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Live From...

Katrina: What Happened?; Pentagon Briefing; Andrea Yates Case; A Look at Hybrid Cars

Aired February 01, 2006 - 14:08   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we are going to talk now about the distress, despair and disorganization in the wake of disaster. A Senate panel hears about all of it in its ongoing probe of how government responded or not to Hurricane Katrina. And today, New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin tried to explain the city's planning or lack thereof.
He admitted sending desperate evacuees to the city's convention center without having food or water waiting for them. But he said that the feds had to have known help was needed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R-ME), HOMELAND SECURITY CHAIRMAN: We've gone through roughly 800,000 pages of documents, and we can't find any evidence of a request from the city or from the state to FEMA to get supplies to the convention center.

MAYOR RAY NAGIN (D), NEW ORLEANS: With all due respect to Secretary Chertoff and Mr. Brown, I don't understand how anyone in authority with this type of crisis can say that they were not aware that we had a -- we had a crisis in New Orleans and we had people that were stranded on roofs, on highways, and at the convention center and they didn't know about it. That's just next to impossible. The entire nation was enthralled on this disaster, so I categorically reject their claims.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: CNN's Andrea Koppel following the hearing.

What do you think? Any new ground broken?

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPT. CORRESPONDENT: Well, this isn't the first time that we have heard from Mayor Ray Nagin. Remember he testified just in December before the House Select Committee on Katrina. So as you can imagine, they covered a lot of the same ground today in the Senate hearing.

That said, the Senate, and in particular the chairman, Susan Collins there, Republican of Maine, and her counterpart on the Democratic side, Joseph Lieberman, have gone through as you heard there 800,000 pages of documents. So they are kind of narrowing their focus, Kyra. And one of the questions you heard raised there had to do with the convention center and the images that we can't get out of our minds of thousands of people, not just at the convention center, but also over at the Superdome who were out there without food and water suffering.

And what the committee wants to get to the bottom of is whether or not Mayor Nagin asked the federal government, whether or not he reached out to FEMA to say, we need food and water at the convention center when he opened it the day after the hurricane hit.

The other question that they are trying to get to the bottom of is this mandatory evacuation. Mayor Nagin learned about it. He made his decision apparently 24 hours before he ordered the mandatory evacuation.

So senators had some really tough questions for him, Kyra. But I think what we're seeing here is that there's enough blame to go around both on the local, state and federal level.

PHILLIPS: Well, every time we have watched those town hall meetings in New Orleans, there's a lot of heated exchange with the mayor and members of that community. Did we see any of that in the hearing?

KOPPEL: Not really. There were certainly some -- some pointed questions, and Mayor Nagin did seem quite defensive and in some instances quite accusatory. He tried to explain the fact that, you know, one of the things that was difficult for him was that he found himself kind of betwixt and between both the governor, Kathleen Blanco, who, by the way, is going to be testifying before the committee tomorrow, and President Bush over who was going to have command and control over the National Guard.

I know you're very familiar with this, Kyra, because you've interviewed General Honore. And once he hit the ground, we know that things happened and people got food and water, and the rescue operations went forward.

So a lot of finger pointing. Mayor Nagin also saying that one of the difficulties was that you couldn't communicate. He said he had a box full of satellite phones that were not working.

One of the things that came out today, coincidentally, is a Government Accounting Office report looking at sort of lessons learned, and they said, believe it or not, back in 1993, a lot of the same things we're talking about today were being said about Hurricane Andrew, which hit the state of Florida. And they said appoint one person, and it wasn't done -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Andrea Koppel, thank you so much. We will continue to check in with you, of course, as the hearings continue.

Now Rumsfeld on Iraq, and of course anything else he chooses to talk about. We are going to go straight to the Pentagon briefing.

DONALD RUMSFELD, SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: ... they have killed many more since. And if they achieve their announced goal of acquiring the world's most dangerous weapons, they could kill a great many more.

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT) ADM. EDMUND GIAMBASTIANI JR., VICE CHAIR, JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: They include, in part, accelerating the Army's effort to create a more modular and deployable set of units and headquarters, what we call the operational Army.

PHILLIPS: We will continue to follow the Pentagon briefing. But if you want to watch it right now live in its entirety, you can go to CNN.com/pipeline. Of course it will continue to carry that Pentagon briefing with Giambastiani and also Donald Rumsfeld.

Well, a deadline has passed for Katrina evacuees. They had -- or they had through yesterday to request a special code to let them stay in FEMA-funded motel and hotel rooms through February 13. Well, this hour, David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will brief the media on FEMA's hotel-motel program and longer-term housing.

