UN Security Council Holds Urgent Session to Discuss Sanctions Against Liby; A Rare Glimmer of Hope from the Nation's Capitol; Another Heated Day of Protests over Wisconsin's Budget Battle; Teachers Get Pink Slips in Providence, Rhode Island
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST, CNN NEWSROOM: Hello. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. A quick check of our headlines right now. The U.N. Security Council is holding an urgent session today to discuss sanctions against Libya. The government crackdown against anti-government protesters shows no signs of letting up. And in New Zealand, rescuers in Christchurch recovered more bodies from the city's flattened buildings. The death toll from Tuesday's quake has now climbed to 145. And then take a look at this video from northern California. Up to 2 feet of snow buried much of the state north and east of San Francisco. Thousands of people in Nevada City, California, are also without power now. All right. Let's begin with a rare glimmer of hope from the nation's capitol. Congress may be nearing a compromise that could at least delay a government shutdown scheduled for next Friday. Democrats and Republicans have been fighting over a measure to fund government operations for the rest of the fiscal year. Well, now they are discussing a temporary deal. Democrats would agree to some immediate cuts from President Obama's proposed 2012 budget and to cut earmarks right now. In return, Republicans would support a spending extension that would keep the government operating for another two weeks. If the temporary deal is approved, negotiations over a longer term agreement would continue. It's another heated day of, and that's where we find our Ted Rowlands, where it is still snowy and cold, but that's not stopping protesters there. Ted.</s>TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. Tens of thousands of people, Fredricka, inside and outside the capitol. In fact, the crowds this week are larger than they are last week. And those crowds were estimated to be about 70,000 people. It really is amazing. Of course, at issue here is the collective bargaining part of Governor Walker's bill. There seems to be no budging on it. He says he won't give. Those 14 Democratic senators, they remain in the state of Illinois, they say they're not going to give up. A lot of protesters have a lot of very passionate opinions. Here's one of them. Bruce Lyon, Bruce, what about the fact that Scott Walker was elected, fair and square, in November and said he was going to do some drastic things to fix the budget here?</s>BRUCE LYON: Well, fair and square, there was a lot of money spent, a significant donation from the Koch brothers. He never said he would break up the unions. The union agreed to the cuts that he proposed. They did not go along with having the union broken up. They said, we'll agree, but do not stamp us anywhere else.</s>ROWLANDS: All right. That's one of the many opinions out here, Fredricka, but basically, it's coming down to this game of chicken between Walker and the Democrats that are in Illinois, and at this point, there doesn't seem to be any movement, either way. We'll see as we get into next week, Tuesday, Wednesday, in there, when the deadline to refinance some bond money comes up, whether or not one of these sides will flinch, but right now thousands of people are out here. The governor, not budging, and those 14 senators are still in Illinois.</s>WHITFIELD: All right. Ted Rowlands, thank you so much, in Madison, Wisconsin. So like Wisconsin in other states with budget shortfalls, educators are increasingly the prime target of cuts. That led to stunning news for teachers in Providence, Rhode Island. They are losing their jobs. Our Mary Snow looks at what prompted Providence to take this dramatic step.</s>UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: Aye.</s>UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: Aye.</s>UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: Come on, Julian!</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aye.</s>MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): And with that, the Providence, Rhode Island, school board voted to fire nearly all of its 2,000 teachers at the end of the school year. Not all of them will ultimately lose their jobs, but that didn't soften the blow.</s>UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: I am heartbroken. I can't tell you how much this hurts.</s>UNIDENTIFED FEMALE: I feel numb. I almost feel like I need to mourn, like the death of innocence or -- it's just surreal. There's just no justifying this.</s>SNOW: City officials say state law forced them to make the drastic move, since teachers must be notified of layoffs by March 1st. The Providence school system faces a projected deficit of $40 million, says Mayor Angel Taveras.</s>MAYOR ANGEL TAVERAS, (D) PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND: We need to make cuts; we don't know exactly the extent of the cuts yet, so therefore we thought it most prudent to give the notices to all the teachers to maintain the maximum amount of flexibility to make sure we can balance our budget for the next financial year.</s>SNOW: The head of the teachers union in Providence blasted the move as a political one.</s>STEVEN SMITH, PRESIDENT, PROVIDENCE TEACHERS UNION: This sounds very much like what's going on in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana, where lawmakers want to the get rid of collective bargaining and remove the voice of workers.</s>SNOW: And while the mass firing in Providence is apparently unique, deep cuts in education are not as stimulus money dries up. At least 16 states so far have announced education cuts. Los Angeles is considering slashing 7,300 personnel. New York City is proposing to layoff 4,700 teachers. And Detroit is looking at closing 70 schools that's half of the district. In providence, the fact that teachers were given termination and not layoff notices was significant. In layoff notices teachers are rehired by seniority. Now school officials have more of a say in who stays. Mary Snow, CNN, New York.</s>WHITFIELD: We're also following developments at the United Nations. Diplomats have said called to an urgent session. At issue, possible sanctions against Moammar Gadhafi's regime in Libya. Members of the Security Council have been meeting behind closed doors for the past couple of hours now. We understand a draft resolution is being debated. Our senior U.N. correspondent, Richard Roth, is there, monitoring all of it. First, Richard, what is in that resolution? RICHARD ROTH, CNN Sr.</s>U.N. CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's an urgent meeting, but you've still got to eat and there's a bit of a lunch break for an hour here at the Security Council. They've been in there for a few hours. The Security Council resolution imposes an arms embargo, acid freeze, and goes after the Gadhafi family, the high leadership there. But Gadhafi has survived these types of sanctions before, many years of sanctions imposed on him after the Lockerbie bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland. So these sanctions, they're a bit hung up on -- there's some technical wording or wording with big implications, depending on your viewpoint, regarding a possible referral of anyone accused of attacks on the Libyan people to be referred to the International Criminal Court for potential investigation and prosecution. Plus, because there's a desire to get aid in quickly to the people there on a humanitarian basis, there's some wording which talks about using all necessary means to get that aid in. Some people on the Security Council are concerned that that might open the door to military action. Others say, no, don't look at it that way. So this is very typical in how they go over lawyers, ambassadors, diplomats, line by line, to approve a resolution, which stands for decades, sometimes, and is the basis for international law. No timing, yet, for a vote. Fredricka.</s>WHITFIELD: All right, Richard Roth thanks so much, at the U.N. All right. Before you send in your taxes, are you sure that you can avoid an audit this go-round? We can actually help, at least the Dolan's can, when we come right back.