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American Morning
Tax Cuts: Let's Make a Deal; Facebook's Facelift; South Korea Starts New Round of Artillery Exercises; Snipes Requests Delay To Start Of Prison Sentence; Dane Cook's Brother Admits To Embezzling $12 Million; Tiger Losing His Bite?
Aired December 06, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Thanks so much for being with us. It's Monday, December 6th. Happy beginning of the week for you. A few flakes falling downstairs when I was outside.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: You were just downstairs. It's not going to be a massive snowstorm or anything. You know how I am.
CHETRY: I know, you got to get home. But, just a reminder that winter, indeed, is here.
HOLMES: Winter is here no matter what that calendar actually says.
Hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes. Glad you could be with us here at the top of the hour.
CHETRY: Glad you're with us, too, T.J.
Well, word out of Washington, that the White House and Republicans are ready to cut a deal on extending tax cuts, even for the richest Americans. The president on the brink of breaking one of his biggest campaign promises in exchange for helping millions who don't have a job.
HOLMES: Also this morning, warning shots. South Korea starting a new round of nationwide artillery exercises this morning. They are seen as a response to North Korea's deadly shelling of a South Korean island about two weeks ago.
CHETRY: Also, a Facebook facelift. The world's most popular social network updating the profile pages of its 500 million users. And with every change comes some new privacy concerns. Christine Romans is watching that for us.
HOLMES: OK. But, first here, we're talking taxes and jobs. And you hear so much about it, so much debate and back and forth out of Washington. A lot of people just kind of tune it out. You need to tune this in right now because the next two stories we promise you have a direct impact on your paycheck.
CHETRY: After a weekend of wheeling and dealing, it appears that Republicans and Democrats are closer to reaching some sort of compromise on the so-called Bush tax cuts, because those cuts are set to expire just a few short weeks from now. And if that were to happen, you would certainly notice it in your paycheck, at least most people would.
Our Christine Romans joins us now.
And, Christine, break it down for us. As we know, a rare weekend session that --
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right.
CHETRY: -- they were trying to hammer out. The rub was whether or not they were going to extend it for all income brackets.
ROMANS: Right. And these are tax cut that really if they were left to expire, you would go back to paying what you paid in the 1990s for taxes.
So, here's what it would like look for a single person making $47,000 a year. It would be a tax increase of $819. A family of four, with $75,000, that would be about $2,600. And two adults, senior citizens, 65 years and older, earning $121,000, $6,908. All of these going up.
This is all according to the Tax Policy Center. In fact, I'm going to tweet and put on a Facebook a link so that you can put your own specific income and what you're deducting now and how many kids you have and all of that kind of stuff into this calculator so you can see what your tax bill will do. It's pretty helpful.
But, overall, it looks as though the rate on average for everyone would be up 2.7 percentage points -- 2.7 percentage points is what the average tax bill would go up if these things are allowed to expire. This is, of course, the problem with temporary tax cuts, because once you put that money back in someone's paycheck, it's very, very difficult to turn around and take it back out. That's what this entire fight is about. Whose fault it's going to be when Americans have a higher tax bill, nobody wants to take that blame.
HOLMES: And it's absolutely going to happen if something is not done in the next 25 days.
ROMANS: In fact, many companies right now are trying to figure out how quickly this is going to change because their -- I mean, they have huge payroll infrastructures that are based on certain tax rates, right? So, they're trying -- they're hoping that this gets resolved very, very quickly so that it doesn't cause a glitch and that people have to pay higher taxes in the very first couple of paychecks anyway because the holding tables haven't changed, though. All of these technicalities still to be worked out.
CHETRY: And meantime, we heard from Ben Bernanke, Fed chair, in a rare TV interview, and he wouldn't necessarily give too many details on his views on the tax cuts.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: But did talk about perhaps another stimulus.
ROMANS: He did. And, you know, he was defending the Fed stimulus. You know, this is something that's been pretty much reviled around the globe. The Germans said we were clueless in this country. The Chinese were angry about the Fed stimulus.
But Ben Bernanke saying what critics aren't focusing on is the fact that if we don't do it, it would be so bad for the economy. This economy is still ailing. He was also basically saying that he may have to do it again. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you anticipate a scenario in which you would commit to more than $600 billion?
BEN BERNANKE, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Oh, it's certainly possible. Again, it depends on the efficacy of the program. It depends on inflation. And finally, it depends on how the economy looks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: How the economy looks. And from where he's sitting right now, he's not very happy with how the economy looks -- 2.5 percent growth isn't really good enough to eat into the high unemployment rate. The unemployment rate is still too high. He says it could take four or five years -- four or five years before we get back to 5 percent or 6 percent unemployment, which would be something much more palatable in this country.
HOLMES: All right. You're going to be back in 30 minutes as well.
ROMANS: Yes.
HOLMES: But you're talking something completely different. Facebook changing its face.
ROMANS: Telling your story better.
HOLMES: You can't tell your story well enough on Facebook right now?
ROMANS: Having fun.
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: Uploading every moment of your life.
HOLMES: There you go.
ROMANS: I'll be back with Facebook in about 30 minutes.
HOLMES: About 30 minutes. Christine, we will see you then. Thanks so much. ROMANS: Sure.
