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Civil Rights Giant Supports Rangel; GM Roars onto Wall Street; Chilean Miners hit L.A.; Deadline for Unemployment Benefits; GM Roars Onto Wall Street; Your Baby Saving A Life; Obama Beats Palin in Latest Poll; Harry Potter Film Excerpt Leaked

Aired November 18, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: ...about my dear friend, my colleague, my brother, Charlie Rangel. I must state up front that I don't know the facts in this case. I've known Mr. Rangel for more than 50 years. He's a committed and dedicated, hardworking patriotic American. He fought in Korea for our country. He returned home and got an education and went off to law school. He served the city of New York and the state of New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Good afternoon, I'm Ali Velshi, we're going to continue to follow this story, this is of course, the ongoing saga of Charlie Rangel and his censure by Congress. They have found him guilty of ethics violations. Now he has civil rights activist including representative Lewis there standing up in his defense.

This is an ongoing story that continues to have lots of surprises because we never really know what is going to happen next. We'll get a breakdown what's going on on Capitol Hill from Brianna Keilar very shortly. We've got some other stories we want to tell you about, as well. The 33 Chilean miners who inspired the world are getting a hero's welcome right now, right here in the United States, special guests of CNN. We'll catch up with them in L.A.

Plus how you can tweet your way to a $20,000 scholarship. Can you sell yourself in 140 characters or less? And a mess that only a wizard can clean up, Harry Potter Hijacked. Part of the much anticipated movie has been leaked. But, so long Government Motors, the big, big story today, less than 18 months after Washington steered a sputtering General Motors into bankruptcy, it has given the keys back to private investors and earned about $12 billion in the process.

Here's a moment your grandkids will read about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: A bit of a departure from the normal way the New York Stock Exchange opens. That is General Motors' triumphant return to the New York Stock Exchange, you heard a bell, and then you heard the revving of an engine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: A ward of the state no more, the retooled automaker priced hundreds of millions of shares at 33 bucks a pace and drooling investors drove that up to $35 even before the bell rang. Even if you're not one of them, and couldn't care less about cars, you have a stake in this business.

This time yesterday, you the United States taxpayer owned almost 61 percent of the company. Canadian taxpayers, GM retirees, and former creditors owned the rest. But look at the pie today. You and I own just a third. The treasury sold more than 400 billion shares earning back a chunk, but not yet all of our investment. Five percent of the shares are set aside for GM workers, dealers, and retirees and this morning GM's partner in China bought 1 percent.

GM expects to sell more cars in China this year than it does in the United States. The rest of the company belongs to other investors large and small alike between loan repayments and stock sales, GM now has made good on roughly $22 billion of the $50 billion the old GM received to see it through bankruptcy. Now, old GM had a lot of history.

The company was founded in 1908, and by 1954, its market share was 54 percent. That same year, it produced its 50 millionth vehicle. In 1970, GM had 395,000 union employees, that is an all-time high. Those were the good days. In 1980, its market share was 45 percent and it lost money for the first time in half a century. By 1990, its market share was down to 35 percent. That year it signed a ruinous contract that paid union workers whether they worked or not. In late 2008 GM received its first installment of government aid.

In June of 2009, racked with debt and losing money on every car it produced, GM drove into bankruptcy. Joining me here in New York with more on GM's turnaround, my partner on "YOUR MONEY", Christine Romans, and Poppy Harlow of CNN.com. Together we've covered this story every single step of the way.

Christine, you will remember the night GM announced it was going into bankruptcy. I was in Detroit, you and Poppy were following this. Tell me the question on everybody's mind. Will American taxpayers and anybody else who owns a piece of this pie be made whole?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: They will if this company can now begin to continue to sell cars that people want to drive in this country and they continue to be a powerhouse in China. They have to see a share price, Ali, of about $55 a share before taxpayers are paid in full.

And the treasury department can't sell the other shares that it owns for six more months, then they can start selling to the market. It would be years before the taxpayer is made whole, but I love that time line, though. You know what is interesting? When this company was being bailed out, remember how we were saying, "Oh, this is all investment bankers or financial engineers who will try to..." -- wasn't it 1908 a bunch of little tiny car companies that investment bankers put together to become General Motors? VELSHI: Right

ROMANS: So from the beginning of this company to the end of this company and the rebirth of this company, Wall Street has played a big role in it, and the government did, too. I guess you can't call it Government Motors for much longer.

