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Report About Dangers of Smoking; Protest in London Over Tuition Hike; Dems Defy President Obama; Michelle Rhee Discusses New Organization StudentsFirst; Joe Miller Continues the Fight in Alaska
Aired December 09, 2010 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you all. Live from Studio 7 at CNN headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia, I'm T.J. Holmes.
And here we are on this Thursday, December 9th. We're keeping a close eye on what's happening in London right now.
These are essentially students you're seeing in these pictures, live pictures we'll continue to show you, protests that are going on right now. And why are they upset? Because their tuition could possibly go up by three times at some point.
There's a vote that's going to be taking place here shortly. We'll continue to keep a close eye there. Arrests have been made. Things are being thrown. Police are out in force right now. But again, angry students about tuition hikes that, again, could see their tuition go from about $4,700 to $14,000.
We've got a close eye on what's happening there.
Also, it's the Christmas season. Saint Nick, he's supposed to be the guy who is supposed to know whether or not you're naughty or nice. Well, what do you do when he's naughty and he gets fired from his job at a Macy's? Why? Because of a joke he told a couple.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I said, "Do you know why Santa is so happy and jolly all of the time?" And they said, "No." And I said, "Well, that's because Santa knows where all of the naughty girls and boys live."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: OK. Did Santa deserve to lose his job over that? We'll get into that a little bit more this morning.
But hello once again to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes, in today for my good, good friend Tony Harris.
Those stories, a whole lot more, coming your way right here, right now, in the CNN NEWSROOM.
OK. Surely, we all know at this point smoking is bad for you. If you smoke, you need to quit. Also, we know that secondhand smoke can be bad for you as well. But just how bad? If you're exposed to secondhand smoke, hold your breath. A new report is out today that issues some pretty stark new warnings about the dangers of, yes, smoking, but also that secondhand smoke.
Let me go ahead and bring in our Elizabeth Cohen, who is standing by with this.
I was kind of shocked when I heard some of this. You don't need to inhale one single whiff of secondhand smoke. That actually does damage?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. One whiff does damage.
Let's say you walk into a smoky bar, you're not smoking, but other people are, just inhaling that smoke in the bar can immediately cause damage, especially to the lining of your blood vessels. And a lot of people don't know this. They think that it takes time, that these things happen over time.
And so the surgeon general, who, of course, has been telling us for years not to smoke, they have come up with a new public service announcement, T.J. And they are really hoping that this will do it, that this will finally convince Americans who smoke to quit.
And let's take a look at it, because it's pretty graphic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NARRATOR: When you smoke, every puff damages cells throughout your body. The latest research shows cigarette smoke contains over 7,000 chemicals that spread through your blood vessels causing inflammation and clotting, restricting oxygen flow, and doubling your risk of heart attack and death.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: OK, I won't smoke.
COHEN: Right, exactly.
HOLMES: Are we talking about irreparable harm if you go in and take one puff, or you're in a smoky place? You're not the one smoking, but the damage it does, this is stuff that's not going to be fixed later, it's done?
COHEN: Walking into a bar once and inhaling smoke from the atmosphere, that's probably not going to kill you. You know what I mean? Your body is going to recover from that.
It might not recover immediately. It might actually take a couple of days for it to recover, but it will likely recover from that. Now, what they worry more about, of course, is people who inhale secondhand smoke year after year after year, or, even worse, people who smoke year after year. That might not be irreparable.
HOLMES: OK. What about the new products out there, the low nicotine, other things they are experimenting with, I guess?
COHEN: Like the low tar.
HOLMES: All that stuff.
COHEN: Right, all that stuff. So, what this report finds is forget it, these things have been out there for years and that they haven't changed anything. That smokers are still getting terrible diseases at very high rates. And they say, actually, it might hurt things because people see, oh, low tar, low nicotine, I'm going to smoke twice as many. And so they're actually afraid that it's made more people sick rather than helped people.
HOLMES: OK. We know cigarette smoking is bad for you, but the key here, the headline that might worry some folks about one whiff is going to do damage -- like you said, it's not going to kill you, but if you can avoid it, do so.
COHEN: That's right. Absolutely. And sometimes you can't. But often you can, and you can choose not to go to that smoky bar.
HOLMES: All right.
Elizabeth Cohen, interesting stuff here. An interesting find. A long report.
Please, by all means, everybody needs to check it out on your own as well, but trust her, what she's saying as well.
Elizabeth, we appreciate you, as always.
COHEN: Thanks.
