of foods and not others. It subsidizes corn and soybeans, which are the ingredients in processed foods, and that's one of the reasons why potato chips can be sold so cheaply.

It doesn't make fresh fruits and vegetables readily available. Those aren't subsidized, and lots of people perceive them as expensive, and that's because they are expensive.

The relative cost of fresh fruits and vegetables has gone up by 40 percent since 1980, whereas the cost of soft drinks and processed foods has gone down by almost as much. That's a big factor in people's food choices.

GRIFFIN: Yes. Marin Nestle, what are you having for lunch today?

NESTLE: Something really good, I hope.

(LAUGHTER)

GRIFFIN: Thanks for joining us.

NESTLE: My pleasure.

GRIFFIN: Remember to go to CNN.com/eatocracy for more stories on healthy eating. It's also where you can learn more about how to unlock the CNN Healthy Eater Badge on Foursquare.

The president's right-hand man may be leaving the White House. Rahm Emanuel setting his sights on the top job in his hometown and mine as well, Chicago. I'll talk to the Lynn Sweet, columnist and Washington bureau chief for "The Chicago Sun-Times."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: One of President Obama's closest advisers apparently ready to trade his post at the White House for a shot at the biggest jobs in his hometown. Sources telling us that the U.S. chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is going to announce that he's going to run for the mayor of Chicago. It really could happen any time.

Lynne Sweet, Washington bureau chief for "The Chicago Sun-Times," columnist for PoliticsDaily.com, joins us from Washington.

Lynn, right away, any breaking news? Is this going to happen for sure, and are you going to tell us when?

LYNN SWEET, D.C. BUREAU CHIEF, "CHICAGO SUN-TIMES": Well, people think that it could be as soon as Friday. People close to Rahm Emanuel keep saying, well, you know, his decision isn't made 100 percent. So they still want to have a little wiggle room, but all signs point to him running for mayor of Chicago, and running pretty soon.

GRIFFIN: Yes. And, Lynn, it almost sounds like an anointment. I mean, he still has to run in Chicago. Right?

SWEET: Well, let me correct that. There's not a perception in Chicago that he is by any means anointed, and that is part of the national disconnect in the conversation about Rahm Emanuel.

One thing that Emanuel is, is very politically savvy. That's why he knows he needs to get home if he wants to run, because no one has anointed him anything. And I say this with all respect.

He knows that this is a very competitive race. There are some big local names that probably aren't as prominent on a national basis as Rahm Emanuel is because he works in the White House. But, you know, no one -- people in Chicago actually are focusing more on how Rahm can get a coalition together to win the February primary than the opposite. He will have to earn this, just like everybody else in the race.

GRIFFIN: yes. And he was a congressman from Chicago, but that was a very small demographic chunk of a specific kind of Chicago. Right? Because you have --

SWEET: Well, yes, but --

GRIFFIN: I mean, you have Upper North Side. You've got Hispanics, you've got blacks, you've got all of these contingencies that you have to put together. SWEET: Right. He needs to build a coalition as whoever is going to be successful to get into the runoff. No one expects to get 50 percent more in February and avoid it - (INAUDIBLE) a runoff.

But I guess the point is that Rahm has to go back and re-create a base. One of the big helps he got to even win that House race a few years ago when he first became a representative was that Mayor Daley had a patronage army that does not exist anymore to help him. Also, Mayor Daley is not anointing any success for -- successor. Rahm was a staunch and is a staunch Daley loyalist, but so are some other people running in the race.

So, that's the puzzle for Rahm and, by the way, other candidates. To figure out in Chicago, which has tribal politics, crosstown rivalries, West Side, South Side, North Side, Southwest side, you know -- slice and dice ethnic groups, and everyone's figuring out where they can get their groups of supporters to survive the primary to get into the runoff.

GRIFFIN: Yes. I want to bring up something that's maybe somewhat distasteful, Lynn, but is certainly a potential undercurrent. At least from the people I'm talking to in Chicago. And that's the fact Rahm Emanuel is Jewish. Will that play any role in a town that has had a black mayor, has had an Irish mayor, has had a woman mayor. But I can't recall Chicago ever electing a Jewish mayor.

SWEET: Well, I don't know why you call it distasteful, because we are talking about ethnic politics. Rahm is a very proud self- identified, practicing Jew. By the way, there are many Jews in Chicago.

So here's the issue, though -- the Jewish vote in Chicago when it comes to the mayoral race is not necessarily monolithic. If you like President Obama's policy on the Mideast and Israel, that will help. And I think that's one of the first natural bases that Rahm is going to go to.

