Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

What is the Government Doing to Prevent You from Getting Breached?; Flooding in the Midwest; Barack Obama's Up and Down Swing This Week; Spring Breakers Feeling the Pinch of the Economy

Aired March 22, 2008 - 09:00   ET

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

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: From the CNN Center in Atlanta, good morning, everybody, I'm Betty Nguyen. This is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is March 22nd.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: It's my sister's birthday, actually.

NGUYEN: Happy birthday.

HOLMES: She's not watching. Good morning to you all, I'm T.J. Holmes. You think your personal information is safe with the government, right?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A report card on government computer security issued last year failed the State Department and seven other federal agencies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: That's bad, right?

NGUYEN: Really bad.

HOLMES: So to get some help, it's probably no wonder that the presidential candidates themselves calling for an investigation into the passport breach. Find out how it affects you.

NGUYEN: All right. I want you to look very closely. Check it out right there, do you see Jesus, or do you just see a Cheeto? Yes.

HOLMES: Another one of these.

NGUYEN: You decide. The story of the sacred snack coming up.

All right, but we do have some good news for you this morning. For those people stuck in the flood planes. The worst may be over. First, take a look at the map though. The flooding highlighted by the green areas, all that green there, you can see just how much of the Midwest is affected.

HOLMES: Yes. Missouri has been the hardest hit. Thousands of people forced from their homes there. This is a picture of Fenton, Missouri or what used to be Fenton, Missouri. It's still there but under certainly under water. It's one of many towns swamped by swollen rivers.

Also, check this out, a deer swimming through the muck there. Rising waters catching many people and animals obviously off guard. Other folks trying to save everything using sandbags.

NGUYEN: Well, look at this, there was no saving this house. Yes, that was the roof that you just saw right there. It's in Calico Rock, Arkansas. Here's another picture of it. The house was just carried away, smashed by the floodwaters.

By now that you've seen all of that. We're going to bring you that good news that we promised you. CNN's meteorologist Jackie Jeras joins us now live from Pacific Missouri this morning. She has her waders on. But even with those on, it does look like the water is starting to recede a little.

JACQUI JERAS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, the water has been going down and crested overnight. So, you know, maybe a handful of hours ago and it's been going down rather rapidly but it's still going to take a long time for them to go down completely. And the fight in this town is certainly not over yet.

I'm standing right now in front Osage (ph) Realty, and you can see the sandbags which are lined up. There's been 11 pumps working all night long to keep the water from the outside the building. This is just one of about 140 homes and businesses that have been surrounded by floodwaters for at least two days.

About 500 residents have been evacuated from this area and the Merrimac River will stay out of its banks likely until Tuesday. Jeff Snider is the owner of Osage Realty.

And Jeff, tell us a little bit about your effort? And what you've been doing all night.

JEFF SNIDER, BUSINESS OWNER: We have just been pumping and making the water and trying to keep it out. Luckily, we didn't get the crust water that they called for.

JERAS: And so did the water actually get into the building?

SNIDER: Not a drop. We kept it all out.

JERAS: Unbelievable. What has it been like for you, so you know, no sleep, all night long, working so hard and what kind of help have you had from the people?

SNIDER: Well, we started on Wednesday morning with about 15 people building this wall and then another 15 people showed up and then about 100 volunteers to construct the wall, 30 close friends and the rest of the community just joined together to help construct it.

JERAS: So how are you feeling this morning?

SNIDER: I'm feeling pretty tired.

JERAS: Are you happy?

SNIDER: I'm very happy, I'm very happy and I'm very indebted to everybody that helped me do this.

JERAS: But it's not quite over yet for you because the water is still in that area, right? So, you're still not done?

SNIDER: No. It's not completed yet, after about four or five more hours, and then we'll be in the good.

JERAS: All right. Best of luck, things look like they're going to be all right for you though.

SNIDER: Thank you very much.

JERAS: All right. Good luck. Thanks, Jeff Snider.

Also we've another great success story, if we can pan over here just a little bit, I know you've got the lights getting in the way. I'm sorry but this is also and extremely old building, a historic building that's been here for 100 years, a coffee shop and a hair shop and look at all the sandbags that have been stacked up.

