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American Morning
Davis Executed for Officer's Murder; Ahmadinejad to Address U.N.; Interview with Hanan Ashrawi, PLO Executive Member; R.E.M. Calls It Quits; UBS Rogue Trader In Court; Segment Examines Food Insecurity in America; All-Time "Jeopardy!" Champion Writes Book on Maps; Got Latitude?; Earth to Satellite: Where Will You Hit and When?
Aired September 22, 2011 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Using his last words to say it wasn't me.
I'm Carol Costello.
The state of Georgia executes Troy Davis for the murder of an off-duty police officer. Critics are saying any doubt was too much to take a life.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Police in New York preparing for a massive protest outside the U.N.
I'm Christine Romans.
As Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prepares to address that general assembly -- on this AMERICAN MORNING.
(MUSIC)
COSTELLO: And good morning to you. It is Thursday, just one more day until Friday. It's September 22nd. Ali has the day off.
ROMANS: I know.
But up first, a big selloff to get through. World markets, stocks are falling sharply overnight. Right now, U.S. stock futures are trading lower ahead of the opening bell, indicating maybe 200 points lower for the Dow, if this holds. We got an hour and a half to go.
Financials taking the biggest beating. The Fed said the U.S. economy is facing, quote, "significant downside risks." This is what it said when it announced together stimulus measure to boost the economy late yesterday.
In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng fell nearly 5 percent. Markets in London, in France, Germany, all falling by more than 4 percent. Gold and oil are also down big this morning.
COSTELLO: On other big story this morning.
The state of Georgia executing death row inmate Troy Davis under a cloud of doubt. Davis was convicted of shooting and killing off-duty Savannah Police Officer Mark MacPhail, a father of two. ROMANS: Witnesses who watched him get his lethal injection say he lifted up his head while he was strapped to the gurney to tell the victim's family, he didn't do it and he didn't have a gun.
Martin Savidge has more for us from Atlanta this morning.
So, to the very end, proclaiming his innocence, Martin.
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to both of you.
This was a case that went on for two decades and captured the attention of world leaders, celebrities and at least a million people who supported Troy Davis and also focused attention on the issue of the death penalty in the way that we have not seen in this country in a long time.
What stood out, though, in the minds of some, but not all, in this case, was a growing question of doubt, as to whether Troy Davis really was the man who fired the shots that killed off-duty Police Officer Mark MacPhail in Savannah, Georgia, in 1989.
Since his conviction 20 year ago, those who wanted clemency for Davis say seven of his nine original accusers have recanted their testimony over the years. The prosecutors say, look, this case was properly tried and went through all of the extraordinary number of legal reviews it should have and even more and it had gone before the U.S. Supreme Court three times. And it was back there again last night, raising the hopes of his supporters that Davis's death might be prevented.
Davis had been scheduled to be executed at 7:00 Eastern, but that time came and went as the high court was considering the case. That drama dragged on for four hours, but the high court eventually denied the appeal, the last-ditch effort to stop him, his sentence that is, from being carried out. Davis was pronounced dead at 11:08 by lethal injection. And witnesses say that he maintains his innocence right up to the moment he died.
Afterwards, Anneliese MacPhail, the slain police officer's mother, said that she had been speaking to her dead son while she waited.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNELIESE MACPHAIL, MOTHER OF MURDERED POLICEMAN: I have been talking to him all evening. I tell you that. I said, please, honey, let it be over soon. And I talked to my husband, too, because I know they're both sitting up there together.
I said, please, let it be over soon. Please, let us have some peace. And I can hear them say, mom, don't worry about it. Everything will be fine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Meanwhile, one of Davis' attorneys who watched him die at the state prison in Jackson afterwards referred to the death penalty as bigoted because most of the people on death row are black.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THOMAS RUFFIN, TROY DAVIS' DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I witnessed something that was horrible, a tragedy. This night, the state of Georgia legally lynched a brave, a good and, indeed, an innocent man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAVIDGE: Outside the Supreme Court, a number of Davis supporters had gathered after his execution. The crowd shouted no justice, no peace. Meanwhile, outside the prison in Jackson where he was executed, more than 100 officers, many in riot gears, stood guard over a largely quiet gathering which featured candles, occasional prayers and songs. It was a night of many, many emotions -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Martin Savidge, reporting live from Atlanta, thanks.
It's the first stop on their long road home. Americans Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer arriving in Oman for a joyous reunion with their families after being freed from an Iranian prison. The hikers spent more than two years behind bars in Iran, accused of trespassing and spying. The government of Oman posted $1 million bail on their behalf.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSH FATTAL, HIKER FREED FROM IRANIAN PRISON: We're so happy we are free and so relieved we are free.
