Return to Transcripts main page

Rick's List

Smuggled Uranium Seized; State of U.S. Housing Market?; Shirley Sherrod Turns Down New Job Offers at Agriculture Department; Assaulted and Burned teen Returns to School; Expensive Public School Opens in Los Angeles To Criticisms; Egg Recall Affecting Restaurants

Aired August 24, 2010 - 14:59   ET

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

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Ali. Thanks so much for being with us.

One of the big stories that we're going to be following today -- and I just want to bring it to your attention, we're going to amplify this story much more later -- is this story that is coming out of Moldova. Have you heard of this? Apparently, there's as many as five people who have been arrested. Here's the news, they had on them four pounds of uranium.

Well, obviously you start thinking, uranium? Yes, the type of uranium that you could possibly use to make, as you've heard in the past, not an atomic bomb but a dirty bomb, which is very different but nonetheless can do a lot of damage.

This is important, and I'm going to be taking you through this as we get more information. CNN, as you might imagine, has correspondents around the world and they're going to bring you the latest information on this story during this newscast.

But topping the LIST right now, if you're trying to sell your house, all I can say is, best of luck to you. Have you seen the latest numbers on used home sales these days? Here, let's put that up for you. Take a look at this.

Fewer than four million homes have changed hands last month. And here's the part that's significant. That's a 27 percent drop, more than a quarter, 27 percent drop from June. That's big, all right? It's big enough for us to want to lead this newscast with it and bring it to your attention.

Some very smart people out there who follow the market more closely than most of us do are saying this means that home prices can fall again. And they have already fallen several times. It could obviously threaten the economic recovery. That's important.

Let's bring Ali Velshi in. He's been following this for us and he wants to put it in perspective for us.

So, go ahead, because when you look at this, you can't help but get a little frightened.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: So, sometimes when somebody says it's fallen 27 percent from the month before, my perspective is to say yes, but compare it to a year earlier, the same month a year earlier. In this case, it's fallen 25 and change percent from a year ago June.

So, this is a problem all across the board. Home sales have fallen across the country largely because that $8,000 first-time homebuyer's tax credit ended at the end of April. So, it made a lot of people buy a home. That's usual, right? You give somebody a coupon, they will buy something.

SANCHEZ: Right.

VELSHI: Here's the worrisome part. The $8,000 is gone. Home prices are very low and interest rates are as low as they have been since anybody can remember.

So, if this isn't causing you to buy a home, that means we have got a bit of a problem in society. Why would you not buy a home today if they're basically throwing the money at you? Why? Because you're worried about your job. You're worried about getting saddled with this big debt if something's going to be going wrong a year from now.

So, this ongoing psyche of fear about the economy.

SANCHEZ: Yes, that's the thing. My wife and I have been talking about this. Maybe it's a good time -- there's a lot of pent-up supply up there, as opposed to pent-up demand.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: That's right.

SANCHEZ: It's actually -- if you have got a little bit of money or if you have got some pretty good credit, if you think it's a right for you, it's a hell of a great time to guy out there and buy.

VELSHI: That's the camp I fall into.

SANCHEZ: You're buying at the bottom of the market.

VELSHI: Right. You absolutely are. But again a deal isn't a deal if you don't think you're going to be able to pay for it. So the reality is if you think it's a buy that means you and I hope or think we will be in our jobs a year from now, five, or some job.

If you are so worried about that, when you have got this 9.5 percent stubborn unemployment, you know somebody who is unemployed, you know people who lose jobs and you're still worried about this. Now, that's not it. Look at the rest of the economy. What are the three things that make you feel prosperous? Your home going up, your wage going up, which doesn't happen in this economy, and the value of your retirement investment going up. And that's the stock market.

All of those things in the last couple months have been having problems. And that together taken as a whole makes people nervous about this economy. And that's where that fear of that double dip starts to play in.

SANCHEZ: But there's another part of this too that is just common sense. This is possibly as well and let me use an old term that you guys used to banter about, you economist -- this is part of the aftermath of the exuberance.

There were people, Ali, and you know this. You have friends who did this, probably. I got plenty of them. There are people out there who got so excited about buying homes, they used what they thought was the equity on their first home to buy a second home. Then they used what they thought was the equity on that second home to buy a third home and a fourth home. It was just crazy.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: They were spending way too much money on part of an inventory that was exaggeratedly high. And you know what? We have got to pay for that now. That's just -- for every up, you have to have a down, man.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: And, remember, for all this bad news, and I don't know what the next few months will hold -- but, for all this bad news, home prices, existing home prices, which is most of the homes that get sold in America, prices are actually up a little bit compared to last year, less than a percent.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: I saw that, yes.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: But they're actually up.

