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Bush to Address Nation on Iraq Plan; Minimum Wage Hike Expected to Pass; Trailer Park Residents Sell Properties for Millions

Aired January 10, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Don Lemon.

New Iraq strategy. How many troops, where and when will they deploy, and what will it cost taxpayers? New details on the president's plan just released.

PHILLIPS: Working hard for the money. A new push to raise the federal minimum wage. A vote expected. Live in the NEWSROOM.

LEMON: Oh, we all would like this. Instant millionaires. Residents of a coastal trailer park vote to sell out to developers, but not everyone is happy about it. Details live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

New troops, new money, a new strategy that acknowledges old mistakes in Iraq. All part of what you'll hear from President Bush in a prime-time address to a war-weary nation.

Let's go straight to CNN's Wolf Blitzer. He is in Washington live at our bureau.

What can you tell us, Wolf?

WOLF BLITZER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The president will say, Don, that the strategy so far, in his words, is not working. As a result, there has to be a new strategy, because the president believes the United States simply cannot fail in its overall mission in Iraq.

And as part of that new strategy, the president will propose sending another 20,000-plus U.S. forces to Baghdad and the al-Anbar province. One senior administration official saying it will be between 21,000 and 24,000 additional U.S. troops.

Five U.S. Army brigades will be sent to work with Iraqi troops in the Baghdad area. Four thousand additional Marines will go to the al- Anbar area. After the U.S. has received assurances, supposedly, from some of the Sunni tribes' leaders in these -- al Anbar province that they're going to work with Iraqi and U.S. forces to crack down on al Qaeda and other Sunni insurgents.

It will take a lot more money. It will take time, according to the Bush administration, to get this process under way. The first of those five U.S. Army brigades will be going in the next few weeks. In order to sustain 21,000 to 24,000 additional U.S. troops on top of the approximately 135,000 to 140,000 who are already there, the tours of duty will be extended, Don.

From U.S. Army personnel for a year in Iraq, additional three to four months they're going to have to stay, 90 to 120 days. Marines usually stay in the region for about seven months. They'll be staying for three to four months, as well.

But in order to sustain this build-up over the coming year, the U.S. is going to have to activate additional National Guard and reserve units in order to get the job done.

Now, the president believes, according to his aides, that he has a firm commitment from the prime minister, Nuri al Maliki, to get tough, not only on Sunni insurgents but on Shiite insurgents, as well, including Muqtada al Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric, the leader of the Mehdi army.

They have a commitment, they say, from the prime minister of Iraq to do what he has so far refused to do. We shall see, pretty soon, if this commitment is implemented and isn't simply talk.

The president had hoped at this point there would only be about 75,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. That earlier U.S. initiative clearly having failed, and as a result, this increase in troops about to be announced tonight -- Don.

LEMON: Yes, we'll find out tonight, lots of details there. And you seemed to sum it up pretty well. Let's stick with Iraq, though, and talk about something a little different.

Saddam Hussein's execution video, as you know, drew controversy once it was released over the Internet. Now I understand President Bush had a comment about that video today?

BLITZER: The -- according to White House officials, the president, when he saw that execution video, that telephone/cell phone video, was very upset, comparing it to how he felt when he initially saw those videos from the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, where U.S. soldiers were abusing Iraqi prisoners there, making the comparison between the awful nature of the way the taunting of Saddam Hussein was in that cell phone video to what he felt at the time of the Abu Ghraib -- Abu Ghraib pictures were released. And that caused enormous complications for the U.S. not only in Iraq but in that part of the world.

One additional note, Don. I want to make it clear, despite the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group that the U.S. should try to engage Iran and Syria in a direct high-level dialogue to try to get their cooperation in dealing with Iraq, don't expect the president of the United States to do any such thing.

He is adamantly opposed to bringing Iran and Syria into this process, as long as they're making no commitment, in the words of administration officials, to -- to do what the U.S. wants them to do. The Iranians to stop its nuclear program, the Iranians to stop supporting some of the -- some of the death squads in Iran, and the Syrians to start becoming more cooperative not only in Iraq, that is, but also in Lebanon, as well.

