Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Journal Says Autism-Vaccine Study a Fraud; House to Read the Constitution on Day Two; President Obama Reaches Out to Business; Witnesses Testify About Michael Jackson's Last Hours; Delaware Police Backtracking Through Wheeler's Last Hours; Newark Mayor Going Public With Slim Down; Stocks to Rise, Despite Labor Report; Journal: Autism Vaccines Study a Fraud; Best, Worst Jobs of 2011; Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor to the Rescue
Aired January 06, 2011 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. It is 9:00 a.m. on the East Coast, 6:00 a.m. out West. I'm Don Lemon. Kyra is off today. Here's some of the stories that are talking this morning -- got us talking this morning.
A 55-year-old American woman is under arrest in Iran charged with spying. Local media outlets say she entered Iran from Armenia without a visa and hid spying equipment in her teeth. Iran has held two other Americans on spying charges since 2009.
This morning, investigation is underway into yesterday's shooting death of a teenager near the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona. The FBI says Border Patrol agents were trying to arrest alleged drug smugglers when one agent allegedly fired on a bystander who is throwing rocks. The Mexican authority say the agent actually opened fire when the teen tried to scale the fence.
And Elizabeth Edwards has left everything to her children. Her will makes no mention of her estranged husband, former presidential candidate John Edwards. Months after withdrawing from that raw, he admitted his infidelity.
The mystery of autism has troubled doctors, researchers and especially patients. A minority of people in the autism community have strong beliefs there is a link between the disorder and childhood vaccines.
Now they back research conducted by Andrew Wakefield, but now a "British Medical Journal" has concluded Wakefield falsified his data and the author of the journal's investigation spoke earlier on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN DEER, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST, SUNDAY TIMES OF LONDON: The clustered condition which are called autism, autisms, neurological problems in children are very complex issues and science just doesn't have the answer. So when a charlatan like Wakefield comes along and seems to do a very simple answer that blames other people, blames drug companies, now blames me, it's all my fault, parents -- a very small number of parents become misled by that and cling to this because their choice is basically blame somebody else or suffer the possibility that they're left with the guilt of thinking that it was their fault that they vaccinated their child.
So this is a very vulnerable group that Dr. Wakefield preys on.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: More about this now, our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now.
Sanjay, good morning. You spoke with Dr. Wakefield last night. What did he say?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he basically denies everything. I mean there's a big, exhaustive sort of report by Mr. Deer -- you just heard him there -- talking about the fact that this isn't just shoddy science.
What he's accusing Dr. Wakefield of in this article that was published in the "British Medical Journal' is of falsifying data, of saying, look, you said a child develops symptoms of autism within a few days after getting a vaccine.
LEMON: Yes.
GUPTA: Not true. We looked at the records. They already had symptoms. Or they didn't development until months later. So it's things like that he really drilled down on.
LEMON: Sanjay, I remember talking to you about this last year because Wakefield's report was retracted by the "British Medical Journal" last year. So what's different now?
GUPTA: What happened last year is was, it was basically retracted because they said look, this is shoddy science. You did not pick the participants in the study well. Some of them were paid. It wasn't what's called randomized. Meaning you're supposed to pick people at random. Instead he picked particular children for the study that he thought might fit the purposes of the study.
That was essentially why the Lancet retracted it. This is taking it a step further, Don. This is not saying it was a shoddy science. This is saying this is -- this was intentional misrepresentation and falsification of data, a very serious charge in science.
LEMON: So the link between autism and vaccines, is it dead now?
GUPTA: Well, I think that, you know, Wakefield's papers have been discredited for some time. I mean it was obviously -- you know, retracted last year. I think a lot of people will say, look, while this may have started the whole discussion about vaccines and autism, there's been a lot of other movements since then among people who really believe in this connection.
I asked him specifically about his research yesterday. Take a listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: Since 1998, you've obviously been dealing with this. But these charges that are a big deal in the world of science, that you paid patients, that you did not randomize them, meaning, you selected patients that you thought would be better for your study, and now, the most -- the most damning evidence of all, that perhaps these numbers, the dates were all fabricated to sort of make a case.
Did you have some sort of preconceived notion of a link between the vaccine MMR and autism before you conducted this study?
DR. ANDREW WAKEFIELD, AUTHORED AUTISM STUDY: Absolutely not. Dr. Gupta, please I urge you, go and read my book. I'll send you a copy. I'm not trying to promote my book. I'm not trying to make money. Take the book and read it. And understand the truth. You will understand it. Many people don't.
The parents understand it. They get it because they've lived it. OK? And the claims to whether the vaccine caused their children harm or not came from the parents. Not me. I didn't have a preconceived notion about this at all.
I hadn't heard of autism since medical school and this was a clinical examination of children on the merits of their clinical problems by the best people in the world. The best clinical experts and pediatric gastroenterology in the world. And they came to the diagnosis, not me.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
GUPTA: There have been a lot of studies on -- trying to figure out this whole connection between vaccines and autism, and most of the medical journals, I mean, they have never found it. Big studies have been done on this. It's one of the most widely studied things in public health. They have not been able to establish any kind of link between vaccines and autism.
