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Southwest Airlines Cancels Hundreds of Flights, Grounds 79 Jets; March on TEPCO; Libya Sends Envoy to Greece; Jennie-O Recalls 50,000 Turkey Burgers
Aired April 03, 2011 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Just in time for spring break travel, Southwest Airlines cancels hundreds of flights after a gaping hole opens in one of its planes.
And get ready for 2012. President Obama is set to announce his re- election bid.
And working from home sounds great but we will tell you why it is so important to schedule meetings outside of your home. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
Southwest Airlines is keeping many planes on the ground today. 79 of their aircraft will get a thorough once-over before rejoining the fleet. That's after passengers aboard a Southwest 737 watched a large hole rip open at 36,000 feet in the air on Friday. A flight safety expert told me earlier today what likely happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL MAYA CHARLES, CEO, AIR SAFETY EXPERTS: Southwest operates aircraft in what's called a high-cycle, high-fatigue environment. They run up and down. In other words, the airplane goes from ground to altitude, and back down which is a pressurization cycle quite frequently, much more so than a lot of other airlines. What happens is we exercise that fuselage, as it blows up, if you will, with pressure and deflates when we are back on the ground, they tend to flex the metallurgy in the whole structure, which is normal stuff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: No one was seriously hurt when the Southwest flight made an emergency landing on Friday in Arizona. Inspectors say the external skin of the plane came apart at a rivet line. Southwest cancelled hundreds of flights yesterday to accommodate the inspections.
In Japan, rescuers are finding more bodies from last month's devastating earthquake and tsunami. The death toll now tops 12,000. More than 15,000 people are still missing.
And in Toyo, a growing number of Japanese are taking to the streets. Today about 200 people demonstrated outside the headquarters of TEPCO. That's the company that owns the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant. Protesters told CNN's Martin Savidge they don't like how the company is handling the crisis and they are also losing patience with the government.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TSUKAGOSHI MYUKA, FIRST-TIME PROTESTER: I can't believe our government anymore. It's stupid, but I want to escape Japan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: More setbacks for TEPCO. Its first two efforts to plug a leak of radioactive water in the ocean failed.
Libyan rebels fighting outside Al Brega retreated about 20 miles today. Libya has sent an envoy to Greece with a personal message from Moammar Gadhafi but there's no word yet on what it says.
Here in the U.S., former national security adviser Jim Jones warns that the international coalition bombarding Libya cannot stop until Gadhafi is out of power.
The Libyan woman who burst into a room of journalists claiming that Libyan troops raped her is still missing, that's according to her father. CNN could not verify her story and Libyan security forces yanked her from the room that day a couple of weeks ago. Libyan government spokesman have said repeatedly that police released her from custody but her father again says he has not seen her.
The president of Afghanistan wants an American preacher brought to justice. Here is President Hamid Karzai and his staff meeting today with U.S. officials in Kabul talking about a small Florida church whose members say they burned a copy of the Islamic holy book. General David Petraeus talked about it today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. DAVID PETRAEUS, COMMANDER, INTL. SECURITY ASSISTANCE FORCE: We condemn the action of an individual in the United States who burned a holy Koran. That action was hateful. It was intolerant. And it was extremely disrespectful. And again, we condemn it in the strongest manner possible.
The church claims to have burned a Koran last month. Friday's attack on the U.N. headquarters and violent protests that followed have so far killed more than 20 people.
Back in the U.S., the House Budget chairman wants to make some drastic changes to Medicaid and Medicare. Congressman Paul Ryan is expected to reveal a plan Tuesday that sources say would cut Medicaid spending by up to $1 trillion. It would also require seniors on Medicare to choose from a menu of health insurance plans. Critics derided an earlier version of the plan as a voucher program.
Mean time, the clock is ticking toward a possible federal government shutdown if Congress does not come together on a budget deal this week. There is expected to be some movement on both sides of the aisle but where will they come to terms? Sandra Endo joins me now from Washington with the latest on this budget battle. So Sandra, will Democrats and Republicans be a able to avert such a shut down?
SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, they are hoping so. Both parties, Democrats and Republicans are saying that they are trying to work towards a budget agreement to avoid a government shutdown this Friday. Now what they agree on is cutting $10 billion in temporary spending measures. What's on the table right now though being considered is an additional $20 billion in cuts for the remainder of this fiscal year which ends September 30th. The Republican-controlled House passed $61 billion in spending cuts but Senate Democrats say that is way too much and they are working to find some middle ground.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D), NEW YORK: I think progress is being made. They are working off a number, $33 billion of cuts. That's very reasonable. It's right in between what Democrats have proposed and what Republicans have proposed, right in the middle. And after all, that was the number proposed originally by the House Republican leaders, Ryan and Rogers, the head of the appropriations committee.
So, they are working off that number. That's good. Now we have to figure out what goes into the number and that's where the discussions are headed.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENDO: President Obama called congressional leaders yesterday to urge both sides to come together and reach a deal. House Speaker John Boehner has said so far though there is no agreement on a figure for spending cuts and Republicans are still pushing for more reduction. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham made the case on CBS' "Face the Nation."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Americans as a whole are very upset about the size and scope of the federal government. We are trying to reduce spending and our democratic friends are hanging on to old ideas that every time you try to reduce spending, you are being cruel and mean. What is cruel and mean is to pass this debt on to future generations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ENDO: The good news, there is some progress being made towards working out a deal and the president has emphasized a government shutdown would be a major threat to economic recovery. Fredricka?
WHITFIELD: All right. Sandra Endo, thanks so much. Appreciate that.
All right. Let's talk some weather now, because it's been pretty nasty spring and it's so early in the calendar of spring. Karen MaGinnis in the weather center. Now we're talking about more tornadoes on the horizon potentially?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. We got vigorous weather system marching its way across Midwest. And as we go towards the afternoon this is when we're going to watch these thunderstorms just kind of spring up across Midwestern United States. In particular, it will be this area, northern sections of Missouri and western Kansas. It is kind of the bull's eye for the moderate risk of severe weather.
What do we mean by that? The possibility of tornadoes, it's always number one on our list for this time of year. Also the potential for damaging winds, large-sized hail and frequent lightning but it does encompass this broader area all the way from Chicago down towards Oklahoma City that does bear watching, can't rule out the potential for a severe weather risks cross this region.
Just to give you some idea what is going on. Here is that vigorous weather system I was telling you about, with wind coming out of the north behind the front, but there is warm, moist flow coming up this return flow from the Gulf of Mexico. So you get this collision of air masses right in through this zone, typically known as tornado alley. This is what we're looking at that big threat for this afternoon.
But that is not going to be the end of it. We are going to expect some more, not just for today, but shifts more towards the Ohio and Tennessee River Valley as we go towards Monday and then we are looking at the Carolinas as we go in towards Tuesday. So this is going to be a prolonged event and we are trying to watch the atmosphere make that transition from a wintertime pattern to a springtime pattern and Fredricka, it often does it in a very violent way and this is how it kind of equalizes itself in the atmosphere.
WHITFIELD: I know, folks are used to it but at the same time -
MAGINNIS: It's always a surprise.
WHITFIELD: It's difficult.
MAGINNIS: It's very difficult. Yeah.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Karen. Appreciate that.
Unrest in the Middle East, killings in West Africa and a deadly bombing in northern Ireland. Details on all that international news after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Some big developments overseas across Syria. Anti- government protests are again filling the streets and squares in several cities today. Witnesses outside Damascus says tens of thousands marched to honor 15 demonstrators killed in Friday's clashes.
And then on to Pakistan a suicide bomber targeted a religious site packed with worshippers. The bomber and at least 41 other people are dead. A second bomber was taken down before he could strike. More than 100 people are wounded.
And in northern Ireland yesterday, a bomb went off beneath a car, killing a policeman. It happened in Oman, the site of an IRA bombing that killed 29 people back in 1998.
John Vause is here now with CNN International to give us a kind of a better view of what's taking place in West Africa in particular. I mean, it is volatile and it is really reaching a very dangerous level.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, the situation now on the Ivory Coast that the French have sent in more peacekeepers. Right now, they got about 1,000, maybe 1,300 soldiers on the ground. In particular in Abidjan, because that is where there has been some fairly intense fighting going on between these two men who both claim to be president of the Ivory Coast.
It goes back to November, there's a disputed election. A guy called Laurent Gbagbo, who has been an incumbent president for quite some time looked at the vote and said "No, this is wrong. I'm not leaving." Whereas the internationally-recognized president, Alassane Ouattara, his forces have been marching toward Abidjan. And so that's why we have this intense fighting.
