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Former Pentagon Official Killed; President Obama to Sign Food Safety Overhaul; JFK Ambulance Up for Auction

Aired January 04, 2011 - 14:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I made a New Year's resolution to eat better. We all know that our food affects our health, but that is doubly true when there is actually something wrong with your food.

Remember the salmonella outbreak that prompted that colossal egg recall last summer, or salmonella-tainted peanuts from the year before, or the spinach laced with E. coli in 2006? Well, all of those cases and many more led Congress to pass the biggest overhaul of food safety rules since the 1930s.

President Obama, just back from Hawaii, plans to sign the Food Safety Modernization Act any time now. Now, this act gives the FDA the power to order recalls of dangerous food.

You may be surprised to know that until now, the feds could only request recalls. The new law steps up inspections of so-called high- risk food production facilities. It requires food producers to draw up safety plans that are accessible by the government, and it requires food importers to verify the safety of products made or grown abroad.

Now, if foodborne illness hasn't touched you personally, it's probably touched someone close to you. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one American in six gets sick from food every year. That's 48 million people.

An estimated 128,000 are hospitalized over something they ate. Three thousand of them die. In just a few minutes, I'll talk more about the science and the politics of your kitchen with the head of the food safety program at the Pew Charitable Trust and with the author of "Fast Food Nation." That is at 10 past the hour, right here on CNN.

But on to another story we've been following.

He worked as a Pentagon official. He served as the head of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund that put up the memorial on the Mall, and the first chairman of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. John P. Wheeler's body was found in a landfill in Delaware on New Year's Eve.

Joining us live now from outside John Wheeler's is All Platform Journalist Sarah Hoye. She's in Newcastle, Delaware.

Sarah, what news do we have? What more do we have on this case?

SARAH HOYE, CNN ALL PLATFORM JOURNALIST: Well, the latest that we do have, Ali, is that now the Newark police is consulting or working with the FBI. Rather, the FBI is consulting the Newark Police Department in this investigation. Now, that Newark Police Department will still maintain to be the lead investigators, but they will be getting some consulting from the FBI.

VELSHI: And what do we think has happened? The police say that they last saw him -- or he was last seen on Thursday, December the 30th. What are they speculating may have happened?

HOYE: Well, that's it. It's one of the greatest whodunits. They don't know exactly what has happened.

They have not released a cause of death as of yet. They're still investigating that. They do know that his body did show up in a dumpster that was then taken to a landfill, where then it was discovered by an employee there.

So we are still very early on in this investigation and still looking to figure out exactly what did happen to Mr. Wheeler -- Ali.

VELSHI: What is the connection to this house that's over your shoulder? I think we can see it's got some construction work going on with it.

HOYE: Yes. So we do -- I am at the location of the Wheeler home. And then across the street, if you can see the construction, that is where Wheeler was involved with a lengthy property dispute with this neighbor.

This happens to be an historic district, and this is a new construction home. So there seems to have been some type of neighborly dispute over the construction of that home. More details we'll be looking into to get later -- Ali.

VELSHI: All right. So, at this point, the FBI is in there, the Newark police have said it's a homicide. We know that Wheeler was last seen on December 30th, on Thursday. Police are asking people, I guess at this point, did anybody see him after that?

HOYE: Yes, that is that is correct. They are looking for any type of information. Somebody may have seen something suspicious, a vehicle, an individual, anything. If the public knows something or saw something, they're asking them to call in.

VELSHI: You said it well. This is a classic whodunit. We'll stay on top of it with you.

Sarah Hoye in Newcastle, Delaware, outside the Wheeler home.

Our "Sound Effect" is the biggest political battle of the last two years revisited. The newly-elected Congress meets tomorrow. The new Republican majority in the House plans a speedy vote to repeal health reform. Now, this is purely a symbolic exercise, because Democrats still control the Senate and, of course, the White House. But the passions are very real on both sides. I want to play you a clip from the now-famous floor speech by incoming House Speaker John Boehner just before that vote that made the health care -- that passed the House. And then I'm going to follow it by remarks delivered today by a key House Democrat.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), MINORITY LEADER: Look at how this bill was written. Can you say it was done openly, with transparency and accountability, without backroom deals and struck behind closed doors, hidden from the people? Hell no, you can't!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ROSA DELAURO (D), CONNECTICUT: This is nothing more -- this repeal of health care by the Republicans -- as political theater. It is a kabuki dance. And I'm quoting some journalist this morning who mentioned this, and I don't remember the name.

