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Update On Tucson Survivors; Steve Jobs' Health Concerns; Dr. Lemole Removed Bone Fragments From Giffords' Eye Socket; Surprise Return To Haiti From Baby Doc Duvalier; Hosting Of The Golden Globes; Florida Tornado Warnings; China Takes On The Dollar; Rev. Jesse Jackson on Dr. King's Legacy; New Evidence that Video Games Can Increase Mental Health Problems; Flash Flooding in Parts of Oregon and Washington State; House of Representatives Set to Repeal Obama's Health Care Reform; The Potential Impact of IBM's Watson
Aired January 17, 2011 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: They're going to do that any moment now. We are, certainly, hoping to hear more good news about her, when her doctors brief reporters, but it will be hard to top the news from Gifford's husband, her constant companion, Mark Kelly. The Navy pilot and NASA astronaut tells ABC that just a week after being shot through the head, Giffords was giving him a neck massage.
It was a remarkable weekend all around. The Congresswoman was taken off a ventilator and promoted from critical condition to serious. Only two other victims of the Tucson rampage are still in University Medical Center and both of them are in good condition.
As for the alleged gunman, two judicial sources tell CNN that Jared Loughner's federal trial will, likely, be moved out of Arizona, possibly to San Diego. That's where the presiding judge and Loughner's lead attorney are based. All the federal judges in Arizona have recused (ph) themselves since one of their own, chief district judge John Roll, was among the gunman's victims.
We'll monitor a news conference from the hospital and bring you the latest developments from it. As you can see, it's just getting under way now. We've someone listening in to it as it happens.
On to another health story now. This one has huge implications for business, technology, and our digital lifestyle in general. Apple's CEO Steve Jobs is taking another medical leave of absence. This one comes, almost, exactly two years after his first leave, which lasted six months, during which he underwent a liver transplant.
A few years before that, he had surgery for a rare form of pancreatic cancer. Ever since then, he's been bone thin but outwardly energetic and, from all indications, on top of his game.
That's certainly true of his company. Here's what he said. In an e-mail to Apple employees, Jobs writes, team, at my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.
I've asked Tim Cook, and Cook is Apple's COO, to be responsible for Apple's day-to-day operations. I have great confidence that Tim, and the rest of the executive management team, will do a terrific job executing the exciting plans that we have in place for 2011. I love Apple so much and I hope to be back as soon as I can. In the meantime, my family and I would deeply appreciate respect for our privacy.
CNN's Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now for "Two At The Top." But before we talk to Elizabeth, because we've got you here, I just want to listen in to the press. We're in Tucson, Arizona, at the University Medical Center.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Comments as to the details of the procedure. Dr. Rhee is at a professional society meeting this morning, and I have asked Dr. Grand (ph) to speak in his stead as the assistant director of the trauma program.
I would, also, like to take the opportunity to update you on the other patients. We have two more patients in good conditions in the hospital, and, obviously, still one seriously injured patient in the ICU. But we are very pleased about the outcome one week after this tragic event, and we really appreciate all of your support that not only you, but, of course, the community and people across the nation, have given us.
And now, let Dr. LeMole talk about the procedures on Saturday. It was a procedure, what we call a minor procedure, that took about two hours and he will update you on the portion that he did. And then Dr. Randy Freeze on the portion of the general surgery procedure.
DR. LEMOLE, UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Good morning. So, what you're hearing here, again, is another team effort, and I want to give the credit out to the people who have assisted at every phase, particularly, in the repair of the orbital roof fracture, Dr. Polansky, here to my right, was assisting as well as the entire resources of the department of opthamology.
So, let me take you back to that operation and describe exactly what we did and what we needed to do. If you recall from the first conference where I mentioned the Congresswoman's initial injuries, I did mention she had bilateral orbital roof fractures. That's, basically, fractures in the roof of the eye socket.
Fortunately, on the left, that fracture does not look as though it will need any kind of repair. On the right, however, the bone fragments from that fracture were pushing down enough on the eye and its -- and the contents of the eye socket that Dr. Polanski, actually, that initial day, needed to perform a very quick releasing incision and operation. But we did not want to do the full repair at that time.
The patient, as you know, was very, very -- in very, very critical condition, at that time, and we did not want to take a chance to further exacerbate brain swelling and other factors that could have been adversely affecting her.
So, we put that off until such at such a time we felt she was through that critical period, and at about the week mark is when we felt that would be right. We did want to get to that fracture and repair it within a reasonable amount of time, within the first few weeks, to prevent complications down the road from the pressure on that eye socket.
The procedure, itself, did require a craniotomy, that's opening a window in the skull. It did require that we remove some of the rim of the eye socket so we could work in that space, remove the bone fragments, and take the pressure off.
