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Will Your BlackBerry Blackout?; Vice President Dick Cheney Presents Distinguished Service Cross

Aired February 24, 2006 - 11:34   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And today could be the day. Will your BlackBerry blackout? A judge may shutdown the wireless e-mail service in a patent dispute.
Our technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg is covering the court fight this morning from Richmond, Virginia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (on camera): About six million thumbs may be quivering today. That's the three million or so U.S. BlackBerry users, as they watch what could happen here at the U.S. district court in Virginia. The whole hearing has to do with an injunction that could be allowed against Research in Motion, or RIM, the maker of the BlackBerry technology. That's because NTP, a small private holdings company, has claimed the right to that wireless technology patent since about 2001. They've been fighting a very protracted legal battle that was most recently tossed back from the United States Supreme Court to the United States district court.

And here in just a short time, Judge James Spencer could allow this injunction to go forward. Now even NTP knows the ubiquity of these devices. They're used from governments to the average private user. And then would allow a 30-day grace period for a contingency plan. RIM has also said they have a work-around technology that would allow the service to continue if there was an injunction in place. But NTP, if this injunction goes forward, also says it wants to see the end of BlackBerry sales in the United States. People would have to find some other alternative. There are a lot of other competitors out there. Microsoft is pushing with this Push e-mail, or E-Mail on the Go. So is Nokia, Palm and others.

So we'll have to see what happens here today in a short time and what could be the outcome for the BlackBerry users.

Daniel Sieberg, CNN, Richmond, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: We go live now to the White House. Vice President Dick Cheney presenting the Distinguished Service Cross.

Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

DICK CHENEY, VICE PRES. OF THE UNITED STATES: ... began the liberation of Europe.

Second, this moment is special because it was so very long delayed. As the citation indicates, First Lieutenant Bernard Bail of the Army Air Corps, remained onboard a damaged aircraft with the command pilot who was severely wounded and unable to follow the order to bail out.

Thanks to the aid he received from Lieutenant Bail, the command pilot, Lieutenant Colonel Leon Vance was able to regain control of the aircraft to prevent it from crashing into an English village and to ditch the aircraft and its ordnance in the English Channel.

For his actions, Lieutenant Colonel Vance was awarded the Medal of Honor. Yet he knew that his actions were possible only because Lieutenant Bail had remained at his side. And he vowed at the time to recommend Lieutenant Bail for a high decoration.

Unfortunately, Lieutenant Colonel Leon Vance was killed in the crash of a hospital plane returning him to the United States shortly afterwards.

More than six decades have passed since those events. Today our nation makes official the distinction that Bernard Bail earned on June 5th, 1944.

Dr. Bail, if the Distinguished Service Cross, in your case, had been awarded in a timely fashion, you would have received it not from me, but from Vice President Henry Wallace. So I count it a privilege to make this presentation. I do so on behalf of the president and a grateful nation. From the day of our founding, the decisive protector of this nation's freedom has been the character of citizens like you.

Congratulations, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

CHENEY: And now I'll have the citation read.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To all who shall see this (INAUDIBLE), this is to certify that the president of the United States of America, authorized by Congress, has awarded the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant Bernard (INAUDIBLE) Bail, air corps, Army of the United States, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations on 5 June, 1944, while serving as a (INAUDIBLE) mission lead radar navigator on a heavy bombardment attack against defendant enemy coastal positions in the vicinity of (INAUDIBLE), France in preparation of the invasion on 6 June, 1944.

As he approached the target, Lieutenant Bail's aircraft was hit repeatedly and severely by enemy anti-aircraft fire, which seriously crippled the ship, knocking out three engines and causing the remaining engine to be cut off, killed the pilot and wounded several members of the crew, including the command pilot whose foot was severed. The copilot set a course for England while the aircraft rapidly lost altitude. While over the English channel, Lieutenant Bail applied a tourniquet to the leg of the command pilot, and the crew was ordered to bail out. He remained with the command pilot and had sufficiently recovered from the shock to reach the aircraft's steering yoke and turn it around from its inlet course and head it back to ditch in the English Channel.

This extraordinary act of heroism enabled the command pilot to steer the aircraft away from the English village, preventing further loss of life.

Lieutenant Bail's valiant and unselfish efforts above and beyond the call of duty and at great risk to himself reflected great credit upon himself, the air corps and the United States Army.

Given under my hand in the city of Washington, this 31st day of August 2005, Francis J. Harvey, secretary of the Army.

(APPLAUSE)

KAGAN: And we've been watching as Vice President Cheney leads the way in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross, the honor being given to First Lieutenant Bernard Bail of the Army Air Corps. Once again, to repeat his story, Bail's heroism in World War II helped save a pilot with a mortal wound and allowed him to keep a plan carrying heavy bombs from hitting a village that was packed with civilians.

In case you were wondering a little bit more about this award, here are a few more nuggets about the Distinguished Service Cross. The medal bares an eagle with the inscription "for valor." The recipient's name is engraved on the back. General John J. Pershing recommended U.S. government established the Distinguished Service Cross in 1917. President Woodrow Wilson signed the congressional act the following year, in 1918. The cross recognizes heroism that does not meet the requirements of the Medial of Honor. It ranks second only to the Medal of Honor for valor in combat.

We'll take a break. We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: There are new developments in Britain's hunt for suspected gang members who kidnapped a bank manager and his family, tied up more than a dozen employees and escaped with perhaps the equivalent of $88 million. Police have just released sketches of one of the suspects. They say that he is the man that posed as a cop to capture the bank manager. Authorities have three other suspects behind bars.

