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CNN Saturday Morning News

Busy on the Campaign Trail; Travel Delays This Holiday Season; Florida Principal Accused of Pornography

Aired December 22, 2007 - 09:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey there and good morning, everybody from the CNN Center in Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, December 22nd. Hope you got all that Christmas stuff handled. I'm T.J. Holmes.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: And hello, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye in for Betty Nguyen this morning. Thanks for starting your day with us.

HOLMES: We're talking issues and undecideds. Not about Christmas gifts, though. We're talking about the campaign trail, the candidates out on that trail this morning with the best political team on TV covering it all for you.

KAYE: And take a look at this. Yes, you are about to see all those planes. Yep, they are in the sky right now. Probably have a few relatives on some of those. We have got your real-time flight tracker, travel delays and all the weather information you are going to need on this weekend before Christmas.

HOLMES: Yes, relatives are on the way. Get the house ready.

Of course, there are folks who are going to talk politics. 17 days now and counting for voters in New Hampshire. It's just over two more weeks of seeing those candidates criss-cross their state.

KAYE: And of course, can't forget about all those campaign signs in all their yards. Well, CNN's Mary Snow is live in Manchester, New Hampshire for us this morning. Mary, what are you finding there?

MARY SNOW, CNN, CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Randi. You know, people in this state are not only hearing from carolers but also campaigning. And today, we're here in Manchester where Senator Hillary Clinton is going to be targeting women voters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW (voice-over): This morning, she's going to be having an event, moms and daughters making history is the name of it. You may have guessed, yes, she is with her mother and her daughter here in the state. This is the first time that Chelsea Clinton and Dorothy Rodham have joined Senator Clinton on the campaign trail in New Hampshire. They were with her in Iowa.

And this is really a very aggressive push to get out the message to female voters. Of course, it's a very coveted group and Senator Clinton is hoping to appeal to them. Also some direct mailing going out from some outside groups.

Also in the state today, Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani. This is the first campaign event he'll be having since he spent a night in the hospital in St. Louis on Wednesday. You may recall he had been on his way back to New York, his plane returned. He was hospitalized. What the campaign said was flu-like symptoms. Giuliani yesterday in New York told reporters he's feeling great. The campaign says he went to his doctor in New York before heading back on the campaign trail. He's expected to be here all weekend long. He'll have a town hall later today.

And also, Mitt Romney, the republican presidential hopeful, will be here in New Hampshire. He used to be the governor in neighboring state Massachusetts. Mitt Romney has been doing well in the polls here in New Hampshire but we've seen his lead slip in Iowa because of fierce competition now with Mike Huckabee.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SNOW: So, certainly these candidates on the road all this weekend getting out these final pushes before the Iowa caucus and, of course, a couple of days later than that, the New Hampshire primary -- Randi.

KAYE: What about John McCain after picking up a nice endorsement there. Any chance he'll be out on the trail?

SNOW: He has been spending a number of days here in New Hampshire this week. He's going to be in Iowa, I believe, today and possibly tomorrow. But I'm not quite sure of his schedule, but he did spend a good amount of time here in New Hampshire earlier this week.

KAYE: All right. Mary Snow reporting for us. Thanks so much.

Trading punches over foreign policy. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice responds to a jab from one presidential candidate. Republican Mike Huckabee accuses the administration of an arrogant bunker mentality on foreign policy. Rice rejects that criticism. She didn't mince words when asked about it during a news conference yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: The idea that somehow this is a go-it-alone policy is just simply ludicrous and one would only have to be not observing the facts, let me say that, to say that this is now a go-it-alone foreign policy.

MIKE HUCKABEE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: we are so unable to point out policy differences and how things would change under a new administration, then maybe we shouldn't run for president. We'll just keep the current one in office.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Huckabee's challengers have recently questioned his foreign policy credentials.

HOLMES: Of course, a lot of folks across the country often have to make stops in Chicago. They got some problems there at the airports now. That's not the airport, but, hey, what is that, the Magnificent Mile with all the shopping that goes on?

