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Occupy Portland Face Off with Police; APEC Summit Begins in Hawaii; President: U.S. "A Little Bit Lazy"; Controversial Decision: Pacquiao Wins; NYC Vandalism May Be Hate Crime; GOP Hopefuls Look Abroad; Dangerous Wind and Snow in Denver; Wild Swings on Wall Street; Watching Wall Street; Occupy Wall Street Releases Financial

Aired November 13, 2011 - 14:30   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We begin in Italy where the president has picked Mario Monti as the next prime minister. Monti is a former European commissioner. If approved, he will replace Silvio Berlusconi who resigned last night.

Back in the U.S., police and "Occupy Portland" protesters are facing off over a deadline. These pictures show Portland police storming the demonstrators just after midnight. That was the deadline the city set up for "Occupy Portland" to clear out.

But protesters stood firm. One officer was injured in the confrontation, one protester was arrested. I'll talk with a reporter in Portland live in just a few moments.

President Barack Obama is in full Asia-Pacific mode today in Hawaii. He's hosting the annual APEC Summit and hoping to re-energize U.S. based business in that region. The president told CEOs that Americans need to stay to use his word, hungry in attracting new investments from overseas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's important to remember that the United States is still the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world, and there are a lot of things that make foreign investors see the U.S. as a great opportunity.

Our stability, our openness, our innovative free market culture, but we've been a little lazy I think over the last couple decades. We've kind of taken for granted people want to come here and we aren't out there hungry selling America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: New York police are investigating what could be a hate crime in Brooklyn. They say someone or some people set cars on fire and scrawled swastikas in a Jewish section of Brooklyn.

Police received emergency calls about it Friday morning. The vandalism coincided with a 73rd anniversary of an infamous Nazi-backed attack against Jews and their property in Germany.

Boxer, Manny Pacquiao defended his WBO Welterweight title in a nail biter. He beat Juan Manuel Marquez by a majority decision in Las Vegas last night. They went toe to toe for all 12 rounds.

And after the decision, Marquez left the ring apparently pretty upset. His fans were as well. They launched bottles and cans into the ring in response to that ruling.

A busy night in several western cities as police made a move to clear out "Occupy" encampments. A Denver police in riot gear arrested 17 people as they cleared tents and furniture near the city's civic center.

In Salt Lake City overnight, 19 arrests. In Oakland, police issued a third notice for protesters to vacate city parks. In St. Louis Saturday, police arrested 27 for defying a park curfew.

So this brings us to Portland, Oregon, where police tried enforcing a midnight deadline to clear protesters out of city parks. The protesters however, refused to go.

Let's bring in Jenny Hanson. She is a reporter with our Portland affiliate, KOIN. So, Jenny, one officer was injured, another protester was arrested. What's happening right now? Looks like an awful lot of people behind you.

JENNY HANSON, KOIN REPORTER: Well, we're standing in the location with the two parks where there are a large amount of protesters, still gathered. They say they will remain out here. They have no plans to leave.

In fact, they're supposed to be a general assembly meeting with the "Occupy Portland" camp a few blocks from here. These people tell me that general assembly meeting will then come this way and stay with these people.

In fact, they've set up a food line, if you can see it, a little chow line. There are police that are stationed at every corner of the parks here and they are letting people come in and out, but they are searching backpacks and bags. In fact, they checked one of our own photographer's bags.

You can see, if you look in the other corner, there are riot police on every corner and a lot of cleaning out here. This is a very different scene from last night when there was still many tents here. You can see a lot of those tents are gone.

Right now, it's just a matter of cleaning them out. We have a lot of dumpsters and dump trucks bordering the parks as they clear out that stuff. Once they do that, they will be able to come in and put the fences up because they plan to close down these parks for cleaning and for repair.

There's been a lot of damage done to Chapman Parks here in Portland. But likely said, a lot of these protesters remain and no word from the police on their tactical response, what they're going to do exactly, to get these people out.

Because we have not seen them use force. We haven't seen them come in and haul people out physically. So for now, these people plan on staying out here. They've been singing, they've been chanting, and they say they are not leaving. Jenny Hanson, reporting live in Portland, back to you.

