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CNN Saturday Morning News
Arizona Immigration Bill Signed into Law; Fifth Anniversery of YouTube; SEC Porn Scandal
Aired April 24, 2010 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: You want to start with me this morning? This is Brooke Baldwin here. All right, folks. I'm T.J. Holmes. We're going get along just fine. We got a lot to tell you about. It's 8:00 a.m. where we sit in Atlanta, Georgia. It's 5:00 out in Arizona, but good morning to you all. The weather is going to be a big story this morning.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, a huge story, fast-moving story. We're all over it. We're talking tornados, tornadic activity really across the Midwest, southeast this morning already some stories popping up. Several high-risk areas I think is how Bonnie Schneider was saying, 30 percent risk of tornadoes. She's watching it for us. We'll check in with her.
HOLMES: Also a lot of people keeping an eye on what's happening in Arizona. What has been happening there, well, it's a done deal now. The lawyer, the governor, has put her signature on the new law that some say will lead to racial profiling, called the toughest immigration law in the country. And as soon as she signed it, already, the outrage starts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thinking about my family, my friends, about everything that's going to happen, about how people are going to treat us (ph) from now on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well that woman just among the thousands of people who are protesting and coming up this morning, you'll hear from more of them. Also you'll hear from people who support the bill, also you'll hear from the governor who signed it and the president of the United States who's also weighing in.
But here are some other stories we're also keeping an eye on this morning. Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, you've been hearing that a lot in the news over the past several years. Another incident of violence there. Gunmen ambushed two police vehicles and seven Mexican police officers were killed also a 17-year-old boy, just a bystander killed in that. This has been an ongoing turf battle between drug cartel in Ciudad Juarez that has left some 5,000 people dead in just the past two years.
BALDWIN: Well, they were working on your dime, the taxpayer dime and some of them were uploading porn on the Internet. Talk about the SEC. Now they say they'll be taking action against those particular workers who spent the day looking at porn instead of doing their job. This is going on while the financial crisis was playing out. The Securities and Exchange Commission is the agency that serves as Wall Street's watchdog. Some of the 33 SEC workers involved in that were fired. Others have been talked to.
HOLMES: You cannot make that stuff up.
Also the father of one of those missing oil rig workers says he doesn't blame the Coast Guard for now calling off the search. The giant rig exploded Tuesday in the Gulf of Mexico, then sank. Seventeen people were injured in that with nearly 100 others made it off just fine and the Coast Guard says it will resume the search of any ships in the area (INAUDIBLE).
BALDWIN: Want to get back to a fascinating story involving tornadoes, a lot of you waking up to severe weather. Possible tornados touching down in the deep south this morning and it comes really a little surprise.
HOLMES: Yeah. This has been -- check out some of this video. Some awesome pictures we have been seeing. These are always remarkable. These storm chasers, my goodness, the work they do.
BALDWIN: How close they get.
HOLMES: It is amazing what these guys do. A lot of us find it crazy. These guys certainly take all the precautions necessary to bring you some of these pictures, but just incredible what we've been seeing. This tornadic trouble has been moving eastward since earlier in the week. More than 30 tornados were reported in the Texas panhandle, western Kansas and a couple places in between. Now it's all about Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi.
That whole area under the gun, those states in the severe weather watch boxes and Bonnie is keeping a watch on those watch boxes and this stuff just keeps coming. It's a fast-moving story this morning Bonnie.
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely, T.J. and Brooke. The storm situation has gone from bad to worse. We now have a tornado warning that stretches across two states. This is Union Parish in northern Louisiana. Once you cross the border into Arkansas it becomes Union County.
The tornado warning for this area will actually continue for another 15 minutes or so. No tornado reported on the ground, but we are seeing rotation on Doppler radar so keep that in mind. This is just the beginning of a dramatic day filled with severe weather. We have four tornado watches covering some major cities in the south.
I want to draw your attention to this box right here which includes the cities of Memphis and Jackson and down from Mobile, Alabama. This tornado watch right here has been listed by the storm prediction center out of Norman, Oklahoma, as a PDS watch. What that stands for, particularly dangerous situation.
When this is issued and it only happens in around less than 3 percent of the watches issued, it means we have a particularly high potential for strong violent and damaging tornados. Other watches include areas to the southern Louisiana and Alabama including the cities of New Orleans, Mobile, Biloxi, all under tornado watches straight throughout the rest of the day.
The big picture shows you that we have tornado watches stretching as far north as areas of Arkansas all the way down to the Gulf coast and then back out to the west, into Texas. A little bit of Texas getting affected. But it's really Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama that are under the gun for severe weather. This region right here, just to let you know, has been classified as high risk for severe weather. So get ready. Put your NOAA weather radio on. We're going to have a lot of tornado warnings I imagine throughout the day.
HOLMES: Bonnie, we appreciate you. We are going to be checking in with Bonnie a lot throughout this morning as she continues to get those updates. So stay right here with us. Thank you so much Bonnie.
Turning back to Arizona now, taking a bold step, some say possibly an unconstitutional step to stop illegal immigration.
BALDWIN: It happened in Arizona right around 1:30 local time yesterday afternoon. Governor Jan Brewer signed this bill, Senate bill 1070 into law making it essentially illegal to be in the country illegally, but it's how this whole thing shakes out that's making news.
Our Casey Wian looks at the legislation and all the people protesting against it.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GOV. JAN BREWER (R) ARIZONA: I will now sign Senate bill 1070.
CASEY WIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signed into law the nation's toughest measure aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration over the objections of hundreds of protesters who surrounded the state capitol for several days.
BREWER: So many people disagree. I firmly believe it represents what's best for Arizona.
WIAN: Protesters claim the bill will lead to racial profiling by police officers enforcing its most controversial provision. They will be required in many cases to check the immigration status of anyone they believe is in the United States illegally. Some opponents were angry, others just sad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I started to cry. I started to think about my family, my friends, about everything that's going to happen, about how police are going to chase us from now on.
WIAN: Brewer says she will enforce state laws against racial profiling with as much vigor as she enforces the new law making illegal immigration a state crime.
BREWER: People across America are watching Arizona, seeing how we implement this law, ready to jump on even the slightest misstep.
WIAN: Many opponents aren't even waiting for then. The governor says she's been warned to expect lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the bill and to expect them soon.
(on-camera): The new law is not expected to take effect until late July or early August, 90 days after the current legislative session ends. In the meantime, Governor Brewer has issued an executive order that the state's police officers be trained in the specifics of the new law, namely, what constitutes reasonable suspicion and what does not.
