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Libyan Air Force Crew Crash Plane Near Benghazi; Time to Outlaw Prostitution; State Department Evacuating Americans in Libya; Lindsay Lohan Back in Court Today; Teen Held in Police Killing; Gaining Control of U.S. Borders; Rejecting Healthy School Lunches; Cell Phones and Brain Changes; "I Can't Wrestle a Girl"
Aired February 23, 2011 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, it's now 10:00 in the East, 7:00 in the West, and more proof this morning that Moammar Gadhafi is losing his grip on Libya. A Libyan Air Force crew apparently crashed, a jet fighter failed out near the eastern city of Benghazi rather than bomb their own people.
Legal prostitution could lose its last bastion in the U.S., a powerful voice says it's time to outlaw the world's oldest profession in Nevada, and that news isn't sitting well with some folks.
Let's begin with Libya's leader Moammar Gadhafi voicing a death wish. He's vowing to fight until to the last drop of blood saying that he will die a martyr and he's telling protesters that rats and agents of foreign intelligence services are behind this unrest. Now, an exodus of foreigners and Americans among those trying to get out.
This is the scene yesterday at Tripoli's airport, the State Department evacuating U.S. citizens by boat, sending them to Malta. Conflict could have a big impact on your bottom line, too. Sources close to the Gadhafi regime tell "Time" magazine he's ordered security services to start sabotaging oil facilities, cutting off the flow to Mediterranean ports. Oil prices have already surged to a two and a half year high.
Analyst James Burkhard tells us that what kind of sabotage might mean.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES BURKHARD, MANAGING DIRECTOR, CAMBRIDGE ENERGY RESEARCH ASSOCIATES: That would be a big blow to the global oil market because Libya is a major oil exporter but there is a large volume of spare production capacity elsewhere in the world, so if we did lose Libyan supply for a significant period of time, that could be offset with higher production elsewhere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Zain Verjee joins me once again from London. Zain, a lot of developments. First of all, what can you tell me about this plane crash?
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we are just getting the information in now, Kyra. According to the Libyan newspaper "Kurnia (ph)" saying that a military aircraft just crashed in Libya after the pilot and the co-pilot refused to follow orders and bomb Benghazi. That's the second largest city in Libya, it's in the eastern part of the country. But according to all reports that we've heard that Moammar Gadhafi does no longer really have any control of. We understand, too, according to the same report, that the pilot and the co-pilot are OK and they managed to parachute out.
But this is another indication, if this report is, in fact, confirmed, that there are more defections and more people stepping away from Colonel Gadhafi leaving him more isolated.
PHILLIPS: Possibly it could be the third air force pilot who decided to defect. Meanwhile, the tribes - we know it's the tribes that protect the oil facilities. How are they responding to these orders to even attack one of the most precious resources there, and that's the oil?
VERJEE: Well, this is in the eastern part of the country that has always had an uncomfortable, uneasy relationship with Tripoli over decades. Essentially, they control much of the oil and there have been threats by tribal leaders that they may not want to play ball and may cut off the oil supply. So the uneasiness about those comments and about Libya's situation when it comes to oil is that it's driving oil prices up. So keep your eye on that.
The other thing to remember, too, when it comes to tribes in Libya, it is absolutely important to understand that the majority of people, Kyra, are more loyal to their tribe than to actually being Libyans overall. What's important to know is that Gadhafi comes from a minority tribe called the Gadafa (ph), and there are many bigger, and a handful of very powerful tribes that have supported him in the past and that have allowed him to rule. So the question is, according to many reports now, that there are major tribes that have pulled their support of him and can he survive?
And that's really what we need to take a look at because it's such a tribal system and he's been able to successfully play one tribe off against another by buying their loyalty with the oil revenue he has been able to get.
PHILLIPS: We will follow it closely as well and see if there's more people going against Gadhafi right now than supporting him. Zain Verjee out of London. Zain, thanks so much.
Well, the U.S. Navy is holding 15 pirates on board a warship following the deaths of four Americans. The Navy says those pirates killed Jean and Scott Adam and Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle. Those four were on a mission to distribute bibles when their yacht was hijacked off the coast of Africa by the pirates last week.
