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Transcripts For KPIX CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley 20121128

would have to be approved by the senate. margaret brennan is covering for us tonight. margaret? >> reporter: good evening, scott. ambassador rice asked for the meetings on capitol hill today in hopes of patching up differences she has with at least three republicans. the senators have vowed to stop a nomination of rice because of comments she made after the attack on the u.s. consulate in libya. today for the first time she acknowledged her comments were wrong. ambassador race met her toughest critics behind closed doors to explain why she called the september attack on the consulate a spontaneous demonstration when u.s. intelligence suspected it was actually a terrorist assault. after the meeting, republican senators john mccain and lindsey graham had this reaction. >> we are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get. >> all i can tell you that the concerns i have are greater today than they were before and we're not even close to getting the basic answers. >> reporter: both senators accused rice of misleading the american public during a series of t.v. interviews five days after the assault. in a public statement today, rice explained that her initial account was wrong because: senator kelly ayotte, republican of new hampshire, says rice should have known better. >> but one of her responsibilities as ambassador to the u.n. she receives daily intelligence briefings and certainly confirmed today that she had received the briefing-- the briefings leading up to this that were on a classified basis. >> reporter: the white house hasn't said when or if rice will get the nomination. but in a news conference two weeks ago, mr. obama seemed to be preparing for a fight. >> if senator john mccain and senator graham and others want to go after somebody they should go after me. and i'm happy to have that discussion with them. >> reporter: senator ayotte said she would be willing to put a hold on a rice nomination which, under senate rules, means it would likely never come up for approval and effectively be dead. scott? >> pelley: margaret, thank you. who is susan rice? she held several positions in the collation on the national security council as an expert on african affairs and then as assistant secretary of state. rice was confirmed in the senate in 2009 unanimously for her current job as america's ambassador to the united nations. washington is also splitting tonight over the issue that is going to affect your taxes in just 34 days. that is the so-called fiscal cliff: automatic tax increases and federal budget cuts that will be imposed unless president obama and congress can make a deal on budget reform. not even everyone in the president's own party is with him on this and nancy cordes is on capitol hill for us tonight. nancy? >> reporter: scott, a rift has opened up between the white house and liberal democrats over what should be on the table in these talks. some democrats even say they're willing to let all the bush tax cuts expire, at least temporarily, even if they don't get the deal they want. senator patti murray of washington state is one of them. she says negotiations should focus far more on raising tax revenue than cutting spending. republicans are calling democrats like you "thelma and louise" democrats because you've expressed a willingness to go off the fiscal cliff. >> i'm willing to take a very tough stand and say to those on the other side that we are not going to accept an unfair deal that hurts middle-class america today and protect the wealthiest americans. period. >> reporter: in the house, at least 42 liberal democrats have signed on to a bill requiring that any deal aimed at staving off the fiscal cliff contain no medicare, medicaid, and social security benefit cuts. it puts them at odds with the president who has said everything should be on the table, including entitlements, senate republican leader mitch mcconnell. >> we want to save these programs and i understand the dilemma the president and the majority leader have. their hard left doesn't want to change anything ever. >> reporter: but the top senate democrat harry reid says republicans are the ones dragging their heels. there's been little progress with the republicans, which is a disappointment to me. they've talked some happy talk about doing revenues, but we only have a couple weeks to get something done. >> reporter: republicans point out that medicare and medicaid are the largest future drivers of the debt. they say they won't agree to increased revenue from taxes unless they get entitlement cuts as well. scott, it's safe to say there are going to be people on the right and left howling mad at no matter what this deal looks like. >> pelley: nancy, thank you very much. one idea they're looking at is scaling back one of the most popular tax breaks of all: the mortgage deduction. dean reynolds will tell us more about this later in the broadcast. that crisis in egypt is growing tonight. more than 200,000 protesters have filled cairo's tahrir square. they are angry with their new president, mohamed morsi who said last week that his decisions cannot be challenged by the courts which gives him almost absolute power. and our holly williams is above tahrir square in cairo this evening. holly, what's going on in the crowd behind you now? >> reporter: scott, we are seeing scenes reminisce september of the egyptian revolution. tahrir square was once again carpeted in people today, tens of thousands of people who poured in from every direction and they were chanting the same slogan that they chanted during the revolution. the people want the downfall of the regime. i was out on this square earlier today talking to people. some people are saying that they won't leave the streets until president morsi rescinds the decrees that have given him sweeping new powers. we've seen very low-level violence here in cairo, but in several other cities there have been violent confrontations between president morsi's supporters and his opponents. >> pelley: is there any indication that all of this public demonstration is moving morsi to rescind his decree? >> reporter: well, if president morsi backs down now, that will be a big loss of prestige for him. but his opponents are clearly equally determined. and what that leaves us with is a stalemate and deep divisions in egypt's young democracy. >> pelley: a long way to go yet, holly, thank you very much. nearby in the middle east, the syrian dictatorship has been fighting for nearly a year and a half to put down a popular rebellion. 40,000 syrians are dead. it is rare for reporters to get into the battle zone, but our elizabeth palmer managed to make her way to the city of homs, one of the first places to rebel. more than half a million people lived there, but have a look at it now. it now. >> reporter: here's what's left when the battle moves on. just over a year ago, these desolate streets hummed with life. baby amr was a bustling ne babr amr was a bustling neighborhood until suddenly it turned into the epicenter of syria's civil war. armed opposition gunmen against the syrian military machine. after months of ferocious fighting, the syrian army did manage to take back babr amr, but at terrible cost. even now only 5% of the residents have returned and the fight has just moved down the road. but to get to it, we had to take a surreal trip through a fully functioning business district crowded with shoppers and students then down a street. the next front line was marked by tanks and syrian soldiers. a young captain who wanted to be known only as omar offered to show us around. look at this. wow. months of fighting have shattered this part of the old city. >> this street, snipers. >> reporter: now? >> no. >> reporter: omar gestured to a curtain hung in an alley to block the snipers' view. even so, when soldiers pass the place, they duck. just behind these battle-scarred buildings rebel fighters are still in control. we climbed inside to try and have a look. there's not a lot moving out there. we might be able to see more from this hole but they say it's too big. that if we get visible we'll be sniped at. so there are rebel snipers in the buildings just across the alley. the private on duty told me the army has the rebels' surrounded on all sides. and how do they get supplies? food, water, ammunition? "mostly through tunnels" he told me. "and the sewage system." so this fight for central homs scatters on with pot shots from both sides. the army at war now on multiple fronts across the country has here been forced to accept a draw. >> pelley: liz palmer is in the syrian capital, damascus. liz, syria has one of the largest armies in the middle east. why hasn't the dictatorship been able to put down the rebellion? >> reporter: well, for a start, they're fighting on dozens of fronts and up and down the country. but secondly, this not terribly well trained army is fighting a very nimble mobile insurgency and that is the most difficult kind of warfare. >> pelley: the war has been encroaching on the capital where you are now over the last several months. what's the fighting been like there today? >> reporter: inside the city, hit-and-run attacks, sporadic gunfire. but in the suburbs really heavy shelling. the heaviest we've seen so far from the air from fighter planes and also mortars and tank shells. in fact, until just a few minutes ago the windows were rattling here in the hotel. >> pelley: no end in sight. liz, thanks very much. scientists studying climate change are warning of a new source of greenhouse gases warming the earth. and who is buying the illegal tusks of slaughtered elephants? our hidden camera investigation coming up when the "cbs evening news." anncr: but you deserve straight talk about the options on the... table and what they mean for you and your family. ancr: aarp is cutting through all the political spin. because for our 37 million members, only one word counts. get the facts at earnedasay.org. let's keep medicare... and social security strong for generations to come. and it gave me my custom number. my arches needed more support until i got my number at the free dr. scholl's foot mapping center. i'm a believer! >> pelley: of all the federal income tax deductions, one has been considered untouchable: the deduction for interest on mortgages. 40 million americans take advantage of it, and they save an average of $600 a year. now washington is looking at it now washington is looking at it to help heal the budget. here's dean reynolds. >> reporter: how is the market right now would you say? >> i think things are better. >> reporter: chicago area realtor debbie scully shudders at the idea that the tax deduction on mortgage interest may be on the congressional carving table. what would that do to your business? >> well, it certainly wouldn't be good. now there's a glimmer of hope that looks like things are stabilizing. why would they do anything that could hurt that? >> reporter: scully helped stacy litow sell her home. >> i always thought that that's one of the incentives to buying. >> reporter: builders love the tax break, too, because it helps support the market for big homes. the larger the mortgage, the greater the deduction. but it will cost the treasury nearly $100 billion next year. so now the talk in washington is about lowering the cap for the maximum mortgage amount you can claim interest on down from one million dollars. economist diane swonk. >> if you keep the deduction for the bulk of americans but eliminate it for the oversized homes you still get the american dream. >> reporter: affluent owners in expensive areas-- especially on the coasts-- would see the biggest change. >> if you have the money and you want to spend it feel free to do that. but, you know, i'd much rather see lower tax rates or deductibility for investment in our future which creates productivity which creates higher potential for the future of the economy rather than just big homes. >> reporter: now, economists who favor lowering the cap on mortgage debt eligible for a deduction from a million dollars to $500,000 say it could help reduce the deficit and keep interest rates low and, scott, that could help the housing market all by itself. >> pelley: dean, thank you. just ahead, researchers have discovered a piece of world war ii history off the coast of florida. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. 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[ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus. ♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ [ male announcer ] to learn more about the cold truth and save $1 visit alka-seltzer on facebook. >> pelley: housing has been the biggest drag on the economy. but we got another sign today that it's doing better. home prices in big cities were up 3% in september compared to a year ago. in phoenix they rose more than 20%. 8.8% in minneapolis. and more than 7.5% in detroit. greenhouse gases that many scientists say cause climate change are now coming from a new source: permafrost. that's the thick layer of organic material surrounding the arctic circle. it's been frozen for hundreds of years but today the u.n. reported it's thawing. carbon dioxide and methane from the permafrost are being released from the permafrost, which may speed up climate change. researchers made a discovery off miami beach, a fighter plane that may date back to world war ii. the grumman f-6-f hellcat is mostly intact, though, upside down 240 feet below the surface. it's not known when or why it went down but 79 hellcats like this one crashed off florida's east coast between 1943 and '52. who is paying top dollar for elephant tusks? our hidden camera investigation is next. that was me... the day i learned i had to start insulin for my type 2 diabetes. me... thinking my only option was the vial and syringe dad used. and me... discovering once-daily levemir® flexpen. flexpen® is prefilled. doesn't need refrigeration for up to 42 days. no drawing from a vial. dial the exact dose. inject by pushing a button. flexpen® is insulin delivery... my way. levemir® (insulin detemir [rdna origin] injection) is a long-acting insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults and children with diabetes and is not recommended to treat diabetic ketoacidosis. do not use levemir® if you are allergic to any of its ingredients. the most common side effect is low blood sugar, which may cause symptoñnms such as sweating, shakiness, confusion, and headache. severe low blood sugar can be serious and life threatening. ask your healthcare provider about alcohol use, operating machinery, or driving. other possible side effects include injection site reactions. tell your healthcare provider about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions. get medical help right away if you experience serious allergic reactions, such as body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat, or sweating. with flexpen®... say good night to vial and syringe. ask your doctor about levemir® flexpen. covered by 90% of insurance plans, including medicare. find your co-pay at myflexpen.com. 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[ male announcer ] if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. tracking it on hi- def dopp. next on cbs 5 we are inviting the media to attend a concert at our cams tuesday, international gangs are making a fortune by slaughtering african elephants and selling their tusks. tens of thousands of these majestic creatures are being killed every year. yesterday, we showed you the desperate measures being taken by conservationists to save them. they are cutting off the elephant tusks so they will be less of a target. we have now tracked the illegal market in elephant tusks from tanzania and kenya, north to cairo, egypt. holly williams went undercover to find it. >> reporter: it's not difficult to buy ivory in cairo. in this busy market, we found essam, an egyptian ivory trader. >> here, real ivory. this all ivory. >> reporter: selling ivory is against the law in egypt. but when we told him we were buyers, he showed us into the back room, where he keeps his stock. we filmed our meeting with a hidden camera. essam told us his business was booming, and his best customers, he said, are from china. >> he will show you some receipts from chinese customers. >> reporter: he showed us six elephant tusks and offered to sell us a pair for just under $2,000. in china, they would sell for up to 10 times that price. essam shared a special trick for smuggling ivory that he told us his chinese customers had taught him: spray-painting it to make it look like wood or metal. it's easily removed later on with nail polish remover. what we have seen here is part of a global trade in smuggled ivory. and experts say that what's driving it is wealthy chinese, who prize ivory as a status symbol. in the same cairo market, we found several other ivory traders operating openly. what about something as big as this? along with some of their chinese customers. one shop owner told us this his clients included chinese officials who had visited egypt on state business. >> the special airplane going back -- >> reporter: you get chinese government officials? >> yes. >> reporter: they bought from you? >> yeah. >> reporter: the egyptian government makes periodic attempts to confiscate illegal tusks. they are locked up inside this museum store room. that's heavy. but it represents just a fraction of the ivory that's trafficked from africa to china to meet the demand for ornate carving so prized by wealthy chinese, often selling for tens of thousands of dollars. >> that is the poached ivory. >> reporter: we showed our footage to tom milliken, who works with a group tracking the illegal wildlife trade in africa. he told us he is fighting a losing battle with chinese criminal gangs. >> chinese are out there moving through rural areas, telling african nationals, we'll give you this amount of money. and that amount of money is more than these people would see in a year. >> reporter: how big is the challenge with china? >> there's just so many potential consumers. there's just so many potential smugglers. there's so much wealth that can be employed to do the wrong thing and not the right thing. >> reporter: while the chinese authorities have made efforts to seize trafficked ivory, they refused to answer our questions, including allegations that government officials are involved in smuggling, which means that elephants will continue to be slaughtered in the thousands to feed an illegal market in trinkets and carvings that keeps growing. holly williams, cbs news, cairo. >> and that's the "cbs evening news" for tonight. for all of us at cbs news all around the world, good night. the clouds are rolling in. d the bay area is bracing fora r of a storm. we're >> your realtime captioner: linda marie macdonald. good evening, i'm allen martin. >> i'm dana king. the clouds are rolling in and the bay area is bracing for a monster of a storm. we're talking 8 or more inches of rain in some spots. and that's just the half of it. we are also in for some wild wind. chief meteorologist paul deanno is tracking the storm for us. >> that wind will actually be first as soon as tomorrow morning many of you waking up to the sound of the gusty winds outside but the big event will be this rainfall. flooding rainfall is now very likely for much of the bay area. several straight days of rainfall with the heaviest of the rain not getting here until friday so what's first up, weather-wise here, will be the wind and rain that arrive tonight. now, this rain is not going to be enough to cause flooding, but this wind is going to cause a rough morning commute. 4 a.m. to 11 a.m. tomorrow morning, wind advisory in effect. all of us will see wind gusts up to 45 miles per hour, winds stronger higher hilltops at the coasts up to 60 miles per hour maybek a mess of the morning commute. -- making a mess of the morning commute. hi-def doppler not tracking any rainfall yet. rain and wind still several hours away. there is an atmospheric river of moisture that's out in the pacific and it's going to get consolidated and steered right toward the bay area. there's the potential for some very heavy rainfall moving in towards thursday and friday. look at futurecast. watch these colors quickly change into the reds. north of the golden gate, three inches of rainfall by thursday. that's before

This $17.5M SC estate for sale dates back to 1795 and once housed circus animals. Take a look

The Port to fight $5 million judgment over Millennium Hotel site

Weston adds more Columbia properties to Southeast portfolio

Here's a drum roll for Mr Doyle

Commerce de l'ivoire : un trafic en expansion

Belk invests in its future with upgrades at distribution center near Columbia

By Jessica Holdman jholdman@postandcourier.com “Belk’s distribution center has been a fantastic employer, and County Council is pleased to assist the company as it expands its operations,” Richland County Council Chairman Paul Livingston said. The company reached its original requirements for the tax break, of creating a $9.5 million investment and 125 new jobs, by 2005.  Belk now operates three stores in the Columbia area:  Columbiana Centre, Richland Mall and the Village at Sandhill. The company has almost 300 stores across the Southeast from Maryland to Texas. The long family-owned business was sold in 2015 to Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm, for a reported $3 billion.

Transcripts For WBAL Rock Center With Brian Williams 20120223

price. >> just waiting and waiting and waiting and he didn't make it. >> who is to blame? >> he didn't want to die. he wanted to see his girl grow up. >> when the thrills lead skiers into the death zone. also tonight it's not true, it's an entirely false claim that the horn of the rhinoceros can cure cancer. the problem is, as harry smith will tell us tonight, that false hope has led to a huge and brutal illegal market. in the south african bush, poachers are ruthlessly searching for something worth more than gold. rhino horns. did you think who would do this? >> i just kept on saying, i'm so sorry, boy. >> it's become a brutal assault on innocent animals. but their human protectors are fighting back. >> we've horned our rhinos. >> even deploying scientific traps. >> you do it just like the csi episode? >> yes. >> they hope it will be a successful last stand. also tonight, something that happened during the funeral for whitney houston. only it wasn't happening inside the church. rather across the country. all that and more tonight as we get under way here on "rock center." captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. and welcome to "rock center" as we begin another live broadcast here tonight. if you followed any of the news from this past weekend you know it has happened again. four back country skiers lost their lives trapped in avalanches in washington state. these were not rookies,y they were not careless. they were experts who knew the risks. and they join, sadly, a growing list of world class skiers who have died pursuing the most extreme forms of skiing and snowboarding. these deaths now cut especially deep into one ski community high in the sierra nevada mountains. natalie morales went there to investigate why the world's top extreme skiers feel compelled to push themselves toward what's called in the trade the death zone. >> reporter: squaw valley, california. this mountain offers some of the most challenging skiing in the world. ♪ this is also the unofficial home of north america's greatest extreme skiers. but these days the definition of extreme has changed. and the number of deaths among these skiers has increased. that has some members of this small fraternity like rob gaffney questioning whether the sport has taken a wrong turn. how many friends have you lost in the last year. >> i have lost five friends in the last three years, yeah, yeah. >> reporter: one of those was shane mcconkey. sherry mcconkey was shane's wife. >> when you see a guy who is just humble and an amazing athlete and person and he's kind inside and out and he was good looking. he had the whole package. he was perfect. >> reporter: the sport that shane mcconkey helped pioneer boasts everything from aerial acrobatics to so-called free skiing. and ski basing. skiing off cliffs with the aid of a pair chute. when it came to extreme skiing, mcconkey wasn't just the best. one magazine called him the most influential skier ever. did he talk about the risks with you? >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: did he say this is very dangerous what i'm doing? >> we both knew it was dangerous. we spoke about it. we both knew that he could die doing what