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CNN Saturday Morning News

No Link Between Formula and Sick Infants; Getting Ready for NYE; Monkey Lost from SF Zoo; R.A. Dickey Supports Charity

Aired December 31, 2011 - 09:00   ET

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

E.D. HILL, CNN ANCHOR: It is the top of the hour. I'm E.D. Hill out of Atlanta. Let's get a quick check out of today's top stories.

Federal officials say there is no link between four infants sickened by a rare bacteria sometimes linked to powdered formula. Two retail chains removed Enfamil formula over fears that it could be linked to the death of an infant in Missouri. Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FDA say no. The Enfamil is safe. Unfortunately a lot of you have already thrown it out. But you got it, you can continue using it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one - happy new year!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Happy new year, Sydney, Australia. (INAUDIBLE) The city puts on an enormous fireworks display to welcome in the new year.

And I think the only potential rival to that is Times Square with the big ball. Preparations underway for the huge crowd expected for tonight's celebration. Millions may be there. Some have already staked out spots. Security will be tight. You don't have to go there, though. You've got us. Tune it in. 11:00 tonight. You got Kathy Griffin, Anderson Cooper. It's going to be great.

We head to the news and we start with Iowa and the Republican presidential race. Just three days now until the first votes are cast which means plenty of action this weekend in places like the Giggle and Go and Bloomers.

Here's a taste of what potential voters are hearing there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: My whole emphasis on brain science comes indirectly from dealing - see, I got ambushed. From dealing with the real problems of real people in my family, and so it's not a theory. It's, in fact, you know, my mother.

GOV. RICK PERRY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm here to tell you, you got a choice in this election for the presidency, and I'm this limited government conservative. I'm the only limited government conservative in this race that's going to give Washington a complete overhaul.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GIL: CNN political reporter Shannon Travis has been watching the action in Iowa and he joins us now from Des Moines. So Shannon, where are the candidates today?

SHANNON TRAVIS, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. The sun is just beginning to rise here in Des Moines, E.D., and a lot of the candidates are likely rising if not they're already up and on the campaign trail. Let's talk about who is here in Iowa today. Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Michele Bachmann, but also interesting enough, Mitt Romney now. Right now he's in New Hampshire.

We probably have some pictures of a live event that he's expected to come out and speak very shortly this morning, but tonight, later this evening, he'll be back here in Iowa for two events. Giving you a good sense of how high the stakes are just a few days before the Iowa caucuses and one person that we want to mention who's not in Iowa this weekend, Ron Paul. Obviously, he S one of the front-runners as well but he took some time off this weekend going back to Texas. The Texas congressman going back home to spend New Years with his wife.

Can he afford that time off the campaign trail with the numbers so close is anyone's guess? But he went home for Christmas. He went back again for New Year's. He's off the campaign trail but he will be back, E.D., with his son on Monday. The son, of course, being Kentucky Senator Rand Paul. They'll be campaigning on Monday here in Iowa.

HILL: That's his problem, though. He's normal. You go home for Christmas with your family, when there's an election? No. I don't know. He's got an uphill battle that's for sure, but I kind of like seeing people being normal.

Now earlier you showed us Newt Gingrich choking up talking about his mom. Then something happened with Mitt Romney also. What was that?

TRAVIS: Yes. That was a powerful moment for Newt Gingrich, when he was talking about his mom. His mom's death in 2003. And she suffered from bipolar disease and depression. It was sort of a similar moment last night for Mitt Romney as he was talking about his parents. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... extraordinary people, and they both left this life and moved on and you know - I won't cry. No, I won't, but I do - I do, and that's nothing to be ashamed of in that regard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVIS: Now, you may have heard, actually, in that little moment that there is someone in the crowd, as Mitt Romney was talking about his parents, someone shouted out, "Don't cry." Now, it's unclear if the person who was shouting that out or if Mitt Romney was referencing Newt Gingrich crying just a few hours earlier in the day, here in Iowa, but as you heard, Mitt Romney say, you know, it's nothing wrong with crying. We all do sometimes when we have those moments, E.D..

