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Kidnapped Baseball Player Rescued; Penn State Plays First Football Game without Joe Paterno in Over 40 Years; Syria Ejected from Arab League; Financial Planner Gives Advice

Aired November 12, 2011 - 14:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM where the news unfolds live this Saturday, November 12th. I'm Fredericka Whitfield.

After several days of defending himself against sexual harassment allegations, Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is trying to regain momentum. At a brief campaign stop in his home state of Georgia today, Cain declared that he's in the race to win it. And he took a shot at president Obama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERMAN CAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Before President Obama took office I never even conceived a thought of running for president. It was only after when he took office and I saw his arrogant disregard for the American people that I knew I had to do what I could do, arrogant disregard of the people that's made our military weaker, our economy weaker, and our respect in the world less.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Cain will be in South Carolina tonight for a GOP debate.

The Obama administration has turned over some e-mails to a house committee investigating the Solyndra collapse. But officials did not give the panel everything it requested, saying its subpoena was, quote, "overbroad and overreaching," end quote. The committee is investigating the Energy Department's decision to provide $535 million in loan guarantees to Solyndra, which made solar panels. The company filed for bankruptcy this summer.

And right now in Hawaii President Barack Obama is hosting leaders from the Asia Pacific region. They're talking about the economic potential in that region. CNN's Dan Lothian is there, and you will be hearing from him later on in the day. The president, meantime, will be heading to Australia and Indonesia next week.

Safe at home, Major League Baseball player Wilson Ramos has been found healthy and unharmed in Venezuela. On Wednesday kidnappers snatched the Washington Nationals catcher. Ramos says he appreciates those who rescued him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WILSON RAMOS, RESCUED BASEBALL PLAYER (via translator): I am very happy for the rescue operation they carried out, very thankful to the government and the national army. I didn't expect them. Where they were holding me captive was a very remote place, basically a jungle. And I was praying to god to bring me home safely to my family. And look at these guys. They risked their lives to save mine and I am very thankful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Ramos was found in a jungle area 30 or 40 miles from his family's home. The country's justice minister says an arrest warrant is being issued for the alleged mastermind, a Colombian man.

And we're closely monitoring the Penn State-Nebraska football game today. It is underway right now, and it comes after a volatile week at Penn State. First a child sex abuse scandal erupts with former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Then just three days ago, they fire Joe Paterno for not going further in reporting what he knew about the allegations. Paterno's firing has sparked a lot of riots, as well, this week. Security at today's game is tight, and police have been monitoring students' Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.

And consider this -- Penn State got a warning this week from the credit ratings agency Moody's. The school's credit worthiness could be downgraded as a result of all that's transpired in the last week.

At the very least, CNN's Athena Jones is at the game. She's in the parking lot there, where a lot of fans have been gathering. And Athena, you've had a chance to talk to a number of the diehard fans in the game and those out on campus. What have they been saying to you?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's been really interesting, Fredericka, because, as you described, it's been far from a typical week for Penn State at Penn State. And it looked like a typical college football tailgating party as people streamed in, set up to do their cooking and do their drinking. We talked to a lot of fans, and there were a lot of mixed feelings. You saw people who had these shirts on that said the legend. They had Joe Paterno's years of service on, signs that say Penn State spirit is about more than football.

But you also have people who have really criticized us in the media, saying we've blown things out of proportion, that we kind of caused the school to act earlier than they should have when it came to Joe Paterno. And so it's been a real mix of emotions. Let's listen to what one Penn State alumni had to tell me in the parking lot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the things that gets lost in this is nobody -- no sane person thinks that the victims are not the children -- I mean, the boys. Nobody is saying that. But Joe Paterno is family. I mean, I've only met him a couple of times, but he's family. And what would you do if someone was attacking family?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: And so that's what we've been seeing. We've seen a lot of people saying the focus should be on the children, not on Joe Paterno or any of the other coaches. And you have had a lot of people here wearing, of course, the Penn State gear, the dark blue gear saying Penn State. Also, people in the same colors wearing shirts that say "Stop child abuse."

I should also mention that before the game someone had hired one of those little planes to fly around the stadium streaming a big banner, a big, long banner that said "Joe is so dirty he needs a shower." You can tell there's a lot of mixed feelings here.