And then, again, working with Dr. Polanski, we, actually, reconstructed that rough with a metal mesh and, then, were able to close up. We did do this all through an incision, just above the eyebrow, so we would not have to re-expose and risk the left side of the brain and we wanted to minimize that as much as possible.
And I'm happy to say that within a few hours of the surgery, she was waking up and through the weekend she came back to the same baseline she had been before the surgery, that same level of interaction she's been having with us. And that's all very good.
At this time, we're hoping to continue tying up those loose ends and get her ready for that third phase of her care, the rehabilitation -- Randy.
DR. RANDY FREEZE, UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: So, prior to Dr. Lemole's procedure, Dr. Rhee and myself performed a tracheotomy and gastrocemy (ph) on the Congresswoman. These are very common procedures performed that are performed on brain injury patients that will allow us to expedite their care, provide them with adequate nutrition, manage their air in a much more comfortable manner.
Therefore, the tubes that were in her face are no longer there and no longer needed. And it, also, decreases the risk of infection, sinusitis, aspiration, those types of things. She tolerated those procedures well. In fact, we did them right before Dr. Lemole finished with his procedure.
LEMOLE: We can now open up for and questions you might have for me and for Dr. Freeze.
VELSHI: OK. Two of the doctors who were tending to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, talking about what they did, giving us some descriptions about what happened in surgery -- several surgeries, it seems.
Elizabeth Cohen is with me, now. They talked about the eye socket. They had to rebuild it. They had to release pressure, because there was pressure on the eye socket. They talked about removing a portion of her skull to alleviate the swelling and a couple of other surgeries. Anything there that surprised you? Or is this what we, sort of, heard? ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: No, this is definitely what you would expect, and in all counts, like, it went very well. Obviously, she had to be sedated for the surgeries, but she is now back to the level that she was at before the surgeries, in terms of interacting with them, ability to move or follow commands or communicate, so that sounds all good.
VELSHI: I remain fascinated by the degree of her injury and the fact that there is, actually, a prognosis for recovery including that man that you talked to, I think in Florida. The police officer.
COHEN: Yes, the policeman, right. I mean, yes, this was a man who was shot through the head just like she was and he is doing great today. He walks with a limp but he's a little bit weak, but that's about it. I mean, he's fully functioning.
VELSHI: Yes.
COHEN: So, it's pretty incredible that she has lived through this, and she is doing that well, and they can do things like go in and get bone fragments out.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: That were above her eye and causing some pressure. Thinking she's healthy enough that they can go in and do those kinds of surgeries. That's important.
VELSHI: Right. OK, very good stuff. Let's talk about Steve Jobs for a second. He is, you know, one of those people in business history who is so associated with the company he runs and that's why, I think, people are more concerned about Steve Jobs' health than they would, typically, of a CEO.
What's going on with him? He had a rare form of pancreatic cancer. He took time off from work, he got a new liver. He hasn't, really, gained his weight back but when you've see him on TV, he, definitely, does seems robust and energetic and, certainly, the company he's guiding continues to churn out new stuff and meet with some success.
COHEN: That's right. Let's take a look at his history and then talk about his future. In 2003, he was diagnosed with a rare form of pancreatic cancer, which is, actually, if you're going to get pancreatic cancer, this is the kind to get. Much more easily treatable than other kinds.
And, then, he had surgery to remove that tumor the next year, and, then, in 2009, he had a liver transplant, according to doctors we talked to, presumably because that cancer had spread to his liver, and, so, he needed a new liver.
And this -- and, then, we didn't really hear much, until now, and, as you said, he looked energetic, although thin. And after talking to doctors all afternoon about, gee, what could be happening here? There is a whole variety of things that could be happening. The cancer could be back. That is a possibility. He could be rejecting his liver, even though it's been a year and a half, he could be rejecting it. He could have an infection because when you get someone else's liver you have to take immune suppression drugs and that could be inviting a virus in.
VELSHI: OK.
COHEN: He could be developing diabetes, and a serious form of diabetes, because they may have had to remove so much of his pancreas that he can't make insulin. There's a bunch of different scenarios that could be going on here.
VELSHI: All right. And he has -- as he said, asked the company's chief operating officer to take charge of it, but, you know, Apple is just ubiquitous to all of us, and, really, he is one of those cases where the CEO is ubiquitous as well. I mean, that's what we associate so much of this decade is tied to things that go on in Steve Jobs hand.
COHEN: Tied to one man.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: And, I think, there is -- there is, you know, reason for concern, and you just hope that with this leave he'll be able to take care of it.
VELSHI: All of those things you mentioned, I guess they vary in how treatable they are.
COHEN: They do. They vary but all of them are serious. I mean, these are rejecting a liver, cancer spreading, all of these are serious.
VELSHI: OK. We'll stay on top of it. We have a few medical things to stay on top of. Thanks very much, Elizabeth.
