Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Saturday Morning News
No Verdict In Michael Jackson Trial; CNN Weather Update; Saving For the Holidays; Details on Cain Harassment Incident; The Greek Debt Crisis and You; Tape Shows Judge Whipping Daughter; Powerless in Connecticut; Ronald Reagan Dinner in Iowa; Mars Mission "Lands" Successfully
Aired November 05, 2011 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good Saturday morning, everybody.
Would you believe me if I told you I could save you $1,000 in time for the holidays. Believe me, our financial experts are going to be along in a second. Going to show you exactly how to do that.
Also this morning, I want to hear from you all. Is whipping a teenager OK? And when does it cross the line from corporal punishment and discipline to abuse. An ongoing debate sparked by the video of a judge caught on tape repeatedly hitting his daughter with a belt.
Also this morning, a kid suspended from school. What did the kid do? He gave a hug to a friend. Is that OK?
6:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia, 5:00 a.m. in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Wherever you may be, we are glad you are right here. I'm T.J. Holmes. Reynolds Wolf will be along with me here in just a moment.
Well, where is your money this weekend and is it on the move? A lot of Americans' money on the move this weekend because one group wants you to move your money out of the big banks and put them into community banks, credit unions. They're calling this Move Your Money Day. So far it seems that a lot of people are paying attention to this message. According to our folks at cnnmoney.com, at least 650,000 people have fled the big banks in just the past month. Here's how one of the organizers describes how this grassroots movement grew so big, so fast.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN CHRISTIAN, CREATED FACEBOOK PAGE FOR MOVEMENT: I started the idea myself. It began as a FaceBook event that I sent to 500 of my closest friends, educating them to the powerful impact credit unions can have on our local community. And from there they invited 500 and they invited 500. So now we are to nearly 42,000 supporters in less than two weeks.
Big banks for far too long have mismanaged funds and utilized unethical business practices. So it's time that we vote with our dollar and help restore our local communities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: All right, so as I mentioned a moment ago, 650,000 in the past month have moved out of the big banks. Moved their money out of those banks. Now, it was just a month ago that Bank of America announced its $5 debit card fee. That sparked a lot of anger in the country. And now Bank of America and other big banks, they've abandoned their fees, but still people are abandoning the banks.
And so if you are one of the thousands looking for possible alternatives, they want you to go to this website. It's ncua.gov. That's from the National Credit Union Association. You can actually plug in your zip code. It will find credit unions near you. But the movement continues even though some of those big banks have backed off their debit fees.
Let's turn to some presidential politics. And you may have missed this yesterday, but still some more controversy swirling around Republican Herman Cain. He spent the past week dismissing and then remembering accusations of sexual harassment from the '90s. We learned just a little more about the claims when an attorney for one of the accuser spoke out yesterday. Shortly after giving a brief statement, the attorney, Joel Bennett, spoke to our Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN: "Several instances," I believe that was the phrase you used, of sexual harassment. What can you tell us about the nature of this sexual harassment?
JOEL BENNETT, ATTORNEY FOR CAIN ACCUSER: I'm sorry. I would like to be able to reveal all the details, but my client prefers not to do that. And all I can say is, there was more than one incident. They qualified as sexual harassment under the law in my opinion as a lawyer. And my client chooses not to get into the details. Again, the details were filed internally with the National Restaurant Association in 1999 and I assume they were brought to Mr. Cain's attention.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: So what we learned, it wasn't just one instance, one occurrence. Apparently there were several, according to the accuser. As for the Cain campaign, they say that after a week of talking about this, they're ready to just put it behind him. The candidate made one last reference to it at a Tea Party event. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I've been in Washington all week and I've attracted a little bit of attention. And there was an article in "The New York Times" today that has attempted to attract some more attention. You know, that's kind of what happens when you start to show up near or at the top of the polls. It just happens that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP) HOLMES: All right, he was talking about a "New York Times" article there in which it talked about his relationship with the Koch brothers. You may have heard their names before. They're influential, conservative businessmen who actually hosted that Tea Party event Cain was attending. Cain has another big event on his schedule today, a one-on-one debate with Newt Gingrich. We've got a preview of that coming your way in just a few minutes.
Well, at five minutes past the hour now, it looks like we'll have to wait at least until Monday before getting a verdict in the Michael Jackson death trial. The jury has the weekend off after not being able to reach a verdict in the manslaughter trial with Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray. We get more now from our guy in L.A., Ted Rowlands.
TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: T.J., seven and a half hours of deliberation and no verdict. We do know that this jury of seven men and five women asked to see some evidence. So, clearly, they are going through the case on some level. But the part we don't know is, are they agreeing with it -- have they taken a vote or are they just sort of going by -- going through some of the testimony and some of the high points by subject in the trial. We don't know.