To be fair, I asked him about the fact, does he recommend children not get vaccines? And he said, he never said that. He said that maybe the vaccine should be split up. Not all be given at once.
LEMON: But that has been happening.
GUPTA: Absolutely.
LEMON: People have not been giving the children vaccines.
GUPTA: I mean people got the message and incorrect one, I think. These are preventable diseases and the vaccines can obviously help prevent those diseases. When the vaccination rates fell in England after the study came out and then subsequently in the United Kingdom, you saw clusters of preventable diseases crop up.
And Wakefield said he never told people not to get it. So that's another part of this debate that makes it a little confusing.
LEMON: Yes. Important subject. We're going to be talking about it a lot.
Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Thank you, Dr. Gupta.
GUPTA: Thank you.
LEMON: On now news in Washington. A new beginning on Capitol Hill. This will be first full day of Republicans controlling the House and the GOP's top man says it's time for both parties to work together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: My belief has always been that we can disagree without being disagreeable. That's why it's critical that this institution operate in a manner that permits a free exchange of ideas and resolves our honest differences through a fair debate and vote.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: You heard those words? They are put to the test beginning today. Republicans will launch their first attempt to slash spending and return to the smaller government envisioned by our founding fathers. In fact, next hour, members will begin reading the Constitution aloud.
CNN's congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill for us.
Brianna, the obvious question. Why?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, part of it is symbolic, no doubt. This is being led by Republicans, and one of the things that we heard going up into the midterm election was we heard a lot of Tea Party folks saying that Democrats have overreached and a lot of them would even have pocket Constitutions and say it's right here in the Constitution.
Democrats are doing too much, they're going too far, and it's really -- it's not here in this governing document.
Here's the interesting thing, though, Don. Even though this is being led by Republicans, Democrats are going to be participating including Leader Pelosi and the number two Democrat in the House, Steny Hoyer. So we're actually going to see this begin at about 10:45 a.m. Eastern.
And it's going to kick off with Speaker Boehner and Leader Pelosi and then we're going to see kind of a first come, first served basis. But this is pretty significant in terms of -- that it's never been done before according to House Historian's Office. And what -- from what they can tell looking at the congressional record, the Constitution has never been read in its entirety, going to take a couple of hours today. That's never been done before on the House floor -- Don.
LEMON: Very interesting. I used to have a little pocket Constitution. And since the advent of the iPad and cell phones, now I have it right on my PDA.
(LAUGHTER)
KEILAR: Well, cool.
LEMON: Let's move on now and talk about budget cuts. It's not that much money in the big picture here.
KEILAR: Yes, this is something that the House is going to be taking up today. Of course, it's a Republican proposal. And it is to cut 5 percent of the operating expenses of the House of Representatives. So what that means is if you're running your members' office, you have a leadership office, you have a committee, you have to be operating at 95 percent of what you were operating last year.
What does that mean? Well, the members have the discretion about exactly where they're going to be trimming -- you know, to get rid of that 5 percent. But yes. In the scheme of things, that's $75,000 per office approximately. We are talking in total a savings of $35 million which that is a lot.
But when you think of the Republican pledge to cut $100 billion in spending, it is just a drop in the bucket. The point here that Republicans are trying to make is we know you're tightening your belts. We're tightening our belts, too.
Democrats a little miffed about this, Don, because they feel like this is sort of a unilateral move by Republicans and they say they would have liked to have some more input. And I think that's an argument we're going to be hearing a whole lot more of now that Republicans are in control of the House.
LEMON: OK Brianna. Let's get back to the Constitution. I know you're smart, right? So I have a little Constitution --
KEILAR: Well --
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: -- challenge. And Brianna, we're going to be doing these questions throughout the hour, testing our constitutional knowledge. So I want to know, do you know this one?
Which founding father did not sign the Constitution? Was it Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin or George Washington? Do you know the answer?
KEILAR: Of course. LEMON: OK. Go for it. What is it?
KEILAR: Isn't it Thomas Jefferson?
LEMON: Yes. It is Thomas Jefferson. Do you know why?
KEILAR: I think, wasn't he in France?
LEMON: He was in France during the 1787 convention where he served as the U.S. ambassador.
KEILAR: OK. Full disclosure?
LEMON: Yes.
KEILAR: I totally owe my live producer lunch for tipping me off to that one.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: In your ear or just know?
KEILAR: Before. I didn't want to look stupid.
LEMON: You're not. You're not. And who would know? A lot of people would not know that. But it's --
KEILAR: I have to say, though, when it occur -- when I realized it was Thomas Jefferson, I realized that it was because he was overseas, that made sense to me so.
LEMON: All right. Brianna, thank you. And thank your producer. You can pay your producer after the live shot.
KEILAR: Yes.
LEMON: We'll see you a little bit later on with another constitutional challenge.
Brianna Keilar on Capitol Hill today.
You know as Republicans urge compromise, the president is promising cooperation. There's a lot of skepticism on whether those pledges can withstand the harsh realities of Washington but outside the beltway the administration may be extending an olive branch to America's business community.
