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11 Colorado Counties Vote on Whether to Form 51st State; Chili-Gate
Aired November 06, 2013 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN ANCHOR: U.S. presidents are elected every four years. Members of the House of Representatives, every two years. But there is a November election day every year. In 2013, it was yesterday. In different states and cities people cast votes for governor, mayor, or different ballot measures. Those are votes on certain issues. We don`t have the results, because the polls closed after we produced this program. But we want to focus on one ballot measures in Colorado -- 11 counties in that state were voting on whether to secede, to split off and form a 51 state. If it passed, it would still have to be approved by the Colorado legislature and the U.S. Congress. No one really expected it to pass, not even the people who support it. They say the point of a vote was to send a message about how some people in rural Colorado feel disenfranchised, ignored ore marginalized because of greater focus on urban areas.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Welcome to northern Colorado. Some 60 miles outside of Denver. No hustle and bustle of city life here.
SEAN CONWAY, WELD COUNTY COMMISSIONER: I saw the struggles that my grandparents, my parents went through to create what I believe is an oasis in the desert. And I see that oasis in the desert threatened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway is a third generation Coloradan. Raised on a ranch, fighting for his rural life style and livelihood.
CONWAY: We`re tired of being ignored. We`re tired of being politically disenfranchised.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That`s the message of the 51 initiative. Fed up with new gun control laws, expended oil and gas regulations and increased renewable energy standards, recently enacted at the Colorado capital, Conway is leading the charge to form a new state. He`s wrangled support from across hundreds of acres of farmland, at least 11 rural counties. North of Denver now threatening to secede.
SETH MASKET, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF DENVER: If they don`t see a way to actually move the state back in the Republican control, they figured maybe just leaving it is the only other option.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Political science professor Seth Masket says the secession movement is an example of Republicans who are the minority in this state taking desperate measure. In Colorado, Democrats have control of the Senate, House and governor`s office.
While supporters of the referendum know there is no practical implication from the vote, they say it`s a sure way to get attention for their cause. But not everyone agrees with this strategy.
KEN BUCK, WELD COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The best strategy for dealing with political issues to the political system.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Weld County D.A. Ken Buck, a high profile Colorado Republicans is among those frustrated, but he plans to vote against the 51 state initiative.
BUCK: I think what we need to do is we need to make sure that we work doubly hard to get the folks who aren`t listening out of office and to make sure that our voices are heard.
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ANNOUNCER: See if you can I.D. me. I`m an Asian country that borders Pakistan and Myanmar. My government is considered the world`s largest democracy. I`m home to more than a billion people. And my capital is New Delhi.
I`m India, and I got my independence from the United Kingdom in 1947.
AZUZ: India launched its first satellite in 1975. It put a space craft into orbit around the Moon in 2008. It`s planning a manned space flight for 2016. But this launch on Tuesday could put India into an elite group of space explorers. The rocket is carrying an order that`s bound for Mars. It will take ten months for the mission to reach the Red planet. If it`s successful, it would be a big achievement for India and its space program. But there`s some debate about whether the investment is money well spent.
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MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The cost of this mission is $73 million. That`s a bugging by international standards. Still, many critics in India say it`s a luxury this country can`t afford.
Not when so many of its people live on less than a dollar a day. But India defends this cost: plus, it`s billion dollars annual investment in its space program. Saying that satellites are used for a number of applications: in TV broadcasting, tele-education, telemedicine, defense and meteorology.
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AZUZ: A sort of food fight is brewing in Irwindale, California. Company that makes Sriracha sauce, moved its factory there this year. To make Sriracha you have to harvest chili peppers. This company does that from September through December, in order to make a year`s worth of sauce. But the activity inside the factory is offending some neighbor`s olfactory systems.
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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Call it Chili-gate 2013. Sriracha hot sauce, it`s telltale green top and rooster on the bottle is in the hot seat. Complaints that smell emanating from its new plant in east Los Angeles is making people sick.
CELESTE GAMEZ, ALLERGIC TO PEPPERS: It smells more like pepper. It`s very like -- stinging.