They've been together for 20 plus days in court so they know each other well. And watching them in court, you do get the feeling that they get along well. So clearly that will help them in the jury room.
We don't know what they plan on doing in terms of speaking afterwards. We do understand that they will be given that option if they want to. Clearly a lot of people who have been following this trial would love to know what they were thinking, not only during the trial, but what they were thinking during this deliberation process.
Outside the court, we had a lot of people out here on Friday and I expect they will all be back on Monday, along with the jurors.
T.J.
HOLMES: All right, thanks to our Ted Rowlands.
And let's turn to Greece now. Well, the prime minister there, it appears that he's going to be able to keep his job, just barely, and that's important to all of us, actually. And we'll explain. George Papandreou survived a vote that could have forced him to dissolve his government.
But while the political mess is sorted out, a deal to save Greece's economy is gathering dust right now. And this is the proposed bailout for Greece that would have wiped out half the country's debt. It also would have forced severe cuts in public programs. Now, that has led to some widespread rioting. You may have seen pictures of that throughout the past couple of weeks.
Now, what may be even worse is the fact that Greece's economy is linked to world markets. That's why this is important for all of us. So many banks bet big on Greece's recovery and are a lot -- are losing a lot of money right now. Meanwhile, world leaders pledged support for the Greek debt deal and other drastic measures. While meeting in France for the G-20 summit, they wrapped up the meetings by unveiling a two-page document. An action plan. The plan is short on specifics, however. The leaders admit it will be hard for some countries to follow through.
Well, seven minutes past the hour now. And a former United Airlines pilot has been sentenced to six months in prison for flying while drunk. He was in the cockpit of a United Express flight out of Austin, Texas, at the time. Aaron Cope is his name. He was turned in by the pilot, his copilot, who said he smelled something unusual in the cockpit. Cope could have actually gotten 15 years in prison.
We'll turn to Oklahoma, where they got a wakeup call. A moderate earthquake shaking them around this morning. It was centered about 45 miles east of Oklahoma City. No immediate reports of injuries or damage. Keeping an eye on this throughout the morning. Bringing you the very latest there.
Also, around the same time, a stronger earthquake shook Chile. This one was centered almost 700 miles north of the capital Santiago.
Let's turn now to Connecticut. Check out a map we're going to show you here. You see that yellow. It shows who still has and does not have power right now after a major storm came through there. Those yellow areas you see mean you're good to go. The rest, not so much. There you go. That gives you a better idea. Many of those counties still without power a week later. Now this means that more than 280,000 people still don't have power. That means they still don't have heat. It's cold right now. Falling trees snapped a lot of power lines when that snowstorm moved through about a week ago.
Well, it is that time. Time for you to set your clocks back. Fall back, spring forward, right, Reynolds. Daylight savings time starts at 2:00 a.m. tonight. That means you get an extra hour of sleep or it means you can stay up or stay out an hour later. And if there was ever a weekend we needed the extra hour, it was today. Big game tonight. Big game tonight, folks. Alabama, LSU, 8:00. Let's do this, Reynolds. Tired of talking about it. Been building it up. It's game time.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I thought you were talking about Troy State and UT Santa Cruz.
HOLMES: Are they really playing this weekend?
WOLF: No.
HOLMES: OK, I was --
WOLF: I don't think UT Santa Cruz even has a football team. No, no, it is all Alabama and LSU. It's going to be an amazing game. They're playing in Tuscaloosa. It gets underway under the lights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. It's going to be one of those situations where the earth is going to stop moving. It's going to be incredible.
Hey, we've got that forecast coming up for what you can expect for the game. A huge winter storm out west. Sandstorm in parts of the desert, in the four corners. We're going to talk about that. Plus, of course, that earthquake. We're going to touch on that coming up too, T.J., and it's all straight ahead.
HOLMES: Reynolds, thank you kind sir. See you again here shortly.
WOLF: You got it.
HOLMES: Ten minutes past the hour now.
It was the story and the video that really sparked a national conversation. Sparked a national outrage. A man shown repeatedly striking his daughter with a belt. Turns out he's a family court judge. And it also turns out that he is not going to be facing prosecution. Going to be getting your comments on that story throughout the morning.
And Reynolds and I just talked about the Alabama-LSU game today, number one versus number two. Tickets for this game are going for as much as $6,000. And I assure you, folks, it's going to be worth every penny. Stay with us on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Eleven minutes past the hour. You all remember that song? You know this one, don't you, Reynolds?
WOLF: (INAUDIBLE).
HOLMES: Is that what it is, "Hey Ya"?
WOLF: Sort of. Yes.
