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Arraignment in Collar-Bomb Scare; Fighting Words on the Trail; Where the Jobs Are; Ford Releases Electric Car; The Help Desk; Talk Back Question; Getting Under Your Skin
Aired August 16, 2011 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour now. I'm Drew Griffin.
Let's get you up to speed with what's happening.
President Obama looks for new jobs in Iowa. He opens a rural economic forum in Peosta, Iowa, later this hour. The small town, home to about 1,500 people.
The president is going to sit down with farmers and small business owners for the afternoon. He'll look at ways to create jobs in rural communities. The president's bus tour wrapping up tomorrow, with stops in his home state of Illinois.
A three-day Dow rally fizzled today so far, but investors are cutting their losses as the trading day goes on. Right now, blue chip stocks are off about 33 points. Stocks turned negative, even though Fitch, one of the big three credit agencies, affirmed the U.S. government's AAA rating today. That's a sharp contrast to this month's downgrade by Standard & Poor's.
A federal judge in Louisville, Kentucky, today ordered this guy, an Australian man, held until extradition. His name is Paul Douglas Peters. He is accused of strapping a fake collar bomb around a teenager's neck and then leaving a note demanding money.
That happened in Australia. Eighteen-year-old Madeleine Pulver believed that bomb was the real thing. It took Australian police 10 hours to get it off of her. Pulver's father is a wealthy Internet executive in Sydney.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL PULVER, FATHER: On behalf of Maddy and the entire family, we are enormously relieved that an arrest has been made in the United States overnight. These past two weeks have been a very difficult time for us, and we are hopeful that this development marks the beginning of the end of this traumatic ordeal for our family.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: The FBI arrested Peters at his ex-wife's house in Louisville, Kentucky, in the suburbs there. That's why he was there. But they don't think that ex-wife was involved in this. A serious appeal for help from London police. They released this video today.
It's a car running down two police officers. Those officers were chasing looters during the riots last week. Police hope the video gets some witness to come forward and tell them who did this. Both officers are recovering. Police say they are treating this as attempted murder.
Been showing you this for a couple days now. Indiana investigators are now looking at the wreckage of the weekend stage collapse for possible structural flaws. The company that set up the stage is also doing its own investigation.
Five people died when that thing toppled at the state fair Saturday night. Family members say they want answers. Listen to the mother of stagehand Nathan Byrd, one of those killed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARILYN GOODRICH, NATHAN BYRD'S MOTHER: It just hurts. I feel hurt because of everything that happened for Nathan and all the people that were hurt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Malfunctioning equipment sends a surge of chlorine to a kids' wave pool at a Sacramento, California, water park. Twenty people had to go to the hospital. They had burning eyes, some were throwing up, and they had trouble breathing. Most of the victims were kids and their parents.
People across the New York area are getting a day to dry out and clean up. Record rain over the weekend sent flash floods into streets and homes. Communities in Long Island reported almost a foot of rain. That's more than the area gets on an average for the entire month of August.
More details now on the court hearing for the suspect in that elaborate bomb scare in Australia. Paul Douglas Peters is the guy's name, accused of strapping what was thought to be a bomb around the neck of a teenage girl in a wealthy Sydney suburb. That young girl spent 10 terrifying hours attached to the device, which turned out to be a fake.
CNN National Correspondent Susan Candiotti joins us on the phone from Louisville, Kentucky.
Susan, what happened in court today?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this was an appearance, the first court appearance only, for this man who is being held now on a provisional arrest of a warrant from Australia. So he appeared before a U.S. magistrate, and it was a pretty perfunctory appearance. He was dressed in khaki shorts and an oxford shirt, and he had nothing to say in court other than to hear this provisional complaint. So, basically, it was about saying Australia wants us to hold on to you. The U.S. Marshals will do that until his next court appearance in 60 days, which gives Australia plenty of time to formally ask for his extradition back to Australia to face these kidnapping and extortion charges.
GRIFFIN: Yes. And what I find so interesting about this case is where he was found, in Louisville, Kentucky, 9,000 miles away from Australia. Any insight as to how they tracked him down, how they found him there in Kentucky?
CANDIOTTI: Yes, Drew, this is really intriguing. This is all from the complaint of the provisional arrest warrant.
It's amazing how they tracked him down. After this incident happened, they traced from the note that he left behind, the note that was attached to the fake bomb, an e-mail address. So they researched the e-mail address, the Australian authorities did, tracked that to some Internet cafes in a library, and in turn, looked for who had used the library at this time, caught a man on surveillance tapes, saw that he had been to a liquor store. Then, saw the car that he was driving, traced the car and the driver's license to get a picture and a possible name. Then, found that he had traveled to Kentucky, where they then traced him to his ex-wife's house.