I spoke to a reporter a short time ago today in Abidjan, which is the main commercial capital, if you like, of the Ivory Coast, he said it was calm but relatively tense there today. But many parts of the city are without electricity, which means they are now without water because they can't run the water pumps and he was telling me this is a fairly crude tactic being which is used by Laurent Gbagbo's people because it means that the residents have to go out onto the streets to try and get water and that means that then they could then be caught in the crossfire which then makes the situation even more blood. So it is very tense and that's why the French have sent more peacekeepers in.
WHITFIELD: And so then there is the potential or the fear that there was a type of spillover effect in Nigeria, in particular?
VAUSE: Well, Nigeria was meant to have elections today and they originally delayed them from Saturday. So, it meant to be on Saturday, then delayed them, then it's going to be on Monday, and now they said, "hey, well, we kind of haven't got our act together, so we're going to put everything off for another week or so."
WHITFIELD: What's taking place in the Ivory Coast influencing that?
VAUSE: Not really. Because what's happened is actually kind of - it's a region which is unsettled right now. And of course, anything like this doesn't happen. What's happened is the head of the electoral commission come out and said "We're really sorry, we didn't get our act together in time. We have a shortage of electoral material." Essentially, not enough voting ballots to go around, and one of those excuses being used by the suppliers. They are actually blaming the tsunami in Japan, saying all these problems because of the tsunami. It's crazy stuff. It is crazy talk. But it is important what happens in Nigeria because it is the most populous country in Africa. A lot of other countries look towards it on the continent as kind of setting the example. They are in the process of this transition from military dictatorship a few years back to civilian rule. This is the longest period of civilian rule they have had since independence. So these elections are very, very important. And if people in the United States saying "So who cares? What is the big deal?" Well, the country, Nigeria is Africa's biggest oil producer and the U.S. gets eight percent of its oil imports from Nigeria. So it comes back to what happens in Nigeria can affect people at the pump, it's a big interconnected world out there.
WHITFIELD: It sure is. All right. John Vause, thanks so much for bringing it us to. Appreciate it.
VAUSE: Pleasure.
WHITFIELD: All right. It's good to see you.
VAUSE: Cheers.
WHITFIELD: All right. Back here in the U.S., job losses means finding innovative ways to try to make money. So for many that means taking advantage of working from home, but it's not as easy as you'd think. Straight ahead, five rules that can help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Okay. So working from home is one of the benefits of modern technology, right? But it's not always as easy as it sounds. Life coach, Valorie Burton is here to give us some tips today to reclaim your career. Because a lot of folks say, "Oh my gosh, yeah, I want to work from home, how easy is that, takes away some of the stress" but it really can add some stress if you don't do it right. You don't have a formula.
VALORIE BURTON, LIFE COACH: That's right. None of us is really trained to work from home. We always think of working somewhere else, but 11 million Americans now work exclusively from home, and about 20 million do so at least once a week.
WHITFIELD: So you really need to be disciplined. For starters, you got to set some boundaries.
BURTON: Yes.
WHITFIELD: You know, work, family life, got to keep it separate at home. How?
BURTON: Absolutely. So a lot of that starts with talking with family and friends. I have had the experience of clients or even myself working from home, having people think, well, you know, you're home, are you up? You get a call at 9:30, are you up yet? Make sure people know you're working during this time, you can't do the things you might normally do on a Saturday afternoon, set those boundaries, set boundaries around things like sitting down to eat, maybe you have dinner at the same time every night, close up shop.
WHITFIELD: Or maybe don't disturb me if my office door is closed.
BURTON: That's right.
WHITFIELD: That kind of thing means I'm really working. So you know, part of those boundaries are keeping those regular hours, as you say, and you need to kind of close up shop or open up shop in a very visible way.
BURTON: Do it in a visible way. If you are able to have a separate office, then make sure that you close that door when work is over. If you don't have some visual way of even covering up the computer or having a partition but making sure that you're keeping that separation, because many people have had that experience of working from home and getting up at 11:30 because they had an idea and they haven't closed up shop.
WHITFIELD: Oh my goodness. OK. And then you say don't let work take over the house, meaning don't have files here, paperwork there.
BURTON: Yes.
WHITFIELD: You got to keep it all -
BURTON: Contain it to one area. It is very overwhelming to always have that work there. So the visual is really, really important. Try to keep things contained.