But the fact of the matter is we're not going to repeal health care. It is not going to happen. And it's very interesting, their choice of words. It's repeal. There's nothing about replacement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Now, Boehner plans a test vote on Friday and a final vote next Wednesday. You'll see it all right here on CNN.

Representative DeLauro, by the way, who you just heard there, well, she was speaking alongside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. This was Pelosi's final news conference in that position.

Pelosi made history in 2007, becoming the first female Speaker of the House. She hands the gavel over to Congressman Boehner, who will be sworn in tomorrow. She'll then be installed as minority leader after a roll call vote.

And some big fallout today in the uproar over those raunchy videos shot and shown on a Navy ship. A senior Pentagon official tells CNN Captain Owen Honors has been relieved of command of the USS Enterprise. He played a prominent role in the clips which were made back in 2006 and 2007, but only went public over the weekend. Captain Honors and staffers are shown in the videos cursing, apparently trying to be funny. Other lowlights were anti-gay slurs and some simulated sex acts.

The double whammy of unemployment and underwater mortgages pushed more Americans to seek bankruptcy protection last year. Filings topped 1.5 million, according to the American Bankruptcy Institute and the National Bankruptcy Research Center. That's up nine percent from 2009, and it's the highest level since 2005, when the bankruptcy laws were revamped to make it harder for people to wipe away their debt. The Southwest in particular helped fuel last year's jump. Take California and Arizona. Both of them saw bankruptcy spike about 25 percent from the year before.

Well, scientists at the CDC and other major labs are doing tests and necropsies to confirm what caused those weird mass bird deaths. About 5,000 blackbirds and starlings fell from the sky in Arkansas on New Year's Eve. Another 500 found in Louisiana yesterday.

Preliminary testing on the first group found "acute physical trauma," basically severe internal injuries. The thinking is the birds may have been spooked by New Year's fireworks. Their night vision isn't great, so as they fled the noise, they could have run head-on into houses and trees. Another possible cause is a weather event such as lightning or high-altitude hail.

Well, we are what we eat, and every year millions of us become ill because of our food. I'm going to show you how your food may be safer as of today when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: We are talking about food safety and the power of the federal government to keep tainted food out of our kitchens and restaurants. Today, President Obama is expected to sign the Food Safety Modernization Act. Now, among other things, it gives the FDA the power to order food product recalls.

Up until now, the feds couldn't order them. They could request, they could insist, they could cajole, they could negotiate, they could bargain. But they couldn't actually order them.

I want to talk about the dangers of foodborne contaminants and the scope of the new remedies with two people who eat this stuff up.

Erik Olson heads the Food and Consumer Product Safety Programs at the Pew Charitable Trust. Eric Schlosser is an investigative journalist and the author of the 2001 book "Fast Food Nation." He co- wrote the movie of the same name.

Welcome to both of you.

Erik Olson, let's start with you. Let's talk about something that is on everybody's minds with every law that passes today, and that is cost.

Some of the objection to this -- you'd think everybody would agree that you want more food safety, but there are some lawmakers objecting to this on the basis that it's costly and not all that necessary.

ERIK OLSON, DIRECTOR FOOD AND CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY PROGRAMS, PEW CHARITABLE TRUST: Well, the costs of this are very modest. They're a minor investment compared to the enormous costs of all the foodborne illness that you talked about at the top of the show where you have got 48 million people getting sick, over 100,000 hospitalized, 3,000 dying. Those costs add up to over $150 billion, according to an FDA economist that did a study last year.

So, it's pennywise and pound foolish to refuse to pay money to prevent those illnesses and, instead, to pay all the costs of having people getting sick and all these recalls.

VELSHI: Eric Schlosser, so there's the cost on one side, and then there's whether or not there's necessity for this on the other side. One lawmaker, a Republican senator, has said that 10 to 20 people in the U.S. die each year as a result of foodborne illnesses, or this kind of thing that this law is meant to prevent, and that that's just significantly insignificant. It's not statistically significant enough to need this law.

ERIC SCHLOSSER, AUTHOR, "FAST FOOD NATION": Well, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a few thousand Americans die every year from foodborne illness. Most of them are elderly or small children, and those deaths matter a lot to those families.

I'm amazed that there is any opposition to this bill whatsoever. Opinion polls have shown that 80 percent of the American people support this bill and its enforcement. It will cost each American about 99 cents a year for this bill to be carried out.

