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CNN Saturday Morning News

New Hampshire Threatens Move; Jobs March in Washington; Building the Dream; Errors in Your Billing; Drone Attacks Kill Al- Awlaki's Son; Occupy Everywhere; Jobs March in Washington; Building Community in Hard Times; George Wallace Takes on GOP; Windy in the Great Lakes

Aired October 15, 2011 - 11:00   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. Welcome to a special live split edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING. I'm T.J. Holmes on the Las Vegas Strip. This is where the Republicans who want President Obama's current job are going to be facing off in just a few days, next Tuesday, for the CNN Western Republican debate.

Let me say good morning to my good friend and colleague, Alina Cho who is back at the CNN Headquarter, hey there.

ALINA CHO, CNN ANCHOR: And I must say, T.J., that's a spectacular back drop. I'm jealous you're out there.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Alina Cho at the CNN Global Headquarters in Atlanta. And I know you, T.J., and there's a lot to talk about there.

HOLMES: There is a lot to talk about. And many in the Republican GOP are giving us even more to talk about.

Now, of course, you think Nevada and you're thinking about fabulous Nevada, you're thinking about fabulous Las Vegas and the Las Vegas Strip and what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.

You know what they're thinking about here, though? They're thinking about the unemployment rate, one of the highest in the country. In this city the metro area of Las Vegas itself 14.2 percent unemployment, the state 13.4 percent; that is the highest in the country. We are hearing from a lot of people here who are hurting. They have a message for you.

Now, I can give you statistics and tell you all of that, but a lot of them, excuse me, they can actually tell you about it just by looking at the Strip. They can tell you what's going on here.

Also, something happening right now on the other side of the country we want to tell you about. Reverend Al Sharpton is leading a march on Washington. They're actually there, calling this the "March for Jobs and Justice", calling on Congress and the federal government to do something about the nation's high unemployment rate. It's taking place right now, it said to get started. And of course, Alina, they're talking a lot about the unemployment rate there. CHO: Of course they are. And you know one thing that I'm watching, T.J., you know that I'm just back from a trip to Paris. It was a really exciting two weeks for me. One person I talked to is a shoemaker to the stars, the man behind those iconic red soled shoes. Of course, we're talking about, Christian Louboutin, a name I know well and T.J., a name your wife knows very well.

But for now, I'm going to send it back over to you.

HOLMES: All right.

Well Alina, thank you so much.

Well, we told you, we do have the Republican debate coming up, CNN hosting from the Venetian here next Tuesday. One of the Republican presidential candidates has dropped out, says he will not be showing up to our debate. How dare he? Well, he says he has good reason for it. We're talking about Jon Huntsman he's boycotting the debate.

This happened after the Nevada Republicans moved up their primary date. Now, they have their reasons for that, as well. They're doing it on the 14th. That remains problematic for New Hampshire. We'll get into that more in just a second.

But this a city, Las Vegas, this area really relies heavily on you across the country, your dollars, your tourism dollars.

But a lot of Americans right now can't afford to take a trip, much less -- much less take a trip where you have to spend money on the flight and the hotel but you're also expected to walk into a casino and just blow cash. No one can do that right now.

Unemployment in Las Vegas, really it is one of the highest in the country 14.2 percent. That is the highest in the country among metro areas that have at least a million people.

Now, who do we talk to about the employment issue? Not a state official, not a city official, not an economist. We talked to a cab driver.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LANCE OLIVIA, CAB DRIVER: Living here, locals, we don't go -- you know, we don't go up to the Strip. We don't bother with it.

HOLMES: Yes. What was your hay day as far as driving a cab here? You've been doing it nine years here. When was it just at the height where you were just raking in cash?

OLIVIA: 2004, 2005, 2006.

HOLMES: When it's good in Vegas, it's good.

OLIVIA: Oh, yes. It was so good that I moved out here with my daughter, I gave her a debt-free education on her bachelor's and her masters. I bought her a brand new car, I took a four-year loan out on it and paid it off in 19 months, and plus paid my regular bills and still saved money. That's how good it was.

HOLMES: You did all that driving a cab here?

OLIVIA: That's how good it was.

HOLMES: Do you think a lot of people outside of Las Vegas and maybe even people in Vegas, we have this impression that, oh, that's America's playground. People go out there and just blow money. Surely, they've got to be awash in cash.