MARQUEZ: Celeste Gamez, a college freshman who lives in the shadow of the plant, says the chili makes her sneeze and her throat soar. Others have complained to the city of Irwindale of headaches and difficulty breathing. The city now following injunction to force the plant to either fix the problem or shut down.
DAVID TRAN, OWNER, HUY FONG FOODS INC.: Now, it seems (INAUDIBLE) they are not friendly to me.
MARQUEZ: David Tran is the Vietnamese immigrant who turned the mix of red jalapeno peppers, garlic, salt and vinegar into a multimillion dollar global brand. He says the plant, which was chosen to be built here by the city of Irwindale cost $40 million and has state of the art air filters. Even taking the media to the roof to prove it. At fault its harvest and chili grinding time. Truckload after truckload of the hot peppers brought in over a three months period. In the last week, the air quality department has logged 11 complaints. It sent an inspector finding no smells, no violation at the plant. While Sriracha might look hotter than (inaudible), it`s nowhere near. Rating only about 2,000 points on the Scoville scale, that`s about half where tabasco sauce is and nowhere near the hottest chilis in the world. Sriracha`s jalapeno nowhere near that hot. And the new plant has brought needed jobs to the area. Even those who suffer, agree.
GAMEZ: If it`s possible to fix the problem, then that will be best because even one of my friends recently got a job there.
MARQUEZ: How hot is too hot? Now in the hands of a judge. Miguel Marquez, CNN, Los Angeles.
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ANNOUNCER: It`s time for "The Shoutout." What is the world`s most spoken language? If you think you know it, then shout it out! Is it English, Arabic, Spanish or Mandarin? You`ve got three seconds, go! Mandarin Chinese is the first language of over 845 million people, which makes it the world`s most spoken language. That`s your answer and that`s your "Shoutout."
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AZUZ: Help wanted, when is the last time you saw that sign for a job whose median salary was $43,000 a year that could pay upwards of 100,000 and wasn`t in medicine or computer engineering? Recruiters from police departments to the State Department, from Apple to the Army are looking for a few good translators. Well, translators and interpreters. There`s a difference. Interpreters specialize in spoken language, translators focus on what`s written. Both are part of a field that`s expected to grow by 42 percent between 2010 and 2020. And that doesn`t include the military, which is also looking for language gurus. Many U.S. high school students are required to study a foreign language, and many of them take Spanish. Because there are so many people who speak Spanish in the U.S., it`s not one of the most lucrative languages to know, not here anyway. But if you`re sharpening skills in Arabic, spoken throughout the Middle East and North Africa or Chinese or Portuguese, you could find your fluency in demand from coast to coast and well beyond. You could go from fluency to affluency. So what can you do about it? Become fluent. Become familiar with the culture of the language you`ve learned. Become certified by an organization like the International Association of Conference Interpreters. All these could help you become employed in one of the nation`s fastest growing occupations. Buona Fortuna, (INAUDIBLE), good luck.
It`s worldwide Wednesday, that means we`re going global for today`s "Roll Call" with stops on three continents: in North America, we`re heading to the Canadian province of Ontario to check in with the 49ers from Sacred Heart Catholic School in Sarnia. We`ll hop across the Atlantic to hit your next, Aviano, Italy, and the Saints from Aviano Middle/High School. And our last stop is in Asia on the Japanese island of Okinawa, the Kadena High School Panthers make today` roll.
The old saying goes, curiosity killed the cat. It only trapped the elk. This elk. The man who took this video says the animal got curious about this trampoline, then he got stuck inside the safety net. Other elk gathered around to kind of see what was going on. Their rescue efforts, though, were at a standstill. Eventually, the homeowner made his way to the trampoline and helped the elk get out. The animal ran off, safe and sound. And probably, with the renewed bouncing its step. At least, we assume so after all that elksitement. It wouldn`t surprise me if this video goes viral since the animal is totally Internet. We weren`t show elkactly what puns to make when we first saw the video, but we knew they`d be of this elk. We hoof to go. For CNN STUDENT NEWS, I`m Carl Azuz.
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