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CDC Recommends Boys be Vaccinated for HPV; Rick Perry's Flat Tax Plan; Serial Rapist on Loose in Dallas; Companies Stole Pensions; Talk Back Question; Change Photos After You Take Them

Aired October 25, 2011 - 12:00   ET

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

JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, I'm Joe Johns. Let's get you up to speed.

A thrilling scene, two days after Turkey's earthquake. Live pictures right now of a rescue under way. We'll continue to monitor this and bring you any developments.

Earlier today rescuers pull a 2-week-old baby girl to safety. They got her mother out alive, too. They were trapped when their apartment building collapsed Sunday.

CNN's Diana Magnay is at the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGNAY: The really incredible thing about it, we heard from the grandmother that the child was three weeks premature, so should really still have been in the womb, and has already survived an earthquake and 36 hours in the rubble.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: The baby's grandmother was pulled out, too, but it's not clear if she survived. Turkish officials say the number killed in the quake has risen to 366 today.

The refrigeration unit that held Moammar Gadhafi's body for several days is empty now. Libya's new rulers say Gadhafi was buried in secret today. The interim government says it will allow an investigation into Gadhafi's death. It remains unclear whether he was killed by crossfire or shot point-blank while in custody.

Just a shocking allegation today from Amnesty International. The human rights group says Syria is giving security forces free rein to torture protesters at government-run hospitals. For that reason, some of those wounded in the ongoing struggle against the regime let their injuries go untreated.

Rick Perry hopes his new tax proposals will fire up his Republican presidential campaign. Perry announced plans for a 20 percent flat tax a short time ago at a stop in South Carolina. But get this -- it's optional. You can stick with the current tax system if you want to.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It cuts taxes and it also cuts the spending. And it balances the budget by 2020, and it grows jobs and it grows the economy. Now, it neither reshuffles the status quo, nor does it expand the ways that Washington can reach into your pocketbooks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Perry also wants to cut government revenue. He would roll back the corporate tax rate and kill the tax on long-term capital gains and estates. At the same time, he promises to balance the budget.

Dr. Conrad Murray's defense team is trying to convince a Los Angeles jury Michael Jackson was to blame for his own death. Two witnesses, a doctor and a nurse, have testified for Murray. They say the singer aggressively pursued them for anesthesia as a sleep aid. They refused, but Murray gave Jackson Propofol in the two months before his death.

The researcher who suffered a stroke at the South Pole is undergoing tests today. She's back in the U.S. at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The researcher was stranded in Antarctica for six weeks. Bad weather meant planes could not fly her out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RENEE-NICOLE DOUCEUR, SUFFERED STROKE AT SOUTH POLE: It was extremely frustrating, and it was just -- I think my -- the disillusionment -- see how I have difficulty saying it -- just starting to set in, and saying, wait a minute here. I meet the doctors tomorrow morning and see what testing that needs to be done, and just see what I have to do for starting rehabilitation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Of course there are doctors at the South Pole, but they don't have the expertise or the equipment to treat stroke victims.

The owners and players aren't talking, so the NBA reportedly is ready to cancel another two weeks of games today. That means no basketball until the end of November at the earliest. Owners locked players out in July. The two sides can't agree on salaries and how to divvy up the billions the NBA brings in every year.

A government panel has voted to recommend boys be vaccinated against HPV. The shot is already on the Centers for Disease Control's vaccine schedule for girls, and that has sparked some controversy.

Our senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here to explain.

And Elizabeth, let's talk again about why they are recommending this for boys. We've heard so much about it being recommended for girls. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SR. MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. We've heard so much about how HPV can cause cervical cancer, and that's why girls were recommended to get the shot several years ago. But what a lot of people don't know is that HPV can hurt boys, too.

It can give them genital warts and it can give them certain types of cancer. And they can also then spread that virus to girls during sexual contact. So what the CDC committee today said was that boys ages 11 and 12 should get the shot.

JOHNS: Should get it, but don't have to get it.

COHEN: Right, don't have to get it. The CDC doesn't do that. They do "should," not "have to."

The states are the ones that say your son or your daughter has to get a shot in order to go to school, whether it's measles, mumps, whatever. And most states have not chosen to make HPV -- have not chosen to make it mandatory for school attendance. For girls, only in Virginia and D.C. do you have to get it to go to school.

