First Take: Ford CEO, Gov. Pawlenty, Haiti Survivor's Tale

Tuesday, January 26, 2010 - 12:54 PM

UPDATED: 8:23pm

Alex here (Senior Producer working the night shift) ... and your six word state of the union "speeches" are pouring in, so that should be fun tomorrow. Other than that, not much has changed since Anna's update around lunch time.

To mark the 65th Anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz we've recorded the story of an 84-year-old survivor now who's speaking out in response to Holocaust deniers; we'll play that for you tomorrow. 

And straddling the worlds of business and film, Avatar has surpassed Titanic as the highest grossing film of all time. internationally anyway. Is it just because tickets have gotten more expensive? Also interesting, Avatar's total ticket sales of $1.859 Billion are more than the GDP of these countries: Belize, Greenland, Guyana, Liberia, Cape Verde, Bhutan, Eritrea. 

But really, that's just a tiny part of tomorrow's big show, the rest is all laid out below. 

UPDATED: 12:30pm

Anna Sale here on the day shift.

We’ve got big things planned for tomorrow’s show as we continue our series of conversations about the State of Our Union. Ford CEO Alan Mulally will join us to offer the view from his perch at the top of the only major American automaker to refuse bailout money. Ford announces its fourth quarter earnings on Thursday, after surprising analysts in the third quarter with a $1 billion profit.

 

 

We’ll also be joined by Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, a Republican who is weighing a 2012 run for president. We’ll get his take on all the recent upheaval in Washington, and ask if he sees a bipartisan way forward.

We’re also reaching out to radio talk show hosts in communities across the country to get a sense of the conversations they’re hearing on the eve of Obama’s address.

We’ll continue our coverage of the Haiti earthquake with an update from Port-au-Prince. And we'll also hear the riveting story of a U.N. worker who would have been in the U.N. headquarters that were destroyed, but was saved by a scheduling quirk. He shares his story of the chaos in the earthquake’s aftermath—and the tension between wanting to help and not having the capacity to do it. He’s back in the United States now, weighing how and when to return.   

As for other news items, we’ve been in touch with our partner, the BBC, which is preparing to cover conferences in London on Yemen and Afghanistan this week. We’re also taking a closer look at Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s announcement this morning that drivers of big rigs and buses will face stiff fines if they’re caught texting while driving across state lines.  

Finally, in our weekly food segment, we’ll look at cooking with kids. We’ll be joined by 11 year-old cook Romilly Newman, who teaches cooking on youtube under the handle “littlegirlinthekitchen.” Alyssa Volland, the owner of a company that teaches kids to cook, will also give us recipes the whole family can tackle together.

And don't forget to contribute to our Six-Word State of the Union!

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