The owner there tells us, Dave McCoup (ph) tells us that he's just overwhelmed and awe inspired by the hundreds of people that have come out to help this community to try and fare and OK (ph) throughout the flood.

While things are looking better here in Pacific, the river still has not crested downstream in places like Eureka and down towards Valley Park so the situation still remains dire there and also something else to keep in mind is so many people are having difficulty trying to travel because there's so many roads that are blocked off and even Interstate 44 has that potential to be closed down this morning.

As the river downstream continues to rise so they ask people to just to stay out of the area, if they can at all and do not drive over those roads with water on them. You just never know how deep it is and you never know if the road is washed out underneath -- Betty.

NGUYEN: That is some really good news because it is after all Easter weekend and a lot of folks will be on the roadways today. Thank you, Jacqui.

HOLMES: Well, we got snow in the upper Midwest, and that's causing all kinds of problems for travelers drivers as well.

NGUYEN: Yes. Chicago's O'Hare Airport back open this morning. The airport in Milwaukee though scheduled to reopen around 10:00 a.m. local time.

HOLMES: And a spring snow storm. Yes, folks it's actually spring. The storm that rolled across the upper Midwest that caused more than 450 flight cancellations at O'Hare in particular. NGUYEN: More than a foot of snow in parts of southern Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota causing dangerous driving conditions, dozens of Wisconsin churches canceled Good Friday services.

HOLMES: All right. Our Reynolds Wolf, he's the guy we depend on in times like this and this is a time of need once again for a lot of folks to get some information. What's happening out there?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, at the airport things are going to start getting a little bit better. But take a look at this behind me. This is our flight explorer, you can see all the planes that are picking up here and there. Every plane that you see on this board behind me is a plane that's either in mid flight, taking off, landing. And I'll tell you as busy as this screen appears from Milwaukee southwards to the Chicago airports, it should be even more busy.

We should have more flights that are actually moving through the area. Things as it stands right now in terms of delays around the country, there are two major spots we're keeping an eye on, one, Milwaukee, getting closer, the clock says about an hour or so. And then in Chicago we have got about 40-minute delays. Same deal, we got the snow removal that they're dealing with at this point. So the best thing to do is be patient. Nothing more fun than waiting in the airport when you're trying to take off.

But if you're in Milwaukee, good news that a lot of that moisture is drifting its way south from the southern part of Lake Michigan, Evanston back to Chicago. The sky is going to clear a little bit. In fact, within 30 minutes, you should see a bit of sunshine. Now, some of that moisture is moving in spots like Detroit, southwards to Monroe, even in Toledo and Bowling Green. We go now from Cleveland and back over to places like Scranton where you see scattered snow showers.

However, a bit farther off to the west, in Pittsburgh, the conditions are like this. We have a live image for your this morning from Pittsburgh, what a beautiful Pittsburgh, home of the pirates. Looks pretty good there. For the time being, you might get some sunshine too, but you're going to get a mix. You may get a few snowflakes also through your midday hours. That is a check on your forecast around the country. We're going to talk more about this all morning, into the afternoon, into the evening.

We're here for you. Let's send it back to you.

NGUYEN: now, there is a lot up for discussion especially with all that's going on behind you. Thank you, Reynolds.

WOLF: You bet.

NGUYEN: Let's talk about this right now because snooping into passport files, something a lot of people are talking about today. A Congressional committee is gearing up to investigate especially since it turns out the records of all three presidential candidates were improperly viewed, not just Senator Barack Obama's. Now, the State Department says a trainee got into Senator Hillary Clinton's file last summer and a contractor disciplined for viewing Obama's passport records also viewed Senator John McCain's too. Two contractors have been fired while a third has been disciplined and the trainee, well that person is still on the job.

HOLMES: Well, if it can happen to them, surely it can happen to any of us.

NGUYEN: Absolutely, so just what is the government doing to stop your personal data from getting into the wrong hands?

CNN's Jeanne Meserve reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Details of your medical history and work record, financial transactions, your social security number, travel history, the kind of personal information entered into government databases. How often do prying eyes look at it?