he did. everybody up here knows that about the sports they do. >> reporter: that day came for 39-year-old shane mcconkey in italy in 2009. he was with fellow extreme skier j.t. holmes when he attempted a ski base jump, something he'd done and videoed dozens of times before. on that day, holmes jumped first. mcconkey followed off a 1300 foot cliff, but his pair chute opened too late. >> i was just waiting and waiting and waiting. and he just never came. and, you know, later i learned that he'd already gone. and, of course, that he didn't make it. >> reporter: since mcconkey's death, four more squaw valley extreme skiers have suffered the same fate. arnie backstrom at the time the reigning free ski tour champion during a film shoot. c.r. johnson, the only one of the group to actually die at squaw valley. kip garr and his back country ski partner allison creutzen killed in an avalanche. gaffney says he's tired of going to funerals. >> when i was growing up, all my ski heroes were skiing here at squaw valley. and they're all still alive. you know, what's so amazing is that the ski heroes of our kids today, a lot of them aren't. >> reporter: do you think this is the tipping point, though, for extreme athletes, what's going on here and in this community? >> i'm convinced we're going to see a lot more, yeah. i think in the next five to ten years we're going to see a lot more of what we've already seen. >> reporter: meaning more risk and more death. gaffney took me on the slopes, and we hiked to the top of these imposing cliffs, the palisades. what some say is the birthplace of american extreme skiing. so this is main chute. it gets a lot easier as the snow fills in. this is rob gaffney skiing the palisades a decade ago. he says these mountains aren't extreme enough for a new generation of skiers. >> i think a lot of what we're seeing now is if you added four of five of these on top of each other. we're starting to see things you where you have more vertical and risk because of that. >> reporter: the psychology of risk is something that rob gaffney understands. he's also a doctor, a psychiatrist whose office is at the base of squaw valley. so what's changed? what combination of factors is claiming the lives of some of the world's most talented extreme skiers? from his unique perspective as both an extreme skier himself and a practicing psychiatrist, dr. rob gaffney has some ideas about what is luring these remarkable and daring athletes into what he calls the death zone. >> we've entered a different realm. there's something that's changed. >> reporter: you call it the death zone. what do you mean by the death zone? >> i think it's where we start rolling the dice a little bit. all my friends who have been lost here, they were the best at what they did. worldwide. you know? they were the best at what they did, and yet we still lost them. so why did we lose them? there had to be some probability there that something can go wrong when you're out in that realm out there. >> reporter: gaffney says while there have always been thrillseeking athletes now there's real money to be made. athletes are made to appear in films and competition. and the audience has increased because of tv exposure and the internet. >> i do see corporate sponsorship as a big player here for sure. i think that they're making a lot of money. they've tapped into a roid center in the brain, the culture is enthralled with it. it's a moneymaking machine guaranteed. >> reporter: gaffney believes it's a powerful equation, corporate money mixed with athletes who exhibit a propensity for risk taking. added to that a youtube culture that can make anybody with a hand held camera and pair of ski skis a potential star. can you blame the corporate sponsor if it really is the individual who is choosing to do this anyway? are they fueling this frenzy? >> they have increased the curve >> they have increased the curve of how fast these things have gotten to where they are. and we're seeing death because of it, right, death and injury. to some degree, are they responsible? yeah, i guess so. >> reporter: but shane mcconkey's widow sherry maintains hadder husband's sponsor red bull always had his interests and safety in mind. did any of these sponsors ever ask him to go out and do things that he wasn't willing to do? >> no. he was constantly, hey, can i do this? can i do this? and red bull was amazing. they were always like, shane, whatever you want to do. >> reporter: in a statement red bull says it has, quote, a very special, direct, personal relationship with each one of its athletes. red bull is pleased to enable them to fulfill their dreams. as with any sport, despite state of the art precautions, there are inherent ;rña( sherry mcconkey, who is now raising her daughter ayla alone, says focusing only on her husband's death is to miss the point of the sport and to misunderstand how shane lived his life. >> i loved his passion. i loved how he was -- he was what he was. you know, i would never take away that part of his personality. i loved him. he is my everything, you know? and he didn't want to die. he wanted to see his girl grow up. and he wanted to be with us. >> natalie's here with us in the studio. also occurs to me we should mention nbc sports broadcasts those red bull series. two things occur to me watching this, daytona 500 is this weekend. and you know a friend o of mine dale earnhardt lost his life in that race. and this weekend they'll drive as fast as they can. number two, so that's a type of -- >> right. >> how many of this is because video of the most extreme stuff, even if you shoot it yourself in the back country has a huge premium attached to it now? >> certainly now this next generation, a lot of that youtube generation, the x-games generation, they are getting that access now. they're seeing their heroes, you know, who are getting out there and doing all of these extreme sports. and those guys, by the way, they're pushing and the ladies as well, they're pushing the extreme beyond extreme to the point where now they're combining sports. they're jumping out of airplanes, sky diving with wing suits and base jumping with skis on, going off cliffs. so it's a combination that each one of those extreme sports in itself is very risky, but the combination is almost deadly. but kids definitely see this. that is their example. they look up to these guys, and if they don't have the basic, the fundamental skills and they try these things, it can be deadly. >> great piece of reporting out there, natalie. thank you. up next here tonight, do you stock your fridge with domestic beer or imported? do you wear a uniform to work? have you ever watched an entire "oprah" or "judge judy"? your answers to these questions and others may determine which side of our current cultural divide you're on according to the nation's most talked about new book. and later on tonight, the war over rhinos. after decades in which their numbers have grown, there's been a sudden explosion of rhino killings. being poached for their horns. now scientists are fighting back and they are armed. >> this is so damn personal to you guys. >> it is. and there are very few success stories in conservation and the rhino is one. let's start with a paint we know can do the job. new glidden duo paint plus primer available only at the home depot. one coat does double duty. and fits our budget perfectly. so there's a brand-new room... ...right where the old one used to be. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. new glidden duo paint plus primer. only at the home depot. and starting at only $24.97 a gallon. forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide call 877-242-usaa. i don't want healthy skin for a day. i want healthy skin for life. 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[ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. follow the wings. everywhere you go, america, i see your cup of joe goes with you. how nice of joe to, how you say, have your back. try something different. a delicious gevalia kaffe, or as i like to say, a cup of johan. will johan power walk the mall with you? i don't think so. but he will spend time rubbing your feet discussing your feelings. ♪ ♪ joe may have your back, but johan has your feet. gevalia. meet me in the coffee aisle. there's a new book out that says our country is coming apart. in fact, that's the title of the book by the author, charles murray. it's based on the idea that the cultural divide between the upper and lower classes in america is greater than it has ever been. this book came up, in fact, just tonight at the gop debate in arizona. if the name charles murray rings a bell, it may have to do with this book cover. he co-authored a book called "the bell curve" a decade ago. it was hugely controversial. the book looked at differences in intelligence across socioeconomic and racial lines. he was harshly criticized, labeled as a$dc racist by some folks for linking iq to jeanette iks and, therefore, to race. with this new book he's found a novel way to get around that hot button issue. he's based his findings entirely on white people. but listen to what he says is happening to all the people in our country. what is the central theme of your book and what's happening in your view to our country? >> we have a kind of cultural inequality that exists now between the working class, the upper middle class that is new in american history. we've always had rich people, we've always had poor people, but they didn't live in separate cultures. they both inbited an american civic culture that we used to call the american way of life. a phrase that was in use when you were a boy. you don't hear it much any more. >> in the book murray cites statistics that document the breakdown of that american way of life, beginning with marriage. >> in 1960, you had over 80% of the working class, which was married. you had over 90% of the upper middle class, same for both in terms of the norm. here's the stunning statistic. in 2010 for the white working class, that's down to 48%. not only that, that's 30 to 49-year-olds. you're not talking about them getting married later or whatever. collapse is a very strong word but that's close to a collapse of the cultural institution. >> a lot of people believe it's the upper classes who have abandoned what we've always called traditional american values, but in the book murray says the truth is just the opposite. you make a point that there's been a value shift, while we continue to make a sweeping assumption as to where the repository of those rock ribbed american values are. >> the founders all said unanimously this constitution won't work unless you have a certain kind of people. and the four founding virtues that they all agreed on were first, the integrity of the family, indust industriousness which is maybe the signature quality of the american people at that time, plain american honesty in the words of thomas jefferson and religiosity. the working class has been falling away from all four whereas the upper middle class maybe surprisingly is still doing pretty well. >> how much is a race a part of this, of what ails us? >> race has nothing to do with these problems. the sub title of the book is "the state of white america 1960-2010" because i want to clear way all the complications associated with race and say, look what's happening with non-latino white america. >> in a highly charged atmosphere that we live in today, when you put a subtitle on your book "the state of white america 1960-2010," you know, you know you're going to get trouble for that. >> it's my reference point. white america is my reference point. to put it one way, they have no excuses. they aren't recent immigrants that don't speak the language, they don't have a legacy of slavery. if you've got problems there, we've got to think of other understandings of how we can solve them. >> murray says one way to solve them is to somehow convince americans from different classes with nothing in common to find something, anything to share. you talk about the cognitive elite. they go to the same schools, then they come out and they marry each other and pursue two separate tracks. why don't they commingle? they used to commingle. >> part of it's really natural. i mean, there's always been an attraction to people we can talk to, people who get our jokes, people who understand us. you ought to fight against it. because this country is really wonderful in terms of its history. and all the interesting people don't live on the upper east side. they don't live in bethesda, maryland. america is filled with really interesting, attractive people that you ought to get to know who you'll never get to know unless you make an effort to break out of your bubble. >> and one more thing here. he just mentioned breaking out of your bubble. this book contains an interesting quiz in the text which he calls "how thick is your bubble?" it contains questions like the following to find out which class in society you might belong to. during the last year have you ever purchased domestic mass market beer to stock your fridge? have ufr participated in a parade? have you ever purchased avon products? who's jimmy johnson? five time nascar champion jimmy johnson. and tonight you can go to our website, rockcenternbc.com to find that quiz and take it and decide. later on, speaking of this cultural divide, when do you think the last time was when a president flew on a regular commercial flight with regular passengers on board? we'll have the answer for you next. but up next in our next segment, the giants of the african plains being pursued by poachers. are humans going to be the next to die before this stops? we have some powerful reporting from harry smith tonight. i us e my phone all day, every day. email, talk... directions, applications... my phone's dead, uh, my business is dead. my phone battery starts blinking... -beep, beep, beep... -no, no, don't run out... boom phone dies. really? really?? 