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Freak Snowstorm Leaves Five Dead; Storm Doesn't Scare Off Protesters; Civil Rights Leader Speaks to Protesters; Police vs. Occupy Protesters; The Resilience of Ron Paul; GOP Candidates Speaking UP; Housing Reform...Reformed; Radio Silence NYC on Bullying
Aired October 30, 2011 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Let's check your headlines right now.
Three people were killed and three others are still missing after a huge grain elevator explosion today in Kansas. Two others were hospitalized with burns. The blast at the Bartlett Grain Company could be felt three miles away. No immediate cause has been given for that accident, but stored grain can generate toxic gases, which can cause explosions.
A humanitarian crisis looms in Thailand after the worst floods in decades left parts of the country underwater. More than 370 people are reported dead and more than 100,000 have taken refuge in government shelters. Flooding began in July after heavy monsoon rains. And to make things worse, relief agencies say water and insect-borne diseases, well, they could break out in the coming days and week. Go to CNN.com/impact for more information on how you can help.
Qantas Airways has been ordered to end a labor dispute that's left tens of thousands of passengers stranded worldwide. Qantas says flights could resume on a limited schedule on Monday afternoon. Since the fleet was grounded Saturday, 477 flights have been canceled and 68,000 passengers impacted. An Australian workplace relations tribunal issued the order saying it wanted to prevent significant damage to tourism.
I'm Don Lemon. Thanks for joining us. You're in the "CNN NEWSROOM."
We're getting close to the top of the hour and we'll begin our coverage this hour with a rare and deadly October snowstorm that hammered the northeast. It's winding down now, but cleanup, it's going to take days for sure, maybe weeks.
More than four million people are without electricity right now. States of emergency are in effect in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The storm snarled travel across the east coast. This Amtrak train was stranded near Palmer, Massachusetts, for 13 hours. Many flights were also grounded or diverted. Airlines are trying to clear the backlog right now. So far, though, the storm is blamed for at least five deaths. Two people died in a wreck near Philadelphia that temporarily shut down Interstate 95. CNN is covering all angles of this story.
Chad Myers in York, Pennsylvania. Jacqui Jeras in the CNN Severe Weather Center.
We'll start with Chad Myers out in the thick of it in Pennsylvania.
Chad, looks like more of the snow has melted. How soon before the lights are back on? We last spoke, you said at least one family you saw had some power.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, they put a couple lines back up today here in this neighborhood, the Wyndham Hills neighborhood, and it got about 100 people back online. And that was the triage that they were using. If you put one line up and you get 100 homes back on, you're pretty high on the priority list. If you put one line up and you're the only house that lights back up, you're way on the bottom of that totem pole.
But I have a question for you, Don. if you're driving down the road and it's icy, it's snowy, I get that, but something falls on your car and your windshield ends up looking like that as you're driving, what's your first thought?
LEMON: Well, your probably first reaction is to hit your brakes, right.
MYERS: How about I hope there's an angel on my shoulder?
LEMON: You're first reaction would be to hit the brakes --
MYERS: Yes, exactly.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: But that may not be such a good thing to do on a slick road.
MYERS: And as the branch hit the front of the car, it also hit the back of the car and took the back window out as will.
Joe Rosenblatt joins me from this neighborhood that they just put the power back on about, what, five minutes ago. Tell me what it's like to be driving in a car, a tree falls on it, and that's what you're looking at.
JOE ROSENBLATT, RESIDENT: It's totally unexpected. You're just driving Saturday, doing errands, and all of a sudden, next thing you know, a loud clump, you see this huge tree on your hood, you keep driving. And it went over the roof and the mirror fell off. And I looked -- holding it my hand I could see that the back window was totally out.
MYERS: Now, this is obviously unexpected, there's no question about that, I understand. But this has to be startling.
ROSENBLATT: Oh, it is. It is. Things don't -- I have to say that things don't shock me. I was shocked by this, though.
MYERS: Did your heart skip a beat? Could you -- what happened? ROSENBLATT: I don't know. I think I called home and said, "I'm coming home. I'm stopping my errands for Saturday." And first I thought that she should come get me, my wife should come get me, and I said, no, the car's drivable, but no back window.
MYERS: So tell me also -- were out here for about 36 hours or so without power. Finally the power's back up. We take for granted so much what it's like to have electricity. What's it like to camp out in your house for 36 hours without it?
ROSENBLATT: Well, first, let me give credit to META, they worked tirelessly in this neighborhood and the tree (ph) people cutting it down. You know, you put up with it. We read by flashlight. It got cold, but the bed was the warmest place in town.
You know, the thing is, we're such an information-based society, no TV, no Internet, no phone -- couldn't charge our cell phones. I had to put the cell phone in the car charger. So you start to realize what life was like maybe 40 years ago. And it was a lot simpler.
