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American Morning
Health Care Final Showdown; Food Stamp Scam; Food Stamp Scam; No Work, No Worries; Dutch Gay Military Allegedly Allowed Genocide
Aired March 19, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a good Friday morning to you. That's good Friday morning, not Good Friday morning. That's coming up very soon.
Now, it's March 19th. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. I'm John Roberts.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Kiran Chetry. Glad you're with us.
Here are this morning's top stories.
The numbers are in and -- the numbers are in and the end is now near. We are on the verge of a historic health care vote. President Obama, in fact, is postponing his overseas trip to be there this weekend when more than a year of work can finally pay off. But will there be any last-minute surprises?
ROBERTS: Fingers crossed in Fargo, North Dakota, as the city honkers down. The Red River is rising and it's rising quickly. Now, more than 16 feet above flood level and things are even worse downstream where roads have now become rivers.
CHETRY: Also, food stamp fraud -- your tax dollars intended to put food on the table, instead being used to buy beer, cigarettes and in some cases to get cash. We've got exclusive surveillance video of a massive bust that took place in Florida.
ROBERTS: But first this hour, a final showdown under way on Capitol Hill. It's the last push for health care reform. Democrats and Republicans alike are trying to woo undecided colleagues to vote their way.
CHETRY: And even President Obama cancelled a trip overseas, staying home instead to make some last-minute phone calls and put pressure on House Democrats to help make his biggest presidential goal a reality. And a final vote in the House is expected Sunday.
We are finally getting a look at the price tag as well. A congressional budget estimate says it will cost a whopping $940 billion over the next decade.
ROBERTS: And under the plan, 32 million uninsured Americans would get health care coverage. By CNN's count, at least 33 Democrats remain undecided this morning. And time is running out to win them over.
"STATE OF THE UNION" host, Candy Crowley, joins us live from Washington now.
And, you know, we still talk about these undecideds, but in terms of the vote-counting, Candy, do Democrats have the votes they need to get this passed this weekend?
CANDY CROWLEY, HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": They will tell you they are almost there. But, John, you know, you've been in Washington long enough to understand that they are soft votes and that is people say, well, I want to take a look at this or I want to take a look at that, but you know that they are going to go ahead and vote yes, and the speaker is aware of that.
And do they have them absolutely nailed down, mortal lock? No. But I -- there is -- they have scheduled the vote. She would not have scheduled this vote had she had any doubt that there were not going to be the votes there. So, come Sunday at noon, actually afternoon, you will -- you will see that she has the votes, I think.
CHETRY: Well, she seemed very triumphant yesterday went Congressional Budget Office numbers came out. She's very happy with that, saying that it's going to actually reduce the deficit. And, meanwhile, the White House also, behind-the-scenes, maneuvering to make things happen.
What goes on in these final hours?
CROWLEY: Well, in the final hours, it's just making sure nobody gets cold feet. That's number one. Making sure that there are no surprises, you were talking about that a little coming in to this, that there's nothing that's going to sort of hop up and cause trouble, no special deals that people will start yelling about. But really, they are -- a lot of the attention has already begun to turn towards the Senate, because remember, at least the fix-it package has to go back to the Senate.
So, there are -- the next steps are being looked at. And meanwhile, there's a lot of hand-holding going on. There is -- on those who are generally undecided, there's a lot of pressuring going on and -- because they know that Sunday really is -- you know how, all year long, we talk about this is do or die for health care, this is do or die for health care? This is pretty much is do or die for health care on Sunday.
ROBERTS: So, you're guaranteeing that. Not like last July when it was do or die for health care or last November or January.
CROWLEY: Exactly. Or, you know, or August. Yes. None of those. This is really it.
ROBERTS: All right. Finally, do or die. So, the president was supposed to leave on a trip for Southeast Asia on Sunday. He's going to postpone that for a little while. Politically speaking, could he have left on that trip before the health care vote was planned?
CROWLEY: Sure, he could have. Because I think -- I mean, there are many -- why would the president cancel the trip or delay the trip until June? "A," perhaps because they didn't have the votes and they wanted him to continue staying on the phone. But you and I know that there are phones on Air Force One. There are phones overseas even. So --
ROBERTS: I've even used that phone once.
CROWLEY: Did you?
ROBERTS: Yes.
CROWLEY: So, you are ahead of me on that one. But there is another reason. The president, as you know, has been the subject of a lot of stories in recent months about why has he spent so much time on health care? Why doesn't he divide this up and get something that's more bipartisan? He's looked weak because he let the Capitol Hill write it.
