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Secret Service Chief Testifies Before Senate; Facebook Lawsuit; Egypt's Presidential Elections; Attack on Bain; Colin Powell: "No Problem" with Gay Marriage; Cars that Go Without a Driver; HP Prepares to Announce Layoffs; Teen Tied Up and Tormented; Bride, Groom Pose with Tornado; Big Questions about Facebook's IPO

Aired May 23, 2012 - 14:00   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello to all of you. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

I want to begin with an unusually candid moment today for a group that strives to keep things quiet and secret. That would be the Secret Service. Its rarely seen director -- he is Mark Sullivan -- he was called upon before Senators this morning to open up about the prostitution scandal that has absolutely engulfed agents setting up for President Obama's previous trip to Colombia.

Senator Susan Collins laid out her case against the scandal, basically boiling down to a rare night out on the town. A dozen agents were implicated. That is 8 percent of the Secret Service men on that one particular trip. All the men involved were stay at this one hotel in Cartagena and they didn't get together, like a big group of frat boys looking for a little risky business. Here's what they say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: These were individuals and small groups of two or three agents who went out at different times, to different clubs, bars and brothels, but who all ended up in compromising circumstances.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: What is worse? According to Senator Collins here, is that too many agents in question were supervisors. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan did apologize, but he is at a loss to explain exactly how this happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK SULLIVAN, SECRET SERVICE DIRECTOR: I just think that between the alcohol and, I don't know, the environment, these individuals did some really dumb things. And I just can't explain why they would have done what they would do. But I will tell you that I do not believe they did it because they believe that this type of behavior would be tolerated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's go to congressional correspondent Kate Bolduan for us on The Hill. And, Kate, obviously the Secret Service here being taken to task. Though, ultimately, what is the end game, what is the end point of this hearing?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The end point of this hearing, it's kind of a lingering question I'll tell you, Brooke. The director, Director Sullivan, he was really unequivocal in what he was saying and the case he was trying to make in reassuring lawmakers that there is not a systemic issue here, a cultural issue here. That was the question that was raised repeatedly by lawmakers, specifically Susan Collins. And you just showed some sound from her there where she did not seem convinced, no matter the amount of respect that all of these lawmakers showed to the director and his hard work and what the vast majority of the Secret Service personnel, the professionalism that they showed, they did not seem convinced that this was not, if you will, the tip of the iceberg. They did not seem convinced that this -- this hasn't happened before. That there isn't a cultural issue, even though the director said very clearly this is not a systemic issue, this is not a cultural issue.

He himself said he was dumbfounded of really how this all went about. But Susan Collins really laid it out. She -- even in the sound that you had there -- right there, Brooke, she said, just take a look at the evidence. You have these 12 men, not going out in a, you know, kind of in a frat kind of setting as a large group. They were small groups going to four different strip clubs, four different nightclubs, then bringing the women back to their hotel and registering them under their own names.

BALDWIN: Sure. But let me jump in. But let me jump in because, you know, he said he was dumbfounded, but what about these Secret Service agents who are now, the few of them, coming forward. They're appealing all of this and they're saying, hang on a second, this agency has long known about this type of behavior around the world. And we're just the ones who got caught.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Some of this coming to light in a "Washington Post" article doing some reporting that there is -- that there was -- according to these anonymous kind of sources -- saying that there was this kind of a cultural of, as they called it, the quote, unquote, secret circus. That this was just kind of the way things went when they went outside of the country.

The director was asked about this in the hearing and he said pretty clearly that any notion that this behavior was condoned by the agency was absurd in his words. And, you know, that's kind of where they left it. He said this is just not the agency that he knows. These are a few individuals that don't represent the vast majority. But the top lawmakers on this committee, they -- while respecting the director, they definitely were calling for an independent, comprehensive investigation going forward to really find out what happened here. This going beyond what the Secret Service is already investigating. And they are -- they asked the inspector general, the Department of Homeland Security, who was also at the hearing today, for him to spearhead that. And he said he would.