SEAN MCCORMACK, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: It's a handful each year that we know about. Now, of course it's always a possibility that there are some that you don't know about.

MESERVE: Very possible. A report card on government computer security issued last year failed the State Department and seven other state agencies. The government-wide grade, C minus. Some agencies have made improving security a priority. The Veteran's Administration was red-faced when personal information of more than 26 million beneficiaries were compromised in 2006.

Now, all medical information in it's files is encrypted and customized thumb drives can only be read on authorized computers. Other government agencies have privacy officers who are supposed to police the use and disclosure of personal information. required to watch information.

Many agencies require employees and contractors undergo privacy training and signed privacy pledges. Many have computer systems designed to detect unauthorized snooping in files. Of course, the State Department had all of these and still, files were breached.

BARRY STEINHARDT, ACLU: The fact that it happened to three of the highest profile people in America shouldn't be taken as an indicator that this only happens to the powerful. It happens to ordinary American citizens that just get the same sort of attention.

MESERVE: And Steinhart says, if it happens to you, it is very likely you will never find out.

Jean Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Up next, the annual festival turns violent in Turkey. Coming up, we'll explain exactly what's happening here.

Also, we got this ...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Checking out a big rig rams into a car and the truck driver doesn't even know it.

HOLMES: Also a little later, a tasty snack or a divine revelation? Another one of these. Betty, who do you see in that Cheeto?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Yes and welcome back, everybody. Here's a look at some of the other stories making headlines this morning.

We're taking a look at violent protests in southeast Turkey as Kurds clash with police.

NGUYEN: Here's the backdrop on the story, the annual spring festivals that draw thousands, well police said increased security for it and initially stood by when demonstrators broke the law by waiving images of a jailed Kurdish rebel chief.

HOLMES: Meanwhile in Taiwan, the opposition party says its candidate won the presidential election. Ma Ying-jeou promised to expand economic ties with China while protecting the island from political denomination. The victory ends eight years of pro- independent government that often provokes tensions with Beijing.

NGUYEN: And a clean bill of health for the space shuttle Endeavor. The astronauts found no damage to the shuttle's heat shield during a space walk inspection. And today, they'll be outside the shuttle to but the tools away, large boom they use to take pictures of the shuttle will be moved to the International Space Station.

HOLMES: Hey, we got a little bit of a lull in the campaign trail today. We haven't been able to say in a while, have we?

NGUYEN: A long time.

HOLMES: The Pennsylvania primaries still about a month away.

NGUYEN: Republican John McCain though wrapping up his overseas tour. He returns tomorrow from his trip to Europe and the Middle East. Now, officially, he is part of a congressional delegation. But he is also hoping to build up his presidential image.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is at home in New York. She has no public events planned today.

And Barack Obama while he is out campaigning, he holds a rally in Medford, Oregon. The Oregon primary is May 20th.

HOLMES: And of course, the next stop on the road to the White House, Pennsylvania as we talked about here, and senior political analyst Bill Schneider. He is with the CNN "Election Express" in Philadelphia this morning. He's here to talk about a lot of the ups and downs we've been seeing with Barack Obama lately.

Good morning to you, sir, always a pleasure to see you. And tell us, up and downs, is he more on the upswing or still a little down for Barack Obama right now?

WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, we wanted to find out whether the controversy over Barack Obama's relationship with his pastor has affected his support. Well, it has, up and down.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER (voice-over): When tapes of inflammatory statements made by Barack Obama's pastor came out last weekend, there appears to be some negative impact on Obama. A poll on Pennsylvania Democratic voters showed Obama's favorable ratings dropping from February to last weekend.

TERRY MADONNA, POLLSTER: I don't think there's any doubt that the Jeremiah Wright controversy played a role in the 10-point drop in his favorable ratings.

SCHNEIDER: Nationally, Obama's lead over Hillary Clinton narrowed in the CBS and "USA Today" today gallup polls. Among Pennsylvania Democratic primary voter, Clinton's lead over Obama more than doubled from seven points in February, to 16 points as of last weekend. Obama's association with Reverend Wright appeared to be hurting him as of last weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it probably hurt him by association, but I don't think that reflects his views necessarily.

