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Storm Whomps Philly; Six Minutes of Segregation; Tourist Mecca Seeks Young Talent

Aired January 27, 2011 - 13:58   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, it's two minutes to the top of the hour in the East. And the hour's top story is this, 57 years after racially segregated schools were declared unconstitutional, a public high school in Pennsylvania is segregating some of its homerooms by race.

The school is McCaskey East in Lancaster, midway between Philadelphia and Harrisburg. Faced with a stubborn racial achievement gap, an African-American teacher went to the principal with a thought about mentoring. What if young black men had homeroom with black male teachers and young black women were paired with black female teachers? And what if homeroom were more than simply attendance taking and routine announcements?

Principal Bill Jimenez agreed to try it. "Let's look at the data," he said, "referring to standardized test scores as well as some research on same-race classes. Let's not run from it but confront it and see what we can do about it."

So now, for six minutes every morning and 20 minutes once a week, the junior class in McCaskey East splits by race and sex, and in just a few minutes, we're going to hear how it's working out.

This is obviously a hot topic online, we want to hear from you on this. What do you think about all black homerooms? Head to Ali's blog, CNN.com/Ali , to comment. You can also post on Facebook either my page or Ali's page, we read every single comment. We'll read some of them throughout the show today.

Time for two at the top, two minutes in depth on one of the day's biggest stories.

Philadelphia is among many northeast cities digging out from the depths of this latest nor'easter. A snow emergency was declared last night as the system let loose with thunder, lightning and another 15 inches or so.

On the line now with an update on the situation in his city it, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter.

Mr. Mayor, thank you so much for joining us.

Have you been out there shoveling the snow?

MAYOR MICHAEL NUTTER, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA (via telephone): Hey. I'm out here right now at 9th and Huntingdon. I'm with community leader Diane Bridges and a whole bunch of kids, and we're clearing some sidewalks and making sure that folks can get to the corner.

We've got other community leaders, Netta Curry (ph), and a whole bunch of neighbors out here. We're just doing what needs to be done, and Philadelphians know how to deal with snow.

ROMANS: Oh, yes.

NUTTER: The Streets Department is doing a fantastic job.

ROMANS: I tell you, it has been so nutty this winter, quite frankly, with all of these storms. Can you remember a time where it was one after another, these nor'easters are hitting us like this?

NUTTER: It's almost like it's one a week, or at least it feels like it. You know, I used to really love snow when I was a kid. Now, as mayor, I'm not too excited about it, because I have to pay for it. But it is what it is.

ROMANS: I know you do have to pay for it. Let me ask you about that, having to pay for it, because there's some much smaller cities -- I mean, they have run through their sand and salt budgets for the year already. I mean, praying that -- you know, spring has got to start by the end of February for the budgets to last in some of these towns.

How are you guys doing? How are you paying for it?

NUTTER: Well, we do budget for snow. I mean, we're an old northeast city, so we're used to it. And then we have to get creative usually toward the second half of the fiscal year.

But we're in pretty decent shape. We fight snowstorms, and we let the finance department figure out how to pay for it. We've got 500 trucks out and about 700 personnel.

We're all over it. We fight storms. That's what we do.

ROMANS: So, one after another, about one a week, you say. School kids love it because they keep getting a day off. But we've got to make up for that school time, too.

NUTTER: Well, we try to give them a day on. That's why we have all these kids out here with us right now. If you want to be out here with us, you have to have a shovel. And they're not knocking off some of these corners so that the seniors can get from one side of the street to the other.

ROMANS: That's an important mention about the seniors.

NUTTER: Absolutely.

ROMANS: You know, what do you say to people out there -- I mean, you've got to check your neighbors here. If you're out with your own shovel doing your driveway, come on. You know, go next door and help --

NUTTER: Go next door. If you're going to the store, ask your neighbor, do they need something?

You know, we're all in this together, and we have to look out for each other. But especially our senior citizens and those who may be sick or shut-in or something like that. We try to make a fun day out of it. It's kind of serious business, but everybody's looking out for each other.

ROMANS: So tell me what kind of progress you guys are making. And when do you think you're going to be -- I mean, tomorrow? Will there be a normal commute tomorrow? Is it going to take a couple of days?

What are you thinking?

NUTTER: No. I mean, there were folks coming in. Obviously, the city government was open today. Our bus services are getting back up in order. Our subway and elevated rail service was always operational.

So, I mean, the city is more than functional today. Obviously, our troops are still out today, into tonight and into tomorrow. So it will just get better and better, and we're hopeful that things are pretty much normal tomorrow.

