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Facebook Debut Turns Lukewarm; Obama Hosts G8, NATO Summits; New Evidence in Trayvon Martin Case; Billionaires Gets In Political Fray; Georgia Student To Lose Hands And Foot; Chicago Braces For Trouble; The Help Desk; Lots of Rocks Up There; Eating Out
Aired May 18, 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: I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Let's get right to it.
The Facebook frenzy fizzles a little at least for now. The social network that started in a Harvard dorm room debuts as one of the stock offerings in history. Facebook began trading in a NASDAQ about 30 minutes ago or so.
Earlier the founder, Mark Zuckerberg, rang the opening bell remotely from the company's headquarters in Menlo, California. The initial price $38 a share, put he company's market value at about $104 billion.
Alison Kosik is at the NASDAQ market site, with a look at the stock. Ali Velshi has the big picture and what this means for the broader markets and for your money.
First, I want to start -- Facebook shares have been mostly flat, at least for the last few minutes.
Alison Kosik watching it at NASDAQ there.
Give us a sense of what's happening and how are people trading?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Tell what you, jaws are sort of dropping. It's certainly not what everybody expected after all the hype that Facebook had leading up to this public offering of Facebook shares. As you said, shares right now are up about 1.34 percent. That's not a whole lot, considering how much interest has been generated about buying into Facebook shares.
Now, one interesting thing -- there was a bit of a delay before these shares opened up to the public. I just talked with one analyst who said what he suspects happened is that Morgan Stanley, the chief underwriter, who was finding all those institutional buyers, those investors to invest in Facebook, that they couldn't find enough buyers for all the sellers that were in the market, and usually what has to happen is they have to be matched. You have to match a seller with a buyer and a buyer with a seller, and there just weren't enough buyers to match.
He also said to me that, you know, take a deep breath here, we're still in the first pretty much half hour to an hour of trading of Facebook, and really you shouldn't get in in the first half hour or the last half hour of any trading and to let this really just see how this plays out.
Did he say that he is seeing record high volume in Facebook shares right now -- meaning the trading. Right now trading is at a record high of 200 million shares being traded.
MALVEAUX: Wow. Why didn't it start at 9:30? A lot of people were wondering, what was the delay?
KOSIK: Well, exactly. Exactly what I said, is that everybody is sort of suspecting that Morgan Stanley, the chief underwriter in this deal, couldn't find enough buyers for all the sellers -- meaning before the shares were opened up to the public, all of those sort of institutional buyers, the investors, and any kind of people who had portfolios that met certain requirements, those people who got in on that IPO price, that initial offer price of $38, they had already put in sell orders. The problem is as Morgan Stanley, that chief underwriter, couldn't watch a buyer to those sellers. So just weren't enough people willing to buy Facebook.
So, that's why that delay was happening. Morgan Stanley was trying to find more buyers because there weren't people ling up to buy into Facebook as expected.
MALVEAUX: OK. And you have the big brokers investors first in line. What about individual investors like, say, you and I?
KOSIK: As far as whether or not we should buy into it?
MALVEAUX: Yes. I mean, it's still -- it's very early in the game but, you know, I'm going to call my guy and find out.
KOSIK: You know what? The best thing to do is sort of take a deep breath with this, especially since you see how the sock is trading right now. It certainly is trading below expectations. You know, all this talk about Facebook, there was an expectation that this stock was going to shoot up right out of the gate. That clearly did not materialize.
So I would say take a deep breath before you invest at this point.
MALVEAUX: All right. Everybody is just taking a deep breath, just holding on here.
All right. Alison, thank you very much.
Critics say Facebook stock offering is more hype actually than history, and perhaps it's being reflected in trading so far today.
I want to bring in Ali Velshi.
So, Ali, some of this frenzy that all the hype seems to be fizzling a little bit. Do we know why?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: So, Alison was saying that it's possible that the underwriter, Morgan Stanley, couldn't find enough buyers. Remember, there's always a buyer at some price, right? Enough buyers at the price they wanted.
Christine Romans has been pointing out that this thing was priced -- there was a $28 to $35 range and then Facebook upped it to $35 to $38, and they came out at the high end of the range which many people have said unlike Google when it first came out, this is priced to perfection, which means this is priced so that Facebook will perform at the rate of growth it's had for some years out. And there have been criticisms that maybe it can't do that, specifically, Fred, because of the move toward mobile devices.
By the way, every time I put this up on TV, I get tweets about people wondering why I use a BlackBerry.
Maybe the issue is that Facebook didn't answer those questions sufficiently. It's not below the offer price, so it's not terrible, but generally speaking you expect more enthusiasm out of the most hyped IPO -- probably the most hyped IPO most people have ever heard of. It's problematic it's trading where it is right now, but it's unclear as to how much this delay at the NASDAQ and this delay in opening up the trade had to do with it.
