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Source: Whitney Houston was Partying in Final Days; Horrific Situation in Homs; Romney & Santorum Battle for Top Spot; Syrian Activist Describes Horrors; Revolt In Syria Enters 12th Month; Study: Arsenic In Some Infant Formulas

Aired February 16, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux. We are learning more about how Whitney Houston spent her last days. A source close to the investigation tells CNN that she was seen partying in Beverly hills even the night before she died.

Here's what HLN's Dr. Drew said about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DREW, HLN: The fact that she could go to those treatments as really as last may and come out and she and the people around her think that partying with alcohol is somehow OK because her problem is other drugs is -- it shows that the treatments were abject failures. Abject failures.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: More attacks across Syria as the U.N. General Assembly plans to vote this afternoon on a resolution condemning President Bashar al Assad with a crackdown. Meanwhile, government forces appear to be losing their tight grip across the northern part of the country. We are getting a first hand account from Ivan Watson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Young man and old, sit on the ground, chain smoking, weapons, light weapons, but they say they've gotten within the last couple of months. They tell us that they are trying to protect their communities, their families, their villages by laying rings of improvised landmines, but they're fully aware that they do not have weaponry to match the tanks, armored personnel carriers and air power of Bashar al Assad's army.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: The death toll in the Honduras prison fire now at 382. Inmates' families are anxiously waiting to find out if their loved ones were among those victims.

Now, this is a fast-moving fire. It broke out on Tuesday. It is one of the worst tragedies of its kind in decades in Latin America. It's renewed focus on the deplorable prison conditions in that region. North Korea celebrating the 70th anniversary of the birth of its late leader, Kim Jong-il. You see that large military parade. It is in the capital city of Pyongyang.

The event also being used to shore up support for the late leader's son and chosen successor. That would be Kim Jong-un. Now, soldiers are paying respects to his father while pledging loyalty to him.

Well, this guy, you remember him. He's known as the "Underwear Bomber." And in just about an hour, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is scheduled to be sentenced in a federal court. It has been more than two years since he was arrested in a plot to blow up a plane as it landed in Detroit. He pleaded guilty to all charges in November and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Well, we're a long way to November, but the road ahead looking up for President Obama. The latest poll showing him leading his Republican rivals in hypothetical match-ups.

In the new CNN/ORC international poll, President Obama leads Mitt Romney 51-46 percent. They were virtually tied in January. He also holds a lead with 52 support to 45 percent for Rick Santorum.

And two Russian cosmonauts taking a stroll in space right now. It's pretty cool stuff. They're preparing the International Space Station for the arrival of a brand-new module that is next year (ph). They're also installing some shields to protect it from space debris.

We are hearing troubling new details about how Whitney Houston may have spent her last days.

Don Lemon, he's in Los Angeles with the latest news.

Don, what is new today?

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And I have some new details, too, coming from a source, Suzanne. This is just in, a source close to the death investigation. But bear with me, because this is information that's going to give us an idea of exactly what happened.

Investigators say they are aware of the reports that we said yesterday of Whitney Houston partying in the hotel and other venues, even on the night before she died. Hotel personnel confirm to investigators that Houston was partying the night before her death in the hotel bar. Investigators are looking at the video from television appearances and reports as part of the investigation as to her physical state and behavior leading up to her death.

And again, I'm reading my information that I just spoke to a source who is close to this investigation says.

The source that she believes that the surveillance video could reveal, Suzanne, Houston's activities in the common areas of that hotel, but would not confirm the existence of the surveillance tapes, but believes that investigators have requested them. The source says that the prescription drug -- very important, Suzanne -- Xanax was found in Houston's hotel room, and family members and staff confirm that she used the medication, but investigators are not exactly sure if she took it on that day.

The source also confirms that Houston had a prescription for Amoxicillin, which is an antibiotic, among the drugs found in her hotel room, but added not sure if she took it on that day as well. It was prescribed to her. This source says no benzodiazepine nor valium found in the hotel room.

Here's the interesting thing, Suzanne, because you what we've heard, she was found in the bathtub, right --

MALVEAUX: Right.

LEMON: -- that she was submerged and what have you? OK. So the source says upon arrival, paramedics found Houston's body in the hotel room, face up, not in the bathroom. That she was laying on the floor wet on her back.

