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American Morning
John Edwards to Hold News Conference Today; U.S. Attorney Firestorm
Aired March 22, 2007 - 07:59 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back, everybody, Thursday, March 22nd.
I'm Soledad O'Brien.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Miles O'Brien.
We're glad you're with us.
We begin with the personal and political story of John and Elizabeth Edwards. The two have scheduled a news conference for today, noon Eastern, from Chapel Hill, North Carolina. This after Elizabeth Edwards, a breast cancer survivor, had a routine follow-up exam. John Edwards canceled a campaign appearance in Iowa after the exam. Of course, you'll remember Elizabeth Edwards was treated for breast cancer in the midst of the previous campaign back in 2004.
We have the political and medical side of this story covered with CNN Senior Political Correspondent Candy Crowley, and CNN's Elizabeth Cohen in Atlanta.
Let's begin with Candy.
Candy, what do we know at this point about what they will say today?
CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SR. POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, not much. Pretty much what you just said.
We do have a source close to the Edwards saying that it is about her health. So going on that, I think you have to know since she had this checkup on Monday, he cut short his Iowa campaign tour to come back and visit with the doctors on Wednesday, and now we have this news conference on Thursday. So I think when we extrapolate a little bit, we sort of know that we are headed towards some sort of health announcement.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. So, you know, we are getting way into speculation here, but it's inevitable that there will be talk about this. What are the potential political implications of all this, Candy?
CROWLEY: Well, you know, what's interesting is, when John Edwards got into the race in late December, he said, "I wouldn't have gotten into this if Elizabeth didn't have a clean bill of health." She did have cancer, as you mentioned, in 2004, breast cancer. So, she did have a clean bill of health at that time.
Obviously, this is a very close couple. They have been together since they were in law school together. Certainly, there are any number of options open.
He can continue on as planned if there is some sort of health problem. He could continue on as planned. He could suspend his campaign. He could curtail some of his activities. Or he could get out.
Now, there's no sign that he is going to get out or even that he's going to curtail his activities. All of this sort of depends on what they're going to say in this noon press conference.
M. O'BRIEN: And worth pointing out, you know, 30 years together of marriage, and she is his number one political adviser as well.
CROWLEY: Absolutely, and has been -- was through the vice presidential campaign in 2004 and is now.
They rely heavily on each other. And she wrote a book, he's written a book. They both lost their son, a 16-year-old, Wade, at the time to a traffic accident. It brought the family even closer.
They have three children. So this is a very close-knit family. She has been both a personal and a political adviser to him.
M. O'BRIEN: Candy Crowley in Washington. Thank you.
Again, the Edwards will appear together at that news conference in Chapel Hill. It is scheduled for noon Eastern. And of course you will see it live here on CNN -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: As we mentioned, Elizabeth Edwards is a cancer survivor, breast cancer survivor. She discovered a lump in her breast in the last days of the 2004 campaign, had a lumpectomy, had chemotherapy.
I sat down and talked with Elizabeth Edwards last October. She had a new book out. Asked her about her battle and her recovery from breast cancer. Here's what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: February 15, 2005, last round of chemo. How is your health now?
ELIZABETH EDWARDS, JOHN EDWARDS' WIFE: It seems to be -- it seems to be pretty good. I -- you know, I have a few lingering little things, but I'm honestly -- you know, since I don't have cancer, knock on wood.
S. O'BRIEN: We've got wood chairs, too.
EDWARDS: There's a blockhead. If you -- if I don't have cancer, I can -- I can stand any of the other little things. (END VIDEO CLIP)
S. O'BRIEN: The other little things.
Let's get right to CNN Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen in Atlanta this morning.
Elizabeth, let me ask you a question. How often -- we don't know what they're going to say in this news conference, but everyone is expecting that it is going to be about her health. Is it common for women who have survived breast cancer to have another -- another round of it?
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know what, Soledad? It is not uncommon. That does happen.
She has -- Mrs. Edwards has the most common type of breast cancer. It's called invasive ductal breast cancer. About 80 percent of women who have breast cancer have this type. And sometimes it does come back.
She's talked in her book about the breast cancer being gone, but the reality is that sometimes there are little tiny microscopic metastases that a doctor and a test cannot find. And so you will find, even after tests say everything is OK, that sometimes months or years later, that those microscopic metastases showed up as something that a test actually can detect.
However, even given that, even given those cases where, as the question that you asked, it is not an uncommon thing for it to come back, but still the odds are with a woman where the breast cancer does come back. Let's take a look at survival rates for breast cancer.