Two of the pirates negotiated with officers on board, that nearby navy ship, someone on the yacht fired an RPG at the ship. So the sounds of gunfire could be heard from the yacht. By the time the naval forces got to the yacht, four Americans were dying and two pirates were also found dead. U.S. forces killed two more pirates before rounding up the others. The Navy now says that those detained pirates will be brought to justice.
The desperate hunt for survivors in the New Zealand earthquake well into its second night now. Rescue teams at Christchurch continuing to dig through the rubbles, searching for survivors. 48 people have been pulled out alive, but so many more still waiting, holding on to hope that there will be some good news for them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have been trying to text my daughter, Francis. I have reception, just because I thought the rescuers might hear the ring and dig down and find her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: 75 people confirmed dead. A nighttime curfew has been established in parts of Christchurch considered too dangerous for the public right now.
And joining the effort more than 70 search and rescue emergency workers from Los Angeles are heading to assist the efforts there. The group is made up of 68 L.A. County firefighters, three doctors, and three structural engineers. Firefighters will be taking over 55 pounds worth of supplies with them, heat detecting devices, drills, fiber optic cameras that can actually see between buildings.
And the showdown over budget battles and union rights throughout the country, people are hitting the streets to fight for their rights. Wisconsin is leading the way. Crowds are smaller but more protests are planned at the state capitol for the ninth day. Protesters are outraged over the governor's plan to fix the budget by requiring state workers to pay more benefits and virtually strip their collective bargaining rights.
Similar protests playing out in Indiana, demonstrators are fighting for unions to keep their leverage, and in Ohio, pro-union protesters gathered for a second week at the state house there in Columbus. Union rallies are also taking place today in Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Georgia.
A new poll shows that Americans are strongly opposed to lawmakers taking away their bargaining rights. Take a look at this, the "USA Today" gallup poll found that 61 percent would oppose a law in their state similar to the proposed one in Wisconsin. 33 percent would favor such a law. Just how much impact and influence do the unions have? CNN Money's Poppy Harlow has that for us. Poppy.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: A lot less than they did 50 years ago and even 20 years ago, Kyra. I mean, when you take a look at these numbers, it's clear. Unionized workers are falling every single year. Last year in this country when you looked at all workers, less than 12 percent of them were unionized. In '53, the peak of unions in this nation, almost 27 percent. Also, when you look at the public sector versus the private sector, there's a big difference here. When you look at cops, firefighters, teachers, the people protesting in Wisconsin and elsewhere right now. 36 percent of them are unionized. When you look at private sector, places like General Motors, big companies, less than seven percent. Now here's the deal, people that are unionized, across the board make more money. They get higher wages. That's a big benefit of being in the union. At the same time, you have seen this decline of unions, so there are some economists that argue the growing gap that we see between rich and poor in this country has a lot to do with the decline of unions.
I mean, taking a look at these numbers, its just astonishing. The richest one percent of Americans over the last two decades have seen their wages increase 33 percent, and the average American, Kyra, has not seen any of the benefit. They are the blue line on the bottom of your screen. They have seen their income stay flat over the past two decades. So there is that argument, and it's a convincing one, that the decline of unions has meant that the people, the average middle- class Americans have not risen up the way the wealthiest Americans have, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: There is the argument too that the unions kill jobs.
HARLOW: Right. That is an argument you're hearing a lot. I was just listening this morning to Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey, who was sort of the headliner on this one. He was speaking on a program here on MSNBC and says "the corrosive effect of public unions," he was talking about the fact that in New Jersey, he said that the police union and the police, men and women, 70 percent of their wages come from benefits, from those fringe benefits like pensions, health care, et cetera.
He said that that is really breaking apart in New Jersey's middle class. You look at the Conservative Heritage Foundation, and they say the majority of jobs lost over the past 30 years have been union jobs. But one last point, a labor economist I talked to this morning says this goes beyond the money, Kyra. This goes to worker satisfaction, safety in the workplace and it's not just about the money. When you have satisfied workers, that leads to better part of productivity. So two sides of this argument but day by day, it gets even more contentious. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: We'll keep following the story. Poppy, thanks.
