Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Romney Takes Florida and heads to Nevada; Don Cornelius Dies Of Apparent Suicide; Help For Homeowners To Refinance; Pakistan Supporting The Taliban; At Least 68 People Killed In Syria; One Million Birth Control Pills Recalled; Therapy Dog Retires; Facebook IPO May Happen Today

Aired February 01, 2012 - 13:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: And hello, everyone, I'm Randi Kaye. It's 1:00 and we've got a busy hour ahead, so let's get started.

On to Nevada. But only one of the GOP presidential contenders goes on to the next race as a front-runner and that was decided in Florida. Mitt Romney took almost half the vote in yesterday's primary and all 50 of Florida's Republican delegates. He beat Newt Gingrich by a wider margin, and Gingrich beat him in South Carolina. Afterward, the former house speaker let his lectern do the talking. You see it there, 46 states to go. Seven are up for grabs in February, starting with Nevada and Maine on Saturday. Both of those contests or caucuses in Maine actually go on for a week.

Wolf Blitzer is watching it all. He was watching it all plenty last night. Great election coverage once again. Romney, of course, dominating Florida. But today, some might look at some of the comments that he made, certainly to our Soledad O'Brien, and think maybe he might have given little bit of a gift to his opponents telling Soledad that I'm not concerned about the very poor, that was his quote. She pressed him on it. Let's listen to what he said and then I want to ask you about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My campaign is focused on middle-income Americans. My campaign -- you can focus where to focus. You can focus on the rich, that's not my focus. You can focus on my very poor, that's not my focus. My focus is on middle-income Americans, retirees living on social security, people who can't find work. Folks that have kids that are getting ready to go to college.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: How many time do you think we're going to hear that before election day? I mean, does this spell trouble for him, to you think?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN LEAD POLITICAL ANCHOR: Well you know, he said it inartfully (ph), there's no doubt about it, but he later went on and met with reporters aboard his plane, and he tried to explain what he meant and he probably could have done a much better job explaining. He says, as far as the middle class, they need a lot of help because a lot of people are struggling. The rich, they're doing just fine, they can take care of themselves.

When he said he's not concerned about the poor, what he said later in explaining the context of what he meant to say, was there a lot of programs that the government has right now, a safety net for very poor people, whether food stamps or Medicaid, all sorts of assistance programs that the government can help take care of them. There are deficiencies, he says, in those program. Some work needs to be done.

By and large, if you're very poor, there's all sorts of programs out there that can help you. His focus is on the middle class. That's what he tried to say. He didn't do a very good job in the interview with Soledad really explaining the context of what he meant to say. And I'm sure you're right, those words, I'm not concerned about the poor, if that's just taken out of context, it'll be used to badger him, and he'll have to do some work and supporters will have to do some work to put the right context into what he was trying to suggest.

KAYE: And I know we're talking about that portion of what he said. But listening to him talking about the middle class and worrying about the middle class, that sounds a lot like President Obama.

BLITZER: President Obama's of course focused on the middle class. He's certainly not worried about the extremely wealthy, the millionaires as he calls them and the billionaires. So in this area, there will be a fierce competition for the middle class. Mitt Romney, if he gets their nomination -- it's a big if right now, if he gets the nomination, he'll have his middle-class program, the president has his middle class program, and most of the country that's middle class, they will be able to decide which middle-class program they like.

KAYE: Let's talk about some of the exit polls, you certainly know them well from last night. Romney easily swept the 45 percent of voters who say that the most -- that the candidate's most important quality is electability, of course. But he lost the voters who call themselves very conservative by 11 points. Is that a problem for him?

BLITZER: Probably not a problem in a general election. It might still be a problem on super Tuesday, assuming this format continues. A lot of southern states coming up very different, shall we say, than Florida which really is a microcosm of the whole country. It's really a broad -- you know, it's a large -- it's the major competitive state going into the 2000 -- the 2012 general election, because the first three states really, you know, they're not very competitive.

The Democrats always take New York and California, the Republicans take Texas. So, Florida is a real source of competition. But you know, I think he did really well in Florida. If I were working for the president of the United States in his re-election campaign, I'd be studying those numbers closely because it shows that Florida, assuming Romney is the nominee, will be very competitive with President Obama.

KAYE: I love having you here to talk politics, but I also want to talk to you about Don Cornelius, his passing. I know you were a big fan of his -- huge fan, in fact.