To the source's knowledge, no official ever saw Whitney Houston's body in the bathtub or in the bathroom. That was just reported to them from her assistant and from the security guard, from her own security guard who found her and removed her from the tub, put her in the room, found on her back face up in the room wet.

So the investigation -- I think that brings the investigation to another level. How did they know for sure that she was ever in that bathtub or ever in the bathroom? There's no official -- no one ever officially saw her that way.

MALVEAUX: And Don, what is the significance of this, do you suppose, the fact that there are these two different stories, the story we heard before, that she was found in the bathtub, and now this report that says she was out of the bathtub and on her back?

LEMON: Well, I think what it does, it broadens the investigation. Listen -- and I really want to point out here, Suzanne, they are saying, this is not -- they don't believe it's criminal, that it's just a standard death investigation at this point.

MALVEAUX: OK.

LEMON: But I think that let's us know that the investigation is broader than one might suspect. You shouldn't draw any conclusions like, oh, well, she drowned, she was definitely in the bathroom or in the bathtub. We don't know that for sure. Investigators don't know that for sure.

And so they've got their work cut out for them, not only about the condition her body was in when they saw her, but also what she took -- what she ingested in the days leading up, including prescription medication and alcohol, the days before, and possibly other substances.

MALVEAUX: And Don, just to be clear here, your source is reporting that she was partying. What does that mean specifically? What does that look like? What do the surveillance cameras potentially show her doing?

LEMON: So here's the thing. If you are partying in the days before you die, in the hours before you die, meaning take alcohol, and prescription drugs are found in your room, I don't know of any prescription drug that a doctor would say, oh, it's OK to have alcohol with this. Usually they will say, do not consume alcohol if you ingest this drug.

So, according to a person who was at the hotel, other guests, and someone briefed on her activities, that she was acting erratically, that she was doing somersaults in the pool area, that she was jumping in and out of the pool, that she would go up to rehearsals and then come down, jump in the pool, take her clothes off -- she had a bathing suit on -- jump in the pool and then get back out, and then her hairdresser and her makeup people would have to redo her again.

And according to witnesses, she would do that several times. And then complaining about her drinks being watered down and not enough -- and then too much ice being placed in it.

Listen, Suzanne, we know it's a sad reality, but these are the facts. We hate to report that a superstar died this way, and someone who was beloved by so many, but these are the facts and the information that's coming in surrounding the last moments of Whitney Houston's life.

MALVEAUX: All right. Don, thank you very much for bringing that to us.

CNN has full coverage of Whitney Houston's funeral. That is this Saturday, beginning at 11:00 a.m. Eastern. Don is going to be joined by Piers Morgan and Soledad O'Brien as the world says farewell to a legend.

(NEWSBREAK)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The human suffering in the Syrian city of Homs is growing worse by the day as government forces intensify their relentless attacks on opposition strongholds.

Now, CNN's Arwa Damon, she is in that city. And she's giving us a rare look at the extent of the suffering that's taking place there. And I've got to warn you, these images, they are graphic and they are difficult to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On the horizon, thick smoke bellows from a sabotaged gas pipeline. This is the war zone that Homs has become.

We are in Baba Amr, a neighborhood that's endured constant shelling, where civilians are killed and wounded every day. A 30-year-old man lies on the brink of death after shrapnel hit him in the head.

(on camera): He had brain matter that actually came out of the wound last night.

(voice-over): "I couldn't really do anything for him," Dr. Mohammed (ph) says. "I just stitched him up to keep the brain matter in and inserted a tube. It's actually a nasal tube to suction the blood. He will die if he doesn't get out."

Dr. Mohammed (ph) is one of only two doctors here. His specialty is internal medicine. The other doctor is actually a dentist.

Thirty-six-year-old Muhar's (ph) arm is attached by a few muscles only. "I just went out to take out the trash. I saw that the shelling had quieted down," he recalls. "I had hardly stepped out the door when I heard a massive sound."

The father of three tried to get his wife and children out of the area, but he says government forces turned them back. In a weak voice, he implores, "We are begging all countries in the world, please, get involved."