VELSHI: Yeah but you still can for a little while. Poppy, you interviewed a CEO of GM this morning. And I say a CEO because they have been going through CEOs like I go new vests. Whatever happens to this company in the future, and I have some hopes for it, GM and its CEOs have been failures in the business world.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: So this man, Dan Akerson, we'll play you some sound from his interview in a minute or so, he is the fourth man to lead General Motors in less than two years, Ali. There was Rick Wagner (ph), who you interviewed, then there was Fritz Henderson (ph), then there was Ed Whittaker (ph) after him, and now this new CEO who has only been there a couple of months. Now what's very interesting and the most important question that we asked him this morning is, "Do you have confidence that American taxpayers will get back that $50 billion that we poured into this company?" Now to give you some context, his predecessor, Ed Whittaker (ph), told me less than a year ago absolutely no doubt about it, taxpayers will get paid back. But I asked the current CEO that same question. Not the same answer. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAN AKERSON, CEO, GENERAL MOTORS: The good news is we've paid all of our debt back, all the bonds that we were issued and we've paid back all of the preferred with dividends and interest. And we're reducing the government's ownership now from roughly 60+ percent to about 33 percent. Over the years, I'm sure that there will be other stock issuances or sales by the government and I don't know where the markets going to be a year or two down the road, so I can't make such a bold statement.

HARLOW: I think that's a big question, shares priced at this IPO at $33, they have to rise 65 percent for American taxpayers to be paid back in full. And you're say there is no guarantee that's going to happen. Are you hopeful?

AKERSON: Sure I'm hopeful, and I'm not saying it can't happen. I just don't know what the markets are going to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And of course, Ali, none of us though what the markets are do. Trading at $35 now, they have to be almost $55 for us, the taxpayers, just to break even. The only way that happens, Ali, is if investors around the world and car buyers around the world have enough confidence in this company that they want to buy their cars, invest in their stock, not for the short term, for the long term,

VELSHI: Yep. HARLOW: ...hold on to it, bring that stock price up so treasury can sell it and we can make the money back.

VELSHI: OK so, in what you just said, there are three words I hang on there. Around the world. Christine, can they do it? GM is going to be -- they're going to make more cars in China than they do in the United States. They have retooled and started to rightfully ignore the American car buyer who always wanted big -- Americans did with car what is they did with houses. They didn't make choices that were in their best self-interests. So now GM will make cars on unified platforms. Can they get it right?

ROMANS: Well, that's the question. That's the leap of faith you make when you're buying the stock and want to hold it for the long term. And there are people who are making that leap here, or that invest, that's what an investment is, right? This morning, but when you look at how they've slimmed down, they got rid of four of their brands. Pontiac is gone, SAAB is gone, Saturn is gone, and Hummer is gone. They are leaner and focusing on the plates - the name plates that they want to develop for this market going forward.

They've reduced their head count pretty dramatically. They had 280,000 people worldwide in 2008, now they've only got 208,000, only 79,000 in this country. So now is where the new company with its GM, it's old ticker symbol and it's old name plate and it's old reputation, but a brand new company, now is where they have to prove it.

Something interesting, Ali, and Poppy I know that you've done a lot of work in Detroit too. Ford staged a turnaround without being Government Motors. So now GM has to prove that it can come do the same thing without the help and being a ward of the state.

VELSHI: It will have lots of eyes on it. Poppy, thanks for being on top of this. Christine we'll talk a little bit later. We'll continue to be on top of the story because everybody wants their money back from gm. Alright, here's another good news story for you. They won the hearts of people around the world. Now all 33 Chilean miners and five of their rescuers are in Los Angeles. Why they're there and what they are doing, right after this.

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VELSHI: They dominated the headlines for more than two months; they captured the hearts of people around the world. We haven't heard a lot from those 33 Chilean miners since their dramatic rescue last month. Today, though, all 33 back in the spotlight in the best way, landing just a short while ago in Los Angeles along with five of their rescuers.

They are the special guests of CNN and will attend the CNN Heroes event on Thanksgiving night. For most, this is their first ever trip not only outside South America, but out Chile as well. It started in Santiago, they made a quick stop in Atlanta and then on to L.A. Here they are now at Santiago airport. The dude in the black shades, that one there you'll see, is Mario Sepulveda (ph). He was the second minor pulled to the surface and brought a bag of rocks with him if you recall.

In these pictures you see the miners just before getting off the plane at Atlanta airport. One of the miners told us he'd never been outside Chile and was looking forward to, quote, seeing the world. OK, now you see them walking through the Atlanta airport. For the most part the miners have been staying to themselves and their families since the rescue.