WHITFIELD: So Jenny, for those who have left, have they said anything about is there another location that they are eyeing to set up shop if and when these city parks are completely cleared out?

HANSON: Have they asked if they're going to go to another location? Is that what you asked?

WHITFIELD: Are they going to another location?

HANSON: Right. There has been talk about maybe moving to some other parks, but the mayor and city have been very clear that they are not going to allow them to do that.

They tried to do that, actually about a week ago, they tried to locate to another public park in Portland and the police did come and arrest dozens of people. They did make them leave. There's been talk about them moving to our Waterfront Park, which is a few blocks from here.

The police have said no, we're not going to let you do that. It's a matter of now these stragglers, these people that remain and what they're going to do about them. Because police have said all along they want this to remain peaceful and don't want to use violence to get these people to leave.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jenny, thanks so much for that report from Portland. Keep us posted.

All right, meantime, some tough talk last night on Iran's nuclear program at the 10th Republican presidential debate. And to the streets of Italy, what made people break out in the hallelujah chorus.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: GOP presidential candidate, Michele Bachmann's campaign says it now has proof of media bias against their candidate. It comes in the form of a mass e-mail sent to CBS staff.

The e-mail suggested Bachmann wouldn't be getting questions in last night's CBS National Journal debate. The memo stated Bachmann is, quote, "nearly off the charts in recent polls." Bachmann's campaign spokesperson, Alice Stewart, was on the e-mail list.

Last night's Republican debate was all about the U.S. as a world player. It was the 10th gathering of GOP candidates in this kind of setting.

This time it was in Spartanburg, South Carolina. The topic, American foreign policy. Listen to candidates, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich seemingly in full agreement about a possible worst case scenario conflict with Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If all else fails, if after all of the work we've done, there's nothing else we can do besides take military action, of course, you take military action. It is unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I agree entirely with Governor Romney. If in the end despite all those things, the dictatorship persists you have to take whatever steps are necessary to break its capacity to have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Jill Dougherty is CNN's foreign affairs correspondent. She is joining us right now from Washington. Good to see you, Jill. So did any of the candidates rule out military action against Iran?

JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, the list that I put together, basically you have Romney saying if worst comes to worst you have to do it. You have Santorum kind of in that area, Gingrich, combination of sanctions, covert action for the opposition, and also possible military action.

The one person who was very obvious and overt not wanting that was Ron Paul. He said look, this reminds me of the run up to Iraq, we shouldn't go there, forget it. Herman Cain had a more kind of I think nuance, a little bit more economic force to be used as opposed to military force.

But I do have to point out one thing, you know, the rhetoric that they were using, reminded me more of what's going on in the Arab spring countries than in Iran. Let's listen to Rick Santorum, who was talking about what he said are rebels.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been working on Iran since back in 2004, and I proposed exactly the things that Herman and Mitt Romney suggested, which was to give money to the rebel forces there, to help the pro-democracy movement and put tough sanctions in place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOUGHERTY: So rebels and in Iran it's usually understood that is a peaceful opposition force. In fact, they are so peaceful that is why they are basically getting their heads bashed in and worse, by the Iranian government.

Also, Romney mentioned insurgents. So there was a bit of rhetorical confusion, I think, there. But basically the overall message is, very, very strong against Iran.

And you would expect that because after all, this is the primary debate, as we know, instead of the final debate. So they want to get -- to say the things that will get people in their party who might be more conservative than the average voter to support them.

WHITFIELD: One of the candidates on that stage, Herman Cain, in the past has been criticized for having very little international experience, how did he do?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I mean, he seemed to make no major gaffes and that's important because these are difficult debates as you know. A lot of these issues are very, very nuanced into really, you know, you can step in very quickly as we've had that phrase bandied about.

But I think you would have to say, Huntsman, who is really the person with the most international experience after all, he is does was Obama's envoy -- I'm sorry, ambassador to China, he really does know that subject, but doesn't have a lot of traction in the party.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jill Dougherty, thanks so much from Washington. Appreciate that.

And, of course, you want to join us every Sunday afternoon at 4:00 Eastern, and when we dedicate an entire hour to the presidential contenders in the 2012 election so just maybe an hour and 10 minutes or so away.