About 178,000 American women are diagnosed with breast cancer each year. And five years after diagnosis, 88 percent of them are still alive. And 10 years after diagnosis, 80 percent of them are still alive. So those are good numbers. Breast cancer is not the disease it once was. It is much more treatable than it used to be -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Elizabeth Cohen for us this morning.
Thanks, Elizabeth.
COHEN: Thanks.
S. O'BRIEN: We're all waiting to see what they're going to actually say in the press conference ahead this afternoon -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: In Washington, the next move in the standoff between the White House and Congress over those fired U.S. attorneys. Another vote in the Senate today. The Judiciary Committee, led by Vermont Democrat Patrick Leahy, slated to authorize, though not issue just yet, subpoenas for some of the staffers closest to President Bush.
We're going to talk to Senator Leahy live in just a few moments. And just a few moments ago, we got the administration's side of it from White House Press Secretary Tony Snow.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president relies upon candid advice from his -- his top aides. What you don't want is a situation where you create this kind of "Perry Mason" or "Law & Order" atmosphere where people are grilling aides. If presidential aides think that they're going to get hauled up and you're going to have transcripts and people able to sort of generate false drama off that, it is going to have a chilling effect.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: CNN's Dana Bash live on Capitol Hill.
Dana, what's going to happen today?
DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we're going to see is the Senate Judiciary Committee do exactly what the House did yesterday, which is to authorize subpoenas. But the chairmen of both committees make it pretty clear that they don't intend to actually issue those subpoenas yet. They call it leverage, a way to get the White House to come back to the negotiating table, because Democrats say if the White House is really saying no transcript for these meetings, no oath, they say no deal.
Now, you heard Tony Snow make it clear that Republicans say this is -- they think Democrats are just trying to have a public spectacle here, a show trial. But Democrats insist that this -- it proves that Republicans perhaps have something to hide. And they go over lots of precedent. They say there is for White House aides actually testifying. But Miles, the reality here is that this will likely be resolved by political realities, not legal realities, and that's why you're seeing both sides being so aggressive in getting their arguments and their messages out today.
M. O'BRIEN: So I guess you could say that the public aggressive posture is laying the groundwork for some hard-core compromise behind closed doors. Is that what's happening right now, Dana?
BASH: It is entirely possible. You know, we staked out a meeting of Republican senators on the Judiciary Committee yesterday. They were talking about what their approach will be in this meeting this morning, when they'll vote on the subpoenas.
They came out and said that they don't have consensus necessarily within the Republican caucus, but the ranking Republican, Arlen Specter, he said that he actually agrees with Democrats. At least on the issue of having a record of this meeting, a transcript.
And he said he is working on a counteroffer to send to the White House. He also said that the Democratic chairman, Patrick Leahy, is as well. And Democratic sources confirm that. So it's going to be interesting to see what exactly the substance of this is, how long it will take to get it. Right now we're told that they are not exactly ripe (ph) yet to actually send. It will be interesting to see when they are.
M. O'BRIEN: I should say.
Dana Bash on Capitol Hill.
Thank you -- Soledad.
BASH: Thank you.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, meanwhile, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is reaching out to U.S. attorneys. He's going to begin meeting with them today.
CNN Justice Correspondent Kelli Arena is in Washington, D.C., with more on that.
Good morning to you, Kelli.
What's the plan here?
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the plan starts in St. Louis. This is the first of several meetings that the attorney general is supposed to have with U.S. attorneys. And obviously he's got some morale-building to do.
He has also got more explaining to do about how this turned into such a mess. And on that front, he met yesterday with Republican senators from the Judiciary Committee. Now, he still hasn't had any face-to-face meetings with Democratic lawmakers, but I'm told that those are expected, and that eventually we will all get to hear what he has to say when he testifies on Capitol Hill. But there isn't a date set for that yet.
S. O'BRIEN: So there's no date set for that. Is there a sense that he still has the full -- you know, let me put it this way -- in politics, you hear a lot that everybody has the full confidence of the president, and the next thing you know they're gone.
ARENA: Right. Right.
S. O'BRIEN: Is this going to be one of those, or do you think he really has the full confidence of the president? And does he think he has the full confidence of the president?
ARENA: Well, you know, Soledad, these two men go back a very long way. And Gonzales has been very loyal. And he -- at least officials are describing him as a changed man. I mean, very much on the offensive after hunkering down for a bit.
Now, there are still some lawmakers saying, oh, he can't survive, he can't be effective, but officials say that the speech the president gave the other day saying that he supported Gonzales changed everything. At least when it comes to the attorney general.
S. O'BRIEN: We'll see what happens, won't we? We hear that a lot, don't we?
Kelli Arena for us this morning.
Thank you, Kelli, as always -- Miles.
ARENA: You're welcome.
(NEWSBREAK)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: The most news in the morning right here on CNN.
