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CNN Saturday Morning News
Rep. Giffords' Road to Recovery; Keith Olbermann Signs Off at MSNBC; Baby Doc to Haitians: "I'm Here to Help"; Chinatown, USA; Finding Cash in Your Closet; Pakistani Mother Joins Kids in 1st Grade
Aired January 22, 2011 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
The next phase of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords recovery is underway this morning. She is in Houston, where doctors are optimistic about her prospects in rehab. We'll look at what's still expected to be a long road back from a traumatic brain injury.
Talk about your road hazards, a truck out of control leads to a major wreck and some footage caught on tape.
And, are you doing a little house cleaning this morning? Well, if so, pay attention. You could find some spare cash. In some cases, hundreds of dollars. We'll show you how in our morning money report.
It is early. And we are on it. From CNN Center, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It's January 22nd. Good morning, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye.
Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is on the next step in her road to recovery this morning. Giffords was flown to Houston, Texas, yesterday. From the airport, choppers took her, her doctors and family to Memorial Hermann Hospital, where she will start rehab that could last for months.
CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more from Houston.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Randi, in the words of Gabrielle Giffords' doctors here in Houston, she's doing spectacularly. They are thrilled to see how well she is doing less than two weeks after the bullet went through her brain.
DR. RANDALL FRIESE, ASSOC. MED. DIR., UMC TRAUMA CTR.: I am happy to bring the news the transfer of Gabby from University Medical Center in Tucson here to Memorial Hermann in Houston went flawlessly. The trip was well-planned.
And I asked Mark if I could share with you -- when we were traveling through the streets of Tucson, there was several times we could hear applause in the ambulance with Gabby. And she responded very well to that -- smiling and, in fact, tearing a little bit. It was very emotional and very special.
DR. DONG KIM, DEPT. OF NEUROSURGERY, UTHEALTH: She looks spectacular in all ways. From a neurological point of view, first, she came to ICU and she was alert, awake, calm. She looked comfortable. I think we were already feeling some interaction, which is important. She's got very good movement on the left side of her body. And it was very purposeful.
And we were testing her vision and she didn't like us shining the light in her eye and wanted to keep them closed. And these are all very good signs.
She had good tone in her leg.
COHEN: Randi, here's what lies ahead for Giffords: doctors hope to get her out of intensive care as soon as possible. She's there because she has a drain that's draining fluid from around her brain. And as long as she has that drain, they say she has to be in intensive care.
After that, they'll try to get her into a rehabilitation hospital so that full time she's doing rehab, learning to walk, dress herself, learning how to speak again, if that's what she needs. They say she has a long road ahead. They predict it could be as long as four to six months or possibly even longer -- Randi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: And one newly elected representative has taken note and taken arms after the Arizona attack. Republican Congresswoman Renee Ellmers of North Carolina says she plans on carrying a handgun at public events from now on. Ellmers says she has a concealed weapons permit.
She is not the only elected official from North Carolina packing heat. Congressman Heath Shuler says he's been armed since receiving death threats back in 2009.
Popular MSNBC anchor, Keith Olbermann, made a shocking announcement at the end of his show last night. He's signing off right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH OLBERMANN, FORMER HOST, MSNBC'S "COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN": This is the last edition of "Countdown." There were many occasions, particularly in the last 2 1/2 years where all that surrounded the show, but never the show itself was just too much for me. But your support and loyalty, if I may use the word "insistence," ultimately required that I keep going.
Again, all my greatest thanks. Widen the shot out a bit so we can do one of these one last time. Thank you, Brian.
Good night and good luck.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: And that was that.
Olbermann hosted the network's top-rated primetime show. But, recently, he butted heads with management over his political contributions to several candidates, including Gabby Giffords. He was suspended for a few days.
In a statement, the network thanked him for his service and wished him well. Neither side is saying much more than that.
The search is on for a woman suspected in the abduction of an infant from a Harlem, New York hospital 23 years ago. North Carolina has issued an arrest warrant for Ann Pettway on a provision violation for attempted embezzlement charges. Police think Pettway is the woman who took 19-day-old Carlina White on August 4th, 1987. Federal investigators have joined the effort to find Pettway.