And I really think this is a commonsense solution. It's not a radical, socialist solution. It was a Republican president, Teddy Roosevelt, who first made clear that companies should be held responsible for selling contaminated food, and it was the government's responsibility to do so.

VELSHI: Erik Olson, I want to ask you -- I got a couple of tweets about this, one from a guy who said that we are healthier than we've ever been, and another one from somebody who says, "This is just a way to regulate the local fruit and veggie stand."

Where do these ideas come from? And are either of these viewers correct?

OLSON: Well, there's been a lot of misinformation about this bill that's been spread primarily on the Internet. The basic thrust of this legislation is to make us have a prevention-based food safety system. It's the first overhaul in seven decades, so it really is an overdue change that is absolutely necessary.

As far as supposed lack of impacts of foodborne illness, it's very clear that we have widespread problems. But I will say that most food in the United States is pretty safe. It's only on occasion that we see these contamination problems. But when they occur, a lot of people can get sick.

VELSHI: And Eric Schlosser, when they occur, they tend to puzzle us because they come from a place we didn't normally expect. So, given the work that you've done in food production in America, tell me where the greatest dangers lie. What's the worst threat that we face right now? What do you think? SCHLOSSER: The real threat comes from the centralization and industrialization of our food system. So, whereas an outbreak of foodborne illness 30, 40 years ago would have been confined to a small area, we now have enormous processing plants that are shipping their products nationwide or even worldwide.

Last year, we had an outbreak of salmonella connected to one company's peanut butter that sickened tens of thousands of Americans. And that company was knowingly shipping contaminated food. That's exactly the sort of thing that this bill will address and that can be easily prevented.

VELSHI: And Erik Olson, whether it's peanut butter or eggs, some of the big ones that we've seen, or spinach, does this bill address that? Is there something that would be different under this bill that would have prevented any one of the major outbreaks we've seen in the last few years?

OLSON: Yes. This bill will really change the way that we do business.

It affects about 80 percent of the U.S. food supply, everything that you see in the grocery store when you wheel your cart down the grocery aisles, except for meat and poultry and a few egg products. So it will really protect most of the food that we're all eating. And until we actually implement this law, we will continue having those kinds of problems with these repeated outbreaks and repeated recalls.

VELSHI: Erik Olson, he's the director of Food and Consumer Product Safety Programs at the Pew Charitable Trust. And Eric Schlosser is a journalist and the author of "Fast Food Nation."

Thanks to you both of you for shedding some light on this. Good to see you both.

SCHLOSSER: Thanks.

OLSON: Thank you.

VELSHI: All right. "Pipelines should not be landmines." That is a quote, one lawmaker's response to the government's urgent recommendations stemming from a deadly gas pipeline explosion.

I'll bring you details after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: It was an explosion that rocked the San Francisco Bay area for miles. In fact, at first, officials believed a plane may have crashed because the blast occurred near the San Francisco Airport. But the source was a huge explosion of a natural gas pipeline in San Bruno last September.

Eight people were killed, 37 homes were destroyed. Now, four months later, officials are still not sure what caused it. But the National Transportation Safety Board has just issued seven recommendations, six of them urgent, pressing for greater monitoring by the California utility responsible for the pipeline that exploded, the Pacific Gas & Electric Company, PG&E.

Among the recommendations, one, pipeline operators in California and the rest of the country should find and correct any record-keeping mistakes that could cause pipelines to be operated at unsafe pressure. Pacific Gas & Electric should immediately search for all gas pipelines that have not been pressure-tested. Pacific Gas & Electric should aggressively and diligently comply with the NTSB recommendations, ,and the California Public Utilities Commission was urged to quickly inform all pipeline operators in California about the NTSB report.

In its investigation, the NTSB uncovered some alarming findings, and they include the ruptured pipe included welded seams instead of seamless steel construction. Some seams were welded only on the outside. Others were welded both on the inside and outside. The board believes that seamless steel pipes might be stronger than ones that are welded.

The NTSB is expected to issue its final report later this year.

Well, the ambulance that transported the body of President John F. Kennedy is up for auction. The details after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

VELSHI: Now, last month we had Lee Harvey Oswald's coffin on the auction block.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

VELSHI: Interesting. Now we just heard another item linked to the JFK assassination is under the hammer.

You've been checking this one out for us.