JOHNS: You know, you hear so much about vaccines. There's this big controversy about the MMR vaccine and whether it was safe for kids. It went on and on and on, even though a lot of studies said, yes, it was safe.

Do we know if this vaccine is safe?

COHEN: You know, this vaccine may be controversial politically, it may be controversial among some parents' groups online. It is not controversial among doctors.

Doctors agree that this shot is safe, that it's been given to millions of people, and there have not been serious side-effects.

JOHNS: Got it. All right. Great. Thanks so much, Elizabeth Cohen.

COHEN: Thanks, Joe.

JOHNS: Here's your chance to "Talk Back" on one of big stories of the day. Today's question: Should President Obama bypass Congress if he thinks it will help the economy?

Carol Costello joins us for more -- with more from New York.

Hey, Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Joe.

President Obama has gone from "Yes, we can" to "We can't wait." Since Congress isn't exactly eager to discuss any part of the president's jobs bill, the president is going rogue. Instead of waiting for Congress to act, he's implementing a series of executive actions like new rules aimed at making it easier for homeowners to refinance. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can't wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won't act, I will. The barrier will be lifted that prohibits responsible homeowners from refinancing if their home values have fallen so low, that what they owe on their mortgage is 25 percent higher than the current value of their home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: That will not be enough to solve the housing crisis. Republicans say it won't solve anything, and that the president is simply using political gamesmanship to get around Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), MINORITY LEADER: They're ashamed to mention any of the things that they do with Republicans because it steps on their storyline. Their storyline is that there must be some villain out there who is keeping this administration from succeeding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: What is clear? Unless Congress acts in some big way, the economy will continue to suffer. And Congress does not appear likely to do that.

So President Obama is moving forward on his own. Monday, the home mortgage plan. Tomorrow, a plan to help with student loans. The president's intent? To show Americans he's doing something, and, of course, to shame Congress into acting.

So, the "Talk Back" question for you today: Should the president bypass Congress to help the economy?

Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read your comments later this hour.

JOHNS: Thanks for that, Carol.

Here's a rundown of some of the stories we're covering this hour.

First, another Republican presidential hopeful with a flat tax proposal. It's time for a flat tax fact-check.

Then, a serial rapist on the prowl in Texas targeting sorority sisters.

Also, police make dozens of arrests in Oakland after Occupy movement demonstrators refuse to back down.

Plus, a northern lights show illuminating southern skies.

And the grueling work of rescue crews in Turkey and the moments like these that make it all worthwhile.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAGNAY: The moment when he took the baby outside was literally, for him, like having a second child. A really extremely emotional moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

JOHNS: Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry lays out his plan to fix the country's economy. Perry announced his Cut, Balance and Grow proposal in a speech in South Carolina last hour.

It would allow you to choose between your current income tax rate and a 20 percent flat tax. The flat tax would preserve some popular deductions like mortgage interest and charitable contributions for families earning less than $500,000. Perry also wants to lower the corporate tax rate to 20 percent and phase out loopholes and special tax breaks.

In addition to freezing federal hiring and spending, Perry would repeal the health care reform law. He would also repeal parts of financial and Wall Street reforms.

Tom Foreman joins us live now from Washington.

Tom, tell us which part of the plan you focused on and what you found out.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Joe, right now, all of the accountants and Tax Policy Center's sort of Cuisinarts are going here in Washington, cutting through this plan, trying to figure out what it really means. But the one part that really caught our eye is probably the thing that most taxpayers in this country would hear if they heard that speech, and will probably hear all day long.

Listen to this one very profound statement by Governor Perry about the meaning of this plan.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Families in the middle and on the lower end of the economic scale will have the opportunity to get ahead. You know, taxes will be cut across all income groups in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN: Wow. Think about that. Taxes cut across all income groups in America.

So we're talking about a massive level of tax cutting on the surface of it. Part of the reason he says that is because he's talking about this standard deduction of $12,500. So, for example, if you had a family with two parents and one child, they would quickly get over $36,000 of their income tax free because of the standard deduction. But whether or not middle and lower class people would get ahead under this system is what's not entirely clear.

