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CNN Saturday Morning News

Strauss-Kahn Released; Grading NASA's Shuttle Program; Michigan Congressman Thad McCotter to Announce Presidential Run; Wildfire Moving Away From Los Alamos; Pros and Cons of Borrowing From Your 401(k); Salmonella Cases Reported in Five States Linked to Alfalfa Sprouts

Aired July 02, 2011 - 07:00   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, everybody. It's 7:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia; 6:00 a.m. in Memphis, Tennessee; 4:00 a.m. in Phoenix, Arizona. Wherever you may be, glad you're right here.

I have a question for you. Is it OK to borrow from the 401(k)? Most people will tell you no. But we've got somebody here that says go ahead and borrow. We'll explain why, though.

Plus, how would you like to tell your boss, "Hey, I'm too tired to work today," and that's a legitimate excuse to get you out of work for the day. Well, that's part of new rules to keep air traffic controllers awake.

Welcome to you all on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Thank you so much for being here. I'm T.J. Holmes.

Let's start, though, with some new video we are seeing. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, you see him in this video smiling as he heads out for a night on the town with his wife. Just hours before this scene, a judge released him from house arrest.

He, of course, is the former head of the International Monetary Fund who is accused of sexually assaulting a New York hotel maid. The order to release him to end at least the house arrest came after prosecutors detailed problems with the accuser's testimony.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has more on the district attorney's corners.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Prosecutors laid it out for the judge in court and in a letter to the defense. They said they turned up troubling outright lies by the maid. Some, they said, she admitted on her own.

Among them, her story changed about where she was and what she did right after Strauss-Kahn allegedly assaulted his hotel suite. At first, she said she waited in the hallway until her supervisor came. She later admitted she cleaned another room and came back to DSK's suite before reporting the incident.

The D.A. also says she admitted she lied about a gang rape in a political asylum application, and said she admitted faking information to the IRS about her dependents and income. They also said she told other lies they did not detail.

But the maid's attorney would have none of it. Outside court, he made an impassioned defense of his client's integrity. He went into painful detail about physical injuries she allegedly during an alleged attack.

KENNETH THOMPSON, ATTORNEY FOR ACCUSER: The victim, from day one, has described a violent sexual assault that Dominique Strauss- Kahn committed against her. She has described that sexual assault many times to the prosecutors and to me and she has never, once, changed a single thing about that account.

CANDIOTTI: Now, her attorney also accused the D.A. of being afraid to go forward with the case. The fact is it's possible the felony charges will be dropped down the road. The D.A. says the case is not being dismissed right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Well, thanks to our Susan Candiotti for that.

Also, air traffic controllers in Atlanta and nationwide are getting new rules in an effort to keep them from falling asleep on the job. Besides the scheduling guidelines, controllers are now allowed to read or listen to the radio to keep them awake, but only when there is not a lot of air traffic.

They can also take sick days if they're too tired to work. This is all in response to several incidents earlier this year where controllers fell asleep in the tower. Controllers are still not allowed to take naps while on break.

And a man who flew across country without a ticket remains in jail this morning. A federal judge refused to set bail during a hearing yesterday.

The stowaway was caught traveling from New York to Los Angeles using someone else's boarding pass. But when he arrived in Los Angeles, police let him go. He tried to board a plane from L.A. to Atlanta. A few days later, tried to use the same trick. He was arrested that time.

Congressman Peter King who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee has asked for an investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER KING (R-NY), CHAIR, HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: I would believe that the TSA has to implement new training programs, have regiments, have more inspections going on, having people from the administration monitoring what's happening. Let these employees know that they really are being watched.

I mean, this is -- this can't be allowed to happen. This is -- we are talking about life and death here. We're not talking about somebody having a cup of coffee when no one is looking. We're talking about a plane you could have plane full of people getting killed because a person makes such an obvious mistake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, King wants to know how the man was able to get through several layers of security by using an expired college ID and a boarding pass and somebody else's name.

Well, this may come as no surprise to you here, but Maria Shriver has officially filed for divorce from Arnold Schwarzenegger. The papers were filed yesterday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The couple announced their separation back in May after the former California governor admitted fathering a child with a household employee. Shriver, a Kennedy family heiress, and Schwarzenegger had been married for 25 years.

Well, closing arguments in the Florida murder trial of Casey Anthony start tomorrow morning. There is no court today. The prosecution wrapped up the rebuttal phase of the trial yesterday. Casey Anthony is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee. She did not testify in the trial.

Well, Michigan Congressman Thad McCotter is jumping into the presidential race. He'll make the formal announcement at a music festival tonight in his home state. The five-term Republican represents the suburbs around Detroit. He says he plans to tout his vote in favor of the auto industry bailout as part of his campaign.

