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CNN Saturday Morning News

Murkowski Launches Write-In Campaign; United Kingdom's Papal Visit; Debt Collectors Using Social Media Sites to Track People Down

Aired September 18, 2010 - 06:59   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, top of the hour.

Live picture here now Pope Benedict XVI on his U.K. visit. He's wrapping up a mass. We have been watching this for the past couple of hours here. But one of his public events he's having on day-three of a four-day trip of the UK. The first official state visit of a pope ever to Great Britain.

The pope hasn't changed his very busy schedule despite the arrest of six men who are suspected in a possible terror plot. We'll go back there live for you, tell you more about this historic trip, coming up.

Plus, the debate continues on Capitol Hill. What to do about the tax cuts for the middle class. Will they happen? Will they not? Will those making more than $250,000 get an extended tax cut as well?

Coming up, we'll tell you how the tax cuts break down and impact you. Not just the back and forth in the debate, but we're going to show you specifically, if you make so much money, how much you stand to lose. How much you stand to gain with these tax cuts. That's coming up for you.

From the CNN Center, this is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It's 7:00 a.m. where I am in Atlanta, Georgia; 6:00 a.m. in Fayetteville, Arkansas. I'm T.J. Holmes. Glad you're right here with me.

Also, a big shake-up on the political scene once again. Can you spell Murkowski? Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski hopes her supporters can certainly spell it as she now launches a write-in campaign to try to keep her job.

She lost, you may remember, the Republican primary to a Tea Party-backed candidate Joe Miller. Sarah Palin had endorsed Miller. She's now calling Murkowski's latest move a futile effort on her part.

A Tea Party spokesman said in effect, the people of Alaska have already fired Murkowski, but Murkowski is calling on Alaskans who didn't vote on the primary to turn out for her next month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R), ALASKA: I will be the first one to admit to you that in the primary campaign, we made some mistakes. We talked about ourselves. We talked about me a lot. But we didn't educate Alaskans about the extremist views that were held by Mr. Miller. And when he swung, I didn't swing back. Well, ladies and gentlemen, friends and supporters, the gloves are off.

(CHEERS)

MURKOWSKI: I'm fighting for Alaska.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Well, fighting words right there. However, she has a really uphill climb here because write-in campaigns almost never work and they're a little tricky there in Alaska as well given a couple of factors, including the fact that her name is Murkowski. Someone would have to write that name out. As well as writing it out, they would have to fill in the oval next to the name. So, you'd to know the rules going in.

Also, if you don't spell it out correctly or it's not clear exactly who you were trying to write in, that ballot could be disqualified, even though the state official has said that "Lisa M." as a write-in might be OK.

But historically speaking here, on write-in candidates, the only other senator who has been ever won in a write-in candidacy has been Strom Thurmond. That was in South Carolina back in 1954.

I want to turn back now to the live picture we were showing you here at the top of the hour of Pope Benedict. He's just wrapping up a mass there at Westminster Cathedral in London.

You see him greeting the crowd and the crowd greeting him with some applause here. He's just wrapping this mass. This is the third day of a four-day trip to the U.K.

This is the first ever official state visit. The Pope has visited the U.K. before, but at the invitation of the church. We saw John Paul II visit Great Britain back in 1982. So, that was some time ago.

But this -- this visit is a state visit. This came at the invitation of the queen. Of course, she's the head of state. The Pope here, the head of state as well as -- as well as being the head of the Catholic Church.

But I'm going to go and keep this picture up while I bring in our Phil Black.

Phil, I'm not sure if you're able, or how far you are, or where you are, if you can see this picture or hear this picture. But it seems like he has stepped out here and greeted enthusiastically by the crowd there. And like you said, there was some speculation on what crowds he would draw on this visit.

But has that been the kind of reaction to him, a lot of enthusiastic support for this -- for this Pope?