Before today's journey, most of the miners played in a soccer game against their rescuers and government officials including the president of Chile. You'll remember one of the miners is a former pro soccer player. Perhaps the most ambitious miner of all is Edison Pena (ph). You can see him here crossing the finish line of the New York City marathon on November 7. He is the miner who took daily runs in the area where they were trapped half a mile underground.

His accomplishments were quite amazing considering they were trapped underground for 69 days. Sixty nine days that other people were using to train for the marathon. He was unable to train properly to run the 26.2 miles, but he did it running, walking, hobbling, in a time of 5 hours and 40 minutes. Gary Tuchman live in Los Angeles, he has been following the process. Gary, tell us about this, why these miners are involved with Heroes and how they're doing.

VELSHI: I don't know if we've got Gary there. Have we got you, Gary? Okay. We do not appear to have Gary on the phone. Gary is with the miners -- hold on. Am I hearing Gary? Gary, is that you?

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Can you hear me? And I'm going to speak some English and tell you what an amazing, magnificent, wonderful day this is. I'm on the bus right now with the miners and we're navigating the freeway, a little easier than usual because these guys deserve it, they have a police escort, just like a political campaign when we cover the presidential campaigns.

The police are closing off the exits on the freeways and our buses are zooming past all the traffic as we're heading to their hotel, but these miners are just exalted. They're celebrated. They're tired as heck because they flew for nine hours you said, from Santiago to Atlanta, connected, we flew another four hours to come here to Los Angeles so they could attend Heroes, the all-star tribute that we're very proud of.

That it's just high-minded (ph) television and we love being part of it. And we really love that they're coming because their perseverance is heroic, these 33 miners and five rescuers here are true heroes for going into the mine to rescue them. And the miners have brought family members, wives and girlfriends and sons and daughters, in some cases parents. I'm sitting right next to Daniel Herrera (ph) on the bus; he brought his mom with him, 27 years old, and they've never been out of Chile in their life and they were staring right now as we were driving at the downtown Los Angeles skyline and they just can't believe what they're seeing. This is just a magnificent opportunity for them. And, more importantly, it's a magnificent opportunity for all of us to be host to them.

Ali.

VELSHI: You, Gary, have had the opportunity -- you've seen these people in a few places now. You saw them in Chile. You had a sense of what happened when they got out of the mine. How do they appear? I mean is this -- are they all sweetness and light? Are they all excited about this? Is there a somberness to them? A seriousness to them? How do they feel?

TUCHMAN: Yes, that's a great question, Ali, because the first time I saw them they were coming out of a hole and I was standing 300 yards away five weeks ago and I was just so fearful that something terrible was going to happen and that not all of them would make it, and they all did. And -- it's just what amazes me is how happy and celebratory they are right now and how gung-ho they are. And when the plane landed in Los Angeles, they all started applauding. It reminded me of the old days of flying when people thought it was a miracle the plane successfully landed and they would clap. These guys and their wives and their mothers were all clapping and all excited to be here.

I was in Chile last week just to get to know them better and to sit around and to have access to all of them and learn about them and they're just such a bunch of great people. They're highly educated people and ambitious. And most of them just love mining. It's what was in their family. They make good money mining and some of them want to go back to mining someday they tell us. Others don't.

I mean one of the most amazing things we've learned, Ali, is that for the first -- you know, for the first 17 days, no one knew if they were alive. But for the first 12 days, they tell us they heard no sound whatsoever and they --

VELSHI: Wow.

TUCHMAN: Many of them assumed that everyone thought they were dead. So here they are five weeks later. They were in the mine and now they're in Los Angeles getting ready to have a great time.

VELSHI: Good stuff, Gary. We look forward to seeing them on "Heroes." We'll talk to you soon.

As we mentioned, the miners will be on hand to see who will be named the next CNN Hero. Be sure to tune into CNN. Anderson Cooper hosted "CNN Heroes, An All-Star Tribute" at 8:00 Eastern on Thanksgiving night.

All right, it's a make or break vote in the House today. Four million out of work Americans are running out of unemployment benefits just in time for the holidays. "Your Money" coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: In less than two weeks, jobless benefits will expire for millions of Americans. Extensions on unemployment insurance end on November 30th. What does this all mean? Well, there are three big numbers that matter -- 99. That is the maximum number of weeks benefits can last right now. In fact, you'll see references to people called 99ers who have run out of unemployment benefits. Four million. That's the number of Americans who will lose benefits if legislation for an extension to apply for those benefits does not pass. And $12.5 billion. The cost of extending those benefits until February.