BLITZER: I grew up listening to Don Cornelius, and he did so much for music in our country over these years, and recent years. You know, I've gone to the Soul Train Awards, BET Soul Train Awards. I've gone to the BET Honors and Awards program in Washington, and he was so instrumental in getting that off the ground. So you know, I'll remember him fondly as millions and millions of other people will as well. It's a big loss to our country, and my condolences to his family.

KAYE: Yes. I mean, before MTV and the like, there was Soul Train.

BLITZER: Soul Train, yes. You're too young to remember. I'm old enough to remember.

KAYE: Oh, I remember it, I remember it well.

BLITZER: I love Soul Train, still love Soul Train, and you know, it was just part of -- part of my life growing up.

KAYE: Yes. He was an incredible man. Thank you, Wolf. Appreciate that very much.

Now, some other stories that we're following today. President Obama is calling on Congress to make it easier for millions of homeowners to refinance their mortgages at low-interest rates. Describing the housing problem as massive in size and scope, the President expanded on a proposal he outlined at his State of the Union address. He said, this plan would have common sense rules with no mortgaging fees or conflicts of interest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No more fine print than you use to get families to take a deal with is not as good as the one that they should have gotten. New safeguards against inappropriate foreclosures, new options to avoid foreclosure if you've fallen on hardship or a run of bad luck. And a new simple, clear form for buy -- for new buyers of a home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Some Republicans have already dismissed the proposal as an election year ploy.

Overseas now, a secret NATO reports says Pakistan continues to support the Taliban in Afghanistan despite years of denials from the Pakistani government. A "Times of London" reporter who's read the report says Pakistan's spy agency inter-services intelligence also knows the whereabouts of all senior Taliban commanders. In response, the Pakistan government repeated its long-held position that it does not support or aid the Taliban.

In Syria, a deadly day in the uprising against President Bashar al Assad. Opposition activists say at least 68 people were killed across the country, including more than 30 in the Damascus suburb seen in this video. This next video just into us today of a heavy battle in the city of Homs yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Opposition reports say the rebel free Syrian Army is advancing in Homs and other areas. At the U.N., more talks today in convincing Russia and China to agree to a draft security resolution calling on Assad to step down.

If you take birth control pills, listen up. Pfizer is recalling one million packs of (INAUDIBLE) with 28 pills. The recall also includes the generic version, Norgestrel and Ethinyl Estradiol. Pfizer says the blister pack might contain an inexact account of active and inert pills which could be out of sequence and that, of course, could increase the chance of an unintended pregnancy.

Florida is in the past. The GOP race heads to Nevada, that's where Mitt Romney and Ron Paul were the top two finishers in the last Republican primary. So, do they hold the cards this time around? We're live from Nevada straight after the break.

But, first, the time of day where we acknowledge someone for going the extra mile, and today that someone has four legs and fur. For the last 11 years, Colby has been helping autistic children feel loved. He let them hold him and pet him and sometimes lent them a shoulder even to cry on. But on his 11th birthday, the Pennsylvania pet, look at him there, is retiring. He has arthritis and just can't work anymore. And as his friends celebrate his birthday, we'd like to give him a shout out. Happy birthday, Colby, you are today's Rock Star.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: The battle in Florida is over. The next fight for the Republican presidential contenders, Nevada. Ron Paul has been speaking at a rally in Las Vegas, and Joe Johns is there. Joe, Mitt Romney and Ron Paul were the top go-getters there four years ago. What kind of reception is Paul getting this time around?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, I've got to tell you, he's very well liked and well received here in this part of the country, quite frankly. He did win four -- he got actually second four years ago. He is the oldest candidate with some of the youngest supporters, a lot of college students among them. Today, is Ron Paul's 55th wedding anniversary, he talked about that at this event here, listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Good morning, everybody. Delighted to be here. We've been on an extensive tour, and my wife's been with me. She didn't make it this morning because this was her day I said that she could sleep in and I provided breakfast for her this morning because it's our 55th wedding anniversary day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Long time to be married there. It's interesting also, Randi. You know, we talk a lot of times about Ron Paul having so many college students in the crowd, but here in Nevada, last night and also this morning, really interesting, a lot of older people in the crowd. That libertarian message from Ron Paul seems to be attracting a large range of demographics, if you will.

KAYE: And Joe, let me ask you about Nevada, because it's a caucus state. So, what does that mean for Romney's advantage? Could that affect that in terms of the delegates and all that?

