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Action at Former Haitian Dictator's Hotel; Chinese President Visits Washington; Repealing Health Care; China Investing in American Children; Newt Gingrich's Message to Sarah Palin

Aired January 18, 2011 - 11:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you're going to have a good time now for the next two hours.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I know. We have a bit of breaking news to tell people about, so it will be an interesting two hours.

Thank you, Kyra. Have a great day.

PHILLIPS: You bet. See you, Carol.

COSTELLO: Live from Studio 7, I'm Carol Costello.

We do have that breaking news to tell you about. It's coming out of Haiti.

CNN's John Zarrella is on the phone with the latest developments on former Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier.

I guess he's in a little bit of trouble, huh, John?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right at this particular moment, it doesn't look very good. As we speak, developments are continuing to unfold here rather quickly.

Outside the Karibe hotel, a vehicle, a white police vehicle, has just backed into the front of the hotel. The speculation is that this may be a precursor to his being picked up, to his being arrested, perhaps in the next few minutes or so.

We have been looking up at the third floor roof area where Duvalier has been holed up. There are members of the SWAT team, the Haitian SWAT team, with their black masks covering their faces up there.

The chief prosecutor had gone up earlier, within the last half hour or so, along with the police chief from this area, called Petionville. The chief prosecutor, we understand, may still be up there. The police chief has left.

But again, this white van, police van, has backed in to the front of the hotel. It's absolutely, Carol, a mob surrounded by cameras and members of the media, at least 100 to 150 people.

I don't know how they are going to effectively, if they plan to do this, bring him down to play through this crowd of -- this horde of media gathered here. But that's what we're following right now. We're watching these developments unfold.

Right now, nothing has happened, just that the vehicle is in the front of the hotel and the members of the SWAT team -- some of them had left and gone back to their vehicles, to an armored personnel carrier that I'm looking at across from the hotel. There are still some though upstairs -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So I guess this proves you can't be a former dictator and be accused of stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from a country and just waltz back in and hold a press conference.

ZARRELLA: You know, the interesting fact about that, as you would have thought, is that, coming back, he knew that something like this might happen. Why he decided to take that chance, that risk, at this point in time we may not know, because that plan for any press conference appears out the window.

And we were also told by a confidante, a long-time friend of his, that he never was going to hold a press conference, despite what he had all heard, that he was going to issue a statement of solidarity with the people, how everyone since the earthquake had pulled together, and it was a nonpolitical statement. I was told the statement would even make a reference to Martin Luther King, because, of course, it was supposed to have been delivered yesterday, his statement, but that didn't happen.

So we may not know now what Duvalier had planned on doing here, at least not in his own words, and not today, as we continue to follow these developments outside the Karibe hotel. And again, Carol, no new movement right now, just the fact that this vehicle has been backed up in the front of the hotel. A police vehicle and members of the SWAT team still up there on the third floor -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, John. I'm sure you'll keep an eye on things. Thanks, John. We'll get back to you if there's any movement there in Haiti.

(NEWSBREAK)

COSTELLO: Back to our lead story now.

Washington rolling out the red carpet for China's president, Hu Jintao, leader of the world's second largest economy, the biggest holder of U.S. debt. Talks between President Obama and President Hu are expected to be tough.

Chief Business Correspondent Ali Velshi is here.

And Ali, we want to kind of dissect the relationship between China and the United States. And there is some good news here.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well yes. I think if you ask people, what is China's economy compared to the United States, is it good for the U.S. or bad for the U.S.? I think you get a lot mixed views. And the fact is it's both.

Let me show you the bad and the good. I'm going to start with the bad, because that's the stuff we hear about.

COSTELLO: Yes, kick that out of the way.

VELSHI: We hear about that all the time.

The first one is Chinese currency. It's called the Yuan. And it is pegged to the U.S. dollar, so it doesn't float like most currencies do.

As a result of not floating, a lot of experts say the Yuan is undervalued by 10 percent to 40 percent. Well, what does that do? Undervaluing makes Chinese manufactured goods cheaper than similar U.S. manufactured goods.

It's one of the reasons. There's another one I'm going to talk to you about in a second, but it makes Chinese good cheaper.

The other one, of course, is that Chinese workers, factory workers, get paid a lot less than U.S. workers do. Take a look at that. They earn less than $1 a day on average. So that hurts U.S. workers.

