Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
North Korea's Rocket Goes Bust; Affidavit: Zimmerman Profiled Martin; Gas Prices Pull Back; Women, Work And Gender Politics; Romney Gains Conservative Support; Newark Mayor Helps Rescue Woman; Memorial Cruise Crosses Safely; Military Families Face Mold Crisis; The Help Desk
Aired April 13, 2012 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Live from CNN headquarters in Atlanta, where it's 12:00 noon, 9:00 a.m. on the West Coast, I'm Gary Tuchman, in for Suzanne Malveaux. I want to get you up to speed for this Friday, April 13th. Yes, Friday the 13th.
North Korea's long-range rocket launch was a big failure, but world leaders are worried about what could come next. The U.N. secretary-general believes North Korea may try to save face after the fiasco by doing a nuclear test or making some sort of military move. CNN has a crew in Pyongyang today. A report from there is coming up in a minute.
Firefighters in Newark, New Jersey, got some people from an unlikely source, the city's mayor, Cory Booker. Booker was returning home when he saw smoke coming from his neighbor's house and rushed in to save her. But he was downplaying it all today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR CORY BOOKER, NEWARK, NEW JERSEY: There are people that do this every day. The police officers that I was with showed real quick action and got into the building really quick. There were firefighters that do this every single day. I'm a neighbor that did what most neighbors would do, which is to jump into action to help a friend.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: The neighbor and the mayor. Booker suffered second degree burns on his hand and smoke inhalation. His neighbor is in stable condition in a hospital.
A police chief who was just days from retirement was shot to death in the small New Hampshire town of Greenland last night. Chief Michael Maloney was killed when officers tried to serve a search warrant in a drug investigation. Four other officers were wounded. There's only ten officers in the whole police force.
Maloney's death comes on the heels of a new report that shows the number of police officers killed in duty is the highest in almost 20 years.
So why are police deaths so high? Next hour, I'll talk to the president of the Major Cities Chiefs Association, Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey.
President Obama and Vice President Biden have released their family tax returns for 2011 as they try to turn up the heat on Mitt Romney over what he pays in taxes. The Obamas had an adjusted gross income of $789,000. They paid more than $162,000 in federal taxes, about 20.5 percent. The Bidens earned $379,000 and paid almost $88,000 in federal taxes.
George Zimmerman has a bond hearing next week and could get out of jail. He's charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman says it was self-defense. The affidavit says he, quote, "profiled" the teenager and disregarded a police dispatcher's order not to pursue him.
Zimmerman's attorney tells CNN he's not only focused on the legal side of this case but also on the emotions surrounding it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK O'MARA, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S ATTORNEY: A real goal for the case is I truly want to try to bring down the level of anger, animosity, just frustrations, emotions that are in the case or outside the case but affecting the case. So my hope is that we can just be a bit more sensitive to what's happening outside the case but still focus on what we need to do within the case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: We'll have more on this in a few minutes. Thousands of Syrians shouting against the government are testing the cease-fire that went into effect yesterday. Day two is relatively calm so far. We are hearing about small clashes and some civilian casualties, but Syrian forces and rebel fighters are for the most part keeping their promise to stop shooting at each other.
It's the hour's top story, North Korea's space mission that went absolutely nowhere. All of Asia and much of the West watched nervously as North Korea went ahead with its plan to launch a long- range rocket. Whether it was a satellite project like they said or a weapons test, we don't know for sure. But the rocket fell apart after blastoff and pieces of it scattered into the ocean.
And in their eternally optimistic style, North Korean officials called the launch, and this is a quote, "an inspiring deed and an event of historic significance."
The rocket failure at least publicly hasn't put a damper on a week of celebration in North Korea.
CNN's Stan Grant is one of the very few outside journalists in Pyongyang today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STAN GRANT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is the scene of triumph here in North Korea despite the abject failure of the rocket launch. You can see the fireworks going off behind me here, and over my shoulder those massive statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. And, of course, Kim Jong Un, the third generation of the Kim dynasty is here as well. When he walked out onto the stage, there was absolutely enormous roar from this crowd.
And this is how North Korea is trying to sell the message to its own people. The rocket launch has failed but they are still trying to say they're a strong, prosperous and powerful country.
What this country runs on is a personality cult ruled by the Kims, and they must be able to show their people they are invincible, that they can withstand any attack from the outside world as what we've seen by their own people (ph).
Just listen to this noise here. The fireworks starting to fade down now. But, of course, there has still been no real response to the rocket failure itself. The news agency here did respond admitting to the failure, saying they're now investigating it.
But this is where we've been brought by our government minders here. They don't want to hear about the rocket. What they want to do is show their adulation to their leaders past and present.