OLIVIA: 60 percent to 65 percent of the job market is the Strip and local construction. The recession kicked in, the Strip got slow, they laid off thousands. These thousands couldn't find work, they started losing their homes. These people lose their homes, local construction starts slowing down. These people start losing their jobs. They start losing their homes. Foreclosures have gotten so bad that it's now one in every seven homes in the state of Nevada.

HOLMES: Do you think people don't get it sometimes, how bad you hurt?

OLIVIA: Oh, they don't. They don't. The Strip will be busy to them. We know it's not, right. So I'll use an example. We had one New Year's Eve, I tell them, if you came here and you saw a quarter of a million people, ok, would you think it was busy? They say yes, it was jam packed. I said the year before, it was 320,000. You're talking of 70,000 cuts. I said, that's a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: All right, now, in a move that is going to throw the presidential contest calendar into further turmoil, listen to what they are doing in New Hampshire. They're threatening now to move the state's primary into December, before Christmas, unless Nevada now backs down on its promise to hold its caucuses on the 14th of January.

Now, I talked to the Nevada Republican Party Chairwoman Amy Tarkanian in just a little while ago and certainly had to start by asking, is there any chance that it's even on the table of you moving your caucuses? Listen to her answer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY TARKANIAN, CHAIRWOMAN, NEVADA REPUBLICAN PARTY: We're going to stick to our date. Our state is working really hard in finding their location. And we worked together with the four (INAUDIBLE) states making sure that we coordinated and communicated. The New Hampshire GOP has been fantastic, very supportive. It's the Secretary of State who has the end-say in this situation.

But we reached out to him and he did not return our calls. We did have the Governor Sandoval reach out to him, as well. And during that time, he still did not have his date picked and he said he was going to wait on us. So we did exactly that, picked the date.

HOLMES: You had to have known what your date was going to set off. You're familiar with the New Hampshire law. Why can you all not go three days later -- just three days on the 17th which will allow them now to take the 10th and still be within their law?

TARKANIAN: Sure, well we want to have ours on a Saturday because it's a caucus, it's not a primary. It's a state meeting, if you will, not an actual full blown election. We picked that date. They knew in advance. And it's set.

HOLMES: Don't you understand the predicament they're in that it's really Nevada or excuse me New Hampshire, first in the nation primary, it's not fair for them to have to be squeezed between Iowa and Nevada?

TARKANIAN: Sure. But they also asked us to pick a date, so that's what we did. I feel for them and I know that their GOP is struggling. But he asked us to pick a date and that's what we did and I don't think it would be fair for Nevada to shuffle once again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Paul Steinhauser, our deputy political director joining me here now. I asked it as directly as I could. She answered it directly. Not a chance, it's not even on the table.

So now, candidates are boycotting the caucuses, at least they say they are. We also have a candidate boycotting our own debate, the CNN debate next week.

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes, that's Jon Huntsman. And he has said he's not going to be here for the caucuses in January and a step further he's not going to be here for our CNN Western Republican Leadership Conference Debate on Tuesday.

Listen, for Huntsman, though, remember he's basically placing all of his chips on New Hampshire. He's not really a player out here, so I can see why he's trying to be in solidarity with New Hampshire Republicans.

But five of them, yes: Huntsman, Santorum, Cain, Gingrich and Bachmann all say they won't partake out here in January in the caucuses unless they move them. Well, you're right, she was pretty clear, Amy Tarkanian, that they're not going to move the caucuses. But one thing, T.J., she said we have to hold it on a weekend. But that was a little weird to be because you know why? Iowa has been holding their caucus since the 1970s and they hold it on a Monday or sometimes on a Thursday.

HOLMES: Well, they're claim they say, hey we have the high schools first of all, we have our caucuses at the high school. Of course you need to do it on a day they're not in school but she said also you know people work. This is an all-day event you don't just show up to a caucus place and vote and leave it's an all day thing. You're not buying that.

STEINHAUSER: No, because Iowa does it in the evenings, usually during the week when you get out of work. So I think this is far from over. I've asked our producer up in New Hampshire Rachel Streitfeld to check with the Secretary of State up there Bill Gardner so maybe we'll get a little bit of a reaction later this morning. But he has said he may not decide or determine the date for New Hampshire until maybe November. Four years ago, he didn't decide New Hampshire's date until November. So stay tuned, this is far from over.

HOLMES: This could have us in New Hampshire around the holidays or before the holidays covering a primary.

STEINHAUSER: Oh yes.

HOLMES: Paul Steinhauser, we'll check in with you plenty throughout the morning. And to our viewers of course remember we're just a few days away, three days, Tuesday is when we will have that Republican debate, the Western Republican presidential debate coming up right here from the Venetian, on the Vegas Strip hosted by our own Anderson Cooper. I'll have much more from out here on the Vegas Strip.