HARLOW: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Former White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel elected the next mayor of Chicago, the nation's third largest city. He clobbered five challengers, capturing more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff and they replaced Richard Daley who is retiring after two decades.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RAHM EMANUEL, MAYOR-ELECT CHICAGO: Thank you, Chicago, for this humbling victory. All I can say - you sure know how to make a guy feel at home.
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Well, Emanuel has a tough job ahead. That city is dealing with a $654 million deficit and rising crime.
The prospect of severe weather back in the forecast in the midwest while the Pacific northwest bracing for some heavy snow. Reynolds Wolf in the hot seat today.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it is really the story of two haves. Towards the west, snow was the big story and towards the east, plenty of sunshine and right smack in the middle is going to be the possibility of some strong storms, maybe even some tornadoes in the next several days.
Here's what we have right now. The big story we're seeing happens to be out towards Seattle as we go down towards Portland, basically the same situation, see some snow in the highest elevations. In the valleys, for the time being, it's mainly some rainfall but that is expected to switch over to possibly heavy snow, in a lot of places, maybe six to 10 inches, in some locations.
The other big story we're following is not exactly what we're seeing but what we're feeling, a lot of warm air that's been coming up from the Gulf of Mexico. And it's going to be that area of low pressure that is developing over parts of the central plains and are going to interact with that muggy air, right behind it, a little bit of a cold air and that's going to give us just a slight risk of severe thunderstorms across parts of the Ohio Valley, the mid Mississippi Valley and into portions of Central and Southern Plains.
Take a look also, into Memphis, we have a chance of some strong storms and at least a moderate risk. A live image from Memphis right now. It shows the situation looks pretty good for the time being, not too bad but as we fast forward into tomorrow, let's go back to the weather computer, and as we do so, we're going to see this area of low pressure, the moisture interacting with it, and of course. the frontal boundary giving us a chance of strong storms into Thursday afternoon, fast forward from Thursday afternoon into Friday morning, that's when we could see the rough weather moving right past Memphis and getting closer to Nashville, and then as we wrap it up into Friday, Friday morning about 10:00, the Ohio Valley really getting socked with the heavy rainfall and moving into portions of the Appalachians and maybe some snowfall for parts of the Great Lakes. It could be interesting. We're going to watch it for you very carefully. Let's pitch it back to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Thanks, Reynolds.
Well, no witches among the cast of celebrities on the next edition of "Dancing With the Stars." So what are we hearing about Christine O'Donnell?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: So, Christine O'Donnell reportedly eyeing a run on "Dancing with the Stars." Lindsay Lohan due back in court, and Chris Brown, he can actually chat it up were with Rihanna now. "Showbiz Tonight" host A.J. Hammer live in New York with all that and more.
Hey, A.J..
A.J. HAMMER, HOST "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Hey, Kyra. Lindsay Lohan is back in court today. But it feels like deja vu. I had my abacus out and I was doing the calculation. This is her eighth court appearance in the last nine months. Now this hearing is to determine if a judge will revoke her probation. There is a possibility Lindsay could go back to jail after today's hearing. She has . She was on probation for a 2007 drunk driving conviction and that could be revoked because she was charged earlier this month with stealing a $2,500 necklace from a jewelry store. And of course, "Showbiz Tonight" will be covering the hearing live. That will be at 11:30 a.m. Eastern on HLN.
Moving to the other end of the scales of justice right now. Chris Brown, a California judge has lifted a protective order barring any contact between Brown and pop star Rihanna. Now this move comes two years after Brown was charged with assaulting Rihanna, who was his girlfriend at that time. But the court decided Brown has successfully completed a domestic violence rehabilitation course and it was safe to lift the order, which wasn't set to expire until 2014.
Now Brown's attorneys asked for the change, and Rihanna did agree to it. And there is still a court order in place that bards Brown from harassing or stalking Rihanna and that is a good thing. And another politician has been approached by "Dancing With the Stars." Tea Party favorite Christine O'Donnell said through her Facebook page she just got the official request to join the stars on the dance floor.
You may remember O'Donnell as the witchy woman who ran for the Senate in Delaware. She says this, "although I am utterly flattered, my initial thought was to decline as my two-year-old nephew has more rhythm than me and my two left feet." Now she has asked her friends to weigh and so she's still undecided as her first priority is now writing a political book. So Kyra, it may happen, another political connection on "Dancing with the Stars." It worked well with the Palin connection, right? So we'll see.