So, the sky is not falling, Rick, but it is one data point after another that suggests to us this economic recovery is not full steam ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Here it is from your peeps, CNN Money. Ready? The NRA report -- NAR --

VELSHI: National Association of Realtors.

SANCHEZ: Thank you.

The National Association of Realtors report showed that the medium price of homes -- and this is what you just alluded to -- in July was $182,000.

VELSHI: Right.

SANCHEZ: The median price of a home, $182,000. That's up 7 percent from a year ago.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Well, 0.7 percent.

SANCHEZ: Seven-tenths.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Well, either way.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: It's the right direction. It's not down, right.

SANCHEZ: People are paying more right now for a home than they were.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: Mortgages are cheap. So, we worry about the up-front costs and things like that. But, remember, the mortgage is the biggest part of your home expense.

If you take a mortgage for 15 or 30 years, that's much more important than the price. And mortgage are very, very -- you can get a mortgage on a 30-year --

SANCHEZ: Four-point-two.

VELSHI: -- for 4.4 and change.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: Yes. Yes, we just did.

VELSHI: Yes. There you go. You see?

SANCHEZ: Thanks.

VELSHI: It's how you feel about it, right? You're feeling the world's not coming apart. If you feel the world is coming apart, you're not making a big purchase.

(CROSSTALK)

SANCHEZ: So, it really comes down to a question of how many people are out there who feel which way?

VELSHI: That's exactly right.

SANCHEZ: Perception is a real big part of the business and economy.

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: That's exactly -- exactly. And we're at the tipping point where it can go either way with perception. Again, I'm on the optimistic side, but I see the arguments from the pessimistic side.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Interesting conversation.

VELSHI: As always.

SANCHEZ: Thanks for giving us your perspective.

VELSHI: My pleasure.

SANCHEZ: An unbelievable car crash to show you now. You ready? A teen driver allegedly doing 100 miles an hour loses control of his car and it goes airborne. Watch this? You see this, Ali? It looks like the car kind of flips around in the air, which is maybe what saved him.

VELSHI: Wow.

SANCHEZ: We are going to show you the rest of this video and what happens to the driver. That's ahead on the LIST.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICARDO LAGOS, CHILEAN PRESIDENT (through translator): This was titanic task and we knew from day one because they were underground at 700 meters under heavy rock that is difficult to penetrate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: That is the president of Chile. I was carefully monitoring him last night, was going to have a chance to talk to him. But then we had all kinds of issues and we were not able to do it.

It's interesting what he says about these 33 miners that are right now trapped underground literally inches away from each other. No sunlight. How big is the room? I'm going to take you all through all of that. Supposedly they're going to be there until like Christmas? Will they survive? How will they survive? That's next.

This is your national conversation. We're going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Hey, welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.

Now to that developing story I told you about just a little while ago. We're all familiar with trafficking, right, drug trafficking, human trafficking. We report about it, talk about it all the time.

This story takes trafficking to a new and really a frightening level. This is a discovery of about four pounds of uranium. This is uranium 238. It's also the stuff you have heard before known as yellow cake. It's extremely radioactive, obviously. In fact listen to this. This is what happened when they found this stuff and then tested it.

You hear that right there? Those are authorities all but freaking out as they watch and see the alarms on their own registers or counters. Authorities say the uranium was stashed in a garage in Moldova. This is a country in Eastern Europe.

They have busted five people who allegedly had gotten their hands on this stuff and were trying to sell it. The price they put on it, $11 million.

Now, watch this, these people with four pounds of uranium. We will keep watching this. In fact, let's keep watching this, as we do this, these are the arrests once again.

Let me bring in my colleague Matthew Chance. He's following this story for us now.

Matthew, first question, obvious, who are these guys and how did they get their hands on four pounds of uranium?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Rick, according to the police in Moldova, they say that this is part of a criminal gang, including some former police officers who were involved in trying to sell this uranium, this radioactive material, for $11 million.

And so, they were obviously in it for the money. You can see the quantity is not very much. You could have held it in your hand, it's such a small amount of the substance. What we don't know at the moment is where they got it from or who they intended to sell it to. But it seems it some kind of sting operation by the Moldovan police that foiled this plot, Rick.