CNN will bring that briefing to you live as well. A lot of briefings today.

Well, the president says that we've got to stop using so much oil. Is this the way to do it? We are going to ask an expert when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Straight to Fredricka Whitfield in the newsroom.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Kyra, this coming out of Texas. Andrea Yates, the woman you'll recall who was convicted for drowning her children back in 2001, gets a $200,000 bail. A Houston judge made that decision today. Her attorney says by coming up with 10 percent or $20,000 of that, he wants to put her in a mental hospital.

Now, remember, her conviction and life sentence were overturned because of a false witness testimony.

Our Ed Lavandera was in the Harris County courthouse today. He joins us now.

And Ed, any reaction coming from Andrea Yates or anyone else today?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, obviously her ex-husband, Russell Yates, who is now the ex-husband, was very supportive of this decision today. That does -- this bail setting does come with a major caveat. This isn't like Andrea Yates is going to just walk free if this bail -- the bond is posted.

This will continue to have her put in a situation in a state mental hospital in east Texas, very close to where she had been serving part of her prison sentence before that verdict was overturned. And, of course, Andrea Yates still awaiting the retrial of that which is set for March 20. But Russell Yates in the courtroom today, and says he is very supportive of the judge's decision. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSSELL YATES, ANDREA YATES' EX-HUSBAND: What I've wanted all along, you know, is for her to be in a mental hospital. So I'm all in favor of her -- you know, her being given a bond so that she can at least be in a hospital a while before trial.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: Andrea Yates had been in the Harris County jail awaiting the trial, so she will move to the east Texas facility which is a state mental hospital. Her attorney had been telling us that she had been receiving very good care there.

She is still under a cocktail of combination of antidepressants and anti-psychotic medication. So Andrea Yates still seeking out the treatment that her attorneys and family still says she desperately needs.

In the meantime, prosecutors and her defense attorneys are still trying to figure out some sort of a plea agreement to avoid a trial, but both sides say that they still haven't been able to reach an agreement. So if they don't come to an agreement, trial is set for March 20 -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ed Lavandera, thank you so much.

Well, as I mentioned, Andrea Yates' attorney, George Parnham is -- says he wants to come up with $20,000 to help put her into a mental institution until any kind of plea agreement or until a retrial does indeed begin.

George Parnham is on the line with us now.

And Mr. Parnham, I understand you have been able to come up with a portion of that $200,000 bail. Is that correct?

GEORGE PARNHAM, ANDREA YATES' ATTORNEY: We are still in the process of putting it together. But I anticipate by the close of business today that we will have sufficient funds to post -- to secure Andrea's release into our custody and then to physically transport her and to be voluntarily committed at the Rusk State Mental Health Hospital in Rusk.

WHITFIELD: And Mr. Parnham, why is it you feel it's so important that she would be able to be placed in the mental hospital while a decision on the next step is pending?

PARNHAM: Well, you know, this case is driven by mental illness. The state has conceded that she was on June the 20th severely mentally ill and is severely mentally ill today. The state hospital is the proper place to put her.

She is indigent. She has no funds to defend herself, much less support herself. And it seems to me that the best medical treatment needs to be made available to Andrea Yates to address the mental health concerns. That's why we're putting her up in Rusk.

WHITFIELD: As this plea deal is trying to be worked out between you and the prosecution, is this one of the obstacles that potentially putting her in a mental institution might in any way make the jurors prejudicial if indeed it comes to a retrial?

PARNHAM: No, I don't think the very fact that we are going to place her in Rusk is any type of an obstacle to any plea negotiation. I think, quite frankly, the obstacle is our desire to have her committed to a long-term mental health program whereby she receives the daily mental health medication, mental health involvement with proper experts and that she be treated as a mentally ill patient.

That's what she is. I don't know if the state of Texas is going to accommodate our wishes. But that -- that simply remains to be seen.

WHITFIELD: Andrea Yates' attorney George Parnham.

Thank you very much for joining us out of Houston, Texas.

PARNHAM: OK.

WHITFIELD: So, again, Kyra, either a retrial date of March 20 to take place unless a plea deal can be reached between both sides before that point -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Fred. Thanks.