Mohammed Nor (ph) also tried to escape but wasn't allowed through the checkpoint. He says he was hit by a tank round after running to help those wounded in a rocket attack in front of his house.

(on camera): The doctor is just saying that this is a patient who has to get outside of Baba Amr within 24 hours or else his leg most definitely is going to need to be amputated. And the doctor was pointing out how at this point, you can smell the rot coming from the wound. This patient has been lying here like this for four days now.

(voice-over): The feeling of helplessness in the face of such suffering is overwhelming.

"We've lost all feeling," Mohammed (ph) says. "There is no value to life. The rockets just rain down."

Dr. Mohammed (ph) can't hold back the tears. "This is a case that survived," he says. "Most cases we get like, this they die within an hour or two because we can't do anything for them."

(on camera): This is how they have to move around just a short distance to get from one location to the other where they have the patients.

(voice-over): Six patients were killed in this building after a strike. The shelling is relentless.

(on camera): What they've had to do, because the clinics keep getting targeted, is try to distribute the patients around. So they have a number of houses in the vicinity where they also have these makeshift clinics as well.

(voice-over): In what was a living room, one man groans as he shows us his wound. Next to him, another patient struggling to speak as well. He initially traces the shape of a tank on the wall and then communicates through crude drawings. (on camera): This here is Abad (ph), and he has been drawing, trying to explain to us what happened, because he's in so much agony, he can't speak. He is one of the cameramen who goes out and risks his life all the time. It's some of his clips that we constantly see posted to YouTube and broadcast. And he's been drawing two tanks and explaining how he was moving down the street across from them when they fired at him.

He's also got a severe head injury. His skull has been cracked, and the nurse is just saying that he's suffering from internal bleeding as well.

(voice-over): Lying in the room nearby, 19-year-old Abdudi (ph) is barely hanging on, wounded when the clinic was hit a few days ago. Among those treating him is 27-year-old Muda (ph), who like Aboudi (ph) is a volunteer. There is a team of 20 volunteers now on the medical front lines after just 15 days of training.

"I swear to you, he's just a youngster!" Nora (ph) cries. Her voice filled with anguish. "He came here to help people and now he needs help!"

No one is equipped to deal with the scale of the casualties, an average of 60 wounded a day. Not to mention the rising death toll.

"These are humans," Nora (ph) says, her voice trembling. "They are not stone. And all they want to know is how many -- how many have to die before some sort of help arrives?"

Arwa Damon, CNN, Homs, Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: More sad news out of Homs. Since Arwa was in that makeshift clinic, the 19-year-old featured in her story has died.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): If I had a million dollars --

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Love it. All right. Talk about hitting the jackpot, friend and co-worker, CNN producer Jen Hauser, she just won the Georgia lottery. Pay-out, a cool million dollars. It couldn't have happened to a nicer person.

Get this -- she still showed up to work today. We don't understand that, but we're going to talk to her about that. She's going to be on the show later to tell us what she plans to do with all this money.

And today's "Talk Back," we want to hear from you. What would you do with a million dollars?

Hit me on Facebook with your responses, Facebook.com/SuzanneCNN.

Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum battling it out for the top spot in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. The gloves about to come off again.

Joining us to talk presidential politics, CNN contributor John Avlon. He's a senior political columnist for "Newsweek" and "The Daily Beast."

John, good to see you.

JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good to see you.

MALVEAUX: This is pretty exciting, because here's what we're hearing. Romney's team planning to, in their words, nuke Rick Santorum with negative ads in Michigan this week, reportedly spending 29 times more than Santorum's team.

I mean, is he going to be able to take that?

AVLON: Well, I mean, this has been the Romney strategy to date. It worked in Iowa, it worked in Florida, an overwhelming avalanche of negative ads that uses the Romney team's real advantage in money and organization.

The Rick Santorum has done something very smart, though. They put out an ad yesterday you might have seen, the "Rombo" ad. And basically, the whole point of this ad, which depicted a Mitt Romney character with a mud gun was essentially to blunt those attacks, to preempt them by saying, look, not only is this a strategy you guys in Michigan are going to see, but it could blow back and end up getting mud on him. So it was a very smart attempt to sort of preempt those ads that you're going to see coming down the pike.

