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New Zealand Earthquake Kills 65; Organized Crime and Border Patrol; Finding "Stem" Teachers; President Obama to Deliver Jobs Message; Rally Underway in Columbus, Ohio; Gunman on the Loose in St. Petersburg, Florida; Gadhafi's Vow to Fight Until the Last Drop of Blood; Most Innovative Companies; Chicago Mayoral Election

Aired February 22, 2011 - 13:00   ET

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

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much Suzanne. It is, now, 1:00 on the east coast, that's 10:00 on the west. I'm Martin Savidge. Thanks very much for joining us. Here we go.

Well, it looks like Wisconsin. It sounds like Wisconsin. But the anger being unleashed, today, is in Ohio. Another state trying to scale back labor rights in the name of fiscal discipline. A bill in the Ohio Senate would give and, actually, go even further than the so- called budget repair bill in Wisconsin. It would eliminate collective bargaining and force state employees, and it would take away the rights of local public workers to bargain for health insurance. There'd be no more automatic pay hikes, based on experience or education, and teachers would no longer get to have a say on where they work.

Right now, Ohio is one of 25 states that grant collective bargaining rights for all public workers. But the landscape is changing and changing fast. Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Tennessee, and Idaho, they are all contemplating rollbacks, particularly, targeting teachers. The sponsor of the Ohio bill says that she is not trying to punish anybody.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANNON JONES (R), STATE SENATE, OHIO: We are out of money. I don't -- I can't say that any other way. We're broke. The state is eight, $9 billion, pick a number short. There is no more money for us to give these local communities. The local communities are struggling, right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: CNN's Deborah Feyerick is in the thick of things, this time in Columbus, Ohio. Deb, what's happening there, today?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we can tell you that busloads of union workers arrived, here, within the last hour. You can see them all along the steps of the capitol, here. Again, the mood similar as to the mood in Wisconsin.

One of the things the senator pushing this through is saying is that it has to go through because cities and towns have to have the flexibility to balance their work force (ph) while maintaining workers' services and city services.

I'm joined by Charles Berry and Jim Benedict, and I want to ask you a question. The senators say that, in fact, you will be protected, even if this goes through. Is that true?

JIM BENEDICT, DEPARTMENT OF JOB AND FAMILY SERVICES, OHIO: Not really. We still have some civil service protection, but once the -- once they kill collective bargaining, there is nothing that will protect our rights on the job site like we have, now.

FEYERICK: Now, you, obviously, have bargained before. You gave up certain wages in order to get pensions and stability and health care. Tell me about that.

BENEDICT: Well, in the last contract, we bargained for ten cost savings stays, over the last two years, for a total of about $238 million in concessions. And, then, we bargained another hundred million dollars in health care concessions, for a total of about $338 million that we gave back to the state of Ohio.

The state workers, here, stand behind the state, and we want to do our part to help the state stay solvent, and we're more than willing to continue doing that.

FEYERICK: Do you feel that people are going to leave the public sector simply because they're not being paid as much, and they're not even getting the kind of benefits that they thought they were going to get?

BENEDICT: Absolutely. I'm a -- I work in the information technology, and most of my co-workers will leave if they continue to be underpaid the way they are. We started with the state for the stability and the pensions and things of that nature, and if those are gone, there's no reason for us to stay here. And that will usher in contracting and those contractors are billing out at about $125 plus per hour.

FEYERICK: So, you see it will going private, basically?

BENEDICT: Absolutely, they will go private.

FEYERICK: And, Charles Berry, you, also -- now, do you think this is going to hurt the unions or do you think that the unions are going to stay strong despite this?

CHARLES BERRY, DEPARTMENT OF JOB AND FAMILY SERVICES, OHIO: It will definitely hurt the unions. Basically, when it comes to employment services, which is what I do, our main focus is to assist one in finding employment and decreasing the jobless rate, here in Ohio or the city of Columbus. But what will happen is it will be cyclical, and the very thing that we are trying to avoid will come in masses as job losses erupt.

FEYERICK: The senators pushing this through say this is to avoid layoffs. Do you believe that?

CHARLES: No. There will be plenty more layoffs to come from this.

FEYERICK: OK. So, Martin, all the union workers out here, that's what they're asking for. They're asking for the right to bargain. State workers are going to lose that under this bill. Firefighters, teachers, police officers, they're going to be able to negotiate but only for salaries, pensions, and health care. All of those things that these public employees have come to expect and have given up wages for. That will be on the table.