Actually, what's happening there is a blanket of fog, not snow, is affecting the holiday travel. The conditions right now in Chicago, fog and low clouds. They are forcing the cancellation of 200 flights at the O'Hare Airport that happened yesterday. As Robby Backwell of affiliate WLS reports, people are not losing their holiday spirit.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBBY BACKWELL, WLS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Morales family is scrambling to get to grandma's house in San Diego for Christmas. They started their journey in Madison, Wisconsin, and have chosen to fly to Phoenix tonight after which they'll drive for four hours.

BACKWELL: What's the first thing you'll do when you get to your grandparents' house?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to say hello to all of my cousins and give them their gifts and then stay up all night.

BACKWELL: The delays are not bothering travelers too much and people are prepared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've got it down to a science because I actually travel for a living and so, you know, I've got everything real planned and real organized. So, you know, it's not stressful for me.

BACKWELL: Evelyn (INAUDIBLE) is taking her mother on her first holiday trip.

Do you think that we worry and we get all wound up over holiday travel more than we should?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do anyway. I hope nobody else does. I freak out. Especially when she called me and told me, we got to take this stuff out. We got to take care of you. I was running around the house like a nut.

BACKWELL: People are accepting the see of yellow on flight information screens indicating delays or worse, flight cancellations. And taking advantage of free gift wrapping after passing through security.

DEBBIE RABEOR, CHICAGO DEPT. OF AVIATION: We've been very busy. I expect to wrap at least over 30 presents within just a few hours. So it comes in waves. But it's a great program. It's been going on for four or five years now and we're happy to provide the service for the passengers. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's amazing. I had no idea about it. It's like Christmas come early.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: All right. There's our guy. Reynolds Wolf.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Christmas coming early.

HOLMES: Coming early?

WOLF: You heard what she said in the story. Maybe Christmas coming early for everybody would be an easy travel day. But something tells me that's not going to happen. That's not going to be in the mix today.

HOLMES: Looking at that map behind you.

WOLF: I know.

KAYE: It's a mess.

WOLF: Isn't it something. It looks like someone just took a bunch of toy airplanes and just kind of scatter them all over the place. Guys, we've got over 3,600 airplanes that are either taking off or landing as we speak, which equals an extremely busy day for America's traffic, air traffic controllers. It's going to be a rough time to say the least.

And now speaking of delays, we are starting to see these begin to pop up. No surprise in some of these usual suspects when we have the rough weather. Take a look at how it's backing up in Chicago. We've got a ground stop there. Let's see, in Charlotte. Departure delays beginning to increase. Notice all these arrows increasing in Philadelphia and even in White Plains.

That's going to be the story for many places especially starting in the northeast working its way back to the Midwest. Before the day is out, in San Francisco, L.A.X., you're going to have some delays there, too. Always seems to happen during the holidays.

Now, for people who may be traveling on the ground below, not necessarily under the ground but on the ground, the streets and whatnot, here's what we're facing in both Chicago and Boston. Here's a shot for you. And now we zoom out of Chicago because that's all right because we got WHDH's wonderful shot of Boston. You see the Charles River in the background beautiful river and then some weird gray stuff on the screen, on the bottom.

Well, that weird gray stuff happened to be some ice on the lens caps. We're going to get out there and climb up the building and scrape that off. I'll be there in about 20 minutes or so.

What we have right now and the rest of the nation, we're watching is this area in parts of the central plains where we're having blizzard-like conditions for parts of Southern Kansas, southwest Kansas. It is really rough. When you have those blizzard conditions, one of the big factors has got to be the wind. Not a huge issue right now in the twin cities. But you're still seeing a lot of that rain and mix of rain and sleet being switching over to all snow in Minneapolis. So, from Burnsville southward of Lakeville even on Woodbury along i-94 and i-35, you're going to see that snow.

If you don't have to get out, don't worry. Just stay inside with all your relatives. Yes, all of them. It's going to be a great time for you. It's going to be great all the way through the holiday weekend. And I'll tell you what, if you happen to be in the northern plains you shouldn't go anywhere outside.