Casey Wian, CNN, Phoenix, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: A lot of demonstrations out there. Most of the ones we saw, the people out there, they were opposed to the legislation. But earlier in the week certainly the legislation's supporters showed up. What do they have to say about it? They say, it's about time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIEF MALE: Stop illegal immigration. You want to immigrate, stand in line and do it right. We'll accept you with open arms. But this way, illegally, is illegal.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm in a celebratory nature. I'm going out and having a drink.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well Arizona's new law certainly drawing a lot of attention and reaction and been getting some from you already this morning as well. And please, keep it coming. We want to know what you think about it. Is it a good idea, bad idea? Effective? Ineffective? Is it racial profiling? Let us know what you think. You know where to find us by now on our blog, cnn.com/T.J., Facebook and Twitter as well. The address there is T.J. Holmes CNN also our e-mail, weekends@cnn.com.
BALDWIN: He has called Islam evil. Now hear what evangelist Franklin Graham is saying after having his invitation to the national day of prayer event yanked.
Plus, frustrated parents sound off on an invitation that wasn't yanked. Find out what a school is thinking when it let a pretty famous felon talk to their children. The principal's priceless response next on CNN's SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right, TI, if you don't know who that is certainly your children know who that is. One of the biggest, one of the hottest rappers out there right now and he's trying to right now move on with this life and his career after he just got out of jail after a conviction for weapons possession.
BALDWIN: Right. So part of his sentence from this judge is community service, 400 hours. And part of that, he needs to speak to students. He in fact spoke to some middle school students outside of Atlanta about bullying. Some parents I talked to, not so thrilled about that. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VOICE OF TOM MYERS, PARENT OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT: I don't have an issue with TI per se other than the fact that I don't think he's appropriate for my middle school girls to be inspired by.
VOICE OF CANDI MYERS, PARENT OF MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENT: I was absolutely shocked, because all we were asking was from here forward (ph) to give us the opportunity to choose who we wanted our children to be exposed to.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So that was Tom and Candi Myers and they sent an e-mail to the principal at Woodland Middle School in Henry County about having his rapper TI. Why did you invite him? Here is what the principal Terry Oatts said and, I quote I thought about asking a guy who snorted cocaine and got arrested for DUI when he was 30 to come and speak to our kids, but President George W. Bush was not available. That is a direct quote from that e-mail.
A spokeswoman for the Henry County school system, who I reached out to yesterday to get a comment in reaction to that said this, community development coordinator Connie Rutherford said, quoting here a program in which TI spoke, it was a bullying prevention initiative. The purpose of TI's visit was to speak against bullying, encourage students to get prepared for the CRCT, study hard, listen to their teachers and make positive goals.
But you know what? Parents were saying this wasn't fair. They had to sign off on some waiver so that their kids at this middle school could watch a movie involving the holocaust. Their argument is simply let us have a little input, please, to the school with regards to the speakers.
HOLMES: I can't remember in school. We had speakers all the time. I don't remember having to get my parents' permission for that. You just -- parents you're supposed to trust the teachers to make a good call for their kids and apparently they don't think this was good call.
BALDWIN: They do not.
HOLMES: TI, on that subject, yes, talked to him right before he went into jail. It was an interesting interview then. His actually ankle monitor went off in the middle of the interview. He's a different man, a new man he said he was going to be but he's out. We're going to be spending some time with him and ask him about this controversy as well. We're going to be looking for that in the next couple of weeks. We'll certainly bring that to you.
BALDWIN: Maybe he has a life lesson he can impart having done what he's done.
HOLMES: He wants to. He did a whole lot of community service before he went into the jail, had a couple thousand hours I believe he had to do. So he did a lot of work, but ...
BALDWIN: He gets asked about that.
HOLMES: No doubt. And I will take some of those quotes from the administrators to TI's house.
Coming up here next, the Pentagon uninvites the Reverend Franklin Graham to a prayer event. That's after Graham told CNN true Islam cannot be practiced in this country. That's a quote. The evangelist says you cannot murder your children if you think they've committed adultery. He spoke.
Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REV. FRANKLIN GRAHAM, PRES., BILLY GRAHAM EVANGELISTIC ASSN: Barbara, I stand by, of course, what I said. I love the people of Islam. The religion is what I have the problem with. I don't like the way they treat women, the way they treat minorities. I just find it horrific, but, yet, we are a nation of many races and cultures and represent many religions, but yet the majority religion of this nation by far is the Christian faith, about 89 percent.
So I certainly disagree with Islam but I love the people of Islam and I certainly identify with them. A lot of my work, Barbara, is in the Middle East and in Arab countries, Muslim countries and we've been working there for, I've been involved there for 50 years and it's part of a role I love very much and I understand it, but yet I certainly disagree with their teaching.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Graham has also called Islam evil and wicked as well.
BALDWIN: YouTube, one of the most well-known websites on the Internet. I can't believe, it's just been around for a couple of years. It's really revolutionized the way we look at ourselves and others and laugh at them.
HOLMES: Yes as we know. This is where people trying to get instant stardom. You can become a hit with a few 100,000 hits. It's home to hundreds of millions of videos some of which certainly can make you laugh, but I haven't seen one that made me cry yet. I'm sure they're out there.
BALDWIN: (INAUDIBLE) laugh at.
HOLMES: Laugh at. We got some laughing to do. Coming up as YouTube celebrates a milestone. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: I think they were playing it earlier. They're playing that a lot and some of you may be playing certain clips on YouTube over and over. Some of them have become infamous now, the newnuma, the (INAUDIBLE)
HOLMES: I don't know the newnuma. What's the newnuma?
BALDWIN: Maybe Josh can show us. We're talking about YouTube. This is the video -- Josh, you want to talk about the newnuma guy?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm about to show you the newnuma.
HOLMES: I'll recognize it, maybe, I just didn't know the name.
LEVS: You know what? You will because actually a sample what he did, he made the song really famous. They sample it in a song by TI and Rihanna (ph) so you'll recognize it from that. Big deal, fifth anniversary of YouTube. Things are changing. It has changed the Internet in a lot of ways.
Before we have some fun looking back at the hottest videos of all-time, I want you to see these numbers, because this might blow you away. Twenty four hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute. So think about all the hours. It's 24 hours of video every minute and then more than a billion views of different YouTube videos every day the globe.
Now what is the most watched YouTube video of all-time? There's a new reigning champion we've got for you here, which maybe won't shock you, maybe will. Lady Gaga. "Bad Romance" is basically at the 200 million mark. It's close to 200 million and the official place you look at it, (INAUDIBLE) technology some use to copy YouTube videos, put on their own pages.
So look at it that way. It's crossed 200 million. It's incredible number. Time to look back a little bit with Brooke's maybe favorite, my personal favorite and let's welcome T.J. to the newnuma fold. Here you go.
Let me explain to you what's going on so we understand. This is what established a contest of the viral video. It really didn't exist until this moment a few years ago. This kid Gary (INAUDIBLE) was just playing around in his own place, started mouthing the words of this Romanian song just for his friends and dancing around funny.