So today, the House took on extending those benefits until the end of February. Democrats talked about how losing benefits would hurt people already struggling during the holidays. Republicans emphasized deficit spending and the big price tag. Christine Romans, my co-host of "Your Money," back with me to tell us what the right thing to do is.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CO-HOST, CNN'S "YOUR MONEY": Well, there's the right thing and there's what politicians want to do, right, Ali, and what economists say is the best thing to do. Look, you've got a situation we've never seen before. In the '70s I think we had 60 some weeks of unemployment benefits. Now people are eligible for 99 weeks. So there's going to be a big fight here as people who support extending unemployment benefits try to race it through before the Republicans take over the House in the beginning of the year.

Now, the Democrats in the House today will vote -- the House will vote today on passing an extension -- another extension on unemployment benefits. But there's a bigger question here, Ali, and you and I have gotten to it many, many times -- at what point is this emergency condition going to turn into a chronic condition --

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: And what are we going to do about it, other than continuing to patch this hole over and over and over again.

VELSHI: Right. The problem is not patching it still doesn't solve the problem. These are not people -- there are some -- there was some talk for some time that, well, you know, if we stop these unemployment benefits, it will force people back to work. You've run the numbers on it. There simply aren't enough jobs for the people who are out of work.

ROMANS: In normal times, in normal bad times, when you have a lot of jobs that are being created, there are a percentage of people who continue to take unemployment benefits rather than find a job. Many of the economies who even agreed with that statement say there aren't just enough jobs being created right now for there to be enough places to absorb people. So that's a real problem here.

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: We also have a problem with people who are out of work for six months or longer. It starts to erode their skills and their ability to work and integrate into the labor market. That's something that many, many people have been concerned about.

VELSHI: Yes.

ROMANS: What are we going to do? Are we going to do jobless benefits? Are we going to do --

VELSHI: Retraining.

ROMANS: Retaining.

VELSHI: Right.

ROMANS: Are we going to do -- what are we going to do exactly.

VELSHI: Right. We need a solution that isn't just about extending jobless benefits, but we need to extend the jobless benefits. This is complicated because --

ROMANS: And it's not going away. We're going to be hearing -- we're going to hear a lot of talk about this.

VELSHI: Right. We're going to keep -- we're going to talk about this again in February, even if this passes.

ROMANS: Yes.

VELSHI: OK, Christine, thanks very much for that.

ROMANS: Sure.

VELSHI: "Your Money," we talk about these things every weekend. Saturday's at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Sundays at 3:00 Eastern. Christine, by the way, also the author of a new book called "Smart Is The New Rich." It gives you lots of great ideas to deal with this new normal, this new economy that's out there. Not just to deal with it, to actually prosper from it.

We've been talking about General Motors' big day on Wall Street. CNN's Alison Kosik is on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. She's got some sense of how this is playing out for our market.

It's -- I mean I'm looking at the Dow right now. It's up 180 points. This has generally been good sentiment for investors.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really has. And we've been watching closely, of course, General Motors' shares. They debut at $35. They backed off quite a bit since the debut price.

But I want to show you GM's new home as Wall Street is concerned. The blue logo GM right here on trading post 11-G. I want you to move in a little bit here and show you exactly where the trading's happening. Charlie's here on the computer taking in those trades. Taking in all these buy and sell orders.

You know, throughout the day, lots of shares have been moving through here. In fact, if you look at all the trades volume-wise here at the New York Stock Exchange, 35 percent of the trades coming through here today, Ali, were from shares of GM. Just to give you an idea of what it looked like just after the opening bell, take a look at some pictures that we got around the trading post right after the opening bell. Over 100 people standing around here yelling out trades the old fashioned way. Definitely a blast from the past. Something we haven't seen a lot in our electronic age. But one thing traders are going to be keeping their eye on is this share price, Ali, because they're hoping that it at least closes at $35. They don't want it to go below that because then what will happen is they'll be worried about momentum, as you know.

Ali.

VELSHI: That's right.

All right, Alison, thanks very much. We'll check in with you a later.

Alison Kosik on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Your newborn could help save the life of a critically ill child. I'm going to tell you how after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: In this week's "Empowered Patient," how your baby could save another child's life. It's something you may not have heard about. It's a lot simpler than you might think. Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is in our Atlanta studio.