SHANE BAUER, HIKER FREED FRFOM IRANIAN PRISON: Two years in prison is too long. And we sincerely hope for the freedom of other political prisoners and other unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: The moment was extra special for Shane Bauer. He got to celebrate freedom with his fiancee, Sarah Shourd. She was the third hiker captured, along with Bauer and Fattal, back in 2009. Shourd was released last year because of health issues. Still no word when all of them will return to the United States.
ROMANS: All right. Two things are predictable at the United Nations today. Four hours from now, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will address the U.N. General Assembly and thousands of Iranian Americans will be outside protesting.
What's not predictable is what he exactly plans to say.
CNN's senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth is with us this morning.
What can we expect?
RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Don't ask me. I mean, he is very unpredictable, though, I will tell you that over the last few years at the U.N., there's a lot of soaring rhetoric and a lot of dialogues and mentions of God and religion, and it's really hard to breakthrough. But he has made a lot of remarks over the years that have offended others and people have walked out in the United Nations chamber last year, several countries, when he makes a 9/11 hoax link, when he denounces the homosexuality else where, in New York appearances.
So, he is probably going to maybe mention the freedom of two American hikers, perhaps, but he will also defend Iran and say likely that the Security Council is oppressing his country, four rounds of sanctions because of the nuclear program, nothing proven yet and nothing revealed by Iran.
COSTELLO: OK. I'm supposed to ask you this question. So, what is Ahmadinejad doing at night?
ROTH: Well, last night, he met with U.S. college students from various universities around New York, and it was a free flowing exchange. We had someone from CNN there, no cameras allowed, and they discussed this nuclear situation and his political situation, whether he would run in two years, again. And some questions that he may not receive back home that often.
So, these college students, of course, were happy to be in the presence of someone like that. I don't know how familiar they are with the other issues.
He also, as you have talked on your program, earlier gave an interview with "New York Times" the killing of the woman in the street there, that killing was a staged scene and she was killed later. He's still in a different kind of world from what many believe is reality.
ROMANS: There's a photo that is getting a little bit of buzz this morning. A not PhotoShopped picture of the president.
ROTH: The president of the United States.
ROMANS: Yes. That's right. Two very different presidents.
ROTH: Yes, the U.N. General Assembly. There's always the class picture taken and in one photo the U.S. president, Mr. Obama, was waving to someone and he blocks the president of Mongolia. And --
ROMANS: An international incident did not ensue.
ROTH: The photographers are taking so many stills, so you're going to get this. I'm sure in your life you had an embarrassing photo. I don't think it was an example of the U.S. world domination there, which many people accused happens at the U.N. But I'm sure diplomatic niceties were exchanged.
COSTELLO: He was waving to someone, President Obama, right?
ROTH: Mongolia -- yes, he was waving I think at an onlooker or someone.
Mongolia had a very colorful outfit when the president -- that president spoke to the general assembly, which also makes a cute picture for your home photo gallery.
ROMANS: Oh, lovely. OK. I'll check your scrapbook, your 2011 general assembly scrapbook later on.
ROTH: I'm still using an old still camera that I have to go develop at a photo mat. I don't have any still pictures from the last 20 years.
COSTELLO: You got to catch up, Richard. Richard Roth, thank you.
The Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas addresses the United Nations tomorrow, that's when he is expected to formally request statehood for his people. President Obama vowing to veto that request, insisting the only path to Palestinian statehood is through direct talks with Israel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am convinced that there is no short cut to the end of a conflict that has endured for decades. Peace is hard work. Peace will not come through statements and resolutions at the United Nations. If it were that easy, it would have been accomplished by now. Ultimately, it's the Israelis and the Palestinians who must live side by side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Joining us now to talk more about the statehood issue and the statehood show down, I should say, is Hanan Ashrawi, an executive committee member with the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
Welcome.
HANAN ASHRAWI, EXEC. CMTE. MEMBER, PALESTINIAN LIBERATION ORG.: Thank you, Carol. Good morning to you.
COSTELLO: Good morning. I guess the plan is now, for Mahmoud Abbas, is to submit this application for statehood, but not push it for a vote, because there isn't enough support within the Security Council. Is that going to satisfy the Palestinian people? Is it going to accomplish anything?
ASHRAWI: Not really. What we're doing is submitting our application for full membership to the Security Council. Not statehood.
We have the right to self-determination. We declared the state in 1988. Our relations are upgraded with many countries and with the U.N. We have over 127 countries that recognize us as a state.
What we're asking for is admission into the U.N. as a full member.