What the White House believes is once this bill is passed and once he sign it is into law, the story dynamic changes and it will be: the president was courageous. The president, you know, held his ground. The president pushed forward despite all the odds.
He'd like to be around for that victory. There will be no big Rose Garden ceremony but you will hear from the president, I suspect.
CHETRY: John, by the way, used that phone to call dominoes on Air Force One. Unfortunately, they couldn't get past security.
ROBERTS: Well, no, they delivered. Stunning, 30 minutes.
CHETRY: Candy, also, when we talk about this bill, are we -- you know, there's all this talk about deem and pass that is being rammed through on and on, is that going to be forgotten as well once this happens? Or Democrats are going to struggle with the Republican storyline that they pulled a fast one on the American people?
CROWLEY: Well, listen, here's what we know from the polling and what Republicans are talking about and that is that Americans are fed with Congress. Now, they are fed up for a variety of reasons. They do think that they are sort of a privileged group that doesn't get Americans. They do think they do these sorts of shady deals that are incomprehensible but somehow, Americans aren't the ones that benefit from it and that they don't do anything.
So, there are lots of reasons people don't like Congress, but one of them is the sort of -- the look of these, oh, they're just sort of slapping each other's backs. So, that's what the Republicans are pushing. But here's how the White House and the Democrats view it. They think that once that bill is passed and people begin to see what's it in, how it will affect their lives, that they are going to like it, and that they won't care whether it was deemed and passed and all of that. And it still is possible that the speaker will not use that.
So, nonetheless, you know, the White House just -- we've heard the president do it, we have heard Democrat do it, it's just process, it's just process, but sometimes, there's a lot of politics in process and Republicans say people are fed with this sort of thing. It looks like Washington as usual.
ROBERTS: Candy, it's always so great to catch up with you. And if I do say so myself -- you're doing such a terrific job on "STATE OF THE UNION." Keep it up.
CROWLEY: Oh, thank you.
ROBERTS: All right. See you again soon.
Be sure to catch Candy, by the way, on "STATE OF THE UNION" this Sunday morning, 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.
CROWLEY: Also new this morning, an effigy of President Obama discovered inside of a failing Rhode Island school that fired its entire staff. A one-foot-tall President Obama doll with a sign reading "Fire Central Falls teachers" was found hanging by its feet Monday in a third floor classroom in protest against the president's support of the mass firing. The school board says that a teacher has been reprimanded.
ROBERTS: More than 200 federal, state and local authorities are trying to solve last weekend's murder of three people linked to the U.S. consulate in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. It's being called Operation Knock Down. It's under way in El Paso, Texas. Investigators are targeting members of a Texas gang known as the Barrio Azteca. The group is suspected of supplying hired killers to drug traffickers across the border.
CHETRY: Well, they're watching and waiting in Fargo, North Dakota, this morning as the Red River rises. It's expected to crest over the weekend at around 38 feet. Sandbagging is finish and authorities say they are pretty confident that those bags will help keep the flood waters out of the city's homes and businesses.
ROBERTS: Reynolds Wolf is in Atlanta this morning. He's got a quick check of the weather headlines -- and we got, you know, the flooding continues obviously, in the Upper Plain states and a big storm moving into Colorado.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, really, the double whammy for parts of the nation. But first and foremost, you guys have been alluding to the big story is going to be in Fargo, where you have Fargo on side of the river, in North Dakota. In Minnesota, you got Moorhead. So, you got two towns, one river, one huge flood that expands throughout much of the region. You see the area there shaded in the greens. The light green is indicating the warning; the watch in the darker green. It is a widespread area. And as you, guys, mentioned, again, 38 feet where we should level off just shy of the record of just last year.
The other storm, the second one we are talking about is a little bit farther to the south and west, back into the Central Rockies. We expect a storm to really intensify, dumping possibly up to a foot of snowfall, not only in Denver and as far south as Albuquerque, but also a little bit more to the east, in the Central Plains. Wichita could see up to, say, eight to 12 inches of snowfall, possibly eight inches of snow out in Oklahoma City. So, two big areas we are going to watch for you very carefully. We've got more on your forecast coming up later in the hour. Let's send it back to you in New York.
CHETRY: All right. Reynolds, thanks so much.
Still ahead, we're going to be talking with Chuck Sibley. He's a man who had an unconventional plan to keep his workers employed, even during an economic downturn. We'll explain what he's doing and how he did it -- coming up.
Nine minutes past the hour.
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ROBERTS: Eleven and a half minutes after the hour. And now, it's a startling statistic: nearly one in eight Americans is on food stamps, but a change in the way that money is distributed makes the program easy prey for scammer.
