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Nightmare at Sea; Costa Concordia Passenger's Account of Wreck; Wikipedia Protests With a Blackout; Digitized Waiters; Severe Storms in Kentucky; Rivals Go After Romney In Debate
Aired January 17, 2012 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.
I want to get you up to speed.
Off the coast of Italy right now, navy divers are blasting holes into that doomed cruise ship, looking for victims. Crews found the bodies of five more people today. The death toll now stands at 11. Twenty- three people are still missing.
Meanwhile, we are learning new details about what happened the night of that disaster from the captain himself. These infrared pictures -- you see that there? This is passengers. They look like ants, but these are passengers scrambling to get off the ship as it slammed into rocks and tilts over.
A new audio recording revealed that a Coast Guard officer furious with the captain as horror happens and it starts to become clear. I want you to listen to what he said.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): You go on board. It is an order. You cannot make any other evaluations.
You have declared abandoning ship. Now I'm in charge. You get on board. Is it clear?
CAPT. FRANCESCO SCHETTINO (through translator): Commandant --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you not listening to me?
SCHETTINO: I'm going.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call me immediately when you get on board. A rescue officer is there.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Newt Gingrich plugging away on the campaign trail today after pounding away at Mitt Romney during last night's Republican debate. Now, Gingrich has a campaign stop in Columbia, South Carolina. That's happening this hour.
Last night, he and Romney got into a pretty testy exchange over attack ads run by the so-called super PACs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, this is typical of what both Senator Santorum and I have complained about with Governor Romney's super PAC, over which he apparently has no influence, which makes you wonder how much influence he'd have if he were president.
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Speaker Gingrich, I already said at our last debate that anything that's false in PAC ads, whether they're supportive of me or supportive of you, should be taken off the air and fixed. I've already said that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Members of Congress, at least those in the House, getting back to work this morning after the winter break. A new CNN/ORC international poll found that just 11 percent of people approve how Congress is handling its job. That is an all-time low. The previous all-time low is 14 percent. That was back in August.
Opposition leaders in Syria say at least 28 people were killed today as part of a violent crackdown by the country's president. Anti- government protesters took to the streets, shouting, "The martyr is beloved by God!"
Also today, a member of the Syrian parliament who defected to Egypt says that money is no object for the president, he'll crush the revolt at any cost.
All right. Brace yourselves. Gas prices going through the roof again.
Gasbuddy.com says some of us could be paying around five bucks a gallon by the summer. Prices already at record highs. According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of unleaded now $3.39. It is the highest January gas prices ever. We're talking about 30 percent higher than a year ago.
This looks, feels like a modern day Titanic, right? But how did the Costa Concordia end up wrecked on the rocks off the Italian coast?
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX (voice-over): The luxury cruise liner set sail from a port near Rome Friday evening, carrying 3,200 tourists and 1,000 crew members. The passengers are enjoying dinner and drinks as the mammoth ship pulls closely alongside the Tucson island of Giglio. But it's far too close for comfort.
At approximately 9:30 p.m., the ship hits a patch of rocks about 1,000 feet from the island. That's when the passengers feel an eerie sensation. The huge luxury liner shudders and then the lights go out, but the passengers are told there's nothing to worry about.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They were saying everything was under control, that there was an electrical problem with the generator.
MALVEAUX: But below the surface, it's a different story. An enormous gash has ripped through the hull. They're taking water. An alarm sounds.
The ship begins to list, leaning heavily to its side. Plates and dinnerware slide off the tables and the passengers begin to panic.
(SCREAMING)
MALVEAUX: Passengers begin crowding on the deck near the lifeboats.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please remain calm. The situation is under control.
MALVEAUX: The captain turns the damaged ship around, bringing it into shallow water closer to shore.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hitting the reef, the capsizing of the boat was manageable, but I felt like the crew was going to kill us.
MALVEAUX: The lifeboats are lowered into the water. The Coast Guard sends out rescue crews. Speedboats launch and helicopters take off towards the wreck.
That's when some passengers begin taking matters into their own hands, jumping into the cold, dark water below.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And everyone was just swimming. There were some people that were really freaking out, grabbing hold of other people, and everyone's just trying to keep everyone calm.