HOLMES: We are playing this song for you. We'll play plenty throughout the morning. But this is one song, "Hey Ya" by Outkast. It is on "Time" magazine's all time 100 songs list. They just came out with this not long ago. But "Time's" critics picked the best songs since 1923. Twenty-three is when "Time" magazine first came around. But we'll be sharing more of these with you. But this, I can't remember how many Grammies they picked up for that album. But "Hey Ya," Outkast. We'll share some more throughout the morning.
Reynolds here with me once again.
And it sparked another debate. Some of our folks in -- here in our booth who are punching the show for us right now who are putting some of those pictures up from Tuscaloosa. It's OK. Put them back up. We're talking about the Alabama-LSU game today. Number one versus number two. Tuscaloosa is essentially shut down right now because of this game.
We can't explain enough. If you're not a football fan, this game has national championship implications. These are clearly the best two teams in the country. They have just rabid fan bases. The best -- couple of best fan bases in the country. So, a big, big game. Tickets are going for this game, folks, at least online, you can find them anywhere between $700 and $6,000. And, Reynolds, our folks in the control room right now, after we just teased this story, said there ain't no way. They said everybody back here is yelling at you, T.J., for saying this game is going to be worth every penny if you pay six grand for it.
WOLF: I'd pay.
HOLMES: I know you would.
WOLF: I would. I mean I'm hard core. When you -- how many games have we gone to over the years? I mean it's ridiculous.
HOLMES: (INAUDIBLE).
WOLF: I mean but we're also -- we're also nut cases. So let's be perfectly honest.
HOLMES: (INAUDIBLE).
WOLF: When it comes to sports, there's no question about it. But the thing that's amazing about it is, a lot of times these super hyped games don't live up to expectations.
HOLMES: No, not this one. Not this one.
WOLF: How many times have we seen the Super Bowl? You think this is going to be --
HOLMES: This is going to live up. Oh, it's going to be great.
WOLF: Wow. OK. Well, we'll see. Who do you like for this game?
HOLMES: Alabama.
WOLF: The home field advantage. The three points.
HOLMES: Yes, and Nick Saban.
WOLF: See, I respect Nick Saban but I love Les Miles. I really do. The Mad Hatter. The guys who always goes for it on fourth down. I mean --
HOLMES: (INAUDIBLE).
WOLF: It can be fourth and forever and the guy is going to go for it. And usually more often than not, it ends up snake eyes.
HOLMES: The weather going to work for them in Tuscaloosa today?
WOLF: It's going to be nice. It's going to be a perfectly crisp, beautiful, beautiful conditions. Thankfully not too windy like what they had in parts of the four corners. In fact, take a look at this video that we have for you from parts -- the four corners in Arizona, nice big sandstorm.
HOLMES: Oh, wow.
WOLF: How about -- that's in Casa Grande, Arizona. Just south of Phoenix, don't you know. And what's interesting, the thing that's causing this, is this immense storm system that is now moving through the Rocky Mountains. Top half of the system, a snowmaker. The bottom half, well, it's going to be, well, the sandstorm that you see right there, lowering visibility.
But what's interesting is, as we come back to the weather computer, it's going to be in these high mountain passes, not necessarily up in parts of 40, but a little bit farther north than 70 by late afternoon. They were going to see the winds really intensify. Some wind gusts topping 50 miles an hour. And with the potential of eight to 16 inches of snow in some places, what it's going to mean is, you're going to have whiteout conditions. Anyone in a high-profile vehicle, a big SUV, perhaps even an RV, you're going to have some issues on the roadways. Especially a lot of the semi truckers. You might have some tough times up t here with the winds, especially in those high mountain passes.
On the front range of the Rockies and back into the Central Plains, the situation is all together different. We've got very, very low humidity. On top of that, strong winds. With low humidity and strong wind, we have a fire threat that will be in effect for parts of Oklahoma, back into Nebraska, even the southern half of the Dakotas.
On the other side of the Great Basin, a fairly dry day out west. But in the Pacific Northwest, looks like a shot of rainfall. And then we're going to see another storm system bring possibly additional rainfall and snowfall to parts of the four corners, into the Rockies.
Nice and cool for you in portions of the Northeast. High pressure building in. a pretty nice and warm day for you in parts of the Northeast. As we wrap things up, I'm going to show you what we can expect in terms of highs. In places like Boston, 51 degrees. New York, about 49. So those of you in Connecticut, people who happen to be without power might be listening on CNN Radio. What you need to know is that your highs today are going to be pretty much splitting the difference. Around the 50s. But nighttime lows dropping back into the 30s. Some places to the 20s. So a cool night ahead.
It's 62 in Kansas City, 52 in Albuquerque, 46 in Portland, 61 in San Francisco. Wrapping it up in Atlanta, 63 degrees, your expected high.
T.J., back to you.
HOLMES: Reynolds, thank you, kind sir. We will be seeing Reynolds plenty throughout the morning.