CHETRY: A 10-week undercover operation shows that transactions for alcohol, cigarettes and even cold, hard cash is all possible and it is costing you millions.
John Zarrella is "Minding Your Business" with this look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is getting up, walking towards the front door.
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An undercover agent walks into a small convenience store in Tampa. Wearing a recording device, she approaches the cashier with a debit card.
AGENT: Can I get $100 back off of this?
ZARRELLA: She picks up $12 worth of chips, soda and cigarettes, then presses the clerk.
CLERK: What you want?
AGENT: I want 100 back.
CLERK: All right.
ZARRELLA: The clerk runs the debit card, allegedly keeps $100 for the store and gives the agent $100 plus the goods.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. You see she's out. Small bag in her hand.
ZARRELLA: What the store clerk just did, Florida Department of Law Enforcement officials say is illegal and they say you should be outraged.
JIM MADDEN, FDLE SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: It's directly stealing from the taxpayers of the United States.
ZARRELLA: The debit card the undercover agent used is called an electronic benefit transfer card, or EBT, which can only be used to purchase food. It's more commonly known by its old name, food stamps.
BOB URA, FDLE SPECIAL AGENT: So, what they do is they charge the U.S. government $212.02. EBT, food benefit, food balance, all of that and they give us $100 in cash, cigarettes and chips for $212.
ZARRELLA: Bottom line: there's no requirement to itemize the receipt. The convenience store got a $100 kickback of your taxpayer money. The recipient, the undercover agent got cash back, also illegal.
(on camera): Authorities targeted 30 stores in the state of Florida, at 16, they were allowed to use the EBT cards. In multiple stores, the cash from those EBT cards were used to purchase lottery tickets. At one store, agents used the EBT card to buy the prescription drug Oxycodone.
(voice-over): If you think that's outrageous, listen to this transaction at a drive-thru store called Big Daddy's.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like Wayne's (ph) clerk. It looked like he has shaven his beard.
ZARRELLA: It was one of the stores targeted because in just the month of December, it did $34,000 in EDT transactions. Compare that to $1,000 at comparable stores. Here the agents didn't get money back, but they illegally got non-food items, beer and cigarettes and this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have any Trojans in there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trojans?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, do you have a three-pack?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just singles. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, just give me two of those.
ZARRELLA: Wednesday following a three-month investigation, state agents hit the 16 targeted stores across Florida. At Big Daddy's, three people were taken into custody, the owner and two employees. None of them would comment for CNN at the scene.
Authorities believe, during the past year, the 16 stores alone defrauded taxpayers of $3.5 million.
KEN TUCKER, FDLE ASST. COMMISSIONER: If you multiply it nationwide, it's -- you know, I can't give you an accurate number, but it has to be in the billions of dollars.
ZARRELLA: The USDA, which administers the program, says nationwide, 38 million people benefit from the supplemental nutrition program. It estimates 1 percent of the $50 billion in EBT funds were lost to fraud in 2009. Authorities in Florida say the next phase of their operation will target people using the cards illegally rather than for what they were intended, food to put on the table.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Law enforcement officials say the cash these people are getting in some cases, is being used because of the bad economy for things like paying rent or a car payment. But in most cases, police say, the cash is going for drugs and alcohol. John, Kiran.
ROBERTS: John Zarrella this morning. John thanks so much. Boy, I tell you, scamming all of us for all that money. Good to shine a light on that no question.
Sixteen minutes after the hour. Coming up next, we are going to introduce to you a man who had a very unconventional plan to keep his workers employed. Business was bad. He wanted to try to keep them on the payroll, so he farmed them out. We will tell you to who. Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: With the economy in the tank, plenty of Americans are finding themselves up close and personal one employment. This morning, we are watching your money and bringing you a remarkable story of jobs saved.
CHETRY: Yes, not by stimulus money, but by the -- really the great idea of the manager of a diesel engine plant in Alabama. Instead of laying off workers during a downturn, Chuck Sibley decided to lend them out to charities for a few months, instead work pay. And Chuck joins us from Huntsville, Alabama. Great to see you this morning.
CHUCK SIBLEY, PLANT MANAGER NAVISTAR DIESEL: Good morning. How are you?
CHETRY: Great. Thanks for being with us. So let's give people a little bit of the back story. Last summer, you got orders that production was going to slow down, like a lot of companies you are dealing with possible layoffs. You didn't want to have to do that and so you came up with a different plan. So what was your plan and how did it work?