SANCHEZ: That's amazing to think of somebody who could get their hands on something like that, something that obviously I understand -- and I think the viewers do too -- we're not talking about enriched uranium here.

Nonetheless, it's the type of substance that you could, if it got into the wrong hands, it could be used to make a dirty bomb, for example, something we have talked about here, that could be disastrous, right?

CHANCE: Well, it's not clear.

In fact, this kind of uranium, uranium 238, as you say, is the most common, naturally occurring form of uranium. It's not a nice substance. It's not the kind of thing you want in your pocket. It's going to burn a hole in it. It's going to be extremely unhealthy for you.

But it's not necessarily the kind of material that you could -- well, it's certainly not the material that you could use to make a nuclear weapon. SANCHEZ: Of course not.

CHANCE: It's nowhere near enriched enough. It's not the right kind of material.

And it's not clear either whether if you put this into a dirty bomb, it would irradiate an area. It would just be like background radiation. But it's a pretty nasty substance and it's certainly of concern is what officials tell us and experts that this kind of stuff is being traded on the black market.

SANCHEZ: So that's interesting. It's hard to know. Look, I don't know. And I know neither one of us are experts. We're correspondents, we're reporters who work on this kind of thing. But folks have told you that four pounds of yellow cake, four pounds of uranium, I almost hear you saying, would not be enough to make a dirty bomb?

CHANCE: Yes, that's what they're saying.

It needs to be enriched to some extent to make a nuclear weapon. It needs to be a different kind of uranium isotope, uranium 235, for it to be radioactive enough that if it's exploded, it would contaminate a wide area.

This is naturally occurring stuff. You get it in the soil. You can dig it out with your hands. And one expert said that this kind of amount of uranium 238 is, in his words, trivial. You can hold it in your hand.

SANCHEZ: Interesting. Well, good reporting on that then, Matthew. We appreciate you giving us that information.

Actually, I think it makes us feel better now that we have heard that information as a result of getting the detail from the experts, as opposed to thinking, oh, my goodness, uranium, that's the kind of stuff that could blow up a whole neighborhood. My thanks to you. Let us know what else you find out. And we will keep checking back on this story.

Meanwhile, 33 miles stuck in a space the size of a hotel room for almost three weeks, now, that's bad enough, right? But what really makes this the talk of the international community is that they're going to be there for as long as four months. Now, think about that just for a minute.

Now, while you and I would be completely freaked out by that type of situation, the miners right now are so overjoyed to be in contact with the outside world, they don't seem to be showing unusual amounts of stress.

Last night, these exhausted and traumatized men spontaneously started singing the Chilean national anthem and everybody in Chile was listening. In fact, here, watch this. Isn't that amazing? You see those guys shaking their heads as they're listening to this? They're singing the national anthem, 33 men stuck 22,000 (sic) feet underground.

And now comes the hard part, getting those guys out of there. Crews are sending more drilling equipment to the mine site. And it should get there some time later today, we understand. But here's the deal. They're going to only drill down about 60 feet a day. Why? Rescuers have to take it very slow or they risk another cave-in at the site.

I want to show you what the next step of the rescue is going to look like. All right? Here's a graphic that we have put together. You see where the accident happened, right? There's the safety zone, that cramped area where these guys are all stuck waiting to be pulled out of the surface.

And you see the drill boring down into the earth, 2,300 feet to get there. By the way, I misspoke earlier. I think I said 23,000. It's 2,300 feet to get to them.

Now, something else that I want to talk to you about, it's pretty amazing that we can actually see these miners. They're in an area the size of a hotel room, about 500 square feet. We're getting images from inside this cave from a tiny camera that rescuers sent down so family members can see their loved ones.

Now, you can imagine what a relief that is for everybody. In these pics, you actually see the men, kind of see their faces there. It's very opaque, but you can see it, 33 men crammed into a tiny space, and they're going to be there for a while. They have to somehow eat, sleep, do their necessities, as they say.

Just think about what their lives are going to be like until they're actually rescued. This is a story that we're committed to following for you. We have got correspondents there and we will check back on it in just a little bit.

Meanwhile, take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These kids are going to go to school in a Taj Mahal, but it's going to be run by the same people who brought us a 50 percent dropout rate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Marble, leather, murals in a public school. Think about this. Leather chairs, marble on the floors for a public school? Wouldn't it be better to spend that money on making sure the kids are getting by well enough? This is a district, by the way, a school district that is drowning in debt. So, what's going on here? Does this really make any sense? And where is this? California. We will tell you where exactly.