We're at 16 minutes past the hour. We're going to turn here in a moment to a story that the country was talking about this week and I want your comments on it today. At what point does using corporal punishment to discipline a child cross the line into abuse? Send your comments to my twitter page @tjholmes. We'll be talking about this story that sparked the conversation this week in the country. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Eighteen minutes past the hour now on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. And the debates over corporal punishment really reignited this week all over a video. A video that was circulating on YouTube certainly went viral. And it showed a father striking his 16-year-old daughter repeatedly with a belt. Now, people even more outraged when they found out that the man is a family court judge. This is the video that so many found disturbing this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM ADAMS: Bend the hell over that bed.
HILLARY ADAMS: Why?
W. ADAMS: Bend over that bed. Bend over the bed. Bend over the bed. Bend over the bed or I'm going to keep (INAUDIBLE) I'll spank you in your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) face.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: The man in the video there is a Texas court judge by the name of William Adams. Now this video was released and thousands of people have campaigned through social media sites to have him removed from the bench. They say the father crossed the line from discipline to child abuse. The judge says he was simply punishing his daughter. Says he doesn't think he did anything wrong. Says he was punishing her for stealing music and games through an illegal downloading site.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE WILLIAM ADAMS, ARANSAS COUNTY, TEXAS : In my mind I haven't done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing. And I did lose my temper, but I've since apologized.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now his daughter, Hillary, in the video, she actually is the one who recorded it. Secretly recorded it. Now I only showed you a few seconds of it a moment ago. The whole video is actually seven minutes long and pretty much shows more of the same thing you saw there. The daughter has been doing interviews, including with our own Anderson Cooper.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY ADAMS, VIDEOTAPED HITTING BY HER FATHER: I think he's in serious denial because I told him it hurt to walk the next day and his response was one word. He said "good."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Now, despite so much outrage this week, the judge will not be facing prosecution. Why? Well, the video was taped in 2004. Texas has a five-year statute of limitations relating to charges of injuring a child. The county D.A. says no indictment can be made from the video. Our Anderson Cooper asked Hillary why she wanted -- or waited seven years to release the tape in the first place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
H. ADAMS: It wasn't any carefully planned orchestration or anything like that. And I didn't really mean for anything huge to come of it. I just wanted to put it out there for my dad to see it and maybe a few other people to maybe help us reconcile and see that this was wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Judge Adams released a statement as well through his attorney. And in it he says his daughter released the tape for revenge. He was going to stop giving her money because she was about to drop out of college. The statement reads in part, quote, "Hillary warned her father if he reduced her financial support and took away her Mercedes automobile, which her father had provided, he would live to regret it. The post was then uploaded."
I'm asking the question of you, when does this type of punishment, corporal punishment, cross the line and go into child abuse. Already some of you are starting to send in some of your comments. I'm reading them as we speak here during some of the commercial breaks. So, please, keep sending them in. You know where to find us on the blog, on FaceBook, and also the quick and easiest way on Twitter @tjholmes.
Well, at 21 minutes past the hour now. Let's turn to some financial news. This is some you can use. You want $1,000? Maybe a little extra cash for the holidays? We will show you what to do over the next few weeks to make that happen. Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Stevie made the cut. Stevie Wonder and "Superstition" made the cut of "Time" magazine's all-time 100 songs list. Just came out not long ago. The critics picked the best songs since the magazine has been around since 1923. And Stevie Wonder made the cut.
Isn't that a gorgeous picture of downtown Atlanta where we are at our world headquarters here at CNN. And going to try to save you some money right now or actually get you to save your own money. A lot of people looking for a little extra cash around Christmas time. What if you could find an extra $1,000 by the holidays. You can. Christine Romans is about to show you how.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the biggest savings comes from your house. Your mortgage. Refinance if you can. Lower a 6 percent mortgage on say a $200,000 loan, lower it down to 4.2 percent, you're going to save $221 a month.
You can also save money when you ditch your gym membership. Throw on a pair of running shoes. You could be saving $120 if you either cancel or you just put your gym membership on hold until after the holidays. And some gyms will let you do that. Also, you need to be really smart about how you're shopping for groceries. Don't buy your groceries ever at the drugstore. A recent study of the basics purchased at some Boston drugstores shows they cost as much as 50 percent more than at a grocery store. You could be saving, on average, $25 a week if you avoid buying any grocery items in a pinch at the pharmacy. And, you know, be smart. Buy in bulk. Don't buy name brands all the time. Also can also go to discounters.
Also, never use an out of network ATM. If you do this twice a week, you're spending more on bank fees than you do on fresh vegetables. Walk the extra block, drive the extra mile. You're going to save $50 easy by the time the holidays roll around.
Also you want to check and make sure you're using your technology in a smart way. Bundle your internet, your phone, your cable. You can save, I don't know, $60 a month if you switch from paying for them all separately and shopping around.