MALVEAUX: By 11:15 p.m., the first lifeboats reach the island. About 4,000 of the ship's passengers and crew make it to safety, but some 300 people are still on the ship waiting to evacuate.
By morning light, the scale of the disaster comes into horrible focus.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: Now, several days after the ship went down, we are still coming to terms with what this all means. The losses, 11 confirmed dead. Twenty-three people are still missing.
The ship's captain, he was in court today. A judge ordered him to stay in jail, at least for now, while this investigation goes on.
We are also hearing from the captain, in his own words. I want you to listen. This is a translation of an audio recording between him and a Coast Guard officer on the night of this disaster.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): You go on board. It is an order. You cannot make any other evaluations.
You have declared abandoning ship. Now I'm in charge. You get on board. Is it clear?
SCHETTINO (through translator): Commandant --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you not listening to me?
SCHETTINO: I'm going.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call me immediately when you get on board. A rescue officer is there.
SCHETTINO: Where is your rescue officer?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My rescue officer is at the stem. Go.
SCHETTINO: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are already bodies, Schettino.
SCHETTINO: How many dead bodies are there?
SCHETTINO: I don't know! I know of one. I've heard of one. You are the one to tell me how many there are. Christ!
(END AUDIO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: My guest, he was on board that ship as that nightmare played out. Joe Ryan, he's joining us by phone from Eminence, Kentucky.
Joe, we have a lot to talk about, but first of all, your gut reaction to what the captain is saying on these recordings here.
JOE RYAN, SURVIVOR: My emotions are rung high after hearing that. It just confirms from what I already knew from the experience, that I was on my own, knowing that my friends and I just -- we had to worry about ourselves and really battle to save our own lives. And I think that just really confirmed that, and it's really kind of making me emotional and making me kind of angry, thinking that no one on our ship had our back to help us get off and was really looking after us.
MALVEAUX: There is so much anger around this story, Joe. We're going to have a lot more to talk with you in just a few minutes. We're going to ask you about when you actually realized what was wrong and how you managed to get off this ship safely.
We're going to take a quick break.
But first, will he or won't he? That is what everyone is asking Mitt Romney about releasing his tax returns.
So here's your chance to "Talk Back." Today's question: Should Romney release his tax returns?
Carol Costello is joining us from Washington with more.
Hey, Carol. CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Suzanne.
Release your tax returns already. It was Rick Perry's battle cry against Mitt Romney at last night's debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PERRY: Mitt, we need for you to release your income tax so the people of this country can see how you made your money.
(APPLAUSE)
PERRY: And I think that's a fair thing.
Listen, here is the real issue for us as Republicans. We cannot fire our nominee in September. We need to know now.
So I hope you'll put your tax records out there this week so the people of South Carolina can take a look and decide if, you know, we have got a flawed candidate or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: "The Washington Post" is asking that very question: Why won't Romney release his tax returns?
What about that information you can't find elsewhere like tax shelters and charitable deductions, not to mention all the money Romney made at Bain Capital? Whatever Romney's fellow Republicans hope to illustrate by a public reading of Romney's tax returns, they've pushed Romney into a "probably, but I'm not going to release anything before the South Carolina primary" mantra.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Time will tell, but I anticipate that most likely, I'm going to get asked to do that around the April time period, and I'll keep that open.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Romney has already released a personal financial disclosure report which is required of all presidential candidates. And we all know Romney is richer than most of us will ever be.
According to CNNMoney.com, Romney is worth between $85 million and $264 million. He owns several homes, one in La Jolla, California, worth about $10 million.
We also know the FEC lists between $250,000 to $500,000 in horses and $250,000 to $500,000 in gold. But the horses and the gold belong to the Mrs.
Do you want to know more? The Republicans who want to be president do.
So, the "Talk Back" question today: Should Mitt Romney release his tax returns?
Facebook.com/CarolCNN. I'll read your comments later this hour.
MALVEAUX: All right. Thank you, Carol.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: All right. We want to hear more from a survivor of the tragic cruise ship accident off the coast of Italy.