SIBLEY: Well, we ended up, knowing it was going to happen, we ended up just trying to figure out what I was going to do I didn't want to lay them off, they were such a great group. I also go to a church group who does a lot of community work. And so I kind of put the two things together in the middle of the night one night and decided we could try to do that with them and I presented it had to the Eric Tech, the president of Navistar Engine the next week when he was at the point of visiting.
And after a just few minutes, we both thought it was the right thing to do. It is a temporary situation, we really just have such a wonderful group, quality-wise, attitude-wise, ethics-wise, they are really good. So we just didn't want to do that and so we came up with the idea of putting them out in the community doing volunteer activities with Habitat for Humanity, there is CASA, which is cage -- care for the ageing and homebound people, building wheelchair ramps for them. And also we are working at three different Salvation Army stores in three different counties.
ROBERTS: It's such a great thing to do Chuck, particularly with these workers who could have been furloughing. But I'm wondering how you know for other people looking who might be looking at this, who are facing the same sort of things you did, and having to lay off workers, how do you make the economics of it work? Because business is still down. You're keeping them on the payroll. You're even paying them their health benefits. How do you crunch the numbers to make it work?
SIBLEY: Right, well, for us what we come down to is there's really several win-wins for us. One it build a lot of loyalty with the employees for us long-term. You know they care about us, we care about them.
ROBERTS: Sure.
SIBLEY: There's also a huge amount of goodwill in the community and obviously, we have a lot of people that really need the help. And that is probably the most gratifying part to me. And then there's a pay it forward for us. You know we build 94 different models of engines on one assembly line. Every person is certified on at least five station and the training time and the costs to go with that there is also a pay it forward in terms of you don't want to cause problems at a vehicle plant on their assembly lines.
We also don't obviously want warranty problems in the field. Any of those are risks and so it is a pay it forward risk mitigation strategy to us.
ROBERTS: So but the money that you are saving in training, have you had to hire new workers, does that offset the cost of keeping the workers on the payroll? SIBLEY: It doesn't in total but all of it in aggregate does, when you -- the risk especially of vehicle plants. You know, that's big part of it for us.
ROBERTS: Gotcha.
CHETRY: And so when you talk about the loyalty --
SIBLEY: We have a very technical plant. I'm sorry.
CHETRY: No I was saying when you talk about the loyalty factor as well, I mean do more people want to do business with you because they know that you're trying to look out for your workers, even when times are tough? Does it help you from a business standpoint as well?
SIBLEY: Well we certainly hope some judging by the e-mails that I've received and I think the corporate office received, we certainly hope so.
ROBERTS: So this has been going on Chuck--
SIBLEY: This is important to us, our best asset.
ROBERTS: Right, this has been going on for a few months now, Chuck.
SIBLEY: Right.
ROBERTS: And I don't know how much business is coming back compared to where it was. You were making 900 engines a day I think you are down to 100. I mean I can assume, from a business standpoint there is going to come a point where you have got some tough choices to make. What is happening with business? How long will you be able to keep these workers who would be furloughed on the payroll working for these charities before you have to say, you know, we just can't keep going here?
SIBLEY: Well we set it up originally as a piloting were to last three months and we have a meeting next week to review that, see how we are doing, see you know where everything is business-wise. We do see some increase in orders and we do - and we always have felt that in the late spring, some of the business would definitely come back and we are starting to see that.
CHETRY: That's great.
SIBLEY: We just - we still need more but it is getting a little bit better, so we are hoping to try to finish it up and make it work.
CHETRY: Yes hopefully things will turn around soon. Meanwhile, from the worker's' standpoint how are they liking this? What are they discovering about going and volunteering for some people that need it?
SIBLEY: I think they are doing two things, one obviously, they are happy to have jobs, especially if this kind of economy. And they are thrilled about that but a lot are developing a really great volunteer spirit and working in their communities and I even have some that are volunteering off time now, at their own time, to go back and help, you know, other volunteers like habitat, working on Saturdays with them. So I think it's really doing a lot for that.
ROBERTS: Well Chuck it sure is a terrific thing that you are doing and we hope when you have this meeting next week, that you will be able to keep the program going. It sure would be great for the community. Thanks for joining us.
SIBLEY: Thank you, so much.
ROBERTS: Well there's a showdown in Texas over textbooks and changing the curriculum. Is curriculum there too liberal and does it need to be balanced out or is it tipping over the edge and becoming too conservative? We have a debate coming one two members of the Texas school board. Stay with us, 25 minutes after the hour.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. After very publicly outing himself last year, lieutenant Daniel Choi handcuffed himself to the White House fence yesterday in protest of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." The Army has tried to discharge Choi. He is a West Point graduate and serves in the National Guard.