PHILLIPS: I'm still caught up in the fact that you say that you still use an abacus.
HAMMER: You know, I just try to keep it old school when I can and the abacus comes in handy sometimes.
PHILLIPS: You're so retro. You're so hip.
HAMMER: There are a lot of people right now saying, what the heck is an abacus?
PHILLIPS: What the heck is an abacus?
HAMMER: We're aging ourselves. Thanks, A.J..
HAMMER: You bet.
HAMMER: Well, if you want information on everything breaking in the entertainment world, A.J. has got it every night "Showbiz Tonight" 5:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on HLN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Going cross country now. First stop, Pittsburgh, where the mayor is making good on a losing Super Bowl bet. Mayor Luke Ravenstahl shoveled snow yesterday outside the family church of the Green Bay Packers church and Pittsburgh native Mike McCarthy. Ravenstahl also kept the promise to hang a Packers flag outside city hall and donate food to the Wisconsin food bank. As you may remember, the Steelers lost to the Packers, 31-25 in the Super Bowl.
San Diego, three warships have a new assignment. They'll help fight against piracy on the high seas. The "USS Boxer, Green Bay and Comstock" set sail yesterday on a seven-month deployment. The new role following the shooting deaths of four Americans whose yacht was hijacked off Somalia.
And (INAUDIBLE) Oklahoma, a story you just can't make up. A man under arrest for allegedly trying to steal a chain saw. Ready for this? By stuffing it in his pants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel sorry for him. I thought the gentleman was crippled.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I said, he needs to pull his pants up. I said, no, he has a chain saw down them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've seen the bar between his legs.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's pretty obvious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first time I ever saw a chain saw go down anybody's (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He could have cut himself up real good and been walking with a permanent limp.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: That man faces several charges including larceny and possession of a stolen weapon.
And how do you make the big man at Nevada's Bunny Ranch hopping mad? Well, talk about outlawing prostitution, of course, his bread and butter. And oh, yes, we got some tension in Carson City.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, when it comes to legal brothels, Nevada is America's last bastion. Prostitution limited and legal but now Senator Harry Reid thinks it's time for his home state to outlaw the world's oldest profession. Here's what he said yesterday for the state legislature.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. HARRY REID (D), NEVADA: I have talked to families who feel the same way. Parents who don't want their children to look out a school bus and see a brothel or to live in a state with the wrong kind of red lights, the mall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Can you hear that? Silence? Reid believes that the sex industry has kept businesses out of Nevada. His speech got crickets, no applause. Many lawmakers say they can't see the issue coming up as a bill. We know one guy and some of his employees who hope it never does.
Dennis Hof, of the famous Moonlight Bunny Ranch was in the audience with some of his bunnies, you could say it is somewhat passionate for him, passionate issue. Here's what he told reporters afterwards. "Harry Reid will have to pry the cathouse keys from my cold dead hands." Hof also says prostitution will be much more dangerous with abusive pimps and underage girls if his industry was illegal.
Now check out this (INAUDIBLE) on the basketball court. How many free throws do you get when the head coach does this? Yep. Video from a practice last month at Holy Family University in Philly. The D.A. is looking into it. This could evolve into an assault charge actually. The coach got suspended, the player well he left the team and he told police he came away with a bloody nose and scratches on his face.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATTHEWS KRAVCHUK, FORMER BASKETBALL PLAYER: I was shocked at first. I never expected that to happen and honestly, I mean, it never happened before. I tried to do the best I could and went back to the drill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: What would Bobby Knight say? he team put out a letter saying that the coach apologized and this was accidental contact. Do you think? Doesn't look like an accident. And part two, was that an accident? We all want our kids to eat healthier foods, don't we? You know who doesn't? Our kids.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Some of the stories we're following this morning, governments around the world scrambling to get citizens out of Libya amid on-going protests. The U.S. is now chartering a ferry to take Americans from Tripoli to Malta because Libya wouldn't allow a chartered plane to land.
CNN obtained new booking photos of Tucson shooting suspect, Jared Loughner. Yep, he is grinning just after he was taken down for killing six people and wounding 13 others.
