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CNN Saturday Morning News
Murkowski To Be a Write-In Candidate for Senate; Examining the Arguments For and Against the Bush Tax Cuts; BP Well Finally Being Capped; Polls Closed Across Afghanistan; Handing Back the Heisman; Football Player Dies During Game; Oil Could be on the Ocean Floor; Eat Healthy and Save Money
Aired September 18, 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: Good morning.
The gloves are off. Those the words of Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski who lost her primary race but now has a new plan to win reelection. She is asking the voters to write her in.
Also, just moments ago, we saw Pope Benedict holding a mass at Westminster Cathedral. He is on day three now of a four-day trip to the U.K. He hasn't changed his busy schedule despite the arrest of six men suspected in a possible terror plot. We will take you live to London.
But for right now, live from the CNN center in Atlanta, Georgia, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING, 8:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, 7:00 a.m. in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Wherever you may be, glad you're right here. I'm T.J. Holmes. Let me give you a look at some of the other stories that are making headlines this morning.
BP plans to permanently seal its well today. You've been hearing a lot about this story, a lot about this well, a lot about this spill. But today is the day when we could finally see this thing over and done with and dead. They are pumping cement into the bottom portion of the well.
This the same well that started spewing in April after the explosion aboard that rig. Some five million barrels have gushed into the Gulf. But today a big day that we could finally see this thing killed.
Also, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has phoned the sultan of Oman thanking him for his help in securing the release of Sarah Shourd. She is one of three American hikers that were held in an Iranian jail.
We're expecting to see a press conference from Sarah when she returns to New York tomorrow. The press conference, at least, is tomorrow, not sure exactly when she will land back in the states. She'll be giving details of her captivity. As you know, the family has paid $500,000 in bail for her release. Clinton calls for the release, as well, of Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal. Also, voting underway in Afghanistan right now for parliament. This is the fourth national election we've seen since 2004. The Taliban has pledged to deter voters by attacking the polls. There have been some scattered rocket attacks and roadside bombs that have been reported. Tens of thousands of police and security forces have been deployed to try to keep the violence to a minimum.
Well, Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski. A loss really isn't a loss to her. She is fighting on finding a new way now to try to keep her seat. She says she will now conduct a write-in campaign to try to keep her job after she lost the Republican primary back in August. She lost it to a Tea Party-backed candidate. Joe Miller is his name.
CNN political producer Shannon Travis joins me now. You covered the race up there in Alaska. We thought it was over and done. Not her though, fighting words last night.
SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL PRODUCER: You know how you're watching a scary movie sometimes and you think all the action is done and all of a sudden all the action jumps out at you. That's how you might want to sum up the Alaska race.
Senator Murkowski is bringing her campaign back from the political dead. Basically, she says she conceded the race back in August to this Tea Party-backed candidate, Joe Miller, and now she's announcing that, hey, I'm going to do this write-in candidacy. She says that she's heard from a lot of Alaskans since she conceded and that a lot of them want her to run on.
This is not making Republicans happy, this is obviously not making the Tea Party movement happy. She addressed that last night when she announced her decision.
Take a listen to it.
So there was actually -- part of -- we don't have that sound. Part of what she said last night was that she knows that Republicans are not going to be happy. She's called the Tea Party express that came there and poured money an extremist group. So basically this is a big thumb in their face.
HOLMES: You're talking about the Tea Party not happy, Republicans not happy, Democrats, a little happy here.
TRAVIS: Democrats, absolutely a little bit happy. The reason why she's a Republican. She's going to run as a write-in candidate. Joe Miller has the nomination. He's a Republican. There's speculation that she might actually split or they might split the Republican vote. They might split the Republican vote and possibly hand this thing to the Democrat who is running. His name is Scott McAdam. He's the mayor of an Alaskan city called Sitka (ph). So Democrats are a little bit gleeful this morning about the possibility of picking up a state where they had essentially written off.
HOLMES: And she sounded like last night she was recharged, reenergized, reinvigorated in her campaign. We do have that sound we were calling for a second ago. Let's go ahead and take a listen to her last night announcing she's now going to do a write-in campaign.
(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 and I'm fighting for Alaska.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: She says -- she heard from voters she said that wanted her to do this. How is this being received on a larger scale by voters there? I heard people call this kind of arrogant.