Now, one of the other things is that in China, like in the U.S., when we're suffering from job loss, they lost far more jobs than we did as a result of the recession. People stopped buying stuff, Chinese factories stopped operating.

So they've got a buy China policy, too. They favor companies that build and make things in China. So that is hurting the sale of American exports to China.

And finally, China is the banker to the world. They own $938 billion worth of U.S. debt. But they also lent more money to developing countries than the World Bank did over the course of the last two years.

That's the bad. Let me show you the good.

What's good about the relationship that we have with China? Well, the first thing is that they are a growing economy.

China grew 9.6 percent in 2010. America grew 2.4 percent.

Why is it good that they're growing so fast, Carol? Because they have got a growing consumer base, they buy stuff, and possibly stuff that we can make.

Here's another issue. They like to buy Chinese, but the truth is, Chinese buys so much stuff, that they buy a lot of American, too. They are the third larger buyer of U.S.-made goods. Canada is the first, Mexico is the second, China is the third, and China is growing.

Exports to China, American exports to China -- while we constantly talk about the fact that we import from them more than we export, we export to them a lot more than we used to. American exports to China have increased 12 times over the last 20 years. In other words, we export 12 times as much as we did 20 years ago. Let's talk about their labor force. While they earn very little money, the labor force is tightening. They have fewer workers, which means they're going to have to start to increase the amount that they pay. That's going to help.

And as they increase the amount they pay, that also means that there's a growing, growing consumer class in China ready to buy more goods. And that presents business opportunity for U.S. businesses. Not just big ones, Carol, but small ones as well.

So, like everything in life, there's good and there's bad. At this point in our economy, it would be wise for all of us to be thinking about what the opportunities are in China. And while we think of this as only being a big business thing, it's not.

A hundred million business travelers will be leaving China within the next 10 years. They're going to come to America, so you have a motel, you have restaurants. There's a way to benefit from the Chinese.

COSTELLO: That's right. And we must use them for our own good.

VELSHI: They've been doing that with us, and it's not a bad thing, but that's what other countries have done with the U.S. They have used wealthy, prosperous Americans to make their own economies strong. Let's do the same thing.

COSTELLO: All right, Ali. Thank you so much.

We're going to be talking much more about China and the way it affects middle Americans, small businesses --

VELSHI: Right. That's right. That's the relevant part.

COSTELLO: You're going to be talking about it, I'm going to be talking about it in the next hour.

VELSHI: Good.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Ali.

VELSHI: OK.

COSTELLO: Now to politics and health care.

Republicans say they're making good a promise by pushing to repeal the health care reform law. After today's debate, they're expected to vote tomorrow, and then the bill is expected to go nowhere. The vote is symbolic, a setup to what Republicans call a slow chipping away at the law.

So what will stay and what will go?

Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now to talk about that -- Elizabeth.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: All right. Well, the Republicans have some pretty firm views about why they don't like health care reform.

As you said, their chances of repealing it are really quite slim. However, if they were successful -- well, first, let's talk about why they don't like health care reform.

They don't like health care reform because of people like "Invincible Isabelle." Isabelle is a young person, she's strong. See those little muscles? And she says, I don't need health insurance, I don't want to buy it.

Well, starting in 2014, Isabelle is going to get fined if she doesn't buy insurance. And the Republicans say that kind of a mandate, requiring an American citizen to buy something, they say that that is unfair. In fact, they find it pretty despicable. They want to get rid of it.

And let's take a look also at someone else, "Small Business Saul." Saul has a small business, 60 employees. Starting in 2014, if he doesn't give his employees insurance, he's also going to get fined. And the Republicans also find that reprehensible, which is why they originally called their repeal the "Repeal of the Job-Killing Bill."

Now, since everything that happened in Tucson, it's now the "job- crushing bill," but the sentiment is the same. They think that people like Saul are going to close down shop if they have to buy their employees insurance -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Interesting.

So, the Health Department today released a report that says 129 million Americans with a preexisting condition could be denied coverage without the new health reform law. So tell us about the impact a repeal would have on people with pre-existing conditions?