President Bush says that one way to ease America's oil addiction is to change what we drive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUSH: We must also change how we power our automobiles. We'll increase our research in better batteries for hybrid and electric cars and pollution-free cars that run on hydrogen. We'll also fund additional research in cutting-edge methods of producing ethanol not just from corn, but from wood chips and stalks or switch grass. Our goal is to make this new kind of ethanol practical and competitive within six years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: So, will a hybrid car be parked in your driveway anytime soon? Brock Yates is an automotive journalist. He joins us now from Rochester, New York.

I'm curious, Brock, do you drive a hybrid?

BROCK YATES, AUTOMOTIVE JOURNALIST: No, I don't, Kyra. And by the way, I'm not related to the lady in Texas. Let me make that clear.

PHILLIPS: There is no connection to Andrea Yates.

YATES: No. No, that's another wing...

PHILLIPS: OK. I will make that perfectly clear right now. Yes, I ...

YATES: No, no. That's another wing of the family.

PHILLIPS: Yes, OK. Totally different side. Well, let's talk about what -- you heard what the president said right there. Let's kind of dissect it, shall we, and talk about better batteries.

What has been the problem with these batteries? And is it worth the time and money to try and improve those to look forward to continuing on with hybrids and electronic cars?

YATES: Well, the storage battery has been in place, of course, for hundreds of years, but we can't seem to figure out how to make it lighter and smaller and rechargeable. It's a puzzlement, as I think Yul Brynner once said. We don't know how to do it.

It's there, but we can't seem to make them lighter and smaller and quickly rechargeable and, obviously, people are trying very hard because if that can be solved, it will be a major breakthrough for this whole issue of fuel and resourceful automobiles that aren't dependent upon Mideastern oil.

PHILLIPS: So you think we are on the right track then?

YATES: Well, I think we're trying. I mean, there's massive research going into this effort as there is into developing hydrogen- powered automobiles and ethanol and other alternate fuels. Everybody is trying.

And, of course, the president yesterday was very adamant about trying to get this started. How much the government is going to be able to throw at this research, we don't know yet, but we really do need to break out of this dependence on Mideastern oil. There's no question about that.

PHILLIPS: Well, according to this -- and you -- the president mentioned all of the above, everything, even the hydrogen, ethanol, all of that. And if you look at a fact check on Bush's speech -- this is through the Associated Press -- it said that Bush has spoken of reducing reliance on foreign oil in every State of the Union speech.

As a matter of fact, you can go back to Nixon. He announced a Project Independence in 1973 setting a goal of self-sufficiency in seven years. Then the U.S. imported 35 percent of its oil. Now it's close to 60 percent.

So I guess you sort of wonder with all this talk of OK, less dependency on oil overseas, let's start moving toward these energy efficient type of cars. We have been talking about it for decades. Are we closer now than ever before? Can we at least say that?

YATES: Well, a little bit, Kyra. We're working on hybrid automobiles. That seems to be -- have a possibility, but the problem is this,we talked about, for example, ethanol. The recovery of ethanol, the distribution, the distillation of that product is very, very expensive at this point.

It sounds great because it's all out there in the woodlands and the fields. In fact, the president even talked about it being on the grass in his ranch, but to bring it to the market is an expensive and very difficult process, as is the case with hydrogen. I mean, we have got it all around us.

We breathe it, but to make it useful and expendable and -- or inexpensive enough to displace this distribution process that we are dependent upon with foreign oil, it's very, very difficult. It's cost is what it is.

PHILLIPS: So -- well, and you keep mentioning cost. So if you look at say, Ford and GM, these companies are having to layoff so many people. Should these companies be investing more in this type of technology and be taking up some -- you know, a lot of the cost so therefore we would -- maybe we could move a little faster -- no pun intended -- in this way?

YATES: Well, General Motors is very active in working on alternate power sources and, of course, Bill Ford is an adamant environmentalist. So I think the corporations are trying very hard in their own way but, of course, they are in desperate shape. I mean, we don't have to read the news to know that the Japanese are assaulting this market in enormous ways.

And by the way, while Toyota is doing a Prius, which is a hybrid automobile, they are continuing across the board to build gasoline- powered cars too because, unfortunately, we don't have a viable alternative at this point that is cost efficient. We just don't know how to do it.

PHILLIPS: And that led us into a discussion a couple weeks ago about China and this car that's selling for $10,000; is that right? Should we be worried about this type of competition or no?

YATES: Oh, boy, yes. Well, first we've got -- we've got the Japanese. And now we've got the Chinese and the Indians on the horizon. No doubt about it. The American automobile industry, absent of the fuel problems that we're talking about, is under a major threat from the world. No question about it.

PHILLIPS: You also -- speaking of threats, talking about the hybrid or electronic car, you were mentioning that even emergency crews are nervous about this because of the electricity factor.