TRAVIS: When I was there in Alaska reporting on this race, I talked to a number of people. She does have a lot of supporters in Alaska. Her father was a governor and senator there. The name Murkowski name is very popular.
But a lot of conservatives feel like, hey, you have had your turn and you should step aside. I talked with Andy Kramer (ph), the chairman of the Tea Party Express last night. And she says Lisa Murkowski doesn't get it. She was fired by the people, and this was by Alaskans.
So depends on who you ask. She has some supporters, but there are others who say hey, you've had your day, you've had your time, you lost that race, you need to step aside.
HOLMES: And still, the same time, the uphill climb. No matter how recognizable her name is, it's one thing to just get a voter to go in there and punch your name. To get someone to have to physically go in there and write her name down, not an easy name. They're saying possibly just Lisa M. would be OK. But then you have to punch -- there's a lot of rules involved in this now.
TRAVIS: Talk about a uphill climb, (INAUDIBLE) trivia. Only one person has ever won a Senate race with a write-in candidacy and that was back in 1954, Strom Thurmond. She's got a steep hill to climb to actually make this happen. She says she also said last night that she can make this happen.
I caught up with the senator the other day, I kind of chased her down in the hallways of Congress. You see some video there. But it's a very uphill climb for her to make this happen. Can she do it? We'll be watching in November.
HOLMES: There you are. Chasing folks around as you often do. Shannon Travis, our political producer, good to have you here with us.
We're going to be checking in with you here in a little bit on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Thanks so much. TRAVIS: Absolutely.
HOLMES: Sarah Palin, who has been a part of that race out in Alaska as well, she had endorsed the other guy who actually won that primary, but she is headlining now the GOP's biggest fundraiser. She did this last night in Des Moines. She revved up the Republican base at the annual Reagan dinner saying we can't wait until 2012 to get our country back on track. Palin didn't say anything about her plans to maybe run for president. Instead she helped little-known candidates win like Christine O'Donnell the Republican primary in Delaware on Tuesday.
Well, the Iowa caucuses, of course, is always the first test of presidential candidates. We'll get you that sound, let you hear from Sarah Palin here in just a bit. It is day two as well, the conservative political gathering known as the Values Voter Summit in Washington.
The gathering highlights the GOP's promise and peril heading into November's midterm elections. Conservative talk show host Bill Bennett going to be taking the stage at 9:25 Eastern this morning. Former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich is going to address the crowd at 9:50. Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell speaking at 10:15.
And the Delaware political upstart you've been hearing so much about, Christine O'Donnell, she was given a big welcome on Friday. She slammed the Obama administration saying the elites will never have the last word on liberty. She is featured as part of the who's who of rising Republican stars there. And as always for your political coverage, you know where to go, CNNPolitics.com.
All right. Hurricane Igor. Strong winds, strong surge. Still a serious storm, a big storm that is heading towards Bermuda right now, supposed to hit some time tonight. Our Reynolds Wolf is where else -- there. We'll be joining him shortly.
Also, the back and forth on Capitol Hill over tax cuts. We're going to be breaking all of this down and show you exactly what it means if the tax cuts expire how much money are you going to be paying extra?
It's eight minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, 10 minutes past the hour now on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. We are tracking hurricane Igor in the Atlantic right now. Also need to keep a close eye on tropical depression Karl. Karl as you see is that mess on the left side of your screen. It is weakening rapidly over the high mountains of Mexico. Still dangerous mudslides, flash flooding are the real concerns there now. Hurricane Igor on the right still churning, it's on track to bring strong wind and heavy rain to Bermuda by sometime this evening.
We have our Karen Maginnis who is here in studio with me in our hurricane headquarters tracking this thing, but we also have our meteorologist Reynolds Wolf. He is where else -- in Bermuda, right in the eye of the storm, if you will, right in the target line.
Reynolds, you always want to be where the action is happening. It looks like the action is going to be happening at some point this evening.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, sir, smack dab in the middle, T.J. If you were to look at Bermuda on a map in comparison with the size of Igor, it would be reminiscent of Igor being a windshield of a speeding car and Bermuda would be a bug about to hit that windshield. That is basically what it's like.