OK. An earthquake tragedy, a cholera outbreak, and a disputed presidential election. Beleaguered Haitians wondering what next would rock their country got their answer yesterday with the surprise arrival of Jean Claude, you may know him better as "Baby Doc" Duvalier. That would be the former dictator Jean Claude Duvalier, exiled to France 25 years ago. No one is quite sure why he is back and what he wants.
CNN's John Zarrella is on the story, though. He covered Duvalier's departure from Haiti, back in 1986, and now he's covering the return to Port-au-Prince. What is going on, John?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ali, I can tell you, back in 1986, when I was here for his departure, there was a lot more excitement on the street that he was leaving than we've seen so far here in Port-au-Prince about his arrival.
We're outside of the Careve (ph) Hotel, here, up in Patien Ville, just outside of Port-au-Prince, and this is where we had expected that Jean Claude Duvalier would hold a news conference, today. That had been promised. But late this morning it was announced that, no, it was not going to happen. That he's is resting today and that, very likely, it would happen tomorrow.
Now, one of his closest friends, someone that, we were told, grew up with him since he was a boy, here on the island, said that, look, he came back because he feels for the Haitian people. He had seen all of the stories of the one-year anniversary, and, in his heart, just felt like he needed to be here. So, that's why he came back.
When I asked, well, how long is he planning to stay? Because there had been reports that he would only be here for two or three days, I was not, really, given an answer, saying, well, we, really, don't know how long he intends to be here. As for the government, the Rene Preval government, they've said nothing about Duvalier's return to this point.
And the only thing we did hear was that one minister remarked, late yesterday, after the surprise arrival here, that, look, it's not going to make too much of a difference, here. Life is going on. We're, really, not worried about the fact that he's back. The questions remain, why did he choose this time? What's his purpose for being here? And it does not appear that we're going to get those answers from Jean Claude Duvalier, at least not today -- Ali.
VELSHI: John, what do we -- what sense do you have of the base of support that he may still have in Haiti?
ZARRELLA: Well, you know, he does not have a political party here, any longer, although about 200 supporters showed up at the airport for him last night.
Now, that's, certainly, by no means, a tremendous outpouring. There may be some allegiances with one of the parties that, kind of, see themselves as, maybe, Duvalierists, but it is very, very shaky as to how much support he, actually, would have here.
You have to realize that many of the people, probably half of the population of Haiti, doesn't even remember when this man was in power. They, certainly -- if they were, they were small children, you know, young and teenagers. So, at this point, it's very hard to gauge, again, what level of support he might have.
Now, it's speculated that, perhaps, he would come out and throw his support to one of the candidates who is in this run-off, whenever they do the run-off election here, but, again, all of that is just being speculated because Duvalier himself has not come out and, again, we don't expect him to come out today -- Ali.
VELSHI: All right, John, I know you'll stay on top of it and give us some clarity to the story as soon as some of it develops. This was an unexpected development in all of the stuff that has gone on in Haiti over the last year. John Zarrella in Port-au-Prince covering the story for us. Now, look, if you can't say something nice, you may have a shot at hosting the golden globes and thus becoming one of our "Sound Effects." Last night, in his second stint as golden globe host, Ricky Gervais went out of his way to offend some of the biggest names in entertainment. Here he gets three of them in one swipe.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICKY GERVAIS, HOST, GOLDEN GLOBES: And I'd like to quash this ridiculous rumor going around that the only reason the "Taurus" was nominated was so the Hollywood foreign press could hang out with Johnny Depp and Angelina Jolie. That is rubbish. That is not the only reason. They, also, accepted bribes. All that happened was some of them were taken to see Cher in concert. How the hell is that a bribe? Really? Do you want to go see Cher? No. Why not? Because it's not 1975.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: That Gervais meets his match on Thursday when he is a guest CNN's "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT." Piers' big davue (ph) is tonight. His very first guest, Oprah Winfrey. We'll get a preview in just a few minutes. Piers himself joins me live next hour, 2:30 p.m. Eastern, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hey, send me on Twitter or Facebook some questions you want me to ask Piers. Maybe I'll get to them.
Heavy rain, melting snow. A bad combination in the Pacific Northwest. We'll show you an amazing rescue near Seattle coming up after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: I want to show you a rescue in Seattle. The heavy rain, combined with melting snow, is causing floods and mudslides. A couple trying to rescue their dog from a kernel got stuck in high water. People living nearby could hear the woman screaming, but they couldn't see her. So they yelled back into the darkness offering their reassurances.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hang on. People are coming. The fire department are coming. There's a boat. We're looking for you. We'll be coming. Just trying to reassure her that she wasn't going to be left there for a long time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The dog wasn't worth their lives and I think the dog is safe where it's at and there's actually somebody there at the kennels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: Sheriff's deputies were finally able to find the couple and rescue them. Both were cold, but they were unhurt. Floods and landslides have closed a number of Seattle area roads. They've knocked down power lines. A transportation department worker setting up cones to alert motorists was killed by a falling tree.