So, everyone who is running for mayor is looking at their ethnic group to give them a running start. You know, there's some prominent Hispanic candidates who are looking to the pockets of communities where they are. So, this is the real politics of Chicago we're talking about, where people wear their ethnic badges with pride to give them a running start. It's a little trickier, though, because if Rahm comes in, people will evaluate, I believe, in the Jewish community if he like the Obama Mideast policy, and there's a segment that will. But on the other hand, there's probably a segment that won't.

But at least it does give him a bit of a base because there's an enormous Jewish population in Chicago, but he has to -- he'll get a running start from some, not all of it.

GRIFFIN: Lynn Sweet, thanks. And we should probably both thank Rahm Emanuel for spicing this one up. It's going to be interesting.

SWEET: Absolutely. GRIFFIN: We'll look for your columns in the coming weeks and months ahead.

Developing news, breaking news, actually, and not of a good kind. President Jimmy Carter, we are told, is now being take to a hospital in Cleveland. He had some kind of health issue on a flight that was headed to Cleveland, according to Jackie Mayo, the public information officer for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport.

The former president transferred to the hospital at 11:30 a.m. after EMS met the former president's plane upon arrival. President Jimmy Carter, in the hospital now in Cleveland. We are trying to develop more information on this, get the facts. And we will gather them and come right back to you after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Following breaking news now. Former president Jimmy Carter flying to Cleveland for a book signing, apparently fell ill on that flight. He has been taken off the flight. He was actually met there by EMS people, and now has been transferred to a hospital.

Jackie Mayo is the public information officer for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, telling us that the president was transferred to that hospital about 11:30 this morning. As I said, after the EMS met former President Carter's plane upon arrival, we do not at this time have more information other than what we are reporting to you. But, again, President Carter is now being hospitalized in Cleveland after falling ill on a flight.

Well, becoming an Empowered Patient, our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen learned just firsthand how important that is. In fact, it's the title of her new book. In a CNN special report this weekend, and she joins us now with the second of several lessons that could save lives. Elizabeth?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: True. The lesson today is, what hospital you go to matters. There are hospitals that are good at some things and hospitals that are good at other things. So, a hospital can save you or a hospital can kill you.

So, we have a tale of a gentleman, I'm glad to say he was saved because someone helped him get to the right hospital. Now, with the help of Turner Animation Studios, we bring you his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COHEN (voice-over): Bear Valley, California, is a mountain paradise. Gorgeous skiing and loads of snowmobilers. After skiing down the slopes one morning, Chuck Toenskoetter stopped in at the local snowmobile center. And while he was inside, all of a sudden, he fell down.

CHUCH TOENSKOETTER, STROKE SURVIVOR: You could draw a line down the center of my body. And everything was disconnected on the right- hand side. COHEN (voice-over): Chuck had just had a massive stroke in the middle of nowhere. Fair Valley nurse Kathy Snyder raced Chuck to the edge of town to wait for a helicopter ambulance.

TOENSKOETTER: I just remember the rotors turning and the snow flying. And just waiting to go.

COHEN (voice-over): Time is of the essence, and this helicopter doesn't move. Why were precious minutes being wasted? The flight nurse wanted to take Chuck to the nearest hospital, which was a small hospital.

KATHY SNYDER, NURSE: He had a cardiac problem. He had a stroke problem. He needed to go to a hospital where there were specialists standing by, and these small hospitals don't offer that.

COHEN (on camera): You argued hard.

SNYDER: I did argue hard. Kind of got like this in each other's face.

COHEN (voice-over): Kathy convinced the helicopter team to fly to a hospital that was much further away. The flight took an extra 15 minutes. Dr. Christopher Markus took one look at Chuck's CT scan and knew he had a drug that could reverse the stroke.

CHRISTOPHER MARKUS, DOCTOR, SUTTER ROSEVILLE MEDICAL CENTER: And we have three hours to give it. So we had to get the drug in in the next ten minutes.

COHEN (on camera): Talk about under the wire.

You must think back and think, "Wow, what if Kathy hadn't argued with them?"

TOENSKOETTER: I am convinced it was a very, very high probability I would have been in a wheelchair.

COHEN: Can anyone do this? I mean, if you feel like a bad decision is about to be made with your health care, can you put your foot down?

SNYDER: You can change hospitals. Everybody has that ability. And they should be aware of it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRIFFIN: Elizabeth, certainly helps to have a smart nurse like Kathy Snyder. But what if you don't? How do you know if a hospital is good or not?

COHEN: If you don't have Kathy, what you have is the Internet. And it is amazing what you can learn by just investing a few minutes. Lots of different Web sites you can go to.