CHETRY: Also new this morning, South Korea launching a series of live fire artillery drills, a response to North Korea's deadly shelling nearly two weeks ago. The exercises reportedly taking place at 30 different sites. The South defense minister is now warning that military forces can immediately retaliate if North Korea launches another attack.
HOLMES: Also, a pilot is badly hurt but expected to survive after crashing his plane into two homes in the town of Roy, Utah. Take a look at this here. The single engine plane went down as he was preparing to land. The pilot crashed into a power pole that knocked out power to 1,700 homes. People in the homes were able, however, to get out without injury.
CHETRY: Well, be careful if you're eating chicken salad for lunch. A nationwide recall this morning -- certain cans of Bumble Bee chicken are affected, about 72,000 pounds in all. Some customers found loose pieces of hard plastic inside. No reports, though, of anyone getting sick or hurt.
HOLMES: And not what you want to hear just in time for Christmas. It looks like we are going to see $3 a gallon gas by Christmastime. A lot of places around the country, of course, are already over $3. But we're talking about just the national average here. Right now, it's $2.91 according to the Lundberg Survey. That is a 4-cent hike in two weeks.
CHETRY: Officially, winter is 15 days away. But it certainly feels like it this morning in parts of the Midwest, getting hit with up to six inches of snow, in and around South Bend, Indiana and then into southern Michigan, the lake-effect snow coating roads, causing delays -- delays in fact at South Bend airport.
HOLMES: And we could turn to Buffalo now, a little further east -- folks digging out after getting at least three feet of snow last week. Snow crews spent the weekend hauling. As many as 10,000 truck loads of snow all major roadways we're told now are officially clear.
CHETRY: Yes, that was that storm that shut down the New York State Thruway.
HOLMES: Yes.
CHETRY: People were in cars for some 18 hours in some cases.
HOLMES: We saw some pictures of people hopping over fences, trying to go get things to eat. They were stranded.
CHETRY: Awful. Awful.
Well, how about this? They turn things around on themselves and decided they were going to turn it into some fun. A thousand cold- blooded people taking in the annual polar bear plunge in New York's Lake Erie. This is in Buffalo over the weekend. All of it to raise money for the Special Olympics. They brought in about $130,000.
By the way, the high temperature at the time in the upper 20s. There you go. Build a little Flintstone car. They say the water was about 50 degrees, though. So, it felt like a hot tub.
HOLMES: OK. That's not so bad. I thought it would be a lot of worse than that.
CHETRY: Fifty-degree water still feels terrible.
HOLMES: Well, you said it's 20 degrees outside as well.
CHETRY: Right.
HOLMES: Reynolds Wolf, he's keeping an eye on things for us here.
Isn't that dangerous as well at some point to just shock the body by jumping in that water?
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I think so.
CHETRY: You guys will find out next year.
HOLMES: We'll do it next year.
WOLF: No question about it. And the biggest danger really is getting out of the water. I mean, the water itself is cold enough, it's in the 60s, the 50s, that kind of thing. But when you get out back in the 20s, I mean, that's got to be a big time shock for you.
Hey, we're going to be seeing some shocking weather along parts of the Great Lakes. We had a little break over the last couple of days. Now, in places like Buffalo or at least points to the south of that, you're going to see the lake-effect snow machine ramp up once again.
It's easy to see from Buffalo to Erie, back over to the east of Milwaukee and just the east of Chicago and the other side of Lake Michigan, the western shores of Michigan will get hammered with some snow. In fact, in the next 48 hours, there's possibly one to two feet of snowfall that are going to be coming. Highest elevations will see the most of it. But along the lakeshores, you're certainly going to get a dose of the snow.
The wind is also going to give you some headaches in places like New York. All your metros, D.C., Philadelphia, also in the mix. The wind will cause some delays in spots like Atlanta and Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, even Salt Lake City and San Francisco.
Now, something else we're going to be dealing with although we've got the snow in parts of the eastern Great Lakes, we're also going to be having the breezy conditions in parts of the east, all the way from, say, New Orleans, back over to Memphis. Certainly not precipitation in terms of snow or even rain, but you're going to be feeling the cool down this morning. Over in the Rockies, it's going to be snow in the valleys. And in parts of the Great Basin, snow is not going to be the issue but rather rainfall. Also, the San Joaquin valley, from places like Fresno, Visalia, perhaps even up to Sacramento, you could have some rain throughout the afternoon into the evening.
Now, in terms of temperatures, we're talking about the big transformation in terms of the cold air making its way South. This morning, temperatures freezing in Atlanta, going up to only 43 degrees for places like Raleigh, 39 degrees, 36 in New York, 36 also in Boston, 39 in Salt Lake City, 51 in Denver, Dallas into the mid 50, same story in Houston, a little bit warmer outside of Houston, possibly going up to about 59 degrees, 66 in Los Angeles, and 52 in Seattle.
Guys, you're up to speed with your forecast. We've got more coming up straight ahead. Let's kick it back to you in New York. And enjoy these high temperatures a little bit above the freezing point.
CHETRY: Yes. We'll enjoy the heck out of them, Reynolds. All bundled up.
WOLF: I know you will.
CHETRY: Thanks.
HOLMES: All right. Thanks, Reynie.
Well, coming up we've got some amazing video to show you. We've seen this -- it seemed like a lot of people are falling of subway platforms lately, onto the track. We've seen several of these.