After sometimes testy relationship, the president is seriously considering William Daley of JPMorgan Chase to serve as his chief of staff.
Our senior White House correspondent Ed Henry joins us.
Ed, have a constitutional challenge for you but a little bit later. So listen, this -- this is a move to -- you know, to the middle for the Obama administration. More of a nod to the business community? What's Daley going to bring to the table here?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's just be clear that he's not at the table yet. But he was maybe sitting down in a chair at least yesterday with the president himself here at the White House. So you're right. This is very serious but not a done deal.
What has to happen first is the president has to have some more conversations with Pete Rouse, his interim chief of staff, and top Democrats tell me that they think, it appears that Pete Rouse is going to step aside. That never planned to be the full time, long-term chief of staff after taking over for Rahm Emanuel.
If that does happen, it would clearly clear the way for Bill Daley. I mean he's got a very impressive resume. You mentioned I think this would clearly be a signal, if he's offered it, and then takes it, as an outreach to the business community.
A very tense relationship for the White House. This is someone in Bill Daley, as you know, most recently in Chicago, JPMorgan Chase, so he's got those Wall Street ties. Before that he was at SBC Communications, Evercore Capital Partners, also going back to the Clinton administration as commerce secretary, where he worked very closely with America's CEOs on trade issues, et cetera, and was also a chair of the Gore campaign in 200.
So he sort of got the policies, the politics, a real Democratic heavyweight. And by the way, this comes at a time when we just learned yesterday the president in early February is going to give a speech at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a business group that he's kind of warred with over health care reform and other issues.
So I think when you put this altogether, it shows both a little bit of a tilt back to some Clinton veterans, perhaps, but also, you're right, and a real outreach to the business community to say, look, in the next two years with a closely divided Congress, the White House knows it's got to work with the business community -- Don.
LEMON: All right. What's the downside to this? Could this possibly backfire and even anger some Democrats we're hearing?
HENRY: It could. I mean there are liberals out there who feel that Bill Daley is maybe too centrist. He's somebody who is vocal about saying he was not happy about Elizabeth Warren.
LEMON: Another Chicagoan.
HENRY: Another Chicagoan. About Elizabeth Warren coming in to run this Consumer Protection Agency. And he's spoken out against that. And that may alarm liberals that, look, this is another Wall Street guy from JPMorgan Chase who's going to come here to the White House.
If he does and all of a sudden, you know, want much looser regulations of Wall Street when a lot of Democrats are saying, look, let's get tough on Wall Street. Let's make sure that we -- you know, coming out of the financial crisis really fix things. And as a lot of regulations and the implementation of Wall Street reform that passed months ago, those new financial regulations, having a White House chief of staff sort of -- of the business community might alarm some Democrats.
And by the way, a quick piece of new information we just got in the last few moments. We've confirmed from sources that Paul Volcker, the chair of the president's outside Economic Recovery Board, another very tough voice for more Wall Street regulation, is stepping down.
That was expected. His two-year term is coming up but if you've got Paul Volcker leaving, who's been tough on Wall Street and advocating that, and maybe Bill Daley coming in to another position, and he's not so tough maybe on Wall Street, that might alarm some Democrats.
But I think by and large this White House feels if that move is made, it's going to be good for the president long term.
LEMON: Ed Henry, get your scorecards out. It is just starting. Thank you, sir.
HENRY: Thanks, Don.
LEMON: In Omaha, Nebraska right now, the son of a police officer's being blamed for a deadly shooting rampage at a high school. Police say 17-year-old Robert Butler Jr. apparently killed himself after opening fire. The school's assistant principal died last night. The principal is in the hospital this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JACOB SEVER, STUDENT: I'm pretty shocked that he would even have done anything like that. He was always the class clown, always had a smile on his face. Always made people smile.
It makes me a little more fearful also about what's going on at school and what people are thinking and everything. Because I never saw this coming at all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the disaster and it's a tragedy and it's terrible.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Here's what CNN's local affiliates in Omaha are saying. They said the teen gunman posted a number of ominous posts on his Facebook account just minutes before his attack.
Witnesses give emotional accounts of Michael Jackson's last hours. It is day three of a hearing that will decide whether Dr. Conrad Murray goes to trial for the singer's death. Dr. Murray faces involuntary manslaughter charges if the judge orders the case to trial.
Los Angeles County paramedic Richard Senneff testified that when he arrived, he asked Dr. Murray how long the patient was down. He says the doctor told him it had just happened. Senneff said it didn't add up. He said, "Jackson appeared to be dead when I picked him up," this is a quote, "his legs were quite cool."
I'll get more on testimony on this hearing from -- for Dr. Conrad Murray next hour from In Session correspondent Beth Karas.
Delaware police are backtracking through the baffling last hours and days of John Wheeler, trying to fill in the gaps of what happened to the ex-Pentagon official whose body surfaced at a dump on New Year's Eve.