So don't expect any high-level dialogue between the United States and either Iran or Syria.

LEMON: Yes, so essentially what you're saying, Wolf, tonight, the president's address should be pretty interesting.

BLITZER: It will be about 20 minutes in length. The president will go through the major points, although it's a very complex proposal he's putting forward.

Tomorrow, the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of defense, Robert Gates, they'll testify before the House and the Senate, various committees there, and they'll go through a lot more of the specific details. And shortly thereafter, they're expected to head out to the region to try to sell it to U.S. friends and allies.

LEMON: Wolf Blitzer, thank you so much.

And make sure you stay tuned tonight to CNN, the best political team on television. Wolf Blitzer is one of them. Beginning at 7 Eastern, Wolf and Paula Zahn host a special two-hour "SITUATION ROOM" before President Bush unveils his revised Iraq strategy.

Minutes after the president finishes, Larry King and his guests will break down the speech and get immediate reaction.

Then at 10 p.m. Eastern, Anderson Cooper is live from D.C. with worldwide reaction and what happens next. Complete coverage, right here on the most trusted name in news.

PHILLIPS: An Iraqi initiative, but will Iraqis take it? The White House says the president's plan boils down to Iraqis stepping up. CNN's Michael Holmes has the view from Baghdad.

Michael, what are you hearing?

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've been hearing that there is a level of interest among Iraqis to the president's speech tonight. It's fair to say that a lot of Iraqis, however, certainly many I've spoken to today, are saying this: they don't really care. Their lives are really consumed with staying alive every day.

But, of course, they are going to be impacted by this troop increase and what appears to be a move forward on actually trying to take down some of the militias and the sectarian groups that are behind a lot of the violence. It has to be said, though, that as I said, many Iraqis really don't care what the politics is, their lives are consumed with the day to day -- Heidi (sic).

PHILLIPS: Some troops, Michael, gear up to ship out. Others are also coming home in flag-draped coffins. We can't forget just the death that has been taking place on a regular basis.

And I know you've had a chance not only to talk to troops but also Iraqis there oversea. Tell me about this influential Sunni group in Iraq and what they are saying.

HOLMES: I'm sorry, Heidi. The last part of your question?

PHILLIPS: It's Kyra, Michael. My question to you is talking about the reaction to the president -- President Bush's proposal and this upcoming speech. You had a chance to talk to an influential Sunni group in Iraq, I'm being told. What kind of reaction did you get?

HOLMES: Well, this is an interesting statement. It's being put out by the Association of Muslim Scholar, Kyra. It's a very influential Sunni group. We should take into account what they are saying.

For a start, the statement says that they are now asking Congress to, through the American people, to intervene against Bush sending more troops and to work towards withdrawing those who are currently in Iraq.

Let me read another part of the statement to you: "The inability of 140,000 soldiers to achieve their goals in battle makes it unlikely that another 20,000 will be able to do that. The fate of the additional troops will be no better than those already on Iraqi soil. Many of them will die, and many, many more innocent Iraqis will also die in the process."

This, of course, also follows on a statement the other day by al Qaeda in Iraq, warning that any extra troops are going to face what those here already are facing, and that is being targets of the insurgency. And -- and they actually put out a call to their members here in Iraq to attack Americans as they arrive in the country and those who are already here.

So it's going to be a very dramatic few weeks ahead as these troops start to come into the country and try to take on the militias, which is going to be no easy task, as Wolf alluded to there, particularly the Mehdi Army, the militia of Muqtada al-Sadr.

Let's not forget that he is in the political framework. His party has 30 M.P.'s in the Iraqi parliament and six ministries. Will Nuri al-Maliki take on a political partner -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Michael Holmes, thanks so much.