Check this out, frigid conditions. Let me define that for you. We're talking about wind chill factors that are going to remain anywhere from 30 to 40 below. You know, that's going to be one of those situations where you have the dog and you scratch at the door trying to go out. Just let him go. You're not going to walk him out there not in this kind of conditions. He may come right back in which will be a whole different tragedy in its own right.

KAYE: Yes, that's what my dog does. He walks about halfway out the door and does his business and then comes right back in. Too cold.

WOLF: These things do happen.

KAYE: Probably too much information for you there.

WOLF: Probably a little bit too much but we try to be all- encompassing here at CNN.

HOLMES: And Reynolds, you sound like you're looking forward to family.

KAYE: Yes, doesn't he?

WOLF: I had the greatest family in the whole world. I'm happy to see everybody but you know, it doesn't matter if it's us, guys, come on. We all get along. Being trapped in a house where it's freezing outside, no one wants to be dealing with that. Cabin fever, it happens pretty quickly.

KAYE: Even with the best of families.

WOLF: No question about it.

HOLMES: All right, Reynolds. We'll talk to you again here soon.

WOLF: Talk to you soon.

KAYE: Thank you.

People driving into the U.S. from Canada or Mexico or coming in by boat from the Caribbean should take note. A provision that would have required passports for those travelers could be delayed until June 2009, if President Bush signs the bill. That's one year later than the Department of Homeland Security had wanted. Languished to delay the passport rule was put in the omnibus spending bill passed this week in Congress.

HOLMES: Some important rivals in Afghanistan this morning to tell you about.

KAYE: That's right. French President Nicholas Sarkozy is there right now. He's the first French president to visit Afghanistan. Sarkozy met with his Afghani counterpart Hamid Karzai before speaking with French troops. France has nearly 2,000 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the NATO force.

HOLMES: Australia has committed about 1,000 troops in Afghanistan. The new Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is also in Afghanistan this morning. He arrived shortly after Sarkozy. Before arriving in Afghanistan, the Australian leader made an unannounced visit to Iraq. He met in Baghdad with Iraq Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki. Rudd won election partly on his promise to pull Australia's troops out of Iraq by the middle of next year. There are about 550 Australian soldiers in Iraq.

KAYE: From the schoolhouse to the jailhouse.

HOLMES: An elementary school principal arrested on child pornography charges.

KATE: But first, here's a preview of today's "OPEN HOUSE" with Gerri Willis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Coming up at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, how to find toys for your children that are both safe and affordable?. Then navigate through the holidays without losing your cool. It's all about stress-free giving. We'll show you how. And from the barber to the mailman, who should you tip and how much this holiday season? We'll break it down for you.

That's "OPEN HOUSE," the show that saves you money, 9:30 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PFC CHRIS LEWIS: This is PFC Chris Lewis from the 111th Engineer Brigade, West Virginia Army National Guard, serving in northern Iraq. I wish my wife Christina and my family in Charleston, a merry Christmas. I love you all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Getting you caught up right now with all the important news this morning. Here are some of your "Quick Hits." HOLMES: A sexual predator warning in Mission Hills, California. He was caught on surveillance tape trying to abduct a 4-year-old girl. You are seeing the video here. He dropped the small girl when another child, a small boy chased after him. Police belief he has grope or touched at least three women so far.

KAYE: American Eric Volz is released from custody in Nicaragua, four days after a judge overturned his murder conviction. Court officials blame a paper mix-up for that delay. Volz was found guilty in 2006 of murdering his girlfriend, despite witness testimony. Prosecutors in Nicaragua are appealing his release.

HOLMES: A lot of people remember the details of this grim story. His wife's body parts were found in their garage, also at a nearby park. And now, a jury in Michigan has convicted Steven Grant of second-degree murder. He initially denied any involvement in his wife's disappearance when he reported her missing back in February.