Let's look at a couple of facts here that are important to consider in this equation.

If you have the standard exemption of $12,500, that does not explain to you all the other changes he has in the tax code, and there are many, many here, many of which would seem to benefit people who are wealthier. For example, if you drop the rates on dividends, if you drop the rates on inheritance, that sort of thing, those are things that people tend to deal with more the more money they have.

If you're making $25,000 a year, there's no inheritance involved in many cases, so a break on that doesn't help you any, on top of which 51 percent of people in this country, according to a congressional joint committee this year, said they paid no taxes in 2009. Essentially, all the taxes he's talking about, they paid none. So you can't actually cut none, so those people would get nothing less.

In the end, when you consider all of the things he's changing in the tax code here, Joe -- and like I said, there's a tremendous amount of analysis to be done here -- let me give you the fling here -- it's going to go across to true but incomplete in terms of that statement, with a real emphasis on incomplete. We have to do an awful lot of number-crunching here, Joe, before we will know if this notion that everybody gets a tax break is true. That's why I say focus on the incomplete until we get further along.

I think it's hedging an awful lot to lean too hard on the true.

JOHNS: That's absolutely a fine point there, because many times you get these great, flowery speeches, particularly from people running from office. But when you finally look at it written out, in almost legislative language, and you understand what it means, it looks a lot different.

FOREMAN: And bear in mind, Joe, that one of things he said up front is, if you want to stick with the old tax code, you can, or you can go with my new code and do it on this postcard. All these changes he's implementing here would affect the old tax code as well. So it's not as simple as just to have no change whatsoever or accept the new change. The old would also change.

You could stick with it, but it would change. And under that system, you may find that you're not getting a tax break at all.

JOHNS: And that option is a big question, because how many people are going to go with the new plan? How many people are going to stay with the old plan? And how does that affect the United States' sort of economic and financial --

(CROSSTALK)

FOREMAN: Absolutely. Absolutely.

In fact, Joe, I'm kind of wondering -- we're going to look at that more this afternoon -- I'm really wondering about that, because I don't know how you get a bottom line on that calculation, because if you're giving all these people this choice, how do you know how many are going to choose to go this way or go that way? And it has to affect the revenue in -- either up or down.

I don't know which. So it seems like a very -- really a moving target here for your federal budget. And I think, as I said, we're going to spend all afternoon running the blenders and going through these numbers and seeing if we can get more answers as the day goes on. So I hope people stick around here some more.

JOHNS: Tom Foreman, I know you will. And keep those blenders going.

FOREMAN: See you, Joe.

JOHNS: A serial rapist targeting black sorority sisters. Police have released surveillance video of a potential suspect. We'll take you live to Dallas for the details.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: A serial rapist is on the loose in the Dallas area. Police say he's targeting alumni of a popular African-American sorority.

Our Ed Lavandera joins us live from Dallas.

Ed, how many women have been assaulted so far, and what type of time period are we talking about here?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there have been four attacks on women in their mid-50s to mid-60s, and these attacks happened in three different suburbs just north of the Dallas area.

So you've got a number of police agencies coming together, and the last attack happened just last week. And as investigators were all working on this, and they realized all these women belonged to the same sorority, were alumni members of this Delta Sigma Theta sorority, a predominantly African-American sorority -- it's got, I believe, some 400 members in the Dallas area -- they started kind of realizing that these attacks were carried out much in the same way, that these women were home alone, the attacks happened at night, when these attacks happened. And they realized also that the attacker knew specific information -- authorities aren't saying exactly what kind of information it was, but the attackers seemed to know a little bit about each one of these victims, and it all kind of came back to the sorority.

So, authorities here are urging people in the sorority to take precautions. And what's even more disturbing is that authorities are telling us yesterday that they believe this attacker was actually scouting out his victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDRE SMITH, PLANO POLICE SPOKESMAN: He made it obvious to our victims that he knew details or information about them personally. And that's what we gathered so far from our victims. But as we move forward, we'll try to expound on that and see how much more is it that he knows?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPT. GREG WILKERSON, CORINTH POLICE: Right now we don't understand how he's obtaining the information. We don't know if he, by chance, has a list of members, or if he's just simply looking for members that may be out there sporting different paraphernalia -- T- shirts for the sorority, jewelry, license plate placards, things of that nature. So we've put out requests to all the members to at least not advertise their affiliation with that sorority right now for their own safety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Joe, we were in one of the neighborhoods where one of these attacks happened yesterday. I've got tell you, you don't really get the sense that -- you had to have kind of known what you were looking for.