I want to bring back Joe Ryan, because we were talking with him just a few minutes ago. He was on that ship, and he managed to escape. He joins us by phone from Kentucky.
And Joe, I mean, we have hard the sounds of people screaming. We understand it was a chaotic scene. How were you able to make it out safely?
RYAN: Well, we were in our cabins. We were missing some of our friends, so me and another friend ran into our cabin thinking we would meet up with them there. And while at the cabins, we, like most everybody else, were kind of sitting outside the doorway and looking at the staff members and wait for some type of signal to do something, and that's where we heard the announcements over the PA of the electrical and the mechanical issues, and saying that the problems have been solved.
It wasn't until the boat got so far on its side that we were just honestly scared to death because we could barely walk. We just took into our own hands that we need to get onto a lifeboat and made sure we had enough close on to go do that in case we needed to swim or do whatever.
So, at the point, the staff -- there were still lots of staff members on the boat still saying that no -- not telling anyone to evacuate. So we took off from there and headed towards the lifeboats.
MALVEAUX: What were you hearing or seeing at the time when you said you realized you had to take matters into your own hands?
RYAN: I think it was just fear and shock, and people were crying. There was an older German couple at the side of us, and they were both just in tears, didn't know what to do.
And I think the hardest thing for me is when we took off to go to the lifeboats, there were still two families right next to us in our cabins who were still in their room waiting for someone to tell them to go. And I'm replaying in my mind that I hope someone did go and I hope they did make it to a boat.
MALVEAUX: Did you see any children on board? Can you talk a little bit about those children?
RYAN: Yes, I saw a bunch of parents trying to smile and trying to make them laugh. And I did see some people that looked like they were part of the theater workers for the cruise trying to, like, play with the kids and trying to smile and be happy around them, because a lot of the young children didn't really know what was going on. But I would say a lot of the older children, 5, 7, and around that age, were just in tears and screaming and in shock, and didn't really what to know to make out of it. So, just in general, they were pretty upset.
MALVEAUX: When you hear the captain's conversation that he had and realize that he could be facing charges for abandoning you and many others there who were fighting for your lives, what do you think is the appropriate thing for him?
RYAN: You know, I don't really know. I'm just so baffled and upset by that, because me and my friend Lauren (ph) were probably in the last 20 percent of the people to get off, and our lifeboat struggled to get into the water. So, it just makes me think, was he off at the ship at that point? Was anybody still on the ship to help out at that point?
And it just -- it just scares me half to death thinking that, who was on there organizing this or who was there doing anything? And it scares me that there may not have been anyone. They may have already been safely on the coast there, on the beach, and we were still trying to get into a boat and get to safety.
MALVEAUX: Well, Joe, we certainly hope that your friends, those in the next-door cabin, are safe, that they are among the survivors.
Joe Ryan, thank you very much. We really appreciate it.
We are actually hearing some amazing survival stories from people on board that ship. Some were rescued, others were forced to swim to safety. And we are talking about frigid, freezing water, just about 1,000 feet away from the shore.
(WEATHER REPORT)
MALVEAUX: Some of the world's most popular Web sites are planning a blackout tomorrow. We're going to tell you what's going on after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: If you can't get on Wikipedia tomorrow, don't worry, it's not your computer. Wikipedia and other popular Web sites plan a blackout tomorrow to protest an anti-piracy bill before Congress. Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, is among the industry supporters of that legislation.
I want to bring in Alison Kosik from the New York Stock Exchange to talk a little bit about what this bill is and why folks are angry about it.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK, Suzanne. So what it's called is the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, for short. And it's in the process of working its way through Congress right now. Essentially, what it is, is it's an anti-piracy bill. And its goal is to restrict access to sites that fuel copyright infringement.
So, for example, for Google, let's say, Google could be punished if a pirated TV show is uploaded on to YouTube. But tech companies, they're upset about being held liable for user's content.
So what's going to be happening tomorrow? You're going to see sites like Wikipedia, the blog "Boing Boing," "Redditt," others, other Web sites -- they're temporarily going to go black tomorrow. Gosh, what are we all going to do without Wikipedia?
Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: I know. Everybody's always using Wikipedia.
I understand that there's a split, though, however, in corporate America. So Hollywood and Silicon Valley pitted against each other. Why?