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, indeed. He hasn't had too much trouble drawing crowds wherever he has gone. Where I'm standing is London's Hyde Park where 80,000 are expected to gather tonight to celebrate a prayer vigil with the Pope.

Where he is now: Westminster Cathedral, the Catholic Church's most important house of worship in this country. He has just celebrated mass there and he is now currently greeting and meeting thousands of school children who have traveled to London from across this country to spend a little bit of time with him there.

During the mass, though, that finished just a short time ago, he had some interesting words to say about the child sex abuse scandal. It is the first time that he has addressed this issue during the visit here. He spoke of the immense sorrow that he felt, the suffering caused by child abuse, particularly within the church, particularly by the clergy.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE BENEDICT XVI, CATHOLIC CHURCH: I also acknowledge, with you, the shame and humiliation, which all of us have suffered because of these sins. And I invite you to offer it to the Lord with trust that this chastisement will contribute to the healing of the victims, the purification of the church and the renewal of the age-old commitment to the education and care of young people. I express my gratitude for the efforts being made to address this problem responsibly, and I ask all of you to show your concern for the victims and solidarity with your priests.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: So, some strong words on this most controversial of subjects, but victims' groups have already responded, saying that's all they are, they're just words. They want to see action, particularly with bringing the perpetrators to justice, helping the victims overcome their suffering.

And that is why the victims and victims' groups will be among the thousands of people expected to march through London today, protesting the presence of the Pope, and the fact that he is receiving the honor of a full state visit here. Those victims will be among atheist people who opposed the church's position on homosexuality, contraception, abortion -- those sorts of things. As I say, a few thousand of them are supposed to make their presence felt today. But, remember, 80,000 people are expected to be here tonight at London's Hyde Park, T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Phil, don't go anywhere just yet.

I just want to remind our viewers what they're seeing on the screen on the right there of Phil. You're seeing a live picture at Westminster Cathedral where a mass is just wrapping up. And you heard that the school children there enthusiastically greeting the Pope. He was greeting them. Thousands of them came over to see him.

Again, I just want to remind you -- this is a live picture you're seeing of the Pope right now at Westminster Cathedral. One more thing, though, Phil, and you kind of hit on some of these protests that are happening. Security is always a concern where the Pope travels anywhere, but there in particular, there were six arrests of people allegedly involved in a terror plot of some kind. Has that changed the Pope's schedule and do we know if that plot yet was directly linked to the Pope?

BLACK: The Pope hasn't changed his schedule, despite the fact that six people have been arrested here for allegedly planning some sort of terror act. They were picked up through the day yesterday. Police have been talking to them, conducting searches across London. They're still in custody and they could be for some time.

Police have not confirmed that this is, in fact, connected to the Pope's visit. But it does go to the heart of what is a very complex security operation for guarding the Pope, because he is not just a visiting head of state, which means keeping him away from all possible trouble. He is also the leader of a significant religion who wants to move among, be seen by as many of his flock as possible, and they certainly want to see him.

So, police say this has been a challenging security operation, but they have not altered it significantly in light of those arrests, T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Phil Black for us -- we certainly appreciate you as we continue to watch this live picture. Again, live at the Westminster Cathedral -- the holy place, as Phil was explaining to us. We're still hearing music, still part of the ceremony here. But a mass is just wrapping up.

He is keeping a full schedule. The schedule continues through the afternoon. He has more meetings. And, again, he'll end up at Hyde Park where -- for that prayer vigil that Phil -- that's where Phil is right now, and where Phil explained the Pope is expecting some 80,000 people to show up.

We'll continue to follow this visit -- this historic visit of Pope Benedict XVI.

Well, we have a couple storms we need to keep a very close eye on. One of them, Karl, is causing some problems in Mexico. The other one Hurricane Igor, a huge category -- what is it now, category two, three? It's been fluctuating. I'd get the meteorologist, the expert, to explain that to us.

