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CNN Saturday Morning News

Demanding "Justice for Trayvon"; Banking Vs. Bartering

Aired March 24, 2012 - 07:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: From CNN Center, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING. Good morning, everyone. I'm Randi Kaye.

Our top story: The killing of Trayvon Martin, the teen gunned down in Sanford, Florida, February 26th.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: The admitted killer, George Zimmerman, roams free. And just hours ago, his attorney broke his silence.

We'll speak to Boyce Watkins about President Obama's position.

And want to get that roof fixed but just don't have the cash? Wait until you hear about a new type of banking that uses the barter system to get you what you need.

And a Japanese boat lost during last year's tsunami is found, you'll never believe where it washed up.

ANNOUNCER: From CNN's world headquarters, bringing you news and analysis from across the nation and around the globe -- live from Studio 7, this is CNN SATURDAY MORNING.

We start with the main bar, the big story, that we investigate from all angles to give you context and analysis. Today, that is the killing of Trayvon Martin.

As the national fury grows, vigils and marches are spreading throughout the U.S. Demonstrators wearing hoodies and holding Skittles have become the trademark symbol for people demanding justice for Trayvon Martin.

George Zimmerman admitted shooting Martin, saying he acted in self defense. Since the shooting last month, Zimmerman has been out of sight. But last night, his attorney Craig Sonner broke the silence. Here's what he told our Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, HOST, "A.C. 360": What has your client told you about the night he shot Trayvon Martin?

CRAIG SONNER, GEORGE ZIMMERMAN'S LAWYER: That, I believe he's probably made -- he should have made a statement to police at that time. I think he did, I don't know for a fact because I haven't seen the police reports on this case. I have not discussed the evening of what occurred that time. I think that will come out through the investigation process done by law enforcement.

COOPER: You haven't discussed any of the details of that night with him?

SOONER: No.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Let's bring in Holly Firfer. She's in the town of the center of the controversy, that is Sanford, Florida.

Holly, George Zimmerman has yet to be charged or arrested. What's the strategy behind his attorney speaking out now?

HOLLY FIRFER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think a lot of questions, Randi have been asked about George Zimmerman, he decided to sort of quell some of this media frenzy around the situation and answer some of those questions.

And we spoke to his attorney, Craig Sonner, last night as well and he told us he still is in the area. He has spoken to him by the phone, but he's advised him to lay low because he has received death threats. But he did tell us he's cooperating with authorities, he's answering questions, they have not discussed the details of the investigation, because it's still ongoing. But he said if he is charged, he will answer to the charges.

He also told us that he is not a racist. We asked him pointblank, he said absolutely not, he's got African American friends, and he's done, Randi, some fundraising in the African American community.

KAYE: Holly Firfer, thank you very much for the update.

And stay with us for much of this story. Coming up in just around 10 minutes, we'll have our first side bar where we drill down the president's position on the tragedy with Syracuse professor, Boyce Watkins.

The polls are now open in Louisiana, for the state's Republican primary. Twenty delegates up for grabs. American Research Group survey shows Rick Santorum with the double digit lead over Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.

Santorum is on the defensive, taking heat from his rivals for suggesting that reelecting President Obama might be preferable to electing Mitt Romney. But now, he's backtracking, saying that he'll vote Republican even if it's not him.

Take a look at this now out of Toulouse, France. It's brand new video showing the inside of the apartment where gunman Mohammed Merah died Thursday. He was shot dead by French Special Forces, following a siege that lasted more than 30 hours. He was wanted in the killings of three French paratroopers, a rabbi and three children.

Pope Benedict XVI is in Mexico. He'll meet with Mexican President Felipe Calderon today heading to the world's second most Catholic nation. The pontiff has condemned the drug gang violence that is ravaging parts of Mexico. One notorious cartel is even promising to lay low during the Pope's visit.

After Mexico, Pope heads to Cuba.

A Montana man is being held without bail after he tried board a U.S. Airways flight in Sacramento armed to the teeth. Listen to this, a pat-down revealed, he had a loaded gun in a holster. TSA agents found three more guns in his carry on.

Authorities also found 192 rounds of ammo and three knives, eight more guns in his car. One passenger said it's a good thing he was caught. No kidding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We heard the engine pop and kind of sputter, we looked up and we saw him going in a nose dive and tail spin. And then he hit the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Two people are dead after two small planes collided in mid-air in the skies over Longmont, Colorado. An instructor and a student pilot were killed on the airplane crash. The other plane hit the power line and hit the ground seven miles away. Authorities say that pilot did heroic job of avoiding crowded areas. She is hospitalized but is expected to survive.

