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Faisal Shahzad to Serve Life in Prison; White House Summit on Community Colleges; Port of Houston Shut Down; How to End Bullying?; More Americans File For Bankruptcy; No Office, No Problem
Aired October 05, 2010 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Live from Studio 7 at CNN world headquarters, the big stories for Tuesday, October 5th.
A White House Summit on Community Colleges today realigning curriculums to make degrees fit today's jobs.
An old-fashioned way of training workers on the comeback, apprenticeships, the new face of blue-collar America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very technologically advanced these days. And you are required to use your mind a lot more than just your hands.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: And the office walls are coming down. An app keeps business nomads connected to the corporate world. All you need is a laptop and a phone.
Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
Those stories and your comments right here, right now in the CNN NEWSROOM.
And we begin with breaking news out of New York. The man who admitted trying to blow up Times Square earlier this year is headed to prison for the rest of his life.
Our Deborah Feyerick was in the courtroom for the sentencing of Faisal Shahzad.
And Deb, good to see you. How did this all play out in court this morning?
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was very interesting. You would have expected somebody to be quite -- almost subdued in front of the judge. But Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, was in fact very, very defiant, giving a political statement for about five minutes, even interrupting the judge during the sentencing.
He said during his statement, "Brace yourself. The war with Muslims has just begun." He then said, "The past nine years has achieved nothing for the U.S. We are only Muslims defending our people and our land. If that means we are terrorists, then we will terrorize you."
So really almost threatening as to what was to come. As the judge read out his sentence, he said, "I'm happy with the deal that God has given me."
She gave him the maximum time on all 10 of the counts to which he pleaded guilty. He will be serving life in prison.
The judge said that the defendant had repeatedly failed to show any remorse, that when he swore to defend Americans when he became a naturalized citizen just a year ago, in fact his real intent was to kill Americans. And she said the sentence that she was giving him was also to act as a deterrence to anyone who would try to do what he had done.
So he is going to prison, again, for trying to detonate that bomb in the middle of Times Square, hoping to kill as many people as he can. But he continued to point to the sky and say, "God is great" in Arabic. The judge said he would have plenty of time to think about the Koran while he was serving time in prison -- Tony.
HARRIS: Yes. All right.
Deborah Feyerick for us.
Deb, appreciate it. Thank you.
The road to economic recovery may go through your nearby community college, in President Obama's view, at least. He is convinced these schools are key to better preparing workers for jobs. The president is about to address the first White House Summit on Community Colleges.
CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry is there.
And Ed, let's start with this -- what are the goals for this summit today?
ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, what the president is talking about the fact that when you look at this new survey out, for example, from Sallie Mae just today suggesting a lot of people, because of the recession, are cutting back on what they're saving for higher education for their kids, number one, and maybe they're steering more of their kids toward two-year colleges if they can't afford four-year colleges. And then the president has been out on the stump talking a lot about how, you know, you've got a lot of companies in the private sector basically saying that they need highly-skilled, highly-trained workers to compete in the global economy, and not all of those workers may go through four years, but they'll accept two-year degrees instead of high school graduates.
The president sees all of this coming together in a new initiative where he basically is trying to get companies in partnerships with these community colleges, trying to match them up for jobs in this uncertain economy. Also talking about training programs, incentives to get some of these folks to community colleges, and then on to find jobs.
And all of it is a goal that the president will be laying out today with Dr. Jill Biden, the vice president's wife, who teaches at a community college in northern Virginia. All aimed at the goal of getting five million more community college graduates between now and 2020.
Here's how the president puts it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The idea here is simple. We want to make it easier to connect students looking for jobs with businesses looking to hire. We want to help community colleges and employers create programs that match curricula in the classroom with the needs of the boardrooms.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: Now, it certainly sounds good, but there are companies out there who -- you know, competing institutions, et cetera, like Kaplan, the University of Phoenix, who are saying they think this White House is tilting too much towards community colleges, that more of the federal aid is going in that direction instead of the for- profit colleges, especially the four-year colleges. And that, specifically, they think it's not a level playing field in that, and the president is sort of giving a rosy scenario about what these community colleges produce, and that not all of the students coming out of them are going to be these highly-trained workers.
So there is a battle joined over this. But I think you can see from the argument the president is making, he thinks in this uncertain economy, the more people he can get going to college, whether it's two-year or four-year, the better -- Tony.
HARRIS: OK. Our Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry, for us.