Alina, right now, I'll hand it back to you.

CHO: Sixteen states are part of that Western conference. It's an important one. All right, T.J. thank you so much.

Back in Washington, President Obama is praising Democrats and Republicans for reaching a deal on free trade agreements. But in his weekly address to the nation, he expresses frustration that both sides are still so far apart on how to get Americans back to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's good to see Congress act in a bipartisan way on something that will help create jobs at a time when millions of Americans are still out of work and need them now. But that's also why it was so disappointing to see Senate Republicans obstruct the American Jobs Act even though a majority of senators voted yes to advance this jobs bill. We can't afford this lack of action.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: Republicans, on the other hand, say the GOP is actively engaged in jump starting the economy. Here is House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), CALIFORNIA: We agree with the American people, no more budget tricks, no more accounting gimmick, no more broken promises. The American people deserve the right to know the truth. And that's why we support a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CHO: The President takes his job plans back on the road Monday, a three-day bus tour through North Carolina and Virginia. The Occupy Wall Street protests are getting bigger and going worldwide. And some big names are showing up. You won't believe this, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange among them in the middle of the crowd today in London. Assange is living in eastern England and has to be home by 10:00 tonight to meet the terms of his curfew. He is wanted for questioning in Sweden over claims of sexual molestation.

Protests are also heating up in Italy. The black smoke you see there is from cars that were set on fire by demonstrators in Rome. They're furious about how politicians there handle the economic problems in Italy. Reuters is reporting about 100,000 protesters are expected to rally in Rome.

Crowds are also gathering in Washington this hour. They are marching for jobs and justice. And it's led by the Reverend Al Sharpton. We're going to take you there live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: A cashier at a McDonald's in Manhattan is charged with felony assault for beating two unruly customers. And we want to warn you the video is graphic. Police say it all started when two women argued with the cashier who questioned a $50 bill they gave him. One of the women cursed the cashier and slapped him.

Well, big mistake. She climbed over the counter. Police say the cashier grabbed a metal object and started beating the women. They were injured and taken to the hospital. Both women also face charges of criminal trespassing and disorderly conduct.

The restaurant's owner says the cashier, well, she's no longer working there. You think?

A federal appeals escort temporarily blocked key parts of Alabama's tough immigration law, at least until they decide whether the law is constitutional. Most notable, the move stops public schools from checking the immigration status of students, but police will be required to check someone's immigration status when they are stopped or arrested if that officer suspects the person is in the country illegally.

We want to head back now to Las Vegas and my good friend, T.J., who is out there ahead of the GOP presidential debate -- T.J.

HOLMES: Of course, Alina, the economy, jobs is going to be a big part of the debate coming up on Tuesday. And it's so relevant and so timely for this area, an area that has the highest unemployment rate in the country, Nevada, 13.4 percent. That is tops in the country.

On the other side of the country, taking place right now is a march on Washington for jobs and justice, specifically trying to bring down the unemployment rate in this country which stands at 9.1 percent. Reverend Al Sharpton is heading up that march today, it's just getting under way.

I spoke to him a little earlier this morning about what exactly he is hoping to accomplish.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: Well, they absolutely can because marching as in the time of Dr. King and the generation ahead of me, marching was never designed to solve the problems. They were designed to expose the problems. If no one exposes the problems, they would never be solved. You would not have had a major march like this around jobs particularly in the African-American community until today. And we've got nothing done.

Maybe if we dramatized, maybe if we do like Occupation Wall Street, people will see that the masses of people want to see some solution, some legislations passed like the President's bill.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And our Athena Jones is there in Washington. Good morning again. Are they under way?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Yes, they are under way, T.J. They've been speaking, having a pre-program for the last half hour or so. Several hundred people are gathered behind me at the stage, a few hundred yards back there. Lots of union support, lots of excitement in the crowd and a lot of fiery rhetoric.

I don't believe Reverend Sharpton has taken the stage yet in the last few minutes that we've been here. But this is all about jobs as you mentioned. It's about putting pressure on Congress to do something to bring down the unemployment rate.

Of course, this is also to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, who was about fighting for economic justice. And so I spoke with the Reverend Al Sharpton earlier. He said that while this jobs bill, the full package got stopped in the Senate and now they're going to be having to put it forward in small constituent parts, he wants to see action on infrastructure spending and money to rebuild schools to create jobs immediately.