Let's turn to gas prices up again today, just a fraction of a cent but it is the 15th day in a row if you're keeping track. The national average is $3.89 a gallon up from $3.88 yesterday. And as of this morning, there are nine states where gas is over 4 bucks a gallon.

More than a year ago, Japan's tsunami swept a fishing trawler out to sea. Well, it has been spotted. We'll tell you where, next.

Plus --

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: All right. Yes, live television, how about that.

KAYE: Who was that?

WOLF: Just a friend.

Hey, what we're watching today for our friends and neighbors, the chance of severe weather popping up across the Carolinas, could get very rough, especially by the late afternoon. We're going to talk about that. Plus, take a look at your travel weather and what's expected the country. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: More than a year after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan, debris from that disaster is getting closer to the U.S. An empty fishing trawler that was swept away by the towering wave has been found drifting off British Columbia's coast. You see it there.

A Canadian military air patrol actually spot that out there.

It is about eight minutes past the hour.

Reynolds is back with us.

Reynolds, that's pretty incredible, right, that's just floating out there.

WOLF: That is pretty astonishing. And when we think of the Pacific Ocean -- and the Pacific Ocean is the planet's largest geographical feature. And the majority of currents all around the Pacific really are in a clock-wise motion. So, it stands to reason that trawler was picked up off the Japanese coast made its way to parts of British Columbia, it's just astounding. I mean, you see the effect the sea water had on the ship, I mean, it's rusted as can be. Just awful shape.

And just one small smidgeon of the debris that we have floating around the Pacific from the tsunami. Hey, one thing we're seeing that's floating around parts of the Eastern Seaboard will be some strong thunderstorms. Right now, really light to moderate garden variety storms, as we speak, at this time, not a lot of electricity with them.

As we make our way into the afternoon, that's where we're going to see a primary focus of rough weather in the Carolinas.

Out in California, not thunder but some snowmakers, especially up toward Mount Shasta, where you could see anywhere from three to six inches of snow fall, about 3,000 feet. It's going to be the freezing level, from that higher is where you're going to see most of your snow.

Even into the Sierra Nevada, if you're making that drive from Reno over to perhaps even San Francisco, maybe into Sacramento, you're going to see some snow there, especially by Donner Summit. So, just keep that in mind.

So, on the bookends, outwards the East and outwards the West, you have the worst weather. But in the center of the U.S., it's going to be picture perfect -- very mild, very sunny. And at some points, actually quite warm.

Now, will it be as warm as what we had over the last couple of days, in fact, like yesterday, we had some record highs in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Central Park, even in Cheyenne, where we're mainly in the 70s and even some 80s if a few spots, today we're gong to see a bit of a transition, where we're going to become a bit more spring-like, not early summer but what we expect this time of the year.

As we wrap it up, those are the highs today -- in Chicago, 65; 62 in New York; 74 in Atlanta; 85 in Tampa; 83 in Houston; 86 in El Paso; 50s and 60s along the West Coast, including Seattle and Portland. San Francisco, your high with 50 degrees.

We'll have your travel weather coming up for a few moments. We'll tell you some of the worst weather you're going to be in -- should be in the Carolinas on the East Coast, some backs trying to get into San Francisco.

That's the latest, Randi.

KAYE: OK. Reynolds, thank you.

WOLF: You bet.

KAYE: All right. Let's turn to March Madness, everyone. We're down to the elite eight already. Last night, top ranked Kentucky beat Indiana 102-90 in south regional semifinal. Also winning was North Carolina, who needed some overtime to beat the Ohio Bobcats.

So, the question is: how am I doing on the CNN anchor leaderboard? Well, not bad, I'm in a tie for third as we head closer to the Final Four. Go Syracuse. That's who I picked.

Let me know how your bracket is doing. You can tweet me @RandiKayeCNN.

Bank your time instead of money. Just ahead, a new type of deposit and withdraw time, in exchange for services. Clyde Anderson shows us how, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Strapped for cash? How about trading your time instead of money? Time banking is an alternative to bartering, and since the economy's downturn, more of these banks are actually popping up.

Our financial expert Clyde Anderson is here to tell us all about how it works.