JOHNS: Well, Romney actually won the whole thing here in Nevada four years ago, about 51 percent of the vote. He got a very strong vote from the Mormons here in this state. A lot of Mormons turned out for him and 98 percent of them, of our exit polls show, actually voted for Mitt Romney.

So, it's a little different situation, it's all about the organization, and the question is whether Ron Paul will be able to do better than he did four years ago, a lot of people suspect that he will. It is also the issue of Rick Santorum who did so well in Iowa with his organization, his just sort of walk in (ph) the state. So, there could be a different dynamic at work here, but, of course, Romney is going to be pushing hard to win every state he can at this stage, Randi.

KAYE: I'm sure. Our Joe Johns here for us there in Las Vegas. Thank you, Joe. Facebook fans may soon be able to do more than like their favorites. They could own a piece of the empire. There's talk of the social media company may go public. How this may or may not benefit you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Facebook may be announcing that it's going public today. This all according to stories from "The Wall Street Journal" and "New York Times." But do investors like that move and are they excited about being Facebook's friend? Yes, of course we had to write that. The company is reportedly hoping to raise $5 billion in its initial offering.

Let's look at the top initial public offerings for U.S. companies since 2000. At the top of the heap is Visa at $19.6 million, followed by GM at $18.1 million, AT&T Wireless at $10.6 million, with Kraft Foods in fourth place at $8.7 million.

Let's bring in senior editor of "Fortune" magazine, Dan Primack. He's with us from Newton, Massachusetts.

Dan, this is exciting news for a whole lot of investors. But it's already afternoon. So is the IPO finally coming later today, do you think?

DAN PRIMACK, SENIOR EDITOR, "FORTUNE": Well, we hope so. Of course, if you and I had been talking eight hours ago, I would have said it's coming soon before the market opens. Everyone now seems to assume it's going to come at the end of the day. But the reality is, there's no real pressure on Facebook here. If they don't file today, they can file tomorrow. No one has a gun to their head on this.

KAYE: So for anyone watching and anybody who uses Facebook, they're probably asking, well, can I buy shares? Can the general public buy shares? Can you or I buy shares? What's the answer?

PRIMACK: The answer is that this will most likely look like a traditional IPO. Which means that the IPO shares themselves are going to be purchased by large institutions. You know, mutual funds, pension funds, et cetera, and clients of the banks that are participating on the deal. And then right after that, everyone will be able to buy shares if they have the money to do so. It's going to look like any other stock.

Some people have suggested that maybe Facebook's going to try to do something really unusual. You know, give every user a share or something like that. But we just won't know until the filing itself comes out.

KAYE: Just before we introduced you, we showed some of the top public offerings. So let's talk about Facebook. How much do you think they're looking to raise?

PRIMACK: You know, the original reports were that they were going to file to raise $10 billion. Now it's been kind of downgraded to $5 billion. But the reality is, you won't really know until a few months from now when the company really puts out how many shares it's offering, what the price is going to be and then it does what they call a road show, which is going to try to actually sell the shares to large institutions. Often when companies file for an IPO, they put kind of a placeholder number on there, which might be an indication of what they want. But is it really what the final number is going to be?

KAYE: Morgan Stanley certainly taking the lead here on this IPO. How much is Morgan Stanley hoping to make on this?

PRIMACK: It's a good question. You know, often companies make a couple percentage points on the IPO. There have been some rumors and reports that it could only be about 1 percent. Look, no matter what, it's a huge coup for Morgan Stanley. They've been kind of leading the wave of Internet IPOs for the last year. And even if they don't make a huge amount of money off of Facebook, the cache they'll get off of this for the next Internet offering and the one after that and the one after that are really big. And conversely, it's a real disappointment for Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs has been cozying up to Facebook for a couple of years now, doing other deals with them. And the assumption was always, they were going to get this contract. They're going to be on the IPO, but they're not the lead underwriter.

KAYE: Let me ask you just quickly here. Facebook certainly now going to have to answer to shareholders by going public. So what does that mean for Facebook users? I mean can we expect changes now that they're not going to be so independent?