BALDWIN: Well, we'll see where it goes.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BALDWIN: The investigation and the result.

Kate Bolduan, thank you so much for us on Capitol Hill today.

Meantime, Facebook. Facebook's first week as a publicly traded company, it's been beyond rough one could say. It has quickly gone from, you know, initially those trading glitches on the Nasdaq and a tumbling stock price, to a subpoena now and a lawsuit.

Alison Kosik, he's at the New York Stock Exchange.

And my how a few days have changed things.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, yes.

BALDWIN: Before we -- before we talk about the issues, specifically let's talk dollars and cents. How is the price of the stock today?

KOSIK: Well, Facebook shares right now are up about 2 percent, sitting at about $31.70. You're seeing a little bit of recovery after Facebook really got hammered over the past two days, losing almost 20 percent. One trader I talked with said the range that you're seeing Facebook trade in right now see seems pretty comfortable with what the market wants. And the next real big move that you could see Facebook make may come after it reports its first earnings -- sort of its first earnings after -- in the second quarter. It would be as a public company reporting its first earnings.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: What about now, Alison, the subpoena. And I want to let our viewers know, I'm talking to the secretary of the commonwealth of the state of Massachusetts, William Galvin, next hour. He's actually the -- it's his office that's issued the subpoena against specifically Morgan Stanley. His claim apparently is that Morgan Stanley -- someone within Morgan Stanley went to some of their investors and said, hang on a second, we're not getting great news as far as the financial forecast of this company, so you, you know, you may want to change or alter how much you want to invest. Is that the case?

KOSIK: Exactly. That's exactly what the claims are, is that Morgan Stanley basically lowered its outlook on Facebook after Facebook said it would be struggling to make money off of mobile devices. But the problem in, in these claims, is that Morgan Stanley only told a select few institutional investors that it cut its outlook, this negative outlook for Facebook. So a lot of these investors say, whoa, wait a minute, you should have told everybody. You shouldn't just cherry pick who you tell. So, you know, a lot of people are saying the retail investor was left out in the cold. That the retail investor got screwed in this deal. Even that they were at a disadvantage because they didn't have that information. For Morgan Stanley's part, Morgan Stanley does say they did follow normal procedures, that they complied with regulations. Brooke.

BALDWIN: What about Mark Zuckerberg? Because he spent all this time, you know, hyping up this IPO. He had a great week. The guy got married. And now is he even saying anything?

KOSIK: We haven't heard anything publicly about that lawsuit you mentioned or a lawsuit filed in Manhattan court today by three investors. They filed a class action lawsuit as well against Facebook, against Zuckerberg, you know, against Morgan Stanley, basically saying the same thing that's in that Massachusetts lawsuit. Facebook did come out and say the lawsuit in Manhattan is without merit. As far as what Zuckerberg has said, you know, you can look to his Facebook page for that. You know, he got married. And he announced that. He said, I'm married now to Priscilla. So that's really his most public comments to date.

BALDWIN: Alison Kosik, we appreciate it. Talk to you a little later this hour.

Meantime, got a lot more for you in the course of the next two hours. Watch this.

A 15-year-old girl was tied to a tree, eggs and beer cans pelted at her. Now four adults are being charged, including the two people who were supposed to be taking care of her. We can do better.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. The news is now.

Historic. Egyptians voting to replace their disgraced ex-president. Lots of men on the ballot, leaving women wondering, what's in it for them.

And, all smiles. But look at what's lurking in the background. What a story this Kansas couple has to tell.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: For the first time, Egyptians, today, they are voting in a presidential election where really no one knows who will win. For 30 years under President Hosni Mubarak, the presidential elections were a presumption of his power. But, today, they're a payoff to those mass demonstrations that ultimately forced out Mubarak in Tahrir Square, who could forget, a year ago. He is awaiting a verdict in his trial for corruption and the deaths of more than 800 protesters.

Now this election is a 13-man race and voting's going to be lasting today and tomorrow. I want to bring in Hala Gorani. She's been covering this for months and months. In fact, during the revolution there for us in Tahrir Square.

