Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Saturday Morning News

Discussing Afghanistan's Future; The Real Sport of Quidditch Becoming; A Job for the Holidays; Sports Highlights of the Weekend

Aired November 20, 2010 - 07:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour here now. Good morning to you all. I am T.J. Holmes. Thank you so much for being with us on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Of course, a lot of Americans, a lot of families out there are wondering, when will my son, or daughter, or when will my husband or wife come home from Afghanistan. Well, the answer to that question and the future of Afghanistan now on the table at the meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization or NATO as it's called.

CNN's Chris Lawrence is there in Lisbon, keeping an eye on things.

Chris, hello to you, once again. I guess it's hard to get a hard answer to that question. When might troops be coming home? But they're trying to talk about it.

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., the short answer, really, is probably going to be a lot longer than you originally thought. You know, there was so much meaning (ph) when President Obama announced his 2011 date to start bringing troops home. Well, some of the provinces, the areas that the United States and NATO is going to turn over to the Afghans, these are areas where there are few, if any, U.S. troops fighting. So, it really remains to be seen how many will actually come home next year.

The date you keep hearing about now, 2014. Four years away. That's the date that they want to really hand over the combat operations to Afghanistan. And from everything that we're hearing, even after that date, the United States still expects to have a very large, robust presence here in Afghanistan.

So, if you are at home thinking, you know, Afghanistan is winding down in the next year or two, that does not seem to be the case.

HOLMES: And we know Afghanistan is a big topic on the table, but also missile defense which there was some movement on that at least at the summit.

LAWRENCE: Yes. I mean, T.J., you hear all these, you know, this NATO organization and missile defense and Afghanistan, it just seems like a bunch of topics that have nothing to do with each other because publicly, they don't. You know, take a look at what President Obama said yesterday about this idea of this missile defense shield here in Europe.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It offers a role for all of our allies in response to threat of our times. It shows our determination to protect our citizens from threat of ballistic missiles. And tomorrow, we look forward to working with Russia, to build our cooperation with them in this area as well, recognizing that we share many of the same threats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAWRENCE: And the meeting with Russia is just a couple hours away.

So, publicly, yes, it sounds like everybody is united, all allies in agreement. But that's because, you know, what you don't see are the backroom deals going on here, how the NATO wants to bring Russia into this missile defense shield. They are ready to make some concessions to get them into that.

But at the same time, what they're going to get out of Russia is more cooperation in Afghanistan. Russia perhaps is agreeing to go after some of the heroin there, to train some of the Afghan helicopter pilots, and to expand the supply routes to allow more supplies to come in and out of Afghanistan through Russia.

So, even thing that don't seem to be connected publicly, privately, very much so.

HOLMES: Good perspective from you this morning -- Chris Lawrence, we appreciate you this morning -- reporting from Lisbon, Portugal. Thank you so much.

Well, if you are one of the millions out there without a job or you know someone looking for a job right now, our Clyde Anderson is along this morning. And he has some news for you, you could use, about these holidays job. They are out there. He has a list of them, exactly where they are and also have some tips about how you can stand out when you are competing for a job. He's coming up in a bit.

Right now, I want to say good morning once again to Reynolds Wolf.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, T.J.

The big weather story we have today is all out to the west, where we are going to see a series of tremendous snowstorms, not only inches of snow but several feet of snow for the Central Rockies and the Sierra Nevada. Good news so far, no delays. But obviously some travel issues on the roadways. We'll talk more about that coming up, T.J.

HOLMES: All right, Reynolds, thank you. But don't go too far. You know, I always like to quiz you and our viewers. Here's one for you, a holiday spending quiz.

What is expected to be the most sought-after item on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving? Is it the Xbox 360? Is it the iPad from Apple? Or is it Disney's "Toy Story 3" Blu-ray disc?

Reynolds, you're answer.

WOLF: I'm going to go C.

HOLMES: You're going to go with the blu-ray?

WOLF: Let me try blue ray there.

HOLMES: "Toy Story." All right. We'll see if Reynolds is right and if you are right -- right after the break.

It's four minutes past the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. At six minutes past the hour now.