Elizabeth, how does this work?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Ali, this is really incredible. I've got to tell you, I have four kids and I didn't know about this until recently. I certainly didn't know about it when they were born. But when your child is born, you can take that child's umbilical cord stem cells and donate them to a public bank. A bank that anyone can search if they need it. And we met up with a family, the Schancez-Rays (ph) family, who had a baby last week, little Christopher -- you can see him right there -- and his parents decided to donate his blood stem cells directly to that bank. And then if anyone gets leukemia, or sickle cell disease, there are dozens of diseases where those stem cells would -- could be lifesaving.

Ali.

VELSHI: Elizabeth, how straightforward is this? How easy is it to do? Was there a cost involved?

COHEN: You know, there is no cost. It's free. And if your baby is born at one of about 200 hospitals in the U.S. that do this directly to banks, it's a no brainer. It's very easy. If not, what you have to do is you have to mail away for one of these kits. Your obstetrician has to agree to do it. It gets a little bit complicated. It's not the easiest thing in the world. But it is possible. And in my column this week, I tell you how to do it.

And, Ali, I want to make a distinction. A lot of people will bank their stem cells, their umbilical cord cells, for their baby. It's called private banking. And you pay, you know, about $2,000 to do that. This isn't just for your baby. This is so that anybody can search it.

VELSHI: Elizabeth, this is interesting. I didn't -- it never even occurred me. This is a neat idea. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Elizabeth Cohen, our senior medical correspondent.

Coming up straight ahead, love, sex and marriage. Well, two out of three ain't bad. I'll tell you about it when we get back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We are about to take a look at a study that peeked into American's bedrooms and brains. But first, a bit of a brain teaser for you. In 1969, a majority of people polled thought premarital sex was just plain wrong. Sixty-eight percent to be exact. Twenty-one percent of folks said they were OK with it. Well, pollsters put the same issue to people last year and any guesses from you as to how things broke down in 2009 versus 1969? How many people thought premarital sex was wrong. I'll tell you in just a second.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK, we're back. We're going to talk about pre-marital sex. I was asking you about it a minute ago. I told how folks felt about it back in 1969, when a big majority of people polled disapproved of pre-marital sex.

Your pop quiz. What do those numbers look like 40 years later in 2009? Surprisingly they've changed. When Americans were polled last year about premarital sex, things had flip flopped, 32 percent still giving it a thumbs down. Sixty percent shrugged and said, shagging before marriage isn't wrong at all. Interesting.

That's just one of the tidbits that caught our eye in a new report by the Pew Research Center and "Time" magazine. The very first paragraph explains what they looked at and why. Quote, "Social institutions that have been around for thousands of years generally change slowly when they change at all."

But that's not the way things have been playing out with marriage and family since the middle of the 20th century. Some scholars argue that in the past five decades, the basic architecture of these age old institutions has changed as rapidly as anytime in human history.

All right. That's big stuff. Let's get to it. Let's look at some of those changes. Probably the headline that'll grab most people, the number of people who say the institution of marriage is becoming obsolete -- 39 percent, almost four out of every ten Americans. I guess it's 38 percent.

Pew and "Time" also broke things down by demographics. When you look at the age factor, the youngest segment surveyed, 18 to 29 year olds, 44 percent think marriage is kind of antiquated. Although 65 and up, they were the most attached to marriage. Thirty-two percent of them thought marriage was antiquated. Still a pretty good number.

The one that kind of surprised me, the breakdown by political affiliation. Self-declared conservatives were actually on the most bearish side on marriage. Forty-two percent of them not marriage is becoming obsolete. Then came the liberals at 38 percent. The moderates are the most bullish about matrimony. Only 34 percent of them thought that marriage is becoming obsolete.

Interesting stuff.

OK, another European country facing serious financial troubles. On the brink is Ireland, next in line for an E.U. bailout and why does that matter to you? A live report with my friend, Richard Quest, next on Globe Trekking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for Globe Trekking. Our stop today is Ireland, a country facing a serious debt crisis. The big question right now, will the government have to accept a European Union-backed bailout. Irish government and banking officials are shunning the word bailout. Whatever it's called, it's looking more and more like Ireland is going to have to accept a very substantial loan.

Joining us from London for more on this is Richard Quest.

Richard, we'll be together for Q and A in an hour, but I first want to ask you a question that I'm getting from a lot of people. If we generally think the economy of the world is stronger now than a year ago, when the U.S. came out of a recession, why are these European countries, one after another, looking to be in worst shape than they were a year ago?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: It's basically contagion. The markets believe that's Irish banks haven't been dealt with properly. There's a big, black hole that money's just pouring in to and that eventually that debt will overwhelming the Irish government.