So that was quite a series of events that led him there just yesterday.
GRIFFIN: Wow. Good police work, too.
Hey, is there a connection between this guy and the family of the teen? How did he know that they were rich and the teen would be there? Anything like that?
CANDIOTTI: Well, you know, there are some tenuous connections that the Australians are pulling up. For example, the father of the young girl who was the alleged victim in this case and Mr. Peters, these two gentlemen were both in the financial -- worked in the financial world.
Mr. Peters, an investment banker, according to his lawyer. They both did work in Asia. They both have daughters. And so they are trying to take it from there to see whether there is some other way in which their paths crossed.
GRIFFIN: Wow. Susan Candiotti.
Boy, that sounds like a good one to cover, Susan. We'll certainly look for more details both later in the day, and I'm sure you'll be filing on dot-com as well.
Thanks, Susan Candiotti, near Louisville, Kentucky.
Well, here's your chance to "Talk Back" on the big stories of the day. Today's question: Is Warren Buffett's tax compromise -- you know where he wants billionaires like himself to pay more taxes -- good policy or is it just politics?
Carol Costello joins us from New York -- Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Drew.
The question today: Is Warren Buffett's tax compromise good or is it just plain politics? Now that we've had a day to digest Buffet's plea to "tax me more," it's time to ask that very question.
Buffett is largely a Twitter hero, but as far as Republicans are concerned, he's a shill for President Obama. Buffett begs to differ.
He's offering an alternative. Instead of raising taxes on Americans making $250,000 and up, he told Charlie Rose, raise taxes on the very, very rich.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WARREN BUFFETT, CEO, BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY: We're also in the process under-taxing the very rich. What I propose, incidentally, would not touch the taxes of 99.7 percent. I'm talking about .3 of one percent of the American public. But the people from $1 million on up I think should be asked to share in a little of the sacrifice that we're all --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: President Obama embraced the idea. Republicans did not.
Senator John Cornyn tweeted, "For tax-raising advocates like Warren Buffett, I am sure Treasury would take a voluntary payment for deficit reduction," as in, hey, Mr. Buffett, just send the U.S. Treasury a check. Conservative blogs fired back, too. "The Red Dog Report" said, "Everybody knows that if tax hikes on the rich fails to solve our economic crisis, which we know they will not, then team Obama can go back and ask for more, opening the door to a big tax hike on America's middle class."
Never mind polls show most Americans favor taxing the rich more, and many economists say spending cuts alone won't solve our debt woes.
So, the "Talk Back" question today: Is Warren Buffett's tax compromise good, or is it just politics?
Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read your comments later this hour.
GRIFFIN: Thanks, Carol. Look forward to it.
Here's a rundown on some of the stories we're covering over this next hour.
First, he just got in the ring and is already throwing punches. Tough talk from Texas' Rick Perry aimed at the Federal Reserve. Plus, where do you go to find work? We're counting down the cities with the highest 10-year job spurt.
And then, sex offenders on the Internet. The ACLU goes after a Louisiana law that's aimed at keeping offenders off the Web.
Plus, the guys in lab coats responsible for many of the high-tech things we use today. We're going to take you inside an agency called DARPA.
And too much television could kill you. Our senior medical correspondent warning you why you need to get off the couch.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Texas Governor Rick Perry threw his hat in the ring for the presidency less than a week ago, but the newest Republican candidate sparking controversy already by calling out Fed Chair Ben Bernanke Texas-style.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Printing more money to play politics at this particular time in American history is almost treasonous, in my opinion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: A lot of people making a lot of hay about those words, fighting words, they're telling us.
Alex Castellanos, what do you think? Really? Is that that tough a talk?
ALEX CASTELLANOS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I'll tell you, when you think your country's going over the edge of a cliff, when you think it's in decline because Washington is spending us into bankruptcy, it's a drastic situation. And so you see political figures using drastic language.
GRIFFIN: Do you think that kind of language, though, is going to get him in any kind of hot water or kind of paint the picture -- I mean, you're a Republican strategist. Is he going to paint himself into the tough Texas cowboy kind of thing that plagues so many other Republican candidates?
CASTELLANOS: Well, Perry has always been known as a tough campaigner. When he goes on the attack, it's like a bear trap. You have to chew your leg off to get out of it.
So that's just his style. But that may not help him in a general election, when he has to win the Philadelphia suburbs or the soccer mom vote in Ohio. But in a Republican primary, it can be pretty effective talk.