MALVEAUX: All right. So there's going to be a lot of mudslinging here, but a Romney adviser, according to "The Washington Post," says these ads are going to previous attacks on Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich look like mere love taps.

Is he overstating his case? What do you think?

AVLON: You know, I love it when someone says "this round of attacks is going to make the other look like love taps." I mean, look, they're fighting for their life. There should be no doubt about this.

I mean, Mitt Romney should be winning Michigan easily. He won the state by nine points last time.

His father was governor, a very popular governor in the 1960s. This is his near hometown crowd. So, if Mitt Romney is fighting to win Michigan, which he is, the number of polls showing Rick Santorum up, it's crisis time in the Romney camp, and they're going to throw everything they've got at him.

So, yes, watch out. It's going to be intense. MALVEAUX: And real quick here, because Santorum, he's much less of a messy candidate, far less polarizing than Gingrich. So could this strategy, Romney's strategy, backfire and just make him look unlikable?

AVLON: It could, and there are signs it already has. You know, one of the things in a CNN poll released yesterday and other polls that we've seen is that Mitt Romany's likability has decreased enormously since the primary process began, and it's not just among Independents. It's also questions about whether he's honest and trustworthy.

And that, I think, is in part a reflection of this negative ad strategy they've used with devastating effectiveness. The problem with the negative ad strategy is that it can end up being like a murder/suicide pact. It can hurt the other guy, but it can kill you as well. And that's one of the risks you run when you run a negative ad strategy like the Romney camp has done in the past and is apparently about to do again.

MALVEAUX: John, all of this negative, violent language here, I mean "suicide pact," this is really -- I mean, it's getting to the point where people are just really thinking it's going to get all-out ugly.

I want to show you a quick poll here that we saw. This is a hypothetical match now against President Obama and Mitt Romney. This is the latest poll. It has Obama leading Romney 51 percent to 46 percent.

So these guys were virtually tied in January. Why do we think things are moving in Obama's direction now?

AVLON: We are seeing this trend take place because the primary fight, the fact it's been ugly, the fact that it's extended, the fact that it's been dominated by negative ads, is starting to take a toll on all the Republican candidates. Mitt Romney was doing much better in a hypothetical head-to-head with President Obama before the primaries really began in earnest back in November. He was beating him among Independent voters then.

So what you're really seeing there is the ugliness of this extended primary fight, and it could go on for months, really starting to take a toll on the Republican candidates. While they are reaching out to the far right, the president looks better by comparison to voters in the center and Independents in particular.

MALVEAUX: And that seems to hold true for the next poll as well, because Obama has a lead, 52 percent to 45 percent to Rick Santorum. I would imagine that those moderates and those Independents are essentially sticking with President Obama.

AVLON: Well, for now. And again, he benefits by comparison.

President Obama has had real problems keeping Independents over the past several years, but he's doing better in comparison, because what is happening with this long, drawn-out fight in contrast with 2008, when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama were fighting over who could better connect with centrist Democrats, white working class folks, the Republican fight right now is all about who can appeal best to the far right. And while that may help them play to the base and win the nomination, it hurts them when it comes time to pivot to the general election and appeal to those pivotal centrist and Independent voters who ultimately decides who wins or loses presidential election in America.

MALVEAUX: All right. John, thank you. Great to see you.

AVLON: Thank you. You, too.

MALVEAUX: So do you think before you tweet? If not, listen up.

The Department of Homeland Security now monitoring social media. We're going to tell you what they are actually looking for.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Fierce new attacks today in Syria as the government crackdown enters its 12th month. The world is now ready to condemn President Bashar al Assad for slaughtering his people, but today's U.N. General Assembly vote is only symbolic.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, he joins us from Lebanon.

And Nick, you've been talking to a Syrian opposition activist who we've come to know well on this show simply as "Danny." And I understand that you traveled to an undisclosed location to interview, to talk with him. For his safety, we're not going to disclose where that was, but he's since moved on.

Tell us how he's doing.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He is surprisingly, I would say, calm. But clearly, the time he has spent in Homs and generally his experience in Syria as this crackdown continues has left him with some pretty intense memories, some of which he shared with us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

"DANNY", SYRIAN ACTIVIST: If I only told what I've been saying, it would take me hours. What about the little kid we picked up who's got no jaw left and he's still alive? And while another kid lost his two legs and is still alive. While the other kid has lost his arms, my friend lost his left arm. My friend has lost an eyeball. My friend got hit by a sniper in his mouth, left out here, lost all his teeth.