The senators who are supporting this, basically, saying that they will have the right to do away with existing contracts, even though they've already been negotiated, because of the fiscal crisis that's hitting Ohio and the rest of the nation -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Deborah, what's the governor of Ohio saying about all of this?

FEYERICK: Well, the governor of Ohio, Governor Kasich, he backs this. He is a former managing director for Lehman Brothers, the large investment firm. He supports this and the Republican senators also say, look, this is about belt tightening. This about a new dynamic going on across the country that if there is no money, then states and cities and towns have to do what they can with the money that they've got because there ain't more being made -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Deborah Feyerick in the thick of things, this time, in Columbus, Ohio. Thanks very much.

And stay with us this afternoon. The Ohio governor will be Brooke Baldwin's guest at 4:00 p.m. eastern, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

you know, it is not just Ohio and Wisconsin. States all over the country are trying to balance their budgets by cutting costs, including education costs. How would you do it? Teacher pay cuts? Teacher benefit cuts? Bigger classrooms? Or, maybe, higher taxes?

You can join in the conversation on Ali's blog at CNN.com/ali. You can, also, comment on Ali's Facebook and Twitter accounts. And, as always, we'll use your comments throughout the program.

It felt like running on jelly. That's how one resident described the massive magnitude 6.3 earthquake that shook New Zealand's South Island to its very core.

Aftershocks of the deadly quake sent shell-shocked survivors scrambling for shelter. It left citizens bewildered, battered, and bloody. And those are the lucky ones. Dozens are dead. Hundreds more still trapped in the rubble, right now. The quake hit just before 1:00 p.m. Tuesday, local time. Just a few miles from the country's largest city of Christchurch, that horrifying moment caught on camera.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GAVIN BLOWMAN, CNN IREPORTER: (INAUDIBLE.) The floor is trembling and the rocks are falling down. I assume that is like Christchurch. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: And those rocks, then, eventually, went on to do a great deal of damage. This massive earthquake is still only being understood, really, as to not only its intensity but how many people, could be scores of them, trapped in the ruins. Chad Myers, here, with more on just where it all began and how it happened -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I know. A part of the world that America doesn't focus on much. You know, we know about Australia and all the flooding that we had, here, and couple tropical cyclones that are still affecting Australia, but over here, island nations here, two islands of New Zealand, and many other -- this is, basically, at the arcaculigo (ph).

But I want to take you to -- I want to take you to how this country -- or, you know, the series of countries is split up. Split up between two plates. And you can go on to USGS.gov and learn all about this.

We have the pacific plate, here, and the Australian plate, here, with Australia being over here, not on the map. But there you go, that is New Zealand, so always in the boundary zone -- and from the -- from '97 to 2007, there have been greater than six earthquakes, so this country shakes all the time.

The problem with this one, Marty, is that the shake was right under a city. And it was only three miles into the crust. This was an old quake, back in 2010. It was a seven, a bigger quake, but 40 miles from the epicenter of what would be Christchurch. This one, here, the one that happened last night, 6.3, very close to the city.

And there's also something, here. We haven't heard anything from the town here. There is a little bay, here, a harbor. Over the mountain range is, actually, where all of this damage has occurred. This is -- here is Christchurch and a bunch of other little towns in between. Mountain range here, Christchurch here.

There was something called liquefaction. It was like Jell-O. These people were standing on ground that was no longer attached to the other pieces of ground next to it. The whole place was shaking like a bowl of jelly, because you have a mountain range here. You have another mountain range here. This is all just fill-in land that has been through glaciers moraines and all those other things you talk about, all the fill in, all the -- all the, just, soil that is sandy and wet below it. And that wet below it was moving and jiggling and even a 6.3 you wouldn't expect this type of damage in a 6.3 that occurred because of the liquefaction or standing on a bowl full of jelly.

SAVIDGE: You mentioned the earthquake, earlier, a couple months ago, five months previous. Could that have weakened some of these structures?

MYERS: Absolutely. Many of these structures, I believe, were either internally weakened by a 7.0, and, then, all of a sudden, you get a 6.3 under the city. That city really shook last night. SAVIDGE: All right. Chad Myers, we'll stay in touch to get the very latest. Thank you.

Well, let's go to Libya and what is surely the bloodiest of the regional uprisings against autocratic leaders. Moammar Gadhafi, who has ruled by edict since 1969, he has been on Libyan television twice, now, in the last several hours, both times to signal that he is not going anywhere, at least not willingly and not alive.