MYERS: You know, that's what we do here. We do random. And this really falls into the category of random.

You've heard of Barrett-Jackson, the Barrett-Jackson Auction?

VELSHI: Yes.

MYERS: This was in Scottsdale. They have them in other places.

There it is, 1963 Pontiac ambulance. This ambulance met the body of JFK and JFK's family at Andrews Air Force Base after the assassination.

The coffin was draped with a flag, and it was driven to the Bethesda Naval Hospital. That's where this ambulance was from.

VELSHI: Right. MYERS: From there, it went to the Capitol, and then, as we know, what happened at the Capitol, it went into the special casket as it went through the streets of Washington, D.C. But that's what it looks like inside. And it is for auction.

They get some random things in the Barrett-Jackson Auction. They truly do. You never know what you're going to get.

This is a Saturday car, which means that they expect big-time money for this car because they have lots of TV audience. They have TV bidders. It's all online. It's going to live on speed (ph).

Going to go to one more thing here. I'm -- something else that's going to be -- the car before it just as random. This is one of Elvis Presley's Cadillacs.

VELSHI: Wow.

MYERS: He gave this Cadillac to Dr. Hoffman. It's a 1976 Seville. Not Detroit's finest hour, but it could be a very popular item on the auction block.

VELSHI: Wow. Do we have some sense of what they're going for?

MYERS: I have no idea. When you get two men or women that want the same car, it goes up. You get one guy, it doesn't go very far.

VELSHI: Right. That's it.

MYERS: But it's all --

VELSHI: Are these both in working condition, or are you not meant to drive them?

MYERS: You're not meant to drive them. But they both do work, and then they will drive up, they will sit there, and then they will drive off. And there is no reserve. They will absolutely sell.

VELSHI: OK. All right. We'll keep an eye on it.

Thank you, Chad.

MYERS: Yes.

VELSHI: All right. We're going to take a quick break.

When we come back, we're going to go "Globe Trekking." Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: It is 28 minutes after the hour.

Happening now, President Obama arrived back in Washington a few hours ago. On his agenda today is signing the food safety bill. The new law overhauls the inspection and oversight of our food. It also gives the Food & Drug Administration new powers to recall suspect products.

A federal judge has sentenced a man who helped hijack an airliner to Cuba more than 40 years ago to 15 years in prison. Luis Armando Pena Soltren returned to the U.S. and surrendered to authorities last year.

And just moments ago, the Navy officially relieved Captain Owen Honors of command of the USS Enterprise after the release of those raunchy videos shot and shown on the Navy ship.

He played a prominent role in the clips which were made back in 2006 and 2007, but the clips were only made public over the weekend. Captain Honors and staffers are shown in the videos cursing, apparently trying to be funny.

And it's time now for "Globe Trekking."

First stop, Pakistan. The governor of Punjab province, the country's largest and most powerful, was assassinated today, deepening a crisis that threatens to topple the government and could complicate the U.S. war against the Taliban.

CNN's Chris Lawrence joins us now live from the Pakistan capital, Islamabad -- Chris.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, you know, apparently the governor never even saw this coming. The police are telling us that he walked out of a grocery store right here in Islamabad, and as soon as he walked out, he was gunned down by one of his own elite security guards, a man whose only job was to protect the governor.

The doctors are telling us that this security guard shot the governor 26 times. The governor died instantly. And then the security guard just gave himself up to police. And the police are telling us when they asked him why he did this, he said it was because he felt that the governor had spoken out against Pakistan's blasphemy laws, and he felt that was an insult to Islam. Ali.

VELSHI: Chris, tell me how this -- this guy was an ally of the prime minister. How does this affect things in Pakistan right now?

LAWRENCE: Well, the political party was already in rough shape. The ruling political party. Because they had -- they lost a lot of their allies in the coalition government.

Here was a man who was really one of the huge faces of moderate Pakistan. He was a man who had met with a lot of the U.S. dignitaries who come here -- Senator John Kerry, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. And he had spoken out against Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which basically make it a crime to insult Islam or the prophet Muhammad. He even visited a Christian woman in jail who had been sentenced to hang for blasphemy. He helped her file a petition for mercy. That made him basically public enemy number one among some of the militants and hardliners. But that still didn't stop him. Let me read you just real quick one of his tweets on Twitter. He tweeted, "Tomorrow the mullahs are demonstrating against me after Jumah. Thousands of beards screaming for my head. What a great feeling." So, this was a man who didn't back down, who tried to present a very moderate face. Now he's gone, Ali.