Stan Grant, CNN, Pyongyang.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: North Korea's a very surreal place. Now, the North Koreans may be putting the best face on a spectacular failure, but countries nearby and the U.S. are taking the whole incident very seriously.
I want to bring in Elise Labott. She's our foreign affairs reporter.
Elise, thanks for joining us.
And U.N. officials are saying launch failure or not, this rocket project did the North Koreans no good in the world community. Why do they say that?
ELISE LABOTT, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS REPORTER: Gary, it was never really about the launch per se or whether the U.S. -- whether North Korea could launch a satellite into orbit. It was about the fact that the U.S., the international community doesn't want North Korea to be able to continue to do these missile tests so they can acquire eventually long-range missile technology.
So it was never about the test itself, but about the fact that they could continue to perfect its technology. That's why U.N. Security Council meeting today to probably draft some kind of presidential statement or resolution that condemns North Korea for violating its commitments and U.N. resolutions that say that they shouldn't be doing it.
TUCHMAN: So, you talk about the U.N., Elise, what are we hearing from the White House about this?
LABOTT: Well, the White House came out with a tempered statement condemning the action, but also saying that the president would engage if North Korea met its commitments.
But this morning, a statement from Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes saying, "North Korea has to understand they have only deepened their isolation by going down this road. If they continue to take additional provocative action, we will look at ways to tighten sanctions and place additional measures on the regime."
So, on one hand, the U.S. still trying to get North Korea to adhere to the commitments, that food deal that was on the table with North Korea in exchange for food aid. North Korea was supposed to suspend its enrichment, uranium enrichment program and allow IAEA international inspectors back to the country to view its program, to monitor its program.
But certainly, Ben Rhodes is saying, and other officials saying that that deal is halted right now. No food aid coming to North Korea right now, Gary.
TUCHMAN: So, what happens now to U.S. relation with Pyongyang?
LABOTT: Senior U.S. officials are telling me, you know, it's less about engagement right now and more about containment. Let's not forget, Gary, we're in an election season and Mitt Romney, President Obama's presumed challenger in the November election, is calling him an appeaser of North Korea.
So, officials are saying they can't imagine, there's really no appetite now for engagement. Those six-party talks with the other countries in the region are going to be off because North Korea really gave a slap to the face of these diplomatic efforts. It's going to be more, as Ben Rhodes said, more about containment, sanctions, putting in measures to curb North Korea's program so that it doesn't develop any further.
But not that much diplomacy going on right now certainly.
TUCHMAN: OK. Very interesting. Elise Labott, thank you very much for joining us. Good talking with you.
Well, here's a rundown of some of the stories we're covering today:
First, the man who shot down Trayvon Martin is staring down the possibility of life in prison. We'll tell what could come next for George Zimmerman.
Then, everything from the election to your family budget may be riding on the price of gasoline. We'll tell you why the worst of the pain at the pump may soon be over.
And later, there could be a new twist in the story -- a twist, that's right -- of the Titanic, 100 years exactly after the ship went down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: The man who shot Trayvon Martin could get out of jail as early as next week. A bond hearing has been set for next week for George Zimmerman. There may be a status hearing as early as today.
Our Marty Savidge is outside the jail in Sanford, Florida.
Marty, how likely is that Zimmerman will get that?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's a good question, Gary, and it really depends on who you speak to.
Mark O'Mara, who is George Zimmerman's attorney, believes that there's a very good chance. After all, he says his client is not a risk to flee, and he also says his client willingly turned himself in. So all of that shows he has good intentions and would be in court when told to be in court.
There are others who say, no, look, it's second-degree murder he's been charged with here. It's an extremely serious offense.
And then there are the issues of his own safety. George Zimmerman, of course, while he is in prison in the jail behind us, he is safe, because he's in isolated confinement. Once he got out on the street there, is some concern about his safety.
So there are people who will give you two sides to that particular story.
By the way, the hearing is scheduled 1:15. It is said it's going to be a short hearing to deal with some minor matters -- we don't know, details of some sort. We'll find out, as soon as we know we'll bring it to you, Gary.
TUCHMAN: Do we think Zimmerman might be at this hearing, Marty?
SAVIDGE: No, I think the word we have is he will not be there. In fact, we're not even sure if either someone from the prosecutor's office or even his attorney will be present. This could be something handled over the telephone. However, transparency here in the state of Florida. They will allow a pool camera to be present so we should learn something from what happens.
TUCHMAN: Marty, what can you tell us about Zimmerman's time behind bars?
SAVIDGE: You know, you get a lot of detail, and we have been told now by the corrections facility that he is inside of a prison cell that is 67 square feet. It is designed to hold two people. It's got two beds, but there's only one person in it, and that's, of course, George Zimmerman.