Two days before Wheeler's body was found, he visited a pharmacy near his home, asking the pharmacist for a ride. The worker tells us he offered to call a cab, but Wheeler left. 40 minutes later, he shows up in a parking garage in Wilmington, apparently lost, and the garage attendant says -- she said something was not quite right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
IMAN GOLDSBOROUGH, PARKING ATTENDANT: He was smiling, he seemed like he's a nice guy. The only thing that didn't seem right to me was just, like, he just looked like he was kind of lost. He was just looking around like -- like he was in unfamiliar place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: On Thursday, police say Wheeler seen on surveillance tape from an office building at around 8:30 p.m. But the next day, his body was found jutting out of a trash truck at a landfill. Police say they're still searching for a crime scene and more clues in the killing of this veteran's advocate.
Even liking a page or a group on Facebook can get you fired. One man found that out the hard way. He liked -- you know, when you like, you press on the little button saying "I like this" or "dislike this." Well, he said he liked a page that dissed a product that his employer made. One click and he was gone. Another example of how social media can send your private life crashing into your professional life.
Rob Marciano joins us now. Rob, what do you think? You've got to be careful, right?
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. Don't click on -- easy on the clicking, I can tell you that.
Anyhow, we're starting to get a little bit more active weather this week after a couple of days of rest. Pacific Northwest getting a storm. Florida getting a storm, and this storm across the Great Lakes, that is getting a little bit more interesting.
We have temperatures that are certainly cold enough to sustain snow, and things complex over a day or two. That involves what's going on across parts of the northeast. That storm system is going to drop across the Great Lakes and make its way into the northeast and we'll probably see significant snowfall in some of these areas, especially in the New York City area. But it's going to be one of those situations where your neighbor may get 12 inches and you may only get two, and it could be just a factor of a quarter of a mile, if that. But here's your highlighted winter storm watches that have been posted for the New York City area, and this is going to get interesting. We'll talk more about that at the next hour.
LEMON: All right, Rob, thank you. And check this out. This cheerleader may want to turn her pom-poms in and just play for the team. More on her flipping and her dunking straight ahead.
(MUSIC - "Can't Touch This")
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. Here's another cautionary tale about Facebook. Be careful what you post and what you like. That little "thumbs up" icon got an Indiana man fired from his job. A company called Living Essentials canned Drew Smith after he dissed one of its product.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DREW SMITH, FIRED WORKER: It was because there was a Facebook page called "Five-Hour Energy Sucks." And, so, I liked that page. I don't really like the product that they make. It doesn't work for me. They said if I don't like their product and I work there, that makes their company look bad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. So the company Living Essentials showed Drew the door. He says he doesn't remember the company having an internet policy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SMITH: The only thing they had us sign was a statement that we wouldn't take pictures of anything inside the building, we can't have cell phones, stuff like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. So we tried to contact the company for its response, and let's talk about this with Paul Gillin, now. We're still trying to get in touch with them. Paul Gillin is a social media expert, and he's an author. So, Paul, this guy might not have realized it, but he may as well have stood on a rooftop and shouted how much he didn't like the drink, and it's his company's own product.
PAUL GILLIN, SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT, AUTHOR: Well, these days, companies monitor hate sites and hate groups on Facebook, and they look for activity like this, and they correlate that with the people that they may be watching.
Now, it could be in this case that the employee was on a watch list anyway. This may have been just a convenient excuse for firing him. But in any case, dissing your company in public is never a good idea, and today your public complaints can reach a global audience.
LEMON: But Paul, isn't it just common sense, you don't bite the hand that feeds you?
GILLIN: It is common sense. And to give the man his credit, the company may not have had a policy about this kind of thing. I think these days, companies need to have clear policies about what employees can and can't say in social networks, because nearly everybody is on Facebook. Many people are blogging and using Twitter. And you really need to be clear with people about what is crossing the line. But in this case, I think this was just a breach of common sense.
LEMON: Bottom-line it for us, Paul.
GILLIN: Bottom line is that the internet is public, and you should consider any electronic communications that you put onto the internet -- and I include e-mail in that, to be public. Anything that you say can be copied and can be pasted and published to a global audience. So, these days we should not have an assumption of privacy on the internet. We should be -- treat everything that we put on the internet, including e-mail, as if we're comfortable with it showing up in "The New York Times" the next day.
LEMON: Good advice. Paul Gillin, thank you very much.
The mayor of Newark, he knows all about this. Shoveling snow can work up an appetite. Look at him out there, shoveling snow during the snow storm. So can running a city, really. But when Cory Booker's weight ballooned to almost 300 pounds, can you believe it? He made a very public resolution to slim down. How you can track his weight loss. We're going to tell you that.
And a great white shark circling some fisherman's boat. But wait until you hear the terrifying moments that followed.
(MUSIC - "Jaws Theme")
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(MUSIC - "I Can See Clearly Now")
LEMON: Beautiful shot of Chicago, there, and the Magnificent Mile. Look at the Chicago River. Great. Probably a little chilly there.