KOSIK: Exactly. So, Hollywood, Suzanne, is actually all in favor of this bill. ABC, CBS, News Corp., the Recording Industry Association, as you said, Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, all in favor of it.
They say that piracy leads to lower revenue and job cuts, because content creators don't get paid when their music or their movie is pirated. But you flip it around, tech companies say it's censorship, and they say it could wreck the Internet as we know it. So two sides to this bill -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Has anything like this ever happened before?
KOSIK: Well, Wikipedia says it's a first for its English site, as far as the blackout of these Web sites go, and the protests, Suzanne, isn't just online. There's a rally planned for tomorrow, here in New York City, at the offices of New York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.
The bill though isn't expected to go before a full House vote until March. Ah, yes. So that's plenty of time for the lobby groups to line up and push their influence.
You know, this is a highly controversial issue. It's almost certain that it's going to be reworked. So, to be continued -- Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: To be continued. All right, as a lot of pieces of legislation.
Thank you, Alison. Appreciate it.
KOSIK: Usually are, yes.
MALVEAUX: So, one candidate spouts the golden rule, another invokes the image of Bigfoot. We're going to talk about some of those memorable moments from last night's Republican debate. And we also want to give a shout-out to some noble folks celebrating their birthday today.
First lady Michelle Obama, 48 years old today. Heavyweight boxer and the only man to win the title three times, Muhammad Ali, turning 70. And actress and comedian Betty White, an ageless 90 years old.
Congratulations and happy birthday.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Republican presidential candidates crisscrossing South Carolina now, taking swings at each other. Not surprising. The South Carolina primary just four days away.
Now, last night, the candidates met in a raucous debate that included boos, cheers from the audience.
Joining us to talk about the highlights, John Avlon. He's a CNN contributor and senior political columnist for "Newsweek" and "The Daily Beast."
Hey, John.
JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Hey, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: One of the things that caught my attention was this exchange between one of the hosts, Juan Williams, who challenged Newt Gingrich on his comments about the president, labeling him a food stamp president. I want you to see this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JUAN WILLIAMS, MODERATOR: It sounds as if you're seeking to belittle people.
(BOOING)
NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, first of all, Juan, the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: All right. A "New York Times" op-ed by Charles Blow says this is race-baiting, and this is what he says in the article.
He says that "Gingrich seems to understand the historical weight of the view among some Southern whites, many of whom have migrated to the Republican Party, that blacks are lazy and addicted to handouts. He is able to give voice to those feelings without using those words." Do you agree that Newt Gingrich is trying to do that?
JOHN AVLON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I don't think it's a conscious, blatant attempt at race baiting. Certainly, we've seen that a lot historically in our politics. Race has always been a fundamental fault line in American politics.
But this is -- really, this attack, which Newt has made many times before, is largely trying to run off people's resentment over welfare. And that -- even though we had welfare reform back in 1995, when Clinton was president and Newt was running the House of Representatives, that attack still has real resonance among people, especially in economic hard times.
And ironically, you know, it, I think, does resuscitate some imagery that calls back to that welfare queen stereotype and all that. But I don't think it's an explicit attempt at race baiting -- at most, implicit.
MALVEAUX: And national security was also something that solicited (sic) a lot of boos, laughter, bluster. I want you to watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. RON PAUL, R-TEXAS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe we ought to consider a golden rule in foreign policy. Don't do to other nations what we don't want them have to do to us. So we endlessly bomb these countries and then we wonder why they get upset with us? And yet it continues on and on.
FORMER REP. NEWT GINGRICH, R-GA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're in South Carolina. South Carolina in the Revolutionary War had a young 13-year-old named Andrew Jackson. He was sabered by a British officer and wore a scar his whole life. Andrew Jackson had a pretty clear-cut idea about America's enemies -- kill them.
FORMER GOV. MITT ROMNEY, R-MASS., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And Speaker Gingrich is right. Of course you take out our enemies, wherever they are. These people have declared war on us. They've killed Americans. We go anywhere they are and we kill them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So, John, this language here, I don't know, it's debate number 16, who's keeping count here? But do you think that they're trying this kind of hyperbole to get people's attention? Are they trying to differentiate from each other? Are they getting desperate?