And then beyond that, we know his routine. Breakfast at 4:30 in the morning, lunch at 10:30 a.m. and he gets dinner at 4:00 in the afternoon. They are served about 3,000 calories a day. He gets to exercise three hours a week.
We also know that beyond that he's had some access to the commissary or the store, and he did stock up on some things, including crossword puzzles, playing cards, pop corn chips, cookies, snacks in other words, root beer barrels and jolly ranchers. He spent a total of $79.84 while he's been in custody.
Apparently he thinks he's going to be there a while.
TUCHMAN: A lot of detail there, Marty. It's very interesting.
Finally, before we let you go. The special prosecutor Angela Corey released the affidavit yesterday. What does it tell us about what she says is the probable cause in this case?
SAVIDGE: Yes, this is -- as you point out -- the probable cause affidavit. It's a thumbnail sketch of the prosecution's case, and they pretty much lay it all on George Zimmerman, beginning with what they say was George Zimmerman profiling 17-year-old Trayvon Martin as he was making his way back from the convenience store and, of course, he had no weapon, he had every legal right to be where he was. He was not doing anything against the law.
And beyond that, they also start talking about how George clearly began to follow, frightened Trayvon Martin, and also at one point confronted Trayvon Martin and that led to some sort of altercation in which the fatal shot was fired.
So, it is very much a narrative that favors to the family of Trayvon Martin. This is what they had maintained happened all along. It does not seem to take into account anything that George Zimmerman said, which was that he was attacked by Trayvon Martin, that they got into a life-and-death struggle, and to save his own life, he had to shoot the young man.
So, that in a nutshell is the case that the prosecution has put forward and why they say they went after second degree murder which many people thought would only be manslaughter.
TUCHMAN: A lot more to come, including a status hearing about one hour from now. Marty Savidge from Sanford, Florida -- thank you very much.
And by all accounts, George Zimmerman will face a tough as nails prosecutor. Angela Corey has tried hundreds of cases, including many involving Florida's stand your ground/self-defense law.
George Howell looks at Corey's aggressive style.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANGELA COREY, SPECIAL PROSECUTOR, TRAYVON MARTIN CASE: Today, we filed an information charging George Zimmerman with murder in the second degree.
GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A stiff charge from a prosecutor who has built a reputation for being tough, and that's exactly why Angela Corey's biggest supporters say she's the perfect fit in the controversial case against George Zimmerman for the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin.
PAM BONDI, FLORIDA ATTORNEY GENERAL: It's actually Governor Scott who appointed Angela Corey after discussing it with me. She is ethical, she's honest, she is tough as nails. She's compassionate.
HOWELL: Corey was the first woman elected as state attorney for Florida's Fourth Circuit Court. Before that, she spent more than two decades working as a prosecutor.
Tom Fallis, who's faced Corey in the courtroom many times, says she's a seasoned prosecutor who stands firmly by her values.
TOM FALLIS, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: She's hard core right wing, you know, Republican conservative, which plays very well down here.
I, you know, obviously disagree with her, you know, probably on every political thing we could ever bring up, but that doesn't take away from the respect that I have for her as a lawyer.
HOWELL: But then there's the study by criminology and criminal justice Professor Michael Hallet at the University of North Florida, who examined Corey's tenure as state attorney.
MICHALE HALLET, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA: Defense lawyers are not big fans of Angela Corey.
HOWELL: Hallet found that her aggressive style has had a profound impact on the number of convictions in her district.
HALLET: One of the criticisms she's endured prior to the Trayvon Martin case here in Jacksonville was that she was too aggressive on first-time offenders.
HOWELL: The most egregious example, say her critics, the case of 12-year-old Christian Hernandez accused of killing his 2-year-old brother. Corey was criticized for indicting him as an adult for first-degree murder.
And according to Hallet's study, while crime and arrest rates are down in Florida, Jacksonville jails are more full than they have ever been.
HALLET: We found that the answer to that is basically Angela Corey.
HOWELL: Hallet says Corey's style is to file as many charges as she can against defendants and to seek the highest charges possible.
But Corey says her objectives are clear, to protect the victims.
COREY: Those of us in law enforcement are committed to justice for every race, every gender, every person of any persuasion whatsoever. They are our victims.
We only know one category as prosecutors, and that's a V. It's not a B, it's not a W, it's not an H. It's V for victim. That's who we work tirelessly for.
HOWELL: George Howell, CNN, Jacksonville, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOWELL: After a tough few months at the pumps, the price of gas may finally be falling. We'll tell you what it could mean for the economy and your family's budget.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: For all of you frustrated by the amount of money it costs to fill up your car these days, we've got some good news. Gas prices have been falling for the past seven days. And it's prompting some analysts to say prices may have peaked for 2012.