HILL: Take a look. New Hampshire live right now. Mitt just showing up in the room. I think we got that. Yes, pop it up. There is Mitt Romney coming in. A lot of hugging and kissing. (INAUDIBLE) baby in the room. Yes, you know when he talked about crying, you know, whether that was a dig at Newt or not, a lot of things you can say about Romney. But I think he's a nice guy. He's making a dig there. We all get emotional talking about our parents.

TRAVIS: Absolutely.

HILL: Yes, they're excited there. Beautiful scene. He was up there, not that long ago. I got a daughter up in school in New Hampshire. She went to one of those events to kind of get involved in the political process. It's kind of fun. You know students up there definitely get very involved with this, and I'm not sure if we can stay on this or not, but taking of his jacket right there. That was saying, he had this image of being so buttoned up. And so you've seen a lot of the places he's gone he's taken the jacket off and you know just looking a little more - a little less made up.

Anyway, Shannon, thank you very much.

The Iowa caucuses are the first test for the Republican presidential candidates. And their fate will be determined in places like the fire station in (INAUDIBLE), the community center in (INAUDIBLE) and the courthouse basement in Tipton, Iowa. Tens of thousands of Iowans gather to cast their caucus votes. And here's how it works.

As many as 150,000 registered Republicans gather at caucus centers. That is less than five percent of the population in Iowa, though. There are about 800 caucus sites, and then at 7:00 p.m. local time, the fun begins. The speeches, representatives can speak to themselves, sometimes they have folks coming in and talk for them. Anybody can do that, and then after that, in most places, they pass out little chips of paper and people can write down the name of the candidate that they want. And then those get handed in. They tally them up and then goes - the phone calls was made to the Republican director and they tell them. Here's who won. However, they are not bound by that, which is kind of interesting.

And then winners celebrate, losers go, "Hey there's New Hampshire. That's more important," and that continues.

A monkey of all things was stolen from the San Francisco zoo. Police are now investigating. But the zookeepers are worried. The public however is being entertained by a Twitter account. Sound strange? It is. We'll explain.

A soldier surprise you don't want to miss. That is coming up also.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HILL: Bear with me. I know you have seen this kind of scene before but I tell you it's what it's all about. It just makes - makes goose bumps on your arm. Take a look.

I start choking up when I see that stuff. Ah. Soldier deployed in Afghanistan since January surprises his son and daughter at choir practice in Virginia. Came home a month early, and obviously those little kids, so delighted. (INAUDIBLE) baked her dad some Christmas cookies and planned to send them to her dad in Afghanistan. Instead, thank goodness, he is home to eat them. Isn't that wonderful? Great.

Let's go cross-country right now for these stories.

A police officer in Grand Rapids, Michigan, saw a burning car and did not hesitate, as you can see in his dash cam video. He rescued the man who was drunk and had fallen asleep at the wheel of his burning car. The driver wasn't hurt, but was charged with a second offense for DUI.

A member ever the FLDS, Fundamentalist Church says he's been expelled because he had intercourse with his own wife. Are we missing something there? No, you're not. That's right. From prison, sect leader Warren Jeffs said he forbids church members from having any you know what, while he's behind bars. Jeff is serving 20 years for sexually assaulting his 12 and 15-year-old, "spiritual wives." Weird stuff.

Police in Arizona say the parents of these, of two small children, those were the parents right there, put duct tape around their wrists, ankles and mouths and then posted the pictures on Facebook. One picture showing the two-year-old boy hanging upside down from a weight machine. Sheriff deputies arrested the couple, charged them with child abuse and hopefully those kids are in a safer place right now.

Also, in Tampa, Florida, a woman was dragged alongside a car when a car drove up, somebody reached out to try to snatch her purse and she didn't let go. I mean, there are things worth fighting for. This is not worth that. You see what happened in the video. She wound up fortunately with only some cuts and bruises. Police are still looking for the car, though.