This is the way of life. I would rather get killed than live like that. They aren't scared of dying. We will die for our country. People say it's an Islamic movement and Taliban and -- it's guys like me, 22, 18, 17-year-olds people going out and doing demonstrations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALSH: He made a direct appeal to Barack Obama for military help, for a no fly zone, for some kind of assistance saying clearly he doesn't believe this conflict can have a peaceful resolution.

Interestingly, also though, he referred to the diplomacy in the last few months, specifically, the veto of Russia and China against a U.N. Security Council resolution, condemning Syria and demanding change.

He says that itself was a crime against humanity because at the end of the day the Russians had given a green light to Bashar Al-Assad to intensify his crackdown -- Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: And, Nick, does Danny, does have a sense of hope, of optimism that he will be able to change his country? That change will come?

WALSH: He says he believes he's right and the people around him believe they are right. They seemed to be honest remarkably together given what has happened over the past days, given the terrifying events that they have witnessed.

I think they do know that they need some kind of outside help. He was almost begging in his tone, to a certain extent, where he suggested they might even take help from the Israelis, from many in the Arab world, a deeply disliked country.

They would even accept help from them because they are so desperate to see some kind of outside intervention to get them back on the possible path where they could begin to confront this very well- equipped, very aggressive crackdown by the Syrian military.

MALVEAUX: He has been so brave to bring his story to us and to the world. We really appreciate the fact that he has talked to us and that he has talked to you.

And really told us what is taking place there and this kind of suffering that his family and his friends are going through now. Nick, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

Some disturbing news about what you may be feeding your baby. A study finds arsenic in some baby formula. We're going to talk about what that means.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All right, new parents, listen up. Researchers at Dartmouth College say there's a worrisome amount of arsenic that's in actually in baby formulas. They say they believe the ones that list organic brown rice syrup as the primary ingredient are the likely culprit.

I want to bring in our senior medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, to explain. There's a lot of concern that there's arsenic now found in these foods and we know that arsenic causes cancer.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that when people get high amounts of arsenic that it can increase their risk of cancer.

We can't say if your baby drinks this much formula with this arsenic in it, then this is going to happen to them. It's not as precise a science, but of course, there's a lot of concern because babies drink a lot of formula. That's kind of all they drink.

MALVEAUX: Right. And so how much arsenic was actually found?

COHEN: What they found in this study. This is by Dartmouth College and it was highlighted by Consumer Reports. They found that the formulas that had this organic brown rice syrup had 20 times the amount of arsenic as formulas that didn't have it.

And these are formulas, Suzanne, that are marketed as organic. So you think you are getting something that is healthy.

MALVEAUX: And the other thing is, obviously when you think of this rice syrup, this is better than the high-fructose stuff, right? I mean, isn't that the better alternative?

COHEN: It depends. Well, better. I mean, who's really to say. I mean, this study finds that actually it has arsenic in it. So, actually that's not very good at all.

Now we talked to the rice industry folks, and they say that there is nothing to this report and that rice does not have high levels of dangerous arsenic in it. I want to talk about some other products because it wasn't just baby formula.

If you take a look at these, these are cereal bars that contain organic brown rice syrup and these energy blocks, endurance athlete sometimes use these. What they found and they looked at federal drinking water standards.

You're not supposed to have more than 10 parts per billion of arsenic in drinking water. These had as much as 128 parts per billion of arsenic.

So you can see that's a lot higher. So there was more arsenic in these than what is allowed in federal drinking water. So that's also a concern.

MALVEAUX: So you have brown rice syrup in a lot of foods. Should we be concerned about this?

COHEN: Well, you know what's interesting is that it's not in many, many foods. So you can actually see the ingredients. So we went out to buy these cereal bars. There were plenty of bars that don't have it.

So if this concerns you, if you hear this and think, my gosh, then you can just turn those packages around and look for one that doesn't have organic brown rice syrup.