So this is part of all that, T.J..

HOLMES: Well, a lot of people will look at that and they hear Reverend Sharpton's name and some of the organizations that are a part of it, and they think, well, it sounds like a left-leaning group, who is there to support the President and the jobs bill. Would that be a fair statement?

JONES: Well, certainly they would support the jobs bill. In many of these organizations, these unions; you have teachers unions, you have service employees unions, FDIU. All kinds of unions from gay and lesbian groups took set the stage earlier.

This are all groups that want to see action on jobs. And several of those, in those unions, put out their own releases saying that this is about supporting the jobs bill which as they said we know is not a complete total package right now. But they still want to see action and this kind of event, they're hoping to have 25 more -- more than 25 cities around the country -- T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Athena Jones for us in Washington, D.C., thank you, as always.

And for now, from the Las Vegas Strip, I'll hand it back over to my dear friend and colleague, Alina Cho back in Atlanta -- Alina.

CHO: All right T.J. Thank you so much.

Now most of you can't make it to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial dedication ceremony tomorrow. So we're about to show you a way that will help you feel like you're there. That story is next after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: 21 minutes after the hour.

After a hurricane delay for several weeks and a campaign stretching back decades, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial will finally be dedicated this weekend. Our Fredericka Whitfield spoke with two of Dr. King's children about their father's memorial. Here is what Reverend Bernice King had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, the "Build the Dream" organizers had said that they hoped that this location between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials would really help embody the true spirit of Dr. King. Do you feel that spiritual presence there?

REV. BERNICE KING, DAUGHTER OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: Well, I mean when I was there, I certainly felt that presence. You know, anytime you're talking about our father, for me, and I guess because I'm the one that's in the ministry, it invokes that whole spiritual essence. If you're talking about him, if there's an encounter. And so it's hard for me to go to that memorial and not connect with who he was as a spiritual leader.

And, you know, I had an opportunity to just observe people who were coming to the monument. And I think for many of them, some of them were pausing, some of them -- there's a few places that you can sit there. Sit and contemplate. And I think that's what Dr. King does. He causes this pause.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHO: Even if you can't be at the dedication ceremony and most of you can't, you can visit the memorial online right now in some new ways. Our Josh Levs is here. So Josh, just how good is this virtual tour, is it pretty good?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's fantastic. It's one of the best I've seen and we have something brand new here. Never gotten to show you yet. Let's take a look at this screen here. This is an image of the memorial itself. I'm going to be showing you how you can look at it. What I can do, and this is the first in U.S. History for a monument, I can show you the creation of this memorial. This is it as it was happening. Let me tell you a little bit about it as we watched it.

This memorial of Dr. King was made out of 159 granite block. What they did was they basically put up the structure and then came in and did the fine carving led by an artist, named (INAUDIBLE) who did a fine carving of the image of Dr. King, ending up with this image right here.

Now, the symbolism to what they ended up with -- and I want to take you over to that so you can see what the monument's all about. It's made in three pieces right here.

What you have in the background is this monument -- this mountain, rather. Here you have the image of Dr. King himself. There's a reason it's designed that way; why it looks like he emerged from that mountain. And the reason, it's something we just saw on the video that I could zoom into here is the inscription on the side, right here. "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope."

This is a quote from the speech that he gave, the most famous speech, the "I have a dream" speech. So they designed the monument to be him as the stone of hope emerging from that mountain of despair.

I have a virtual video we can jump into. Let's take a look at that just to get a sense of what the whole area is landscaped like. It's across four acres. Organizers says the whole thing is designed to evoke the memory and spiritual presence of Dr. King. It has several different sections there. Lots of inscriptions and speeches from his writings, as well.

Finally, before we go, I want to jump you over to Google Earth because Google Earth has now added this memorial to its own imagery. And as we zoom in, this is what I want you to. When Dr. King was standing there on the steps of Lincoln Memorial, if you looked out to his right, boom, he would have seen where the memorial now stands.

We are hearing your opinions on this. You're weighing in at Facebook, Twitter and at my page on the blog, cnn.com/josh. And Alina, next hour, I'm going to be along with some of the views that our viewers are expressing about what this memorial means to them.

CHO: All right, Josh Levs, thank you very much.

LEVS: You've got it.