COHEN: Right. Anyone with a pre-existing condition who has ever tried to buy health insurance on their own knows how tough that is, because insurance companies are going to say, well, you've got asthma? Forget it. I don't want to insure you, or I'll insure, but for some ridiculous amount of money.

So let's take a look at "Bad Back Bob." Under health care reform, he could get insurance. Without health care reform, he probably won't get insurance, or will have to pay some high amount. So that's one person who would be impacted if it was repealed.

COSTELLO: Oh go ahead. You're going to talk about seniors now, right?

COHEN: Yes, let's talk about "Medicare Marlene." Let's move on to her.

Remember that doughnut hole that was in the news a lot, Carol? We talked a lot about that. That was that gaffe in Medicare funding for prescription drugs, and that was going to cost seniors a lot of money.

So what health care reform does is it gives "Medicare Marlene" money to help pay for her prescription drugs. If health care reform is repealed, "Medicare Marlene" doesn't get her money to pay for her prescription drugs.

COSTELLO: OK. One more, extending the coverage for young people, because a lot of people like that part of the health care law.

COHEN: Yes. This is an interesting part of the health care law.

Take a look at "Young Yvette." "Young Yvette" has recently graduated from college, and under the old system, she was told, well, sorry, you can't stay on mom and dad's insurance anymore.

Under health care reform, she can stay on their insurance while she looks for a job of her own. If health care reform is repealed, "Young Yvette" is out of luck, she can't stay on mom and dad's insurance. This is a provision of health care reform that really is quite popular with a lot of people. It would go away if the Republicans were successful.

COSTELLO: OK. So lawmakers have just begun. We'll keep an eye on it. I'm sure you will too.

Thanks, Elizabeth.

COHEN: Thanks.

COSTELLO: It's enough to put a sinister grin on any criminal's face. The city of Camden, New Jersey, is laying off almost half of its police force today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

COSTELLO: In other news, Camden, New Jersey, one of the most crime- infested cities in America, is laying off almost half of its police force today. That's 163 officers out of a force of 373. A quarter of Camden's firefighters are out, too.

The city says the cuts are needed to close a $26 billion budget gap. The police union president says the city is putting residents at risk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN WILLIAMSON, CAMDEN FRATERNAL ORDER OF POLICE: All of the residents in the city of Camden and in the surrounding municipalities, everyone needs to be concerned if in fact they go through with their plan by the end of the close of business today. They started as early as yesterday collecting equipment from officers.

Last night, I had a late-night meeting with the mayor. It ran about maybe three hours. We discussed a lot of the issues, but at the end of the meeting it didn't culminate to the point where every officer would not be saved. We're still looking at, even if we could save a number of jobs, we're still looking at laying off close to 100 people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Camden's mayor insists the cuts will not impact public safety. Mayor Dana Redd says the city will shift resources to be more efficient with the staff it can afford.

You're online, and so are we. We're tracking the hottest stories on the Web. And one is trending all over the place right now, a TV icon announcing he is retiring.

Jacqui Jeras is following this for us right now.

Oh, this is such sad news.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I know. This is a big deal.

Regis Philbin announced at the start of the show, "Live With Regis & Kelly," this morning, not to alarm the public, he said, but he's going to retire. No specific date was given, but he said the end of the summer is the time he's planning on exiting the show.

He's been with it in syndication for 22 years now. He says it's the biggest thrill of his life. Philbin is pushing 80 years old, by the way, and holds the record for most hours on camera.

Nothing was said, by the way, about the future of the show, of who might be co-hosting with Kelly in the future. So big news trending all over the Web, including on CNN.com, Regis Philbin set to retire later this year.

COSTELLO: You know, he's cut back to three days. So I guess we all should have known it was coming.

JERAS: Yes, we knew it was coming. He's had some medical problems in the past. He had triple bypass. He had hip replacement as well. He did How to be a Millionaire, right? He did a lot of different shows. So if you don't know him from "Regis & Kelly," you might know him from that.

But every knows Regis.

COSTELLO: Thank you, Jacqui.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Apple CEO Steve Jobs shocked us all when he announced that he'll be taking a medical leave of absence. Many are wondering whether the company can survive without its founder.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

COSTELLO: A hockey coach's meltdown on ice tops our "Big Play" today. Check this out.

That's Utah Grizzlies coach Kevin Colley acting out. He had had it with one of the referees making call after call against the home team. He earned a one-game suspension for this tantrum.