Again, I think what Alison said and what Poppy said makes a lot of sense. If you're the average investor, you're not a day trader, don't concern yourself too much with day one. Many people have said even if you want to get into the stock, wait a week or month or whatever the case is. This is just not the most auspicious start to the trading of the stock.
MALVEAUX: So, for folks like myself or you, maybe folks that aren't just rushing to buy Facebook, this could be a good thing. This could be a good deal.
VELSHI: Totally a good thing. Totally a good thing. It gives you a sense of what the market thinks the stock was worth. We talked to people who thought it would end up at $50 or $60 at day one. And some thought it might double on day one. If it ends up in the neighborhood of where it started, maybe it tells you that $38 IPO price wasn't that bad and you've got a few days to think about it.
So, for the retail investor, for the average investor, you know you should do? Sit and watch. Watch what happens, watch what unfolds over the course of the next few hours. If you thought you were willing to buy it at $50 or $60, you might still be willing to buy it.
I wouldn't -- I don't think there is an indication that there's something wrong with this company. It's still a $100 billion company. This is still one of the largest IPOs in the history of the world.
MALVEAUX: Sure.
VELSHI: And it's still a game-changer, it's just not where we thought it could be.
MALVEAUX: And it could still end up in your 401(k), right? It's a possibility that --
VELSHI: Sure.
MALVEAUX: -- your investors are already buying the stock.
VELSHI: Right, because your mutual fund manager or your pension fund may have been one of those people who got in on the IPO and is busy sticking it into your 401(k) right now. It's always the same advice, Fred, even if you thought you wanted to buy Facebook, I would say to you never make anyone's stock more than 5 percent of your portfolio -- I'm sorry, Suzanne, I have been rushing through this day so quickly.
It's always important to not make one stock too big a part of your portfolio. So, if it's 5 percent of your portfolio, doesn't matter whether it's 39 bucks or 44 bucks. It's not going to crush you and not make you a millionaire. It diversifies your portfolio.
So, not worth getting too excited about, but this is -- you know, I follow business. So this is exciting to me.
MALVEAUX: It's exciting for all of us.
All right. Ali, thank you very much. Ali, Alison, as well. Good to see you both.
Here's what we're working on for this hour.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX (voice-over): The NATO summit hits Chicago. Inside, they're talking Afghanistan. And outside, they're bracing for violence.
Then, blood, bruises, and drugs. The Trayvon Martin case just got a lot more complicated.
And moving a robotic arm with her mind. Technology that could change the world for the disabled.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: No rest for President Obama this weekend. He's not only hosting the G-8 for the first time. He's also welcoming 60 world leaders to Chicago for a large scale NATO meeting.
Here is the newly elected president of France, Francois Hollande, arriving this morning. It's his debut in the world stage.
There are a couple new faces at this year's G-8, the prime ministers of Italy and Japan. They have never attended. And the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, certainly not a new face but he decided to skip the summit this time.
I want to talk about all this with Michael Holmes from CNN International.
Michael, you and I were talking about this in the break. I think I have covered about eight to 10 of these over the years, and generally speaking long discussions, short on action really.
So there is a sense of frustration and questions, debate about whether or not these are really worth it. I do think this go around, we've got some pretty hot issues that are going to make some waves.
First of all, when you talk about the debt crisis and Europe and Greece.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And I agree with you. There's long been criticism that the g-8 is just a talk fest, they get together, have high-minded conversations and they go home and nothing changes.
This time around and at the serene setting of Camp David, I wonder who is going to get which hut.
MALVEAUX: They're cabins, not exactly huts but, you know.
HOLMES: Yes, the big thing is going to be the European debt crisis, Greece in particular, of course. But a lot of people very worried about Spain, Italy.
Mario Monti is there for the first time, from Italy, a technocrat, well-regarded, seems to be doing a pretty good job, so far. The Japanese premier as well, and that guy there key -- Francois Hollande.
Now, this guy is a fiscal and ideological mate as we would say in my country with the president, with President Obama. He's a guy that's more into the growth than just austerity and, of course, he's butting heads with Angela Merkel in Germany about the austerity measures. One of the important things to remember from the president's point of view, what happens in Europe is not irrelevant to what happens here.
MALVEAUX: How do you think these new players are really going to kind of shake up the dynamic within that group? Because it's a small setting. They get to know each other relatively well. They get along. They have these side bar conversations which is usually where the real work gets done. But now you've got new folks who are in the mix up here.
HOLMES: Yes, they've got to mix up. Hollande is the main one. I mean, Angela Merkel, when she was mates with Sarkozy, the predecessor to Hollande, they were on one page when it came to the austerity measures. Now, you've got guy there in one of the two top countries in Europe saying, yes, not so much. We need a growth element to this, too.
