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CNN Saturday Morning News

Wildfire Rages in Nevada; The Polls are Open!; Rescuers Race to Find Survivors

Aired January 21, 2012 - 07:00   ET

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

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN Center, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. It is 6:59 a.m.

We are 30 seconds literally away from the South Carolina polls opening for a very important presidential primary.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Gary Tuchman.

We're going to have a lot about the South Carolina primary today. But first, big news in the state of Nevada.

Wildfires in Reno, in the northern part of the state. Meteorologist Reynolds Wolf has the latest on what's going on in Reno right now -- Reynolds.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. Just a tremendous mess.

We were talking a while ago about how we have so many issues with fires, especially in parts of the Sierra Nevada. Well, on the other side, of course, we're seeing some issues in Nevada today in terms of the fires.

This morning, firefighters, in fact, are making progress in the fire, very close to Reno. The 3,000-acre fire has destroyed nearly 30 homes and forced out about 10,000 people, caused them to evacuate. So, again, this is an ongoing, pressing issue.

Thankfully, on the phone, though, we've got some new information. Pat Thomas is with us from our affiliate KOLO.

Pat, we are hearing misplaced ashes. Is that possibility the cause of this fire?

PAT THOMAS, KOLO REPORTER (via telephone): An elderly man came forward saying he'd kind in the fight, he was throwing away ashes and we had winds about 80 miles per hour. Apparently, one of the ashes got picked up and thrown around. It was a wildfire within, you know, just a matter of minutes.

WOLF: Anytime you have hurricane force winds that are moving through the Sierra Nevada, you're going to have some issues, just on tree damage alone, of course, carrying embers certainly can fan those flames.

What is the status, Pat, of the fire? How much containment are we talking about?

THOMAS: Right now, they are saying about 65 percent containment. We have gotten quite a bit of rain in the last few hours since that number came out. So, I'm certain later on today that number will go up.

WOLF: Now, paint the picture for us in Reno. If you are in Reno, you look up toward the hills what do you see? Just massive amounts of smoke in the valleys?

THOMAS: Well, right now, not so much anymore. Of course, it's still dark here in Reno. It's still pretty early. But, yes, the last couple days, you know, Thursday afternoon especially, very, very smoky, very ashy. Smoke coming in from all over the place.

Indeed, you can probably I'm kind of hearing my voice. I'm coming down with a cold from the smoke from Thursday afternoon's fire. It did not help that. It was, you know, burning into the day on Friday as well. And when you look into that area, still kind of smoky, still kind of hazy. Not pleasant.

WOLF: Unbelievable. You know, Pat, I know weather is certainly going to be taking a turn for the better, certainly helping battle the blaze. But in terms of the firefighters, men that are combating this blaze, they are from both states. They're not just Nevada, but they're also from California, aren't they?

THOMAS: Yes, the governor of California was nice enough to send people our way. We have several hundred firefighters on the fire lines. Some have been able to stand down at this point.

But with a fire like this, they always have to worry about spot fires and that sort of thing. It just grew so large, you know, 3,000 acres right in the middle of homes. They are really going to be concerned for the next few days about the possibility of anything flaring up. But yes, this wet weather is certainly going to be helping the case.

WOLF: Absolutely. Pat, thanks so much. Pat Thomas, folks, again, from Reno, Nevada

Gary, a rough situation. Again, how many times in your career and certainly mine have we seen this play out especially in parts of California, Florida and Texas? It could happen anytime, anyplace. It certainly looks very rough in Nevada, to say the least.

But, thankfully, the weather is going to help out considerably.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Devastating and dangerous.

WOLF: No question.

TUCHMAN: Reynolds, thank you.

WOLF: You bet.

TUCHMAN: Well, the polls are now officially open in South Carolina. Let the rush begin.

Voters in the Palmetto State are getting their chance to pick the Republican presidential nominee.

Here is where they stood in the last CNN/"TIME"/ORC poll earlier this week. Mitt Romney on top. Gingrich in second. Santorum in third.

But that was before the CNN debate Thursday night and Rick Perry's departure.

Gingrich has been surging since then. One of his advisers is predicting a six point win in the state.

CNN's Don Lemon joins me now from a polling place in Lexington, South Carolina.

Don, it's great seeing you. And I want to ask you, is anybody at the polls yet? It's 7:03 Eastern Time right now.

DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Are you kidding me? If you guys wouldn't have done that fire thing, you would have seen them racing in here. They were lined up.

Are you guys ready to vote?

CROWD: Yes.

LEMON: They are more excited earlier. I told them we're doing a wildfire, and they're like, we should have been first, because they're all excited.

You know, this is a county that decided the 2008 election and they believe that they're going to decide this election as well.

These people here, I guess, they had about, what, a dozen people lined up. And right at 7:00, they say the polls are official open. It's only been, what, four or five minutes.

She's already voted. Tell me your name.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jean Soltz (ph).

LEMON: Jean Soltz. Why are you up so early?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm on my way to Charleston.

LEMON: And you are excited about this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes.

LEMON: Do you think you are going to vote for the next president?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Of course.

LEMON: Yes? Do you mind tell me who did you vote for?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Newt.

LEMON: You voted for Newt?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

LEMON: Why?

That's interesting because everybody is concerned about the woman thing and the interview, whatever. But you support Newt. You're a woman. Why?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it was late for her to bring all that up. I made my mind up. It took me awhile. I wasn't real sure to begin with. But he's my choice.

LEMON: Well, thank you, Ms. Soltz. Be careful going to -- are you going to Charleston?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Charleston.

LEMON: Yes, you got 90 minutes. You got a little drive on the way. All right. Have a great day.

So, listen, Gary, here's what happens. I'm going to walk over here a little bit. They come in. They were line d up here. We are at a church in Lexington County.

They line up right here. They come through. There's a little thing on the floor here that says A through J, L through Z.

And they get in line right here and then they walk over. These young ladies over here who have been doing it, they say, for awhile. One lady since 1983 she's been doing this. Not her, though.

And then they walk -- they get this blue card, right? You have to have this blue card. They look your name up. Get this blue card, if you don't have that blue card, they don't allow you to go over there.

And then everything over there, once they do it, punch it in, it's done electronically. Then they get one of these that says, "I voted." And they are done. That's it.

That's the process. We'll be here all day.

One more thing before I let you go, I want to show you this. See what that says? Rick Perry suspended his campaign for the office of the president. No longer a candidate. You see that when you walk in.

Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Jon Huntsman suspended their campaign for the office of the president. They are no longer candidates. Thank you.

So, you cannot vote for them. Stephen Colbert, sorry about that.

Gary Tuchman, back to you. TUCHMAN: Don, you know, it's funny. I mean, I know you've seen this, too. But when I was in South Carolina yesterday, there's still Rick Perry commercials on the air. What's that all about?

LEMON: I know that. We were in the hotel watching the rebroadcast of the debate and we're sitting here and watching. And all of a sudden, there is a Rick Perry ad running, and it's running on every single station.

I guess they paid the money, so they got to get their money's worth. But, yes, it's still running here.

You know what? I thought the interesting thing about this live shot, I looked in the paper this morning. In the local paper, there's an article about Newt Gingrich and whether women are going to vote for him. And the first person we talked to, you saw that woman, she said I'm going to vote for Newt Gingrich. She doesn't -- it doesn't really matter to her.

I think it may matter to the reporters and for people who are outside of South Carolina. But for people in South Carolina, I'm not sure if it matters that much, Gary.

TUCHMAN: Don, you coaxed it out of her. She was shy. But your charm got to her. Thank you very much, Don Lemon. We'll talk to you a little bit later.

LEMON: All righty.

TUCHMAN: So, what does ham have to do with the vote today? Quite a lot, as a matter of fact. At least that's the story at Tommy's Ham House, a Greenville, South Carolina favorite.

Both Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are scheduled to be there at the same time this morning. Here is what Gingrich said our Shawna Shepherd when he found out about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have no idea. Is that right?

SHAWNA SHEPHERD, CNN REPORTER: Neither of you are changing your schedule.

GINGRICH: Wait until I tell R.C. He will be wild. See you at Tommy's ham house.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TUCHMAN: R.C., by the way, is his press secretary. So, we informed Mitt Gingrich that he will meet Romney at 10:45 Eastern Time at the ham house.

And joining me now on the phone is, yes, Tommy himself. Tommy Stevenson, the owner of the legendary Tommy's Ham House. Tommy, thanks for joining us. And tell, how did this double booking happen?