(NEWSBREAK)
HOLMES: Well, back to this live picture and what we are watching out of London right now.
We do have protests going on here because there's a vote that's going to be taking place sometime shortly. Legislators there are taking a vote on whether or not to allow colleges and universities there to raise tuition.
Right now there is a cap of about $4,700. They're trying to raise that threefold. It could go up to $14,000-plus now.
Students are outraged over it and they have been protesting. They have been protesting, they have been loud, but some of these have been out-and-out clashes with police.
We saw a short time ago from one of our reporters who is on the ground there, Dan Rivers, things being thrown. A battery just went by his head. You see other little projectiles being thrown by people as well. But a serious clash going on right now. The estimates of tens of thousands of young people, students, protesting some of these measures.
Now, some of these measures, as you can imagine, Great Britain, just like other places around the world, are having a tough time right now with the economy. They are having to cut back, they are having to make adjustments, make cuts, and always raise fees. And this was one of the ways to possibly make up some of that money for the budget shortfalls. But the students, of course, as you can imagine, not appreciating it at all.
We do have, like a mentioned a moment ago, our Dan Rivers, who is down there on the ground. He has been in the midst of it.
Dan, it has gotten a bit ugly at times, and even a bit dangerous, even for you down there reporting. But give us the update about where you are, what you see. And do police have this under control?
DAN RIVERS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There's a bit of a lull here now, which you can probably see, after about half an hour or 40 minutes of some fairly violent clashes. Things have calmed down again.
You can see the police horses here all standing well back from the crowd. And around the other way, a line of police blocking in the protesters.
The police are saying they are urging the protesters to go back to the agreed route which would take them along -- back up Whitehall (ph), which is a road just off back behind me, that way. But the protesters at the moment are refusing to move here to make their point about this vote on tuition fees which is due to take place now in about half an hour or so in that building over there behind me.
That's the houses of parliament, the House of Commons there. That's where members of parliament will be voting. Members of this coalition government are expected to get this vote through.
It will be interesting to see by what margin. A number of members of parliament have said that they will not vote for the government even though their party is part of the government coalition. Some of them are rebelling against the wishes of their party, if you like.
And there is a lot of anger here at the junior partners in that coalition, which are the liberal Democrats, who promised before the election that they would not raise tuition fees and are now, as part of this government, going to do just that.
HOLMES: And Dan, help us to accurately characterize what has been happening today. We know there have been some clashes. These were huge protests.
Everyone's angry and, for the most part, loud. But, for the most part, have they been peaceful protests out there? Certainly loud, like I said, but for the most part, peaceful and just little pockets of violence, if you will?
RIVERS: Yes. The clashes have been right at the fault line between the police and the protesters.
Where the protesters have been pushed up against the police or have tried to break through, then there have been some very violent and angry clashes. But I must emphasize, there are tens of thousands of protesters back off down the streets here, and I think 90 percent of them have not been involved in any violence. They've been here peaceably to make their points, and a lot of them that we spoke to said, we don't want anything to do with any violence. We're simply here to show our opposition to this measure and to show our numbers.
The problem has been there is a small, hard-core group within the protesters here who have been throwing placards and missiles. We have had things like this. It's a battery that was thrown right past our camera about five minutes ago. You know, clearly, if one of us was hit in the head by that, it could have been very serious injuries, indeed.
And a number of policemen we have seen hobbling out as well, having been injured as well. We're told one policeman came off his horse as a result of the clashes and has been taken to the hospital. And we are still waiting for more updated numbers on arrests, but a small number of arrests, actually, I think, just a handful. The tactic of the police at the moment is to try and hold the protesters back.
We can have a wander up here if you like and have a quick look a bit closer as to what's happening right now. Things have calmed down a lot.
You see just behind us there, someone else is being taken out. That's a -- I think that's a policeman, another injured policeman being taken away by his colleagues, and now the police are moving forward again.
We can follow them in to Parliament Square as they again surge forward to try and push these protesters back on to the agreed route that they said they were going to take, which is up Whitehall (ph), away from this square and away from the House of Commons, where the vote is taking place.
HOLMES: All right. Dan Rivers, we appreciate you giving us that look.
Again, Dan Rivers on the ground there in central London where, like he explains, there is going to be a vote scheduled to take place -- like our Dan said -- in about 30 minutes from now. Legislators there taking a vote on whether or not to raise the cap on tuition fees in Great Britain.