AVLON: Well, look, you definitely saw last night an uptick in the war metaphor rhetoric. I mean, Rick Perry himself, you know, talking about, you know, the war on religion and then somehow messing up a pretty basic fact about our NATO ally, Turkey, calling them a terrorist -- Islamic terrorist government, when they're a democratically elected government of a NATO ally.
But you saw the audience was really fired up. They were engaged, they were interactive. And Ron Paul's statement of nonintervention, which he's been consistent about since he ran in '08, at the height of the Bush doctrine, not popular with this crowd, and his opponents took advantage of it. MALVEAUX: And Mitt Romney fighting off a lot of attacks. Here's how he responded to a lot of these complaints about the super PAC ads.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROMNEY: If we're talking about super PAC ads that are inaccurate, Mr. Speaker, you have a super PAC ad --
GINGRICH: And I've --
ROMNEY: -- that attacks me -- now, just hold on -- that attacks me. It's probably the biggest hoax since Bigfoot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: All right. That was a memorable line as well. John, are you surprised -- are you surprised by the tone of this debate? I mean, the boos, I mean, all of this, you know, really harsh, strong language here. In some ways, it kind of lacks civility.
AVLON: It did lack civility, but this is the intense stage of the January primary gauntlet we are in. You know, we'll have CNN's debate Thursday night in Charleston, but this is -- the candidates are getting intense. They know it's crunch time. Only a two folks -- a couple of folks are going to survive this primary and go on to fight in Florida. So tension is high. Anger is there.
I do think it's amazing when Mitt Romney complains about super PAC attacks or dismisses them as ugly politics, given the escalation in Iowa against Newt Gingrich, but this is the tone we're going to see for the next several days leading up to the Saturday primary in South Carolina.
MALVEAUX: And John, who do you think took the debate?
AVLON: Well, I actually think everyone had a pretty bad debate. Santorum exceeded expectations, so did Newt. Everyone was punching at Romney. He got testy at times and had a couple of howlers of his own.
MALVEAUX: All right. John AVLON. Thank you, John. Great to see you.
AVLON: Thank you.
MALVEAUX: So what is it like to be in control of a cruise ship that has just run aground?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPT. LARRY REIMER, AMERICAN MARITIME OFFICERS' UNION: That's it. We're aground. Let's stop engines. Snorre, pull the checklist for grounding.
SNORRE KAUSLAND, AMERICAN MARITIME OFFICERS' UNION: Captain, we have the grounding checklist.
REIMER: I'm going to run the -- during the general alarm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So this is only a simulation, but it is crucial practice for the captains who take the helm of the world's big ships. Inside their training, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: You had thousands of passenger scrambling for lifeboats as the cruise ship tilts closer and closer to the water.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this time, proceed to your station. (Inaudible) outside (inaudible). Please remain calm. The situation is under control. Proceed to your --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: Survivors are telling us stories of the crew looking helpless, that they didn't know what they were doing. What kind of training do crews get before they go on a ship like this? Our own Brian Todd went on one training center for some answers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go.
BRIAN TODD, CNN REPORTER (voice-over): The vessel's pitching drastically, water's coming over the bow, you can feel your stress levels and your lunch rising -- one of the scenarios captains and crew are put through at the American Maritime Officers' Union training facility called the STAR Center.
They've trained thousands of officers here, including several cruise ship captains. With Captain Larry Reimer, we go inside the 360, a high-tech simulator.
REIMER: You have to constantly keep in your mind what type of weight you're dealing with, what type of momentum you're dealing with, and the fact that, behind you here, you've got thousands of passengers.
TODD (voice-over): Every aspect of navigation is covered: steering, depth measurement, speed, how to read maps and radar, where every potential obstacle is. They can recreate every major port in the world.
REIMER: We're coming into New York Harbor now. You've got Governor's Island over here on the right.
TODD (voice-over): They don't have a recreation of the coastline off Giglio, Italy, but they can come close.
TODD: The trainers here have also created a place called Generica. It is a generic country or city that you come into, that has just about every type of characteristic to challenge you for maritime navigation.