International headlines now. Rallies in the streets of Syria reportedly in support of the president there. State run media showed crowds waving Syrian flags and pictures of President Bashar Al-Assad today.

A day after the Arab league suspended Syria's membership. A network of opposition groups reports 23 people have died in violence today alone.

In Iran, at least 17 people, including a general, died in an explosion on a military base near Tehran. State media said ammunitions depot accidentally caught fire at the base during an operation to move equipment. He said at least 16 people were injured.

A chorus of "Hallelujah" why? For Silvio Berlusconi's exit as Italy's prime minister. And now we know his likely replacement, Italy's president just picked Mario Munti, a former European commissioner, as the successor to Berlusconi.

A special military task force has taken over some of Brazil's largest and most notorious slums. Three thousand police and security forces in Rio backed by helicopters moved in last night. It's a drive to root out drug gangs ahead of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.

We're going to talk about some pretty severe weather in this country. Heavy snow and dangerous, nearly hurricane-force winds, in Colorado's mountains. Yesterday, one gust was clocked at around 100 miles an hour. Will it be that treacherous today?

CAT KINSON, MANAGING EDITOR, CNN'S ETOKCRACY: Hi. I'm Cat Kinson, managing editor of CNN's Etokcracy. This is your "Etokcracy Minute."

Now there is a real art to excellent hosting. Most of us think of a generous host as someone who has just all the bases covered, food, drinks, plenty of places to sit. They say things like no, you're so kind to offer, but just bring your lovely self.

But when Thanksgiving rolls around, there's a little bit of a twist. It's such a deeply personalized holiday and no two families celebrate its same way. To satisfy your guest's stomachs and souls, when you issue your invitations, which you should be doing soon, ask them to finish this sentence "it's not Thanksgiving without."

Chances are, if they possibly can, they'll offer to bring it themselves. Not only is this one less dish that you have to make, but your guests also gets a chance to share a little bit of themselves with everybody around the table.

For even more holiday hosting tips, go to etokcracy.com. I'm Cat Kinson, CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The folks in Denver, Colorado, they know blizzards, but I don't know, this time of year in November. Take a look at these pictures right there, pretty severe.

Powerful winds combined with that heavy snow making travel pretty treacherous and, in fact, they're experiencing near hurricane-force winds, something like 70 miles per hour.

And the roads are very icy, so while a lot of folks are dreaming of going to the ski resorts to get in some early skiing.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Don't do it today.

WHITFIELD: You wouldn't want to be on those roads because look at this. This is what happens. A lot of folks have gotten into pretty nasty trouble there.

Jacqui Jeras, how long is this going to last? Is this one of those quickie blizzards or it's going to hang around for a while?

JERAS: Well, you know, they've dealt with this much of the day yesterday and today it's still going on. It kind of came in two separate waves. You mentioned just how bad the travel is.

Take a look at this. This is I-70. This is near Loveland Pass. Loveland Pass is closed, you can't get through there. There have been a number of accidents. You can see how slowly traffic is moving and roads are ice and snow covered.

So it's really a bad deal. Those winds that Fredricka mentioned, beyond hurricane force, at least beyond Category 1, to 115 miles reported in the Frisco area. So the big story is really, this storm, which is going to be pulling out of the Rockies. There's a great difference between pressures here and that's why the wind is strong and really the wind is the key to this storm and why it's making things so treacherous for all those folks. Now we do have blizzard warnings in effect, it's not Denver, it's west of here.

It's on up into the high country, and when all is said and done, we're talking one to two feet of snow in the highest elevations. This storm system is going to head eastward for tomorrow, Fredricka, and we'll be watching it from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast for showers and thundershowers, not the snow.

WHITFIELD: OK. All right, that's good. All right, thanks so much, Jacqui.

JERAS: Sure.

WHITFIELD: All right, well, take a look at this. This is the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant in Japan. Reporters got an up close and personal look at it. We'll show you some other pictures when we come right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, quite the roller coaster on Wall Street lately. Will that wild ride finally stop now that Italy has passed its austerity plan? Well, don't bet on it.