YATES: That's correct. Yes, we've had some conversations with fire crews and the battery-powered -- battery packs in hybrid automobiles are frightening to them. They don't like to go near them. They don't know quite what to do about them.

I am sure they will solve that issue, but at this point, a Prius in an accident is pretty much a whole lot of high voltage there waiting to get touched. So people are a little nervous about it in the -- within some of the fire departments that I have spoken with.

PHILLIPS: Well, now, we have been talking about, throughout the interview, all these new ideas and various technologies, and one of our producers said, well, remember back in 2003 at the State of the Union Address, the president talked about fuel cells. So a couple of us had to sit and think OK, fuel cells. Let's go back and try to remember what that was.

And did it work? And has there been progress? So, of course, we go to the Department of Energy, and they have a little fuel cell 101, a little animation, to kind of remind us of what this was, the hydrogen and the oxygen using -- or producing electricity. What happened to this idea? Where do we stand with regard to fuel cells?

YATES: Well, I think we probably have to go to NASA because they use them on space shots. They are incredibly expensive. We don't even know how to begin to bring them into high volume production and have them competitive. The idea is terrific but, again, the cost issues seem to be the barrier to mass production.

PHILLIPS: Brock, it all comes down to money.

YATES: Yes, and plus -- yes, they are very difficult to make. They take a great deal of hand work. They are very, very sensitive devices. And the idea of making tens of thousands or millions of them, like the internal combustion engine, at this point, is just unthinkable.

PHILLIPS: Well, if the president keeps bringing it up, of course we'll keep following up with you to figure out if it could even become a reality. Brock Yates, thanks for your time today, sure appreciate it.

YATES: Thanks, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Coming up on LIVE FROM, a tale of two T- shirts. While the president makes his political statement, a couple of spectators get squelched for theirs. We've got all the day's most arresting developments, so stick around.

Also live this hour, let's not forget David Paulison, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He's going to brief the media on FEMA's motel/hotel program and longer-term housing. We'll bring it to you live. How about if we bring it to you live right now?

DAVID PAULISON, ACTING DIRECTOR, FEMA: ... on the way to more permanent homes and more permanent housing. We implemented the authorization code program in those hotels so we could work with these people on an individual basis.

Those that have requested codes, quite frankly, have -- are those people who are -- still want to work with us to make sure that we can get them rental assistance and get them into some decent housing. That there are also some out there who may have been fraudulently abusing the system, and we will turn those people over to the inspector general, and also gets rid of any inadvertent misuse of this particular program.

We have been aggressively communicating with all the evacuees in the hotel rooms that needed to call by January 30th for an authorization code. We've distributed flyers, literally thousands and thousands of flyers, on six different occasions, directly to the hotels and directly to each hotel room.

We have community relations people and caseworker teams out in those communities and the hotels at each one of those. We placed advertisements in mayor media as well as the multilingual and multiethnic publications. We've made public service announcements. We've had media coverage such as we are doing here.

And our call centers have been open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. So reaching FEMA has not been an issue. And I have to quite frankly thank the media also for working with us to get this message out, and I believe it has gone out very successfully.

This was record damage to the Gulf coast, as we all know. It's forced literally hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. In early September, we had as many as 273,000 people in shelters. Our first step, as we have talked about before, was to move people out of the shelters into temporary housing.

We worked with the Red Cross to set up a short-term lodging program, and we've been very, very flexible with families to help them get through these first several months while they applied for assistance and while we could find ways to help them.

And five months later, I think we successfully reached a majority of the families in hotels and motels and have provided them with housing assistance or referrals.

By early October, we had a peak of 80,000 hotel rooms rented by FEMA. And this translates into many more people because have rotated through these rooms, and we've whittled those down a very few now. But the statistics tell us and demonstrate that with the right resources and help, fewer families are in need of hotel/motel support at this time.

Because now we have right around 26,000 hotel rooms rented by FEMA. We have spent more than $525 million dollars renting these rooms, but 19,489 codes have been issued as of midnight last night and that is 75 percent. Seventy-percent of the people who are in hotel rooms have registered for these codes. And those who received codes, over 14,000 of them have already received housing assistance from FEMA. And that's 72 percent of those.