Now, what would happen here, it wouldn't automatically mean that all of the fees would go up. But this would allow the universities there to raise fees. There's a cap of about $4,700 right now that tuition can be. It would raise it up some threefold, up to about $14,000, and then universities would have the option to raise it up that high.
So that is what students right now are protesting. We have got a close eye on what's happening there in London.
Our Dan Rivers on the ground, as you just saw there. We thank him for his reporting. We'll continue to keep an eye and check in with him.
Meanwhile, we'll turn back here, turn back to California, where a judge has given the all-clear to burn down a home. Why? It's been deemed too dangerous for a bomb squad to even enter.
We'll explain that after the break. Stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Ask a little boy this question: When you grow up, would you rather be a train conductor or an NFL player? What answer do you think you're going to get?
Well, I'm sitting next to Keith Fitzhugh right now. He is not like any other little boy.
The New York Jets called you not too long ago. When was that phone call?
KEITH FITZHUGH, FMR. NFL PLAYER: Tuesday morning.
HOLMES: On Tuesday morning. What did they say to you?
FITZHUGH: "Keith, we've assigned you. What flight can you catch? Can you catch a 2:00 flight."
HOLMES: And your answer was?
FITZHUGH: "Hold on. I need a little time to get in touch with my job."
HOLMES: What did they say about giving you a little time?
FITZHUGH: They gave me approximately like 30 minutes and --
HOLMES: Thirty minutes?
FITZHUGH: -- the phone calls kept on coming in. And I'm a new employee with Norfolk Southern, and I wanted to be professional with my job and get in touch with them and see if I could take a leave of absence.
But it was just everything was happening so fast, and they kept on calling and calling. I had to make the decision for me and my family at the time and just do what was best for me and my company, also, because I also know that I have a job to do with them, also.
HOLMES: All right. Let me back up a little bit here.
You played college ball, Mississippi State. You got to play with -- you were active with the Ravens and the Jets' practice squad.
FITZHUGH: Right.
HOLMES: So you dabbled in the NFL a little bit already.
FITZHUGH: Right.
HOLMES: Now, you are with this company now. Did you still have hopes of being in the NFL at some point?
FITZHUGH: That was always my childhood dream, and also driving trains was my second childhood dream. And the lord blessed me to be able to accomplish both of those dreams. You know? And some people have dreams that they never even get a chance to accomplish one of them.
HOLMES: You had another chance though. Explain to people though -- and you had very good reasons.
FITZHUGH: Right.
HOLMES: It seems obvious, the headline, do you want to be a train conductor or an NFL player? It's not that simple.
FITZHUGH: Right. Well, I have a disabled father. And my mother (INAUDIBLE).
And once I got released from Baltimore, I was out of work for a while. And it's no fun being unemployed.
With the economy the way it is now, it's hard to find a good job, and a good, stable job, at that. And the railroad is a great job to be working for, especially Norfolk Southern. And I had to do what was best for me and my family at the time. Nobody else was there for me and my family when I was released from playing football.
HOLMES: What were the Jets necessarily offering you? What are we at week 12, we are, in the NFL season now?
FITZHUGH: Going into week 13, right.
HOLMES: Going into week 13 now. So only a few weeks left. The Jets are going to make it to the playoffs, sure enough.
So was that a consideration? You only knew you were only going to be with them until the end of the year, and then who knows what?
FITZHUGH: Right. And that's just a chance you take. And that's part of being in the NFL. You know, that's part of just signing in.
A lot of peel don't know, and they're on the outside looking in. And they're thinking, oh, it's just money. But I'm looking at, what would I do if I get released again? Would I be right back at square one, unemployed? And like I said, my job now -- now that I know this, they would have given me a leave of absence, now that I know this.
HOLMES: But you didn't know it at the time that you had 30 minutes to figure things out?
FITZHUGH: Right. Exactly.
And I had to sit down and talk with my family. And it was a hard decision -- a very hard decision to make, but I had to what was best for me and my family at the time.
HOLMES: Does that change things a bit, knowing that the train company now would give you that leave of absence? Would that have changed things?
FITZHUGH: Of course it would have. Of course I would have went ahead and followed my childhood dream and continued playing football, because, hey, we never know. I could have done some great things out there and I could have gotten signed again. You know, you just never know. And the NFL is a business, and I understand that now.
HOLMES: All right. One last thing. How much does an average football player make these days?
FITZHUGH: It can vary.
HOLMES: The league minimum is $300,000 though, right?
FITZHUGH: Right.
HOLMES: OK.
FITZHUGH: And even the practice squad is great money. It's still $88,000 just for being on the practice squad. You know? And some of the guys that are out there making the real big bucks, you're talking about millions of dollars.
