tv CNN Newsroom CNN March 31, 2010 1:00pm-3:00pm EDT
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car that's going to come out later this year. as for what this means for gm, we will see. but we did ask bob lutz about the future of gm, if he foresees any more big layoffs for the compa company. he says as long as the company continues to improve, they will not. good news for those employees. you can see more on that interview and the test drive for the volt right here on cnnmoney.com. "cnn newsroom" continues right now with our chief business correspondent ali velshi. >> tony, good to be back in the same room with you. i'm ali velshi. i'll be with you for the next two hours. for this two hours every day as i try to breakdown the stories and make them understandable to you in a way that you can use them, allows you to make better decisions about your taxes, about your health care or your security, and, boy, about your oil prices. we just heard poppy interviewing someone talking about $4 or $5 a gallon. this is an entirely new world that we're looking at right now. here's what i've got on the run
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down. new hour and new run down. drill, baby, drill. you've heard it before but not from democrats. now the biggest democrat of them all, president obama, says that he is wants more drilling of oil. this has been a hugely contentious issue in the past. we'll break down what it means for you and for the price of gasoline and, importantly, for your environment. by the way, i'm going to roll out my barrel. also on the run down, the flooding in the northeast is one for the history books. flood weary residents are pray that history doesn't repeat itself. how bad is it? people are ready to throw down their keys and walk away from their homes. we're going to take you to rhode island. plus, if you're like me, you're busy. the last thing you want to do are your taxes. it's okay. file for an extension. but you can't put off paying your bill. if you file, file fast. i'll tell wow what you need to do. i'll be paying particularly close attention. let's talk about the weather. this is a big deal in the northeast as chad always says, i follow the weather around.
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that's where i was. i was in the northeast in new york. that rain was nuts. it was coming down and coming down. one of the things i'd like to point out is that rhode island is, in fact, not an island most period of time but it's certainly looking like parts of it could be. >> i used to visit a space down by -- two different communities from newport because there's the money and here's the fun people that don't have any money. but then -- that was an island. so providence and krcranston an now warrick. that's not the only state, massachusetts and vermont and maine. we just have pictures now from rhode island. in fact, some of them are, in fact, sad. places have flooded. some people had no flood insurance because they're in the floodplain. when you get 16 inches of rainfall in just 30 days, you are going to get flooding. and warrick, 8.89 i think
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they're up to now, something like that, in just 48 hours. that was a classic car. that's going to take some work to put that back. >> the governor of rhode island was saying nobody has seen this before. talking about their software for projecting what could happen, this exceeds even that. >> right. >> now, the good news is this ends at some point. >> it's over now. but the bubble of water, you know, if you take rainfall and you spread it up here, just because it stopped today doesn't mean the water is going down because it has to go down into the rivers. that's where the bubble of water is. still going to take time. these rivers are still rising even though the rain has stopped. >> good weather coming into the northeast. >> sunny for the next five days. you have that piece of tape of that guy talking about how -- i don't know if we're going to do it now or at the 20. let's play it.
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>> how quickly did the water come up? >> 5:00 is when it really -- because i had to shut down one of the pumps. i was running on a generator, so, you know, then the fire department told me to shut the generator off because i had it in the garage. i had the doors open and everything. that's when i lost everything, once i shut the pumps off. my furniture is underwater, high water. everything. >> it was getting out of his house. he had the pumps running and the fire department said, no, man, it's too dangerous. you can't this electricity. >> always a trick when you have pumps running when it floods. people have to keep conscious of that. the pumps can handle a certain amount of water but there's a wire and it's plugged in. you're in danger of getting electrocuting yourself. thanks very much. we'll check in with you. >> see you in 20. all right, here's another story we've been talking about. you probably heard already that president obama has said that he wants to now authorize drilling in areas of country where we
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don't drill offshore. you may not know this but not everywhere can you drill offshore. you've seen this before. this is my old oil barrel. i usually use this to put the price of oil on. last night oil settled at $82.37. this is important to remember because we are coming out of a recession. we're probably out of the recession. but the reality is we're still in tough economic times where people are pulling back a little. and if in a time -- in this economy if we're running above $80 a barrel that's something worth thinking about. do you know how many of these we use every day? every year we use more than 7 billion, with a "b," 7 billion barrels of oil. president obama's initiative is to open vast knew areas of the atlantic and parts of the gulf coast, the gull of mexico to more oil drilling. listen to the president, first of all. >> for decades we've talked about how our dependence on foreign oil threatens our
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economy. yet our will to act rises and falls with the price of a barrel of oil. when gas gets expensive at the pump, suddenly everybody is an energy expert. and when it goes back down, everybody is back to their old habits. for decades we talked about the threat to future generations posed by our current system of energy. even as we can see the mounting evidence of climate change from the arctic circle to the gulf coast. and, this is particularly relevant to all of you who are serving in uniform. for decades we talked about the risks to our security created by a dependence on foreign oil. but that dependence has actually grown, year after year after year after year. >> now, let me tell you a little bit about what's proposed. the areas in this sort of yellow color are areas we already drill for oil in. you're familiar with the gulf of mexico. generally the western gulf of mexico. there's an area off the atlantic coast that is approved to exploration drilling but it
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hasn't taken place yet. now, the red areas are those areas that the president is proposing for more oil drilling. this is the northwest. it's just off the northern tip of delaware, down to central florida, which will be opened up for exploration. now, that means that the interior department which controls all of this offshore land, of all the offshore waters, will have toxplore and study to see what's viable. the first not possible until 2012, except in this area off the coast of virginia which is already been approved for work. now, i want to show you. this is alaska. we moved it over here for a minute. this area over here is being preserved because of fisheries and because of whales. this area will be preserved. but the north part of alaska will be opened up to more drilling. now, obviously a lot of people are concerned about what this does for tourism. this area around the gulf and off the east coast, you won't be able to put an oil rig in more
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than 125 miles or closer to 125 miles to shore because that way nobody can see it from shore. there are benefits and disadvantages. people who agree with it and people who don't agree with it. we're going to look at those. the richest area that is going to be opened is here though in the eastern gulf of mexico. about 3 1/2 billion barrels of reserves are probably in that area. now, there are two parts to the president's announcements. one is increasing oil production, domestic oil production. we reduce our dependence on oil from elsewhere in the world. the other one is conservation. here's what the president is also pro poeszing. increased use of biofuels in military vehicles. he made this announcement at a military base. also, purchasing 5,000 hybrid vehicles for military fleet. and increasing fuel-efficiency standards for new cars. we're going to hear more about this tomorrow. you probably saw poppy harlow at the chevy auto show looking at the volt and nissan leaf
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electric cars. two sides to the issues. conservation and more oil drilling. okay. that's just the plan. this isn't even the politics. we're going to take a break. when we come back on the other side, mark preston is going to join me to talk about the politics of this. i'll also be joined by michael brune, he doesn't love this idea. he'll tell us why.