Bermuda's a very small place. It's made up of 138 islands. Collectively if you were to put those land masses together, it would still be about a third of the size of Washington, DC. This area is part of the U.K. It's home to some 67,000 people, people who are preparing for this storm. And as it's been getting closer, we've already been seeing it flex its muscles.
Well, we had some video that we were going to show you moments ago. What I can tell you is that it's basically the first impression that we're seeing from the storm, T.J., mammoth waves. The way Bermuda is set up, it's a giant coral formation. Outside this ring of coral we have had some waves that have been up to 19 feet. Closer to shore, they've been a little bit smaller. But as the storm surge comes on as the storm approaches, they could be anywhere from say five to seven feet in terms of the storm surge, but then when you have the high tide, it could be topping some of the walls that you see behind me at this particular resort.
This storm is very similar in terms of the size or at least in terms of the power as the storm that struck this area back in 2003. That storm was Fabian. Fabian caused millions of dollars worth of damage, knocked out the airport, caused millions of dollars. It cost four lives. Four people trying to cross a causeway here in Bermuda, they were swept away by the storm surge.
We do anticipate this storm could be a little more damaging because it is going to be bigger in scope. Wind speeds about the size, but it's much bigger than Fabian. And as it pulls northward, I would say later today, certainly tomorrow night is when we should get the brunt of the storm, possibly 2:00 a.m. into Sunday into Monday.
Let's send it back to you, T.J.
HOLMES: All right, Reynolds Wolf for us there, Reynolds we appreciate you keeping an eye on things. We're going to be checking in with you plenty as you keep an eye on this storm.
Our Karen Maginnis standing by for us here, as well keeping an eye on all things weather related, including I guess the remnants still of this Karl that hit Mexico.
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's still wringing itself out across Mexico. And T.J. Igor is one of those systems that is huge as you take a look at it on the satellite imagery. Enhanced satellite imagery from the center of Igor extending out roughly 350 miles. We've got hurricane, tropical storm-force winds. So the weather's going to be deteriorating across Bermuda very dramatically.
We just got an intermediate update from the National Hurricane Center. Not a lot has changed. Still supporting 110-mile-per-hour winds associated with it. So it's still a category two. But, we are expecting it to make its way more towards the north/northwest. And now they're saying perhaps as a category two across Bermuda late on Sunday evening and going into Monday.
Roughly, every 2.5 years a hurricane will either brush by or directly impact Bermuda. So we're looking at a system here that is quite strong compared to in 2003, September 5th, Fabian, which had 120-mile-an-hour winds associated with it when it blew across Bermuda. And there were several fatalities associated with that.
As we go ahead and show you what's happening in our forecast, we're looking at hot temperatures across the southern U.S., but quite cool, feels like a little touch of autumn, T.J., across the northern tier.
Back to you.
HOLMES: Well, not a touch of autumn in Hotlanta just yet. We appreciate you, Karen as always and to our Reynolds Wolf, as well.
Quick break here, it's 15 minutes past the hour, CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: It seems like there's always some big battle on Capitol Hill. Right now the big battle is over tax cuts. Lawmakers plan to extend the cuts from the George W. Bush era, but they're at odds over whether to continue those tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.
Josh Levs breaking this argument down for us.
(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: I want to take a look now at some stories that are making headlines, including this heart breaking news we're getting this morning out of southeast Texas. A high school quarterback died after collapsing during a game, died after throwing his second touchdown pass of the game.
His name is Reginald Garrett. He was a star player. He was a straight-a student, but he was unresponsive when they took him to the hospital. The entire school just about turned out to that hospital.
We talked to a nurse here live a short time ago talking about how the entire community right now is hurting. We don't know what caused this. An autopsy has been planned.
Also, Toyota, settling a deadly accident, a case where a family was killed when their accelerator got stuck. Four people died in this crash in San Diego last year, but now it has been settled by Toyota. The amount is remaining confidential. For now, what happened with this family with that stuck accelerator led to many of the Toyota and Lexus recalls.
Also, actress Lindsay Lohan already under supervised probation for a 2007 drunken driving conviction, well she now says she failed a recent drug test. She tells us this in a post on her Twitter page. She says she's working hard to overcome her addiction. She also says she's ready to appear before a judge if asked. She had been warned that a failed drug test could mean more jail time.
It's 21 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, 24 minutes past the hour now.