Police in (INAUDIBLE), Florida, have arrested a 16-year-old boy in the killing of a police officer. David Crawford was the third law enforcement officer in that city, killed in less than a month.
Here in the homeland, strengthening the borders is just a big issue to tackle. In this video from inside one of Mexico's drug tunnels earlier this month, well, our own Rafael Romo was inside that tunnel.
Now the Obama administration is in the process of changing the way it measures the security of the nation's borders, but why is this such a good idea? CNN's Jeanne Meserve here with all of the details. Jeanne --
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly the question. Why are they doing this? Is this a good idea?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): In report after report, the border patrol has said its top goal is gaining operational control of the nation's borders. Meaning law enforcement can detect and respond to illegal activity.
With $3 billion spent on just the southern border last year, how are they doing? A recent GAO report says 44 percent of the southern border and only 2 percent of the northern border meet the definition.
Now Homeland Security has decided it will measure border security a different way that better reflects the impact of new technology. Operational control, once the holy grail of border security, is being scrapped.
JANET NAPOLITANO, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: That is a very narrow term of art in border patrol lingo and doesn't and should not be construed as kind of an overall assessment of what's happening.
MESERVE: For the time being, DHS will measure its success with numbers on apprehensions and seizures of weapons and currency.
RICHARD STANA, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE: But it doesn't give you a batting average. It doesn't tell you how much they have caught or apprehended versus the universe out there. That's why they're limited.
MESERVE: It's a gap.
STANA: There is a gap right now, and until that gap is closed, they're eliminating a measure which we thought was useful and they're instituting measures that frankly aren't as useful.
MESERVE: The GAO says ultimately, DHS may come up with a system of gauging border security that is better than the old one, but a former official who helped formulate the operational control measurement says some residents of border states are concerned the new system could manipulate statistics to support a political agenda.
RONALD COLBURN, NATIONAL DEPUTY CHIEF, U.S. BORDER PARTROL (RETIRED) (via telephone): Justify moving away from resourcing the border for operational control and toward comprehensive immigration reform. (END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: In recent testimony, the head of the border patrol reiterated the administration's commitment to immigration reform. He also called for effective border management saying the government should use its money and resources in areas that give the biggest return on investment, raising questions about whether securing the entire boarder is still the government's end goal. Kyra --
PHILLIPS: And what does Congress think of it?
MESERVE: Well, there was a recent hearing, and there were some members who were not particularly happy with this and went back and referenced this Secure Fence Act of 2006 and noted that in here it calls for operational control of the entire border, and it defines it very specifically as meaning the prevention of all unlawful entries.
Those members were saying, hey, you can't take this statute and put it aside and define things the way you want to define things. Customs and border protection responds that this isn't what this is all about. They claim they want to find a better way to measure things that take into account things like cooperation from Mexico, Canada, and from other agencies of government and technology, but it's a debate that isn't going to end any time soon, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Jeanne Meserve, thanks. Stock market opening bell rang just about an hour ago. Check out the numbers real quickly. Dow Industrials down almost 18 points.
Swank hotel rooms can bust your budget. Some hotels are cutting rates and offering rooms for just a few hours. Stephanie Elam live in New York with the latest on the quickie rate rooms. Really?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It feels a little special. I mean, I guess they want to change up how people view the afternoon delight. Maybe you don't want to think seedy all of the time, but we did hear a lot.
There is big chatter about this one in New York, Kyra. I got to tell you. The Parker Meridian, within walking distance here, no word anyone from here went there, but the Midtown City Hotel, and they were offering 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. for $150. You had it. You had the room there.
And if you were just really - if you were really like, you know, the big baller between those hours, for $250, go up $100, you can get champagne, strawberries and whipped cream and a certain type of movie on demand of your choice during that period there. I will leave it at that and let you figure out what exactly they meant.
PHILLIPS: My goodness.
ELAM: But they're saying -- we called today and we finally got an answer. Called yesterday and didn't hear back. They called today. We found out that this was just an offer they were through urbandadty.com. It was around Valentine's Day. It was true. They confirmed the prices. They confirmed everything, but they're saying all you folks who want to get your swanky midday love on, can't do it anymore at that price. It was a limited time offer.
