Cutting Executive Pay; Making a Decision on U.S. Troops; Give Them Back
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John and Kiran, thanks so much. Good morning to you, everybody. We have an awful lot to get to this morning. First off today, what is the timetable for U.S. troops in Afghanistan? When are those decisions going to be made? Our Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon this morning. We'll get an update from her on that story. And Christine Romans is covering the big pay cuts that we've been telling you about by the bailed out firm's top guns. We're talking about those top executive salaries. We also have this story to tell you about this morning. Two missing persons' cases and a big break in one of them. Good morning, everybody. I'm Heidi Collins. It is Thursday, October 22nd, and you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. We begin with the case of a missing 7-year-old girl and news this morning that authorities think a body found in a South Georgia landfill is hers. Somer Thompson disappeared on her walk home from school on Monday in Orange Park, Florida. Her body was found yesterday, 55 miles away in a landfill in Folkston, Georgia. Garbage from the girl's neighborhood is taken to that dump. Investigators searched through 100 tons of trash before finding the body. The tentative identification is based on clothing and a birthmark. An autopsy is planned for today in Savannah, Georgia and could positively I.D. the girl. And Florida authorities, meanwhile, turn their focus to finding a suspect.</s>SHERIFF RICK BESELER, CLAY COUNTY, FLORIDA: You know, we have a suspect out there somewhere who's watching this broadcast right now. And I don't want to tell that suspect what we're doing. But I will tell him this. We're coming to get him. And we're going to find who did this and we're going to bring that person to justice.</s>COLLINS: As part of their search for a suspect detectives are interviewing registered sex offenders who live near Somer Thompson's home. Take a look at this map. I think you might find it incredible. It shows the five-mile square -- square five-mile area around Somer's home. This is her neighborhood. The markers pinpoint the home of sexual offenders or predators in the area. So far, detectives have questioned more than 70 of them. Police are now treating the disappearance of a Virginia Tech student as a criminal investigation. 20-year-old Morgan Harrington was last seen Saturday night at a Metallica convert in Charlottesville, Virginia. She had left the arena on the campus of the University of Virginia during the show but wasn't allowed to go back in because of arena policy. Harrington's purse and cell phone were found in a nearby parking lot. Police say there were no signs of a struggle in the area. Police are using the traditional methods like a telephone tip line to look for leads in the case now, but social media sites also part of the search for Morgan Harrington. Our Josh Levs is looking into that part of the story. Josh, good morning.</s>JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Heidi. People are mobilizing to find her, including Metallica themselves. Online resources can do a lot to help, but they can also put people in danger. I'll explain. Heidi?</s>COLLINS: All right, Josh, thanks so much. We'll get back to you shortly. Meanwhile, let's turn now to the financial crisis and the government bailout of troubled American icons like General Motors and Chrysler. Many taxpayers have been outraged that some of those same firms are still doling out huge paychecks and bonuses to their top executives. That's about to change. CNN's Christine Romans is joining us now with more details on this. So, Christine, how is all of this going to work? I mean we're hearing these huge, huge percentages, I mean like 90 percent pay cuts for some of the top, top executives, right?</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are the top 25 at the big exceptionally bailed out banks. This isn't any kind of bailout. These are the banks that are the hall of shame of the bailed out banks. Companies that wouldn't exist -- not just banks, too, auto companies as well. Companies that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for your taxpayer dollars. The idea here from the administration's point of view is not to reward or to pay out cash compensation to these top executives and top earners at these places with your taxpayer money. The idea is to begin, at least, to change the pay culture and reward per performance, not for taking risks. Companies, of course, knew this was coming. We've been talking to people who have been saying they've been working with Kenneth Feinberg. He is the special pay master appointed by the White House earlier this summer who has been going over all of these compensation agreements. Overall, 175 different people will see their pay capped, Heidi. And in fact, 525 other people will come under some new kind of compensation guidelines. Who is this guy, Kenneth Feinberg? We're going to hear more from him this afternoon. He's going to speak with reporters at 1:30 Eastern Time. He's appointed by the White House to oversee all of this. You may have recalled his name. He was the one who was in charge of parceling out the money of the 9/11 victims' fund, figuring out how to compensate the victims of September 11th. So he is somebody who at least one source close to this from the bank point of view, a bailed out bank point of view said that he has been very fair and very diligent and that, in fact, he has seemed to be weighing the idea they need to be attracting top talent at these places, but also not paying out big, multimillion dollars bonus -- payouts here.