And as some troops gear up to ship out, well, others, as we told you, are coming home, unfortunately, in a flag-draped coffin. Three more American soldiers have been killed in the fight against insurgents outside Baghdad. Two died in Anbar province, another in Diyala (ph) province. Thirteen U.S. military deaths this month already; 3,017 since the war began.

LEMON: Well, it's either a long overdue boost for the working poor or a political ploy that will hurt the people it's supposed to help. Partisan differences not withstanding, a minimum wage hike looks headed for passage this afternoon on Capitol Hill.

Let's catch up with our congressional correspondent, Andrea Koppel.

Andrea, what do you know?

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Don.

Well, we're well into day two of this 100-hour legislative blitz that the Democrats launched yesterday. We are approaching hour 10 of the 100 hour debate. And as you mentioned, it's all about minimum wage today.

Democratic leaders say that this could, if it passes -- and we expect it will -- directly benefit 5.6 million Americans. It will boost the minimum wage for the first time since 1997, increasing it from where it is right now at $5.15 up $2.10 to $7.25. And this would take place over the next couple of years.

Now, Democrats say that this is something that will help the working poor. Republicans say it's really not necessarily going to help the working poor. In addition, it's going to hurt small businesses.

LEMON: Andrea, I've got a question for you. Tell us about the outlook for the Senate on this minimum wage.

KOPPEL: Well, the outlook, Don, is a little different than over here in the House. We expect it to sail through, probably in the next hour or two.

And then over in the Senate, where the Democrats' majority is much slimmer, only one vote, they're going to need 60 votes in order to get this bill through. And that means that you're going to have to have at least nine Republicans who cross over.

The expectation, according to Democratic aides over in the Senate, is that there will have to be some sort of compromise. In other words, some kind of a tax break for small business owners -- Don.

LEMON: Andrea Koppel, thank you so much.

KOPPEL: Sure.

LEMON: And you can always watch both the House and Senate sessions from Capitol Hill. It's streamed live on CNN Pipeline. Go to CNN.com/pipeline.

PHILLIPS: Quick, your money or your lifestyle? Floridians forced to choose between their trailer park and a million bucks. It wasn't as easy as you'd think. Up next, gains and losses in Briny Breezes.

LEMON: And will the new Apple iPhone be worth the money? We're seeing dollar signs right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Briny Breezes is a trailer park and a lot more. It's a picturesque piece of south Florida, bracketed by the ocean and the Intercoastal Waterway. It's also worth half a billion dollars to a real estate developer if current residents sell out. They've made their decision.

Our John Zarrella is there with all the details. John, kind of surprised with some of those decisions.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kyra. You know, I don't want to give it all away just yet.

What I'll tell you is this is Briny Breezes. And it is unusual. It is not like just about any other mobile home park you will find.

And this morning, the residents had the chance to put the finishing touches on a vote and hear what their decision was on whether they were going to continue to live here in paradise or walk away millionaires.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA (voice-over): For a quarter of a century, Warren and Pauline Bailey have lived in this quaint, neatly kept mobile home park. Now their double wide on a tiny parcel of land is worth more than they could ever have imagined.

WARREN BAILEY, RESIDENT: Just under a million and a half.

ZARRELLA: The reason is simple: location, location, location. Just ask the developers, Ocean Land Investments.

LOGAN PIERSON, OCEAN LAND INVESTMENTS INC.: I would say this is a -- the prime piece of real estate in Florida and perhaps in the southeast.

ZARRELLA: The 488 mobile homes in Briny Breezes sit 15 miles south of West Palm Beach. On the west side of the park, the Intercoastal Waterway. On the east, just past the pavilion, on the other side of the dune, is the Atlantic Ocean.

The developers offered half a billion dollars for the 43 acres. The individual owners are getting varying amounts, based on location. But some folks, like the Baileys...

PAULINE BAILEY, RESIDENT: I'll miss all this, honey. I know, my garden...

ZARRELLA: ... aren't so eager to cash in paradise.

(on camera) The money wasn't that attractive to you?