Now, we do not want any delays or procrastinations in the deliberations on our membership. We know the U.S. has been working overtime and has spent so much energy and effort trying to pressure different countries and persuade them not to vote in our favor. I wish they had spent that much energy in peace making. But, anyway, we still hope that we will have a majority. We are working ourselves, because there are many countries that understand the need to -- for justice to be seen and for the U.N. to respect its chartered and regulation, particularly the right to self- determination. And, of course, for this --
COSTELLO: During this -- I'm sorry, I'd just like to interrupt --
(CROSSTALK)
ASHRAWI: -- year long occupation to come to an end. Yes, sorry.
COSTELLO: And the president has said in the past, he is for Palestinian statehood. So, his remarks yesterday were a disappointment to Mahmoud Abbas. In fact, we have a picture of Mahmoud Abbas during President Obama's remarks. He was holding his head in his hands.
What do you think was going through his mind?
ASHRAWI: Well, I did talk to him after. We were on the same delegation and we were consulting regularly. It seems to me that it's one thing to pay lip service to statehood and another to give Israel time and space to act unilaterally and illegally, to steal the land, to build settlements to annex Jerusalem, to build the wall, to place us under siege, to erect hundreds of checkpoints and say, OK, you can have a state.
Where is the state? We have been negotiating for 20 years and Israel has almost swallowed up 40 percent of our state. So, how can it be viable?
That's why I think President Abbas is feeling that we need the Palestinian narrative and we need the whole picture. It's not a question of just electioneering and it's not just the question of saying what it does or is above the law or has a sense of entitlement and exceptionalism.
The Palestinians feel that they've been excluded from legal and human consideration, and understand that we are included, even in the speech on suffering. Even on the speech on the two states.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: If I may interrupt, let me ask you this question. The French president suggested yesterday. The French president suggested this move to nonmember observe status as the first step to statehood and then, there would be new negotiations with a one-year deadline for some kind of resolution.
So why not consider the French president's suggestion?
ASHRAWI: We found it extremely interesting, yes. We did meet with President Sarkozy and we said we would view it positively and give it positive consideration. But this is something that the Palestinian leadership has to consider, discuss and resolve upon. The thing is that already all the perimeters, even the agenda, everything is in place. All we need is for Israel to comply with cessation of settlement activities, accept the '67 boundaries, and the terms of reference, and the binding timeline, and then you can negotiate quickly because we don't need to reinvent the wheel. We were very close to an agreement.
And I think the French are coming up with all sorts of creative ideas, including timeline and concrete steps which will we consider, as I said. But hopefully, the international committee and the U.S. in particular can bring Israel to compliance. We cannot change the rules of the game every time there is a new Israeli government, particularly this extremist government that just wants to annex more land and keep up the semblance of talks without substance and without a relationship to reality.
Twenty years of talks have brought us to the edge of the abyss. We are really on the edge of losing the two-state solution. So, we need talks that have substance and can change the dynamic and can produce results very quickly before it's too late.
It's our bid for peace. It's our bid not just to change the dynamic, but to rescue the chances of peace from this unbridled unilateral illegal act.
COSTELLO: Thank you so much for joining us this morning. We appreciate it.
We had the Israeli defense deputy minister on this morning. He said that Israel is open to negotiations with the Palestinians, but there are no plans to actually sit down, you know, at a table and look across the aisle at each other and actually talk.
ROMANS: And there we go. There we are.
COSTELLO: Yes.
ROMANS: All right. Still ahead: tropical storm Ophelia strengthening in the Atlantic. Plus, parts of the East Coast already saturated by Irene and Lee. Well, these areas in store for some seriously heavy rain, again. Rob is going to track it all for us.
COSTELLO: And who are the top 10 CNN heroes of 2011? Anderson Cooper reveals them when we come back.
It's 14 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Good morning, Atlanta. Cloudy, 69 right now. Thunderstorms, 78 later on today.
COSTELLO: Yes. Going to rain all over the place today, isn't it?
They were alternative before alternative was cool. Now, after 30 years, R.E.M. says they're calling it quits. The band says they're walking away as great friends. They came out to Athens, Georgia back in 1980 and has released 15 studio albums.
ROMANS: And to quote Brian Bell, "college is now really over."
COSTELLO: Brian Bell, our fantastic senior producer.
(LAUGHTER)
ROMANS: Rob Marciano is in the Extreme Weather Center. Hey, Rob.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning. Yes. They're morning, certainly, at the University of Georgia, one of the manys that played big. The Georgia (INAUDIBLE) in 2009, but they built it back better than ever, and it's not the end of the world, but they'll be missed in their current form.