Breaking news in Iraq. The first visit by the new United Nations secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon. He arrived without public fanfare overnight.
And breaking news from Somalia. A second day of violent fighting between insurgents and Ethiopian troops trying to fend off terrorists linked to al Qaeda currently operating in Somalia -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: A Republican congressman from Michigan is in a little bit of trouble this morning. He was comparing Detroit to Iraq.
His name is Tim Walberg, Congressman Tim Walberg. He said it during a radio interview. He compared the dangers in Iraq with those in Detroit. Here is what he said.
He said troops told him that most of Iraq is reasonably under control, at least as well as -- here's the quote part -- "... Detroit or Chicago or any other of our big cities. That's an encouraging sign."
As you can imagine, Detroit's mayor's office and the state Democratic Party and probably a lot of people living in Detroit not so happy. The mayor's spokesperson said the comparison is absurd, and one does have to wonder how many IEDs are exploding on troops in Detroit. I'm going to guess not that many.
M. O'BRIEN: He probably wants to take that one back.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes. You know...
M. O'BRIEN: He probably wants a do-over on that one.
S. O'BRIEN: Maybe under the foot in mouth.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, indeed.
A quarter past the hour right now. Rob Marciano at the CNN weather center watching the weather for you.
(WEATHER REPORT) M. O'BRIEN: The Pennsylvania avenue tug-of-war between the White House and lawmakers on Capitol Hill reaching a breaking point today. The action today in the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will vote on whether to authorize subpoenas for some top brass inside the Bush administration.
Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat, is chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He joins us from Capitol Hill.
Senator Leahy, good to have you back on the program.
SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D-VT), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Nice to be with you. Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: I don't know if you saw Tony Snow, the White House press secretary, with Soledad just a few minutes ago, but I want to share with you just a brief clip of what he had to say. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SNOW: Is there any fact that would be denied to members of Congress? The answer is no. They're going to have the facts.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: They're going to have the facts.
Is that, on the face of it, enough?
LEAHY: No. And, you know, Mr. Snow is very convincing, and I applaud him for holding the case for his client, the president. But it's not accurate.
The stuff they've sent up, they erased over 100 of the pages. We don't have all the material.
And the one way you can have everything -- let's be honest about it -- not in a closed-door meeting where people aren't under oath where there's no transcript, and the few people that are in there come out saying, well, I remember it this way, somebody else says, no, I remember it this way.
Why not do it the way I suggested? Have the people come in before our committee under oath, in public, and you have both Republicans and Democrats asking the questions.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, here's the thing, here's what Tony Snow says, is he says -- and I can see his point. Probably if you were president you would feel the same way, too. If you have confidential conversations in the Oval Office, you wouldn't necessarily want those conversations, that advice to be aired out publicly on Capitol Hill sometime later. And you might not get good advice, right?
LEAHY: Well, if the confidential discussions are discussing ways to change or thwart prosecutions of our laws, the American people should know about it. Remember, if you're -- if you're fooling with the prosecutors, if you're putting political pressures on prosecutors to go one way or the other, that affects everybody all the way down to the cop on the beat.
I spent eight years as a prosecutor. I know how independent they have to be.
M. O'BRIEN: But I -- we certainly understand the implications of the U.S. attorney firings, but this issue of executive privilege, there's obviously a longstanding custom here. It's not spelled out specifically in the Constitution, as you well know. But the point is, it gives presidents the kind of advice they hope to get, which is unvarnished advice that wouldn't necessarily...
LEAHY: I'm not trying to -- I'm not trying to get that kind of advice. All I want to know is if prosecutors were manipulated in the kind of prosecutions they did.
We saw on the front page of the paper today, where the United States government was about to win $130 billion judgment against some big supporters of the president. The prosecutors were pressured into changing it to ask only for $10 billion. That's money that would have gone into the Treasury.
I think the American people have a right to know about that. You know, you talk about executive privilege, there's been 74 people from the president's offices in just the last few years alone who have testified on Capitol Hill. Forty-seven of them during the Clinton administration. This is no big deal. But the fact...
M. O'BRIEN: All right. I've got to ask you this -- here's the...
LEAHY: ... but the fact is, I'm not going to accept testimony that is not under oath, behind closed doors, where nobody in the public knows what was said. It just will not happen.
M. O'BRIEN: All right. Let me -- I would like to get some specifics, if I could, Senator.
You want -- obviously, you want it open door, you want it under oath, and you want a transcript, of course. That would be implicit in all of that. If you had to pick one of those...
LEAHY: And I want both Republicans and Democrats to ask questions.
M. O'BRIEN: If you just had to pick one of those things, what would it be? Is it the transcripts that are the issue? Is it the under oath? Or is it the behind closed doors component?