Also, did former maverick John McCain become conservative enough to hold on to his senator seat? We're going to take you to one of the toughest primary battles in the country. This thing's gotten nasty. You should hear what they're saying about each other. Jessica Yellin has been following this story. She is live in Arizona for us and she's next right here on the LIST.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: This is going to be an exciting political night. And some of the results are going to start coming in around 7:00 p.m. Eastern time.

It's primary time across parts of the USA and our Jessica Yellin is in Phoenix right now. She's at John McCain headquarters.

Any suspense at all in the McCain camp tonight?

JESSICA YELLIN, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John McCain seems to be a somewhat superstitious guy, Rick.

So, he said -- when he was giving comments to press this morning, he did say he's looking forward to victory tonight, but it's not over until it's over. So, he's hedging a little bit there.

But the polls show him heavily favored, likely to win. You remember this was super close for a long time. But he really spent $20 million here, pulled ahead. And, OK, things are falling around me, but we're OK.

(LAUGHTER)

YELLIN: And, Rick, we did try to talk to him today.

And one sign of possible nerve, he wouldn't take questions from the press. I asked him to respond -- three times, I asked him to respond to something that his opponent's been accusing him of in the final days. He just smiled. His aides said, thank you. He walked away.

SANCHEZ: Well, speaking of opponent, J.D. Hayworth has really been throwing some Hail Marys here, hasn't he?

YELLIN: He really has.

Well, he's accused Senator McCain -- he said that, if he goes to Washington, after running to the right, McCain will run to the left and embrace President Obama and his policies. So, there's on accusation.

He's accused him -- he said to us at one point that there's I think only one person who walked on water -- some intense bitterness, as you can tell. It's become very personal as these polls have widened.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

Hey, I want to talk about somebody else. Apparently John Boehner was apparently talking this morning. He spoke this morning in Cleveland. And during the speech, he told the president to fire his economic -- his entire economic team. That's a heck of a thing to say. Here, let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN BOEHNER (R-OH), HOUSE MINORITY LEADER: His budget director and his chief economist have moved on or they're about to. Clearly, they see the writing on the wall. And the president should, too. President Obama should ask for and accept the resignations of the remaining members of his economic team, starting with Secretary Geithner and Larry Summers, the head of the National Economic Council.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: So he wants the entire economic team fired?

YELLIN: Yes, them's fighting words, huh?

He, after giving that speech, sent out an e-mail fund-raising letter saying to supporters, "We have endured" -- this is a quote -- "19 months of government as community organizer." And he says now it's time to clean house.

Look, we're entering the final leg of this race. This is the time when the boxing gloves come on, the punches start really flying. And the White House is ready with a reply. They were up online with a blog-posted reply. And Vice President Biden hit back. I think we have that sound. Listen to how Biden responded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: His chief proposal when you look at it apparently was That the president should fire his economic team. Very constructive advice. And we thank the leader for that.

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: But let's take a look at the rest of his advice.

But, first, let's review a little bit of history here. For eight years before we arrived in the West Wing, Mr. Boehner and his party ran the economy And the middle class literally into the ground. They took a $237 billion operating surplus inherited from the Clinton administration, and left us with a $1.3 trillion deficit, and, in the process, quadrupled the national debt, all before we literally turned on the lights in the West Wing.

There are millions upon millions of Americans who saw their savings, their paychecks shrink, lost their jobs, their homes. Mr. Boehner is nostalgic for those good old days. But the American people are not. They don't want to go back. They want to move forward.

And, so, folks, I'm still waiting for what it is that they are for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YELLIN: So, Rick, I think it's safe to say that the White House will not be taking Boehner's advice.

SANCHEZ: Well, but it's interesting to listen to the vice president because, politically speaking, it sounds like that's the message that they're going to be honing in on as we move into the midterms, for example.

Is there another message other than for the Democrats to stand on the highest mountain and say to the American people in the best way that they possibly can, yes, things are tough, but they're tough because we had a tough place where we started, right? That's essentially what the Dems' message is here.

YELLIN: That's their message, exactly.

The president says it this way. He says, they drove the car into the ditch and now they want the keys back. It's a refrain you will keep hearing, essentially: They built this economic crisis. We're in the process of fixing it. And they will also repeat the message that, remember, the Bush spending, the Bush deficit, this is all stuff that this team inherited.