Before the break, we asked you, we asked Reynolds -- what is expected to be the most sought after item on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving? The Xbox 360, Apples iPad or "Disney Story 3" blu-ray disc.

And the answer is actually the iPad. I didn't know this either, Reynolds. Kind of surprising here. The number two on the list is the Kinect for the Xbox 360, you know, the one that lets you, I guess, be the controller. And the other hot items: the iPhone 4, the HTC Droid phones, the Sony and Samsung 3D televisions.

But a good guess, Reynolds, because it was the list expensive on there. But it sounds like people are still going for some high ticket items.

WOLF: I'm also looking at here the viewpoint of being a dad. You know, with too much kids at home, they're going to be, you know -- you know what they are going for.

HOLMES: That's at the top of your list.

WOLF: Absolutely. That's the way it goes. And I'm Mr. Minivan. Did I say that on TV?

HOLMES: You said it out loud. It's all right. You're a cool minivan guy.

WOLF: Check in the mail, T.J.

HOLMES: Yes, no problem.

WOLF: All right. Let's show you what's happening right now. It's kind of hard -- actually, kind of easy that in the Eastern Seaboard, we don't have a whole of action, maybe some telltales snow will fall off in the elevations of Maine. But out to the west, it is just roaring. We are talking about a couple of winter storms that are coming through. The result could be some very heavy snowfall for parts of California into the Cascades, even into the central Rockies. In the Wasatch Range outside of Salt Lake City could be a spot where it could be really piling up.

But the good news is, so far, no major delays out there. But on the roadways, we're obviously going to have some issues, especially along parts of I-80 due to all the heavy snowfall.

Now, in terms of the amount of snow, that's where it gets really interesting, especially in parts of the Sierra Nevada, we could see several feet of snow piling up. Same story back in ski country, Colorado, ski country, it could get especially heavy. So, it's great news for skiers, but for the poor people that have to driving through the heavy snowfall, especially in the minivans, it's going to be rough going. So, just keep that in mind.

For Chicago, your high today, 46 degrees at Wrigley Field for the big game. Again, it's Northwestern. I believe it's a 3:00 start. We're going to have the college football forecast coming up for you later on this morning.

But despite the high pressure, cloud cover is going to be around for quite a bit.

At Atlanta, 70 degrees and sunny; 76 in Dallas; 62 in Los Angeles. The Golden State of California, cloudy and rainy -- and again, in the high elevations, expect the snowfall. Forty-four degrees expected in Portland today.

And as we take a look at the rest of your forecast, which is going to be coming up in mere moments, we're also going to be talking about a gradual warm up we can expect in the next week. Things getting above normal for the Central Plains and for the Eastern Seaboard, but out west, it's all going to be cold.

More on that coming up. T.J., let's kick it back to you.

HOLMES: All right. You mentioned Chicago and the game there. What you said is the temperature?

WOLF: It's going to be around 40-some degrees.

HOLMES: That is the least of their problems for that game today. If you folks don't know, we're going to be talking about this plenty this morning. They are having the football game at Wrigley Field today. They had to squeeze a football field into a baseball stadium. It didn't quite work out.

WOLF: Let's keep in mind the Cubs don't even play well there. Much less football. So, it's going to be kind of interesting to see how this pans out.

HOLMES: But there's a brick wall that is a safety has at the end of one end zone. They are literally going to go only use, both teams' offenses only to go one direction and use one end zone. I'm not kidding. We'll give you more details about that throughout the morning.

Also, something I had no idea about -- quidditch. I keep asking everybody. That's a game of this game, some game where you are on an imaginary broom stick or something like -- do I have that right? She's laughing at me, my floor director. But it's something that people are trying around the country right now. And it all came from this "Harry Potter," is where this came from.

Our Josh Levs tried it out, I think.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As the new "Harry Potter" movie reaches theaters, more and more college students around the country are actually playing quidditch. That's right -- the game where you fly around on one of these. So, how do they are turning it into something you can do right here on the ground? I'll show you, coming right up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC)

HOLMES: Well, it's 11 minutes past the hour. A beautiful shot of New York today. Listening to a little Jay-Z featuring his now wife, Beyonce who featured a little earlier this morning,. If you didn't see it, shame on you.

