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What Does Partial in Partial Government Shutdown Mean?; How Phenotyping is Changing the Criminal Justice Field; CNN`s Young Wonder; Vending Machine That Makes Bread
Aired January 08, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CARL AZUZ, CNN 10 ANCHOR: It is the 8th day of 2019 and we`re happy you`re spending 10 minutes of it with us. I`m Carl Azuz at the CNN Center. The
border between the United States and Mexico has been getting a lot of attention lately and U.S. President Donald Trump is planning to visit the
area again on Thursday. He wants Congress to approve $5.6 billion in funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The House of
Representatives approved that money in December. The Senate did not.
And because Congress and the president couldn`t agree on funding for the wall as part of a bigger funding package for the Federal government, a
partial government shutdown began on December 22nd. We explained and explored this issue last Friday. You can find our January 4th show in the
archive`s section at cnn10.com. By partial shutdown, we mean that about 25 percent of the government is closed. It includes 800,000 Federal
employees, about half of them won`t be paid until the government reopens.
The other half are forced to take time off without pay. Republicans and Democrats are pretty well dug in on their positions concerning the wall.
Most Republicans want the funding approved so it can be built. Most Democrats want the funding denied so it can`t be built. The president and
lawmakers have had several meetings to discuss the issue but as of Monday night, there`d been no break through. So without a government funding plan
in place, the shutdown continues. There`ve been more than 20 partial shutdowns since 1976. The longest lasted 21 days from 1995 to 1996.
10 Second Trivia. In the late 1800`s, Swiss chemist Friedrich Miescher became the first scientist to identify what? Magnetism, DNA,
thermodynamics, or X-rays. Decades before Watson and Crick were at work, Miescher was the first to identify what would become known as
deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA.
For decades, DNA has been used in criminal justice to identify suspects or clear people who`ve been falsely accused. Now, a type of technology called
DNA phenotyping could take crime scene analysis to another level. In DNA profiling, which investigators have used for years, they try to match DNA
from a crime scene to records they already have in their system. With the new technology, genetic information doesn`t need to be matched of compared.
It uses the DNA on its own to predict what someone could look like. The process isn`t cheap and there are privacy concerns about it. If you`re
listed in ancestory.com for instance, you`re relationship to a suspect could be discovered. But this is changing the way some investigations are
carried out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The technology is called DNA phenotyping, developed by Parabon NanoLabs. From just a small sample of DNA, they can create a
composite image of what someone could look like.
What kind of impact do you think that this technology will have on forensics long term?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here we have another avenue we can explore if we run into dead ends along the way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We`re essentially bringing in an entirely new ways to analyze forensic DNA. Traditional forensic DNA analysis looks just at
chemist DNA from a crime scene being matched to a suspect we`ve already identified or to a database but if you don`t find a match, it couldn`t tell
you anything else. We can generate leads just from the DNA that`s (inaudible) at a crime scene.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Parabon started to offer forensic services to law enforcement in 2015. Since then, they`ve assisted in over 40 cases.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of the cases we work it - - it turns out that they had, you know, some information that was leading them in a particular
direction and our information completely redirects. You - - you know, you`re not looking for a person of that description you`re looking for a
person that`s very different description. And once they pivot and start going down that road, they can find that person.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our DNA carries a specific instruction set for an individual`s physical characteristics. With only a small sample, Parabon
can pull from 10`s of thousands of genetic variants to predict what a person looks like.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So basically we`re predicting where the face falls on different facial dimensions in what we call face space. And so this all
just comes out of math that we do on face data and as the numbers change, it`s showing different possible faces.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So there`s a wide variety of possible faces that could be predicted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That looks like you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is me. This may not be my drivers license image but if I were - -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s pretty close.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The service costs about $3,000 but the results can mean authorities spend less time and manpower to solve a case. The
composites do have limitations though. For instance, DNA doesn`t reveal a person`s age. So to compensate, Parabon estimates what the person would
look like at present day based on how long ago the crime was committed and it is simply a guide. The phenotype alone cannot lead to a conviction.
It`s kind of stuff from a sci-fi movie. You know what I mean?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The phenotyping is definitely very sci-fi.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are there any like privacy concerns or what are the moral implications of all of this?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well with DNA phenotyping, we`re only predicting things that the person makes public everyday when they go outside. You
know, their eye color, their hair color, we`re not looking at any medical information or anything like that. And then with genetic genealogy, all
the research that we do is public information.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Along with phenotyping, genetic genealogy is being used as another tool Parabon and law enforcement agencies are using to
catch criminals and close cold cases. By searching a public data base of DNA, genealogists can work backwards in a family tree narrowing the search
for a suspect.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Going forward, the number of cold cases will decrease and also active cases can potentially be solved more quickly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Before they even become cold cases.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly. Cases won`t have to go cold.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: An 11 year old named Liam Hannon is making headlines in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A couple years ago he decided that instead of
summer camp he`d find another way to stay busy. That led to his idea to donate lunches to the homeless in his community and that led to collecting
school supplies and toys for homeless children. And all of this is why Liam is one of CNN`s Young Wonders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LIAM HANNON: I think about how tough it is for someone to be homeless. Everyone should have a place to live. Helping people is important to me
because people just need a little kindness in their life. My name is Liam Hannon, (inaudible) Liam`s mission of love is to give food to people
experiencing homelessness.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Usually when people think about Cambridge they think about Harvard and MIT and expensive real estate. But what they don`t think
about is that we have over 500 homeless people on our streets every night.
HANNON: I was really scared at first. I thought that people might be mean to me but once I gave the first lunch out I realized that mostly everyone
was really nice. When I gave someone a lunch, their face lit up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From there, things just grew. The next week we give 50 lunches and then we did 60 and 70. It was very quick that people were into
helping.
HANNON: Since July 2017, we`ve made 2,000 or more lunches.
Hey guys, I just wanted to say Hi and that on Sunday I am passing out lunches. So if you guys want to come and help that would be awesome. So
see you guys later. Bye.
HANNON: Who wants to make sandwiches? OK. A lot of my friends have actually come and helped.
Do you want to core apples and then put them into sandwich bags?
Decorating the bags and making the lunches I know they`re going to go to someone that needs it.
Who can make more slices of their item first? 3-2-1.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did a turkey drive together. He`s really expanded from just the lunches and doing so much more.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Liam is going to change the world.
HANNON: I`m definitely proud that I`ve come all this way to make that many lunches. You just have to start small, get help from friends and do
something that you love.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARL AZUZ: Freshly baked bread and vending machine. Two things that don`t sound like they go together. But they could with the "Bread Bot". It`s a
vending machine that can do all the steps to turn dry ingredients into fresh bread in about an hour and a half. It`s makers estimate that each
"Bread Bot" would retail at about $100,000. It`d be leased to grocery stores and the company says the machine would increase their profits and
help the environment.
Could lead to confusion when you brought it home though. Hey is that store bought? Yeah, it`s "Bread Brought". I know it`s bread "bot" is it from
the store? Yeah, it`s store "bot" "Bread Bot". But how is it "bread bot" if it`s store "bot" at the store I bought "bread bot". What do you mean
that it`s "bread bot"? Look, just try it. It saved me some bread. I mean it saved me some dough. I mean, ahhh. I`m Carl Azuz for CNN.
END
