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CNN Saturday Morning News

Winds Fuel Nevada Wildfire; Romney Skipping Iowa Event; Budgeting Your Holiday Shopping and Tips on How to Save Some Cash; Congress Declares Pizza Is A Vegetable

Aired November 19, 2011 - 07:00   ET

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

T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: But as we get close to the top of the hour, let's reset this thing and continue with this CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

Yes. And the Breaking News we are getting out of Libya, Moammar Gadhafi's son has been captured. We'll have more on that in just a moment.

Also ahead, an embarrassing potential security breach for the White House. A secret document detailing President Obama's minute-by-minute movements is found in a gutter. We talk to the reporter who found it.

Also, pizza as a vegetable. Sounds about right, doesn't it, Reynolds?

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely.

HOLMES: This is the latest food fight in Washington, D.C. A dietitian is here to help us understand this one.

Hello to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes. This is your CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It's 7:00 a.m. here in Atlanta, Georgia. Six a.m. in Fayetteville, Arkansas -- wherever you may be, we are glad you are right here.

But let's begin with the breaking story we are seeing out of Libya, where Saif Gadhafi has been captured in southern Libya near the Algerian border. He is one of the most recognizable men in Libya behind his father. He had been on the run ever since opposition forces took control in Tripoli.

Saif Gadhafi is wanted by the international criminal court for alleged crimes against humanity. We are just getting this word that he was captured. We will have much more on this story throughout the morning.

But just past the top of the hour. We're going to turn to some weather and also a big firefight going on in Reno, Nevada. A fast- moving wildfire fueled by gusty winds, dry terrain is threatening hundreds of homes. Thousands of people lost power.

The fire is just barely about a day old. It's about three square miles already. The governor says who've evacuated their homes are still in a state of shock. No word on how the fire got started.

Reynolds, not important right now how it got started, it's important to get this thing out and weather is playing a role.

WOLF: Weather has played a role, certainly did yesterday when we had winds well above hurricane force.

HOLMES: Wow.

WOLF: And today, the winds are going to drop. At the same time, the humidity is going to be back up.

The thing that really sparked this flame, we have no idea really what caused the fire in the first place. But I can tell you one thing that helps accelerated the flames, caused burn to really enhance over parts of Reno, is really due to a storm system that pulled well to the north and high pressure over parts of the Great Basin. The two working in concert made for some very, very strong winds. They were basically coming in from the southwest over the Sierra Nevada.

Now, normally, when you have storm systems that move across the Sierra Nevada, you often have rains, you sometimes have snow. But this is on the other side of the Sierra Nevada. So, a lot of times, when you have storm systems that ride over some high mountainous terrain, what happens is one side robs a lot of that moisture, the other side gets the deficit, but still gets a lot of the wind. That's what happened with Reno.

But, today, again, the humidity is back up, with that the winds are going to drop. So, that is some good news. But still, they got a lot of work. Again, three miles completely scorched. Now, the big weather system that caused a lot of that to happen is also going to cause some delays out towards the West, and also could see some delays not only in San Francisco but a little bit further to the East, in fact, in the Eastern Board, in Boston, the Midwest delays, to Miami and Minneapolis getting in on the action.

The storm system that brought the strong winds to parts of the Four Corners and into the Great Basin, now moving up into parts of the Rockies and into the Central and Northern Plains.

Before the day is out, that's going to move towards the Twin Cities, bringing some snow and some strong winds there. And you might see some delays.

In terms of the snow, again, because leaving the high terrain is going to have smaller snow amount moving into the Central Plains. Now, for the Dakotas, you missed anywhere from, say, three to seven inches of snowfall. But when you bring that with some strong winds, sustained winds of 25 to 35 miles an hour, that's really going to knock things around, no question about it. Isn't that right, T.J.? Exactly.

What we're going to be seeing, though, at the same time, whiteout conditions possible for parts of I-90. So, keep that in mind, when you're driving.

