Blackstone, Richard Schlesinger
xfdcb CBS-EVENING-NEWS-01
<Show: CBS EVENING NEWS>
<Date: February 16, 2010>
<Time: 18:30>
<Tran: 021601cb.401>
<Type: SHOW>
<Head: EVENING NEWS for February 16, 2010, CBS>
<Sect: News; Domestic>
<Byline: Katie Couric, David Martin, Mandy Clark, Nancy Cordes,
John Blackstone, Richard Schlesinger>
<High: U.S. forces capture a top Taliban military commander.>
<Spec: World Affairs; Afghanistan; War>
KATIE COURIC, CBS ANCHOR: Tonight, a major blow to the Taliban. Their top military commander is captured just as U.S. and Afghan forces are routing them from the key stronghold of Marjah. I'm Katie Couric.Also tonight, America is hemorrhaging good-paying factory jobs. What will it take to get them back? Where America stands on manufacturing?
And a doctor with an unusual specialty.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you patients know about your obsession?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: From CBS News world headquarters in New York, this is the CBS EVENING NEWS with Katie Couric.
COURIC: Good evening, everyone. It could be a major turning point in the war against the Taliban. U.S. officials say the Taliban's top military commander is in custody. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured in Karachi several days ago as part of a joint U.S./Pakistani operation. It is a huge loss for the Taliban. And it could be a sign Pakistan is getting serious about denying the militants safe haven. More now from national security correspondent David Martin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MARTIN, CBS CORRESPONDENT: He was the top commander of Taliban fighters killing American soldiers in Afghanistan. Now he's a prisoner.
BRUCE RIEDEL, THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: This is the most significant victory we have had in nine years of fighting the Afghan Taliban.
MARTIN: Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was second only to Taliban leader Mullah Omar and in charge of day to day operations.
RIEDEL: Any time you take down a significant player like this it's disruptive immediately because everyone in the Taliban has to wonder who ratted them out.
MARTIN: Baradar was captured in Karachi by a joint U.S./Pakistani operation. A stark reversal of Pakistan's claims that Taliban leaders are not hiding there.
HAROUN MIR, AFGHANISTAN CTR. FOR RESEARCH POLICY STUDIES: Until now, Pakistanis have turned a blind eye on the Afghan Taliban activities in Pakistan.
MARTIN: Officials call Baradar the linchpin of Taliban strategy in Afghanistan. And his capture comes just as the U.S. and its allies have launched a new offensive in Helmand province.
JUAN ZARATE, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: The same time that we're pushing against their forces in southern Afghanistan, we've captured their top general.
MARTIN: Between whatever laptops and cell phones he had at the time of his arrest and what he knows, he is a potential gold mine of intelligence.
RIEDEL: The unique thing about this individual was that he'd been working for the Taliban for well over a decade. He knew the inside and outside of how the Taliban operates.
MARTIN: Baradar is in Pakistani custody and the Americans have to go through them to get to him.
RIEDEL: I think they're going to be very certain to keep their grip on this interrogation process.
MARTIN (on camera): they're going to limit American access to this guy?
RIEDEL: I would think they would limit our access. What we have to do is make sure we get as much of the take as possible.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN: Baradar is said to be talking, but mostly to find out what kind of deal he could get if he cooperates. Katie?
COURIC: And David, if he is such a gold mine of information, is he likely to spill the beans on the whereabouts of the top Taliban leader in Afghanistan, Mullah Omar?
MARTIN: Well, if anybody could lead the U.S. to Mullah Omar, this is the guy. And he could also help find some senior al-Qaeda leaders. But now the word of his capture is out, they've surely gone aground.
COURIC: All right. David Martin at the Pentagon tonight. David, thank you. David mentioned that major offensive now underway in southern Afghanistan. Today, second company of 150 U.S. Marines joined the battle to retake Marjah. The fighting is said to be sporadic. The Taliban disorganized. U.S. and Afghan troops are being careful to avoid more civilian casualties. 15 were inadvertently killed over the weekend. Mandy Clark reports tonight from Marjah.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MANDY CLARK, CBS CORRESPONDENRT: Road by road, house by house, coalition forces are picking their way through Marjah, a town that's become a minefield. Coalition officials say the fighting is dying down, but they're finding a huge number of booby traps, most are safely detonated. But some find their targets. The insurgents often hide in nearby houses and trigger the bomb when a military vehicle is passing. The reason they're searching that compound is a command wire that was linked to 30 pounds of explosives led into that building. But sometimes there are bombs hidden in houses, too, so the Marines attach a small charge and what could have been a deadly trap is reduced to a pile of rubble. The best way of locating the bombs, of course, is to get local residents to help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Try to find all the mines and the IEDs.