Hala, good to see you.

First, in term of these polling places, I read something like 13,000 across the country. Any issues? Any disturbances? HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: So far it's been running pretty smoothly. We've heard some reports of irregularities, but, of course, this is something that's going to become much clearer several weeks down the line when NGOs issue reports, when they also transfer and transmit their findings to the supreme presidential election in this country.

What I did see in the polling stations today that was very interesting were some pretty enthusiastic and determined voters. This is not something that two years ago in Egypt you ever would have imagined seeing, Brooke. People who were saying they were here because it was their duty. It's the first time that their voice is finally heard.

And I have also some developing news for you that's just come in to us from the lawyer of the Mubarak family, because we wondered if the Mubarak family, Hosni Mubarak, the deposed leader, or his sons had voted. And we understand, according to the lawyer, that none of the Mubarak family in prison applied for permission to vote. So that is the answer to that question.

As far as the polling stations, some are going to stay open a little bit later than the closing time of 8:00 p.m. local. It's now 8:10 p.m., because the lines were so long, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, no one in the Mubarak family voting. Perhaps no surprise there. What about the west, though, Hala? The west and Israel. I imagine they are watching these elections very, very closely. Possibly could jeopardize the 1979 peace treaty, Cairo Peace Treaty with Israel. Do we know where the U.S. stands when it comes to these? I know we're saying 13 candidates, but really it's a handful who are in the running.

GORANI: Right. Well, as far as Israel is concerned and the treaties that resulted from the Camp David Accords in the late '70s, none of the candidates have said that they would wipe them out or completely cancel out those treaties that were signed. And you mentioned the handful of front-runners. There are really four at this stage. You can count five. But, really, four obvious front-runners. Two Islamists and two former regime members. Some, of course, have made pronouncements against Israel that were certainly considered abrasive from Israel's standpoint and the United States' standpoint. But the expectation is, not that these treaties are going to be completely canceled out.

As far as the United States is concerned, of course the aid is still going to come in. It's a crucial and important relationship. The U.S. is going to have to work with Egypt simply because it has no choice because it's such an important, strategic ally in the region, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Hala Gorani, thank you very much. Now the elections today, tomorrow, could be a runoff. Could know a winner perhaps sometime next month.

Coming up, the violence, the lost lives. We're staying on Egypt. The election here at a very high cost. And now one Egyptian wants to make sure women don't lose out on the democracy they fought so hard to achieve. She's going to join me live from Cairo next. And just a quick note for you. If you are heading out the door, please keep watching. You can find CNN, of course, on your mobile phone. Check us out on your desktop if you're sitting there at work. Go to cnn.com/tv. Cnn.com/tv.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Again, I don't think we can emphasize this enough here on CNN. A tremendous day in Egypt whose people are truly choosing a president for the first time in 5,000 years. So now we want to hear from someone that many credit for helping to bring new government to Egypt. She is Dalia Ziada (ph). She blogs about bringing civil freedoms in the Middle East. In fact, "Newsweek" named her one of the world's most influential women. "The Daily Beast" dubbed her one of the world's bravest blogger. She ran for a seat actually on Egypt's parliament. And, folks, she is merely 30 years of age.

Dalia Ziada, welcome. Good to see you live there for us in Cairo. And I understand you have yet to vote. You vote tomorrow with your whole family. What were you doing today, observing voters? Dalia, can you hear me? Do we have her? OK, we don't have Dalia. We'll work on getting Dalia back here. We spoke with Dalia. She had run for a seat in Egypt's parliament. She actually didn't quite get it. But I know that as we were talking to her in the commercial break, she was -- OK -- she was talking about how she was observing. And tomorrow she's excited to get that bit of ink on her finger and to vote. We'll work on getting her back up.

Meantime, let's move along. Get you caught up on everything making news right now. "Rapid Fire." Roll it.

The Boeing company got a huge boost today. It is -- it was first -- it's first 787 assembled in Charleston, South Carolina, took off for its maiden flight. Six thousand Boeing employees were on hand to see the inaugural flight today. And, there she is, while Boeing wouldn't say where the jet was going, our flight tracker shows it flew out above the Atlantic and is now heading back to South Carolina.