We just started the third quarter of the game. Penn state's behind right now. People are trying to come out and celebrate football but they know they're still dealing with this big cloud that's hanging over the school. Fredericka?

WHITFIELD: And so there haven't been any security problems, correct? We know they have heightened security, measures in place, anticipating there might be some problems. But how has it all unfolded today?

JONES: So far so good right now. Earlier we saw there certainly isn't a police presence down there where there are a number of officers on foot. There were at least half a dozen officers on horseback that we saw riding around down there amongst the crowd. We know that at one point there was a bomb threat for the stadium but that they brought in bomb-sniffing dogs and they didn't find anything. And they've done another sweep, and that turned out to be nothing. And so far, so good. We'll have to see how the rest of the game plays out and the time after the game, Fredericka.

WHITFIELD: And we know a lot of people have been camped outside of Paterno's home. Meantime, the interim coach Tom Bradley said he wouldn't be surprised if Paterno were to show up at the game. Any signs of him?

JONES: Not so far. I haven't seen any indication or any reports of that. But we certainly haven't seen it. I wouldn't -- I'm not willing to guess whether he would or would not. I would imagine it would be a bit of a distraction if he did. But we'll see.

WHITFIELD: OK, Athena Jones, keep us posted. Thanks so much.

So what happens now that Paterno has been fired and a new college president put into place? How does Penn State put all of this behind it? And next hour I'll be putting that question to Dan Wetzel. He is the national columnist for Yahoo! Sports.

And major news from overseas today. The Arab League is showing Syria the door. Full details from Ben Wedeman in Cairo next.

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WHITFIELD: Syria is out of the Arab League, kicked out today. The group says the Syrian government has not stopped violence against civilians and has not pulled troops out of populated areas. Let's go live to Cairo and CNN's senior international correspondent Ben Wedeman. So Ben, what does this mean for Syria to be booted from the Arab League. Is this unprecedented?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No. In fact Egypt was booted back in 1979 for signing a peace deal with Israel. However, it's not been booted. It's been suspended, and that suspension will take effect on November 16 for not implementing this plan that actually Syria agreed to on the second of November. But what we've seen over the last 10 days is a mounting death toll of civilians as well as members of the armed forces. In the last 10 days more than 200 people were killed. And this is really what's behind the Arab League's decision to suspend Syria.

But not surprisingly the Syrian ambassador to the Arab League has come out and said that they whole idea of the decision of the Arab League is part of a plot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via translator): Regrettably, the Arab League is transformed into a vehicle for implementing U.S. and western agendas against a brother Arab nation and a founder of the Arab League.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WEDEMAN: Now we're getting reports that in Damascus there have been demonstrations against the Arab League in support of the regime of Bashar Assad. But we're also seeing videos being posted by opponents in Syria celebrating the Arab League's decision. Fredericka?

WHITFIELD: So, Ben, there were apparently warnings, you know, prior to this that the Arab League had given warnings to Syria they needed to stop what they were doing or there would be this kind of crackdown or face sanctions. So what has been Syria's reaction to this?

WEDEMAN: Well, Syria as I said actually signed on to this plan, but it appears it did very little to implement it. We spoke with the secretary general of the Arab League the other day. He said that Syrians had informed him that they released 553 prisoners. But apparently that's just a drop in the bucket when it comes to the total number of people arrested.

And another problem is the Arab league is part of this agreement that's supposed to be allowed to send monitors to Syria to see if the agreement was implemented and they never got the green light to go. Also in that agreement, they were supposed to allow the Arab and international media into Syria. And as you can see, I'm reported from Cairo.

WHITFIELD: We noticed that.

And so let's talk about the White House now has reacted, president Obama, says this in this White House statement. "The United States joined with the Arab league in its support for the Syrian people who continue to demand their universal rights in the face of the regime's callus violence." Now, what would Syria have to do, Ben, to get back in to the Arab league?

WEDEMAN: Well, they've actually still got four days to change all of this. But what it would have to do is stop the violence, release prisoners, take Syrian forces off the street, and agree to a dialogue with the opposition. And it's clear that even though they agreed on paper, they certainly not willing to do it on the ground.