HOLMES: OK. What's an average train conductor make?
FITZHUGH: I don't know. You have to talk to Norfolk Southern about that.
(LAUGHTER)
HOLMES: Outstanding.
All right. Well, we've got a guy who spent some time on the football field.
Jamal, come on over here for a second.
JAMAL ANDERSON, FMR. NFL PLAYER: T.J., I'm on my way.
HOLMES: Now, did you ever want to be -- what did you want to be? If it wasn't going to be the NFL, what was it going to be for you?
ANDERSON: An opera singer. HOLMES: An opera singer?
ANDERSON: No. Seriously, I was -- my dream was always to work for a Fortune 500 company. It really was. If the NFL didn't work out, I'd be an attorney.
But it's a fascinating story. I mean, I'm a little surprised, I'll be honest with you, because it's a great opportunity. But you are clearly a fantastic guy. You've got it all together. I'm happy that you made a decision that you can stick with.
FITZHUGH: Thank you.
ANDERSON: But this is the NFL. It's a great opportunity. And you are sending a positive message to kids, though.
HOLMES: Do some young people -- like you said, it's an opportunity of a lifetime kind of thing.
ANDERSON: Right.
HOLMES: But he had something to fall back on. Are there a lot of guys who actually don't and that deters them?
ANDERSON: And I think that's pretty much his point, is that he has something for sure.
And where I can relate to you, Keith, is being a seventh round pick, you know free agent, seventh round picks, we kind of come in the back door and we're not coddled like the stars. And you have to earn your way to be respected and to, in fact, be kept around by NFL organizations. So I understand where you're coming from, trust me, because there were a couple of times earlier in my Falcons' career that I could have been jettisoned by the organization, no problem..
FITZHUGH: Right.
HOLMES: Well, man, good luck to you down the road.
FITZHUGH: Thank you.
HOLMES: We're going to keep up with you, and we're sure you're going to end up on the NFL field.
I'm going to come back and talk to Jamal here in a second and see if he could have had a career as an opera singer.
A quick break. We're right back. Stick around, folks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. We're going to turn to Capitol Hill.
As we know, we have been -- and I'm waiting for our Dana Bash to get miked up there. She's getting herself together, but we've got some movement now on what we have been watching for really the past week, really. It's really gotten hot and heavy with the Bush-era tax cuts, what's going to happen on Capitol Hill with those.
Of course, they will expire at the end of this year, and everybody's taxes will go up if they don't do something about it there on Capitol Hill. As we know, the president made some kind of a deal with Republicans to keep all of the tax cuts in place for at least two years, the next two years, but not everybody is happy about that.
Dana Bash is on Capitol Hill for us now.
Dana, what do we know about what could possibly happen in the Senate with this deal?
DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the story right now and the huge news is coming out of the House, T.J. And that is, House Democrats just voted by voice votes in their caucus that they are not going to take up this tax cut package in its current form. This is a huge act of defiance against the president, and making very clear that they are not happy with the way that this is going.
Chris Van Hollen came to the cameras afterwards in this surprise move -- it really was, we didn't think that this would happen today -- and said, look, Democrats in the House will not accept this in its current form. That really, really makes it incredibly problematic for this deal which everybody says is pretty tenuous in terms of the way that it's been crafted. It makes it very hard to believe it actually could go through if the House Democrats, who still have the majority, are saying we're not going to take it up in its current form.
I should also tell you that this comes just the morning after the vice president was before this same group of Democrats, House Democrats, in a very lengthy discussion, we are told by many people who are involved, telling them that he doesn't believe that things can be changed. That it is what it is, that when you're talking about everything from unemployment benefit extension, which Democrats did want, to extending all tax cuts for all Americans, which Democrats didn't want, that those are some of the things that fit into the package, things can't be changed.
So that is why this is a huge blow to the president in this deal that he cut with Republicans.
HOLMES: OK. And speaking of the president, Dana, don't go anywhere. I'm going to let our viewers, I'm going to listen to it with you.
We heard from the president not too long ago about these tax cuts and the deal. Let's listen to what the president said. I'm going to come back and ask you about it here in a second
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's an important debate I think most of you are aware of on Capitol Hill that will determine in part whether our economy moves forward or backward. The bipartisan framework that we have forged on taxes will not only protect working Americans from seeing a major tax increase on January 1st, it will provide businesses incentives to invest, grow and hire. And every economist that I've talked to or that I've read over the last couple of days acknowledges that this agreement would boost economic growth in the coming years and has the potential to create millions of jobs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: OK. So, again, for our viewers, the president worked out a deal with Republicans to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for everybody, not just the people making less than $250,000, but everybody for the next two years. That was the deal with Republicans.