Well now that some explosive accusations during the senate hearings on the "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy. A former U.S. general making some inflammatory claims saying the Dutch Army was not able to save thousands of Muslims from being killed in Bosnia in 1995 because, in part, gays were allowed to openly serve.
CNN'S Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr is following the story for us from Washington. And Barbara, that statement brought some pretty swift responses yesterday.
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Oh, indeed, Kiran.
This is a statement that is reverberating from the halls of Congress all the way to capitals in Europe and here at the Pentagon. Retired General John Sheehan was testifying before Capitol Hill on his views that the ban on gays in the military should be kept in the United States when suddenly, he started discussing this terrible incident in 1995 when the Dutch military was unable to save thousands of Bosnian men from being massacred in Srebrenica during the ethnic wars in Bosnia, the worst ethnic violence since the Holocaust of World War II.
General Sheehan suddenly decided to discuss his view that possibly it was the presence of gay soldiers in the Dutch military that contributed to this terrible moment. Listen to what General Sheehan had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. JOHN SHEEHAN, FORMER SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, ATLANTIC: The case in point I'm referring to when the Dutch were required to defend Srebrenica against the Serbs. The battalion was under- strength, fully led, and the Serbs came in to town, handcuffed the soldiers to the telephone poles, marched the Muslims off and executed them. That was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And did the Dutch tell you because there were gay soldiers there?
SHEEHAN: Srebrenica it was a combination --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did they tell you that? That's my question.
SHEEHAN: Yes, they included that as part of the problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: Well, the Dutch government reacting quite strongly to all of this. As spokesman for the Dutch defense ministry saying quote, "it is unbelievable that a man of this rank is stating this nonsense."
Kiran it should be remembered, the massacre at Srebrenica has been investigated thoroughly for years, failures in the Dutch military, fail failures at NATO, failures of the world to recognize and deal with what was going on with Bosnia at that time, no one has ever really said it was the sexual preference of the Dutch soldiers that played any role in the failures and the massacre at Srebrenica, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right Barbara Starr for us this morning from the Pentagon, thank you.
Half past the hour right now, time for check the top stories.
A House vote on health care reform appears to be set now for Sunday. Democrats are hopeful that they have the votes to pass the measure, but with more than 30 of them still on the fence, Republicans are still trying to kill the bill. A Congressional Budget Office estimate says the measure will cost close to $1 trillion.
ROBERTS: Red River is still rising. People in Fargo, North Dakota waiting anxiously this morning to see if 1 million sandbags will stop the flooding. Some roads are already underwater and many homes are threatened with the river now 16 feet above flood stage.
CHETRY: And President Obama trying to ease tensions with Israel, sending Middle East envoy George Mitchell to Jerusalem this weekend. Mitchell will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu trying to convince him not to develop disputed land in east Jerusalem.
ROBERTS: America's textbooks -- often conservative critics say they are too liberal while liberals don't want the books to become too conservative.
Right now in Texas, they are writing their curriculum, and wherever you live, your student may learn their lesson plan or at least learn from it. That's because Texas is one of the largest buyers of textbooks. Joining me now is Dr. Don McElroy, he's pushed for many of the conservative changes, and Mary Helen Berlanga. She has voted against the changes.
Don, let's start with you. Why did you want to undertake the change there is in Texas when it comes to the curriculum?
DR. DON MCELROY, VOTED FOR TEXTBOOK CHANGES: Well, our main goal is to restore balance to the curriculum. If you look at the curriculum, a lot of times when it came to us from these review committees that were working on them, they had some liberal bias. They didn't have an accurate presentation of history. So we are trying to restore some balance.
ROBERTS: OK, let's take a look before we get to Mary Helen Berlanga at some of the changes that you're proposing here to the curriculum, things like excluding Thomas Jefferson from a list of figures whose writings inspired revolutions, stressing the role of Christianity American history.
Topics of economics, "capitalism," the word replaced by "the free enterprise system." You want to study the unintended consequences of Great Society legislation, Affirmative Action, Title 9.
You have rejected a motion to include the names of Hispanics who died at the Alamo, rejected the inclusion of hip-hop in a list of influential and musical and culture movements, though you did keep country music.
You want to highlight leading conservative groups from the '80s and '90s but not liberal or minority groups, and highlight things like Republican support of the Civil Rights Act.
Mary Helen Berlanga, what are your problems with the changes?