Good morning to you.

CLYDE ANDERSON, FINANCIAL EXPERT: Good morning. How are you?

KAYE: So, this sounds really cool. But, you know, when we think bank ,we think money. But you're saying there's no money exchanged involved here at all?

ANDERSON: No money exchanged. No money involved.

KAYE: How does it work?

ANDERSON: Time for time. Say, for instance, I paint houses and you cut grass, we can say that, hey, I need your service, you need mine services. And you mentioned different from bartering, because bartering don't place as dollar value. My services may be $500, yours may be $200. So, it's not an even exchange.

Here, it doesn't matter. It's just time for time.

KAYE: So, you're trading service and your banking time and then you go back and get that time back? You get another service.

ANDERSON: You get another service. So, when you're withdrawing a time, you get another service.

There was a story of an elderly woman who needed work on her home. She has put several hours into the time bank. And so, when she needed assistance, they were there to work on her home and she saved lots of money.

KAYE: In a way, it sounds like -- almost like it's paying it forward in a way. You do something and then you have to do something back, right?

ANDERSON: Exactly.

KAYE: That's how it works.

ANDERSON: It's charitable. So, it's really doing charity. So, it's not about the money. It's about the time and also the energy, but also reward. You know, you're reciprocating something and people get benefit for that.

KAYE: So, is there limited type of services? I mean, what kind of services? You know, babysitting, lawn care?

ANDERSON: I've seen tax services. I've see people that do haircuts. I've seen people that do yard work, I've seen people that do painting, house repair, roofing. There's all types of things, no matter what you may do, it's just a matter what do you need.

KAYE: So, where do you go? I mean, it's not like there is a physical time bank building, right? How do you make this work?

ANDERSON: It's interesting. Anybody can really set up a time bank. There's a Web site called timebanks.org, and you can go on and learn how to set it up, maybe a community wants to set up a time bank. You're only going to have maybe 100 to 300 people in there. Make sure everybody is contributing. They'll how to set it up and also tell you where some are existing around the country you may want to get involved in one that's already existing.

KAYE: And what's a little different from bartering is because there really isn't any value, right, in the service.

ANDERSON: Exactly. So, there's not value. So, it's easy. So -- nothing that we have to look back on as far as taxes, and say, OK, well, I gave you $500 worth of services and you only gave me $200. It's just -- again, you painted my house, I cut your hair.

KAYE: That sounds like a pretty good deal. And anyone can do this? I mean anyone can become a member of a time bank?

ANDERSON: Anybody can become a member of the time bank. The main thing is that you want to make sure that contributed. So, if you're not contributing, the time bank doesn't work. You know, you don't want to have a lot of people pulling from the time bank and no deposits going in.

KAYE: All right. So, we're going to trade some services after this break.

ANDERSON: There we go. I like that.

KAYE: All right. Thank you, Clyde.

ANDERSON: My pleasure.

KAYE: And you can join us every Saturday at this time as Clyde Anderson gives us his latest money saving tips.

African American leaders called on President Obama to speak out about the death of Trayvon Martin. He did on Friday. We'll ask one of those leaders if it was enough.

Plus, we'll show some memorable moments when public concern becomes a president's problem.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Back to our main bar: Trayvon Martin, we told you about the national outrage this case has sparked and shown you the daily demonstrations across the U.S. President Obama spoke out about the issue for the first time just yesterday.

But it's not very often a sitting U.S. president comments on social issues. Here is a look at those rare moments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The United States Department of Justice will continue its criminal investigation of the police violence case in Los Angeles to insure that the civil rights laws of our nation are fully and equally applied. We are concerned about any question of excessive police violence.

WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Sometimes when terrible tragedies strike us, they bring us to our senses in the way that would never otherwise be the case. I think the horrible death of Matthew Shepard helped to sober the country up and think about what it is that is really essential, not just about our citizenship in this country but about our humanity.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: The events in Louisiana have saddened me. I understand the emotions. The Justice Department and FBI are monitoring the situation down there. And all of us in America want there to be fairness when it comes to justice.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding, that's what the country is about.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

KAYE: So here's our first side bar. African American leaders have called on President Obama to speak out about Trayvon Martin's death and he has. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon. And, you know, I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we're going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Joining us now is Syracuse University professor, Dr. Boyce Watkins.

Dr. Watkins, nice to have you on the show this morning.