You know, I know some people also wonder how arsenic gets into rice and what it is, is that some soil has arsenic in it and the rice can absorb that arsenic. That's the relationship. MALVEAUX: And I guess researchers are saying there's an urgent need for regulation.

COHEN: Some people would say, if we put limits on how much could be in water, how much arsenic can be in water, why can't we limit how much can be in baby formula or cereal bars? You know, why we don't do the same thing for those products.

MALVEAUX: OK, Elizabeth, thank you. It's always eye opening. It's a little concerning.

COHEN: And I think parents who buy the formula with the organic brown rice syrup might do well to read this report.

MALVEAUX: All right, Elizabeth, thank you.

So we've been asking you, what would you do with a cool million bucks? It happened to one of our producers in her most recent lottery win. Yes, that's right. She's won before. We're going to talk to her next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: She won the lottery. Believe it or not, one of our CNN colleagues won twice. Yes, twice, her most recent win, $1 million.

Producer, Jennifer Hauser, claimed the prize on Monday. What's the best way to handle all of that money? Well, Christine Romans has advice from New York.

But, first, we want to talk to Jennifer. You are my new best friend.

JENNIFER HAUSER, CNN PRODUCER: All right

MALVEAUX: Congratulations. This is what it looked like, right?

HAUSER: That's the one. Well, not the one.

MALVEAUX: This is what it looked like.

HAUSER: Yes.

MALVEAUX: How did this happen?

HAUSER: Well, my husband picked the ticket and he gave it to me. It was around Valentine's Day and our anniversary. I just wanted to give him a little credit since my picture is everywhere. Yes, it's pretty exciting.

MALVEAUX: How is this that you won twice? In November, you cashed in how much?

HAUSER: A 100.

MALVEAUX: A $100,000. HAUSER: And of course, you know, they take the taxes out of both of them, but it's still great.

MALVEAUX: What are you going to do with the money?

HAUSER: Well, you know, we bought a car. We're going to buy a car. We're close to it. My husband really wanted this particular car.

MALVEAUX: Is it a fancy car?

HAUSER: It's OK. It's a Maxima. It's nice. I want to help my mom with some things, family, that kind of stuff.

MALVEAUX: And you have a 6-year-old, too?

HAUSER: Yes.

HAUSER: I don't know what we're going to do. Probably send her to a nicer school somewhere.

MALVEAUX: OK, that's really nice. How are your friends reacting? Because I know the first go round, I think when you won $100,000, you guys hung out in a limo?

HAUSER: Well, that wasn't a direct result of it. I just wanted to have fun. Actually, I didn't tell anyone about the 100,000. This was actually supposed to be a little bit of a hush-hush, but somehow the word got out.

I should have known because I'm a journalist. So my phone blew up yesterday and I'm happy to hear from people. Everybody's been really nice.

MALVEAUX: And I understand that your parents, even your parents don't know?

HAUSER: Not yet.

MALVEAUX: They will find out.

HAUSER: I'm not sure how to tell them.

MALVEAUX: Well, you probably have a lot more relatives than you knew.

HAUSER: I have a small family.

MALVEAUX: It's going to get much bigger.

HAUSER: Yes, right.

MALVEAUX: I want to bring in Christine. Christine, weigh in if you can on this because what is $1 million, you took a lump sum. After taxes, what does that breakdown to?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: So a million bucks, I mean, I think what is that, Jennifer, is it like 600 grand you took home?

HAUSER: No -- well, after taxes it's more than half. It's more like four something.

ROMANS: And then -- the government got a little bit to pay down the national debt.

HAUSER: There you go. I'm helping the world.

ROMANS: Look, I mean, you have to be really careful with this money. I know you've heard this before. You've got to be careful with this money because you have enough money here now that you can guard it, invest it, and be strategic with it.

And this is going to be an inheritance that you'll be able to pass down and live a great life with this assuming if you keep working and you keep investing. So this is what my advice to you is make sure you pay off all of your high-interest debt and I bet you did that after you got the first pay off.

Don't worry about your low interest loans, student loan debt, stuff like that, pay them on time. Even low interest mortgage debt, pay that stuff on time, but you need to be using your money to grow for you.