Well, he sent it out online via YouTube basically for his friends and then they started sharing it with everyone else. Pretty soon the whole world was watching him dance and lip-synch to this song. It went viral. After it was after that, that everybody else in the world started watching their own viral video. Give him another 10 seconds, then we'll go on. Now and forever the newnuma kid and known for that.
Now here's another one that I love that's in the top 20 probably of all-time. This is the Montgomery flea market. Let me say that again. The flea market Montgomery ad which went huge. Let's watch this guy.
It's just like a mini-mall and Sammy Stephens (ph), the actual flea market Montgomery ad, went so huge. He's all over TV. He has his own website now, people going wild about it. You can let us know your favorites. Go to my Facebook page joshlevscnn and share with us. What are your favorites of all-time? So T.J., let me ask you, are you now a newnuma convert?
HOLMES: I know the newnuma now. That's my guy, my flea market guy.
LEVS: The flea market guy. I love him.
HOLMES: Let's go to break on our guy. I love this thing. Love this guy.
BALDWIN: That's what we laughing at.
HOLMES: Yeah. Love this guy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. App, netbook, social media, broadband, you know all those terms. You're familiar with them all. You know what they mean. Do you consider yourself possibly tech savvy. If not, you need to listen up.
This week a lot of folks, a lot of well-known folks turned out for a major summit to bring people especially in minority communities up to speed in the digital age. Some of those names I mentioned, I'll tell you about, (INAUDIBLE) Harper, Mayor Cory Booker (ph), Mayor Shirley Franklin, Jackie Reed (ph), the SEC commissioner, Mario Armstrong. Mario Armstrong? Mario Armstrong? How did that name get in there? On that script in here? Mario, our tech guy.
MARIO ARMSTRONG, THEDIGITALSPIN.COM: I've been working hard for the past 10 years of my life trying to get people to understand how great technology enters the new millennium.
HOLMES: So this was a big gathering. You were able to go to the summit.
ARMSTRONG: Yes.
HOLMES: Tell us the goal of this thing.
ARMSTRONG: So the goal of this summit was to really bring to Newark, New Jersey, a national, a national program to discuss the importance of bringing broadband technology to low income and minority communities. That was the goal, to have a much broader, larger discussion about the importance and the value and what they were trying to do was really set a new agenda.
They unveiled an agenda called the JET agenda, J-E-T which is jobs, education and technology is what they were all about and how you can use everything from wireless technology to broadband technology in your home to better your health care, to better your career opportunities and to better your life economically.
HOLMES: And tell us about -- and again I kind of named some of the folks there. We got some video of you up on stage doing your thing, certainly getting a little excited, as you always are and we appreciate that energy, but no. Some of the names who were there, but also some of the solutions to getting this technology to those communities.
ARMSTRONG: And that's where the rubber meets the road right because you've been to these events before, T.J.. You've been to all these things and is it just rhetoric, rhetoric, rhetoric, talk, talk, talk? What actually gets done? The Alliance for Digital Equality is the name of the organization that put this on. Now honestly, they kind of sprung up on me out of nowhere.
I just got word of them about a year ago and they have been diligently going to city after city creating new chapters, not just talking. But actually in Washington, DC. There have chapter. In Miami they have a chapter. In Los Angeles they have a chapter, now in Newark, New Jersey. So they are actually putting people together and doing mobilization and they're bringing major stakeholders.
FCC commissioners and all of these people that are involved in the national broadband plan and politicians and other dignitaries like former mayor of Miami (INAUDIBLE), former mayor of your hometown of Atlanta Franklin are all now involved in this and are really bringing some momentum and mobilization to these efforts.
HOLMES: FCC chairman there as well which was a major one to have. What did she have to say?
ARMSTRONG: Yeah, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn was there and she talked a lot about the FCC national broadband plan, but she also had some specific things to say about the minority community.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIGNON CLYBURN, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION: You don't have to be a millionaire. You don't have to have a million dollar advertising budget in order to promote yourself. The opportunities hear it, feel it, got to feel the excitement indeed (ph) because I know that especially communities of color, especially communities with economic challenges, especially communities with educational disparities, that they can bridge those divides through this technology.
JULIUS HOLLIS, ADE CHAIRMAN: From our perspective, the digital revolution provides for us the opportunity to level the playing field for a number of individuals who have essentially been shut out over the last 30 years because of excess economic inequalities in communities of color and versus the more affluent communities in America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right. Last thing before I let you go here, as we listened to them, but was there any discussion about maybe some of the minority communities being a little resistant to, a little reluctant to bring in and accept some of these new technologies, almost just afraid of what you don't know?
ARMSTRONG: Absolutely. The Pew Internet did a study on this so folks if you want to find out more, go to pewinternet.org. But you're right. Part of the issue is not just economics, T.J.. Part is a mental shift that needs to be done. And that's the concern of mine and many people behind this organization that want to see more communities of color adopt broadband technologies.
Case in point, over 90 million Americans do not have Internet access and some of them choose not to have that. And it's not just about the economics. They haven't seen why it's relevant to their life and that is what needs to change.
HOLMES: Mario Armstrong. Mayor Booker, Gil Harper (ph) Mayor Franklin.
ARMSTRONG: Yes and my iPad.
HOLMES: You belong in that crowd. Come on.
ARMSTRONG: I've got it with me.
HOLMES: Stop doing that Mario, stop it.
ARMSTRONG: You know, I had to show because you don't think I'm up to date on all my technology. You know? You're always like joaning (ph) on me, he doesn't have the latest tech.
HOLMES: I know you are, but you don't have to gloat in front of people's face. Mario, our tech guy with us every Saturday. Stay here for the latest scoop on the iPads and all the things in between.
ARMSTRONG: Thanks, T.J..
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Now, some of the stories we're keeping an eye on.
First, the father of one of the missing oil rig workers says he doesn't blame the Coast Guard for calling off the search. The giant rig exploded Tuesday in the Gulf of Mexico and sank, 11 are still missing; 17 were injured but nearly 100 others made it off just fine. The Coast Guard says it will resume the search if any ships in the area see anything.
BALDWIN: The U.S. Geological Survey now is downgrading the earthquake that hit Indonesia about four hours ago. The USGS says the quake registered 6.0 in magnitude and was centered right around the Obi Islands that's in the Maluku Island chain. No reports of damage, no casualties yet. A tsunami alert was not issued.
HOLMES: Well, what would you prefer? The electric chair? Lethal injection or firing squad? A death row inmate has chosen the firing squad in Utah. Yes and he has that option. A judge agreed to a convicted killer's choice of execution. The man is 49-year-old Ronnie Lee Gardner. He's scheduled to die on June 18th. Now Utah had actually already nixed this option, but this guy was essentially grandfathered in.
So he was sentenced to death before they did away with the firing squad which makes him still eligible to take this option; Utah really, the only state before they made -- they outlawed it -- to offer this form of capital punishment.