Further south, mudslides are also blocking roads along the northern Oregon coast. And floods washed away at least two homes along the Sandy River outside Portland. Now, dozens of homes were evacuated. Bonnie Schneider is watching today's developments.
There's a lot of rain going on in the Northwest, but, Bonnie, you've got news coming out of Florida right now. Some fairly serious news.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: That's right. There's a tornado warning that remains in effect until 1:45 and that's for parts of south Florida, including Brevard, Orange, and Osceola County. And you can see, it does include the Kennedy Space Center. That's the area here highlighted in pink. We're watching this for not only the possibility of a tornado, but, unfortunately, we're also looking at the threat for large hail and maybe even some very, very heavy downpours, flashes of lightning.
There are two tornado watches in effect for south Florida right now. You can see that all the way from south of Orlando, down through Miami-Dade. This does include portions of the Florida Keys. And with this heavy rain coming in, there's going to be a concern for that throughout the day.
We're also watching snow. It's getting heavier across the Midwest. So be careful out there if you're traveling in areas of Chicago or Milwaukee or Green Bay, the snow's been coming down all day.
And, finally, just to check back on the western part of the country, some good news, Ali. Even though there was some rain overnight and in the early hours of this morning, we're getting a little bit of a break right now in our satellite perspective. A steady stream of moisture coming in from the Pacific sort of breaks up a little bit right before we hit the coast line, which is what we want. We need a breather. And actually the forecast does call for improvements as we go through the rest of the week. So you can see some of the heavy rain is further inland. A little bit lighter on the shore. Hopefully it'll dry out a bit this week and we can minimize the risk of landslides because it's still at risk -- high risk today.
VELSHI: All right. And you're looking at some live pictures to give you some sense of how serious that is.
OK, Bonnie, we'll stay on top of this. Thank you so much.
Hey, listen, on the eve of his arrival in Washington, tomorrow Chinese President Hu Jintao raised questions on the role of the U.S. dollar. He called it a, quote, product of the past. Well, this made me think, what would it mean if your -- if the dollar wasn't the dominant reserve currency of the world. If it became weak? I'll tell you on the other side.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VELSHI: Well, on the eve of his arrival in Washington tomorrow, China's President Hu Jintao raised questions on the role of the U.S. dollar. He called it, quote, "a product of the past." Now, what would it mean for your wallet if the U.S. dollar was not the dominant reserve currency of the world? What if it became weak? Well, surprisingly, it may not all be that bad. Let me explain.
Take a look behind me. If the U.S. dollar -- these are the pros and cons of a strong U.S. dollar. A strong U.S. dollar, which is what we seem to think we like, means that the price of imported goods goes down. They're lower. The amount of manufacturing we do in the United States is also lower. And the price of oil goes lower. So those are the advantages of a strong dollar.
Take a look at what happens if we have a weak dollar. Well, domestic products get cheaper as opposed to imported products and we buy more made in the USA stuff. U.S. manufacturing starts to tick up. We've seen that. The dollar has weakened in recent months and we've seen U.S. manufacturing pick up. And tourism to the U.S. increases. So does tourism within the U.S. because Americans get a better deal by traveling here than they do by going overseas.
So I wanted to put this to my good friend, Christine Romans, who is the host of "Your Bottom Line," who thinks I'm full of hot air.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: No, I think you're talking about two different things. The level of the dollar is different than the reserve currency status of the dollar. And you would think that Hu Jintao and the Chinese would want to have a strong U.S. dollar because that would, of course --
VELSHI: Because they own a lot of them.
ROMANS: Right, and because they want to export to the United States. And even if they were to decouple their currency from ours, they would -- look, I don't want to get in the weeds here. But I think that the level of the currency and the reserve status of the currency are two different things in a long list of things that will be discussed this week, Ali.
When you have the president of China saying that the United States currency supremacy is a thing of the past, a message (ph) of the past, he's essentially saying he'd like the Yuan to be the global dominating currency. And that's something that many experts tell me could take 20, 30, 40, 50 years if indeed it were to happen.
The reason why it's good for the U.S. to have -- to be the reserve currency is that we borrow more money than anybody else. And you want to borrow money in your own money because then you -- that just makes it much easier and makes it much less prone to risk.
I wanted to, real quick, Ali, I know we don't have much time, I wanted to give our viewers a sense of the size of the U.S. and the size of China and these economies because you're going to be hearing a lot about this horse race this century.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: Here are the economies. The U.S. is 14.6 trillion. China's economy is about a third the size of the U.S. economy. I think we have some graphics here to show you. So if you look at the size of the U.S. economy like this you've got -- and we don't. You have the size of China's economy is like this.