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slippery slope for politics. if you support it constituents sound the alarm about environmental impact. if you oppose it you get complaints about sky high gas prices. who can forget those calls to drill, baby drill, from the 2008 presidential election. we're hearing echo of that. let's get perspective on the energy debate. i'm here with mark preston, cnn
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political editor. we have traveled across the country at a time when gas prices were going up and hearing people's frustrations. michael brune from the sierra club in san francisco. michael, thank you for being with us. mark, first of all, drill, baby drill was a refrain uttered by republicans to say allow offshore drilling to take place. it was something president bush wanted to do. it was not a democratic platform at all. >> it was made famous by a woman from alaska, of all places, sarah palin. if you remember, drill, baby drill. democrats were very much against that, ali, because environmental concerns. we'll hear more about that. president obama during the campaign didn't say he was not opposed to drilling and of course here we are today. >> this is important. it's not a complete turn for president obama. >> not a complete turn but i'm sure the environmental community is not happy. >> let's hear from them. sierra club director michael
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brune. you already put out a statement. you don't think this is the answer for our energy needs. >> no. we've had this debate for years, of course. it's really more of the same. we don't think that expanded oil drilling actually solves the problem. what it does, in fact, do is it perpetuates our dependence on dirty energy. if we want to build the clean energy economy of tomorrow, we need to stop subsidizing the oil industry today. >> president obama is trying to walk a line here. on one side he is saying that we need to increase domestic energy production, whether that's oil or anything else. on the other side, he is agreeing with you, michael, that we've got to bring down our greenhouse gas emissions which means using less fossil fuel. generally speaking this administration does seem to support that view. >> yeah, it's true. there's a lot that the obama administration is doing that we strongly support. the news that we'll hear tomorrow about increased fuel efficiency in vehicle ace cross
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the country will save more than -- close to 2 billion barrels of oil over the life of the agreement. there's a lot of other things that the administration is doing that it announced today in terms of buying more hybrid vehicles. the reason why we're disappointed is because the announcement about expanded oil drilling is a give away to the oil industry, and the cost is going to be born by people who live on our coasts and those who want us to break our dependents on dirty energy. >> here's the problem, michael. and mark is going to show us this. new polling. no surprise that in a new cnn opinion research poll people think the any is more important than the environment. that's not the part that surprises me. the part that surprises me is when you drill down further into this polling. tell us what the rest of it says. >> sure. this is one thing the president has going in his favor. 51% believe the economy is the number one issue. we've been talking about it for years now. we're in the tank. if you drill down and you look at what is the most important
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vote to voters, most important issue come november, look at the economy. 43%. energy and the environment is only at 2%. so it would seem that president obama has the american public on his side. >> michael, this is a problem you guys face all the time, isn't it? when times get tough, everybody who thought they wanted to be green realizes it may be a little more expensive or may cost them somewhere else. it looks like support for the idea is actually losing ground as opposed to gaining ground. >> well, no. actually that's not the problem. there's no conflict here between the vimpltenvironment and the e. >> surely there is. i'm not taking issue with what you're saying. look at the poll. 43% think economy is the issue. 2% think energy and the environment is the issue. i'm not misunderstanding you but clearly somebody else. >> here's my point. to stimulate the economy, you just had bob lutz on the show. to stimulate the economy and
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save taxpayers money, promote efficiency and conservation. that is the single best thing we can do when we're talking about the oil industry, to stimulate the economy. giveaways to an industry that is the most profitable industry in the mhistory of the world doesnt help the economy. forcing drivers to pay more money at the gas pump doesn't help the economy. the best thing we can do is promote efficiency and increase vehicle standards. >> again no, disagreement except that why wouldn't drilling for more oil bring down the price of gasoline? it's a supply and demand issue. if there's more oil out there, gas should be cheaper. doesn't that argument -- what's to say the drilling for more oil is going to say people will pay more? >> it hasn't worked yet. oil prices continue to increase even as we continue to explore for more oil. there's not that much oil that can be found off of our coasts. it will take too long to bring to market to have any impacts on oil prices five, ten, 15 years
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from now. >> and there are people who -- michael, your view is reflected by a lot of people. it's not that much more oil. mark, what does this matter then? it's really not that big a deal. the oil companies will make money on the fringes, as michael said, and maybe we'll get more gas and bring the price of oil down. what does the president get by doing this? >> he's got to appeal not only to his business, environmentalists, but also to dependents. the idea is that the country is made up more of the people who voted for him and there's that independent block. he's making this an issue on national security. he held it. he gave the announcement at an air force base today. >> mean that if we produce more oil that we use here in the united states. the united states is 5% of the world's population and uses a quarter of the world's oil. if we produce more of it here, we're less dependent on countries that are not friendly to the united states. >> exactly. and at the same time, he's talking about the economy. he says this will help create jobs. all throughout his speech today, what did we hear him talk about? clean energy initiatives as well. he thinks this is a dual plan.
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environmentalists are not going to be happy about it. it seems like he needs to thread the needle and take a lot of hits along the way. >> michael, thank you for being with us and letting us know a bit about what the sierra club feels. michael brune is the executive director of the sierra club joining us from san francisco. mark preston is our cnn political editor. always good to see you. there's one key field out there expected to drive job creation over the next decade. it may not come as a surprise to you but christine, as she always does, has really, can i say drill down again, because i've been saying it about five times already. he's going to tell you exactly where the jobs are, more importantly, what those jobs pay, right after the break.
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if you don't know what area is going to be the biggest growth area for jobs in this economy or what has been the biggest area for jobs in this area i'm not speaking to you anymore because i must have been talking about this for the last two years. finally, where we're in a position to grow jobs. we're going to get a jobs report on friday and a lot of people think it's going to be good compared to what we've seen. christine romance, my co-host, has decided to drill down deeper, my god, how many times am i going to say that, drill down. >> if it works, ali, keep doing it. >> decide to uncover and look into health care which has really been the prize winner in jobs for the last few years. >> because you have heard me say
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also for a few years, yes, we're creating a lot of jobs in health care. be careful a lot are low skill, low-paying jobs that will never replace the jobs that were the latter middle class americans. let's look at health care where there are jobs. we have this sort of scatter image to show you. if you look at this one, this big sphere on the right, this bigger the sphere, that means the more people in that category, and the higher it is on this scale, ali, the more money. look, pharmacist -- >> i just want to show you this. i want to look -- just so the folks know what you're talking about. no need to look at me, mark. just see my hand. basically, the higher you go up the better the pay. and the further you go out, the more jobs available. take it from there. you were referring to this sphere here, right, christine? >> look at that sphere, registered nurses. you have a lot of registered nurses. these are people who need at least an associates degree, maybe more. there's training involved here. sometimes hospitals even pay for
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more training and the like and you can move up the ladder. nursing aides, orderlies and attendants. >> lower left. lower paying. >> that's the brownish. that's right. and then look, pharmacy techs, a lot of these over here don't necessarily need a whole lot of schooling. right. and we're growing a lot of these jobs. roll cal-tech in additions. fewer jobs but still growth and there are better pay. now, growth is going to be. that's my next screen, ali, to walk you through. we are expected to add half a million more nurses over next ten years. home health aides, almost half a million there. next two categories, home health aides and home care aides, 800,000 new jobs over the next few years. >> you pointed out, not great-paying jobs but you're in a field and if you are dedicated to advancement, you might be able to use those to get to a better paying job.
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>> one of the criticisms is those are not really ladder jobs. those are jobs that are a destination for a lot of people that are not a ladder to the next thing. you have to be clever and figure out a way to make them a ladder because they don't pay that much money. registered nurses, median pay, so that's half make more, half make less. that's about $62,450. ali, if you do more training than that you can make a lot of money as a registered nurse. icu nurses, they're a special -- they're special kinds of categories of nurse that makes six figures and above routinely. home health aides, though, 20 grand. home care aides, 19 grand. nursing aides, $23,000. physicians an surgeons, $193,000. but you're going to have an awful lot of student loan on that one, too. my point here is that depending on where you are in health care, there are going to be different opportunities and different pay. and that's what's pretty interesting here. there's a lot of different -- there's a lot of growth in
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health care, but be careful. many of these jobs are not replacing the manufacturing jobs that were so good for the tax base, remember. so good for the school system. look at a manufacturing worker and how much money that person could move through an economy to build the schools and build the inf infrastructure and $19,000 home health aide and there's a big difference there. >> we're going to do more of this this weekend. christine is my co-host. watch it saturday at 1:00 p.m. eastern and sundays at 3:00 p.m. eastern. thanks, christine. checking the top store is are we're following. officials at a massachusetts high school say they disciplined and removed several more students in the phoebe prince case. the 15-year-old committed suicide after being bullying on months on end. prosecutors announced charges against nine students at the school, trial under way for five americans accused of plotting jihad in pakistan. the men are accused of planning attacks. the so-called dc5 face life
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sentences if convicted. the government wants to go full-sfeed hahead on distracted driving. they want to make permanent a now interim ban on texting. a rainy round two for the northeast. river are overflowing. banks and neighborhoods evacuated. chad is on the case. more on the flooding when we come back.
