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West Point Begins Removing Items Commemorating Confederacy; Police Credit 2 Women For Recovery Of Kidnapped Ohio Baby; Peak In Flu Cases May Lie Ahead Despite Slowing Activity; Health Concerns To Watch Out For In Extreme Cold Conditions; Educators Warn New Chatbot Makes It Easy To Cheat; Wave Of "Smash & Grab" Thefts Hits Retailers This Holiday Season. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired December 26, 2022 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: The West Point Military Academy is closing a controversial chapter in its 200-year history. The process of removing statues, plaques and references commemorating the Confederacy on campus is now underway.
That includes -- take a look at this. This image of a hooded figure with the word's "Ku Klux Klan" written below it.
It's part of a directive issued by the Defense Department earlier this year.
CNN's Pentagon correspondent, Oren Liebermann, is joining us now.
Oren, tell us more about what they're removing. This has been a couple years in the making, actually.
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: It has quite a long process, ever since the end of 2020 when Congress in a bipartisan fashion overrode former President Trump's veto.
And mandated the creation of a congressional naming committee to rename anything commemorating or memorializing the Confederacy in any way.
And as the committee went through the work, it found 13 different items, locations, places, street names at the U.S. military academy, more commonly known as West Point, that commemorated the Confederacy. That's why is changing here.
The superintendent of West Point writing an open letter, saying, "This process will begin, a multi-phased prospect and it will take time."
In terms of what's changing names? A lot of this commemorates Robert E. Lee. A portrait will come down. A stone bust of him in Reconciliation Plaza. The KKK hooded figure, that will be removed, too. This has been a process to get here. And this has been part of the
naming commission's efforts. They've also changed names or recommended name changes for bases and ships as well -- Abby?
PHILLIP: Oren Lieberman, thank you so much.
Now onto this incredible story of the recovery of a missing 5-month- old baby.
Kason Thomass and his twin brother were in the back of their mother's car when it was stolen last Monday in Columbus, Ohio.
Kyair was found the next morning in his car seat at the Dayton airport. But even after the suspect was arrested on Thursday, there was still no sign of Kason.
But when hope was running low, two women are credited with helping police by making this amazing discovery.
CNN's correspondent, Jean Casarez, is joining us.
Jean, wow, so many twists and turns. Tell us, how did the two women get involved in the search?
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's amazing. Let's go into some more details.
Let's start with December 19th, when the babies were allegedly kidnapped, because their mother, she was a DoorDash delivery driver. She went in to get food for a minute, came out, the car was gone, the babies were gone.
Early morning hours of December 20th , Kyair was found abandoned out on the side of the road at the Dayton International Airport, 70 miles away. But where was Kason? He's not there.
On December 20, separate and distinct from this, according to the "Indianapolis Star," there was a woman in Indianapolis, 175 miles away, named Shyann Delmar. She started interacting with this woman, exchanged phone numbers, she drove in Shyann's car, thought nothing of it.
But later on the in the day, she saw this kidnapping suspect everyone is talking about, and the two babies are gone.
She went to her cousin, Mecka Curry, and she said, I just talked to that woman, she's in Indianapolis.
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They arranged that they would meet her, the alleged kidnapper, call in police. They did, and there was an arrest.
However, where is Kason? He's not there. The two cousins decided that they are found the woman, the alleged suspect, had left a bus schedule in the car that they were helping here with. And so they went to all these bus stations to see if they could find the abandoned car with the baby in it. They couldn't find it.
But they had to eat. They were tired and had to eat something. They went to the closed pizza parlor next to the bus stop. They saw the car. The baby was inside. The police officers who also had been searching were also in the restaurant eating.
I want you to listen to the Indianapolis Police Department's sergeant as he talks about getting that baby out of the car.
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SGT. SHAWN ANDERSON, INDIANAPOLIS METROPOLITAN POLICE: It was time for us to kind of decompress because we were disappointed that we could not find him. And then, God opened up the heavens to us and almost took him and put him right in our hands.