Ed, good to see you. Thank you, sir.
HENRY: Good to see you.
HARRIS: Got to tell you, we looked at community college partnerships with private industry back in April when we met Brant Bishop. He was enrolled in classes at a technical college in Greenville, South Carolina, while getting on-the-job training on the factory floor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS (voice-over): Brant Bishop's workday starts at 11:00 at night. While most of us are getting ready for bed, he is running around on a factory floor, serving an apprenticeship at a plant operated by a Bosch Rexroth, an international manufacturer of industrial components and controls.
BRANT BISHOP, REGISTERED APPRENTICE MACHINIST: Right now, I've got a tool -- an insert change coming up.
HARRIS: During the day --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what you'll see is metal removal.
HARRIS: -- Brant attends classes at Greenville Tech in South Carolina pursuing a degree in machine tool technology. It is a 14- hour day, but he's got to do it to learn a new profession. Two years ago, this father of two and his wife were running their own restaurant. Then the recession hit, and they went from being entrepreneurs to unemployed.
BISHOP: We really just kind of had to close the doors to avoid getting in any deeper than we wanted to in debt.
HARRIS: But don't feel too sorry for Brant Bishop. He will soon graduate from his long days with new skills and a new job, all paid for, even the schooling, by his employer. It's part of a registered apprenticeship program dating back to the 1930s administered by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Apprenticeships are as agent as Medieval Times. A baker passing on the craft to his young worker. A master shoemaker sharing the tricks of his trade. Knowledge passed on to the next generation.
Today, the Department of Labor says apprentices work for more than 6,000 U.S. manufacturing companies, earning a modest wage while being trained for higher paying jobs.
BISHOP: The kind of manufacturing you're looking at today is not your granddad's manufacturing. It's a lot more complex.
HARRIS: Brant's employer says investing in the apprenticeship program benefits the company, as much as the worker.
BRYAN MCCORMICK, PLANT MANAGER, BOSCH REXROTH: In the end, all sides win. South Carolina wins, because we're developing high-paying, skilled jobs right here at home. We're paying the training costs. The associate, obviously, wins because through this career and this training, they're now advancing to a higher pay.
It can take months, really, to find the right personnel, so you're not agile enough if you don't have a program like this.
HARRIS: These apprenticeship jobs are highly competitive. To land one, a worker has to take tests, measuring aptitude for mathematics, machining, teamwork and communication skills. At the South Carolina plant, Rexroth has only a dozen apprentice apprentices.
BISHOP: You need to have a strong head for math, with the blueprint readings, with the adjustments we have to make in tool offsets and different changes to programming.
HARRIS: Charles Wilson is on the U.S. labor secretary's Advisory Committee for Apprentices. He started the apprenticeship program at Greenville Tech after watching the signature industry, textiles, collapse, sending many manufacturing jobs overseas.
CHARLES WILSON, DEPARTMENT HEAD, GREENVILLE TECH: When I saw people who had worked in textiles all their life losing their jobs, I couldn't sleep some nights. I said, what can one person do to help?
HARRIS: Brant says he realizes how lucky he is to have gotten one of coveted apprenticeships, especially considering South Carolina's 11 percent unemployment rate, highest in the country.
BISHOP: A tremendous amount of people out of work at the moment, and I know that the competition is high for pretty much any job in the field right now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: So there you go, an example of how private companies can work with technical and community colleges.
Got to tell you, since we first brought you that story, Brant Bishop has graduated. He is working full time for Bosch Rexroth. The company has since enrolled seven more students in its apprenticeship program.
Sex, drugs, the judge and the stripper. The FBI says His Honor lost his honor.
And meteorologist Rob Marciano has to follow that tease.
Good morning.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Whatever happened to rock 'n' roll? Doesn't that come third?
HARRIS: Yes.
MARCIANO: Good morning, everybody.
Yes, I'm Rob Marciano at the CNN Severe Weather Center.
We do have some extreme weather on both sides of the continent. We're going to talk about that and the tropics a little bit later on in the program.
The CNN NEWSROOM is coming right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: I've got to tell you this one. A scandal sweeps up a federal -- actually, a veteran federal judge in the South, a senior judge for the northern district of Georgia.
His name is Jack Camp Jr. He's out on bail this morning. He is facing drugs and weapons charges.
An FBI affidavit says Camp bought cocaine, marijuana and painkillers for himself and a stripper. Court documents say the judge had paid the woman for sex. President Reagan put Camp on the bench in 1987.