It's just -- it's a hard argument, as we have discussed before, to make in a recession.

SANCHEZ: Jessica Yellin, you are going to have such a busy night. And we're going to have so many things to talk about. So, I will spare you the nuance at this point and we will just get ready to have long conversations tonight as some of the first returns come in.

I understand in my home state -- well, they come in, in two parts, interestingly enough, because, in Florida, you have Eastern time and you have part of Central time as well. The Panhandle is Central. The other part is Eastern.

So, at 7:00 p.m., we will get some of the results, right?

YELLIN: Nothing's simple in Florida, Rick.

SANCHEZ: What's that?

YELLIN: Yes. Nothing's simple in Florida, is it?

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Look at me.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Thanks, Jess. We will look forward to talking to you.

All right, did you hear about this one? The government is hiring. They're looking for translators who are fluent in -- you're not going to believe -- I even feel strange with this word just coming out of my mouth -- they're looking for translators fluent in Ebonics -- yes, Ebonics. So, why are they doing this and don't they know that this could cause a bit of a stir, as in controversy? That's ahead. Also, the government asked Shirley Sherrod to take her old job back, return to work after she was forced to resign when a misleading right wing video of hers was put out and posted on an -- Internet, then followed by FOX News. Well, she's just given the government her answer. What did she say? You will find out right here. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Hey, welcome back. I'm Rick Sanchez.

Today, Shirley Sherrod, the woman wrongfully accused of being a racist, says, thanks, but no thanks to a federal job. You remember, Sherrod was forced to resign from an -- Agriculture Department after a misleading video of her was posted on the Internet on a right-wing Web site and then picked up by the FOX News Web site.

The flap began after conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart posted the first portion of the speech on the Web site. The clip suggested that Sherrod was not offering her full help to a white farmer while she was with the Agriculture Department. But that speech happened decades before she ever joined the department, and Sherrod was actually trying to make a point in her speech, that people should move beyond race and that black people and white people should work together.

By the way, Sherrod has said that she will sue Breitbart over his mischaracterization of her. Today, Sherrod met with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. And Vilsack offered her not one, but two positions. The first was a new job to improve the Agriculture Department's civil rights efforts and national image.

And the second was her old job at the USDA office in Georgia. But Shirley Sherrod turned down both offers, saying that the new position wasn't where she wanted to be at this point and that she needed a break from everything that has happened to her. She later told CNN that she would instead like to help eradicate racism in America.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY SHERROD, FORMER DIRECTOR, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, GA, USDA: I'm encouraged that there are people who want to seriously talk about the racism that exists in this country to see if we can try to deal with it and move forward. If I can help promote that kind of discussion in the future, it's something I would really like to do.

I would like to see us once and for all deal with racism, deal with trying to see how we as the many different ethnic groups in this country, how we can figure out how to live together here. It's a great country. Let's make it even greater.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: For his part -- and this is the most interesting part of the story -- Secretary Vilsack took complete responsibility again for Sherrod's departure. But he emphasized, maybe even overemphasized, that he had no outside pressure from the White House or anyone else on his decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM VILSACK, AGRICULTURE SECRETARY: I disappointed the president, I disappointed this administration, I disappointed the country, I disappointed Shirley. I have to live with that. And I accept that responsibility. That's what happens when you have this kind of position.

My only hope is, and my belief is that despite this difficulty, despite the challenges and the problems that we've seen and that poor Shirley had to go through, maybe, just maybe this is an opportunity for the country to have the kind of conversation that Shirley thinks we ought to have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Well, Shirley is not accepting the -- pardon me, while Sherrod is not accepting the two official positions offered at the USDA, she and Vilsack indicated that she will serve in an official -- an unofficial capacity to help address issues related to racism.

Also this -- remember the boy who was terrorized by classmates, nearly burned to death? He's made a remarkable recovery. It was a trending topic. That's ahead with Brooke Baldwin joining us in just a little bit.

Also, watch where you walk along the Chicago River, you might see an alligator. What? An alligator in Chicago? That's next in "Fotos."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: I love stories about alligators. In Florida where I grew up -- it's RICK'S LIST bingo. We have our fair share of alligators, as I've said, but an alligator in Chicago? What do you say? It's time for "Fotos."

