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Frustration over Shutdown Boils Over; High Anxiety over Debt Ceiling; Finding Baby Hope's Killer; Domino theory of Debt Ceiling; Many Countries Own American Debt; Default Could Have Global Impact; Food Stamp Glitch Shuts Out Millions; Teen To Taliban: You Can't Kill My Cause; NASA Aims For Jupiter; JetBlue To Let Families Pool Points

Aired October 13, 2013 - 14:00   ET

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

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hello. I'm Miguel Marquez in for Fredricka Whitfield. These are the top stories we're following this hour.

Anger over the government shutdown boils over just steps from the White House. Protesters face off with police furious that they can't get into memorials honoring the nation's war dead.

Meanwhile, Senate leaders are meeting behind closed doors right now. Trying to find some way out of the crisis. All the latest live from Washington.

A shocking end to the 22-year-old mystery of who killed Baby Hope. New York Police finally find the murder. Wait until you hear who they say it is.

And NASA's Juno Probe. It is zooming through space right now headed to Jupiter. And we're talking to the man who knows everything about this mission. That's right. It's Bill Nye the science guy.

But first, it's four days and counting before the U.S. runs out of money to pay its bills and now the Senate's top Republicans and Democrats are leading the big push to reach a deal on the debt ceiling and the government shutdown. Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican leader Mitch McConnell are holding talks to break the impasse.

The Senate is in session right now and frustration among Americans is intensifying. Protesters fed up with the shutdown held a rally today and -- the closed World War II memorial in Washington. Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin and Senator Ted Cruz spoke there. Many of the demonstrators then marched to the Vietnam Memorial. And on to the White House where they held a boisterous rally.

U.S. Park Police, some of them in riot gear, were all in to keep demonstrators away from White House grounds. Some of them marched to the Capitol.

And senators are there in session this Sunday to hopefully reach a deal. Mark Preston is live on Capitol Hill.

Mark, something is happening now that hasn't happened since July. Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell are actually talking.

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, Miguel, we expect them to talk. In fact, they haven't actually begun discussions yet between the two leaders. The Republican leader and the Democratic leader. We are told from the Democratic leader that in fact these discussions will happen.

I just spoke to a top leadership aide who told that in fact they have not heard from Harry Reid yet. So we await to see what Mitch McConnell and what Harry Reid can hammer out over here in the United States Senate.

We do know that the talks have absolutely collapsed between the House Republicans and the White House at this point. So in many ways, the ball has been thrown into the Senate's court. And let's see if the Senate can cut a deal as you said. The clock is ticking right now.

MARQUEZ: Yes, and I take it, it is a good sign because we've seen this play out in the past where the Senate picks up the ball and turn something over and basically forces the House and puts them in a terrible position but forces the House and end up passing it. Is that what we think is going to happen probably at 11:50 p.m. on Wednesday night?

PRESTON: Well, I've got to tell you, I'm sure the Wall Street types are not very happy if that were to be the case, if it were to go to 11:50 on Wednesday night. On Thursday, the Treasury says that the United States will run out of money. However -- or run out of money to pay all its debt, I should clarify.

But I have to tell you that the Senate is often the place where deals are struck. It tends to be a little less political than the House of Representatives.

The question is, can the Senate, though, Miguel, get something done quick enough? Can they get a vote on something? Send it back to the House of Representatives? And at that point, will we actually see a vote from the House of Representatives. Unclear at this point.

MARQUEZ: Yes. And complicating some sort of grand bargain to take care of two problems at once.

Mark Preston, for us on Capitol Hill. Thanks very much.

Let's turn now to CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta at the White House.

Jim, so it was a -- quite a scene there today as protesters and Park Police mix it up. What happened exactly?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you know, Miguel, there has been a lot of frustration in Washington over the closure of these memorials here. A lot of tourists from around the country and this all really got started when those Honor Flight vets, World War II veterans, who are coming into Washington and tried to see these monuments, the World War II Memorial, in particular. And it was barricaded and it's been barricaded for some time. Although the Honor Flight vets are allowed to go in there, it's barricaded to the rest of the public.