MYERS: Yes. Well, you're a lot safer than maybe you would have been if you were driving a car 40 years ago without that kind of glass in the front of that car. Joe, thank you.
Very happy to be alive, I think, when you see a tree falling on the front of your car and almost going through the windshield. We're all happy to be happy here. I tell you what; this is a much better neighborhood and a much happier place today as the temperatures were up to almost 50 degrees. A lot of snow melted, but still a few people still without power -- Don.
LEMON: Yes. Good luck to them and we're glad that Mr. Rosenblatt is ok. Nice work out there. Chad Myers, appreciate it.
MYERS: All right.
LEMON: Jacqui Jeras is in studio. She's in the CNN Severe Weather Center. Jacqui, my gosh, you saw that, your first -- you'd slam --
JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I can't imagine.
LEMON: Yes. And that is happening all over the place. I'm not exactly sure about branches, but debris, very dangerous.
JERAS: Yes. All kinds of stuff is down, you know, branches, full trees themselves, we've seen those across roadways. And it's going to be really tough on people to get out there and drive into work tomorrow morning. So leave a little early.
Now, the weather itself has actually improved. And here we can see on the satellite and radar picture, that's where our storm is, way up there into the Canadian Maritime. So just a little cloudiness into northern Maine and that's about it.
But we do have another system across parts of the Great Lakes, and we'll have to watch that for, say, Wednesday, and what that could potentially do.
But in the meantime, look at all this snow that you're going to have to cleanup. The heaviest accumulations were really focused west of I- 95, across parts of New Hampshire, Vermont, upstate New York, into eastern Pennsylvania, western Connecticut, western Mass; and just what a mess for some of these people.
Let's look at the official totals here. Jaffrey, New Hampshire 00 that's the highest number I could find -- 31.4 inches; Plainfield, almost 31; 26 inches in Windsor, Massachusetts; and there in West Milford, New Jersey, 19 inches of snow.
Take a look at this time lapsed video. Our iReporters have been doing a great job of getting out and really helping to show you guys what this storm has been like. And this was over a seven-hour period yesterday afternoon. Watch what happens to those bushes. You see that happening? Yes, the weight of that snow just bent those things right over. Rob May from Oakridge, New Jersey, thank you for sending that to us.
And that really gives people an idea of why these trees have been coming down here. There's a lot of leaves on those trees, and that just adds extra weight. It's what we call heart attack snow. Because when you get out there and shovel this stuff, certainly very nasty.
Now, another impact from this storm, trick or treating -- unfortunately, it's not going to happen for people in Worcester, Massachusetts tomorrow night because of the storm. Officials there decided that we had too much snow, about 14.6 inches, and they say better safe than sorry, too much junk out there, too much snow out there. Stay home safe, stay safe. We'll do this again on Wednesday.
Much of the rest of the country, Don, though, for those who are going to be trick-or-treating tomorrow night, expect pretty good weather across much of the country. Looking for some rain across parts of south Florida and that's about it.
LEMON: All right. Jacqui Jeras, thank you.
JERAS: Sure.
LEMON: Of course, we'll be back to you throughout the evening. Appreciate it.
Let's talk about Occupy Wall Street; protesters are still going strong in New York City, despite facing a major physical challenge. A dangerous storm that brought rain that we've just been telling you about now, snow in the bitter cold temperatures of the northeast that Jacqui was just telling you about.
Well, firefighters removed the group's propane tanks and generators before the storm moved in saying they were a hazard. So they had to spend through the night, in the night, without those generators. You know, the demonstrators were forced to get by, by blankets, sleeping bags and tents. It was an early taste of brutal weather that's still to come in this country. So while protesters are facing another cold night, many are energized about this, after hearing from someone who knows what it is like to suffer for a cause.
Renowned political activist Angela Davis addressed the Occupy crowd today. She joins us now, live from Zuccotti Park in New York. Miss Davis, good to see you. What did you say to the protesters?
ANGELA DAVIS, POLITICAL ACTIVIST: Well, I talked about the kind of unity that is being crafted among the 99 percent. I talked about the fact that it must be a complex unity, a unity that recognizes and celebrates all of the differences among those who are participating in this occupation.
LEMON: So I have to ask you, then, because, you know, the people in the news who ask the questions, sometimes we get tired of talking points when we hear it from especially political people, from candidates and political pundits and all of that. But is it time? Because there's been some talk about the lack of focus with message. Is it may be time for the Occupy group to come up with some talking points and stick with it?