Patricia Wu is at the New York Stock Exchange with details.
Patricia, thanks for joining us. And question for you: is it too soon to say that gas prices have topped out for the year?
PATRICIA WU, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Gary, it's too soon to say for sure, but we are hopeful.
CNN Money says that prices may have peaked, and here is why-- oil prices are falling. And since 70 percent of gas prices are dictated by the price of oil, if oil prices are falling, you see that transfer. And oil is traded on the open market, so it fluctuates. But today, it's around $103 a barrel.
And here's why oil prices have been falling -- the tensions with Iran have eased. Iran has decided to negotiate with the U.N. over its nuclear program -- Gary.
TUCHMAN: Well, here is a question though about Iran. If things fall through with Iran, things go bad politically, if there's a big hurricane season in the United States, hurricane season begins on June 1st, what happens to the prices then? I mean, I know you don't know for sure but likely they'll go higher, right?
WU: Absolutely, Gary. All of those factors could drive prices higher. In fact, one analyst said that the conflict with Iran is bigger than we think. So, it certainly could become an issue.
But on the flip side, there are things that are pressuring oil prices as well. The Chinese and the U.S. economy are slowing. That means less demand because we're using less oil. At the same time, areas like Saudi Arabia, Canada, the North Seas, they're not making as much oil as they could, so they could boost production and supplies at any time.
Bottom line though, Gary, oil is a commodity, so it's volatile. A lot of factors involved. So no one can say for sure.
TUCHMAN: It is volatile, no question about that.
Nice seeing you, Patricia Wu, and thank you very much.
WU: Sure.
TUCHMAN: So was it just a slip of the tongue or a war on moms? We will take a look at the political fallout of the sound bite that's dominating the news cycle.
But first, what are the worst jobs in America right now? Take a look.
The career Web site CareerCast ranked these jobs based on low pay, high stress and bad hiring outlook.
Or business, newspaper reporter came in fifth place because of dwindling jobs since the digital revolution. We're trying to keep up here.
Fourth place, oil rig worker, because of the physical dangers of the job for relatively low pay.
Third place, enlisted military soldier, very difficult job.
Second place, dairy farmer.
So, what is the worst job in America? The answer coming up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: Before the break, we showed you some of the worst jobs of 2012. But what's the worst job of all? The job that Paul Bunyan made famous, lumberjack, according to career Web site, CareerCast. Unemployment for loggers is very high right now ands demand is expected to continue to fall through 2016. It's among the most dangerous jobs in the world.
You want to see how your job ranks right now, go to CareerCast.com for a complete list.
And here is a rundown of some of the stories we are working on today.
Next, she says she misspoke, but the Romney campaign is accusing one Democrat strategist of waging a, quote, "war on moms".
Then, 100 years after the ship went down, a new theory about what may have sunk the Titanic.
And later, got a bad habit, want to kick it? We'll tell you how right here. So, stay tuned for that.
Now, the dust is starting to settle from the fury set off by a Democratic strategist over her comment about Mitt Romney's wife. Hilary Rosen has apologized for saying Ann Romney never worked a day in her life. Rosen got it from all sides.
But are there any winners and/or losers from all this?
Lets bring in our CNN political panel, CNN contributor and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, and Republican Matt Lewis, senior contributor for "The Daily Caller".
Thank you very much both of you for joining us.
MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Thanks for having us.
TUCHMAN: Matt, Republicans have seized on this. Romney's team sent out a fund-raising e-mail that said, quote, "If you're a stay-at- home mom, the Democrats have a message for you: you've never worked a day in your life." Now, referring to Rosen as an Obama adviser and asking recipients to send in $6 for a bumper sticker.
So, my question for you, Matt, could this help close the gender gap Mitt Romney has with President Obama the women? I mean, are there are voters out there saying, you know what, I don't think Barack Obama cares about stay-at-home mothers?
MATT LEWIS, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yes, actually I think it could. Let me preface this by saying I think it's entirely silly. I think the notion there was some sort of Republican war on women was bogus and it was ginned up by the Democrats. I think the notion there's some sort of Democratic war on moms just because some strategist said so on TV is equally bogus.
But having said that, I think it can resonate. I think it was a very good day for Mitt Romney. And, look, I think the fact that the Republicans and Mitt Romney seized on this and have been able to really make it an issue I think is probably a signal that they really actually could win this election because they're willing to play dirty like the other side.
TUCHMAN: All right. Let me ask you, Maria -- I mean, Hilary Rosen does not work for the White House.
