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Top Al Qaeda Official Killed; Republicans Gather Faith And Freedom Coalition Convention; Financial Planner Gives Advice About Gifting; Sweet Potatoes Becoming Popular Food Around The World
Aired June 04, 2011 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RICHELLE CAREY, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM where the news unfolds live on this Saturday, June 4th. I'm Richelle Carey in for Fredricka Whitfield.
Gunfire sends demonstrators scattering in western Syria. This is north of Damascus. Witnesses say military forces and police fired indiscriminately into this massive crowd of anti-government protesters yesterday. And a human rights group estimates as many as 80 people were killed. We have to rely on eyewitnesses and YouTube videos because CNN is not allowed to report from inside Syria.
A suspected U.S. drone strike in Pakistan may have killed the man considered Al Qaeda's military brain. Ilyas Kashmiri's group says he was killed in an attack on a tribal area near the Afghan border. The killing has not been confirmed by Pakistan or the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He was a man who was believed to be mounting or in the process of planning large, spectacular global attacks. And that is why he is such a key target for the U.S., a man whom they believe had the ability and the resources to conduct strikes that could attack the west, particularly in Europe and possibly even the United States, as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAREY: Here in the U.S., the Coast Guard is closing a 182-mile stretch of the Missouri River from Sioux City to south of Omaha, Nebraska because of continued danger of flooding. It's causing thousands in North Dakota and South Dakota to evacuate in advance of all the water. Heavy rain on top of the snowmelt is causing al this flooding.
In Wildwood, New Jersey, something will break your heart. An 11- year-old girl fell 100 feet to her dealt from a Ferris wheel. She was on a class trip when she plunged from one of the tallest Ferris wheels on the east coast. This is the first time someone has fallen from the ride since it opened in 1985.
Career diplomat Lawrence Eagleburger died. He served as deputy secretary of state and for a short time secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush. He played a pivotal role during the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the cold war. Eagleburger was 80 years old.
A gathering of Christian conservatives in Washington is a big deal for almost every Republican presidential candidate. They're all there. Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum talked about what sets him apart from other GOP contenders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICK SANTORUM, (R) FORMER PENNSYLVANIA SENATOR: I had always been prolife, for traditional marriage. But I had always been like a lot of folks. A lot of folks said, weren't here last year that came this year, who come and make the pledge, vow to social conservatives that they'll check the boxes, they'll be for the things that social conservatives care about. Ladies and gentlemen, I just don't take the pledge, I take the bullets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAREY: Rick Santorum saying I've always been here. Where have you all been? The two-day event wraps up with keynote speech of GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain.
Casey Anthony's murder trial recessed for the rest of the weekend. They were in session this morning. It was about evidence found in her car after her two-year-old daughter was reported missing. Sean Lavin is outside the courthouse in Orlando. Sean, some of this evidence is tedious, but critical to the prosecution's case. Talk about this microscopic evidence.
SEAN LAVIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. They have very tiny evidence. The FBI analyst was going slide by slide on the microscope comparing these tiny strands of hair. After doing so, she thought she could prove to that jury that this was little Caylee in that trunk decomposing. That's what she believes.
After she went on the stand, there was another expert from the orange county sheriff's office. He came up and explained how the air samples they took in that car also indicate that there was a decomposing body inside Casey Anthony's trunk.
CAREY: Hair samples, that's nothing new. Air samples is not something you hear that much about. Casey Anthony's attorney, Jose Baez, tried to keep all this out of the trial.
LAVIN: He did. It's only been used maybe once or twice, if ever, before. It's very new. Jose Baez tried to stop it, but the judge made it come in any way. He decided it was relevant in this case. Now instead of trying to keep it out of trial, he has to try to discredit it. Take a listen to how he attacked some of this evidence earlier today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUDGE BELVIN PERRY, ORANGE COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT: I know it's Saturday morning, but I think I've made myself abundantly clear about what should not be done. I firmly believe Mr. Baez heard me. JOSE BAEZ, CASEY ANTHONY'S LAWYER: I will not be discussing any prior cases.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVIN: Jose Baez was trying all he could, as you could see, to discredit this. He will have his chance in about two weeks. That's when the prosecution will be done, about June 17th, that Friday. Then Jose Baez will start on that Saturday following it to try to prove to the jury Casey Anthony is not guilty of first degree murder.
CAREY: And trying to save her life. Let's remind people this is a capital murder trial. He's trying to save her life, Sean.
LAVIN: That's right. Her life is on the line. If she does get convicted, the defense is ready to use mitigating circumstances, such as alleged sexual abuse against Casey Anthony to try to save her life and hope that will convince the jury to spare her if she is convicted.
CAREY: Sean Lavin live in Orlando, thank you very much.