Merkel is the one who is little bit on the out now and, of course, President Obama is always favored spurring growth as well as cutting back. So it's going to be a bit of ganging up on Angela Merkel I think.
Europe and the U.S., we talked about this before, their relationship is key. A third of the world's trade is between the U.S. and Europe. The U.S. does three times more trade with Europe than it does with China.
Europe starts to go south, it hurts us here and it hurts his reelection.
MALVEAUX: I want to show our viewers. This is something that made news. This is President Bush and Angela Merkel -- it made a little news there because it kind of showed the relationship, if you will.
She cringed at that moment. Everybody said that with the little shoulder massage, very awkward. But it was a time when these two were getting to know each other. That's really one of the thing that's so important is the kinds of relationships that these leaders develop.
HOLMES: It's first time actually --
MALVEAUX: When you look at Hollande and look at Obama, when you look at Monti and Obama, do you see them getting along? Do you see that this is the kind of thing that they'll be able to cooperate?
HOLMES: I do. I see Hollande and Obama getting along absolutely.
Monti is a bit boring. He's a technocrat. He's a man that's just about the numbers and going very quietly about it.
In the ideological sense, I think Hollande and Obama will be very, very close. And the other thing to remember, you pointed this out, too, Putin not being there. Ooh!
MALVEAUX: Right. What is that about?
HOLLMES: You know, it could be about a few things. It could be -- the protests we talked about in Russia before and after his inauguration. A lot of people think he's sort of messing with the system to be back there for the third time as president.
A lot of people think that those protests are getting bigger, by the way. They're not going away. And that he might want to stay home to keep an eye on that. But he's going to the NATO summit few days, I don't know about that.
The other thing is he's sending a political message. He doesn't like the way things are going, particularly with the European missile program, defense shield. He doesn't like that, and he's sending a message to Obama that, you know, I'm not your lap dog.
Conversely, a lot of people would say Obama wouldn't be too unhappy about that because the Republicans have portrayed Obama as a puppet of Putin.
MALVEAUX: Right.
HOLMES: If he's there with the more friendly, more Western- friendly Medvedev, their prime minister, he'd probably be happier with that photo-op.
MALVEAUX: And we've heard from Mitt Romney, Republicans saying essentially that Russia is one of the most dangerous threats. And that really has put a little bit more pressure on the Obama administration.
HOLMES: That helps relations, yes.
MALVEAUX: All right.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: It's going to be interesting. A busy weekend. They go from there to Chicago for NATO.
MALVEAUX: Absolutely.
HOLMES: Another big talk fest.
MALVEAUX: I love this stuff. It's not so boring to me.
HOLMES: It's in your wheelhouse as they say.
MALVEAUX: Nice to see you. Have a good weekend.
HOLMES: Yes, you too.
MALVAUX: All right. We are talking bruises, blood, drugs. New evidence coming to light in the Trayvon Martin case. We're going to look at what it means for the man who shot the unarmed teenager.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: We've been poring over newly released evidence from the night Trayvon Martin was killed and what the shooter, George Zimmerman, himself claimed was defense.
Now, the surveillance video is among the images released by Florida police and it shows the teenager wearing a hoodie, buying Skittles and ice tea at a neighborhood convenience store. This was moments before he was killed.
John Zarrella, he's joining us live from Miami to talk about what we have seen in the photos and what we're seeing in this video.
First of all, let's take a look, John, at these new photos of Zimmerman taken at the Sanford police station shortly after the shooting. You see the cut on his nose as well as a gash in the back of his head. These are things that were not seen clearly at the police station video, plus we're also getting some new sound from witnesses. What stands out to you in all of this when you take a look at these pictures?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Suzanne. That's exactly right.
I think, you know, a lot of this validates what we had heard earlier about the kind of bruising that Zimmerman claimed to have, about what the police said that his head had been bloodied, that he perhaps broke his nose. It appeared certainly that he did have a very swollen, perhaps broken nose.
And, you know, in a lot of what we're hearing and some of the audio recordings that were released as well yesterday are pretty riveting. One of the witnesses talking about the fact that, you know, they all heard the cries for help. They all heard the gunshot, but none of them, the witnesses, could see exactly what happened at the moment that it happened.
But one of the witnesses in particular talks about what he saw when he looked outside.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
WITNESS: When I first walked out there, the black guy was on top, and the only reason I can tell that was because the guy that was on the ground under him at that point wrestling was definitely a lighter color.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
ZARRELLA: Of course, what we're hearing is after this the man goes back inside, hears the gunshot, and when he looks back outside again, the man who was originally on top doing the beating, according to the witness statement, is the one who is on the ground lying there dead -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: And you have new information from the toxicology report as well on Trayvon Martin's remains, and I understand that they showed drugs in his system at the time of his death? Can you explain?