LEAHY: You can't have just one of those things. You want it under oath, you want the public to know what's going -- and you want both Republicans and Democrats to be able to ask questions.
M. O'BRIEN: So is there -- we just reported -- Dana Bash just reported that there is a lot of stuff happening behind the scenes here in the way of compromise. Can you give us any indication, is there compromise in work right now?
LEAHY: No. I mean, the president and Mr. Snow have both said that we either accept their offer or there's no offer. I take them at their word. Why would they say otherwise? And obviously, by issuing subpoenas, they are not accepting it.
They made it clear yesterday that either the Congress does exactly as they told us to do, ordered us to do, or they won't -- they won't cooperate. Well, I assume they're telling the truth. They are not looking for some other compromise.
M. O'BRIEN: Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Thank you. And we wish you well today.
LEAHY: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Coming up this morning, Paul McCartney has a new partner in music, but could the collaboration be as big of a hit as the Beatles were?
Ali Velshi will take a look. He's "Minding Your Business" straight ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: Good news for you silent types this morning. The government is looking to hang up on a plan to allow in-flight cell phone chatting. Everybody happy about that?
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No.
S. O'BRIEN: No.
M. O'BRIEN: You want...
(CROSSTALK)
S. O'BRIEN: I don't know.
VELSHI: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: Oh, come on. But think of -- you're in the middle seat, and you've got two people screaming about, "Hey, I'm on a plane! Mildred, can you believe it? I'm on a plane!"
How would you like that for three hours? Anyway...
S. O'BRIEN: Or how about, "Honey, it looks like you're going to have to ask the babysitter to stay because my flight is delayed and now we're circling, Sweet Pea, and I want you to know..." M. O'BRIEN: All right. All right.
Well, the FCC chairman says there's still too many concerns about cell phones and flight and their effect on phone networks on the ground.
S. O'BRIEN: I thought it didn't do anything to phone networks.
M. O'BRIEN: No. You know what it does? It hits about 95 million cell towers at once.
VELSHI: Right. Right, it's not...
M. O'BRIEN: That's the problem.
VELSHI: Right.
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: It's really about the spamming cell towers. No, I know it's not about safety, because I use my Blackberry and cell phone in my little plane all the time. It does nothing.
S. O'BRIEN: OK. Don't do that. OK?
M. O'BRIEN: It does nothing -- it does nothing...
S. O'BRIEN: Now I'm more nervous.
M. O'BRIEN: It does nothing to...
VELSHI: I can't go with you on that flight now.
M. O'BRIEN: OK.
Anyhow, Ali Velshi is here.
It's great to see you. It's about 25 minutes past the hour. It must be, because you're here.
VELSHI: Thank you.
The bloom is off the bean, the coffee bean. You remember a few months ago -- maybe a few weeks ago -- we told you about how Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz had sent this memo, this internal memo? We got our hands on it, and he was saying that, you know, Starbucks, in all their efforts to get all efficient, may be losing part of its charm, diluting its brand.
You know, they put these new -- I don't what kind of machines they are, but you can't see through. You can't see what the baristas are doing anymore. They packaged their coffee so that they can deliver it all over the country, but you can't smell the coffee being ground anymore.
So anyway, he sent this memo out. Now, Starbucks -- the stock of this company is down almost 10 percent since last year. That's never happened with Starbucks as a public company.
And Howard Schultz, who's really the brains behind this operation, said, you know, we're now going to start competing with the mom and pop shops that we thought we were, the ones that people would come to for the atmosphere and the environment. Now...
M. O'BRIEN: It's hard to get big and keep what he was trying to create, which is the neighborhood place to go.
VELSHI: Every company faces this. That's right. That's exactly what the problem is.
And, by the way, none of this means they don't continue to get big. Their goal in four years is to have 10,000 more stores. They want 40,000 stores worldwide.
S. O'BRIEN: So that could be a bigger problem.
VELSHI: They have 13,500 already in 39 countries. So it's a big deal.
M. O'BRIEN: I'm just waiting for my personal barista. It's just a matter of time.
VELSHI: And I'd like my cell phone on the plane.
S. O'BRIEN: We have space. We could put somebody right there.
M. O'BRIEN: Right there. All right.
Hey, it's Thursday, boys. You know what time that is.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: MilesCam.
M. O'BRIEN: Thank you very much. WE have a special MilesCam today.
S. O'BRIEN: Who is co-starring today?
M. O'BRIEN: A special guest -- Elon Musk, the billionaire who gave us PayPal, who is now in the space business. He had it launched just the other day.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: It was a good news-bad news adventure for him. He's going to join us and take your questions about civilians in space and the new civilian space race.