DAVIS: Well, I think it's first important for people to learn how to build community. And it seems that as the days and weeks go by, people are struggling with the kind of community that is respectful of all of the people who are members of that community. Perhaps by dwelling in these sites of occupation here at Wall Street, at Washington Square, I addressed the group at Washington Square earlier --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: But Miss Davis, let me ask you this -- if you can just answer it for me. Do you think that, do you think that they need a clearer message? I'm just asking the question. At some point, they're going to have to do something, right, besides (INAUDIBLE); it's going to have to be legislation. You have to get government involved. You have to change laws and all of that. So is it time maybe for a more cohesive message and to come up with, you know, for lack of a better term, some talking points?
DAVIS: Well, I think it's time to demonstrate what democracy is all about. And it's very clear that there are many demands that people want an end to corporate executives making $1 million a year. They want an end to student debt. They want an end to evictions. They want a free education. There's so many possible demands.
And I think that in order for those demands to acquire real meaning, it is important for us to learn how to be together, to dwell together, to be in democratic unity together; which is something that has never happened, really, in this country.
LEMON: Ok.
DAVIS: It's certainly something that the political parties aren't capable of accomplishing. LEMON: Thank you for answering that. And listen, I know that you were arrested in the '60s and '70s. You were arrested. You faced similar experiences as some of the occupiers have been facing. We saw the tear gas, the bombs that they did, the pepper bombs that they used, and all sorts of things that we've been seeing in Denver. We've been seeing all across the country, where the protesters are saying that cops are being heavy-handed.
In your experience, does this compare at all to the protests and what you went through back in the '60s and '70s?
DAVIS: Well, of course this is another day. But it's exciting. It's exciting in the sense that it was exciting to be a part of a movement that proposed revolutionary solutions 40 years ago, 30, 40 years ago.
I think that the response to police violence, in Oakland, for example, where I live, is to organize more and more people, to ask the community to join in. The Oakland General Assembly has called for a general strike on November 2nd. So we are going to attempt to persuade people to stay home from work, to stay home from school, and to express solidarity with this new movement.
LEMON: Listen, it certainly has evolved into something that most people did not see coming. I don't think that many people saw it coming. And I've been speaking to many actors, many political activists, and told me before the occupiers, said, I am surprised people aren't marching in the streets when they look at the economy and look at the lack of jobs. And then, all of a sudden, now we have this.
Are you surprised by what's happening, about the Occupy movement, was it a surprise to you?
DAVIS: Well, I'm surprised, but I'm also excited. This is really a wonderful moment particularly for those of us who have memories of the movement in the late '60s and the early '70s. It's really quite incredible.
I think that the youth today have new tools. They have new energy, new creativity. And I'm persuaded that this is the beginning of something really wonderful, really vast, really great. And I should say that it connects with movements that are happening in other parts of the world, as well. It connects with the uprising in the Middle East and what's happening in Greece and movements all over Europe. This is really truly a global uprising.
LEMON: We can't ignore the fact that we have a presidential election coming up in 2012. We're in the middle of it right now. What does that mean for you, you think, or for the country in political terms? Does it benefit either party?
DAVIS: Well, I think we have to guarantee that the Republicans aren't elected, but we also have to put pressure on the Democrats. We have to put pressure on the Obama Administration so that, you know, some of the needs of the people of this country can be met. LEMON: Yes. I think some people may be surprised, like you said we have to put pressure on the Obama Administration and on Democrats. Follow up on that.
DAVIS: Well, as I was saying to the people who are involved in the occupation here in New York, Obama was elected largely because of an upsurge of young people, such as the upsurge of the Occupy Wall Street movement. This is why a president was elected, a candidate was elected, who most people thought could never have a chance of achieving that goal.
It was because young people refused to believe that it was impossible to elect a black president, a black president who identified with a black radical tradition. They said that it was possible, when everyone else felt it was impossible.
And so it seems to me that this is the continuation of that movement. This is what should have happened in the immediate aftermath of the election, and perhaps we wouldn't be where we are today, three years later.
LEMON: Angela Davis, appreciate it very much.
DAVIS: And thank you. Thank you very much.
Up next: more on the Occupy movement. But there are examples that the Occupy movement or police may be out of control. Police clamped down on protesters in Portland. We'll hear from both sides, right after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: More Occupy protesters taking up space in jail cells; dozens of arrest across the nation in the last 36 hours.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got you, ok. We got you. You hear me?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: And their message of fighting corporation corruption may be getting lost in all the mayhem. These scenes from Austin, Texas, police there say they arrested 42 people on Sunday. Portland and Denver saw the same story. Protesters refused to move out, so police say they have to move in.
Those clashes you're looking at right now played out in a park in northwest Portland; 27 people arrested there by police in riot gear. And in Denver, occupiers show off their wounds from pepper balls in a face-off at the city civic center.