Dana Bash here with me, just reporting House Democrats now saying that deal is not going to be coming to the floor for a vote in its form.
So, Dana, my question now, who is going to now be negotiating with whom? The president with Democrats? Democrats with Republicans? Republicans with the White House? Who?
BASH: That is a huge question mark. We don't know the answer to that right now. What House Democrats said when they came out of this surprise vote among themselves is that they are going to try to go back to the White House, go back to Republicans, and try to figure this out.
But one thing I should note about what you just played from the president about the fact that he believes that this package actually is good for the economy, what's interesting in the House Democrats' move is this comes after the Senate Democrats, who are equally unhappy, yesterday, actually, came out of a meeting that they had more positive, more positive in saying that they actually believe, after listening to economics analysis from independent economists and others, that this actually could be a boost for the economy. But one thing we really have to make clear to our viewers -- a couple of things, one on substance and one on process.
On substance, I can tell you that I've talked to so many House Democrats who have said that the thing that they are the most angry about is the estate tax. That is another provision in this package.
And what the estate tax provision does is it exempts estates for individuals up to $5 million, and only then does it start to tax them at 35 percent. So many Democrats I've talked to say that this is just such a -- from their perspective -- a giveaway to wealthy Americans.
One leading House Democrat told me it was just pouring salt on Democrats' wounds. That's on the substance.
On the process, I am getting e-mails from House Democratic aides saying that they believe the White House blew it. One aide actually said it is breathtaking, the way that they blew it, in terms of -- I'm actually just reading off my BlackBerry now -- the way that they believe that the White House and the president himself cut a deal with Republicans, left House Democrats out in the cold, and just expected them to go along with this. House Democrats now are saying that's not going to happen, this deal is not going to even come to the House floor in its current floor.
HOLMES: OK. That's over in the House. Have you gotten any reaction on that BlackBerry just yet -- I know you're getting all this, so maybe not -- but what's supposed to happen in the Senate now, where Harry Reid was talking about the possibility of having a vote on the package that the president negotiated with Republicans at some point this week, maybe even today or tomorrow? Are they going to continue going forward, or are they just going to hang back for a minute now?
BASH: That's a great question. And we don't know the answer to that yet because this is such a fast-moving and surprising development on this.
You are right, it is the Senate that was supposed to go first in the next day or two. But what they had planned to do was pretty much take up the package.
It's unclear if they are going to do that knowing that it's not going to go anywhere in the House. So that is going to be one of the next things that we are going to pursue, to see what's next with the Senate, and then, overall, of course, how they're going to deal with this big development and big blow to the president.
HOLMES: All right. Well, we are running out of days of the month of December. Something has to get done, or everybody's taxes are going to go up in the beginning of the year.
Dana, I'm going to let you catch your breath and I'm going to let you check that BlackBerry, because I know it's going off still.
Thank you for hopping on for us.
BASH: Thank you.
HOLMES: I'm sure we'll be checking back in with Dana at some point here in the next hour and a half. But again, the news from our Dana Bash.
The president coming out not long ago, telling us a few days ago, that in fact, he has reached a deal with Republicans on the Bush era tax cuts, to extend them for everybody for the next two years. House Democrats now saying, that is not going to happen. That is not going to come to our floor for a vote in its current form.
Where does that leave us now? Where do negotiations begin again? Do they begin anew? We don't know. Fast-moving developments here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Quick break here at the bottom of the hour and I'm right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Thirty-three minutes past the hour now. You can call it hacktivism, maybe cyber-warfare, but there are supporters out there of the secret leaking site WikiLeaks and they are taking their fight and their support for WikiLeaks online. All over the internet there are reports that a group of hackers that are calling themselves "Anonymous" have hit the Swedish government web site, as well as web site's for Sarah Palin's political action committee, web sites for Visa, MasterCard.
Atika Shubert is with us live from London right now with the latest.
Atika, hello. Can you tell us first why would these particular web sites -- explain that to our viewers -- why these web sites would have been targeted?
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well these are the web sites that "Anonymous," this loose affiliation of hacktivists basically believes have become the enemies of WikiLeaks. Visa, MasterCard, PayPal; all three of them have frozen WikiLeaks' accounts and made it very difficult for donations to be made to WikiLeaks. And then Sarah Palin, Senator Joseph Lieberman, they have put a lot of political pressure on WikiLeaks, specifically Senator Lieberman has actually pressured Amazon, for example, to oust WikiLeaks from its servers.
