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Cruise Ship Fire Investigated; No New Trade Deal
Aired November 12, 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: All right. 10:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 7:00 a.m. out west. We're topping the hour now with some of the stories that we've been talking about all morning.
A new investigation under way into that fire that crippled the Carnival "Splendor" cruise ship. That fire broke out in an engine room and left 3,000 passengers without air conditioning and hot meals. That ship finally towed into San Diego yesterday. That fire being investigated by officials in Panama now where the ship is flagged.
All right. A window into the internet world. A Los Angeles woman spending 30 days locked away in a glass box as a symbolic warning about social media. The message of the ark (ph) project is an over reliance on Facebook and Twitter can leave people isolated. We're talking to her live this hour.
And fixing America's schools. Should they be run like a business? New York's historically troubled school system about to get a new boss. But she hasn't spent any real time in the classroom. Well, let's look whether an education outsider can bring in some fresh answers.
All right. We begin in Washington. There may be a deal brewing that would give tax breaks to Americans at all economic levels. You may remember that the political parties are divided over two big issues, the first, economic line. The Democrats want to extend the Bush era tax cuts only to the middle class and they want the extension to only be temporary.
Republicans are demanding that the wealthy also get the tax break and what's more, they want the cuts to be made permanent. Congressional sources in both parties tell CNN a compromise may be in the works but a short time ago, President Obama said he won't budge.
CNN's senior political editor Mark Preston joining us from Washington. So Mark, where do we stand on a possible compromise?
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, I mean, Kyra, this is one of these incredible situations where we have a lame duck Congress, we have Republicans that have made so many gains in the midterm elections, and yet Congress has to come back next week and really tackle this very thorny issue, an issue that really was front and center in the campaign.
Right now, what we're hearing on Capitol Hill is in fact, there could be a deal struck right now between congressional Democrats and congressional Republicans, and that deal would look like something along these lines. There would be not a permanent extension of the tax cuts for the middle class. That's for families, couples who make $250,000 and under as well as for the wealthy as well. So you would have a temporary extension, maybe a year, maybe two, of having these two coupled together.
As you said, President Obama over in Seoul said he is not in the mood for compromising, although what he did say, which is kind of interesting - our own Ed Henry is traveling with him, Kyra, is that, in fact, he thinks it would be fiscally irresponsible for us permanently extend the high income tax cuts. The key word in there is permanently. So there might be some wiggle room from the White House for doing a temporary extension. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, during the midterms, Republicans were outspoken about the nation's deficit. So how are they defending making the tax cuts permanent?
PRESTON: You know, an excellent question. And I'm not an economist but interestingly enough, earlier this week, I was at Stanford University, and I met with fellows at the Hoover Institute, they're conservatives and libertarians. Their whole idea is that extending the tax cuts for the wealthy is actually a very small blip in the grand scheme of things, and of course, the Republicans will argue, Kyra, that in fact, extending these tax cuts will help to generate innovation. It's the whole private sector is what drives the economy, not the public sector.
If we can take a quick look at this poll. This new CNN poll just released about a week ago that shows what Americans think about tax cuts. When you look at the numbers, Kyra, it only shows that about eight percent of Americans say that it's the most important economic problem facing the country. What Republicans will argue right now though is that those tax cuts will help turn the economy around, which, of course, is the number one issue, and of course, that is unemployment at 58 percent, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, some experts say that Republicans would actually be smart to let those cuts expire and then take them up again in January. What's the thinking behind that?
PRESTON: Politically, that would be the way to go because they gained so much ground in the house. They picked up 60 seats. They also picked up seven seats in the Senate, six in the Senate. So they have a much stronger majority. What they could potentially do is try to get conservative Democrats to join them and make it a permanent extension. So we'll see what happens next week.
PHILLIPS: Got it. Mark Preston, appreciate it. And the G-20 economic summit has wrapped up in Seoul, South Korea, but President Obama won't be returning with the trade deal that he wanted. He says talks are still ongoing with South Korea in a deal that could create some 70,000 jobs for Americans.
And there are few tangible results of the summit itself. The world leaders were unable to hammer out a comprehensive plan to revive the global recovery. The wide range of policies were outlined for future debate. President Obama says that there was a hard won consensus on monitoring world trade and better balancing international growth. Nations also vowed to not ignite a free for all over manipulating the value of their currencies. But again, the main objective sputtered. Leaders won't be able to agree on how to prevent another global recession.