And we are back now with meteorologist Reynolds Wolf. He has the information for a lot of you who are going to be traveling today either go and celebrate with folks, or go to a bowl game.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, maybe so. Or you know hold on to a nice purse.

HILL: Yes.

WOLF: What was up with that? Seriously? What was the time? What was the deal? It had to be something special about it.

HILL: Here's the thing. You can replace the purse.

WOLF: Yes.

HILL: I get, if it's - a kid, or it's something else. It's the purse. Let go.

WOLF: Yes. Go figure. You know, it's a heartbreaking thing to say, you know, it's just ridiculous. One thing that won't be ridiculous thankfully this New Year's the weather in Times Square. (INAUDIBLE) Do you want snow on Christmas? Do you want a nice - what are you looking for?

HILL: You know what? This summer, I was in a pool, and I was like, oh, it's so cold. It dropped to 93 degrees.

WOLF: Wow.

HILL: So obviously, I like warm weather.

WOLF: Yes. Everything is relative. You'd be fairly happy I think in New York tonight. It's going to be spectacular. It's going to be great. The live image there looks pretty good. By tonight, you're expecting clear skies. You can also anticipate temperatures that are going to be mainly into the 40s. A bit breezy and then it's going to feel a little bit cooler. But still, well above the freezing point. If you're sensitive to the cold, if don't like it like E.D., you're going to want to wear the scarf, the parka, and the whole nine yards.

HILL: Stay home. Watch it on CNN.

WOLF: You can't lose there. Watching it on CNN. Certainly. All right, one you can be seeing around the country, there will be some backups. San Francisco, San Diego, yes, you're going to have some backups. The marine layer is going to be very pesky. It could give you a little bit of delay here and there, I'd say under an hour, maybe as much as 45 minutes. And Denver, it's the wind. In Chicago, also the wind is going to give you some Backups.

In Minneapolis, combination of the wind as well as the chance of some rain and snow kicking into the afternoon hours. Now in terms of the heavy snow, the heaviest we have right now is in the northern plains and the extreme northern Minnesota at this time. Something else we're going to see in the Rockies will be the very strong winds. Some actually approaching hurricane or even tropical storm force winds. The snow in the highest elevations will get close to a foot in parts of Idaho and into the big sky country. The wind, there it is for you. Very, very strong. Not just across the north and central Rockies but into the central plains. And then take a look, (INAUDIBLE) Texas once again sunny for you along the Gulf Coast, chance of scattered showers. You may see showers linger into parts of central Florida; otherwise, a mix of sun and clouds.

Southern California just beautiful but, of course, the fog in San Diego and San Francisco could give you some backups, pacific northwest, rain can be anticipated along the I-5 corridor with 43 degrees. We're expecting high this final day of 2012. 70 the high in Dallas as you wrap it up (INAUDIBLE) in Memphis, 66 degree, 47 in Chicago. 63 in Atlanta. 52, the high temperature in New York for the day.

All right. You're up to speed. There you go. HILL: Stay right there.

WOLF: I'm not going anywhere.

HILL: OK. You remember that Bronx Zoo cobra that escaped earlier this year, someone created an anonymous Twitter account to follow the slithering shenanigans of the snake. Now there's a 17-year-old squirrel monkey missing from the San Francisco Zoo, his name Banana Sam. Zoo officials say vandals cut through a gate and made off with the monkey.

They warned he isn't a pet and will bite. Anyone have guessed it. Someone has created a Twitter account, tweeting about the misadventure of the missing monkey. Nothing is captured on surveillance camera's but something is tweeting all of Banana Sam's business. Since the account was created, it seems Banana Sam has had some ups and downs.

Here's one of the tweets. Heading for something called the Rain Forest Cafe. Sounds promising. Next one. Arrived Fisherman's Wharf. People still wear fanny packs? Considering going back to the zoo. Next, do you know any stores in San Francisco that sell female squirrel monkeys? Asking for a friend, of course.