But we've got another caught on tape. But this one is a little different. And you're going to be amazed at how close the train came to hitting the guy. He was just pulled out in the nick of time. You're going to see in just a second.
CHETRY: Well, you know the president hurt his lip -- he caught an elbow in a pick up game of basketball.
HOLMES: Yes.
CHETRY: He got 12 stitches. Well, apparently, t he lip and the stitches got in the way of a speech he was giving at the Kennedy Center. We're going to play a clip for you, that had everybody chuckling.
Nine minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Supposed to act like we're talking and like each other when the thing is swooping --
CHETRY: We don't have to act. Come on.
Twelve minutes past the hour.
New this morning, WikiLeaks leaves our Achilles h exposed I guess you could say, releasing a secret list of key sites around the world critical to U.S. security -- places that the State Department says we cannot afford to lose in a terrorist attack.
HOLMES: Well, and doing so, the Web site has, some would say, handed the terrorists a how-to guide. The list comes from confidential State Department cables asking certain U.S. allies to identify critical infrastructure within those nations. Included here are bridge, pipelines, research complexes, strategic, mineral deposits, factories, things like that.
CHETRY: Yes. And CNN is not going to be releasing the names and locations of the sites for security reasons. But a lot of analysts have called this perhaps the most dangerous leak of all of them in this latest document dump.
HOLMES: Not that terrorists need that much help, but they certainly don't need any more something like this.
I want you to take a look. This is the video I was telling you about. We're going to roll this here.
Look on the left side. A man falls onto the tracks on the left side there. This is in Madrid. This is caught on surveillance camera.
You see the people on the right platform -- they're trying to wave at the coming train to stop. But then there's another guy that goes onto the tracks. He's trying to help out. Now, watch how close this is --
CHETRY: Seconds.
HOLMES: -- to this ending a lot differently.
Now, we're told -- I think it seems like I was mentioning, we've seen several of these. People falling off platforms having to be called saved. This guy apparently was drunk. The guy who pulled him over or pulled him off the track was an off-duty police officer who clearly jumped on.
CHETRY: Oh, he got very lucky, because he got to risk his own life, too. Everyone else is sort of just waving from the platform while that guy jumps in.
HOLMES: Yes.
CHETRY: Now, I don't know if people are falling more or there are just more surveillance video out there being released, you know?
HOLMES: That's probably. People are falling all the time. We just didn't have the take before.
CHETRY: St. Patrick's Day, the morning of St. Patrick's Day, I would always be coming to work as people were leaving the revelry. Yes, I'm surprised there weren't more. Many asleep down in the subway.
HOLMES: You see it all the time, people falling on the tracks.
CHETRY: Well, the football stadium at Texas Christian University now -- at least parts of it now just a pile of rubble. Take a look. The high rise stands and the press box that stood since 1956 -- well, they were imploded, to make way for a major renovation. TCU's Horned Frogs will playing there, continuing to play, amid all the work, which will not be done until 2012.
And what did you say -- they won their last 10 games in a row?
HOLMES: What was it? It was more than that. But they were undefeated this year as well, ended up number three in the BCS system. That means they don't get to play for the national championship.
CHETRY: Why is that?
HOLMES: It's a computer system. A lot of people say they need a playoff. It just doesn't work. So, a good team like that gets left out of a national championship. It's just not right.
CHETRY: And their stadium gets imploded. Great.
HOLMES: Yes, they can get a nicer one, though. That's something.
Well, we're going to turn now to developing story, really one that's been developing over the weekend even. This is out of Iran.
Tehran is now saying it has everything it needs to produce its own nuclear fuel. This would mean their program, nuclear program, is now self-sufficient. Now, the announcement comes amid some new worries from the White House that Iran, of course, trying to build up its own nuclear arsenal. Now, they are trying to possibly, they think, compete with the rest of the world's nuclear powers. The United States, though, tops with a stockpile of more than 10,500 war heads.
Our senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance, is live for us in Geneva this morning where talks are expected to get under way, but Matthew, what's the point of these negotiations if Iran continues to be what appears to be defiant?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the point is to try and get Iran to make concessions the west wants, possibly to avert military action. Remember, these aren't just talks, T.J., for the sake of talks. They are really big issues that need to be addressed and much of the international community including the five permanent members of the security council, plus Germany who are on the one side of this equation here, are really concerned that if Iran does not make the concessions that it wants to show that it's not trying to make a bomb. Iran, of course, says that it has no intention of doing that, then there could be a slide towards more sanctions and Security Council and possibly, of course, military action as well. And I think all sides at this point really want to avoid that.
HOLMES: And Matthew, the announcement from Iran came on the eve of these talks. What does that announcement now do to the urgency of these particular negotiations?
CHANCE: Well, obviously, it increases it. That announcement clearly times that Iran can make this important precursor in the developments of enriched uranium now on its own. To import the substance from overseas, it means that Iran is self-sufficient as it says in its fuel cycle, it means it can circumvent the sanctions that have already been passed, banning the imports of nuclear materials into Iran.
And so, it strengthens Iran's negotiation position. Its position all along has been you can't stop us from enriching uranium, it's our right to do. We're not going to make a bomb, but it's our right to build nuclear fuel if we want to.