You want to see him? You want to see him? This gator which had been eluding capture since Sunday was finally caught today. Alligators of course are not native to the Windy City. Like I needed to tell you that, right? It is the second gator seen and captured in the river in a month. Yes, someone's probably putting them there.

William Tell did it with an apple. Now watch tennis champ Roger Federer do it with a water bottle off the top of the guy's head, a perfect shot, boom. It supposedly happened between takes during a shoot for a commercial.

But be warned, some skeptics on the web are saying the shot is a little too perfect to be real. We'll let you decide.

And then this next kid certainly has an arm but he lacks Federer's aim. That is a wild pitch, or is it a passed ball? This was a wild pitch. The catcher I don't think could have caught that. So this was at the Little League World Series game between Mexico and Puerto Rico. Mexico's pitcher is throwing some real heat, but a wild ball bounces in the dirt and shatters the camera lens in the back stop. Kids had fun anyway. Look what they did when it started raining.

I'd rather do this than play baseball, wouldn't you, Brooke Baldwin? That looks like fun. Let's do that with Remington and Savannah.

That voice you hear in the background is Brooke Baldwin. She's back. She's over there just to the right of the studio where I am. You see that car there? Can you believe that video? We're not going to show you as it actually hits the pillar. Just know that that car was going about 100 miles an hour when it hit the pillar. The car is obliterated, oh, yes. And you're going to see that for yourself. That's ahead.

Also, California's mired in a budget crisis, so why is it about to open a public school complex filled with things like ivy and --

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Flat screen TVs.

SANCHEZ: -- leather, flat screen TVs, marble. Marble in a school? Why don't they take that money and hire some really good competent teachers to get --

BALDWIN: But not so fast. It's a bond issue. I want to walk you through the school.

SANCHEZ: Am I jumping the gun here?

BALDWIN: You, jump the gun? Never!

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: Brooke Baldwin's back, and I am so happy. We're going to be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Some horrifying pictures of a very serious accident in Ohio. This is the one I was telling you about just a moment ago. OK, it's a car that's speeding down the interstate. It goes airborne into a bridge or a pylon that holds up the bridge. It's all caught on a police dash cam.

Are you ready -- look at this left side of your screen. There you see the car, passes the squad car and, bang, hits the guardrail in the median and launches into the air before striking the concrete column. Let's watch this again. Bam! Isn't that amazing? The impact shatters the car into three pieces and the driver was ejected from the vehicle.

Watch the video again. Look at what's left of the car. Let's watch it in slow motion this time. Look at this car. It starts off going head-first. But then it, miraculously, like god's hand came into the play here and flips the car backwards so when the car crashes into the pillar, it's actually hitting butt-first. See that?

BALDWIN: Fortunately for the 19-year-old, it went back in instead of forward.

SANCHEZ: Exactly. So I think that saved his life.

BALDWIN: He's 19. Look at the car, you're right. It's mangled.

SANCHEZ: There's nothing left. It's crazy. Troopers are still trying to figure out what his speed actually was. But witnesses say easily 100 miles an hour. We had been in critical condition. Police say, look, he's lucky to be alive. It all happened on Interstate 675, in Sugar Creek Township in Ohio.

So we just thought this was an amazing story. Sometimes there is such a thing as divine providence. That may sound goofy, but I think sometimes --

BALDWIN: The way it hit --

SANCHEZ: -- somebody takes care of you.

BALDWIN: And hopefully the seat belt as well.

(LAUGHTER)

SANCHEZ: And the seat belt as well, exactly. That reminds me of a great story which I can't tell you because it would take too long. Let me instead introduce you, Brooke Baldwin.

BALDWIN: Hello.

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. How was your day off?

BALDWIN: A couple of days in New Orleans. It was very fun.

SANCHEZ: Did you have a good time?

BALDWIN: I did.

SANCHEZ: Did you eat a lot?

BALDWIN: I gained four pounds in five days.

SANCHEZ: You can't tell. You look great.

BALDWIN: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Tell me what you've got.

BALDWIN: Two things on my list, one really from the follow up list. You remember that Florida teenager, he was set on fire -- this was last fall. He suffered second and third-degree burns on 65 percent of his body. Michael Brewer is his name. He's back in this new school in West Palm Beach, Florida. Look at these pictures when he was initially burned. He was in the hospital for multiple months. Three teenagers are accused of pouring alcohol on him, setting him on fire. Apparently this whole thing was over 40 bucks and a bicycle.

He is talking to ABC. Here's what he and his mother have said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard that you're having nightmares a little bit?