BALDWIN: I want to get back to Arizona. You know, it's a state taking a hard and tough step of preventing illegal immigration. The governor signing what many considered to be the toughest immigration bill in all the land -- the entire country here. But before that demonstrators gathering outside the Capitol building trying to convince Governor Jan Brewer not to sign the bill into law.
Our own Thelma Gutierrez spoke with some of those protesters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The governor just signed a bill into law. And if you take a look around you can see thousands of people have gathered here in front of the state capitol in Phoenix. The emotions, the sadness and anger are palpable.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I started to cry, I started to think about my family and my friends, about everything that's going to happen, about how people are going to chase us from now.
GUTIERREZ: What was your first reaction when you heard that the law had been signed?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I'm kind of disappointed at one point. We feel that we're still fighting again. All this injustice is going into the state. And, of course, for all the community out there, the Hispanic community of course, we kind of feel a little afraid of what's going on.
GUTIERREZ: Many of the protesters here are young students and they're Latinos but they're not alone in their indignation. What was your first reaction?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I cried. How could we do this to people?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And hopefully this will stir up the masses to come out and get the politics of this state turned around in the right direction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It took a lot for me to wear this, and, you know, it's just a travesty today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An important day in Arizona, disappointing day.
GUTIERREZ: It sounds like the organizers are (INAUDIBLE), they are telling this crowd to fight back in the best way that they can. By registering to vote, and making their political voices heard.
Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Phoenix, Arizona.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now, President Obama says he doesn't like the legislation and commented on the measure yesterday. Our deputy political director Paul Steinhauser joins us now from Washington.
Paul, hello and the president has inserted himself into this debate in some way.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, his comment's quite critical of that controversial legislation, T.J. But he said, you know, some of the blame is right here in Washington, D.C. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. And that includes, for example, the recent efforts in Arizona, which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as Americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe.
In fact, I've instructed members of my administration to closely monitor the situation and examine the Civil Rights and other implications of this legislation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEINHAUSER: That was the president before the bill was signed into law. After the bill was signed into law Homeland Security Secretary, Janet Napolitano, who you know was Governor of Arizona before Brewer, she was even more critical T.J., saying that the new law could get in the way of federal efforts to get, catch and remove dangerous illegal aliens. And she said that when she was governor she'd vetoed similar legislation -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Paul we just went through the health care debate. We've got the financial reform debate heating up; it's going to be ugly and partisan as well. Immigration has the potential to really open and I don't even want to call it a new can of worms but continue this can we already opened last year?
STEINHAUSER: Oh yes. And what happened in Arizona yesterday could really be a catalyst, kind of -- to put immigration on the fast track. And in fact, our correspondent at Capitol Hill Dana Dash was saying that yesterday this could now be a fast track to this summer. You could see Democratic lawmakers in the White House making a push on immigration, and as you said, it could be ugly. Do you remember last time we went through this back in 2005, 2006 and 2007, you heard a lot of the right calling the fast way to citizenship, amnesty. But this is an important bill for the Democrat and for the White House. Why? Because a lot of Latinos and Hispanics are a little upset that the White House hasn't done anything yet in the first 15 months of the Obama administration on immigration.
Take a look at this. This is a CNN exit poll from the 2008 election. And you could see right here. Hispanics made up about nine percent of the voting population overwhelmingly went for Barack Obama in the election. They are an important constituent to the Democrats. T.J., it could be a very hot summer here in Washington when it comes to immigration reform.
HOLMES: Yes and not like the summer wasn't going to be hot anyway. Oh yes, I forget to throw in, there's going to be possibly a debate over a new Supreme Court Justice.
STEINHAUSER: Yes.
HOLMES: Paul, enjoy yourself in D.C., my man. I probably won't be coming to see you. All right, thank you buddy. We'll talk to you again real soon.
HOLMES: And on this particular issue of immigration reform, we've been asking you about your comments, a lot of them coming in. And a lot of people have strong opinions on both sides.
BALDWIN: Yes and it's interesting because I feel like we've heard from a lot of people who say this isn't fair, this is absolutely racial profiling. But on the flip side, I have two tweets I want to read who say, you know what, we support this. First tweet on my Twitter account saying, "I applaud the Arizona law. If you're here legally nor are you a criminal you should have nothing to worry about".
Second one right under that, "I admire Arizona for taking a stand on this. There will be a fine line between law enforcement and violation of Civil Rights."
HOLMES: We'll go to the next screen there, and from Sylvia -- I just read one, they're in the middle -- Sylvia says, "I don't mind being asked for my I.D. as long as my blond and blue eyed friend does, too. Sad that they have opened up the floodgates eventually having our rights stripped."
So a lot of people make that point as well. Ok. You want to do it to me, just do it to everybody else. And they just don't feel like they should be singled out."
BALDWIN: How would one be singled out? A lot of questions exactly as to how that will happen. I'm sure we'll digging into that.
Meantime, we're also keeping a close eye on the severe weather that's popping up for people today. We're watching tornadoes in parts of the south. Bonnie Schneider will join us for the latest warnings coming up on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: Well, depending on where you live, where you're waking up this morning, you could be looking out the window and seeing some severe weather.
HOLMES: Yes.
BALDWIN: We're talking tornados specifically in the Deep South.
HOLMES: Yes, go ahead and bring Bonnie Schneider in. Bonnie, things just continue to pop. You take it away and give us the update.
SCHNEIDER: T.J. and Brooke we are tracking tornado warnings across Arkansas and Mississippi at this hour. I've highlighted this one for you. This tornado warning includes the counties you see here and also the City of Tunica, where a lot of people may go for vacation time actually.
Clarksdale and Mississippi are under that tornado warning it expires at 8:15 Central Daylight Time.
The big picture shows us that we have multiple tornado watches. Now some of these will actually extend until 10:00 tonight Central Daylight Time. One, I want to know, even though we have them for Memphis, Jackson, New Orleans, Mobile, Alabama, very big cities in the south, the one I want to highlight right here is the one that includes western Tennessee and a good portion of Mississippi.
This one is listed by the Storm Prediction Center as a particularly dangerous situation. A TBS advisory, we see these in less than three percent of watches that are issued. This also an indicator of how serious the situation it is going to be this afternoon and it's already starting to be that way this morning.
Look at the thunderstorms that we're seeing just south of Memphis in northern Mississippi. Real time flashes of lightning. We can show you a live picture of Memphis. The skies are overcast and the roads look wet, but south of the city a short drive in Mississippi, boy, hammered by hail. Penny, dime-sized hail reported already. Not in Memphis, but come back to the map.
I want to show you Clarksdale. I've highlighted, this isn't rain. This is an indicator of where we're getting hail real time and frequent lightning. So already hail reported with these storms making them even more dangerous.
The big picture now shows you that we have severe weather just south of Memphis and then also across Mississippi down through Alabama and even into Florida right now near Tallahassee and in Georgia in Atlanta.