Over here, you've got kind of a tight coastline with a village. We've got to go underneath this bridge here to get to a channel to get to the port city over here to the right. You can tell we're underway over here.
You've also got to navigate past some rocky coastline over here. So as we do all that, I'm going to take the con, as they say. I'm going to take the controls, and Capt. Reimer here is going to take me through the process.
TODD (voice-over): The slightest turn can cause a top-heavy cruise ship to pitch dangerously.
REIMER: OK. Not too much, because it -- she'll steady right up on you here. And you --
TODD: I eventually run the ship aground.
REIMER: OK. That's it, we're aground. Let's stop engines. Snorre, pull the checklist for grounding.
KAUSLAND: Captain, we have the grounding checklist.
REIMER: I'm going to run the -- during the general alarm.
TODD (voice-over): They run checks to see if the ship is taking in water, send a mayday call, and never, ever is the captain to leave the bridge of a vessel until everyone else is off the ship. Reimer says they teach captains how to deal with stress.
REIMER: What happens with stress is you get what they call tunnel vision and you lose the whole picture of what's going on, OK? The only way to deal with that, to take that stress off you, to open your awareness of what's going on, is to take some of the stress off you and to give it to other members of the team.
TODD (voice-over): Reimer says the most common mistake captains make, trying to do everything themselves. Outside, we're shown how they train crew members to evacuate everyone onto lifeboats.
REIMER: We would pull that. That lowers the boat.
TODD (voice-over): Snorre Kausland, who teaches crisis and crowd management, says all crew members, from cooks to housekeepers to entertainers, each have a task in an emergency, to muster passengers at specific places, get them organized.
KAUSLAND: You have a whole lot of people on board that are not mariners and have absolutely no training in safety matters, and those are, of course, the passengers. So the regulations say we need to find some way to, you know, inform the passengers of what an emergency signal is, how to use a life jacket, and also what to do when they hear an emergency signal. TODD: The trainers here say despite the Costa Concordia accident and the perceptions emanating from that, the cruise ship industry is still incredibly safe. They have hundreds of thousands of people are on the high seas on these cruise ships every day. Accidents are extremely rare, and the vast majority of captains and crew are very well trained -- Brian Todd, CNN, Dania Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MALVEAUX: So think restaurants are the future? Are they actually going to have waiters? Not if this gadget takes off. More after the break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Hi, ever been frustrated by bad service at a restaurant? Of course all of us have. Well, this company, this new company is hoping to change it. They want you to be able to browse the menu, order your food, pay the bill, all without human contact. Dan Simon has more.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAN SIMON, CNN REPORTER: Twenty-six-year-old Raj Suri is not in the restaurant business, but he might be responsible for how we all dine in the future. And you can thank him or blame him, depending on your point of view. The MIT dropout has invented a tablet for restaurants that allows people to browse an electronic menu, order meals, and pay without ever having to wait for the waiter.
RAJ SURI, E LA CARTE FOUNDER: It improves the guest experience, right? Because guests now have control of their experience. They don't have to wait for anyone. They can go at their own pace. You never are caught, you know, if you want an extra drink, you can put in the order straight away.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How do you want it?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Medium well.
SIMON (voice-over): It's already happening at Cafe Calafia in the heart of Silicon Valley. Each table has its own tablet, which also includes games for children, pictures of the food to give you a better idea of what you're ordering, and a built-in credit card swiper, so you don't have to wait for the bill.
SURI: Why wait when there's technology out there, you know, that can make life faster, right?
SIMON: Presto from start to finish. In fact, Presto is what they call this system. It's been introduced in about 300 restaurants nationwide. Suri's company called E La Carte leases the system for a fee ranging from $100 to $200 a month.
SURI: From that, they actually make thousands of dollars in revenues from extra sales. You know, from speeding up table turns and all that type of thing.
SIMON: In each of these restaurants, the tablet is optional. Meaning you can still order the old-fashioned way from a human being. But it does have the potential to be a job killer.
SIMON (on camera): If a restaurant wanted to, they could replace their waiting staff and just have food servers. Take the waiter out of it.