All right. We have rainfall across, yes, Athens to Atlanta this morning, but it's mostly scattered. It's all this with very, very slow-moving front that's actually going to hit the brakes real good and stall out. And we got rainfall across parts of the northeast, as well. And this is going to be the pattern here for the next couple days, really right through the weekend.
This is the forecast for the next 48 hours. It does bring anywhere from one to two inches of rainfall from Philadelphia up through Scranton and towards Hawkesbury (ph) and through parts of Jersey. So, areas that are already saturated. So, flood watches have been posted through this area through Saturday and with the ongoing pattern through the weekend, we may see more watches posted as we go across the northeast.
So, here's your front. Really an upper level system that will stall things out and continue to pump up moisture across the east coast and then back across the Upper Midwest, cool and relatively dry. And this front will help interact with Ophelia a little bit and help nudge it out to sea. That's the good news with fall.
We get these fall fronts that help protect the U.S. coastline from these tropical systems. Ophelia, actually, against all odds, is almost a hurricane. We don't think it will get much stronger than that. If it does become, the National Hurricane Center brings it to just tropical storm force or keeps it there, and eventually, I think this will be nudged out to sea. So, guys, good news there. Guys, back up to you.
ROMANS: All right. Thanks, Rob.
MARCIANO: You bet.
COSTELLO: Thank you, Rob.
Now is your chance to talk back on one of the big stories of the day. The question for you this morning, should patriotism be a political tool? I ask you this because of Texas governor, Rick Perry's, new web ad. It's compelling. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No more manufactured crises. No more games. We are headed in the right direction. I love these folks who say(INAUDIBLE). That's fine. Give it to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zero jobs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No jobs created.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Zip, zero.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People are demoralized.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What had happened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Zero new jobs.
OBAMA: Change has come to America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So, you get it. President Obama's hopey changey thing is destroying America, but at about one minute into this ad, it's all about patriotism right when Rick Perry says, we don't need a president who apologizes for America. The ad emphatically states Rick Perry is an American.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. RICK PERRY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The United States of America really is the last great hope of mankind. It's time to get America working, again. We don't need a president to apologize for America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: It's a tactic that's proved quite effective. Remember the infamous swift boat ads by pro-Bush group questioning Vietnam veteran, John Kerry's heroism?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Crimes committed on a day-to-day basis.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He betrayed us in the past. How could we be loyal to him now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just honor his country and what more important than the people he served. He just sold them out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: President Bush, eventually, denounced the ad, but the damage was done. Kerry lost the election. Patriotism has worked for Democrats, too. During the 2008 campaign, vice presidential candidate, Joe Biden, said wealthy Americans should pay more taxes because it's time to be patriotic. Now, that sounds familiar.
So, the talk back question this morning, should patriotism be a political tool? Facebook.com/americanmorning. Facebook.com/americanmorning. I'll read your responses later this hour.
ROMANS: I'm always so amazed at what they can do with sound and pictures and how dramatic they can make just a few minutes, a few seconds of television sound.
COSTELLO: It's like a movie trailer.
ROMANS: Right. Right.
COSTELLO: Remember the Tim Pawlenty ad? Well, the same people who made -- who produced that ad produced this one, and it's really compelling to watch.
ROMANS: All right. We've introduced you to an extraordinary person every week. And now, we're revealing our top ten CNN Heroes of 2011. Here's Anderson Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Anderson Cooper. All year, we've been introducing you to everyday people who are changing the world. We call them CNN Heroes. Well, today, we announce the top ten CNN Heroes for 2011.
The honorees are in alphabetical order by first name. Amy Stokes. She uses the internet to max teens lacking role models with adults around the world. Bruno Serato is serving up a solution so no kids don't go to bed hungry. Derreck Kayongo collects discarded hotel soaps and reprocesses them to save lives. Diane Latiker, in a violent neighborhood, she opened her door inviting gang members in.
Eddie Canales helps young football players sidelined by spinal cord injuries. Elena Duron Miranda offers poor children a way out of the trash dump and into school. Patrice Millet diagnosed with incurable cancer, started feeding and coaching children from Haiti's slums. Robin Lim helps poor women have healthy pregnancies and safe deliveries.
Sal Dimiceli pays for rent, food, and basic necessities to keep the working poor afloat. And Tyrone Davis (ph) who built the Sister of Healing for a new generation of American war widows.
Congratulations. The top ten CNN Heroes of 2011. Which one inspires you the most? Go to cnnheroes.com online or on your mobile device, vote for CNN Hero of the Year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Can't wait for that.
Up next, a check of the morning's markets. Wow. You've got some big losses overseas and Dow futures down about 200 points right now. It's 24 minutes after the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROMANS: Welcome back. It's 27 minutes past the hour. "Minding Your Business" this morning.