All right. Thousands of weary cruise ship passengers waking up from their first night on dry land after days of a long misadventure drifting at sea. Many of the 4,500 passengers and crew members cheered, whistled, waved and chanted as a team of tugboats nudged the powerless Carnival "Splendor" into the San Diego Harbor. Some passengers say that the cruise was hellish, day after day of cold food, bad smells and a lot of misinformation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUIS HORACE, PASSENGER ON CARNIVAL "SPLENDOR": We were in the dark. I mean, we had an inside cabin. We had no window. We were literally like trapped like it was like we were marooned in the middle of the ocean, and the food was - it was minimal, it was very minimal. It was like we had no control at all over anything and it felt like we were in prison.
The rooms are not that big to begin with. We didn't plan on being in our room. We planned on being in port and you know, doing fun things on the ship. But in actuality, what end up happening is a lot of the times, we just went into our room and we had to sleep because there was nothing else to do. Yet, they tried to play games and we played cards and we tried to make the best of the situation as we could, but there was so much time, down time that we just slept a lot of the time. It was dark. You couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Others say it wasn't so bad and the "Carnival" did everything it could in a bad situation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was an adventure. I'll tell you that. I mean, everything from the military to cold water showers to Spam, to salads every day, but, I mean, "Carnival" did a great job. You know, with just what the resources they had.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: We should also point out that Carnival says no passengers were actually served Spam and everyone is OK. So some passengers are seeing the humor in the situation, right along with our late-night comedians.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The power blew due to a smoke fire. The toilets did not work. Our food was vegetables and fruit on a two day return.
CONAN O'BRIEN, HOST, "CONAN" TBS: Everybody knows this story. (INAUDIBLE) in the news. Adrift for three days, no electricity, surviving on Pop Tarts and Spam. That's what's airlifted to these people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Which is a delicious sandwich.
O'BRIEN: That's what I did in college. I don't know what the big problem is. The ship was towed to San Diego, safely docked. I'm told it's now ready and it's already going out back to sea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Really?
O'BRIEN: There it is. On the way back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There it is. It's back.
O'BRIEN: Oh, wow. Look at it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good luck, you guys.
(APPLAUSE)
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW," NBC: When the president of Carnival Cruise Lines spoke to the press today, and he said he has everything under control. Did you see -- show the press conference today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First, the safety of our guests and crews are top. Second, we want to get them home as quickly as possible, and, third, we're trying to make it as comfortable for the guests as we can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: I didn't mean to tee you up with that, Reynolds. How do you top that?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the objective is to have the trip of a lifetime, to have moments that you'll never forget. And I think anyone -
PHILLIPS: They'll never forget any of those moments.
WOLF: They accomplished both of those tasks.
PHILLIPS: They made international news for days.
WOLF: I'm telling you what - We got some interesting news this morning, and the news is not in the form of raindrops but rather snowflakes. We got a few of those. We are going to see rain right now on radar, you see here the blues, the yellows, and even a little bit of green in some cases. But when you travel to the south, to the very end of this frontal boundary, snow. It started off as raindrops in Amarillo, even a boom of thunder here and there, but now snow possibly up to the tune of one to three inch of snow before the day is out. Now, let me show you something else that we're going to be seeing later on today.
Pretty nice on the East Coast and West Coast, pretty dry conditions for Boston, breezy with 57, 77 in Orlando, same deal in Atlanta, mainly 70s, 74 in Phoenix, and into Portland 52 degrees, mostly sunny skies and a few high clouds. But then right in the middle of the country, that's where we have the bull's eye.
However, when we fast forward into tomorrow, everything changes, especially the midwest. This are of low pressure. This frontal boundary get all that coming together bringing a lot of moisture into parts of the midwest and then you have, of course, the overrunning moisture with very, very cool conditions at that surface. That's going to give you some snow.
Some places possibly heavy stuff, especially in the twin cities, you could see from let's say six to 12 inches of snowfall before all is said and done. I'm said and done. Let's send them back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: That was easy. That was short and sweet.
WOLF: Very simple.
PHILLIPS: Thank you.