P. BAILEY: Not at all. It wouldn't change our lifestyle one iota.

ZARRELLA (voice-over): Bob Zavitz will have plenty of memories, too.

(on camera) Are you going to miss it here?

BOB ZAVITZ, RESIDENT: I certainly am.

ZARRELLA: But unlike the Baileys, Zavitz is ready to relocate and take the $800,000 he'll get for his sliver of sand.

ZAVITZ: I won't be on the ocean, but I can still access the ocean and have $500,000 in my pocket, you know? And now I can send my grandchildren to college and my wife and I can take a couple of dream trips.

ZARRELLA: This morning, residents streamed from the auditorium after learning 80 percent, more than the two-thirds required, had voted to sell.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very, very sad to see it go.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, rather sad, you know, but I guess it's the best for everything, you know, for everybody.

ZARRELLA: Now they have two years to move. For some, a dream come true. For others...

W. BAILEY: That's all right. We'll be together, wherever we are.

ZARRELLA: ... it's paradise lost.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZARRELLA: Now the developer -- what the developer plans to do here is to put in a five star hotel on the 43 acres, along with some 900 condominium units, each one valued at about $3 million.

And joining me now, a couple of the recipients of this windfall. And I have with me Sharon Kendrigan and Mario Santerello. Santerello?

MARIO SANTERELLI, RESIDENT: Santerelli.

ZARRELLA: Santerelli. See, I told you I'd mess that up, Mario.

Sharon, let me ask you first. Are you happy with the deal?

SHARON KENDRIGAN, RESIDENT: Yes, I am. Hopefully in a couple years, when we're ready to collect our money, we'll have our good health and we can sail the Caribbean.

ZARRELLA: I wanted to ask you, what's the plan for that money?

KENDRIGAN: As of now, we would probably like to get a catamaran and sail for a while. But depending on what happens in a couple years, we'll see.

ZARRELLA: That's about as laid back as the living here, I guess, maybe more so.

Mario, to you, the same thing: you happy with the way this went down?

SANTERELLI: How can you not be happy with this kind of money falling in your lap? Certainly, we're happy. We'd have been happy either way, but maybe a little happier this way.

ZARRELLA: And what's your plan? What are you going to do with it all? And it's a nice chunk of change.

SANTERELLI: It's a big chunk of change. And my mother was born in Italy. And I'm going to go to Italy and look for a little villa on the Adriatic coast where she was born.

ZARRELLA: Wow, now that's nice. That's nice. And you're going to stay there and live out your years there?

SANTERELLI: No, it will just be a place to go maybe in the summers with the kids and the grandkids. And it's a dream that would never happen without Briny Breezes.

ZARRELLA: I was going to ask you, lastly, to both of you, ever have imagined in your wildest dreams -- you've been down here a while -- that something like this could have happened?

KENDRIGAN: No, I never thought it could. And sometimes we wonder why we came here, you know. We came here nine years ago. We had a house in Deerfield. We were going to retire there. And we found Briny. And we have our boat in front of us. And now we're going to be millionaires. Great.

ZARRELLA: Mario, you, too, right? Never would have imagined this?

SANTERELLI: Never would have imagined. We came to visit my wife's sister, fell in love with Briny, rented, bought, and life is funny that way.

ZARRELLA: Thanks to both of you for spending some time with us.

And well, you can see, Kyra, they're pretty happy. They're not quite instant millionaires, but within a couple of years -- you heard it -- along with the other 480-plus folks here, they're going to be collecting a nice chunk of change -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: I wouldn't mind visiting Mario in that villa in Italy. But I'm curious, the Baileys, they're not too thrilled about this. They haven't talked to you about where they might go or end up? And I'm just curious, if you know how long they've been married, too? This has probably got to be pretty tough for them.

ZARRELLA: Yes, the Baileys have been married for 34 years. And they had told us that they'd stay here in the south Florida area. Weren't quite sure where they were going to go. But that their plan was, in fact, to relocate, but stay here in south Florida.