OK. Let's talk about lawmakers. They have a lot on their plate. Long hours, budget negotiations. But the mayor of Newark admits he was overloading his kitchen plate with things like cookie dough and french fries. Sounds good to me. Cory ballooned, though, to nearly 300 pounds by the end of the last year, 2010. This from a man who has been a warrior in the fight against childhood obesity. So now, he is taking his diet public on Facebook and on Twitter. And that brings us to our AM Extra.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR CORY BOOKER (D), NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: I think that what we do is, we make promises to ourselves. What I'm trying to do by example, I'm trying to get other people to do it, is make public commitments.
I've got over a million Twitter followers, now, and Facebook followers. I want all of us to put ourselves out there and hold each other accountable, because America is going down a very dangerous road.
If you're obese, you have much more costly lives, shorter lives, health problems. Obese children do worse in school. This is really undermining the very core of our country.
So, I think that -- you're right. Willpower's a hard thing to muster, and I had a lot of great excuses. I was running a job around the clock, I had lots of stress. But at the end of the day, if we're not taking care of ourselves, we can't take care of our families, our communities, or do our jobs as effectively.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: He's one of those people who can carry it well. You don't see it in his face. But he says he wants to slim down to about 240 pounds by his April birthday. This morning's Twitter update, "Today's weight," he says, "284 pounds. Minus 3 pounds, 44 pounds to go until my target weight." I sent him a tweet. "Good luck, Cory Booker. We all struggle with that."
So, whether you're working for a living or looking to find work, we have some tips on the best and worst jobs of 2011.
(MUSIC - "Workin' for a Living")
LEMON: Forget Huey Lewis. We have the news you need just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, time to talk about your money. On Wall Street, it's jobs, day two. A report yesterday showed the economy added nearly 300,000 jobs in December. Today, a new set of numbers on the labor market. Alison Kosik at the New York Stock Exchange. Alison, good morning to you. More good news?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. I've got a little good news and a little bad. I'll start with the bad. The number of people filing for unemployment is up, but the good news it's not changed the view that the labor market is improving.
Now the number of people filing new unemployment claims rose 409,000 last week that's up 18,000. Now, this week's increase was expected. Keep that in mind because the holiday week wound up throwing things off a bit with a lot of employees being off for those couple of days so analysts really don't put much stock in this week's report.
But investors remain bullish on tomorrow's monthly jobs report. The expectation is that the economy added 140,000 jobs. So investors, they're going to be holding their positions, but they are remaining optimistic. Right now, the Dow up just slightly and the Nasdaq a little higher, as well. Don, back to you. LEMON: All right. Alison Kosik, thank you very much. We will check back with you.
You know, it is just after 9:30 on the east coast, 6:30 out west. This Thursday morning, good morning, everyone. Today we're talking about a controversial autism study. It's an important report. This study that linked the disorder and autism to childhood vaccines, but now a British medical journal claims the doctor behind the study falsified the study. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta asked him to respond to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Since 1998, you've obviously been dealing with this, but these charges that are a big deal in the world of science that you paid patients, that you did not randomize them, meaning you selected patients you thought would be better for your study.
And now the most damning evidence of all that perhaps these numbers, the dates were all fabricated to sort of make a case. Did you have some sort of preconceived notion of a link between the vaccine MMR and autism before you conducted this study?
DR. ANDREW WAKEFIELD, AUTHORED AUTISM STUDY: Absolutely not. Dr. Gupta, please, I urge you. Go and read my book. I'll send you a copy. I'm not trying to promote my book and make money. Take the book and read it and understand the truth. You will understand it.
Many people don't. The parents understand it. They get it because they've lived it. OK, and the claims to whether the vaccine caused their children harm or not came from the parents, not me. I didn't have a pre-conceived notion about this at all. I hadn't heard of autism since medical school.
This was a clinical examination of children on the merits of their clinical problems by the best people in the world, best clinical experts in pediatric gastroenterology in the world and they came to the diagnosis not me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: As you can imagine, there's a lot of buzz about this on the social media. This is from Twitter. It's getting lots of re-Tweets saying Andrew Wakefield should be injected with measles. How many parents did he convince to not vaccinate their child?
Here's a comment from Facebook. It remains to be seen whether the new revelations about the Wakefield study will have any effect or drowned out by the Jenny McCarthys of the world and their continuing campaign against childhood vaccinations.
Also talking this morning about Elizabeth Edwards and her will, she left everything to her children and does not mention her estranged husband John. Elizabeth died last month after a long battle with cancer. And hang on to your old Starbucks cups. They might be collector's items one day. Look at the difference there. They're changing. The company is tweaking its logo. The new look is on the right. You see the old one on the left. Starting in March, you'll just see the lady in green without the company name and it looks like the hot beverage warning is also gone, no more.
You know, this week as I have been talking to Alison Kosik just moments ago, there had been encouraging signs that the economy is sputtering back to life and new numbers on the jobs markets are adding to the optimism.