So, I mean, it hit us last night and we were ready for it, and we're doing our thing. I'm very, very proud of the citizens, and really proud of our Streets Department and government workers, city workers. They did a fantastic job.

ROMANS: All right. Mayor Michael Nutter, we're all ready for spring and summer, but I think we're going to have --

NUTTER: Yes, we are.

ROMANS: -- a couple more months to go through it. So everyone --

NUTTER: Bring on baseball.

ROMANS: Bring on baseball. Until then, we're going to be having more snowballs.

NUTTER: Absolutely.

ROMANS: OK. Thanks so much. Tell those kids thank you for going out there and shoveling the snow.

NUTTER: Absolutely. CNN said thank you.

See you later.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: Bye-bye.

Mayor Michael Nutter in Philadelphia.

Our "Sound Effect" may bring a tear to your eye unless your name is Samantha and you live in Britain and you've got a boyfriend serving in Afghanistan. If it is, and you do, it may change your life.

Last week, a lonely British soldier tried to phone his beloved, Samantha, but apparently misdialed and left a heartrending message on the answering machine of one Diane Potts, a 44-year-old mother of three. Potts does not have a beau on the battlefield, but she knows an urgent message when she hears one.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, baby. It's me. I couldn't call you last month, but you know what it is like out there. And I should be back in three months. I've got one more guy that's just been blown up.

I feel so -- I'm really sad. I feel really sad that I didn't get to speak to you just now, but I'll speak to you next month. You hear?

I love you with all my heart. And I was going to ask you -- don't answer -- well, you can't answer. But will you marry me?

(END AUDIO CLIP)

ROMANS: It gets better. Samantha apparently is pregnant. Her soldier says, "Can't wait until you give birth to my baby."

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: We began the hour with a story that sounds at best like a throwback to the bad old days, students at a public high school separated by race. But what's happening at McCaskey East in the Lancaster, Pennsylvania, it's far from black and white.

It's a mentoring program conceived by an African-American teacher designed to close an achievement gap that was painfully clear in last year's standardized testing. Sixty percent of the school's white students scored proficient or advanced in reading, barely a third of its black students did. Even fewer black students aced math.

So, now, for a six-minute daily homeroom and 20-minute session once a week, the junior class at McCaskey splits by race and sex and talks about the future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELA TILGHMAN, MCCASKEY EAST HIGH SCHOOL TEACHER: I specifically looked at research that focused on African-Americans, what was best for their academic needs. And one thing that some of the study said from Maryland was mentoring. So we were already running with that idea. And they actually emphasize same gender mentoring. So I proposed the idea to run an African-American male and female homeroom to the principal, and he was on board with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOMINIQUE MILLER, MCCASKEY EAST HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Well, at first I was against it 100 percent. You know, I was against it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

MILLER: Because I kind of agreed with other people. Like, they thought it was going to segregate the school. That's how I felt too.

But now, actually, you know, when both of the homerooms are collided, the male homerooms, and you see them speak and you just hear what they're talking about, and it's just not six minutes every day, it's kind of, like, you realize what this is really about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: We invited school officials to join us live, but they declined. Still, I want to talk about the challenges that schools like McCaskey are facing and the ways they're trying to meet them with Sam Chaltain. He's a writer, educator and author of the upcoming book "Faces of Learning: 50 Powerful Stories of Defining Moments in Education."

Sam, does the McCaskey homeroom experience -- is this a defining moment for this school?

SAM CHALTAIN, AUTHOR, "FACES OF LEARNING": It's definitely a defining moment for the community because of the media firestorm that's erupted around it. And I think it actually provides a great opportunity for the community going forward. But I would say, I think it's a really well-intentioned and, nonetheless, misguided experiment.

ROMANS: Why it misguided?

CHALTAIN: Well, first, it's clear that the adults that came up with this idea are sincere in their willingness to do whatever it takes to improve student learning conditions and learning outcomes, as they should be. All of us that are in education, all of us that are parents, all of us that are members of this society should be committed to doing whatever we can to improve learning conditions for kids.

But I think there's a distinction about what's the goal and what's our evidence. In the bit that you just ran, there's references to some research studies and the need to improve academic goals and reduce the achievement gap. But one of the things that I've seen across the country and that really concerns me is, when we talk about reducing the achievement gap, do we mean merely reducing the discrepancy between test scores of white students and students of color, or do we mean reducing the predictive impact that can things like race, class and gender have on all aspects of student engagement, performance and learning?