GRIFFIN: All right. I want to play another piece of video for you.
And this was the president yesterday. He wanted to go out and meet and greet the real folks, and he met some real folks, some Tea Party members who had some -- well, not so kind comments for him to say -- to listen to. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN RHODES, IOWA TEA PARTY: When you're talking about civility, how is your vice president calling us terrorists? I would like to understand that.
OBAMA: OK. I will explain it right now, sir. He did not call you guys terrorists.
RHODES: He said we were acting like terrorists.
OBAMA: No. What he said was that for us to be willing to take the economy to the brink was irresponsible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The promises we make in Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are promises we can keep. And there are various ways of doing that. One is we could raise taxes on people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Corporations!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Corporations!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Corporations.
ROMNEY: We could raise taxes on -- of course they are. Everything corporations earn ultimately goes to people.
Where do you think it goes?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It goes in their pocket! Have you been paying attention to what's going on?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Well, we had a couple of segments there, Alex, but, I mean, if these candidates and the president really wanted to meet the people, they are meeting the people, kind of these unscripted sessions.
Are these good or bad for candidates or the president to have all the rest of us view?
CASTELLANOS: Well, we have a lot of evidence now why it's easier to lose campaigns than to win them. More people do lose them than win. And we're now in the YouTube age, where every little slip, every imperfection becomes viral and travels around the country. So, these moments can trip up a campaign. They change the agenda.
The important thing about these moments is, do they tell us something about the candidate? Are they a little window into something bigger and more important and more relevant to us?
You know, is he really a big business Republican, Mitt Romney, that doesn't care about people? Is Perry too extreme? Is Barack Obama a weak leader who really can't, you know, look you straight in the eye and tell you what happened?
That's what you look for in these moments. Are they bigger than the moment themselves?
GRIFFIN: Yes. But you know what? Behind it all, especially the one with the president, the exchange with the president, I thought, man, what a great country this is that people can just go out there and really point some hard questions right at the guy who is leading the country with no ramifications. Nobody's getting thrown in jail here. I just thought it was a great political moment, actually, for the country in general.
CASTELLANOS: You know, Drew, I was just at the Iowa Straw Poll and had exactly the same feeling. I saw families there coming from all over Iowa who had scrimped and saved to make the trip.
Why? Because they're concerned about their country, they're concerned it's in decline. And they live in a country where they can get up and go do something about it, where they can voice their concern and try to change the country's course.
Democrat or Republican, you've got to be encouraged about this. And that's why I think for Democrats or Republicans, this process is so important.
GRIFFIN: Yes.
And if you do know anything about Alex, you know he was born in a country where you can't do that, right?
CASTELLANOS: Yes. Most of the world, you can't do this. You can here.
GRIFFIN: Yes. All right. Thanks a lot.
CASTELLANOS: Take care.
Alex Castellanos, born in Havana, Cuba.
Thank you, sir.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer takes you along on the president's Midwestern bus tour. Then Wolf is going to go one-on-one with the president in an interview. That's slated for this afternoon. What are his plans to turn the economy around? Can he convince voters in key states? Wolf Blitzer's interview with President Obama is today at 5:00 Eastern in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
And as President Obama travels through the Midwest to talk about jobs, CNN found out where the jobs actually are.
CNN Money's Poppy Harlow joins me from New York.
Poppy, we keep hearing how bad the job market is, but you found 10 cities where there's pretty good job growth. What are they?
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: You know what? It's not surprising that a lot of these are in places like Texas, where the recession hasn't hit as hard on housing or jobs. Let's take a look at the first five, Drew, and then I'll go through some of them for you. You can see all of them, of course, on CNN Money.
Let's go to the first five. OK?
Number one on the list is Rockwall County, Texas. Over the last decade, they have seen job growth of 97.9 percent.
Next on the list, Loudoun County, Virginia; Williamson County, Texas; Douglas County, Colorado; Hamilton County, Indiana.
Let's take a look first at Rockwall County, Texas. This is the smallest county in Texas, but it has almost doubled the number of jobs in the last decade.
They have lured in businesses. That means a lot of jobs. They have brought in some folks from nearby cities. And they do that largely because they have major incentives for businesses to put people to work.
As a result, their population has doubled in the last decade. A lot of tech jobs there.
Let's go on to Loudoun County, Virginia. This is number two on the list.
Now, they have been dubbed the "Silicon Valley of the East." They have a lot of tech jobs there as well. Tech jobs, not necessarily hit as hard in this downturn. They have also got one of the nation's highest concentrations of individual smaller tech firms.
And then, Williamson County, Texas, once again in Texas, no surprise here. A lot of it has to do with education there, Drew.