CHO: Coming up, when you receive a bill, do you actually break it down to see if there are any mistakes or do you just look at the section there that says amount due? I'm going to tell you why you need to look very closely at those bills. We have some tips for you, after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHO: Last year, roughly $10 billion worth of billing errors were made. And get this, that's just for health care. Earlier, I spoke to financial analyst, Clyde Anderson, and he told me what to do when you find a billing mistake.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: A lot of times we don't even open the mail. We don't look at it, we automatically pay. And so what we really need to do is start looking at it.

CHO: Or auto-pay.

ANDERSON: Or auto pay, so last year, it was about $100 billion in billing errors in health care bills. And so we really have look at this thing. You could be giving out money that you don't need to be giving away.

CHO: On health care bills.

ANDERSON: Yes.

CHO: That's interesting.

ANDERSON: Exactly.

CHO: How do you go about fixing that?

ANDERSON: Well, there's a right way to do it. A lot of times emotion gets in the way and we get all excited. So what we really need to do is first calm down and then pay attention to the billing changes. Realize that most people don't call for these errors because they just don't know about them. And then women are less likely to call because they don't like the confrontation.

CHO: Interesting. Really?

ANDERSON: Yes, yes. Also there's a language barrier or for senior citizens, they won't call because they don't want to have that confrontation or sometimes they're not truly understanding exactly what's going on and what's --

CHO: Now, what's interesting to me is you say that there are some buzz words, words to use, words not to use. What words should you use?

ANDERSON: Well, you want to use words like "thank you". "Can you please help me?" And you don't want to throw insults out. You definitely don't want to go in there excited and angry. And you want to make sure that you're talking to them politely. You want to make sure and say, "Can you look at my bill, I think there may be something wrong with my statement."

CHO: Oh, listen, I always say you can say anything; it's how you say it or ask anything; it's how you ask it.

ANDERSON: Exactly. Exactly.

CHO: And things not to say?

ANDERSON: Yes, the thing that you don't want to say is you guys made a terrible mistake. I have a situation I need to be resolved. How are you going to do it? You don't want to go in there and just throw it around and say, hey, you need to help me. You guys messed up. You screwed up my bill.

You don't want to do anything like that. you want to make sure you're calm. You don't want to take no from someone who can't say yes.

CHO: You know Clyde, what's interesting to me is a lot of my bills are frankly on auto-pay.

ANDERSON: Yes.

CHO: And so, does it make harder and then -- because once the bill is paid, once they have your money, what incentive do they to give it back?

ANDERSON: That's why you really need to go in and you really need to have all your documentation together. Have the bill statements. Put it in writing, but when you put it writing, send it certified mail or registered mail.

So you make sure that you get a return receipt, as well. So you have your documentation. Documentation is crucial. So make sure you have that. Have that in front of you when you're talking to them so you can talk intelligently about what is going on and what the situation is.

CHO: And what are the most common mistakes? You talked a lot about health bills.

ANDERSON: We see health bills. We see everything on phone bills. We've talked about that before. Any kind of statement, sometimes it's an overcharge, sometimes it's an oversight.

Where they mess something up or mixed up a statement. So you really want to make sure that you're looking at it. Sometimes you may have a charge on your account and it's not even your charge.

CHO: Interesting. Really, wow.

ANDERSON: These are humans that really put - information in - try to make a mistake.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHO: This morning, not caught up yet? After the break, we're going to reset the clock and get you caught up on the world's top stories. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHO: It's 34 minutes after the hour. Checking your top stories, the son of U.S. born militant cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki is dead after a series of drone strikes last night in Yemen.

That's according to a security official. A U.S. drone attack last month killed the elder Al-Awlaki, a key leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The Yemeni defense ministry says Friday's attack killed seven other suspected militants including the group's chief media officer.

The Occupy Wall Street protests have spread around the world. Organizers say rallies are taking place today in 82 countries. These are scenes in Jakarta, Indonesia where demonstrators gathered near the U.S. embassy.

And similar scenes in London where protesters marched and rallied near the heart of the British capital financial district. In fact, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was one of the speakers at that protest.

Crowds have also gathered in Washington this hour for a jobs and justice march under way right now. The Reverend Al Sharpton is leading the march to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial ahead of tomorrow's dedication ceremony.

Participants are calling on Congress and the White House to work harder to solve the country's high unemployment rate. Speakers include Martin Luther King Jr. III and Education Secretary, Arne Duncan.

HOLMES: Welcome back to the Las Vegas Strip. We continue our live coverage here leading up to next week's hosted Republican presidential debate. CNN hosting that debate, of course.

It will take place here at the Venetian Hotel and Casino where I am. Now, when you think of Las Vegas, there a good chance you think of casinos and you think of the Las Vegas Strip. Well, there's much more though think about.