If the former, then perhaps it does make sense to try to do a piecemeal solution that can only impact one particular area of a student's experience. But if the alternative is true, that we recognize that students don't just bring an academic motivation to school, they bring social, emotional needs, they bring the hopes and aspirations of their communities, they bring in lots of different cultural and socioeconomic influences, and so if we're trying to impact all of that, then surely six minutes a day, 20 minutes periodically, and perhaps the unintended consequences of only isolating black boys and girls, and not applying the same strategy to all of the other students, the reason that everybody's paying so much attention to it is there is no more raw nerves in American history than race-based issues and racial segregation.

So I think there was not perhaps a clear enough attention being paid to the ways in which some of those unintended consequences might play out with a decision like this.

ROMANS: Well, there's the raw nerve of racial segregation in America. You know, three decades on, this is still something that just hurts. And then there's also this need on a school district by school district -- school-by-school basis to figure out why you have achievement gaps and to fix them.

Now, they talking about race-based mentoring, that it works. What do the studies say? I mean, does it work to separate out the kids based on race and, frankly, gender, and try to teach them in their peer groups? Does that work?

CHALTAIN: Well, no doubt, mentoring is an essential part of any healthy learning environment. Actually, the book of mine that's just coming out that you referenced, it's 50 stories from people across the country from the secretary of education, to students, to social workers, all being asked to reflect on their own most powerful learning experience.

And the reason I bring it up here is the purpose of the effort was to try to reveal to all of us, what do we already know from lived experience about what powerful learning environments look like? And what that book reveals is that the essential conditions of a powerful learning environment are that it must be challenging, engaging, relevant, supportive, and experiential.

So the emphasis here on trying to provide more mentoring opportunities for kids is exactly right. But the inattention being paid on the likelihood that only segregating black students, and only for a limited amount of time, might impact the other aspects in which this environment is supportive and nurturing and engaging. I think that's why, ultimately, it's a misguided strategy.

ROMANS: So, the teachers, should they be allowed to continue it and see what happens and what kind of results? I mean, the anecdotal results, a couple of the teachers said from the very beginning, is that this is working well on the boys. That the boys are sitting up a little straighter, they're tucking in their shirt, and now, for some of them, for the first time are talking about what they want to be.

They're taking messages from Martin Luther King Jr. and they're -- in this group of just other boys, they're able to talk about things that they maybe wouldn't talk about in front of the girls or some of the other students. If they find that this is working with these kids, do you still say it's misguided and they shouldn't do it anymore?

CHALTAIN: Well, yes. Let me offer the caveat, that the people that are in that school and are participating in this project certainly know far more about what's working and what isn't working than I or that anybody else does.

I would say it's not surprising that if time has been carved out of the schedule for any group of students to have more direct and supportive interactions with an adult to find ways to connect to ideas from history, people from history that are meaningful to them, and that help inspire them to do better, obviously that makes sense. What I would urge any school to do is think about, how can we provide those kinds of conditions for all students so that in the spirit of trying to help, perhaps some of the students that are most at risk were conscious of creating a school environment that is modeled on the basic ideas of our democracy, which is that we are committed to equity, to equality, and to making sure that all people have an equal opportunity and aren't singled out in ways that might make them feel more self-conscious than they would otherwise?

ROMANS: Sam Chaltain, thank you so much for joining us today. And the book about defining moments coming out soon. Thanks so much.

CHALTAIN: All right. Thanks, Christine.

ROMANS: The concept of all-black homerooms has been a hot topic online today. Here's some of the comments you left on CNN.com and on Facebook.

Vincent posted this comment: "As an African-American lawyer and parent, I deplore any type of racial separation, especially racial segregation in education. Deliberate government-sanctioned racial segregation in schools cannot be condoned regardless of the intentions. Supplemental classes and programs in mentoring should be based on need and not on race."

Clint posted this on Facebook: "It sounds like a useful program, and that the students have some great mentors. I'm not convinced that separating the black students from everyone else is necessary. That being said, at least the school is attempting to do something."

Stephanie says, "As an African-American educator, I understand the importance of students having role models, but this can be done after school. I applaud the effort, but it bothers me if it's not being done for all groups who are struggling." And Joanna says, "I just fear that these kids are being cheated out of learning to work with others and for having mentors that are maybe a little different from them."

Ben says, "The real issue is that black youth aren't identifying with what is being taught. Schools feed to focus more on positive black history and include more teaching of positive black role models."