The long speech that was reportedly made from a compound that the United States bombed, in 1986. Gadhafi blamed the protest against him on, quote, "A small, sick group of outsiders." He said, they and their supporters face execution and he called on Libyans who love and support him to rally in the streets.

Well, there is no doubt that Tripoli, the capitol, remains firmly in Gadhafi's control. But the second largest city of Bin Ghazi, and much of eastern Libya, has fallen to anti-regime protesters and defections from Gadhafi's camp continue.

Today, on American TV, Libya's ambassador to the U.S. made a statement that would have been thought unthinkable just a few weeks ago. And that's our "Sound Effect" for today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

I am calling for him to go. I am calling -- I am calling for him to go and leave our people alone. The Tripoli, now, is under gun fire. Tripoli, it is burning. The eastern part is under the control of the people. But if the regime manages to hit Tripoli and manage to control Tripoli, then Bin Ghazi, and the other cities in the west, that they will return back again and they will hit again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: We will have much more on and from Libya, later this hour, in globe tracking.

Meanwhile, a tragic end for the four Americans held hostage by Somali pirates. U.S. military officials say, they were found dead on the yacht "Quest", today. Pirates hijacked that vessel off the coast of Oman, last week. The boat was owned by Jean and Scott Adam. Also killed were their friends, Phyllis McKay (ph) and Bob Riggle.

A U.S. Navy ship has been trailing that vessel and boarded it after a rocket propelled grenade was fired at the Navy ship. Two pirates were found dead and U.S. forces killed two others. Thirteen other pirates were captured.

Here's what a niece of one of the victims said about the tragedy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NINA CROSSLAND, NIECE OF PHYLLIS MCKAY: My aunt was not dead when she -- when the Navy Seals arrived on the ship. She had been shot. She was not dead at that time. They did try to save her but they were unsuccessful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Phyllis McKay and Bob Riggle, seen here, were from Seattle. The Adams were from Marina del Ray, California. According to Adams' Web site, the couple set sail in 2002 and two years later embarked on a planned eight to ten-year voyage around the world.

Well, the deadly game of smuggling people from Mexico to the U.S. has a new player. Who that player is and how it makes the job for U.S. border patrol agents more dangerous. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: More than 300 people caught sneaking across the American border from Mexico. Just another hard night on the job for U.S. border patrol agents. But there is a new enemy in that fight against outfits (ph) smuggling people across the border -- organized crime. CNN's Rafael Romo joined agents on one night-time operation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, we've got two approaching the ravine again. (INAUDIBLE).

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The call comes in and we rush to the scene. It's dark and the agents know they only have minutes to find the suspect.

RUDY GARCIA, U.S. BORDER PATROL AGENT: He jumped the fence and, you know, he didn't stop. He just kept running.

ROMO: Agent Rudy Garcia finds the men hiding underneath a platform in a backyard.

GARCIA: You have to search every little crevice and every crack because, you know, they can hide anywhere.

ROMO: The migrant says he comes from southern Mexico.

LEONZO LOPEZ, MEXICAN MIGRANT (through translator): My family and poverty in Mexico -- I want better. I just want a job to support my family.

ROMO: Not far from there, seven more would-be immigrants have been arrested, including this 32-year-old man.

CAIN MEZA AGUIRRE, MEXICAN MIGRANT (through translator): Back to Mexico with my family and never come back. That's what I want.

ROMO: Before the night is over, agents say they will detain more than 300 people. This is Nogales, Arizona, a battle front in the fight against smuggling organizations.

GARCIA: They like to try and operate under the cover of darkness because they think that they're not going to be seen. ROMO: From a nearby control room, infrared technology gives agents eyes in the dark. Daylight reveals other resources, like surveillance towers, vehicles, and an agent force that has more than doubled in the last 10 years to more than 3,400 for just over 250 miles along the Arizona border. Agents say they're fighting a new enemy.

DAVID JIMAREZ, U.S. BORDER PATROL AGENT: The whole smuggling organization has changed. It's not your mom-and-pop shop anymore. Now everything is organized crime.

ROMO (on camera): One of the things that you note is when you come near the fence here at the border is that you find rocks everywhere. Agents say that they are victims of attacks every day and some rocks, like this one, can cause some real harm.

ROMO (voice-over): SUVs show the signs of damage and agents riding bicycles are especially at risk.

ARIEL MIDELES (ph), U.S. BORDER PATROL AGENT: You can see, you know, those medium sized rocks to brick sized rocks. They're pretty big. They're not your average sized rocks.