SURI: That's right. Yes, I think that's definitely a possibility. But I think the more likely possibility is that there are less waiters, maybe like 20 percent less, like maybe the worst waiters are not there anymore, but the best waiters still are. And so those existing waiters actually make higher tips because they have more tables.
CHARLIE AERS (ph): The orders go right up to the screen on the line.
SIMON (voice-over): Charlie Aers, the owner of this cafe, became a believer when he visited restaurants that were using tablets in Europe and Asia.
AERS: Many people say this is not hospitable whatsoever. This is the greatest example of hospitality. When a staff member can't get to you on time, I've now empowered you, the guest, to be able to order and get in and out on your time now.
SIMON: As for customers, the ones we talked to liked it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's really convenient. I like having it. I can get in and out whatever I want, especially on a quick lunchtime when I'm working.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As any device like this, you know, it makes people lose a little touch with reality and our surroundings and be less social, but I think other than that, it's a great tool.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MALVEAUX: So, Dan, talk a little bit about whether or not the inventor, the owner of this idea -- are they worried at all that they're going to be eliminating jobs? These waiters and these waitresses that normally do this?
SIMON: Well, as you heard him say, he thinks maybe you could have 20 percent waiting staff at a restaurant. We are in Cafe Califia. They're getting ready for the lunch crowd here. But they believe that this really works best in concert with waiters. Say you're, you know, sitting at a table and you want to order an extra drink or an appetizer, well, instead of waiting for that waiter to come back, you can just, you know, pull up the tablet and put in your order, and, boom, it will come to you in a few minutes. They see this very much in line, you know, with ATMs or with pay at the pump. You know technologies that made our lives easier, Suzanne.
MALVEAUX: Yes, easier, but, you know, we've all waited tables at one point in our lives. It's one of those experiences, you know. It's kind of like cutting off that human interaction, right, that one of those customers talked about?
SIMON: Well, you know what, they actually thought about that. And one of the things that is in this system are games. So you have games for children, games for adults. Now we're going to let the people at home decide on this issue, but they believe that they actually encourage human interaction at the table, all the guests can kind of get together, play some games. They can even talk about the food that's on the menu. There's some interactive pictures of the food on the electronic tablet. So, again, we'll let the people at home decide.
MALVEAUX: All right, I'm living in a different world. You're going to have to drag me along with this modern technology. Thank you, Dan.
I want to go to Chad Myers. I understand we've got severe storm weather passing through the region.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, some pictures just out of Louisville right now. Louisville, Kentucky. Some -- we have live shots and a little bit of what we call tape turn, which the tape just came in. We turned the best stuff and then we show it to you. This is out of WAVE, just in from Kentucky. Had some tornado warnings earlier. Can't confirm whether this was just a wind event or was it actually a tornado? It would have been a small tornado if we see something here. We had a little -- couple pictures of a roof off here and this here. This is minor. You could see that with just a 70-mile-per-hour straight line wind.
But what you need to know, as it's already moved through Louisville, kind of getting close to Lexington right now, there's a potential for small tornadoes today, some wind damage, some small hail, all the way from central Kentucky, all the way down to Mississippi and Alabama. So that's straight through Tennessee as well.
MALVEAUX: All right, keep a close eye on that. Thank you, Chad.
MYERS: OK. We'll do.
MALVEAUX: Today's "Talk Back" question, should Mitt Romney release his tax returns? John says, "it's none of our business as to what is on them. We as a country ask way too much personal private information from our presidents." More of your responses up ahead.
But first, here's some free advice from our CNN "Help Desk" team. Today's questions deal with your credit report and when to cash out on your 401(k). Here's Poppy Harlow.
POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: Time now for "The Help Desk," where we get answers to your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Donna Rosato is the senior editor at "Money" magazine. Jack Otter is the executive editor of cbsmoneywatch.com.
Thank you both for being here.
Donna, your question comes from Susan in Oxford, Ohio. Susan says, "I've heard items on your credit report older than seven years are dropped. Is that true?" DONNA ROSATO, SENIOR EDITOR, "MONEY": Well, there's a lot of confusion about that. It's true that late payments or debts that go unpaid do stay on your credit history for about seven -- for seven years. But it really depends on what that negative item is. If it is an unpaid tax lien, Uncle Sam gets really upset about that. It can be on your credit report for at least 15 years. And if it's a bankruptcy, you're going to look at it for about 10 years.