Images of the crackdown in Syria are being captured by protesters on the streets. We're going to have those really dramatic pictures for you, plus new details about the mounting casualties next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAREY: In Syria the strand off between Bashar al Assad is and anti-government demonstrators is escalating. Security forces reportedly opened fire on defiant protesters in Hama. That's the same city where his father brutally crushed in an uprising three years ago. Let's go to Arwa Damon in Lebanon. What are you hearings about the latest crackdown in Hama? Some of the pictures will stop you in your tracks.
ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: They certainly will. They'll say what happened on Friday is not an isolated incident. This is how is the regime has been dealing with this uprising since it began. We saw tens of thousands of people, gathering in various neighborhoods trying to converge on the main square when eyewitnesses tell us Syrian security forces, as they have repeatedly in the past according to eyewitnesses indiscriminately opened fire on people peacefully demonstrating, people who were unarmed.
At least 60 people were killed on Friday. And today we saw about 100,000 individuals, according to one human rights organization, coming out for the funerals of those who had died.
As people will tell you, even though they know every single time they go out to demonstrate they face possible death, they say that now they have no choice but to keep up the momentum, to keep up the pressure, because now they will tell you they don't have talk to about it. It's the time to talk about regime change. It is becoming increasingly difficult over the last few days for activists to get images out because the regime has shut down the Internet across many parts of the country.
CAREY: That's the way to shut people off for sure. Arwa Damon live in Lebanon. Thank you very much, Arwa.
You may know the Duggar family from "19 Kids and Counting." They took off after the deadly tornado in Joplin packing up supplies and driving through the night to get there to help in the rescue effort. Josh and Jill Duggar talk about their experience in this "Impact your World."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JILL DUGGAR, STAR, "19 KIDS AND COUNTING": I'm Jill Duggar.
JOHN DUGGAR, STAR, "19 KIDS AND COUNTING": And I'm Josh Duggar.
JILL DUGGAR: We can make a difference with search and rescue.
JOHN DUGGAR: And tornado relief in Joplin, Missouri. We were here in Arkansas where we live.
JILL DUGGAR: We started coming. What can we do to help?
JOHN DUGGAR: Basically we packed everything up and got water bottles, Gatorade -- I've been around emergency situations in working as a volunteer firefighter. Given that Jill, Jana are active duty firefighters, they were able to plug right in. Join the movement.
JILL DUGGAR: Impact your world.
JOHN DUGGAR: Go to CNN.com/impact.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAREY: And there are many ways to impact your world. If you want to help people in the recent tornado outbreaks, and it seems everybody does, go to CNN.com/impact. There is a list of organizations there that will accept your donations.
Many businesses are looking to expand. So where are they looking to? According to a recent Price Waterhouse Cooper study, here are the top five cities. Number five is Toronto, number four is San Francisco, number three, Chicago. You want to know the top two? You have to stick around. We'll tell you in just a couple minutes.
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CAREY: Looking to expand? We were telling you just a couple minutes ago Toronto, Chicago, and San Francisco are pretty popular. The top two cities where businesses are looking to expand, Los Angeles, and my hometown Houston is number one. The producers picked that, I didn't, but I'm pretty happy.
In our financial fix many grandparents with extra cash in the bank are gifting it to their children and grandchildren. I'm not talking about kids who haven't gotten out of the house. Gifting doesn't just benefit the recipient. It can also help out the person doing the giving. Here to tell us how it works, financial adviser Karen Lee. Karen, good to talk to you.
KAREN LEE, FINANCIAL ADVISER: You, too.
CAREY: We're not just talking about writing out a check indiscriminately. You're talking about a plan, very specific reasons why people want to give. What's the why of it?
LEE: Thank you for clarifying, by the way, that we're not talking about helping out kids coming back home saying "I need help." You've clearly defined you have extra money and you want to give it away, you may have a financial adviser or estate attorney telling you need to reduce your estate. But mostly you want to give it away while you're alive. That's the why people give.
Let's talk about what you can give.
CAREY: Be strategic about it.
LEE: Of course, you can write a check. First let's go over the rules. Every donor is allowed to give up to $13,000 a year to any amount of donees. If it's a married couple, that's two, so that's $26,000. The number of donees is unlimited. If you need to reduce your estate, you can do a lot. They don't have to be related to you.
CAREY: They don't?
LEE: Generally you'll see grandparents gifting to grandkids. My favorite thing for them to do is look at their portfolio. If they have stocks they bought 20, 30, 40 years ago and they're highly appreciated, they don't want to tell them because of all the capital gains, gift those shares in kind to your grandkid, because if you're single and earn under 34 grand a year, you're in the 10 percent or 15 percent tax bracket, you pay no capital gains.
CAREY: That makes sense.
