LaPook, Bill Whitaker, Steve Hartman
xfdcb CBS-EVENING-NEWS-01
<Show: CBS EVENING NEWS>
<Date: February 8, 2010>
<Time: 18:30>
<Tran: 020801cb.401>
<Type: SHOW>
<Head: EVENING NEWS for February 8, 2010, CBS>
<Sect: News; Domestic>
<Byline: Katie Couric, Mark Strassmann, Nancy Cordes, Celia
Hatton, Dr. Jon LaPook, Bill Whitaker, Steve Hartman>
<Guest: Barack Obama>
<High: Interview with Barack Obama.>
<Spec: Politics; Policies>
KATIE COURIC, CBS ANCHOR: Tonight, all Saints day. A hero's welcome home as the Super Bowl champions go marching in to New Orleans. I'm Katie Couric. Also tonight, Sarah Palin takes on the president.(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH PALIN: How's that hopey changey stuff working out for you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COURIC: Could this be a preview of 2012? Children and autism. A new study finds the risk increases with the age of the mother. And everyone in the world has a story. His began when he struck oil --or at least struck the oil company.
ANNOUNCER: From CBS News world headquarters in New York, this is the CBS EVENING NEWS with Katie Couric.
COURIC: Good evening, everyone. Mardi Gras has come early to New Orleans and the people of that city are floating on air after the Saints upset the Colts to win their first-ever Super Bowl. And the game itself made history drawing more than 106 million viewers. That makes it the most-watched television program in U.S. history. Mark Strassmann reports on the Saints in New Orleans coming back stronger than ever.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARK STRASSMANN, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Saints be praised. New Orleans is back on top.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You deserve it, dog!
STRASSMANN: And to Saints players, fans, and their battered city, the magic of Miami goes beyond football. This moment is about redemption.
DREW BREES, QUARTERBACK, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS: There's no people that we would want to win more for than the city of New Orleans. So it's an honor and just an unbelievable feeling.
STRASSMANN: As soon as the game ended, Bourbon Street was bedlam. On CBS, the largest television audience in history saw a Super Bowl upset. But four years after Katrina, many Saints fans finally saw something more: a city that's no longer underwater.
WALLY TURNER, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS FAN: These people have more heart and more will than anybody in the United States.
STRASSMANN: The Superdome, once a symbol of sorrow for Katrina refugees, is now the home of champions.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who dat nation!
STRASSMANN: So today all Saints fans in Who Dat Nation were strutting their stuff and wearing their pride. Just today this mom and pop Saints souvenir store expects to sell 12,000 shirts and 15,000 hats that say
Super Bowl Champs. Each one caps a special season when the team and their fans looked at each other and saw a little of themselves.
MATT ZIFLE, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS FAN: That's true. There's something there. There's some -- Some connection, some relationship.
SEAN PAYTON, HEAD COACH, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS: You know, there's a lot of grit, a lot of determination with the people in that city, in that region. And, you know, they fought so hard and this is what makes it uniquely different.
STRASSMANN: Felix Salande (ph) never gave up. As a life long Saints fan or as a Katrina survivor. Ten feet of water left his family with next to nothing. They slept for three months in a tent or a truck. Today, his life rebuilt, Salande cleared trash that Saints fans left behind in the French Quarter and also swept away a lot of personal history.
(on camera): Is Katrina finally behind this city with this victory?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is. I think it is. I don't think anybody's worrying about Katrina anymore, yeah.
STRASSMANN: And would that have been the case without this victory?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think so.
STRASSMANN (voice over): Katrina put 80 percent of this city under water. Even Saints fans realize the rebuilding will go on.
ALTHEA ROBINSON, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS FAN: It gives us something to hope for and I think that's what it's about, you know, hoping for a better day.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
STRASSMANN (voice over): Football fans know the Super Bowl set 16 records, MVP Drew Brees passed for 82 percent of his passes successfully. That said, what matters much more to New Orleans, its swagger is back. Katie?
COURIC: Mark Strassmann in New Orleans tonight. Mark, thank you so much. To politics now. The presidential election is still a long way off, but Republican Sarah Palin was sounding very much like a candidate over the weekend as she addressed the tea party convention in Nashville. While she didn't throw her hat into the ring, she did seem willing to try it on for size. Here's Nancy Cordes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARAH PALIN: America is ready for another revolution, and you are a part of this.
NANCY CORDES, CBS CORRESPONDENT: The former vice-presidential candidate gave the anti-spending small government tea party crowd just what they came to hear.
PALIN: We're drowning in national debt. Only limited government can expand prosperity. Many of us have had enough.
UNIDENTIFIED MALES AND FEMALES: Yes!
CORDES: Half the speech was devoted to slamming the president.
PALIN: How's that hopey changey stuff working out for you?