And finally, this one's so controversial, but maybe you should be making your coffee at home. You could be spending as little as $15 a month instead of, you know, $2 a day on your cup of joe.
If you add it all up, here you go, you can pick and choose what's right for you, but that's $1,000 in savings right there. The National Retail Federation says the average person is going to shell out about $700 on presents this year. So you could pocket that extra $300 or so for your savings.
Christine Romans, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Thanks to our Christine Romans.
And as we get close to the bottom of the hour here, also need to let you know, we're going to have our Clive Anderson (ph) coming up in a little bit. If you get a big tax refund, a lot of people look forward to that every year. Well, you actually could be missing out on money right now. Hundreds of dollars in your monthly paycheck that you could be taking home now instead of taking it home in that big refund. Well, Clive Anderson's going to be along to tell you exactly how you can give yourself a raise. That's in our 7:00 half hour. So he's coming up in just about 30 plus minutes from now.
Now, let's turn back to politics here in a moment and Herman Cain. Can the Republican presidential candidate keep his White House hopes alive? He's talking about the controversy that just won't seem to go away.
Also, an "Occupy" protester in trouble with the law. He tells the judge, I want to go home with my wife. Find out why that might not happen any time soon.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Well, we're at the bottom of the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Welcome back, everybody. I'm T.J. Holmes. Glad you can spend parts of your weekend here with us.
We are talking presidential politics this morning and that controversy that continues to swirl around Republican Herman Cain. He spent the past week dismissing and then remembering accusations of sexual harassment from the '90s.
We learned a little more about the claims when an attorney for one of his accusers spoke out late yesterday. Surely after giving a brief statement, the attorney, Joel Bennett spoke with our Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM" (on camera): Several instances, I believe that was the phrase you used of sexual harassment. What can you tell us about the - about the nature of this sexual harassment?
JOEL BENNETT, ATTORNEY FOR CAIN ACCUSER: I'm sorry. I would like to be able to reveal all the details, but my client prefers not to do that. And all I can say is there was more than one incident that qualified as sexual harassment under the law.
In my opinion, as a lawyer and my client chooses not to get into the details. Again, the details were filed internally with the National Restaurant Association in 1999 and I assume they were brought to Mr. Cain's attention.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HOLMES: Now, the Cain campaign. They say that after a week of talking about this, they are done with it and not going to be talking about it anymore. But the candidate did make one last reference to it at a major Tea Party event.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I've been in Washington all week, and I've attracted a little bit of attention. And there was an article in the "New York Times" today that has attempted to attract some more attention. You know, that's kind of what happens when you start to show up near or at the top of the polls, it just happens that way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Well, he was referring to an article in the "New York Times" there that was about his relationship with the Coke brothers. You may have heard their names thrown around a little bit of their (ph) influential conservative businessman who hosted the Tea Party event Cain was attending. And Cain has another big event on the schedule today. It could be interesting here. A one-on-one debate with newt Gingrich. We've got a preview of that coming your way in just a bit.
But, again, just past the bottom of the hour, give you a look at some of the stories making headlines today. A senior U.S. Military official says there's a real concern, Israel may be considering a strike on Iranian nuclear interest but the U.S. is monitoring military moves in both countries. The International Atomic Energy Agency is scheduled to release a report on Iran's nuclear program next week.
Also, police in Northwestern Tennessee are looking for a woman who has been missing for more than five days. Forty-four-year-old Karen Swift was last seen Saturday night outside her Dire County home. Police found her car on a nearby highway the following morning. Friends and family held another vigil for Swift last night.
Also, in Ft. Collins, Colorado, a 29-year-old beekeeper is in jail on arson charges. His name is Benjamin David Gilmore and he's accused of doing that right there, torching a condominium complex not far from the Occupy Ft. Collins encampment. The October 24th fire left a dozen people without their homes and cost an estimated $10 million worth of damage.
A nation on the brink of bankruptcy and its prime minister barely surviving a confidence vote. Are you paying attention to what's happening in this Greek debt crisis? Well, you should, because the implications could hit your bottom line and hit it hard.
CNN's Jim Boulden is live for us in Athens with some answers.
And, Jim, help Americans who woke up this morning and they hear, OK, the Greek prime minister survived a confidence vote. So what?
JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'll tell you what, T.J. The reason this matters is because the prime minister or whoever will lead a government in Greece in the next few weeks has to push through a very tough bailout plan that is agreed to with the International Monetary Fund and European Union.
What does that mean? It means if Greece can't get its house in order and the government can't push that through, there's a very good chance that Europe's whole bailout plan over the last year could collapse. That would mean Europe will be in crisis. We'll have Europe going to recession, and that could affect European banks, American banks, the American economy.
So even though the Greece economy is tiny, T.J., very small, it matters because it's part of the euro. And you don't want to see the euro go into crisis because that could be global recession, T.J.