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all right. we are going to be -- a lot of us take -- even i take vitamins to stay healthy. what if they made you unhealthy. what if vitamins gave you cancer? a new study finds that older women taking multi-vitamins may actually be more likely to get cancer down the road. dr. sanjay gupta has this for us. >> no doubt this is a scary headline. i can tell you right off the bat that a few years ago there was a
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study that came out that showed almost the opposite of this that, in fact, multi-vitamins did not seem to have an association with cancer. what we are talking about here is an association as opposed to a cause and effect. this large study from sweden finding 19% increased likelihood of developing breast cancer and n. women who took multi-vitamins. this was over a ten-year period. again, no cause and effect. i repeat that because when talking about associations it's simply saying when they looked at all the women who dwoepd breast cancer out of this group and compared to women who did not certain features began to emerge. we talked to researchers about this. they say, look, there is -- it's plausible, biologically plausible there is something in a multi-vitamin that could increase likelihood of developing cancer. what exactly that is, who are the women that are most likely effected, and is it a true cause and effect sort of thing. those are questions i still don't know the answer to. sort of looking at
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multi-vitamins globally though. there's good evidence that not everyone can take multi-vitamin probably needs one. you have people who certainly should be taking them. seniors, pregnant, people who have g.i. disorder, people on a restricted diet. but for the vast majority of people simply getting a good diet is probably going to be all they need. in fact, trying to get the good stuff, if you will, out of food and putting it into a pill form is a more daunting task than i think a lot of people realize. try and eat the right diet. also, know what your goals are as to why you're taking a multi-vitamin. there have been studies that show that multi-vitamins ward off chronic difficult diseases but they can help eliminate the gaps that we have from time to time in our diet. stand by on this sort of association between multi-vitamins and breast cancer, a lot more work being done on this particular area in the months and years to come. we'll bring it to you. back to you for now. >> sanjay's always got good information. catch him on weekend mornings.
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let's take it over to chad right now. flooding in the northeast. even though the rain has stopped, the rivers aren't done. chad? >> it's like the mississippi. wide as it floods, down into new orleans when the rain was in north dakota. eventually all the rain has to go where it's going. i get i-report questions all the time. i tell people to go there. they go, i don't get it. what are you talking about? let me run you through this. cnn.com i-reporter, here's how i want you to go lieu the page. click on the word assignments. assignments will then give you an idea of what we're looking for and what they're looking for. looking for april fool's jokes, looking for treasured letters, make your case america, john mccain. i'm a weather guy, i look for the severe weather tab. i click the severe weather tab and open up a plethora of people who have sent this things about severe weather, whether it's clinton, mass, flooding, rhode
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island flooding. click on, on cnn, why is that important? those have been vetted or approved. we have looked through these. we have called the people. we know that these are real pictures from the real flood happening now and not a flood that happened in 1996 that people are trying to scam us with. so look at those. those are the real ones. >> good advice. chad myers staying on top of the flooding in the northeast. check in with you very shortly. you've got two weeks and two days until your taxes are due. but what if you know now that you're just not going to make the deadline? roni deutch, the tax lady, has the answers.
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your taxes are due in 16 days. that's two weeks and two days. if you're not going to make it you need to file for an extension. an extension to file, by the way, is not an extension of the time you have to pay. you will still owe the money that you owe and if you don't pay the money you will owe interest and you may be subject to a late payment penalty. let's talk about this. this is important because if you -- it's now crunch time. if you don't think you're going to make it you need to think about your options. roni deutch is the tax lady. she joins me now from new york. it's just in new york. i can't believe i missed you. good to see you. roni, you have two weeks to go. get act to the and find your forms and get it done or say i'm
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going to run into trouble. what do i need to think about if i need an extension? >> as you point out, ali, it is crunch time. crunch times mean you have an important decision to make. are you prepared to file that return on april 15th, which you and i know millions of people and business owners will be unprepared this april 15th. i say don't panic. good news. you absolutely, as you point out, are entitled to a six-month extension to file by merely filing form 4868. as you pointed out, which is so important that most taxpayers are confused about you still owe the money to the irs. and here's exactly what they're going to assess against you. that failure to pay on time penalty is 0.5% per month and it is not capped. we also know that the irs will charge interest at the going federal rate, which is anywhere between 3% to 4% right now. the reality is, if you are unprepared, do not file that tax return and get that extension.
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if you do not get an extension, i have bad news for you. you will be subject to a 5% per month penalty capped out at 25%. very important advice for taxpayers to know. >> if i'm fiing but i think i may owe taxes. to some degree i've got to go through the calculation any way to figure out if i get a refund. if you know you owe, how do you estimate how much you pay? >> yeah, first of all, what we're going to see this year is different than years past because of the recession, the job losses and all the businesses that have closed. you and i know that millions of taxpayers are going to owe the irs and they're going to have a decision. the decision is simple. make sure that you file your tax return or an extension even if you cannot afford to pay. here's the good news. the irs has three outstanding programs available to you. right? the offer and compromise program, currently not cleblt i believe, and installment agreement. the bottom line is, even if you
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owe the irs, please do not worry. you can get on the phone with the irs. you can work out a reasonable payment plan. but none of those rules apply to you. none of those great programs apply, ali, unless you file that tax return or an extension. >> all right. i've asked for some questions on facebook. i've got a great one for you. when we come back with roni we're going to answer that question. it's from pamela. let's bring it up. pamela says, if you didn't have taxes withheld from your unemployment, how badly will you get hit? roni, stay there.
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roni deutch is a tax lady. she's the author to "the tax guide to beating the irs." i have a question from pamela on facebook. you can always send me questions on facebook. it's the official ali velshi page. pamela says if you didn't have taxes withheld from your unemployment, how badly will you get hit? your tax rest not typically deducted from your unemployment checks. tell me about this. >> pamela, you are like millions of americans who have received unemployment compensation. you received a 1099-g from the government telling you exactly what you received. but here's what they forgot to tell you. you have to pay taxes on that money. we certainly know the first $2400 is not taxable, so that's going to save you depending on what you state you live in, about $800. here's the bad news, ali. do you realize how many unemployed people are going to get a tax bill from the irs?