You and other leaders called on President Obama to speak out. Now that he has, was it enough what he said?

DR. BOYCE WATKINS, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY: I think it certainly is a good start and I applaud the president for addressing the issue when asked about it. I think that what might be more appropriate is for him to pick up the phone and make a call to Trayvon's mother. He made a call to Sandra Fluke, the woman referred to in a derogatory way by Rush Limbaugh. He's reached out when Henry Louis Gates when through his inconvenience with the police.

I think it would be appropriate to reach out to Trayvon's mother, because I think there are people that are still wondering, you know, would Trayvon's mother have gotten a call if he'd been, say, a gay kid who was killed by bullies in the suburbs, or the son of a Harvard professor, or if he were part of another constituency that some people believe that the administration takes more seriously.

So, I think a phone call to Trayvon's mother would be another very important step.

KAYE: I want to share with our viewers something that you've written in an article for "Politico." And let me quote here, "Trayvon's death is quickly becoming a national tragedy. In spite the case is so clear-cut to so many people, it still draws a line that Obama is unwilling to cross."

What line is that and why, as you say, is he unwilling to cross it?

WATKINS: Well, unfortunately, it's the line of race, which historically has been a dangerous line to cross. You see that Newt Gingrich even jumped on the president for even mentioning that Trayvon -- if he had a son, he'd look like Trayvon.

You know, so what we have is we have a country where the first black president is severely punish for making any reference to race whatsoever. But there's also a little bit of accountability on the Obama administration's part to say, look, this kid, this event is a modern day version of what happened to Emmett Till. He is a modern day version of Rosa Parks -- other African Americans who were severely punished for stepping out of their place.

So do you think that it would have been appropriate for the president to comment on Emmett Till? If so, then our president should step forward on the issue of Trayvon Martin and perhaps step forward in a way that calls for a little bit of political courage which I think is very difficult to grab on to during an election year.

KAYE: Is there more pressure on President Obama, though, because he is a black president to comment on this case?

WATKINS: Well, I think that any president would be expected to comment on a case that affected so many millions of people. Trayvon's case really was a perfect storm in terms of really highlighting what's wrong with our country as it pertains to race. You have so many issues that came up here, with racial profiling, with the injustice, there are so many millions of African Americans receive on either as victim or suspect.

The reality, the fundamental fact here that we cannot walk away from is that Trayvon Martin died because he was black. If Trayvon Martin had not been a black boy, he would not be dead today. So, we can't pretend like that's not the case, and that this is a tragedy that could have happened to anyone. No, this happened to him because he was black and we have to be clear about that.

KAYE: Dr. Boyce Watkins, great to have you on the show. Very insightful conversation. Thank you very much.

We want to tell you, this just in from Seminole State. They are making the move to withdraw George Zimmerman from enrollment there. That is just in to CNN.

Again, we haven't heard any word on George Zimmerman's whereabouts since the shooting of Trayvon Martin. But now, Seminole State moving to withdraw him from enrollment.

New video now from inside the apartment where a French gunman's 30-hour standoff ended. It is coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Getting a check now of your top stories. An attorney for George Zimmerman is now speaking out and he says race was not a factor in the shooting that claimed the life of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

Craig Sonner tells CNN that while he has not discussed the events of that night with his client, the issue likely centers around self defense.

The outrage sparked by Martin's death has prompted Zimmerman to change his address after his father said the former neighborhood watch captain received death threats.

Sonner says he has advised Zimmerman to keep a low profile, saying he believes his life is, quote, "in danger".

This new video just in to CNN goes inside the apartment where French gunman made his final stand. Mohammad Merah who was shot dead by police after 30 hours was wanted for a series of attacks that killed seven people. The French prime minister is defending police against criticism that they did not stop Merah sooner, saying authorities had no grounds to arrest him before those attacks happened.

Voters heading to the polls in Louisiana where Rick Santorum could score a big victory in today's primary. The latest data showing the former Pennsylvania senator with a commanding lead over rival Mitt Romney. Twenty delegates up for grabs, but they are allocated proportionally based on the results. Also, Louisiana is a close primary, meaning that only registered Republicans can vote.

Next up, contests in Washington, D.C., Maryland and Wisconsin.

A little chocolate with your school lunch, that's one community's health plan. Sounds pretty yummy to me. Is it working?

"SANJAY GUPTA, M.D." starts now.