This is the recipe that we don't see every day. We have the perfect setup for multiple scale thunderstorm activity, widespread tornadoes across the region. Low pressure coming out of the four corner states eventually from Colorado and the area you see here right in the mid-South and to the Gulf Coast, just to show you that this is actually an area that we watch very closely because it does indicate where we get high risk when you have all these factors coming together.
So highly likely we'll see more tornado warnings throughout the day. Back to you.
HOLMES: All right. Bonnie, appreciate you. We will be checking back with you all day.
SCHNEIDER: Ok.
BALDWIN: A couple of top stories we're following for you this Saturday -- first up, Arizona. The governor is signing the state's new anti-immigration bill into law. Critics already calling it unconstitutional. Why? They say it'll lead to abuse and racial profiling. People have been protesting over this issue for days.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ISAIAS MORENO, IREPORTER: This is what's going on I think are right now. And there's about 50 people protesting -- 20 people? 20 people protesting in favor of the bill as being 1070, there's about 4,000 against it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Well, so far we know of at least one Hispanic group promising to challenge the new law, challenge the constitutionality in the court.
HOLMES: Well, the death toll still rising after that massive earthquake in China earlier this month. State media now reporting 2,192 died that's up by more than 100. The 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck in northwest China.
BALDWIN: Well, happy birthday to Hubble telescope marking two decades in space this month. In the last 20 years it has captured amazing images. And it really had a profound effect on our understanding of the universe.
The Hubble has been updated over the years. It is now 100 times more powerful than when it was first launched.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: All right. This time of year has come and gone. But if you're a basketball fan and you watched the final four, this is a big deal. For the first time in 73 years every single game of the NCAA basketball tournament will be on TV for you. The NCAA signing this landmark 14-year deal with Turner Broadcasting and CBS Sports; the contract runs from 2011 to 2024 -- get this -- $10.8 billion agreement.
So that means every single tourney game will be broadcast on either CBS, TBS, Turner, TNT or TruTV. CBS and Turner will alternate airing the championship game. T.J. and I will get front row court seats for that final four.
HOLMES: Turner, that's our parent company now.
BALDWIN: Yes. Kidding.
HOLMES: We get tickets, all front row; you're going to see nothing but CNN employees.
Well, also a big week -- I wonder if Turner can pull off a deal with the NFL. It was a big week for the NFL.
Draft is still going on right now. And the schedule was released this week for the NFL, but one bit of news overshadowed all of that it seems. It's the backlash over Big Ben.
You know him by now, Ben Roethlisberger. The championship quarterback of the Pittsburgh Steelers suspended six games for the -- by the league's commissioner after a second woman within a year accused him of sexual assault. He has not been criminally charged in either case.
Now, his suspension can go up to eight games, depending on his behavior. That's going to cost him some money.
The author of the book "Beyond the Box Score", CNN sports business analyst, friend of our show as well, Rick Horrow joins us now. Just give me the dollars. Help people understand this. How much does missing a game cost this guy?
RICK HORROW, CNN SPORTS BUSINESS ANALYST: $473,529 to be exact, my friend. And if it's four to six to eight games, worst case that eight-game suspension, we're talking about $3.5 million. But of course, that's not the only issue.
It's all of his sponsorships. Big Ben's Beef Jerky yanked him off the shelves and the Pittsburgh Zoo is replacing the 6'5 Roethlisberger with he 6'5" Mario Lemieux, they compare height of people to height of elephants. It's a bad week for Ben.
HOLMES: It's a bad week for Ben but Ben maybe got some good news at least that he wasn't going to be charged in these cases. That's something. But at the same time, some people thought, he wasn't charged. Why is he suspended?
What kind of message is the commissioner sending here?
HORROW: The message the commissioner is sending is, you cannot necessarily be indicted or convicted, but if you do something that's not in the best interest of the NFL I can still suspend you. And he is on solid legal ground for that. And players have now understood that this is the discipline and image commissioner. He's taking a strong stand that frankly should be lauded.
HOLMES: Well, the example he's making, is this also putting other players and also some of these kids in the draft, who are just being drafted still, but drafted the past couple of days, being put on notice that your behavior, your character plays more of a role these days in your contract, in your dollars?
HORROW: Stan Bradford, the Oklahoma quarterback, number 1 draft pick may make $50 million as a guarantee. That's why I'm holding a football. Maybe I'll get there at some point. But the image issue is really important. $12 billion of corporate America spending shorter, smaller, easier to terminate contracts; so it's not just the endorsements, but if you violate these standards, regardless of your guarantee, the commissioner says, "I'm stepping down on you. So you better conform."
HOLMES: And some people think, I mean, the Tim Tebow issue, he went 25th, 26th. A lot of people never thought he was going to be in the first round, but people like his character. People think that might have played a role. People think he's a good kid.
HORROWS: Listen, character doesn't throw touchdown passes but character matters, my friend, and the commissioner reaffirms that.
HOLMES: And also the case of a gentleman I interviewed, Ramon Harewood (ph), plays over here at Morehouse, wasn't projected to be drafted at all. He goes to these interviews; people see what kind of a family background he has and how smart he is. And he seems to be moving up and might get drafted today. We'll see.
Last thing here -- let's go to the NBA for a second. We were talking about the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing that we saw on the 19th, and also not too far after that the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're having their first play off game ever.
Talk about how the city has rallied around this team anyway and now how this is kind of a special time for them, their first playoff game.
HORROW: Very important story. It's not just the bombing, but two years before, there was a major issue in Oklahoma City. I was lucky enough to be a part of called MAPS, Metropolitan Area Projects Strategies, the largest single issue facility referendum in the country. It including arena, included stadiums.
And 17 years later not only does the community emerge from the bombing that much stronger but the arena gets done, the Seattle Supersonics moved to Oklahoma City. The Thunder wins its first playoff game against the Lakers and, oh, by the way, there are four kids in the first round drafted, one through four, three of them were Oklahoma Sooners.
So this was good week, economic impact, billion dollars in Oklahoma City. Sports is very important to economic development. This is a classic case study. Way to go Oklahoma City.
HOLMES: Good to see what's happening there. Always fun to watch Kevin Durant. Good to see you as well, my friend. You enjoy the rest of your weekend. HORROW: Yes. Congratulations for the NCAA. Maybe Arkansas can get in a tournament now, by the way.
HOLMES: Yes, we expanded to 68. Maybe we can get in there.
All right, Rick, thanks so much.
Quick break, be right back, folks.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: President Obama wants more oversight of Wall Street, but he may want to check on exactly who's going to be doing the watching.
BALDWIN: We are talking about a very embarrassing pornography scandal unfolding at the SEC.
CNN's congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar is all over the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the U.S. financial system teetered on the brink of collapse almost two years ago, at the Securities and Exchange Commission, the agency that is supposed to keep an eye on Wall Street, some top employees were very busy looking at porn.