</s>COLLINS: Yes. People might be curious to know, Christine, there's a lot of companies that we're talking about here and there's one that's being hit harder than others.</s>ROMANS: Right. Reports are that it's AIG that will see the biggest hit here. The financial products division, you've heard us talk about that for months.</s>COLLINS: Yes.</s>ROMANS: The FP division -- reports are that it will -- no one there will get more than $200,000 in pay. So think about that. If before somebody made $2 million there, they would see their cash pay drop to about $200,000. That seems like a big pay cut, but you know, a lot of people listening to this are like, wow, big pay cuts, but that still is a lot of money to most people who are working in Wall Street or the big insurance companies. I have to say. The median income in this country right now is about $50,000, I think. So, you know, $200,000 is still an awful lot of money.</s>COLLINS: Yes, absolutely. All right, Christine Romans, thanks so much for the update on that. Appreciate it. The United Nations began distributing ballots this morning for the November 7th runoff election in Afghanistan. Today, President Obama gets an update on the upcoming election from the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan. He's scheduled to speak with Lieutenant General Karl Eikenberry next hour. Defense Secretary Robert Gates says all eyes will be on the Afghan election and efforts to avoid the same fraud we saw in the first round of voting. He's set to meet with NATO defense ministers in Slovakia. NATO members have troops in the International Security Force in Afghanistan. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joining us now live to talk a little bit more about this. So, Barbara, what is Secretary Gates saying now about a timetable for a decision on U.S. troops?</s>BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Heidi, Secretary Gates has been really the voice of both caution and speed in making this decision. Taking the time to get it right, but now what he's talking about is even with the runoff election in some 16 days or so, you can't wait forever to make a decision about more troops. What top military commanders have been saying is Afghanistan needs more security. Regardless of the election, regardless of the outcome of the election. Regardless of what government is installed, security in Afghanistan is really dropping. They need to improve it. And right now, it's only U.S. troops that can make a real difference. There are Afghan security forces, but not enough of them, so if they're going to make a decision about sending U.S. troops, they need to get moving on it. Winter is coming and still...</s>COLLINS: Yes.</s>STARR: ... even if they decided today, it would take months to get them there, Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Yes. And I know you've been in country and theater many times. And when you talk about winter in Afghanistan, I mean, it absolutely plays a role as far as what's going on in any type of offensive. I've heard some people say, you know, things just kind of shut down at certain points because it gets so cold. When we talk about these upcoming elections, though, what exactly is the role that U.S. troops are going to be expected to play? Is it going to be all security?</s>STARR: Well, I think to a large extent it will be about security. You know, sort of taking that step back, being available, being ready to go, being spread out in key areas where they might be needed if violence breaks out, if the Taliban really decide to cause trouble for the civilians trying to lain up to vote that day and the Afghan security forces can't handle it. U.S. forces will be there and will be ready to go. But as you said, already, we are seeing the United Nations trying to help move ballots, move voting materials into these remote areas. Perhaps one of the biggest issues in this election is going to be that really only about 30 percent of Afghans are literate, can read, so getting the word out that another election is coming may be one of the biggest challenges right off the top, Heidi.</s>COLLINS: Yes. Absolutely. All right, Barbara Starr, our Pentagon correspondent, thanks, Barbara. A deadly shelling rocked Somalia's capital this morning. At least 30 people are dead. Dozens more are injured. We don't know right now who fired the mortars into a crowded marketplace, but Islamic militant fighters linked to al Qaeda have been battling the U.N.-backed government and African Union troops in that area. If you're a frequent flyer, you know that queasy feeling of bumping elbows with a sick person seated next to you, and with the swine flu bug floating around, now a lot of us are even more worried. We have some advice you might want to pack along for your next trip.</s>ROB MARCIANO, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I'm Rob Marciano in the CNN Severe Weather Center. A tornado watch posted for southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana. And a major hurricane getting kind of close to Hawaii. We'll break it down. The CNN NEWSROOM is coming right back.