KAYE: A Florida principal accused of pornography. And he may have used photos of former elementary school students to create the nude pictures. The story from Rebecca Medina of our affiliate WFTS.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REBECCA MEDINA, WFTS, CORRESPONDENT: John Stelmach has been the trusted principal in Scott Lake Elementary School in Lakeland for a year and a half. But now the Polk County sheriff's office is calling the 60-year-old educator a pedophile.

SHERIFF GRADY JUDD, POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA: When you take a young adult body, given every benefit of the doubt for the sake of that argument, and you put a child's face on to that nude body, you just created child pornography.

MEDINA: Sheriff Grady Judd says Stelmach superimposed the photos of two little girls, believed to be students of his at one point in time. One of the girls was at Scott Lake last year.

JUDD: And he had these materials at school. Like what is that all about?

MEDINA: Judd says Stelmach was suspended from his job at Scott Lake Elementary last Friday. He says school officials believe Stelmach was behaving inappropriately with students so they began an administrative investigation.

JUDD: They searched his office. They seized a black briefcase. In that briefcase is where we located the photographs of the children and the photographs of the nude young adults.

MEDIAN: Sheriff Judd says they don't believe he has harmed any of the kids in the photos, which were believed to be taken in a school setting. But the investigation has just begun and he's already promising to make an example out of John Stelmach.

JUDD: And you know, if you can't trust the principal at the elementary school, then how many people is left to trust in the community?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: The principal is jailed in Polk County, Florida. He faces five counts of possession of child pornography.

HOLMES: Well, a lot of credit cards flying around these days. Important here to know, ask yourself, are you at credit risk?

KAYE: The answer may lie in your credit score or your FICO score. New changes on the way in '08. Gerri Willis will have all the info right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, do you know your score? We're talking about your credit score, your three-digit credit score. It can have a big effect on your finances and all those problems, you know, in the mortgage industry. They are actually changing the way scores are calculated. I asked personal finance editor Gerri Willis whether we should be worried about this.

WILLIS: Well, T.J., fear not the change. In the wake of the mortgage meltdown, FICO was trying to figure out how better their score can predict borrower risk. Now, remember, the FICO score is really important because it's necessary for borrowing, plus getting jobs, apartments.

Let me tell you, even getting, even applying for a job, sometimes they look at your FICO score. Here's the thing to know about the changes coming up. First of all, it stops authorized user provisions. That means if you are using your husband's card or your wife's cards or you've given cards to the kids, you can't do that anymore. There are higher penalties for delinquencies. More reward for on-time payment.

So some will get a break. And there are more points awarded for people who have different kinds of credit. So, if you have a mortgage, a credit card, a this and a that, it's a good thing.

HOLMES: Oh my goodness, a lot going on there. You said people should not fear the change but, of course, people will. So, what do they need to do to make sure they don't get hurt by it?

WILLIS: Well, if you're one of these authorized card users, you really got to establish credit in your own name. That's absolutely essential. This typically happens to women. You got to go out there, get your own financial DNA. Get a credit card in your name. Also, it's more important than ever to pay those credit cards off on time and hey don't collect too many cards because at the end of the day it it's not going to help you. It's going to hurt you.

HOLMES: All right. Where can people find out and they might be a little nervous to go see what the change may be. But where can they get this new score? WILLIS: Well, go to myfico.com. It's a great web site. And you can get your own FICO score there for 16 bucks. Keep in mind though that these changes probably won't go into effect for another six months, maybe even a year. So you don't have to do this tomorrow. You can enjoy your holiday break and then get to it.

HOLMES: All right, that sounds good. Enjoy the holiday break. We'll get to do that at least. "OPEN HOUSE," 9:30, what have we got coming?

WILLIS: We've got a lot going on, T.J.. We'll tell you how to find toys for your children that are both safe and affordable. Then navigate through the holidays without losing your cool. It's all about stress-free giving. We'll show you how. And from the barber to the mailman, who should you tip and how much this holiday season? We'll break it down for you.

That's "Open House," the show that saves you money, 9:30 a.m. Eastern, right here on CNN. Join us -- T.J..

HOLMES: We certainly will join you. See you soon.