Soon you're going to be able to log on to the Internet, Internet Explorer and you'll see major changes. Microsoft promises this new browser is going to be faster and cleaner.
Mario Armstrong, our tech guru, is that really the case? He's joining me now live from Washington. First of all, what does this even mean to my life that they are improving a browser?
MARIO ARMSTRONG, DIGITAL LIFESTYLE EXPERT: Yes. So the web browser is the software we use every day to visit websites. So many people don't even realize that's what it is. That's what exists.
And there are many different ones to choose from that are out there, Safari on the Macintosh. You have Mozilla Firefox. So Microsoft (INAUDIBLE) Microsoft has been getting a lot of competition in an area that they did have a lot of competition before. So they revamped it so that we as web visitors of websites have a cleaner, richer, faster experience. You're going to really see a new interface, a very clean look, less tool bars and more focus on the actually website that you're on.
HOLMES: Do we have any idea what it looks like just yet? They're telling us about it. They're tell us it'll be cleaner, but right now we just take their word for it.
ARMSTRONG: No, it is cleaner. I've seen it. There are images, it is cleaner. It does give you that sense of the focus is about the website. It's not about the web browser. And so that's a really, really big deal for Microsoft because they've had to really make sure that they could shift and not lose this ground. It's very important for these companies to be able to supply website -- web tools, web software that enable us to visit websites in the way that we want to.
HOLMES: In cleaning it up, are we going to be losing any features necessarily? And people worried about things crashing necessarily. Is this going to be faster? Is it going to keep that stuff from happening?
ARMSTRONG: That's a great point because a lot of people are concerned about it. There is one major thing that you have to be aware of. If you are running Windows XP, if you use that older Windows operating system software, you will not be able to use Internet Explorer 9. That is a major shift because I think they want to kill of Windows XP. But you will see less crashes, better performance out of this new browser.
HOLMES: So you're killing me. We got to keep upgrading and getting something new. We go from 7 to 8 to XP. What is it now? Which one are we using?
ARMSTRONG: Nine. That's right.
HOLMES: Let's move on to Twitter now. They are updating, as well. And for the Twitter folks, they love this.
ARMSTRONG: Yes. They absolutely do. And I've been watching, looking at my phone right now because I've been watching your tweets this morning. In fact, you said this morning that you were going to try to be a better tweeter.
HOLMES: It's not really working.
ARMSTRONG: No, you're doing a great job. You're communicating with the people. Here are the things that are changing with the site.
Number one, multimedia is going to be huge. You'll be able to now integrate photos and videos much easier than you have in the past. And you'll be able to organize conversations. I don't know if you've sent out a message and then tried to reply to a message. It gets lost in the shuffle. Much more organization and better clean look to Twitter.
HOLMES: When is that going to be launched? It's not ready yet.
ARMSTRONG: So it's coming out right now. They are rolling it out now to individual users at a time. So over the next couple of weeks, you will see these changes at twitter.com.
HOLMES: So I can be a bad tweeter with video and photos then?
ARMSTRONG: Well, you had your floor director take a quick picture of you while you were getting ready on the set. So there's good stuff that you got on there. He's at T.J. Holmes CNN.
HOLMES: I'm trying so hard. You're keeping me straight here. I appreciate you, Mario. We have to leave it there, buddy. We'll talk to you again soon. You can join us every Saturday right around this time as we bring in our tech guru Mario Armstrong giving us the latest on technology.
Twenty-seven minutes past the hour. Stay here with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Bottom of the hour here now and welcome back to the CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes. I'm glad you're here with us.
Let me give you a quick look at some of the stories making headlines.
First, they're putting a cap on the largest oil spill in U.S. history actually killing this thing once and for all. BP says it expects to have that Gulf of Mexico oil well completely sealed by today, dead.
The well began gushing oil back in April after an explosion. BP finally stopped oil from coming out of it around July 15th. But not before millions and millions of barrels spilled.
Also, Hurricane Igor on track to hit Bermuda tomorrow night or possibly on Monday. Igor has winds of about 110 miles an hour, expected to dump five to eight inches of rain on Bermuda.
Also, take a look at this. This is a drill head that's already bored a hole to reach those 33 miners trapped nearly a half mile underground in Chile. The hole is only 12 inches wide, so it needs to be widened before the miners can actually to be brought up to the surface. Officials say it could still be around Christmas before the miners are rescued, but there's hope they'll be out before that.