Well, today was a big veterans march and demonstration here in Washington and many of those veterans and along with them a lot of Tea Party supporters. I want to overlook that. There were a lot of Tea Party protesters involved in that as well. They picked up those barricades out in front of the World War II Memorial, carried them all the way over here to the front of the White House here on this pedestrian part of Pennsylvania Avenue, that's in front of the North Lawn, and started dumping the barricades in front of the fence, in front of the White House.

Almost to the point where if somebody wanted to they could have climbed over the top of the fence. That didn't happen, thank goodness. But that really drew a response from U.S. Park Police. They came out, sort of surrounded some of these protesters.

Some of the police came in riot gear, some were on horseback. And basically what they did at that point is they started putting the barricades back together to push back the protesters. There was a little bit of pushing and shoving. It got a little tense. A lot of words were exchanged but the Park Police through the most part kept their cool. They did a very effective job, I must say, and really resolving the situation and things are now under control and they've really quieted down here at the White House -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Manning the barricades. How interesting. Sort of a French revolutionary twist there. Turning now to the effort to end all of these frustration and upsets.

ACOSTA: Yes.

MARQUEZ: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and the Republican leader Mitch McConnell are expected to hold talks today. They've called the -- Senate back into session. The president -- is the president going to get involved at any point during the day?

ACOSTA: Well, we'll see. You know, they aren't reading out all of the conversations that the president is having and they do that really to sort of, you know, keep things moving because if they read out every conversation perhaps things might break down.

But we do know that the president had that meeting with Senate Majority Leader, other top Democratic leaders here at the White House yesterday. The president is being kept up to speed, White House officials say, by various advisers like chief of staff Denis McDonough about how things are going with the shutdown. How things are going with the talks.

I actually ran into Dennis McDonough, the chief of staff, just a few moments ago and asked him how things were going and he would only say, it's a great day.

Obviously it would be a lot greater, Miguel, if they were to reopen the government and pass something that would get t the debt ceiling raised. But at this point, getting back to what Mark Preston was saying, I think really all of this now is between Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell. It's really on those two leaders to crap some sort of package that can get out of the Senate and then hopefully get through the House.

It is going to be very difficult for Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell to come up with something that would satisfy obviously the Tea Party conservatives inside the House Republican caucus. That is going to be very difficult.

So the final question may be, Miguel, will be John Boehner bring something to the floor that will get really only Democratic support and some Republican support rather than satisfying those conservatives in his caucus. It's one of those thing that we're just going to have to watch develop over the next 24 to 48 hours, and as you know, things are getting to a very critical stage.

MARQUEZ: Very, very critical. Lots of pressure on everybody and lots of passions out there.

Jim Acosta at the White House, thank you very much.

ACOSTA: You bet.

MARQUEZ: Well, of course you know who else is worried about this standoff. Investors, they are watching this and not liking it very much. And then when trading starts tomorrow morning it could get our attention very fast.

CNN's Alison Kosik is keeping an eye on this from New York.

Alison, what do you think we're going to see in the morning?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You may start to see investors sweat again. You know, as we enter sort of the second week of the shutdown last week, on Monday, stocks actually fell quite a bit. Over a hundred points. So that was sort of Wall Street's way of nudging Washington, saying, look, this is a taste of what you're going to get if you don't come to some sort of solution, at least on the shutdown.

Obviously the debt ceiling deal is what Wall Street is after. So what you saw is that uncertainly play into the market. But as talks began last week of, you know, sort of Democrats and Republicans coming to the table and at least talking about things, then you saw stocks go up toward the end of the week. But don't -- don't rest on that, because tomorrow you may see sort of reality hit because of what transpired over the weekend -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: And what will it take to reassure investors at this point? Is the Senate action today enough?

KOSIK: You know, what Wall Street wants to see is some sort of solution, any solution, even a band-aid measure. A six-week deal that was floated, you know, for a short-term solution to the debt ceiling. That would really be enough for Wall Street. And, you know, Wall Street even sends its sort of signal to Washington by saying good job, you're doing a good job. You're talking because you saw a huge rally.