PRIMACK: I don't know if there will be changes necessarily for users. There's certainly going to be changes for the company. You know, Facebook, despite the fact that it's a very well-known company and Zuckerberg speaks a lot, it's still a fairly -- it's a private company really in all sense of the word. And Zuckerberg himself has really shown in the past hesitance to go public because he doesn't particularly want their financials coming out. He doesn't want to have to, you know, answer to hedge fund managers and shareholders quarterly -- on a quarterly basis. They're going to have to do those things now. And if a major privacy event or something happens, they're going to have additional questions to answer than they have in the past.

KAYE: Dan Primack, great talking with you. Thank you very much.

Dozens of college hopefuls were excited to hear they were accepted to Vassar. The only thing is, it was a mistake. Now the college is scrambling to deal with it and one family is talking about a lawsuit. The dean of admissions joins us live from Vassar College.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Imagine having your heart set on one school, so much so that you applied for early admission, which is binding. For scores of applicants at Vassar College, that anxiety and anticipation turned into joy when they logged on to the school's early decision Web site on Friday. They had gotten their acceptance letters. They could picture themselves here on Vassar's campus. But for 76 applicants, that joy would only last for about 30 minutes. It turns out their acceptance letter was a computer glitch. One big mistake. According to "The New York Times," some parents are now demanding the school accept the accepted, then rejected students anyway. And at least one family is reportedly thinking about suing.

In the school's first live interview since this happened, the dean of admission at Vassar College, David Borus, joins us from the school's campus to talk about this.

Dean Borus, thank you for being with us on the program.

DAVID BORUS, DEAN OF ADMISSIONS & FINAN. AID., VASSAR COLLEGE: My pleasure.

KAYE: Posting acceptance status online isn't new for Vassar. The school's done this four times before. This is the second year. How did this happen?

BORUS: That's right. Well, it was a programming error. The students were directed to go to log in on the website. And instead of being directed to the actual site where they would have seen their appropriate decision letters, they were sent to a test site where they saw a placeholder letter that was an acceptance. And so for about 30 minutes, students saw the wrong letters. KAYE: In those 30 minutes, they had -- they had 30 minutes to celebrate. We're talking about 76 applicants celebrating, spreading the news, calling their family and friends. And then they realized it was a big mistake. Listen to this sound bite.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DYLAN LEGGIO, VASSAR EARLY ADMISSIONS APPLICANT: I was just extremely happy that I -- first, I got into a top class school, like Vassar. And also that my college process was over. My mom wanted to -- she wanted the essay -- I mean the acceptance letter. And so I printed it out for her. But when I printed it out, I realized that it was actually a decline and then I kind of realized then.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: So, Dean Borus, what's being done, actually, then to help these students now?

BORUS: Well, several things are being done. First, immediately, our IT people went to work to find out what had happened and to put into place systems that will keep this from happening again. We've done many things thus far. We've apologized to the students, obviously, and to their families. Our president has done so. So have I. We have called all of the students, or tried to call them all, to further apologize and to offer to help them in any way we can with their college search process. We are refunding their application fees and we've told them that if, as a result of this mistake, they had withdrawn their applications to any other schools, if they have any difficulty getting those applications reinstated, that we will call those schools on their behalf.

KAYE: Yes, let me pick up on that, because in the acceptance letter there's actually a reminder that instructs these students, the accepted students, to withdraw their applications from other schools before they e-sign as it said. So those students who had followed that instruction actually thought they were accepted to Vassar, went ahead and said no thank you to their other schools, and now they're stuck. So you're saying that Vassar's going to help them. I mean is that a guarantee that you can help them get back in place at another school?

BORUS: They're not really stuck, Randi. The fact is, that if they wrote to those schools, if they e-mailed those schools on Friday afternoon and said, I'm withdrawing my application, I'm sure, as someone who's been in admission for a long time, that if they e-mailed those same schools on Monday morning and said, please reinstate my application, the schools will have no problem with it. But as I said, if they have any issues at the other schools, my staff and I will be glad to call them directly.

KAYE: According to "The New York Times," at least one applicant is considering a lawsuit against Vassar. Would you like to comment on that?

BORUS: Well, we have received no notice of any legal action. I'm not a lawyer and I'm not really qualified to comment on the legal side of things.

KAYE: Would it force the school possibly to reconsider how it's handled this?

BORUS: You know, that's a hypothetical situation and I really -- I really cannot say.

KAYE: One last thing, from the parents and from the families affected by this. They say that early decisions, we know, are binding. So a lot of these parents are saying, well, if it's binding for the student, why isn't it binding for Vassar, since Vassar did technically accept them.