Next door, in Alabama, the allegations are bribery, vote-buying and money laundering at the state capitol. Four state senators and two businessmen are among 11 people named in a federal indictment. Prosecutors say the businessmen offered big money if lawmakers voted in favor of a bingo gambling bill.
Listen to an attorney for one of the businessmen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE ESTY, ATTORNEY FOR MILTON MCGREGOR: He was arrested this morning at his home where he has been living for years. He has lived in this community, in this area, for 71 years. He's never even been convicted of jaywalking.
Is this the way to treat a 71-year-old grandfather? I would think not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: All 11 defendants are free on bail today. They're due back in court October 15th.
A leaning electrical tower hit by a tow vessel has brought one of the nation's major ports to a standstill. The cost could top a billion dollars.
Ed Lavandera brings us the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A 300-foot-tall electrical tower is now being held up by a crane in the Port of Houston ship channel. Early Sunday morning, a towing vessel pushing three massive barges crashed into the tower. The power lines are drooping too low, and it's brought the nation's second largest port to a virtual standstill.
CAPT. MARCUS WOODRING, U.S. COAST GUARD: The situation is a little bit unstable out there right now. The lines are sagging. And we cannot allow any vessels to pass underneath obviously with the unstable situation and the chance of those lines falling in the water.
LAVANDERA: It's a fender-bender that's caused quite the traffic jam. Nearly three dozen ships can't get in or out of the Houston port right now. About 100 port terminals and four oil refineries are affected by the shutdown, and every day officials say the Port of Houston does about $320 million worth of business.
This crash could leave a billion-dollar dent in the local economy. The electricity has been turned off, but officials are focused now on getting the power lines removed and the leaning tower off the water with a crane called Big John.
WOODRING: Once the Big John hooks up and takes the load on the tower, then CenterPoint Energy can get up there, disconnect the lines, reel them in, and then we can cut the base of the tower, pick the tower up and put it over on the bank and get the ship channel open.
DANNA JENNINGS, BOAT OWNER: We had 12 people on our boat.
LAVANDERA: The boat traffic jam might be frustrating to those doing business, but a few boaters are enjoying the moment. Every year, the Houston Yacht Club organizes a weekend cruise up the channel near downtown Houston. This was their weekend. And they have got nowhere to go.
JENNINGS: Actually, some of us are kind of happy because we don't have to go to work tomorrow. But don't tell our bosses that. So --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you call your boss?
JENNINGS: Not yet. I'm hoping he sees this and he knows what's going on, and I'm off the hook for going to work tomorrow.
LAVANDERA (on camera): The U.S. Coast Guard says it hopes the tower and power lines will be removed by Tuesday night, and then it will take several more days to get the port traffic back to normal.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Doctors may have unlocked a secret to help some patients with the deadliest form of brain cancer -- a vaccine for cancer.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: New hope for some patients with the most deadly form of brain cancer. The results of a promising new study are in.
Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta has been tracking this clinical trial for months.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you, Tony, this is potentially some very good news regarding this study about one of the deadliest forms of cancer we know, and certainly the deadliest form of brain cancer.
It's called glioblastoma, or GBM. About 10,000 patients a year are diagnosed with this. It's the same tumor that affected Senator Ted Kennedy.
This is the type of tumor that when you're diagnosed, you get the awful news that your average survival is around 14 months. Imagine that. So people have been waiting for same to try and make some movement in the numbers, to try and increase survival, which is why we're telling you about this study today.
It is an early study -- only about 18 patients were studied -- but the results were so promising looking specifically at glioblastoma. What happened in the study is they found that glioblastoma cells have a particular protein on the cell surface that is unique to this cancer and is not present in any other normal cell in the body.
Why is that important? Because it turns that protein into a target. And if you can create a good smart bomb, you can attack that cancer, and that cancer only.
And that's exactly what's happening here in these patients. They're teaching the body to attack this particular protein and attack it sort of like a smart bomb. And they're starting to see some incredible results.
Again, 14 months average survival. With this particular treatment, survival is closer to two years, which may not sound like a lot, but it's almost double. And there's some patients who have been living up to five years with this particular therapy.
Again, early studies. They're hoping that more studies will prove the same point and this will become more widely available.
And Tony, it might also be something that's available for other cancers down the road, as well. Immunotherapy, think about that when you're thinking about cancer. And we'll certainly keep you posted on details as they come to us.