Would you believe, here's a little fact story for you, most of the Las Vegas Strip doesn't even lie within the city limits of Las Vegas. Las Vegas is actually its own community, its own city, it's city with a little downtown.

They say many will tell you it will take that downtown in a thriving downtown to help this entire area come back. It's not just about the casinos on the Strip. There's one company you know with a name you know, so well that's about to help Vegas make a comeback.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZACH WARE, ZAPPOS.COM: The thing that we've lacked in Las Vegas is the place that feels like our hub. Our home. That's ours to control and not really designed to necessarily just make money.

I think there's a disconnect between the sense of community, the Strip is designed to bring you in and in a lot of ways just sort of make money and entertain you. The rest of the Las Vegas Valley is home to nearly 1.6 million people who crave connecting with other people.

So this is Fremont Street, which is the original Strip. We have a vision for creating a very vibrant, connected community. Downtown Las Vegas.

HOLMES: What's in it for you all? From that standpoint?

WARE: So I think we had an opportunity when we're thinking about where we're going to move our company. We needed more space. And we had an opportunity to create an insular, closed in campus that had coffee shops, restaurants and maybe a studio, a gym. All the things we would want to offer our employees. We also had an opportunity to move in to a community and help invest in the same things but managed by people who are passionate about things like yoga.

Frankly, Zappos runs a yoga studio. It's probably not going to be as good as someone that likes yoga, knows yoga, et cetera. I think that the most important thing we can do as a community a really focus on creating the elements in downtown Las Vegas that serve the community and not sort of fall in to the trap that the sort of Strip has fallen in to for all the right reasons which is we need to serve the tourist community.

We need to make sure it works for them first and then the locals second. But for us, the community and the locals are first. And if we happen to create something that's really, really cool as a community and they want to come visit, that is awesome. We'd love that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Now, the mayor of Las Vegas is certainly excited to have Zappos.com playing a part in downtown. She stopped by a little earlier with me this morning to sell her city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: How key is it to actually get visitors coming back here, the economy improving so they can come here because people can't afford take a trip already. They certainly can afford to take one and on top of that come blow money out of a casino. How difficult of a sell is your city right now, the Strip right now?

MAYOR CAROLYN GOODMAN (I), LAS VEGAS: Well, you know, I think the Strip is very, very healthy. We just had a bike ride of 1500 going by. This is a 24-hour a day place where you can get a carton of milk, go out in the middle of the night and get a breakfast if you like.

It is the entertainment capital of the world and that is coming back. We've had 17 months of increased tourism and, in fact, this past month it was up 4.3 percent.

HOLMES: Are they spending money?

HOLMES: They are spending money because the tax that we get on the hotel rooms is how we operate most of the entities that we do whatever it is make us very, very healthy. But downtown, this whole cultural area, an arts district is coming through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And we thank them for having us here in their city and looking forward to putting on the debate next week, the Republican debate, the Western Republican Debate hosted by CNN taking place right here on the Vegas Strip here at the Venetian Hotel next Tuesday, 8:00 Eastern Time. Don't miss that -- Alina.

CHO: All right, T.J., thank you very much. It is a pivotal day in the Occupy Wall Street protests. There are protests going on in 82 countries around the world.

Organizers are calling on people to unite and get out there and fight. Barbie Nadeau is a "Newsweek" reporter in Rome. She is joining us by phone now.

Barbie, thanks for joining us. Tell me, what do you see where you are right now? Barbie, are you there?

BARBIE NADEAU, NEWSWEEK REPORTER (via telephone): I'm here.

CHO: Tell us what you're seeing in Rome right now.

NADEAU: Well, right now we've got a situation of extreme violence, a standoff between police and a group ooh around 500 anarchists under the umbrella of the black (inaudible) fighting each other in (inaudible), which is a main square and a main gathering point for demonstrations in general here in Rome.

This violence was largely unexpected. I think the police are worried a little bit about it, but they had no idea that this number of anarchists would be coming to Rome today. They've set a light on one of the interior ministry building. They've torched cars. They've broken windows.

But they've also been violent against some of the peaceful protesters who came here to be part of the global demonstration. Well, we're only a couple hours into the scheduled demonstration.

They have until 9:00 tonight to carry out this message of demonstration and how they're going to clean up this violent mess to get these people out of here remains to be seen because there's still a lot of fighting going on.

The protesters are using knives and baseball bats and Molotov cocktails and fireworks. The police are using water cannons and tear gas right now, but the situation is very, very dangerous.