Do you want to go to space?
S. O'BRIEN: No.
M. O'BRIEN: Why don't you dial in to our program, send us an e- mail, and butter up Elon Musk.
S. O'BRIEN: Is he going to take you to space?
M. O'BRIEN: That's the whole reason I'm doing this, to get a ride.
MilesCam@CNN.com is the place to send your e-mails, a place to watch this all unfold. It's on the Pipeline product, CNN.com/pipeline, 10:00 a.m. Eastern.
We'll see you then.
Back with more in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: We begin with what Congress is trying to do today about the crisis over subprime mortgages. Subprime loans are designed for people to get loans even though they have weak credit. But foreclosure rates are now at their highest level in decades.
Personal finance editor Gerri Willis will be following this hearing today, and she's here with a preview for us.
Good morning, Gerri.
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Hey, good morning, Miles. Good to see you.
You know foreclosure rates now at their highest level in 37 years, and a report out this week shows that two million Americans will probably lose their homes as this whole situation unravels. This is truly tragic.
Congress, though, is finally waking up.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIS (voice-over): Eighty-five-year-old Simeon Furgeson (ph) had one of the safest home loans available, a 30-year fixed mortgage, but his daughter, Karlene, says an aggressive mortgage broker convinced him to get a new, far riskier mortgage that ultimately he couldn't afford.
KARLENE GRANT, DAUGHTER OF LOAN VICTIM: If you're going to sit with a bank to get a loan, you shouldn't be worried that you're going to be robbed like you're walking out on the street.
WILLIS: Ferguson's case isn't unique. Predatory lenders have encouraged borrowers with poor credit to take out subprime loans that can start out with affordable rates, but escalate to high-interest loans.
The center for responsible lending estimates one in five subprime loans will go into foreclosure in the next few years. That has at least two dozen lenders in serious financial trouble, or out of business.
Congress is seizing the moment, holding hearings to grill subprime lending executives and federal regulators. The Mortgage Banker's Association says it's working with lenders to use plain language so consumers can better see the risks.
KURT PFOTENHAUER, MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSOC.: The vast majority of mortgage lenders are very honest people, trying to put a good product out into the market and trying to help people get into homes.
WILLIS: This isn't the first time Congress has take an look at the issue. During the last session, lawmakers held at least five hearings and introduced at least two major bills, but nothing has happened.
JOHN NASSAR, CENTER FOR RESPONSIBLE LEARNING: The last time Congress enacted significant mortgage reform was in the mid '90s, and act called HOPA (ph). The subprime market has ballooned since that time, and there are many issues that need to be addressed in the mortgage markets.
WILLIS: Nasser says that reform added protection for only a small number of subprime borrowers. Now consumers will have to wait and see if whether these hearings produce any real change that could help people like Simeone Ferguson, who is himself waiting to see whether legal action can help his case.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIS: This is a sad story that is replaying all over the country. And of course Dodd says, Senator Chris Dodd, says today he'll be asking the hard questions, including asking regulators what do they know and when did they know it?
Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: Hard questions, but the hard facts are, no matter what Congress decides to do, if they do anything, it's not going to help people today who really have a crisis on their hands. What can they do right now if they're in trouble? If your in trouble right now, get a new mortgage. It is time to think about refinancing your loan. That is the very best solution for you right now. If you're in one of these mortgages, if you've bought one within the last two years, it'll cost you some money. It is not free. You will be pay closing costs. But at the end of the day, being able to sleep all night long, well, it may well be worth the trouble.
M. O'BRIEN: Gerri Willis, thank you very much. Gerri, we'll check back with you tomorrow after the hearing, see how that all transpired. And of course special edition of "OPEN HOUSE" Saturday, 9:30 Eastern, right here on CNN. Just what you want to watch Saturday morning, as you're fixing to get Home Depot or whatever.
Gerri, it's "OPEN HOUSE" -- Soledad.
A noon announcement is expected today from the Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife, Elizabeth, expected to be about her health. She's a breast cancer survivor. She discovered a lump in her breast in the last days of the 2004 campaign. And of course whatever the announcement is, it could effect Edwards presidential campaign.
CNN's going to have complete coverage of their news conference beginning at noon Eastern Time -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: A mass exodus from Mogadishu, Somalia going on right People are running from the heaviest fighting since Islamic insurgents were pushed out of power back in January. Somalia and Ethiopian troops beginning a new crackdown on these insurgents with links to al Qaeda. Heavy machine guns, artillery, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades exploding all over the city. A lot of fighting there. We're watching it for you.
Around the world to another crisis in another part of Africa, Southern Africa this time. Zimbabwe already in a political chaos under President Robert Mugabe, but now there's a new threat, a threat of economic collapse with inflation that is just astounding.