Now, Ireland is quite clear it doesn't need the money. Ireland is fully funded until the middle of next year. What we have is a Jerry McGuire situation. Show me the money. And it's believed that if the Europeans, the IMF, the ECB, the European Central Bank simply say, here's the wad of cash, here's the barrel of dosh, that will be enough.

So all Ireland has to say is, yes, we'll take it if we need it, but we don't need it just yet. And that's what's happening now.

VELSHI: Richard, give me -- pull this out to 50,000 feet and tell us here in the United States what the implications are of this one way or another.

QUEST: If one country goes down, or it becomes the market attack, say, for example, Greece and then Ireland, and then Spain or Portugal, and onwards and upward, it creates such ferocious instability in global markets. Whether it distorts bond yields on U.S. treasuries, it'll distort the true value of the dollar, and it simply -- because, remember, Europe now is almost as large as the United States, in terms of trading value. And you can't have such instability. And that's what this is really all about. It's trying to pour oil on the troubled waters. To mix my metaphors one more time, you're trying to put out the embers before the fire burns down the house again.

VELSHI: Right. And we have to be conscious of this because if the last three years have taught us anything is that are all quite connected. You wouldn't have not we were connected to Iceland or Greece or -- we probably thought we were a little more connected it Ireland, but we are.

QUEST: Well, hang on. Who would have thought that subprime loans to people in Florida and California would eventually blow up in Germany, in the U.K., and Asia?

VELSHI: Right. We're all connected here.

All right, we'll follow it closely. There will probably be a development on this in the next 24 hours. And Richard, I'll see you in less than an hour where we're going to separate the men from the boys and show the world what we know about the royalty.

All right. See you, Richard.

Let me bring you up to speed with top stories we're following right now.

A big splash on the stock markets for General Motors. That's the opening bell followed by an opening rev of an engine. The new stock opened at $35 a share, $2 more than they estimated just yesterday. GM earned about $20 billion from the initial public offering. We'll have much more on this story at the top of the hour.

The 33 rescued Chilean miners arrived in Los Angeles just about an hour ago. CNN brought them and five of their rescuers to Los Angeles to see the sights and to attend the CNN Heroes All-Star Tribute. You can see the Heroes special event on Thanksgiving at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. The House Ethics Subcommittee has chosen censure as a punishment for New York Congressman Charlie Rangel. This would be an official condemnation but not an expulsion of Rangel who was found guilty on Tuesday on multiple violations of House Ethics rules. The recommendation will be sent to the full House. Normally censured lawmakers are barred from being committee chairmen.

Well, just how much trash does the average American create every day? I'm going to give you the answer next in the Big I.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: How much trash do you, the average American, create? The answer is, on a daily basis 4.4 pounds per week. 29 pounds -- sorry, 4.4 pound as day, 29 pounds per week. And 1,600 pounds a year.as day.

On today's Big I, the question is, what can you do at home with all of that waste that you can't put into the recycling bin?

Tom Szaky is the founder and CEO of Teracycle. He's got a new solution for all of that waste. Tom, good to see you.

TOM SZAKY, FOUNDER OF TERACYCLE: Thanks for having me.

VELSHI: What are we talking about here? I've got my little recycling bin. But there's some stuff that you can't throw in the recycling bin. This is really a bag of garbage.

SZAKY: This is, yes. Absolutely. So things like juice pouches like this, 70 percent of all the consumer products we buy are something like this, which is not recyclable. If you put this in your blue box, it can't be recycled, goes to trash.

VELSHI: Right.

SZAKY: So Teracycle creates collection programs where you can send us this waste, we pay your shipping, and we donate $0.02 per piece of garbage to any charity or school you wish in the country we collect.

VELSHI: OK, and what do you do with this stuff?

SZAKY: Then we turn everything -- this would be called up cycling where we turn say, a Capri Sun pouch into a backpack where every part of the waste is valued.

We can also recycle it, which is something a little different, something like this piece This is a stone made entirely --

VELSHI: Like a paving stone?

SZAKY: Exactly. But the difference, it's made entirely in previously non-recyclable material, like in this case, a juice pouch. And we do this today with 32 different waste streams (ph). Everything from your pens, to toothbrushes, to juice pouches, things that we can't today recycle easily.

VELSHI: Yes. How do I know what I can send?

SZAKY: If you go to it our web site, teracycle.net, there you'll see all the different waste streams that we can collect. Some of these programs get incredibly robust.