HOLMES: All right. Matthew Chance for us this morning in Geneva. Matthew, we appreciate you as always.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, honoring the likes of Merle Haggard, Paul McCartney, Oprah Winfrey last night at the Kennedy Center. The stars came out for the ceremony and they included President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, but the most memorable moment, perhaps, came when the president took to the microphone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: To many people he wrote in his decent, the super -- let me start that over. To many people, the super flewous owes -- owe it's this lip.
(LAUGHTER)
OBAMA: It's hard to say. You try it when you've had 12 stitches.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: That's funny because you rarely ever hear him stumble over his words, but yes, it must be the stitches. He had to get the stitches after he took an elbow during a basketball game last week. His speech focused on the importance of the arts and the accomplishments of this year's honorees. I love how -- we forget Oprah. I mean, Oprah was there.
HOLMES: She's always a headline, is she not?
CHETRY: Yes. HOLMES: But he played that off well. He's got a perfect excuse for anything that messes up over the next couple of months. You know, the airport, a lot of controversy with the TSA put into place --
CHETRY: Yes. Have you had to go through one of this yet?
HOLMES: Don't even get me started. I have in my first three trips I took after they put those new pat-downs and the scanners all in place, I went through two pat-downs out of those three trips. I don't go through the scanner. I always opt out of the scanner because I don't trust the scanner. I'm sorry. A lot of people don't have issues with them, but we've done stories, as you know, those images supposed to be deleted --
CHETRY: It's private and delete --
HOLMES: And they're saved sometimes. So, that's just my paranoia. But now, there's a new plan possibly in place now.
CHETRY: One senator has a plan to insure that the pictures don't get into the wrong hands. You'd think this was already in place before they started using them at 70 airports. And good (ph), it's not my home airport yet. All right. Well, we're going to have more on this coming up. Nineteen minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Eighteen minutes past the hour right now. Well, he wasn't eager to pay his taxes, but now, I bet he wishes he did.
HOLMES: (INAUDIBLE)
CHETRY: Wesley Snipes doesn't seem very eager about his prison sentence, either. The actor is now asking a federal judge to delay the start of a three-year term on tax charges until next month. Snipes' motion -- I said swipe. Sounds funny.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: His motion says he shouldn't have to miss the holidays with his family, but you do the crime.
HOLMES: Yes. And we'll see what the judge does. If he does grant that, a lot of people are going to be upset if he gets special treatment.
CHETRY: Yes if he gets special treatment.
HOLMES: To be with his family for the holidays.
All right. Well, a New York senator, he wants to keep those airport body scan images private. We were told they were supposed to be private, anyway, were we not? He's hoping a new law is going to make that happen. We're (ph) talking about Chuck Schumer here. He introduced a bill to punish those who misuse the scans but up to a year in prison. The x-ray scans can see through people's clothing, but the TSA says the images are immediately deleted after. It supposed to be the case, but --
CHETRY: How about this one. Comedian, Dane Cook's brother owes him $12 million. Darryl and Ericka McCauley were accused of embezzling from Cook while Darrell was working as his business manager. Cook's brother is also facing five to six years in prison, but they say he took some $12 million from his own brother.
HOLMES: People say that all the time. You do not want to do business with your family because they'll do you like that. That's unfortunate. My sister, she's great, though, by the way.
CHETRY: Thank goodness I'm an only child.
(LAUGHTER)
HOLMES: Also, everyone wanted this it seems as a kid. The Michael Jackson glove, he has the one with the --
CHETRY: Sequins all over it.
HOLMES: The sequins all over it.
CHETRY: Gorgeous.
HOLMES: I just had, you know, winter mitt that I had on.
CHETRY: Oh, really?
HOLMES: Yes. That was all. But this one here, has sold. What was the price? $300,000? I think I saw that correctly. The item went for auction, including artifacts from Albert Einstein, but he wore this glove, everybody knows, throughout the 1980s. $330,000. I have it right now. $330,000. The two-day auction, though, brought in more than $3 million.
CHETRY: I thought it would actually go for more. I mean, that could go in a Hard Rock and (ph) Rock 'N Roll Hall of Fame. Somewhere. I mean, that's a piece of history.
HOLMES: It absolutely is.
CHETRY: Well, if this dog could talk, he'd say come on, get out. I'm tired of waiting for you. Instead, he used the horn. He was left in the cab as you can see there, and he decided it would be a great idea to beep the horn to tell his owner to get cracking (ph). We got this from YouTube. Listen. Stop for a second. Keeps doing it. Don't make a Bichon stay wait, OK, because this is what happens. Or you think it's a poodle.
HOLMES: Wait. What is that?
CHETRY: I don't know. I think --
HOLMES: I don't know what you just said.
CHETRY: It looks like a Bichon. It's a type of dog. Either that or a Maltese. So, maybe, they'll need a little haircut. I don't know. Maybe not. All the little, white fluffy ones look the same.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: Sorry. So cute, though, but anyway, a little impatient.
HOLMES: I'll read up. I'll get more versed on dogs in the break.
Well, coming up, Facebook, are you?
CHETRY: I mean, in limited quantities. It's got too crazy.
HOLMES: It is crazy. It might get crazier for some people out there, at least. Your profile might start looking a little different this morning. Some people's profiles already do, others will be rolled out later, but some new changes there which will allow you to share more? Is that really necessary, Kiran?