BORUS: Well, you know, Vassar is a school that gets about 8,000 applications for some 660 places. So space is very limited. And if we were to admit these students now simply because we made a mistake, which is important, but nonetheless a mistake, then we would have to deny admission in a few weeks to other qualified candidates who I think deserve the same kind of fair and thorough assessment that we made on the early decision candidates.

KAYE: I know these were some tough questions, but, Dean Borus, you know we wanted to get to the bottom of it. And we really appreciate you coming on, setting the record straight and sharing with us exactly how this happened. So, thank you very much.

BORUS: My pleasure.

KAYE: The battle for Florida ends with a Romney win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Primary does not divide us, it prepares us. And we will win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: But can he win over ultra conservatives and really bring the party together? That is "Fair Game" and it's next.

Speaking of conservatives, that brings us to our political junkie question. Mitt Romney is celebrating a big victory, but he's still trying to win over the political right according to exit polls. What percentage of Florida Republicans said Romney's views are not conservative enough? Is it 25 percent, 35 percent, or 40 percent? I'll give a shout-out to the first person who tweets the right answer to @randikayecnn.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Before the break I asked what percentage of Florida Republican voters said Mitt Romney's positions are not conservative enough -- 25 percent, 35 percent, or 40 percent? Those are your choices.

And the answer? About 40 percent. Congratulations to John from Ohio ,who was the first to tweet the right answer to me. Very nicely done.

Mitt Romney's relationship with the political right is always fair game. Let's talk about that and other primary headlines with Gentry Collins. He's the former national political director for the Republican Party. He's joining us today from Las Vegas.

And in Austin, Texas, Democratic political consultant Ed Espinoza.

Gentry, I'm going to start with you on this one. Some conservatives still clearly have concerns about Mitt Romney. Does he still have work to do, do you think, on the Right?

GENTRY COLLINS, FORMER RNC NATIONAL POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Of course he has got work to do but I tell you, the 60-40 number, on this question about whether he's conservative enough, I thought was a very good number for him. Because in a four-way race, 60 percent believing he is conservative enough is good enough to get him there. Forty percent saying that he's not conservative enough really, I think, speaks to his electability among independent voters and moderate Democrats this fall. So I think that's a great place for him to be right now.

KAYE: Ed, how much work do you think Mitt Romney has to do with the Right?

ED ESPINOZA, DEMOCRATIC POLITICAL CONSULTANT: Well, 60 percent of conservatives may be a good place for him to be, but he still hasn't broke 50 percent in a single primary. And for him to get there he's going to need to consolidate his conservative base. American politics these days are built on strong bases. Obama's got a strong progressive base and Republicans got to have a strong conservative base. For him to get there, he's going to need to build that strong foundation. And if he can't do it in the primaries, he's probably going to have to pick a very conservative running mate to make that happen.

KAYE: Let's talk about Newt Gingrich's speech last night. It was a -- it was a concession speech of sorts. He never said congratulations to Mitt Romney. He launched right into attacks on President Obama and made it basically sound like it was the day after the election in November. Let's listen to just a bit of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER REP. NEWT GINGRICH, R-GA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If Barack Obama gets re-elected, it will be a disaster for the United States of America. Make no bones about it. If he can have a record this bad, unemployment this bad, deficits this bad, policies this bad, gasoline prices this high and still get reelected, you can't imagine how radically he will be in a second term.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Gentry, explain the strategy to us here, please. COLLINS: Well, I think it's a smart approach for Speaker Gingrich. I mean, look, the number one issue as we saw in the CNN exit polling last night was who is most electable against Barack Obama? And we've seen a lot of anger. You've seen several prominent Republicans come out and complain that both the Gingrich and the Romney campaigns over the last couple of days, about the negative tone and tenor of this campaign. And so if Speaker Gingrich can return his messaging to an anti-Obama kind of a platform in Nevada and these February contests leading into Super Tuesday in early March, I think it's a very good strategy for his campaign.

KAYE: Ed, have you heard a concession speech like that one?

ESPINOZA: You know, it's definitely unusual, but I think it shows when going negative in your own party's not working, go negative on the party and maybe it will. But what it also shows is that the difference in this primary this time is that it's not a sprint through the early states. It's a marathon through all of them. I think Gingrich was sending a signal last night that he's in this for the long haul.

