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CNN Live Today

Tourism Officials Hope Mardi Gras Will Revitalize New Orleans; "Top Five Tips"

Aired February 27, 2006 - 10:30   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: We have an update on that situation in California at the Long Beach Airport. We understand now, according to affiliate KTTV, that planes are now boarding, though no flights have left just yet.
Here's what happened. A security breach occurred around 6:15 local time this morning, where a male was acting suspicious, tried to go through a second screening. But before that happened, he took off running. Security officials have sealed off portions of the airport, looking for this man, but at this hour, we do not have any information on whether they have found him. Although we've spoken with an official at the airport and she says the search continues right now.

So the good news is that people are starting to board planes, although those planes are not taking off, as you can see in this live picture, just yet. But that is a development since we last spoke with airport officials who said that people were still just waiting, and no boarding was occurring.

We'll stay on top of this and bring you the latest as soon as we know out of Long Beach, California.

Well, spring is just around the corner. We know that. It's not just a good time to do a thorough cleaning of your home, it's also a good opportunity for you to get your financial house in order.

CNN personal finance editor Gerri Willis is here with those "Top Five Tips."

And number one, let go of the paperwork. I just can't do it, Gerri. I'm so afraid. I got to hold on to those for seven years, right?

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Well, not everything. No way. Listen, you don't want to be a pack rat, because at the end of the day, your house is so full of paperwork you don't even know what you have.

NGUYEN: True, true.

WILLIS: So here is your cheat sheet, Betty, if you want to know what you should throw out, what to keep. Those credit card statements, only keep them a year.

NGUYEN: Really? Just one year?

WILLIS: Then toss them. One year.

NGUYEN: OK.

WILLIS: And then on your pay stubs and 401(k)s, you throw those out when you get a new one to replace it. So every time you get a new one, throw out the old. Now, tax returns, you've got that right. You want to keep those for seven years, plus all the documentation that supports it.

So if you have a bunch of receipts that you use to file your taxes, you want to make sure you have those, as well. Keep those on file. Those are very important, because the IRS can come back and get you for past problems. And, of course, you never throw away the birth certificate. You've got to hang on to that.

NGUYEN: Right, I tell you, I got boxes and boxes of paperwork. I need to throw away some of that 401(k) stuff. And once you get those statements, I keep them for years on end. I don't know why, but I do.

OK. The next step is to consolidate the IRAs. Why is this a good idea?

WILLIS: Well, you know how it is. People move around from job to job, they end up have a retirement account everywhere. They end up having IRAs at a bunch of different places. As a matter of fact, it's not uncommon for some families to have as many as four. They're so much easier to manage if there's just one. That way, you're not getting four statements every year, quarterly statements for four IRAs. It's just a nightmare to manage. Consolidate them into one IRA. That way you'll know exactly what you're invested in, and it will be easier to invest.

NGUYEN: Yes, easy is the key, which I guess is why you need to streamline your savings, too.

WILLIS: Exactly. You know, I was saying before that people move around a lot. And that's one reason they have a lot of savings accounts at different banks all over the country. Well, guess what? It's really hard to track those.

What's more, you can actually save money. You can get better interest rates, save on fees, if you consolidate everything at one of the big banks. It really helps you save money. And right now CDs, 5.1 percent return on those if you're looking to roll over some savings into a CD.

WILLIS: That's a good interest rate. OK. And whittle down the plastic, the credit cards. Because there are people who have 20 of them and they use maybe one or two.

WILLIS: It's crazy. Crazy, crazy. Listen, six credits is the average that a person holds. You only need two at the end of the day. Look, it's going to make it harder for you to make sure you're making payments on time. And Betty, you know how this is. If you get a late payment, you're facing a $40 fee, your interest rate can ratchet up. Consolidate those cards. That will make them easier to pay off.

You basically only want two. You want one low rate card for those really big purchases that you're going to take more than one month to pay off. And then you want a rewards card for everything else, so that you can ratchet up some goodies, as well. Cardweb.com is a great place to go to find low rate cards that won't cost you a ton of money and will do the job.

NGUYEN: Hey, let me ask you this. Is it true that if you have too many credit cards, it can work against your credit score?