I want to turn now to the parliamentary elections happening in Afghanistan. Polling stations officially closed now. Few people still in line and they are being allowed to vote. We're talking about 2,500 candidates on the ballot. Voters have been risking injury or worse showing up at the polls, however.
CNN's Atia Abawi joining us now to the western town of Herat; hello to you once again, Atia. The fear was about the violence. Has the Taliban come through on their promise to make sure they made this day hell for people trying to vote?
ATIA ABAWI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they've come through on some of their threats, T.J. they have had various attacks throughout the country. In fact, even a district in the province in Herat where we're at right now in western Afghanistan, and one of those districts there was a huge battle between the Taliban and the Coalition Forces.
But it should be noted this is nowhere near the violence that we saw in last year's election in the 2009 presidential elections. In fact, people at least in this province and in this city have been going out to vote in smaller numbers than before, but not necessarily because of the threats and intimidation, but more so because they feel that their vote may not count because of fraud and corruption.
In fact, as you mentioned, polls are closed right now. But behind me, the ballots are just beginning to be counted. And we just don't know when that will end. In fact, we don't expect a new parliament seated until possibly December.
I'm sorry, prayer time is starting right now. Those are the sounds that you're hearing at the moment.
HOLMES: Well, I had a couple of more questions for you possibly here. And you can't hear me that well right now possibly, Atia. And we want to -- you know what? We'll come back to you.
I know we're going to be talking to you again. So we'll get into those questions in a bit. Atia, thank you so much again. She's keeping an eye on parliamentary elections happening there in Afghanistan.
I want to turn back to politics here now -- here in the U.S.; day two of the conservative political gathering known as the Values Voters Summit in Washington. We're going to look at who's on tap for today.
Conservative talk show host Bill Bennett is going to be taking the stage at 9:25 Eastern Time, then former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich addressing the crowd a short time after that, and Virginia Governor, Bob McDonnell is going to be speaking at 10:15 this morning.
I want to check the Political Ticker for the best political coverage from the best political team on television. More details on that Values Voter Summit.
Plus a look at the president's midterm elections, campaign schedule from our deputy political director, Paul Steinhauser.
PAUL STEINHAU.S.ER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning T.J., a lot of stuff happening right now on the CNN Political Ticker. And where do you find it, CNNPolitics.com.
Let's talk about that Value Voters Summit.
This is an annual gather of conservative activist. Right here in the nation's capital and you know what? A lot of it is about 2010 and these midterms coming up, but also a lot about 2012.
We have a bunch of possible, possible people who may want to run for the Republican presidential nomination the next time around. They talked yesterday. Newt Gingrich another one the former House Speaker, talking this morning and later today, let's keep our eyes on that conference because they're going to have the results of a presidential straw poll coming out this afternoon. Last year, the former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee won that straw poll.
Let's also talk about what's going on in this year's elections. Where we've got those midterms and check it on Monday the president is going to be pretty busy. The president will be headlining a DNC fundraiser Monday in Philadelphia.
And while he's up there in Philadelphia the president is also going to be helping raise money for Joe Sestak, the two-term Congressman who's also the Democrats senate nominee there. That's the seat the Democrats would like to keep in party hands.
T.J., just some of the stuff we've got on the CNN Political Ticker at CNNPolitics.com.
Back to you man.
HOLMES: All right, thanks so much to our Paul Steinhauser. And for the latest political news, you know where to go CNNPolitics.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We're taking a look now at some of the stories making headlines.
In his first official state visit to Great Britain, Pope Benedict XVI sharing his sorrow for the child sex abuse scandal that's been roiling the Catholic Church. He did that this morning during mass held in England's historic Westminster Cathedral.
Also Sarah Shourd, the American hiker freed by Iran after more than a year of detention will talk about her experience in a news conference set for tomorrow in New York. The 32-year-old was hiking with two friends in northern Iraq when they crossed into Iran. Her two companions including her fiance and another friend remain in Iran.
Also happening now in west Texas, law men are in a standoff with a barricaded suspect. Police think he shot two deputies and a civilian yesterday. But officers were wounded -- both officers are wounded or are expected to survive. We'll keep you posted there.