Forty percent of their residents have a college degree, 70 percent of those residents have some sort of post-secondary education. And when we look at the unemployment numbers, what we see is that people that have college degrees have a much lower unemployment rate than those that don't -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: Wow. Two of the top five in Texas. That's already playing out on the campaign trail.
HARLOW: Yes.
GRIFFIN: What are some of the other towns?
HARLOW: It certainly is playing out on the campaign trail.
Let's pull up the other ones so you can see what we're looking at.
Delaware County, Ohio, about almost 50 percent job growth there over the last decade. DeSoto County, Mississippi; Utah County, Utah; Ascension Parish, Louisiana. It's good to see some manufacturing jobs coming back there along the Mississippi.
And then Campbell County, Wyoming. I thought this was interesting, Drew.
This is a place where you've got big coal, big oil, and natural gas producers creating a lot of jobs. Say what you will about those jobs, they are very controversial, but mining in that community accounts for one-third of the jobs. So as we see energy prices go up, the flip side of that is energy jobs.
And as you saw, Texas doing incredibly well. And tech jobs seeing a boom, too. So these are just some of them.
If you go online to CNN Money -- you see it there on the screen -- we've got actually 25 counties where we have seen the most job growth in the last decade -- Drew.
GRIFFIN: All right, Poppy. Thanks a lot. Appreciate it.
HARLOW: You got it.
GRIFFIN: Hey, would you consider yourself a couch potato? You could be losing years off your life according to a new study if you're doing what this guy's doing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Still time to vote for these "Choose the News" stories -- 22360 is what you text to vote for any one of these.
The first one you vote for -- you press 1 -- is a condolence letter from an unlikely source, this guy, a Pakistan military pilot who shot down an Indian plane. This happened 46 years ago. He's trying to make amends for this.
Second, a tattoo. It could change the face of medicine. It can monitor your heart, brain activity, possibly save your life.
Or number three, a home for a whopping $160 million. We're going to take you inside this exclusive home in London, if you vote.
22360: 1 for "Condolence Letter"; 2 for the "The Tattoo"; or 3 for that "Luxury Home."
We're going to have the winning story later on in this hour.
And did you know that being a couch potato could shorten your life? A new study says watching an average of six hours a day of TV knocks five years off your life expectancy.
Our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is here to explain.
Six hours of TV, that's a lot.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a lot of TV. It is a lot of TV. And so those people were really, you know, going to town there.
But there's also a statistic that shows that even if you're watching less TV, it makes a difference. If you're watching -- if you're over the age of 25, every hour of TV that you watch will shorten your life by about 22 minutes.
GRIFFIN: And this is watching TV doing nothing. I mean, it's really doing nothing.
COHEN: Right. Exactly. You're not running around and vacuuming or doing housework or anything. You're just sitting there.
And so this really isn't about television. I feel compelled to point that out since we are on television. This isn't really about television. This is just about sedentary lifestyle. I mean, if you're sitting around that much, you're not exercising.
GRIFFIN: It is surprising that a lot of people do not do much of any exercising and maybe think they don't know how to get started exercising.
COHEN: Right. And you know what? I think what is to blame for that, to a large extent, is sort of all of these -- you see advertisements for gyms and you see people doing all these fancy kinds of exercises.
Just walk. Just get out of the house, walk to the end of your block, and come back. If you're doing nothing, start with five minutes. Just start with five minutes. And that is way better than what you're doing right now.
It doesn't have to be fancy. You don't have to buy special clothing or equipment. Just get out there for a few minutes.
GRIFFIN: And according to the researchers, the study, the stuff you have been studying, how much or little exercise does it take to really improve your life?
COHEN: You know, there is actually a study out this week from "The Lancet" that shows that people who exercise just 15 minutes a day live three years longer than people who didn't do anything. So even just 15 minutes a day makes a difference. And to a lot of people who live in cities, they do this already because they walk to the subway and they walk back. And that, in and of itself, makes a difference to your cardiovascular system, to other parts of your body.
GRIFFIN: And not only live longer, live better.
COHEN: Right. Exactly.
I mean, so even if -- I'm a little afraid people are going to hear this and say, well, I like being a couch potato, so I live to 70 instead of 75. Who cares? But think about your quality of life.
That stroke you had may not kill you, but it may turn you into a vegetable. That is no way to live, and your family will have to take care of you. So if you exercise not just to live longer, but so that you won't be a burden to your family later.
GRIFFIN: All right, Elizabeth. Thanks a lot.
Everybody get up, start moving around, exercise. Keep watching us, though, OK? Thanks a lot.