CHETRY: I don't know. Well, you don't need the right stuff. All you need is 200 grand. John Zarella takes us inside the world's first civilian spaceport. They're doing construction on it now. It is going to be so cool if you have the money. You, too, can join the likes of Richard Branson and go into space.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. Space tourism has its first hub now. Spaceport USA is the world's first commercial space terminal rising from the middle of nowhere in New Mexico. Our John Zarella got a sneak peek inside the first terminal. I hope it's not like terminal C in Atlanta's airport. I hope it's not that bad, but tell me about it.
JOHN ZARELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, you know, T.J., in the not too distant future, you can put your headsets on, listen to a little Elton John, "Rocket Man," and the next thing you know, you're going to be in space, as long as you got a couple hundred thousand dollars. And if you want to take one of those first flights to do it, you're going to have to go to the desert.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA (voice-over): Southeast of the elephant butte dam tucked away in the middle of the New Mexico desert. Right there, you see it rising up from the scrub brush? This is where the future of space travel has taken root. Spaceport America. It is still in its infancy, growing with each steel beam, each pounding of the dry dirt. Funded by taxpayers and private industry, this $200 million facility will be the world's first commercial space port.
RICK HUMANS, SPACEPORT EXEC. DIRECTOR: I pinch myself sometimes and say what -- how often does one have the opportunity to be part of a project that is so historic? This is the birth of the new commercial space age.
ZARRELLA: The vision, private companies will launch cargo and humans from here, perhaps, to orbiting hotels. That first vacation in space you take might start right here.
CAROLYN WINCER, VIRGIN GALACTIC ASTRONAUT SALES: If you're going to have commercial operations taking tourists into space, you know, safety has to be your guiding star all the time.
ZARRELLA: Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic Company has taken the lead. A year or so from now, a mother ship will roll down this runway, lift off at 50,000 feet release a space plane. The six passengers and two pilots will reach 350,000 feet and weightlessness for four minutes.
WINCER: Our flight is not as aggressive on the stomach as you would think because it's straight up right over the top and straight back down again.
ZARRELLA: When you're back on the ground, your wallet is, well, $200,000 lighter, the cost of the ride. By next summer, the 3-storey center piece building should be completed.
ZARRELLA (on-camera): On the first floor, the civilian astronauts will get ready for their flight, the second floor will be mission control, and on the third floor will be an astronaut lounge where they can hang out and wait for their flight.
ZARRELLA (voice-over): For New Mexico, the venture is risky. How many companies will see commercial space as smart business and how soon will this place be a thriving hub of space flight or the outpost of a dream born before it's time?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Now, that's a lot of money for four minutes of weightlessness, but already more than 350 people have either put down deposits or paid in full for the trips and, T.J., you know, maybe we can get together, put some shekels together and get ourselves a flight. What do you think?
HOLMES: First I don't know what shekels are, but --
ZARRELLA: Money.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: Don't ask for them for Christmas. It's considered very rude. You have to write a thank you note.
HOLMES: We're talking 300 plus people. Do we know who they are? And also another question -- how many can they take up at one time?
ZARRELLA: There are six passengers and two pilots for the space flights. And Branson and his family apparently are going to be on that first flight, along with you and me.
HOLMES: OK, I'll get my shekels together.
(LAUGHTER) I might be using profanity and not know it. Good to see you, buddy. Talk to you soon.
CHETRY: Christine's laughing, by the way. Did you straighten out whether we have to send thank you notes?
ROMANS: A lot of shekels, yes. A little bit, no.
CHETRY: That's nice. You only send the thank you notice if it's some large value to the gift.
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: OK.
Well, the top stories right now -- the White House and the GOP said to be close to a deal on extending the Bush tax cuts this morning even for the richest Americans. The Senate on Saturday defeated two attempts by Democrats to extend tax cuts only for the middle class.
Everyone richer or poorer could see tax bills go up if they don't do something by the end of the year.
HOLMES: Warning shots, South Korea starting a new round of nationwide artillery exercises this morning. They're seen as a response to North Korea's shelling of a South Korean island two weeks ago. The South's defense minister is saying military forces can immediately retaliate if North Korea launches another attack.
CHETRY: Continental Airlines and a mechanic found criminally responsible for the Concorde crash that killed 113 people outside of Paris, France, several years ago. The prosecutor said that a piece of titanium was improperly installed on a Continental DC-10 that took off, that fell off the plane, causing the Concorde to blow a tire during take-off.
HOLMES: We turn to you Facebook user, you 500 million users. You go through so much to get that page just right. You get the right profile, you got all of this information up there. You get it right, and what do they do, Christine, they change it on you.
ROMANS: People as soon as something gets changed automatically there is one million strong to go back to the old Facebook. I'm seeing it and I haven't seen the changes yet. Facebook unveiling a new streamline page to allow you to tell your story a little bit better.
A lot of your biographical information that is sometimes on a photo page, sometimes it's on the profile, sometimes it's by the news feed, it's all going to be together. For example, Jocelyn Sullivan here shows you where she was born, what she studied, where she's from, and what her birthday is. It's also going to -- that's going to be on the top left.
It's also going to list important people in your life. What is fascinating on this is you'll be able to take a look at those people and click on them and see every kind of conversation you've had since you became friends on Facebook, the history of the relationship with your friends.