CLARK: It's a message that elders are taking back to their villages and the Marines say that everyday they're getting more assistance from the local population. All over Marjah, the Afghan national flag is being raised, sending the message that the Taliban is gone. But that is only the beginning in the long struggle to win over the trust of these war-weary people. Mandy Clark, CBS News, Marjah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COURIC: Here at home, federal safety regulators are asking that age- old question: what did you know and when did you know it? They asked Toyota today to turn over documents to show when and how it first became aware of the problems with gas pedals. The law requires manufacturers to notify the government within five days of discovering the safety defect and promptly conduct a recall. If it's found that Toyota did not take action in a timely manner, the company could get hit with fines of more than $16 million.
From defective cars to what some say is a broken political system in Washington. Democratic Senator Evan Bayh shook things up there this week when he said he wants out. He said he doesn't like Congress. Polls show most Americans don't, either, because, as congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes tells us, it can't seem to get anything done.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. EVAN BAYH, (D), INDIANA: Thank you all again.
NANCY CORDES, CBS CORRESPONDENT: Senator Evan Bayh isn't the first lawmaker this year to say he doesn't want to work in Washington anymore because Washington doesn't work.
BAYH: Congress is not operating as it should. There's much too much partisanship. The people's business is not getting done.
CORDES: To see how stalled the Senate has become, just look at the numbers. Senate Democrats voted along straight party lines an average of 91 percent of the time last year. That's a record high. Republicans threatened filibusters to block legislation more than 100 times, far outstripping their previous high of 62.
SEN. ROBERT MENENDEZ, (D), NEW JERSEY: That was all to say no because they believe saying no to Barack Obama and to this Congress is a way for them to get elected to office. I think the American people aren't going to accept that.
CORDES: That obstructionist image, mocked mercilessly in cartoons like this one, has begun to stick. According to a recent CBS News poll, only 29 percent of Americans think the GOP is trying to work with the president. While 62 percent think Mr. Obama is reaching across the aisle. And yet that doesn't appear to be hurting the GOP's electoral chances. 36 of the Senate's 100 seats are up for grabs in November, but only 11 races are considered so competitive the seat could change hands. Eight of those vulnerable seats are currently held by Democrats. Only three by Republicans.
MARC AMBINDER, POLITICAL ANALYST: The point is, Democrats are in power, they can't get anything done, they can complain that, well, it's not our fault, but the American people are going to look at them and say I don't care.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CORDES: If the Republicans swept all the competitive races, they would still be one vote shy of a majority in the Senate, but that would make it even more difficult for Democrats to pass legislation that's been languishing like health care and cap and trade. Katie?
COURIC: And it's still very early in the game, Nancy. I know some Democrats say they want to change the rules to do away with the filibuster all together. Is that likely to happen?
CORDES: Not really, because changing the Senate rules, Katie in mid- session would require 67 votes and its unlikely that Republicans would vote to do away with what is their most powerful weapon. But one alternative Democrats have been mulling over is the possibility of forcing Republicans to follow through on some of these filibuster threats. Meaning they would actually have to stand on the Senate floor giving speeches for hours on end, no chance to leave, to get a drink of water and go to the bathroom. And that is something that could go on for a while and really gum up the works. The longest filibuster by a single senator dates back to 1957 when Strom Thurmond spoke on the floor for 24 hours and 18 minutes, Katie.
COURIC: All right. Nancy Cordes in Washington. Nancy, thanks very much. Meanwhile, President Obama is trying to breathe new life into America's nuclear power industry. Today he announced plans to provide more than $8 billion, a new federal loan guarantees to build new nuclear reactors in Georgia. They would be the first new plant since the Three Mile Island accident more than three decades ago. And coming up next here on the CBS EVENING NEWS, high paying factory jobs disappearing by the thousands. Can we get them back? Where America stands on manufacturing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COURIC: As the U.S. economy struggles, we're not just losing jobs, we're losing manufacturing jobs, the kind that pay well, have benefits and provide a comfortable middle-class life-style. Of the nearly 8.5 million jobs lost since the recession began, more than a quarter were in manufacturing and getting them back may require a big change in attitude about working with our hands. John Blackstone continues our series CBS Reports: Where America Stands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE0
JOHN BLACKSTONE, CBS CORRESPONDENT: For many high school students thinking of a promising career, this would be a field trip to avoid. A visit on a cold day to a noisy drafty building to watch steel workers cut, drill, and weld. But the kids from Benson High in Portland, Oregon, are getting a sales pitch from Drew Park, the president of Columbia Wire and Iron.