This isn't a neighborhood you would have just stumbled upon and happened to catch someone -- on the off chance that someone was alone in their house at the time of the attack. So this is interesting, really kind of backing up that point that authorities are saying that they believe that this person has actually spent some time following his victims, learning about them, trying to make sure -- planning out the attacks, when would be the most opportune time. So I think that makes it even more disturbing for members of this sorority group.

JOHNS: So he seems to know a lot about the victims. But the question is, how much do the police know about him? I assume they have a description. Do they know a little bit more about why he's doing this? Any other clues that they are sort of putting out publicly?

LAVANDERA: Right. The "why" is very much the big question, although I think there's a big clue in the fact that perhaps all of these women are connected through this sorority.

In terms of the description of the suspect, the authorities have released a surveillance video taken back in April. They're not saying where it came from or what the background is on this, but you can see the man they believe is the suspect in the case, and they're hoping the description and way he's seen walking in this video will offer some clues or trigger someone's memory here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, that they've seen him somewhere. But this is a man who, just by sheer size alone, would be a good indicator. He's described as a large man, anywhere between 275 to 300 pounds, close to six feet tall, a balding, receding hairline.

So they are hoping that people, as they look at that image that you're seeing right there -- exactly how he might be learning about this sorority is not clear to its members. So they are hoping that maybe someone has seen him at maybe one of these events that they've done over the last few months, something like that that might be able to trigger a clue.

JOHNS: Ed Lavandera, thanks so much for that. We'd like to hear a lot more about that story. Very disturbing.

The freak show is over. The body of Moammar Gadhafi was buried at dawn today after being on display for five days. We'll have a live report from Tripoli.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Here's a rundown of some of the stories we're working on.

Up next, the end of a 42-year chapter. Moammar Gadhafi buried at dawn today at a secret location.

Also, we've got the happy details after an infant is pulled alive from the rubble in Turkey.

And later, look and enjoy. Nature puts on a spectacular light show from north to south.

Moammar Gadhafi has finally been buried. Libya's new leaders say he was placed in an unmarked grave in the desert this morning after being on display in a cold storage unit for several days.

Our Dan Rivers is in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.

Dan, do you have any details about the burial?

DAN RIVERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're being told that it happened at dawn this morning, as you mentioned, that members of his Gadhafi tribe were allowed to pray over the body before it was taken into the desert and buried, as you say, in an unmarked, undisclosed location. They are very keen to keep the location secret. They don't want it turning into a shrine for his loyalist supporters or as a target for his enemies, incidentally.

Both he and his son Mutassim and the defense minister were buried, and they are hoping that will draw a line under the affair. But there are still awkward questions for them about how he died, and they are promising an investigation into his death.

One wonders how independent and thorough that will be though. That's the problem, I suppose, the perception, anyway, as to whether it can be independent and whether anyone, international experts or so on, will be allowed to be involved with it. JOHNS: Dan, have you been able to pick up information about the whereabouts of Gadhafi's son Saif?

RIVERS: No. They held a press conference this afternoon confirming that Saif al-Islam is still on the run. They still don't know where he is.

There have been various rumors, Joe, in the last 24 hours about him possibly heading south, nothing has been confirmed. I think all we know at this point is that he is still out there and they haven't got him.

JOHNS: Dan Rivers in Tripoli.

Thanks for that reporting. We'll be checking back with you.

The sky lit up last night. Check out the gorgeous colors. We'll tell you what caused this amazing, dazzling light show.

But first, do you think a robot could do your job, and do it well? A new book says we're going to lose more and more jobs to automation. So here's a question for you. Which of these jobs do you think can most easily be replaced by robots? A, food service industry jobs; B, janitorial work; or C, radiologist?