So that's why they're being targeted. And, of course, the Swedish government because Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks' editor and founder is facing these allegations of sex crimes in Sweden. So this is why they're being targeted. It's the way that they're being targeted that's very interesting. They're being attacked by denial of service attacks. But it's not just these hacktivists, they're actually getting help from a lot of members of the public who have basically loaned their bandwidth or servers to "Anonymous" and allow them to use that to power the attacks. And that's how they're really gathering steam, T.J.
HOLMES: Atika, for folks like me, who don't know that much about hacking and what it takes to do something like this, as far as the operation and what authorities are saying, how sophisticated of a group or even how many hackers could possibly be working together to pull off something like this?
SHUBERT: You know, the amazing thing is nobody knows exactly how many people are involved with this and the numbers could go up and down. It started as a small group and has just grown and grown.
It's basically -- this group "Anonymous" is a small group. They've actually attacked other groups, like the Church of Scientology before. But this WikiLeaks issue has basically galvanized a lot of the public that's online. So people have been lending them their computers to power these attacks. So we don't know exactly how many people are involved.
So the question is, how can it be stopped? Nobody really knows. These are denial of service attacks. They're actually very simple. It's just about overwhelming a web site with requests and that's how they were able to shut down MasterCard and Visa very briefly. The real key question is, can they disrupt the payment system of MasterCard or Visa, or perhaps Amazon and PayPal. Amazon and PayPal are the next targets to be set by "Anonymous." And if they start disrupting their business and their trade, then it could get very serious indeed.
HOLMES: All right. Atika Shubert with the update for us. Atika, we appreciate you, as always.
I'm going to turn now to Hollywood and that murder mystery that, at least, authorities are saying is solved now. I'm talking about the publicist who was gunned down in Beverly Hills. Police are saying she was a victim of random robbery.
CNN's Alan Duke live for us in Los Angeles with these details.
Alan, hello to you. There were some details and some pieces of this puzzle people were trying to put together. Are people buying this or are a lot of people still speculating there was no way this was a random crime?
ALAN DUKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the police are telling us their investigation is 70 percent completed. There's 30 percent more they've got to do, just wrapping up, they said, to eliminate all other possibilities.
But for right now, they're pretty sure that this guy Harold Martin Smith, who committed suicide a week ago at an apartment in Hollywood, was the shooter. And they believe that he was acting alone, that it was a robbery gone bad, that he was laying in wait (sic) at the intersection in Beverly Hills of Sunset and Whittier Drive, waiting to rob somebody and along came Ronni Chasen in her Mercedes and he just shot through the window. But it was a robbery gone bad. He didn't get anything.
Now, people in Beverly Hills and Hollywood community, as well, have been thinking that if this were a professional hit, then they feel a little safer, that they're not targeted. So it's not as relevant to them. But if this is a random crime that could happened to them or anyone at any time, then it's a lot scarier. And I think that's part of why there are some people who are hoping that it is not the random crime police say it is.
HOLMES: And one thing, lastly for you here, Alan, did authorities address the reports that this man was possibly bragging about being paid to murder someone. Did that address that at all?
DUKE: Yes, they did. That was actually from a person who lived in the apartment building where Smith had lived and where he died. And I will tell you, the person that said that, I interviewed several hours before she gave that statement to others in interviews. She never mentioned that.
So it's questionable whether that was legitimate or a play for a reward. So police are weighing that. And, in fact, police made the point in the press conference yesterday, that there were some people who were talking who weren't necessarily credible. But apparently the person in the apartment billing who did call America's Most Wanted, the tip that was passed onto Beverly Hills police, they, apparently, were credible. At least the police say that.
HOLMES: All right. Alan Duke, on the story for us there. A Hollywood mystery, at least police right now saying, is solved.
Alan, we appreciate you as always.
And a reminder to our viewers, at the bottom of the screen there, you're watching that live picture out of London, protests going on right now. Students have been protesting a proposed tuition hike there. We have seen some of these turn violent but for the most part they are angry, they are loud. But for the most part, they have been peaceful. But again, getting out of hand in some areas at least.
The vote could be taking place right now among the legislator there, in a proposal to raise tuition from about $4,700 -- that's the cap right now -- could up to some $14,000 if this vote goes through. But again, protests, tens of thousands have been protesting. Students angry right now. We have a reporter there on the ground and keeping a close eye on it. Just wanted you to know by keeping that up on the bottom of the screen that we are following it.
