CNN Student News Transcript: March 17, 2008

(CNN Student News) -- March 17, 2008

Quick Guide

Tornado Hits Atlanta - View some of the damage that a powerful tornado caused in Atlanta.

Congressional Earmarks - Find out how the U.S. Senate voted on a proposal to ban earmarks.

Counterfeiting Arrests - See how a group of alleged counterfeiters was captured in California.

Transcript

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

MONICA LLOYD, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. We hope you had a great weekend, and we hope you're ready to get started with a brand new week of CNN Student News. I'm Monica Lloyd.

First Up: Tornado Hits Atlanta

LLOYD: First up, parts of Atlanta, Georgia, are cleaning up after devastating weekend storms. A tornado swept across the city Friday night, damaging several downtown areas, including the CNN Center. The storm left thousands of people without power, and the twister ranked as an EF-2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. More on that in a moment. But first, Rick Sanchez follows the path of the storm.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: We're hearing some rumbling behind us.

RICK SANCHEZ, CNN REPORTER: OK, so the weather forecast wasn't the greatest. But this?

ANNOUNCER: There's a tornado warning in downtown Atlanta, we're being told.

SANCHEZ: About 18,000 college basketball fans got a bit more excitement than their tournament ticket promised.

ANNOUNCER: The top of the Georgia Dome is actually moving.

SANCHEZ: That was Friday night's twister, two football fields wide. It smashed into Atlanta's Georgia Dome. It peeled steel sheets off of Phillips Arena. It shattered enormous panels from the glass roof of the CNN Center, sending showers of shards 14 floors below. Can you believe this: Nobody inside was badly hurt.

WOMAN ON THE STREET: We were literally sitting in it, not knowing what to do.

SANCHEZ: The storm was just getting started. Old neighborhoods, strong against the wind, but not against massive trees. A long night, a dark night for many Atlantans with no power after the storm. The first light of day gave us the first look at this new, painful chapter in the city's history. The last time a tornado struck downtown Atlanta? That would be never. Rick Sanchez, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LLOYD: Saturday morning, residents got a better look at just how much damage this storm caused. Like here in the Cabbagetown district, where you can see some of the homes that were smashed by trees uprooted by the tornado. And the severe weather wasn't limited to Friday night. Powerful storms swept across the region again on Saturday, killing two people in North Georgia counties. Rob Marciano visited what's left of one family's home, and fills us in on their incredible survival story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN REPORTER: I am standing in the living room of what used to be a very solid frame home on top of concrete, cinder block, brick, stone and mortar. You see decades-old oak trees twisted and turned over what's left of this home. Most of it has been blown off behind me.

Well, what did this couple do to survive? Middle aged couple, they thought, "Hey, here comes a storm. What are we gonna do? We're gonna get into the basement, get into the storm cellar." That's pretty much what this is, check it out. It's not very big here, but they got in it. And while that wasn't the easiest part. Their troubles just begun.

After everything blew apart here, including the stone and concrete, look at that piece of wall right there. That stone and mortar piece of wall was on top of the gentleman that was there. The woman, who happened to be free but obviously distraught, took this two-by-four from somewhere -- and look at the rusty nails on it, rusty nails here -- shoved it underneath that piece of heavy wall, and lifted. I don't know how she did it, lifted it so he could escape. I can't even do it. It's amazing. It's another one of these stories that the human body gets that adrenaline, that survival rush going, and you can do just about anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Fast Facts

CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS: Time for some Fast Facts! The Enhanced Fujita Scale estimates tornado wind speeds based on the damage a tornado causes. An EF-1 tornado, for example, has wind speeds between 86 and 110 miles per hour for a three-second gust. An EF-2, like the one that hit Atlanta, has gust speeds between 111 and 135 miles per hour, and an EF-3 can have gusts as fast as 165 miles per hour! Gusts between 166 and 200 miles per hour characterize an EF-4 tornado. And anything above that becomes a 5 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale.

Promo

LLOYD: True or false: Mobile homes attract tornadoes. That is absolutely not true. But it's a commonly believed myth about these powerful storms, just like the one that says funnel clouds avoid downtown areas. Our One-Sheet puts some of these tornado tales to the test, and gives students the truth about twisters. You can find the free resource at CNNStudentNews.com.