HOLMES: And, Jim, also we just saw some of the most powerful - no, not some of - the most powerful leaders in the world get together at the G-20 Summit. They produced a two-page action plan.
Well, how much action do you have in two pages and how much of that had to do with dealing with this Eurozone crisis?
BOULDEN: You know, what was so funny, it's so interesting, as they went to the G-20, it's supposed to be a triumphant meeting, wasn't it? It's supposed to be Europe has gotten its big plan in order that they decided in Brussels last week. And then they were going to talk to the Chinese and the Indians about how Europe has been solved. They're going to tell Obama don't worry, we've sorted it, and it fell apart just before they arrived in Cannes, France.
So they spent far too much time dealing with Greece there and not dealing with the other issues like how much more money does the IMF need to help countries in trouble like Greece. So it really took the eye off the ball and it changed that summit in a way that nobody predicted.
And that's why this tiny nation with this tiny economy affects so much on what's going on with global leaders trying to sort out and make sure you and I don't go back into a recession and that our banks survived.
HOLMES: All right. Jim Boulden for us in Athens this morning. Great explainer. Great perspective. Thank you so much.
Now, we're 37 minutes past the hour now. And a quarter million people in Connecticut without power - still without power, a week after an early season snowstorm. We'll tell you what some of the state officials are saying about what's happening there.
Also, the debate over corporal punishment sparked by a video of a Texas judge repeatedly hitting his teenager daughter with a belt. We are getting a lot of reaction from you today on the question of when does corporal punishment for discipline cross the line into abuse.
One comment coming in from Kristofer1954 says, "This was not corporal punishment. This was a beating plain and simple. Shame he can't be prosecuted."
I'm getting a ton of reaction from you all. I'm going through it now. We're going to have some more reaction we'll share with our viewers.
Stay with me on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. We're at 39 minutes past the hour now.
The debate continues over corporal punishment. And the debate was sparked this week by a video. We showed this to you a little while earlier and many people do find this disturbing. But it shows a Texas judge repeatedly hitting his 16-year-old daughter with a belt. Here is some of it.
Now, he calls this discipline. Many saw it and said, no, this isn't disciplining a child. This is child abuse plain and simple. The man is a family court judge. He is off the bench for now, at least, at least out of his job for a couple of weeks. He hears abuse cases.
Now, this sparked a conversation about corporal punishment and other things. And the debate continues now. And the question I was asking you this morning, when does it cross the line? Corporal punishment for discipline, when does it cross the line into abuse of some kind? Here is one comment we got from jhawk421 saying, "No sympathy for her. I was spanked as a child and came out just fine. It's kids in "time out" with no boundaries that I worry about."
Another one from Lindac4251 says, "There is no need for corporal punishment. There's always another way to guide the child.
One other from WiredNix says, "Violent punishment has no place in a child's life. It only brings deeper emotional scars in the long run."
This has sparked so many conversations. And Reynolds Wolf with me now, certainly covering the weather and we're going to get to some more stuff we're seeing weather-wise.
But it might be generational. I was whipped when I was a kid.
REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Really?
HOLMES: Belt? Absolutely. And a lot of people saw this. Some friends look and it depends on how you see it. Some people saw abuse. Some people saw that and say it looks familiar to me.
WOLF: Yes.
HOLMES: I was beat with a belt. It depends on perspective. And I was asking you, did you grow up in a time and era in a house where whippings were normal?
WOLF: My dad was a (INAUDIBLE) man -
HOLMES: Yes.
WOLF: -- and he could just give you the look and it would just scare me. And my father never laid a hand on me. My mom maybe twice. My grandmother, if there was a piece of loose furniture close by, basically that would be -
But the thing is, every single time that those instances with my maternal grandmother it was deserved. I mean, I would egg it on. I would push it on. And then I would be bleeding from everything except my hair, that kind. I'm just teasing you. My grandma is not with us anymore.
No. But, I mean, it's a - it's very, really serious question. I mean, when do you - what is really pushing the line. And, I mean, you know, it's a - it's a very delicate thing.
HOLMES: And we're going to have a couple of sides to this issue. And, again, it's one thing - abuse is one thing. And everybody says that's not OK. But some would say you shouldn't hit a child ever. There's another way to discipline the child. Some say corporal punishment sometimes could be useful. A debate about that coming up a little later.
And also, we'll turn to some weather here in a second. We've got a piece coming up from our Susan Candiotti. But what is going on weather-wise with the power outages still in the northeast?
WOLF: It is amazing what's happening in Connecticut. And what's happening in Connecticut is if you're a fan of boxing, think of Ali and Sonny Liston. Basically what happened is think of Connecticut as being Sonny Liston's jaw and Ali basically breaking it.