In addition, we have given out over $6 billion to one and half million people during this recovery process. The authorization code process allows us to work with families that are displaced to make sure one, they're registered with FEMA for assistance so we can help them. It helps us process the rental assistance to eligible people. It helps us to refer people who need other assistance. And it prevents anyone who may have tried to take advantage of this particular program. Those who receive the code may stay through February 13th. And if they are still determined eligibility, if we have not given them any assistance at this time, they can stay through March 1st. And at the very least, they can stay at least two weeks beyond the time that we give them assistance. But if they did not call in and get a code, we'll stop paying for those rooms on February 7th, and that through the night of February 6th.

And just as an aside, we have made literally hundreds of phone calls to those people who had not registered. And we did not get to all of them, but we called hundreds of them by random calls. And every one of them that we called said they had already found a place to stay, and that's why they did not register for codes. I think that's important to know.

PHILLIPS: David Paulison, acting director of FEMA, right now briefing reporters. If you want to follow this in its entirety, you can go to CNN.com/pipeline. He's talking about the motel/hotel program and how soon those that continue to live in either one, not able to get back into their homes, how they need to be -- he's explaining basically registering the code. You can also go on the FEMA Web site to learn more about that program.

We're going to take a quick break. More LIVE FROM right after this. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: While the president was still warming up for last night's State of the Union, the shirt was hitting the fan in the House of Representatives. Cindy Sheehan's shirt, to be precise. The well- known peace activist was invited to the speech by Democratic representative Lynn Woolsey of California.

Well, according to Sheehan's blog, she was wearing a t-shirt referring to the number of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, "2,245 Dead -- How Many More?" Sheehan says when she unzipped her jacket, uncovering the shirt, a security officer moved in and trundled her out. Well, she was arrested for unlawful conduct, a charge that can mean a year in jail.

A spokeswoman with the Capitol police says Sheehan refused to cover the shirt, but was otherwise cooperative. Sheehan says she's looking into a First Amendment lawsuit and writes, "I was never told that I couldn't wear that shirt into the Congress. I was never asked to take it off or zip my jacket back up. If I had been asked to do any of those things, I would have, and written about the suppression of my freedom of speech later."

Well, Cindy Sheehan apparently wasn't the only person booted for a wardrobe malfunction last night at the State of the Union speech. Beverly Young says she was shown the door when she showed up in a t- shirt reading "Support the Troops." Now, Mrs. Young says Capitol Hill police told her they considered her shirt a protest, to which she responded, "Then you're an idiot." Did we mention that Beverly's husband is an 18-term Republican Congressman from Florida? He showed up on the House floor today with the allegedly offensive garment and a full head of steam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BILL YOUNG (R), FLORIDA: Because she had on a shirt that someone didn't like that said "Support Our Troops," she was checked out of this gallery while the president was speaking encouraging Americans to support our troops. Shame, shame.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: A short time ago, we got a statement from Representative Lynn Woolsey's office regarding the Cindy Sheehan incident. She says, "Since when is free speech conditional on whether you agree with the president? Cindy Sheehan, who gave her own flesh and blood for this disastrous war, did not violate any rules of the House of Representatives."

We're checking the rules ourselves, and we'll let you know what we turn up?

Well, some of the LIVE FROM team has been debating this all day, to put it as politely as we can, and we want to know what you think? Should Sheehan and Young had been asked to leave the State of the Union address for wearing political t-shirts? E-mail us. The address is livefrom@CNN.com.

Straight ahead, entertainment news with A.J. Hammer of "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT." A.J., what's on tap?

A.J. HAMMER, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" ANCHOR: I believe you said the shirt is hitting the fan, Kyra? I'm going to mark that one down and use it for myself a little later.

PHILLIPS: I have brilliant writers. That was a Lisa Clark (ph) there, yes. A little shout-out.

HAMMER: Well, it's funny, Lisa also provided you with the term wardrobe malfunction, which brings to mind the Super Bowl. Speaking of which, we're asking the question what did the National Football League possibly do to offend one of Motown's greatest sings? We're going to have that and a surprising new role for Britney Spears, coming up when LIVE FROM continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Super Bowl may be big-time, but you don't mess with the Queen of Soul, not in her hometown anyway. And an up coming high- profile cameo for "Will & Grace." We get all things entertainment and a look ahead to Headline prime's "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT" from A.J. Hammer in New York. Hey, A.J.

HAMMER: Hey, Kyra. You're right, you do not mess with the Queen of Soul. When the NFL decided who was going to perform at Sunday's Super Bowl in Detroit, they left a legendary Motown diva off the list. That's a no-no. But they have since corrected that mistake and they're now showing her the R-E-S-P-E-C-T that she deserves. Aretha Franklin, who will sing the national anthem at the game says, she forgives the league for initially snubbing her. When the Rolling Stones were announced as the game's half-time act, the Queen of Soul was offended.