Thirty-eight past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: -- stretch baseball, the flat beer and some peanuts, but they're not having peanuts if you sit in sections 303 or 304 when the Cleveland Indians take on Kansas City September 26th. They are going to have a "no peanuts for sale" there.
Part of Cleveland's plan for a peanut free zone, peanut allergies, of course, serious business. Particularly for children, even the smell sometimes can trigger a reaction.
According to the Federal Food Allergy Initiative, the number of children with peanut allergies doubled between 1997 and 2002.
So you don't want to be around peanuts, don't want to smell them and see them -- 303, 304, those are the sections for you.
So 18 touchdowns, a national championship and the Heisman, 2005 was a banner year for Reggie Bush. But his days of glory at USC have now come back to haunt him.
Ines Ferre takes a look now at how this story of a college career began to fall apart.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Reggie Bush from USC.
INES FERRE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Five years after winning the most prestigious college football award, running back Reggie Bush says he's giving back the Heisman trophy, a first in the award's 75-year history.
Bush won it in 2005 when he played for USC. That year, he rushed for over 1,700 yards --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Touchdown.
FERRE: And scored 18 touchdowns.
But this June after a long investigation, the NCAA found that Bush had illegally accepted money and gifts from agents while he was a Trojan, a violation of NCAA rules making him ineligible to have played. Bush came out this week and said he's forfeiting the Heisman title.
REGGIE BUSH, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS: It's definitely not an admission of guilt. It's just for me it's -- like I said, it's me showing my respect to the Heisman trophy itself and -- and to, like I said the people who have come before me and the people who will come after me.
FERRE: In a statement earlier this week Heisman Trust said, "It was a difficult decision to return the Heisman trophy and he exhibited great character in acknowledging his mistakes and accepting the consequences adding that no one will hold the title for that year.
Ines Ferre, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: You know, let's pick up on that point right there. Rick, let me bring you into this. Rick Horrow, our business sports analyst. He -- yes, he sent it back. And so that seems like -- you wouldn't send it back if you didn't do anything wrong. He came out a day or so later and said this is not an admission of guilt.
What are we to make of him sending back the Heisman now, Rick?
RICK HORROW, CNN BUSINESS SPORTS ANALYST: Avoiding controversy, T.J., to move on, to focus on his career as a New Orleans Saint, which he's been for a while.
Seventy five years, no Heisman governance board has ever asked for the trophy back. And I guess his argument is I might have done some of this, I'm not going to talk about it, but let's clear it up and move on. That's what he would argue is why he did this.
HOLMES: So is this done now, if you will? And not just the Heisman part, but he has been investigated or USC at least has been investigated, NCAA came down hard on his former university.
Some people are saying he doesn't really get much punishment.
HORROW: Well, every time an athlete causes an issue with a school and the athlete's back in the pros, the punishment doesn't fit the crime because he's no longer part of that university. He just has the connection because of the Heisman quite clearly. He's got his career with the Saints to worry about; he's number 102 on the Bloomberg Business Week Power 100. He wants to crack that 100 endorsement wise. He's got subways, he's got some of these other endorsers. This, of course, doesn't help.
HOLMES: How much is this going to stain him, though? you know, as soon as he gets a football back in his hands and makes spectacular move, score a couple of touchdowns and gets to the playoffs, you know how this thing goes. The people are going to be pretty quick to forget this?
HORROW: Well, that's exactly the point. Remember, when you think of Reggie Bush in the last few years, he is a running back on the world champion New Orleans Saints first.
Now the quibble is going to be, does Vince Young get the Heisman trophy that Reggie Bush gave back? That's in the past, Reggie Bush now moves on to his NFL career and hopefully for him puts a lot of this stuff behind him.
HOLMES: All right. Let's move forward here. Can you believe, Rick, here we are four years later. The last time we saw Michael Vick start a football game was some four years ago. And we are going to see it again, it appears this Sunday. My goodness, man, we've come full circle on this story.
HORROW: Yes, my friend. He had a great second half last week. Cynics would say, yes, they played the pre-event; they had to come from way behind. He almost did it. And everybody in Philadelphia is waiting with bated breath to see if he's the real deal.