You had two big things that's happening in Connecticut. You see in Connecticut, first and foremost, you had a lot of tree damage that was caused by Hurricane Irene. Remember Irene?
HOLMES: Yes.
WOLF: And Connecticut is a beautiful, heavily wooded state. And with the strong winds that came through, toppled all kinds of trees.
Second punch was this winter storm that came through recently. Yes, the roaring October storm. You had widespread power outages. At this point, we still have roughly 212,000 customers that are without power at this time. You see the video there.
Let's show you the maps very quickly to give you an idea of exactly what has been taking place there. Many places seem unreachable by Connecticut Power and Light. A lot of customers very angry, understandably so. They paid good money to have a great service and unfortunately for many of them there's really been no relief whatsoever for this people. They've been living with generators and they have no power whatsoever. So it's certainly it's been tough times for them to say the very least. And we're moving into a very cold time of the year.
Thankfully for today we're not expecting anything in terms of snow or rain for parts of the northeast, especially for Connecticut. High pressure is going to be your dominating feature. It's going to be a very modifying, very - very soothing effect on the atmosphere if you will. So not much in terms of storms.
Now in terms of temperatures, daytime highs are going to be up into the 40s and 50s for much of Connecticut and much of the northeast. However, nighttime lows are going to slip right back into the 20s and 30s.
Now, one bit of good news we're going to tell you. There have been about 12,000 customers - between 12,000 to 15,000 customers that have had their power restored in fairly short order. We hope these numbers are going to improve in days to come.
But, again, T.J., this time of year couldn't be worse. If this was maybe spring or summer might be a little bit easier for them to deal with, but they've had two big disasters, of course, with Irene and then with the winter storm that have really laid much of the state to waste in terms of power.
HOLMES: All right. And Deidre for me - Reynolds, thank you. But, Deidre, cue up this - I'm talking about Susan Candiotti. She talked to the governor of Connecticut up there, because of course everybody wants the lights back on. But now you have a back and forth between some government officials and Connecticut Light and Power, the company up there, the power company.
They, at this point, have come under scrutiny for their response. And they're wondering why at this point a week after this storm so many people still without power. So take a listen now at our Susan Candiotti spoke to the governor there about what's happened.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. DAN MALLOY (D), CONNECTICUT: We were hit a lot harder. You know, at one point, the utility had 77 percent of its customers out in the middle of the storm. So for whatever reason Connecticut got the brunt of this.
Now, there's another question that, yes, and that is, were they prepared sufficiently? And I think that that's a very serious question, one which we've got to get to the bottom of once we get people their heat back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HOLMES: Yes. So the order of priorities, yes, you want to look into why this is taking so long, but right now a lot of people just want the light, the heat back on.
We're about a quarter of the top of the hour now. And elections just days away in the Iowa town of New Liberty. So how come nobody is running for mayor or the city council? The ballot is empty as the streets. Why? When we come back.
Stay with me.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: We're about 13 minutes off the top of the hour on this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.
We turn back to politics and a pretty big deal in Iowa, a dinner. It's the Ronald Reagan Dinner, it's a major fundraiser for the Iowa Republican Party and the forum for the Republican presidential candidates. Frontrunners Mitt Romney, Herman Cain, though, skipped the event.
But as our CNN Political Reporter Shannon Travis tells us, that didn't seem to really matter to the crowd.
SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER (voice-over): T.J., five presidential candidates appearing here in Des Moines, Iowa at the Ronald Reagan Dinner. And the first person to speak was Ron Paul. He spoke glowingly about his association and ties to the 40th president of the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RON PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Of all the presidents that I have met over the many decades, President Reagan was the one that I knew the best and visited with the most and had the most in common.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TRAVIS: Right after Ron Paul, the Texas Governor Rick Perry, he got a lot of laughs out of one thing that he said. He basically compared the GOP race to the Occupy Wall Street movement but in a - in a comical way. He basically said that the race should call Occupy the White House.
(on camera): Right after the Texas governor, Michele Bachmann spoke. And take a listen at her referencing some very familiar campaign rhetoric.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHELE BACHMANN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As I look out at all of you, what I see is the epicenter of hope and change for our country.
RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm energized.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TRAVIS (voice-over): Rick Santorum was fourth. The former Pennsylvania senator spoke a lot about faith and family values.
And last to take the stage, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. He got a big applause and a hearty round of laughter when he says that if he becomes the Republican nominee he would challenge President Obama to seven Lincoln-Douglas style debates. And that if the president didn't accept, he would essentially follow him around the country.
Now, for more and what else is happening this week in politics, here's Paul Steinhauser.
PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hey. Thanks, Shannon.
You know, Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain face off tonight at a debate in Houston being put on by the Texas Tea Party patriots. The showdown between the former House speaker and the businessman is being touted as a modern day modified version of those historic debates between Abraham Lincoln and Steven Douglas.