ZARRELLA: Yes, traces of THC, which is the compound in marijuana. But we're being told by a lot of experts don't read too much into that because blood levels of THC are not a real good indicator. They can be in the system for five, six, seven days after someone might have used it.
MALVEAUX: Do we know anything about how the police are describing what happened that night? I understand that they are now saying this was alternately avoidable by Zimmerman. What does that mean?
ZARRELLA: Yes. You know, there's a document that they used, that they attached to the arrest warrant document and the paperwork that gives them the arrest warrant. And in that paperwork it says that had he stayed in the car, had he waited for authorities to show up, the police, after those 911 calls were made and they said you don't need to follow him, had he followed those instructions, they're saying that what happened, the confrontation, the shooting, was ultimately avoidable.
And they use that rationale, those documents to get the arrest warrant that led to Zimmerman's arrest.
MALVEAUX: OK. John Zarrella, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
We could look back at 2012 as the super PAC election. We're going to show you how independent groups are changing the shape of the race for the White House.
And don't forget, you can watch CNN live on your computer while you're at work. Just head to CNN.com/TV.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: It's unbelievable video here. You have to take a look at it. Syrian students rescue a friend who was wounded by men wearing security uniforms. They load him up in the back of a U.N. observer SUV, and as they drive along the street, you see what appears to be more security forces attacking a civilian. You see them beating and kicking this person.
CNN can't independently confirm the authenticity of this video, but Syria's crackdown has been ongoing for now 14 months despite the rest of the world condemning them.
Police in suburban Atlanta are trying to find a man who pointed a rifle at a passing school bus. Witnesses say he was crouched in the backyard of a home in Clayton County. Someone tried to chase him down but he got away. He apparently left a note at the scene containing school bus numbers.
Police are escorting school buses today. Federal agents have joined this investigation. Parents and students, well, you can imagine, they're on edge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have two kids in the Clayton County school system. I'm just a little nervous and scared.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's crazy. He's crazy and he needs to be caught.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to go outside anymore until they find the person.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: The Facebook frenzy fizzling just a little bit, at least for now. Facebook shares began trading on the NASDAQ exchange within the past hour after rising 11 percent to horn $42 a share, stocks started dropping for a while, hovering around the initial price of $38. We're going to continue watching that stock price. Facebook debuted as one of the largest stock offerings in history.
Billionaire businessman gets caught in the backlash of hardball politics. Joe Ricketts said he pulled the plug on a proposal for super PAC campaign against President Obama. It would have linked the president to his former pastor, the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, known for delivering racially charged sermon.
So, who is Joe Ricketts, the man helping fund the super PAC?
He's the founder and former CEO of brokerage firm TD Ameritrade. His family owns the Chicago Cubs. He's an active member of Republican politics.
I want to bring in our political director, Mark Preston, to talk about this.
First of all, Mark, how big a player is he when it comes to Republican politics?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, you know, he is certainly no Koch brothers, which is a name we talk about often when we talk about outside money and the incompetent influence of these millionaire and billionaires who are trying to have some say in the presidential election and the congressional elections.
But as you said, he is somebody who is known in Republican circles and he's kind of a complex figure. Not only has he started to really get involved in conservative politics over the past couple years, but he's also given a donation to a group that tries to defeat incumbents, including Republican incumbents. You know, he's -- one of his spokesmen describes him as a fiscal conservative and says that he's a registered independent.
So, Joe Ricketts, one of these really interesting figures right now we're seeing really come out in the wake of Citizens United, which was the ruling that allows these billionaires, these corporations, and even labor unions to spend millions of dollars on this election.
MALVEAUX: And, Mark, is it -- is it plausible, is it even feasible that he really didn't know the super PAC was going to use Jeremiah Wright when he pulled the plug? Was it out of ignorance or did he just got a whole bunch pressure from folks who are looking at Ameritrade and thinking, really, is my money going to be used for this?
PRESTON: Well, probably not. And it's certainly not what you wanted to have come out if you have a company like Ameritrade or if you own the Chicago cubs.
But the fact of the matter is, this isn't a proposal that was actually about to be put into action. It was a plan that was presented to them. They were considering it. They said they were looking at other plans. So, I guess we have to take him on his word for that.
What's interesting though, and I was talking to somebody close to the Romney campaign last night, in many ways this story that came out yesterday is very good for the Romney campaign. And for this reason and this reason alone: it defused it very quickly. It defused it in the month of May.
If this were to go into action when the plan was to have it come out in September, can you imagine the backlash that Mitt Romney, Suzanne, would have to take having to explain away why we're talking about Jeremiah Wright when we're facing all these tough economic conditions.