Alison Kosik and the cnnmoney.com's Poppy Harlow take a look ahead at what's expected on Wall Street this week.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fredricka. Stocks were all over the place this past week. The Dow posted triple digit moves in four out of five days as the turmoil in Europe continued. The focus shifted to Italy as that country's 10-year bond yield spiked to a record high and hit a level that could indicate a need for a bailout.

Wall Street bonuses are set to tumble, up to 30 percent this year. Johnson Associates says it will mark the weakest bonus season since the financial crisis. Big firms are getting hit by new regulations and a weak economy.

Poppy Harlow now has a look at what's coming up in business news -- Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM CORRESPONDENT: Thanks so much, Alison. Will the upcoming week on Wall Street brings notable economic reports? We'll get the latest looks at inflation and also home construction.

Meantime, earnings from Wal-Mart, Target, JC Penny and new retail sales numbers will put a focus on consumer spending. And finally, the Senate Banking Committee will hold a hearing on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's compensation practices.

Those mortgage giants sparked outrage with plans to hand out $13 million in bonuses this year, despite having received $170 billion government bailout. Keep a close eye on all of it all week on CNN Money. Fred, back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right, thanks so much, ladies.

All right, for months now, we've been covering the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and it's still going strong. CNN's Susan Candiotti wanted to know how this group is holding it together. She found an interesting money trail.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since "Occupy Wall Street," OWS, began its rallying cry against corporate greed more than 50 days ago, the movement has grown and so has its needs.

Including feeding hundreds camping out, providing sleeping bags for those who need them, distributing tarps and waterproof floor boards and medical supplies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very grateful to all the donations that have come in.

CANDIOTTI: What isn't donated has to be bought. OWS released its first month spread sheet to CNN. The group took in nearly $455,000 and spent nearly $55,000. Quite a balance sheet, about $400,000 in black, helping to keep track is money man, Pete Dutro, who says his job is --

PETE DUTRO, OWS FINANCE WORKING GROUP: Much like having an office job in a marsh pit. It requires a lot of leg room to keep on top of receipts and you know, staying accurate and like making sure that each account when it's opened gets closed.

CANDIOTTI: Some donations are made on the spot. People walking through the park.

CHARLES SEARLES, OWS PROTESTER: It seems to come and wave, people standing around, one person sees one person, and it's like a chain reaction, you know.

CANDIOTTI: Some campers help the cause by spray painting occupy slogans on t-shirts for a donation. Cash deposits mainly go to a bank, OWS says it was chosen for its ethics.

DUTRO: They are a for-profit bank, but they donate all their profits to charities.

CANDIOTTI: The Alliance for Global Justice manages online donations and checks accountable to the IRS. Some critics have raised questions because of AGJ's support of the Sandanistas among other causes.

CHUCK KAUFMAN, CO-COORDINATOR, ALLIANCE FOR GLOBAL JUSTICE: We've been on the side of right and justice and alleviating poverty in the world.

CANDIOTTI: For "Occupy Wall Street" loyalists a perfect fit for a movement that shows no signs of dying down. Will all those donations be spent and not squandered?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I trust them completely. I'm not concerned at all that money is being inappropriately spent.

CANDIOTTI: What worries OWS is whether the $10,000 a day they're taking in, will keep on growing. Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: A look at our top stories right now. Police and Occupy Portland protesters are facing off over a deadline. These pictures show Portland police storming the demonstrators just after midnight.

That was the deadline. The city set for Occupy Portland to clear out of the parks, but protesters stood firm. One officer was injured in the confrontation and one protester arrested.

President Barack Obama is meeting leaders from Asia and the Pacific Rim today in Hawaii. It's the first time the United States has hosted the annual APEC Summit since the Clinton administration. The White House is kicking of a new foreign policy era that focuses heavily on Asia and the Pacific region.

And for the first time since the tsunami last March, we can take you inside Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. A team of journalists were actually allowed inside within the last 24 hours.

There are still levels of radiation around the plant, but the reading is within safe levels, they say. The tsunami came after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, 15,000 people lost their lives.

I'll be back in one hour to focus an entire hour exclusively on the 2012 presidential candidates. It's been another week of debates. You'll hear the high points and gaffes, Ron Brownstein of the "National Journal" will be my guest for the hour. Stay with CNN. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. "YOUR MONEY" starts right after this.

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