This time yesterday, we told you about a surge in private sector jobs. Nearly 300,000 created in December that's nearly three times the number that experts predicted. So I got us to thinking. What are the best jobs to chase and which ones should you avoid in 2011? This early in the year. Christine Romans is part of the CNN money team and joins us live from New York to break it down. OK, which one should you chase?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I got a four-letter word for you, Don. Math. Look, if you have good math skills, you are sitting pretty in this economy and that's the truth. Career cast.com put together its annual list of the best jobs for 2011 and if you've got a college degree and you know math and science, you are at the top of this list.
Software engineer, anything to do with iPod applications, iPad applications and cell phones and all of this kind of stuff that's taking root in the new technology-based economy, those people, 87,000 a year is what they make. Low unemployment rate.
Mathematician, actuary, statistician, computer system analyst, I've been hearing from a lot of different educators and job placement type folks who say there's a lot of action in that area, as well.
The worst jobs for 2011, no surprise, these are jobs that have a lot of manual labor that don't have a very low unemployment rate and don't have the best job prospects in terms of the number of jobs being created. Taxi driver, roofer, lumberjack, ironworker, roustabout.
When you look, Don, at the unemployment rates for different areas, you can see why they chose certain jobs on the top of list and some on the bottom. They took income. They took stress. They took education, quality of life, all of these things into factor here.
Do you know that software engineer has a 3.9 percent unemployment rate? Think of that. I mean, we're going to get a jobs number tomorrow that's going to tell us the overall unemployment rate in the country.
Software engineer more than adequately employed. Statistician, look that one, computer systems analyst, 4 percent unemployment rate. Look at the other jobs, roustabout, that's an oil worker and in fact, that job has taken a big hit since the BP disaster because of the uncertainly in the gulf about drilling.
Taxi driver, roofer, ironworker, you can see that it is the math, the science, the higher education that's paying off in this economy, Don.
LEMON: All right, Christine Romans, thank you very much and good advice. Happy New Year to you by the way.
ROMANS: You, too.
LEMON: All right, first mistaken for a kidnapper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was going to smack him. I yelled get away from my car.
LEMON: Here on CNN, why the lieutenant governor of Massachusetts is now being called hero.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. This is an interesting story. Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray became a real public servant this week and a relieved grandmother is calling him a hero now.
He pulled her two grandchildren to safety after the minivan caught fire, but as Amelia of our affiliate WCVB reports the frightened children first thought they were being kidnapped.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was going to smack him.
AMELIA BERADA, WCVB: Little did Ruth Anne who was being a protective grandmother know she was yelling at Lieutenant Governor Tim Murray.
LT. GOV. TIM MURRAY, MASSACHUSETTS: I think like any good parent or grandparent. She saw somebody getting her grandkids out of the car and she said she didn't know if I was trying to steal the car or take the kids.
VIVICA MANOZZI, RESCUED BY LT. GOV.: My little brother was starting to cry and I was starting to cry, and I thought the person was going to come and take us.
BERADA: The lieutenant governor was trying to get 8-year-old Vivica Mannozzi and her 5-year-old brother Ty out of the minivan because the left front tire was smoldering and burst into flames. Their grandmother had just left the car to pick a friend to go grocery shopping. At the moment, the lieutenant governor ran to the rescue but --
RUTH ANN MANOZZI, GRANDMOTHER: You know, it's dark, 7:00. I'm, you know, not 30 feet away and turn around and there's this man trying to force open my car door and the kids are locking it. The first thing you think is someone's trying to get into the car.
MURRAY: As soon as she saw the fire, she knew why I was there and, you know, thankfully everyone's safe.
BERADA: The manager of this gas station who saw the whole thing has nothing, but praise for the lieutenant governor for getting involved.
MASOD SHEHATA, WITNESS: That's a good example for -- I want to say our government. Just to stop when they see any kind of situation just to help out or find out what's going on. That's wicked nice, actually.
MANOZZI: He was very nice to save us.
BERADA: What do you say to him?
MANOZZI: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Neither Vivica or her brother Ty was hurt. Good for that.
All right, check out these moves right here. Look at her. Amazing? This cheerleader may want to turn in the pom-pons and play for the team. More on her flipping and her dunking still ahead here on CNN.
And on a day that the U.S. constitution is being read in front of the House Of Representatives, we are testing your knowledge of it and ours, as well. Testing us here. The U.S. constitution is a shortest one in the world. Did you know that? How many words are in it, by the way? 980, 2,700, 4,400, 7,600? Remember, it's the shortest in the world. We will have the answer right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY LENO, HOST, "TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": You could sense there was tension between -- you know? Between Boehner and Pelosi. I mean, it's subtle. See if you notice it. Take a look.
NANCY PELOSI: God bless you, Speaker Boehner. God bless the Congress.
LENO: See that? Did you see it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAY LENO, HOST, "THE TONIGHT SHOW WITH JAY LENO": You could sense there was tension between -- you know? Between Boehner and Pelosi. I mean, it's subtle. See if you notice it. Take a look.
NANCY PELOSI, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: God bless you, Speaker Boehner. God bless the Congress. Ah.
LENO: See that? Did you see it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: That is one giant gavel.
Look at that beautiful shot of our nation's capital, Washington, D.C.