More than 450 points up in the Dow. But just over two sessions. But the things is now that that gridlock is kind of back, investors may quickly undue those gains. You know that reality may set in. That we're just days away from a possible default. And you may see Wall Street react in a more volatile fashion starting with tomorrow's trade.

You know, and it's not just investors. You're looking at consumers, Miguel. Consumers, they need reassurance, too. There's a new Gallup Poll showing that consumer confidence has fallen to its lowest level since 2008, since Lehman Brothers collapse. That's not a good thing as we get closer to the holiday shopping season. You don't want to see consumers pull back from spending because they don't know what to expect with the economy because not just obviously the debt -- the shut down, but the debt ceiling issue that chips away at confidence.

That really hurts economic growth. And you have to remember the economy is recovering but it's still a sort of fragile recovery -- Miguel.

MARQUEZ: Alison Kosik, I'm not sure what to make of all of this but thank you very much. Stay at it. I'm sure it's going to be a very busy week for you as well. Thank you.

After 22 long years finally there's justice for Baby Hope. The 4- year-old girl was murdered, her body dumped on the side of the road. New York Police never gave up on this cold case. Now they say they've found the killer.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: At just 9 years of age he poked holes on what was supposed to be one of the toughest security defenses in the world. The U.S. airport and now the Minneapolis boy who sneaks on to a Delta flight to Las Vegas without a ticket, he's home. It isn't much of a holiday for this boy in the city of sin. He's spent the last 10 days living at a foster home.

Her disappearance is one of the more puzzling, high-publicized mysteries of the past decade. The then 3-year-old Madeleine McCann visited -- vanished from a Portuguese resort in May 2007. Now appears much of what we thought we knew about that night may not be the case at all.

Investigators from Scotland Yard say the version of events has significantly changed and will soon be releasing a e-Fit image of a suspect, the first since Maddie went missing.

Now to a mystery back here in the U.S. For 22 years, New York place have been hunting the heartless killer of a 4-year-old girl known only as Baby Hope. Her little body was discovered in a cooler back in 1991. Now an arrest and the person who police say killed her will shock you. CNN's Margaret Conley has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARGARET CONLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a break that caught an alleged killer and revealed Baby Hope's real name.

COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY, NEW YORK POLICE: Detectives from the Bronx Violent Felony Squad apprehended Conrado Juarez, age 52 from the Bronx. Also known as Anadino (ph) Juarez, in connection with the murder of 4-year-old Anjelica Castillo, a child victim known for the last 22 years as Baby Hope.

CONLEY: Retired detective Jerry Giorgio had heard from colleagues they were close to solving the case.

JERRY GIORGIO, RETIRED DETECTIVE, NYPD: When I got the phone call, I got the news, I was elated. Just -- I was up on cloud nine.

CONLEY: He was the lead detective in 1991. The decomposed body of a 4-year-old girl was found stuffed in this cooler, discarded by a highway. Her body was folded in half and bound. She had been sexually abused. No one ever claimed the body. Days turned to months turned to years.

By 1993, the 34th Precinct Squad had given the little girl the name Baby Hope and a face recreated by computer rendering. The squad also paid for her funeral.

GIORGIO: There wasn't a dry eye in the bunch including me. And the church was full. About 500 people in the church. She truly became a member of the community.

CONLEY: Anniversaries passed but police persisted and finally a break. Police recently got a call on their hotline. The caller said she'd been told several years ago by a young woman that her parents had killed her sister. That tip and advances in DNA testing led cold case detectives to find the mother of Baby Hope and eventually arrest a cousin who police say murdered her.

At her funeral, over two decades ago, Assistant Chief Joe Reznik delivered her eulogy.

ASST. CHIEF JOE REZNICK, NEW YORK POLICE: The justice is going to be when some judge lowers his gavel and says, you're going to jail for the rest of your life.

CONLEY: In this final chapter for these detectives, they'll soon replace this plaque at Baby Hope's grave. And set in stone her name, Anjelica Castillo.