The debate comes as Cain remains in the spotlight over allegations of sexual harassment from 12 years ago when he had in the National Restaurant Association. Cain says the allegations are baseless.
For Gingrich, whose campaign was once left for dead, the showdown comes as he's rising in the polls. You know, he has 12 percent support among Republicans in a new national survey by ABC News and the "Washington Post," and that's up five points from a month ago. And less than two months until the start of voting in the primaries and caucuses, you know what, now is the right time for a candidate to start picking - T.J.
HOLMES: All right, thanks to our Shannon Travis and our Paul Steinhauser.
Well, are you sick of politics? Wouldn't you like around campaign season, when it's time for an election, you don't have to worry about any politicians campaigning, hitting the street, kissing babies, shaking hands, doing nothing?
One city in Iowa might be the spot for you. They don't have to worry about anybody campaigning because nobody is officially running for anything. The ballot for next week elections in New Liberty, Iowa is pretty much blank. Nobody running for mayor. Nobody running for city council.
However, it's pretty much always been this way. They rely on write-in votes to pick the leaders. One person on the city council says he's actually been serving for 52 years and he's never run for office. About 120 people live in New Liberty.
Well, we're nine minutes off the top of the hour now.
Could you handle a year and a half in space? What if it pays pretty well? About $100,000? Six volunteers got to do this but I've got some explaining to do on this story. Actually, our Nadia Bilchik will do that explaining in our "Morning Passport." She's next.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: All right. As we get close to the top of the hour, playing a little Elvis' "Jailhouse Rock." You know the song. Well, it's now made "Time's" list of all-time greatest songs. They have a 100 list, an all-time 100 list of the greatest songs since 1923 that's when "Time" Magazine first started up. But Elvis made the cut.
As we look at the picture of the White House in Washington, D.C. this morning, we'll talk about plenty happening out of D.C. this morning.
But right now I've got some big space news. This is huge space news. Russia, they have just wrapped up a mission to Mars. Here it is as it happens. Well, it looks like they are walking out of a storage trailer.
So maybe, Nadia, they have some - they have some new capsules they're flying in there. But, no, we need to explain this Nadia Bilchik with the "Morning Passport." They didn't blast off to anywhere.
NADIA BILCHIK, CNN EDITORIAL PRODUCER: No, they didn't blast off to anywhere. All they were in was in a parking lot outside of Moscow. But it was a simulated mission to Mars and they took it very seriously. It was a full year and a half, 52 days that these six Cosmonauts stayed together. Three were Russians, one was French, one was Italian, one was Chinese. Amongst these Cosmonauts, some was - one was a surgeon, they were engineers, highly qualified. In fact, the Chinese Cosmonaut is somebody who trains astronauts. So they were highly intelligent individuals and took this experiment very, very seriously.
HOLMES: OK. What was the point? You said experiment.
BILCHIK: Exactly.
HOLMES: What were they hoping to get out of it?
BILCHIK: What would it be like to travel for 35 million miles away to Mars? And it would take a year and a half. So they took the exact amount of time and simulated the experience living in close quarters. They lived in a capsule about the size of a bus. You're seeing individual capsules there, so they had a living area, each one had a bedroom. And they lived like that without going anywhere for the entire time.
HOLMES: So was this more of a mental challenge than a physical one? I mean, did they simulate - I don't know - any kind of issues of gravity or anything in space?
BILCHIK: That's the one thing that they couldn't simulate.
HOLMES: Yes.
BILCHIK: They couldn't simulate the gravity. But everything else, being in a confined space, halfway through the experiment they actually landed on a simulated Mars sandpit and went through the experiment. And they got them to do various experiments during the time. One of the gentlemen who was on the trip actually got married two weeks before he went on the mission.
HOLMES: I assume she knew that this -
BILCHIK: She must have known. And yesterday they were released, so to speak, but not yet publicly because they still have to undergo a lot of tests. What does being in a confined space for a year and a half actually do?
But it's basically the physical and psychological test of being together. When they tried this in about 2000, it ended in a drunken brawl. And because they had a female astronaut, they (INAUDIBLE), you know, trying to kiss her. So this time there were only men. They didn't want it to be the -
HOLMES: Good idea.
BILCHIK: -- Big Brother of scientific experiments. But certainly interesting.
And when will we go to Mars is the question, we say about 30 or 40 years or so. I wonder when you'll be when the first person lands on Mars, I wonder where I'll be.
HOLMES: We'll be sitting right here, Nadia, talking about the mission - the fake mission from 30 years ago that we talked about.
Nadia Bilchik, we'll see you again for another "Morning Passport" here in just a bit.
But as we get closer to the top of the hour, a story that will outrage you. A kid suspended from school. What did he do? He gave a friend a hug.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