WILLIS: Yes, it really can. You definitely do not want to have a lot of credit cards. Be careful about the ones you cancel, though. The really old cards -- if cancel ones that you've had in your pocketbook for a long, long time, it can actually hurt your credit rating. So have to take a lot of care with the way you cancel them. Be sure to tell the credit agency that you're shutting them down, not the credit card operator.

NGUYEN: Very key. And close the gaps is the last tip here.

WILLIS: Yes, exactly. You know, another thing to catch up with -- have you had a major personal change in the last year? Have you gotten married? Have you had a baby? Was there a death in the family? Then you'll want to change your insurance coverage. Be sure to check up on that. It's really critical.

And make sure, bottom line, you know, you got to have a will, and you should have a living will, as we've seen in the past. A living will make sure your interests are protected. If you do get really, really sick.

NGUYEN: And those beneficiary forms, sometimes you think that these houses have them, but when you check, they're like, hmm, I don't have that on file. That could be a big problem.

WILLIS: You really can't rely on these financial institutions to have every piece of paperwork about you. You've got to make sure you have them, as well. You got to keep everything on file. But not the stuff, as ye said, that you don't need, Betty.

NGUYEN: I know.

WILLIS: I hope this helps you do a little, you know, cleaning up.

NGUYEN: I just don't want to throw something away that I'm going to need later. You know how that goes. But I'm going to try. I'm going to take these tips to heart, Gerri, as always.

WILLIS: Excellent.

NGUYEN: Thank you. Talk to you later.

WILLIS: What will it take to bring visitors back to New Orleans? That's one of the big questions a lot of people are asking are Mardi Gras rolls on. Tourism officials have some ideas, though, and we're going to hear from them coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: It's always a celebration of life, and this year Mardi Gras in New Orleans is also a celebration of survival. It's not as crowded as in years past, but the spirit is there. And the festivities are rolling on to tomorrow's Fat Tuesday climax. Actor Michael Keaton reigned as Bacchus last night as the krewe made its way through the city.

And check this out. Who is that man behind the mask? Do you see him? Do you see him? It's our own Miles O'Brien in town for his first Mardi Gras ever. Can you believe it? He joined the raucous, Bacchus party, and still managed to get up for "AMERICAN MORNING" today. What a trooper.

Well, this isn't the first time CNN was invited to play. In 2001, our Larry King reigned as Bacchus 33.

Nice outfit, Larry.

Well, the streets of New Orleans are relatively quiet right now. People trying to catch a little sleep after all the partying last night. Even Bourbon Street appears to be taking a breather from the pre-Linton binge. All the trash, though, along the streets. Someone has got to clean that up.

But while some say it's too soon after Hurricane Katrina to party, tourism officials hope carnivale season and Mardi Gras will help revitalize New Orleans and convince tourists to return.

Angele Davis is in Louisiana -- is Louisiana's secretary of culture, recreation and tourism. That's a big title. And she joins us from Washington.

Thanks for being with us.

ANGELE DAVIS, LA. TOURISM SECY.: Thank you so much, Betty. It's great to be with you.

NGUYEN: Well, you know, it's a great time, too. But there a lot of controversy over whether this Mardi Gras should have gone on. What do you think? Is this a time of healing, a time of moving forward? Or is it just too soon with to much devastation all around?

DAVIS: Well, as you can see hundreds of thousands of people right now are participating in the 150th anniversary of Mardi Gras. And you know what, people are going to participate in Mardi Gras whether or not the city organized it or not.

NGUYEN: I think you're right about that.

DAVIS: It's so important. It's such an important part of our culture and our heritage. It's something we have to fight hard to sustain in the aftermath of the hurricanes, and our people are survivors, and that's exactly what they're focused on doing. NGUYEN: Well, it's a lot different from previous years, no doubt. And looking at the crowds, there are far fewer. How do you think that this one compares to the other Mardi Gras?

DAVIS: It is a scaled-down version of Mardi Gras, and we were very important to stress that in our messaging about Mardi Gras, that it would be a shorter Mardi Gras. It would be a scaled-down Mardi Gras, but it's very important for our city and our state's economic recovery to host Mardi Gras.