Margaret Conley, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: Now the fight over the government shutdown shifts to the Senate and leaders there are talking behind closed doors. So are we any closer to a deal to end this crisis? I'll find out from our Candy Crowley next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Thursday the U.S. government maxes out its credit cards and runs out of authority to borrow more money to pay its bill. October 17th is the deadline for Congress to raise that credit limit or face tough choices on who and what to pay with limited cash on hand.

Meantime, in that other kettle of fish the government remains partially shut down because there is no budget deal.

Candy Crowley is chief CNN political correspondent and anchor of "STATE OF THE UNION."

Candy, we heard Senator Rand Paul say on your show that a debt limit deal should be reached before the deadline. The Senate is now meeting. How significant is all this?

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they agreed on the goal. That is better than nothing. On both sides, we are mostly hearing people say we cannot let the debt ceiling pass. We need to raise the debt ceiling. It will settle the markets both in the U.S. and abroad. They all know that the government shutdown needs to end. The question is whether Senator Harry Reid, the Democrat majority leader in the Senate, Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader can get there.

Because right now this is really taking place inside a room between the two of them over a period of time. But it also means that Senator McConnell has to be in touched with his Republicans probably not just in the Senate but somebody needs to be talking to the House because what good is it going to do to get a deal and send over to the House and then have the House Republicans say, we're not going to put this on the floor.

MARQUEZ: Yes. Well, one of the Republicans you talked to today, the imminently reasonable Republicans senator from Maine, Susan Collins. She made a compromise deal that was rejected outright by Senate Democrats.

How did she come down on that rejection and where things are going?

CROWLEY: I think it's fair to say that she was not too pleased. But neither was she deterred. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: I was very surprised when Senator Reid said that. I don't know why he said that. I don't think it was very constructive. But the fact is we have a responsibility to govern and we're continuing to talk and I'm still hopeful that at least we sparked a dialogue that did not exist.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MARQUEZ: So how is this going to go on? I feel like we've seen this movie before. That the Senate and the White House will come to an agreement. They'll hand it over to the House at 11:55 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday night, and the House will do what?

CROWLEY: It depends on what they get. I mean it really does. I mean, what is the Senate going to agree to? Because House Republicans at this point are very worried that Senate Republicans are going to sell them out. We know that Senate Republicans see much more urgency in doing this than House Republicans have. This is very much an intramural sport at this point between House Republicans and Senate Republicans.

And there is not a lot of love lost between representatives and senators. There's a lot of kind of departmental animosity. So that doesn't help, but, you know, you don't know what the House is going to do until you see what they are going to get.

MARQUEZ: Fascinating, fascinating dynamics. I wish you well. It's going to be an interesting and long week, I am sure.

Candy Crowley in Washington, thank you very, very much.

CROWLEY: Thanks, Miguel.

MARQUEZ: It's the worst kind of domino effect you can imagine. The U.S. defaults on its debts and dominoes start falling around the world. Scary stuff. Our Tom Foreman explains it all next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Bottom of the hour now. Welcome back. I'm Miguel Marquez. In for Fredricka Whitfield. Here are the five things crossing the CNN news desk right now.

Number one, police have arrested a man they say was in an open fire at an Asian new year celebration in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Saturday night. Authorities say five people were injured. They say they don't know what caused the man to begin shooting.

Number two, thousands of protesters in Washington demanding the reopening of war memorials. Their frustration was obvious as some confronted police at the White House. They also looped barricades, stacking them beside the fence. The shutdown led the Park Services to close the memorials as they furloughed non-essential workers.

Number three, all nine teenagers who were reportedly abducted from a ranch for troubled youth are now with their parents. That's according to the lawyer for the New Mexico facility. But authorities are still treading carefully, saying that while they know that four of the boys are safe, they have yet to confirm the whereabouts of the other five. An Amber Alert is still in effect with the others until they are tracked down.

Number four, a Florida woman is safe after dangling from a railroad crossing a bridge crossing. Fort Lauderdale fire crews rescued her on Saturday. Frightening stuff. She was crossing the bridge when it began opening. She held onto the bridge 22 feet above tracks until firefighters deployed a 20-foot ladder. Some rescue here. Crazy.