A former police officer faces charges related to a 1957 murder case. Police arrested 71-year-old Jack McCullough at his home in Seattle. He is accused of kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Maria Rudolph in a Chicago suburb 54 years ago. McCullough was a suspect after the girl went missing, but he dropped out of sight after apparently changing his name and joining the military.

And a New Orleans driver is dead after ending up upside 12 feet in the air on top of a bus stop building. Police believe the man was traveling pretty fast when the car flipped and went airborne. They say fatigue was the likely cause for this early morning accident.

And for people living around Los Alamos, New Mexico, it's a good sign that big wildfire is moving away from the city. We'll tell you if the folks, though, will be able to return anytime soon.

And let us right now, at eight past the hour, say good morning to our Reynolds Wolf, who was out there covering those fires this week.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: And what a sight to see. The great work of the men and women battling the fire. They've done an amazing job. Unfortunately, the weather is going to corporate today. Very dry conditions can be expected there. And along parts of the Eastern Seaboard, including D.C., a very muggy day with a chance of thunderstorms. Nature's fireworks as we like to call them.

Hey, guys, big holiday forecast coming up. You're watching CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Ten minutes past the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING now.

Reynolds, you tell me what we're looking at here. You were out in New Mexico, huge fire still burning out there.

WOLF: What we're re seeing here is a combination of a lot of things. One, we're seeing in this picture, the possibility of more fires popping up because you got plenty of foliage out there, you got the ponderosa pines, you got a lot of conifers out there.

Another thing you're seeing from these pictures, really poor weather conditions, very low humidity, strong winds in the afternoon helped push these flames. But the great thing is we can expect, at least for now, it looks like Los Alamos, the city, is going to be saved.

HOLMES: OK.

WOLF: That's the good news.

HOLMES: But 100,000 acres out there.

WOLF: A hundred thousand acres burned up starting last Sunday. And they believe the fire started actually due to a power line falling on private property. It just started from there.

I can tell you, (INAUDIBLE), including Phoenix --

HOLMES: All right.

WOLF: -- where Phoenix, the high today is going to be 106.

HOLMES: OK.

You know, we deliver here. We had a viewer write in and say, hey, why don't you ever talk about Phoenix? There you go.

WOLF: The number one reason why is because we have this great map. And we don't have room for a lot of things. Albuquerque takes up a lot of room right here on this map.

And the thing is, if we put Phoenix here, which, I love Phoenix -- I love the Valley of the sun. It's a beautiful place, have been there many times. And I will go again.

But, sometimes, you know, you don't have room for everything on the map.

Albuquerque -- see? If we took Phoenix, Albuquerque people will say, you don't like a-town? What's wrong with you? So, we can't make everybody happy. We try to flip flop a little bit, so, hey.

In Salt Lake City, you're going to be happy. There you go -- 94 degrees; 84 in Denver, 90 degrees in Kansas City; Chicago, your high for the day is going to 92.

But the thing about that is you may have thunderstorms pop up in the afternoon. And when you have that rain-cooled air to move through, you can have some 20 degrees off your temperatures. It might be nice day later on in Chicago, until then, a rumble of thunder can be expected.

For New York and Boston, highs in the 70s and 80s; 91 in Washington, D.C., 97 in New Orleans and 90 in Tampa.

Now, to show you what you can expect in terms of the storms, you can expect them across parts of the Central Plains, then back into the Great Lakes as we mentioned. Anyone traveling down to parts of the coast, say, the Gulf Coast, or even the Eastern Seaboard, you can expect some fairly nice conditions, if you don't mind the chance of few scattered showers. In fact, in a few of those places, you can experience the hot and hazy conditions to give you, again, those chance of a thunderstorm into the afternoon.

As we zoom in a few key locations, take a look at what you can expect from Mobile, for Galveston, even Destin. High is mainly in 90s. Here's that slight chance of rain.

Water temperatures mainly into the upper 80s, where it's going to feel pretty nice to you out there. Miami and Tampa, highs is mainly into the 80s and 90s. Still, at least a 30 percent or 50 percent chance of showers, mainly into the afternoon. Up we go up the Eastern Seaboard, and water temperatures still a little bit cooler into the 80s. And Savannah and Hilton Head look nice.

More on that coming up in a few moments.

Let's going to show you the great shot that we have of Philadelphia. Right now, a great, great town. And we've got a nice forecast. Maybe a pop-up thunderstorm into the afternoon. High is mainly to the 80s.

All right. T.J., let's pitch it back to you.

HOLMES: Reynolds, thank you for that.