CARDONA: No.
TUCHMAN: But even the president weighed in to declare his support for moms. He's talked about his own wife and mother. Listen to this for one second.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's no tougher job than being a mom. And when I think about what Michelle's had to do, when I think about my own mom, a single mother raising me and my sister, that's work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: So by chance, Maria, do you agree with Matt and did this controversy hurt the president and Democrats with women voters?
CARDONA: I don't think it's going to hurt the president or the Democrats. I agree with Matt that this whole thing is absolutely silly, and I don't blame the Republicans for jumping on this even though what they're using in their fund-raising e-mail is actually a lie because Hilary Rosen is not an Obama adviser and she apologized and she said she misspoke.
And the underlying issue here, Gary, and the reason why Republicans are so desperate to obfuscate from the actual issues is because they have absolutely no positive platform for working moms, for stay-at-home moms, for women in general.
That's why the gender gap exists. When you look at what Mitt Romney wants to do in terms of health care, he wants to repeal the health care act, which will actually help women gain health care coverage in addition to their children.
If you look at what he wants to do through the Mitt/Ryan plan in terms of education, he wants to gut education, wants to gut teachers. He wants to gut anything, any economic program that will actually help middle class mothers, whether you're stay at home or whether you're working.
And any other women in this country, he will gut any of those programs and any of the initiative that is will help them move forward economically. That's why the gender gap exists and they're desperate to do anything to obfuscate from that issue.
TUCHMAN: Let's shift gears from Ann to Mitt. He has struggled to win over social conservatives, but now several major groups are backing him, the Susan B. Anthony List and the National Right to Life Organization have both endorsed Romney citing his anti-abortion stand.
So the first thing I want to ask you, is this the beginning of social conservatives starting to rally around Mitt Romney?
LEWIS: I absolutely think so, and I think, look, this is going to be a very negative election. Nobody is going to vote for Barack Obama.
They're going to vote against Mitt Romney because Barack Obama is going to try to scare them that Mitt Romney has this war on women, and we just heard that.
And I think the same thing is true on the right. I don't think anybody is going to vote for Mitt Romney. Nobody loves Mitt Romney, but if you see what Barack Obama's done, never mind the economy, that disaster.
But if you look at things like the HHS mandates where they actually I think went after religious institutions, maybe there's a war on religion, I don't know.
So I think conservatives and social conservatives are going to rally around Mitt Romney not because they love Mitt Romney, but because they absolutely must defeat Barack Obama. That's what they think at least.
TUCHMAN: And do you think the same thing, Maria, that we're going to see robust enthusiasm from conservatives?
CARDONA: Well, I think that the Romney camp desperately hopes so because they're bleeding support from independents in general. They're bleeding support from women. They're absolutely in the gutter in terms of support from Latino voters.
That's a coalition that you can't win without. So clearly they're desperate to get the support from conservatives, which up until now have not been enamored whatsoever with Mitt Romney.
What's going to be interesting to see is how much more to the right is he going to have to go in order to coalesce that conservative support, which is going to make it that much more difficult to gain the support of the coalition that he's going to need in the general election, which he does not have right now.
TUCHMAN: We have a different kind of story to talk about. Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker runs into a burning house this morning to rescue a neighbor. The neighbor is fine. Cory booker is fine.
Does he also leap tall buildings in a single bound? You can imagine this stuff being used for a political commercial down the road.
The question I want to ask you that a lot of people are talking about, he's been talked about as a perspective future presidential candidate. What is your reaction to the mayor's heroics?
CARDONA: I love it. This is one of my favorite stories, Gary, and I have been a huge fan of the mayor ever since he started tweeting personally asking people to tell them where they are when there was a snowstorm in his city, and that he would personally go and help them.
That was heroic right there. Running into a burning building? My God, there should be bobble heads with Cory Booker and a cape and a mask and a little slogan that says, with Corey, you have no worry.
TUCHMAN: Matt, do you think we'll see him running for president some day against one of your Republican candidates?
LEWIS: It wouldn't surprise me. I think Chuck Norris probably wears Cory Booker pajamas at this point. The guy is a rock star.
CARDONA: I agree.
LEWIS: Tremendous admiration for him, the tweeting, and getting out there in blizzards, running in and rescuing. The guy, it's amazing. This is a good public servant. He's a great politician. And I think he could someday make a great presidential candidate, absolutely.
TUCHMAN: Maria mentioned bobble heads. That's all been my dream or was my dream. To be a professional baseball player and have a Gary Tuchman bobble head, but it hasn't happened yet.
CARDONA: We'll work on that, Gary.
TUCHMAN: Yes, thank you. Maria, Matt, it's nice talking to both of you. Thank you very much.