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[ male announcer ] with ge's most advanced cooking technology, the café line takes food further. ♪ ♪ some constipation medications can take control of you. break free. with miralax. it's clinically proven to relieve constipation and soften stool with no harsh side effects. just gentle predictable relief. miralax. welcome back. there is a war being fought in south africa right now over one of the most magnificent creatures on the planet, the rhino. the horn of the rhino is highly prized in traditional asian medicine, so much so that a single horn can fetch up to a quarter million dollars. they believe it can cure cancer. but it can't. the number of rhinos killed by poachers in south africa has skyrocketed from about a dozen per year to more than one every other day. fair warning, some of this next report by harry smith is tough to watch, difficult images. but as he reminds us in this report, this is about life and death and an animal that could be making its last stand. >> reporter: rhinos have roamed the earth for millions of years, an incarnation of the prehistoric in the present. nearly extinct in south africa a century ago the white rhino has flourished due to incredible conservation efforts. dr. will fowlds is part of that effort. a wildlife veterinarian and co-owner of a wild game reserve. he's dedicated his life to caring for animals and restoring their habitats, especially the rhinoceros. do you remember the first rhino you brought to the property? >> yeah, that first animal was an amazing day, when she stepped off that vehicle. something just fell into place. >> reporter: the rhino got pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy. did you name it? >> we called him geza, which means the naughty one. it was because he had such a naughty, playful character. >> reporter: a rascal? >> a rascal, yeah. >> reporter: when geza was 3 will sold him to graeme rushmere a nearby reserve owner who was also trying to grow the rhino population. >> geza was one of the rhinos that we introduced back into that wilderness area. it had rhino back on it for the first time in probably 160, 170 years. >> reporter: wow. but three years later will got a call he'll never forget. a rhino had been attacked on graeme's property and it was still alive. >> this is the area where he was walking around when i found him. >> reporter: what kind of condition was it in? >> when i came around the corner and first saw him, obviously the first thing that strikes you is that there's an animal that's supposed to have horns on it and not only were their horns gone but a large part of his face was missing, too. >> reporter: it was geza. stunned and heartbroken, will called a cameraman to document the rhino's suffering. the poachers had knocked him out with a tranquilizer dart, then hacked through his skull with a ma chetty to get every inch of his horn. when you saw it, did you think, who would do this? >> i couldn't explain why, why someone would do such a thing. but to be there with that animal, i just kept on saying, i'm so sorry, boy. >> reporter: will examined him and knew geza could not be saved. >> regardless of what the reason is, why you're putting that animal to sleep, it's sad. it's a very difficult thing to go through. >> reporter: geza's death is part of a scourge that grows worse every year. rhinos by the hundreds are being laid waste in south africa home to three-quarters of the last remaining rhinos on the planet. the rhinos are under brutal and bloody assault by poachers who are after only one thing -- their horns. >> south africa's lost control. for 30urgcñ years they lost between 10 and 12 rhinos a year. in the course of the last year, it was over 400. >> reporter: tom milliken monitors the illegal rhino horn trade for an organization called traffic, the watchdog arm of the world wildlife fund. he traces the upsurge in demand for rhino horn to rising wealth in asia and, above all, vietnam. why is vietnam suddenly so interested in rhino horn? >> rhino horn is part of their traditional medicine system that goes back thousands of years. and more to the point, those who had the rhino horn started marketing it for new purposes. in the traditional medicine systems of asia, rhino horn was used to reduce fever, to cure things like nosebleeds. these types of ailments. suddenly rhino horn was being marketed as a cure for cancer. >> reporter: but a cure for cancer it is not. scientists have studied rhino horn and found that its medicinal value is next to nonexistent. but that information seems irrelevant in vietnam. despite the fact that it's illegal, this undercover video, shot by an independent investigator, shows rhino horn for sale in a village just outside of hanoi. an average horn is worth as much as a quarter million dollars, which makes rhino horn gram for gram more valuable than gold or cocaine. >> poachers cannot afford to arm themselves with any piece of equipment that they can buy. >> about 1:00 that night we heard a helicopter coming over. >> reporter: she found this out firsthand. her family owns the rhino and lion nature reserve just outside johannesburg. like geza poachers used darts on two of her rhine oes. the animals were found dead the next day. >> this to me i think was the saddest of all. if you have the substances on you to kill an animal outright and put it out of its misery, why not just do this? why dart it, hack half of its face off, then leave it? see, it's so hard. it's so hard to speak about it. because of the excessive cruelty of it. if you do need to kill it, then just kill it. don't make it suffer and it doesn't understand. it's the most vile, inhumane act. >> reporter: vile, inhumane and, sadly, it appears the perpetrators of some of those acts are being assisted by veterinarians. because some of these animals have been sedated and the drugs have to come from someplace. >> yeah. we know for sure that there have been veterinary drugs used in poaches incidences. vets are the only legal end users of those drugs. >> reporter: in court proceedings that have shocked south africans, two vets, a helicopter pilot, a wild game reserve owner and others are facing hundreds of charges. they're accused of slaughtering rhinos for their horns. >> this is now the wilderness area. >> reporter: rusty hustler is head of security for the northwest public parks in south africa. more than 50 rhinos have been poached in his territory in the last two years, an area that covers almost 800 square miles. >> you see how fast an area you have to try to patrol. your resources in terms of manpower to cover such an area. >> reporter: the majority of south africa's rhinos roam these public lands, making them easy pickings for poachers. rusty wishes he had more firepower to fight back. police work, military background, 20 years in the field working with these animals, you're a tough old guy. but losing so many rhinos is taking its toll. >> it's actually got to the stage now where we at home and the phone rings and you now are sort of terrified that it is another rhino. >> reporter: south africa has turned to deadly force to fight the poachers. 26 poachers were killed last year. the anti-poaching unit at pilanesberg, one of rusty's park, is comprised of park rangers to volunteer for the job and go through rigorous paramilitary training. this is the ecologist at pilanesberg but it's been years since he's worryied about the balance of plant and animal life. the scientist is now a soldier. this sure looks like war. >> it is, it is absolutely a war. they're armed so we have to be armed. it's difficult for us to stay one step ahead of them because they're the ones that are prepared to take the risks, and big risks. you know? people are dying in this. poachers are dying. >> reporter: we followed along with them to watch their maneuvers and we met a ranger from the local community. you're willing to risk your life to save the life of a rhino? >> yes. because it cannot defend itself. it doesn't have a gun. >> reporter: and you do. >> i do. poachers have guns. i'm willing to stand up and fight for them because it can't fight for itself. >> reporter: this is so damn personal to you guys. >> it is when you've done it for so long. and, you know, there are very few success stories in conservation and the rhino is one. poaching is taking out animals that are young and female. they're not going to breed. they're gone out of the system. they're going to go straight into a vortex of extinction. >> you see how emotional this is. some defenders of these rhinos say fighting these poachers doesn't go far enough. as you'll see when we come back, they're actually targeting the consumers of this rhino horn with poison. >> we've armed our rhinos. we've armed them, we've petered their horns, if you do consume the horn you do so at your peril. i can guarantee you it will fot have the desired effect. i've been in your shoes. one day i'm on top of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. 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[ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards card. apply online or at a bank of america near you. we want to protect the house. right. but... home security systems can be really expensive. so to save money, we actually just adopted a rescue panther. i think i'm goin-... shhh! we find that we don't need to sleep that much. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. welcome back. and this bears repeating, the price for a single rhino horn has skyrocketed recently. they're getting as much as a quarter million dollars apiece for these in asia where it is highly prized in traditional medicine. that price has triggered this explosion of illegal poaching in south africa since the beginning of this year one rhino is being killed on average about every 18 hours. now, the people trying to protect these animals, as we heard briefly say they're being forced to use desperate measures once considered unthinkable. here once again harry smith continues his report. >> reporter: in the fight to save the rhino, will fowlds loads the best weapon he has. the wild animal vet is in constant demand to help rhino owners protect their herds. >> if we knock them down together, nobody's taking them. >> i think so. >> reporter: canvassing the wild animal reserve by helicopter will finds a young male that needs to be tagged. they darts the rhino with a tranquilizer and within moments it kicks in. the ground crew rushes in to meet will and the downed rhino. they work quickly before the drugs wear off. will administers antibiotics and takes blood samples. so you're drawing this blood for what then? >> this will go to the laboratory in pretoria and you get a dna fingerprint of this animal. >> reporter: i feel lucky to witness this. it is an extraordinary experience. amazing to get this close. >> yeah. >> reporter: finally angus drills into the rhino's horns. he's inserting microchips to keep track of the rhino's whereabouts and his horn. >> we know exactly. because they mark them for identification. >> reporter: you got to feel better once you know that the chips are in those horns. >> every little bit helps, yeah. >> one, two, three, i'm done. >> reporter: minutes later he was none the worse for wear. how does he look to you? >> he's looking very good. >> a battle against rhino poaching, i think we'll lose the war for all the other species. >> reporter: will sent the rhino's dna to this woman, dr. cindy harper. she's the director of the veterinary genetics lab at the university of pretoria and the creator of a new rhino dna database. she's collecting dab from rhinos around the country including parks like pilanesberg. because for catching poachers dna is as good as a smoking gun. so if you suspect that rhino horn was trafficked in a given car and you do a vacuuming just like you would do in a "csi" episode -- >> yes. >> reporter: and you get a tiny fragment of rhino horn, what can you do with that? >> from that we would get a dna profile and that can be matched back to a carcass. >> reporter: and here's proof. a vietnamese man was sentenced to ten years in prison after he was caught at the airport with several rhino horns. the dna was a perfect match to animals that had been poached. but cindy says it's not just the poachers and the traffickers who are at fault. it's consumers who share the blame. you wonder if they knew how important these animals were to you if they'd treat them like that. >> i believe that's part of the problem. it's not a product. it's not a thing. it is a living being that you can connect to. and that's what needs to get to the end users in the market. these are not things. we care about losing them, each and every one. >> reporter: she has her own radical solution, target those who actually use. >> we've armed our rhine oes. we've treated their horns. if you consume the horn you can do so at your peril. i can guarantee you. it will not have the desired effect. >> reporter: she's injected the horns with a toxic chemical mix that fights parasites. it is safe for the rhino but will make humans sick. >> in my mind if you willingly participate in the purchase of the sale in the trade in rhino horn which is an illegal activity, a criminal activity, then legally i am not bound to protect your safety. that would be like implying i am under obligation to provide you as a thief with a good quality product to steal from me. the notion is utterly ridiculous ridiculous. >> reporter: and then there's >> reporter: and then there's this. many rhino owners are dehorning their own animals. as horrible as this looks, the rhino is not being harmed. the idea that if the animal doesn't have a horn, it won't be attacked. at this community in the northeast, 25 rhinos were dehorned in three days. after geza was killed will fowlds did something that for him had been unthinkable. he, too, began to dehorn rhinos including three of graeme's surviving animals. >> to dehorn a rhino is defacing a beautiful animal. it's contrary to all of our gut instincts about conservation in wildlife. >> reporter: and rhino horns grow back. so a number of owners and environmentalists have proposed actually farming rhinos for their horns to meet the demand. >> what we're doing at the moment isn't working, and i think we are being forced into a situation where it's very likely that we'll have to legalize certain components of it. >> reporter: there's been talk about legalize the trade in rhino horn. does that look to you like any real solution? >> i would have to say no simply because we don't understand the asian demand. if we get this equation wrong, if we thing we can meet a demand with a given supply and we are -- our math isn't correct, we're going to lose species. and i think that's too risky. >> reporter: the south african government is weighing whether to legalize trade in rhino horn, but with poaching on the rise, the rhinos' survival as a species is nearing a tipping point. will foultdz is still haunted by a decision he made. he prolonged gooedz za's suffering by summoning the photographer. he prays the pictures will make a difference. you made the decision to people could see the shear brutality of what transpires. >> i still don't know if i did the right thing. if i see the level of poaches start to decrease, if there's some fruit in that decision that we took, then maybe i can say to myself, well, a part of that had something to do with those images that we were able to show the world, but at this stage, i still don't know if i made the right decision. >> harry smith back with us from his trip to africa. what a perverse thing. i am sitting here thinking what a great use for civilian drones that could look down, scan the countryside, spot anything that moves. anyway, it's a huge cause, people should know, in south africa. >> if you go into the airport in south africa, there are billboards, signage, the biggest brewer in south africa has gotten behind this effort and is unifying the country to say this is something we have to do to save this animal. and in a way save ourselves. >> and the u.s. has gotten into the game. there's been an arrest? >> fish and wildlife has been monitoring this in the united states for the last year or so. an undercover operation just in the last couple of days, six arrests made in five different states. 37 rhino horns primarily from old trophies were that being used and put in the market and on their way being sent to asia. >> i see something that you brought back. >> we have more information on our website. people want to know how they can get involved. just go and you'll get a link and maybe you'll end up with one of those. >> thank you very much, sir. by the way, if you'd like to see how our team was able to bring this story to you, how they were able to capture all these images in south africa including tracking those rhinos with multiple choppers, we put together a behind the scenes video. part of our package of coverage on our website, rockcenternbc.com. with thanks to my friend harry. up next tonight, how whitney houston's funeral, a classic homegoing celebration hit home for people far from that church in newark. 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spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? ask your doctor if spiriva can help. what do you get when you combine the home depot with this weekend? the cure for cabin fever. because with get-it-done savings on everything we need... we can turn this weekend into a fresh floor... or an updated bathroom... or a brand-new look. so let's hit those orange aisles, and make today the day we make a big difference no matter how big our budget. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot maximize your budget with great buys, like mosaic tile just $4.98 per square foot. there have been a few news stories over the past few days that didn't get near the attention they deserved. and there are a few thins that a lot of us saw that we thought deserved a second look. and we'll begin with a trickf the trade in the modern presidency. the coin of the realm. that often necessary evil, the photo opportunity. when the news media need the shot and so the president feels the need to say something. it was a standard photo op at the boeing plant outside seattle. the president figured he had to say something so he said his bag would fit in the overhead bin. as some pointed out later, the problem is he hasn't lugged a bag in years or thrown one in the overhead bin. they don't have those up front in his cabin on air force one. but since we keep being told this is the era ofgjnxh that voters need to see authenticity, our politicians keep trying to be authentic. down to what they're advised to wear like the blue jeans designed to show the world what regular guys they are, even when it's okay to admit they would probably just as soon be wearing a suit. all of which somehow got us thinking about the last time an american president flew on an ordinary commercial flight with ordinary people on it, and it was a long time ago. >> president nixon is in california, having flown their last night on a commercial airliner to demonstrate that everyone should save fuel. >> it was united flight 55 from dulles to l.a. there are very few photos because nixon ditched the press corps and no one tweeted out a photo because twitter was invented three decades later. back then, remember, terrorists were people we read about in foreign countries, and airline security was pretty minimal. the passengers flying to l.a. that day were startled to see the nixon family. there were so many secret service agents on board the president roamed the aisles and met the passengers in complete safety. put another way -- it's been 40 years since a president was issued a boarding pass. a lot of folks think the tsa experience would be a lot different if presidents and vice presidents flew commercially and experienced the exhilaration of a pat-down or spent some quality time in the plexiglas penalty box of shame. there was consumer news this week beginning with things we all like according to our gender. the annual survey of the most desired brands in the u.s. men say they like southwest airlines, cadillac, bmw, dove, yeah we thought the same thing, bed, bath & beyond, ditto, apple, ghoulle, sharp, ge and macy's. women say they like southwest, and google, hallmark, there's dove again. jetblue, kohl's, target, neutrogena and crest. dove did not pay for the survey. look what's coming back. rabbit ears. increasing number of families who have to choose between paying the mortgage and the cable bill are discovering that tv channels like the one you're watching fly through the air and come in to the house free of charge with the help of one of these. ♪ jesus loves me ♪ >> finally and more seriously, about the whitney houston funeral service this past saturday. it was achingly sad. after all, a gifted and troubled woman died at 48, but it was also joyous and raucous and noisy and interactive and sprawling, and that's exactly the point. except for the fact that there were celebrities mourning a celebrity, it was just like the services going on in black baptist churches this weekend all over this country, except that a lot of people watched live on all the new york tv stations, live on cable news, and the audience for a saturday afternoon was huge. >> whitney houston loved the lord. >> the moment it started, you could read the pride in the twitter traffic. america, welcome to the black baptist church. whitney houston's funeral looks like a regular church service. looks like any other funeral, that's good. the funeral today took the whole nation to church. boston university professor steven prot, this ero wrote, it isov that sunday morning is the most segregated hour in american life. they don't know what a black church choir sounds like and they've never heard a preacher like marvin winans deliver a eulogy. we're going to have church today, the pastor said, to open the service, and so we did. it was a baptist homegoing service in the finest tradition. in her home church where she sang her first note into a microphone backed by that same choir, they gathered to send whitney houston home. a big part of what we watched transpire these past few days. and of course, we hope to see you next week here on "rock center." next wednesday night with harry smith's exclusive reporting this time from inside russia including the man who is leading the growing opposition to the way russia has been run. russians call their version of arab spring the revolution of the white snow. it's all aimed at vladimir putin who, of course, controls the security forces and most of the media, but as harry found out, putin's lost control of the internet. that's where the people are having their say. >> of all the signs and all the different allegiances that are represented out here today, this may be the most important one of all. this is a flag that says facebook. if there's no facebook, there's no revolution. >> so harry will have that report. also next week ann curry's first report for us here on "rock center" on, sadly, a new humanitarian crisis under way in sudan. that is all next week. for the folks who work so hard to get this week's broadcast on the air for you, thank you for being with us.