A Pakistani doctor accused of helping the U.S. track down Osama bin Laden has been sentenced to prison. Shakil Afridi got a 33-year sentence. He was also fined $3,500. He was accused of spying for the U.S. The ruling by a tribal court can be appealed. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has called for Afridi to be released.

In Afghanistan, a second attack here in two months on girls attending school. Conservative radicals are blamed for poisoning 122 girls and also three teachers. This toxic powder was used to contaminate the air, sending these girls to the hospital. Last month 170 girls and women were poisoned by contaminated water at a school. Five hundred and fifty schools have now been closed in areas where the Taliban have support.

And to these pictures here that really, obviously, if you're a parent, you don't want to see this. You can see this bus upside down, flipping in Virginia. Thirty-six students and the bus driver were on the bus. Look at this. Thirteen students went to the hospital with minor injuries we're told. The driver is charged with reckless driving. And the Virginia State Patrol says she apparently was looking in the rear- view mirror when she ran off the road.

And, oops, better watch where you kick that soccer ball. The goalie plays for keeps. Pick-up (ph) games (ph). This is Hilton Head, South Carolina. Had a long time-out because that's where the soccer ball landed. Right there. Before the 13-foot gator finally actually did turn loose the ball, I'm sure with a bunch of holes in it, a couple teeth marks, but the game continued on.

It is Fleet Week. If you are in New York City, plenty of Navy ships on the Hudson River, along with 17 majestic tall ships rigged with traditional sails. This is a week-long event. It began with a parade of ships from all around the globe, including Japan and Finland and the U.K. This year's celebration marks the bicentennial of the war of 1812.

And it is nearing the end of the school year. And Hewlett-Packard expected to announce some layoffs this afternoon here. So what is this staying about the gadgets we need and the companies that make them?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: The Obama administration has been trying to use Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital to paint this clear picture to you, the American, that Romney is not a job creator. In fact they're trying to say that he's a job slasher. But as we've seen this week, even some of Obama's supporters have flip flopped on whether the attack is fair or not.

Steve Rattner, a Wall Street vet who served under Obama, is the latest to really backtrack after Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker had to explain himself. He called the attack unfair. But now he says in this "New York Times" opinion piece it is, and I'm quoting, "the right balance."

So, should the Obama campaign ease up a little bit when it comes to Bain? Let's bring in our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger. She says the fight is all about experience. And, Gloria, we've got your piece, cnn.com/opinion.

So your initial thesis is sort of that it should all be about experience, but then you get into values. Let me quote you. You say, "understand this, it's not just really about business, it's about values. The president may be broader in his approach, but his ads argue a more simple point that Mitt Romney doesn't have the right values to be president, that he does bad things to good people." How do you mean?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, what -- this isn't just about sort of, you know, who's got the right business expense, although they do want to disqualify him on that front because, of course, that's what Mitt Romney is running on. But the undercurrent to all of this is, when they look at the polling numbers, they say that the advantage that the president has, that they really want to burnish, Brooke, is the advantage on issues like cares about people like me, understands what I'm going through, is in touch with how I feel, understands my anxiety about the economy. And Mitt Romney does not do well there. So what they're trying to say to people is, look, the reason he doesn't do well is because, you're right, he doesn't care about people like you and he doesn't understand your problems because look at what happened at Bain Capital. So like many things in a presidential campaign, it's not just about one thing, but it's about many things.

BALDWIN: But couldn't this be one of those things -- and I know you point this out in your piece -- where, OK, you know, you have the economy, which still is not fabulous --

BORGER: Right.

BALDWIN: And so here's, you know, team Obama over here saying, OK, let's pay attention over here. Don't pay attention to the numbers because, you know, you have this NBC/"Wall Street Journal" poll, let's throw this up here so our viewers can see, and when you look at this "Wall Street Journal" poll, basically the crux of it is the majority of Americans disapprove here when it comes to, you know, how the president is handling the economy.