MALVEAUX: Sure. Talk about what do we think the impact is of these super PACs? Because we're talking about millionaires and billionaires who really have had an amazing influence so far on the direction of this campaign.
PRESTON: Yes. It's not even these millionaires and billionaires, we talk about Koch brothers, we talk about Mr. Ricketts at this point. We also talk about the influence of the money from labor unions.
They're going to have a huge influence and in many ways it's going to be very good for the candidate. We saw that in the Republican primary. We saw the "Super PAC" that was aligned with Mitt Romney come to his defense and it really crush Newt Gingrich in the Florida primary.
We saw Rick Santorum boosted by his "Super PAC" when he needed it at times. And of course, we saw Newt Gingrich who was basically funded by Sheldon Adelson who as the billionaire casino mogul out in Las Vegas who funded a "Super PAC" that basically kept Newt Gingrich's campaign alive.
The bad for "Super PACs" is you can't control the message. Mitt Romney or Barack Obama is not able to coordinate with these "Super PACs." You can't control the message, and what we saw yesterday was the Romney campaign not able to control this "Super PAC" message had it actually been executed.
MALVEAUX: Yes, they certainly learned the hard way there. And, Mark, I understand that Ricketts' daughter Laura, ironically is an Obama supporter. I mean, can you imagine Thanksgiving dinner at their house?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, you know, this is what's great about American politics. You have this wealthy family who is very involved in politics. You have Mr. Ricketts, who is very conservative, the father, that patriot.
You know, Laura's brother, Pete Ricketts ran for U.S. Senate as the conservative nominee back in 2006. He lost, but you have Laura Ricketts who has given a lot of money to Barack Obama. She is openly a lesbian.
There doesn't seem to be any friction in the family. And the fact of the matter is she's given a lot to Democratic causes, and I have to say, we were just showing that video out of Syria where you have this crackdown.
And this violence and upheaval over politics, but here in the United States for all the problems that we have, even if it is "Super PACs," we don't have that, Suzanne. So I guess we have to be happy about something.
MALVEAUX: Absolutely. Diversity in everybody's family, they've always been interesting Thanksgiving dinner. All right, Mark, thanks. Good to see you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Sure, there is a disease that eats its victims alive, and we're wondering should we be worried about it? We'll take a look at the science behind the hysteria.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: This is a heart wrenching setback for a young woman. She is battling an extremely dangerous case of flesh eating bacteria. Aimee Copeland's father revealed today the 24-year-old graduate student is going to lose both her hands and remaining foot.
Elizabeth Cohen is here to explain what is happening to this young woman because a lot of people look at this and just go, God, not more, not more suffering. What is happening to her?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting because the way the father frames it is that this was actually a relatively easy decision because he wants to save his daughter.
He will do whatever it takes to save his daughter, and if doctors say that she's got a better chance of living without those hands and without that foot, that's what they have to do.
Now, she is still in critical condition. She is still very sick. A piece of good news is that she got her breathing tube removed, and a breathing tube goes down the throat and it makes it very difficult to speak.
She's going to have a tracheotomy instead so it will be much easier for her to speak. She's very happy about that. Her father is very happy about that.
I mean, the really great news here is that she is aware and awake and communicating. That's huge.
MALVEAUX: She is aware of what's happening to her. Does she realize she's deteriorating in some ways?
COHEN: Well, actually in some ways she's not deteriorating. I mean, her life was in danger at one point and now she's much more with it and they're less worried about her life and more worried about these limbs.
She's aware of what's happening to her. That's what her father tells us. So, for example, before they had the surgery, her parents brought her hands up in front of her face to make her understand that her hands were purple.
And that they would need to be amputated, and her father said that Aimee said let's do it. That it was very clear that she understood that it was necessary to save her life to remove these hands.
MALVEAUX: And she is in control over those kinds of decisions. She's able to weigh in and let them know.
COHEN: It sounds like it. It sounds like it. I think that she -- I mean, I think at this point she's probably being told, this is what we need to do, but she understands what's going on. She gave her agreement. That's pretty amazing considering how much sicker she was not so long ago.
MALVEAUX: And how is her family holding up through all of this because this just seems so tragic. I know you say it's good news because she's going to be alive, but it seems like piece by piece it's just so horrific.
COHEN: You know, I think they are so relieved that she's alive, and her father wrote one of the most moving things on this Facebook page that I have ever read. So I'm going to read it to you. It's long but I'm going to read it to you in its entirety because it's so moving.
He wrote, when they made the decision about having to do these amputations, he said a tear rolled down my face as I walked out of her room. I wasn't crying because Aimee was going to lose her hands and her foot, I was crying because in all of my 53 years of existence, I have never seen such a strong display of courage.