WOLF: You bet.

HOLMES: Thirteen minutes past the hour here now.

We are less than a week away from the end of an era. NASA gets ready to launch the last space shuttle flight. Was the decades-long program worth it? We take a look. That's after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Quarter past the hour here now. We are six days away from the last scheduled launch of a NASA space shuttle launch. Say it ain't so.

This will be the 135th mission. Atlantis is set to liftoff next Friday.

CNN's John Zarrella has more on the end of the shuttle program.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): From the beginning, it was a marvelous machine, releasing from its cargo bay, deep space probes like Ulysses that went to Jupiter. Astronauts ventured out untethered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The trip to solar access (ph) estimated to take 10 minutes.

ZARRELLA: To capture and retrieve failed satellites dead in space, dangerous feats unheard of before shuttle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think we got a satellite.

ZARRELLA: The great observatory Hubble dazzles with breathtaking images of the universe and its ability to see galaxies born nearly at the dawn of time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hubble has arrived on board Atlantis with the arm.

ZARRELLA: Hubble was launched, repaired and serviced from shuttle.

Every major building block of the football field long space station was carried up and assembled from shuttle.

Before becoming NASA's head man, Charlie Bolden was an astronaut. He flew four shuttle flights including the Hubble launch.

CHARLIE BOLDEN, NASA ADMINISTRATION: I defy anybody, I will argue with my Apollo comrades, the accomplishments, the achievements, the record of performance, the spinoffs, the capabilities that have been developed, what we did in shuttle over 30 years dwarf what was done in the Apollo era.

GENE CERNAN, APOLLO ASTRONAUT: We can build spacecraft. We can build hardware. We can build boosters. But there's no goal, there's no mission.

We are wandering in a desert in space today, period.

ZARRELLA: So, why now? Why call it quits now?

From the time of its inception 40 years ago, until the shuttles are retired, the program will have cost the American taxpayers just shy of $115 billion. That's less than $4 billion a year -- a drop, if that, in the federal budget. Still, the problem is money. NORM AUGUSTINE, PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION CHAIRMAN: There's just not enough money in NASA to continue the existing programs and start a new program at the same time.

ZARRELLA (on camera): Was it time?

BOLDEN: Yes, it was time. It has been time for some time to phase out of shuttle and go back to exploration.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Whether you hated it or hailed it, whether you felt it a waste or worth it, the shuttle was an iconic flying machine that symbolized America's inspiration and ingenuity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Roger all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, in advance of Friday's final shuttle launch, CNN presents "Beyond Atlantis: The Next Frontier," debuts tomorrow night, 8:00 Eastern, right here on CNN.

And, of course, CNN is your place to watch the final shuttle launch set for next Friday morning. Our coverage begins at 10:00 Eastern Time. I can't believe we're saying goodbye to the shuttle program.

Well, it's 18 minutes past the hour. Borrowing from the 401(k) -- an increasing number of people are doing it. But is it a good idea for you? We are checking the pros and cons with Clyde Anderson. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Twenty-one 21 minutes past the hour now.

We know times are tough for a lot of people. Case in point: many publicly traded companies say the number of employees borrowing from their retirement savings plan is up, way up. Take a look here.

According to "The Wall Street Journal," discount retailer Target says the number of people employees taking loans from their 401(k) programs were up by 23 percent from last year. Whole foods market, 34 percent. The home builder the Pulte Group, 51 percent.

Our financial analyst Clyde Anderson is here.

Clyde, we hear all the time: do not do it. Times are changing, though. Is that still the recommendation?

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL EXPERT: Times are changing. I mean, a lot of people are in situations where they need it. And it will let you know who the people that are hurting. You know, a lot of the middle class has really been impacted by this recession. And so, people are either pulling these funds for buying homes, or someone (INAUDIBLE) lost a job and they need these funds. HOLMES: OK. Just a sign of the times is what we're seeing here now. So, are you telling me, even though people are doing it, is this the case you do what you got to do, or would you still recommend, do everything else before you dip into this 401(k)?

ANDERSON: I recommend it as a last a resort. But you are borrowing at really low interest rates a lot of times and you're borrowing from yourself. So, if you do have to borrow funds, this is the place where you want to borrow them from, you know? In these times, you can always pay them back.

Now, there are some ups and downs to that, but you can always pay these funds back and you got a great interest rate.

HOLMES: All right. Now, what are the consequences for borrowing from your own 401(k)?

ANDERSON: Well, there's couple of things you got to look, because one of the things is, if you do lose your job or if you quit that job when you take that loan, then they'll penalize you because it becomes a withdrawal or early withdrawal. And they're going to hit you much more, you know, harder if you do that. So, that's one of the downsides.