WILLIS: Thank you.

KAYE: This is a thrilling time for young kids there. They are counting the days until Santa comes.

HOLMES: Yes, and ahead, visiting with Santa up close and personal. Some just love it as you see there. Others, not so much. I know, Randi, we're trying to find that picture of you screaming and yelling in Santa's lap.

KAYE: I do have it somewhere.

HOLMES: Well, we'll try to find it before the morning's out. Let's say good morning to Josh Levs now.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning to you, guys.

We're also going to talk to you, coming up, about socially conscious giving. Sites that you can trust to give to those less fortunate this holiday season even if you want to give to people a world away. We'll have that in a couple of minutes here, CNN Saturday morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Well, we are sure that lots of you still have holiday shopping to finish this weekend, like this guy right here. Yes, he, like many of you, probably stuck on what to get for that certain someone, his sister. The answer could be as close as your computer, though. That's the good news.

HOLMES: Well, it's not helping right now, actually.

KAYE: Yes, I know, right? That's what you're working on. HOLMES: I'm working on it now. Josh Levs here. I hope you got something to tell me here because I'm struggling.

LEVS: He's totally doubled up, buying the gifts and running CNN.

KAYE: I can see that he's doing OK. You got some nice things there.

LEVS: Wow, you're getting it whole, did I say that loud, we'll ruin the surprise. She'll probably prefer that to this. What I'm about to tell you is the socially conscious giving stuff is wonderful but it's obviously not, you know, always right for a present.

Well, let's tell you about this because a lot of you want to know about socially conscious giving. There's a great site I want to point you to. It's called universalgiving.org. Now, what they do, you can pick an issue in a region of the world.

So, as an example for you all to look at there, I clicked on children and Africa. And what you can see is that they hook you up with all sorts of different organizations that can allow you to give. But often it's more like a gift.

I have a list from the company here of things they do. You can get a card made by an orphan child for $20. You can help someone start a farming business for $40. You can sponsor a school in Africa for $100. You can sponsor a deaf child in Vietnam for $600. So they totally run the range. They run the gamut here. What it is is an opportunity at this time of year, late in the year. They say about 97 percent, 98 percent of your money goes straight to that gift. And also you can think about the tax elements.

But, you know, it's a way of giving. You can do it because you want to or you can make it a gift in someone else's name. And Randi, you and I were talking about this that some people prefer this to traditional gifts.

KAYE: Yes, but you are always a little concerned it may not be received as well as something in the big, giant box. But it's still a nice thing to do.

LEVS: Like T.J.'s sister may not want a card that says, I gave to support a chimpanzee in Uganda here.

KAYE: Well, you know, though on the bright side, besides helping somebody, you'll not have to go to the store and return it. Because you're not going to go to this school in Africa or whatever might be and return it.

LEVS: Good point and some people still (INAUDIBLE) at cnn.com/impact also has stuff. So, we here at CNN.com, you know, we keep updating this site with .com/impact with whatever the top stories are. So whatever region of the world people are talking about, there's a major need out there. There's a tragedy, you can help out. You can give through cnn.com and you can support a dozen organizations that way. And we'll keep it going through the holidays. So, anytime you get that impulse, go for it.

KAYE: We've got it covered. You're covered now.

HOLMES: Not to suggest my sister is materialistic, but she isn't going for it.

LEVS: I know the feeling. Trust me.

HOLMES: Josh, we appreciate it.

KAYE: Thank you.

HOLMES: Of course, that time of year now for the kid to pour out there wishes to Santa Claus. However, some terrified tots are pouring out the tears when confronted with the bearded man in the big red suit.

KAYE: And our CNN i-Reporters are capturing all of the action. Check out 13-month-old Gordie Hendrickson. Look at that little face. His dad says it was past little Gordie's naptime. So, hey, maybe you can't blame him for being somewhat cranky.

HOLMES: Yes, and could we it another time, please. Oh, Sophia.

KAYE: To get better.

HOLMES: This is the first time I'm meeting Santa.

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