Aimee shed no tears, she never batted an eyelash. I was crying because I am a proud father of an incredibly courageous young lady.
MALVEAUX: That is so powerful.
COHEN: He has been so amazing. To get your daughter through this and to also recognize that your daughter was very sick and needed help. What an empowered patient, what an amazing father. I just --
MALVEAUX: And really a message of hope. I mean, you know, when I first saw this story, I didn't see it that way at all, and that really turns it on its head. I mean, you really realize there is something that is good, inspiring out of this.
COHEN: That is so true. When we talk to her father, he doesn't sound beaten down. He sounds like I am going to save my daughter and we are going to do whatever it takes. MALVEAUX: All right, we wish them the very best.
COHEN: We do.
MALVEAUX: All right, thank you, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
MALVEAUX: Throughout the city's history, Chicago no stranger to protest. We're going to take a look at how police are hunkering down now for what could be a violent backlash to the NATO summit.
And paralyzed from the neck down, a woman manipulates a robotic arm using only the power of her thoughts.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Business owners in downtown Chicago are boaring up the windows, bracing for potential trouble. That is because the eyes of the world are on Chicago this weekend for the global military and security summit.
Police are preparing for protest groups to take advantage of the extra attention. Demonstrations around these global events often get violent and destructive.
I want to bring in our Ted Rowlands in Chicago right now. Ted, do we know if the city is ready?
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they say they're ready, Suzanne, and basically the strategy here has been to expect the worst, expect the scenes like Seattle in 1999 or even France in 2009, and hope for the best.
And that's what they've done. They've been preparing for 11 months. The FBI, the Secret Service, and the Chicago Police Departments have gone to great lengths to set up a plan. There are perimeters around the McCormick place where the world leaders will be.
And they're doing a very good job in planning, but the problem is, of course, you never know what to expect. We're at a rally right now. This is really the first large rally this week that we've seen.
It's leading up to Sunday's big march, and this is a group of nurses from around the country really. You can see that securities fairly heavy. You have Chicago police surrounding the perimeter here.
A lot of numbers here, but quite frankly, this isn't a real scary bunch of folks. Let's talk to a couple nurses here. These ladies are down from St. Paul, Minnesota. This is Jennifer Michelson. She's an RN. You came down to Chicago from Minnesota. You feel very passionate about this, and specifically referencing your hat we're talking about the Robinhood Tax.
You're proposing that Wall Street be taxed basically financial transactions be taxed, and that money be used to offset cuts in education and health care. Why is it so passionate for you and for all these other thousands of nurses?
JENNIFER MICHELSON, NATIONAL NURSES UNITED: I have been a nurse for 30 years. I have seen our patients coming in sicker and going home sicker. There isn't the safety net out there to protect them.
They can't pay for the medications that are prescribed to keep them out of the hospital. They can't go in for the preventative care for their diabetic checks to keep them from getting sick and having to come into the hospital.
ROWLANDS: And this is a theme we're hearing from a lot of nurses. Is it pretty universal within your profession that things are going downhill and is that why you've been able to galvanize so many people?
MICHELSON: That's exactly why we're galvanizing nurses and the public. We are the 99 percent and we are not seeing any improvement. The cutbacks in health care are being taken away from our patients. They are in the hospital for outpatient what used to be eight-day procedures.
ROWLANDS: You're across the street from city hall, but you're miles and miles away from the world leaders. Originally, you were hoping the G8 was going to be here in Chicago today. Is that frustrating, that you may or may not be having your voices heard with the world leaders in town?
MICHELSON: We're not frustrated. We're very excited the fact that we are here on a national stage. We are to be listened to and nurses have the answer.
ROWLANDS: All right, thanks, Jennifer. Suzanne, this is just one of ten planned protests scheduled through the weekend. Of course, the real problem are the things that aren't planned and that's what Chicago police, the FBI, and the Secret Service are most worried about, but so far so good here.
MALVEAUX: That's good, Ted. We certainly hope that it remains peaceful. I was at that France 2009 protest where it was really quite violent. So we hope that that doesn't happen this weekend. Thanks, Ted.
Well, you better watch the sky for falling objects. The movie "Armageddon" may have been fiction, but NASA is now saying there are a lot of asteroids out there and they're pretty close to earth.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Hey there. Well, here on "The Help Desk" today we're talking about how to rebuild your credit. It's a very important issue that effects a lot of Americans. With me to help answer that question, Ryan Mack, the president of Optimum Capital Management, and Stacy Francis, she's a financial adviser and president of Francis Financial.
Here's the e-mail that we got. It came from Angela in New Jersey. She wrote in, "what's the best way to rebuild my credit after filing for bankruptcy?" So, Ryan, this takes a long time, about seven years, right?