Transcripts For WRC Rock Center With Brian Williams 20120223

>> he didn't want to die. he wanted to see his girl grow up. >> when the thrills lead skiers into the death zone. also tonight it's not true, it's an entirely false claim that the horn of the rhinoceros can cure cancer. the problem is, as harry smith will tell us tonight, that false hope has led to a huge and brutal illegal market. in the south african bush, poachers are ruthlessly searching for something worth more than gold. rhino horns. did you think who would do this? >> i just kept on saying, i'm so sorry, boy. >> it's become a brutal assault on innocent animals. but their human protectors are fighting back. >> we've horned our rhinos. >> even deploying scientific traps. >> you do it just like the csi episode? >> yes. >> they hope it will be a successful last stand. also tonight, something that happened during the funeral for whitney houston. only it wasn't happening inside the church. rather across the country. all that and more tonight as we get under way here on "rock center." captions paid for by nbc-universal television good evening. and welcome to "rock center" as we begin another live broadcast here tonight. if you followed any of the news from this past weekend you know it has happened again. four back country skiers lost their lives trapped in avalanches in washington state. these were not rookies,y they were not careless. they were experts who knew the risks. and they join, sadly, a growing list of world class skiers who have died pursuing the most extreme forms of skiing and snowboarding. these deaths now cut especially deep into one ski community high in the sierra nevada mountains. natalie morales went there to investigate why the world's top extreme skiers feel compelled to push themselves toward what's called in the trade the death zone. >> reporter: squaw valley, california. this mountain offers some of the most challenging skiing in the world. ♪ this is also the unofficial home of north america's greatest extreme skiers. but these days the definition of extreme has changed. and the number of deaths among these skiers has increased. that has some members of this small fraternity like rob gaffney questioning whether the sport has taken a wrong turn. how many friends have you lost in the last year. >> i have lost five friends in the last three years, yeah, yeah. >> reporter: one of those was shane mcconkey. sherry mcconkey was shane's wife. >> when you see a guy who is just humble and an amazing athlete and person and he's kind inside and out and he was good looking. he had the whole package. he was perfect. >> reporter: the sport that shane mcconkey helped pioneer boasts everything from aerial acrobatics to so-called free skiing. and ski basing. skiing off cliffs with the aid of a pair chute. when it came to extreme skiing, mcconkey wasn't just the best. one magazine called him the most influential skier ever. did he talk about the risks with you? >> oh, yeah. >> reporter: did he say this is very dangerous what i'm doing? >> we both knew it was dangerous. we spoke about it. we both knew that he could die doing what he did. everybody up here knows that about the sports they do. >> reporter: that day came for 39-year-old shane mcconkey in italy in 2009. he was with fellow extreme skier j.t. holmes when he attempted a ski base jump, something he'd done and videoed dozens of times before. on that day, holmes jumped first. mcconkey followed off a 1300 foot cliff, but his pair chute opened too late. >> i was just waiting and waiting and waiting. and he just never came. and, you know, later i learned that he'd already gone. and, of course, that he didn't make it. >> reporter: since mcconkey's death, four more squaw valley extreme skiers have suffered the same fate. arnie backstrom at the time the reigning free ski tour champion during a film shoot. c.r. johnson, the only one of the group to actually die at squaw valley. kip garr and his back country ski partner allison creutzen killed in an avalanche. gaffney says he's tired of going to funerals. >> when i was growing up, all my ski heroes were skiing here at squaw valley. and they're all still alive. you know, what's so amazing is that the ski heroes of our kids today, a lot of them aren't. >> reporter: do you think this is the tipping point, though, for extreme athletes, what's going on here and in this community? >> i'm convinced we're going to see a lot more, yeah. i think in the next five to ten years we're going to see a lot more of what we've already seen. >> reporter: meaning more risk and more death. gaffney took me on the slopes, and we hiked to the top of these imposing cliffs, the palisades. what some say is the birthplace of american extreme skiing. so this is main chute. it gets a lot easier as the snow fills in. this is rob gaffney skiing the palisades a decade ago. he says these mountains aren't extreme enough for a new generation of skiers. >> i think a lot of what we're seeing now is if you added four of five of these on top of each other. we're starting to see things you where you have more vertical and risk because of that. >> reporter: the psychology of risk is something that rob gaffney understands. he's also a doctor, a psychiatrist whose office is at the base of squaw valley. so what's changed? what combination of factors is claiming the lives of some of the world's most talented extreme skiers? from his unique perspective as both an extreme skier himself and a practicing psychiatrist, dr. rob gaffney has some ideas about what is luring these remarkable and daring athletes into what he calls the death zone. >> we've entered a different realm. there's something that's changed. >> reporter: you call it the death zone. what do you mean by the death zone? >> i think it's where we start rolling the dice a little bit. all my friends who have been lost here, they were the best at what they did. worldwide. you know? they were the best at what they did, and yet we still lost them. so why did we lose them? there had to be some probability there that something can go wrong when you're out in that realm out there. >> reporter: gaffney says while there have always been thrillseeking athletes now there's real money to be made. athletes are made to appear in films and competition. and the audience has increased because of tv exposure and the internet. >> i do see corporate sponsorship as a big player here for sure. i think that they're making a lot of money. they've tapped into a roid center in the brain, the culture is enthralled with it. it's a moneymaking machine guaranteed. >> reporter: gaffney believes it's a powerful equation, corporate money mixed with athletes who exhibit a propensity for risk taking. added to that a youtube culture that can make anybody with a hand held camera and pair of ski skis a potential star. can you blame the corporate sponsor if it really is the individual who is choosing to do this anyway? are they fueling this frenzy? >> they have increased the curve >> they have increased the curve of how fast these things have gotten to where they are. and we're seeing death because of it, right, death and injury. to some degree, are they responsible? yeah, i guess so. >> reporter: but shane mcconkey's widow sherry maintains hadder husband's sponsor red bull always had his interests and safety in mind. did any of these sponsors ever ask him to go out and do things that he wasn't willing to do? >> no. he was constantly, hey, can i do this? can i do this? and red bull was amazing. they were always like, shane, whatever you want to do. >> reporter: in a statement red bull says it has, quote, a very special, direct, personal relationship with each one of its athletes. red bull is pleased to enable them to fulfill their dreams. as with any sport, despite state of the art precautions, there are inherent ;rña( sherry mcconkey, who is now raising her daughter ayla alone, says focusing only on her husband's death is to miss the point of the sport and to misunderstand how shane lived his life. >> i loved his passion. i loved how he was -- he was what he was. you know, i would never take away that part of his personality. i loved him. he is my everything, you know? and he didn't want to die. he wanted to see his girl grow up. and he wanted to be with us. >> natalie's here with us in the studio. also occurs to me we should mention nbc sports broadcasts those red bull series. two things occur to me watching this, daytona 500 is this weekend. and you know a friend o of mine dale earnhardt lost his life in that race. and this weekend they'll drive as fast as they can. number two, so that's a type of -- >> right. >> how many of this is because video of the most extreme stuff, even if you shoot it yourself in the back country has a huge premium attached to it now? >> certainly now this next generation, a lot of that youtube generation, the x-games generation, they are getting that access now. they're seeing their heroes, you know, who are getting out there and doing all of these extreme sports. and those guys, by the way, they're pushing and the ladies as well, they're pushing the extreme beyond extreme to the point where now they're combining sports. they're jumping out of airplanes, sky diving with wing suits and base jumping with skis on, going off cliffs. so it's a combination that each one of those extreme sports in itself is very risky, but the combination is almost deadly. but kids definitely see this. that is their example. they look up to these guys, and if they don't have the basic, the fundamental skills and they try these things, it can be deadly. >> great piece of reporting out there, natalie. thank you. up next here tonight, do you stock your fridge with domestic beer or imported? do you wear a uniform to work? have you ever watched an entire "oprah" or "judge judy"? your answers to these questions and others may determine which side of our current cultural divide you're on according to the nation's most talked about new book. and later on tonight, the war over rhinos. after decades in which their numbers have grown, there's been a sudden explosion of rhino killings. being poached for their horns. now scientists are fighting back and they are armed. >> this is so damn personal to you guys. >> it is. and there are very few success with a paint we know can do the job. new glidden duo paint plus primer available only at the home depot. one coat does double duty. and fits our budget perfectly. so there's a brand-new room... ...right where the old one used to be. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. new glidden duo paint plus primer. only at the home depot. and starting at only $24.97 a gallon. forty years ago, he wasn't looking for financial advice. back then he had something more important to do. he wasn't focused on his future. but fortunately, somebody else was. at usaa we provide retirement planning for our military, veterans and their families. now more than ever it's important to get financial advice from people who share your military values. for our free usaa retirement guide call 877-242-usaa. i don't want healthy skin for a day. i want healthy skin for life. 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[ female announcer ] travelocity. get great deals on all kinds of beach vacations. follow the wings. everywhere you go, america, i see your cup of joe goes with you. how nice of joe to, how you say, have your back. try something different. a delicious gevalia kaffe, or as i like to say, a cup of johan. will johan power walk the mall with you? i don't think so. but he will spend time rubbing your feet discussing your feelings. ♪ ♪ joe may have your back, but johan has your feet. gevalia. meet me in the coffee aisle. there's a new book out that says our country is coming apart. in fact, that's the title of the book by the author, charles murray. it's based on the idea that the cultural divide between the upper and lower classes in america is greater than it has ever been. this book came up, in fact, just tonight at the gop debate in arizona. if the name charles murray rings a bell, it may have to do with this book cover. he co-authored a book called "the bell curve" a decade ago. it was hugely controversial. the book looked at differences in intelligence across socioeconomic and racial lines. he was harshly criticized, labeled as a$dc racist by some folks for linking iq to jeanette iks and, therefore, to race. with this new book he's found a novel way to get around that hot button issue. he's based his findings entirely on white people. but listen to what he says is happening to all the people in our country. what is the central theme of your book and what's happening in your view to our country? >> we have a kind of cultural inequality that exists now between the working class, the upper middle class that is new in american history. we've always had rich people, we've always had poor people, but they didn't live in separate cultures. they both inhabited an american civic culture that we used to call the american way of life. a phrase that was in use when you were a boy. you don't hear it much any more. >> in the book murray cites statistics that document the breakdown of that american way of life, beginning with marriage. >> in 1960, you had over 80% of the working class, which was married. you had over 90% of the upper middle class, same for both in terms of the norm. here's the stunning statistic. in 2010 for the white working class, that's down to 48%. not only that, that's 30 to 49-year-olds. you're not talking about them