WHITFIELD: That's hard to do if you're living in an apartment, or if you live in a small apartment in New York City, for example.
BURTON: So, you know what? Taking that time to say how can I get organized? Might be one day, sometimes it's just taking an hour on a weekend to say how can I separate my work and home a little bit better.
WHITFIELD: OK. Excellent. You say you got leave to the house. You may be thinking about I got all these things to do, I got five things I got to today, I got to tackle, and that means I'm going to hunker down, but you say you got to leave the house because you become more productive. How?
BURTON: Well, it's really, really important. You know, when we think of most people wanting to work from home it is because they don't want to have a commute. But sometimes when you work from home enough, you crave a commute. Maybe you don't want the one hour commute but -
WHITFIELD: Go crazy?
BURTON: Yes. Get to Starbucks to do some work there might be a good idea.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
BURTON: So getting out of the house so you don't go stir crazy. It doesn't have to happen every day but make sure that sometimes you schedule that time away.
WHITFIELD: And then you say you got to reach out, reach out to people who are in your circle of work to or taking a break, what do you mean?
BURTON: You know what, you want to reach out in multiple ways. It is kind of interesting, one of the statistics that has come out about people who are unemployed is that the biggest affect of that is that lack of social connection. So on average, we need about six hours of social connections a day. That includes even phone time. But if you are in an office environment, you are around people all the time. So you know, find other people who work from home that you can connect with, even if it's by phone. Every once in a while, set those meetings outside the office, have lunch, create that social connection because it will help you be happier and more productive when you're working.
WHITFIELD: Hopefully there is discipline as you are asking everyone to be, otherwise it becomes play time and no one gets everything done. Dangerous.
BURTON: And you know what, if you are at work, you go to lunch with people, so treat it the same way, act like your -
WHITFIELD: (INAUDIBLE) Only so much time.
BURTON: That's right. That's right.
WHITFIELD: All right. Excellent. Valorie Burton, good to see you.
BURTON: Good to see you, too.
WHITFIELD: Thanks so much.
All right. Well, if you don't work from home, you will want to know what to wear perhaps when you go to the office tomorrow. Karen MaGinnis joins me in a minute with your commuter forecast.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now.
Southwest Airlines is keeping lots of planes on the ground today. 79 of their aircraft will get a thorough once-over before rejoining the fleet. That's after passengers aboard a Southwest 737 watched a large hole rip open at 36,000 feet in the air on Friday. A short time ago, a flight safety expert told me what probably happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL MAYA CHARLES, CEO, AIRSAFETY EXPERTS: Southwest operates aircraft in what's called a high-cycle, high-fatigue environment. They run up and down. In other words, the airplane goes from ground to altitude, and back down which is a pressurization cycle quite frequently, much more so than a lot of other airlines. What happens is we exercise that fuselage, as it blows up, if you will, with pressure and deflates when we are back on the ground, they tend to flex the metallurgy in the whole structure, which is normal stuff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Inspectors say the external skin of the plane came apart at a rivet line. No one was seriously hurt when the Southwest flight made an emergency landing in Arizona.
And more heartbreak for workers at Japan's crippled nuclear plant. The bodies of two fellow workers missing since the tsunami were found in the basement of unit four. Authorities say they died the day the tsunami hit.
In Tokyo, the frustration is growing over Japan's nuclear plant crisis. And as CNN's Martin Savidge tells us, it's spilling into the streets.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Outside the Tokyo Electric Power Company, the protests are getting larger and louder.
(on camera): So this is a protest of those who are opposed to nuclear power here in Japan. Protests like this really haven't gained much traction until, of course, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear problems and then protests like this have become much more frequent.
They started off relatively small, maybe five, six people you would see at these protests but you can tell today this is one of the biggest ones we have seen so far. Just trying to get an estimate, maybe 150, 200 people.
(voice-over): The protests have caught the attention of police, whose presence has likewise grown.
Tsukagoshi Myuka has never protested anything before.
TSUKAGOSHI MYUKA, FIRST-TIME PROTESTER: I can't believe our government anymore. It sounds stupid, but I want to escape Japan.
SAVIDGE: As she talks to me, she is on the verge of tears.
MYUKA: But this is our country. At least I have to say something.
SAVIDGE: Many people say they haven't come out and protested before or they have been kind of protesting in their own mind. Now they decided this is a turning point. They need to come out.