VELSHI: All right. Chris, thanks very much for the update on that. Chris Lawrence in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad.

Let's turn now to Afghanistan just over the Pakistani border. Most of the stories from this battered country focus on the war against the Taliban. But there's another war of sorts. Afghan children struggling to survive each and every day. UNICEF says Afghanistan is the worst country in the world to be a child, second only, by the way, to Sierra Leone.

CNN's Arwa Damon is in the Afghan capital of Kabul with the story of one little girl's fight to live.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Instead of going to school, five-year-old Marjan scavenges with her are 10- year-old aunt, a half-hour hike away from their home.

A heavy burden for such a small child, but a necessary one. The trash she collects is what her family uses as fuel for cooking and to fend off Kabul's bitter cold. It's an epic struggle for someone so young. Last winter, Marjan's baby brother froze to death.

"The fire went out at night. It was dark and cold and the baby died," she remembers. "I saw him dead and I was very sad, and I cried."

Her mother is afraid this winter will claim another of her children. Marjan's younger sister.

"Of course I am worried about my children's health," Zarkharida tells us, sitting in the doorway of the one-room mud hut they call home. "The weather is very cold and my roof is made of plastic."

(on camera): This blanket is all that Zarkharida has to keep herself and her little girls warm. The three of them huddle underneath it every night. She stitched it together herself out of scraps of clothing that were given to her as charity.

(voice-over): Marjan is constantly rubbing her hands together, grimy and cracked from the frigid cold, doing all she can to stave off the chill. But it's never enough.

A meal is scraps of bread and a glass of wheat tea. Marjan's father was killed in a tribal feud over land. The family moved in with relatives already struggling to make ends meet. Even though she's never set foot in a classroom, she dreams of being a teacher. But in one of the poorest countries of the world, this little girl is responsible for her family's survival.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: What a story.

All right. Students learning from textbooks that are out of date. It is a real problem in the U.S., but one man says he's got a solution, and it saves money. He joins me next in "Chalk Talk."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Today in "Chalk Talk," a textbook for every student, one that has the most up-to-date content and - get this - this program saves millions of dollars annually. Now, this might sound like a pipe dream, but one school district trustee has convinced his district this can be a reality simply by going digital.

Toronto district school board trustee Michael Coteau joins me live from Toronto, my hometown. Michael, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.

MICHAEL COTEAU, TORONOT DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD TRUSTEE: Thanks for having me here.

VELSHI: I want to show our viewers this number I have on my wall. $50 million over ten years is what you say this program that you want to implement can save. I need to understand this because you want to replace regular books with some sort of digital content and all the technology and content that that creates. How does that translate into that kind of saving?

COTEAU: Well, I think it's more about the digital content than the actual digital books. If we take information and organize it in an accessible, intelligent way, it doesn't matter if you're on a cell phone an iPad, on your computer at home. As long as you can access that information, that's the most important piece.

Now, we're spending as a board, I would say a conservative number would $8 million. Essentially, we could spend up to $12.5 million on textbooks. We replace those books every three years.

VELSHI: Wow.

COTEAU: The ones we don't replace get stuck in the system and they become old. For example, in one of the papers yesterday, it was reporting that the U.S. history book still has Clinton as your president of the United States. So, I think we can do a lot better. Take the information, digitalize it and have young people access it. And if we can do that with even 20 percent or 30 percent of the books currently, we can save over a ten-year period millions of dollars. If we did it provincially, it would be even bigger than that.

VELSHI: Let me give a sense to my U.S. audience about what we're talking about. The Toronto District School Board, how many public school students are you talking about?

COTEAU: We have almost 250,000 students, almost 600 schools in our system. So, we're -- I believe -- the third-largest school board in North America. So, if we can do it and lead the way, I think not only can we create content for the Toronto students but for the entire province and share that information.

VELSHI: OK, how do you deal with the rapidly evolving technology? I mean, what -- is this agnostic to the type of device the student would use or are you going to have to -

COTEAU: No, I think --

VELSHI: -- equip the students with different things?

COTEAU: I think that's the confusion, right? I don't think the technology, the actual device matters at this point. I think what matters is how do you gather that information? Own the digital rights and provide it in an accessible way so young people can collect it. It has to be in a safe environment. It has to be flexible enough to be updated at a rapid pace. And it has to be kept in a place where it's accessible. And I think we have the ability to do that.