This storm system is going to drive its way towards the Great Lakes. For places like Green Bay, you're going to be just on the precipice mainly a rain event for you. But on the other side of the boundary, it's all snow action.

And as we wrap things up from the Great Lakes, your high today in Chicago, 55 in Minneapolis, you're only going up to about 36. And then once this storm gets closer, your temperatures are going to be pummeled.

Sixty-eight degrees in Kansas City, 68 for Memphis, 80 in New Orleans, 55 in Atlanta, 52 in New York, back into Salt Lake City, 59, 50 in Albuquerque, 42 in Portland, and San Francisco with 57 degrees.

All right, T.J., back to you.

HOLMES: Construction going on.

WOLF: What was that noise? Construction of all times. They can do construction any time of day, but not while we're on.

HOLMES: Yes, this is a quite time around here, not a lot of people on the building. They don't mind disrupting our show, Reynolds.

WOLF: All right. I'm going to get my skill saw and help out. I'll be right back.

HOLMES: Reynolds, thank you, buddy.

We'll see Reynolds plenty throughout the morning.

We're about four minutes past the hour now. We'll turn to some politics.

An important event today with Republican presidential hopefuls. Our Paul Steinhauser tells us why most candidates are in Iowa and why one in particular is not.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL STEINHAUSER, CNN DEPUTY POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hey, good morning. With just over six weeks to go until the Iowa caucuses, the campaigns are back on the state that kicks off the presidential primary and caucus calendar.

GOV. RICK PERRY (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm always reminded when I show up in Iowa, the pundits always think they're the ones that pick presidents. Nope, it's the people of Iowa that pick the presidents.

STEINHAUSER: Texas Governor Rick Perry, along with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, businessman Herman Cain, Congressman Ron Paul, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and former Senator Rick Santorum, they all speak today at the forum hosted by the influential family values group.

Social conservative voters will have a big say in determining which Republican presidential candidate wins Iowa's January 3rd caucuses.

While most of the GOP White House hopefuls will be in the Hawkeye State today, Mitt Romney will not. The former Massachusetts governor was the making the second bid for the Republican nomination. He'll be campaigning in New Hampshire, which votes second in the race for the White House -- T.J.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Thanks as always to our Paul Steinhauser.

And, remember, Tuesday night, right here on CNN, the Republicans running for president will gather just steps away from the White House for a presidential debate on national security and the economy. CNN is hosting this debate co-sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute. That's 8:00 Eastern Time, Tuesday, right here on CNN.

Also, one of those presidential candidates, Herman Cain, is now being protected by the U.S. Secret Service. A source inside the government tells CNN that the Cain, his campaign asked for protection after the candidate got some unspecified threats.

This is how Cain responded yesterday to questions about getting that Secret Service protection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERMAN CAIN (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The thing about Secret Service is that things are secret. So, we don't discuss any details about it because that would not be appropriate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: But later in the day, Cain admitted that there were things they encountered in New Hampshire that made the campaign, quote, "a little uncomfortable." That's all the detail he would give.

Meanwhile, six minutes past the hour.

Back in Washington, D.C., looks like another failure on a debt reduction deal is looming. But members of the so-called super committee say they're planning on working through the weekend to come up with a deal by Monday. The deadline for the deal on that $1.2 trillion in deficit savings is actually on Wednesday. But they have to have it in the hands of the budget office by Monday so that they can get everything in order in time for a Wednesday vote. Monday is the deadline now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN KERRY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: We were sent here to do $1.2 trillion or $1.5 trillion or $4 trillion. So the idea on Friday of settling for half of what the American people need and what we were sent here to do is unacceptable to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, Kerry is one of the 12 members of that super committee. It's split six Republicans, six Democrats.

One of those Republicans, Pat Toomey, sounds a little more optimistic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. PAT TOOMEY (R), PENNSYLVANIA: The hour is late. By law, our work on this committee must be completed by this coming week. But I remain hopeful that we can complete our goal. And I urge my Democratic colleagues to join us in this effort.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, this whole thing came about after that sometimes nasty debt ceiling debate over the summer, you remember that one? One of the main sticking points is revenue or taxes. Republicans proposed a tax to the change code to raise some revenue, but Democrats are not going for that.