When you look at the opinion polls in this country, it shows most people are extremely angry but it's a very conservative society. They don't normally come out and hold signs and shout into bullhorns.
But there are a lot of things changing here these days, a lot of things changing as a result of what's happening at the nuclear plant 140 miles away.
(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: That was Martin Savidge reporting. More disappointment for TEPCO, meantime. Radioactive water from the nuclear plant is still leaking into the Pacific Ocean. First, workers poured concrete into the eight-inch crack. Today, they went after it with a high- tech polymer gel. Both efforts failed.
So this has been a particularly violent day of protests in Yemen. More than 800 people were injured when government troops attacked demonstrators. Hospital workers say people are being treated for gunshot wounds, beatings and tear gas inhalation and there's also a report of one death, but government officials deny that.
As fighting continues in Libya, Moammar Gadhafi has sent an envoy to Greece with a personal message. There's no word yet on what it is. The envoy crossed the Libyan border into Tunisia this morning, then he boarded a private Greek plane for Athens.
Let's check in with our Karen MaGinnis, back to work and a lot of folks want to know whether they need to bring an umbrella with them or whether they need to find shelter, what? Crazy, volatile weather.
MAGINNIS: And patience at the airport, because we got some delays right now, delays, I think, that are going to extend into tomorrow and the heads up is that we are looking at some potential for violent weather. Right now, Teterboro and JFK, if you are wondering what is going on there, it is primarily a wind event are. I think we got pictures coming out of New York City. And for the most part, we are expecting and keeping cloudy skies in the forecast.
I just checked JFK, also LaGuardia and I also took a look at Teterboro and everybody is reporting mostly cloudy skies. Well, there it looks like over Central Park, we got just some high, thin clouds but the wind is the big problem. Winds have been gusting up to around 30 to 35 miles an hour.
What can we expect as we go into the next 24 hours? Well, it looks like that northwest or northeastern corridor along interstate 95 that will be affected. Some of these delays are really increasing, especially around JFK. It looks like that is going to be stretched out to more than an hour. Boston, Denver, Denver yesterday set a record high temperature, it was 85 degrees yesterday in Denver. And today, well, well you probably already maxed out. I think this morning, the temperature was in the low 50s, but the temperature keeps sliding down.
If you're headed to Vale or Aspen, you could see up to 12 inches of snow but that means you have to travel from Denver to Vale or Aspen along interstate 25 and that's going to be a little tricky.
All right. Here comes that colder air frontal system, it is going to be problematic. Now it is situated back here but we are looking at the chance for those big thunderstorms to erupt across the Midwest, primarily north central sections of Missouri over toward Kansas. Then it spreads out toward its a broader area as we go into tomorrow, the Ohio River Valley, and the Tennessee River Valley, the deep south and even until Tuesday, we are looking at the potential for some violent weather expected there as well.
And going into the forecast, those temperatures that had been at record-setting levels across the west not so much. But this is what I was pointing out, the potential for tornadic activity for this evening we could see some embedded super cells, could produce some heavy rainfall, frequent lightning and also the potential for some large-sized hail, primarily across this red-shaded area, moderate risk, but all the way also from Chicago all the way down to Oklahoma City.
Fred that's what we will be watching as we go toward the evening hours tonight.
WHITFIELD: All right. Watching with a hawk eye, for sure.
MAGINNIS: Yes.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Karen.
All right, well if you recently bought some turkey burgers, heads up. One brand issues a recall, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: All right. If you are planning to cook out today, listen up, especially if turkey burgers are on the menu and you bought them at a Sam's Club store. Jennie-O is recalling more than 50,000 pounds of the product over salmonella concerns. The USDA believed there may be a connection between the burgers and recent outbreaks of salmonella in ten states. Head to CNN.com to find out the states and you, of course can return those burgers for a refund as well.
Joint soreness and stiffness often make arthritis sufferers inactive but a new Loyola University study shows that exercise can help arthritis in this week's "Healthy Living" segment, I asked Dr. Bill Lloyd to explain the science behind this study.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BILL LLOYD, HEALTHY LIVING EXPERT: The big danger of being sedentary, Frederica, is the fact that inactivity weakens the muscles, the tendons and the ligaments that are supposed to support the joints so if you are just sitting around because of pain, those joints are become to be become instable or unstable, I should say, it is only going to aggravate your symptoms and there is new information that chronic pain from arthritis is also linked to other problems, like diabetes and high blood pressure because you're not out there exercise.