CARDONA: Thank you, Gary.
TUCHMAN: This Sunday will mark 100 years exactly since the "Titanic" sank. Now there are new reports saying iceberg was only part of the problem.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: A trans-Atlantic cruise with a 100-year back story. Maybe you have heard of it before. This modern day cruise ship ported in Nova Scotia yesterday. It retraced more or less the same route the "Titanic" was supposed to take a century ago.
It had the same number of passengers on board, most of them history fans dressed up in outfits from 1912, this version of the story not tragic fortunately. Nobody needed a lifeboat. Everybody is safe on this side of the Atlantic.
Chad Myers is here now to talk to me about this new "Titanic" theory. Some researchers and weather experts say that it wasn't just the iceberg, that there might have been a freak weather condition.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: If you could imagine, we are still researching this crash, this disaster will not ever leave our minds because what happened to the people there. But now there are a couple new theories.
There's a new book and a new show coming out about how an astronomical high tide may have lifted icebergs that actually were run aground for a very long time. This tide that they had just a couple weeks before the crash was the highest high tide in 1,000 years.
The moon was as close and the sun was as close as it's ever been so therefore the high tide may have lifted these icebergs. That's why there were so many icebergs in the water.
Then the theory, the new theory is as the boat travelled into the Halifax area down into a colder current, sometimes the light will bend, and those other boats that may have saved the people never even knew that that was the "Titanic."
TUCHMAN: That's amazing. MYERS: Let me show you how this occurs. We'll show you a picture of what a boat looks like even on Lake Superior. So let's go into this. What happened that night and even we'll back up a couple weeks.
Typical path of the icebergs, come off here, come off Greenland and they come down and all the way into the shallow area just to the east of Newfoundland. They kind of lodge themselves there.
But what this amazing high tide now that they have found as they back their computers up and said what happened. Maybe a foot or two higher water may have lifted some of these icebergs and moved them along the current.
And that's why so many icebergs in the water where the "Titanic" was running. Something else occurred, too, as the "Titanic" ran into that cold current, we know the cold current was there because the icebergs were there.
Sometimes you can get inversions to make boats look a little bit crazy. Now, let me show you this. This is a boat on Lake Superior. There's the bottom of the hull. This is just a freighter. That's what it should look like.
But because the air is so cold, we're actually seeing an inversion. We're seeing another part of the ship above it that doesn't really exist. This is literally a mirage up here.
This mirage may have been what the California was seeing when it thought it was seeing a different ship than the "Titanic" and said I must not be very close to the "Titanic."
We're very close to this other ship. If you can imagine what the captain was thinking when he saw possibly a ship turned upside down, not really realizing that that was just an inversion, a mirage he was seeing.
So when the fireworks were going off, they weren't very high compared to the ship. They said there's no way that could be distress flare because those flares would be going much higher. It's called inversion, called the superior mirage.
You can look it up. It's pretty cool pictures when you see kind of boats that look like they're floating upside down -- Gary.
TUCHMAN: We always talk about 100-year floods. Now we talk about 1,000-year tides.
MYERS: That's exactly right. When the water is floating those icebergs and they're in the way.
TUCHMAN: Thank you very much.
MYERS: That clearly an iceberg did create the crash.
TUCHMAN: Right, you made that clear.
MYERS: We didn't change that.
TUCHMAN: That's a beautiful graphic, by the way. Did you do that all yourself?
MYERS: They did it in CNN International.
TUCHMAN: Thank you, Chad. Well, dozens of military homes that are covered in mold.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't feel safe in these houses. I've never not felt safe in a house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TUCHMAN: Men, women, and children are getting sick in alarming numbers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: Dozens of military families are living in hotel rooms in Virginia because of a mold crisis on their base, a crisis that's been going on for a long time. CNN's Deborah Feyerick investigates.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Norfolk Naval Base in Virginia is the largest in the world, home to the U.S. Atlantic fleet, but it's facing a crisis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm in essence combating a war on two fronts.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't feel safe in these houses. I've never felt safe in a house.
FEYERICK: A crisis that has turned dozens of military families, their children and pets into virtual refugees, holed up in cramp hotel rooms for weeks at a time. They call this hotel wing the mold wing.
Displaced families who tell us they or their kids are sick after living in rotting homes and being exposed in some cases to unhealthy levels of mold. Jarl Bliss runs Lincoln Military Housing, a private company that took over Navy family housing seven years ago.
FEYERICK (on camera): Under the terms of the contract, within a two-year period, all homes were supposed to be brought up to a suitable level. Was that done in your opinion? And by suitable I mean all of them livable.