Well, actor Wesley Snipes, he is apparently going to be heading to prison. If you remember the story, he had been free on bail for more than two years. He was appealing a tax evasion conviction by a judge. He got a three year sentence. But he was appealing.

But now, a federal judge in Florida has denied his appeal and his request for a new trial. So, now, the judge has ordered him to start the three-year sentence, ordered him to report. We don't exactly know when just yet. But word is, he is going to have to go to prison now.

Now, a lot of you have seen probably some Wesley Snipes movie here or there. There was one that was popular, "Blade 3." He was -- you know, this "Blade" series of movies that Wesley Snipes did were pretty popular.

But his co-star in "Blade 3" is Ryan Reynolds. He, these days -- there he is -- appears to be doing much better than Wesley Snipes because he has now been named the sexiest man alive by "People" magazine. He's a 34-year-old Canadian actor.

He's starring in an upcoming film a lot of people are anxious to see. He's going to be the comic book here, "The Green Lantern."

Other men who won the title as sexy include George Clooney, Johnny Depp, Denzel Washington and also Ryan Reynolds, his leading lady these days, his woman, is Scarlet Johansson, who a lot of men might consider the sexiest woman alive. It's a good-looking duo.

We'll turn to the NFL now, is going to try hip-hop once again for the half time show. "The Dallas Morning News" is reporting that the rap group Black-Eyed Peas will perform in next year's Super Bowl. This would be the first time in six years hip hop is going to do the half-time show. The last time it happened was back in 2004, that there was a hip hop performance at half time.

You all remember what happened in 2004? All I need to say is wardrobe malfunction. And we will leave it at that.

We've been talking a lot about "Harry Potter," the latest movie in the "Harry Potter" series is coming out this weekend. The boy wizard, this is the seventh movie in the franchise, just made $60 million-plus in its first day. So, yes, it is out.

The whole saga is a just little after my time, if you will. This is not something necessarily I have been into. But still, it's popular. I get it.

But for a lot of people out there who might not be into it. There is quidditch out there. Do you know about this? Josh Levs explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEVS: All right. So, as the "Harry Potter" movie is reaching theaters, more and more young people, thousands of them all over the country are actually playing quidditch, a game where you are supposed to fly around on one of these. (INAUDIBLE) behind me.

And two young people who can tell me how they did that are joining me right here. They're going to tell us all about it.

And, Erin, I know you are one of the founders, talk to me about this right here. Why create quidditch when the reality is you can't possibly replicate what you see on the movies?

ERIN WILSON, QUIDDITCH PLAYER: Well, it came off the fact that we all grew up with Harry Potter books. And when Greg and I came to college in the 2007, the books had just ended. And we wanted the magic to live on. And we all like Frisbee EGA (ph) and this gives us a good excuse to come out here and kind of be nerds, but also engage in a really athletic sport.

LEVS: It's great.

All right. And, Greg, you're one of the founders also. Talk to me about what's going on in the game behind me. Obviously, no one is running around on brooms. So, how did you guys replicate the game? What are we seeing here?

GREG STONE, QUIDDITCH PLAYER: Well, we kind of wanted to bring ultimate Frisbee to quidditch as we all like that. So, the chasers basically play Frisbee and then there's two beaters who carry the Bludgers and they have to try and peg the chasers.

LEVS: There are tons of words that fly around when you learn about quidditch. But the basic idea here is that you got the ball. The dodge balls are used to knock people down, right, and you want to get the Frisbee into the hoop. The ultimate prize is the snitch.

Where is that snitch? Let's bring them over on. Snitch! Come on over.

We're going to show you the snitch now. You remember from the movies, the snitch is the little golden ball that flies around with wings on. So, look at what they did. This is Alex Squires, this is snitch.

And take a look, there he is, folks. This is the snitch. They have to capture. So, basically, you hide somewhere on campus, right, and then they chase you for awhile?

ALEX SQUIRES, QUIDDITCH PLAYER: Yes. It's -- there's a defined area around the field where we play. And the seekers look for me. And once they see me, it becomes a foot race to snatch the ball off my back.

LEVS: Oh, man, do you ever get tackled pretty hard?