We go to population, though. China's population is four times the United States' population. So its economy is a third the size of ours, but its population is four times. And its economy is growing at 8 to 10 percent every year.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: There is no great recession in China at all. The U.S. economy is growing about 2.6 percent each year. So you can see that China is going --
VELSHI: Right, we'd like our to be a little -- we'd like our growth to be a little stronger. But, I mean, it's kind of dangerous to have 10 percent growth.
ROMANS: Yes. And they'd like theirs to be a little bit weaker.
VELSHI: Yes.
ROMANS: And so you've seen them doing some things internally, like requiring banks to hold more reserves, more cash in the banks, so to speak, so that you don't have property bubbles and the like developing over there. But these are two very different economies that are tied so closely together that I think that this week is a pretty pivotal week for how these leaders avoid what are called the hawks in both countries who are very nervous about the other country.
VELSHI: Right.
ROMANS: And make sure that nobody is rattling anybody else here this week.
VELSHI: OK. You and me working overtime this week to cover this. So we will be talking a lot.
ROMANS: Yes. Sure. Yes.
VELSHI: Christine Romans. Be sure to tune in to Christine's show, "Your Bottom Line," Saturday mornings at 9:30 Eastern. "Your Money" airs Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and Sunday at 3:00.
OK. Piers Morgan tonight is the big debut tonight here on CNN. His very first guest, none other than Oprah. Here's a preview of Oprah revealing a very personal experience before she became the huge success that she is today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OPRAH WINFREY: So I'm thinking, well, I'm just going to have to kill myself. So when --
PIERS MORGAN, CNN "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": Did you come close to doing that?
WINFREY: Umm, no, not -- you know, I did stupid things like, you know, drinking detergent and all that kind of crazy stuff that you do when you're trying to get attention, when you're really just trying to cry for help.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VELSHI: You can see all of Piers' interview with Oprah on the premiere of his show tonight starting at 9:00 p.m. only on CNN. 9:00 p.m. Eastern. You can hear more about Piers' new show directly from him. He joins me live in our next hour, 2:30 Eastern. You won't want to miss this. And send questions that you think he might want to -- or you might want to hear him answer to twitter at AliVelshi or to my Facebook page.
OK, It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day today and Americans are split on whether we are living up to his vision. But where do people who walked side by side with Dr. King think we stand? I'm going to pose that question to somebody who was with him when he lived and when he died.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Looking at the Statue of Liberty. Today we're talking about a different point in America's quest for liberty as we honor Martin Luther King Jr. Today is MLK Day, celebrated across most of America honoring the legacy of Dr. King.
We want to remember Dr. King, when he lived, when he died. Somebody who was with him through both of those periods, Jesse Jackson. He is joining me now from University Park, Illinois.
Reverend Jackson, good to see you again. I want to just show you something that we've got here, a new CNN Opinion Research poll talking about whether the U.S. has fulfilled Martin Luther King's vision. Forty-eight percent say yes. Twenty-six percent say no, but they eventually will. And twenty-three percent, almost a quarter of Americans, say no and we never will.
Which of these answers do you agree with? Where are we in terms of fulfilling the dream that people like you and Martin Luther King worked towards?
REV. JESSE JACKSON, FOUNDER, RAINBOW PUSH COALITION: Well, a great distance from fulfillment. As a matter of fact, the dream is on the attack.
He would be delighted to know that we have come to a higher level of socialization, enough to vote for each other across lines of race and gender and religion. And so President Barack is in Washington today as head of state. He would find delight in that. When Oregon plays Auburn plays for the big football game, we're choosing uniform color, not skin color. He would take delight in that.
But then on the other hand the issue of violence, the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is simply illuminating -- we pray to God for her recovery -- but it illuminates just how much more violent we've become. Look at this week's "TIME" magazine -- 32,000 Americans are killed each year; 100,000 are injured. That would disturb him very much. After all, we've lost less than 6,000 soldiers in Iraq and Afghan (sic) the last eight years. And 32,000 were killed. And we want to add that, more access to semi-automatic weapons. He would want to revive the ban on assault weapons.
VELSHI: Yes.
JACKSON: On the other hand, the issue poverty. While the rich have gotten much richer because they've been subsidized, 59 million have no health insurance and insurance fees are rising. Forty-nine million are in poverty and 43 million now are on food stamps. He would be disturbed about the lack of commitment to close that gap and the end unnecessary wars.
VELSHI: Reverend Jackson, something that you and I share an interest in and we've talked many times about this and that is the jobs crisis. Back in the days of the civil rights movement you used to have marches about jobs. We are in a fairly serious jobs crisis right now.
You and your son Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. are trying to do something to draw attention, nationally, to the number of unemployed in this country.
JACKSON: We've begun to ask unemployed people to bring their resume, (INAUDIBLE), if they want a job, are looking for a job. And thousands are coming forth, putting face and feet on the desire for the job. He's put together in Congress resumes for America at mail.gov.com -- .gov.house.
