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Libyan Rebels Claim to Have Been Hit By NATO Airstrikes; Statue Dedicated to Little Girl Killed in Arizona Shooting; Financial Planner Says Retirement May Be More Expensive Than Originally Thought; New Device Allows TVs to Track Watching Habits For Advertisers; Japanese Officials Still Tracking Source of Radiation Leak; Protests In Afghanistan Erupt In Response To Florida Minister's Claim To Have Burned A Koran
Aired April 02, 2011 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: A hole in the airplane during flight. It happened today leading to an emergency landing in Arizona.
At 3:00 eastern time, Japanese nuclear industry has a danger of radiation.
And at 4:00, cities across the globe go blue to focus on kids on this world autism today. You are in the CNN newsroom on this Saturday, April 2nd. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
Workers are Japan's crippled nuclear plant are pouring concrete into a cracked shaft outside reactor two. Highly radioactive water is leaking out of the reactor into the ocean.
A surprising discovery more than a mile off the Japanese coast -- a dog floating on a damaged rooftop. It has been there for more than three weeks since the March 11th earthquake and tsunami. The Japanese coast guard rescued him and the promptly gave him cookies and sausages.
Coalition airstrikes have hit several rebel vehicles in Libya, killing at least 13 fighters according to opposition spokesmen. NATO says it is investigating the report that a coalition strike hit rebels in the town of El Brega.
And three suicide bombers targeted a NATO base in Kabul, Afghanistan today. Police killed a third bomber before he could strike. No one else was hurt. This is according to afghan officials. No word from NATO.
All right, those terrifying moments for passengers and crew on a Southwest Airlines flight. A three-to-four foot hole opened in the 737s roof after takeover from Phoenix. The pilot made an emergency landing at a military base in Yuma, Arizona. Debbie Downey and her husband Larry were on board.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DEBBIE DOWNEY, PASSENGER ABOARD SOUTHWEST FLIGHT 812: My husband said when he looked up, oh, my gosh, it is the blue sky. We looked at each other. We said this is not a good sign. We immediately put other head down and looked up to see the air masks fell down and immediately within seconds, we grabbed our masks. We started to look out the window. As soon as I tried to look out the window and put up the shade screen, the aircraft went into a complete nose dive fast.
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WHITFIELD: NASA engineers are inspecting the space shuttle today after lighting struck near the launch pad. Endeavour's final voyage is April 19th.
A woman with terminal cancer is credited with helping to thwart a bank robbery. Witnesses say they saw a woman storm into a bank yesterday and demand cash. That is when 66-year-old Helen Dunsford tackled the suspect and her held her down until deputies arrived.
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AARON LASSIN, WITNESS: She jumped out. She did not care if she died. She grabbed the lady. We helped her.
PAT CAVENEY, WITNESS: She blew up. She grabbed her in a bear hug.
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WHITFIELD: The FBI is charging three suspects now, including the woman Dunsford tackled.
Back to Japan where officials are scrambling to find the source of radioactive water leaking into the ocean. Here is CNN's Martin Savidge.
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MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is not a mystery, but it is a piece of the puzzle. TEPCO officials say they know how radioactive water is getting into the ocean beside the Fukushima Daiichi plant. They found a crack in the tunnel there. It is a tunnel that is used to run electric cables. It sits beside reactor number two. There is highly radioactive water in the tunnel. It is going through the crack and into the ocean.
That is where the two are coming together. The question is where is the radioactive water in the tunnel coming from? That is the part of the equation they don't have an answer to.
Talking about water, they are talking about what to do with the runoff. They are pouring water on the reactors out there and on to the fuel rod pools. As a result of that, the ground is saturated as are all of the collection pools on-site. They have been shuffling some of that water around trying to make space, but there is no more space to be had. So what do you do? You call in mega floats. It is a huge barge that is off of a community south of Tokyo. It is being used as a floating park. It is going to be brought up to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant and it is capable of holding 18,000 tons of water. This thing is massive. It is about 136 meters long and 46 meters wide.
They will use that to offload all of the water that is contaminated and put it on the barge. What they don't know is what they will do with the barge once it is completely full of water.
In Tokyo, I'm Martin Savidge, back to you.
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WHITFIELD: Thank you. On to Afghanistan now a second day of anti-American protests has turned deadly again. Officials say at least nine people were killed in Kandahar after protesting a Koran burning at a U.S. church. Protesters attacked a northern compound in northern Afghanistan killing 12 people. CNN's Pentagon correspondent Chris Lawrence has more on the attack.
