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CARL AZUZ, CNN STUDENT NEWS ANCHOR: I'm Carl Azuz, and today, CNN Student News is taking you to school! Middle school, high school, college: all of them in today's show. First up, though, we're heading to the hill.
AZUZ: Capitol Hill, where a House committee is holding hearings on Toyota recalls. Yesterday, the company's president, Akio Toyoda, explained what he thinks is the reason for some of the company's recent problems.
AKIO TOYODA, TOYOTA PRESIDENT: Toyota has, for the past few years, been expanding its business rapidly. Quite frankly, I fear the pace at which we have grown may have been too quick. I would like to point out here that Toyota's priority has traditionally been the following: first, safety; second, quality; third, volume. These priorities became confused, and we were not able to stop, think and make improvements as much as we were able to before. And our basic stance to listen to customers' voices to make better products has weakened somewhat.
AZUZ: Mr. Toyoda says he's committed to restoring his company's reputation. Some people have blamed the U.S. government for not acting sooner. But Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood says that is not the case.
RAY LAHOOD, U.S. TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: We haven't been sitting around on our hands. When people complain, we investigate. When there needs to be a recall, we do it. Of the 100 investigations NHTSA opens in an average year, there are currently 44 open defect investigations, 5 of which involve Toyota. Every step of the way, NHTSA officials have pushed Toyota to take corrective action so that consumers would be safe.
Economic Outlook
AZUZ: Meantime, a different committee was hearing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke's outlook on the country's economy. Bernanke heads up the nation's central bank. He says the U.S. economy is getting better, but he doesn't expect it to grow too much this year; only about 3 to 3.5 percent. He's also worried about the job market. Bernanke says it's still very weak. Unemployment is around 9.7 percent. He predicts that'll drop to around 7 percent, but not until the end of 2012.
That statistic might get some help from a new jobs bill being considered by Congress. The Senate approved a $15 billion version yesterday. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called it a "small but important step" in trying to pass a jobs bill. But some critics say the Senate's proposal wouldn't do nearly enough.
Word to the Wise
TOMEKA JONES, CNN STUDENT NEWS: A Word to the Wise...
nor'easter (noun) a type of storm with extremely strong winds, which can produce heavy rain and cause powerful waves
Nor'easter
AZUZ: A nor'easter is what's on the radar for parts of the U.S. Experts think it could bring rain, snow, heavy winds. And these are areas that have already been hammered by severe winter weather. As you might guess, a nor'easter affects the northeast part of the country. But that's not where the name comes from. Chad Myers has that answer.
CHAD MYERS, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: Carl, we'll talk about nor'easter because of the way the wind comes in with the storm. The wind literally comes from the Northeast. We talk about winds; we talk about a West wind. A West wind comes from the West. A Northeast wind comes from the Northeast. And that's the storm, that's the wind that picks up all the moisture and dumps it right here in the form of snow across New England, New York state and Pennsylvania. Some spots, before this all stops, with blizzard-like conditions, will have 24-36 inches of snow. Another big storm for the Northeast, and people digging out again, Carl.
Hero Teacher
AZUZ: Thanks, Chad. David Benke is being hailed as a hero. He's a math teacher who tackled a gunman who opened fire at a middle school on Tuesday. The suspect is in custody. Two students were wounded in the attack. They were both treated at a nearby hospital. All this happened at Deer Creek Middle School in Littleton, Colorado. That is the same town where, eleven years ago, two gunmen killed 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School. After that incident, many schools across the nation, maybe even yours, started having emergency drills. Mr. Benke says that a promise he made during those led to his actions yesterday.
DAVID BENKE, DEER CREEK MIDDLE SCHOOL MATH TEACHER: Whenever we had had these drills and whenever we had worked with students, I said basically, if something happens and there is something I can do about it, I want to try and do something about it.
AZUZ: Around the U.S., technology is being used to help education. Some schools let you take laptops home. One Pennsylvania high school included a security measure to protect against the computers being stolen. But a student at the school says the way the technology was used was a violation of his privacy. Randy Kaye has the details on that.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is high school sophomore Blake Robbins. His school issued him and more than 2,000 other students laptops for their studies. What the students and families didn't know was that school officials had installed software that could turn on the laptop's camera without notice, without warning and watch them. Before Blake knew it, he found himself in the assistant principal's office at Pennsylvania's Harriton High School, accused, he says, of pushing drugs.
BLAKE ROBBINS, HARRITON HIGH SCHOOL SOPHOMORE: I couldn't say anything because she was accusing me of selling drugs. I couldn't fight back, but I thought that this was terrible, how could they do this?
HOLLY ROBBINS, BLAKE'S MOM: She said that she had pictures of Blake that were taken on his computer of him holding up little, what she thought were pills.
KAYE: How could the school have seen what Blake was doing? We set up a web camera in our office to show you how this all works. This is my laptop and it has a web camera built in to it. That tiny hole right there? That's the camera. So, all anyone has to do, whether they're sitting a few feet away or maybe even hundreds of miles away, is click a button to record everything I'm doing in front of this web camera. That's exactly what Blake's parents say the school district did. They say the school remotely accessed his computer without his knowledge and snapped a photo of him. Blake's family is suing.
H. ROBBINS: It was an invasion of privacy; it was as if we had a Peeping Tom in our house.
KAYE: The FBI is investigating to see if wiretap or computer intrusion laws were violated. The school district says in the last fourteen months, 42 laptops were reported missing or stolen, 18 of them recovered. A spokesman for the school district told CNN they would only remotely access the laptop if it had been reported stolen or missing so they could find out who was using it. But Blake's parents say his computer had not been reported missing or stolen. If that's true, why was anyone from the school accessing the camera?
The school district says these are just allegations, and "the district never did and never would use such tactics as a basis for disciplinary action." In fact, it insists no school administrators could even access the cameras; only two people in the technology department. A letter from the superintendent admits "...there was no explicit notification that the laptop contained the security software. This notice should have been given and we regret that was not done."
Now, school officials say the web camera security feature has been completely disabled. As for Blake and those so-called "pills" he says the school thought he was holding on camera, his mom claims they were candy!
(END VIDEO)
AZUZ: All right. We've covered a story about a middle school about a high school; it's time for college. Getting there might take more money than ever before.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
AZUZ: The cost of going to college is skyrocketing. The University of California expects to raise tuition by 30 percent for the 2010-2011 school year. Of course, it's in a state that has a $20 billion budget deficit. But this increase in college costs is something that's expected nationwide. From Washington state to Nevada to Florida, public universities are estimating hikes of between 10 and 15 percent.
The reason: What else? The recession. Public schools get some of their money from states. States have less money to give, since they're already in debt. So, schools have to make up their deficits by charging students more. It's still a lot less expensive to attend a public college, though. Average cost this school year for a public university: around $7,000. For a private school: more than $26,000. What's interesting about all this is that there's still more demand for education; college enrollment continues to climb. For schools, that could be good news: They'll be likely to get more of the money they need. For students, well, there's always financial aid, student loans, and the value of a college degree.
(END VIDEO)
Before We Go
AZUZ: Before we go, a story that might warm your heart, and your toes, and the toes of about 200 other people. It is the world's longest blanket! This thing just keeps on going. More than 450 feet long! It's on display in Oregon right now. That's where it was made. Then, the behemoth blanket will weave its way around the country. And finally, it'll either be sold or divvied up and donated to charity.
Goodbye
AZUZ: We wish there was more to tell you, but that pretty much covers it. Back tomorrow. I'm Carl Azuz.