KAYE: Certainly so. And the question is really, I mean, I know Mitt Romney has been saying, well, that's OK. I'm not asking anybody to drop out, because the longer they stay in, it makes him a better candidate. It certainly tests him more. But at some point, Gentry, doesn't that start to turn around? Doesn't that do some damage to Mitt Romney?

COLLINS: Well, at some point perhaps it may. But I think clearly the Romney team has learned some important lessons. Look, they really had a boot, so to speak, on Newt Gingrich's speech after Iowa, after New Hampshire, in particular, and both the Romney campaign and the Romney super PAC, to some extent, both let their foot off, let the pressure off in South Carolina.

Of course, instead of talking about a January sweep, all of a sudden the race became much more competitive. Yet the Romney team was able to put it back -- both the campaign and super PAC -- put it -- put it back on track in Florida last night. I think many observers expect them to do well here in Nevada as well on Saturday. And so the campaign really has learned how to engage in a political knife fight when they had to. That's a lesson that's going to serve them well in the November general election. And I really don't think that this primary contest is going to last, at least not as aggressively much past Super Tuesday in March.

KAYE: Ed, I'll give you a very quick final word here.

ESPINOZA: Interparty attacks might make Romney a better candidate but it doesn't make him a more conservative candidate. If he wants to make a statement and win over conservatives, he would do something bold, like pick a conservative running mate, and do it three weeks from now.

KAYE: All right, you wrapped that up nicely for us.

Ed, thank you very much, Ed Espinoza.

Gentry Collins, that is fair game today. Nice to see you both.

One school has found a solution to keeping kids' attention in class. Rapper Jay-Z: why hip-hop music is being added to the curriculum.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: If you're a teacher, you understand, it's often hard, if not daunting, to get students to pay attention or care about a lot of important subjects. But a few innovative educators are tapping an unconventional, unexpected teaching tool like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) (END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Pretty innovative, wouldn't you say? Not just Jay-Z, but hip-hop in general, to tackle politics, art, poetry, culture and some other hard (inaudible) issues. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is really leading the way on this one. The school recently launched a 15-week lecture series that focused on how to use hip-hop as a means to teach kids what they see as boring topics.

Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings at the University of Wisconsin,- Madison is among those leading the way. In fact, she is currently teaching a class that challenges students to think critically using hip-hop.

Professor, nice to have you on the program. There's a lot of misconception of course about hip-hop. But you say that hip-hop can help change the way students learn about some of these more traditional topics. How so?

GLORIA LADSON-BILLINGS, PROFESSOR OF CURRICULUM, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN: Yes, my pleasure. Thanks for having me. About learning, suggests that children use multiple modalities to get some information, and what we've been doing for so many years now is using one or two modalities, finding that kids are not just picking up information just by reading.

If you look at the way that they live their lives, they are very complex, they do what the psychologists calls multitasking, sometimes not very well, but we do know that we have to be able to tap into many more channels to be able to reach children.

KAYE: And so give me an idea of how this is going to work. Are there going to be lectures coming in from some of these hip-hop stars? Or how will it work and what will the students actually learn?

LADSON-BILLINGS: So, we actually have two things going on. We have a seminar that happens each week, but then we have the lecture series, which is open to the public. Our students will be attending, but the public is welcome to attend.

We're very grateful to our office of diversity with our Vice Chancellor David Williams and Willie May (ph) from our office of multicultural arts initiative for helping us put this together. We are bringing in people from Stanford, Ohio State, San Francisco State, Teacher's College, all respected academics --

(CROSSTALK)

KAYE: What about the artist themselves --

` LADSON-BILLINGS: -- who are going to be talking about how --

Well, we are really -- we're bringing a few artists, not a lot. In fact, last week we had a filmmaker, and often we're using small independent folks. We are going to have Davie D (ph). So we are, you know, we don't -- we aren't on a big budget on this thing. So we're really in an experimental stage.

KAYE: But you do believe that this can help --

LADSON-BILLINGS: So our hope is that --

KAYE: You do believe this can help bridge the achievement gap, though, right? That's the main focus here?

LADSON-BILLINGS: Well, that's the experiment. We're trying to figure out if we can find ways to ensure that kids who are disenchanted and disengaged with schooling, that we can reengage them. And I know the skeptics will say, oh, this is just another one of those fads.

But the truth of the matter is none of these folks have a solution for what has been an ongoing achievement gap, or as I like to say, education debt.

KAYE: And have you seen any improvement in the students so far having brought this in?