All right. Well, Lindsay Lohan, we've heard more about her court cases and rehab stints than her movies lately. And now the former child star is reaching out to her outspoken father from rehab. Details on a major breakthrough in their strained relationship in today's "Showbiz Update."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charlie McGee is a healthy eight year old girl, normal in every way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charlie, watch what you're doing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But one -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did she do that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you going to do with her?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) her here while you do all the tests.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you give her to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Charlie has the power. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE) to love me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, Charlie.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Do you remember that clip? Drew Barrymore plays a young girl in the iconic film "Firestarter." It was just one of more than 160 films produced by Dino De Laurentis over a span of 60 years. You may remember some others "La Strada, "Amarillo (ph)," "Mcgill (ph)" and "King Kong." De Laurentis died Wednesday at his Beverly Hills home with his family by his side, 91 years old. He was nominated for 35 Oscars during his career, by the way.
The stars are out for the 11th Annual Latin Grammy Awards in Las Vegas, and Lindsay Lohan is working on her strained relationship with her father while she is in rehab. All kinds of showbiz news, A.J. Hammer joining us live from New York.
Hey, A.J..
A.J. HAMMER, HOST "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Hi there, Kyra. The Latin Grammy Awards put on the kind of show that Las Vegas appreciates. Now these are not your typically Grammy Awards. The show is a little loser and according to most reports it was a really, really fun night. The performances by stars like Mark Anthony and Enrique Iglesias. They were backed up by Vegas marching bands and that can actually overshadow the awards which were given out in 46 different categories of Latin music, from tango, flamenco to Mexican brass bands. The Mexican pop rock group, Camilla, is being called big winner. That's after taking home three awards. So we congratulate them, Camilla. It's always a good show. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Yes, it is. And we are hearing that Lindsay Lohan is getting some help from her dad. All over the entertainment shows. They had a strained relationship. What's going on, A.J.?
HAMMER: Well, this can only be a good thing for the Lohan family. Lindsay Lohan and her father, Michael, had a rocky relationship, to say the least. But the pair are getting some family therapy now. It's all part of Lindsay's rehab treatment at the Betty Ford Clinic. Radaronline got this picture, if we could put it up, when she was allowed to take a trip to the mall with her dad and Michael Lohan is saying that he and his daughter had a great time hanging out, which was different to hear about the two of them. He hopes that they're going to have his wife and Lindsay's mom, Dina, join him and Lindsay for a therapy session.
He is publicly very optimistic about what's happening and he says Lindsay's rehab is going very well. And Kyra, we can all just hope that's true and maybe, just maybe, this is the beginning of the end of all of her drama. Unfortunately, I believe I've said that before.
PHILLIPS: Yes, many, many, time, my dear A.J.. Hey, have a great weekend, OK.
HAMMER: You do the same.
PHILLIPS: All right. You want information on everything breaking in the entertainment world, A.J.'s got it every evening "Showbiz Tonight" at 5:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on HLN.
A woman's only human contact for a month? Well, she's doing it through social media. We're going to talk about why she's gone behind the glass.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's travel cross country. First stop, a pie throwing food fight in Lawrence Township, New Jersey. Nearly 700 students at the Lawrenceville School hurled more than 1,400 chocolate custard pies and it was all for a good cause and a possible new Guinness pie throwing world record. The students raised 10 grand for a local soup kitchen and now they're waiting to hear from Guinness World Records.
All right. Next stop, upstate New York where a 74-foot Norway spruce from Putnam County made the cut as this year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The tree was donated by a New York City firefighter and his wife. The lighting will take place November 30th.
And finally, Las Vegas, wedding dreams came true on Veterans Day for some pretty lucky military brides. They got their pick of free designer gowns worth thousands of dollars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel amazing. It's so pretty. I love it.
MICHELLE TERRY, MILITARY BRIDE: I'm really appreciative for this experience, this opportunity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Now the Brides for America Program provides wedding dresses for military personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A woman is living in a glass box for a month. Her only contact with the outside world is through social media, Skype, Twitter, text messages. It may sound like stunt to you but Cristine Norine has a serious message behind her public isolation project. She joins us to talk about it via Skype from Portland, Oregon.
We are also bringing in our social media guru, Paul Gillin for his take as well. Paul is in Dallas.
But Cristine, let's go ahead and start with you. What gave you this idea?