We need to catch up to students because students are way ahead of us on this.

VELSHI: All right. Here in the United States, a lot of the textbooks, printed textbooks, the content is determined by some of the biggest school districts in the country in Texas or in California. Should we be -- you're talking about generating your own content. I mean, is that necessary if these are math books or U.S. history books or you know, different subjects that are universal? Are you talking about --

COTEAU: Not necessarily.

VELSHI: -- generating specific content.

COTEAU: Well, what we can do is I've asked our senior staff of the board to do two things: to look at ways to create our own content but also look at some external content. When we buy millions of dollars of books -- and that's in the city of Toronto. Imagine the province of Ontario. If we're spending $10 million, you know, $15 million in Toronto and we represent 10 percent of the student body, that's $150 million a year on textbooks.

So, I think we can take our teachers, we can -- because they're doing the writing for these companies now. We could work with them. We could work with the book companies. I'm not talking about cutting them off. I'm talking about owning some of that digital information. Owning those rights so we can make it accessible.

So, I think it has to be a collection of many different forms of information coming in from different places. Who knows? We could be down in North Carolina, borrowing their math curriculum. And as long as we can own the digital rights. VELSHI: All right. Interesting way of looking at it. Michael, thank you very much for being with us. Give my regards to Toronto. Michael Coteau is the Toronto District School Board trustee, live from Toronto.

All right. It is 41 minutes after the hour. Let me update you on developments in the top stories. The Catholic Archdiocese of Milwaukee says sexual abuse lawsuits have forced it to file for bankruptcy protection. On the archdiocese's Web site, it says Chapter 11 reorganization is the best way to meet financial commitments. The archdiocese says it still intends to fairly compensate victims with unresolved claims.

President Obama, just back from Hawaii, plans to sign the Food Safety Modernization Act any time now. It gives the FDA power to order recalls of dangerous foods. You may be surprised to know until now the feds could only request recalls. The new law steps up inspections of so-called high risk food production facilities. It requires food producers to draw up safety plans accessible by the government and food importers to verify the safety of products made or grown abroad.

In a news conference just minutes ago, the Navy announced that Captain Owen Honors is relieved of his command of the USS Enterprise. Captain Owen Honors appears with other sailors in homemade videos described as lewd and raunchy. The clips contain gay slurs and simulated sex acts. Captain Honors be replaced by Captain D. Newborn.

And the megamillions lottery jackpot is up to $355 million. As you can see, some long lines for hot tickets. If there's no winner tonight, the jackpot could top $400 million for Friday. That would be a record. The largest lottery prize ever was $390 million in 2007.

Why are Justin Bieber fans tweeting death threats to Disney star Selena Gomez? OMG, lots of juicy entertainment news, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

VELSHI: Okay. Okay. Take a look at this. Take a look at this, Mark. This is -- even though it looks like it's been in a ditch for 30 years, 1967. The VCR. The camcorder. Check that out. This is the a newer one. They were a lot bigger when they came out. The CD player. Take a look at this. This is your satellite receiver over here. HDTV. I'm going to tell you what this all has to do with each other. Blu-Ray DVDS and tablet computers. They debuted at one of the largest electronics shows in the world called ces, the consumer electronics show.

All of these things debuted - let me skip back in here so you can see me - debuted at one of the largest electronic shows in the world. It's called CES, the Consumer Electronics Show. It's scheduled to begin tomorrow, and it's a "Big I" if I've ever seen one because this is the place the big ideas debut. Here for a preview of the event, digital lifestyle expert Mario Armstrong. He's just landed in Vegas where CES is taking place and joins us live from Skype from the exhibit floor. Mario, I have to extract you from your geekdom for a second because I know you probably can't contain yourself. This is the best thing ever.

MARIO ARMSTRONG, DIGITAL LIFESTYLE EXPERT: No. This is the best thing ever, Ali. It absolutely is. This is like the World Cup. It's not even the Super Bowl of tech. It's really a World Cup of tech. We're talking 110,000 -- different - I mean, 110 different countries show up to this event. Over 126,000 people show up to this event. And it's technology gadgets, devices, services and innovation that fill -- get this -- over 30 football fields full of technology.

VELSHI: OK, I wish I were there with you. I love it.

But Mario, here's the thing. For my viewers who are not tech geeks like you and me, they say, why do I care? If I'm not a tech geek, why do I care? You care because this is the cutting edge. What you are buying in stores this year or the next year will be determined by the stuff you see at CES.