The answer, coming up in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

JOHNS: OK, what did you guess? Which job could most easily be done by robots in the future? Food services, janitorial work or radiologist? You know, I would guess - I don't know. The answer is radiologist. That's according to a couple of economists at M.I.T. They say low-skill jobs like food service and janitorial work often require face-to-face interaction and don't cost many employers much in salaries, whereas a radiologist's job is to analyze and evaluate X- rays, something a computer can do. And radiologists are vulnerable because they make good money.

That is fascinating. I mean, you would never think that.

So, did you see the sky last night? The brilliant lights known as the aurora borealis, normally only seen in the far north. But folks across the United States even as far south as Alabama and Georgia right here in Atlanta got a glimpse of -- you certainly would call it an eerie glow.

Chad Myers, you know, I mean, tell me about this thing! I've seen pictures of it all the way from elementary school, fascinating. Why does this happen?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It's because there's plasma magnetic fields. A charge leaves the sun and gets pushed out in the atmosphere. Pushed out into the interplanetary space. Now, this CMB, or cornal mass (INAUDIBLE) was actually heading towards Mars. We only got a piece of it. And that's really good news. This was a very big ejection, a plasma magnetism. It comes into the magnetosphere. It actually may have or could have damaged some satellites. It could have even taken out some grids. It did not. But this is -- I know it's pretty, I know the solar - the aurora borealis kind of looks cool, but there are other more sinister things that happen whether this type of ejection comes toward the earth. It didn't come this time.

But look at this. I want you to just take a look at this. If the sun would be behind here, it's blocked out so it doesn't blind you. There is the ejection blowing off the top of the screen. It'll loop around here again. But it's an enormous ejection. A plasma magnetism, and all of those things that can hurt people down here, especially the power grid, too. Ask Canada how they lost the power grid in the '80s for a while as a big solar colonal mass ejection headed their way.

This is El Dorado Springs, Missouri from the Weather Underground. Just beautiful. And it's rare to get rid. When you get a red borealis, that means you're really getting some big time charged particles hitting up in the top of the atmosphere. When they get all the way down to Missouri or even into parts of Alabama and Georgia, that can be a really spectacular show. When you get red, you know it is a big ejection. And it was.

And we do now know at least that not too many things were hurt. We don't have any reports of any satellites that were lost, but it could happen. And the sun is in an active period for the next year- and-a-half. We'll hear more about these for sure. Joe?

JOHNS: All right. Coronal mass ejection -

MYERS: CME.

JOHNS: That's even harder to say than aurora borealis. You know, I'm going to have to work on both of those. Thanks so much, Chad.

MYERS: You're welcome.

JOHNS: Dramatic rescues in Turkey's earthquake zone. A two- week-old baby girl and her mother found alive in the ruins of their collapsed home. CNN's Diana Magnay joins us from a devastated town out there. Diana, what's the thrill -- obviously, baby and mom being pulled out alive two days after a powerful earthquake strikes. Fill us in.

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Joe, you forgot the grandmother. She was pulled out as well. All three of them from the rubble at this site behind me, really incredible. Basically the mother had made contact somehow. They heard her knocking at about 8:00, 9:00 this morning. And they worked for a good few hours and managed to create a tunnel large enough to get this little baby girl out. They had to use a very thin rescue worker. They picked especially because he was so thin to make his way through this tunnel. And the mother handed this little girl over to him. He brought her out.

And then they worked for another couple of hours trying to make that tunnel wider to eventually pull the mother and the grandmother out. So, all three of them brought out alive. The mother and child have both been sent to Ankeral (ph) hospital. Just another addition here that makes it so extraordinary, Joe, is that this little girl was actually born three weeks premature. So, theoretically, she should actually still have been in her mother's tummy rather than being this unbelievably young earthquake victim and survivor.

Anyway, a miraculous story really here for the rescue workers. The guy who took out the baby said it was - he has a little son - he said it was like having another child. He couldn't believe the moments.

But of course, touched with that, it's now the end of the day. At the same site, people have just brought out three dead bodies from the rubble. And the search continues along so many sites in this area, 2,000 buildings destroyed. So, still such a huge operation going on, Joe.

JOHNS: Diana, we did know about the grandmother, but our question is whether she survived. Do you have information on that?