LEE: That's my favorite thing for them to do.
CAREY: OK. You also --
LEE: The next is stocks.
CAREY: How do you go about doing this?
LEE: Basically what's the best way now? I've determined what I'm going to give and how much and to who. Where should I have them put it? One thing that's pretty common is what's called a UTMA, uniform transfer to minor act. Replace the UGMA, uniform gift. That's irrevocable to a minor. It becomes theirs at ha majority age. In some states it's 18. There's two states that it's 19 still. That's popular. The child can use it for anything.
What I love personally is the 529 plan.
CAREY: Very, very popular now, aren't they?
LEE: They are, and they encourage the kids to get higher education. If you use those funds for college, technical schools, I believe, too, then all the gain in the investment, you get tax-free.
CAREY: Wow, very good.
LEE: There are penalties if you don't. It encourages the kids. I like that one. There's still savings bonds.
CAREY: The good old-fashioned way.
LEE: They've always been considered the safest, backed by the U.S. government. I think that might be a little questionable these days, just a little bit. The interest on those if used for college, also tax-free. And then of course, just an outright gift, write a check.
CAREY: And what if you want to give more than $13,000?
LEE: Hopefully we have people in that situation. Wouldn't that be great. The 529 plan has a special provision. You can fast-forward five years of gifting, so 13 times five, that's $65,000 you can put up front in that plan, can't give for five more years.
Another thing people don't realize is grandparents are allowed to pay tuition or medical costs unlimited amount outright as long as you write it to the institution or hospital or medical facility. If you want to just pay for the college, don't worry about that $13,000 number and you can write checks directly.
CAREY: It's fantastic, a way to help your family. As long as you've worked on this earth, you want to be able to give back to your family.
LEE: And you want to do it while you're alive and see the benefit of the gift.
CAREY: I love it, I love it. Let's get your information out here. I really, really love the title of your book, "It's just money, so why does it cause so many problems?" That is the name of Karen Lee's book. And you can also reach Karen at Karenleeandassociates.com.
LEE: Thank you.
CAREY: One simple food is helping farmers build up America. I know you want to know what it is. Don't go anywhere.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAREY: They're calling it pure gold -- sweet potatoes. Our Tom Foreman tells us how this simple food is helping build up America.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's like watching a magic trick. The tractor rolls over the bare dirt cutting furrows, a planter drives behind and there they are, the green shuts of sweet potatoes. There's no more wonderful sight for Jerome Vick.
JEROME VICK, SWEET POTATO FARMER: Sweet potatoes on my farm means approximately 50 percent of the net farm income on this farm.
FOREMAN: And right now they're pure gold for many in this state.
SUE LANGDON, NORTH CAROLINA, SWEET POTATO COMMISSION: Right here in this field is the capital. North Carolina is the capital of sweet potatoes, bar none.
FOREMAN: The North Carolina sweet potato commission says this year about 400 farmers will plant 60,000 acres of sweet potatoes worth about $182 million to the state economy. That's a record.
LANGDON: We've grown almost half of the sweet potatoes produced in the United States.
FOREMAN: They're selling all over the world. Sweet potato producers are cashing in on the healthy eating craze by aggressively advertising this Native American plant can help with everything from digestion to joint pain to heart disease. That's pushing demand for sweet potato fries, chips, and pies.
LANGDON: Currently about 20 percent of the sweet potatoes produced in North Carolina are being exported. That looks to rise to even more.
FOREMAN: How much more? Hard to say, but this year Vick expects to grow enough on his farm to meet the sweet potato needs of four million people.
VICK: You might as well say we've got four million people eating at our dinner table, which is perfectly all right with me.
FOREMAN: And next year they hope to be breaking records again. Tom Foreman, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAREY: Top stories now. A suspected U.S. drone attack in Pakistan may have killed a man who has been called Al Qaeda's military brain. Ilyas Kashmiri's group says he was killed last night near the Afghan border. The killing has not been confirmed by the United States or Pakistan.
Career diplomat Lawrence Eagleburger has died. He served as deputy secretary of state and for a short time secretary of state under President George H.W. Bush. President Obama says Eagleburger played a pivotal role during the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the cold war. He was 80 years old.
The CDC says the e. Coli outbreak blamed for 18 deaths in Europe has not affected food in the U.S. four people have gotten sick, all had recently visited Germany. Ports are being tested before being sold in the U.S.
I will be back at the top of the hour with a look at how some commuters are saving money. They're carpooling with perfect strangers. Have you ever heard of this? It's called slegging. There are rules to this. I'll tell you what they are.
And coming up, would you invite your child's principal into your home? See what happens on Steve Perry's "EDUCATION MAKEOVER." That's next on CNN. Don't change the channel.
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