BORGER: That's right.

BALDWIN: And then, if I may, Gloria, let me add this on. So now we have Mitt Romney. He's talking to "Time" magazine and he made this statement today saying that he can get the unemployment down to 6 percent. He said, "I can tell you that over a period of four years, by virtue of the policies that we put in place, we get the unemployment rate down to 6 percent, and perhaps, he says, a little lower than that."

Question number one, back to the distraction issue, is that plausible?

BORGER: Well, I'm not an economist here, but it was at about 6.1 percent before the last election in 2008, in sort of October of 2008. So, sure, it's plausible. I mean my problem with Mitt Romney on this is, tell me how you're going to do it, OK, because it's easy to make these kind of claims during a campaign. But, OK, so would you do tax reform? When would you do tax reform? What should occur during the lame duck session? What kind of tax breaks in particular would you give to business? What kind of tax breaks would you eliminate for families as part of tax reform? So he needs to attach some more specifics to that.

BALDWIN: Some substance.

BORGER: But what the Romney campaign is looking at in those numbers is that President Obama's weaknesses, the people like him more than they approve of the job he's doing. So what they're trying to say is, you know, we can do a better job on the economy and don't pay attention to the rest of that stuff.

BALDWIN: Do you think the --

BORGER: The economy is what really matters. BALDWIN: Do you think that these, you know, Bain ads on behalf of the Obama 2012 camp, do you think that that is merely a distraction from those numbers on the economy?

BORGER: Well, I think it's all part of the -- all part of the same discussion, if you will, because what the Obama campaign wants to do is to make this a choice between these two men and say, look at -- look at Mitt Romney. You should not trust him to manage your economy. And what Mitt Romney is trying to do is say, no, this has got to be a referendum on Barack Obama's economy. If you want to re-hire him, he needs to give you the reasons to rehire him. And, by the way, that's something the Obama campaign ought to be doing, too, which is to sort of -- if they have a good record, go out there and brag about it.

BALDWIN: I think that's what the Americans want to see, and not this sniping back and forth. But, how are you going to improve my economy? Give me examples.

BORGER: Right.

BALDWIN: Gloria Borger, thank you so much.

You can read Gloria's piece, cnn.com/opinion.

And Wolf Blitzer -- busy day in Washington. Wolf Blitzer just finished an interview with former Secretary of State Colin Powell. He talked about al Qaeda. They talked Afghanistan. They talked gay marriage. So we'll talk to Wolf.

And then, have you seen these pictures? This couple's wedding in Kansas goes viral because, you see that, back left part of the screen, beyond the smooch, it's a tornado. And now they're taking their time from their honeymoon to call us and tell us about the photo.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Former Secretary Of State Colin Powell has just made some news. Wolf Blitzer just finished sitting down with him in an interview. And Wolf, I hear you talked about marriage equality. What did he say?

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S "THE SITUATION ROOM": Well, he spoke about a lot of issue, but I did ask him if he agrees with President Obama now, President Obama, of course, supporting gay marriage, same-sex marriage and we had this exchange. Let me play the clip for you, Brooke, and our viewers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You were chairman of the Joint Chiefs when you installed the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy in the U.S. military that prevented gays from serving openly. I know you changed your attitudes over these years, but what about gay marriage. Are you with the president in supporting gay marriage? GENERAL COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I have no problem with it and it was the Congress that imposed "Don't Ask Don't Tell." It was certainly my position and recommendation to get us out of an even worse outcome that could have occurred, if you recall.

But as I thought about gay marriage, I know a lot of friends who are individually gay, but are in partnerships with loved ones. And they are as stable a family as my family is. And they raise children. So I don't see any reason not to say that they should be able to get married.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He continues on and elaborates that he's come around fully on this issue. He doesn't have a problem with it at all and he thinks the American people are coming around on the same issue.

So we too talked about that. We also talked about a lot of other issues. He's still not ready to make a formal endorsement, by the way, either for the president or for Mitt Romney even though four years ago, as all of us remember he did endorse President Obama.