Well, Denver police say they were forced to open fire. They ended up making 20 arrests on Saturday night. In total, more than 80 arrests of protesters who say police used too much force.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The only thing that happened is they asked us to take a tent down, some kid was standing too close to him they just started attacking everybody, spraying people with mace, arresting them. We did nothing. This was supposed to be a peaceful protest and they're attacking us like we're in a third world country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: But officers say they gave protesters multiple chances to follow the rules.
I want to talk now to Kathryn Kendall. She was one of the protesters in Portland. She joins us by phone now.
Kathryn, can you please describe for our viewers what happened to you?
KATHRYN KENDALL, OCCUPY PORTLAND (via telephone): I arrived there about 4:00 p.m. I participated in large group discussions facilitated really brilliantly. Many protesters present were uncertain what was the right course to take. It was discussed in the large group.
Ultimately, the decision was made that there would be a sit-in and people divided themselves into those who were willing to sit-in and be arrested and those who were offering support for those who were sitting in. I was in the support group.
LEMON: So there was talk among the demonstrators about not --
(CROSSTALK)
KENDALL: There was fruitful talk and reasonable talk. I really admired the quality of the conversation. It's what is most characteristic of this movement. Nobody came in with an agenda and said there's going to be a sit-in. The people arrived and then had a discussion. Should we sit-in? That's what happened.
LEMON: All right. So why did people not listen to police, though?
KENDALL: I'm sorry, Don, I'm not hearing you?
LEMON: Why didn't they listen to police?
KENDALL: They were there; they made the decision about 8:00 p.m. to stage a sit-in. They were aware the police were coming, but they wanted it to be an act civil disobedience in the tradition of Thoreau. They were clear that they were taking civil disobedience action and that they were going to sit-in and be completely nonviolent.
LEMON: Ok. Are you worried that all of this, all these arrests is affecting the goal of the Occupy movement. It may be muddling the message of fighting corporate corruption. Or do you think it will do the reverse and just offers more attention, gets more attention to the movement?
KENDALL: The purpose of the people who were sitting in last night was to bring more attention to the movement. One of the great things about this movement is that it has no single voice. And so bringing attention, staging a civil disobedience action was a way to do exactly what the movement is doing. It was a conversation, it was peaceful.
And I'd like to say that the police in Portland were also quite restrained. One person did have apparently a wrist injury. We've heard reports of that. But by and large, the whole activity as staged by Captain Sarah Westbrook was restrained compared with that in Oakland or Austin or Denver or any of these other places. There was no mace, there was no tear gas. Everyone was very carefully told what was going to be happening next.
LEMON: Kathryn Kendall, thank you.
KENDALL: You're very welcome, Don. Thank you.
LEMON: All right. You know, you've heard from one of the Portland protesters right there. Next you're going to hear from Portland police, right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right.
Now to the police side of the Portland protests; again, 27 people arrested during a confrontation between Occupy protesters and officers.
On the phone right now is Sergeant Peter Simpson, a Portland police. Sergeant, thank you for joining us. I would think that you would consider these arrests a success since no one was hurt.
SGT. PETER SIMPSON, PORTLAND POLICE (via telephone): Well, certainly, Don. Throughout the Occupy event here in Portland, we've had good communication with representatives and we really credit that to having generally peaceful protests and marches throughout the past few weeks.
LEMON: So why did you go to Jamison Square, where these arrests took place? Where people complaining?
SIMPSON: We did receive a number of neighborhood complaints about the noise. The residents around the Jamison Square, it's pretty much all residential neighborhood, which is different than where the encampments are at Chapman and Lansdale Squares right in the heart of downtown. The buildings around those parks are largely government buildings that aren't occupied at night. There are residents living about a block and a half away, which have complained about those encampments.
But largely, the different environment dictated that we not allow people to remain in the park after midnight. These are all things that were developed in conversations with the mayor's office, the police bureau, and we expressed those concerns to representatives of Occupy.
LEMON: So, sergeant, listen, I just want to just take us behind the scenes for a little bit. Because we've been seeing these scenes play out all across the country. Is there some sort of effort on behalf of the department? Do you check about, you know, civil liberties violations? What do you check about how much force you're going to use? What do officers do in most cities in order to prepare for a situation like this?
SIMPSON: Well, in Portland in particular, we have a lot of experience with crowd management and crowd control events. Certainly, not all of them have gone this smoothly.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: But this is different, because you know this is -- you know that the eyes of really the country are on this. It's received national attention. I'm just wondering if there's extra care. Do you dot the i's, cross the t's before you go out there to even get in front of these people?
SIMPSON: Well, certainly. We do that in every event. And our officers are well aware that this is a national and international movement and, you know, we don't -- we're not there to dictate the type of speech or the event. It's merely about public safety and balancing the free speech to any kind of criminal activity. And it's a delicate balance sometimes.