Baby Doc says he is there to help. The former Haitian dictator, Jean-Claude Duvalier, spoke for the first time since coming back to Haiti last week. Amnesty International says an investigation is getting underway into alleged crimes against humanity during his time in office. But Duvalier says it was important for him to come back one year after the quake regardless of the consequences.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEAN-CLAUDE DUVALIER, FMR. HAITIAN DICTATOR (through translator): From the moment I took the decision to return to Haiti, to commemorate with you and our country, this sad anniversary, I was waiting for all sorts of persecutions. But believe me, the desire to participate at your side in this national reconstruction effort is more important than all the problems I could face. The price to pay is not important. The essential thing for me was to be with you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: He'd been in exile for a quarter century after protest and corruption allegations forced him out of office.
Winter weather is making for some tough travel. Here's the beginning of a traffic accident yesterday near Toronto that was caught on tape. The driver of the car was able to steer clear of trouble. But another accident involved nearly 40 vehicles.
Well, I want to make a cool, quick $500? Look no further than your bedroom. We've got tips on how to turn your closet into your personal ATM machine.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Glad you're with us this morning. It's about eight minutes after the hour.
Meteorologist Karen Maginnis has another check of the forecast for us. More snow?
KAREN MAGINNIS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
KAYE: It's a safe bet this time of year.
MAGINNIS: And across the Midwest and the central United States, that's where we are looking at. Just kind of a dusting of snow because this is going to be a clipper system that moves things fairly quickly.
I want to show you the latest temperatures that we have. Now, these just teen degree temperatures, they're not wind chill factors, nor is Fargo's minus-13 degrees, not a wind chill factor. Minneapolis is two. Detroit is eight. St. Louis is 20 degrees.
These are the wind chill factors. Fargo, 30 degrees below zero. That's what it feels like.
Yesterday, International Falls set a record morning low temperature of minus 46 degrees. I spoke with someone from around there and they are saying, people were out jogging, having a great time. We're tough people here.
And Des Moines 18 right now and North Platte, 21 degrees.
I want to show you a beautiful picture coming out of Washington, D.C. And the lights of the White House are just now coming on. The temperature is a brisk 17 degrees. Good morning Washington, D.C. And it looks like the temperatures are going to hold on into the 20s for most of the day. And we're not going to see a whole lot of recovery until we go to until just about the middle of the workweek.
A quick look at the high temperatures for this afternoon: Denver 45, Chicago 20. Chicago, Sunday looks like, Randi, it's only going to be in the teens. So, those playoff fans better bundle up.
JERAS: They better, right. Bring that hot chocolate.
All right. Thank you, Karen.
China's President Hu Jintao doesn't make a lot of state visits. But when he does, there's no shortage of countries where he can grab some quality dim sum. There is a Chinatown thriving actually on every continent. We're taking a trip to some of them in our morning passport.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: China is well known for its business success mostly because of exports. But China has been exporting another major commodity for centuries, it's people. There is a Chinatown in many major cities.
Nadia Bilchik is joining me now with a look at some of them.
NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITORIAL PRODUCER: We all know New York.
KAYE: That's the only one I've been through.
BILCHIK: Dim sum, ginseng, and the great Louis Vuitton.
KAYE: Yes, and a cheap one.
BILCHIK: Exactly. But Melbourne, in Australia, actually is the largest Chinatown with the exception of San Francisco. And it began in the gold rush of the 1850s. So, extraordinary, very colorful, very amazing Chinatown in Melbourne.
Now, Japan has the largest in Asia. And in 1937, when Japan had a full-scale war with China, obviously, any kind of development in the area ceased to exist. But right now, you have a (INAUDIBLE) that was built and the Japanese Chinatown, although one would think Asian culture is again an extraordinary Chinatown.
In Paris, 70,000 Chinese in Paris. And I just love some of the menus. I sat pouring through the menus of Chinatown in Paris. You can get sauteed duck, fried crab, fried ravioli, salted eel, and ginger lobster.
KAYE: Now, is all of this wrapped in a crepe because we are in Paris?
(CROSSTALK)
BILCHIK: Exactly. That's the perfect dialectic, you know, the synthesis, the --
KAYE: Yes, they emerged everything.
BILCHIK: Exactly. Now, Vancouver is the largest in Canada. But what's really exceptional about all of this is we have around 2 million Chinese in Africa.
KAYE: Really?
BILCHIK: But, we have over half million Africans in China. And over 250,000 of them are in the Zhengzhou province. So, you get an African town in China. And the majority of these people are Nigerians. So, instead of a Chinatown we know, here's an African town in the middle of China where the languages of Igbo and Yoruba are spoken.
KAYE: But that's not what you think of when you go to Chinatown and certainly in New York City, like I said. You're not hearing those languages.