MARY HELEN BERLANGA, VOTED AGAINST TEXTBOOK CHANGES: Well, the changes are not balanced. We had educators that came together and experts that came together with recommended -- with a recommended curriculum or standards. We looked at those and then Don McElroy and others began to make substantive changes according to their ideology. And that's the thrust of us being against it.
ROBERTS: Don, your critics have --
BERLANGA: I think that --
ROBERTS: Don, your critics have accused you and your colleagues of whitewashing history. What do you say to those charges?
MCELROY: Well, I just say that is not true. We just want to provide balance. And one of the main things is to focus on the principles on which our country was founded. We want to emphasize the founding principles.
They are found there in the Declaration, and it says that "We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal," they are endowed by their creator. And those principles we want to emphasize.
We want to emphasize there was an emphasis for religion. Of course, we had the separation of church and state, didn't want the establishment of a state-religion. But we certainly wanted to emphasize religion. And I think those things are vital.
America is a great place and we want our children to understand that. Yes, we don't want to whitewash it. We want to make sure there is an accurate representation.
But also, we do want to emphasize that America is different from the rest of the world. American values, the emphasis on the individual is so important, the emphasis on the fact of limited government.
And the balance, the way I see we provided balance by talking about the conservative resurgence with Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich. What that did it restored the balance to our -- when they tried go back the founding principles of limited government, the importance of the individual. That is the way I look at it.
ROBERTS: Mary Helen Berlanga, does this represent balance? Have the textbooks too liberal or in your estimation does this go too far?
BERLANGA: No. This is to the extreme. I mean, he talks about how all men are created equal. That's beautiful statement to make, but does he believe that? No. When we asked that the Tejanos who fought at the Alamo alongside Davey Crocket and Jim Buoy be included, they did the same thing that Davy Crockett and Jim Buoy did -- these people died that Texas would be free and independent.
Did they support that? No.
When we asked that the Medal of Honor recipients -- I asked that they bring forward some names. No one brought forward names, except for Lawrence Allen, he gave me one name. I submitted some names of a couple of people we might -- actually three that we might consider as at least mentioning because these are people that went to World War II and won Medals of Honor. And they refused to accept those also.
ROBERTS: OK, well, I think -- let me put the question to don then on your point about the Alamo and you wanted Tejanos the list of people who fought at the Alamo. Don, that was rejected. Why did you reject that?
MCELROY: We didn't want to highlight one individuals over the other. I think it's important that Texans and our students understand that we are a diversity of people that did fight for independence and in the Alamo. I think that is important.
ROBERTS: Mary Helen, were any historian, sociologists, or economists consulted on the changes?
BERLANGA: On the changes? No. These individuals went straightforward and made these extreme measures, you might say, because he mentioned Reaganomics, he mentioned a few other things a while ago.
The exclusion of Thomas Jefferson, I mean that really shows you where their headset is, because Thomas Jefferson said religion is something between man and his god, and he did believe in separation of church and state. And that is not something Don McElroy and his group want to accept.
ROBERTS: Don, both you and another conservative were recently voted off the school board, which means your term will end in December. Did you overstep here? Is that the reason why you didn't get re-elected?
MCELROY: I would not say that was it. I would say it was controversial. We made votes in science, education, and challenge the witnesses to evolution I think were very significant and that drew some opposition.
And I had a very strong candidate that ran against me, and it was a close race, just a very, very slim margin.
But let me respond to the Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson is one of the most figures in American history. He is in the standards, mentioned four times. There is a great emphasis on Thomas Jefferson.
It was one little Jefferson, only George Washington is mentioned more than Thomas Jefferson. Our students are going to understand Thomas Jefferson, they're going to understand his writings. We've already quoted him so far in this interview. He is very important.
We do believe in separation of the idea there be no state church. A lot of this has been spun by a lot of different groups by trying to say we are making this great change in history. To me we are accurately reflecting the history of our country.
ROBERTS: Well, right now, you are in a comment period. The curriculum, proposed changes have been published in the state register. It will be there for 30 days for people to look at. The final vote is coming up in May, so we'll be watching this closely.
Don McElroy, Mary Helen Berlanga, thanks for being with us this morning to discuss this. It a very interesting story.
BERLANGA: Thank you.
ROBERTS: It's 38 minutes now after the hour. Stay with us.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to the Most News in the Morning.
Today in "Building up America," a major success story in the south. A man who made some big bets with the pension fund for 300,000 state employees and was able to build a mini-empire because of it. It's happening down in Alabama and that's where our Tom Foreman is. He has the story from Birmingham this morning.
Hi, Tom.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran. How are you? We are in Birmingham, the biggest city in Alabama, a thriving place with where a lot of good things are going on even as they struggle with the economy here.