He wants to submit to the Congress the names of people and the resumes looking for a jobs.
We seem not to have a plan yet to reinvest in and reindustrialize America. We're missing that great society dream. That war and poverty dream. All of these abandoned, vacant houses, Ali, for example, if that were a plan for trades skill training, replace boards with window panes and fix up these house and weatherize them and use brick masons and glazers, you could put thousands if not millions back to work to offset the damage done by the banker policy. There seems to be at this point no constructive reconstruction plan for abandoned Americans.
VELSHI: Reverend Jackson, you and I also share a view that there are many millions of people who have exhausted their unemployment benefits. What happens to them? What happens to people who no longer are on the rolls, have been unemployed, in some cases too long to get a job, are not trained in the industries that we have availability of work in?
What is the long-term concern for having five to seven million people who are -- for all intents and purposes -- out of the system?
JACKSON: Well, there goes the malnutrition and the high infant mortality rate. They don't live as long. They're thrown on the junk heap of life. And our nation must, just as we saw a great joy in putting a man on the moon, there must be a focus on wiping out malnutrition, a renewed focus on an urban policy that can put America back to work.
For example all of these things, we're cutting public transportation, cutting services, raising fares and laying off workers. If we, in fact, revive the green jobs dream, connect where people live with where jobs are, you begin to put America back to work. Just to -- we expect this year three to four million homes in foreclosure. Just not only to stop foreclosure, but to reconstruct homes already lost is a way of creating jobs.
We cannot keep spending billions of dollars in tax cuts for the very wealthy assuming they will reinvest and they won't, bailing out the banks assuming they will reinvest and they have not, and having wars searching for a peace that is elusive and have enough money left to, in fact, reinvest in America.
So 42 years after Dr. King was killed, we are now free but not equal. I'm afraid that our values are getting further and further away from his dream of full employment and jobs, ending imbalance and the quest for shared security.
VELSHI: All right. Reverend Jackson, we're going to link -- by the way -- on my blog to where people can send their resumes so that they can be read into the record. ResumesforAmerica@mail.house.gov. You can find that on my blog -- CNN.com/Ali.
JACKSON: Ali, it is time for state and mass marches. Time -- a jobs marches per state in Washington, it's the order (ph) of the state. We must now take to the streets again for the focus on jobs and no one party can ignore it.
We have that power and we must use that nonviolent power to bring the attention to the need for jobs, houses, health care, and education. The five words you will not hear today, poverty, economic justice, and racial justice, and urban policy. We need those words back in our lexicon.
VELSHI: All right. Well, thanks for staying on the fight to bring attention to these things that do tend to get forgotten.
Reverend Jesse Jackson is the founder and the chairman of Rainbow Push Coalition and a civil rights pioneer in this country.
All right. Do you think video games are harmless? Well, there's new evidence that links video game addiction to mental health problems. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is back with me after the break to talk about this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) Happening now. Apple's CEO Steve Jobs is taking another medical leave of absence. In an e-mail that he sent to employees, he says that he wants to take time off to focus on his health. He was previously diagnosed with cancer and had a liver transplant a couple years ago.
Now in Washington, the House of Representatives is set to vote on a repeal of President Obama's health care overhaul this week. We are hearing the debate on the floor will happen tomorrow and a vote on Wednesday. This repeal has little chance of passing the Democratic controlled Senate, however.
And there are flood warnings today across much of Oregon and Washington State. Heavy rains have caused landslides and closed roads. You can see some pictures of it there.
The alleged gunman in last weekend's attack in Tucson was an avid gamer. We don't know exactly what Jared Lee Loughner's mental health condition is, but today there's new evidence today that video game addiction can increase mental health problems.
Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins me now with more on this.
What's the link?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the link is when kids do this excessively, and what some would call pathologically, it can lead to problems like depression and anxiety and poor school performance. That's what they found. They looked at 3,000 kids in Singapore, and 10 percent of them had what the authors called pathological gaming. And if you think, oh, well that's just in Singapore, there have been similar findings here. And these kids, Ali, they were gaming like 30 hours a week.
VELSHI: All right. I'm sure a lot of parents watching this will say my kid games too much. What's too much? How do you know?
COHEN: Too much, you can think of it in terms of time.
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: You know if your kid is gaming so much they can't get their chores done or can't get their work done. But also, here are some things you should be an Empowered Parent and look for certain things.
First of all, if your child gets irritable when you tell them to stop --
VELSHI: Right.
COHEN: I know one kid threw a piece of furniture across the room. OK, that's a sign that that's pathological and that you should be thinking in terms of addiction. Also if your child uses games to escape problems, you know, they don't want to deal with the problems at school or home, they'd rather just go game. When they do that habitually that also a red flag.
And also, if your kid lies about gaming. If you know they spent most of the afternoon gaming and they say oh no, mom, I was reading a book you know again that they're headed into trouble.