But everybody here will tell you, Kyra, that there is absolutely no way any of them could ever replace this piece of paradise. You know, for -- even for the kind of money they're getting. It just doesn't exist any longer here in Florida -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: At least they're being compensated. All right, John, thanks.

ZARRELLA: Yes.

LEMON: Strike in Somalia. The U.S. goes after al Qaeda strongholds in the Horn of Africa. Was a top terrorist killed? The latest on a developing story. That's ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: And will the new Apple iPhone be worth the money? We're seeing in dollar signs, in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, we've been reporting extensively on Apple's charge into the cell phone business. So what sets the new iPhone apart from the competition? And is it worth the hefty price tag?

Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange with all that.

We find out about -- we find out about this stuff so late. We have no chance to invest, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, exactly. I mean, I feel like we'll know this product so well by the time it comes out in June, because we're all over the story. The Mac World demonstration may be over, but the scrutiny about this uber-hyped product is only just beginning.

The iPhone, of course, combines the music and video features of an iPod with the communication function of a smart phone. But unlike many other handheld devices, this has no keypad. It's all operated on a slick touch screen.

Among the features developed with its exclusive partner Cingular, visual voice mail. iPhone users will see a list of those with the names and phone numbers of the people who left them voice messages and tap to listen to them.

It also has a high-tech sensor that can tell if the user turns the device 90 degrees, allowing them to watch movies in widescreen mode.

And Apple says the new battery will provide five hours for calling or video and 16 hours in the music mode in case you're stuck in an airport, for instance, for a very long layover, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Which happens quite a bit. Well, it's fair to say that Apple owns the market for digital music players. Is it expected to own the phone market, too?

LISOVICZ: Yes, that's really one of the big questions, because there is a lot of competition worldwide when it comes to cell phones.

Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, says the goal is to grab just 1 percent of the handset market in 2008. But that would mean 10 million iPhones sold in that year.

And just 1 percent could be tough, considering cell phones priced above $300 make up only 5 percent of the global market, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, well, the iPhone certainly comes at a high price. We've been talking about what, 500 bucks?

LISOVICZ: That's right. There are two version, $499 and $599. Four ninety-nine is for the 4 gigabyte version; $599 for the 8 gig model. Jobs defends the price, saying consumers would normally have to pay around the same amount for a comparable iPod Nano -- and he certainly doesn't want to compete against his own product -- and a separate smart phone.

Analysts aren't holding their breath for the price to come down. One points out that the iPhone, like the iPod, is designed for a specific market segment, which means Apple perhaps will come under less pricing pressure.

(STOCK REPORT)

LISOVICZ: Coming up, heating your home will probably be cheaper this winter. But don't celebrate with a beer, because that's going up in price. Stay tuned, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Say it isn't so. We're in trouble. Well, no, that's OK. More wine. Tell me when the wine goes up.

LISOVICZ: OK, will do.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Susan.

Well, the minimum wage up for debate in Congress. A bottom-line worry for small businesses. We're going to take a look at who's feeling the pain already. That's straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

LEMON: Well, they've wanted it for a long, long time. Now their time has come. House Democrats are poised for a vote on raising the minimum wage. It's part of their first 100 hours agenda and it may be a done deal in about an hour from now.

Our senior political correspondent Candy Crowley takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POL. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If you work 40 hours a week at federal minimum wage, you'd make about $10,700 a year, well below the poverty line for a four-person household.

BRENDA MUNIZ, ACORN: It's basically a principle, an American principle. A job should keep you out of poverty, not in poverty.

CROWLEY: In the past decade, congressional lawmakers have raised their own pay several times and the minimum wage not once. The newly minted Democratic majority will push to raise it from $5.15 an hour to $7.25, about a $5,000-a-year increase for a full-time minimum-wage worker.

Numbers differ wildly, but one group fighting for an increase estimates about 5 percent of the workforce currently earns less than $7.25. Changing that bottom line will require getting around the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The government should not be mandating a system that is going to fundamentally change the economics of 25 million small companies, because it would drive up wages all along the scale, unless they're going to provide corresponding tax benefits and other help to these small companies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's what we call a Bush pine, a scrub pine.