So, please pull back the curtain and tell us what the big things are that you've seen.

ARMSTRONG: You're right. This is where - you're right. This is where you see everything that's going to show up in the retail stores, it happens here first. This is the world's largest convention for the technology industry.

So, we're going to be seeing a lot of things especially in the tablet category. This is going to be explosive. Aseus (ph), Toshiba, a lot of companies making announcements about tablets that are going to be huge.

Another area that kind of caught me off guard, but mobile digital television. These will be - remember, Ali, you used to be able to take a television, put some batteries in it, and take that with you and be able to watch the local news in your area?

VELSHI: Yes.

ARMSTRONG: That kind of went away with the digital transition that took place. So, there are new solutions for that particular area. And then we're going to see things in Internet television. We're going to continue to see that grow, and of course, 3-D will be big here as well.

VELSHI: A few years ago -- CES has been going on a long time. But a few years ago ,Apple was a niche product. They didn't participate in the Consumer Electronics Show. They had their own sort of convention and when Apple unveils things, they typically do it themselves on that stage with Steve Jobs wearing his turtleneck. Is Apple part of the Consumer Electronics Show?

ARMSTRONG: No. They are not. But here's the thing. The Consumer Electronics Show has obviously recognized that Apple products and third-party accessories and things for the Apple ecosystem are important. So, they created a venue in the convention called the iLounge. And the iLounge, from what I've heard, has grown and doubled the amount of exhibitors that will be in the iLounge - these are companies that will be offering products, services, applications, all types of things for that Apple ecosystem. So, while Apple may not be here, the presence is certainly still felt.

VELSHI: Hey, final question. Google TV. That was supposed to be unveiled here. Is that going to happen or has it been delayed?

ARMSTRONG: No. That's been delayed. Google said they want to go back to the drawing board on some of the software with that particular television.

However, Sony will be here. There will be a lot of talk about Internet TV. I think Internet TV is clearly the future, and I think there's going to be a lot of options we'll see announced this week. But they will not -- Google will not be making any announcements or information as it relates to that specific product.

VELSHI: OK. We showed you all of these things that were first unveiled at CES, but generally you get a sense from CES what the thing is going to be. So, a few years ago it was all about HD flat-panel TVs, and then everybody ended up buying them. Do we have a sense of the trend yet about what permeates the floor? You have said tablets. Is that your sense of it, flat, accessible computers where you input on to the screen?

ARMSTRONG: Yes. Touchscreen devices will continue to be huge. Portability and wireless. We're going to here from Verizon, has a keynote speech. The expectation is they will announce their 4G plans. Their LTE announcement. Which means we're going to have more connectivity, more wireless capability. And I think tablets will be probably one of the key stories. I also think green tech and maybe even mobile health might be something that will be interesting for folks.

VELSHI: Very interesting. We should talk more about that. We have talked a little about it, but should talk more about mobile health.

Mario, I don't know even what to say. You are just going to have the best time. That is fantastic. You enjoy yourself out there, and we will talk to you again.

Mario Armstrong is digital lifestyle expert and good friend of our show. Hey, we're going to bring you live reports like this every day from the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show with the latest, greatest electronics.

You have any questions you want me to ask of our people who are there? Just go to my blog CNN.com/ali and give you links to the CES and the Consumer Electronics Association. But you can tweet me or put something on Facebook if you want to know something about what's going on. This is really the technological future that is going on on the floor in Las Vegas.

Time for some entertainment news. Actress Lindsay Lohan could be headed back to jail. Didn't she just -- I don't understand. This news coming on the same day she's eligible to leave rehab at the Betty Ford Clinic. Police say she got into a scuffle with a former worker there during her stay, and that would violate her probation. The judge in her case said a parole violation would mean six months behind bars. Prosecutors will decide soon whether to go ahead with this case, a battery case, even though the former clinic worker has said she won't press charges.

Millions of girls adore him, but what is Justin Bieber really like? The 16-year-old sensation was interviewed for the new issue of "Vanity Fair" magazine and offered these nuggets. On the way his minds works he said, quote, "I'm just nuts." He also says his goal is, quote, "To have everyone root for me."

Here's what he says about his screaming fans and why they scream. Quote, "If I walk down a street and a girl saw me, she might look back because maye I'm good looking," end quote. He also says he knows he has few male fans, but believes they'll come around when he turns 18.