For example through our partnership with Capri Sun, we've diverted this year, 50 million juice pouches. So these programs get quite big and we're able to really take billions of pieces of garbage and turn into all sorts of consumer products or building materials.

VELSHI: Is it efficient to be making this stone out of this stuff? I mean, how much would this cost to produce if it weren't using these recycled products?

SZAKY: This is the best part about garbage. Garbage is something that we don't have value in. Like this backpack, for example, or this stone sells for the same price or less than the normal version of that product would because we're using garbage. That's this neat irony of all these materials. We're giving so much value to our trash cans. VELSHI: How do people get it to you?

SZAKY: Once you've signed up for a program, which is totally for free, you take any box you have. Could be a shoebox, or a refrigerator box. Fill it up with a specific type of waste you're collecting. That's one important thing is separation.

VELSHI: Meaning --

SZAKY: doesn't have to be this brand but it's only juice pouches. Or, it's only chip bags or only pens because then we can --

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: I can see that on your web site? You'll show how to break that down?

SZAKY: Absolutely. And then when your box is full, download a free shipping label. Here in the U.S. we do it with UPS, and send it to us. And then when we receive it, we'll make a donation into your account. And you can collect one-waste stream if you wish. You can collect 32 different waste streams. We also do this all over the world in 11 countries. So if you're watching overseas you can sign up and collect in your country, as well.

VELSHI: And how much do I have to collect to make it worth everybody's while?

SZAKY: It could be anything. You can collect one piece of garbage to millions of pieces of garbage. We have certain schools is America that are raising over $20,000 a year from one type of garbage collection that they're --

VELSHI: I imagine you get a lot of juice pouches out of school.

SZAKY: Absolutely, yes. We're celebrating this milestone of hitting 50 million juice pouches. But it could be any different waste stream. Chip bags, pens, yogurt cups. We focus on creating solutions for things that are non-recyclable and trying to get them as big as recycling. So everything from coffee cartridges that you may have at your office to things like pet food bags, for example.

VELSHI: Very interesting stuff. You are likely to create -- we're going to create 160 billion tons of waste in the next 10 years. How much do you take off the table? How much of the stuff that's thrown away and not recycled can you end up using?

SZAKY: So far this year we've collected about 2 billion pieces of garbage in the U.S. and that's with about 12 million people in America actively collecting through the Teracycle system. What's really exciting is that number's doubling every year. So next year we hope to collect 4 billion pieces of garbage.

It's really people helping us out that all we can do is say, hey, we'll collect your Capri Sun --

VELSHI: This is cost effective for you to be paying people to ship -- because you're paying for the shipping, too?

SZAKY: Yes, we pay the shipping and we pay $0.02 but it's all through partnerships with major brands. So in the case of our juice pouch program, it's through the generous support of Capri Sun that we're able to run a program like this.

What I'm really encouraged by is to see major -- I mean millions of dollars of funding going into programs that are solving for waste when they -- versus something else. So it's really exciting to see major brands supporting this and then even more exciting to see consumers actually saying, yes, I care enough that I'm going to put my pen in this box, instead of the trash and something good will happen to it.

VELSHI: What a great idea. Thanks so much for being with us. Tom Szaky is the founder and CEO of Teracycle. The web site is --

SZAKY: Teracycle.net. N-E-T.

VELSHI: Teracycle.net. If you want to find out more about how to contribute to Teracycle, you can go to Teracycle.net. If you don't have time to write that down, just go to my blog, CNN.com/ali. I'll link you to Tom's web site.

Good to see you.

SZAKY: Great. Thanks for having me.

VELSHI: The count is complete. We're ready to name a winner in Alaska. Your CNN political update, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Time now for a CNN political update and a bold prediction by Sarah Palin. CNN deputy political director Paul Steinhauser joins me now from Washington. Hello, Paul.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hello, Ali. Yes, a bold prediction, I guess you could say. You know, everybody's asking about Sarah Palin, will she run for president in 2012. Nobody knows. But she was on a special with Barbara Walters, or will be on a special. They released the sound from this ABC special. And she was asked just that, does she think, if she runs, if she could beat the president. And she says, yes, I believe so.

So Ali, that's what Sarah Palin is saying. I want you to take a look at this. Recent poll numbers from CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation, a national survey. Check this out. We asked just that. If Palin runs and if she becomes the Republican nominee, hypothetical head-to-head, Palin versus President Barack Obama, look at those numbers right there, 52 percent for the president, 44 percent for Sarah Palin. Now, that 44 percent for Palin is much lower than for Mitt Romney or Mike Huckabee. We did hypotheticals between those two gentlemen, who also may run, and the president, and they do much better. In fact, they lead the president.