And you can even brows your friends' relationships. If I wanted to see what T.J. and Kiran are saying to each other on their walls I could click on it easily and eavesdrop on my friends' conversations. Why I would want the do that I'm not exactly sure. But clearly, 500 million people are on this service. We didn't even know what it was in 2004 and now 500 million people strong. So when there is a change it makes a big deal.
Mine hasn't changed yet. Probably yours hasn't. You can go to the Facebook blog and read more about it. There was a link earlier so you could upgrade yourself. But that link is not there right now so keep checking back. For most people it will be over the next few weeks that you see these changes.
And Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO and founder of the company, was on "60 Minutes" and he was sort of hammered about the privacy concerns. I mean, look, this is a company with notable glitches and breaches in your privacy and this is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK ZUCKERBERG, CEO, FACEBOOK: Do we get it right all the time? No. It's something that we take really seriously. And every day we come to work and try to do a good job on this.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yet you've got the FTC looking into it, you have members of Congress looking into it. There have been privacy groups who have lodged formal complaints. You've hired a lobbyist in Washington to deal with this. You know it's a problem.
ZUCKERBERG: Well, I think that it's a really important thing for everyone to just be thinking about. Privacy and making sure that people have control over their information is I think one of the most fundamental things on the internet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Of course very recently the "Wall Street Journal" did an investigation that found some of these applications that you were using on Facebook were sharing your information to advertisers or could see your information and wind supposed to so that was a concern. He says that they take those matters seriously.
But there are 500 million people with all of your deepest darkest secrets right there. How many times have we talked about the privacy filters? Find a 12-year-old and figure out how to get more privacy filters.
CHETRY: The 12 and 18-year-olds they don't care as much. It's a whole new world where it comes to what people know about you.
ROMANS: Be careful what's on there. The booze crews pictures in Jamaica, not, if you have people who could be network help.
CHETRY: I didn't put mine up.
ROMANS: I have never been on a booze cruise with my husband.
CHETRY: Me neither. I wanted to sound cool.
(LAUGHTER)
Meanwhile, T.J. is zipping his lip.
ROMANS: Leaving T.J. speechless.
HOLMES: We should move on.
(LAUGHTER)
Thank you, Christine. We'll see you again soon.
Coming up we always talk about kids doing homework. It's not just for the kids.
CHETRY: We're talking about what parents should know and what they should be doing at home to make school -- make the kid's school experience better. Parents need to brush up.
HOLMES: A quick break and we're right back. It's 36 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, 39 minutes past the hour.
For years the debate on how to improve education in this country has centered on what's happening in the classroom. It should, right, from teachers to technology to the length of the school year.
But our next guest says the real education makeover actually starts at home. Dr. Steve Perry hosted CNN's "Education Makeover." Dr. Perry, CNN contributor and founder of the capital prep magnet school in Hartfor Connecticut joins us this morning. Steve, good to see you as always.
Before we get into it here, let me give the folks here a little idea of kind of what you did with a couple of families. Let's roll that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE PERRY, CNN EDUCATION CONTRIBUTOR: What happened, David? You moving out?
DAVID RACZKOWSKI: It was a tornado.
PERRY: A tornado. I see we have some newspaper articles down here. Looks like some notebooks. Right? DAVID RACZKOWSKI: Right.
PERRY: And some "National Geographic." That was a homework assignment. What's this?
DAVID RACZKOWSKI: This was a permission slip from a couple days ago.
PERRY: A permission slip?
DAVID RACZKOWSKI: Yes. I needed this, but I forgot it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: So you're talking to the kids there. We called it an "education makeover," but so much of what you dealt with didn't necessarily have to do with homework or what was going on in the classroom or in a book.
PERRY: Well, you know, it's funny because on Twitter one of the folks called me the homework whisperer. What happened is we sat down with a family and helped them to do basic things, not so much sitting down with the child and helping with the math or the science, but how to reorganize their home more effectively to make sure children do better in school.
HOLMES: Talking about reorganizing the home. How much does what's happening in that home, would you say, what percentage, whatever you want to assign to it, how much will it directly impact the report card?
PERRY: Well, there will be an impact on the student's report card, meaning that there will, as the child has more and more order in their life, they will be able to hand in homework assignments more regularly. And when they can hand in assignments their grades go up.
In addition we talked about strategies like note-cards and the like, putting together routines and doing essentially an educational audit, which means it's not about getting more resources to bear on the problem. It's about using the resources of time and money that you already have more effectively.
PERRY: Give us more of an idea. You named a trick with note cards and simple order. But give parents who are certainly going to be curious now, what kind of things are we talking about to put in that kid's life for structure from the time the day starts to the time the day ends?
HOLMES: Parents are often made to feel inadequate because they don't know what's going on. One of the things parents can do is set up routines so there is a homework time. It's not just when you do something but how you do it, that there be a specific order. That was one of the major issues here -- structure and follow-through.
So many parents want to give children the opportunity to make decisions, and they are kids, man, they don't know what to do. You give the child a decision and they'll blow it. You are the adult in the situation, you make the decision.
HOLMES: Let me ask this question, because there's always -- I know you and I talked about this. Sometimes you called them excuses, that when a kid has tough circumstances outside of the classroom, maybe he lives in a rough neighborhood, a single parent home, whatever it may be, people say, no, he's not going to excel in class because he has this other stuff going on.