Willie says, "Are you kidding me? this must be a joke. It took many, many years to correct the issue and still today we live in a society where some are still stuck in the past."

Ranjini says, "Too many people are quick to label this as racist. It is a worthwhile approach to research and see whether these are positive results. So glad we're moving beyond being politically correct to explore what actually helps our kids succeed."

And this was an interesting comment on Ali's blog, "What if you're biracial? What classroom do you go to?"

What is one of America's oldest towns doing to keep its youngest residents from leaving? You might be surprised.

We'll tell you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: In our "Building Up America" series today, how one city in the Southwest is tackling a familiar problem -- how to keep their youngest residents from leaving.

Here's Tom Foreman.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Santa Fe is one of the oldest settlements in all of the West, and it draws thousands of older tourists interested in all that history. That's good for some businesses, but not so much for some young professionals.

DANIEL WERWATH, MIX SANTA FE: You know, I've been here about seven years, and probably, you know, every summer I see around a dozen friends move on for jobs or more opportunity, often in, you know, more exciting places like New York or Portland, Oregon, or places like that.

FOREMAN: And that's where MIX comes in. These are the founding members, and this is MIX, part freeform social club, part business networking group, part town hall meeting. MIX is a once-a-month party in which young people are urged to meet, have fun, and share ideas about what they want their community to be.

LACIE MACKEY, MIX SANTA FE: And the idea is if you do get people involved in that, they feel more invested in the community and they do want to stay, and they do want to invest their time here. FOREMAN: To make that happen, MIX, which has the backing of the city and the Chamber of Commerce, poses a question or challenge which participants answer on video. The best answer gets a prize.

Ciaran Clark hopped up one night to explain how he had used a $200 prize to help disadvantaged teens with job training, particularly in green industries.

CIARAN CLARK, YOUTHWORKS: And with $200, I would start a T-shirt company for youth who can help --

FOREMAN: He got the money. His group, YouthWorks, used it to make T- shirts to sell at the next MIX event to raise more money to provide more training. Everyone wins.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were trying to train these kids in that industry so they kind of have a foot ahead, maybe, you know, when it comes down to finding a job in the green industry for them. They'll have the experience, hopefully.

FOREMAN: But MIX gets something out of the process, too, a steady stream of information about what matters to the young people in this town.

(on camera): In many ways this is really about a very old- fashioned idea, getting people to invest in each other, to pay attention to local schools, to look at local issues, to settle down and call this home.

KATE NOBLE, MIX SANTA FE: Well, it makes for a much more active, proactive and involved community. You get more responsive local government.

FOREMAN (voice-over): It is a remarkably simple idea, and yet dozens of young people here will tell you it is working like a real live Internet chat room connection people and ideas across the spectrum.

FISCHER: It feels like we're on the cusp of a sort of a creative, innovation-based economy, and I think that, you know, all it takes is a little nudge to get people together and realize that their work can transform or enliven a place.

FOREMAN: Or even to keep notoriously restless young workers happy and here.

Tom Foreman, CNN, Santa Fe.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. You're looking live at Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano speaking at George Washington University. Just minutes ago, she announced the end of the color-coded terror alert system. She says it's being replaced by more detailed advisories about specific threats. The announcement came at the secretary's annual assessment on the state of our homeland security. It is 24 minutes past the hour. Checking developments in our top stories.

The Labor Department says 454,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week. That's 51,000 more than the week before.

This is much higher, folks, than most economists expected. Claims have been on the rise since dipping below 400,000 four weeks ago.

It's NASA's annual day of remembrance, when the agency honors its fallen heroes. Tomorrow is the 25th anniversary of the Challenger explosion. Twenty-five years. That explosion killed seven astronauts.

Forty-four years ago today, three Apollo 1 astronauts died in a test run for the first moon launch. And eight years ago next week, seven Columbia astronauts died when the shuttle broke up on reentry.

Firefighters have just about extinguished a stubborn blaze at the Norfolk, Virginia, naval station. It broke out in an empty warehouse several hours ago. Naval firefighters and city crews are on the scene. Still no word on what started the fire, and so far no injuries reported.

Stop me if you've heard this one before. Freezing cold temperatures, massive amounts of snow piling up in the Northeast. That's right, the region getting socked again.

We'll take you there, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: From D.C. to New York, it seems like the Northeast just can't get enough snow these days.

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAREN MCGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: At least they're open.

ROMANS: Right.

MCGINNIS: So, when you trek back to New York, maybe this will be a blur.