Tony, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Amazing news. Sanjay, appreciate it. Thank you.
Hope surging today for Chile's trapped miners. There is one prediction they could be out in a matter of days.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Getting answers on bullying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CONNELLY: When you were calling people names, did it make you feel better?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not that it made me feel better. It's that I knew they felt worse.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Yes. Our Carol Costello goes looking for solutions to this growing problem.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Victims of bullying take a stance. Many gathered in downtown Las Vegas last night to demand federal anti-bullying legislation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DINA TITUS (D), NEVADA: There has just been too much news lately, too many deaths, too much discrimination, too much harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity. We just have to stop it. We cannot tolerate it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Yes. I've got to tell you, many at the rally shared stories of emotional or physical torment. The rally was called in response to the death of Rutgers University freshman Tyler Clementi. He killed himself by jumping off a bridge after his sexual encounter was broadcast online.
The pressing question is: How do you end bullying?
Our Carol Costello set out to find some solutions.
COSTELLO: Tony, it's a tough question. How do you stop bullying? I mean, is it as simple as a punch in the nose and the cowardly bully will run away? Experts say that's really not the solution.
In fact, there are no simple solutions, but we're going to try.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: I am somebody and I can make a difference.
COSTELLO (voice-over): At Oklahoma City's Western Heights High School, students are pledging to protect the bullied. It's especially important to Suzan Le. She knows how bullying feels.
(on camera): Is it worse with words, do you think?
SUZAN LE, OKLAHOMA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I think it is, because when I was little, like, people always said I was like really ugly. And it -- I never knew it affected me so much.
And like, people would ask if I was a boy or a girl. And I was hurt. And I never wanted that to happen. And, like, it lowered my self-esteem really bad. And I never wanted to go to school.
COSTELLO: So I see it hurts you. I see it hurts you so much. But you know you're beautiful, right? Yes.
(voice-over): It's the kind of pain that affects so many children. One in three kids are bullied or bully every year. So how do you stop it?
RACHEL SIMMONS, AUTHOR, "ODD GIRL OUT": We have to take it seriously. We have to have rules --
COSTELLO: Rachel Simmons wrote "Odd Girl Out." She's an expert on bullying.
SIMMONS: The way an adult intervenes is just as important as the fact that they're intervening at all.
COSTELLO: A good first step, calm down.
SIMMONS: Don't communicate with anyone, another child or the school until you are calm and able to have a respectful conversation. Because it's very easy to get marginalized as the crazy parent in a school.
COSTELLO: Next, document how your child is being bullied. And then ask your child what he or she wants you to do.
SIMMONS: Remember, you are not the one who has to walk back into that school for eight hours a day. And you may want to do solution A. But if you do that solution, your child may be mercilessly retaliated against.
COSTELLO: Simmons says bullies are often popular, socially skilled kids who can enlist an army of bullies.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kids being bullied don't always tell you about it.
COSTELLO: Marisa Velasco who is also participating in Western Heights anti-bullying campaign knows exactly what Simmons is talking about. In junior high school, she was a bully. Why?
MARISA VELASCO, OKLAHOMA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I don't really know if there was really a reason. It was just an easy target, I guess.
COSTELLO (on camera): Is it because other kids were making fun of those kids too?
VELASCO: Yes, there was a lot. There were others also bullying.
COSTELLO: So sort of like a mob mentality.
VELASCO: Yes.
COSTELLO: When you were calling people names, did it make you feel better?
VELASCO: It's not that it made me feel better. I knew they felt worse.
COSTELLO (voice-over): Which brings us to how bullies ought to be stopped. Don't humiliate them. SIMMONS: If you humiliate a bully publicly, you are much more likely to see retaliation. If you sit down with the child and say this is what I'm seeing, it's not acceptable, I know you're capable of more, and if it happens again, these are the consequences.
COSTELLO: Suzan Le and Marisa Velasco certainly know the consequences. They're hoping to make this school year bully free.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: The most important thing to do is listen to your child when he or she comes home from school. If the child says they haven't had a great day, ask the child why. Really get into the reasons why. And then you can sit down with your child to determine whether that child is being bullied, and then you can come up with a plan together -- Tony.
HARRIS: Carol, appreciate it. Thank you.
Got to tell you, people all over the country are sharing their bullying stories with us this week. And josh Levs is here with a look at that -- Josh.
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're getting so many, Tony. Some of them are really heart-wrenching. I'm going to start off with an interesting one.