My question is, can a great teacher overcome those adverse circumstances, and also can creating a great environment at home overcome a poor teacher?
PERRY: A great teacher does always overcome home circumstances because very often it's the case that the teacher is teaching something that no one at home knows how to do. So that's proof.
Can a great parent overcome a bad teacher? It's a real tough one. And the answer is no. In fact, if the teacher is supposed to be teaching a child to count to 10 and they teach them to count to four and the parent doesn't know how to count to 10, then the parent is at the mercy of the school. And that's where the real trouble comes.
I can through our education makeover help a parent get the most out of the school they attend, but I can't make a school a better school. Children need access to better schools.
It doesn't mean that the parents are removed from responsibility for doing the best that they can, but they do need access to the best education. One of the first things we do when we get a little bit of money somewhere we can send our child to a good school or just pay for a better school. Every single child needs access to a quality education.
And T.J., I have gotten some news about what Michelle Rhee is going to do. Just came through. So, it's breaking, and I can only tell you so much but she's going to announce today on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" --
HOLMES: Tell me.
PERRY: I can tell you only so much. They send me only little bits and pieces. Listen, man. Don't get me in trouble with people. What she's going to do is she's going to talk about this national network that is going to change the way education happens in the United States of America. It's pretty powerful.
At 10:00 I know I'll be able to say more. But right now the information -- I keep looking down because it's coming in as we speak. The information I'm told is that Michelle Rhee is going to make a major announcement and she's going to talk about how she is going to use that which she gained in terms of information and resources, and, my god, she's got serious resources and big time backers, they are going to set education on its ear.
HOLMES: You're killing me, man. Don't tell me about an announcement at 10:00 at 8:45. (CROSSTALK)
PERRY: You understand I'm trying to get you the information I can get you.
HOLMES: All right, Steve, I guess I'll talk to you at 10:00 in about an hour and 15 minutes. Kiran, I'll talk to you for now.
(LAUGHTER)
CHETRY: All right. He gets to keep you hanging, right? It's not fair. It's not fair.
Well, still to come this morning, a big chill has settled across the country. Reynolds Wolf is in for Rob, he's going to be taking a look at the travel forecast this morning after the break.
We're coming up on 45 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Beautiful shot this morning in Atlanta. But don't let it trick you. It is pretty cold this morning 28 degrees right now. A little bit later going up to a high of 39. But unseasonably cold, right?
HOLMES: And we're not used to that.
CHETRY: No.
HOLMES: It's Hotlanta.
CHETRY: Yes and not chilly Atlanta.
HOLMES: Yes but it is right now. And Reynolds Wolf is in Atlanta for us right now. Only 39 for a high there, today? Reynolds?
WOLF: Yes, I know. It's about 20 degrees shy from where we should be this time of the year.
CHETRY: Wow.
WOLF: But I mean, the sun is going to be coming out. I mean you got that to look forward to, I guess. I mean, it could be snowing and it will be snowing in parts of the country. And that snow is going to cause some delays, the wind will too.
And all of your airports in New York, you could see up to an hour delay. Same deal in your D.C. Metro, also in Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit; could be anywhere from a half hour to a full hour. Same story in Cleveland, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, even in Salt Lake City and in to San Francisco.
Now, something else is going to be on the move. The cold air in the eastern half of the country, as we mentioned sliding all the way down to the Gulf Coast, even into parts of Florida. Meanwhile, back out to the west the Four Corners, things are going to be above normal.
But again, that wind as it comes in and transfers that cold air to the south that's also going to be pulling in a lot of that water vapor right off the Great Lakes and falling on land in the form of snow. Some places possibly up to a foot of it especially near Buffalo, Erie, just to the east of Cleveland you could have some heavy snowfall. Also in the western Great Lakes, rather in the western half of Michigan you can expect it. Also in U.P., the snow is going to come piling down there too.
Snow also possible for the central and northern Rockies. Out to California, look for some rainfall along the coast. And there is the chance that we could have more of that snowfall moving up into parts of Maine. So anyone traveling upstate Maine be prepared for that.
And as we wrap things very quickly. Highs today in Boston, New York, we can match up to 36 degrees; 40 in Kansas City, 51 in Denver, Los Angeles with 66.
All right, we're up to speed and so are you. Let's send it back to you in New York.
HOLMES: All right, Rene (ph), I appreciate you, buddy. See you again here shortly.
WOLF: See you guys.
HOLMES: Well, how much apparently is too much to pay for a future hall of fame?
CHETRY: We're talking about Derek Jeter. And (INAUDIBLE) Max Kellerman of the Yankee, did the Yankees make a mistake by signing Derek Jeter? He'd be 37 years old next year, shortstop to a humongous long term deal.
Fifty minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: A lot of moaning and groaning this early in the morning.
Welcome back. It's about eight minutes to the top of the hour.
A couple of big sports story here, one is on Tiger Woods; but it's a big story because he almost won a golf tournament.
And also Derek Jeter, he's not heading over to Boston after all.
CHETRY: No, you won't see him in a Red Sox.
HOLMES: Yes, how about that?
CHETRY: Joining us now is Max Kellerman, our resident sports guy. Good to see you, Max again.
MAX KELLERMAN, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: It's good to see you as always.
CHETRY: The reason we're talking about Tiger this morning is because he came so close, he was four -- what, four strokes ahead --
KELLERMAN: Yes.