And number five, to India where 14 people are confirmed dead in a monster storm that hit the country's east coast. Cyclone Phailin tore off roofs, flipped cars and drove almost a million people from their homes. Authorities are now working to really relocate those who evacuated ahead of Phailin. The storm has been downgraded but it's still packing winds of around 80 miles an hour.

If Congress doesn't do something about raising the debt ceiling, there will be lots of consequences. Some of them would be very bad. And none of them would be easily fixed.

CNN's Tom Foreman looks at what will happen and just how terrible it could be.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you do not pay the mortgage on your house on month, you know the impact goes beyond your front door. It affects your dealings with the bank, your credit rating, maybe even your standing in the community. That's what some economic analysts fear will happen if the U.S. goes into default. And in fact, a domino effect will be kicked off that will touch places all around the globe.

How would that work? On the day that the United States doesn't have enough money to pay all of its debts, that first domino falls, difficult choices must be made. Do you spend the money you have on supporting existing programs that people are counting on like Social Security and the military and the Agriculture Department? Or do you focus more on paying the interest you owe to people who have already loaned the country money to keep operating?

Either way, there are consequences that follow because when those dominos fall consumer confidence can fall also because now people who are counting on that government money aren't getting it. Businesses out there who are counting on those consumers can't anymore. Plus if they have government contracts, they're not getting those. And all of that makes the stock market nervous and that kicks it back to the next level of dominoes.

Now businesses are saying we can't add jobs. We can't even support the jobs we have in this environment. Investors say we are not putting more money into businesses when things are this shaky. That means your 401(k) and all of your savings become worthless. And if there's anybody in the world who will still loan money to the United States they're going to say the risk is too high, we're going to charge much more interest.

And that can make it keep rippling all along the world affecting people everywhere. People can argue about whether or not this will all happen or if there are stop gap measures, or how fast it might happen, but they all agree on this. It's a lot easier to push these dominos over than it is to set them up again.

MARQUEZ: Now this isn't just our problem. People around the world are also frustrated at our lawmakers if they can't get their act together. And now -- and not raising the debt ceiling could shake the entire global financial system.

Peter Morici is an economist and professor at the University of Maryland. He joins me from Washington now.

Why would this be so bad for international markets?

PETER MORICI, ECONOMIST: Well, if we default on the debt as opposed to make the other choices at somewhat spending less on domestic programs, then we are in default, a great loss of confidence and you have to understand that the dollar is the primary pillar of the financial system. All other debt is measured off of U.S. debt in terms of its riskiness. Not only we will pay more for loans, but so will developing countries, so will the Europeans. A fragile economy like Italy, or Spain or Brazil could be devastated by this.

MARQUEZ: Well, I just going to ask, Italy, Spain, these weaker European -- Green, certainly is weaker European countries, could we see a boomerang effect where it turns those countries' abilities to get back on their feet even worse and come back to the U.S. in terms of exports and general financial health?

MORICI: Well, yes. That is the scenario that we all worry about. That it becomes the perfect storm. This is why it is so imperative that Jacob Lou have an alternative. Remember, he will still have 80 percent of the revenue he needs to run the country and pay the debts. We're going to collect $250 billion a year in taxes. If he assures markets that we are going to give interest payments, primary call on the cash and then proportion everything else, you know, and then it looks a lot like the 21-day government shutdown we had, you know, during the Clinton years.

The shutdown we have right now is an in convenience. We are not closing down that much spending. In those days we did more. So they are looking more like that, but he is got to articulate that, but right now, you know, they are in a game of chicken with the Republicans, each side is posturing and that makes the psychological circumstances much worse than they need to be.

MARQUEZ: Well, that certainly is the line that a lot of people are taking that you could actually pay for the government given how much the government takes in. The concern I think is that there would be -- the knock on effects would be pretty negative for those relying on whether it is food stamps or those government programs and mediate payments, yes?