One staff accountant had nearly 600 pornographic images on her work computer. And investigators found that the agency's computer network denied her access to porn sites 1,800 times in just two weeks. Another staff accountant was denied access to sexually explicit sites a whopping 16,000 times over a month.
And a senior attorney at the SEC sometimes spent eight hours a day looking at online porn. His hard drive ran out of space from all the images he downloaded. So he saved pornographic content to CDs or DVDs, enough to fill multiple boxes in his office.
These details from an investigation by the SEC's inspector general, the agency's watchdog, were requested and made public this week by Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa. As Democrats pushed legislation to get tough on Wall Street, some GOP lawmakers like California's Darrell Issa say this scandal raises question about giving greater authority to government regulators like the SEC.
REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: They have all the authority in the world to go after Bernie Madoff or Allen Stanford and didn't because they said they didn't have the resources and it's obvious that they have resources they're misusing or not using including these highly paid individuals who as they were surfing porn sites -- let's be very clear -- they probably are also doing their bill-paying online, looking for their vacation getaway.
KEILAR: Senator Grassley's office says his request for this material has nothing to do with trying to sway the current debate over Wall Street regulation. That it's just about stressing the importance of why agencies like the SEC need strong oversight.
And the SEC says these are the actions of a few compared to the thousands of hard working employees at the agency. They say they disciplining the offenders and have fired some of them.
Brianna Keilar, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Coming up at the top of the hour, fries, onion rings, pizza, all of that junk food now kind of an enemy of the state. It is making what ought to be able bodies unfit to fight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: any kids are carrying too many pounds.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The nine million young adults are too overweight to join the military. By far the leading medical reason is being overweight and obese.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The childhood obesity epidemic in America not only threatens our nation's health, it also threatens national security.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today we are providing too much sodium, too much sugar, too much fat, not enough whole grains, not enough fruits and vegetables.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not about looking good anymore. It is about being healthy and fit to do the work of the nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Each Saturday morning here, 9:00 a.m. Eastern time we bring you special in-depth reports. We take the half hour and focus in on something. And today we're actually talking about the school cafeteria, would you believe. And would you believe it is the latest battleground for the U.S. military?
BALDWIN: That is what one group of retired officers are saying. They're worried that America's next generation of troops will be, quite honestly, too flabby to fight.
CNN's Samantha Hayes has more on the odd intersection between nutrition and national security. Samantha?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAMANTHA HAYES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: T.J. and Brooke, child and adolescent obesity has been talked about for a long time, but now it's affecting the military which has had to reject more recruits than ever because of weight problems.
(voice-over): Darrell Jackson is ready to join the Army. There's only one thing standing in his way.
DARRELL JACKSON, ASPIRING ARMY RECRUIT: I really want this. I used to be about 300 pounds. I'm really down right now to about 230.
HAYES: Jackson's weight problem is not uncommon among young people. The military would like it recruit. 27 percent of Americans 17 to 24 years old, month than nine million are physically unfit to serve, according to mission readiness, a group of retired military officers who appeared on Capitol Hill Tuesday.
BRIG. GEN. CLARA ADAMS-ENDER, U.S. ARMY (RET.): The troops need to be in excellent physical condition, because of the demands of the important jobs that they do in defense.
HAYES: Along with Senator Dick Lugar of Indiana and Agriculture secretary Tom Villsack, they urged the passage of legislation that would significantly change the food available to school children.
LT. GEN. NORMAL SEIP, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.): First get the junk food out of our schools. Second, increase funding to improve nutritional standards and the quality of meals served in our schools and finally provide more children access and their families access to effective programs.
HAYES (on camera): While all branches of the military are currently needing or even exceeding recruitment goals, the group mission readiness says obesity rates could change that and are the number one medical reason why recruits are rejected.
JACKSON: Just keep doing what I'm doing.
HAYES (voice-over): For now, they're working with potential recruits like Darrell Jackson, helping him get in shape so he can meet weight standards and pass the military's fitness test.
JACKSON: It give me something better to do with my life besides still work and same old dead-end job.
HAYES: A Senate committee already passed child nutrition legislation. Senator Dick Lugar says he hopes to see the legislation voted on by the full Senate this year.
In Washington, I'm Samantha Hayes, T.J. and Brooke, back to you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: All right. Thanks to our Samantha Hayes there. So just how unfit are America's young adults.
The Mission Readiness organization, they found that 75 percent of 17 to 24-year-olds are unable to join the military. That's not just about weight, though. This is a breakdown that includes those with criminal activity, that makes them unqualified. Also those without a high school education or GED and then also it does include those who are physically disabled. But the number one reason for that physical disability, they're too fat. What exactly does this mean? Let's bring in Retired Rear Admiral James Barnett. He's live for us from Washington. He served 32 years in the U.S. Navy, Navy Reserve, now serving as advisor to Mission Readiness.
Sir, thank you for being here. Let's give our viewers an idea and I know some of the standards are different, but a general idea of how fit you need to be to join the military.
REAR ADMIRAL JAMES A. BARNETT, JR., U.S. NAVY (RET.): Well, the United States military requires people to be under 27.5 percent body fat. Which actually is more than what the Center for Disease Control considers obese. As long as you're under that, you can join the military. Here's the problem. Childhood obesity has increased over three times. Tripled in the last 30 years. The trends are really bad for us.
HOLMES: The trends are bad. At the same time, help people understand. And a lot of people think it's because of the economic situation, but the military has been meeting its recruitment and retention goals the past several years?
BARNETT: That's right. Probably the recession has allowed the military to be very selective on that, but we're concerned about the trends and the economy surely will improve some day. We need to make sure that we have the people that we need in an increasingly technologically sophisticated military and so we can't have people filing out on us because of obesity and weight.
HOLMES: Well, I think a lot of people certainly agree with you that we have an obesity epidemic in the country and it's a good thing to focus on, but the same time, is it fair to go as far as saying, which we have been hearing now, since the report came out, that obesity is threatening our national security? Is it fair to take it that far to equate a weight problem with the, our ability to protect ourselves?
BARNETT: Absolutely. If you look back just a few years ago when we were actually having problems with recruiting, making sure that we get the people that can protect our country, actually work the complicated weapons systems and censor systems we have now. It's a major problem.
I have to tell you. There's actually some historical precedence for this. Back in the 1940s, we realized that people coming into the military actually were undernourished. And the military stepped forward and said, we need to have a better program and they advocated the National School Lunch Program in 1946, which is what we have today. It had a major effect. They passed it as a matter of national security.
HOLMES: And we talk about it, it's ironic we're coming to this point now. Full circle. We need to beef them up a little bit, and now we need to slim them down a little bit. We focus on school lunches. But should more focus, and there are programs that are doing this, including the first lady's focus on childhood obesity, that need to target more so the habits that happen outside of the school, outside of the lunchroom.