If no deal is reached automatic cuts go into effect. Those wouldn't happen until 2013.

Also this week, we saw Occupy mark an anniversary, the two-month anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement. We saw some action, the day of action as they called this week in Washington, D.C., and New York, and L.A., all the around the country. But we also saw some confrontations like this one between the protesters and demonstrators and the police.

This one out in California, where you see people being pepper sprayed. A lot of people are reacting to seeing this video. Police are defending their action. This is actually at U.C. Davis, the campus out there, the Occupy the Campus movement they're calling it. This was over rising tuition costs.

Police, however, are defending their actions, defending the use of that pepper spray. They say they were concerned about the officers' safety.

Also this morning, a pretty embarrassing slip-up for the White House, supposed to be protecting the president, but a pretty important, pretty secret document is found just lying around in the gutter. We talk to the man who found it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Ten minutes past the hour on CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Welcome back to you all. And good morning to our listeners out there on satellite radio right now, and also a lot of folks sitting in airports right now. Good morning to you all. Thank you for watching.

I'm going to talk about the president. He is returning tomorrow from his week-long tour of Asia. And if Australia's "Sydney Morning Herald" has the story right, the president entourage comes back on an embarrassing note. A reporter from the paper says he found this in the gutter near Australia's parliament building. It is a booklet the purportedly details the itinerary and security details surrounding President Obama's visit to Australia earlier this week.

Dylan Welch is the reporter's name. I talked to him just a bit ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DYLAN WELCH, SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (via telephone): Very specific schedule for where the U.S. president down to where he will be at every minute, each event he goes, how, when he gets out of his car, which door he gets at on, which is of course limo one, and then exactly where he'll proceed, where he moves and how he exists. On top of that, there is a also detailed layout of the presidential convoy, as well as phone numbers for the deputy U.S. ambassador and senior Australian military commanders as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: No response yet from either the White House or the Secret Service on this report.

Also coming up, Clyde Anderson will join me. You know it's that holiday shopping season. Are you one of those early ones that get out there? We have ways for you to save money. This is not just that generic stuff. We got some very specific things you need to be doing to make sure you don't break the bank this holiday season.

Clyde with me, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Let me say thank you to my producer, Alicia. She's giving me a look at home.

Good morning, Memphis, Tennessee. Getting a look at Beal Street. My rehearsal dinner was right there, Clyde Anderson.

CLYDE ANDERSON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Good place. Cool spot.

HOLMES: It is good spot. Love that spot.

But Clyde Anderson with me now. We are talking holiday shopping.

You got to deliver now, because I just told viewers we got some tips for you to save money. We're just not generic stuff that you always hear. This stuff is really going to help you out.

Now, this sounds like a no-brainer. Yes, of course, you're supposed to have a budget.

ANDERSON: Right, exactly. We always hear that. But, again, and I like to call them financial success plans.

HOLMES: OK.

ANDERSON: You know, we really want to have a plan going into, because a lot of people will create a budget and not stick to it. So, you want to create a budget, but the goal is not just the hit budget, come under the budget, making a game with yourself.

HOLMES: So, when you say a budget, you say, all right, I'm going to spend this much, everybody goes over.

ANDERSON: Exactly. That's what they always do. I'm going to spend it, I feel good that I made it, not just feel good that you made it, but stick to it and try to hit under it.

HOLMES: Hit under. That's important to know.

All right. A gift list -- you say make one that works. What's the difference with one that works than one doesn't?

ANDERSON: A gift list. A lot of times, we just make a list. We want to make a list that's strategic list. Who is on the list, what are we getting? Be specific about the products that we're getting and what are we looking for?

Don't just say I need a gift for dad or a gift for mom? What am I giving mom and how much will that cost? You want to really be specific and nail it down. That's going to help you stick for that financial success plan.