Well, you love Facebook, right? But do you have a constitutional right to these social sites? One state says no.
Louisiana is that state. It's banning sex offenders from Facebook to protect children, but some say hey, can't do that. We're going to look at both sides of what's turning into a hot debate.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: Here's a rundown of the stories we're working on.
Up next, keeping convicted sex offenders off the Internet. There is a law to limit their Web exposure, but it's under challenge by the ACLU.
Then, the world would be a lot darker without DARPA. We go inside the agency with a small budget behind some of the biggest high- tech innovations on Earth.
And later, Ford drives up into the electric car market.
First, though, a law to limit sex offenders' access to the Internet comes under legal challenge in Louisiana. The ACLU filed suit to block the law, arguing it's too broad, infringes on constitutional rights. Supporters say the law is aimed at keeping sex offenders convicted in crimes involving children from trolling for victims on social media sites.
State Representative Ledricka Thierry is the author of the law. She joins us from Baton Rouge.
Representative Thierry, why did you write this law? What was the need? LEDRICKA THIERRY, LOUISIANA STATE HOUSE: Well, with the increase of technology and the increase of the use of -- many of our children are now utilizing the Internet on a daily routine -- I saw that this law was basically inevitable. It was time for us to make sure that we protect these particular sex offenders from how much contact they have with our children. Not just physically or near their schools, but also on the Internet.
So I found that at this time, it was important that we implement some legislation to prevent these individuals from accessing these social sites.
GRIFFIN: It looks like it will be tested in court, and there may be a big constitutional question of whether Louisiana can actually do this or not.
But on a very specific level, I want to ask you, how can you keep people off the Internet? How is the state of Louisiana actually going to police this?
THIERRY: Well, I have met with some law enforcement officials and they are very confident that they will be able to actually monitor this and actually be able to take action on these individuals --
GRIFFIN: How?
THIERRY: The key is, though, many -- well, many of the social sites currently prohibit these sex offenders from accessing their site. That's their public - I'm sorry, that's their policy.
But there's no -- if there's no legislation in place, there's no way to enforce it. So, currently in Louisiana, the only laws that we have was in the event that the offender was attempting to solicit a minor by meeting them somewhere. And what we're basically saying is we don't want you to even have communication with them. So, we're going to make it a crime just as all of our laws are. I mean, many of our laws, we have crimes in place -- you can't catch maybe every person but when you do catch them, then now you can actually prosecute them under a crime.
GRIFFIN: I've just seen other attempts at trying to limit media -- I mean, not media access, but Internet access -- and you know, you can borrow somebody else's device, you can go to libraries these days, you can just access other people's accounts. I'm wondering if you have thought this through as to whether or not there is going to be an effective way to stop them.
THIERRY: Well, we have thought it through. And again, like I said, there are methods in place by some of our law enforcement officials here in the state of Louisiana.
We have also considered, you know, some of the things that you're saying. But in addition to that, you have to keep in mind that it's just important if this even prevents one individual from coming in contact with a child, we don't want to have our Internet in the state of Louisiana as a place where you can actually lure more victims such as our children that are very innocent. And many of them are now setting up profiles at ages such as six years old, they have profiles on Facebook.
And I'll tell you something that was very interesting to me was that I went to the registered sex offenders site in Louisiana. Some of our registered sex offenders. And I actually went to some of these social sites and these individuals were using their own name on these social sites. So, I was able to finger some people that were using their name. They weren't using alias names.
And so that concerns me, that these individuals think that it's OK for them to be on a site that already tells them that they have a policy against sex offenders being on that site.
GRIFFIN: Mm-hmm. All right.
THIERRY: So, basically the message we want to send is that if you're going to do this, you're not going to do it here in the state of Louisiana.
GRIFFIN: All right. And I think you would agree with me, all the more reason parents should be monitoring with their kids are doing on these Internet sites. You said six years old having Facebook. That's incredible to me.
THIERRY: And you know, I do agree with you. I am a parent and I will tell you, many parents -- I know a lot of responsible parents have things in place like to monitor where their children visit on sites.
But again, the child isn't the criminal. They're not the one that is, you know, shouldn't have the opportunity to maybe join groups with their families or things like that on Facebook or MySpace. But I do think that it's important that we limit the individuals that have contact with them and again, with these cell phones and other devices, where they are able to also access the Internet, sometimes even a good parent might not be able to find out exactly which sex offender is talking to their child.
GRIFFIN: Scary stuff. Fredricka Thierry, thank you so much. And we'll follow this law, see whether it holds up to this ACLU lawsuit. Thanks a lot for joining us.