Even though Colin Powell is a Republican, but he did have some specific criticism of Mitt Romney on some sensitive issues. We're going to play that for our viewers. Obviously, the whole interview will air in "THE SITUATION ROOM" during the 5:00 p.m. Eastern Hour.

Go through all of his life lessons. You know, he's really an amazing guy, General Colin Powell, got a lot of history there and he's some important issues that he wants to raise with the American people at a sensitive time. So I think you'll like it -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: I met him once upon a time. He's certainly impressive. But when it comes to that endorsement or not quite yet of President Obama, did he give a specific explanation as to why? Why he's not yet endorsing?

BLITZER: He says he wants to see, wants to wait until the dust settles. He wants to make up his mind, see where these candidates are over the next few months.

Right now he says he's on a book tour so he's not ready to do that. But he's watching very closely in between what he said, my own instinct tells me he's much more aligned with the president that he is with Mitt Romney.

I could be wrong on that, but that's just my instinct of reading between the lines. For example, at one point, remember a few weeks ago, when I asked Mitt Romney, I had an interview with him.

At that time, Mitt Romney said Russia in his opinion was America's number one geostrategic faux. On that issue, Colin Powell flatly totally disagrees with Mitt Romney on that sensitive national security issue. We go in depth a little bit on that as well.

So you'll hear the interview. I think our viewers will appreciate it.

BALDWIN: We'll look forward to it. Wolf Blitzer got its right pretty often. Wolf Blitzer --

BLITZER: Not necessarily all the time.

BALDWIN: Not all the time, but sometimes. Thank you, sir. We'll talk next hour.

Meantime, Hewlett-Packard laying off thousands of workers. What does this say? Really big picture when it comes to the technology sector. We're going to take you live to the New York Stock Exchange.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Cars that drive themselves. Not just found in sci-fi movies apparently. The technology is out there and companies are testing it behind the wheel. Here's what you have in this week's "Technovations."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN (voice-over): The 1980 TV show "Knight Rider" featured Kit, the self-driving car. Driverless cars are no longer just on TV or in the movies. The technology is actually closer than you think.

Google has the first driverless car approved to be tested on state roads and it can literally drive itself. The car sees what's around it using GPS, a spinning laser scanner, cameras and radar sensors.

Continental Automotive is also another company designing a car that can drive on its own, but drivers make turns and change lanes themselves.

CHRISTIAN SCHUMACHER, CONTINENTAL AUTOMOTIVE: You are much more relaxed when you're driving this car because you are still monitoring, but you're not work on the driving task itself.

BALDWIN: This car steers, accelerates and brakes all on its own using radar sensors and cameras that give it almost human-like vision.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are looking at the street with two eyes, in this case, two cameras. So it's very similar to what your brain is doing.

BALDWIN: Self-driving cars could be on the market in five years. They're designed to make roads safer and decrease the number of accidents.

SCHUMACHER: When you are on a traffic jam, people get distracted. We strongly believe by adding the computer vision, the radar sensing that supports the driver and makes the car safer.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BALDWIN: Can you imagine pulling up next to a self-driving car? That's how weird just about.

How about an economy when every job counts. Hewlett-Packard is expected to announce the biggest layoffs in the company's 73-year history. And that announcement could come within the next 90 minutes or so.

Let's go straight to New York Stock Exchange, back to Alison Kosik. So some of these reports are putting the layoffs into the neighborhood of 25,000, 35,000 people?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Exactly.

BALDWIN: What's going on?

KOSIK: Well, what the new CEO of Hewlett-Packard is trying to do, Meg Whitman. She's trying to turn things around at Hewlett-Packard. You have to realize that the entire PC industry right now is having a really tough time.

But HP is really, really struggling. You look how their sales did during the holiday season. Their PC sales fell by the double digits and that's a really important season to start selling that stuff.

Analysts expect that weakness to continue through the end of this year. So that's why you're hearing anywhere, you know, around 25,000 to 35,000 people in HP's business office, printing business actually to be laid off.