CHO: Barbie, I just have one quick question for you. We see the cars burning there and people obviously extremely upset. You know, when you look at these protests around the world, in each country, people are upset about something very specific, largely about the economy. What are they so mad about in Rome? NADEAU: Well, you know, it's interesting, because the actual demonstrators who came here with legitimate gripes against the government, against the economy, against job cuts, especially against education cuts, the students in Italy have been protesting for months, and also against Sylvio Berlusconi, the prime minister's win yesterday.

Those people are not the problem. The actual demonstrators are not the problem. It is this group of anarchists who have taken over the demonstrations, who have hijacked it who don't have any particular gripe except anti-everything, basically, and they're the ones causing the problems right now. It is not the Italians who came here to demonstrate peacefully. It is the violent group that have hijacked the situation.

CHO: Interesting to point out, Barbie Nadeaux, "Newsweek" reporter in Rome joining us by phone. Barbie, thank you very much. We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: NEWSROOM continues at the top of the hour with Fredricka Whitfield. We were just talking and talking and talking away. You have a lot coming up in the next several hours, right?

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: We do indeed, beginning with our legal guys. Avery Friedman is going to be in the house. Usually you see him from Cleveland. He's going to be here in Atlanta.

CHO: I'll stick around for that.

WHITFIELD: That' right. Richard Herman will be along as well. Next time, he'll be here in Atlanta, but we've got a lot to talk about legal cases including, have you heard about the case of a Georgia teacher a couple years back, 2009.

She put some pictures of her vacation on Facebook. Apparently, it led to the demise of her job. She is now suing the school district to say I want back pay. I want you to cover my legal fees because I received pressure to resign.

So our legal guys are going to weigh in on whether the school district will have to respond to that or legally how would they respond to that? And then, bon jour. Welcome back. We're going to focusing also in the 2:30 Eastern Hour on your "Fashion Backstage Pass." How did it go?

CHO: We had a great time. We were saying in the break, we had the benefit of doing the planning early. So we got some really great names, the man, of course, behind those iconic red soled shoes and much, much more. I have to say, we have a lot of work.

WHITFIELD: We're excited to profile that at 2:30 Eastern Time today. We look forward to that.

CHO: Good. WHITFIELD: And then, as we move on into the 3:00 and 4:00 Eastern hour, Dr. Bill Lloyd is going to be along with us to. It's an awkward position many patients might have, I'm not sure if my doctor is giving me the best advice, best care.

How do I break up with that doctor if I'm feeling that this is not a -- yes, Dr. Bill Lloyd is going to be along to give us kind of tips on how to do that. A, how identify that there's a problem and that you do need to move on. Sometimes you're just not communicating well.

CHO: That's a tough thing because, you know, these doctor-patient relationships sometimes go on for decades. You know, it's probably not an easy thing to break up.

WHITFIELD: It's not, it's not. So Dr. Bill Lloyd will be along with us. We got movies as well today. It's the weekend. We're going to be talking about what to do, what to see.

CHO: I'm heading back to my hotel room and I'm turning on the TV and watch you.

WHITFIELD: OK, so you're not going to be venturing out to the movie theatre to see maybe "The Thing"?

CHO: Probably not, at least not today.

WHITFIELD: We have a lot to keep you informed all day today.

CHO: All right, Fred. I'll be watching you.

WHITFIELD: Good to see you.

CHO: Good to see you, too. Thank you so much. T.J. is coming back with a very special guest. Get ready to laugh. We'll be back after this.

WHITFIELD: One of my favorites.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, welcome back. Special edition of CNN SATURDAY MORNING and a special guest today. You're laughing already.

GEORGE WALLACE, COMEDIAN: I'm enjoying life, man.

HOLMES: Of course, the legendary -- can I call you legendary comedian.

WALLACE: You can call me the new Mr. Vegas.

HOLMES: You're a modest man.

WALLACE: Welcome you to Las Vegas. What a beautiful city we have here. God bless you.

HOLMES: It is beautiful, but Las Vegas as we know has some issues. Do you sense that over the past several years that Vegas and the economy and --

WALLACE: Yes, I'm broke. I'm not making what I used to make two years ago. Everybody out here just, you know, this is the number one unemployment.

When I was talking to the president this morning, we got a lot of new jobs coming. He says he's going to help us in the construction industry. They're going to do a lot more unemployment opportunities. That's going to work out well.

HOLMES: Talked to the president this morning.