Take another look at your life insurance and make sure you got the right kind of life insurance and that again that's going to protect you down the road and protecting your (INAUDIBLE) down the road.

Max out your 401(k) and IRA right now. You need the tax advantages of that. Start a 529 for your daughter. Max it out as well and then you start investing it. Here's where you have fun, laddered municipal bonds are going to give you a lot of tax free income.

HAUSER: What's that?

ROMANS: Good, good, good. So, look --

(CROSSTALK)

ROMANS: Lathered municipal bonds, you're not going to pay income taxes on the interest that that's churning out for you. So, that means you're going to be making money with your money and that's the really -- that's what you want to do here. There's also high yielding stocks and funds, mutual funds. Those also are going to generate income for you.

And some of those can get 6 percent, 7 percent, 8 percent. So, that's why you want to focus on making your money grow for you. Not worry too much about your low interest. And by low interest debt, I mean, 5 percent or less, don't worry about that.

Strategize for your tax purposes. Be very careful. You don't want a big tax bill.

That's why mortgage interest is still good for you because you get to write that off every year.

MALVEAUX: I just admire the fact that you came into work, you know, today because I took a survey of our team, we're like, well, I don't know. Half of us might come in the next day. But you're going to continue to show up here at CNN. You like the job?

HAUSER: Oh, yes. Hey, boss. I like my job.

MALVEAUX: You're going to keep. I think our team, I think we're going to start getting into a pool and buying these here and, you know, some of your luck will rub off on me maybe a little bit.

HAUSER: Maybe.

MALVEAUX: Congratulations again, Jen. It's really great.

HAUSER: Thanks.

MALVEAUX: All right. So, that's what Jen plans to do with her cool million. Today's talk back, we wanted to hear from you. What would you do with 1 million bucks?

Stephanie says, "I'd pay all of my student loans and bills off and be debt free, thank goodness."

And David says, "Sorry to say this, but a million dollars doesn't go as far as it used to. I'd pay off the mortgage, buy the lease on the cars, and then what's left maybe a romantic dinner for two."

Adner says, "I would pay off all current debt, and then donate the rest of it to Haiti. You'd be surprised how far that kind of money could stretch."

Lewis says, "I would put it all on the Facebook IPO."

You can se more of your responses on my Facebook page. Congratulations.

Fashion world has now found a new "it" girl. How once a mode's persistence scored her work with some of the world's top designers. We're going to introduce you to Joan Smalls.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: Joan Smalls, she's go the eye of everyone, from Louis Vuitton to Estee Lauder. But if you haven't heard of this trailblazing supermodel yet, Alina Cho caught up with her during the New York Fashion Week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One look at her and it's clear, Joan Smalls is not just a super model, she's a star.

JOAN SMALLS, SUPERMODEL: It's kind of like a go-getter heart. Like I'm coming. You know, I'm coming to get it. I'm coming to be great.

CHO: On the cat walk at Louis Vitton, Mark Jacobs, Gucci, the "it" girl chameleon designers must have, like Derek Lam.

DEREK LAM, DESIGENR: She's like a seasoned actress.

CHO: Jason Wu.

JASON WU, DESIGNER: What's not to love? You know, I just believe in her.

CHO: And Prabal Gurung.

PRABAL GURUNG, DESIGNER: She represents that girl that I feel that I design for. The girl who never gives up.

CHO: So, what does it take to see Joan Smalls?

(on camera): How did it happen?

SMALLS: Well, it happened with a leap of faith.

CHO (voice-over): Born in Puerto Rico, in the early days, Joan was a catalog model. Three years ago, she wanted more. She switched managers who directed her to change her approach. For instance, at casting calls, dress the part.

(on camera): High heels.

KYLE HAGLER, SENIOR MANAGER, IMG MODELS: High heels, show off those legs, show off that great body of yours.

CHO (voice-over): Joan started booking jobs. Her biggest breakthrough: an exclusive contract with Givenchy in January of 2010, during high-fashion's most coveted runway couture.

SMALLS: My agency called me and said, 'Joan, don't go anywhere else. You've got the exclusive." And I got goosebumps all over my body. And I smiled so hard.

CHO (on camera): Did you realize that would be a breakthrough moment for you?