VELSHI: Right. Do we know whether the kids that were studied -- I mean, how do we know that some of these kids that were found to have the issues didn't have them beforehand?
COHEN: Right. And that question, I think, will come up with Loughner. I mean, if anyone tries to use video games as any kind of defense, well, you know, clearly this kid was sick. So it's a chicken/egg thing. A kid is depressed maybe. They use video games as a way to escape. And then they might become more depressed because they're further alienated from everyone around them. So it's really a snowball effect.
I mean, video games might not cause mental illness. Maybe mental illness causes them to play more video games. But then it all kind of wraps into one.
VELSHI: And the types of games Loughner was involved in are the sort of the serious online gamer type of games where you have a name and that sort of stuff, as opposed to some kid playing Dance, Dance Revolution or something.
COHEN: Right, exactly. I mean, these kids in this study who were at this 30 hours a week, they weren't doing Dance, Dance Revolution 30 hours a week and getting depressed. These were kids who were mostly playing these violent, character --
VELSHI: Character games.
COHEN: -- yes, exactly.
VELSHI: All right. We'll continue to talk about this. Be interesting to see what the industry thinks of this. I bet you they don't want to be associated with it.
COHEN: They say this study is completely invalid and means nothing.
VELSHI: All right. Elizabeth, thanks very much, as always.
Hey, forget are you smarter than a fifth grader. Jeopardy wants to know if its champs are smarter than a super computer. I'm going to find out what the answer is in today's Big I. You're going to want to listen to this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VELSHI: Teargas and thousands of antigovernment protesters fill the streets of Tunisia's capital, Tunis. Police used tear gas and water canons today to disperse the demonstrations. The country's president fled the country for Saudi Arabia Friday after tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets. They expressed outrage over his near-dictatorial rule as well as high food prices and unemployment. Tunisia's prime minister today announced national unit government was announced, but it remains unclear if it will be accepted by the opposition.
Now, in today's "Big I" a first-of-its-kind Jeopardy episode. Next month, IBM's Watson supercomputer will battle it out against two of the show's all-time human champions. CNNmoney.com takes us on a behind-the-scenes sneak peek at a practice round. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN E. KELLY III, SENIOR V.P. IMB: What we are going to do today is for the first time publicly show Watson's capability against two of the all-time best players of Jeopardy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good morning, everybody. Thank you for being here. What do you say we play Jeopardy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watson.
"WATSON," IMB SUPERCOMPUTER AND JEOPARDY CONTESTANT: What is Jericho?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct. Watson?
WATSON: Who is Agatha Christie?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watson.
WATSON: What is Crete?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
DAVID FERRUCCI, PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR, WATSON PROJECT: We developed a technology under youth (ph) Watson called Deep QA. And one of the things it tries to do is take language, parse it, understand, you know, what is going on in this question? In the end, the technology has to come up with the top, right answer -- in the top position and have an estimation, how confident is it that answer is correct? That is a tough, challenging thing to do. And that's what Jeopardy pushes you to do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's finish.
WATSON: Chicks dig me.
(LAUGHTER)
ALEX TREBEK, HOST, "JEOPARDY": They came to our executive producer, Harry Friedman and asked him how he felt about them developing a computer system that would be able to appear on Jeopardy as a contestant. We all got very excited.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watson?
WATSON: Who is (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.
TREBEK: Well, this will be our valentine's day gift to American television viewers. This is the equivalent of the Super Bowl, I think.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Human versus machine. Who do you think will win?
TREBEK: I have no idea.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watson?
WATSON: Who is Mario Cuomo?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct.
FERRUCCI: I'm betting on Watson but I have a machine in the game, so who knows? We played sparring games against tournament champion players. We were competitive, but we win some and we lose some. It's going to be neck and neck
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watson?
WATSON: What is purple?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Correct! Taking you to 4,400.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VELSHI: Now, just so you know the computer, Watson, won the practice round. The real competition will be a series of matches that will air on TV on February 14th, 15th, and 16th. First prize: a million dollars. Second prize $300,000. Third prize $200,000. IBM will donate 100 percent of Watson's winnings to charity because as fascinating as supercomputers are, they still haven't figured out a way to spend money. Apparently, they can lose money. They haven't spent money.
All right. Let's have a conversation with somebody who I want input from. Richard is the creator of the Ted Conferences. He's the founder of Ted Med. He is the author of 82 different books, and he has devoted his life to simplifying complicated things for people. But a cutting-edge thinker.
Good to see you on the show again, first of all. Thanks for being with us. What do you think of when you see a computer being able to reason as well as just -- process data?
RUCGAR SAUL WURMAN, CREATOR, TED & TEDMED CONFERENCES: Well, I think it's extraordinary, and I think it's a game changer. And I don't see it, the end result of it just playing Jeopardy but I see it as a means of perhaps eventually in years to come doing diagnostic medicine.