HOLMES: Do you always need to be so specific about who you need to give gifts to?

ANDERSON: Yes, especially these days. Everybody doesn't need a gift. You know, we have to shrink that list down a bit.

HOLMES: That helps me out a lot there.

Food, we're talking about shopping and eating. These things go together? What are we talking about here?

ANDERSON: When we are talking about food, use things that you already have in your pantry. Let's cut back on eating a little bit. I mean, we got to think about. Where are we pulling some of this money from?

Average person spends about $704 annual on Christmas gifts. That's average. A lot of people go over that.

So, really, what we want to make sure that we're doing is find out where we're pulling that money from? Is that something we've been saving up already, or are we cutting on some things? That if can cut back on food cost, use stuff that's on your pantry.

HOLMES: Can't do the stuff you've been doing all year. All right. That's a good point there.

All right. I was asking you this in the commercial break. The best time to start shopping. I was thinking we were talking about the middle of the day, morning or night. You are talking about the time or the season. ANDERSON: Start early. And also, shop late, as far as you want to make sure that you're getting the best deals. I mean, you know we got Black Friday coming up. And people are always saying that's the best times. Well, there's times to shop throughout the holiday season. You know, those are not always the best days. You want to figure out can I start right now. But also, you're going to get deals after the holiday as well.

HOLMES: Well, on this one, so do I start early or do you just need to monitor throughout and figure out?

ANDERSON: Don't try to lump it all in. It's stressful.

HOLMES: People are just like to let me get it over with right now.

ANDERSON: I got to get everything done today. You don't have to get it done right now. If you take your time, you can find out where the bargains are. Be a bargain shopper. Look online, figure out the prices, compare prices. Don't just feel that today, they're having a sale, so I got to go out there and get it.

HOLMES: Most important question, cash or credit, Clyde?

ANDERSON: Cash. Cash is king.

HOLMES: Come on.

ANDERSON: A lot of people have a budget so they haven't prepared for the interest that they're going to pay on those credit cards, and they're not going to pay it right away. And so, don't feel like, you know, I'm going to charge this. I'm just going to disappear. No, it's there and you're going to be paying over and over for it.

So, you blew that budget out the window when you start using that credit card.

HOLMES: So, literally, I should go in, not even with a credit card. I stack of cash and pay for it like that.

ANDERSON: Go back to that budget, find out how much to put on there, how much I allocated, and then have that cash and use it.

HOLMES: Good stuff. Even if it makes my life more difficult sometimes.

ANDERSON: Don't cut me out of that list.

HOLMES: All right. Clyde, always a pleasure. Thanks so much.

We're 17 minutes past the hour now.

Another story, we're talking about this week, all Congress has to do, they're worried about what you're eating. Yes. A debate now, a fight over whether or not pizza should actually be classified as a vegetable? Listen to how Jimmy Kimmel summed this one up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to your new vegetable garden.

JIMMY KIMMEL, COMEDIAN: Well, it's very impressive. I have not seen it. Show us around a little bit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we got big vegetables here. We've got medium. We even got little bits, little bites. And the best thing about these vegetables is they're always in season.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Stay with us. We have a dietitian here who will give us the real story behind us and what a real vegetable is supposed to look like.

It's 18 past the hour. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Twenty-two minutes past the hour.

It's been 30 years since the Reagan administration tried to call ketchup a vegetable in school lunches. You remember this? But we got another food fight in Washington, D.C. This is about pizza, salt, French fries, that delicious stuff that you know is bad for you.

Less than a year after President Obama signed the Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act, Congress may undo some of those standards for school nutrition. The administration wanted to limit starch and sodium, try to promote whole grains. But if the latest legislation passes, it would keep French fries on school lunch trays, allow a serving of pizza to be considered a vegetable if it is spread with two tablespoons of tomato paste.

Now, the legislation is causing a bit of controversy among some parents and nutritionists, so I brought in a pediatric dietitian Bailey Koch to help me understand this.

How in the world can you ever classify pizza as a vegetable?