But for many golfers it would be a stop on the Alabama golf trail. And that's important because it represents a unique approach to building up that was driven by one man's idea, like the old movie, if you build it, they will come.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: Back in the late '80s when the pension fund for Alabama state employees was small and struggling, the head of the retirement systems teed up an idea about golf. And this is where he works today, in one of the most stunning state office buildings you will ever see, where David Bronner sits on an empire of pension money.
DR. DAVID BRONNER, RETIREMENT SYSTEMS OF ALABAMA: You got to keep in mind that if you're near the bottom, you're not going to get out of the bottom unless do you something different, or as I tell the people of Alabama, you have to take risks.
FOREMAN: Here is how it happened. Frustrated by tourists passing through on the way to Florida, Bronner commissioned famed golf course architect Robert Trent Jones to design more than 20 courses all over Alabama to attract tourists and business people.
BRONNER: My theory there was can I divert you, can I town is, can I hold you over?
FOREMAN (on camera): You knew if you could hold those people over they would leave money in Alabama.
BRONNER: Absolutely. Big money.
FOREMAN (voice-over): It worked. Before the golf trail, annual tourism was under $2 billion, and now it is pushing ten, and Bronner remade Montgomery's skyline. That new construction and all those buildings with green tops, all built with retirement systems cash.
BRONNER: Some people think it was is the color of money, but it has nothing to do with that.
FOREMAN: He invested Alabama's retirement funds in world class hotels, spas, media, even a landmark office building in New York City.
BRONNER: I guess what I was trying to do was pick things they could be proud of, because they are wonderful people in Alabama, hard- working people.
FOREMAN (on camera): This doesn't look like any government building I have seen pretty much anywhere.
FOREMAN (voice-over): And the pension fund success has helped draw more business and investors willing to consider Alabama as a home.
BRONNER: What we are trying to do is have something that would take the potential of a state, instead of talking about potential, turn it into a reality.
FOREMAN: And that has really put Alabama to on the map.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN: There's not nearly enough time here to do justice of how the investments of David Bronner have really, really affected this state. But here is the simplest test -- ask any serious golfer you know if they know about the Robert Trent Jones golf trail. They will all say they do because it is now world famous. Kiran?
CHETRY: That's amazing. Tom Foreman for us from Birmingham, Alabama. Thanks.
ROBERTS: There's no question that Bronner made a bucket load of money for that state's pension plan. He really is an extraordinary fellow.
Reynolds Wolf has the weekend weather forecast right after the break. Stay with us.
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ROBERTS: Reynolds Wolf is in Atlanta this morning where he's got a quick check of the weather headlines and the travel forecast for us. Good morning, Reynolds.
WOLF: Hey, guys. We're watching two big stories, first and foremost is up in Fargo, North Dakota; also in Moorhead, Minnesota where we have widespread flooding that's been occurring. We are expecting the water to actually rise along the Red River to about 38 feet; cresting in Fargo to 38 feet as we get into the weekend. Still shy of the record set last year of 40 feet and six inches, but still major nonetheless.
You can see the areas shaded in green, bright green and dark green and those are your watch and warnings areas.
Meanwhile, farther to the south and the southwest it is not flooding but rather snowfall that we anticipate. Some places are getting up to a foot of snow as we move into the weekend, places like Denver, Colorado, anywhere from eight to 12.
And then, when you get back into the Central Plains; Edith, Oklahoma, south of Wichita, north of Oklahoma City, could see around a foot of snowfall there also. So anyone traveling on the major thoroughfares, including parts of I-35 could have some major issues.
Now, some other spots so we could have some travel troubles and look for problems in parts of say, Chicago, both major airports there, back into Denver, as we mentioned could see backups also in Kansas City before day is out. Meanwhile, though, Eastern Seaboard is going to be fantastic for you. Plenty of sunshine can be expected today; very nice and warm for you. Same deal for much of the Gulf Coast, back at Westbury, a nice situation, but it's still that bull's eye in the central Rockies and the Central Plains and of course, back along the Red River in parts of Minnesota and into North Dakota.
That is the latest on your forecast. Let's kick it back to you in New York.
CHETRY: All right, Reynolds. Thanks so much. Have a great weekend.
WOLF: You bet. You too.
CHETRY: And we are going to take a quick break. When we come back, Jeanne Moos with a look at rapping Rove. You'll want to see it.
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CHETRY: Welcome back to The Most News in the Morning. Fifty two minutes past the hour now.
As the battle over health care rages in Washington, every day, people are fighting to survive without basic medical care all around the world.