She felt that the NFL basically was ignoring all of her hometown's rich musical legacy. So the league did correct the oversight, they're having Franklin do the national anthem and they're also going to stage a pre-game concert that will feature Stevie Wonder, India Arie, John Legend and Joss Stone. They're going to do Motown classics, and Kyra, specifically, they're going to be doing a medley of some big Stevie Wonder hits.

PHILLIPS: Oooh, that sounds good. I always like a little Stevie Wonder, he's one of our favorites, when we can get him to get on the air. Now Aretha, she received a little flak for lip-syncing didn't she? At a bowl game?

HAMMER: That's right. So yes, that was actually 2004, I believe it was the NBA finals. She was asked to perform the national anthem, and she got a lot of flak for lip-syncing. Sometimes it's really difficult and you have to lip-synch. Anyway they gave her a hard time about that, but she insists that as far as she knows, she and Aaron Neville, who will be joining her for the national anthem, will indeed be singing for real.

And speaking of football, let's move on to "Lost" star Matthew Fox, who is joining the cast of the upcoming gridiron drama called "Marshall." This is a movie that centers on the events that followed the 1970 plane crash that killed members of the West Virginia based Marshall University football team. Now Matthew McConaughey has already been cast as the coach who rebuilds the team. Fox is going to be playing one of the assistant coaches.

And it looks like Britney Spears is going to be a guest star on the April 13th episode of "Will & Grace," a show that has certainly seen a lot of guest stars over time. She's going to be playing -- are you ready for this -- a Christian conservative sidekick to Sean Hayes character Jack, who hosts his own talk show.

Well in the show, Jack's network "Out T.V." is purchased by a Christian T.V. network. And that leads to Spears contributing a segment. Kyra, it is a cooking segment and they're calling it "Cruci- fixin's." May upset a couple of people.

PHILLIPS: I was just going to say, is that angering the Christian conservatives?

HAMMER: Well we haven't heard the outrage just yet. But you know, NBC might be having another go around with them. As you may remember, a couple of weeks ago, they had the series "Book of Daniel" on. And there were a lot of protests from Christian conservatives. The show also had low ratings and after three episodes, it was canceled. So do not be surprised if you we see a little fallout from "Cruci-fixin's," featuring Britney Spears, who has been known to be scantily-clad on television once or twice. PHILLIPS: Oh, yes, now and then, isn't that true. All right, what's coming up tonight? What else are you talking about?

HAMMER: Well tonight, really interesting. Of course the president was on speaking last night. "American Idol," the one showing of "American Idol" on one network, gained almost as many viewers as all of the people who watched the president doing his State of the Union speech on all of the places that it aired. So we're going to be dealing with the remarkable power of "American Idol." We're going to talk about how it already has crushed a T.V. president and we're going to talk about why America is so obsessed with the show. It's on tonight, for SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, 7:00 and 11:00 Eastern.

PHILLIPS: OK, we won't want to miss -- we don't want -- I would love to see the president and Simon, maybe Simon write a State of the Union, that might be interesting, huh?

HAMMER: I'd like to see Simon criticize the State of the Union.

PHILLIPS: That would be interesting, there's our ratings. A.J. thanks.

HAMMER: All right, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, well Google is the talk of Wall Street today, but for the first time in the company's history, the talk is not so good. Allan Chernoff joins us live from the New York Stock Exchange to explain. Allan?

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Kyra. Google shares are sinking $35. That's a drop of eight percent. It translated into a loss on paper of more than $10 billion in shareholder wealth. That's more than the valuation of many of our biggest companies. Consider this, G.M.'s total market value is about $13.5 billion.

Now, Google may be a victim of its own success. Its profit jumped 80 percent in the fourth quarter, but that still disappointed investors who had been expecting even more. Google said its net income was a hurt by a higher than anticipated tax rate. Before the earnings report was released, Google's market value was higher than Internet rival Yahoo! and eBay combined. Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Well we don't hear this very often, but a big day for an airline industry, United Airlines.

CHERNOFF: That's right, some good news for United. It is finally leaving bankruptcy protection today after a three-year restructuring. The bottom line, the airline now has about 22,000 fewer employees, 97 fewer airplanes than it did when the company filed for bankruptcy more than three years ago. But passengers are unlikely to notice any change since United never stopped flying. Even though the company's chairman did indicate at one time that United was close to going out of business.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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