I've chosen to show everybody the "U.S. News & World Report" Web site. What they do is they have thousands of hospitals they've reviewed, looked at some hard data. And you can go in, and let's say I need heart surgery. I put heart surgery in, I put in the zip code for where I live in Atlanta, Georgia. I hit Find Hospitals, and look. It shows you what the best hospitals are. Better than expected chance of survival. Right? That's where you want to go.

So, it's important to go to these Web sites, and they really can teach you quite a bit.

GRIFFIN: All right. And certainly go to those Web sites now instead of waiting for an emergency. So you know where the hospitals are in your area and what their ratings are, right?

COHEN: Right. Obviously, you don't know. I mean, Chuck Toenskoetter didn't know he was going to have a stroke. What you can do is there are various Web sites that will just tell you what's the hospital with the best safety rating, what's the hospital with the best nurse/patient ratio.

Check on that. Take a couple minutes, and then you sort of know the lay of the land. If you take a look at CNN.com/thechart, we have all the Web sites you need. The links are right there.

GRIFFIN: All right. Look forward to your special this weekend. Saturday and Sunday at 7:00.

COHEN: That's right.

GRIFFIN: All right. We'll see you. Thanks, Elizabeth.

And we'll be right back after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: President Jimmy Carter has been transferred to a metro health hospital in Cleveland after experiencing an unknown health issue on a flight to Cleveland. According to Jackie Mayo, the public information officer for Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the former president was transferred to the hospital approximately 8:30 -- 11:30 this morning after EMS met the former president's plane upon arrival. This is the only information we have now. The president apparently was heading to Cleveland for a book signing, according to one of the local news stations there. But again, President Carter hospitalized in Cleveland. Unknown ailment, but EMS met him at the plane.

Take a look at top stories now. Police say a gunman opened fire inside the University of Texas library before shooting and killing himself. No one else was hurt. The Austin campus has been on lockdown while police make sure there is not a second suspect, though it looks like there is not.

And how about having the president in your own backyard? President Obama is doing that just now, spending time with a typical American family in New Mexico to talk about the economy this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: This is just in. President Carter has been transferred to the Metro Health Hospital in Cleveland. He experienced some unknown health issue. He was on a flight heading to Cleveland. According to Jackie Mayo (ph), the person we are quoting here, the public information officer at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport, the president was transferred to the hospital approximately 11:30 this morning after EMS met the former president's plane upon arrival. CNN working all our sources on this to bring you more information. But this is all we know, unfortunately. Just that President Jimmy Carter has been hospitalized in Cleveland.

Also just in, good news. The campus at the University of Texas, scene of a shooting this morning, is now given the all-clear. All- clear at the University of Texas in Austin after a single gunman was firing as he ran towards and into the library, and then shot and killed himself. Police now giving the all-clear.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Time for our political update. "CNN Equals Politics," of course. And senior congressional correspondent Dana Bash has the latest.

Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Drew.

Well, this is something that I jut posted and it has to do with the politics of jobs.

Senate Democrats just were defeated in their attempt to put a bill on the Senate floor that had to do with outsourcing. This is something that -- this is one of those instances in politics where losing is actually winning, and that is because Democrats are hoping that this is an issue that they can use against Republicans. They're already trying across the country in ads and on the campaign trail, trying to say that Republicans support policies and trade deals that simply help send jobs overseas. Republicans called this a blatant political move. A blatant political exercise.

And second up on the ticker is, a Democratic state, a blue state that we are looking at to see whether or not it could trend Republican. That is the state of Connecticut. Drew, the Republican candidate, she is a pro wrestling exec, Linda McMahon. She is actually just trailing the Democrat by three points. She is with the margin of error in the latest poll up there. And it's going to be very interesting to see if that Democratic seat ends up going Republican in November.

And lastly, Drew, I want to ask you, did you watch -- did you watch "Dancing With The Stars" last night? Did you watch Bristol Palin at all?

GRIFFIN: You know what, Dana, I did not.

BASH: All right. I'll --

GRIFFIN: I did see a little clip.

BASH: I'll let you off on that. OK, I'll let you off on that.

GRIFFIN: All right.

BASH: I have to admit, I'm admitting it right here, I did watch it and she was actually pretty good. But there is a question about whether the fact that her mother was there was not welcome by the audience. Sarah Palin was there. There was some booing. But the executive producer of that program insists that he does not think the booing was for the former Alaska governor.

But if you didn't watch it, you got to shake it out maybe last time. She's not a bad dancer, Drew.

GRIFFIN: Well, with that tease, I'm going to go check it out. Who were they booing?