It's always fun to watch tantrums, isn't it?

A pro-lacrosse team is apologizing for a racy halftime show. That's Scorch, the Boston Blazers' mascot, seated on the red carpet. And as you see, he's getting lap dances.

Three women actually took part in the bump-and-grind contest even though there were kids at the game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. We were blown away. My wife -- both of us didn't really know what to say. And then we kind of got into distraction mode, trying to distract the two girls so that they weren't watching what was actually going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Honey, you don't want to be that when you grow up. The team's president says the lap dance contest will not happen again.

And flying off the handle at the Australian Open. That's 12th seeded Agnieszka Radwanska's racket doing the split. Gosh, I hope I pronounced that right. Ball one way, racquet the other.

At least she held her grip. She went on to win the game.

A study out today raises serious questions about how much learning actually goes on in college. Researchers found that almost half of undergraduates showed no significant gains in learning during their first two years. Maybe it's because they spend 51 percent of their time socializing or in extracurricular activities.

How much time do they spend studying? We'll tell you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: A new study finds college undergraduates spend an average of seven percent of their time studying. We told you about students making few gains in learning during those first two years of college. Researchers found they spent 51 percent of their time socializing or engaging in extracurricular activities.

Now on to China.

Chinese President Hu Jintao arrives in Washington today for a high- profile meeting with President Obama. So why is President Hu's visit so significant?

CNN's Fareed Zakaria explains what China means to the global economy and to the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": This has now become a cliche, but China is the most important country in the world other than the United States. China is a place where one out of every five people on the planet lives. It is the fastest-growing economy in the world.

It is already the second largest economy in the world. It is likely to become the largest economy, by some measures, in 10 or 15 years.

So China has a huge impact on the world. Anything that happens in the world at this point can be traced back at some way or the other to what's going on in China.

High oil prices, Chinese demand. High copper prices, Chinese demand. The ability for the United States to run these kind of big deficits and debts, that has something to do with the ability of the Chinese to finance those deficits.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: So what does that mean on the street to middle class Americans and small businesspeople?

Drew Greenblatt is the president of Marlin Steel Wire Products. His company is based in Baltimore, Maryland.

And Drew, you have a lot riding on this visit. Thank you for joining us, by the way, we appreciate it.

DREW GREENBLATT, PRESIDENT, MARLIN STEEL WIRE PRODUCTS: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: What do you hope that President Obama says to the Chinese president?

GREENBLATT: That's a great question. I think that President Obama should encourage the Chinese government to produce changes so that we can grow more amicably in the future. For example, right now China manipulates their currency. It's very challenging for American factories to compete in China, because their prices are so much cheaper because their government subsidizes their goods. Other things that --

COSTELLO: So because they're undervaluing their currency, the Yuan, that makes Chinese products cheaper buy. And because the dollar is worth so much more, it makes American goods so much more expensive.

I know that you export -- you make wire baskets, the best damned wire baskets in the world, if I recall.

GREENBLATT: That's right.

COSTELLO: And you export them all around the world. Does that include China?

GREENBLATT: Right, but we're only exporting a very modest amount to China. And it's a huge opportunity for us. And if we could level the playing field, we would hire more people in America to provides wire baskets in wire form to China. But what's happening is there's so many challenges that they make for American factories that it's very difficult to export to China.

COSTELLO: I know the Senate is pushing legislation to impose tariffs on countries -- or other types of punishments for countries who manipulate their currency.

Are you all for that?

GREENBLATT: Well I'm hoping that the Chinese government will make sure their currency floats like the Mexican Peso does, like the Canadian Dollar does, like the Euro does. I'm hoping that the Chinese government takes a more mature approach to their currency. And we don't have to get into a trade war. I don't want a trade war with China. I want to sell more to China.

There's other challenges. They also provide a rebate when they export to America. We get no rebate from our government when we export to China. They also do not honor our intellectual property. American companies, the reason why we're thriving and we're growing is because we have so many innovative concepts and we need intellectual property protection. And China has to start obliging by that.

COSTELLO: All right. Let me get into that a little bit with you because you have engineers on site at your company that you pay bigger bucks to than the Chinese pay their workers, right? And they come up with these wire baskets that fit all kinds of things. So that's intellectual property, right?