RYAN MACK, PRESIDENT, OPTIMUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: Yes. Well, it does. But you can start right away. And even though that bankruptcy can still be on your report, that doesn't mean that you can't still have a 750 FICO score if you rebuild back up to it.
So doing things like getting a secured card, making sure you go to maybe a local credit union that maybe have a loan builder program. Asmarterchoice.org can give you options for different credit unions. Paying your bills on time. Going to automatic bill payment to make sure you pay your bill on time. Paying down your debts as fast as possible. Going to annualcreditreport.com and really analyzing all of your credit reports and taking out all the errors and that everything you find and dispute on those. All those things are being very diligent.
HARLOW: I do wonder that, how difficult it is to clean up your credit report, Stacy, and also I think it's always worth asking, isn't it, just reaching out to people that you owe money to or debt that there is and asking, what can I do to get this off my report?
STACY FRANCIS, FINANCIAL ADVISOR: Definitely. And the thing is, is it took you a while to hurt your credit score and get into debt.
HARLOW: Right.
FRANCIS: Guess what, it's going to take you a while to come out of it.
HARLOW: Yes.
FRANCIS: And so what you want to do is definitely make those on- time payments, make sure that you are using credit. Definitely open up another credit card or secured card and start to rebuild that credit. But it's not something -- they didn't build Rome in a day. Guess what, your credit is not going to be fixed in a day either.
HARLOW: Absolutely. Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Folks, if you've got a question, just send us an e-mail anytime to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com. Back to you.
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MALVEAUX: A technological breakthrough holds great promise for people who have lost the use of their arms and legs. Researchers at Brown University call it BrainGate. Now, for the first time since a stroke 15 years ago, this woman is able to take a sip of coffee by herself. She does it by using a bionic arm she controls with her thoughts. A small chip implanted in the brain converts brain signals into digital commands. Now, the team behind this say more research is needed into possible side effects, but so far none of the seven people implanted with this chip has had any trouble.
All right, so we're not trying to alarm you today, but there are thousands, yes, thousands of things flying over our heads right now, could possibly smash down one day. Don't need to look up because, right, Chad, asteroids are not -- they're not coming down yet.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: They're not coming down, but there are more asteroids we think now where there's a smaller plus or minus. Where they actually could interact with the earth at some point this time. Maybe a billion years from now. Maybe 200 million years from now. Probably not in 2017. And not, you know, in December 21st when the Mayan calendar is coming to an end. Right? All of that. We've already -- we've debunked that. But the scientists now, with a WISE, they always use acronyms, they have looked up at the sky and they've seen 107 asteroids in this little window that they've looked. They multiplied that 107 by how much else space is there that they haven't looked yet and they come up with the number 4,500 to 4,700 asteroids out there. Now, plus or minus -- plus or minus 1,500. That's a big plus or minus.
MALVEAUX: That is a big plus or minus.
MYERS: So that's a little bit of a big -- I guess a plus or minus here. There's the earth. Plus or minus 1,500 means there could be 3,000 one way or the other, right? So we always talk about that plus or minus in the political polls. This is a big plus or minus.
Anyway, so here we go. This big green ring right there, now it's white, that's the earth. And then now some of these other typical, which are some of the bigger asteroids, now will cross the earth's path twice. Not just one time. So there's almost two times for us to get in trouble with these asteroids.
Now, we just need those guys from Hollywood, they'll take care of it for us. There's not going to be -- they'll go out there, they'll shoot it and, who is it, Bruce Willis, right, will go out there and he'll take the asteroid and he'll shoot it out of the way. But we now know that there is a number that's a not plus or minus 3,000 anymore. It's plus or minus 1,500. Still about the same number of asteroids out there that we thought still in the asteroid belt that we thought and still could, at some point, interact with the earth, just like that random movie you see right there.
MALVEAUX: Yes, that random movie there. What if it was a small asteroid that hit the earth? What would be the harm?
MYERS: There really wouldn't be harm. They happen all the time. It would be a great little shooting star. It would break up in the sky and these things would just come down as rocks. They would fall to the earth. But if you get one that's big enough that doesn't break up into pieces, they think that that's actually what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. So it could be the extinction of man if we're still here a hundred million years from now.
MALVEAUX: Oh, hope we (ph) are.
MYERS: So I think something -- we're worried about other things than asteroid that are killing off mankind.
MALVEAUX: Yes, more immediate things, I think.
Tell us about this solar eclipse this weekend. That's pretty cool.