This is David Goldthorpe of Astoria, Oregon. He says as a father, he is learning this starts as early as kindergarten. His daughter has been coming home with stories about what's been happening to her classmates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID GOLDTHORPE, IREPORTER: One instance involved a good friend of hers having his pants pulled down by another student. And another student, a friend of hers, was pushed down a slide and then laughed at while he was on the ground crying. It shocked me when I was told these things happened already. At age five.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Age five.
Here's someone else. Colin Nguyen of West Palm Beach, Florida described his experiences with bullying as he's been growing up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COLIN NGYUEN, IREPORTER: In elementary school, they would call me "Chinese boy," and for some reason in middle school they would call me a terrorist.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How were you bullied physically?
NGUYEN: Well, I was sitting on my bus in middle school and they and they punched me in my private area and they were throwing stuff on the bus and hit me in the head with a glass bottle and had gotten minor head trauma.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: He says he was confused and didn't even know who these kids were that were bullying him, what happened to him.
Here's something else. A group of students at a middle school in Bryant, Ohio, got together and talked about how they have bullied other kids.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everybody has bullied someone at some point in time, whether it's shoving someone into a locker or calling somebody a name. So, yes, I have bullied someone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: All right. We have time for one more. This is something a little different here. Jason Dinant, who's one of our frequent iReporters, points to the recent suicides of young gay students. And he says that he once considered suicide and that he has a message for others out there who are having those thoughts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON DINANT, IREPORTER: Something went off in my head and said the pain of me committing suicide would be so much worse than the, quote, what I thought the pain of me being gay would be. And I just want to share that message. That in my experience, my family was extremely accepting.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: Now, we encourage you to share your thoughts, your stories, your videos, your photos, whatever you've got at ireport.com.
I also want you all to know that we have links at my Facebook page and Twitter page, joshlevsCNN. I've provided a list of web sites there for resources for kids, teens and for parents, also teaches you to look out for warning sides that your kid might be bullied or that your kid might be a bully. And those pages have become conversation pages where a lot of people around the country, you're weighing in, you're saying which sites work out well for you.
HARRIS: Boy, we've got to get a handle on this. You know, Josh, back in my day, yes, part of the answer was you hit somebody in the mouth. You hit the bully in the mouth and maybe you took a butt- whipping that first time, but you hit him in the mouth to send a message. And then there was a bit of a zero tolerance policy in schools. I just don't know where we are in the area of zero tolerance at schools.
Maybe CNN's Carl Azuz is going to be with us next hour from student news and maybe we can bring it up with him.
LEVS: We do know, I mean a lot of schools say that. But as we're hearing from our reporting and from people's stories out there, that sometimes they say they don't know. Sometimes you report something, and they say, well, was that really bullying, kids do tease each other. And sometimes it's just incredibly hard for them to get a handle on. And unfortunately, a reality kids are facing everywhere.
HARRIS: We've got to do it. All right. Josh, appreciate it. Thank you.
Anderson Cooper takes a broader look at bullying in our schools and now online. Why do kids do it and what can be done to stop it? An "ANDERSON COOPER 360" special report tonight at 10:00 Eastern, right here on CNN. And all of the stories and pieces and iReports that we've been running on bullying are available on CNN.com, as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: There you go. There's a look at primetime tonight on CNN.
Let's take a look at top stories right now for you on the CNN NEWSROOM.
A teenager has died and at least 10 others were injured after a school bus crashed in Georgia. Georgia troopers say the driver was a trainee who suddenly lost control. And an instructor was on board teaching him when the accident happened.
A shooting spree left two people dead and five wounded in Gainesville, Florida. Police say the 24-year-old suspected shooter had a long criminal record and a history of mental problems. They say he also had a relationship with all of the victims. He died of a self-inflicted wound.
Four people, including two children have died in Hungary after a reservoir broke and flooded three villages with a kind of toxic sludge. The mud is a waste product of aluminum production.
Four weeks and counting to Election Day. We will tell you what the candidates are doing and saying on the campaign trail today. We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Pakistani intelligence confirms 5 of 11 suspected militants killed in a drone strike were German nationals. Yesterday's strike was in North Waziristan, a stronghold in both the Taliban and al Qaeda. It came hours after European intelligence said jihadists from Germany were planning terror attacks in Europe.
A U.S. soldier who has accused some of his buddies has been moved to solitary confinement. A source says it is for his own safety. Specialist Adam Winfield is being held at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington on a murder charge. Other members of his brigade face similar charges.