BILCHIK: No, you're not hearing those languages. But, you know, we always think of Chinese in Chinatown. Here, the African town in China. We always think of Chinese leaving, but there's a huge influx of Africans in China. KAYE: Into China, hmm.
BILCHIK: So, you've got these towns, particularly in the Zhengzhou province where you got African towns. Now, the authorities are not welcoming to the Nigerians, particularly in these towns and very often do passport checks. But you have a proliferation of an entire society forming.
Now, about 10 years ago, the Chinese were so amazed by these large black people that they kept wanting to take photographs of them. But the Nigerians have become so much part of the culture that they are no longer even such a phenomena or such a spectacle. So, can you imagine, in the middle of China, you can get Egusi soup.
KAYE: Do I want to know what's in it?
BILCHIK: Actually, this time, you do.
KAYE: OK.
BILCHIK: It's quite delicious. Its primary ingredient is ground up melon seed amongst other things. But can you imagine going to China and eating Nigerian food?
KAYE: No.
BILCHIK: Do you know the other 40,000 Chinese restaurants, there's an extraordinary book, "The Fortune Cookie Chronicles." So, if you want to know about American-Chinese restaurant, they are prolific.
KAYE: All right. Well, now, I know what I'm having for lunch today. Right? Chinese food I think.
BILCHIK: And there's a superb Chinese takeout downstairs.
KAYE: All right. I'll find it. Thank you, Nadia.
Well, if you love clipping coupons from the Sunday paper or online, you are not alone. Coupons.com released its list of the most frugal cities in the U.S. Coming in at number 10 is Raleigh. Number nine, Pittsburgh. Number eight: Cleveland. Number seven on the list of most frugal cities is Nashville, and number six is Charlotte.
What are the top five money-saving coupon-clipping cities in the U.S.? That is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: I don't know about you, but I love that music this morning.
Coupons.com has been keeping track of those of you who love to save money. We've got their list of the most frugal cities in the U.S. Rounding out the top five, Minneapolis, number four: St. Louis. Coming in at number three: Cincinnati. Number two: Tampa. And the honor of the most frugal city in the country goes to -- I'll give you a hint, it's where I am sitting right now -- Atlanta.
Checking our top stories for you:
AAA says gas prices have increased 12 cents a gallon over the next month and they are expected to climb even higher. The American Petroleum Institute says prices will keep rising until there's an increase in supply. Worldwide oil demand surged to a new record last year, but production lagged.
The funeral mass for Sargent Shriver is set to begin in just a few hours in Potomac, Maryland. There was large public wake last night for Shriver, the first director the Peace Corps and an in-law of the Kennedys. Vice President Joe Biden will speak at the service today.
And change could be coming soon in Sudan. Nearly 99 percent of Southern Sudanese who voted in last week's referendum chose to split from the North. That's according to figures released by the election organizing commission.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Welcome back. Twenty-one minutes after the hour.
Looking for a little extra cash? How does $500 sound? You may be able to find the extra money by just looking in your closet, it turns. We're not just talking to women -- men, you are also included.
Alexa Von Tobel, founder of learnvest.com joins us.
And, Alexa, I don't know about you, but I have a hard time parting with anything. So, let's start with the guys first if we can. Is there something for the guys to cash in on the closet?
ALEXA VON TOBEL, LEARNVEST.COM: Sure, absolutely. So, good morning.
For the gentlemen, it's a lot harder to sell your clothing online. So, we recommend accessories like ties and coats and particularly uniforms. If you have uniforms, they are really easy to unload on places like Amazon and eBay. We also like sports memorabilia, any type of collector's items, particularly baseball, basketball. It's very easy to make a ton of extra money on those reselling them online.
So, those are the main things that we focus on for guys.
KAYE: So, if I'm able to squeeze anything out, if I'm able to part with anything, what can women cash in on?
VON TOBEL: Sure. So, for women, at learnvest.com, the biggest thing you can sell online that's easy is things like jewelry. So, we recommend you take your jewelry, let's be honest, we all have tons of it, and actually go get it appraised first.
So, with this, what we want you to do is go find an appraisal. Sit down. Don't tell them that you're trying to resell it and they'll actually give you the best price that they can give you. And then it's easier to turn around and actually resell to the person who gave you the appraisal, first. So, that's a great thing to do.
If you have baby items, we recommend a great site called ParkSlopeParents.com. Baby stuff, you don't have space for it. All those extra carriages, different -- all the different carrying items for your baby, old coats have awesome online resale values. So, we recommend you start with those.
KAYE: And so, you do suggest getting it appraised first?