SIMPSON: Yes. Sergeant Peter Simpson of the Portland police, thank you so much. We appreciate your time.
SIMPSON: You bet, Don.
LEMON: All right. Joining me later when we get a front line perspective on the Occupy dilemma, city officials who support the right to protest but can't ignore the simple laws of curfews and permits; you'll want to see this. We're going to get his reaction, because he actually kicked some of these protesters out of a park. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed speaks with me live tonight 10:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.
Politics up next on CNN; Herman Cain and Mitt Romney are up in the polls, but Ron Paul keeps winning straw polls, including one this weekend in Iowa. Is he really a factor in this race?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. On to the Republican race for the White House; a man many consider a fringe candidate just won't stay on the sidelines. We're talking about Ron Paul. He won a GOP straw poll Saturday in Iowa with a whopping 82 percent of the vote.
Goldie Taylor, independent, and political analyst joins us now. You are shaking your head. Up and down. Because I recently interviewed him; he is a tell-it-like-it-is guy. You can't help it. He's a nice guy. You can't help but like him.
GOLDIE TAYLOR, POLITICAL ANALYST: I was sitting around with some friends, we were all on Twitter, talking about the last debate, and a lot of us said, oh, my gosh, Ron Paul is making sense to us. And so it was a, you know, a surprising thing.
I was on a plane today coming back in from Florida and the fellow next to me and I just started a conversation, and we landed on Ron Paul and this straw poll. The fact is, he has the organization; he has the volunteers.
LEMON: Ok, ok. I get it. You're going to go on and on; you're give me a laundry list. But, what?
TAYLOR: He's going to be successful in changing the conversation. And the real threat is not what he does in this GOP primary.
LEMON: If he becomes a third party candidate.
TAYLOR: If he runs as an independent, it changes everything. I've got to tell you, I don't count him out of winning Iowa.
LEMON: Really?
TAYLOR: Not at all. Mitt Romney can't take Iowa. Cain doesn't have the organization or the money in Iowa, no staff. Ron Paul can turn them up and turn them out.
LEMON: This is going to be such an interesting election. To be able to cover it is a privilege, because it's going to be just craziness, madness, mayhem.
TAYLOR: It's going to be madness. With the GOP so incredibly fractured. That's what giving Ron Paul the real opportunity.
LEMON: Ok. Let's -- in "STATE OF THE UNION" with Candy Crowley, federal student loan programs should be abolished.
Let's listen to Ron Paul.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RON PAUL (R), TEXAS: Anybody who's ambitious enough gets to go to college. But the problem is, college costs too much preside. And with the good intention of giving people houses at discount. You know, (INAUDIBLE) with the housing bubble, and the people whose supposed to be helped, they lose their house, the same way with education. The attempt to help people in education, all you do is you don't get better education, you end up actually pushing the price of education up. So we've delivered now hundreds of thousands of students graduating with $1 trillion worth of debt and no jobs. So it's a totally failed policy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That kind of talk doesn't turn off voters, does it?
TAYLOR: That kind of talk turns voters on, because nobody else is speaking that truth. There are colleges and universities out there, you see them on television every day, that literally cater their tuition costs around how much federal aid they predict their students can get.
The more student aid they think students can get, the higher they set the tuition costs. And so he's right. It is driving some of the escalation costs in education. I've got three kids in college. I know what this game is like. The debt load they're going to have when they're out of college and not having a job, and maybe paying up to half of their disposal income in paying back student loans, I mean, god help them if they can realize this American dream and not be straddled with all the debt. And so Ron Paul is making sense.
LEMON: Three in college?
TAYLOR: Three.
LEMON: Oh, my gosh, can you afford gas?
TAYLOR: I had to get down here.
LEMON: I'm serious. OK, So I'm not going to debate. Now I'm going to debate. I'm talking about Rick Perry. How is this - does it make him seem like a flip-flopper? How is this playing?
TAYLOR: Well, there are a couple of things that play here. First of all, if he chooses not to debate, it gives, you know, Mitt Romney an excuse not to debate, and that leaves a lot of second-tier candidates, you know, out there on the field. And so that's the complication here. But if I'm Rick Perry and I've performed in this way for the several debates so far, I'm not sure if I continue to do that kind of self-inflicted damage and maybe I take a different course. And so I think a new strategy is coming together for Perry. He's got to do it quickly, but can he continue to suffer the kinds of blows that he's had in debates, I don't think he can.
LEMON: And in our time left, I want to ask you this, because I appreciate your perspective on these situations. OK. Let's just say that the reality of Obama versus Cain happens. It's been bubbling up. You've heard it. This is the end of races, one radio show host said racism is officially over if that happens, because Samuel L. Jackson is the number one movie star of all times? And then you have two black men running for president.