ROMO: Many times rock throwing is a diversion. Agents recently confiscated 1,100 rounds of ammunition going south into Mexico, presumably to be used by a drug cartel. This manhole had to be welded shut because it was being used to smuggle marijuana.

MICHAEL DAMRON, U.S. BORDER PATROL AGENT: For a long time they couldn't see them with the cameras because we're in a low ravine here. So it took a long time to figure out what they were doing.

ROMO: As night falls again in Nogales, there is a new arrests. She's an 18-year-old girl from the Mexican state of Vera Cruz. For her, it's the end of a 1,200-mile trip in search of a dream. For the agents, one of more than 300 arrests that they will make before the night is over.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Nogales, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Stem teachers are the new focus in an effort to recruit and train educators. President Obama's goal is to get 100,000 of them over the next decade. We'll explain it all in "Your Money."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: President Obama's 2012 budget calls for $4.3 billion for recruiting and training teachers and principals. And a portion of that will go toward recruiting teachers in the so-called stem fields, that's science, technology, engineering, and math. The goal is to get 100,000 new stem teachers in schools over the next decade, but that could be easier said than done. Christine Romans reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY NAGELHOUT, TEACHER: You really think she's right? Yes, she is. CHRISTINE ROMANS, HOST, "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" (voice-over): After 31 years as an engineer, Gary Nagelhout is starting a new career -- math teacher at Faith Christian Academy in Poughkeepsie, New York.

NAGELHOUT: I was very comfortable where I was. I loved my job. But my heart was to be with the kids and to work with students.

ROMANS: President Obama wants to hire 10,000 highly qualified science and math teachers like Gary Nagelhout in the next year. One hundred thousand over the next decade. A lofty goal to fix a critical problem.

NAGELHOUT: Everybody good with that?

KATE WALSH, PRES. NATL. COUNCIL ON TEACHER QUALITY: You have some of the top CEOs in the nation going into the president and screaming that the workforce that they're getting is not the workforce that they absolutely require to sustain a growing economy. ROMANS: It's a catch-22. U.S. students lag in achievement in math and science. Those who do go into these fields often don't want to trade six-figure corporate salaries for lower teacher pay.

NAGELHOUT: I can afford to do it because I'm old enough to retire.

ROMANS: Nagelhout, who designed chips at IBM, also got help paying for his teacher training and certification from IBM, which says it's investing in its future workforce.

ROMANS (on camera): This is getting the skills of a math or a scientist in the real world, in corporate America, getting it into a classroom so that kids can learn from that experience.

ROBIN WILLNER, VP, IBM GLOBAL COMMUNITY INITIATIVES: They've made their money, they put their kids through college and now they're saying, you know, that was always my passion.

ROMANS (voice-over): IBM has put 31 teachers in the classroom so far, but it's a drop in the bucket.

WALSH: We're going to have to be looking to compensation, we're going to have to be starting much earlier at training the next generation of teachers by providing much more solid mathematics education in the way that other countries do.

ROMANS: What students need is another 99,999 Gary Nagelhouts.

NAGELHOUT: I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. This is fun. It really is a blast.

ROMANS: Christine Romans, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: And be sure to tune into "Your Bottom Line" each Saturday morning at 9:30 Eastern. "Your Money," by the way, airs Saturdays at 1:00 p.m. Eastern and Sundays at 3:00.

Now time for a check of our top stories.

Four Americans held hostage by Somali pirates have been killed. Their yacht was hijacked Friday off the coast of Oman. U.S. forces were shadowing it and negotiations were underway when gunshots rang out. When U.S. forces boarded the yacht, they found the four Americans fatally wounded. The Pentagon says the four pirates are dead and 15 in custody. Jean and Scott Adam of Seattle had been sailing around the world. The other victims have been identified as Phyllis MacKay and Bob Riggle of California.

Libyan Leader Moammar Gadhafi went on state run television today and he made it clear he is not going to step down. He said that those found to be fomenting discord and those who are carrying weapons against his regime will be executed. His remarks follow eight days of violent unrest that have cost Gadhafi control of the eastern part of his country.

And this is the terrible scene in Christchurch, New Zealand, after a 6.3 magnitude earthquake toppled buildings and downed power lines. At least 65 people are dead. Authorities say the priority now is to rescue the hundreds still trapped beneath the rubble. Many residents are fearful as aftershocks continue to rattle that city.

President Obama has a very clear message today -- jobs, jobs, jobs. But are the union protests in Ohio and Wisconsin changing his tune? Our Ed Henry is up next with the answer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: President Obama is in Ohio today talking about innovation and jobs and he's hammering home key points from his State of the Union address. Today he's focusing on small business. But the trip comes while many are watching another fight over jobs. And we are talking about, of course, the union protests in Ohio and Wisconsin. CNN's senior White House correspondent Ed Henry joins us every day at this time for our "Stakeout."