MORICI: Absolutely. But if we look at the experience of the last shutdown, you know, 21 days, the economy made that all back when it ended and then some. It was remarkable how well the economy respond. A lot depends on how this is managed, but you are quite correct. I mean, we all have friends in Washington who are laid off. We all have relatives who collect Social Security getting 80 cents on a dollar in your social security check when you're an elderly person on a marginal income that is a terrible thing.

MARQUEZ: Yes, the one thing with the last government shutdown we were in the middle of the.com madness then and everything was growing and now it's a much different world. Peter Morici, thank you very, very much. We appreciate you coming on.

MORICI: Take care.

MARQUEZ: A rude surprise yesterday for millions of Americans trying to use their food stamp cards. We'll tell you what went wrong there and could it happen again?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: There are an estimated 47 million Americans on food stamps in this country. That's 1/6th of the population and if you were one of them trying to use your food stamp cards on Saturday, you were in for a pretty awful surprise. Nick Valencia looks at what went wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The headaches for shoppers started at 11:00 am on Saturday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This was the first time ever experiencing this. So this is like pretty much a shock to me.

VALENCIA: Hour after hour, electronic payment cards for food stamps declined at stores coast to coast, across 17 states. From Ohio to Iowa to California, people paying with food stamps were told they couldn't.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just had to spend cash. That's my Wal-Mart money. I was supposed to be grocery shopping today so I just grab a few and paid for it and put it in God's hands.

VALENCIA: SNAP or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program as it's officially called is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Many of those affected speculated the crash had something to do with the partial government shutdown, but state officials say that wasn't the case.

Xerox which handles the food stamp transactions for the government says a computer crash knocked the system offline. In a statement to CNN, they said beneficiaries who require immediate access to their benefits could work with their local merchants who could activate an emergency voucher process where available. The only problem, the emergency voucher was not available at all vendors.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The system is down. We're sorry for the inconvenience and we do not know when it's going to come back up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Without it, it is going to hurt bad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUEZ: And Nick Valencia joins us now. What is the status of the glitch?

VALENCIA: The glitch is taken care off. It was resolved by late Saturday night. So all 17 states were taken care of, but some of these people that were affected, Miguel, they are saying why would this contract company for food stamps, why would they do system maintenance on the weekend when so many people are hitting the stores to go shopping?

MARQUEZ: Yet another modern frustration for the food stamp. All right, Nick Valencia, thank you very much.

VALENCIA: Got it.

MARQUEZ: For millions of people around the world she is the face of courage and strength. Malala Yousafzai says she will keep fighting so girls can get education they deserve. Hear more from her coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Although she didn't win, Malala Yousafzai was thought to be a front-runner for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Remember her story. She is the Pakistani girl who was shot by a Taliban gunman for trying to organize education for young girls.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour had the chance to speak with her this week. She joins us now. Christiane, despite all that happened to her, she's really pretty defiant, isn't she?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: She really is and in an extremely attractive and appealing way, she refuses to be quiet. You know, I did ask her before the Nobel was announced what she felt about it just being in contention. She said that, you know, I'm way too way. I haven't done enough, but she said, I will continue to speak out.

And look, she put her life on the line for peace. Peace through the education of girls and boys, but most definitely girls. And I started by asking her in our conversation what she remembered at that precise moment when that Taliban gunman came up and pointed his weapon at her.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MALALA YOUSAFZAI, EDUCATION ACTIVIST: He asked who is Malala. He did not give me time to answer his question. And my friend told me, my best friend, that at that time just squeezed my hand, pushed it with force, and you did not say anything. And then the next few seconds he fired three bullets. One bullet hit me in the left side of my forehead, just above here, and it ran down through my neck and into my shoulder.

And I think I was hit by only one bullet, and it also affected my ear drum, so now I have problem in listening as well. It also cut down my facial nerve, but if I look at it, it is a miracle. My brain is saved, my spinal cord is safe, everything is fine, I am alive and I still can talk and smile, so I thank God for that.

Before we were going to school, it was a normal life, carrying a heavy bag, doing homework daily, being good and getting high marks. We could not understand what we are doing. Why are we going to school, but then later on when the terrorists came and they stopped us from going to school, I got the evidence, and showed me a proof that yes, the terrorists are afraid of education.