MAGNAY: We spoke to the uncle who said that she had been transferred to a hospital in a nearby province. The other two had gone to Ankera (ph) hospital. I haven't heard reports as to her conditions since then. We spoke to him about a half-hour ago. He hadn't been alerted as to her condition.

JOHNS: Diana Magnay on the scene of that terrible earthquake. Thanks so much for the reporting, a very dramatic story.

Scared you won't have enough money to retire? My next guest's claims will certainly outrage you. She says American companies purposely took money from worker pensions to build or help build their bottom lines and sweeten retirement for top executives.

But first, here's some free money advice from the CNN Help Desk.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Time now for the Help Desk where we get answers to your financial questions. And joining me this hour, Lynette Khalfani-Cox, the founder of the financial advice blog AskTheMoneyCoach.com. And David Novak, he's a certified financial planner and an adjunct professor at NYU.

Guys thanks for being here. First question for you, David. This is a pretty straightforward one, comes from Agnes in Sacrament. "What's the best debit card for teenagers?" Assuming this might be for her son or daughter?

DAVID NOVAK, CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER: Well, what I would look at doing for your teenager is maybe set up either a joint bank account, savings or checking or a custodial bank account with the child, maybe keep $500 or $1,000 dollars in there. That way the child can't overdraw the account more than a few hundred dollars. And it shouldn't have that much of an impact on financial aid. This is a way they can build a credit history and start using the debit card for ongoing expenses.

HARLOW: And debit card -- is the best one, or they should look at that criteria?

NOVAK: I would look at the debit card because basically as opposed to a credit card where you incur debt, debit car is basically just pulling the money out of the account you have.

HARLOW: Sure. And Lynette, your question comes from Craig in California. Craig writes in that his father opened a 529 for Craig's son and gave him the power of attorney over it. But he's wondering if that account will be counted when his son applies for financial aid.

LYNETTE KHALFANI-COX, FOUNDER, ASKTHEMONEYCOACH.COM: All right. 529 assets are counted when someone fills out a FAFSA application for college aid. The question though, is who's name is it? And with a 529 plan, the money rests with the donor. So the grandparent who did it or if the father takes controls. That's actually advantageous because your financial aid eligibility will only be reduced by about 5.6 percent. Any assets that are specifically in the kids' names, that will reduce your eligibility by about 20 percent. So, it's actually still advantageous for the family.

HARLOW: OK. Very good to know. Thank you guys!

Folks, if you have a question you want answered, just send us an e-mail any time to CNN Help Desk at CNN.com.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: The Occupy Wall Street protesters say they are trying to draw attention to corporate greed. And so is my next guest. She says the corporate raiding of retirement funds has been going on for more than years. Former "Wall Street Journal" investigative reporter Ellen Schultz has written the book "Retirement Heist: How Companies Plunder and Profit From the Nest Eggs of American Workers."

Ellen, in your book, you name several Fortune 500 companies who you say siphoned billions of dollars from their employees' pension funds. You provide some evidence to show companies used that money to increase the size of executive pensions, and you also say that pension money was used to sweeten merger deals. All the while, they were claiming they couldn't afford to pay the pensions of baby boomers getting ready to retire.

So, let's start, though, by talking about what a pension is. In this day and age, there are so many people out there who have 401(k)s. There may be a whole segment of the population that's not really sure. What is a pension? ELLEN SCHULTZ, AUTHOR/FORMER JOURNALIST: Well, there are 44 million Americans with pensions at private companies. And that's retirees and employees. It's essentially deferred compensation. It means if you work for a company, essentially, they owe you $10. They'll pay you nine now and they'll pay you the other dollar in retirement. So, it's money companies set aside to pay you in retirement.

JOHNS: So, one of your claims is that many companies use pension money essentially to finance executive compensation. What's the evidence for that?

SCHULTZ: Companies use complex loopholes that enable them to take pension money that's been set aside for regular employees and use that to finance executive deferred comp and pensions. Intel, for example, is able to use $200 million out of its pension plan to pay for deferred compensation for the top three to five percent of his workforce.

Now, it's not illegal and Intel's pension plan is in great shape, but there are other companies that have used this strategy and their plans have actually failed.

JOHNS: So you say it's not illegal and that would suggest that it's been challenged in court and this sort of process has been upheld?