Right now, stocks are falling sharply around the world, so is gold and oil. The fed said the U.S. economy is facing significant downside risks. Those were the fed's words. That's when it announced another stimulus measure to boost the economy yesterday. Right now, U.S. stock futures are trading sharply lower ahead of the opening bell.
In a few minutes, we'll have the latest read on just how many people are collecting jobless benefits. The labor department's initial jobless claims report will tell us how many people filed for new benefits last week. We'll get those numbers to you as soon as they're available.
New developments overnight in the case against the alleged rogue trader at UBS. British courts ordered him to stay in a London prison until October 20th and added a new charge of fraud and abuse of position. He's accused of unauthorized trading amounting to more than $2 billion in losses for that Swiss bank.
Forbes and its annual list of the richest Americans, Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, tops the list for the 18th year in a row. His fortune, $59 billion. Berkshire Hathaway's CEO, Warren Buffett, is number two. He's got $39 billion and Larry Ellison, the Oracle founder. Oracle CEO, rather, is the number three spot there.
This year, every member of the top 20 gained well with the exception of Buffett down $6 billion. The largest dollar loss of them all.
The year's biggest dollar gainer is Facebook creator, Mark Zuckerberg, number 14 on the list. He's worth almost $18 billion. He made about $11 billion last year alone.
So, what's next at Facebook, by the way? Well, today, we'll find out. Zuckerberg will speak at the company's annual F8 conference in San Francisco this afternoon. Subscribers, they bracing for even more changes to the site. This after some recent tweaks met some resistance, like changes to the site's news feed feature.
Up next, what's the hungriest you've ever been? For many Americans, a daily misery with grocery store shelves seemingly stock. Why are so many Americans going hungry? Our CNN in-depth report is getting answers next. AMERICAN MORNING back right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: It's 33 minutes past the hour. This just in to CNN. The stars and stripes rising again over Libya. Just this hour the American flag was raised over the U.S. embassy, the brand-new U.S. embassy in Tripoli, which opened for the first time in the post- Gadhafi era. The American ambassador had returned to Tripoli yesterday. There you hear the "Star Spangled Banner" playing as the flag is raised over that U.S. embassy.
ROMANS: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad takes the stage this afternoon to address the U.N. general assembly in New York. Police preparing for thousands of Iranian-American protesters to demonstrate outside. President Obama has been threatening to isolate and punish Iran for operating outside international law with this nuclear program.
COSTELLO: America's Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer enjoying their first full day of freedom after two years in an Iranian prison. They were reunited with loved ones in the Persian Gulf state of Oman, which put up the $1 million bail to secure their release.
ROMANS: A special in depth look now at the new face of poverty in America. Our focus this morning, a group of low-income mothers in Pennsylvania who find themselves witnesses to hunger. Deb Feyerick is here. The desperations these women deal with every day is hard to comprehend.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's the whole thing. If you never experienced hunger, it's very easy to dismiss hunger. That's one reason why they're taking all these pictures. It's really the uncertainty for these women not knowing if they're going to have enough food until the end of the week, wondering if you bought the right kind of items, the kind of items that will fill up your kids. Persistent hunger is really like a low-grade fever that you just can't shake.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIANNA GAINES, WITNESS TO HUNGER: God is good, god is great and we thank you for our food. Amen.
FEYERICK: If you want to look at what hunger looks like, look at it through the eyes of Teana Gaines and her young family.
(on camera) Do you know pretty much what time of the month the food is going to go on clearance?
GAINES: I know the time of day it goes on clearance. I have some fresh vegetables down here.
FEYERICK (voice-over): She buys on sale, in bulk and with coupons and always with purpose.
GAINES: I keep a lot of oatmeal because if things get tough, you can always eat oatmeal for dinner or lunch or something like that.
FEYERICK: Gaines, who works two jobs, is among the nearly 49 million Americans struggling to put enough food on the table.
GAINES: Do you know how that feels as a parent to tell your kids that there's not enough to eat?
FEYERICK: What is the hungriest you've ever been in your life and how do you describe that?
GAINES: Horrible, degrading, miserable, stressful, disrespected.
FEYERICK: The scientific term for hunger is food insecurity. And since the U.S. department of agriculture began keeping track in the mid-1990s, it has now reached an all-time high.
MARIANA CHILTON, DREXEL UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: When someone is food insecure, you're getting the worry and anxiety of not being able to afford enough food. You may have enough food for the day, but you're worried about tomorrow or next week.
FEYERICK: Mariana Chilton created the project, Witness to Hunger. Gaines is one of more than 40 women who photograph their struggles, hoping to expose hunger and poverty. There's also Jean Culver, a single mother of two young boys from Pennsylvania.