CORDES: Criticizing him for everything from the stimulus bill to national security.
PALIN: We need a commander-in-chief, not a professor of law standing at the lecture!
JOHN DICKERSON, CBS NEWS POLITICAL ANALYST: What was different about this Sarah Palin speech is that it had all of the smell and look of a campaign speech, both in the way she delivered it and in the reaction from the crowd, the constant standing ovation. It was as if she were already a candidate.
CORDES: Indeed, the very next day when asked whether she would consider a White House bid Palin left the door wide open.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why wouldn't you run for president?
PALIN: I would! I would if I believed that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family certainly. I would do so.
CORDES: And while the former Alaska governor dismissed the president Saturday night as a ...
PALIN: Charismatic guy with a teleprompter.
CORDES: She may have been relying on some crib notes of her own. Cameras captured the words energy, tax cuts and lift American spirits scribbled on her hand.
PALIN: Allowing America's spirit to rise again.
CORDES: Which she appeared to refer to in the Q A directly following her speech.
PALIN: We have got to start reigning in the spending, we have got to jumpstart these energy projects.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CORDES: Her supporters called it an endearing sign that Palin is a real person, while detractors argue it's proof she doesn't know her facts. Katie?
COURIC: Nancy Cordes in Washington, Nancy, thank you. Now to the man governor Palin is criticizing and may wind up challenging for reelection. Though he's been in office just over a year, President Obama has given more than 160 interviews and taken questions at 26 town meetings. In my interview with him yesterday, I asked him about the criticism he gets from some political analysts that in spite of all that exposure, people are not sure who he is or what he stands for.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is the Washington analysis that came up over the last couple of months since my poll numbers went down. Nobody was saying that when my poll numbers were high, right? And I -- so I just take these kinds of things with a grain of salt.
COURIC: So you don't pay attention to that?
OBAMA: I really don't. I -- I -- my job is to do the best possible job for the American people.
I wrote two books. I've done, as you said, a gazillion interviews, and I spent two years running for president. And I think people have a very good sense of what I care about.
I got into this because, you know, my family had its struggles, and yet somehow I was able to get the best education in the world and was able to ascend to the highest office in the land. And I want to make sure every kid in America has that, not just now but in the future. And -- so I think people understand what motivates me.
I think -- I think the pundits, what they're trying to figure out, is why did his poll numbers drop? And Michelle pointed out, you know, if you're the average mom out -- working mom out there, your husband's just lost his job; you're seeing your hours cut back; your home value is lost $100,000 in value; you're trying to figure out how to save for your kids' college education; your 401(k) has just lost half its value. And suddenly somebody calls you on the phone in the middle of dinner and says, So how's the president doing? I think their answer is going to be pretty self- apparent. They're not going to be happy. And they shouldn't be.
So if we work hard and stay focused on what matters to people in their day to day lives and make some occasionally tough decisions, and the economy improves and people's lives improve, then I think we'll do just fine and everybody will be saying what a connection President Obama has with the American people. Which is what they were saying a year ago.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COURIC: In other news, tens of thousands of Prius owners are expected to hear tonight that Toyota is recalling the hybrid car to fix a brake problem. Celia Hatton now with the latest on Toyota's troubles.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CELIA HATTON, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Today, Toyota factories in the U.S. resumed producing eight car models recalled for gas pedals that could get stuck. But the company is still wrestling with how to fix brake problems on its Prius model and repair the damage to its corporate reputation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In recent days, our company hasn't been living up to the standards that you've come to expect from us.
HATTON: Behind the scenes, Toyota reportedly is considering recalling the 2010 Prius because dozens of drivers have complained that the brakes seem to fail momentarily in bad weather or on bumpy roads. CBS News has learned the company is now inspecting all of its gas/electric hybrid models for the same problem.
CHRISTOPHER RICHTER, CLSA: Right now, everybody is sensitized to any possible defect in any Toyota and every model they've got is under the microscope.
HATTON: On Wednesday, Congressional hearings will look into when the company and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration knew something was wrong with Toyota's vehicles. State Farm Insurance alerted the government as far back as 2007 about sticking gas pedals that could cause sudden dangerous acceleration. And in Japan, the government has begun its own Prius investigation.
Last year, the Prius was the best-selling car in Japan, and a recall to fix the brakes on the 2010 model will affect many more cars here than in the U.S., but most drivers in Japan remain loyal to Toyota.
In Tokyo, new customers are still visiting this show room. Just one car is affected here this woman says. But it doesn't necessarily mean other Toyota cars are bad.
But while some drivers in Japan may be willing to give the automaker another chance, customers in the rest of the world may not be so forgiving. Celia Hatton, CBS News, Tokyo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COURIC: Investors would like to put the brakes on the stock market slide. The Dow lost more than a hundred points today to close below 10,000 for the first time in three months.