SCHULTZ: No, it has not. This process hasn't even been challenged in court. It's been investigated by the GAO. But so far nothing has come of this.

JOHNS: All right. I want to read a quote from your book, "Retirement Heist." You say "companies blame investment losses for their plight, as well as their aging workforces, union contracts, regulation and global competition. But their funding problems were largely self-inflicted. Had they not siphoned off the assets, they would have had a cushion that could have withstood even the market crash that troughed in March 2009."

How do companies pull assets away from retirement pensions without notifying the employees?

SCHULTZ: Well, again, it's not something that's -- it's sometimes hidden or illegal. What companies have used the pension assets for, like Verizon and Ford and GM, they use it to pay essentially severance type benefits when they restructure and get rid of, you know, thousands of workers. Companies like DuPont and Lucent have used it for retiree health benefits. And there are other techniques I describe in the book that enable companies to use the assets. And, again, it's legal and it's not always hidden. Sometimes it's disclosed in the 10(k)s. But it does drain assets out leaving no cushion.

JOHNS: How much of this is actually cash being taken and used for other things, as opposed to cash being shown on the books for a particular purpose? Are they actually spending that money or are they just showing that money on the books? SCHULTZ: When companies use pension assets to finance restructuring, essentially what they do is they tell employees that they want to leave -- tell you what, leave, we'll give you your pension but we'll give you some extra pension as well. So that drains a lot of assets. And also when they use the assets to pay for retiree health benefits, that's a direct cash transfer.

JOHNS: A lot of companies have actually moved away, if you will, from the notion of pensions toward 401(k)s. So is this sort of a sign of things to come or are we likely to see fewer pensions in the future, more 401(k)s. And do you think the same kind of abuses, as you assert, could continue in other things like 401(k)s?

SCHULTZ: Yes, a lot of companies are freezing their pension plans and employees have to rely on the 401(k)s. Now they've already been shown to be a failure. Companies say they are good for employees, but they're actually cheaper for companies. No one can really save enough in these. Unless you're very affluent, you can't invest it well. And we saw how when the market cratered in 2008, a lot of employers lost up to 40 percent of the money in their plans. And there are other ways that companies use these plans that are to the benefit of the company, but not necessarily to the retirees.

JOHNS: Ellen Schultz, investigative report, thank you so much for that. And I'll be taking a look at your book.

SCHULTZ: My pleasure. Thanks.

JOHNS: Today's "Talk Back" question, should the president bypass Congress if he thinks it will help the economy? Michael says, "one thing is obvious, this will either make sure he's a one term president or he'll be a hero. There will no longer be a middle ground."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: You've been sounding of on our "Talk Back" question. Carol Costello is here with your responses.

Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lots of responses this afternoon, Joe.

The "Talk Back" question, should the president bypass Congress if he thinks it will help the economy?

This from Karen. "Absolutely. The only action Congress will take is whatever they can to do to get rid of President Obama. They couldn't care less what happens to the rest of us. He should take whatever executive action he can to get things happening for America."

This from Shawn. "Congress is supposed to block and give opposition. That's what keeps America from becoming a dictatorship."

This from Thomas. "It's understandable the worry of lowering the checks and balances, but the country would be much farther along if he had done this years ago."

And this from Melanie. "I think Obama should definitely bypass Congress. Congress has done nothing to help the American people. I'm tired of all this nonsense. I would rather he try something than just do nothing."

Please, continue the conversation, facebook.com/carolcnn. Facebook.com/carolcnn. And thanks, as always, for your comments.

JOHNS: All right, thanks so much, Carol.

COSTELLO: Sure.

JOHNS: Focus after the shot. It's a new era in photography thanks to this camera. Say good-bye to fuzzy photos. We'll go to Silicon Valley to check this thing out.

Americans' salaries have taken a big hit over the last 10 years. So here's a question for you. Fill in this blank. Half of all workers in the U.S. made less than what last year? Less than $56,000, less than $36,000, or less than $26,000? The answer coming up in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Half of all workers in the U.S. made less than what last year? Less than $56,000, $36,000 or $26,000? The answer is, c, can you believe half of all workers in the U.S. made less than $26,000 last year?