Well, living in a world without the Internet, without GPS, prosthetic limbs? One agency is behind many of these remarkable innovations that we take for granted. And now they are taking flying to a whole new level. I will talk to a technology analyst about DARPA.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRIFFIN: I don't know if you remember this from last week. An agency funded by the Department of Defense attempting what we thought was impossible. Launching an unmanned aircraft from a rocket flying 20 times the speed of sound and then controlling it long distance. They called it Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2. Meteorologist Chad Myers joining me on this one. It didn't quite go well.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It didn't go the way they thought, but I love this agency. It's called DARPA. You probably never heard of it. D-A-R-P-A. Go look it up. These guys are fantastic.
Here's their, their motto, although it's not official. If you're not falling down skiing, you're not learning anything. You're just going along. Hey, no big deal.
Hey, and if you're not on the edge, you're just taking up too much space. These guys are on the edge. Think about this. Twenty- five years ago, somebody walks up to a guy and says, I want you to make me an airplane that our enemies can't see on radar. You're going to go what? Radar can always see an airplane, they are made of metal.
Well, what do we have? We have stealth fighters, we have the Internet. We have things that DARPA, this entire agency, has made.
Now, there was a lot of criticism because it didn't work. People were saying hey, how much did this failure cost us, right? We're all in budget deficits, do we really need to be spending this? But these guys are on the edge of some very fantastic things, and they have changed our life from GPS to other things, and their budget is not very much.
GRIFFIN: Yes, let's show you what else they have invented. They are responsible for these things in our lives. GPS systems, as Chad said. Prosthetic limbs, the Internet, and a lot of these other things we take for granted.
Let's bring in technology analyst Michael Belfiore, live from Woodstock, New York, author of "The Department of Mad Scientists: How DARPA Is Remaking the World from Internet to Artificial." Michael, what's next for this style of travel? Are we really going to get on this some day?
MICHAEL BELFIORE, AUTHOR: We are going to get on it. It might take awhile, though. Back in 1986, Ronald Reagan announced that we were going to have an airplane that could take off from Dulles airport, fly to Tokyo in a couple of hours. So, they have been working on this problem ever since.
MYERS: Michael, these guys are only $3 billion into our pocket every year, but they have made some amazing inventions, some discoveries that we can't even put our hands around. And we only know about 50 percent of the stuff they did because they won't tell us about the rest.
What do you know that we don't know that these guys are doing?
BELFIORE: Well, I know they are a great American success story, a lot of people don't know that. It's precisely because they have permission to fail. So, the current director of DARPA, Dr. Duggan, says that the same nerve that's required to do something extraordinary and succeed is the same nerve that's required to follow through and fall flat on your face if you have to. And I think we need more of that going on right now.
GRIFFIN: In terms of we're in a time of budget cuts, we're always looking for things to cut, these guys might be in the wrong department because Department of Defense looks like it's going to get hit.
But really, these guys have paid us back and doing stuff that private companies won't do precisely because what you just said, Michael. They are destined to fail. That is what they are actually going out to see if they can do.
MYERS: Right. They are only one half of 1 percent of the DoD budget. One half of 1 percent. Go ahead, Michael.
BELFIORE: It's a very small investment in our future. And it's an investment that most businesses can't make. You know, a business that said 25 years ago hey, we'll fly from Dulles to Tokyo in two hours, would be long gone by now. But a government agency like this who has permission to pursue these high-risk, potentially high payoff projects can succeed in the long run.
MYERS: All right. This thing failed, we know. We know it spun out of control, lost whatever, lost telemetry, whatever it did. What did they learn from the failure?
BELFIORE: Well, they learned what not to do, hopefully. They've got to go back and analyze. They have nine minutes of flight data, which is approximately six minutes longer than they had before. They did a test last year that went for three-and-a-half minutes at hypersonic speed.
So, you know, inch by inch, little by little, collect more data, find out how to control this vehicle. Find out how to control this vehicle through that supersonic -- or hypersonic, actually -- five times the speed of sound and above -- flight regime. Then push the envelope as far as we possibly can.
GRIFFIN: All right Michael, appreciate that. Chad, thank you so much. We'll continue to follow --
MYERS: It's kind of like my six-year-old when he learns how not to do something because it didn't work the first time. You know, it's like learning by failure's not a bad thing.
GRIFFIN: Yes, but some guys also have a problem not learning from their failures.
MYERS: Well, that's another problem.
GRIFFIN: Michel Belfiore, thank you so much. Chad, we'll see you in a little bit.