CROWLEY: Steven Stinchcomb owns a nursery in Fayetteville, Georgia.

STEVEN STINCHCOMB, GEORGIA BUSINESSMAN: I don't think the government should be involved in the pay scale whatsoever -- at any level. That should be between the supply and demand. The better the economy is, the more the employers are going to pay.

CROWLEY: His opposition is a matter of principle, not practice. Stinchcomb already pays employees almost twice the minimum wage, $10 an hour.

STINCHCOMB: I don't know how an employee can make it at minimum wage. And the employers need workers so much they're not going to pay minimum wage, they're going to pay more than that.

CROWLEY: In fact, the average pay per hour late last year was more than $11 higher than the federal minimum wage, and 29 states have instituted their own increases.

MUNIZ: We actually think it should be more like $9.

CROWLEY: So Congress is not only several years late on this, it may be a couple of dollars short.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: And that was Candy Crowley reporting. The House vote on minimum wage hike is coming soon. You're looking at live pictures right now. And also you're looking at the countdown clock on the right-hand side of your screen. That's for the first 100 hours. You'll hear the first results of that vote right here in the "CNN NEWSROOM."

U.S. airstrikes, Al Qaeda targets, terror operatives dead. It's not Iraq, not Afghanistan, it's the Horn of Africa, always on the war of terror radar. Today's news includes a name familiar to those fighting that war.

The latest now from CNN's Barbara Starr.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A senior U.S. military official tells CNN that the Naval armada here will stay off the coast of Somalia for sometime to come, chasing down what he calls Al Qaeda targets of opportunity, Al Qaeda operatives on the run from Somalia. There are expected to be more U.S. military operations. There are also expected to be more efforts to cooperate with African Intelligence Services. An aircraft carrier and four U.S. naval warships will, in fact, remain in the region, the official says. All of this raising questions about how involved the United States military suddenly is here in the Horn of Africa in operations against Al Qaeda in Somalia.

Sources say that the military is convinced it did not kill any Somali civilians in that airstrike in southern Somalia. That raising the question, how would the U.S. military know that, for example, unless there are already a small number of U.S. commandos on the ground in southern Somalia.

There are, in fact, 1,800 U.S. troops here in the Horn of Africa, as part of an anti-terrorism task force. As President Bush speaks to the American people about the war in Iraq, there are questions now about whether, here, in the Horn of Africa, there is a new war for the United States military.

Barbara Starr, Nairobi, Kenya.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Coming up in the next hour, we're going to talk to Robert Young Pelton. He's author of "The World's Most Dangerous Places." He's been to Somalia, and he's going to tell us about the fight against Al Qaeda in that region, and how it affects the overall war on terror.

LEMON: Let's talk about problems here at home. As the smoke clears, more damage comes to light in Malibu. Fire crews now say five beachfront homes burned to the ground in Monday's fire. Six more were damaged. The county fire chief says more would have gone up if not for fire fighters who crawled under decks and porches to water down everything in sight. Damage is estimated at $60 million.

What sparked the fire? Well, it's still a mystery.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead -- why am I reading this tease?

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Hot flashes, mood swings. Is there a healthy way to manage menopause? God, I hope so. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports. Straight ahead from the NEWSROOM

LEMON: You're a trooper.

And an NFL lineman calls it the hardest hit he's ever taken. Not a tackle, but a taser. Now the case is raising questions of racism. That's ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Big changes are rarely easy and that goes double for the change of life. Menopause can mess up a woman's mood, sleep, memory, even her marriage. But she doesn't have to be helpless against it.

CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Most see Pat Dodson living a charmed life. Her 60th birthday last year at her home, an old San Francisco speakeasy. Her life, a whirlwind of political campaigns and parties, a stark contrast to 14 years ago, when her mood crashed.