Kevin Cobb, the starter, has a concussion, so it's not a passing of the torch. It is a temporary stop gap. But we'll see how Michael Vick plays. Everybody with the Atlanta Falcons remember how nimble he was on his feet, and every dog lover remembers the last few years, as well.
HOLMES: But again, we saw so many protests when he got out of prison. He saw a protest then when he was signed by the Eagles originally. It seems like all that kind of died down because he wasn't starting, not getting a lot of playing time.
Do we expect that stuff to come up again, will there be a new energy to some of the protests of him if he starts to doing well and starts to be a prominent player again?
HORROW: Yes, some of the protests, but not nearly as much as it used to be. And all of that gives way to whether he can lead the Philadelphia Eagles to a victory or some victories. He's minded his p's and q's; he's stayed out of trouble. There was a nightclub incident, nothing to do with him we found out. And the bottom line of all of this is that he's ready to play some football again.
HOLMES: All right. Good to have you on this morning. Good to talk to you. Some kind of -- a couple of heavy and serious topics; we don't have as much fun in this segment as we normally do. But I don't know, I appreciate you as always. Rick, good to see you buddy; you enjoy the rest of your weekend.
HORROW: We'll make up for it next week, I guarantee.
HOLMES: Of course we will.
All right. Well, coming up, there might be some more bad news for the Gulf of Mexico? One scientist says he's discovered or she has discovered oil on the sea floor miles away from the Deepwater Horizon site. Taking a closer look at what that could mean.
Plus at the top of the hour, the new census numbers out this week show more Americans than ever are living in poverty. Shocking numbers we're breaking down for you at the top of the hour.
Also going to be talking to an author about what you can do about it. And the first thing you need to do, he says, is get mad.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: About ten minutes to the top of the hour now.
The town of West Orange, Texas in a state of shock this morning after the star quarterback of the local high school football team collapsed and died during last night's game. His name is Reginald Garrett. He collapsed on the team's sideline shortly after throwing his second touchdown pass. He was rushed to an area hospital. Hundreds of fans, teammates, friends, everybody gathered there.
A short time ago, I spoke with the hospital supervisor Susan Courtney who was there when he was brought in. This wasn't just another patient to her. She knew this young man personally like so many other people in town did.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUSAN COURTNEY, BAPTIST HOSPITAL: The paramedics did everything possible in the field. We did -- we worked with him for well over an hour. And we did everything possible, including our physician getting on the line to a local cardiologist to see if there was anything else we could do, but we simply couldn't get a heartbeat back.
HOLMES: What was that hospital like? And was it full of people at the time when -- just trying to check on him.
COURTNEY: His family was all there, of course, and it was very devastating and lots of crying. But then shortly after the game ended, the -- my parking lot completely filled with people. The waiting room was full, the parking lot was full. There was cheerleaders, there was band members, all the coaches were there. It was just the entire community. Like the entire football stadium came to the hospital to check on him.
We were trying our best to give them good news and comfort them, but it was -- it was impossible. (END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: And Courtney went on to add that Garrett was a senior, a straight-A student at West Orange Stark High School and was being courted by a number of colleges.
And this morning, as well, we shared the story and had that interview on -- certainly an emotional interview earlier. A lot of people were responding about it.
But one of the responses I received was from a lady named Trina Moore. When I thanked her for writing in, she appreciated that we even did the story. But going to her Twitter page and watching her timeline shows that she was at that game last night when the young man collapsed.
I want to share it with you here now. Again from Trina Moore who was at the game. And 12 hours ago her first tweet, we can show you here, said that she was at the game, getting ready -- it's the one at the bottom there -- but at the game, getting ready to watch those Mustangs play.
A short time later she gave an update on the score saying West Orange up 14-0. The next message said West Orange up 21-0, but a player just passed out on the sideline, pray he's OK. And then her last tweet from last night saying, "Horrible news: our starting high school quarterback collapsed on the sideline and died. Rest in peace Reggie Garrett."
A young man that everyone in town knew, understand he was going to be going to college to play football. But again, nobody knows why this happened just yet.
According to the nurse we talked to over the phone, she had no idea and they had no idea about any medical history that would've affected him. But a young man -- a strong young man, football player, healthy by all accounts, collapsed and died last night.