TAYLOR: A dear friend of mine said, "We'll know that racism is over when Samuel L. Jackson can play the part of George Washington." That's when we know we're in a post-racial America. You know, to say that we are living in this dream world of race and gender and all those things don't matter. You know, we're not in a color-blind society. That's for sure. Certainly things have progressed, but when you start with the issue of slavery, everything looks like progress.
LEMON: Yes, it's a simplistic headline, but if you go beyond that and have a deeper conversation, it's, you know, it makes sense to have that conversation.
TAYLOR: I think if you got them both in the race at the same time, we might have a conversation.
LEMON: Thank you, Goldie Taylor. Appreciate it.
TAYLOR: Thank you.
LEMON: Occupy Wall Street's 99 percent mantra could become a big election issue. So are any of the presidential candidates in that income bracket? Already in that income bracket. That's ahead.
But first, another effort to help struggling homeowners. The Obama administration plan allows more people whose homes are worth less than their mortgages to refinance at lower rates, as long as they're current on their payments.
CNN's Ali Velshi spoke to Housing and Urban Development secretary Shaun Donovan in this week's "Mastering Your Money."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SHAUN DONOVAN, HUD SECRETARY: We've sat down, we've attacked five major barriers to people refinancing. Many of those could help other families that don't have a Fannie and Freddie mortgage. Just give you an example. We've now figured out a way to automatically resubordinate second mortgages. You may ask, what does that mean to a homeowner? Well many folks who have an underwater first mortgage also have a second mortgage and they're blocked from refinancing. That automatic resubordination can help them refinance.
Another example is we've eliminated the need for an appraisal for many of these mortgages. That lowers fees and will allow other folks - so if we can take these innovations and spread them more broadly to other parts of the market, we could have a much bigger impact. The other thing I would say -
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Go ahead.
DONOVAN: The president was in Las Vegas on Monday to announce this and he said, "Look, this is an important step, but we also need Congress to do their job. We need them to pass the American jobs act." Why? Because part of the jobs act is a project rebuild that would create 200,000 jobs, putting construction workers back to work, renovating and rehabilitating vacant and foreclosed homes.
VELSHI: Right.
DONOVAN: And what would that do? That helps to lift everybody's property values, because if you live next door to a home that's been foreclosed on, even if you're paying your bills, you're doing everything right, your own home drops in value. So we need to take this step as well and we need Congress to act.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: If the Occupy movement maintains its momentum, it will undoubtedly become a big issue on the campaign trail. And that got us wondering here, which candidates are in the top one percent of Americans?
Financial expert Nicole Lapin joins us live from New York to break it down for us. Nicole, are all the candidates in the top one percent?
NICOLE LAPIN, FINANCIAL JOURNALIST: Most of them are. The exceptions are going to be Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, I know you interviewed him, I know you like him, but he's probably not in the top one percent. Rick Perry. We already saw Buddy Roemer who lended his support to the Occupy Wall Street movement.
But on the flip side, we have a guy like Mitt Romney. Now he blows everybody out of the water. The guy has about a quarter of a billion dollars in net worth. We also have guys like Jon Huntsman whose dad owned a chemical company. We have Newt Gingrich there. We have Herman Cain, who brought in about 1.2 million bucks last year. So all of those guys are probably in the top one percent.
LEMON: Yes, I wish I thought about this earlier. Did you see the "New York" magazine with Romney on the cover from years ago when he was on Wall Street and had money coming out of his suit.
LAPIN: I remember that.
LEMON: That's going to hurt, I'm sure. I'm sure they're going to use that.
LAPIN: That's exactly right.
LEMON: It's going to be interesting though, Nicole, to see how they balance being able to feel the country's pain while bringing in so much money. What's the cutoff of the one percent?
LAPIN: It's actually $700,000 for household income. But it is going to be really interesting, Don, because the stark rich-poor divide is more and more prevalent, as you saw it right there on the cover of "New York" magazine, for example and also you're going to have to see how politicians balance that when they're clearly on one side of that.
So you're seeing more and more Americans believing that politicians do favor the rich and more and more frustration, of course, that Washington let Wall Street off way too easy, because a lot of folks saying, you know these polls, we love the polls right around election time, saying that Washington and Wall Street are in bed and they're basically in cahoots.
LEMON: So, listen, what is - is it more - I don't know if you can qualify this, Nicole, is it more of a Republican thing, more of a Democrat thing? I mean, President Obama wasn't a rich man when he ran. When he started to run, I should say, because then he had his book -
LAPIN: That's right.