The kids most of the time get one meal a day at school. Sometimes two, if you count breakfast. But they get one meal a day and they are eating a whole lot more when they leave that schoolhouse.
BARNETT: That's true. But about 40 percent of the nutrition that a child receives, we found it actually comes at school. And so the school lunch program is a great place to start. But we're also advocating that there be effective school-based programs that actually help parents and help kids adopt healthy eating habits and healthy exercise habits as well.
HOLMES: All right. We sure do need a lean, mean, fighting machines out there for the U.S. military, sir. And again, it's gotten a lot of attention this week. And maybe this will be something to help us zero in even more and make us all a little healthier. Again, Rear Admiral James Barnett for us in Washington. Sir, we appreciate you being here.
BARNETT: Thank you.
HOLMES: And we'll certainly be talking to you down the road. Have a good weekend.
BARNETT: Thank you.
HOLMES: All right. Brooke?
BALDWIN: Well, we want to keep drilling down on this story and in particular when I get a view from a current military recruiter. Joining me now on the phone is Mark Howell with the U.S. Army Recruitment Office in Ft. Knox, Kentucky. Mr. Howell, good morning. And thanks for being with me.
VOICE OF MARK HOWELL, U.S. ARMY RECRUITMENT OFFICE: Good morning to you.
BALDWIN: I want to just first ask since you're essentially on the front lines of recruitment here, are you seeing more and more applicants who are overweight?
HOWELL: Most definitely. Less than three in 10, as the Rear Admiral mentioned a few seconds ago. It's becoming a problem. Not just the obesity, which is a major issue, but we're also having the problems with education requirements and kids with criminal backgrounds. So it's a real credit to the recruiters that we're making our recruitment goals right now because of those problems, they have to go out and talk to more people.
BALDWIN: And you know as well as I do, this isn't a new issue, it goes back to World War II, and we had recruits who weren't fit to fight then. Congress passed the National School Lunch Program, and now my question to you is, whose responsibility is this? Does this again fall on our lawmakers to make sure our kids are fit and these recruits are fit to fight?
HOWELL: I think it's a challenge for the nation. I think there's a number of things we have to look at for our young people. In terms of education, in terms of their nutrition, it's things that we have to step back and look at as a nation as we move forward.
BALDWIN: And I just have to ask you as well. This group out D.C., this Mission Readiness Group that put out this report. They say absolutely this issue impacts our national security. Some may say, you know what, that's a little bit of a stretch. What say you?
HOWELL: I think you have to be - it's yet to be seen. We're definitely having to work harder to find qualified young men and women to serve in the military. Like I said, the recruiters are having to work even harder to find those, but we're doing it, and we're going to continue to do it and they're going to continue to work hard to find those young men and women, but they're also trying to help with the problem.
Many of the recruiting stations around the country will work with those young men and women that are wanting to join that are a few pounds overweight, which is what happened in my case, when I joined about 10 years ago.
BALDWIN: I was about to ask you about that. Not to put you on the spot. But you were a couple lbs over the limit, how did that affect you?
HOWELL: A little over 10 pounds when I tried to join back in '96, and I had to work with the recruiter. I went in, talked to him. He gave me a little bit of a plan, a diet to try to stick to to get ready. And I worked out with him. A lot of the recruiters around the country now still do the same thing. They do a weekly physical training session with some of the people that want to join to help them get in shape prior to going to basic training.
BALDWIN: Got to be in shape to fight for us. Mark Howell, thanks for talking to me from Ft. Knox, Tennessee. Nine million people ineligible because of weight. Mark, thank you.
HOWELL: Thank you.
HOLMES: And that's the trick, you got to start these habits really early or maybe you lost them in trying to reprogram kids to eat healthy, that is not an easy job.
BALDWIN: Yes, it starts early, early on. So how can you, as parents help them make the right food choices, even when they're at school and you're not around? A registered dietitian explains what exactly you can do.
HOLMES: Also we're keeping our eye on severe weather this morning that's moving across the midwest and southeast in particular. Alabama, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas. Everybody needs to listen up. You see that map there? This stuff is going to be popping throughout the morning and throughout the early afternoon. We got tornado watches and warnings that continue to pop up. Stay with us. Bonnie Schneider will give us the update right after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BALDWIN: All right. Fast-moving weather story. We've been watching out for several severe weather warnings, possibly watches here. And a couple different states in the deep, deep south.
HOLMES: Bonnie Schneider, we're going to bring her in. That map every time we come to you changes in some way, form or fashion.
SCHNEIDER: That's true. T.J. and Brooke, I have a lot of changes to tell you about. First I'm still tracking four tornado warnings across northern Mississippi and this includes the cities of Clarksdale, and (INAUDIBLE), for example. And then as you head further off to the south, we're also seeing some of the warnings that have extended into Arkansas as well. To the north, really, of Greenville, Mississippi.
So this has been a volatile day, it's really just getting started. I have a lot more to show you. And this is especially important. A new tornado watch has been issued for Nashville, down through areas into Alabama as well, including the city of Birmingham. We still have a tornado watch for Memphis and most of Mississippi.
These two watches you see here have been classified as PDS watches. This is what it stands for, Particularly Dangerous Situation. Rare to get a watch as noted as this intense and what it usually indicates is that the potential exists for strong long-lasting and violent tornadoes to break out at any time. So it's a very serious situation. I can't emphasize that enough to have major cities in this watch boxes.
The strongest storms are not in the city just yet but they certainly are in the vicinity. We're getting very thick downpours of rain, getting frequent lightning strikes with these storms. In fact through lower Mississippi, there have been quite a bit of lightning and heavy rain and hail as well. Real-time lightning flashing right now on your screen just south of Memphis, but also to the east as well.
Here's a look at some of the hail that's been popping up. We've been getting reports of dime-sized hail. Larger hail is certainly possible as we go through the afternoon. We'll be tracking these storms. Once again, tornado watches for Memphis, Nashville and other cities in the south. I'll have more coming up on CNN's SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: The nation's first lady, she is on a kick and she wants young people to get in shape. In February, Michelle Obama launched the "Let's Move" campaign. She's challenging parents to help get their kids in shape. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: The fact is, is that our kids didn't do this to themselves. They don't decide the sugar content in soda, or the advertising content of a television show. Kids don't choose what is served to them for lunch at school, and shouldn't be deciding what is served for them for dinner at home, and they don't decide whether there's time in the day or room in the budget to learn about healthy eating or to spend time playing outside. We make those decisions. That's all up to us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Now what families what they feed their children at home, of course, but you have to think what are they doing there during the day when they're at school eating lunch? What are kids actually being served?
HOLMES: Yes, you got the lunchroom, that's one thing. You got a little snack machines.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Square pizzas.