Before he head to break here, everybody out there, as we know, wants a good return on their investments. But, what about when it comes to your job? We're going to tell you some of the careers that give you the best bang for your buck. That's coming up. It's 40 minutes past the hour.
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HOLMES: All right, 42 minutes past the hour now.
What are some of the best jobs out there in terms of getting a return on your education investment? Here are a few that made the list according to U.S. News and World Report. An actuary can make an average of $87,000 a year. If you don't mind working in other people's mouths, you can become a dental hygienist. You can make about $67,000 a year, about the same for gaming managers who run casinos. Also meteorologists -- Rob Marciano, I had no idea -- they can earn about $85,000 a year. And a physician's assistant doesn't have to go to school as long as a doctor, but can make about $84,000 a year.
So maybe something to think about if you're thinking about what route to go in school.
Well, cruises. Most of the time when you think about cruises, maybe in the Caribbean, maybe a Mexican cruise, something like that, something hot with the sun, beautiful, picturesque. Well, I've got another cruise to show you coming up. An Antarctic cruise. And a reason why you certainly don't want to go that route. It's one of our best pictures of the day. Stick around.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HOLMES: About a quarter to the top of the hour. I'm about to report something right now that's going to make the folks at Chicago O'Hare International Airport chuckle. Two inches of snow shut down an airport. We're talking about Paris, though, folks, they're not used to all the snow. But two inches was all it took to suspend air traffic into Charles de Gaulle Airport yesterday. Slushy mess all around the city, even the Eifel Tower had to be closed due to snow.
Well, turn to vacation now. Your cruise, you don't want it to go like this. This was a cruise, an Antarctic cruise. She ship had to deal with 30-foot waves that were battering the stranded cruise ship. The massive waves took out an engine as well. This was yesterday. You got 88 passengers on there, 77 crew members, all said to be just fine. The ship now being towed back to Argentina. But Antarctica cruise, maybe not the best of ideas.
Quick break, we're right back.
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HOLMES: The U.S. is falling further and further behind the rest of the world in educating the next generation. Here's proof of it, take a look here. The U.S. ranks number 14 in the world in reading skills, 17th in science, 25th in math.
Who is number one in those categories? Check out China: Number two, Hong Kong. Shanghai in particular, they're number one.
The new rankings are just the latest wakeup call on the need for urgent reform on education in the U.S. One of the people working to fix our school is Michelle Rhee, the controversial former chancellor of D.C. public schools is founder and CEO of a new non-profit organization called StudentsFirst. She joins us now from New York.
Miss Rhee, thank you for being here. You know the rankings, you are familiar with them when they just came out not long ago. So in the current state of things in this country, if we don't' do anything, are we going to continue to stay about where we are in the rankings, maybe make some modest gains, or do you think we'll continue to drop?
MICHELLE RHEE, FOUNDER & CEO, STUDENTSFIRST: We're going to fall further and further behind if we don't start to do something very, very radically differently. If we look at, you know, countries at the top, like China, like a place like Singapore, you know, I met with -- I heard the prime minister of Singapore speaking this summer, and he was talking about how education is actually part of their economic plan for the entire country.
So they're taking it incredibly seriously, they're not about to slow down. And so, if we keep pace with the direction that we're heading in right now, we're just going to be further and further behind.
HOLMES: And, Miss Rhee, you're stepping into this, and we called you a controversial figure in that intro, and no offense to you there, but I think you would agree with that probably. But now you have a new initiative, StudentsFirst is what you're calling it. Your goal here is to raise $1 billion and get 1 million members of this.
Tell me how you're going to raise $1 billion, first of all.
RHEE: You know, it's interesting, because we just launched the organization on Monday, and within 48 hours of the Oprah segment airing on Monday afternoon, we've had over 100,000 people sign up to be members and we already have over half a million dollars raised just from people who are signing onto the website, who are joining the organization, and who are saying, enough is enough, we need to do something radical to fix American public education.
HOLMES: Now, Miss Rhee, tell me what you're going to do once you raise that billion dollars. What are you going to do with it?
RHEE: So, we are going to exert pressure in the same way that other groups do, but what we're going to do is advocate on behalf of children in public education. We're going to pursue an incredibly aggressive agenda to make sure that American schools can be number one in the world again.
So we will be involved in politics, in terms of exerting pressure on politicians to make the right decisions for children. We will help to elect candidates who are reform oriented.