SQUIRES: No, not anymore. But used to, but we changed the rules.

LEVS: All right. Well, I know, International Quidditch Association says sometimes it can get pretty rough out there.

We have iReports for you of teens all over the country playing this game. And you can check them out right there. Obviously, if you are a quidditch fan, send yours as well.

Listen, folks, good luck in the quidditch game. Thanks for joining us here at CNN. Go have some fun, all right?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: OK. Now I get it.

If you're looking for a job this morning, like so many other people out there, we have information you can use this morning. Our Clyde Anderson is going to be along. He has a list of people who are hiring. How many jobs are out there this holiday season?

Also, we have some tips for you as well on how to stand out when you are competing against so many others for the same job.

It's 17 minutes past the hour. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. I'm joined now -- at 21 past the hour -- by our financial analyst, Clyde Anderson, helping us out.

We've been talking about this this morning. Holiday jobs, they are out there, correct?

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: They are. And they are there for the taking.

HOLMES: Where are they?

ANDERSON: Actually, they are a lot of places. But you got to think about it. Where do people go during the holidays? They are going to spend. They're going to eat. So, you got retail places that are hiring, you got restaurants that are hiring. Warehouses that are hiring that do fulfillment orders, that process orders. Those types of places are where you're going to really want to start to look.

HOLMES: OK. People still have time. It seems like it's something you probably need to jump on since the season is about to start in less than a week now. Do they still have time?

ANDERSON: I mean, you do. I mean, Friday, you are talking Black Friday next week. And so, it's time now. Yesterday was a time to get started, but, you know, start early but start now. You know, if you need a job, go out there and they are there.

HOLMES: OK. Clearly, there are a lot of people that are going to be competing for this job. I think the unemployment -- we still got roughly 15 million people in this country looking for jobs. They are going to be competing.

How are you supposed to get the gig then if you're competing against so many people?

ANDERSON: Well, you got to stand out. Like you said, 15 million people are unemployed right now. They got 500,000 jobs that are estimated to have for the holiday season. So, you think about it, 15 million -- 500,000.

So, you got to start early. You got to stand out. And you got to really get out there and go quickly. You got to take it seriously, be flexible about your hours and identify the businesses that you frequent.

So, if you shop at certain stores -- go to those stores and find out if there's help there. I got many people I talk to that go to department stores that they shop at and they are familiar with the lay out. They're familiar with --

HOLMES: They can help you out.

ANDERSON: They also can help you out. You got the upper hand right there. It's something that's paid off (ph).

HOLMES: And you said there, take it seriously. What do you mean by that?

ANDERSON: Take it seriously. Don't just think about it as a holiday job. Some people going there previously, I'm going to get to a little part time holiday job.

Jobs are serious right now. So, go in there and take it seriously. And then that could turn into something that could be more long term, a full-time position because if you stand out in that position, if you're the sales role, they're probably going to keep you if you do pretty well.

HOLMES: And that was the next question there. We're talking about tens of thousands of jobs literally. Some companies, Macy's is one of them, Toys "R" Us. I'm sure there are some others as well.

But what are the chances really? And all those jobs, tens of thousands -- are they going to last past the holiday or are they going to be over right after the holiday rush?

ANDERSON: Not all of them. You know, not all of them are going to be there but the competition is fierce, you know. It's like a sports adage, come hard or don't come at all. But you got to bring you A-game.

If you really are coming to find a job, you got to stand out. And again, if you are going to go into retail, you're going to go in the restaurants and you stand out, and you're making the restaurant money or you're making the retail facility money, they're going to probably keep you on.

HOLMES: Can you consider that almost a try-out for the job later?

ANDERSON: There it is. And I think that's a great way to look at it. It's a try-out.

This is the time to go in there, lay the groundwork. I mean, everybody needs a job. So, they're not going to turn down any temporary money. But still, the temporary money, we'd like to turn into long term money if we can. And so, that's it. Go in there and look at it like that.

HOLMES: And normally when they get -- they start to cut these jobs, is it right at like in January when people start bringing their stuff back? Is that when we kind of see the jobs go away?