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because they did not put money aside to pay that tax liability. again, pamela, i say please don't worry. you absolutely can work out an installment agreement with the irs. all you have to do is call them. explain to them the reality of your situation. hey, i'm unemployed. i cannot afford to pay my tax liability and i'm 100% certain that they will work with you on a payment arrangement on whatever it is you owe. >> you pointed this out the last time we spoke. you talked about the different options that you have. and you said to me that even in an audit, if you get audited, the irs is not all that concerned about mistakes that you make. and they might bill you for it but generally speaking it's not that serious. they do take it very seriously if you are negligent or you disregard the rules and regulations. the there's a distinction that the irs makes. >> let's bring up an easy fact that people can understand. what if you have no children and yet you claim the earned income tax credit? or you don't buy a home but you claim the homeowners buyer
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credit. by point to you is simple, if you intentionally abuse the internal revenue service or the lax laws in front of you, you bet, ali, they're going to come after you with a negligent penalty that could be as much as 20%. there's a big difference between intentionally making a mistake on the return or a mathematical error. the critical issue is only claim those deductions or credits that are relevant to you or the irs, when they audit you, could think you intentionally tried to defraud the government, which now we're talking not only a negligent penalty, we're also talking about a criminal matter. >> don't fool out around with that. do research. if you make a mistake, that's one thing but don't try and cheat the system. you're going to come on a lot between now and tax day to help us out. roni deutch is a tax attorney, author of "the tax lady's guide to beating the irs." let me check in on top stories here. as you saw earlier, president obama is announcing plans to open vast areas of u.s. coastal
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areas to oil and natural gas drilling including long stretches of the east coast, eastern gulf of mexico and the north coast of alaska. the aim is to help end dependency on foreign oil. if voicing their anger, coastal residents and environmentalists. in road yhode island, the o signed a disaster of declaration for the state. emergencies have been declared in massachusetts and connecticut. hundreds of people have been forced from their homes. three days of record breaking rains have tapered to a drizzle now. forecasters warn the worst of the flooding is yet to come. in houston, barbara bush was released from the hospital today. she was there for four days to have a series of tests. the statement says the 84-year-old bush may have surfed a mild relapse of a thyroid condition. all right. when come back, we're going to continue our conversation about education, race to the top. that's the money that the federal government gives to schools, school districts, and school boards for increasing
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grants. the competition rewards states that are leading the way in education reform in these four key areas. adopting stand dards that prepare students to succeed in college and the workplace. measuring or creating a system that measures student growth and reports to teachers and principals on how to improve instruction. recruiting an rewarding effective teachers and principals. and key here is turning around their lowest performing schools. 40 states and the district of columbia submitted applications for the first phase of the grants. delaware and tennessee came in first. delaware will receive about $100 million. tennessee will get $500 million to put their reform plans into effect over the next four years. so what is the secret to their success? joining me now, tennessee education commissioner tim webb and delaware governor. thank you for being with us. governor, let's start with you in delaware. congratulations. tell me, this is something that has been vexing states, school districts, schools across the
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country. it is a heated discussion with all sorts of people pointing fingers at everyone else. teachers pointing at boards and parents pointing fingers at teachers. they say they don't have enough to eat or don't speak english. what have you done in delaware to overcome this? >> well, the real key thing is we had the right people at the table. we started a process over the summer. we had more than 100 stake holders sit down every single day for more than a month, and in the end we had every single school superintendent, every school board, every head of a charter school, and, importantly, we had every affiliate of our teachers union sign on to a bold plan. and as we said at the interview in delaware, you don't have to choose between bold and consensus, in delaware you get both. >> how did you get past the first stage, though? we find in some areas of the country you can not get past the first stage of one of the constituent groups blaming another and the other one saying it's not our fault? how did you get the teachers and the charter schools and the
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boards and the districts all to agree to things? >> well, we have the advantage in delaware. we've got 15 years -- a legacy of 15 years of academic innovation to build on, starting back in the mid-'90s. and all of these groups have worked together over these 15 years. that's not to say we don't have differences from time to time. but the bottom line is everybody wanted to have their voices heard and everybody did. and we built it around the standards and the data systems, as you mentioned, having high-quality teachers in every classroom, high-quality principals in every school, and then focusing in on what do you do with the schools that are consistently underperforming. >> governor jack markell, stay right there. tim webb is the edcation commissi commissioner. when we come back, we'll talk about the specifics that have been implemented in the two states that have resulted in a lot of federal money going their way to make their school system even better. this is something you'll want to know about. [ female announcer ] breathe right asks... [ woman ] could i ask you to strip on the street?
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i didn't pay a penny out of pocket for my power chair. with help from the scooter store, medicare and my insurance covered it all. call the scooter store for free information today. okay. two big winners in the battle for education reform, tennessee and delaware, the first two states to win grants in the u.s. department of education's race to the top competition. joining me is the education commissioner, tim webb. commissioner webb, my producer, christina, is from tennessee, and if that's what you're producing, you're doing an excellent job. but let me talk about whether or not you in tennessee had the same, almost love-fest that the governor of delaware was describing to me, because we see nothing across the country but tension between boards and teachers and parents and
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students. tell me what you did in tennessee to get this money. >> absolutely, ali. we had the same kind of strategy employed in tennessee as delaware did, the governor had built a very cohesive plan, we worked with all the different constituent groups, the teachers unions, the school districts, the business community, bipartisan support in the general assembly. and so a very well-developed, cohesive plan with everybody at the table, and went to work with that. >> let's go through some of the points of what you did. you removed the cap on the number of privately run, publicly funded charter schools. what was the effect of that? >> yes, sir, we're beginning to see more and more applications and more interest in the charter movement here in tennessee as a result of that, so we're seeing the charter movement grow. we have some very high-quality charter schools. we've managed that process to ensure the quality rather than quantity, and now we're beginning to see that grow out in larger numbers. >> okay. point number two, this is the one that seems to be the most challenging. tieing teacher evaluation to student test scores. some people think it's the most obvious thing in the world, and
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other people think that just isn't fair, because students have test score problems for reasons other than the quality of the teacher. >> yes, sir. we've had a very rich and robust growth -- measurement of student growth in tennessee for a number of years, and so what we've done now is to take that measure of student growth. we've been able to actually employ that into -- or deploy that into the teacher evaluation system, we're building out a new evaluation system that takes into consideration not just that single measure of growth, but multiple measures of growth. >> okay. that seems to be the key, though, it's not just a single measure, but all sorts of other areas. >> yes. >> you have had to take drastic measures, however, to turn around the worst-performing schools. what has that included? >> yes, sir. in the new legislation that was enacted during the extraordinary special session of the legislature back in january, we are now able to pull schools that have been consistently lowest performing and putting them into something we are calling an achievement school district, we removed them from the school district where they are and employ very bold and
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innovative strategies that have never been before been tried. >> bold and innovative is what we need and what you two in your states have been involved in. tim webb is the tennessee education commissioner and governor jack markell from delaware was joining us as well. congratulations to you gentlemen, and on the money you're receiving from the federal government. and we'll keep an eye on public education in those two states. a fancy u.n. affair, bigwigs from around the globe are rubbing elbows. and the drink of choice isn't sham page or even wine. it's mango juice. the more of it you drink, the more you help haiti.
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okay. today the united nations is focused on haiti, not just rebuilding it but making it better than it was before january's earthquake. world leaders are getting together at the united nations to orchestrate nearly $4 billion in donations from 120 countries over the next year and a half, but it's more than donations. we have to start thinking about business opportunities in haiti. and one of the ideas that's taken root is mangos. check this out. "operation haiti hope." coca-cola is spearheading this effort along with a nonprofit organization named technoserve and the government of haiti, and what it will do is invest $7.5. over 5 years to double the income of 25,000 mango farmers basically by creating more mango groves and more workers for those mango groves. here's what they do is come up
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with the drink, odala is a co coca-cola drink, and here's the bottom line, i sat down with the prime minister of haiti and the ceo of coca-cola to discuss what this project aims to achieve. listen to this -- >> the idea was how can we create a sustainable business that actually benefits the people of haiti, that actually contributes to the society of haiti, and there was the idea of this haiti hope juice was born. >> reporter: so, tell me how this works? >> it works in the following way, a very simple way. right now it's being put into the market. the registered name under odawala haiti hope, and it is through retailing partners in the united states, and it's available for consumption, for sale and for consumption in the united states. we will create a grove, mango groves, in haiti.