(On camera) Are your boys aware that you might not be eating because you want to make sure they're fed?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're not aware of that. But they get the fact that mommy doesn't have enough money to get them what they want.
FEYERICK (voice-over): She snaps this photo at the end of the month.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was all I had, and so many things that need to be done with that change. And it's just overbearing. I couldn't -- it's hard to handle. It's really hard to handle.
FEYERICK: This picture of a dilapidated kitchen was taken by 24-year- old Barbara Esparto (ph) a mother of two.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I took the picture because I wanted to prove that regardless of what you see on the outside you never really know what's going on behind closed doors.
FEYERICK: Even families receiving the maximum amount of food stamps will need about $206 more a month to buy the minimum amount of food as defined by the USDA. Esparto (ph), like the others, never thought she'd have to choose between paying bills or buying food.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For a long time I felt like food was a privilege. I've been to the point where it's like, oh, my gosh, I ate today. That's great. And no one should feel like that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: You know, one of our producers is taking a food stamp challenge, basically trying to live for a week off $30. She says she has never been so hungry in her whole life. She simply thinks, OK, what am I going to eat? How am I going to make this last? So it's a sense when you don't have enough, then what you do have becomes very precious. And that's what she's experiencing. That's what these women have gone through. This is what others who are on food stamps for the first time trying to figure out. OK, how do I make ends meet?
Even the fact these women have jobs, except for one who is on disability who injured herself, she's having an operation, even these women who have jobs, they say the problem is, once you have a job, your payment, your food stamp payments go down. So you're not saving any money by having a job. Now, you're still making ends meet, but in a different way. So it's an interesting dynamic.
COSTELLO: It's supposed to be supplemental nutrition. It's not supposed to be your only form of food. The government, this is the biggest economy in the world, right? They're using it to supplement what you already have. So, you know, just living on food stamps, there are people who do it, but that is an extreme poverty situation.
FEYERICK: Absolutely. More and more people are learning what it is like to be in that situation. And since the recession, the number of people has doubled. It's very serious.
ROMANS: Thanks, Deb.
Just into CNN, some bad news but not unexpected for the labor market. The Labor Department announcing 423,000 unemployment claims were filed last week. People for the first time heading to the unemployment office, and it's worse than the economy expected.
Not a good sign for the economy. And, as I was telling you, carol, my sort of reporting anecdotal reporting from recruiters is something happened in the last 45 days that hiring activity has really stalled and there are more layoffs happening again.
COSTELLO: I have a few ideas as to why that might be.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: It's the same old thing, though. It's like, I mean, the government, the Congress still hasn't worked out its differences, right?
ROMANS: Uncertainty about the outlook for the U.S. both COSTELLO: economically and politically, people are just holding the line right now.
COSTELLO: Can you imagine a life -- that seems so bogus, but it's a fun story and we need to lift our spirits. So I'll ask you this question. Can you imagine a life without a map? Do you get hypnotized by maps during road trips? My husband actually does, he loves maps. So does someone else. He would be our favorite jeopardy champ Ken Jennings. He'll join us live. And we're going to geek out with him. It's 40 minutes past the hour.
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COSTELLO: And the answer is -- Ken Jennings, all-time "Jeopardy!" champion. He's the sharpest knife in the drawer. He has even written a book "What Else Brainiac." But he's also written another book, and it charts Jennings' love for maps and geography, something that began at an early age. It's called "Map Head, Charting, the Wide, Weird World Geography." Ken Jennings joins us now. Welcome.
KEN JENNINGS, AUTHOR, "MAPHEAD": Thanks for having me.
COSTELLO: You actually slept, when you were a child, you slept with a map.
JENNINGS: I saved up for months to get a world atlas and I slept with it at my head instead of a teddy bear.
ROMANS: Is it because you fell asleep reading it?
JENNINGS: Both. An atlas, you can pore over for hours.
COSTELLO: What about it fascinates you? What is it that grips you about these things?
JENNINGS: It's liking to know where we are and where everything else is. Especially for a kid, that's authority. That's like knowledge of the world. Imagine one person who is lost and one person who's not.
ROMANS: This is why I hate GPS. GPS, I need to know where I am. I need to know that this interstate lies above this set of county roads. I need to know that and I can only see that on the map.
JENNINGS: I feel GPS is making us dumber. People will drive into rivers and railroad tracks.
COSTELLO: In defense of those who love GPS, I believe some people are born without an internal compass. Even when I look at a map, although it's fascinating, I will admit, I can't then, in my brain, translate that to the outside world. I kind of need help from that GPS, sadly.