GREENBLATT: Exactly.

COSTELLO: So how are you protecting your products from the Chinese?

GREENBLATT: Well, this is a challenge. Because what happens is they're knocking us off. And we come up with a really innovative idea, a slick idea, and then we get knocked off and it makes it very difficult to compete with that because you have to hire lawyers. And, you know, the Chinese government is not very friendly to, you know, an American lawsuit against their a Chinese factory stealing our property.

So this has to be changed. This is something that President Obama can do today and tell the president of China that he has to start honoring intellectual property. Because that makes it competitive for America.

See, we pay our guys $15, $20, $25 an hour. In China they pay them $0.30 an hour. So we're not going to beat them because we have cheap prices. We're going to beat them because we have really clever, innovative concepts and we need our president to protect us.

COSTELLO: I want to leave on an up note because you're doing wonderful things with your company in Baltimore. You're making money, you're hiring new people, and you're doing it by exporting goods.

So, give me the American Dream speech. Give it to me, Drew.

GREENBLATT: Well, this is the plan, they have 300 million middle class, we want to sell to them. We want to sell to the factories that need wire baskets and we need our system to modify. And they need to modify so that we can be competitive over there. And then we're going to hire more people in America to sell wire baskets into China. That's what we're striving for.

And by that, we'll reduce our unemployment because we're going to grow so much because we export so much from China. That's the plan. That's what we need to do to grow us out of this recession.

COSTELLO: We're with you. Drew Greenblatt, thanks so much. Drew Greenblatt of Marlin Steel in Baltimore, we appreciate your insight.

GREENBLATT: Thank you.

COSTELLO: In the next hour of Newsroom, we'll talk to the mayor of Toledo, Ohio, who says he could not be more optimistic about what President Hu's visit could mean for his city.

All this week we are focusing on China. Tomorrow, Chinese culture and human rights. We'll take a look at parenting styles. No TV or play dates, nothing less than an a in school. Too strict or good parenting?

Plus a look at China's human rights record. Several members of Congress are calling for greater freedoms in that communist nation.

On Thursday, military ambitions. China has increased its military spending in the last decade. We'll explore what this means for relations in the United States right here in the NEWSROOM.

And, you're online and we are, too. We're keeping an eye on all the stories trending on the web. And one of the most popular right now, scientists say they will clone a prehistoric animal.

(VIDEO CLIP, "JURASSIC PARK")

COSTELLO: OK, that was obviously from the movie "Jurassic Park," and a little bit of a stretch, but the story about cloning isn't. It's getting a lot of attention, I should say.

Jacqui Jeras is following it for us.

Jacqui, so exactly what are scientists going to do?

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST; Well, hopefully not bring us a threat like that, right? That would be scary. We're talking about a mammoth, Carol.

COSTELLO: A wooly mammoth.

JERAS: A woolly mammoth, that's right. It looked like this when it died. It's wooly, it's got the tusks. You know what I'm talking about.

Well, a team of scientists from Japan, Russia and the United States are hoping to do this within the next six years. This creature hasn't roamed the planet in more than 12,000 years. So what they're planning to do is they're going to extract the DNA from a carcass that's been preserved in a lab and they're going to insert egg cells of an African elephant in hoping to produce a mammoth embryo. Hopefully it'll -- just in the next couple of years. Kind of interesting to see what will happen there.

COSTELLO: OK, so what if it's successful, though? It has to grow up and it'll become mammoth. So who's going to keep it in their backyard?

JERAS: Well, still, you know, lot to be determined, I think, what's going to happen with this, to figure all of that out. They want to do some research, obviously, figure out potentially, possibly why it became instinct. They don't know for not sure if they'll put it on display for the public or what they'll do with that and whether or not they're going to be able to breed it if they do become successful.

COSTELLO: OK. Talking about embryos. Let's carry on, shall we?

JERAS: Nice transition there.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Go ahead and explain. This power couple is going to welcome a new addition to the family. Who are they?

JERAS: Yes, this is exciting news and a little bit of a surprise to some people. Nicole Kidman, of course an actress, and Keith Urban the country star singer announced the arrival of a baby girl, which actually arrived last month, December 28, I believe that she was born. Faith Margaret Kidman Urban was born. The couple just released that statement yesterday. Both parents, 43 years old. The baby is their biological child, but she was born through a gestational carrier. They also share a two-year-old daughter named Sunday Rose. So congratulations to the happy couple.