WHITFIELD (voice over): Oh, my goodness, OK so let's talk about that exercise. What sort of exercise are we talking about? My mom has arthritis and I know she will go for swimming and walking but are there other things that arthritis sufferers need to be considering?
LLOYD: Let's break it down. Like always, you start with stretching. Now healthy people stretch to protect themselves from injury, but stretching itself can be an exercise Fredricka for arthritis suffers because it is going to work on the tendons and ligaments and it strengthen those joints and make them stable. On top of that, strength training, and also low-impact exercises, like the treadmill or bicycle or even swimming no difference whether you do it in the water or on the land. Low-impact aerobics are great.
Flexibility exercises, you know like going to yoga, again to keep those joints flexible. And as you do it the pain will diminish more and more. And then finally, a variety of balance activities, things like standing on one leg at a time or side stepping will protect you from falls and keep you safe in the years ahead.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks so much, Dr. Bill Lloyd. You can catch Dr. Lloyd in our "Healthy Living" segment every weekend. He is here at 4:00 Eastern on both Saturdays and Sunday afternoons.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right. Much better composure from college basketball fans watching the NCAA showdown. The first semifinal game of the final four, Butler and VCU, it was close until the closing minutes when the eighth seeded Butler Bull Dogs pulled away for 70-62 victory. Butler was in last year's championship game losing to Duke. Here we go again, Butler, 28-9 will face Connecticut UCONN tomorrow night for the championship. UCONN ended Kentucky's dreams of another college title with a 56-55 victory. The Wildcats had clawed their way back after going down early but the third seeded 31-9 Huskies held on, I sound like a sportscaster, don't I? Very impressive. The championship game Monday, the title is on the line there we will see who takes it.
All right. When we come back, face-to-face with reality TV show star Bethenny Frankel. Why saying yes has brought so much success.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: One week ago, several NBA players donated a $1,000 dollars for every point they scored. $3,000 to help recover efforts in Japan. Al Horford of the Atlanta Hawks raised $23,000 and he is asking to help in this "Impact your World."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL HORFORD, ATLANTA HAWKS: I'm Al Horford from the Atlanta Hawks and you can make an impact for the people of Japan. My agent thought that it would be good idea for a lot of us players to get involved and help with the Japan relief fund. I was excited about it. I told him to count me in, it was very sad what is going on over there, and I can imagine it is much worse actually being there and having to deal with everything. I know a lot of professional athletes do things every day to impact the community and help. I'm trying to do the best I can. Join the movement, "Impact your World," CNN.com/impact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: So for more ways to help CNN is launching a new high-tech way to take immediate action scan this image with your Smartphone to load our "Impact your World" website and you will find links to charities helping disaster victims Japan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: She is bold and brazen about saying exactly what she feels at any moment. Bethenny Frankel is the star of Bravo TV's "Bethenny Frankel Ever After" where her life as a new bride and new mother has become public domain. Now in her third book "A Place of Yes" she explains that the road to reality TV, books and her booming beverage business came from, well, saying yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD (voice over): One wonders where do you have time to now pen yet another book, this one "A Place of Yes, Ten rules for getting everything you want out of life." Where did this come from?
BETHENNY FRANKEL, ENTREPRENEUR: Basically the way that I got here in my life is coming from a place of yes it doesn't mean that I'm always positive, it doesn't mean I'm always in a good mood it just mean that there is no such word as no in my vocabulary and it is just yes we can get it done and it will happen and I will make it happen. And keep going, plow straight through things.
WHITFIELD: So first you break the chain and then you say, in your book, you have ten rules, and you say everything is your business. Give every job your all, respect others, and play fair. Something tells me that you detail this in a very unique way.
FRANKEL: If you're bartending, if you are a bus boy, if you choose to do a job, you can't think it's beneath you and you have to treat it like it is the most important job in the world.
WHITFIELD: You have to take pride in that job whatever it is that you have, whatever is in your grasp, be the best at it. You never know it might be a stepping stone to the next thing.
FRANKEL: And moved to L.A. when I was 21 and the first thing I did was I went to Bartending School. And I thought that was so stupid, when am I ever going to use that, that was a waste of money and now I have the number one ready-to-drink cocktail, skinny rum margarita. All roads lead to Rome, which is another big rule.
WHITFIELD: How did that road to Rome lead you to reality shows, to "Housewives?"