CNN's Jeff Koinange joining us live. He is in South Africa, near Zimbabwe. He's not allowed in that country, because the government, frankly, wants to take aim at the messenger.
Jeff, give us the latest.
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN AFRICA CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Miles. And that inflation you were talking about, 1,700, the highest in the world. Eight out of 10 Zimbabweans are out of work. Tens of thousands of children unable to go to school because their parents can't afford school, and tens of thousands of more Zimbabweans fleeing across the border here into South Africa. And you know what, Miles, at the end of the day, they would rather tear their chances here in South Africa than in their native Zimbabwe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF KOINANGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Meet 30-year-old Nkululelo. His name means freedom in Mdabeli (ph), one of Zimbabwe's dominant ethnic groups. Freedom, though, is probably the last thing on his mind.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No freedom. No freedom. There is no freedom.
KOINANGE: These days life is a lesson in survival for Zimbabwe exiles like Nkululelo, illegal immigrants forced to flee their country due to what they call the repressive regime of this man, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Now they are forced to earn a living in neighboring South Africa.
MOELEYSI MBEKI, POL. ANALYST: What South Africa does, is we get suck in a lot of illegal immigrants in Zimbabwe. They work in South Africa by whatever means. They send South African currency to Zimbabwe to support their relatives, and South African companies sends good to Zimbabwe for these relatives to buy. So that is what is keeping Zimbabwe alive.
KOINANGE: Today is shopping day. He picks up sugar, cooking oil, flour, baked beans, washing soap. Items no longer available in Zimbabwe. And when they do become available, cost four times what he's paying in South Africa.
NKULULELO, ZIMBABWEAN EXILE: They are suffering too much. It's like maybe half of Zimbabweans they are here now.
KOINANGE: Nkululelo is but one of thousands of exiled Zimbabweans sending boxes and bags of food daily to their starving families. And those not sending food send just about everything else -- computers, wheelbarrows, bathtubs, everything including the kitchen sink. Zimbabweans say this is what Robert Mugabe forced them to become. From what was once the bread basket of Southern Africa to what experts call an African basketcase.
ESINATH NDLOVU, ZIMBABWEAN EXILE: I don't know what to do except to doing this, buying things and sending them home every now and then. Besides that they're not eating anything. What can we do?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KOINANGE: And, Miles, just this past weekend, 83-year-old President Robert Mugabe announced he would be standing for president in upcoming elections in 2008. If he were to win that, he'll be president all the way through until he's 90 years old.
M. O'BRIEN: I guess there's no doubt he would win, right? I mean, the elections are not exactly the kinds of elections we have here.
KOINANGE: Exactly. And with us and other journalists not allowed to cover things like elections or everyday life in Zimbabwe, it would be a walk-over -- Miles.
Jeff Koinange on the border there in South Africa, thank you -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: Ahead this morning, the dangers of tainted pet food hit home. Now one injured pet lover is hitting back at pet food makers.
Plus, fire in Florida. Crews working overnight trying to control a stubborn brush fire and save homes, too. We'll update you on what's happening there. You're watching AMERICAN MORNING, the most news in the morning is right here on CNN.
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M. O'BRIEN: More fallout this morning from that big pet food recall. A grieving pet lover in Chicago is now filing suit. Dawn and Sam Majersik (ph), seen here with their dogs, and here we'll show you in the inset is Phoenix the cat. Now Phoenix got sick last week, just two days after eating a package of Special Kitty. That's a kind of wet food made by Menu Foods. They had to put Phoenix to sleep after his organs failed. Special Kitty just one of 95 cat and dog food brands recalled by this company, Menu Foods. It's a huge recall. We're not sure just how many pets are effected by it. The Majersik's suit does seek class-action status -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: It will be interesting to see how many people sign in on that one, huh?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, I think there may be more out there than we reported already.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, yes, I would think so.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: So, what's the matter with kids today? They are inactive, and in many cases they are overweight. One doctor says he has found the cure, though. But it is a drug aimed, ironically, at kids who are hyperactive.
Elizabeth Cohen with more from Atlanta.
Good morning, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Miles.
Miles, yes, there's a doctor outside Chicago who is prescribing amphetamines to overweight children. The amphetamines It's called Adderall. As you said, that's a drug that's used to case -- to treat rather, ADHD. There's a well-known side effect. Not only can it take care of the child's ADHD, but it often also takes the child's appetite away, or certainly cuts it in half. This doctor says that he's prescribed Adderall to 800 kids who do not have ADHD, and about 90 percent of them have seen significant weight loss.