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make sure we protect the mango groves. make sure the awareness in haiti is raised, so all the funds from this venture go back to haiti. >> reporter: one of the things about haiti that people may not know is it had a great dependence on agriculture in the past, and there have been policies that have changed that over the years to the point that haiti was a net importer of so many of the things that it used to grow. are you hoping that this is a step in a direction that will take haiti back to being a grower of produce and perhaps an exporter of produce? >> certainly. certainly. we have all the produce, but mango is a good example. it's a produce. it's more than that. it's not only that you are going to produce more, you have to need -- you need partners in order to distribute it, to make it for the marketing and all that. so, with that partnership that we are starting with coca-cola, and perhaps through coca-cola and other partners, we can expand that idea that we not only to produce, it's also to sell it, to market it, and there we have the experience, and we
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hope it's not only an humanitarian project, it will be a project where education, transformation of -- transformation of the product will be a big issue, but education also will be a big issue, for the people producing mango for haiti. >> more moreno, i'm going to ask you a very difficult question here, why should i care that coca-cola and haiti have made a deal? sounds fine. what has this got to do with the rest of the world and our relationship to haiti? >> well, it's fundamental and i think it's a game changer. think for a minute of someone living in the central plateau of haiti, having five mango trees, which, by the way, is kind of the average each person has. that person today is probably cutting those trees to use them for firewood. we're giving, with this concept, the opportunity for that farm to turn that wood that he would have in his mind, into a source of income. this is a country that's 70% of
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the people live on less than $2 a day. we will be helping, with the government of haiti and others and technoserve to organize those farmers, because it's very important to give them technical expertise, train them how to do it, give them fertilizers, give them the systems of transportation in the way that you basically do the movement of the whole chain. those are the reasons why people in haiti live in poverty. and this is the way to change that, because at the end of the day, what you're doing is the best social policy possible, which is a job. >> all right, and that is a discussion about the "operation haiti hope," those mango juices have been since about last thursday. you can buy them anywhere you buy juices. here's what i've got on the rundown now. a call for more offshore oil drilling. that's not surprising, we've heard it before. who is it coming from? president obama himself. what do his friends and rivals think about it? we'll talk to the tea party about it. we'll also talk to this gentleman, t. boone pickens, he's a bona fide millionaire and
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oil man and a bona fide activist for alternative energy. plus, cnn investigates stinging allegations against the church of scientology. did the man in charge smack around his employees and encourage them to do the same to their subordinates? this has set off a raging controversy, and we'll go right to the heart of it. all right, but, first, we're going to take a look at the flooding in the northeast, rhode island is some of where the worst of it is. chad myers is following it fors. chad, what is going on? it's not just road ehode island the north. >> i don't see a drop of rain. but this is what happened during the month of march for providence, rhode island, a foot and half essentially of rainfall. where will you put that? even if you live near the ocean, it's going to go off somewhere. boston had 14. and portland -- that's for the month. i want to show you just for this storm in some parts. you said it rained a lot in new york? >> yeah. >> you were right. >> it rained a lot. >> let's go to pictures.
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that's why we have television, not to look at us, but look at the pictures that people sent us in. unprecedented floods. as you said, some of the floods are literally off the projected charts of what they could have possibly imagined in cranston, road island. and i-95, done, only down to one lane in some spots. so, ung, can you imagine trying to drive on that expressway? >> wow. >> it is just not 71. let's go to warwick, rhode island. not far from the mall. there is an old navy -- or i guess i should say there was an old navy. i think they wish they had a boat, because it's completely underwater at the warwick mall. and the water is continuing to go up. you say, wait, wait, the rain has stopped, no, we still have the water at higher elevations, the water bubbles, the amount of water still has to get to the ocean and it's not there yet. >> chad, thanks very much. we'll keep an eye on the flooding in the northeast. i want to talk about oil. you use oil and gasoline. i don't know if you keep track of it.
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it's like the days when oil was $140 bucks a barrel, and we probably don't watch it as much as we should. you probably remember this trusty oil barrel that has been part of my life for a long time. this is what oil settled at $82.37. why does it have people concerned? well, because we're in a tough economy right now. a lot of people aren't working. a lot of people aren't driving. they've changed to smaller cars. why is oil that expensive even when the economy is how it is? well, that has led the president to announce something that seems to some people like a bit of a turnaround, particularly of democratic policy. the idea that he will allow offshore oil drilling in areas that have not, until now, been used for offshore oil drilling. i'll explain it to you. but, first, listen to the president in his own words -- >> the bottom line is this, given our energy needs, in order to sustain economic growth and produce jobs and keep our businesses competitive, we are going to need to harness traditional sources of fuel, even as we ramp up production of
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new sources of renewable, homegrown energy. >> all right, let me show you what the president is talking about. this is a map of the eastern part of the united states. that's alaska. just hold on to that for a second. these areas in the -- in the beige are areas where oil has already been allowed. oil drilling has already been allowed. the areas in the right side are where it's going to be new, from basically the tip of delaware down to the middle of florida. there's a -- there's a gap here. they won't allow oil drilling anywhere closer than 125 miles from the coast. now, take a look at alaska. there are two issues here. one is that this issue here in southwestern alaska, this is not going to be allowed. this is a protected area because of fisheries and whaling, but the areas in the north part of alaska are permitted for offshore oil drilling. what this basically means is that the government is going to study the feasibility and then they lease out oil to companies. so, this is 130 million acres here in the arctic ocean, 167 million acres here in the
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atlantic ocean, and the eastern gulf of mexico, smaller area, but possibly the richest in terms of oil. it's thought to old about 3.5 billion barrels of oil. let me now show you the conservation side of it. this is increasing domestic energy production, he also wants to talk about conservation. he made the announcement at a military base and he's talking about the increamsed use of biofuels in military vehicles, purchasing 5,000 hybrid vehicles for government use and increasing the fuel-efficiency standards for new cars. tomorrow, by the way, the federal government will enact new fuel efficiency stand aards for new cars. we'll be talking about that. we'll also be talking about what the tea party thinks of president obama's initiative to allow more drilling. we're going to be live in colorado. there's the gathering of the tea party. the cnn express is there. ed lavandera is there as well, we'll check in with him in a minute. [ crowd cheering ]
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they share a common goal. america's beverage companies have removed full-calorie soft drinks from schools, reducing beverage calories by 88%. together with schools, we're helping kids make more balanced choices every day. ♪ ies who need we're helping kids make more balanced choices every day. assistance getting around their homes. there is a medicare benefit that may qualify you for a new power chair or scooter at little or no cost to you. imagine... one scooter or power chair that could improve your mobility and your life. one medicare benefit that, with private insurance, may entitle you to pay little to nothing to own it. one company that can make it all happen ... your power chair will be paid in full. the scooter store. hi i'm doug harrison. we're experts at getting you the power chair or scooter you need. in fact, if we qualify you for medicare reimbursement and medicare denies your claim, we'll give you your new power chair or scooter free.