And, Ed, what's the president's message today?

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, it has nothing to do with the protests, and that's what's interesting is that he's steering clear, talking about protests. And as you know, they're not just happening in Wisconsin. Also now happening in the very state where the president is as we speak, in Ohio.

He's in Cleveland. The protests are in Columbus. About an hour or so away. But, nonetheless, the White House is fully aware that that's going on because the Republican governor in Ohio, just as the Republican governor in Wisconsin, has been sort of going after collective bargaining rights for some of these government employees.

But the White House wants to steer clear of that. Let that play out on the local level. They're very sensitive to this being seen as a sort of White House interference story. They don't want it to look like they're joining up with the labor unions and others that have been helping to stir up some of the protests. They want to keep an arm's length and try to keep, and I stress try to keep the message -- the president on message about jobs and the economy and not get mired in some of the politics of what else is going on.

Martin.

SAVIDGE: It could be tough for him to do. But does the president have other job stops, so to speak, planned?

HENRY: Oh, they're -- they pretty much are doing one a week. And that's what's been interesting since the State of the Union and the new chief of staff, Bill Daley, something with his fingerprints on it, making sure that the president is not just here in Washington, which is a pretty toxic, political environment, but getting out there in the heartland. Helps him in the short term try to sell this economic message.

Today, as we noted, in Cleveland, he's focusing on small businesses. They create two out of every three new jobs. So he wants to try to reach out to these small businesses and say, I hear you coming out of those November midterm elections where there was a message that maybe the administration was not listening enough. He wants to get out there and make sure that he is listening.

But let's not forget, it's not just about the short term. It's about the long term and that 2012 election that is getting closer and closer. It's not really that far away. Ohio, a critical battleground state. He's been in Michigan. He's been in Pennsylvania lately. All of these states are going to be critical states he wants in 2012. It's no accident that a lot of these so-called winning the future events on policy, on substance, also played pretty well for him politically, Martin.

SAVIDGE: These are also states, of course, that are facing the challenges of many of these kind of protests that are either there or likely to happen in those states.

HENRY: Big time, yes.

SAVIDGE: So at some point is it possible that the president will have to speak? And if he does, what is the line he walks? I mean he obviously has talked about cutting deficits, but then he was also supported by many of these labor organizations.

HENRY: You're right. You know, and he walked that exact line the only time he's commented on these protests. Last week he did an interview with a local TV station in Wisconsin. Most people picked up one part of that interview, which was the president saying he believes that what's going on in Wisconsin is an assault on unions. And that got the unions happy and angered a lot of Republicans.

But a lot of people missed the other part of the interview where the president said something else important, which is where he said, look. I do understand, however, that people in the local level have some tough choices to make with these budgets.

It was not like he was supporting the Republican governor in this case but he was saying I can sympathize with him because the president noted he, himself, has been trying to institute this federal pay freeze for federal employees. That's obviously a state, local issue.

But federal employees saying, look, I've got to make tough choices. Some of these governors have to make tough choices. So that's how he's going to walk that line. He's certainly -- you're right -- he's going to stand up for those unions that supported him in 2008, will be critical in 2012.

But the president has also got to be honest about the fact that we've got a budget deficit right now. He's in the middle of that debate here in Washington. And some of these governors on a local level, they don't have easy choices. And that's why we're seeing some of these protests pop up. There's a lot of controversy surrounding it, but there's also some tough issues that they're grappling with and they're trying to face, Martin.

SAVIDGE: And the days of easy choices are long gone.

HENRY: That's right.

SAVIDGE: Ed Henry, thanks very much.

HENRY: Good to see you, Martin.

Did an NFL player take his own life with a greater purpose in mind? His son is now speaking out about his father's last wishes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Happening now, a rally is underway in Columbus, Ohio, protesting a plan to end collective bargaining rights for state workers. The plan? Similar to legislation also pending in Wisconsin. Ohio Governor John Kasich says he's trying to reduce the state deficit but state workers accuse him of union busting.

Somali pirates have killed four Americans aboard their hijacked yacht. The Pentagon says U.S. forces closed in on the yacht after hearing gun fire and they found all four Americans fatally wounded. Four of pirates were killed, 15 others are in custody.