MICHAEL BREWER, BURNED TEEN: Well, I don't know about them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know about them. Dad knows about them. We hear them. He screams out in the middle of the night and he sleeps through it.

BREWER: When I wake up, I don't remember anything about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It helps me a little bit to know he doesn't remember it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: He does. You just mentioned he looks good. We are just seeing him from here up and from here down is where he was burned.

SANCHEZ: Maybe because he's so young --

BALDWIN: Resilience. Back to your point earlier, divine intervention, perhaps. Three teens accused of setting him on fire. They face second-degree attempted murder charges. So we wish him well.

Story number two, this is the school.

SANCHEZ: I want more details.

BALDWIN: I am full of details for you, Sanchez. A new school in California opens next month. It's not just because it was built on the site of the former ambassador hotel where Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in that kitchen, remember? But because it is officially here -- this is the headline-grabber -- the most expensive school complex in the United States. Price tag -- wait for it -- $587 million.

We should be clear -- this is a complex of schools, six schools in L.A., 24 acres. You're looking at the plush teacher's lounge, red velvet seats in the auditorium, flat screen TVs. That's that beautiful maple hardwood basketball court. There are flat screen TVs in some of the walk ways, the red velvet seats in the auditorium.

The superintendent is defending the school. It is voter-approved money. But some parents are saying, as you can imagine, are saying hang on a second, this is a total waste of taxpayer funding. Curriculum should be the focus, not the bells and whistles of the school.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN AUSTIN, BOARD OF EDUCATION: These kids are going to go to school in a Taj Mahal but it's going to be run by the same people who brought us a 50 percent dropout rate --

RAMON CURTINES, SUPERINTENDANT, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT: I don't look at this as a school for today. I look at this as a school for the next 150 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: We should note the project was designed and constructed before the last economic downturn. I mentioned it opens next month. And hopefully the bells and whistles of the school will be reflective in the teaching, because really that's the bottom line.

SANCHEZ: That's the question though. It really is, it does beg the question as to whether or not at a time when we're all talking about teachers, perhaps --

BALDWIN: Layoffs --

SANCHEZ: -- having to be laid off.

BALDWIN: California.

SANCHEZ: -- and that's there's issues with pensions and everything else, that that money shouldn't be used to make sure the teaching quality is as good as any place in the country.

BALDWIN: Apparently the school was voter approved.

SANCHEZ: At the time. And at the time there was a lot of money in the till.

BALDWIN: Absolutely.

SANCHEZ: Now not so much money in the till.

Thanks, Brooke. We'll see you at 4:00 and at 8:00.

BALDWIN: A woman who survived a deadly hostage situation says her husband was killed after he charged the gunman on the tour bus. Her two daughters were also killed. We're hearing these and other emotional stories are what happened yesterday when the police, seen here, suddenly charged that bus in the Philippines with a madman with a machine gun inside. There they are trying to break the windows.

And as we go to break, I love sharing the process with you. Here's how we put today's newscast together. Today we were a little flip, and that's because I came in with a story to tell my staff. You'll see in a minute. By the way, my staff calls these "The Rick Vids."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: I would recommend walking for everyone within the sound of my voice right now. A long walk, without music, without anything going on, just watching animals and looking at nature and putting one foot in front of the other, sometimes it's the healthiest thing you can do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. New figures from the National Association of realtors were released today, and the picture it paints of the housing market is not a pretty one. Sales of previously occupied homes fell to a 15-year low.

Last year, markets across the country saw a huge plunge in home sales and prices. Now, we've got a list of the five cities whose housing prices took the hardest hits from July 2009 to July 2010.

Number five, my hometown, Miami -- Miami saw year-over-year prices down 3.3. Number four, Cincinnati -- it felt the sting. Their home prices were down 3.9 percent. Number three on the list, New Orleans -- it dropped 5.3 percent. Number two, Kansas City prices took a dive down 6.1 from July of last year.

And number one on the list of cities whose housing prices took the biggest hit, right here where I'm talking to you from tonight, Atlanta, Georgia, home prices dropped a whopping 11.4 over the last year.

And you don't have to be a president to make our most intriguing list but, well, it helps. That's ahead.

And as I go to break, I want to share with you what you have shared with me, heck, what you have taught me about the importance of social media and being connected. Maybe more importantly what happens when you don't connect.