ROMANS: It's amazing. The snow plows, the deicing, all of this stuff happening at these airports to get these planes out. Unbelievable. So, it is a record. So, we're not imagining it. It is a record winter so far.

MCGINNIS: And I know how much time, but there's a clipper system that moves through over the next 24 hours, a little bit of a snow. A little bit of a break, and then another clipper system moves this weekend. A little bit of snow. It's not going to be one of these mammoth systems that moves through. So, it will just put some icing on the cake.

ROMANS: It's great for the kids. The sled hills will stay good and snowy and sleddy - oh, wow! There's more pictures. Unbelievable. All right. Thank you so much, Karen.

All right. The much-mocked color coded terror alert system is out. We'll tell you what's replacing it right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Just tuning in, here's what you've missed. A Pennsylvania public school is segregating some of its homerooms by race. At McCaskey East in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, an African- American teacher came up with the idea of a mentoring program. For six minutes every morning and 20 minutes once a week, the junior class at McCaskey East splits by race and sex. It was designed to close an achievement gap after last year's standardized testing showed 60 percent of the school's white students scored proficient or advanced in reading, while barely a third of its black students did. Even fewer black students aced math.

Homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano just announced the U.S. is getting is rid of the now-familiar color coded terror alert system that's been in place since after September 11. Instead, Homeland Security will use a detailed advisory to advise us about specific threats. The new system will include information with steps authorities are taking to guard the public and what the public should do. It is expected to take effect in April. No more orange, yellow, blue or green.

President Obama is taking viewer questions live right now on YouTube. Visitors submitted nearly 140,000 questions for the president, who is now going to answer some of them live in the YouTube interview. Questions ranged from concerns about paying for college to paying Congress to the high price of health care.

Mexican authorities along with the FBI and other U.S. agencies are investigating the shooting death of an American missionary yesterday near the city of San Fernando. Officials say 59-year-old Nancy Davis and her husband were trying to drive away from the gunman when Davis was hit. Authorities say Davis' husband, Sam, drove their truck across the Rio Grande and got to her a hospital where she was pronounced dead 90 minutes later. Friends say the family had lived in Mexico since the 1970s.

A new report says the 2008 financial crisis that caused the recession could have been avoided. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission said that federal authorities failed to curb reckless behavior on Wall Street and bear much of the blame for the financial blowup. And it seems really no one escapes fault. The commission cites policies under both presidents Bush and Obama and actions taken by the Federal Reserve under Alan Greenspan and the current chairman, Ben Bernanke.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's very important that women who come to Davos feel included in all the discussions, that there isn't a conversation going on between CEOs and sometimes men, and then the women just stand there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Who is this woman? Why is she speaking out at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland? We'll tell new "Globe Trekking," up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: The burning question for the Middle East and the Obama administration right now: can Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak survive the growing demonstrations against 30 years of authoritarian rule? A dramatic turn of events today; despite death threats against him, Nobel Peace Prize winner Mohammed ElBaradi returned to Cairo vowing to join the ranks of the protesters. Here you see him at the Cairo airport. That's him with the bald head and glasses being mobbed by reporters.

Joining me with his take on all this, Michael Holmes of our sister network, CNN International. Michael, what does ElBaradi bring to the opposition?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think -- good to see you, by the way.

ROMANS: Great to see you!

HOLMES: I think international credibility for one. I mean, the guy's known because he was former head of the IEA. He's a Nobel Peace Price laureate. The guy's got street cred, if you like.

Inside Egypt, he's admired by many in perhaps let's say the liberal elite, if you like. Grassroots, not so sure yet. Doesn't have a political party. He says he's just going to be there, on the streets Friday. Of course, expecting some big protests Friday because it's Friday prayers. That's a traditional sort of protest time, as well.

ROMANS: So, what's the problem for Mubarak here? I mean, what are people protesting? It's not like they're getting behind somebody. ElBaradei comes in, and there's no real alternative here to Mubarak. These protests are against Mubarak.

HOLMES: Absolutely.

ROMANS: And why?

HOLMES: And think about, well, the dissatisfaction with Hosni Mubarak and his regime is not new. What is new is seeing people on the streets. Ben Wedeman has never seen anything like it, and that guy's been there for a long time. So, it is significant. The dislike for Mubarak has been going on for years and years and years. It's economic, it about human rights abuses. It's about all kinds of things. I mean, you've got to remember the last election that was held the parliamentary majority for his party went up from a whopping 75 percent to yes, 95 percent. You know.