MYERS: A solar eclipse. It is. It is very cool here. We have this solar eclipse. It's coming to especially to the western part of the United States. So we have to give you kind of an idea here what we're talking about. Here's Lubbock, Texas, the beginning point. And then all the way up here to about -- you can't look at this thing. OK. I'm just going to interrupt myself right now and say you cannot look at this thing. You have to get special goggles and sunglasses aren't good enough to look at the sun. There's a lot going on here. The sun is still very bright. But the moon will be in the way of the sun.
Now, why can't we see it on the eastern part of the United States? Because it will be dark by the time it happens. You'll only be able to see it in the western half of the U.S. Doesn't happen very often. You know, I mean this could be 10 to 15 years before we see another significant eclipse here in the U.S. And the next one that we know of is coming up, we'll actually be able to see it in Georgia and most of the East Coast.
MALVEAUX: All right, that's great. Looking forward to it. Chad, thank you.
MYERS: You're welcome.
MALVEAUX: Have a good weekend.
MYERS: You too.
MALVEAUX: All right, so before you head out to your favorite restaurant this weekend, I want you to listen up here. You're going to be chowing down on extra calories, sodium, and fat? Probably, yes. But it's even worse than fast food chains.
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MALVEAUX: Friday night, tonight, a lot of us eat out. I love it. But before you do, just a little bit of advice. To pick almost any entree, in fact, nine out of 10 of America's favorite chain restaurants, you're going to find more calories, fat, and sodium than the experts recommend. In many cases, a lot more. I want to bring in our Eatocracy editor, Kat Kinsman.
Kat, first of all, what are we talking about here? Restaurants, these chain restaurants just full of calories?
KAT KINSMAN, EDITOR, CNN's EATOCRACY: Yes. There was a study just released saying that 96 percent of these entrees exceed the recommended USDA daily limit for a whole slew of things, including salt, fat, you name it, it exceeds it. And, you know, and there is -- you know there's a really -- I'd be surprised to find out that anybody is surprised that this food is bad for you. I think people just weren't aware of how bad it was before. It just -- now they have the numbers, they have the information.
MALVEAUX: And give us a few examples, Kat, if you could. Because I found it quite surprising. I mean appetizers. We're talking 800-plus calories before you even get to the main course.
KINSMAN: Well, the bottom line is that for a chain restaurant, salt and sugar and fat and carbs are a lot cheaper generally than fresh vegetables and protein. And you know what? They taste fantastic. As a chef friend of mine says, it's my job to serve you delicious food. It's kind of up to me to how I get there. And the bottom line is, those things don't cost especially much and a family can go in there and their head and their stomach tell them, wow, that was really tasty, it didn't cost me that much, but there really is a hidden cost in terms of your health with all of this. And now we have the numbers.
MALVEAUX: And so now we've got the numbers here. I guess the restaurant would argue their business, well, is it our job to police what you eat? I mean you can find all the information on the Internet. You can decide for yourself. I mean we're really responsible, right, for whether or not we eat healthy?
KINSMAN: Well, you know, ordinarily I am a huge advocate of personal responsibility in these situations because the information is out there, it's on the Internet. The people who tend to be the victims of this, however, are people who live in food deserts, which tend to be in sort of less affluent neighborhoods in inner cities and in rural areas where really this is the only game in town. So, you know, in addition to people being able to look up, you know, information ahead of time, it's up to people to get loud at this point and really advocate not just for the restaurants to disclose this, but to also have just better options that taste just as good that are just as appealing to kids but are more nutritionally sound.
MALVEAUX: So, Kat, what should you do? What's the best defense against some of these food chains, these restaurants?
KINSMAN: Well, you know, we came up with a few tips for this that we'd like to use. First of all, you can get the facts. You can go online. You can go onto websites and just really empower yourself to find out exactly what is in everything that you're eating. Secondly, don't get trapped. I know so many of my colleagues in Atlanta and up in that food court on a regular basis because they just didn't have time to pack a lunch ahead of time and make a better decision for themselves. Also, consider you're treating yourself when you're going there. You know, it can be the crouton on the salad, but it shouldn't be the salad. This should be an every once in a while thing as opposed to, I don't know, should we just go out and get something? You know, you can make some decisions at home.
And also, like I said before, it's time to get loud. Right now, in the wake of this study, is a really perfect time to, you know, vote with your wallet, not go to those places, or to, you know, start a petition or to, you know, directly write to these companies and say, hey, I'm sick of this. I want better from you.
MALVEAUX: All right. Well, good points, Kat. I mean we try to do our best here. We have a little team. We all go get soup at the end of the day at the cafe. So we try to eat healthy as best we can. All right, have a good weekend. Thanks, Kat.
KINSMAN: Thank you.
MALVEAUX: And enjoy your meal here at -- your meal out.
I'm Suzanne Malveaux. Want to get right to it.
After two people were killed along Mississippi highways, police were nervous about driving at night.