Our Jim Boulden is at the scene of the heist in England with the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM BOULDEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It's been three days now since up to six armed men came to this bank depot southeast of London and took between $50 million and $88 million worth of British bank notes. Since then, the police have announced three arrests. Two people were arrested yesterday, and it's believed they may have something to do with inside information. Police say that this kind of raid could only be done with somebody who knew how the operations worked at this cash depot.

The third arrest is a 42-year-old woman. The police say that she's been arrested at a bank trying to deposit some of the money. She was arrested for handling stolen goods. And the only thing stolen from here was cash. Local media reports that she was trying to deposit some of the money, and that money may have come from this bank raid.

The police have also announced that they have found at least two of the vehicles they believe were involved in this daring raid that happened early Wednesday morning. They say one the cars was found late Thursday night, and that it was burning just a few miles away from here. So that means that some of the robbers, some of those who did this may still be in the area. The other car found was that use by the manager of this depot. That manager was kidnapped along with his family and threatened. That's how the armed raiders got into the building.

Jim Boulden, CNN, Townbridge (ph), England.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Well, like the commercial says, zoom, zoom, zoom! Health care costs are about to increase at a blistering pace if a new federal prediction is on target. The report estimates that one out of every five dollars spent in the year 2015 will have something to do with your health. That means that graying boomers will push hospital stays, home health care, prescriptions and insurance to 20 percent of the national economy.

Mark Zandi is a chief economist at Moody's economy.com. Earlier, I asked him where all will this extra money go?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARK ZANDI, ECONOMY.COM: Well, they go to a whole range of different services, everything from prescription drugs to paying your doctor to stays in hospitals. It's a wide range of health care activities.

KAGAN: So are all those health care things just going to get more expensive, is that what you're saying?

ZANDI: Two things. One, they're going to get a lot more expensive. Prices for all these services and prescription drugs are rising very rapidly. And secondly, we're going to consume a lot more of them, because we're getting older and we need a lot more health care. So the combination of those things means a lot of our money is going toward health care.

KAGAN: So number one question for me and my family, how do I get ready for that?

ZANDI: Well, you have to be sure you have a good job with a good health care plan. Barring that, you need to save. There are now these new health savings accounts that you might want to take advantage of. But you really need to think about this, because this is going to take an ever increasing share of your budget going forward.

KAGAN: Some people critical of the health care savings accounts, saying those aren't going to begin to do the job that needs to be done to help individual families.

ZANDI: Yes, and that's a valid criticism. It's a small step in the right direction, but it's a very, very small step. This is a very large problem, and health savings accounts aren't going to solve it. But at least it's a move in the right direction.

KAGAN: Well, then as a society, what can we do to try to stop this. or is this inevitable?

ZANDI: Well, it's going to break if it continues. Something's got to change. And we've got to change the health care system, which required big changes in the health care policy, and that's a really big question with lots of different proposed answers, but it's something we need to think about carefully, very soon. Otherwise it's going to become an overwhelming problem.

KAGAN: On the other side of the economy question, is this a message to young people? If one in five dollars will be spent on health care, that's a good direction of perhaps the kind of career you want to go into.

ZANDI: Well, that's an interesting way of looking at it, and a correct way, yes. In fact, even now it's a major job engine. It creates 250,000, 300,000 jobs a year. It accounts for roughly one in 10 jobs, and that's just going to increase over time. So if you want to be sure you'll have a job in the future, then go into health care in one way or another.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: Economy.com.

To get your Daily Dose of health news online, log on to our Web site, you'll find the latest medical news, a health library and information on diet and fitness. The address is cnn.com/health.

Coming up, if your parents are getting up there in years but still think they can drive like they did in their prime, stick around to hear about this senior citizen's experience in the fast lane.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAGAN: You understand while we're playing that Eagles song. A lot of people take a wrong turn in life. A lucky few eventually yield and get back on the straight and narrow. An example now from our Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's a right way and a wrong way to drive on an interstate. This is the wrong way. You're looking at the dashboard camera on the police car that eventually stopped the wrong way roadster. No wonder 911 got flooded with 70 calls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there is a car going the wrong way on I- 40.

MOOS (voice-over): The wrong way, like salmon swimming upstream, like the poodle who survived a romp on a New York expressway. Like Gene Hackman chasing bad guys in the French Connection. But a cop behind the wheel, this wasn't.

MARGARET RILEY, WRONG WAY DRIVER: I've got on the wrong side and I kept going on. I don't know how I did that. I have no idea.

MOOS: For 14 miles she did it, 80-year-old Margaret Riley drove her 1984 Crown Victoria the wrong way in the fast lane near Raleigh, North Carolina.

RILEY: Busy, busy, busy. They was blowing the horn.

MOOS: Margaret says she didn't realize she was going the wrong way until a deputy's car met her head on. She did manage to back up onto the shoulder.

RILEY: And I said, well, I am so sorry. I said I've got a doctor's appointment and I'm running late and I'm sorry.

MOOS: They didn't give her a ticket but her driver's license is being re-evaluated. How did other drivers evaluate things?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a oh, I believe she's probably senile or got Alzheimer's disease and she is driving on the completely wrong way on the highway.

RILEY: I know I'm 80-years-old, but I know I'm not crazy yet.

MOOS: At least she remembered to put on her turn signal.

Jeanne Moos, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(WEATHER REPORT)

KAGAN: I'm Daryn Kagan. International news is up next. Stay tuned for YOUR WORLD TODAY, and I'll be back with the latest headlines from here in the U.S. in about 20 minutes.

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