Well, we'll turn now back to the Gulf. Back to the Gulf of Mexico where BP says it should have its broken oil well permanently sealed later today. That will end one phase of a nearly five-month- long public relations debacle and environmental disaster. But people are still wondering where exactly did all of that oil go?
Here now, CNN's Brian Todd.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A deep water CSI in the Gulf and a potentially ominous finding. Researchers discover what they say is a substantial layer of oil in the sediment in areas near the Deepwater Horizon spill.
The team led by a University of Georgia marine science professor canvassed an area as close as two miles from the well head and as far away as about 80 miles. In several samples from the sea floor, they found concentrations of oil seeping as much as 2 inches into the sediment.
(on camera): We're going to go to the source of this new finding. We're going to speak to Dr. Samantha Joye on a research vessel about 10 miles south, about 25 nautical miles east of the well head. She's on the research vessel, the Oceanus, we're going to call that right now.
(voice-over): I asked Joye about other scientists who question her findings, including those who say so much oil seeps into the Gulf naturally every year that some of this might not even be from the Deepwater Horizon spill.
SAMUEL WALKER SR., NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMIN: There's spillage from other vessels, there's leakage from pipelines. There's all sorts of things like that and so to find oil in the Gulf of Mexico either in its sediments or in the water column is not an unusual thing.
TODD (on camera): How do you come to believe that the oil you found is from the Gulf oil spill in the BP situation?
SAMANTHA JOYE, UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA RESEARCHER: We have samples that were collected in May, early in May on (INAUDIBLE) from many of the same sites we're sampling right now. In May, this layer was not present. It was not here. This layer has developed over the past four months.
TODD (voice-over): Joye concedes they won't know for sure that this water is from the Deepwater Horizon spill until they chemically fingerprint it when they get back to their labs. Joye discovered dead organisms underneath the oily sediment and worries about marine life that would feed off those organisms.
(on camera): What kinds of organisms are exposed to this oil?
JOYE: Well, anything that -- anything that forages at the bottom. I mean any fish, any invertebrate, any squid, octopus, anything that is going to the bottom looking for food is going to be exposed to the material.
TODD: Then Joye says that could deprive other fish up the chain from a healthy food source. An official with NOAA tells CNN this finding does not necessarily contradict a government study issued last month saying about 75 percent of the oil from the spill was either captured, evaporated naturally, or dispersed into the water column in microscopic droplets. The official says the oil in these samples could be part of the 25 percent that got away.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Well, as the numbers showed this week, more and more Americans are living in poverty. Some of the numbers considered shocking. We're going to share those with you at the top of the hour. Plus we're taking a closer look at what can be done to get Americans out of poverty.
We're just a few minutes to the top of the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: OK. We know you can improve your health by eating right, but it can cost you a fortune to buy some of the right foods, the good food, but it doesn't necessarily have to. In our "Fit Nation" report, CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta gets some tips from a world famous French chef on eating healthy and saving money.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the economy in a slump, families are struggling to make ends meet, but you don't have to sacrifice good nutrition. Where better to look for tips on healthy living on the cheap than a five-star French chef?
CHEF ERIC RIPERT, LE BERNADIN RESTAURANT: (INAUDIBLE) little bit of your impress (ph) into the food, it's easy ways to find to eat for a budget which is not too expensive, good food.
GUPTA: World-renowned Chef Eric Ripert says it is about doing what's good for you.
RIPERT: You can, for instance, buy a chicken which is very inexpensive. Instead of buying the chicken already cut or cooked, you buy it whole and therefore you save a lot of money.
If you want something healthy and something inexpensive, you have to think seasonally. If you want to eat tomatoes in January, it's very expensive. Now if in January you eat root vegetables, if you make a soup with a squash, it's going to be very inexpensive.
GUPTA: So how does this French chef extraordinaire stay healthy himself surrounded by top notch cuisine all day long?
RIPERT: First, before I leave the house, I have a little bit of dark chocolate of very good quality.
I leave my house around 10:00 and I walk through the streets of New York. It takes about 40 to 45 minutes. I think it keeps me in a certain good health and in shape.
GUPTA: The bottom line, says Ripert --
RIPERT: I'm a strong believer that you can do a lot of things in terms of eating, which is you can eat burger, you can eat chocolate, you can have a little desert here and there, but again, it has to be in a quantity that is controlled and you have to compensate with some exercise.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