Police in St. Petersburg, Florida are searching for a gunman who killed a police officer. The 46-year-old victim was responding to a call when he was shot at close range last night. He is the third St. Petersburg police officer to be killed in the past month.

Friends and family were shocked last week after the death of former Chicago bears safety Dave Duerson. Teammates who recently saw him called him, quote, "upbeat." They say that he never mentioned any health problems. He was planning on getting married in April. But last Thursday, Duerson was found dead after shooting himself in the chest. He was 50-years-old. He left messages with family members asking them to have doctors examine his brain for evidence of possible trauma.

Chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta spoke this morning with Duerson's son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TREGG DUERSON, SON OF DAVE DUERSON: The police showed up at my door around 1:30 and I let them in and they told me my father died.

GUPTA: Dan, I'm so sorry to hear that and I know it's difficult to talk about. You talked about the fact that, you know, there were text messages. I mean, were you surprised? I mean, it's always a shock, but was there some indication to you that this could happen?

DUERSON: There was a text message the night before that was a bizarre text message that he sent to my mother saying that he loved her and he loved my family and that to please get his brain to the NFL brain bank. My mother called me at work. We talked about it and it was bizarre text. You can't make sense of it.

So we were trying to reach out to him, try to get in contact with him. No one could get in contact with him. And then, you know, when I'm getting up at 1:30 in the morning and I'm letting the police in, you know, the first thing on my mind is I think they're about to tell me my father died.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: The NFL has been criticized for being too lax in dealing with the consequences of head injuries. Last year they formed a medical committee to improve efforts to prevent them. By the way, you can see all of Sanjay's interview with Dave Duerson's son, Tregg this Saturday morning at 7:30 a.m. Eastern on "SANJAY GUPTA M.D."

Apple, Facebook, Four Square, twitter, Google, Netflix. They're all listed in the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in a popular magazine that's Fast Company . Find out why twitter made a huge jump and Facebook took a dive, coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi vows to fight to the last drop of blood. Appearing on state television in the capital of Tripoli, Gadhafi blamed the revolt against his regime on agents of foreign intelligence services. This as anti-government demonstrators appear to control the eastern part of the country and show no sign of abandoning their effort to oust Gadhafi.

CNN's Ben Wedeman's now in Eastern Libya and he filed this report on the dramatic events that are playing out there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the democracy, Gadhafi. This is the real democracy.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): But Gadhafi no longer controls this eastern city of Tobruk. The old Libyan flag from the days of the monarchy now flies over the main square.

Here, they chant the same slogan heard in Tunis and Cairo. The people want to topple the regime, and they don't want to stop there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I talk seriously. I will kill you. Leave us alone. Go away. Don't come back.

WEDEMAN: Tobruk was one of the first cities to rebel against Gadhafi's 42-year rule, ripping down one of the symbols of one of the Arab world's most repressive regimes.

(on camera): This is what remains of Tobruk's main police station -- a hated symbol of the Gadhafi regime. On the 17th of February, protesters came out into the streets. They were fired upon by the security services. But eventually, the people here were able to overpower the police, and they came and ransacked this place, and then came and burnt cars belonging to the intelligence services.

(voice-over): Adris (ph) says he was brought to this room, the torture chamber in the police station, four times. He police, he recalls, used electric shocks and beatings to extract confessions.

Much of Libya's oil is exported from the east. Local leader Abdallah Sharif warns the people here have a weapon against the regime.

SHARIF ABDALLAH, TOBRUK COMMUNITY LEADER: Unless this massacre is stopped immediately, we are going to stop the oil. Burn it. We'll burn it. Either we burn it or we just stop exporting it.

WEDEMAN: Gadhafi isn't giving up without a fight, but, then again, neither are the people.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, Tobruk, Libya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: In the Gulf State of Bahrain, a pro-democracy movement is pressing ahead with demands for major reforms. Tens of thousands took to the streets of the capital of Manama today. Said to be the biggest anti-government rally since demonstrations erupted last week.

The crowd shouted, "No Shia, No Sunni, Only Bahraini." The ruling family is Sunni Muslim while most of the rest of the population is Shiite. The king has urged protesters to resolve the crisis peacefully. He held meetings with some opposition members and community business leaders. He also ordered the release of some prisoners.

Elsewhere in the country, a massive crowd turned out for the funeral of a 32-year-old protester. Relatives say that he was shot by security forces last week. The government says that in all seven people have been killed during the protests. The protesters place the death toll more at around 10 to 11.