CHETRY: -- and he ended up losing.
KELLERMAN: It's true.
CHETRY: And that's very un-Tiger like at least before this year.
KELLERMAN: Well, it's never happened before in his career. He's gone winless for the first time in his career to the -- of course, of an entire year and in the old days when Tiger Wood was in his prime, a couple years ago, he would come from four strokes back. He was the guy putting the pressure on. And now with a -- with the four-stroke lead he loses.
On the other hand, he was golfing much better than he's golfed recently. So, you can look at it as glass half empty, half full.
HOLMES: Also first time professional year he has gone a full year without winning a single tournament. But still he was even encouraged some of the things he said after the tournament about how he played. So -- and we talked about momentum earlier. I won't get you back on that again.
Let's turn to Derek Jeter here now. Hall of Famer, the face of the Yankees, he's really kept his nose clean over the past several years. Got a little ugly in this public negotiation over whether or not to sign him but they got it done.
KELLERMAN: I think that's his agent's fault. He miscalculated and thought Derek Jeter has all this equity built up with the fans over the years, has this pristine perfect image. Is one of the all- time great baseball players, incidentally, forget about all the intangibles and everything. It's just about the numbers.
He's one of the greatest shortstops who's ever lived. But he is 36, he had the worst offensive year of his career by far. And it wasn't so much the dollars per year as it the length of the contract. Savvy fans now saying wait, no such thing as a good 38-year-old shortstop. And he's 36 and wants a three-year deal or more. He wanted more, he got three years.
CHETRY: Right. But as you said, the pros, the fact that he is the team captain, he's a symbol of Yankee greatness. I'm not even a Yankee fan. I'm just saying that it would seem tough if he left especially if he went to the arch rival Red Sox.
KELLERMAN: And he won't go. I don't know if the Red Sox would want him, to tell you the truth. They value range at shortstop and given his age I don't know if they were willing to come close to those Yankees dollars. HOLMES: All right. Let's turn to football if we can quickly. I want to show this video. There has been so much talk about these hits -- these violent hits. We saw another one yesterday. This was the Ravens and the Steelers.
It's a horrible hit certainly in regular speed but in slow motion, you see him knocked out there on the ground. This is in slow motion here. There's so much talk. A lot of the players have a problem with it. Everybody wants this thing to be safe.
But on a play like that, Max, surely he wasn't going for his head. The player started to fall -- I mean what do you make of this play? Is this just going to keep the debate going?
KELLERMAN: It has been kind of -- the teams like the Steelers have been chirpy about this because they have players who have been fined a lot. And the Steelers and The Ravens and these great defensive-minded franchises, their players, as you would expect, don't like the rules that say hey, don't put savage licks on a guy like that.
But the fact is we all know it's a good thing. That could have been a really serious injury. And you can't do helmet-to-helmet, you can't put a savage hit like that on a defenseless player which is essentially what happened. And had it been --
(CROSSTALK)
CHETRY: No one got in trouble.
KELLER: Right. But if McLean does that again I'm sure he will because they are watching him now. The Steelers have this defensive smash mouth reputation. It's the way the franchise has always been. It's one of the reasons they are one of -- maybe the greatest franchise in the history of the modern NFL. And so they watch the Steelers closely.
The Ravens have that similar kind of defensive mentality. After this hit I'm sure they will be watched closely too.
CHETRY: So, the difference is that they're leaving -- I mean if they get a hit like this, even if they say they can go back, they're out of the game --
KELLERMAN: Keith Miller in that case, he looked totally concussed when he went down.
CHETRY: Right. But the other thing, and they were saying that they were going to do first time offenses. People were going to get huge fines for things like that.
KELLERMAN: The NFL quickly admitted they made a mistake there. The he should have been -- that McLean should have been penalized.
HOLMES: All right. Max, good to see you as always buddy. Thanks so much.
KELLERMAN: A pleasure.
HOLMES: We're just a couple of minutes to the top of the hour.
CHETRY: Thanks Max.
HOLMES: Quick break, we're right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. I hope you didn't miss it this morning. Four-time Nascar (INAUDIBLE) champ Jeff Gordon; he was here this morning. You got to talk to him. He was talking about a cause that's near and dear to him.
CHETRY: Yes. He is a heck of a nice guy on top of everything else. Great guy.
He's teamed up with the AARP to fight poverty and food insecurity in the senior community. We were the first ones to get a look at his new car, the number 24 car with a new look. Here it is, guys.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Let's unveil it because we want to see it.
JEFF GORDON, NASCAR RACER: Yes. It's a beautiful car. I can't wait.
CHETRY: You have a couple of helpers. We're going to unveil it. This is the number 24 car like you have never seen it before. Hendrin-Lerner (ph) sports team -- gorgeous.
I love the touch of neon, it looks great. And I can't imagine how much time it takes to do this. I mean it's ridiculous, it looks great.
GORDON: I would not want to have to paint this race car. To paint this race car every weekend, you know after every weekend is going to be quite a job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: Looking good. Congrats to them. It's for a good cause.
HOLMES: All right. And thank you for allowing me to be here. I will be heading back to Atlanta where Kyra Phillips is right now for the next hour of the "NEWSROOM." Hey, Kyra.
CHETRY: Hey, Kyra.