PAT DODSON, SYMPTOMS OF MENOPAUSE AT 47: I was scared and I was very irritable. I was like being a different person.

GUPTA (voice-over): Throughout her 30s and 40s, Dodson juggled family life with career. At 47, she began having problems sleeping. Her tipping point, the day she confronted her husband with a list of his flaws.

DODSON: I was feeling alone. I was feeling angry. I was feeling sad. I was feeling as though I should get a divorce.

GUPTA: While there is no research suggesting a solid link between divorce and menopause, after the age of 50, 65 percent of all divorce papers are filed by women.

But luckily for Dodson, before it went that far, she found neuropsychiatrist Dr. Louann Brizendine, who told her, like 30 percent of all women, her trouble sleeping was an often missed sign of menopause.

DR. LOUANN BRIZENDINE, NEUROPSYCHATRIST: The biggest complaint in my office is often intense irritability, decreased libido, and lots of times mood fluctuations.

GUPTA: Brizendine says that when women reach about 51 years old, they experience a seismic shift in hormones.

BRIZENDINE: Our estrogen and progestrogen starts to have our brain fluctuating on a wave up and down, estrogen, progesterone, through our menstrual cycle. So that changes our reality as we go through our cycle.

GUPTA: How do you manage menopause? Citing a recent breast cancer study, the FDA's revised guidelines state "hormone therapy should be used for short-term relief of menopausal symptoms."

GUPTA: Brizendine says she prescribes hormones just to get over the transitional bump of menopause, but she also prescribes anti- depressants.

BRIZENDINE: Small doses that just take the irritability off and rebalance in the brain the things that estrogen usually does most of our lives, but is now becoming erratic.

GUPTA: Dodson now exercises daily and briefly took hormones and anti-depressants. Now at 61, she's experiencing menopausal zest.

DODSON: It's not something to look at, you know, with any kind of fear. It's something for women just to make sure, I think, that they get the right kind of care.

GUPTA: And with the right information, women can have a new mindset toward menopause.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: All right. It is an ambitious plan designed to make sure every person in California has health insurance, including 6.5 million people without coverage now.

It was unveiled Monday by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. And already is under fire from unions and businesses. It will require all Californians to have insurance, make most business cover their workers, prevent insurance companies from denying coverage because of existing conditions. And would cover every child in the state, including those in the country illegally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENGGER (R), CALIFORNIA: If you can't afford it, the state will help you buy it. But you must be insured.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Massachusetts is the only other state requiring everyone to have insurance. Although other states are looking at the universal proposals. And I will have the chance to ask the new governor of Massachusetts about that proposal among other things. Deval Patrick will be my guest a little bit later on here in the NEWSROOM. PHILLIPS: A model student goes missing in Missouri. What happened to Ben Ownby after his school bus dropped him off? The latest on the search up next.

LEMON: Plus an NFL lineman calls it the hardest hit he's ever taken. It's not a tackle, it was a taser. Now the case is raising questions of racism. That's ahead in the NEWSROOM.

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PHILLIPS: It's every parent's nightmare, a child gets off the school bus and disappears. It happened Monday to Ben Ownby, a 13- year-old boy in eastern Missouri. Since then, searchers have covered miles of that rural area on foot and horseback, but so far, no sign of Ben. Authorities fear it's a kidnapping and are focusing on a white pickup truck that was seen in the area. They're following up on more than 200 leads right now.

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SHERIFF GARY TOELKE, FRANKLIN COUNTY, MISSOURI: The majority of the information that we've received has been related to the vehicle, people who believe they see it or have seen it, know somebody who might own one similar.

The traffic roadblock that we had yesterday, I think it revealed a few individuals that we were interested in, or became interested in. But the primary focus has been on the truck, but we have been looking at some individuals, too. But nobody is really what you would consider a prime suspect right now.

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PHILLIPS: Well, the FBI is helping with the search and working up a profile of a possible suspect.