Here's an update on our top stories. The battle over state budgets remains hot as ever in Wisconsin and is spreading now to Ohio. Demonstrators staged a protest at the Ohio State Capitol today over a proposed curbs on collective bargaining rights for public employees. Ohio's governor says it needs to save money. Opponents argue it is a bid to hurt unions.

In Wisconsin, Republican Governor Scott Walker is standing firm on his effort to make public employees pay more for their benefits and weaken their collective bargaining rights. He blames unions for squandering state coffers. Opponents say his real aim is to bust unions.

It's looking good for shuttle Discovery's last voyage to space. After nearly a four-month delay NASA officials today said the countdown for Thursday's launch is going well. Discovery will make a return trip to the International Space Station, making its 39th flight for the space agency's oldest surviving shuttle.

Every day at this time we have a segment which we call the "Big I," and it's all about new ideas and innovations. Today Fast Company is out with its annual most innovative companies list for 2011. And it's a compilation of some of the biggest, baddest, innovation factories out there today.

And here to tell us all about it is Bob Safian. He is the editor-in- chief of Fast Company and he joins us live from our studios in New York.

Thank you very much for being with us. And, first of all, give me a quick definition of what you consider innovative for this kind of list.

BOB SAFIAN, EDITOR IN CHIEF, FAST COMPANY: Well, the innovation list that we put together, our reporters spend months putting it together and really the definition of innovation shifts from industry to industry. What our goal is with the overall list to encapsulate the range of innovation that's happening across the economy and across the globe.

SAVIDGE: The list I've looked at --

SAFIAN: And so --

SAVIDGE: -- there are a lot of very familiar names. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. Did you have more you wanted to finish with?

SAFIAN: No. Go ahead.

SAVIDGE: So, I look at this list, a lot of very familiar names. Why is Apple at the No. 1 spot, though?

SAFIAN: Well, Apple is in the No. 1 spot you might say because of the iPad. Certainly the iPad has had a tremendous influence and for a first-year launch of a product has been unbelievably successful. But we really put Apple at No. 1 because the combination of the iPad and the app store and the iPhone have created a platform for innovation that other companies can work off. It really has created an ecosystem of innovation. And so in "Fast Company's" issue we highlight a hundred other companies, although there are thousands, that have built innovations on top of Apple's platform.

Companies from Sherwin Williams paints to the Rovio, the maker of Angry Birds which may be a game that you while away some of your time playing, to the "New York Times," tons and tons of companies that have built innovation on top of Apple's platform. And that really is one of the themes of our issue about building platforms that other innovations can be built on top of.

SAVIDGE: Well, you're right. I mean, everything from, you know, major corporations, right down to grandparents, have made some sort of app that can be used, so I get your point there.

How about Twitter? They made huge comeback. They were I believe 50 on your list last year. They jumped to No. 2. What happened?

SAFIAN: Well, we really feel like that Twitter has come of age over the last year, that the ubiquity of the platform everywhere and again, Twitter is also an enterprise in the business that has become a platform for others to innovate on -- marketing messages, human rights messages -- all kinds of different communications that are happening via that Twitter platform. And Twitter, itself, is evolving as a business. It's generating real revenue, finding ways to turn what has been a terrific utility for consumers into something that also is a viable and strong business.

SAVIDGE: And one of your sub categories is mobile and this is an area I believe is part of the future, so Foursquare is at the top of that list. Explain.

SAFIAN: Well, Foursquare is a much smaller company than some of the other ones, at least in the scale of its users and the scale of its business, right now. But with Foursquare, allows you to check in to certain locations and to use geo location, a combination of GPS positioning and mobile to be able to identify where you are and have products and services and experiences that are connected to that. In fact, if you go to Foursquare.com/fast company you'll find hundreds of innovation places that you can get a special badge, which is what happens on Foursquare, where you can identify yourself with certain kinds of innovation. Foursquare's doing this with lots of businesses.

SAVIDGE: Right. Lastly, I want to bring up FaceBook, and it's really a two part question, here. First of all, they dropped to No. 3 from last year and why did that happen, but also they're missing from the mobile category and why is that?

SAFIAN: Well, we chose to emphasize Foursquare in mobile as opposed to FaceBook because Foursquare's presence is further on the edge. FaceBook is following in a certain way in some of the things that Foursquare has innovated first. But, to say FaceBook has dropped on the list is a little bit of splitting hairs. They are No. 3 on the list out of the whole globe and in many ways they've had an absolutely spectacular year. The advent, the appearance of the social network film is something that really could have knocked them off their game and instead they have continued to move forward. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO, has matured. The whole operation is much larger and in a lot of ways has more impact than it did a year ago, we just couldn't ignore the rise that Apple had and the rise that Twitter had over the last year.