FRANKEL: It started on the Martha Stewart apprentice. I really wanted to be her predecessors, I wanted to be Martha Stewart's apprentice and the real "Housewives" was a decision that was very difficult, it was originally called "Manhattan Moms," I turned down the show because I thought it would ruin everything I had just begun to build.
And I said you know I have a book, I have a cocktail idea and this could be a great platform it is not that easy to get on television. Coming from a place of yes is also being able to sit down, really search for your gut and kind of see the chess board and try to think about how it might be a few steps forward and weigh out the pros and cons.
WHITFIELD: Once you got in it, did you identify right away that, you know what, there can be something that happens from here. I could be a breakout star, which is what you ultimately became.
FRANKEL: And that's always been the case it has been very easy for me because this is what I really do for a living this is what I was doing before I went on television. I didn't run into the store and say, my god, I'm on TV and what can I grab and pretend that I'm doing? It was all pretty authentic.
WHITFIELD: Was there a moment where you thought well venturing in this direction, doing "Housewives" that might undermine my business sense?
FRANKEL: I absolutely thought that doing "Housewives" might destroy what I was doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: But did it? Next hour, how real, by the way is reality TV? I will have more in the next part of my face-to-face interview with Bethenny Frankel.
It is crunch time for the 2011 federal budget but do you think lawmakers will reach a deal in time?
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WHITFIELD: All right. U.S. Congress is racing against the clock this week trying to avert a federal government shut down. Both sides say they are seeing movement on the 2011 budget but that doesn't mean that there isn't disagreement. Political insiders wonder if the Democrats and Republicans can indeed reach a deal by midnight Friday that thought dominated the talk shows today.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right off the bat is there going to be a government shutdown on Friday?
SEN. MARK WARNER, (D) VIRGINIA: I hope not. What kind of signal would it send if we were to shut down our government basically to over a couple of social policy riders that were added to the budget bill? I think there seems to be some agreement around the top line number. We ought to show that we, as the American government can get our act together and make sure there is not that shutdown.
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, (R) ALABAMA: This is more than a Republican/Democratic squabble this is a question -- the fundamental question is are we headed to a financial crisis if we don't get off the fiscal course that we are on.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's talk about your budget. Widely reported that your budget will cut spending by $2 trillion over the next decade. True? REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) WISCONSIN: Well it is more than that, quite a bit more than that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: $3 trillion?
RYAN: More than that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: $4 trillion?
RYAN: We are looking at more than that right now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you do that?
RYAN: By cutting spending, reforming entitlements and growing our economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: Our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser is here in house with all this talk about Republicans and the plan and the Democrats' plan, whose budget might Americans, really favor in all of this. Do we know?
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: We do know and Americans are kind of split, it is not like either party here the Republicans or the Democrats have an upper hand it seems politically in this budget battle or just countdown to possible shutdown.
Look at this from our most recent CNN National Poll. Americans are divided on which approach is better. The president's approach, the Democrats and Congress 46 percent said they prefer data approach and look at that GOP in Congress is basically betting. Neither side it seems from the public opinion poll has the upper hand politically.
WHITFIELD: But then people do have strong opinions about whether this is good or bad for the country as a whole, a shutdown?
STEINHAUSER: Oh yes. And they don't think it is good at all. Let's go back to that same poll and we asked this question "Is the shutdown, even for just a few days good for the country?" Almost six in ten said no not a good thing, 36% said it is not a bad thing for the country, but Fred, and there is a partisan breakdown.
If you go to our next number when we break those numbers down, look at that Democrats definitely do not think a shutdown is a good idea, Independents a little more, Republicans a little over half and Tea Party supporters, we narrow it down that way, six in ten said it is good. And that really is the political story here, they are putting pressure on all those new Republicans in Congress that were just elected last November with their help and they are saying stand tough, do not compromise.
WHITFIELD: In fact a lot of those Tea Party members are new members on Congress are giving John Boehner a real run for his money. They are letting him know or they are kind of threatening him about loyalty even. STEINHAUSER: Yes they are and if he is going to pass some kind of compromise, he is probably not going to get a lot of their votes he is going to need conservative Democrats, it is an imminent pickle.
WHITFIELD: Wow. All right. So much for harmony on the hill. Have we ever seen that?
STEINHAUSER: Not recently.