TOMMY STEVENSON, OWNER, TOMMY'S COUNTRY HAM HOUSE (via telephone): I don't know exactly how it happened. Gingrich people called me yesterday and told me he would be here about 10:45. And we were, you know, getting ready for him this morning.

And during the night last night, I got a call from Caroline Bumbick (ph) who is one of Newt's workers in Greenville. She says -- it woke me up because I go to bed early. She said, is Romney coming tomorrow, too. I said, well, I didn't know if he was. That will be fine. So, I went on back to sleep.

This morning I get up at 3:00 and open the front doors and here comes to my office, and I look back out, here comes Caroline Bumbick and putting up Newt Gingrich signs. I said that will be fine. They are the ones that told me Romney was s coming, which we never had two here at the same time. We'll take care of it. We are glad to have them.

TUCHMAN: Well, I know this is not the first time you had a candidate stopped by for breakfast. But I'm wondering, this particular time, how do you design the restaurant? I mean, do you allow them just to put up their posters, wherever they want? Do you put up barb wire to separate? I'm just kidding about the barb wire, by the way.

I mean, do you anything to separate the portion of the restaurant?

STEVENSON: Nope. We have a wide open restaurant. And they're just welcome to come in. You know, they are not going to come in and do any talking or debating I don't think. I think that they just want to come in and shake hands, and meet the people at the restaurant.

TUCHMAN: Now, will you be spending time with each of the candidates?

STEVENSON: I got a lot to do here. I have a big group of 70 coming in at 9:15 that I got to take care of before I get into them. But I hope they're going to be here about 9:00, you know, later on so I can get my regular crowd out and get my regular people fed.

TUCHMAN: I think that speaks extremely highly of you, Tommy, that you are worried about your regular people. Even though you have a man who maybe -- you know, two men, but one of them who may be the leader of the free world shortly coming to your restaurant.

Tell me, by the way -- what's the best thing to eat when anyone comes by your restaurant? I know it's called ham house. So --

STEVENSON: We are a breakfast and lunch restaurant. Saturdays, we do breakfast only. And the reason I get here early, we -- I do all the preparation of the meats we have. I grind my own pork sausage, chicken sausage. I cut pork chops, cut chicken for biscuits, make bone burger for burgers. And all the meat you eat at the ham house is prepared that morning before you get here.

TUCHMAN: Tommy, the mouths are watering here on the set. Everybody is standing by me. Everyone is getting very hungry.

Before I let you go, very quickly, I'm not going to -- we won't tell anyone you told me this, you would to tell me a personal answer to this personal question. Who are you supporting for president?

STEVENSON: It doesn't matter. Both the guys are great. Either one will make a great president. And we're just look forward to a real good meeting here with them today.

TUCHMAN: Who did you say you were supporting?

STEVENSON: I didn't say.

TUCHMAN: Oh, I see, I thought you say.

STEVENSON: I said both of them.

TUCHMAN: OK, I wanted to make sure. I thought you were slipping in a name. You are being neutral just like us reporters.

STEVENSON: Right.

TUCHMAN: Tommy, it's a pleasure. I look forward to coming to your restaurant for breakfast or lunch sometime, OK? Thank you.

STEVENSON: Well, thank you for calling. Bye.

TUCHMAN: Bye.

Well, it has been exactly one week since the Costa Concordia ran aground and capsized. Now, the race to find more survivors. We'll take you live to Italy, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: For exactly a week now, rescuers have scrambled to find survivors aboard the Costa Concordia. Rescuers are back inside right now, searching the Italian cruise ship. But time is the enemy.

The rescue efforts underway at the moment. It may soon turn into a recovery operation. It's certainly sad news.

Let's go to Italy where our senior international correspondent Dan Rivers is standing by with the latest -- Dan.

DAN RIVERS, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Gary, we are hearing a press conference from the head of the committee that's organizing all of this, Franco Gabrieli (ph). He's been talking about the environmental risk becoming more urgent, that they cannot predict how long it's going to take to clear the wreckage of the ship behind me.

But he's also been talking about not only the fuel risk on board, but also the chemical and sewage risk, because effectively, the Costa Concordia was a small town of 4,000 people afloat on the sea. You can imagine all of the services and sewage facilities and all the rest of it, that go with that. It's still on board they are worried about. That explains why they put booms out behind me.