In Los Angeles today, Michael Jackson's doctor pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter in the pop star's death. Fans chanted Justice for Michael as Dr. Conrad Murray arrived at the courthouse. He faces as much as four years in prison if convicted. Murray has admitted he gave Jackson a powerful anesthetic to help him sleep before he died last June. And coming up next, researchers find older mothers are at greater risk of giving birth to children with autism.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COURIC: Now to the mystery of autism. A new study out tonight says a woman over 40 is 50 percent more likely to give birth to a child with autism than a woman in her late 20s. And for a father over 40, the risk is 36 percent higher. Dr. Jon LaPook has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. JON LAPOOK, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Margot Shaw's 13-year-old son Andy has autism. Although she knew there were risks to having a child in her late 30s, she never saw it coming.
MARGOT SHAW: I don't think autism ever was something I considered.
LAPOOK: New research finds a mother's risk of having a child with autism gradually increases as she gets older.
IRVA HERTZ-PICCIOTTO, U.C. DAVIS M.I.N.D. INSTITUTE: Mothers who are over the age of 40 are at much higher risk for having a child who develops autism than mothers who are under the age of 25.
LAPOOK: The study looked at nearly 5 million births in California from 1990 to 1999. Women over 40 were almost 80 percent more likely to have a child with autism than those under age 25. But to keep the numbers in perspective, risk is still very small, about one in 225 births.
HERTZ-PICCIOTTO: We don't know how much of it is biological or how much of it is that mothers who delay child bearing tend to be more educated mothers and may be better at getting the right diagnosis for their child.
LAPOOK: The study also found risk increased with older dads, but only if the mother was under 30.
DR. DOLORES MALASPINA, PROF. OF PSYCHIATRY, NYU LANGONE MED. CTR. The research shines a light on a very important disease mechanism that we haven't understood before. As egg cells and sperm cells of men and women age, changes are occurring there that affect the social functioning of their offspring.
LAPOOK: This study is getting attention because it comes just a week after a prestigious medical journal retracted an article linking autism to vaccines. Scientists believe the real cause lies in a combination of factors, including age, environment, and genetics.
MALASPINA: The age of the mother or the father may be changing the way their genes are turned on or off in their children.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAPOOK: Experts say the risks are still relatively small and the vast majority of babies born to older mothers do not develop autism. Katie?
COURIC: Jon LaPook. Jon, thanks very much. At the U.S. Capitol today, flags were lowered to half-staff in honor of Congressman John Murtha. The Pennsylvania Democrat, long one of the most influential men in Washington, died today of complications from gallbladder surgery.
As chairman of the subcommittee overseeing Pentagon spending, Murtha was proud his district got billions in government contracts. And though known as a defense hawk, he made headlines in 2005 when he changed his mind on Iraq and called for an immediate withdrawal. Murtha served in the Marines, volunteering to go to Vietnam, and in 1974, he became the first Vietnam vet to win election to Congress. He was reelected 17 times. John Murtha was 77.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COURIC: Tomorrow marks four weeks since the earthquake that killed as many as 200,000 people in Haiti. About a million survivors are still without shelter. Worldwide, more than $2.3 billion has been pledged for Haitian relief. Meanwhile, Bill Whitaker has the latest on those ten Americans being held in Haiti on kidnapping charges.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL WHITAKER, CBS CORRESPONDENT: The heart wrenching cries of Haitian children. In this behind-the-scenes video acquired by CBS News, the ten American missionaries have just been arrested for trying to spirit 33 Haitian children out of the country. Their leader, Laura Silsby, under tough interrogation says again ...
LAURA SILSBY: Most of the parents are dead ...
WHITAKER: ... and again ...
SILSBY: Most of these children's parents died in the earthquake.
WHITAKER: ... that she's helping the orphans and today in the second exclusive CBS News jail cell interview, these three Americans told us they support Silsby's story.
CARLA THOMPSON, NEW LIFE CHILDREN'S REFUGE: We asked them all --are their parents here? I mean we asked every single one of them.
That's just not true, says Lelly Laurrentus. He gave his two young daughters to the Americans on the promise of a better life than he could ever provide. Lots of kids had parents, he said, I told Laura that. We went back to the tiny mountain village, home to 20 of the 33 children. Their parents refute almost all of Silsby's claims. They never signed any papers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no, no.
WHITAKER (on camera): Legal or illegal?
(voice over): And Silsby knew what she was doing, says the Americans' translator Isaac Adrien.
ISAAC ADRIEN, TRANSLATOR: I don't know if she told the rest, but she knew.
WHITAKER (on camera): Laura Silsby knew.
ADRIEN: Yeah.
WHITAKER (voice over): Laura Silsby went before the judge again today.
SILSBY: It went very well.