PHILLIPS: I wasn't expecting that one. Let's see how the divorce rate goes up, too, if they keep the deals going.
ELAM: There is that, yes.
PHILLIPS: On a side note.
Paying for college, tell you what, it's become harder during this economy, and you actually have some info here. Different type of money story. Good colleges, more bang for your buck here?
ELAM: Yes, this is a little bang for your buck. It's a hard segue, except bang for your buck.
PHILLIPS: I guess I used the wrong expression, sorry, Steph.
ELAM: But it's true. We do have some changes and the best - as far as colleges are concern. You know, every year we get the Princeton Review, the 100 best colleges and values for them and well, they're changing. You're still laughing.
They're changing because of the issue that a lot of the financial aid is drying up, so the schools have to redo how they do the financial aid. Not as much money. So let's take a quick look because we do actually have a graphic for you to show you the top ten best value public colleges in 2011.
There you go, University of Virginia, New College Of Florida, University Of Florida, Suny Binghamton and University of Georgia and if you would go to the best private colleges. Then you have on there Swahthmore College, Duke, Princeton, and Harvard, none of the schools we attended, but still it's good to know for the people coming out to go to college. There are places that they can go get an education where perhaps they'll stay away from afternoon delights.
PHILLIPS: You and I didn't have afternoon delight in college. We were working hard and we had to pay college bills too.
ELAM: I was in the swimming pool. I had stuff to do, and, besides, mom and dad might be watching this.
PHILLIPS: That's right. Let's let them think we were sweet and innocent young ladies. Thanks, Steph. Thanks for the afternoon delight. Appreciate it.
Well, cafeteria workers in public schools nationwide may scoop out the broccoli in mass, but that doesn't mean the students are eating it, and Chicago has the statistic to prove it. School lunch sales have taken a hit down 5 percentage points ever since lunch rooms started swapping out foods like tater tots in favor of side salads. That's 20,000 meals a day don't forget. There's a big nationwide push to get kids to eat healthier part of the fight against childhood obesity. The first lady champions it, and so does the president, signing the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act last year.
Part of that means that school menus are shifting out with the old, like cheese pizza, tater tots and chocolate milk and in with the new chef salad, whole wheat soft pretzel, washed down with some low fat milk. But here's the question, will kids eat it? Well, if you talk to these Georgia teens, it doesn't look real hopeful.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is your ideal school lunch?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nacho chips.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hamburgers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sub with fries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, what do you think the school lunch offerings here at Grady high school?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think I like them because I don't eat meat here, so they give me a choice to either have or not have it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you usually pick?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: French fries, peanut butter jelly or just nacho chips.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you eat French fries just on their own?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not considered healthy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Didn't hear broccoli anywhere in there. Brian Wansik is the co-director of Smarterlunchroom.org. He's joining me live from New York. So Brian, do these numbers out of Chicago surprise you?
BRIAN WANSIK, AUTHOR, "MINDLESS EATING": Not at all because we know that food is not nutritious until it's eaten. If we take away the food that people like and only leave like tofu and lettuce, no one will eat a school lunch, and then they eat less healthy than if they eat a school lunch.
PHILLIPS: So how do you get kids to eat healthy though? You have tips. You've got some little sneaky ways to get kids to like the broccoli? WANSIK: Yes, we have done a ton of research in this area up the Cornell University. One thing we're finding is that what typically do -- people in the schools typically do is try to drop the price of broccoli or they plead with kids to eat broccoli where they tell them it's good.
Those are the dead wrong things to do. They don't work at home. Why would they work in school? Burger King might do if it was trying to sell broccoli. First of all, it wouldn't be in a steel tray and would have a great name like broccoli bites or you know, summer broccoli.
It would make it look good. It would make it taste good and put it in the first part of your mind. In one study we did, we found simply by moving the order of the items in the lunch room, it caused people to take whatever was first about 12 percent more often than if that thing was the third item in line. Why not put the healthy stuff first for instance.
PHILLIPS: Interesting, very tricky, very smart. I was thinking about this, too, if you only have the healthy substitutes in there, now taking the bad stuff out and putting in the good, is there a concern that kids just won't eat and then that's not a good thing? And it's also a huge waste of money and time if they're not going to go for it and it just gets dumped.