COSTELLO: Yes, congratulations, that is good news.

Thank you, Jacqui.

Scenes of devastation and despair in Brazil. One picturesque tourist town's turned into wasteland. Families torn apart by floodwaters and landslides. Some things you won't soon forget, like this dog refusing to leave her owner's grave.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Horrific scenes from what had been a popular tourist area of Brazil. Intense rains triggered huge landslides on the mountains outside of Rio di Janeiro. At least 665 people now dead. CNN's Helena de Moura says survivors have been living a nightmare.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HELENA DE MOURA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bodies of a pregnant woman and her seven-year-old child are transported by helicopter from the devastated hill top neighborhood of Campo Grande, down the valley to a burial place in Teresopolis.

Like hundreds of others killed this week in Brazil's worst flooding ever, this mother probably saw and heard the nightmare scene from nearly a week ago. Seventy hours of persistent rain saturated the majestic hills of this region, northeast of Rio de Janeiro, unleashing landslides of thousands of giant boulders and flash flooding that smashed cars and raised homes, killing entire families.

ALEXIS OBERST VEIRA, ARTIST AND TERESOPOLIS RESIDENT: So when it came, so the whole wall came in. It came against me, I pushed it out and it came out through the door.

DE MOURA: Alexis Oberst Viera, an artist and avid collector lost everything but is grateful that he survived.

VEIRA: This is what I had. I was here and I was, you know, the power was pushing me. And I was holding it, people were screaming inside. So when I felt the power diminish a little bit. I came inside here and I (INAUDIBLE) this small corner until it gave out. At this point the water was here.

DE MOURA (on camera): This is day six since the tragedy hit Teresopolis (INAUDIBLE) the surrounding areas.

The smell is unbearable right now because they are excavating this pile. They believe that someone is dead, someone who lived in a house right here. I can see the toys, children's toys, I can see sandals, I can see all kinds of belongings of a life, of a home.

(voice-over): Though the official death toll is now well over 600, many survivors believe and some have charged that many more victims could have been rescued. Brazil's civil defense teams say they're doing their very best. But given the support available to them.

One big factor in this disaster is the government's failure to enforce building codes which raises questions about how flood stricken areas will be rebuilt.

With communities like Campo Grande turned into vast wastelands leaving nothing but memories for people like this woman who is not turning back.

My city has ended, she says. So many people have died. Up there is terrible.

Helena de Moura, CNN, Teresopolis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: It's just heartbreaking, isn't it?

JERAS: That's terrible.

COSTELLO: Is the rain going to stop? I know it's rainy season there.

(WEATHER REPORT) COSTELLO: Former House speaker Newt Gingrich has some advice for Sarah Palin. Find out what it is in our political update.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Premiere week for "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT" continues with the original shock jock. He's spending an uncensored hour with Howard Stern.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PIERS MORGAN, HOST, "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT": Who do you most admire in your business?

HOWARD STERN, TALK SHOW HOST: Well, Letterman being one of them. I like Jimmy Kimmel a lot.

MORGAN: Why Letterman, what makes him, to you --

STERN: Because Letterman's an original. Letterman came on there, he was a breath of fresh air, he was able to do new types of bits, even the format of a show. Even the way he'd do his monologue, walk to his desk, but you won't see him walk to his desk. Everything has been imitated now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: "PIERS MORGAN" premiere week continues with Condoleezza Rice, as you've never seen her. Then, Ricky Gervais tells Piers what really happened behind the scenes at the Golden Globes. He'll wrap the week with one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, George Clooney.

That's "PIERS MORGAN TONIGHT" every weeknight on CNN at 9:00 Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: President Obama gets a bump in his job performance rating. Mark Preston, part of the Best Political Team on Television, live from the political desk in Washington.

Mark, what's crossing now?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Hey, Carol. Yes, good news for President Obama and the White House this morning. In the new CNN Opinion Research Corporation poll shows that President Obama's approval rating is at 53 percent now. That is a five percent increase from back in December, when he was at 48percent.