Hey, some of the first automobiles on the road in this country were Fords. Now that company is leading the way in electrical vehicles. Will people actually buy into this new technology? We'll take a look at a solar-powered sedan that might be in your price range.
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GRIFFIN: After years of predictions and promises, electric cars finally going mainstream, we're told. Ford set to release its first fully electric sedan later in the year. And for buyers willing to shell out some more bucks, you could take the extra step of using solar power to actually get that car on the road. CNN's Silicon Valley correspondent Dan Simon joins us live.
Dan, I don't even know where you are. Where are you?
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are at Sun Power. This is one of the leading solar power companies in the country. And this is where they actually manufacture those panels that go on top of, you know, businesses and homes. You can see right here, they're putting one of them together right in front of me here on this line.
Now, Sun Power and Ford have teamed up here to do something that's pretty unique. Ford is coming out with a new electric car, the Focus Electric, later in the year. And the two companies asked the question, what if you could run that car entirely using solar power?
Now we're not talking, Drew, about taking one of these panels and putting it on the top of the car. What this would be is they would actually install a system in your home and it would be designed to fuel up your car using solar power. And you could run the car for 1,000 miles a month, again, entirely on solar.
This would be a way of going entirely green. And I talked to officials from both companies. Take a look.
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SIMON: Has anything like this ever been tried before?
TOM WARNER, CEO, SUN POWER: No. This is a -- the idea of mainstream top five auto company working with a solar company, that was crazy five years ago. This is ground-breaking. I think it demonstrates that solar is going mainstream.
MIKE TINSKEY, FORD MOTOR COMPANY: What we found is that customers that are looking to purchase this vehicle are also likely to be interested in renewables, such as solar. So we partnered with Sun Power to design a system that is essentially sized for the Focus Electric.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIMON: Now, Drew, there is a catch for all this. It's going to cost you. If you want to get one of these systems -- well, first of all, you've got to buy the car. Then you've got to buy the system. And that's going to cost you about $10,000 after, you know, federal tax rebates. But the good news is, you can say that you're going entirely green and you would never have to put a drop of gas in your car ever again if you got one of those cars.
Drew.
GRIFFIN: That sounds terrific, Dan, but I always thought the idea would be to put the solar panel on the car so you're driving around with your fuel source. Is that just too big?
SIMON: That's too big. They haven't developed the technology for that quite yet. Matter of fact, when I heard about this story, I had the same vision you had. But we're not quite there yet. Maybe in a few years.
GRIFFIN: All right, how do these vehicles that Ford's making going to be different from the Prius or the Chevy Volt?
SIMON: You know, it's a good question. Those two cars are hybrids. So they have gas motors. The Prius, electric and gas. And then the Volt will go about 50 miles entirely on electricity, then the gas engine will kick in. This is a car, the Focus Electric, and one of its competitors, by the way, the Nissan Leaf, also, you know, getting high marks. They don't have any tailpipe, so they're entirely electric vehicles. But the Ford Electric is a bit different in the sense that, you know, you can use this solar power thing. They've come up with this novel idea, you know, to get your car on the road using the sun.
GRIFFIN: Yes, sounds great, Dan. Thanks a lot. Good story.
Hey, today's "Talk Back" question, is Warren Buffett's tax deal good or just politics? Here's what Bill says. "I don't know how much it can help the deficit reduction, but I definitely don't think it can hurt. In for it," he says. More of your responses ahead. Lot of Americans, tax the rich.
First, here's some free money advice from the CNN "Help Desk."
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: It's time now for "The Help Desk," where we get answers to your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Manisha Thakor, our personal finance expert, and John Ulzheimer, the president of consumer education at smartcredit.com.
Guys, thanks for coming in. Got some interesting viewer questions.
The first for you, John, comes from Patricia in Phoenix, Arizona. Patricia asks, "I'm a grad student with about $13,000 in credit card debt and I'm considering taking out a student loan to pay it down. Is that a good move?"
JOHN ULZHEIMER, PRESIDENT OF CONSUMER EDUCATION, SMARTCREDIT.COM: Oh, man, I would love to say that's a terrible move, but I'm not going to say that because, believe it or not, there is a -- there are hidden gems of gold within that question. You're converting revolving debt to installment debt. Better for your credit score. You're converting not tax deductible debt to tax deductible debt, which is always better for you financially. However, you're also converting dischargeable debt to non-dischargeable debt. You're essentially borrowing from Peter to pay Paul. You're still in the same amount of debt except its less expensive debt and more beneficial debt. So if she is disciplined and she will attack the debt as aggressively as she should attack credit card debt, not a bad move.
HARLOW: And we're talking about $13,000, not 300,000.