Check out this next number, as well. This may explain some of it. We asked about her favorable numbers. Do you have a favorable opinion of Sarah Palin or an unfavorable? Four in ten said they have a favorable opinion. But look at that. Nearly half of those we questioned, Ali, say they have an unfavorable opinion of Sarah Palin.

Now, I'll say one thing about these polls, though, and I always give you this caveat. Remember, polls are a snapshot about how people feel right now, and 2012 is a long time from right now. People change their minds, Ali.

Let's talk about one other thing, and this is also up in Alaska. I'm talking about Lisa Murkowski. I'm going to ask our cameraman, Mark Marchioni (ph), to zoom right in here to the CNN "Political Ticker." Look at that. Senator Lisa Murkowski last night claiming victory in her re-election bid. Remember, this election has gone into overtime, Ali. Murkowski, a Republican up there, is running as a write-in candidate because she lost the primary to Joe Miller, who was backed by the Tea Party and backed by Palin.

Well, she's now ahead in the vote count up there as they've been counting all the write-ins and absentees. She is declaring that she is the victor up there. But it's not over yet because, Ali, Miller says he may ask for a recount. And this thing, of course, as well, could end up in court and the lawyers could get involved, Ali.

VELSHI: OK, so the numbers...

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Paul, the number of votes that are being challenged, if every last one of them were thrown out, Murkowski would still beat Miller.

STEINHAUSER: Yes. If you took out the 8,000-plus votes that she was awarded that he contested, she would still be ahead by 2,000 votes. But Miller's campaign and Miller says, Listen, we're not only contesting maybe that, but just the whole way they counted. Remember, the election officials in Alaska said that you wouldn't have to exactly spell her name correctly, that intent -- they would take into account intent.

Hey, one other thing about this, and this is interesting, too. Her victory and a Miller defeat, if this does happen, could be a defeat in a way for Sarah Palin because, remember, Palin backed Miller in his bid to topple Murkowski. Seems to be some bad blood, obviously, between the Palin family and the Murkowski family, Ali.

VELSHI: I have to wonder whether this spelling stuff prejudices people who have long names. I mean, Steinhauser's going to be at a disadvantage to Smith in a write-in ballot, if you've got to spell it entirely correctly.

STEINHAUSER: That's why I'm never going to be running for office, Ali, because there's no...

VELSHI: Well, at least not as a write-in candidate.

STEINHAUSER: ... (INAUDIBLE) let alone anybody else. Yes. Exactly. Not as a write-in candidate.

VELSHI: I don't get it, Paul. I thought the Tea Party was about not doing things the same old way and about not doing politics as usual. Challenging ballots on the basis of the spelling of Murkowski, if you can tell that's who the voter was looking to identify and to vote for, seems odd to me.

STEINHAUSER: It does seem odd. But you know, it's so close right now in this count that I guess they're looking for any advantage they can get.

VELSHI: Yes. All right. Paul, good to see you, my friend. I'll talk to you in a little while. We'll have another update very shortly.

Some odds and ends for you up next, including a very odd Twitter scholarship contest that's finger-clickin' good. I'll explain next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Odds and ends time. A lot of people have helped pay for college by working at a fast food joint. Well, KFC has put a cyber- spin on that. It's going to award a $20,000 scholarship for typing just 140 characters. Yes, KFC looking for the best tweet explaining why one exemplifies Colonel Sanders's commitment to education. He, of course, founded the chain formerly known as Kentucky Fried Chicken. To find out more about the contest, go to KFCscholars.org. That'll be interesting to see the winning tweet on that one.

By the way, if you want to chat with the colonel character, he's on the Twitter at KFC_colonel -- and of course, colonel is C-O-L-O-N-E-L. I think I'm going to start following KFC. It's one of my favorite foods.

OK, from beaks to leaks now. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" doesn't open in the U.S. until tomorrow, but you can actually watch a chunk of it on line.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Harry Potter, the boy who lived, come to die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Thirty-six minutes of the flick were leaked on line by somebody to be downloaded at file-sharing sites. Warner Brothers and the studio -- which is the studio behind the Harry Potter juggernaut is none too pleased by that. It's investigating what it calls a serious breach of copyright violation and theft of property. We should note Warner Brothers and CNN both part of Time Warner.