WHITFIELD: No. OK. Well coming up next, we will talk about the president and these rumors about whether the president indeed is getting to begin his re-election campaign as early as tomorrow. We will see. You got some goods on that right?
STEINHAUSER: You got it.
WHITFIELD: All right. Paul, appreciate it.
STEINHAUSER: Thanks.
WHITFIELD: All right. Straight ahead, see why one Florida neighborhood wants to actually ban kids from playing outside.
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WHITFIELD: A California City is set to put the brakes on skateboarding. On Tuesday, the Laguna Beach City council will vote on a set of skateboard restriction including speed limits and closing eight roads to skateboarders completely. The mayor says he understands why kids like the sport but public roads are not the best place for it.
Speaking of which in central Florida a homeowner's association wants to ban kids from playing outside altogether, board members say it is not safe for kids to play in the parking lot which is the only place there is there. I asked our legal guys yesterday if the HOA can do that lawfully.
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RICHARD HERMAN: They can and they should. Homeowners Associations, condominium boards, co-op boards they are charged with regulating the common areas for these facilities and what this board is saying is that for safety reasons this is a parking lot. Kids shouldn't be riding and if one of these kids should get injured or hit by a car this community is going to get sued for a lot of money. They don't want that. They are trying to protect the environment. If you don't like it vote new people in the homeowners, have your vote heard and try to overrule it.
WHITFIELD (voice over): So then I wonder Avery is it an issue of does this neighborhood not have a playground so the money that people spend, you know, toward their HOA, does that mean that the HOA now has to be aware of the populace there that there are kids there has to be a safe place for them to play. So why don't they use that money and erect a playground? Might that be a decent argument? AVERY FRIEDMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: I guess. Look, Frederica, the fact is that this activity this proposal is a dope slap concept that flies in the face of the Federal Fair Housing Act.
WHITFIELD: What?
FRIEDMAN: Ronald Reagan enacted legislation passed or signed a law in 1988 that prohibits the homeowner's association from doing what they are doing. Let tell you something. Justice Department will be down there the only one that will bring suit in federal court faster than they will be me. It violates federal law, they can't do it. There's no way they can justify the law, a $100 for playing tag? I don't think so.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right. Avery and Richard, always telling it like it is. The Homeowner's Association by the way plans to vote on the issue April 27th. Meantime our legal guys are with us every weekend right here in the CNN newsroom. Tune in every Saturday at noon Eastern to hear their latest debate.
All right. Let's check in again with our Karen MaGinnis. Some pretty wacky weather this spring. But then on the flip side out there some really nice bright spots, too.
MAGINNIS: Yes there are, but we have got the wind is one of the big stories that we are looking at and the other is the outbreak of severe weather, certainly the potential for it. It is reasonably calm outside right now but we do have some snow that's still hanging on across Colorado. We will zoom in across this region and show you a little bit of what is going on there. Well Denver, I think that you maxed out as far as your temperature goes for the afternoon and that was earlier this morning when the temperatures were in the 50s. But this frontal system is just kind of draped across the northern tier and back across the Rockies area of low pressure. It is going to trek toward the east.
As it does that outbreak of severe weather potential, especially in a moderate zone across north central sections of Missouri and into eastern sections of Kansas, this is where we are going to look out for the possibility of tornadic activity, some large-sized hail, frequent lightning and heavy downpours. The atmosphere tries to equalize and it is doing it in a fairly violent way or will be doing it, not just for tonight but going into Monday across the deep south and then along the eastern coast as we head toward Tuesday.
But you have got this moisture, which is coming up from the south this cold air that's being drawn down out of the north and the northwest. So, we get this collision point that is right across what is typically known as tornado alley. So we will be watching out for that for you as well.
Let's go ahead and show you some of the temperatures that we are looking at across the United States. Well, for tomorrow, readings will be in the 50s across the upper tier. Chicago, 53, Denver, you start to bounce back but Vail and Aspen could see as much as 12 inches of snowfall. Could see a little bit of rain as we go later on in the workweek across southern California. Fort Colin, Colorado, they had about a 2000-acre fire there, they are saying zero percent contained, Frederica and that fire is being enhanced by the gusty winds there. At times, the winds could gust up to as much as 70 miles an hour, that is a big problem from Colorado to New Mexico to West Texas, to western Plains, big deal.
WHITFIELD: Oh boy. A very dangerous situation. All right. Karen, appreciate it. Thank you.