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CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: U.N. officials say they attackers used guns and even knives to attack the workers. When it was all over, at least 12 people were dead and more than two dozen were wounded.
Let's take you back and tell you why this happened. Last September, a Florida pastor, Terry Jones, threatened to burn a Koran. That burning was initially canceled after the Pope, President Barack Obama, and the defense vehicle all urged him not to do it.
About two weeks ago on the small Florida church's web site, it threatened to put the Koran on trial. Then a subsequent post said it found the Koran guilty of rape and murder and terrorism and a copy was burned in the building.
Pentagon sources say this news initially hit quickly in Pakistan. They saw several demonstrations there, nothing to this level of violence. Just a few days ago the Taliban put out a statement basically saying this is proof that the U.S. is against Islam.
That set off massive protests across Afghanistan. President Obama condemned the attack. The secretary-general of the United Nations called it cowardly. Afghan president Hamid Karzai said it goes against both Afghan and Islamic values.
Chris Lawrence, CNN, the Pentagon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: As are you watching your television right now, it is also watching you. We'll tell you how and what its learning about you.
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WHITFIELD: Tracking your television habits. It has always been big money for advertisers. But now it is a lot more personal.
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DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Every time you watch TV, your TV is likely watching you through that box which collects information on show after show after show. All that data is sent anonymously to advertisers focused on reaching people likely to buy certain products or watch certain shows.
FEYERICK (on camera): What is the benefit to people like me?
JON WERTHER, PRESIDENT, SIMULMEDIA INC.: The benefit to consumers is you get more ads that are relevant to you.
FEYERICK: Jon Werther helped pioneer advertising on the internet. Now he is doing it with TV.
FEYERICK: If this is done right, how much money is this worth?
WERTHER: We think billions of dollars.
FEYERICK: Why? Because what you watch tells a lot about you, sometimes unexpectedly.
WERTHER: A rerun of "Saved by the Bell" at 9:00 on Saturday morning is one of the most highly effective spots in driving audiences to a crime drama several days later.
FEYERICK: It is not just set-box data, but other data when you use retail discount cards. Tech companies use this data like direct mail. They can deliver different information to different households.
How do you know which of these ads to get to you?
WERTHER: We send out these messages so the set-top boxes set to the right time to show the advertising.
FEYERICK: As for privacy, it is a tradeoff.
WERTHER: That is the new tipping point of how much information we want to give out there and how much will advertisers use to know where we are and where we are walking and what we like and don't like in exchange for more relevant and interesting advertising.
FEYERICK: Commercials advertisers are banking you'll watch.
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WHITFIELD: Several NBA players donated $1,000 for every point they scored last weekend to help recovery efforts in Japan. Al Horford of the Atlanta Hawks raised $23,000 and he is asking fans to help in this "Impact Your World."
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AL HORFORD, NBA PLAYER: I'm Al Horford of the Atlanta hawks and you can make an impact for the people of Japan. My agent thought it was a good idea for us players to get involved with the Japan relief fund. I was excited about it. I told him to count me in. I cannot imagine it. It is worse being there. I know a lot of professional athletes do things to impact their communities. Join in the movement. Impact your world. CNN.com/impact.
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WHITFIELD: You can scan this image with your smart phone to load our Impact Your World website. You will find links to charities helping disaster victims in Japan. To find out how you can help out people in Japan, go to CNN.com/impact.
Lots of you are thinking about your retirement years. Would you physically move to make that happen? Here are the top five active retirement living cities according to "Forbes" magazine. Number five, Billings, Montana, number four, Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon is number three. And the top two are right after this commercial break.
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WHITFIELD: All right, we are looking at the best retirement cities for active people those of you on the go. Boulder, Colorado ranks second. Here is the shocker, Madison, Wisconsin is number one in the spot for the active retirement cities being recommended by "Forbes" magazine.
Will moving to another city save you money? That is one of the five biggest retirement myths according to "Smart Money" magazine. Joining us is Matt Heimer, deputy editor of "Smart Money." This is fascinating because most people start to envision their retirement and they want to pack up and move that is conducive to the lifestyle they are looking for. You say this is not always the best idea. Why?
MATT HEIMER, DEPUTY EDITOR, "SMART MONEY": If you live in some place expensive like California or the east coast, it is easy to look at the relative values of property and decide, OK, it will be much cheaper for me to go here, obviously because the house costs one-third in Texas as opposed to Boston.
The problem is in practice, there are all of these extra costs, property taxes, higher rates of property insurance. There are sales taxes that are much higher in the low-income tax states. All of those things can add up and take a bigger bite.
