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Norway Drops Bid for Winter Olympics; Obama Administration`s Response to Ebola Crisis Criticized; What is Venture Capitalism?
Aired October 20, 2014 - 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: Thank you for starting your week with commercial free CNN Student News. I`m Carl Azuz. We are eight years from the 2022
Olympics, and another country is saying don`t consider us anymore for those winter games. Norway has joined Sweden, Poland, and Ukraine in dropping
out of the process to host them. Germany put its bid to a vote, and its citizens said no. Why? One reason, money. It costs billions. Host
countries have to build stadiums, hotels, competition venues, and keep them all safe. Some nations don`t think they`ll see enough return on their
investment.
Another reason could be political. Not everyone likes the way the International Olympic Committee runs its business and coordinates the
games. Norway`s withdrawal leaves only two countries, Kazakhstan and China, as possible 2022 Olympic hosts. Effects of this year`s games on
Sochi, Russia, a mixed bag.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANDA DAVIES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The scene of the most expensive Olympic Games in history, yet 8 months on and with the athletes long gone, it`s
turned from the home of gold medal winning glories to a ghost town.
There is no such thing as Olympic fever here. Many of these hotel rooms in Gorki Gorod up in the mountains weren`t even ready for the games and are
still unfinished. That`s over 1,000 hotel rooms still lying empty and waiting for one of the shortest ski seasons in Europe.
And while those businesses haven`t even got off the ground, there is many that have already gone bust.
What went wrong?
KALINA KONYOV, FORMER RESTAURANT OWNER: After Olympic Games, there was no people. There were no people at all. So we decided to close.
DAVIES: It`s a sad tale for the town at one end of the world`s most expensive railroad. The once hourly trains from the mountains now run just
a handful a day.
But at the other end, 31 miles away, on the coast, one chain with 5 hotels in Sochi, has taken advantage.
BRIAN GLEESON, MANAGER, RADISSON PARADISE, SOCHI: The number of visitors has really over our expectations, so we`re very happy with the season.
It`s been fantastic, the interest from domestic Russia post-games.
SERGEY EKSUZYAN, RESTAURANT OWNER: The people that were unhappy because of the Olympics, I don`t think that those people are very smart. Because it`s
an honor for any city, for any country to have the Olympic Games. It`s a real honor.
DAVIES: There is plenty of reasons for those on the coast to be positive, but the question now is whether the mountain region can emulate the
success. The Olympics sold itself as the games of contrasts, the challenge is to ensure its legacy won`t follow suit.
Amanda Davies, CNN, Sochi.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: The Obama administration has been criticized for its response to the Ebola virus, that it hasn`t done enough to prepare U.S. hospitals or health
care workers to deal with the disease. It announced some changes over the weekend. One, President Obama`s appointing an Ebola response coordinator.
Ron Klain will oversee efforts to prevent the spread of Ebola in the U.S. He is the former chief of staff of two vice presidents, but some Republican
lawmakers say the president should have chosen someone with a medical background.
Two, the U.S. military is assembling a 30-person quick strike team. Five doctors, 20 nurses, and five trainers who can quickly get direct treatment
to potential Ebola patients in the U.S. Some people are calling for the government to ban travel from Ebola-stricken countries. The administration
says that wouldn`t eliminate the threat.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TEXAS: We`ve got upwards of 150 people a day coming from countries with live, active Ebola outbreaks. For over two weeks, I`ve been
calling on the administration to take the common sense stand of suspending commercial air travel out of these countries until we get the air travel
under control.
DR. THOMAS FRIEDEN, CDC DIRECTOR: Right now, we know who`s coming in. If we try to eliminate travel, the possibility that some will travel over
land, will come from other places. We won`t be able to check them for fever when they leave, we won`t be able to check them for fever when they arrive.
We won`t be able, as we do currently, to take a detailed history to see if they were exposed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where did Ebola come from? It`s still a bit of a mystery, but here is what we know. The virus is named after the Ebola
River in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly Zaire. That`s where one of the first two human outbreaks happened in 1976. The other was in
what`s now South Sudan. Virus hunter Peter Piot discovered the disease. After a Belgian nun fell ill, her blood samples were sent to his lab. He
tested it for yellow fever. That test came back negative. This disease was far deadlier than yellow fever. Rats tested died one after another
after another.