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i didn't pay a penny out of pocket for my power chair. with help from the scooter store, medicare and my insurance covered it all. call the scooter store for free information today. more now on president obama's ambitious plans for offshore oil drilling. it can be a slippery slope for politicians. if you support it, and people start signing -- your constituents will start sounding the alarm about environmental impact. if you oppose it, you get complaints about sky-high gas prices and dependence on foreign oil. so, who could forget the calls to drill, baby, drill, from the 2008 presidential election? well, they're echoing in the upcoming november vote. so we've summed up 24 months of debate about this into about 20
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seconds. listen to this. >> $75, and that's probably will last me about three or four days. that's ridiculous. gas prices is ridiculous. >> and we will drill here. we'll drill now. and this is a matter of national security and energy independence and economic prosperity. drill, baby, drill. >> believe me, if i thought there was any evidence at all that drilling could save people money who are struggling to fill up their gas tanks by this summer or this year or even the next few years, i would consider it. but it won't. and john mccain knows that. >> that's the kind of campaign that senator obama and his surrogates and his supporters want to engage in, i understand that, but it doesn't reduce the
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price of a gallon of gas by one penny. it doesn't achieve our energy independence. >> all right. now, what are the tea partiers saying about president obama's plan? ed lavandera is with some of them in grand junction,, colorado, he's riding the cnn express and we're alongside the tea party express. ed, what are they saying? are they into this drill, baby, drill idea? do you think this was a good move? >> reporter: well, you know, we've been asking several of the people here this morning at the rally in grand junction where we're at, and that rally is just wrapping up here this morning. we expected to hear a little bit more openness to this idea, but really what we're finding, one person basically said, who told us kind of tongue in cheek, finally one thing i can agree with on president obama. but for the most part, what we're hearing is great mistrust. they don't actually believe the president will follow through on this. >> i think he's reaching out to try and cover up for the health
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care bill, which most everybody i know doesn't want. i mean, he's going to try and turn around and put his good face on, and i don't think it's going to work this time. >> reporter: so, here we go, we've heard that repeatedly from people here this mornings a news has county of filtered through this area in grand junction, colorado. obviously this is of great interest given the energy business that is located here in grand junction, colorado, but, you know, we heard that repeatedly, ali, that people said, yeah, there's just a great mistrust of what the president's saying and didn't really think, like as that man mentioned there in that sound bite, we heard that theme repeated over and over. >> ed, they planned this trip before the big push to get health care passed happened, and then it became about health care. now that health care's passed, is the energy of those rallies -- what are they feeling like? is it bigger than you'd expect? is it smaller? >> reporter: well, the ones -- a for the most part, the kickoff
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one, last saturday, was a huge event. thousands and thousands of people turned out. sarah palin, of course, the big speaker there. >> sure. >> reporter: but these other rallies that have take been place in st. george, utah, in phoenix, and now in grand junction, one of the ones we went to had close to 2,000 people. the last ones we've been to have been around 500 or a couple hundred people or so. this one's a little bit smaller. they are packing up shortly and headed to denver tonight, so we'll see how that works. some of the other rallies have been held during the days, and obviously people have to work and that sort of thing. but in denver, it will be interesting to check out, it will be after work and see what kind of turnout they draw there. the organizers here maintain they are very happy with the turnout that they've been getting, but i think as they push forward and move closer to washington, d.c., the numbers and the intensity of the turnout -- >> yeah. >> reporter: -- will be important to keep an eye on just to get a sense of how much people are engaging and joining into this effort. >> all right, maybe if you get closer to washington, d.c., do you mind if i join you for a couple days?
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come on the bus, ride along with you? >> reporter: hey, we know you love the bus, ali. >> i do. i absolutely do. but, ed, i also love hanging out with ed lavandera. always a good time when we're together. thank you, we'll keep checking in with you. which came first, the chicken or the egg? in the case of this chicken farm, the community came first. it's an example of how we are "building up america." anncr vo: ...call emergency services... anncr vo: ...collect accident information. anncr vo: or just watch some fun videos. anncvo: it's so easy, a caveman can do it. caveman: unbelievable... caveman: where's my coat? it was suede with the fringe. vo: download the glovebox app free at geico.com.
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stomach stomachs. it's a chance to make the trying times a little less trying. dan simon has the story. >> there you go. look at that. >> that's pretty. >> reporter: apparently green eggs aren't just found in the doctor seuss classic. you almost don't want to eat it because it's so green. >> i know. >> reporter: we're at the organic soul food chicken farm an hour from san francisco. it's a business that stirs such passion that loyal customers refuse, quite literally, to let it go down in flames. after a fire killed 1,200 chicks and destroyed their coops last september, alexis cokeland and her husband, eric, thought the struggling farm they started just three years ago was finished. did you think you were going to be out of business? >> oh, i was convinced we were done, you know? we'd already were skating by. eric had lost his job. we were just living off of this land. that was a half month's income that went up in smoke. i thought, we'll never recover
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from that. it's just too hard. >> reporter: starting the farm wasn't easy. alexis and her husband had no farming experience. she was in marketing. he was a structural engineer. yet as soon as they began selling their chicken eggs, many chefs from the finest local restaurants, including alice waters from the nationally renowned cehz pannisse, said it was among the best they'd ever tasted. >> grow something that really is tasty, i'll buy it all. >> reporter: the farm was saved not just because of its high-quality eggs and meat, but also because of its philosophy. >> this egg comes from chickens that are probably crammed in cages. maybe eight, ten birds in a cage. >> reporter: she explained by showing us two different eggs. one from a chain grocery store and one of hers. >> and this is a chicken egg that she got to lay her egg how she felt like, after being outside, eating grass and bugs. >> reporter: this is what those chefs like so much, what you're seeing right here. the chickens roam the fields
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freely and eat the natural grass. and that they believe makes for a higher-quality egg. eggs, they apparently could not live without, because when the fire seemingly destroyed the business, her customers got together and said, we're not going to let that happen. >> we had a fancy auction. we had a raffle. we had several fund-raising dinners. >> reporter: bonnie powell led the effort to raise $30,000 to keep the farm in business. >> it was kind of amazing how many people just felt touched by this, like, like, no, we can't let soul food farm die. >> reporter: the farm still struggles to make money, but alexis loves her land, loves her way of life. >> thank you very much. my husband will be excited. >> reporter: you could say she's just fine putting all her eggs in one basket. >> thank you! >> reporter: dan simon, cnn, vacaville, california. let me bring you up to speed on on some of the top stories we're following. officials at a massachusetts high school say they've disciplined and removed several more students in the phoebe
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prince case. the 15-year-old committed suicide in january after allegedly being bully for months on end. yesterday prosecutors announced charges against nine students at the school. a trial's gotten under way for five americans accused of plotting jihad in pakistan. they are accused of planning attacks against specifically specific targets. there the so-called d.c. five face life sentences if convicted. and a chechen leader is claiming responsibility for the twin suicide bombings in moscow. in a video statement he said he personally gave the orders to attack two subway stations there. at least 39 people were killed. his video appeared on a website known for posting separatist messages. all right, we've can looking at the incredible pictures out of the northeast, cars, homes, even malls flooded. in the opposite corner of the country, they've got a different problem.
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okay. i see chad. he needs to put his jacket on. he walked over to the screen, which means he's ready to tell us something. >> hey, man, i'm trying to keep up with ali here. you call them hollywood and bollywood, i'm doing that. upgrading with stripes. >> but the most important thing is you are giving us important information.