WHITFIELD: That becomes a case like Florida. Florida is the place people go. No state tax. It is cheaper. High sales tax and high property tax. Maybe you need to rethink that.
HEIMER: Good luck paying for your home insurance right now.
WHITFIELD: Right. Matt, people think $1 million. That is a nice round figure. That is enough to take me into my golden years. You say you have to think about that because sometimes $1 million is just not enough.
HEIMER: That is right. Everybody gets addicted to the idea of the number. If you have the sense you can come up with a single figure that reflects how much money you will spend over the course of your retirement. A lot of advertising from the financial services industry right now encourages you to think that way.
In fact, you have to be more flexible. When push comes to shove, there are expenses that people don't anticipate especially for baby boomers right now spending money for their parents in their older age and spending money on their kids who haven't been able to get a strong footing as they get out of college.
WHITFIELD: Right there, you are debunking that myth as people get older, I needless. I'll not spend as much.
HEIMER: Right. You will not be working anymore. You think no more suits. No more commuting costs. You also figure you probably raised your kids so they are all set to get out of town and stay out of your house. But in practice, it is a little more complicated, especially if you are active if you want to move to Boulder.
Chances are you will spend more money on travel and visiting the kids. A lot of people spend more in retirement. On top of that, often as you get older and if you have health problems, that is a big out of pocket cost.
WHITFIELD: Matt, you are making this depressing. You say now you have to think and think really hard and plan and plan well far in advance of the retirement years in order to make a happy golden years experience.
HEIMER: It is definitely true. If you can talk yourself out of using the short cuts. If you convince yourself it will be easy, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. It is still achievable.
WHITFIELD: Let's hope so. Matt Heimer, I appreciate it. Thanks so much.
HEIMER: Thanks for having me.
WHITFIELD: All right, I know the calendar says April, but the weather has a lot of folks asking spring, rally? Snow like this, what spring?
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WHITFIELD: OK, this is always so fun. Atlanta's centennial Olympic park hosted some incredible Olympic talent today. Maybe not what you expected when I said "Olympic." The four-legged Olympians, they are some of the best canine athletes out there. They duked it out in dog diving as you saw right there, head-to-head poles. The top finishers will compete in the national Purina Incredible Dog Challenge in Missouri. That is fun. (WEATHER BREAK)
WHITFIELD: So we will head out west for our final story. January's mass shooting in Tucson may have faded from the headlines, but it won't be forgotten for those suffered the most. A poignant memorial remembers the youngest victim from that day. Here now is CNN's Ted Rowlands.
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ROWLANDS: The images of nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green from her huge smile to the tiny coffin carrying her body are easily the most heartbreaking of the Tucson shooting.
SUZI HILEMAN, CHRISTINA'S FRIEND: I knew when we were lying on the ground outside of Safeway. The light went out of her eyes.
ROWLANDS: Suzi is the neighbor that took Christina to see congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that morn. Hileman said she and Christina were next in line to meet Giffords.
HILEMAN: And then -- gunshot. The next thing I remember is standing there with blood coming out of my leg and a hole in my jeans.
ROWLANDS: Christina had been shot in the heart.
HILEMAN: Then I was holding hands with Christina on the sidewalk outside of Safeway. And we were just eyeball to eyeball. I don't believe I blinked. I know she didn't. And she was confused and scared and no words, but eyeball to eyeball. And I'm telling her that I love her and that she shouldn't leave me alone there on the sidewalk.
ROWLANDS: Christina was born on 9/11, something her parents talked about in the days after her death.
JOHN GREEN, CHRISTINA'S FATHER: It kind of does say something about our society that my daughter was born on a tragic day and she went out on a tragic day.
ROWLANDS: Steel from the World Trade Center, pieces of the Pentagon from 9/11, and two rocks from the flight 93 crash site were transported to Tucson last week by volunteers who were moved by Christina's story. The material was joined with a steel angel statue made in Christina's honor.
Christina's parents and older brother Dallas watched as the angel was unveiled at a ceremony attend by hundreds of people at the little league field where Christina played baseball.
GREEN: For a nine-year-old girl, she had an advanced idea about sense of community and caring for others. I think 9/11 had a bit to do with that. You know, unfortunately, January 8th this year, she lost her life. She's up there with god right now.
ROWLANDS: The Little League field was renamed Green Field, in honor of a 9-year-old girl who wouldn't be playing baseball anymore but will never be forgotten.
Ted Rowlands, CNN, Oro Valley, Arizona.
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