SAVIDGE: Well, and not to mention of course FaceBook has been the motivation or at least the impetus that has helped a lot of these revolutions we're now watching in other parts of the world.

Bob Safian, editor-in-chief of "Fast Company." Thanks very much for the list, thanks for joining us today.

SAFIAN: Thanks for having me.

SAVIDGE: By the way, you can see the complete list of the most innovative companies of 2011 from "Fast Company," you can do that by going to Ali's blog, that's CNN.com/ali and we'll link you right on over.

Well, from the White House to the mayor's office, is it a foregone conclusion that Rahm Emanuel is going to be the next mayor of Chicago? Not so fast. We'll check out just after this.

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SAVIDGE: It's Election Day in Chicago, and for the first time in more than two decades there is no one named Daley on the ballot. But that doesn't mean that there is a bunch of unknowns vying for the mayor's job. CNN national political correspondent, Jessica Yellin, joins me on the phone now from Chicago.

And Jessica, you just spoke with Rahm Emanuel. What's he saying today?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Marty. He is saying that he is not going to predict the outcome today, but he has clear plans for what to do to rein in the city's budget deficit. Like so many localities across the country, like these states we've been following, Ohio and Wisconsin, he says there is a huge budget hole and he said would solve things very differently from the way we're see Republican governors approaching their budget hole in their state. He said would bring city workers, unionized city workers to the table to bargain down and negotiate down so that they can help to balance the deficit hole here in the city, a very different approach from Rahm Emanuel.

SAVIDGE: Yeah, well all right, well, it's certainly a hot topic these days. What happens if there is a runoff?

YELLIN: So, today all the candidates are vying and then whoever the two top vote getters are, go to a runoff on April 5. But if someone gets 50 percent plus one vote, they are the winner. And Rahm Emanuel has been polling slightly above 50 percent, so there are supporters that are very optimistic he will just wins this thing in a clear blow, today, and there's no runoff, but of course, his campaign is talking that down, trying to lower expectations and they're super nervous. The other candidates are saying, you know, this will go to the runoff, that's what the city needs. Who knows?

SAVIDGE: Right, they always say, you know, weather a big factor in turnouts and how people will turn out to vote. So, how is the weather and how are numbers of people turning out?

YELLIN: The Electorate Board is predicting about 50 percent turnout, which is, you know, average for a primary. It did snow this morning, but we're reminded, as out-of-staters, that that ain't nothing when you live in Chicago. Little snow is like a sunny day in other places and right now there's no snow, I wouldn't call it clear skies, but plenty of easy traveling for folks who want to get to the polls, right now.

SAVIDGE: And lastly, Jessica, if Emanuel wins, it's final, right? I mean, no more challenges over his residency or anything like that?

YELLIN: No. It has gone to the state supreme court. That question is answered. He is a state resident, he can stay of the ballot. He says from now on the word "resident" is banned from his scrabble games.

SAVIDGE: All right, Jessica Yellin reporting to us from the Windy City on the mayoral elections that is underway, voting, right now. Thank you very much, Jessica. We'll be back in touch with you.

Well, FaceBook wants to help you find love, but is it really a new, cool app, or is it creepy? That's up next in "Odds and Ends."

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SAVIDGE: Topping "Odds and Ends," today, aome call it creepy, others think it's just plain cool. Either way, FaceBook's taking love to a new level with a new app, at least a new level with those who want to find love on the social networking site. The app's called breakup notifier and here's how it works: It allows choosers to choose certain friends whose relationship status they want to monitor when the person's relationship changes, well the user gets notified by an e-mail. So easy, so simple, now if only love actually worked that way.

Well, from loveable to livable, a new list ranks the world's best cities to live in. And not a single American city cracks the top 10. For the fourth straight year in a row, Vancouver tops that list. British magazine, that's "The Economist," which ranks things on culture, environment, education and infrastructure, cities like Vancouver's picture-perfect climate and crime-free streets are the reasons that it wins. In fact, three Canadian cities were ranked in the top 10, including Toronto and Calgary.

The survey named four Australian cities as some of the best: Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide. And so where would you like to know American cities stand on the list? Well, Pittsburgh ranks as the nation's most livable city coming in 29th, worldwide. Los Angeles and New York came in 44th and 56th, respectively. And just in case you were wondering what is the worst city to live in the world? Well, that happens to be Harare, Zimbabwe; 140 cities were assessed, worldwide.