That's about 7 percent of its work force. Right, now we're seeing Hewlett-Packard shares get pretty hard. They're being hit pretty hard about 5 percent lower right now.

BALDWIN: Is part of this and perhaps Meg Whitman as you mentioned, you know, trying to make the company leaner, but it's part of it is just the tough competition, smartphones, Apple, everything else?

KOSIK: Sure and that's a huge factor in Hewlett-Packard's business. And just Hewlett-Packard is trying to slim down and what laying people off will do is going to come with these short-term charges.

But long term, they're going to help to clean up their finances. You know, the bigger issue for Hewlett-Packard I think is that they really need a recipe for growth.

You know, these layoffs, these cuts, they only get you so far. HP, you remember, went through layoffs in 2010 about 9,000 people lost their jobs. So yes, they're doing it again. It's not good.

What it really shows is that Hewlett-Packard really needs a plan that's going to move the company forward for the long term -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Tough time for folks at HP. Alison Kosik, thank you so much.

This story, this next story, it's tough enough to tell. It's about this 15-year-old. She was tied to a tree, pelted the eggs, beer poured on her. It's awful.

But it's actually who's accused of doing this to the girl that's part of this story. The very people, the law put in charge of protecting her. They're called her guardians, but deputies say what they did was not guard her, not protect her, it was assault they say.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: When you first hear about this Virginia teenager tied to a tree, eggs thrown at her, beer poured on her head, you may think wow, kids can be so cruel. Perhaps that wouldn't even make the news.

It's making the news today because this is a story, because of the people who are accused of tormenting this 15-year-old. These people are not only all adults in their 40s, two of them are the girl's guardians, the very people here put in charge of her safety.

Now, let me explain to you exactly what these guardians are accused of doing. Authorities in Virginia say the girl was tied to this tree, a tree found at a campground near the town of Windsor. It's a public campground.

Deputies say eggs were thrown at the girl, beer poured on this 15-year-old's head. Sounds like real camp fun? Roasting marshmallows, teaching the kid how to fish, things that adults should be teaching their children either directly or by example.

If you watch the show enough, you probably know where I'm going with this that we can do better. It's a theme that comes up time and time again. These four adults, two of them entrusted with this teen's care should have done better.

But obviously according to these reports we looked through today, they did not. They are now charged with abduction and assault and battery. Fortunately, I can tell you that someone did do the right thing in this case they did call police. That's what each of us needs to do when we see something that just looks plain wrong.

Facebook's big event is turning now into a bit of fiasco. Now we're learning many investors had concerns about the IPO price. The price set by Morgan Stanley. In fact now Massachusetts' Secretary of the Commonwealth, he is asking questions. He wants to know more. We're going to talk to him live about this investigation at the top of the hour.

Plus, a North Carolina pastor says gays and lesbians need to be put behind an electric fence. You can imagine those comments sparking all kinds of outrage, but some people in the community, they agree with him.

And listen up, America. Money may not be the key to happiness after all, according to the latest better life index. Countries with higher average incomes didn't always have the greatest life satisfaction.

So what nations are the happiest? Number five, coincidentally with a 72 percent employment rate Austria. Number four, folks feeling pretty good in Switzerland. Number three, the Netherlands, loving life. So is the U.S. one of the happiest countries in the world? Find out?

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BALDWIN: According to the 2012 better life index, America ranked high on average household income, good health compared to other countries, but are we happy? Are we one of the happiest nations in the world? We've been thinking about this over the break. We gave you the top five, four and three.

So check out number two. Apparently, Norwegians are happy campers. It's Norway. And the number one happiest country in the world according to the 2012 better life index is Denmark.

If you're curious, I know I was, the U.S. ranked 11th. Thank you, on that list. But it had one of the lowest life expectancies, ranking 27th out of the 34 countries surveyed.

And now, Egypt, tremendous day, historic day for Egyptians who are truly picking a president for the first time in 5,000 years. We're going to hear from someone who's credited for helping bring new government to Egypt.