WANSIK: You know, that's absolutely right. I think one of the big goals of the school lunch program is increased participation because the more kids that eat school lunches, the healthier they eat. We did a study last week where we took healthy bean burritos that the school could never, ever sell and simply renamed it big, bad bean burritos, and they sold out by the second lunch room.
PHILLIPS: Yes, I guess you would sound pretty cool if you wolfed down a big, bad, mean burrito. The federal government says one in three kids is overweight or obese. So what's at stake here, Brian, if we can't find a way to get kids on board here and make healthier choices?
WANSIK: Well, I think haven't even come close to trying. The smarter lunch initiative shows there are a lot of waste, low cost, no cost, cheap ways for schools to get kids to eat healthier. If they eat healthier in the lunch room, we think it has a ripple effect throughout the day. But if we prevent them from eating things and we just guide them towards just pizza, we really kind of almost lost the battle right at noontime.
PHILLIPS: I tell you what, you have good advertising advice on how to sell kids on the lunches. Brian Wansik, co-director of Smarterlunchrooms.org. check out the web site. Brian, thanks so much.
WANSIK: Thanks for having me.
PHILLIPS: You bet. Cell phones and your brains. We're dissecting new clues about the mysterious effects of long chats on your mobile.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: A new study says that cell phone waves can increase your brain's activity, adding new fuel to the back and forth over the safety of your mobile phone. Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen breaking down the numbers and shows us how the study's author is playing it safe.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Studies have gone back and forth on whether holing a cell phone up to your head can cause cancer or other health problems. Well, now there's a new study out to add to the fray.
This study found that when people held cell phones up to their head for 50 minutes, that it increased the activities of brain cells. What does that mean exactly? Well, cells do certain activities, such as making glucose normally, but what they found is that the cells were much more active when a cell phone was held up to their head. What does this mean for you and me?
Well, the author of the study says, look, the bottom line is we don't know what cell phones do or don't do to your brain. So in the meantime, you can do what she does, use one of these devices, simple, a wire that sticks into your phone and goes in your ears and that keeps the radiation at a distance.
That's what the author of study does. Now the cell phone industry says that there are many different studies on this, and that the body of evidence says that cell phones do not cause health problems. Back to you.
PHILLIPS: Moammar Gadhafi has been the Libyan leader for 41 years, and I guess we would say he's kind of odd. Jeanne Moos with his most unusual ways next.
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PHILLIPS: To the story you have been weighing in on. We have a lot of great responses. We'll have them in just a minute. We are talking about Joel Northrop of Iowa, one of the top wrestler in his weight class, but he forfeited at a chance to win the state title because he'd have to beat a girl, Cassie Herkelman to advance.
Joel is home schooled, makes great grade is, and his family is very religious and he's been taught that you treat girls with dignity and respect not as potential conquest to be defeated. He told me that wrestling is a contact sport that it gets violent at times and sometimes you are put in compromising positions.
He doesn't think it's right for a boy and a girl to engage like that. So I asked him, why not just treat Cassie like an equal, like men and women, the troops in battle. That's what they have to do. That's what she wanted.
JOEL NORTHRUP, WRESTLER: Yes, well, she totally deserved to be there at state. She got second in her district and deserved to be there. I just don't -- I don't feel and I don't believe that wrestling, especially wrestling, because of the contact part of it, should be a co-ed sport, and if girls want to wrestle, I believe they should wrestle other girls and boys should wrestle other boys.
PHILLIPS: Joel's dad said that his son made this decision on his own not to wrestle Cassie. Cassie, by the way, ended up losing in the next round.
Now my Twitter account has been on fire with your thoughts on the story. Damon said, I respect that decision from a physical perspective. If she had gotten hurt, we would have heard cries of excessive force.
Josh says, he did it out of respect in a time when there is a shortage of respect and Rose says, he should quit or grow up because we girls are here to stay. Thanks for weighing in. You can always find me on Twitter at kyracnn.