They are afraid of the power of education. And if a woman gets education and she becomes more powerful, and we all know that the terrorists are afraid of the power of women as well.

MARQUEZ: Christiane, her story is phenomenal. How did you find her? How is she, is she fully recovered now?

AMANPOUR: She is pretty much fully recovered, but let's not forget that she has a titanium plate in parts of her head instead of her skull because that was shattered. She has what she described a facial nerve that's not fully healed and may never be, and that does affect her face a little bit. But her spirit is unbroken.

She said to me they can try to kill my body, but can't kill my spirit, my mission, my cause, and I am going to continue to fight for peace through education.

MARQUEZ: Just amazing. Don't forget to join us tonight at 7:00 Eastern for Christiane's special report, "The Bravest Girl In The World," right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Well, this week, all eyes will be on the stars, not Hollywood, but other space because NASA is inning again for planet Jupiter. You may recall NASA launch this Juno spacecraft a few years back. Well, that's space craft had to a fly around the earth because it recently started falling back to our planet so that you can get a swing out to Jupiter.

Bill Nye is the science guy and joins us live from Los Angeles. Bill, let's get right to it. We want to know why Jupiter. Why is Jupiter so interesting and worth studying?

BILL NYE, BRAINS BEHIND THE "BILL NYE THE SCIENCE GUY" TELEVISION SHOW: Well, Jupiter might almost be a star. This is to say whatever Jupiter is made of is the same stuff that you and I are made of and the same stuff that came out of stars.

MARQUEZ: Well, I'm made of marshmallows and goo, I'm pretty sure. That's not Jupiter I'm -- this spacecraft is --

NYE: Well, you're made of carbon and oxygen and nitrogen and all these happy things, phosphorus, iron, all these things come from exploding stars. It is a remarkable thing that we should all take a moment and appreciate.

MARQUEZ: And Jupiter is --

NYE: We are made of star dust. We are made of the stuff of stars.

MARQUEZ: You're going to freak me out now if you keep up that sort of talk because I can't take that into my head. Jupiter is a gas giant. It is a massive planet way out in the middle of nowhere more than 50 million miles to get there. It's not an easy place to get to. Juno has got to go around Mars for a little gravitational swing on earth and boomerang it out to Jupiter, is that how it works?

NYE: Well, pass the orbit of Mars so one and a half times the distance of the earth and sun. So you -- strange as it seems when you do a mission like this, you're on a budget so you buy a rocket that's off the shelf. So this really is rocket science. These guys sent this thing -- I went down to Cape Canaveral in 2011, sent this thing out beyond the orbit of Mars, fell back toward the earth and it's going to take the tiniest bit or it took the tiniest bit of the earth's orbital motion to give it a sling shot out to Jupiter and it will arrive in 2016. The things in space are so extraordinarily far apart. It's hard for most of us to appreciate, but just look at your clock, 2011 to 2016, it's a long time just to get there.

MARQUEZ: I love this stuff. There's probably never going to be a better time to study space and to look at what's out there. One of the guys who was a pioneer Scott Carpenter who died this week, could you give us your thoughts on him, space exploration and where we're all going?

NYE: Well, for me, guys like that from the first U.S. civilian Mercury guy, people who flew in space inspired me. The reason I became an aerospace engineer was because of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo program. This gets -- I mean, Scott Carpenter represents for me the inspiration that comes from space exploration. Now you can talk about that quite a bit.

You can talk about how it inspires us, makes us reach for the stars and so on, but the economic effects are direct and for me, Scott Carpenter's death just highlights it. This is to say the latest number is 3.6. For every dollar that you put into the space program you get $3.60 back. And the other thing you get is innovation. We would not have smartphones. We would not have global positioning systems absolutely.

We would not have commercials based on jokes about your nav system in your car without the space program. We would not be able to feed as many people as we feed without the space program. So there is an irony that the government is shut down while this spacecraft continues to fly undeterred.

MARQUEZ: The passionate Bill Nye, my home boy from Los Angeles, thank you very much, always great to see you.