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>> we are finally getting rid of the rain in the northeast, a little bit of showers remain, but nothing like when you were up there and literally the streets were flooding. the other problem on the other side of the earth at this point in time, or what we consider the other side of the earth, critical fire danger from arizona up into texas. a red-flag warning and even more critical, it will be extremely critical tomorrow across parts of this area. so, what are we talking about? come back here. what are we talking about? we're talking about if a firebreaks out, the winds will be so much from the south and the southwest, that they'll be hard to control. these fires are going to be literally -- we see them on radar. there's so much smoke in the sky -- >> yeah. >> -- that the radar believes there's rain in the sky. >> wow. wow. >> we can see a fire develop from the doppler radar here. and so it is going to be one of those -- and this is typical for this time of the year. >> okay. >> still, the grasses are dry. they haven't started to grow yet, and then you catch them on fire and it really can be bad. let's go "off the radar." >> "off the radar," i've been asked by my friends at cystic fibrosis to put out a shout to
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great strides. they don't know what is going on this year, it's been an ugly winter. people aren't thinking about spring, they are thinking about other things and they haven't signed up for the great stride cystic fibrosis great walk. >> a great thing. >> you've heard of the breast cancer susan g. komen thing, this is as huge as this is. i've been a huge supporter in the past, 10, 20 years ago we thought we found the gene and it didn't work. they need your help, sign up for the walk. >> it's interesting people are not signing up for things because of the uncertainty in the weather, go out there -- >> they think it's a springtime event and it hasn't felt like spring yet. cff.org. >> i like it, maybe i'll start borrowing some of them. all right, thank you, chad. it's the religion made famous and intriguing by hollywood stars like tom cruz and john travolta, but some former scientology insiders tell us of beatings and humiliation at the hands of the man in
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of the church. rathbun said miscavige literally kicked, punched, and choked the management team, sea organization, and mike rinder, the church's former spokesman, he says miscavige encouraged a corporate culture in which other managers were expected to get physical. rathbun said he assaulted individuals, but it was done with the okay of miscavige himself. he said rathbun was a bald-faced liar because he assaulted members of the church. as we continue the investigation, you'll hear from other high-ranking scientologists who said david miscavige was the one behind the violence. the church emphatically denies it. cnn's anderson cooper continues digging. >> miscavige was always threats, bullying, haranguing people, verbal abuse, physical abuse, that was his game. he is a bully. >> reporter: jeff hawkins was a
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scientologist for 35 years, a marketing director for the church, he was a member of the sea organization, the group that runs church operations worldwide. he had dedicated his life to scientology, a true believer, he earned just $50 a week, and lived in church-provided, communal housing with other sea org members in california. you've worked with marty rathbun. you've worked with mike rinlder. the church told us they were the ones leading the raeeign of terror. that marty was the one leading the beatings. >> absolutely not true. absolutely not true. david miscavige was the one leading the whole physical violence kick and it was him beating people up. >> reporter: hawkins, who left in 2005, said miscavige attacked him several times, including once during a marketing meeting. >> he jumped up on the conference room table, like with his feet right on the conference room table, launched himself across the table at me. i was standing. battered my face.
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and then shoved me down on the floor. >> reporter: tom dvock was a construction manager for the church. he was only 12 years old when he joined. he left in 2005 because he said he could no longer accept miscavige's violence. >> they actually questioned and i couldn't tell you what the question is today. i don't remember. but the next thing i knew, i'm being smacked in the face and knocked down on the ground in front of all these people. this is the pope, you know, knocking me down to the ground. >> reporter: amy scovy, a scientologist for 27 years, helped run the celebrity center in los angeles, designed to cater to the needs of famous members like tom cruz and john travolta, she left in 2005, but she said she distinctly remembers him choking mike rinder. >> he grabbed mike around the neck, swings around and he's choking him and he's holding his neck. and mike grabbed me on the side of his chair, struggling, like,
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not knowing what was going on. and his face is turning red, and the veins are poping out of his neck, and i'm going, what in the hell is going on? >> reporter: steve hall was a writer for the church who left in 2004. he says he saw miscavige attack mike rinder again in november of 2003. >> he grabs mike. mike's head with both his hands. throws mike off his feet, because he's strong, and he put his whole body into this. he smashed mike's head against this cherrywood wall. >> reporter: church of scientology spokesman tommy davis insists that all these former scientologists are liars, bitter former sea organization members, who were demoted from their positions by david miscavige. he says mike rinder was asked about rumors of abuse two years ago by the bbc when he was still spokesman for the church. >> he had been asked about these same allegations and one of his
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responses was, i'll tell you what, if you come up with that again and show up with another one of those crap allegations, i'm going to file a complaint. >> reporter: he's talking about this bbc interview in 2007, recorded by scientologist and posted on youtube just before mike rinder left the church. >> he said you -- >> no, you didn't. >> knocked him around. >> that's absolute rubbish. rubbish, rubbish. not true. rubbish. >> reporter: but now that mike rinder is no longer working for david miscavige, he says he was lying during that interview. he wouldn't appear on camera, but he told us that he was physically assaulted by david miscavige some 50 times. he lied to the bbc, he says, because he didn't want to lose his career and his church. that doesn't surprise jeff hawkins, who says when he was in the church, he would have never spoken against miscavige. >> if you want to stay in the church, you have to do what he says. >> that's right. that's right. he literally holds -- if you -- if you're a scientologist and you believe in scientology, and
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you believe that the only way to your spiritual salvation is through the levels of scientology, then he literally holds the power of life and death over every scientologist, because he can say, you're out of here. you will get none -- no more scientology services. you're done. >> reporter: the church says hawkins is out to destroy scientology, adding that he supports an anti-scientology movement called anonymous, that activity protests the church. >> these are individuals who have proven not only that they will lie, but will get other people to lie. it's not much of a stretch to all get together and corroborate the stories and find other people who left years ago to try to corroborate it even more, and come to the news media and attack the very person who removed them. >> reporter: the church provided us with dozens of affidavits from current and former church members. onetime colleagues of these former scientologists, even their ex-wives. all the affidavits swears david miscavige never hurt anyone. >> i slept with tom devocht for almost 20 years.
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i knew every inch of him. i never saw one scratch. i never saw one bruise. i never saw one black eye. nothing. nor did he complain about anything personally. >> reporter: that's tom's ex-wife, jenny linson, she agreed just this week to be interviewed along with the other ex-wives. mike rinlder's ex-wife, katherine, says he was never assaulted by david miscavige. >> i know every square inch of mike's body. i know anything that's ever happened to him, every accident, every time he broke his wrist. i've been with him. we've been together all our lives. it's utterly ridiculous, and it isn't true. >> reporter: and you were married to marty rathbun? >> 15 years. i know the man better than anybody else. now, you got to understand, marty rathbun is a liar. he never mentioned it, okay? >> reporter: he says that he did mention it to you. >> no, he did not. absolutely not. it's a lie. >> reporter: katherine, your ex-husba ex-husband, jeff hawkins, says about you that you're a heart of gold and you're a good woman and
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you stuck with him through some very trying times in scientology. he does say you were -- >> hold on, he didn't have any trying times in scientology. i don't -- it was the best time of his life. >> reporter: she says jeff hawkins never said a thing to her about being hit. did you tell anybody about this? i mean, did you complain about it? >> no. no, no. you don't do that. when you're inside the base, you don't do that. >> reporter: why? >> well, if you go against miscavige, if you say anything against miscavige or you do anything or you report on miscavige, you're instantly off the base. >> reporter: what does that mean, to be off the base? >> you're on the rehabilitation project forest or you're sent to a remote location or you're sent to africa or australia. you're just gotten rid of. >> reporter: marty rathbun says he did tell his wife, but never complained to anyone else about miscavige. >> he had the power to say you're excommunicated, you'll never see scientology again. you'll never see your wife again. you'll never see scientology
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again. you've devoted 27 years to it, and this guy can pull the plug just like that and say you can't ever have it again. >> over the past month we've spoken with former scientology spokesman, mike rinder, he admits getting physical to some church members but says he was told constantly to do so by david miscavige. he said he wouldn't interview with us because he promised his first interview with the bbc. once that interview has aired, he would welcome the opportunity to come on our show and air his story. tonight on "ac360," senior sicientologist claim abuse, lie, all lies, say the church leaders. get the story, on "ac360" tonight at 10:00 p.m. eastern. all right, when we come back, i'll give you the top stories.