CRISTINE NORINE, FREELANCE PRODUCTION MANAGER: Well, this is a collaboration with Josh Elliott. We were talking one day. He was talking about a project that he knew he wanted to use this space, to basically put someone in here and have it represent our 24- -- basically our 24-accessibility, and our lack of privacy, and I have been interested in social media and human interaction for a long time, and so we basically had a conversation and kind of realized that this could be a good project for us to do together.
PHILLIPS: So what is the point you're trying to get across to people through doing this?
NORINE: Well, I just want people to kind of take a step back and look at how all of these new technologies have changed how we communicate with each other. It's not all bad stuff but they do great stuff. But you know, we should pay attention as to how things are changing our daily lives.
PHILLIPS: How are people reacting to you as they walk by you in the box?
NORINE: I'm getting some actually really great responses. People have been really supportive. I think at first they think it's kind of strange but when they look deeper and read about the project, then, you know, I usually get great responses. People are supportive.
PHILLIPS: Paul, what do you think of Cristine's project.
Paul: Well, it certainly is an attention grabber, Kyra. I'm not sure that the privacy issues that she is trying to highlight are quite as serious as some people may think, but it's always good to make people aware of how technology like this is changing our lives and the way we communicate.
PHILLIPS: Cristine, what do you think? I mean, do you think there are issues with regard to privacy that folks are just not paying attention to and they're being irresponsible?
NORINE: Well, I think that all of these things are so new that a lot of people haven't even had time to digest them. I think one of the biggest things that stands out to me is kind of a generational thing where you have the younger generations who don't really - they don't filter what they're saying on the internet, and they don't really pay attention to all of these other companies, you know, companies and stuff that are using that information, and then there's generation, in my generation, where I think we see the good and the bad.
But you know, so it's interesting to look at that, and then even look, you know, my parents' generation and just see on how we all look at things differently. So that's another reason I just got really interested in this project.
PHILLIPS: All right. We want to know how you get food, when do you go to the restroom. Give us those inside specifics that we are all dying to know.
NORINE: Yes, the basic idea here is not about me suffering. It's about me trying to create a living space as much like my own home as I could. The only thing I'm trying to suffer with is getting by without human interaction. Basically I do have a private bathroom and a shower, which is great. That would be a little too extreme for me, I think. But I also have a kitchenette, and I get groceries delivered once a week and I order all of that stuff on line.
PHILLIPS: All right. Well, Paul, we want people to interact more and have face-to-face communication, and write old fashion thank you notes.
PAUL GILLIN, SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT: Oh, yes, and I think there is a -
PHILLIPS: Go ahead, Paul.
GILLIN: I think there's a misperception that the internet is making us more inward focused and more isolated. In fact, evidence is quite to the contrary. A report by a syndicated research firm called MRI, this year of 26,000 Americans they discover that people who are active on Twitter are actually more active in their offline activities, their social meeting activities.
The web site meetup.com was created to organize offline meetings and they coordinate 250,000 meetings a month right now. So in fact, many people are forming rich social relationships with others in the real world because they first meet them on line. About one out of six marriages in America right now began through an on-line interaction.
So you can make a counter argument that the internet is actually making us more connected physically with the people around us.
PHILLIPS: Interesting. Paul, thanks. Cristine, we're going to see if you make it through all 30 days. Do you think when you're finished that you're going to communicate differently with people around you in your life?
NORINE: You know, I don't know. It's only been 12 days. We'll see how I feel. It's changing all the time.
PHILLIPS: Well, we will definitely follow up in the couple of weeks. Guys, thanks so much.
Well, the country's biggest school system gets a new boss, one with no education leadership experience. So we're going to look at how this will affect the million students who go to school in New York City.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: It's now half past the hour. Some stories that got us talking. Extending the Bush era tax cuts back on President Obama's priority list. The president favors the extension for the middle class but he's against permanent cut us for the wealthy. He plans to meet with leaders of both parties next week after returning from Asia. A compromise could be in the works.
San Francisco's mayor expected to veto the city's ban on toys in McDonald's happy meals deemed too unhealthy. It could be meaningless though. The Board of Supervisors approved the ordinance with a veto- proof majority.