WHITFIELD: All right, Ben Wedeman, thanks so much there from Cairo.

Other international news headlines now. These could be Silvio Berlusconi's last few hours in office. The Italian prime minister promised to resign as soon as parliament passed an austerity package demanded by the rest of Europe. We're watching Rome closely for a potential announcement now.

And a man hijacked a sea ferry last night off the coast of Turkey taking the captain hostage. Officials say the manmade just one demand, that the hijacking be shown on live television. Turkish commandos boarded the ferry and killed the man. And according to the Iran's state media, more than two dozen people are dead after an explosion there on a military base. Officials say a munitions depot accidentally caught fire at a base near Tehran.

All right, you're seeing the advertisements and the circulars, holiday shopping is right around the corner. So how much will the average American spend this year? Find out when we come right back.

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WHITFIELD: We know you're starting to save your money or set some aside for the holiday gift shopping. So how much will the average American spend on holiday spending? It's $704 according to the National Retail Association. Gear up for black Friday right around the corner and all the other sales and promotions coming your way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the mailman!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: OK, maybe don't lose your mind like that. Sinbad playing the mailman who found the one item everyone else wanted in the movie "Jingle All the Way."

So we want you to keep your marbles when you shop this holiday season. It is the number one issue in American homes, getting your financial house in order. Today in our weekly financial fix holiday gift buying. Black Friday kicks off the shopping season the day after Thanksgiving. Karen Lee joining us right now. She's the author of "It's Just Money, So why does it cause so many problems?" Karen, last time you were here, we talked about, you know, making a list, checking it twice, and planning before you go out shopping. And you say that really is universal all year long.

KAREN LEE, FINANCIAL PLANNER: Of course it is. WHITFIELD: Same applies here in a big way.

LEE: Right. And we talked about two different kind of shoppers. You've got the planners. But let's talk about the procrastinators. They're so much to watch --

WHITFIELD: They spend too much money --

LEE: Well a lot of them rationalize that the closer they wait till the holiday that the more the prices come down. The truth is, the supplies are gone and you've put very little thought into what you're spending and, yes, you'll tend to overspend.

WHITFIELD: And yes, so all the good sale items are gone.

LEE: Generally.

WHITFIELD: How do you need to go in to approach this holiday season? There's a lot of pressure.

LEE: There is.

WHITFIELD: You really can't be upset with anybody for wanting to take advantage of these great advertisements.

LEE: But we need to be cautious.

WHITFIELD: OK.

LEE: First about the planners who have their lists. Go back to the list and really look at it. Do you have to buy something for everyone on that list? Maybe just something smaller, small token. And with families, I'm seeing a lot of families now especially with the great families having discussions about should we buy for everyone? I see them saying let's just buy for children, maybe the adults our age maybe just pick a name. And so I think that doing something like that is a good start, but let's not go into debt or more into debt over holiday shopping.

WHITFIELD: You know, a lot of people do that. They kind of make a condition, though. They go into the holiday, I'm going to be very frugal and responsible throughout the year, but for the holiday season I'm going to do a major blowout.

LEE: It's not worth it.

And the second thing we want to talk about is quantity versus quality. I think it has little to do with the way you were raised and if you're used to coming out maybe Christmas morning and there's huge pile.

WHITFIELD: There's a huge pile of gifts.

LEE: There could be. I know lots of families with the huge pile of gifts. One thing we've learned from the great recession, less is more. And maybe look for something that is really wanted, but resist the temptation just to buy. And how about just buying because it's a deal. Is it a deal or is it something somebody really needs?

WHITFIELD: So when you see these great circulars, the television ad, et cetera, and they tell you black Friday or you need to get in here because you're never going to see this kind of deal again as the holiday progresses. How do you treat that?

LEE: I think the main thing I want to tell your viewers is be cautious of retailers. They're brilliant marketers, they use our psychology so it lures us into the store with a limited supply of these items. And once we're in there, what are we going to do? Not buy more? Of course we are.

So be very, very conscious as you're shopping. You have your list and you have your budget. Hopefully you can maybe grab that one item on sale, but if you miss it, that's OK too. Right?