WALLACE: I talk to him every day. I love it. He's the first black president. I'm going to be number two. Pretty soon you're going to see billboards all over Las Vegas, all over America saying George Wallace for president.

HOLMES: How is President Obama doing?

WALLACE: He's doing good. It's a tough time. I think it's pretty tough -- Congress, nobody is helping now. They should be able to come together and get something done with these jobs.

We need new roads. We need new airports. We need new bullet trains. You need me in charge of this country. I could run this country. You're looking at me laughing.

HOLMES: I'm not laughing.

WALLACE: I know how to save money. Let me tell you to balance the budget, we could have a garage sale. Sell some stuff. Let's sell West Virginia.

HOLMES: Come on, it's a beautiful state.

WALLACE: I know it's a beautiful state. We don't need two.

HOLMES: We need to get rid one of the Carolinas, too.

WALLACE: I'm going to run this country. You're laughing. No foreign aid when I'm in charge of this country. Nobody give us anything. For two years when I'm in charge of this country, ain't nobody giving nothing. We still giving money to Bosnia -- as a matter of fact, if we can't pronounce your name we're not giving you anything.

HOLMES: All right, let's turn from the president though. When you say he had a tough job. Well, some of these Republicans who will be here next Tuesday for our debate. Are you coming first of all?

WALLACE: I have to go, if they let me in. They know I'm a comedian. They don't know if I'm Republican. I could put on a mustache and go as Herman Cain.

HOLMES: Do you think he could be a good president?

WALLACE: I love 999. Are you kidding? Some people don't understand. I'm paying 35 percent tax, don't you think I'd love to pay 9 percent. You know, 9-9, when I first heard it, I thought it was pizza, nine toppings, nine bread sticks, nine sodas for $9.99.

HOLMES: You told me you watched every single one of these debates. Part of that you're interested and involved. Also, it's part of your material. You get material from that stage, the Republican debate.

WALLACE: Who gives me most material for everything is CNN. We call it the comedy news network. If you're a comedian and you don't want CNN -- I'm getting a lot of laughs for Rick Perry. He invited me to the ranch and I told him I don't think so.

Herman Cain and Mitt Romney, I love that man. I wouldn't vote for him. You know why? He spent $40 million of his own money for a job that pays $400,000 a year. He's not going to run my budget.

HOLMES: We look forward to seeing you, CNN, not comedy news network.

WALLACE: OK.

HOLMES: CNN, we look forward. Maybe they come by if they let you in.

WALLACE: People yelling at me. It's a pleasure being here. Birmingham, Alabama coming to the Comedy Club, October 28, 29. CNN family come on down.

I want to thank you and welcome you and your whole crew come over to the fabulous Flamingo at 10:00 and get in free. As a matter of fact, I have a new program "No Child Left Behind," all college students get into my show for free. I like to give back. Everybody's job is to give back.

HOLMES: You heard it here. Mr. Las Vegas. The new Mr. Vegas, George Wallace. Good to see you this morning. Quick break here on the Strip. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHO: Just about two minutes before the top of the hour, want to get a quick check of the weather with Bonnie Schneider. Hi, Bonnie.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Alina. We are clocking some very strong winds in Michigan right now. We just got this in and the gusts are soaring, 56 miles an hour in South Haven. Forecast calls for these strong winds to persist throughout the day today.

That is definitely going to impact your travel and also possibly cause damage because the winds are so strong we could see power outages. The forecast also calls for strong winds in the New York area, straight through the Midwest as we go through the next few days.

So we're anticipating airport delays to all the cities you see here. That will stretch from the Midwest to the northeast because the winds will persist in this region as well. Now in terms of your forecast for the rest of the week, as this area of low pressure dissipates, the next big story is a temperature drop.

Now we're moving into the latter part of October. So while the highs today will be in the mid-80s in many cities across the south, get ready for a big change by Tuesday. Cold air will plummet further to the south. That brings highs into the 40s for parts of the great lakes and into the 60s here in the south.

So even cities like Dallas, Texas, will see highs in the 60s by Tuesday as opposed to today's highs in the mid to upper 80s so big changes on the way. We're tracking it here, Alina. Definitely feeling more like fall, which I know is your favorite season.

CHO: It is my favorite season as much as I like summer. All right, Bonnie Schneider, thank you very much. Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Alina Cho. I'll be back again tomorrow morning.

But be sure to tune into my special at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time today, "Fashion Backstage Pass from Paris." For now I hand over the baton to my friend.

WHITFIELD: I love it, au revoir.

CHO: Thank you.