Thousands of weary cruise ship passengers waking up from their first night on dry land after days of a long misadventure drifting at sea. Many of the 4,500 passengers and crew members cheered, whistled, waved and chanted as a team of tugboats nudged powerless Carnival "Splendor" back to San Diego harbor. Some say the cruise was hellish. (INAUDIBLE) Cold food, bad smells and a lot of misinformation. But every one is okay. And here's what some of them are saying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just now, they actually told us there was a fire in the boat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did not know that there was a fire on the boat until now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So did they tell you why that the boat suddenly stopped on your excursion.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They never told us what the issue was. All they told us that there was smoke, there's lots of smoke.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was absolutely deplorable. My expectations were completely -- fell through the floor. I expected a really nice time, and it was like Gilligan's Island. I felt like I was marooned on a prison ship. I guess you can call it that because I was in the dark, had mayo sandwiches and backed up toilets. And it was just really bad. It was just really bad all the way around.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Carnival was wonderful. The crew and everybody on it were just friendly and encouraging and big smiles and helpful all of the time. They were great.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via phone): They did keep us informed of how long it was going to take us to get back to shore. We were surprised that we heard it was a fire today. They kept telling us it was just flameless smoke. To keep us calm. I understand now why they were saying that, just to keep everybody calm. I think they handled the situation really well, but it is a shock to kind of learn that there was a big fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was an adventure. I'll tell you that. From everything from the military to cold water showers to Spam, to salads every day. But, I mean, Carnival did a great job. You know, with just the resources they had. So, I can't say enough, the crew was great.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of things went wrong, but it was really fun. We went to kids camp. I met a couple of friends. It was just really fun.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via phone): It was so exciting to see land.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, the largest school system in the U.S. is getting a new leader. Kathleen Black will take over as chancellor of New York City's public schools. The first woman to head that system, which serves about 1.1 million students. Black is a publishing exec with no political or education leadership experience, so she's asking for patience as she gets up to speed on the issues of facing K through 12 education.
She's taking over for Joel Kline, who has been running the show since 2002. He's seen graduation rates jump by more than 10 percent, but he says the system is it still failing. Kline spoke exclusively to CNN education contributor Steve Perry about why he's stepping aside.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: You were the chancellor of New York City's public schools, the largest school system in this country. And then I get an e-mail says that you resigned.
JOEL KLEIN, FORMER CHANCELLOR, NEW YORK CITY PUBLIC SCHOOLS: I resigned on Tuesday.
PERRY: Sometimes in the professional world, resignation is a nice way of saying we don't want you here anymore. Did that happen?
KLEIN: This was my time, and I really had another career in me. I wanted to move on, but I have zero doubt if I had wanted to stay and go to the end, I would have.
You will see me in the arena -- I'm a guy who comes with eight years of experience and a lot of tire tracks on my back to show for it. I'm not worried about my voice. I think the power of my voice comes from the fact that I've never hesitated to call them were as I see them.
I know for a fact that we can get entirely different results. Increasingly, the country knows that we are failing kids, particularly failing kids of color, failing kids who grow up in poverty. But that failure is starting to take on even larger dimensions. Recent studies show that middle-class kids are not performing to the level they need.
So, I'm not worried about my voice in terms of this thing. More importantly, this movement is a movement with lots of voice.
PERRY: You talk about the movement. A movement in many ways means many things. From what are you moving? To what are you moving?
KLEIN: It's a great question. Here's what we're moving from. We're moving from a system that tolerated massive inequities and failed to educate large numbers of kids. I mean, totally failed. Kids dropping out of high school in the 21st century. Now, there's a winning hand for you, right? Dropping out of high school in the 21st century, you know. So, where job skills and the demands of the economy and the global competition are entirely different. So, the mismatch between what the kids are prepared to do and what the workforce is going to demand is enormous and widening.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Keep in mind, there are more than 1 million students attending New York City public schools. So, this specs a lot of kids.
Steve Perry joining us on the phone from Hartford, Connecticut. So, Steve, what's the bottom line here? If things were looking better, why would he want to leave? Is it a nicer paycheck at a new job?
PERRY (via phone): He said he was done. He said it was time to move on and he wanted to try something different. He has some ideas about how to bring technology to bring quality instruction to students from all over the country. He feels if he gives access to the very best instructors then -- through things like the computer, then he can create opportunities for children to learn.