This is from my upcoming book. In late 2008 the CEOs of the big three auto companies, Ford, Chrysler, GM, they traveled to Washington to ask Congress for a bailout. These big three auto CEOs were so clueless, so engrossed in their own stuffed-shirt world, so disconnected they made fools of themselves.

From our vantage point it was like watching a train wreck. You see, I learned about bailout fatigue because I sensed the mood here on social media. I was hearing it daily from tens of thousands of you angry Americans with whom I connect on twitter and MySpace and Facebook.

I knew the frame of mind out there. I knew what the auto executives were heading into. But they didn't know because they weren't connected to anyone other than perhaps their own mid-level yes men.

The train wreck came in the form of three different $1 million private jets that flew the three unsuspecting, unknowing, and stunningly ignorant CEOs right into the crash.

"Conventional Idiocy," it's the name of my book. Many of your tweets are in it. In fact, it's dedicated to you because if we can connect to each other we can change things. The book comes out in two weeks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. It's time to check the list of the most intriguing people in the news on this day.

We got one. Here it is. When you're 85 years old you think it's time to retire, right? Do some fishing, play with grand kids, watch the world go by.

No, sir. My most intriguing today is one of the most active, involved, make-it-happen citizens of the world. His latest mission is to bring an American home from North Korea. This is what he looks like. Yep, Nobel Peace laureate former United States President Jimmy Carter. He is on a nongovernment, purely private trip to Pyongyang and hopes to return with a Massachusetts man who is locked up there for crossing from China into North Korea.

Humanitarian, statesman -- absolutely. No slowing down, very much a Christian. President Jimmy Carter, the most intriguing on this day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: All right. Let me bring you up to date on the story we've been telling you about regarding eggs since we first started telling you about it last week.

It, no doubt, tops our health list. The Food and Drug Administration is saying that some 1,300 people have become sick now because of the recent salmonella outbreak in eggs. That's the official count by the way.

It's estimated, and this is interesting. We learned this from Casey Wian yesterday who was reporting to us, that the numbers could be really in the tens of thousands because they have no idea how many people have actually gotten sick and don't know. They just think they got a stomach ache, et cetera, et cetera.

More than half a billion eggs have been recalled because of this contamination. The nationwide recall has people changing their shopping and cooking habits. Some say they'll avoid buying and eating eggs until the whole thing is over.

While the recall involves hundreds of millions of eggs, they represent less than one percent of the 80 billion eggs produced in the United States each year. Now, that's important. It puts it in perspective, right?

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg says federal regulations that took effect in July could have prevented this recall. They recall egg producers to take measures designed to prevent the spread of salmonella.

The reaction to the egg recall is widespread. Take a look at how they view this in Iowa where the contaminated eggs originated from two farms. This is a story from KGAM. Let's watch it together.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LINDA MCCALLUM, HUNTINGTON'S WAITRESS: Some people got a little not so friendly about it.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: This whole egg mess isn't making Linda McCallum's job any easier.

MCCALLUM: I didn't grow the eggs.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: As she waits on regulars in Huntington she usually knows what they want before they walk in.

MCCALLUM: This morning I was serving a lot of the regulars. Ones that would normally eat over easy eggs were getting scrambled and over hard.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Customers are not wanting to take the risk of an under cooked egg making them sick. Iowa's egg council says egg farmers here have it about a half billion times harder than she does.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: So that's what some of the folks who work in the restaurants say. Now let's see what some of the customers are saying. This is from our affiliate KCCI.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: During the morning drive by the Waveland Cafe in Des Moines --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's called the breakfast place.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: You're bound to see plenty of cars parked out front.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breakfast served all day.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: But inside, plenty of people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're really good, yes. I'm a big fan of the egg.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Curing their craving for this. Newly controversial -- UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you want eggs, you want eggs.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: -- form of food.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am addicted to them.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Dina Erickson is a regular.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My usual is two eggs basted over medium.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: But she says now no more runny yolks.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So I just started ordering the eggs cooked solid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: Isn't that amazing?

Elizabeth Cohen is going to be joining us in just a minute. This is a very important story. I noticed when I went home last night and I was watching a newscast with my wife that the first thing she did was she leaned into the television because she wanted to get all the details of what was going on with this potential egg recall. Stay right there.

Before we get to you, it's 4:00. I want to first of all welcome all of the folks who are watching this, troops from overseas all over the world. We're so glad that you're there for us. Here now is what else we're going to bring you on "RICK'S LIST" at 4:00.