Now, if you have those kind of negative things on your credit report, the older those are, the less it's going to affect your score. So you want to keep up good credit habits. The things that are in the near term are going to help you a lot more. Pay your bills on time, don't rack up a lot of debt, and the keep the amount of debt available to you at a large amount. If you do those things, those blemishes should diminish over time.
HARLOW: Diminish.
ROSATO: That's right.
HARLOW: Not go away in seven years. Thank you.
And, Jack, your question comes from Kathy in Columbus, Ohio. Kathy wrote into us. "I'm 30 years old. I have a 401(k) worth around $30,000 from an old employer. I'm thinking about cashing out the 401(k) and using the funds to purchase a home or pay off student loans that have an interest rate of over 9 percent. Am I crazy for considering this?
JACK OTTER, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, CBSMONEYWATCH.COM: Well, she's not crazy, but I would recommend strongly against it. For starters, she's going to pay a 10 percent penalty for withdrawing that money early, and she's going to pay back taxes on all of it. So suddenly that $30,000 is really more like $20,000.
Second of all, I know it sounds so far away at age 30, but retirement is very expensive and she needs all this time to compound that $30,000 so that it's something real and can help her. Pensions are going away. I don't believe the scare mongers who say Social Security won't be there, but the benefits my shrink. So she -- and life spans are getting longer. She really needs that money. So I would try to refinance those student loans. Nine percent is very high. Look for a government loan. You go to Direct Loan to try to reduce that number a little bit. And, look, everyone wants a house, but, you know what, I don't think it's quite as high a priority as Americans often put on it.
HARLOW: Yes, I would love one.
OTTER: There's no shame in renting. There's no shame in renting. Put aside what she can for that down payment. I don't see the markets skyrocketing anytime soon. But, really, leave that retirement savings alone.
HARLOW: All right, guys, great. Thanks for your advice. And if you've got a question you want answered, just send us an e-mail any time to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: You've been sounding off on the "Talk Back" question. Should Mitt Romney release his tax returns? Carol Costello is here with your responses.
So, Carol, is this a big deal to folks?
COSTELLO: It is.
This is from Bill. Listen to what he says. He says, "running for president or not, financial information is private. If Romney chooses to release them, fine. If not, let it go. How he made his living has no bearing on his leadership potentials."
This from Jose. "If we apply for a job and the job requires bringing specific information to the table, we have to if we want the job, right? So his being asked for information, bring it on and let's move on, otherwise face the music that's about to start."
This from Jake. "What does this solve? I could care less how much he makes. I'm a soldier. I want to know how the man in office is looking out for our whole country. I wouldn't want someone in my business and neither would anyone else."
This from Temitayo. "He should. When that is, I don't really care. One of my issues with him not releasing it is this -- if his tax returns are a true reflection of his wealth and he has never experienced true hardship, how can he relate to me, one of the 99 percent?"
Please, keep the conversation flowing, facebook.com/carolcnn. Facebook.com/carolcnn. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MALVEAUX: Checking some of the stories from across the country.
All right, let's face it, this is just too much snow. Even for Alaska. Valdez is on a record-breaking pace, 322 inches -- that's more than 26 feet of snow -- buried the town so far this winter. Valdez is actually hiring people $20 an hour to help dig out.
Well, from the snow to the wild scene in Vernon County, Missouri, a lightning storm blew through an area overnight, triggering this blaze of light against the night sky. Mesmerizing to watch, but also dangerous. Lightning hit a police officer in Joplin, Missouri. He is in critical condition.
And in Amarillo, Texas, a look into the future. Girl Scout cookie sales gone high-tech. That's right. Soon you can get a cookie locator app for your iPhone or Android. Order your favorites with a touch of your finger. So, I think selling them door to door is the good old fashioned way. That's what I enjoyed.
CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Michael Holmes, who's in for Randi Kaye. Hey Michael. MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, good to see you again. And now, filling in, yes, filling in for Randi Kaye. Look at that.