SMALLS: Yes. I think you kind of feel it that when you want something so bad and when something great happens, I think it's instinct that you say, "This is going to be the moment that's going to change everything."

CHO (voice-over): It did.

HAGLER: Her second job was "Italian Vogue" with Steven Meisel, and then, shortly thereafter, was "American Vogue," and then, shortly thereafter, she was signed to represent the brand of Estee Lauder.

NARRATOR: Introducing a major innovation from Estee Lauder research --

CHO: The cosmetic giant's first Latina global face. A multi- year contract at a rate of more than $1million a year.

(on camera): Have you seen what it did to Joan Smalls' career?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. It definitely makes them a household name immediately."

CHO (voice-over): Fitted by Vera Wang, in the ads of Roberto Cavalli, Stella McCartney, and most recently Chanel.

SMALLS: I always wanted the greater and the bigger, like I came here with a purpose and, you know, to finally achieve it, and to also be an inspiration to others.

CHO: Supermodel Joan Smalls.

Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MALVEAUX: Don't forget to watch Alina's fashion week special, "Backstage Pass," Saturday, February 25th at 2:30 p.m. Eastern.

Controversial comment, plus a click of your mouse could land you on the watch list. We're going to go inside the government's effort to monitor social media.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: All right. Let's check stories, affiliates coming across the country.

We begin in New Orleans. The end of a tough chapter in the recovery from hurricane Katrina. FEMA has now removed its last trailer. So, that means after six years, the last of the survivors have relocated to their rebuilt homes.

To Cleveland where this one-month-old puppy was pulled from a sewage drain. He's been trapped for two days. The Rottweiler/German Shepherd mix, he was breathing but our affiliate WJW says he's not out of the woods yet. The dog's owner says they lost track of him after he started walking on Monday.

And this car makes it easier to squeeze into a parking space. MIT developed a tiny two-seater, it can even get tinier because it folds up when you park. It's called a city car and it's going to go into production next year. Kind of cool.

All right. So, when you tweet, post on Facebook, even comment on a blog, the government could be watching. The Department of Homeland Security is monitoring social media.

Today, Congress held a meeting on it and CNN's Lizzie O'Leary, she was there.

Lizzie, tell us what the government is doing here.

LIZZIE O'LEARY, AVIATION AND REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, what they are doing is contracting with a private company to look at what's going on to get a better picture of the cyber space landscape. So, they have paid the Department of the Homeland Security has paid the company a company about $11 million and they look at Facebook, they look at Twitter, they look at YouTube.

What they're doing, they say, is screening for certain key words. Terrorism, tornado. They are looking for information about a natural disaster, or a specific event. Or it could be as simple as long lines at the airport.

You had somewhat a skeptical Congress today listened to the man who runs the nerve center at Department of Homeland Security to describe how they are using social media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD CHAVEZ, DEPT. OF HOMELAND SECURITY: What we do do, again, as if there are long lines at the airport, at the screening centers, those types of things, those would come up to us and we would pass it on to the appropriate DHS component for action, again through corroboration as this really happening. What is happening and what do we need to do to fix that.

But identifying individuals again or an individual, that making that would be irrelevant to us. There is something happening, go check it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'LEARY: So DHAS says this is the what that they are looking at, not the who. But, Suzanne, it's important to note, we've seen the contract that was provided by some privacy advocates, and one of the things in there is that they can collect information about people who report positively or negatively on the Department of Homeland Security. They are supposed to scrub that from any private information from that, but in fact a name got through. We saw somebody's name on one of these exchanges in these documents, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: So, Lizzie, what happens to information that you're not sharing publicly, like, you know, Facebook posts that you only share with your friends? Do they have access to that? Are they monitoring that kind of stuff?

O'LEARY: They are not supposed to. This is supposed to be publicly available information, what's called open source. So, anything you tweet, if you don't have a protected Twitter account, that goes out there.

Some people assume that because cyberspace is large, the government is not watching. That's probably not the right way to think of it. And when they look at privacy here, they look at those individual privacy statements of the companies. So whatever Facebook says, you might be putting out there, you're putting out there and that's how the government treats it, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Wow. All right. Lizzie, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ashleigh Banfield.

Hey, Ashleigh.

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Suzanne Malveaux. It's very nice to see you.