JENNINGS: My -- my wife is like that. Like, typically our navigation plan is if we don't have the GPS on its -- I'll I ask her which way she thinks we should turn and then I'll turn the other way. Because she's like a 100 percent wrong -- it's the most amazing thing I've ever seen.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: That's very funny.
JENNINGS: But there's actually evidence in the book that people can get better. Even if you think you don't have a good sense of direction.
ROMANS: How?
JENNINGS: Any kind of special practice will do it. Like, my wife and I went to D.C. and we spent an hour before the trip like looking at maps of the National Mall and stuff and doing little practices like --
ROMANS: Right.
JENNINGS: -- like rocky montage. And when we got there, she could totally do it.
COSTELLO: Oh my husband does that and I become so angry at him. I can't explain the anger.
Anyway, seriously though, geography doesn't appear to be --
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: A strong talent.
COSTELLO: -- that many kids have, right? Because I'm just going to read these -- these percentages here. The majority of Americans are not, according to the 2006 National Geographic Survey of young adults, 33 percent can't locate Louisiana, 48 percent can't locate Mississippi, 63 percent can't locate Iraq.
So why are we, as a nation, so geographically illiterate?
JENNINGS: I think there's a couple of things. One is that we stopped teaching geography in our schools like over 30 years ago. We replaced it with social studies. And now you can -- you can get a master's degree in America without ever taking a geography class which is sort of weird.
The other thing, I think is that we're not letting our kids explore enough. You know we're -- we -- we shelter our kids so much now. They don't get to explore territories and try to get a sense of where they are because, you know, we naturally want to keep an eye on them. But I think it would be good if we let them explore.
ROMANS: Some of that is just memorization, you know. I mean, quite frankly, I mean a kid could still go on to get a patent and be a great innovator and not be able to know exactly which one is Louisiana.
But I get the point, that there are basic skills that we should be teaching kids and we're -- we're simply not.
JENNINGS: I mean think about the 66 percent of kids not knowing where Iraq is. I mean, we are expecting these kids to grow up to be informed voters and like -- two-thirds of them don't know where Iraq is. So how are we going to do the right thing there, you know.
COSTELLO: And it's -- it's totally important to know geographically where Iraq is.
JENNINGS: Yes, I mean.
COSTELLO: And that's really important to know.
JENNINGS: It's going to affect other stuff, I think yes.
COSTELLO: Yes, exactly, as far as its place in the world and where it's located.
So -- so give us a few tips on how to make kids more enthusiastic about geography? JENNINGS: I don't know. Like I was sort of born in the tank for maps. My kids it's sort of an uphill battle, but -- but the thing is, maps are so cool. Often if they see maps it's a pretty easy sell. You know, you know 15th century maps, you know, where you can see the boats and the sea serpents and California is still drawn as an island.
I mean I think that's sort of romantic and cool for kids. Letting them draw their own maps, I think. My -- my son draws maps of all his Lego bases and solar systems and stuff.
ROMANS: And let them operate the GPS while you're driving.
JENNINGS: My kids call the -- they call the GPS by its name. They call it Daniel. They're like, is Daniel coming? Oh and things like Google Earth. I mean, these are things that make --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: That's fun.
JENNINGS: -- maps sexy for the -- first time in the 100 years I think you can -- see real time traffic.
COSTELLO: Yes, I've never heard that, maps, sexy, sexy --
ROMANS: It's Ken Jennings, what can I say?
JENNINGS: Not too sexy.
ROMANS: There you go, Ken Jennings author of "Map Head." By the way, he won 74 games and more than $2.5 million on "Jeopardy." So he knows of what he speaks.
COSTELLO: Yes and it's a great book. Thank you so much.
JENNINGS: Thank you for having me.
ROMANS: Its 48 minutes after the hour.
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COSTELLO: Well, that looks pretty. Good morning, New York. It's kind of foggy right now and 70 degrees. And of course, it's going to rain later. So enjoy it while you can. We're expecting a high of 74 degrees.
ROMANS: All right, welcome back. And as you listen to your Dave Matthews, look out below. A defunct research satellite hurdling back to earth and NASA says more than two dozen pieces of the junk will survive re-entry but NASA now says, it won't be free falling over North America, at least.
CNN's John Zarrella live in Miami. So when and where this morning -- John?
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, NASA says the when is some time tomorrow afternoon U.S. time but even if you take North America out of the equation, that still leaves five other continents where parts of this satellite might fall, but NASA still says the likelihood is very remote.