WHITAKER: But in our exclusive jail cell interview today, the three American women say they are ...
NICOLE LANKFORD, NEW LIFE CHRISTIAN'S REFUGE: Discouraged. We thought that we'd be free right away. That people would know we were innocent.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITAKER: And also tonight, this development. A 28-year-old man was pulled from the rubble alive. His family says he survived trapped under a supermarket since the earthquake 27 days ago. Katie?
COURIC: Bill Whitaker reporting from Port-au-Prince tonight. Thanks, Bill. In Washington, D.C., they're still digging out from that monster storm that dumped as much as three feet of snow over the weekend and Snowmageddon, as some are calling it, may not be over. Another foot of snow could begin to fall on the nation's Capitol tomorrow night. And still ahead, everyone in the world has a story and you'll hear his when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COURIC: Shuttle Endeavor lifting off before dawn today, heading for the international space station where the crew of six will install a new room and observation deck. Meanwhile, back on planet Earth, Steve Hartman continues the mission he was assigned by an astronaut aboard the station to prove everyone in the world has a story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Zero and liftoff!
STEVE HARTMAN, CBS CORRESPONDENT: When CBS News and NASA launched this unprecedented project, our theory was that earthlings are earthlings and that no matter where astronaut Jeff Williams sent me, I'd find someone who shares our basic American values. Although, honestly, we never planned on this.
The country, Oman, the city, Muscat. It's in the Middle East right next to Yemen. The official faith, Islam. The official language, Arabic.
(on camera): Well, I'm just going to have to point and you're going to have to say what the name is.
JEFF WILLIAMS: OK.
(voice over): My dad especially was really worried about how I would be greeted in this country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Abdul Lahmoud Muhammad Skakeili (ph)
HARTMAN (on camera): Hello!
(voice over): Fortunately, dad ...
(on camera): How are you doing?
(voice over): Not only was I greeted with a warm smile ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Abdullah Shakeil ...
HARTMAN (on camera): Nice to meet you, Abdullah.
(voice over): I was greeted with a warm plate.
(on camera): So, this is the traditional way when you have a visitor?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
HARTMAN (voice over): Abdullah retired just a few months ago at the age of 60 and says he's now looking forward to helping his children achieve the same level of success he did. But I'm already getting way ahead of myself. His story actually begins long ago and far away. To get there, you've got to drive two hours outside town to the first rock on the left.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our village.
HARTMAN: Abdullah grew up in this village.
(on camera): This feels like it's a thousand years old.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, yeah, some of them is older.
HARTMAN: Were they -- your relatives all that lived here?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Relatives, yes.
HARTMAN (voice over): Mud walls, dirt poor. Abdullah never got to go to grade school, never had a dinar to his name.
(on camera): You have come a long way in 60 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, yeah.
HARTMAN (voice over): Abdullah made his money in oil -- although not at all in the way you might expect. In 1971 at the age of 21, Abdullah was one of the first five locals hired by the American oil exploration company Schlumberger. The Omanis worked as grunts basically with no real hope for advancement.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Labor work was very hard, very hard. And food, accommodations, very poor. Sometimes we worked 24 hours continuity.
HARTMAN: By 1972, Abdullah was so frustrated he organized the country's first-ever labor strike. It lasted two weeks and it worked. It opened the door for Omanis looking to better themselves and Abdullah A- Shakeili was one of the first to charge on through.
Even though he had almost no education, in the end, Abdullah was teaching engineering graduates how to find oil. He's proud of that. But like any parent who started with nothing, he's worried that now his kids have it too easy.
(on camera): We are very disconnected. And you think they're missing something?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, one way, good life.
HARTMAN (voice over): Which brings us back to where this whole story started.
(on camera): Are you sure this is safe?
(voice over): Abdullah still owns this mud hut and says he wouldn't sell it for all the oil in Oman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I think it should remind us.
HARTMAN (on camera): I can see what you mean about having that place and this place.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
HARTMAN: Being able to compare the two.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, if you have no back, no front you see?
HARTMAN (voice over): Perspective. It's one of the hardest things to pass on to your children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At least watch the door.
HARTMAN: But Abdullah says if you repeat those old stories often enough, you can come pretty close to imprinting it on their DNA.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We inherited the concept from him, the principle.
HARTMAN (voice over): Hopefully ensuring prosperity for generations to come.
Next week, in our final just for fun episode of Everyone in the World Has a Story we pick the man who did the picking. What's Jeff Williams' story?
JEFF WILLIAMS: I want to eat a meal where the food behaves well on my plate.
HARTMAN: That's next Monday night.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COURIC: Terrific series. Thank you, Steve.
HARTMAN: Thank you, Katie.
COURIC: And that's the CBS EVENING NEWS, I'm Katie Couric.
END
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