He also said that when they start to pump the fuel out that will begin over the coming weeks, they are going to gradually replace the fuel with water to keep the ship balanced because it's so precarious on those rocks down there.

And also, just a bit of detail about how long it's taking to get into the 2,000 cabins. He's saying it's taking 45 minute to search just one cabin because it's so difficult to get into them. And swim along those hurdles. You can imagine how long it's going to take to search all 2,000, a very long time indeed.

It gives you some idea, Gary, of the complexity of this operation.

TUCHMAN: Dan, is there a fear that some of these missing might never be found or is it believed that the missing who have indeed perished are in some of these rooms that you are talking about?

RIVERS: Well, it's a good possibility that some of them may have been swept away. I mean, we know that several hundred people decided to jump and swim because you can see how close it was to the shore. I mean, many people thought it was -- they were waiting and waiting to go to live docks and eventually just thought, they would swim for it.

And there's a possibility that people didn't realize how cold the water is here, you know, and the current sweeping through this channel and may well have been swept away. So, you're right. I mean, there's a possibility some of them may never be found.

TUCHMAN: So sad. Dan Rivers, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it.

RIVERS: Well, this is the first time they've been around for an election. The GOP presidential candidates getting helped or hurt by super PACs. Super is the operative word.

But who and what are super PACs? And exactly, how much power do they have? The surprising details in a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: The hour, 19 minutes after the hour. And we say good morning to South Carolina. This is Columbia, the state capital.

And South Carolinians, it is time to go out and vote. The polls have been open now for 20 minutes in the South Carolina primary.

There are influences undeniable. And their presence is kind of hard to ignore. If you've noticed, this year's election is very different compared to other elections in on very big way, two words, those words are: super PACs.

Tens of millions of dollars are flowing into TV ads like never before. But what exactly are super PACs?

Well, our Josh Levs is here to break it down for us and the controversy surrounding the so-called super PACs.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Who would think we could get more political ads on television, right?

TUCHMAN: That's right.

LEVS: That's what we're seeing this time around. I mean, look, we are used to seeing ads for supporting or attacking candidates. What we have not seen before is the unlimited spending of these groups that are called super PACs to impact the election. And that's because they are new.

The result of two court decisions in 2010 -- one of them from the Supreme Court two years ago today, exactly. And basically, what it allows is for them to take unlimited contributions from corporations, unions, wealthy individuals that traditional PACs, political action committees, can only take in limited contributions. But the rule is, for super PACs, they can unlimited, but they cannot coordinate spending with candidates.

Now, critics say it's ridiculous. The ads by the super PACs are out there echoing the candidate's messages. And it basically just circumvents the whole point of having campaign finance limits.

Supporters however say it's a matter of free speech.

Our partners at Time.com have a story, saying that the new rules -- and I want you to hear this quote. They say, the new rules turned presidential politics into a house of mirrors. And they say, quote, "The nation's richest people and corporations now have an outside way to help candidates by funneling their money through new, shadowy organizations that operate out of lobbying firms or post office boxes and often identify their donors only after the votes have been counted.

Now, I will add -- a lot of you are hearing about this because of the comedy surrounding it. Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart of Comedy Central are famously satirizing and criticizing super PACs and the way they are affecting the race. In the end, part of the upshot for all of you, as the election season progresses, expect a slew of ads all over TV stations from these groups. And, Gary, especially, in battleground states all the way through November, they are going to be on all the time.

TUCHMAN: So, do you know, or do we know, how much money these groups have spent so far?

LEVS: We do actually. More than $33 million. And think about how early we are in the process. We haven't gotten to the general election, big battle yet.

This is according to non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics tracking these numbers. We at CNN reports as of a week ago, more than $6 million had already been spent in South Carolina alone. Then you have the latest ads from the past week. I got a bunch of links for you because I want you all to see this and really empowered with this knowledge. It's up there, CNN.com/Josh. Facebook and Twitter, JoshLevsCNN. You can read all about it.

And I will point out. Look, most of what we have seen so far is on the Republican side. But there are Democratic ones as well and we'll be seeing those in the general election battle.

TUCHMAN: Very interesting, Josh. Thank you.

LEVS: You bet.