SCHNEIDER: Then on Tuesday, Obama gave a speech on race relations. Did his speech reverse the damage? The gallup tracking poll with interviews done every day shows that the speech may have helped Obama, some.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I personally was like more Hillary, but after hearing that speech, it was like wow, this guy really is on to something.

SCHNEIDER: Look at the trend line showing support for Obama and Clinton among Democrats nationally over the last week. Clinton started moving ahead of Obama last weekend when the Wright story broke. By Tuesday, she had a statistically significant seven-point lead.

Then, Obama spoke about his relationship with Wright and his view of race relations. Clinton's lead began to narrow to five points and as of Friday, two points. Friday's results statistically a tie, represent the first poll in which all interviews were done after Obama's speech.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCHNEIDER: So the tracking poll indicates that Obama's speech helped him with Democrats. But Obama argues that he can also appeal to independents and Republicans. Has the speech helped him with those voters? We just don't know yet -- T.J.

HOLMES: We don't know yet, but I'm sure as soon as we know you will be the first, and you will pass it along to us. Bill Schneider, we appreciate you as always.

And of course, folks, CNN is your campaign headquarters for 2008 in big part because of people like Bill Schneider who make up the best political team on television.

Coming up this afternoon, "BALLOT BOWL," coming back your way, your chance to hear the candidates unfiltered kicks off today at 2:00 Eastern, 11:00 a.m. Pacific.

NGUYEN: Well, OK, so a big rig gets into a fender-bender. Take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing? Get out!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Why they yelling? Because the driver didn't even know about it. We go straight to that story ahead.

HOLMES: Also downsizing, spring break, say it is not so. You know the economic situation getting serious when college kids start pinching pennies. We'll tell you where the party's headed this year.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing? Get out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: The police here are scrambling, trying to get the truck driver's attention because the man has a car stuck to his front bumper.

NGUYEN: And it happened in Sydney, Australia, that's why he's driving on the right side there. The truck driver says he didn't even know that car was there. He never even felt a thing. Police were simply stunned.

HOLMES: Well, the driver as you can imagine, pretty surprised as well. He felt a little bump in the road, oh, there's a car attached to my bumper. He was not hurt here and the truck driver actually was not charged in the accident. How do you know not you are dragging another vehicle?

NGUYEN: That must be a serious bumper of the truck there.

HOLMES: We need to put those on all of our vehicles.

NGUYEN: I need one of those.

HOLMES: Well, folks, we talk about rising gas prices now, a slowing economy, recession fears, all that's weighing on folks' minds, but spring break, the next casualty?

NGUYEN: Really, say it isn't so. Gerri Willis is here with more on issue number one.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hi, Betty and T.J.

Spring break plans may be on hold. A recent study indicates that nearly one in two families with kids under 18-years-old are scaling back their plans. And of those families that will rain in their planes, 63 percent say that means canceling travel plans all together. For people who do decide to go, it will mean more last-minute road trips. Short domestic trips will likely replace more expensive trips to Europe and the Caribbean. Air fares are up over 10 percent from last year.

Bottom line, it's just getting more expensive to fly. People are balking at going to Europe. That's because not is airfare to the area getting more expensive but once you get there you're paying more for food, hotels and transportation given the dollar's weakness against the euro.

But there is good news here for people who have flexible travel plans. You may see some deals on European airfare in April or May. That's according to experts we talked to. That's because airlines will want to have full capacity and there will be some better deals out there for domestic flights. There are also some good deals to be had to places like Mexico and the Caribbean. Even though last year the rule of thumb may have been book early or miss out, this year the last-minute bargain hunter could have the upper hand.

Here's some places to go if you want to snag some great deals. Smarter travel.com, kayak.com and last-minute.com. If you're hitting the road, you'll want to make sure that you're getting the most out of your fuel tank. Maintain your car by inflating the tires to the proper size, plan your route in advance by going to the AAA Web site and click on trip tick and use cruise control on the highway. That's the best way to make sure you have some money left over to actually enjoy your spring break.