And then, we will also provide resources to communities, if they can mobilize. If there's a grassroots effort to mobilize, because they want something better for their kids and they're willing to adopt some of the radical reforms that we're talking about, we will actually provide them with the resources to do that.
HOLMES: One more thing here. We know all kinds of organizations and companies and industries have lobbyists on Capitol Hill, whether that's for the health care industry, whether that's for oil industry, whatever it may be. It sounds like here you're serving up a lobbying firm, if you will, for students. Is that fair to say?
And if you are doing that, I guess who is out there, I guess, forming a consensus with you? Because not everyone may agree with what you are lobbying for and if you have a billion dollars to lobby, you might have a lot of pull up there on Capitol Hill.
RHEE: Well, we're not going to be a lobbying organization in the traditional sense where you've got fat cat lobbyists on the Hill having steak dinners with politicians. We're actually going to be a grassroots movement. We're going to radicalize the moms of America, we're going to get everyday citizens to be a part of this effort.
And we're going to storm state houses, we're going to sit in school board meetings and we're going to exert the kind of pressure to communicate to public officials, to school boards and superintendents the fact that we're not going to sit around anymore and allow our kids to fall further behind, to be trapped in failing schools. That we need a lot more and that we're going to hold them accountable for doing so.
And you're right, we're going to exert pressure through the money that we're going to raise, but also the members that we're going to have. These are going to be voters throughout the country, and we're going to let politicians know that we're going to hold them accountable for what kind of policies they're putting in place.
HOLMES: Well, one weekend, you've got 100,000 members and you've got a half a million dollars, so I guess that's not a bad start and a good first week.
Michelle Rhee, we appreciate talking to you. Good to see you, as always. We will continue to follow your progress and your efforts on Capitol Hill. Thanks so much.
RHEE: Thank you.
HOLMES: We're about six minutes to the top of the hour. We're going to get an update from our Political Ticker coming your way next.
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HOLMES: All right, want to turn our Mark Preston right now at our Political Desk giving us a look at what's crossing on the Political Ticker.
Hello to you, Mark.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, T.J., how are you?
Look, that Senate race in Alaska, the last Senate race that we keep on talking about, of course, it has to do with Joe Miller, T.J., the Republican nominee who lost the general election to the Republican Lisa Murkowski. Well, right now Joe Miller is in court, started yesterday. He is -- he's trying to get the judge up in Alaska to throw out lots of ballots that he said are not valid because they misspelled Lisa Murkowski's name.
Now Lisa Murkowski, again, ran as a write-in candidate. T.J., she is up by about 10,000 votes right now. The judge in Alaska should make a ruling on that last Senate race up in Alaska tomorrow.
You know, T.J., Donald Trump always has a lot to say, has a lot to say about the future of the country. And on our sister network HLN, he told Joy Behar that he doesn't really want to run for president, but he just might have to run for president.
He was very critical of President Obama. He said that whenever he talks to his friends in other countries, he gets frustrated about what their view is about the United States.
And he even goes on to say, I prefer not to do it. I'm having a lot of fun doing what I'm doing. It's great to be buying things. I'm buying a lot of things and really having a good time, T.J. But he said he still might have to do it. So Donald Trump still flirting with the idea of running for president -- T.J.
HOLMES: Well, he can make things interesting, could he not? We know the president is a sports fan, but usually basketball we're talking about, but where does a baseball player come into -- I guess, coming after the president?
PRESTON: Yes, coming after the president, taking swings at the president.
It is Luke Scott, he is the designated hitter for the Baltimore Orioles. And with Yahoo! Sports he actually comes out and questions whether President Obama was born in this country. Now people who called into question whether President Obama is a U.S. citizen is called a birther.
And Luke Scott had some very, very harsh things to say about the president. He says that Obama does not represent America, nor does he represent anything what our forefathers stood for. He goes on to say that President Obama was not born here and he also said that President Obama is hiding something -- T.J.
HOLMES: Wow. All right, and all this stuff's on the Ticker. Mark Preston, we appreciate you, as always.
We'll have another political update in an hour. And for the latest political news, you know the spot, CNNPolitics.com.
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HOLMES: Give you a look at some of the stories we're working on for the next hour, which is right around the corner.
Jim Morrison may be gone, but his indecent exposure still in the books. That may finally end this afternoon.
Also, an uproar in the streets of London as thousands of students protest the vote by lawmakers to almost triple college tuition costs. This story is breaking, we're there, we're live with the latest. Stay here.
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