And this is where you get into this whole argument. I was talking to Ali Velshi about this, too, where you get in the whole argument where there are many in the Arab world who look at the U.S. and say you're being hypocritical. You say free and fair elections in Iraq. Let's have democracy there. Tunisians, let's have free and fair elections there. You haven't heard that wording when it comes to Egypt. Why? Because Egypt works in our foreign policy interests.

ROMANS: So, Mubarak is a strong ally of the U.S. and a recipient amount of foreign aid from the United States.

HOLMES: Massive amount of foreign aid. And people in the region say you can't have it both ways. You can't say, go for free and fair elections there, but your allies, regimes in the region -

ROMANS: Egypt was always the stable Middle Eastern country. The Egyptian (INAUDIBLE) say we haven't seen protests -- Ben Wedeman said you haven't seen protests like this. So, this was the stability was something the U.S. would want --

HOLMES: This is what Mohamed ElBaradei is saying, too. Stable, why? Because there was a lid kept on it.

ROMANS: Right. A lid that's now --

HOLMES: Shattering a little bit. Yes. It's going to be interesting to see what's going on, whether this thing has legs or not remains to be seen. Egypt is not Tunisia. It is not Yemen. It is not -- these Arab countries are all individual countries with their own problems and politics.

ROMANS: Absolutely. Absolutely. All right. Fascinating stuff. We'll keep watching the pictures. Mohammed ElBaradei just an interesting angle.

HOLMES: Interesting little angle, isn't it?

ROMANS: All right. Michael Holmes, nice to see you.

All right. Let's - oh. I want to show you this, Michael. Some interesting remarks from Indra Nooyi, CEO of Pepsi speaking to Poppy Harlow in Davos, Switzerland about why there aren't more women at this year's event.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INDRA NOOYI, CEO, PEPSI: I think it's very important that women who come to Davos feel included in all of the discussions. That there isn't converstaion going on between CEOs and sometimes men, and then the women just stand there because they weren't represented. POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: I have a feeling you don't just stand there.

(LAUGHTER)

NOOYI: But you know what? I have the privilege of being a CEO, right? But there are not too many women CEOs around the world. So, we're going to bring other senior executives. We have to figure out ways to make them feel included. That's our next challenge. But you know, we're up to challenges.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Time now for the Big Breakdown. And I do mean big. Today we're talking about a report that was a year in the making by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life that looks at the number of people following each of the world's major religions. The headline, a surge in Muslims.

Twenty years ago, the world had about 1.1 billion Muslims, and 20 years from now will have about twice as many. The Muslim religion will represent just over 26 percent of all people on earth. That's up from just under 20 percent in 1990. In the same time period, the number of Muslims living in the U.S. is expected to more than double, reaching 6.2 million in 2030.

This is a look right here from CNN.com. The population change in Muslims throughout the world from 1990 through last year. The greatest changes being marked in dark green. And here are the projected changes the world will se in the next 20 years. There's a lot happening, a lot of changes happening really all over world.

Take a look at Afghanistan. Afghanistan's population will nearly double to about 50.5 million making it home to the ninth-largest Muslim population in the world. And France, there you go, it will become more than 10 percent Muslim, up from 7.5 percent. In Iran, they will see overall growth of 19.79 percent; Iranian women have among the fewest children of anyone in the Muslim world. They use birth control at exactly the same rate as American women, 73 percent. By 2030, Pakistan will overtake Indonesia as home to the largest number of it Muslims with 256 million, about 96.4 percent of their population. Indonesia will have 238 million Muslims, and India will stay third with 236 million Muslims.

What's behind the anticipated growth? Researchers at the Pew Forum say high birth rate, the large number of Muslims of child bearing age, and an increase in life expectancy in countries where Muslim are the majority. Despite the rapid growth of Islam, Christianity seems set to remain the biggest religion in the world for the next 20 years. There are currently more than 2 billion Christians, 30 to 35 percent of the global population.

We know many of you are watching with your laptop or smart phone. We want to hear from you right now. This is a new part of the show called "You Choose." I'm going to give you three headlines. And then you go to vote on Ali's blog, CNN.com/ali on which story you want to hear more about.