BAILEY KOCH, PEDIATRIC DIETITIAN: Well, two tablespoons of tomato paste is considered a vegetable because --

HOLMES: Is that ridiculous?

KOCH: Actually -- well, tomato paste, two tablespoons has 25 calories, has two grams of fiber, as well as some vitamins and minerals. So, technically, it could.

What concerns me is how are you going to regulate and make sure that two tablespoons of tomato paste is getting on each slice of pizza.

HOLMES: You can't do that, can do?

KOCH: Right. And also, you got to make sure the tomato paste they're purchasing is just tomatoes, no additives. So, I think that, again, is going to be hard to regulate.

HOLMES: Now, the standard they wanted to bring it up to, would go up to a half a cup of tomato paste. That would have been the new standard. We might not get to that now.

But if you have that much tomato paste on a piece of pizza, would that qualify as a little healthier on your opinion?

KOCH: Again, I don't think it's about necessarily about the tomato paste, it's about the pizza as a whole. And you can't classify pizza as a healthy food item because it has two tablespoons or even a half cup of tomato paste on there if you're not using whole wheat crust and real low-fat cheese.

HOLMES: What are schools using these days? A typical pizza in school, will have whole wheat crust? Will it have -- it looks they won't?

KOCH: No, absolutely not.

HOLMES: So, in your mind, pizzas don't belong in schools?

KOCH: I don't believe so. No. Unless they use the whole wheat crust, the two tablespoons of tomato paste and low-fat cheese.

HOLMES: OK. What are they supposed to be eating -- you're telling me this is off limits, but this is probably still typical for schools. What should kids be eating in schools? And -- go ahead.

KOCH: Well, I brought two examples.

HOLMES: All right. I was complaining about this already.

KOCH: Yes. You could -- I always recommend my families, I include in one thing from every food group. It's very easy and low-cost. So you can do a piece of grilled chicken, low-fat plain milk, brown rice, an apple and then your mixed vegetables.

HOLMES: OK. That looks great here, but is the only way for a kid to get that is that a parent packs the kid's lunch every day? Is there any school really that's serving that type of lunch?

KOCH: Usually, schools have a -- they will have a hotline that kids can go through. So, they have that as an option. Kids don't always take that option because they are choosing the pizza and the burgers and fries.

HOLMES: Is it a disappointment to you to see that now Congress might be rolling back some of the standards that were going to in place to make a lot of the school lunches healthier? Is that a real disappointment to you?

KOCH: It is. It is. You know, we know childhood obesity and diabetic is an epidemic. And school is a place our children should be learning, and that should expand into nutrition and school choices. And how can we expect them to learn about good nutrition if we are not offering healthy foods in their schools?

HOLMES: Last thing here, I'll let you show me this last lunch, but also, the task you're up against. You're having to battle -- you, literally, are having to battle lobbyists in Washington. That's how these changes come good.

How difficult is your task to teach a parent or teach a student when, quite frankly, a lobbyist can go up and do their thing in Washington and get these regulations overturned?

KOCH: It's very difficult. It's a challenge we face every day. Education is part of the -- that's the main issue here.

So, parents just don't know. I don't think any parent would want their kid to eat unhealthy items that will contribute to health problems in the future. But they just don't know. So --

HOLMES: And we make light -- I was having fun before the break, telling you what a kid might prefer. But still, pizza, as great as it sounds. But if a kid is eating pizza every day in school for all of the years in school, it adds up. And we do have obesity epidemic in this country.

KOCH: That's exactly right.

HOLMES: Thank you so much for coming in.

KOCH: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

HOLMES: No, thank you so much for being here. An important story, we wanted to make sure we got it in this weekend.

As we get close to the bottom of the hour here now, we're going to take a turn now to what we saw at California, as part of these Occupy protests. Pepper spray in the face? What some students got out there.

You know what they were protesting? Rising tuition costs. The video you've got to see and the video the police are defending.

Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: All right. I'll be back with you at the top of the hour with more live news. Right now, let me hand it over to the good doctor.