getting married later or whatever. collapse is a very strong word but that's close to a collapse of the cultural institution. >> a lot of people believe it's the upper classes who have abandoned what we've always called traditional american values, but in the book murray says the truth is just the opposite. you make a point that there's been a value shift, while we continue to make a sweeping assumption as to where the repository of those rock ribbed american values are. >> the founders all said unanimously this constitution won't work unless you have a certain kind of people. and the four founding virtues that they all agreed on were first, the integrity of the family, indust industriousness which is maybe the signature quality of the american people at that time, plain american honesty in the words of thomas jefferson and religiosity. the working class has been falling away from all four whereas the upper middle class maybe surprisingly is still doing pretty well. >> how much is a race a part of this, of what ails us? >> race has nothing to do with these problems. the sub title of the book is "the state of white america 1960-2010" because i want to clear way all the complications associated with race and say, look what's happening with non-latino white america. >> in a highly charged atmosphere that we live in today, when you put a subtitle on your book "the state of white america 1960-2010," you know, you know you're going to get trouble for that. >> it's my reference point. white america is my reference point. to put it one way, they have no they aren't recent immigrants that don't speak the language, they don't have a legacy of slavery. if you've got problems there, we've got to think of other understandings of how we can solve them. >> murray says one way to solve them is to somehow convince americans from different classes with nothing in common to find something, anything to share. you talk about the cognitive elite. they go to the same schools, then they come out and they marry each other and pursue two separate tracks. why don't they commingle? they used to commingle. >> part of it's really natural. i mean, there's always been an attraction to people we can talk to, people who get our jokes, people who understand us. you ought to fight against it. because this country is really wonderful in terms of its history. and all the interesting people don't live on the upper east side. they don't live in bethesda, maryland. america is filled with really interesting, attractive people that you ought to get to know who you'll never get to know unless you make an effort to break out of your bubble. >> and one more thing here. he just mentioned breaking out of your bubble. this book contains an interesting quiz in the text which he calls "how thick is your bubble?" it contains questions like the following to find out which class in society you might belong to. during the last year have you ever purchased domestic mass market beer to stock your fridge? have ufr participated in a parade? have you ever purchased avon products? who's jimmy johnson? five time nascar champion jimmy johnson. and tonight you can go to our website, rockcenternbc.com to find that quiz and take it and decide. later on, speaking of this cultural divide, when do you think the last time was when a president flew on a regular commercial flight with regular passengers on board? we'll have the answer for you next. but up next in our next segment, the giants of the african plains being pursued by poachers. are humans going to be the next to die before this stops? we have some powerful reporting from harry smith tonight. i us e my phone all day, every day. email, talk... directions, applications... my phone's dead, uh, my business is dead. my phone battery starts blinking... -beep, beep, beep... -no, no, don't run out... boom phone dies. really? really?? 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[ male announcer ] with ge's most advanced cooking technology, the café line takes food further. ♪ ♪ some constipation medications can take control of you. break free. with miralax. it's clinically proven to relieve constipation and soften stool with no harsh side effects. just gentle predictable relief. miralax. welcome back. there is a war being fought in south africa right now over one of the most magnificent creatures on the planet, the rhino. the horn of the rhino is highly prized in traditional asian medicine, so much so that a single horn can fetch up to a quarter million dollars. they believe it can cure cancer. but it can't. the number of rhinos killed by poachers in south africa has skyrocketed from about a dozen per year to more than one every other day. fair warning, some of this next report by harry smith is tough to watch, difficult images. but as he reminds us in this report, this is about life and death and an animal that could be making its last stand. >> reporter: rhinos have roamed the earth for millions of years, an incarnation of the prehistoric in the present. nearly extinct in south africa a century ago the white rhino has flourished due to incredible conservation efforts. dr. will fowlds is part of that effort. a wildlife veterinarian and co-owner of a wild game reserve. he's dedicated his life to caring for animals and restoring their habitats, especially the rhinoceros. do you remember the first rhino you brought to the property? >> yeah, that first animal was an amazing day, when she stepped off that vehicle. something just fell into place. >> reporter: the rhino got pregnant and gave birth to a baby boy. did you name it? >> we called him geza, which means the naughty one. it was because he had such a naughty, playful character. >> reporter: a rascal? >> a rascal, yeah. >> reporter: when geza was 3 will sold him to graeme rushmere a nearby reserve owner who was also trying to grow the rhino population. >> geza was one of the rhinos that we introduced back into that wilderness area. it had rhino back on it for the first time in probably 160, 170 years. >> reporter: wow. but three years later will got a call he'll never forget. a rhino had been attacked on graeme's property and it was still alive. >> this is the area where he was walking around when i found him. >> reporter: what kind of condition was it in? >> when i came around the corner and first saw him, obviously the first thing that strikes you is that there's an animal that's supposed to have horns on it and not only were their horns gone but a large part of his face was missing, too. >> reporter: it was geza. stunned and heartbroken, will called a cameraman to document the rhino's suffering. the poachers had knocked him out with a tranquilizer dart, then hacked through his skull with a ma chetty to get every inch of his horn. when you saw it, did you think, who would do this? >> i couldn't explain why, why someone would do such a thing. but to be there with that animal, i just kept on saying, i'm so sorry, boy. >> reporter: will examined him and knew geza could not be saved. >> regardless of what the reason is, why you're putting that animal to sleep, it's sad. it's a very difficult thing to go through. >> reporter: geza's death is part of a scourge that grows worse every year. rhinos by the hundreds are being laid waste in south africa home to three-quarters of the last remaining rhinos on the planet. the rhinos are under brutal and bloody assault by poachers who are after only one thing -- their horns. >> south africa's lost control. for 30urgcñ years they lost between 10 and 12 rhinos a year. in the course of the last year, it was over 400. >> reporter: tom milliken monitors the illegal rhino horn trade for an organization called traffic, the watchdog arm of the world wildlife fund. he traces the upsurge in demand for rhino horn to rising wealth in asia and, above all, vietnam. why is vietnam suddenly so interested in rhino horn? >> rhino horn is part of their traditional medicine system that goes back thousands of years. and more to the point, those who had the rhino horn started marketing it for new purposes. in the traditional medicine systems of asia, rhino horn was used to reduce fever, to cure things like nosebleeds. these types of ailments. suddenly rhino horn was being marketed as a cure for cancer. >> reporter: but a cure for cancer it is not. scientists have studied rhino horn and found that its medicinal value is next to nonexistent. but that information seems irrelevant in vietnam. despite the fact that it's illegal, this undercover video, shot by an independent investigator, shows rhino horn for sale in a village just outside of hanoi. an average horn is worth as much as a quarter million dollars, which makes rhino horn gram for gram more valuable than gold or cocaine. >> poachers cannot afford to arm themselves with any piece of equipment that they can buy. >> about 1:00 that night we heard a helicopter coming over. >> reporter: she found this out firsthand. her family owns the rhino and lion nature reserve just outside johannesburg. like geza poachers used darts on two of her rhine oes. the animals were found dead the next day. >> this to me i think was the saddest of all. if you have the substances on you to kill an animal outright and put it out of its misery, why not just do this? why dart it, hack half of its face off, then leave it? see, it's so hard. it's so hard to speak about it. because of the excessive cruelty of it. if you do need to kill it, then just kill it. don't make it suffer and it doesn't understand. it's the most vile, inhumane act. >> reporter: vile, inhumane and, sadly, it appears the perpetrators of some of those acts are being assisted by veterinarians. because some of these animals have been sedated and the drugs have to come from someplace. >> yeah. we know for sure that there have been veterinary drugs used in poaches incidences. vets are the only legal end users of those drugs. >> reporter: in court proceedings that have shocked south africans, two vets, a helicopter pilot, a wild game reserve owner and others are facing hundreds of charges. they're accused of slaughtering rhinos for their horns. >> this is now the wilderness area. >> reporter: rusty hustler is head of security for the northwest public parks in south africa. more than 50 rhinos have been poached in his territory in the last two years, an area that covers almost 800 square miles. >> you see how fast an area you have to try to patrol. your resources in terms of manpower to cover such an area. >> reporter: the majority of south africa's rhinos roam these public lands, making them easy pickings for poachers. rusty wishes he had more firepower to fight back. police work, military background, 20 years in the field working with these animals, you're a tough old guy. but losing so many rhinos is taking its toll. >> it's actually got to the stage now where we at home and the phone rings and you now are sort of terrified that it is another rhino. >> reporter: south africa has turned to deadly force to fight the poachers. 26 poachers were killed last year. the anti-poaching unit at pilanesberg, one of rusty's park, is comprised of park rangers to volunteer for the job and go through rigorous paramilitary training. this is the ecologist at pilanesberg but it's been years since he's worryied about the balance of plant and animal life. the scientist is now a soldier. this sure looks like war. >> it is, it is absolutely a war. they're armed so we have to be armed. it's difficult for us to stay one step ahead of them because they're the ones that are prepared to take the risks, and big risks. you know? people are dying in this. poachers are dying. >> reporter: we followed along with them to watch their maneuvers and we met a ranger from the local community. you're willing to risk your life to save the life of a rhino? >> yes. because it cannot defend itself. it doesn't have a gun. >> reporter: and you do. >> i do. poachers have guns. i'm willing to stand up and fight for them because it can't fight for itself. >> reporter: this is so damn personal to you guys. >> it is when you've done it for so long. and, you know, there are very few success stories in conservation and the rhino is one. poaching is taking out animals that are young and female. they're not going to breed. they're gone out of the system. they're going to go straight into a vortex of extinction. >> you see how emotional this is. some defenders of these rhinos say fighting these poachers doesn't go far enough. as you'll see when we come back, they're actually targeting the consumers of this rhino horn with poison. >> we've armed our rhinos. we've armed them, we've petered their horns, if you do consume the horn you do so at your peril. i can guarantee you it will fot have the desired effect. i've been in your shoes. one day i'm on top of the world... the next i'm saying... i have this thing called psoriatic arthritis. i had some intense pain. it progressively got worse. my rheumatologist told me about enbrel. i'm surprised how quickly my symptoms have been managed. 