A new poll takes a unique look at the president's approval rating and our senior political editor Mark Preston has the results. Hey, Mark.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR: Good morning, Kyra. Yes, look at this new survey released from Gallup. What they've done is they crunched the numbers over 2010 and they looked at presidential approval rating in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Let's look at the top five right here. The District of Columbia, number one, Hawaii number two, Maryland number three, New York number four, Delaware, number five. These are all states that had the highest approval ratings for President Obama.
It shouldn't come as a surprise that President Obama, Kyra, won all of these states by at least double digits back in 2008. On the flip side, let's look at the states where he doesn't feel so well, Wyoming comes in at number one at the bottom, Idaho comes in second, West Virginia third, Utah fourth, and Oklahoma fifth.
Again, five states that shouldn't be too surprising, that President Obama lost by double digits back in the 2008 election. So Gallup has crunched all these numbers. It's certainly interesting to look at especially as we head into 2012 and where will President Obama put resources to try to get re-elected, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: To tell you about this cover story you've got on CNNPolitics.com talking about conservatives in Hollywood.
PRESTON: Yes, you know, Kyra, we don't often have the opportunity to look at the left coast and see what the interaction is between politics and the folks who make movies and appear on TV. I was able to spent the last couple of weeks rally investigating that and it really started when I went to the Conservative Political Action Conference here in Washington, D.C.
It featured panels by industry veterans who talked about how you make it in Hollywood. In fact, Pat Boon gave a stirring speech during the CPAC conference and he said that during his lifetime, it was difficult to be a conservative Hollywood. However, he says times are changing and in fact, conservatives are starting to galvanize and starting to meet. But listen to this disturbing thing that Victoria Jackson said, in Hollywood, they don't just like Christians, they hate God. She went on to say you don't know how liberal it is in Hollywood. Even the Christians are communists.
So while there's talk about Hollywood being discriminatory for Victoria Jackson, she thinks that the discrimination lies in religion. Now let me wrap it up by saying Andrew Bright Bart who has been an outspoken conservative in Hollywood says conservatives are to blame because they need to invest nor in pop culture.
So you can read more of this cover story on CNNPolitics.com. Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right, it's not just our parents that remember Pat Poone. You and I remember Pat Boone very well. Don't forget Debbie Boone. We'll sing "You Light Up My Life." We'll have a big look back. Mark Preston. Next political update in an hour. Go to our web site CNNPolitics.com.
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PHILLIPS: Moammar Gadhafi, no stranger to your television screen and without question, his odd behavior has raised quite a few eyebrows in his long decades' career and rule in Libya. Jeanne Moos proves the point.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You could kiss him, but you couldn't kiss him goodbye, not yet. Moammar Gadhafi gave one of miss trademark fist-pumping, finger pointing speeches, adjusting his hat, tossing around his robes and spoke for an hour and 15 minutes and blamed much of the righting on youths.
Left you think you're hallucinating, he kept repeating the hallucination part. As he rambled on, waiters came along not once but twice bringing him refreshments and finished with a final fist pump, and a supporter rushed forward to bestow a kiss on the Libyan leader. It was a speech as long as his ought appearance Monday was short.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't believe those dogs in the media.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What a nut.
MOOS: Gadhafi does a magnet for ridicule. For his look, for his traveling tent, for the female bodyguards who accompany him. Stephen Colbert imagined them protecting Gadhafi from protesters.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Libyan Amazon spin kicking protesters in the jaw, like a Janet Jackson video.
MOOS: After his 2009 speech at the U.N. when he ripped up the charter and tossed it, Conan O'Brien did a little translation imitation.
We even can't agree how to spell his name. Does it begin with a g, k, or a q. Does it end with an I or y? The three cable news networks each spelled it differently. It's a vintage Saturday Night Live joke.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No two people spell it alike. Remember, it can't be the same as any of these spellings.
MOOS: Many call him a mad man.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We believe you are mad.
MOOS: Weird, yes, says Barbara Walters.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did I think he was crazy? No.
MOOS: The oddest moment of Gadhafi's latest speech came before it began when the cameras caught him primping. That's the real Gadhafi pondering, should I button my collar or leave it up done as his country comes undone. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
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PHILLIPS: That does it for us. We'll see you back here tomorrow morning 9:00 a.m. Eastern time. Now we take it over to Suzanne Malveaux here in Studio 7. Suzanne --