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ZARRELLA (voice-over): The clock is ticking. Sometime after midnight tonight, if NASA's calculations are right, an old, dead satellite will re-enter the earth's atmosphere and burn up -- most of it, but not all of it. About half a ton will make it through.
MARK MATNEY, NASA ORBITAL DEBRIS SCIENTIST: There are some pieces that are made of stainless steel and titanium and beryllium that have very high melting temperatures and those pieces will survive. And we -- we have a list of about 26 pieces and they range from a few tens of pounds to a few hundred pounds in size.
ZARRELLA: You heard him right. Some of the chunks of junk could be hundreds of pounds. But there's no need for you to run out and buy a hard hat. NASA scientists in Houston say there's very little risk that any of the debris from the six ton UARS, Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite will hit you.
JONATHON MCDOWELL, HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN CENTER FOR ASTROPHYSICS: You can be hundreds of miles off in where it's coming down and that's --
ZARRELLA: Harvard University astrophysicist, Jonathon McDowell, believes the space agency is probably right because much of the earth is water.
MCDOWELL: This is not like the old Sky Lab scare of the '70s when you had a 70-ton space station crashing out of the sky. This thing is only six or seven tons. So I -- I agree with the -- the folks in Houston, it's -- it's really nothing to be terribly concerned about.
ZARRELLA: Parts of Sky Lab did hit western Australia in 1979. So where will this one come down? Well, no one knows. Even minutes before re-entering the atmosphere, NASA won't be able to pinpoint the exact location. The satellite is traveling so fast, it covers thousands of miles of space in just minutes. Right now, the impact swath covers portions of six continents.
MATNEY: Part of the problem is the space craft itself is tumbling in unpredictable ways and -- and -- and it is very difficult to very precisely pinpoint where it is coming down, even right before the re- entry.
MCDOWELL: If the thing happens to come down in a city that would be bad. The chances of it causing expensive damage or actually injuring someone are much higher.
ZARRELLA: One thing is certain. Once it hits the atmosphere 50 miles up, it will take only a few minutes before the surviving pieces hit the earth.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: Now, NASA says there's a 1 in 3,200 chance a piece will hit someone on the earth, but to hit you, it would be one in trillions. But I'm still not taking any chances. And we did talk about that hard hat.
ROMANS: There you go.
ZARRELLA: I got it. I'm ready.
COSTELLO: Did you go out and buy that?
ZARRELLA: I'm not saying.
ROMANS: John travels with a hard hat. You never know what's going to happen when he's in town.
ZARRELLA: It's for hurricane coverage.
COSTELLO: Thanks, John.
Coming up next, we asked you to "Talk Back" and you certainly did. The question this morning, "Should patriotism be a political tool?" We'll read your responses.
It's six minutes until the top of the hour.
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ROMANS: All right. Washington, D.C. cloudy, 70 degrees, thunderstorms maybe 80 later today. Bracing for rain. Bracing for rain all over the country here.
COSTELLO: Well, all over the eastern half of the country, at least.
We asked you to "Talk Back" and I have some of your responses in my hand. The question this morning, "Should patriotism be used as a political tool?"
This from Brenda, "Yes. For most Americans it's very important that their president who represents them throughout the world has a strong love for his country and puts our needs above all else."
This from Rob, "I don't think patriotism will reduce our deficit or balance our budget. I don't believe that patriotism will reduce my taxes or create millions of jobs or stop outsourcing. So no, patriotism should not be used as a political tool since it really doesn't help the problems we face."
And this from Fran, "Sure, why not? As long as we the people, are willing to be swayed by style rather than substance. Why shouldn't a politician pander to that? It's easier than taking a position on which they might have to deliver results."
Keep the conversation going, facebook.com/carolcnn and thanks as always for your comments. ROMANS: It's so interesting how, especially politics bills, you know, patriotism in politics bills as you get closer to the election. You mentioned the new Rick Perry ad, the web ad that shows so much of the imagery, the music, the sounds. Patriotism sells. It really does.
COSTELLO: Absolutely. You see a lot of American flags. And remember during the 2008, that was the flap over the flag pins.
ROMANS: That's right.
COSTELLO: Like Obama wasn't wearing a flag pin, which meant he was not patriotic and everybody else was wearing a flag pin.
ROMANS: All imagery. It becomes all imagery and that's kind of a sad thing, too.
COSTELLO: On the other hand, the love of America -- love of your country is important to many Americans and they want to see that reflected in their candidates.
ROMANS: I assume that's the common denominator. I assume by the time you're running for president or any kind of elected office, you love your country, but maybe I'm just a Pollyanna.
COSTELLO: You're naive.
ROMANS: That's going to wrap it for us today. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Kyra Phillips starts next.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": Thanks so much, ladies.