We were surprised at how well he responded considering what he -- the ordeal that he had been through.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Nalay Jackson, 24, currently in Ohio, facing two felony counts of kidnapping, waiting for extradition -- I should say she's in Indiana, waiting for extradition back to Ohio.
Because she crossed state lines, there's the potential for federal charges also.
PHILLIP: Jean Casarez, those two women are true heroes for finding that little baby in the winter's cold.
Thank you so much.
Another story you may not believe. It sounds like a teacher's worse nightmare. A new technology making cheating easier than ever before. It's not all that easy to catch.
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PHILLIP: It's already been a really bad flu season. It could get worse soon. While the CDC suggests a slowdown in cases nationwide, experts say we should see an uptick after the holiday travel and gatherings.
CNN's medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is joining us now.
So, Elizabeth, how bad is this flu outbreak right now? A lot of people just went home for the holidays, headed back to their homes. What's going to happen?
DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. You're going to get people mixing it up a bit. The flu is really in a bad place. Let's look at a map of the United States, Abby. Every state in red,
orange, purple, that means flu is at high or very high levels according to the CDC, and almost the entire map is red, orange or purple.
Now, some possible good news is the numbers are coming down a bit. If we looks starting at the week of November 27th, you can see hospital admissions slowly falling by a bit.
Here's the problem, Flu is still high, even though it's coming down. With the holidays, as we were saying, with people getting around, it's possible the numbers could go back up -- Abby?
PHILLIP: So much of the country is spending holidays in extraordinarily freezing temperatures, huddled at home, maybe even stuck in airports.
How do people keep themselves safe in these extreme weather conditions?
COHEN: It can be so dangerous, especially people who unfortunately may find themselves stuck outside.
So let's look at some cold-weather tips. First of all, think about the most vulnerable. That's infants and the elderly. Dress infants more warmly than you would dress yourself. Check on elderly people who may be at home alone.
Also avoid alcohol or caffeine. I know that's not popular, but it can inhibit your body's ability to keep warm.
And remember that cold puts stress on the heart and problematic on people with asthmas or other lung diseases. Keep that in mind.
We just have to put in a word for generator safety. People really, really get hurt by generators. Do use them in your home. If you use them, keep them away from your home.
And always direct it in the opposite direction. Carbon monoxide kills easily, quickly. It's tasteless, odorless. You won't see it -- Abby?
PHILLIP: Great tips. Everyone, please be careful shoveling that snow.
Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.
Educators across the country are raising the alarm over a new technology making it easy to cheat.
It's calls ChatGPT. It's a chat bot that runs on artificial intelligence and can do pretty much everything you tell it to, from solving complex math problem to writing essays on almost anything.
It has basically exploded in popularity in the weeks it was released. And teachers are now saying it's not that easy to catch.
That includes our next guest, Darren Hick, an assistant professor of philosophy at Furman University. He'd also an expert in plagiarism and copyright law.
He wrote a lengthy post warning that this new technology will spark a flood of cheating.
Darren, you're concerned, but you were actually one who recently busted a student for using this chatbot to write an essay.
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If you're able to catch it, how hard can it be to figure out if it's a bot or a real person.
DARREN HICK, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY, FURMAN UNIVERSITY: It depends on the level of material we're talking about.
In my case, it was an upper-level philosophy class, and ChatGPT doesn't have the sophistication to deal with some obscure topics. But an intro class, it could. It would have been harder.
PHILLIP: That's one student. If you're a teacher, how can people even prove that it was a bot that wrote the essay?
HICK: That's the hard part. I have, you know, the instincts I've built over the past 15 years of teaching, that says this paper wasn't written by this student. That fine.
In more traditional forms of plagiarism, copy, pasting stuff, I can go and find additional proof, evidence, that I can bring into a board hearing.
In this case, there's nothing out there that I can point to and say here is the material they took. It's more of a problem where students would pay somebody or get somebody to write the essay for them. It's instantaneous and free.