But wouldn't you know Reynolds Wolf -- he's not here with me. He's right in the path of that huge storm. We'll be checking in with him shortly.

Seven minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: We are tracking Hurricane Igor in the Atlantic right now, also keeping an eye on Tropical Depression Karl. But Igor in particular, the stronger of the two storms right now. It is projected, as you see there -- that its projected path, which is going to take it very close or right over Bermuda right now.

So, of course, wherever that storm's going is where Reynolds Wolf wants to be. He is there.

Our Karen Maginnis is here tracking the storms for us as well. We'll check in with her in just a moment.

But, Reynolds, hello to you. You were talking in the last hour about they are used to this kind of thing. So, they know what do in Bermuda. But what are they preparing for necessarily?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: What they are preparing for is a mammoth storm, possibly. You know, they've been dealing with strong storms, obviously, over the years. This island was founded back in 1609 and since that time, they've dealt with all kinds of tropical systems that bored through here.

And just going down any of the streets of any of the towns here in parts of Bermuda, you can see again the preparations, people putting up boards on the windows. They're out getting provisions, doing everything they can, setting up emergency shelters for the storm that they know is coming.

The thing to really remember, though, T.J., in comparison with storms that affect much of the main line along the United States, say if you have a storm that strikes, say, the Texas coastline, there's a place for people to go. They can go farther inland to escape the storm.

That's not the case in Bermuda. You have to remember it's a very small island chain, only 138 small coral islands altogether, collectively making up the land mass that's only a third of the size of Washington, D.C. So, when this storm comes calling, there's no place to go.

We were at the beach yesterday and got to see some of these mammoth waves, some of the first effects of the storm firsthand.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF: Let's give you a look of how things looked to us when we first got here in Bermuda. You see the big waves coming on through. It's hard to believe we've got these big white caps and just these towering waves of water way off from the distance. And we're talking about a storm that is still beyond the horizon.

As you watch these waves come onshore -- look at the white caps. But when you look even further to the south, as they just go right up against those huge rocks, they really send a spray of water everywhere.

You know, this area is no stranger to these tropical systems. In fact, in 2003, Hurricane Fabian came through, caused all kinds of damage, power outages across the island, knocked out the airport for several days, and killed four people. It's our hope that this storm won't be quite as bad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF: Very quickly, T.J., one thing quickly, T.J., that we want to share with you is what the storm could possibly bring to this island. A couple of things it could bring. One would be some 50-foot waves, storm surge anywhere from five to seven feet, heaven rainfall, damaging winds of 120 miles per hour, some possibly up to the 110 to 120 range.

And keep in mind, this storm is much bigger than Fabian that struck back in 2003. But as we mentioned earlier, it's not the only system we're watching. We're also seeing the remnants of Karl moving inland from Mexico, leaving Veracruz going deeper into Mexico, mud slides and flooding, a real danger.

Karen Maginnis has got the very latest on that. Let's send it back to you in Atlanta.

KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. And it looks like, Reynolds, that the National Hurricane Center has issued its last advisory regarding what's happened with Hurricane Karl. It was downgraded to tropical storm, then a depression, and now, there's saying just the remnants -- whatever is left over is wringing itself out across extreme sections of southwestern Mexico. Mexico City could see mostly light rain and some gusty winds.

Very impressive on the enhanced satellite imagery. Hurricane Igor is just churning around and it has hurricane-force winds extending out to about 90 miles. But we've got tropical force winds extending out 345 miles from the center. So, it's going to make its way further towards the north and northwest.

So, it will start this curve sort of like this. Bermuda is just about here. So, Hamilton, you're looking for tonight, those weather conditions really deteriorating as we go in towards the evening hours.

Now, in the forecast, as we look in the next maybe 12 to 24 hours, right along the coastal regions of Bermuda -- let's go ahead and show you what the track is going to look like. And we can expect a category three, this going into Sunday, winds of 125 miles an hour. But, as you can see, once it moves past Bermuda, it quickly loses some steam because we're encountering some much cooler water.

