American Morning
Taking a stand by sitting down
Jay Phillips is a 10-year-old boy from Arkansas who is taking a stand, by sitting down. Phillips is refusing to pledge allegiance to the flag in his fifth grade classroom until he says gays and lesbians have equal rights. John Roberts spoke to Phillips on CNN's American Morning Monday.
Militias: Patriots or Extremists?
By Jim Acosta
Out in the woods, 30-minutes from the nearest city, the Southeast Michigan Volunteer Militia meets for training once a month.
Armed with a small arsenal of semi-automatic weapons, the question that crosses your mind at one of these exercises is: training for what?
That depends on who you ask.
Our visit with the militia is the first installment of our three part series on something called "the Patriot movement."
The members of the militia in Michigan would certainly call themselves patriots. The folks at the civil rights organization, the Southern Poverty Law Center prefers to use the word "extremists."
Critics of the modern-day militia point out how some of the members of this movement are highly secretive. For example, we contacted nearly a dozen militias for permission to observe their exercises. The militia in Michigan is the only one that said yes.
Watch: Patriots or Extremists? 
Still, some of its members would not give us their names. Others wore masks.
Then there are the members' constant fears the Obama administration will eventually take away their gun rights.
Another member told us he thinks the president could be "dangerous for the nation."
In nearly the same breath that member said he hopes the militia's training exercises would give some in Washington "pause."
Not to worry, says the group's leader Lee Miracle. A military veteran and postal worker, yes postal worker, Miracle says he urges respect for the president.
He's out to change the way the world views militia groups. We get an up-close look at his family in part two of our series. A family Miracle refers to as "Lee and Kate plus eight plus a gun rack." That's because they have eight kids and 22 guns in the house. And the kids take part in militia day.
In part three of our series, we go to Las Vegas to go behind the scenes with an organization called "Oathkeepers." It's a group of ex-law enforcement officials and military veterans who say they've sworn an oath to the Constitution, not the president. The president they're referring to, of course, is Mr. Obama.
Share your thoughts with us here at amFIX.
A new, hipper kind of extremist
By Carol Costello and Ronni Berke
Who is Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical Yemeni cleric, who called the alleged Fort Hood shooter Nadal Hasan a "hero?" And could he inspire young men in the United States to commit violent acts in the name of their religion?
Some experts say al-Awlaki represents a new kind of terrorist: charismatic, young, soft-spoken and Facebook-savvy. They describe him as a "low-key" extremist, not known for fiery rhetoric.
On Facebook, al-Awlaki has more than 5,000 friends. American-born, fluent in English, his influence in the West should not be discounted, says Jarret Brachman, author of "Global Jihadism," and an adviser to the government on terrorism.
"A lot of guys in the United States read al-Awlaki's work. They watch his videos they listen to his sermons," says Brachman. "His personality's very engaging, very candid, you know he's playful, he's got a great sense of humor," he adds. "The guy is very appealing to people who are kind of dipping their toes into, into radicalism."
He's been on law enforcement's radar for years, says Brachman: "He can take you all the way to al Qaeda – that's the concerning part about him."
Should 2010 census ask, 'Are you a US citizen?'
By Carol Costello and Bob Ruff
Ten. That’s the number of questions you’ll be asked when the 2010 census forms arrive in mail boxes starting next April.
Question 1: “How many people were living or staying in this house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010?”
From there, questions 2 through 10 range from a person’s sex and race to phone number.
But nowhere is this question asked: “Are you a U.S. citizen?”
Senator David Vitter (R-LA) and others are asking, why not? Vitter is pushing an amendment to a Senate spending bill that would put the citizenship question on the next census form. The Bureau of the Census hasn’t asked that question before. So, why now?
Senator Vitter told Carol Costello that it’s all about apportionment, which is the allocation of seats in the House of Representatives based on the number of people counted in each state by the census. It’s right there in Article I of the U.S. Constitution.
“…Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years…”
For Senator Vitter, who represents Louisiana in the U.S. Senate, this is personal. “If all people,” the senator says, “including non-citizens, including illegals, go into the process of reapportionment, Louisiana will lose one House seat.”
Battle of the census
By Carol Costello and Bob Ruff
Ever wonder why we have a census? The answer is right there in Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution of the United States:
"Representation and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers ... The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct."
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/11/03/census.art.jpg caption="The short form of the 2010 census has just 10 questions, but it is controversial."]
Monday, August 2, 1790 marked the start of the first census. It was then, and still is now, used to determine each state’s allocation of members in the House of Representatives. But as the country has grown from just under the 4 million people counted in that very first census, to the nearly 300,000,000 counted in 2000, so too has its uses. Today the census also helps determine how many federal dollars go to which states, and it gives agencies national social and health statistics that are used for policy purposes. And in addition to the short form that counts every American, there are longer, much more detailed forms that go out to smaller numbers of Americans each year.
The short form of the 2010 census has just 10 questions, but it is controversial.
Minnesota Rep. Michelle Bachmann has been among the most vocal critics. She says the census questions represent government intrusion, such as Question 4 on the form: “What is your telephone number?” Bachmann told CNN she only plans to list the number of people in her household on her 2010 form because the Constitution doesn’t require any information beyond that.
CNN’s Carol Costello spoke with one census worker, who preferred to remain anonymous so that he could speak more freely, to see what kind of response he gets when he asks questions of people who share Rep. Bachmann’s privacy concerns.
“Carl”, the census worker, said he’s concerned that Bachmann’s objections reinforce the fear that some Americans already have about the census: “Some of them are pretty blunt.,” said “Carl.” “They say I’m not talking to you. I don’t want to have anything to do with the government. I’m not talking to you or anything. Get off my property or I’ll call the police.”
Hotel owner under fire for telling Hispanics to change names
Imagine having your boss tell you that you need to change your name to something more American sounding. That's just what one man asked some of the employees to do at his New Mexico inn, and it has many in the area outraged.
Larry Whitten, owner of the Whitten Inn, and his attorney Alan Maestas, spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Tuesday. Below is an edited transcript of that interview.
Kiran Chetry: Larry, let me just ask you, first of all, about the controversy that's going on. Explain when you took over this hotel, renamed it the Whitten inn – you've taken over failing hotels in other places. You moved there to Taos with your wife and some of the moves that you made at this hotel are generating a lot of controversy. How do you see it? What's been going on?
Whitten: Well, my operation is taking over distressed hotels and correcting as many problems as quickly as possible to reduce the outflow of cash. It's a simple procedure, a proven procedure of retraining everyone to be a professional hotelman, and up to this point it's been very successful.
Chetry: Well, in this case, you told your employees that you wanted them to change their names. Is that true? MAR-TEEN, you wanted him to be Martin instead?
Alan Maestas: That's actually not accurate. What he said was that he wanted people on the switchboard to use a name that people calling from all over the world would understand. He didn't ask them to change their names. He simply wanted the name at the switchboard something that was understandable.
Chetry: So how is that not changing their name?
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