Number one: a human-sized poster of a KKK member and a burning cross in the lobby of a school. Option two, kids will have to blow into a breathalyzer before being allowed into a school dance. And I have five words for you: glow in the dark surfing. So, go vote on Ali's blog, CNN.com/ali. We'll bring you the winning story in about ten minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Back in October, Michael Vick injured his ribs and didn't start as quarterback for five weeks. When he returned, he wore a vest and shock absorbent sports pads designed by Unequal Technologies. Seeing an opportunity to make a name for itself, the company signed Vick to an endorsement deal yesterday. Unequal president Rob told CNN why.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB VITO, PRESIDENT, UNEQUAL TECHNOLOGIES: I'm an animal lover. The flip side of that was that I am a Catholic. And I believe in repentance and reform and a chance to -- for second chances. So, by partnering with Michael Vick, you and I are having this conversation today, and Unequal is appearing on every newspaper all over the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: No idea of how big that deal was. Kobe Bryant, Michael Phelps and Lance Armstrong continue to have lucrative deals, so controversy or a bad boy image does not seem to stop people from getting endorsements, really. There's no debate that Unequal Technologies can sign Vick to an endorsement deal. The question is should they?

Let's go straight to my Stream Team to discuss this. Lisa? Lisa Bloom you tell me. What do you think? Should he or should he not?

LISA BLOOM, ATTORNEY, THE BLOOM FIRM: Absolutely not! And I'm here with my beloved pit bull, Fallon. And we both agree.

Look, it's one thing to get out of prison and get reemployed, which is a good idea for anybody. But if you're doing celebrity endorsements, this company is holding you up as a pillar of the community, somebody that's going to be the face of your company. Michael Vick, let's not forget, was convicted of torturing and executing dozens of dogs in the cruelest possible ways. Dogs just like Fallon. They didn't deserve that. I think it's wrong for this company to have chosen him.

ROMANS: Well, Chris Howard, he paid the price. He did the time. I mean, should he be allowed to go out and reap the benefits that other NFL people are?

CHRIS HOWARD, PRESIDENT, HAMPDEN-SYDNEY COLLEGE: I think he should have this opportunity. I think it's a question of first of all, forgiveness and forgetting. We'll never forget, as Lisa pointed out with her beloved pit bull, that we should never forget what happened. But I think once someone pays their debt to society, they should have an opportunity to move forward.

I also think that in that forgiveness, there's an obligation or a requirement for him to give back in some way. We had the Wes Moore, from the other Wes Moore campus (ph) a few days ago and he talked about being useful. So, can Michael Vick be useful after this in terms of this endorsement? He probably can.

My final point in terms of Michael Vick, it's good that if this is going to happen and it happens with a smaller firm, just like he started off in the NFL when he came out of prison, he did not start immediately. It should be small and he should not be getting the big deals and he'd have to continue to prove things to get to forgiveness, I think.

ROMANS: Pete, this is all about the money. It's all about the money. It's all about money. Isn't it? It isn't about animal rights. It isn't about redemption. Isn't it, Pete, just about money in the end?

PETE DOMINICK, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Of course, it's about money! That's what athletes do. It's not like Purina is taking a sponsor out for him. It's body armor for football players. It's too bad none of those dogs had any of that body armor.

But I think he should be upheld as a pillar of the community to some extent because -- about forgiveness and redemption. He's not advertising for dog care. This is the perfect product for a guy who did get a second chance and capitalized on it, and in a very inspirational way. It doesn't in any way mean that we forgot what he did, but we should forgive. I totally agree --

BLOOM: A pillar of the community? Are you kidding me? I mean, this is a guy who admitted that he personally was involved in the destruction of dogs by hanging them, by torturing them, the female dogs were raped. I mean, these were horrible activities.

DOMINICK: So, should he not be allowed to play football either?

BLOOM: We respect capitalism and a second chance, but Americans love their dogs. We should not support the company for Michael Vick -

(CROSSTALK)

BLOOM: -- to be a pillar of the community -- please.

ROMANS: Go ahead, Chris.

HOWARD: I think there's sort of a step (ph) function here. He has to continue to prove to us, just like he did to Coach Reid that he has the opportunity to do more. And ultimately, you think about all the people that had their eyes on Michael Vick. If he can turn his life around and can continue to do this, think about the people that a, won't do it in the first place and b, will recognize there is an opportunity if they make a mistake to come back for it.

So, I do think there's a real opportunity. The story has not played out yet. And I also share my guests, my fellow scream teamers' sort of aberration with the original act, but I think there's an opportunity here.

ROMANS: Chris, do you think he's testing the water for bigger, more lucrative deals, maybe seeing if there's an appetite for him to be able to start making money outside of the playing field?

HOWARD: I think there is. Like I said before, I would be very surprised and upset and worried perhaps if I was Coach Dungy and I was Michael Vick's sort of mentor if he got a big deal right away, that might be too much for him. But I do think there will be more there. But there will be more opportunities for him to get back. I think a portion of the proceeds should go to The Humane Society.