DREW PARK: It's not a dead end situation. All the guys that are bosses typically started out at the very bottom.
BLACKSTONE: By the time the tour is over, some of the students are seeing their future.
JEFF WALLBERG, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: It's amazing the skill they have to make sure that weld is just right.
CORY ELLIOTT, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: I like working with tools, I like working with my hands. It makes me feel nice and fuzzy inside.
BLACKSTONE: But is there a future working with your hands in America or is that in the past? Our report card shows that in the 21st century, America has largely stopped making things. In the year 2000, more than 17 million Americans were employed in manufacturing. By last year, that had dropped to fewer than 12 million. The same steep loss is seen across most industries. In 2000, more than one million three hundred thousand Americans built automobiles. In 2009, fewer than 674,000 were left in an industry that has continued shrinking. Ten years ago, nearly 700,000 Americans were employed making furniture.
By 2009, that had dropped to 390,000. In the same period, the number of Americans making clothing has dropped by almost two-thirds. Those making shoes and other leather products is down by more than a half. And it's not just old line work. Even jobs making computers have been disappearing, down from nearly two million ten years ago to just over a million in 2009.
The problem is that those disappearing jobs are going to countries where workers are paid far less. In China, where health and safety rules are few and millions are looking for work, the average manufacturing worker earns just $134 each month compared to almost $2,400 a month in the United States. But the problem is more than just the loss of manufacturing jobs to low-wage countries. Steel worker Brandon Nelson says we have lost respect for the kind of work that once provided prosperity.
BRANDON NELSON: It's like nobody wants to do this work, they want to be in an office or work in front of a computer instead of building things.
BLACKSTONE: Some argue that it doesn't matter whether the factory floor is here in the United States or somewhere overseas. If Americans are being paid for doing the designing, engineering and marketing, where a product is actually made is of little consequence.
Take the huge success of Apple's iPod. 250 million of them have been made in Chinese factories, but the design and programming are done in America, which takes the biggest share of the profit. Those high-value jobs, however, could be the next to go to places like China and Taiwan, says Harley Shaiken, a labor expert at the University of California, Berkeley.
HARLEY SHAIKEN: The countries where manufacturing is taking place by leaps and bounds today have their eye on that research and development. That's what they're going for.
BLACKSTONE: Just look at what's happened to cell phones. An American company, Motorola, developed the first portable cell phone, the Dynatech 8000x in 1983. In 2009, nearly 1.2 billion cell phones were sold around the world. But not one was manufactured in the United States. And by last year, Motorola held just 3.6 percent of the world's cell phone market. The solution begins by questioning the conventional wisdom that America can thrive without manufacturing.
JEFFREY IMMELT: That idea is just flat wrong.
BLACKSTONE: In Detroit, Jeffrey Immelt, the chairman of General Electric, announced plans for a $100 million research center in Michigan, creating 1,200 jobs. While General Electric has moved tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs overseas in recent years, Immelt says it's time for American companies to rethink outsourcing.
JEFFREY IMMELT: That just is not sustainable. It's not a business strategy.
BLACKSTONE: To overcome the cost differences with low-wage countries, American businesses can be competitive by investing in technology, training, and new manufacturing methods to raise productivity.
SHAIKEN: Labor costs are very important in any manufacturing economy. But what's critical is labor costs combined with innovation, high productivity, and quality.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Each one of these connections all has to be fabricated to within a 16th of an inch.
BLACKSTONE: Drew Park credits exactly that, innovation, productivity and quality for keeping his business producing custom steel products competitive internationally and allowing him to pay his workers up to $60,000 a year. But to stay competitive, he needs more skilled workers.
PARK: Our work force is aging and we're having a hard time getting the younger generation involved.
BLACKSTONE: Park works with Portland's Benson High to encourage kids who like making things. At Benson, one of the rare schools that still runs a big shop program, teacher Tim Hryciw says there's no shame in wanting to work with your hands.
TIM HRYCIW: Not everybody can sit in an office and just work behind a computer. It doesn't work that way. And not everybody wants to. I surely didn't.