LEMON: A routine traffic stop gets a man Tasered. Was it his behavior or his skin color?

CNN's Ed Lavandera reports from Houston.

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ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a November afternoon, a 6'4" black male weighing more than 300 pounds was pulled over on a Houston highway for failing to use his signal to change lanes.

Police say the driver became verbally combative, and then made a threatening move toward the officers, so one officer Tasered him. He dropped to the ground. The driver turned out to be Fred Weary, a lineman on the Houston Texans football team.

CHARLES DAVIDSON, WEARY'S ATTORNEY: I think the police, these two officers, drew the completely wrong impression and decided they were going to stop with this guy and they were going to jack with him. LAVANDERA: Weary's attorney says he's left wondering if race played a role in the altercation. Weary was charged with resisting arrest, but a judge dismissed the charges.

The case has triggered a high-profile controversy, raising questions about whether Houston police officers are unfairly using the Taser weapon against African-American suspects.

(on camera): According to the department's statistics, in the last two years, 63 percent of all suspects Tased by Houston police officers were African-American. But that number represents less than one percent of the total number of arrests made during that time.

(voice-over): The mayor is asking for an independent review of how the department uses the weapon. Until the report is complete, City Councilwoman Ada Edwards is calling for a moratorium on the use of Tasers.

(on camera): When you look at those statistics, someone who might say, oh, maybe it's just a coincidence, you don't see that?

ADA EDWARDS, HOUSTON CITY COUNCIL: I don't think that if it was 60 percent white males in that age group, I don't think that it would be looked at as a coincidence. I think people would at least like to know why.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Police Chief Harold Hurtt says race does not play a factor in Taser incidents. He says that because disenfranchised minorities are more likely to interact with police, that that explains why more African-Americans have been Tasered. Fifty percent of all suspects arrested by Houston police in the last two years were black.

CHIEF HAROLD HURTT, HOUSTON POLICE: We're not indiscriminately going out, selecting individuals, and Taser them. We are, in most cases, 60 percent of the cases that we use them against African- American males, or black males, as a result of calls from people in the community or their own family.

LAVANDERA: Supporters of the Taser even suggest that the weapon has saved lives.

Houston City Councilman Adrian Garcia worked as a police officer for 24 years. He says since the Taser was employed on the force, there have been 40 cases where police officers could have used their gun, but instead used the Taser.

ADRIAN GARCIA, HOUSTON CITY COUNCIL: The Taser, I had understood it, would be a alternative to a firearm, that it would be a device that could be used to prevent a physical confrontation from escalating into a deadly-force confrontation.

LAVANDERA: Officers stunned Fred Weary with two Taser shots. Houston police say the officers acted properly. But Weary says the Taser shot numbed half his body, and that was more painful than anything he's ever experienced on the football field. Ed Lavandera, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: And you can see more of Ed Lavandera's reports on CNN's "PAULA ZAHN NOW." Join Paula weeknights at 8:00 p.m. Eastern time...

PHILLIPS: 5:00 Pacific -- you had it.

LEMON: I know it said Pacific something.

PHILLIPS: Well, if a fire broke out while you were filling up your car, you'd run away, right? Well, a man in Michigan decided not to, and as you can see by this video, he gets out and starts walking away. But after awhile, he turns around and heads back towards the truck. Now, what we don't see is that he actually got back into the truck to try to save it.

The station owner hit the emergency shutoff button, killing the flames before they could spread to the 40,000 gallons of gasoline underground. The driver suffered a few burns but is otherwise OK. Authorities are still trying to figure out how that fire even started.

Straight ahead, we're living in wartime. How often do you really think about that?

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This war's inconvenient to them in the sense that, you know, they have to hear about it on the news, but, you know, they can avoid it if they want to.

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PHILLIPS: Up next in the NEWSROOM, paying attention to the sacrifices.

LEMON: U.S. troops under fire in Baghdad, but they also fired plenty of shots of their own. CNN was there and we have exclusive video of the heart of the battle. We'll bring it to you straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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