WHITFIELD: And you want to stick to that list. That's the temptation, though. You've got some other things being advertised or especially when you first walk into a store and all of this stuff is in front.

LEE: Right.

WHITFIELD: It distracts you.

LEE: Right. So the final question, the final thing I want to talk about is what do you do if you get in that store and they don't have what you want? Or you can't --

WHITFIELD: You've got to improvise.

LEE: Well, first of all, have backup ideas for other -- if you've got your list with an idea with each person, have backup gift ideas. Be prepared to walk out the door if they don't have what you want. If the salesperson is pressuring you, walk out. There are plenty more days to hit the stores.

WHITFIELD: So it sounds like, though, to be this kind of calm and calculated about your shopping --

LEE: Yes.

WHITFIELD: The recommendation is you do need to start early, because you will panic at the end. I've seen it. I've seen it.

LEE: And I've done it myself. I've done the panic.

WHITFIELD: I've done that before, too, which is why I will not do that anymore.

LEE: And I know people that -- my mom and sister will shop all year long looking for items.

WHITFIELD: I do that.

LEE: Do you? WHITFIELD: I see things and I --

LEE: I definitely agree. Don't wait until the last minute. And don't feel pressure that black Friday's your one day. There's going to be sales all the way up to the season.

WHITFIELD: OK, good. I like the whole family pact ideas. Come up with a secret Santa, you know, or make a decision say, hey, we're only going to do for the little people in the family --

LEE: The little ones.

WHITFIELD: The big people, they don't need any more.

LEE: That's great.

WHITFIELD: All right, Karen lee, thanks so much.

LEE: You bet.

WHITFIELD: And Karen's pretty easy to find. I know you've got great inquiries on how to manage money better. Get more information by reading Karen's new book "It's Just Money, so why does it cause so many problems?" Or you can reach Karen at KarenLeeandAssociates.com.

All right, for women with seasonal allergies, fall can be a season of misery. Here with this week's "Health for Her," Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, how are you?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Lovella Reynolds is not a big fan of this season.

LOVELLA REYNOLDS, HAS ALLERGIES: Fall is the absolute worst, the absolute worst. I have a runny nose, burning, post nasal drip with the scratchiness and the hoarseness in my voice.

COHEN: While millions of Americans suffer from seasonal allergies, each person may experience them differently. Symptoms may include itchy eyes, a stuffy nose, sore throat, cough and fatigue. Dr. Eugene Hurwitz says allergies in the autumn are attributable to one main culprit.

DR. EUGENE HURWITZ, ALLERGIST: Ragweed blooming. And that's the problem with fall allergies.

COHEN: Just because you're an adult without allergies doesn't mean you're in the clear.

HURWITZ: If you've never had allergies before, it's still possible you could develop them. It's more common among people with a family history of allergies.

COHEN: While nasal sprays and over-the-counter products may be effective for some, others may need to go on allergy shots or, like Reynolds, require a combination of therapies. And it's working to give her much-needed relief.

With this week's "Health for Her," I'm Elizabeth Cohen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories now. A bomb scare at the Penn State University football stadium is the latest development in this sex abuse scandal. A search turned up nothing. And today's football game against Nebraska is underway. The campus is in turmoil after child sex allegations against former assistant coach and a firing of head coach Joe Paterno for allegedly not doing enough to report the allegations.

Kidnapped Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos says he's thankful for his rescue. Venezuelan security forces swooped in and rescued Ramos in a remote area two days after he was abducted in Venezuela. Ramos was visiting his family in Venezuela when he was kidnapped from his mother's house. He was not hurt in the ordeal.

The Arab League has suspended Syria, citing the government's violence against its own people. It also called for sanctions against Syria's president but didn't elaborate.

And this YouTube video is said to show the aftermath of shelling and homes, the center of the Syrian uprising. An opposition group says five civilians were killed just today, four of them in homes.

It's happening on college campuses across the United States, female students being recruited to donate their eggs for cash. One activist says it's putting these young women at risk. Find out why her documentary "Eggs-ploitation" has reproductive specialists up in arms. It is in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM.

I'm Fredericka Whitfield. Now stay tuned for a CNN special "VETERANS IN FOCUS."

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