Next one, I don't know what this Four Square thing is, but I'm definitely the mayor of Tonga Room right now.

WOLF: Very nice. Very nice.

And they still don't know where he is. He's still missing.

HILL: You don't. You laugh about the tweets, but it's not a laughing matter.

WOLF: Yes, it is. Absolutely. How can you go wrong with a monkey tweeting? The greatest thing in the whole world.

HILL: It is. That is money. It's a monkey, sharp teeth. He needs to be in the zoo for proper care. And you know as far as all the tweets are, you know, you vandal, you cut through the zoo property and you made off with the monkey. You deserve a spanking.

WOLF: Absolutely. You know what I'm not going to touch putting those two together, but we're still missing the -

HILL: Naughty people.

WOLF: The cobra's gone, too. Remember the cobra?

HILL: Yes.

WOLF: (INAUDIBLE)

HILL: They're tweeting together.

WOLF: That is like a crime-fighting duo that's gone horribly awry. HILL: I think they found the cobra?

WOLF: They did?

HILL: Yes.

WOLF: The more you know.

HILL: Didn't make it to "Madagascar" movie and came right back home.

WOLF: Oh, goodness gracious.

The more you know. It's amazing.

HILL: Coming up next, he plays for the New York Mets and wants to climb Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for charity. The Mets warned that if he takes that hike, his multimillion dollar contract could be gone. R.A. Dickey joins us live, next, to tell us his decision.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF: Welcome back to CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

You just might recognize our next guest. Take a look at the man. Here he is. It's R.A. Dickey, he's a pitcher with the New York Mets. But if you happen to be around his hometown of Nashville, Tennessee he might be a little bit harder to recognize and here's why. He's running around town wearing this. It's a gas mask. It might sound and look a bit strange. Almost like a Darth Vader gone horribly wrong. But I promise you folks it is for a very, very good cause.

Next month this wonderful guy is going to attempt to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. It's the highest peak on the African continent. The tallest free-standing mountain on earth. His goal is to raise money and awareness for a charity. The charity Bombay Teen Challenge. R.A. joins me now from Nashville.

R.A., plain and simple, the first question I got and so many people have is why in the world would you be doing this?

R.A. DICKEY, NEW YORK METS PITCHER: Well, you know, the interest is twofold. I think one was, I read the "Snows of Kilimanjaro" back in eighth grade and stuck with me. A mountain of that majesty, and it kind of registered, filed it back in my brain. And the opportune moment arose to try to trek up it this past year. So I've been planning for a year. And so what started as a personal pilgrimage has kind of transformed into this partnership with Bombay Teen Challenge. And you know, my wife and I are onboard, completely supporting an outreach that can really make a difference in this world.

WOLF: You know, a lot of people when they (INAUDIBLE) the highest peak, the highest peak on earth obviously is Mt. Everest, the highest free-standing mountain, of course, is Kilimanjaro. What kind of training have you been to prepare for this climb? It certainly won't be easy. DICKEY: Yes, you know, fortunately, it kind of coincides with the way I train for spring training. So the only caveat is that I'm running around town with a ridiculous mask all the time and scaring people half to death. But at the same time, it's an oxygen deprivation mask and there are certain settings on the nozzle that will emulate certain altitude. So they kind of get my body reminder of what it might be like over there. So I'll be able to acclimatize a little bit better.

WOLF: R.A., I have heard that while it may have some effectiveness when you're training, I've heard it's been causing some of the neighbor dogs nightmares. (INAUDIBLE) tell us about that?

DICKEY: I'll be running through the trails at the Percy Warner Park or around the neighborhood and if a dog spots me, they have one of two reactions. One is either they try to lurch up my neck, to take me down, the others they run the other away as fast as they can. But I've never had a dog just come up and want to be petted while I've had the mask on, that's for sure.