As you know, the economic impact of Mardi Gras is in excess of a billion dollars. It brings visitors together with our residents to celebrate one of the most unique aspects of our culture, and that's our heritage. And so it's just great to see your coverage of Mardi Gras, because you helped us get the message out there that we are ready to invite visitors back to the city.

NGUYEN: Well, how much do you think you're going to make this year? Obviously not as much as you have in the past. How much do you think it's going to bring in?

DAVIS: I think it's going to have a significant economic impact, because our tax base has pretty much been devastated as a result of the hurricane. So our hotels right now are 100 percent occupied, which is great. We know that about two-thirds of the hotels are occupied with FEMA workers and contractors, but the rest are open for visitors. We know that most restaurants are open and servicing all of our visitors who have come to New Orleans. So it's going to be significant.

NGUYEN: Let's shift over to the Convention Center. That's set to open up a little bit later. And when you talk about getting people to come back to New Orleans, do you think it's going to have one of the factors people are going to want to go there. They've heard all the reports about what happened there.

DAVIS: Well, Betty, that's already happening. We're getting many, many visitors who are visiting Louisiana, because they are curious about the aftermath of the hurricanes. And one of our biggest challenges in the tourism industry is letting people know that Louisiana still does exist. There are so many images of Louisiana immediately after the hurricanes that are really hard to forget. And we know based on the studies that we have done that a lot of people in -- I think the percentage is 35 percent of people who recently surveyed said that they were not going to visit Louisiana again, because they thought that our tourism aspect were either destroyed or severely impaired, and our cultural assets no longer existed.

So what we're doing with Mardi Gras is a significant milestone. We're actually showing the rest of the nation and our friends internationally that Louisiana is indeed prepared to have visitors come back.

NGUYEN: Well, there's a lot of big plans on tap. You've also got the Saints planning to come back home, and then you've got Jazz Fest. So we're going to see how it all plays out, and if guys can get back up to pre-Katrina standards when it comes to the economy and these big events. Thanks for being with us today, Angele Davis of the Louisiana Recreation and Tourism Department.

Up next, a check on Wall Street and protecting ourselves from identity theft. How future technology may combat this growing problem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKET REPORT)

NGUYEN: This week, CNN continues our year-long look into the future. Your future. This month we're focusing on security. Today CNN's Miles O'Brien investigates how future technologies may combat the growing crime of identity theft.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was worse than if somebody had just taken money from my purse, because it made me feel that they were taking me.

For me, the cost of being a victim of identity theft was more than monetary. I've always been pretty trusting and felt that everything was under control. And suddenly I started to suspect all people with whom I normally do business. I mean, those people have all kinds of information about you, you know. The technological fixes that I've heard of don't completely reassure that me my privacy wouldn't be invaded far more than I would be willing to have invaded.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Barbara is not alone. In fact, American consumers lost nearly $57 billion last year to identity theft. When it comes to protecting our personal security, what hope can technology offer?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This device is a smart card reader.

O'BRIEN: Meet Reed Goth (ph), dean of technology at Davenport University in Michigan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Biometric security is one way to stop identity theft. Physical characteristics that identify who you are is a lot harder to steal than is a credit card number.

O'BRIEN: Technologies already in place include iris scans, palm geometry readers, facial recognition and fingerprinting tools.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next line of defense is trying to identify those unique physical characteristics of an individual that are very hard to replicate. Veins in your hands, looking at the inner ear.

O'BRIEN: But are we all ready to divulge that much personal information?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Think we live in a private world, we don't. What we need to do now is just make sure that the information we do have is secure.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NGUYEN: Fredga (ph) also says one shortfall of some of the existing biometrics systems such as fingerprinting is that it is possible to fool or spoof the system. He says more research is being done to determine those types of body parts that are harder to replicate.

Will the rain put a damper on Mardi Gras festivities? Jacqui Jeras has that forecast for the Big Easy and to tell us of some wicked weather on the West Coast. That's up, right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

NGUYEN: Much more from Mardi Gras. That's just ahead. Including a look at the hard work and hassles of the last six months through the eyes of two New Orleans bed and breakfast owners. We're going to talk to them.

Also ahead, they're a family in need of a double miracle and now they are halfway there. We're going to introduce you to twin baby boys battling to survive. The second hour of CNN LIVE TODAY begins right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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