NYE: Thank you.

MARQUEZ: Jet Blue says whole families will soon be able to pull their frequent flyers miles on the airlines. In a minute you could find out how this change will affect the points you use. But first, Maria Sharapavo's success on the court may have come to a halt as she tries to recover from an injury. But her off-court success is better than ever. Here's this week's "Open Court."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER (voice-over): Maria Sharapova may have deals with Nike, Samsung and Porsche among others, but in 2012, the 26-year- old launched a candy business called "Sugarpova," a curious choice for a world class athlete.

MARIA SHARAPOVA, HIGHEST PAID FEMALE ATHLETE: I've been this question so much because I am a professional athlete and being healthy is such a huge part of my life, living a healthy lifestyle, understanding, you know, what foods to eat, what's important for my body. But at the end of the day, as any person whether an athlete or you're working in an office, everyone loves a treat and everyone loves candy. And when I was young and I would finish a practice, I would ask for a lolly pop.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Sharapova was even said to have considered a little name change ahead of this year's U.S. open. But her agent said the legal hassle of becoming Maria Sugarpova for two weeks just wasn't worth it. But the global media coverage of the story proved that she is not just good at tennis and candy, but a pretty shrewd marketer too.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUEZ: Jet Blue said this week it is making big changes to its Frequent Flyer Program. Family members will be allowed to share miles with no blackouts or points expiration. The new plan also includes same sex partners or even friends as part of the plan.

Joining me is Mark Murphy. He is a travel writer and author of "Travel Unscripted." Mark, basically, this is a pooling scheme that anybody who wants to get together and pool their points can do. How significant is this?

MARK MURPHY, AUTHOR, "TRAVEL UNSCRIPTED": You know, it's not that significant. Frequent Flier Programs are really geared towards business travelers. The leisure travel market has had a difficult time really taking advantage of it because they just don't fly that much. So by being able to ban things together it gives them a little bit of a competitive advantage, but I don't think it's anything that the other airlines are going to look at and follow. The big thing I think you mentioned is the expiration of the actual miles. I think that is big because this way you can accumulate them and use them later on.

MARQUEZ: I mean, these airlines make a big deal about their points programs. JetBlue is one of the bigger best points programs out there. They are also making a lot of changes to their planes and in general, what is going on in JetBlue?

MURPHY: I think more and more people are interested -- one thing to do and it's going to flat bed seats to attract the business travelers on cross country trips so that's a big deal for business travelers because they want that comfort. The biggest thing for a business traveller is the upgrades to first class and the preference that you get as a frequent traveller.

Of course, the miles are important as well, but for a leisure traveller, it takes one or two trips a year. You accumulate a few thousand miles. That doesn't even get you a free trip and then the idea of a free trip today is even a bit of a misnomer because you pay fees just like every fee you pay on an airline. To actually use your frequent flier points to book a free ticket and in the case of JetBlue, it could be $100.

MARQUEZ: It does seem that JetBlue is being a lot more aggressive. I mean, they came into the industry and sort of shook it up. They brought sexy back to airlines. Are they trying to recreate that essentially?

MURPHY: What I think they are trying to do is just improve what was a pretty weak frequent flyer program to make it more competitive. So I think that is what is happening right now. I think it is a big improvement, but again, it is marginal and for the most part, the average traveller doesn't really get to take advantage of it. This will allow them too, but here's the question, Miguel. After you pool all those points, who is going to get that free ticket of those 7 people that have contributed the miles? I think it could be a steel cage match or something else.

MARQUEZ: It's going to be, Mark. I will get that ticket no matter where it is. I don't want to fly anymore. I fly too much as it is.

MURPHY: I hear that.

MARQUEZ: Mark, thank you very, very much. I hope all is well in Los Angeles and we'll see you in the skies soon.

MURPHY: It sounds great.

MARQUEZ: We are just days away from the U.S. running out of money to pay its bills. Right now, the Senate is in session trying to reach a deal to race the debt ceiling. We are keeping track of the latest developments in Washington. We will bring you news as it develops.

"YOUR MONEY" starts right now.