Coming up on "OPEN HOUSE," be debt free, health care and your credit score displaced by foreclosure. Back to you.

HOLMES: All right. Snack food, Betty, or holy image?

NGUYEN: You love it. In fact, you have a lot of it over there.

HOLMES: No holy images over there.

NGUYEN: No.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the guys looked very calmly and said his name shall be Jesus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: A youth minister says God reveals himself in many ways. So take a good look, can you see the reveal in that Cheeto?

HOLMES: Come on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NGUYEN: This is a great story. And it reminds you that next time you reach for a snack, right, you may want to look very closely. You might even want to make a little shrine out of this bag. We'll tell you what we're talking about.

HOLMES: A minister in Houston, Texas, that's what he did made a little shrine because he was chowing down on a bag of Cheetos and that one caught his eye.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF STEVE CRAGG, YOUTH MINISTER: It looked like this when I first saw it. And I said, it looks someone like a dog or something with two legs. And then I turned it around like this and I was fixing to put it in my mouth and eat it and that's the I saw. And I said I don't think the heavenly choir actually started singing, but in my mind they did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NGUYEN: Did he really say that the choir started to sing? All right, that's because to him it looks like Jesus with outstretched hands. Now you view it how ever you want, we're not being disrespectful about the name, but some people at the church really are calling it, go ahead T.J.

HOLMES: "Cheesus." That's creative.

NGUYEN: So you know, we decided to see if maybe we could find our very own, our own personal "Cheesus."

HOLMES: Something feels inappropriate about this.

NGUYEN: I don't but...

HOLMES: Something that doesn't feel right.

NGUYEN: I'm not seeing anything here. I don't know. Maybe this is someone with their arm raised perhaps? Maybe we can build a little shrine.

HOLMES: You know, devout people can see Jesus or the Virgin Mary in anything they eat. I mean, I know...

NGUYEN: Well, some of the things though do really kind of look -- I mean...

HOLMES: I don't know, Betty.

NGUYEN: I'm skeptical, but there are sometimes when I look at -- you know, the grilled cheese sandwich, remember that one?

HOLMES: Most of my food resembles Betty. I mean, just to let you know.

NGUYEN: What does that mean?

HOLMES: I see Betty in most of my food.

NGUYEN: And so you step away.

HOLMES: Yes. Josh?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I'm leaning really far away to avoid weighing in on that. Oh, my lord.

NGUYEN: Would you like a "Cheesus"?

LEVS: Oh, no. Thank you. Just looking at those things makes me incredibly thirsty.

What's happening? Oh, OK. So, we're closing out this half hour with me getting to show you guys a fun viral video. So, let's go to that quickly.

Let me just show you, this is the new hottest viral video to top in the country this weekend. How do you get your dog to stay entertained with no human beings around? This dog rocks, he loads up the fetch machine himself. He takes that little tennis ball. It's so cool. His owner posted this online. His owner won't give his name.

But he talked about how it's safe and he was very careful so don't try this at home, people, but he created this machine. Look at how excited the dog is. He wags his tail.

NGUYEN: Yes, until he gets hit in the eye with it.

LEVS: He had to come back down. Watch this. He gets it all set. It goes in the chutes off.

NGUYEN: Run, run!

LEVS: He's going to go catch it, bring it right back. This little dude can play this fetch machine for hours. Number one video in America. The dog looks so happy.

HOLMES: Going to sell this machine, the owner? What is this?

NGUYEN: That's a good idea.

LEVS: He hasn't sold it, but he probably should. I mean, it's going to take off.

NGUYEN: The Fetch-O-Matic, maybe?

LEVS: Fetch-O-Matic, dang, you just gave that a guy a great name.

NGUYEN: Right? Just helping out.

LEVS: Love that video.

NGUYEN: Until we find our own personal Cheesus. And then, it'll be done.

HOLMES: OK, folks, we're going to wrap this up. We probably should have wrapped it up a few minutes ago.

NGUYEN: Oh, yes, we have to go (ph).

LEVS: It is still CNN (ph).

HOLMES: But we got "OPEN HOUSE" with Gerri Willis coming your way and right now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxantshop.com