Some of those so-called Belibers - that's what they're called -- are getting a little carried away. A few sent death threats to another teen idol, actress/singer Selena Gomez. Why have they done that? Because photos surfaced showing the pair kissing while on vacation together over New Year's Weekend. Neither has commented on the rumored relationship, but the Twitter-verse is all aflutter over the issue. Some saying they're ready to kill Gomes if she breaks young Bieber's heart.

Now, we didn't have the kissing photo lying handy, but we had this one lying around. That's pretty close. That's Gomez in the middle. You can figure out the rest.

We even have Justin Bieber in our political ticker today. Wow. CNN chief national correspondent -- I can't even get it out. Chief national correspondent John King.

I didn't know. Is he a Belieber? Joins us from the CNN Politics Desk in Washington.

This guy' something! He's one of my people, John. He's Canadian.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm going to get to this in a minute, Ali, but I'm our chief national correspondent and our chief Belieber. I've met Justin Bieber. I'll get to that in just a minute. We're going to start with the ticker here.

The president of the United States will meet his French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy. That's January 10 at the White House. Why is the president of France coming to see President Obama? Well, France is assuming the presidency of the G-8 and G-20 big economic groups in 2011. Ali Velshi knows about both those groups very well. So, a little chance for these two presidents to swap notes to begin the new year.

Here's a little bit more of the change. I saw you talking to Ed Henry earlier about the possibility Bill Daley may join the White House staff. Well, another big player at the White House is leaving. Ron Klain is the vice president's chief of staff. He also was a big player for Al Gore back in the Clinton administration. Kevin Spacey played Ron Klain in the movie "Recount" if you're big fans from that drama back from 2000.

Ron Klain's going to leave late January. He's going to join Steve Case, the former AOL founder. He's got a new company called Case Holdings. Ron Klain is going to move over to there.

And now let's get to Justin Bieber. There's a new study by clout.com that says President Obama has edged out just narrowly Justin Bieber. What are we rating here? The most influential people on Twitter. Also on the list, Sarah Palin. She came in number three. Glenn beck number four.

Ali, obviously, there's been a counting problem. George W. Bush, Steve Jobs, Lebron James, Lady Gaga. I don't find Ali Velshi on this list just yet. I'm sure that was a mistake, but Obama and Justin Bieber. What do you think?

VELSHI: So the president has edged out just Justin Bieber?

KING: He has edged out just Justin Bieber. And I'm sure my daughter is very upset about this, and next year she'll somehow sway the vote.

VELSHI: That's right. That's why you're a Belieber.

John King, always good to see you. And by the way, I learned that news about William Daley being close to a possible appointment on your show. "JOHN KING USA," 7:00 Eastern every weekday. Thanks, John.

Your next update from The Best Political Team on Television one hour away.

Where are mortgage rates and the price of your home headed in this new year? My predictions next in my "XYZ."

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VELSHI: Time now for the "XYZ" of it.

This week as part of my other job as CNN's chief business correspondent, I'm giving you my outlook of what the economy could look like in 2011 using information I have gleaned from the experts I talk with every day.

Today I want to talk to you about the housing market. Predicting where home prices are going is tricky, but in general, I think prices will stabilize this year. They're going to rise in most markets but continue to fall in some where joblessness and foreclosures prevail. The National Association of Realtors says the price for a single- family existing home - a used home, if you will -- will rise slightly from last year's level, still much lower than prices four or five years ago. But even a little rise would confirm that the freefall in home prices has ended.

That said, I think the days of close to four percent fixed mortgage rates are over. Most forecasters predict the average rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage will gradually rise at least back into the five percent levels. So, if you're taking a big mortgage in a house you plan to live in for a long time, locking in a low interest rate now should be more important to your calculation than worrying about whether the price of that house is going to drop five percent or 10 percent more in the near future. A sub-5 percent 30-year mortgage on a $200,000 house will end up being much cheaper than six percent mortgage on the same house even if that house drops 10 percent in value. So, locking in now to a low mortgage rate could save you tens of thousands of dollars in the long run.

OK. I've given you an outlook on the economy in general and on housing prices so far this week. Tomorrow, I'll give you my thoughts on oil prices and how to prosper from them rather than just suffer.

I did make one prediction yesterday that's already proved to be true, so I will do it again today. I predict that my time is now up, and that Brooke Baldwin will appear on your screen right now.