Well, there's not a problem for the students in my class. They are college students. They got admitted to the university. We are looking at those who might become teachers who will work in K-12 schools to be able to do something with what's happening. That's where we're seeing the huge disparity, in K-12 schools.

KAYE: And is your school the only one that's doing it? Or is there a way for other teachers to possibly incorporate this --

LADSON-BILLINGS: No, I'd -- there is -- there have been courses on popular culture and hip-hop specifically for some time now. Even here at Wisconsin in our Afro-Am department and music department, Craig Warner (ph) has offered courses. Michael Eric Dyson (ph) offers them at Georgetown. There's probably very few major universities that haven't explored hip-hop as a form of popular culture.

KAYE: How do you get around some of the -- some of the offensive language or what many would consider offensive language in teaching this? LADSON-BILLINGS: That's a great question and this is the first time in my 20 years that I've written on my syllabus that some of what you are going to be asked to read, to listen to or see will include profanity, misogynous language, racist, homophobic -- please do not interpret this as an endorsement. So I've put that sort of disclaimer there. The students laugh because they've all heard it. And my argument was there's no way to have integrity if I try to cut everything out.

KAYE: Right. But that, of course, is the last thing you want to be teaching them. Professor Gloria Ladson-Billings, thanks so very much.

LADSON-BILLINGS: Exactly.

KAYE: Good luck and keep us up to date on how it's going.

LADSON-BILLINGS: Sure. Thanks a lot.

KAYE: Now to a deadly car crash in Florida, killing 11 people. The lone survivor from one family, an illegal immigrant. Now she might be deported back to Brazil. How her church is leading the fight to keep her in the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: The highway patrol in Florida says an 11th victim was found today in the burned-out wreckage from a chain reaction disaster early Sunday. Cars and trucks piled up in near-zero visibility from fog and nearby brush fires on interstate 75 near Gainesville. Among the dead are five members of a Georgia family who were part of a church group coming home from a conference in Orlando.

Jose and Adriana Carmo and their 17-year-old daughter, Leticia all perished, as did Jose's (ph) brother, Edsom and Edsom's girlfriend, Rose (ph). The family's sole survivor is 15-year-old Lidiane (ph), who is in a north Florida hospital with broken bones and internal injuries. The Carmos were pillars of a Brazilian immigrant community in Marietta, Georgia, just north of Atlanta, where Jose was the founding pastor of a church. That church is determined to take care of Lidiane . But there is one complication. The Carmos were and Lidiane is undocumented. They had come to the U.S. on visas 12 years ago, but didn't go home when the visas expired. Now the community fears that Lidiane may face deportation.

I'm joined by another pastor of the International Church of Restoration, Arao Amazonas.

And, Pastor, welcome to the program. This is such a tough story, and our hearts go out to Lidiane. What is your community doing for her? .

SENIOR PASTOR ARAO AMAZONAS, INTERNATIONAL CHURCH OF RESTORATION: Well, first we're shocked with everything that happened -- just happened with us and with this lovely family. And we're trying to give the support they need -- that Lidiane is needing at this time, the family in Brazil, even for the whole congregation, because everybody is so shocked.

So Lidiane now, her uncle is taking care of her with the family in the church. We're trying to do our best to see her recovery as fast as she can.

KAYE: And it's not only her recovery but also the possibility that she could be deported. How real of a possibility is that, do you know, and is the Brazilian government doing anything to help?

AMAZONAS: Well, the Brazilian government had a meeting with us last night, and they tried to do the best they can. That's what they told us. This possibility of deportation is something that -- our lawyers will take care of this. We know we have laws that can protect Lidiane at this moment, and the folks that we would like to have at this moment, it is -- Lidiane is lying here.

Lidiane came to this nation when she was two years of -- two years old. She's like any regular American girl. She just didn't -- she wasn't born here, but she acts like an American girl. She almost can't speak Portuguese language, she doesn't know the people there.

So a tragedy came to her, and that is the main point that we want to focus on, her situation to have her recovered, and then think about the future just a little later.

KAYE: What about the burial plans for Lidiane's parents, her sister, her uncle. Will their bodies be brought back to Georgia? Or will they be buried in Brazil?

AMAZONAS: Well, they will be buried in Brazil. Our -- the plan is to come to -- to bring them to Georgia, and we would hold a funeral service here, because they were pastors in the city. We had a lot of people here that loved them so much.