WOLF: (INAUDIBLE) understandably so. I mean as a human being if I see you running towards me wearing the thing, I'm high tailing in the other direction. You're going to be high tailing it to this mountain, the highest point, as we mentioned, in Africa and to go up you're going through the jungle-like climate. You're going through a prairie. You're going through a very arid region and at the very top some snow. A lot of people including some athletes like Martina Navratilova had tried to make this, they couldn't make it to the top. They had issues with altitude. Are you worried about that?

DICKEY: Well, you know there's a risk, an inherent risk to go over there, of course, but you know, I've kind of weighed those risks and made the determination that it's going to be a worthwhile time to go, and I'm not necessarily worried, because I feel like I've got my bravado in check enough, if I'm starting to have severe symptoms I'm just going to stop and turn around. I'm not going to try to push through the symptoms.

WOLF: I've got to ask you. A lot of times at work, you know, people will do things that don't make their bosses too happy. What about you? You still got a $4.5 million deal on your contract with the New York Mets. How are they taking this decision for you to climb the mountain? Are they happy with this or they're kind of not too supportive?

DICKEY: Well, you know, I think the Mets have been fantastic in my career, supporting me, and this is - this case is a, kind of particular in that, you know, 29 other teams would send the same letter that says, you know, we can't necessarily get behind you, because you're one of our assets. If you get hurt on the mountain. You know, obviously, we've supported something that has injured one of our assets and I completely understand that. But again, logically I've kind of weigh the risks and decided to go forward with the (INAUDIBLE), but the Mets sometimes get bad publicity for that, but at the same time, you know, I would have done the same thing and I can completely empathize.

WOLF: Absolutely. To wrap things up, you're not doing this alone. You got two other friends, two other major league baseball players who are going with you. Correct?

DICKEY: Yes, we have Kevin Slowey, who is a pitcher for the Colorado Rockies and a guy maimed Dave Rackenelo from the Mets, who is a bull pen catcher. We all kind of have the same belief, and trying to stop human trafficking which is what Bombay Teen Challenge does in the red light district of Mumbai.

WOLF: R.A. Dickey, thank you so much for stopping by. Amazing story. Best of luck to you, happy new year and thanks so much.

DICKEY: Thank you.

WOLF: OK. We're going from R.A. to E.D., what do you think about that? Pretty amazing story.

HILL: You know, he certainly doing a great thing to help that cause. So - I don't know. I wouldn't be doing it. I wouldn't make it.

WOLF: Ah, come on. You could definitely do that.

HILL: Wouldn't make it.

Have you ever cringed when people say words like ginormous? It's one of those words on a list of those that should be banished. The most nominated word is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: LOL, OMG, what are you doing over there? You're on with me.

WOLF: I'm not sure - I'm looking at some of these words that they're getting rid of. You know there's a bunch of words.

HILL: Michigan University, they got this annual list of the words and phrases that should be kicked out of the English language.

WOLF: The words have really became part of the Lexicon. But they're now trying to get some of these shoved out.

We're talking about different works.

HILL: Yes, like Superior State University puts it together. First one, man cave. Do you have a man cave?

WOLF: Kind of, sort of, but not really at all, but sort of.

HILL: Here's another one. I don't know if I want to you answer it. Ginormous? Anything ginormous?

WOLF: I have a ginormous man cave. There you go.

HILL: And thank you in advance. Thank you in advance. What's wrong with that?

WOLF: I think that you should thank me in advance if I show you the (INAUDIBLE) man cave where I got a baby bump on the back of my head for spending too much time there.

HILL: And that's it, baby bump. Remember the time celebrities are expecting and (INAUDIBLE) keep baby bump.

WOLF: Absolutely.

HILL: Number one. Amazing. Someone actually commented about Anderson Cooper using it three times, in 45 seconds.

That's it for us.

WOLF: Crazy.

HILL: "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" starts right now.

WOLF: Happy New Year.