I wanted to know from him, did the union run you out? Did the mayor say that he'd have enough? Did the Republicans winning in the midterms have anything to do with it? He said, no, this has been going for a while. He said that for about three months he had been having conversations with the mayor, with Bloomberg, and it was just time. He made a deal that he would sign on for two terms. And mayor Bloomberg ran for a third and won, and he was saying that he simply was ready to move on.
PHILLIPS: So, why did Mayor Bloomberg pick Kathleen Black? What do we know about her?
PERRY: Well, that's the question. I think that he finds in her someone who can run an organization. You know, very often, educators get real persnickety about whether or not somebody from outside the system can run the system. But since we're doing a horrible job at running it, why not give someone else a shot?
PHILLIPS: Wow, Steve Perry. We'll follow it, that's for sure. Steve Perry on our education beat always for us, 24/7.
Are you ready for some football? This looks like any stranded American team, but it's not. These kids are hitting the gridiron in Jerusalem.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: We're scanning our "Morning Passport." Let's start in Jerusalem, where something is happening that's pretty exciting. It's called football, American-style. With quarterbacks, touchdowns, tackles, the whole nine yards. Usually -- maybe I should say 50 yards.
Usually that part of the world, football means scoring a goal and players celebrating by taking off their shirts. But this is the IFL, the Israel Football League with ultra-Orthodox Jews playing on the gridiron. And sometimes Israeli settlers playing with Palestinians, but the players say politics is not an issue here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHLOMO SCHACHTER, JUDEAN REBELS: When you put on your helmet, you're just a football player. You're a defensive end, linebacker, whatever it is you play. And we're just guys coming together to play football.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: In the IFL, teams play in hopes of taking home the coveted trophy from the Israel Bowl.
Now to China, where lawmakers are weighing a one-dog policy in Shanghai. They want to control the dog population because of limited living space in the city. Under a proposed law, dog owners would be required to neuter their dogs, give away puppies or send them to a government-approved adoption agency. Government stats show that nearly 19 million people and 18 million pet dogs live in Shanghai. It was 30 years ago that Chinese officials instituted the country's one- child policy for population control.
An Atlanta woman is changing lives through sweets. How a cake baking contest is helping homeless women find a path forward.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: A group of homeless women in Atlanta are getting the chance to put on chef's hats, crack a few eggs and stir up some cake batter with the pros. They're learning their way around the kitchen, thanks to Patty Green, a woman who's "Making Her Mark" because she's determined to give these women a step up. A step that leads right through the kitchen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've gained a few pounds.
PATTY GREEN, FOUNDER, PATTYCAKES CREATIONS: It's beautiful. It's a beautiful venture.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Patty Green's laugh echoes through a kitchen classroom just outside Atlanta. She's a trained social worker/baker, and today, like so many days before, she's transforming lives with flour, sugar and goodwill.
GREEN: I love to help people. That's my passion, and I love cake.
PHILLIPS: The students here today have fallen on tough times. They're homeless and living in a shelter. But for the next few hours, they are would-be pastry chefs being trained by the pros at the Le Cordon Bleu Culinary School of Atlanta. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Butter cream is hard as well because it's hard to get it to look nice and smooth, but once you take a couple of classes and practice, you are able to do that.
PHILLIPS: This is the first of three classes coordinated by Patty. The end goal, entering a cake contest in December. The women from My Sister's House shelter will compete.
SERENA RANDALL, RESIDENT, MY SISTER'S HOUSE SHELTER: I love to do cakes, and I used to watch the Food Network all the time, how they have all of the competitions, and I was like I would never be able to do that. But in this, I can.
PHILLIPS: Serena Randall is all smiles as she eyes a contest win. She's been up against tougher challenges, though. She's a mother, a grandmother and a recovering crack addict.
RANDALL: I was in my drug addiction to two years. I lost everything I had. I had a home and I had a vehicle. So, I lost everything. And in order for me to -- I let my kids go stay with their grandmother. It was hard at first, but, you know, I kept seeking God, and so now I'm better.
PHILLIPS: Serena says the kitchen is a stepping stone towards recovery and a new life.
RANDALL: The nine-month program for the cake and pastries, I think I would like to do that.
PHILLIPS: Hope fostered by Patty Green.
GREEN: There are people out here that care for them, that have their best interests at heart, and that we're there for them to help enhance whatever it is they want to do. And if it's baking, I'm here for that.