LEMON: And the book did very well, "New York Times" best seller list whatever, and then he became a wealthy man.
LAPIN: Well, that's exactly right. So that's kind of true, right? So in 2006, he was not in the top one percent. And then you fast forward to last year with the book and all of the other stuff that you mentioned, and he made $2 million to $7 million that year. So we're not stupid, we know that. We've been reporting that. And you know what happens? Those poll numbers reflect it, so now we're seeing only 23 percent of Americans. That's less than a quarter of the electorate believe that President Obama's policies are actually favoring the middle class.
And you know what? A majority of folks, Don, 66 percent, now believe that the rich-poor divide, something needs to be done in Washington and to narrow the rich-poor divide. It's the biggest it's been in 50 years. And more and more people are wondering, you know, how are politicians, how are these candidates going to try and bridge Wall Street and Main Street when they're clearly on one side of that bridge.
LEMON: So it's not a Republican or Democrat thing, it's a Washington thing in general disconnect.
LAPIN: It's an everybody thing. An everybody thing.
LEMON: Thank you, Nicole. Appreciate it.
LAPIN: Great to see you.
LEMON: Taking a stand against teen bullying. A rallying call coming from an interesting play, it's a teen rock band. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: An alarming number for you. Six out of ten teenagers see someone being bullied every day. That's according to the National Crime Prevention Council. Some ignore the bullying, others join in. Few try to stop it. But a teen rock band is encouraging more kids to stand up and do something.
Education contributor and high school principal Steve Perry talks to them in tonight's "Perry's Principles."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR (voice-over): Teen band Radio Silence NYC is making some noise about bullying with its first single "Renegade."
(MUSIC PLAYING)
PERRY (on camera): You're starting to write your own music. When the wheels stop spinning, how did you end up on bullying?
WYATT OFFIT, COLLEGE FRESHMAN: We had this idea, let's make three lists of things we love, things that we kind of don't really care about, and things that we really don't like. And we all wrote the word "haters" on the list of dislikes.
PERRY: What's that? What's a hater?
OFFIT: Someone who makes fun of you for what you like, your style, and we're like, that's it. That's the song we want to write about and something that's affected us in our lives.
PERRY: How?
DYLAN BRENNER, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: Well, we've all experienced it, but probably me the most, because I've always been on the shorter side. So kids are just like got a hoot out of either verbally, you know, picking on me or sometimes even physically.
PERRY: When I look at bands like the Ramons and others, they must have been outcasts. Tell me about that experience of being on some level by design outcasts?
ZACH ALLEN, HIGH SCHOOL JUNIOR: I guess you just have to try to learn that it's OK and that even though people may not think you're the definition of cool, maybe, it's really alright, and you just have to be your own person and not care what other people think.
PERRY (voice-over): To spread their message, the band teamed up with dosomething.org, a nonprofit that provides tools for young people to create social change. Together they spoke out and rocked out at several high schools in New York and New Jersey this year.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's definitely more effective than just sitting down through a boring chitchat. Because kids can relate to it.
PERRY (on camera): What do you want kids to take from this?
TIM HOLMES, HIGH SCHOOL JUNIOR: When I saw kids at my old school, it was always the same kids bullying the same kids every day. And nobody else would do something about it. We're trying to get kids to like stand up and say something to the bully. Like, stop that. It's not cool.
PERRY: So these songs speak to your generation?
ALLEN: Yes, we actually have a song called "Future Generation" that tells people that we are the generation. It's our time to change and it's our time to make things better.
(MUSIC PLAYING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to the new school, new generation making rules just so we can break them.
PERRY (voice-over): Steve Perry, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Thank you, Steve.
Do you think you're having a rough time finding work? Jobless rates for post-9/11 vets are higher than the national average. And things are even worse for female vets. In two minutes, you'll meet someone who knows firsthand. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: These are hard times, no doubt, for many. But did you know that jobless rate among post-9/11 vets is higher than the national average and even worse for women.
CNN's Athena Jones introduces us to one vet who hasn't found work since leaving the military two years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Kenya Smith is a proud veteran. She spent 14 years in the Navy and worked as a logistics and supply officer in Iraq.
KENYA SMITH, UNEMPLOYED VETERAN: I love the navy. Split me open I'm blue and gold.
JONES: Smith left the military in 2009 and is still struggling to find work.
SMITH: I don't really know how to do a resume. I never really had to do one.
JONES: A divorced mother of two with two master's degrees, Smith lost her home to foreclosure in September and now lives in transitional housing. The unemployment rate for recent veterans is higher than the national average as many face unique challenges getting hired sometimes after multiple deployments.