We talked to one young man named Alex Veep (ph). He went from being 30 pounds overweight to being a normal weight. He started taking Adderall the summer before sixth grade.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN (voice-over): That must have been pretty surprising to have your appetite change like that.
ALEX VEITH, USED ADDERALL FOR WEIGHT LOSS: Yes, and you should have saw everyone else when I went back to school that next year. I mean, everyone didn't believe it was me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COHEN: Now pediatricians who we talked to said this is unethical. They said this is crazy, that doctors should not be prescribing Adderall simply to lose weight. But Dr. Fuad Siai (ph), the doctor who we're talking about now outside Chicago. He says it is ethical. He said these kids have failed to lose weight any other way. Now you can read more about the details on this on CNN.com/health. I have an article up there right now that explains more -- Miles. M. O'BRIEN: Well, help me understand, Elizabeth -- what are the regulations here? Is it legal for a doctor to take a drug intended for another purpose, and say, hey, this is actually the purpose I'd like to use it for?
COHEN: It is legal. Actually it's called off-label prescription, and doctors do it all the time. There are many well- accepted off-label uses of drugs. For example, sometimes you hear about Botox being used for people with migraines. That's just one example. So doctors can take a drug that's been approved for one use, in this case ADHD, and use it for a completely different use, in this case weight loss.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, in the case of real obesity among teens, there's a real health concern there. But obviously giving kids amphetamines has all kinds of health implications. It's got to be a tough balance.
COHEN: Absolutely. There are side effects of Adderall. It's right on the label. There are possible cardiac side effects. There are possible psychiatric side effects. Some people who's taken Adderall have started hearing voices or becoming manic, but I'll tell you, we've talked to this young man and they said we didn't have any side effects. It worked great for us. This kid was headed toward type-two diabetes, and now he's doing fine.
Elizabeth Cohen in the CNN NEWSROOM Atlanta. Thank you very much -- Soledad.
M. O'BRIEN: Thanks.
S. O'BRIEN: "CNN NEWSROOM," the show, is just a couple of minutes away. And Tony Harris is at the CNN Center. He's got a look at what they've got ahead this morning.
Good morning.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Soledad, good morning to you.
We've got these stories on this morning. An announcement from Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. It concerns the health of his wife, Elizabeth, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004. Today the Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to authorize subpoenas in the fired prosecutors investigation. We will talk with a committee member, Senator Dianne Feinstein.
And a veteran Chicago police officer -- have you been following this story this morning with Soledad and Miles? -- put on leave after a video shows him attacking a bartender. The officer outweighed the woman by 135 pounds.
Heidi Collins is with me in the "NEWSROOM." We get started at the top of the hour right here on CNN -- Soledad.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, thank you. We look forward to that. Appreciate that. Well, the saga of that little abandoned polar bear we've been telling you about in Berlin. It's caught everybody's attention, because of courser animal rights activists have been weighing in. How do you raise a polar bear cub hand? They had a similar situation, believe it or not, in Chicago. We'll update you on what happened there and how that bear is doing, straight ahead this morning.
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S. O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody.
We've got some new pictures to show you just in, coming to us from Baghdad. If you take a look, you've got the Prime Minister Maliki with the U.N. secretary-general. Then that explosion. That is the new U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. You'll remember we told you he was on a surprise visit. They are inside the green zone, holding a news conference when that explosion happened. And you saw he ducked behind the podium for just a moment there. It appears to be some kind of rocket or some kind of mortar that has landed within the green zone.
Take another look at it, if you will. That was a news conference that they were holding. Some debris sort of falls a little bit down behind them as well. It's unclear at this exactly what happened, and we're waiting to get details out of Baghdad on what happened.
But, as you can see, the two men are clearly unharmed, at least at this point and we continue to follow the story for you. That has got to be absolutely terrifying.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, and perhaps the reflection is the different reactions. Mr. Maliki, having lived there, didn't flinch.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, he didn't flinch at all.
M. O'BRIEN: Interesting.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, that was strange. All right, we'll continue to follow that for you.
Then we want to tell you a story on what they call a much different note. Look at this little guy. His name is Newt. This is the polar bear, who was abandoned by his mother, being raised by handlers, all at the Berlin Zoo. And remember, what caught our interests about this story is that animal rights groups, one guy in particular, said better for this little guy to be dead than to be hand reared because his mother had abandoned him, because it was sort of against nature. Well, wow, that seemed really odd coming from an animal rights activist.
And it led us to Dr. Tom Meehan. He's the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago, and he actually faced a very similar situation. Almost the same exact situation, mother abandoned two cubs, and they decided to hand rear one of the cubs, the only cub that survived.