And an adventure tour guide decided to go the extra mile to make a difference. Meet Patty Webster, CNN's Hero of the Week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PATTY WEBSTER, CNN'S HERO OF THE WEEK: For someone that goes the Amazon on a vacation, you see the beauty. It's easy to overlook the realities of what people are living there. I was a guide leading adventure tourists around.
As time went on, I just saw real suffering going on. People were very sick. People would actually sit around my mosquito net waiting for me to wake up so that I could help them with a sick child.
It was frightening to me because if they are depending to on me for their health care we're all going to die because I certainly had no medical training at all.
I had to involve myself more. It was either stay and do something or leave.
My name is Patty Webster and I bring down medical teams to the Amazon jungle.
We work in so many diverse areas where the Ministry of Health doesn't get to. So we often take extreme measures to get out to places. In some of these areas, many of them would never see a doctor. We work morning to night and we have so many people that you want to make sure everybody gets treated. This is our 17th year. We are seeing more patients, providing more services. Anything I can offer them that is going to help them is just a real gift. It certainly wasn't what I had planned for my life but you can't go against these forces of nature.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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CHETRY: There you go, "Loverboy".
ROBERTS: Although in Congress, everybody is going to be working through the weekend.
CHETRY: Exactly. They sure are and we'll continue to follow that of course.
But first, its three minutes to the top of the hour, time for the most news in the morning with Jeanne. Former Bush adviser Karl Rove has a best-selling book. It's out right now.
ROBERTS: Ok, you think it might be his recollection of policies that everyone is talk about but no. Here is Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A major political figure like Karl Rove writes a 600-page memoir. And guess which memory leaps out?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out his gun because he's shooting quail.
MOOS: Roves spends three pages describing the events so mortifying, we put a "Viewer Discretion" warning on it three years ago. Now, finally, we hear his side of one of our favorite stories.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- and tell me, what is your name? MC Rove --
MOOS (on camera): The book is called "Courage and Consequence" and it took courage to do what Karl Rove did.
A comedian roamed the White House correspondents' dinner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok, who do we have?
MOOS: Rove writes in his memoir, "I panicked and broke eye contact, hoping that if I didn't see him, he wouldn't pick me."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You sir, would you mind helping us? You are the rap star this evening.
MOOS: "No way," Rove mouthed, but it was way too late.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he will rap it when you give him a chance, look at him move, doing a rapping dance. MOOS: "So there I was," Rove writes, "Flailing around and living up to the saying about Norwegians. "They don't dance, they twitch. That night, I twitched as hard as I could."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That man will never stop, look at him jumping up and down. Already it's a hop --
MOOS: Rove writes that upon leaving the stage, "As I passed the president, I could see he was enjoying my discomfort. You're fired, he spat at me."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- doing the dance, the Karl Rove dance --
MOOS: Note the cell phone.
(on camera): After the performance, Karl Rove called his son who was away at college. "Dad, that was awesome." His roommate screamed in the background "Way to go, Mr. Rove" then broke into raucous laughter.
Rove notes that David Letterman aired a clip under the title --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- he will do it without fail. Get out his gun because he's shooting quail --
MOOS: And when I got an iPhone, Rove writes, "Son Andrew programmed it so if I opened YouTube, a video of my performance would boot up."
Steven Colbert's review of Rove's memoir was preceded by this.
STEVEN COLBERT, "THE COLBERT REPORT": Sometimes when I can't find him on TV, I'll just put a pair of wire-rimmed glasses.
MOOS: On a loaf of ham, but Rove's no ham. He was dragged into this a good sport.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MC Rove --
DAVID LETTERMAN, "LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN": I have a very strong feeling that that's unconstitutional.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: MC Rove in the house --
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERTS: How many different dance styles did he get in there --
CHETRY: I --
ROBERTS: He kind of -- he got kind of a bit of the penguin in there --
CHETRY: I know. ROBERTS: -- and then the Bangles "Walk Like an Egyptian" thing.
CHETRY: It's like he's doing some sort -- I don't know he was like signaling air traffic at one point. I'm not exactly sure. What the heck. But hey, his son liked it.
ROBERTS: Yes, he did.
CHETRY: Yes.
ROBERTS: That was great when you know you're children can get a terrific laugh, by the way you did right.
CHETRY: At your own expense.
ROBERTS: My kids are laughing every day.
That's going to wrap it up for us. Thanks so much for joining us. We'll see you back here again bright and early on Monday morning.
CHETRY: Sure will. Meantime, the news continues. Here's "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips -- hi, Kyra.