JARL BLISS, LINCOLN MILITARY HOUSING: Yes. I believe it was, under the terms of our agreement with the Navy.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Yet military spouses we spoke with tell a very different story.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The second story was sinking into the first.
FEYERICK: A story of decaying homes and well-meaning but incompetent maintenance people.
FEYERICK (on camera): Is it fair to say that Lincoln was simply fixing the same problem over and over and over again?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's almost kind of like they just put lipstick on a pig. It's still a pig.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Lincoln knew it was inheriting hundreds of older, poorly built homes.
BLISS: I understand why some of the families are frustrated in this issue. I'd be frustrated, too, with some of the things that went on.
FEYERICK: After a series of local news reports, town hall meetings have been packed with dozens of military families complaining of health problems. U.S. Senator Mark Warner, who himself has a daughter with asthma, listened in disbelief.
SEN. MARK WARNER (D), VIRGINIA: I've spent 20 years in business and I'm (INAUDIBLE). This is not a way to run a business.
FEYERICK (on camera): Lincoln representatives were denying there was a problem. The Navy was denying there was a problem. Now all of a sudden there's been a 180 degree reversal and you guys are now acting on it.
BLISS: Well, we've made mistakes, and we're not happy about what happened here.
REAR ADM. TIM ALEXANDER, U.S. NAVY: One of our lessons learned has been, in this particular partnership and for the time being, that we need to increase the amount of oversight that we provide sort of at the deck plate level.
FEYERICK (voice-over): Homes are now being patched. Almost 90 have now been remediated for mold.
FEYERICK (on camera): Lincoln and the Navy are not doing this out of the goodness of their heart. They're doing it because they got caught.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They got caught.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN: Deb Feyerick joins me now.
Deb, how long did this mold crisis go on before someone did something about it? FEYERICK: Well, you know, what's so interesting, Gary, is that Lincoln did not create this deteriorating housing crisis. Congress knew it had a problem. It decided to outsource or privatize the housing in order to save billions of dollars. And they thought by doing this with other companies, they would be able at least to save that kind of money. So Lincoln knew the kind of homes that it was getting, but whether they went in and really investigated, a lot of these families feel that the homes they're living in have suffered so much water damage, so much water penetration throughout the years, that it's just created unsafe living conditions.
Lincoln now -- now that this has sort of come to light -- now they're doing the right thing and now they're trying to remedy the problems. But it's something that was supposed to have been fixed back in 2007 and it appears that it wasn't.
TUCHMAN: So, Deb, why isn't there any independent oversight?
FEYERICK: You know, and that's a really good question. The Navy is supposed to come in and oversee everything that's being done. The new construction. All the renovations. They're supposed to sign off on it. But it appears that they developed a very cozy relationship with Lincoln because Lincoln is building new homes and respectable homes, but the problem is, they got a little bit too comfortable and now the Navy realizes that they do have to come in, they do have to insert oversight really just at the ground level so that they can make sure their families, you know, who are overseas fighting, that their families can be OK.
TUCHMAN: It's disturbing and, frankly, a very disgusting situation. Deb, thanks for joining us. We really appreciate it.
And you can watch Deb's full special on this case, CNN Presents "Toxic Homefront" this Sunday night, 8:00 Eastern Time.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: It's time now for "The Help Desk," where we get answers to your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Gary Schatsky is a financial planner and president of objectiveadvice.com, Carmen Wong Ulrich is the president of ALTA Wealth Management.
Thank you both for coming in.
Carmen, short and sweet question for you. It comes from Marsha in Idaho. Marsha says, "is it better to keep a credit card that I am not using or should I close the account?"
CARMEN WONG ULRICH, PRESIDENT, ALTA WEALTH MANAGEMENT: Well, why close it? Really? I mean if it's just sitting there, you're not using the card, it's building some credit history, unless you have an annual fee that you don't want to play, in that case then you'd want to close it. But having access to credit and having it on your credit report can be helpful in many ways. It's the credit history, it's the open credit line. And in case of emergency, you can always use it.
HARLOW: And closing it could hurt your credit score. ULRICH: It could absolutely hurt you. Even though it stays on your record, it will age itself out. So it's still good to have it there.
HARLOW: All right. And, Gary, your question comes from Mercila (ph) in New Jersey. She wrote in, "I've got a 401(k) that I would like to roll over into an IRA. Would a variable or fixed index annuity be safer?"
GARY SCHATSKY, PRESIDENT, OBJECTIVEADVICE.COM: I think none of the above is the choice. Look, basically annuities are not a great deal, generally speaking. The expenses are incredibly high. The investment selection isn't that great. If you were forced to pick between variable and fixed, fixed, obviously, is fixed, so it tends not to go down. But rarely would I ever buy an annuity, particularly in an IRA account. So that's really -- I'd avoid those.