But after that, we want to send the bodies to Brazil because the family is devastated. They want to see the bodies, they want to have their grief together with the bodies and all those (inaudible). So it has been a very tough time for us.

KAYE: We understand that --

AMAZONAS: And that's what we want to do, we want to have this time here, and also allow the family -- and also allow the family to have their time down there in Brazil.

KAYE: We understand that Lidiane's classmates are holding a vigil for her tonight. How -- have you had a chance to speak to any of them? I mean, how is the school holding up and the community there and your church family as well?

AMAZONAS: Well, we just have -- some teachers from the school just met me some minutes ago, and they told us that the whole school, (inaudible) school is involved, trying to help Lidiane through this process.

We're trying to raise funds for the things that we're going to need in the funeral and the transport for Brazil. And the whole school's involved. Tonight we're having a service there, a time to pray, a time to share. And even the church here, the members from this church, we had a service two days ago, and everybody is so touched and we're trying to deal with this process.

We're trying to -- we're helping each other because it's such a hard time for us. We could never expect such thing with us (ph). But it's been very comfortable just seeing the whole community get involved, trying to help us, anyway.

KAYE: Well, we're glad that we were able to have you on the program to talk about Lidiane and her family, and we do wish you the best of luck there. I know it's a tough situation, Pastor. Thank you very much.

We'll have much more on CNN after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Indianapolis is sparing nothing when it comes to entertaining the hordes of football fans descending on the city for the Super Bowl. Here's something you don't see every day. Football fans can climb up a 95-foot tower, strap on a harness and fly about 800 feet above the Super Bowl Village. It is not just about football anymore.

And check this out. About 70 trucks hauled in 700 tons of sand creating a temporary indoor beach in the heartland in the middle of winter. It's for something called the Beach Bowl, a televised flag football game Saturday, featuring celebrities and athletes. It's also the site of a private nighttime event featuring Katy Perry and Peyton Manning, among others.

So let's bring in CNN's Mark McKay. He joins us live from Indy.

Mark, we've seen the zip line, the artificial beach. It looks like Indianapolis is certainly making the most of its moment in the spotlight.

MARK MCKAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Randi, so, sure, welcome to the 12th largest city in the United States, but one that has a population increase and will continue to have its population grow as we get closer to Sunday's Super Bowl game between the Giants and the Patriots.

You know, it is a very compact downtown area in downtown Indianapolis, and that really makes for great friend-family experiences, like the NFL experience, where fans who don't have tickets to Sunday's game can experience the interactive nature of this game and this sport.

They're on par to break records at the NFL experience, and we saw fans get involved yesterday during what we called one of our toughest assignments of the week -- NFL Super Bowl Media Day. The fans were able to stream into Lucas Oil Stadium. They were paying to come in and watch this scene unfolding in front of them, Randi. Many of them were Colts fans, saw a lot of Colts jerseys interspersed with Giants and Patriots jerseys they had on. It was a great experience for them, and people here, the Colts fans, the Patriots fans, the Giants fans and any other fans coming into the Super Bowl already getting set. They're savoring the experience already midweek, Randi.

KAYE: That looks like a whole lot of fun. Let's preview the game, just quickly here. I mean, besides football, there are some pretty good story lines.

MCKAY: No doubt about it. You know the Giants and the Patriots, here we go again. Four years later, Randi, those planes are filling up out of New York and Boston as they trek their fans in for the game. You know, there's a local rooting interest as well. Giants quarterback Eli Manning, the younger brother of Peyton Manning, the Colts quarterback that means so much to the city and this community, so I'm sure the Colts fans are looking for a rooting interest. The Patriots becoming one of their biggest rivalries. If I had to guess, a lot of the Colts fans are probably going for the Giants to win on Sunday, just an unscientific survey for you, Randi.

KAYE: I like that unscientific survey. Mark, we'll see if you're correct. And thank you very much. Mark McKay, we'll see you more tomorrow as we gear up for Super Bowl Sunday. Thanks again.

And thank you, everyone, for watching. As always, I'd love to hear what you think of the program. You can continue the conversation as always with me online. You can find me on Facebook and Twitter at @randikayeCNN, is where you'll find me.

CNN NEWSROOM continues now with Brooke Baldwin live in Tampa, Florida. Hi, Brooke.

BROOKE BALDWIN, ANCHOR, CNN NEWSROOM: Hey, Randi. Thank you so much.