PAUL RIECKHOFF, FOUNDER, IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN VETERANS OF AMERICA: Why civilians have been going to school or going for interviews, these folks have been getting shot at it Iraq and Afghanistan. Sometimes they're not trained in how to convert their resumes from military lingo into the civilian space and really they need tactical training, like interview training.
JONES: With the jobless rate of 14.7 percent in September, female veterans had fared worse than their male counterparts. Some face challenges from child care to dealing with the VA system that is unaccustomed to female veterans.
RIECKHOFF: Well, a lot of people in the country don't understand or appreciated women are in combat. I think that some folks just don't understand that that's a part of our modern reality in the military. And they, too, need the same sort of skills and training that their male counterparts do.
JONES: The Obama administration is trying to address the high jobless rate among vets. The president's jobs bill would give companies that hire veterans tax credits of up to $9,600.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Just think about how many veterans have led their comrades on life and death missions by the time they were 25. That's the kind of responsibility every business in America should want to take advantage of. JONES: But the jobs bill and other legislation that would help vets have stalled in Congress. The administration has also launched a plan to allow former medics to get nursing school credit for their service. And last week the president announced an effort to urge health centers to hire 8,000 veterans over the next three years and grants to help train vets to be physician's assistants.
Smith believes that her experience will eventually pay off.
SMITH: I did HR. I ran departments. I ran programs. I ran projects.
JONES: But something has to work out very soon. She and her two children must move out of their transitional housing on November 11. Veteran's day.
Athena Jones, CNN, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Sharks. Predators. Now prey. We'll tell you why these animals are being hunted down, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Shark attacks. In the headlines lately. The latest one happened this weekend in California, leaving a surfer with multiple bite wounds. But the reality is, sharks have much more to fear from us than we do from them. That's what Kaj Larsen says. He recently came face to face with sharks for a new "CNN Presents" airing at the top of the hour. He joins us now from L.A.. Kaj, good to see you. Why do sharks need to be afraid of us?
KAJ LARSEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, let's do the math. I think the numbers will reveal the scope of the problem. There's been 13 fatal shark attacks so far this year. And you contrast that with the fact that 70 million sharks have been killed for by both commercial and illegal fishing and you see that there's much more danger to sharks than the very minimal danger there is to humans. Recently they found a boat off the coast of San Diego with 30,000 shark fins on it. That's the problem. But there are - there is some good news in there are people working against this trend line. I talked to some of those people in this next piece. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LARSEN (voice-over): Shark populations are crashing around the world. Millions die by fining to feed the growing demand for shark fin soup in Asia. Roughly a third of all shark and ray species face some threat of extinction. Without them, the marine food web could start to unravel. Marine biologist Luke Tipple is on a mission to protect sharks. We met up in the Bahamas.
LUKE TIPPLE, MARINE BIOLOGIST: Actually, the marina we're in right now is one of the first shark free marinas in Bahamas. LARSEN : Sharks are an apex predator which means they are at very top of the marine food chain. They grow slowly, mature late and produce few young, making them vulnerable to over fishing.
TIPPLE: We're supposed to have a certain number of sharks. We take out the apex and allow a lot of other fish to breed underneath them. They basically annihilate everything below them. That leads to traffic collapse which means we don't have healthy ocean systems and we won't be able to pull product or food from there anymore.
LARSEN : The Bahamas banned commercial shark fishing. And that's helped lure more divers and tourist dollars to the islands.
TIPPLE: INAUDIBLE) all 10 of these.
LARSEN : Luke and I jumped in to see some sharks up close.
(on camera): Wow. They were right there.
(voice-over): But outside of sanctuaries like this one, sharks remain at risk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Wow. There you were. Face to face. What was it like? I understand you brought some of the things you had with you?
LARSEN : Sure. Some of the guys in the studio were asking me what kind of equipment we used and so you know, I had my mostly civilian gear, but I had my trusty frog man fins from my time in the service. And of course, my dive knife, which the purpose of which is not to protect against the sharks. If one's going to attack you can stab your dive buddy and then swim away. But in all seriousness. I'm from Santa Cruz which is in the center of the Red Triangle. Very close to the surf spot where the surfer was attacked this weekend. I'm very familiar with sharks. I've spent my whole life in the ocean trying to avoid them.
Here I was seeking them. It was quite unnerving. But I jumped the shark, so to speak, in order to really raise awareness about this issue of shark populations declining. And they are in steep decline. It's a serious issue, and if it's not addressed we risk turning our oceans into deserts.
LEMON: We've got to run, Kaj. We'll be watching at the top of the hour. Thank you so much. "Hunting Down Sharks" is just minutes away. It's part of a packed "CNN Presents" that includes predators in plain sight, an investigation into the child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church and "A Look at the Mountaintop" a play that takes a very different look at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. begins right now. See you at 10:00 p.m. Eastern.