PHILLIP: And it's on the Internet. They do it basically whenever they want.
The crazy thing about this is it basically learns. The more people use it, the smarter it gets, the more sophisticated it gets.
Is there any going back from there? Will this dramatically change the future of the homework or any other kind of work that requires humans to write things or communicate?
HICK: It's a game changer, and just the first of its kind. And as you point out, this thing is an infant. It's trained to learn.
A month from now, it would be smarter from today. A year from now, so much smarter. What made it assistant out in an upper-level philosophy class won't stand out anymore.
I think two things. That teachers need to strategize to make assignments that things aren't written easily with A.I. But then how do we adjudicate these cases. When I bring evidence to a board or disciplinary committee, what is
the right sort of evidence to be putting forward? It's brand new. We weren't ready for this.
PHILLIP: Really extraordinary.
Professor Darren Hick, thank you for joining us.
HICK: Thanks for having me.
PHILLIP: And we will be right back.
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PHILLIP: They're making off with millions. Police this holiday season are now sounding the alarm as smash-and-grab crimes spike.
Here is Vanessa Yurkevich.
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VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Caught on camera, smash-and-grab break-ins giving retailers across the country a run for their money during peak season.
This man seen openly dragging $5,000 worth of merchandise, police say, out the front door of a Burlington Coat Factory in Florida.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He laughed in our face, he laughed in the employees' face, and basically, they had no regard.
YURKEVICH: Break-ins at Walmart, jewelry stores, and a Toys for Tots warehouse just before the holidays.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are missing about two-thirds of toys.
YURKEVICH: This, as retail theft has become more violent this year with 80 percent of retailers reporting more aggressive incidents.
(on camera): Is it becoming more dangerous now?
RICH ROSSMAN, PRESIDENT, COALITION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND RETAIL: Yes, it's definitely. The suspects are becoming more violent. Whatever product it is that they're seeking, they're going to get it. And those that step in their way can be harmed, and they have been harmed.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): And for some small business owners it's getting worse. Fifty-six percent say they've been victims of shoplifting in the past year, forcing some to raise prices.
DANA GREEN, OWNER, RESTOCKED: November 17, this window was broken out.
YURKEVICH: Dana Green says her store Restocked sneakers in Virginia, was broken into not once -- GREEN: But on November 27, they broke this window.
YURKEVICH: -- but twice in 10 days.
GREEN: The first time was shocking. The second time was even just more devastating to me.
YURKEVICH: She estimates the thieves -- teenagers -- some who were caught -- took and damaged $40,000 worth of sneakers during her busiest shopping season of the year.
GREEN: As far as the damage to the windows and to the store, about $5,000 worth of damage, which is a huge setback for a small business.
YURKEVICH: But isolated smash-and-grab theft is just the tip of the iceberg. Organized retail crime rings are what law enforcement is after. These networks can make millions off stolen goods.
(on camera): How big of an operation is this, really?
ROSSMAN: It's huge. Just like, you know, I get up every day. I go to work. These people get up every day with a mission to steal.
YURKEVICH (voice-over): Organized retail theft is a large part of the industry's $100 billion in lost product. Major retail executives from Walmart and Target are sounding the alarm.
DOUG MCMILLON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, WALMART: Theft is an issue. It's higher than what it has historically been. If that's not corrected over time, prices will be higher.
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MICHAEL FIDDELKE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CEO, TARGET: We expect it will reduce our gross margin by more than $600 million for the full year.
YURKEVICH: The irony, industry experts say, is that some of the very products stolen from store shelves eventually make their way back and into customers' hands.
ROSSMAN: As it works its way through commerce and goes to wholesalers, which goes to distributors, and then we end up buying it back.
YURKEVICH: Vanessa Yurkevich, CNN, New York.
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PHILLIP: That does it for me. I'll see you back here tomorrow.
Until then, don't go anywhere. There's more news ahead.
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