HOLMES: All of that nasty stuff. Josh Levs is here to show us what's going on here. And just how healthy these things, or some would say unhealthy, school lunches are right now -- Josh.
LEVS: Hey there, guys, I'm going to start off with something from our own folks. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, M.D., who put this together. we got it so you can all look at it. They're looking at a typical school lunch, And what ends up (INAUDIBLE) that you're seeing there. Some of these fried fish sticks, Texas toast, and the ice cream fruit that goes along with it. And what they found is that typically, you're getting more than 25 grams of fat in the average school lunch.
And I started looking nationally. What do we really know about what happens? I got some figures for you here. Look at this. According to the USDA, fewer than one-third of public schools met the USDA standard for fat.
Now this has barely exceeded in some cases. But what they're saying is on average school lunches had about 34 percent of their calories coming from fat. About 11 percent of the calories were coming from saturated fat. And what that basically means is that it's a little bit higher than it's supposed to be. It's not good numbers.
And if you think about it, this is just if a kid sits down and eats the lunch that he was given, not every kid does that. Some of them will put aside the healthier stuff and only eat some of the worst stuff and then also eat the Twinkie.
So it gets even worse beyond what's actually in that lunch itself. Now, one reason why a lot of people are paying attention to this these days, not just this report but also this new TV show from Jamie Oliver on ABC. A celebrity chef who is going to the school district, who is looking at what kids are eating and he's saying, you know what? While kids are eating in America is really, really bad.
Jamie Oliver's food revolution. But that's why I was really interested when I found the statistics from a private group called the School Nutrition Association. Take a look at this. They say you know what there actually have been some significant improvements over the last few years as well that everyone should know about.
Virtually, all schools in America, with these lunches are not giving fat free or low fat milk, fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grain items and they go along. They say there's more locally grown stuff. So short version here, there's a lot of work to do, but what the studies are finding is that are at least some improvements over the last few years. Hopefully soon, guys, that might mean that more Americans are, as we see in here, ultimately fit to serve when they grow up.
HOLMES: All right. And these kids are getting the lunch money. Essentially it's coming from the taxpayers.
LEVS: Yes.
HOLMES: So how much is this unhealthy stuff costing us?
LEVS: Billions. Actually billions of dollars each year. You're right. Because the U.S. supports this, we have a figure for you here. $9 billion was the cost of the National School Lunch Program in the last year they took at look at it. And the number of kids who are in it, 31 million kids are enrolled in the official National School Lunch Program.
Obviously, there are other things out there as well. But the official program, 31 million kids costing the taxpayers $9 billion, guys. So the taxpayers have a major investment in this program improvement.
BALDWIN: Josh, thank you.
LEVS: Thank you.
BALDWIN: Glad I brought in my apples here instead of keeping my brownies in my bag. OK.
(INAUDIBLE)
BALDWIN: Childhood obesity altogether, you know, it starts very, very early. And Laurie Meyer is a registered dietitian and she's a certified weight management specialist. She joins us this morning from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Laurie, good morning to you. I'm sure you saw the cover of "Newsweek" last month. I think they called it the culture corpulence (ph). My question to you is if we can pinpoint one thing, and I'm sure we can't, why is this crisis such a crisis? Who do we blame? LAURIE MEYER, REGISTERED DIETITIAN: I think we can all blame ourselves, as a matter of fact. I mean when you look around, 66 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese. This isn't just the children. We have to start looking at their parents, the adults. It's several generations. And so, you know, the adults are role models. And so we're finding that overweight parents tend to have more overweight children and they also kind of lose their frame of reference.
They don't even realize that their kids are as overweight as they really are. So they're going to end up feeding them kind the same diet, do the same lifestyle that they're doing. And I think that's really where a lot of it begins.
BALDWIN: I think it's an important point you point out with parents and then what they feed their children. But also as Josh was just talking about, you know, what we're feeding our kids in school. If you will, what are some of the bad stuff they're eating and what should they be eating?
MEYER: Well, you know, kids are going to be kids. Just as we are. And if you're given a choice between a turkey sandwich and a pepperoni pizza, I think most kids, as most adults, will say, "oh, the pepperoni pizza sounds really good." So I think we're going to have to start making some changes. Kids love, they love the chicken nuggets, they love the French fries, they love the pizzas. And maybe use those as special occasion foods, which what they really are supposed to be.
Maybe once a month, every other month, have a treat. But try to make those school lunches a little bit more healthy so that you're getting some good quality proteins. They're getting some good dairy foods, plenty of fruits and vegetables and whole grains that they'll be able to make some good choices.
BALDWIN: What would your message be to parents who are watching this morning thinking, you know what, it's just so easy to order that pizza versus maybe cook up that really healthy meal. What is your message to parents to make sure our kids are fit?
MEYER: Well, parents have to keep in mind that they are the role models. Their children are going to mimic their behavior. What they see is what they do. And so parents really, if they're concerned they really have to start taking a look at their own eating habits and do a little bit of pre-planning. Cooking is really becoming a lost art. It's really not that hard to do. And I think that if you get the whole family involved, take the children grocery shopping. Have them pick out some of the fruits and vegetables that they want to eat. Get them involved in the kitchen.
From little one, there is certainly things they can do all along the way so that you're actually be preparing food with them, helping them and as a family you're going to be able to sit down and eat it. And you know, research shows if kids have a vested interest, if they have some involvement in it, they actually are going to do better and actually going to eat.
The other thing we don't want to forget about is activity. We all leave much too sedentary lifestyles.
BALDWIN: Right.
MEYER: Too many computer games, too many video games, you know, too much texting on the cell phone. We have to get out and play. It's recommended 60 minutes a day that we had to go out and do something and then parents could do this with their children and it would really make a big difference.
BALDWIN: Laurie, got to the go. But excellent point. We need to be role models in what we eat and in our exercise. Laurie Meyer, registered dietitian. Thank you.
HOLMES: Also, police know that we're keeping a close eye on the severe weather happening right now. Expecting in some places possibly an outbreak of tornadoes. We have watches and warnings popping up. We have our eye on this, an update coming up next. That map continues to change. You don't want to miss this.
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SCHNEIDER: I'm meteorologist Bonnie Schneider, tracking severe weather across the south here on CNN. We are at least four tornado warnings that have now continued to plague states like Arkansas and Mississippi. And you can see the one here south of Jackson, for example. These will go on at least for the next 15 to 20 minutes, and new tornado warnings are popping up all over the place in Mississippi and on into Alabama as the storm advances eastward.
Four tornado watches also including the cities of Memphis, Nashville, Birmingham, Mobile and New Orleans. The one here in Tennessee are listed as particularly dangerous situation, where if we do get tornadoes, they could be strong and violent. We are tracking this severe weather. I'll have more coming up CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
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BALDWIN: Thanks for joining us for our special "Unfit to Serve." Now handing it off to Poppy Harlow with "YOUR BOTTOM LINE."