HARLOW: Not either of the two options.
ULRICH: No.
HARLOW: Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Folks, if you have questions that you want answered, send us an e-mail any time to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: From stepping out for a smoke, to an afternoon snack, bad habits can change the shape of our lives. Now the author of a bestselling new book says he can show you how to take control of you every compulsion.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TUCHMAN: Time now for bookmarks. Our look at the big ideas and best sellers driving the national conversation. So cigarettes, snacking, even brushing your teeth, what do they all have in common? They are habits. So how do you take control of those compulsions? Charles Duhigg writes for "The New York Times" and he's the author of "The Power of Habit." It's riding high in the bestseller list right now. He stopped by the CNN NEWSROOM to talk to Suzanne Malveaux about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN: I've got good habits. I've got bad habits. Explain to us in the most basic way, what is a habit?
CHARLES DUHIGG, AUTHOR, "THE POWER OF HABIT": Well, a habit is a decision that you made at one point, stopped making, but continue acting on. And in the last decade, our understanding of the neurology of habits has been completely transformed. And as a result, because of laboratory science, we've learned how to create habits and extinguish old ones and change bad ones.
MALVEAUX: So how long does it take to form a habit?
DUHIGG: Well, unfortunately, every habit is different and every person is different. But the way the habits change are exactly the same regardless of who it is or what we're talking about. And anyone can change their habit. What we've learned is that a habit has three components. There's a cue, which is like a trigger for the behavior to start. A routine, which is the behavior itself. And then a reward. And most people only focus on the behavior. But if you focus on the cues and the rewards, that's how you can change or create new habits.
MALVEAUX: So if you have a bad habit, how do you break down -- break a bad habit?
DUHIGG: Well, you have to pay attention to what's triggering it. And more importantly, what reward it's delivering. So, for instance, say you had a bad cookie habit, like I did at one point. The thing you've got to figure out is, are you eating that cookie because you're hungry or because you need the burst of sugar, in which case you want the energy, in which case coffee or an apple should suffice, or because you need a break from work and it's just convenient to go up to the cafeteria, in which case, taking a walk will work just as well. Once you figure out the reward it's delivering and what's trigging it, you can change any behavior.
MALVEAUX: And how much of our lives are we actually living habit to habit?
DUHIGG: It's amazing how -- there was a study done by a Duke University professor a couple of years ago who followed people around. And she figured that 45 percent of the behaviors that we do every day aren't actual choices, they're habits.
MALVEAUX: Is there any habit that you can't change, that you can't kill, that you just got to try to work with or adapt in some way or live with?
DUHIGG: None. In fact, this is what -- this really the important thing of this science is that we know from laboratory experiments that any habit can be changed. It doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter how ingrained the behavior is. Once you understand how to take a habit apart, you can then reconstruct it whichever way you want.
MALVEAUX: And, Charles, talk a little bit about those habits, the bad habits, that turn into addictions. When you talk about alcoholism or smoking.
DUHIGG: That's exactly right. One of the really interesting things is that most of the things that we think of as addictions are, for the most part, habit dysfunctions. So cigarettes is a great example. We know from medical experiments that you're only addicted to nicotine for about 100 hours after your last cigarette. Once the nicotine's out of your blood system, there's no more physical addiction, and yet people crave a cigarette two weeks or two months or two years after they quit. Or they'll sit down with their morning paper and they just want a smoke. That's the habit exerting itself. And so the key to changing that habit, to changing that habit, is to figure out what reward nicotine used to give you. With your morning paper it might have been the burst of energy that comes from smoking. And to find something else to deliver that same reward, like a double espresso, which laboratory experiments have shown will help you quit.
MALVEAUX: So it's as simple as switching out the reward. I have a habit of running. I love to run. But sometimes, you know, I'm a couch potato and I'm not really motivated. How do I strengthen that habit and say, OK, I'm going to go out and do this?
DUHIGG: So the number one thing to focus on is the cue. Always try and exercise at the same time. Or have a ritual beforehand. Always put on your running shoes before you eat breakfast. You want your brain to latch onto some cue that makes that behavior automatic. But then you also have to give yourself a reward that you really enjoy. If you haven't been running in a little while and your brain has forgotten how much you like to run, give yourself a little piece of chocolate after the workout routine.
MALVEAUX: That will work. That will work real well.
DUHIGG: It's counterintuitive, right?
MALVEAUX: The exercise routine.
DUHIGG: You go (INAUDIBLE) with your exercising is to try and lose weight or to get in better shape and the chocolate does the opposite of that and yet we know from experiments that if you