RANDALL: She is awesome. The cakes she made are so beautiful. That's inspiration that I wouldn't mind doing that. It's very inspiring.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, the women from My Sister's House shelter will enter their cakes in a contest on December 5th. We'll be sure to keep you updated on who walks away with the win, although each of the women we talked to say just participating is a prize itself.
The Republicans sweeped big victories in the election, but it may surprise you that less than half of the people polled are happy about those results.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: The anger is building, and so is the opposition to the heightened security measures that are now going into place at airports across the U.S. The pilots unions for U.S. Airways and American Airlines are urging their members to avoid the newer full-body scans. They cite possible health risks from frequent exposure to the radiation and privacy concerns over the revealing images. The two unions represent more than 16,000 pilots. They're being asked to request private pat-downs instead of scanners.
And there is an online campaign to rally all air travelers against the scans. Various groups are asking fliers to refuse the scans on November 24. That's the day before Thanksgiving and one of the busiest travel days of the year. We wanted to know what you think, and we got a lot of responses on the blog.
Anna says, "I think these body scans violate my privacy. I now definitely prefer to drive to my destinations rather than fly.'
Jose says, "People want to complain about the body scanners, but the complainers will stop when they catch something."
Bruce says "This is an overreaction by the TSA. Anytime something happens, they come up with some other ways to search us to make us believe they can protect us. What's next, strip searches?"
And Phillip says, "A person willing to kill himself and possibly hundreds of others by blowing up a plane is not worried about modesty. Air travel has changed forever. There are some things we are just going to have to deal with until a better option becomes available."
We always want to hear from you. Just log onto CNN.com/kyra. Share your comments. I sure appreciate you weighing in.
We're taking the political ticker to Baltimore this hour. Deputy political director Paul Steinhauser there, where he's covering the Freedom Works event. Tell us about it, Paul.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You got it, Kyra. They have been meeting behind closed doors since yesterday. Freedom Works is a major conservative grassroots organization, and they have put a lot of the heft behind the Tea Party movement. And they also in this past election spent a lot of money supporting Tea Party candidates and getting them elected to Congress. That's what's going on here.
A bunch of those candidates who are now lawmakers-elect are meeting with Freedom Works executives and officials here. And I guess the theme here is from Freedom Works is to tell these people to kind of stay true what you campaigned for. There may be pressure for a lot of these new conservative lawmakers when they come to Washington to negotiate and make deals with the establishment Republicans, and I guess the theme here is to stay true to your roots, to your conservative values.
So, they have a news conference coming up in about a half hour. We'll be covering that, and we will report back a little bit after it is over.
But that's not the only thing I want to talk about. Also today, check out the brand new numbers from Pew. And this is really interesting. They just did a new poll, released this morning on whether people were happy with the election results from the midterms last week. And check that out, 48 percent of all Americans who were questioned in this poll said they were happy. Of course, the Republicans storming back and retaking the House of Representatives in the midterms. 34 percent saying they were unhappy.
And Kyra, that 48 percent number is lower by 12 points than the six in 10 four years ago who said they were happy that the Democrats won back Congress. It's also lower than the amount of people in 1994 said they were happy when the Republicans stormed back and took Congress. So, I guess these numbers may way that while Americans were kind of angry at the way things were and not so happy with the Democrats, It shows that people are not in love with the Republicans, either, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Let's talk about, well, two people we're in love with, Candy Crowley and Jessica Yellin. And they're going to be in the spotlight this weekend.
STEINHAUSER: Oh, boy. Let me brag about them right. Candy, of course, our chief political correspondent. Anchor of "STATE OF THE UNION." She has a bigger interview on Sunday. The former president George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, it's a two-fer. Two Bushes for the price of one. She's interviewing them on Sunday in Florida. You can see that Sunday night in primetime. I can't wait for that.
And what about Jessica Yellin, our national political correspondent? Tonight she will be on "Real Time with Bill Maher" on our corporate cousin, HBNo. I look forward to that as well out in Los Angeles tonight. Kyra?
PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Paul.
We're going to have our next political update in just about an hour. For the latest political news, go to our Web site, CNNpolitics.com.
All right. "PARKER SPITZER" keeping the stories that matter to you on the radar. And last night, the hosts interviewed the developer of the proposed Islamic center in lower Manhattan. Here's an update.