Piot says under a microscope, Ebola most resembled Marburg virus, a virus also from Africa. It was discovered when it killed several lab workers in
Marburg, Germany in 1967. But this wasn`t the same. Today we now know there are at least five different strands of Ebola, all named after their
areas of origin. Bundibugyo, which is in Uganda; Sudan; Zaire; Ivory Coast and Reston.
Genetic research shows the virus could be millions of years old. The exact origin of the virus isn`t known, but it`s believed to be carried most often
by bats.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Wonder who`s watching today. It`s time for the CNN Student News roll call. We`ve got some Warriors online in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Thanks
for starting your week with us at Ruidoso Middle School. Jumping up to North Dakota with the Hi-Liners. They`re watching from Valley City High
School in Valley City. And then it`s south to Knoxville, Tennessee with the Bulldogs. Bearden High School rounds out today`s roll.
After dramatic drops last week, the U.S. stock market rallied Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 significant stocks climbed 263 points
before the weekend. The market as a whole is still down, more than 6 percent for the past month. That`s why the media keep describing it as a
rollercoaster. Investors who don`t mind that, those willing to take big risks hoping for bigger rewards, might look beyond stocks, to something
called venture capital.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There is a lot of talk these days about startups springing up in Silicon Valley and New York and everywhere
in between, but before a startup can get started, it needs money. That`s where venture capital or VC comes in. So what is it? Venture capital is a
high risk investment. A brave investor looking for a big profit gives money to a cash hungry young company in exchange for a piece of that
business. Their plan - sell that stake at a huge profit once the company starts making money.
Now, that might not sound much different than investing in stocks which are tiny pieces of huge companies. But here`s the main difference. Unless
something goes really, really wrong, stocks rarely drop to zero. But that happens all the time in venture capital.
According to one study from Harvard, three out of four venture capital bets don`t return any money to investors.
Venture capitalists know those odds. They expect the fourth winning bet to pay off big time. Enough to make up for the first three that went nowhere.
So, venture capitalists have to have a higher appetite for risk and a lot of patience. You often hear about them, when they strike goal like early
backers of Facebook and Twitter, but those are the exceptions. And in the end, the promise of finding the next Facebook is just too tempting to pass
up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AZUZ: Today`s character study starts with the patella tendon. It`s attached to your knee cap. And as Danielle LeNoue got near the finish line
of a recent cross country race, her patella tendon popped. She fell down in so much pain that she couldn`t walk, let alone finish the race. But
Melany Bailey, another runner decided they just have to finish together. Now, here`s the kicker: Melanie was on the other team.
DANIELLE LENOUE, FARGO SOUTH HIGH SCHOOL: I stopped because I couldn`t go any further and this girl comes up and she grabs my arm and she said, here
come on, and we - she just started walking and - I couldn`t walk at all, and she was like "This is not working, and so she said here, hop on my
back. And she bent down, picked me up, she`s like half my size.
MELANIE BAILEY: All I could think about was that she was in a lot of pain and I wanted to help her. Honestly, I love the way I ended it. It was a
really good way to end my cross-country season.
LENOUE: I mean how many people (INAUDIBLE) past me, but she decided she was going to stop.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
AZUZ: Before we go, we are scaling new heights on CNN STUDENT NEWS. The Gateway arch in St. Louis, Missouri, arcs 630 feet into the sky. Would you
want to clean it? That hasn`t been done since it was finished in 1965, and though the stains and corrosion aren`t a threat to the stalwart steel
structure. That ain`t pretty. So officials are inspecting it to decide how to spruce it up. Some folks are hoping that could be done in time for
the arch`s 50th birthday. That would be the icing on the cake. Of course, they`d have to have a concrete plan in place, an overarching blueprint for
success, and nerves of steel to complete it. But getting it done could save a lot of Missouri (ph). I`m Carl Azuz for CNN Student News.
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