ANDERSON: Yes. You are going to see during about a two-month period, if you are looking at these jobs. You got November and December for the most part, and part of January. And then they are going to start cutting. So, you got to -- you know, that time, that two and half months or so, to really going in and try out and stand out, show -

HOLMES: To shine.

ANDERSON: -- what you're working with.

HOLMES: Good information this morning, as always. Clyde, we appreciate you always.

ANDERSON: My pleasure.

HOLMES: Thanks so much.

Quick break here. We are going to be right back.

But, again, the story kind of the day I've been talking about, this is a game you have to see. Even if you're not a college football fan, tune into this one. It's a history making game. Not because of the teams, but because of the set-up. Both teams are going to have to use the same end zone.

We'll explain the hazard that is causing chaos at Wrigley Field. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right, coming up to the bottom of the hour here.

I'm joined by, Ray D'Alessio, an old friend and a guy at CNN Sports, keeping an eye on things. This is my favorite story of the day. It's great. I love, love, love this story.

Wrigley Field -- let's set this thing up. They are having a football game at Wrigley Field. Explain why in the first place they want to do that.

RAY D'ALESSIO, CNN SPORTS: Well, I mean, the nostalgia factor. I mean, Northwestern's athletic director, he's been putting this together for -- you know, trying to put it together for a couple of years now, T.J. And, you know, it's just a nostalgia factor, playing at the Wrigley Field, of course, the Chicago Bears played there up until 1970. But back then, they ran north and south, kind of like home play to the outfield to the centerfield wall.

Well, for today's game between Illinois and Northwestern, they are going to run east and west and the big concern that everybody is talking about is that east end zone. And you see it here in the video, towards the left corner of that east end zone, you only have a couple feet, if that before the outfield wall. Now, it's padded. But when people started coming into the stadium this week and saying this, they were like, wait a minute, this could be dangerous.

And a lot of the coaches even said, the two coaches both said, you know what, we are going to have to change the game plan for this end zone. However, everybody wrote off on it. Northwestern, they wrote off on it and said, hey, it's safe. Safety officials wrote off on it. They said it's safe as early as Thursday.

Then, yesterday, they came out and said, you know what, this isn't a good idea. Maybe we should just go one way. And that's what's going to happen. All offensive players are going to run towards the west end zone. They're going to, you know, switch sides after kickoffs, this and that. And the only way that you could score a touchdown in that one end zone is if you intercept a ball or run back a punt.

HOLMES: OK. And, folks, this is literally, what we're talking about, is like you would do on the playground when you're a kid. But the concern -- and we are literally talking about a matter of inches and feet. A guy is running full-speed possibly trying to catch a pass, and run into a brick wall.

D'ALESSIO: And it's padded.

HOLMES: It's a brick wall.

D'ALESSIO: It's padded. Come on, T.J.

HOLMES: A padded brick wall.

D'ALESSIO: It's Arena Football League. And you think the kids care? They don't care. They're like, take -- you know, we'll take the wall head-on, who cares.

HOLMES: All right. We're going to be talking about that throughout the morning, but I only got about 35 to 40 seconds here. The Carolina Panthers, I just love this story, that quarterback coming to Sunday.

D'ALESSIO: Brian St. Pierre, a great story. A week ago, the guy was at home, taking care of his 18-month-old son, basically a stay-at-home dad.

But the Panthers have just been riddled with injuries, both starting quarterbacks. Clausen and Matt Moore gone for the season -- Clausen is not gone for the season, he actually suffered a concussion in recent weeks. Moore, he got hurt last week in a game, injured shoulder, (INAUDIBLE), he's out the rest of the season.

So, Brian St. Pierre gets the call. They say, hey, come on out. They throw him to the fire. They say, you are the starting quarterback.

HOLMES: When is the last time he played?

D'ALESSIO: Last time he played -- well, he's actually -- he hasn't started a game. He never started an NFL game. He was drafted back in 2003, never started an NFL game. But he hasn't played since --

HOLMES: We'll see. We'll see how this turns out.

D'ALESSIO: Yes.

HOLMES: Ray D'Alessio, always good to have you. We're going to be seeing you plenty around here. We're going to have more top stories at the top of the hour when CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues.

Right now, the good doctor.