She's Dalia Ziada. She has been blogging about bringing civil freedoms within countries in the Middle East. In fact, "Newsweek" named her one of the world's most influential women. "The Daily Beast" dubbed her one of the world's bravest bloggers.

She ran for a seat in Egypt's parliament and folks, she is 30. We have her. She is live in Cairo. And Dalia, I know you haven't voted yet so I won't ask you to see your ink on your finger, but tell me, when are you voting and how exciting is this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hello, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And we are 0 for 2 ladies and gentlemen, for talking to Dalia Ziada in Cairo. Perhaps we can try to get her up on the phone line. And if someone can just tell me what we're going to do?

There we go. Trending today, it is an old wives tale that rain on your wedding day is good luck. So what would a tornado on your wedding day get you perhaps a lifetime of marital bliss?

Welcome to Kansas. So you see these pictures. Yes, they're smooching. Beyond the smooch, look in the background. There it is in the middle it's a big old twister.

Newlyweds Caleb and Candra Pence took it in stride. They are now on their honeymoon and joining me by phone from Yellowstone National Park. So my congratulations obviously to both of you, but Candra, my question is, when you're looking over your shoulder and you see this tornado, were you nervous?

CANDRA PENCE, BRIDE WHO POSED IN FRONT OF TORNADO (via telephone): We didn't know it was on the ground until after it was over. I just made sure we were all going to be safe. I was a little nervous about it.

BALDWIN: So you were a little nervous. You're from Nebraska, Caleb is from Kansas. So this is probably par for the course. I missed it. Did you say you already said your "I dos" and then the twister rolled through?

CANDRA PENCE: Yes, yes. Well, they were funnelling before and I think they were touching down during the ceremony and Caleb leaned over during our unity and told me something about a tornado.

And I said I really just don't want to know about it because I would probably be freaking about it. I didn't really understand what he was saying. And then after the ceremony, as we were walking down, I looked off and said, that's what he's talking about.

BALDWIN: Is Caleb on the phone. Can I ask him a question, too?

CANDRA PENCE: Yes, he's right here.

BALDWIN: OK, Caleb, here's my question as you're trying to calm your bride here who doesn't sound -- I think I would be a wee bit more nervous than apparently she was, was your mother, was her mother nervous? Were people panicking? Have you ever seen this before? I imagine being in Kansas, this is nothing for you.

CALEB PENCE, GROOM WHO POSED IN FRONT OF TORNADO (via telephone): Well, it didn't take much to calm down Candra. She asked me if we would be all right, I said yes. Nobody was really nervous.

Everybody was sort of toward where they couldn't see it. So no, nobody was really nervous. There was no panicking. We weren't even getting rained on at the time.

It was completely obvious that it was moving away. But then again, I was extremely nervous about the wedding period. So maybe somebody was nervous and they calmed them down, but not to my awareness.

BALDWIN: So you're saying your nerves were a little bit more about saying the whole I do thing and the tornado was just sort of the secondary. What do you make of all this attention that you guys have gotten?

These pictures are all over the internet. I'm sure you've gotten so many calls. We thank you, by the way. I should mention we're bugging you on your honeymoon at Yellowstone National Park. What do you make of all of this?

CALEB PENCE: Well, it's definitely not what we expected. A lot more attention than what we thought.

BALDWIN: OK, and finally, how is the honeymoon? I guess, if you see a twister in Kansas. You haven't run into any bears in the park, have you?

CANDRA PENCE: There's a lot of snow. It's snowing pretty good up here right now. So I don't know, but it's a lot different than Kansas where it's probably 90 degrees back home and 30 something here so --

BALDWIN: Well, Candra and Caleb, my best to you. The pictures are absolutely stunning. I'm glad you two are both a-OK. I appreciate it truly. Congratulations.

Let's go back to Egypt because we're going to talk to Dalia Ziada. In fact, I hear that we have her on the phone. Dalia, let me just hear a hello. I just want to hear you.

Dalia Ziada, are you on the phone? This is Brooke at CNN. Got to love technology, folks. Can anyone tell me if we have her? OK, we don't. So let's move on.