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checking some top stories. as you saw here on cnn, president obama is announcing plans to open vast areas of u.s. coastal waters to oil and natural gas drilling, including stretches of the east coast and the eastern gulf of mexico and the north coast of alaska. the aim is to help end dependency on foreign oil. voicing their anger, coastal residents and environmentalists. in rhode island, people are battling the worst flooding in more than a century. president obama has signed a disaster declaration for the state and emergencies have been declared in massachusetts and connecticut. hundreds of people have been forced from their homes, three days of record-breaking rains have tapered to a drizzle, but
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forecasters warn the worst of the flooding is yet to come. and officials at a massachusetts high school say they've disciplined and removed several more students in the phoebe prince case. the 15-year-old committed suicide in january after allegedly being bully for months on end. yesterday prosecutors announced charges against nine students at the school. all right, when we come back, we'll talk about oil. it has set -- it's settled at its highest price since 2008, october of 2008. the man you're looking at, t. boone pickens, he's a billionaire and happens to have made a lot of money in oil, but he's a massive advocate about alternative energy. what does he think about president obama's call for offshore drilling?
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henry? more now on president obama's plan to open vast areas to oil and natural gas drilling. the plan the president announced would open about 167 million acres over the atlantic ocean, from delaware to central florida, also opening some parts in northern alaska. you can see that on the right of your screen. we've moved alaska to the right. it is not a fast-track deal. it will be years. the interior department, which has to study the conditions and then they lease it out to oil companies, president obama argues that this is needed to help end america's addiction to foreign oil. so, it's a two-part announcement. increasing domestic energy production and some conservation that he's announced today and tomorrow with some fuel-efficiency standards that will be announced. but is offshore drilling the way to go? prb what he said back during the campaign days? listen to this -- >> if we're serious about dealing with energy, we've got to have a comprehensive package. we can explore new reserves, including offshore, but we can't drill our way out of the
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problem, because we only have 3% of the world's oil reserves. we use 25% of the world's oil. even an oil man like t. boone pickens says it's not going to -- that's not the answer. >> all right. if we're serious about dealing with energy, we've got to have a comprehensive package. let's talk about what we're going to do about this. i want to talk to my good friend, t. boone pickens, who's joining us now from dallas. he's the founder and chairman of bp capital management. boone, great to see you again. thank you for being with us. >> you bet, ali. >> boone, many people know you because you've made your name as an oil man for many, many years, but a few years ago you had a change of heart, and you decided that we can't just drill our way out of the problem. tell me -- for those who haven't sort of followed very closely what you've been doing, you have sunk a lot of money, effort, and energy into trying to change the way we consume energy in this country. >> i have done that. that started in -- my pickens plan started in july of 2008.
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and that -- some changes have occurred since then, and, of course, i was going for the renewables, wind and solar, and i was also -- i wanted to use natural gas for transportation fuel. so, let's look at today where we are. that's two years ago. >> yep. >> and what do we have? we got a natural gas price of $4. and wind is priced off the margin. and the margin is natural gas for power generation. so, it won't work at $4, so it's hard to do a wind deal. >> yeah. >> but, the wind was not going to take you off of imported oil. and that was the biggest issue, as it unfolded and i learned more about what i was up to, that the security issue is what we've got to focus on, and we've got to get off of the opec oil. >> so, what's the best solution for that right now? and is what president obama has
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announced the right thing to do, more offshore oil drilling? >> well, the only way you can get off of foreign oil -- and, remember, we're importing the -- 14 billion barrels of oil a day, 5 of it comes from the mideast, and that 5 is -- to me, that's the dangerous oil that we have coming to us. but, also, president obama said that in his nomination speech, he said in ten years, we will not be importing any oil from the mideast. okay. what are we going to replace it with is the question? the only thing we have to replace it with is either natural gas or oil. and our oil reserves are not very good, like he said. >> yeah. >> today, he said 2% of the oil in the world we have, and we're using 25% -- >> yeah. >> -- of the oil every day. okay, so go to natural gas is the way to go. and you have 4,000 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the -- >> but that assumes, boone, that
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we use natural gas for more than what we just use it for now, more than just the generation of electricity and heating and that sort of thing. you're talking about using natural gas to power cars? >> you power the heavy-duty, 18 wheelers, and you take those 8 million 18 wheelers over to natural gas and you'll cut opec in half. that's 2.5 billion barrels a day. >> that is worth thinking about and talking about. i want you to hang on, boone, i love the lesson you give on this, the way you move some of our dependency on to natural gas. i need to pay our bills and on the other side, the lesson you've given to me, you'll give it to our viewers. stay with us. (pouring rain) i had a great time. me too. you know, i just got out of a bad relatio... it's okay. thanks. goodnight. goodnight. (door crashes in, alarm sounds)
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okay. another few minutes with t. boone pickens. boone, i want to ask you to explain your strategy here. you're saying that the opening up offshore drilling won't provide us with enough oil in enough time to get off dependency off imported oil in the united states. your suggestion has been for quite some time, get our 18 wheelers, our big rigs, our commercial vehicles, off of gasoline by making them into natural oil or some alternative-energy consuming vehicles and making them more efficient. is that a good starting point? >> that's a good starting point. i'm ready to drill on the offshore, i have no problem with that. but don't look for big reserves
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off the east coast of the united states. number one, if you try to compare it to the gulf of mexico, texas and oklahoma, and then you go off into the gulf, they're big oil fields all over the south texas and south louisiana, but off the coast of virginia, south carolina, there's no oil fields onshore there. why do you think they're going to be big oil fields offshore? and the shelf in the gulf of mexico goes out 600, 700 miles, and here the shelf you're, you know, 200 miles out off the virginia coast, you're about in 12,000, 15,000 feet of water. so, there isn't this great expectation, unless you don't understand what we have to look with -- look at, to be able to find big oil fields out there. but anyway, you've got -- >> go ahead. >> you're overwhelmed with natural gas is where you are. it's cleaner. it's cheaper. it's abundant, and it's ours. why not use it? it's the thing to use.
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go to the 8 million 18 wheelers. if you want to go further with natural gas as a transportation fuel, then that's after you do the 18 wheelers. do those, and then see where you want to go. >> and is that viable? and is anybody heading in the direction doing what you're suggesting? >> yes, they are. they are headed in that direction. it's happening very fast. and -- and all and i think, you know, you can incentivize your truckers so they're happy with it. they like the domestic fuel and all, and so, you know, this is going to happen. it's going to happen. i don't understand why we can't lay it out very clearly that we only have one resource that solves the problem? if you only have one resource, then you're going to have to use that resource. >> i hear you. boone, good to talk to you, as always. thanks for joining me on the show. we'll talk more about this. when you're in atlanta, come by and we can use the what board and do the demonstration that do you on tv. because it's really good. good to see you. >> good to see you, ali.
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from haitian mangos and all the proceeds from of the drink will go back to haiti, but it's more than that, for three years they will buy the mango production and creating desperately needed jobs. the hope is three years there will be more mango workers and better equipment and more groves and it will spur better industry. it started at the world economic forum in switzerland, the ceo of coke and the head of the interamerican development bank and others thought it made sense, and seven weeks later it was a reality. we've seen plenty of corporations do the wrong thing. this just isn't the right thing, it's the right thing done at the speed of light, which is what haiti needs. but it's more than that, too. for me, it's a sign that the real rebuilding of haiti is under way. i asked the prime minister whether in five or ten years, we'll see a better haiti than the one that existed before the january earthquake. he told me he thinks, or hopes, that within three years we'll see a better haiti, but it depends on real companies, creating a real market for real goods that peopl
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