It's -- that was an extraordinary exercise. It's only working at 70 percent. In other words, in has to be - in order to give an answer it has to be 70 percent sure it's correct. So, if it took some risks, it could probably up that quite a bit.
I think it's quite amazing. It's different than just number crunching and beating somebody at chess.
VELSHI: That's right. That's the distinction, right?
WURMAN: This has nuance.
VELSHI: We know computers out-calculate people in math for a long time. The issue is, it's nuance.
WURMAN: You remember the urban legend in 2001 that Hal was IBM one letter removed?
VELSHI: Right.
WURMAN: HAL, IBM. Right, you heard that, I think? And Hal in 2001 talked to the pilots, of course, eventually took over the ship. But this is much more like that. It's actually having a conversation with a machine --
VELSHI: Anything to fear about that?
WURMAN: No.
VELSHI: OK.
WURMAN: And I'll go into that in a little bit. But my quick answer is no. But it's like my iPad could nod at me. I would know that it understood me when I spoke to it, when I had a conversation with it. That's the waking dream we have of communication, of a nodding computer, of a conversation back and forth. What you do is have conversations, and you know the nuance in conversation.
VELSHI: Let me ask you this. The evolution of technology particularly the kind we hold in our hands, the things that we buy, whether it's iPads, iPhones, Blackberrys, or whatever they are --
WURMAN: Or all of them.
VELSHI: Or all of them. The emphasis these days is on the full range of connectedness. But increasingly, there are studies and reports and books being written about what happens to us and our own abilities as we become more dependent. So, in our generation, it would have been more about the fact that when spell check came out I went from being one of the best spellers around to being one that was probably mediocre. Now, we're finding that our kids have shorter attention spans and perhaps aren't computing in their heads because of what's available to us. Is there a danger of too much interconnectedness. WURMAN: Well, there's two different issues here. One that is we get disconnected because we have things like Facebook, and we're disconnected and we're always looking at a machine but not interacting with it, so to speak. And there's no nuance in Twitter, etc.
And the other, the game-changing part of this, is that we could actually interact with it and have more nuance back and forth, more conversation, more meaning, and more connectivity. So, I think -- not in this first iteration, but this is the very first thing we're seeing like this. In that sense, I think it's a game-changer. Everything else you said was correct. But I think this perhaps breaks through some of the problems in one fell swoop.
VELSHI: Let me ask you this. As I see it, the drivers of the economy and of innovation in the last -- I don't know -- 25 years or so has been most recently finance - and we can agree or disagree as to whether or not that was a good thing - but finance, energy -- traditional energy I mean, oil and gas and coal -- technology through the tech bubble and health care.
Do you agree with that? And what's going to be the next driver for the next 15 or 20 years?
WURMAN: Well, health care is always going to be up there, and the biggest part that drives health care is technology. So, technology is a subset of all of the things. The conference that I created, TED., or the new one TED MED., the T stands for technology. But it's about the convergence of technology with entertainment, with health care, with design. So, technology will remain the driver in our society as it did from the first discovery how to make fire, which is a technology. So, technology is part of our civilization.
Energy certainly will be there and there will be amazing -- we'll have a conversation, maybe not you and I, but there will be a conversation between you and somebody when the breakthrough on energy happens, when there's an astonishing breakthrough on wind energy to power and the conservation of it or sun power or water power with great conversion factors that make it silly to use any other thing but natural forces to power our grid. So, that will happen, but that will be just a moment. That will be an innovation.
Then that will go down the line and the repercussions, of course, will be international in how it changes the states who depend on oil and coal and fossil fuels of all sorts. So health care --
VELSHI: Richard, you are -- go ahead. Sorry, go ahead. inish your thought.
WURMAN: No. That's okay. I was going on and on.
VELSHI: It's a pleasure. You are one of the smartest guys we ever have on the show. Let's do this a little more regularly. We said that the last time you were on, and too much time has gone.
WURMAN: Yes we did. VELSHI: It will be my responsibility to invite you on and give us your sense as a real visionary about where technology is going in a way that can really help my viewers. Yes?
WURMAN: Let me just say that the Watson thing is not a trivial, other funny thing. I'm sorry it's with Jeopardy because it trivializes it in a way with a game show. It's a really - it's a much bigger moment in innovation history.
VELSHI: Well, but popularizes it, too. So while it may seem like trivialization, more people will know about it as a result of it being on Jeopardy.
Richard, great to see you. Please come back again. Richard Saul Wurman is the creator of the TED conferences. He is the founder of TEDmedical. And by the way, go to my blog, CNN.com/ali. I'll link you to the stuff he's done. He's written 82 books. This is the guy who understands what the future is going to look like.
All right. Will a name change in Washington change the debate in health care? That's ahead in your CNN political update, right after this break.
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