Ok. So I asked you the quiz before the break, since the U.S. Constitution is being read in front of the House of Representatives today, we're -- we're testing your knowledge of it. How many words in our Constitution? Remember, it is the shortest one; 980, 2,700, 4,400, 7,600?
Don't show it yet, don't show the answer yet because I want to go to this man, Ed Henry standing by at the White House.
How many words, Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent?
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't have a cheat sheet like Brianna Keilar had last --
LEMON: You want to take a guess? 980; 270; 4,400; 7,600. It's -- it's the shortest in the world.
HENRY: All right, President Obama's a 44th president of the United States. I'm going to -- I'm going to kind to connect that and say 4,400.
LEMON: Good guess. Did somebody tell you in your ear? Tell the truth.
HENRY: Yes. I must confess, I got the answer.
LEMON: The answer is, the -- it is -- it is 4,400. All right, thanks for playing along with that.
Listen, a lot of reshuffling of President Obama's economic team and it's going to continue --
(CROSS TALK)
HENRY: Yes.
LEMON: -- so tell us about the latest shift. HENRY: Yes, some big moves. I mean, CNN just confirming in the last hour that Paul Volcker, the former Fed chairman, is going to be stepping down and then sort of an outside advisory role. Not a position inside the White House but he was the chair of the President's Outside Economic Recovery Board, not totally unexpected. It's a two-year term as chairman.
But you know maybe there have been some Democrats hoping he would be appointed to another two-year term or stay on in some other post, because Volcker was pretty tough on Wall Street. He wanted more regulation. And so when you put that together with the fact that Bill Daley was here yesterday, a potential White House Chief of Staff, somebody who's been at JP Morgan Chase, in recent years there in Chicago.
They're may be some liberals wondering whether this White House is going to be tilting more towards the center in being a little less tough on Wall Street in both rhetoric and regulations. Something to keep an eye on, no doubt, especially with the President making more economic staff announcements we're told tomorrow here in the Washington area. Expected to name Gene Sperling currently at the Treasury Department over here to run the National Economic Council.
And secondly, someone joining the administration, Holly Petraeus the wife of General David Petraeus. She's going to be named to a position with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau focusing specifically on helping military families. Sometimes the target of predatory lenders et cetera she's going to be working with Elizabeth Warren, the President's Chief of that new consumer agency.
So it's interesting they're pulling in the wife of General Petraeus to try to make sure that military families are a big part of this consumer protection group -- Don.
LEMON: Ok Ed, so we hear one Congressman is getting a big promotion. Can you tell us more about that?
HENRY: Yes you know, to go from a pizza guy to a member of Congress; he's one of the freshman Republicans. You may know him having coming from Illinois, Bobby Schilling. He's a freshman Republican from Illinois and he ran a -- a pizza place called Giuseppe's Heavenly Pizza. It sounds great just -- just reading the name.
And not right in Chicago but in Illinois, you assume that some Chicago -- some of that thick crust -- deep dish that we all love so much. He actually yesterday shipped in pizza from Giuseppe's overnight to make sure it was at his party. He also shipped in ice cream from Illinois, a place called Whitey's. I haven't heard of it but I bet it's good.
LEMON: It's really good.
HENRY: That had to be -- and so you've had it. So you can attest to that. It had to be the best. All these freshmen have swearing in parties and sometimes they've got you know, the hot dogs, the little hot dogs on the plate with a little bit of mustard. This guy had some pizza flown in along with ice cream from Whitey's which Don Lemon says is the best.
So --
(CROSS TALK)
LEMON: It's really good.
HENRY: -- had some good party.
LEMON: Yes but I can't eat it right now. Because you know the holidays.
HENRY: It's not good for the New Year's resolution I have to say to be bring pizza and ice cream in your first day of work.
LEMON: It's not good for the old year's resolution but it's still good nonetheless, it tastes good. Thank you Ed Henry. All right.
HENRY: Thanks Don.
LEMON: All right, a leisurely fishing trip ends in a close encounter with a great white and it's all caught on tape. We'll show you more just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. Let's scan our "Morning Passport" right now. We begin in Iran where there are reports an American woman is under arrest accused of spying.
CNN's Zain Verjee following the details for us from London.
Hello, Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there Don. How are you? Well, we're hearing reports from Iranian state media saying that a 55-year- old American woman has been detained for spying. They say that she did not have a visa and came in from Armenia into Iran. Her name is Haley Talayan (ph) and she apparently told security forces there in Iran that if she were to go back to Armenia she would be killed.
We don't really know what the situation is. The story is developing. But we do know there are two other Americans being held under accusations of spying also. Months ago they had previously crossed over from the Kurdish areas of Iraq into Iran. And we'll you know what happens with this latest development that a 55-year-old American woman held for spying in Iran -- Don.
LEMON: It is cold here in the U.S. We know it's warm down in Australia? Tell us about a shark attack there I hear you're following.
VERJEE: Don, I want you to take a look at this video. It's pretty incredible. These guys had an amazing experience. They were really lucky, it was basically a group of fishermen near Perth in Australia and they were circled and then attacked by a great white shark. Just look at it. There it goes.