PARKER: I'm concerned about -- I'm just curious about, you know, as a piece of real estate, is this the best use for that particular property for you? Or is this driven in part by your wish to have an Islamic center versus something else like a gap or something in this building that would --
SHARIF EL-GAMAL, DEVELOPER OF ISLAMIC CTR: You know, this started out -- this is an idea and this is concept that we feel is going to help revitalize Lower Manhattan. The community board has voted unanimously twice in favor of this project. The mayor, our local elected officials are behind this project. And this is a project that Lower Manhattan and thatNew York wants.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS; Watch "PARKER SPITZER" every night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
An orange streak in the Western sky parks a mystery and a lot of conspiracy theories. Now, it's fodder for late-night comics. We're following the vapor trail.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: You got to love this. My dad sent this to me. And I can't get enough of it! Watch how 3-year-old Jonathan hits everything on cue as he conducts Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Fourth movement, by the way. Let's watch.
(VIDEO CLIP)
Is that incredible? It's like he knows exactly what he's doing. He actually started when he was 8 months old. He has a gift. We will see him directing the ASO probaly very soon here in Atlanta.
All right, another piece of video that had us talking this week. The Pentagon says that that orange streak over California that touched off conspiracy theories this week was just a vapor trail from a plane. They call it a contrail. But some late-night comics had theories of their own, of course.
Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Three, two, one, we have liftoff of a story Jon Stewart dubbed missile impossible.
ROBERTS: It looks like it could be a launch from a submarine.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A missile from a navy ship.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Could it be a secret test?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Russian sub?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maybe even a U.S. intercontinental ballistic missile.
MOOS: We're surprised someone didn't guess the wicked witch of the west.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Surrender Dorothy.
MOOS: But now, the missile theory has surrendered from the Pentagon to the website contrailscience.com. Experts agree the plume off the California coast was just a jet contrail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Contrail is a condensation trail.
MOOS: Water coming out of a jet seen here from the cockpit of another plane. Sort of like your breath on a cold day. Though, the west coast contrail got an unintentionally phallic makeover.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What else could do that?
(LAUGHTER)
MOOS: Some say they know exactly what did that.
LIEM BAHNEMAN, AVIATION PHOTOGRAPHER: It was U.S. airways flight 808.
MOOS: Are you sort of a contrail Cono Sur (ph)?
Actually, Liem Bahneman is an aviation photography buff who focused on airline flight paths and schedules, then found a web cam that captured a similar contrail in the same place 24 hours after the now famous one.
BAHNEMAN: The same daily flight from Honolulu to Phoenix was in the same position, as well. So, that was kind of the smoking gun for me.
MOOS: The smoking contrail.
MOOS (on-camera): Three nights after, the West Coast missile, there was another strange sighting here on the East Coast.
MOOS (voice-over): WCBS in New York had the video.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The bizarre glowing red hot streak in the sky right at sunset moving briskly behind the Manhattan skyline.
MOOS: Contrail enthusiasts think this one is also from a jet, similar in situation to one in which the plane is visible.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The trail has been lit by the setting sun.
MOOS: One joker suggests that the West Coast contrail was iron man. Jay Leno suggested we follow the trail of the mystery contrail.
JAY LENO, HOST: Let's play it backwards and trace where the contrail came from. See, go all the way back (INAUDIBLE). Oh, there it had! There it is right there.
MOOS: Contrail controversies have happened before and they'll happen again. So --
(SINGING) Happy trails to you
MOOS (on-camera): Make that contrails.
(SINGING) Until we meet again.
MOOS (voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, happy weekend, everybody. We'll see you on Monday.
Tony, it's the U.S. Navy Blue Angels. That's what I'm going to say. Smoke on.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let me tell you something. I know a little something about contrail.
PHILLIPS: You do?
HARRIS: I was Wolf Blitzer's contrail at the Soul Train Awards last night here in Atlanta, the taping of the program.
PHILLIPS: He was way more popular than you were. Forget about it.
HARRIS: He was amazing.
PHILLIPS: And he got the Dougie down, apparently, I heard.
HARRIS: Black people love Wolf Blitzer. Everybody loves Wolf, but black people love Wolf Blitzer.
(LAUGHTER)
HARRIS: Have a great weekend.
PHILLIPS: See you, Tony.