Dr. Meehan, nice to see you, as always. There's a sense, I think, that hand rearing this cub means that it's going to imprint on a human being and the cub is kind of ruined, for lack of a better term there. Is that true?
DR. TOM MEEHAN, BROOKFIELD ZOO: Well, it certainly wasn't true in our case. We had a young polar bear born, actually a pair, born in late 1999, and the mother abandoned those babies, which was very unusual for her.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, and I would imagine, because she had raised other babies as well. So then your little baby, which was called Tigowak (ph), at the Brookfield Zoo. You guys decided to make the decision, the most important thing was to save the life of this cub. How did you both raise the cub and make sure you weren't going to get this cub to imprint on human beings?
MEEHAN: Well, it's very difficult. It's difficult to make the decision to pull the baby, because then you lose any chance of making that bond with mother. And so we did make the decision, because the babies were left behind for a long enough period that we were concerned about their lives, and actually one of the cubs did not survive.
Tigowak, who went through a very intensive process of hand rearing, and our nutrition staff, our veterinary staff and our keeper staff worked round the clock in the first several months to keep the baby going. And we were concerned from the beginning about making sure that this bear knew that she was going to be a bear. The keeper staff made great efforts to try and minimize their contact with the baby to what was absolutely necessary.
S. O'BRIEN: Now I see a bear over your shoulder. Can I interrupt you for just for one second? Because I see the rump, the backside of a bear, over your should. Is this the little baby Tigowak, who is now seven years old?
MEEHAN: No, actually Tigowak baby was introduced to another bear and now lives in Montreal. And we were successful in bringing another bear in and having a socialized youngster, the same age as Tigowak actually teach Tigowak how to be a bear, because we had made these efforts not to imprint the baby on humans, or not to raise that bear to be a human, but rather to raise it to show all the bear behaviors, and then we were able to bring in another bear when Tigowak was about two years old, and that pairing has been successful and those bears have been together ever since.
S. O'BRIEN: Let me ask you a question, because little Newt, this bear in Berlin that we've been talking about lately, has kind of become this TV star. The animal activist literally said this. He said, the zoo must kill the bear, and then a bunch of other animal activists jumped in and said that's crazy, and a big hoopla. I guess Annie Leibowitz has flown in to do a photoshoot with little Newt. I mean, it's gotten completely out of control.
But the zookeeper in Berlin has moved into the animal's cage, or setting, or whatever you call it, and is now hand feeding little Newt. Is that the wrong way to try to raise little Newt, in your opinion?
MEEHAN: No it's not. Newt's still very young. My understanding is he's about 13 weeks old, and at that stage, when we had Tigowak, we had people in there pretty much around the clock.
So it's not a matter of not giving very, very close special attention to the baby; it's just as the baby develops later on to make sure that it's showing appropriate bear behaviors, whether it's playing with toys, attacking things, just making sure that it shows the normal repertoire of bear behaviors so that they're then ready to become a bear with another of their own species.
S. O'BRIEN: And I tell you , we could watch these little cut bear pictures all day. I can't believe anybody would say to kill that bear. That's not right.
Dr. Tom Meehan is with the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago. Thanks for talking with us. Absolutely fascinating stuff. Appreciate it -- Miles.
MEEHAN: Thank you.
M. O'BRIEN: As we told you just a few moments ago, a rocket attack, apparently aimed at the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon occurred just a few moments ago. A large explosion as a rocket was fired in the direction of a news conference he was giving with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Dramatic videotape as Mr. Ban crouches beneath a podium.
CNN's Kyra Phillips is in Baghdad right now. There you see the video, with more on just what transpired.
Kyra, what do we know?
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, actually we felt it here in our compound, in our newsroom, Miles. It shook the windows. It shook the whole building. So immediately everybody was a bit rattled, wondering what happened. You know, we're just outside the green zone, where that press conference was taking place. Let me have you roll it one more time again if you don't mind. And there we go. I can hear it.
We're being told now those were two mortar rounds. Now were they specifically aimed at the new secretary-general of the U.N., or was it just a lucky shot? That's always the question. You never really know and you can't ever figure that out.
But our sources are telling us, two mortar rounds right there into the green zone, where that press conference was happening, and you can kind of see for a moment the Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, he's not as startled as the U.N. secretary-general. You saw Ban Ki- moon kind of duck below, wasn't quite sure what was going on. Nouri al-Maliki said, in Arabic, he said "Makushi, Makushi (ph)." We thought that he was talking to Ban Ki-moon, but he wasn't; he was actually talking to his guards. His guards wanted to shuffle him out of there. That was there first response, they wanted to move him, and Nouri al-Maliki just calmly said "Makushi, Makushi" -- I don't want to leave, I want to stay here; everything is going to be OK.
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