Here's what our income levels look like over time. In 1999, you can see Americans started to gain in salary, but then when the recession hit right after 2007, salaries took a nose dive.

Divided government has Washington tied up in knots. Any ideas on how to untangle the rope? CNN's Erin Burnett asked a really adorable political analyst that question, even though he's not yet old enough to vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Elmo, you could solve the world's problem right now.

ELMO: Really? How?

BURNETT: Yes. OK, so, in Washington --

ELMO: Yes.

BURNETT: Everybody hates each other. Nobody will do anything together.

ELMO: Really?

BURNETT: And it's hurting America. How do you fix it, Elmo?

ELMO: Play dates.

BURNETT: Play dates?

ELMO: Yes. Everybody has play dates.

BURNETT: Like put a Democrat and a Republican play dates?

ELMO: Play dates.

BURNETT: Harry Reid, John Boehner play dates?

ELMO: Yes, play dates. And everybody brings their own food.

BURNETT: OK, yes. John Boehner's kind of (INAUDIBLE).

ELMO: And you have to share and you have to sing songs.

BURNETT: I think that might solve it.

ELMO: Elmo thinks so.

BURNETT: It's better than anything we've tried so far, Elmo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Erin gets all of the great guests. "Erin Burnett Outfront," week nights at 7:00 Eastern. You never know who will stop by.

Check these out. They may look like regular shoes, but these kicks have been fitted with a GPS transmitter so it's easier to find people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia who wonder off. They retail for about $300. You'll have to set up a monitoring system, but it could save lives and even lower costs for police searches.

There's a new camera on the market and it's changing the way you experience pictures. It's not how you set up the shot, it's what you can do with the picture after it's taken. Silicon Valley correspondent Dan Simon has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAN SIMON, CNN SILICON VALLEY CORRESPONDENT: I'm holding in my hand which is billed as the first consumer light field camera. What this allows you to do is to focus after you take the picture. And you can see right away that this doesn't look like a normal camera.

I'm going to intentionally take some pictures out of focus and then we'll go in and see what it looks like.

What would you say is the number one selling point?

REN NG, CEO, LYTRO: I think it's going to be focus after the fact. Because focus after the fact means that you can get your pictures with the right focus, of course, but also they'll find that on the camera that means that you get a really fast response. So you click the shutter, instant shutter response. It takes the picture right away because you don't have to wait for it to focus.

SIMON: Why did you decide to make a product as opposed to license out the technology to a Cannon or a Nikon?

NG: Yes. The reasons is, that this is a transformational technology. It needs a transformational product to bring all the benefits to the consumer. And if you look in the camera market today, things are very incremental, all right. Ten megapixels. Then let's do 12 or 14. So we wanted to bring the full benefits in a hardware and software together, and the only way to do that was to make it ourselves.

SIMON: So if one of those big camera makers decides to get in this game and create their own light field camera, is it going to be incredibly difficult for them to emulate this or is this something that they could do?

NG: Light field technology is the future of cameras and future of photography. And I think we're going to see just an explosion in this out in the world. And we welcome all of that and are looking to build a really big eco system. This is a very big market, an enormous market, and we think it has a lot of room to grow further by plugging true innovation back in the market.

SIMON: Talk about the cost of the camera.

NG: It comes in three models. There's an electric blue and a graphite. They both have 8 gigabytes of storage and pricing there is $399.

The red hot has twice as much storage, 16 gigabytes of storage, and that's priced at $499.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Dan Simon joins us now.

Who are they marketing to, Dan? What's going to buy that camera?

SIMON: Well, first of all, unfortunately, they're missing out on the holiday season. They just can't get these made quickly enough. So they'll be available in early 2012.

But I think people who love gadgetry, people who love creative photography, will want to buy one of these cameras. One of the draw- backs that I saw was that the screen on the camera is very small. People now are accustomed to these really nice, big screens when they're taking pictures. This one is very small. And also the question is, are they going to awaken the sleeping giant? Is like a big company like Sony or Cannon, are they going to make a light field camera and sort of steal Lytro's thunder. I think that's an unknown at this point, Joe.

JOHNS: Thanks, Dan.

CNN NEWSROOM continues with Randi Kaye right now. RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Joe. Thank you.