Here's what Winfield told Army investigators about his sergeant.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I take that man very seriously. He is -- he likes to kill things. He is pretty much evil incarnate. I've never met a man going from one minute joking around and mindless killing the next. He likes to kill things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: All five soldiers are charged with premeditated murder. Several others face a range of offenses, including drug use.
In Fresno, California, an update on a kidnapping of an eight- year-old. Police found Elisa Cardenas this morning, safe. They say a man drove up to a group of kids and promised them toys last night. Police now have a suspect. Here's the update here. A suspect is now in custody.
And time for the latest from the CNNPolitics.com desk. Brianna Keilar, part of the Best Political Team on Television joins us now from Washington, D.C.
Brianna, good to see you, good morning. What's crossing right now?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On the Ticker right now, Tony, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is giving some unsolicited advice to republican candidates less than a month now before the elections. He saying hammer Democrats and make it about paychecks versus food stamps. He says unemployment is up, food stamp usage is up, and pound Democrats on that.
This is all in a memo that is being sent to several candidates today. We're going to break that down for you on the Political Ticker.
And also at the CNN Political Ticker, you can find it at CNNPolitics.com, we're going to take you to a battleground race in Colorado. We're talking about Congresswoman Betsy Marquis. She's really in a republican District, she is a first-term democrat, and we're going to take a look at really what she is up against.
And also, her republican opponent, Corey Gardener. He is seen as the crept favorite here. This is a race like so many we're seeing across the country that really could change the political landscape here in Washington.
Take a look at what's trending right now on the Ticker, you can get more online with us. Senator DeMint. He has become a bit of a conservative kingmaker, South Carolina republican. He is taking a lot of heat, Tony, for some comments he made about gays and unwed mothers.
He said on Saturday that they should be banned from teaching, and his spokesman says this is a comment that he made, he was merely stating his belief that school boards should really control hiring.
And DeMint has said that he is getting -- even though he doesn't necessarily have people coming out and publicly backing him -- he said privately he has a lot of people who go up to him and say I believe in this position that you have taken. It's something he took in 2004, which is basically just that gays and unwed mothers or women, single women who are in sexual relationships shouldn't be teaching in the classroom.
As you can imagine, a gay republican group, Go Proud, has some pretty strong words against this, and you can check those out on the Political Ticker on CNNPolitics.com.
HARRIS: OK, Brianna, appreciate it. Thank you.
Let's give that web address again, your next political update coming up in just about an hour from now. And again, for the latest political news, you know where go, to CNNPolitics.com.
We're back in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: All right, we're going to get you to your financial source, it's online here at CNNMoney.com.
How about this? The Oracle from Omaha -- Buffett, Warren Buffett -- raise my taxes. He's been saying that pretty consistently for years now.
We got a nice run-up on stocks. See the numbers in just a second, you may be wondering why we see triple-digit gains here. And maybe this is part of it right here, "Stocks rise on Japan's move to essentially slash interest rates to near zero." And there's some growth in the services sector there as well.
But let's get you to the Big Board and the numbers here. It's nice run-up, too, 163 points. The Nasdaq, you know it's going to be in positive territory. Nice run-up there as well, we're up 48 points.
The recession officially over, but a new report shows that a lot of people really aren't feeling it yet. In fact, more and more Americans filing for bankruptcy these days.
Carter Evans is on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with the details. And, Carter, does the bankruptcy still carry the stigma it once did?
CARTER EVANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, Tony, this is something that we found really interesting when we were looking into this. It really doesn't and in some case, people are almost advising bankruptcy for some people. In some cases, it's becoming a viable business decision. It may be your only option and we're seeing a huge increase.
I got a chart that kind of maps it all out for you to show you the number of bankruptcies we're seeing. So far this year, 1.2 million people have filed for bankruptcy.
Now, it's steady climbed since 2005, you can see on the chart there. That's when the code was changed. It was meant to make filing for bankruptcy a little more difficult. There was a huge spike before that while people were trying to get their bankruptcy filings in. And now, you see it climbing again even though it's more difficult. But it basically comes with a pretty big price.
HARRIS: Yes, talk about some of those repercussions. It may make sense for some as a business strategy, but doesn't come cost free.
EVANS: No, not at all. It's going to cost you in terms of your credit score. I'm talking about your FICO score from the Fair Isaac Corporation. It's going to impact that for quite some time. This is not something that's going to go away.