ROMANS: I want to switch gears and ask you about another story, a big story this week. "U.S. Weekly" featured a cover photo of Elton John, his partner, and their baby. A manager of an Arkansas-based grocery chain played a shield over this magazine to quote, "protect young Harps shoppers." After complaints poured into the food chain's headquarters this week, the shield was removed.

Pete, what do you think about this decision first by one manager to cover it, to "protect the shoppers," and then by the company to say oh, no, no, there's nothing here to be protected from?

DOMINICK: It's sad. It's pathetic. It's stupid. And it's wrong.

ROMANS: Now, what do you really think? Tell me what you really thing. Don't hold back.

(CROSSTALK)

DOMINICK: -- somehow being exposed to homosexuality made you gay, I would be the gayest guy in the world. I went to acting school and worked at a gym. And by the way, if kids being exposed to seeing two guys holding a baby on the front of a magazine, take a look at Glenn Beck's book. Obviously, Glenn Beck is not gay, but we've got a picture of Glenn Beck's book. He's on the front of that with a psychiatrist, Keith Abbelow and a kid. Does that is somehow make people think something? It's absurd and sad. It's 2011, folks.

(CROSSTALK)

BLOOM: Because there are gay kids and teens in Arkansas, and if we try to keep the gay community visible from them -- we've had a rash of gay teen suicides in this country because people feel isolated and alone. And it's important for people everywhere, Arkansas and around the country to know that gay people can be successful like Elton John, they can having families like Elton John and not try to hide the good, happy life, gay life from them.

ROMANS: Chris, were they right, the company to quickly undo this?

HOWARD: Well, I think that the whole idea of you know, freedom of choice and I take somewhat of a libertarian view on this in terms of free expression and what have you. (INAUDIBLE) That's all I have to say on the subject.

ROMANS: All right, all right. Thank you, everybody. Lisa Bloom, Chris Howard, and Pete Dominick. Thanks, guys. Really appreciate it. Stream Team.

Breaking news just now into CNN. Actor Charlie Sheen has been rushed to the emergency room today. We contacted Sheen's rep, Stan Rosenfield, who said "All I know, had he several severe abdominal pains and went to the hospital" According to Web site TMZ, a 911 call was placed from his home at 6:35 a.m. Pacific time. He was rushed to Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles. TMZ is reporting his father, Martin Sheen, is with him at the hospital.

Stay with us. We'll have more as it develops.

Time now for a political update. CNN's chief national correspondent John King joins me from the political desk in Washington. John, we hear that Senator Thune is getting closer to a decision.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Senator Thune, Christine, one of many Republicans getting closer to a decision. We don't have a Republican presidential field yet, we just have a field of prospects. Senator John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, says he'll decide by the end of February whether he will try to seek the Republican nomination. That's the end of February.

Another colleague, Mike Pence, a conservative Indiana Congressman, a House member says he'll decide by the end of this week. He'll decide by the end of January whether he'll get in the race for president, or some people say more likely, run for Indiana governor.

Sharron Angle -- Sharron Angle ran against Harry Reid. She lost. She was the Republican nominee for the Senate race in Nevada. She even says her options are open, Christine, and that she hasn't ruled out about running for president. What do you think about that?

Mitt Romney saying he's getting close to make his decision. All signs the former Massachusetts governor will get in. President Obama, as we speak, doing a YouTube town hall, answering questions on the Internet. Tonight on our program -- I'm about to run out of time here, we'll get into Sarah Palin's response to the State of the Union. WTF, she says, Christine, but it's not what you think.

(LAUGHTER)

ROMANS: All right! I can't wait. Thanks, John.

Earlier in the show, we asked to you choose between three stories, a KKK poster in a school lobby, a required breathalyzer at a school dance, and glow in the dark surfing. Head to Ali's blog, CNN.com/ali to vote. And the winning story is just two minutes away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Now back to our "You Too" segment.

This is the story you guys picked on Ali's blog as the story you wanted to see the most, to hear more about. The winner is the KKK poster story.

According to our affiliate WISH, a mom posted a picture on Facebook of the KKK poster in the lobby of Greenfield Central High School in Greenfield, Illinois. The poster shows a Ku Klux -- Ku Klux Klan member in full garb and burning cross.

The school says the poster is actually promoting a play about the evils of racism. We will post the stories about the Breathalyzer required at a school dance and the glow-in-the-dark on Ali's blog, CNN.com/Ali.

CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Brooke Baldwin.