They were actually just on a holiday having a good time. And Don just minutes before they saw the shark a couple of the guys were in the water just swimming away having a good time. But the great white circled their boat and then attacked the propeller.
Now they managed to get away. They got back on to land safely. Nobody was hurt. But what they found out later was that they had a bunch of teeth from the shark that were actually embedded in the propeller. And that was the picture they got.
LEMON: Did -- no one knows why this happened? Did they provoke the shark in anyway? Were they -- they throw food in the water? What happened?
VERJEE: They -- they said that the shark just pitched up out of nowhere and just was aggressive, circled it. They were just -- they said they were on holiday having -- having a fun time with the family and were swimming away. It was nice and sunny. And there's no explanation for why they say the great white came up on them like that.
LEMON: Oh wow.
VERJEE: They got some good souvenirs, though, the teeth from the propeller.
LEMON: Yes and some memories. Ok so listen, we move on to a happier story, a little girl discovers a Supernova?
VERJEE: Yes. Yes this is very cool actually. A 10-year-old Canadian girl is the youngest person in the world to discover a super nova. She looked at a new shot then she compared it with an old shot and she found something pretty amazing. Here is what she says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATHRYN AUROR GRAY, YOUNGEST TO DISCOVER SUPERNOVA: My dad's friend who lives in Nova Scotia took a look at pictures and I used a program that my dad has on the computer. It takes one images from about three years ago and an image from New Year's Eve and it puts them together. Whatever stars on the new picture but not on the old picture will start to blink and that's when you have to find out is it a super nova, a comet or an asteroid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VERJEE: Don, she's 10 years old. What were you doing when you were 10? I, for that matter -- I certainly wasn't doing that. But you know what? It's pretty and an amazing accomplishment. The thing is what next for her? I mean the bar is set pretty high now, right? She says that she wants to continue looking for more supernovas.
LEMON: Ten years old? I can't remember what I did ten minutes ago. That was a long time ago Zain. Hey, we miss you here in the U.S. You're doing a great job over there. Good to see you and happy New Year. Ok.
VERJEE: Thanks. You, too, Don. See you later.
LEMON: A new school calendar, the four-day week. Think about that. More than 100 districts have already made the switch; it cuts cost. But critics worry it may also be cutting corners in your kids' education. We're talking about it next hour in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right everyone. There are two new members of baseball's Hall of Fame today but there is also controversy over who wasn't chosen.
Jeff Fischel from HLN sports is here to tell us about it. Where is Jeff? There he is. I thought you were going to walk over here and talk to me. No?
JEFF FISCHEL, HLN SPORTS: I guess I'm at the desk.
LEMON: Ok.
FISCHEL: People, I'm being told, not allowed.
LEMON: I have been off for a long time. What do you have for us?
FISCHEL: Welcome back. Two huge stars made it in the Hall of Fame; Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven but two big names didn't make it and that's what everyone is talking about. Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro did not make it and they have both been connected to steroids. McGuire top ten all time with 583 home runs. He's been on the ballot and he didn't even get 20 percent of the vote. Remember how popular he was when he was hitting all those home runs?
And then there's Rafael Palmeiro. He's 12th all-time in home runs. But again he was also connected to steroids. You have to wonder, voters are sending a message, no one is going to get in if you did steroids.
Great NBA match-up last night: Spurs and Celtics, the teams with the two best records in the league. San Antonio taking on, trying to slow down the Celtics. There's the steal and Manu Ginobili for three. But the Celtics were to answer time and again. Great game. Look at Ray Allen get free and bury the three. The Celtics hold on to win this one, 105-103.
You know, the homeless man with the golden voice he may have a job with an NBA team. The Cleveland Cavaliers say they want to hire Ted Williams to do announcing at their arena. Williams says the team has offered him a two-year contract.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TED WILLIAMS, HOMELESS MAN: When you're listening to nothing but the best of oldies you're listening to Majic 98.9. Thank you so much. God bless you. (END VIDEO CLIP)
FISCHEL: Well, I know that voice, right? The team says it will pay even his living expenses. Talk about a total life makeover.
Check out this sweet move. It's just like Jordan would do. In fact, that's Michael's son, Marcus Jordan; scored 26 points last night in the University of Central Florida win. His team's undefeated and ranked in the Top 25.
Best dunker in the NBA has to be the Clippers' rookie Blake Griffin. Watch him come flying in the open court. Guess we don't have that, do we? There it is. Waiting for it, waiting for it. It's worth the wait after all that build-up. He's going to be in the dunk contest for the Clippers.
But, the best dunk may come from a lady. Check this out. She's a member of the Houston Rocket's Dunking Dancers. Don, those are some moves. She's been doing that for a few years and people love to watch, just as much as the players.
LEMON: Yes, especially if all of the players look like that.
All right. Jeff, thank you very much. I thought it was Rob Marciano sitting over there because I'm so used to him being there. But, thank you, sir. Happy New Year to you.
FISCHEL: Same to you.
LEMON: All right.