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[ male announcer ] the bankamericard cash rewards card. apply online or at a bank of america near you. welcome back. and this bears repeating, the price for a single rhino horn has skyrocketed recently. they're getting as much as a quarter million dollars apiece for these in asia where it is highly prized in traditional medicine. that price has triggered this explosion of illegal poaching in south africa since the beginning of this year one rhino is being killed on average about every 18 hours. now, the people trying to protect these animals, as we heard briefly say they're being forced to use desperate measures once considered unthinkable. here once again harry smith continues his report. >> reporter: in the fight to save the rhino, will fowlds loads the best weapon he has. the wild animal vet is in constant demand to help rhino owners protect their herds. >> if we knock them down together, nobody's taking them. >> i think so. >> reporter: canvassing the wild animal reserve by helicopter will finds a young male that needs to be tagged. they darts the rhino with a tranquilizer and within moments it kicks in. the ground crew rushes in to meet will and the downed rhino. they work quickly before the drugs wear off. will administers antibiotics and takes blood samples. so you're drawing this blood for what then? >> this will go to the laboratory in pretoria and you get a dna fingerprint of this animal. >> reporter: i feel lucky to witness this. it is an extraordinary experience. amazing to get this close. >> yeah. >> reporter: finally angus drills into the rhino's horns. he's inserting microchips to keep track of the rhino's whereabouts and his horn. >> we know exactly. because they mark them for identification. >> reporter: you got to feel better once you know that the chips are in those horns. >> every little bit helps, yeah. >> one, two, three, i'm done. >> reporter: minutes later he was none the worse for wear. how does he look to you? >> he's looking very good. >> a battle against rhino poaching, i think we'll lose the war for all the other species. >> reporter: will sent the rhino's dna to this woman, dr. cindy harper. she's the director of the veterinary genetics lab at the university of pretoria and the creator of a new rhino dna database. she's collecting dab from rhinos around the country including parks like pilanesberg. because for catching poachers dna is as good as a smoking gun. so if you suspect that rhino horn was trafficked in a given car and you do a vacuuming just like you would do in a "csi" episode -- >> yes. >> reporter: and you get a tiny fragment of rhino horn, what can you do with that? >> from that we would get a dna profile and that can be matched back to a carcass. >> reporter: and here's proof. a vietnamese man was sentenced to ten years in prison after he was caught at the airport with several rhino horns. the dna was a perfect match to animals that had been poached. but cindy says it's not just the poachers and the traffickers who are at fault. it's consumers who share the blame. you wonder if they knew how important these animals were to you if they'd treat them like that. >> i believe that's part of the problem. it's not a product. it's not a thing. it is a living being that you can connect to. and that's what needs to get to the end users in the market. these are not things. we care about losing them, each and every one. >> reporter: she has her own radical solution, target those who actually use. >> we've armed our rhine oes. we've treated their horns. if you consume the horn you can do so at your peril. i can guarantee you. it will not have the desired effect. >> reporter: she's injected the horns with a toxic chemical mix that fights parasites. it is safe for the rhino but will make humans sick. >> in my mind if you willingly participate in the purchase of the sale in the trade in rhino horn which is an illegal activity, a criminal activity, then legally i am not bound to protect your safety. that would be like implying i am under obligation to provide you as a thief with a good quality product to steal from me. the notion is utterly ridiculous ridiculous. >> reporter: and then there's >> reporter: and then there's this. many rhino owners are dehorning their own animals. as horrible as this looks, the rhino is not being harmed. the idea that if the animal doesn't have a horn, it won't be attacked. at this community in the northeast, 25 rhinos were dehorned in three days. after geza was killed will fowlds did something that for him had been unthinkable. he, too, began to dehorn rhinos including three of graeme's surviving animals. >> to dehorn a rhino is defacing a beautiful animal. it's contrary to all of our gut instincts about conservation in wildlife. >> reporter: and rhino horns grow back. so a number of owners and environmentalists have proposed actually farming rhinos for their horns to meet the demand. >> what we're doing at the moment isn't working, and i think we are being forced into a situation where it's very likely that we'll have to legalize certain components of it. >> reporter: there's been talk about legalize the trade in rhino horn. does that look to you like any real solution? >> i would have to say no simply because we don't understand the asian demand. if we get this equation wrong, if we thing we can meet a demand with a given supply and we are -- our math isn't correct, we're going to lose species. and i think that's too risky. >> reporter: the south african government is weighing whether to legalize trade in rhino horn, but with poaching on the rise, the rhinos' survival as a species is nearing a tipping point. will foultdz is still haunted by a decision he made. he prolonged gooedz za's suffering by summoning the photographer. he prays the pictures will make a difference. you made the decision to people could see the shear brutality of what transpires. >> i still don't know if i did the right thing. if i see the level of poaches start to decrease, if there's some fruit in that decision that we took, then maybe i can say to myself, well, a part of that had something to do with those images that we were able to show the world, but at this stage, i still don't know if i made the right decision. >> harry smith back with us from his trip to africa. what a perverse thing. i am sitting here thinking what a great use for civilian drones that could look down, scan the countryside, spot anything that moves. anyway, it's a huge cause, people should know, in south africa. >> if you go into the airport in south africa, there are billboards, signage, the biggest brewer in south africa has gotten behind this effort and is unifying the country to say this is something we have to do to save this animal. and in a way save ourselves. >> and the u.s. has gotten into the game. there's been an arrest? >> fish and wildlife has been monitoring this in the united states for the last year or so. an undercover operation just in the last couple of days, six arrests made in five different states. 37 rhino horns primarily from old trophies were that being used and put in the market and on their way being sent to asia. >> i see something that you brought back. >> we have more information on our website. people want to know how they can get involved. just go and you'll get a link and maybe you'll end up with one of those. >> thank you very much, sir. by the way, if you'd like to see how our team was able to bring this story to you, how they were able to capture all these images in south africa including tracking those rhinos with multiple choppers, we put together a behind the scenes video. part of our package of coverage on our website, rockcenternbc.com. with thanks to my friend harry. up next tonight, how whitney houston's funeral, a classic homegoing celebration hit home for people far from that church in newark. 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spiriva helps me breathe better. does breathing with copd weigh you down? ask your doctor if spiriva can help. what do you get when you combine the home depot with this weekend? the cure for cabin fever. because with get-it-done savings on everything we need... we can turn this weekend into a fresh floor... or an updated bathroom... or a brand-new look. so let's hit those orange aisles, and make today the day we make a big difference no matter how big our budget. more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot maximize your budget with great buys, like mosaic tile just $4.98 per square foot. sfwang jury deliberation. the fate of george huguely. a jury found him there have been a few news stories over the past few days that didn't get near the attention they deserved. and there are a few thins that a lot of us saw that we thought deserved a second look. and we'll begin with a trick of the trade in the modern presidency. the coin of the realm. that often necessary evil, the photo opportunity. when the news media need the shot and so the president feels the need to say something. it was a standard photo op at the boeing plant outside seattle. the president figured he had to say something so he said his bag would fit in the overhead bin. as some pointed out later, the problem is he hasn't lugged a bag in years or thrown one in the overhead bin. they don't have those up front in his cabin on air force one. but since we keep being told this is the era ofgjnxh that voters need to see authenticity, our politicians keep trying to be authentic. down to what they're advised to wear like the blue jeans designed to show the world what regular guys they are, even when it's okay to admit they would probably just as soon be wearing a suit. all of which somehow got us thinking about the last time an american president flew on an ordinary commercial flight with ordinary people on it, and it was a long time ago. >> president nixon is in california, having flown their last night on a commercial airliner to demonstrate that everyone should save fuel. >> it was united flight 55 from dulles to l.a. there are very few photos because nixon ditched the press corps and no one tweeted out a photo because twitter was invented three decades later. back then, remember, terrorists were people we read about in foreign countries, and airline security was pretty minimal. the passengers flying to l.a. that day were startled to see the nixon family. there were so many secret service agents on board the president roamed the aisles and met the passengers in complete safety. put another way -- it's been 40 years since a president was issued a boarding pass. a lot of folks think the tsa experience would be a lot different if presidents and vice presidents flew commercially and experienced the exhilaration of a pat-down or spent some quality time in the plexiglas penalty box of shame. there was consumer news this week beginning with things we all like according to our gender. the annual survey of the most desired brands in the u.s. men say they like southwest airlines, cadillac, bmw, dove, yeah we thought the same thing, bed, bath & beyond, ditto, apple, ghoulle, sharp, ge and macy's. women say they like southwest, and google, hallmark, there's dove again. jetblue, kohl's, target, neutrogena and crest. dove did not pay for the survey. look what's coming back. rabbit ears. increasing number of families who have to choose between paying the mortgage and the cable bill are discovering that tv channels like the one you're watching fly through the air and come in to the house free of charge with the help of one of these. ♪ jesus loves me ♪ >> finally and more seriously, about the whitney houston funeral service this past saturday. it was achingly sad. after all, a gifted and troubled woman died at 48, but it was also joyous and raucous and noisy and interactive and sprawling, and that's exactly the point. except for the fact that there were celebrities mourning a celebrity, it was just like the services going on in black baptist churches this weekend all over this country, except that a lot of people watched live on all the new york tv stations, live on cable news, and the audience for a saturday afternoon was huge. >> whitney houston loved the lord. >> the moment it started, you could read the pride in the twitter traffic. america, welcome to the black baptist church. whitney houston's funeral looks like a regular church service. looks like any other funeral, that's good. the funeral today took the whole nation to church. boston university professor steven prot, this ero wrote, it isov that sunday morning is the most segregated hour in american life. they don't know what a black church choir sounds like and they've never heard a preacher like marvin winans deliver a eulogy. we're going to have church today, the pastor said, to open the service, and so we did. it was a baptist homegoing service in the finest tradition. in her home church where she sang her first note into a microphone backed by that same choir, they gathered to send whitney houston home. a big part of what we watched transpire these past few days. and of course, we hope to see you next week here on "rock center." next wednesday night with harry smith's exclusive reporting this time from inside russia including the man who is leading the growing opposition to the way russia has been run. russians call their version of arab spring the revolution of the white snow. it's all aimed at vladimir putin who, of course, controls the security forces and most of the media, but as harry found out, putin's lost control of the internet. that's where the people are having their say. >> of all the signs and all the different allegiances that are represented out here today, this may be the most important one of all. this is a flag that says facebook. if there's no facebook, there's no revolution. >> so harry will have that report. also next week ann curry's first report for us here on "rock center" on, sadly, a new humanitarian crisis under way in sudan. that is all next week. for the folks who work so hard to get this week's broadcast on the air for you, thank you for being with us. vrk vk