TUCHMAN: Well, get this -- Americans spent $52 billion over the Black Friday weekend. So, how did we pay for the shopping spree? According to the National Reserve, we charged it. They say consumer borrowing in November went up by $20 billion. And now, it's time to pay it off.

Clyde Anderson has a plan to get you debt-free. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TUCHMAN: What was your new year's resolution? If you are like many people, it involved money. According to the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, 62 percent of you said your top financial goal was paying down debt.

Our financial analyst Clyde Anderson, he's here to help.

Clyde --

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL ANALYST: Yes.

TUCHMAN: A lot of us racked up some bills last month.

ANDERSON: Yes, a lot of bills.

TUCHMAN: Yes. A lot of bills. And January comes along, and you look at these credit card bills and you figure out -- how do you pay them off? Should you pay them off right away? Is that the smart thing to do?

ANDERSON: It is. That's the very smart thing to do. But you got to have a strategy, and you've got to be smart about how to do it.

And a lot of people just want to go and start paying maybe highest balance, or pay the lowest balance. What you really need to do is tackle the one with the highest APR. This is a smart strategy, because what you're doing, you want to eliminate the one that you are paying the most interest on. By doing that, now, then you get that down and then you go to one with the next highest interest rate.

It's smart, because you don't want to pay more on the high interest rate cards because you paid off one of the $100 balance. So, you want to be strategic about that and hit those first. That's the first thing.

TUCHMAN: Should you be consolidating when you have a lot of different bills?

ANDERSON: Yes, I mean, definitely. Depends on how many bills you have. So, if you go a few -- if you got four or five different credit cards with balances on them, the best strategy is just to go ahead and hit the one with the highest APR first.

You know, it's not necessarily -- a lot of people consolidate when they got massive amounts of debt that they can't just control. They want to kind of lump them all into one with one interest rate. I wouldn't recommended that until you get to that point where you just -- it's out of your hands and you can't control it anymore.

TUCHMAN: What other strategies would you recommend?

ANDERSON: There are a couple of good ones. One of that, people are kind of not recognizing, we have a bit of a stimulus we can do ourselves. That right, we got a break with payroll taxes from 6.2 to 4.2. To a lot of people, it doesn't seem like a lot of money. But the little things mean a lot.

TUCHMAN: We're not supposed to think about that. We say, oh, it sounds good. We don't know how significant it can be.

ANDERSON: Exactly. That's why break your calculator out. And really kind of do the math. For the average household, it's about $992 if they extend it through the rest of the year.

Right now, it's going through the end of February -- February 29th, 2012. When Congress comes to some terms, it's probably going to extend to the rest of the years. So, there's a good chance of that happening, and that's a good savings. Take that money and apply it to your debt.

TUCHMAN: So, is it as much strategy when December comes, December of 2012, which is still 11 months away --

ANDERSON: Right.

TUCHMAN: -- maybe not spend as much if it's problematic figuring out how to consolidate or how to pay off these debs?

ANDERSON: Right. I mean, that's the best strategy. I mean, the best strategy is to really not use so much on the credit cards. I'm going for cash, using much cash as possible, because you pay in the end. It seems good and fine and dandy at the beginning when you're using the cards and it's easy to swipe them. So swipe them, but now, you are going to pay for it. A lot of times you pay two times what you would pay for cash with that same gift.

TUCHMAN: Speaking of cash, you know, a lot of us don't like to carry around a lot of cash. You go to the store and you're going to spend several hundred dollars for gifts and you're not going to take several hundred dollars out of your pocket.

ANDERSON: Right. TUCHMAN: But the question is, maybe it's smart to carry around more cash. You don't have to worry about those credit card bills. Is that something you advocate?

ANDERSON: I think for a lot of people, that's a smart strategy. And what you have to do is you have the cash. You know exactly how much you need. And then you use that cash, you won't use more.

When you see the cash coming out of your hands, it's a lot different than swiping that card. It's real money.

TUCHMAN: Clyde Anderson, good advice and good talking to you.

ANDERSON: Thank you.

TUCHMAN: I save money talking to you.

ANDERSON: There we go.

TUCHMAN: All right. Thank you very much.

Well, we will bring you live to the polls in South Carolina at the top of this hour when CNN SATURDAY MORNING continues.

But, "SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." begins right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)