But as Reynolds said, T.J., we're looking at very heavy rainfall, very high waves. But folks across Bermuda, every 2 1/2 years, they look at these weather systems brushing by or moving right over them.

Back to you.

HOLMES: Wow. All right. Karen, thank you. To our Reynolds Wolf, thank you as well.

We'll be checking in with both of them throughout the morning.

Coming up: we're not just going to do politics on this debate over extending tax cuts, we're going to break it down for you -- show you exactly what the tax cuts or lack of tax cuts is going to mean for your wallet.

Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, you have seen this big battle on Capitol Hill over tax cuts. Lawmakers plan to extend the cuts from the George W. Bush area, but they're at odds over whether to continue those tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

So, Josh Levs is looking at the argument.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is one of the biggest battles facing the president right now, and it's an example of the time that the battle in Washington actually does affect your wallet.

The president wants to keep the tax cuts on the first $250,000 of income and then drop the Bush-era tax cut on income above that.

Let's start out with our friendly neighborhood, avatar couple to revisit from time to time. We plugged in some examples here, some numbers. Here's what we got.

If their income right now is right at the middle, at $57,000, a little above that, and their taxes are just over $3,400. Their tax cuts if the current tax cut expired, they'd be paying a couple of thousand more, about $2,000 more in taxes. That's a big chunk of change.

Now, no one is calling for that to happen, though. This couple is in the income range of which everyone is saying, let's keep those tax cuts.

Now, let's make this couple a little bit wealthier -- actually a lot wealthier. Let's jump their income way over to $250,000 mark, to $396,000. When we plugged in these numbers -- if their tax cuts were about $102,000 right now, if the tax cuts were to expire, if President Obama's plan were to be enacted, they would pay about $6,000 more in taxes every year.

And, by the way, for you real number crunchers out there, the Tax Policy Center is factoring in a permanent patch to the AMT, which is how the president wants.

Finally, what is a big buzz we keep hearing throughout this debate? Millionaires, right? That millionaires shouldn't get away with holding on to so much money.

So, let's take our avatar couple, let's make them millionaires, why not? One-point-seventy-five million dollars -- we're giving them an income just over $1,750,000 for the year. If their taxes currently at $573,000, if President Obama's plan were enacted, then they would be paying a lot more. That's about $645,000. That's another $70,000 in taxes.

And this is where you get into the debate in America. Which is better for the economy? To leave that money in private hands for spending and investment or to collect it for the government, maybe actually do something about the debt and the deficit or at least pay for programs that are currently being put into place. That tension is where a lot of this comes into play.

Now, if f you want to know how it plays out for you, go ahead over that tax calculator. I linked it for you in my Facebook and Twitter pages, JoshLevsCNN. Plug in your information and see how it might play out for you.

I'm Josh Levs, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, if you owe somebody some money out there, you need to close your Facebook and your Twitter account right now. Stop putting all your business out there because somebody is looking for you, and they are trying to collect.

Nineteen past the hour. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. You know you do it. You post just about everything about you out there on a Web site. You post where you eat, your vacation pictures, your break-ups, your hook-ups, your jobs.

Be careful, though, when you're talking about your money. If you owe some money, debt collectors are using social media sites to track you down.

Financial analyst and author, Clyde Anderson, is here with us. Say it ain't so. Why? Why are they going this route now?

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: First of all, it's free, you know? In this economy, everybody is looking to cut costs. And if they can avoid doing the skip trace that they used to do in the past, this is a great cost-effective way to find people.

HOLMES: Now, how exactly are they hunting you down? What are they looking for when they go through to your -- a simple Facebook site, what are they looking for?

ANDERSON: Right. They're looking for to see what you're doing. They want to catch you off guard because that's what they're going to do first of all. Because if you're going to tell so much information, just as you mentioned in the intro, you're going to give a lot about what you're doing and how you're spending your money.