ULZHEIMER: We're not talking about some excessive amount of money.
HARLOW: Exactly.
Well, Manisha, your question comes from David in Chicago. David wrote, "my wife and I both have our 401(k)s set up through the same company. Should we keep things simple and mimic each other's investments or should we have a separate strategy for each?"
What do you think? I mean you think diversifying would be smart here.
MANISHA THAKOR, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: You know, it's interesting, Poppy, this question comes up a lot in financial planning and one of the things I like to point out is, people forget that women and men have different life spans and oftentimes an age difference. So, for instance, I'm 41 and my husband's 59. If we were at the same place, we should not have portfolios that look the same, not necessarily from a strategic standpoint in terms of value versus growth, but just an asset allocation standpoint. So my advice to keep it simple is to be investing in target date retirement funds through their plans that are age-appropriate. That will adjust for any age differences they have that enable them honestly to have a chicken rotisserie type set it and forget it approach that hopefully will also add to marital harmony.
HARLOW: Which a lot of people want and marital harmony always is very important.
THAKOR: That is priceless.
HARLOW: I know you've written a lot about that. Thank you, guys.
If you have a question you want answered by our experts, please send an e-mail any time to us at cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com.
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GRIFFIN: That's Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, presidential Republican candidate, in Spartanburg, South Carolina. We're monitoring what she is saying and talking about a lot of politics today. We'll wrap that up later in the day.
Another big political talker you've been sounding off on. Our "Talk Back" question. Carol Costello joins us with your responses.
Carol. CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good responses today, Drew.
Today's question, is Warren Buffett's tax compromise good or is it just plain old politics?
This from Hector. "Shill or not, the only thing good about Mr. Buffett's tax idea is that it might be a good start and they should at least get started."
This from Toni-Ann. "Taxing the rich is a real and viable solution, although not the only one. If the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans are making the most money, wouldn't taxing them help reduce the debt?"
This from Tom. "If we raise taxes on the rich or simply let the Bush tax cuts sunset, it will help offset the structural shortfall immediately. While it won't fix the entire deficit, it will certainly get us back on track."
And this from Carlos. "Does the guy who is filthy rich from knowing how to work the system have a good idea? I'm going with obviously yes."
Facebook.com/carolcnn. Thanks, as always, for your responses.
Take a quick break. We'll be back with more NEWSROOM after this.
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GRIFFIN: Well, you voted and we listened. Even though I wanted to see that $160 million house in London, you chose a tattoo that could change the face of medicine. So, here's Mary Snow's report.
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MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When you think of tattoos, medical advances are probably not the first thing that come to mind. But consider this small electronic tattoo of sorts. A study in the journal "Science" says this tiny device can fundamentally change the way patients are monitored. University of Illinois Professor John Rogers is the study's co-author.
SNOW (on camera): How do you see this device being used immediately?
PROF. JOHN ROGERS, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS: In terms of near term applications, would be in clinical use. In hospitals for monitoring health, wellness, physiological status.
SNOW (voice-over): The beating of the heart, brain activity and muscle contractions, say researchers, could be monitored by this thin electronic skin that can last about two weeks, replacing uncomfortable, sometimes irritating devices. But researchers found other possibilities in taking the body's signals and transferring them to machines. One of them, computer games. ROGERS: And what we've demonstrated in this paper is the ability to take one of these devices, laminate it on the throat area and use it to record muscle contractions as the wearer is speaking different words. And it turns out that there's sufficient information content in that kind of measurement to allow software algorithms to interpret it in the form of a limited vocabulary of words that can then be used to control a computer game.
SNOW: Rogers says it could be used perhaps to help people with larynx disorders to communicate. But along with the amazement, says one bioethicist, there is also a downside.
ARTHUR CAPLAN, CENTER FOR BIOETHICS, UNIV. OF PENNSYLVANIA: Remember, what somebody can put on you voluntarily to say let's monitor your heartbeat or let's monitor some chemicals within your body, they can put on you by force. In other words, your boss or the military or some organization can say, you have to wear this. We want to know whether you're taking your pills. We want to know whether you get stressed out.
SNOW (on camera): While this device raises questions about potential uses beyond medicine, the study's researchers say they are focused on practical uses. Down the road, they see it, for instance, as being used as a smart bandage that could help heal wounds.
Mary Snow, CNN, New York.
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GRIFFIN: And right now I'm going to go check out that $160 million house. We're going to put it up on Suzanne's page at facebook.com/suzannecnn. And in the meantime, the news continues. Here's Randi Kaye.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi there, Drew. Thank you very much.