BLACKSTONE: For America to rebuild its greatness in manufacturing perhaps it's time for the whole country to take a lesson from the students at Benson High where they learn that working with your hands, making things, is not only honorable it's essential. John Blackstone, CBS News, Portland, Oregon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COURIC: And for more about this series in partnership with USA Today, you can go to CBSNEWS.COM. While you're there you can also tell us where you stand on the issues we've been covering. And coming up next, what killed King Tut? Scientists say, they now know.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COURIC: In health news tonight, a new study says breast cancer survivors who take aspirin regularly may be less likely to die or have their cancer return. Researchers found those who took aspirin had a 50 percent lower risk of ultimately dying from the disease and a 50 percent lower risk of the cancer spreading. In other news, the George Polk Award is one of the most prestigious in journalism and for the first time one of the winners is anonymous. No one knows who took these pictures of Neda Agha-Sultan dying on a Tehran street after she was shot during an election protest last June. But the video soon spread around the world and became an enduring symbol of Iran's opposition.
Here at home, politicians are used to being punching bags figuratively, but a passenger took a very real swing at Mitt Romney as an Air Canada flight was about to leave Vancouver for Los Angeles. The man sitting in front of Romney's wife got angry when Romney asked him to return his seat to the upright position before takeoff. The fist missed and Romney didn't swing back, but the crew removed the man from the plane. Romney declined to press charges.
And now to a mystery from ancient Egypt, a mystery solved. Scientists reported today they've discovered what killed King Tut more than 3,300 years ago and they used modern technology to do it. King Tut's mummified remains were removed from his tomb in 2005 so scientists could finally determine whether he died of natural causes or was murdered. Using DNA and CAT scans, they now say it appears the pharaoh died -- at the age of 19 -- of complications from a broken leg, along with a severe malaria infection in his brain.
ZAHI HAWASS, ARCHEOLOGIST: We took samples from the bones of King Tut. When you look in this sampling, you can find out about diseases. King Tut had one disease: malaria.
COURIC: Tut was plagued with health problems. He had a cleft palate and a clubfoot that may have forced him to use a cane. He reigned only nine years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here lies the pharaoh of another age.
COURIC: But the discovery of his tomb back in 1922 -- mostly intact-- has made Tut the most well known, talked about and sung about pharaoh in history. And coming up next, Richard Schlesinger with the world's biggest yo-yo.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COURIC: We end tonight with a visit to the dermatologist. Richard Schlesinger tells us the doctor has a most unusual condition.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICHARD SCHLESINGER, CBS CORRESPONDENT: There's something just a little different about Orlando's Dr. John Meisenheimer.
DR. JOHN MEISENHEIMER: You don't have any spots that have been changing?
SCHLESINGER: He's recognized by the American Academy of Dermatology and the Guinness Book of world records.
(on camera): Do your patients know about your obsession?
MEISENHEIMER: It's pretty hard to walk in my waiting room and not ...
SCHLESINGER (voice over): Yo-yos. Dr. John Meisenheimer has more of them than anyone else in the world.
MEISENHEIMER: This was made around 1790.
SCHLESINGER (on camera): 1790?
MEISENHEIMER: Yeah. They go back a long way.
SCHLESINGER (voice over): Part of his house has been turned into a museum quality display of roughly 3,000 yo-yos.
MEISENHEIMER: This one you can actually dip in kerosene and light on fire. This is for shredding your medical marijuana.
SCHLESINGER: There are more in the attic. The total may be 10,000. He's lost count.
(on camera): Do you know what it is about yo-yos that fascinates you?
MEISENHEIMER: Well, it's such a piece of Americana. And it's the Nintendo of the 1930s, '40s, '50s, and even in the '60s. That was the toy.
SCHLESINGER (voice over): And even today Meisenheimer toys with his acquisitions.
(on camera): A really good yo-yo player, they say you're a yo-yo star.
(voice over): In the process of collecting all these yo-yos, Dr. Meisenheimer has made a serious study of yo-yos and he's now the chairman of the history and collecting committee of the American Yo-yo Association - - yes there is one. He's written the book on yo-yos that's on display at the Smithsonian. But Dr. Meisenheimer has made his place in yo-yo history with not only the largest-known yo-yo collection but also the largest known yo-yo which he found on eBay and it had to be delivered by forklift.
(on camera): This is something to add to your collection which will be priceless beyond ...
MEISENHEIMER: Oh, my god! Look at that baby.
SCHLESINGER: So now the number of the Meisenheimer collection is about 10,001. Richard Schlesinger, CBS News, Orlando.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COURIC: And that's the CBS EVENING NEWS. Coming up at CBSNEWS.com on @KATIECOURIC, why is America so fat? Two well known experts on the battle of the bulge. I'll see you then and right here tomorrow. Good night.
END
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