Also, recouping you know, trying to get back to where you were to prepare for retirement. Those are the downsides.

HOLMES: OK. Is there a time where it's better than another? And I guess I'm talking about age. Is it better to do it when you're certainly younger? And you have time to pay it back versus older.

ANDERSON: Definitely. If you're re looking at the time and value of money, it's definitely better to do it while you're younger. But, again, people are in situations right now where they've got to pull from it. They need these funds and -- I mean, you know, they can save this money. It is your money.

And if you get into a situation where you're trying to save your home, maybe you've lost your job or your spouse lost their job, you really need to pull from these funds. And it's is a good resource or a good source to pull from.

HOLMES: Do we need to get out of that mindset, though -- and we don't want to because everybody says put into the 401(k). Don't touch it. But do we need to kind of get out of that mindset? We think this is secret. I can't touch it.

But it sounds like you're talking to me here now where, you know what, it's OK if you can pay it back. It's a loan.

ANDERSON: It's a loan. And it's your investment, you know? An investment is there to cover you if you need it. You know, you definitely want to build on an investment. But, again, you put this away as a nest egg. But life happens.

And so, when life happens, if you're prepared for it by having some put money away, look at that as an option. You definitely don't want to rule it out.

HOLMES: How much longer? I guess we -- have we been seeing this trend for years now?

ANDERSON: We have been seeing coming up for years. I mean, it's more and more. You know, we've talked about 401(k) and some of the things. And people use it as a piggy bank.

But, again, it's your money, and that's the way I look at it.

So, I think we're seeing this trend, because, again, a lot of people are hurting, but also, the housing market. You know, there are a lot of good options out there and some people are pulling that 401(k) out to buy homes. So, there's also a good side to it at sometimes because that's a best money. If you have that money together, you can use it without penalty to go ahead and purchase and borrow a fund.

HOLMES: All right. But, again, the last thing here, a lot of people think, all right, instantly, as soon as you pull money out, you are about to be hit. Don't you think a pretty good hit as soon as you take that money out?

ANDERSON: If you are doing an early withdrawal. Now, if you're doing a withdrawal, you generally get penalized 10 percent by pulling that out.

But, you know, a lot of times, you can pull up to $50,000 from the 401(k), you know? So, that's an option. But if you're going to pull it out as an early withdrawal or hardship, I mean, you are just having hard times, you want to get 10 percent plus you're going to get taxed on that money.

So, you know, if you lose your job with that type of situation, you're going to receive that tax. So, it no longer becomes a loan, becomes now that you took an early withdrawal. So, you're going to hit with those penalties.

HOLMES: OK. Clyde Anderson, good information this morning about 401(k). Good to see you as always, my man. Thanks so much.

ANDERSON: A pleasure.

HOLMES: Well, we're at 25 minutes past the hour here now.

A sprout recall in several states, the producer says there's a potential for a salmonella outbreak. Those details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. Look at the stories making headlines this morning.

Libya's leader vows to, quote, "move the battle to Europe." On Friday, Moammar Gadhafi vowed Libya would retaliated for NATO's bombing mission. His message was broadcast to supporters in Tripoli's Green Square on state television.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOAMMAR GADHAFI, LIBYAN LEADER (through translator): People of Libya might exceed your houses and offices, your families, all of them will be fair military targets. The same way you turned our offices, our headquarters, our house, our children, you turned them into legitimate military targets. We will treat you the same, eye for eye, ear for an ear, a droop for a drop, a family for a family, a house for a house, a headquarter for a headquarter. If we decide, we are able to move to Europe like locust, like bees.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, in response to Gadhafi's broadcast, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says Gadhafi should put the interest and wellbeing of his people first and resign.

We turn to Michigan now where the ban on affirmative action has been overturned. In 2006, voters approved an amendment to the state constitution that banned affirmative action in college admissions and hiring.

But in a two-to-one decision this week, a federal appeals court struck it down. The court said the voter-approved law saying race and gender can't be considered is unconstitutional. Michigan's attorney general says he will appeal.

Also, 21 reported salmonella cases in five states prompting an Idaho produce company to recall alfalfa sprouts. The recall applies to 4-ounce, 16-ounce, and 5-pound bags of alfalfa sprout. Plus, 4- ounce and 16-ounce bags of spicy sprout from Evergreen Fresh Sprouts. The expiration dates for all of the effective product are between June 22nd and July 14th. Three people have been hospitalized, but no deaths have been reported.

I will be back at the top of the hour with more live news for you here on CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

But, first, are violent video games violent harmful for young people? We examine the argument on both sides. It's time for the good doctor.