So it begs the question, why did we see this bump? Well, we probably see the bump for a couple of reasons. One, he had a very successful lame-duck session, including getting through the tax cut compromise that helped Americans across the board.

We also saw him deliver a pretty strong speech out in Tucson, after the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and obviously the killing of six people in that rampage. So President Obama we've seen move over the 50 percent mark.

Then we're going to go into the State of the Union next week. This question is, will he deliver a strong enough speech to see the bump get higher? Potentially he could do that, Carol.

Moving on. Senate Democrats actually got very bad news in the past couple hours. Senator Kent Conrad from North Dakota announced that he is going to retire at the end of this Congressional session. It's bad news because North Dakota is trending a Republican state. Kent Conrad said that he wants to retire because he wants to focus over the next couple of years on some of the big issues including the $14 trillion debt and also the nation's dependence on foreign oil. He doesn't want to be a side tracked, so to speak, by a re-election campaign.

But again, the political reality is North Dakota is trending Republican. He saw the Democrat seat in 2008 go Republican. We saw Republicans pick up the only House seat in 2008 -- rather, 2010. And in 2008, John McCain defeated President Obama in that state. So North Dakota trending Republican. Democrats will have a hard time holding on to the seat in 2012 -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK, speaking of Republicans. I know that the former House speaker Newt Gingrich is giving some advice to Sarah Palin.

So what's he saying?

PRESTON: Yes, really interesting. He gave an interview this morning on "Good Morning America." While he described Sarah Palin as a phenomenon and that she was formidable in her own right, he also suggested that she be more careful and think through what she's saying and how she's saying it.

He goes on to say there's no question that she has become more controversial. Now, Newt Gingrich who's contemplating a presidential run could potentially stack up against Sarah Palin if she decides to run.

Last night on FOX, where she's a paid contributor, she addressed a lot of these controversies and she also addressed the idea of whether she would run or not run. She didn't give us any hint of where she's going on that. So Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, it could be a very interesting Republican field if they both get in -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Like a soap opera. Thank you, Mark. We appreciate it.

Your next political update in an hour. And for the latest political news, you know where to go, CNNPolitics.com.

Here's what we're working on for the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM. A huge announcement this morning from one of the most familiar faces on morning television. Regis Philbin stepping down from the small screen. We'll tell you why.

Plus, you trusted Facebook with all of your private information. So why was it at the mercy of app developers? We'll break down the privacy bombshell to hit the web. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: China's president is due in Washington in just a few hours. Did you know Americans bought a quarter trillion dollars' worth of stuff made in China in 2009? With so much trade at stake, China is investing in America. America's children.

CNN's Chris Welch reports.

CHRIS WELCH, CNN ALL-PLATFORM JOURNALIST (voice-over): In this class, it's easy to forget you're in suburban Ohio. Teaches are prepping kids for an increasingly global economy, one that will inevitably involve China, the world's second largest economy.

ANDREW ALDIS, CHINESE LANGUAGE STUDENT: I think it's very valuable to learn a language that a lot of people in the U.S. will speak in the future and certainly is huge in business.

WELCH: The school hosts visiting teachers from China, and they're planning a student trip to the nation this summer. It's funded in part by the Chinese government. This school will get $30,000.

By and large, the school's endeavor is being received with open arms.

(on camera): But, that said, not everyone's ready embrace a warm and fuzzy relationship with China.

(voice-over): The Hacienda Le Puente school district outside Los Angeles was poised to receive similar funds from the Chinese government, but community members weren't comfortable with what they call "communist propaganda" in the hands of elementary students.

Back in Ohio, administrators say the Chinese government has no say in what the school teaches. But students and faculty say anti-Chinese sentiment still shows up.

(on camera): As a teacher do you ever hear people say I don't want my kids learning Chinese because that's a communist country?

CHIWEI LIN, CHINESE TEACHER: Yes. I do.

WELCH: Ohio State Professor Oded Shenkar, specializes in China.

ODED SHENKAR, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: I don't think we're going to go on record, or going to go through the school and, you know, let's teach you how to form a communist cell. You know, that's not going to happen. But there are subtle things.

Subtle things, he says, like a visiting teacher from China potentially overstepping bounds. This school says bottom line, opening a dialogue between the two nations is a good place to start.

Chris Welch, CNN, Gahanna, Ohio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)