Congressional Earmarks

LLOYD: All right, we want to follow up on last week's vote in the U.S. Senate to ban legislative earmarks for one year. All three major presidential candidates voted for the ban, but they didn't have nearly enough company in the yea column. The proposal failed, 71-29. As Dana Bash tells us, one candidate isn't giving up the fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN REPORTER: The morning after a one-year ban on lawmakers' pet projects lost and lost big in the Senate, John McCain came to Pennsylvania and used defeat as political opportunity, suggesting he may be a creature of Washington, but he voted for change.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The moral of the story is: There is only one place left in America that they don't get it. They don't get it that pork barrel spending is out of control and Americans want it to stop. And that's in our nation's capital. I want to tell you, as president, we will veto those bills.

BASH: McCain even lambasted fellow Republicans; more than half of GOP senators voted to keep earmarks in place.

MCCAIN: My Republican conference is not responding to the will of the people. Americans want this stopped and the members of our party are very upset about it.

BASH: But the presumptive GOP nominee, still struggling to rally his party behind him, tried to focus on Democratic opponents.

MCCAIN: The first thing they can do if they are against the earmarks, is ask that the money they've gotten, hundreds of millions for pork barrel projects, not be spent.

BASH: Pennsylvania is now the center of the political universe as the next battleground for Democrats. But it's also pivotal for McCain in the general election. A Republican presidential candidate hasn't won Pennsylvania in 20 years.

MCCAIN: I've got a lot of work to do. Straight talk. I got a lot of work to do.

BASH: Yet McCain was careful not to bite when a voter called the Democratic candidates a joke and handed him a Hillary Clinton doll.

MCCAIN: We want to have a humorous aspect to every political campaign; otherwise it gets too boring. But I want to emphasize my commitment to respect my opponents.

BASH: Insisting on a respectful campaign is a big focus of the McCain camp right now, especially in light of controversial comments about Barack Obama, even at a McCain rally. In fact, CNN is told McCain aides are working on an op-ed to be published in McCain's name, warning his surrogates not to wage personal attacks against Democrats. Dana Bash, CNN, Springfield, Pennsylvania.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

Counterfeiting Arrests

LLOYD: Another callback to last week now. On Friday, we told you about the new $5 bills that are coming out, and you might remember that the main reason for the financial facelift is to make it harder for counterfeiters to copy the currency. It's why the U.S. Treasury's been updating nearly all of its paper money. But that doesn't mean some people won't try. Tim Daly of affiliate KXTV tells us about one group who did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM DALY, REPORTER, KXTV: If they were real, you'd be looking at about $30,000. Because these $100 bills are all fake, three people are looking at years in prison instead.

MARK COPELAND, STANISLAUS COUNTY SHERIFF'S DETECTIVE: You can see the difference sometimes by the blurriness. Because it comes a little blurry as compared to the real thing.

DALY: Michael Keys, Clay Roberts and Valerie Craven, all in their 50s, are accused of using these computers and printers, dyes and cutting tools to make the bad cash. Investigators say the suspects printed a lot of bad bills as they worked on finding the right color scheme.

COPELAND: There was something wrong with the bills, that they were holding on to those and they were improving, and then obviously they started getting better ones and I think they were just in the process of starting or had been started up and maybe had been passing.

DALY: Five of the phony $100 bills were used here at the Riverbank target store, where the female suspect worked as a cashier. Her job here, part of the suspected plot - it was her boyfriend, Roberts, who allegedly passed those bills to her.

COPELAND: There was never any interaction between the two, in the sense that he wouldn't talk to her, she wouldn't talk to him. He'd look down, and he'd get a small amount - like a $3 item - and then cash a $100 bill.

DALY: But Target security discovered the phony hundreds later, and checked store video tape to see the alleged transactions. The third suspect, Keys, was already on parole, for counterfeiting, in Santa Clara County.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ID Me

AZUZ: See if you can I.D. Me! I roamed Britain and Ireland in the 5th century. I'd eventually become the patron saint of Ireland, credited with getting rid of the island's snakes. March 17th is named after me! We're ID'ing Saint Patrick, who was born in Britain and celebrated every year on this day.

Before We Go

LLOYD: Before we go, we're heading to Chicago for a look at a St. Patrick's day water color display. Faith and begorah! What happened to the water?!? Not to worry. It's all part of the annual turning of the green. Every year, the Windy City dyes part of the Chicago River. The tradition dates back to 1962, when someone dumped 100 pounds of coloring into the water! Of course that didn't wash out for a week. This year, they're using just 25 pounds, so it should only last for about a day.

Goodbye

LLOYD: That colorful canal is where we call it quits for today. Have a happy St. Patrick's Day. We'll see you tomorrow for more CNN Student News. I'm Monica Lloyd. E-mail to a friend