HOLMES: Oh. So, it's not necessarily that you're talking to a friend about some money. They see you on a vacation to Cancun.

(CROSSTALK) ANDERSON: Yes. You owe us money and we need to get our money and we see that you have money.

HOLMES: Can they come after you in that way, though? Is it -- do they have a valid argument to say, "OK, you spent money on this, then you have money to pay me"?

ANDERSON: Yes. If you ever had to deal with collectors, they can be a dirty, dirty, dirty thing sometimes, because they got to get their money, and, you know, rightfully so, it's their money. They pay for the right to collect the debt. And so, they're going to -- they're going to do whatever they can to get the money.

And the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act was written in '78, way before social media existed, way before the Internet existed.

They haven't really gone back and revisited in any of these things. So, right now, yes, it's sneaky. But is it legal? You know, right now, yes.

HOLMES: At this point, it is legal.

ANDERSON: Right now, yes. It's sneaky, but legal.

HOLMES: So, if you do owe some money --

ANDERSON: Yes.

HOLMES: -- should you just be safe and stay away from all these things altogether?

ANDERSON: Well, I mean, the first thing to do, I mean, we want to advocate that, you know, you need to be responsible.

HOLMES: And pay your bills in the first place.

ANDERSON: You know, pay your bills in the first place. Be responsible.

A lot of people will negotiate, you know, a settlement with you right now in these times. So -- but definitely, be careful what you're putting out there, you know? Don't be so easy to just put everything out there online and give your whole story.

Be careful who you friend. You know, a lot of these times, they turn to people who have friended other people to say, "Hey, I'm your friend. Let's be friends, let's talk, and we get in the conversation." And you realized, "Hey, no, I need that $500."

HOLMES: Wait a minute now.

ANDERSON: Yes.

HOLMES: That's a little bit deceptive. That's different from him just checking your site.

ANDERSON: Right.

HOLMES: They are using methods like that --

ANDERSON: Yes.

HOLMES: -- to deceive you?

ANDERSON: Well, they're using that to friend you. Now, always be careful that they have to disclose certain things to you.

HOLMES: Yes.

ANDERSON: You know, there have been cases where debt collectors have been sued because they're not disclosing that this is an attempt to collect a debt. So, before they start that language, they have to let you know that this is an attempt to collect a debt.

HOLMES: Wow.

ANDERSON: Yes. So you got to be careful what's going on out there.

HOLMES: How widespread is this in use right now?

ANDERSON: It's growing. I'm hearing a lot, lot more that coming along recently. So, the buzz is growing. People -- more people are doing it and collectors out there are saying, "Hey, this is fair game. This is public domain." Anything that you put out there online is out there. So, remember, you know, what you're putting out there, it's there for the whole world to see.

HOLMES: Because we used to talk about all the time employer, potential employers, will check out before --

ANDERSON: Exactly.

HOLMES: But now, we're talking debt collectors. Are we talking about the major companies doing this?

ANDERSON: Oh, yes.

HOLMES: So, they could be doing it but we have no idea. They're probably not going to tell us.

ANDERSON: Well, you think about, in the past, they deal what I mention skip tracing, where they would actually go and find you by looking at your relatives, seeing, you know -- whoever they could touch that was contacted to you or connected to you, they would find them and try to get to you. Now you're talking about what you're doing, freelance jobs, other things that you're doing to make money, they see what you're doing. They can go after your employer or go to your employer now, they know where you work and garnish your wages.

HOLMES: OK, Clyde, we've got some more time for this segment, but I need to cut this off so I can go clean up my Facebook page, all right? Clyde Anderson, good to have you as always. ANDERSON: A pleasure to be here.

HOLMES: Good stuff this morning.

All right. More top stories coming your way as CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues live at the top of the hour. But after a quick break, my doctor, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, begins.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)