BASH: We don't know. We don't know. We'll investigate.

GRIFFIN: Dana Bash, I'm going it look -- I'm going to look right now.

All right, thanks, Dana, appreciate that.

Your next political update coming up in an hour. For the latest political news, go to cnnpolitics.com.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Time now for "The Help Desk" where we get answers to your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Manishka Thakor, our personal finance author, and also John Ulzheimer. He's with credit.com.

Thanks for being here, guys.

JOHN ULZHEIMER, CREDIT.COM: Sure.

HARLOW: Manishka, our question for you comes from Cindy in New Jersey. She wrote in, "my divorced husband and I have an 18-year-old attending a private university. After the deferred loans and grants, we're left with $12,000 a year tuition bill paid monthly on an interest-free installment plan. Can we both take advantage of the tax benefits?"

MANISHKA THAKOR, PERSONAL FIANCE AUTHOR: Yes. So, Cindy, one of the cardinal rules when it comes to Uncle Sam is, no double dips. So one or the other of you is going to end up with the benefit. The rules here are incredibly complex. There's a website I love, finaid.org, or financialaid.org that can help you pare through the nuances. But typically it is the parent who is claiming the child as the dependent that gets all the other tax goodies along with that.

HARLOW: Got it.

All right, John, we have a question for you. It comes from Pam in Alabama. She wrote in, "the real estate market is down" -- no kidding -- "and my mom needs to sell her house. Do you recommend a reverse mortgage?

ULZHEIMER: Oh, absolutely not. Where are the alarms that we need to be going off now? A reverse mortgage is not the same as selling your home. A reverse mortgage is essentially a fancy, dancy equity line taken out against the home. First off, you have to be at least 62 to take out a reverse mortgage and you've got to pay it back eventually, which meaning you actually owe on the home. So if you're trying to sell it, especially in a down market, you need the flexibility of having the low price and you can play with the offers you're getting. If you have more lenders to pay off, it's going to be more difficult to sell the home. If you want to sell it, leave the reverse mortgages alone.

HARLOW: It will put them more in the hole?

ULZHEIMER: Of course it will. Absolutely. It's a loan. It's like -- it's like taking out a home equity line of credit.

HARLOW: Very good advice. Watch out. Don't do that one.

John, Manishka, thank you, guys.

All right, "The Help Desk," all about getting you answers. Send us an e-mail to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com or log on to cnn.com/helpdesk to see more of our financial solutions. You can also, of course, pick up the latest issue of "Money" magazine. It is on newsstands now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GRIFFIN: Welcome back.

We're following breaking news. Former President Jimmy Carter hospitalized in Cleveland. EMS agents met him at the plane. He was flying to Cleveland for a book signing. I want to bring in Allan Chernoff in New York, who is trying to get more news on this.

Allan, what can you tell us?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Drew, well, it was a Delta flight into Cleveland and the signal was sent out that there was a passenger sick onboard. Turned out that was President Carter. The EMS officials met the plane at the tarmac and they did treat Mr. Carter at the airport, and then brought him to Metro Health Hospital in Cleveland where he is right now.

This all happened about an hour and a half ago. The president is 85 years old. He'll be 86 on Friday. That's his birthday. Of course, the 39th president.

He had been planning to attend a book signing. He's just come out with a new book, "White House Diaries," and so he'd been planning to be at the Joseph Beth Bookseller store right now, as a matter of fact.

So that's all we know at the moment. Just that the president apparently was feeling ill onboard the plane and that EMS has brought him to Metro Health Hospital in Cleveland.

GRIFFIN: Yes, we're seeing some pictures that are just in to us of what we believe is the president's arrival there.

Allan, you know, and maybe we're just speculating at this time, but this president still travels with some secret service detail. It might not be as large as the current president, of course, but he has people with him. Do you know if those people are trained in any kind of medical field?

CHERNOFF: Well, the secret service, of course, is with all former presidents. But, no, they called in the EMS. So the emergency medical technicians did treat the president right at the airport. We don't know exactly what they did. And brought him directly to the hospital.

GRIFFIN: OK. Well, we continue to look at this video of the president, Jimmy Carter, being brought apparently from -- we know from the airport to this hospital. We believe that is the vehicle that brought him to the hospital. We have no idea what the condition is. How he left the plane, whether he walked off, whether he had to be assisted off in any way or what the situation is, but the situation is thus -- 85-year-old former President Jimmy Carter on a flight to Cleveland today was met by medical personnel at that flight and taken directly to a hospital in Cleveland, suffering from some unknown illness.

Allan, thank you so much. We'll be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)