There are several different kinds of bankruptcy that you can file for. Let's talk about Chapter 13 first and foremost. Chapter 13 bankruptcy stays on your credit report for seven years. What's Chapter 13? Chapter 13 means you're going to repay all of your debt. The court is going to set up a debt repayment plan and it's going to be to generally have to be repaid within five years.
Here's another kind of bankruptcy that you hear a lot about, Chapter 7 bankruptcy. This is a complete liquidation, they take everything you own, they sell it off, they pay off your creditors and then they wipe out the rest of your debt. Now if you file a Chapter 7, this is going stay on your credit report for 10 years. You file a Chapter 13, that's seven years.
So here's the thing, Tony, we were looking into the kind of impact that a bankruptcy filing is going to have on your credit score and I found this astounding. The lower your credit score currently, the less of an impact a bankruptcy filing is going to have.
So let's say you have a high score of 800, which is really good cause 850 is the max. If you file for bankruptcy, your credit score is going to take a hit of say 250 to 300 points. But if you have a score of 600 right now, you file for bankruptcy, your credit score might only take a hit of 100 points. $
And the reason for that is FICO basically says, the Fair Isaac Corporation says that it's already factored into the lower score So basically what they're doing is they're bringing the higher score down to the lower level that reflects the risky behavior.
HARRIS: You know, as you're talking about this, it brings to mind -- and by this I mean this idea that filing for bankruptcy could be a successful business strategy for some, certainly not all -- it reminds me of the story we've been seeing over the last year or so of people literally walking away from their homes because -- right, right -- they are so underwater it doesn't make good sense to hang on to the home, right?
EVANS: That is exactly it. You hit the nail right on the head, Tony. You think about what people owe. Our research also shows that people are filing more Chapter 7 bankruptcies than Chapter 13 and it could be for the same reason. Their debts are so significant there's just no hope of repaying it within five years.
HARRIS: Carter, good to see you. See you next hour. Thank you, sir.
Speaking of next hour, the next chapter in the life of a U.S. soldier who survived last year's deadly shooting rampage at Ft. Hood. Our Ivan Watson finds him deep in the warzone in Afghanistan. That's in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM.
Plus, both sides of a bullying story. An ex-bully and a victim are sharing their stories with CNN's Carl Azuz.
We're back in a moment.
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HARRIS: Got to tell you, these days, you don't need an office to do business, just a phone and a laptop. Our Richard Quest has more on an app helping a growing wave of entrepreneurial nomads connect and create.
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are the generation of the officeless. They have nowhere to do their work, they harbor global ambitions and Richard Leyland is determined to guide them to success.
RICHARD LEYLAND, FOUNDER, WORK SNUG: We are a billion mobile workers by the end of this year. That's 1 billion mobile workers.
QUEST: And that is a lot of potential users for his app. Leyland's company works, like users, augmented reality. Computer generated images on an app that enhance the world around you. It shows people the best places to work while on the go.
Leyland is part of a new wave of entrepreneurs hoping to cash in on the office exodus.
LEYLAND: These days, the city is the office. You can go and work anywhere where you can connect your laptop and use your phone. So because of that change and there is now a need for a guide to those places.
QUEST: His app might lead users to a well Wi-Fied coffee shop or it might take them to a place like this, the Hub in London, another way of capitalizing on these creative nomads.
New members join from $22 a month. Dermot Egan founded the Hub in London's King's Cross in 2008. He wanted a place where the challenged could and create.
DERMOT EGAN, ENTREPRENEUR: We're often trying to set up new initiatives and businesses from their bedrooms, or from coffee shops, trying to steal Wi-Fi here and there in kind of random locations. And I think what the Hub has done is it has given them a physical home.
QUEST: In fact, the home has turned into a campus. The Hub brand has been franchised to more than 20 locations, from San Francisco to Tel Aviv to Johannesburg.
But does it work in practice? Hugh runs an interaction agency and actually credits the Hub as being good for business.
HUGH CARLING, DIRECTOR, LIVELINE: The Hub enables us to both work remotely with our freelancers, but also to bring them in and so we can all share the same physical space as and when we need. And the time base membership of the Hub allows us to expand and contract our team according to the process that we have at any given time. Which just means that we can keep extremely lean.
QUEST: In these lean time, this might be the only instance where workers being out on the street is actually good for someone's business.
Richard Quest, CNN, London.
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