VON TOBEL: Yes, we do. So, the big with anything that's high- value. So, old jewelry but also high-end fashion items. So, your old Louis Vuitton purses, Gucci, anything that has designer quality, get it appraised first because it's really easy for you to actually make pretty high resale cost on those things. So, we want to make sure that you do that first.
And, again, we're trying to help you find at least $500 in your closet. It's quite easy to do.
KAYE: And just quickly, I mean, I know a lot of people, I know myself, I horde gift cards. I have cards for every occasion. I will never be able to use all of them in my lifetime. Can I actually really make some money from gift cards or books? You know, a lot of us have that.
VON TOBEL: Yes, that's right, Randi. At learnvest.com, our two favorite sites are bookscouter.com. It's easy to resell your books. I actually just did it with my old textbooks. It takes less five seconds to upload the bar code. And you can easily resell them.
And then for old gift cards, I know I got a ton of gift cards that I didn't want for the holidays. We like plasticjungle.com. And what you'll simply do is upload the cards you have. You can either consolidate them and get a gift card to a place like Saks or someplace you're excite about or you can even get some of the cash back.
KAYE: All right. Great advice, $500 right out of your closet. Alexa Von Tobel, founder of learnvest.com, thanks so much for joining us.
We'll be right back.
VON TOBEL: Thanks so much.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KAYE: Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords is on the steps on her road to recovery. Giffords was flown to Houston, Texas, yesterday, where she will undergo rehab at one of the nation's top rehabilitation hospitals, Memorial Hermann. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is in Houston and tells us the Arizona congresswoman's rehab could take months.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: Randi, in the words of Gabrielle Giffords' doctors here in Houston, she's doing spectacularly. They are thrilled to see how well she is doing less than two weeks after the bullet went through her brain.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
DR. RANDALL FRIESE, ASSOC. MED. DIR., UMC TRAUMA CTR.: I am happy to bring the news the transfer of Gabby from University Medical Center in Tucson here to Memorial Hermann in Houston went flawlessly. The trip was well-planned.
And I asked Mark if I could share with you -- when we were traveling through the streets of Tucson, there was several times we could hear applause in the ambulance with Gabby. And she responded very well to that -- smiling and, in fact, tearing a little bit. It was very --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: And we have this reminder. You can follow Elizabeth's "Empowered" blog on our Web site, CNNhealth.com.
Well, imagine going back to school, all the way back to grade one. That is the story of a Pakistani woman who at the age of 25 joined her own kids in school to start the education she never got. CNN's Reza Sayah reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
REZA SAYAH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's a little after 8:00 in the morning. And we are in a town of Daud Khel here in northwest Pakistan. We drove four hours to get here from Islamabad. This is Islamabad. This is where we are Daud Khel. A lot of the militant Taliban activity you hear about is here, the tribal region just west of us and this is Afghanistan.
We came here to tell you the story of Rukhsana Batul (ph). She's a 25-year-old mother. And every morning she wakes up, puts on her burqa, a full length Islamic veil and takes her two little boys to school. That's not so unusual. What happens next is. Rukhsana doesn't leave her kids at school. Instead, she sits next to them in class and learns. That's because she's enrolled in first grade with her kids.
RUKHSANA BATUL, MOTHER (through translator): I used to bring my children to school. I saw them studying. I thought I want to study and learn, too. SAYAH: A teacher here at the school says, for weeks, at first she came because her kids wouldn't sit still. She ended up liking it. Her parents had never sent her to school. So, the teacher had an idea, why not enroll and come to class. And for Rukhsana, the decision was easy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): She was interested in studying and I welcomed that. I told her I would teach her even if it meant taking break time.
SAYAH: Rukhsana gives her husband a lot of credit for encouraging her. Remember, illiteracy is a huge problem here in Pakistan. Where we are, it's rare for little girls to go to school, let alone 25-year- old moms.
One study shows only one out of 10 girls go to school in this province.
SABIR HUSSAIN SHA, RUKHSANA'S HUSBAND (through translator): I think women in every country should be educated. If she's getting educated, then my family will be much more enlightened as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My opinion is one of the main solutions to all the issues we have in this country is the education of women. I think if one woman is educated, her entire family will be educated.
SAYAH: Her teacher says one of Rukhsana's boys could be sharper than she is. She strongly disagrees. It's friendly competition between mom and her two little boys in first grade.
Reza Sayah, CNN, Daud Khel, Pakistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: Well, most people never see what goes on inside an operation room. But our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is giving us an all access pass inside the OR And this caution: some of the operation video is graphic.
"SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." starts right now.
