American Morning
Senator wants end to fraudulent 'robocalls'
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/13/schumer.calls.art.jpg caption= "Senator Charles Schumer wants to put an end to fraudulent robocalls."]
We’ve all received them – phone calls from a machine saying the warranty on our car is set to expire. It seems the "robocalls" are annoying to everyone, including lawmakers.
New York senator Charles Schumer got one of those calls. And now he's working to put an end to what he is calling consumer fraud. He spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s “American Morning” Wednesday.
Kiran Chetry: I got confused and I am sure other people get confused. I thought they knew it was my car. I thought they knew what they were talking about. And so it really is not only an issue of annoyance but also that they're not pedaling something that's legitimate. Is that correct?
Charles Schumer: This is consumer fraud, A-101. Yes, they call everybody. They call randomly. They call people who don't have cars. But unfortunately there are too many people who are gullible, particularly with everything going on with Chrysler and GM. And they ask you for your credit card and they take $200, $250 off. And, leave you open to credit card fraud. So first job here, consumers should not respond to this. If you're worried about your car warranty, call the company that issues the car.
Chetry: You and your colleague Senator Mark Warner want to do something about it. You want to ask the Federal Trade Commission to take action. How big of a problem do you think this is, besides being a nuisance and what do you hope the FTC can do?
Schumer: Well, we know that just about everyone has gotten these calls and repeatedly. By the way, another minor annoyance, when you press two, they still call you again. I pressed two the first time I got the call and I've gotten them three or four more times. There are four levels of problem. A) It's annoying. B) They have pierced the Do Not Call List. You notice, you don’t get cell phone spam much, except these folks. Third, of course it costs money if you don't have the right plan. But worst of all, many people are duped and lose lots of money for no reason.
We've asked the FTC to do a full-fledged investigation of this. It shouldn't be hard to track down who these scammers are, because after all, you follow the money. They've got to get the credit card and cash it in. The FTC has been very cooperative. They sent us a letter yesterday saying there's an investigation in progress. And we look forward to hearing from them soon about what they're going to do about it. They have the powers. This is a criminal violation of law. And they have the powers to go after these people. We just need them do it.
Red Light Cameras Spur Debate
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/05/04/costello.traffic.lights.art.jpg caption="CNN's Carol Costello explores whether traffic light cameras are for safety or profit."]
By Ronni Berke, CNN
New York (CNN) - When a red light camera photographed Terry Williams going through a Santa Monica intersection, she had no idea what had happened. "Pop, flash, and I'm sitting there, and was like - what was that?" she thought.
Williams even thought it might have been gunfire, until she told some friends about her experience. You're about to get a traffic ticket, they told her. Two weeks later, the ticket arrived in the mail.
Although she paid the $380 fine, Williams went to trial to contest the ticket and eventually won her case after an appeal - by demonstrating that there was a traffic light malfunction at that intersection.
Williams says she is especially angry that the initial traffic court judge dismissed photo evidence she presented to support her own case. "She didn't want to hear anything I had to say. I was just guilty," Williams recalled.
Red light and speed traffic cameras seem to be popping up everywhere, saving law enforcement time and manpower and generating millions in revenue for cash-strapped states and municipalities. The cost of a camera citation is decided by state or local authorities.
America's prisons a "national disgrace"
[cnn-photo-caption image= http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/04/23/intv.webb.prisons.art.jpg caption="Senator Jim Webb calls our prison system a national disgrace."]
There is a new push from Congress to try to overhaul America's prisons.
Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) calls our system a national disgrace. He says while we have just 5% of the world's population, we have 25% of the world's known prisoners. Also, drugs, corruption and violence are rampant inside of our jails and prisons.
Senator Webb is co-sponsoring a new bill to try to tackle these problems. Before launching this bill, his office collected facts about America's prison system.
According to his research, America has 2.3 million people behind bars. That’s five times higher than the world's average incarceration rate. Another 5 million people are either on probation or out on parole. That makes them a part of the criminal justice system. And the number of jailed drug offenders here in the U.S. has increased 1200% since 1980. That research also says four times as many mentally-ill people are in prison than in mental health facilities.
Senator Webb spoke to Kiran Chetry on CNN’s "American Morning" Thursday.
Kiran Chetry: You are pushing for legislation to fix our nation’s prisons. What are the biggest problems as you see them?
Jim Webb: Well, I've been involved in this issue for many years as an attorney and as a journalist. In fact, at one point, I spent a month going through the Japanese criminal justice system. When I came to the Senate in 2007, I decided to hold hearings on mass incarceration and on drugs policy and to try to figure out where the criminal justice system itself is broken. We've got 2.38 million people in prison. We’ve got 7 million inside that criminal justice system. And yet our neighborhoods aren't any safer, particularly with the violent gangs, transnational gangs, etc.
Craigslist controls
[cnn-photo-caption image=http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/images/04/22/art_craigslist_arraignment.jpg caption= "Medical student Philip Markoff, 22, appears in court Tuesday in Boston, Massachusetts."]
It’s been a bad couple of months for Craigslist. In March, New York radio reporter George Weber was killed by a man he allegedly met on Craigslist. And now, Boston police are attempting to connect the dots between alleged killer Phillip Markoff and what they believe may be ‘multiple’ victims he found on Craigslist.
The website’s CEO, Jim Buckmaster, seems genuinely concerned. “We feel terribly and feel sad that anyone would lose their life”, he told me in an exclusive interview, saying he was “horrified that use of Craigslist would be connected with a violent crime of this nature.” Watch the interview
He also defended the website from the notion that it was a conduit for criminal activity, saying “there are 50 million Americans using Craigslist each month. When you have that kind of human activity, there’s going to be things going wrong despite everyone’s best efforts to protect people.”
Buckmaster is eager to counter any negative perceptions about Craigslist. It is a valuable commodity – one of the internet’s more successful ventures – and therefore a ripe target for critics.
If alleged killer Phillip Madoff had stalked his victims through the “personal ads” section of the Boston Globe, would there be so much publicity?
Craigslist feels 'terrible' about killing
There are new developments to the possible Craigslist killing today. The suspected killer, Philip Markoff, is being held without bond in a Boston jail cell. Police were back in his apartment last night looking for evidence on what the district attorney is calling a “brutal, vicious crime.”
What drove the medical student to allegedly kill a young masseuse and assault one other woman? Early reports suggest that Markoff owed gambling debts. While the district attorney is not commenting on that, he is telling CNN when Markoff was picked up there was evidence to suggest he was headed to a casino in Connecticut.
The story is giving new attention to Craigslist. It's not the first time the site has been the center of a criminal investigation. In a taped interview Wednesday on CNN’s American Morning, John Roberts spoke exclusively to the CEO of Craigslist, Jim Buckmaster, about the case.
Jim Buckmaster: We feel terrible and it’s quite sad that anyone would lose their life and we’re horrified that use of Craigslist could in anyway be connected with a violent crime of this nature. It causes us to redouble our efforts to try to get across to users to take a few common sense precautions that eliminate most of the risk.
New developments in search for "craigslist killer"
There are new developments in the search for the "craigslist killer."
Police have released a photo of a man who they believe killed a woman, after luring her to a Boston hotel last week. That woman had advertised massages on craigslist, according to police.
And now another woman advertising in the "erotic services" section of the website has been attacked. Cops say the cases appear to be connected.
About this Show
Welcome to the American Morning blog where you can get daily news updates from American Morning's reporters and producers. Join us for "the most news in the morning," weekdays from 6-9 a.m. ET, only on CNN.
On Twitter
