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Alleged D.C. Madam Says She's Ready to Name Names; Highway Collapse; Tenet's Take

Aired April 30, 2007 - 11:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. You're with CNN. You're informed.
I'm Tony Harris.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you. I'm Heidi Collins.

Developments keep coming in to the NEWSROOM on Monday, the 30th of April.

Here's what's on the rundown.

The alleged D.C. madam lashing out at the government after a court appearance just a few moments ago. Her client list said to hold the names of Washington powerbrokers. Some of those names now public.

HARRIS: Highway meltdown. San Francisco's morning rush under way now. Thousands of commuters facing a long haul after a crash brought down an overpass.

COLLINS: The nation's number three carrier emerging from bankruptcy today. The new Delta and what it means for fliers, live this hour in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And at the top of the hour, the alleged D.C. madam just out of a Washington courtroom this morning, and she is talking.

Live now to CNN's Jim Acosta at the federal courthouse.

Jim, you were inside the courtroom this morning. Update our viewers on exactly what happened.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, not a whole lot of fireworks inside U.S. district court this morning, but the alleged D.C. madam, Deborah Palfrey, did appear in court this morning. She basically was in court to see if she could have the government set aside $150,000 for her legal defense.

The judge in this case had to inform Ms. Palfrey that that's not the way things are done around here, and that a court-appointed public defender could be made in this case. But at this point, she's without a defense lawyer in this criminal matter against her. And so over the next week or so, it's expected that she will have either an attorney appointed for her, or she will go out and hire an attorney. That element -- development waiting to be disclosed in all of this. But she did appear in court earlier this morning. She's accused of running a prostitution ring here in Washington for 13 years.

She claims this was a legal escort service, but prosecutors are moving forward with this case. And if they continue to do so, she says, she plans on naming names. That is, releasing what is estimated to be reams of phone records that could, if they're tracked down, point to high-level individuals, high-level Washington officials in this town. That's at least what she says at this point.

She held a brief press conference. Didn't hold any questions, but addressed the media here just a few moments ago. Here's what she had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH PALFREY, PAMELA MARTIN AND ASSOCIATES: I would ask the press and the media to put aside the titillation of the who's who list, at least in part, and instead investigate the disturbing genesis, the confounding evolution and the equally alarming continuation of this matter. I believe there is something very, very rotten at the core of my circumstance, and without money to hire my own investigators, I must rely upon your acumen and talent here, the press and media, to uncover the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And one thing she did do during this press conference is she did apologize to the deputy secretary -- or former deputy secretary of state, Randall Tobias, who stepped down on Friday after disclosing to ABC News that he was one of Palfrey's clients. He claims that he only received a massage or massages from her service, but Ms. Palfrey did address this during her availability with the media just a few moments ago, saying she was sorry that he had to go through something like this. But she also said that she hopes that his claim that this was just a massage will help in her defense, that it proves that she was operating what she calls a legal sexual service, whatever that means -- Tony.

HARRIS: All right, Jim. Let me see if I've got this right here.

So, ABC has a lot of this material, the phone records. And am I right here? ABC is essentially going to be doing the work of identifying the witnesses for the defense?

ACOSTA: Well, that is it. And she has a civil lawyer at this point who is handling a lawsuit that she has going on in the middle of all of this, and also battling against the government trying to seize her assets.

HARRIS: Yes.

ACOSTA: She and that lawyer are working in cahoots with ABC. I guess cahoots is not really the right word, but in conjunction with ABC to go through this list of names. And as Mr. Blair told us just a few moments ago, she did not have a black book. This is not similar to the case of Heidi Fleiss and that notorious black book.

HARRIS: That's right.

ACOSTA: She says she doesn't have a black book. She has phone records. And those phone records have phone numbers that, if you use a reverse directory and trace that phone number to a certain home address and a certain individual who has that phone number, you've tracked down somebody who's on the list.

Or in the case of Mr. Tobias, apparently this was a private cell phone number that was dialed. And then Mr. Tobias apparently answered. We don't know all the details of this.

HARRIS: Boy.

ACOSTA: And that is how Mr. Tobias was tracked down, so we think. This is all sort of unclear at this point.

HARRIS: Sure.

ACOSTA: And when asked and pressed further for some of these answers, the attorney, Montgomery Blair Sibley -- or Sibley Blair, excuse me -- no, Blair Sibley for Ms. Palfrey, said that you're going to have to hold off on these questions.

HARRIS: That's right.

ACOSTA: These questions will come in time. And they're honoring their deal with ABC that this is an exclusive at this point.

HARRIS: Man oh man.

ACOSTA: Yes.

HARRIS: All right. Jim Acosta for us outside of the federal courthouse there in Washington, D.C., this morning.

Jim, thank you.

ACOSTA: Sure.

COLLINS: In northern California, commuters are waking up to a nightmare -- a road of rubble. This has been a vital link between San Francisco and Oakland. The collapse has road crews scrambling to make repairs, but that job could take months. You can see why.

CNN's Chris Lawrence is in Oakland now.

Chris, it's a little bit later than we checked in with you last time. What does the commute look like at this point?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The freeway is jammed. Traffic is bad.

You know, within 24 hours of this highway's collapse, the state of California pulled a demolition team off another project and brought them to work on this one. Take a look behind me.

You can see that excavator right at the top. They hope that by the end of the day they will have removed that huge slanted slab of freeway that is laying on top of the freeway below it.

As we take a look from up above, we can see in lot of areas the traffic is jammed. This could not have happened at a worst place, where three major freeways converge and funnel right into the Bay Bridge, which connects Oakland with the city of San Francisco.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE (voice over): This is what it looks like when a tanker crashes and 8,000 gallons of gasoline ignite on a major highway. Flames shoot up 200 feet, and the air boils to nearly 3,000 degrees. Steel beams buckle, and bolts holding up the overpass melt.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger inspected the freeway Sunday night and declared a state of emergency.

SCHWARZENEGGER: No one has to fight over who is going to pay for the first few days. It's all taken care of.

How fast you move people and goods and services, that's economic power. We don't want the economy in the Bay Area to be disrupted, nor the economy of California to be disrupted.

LAWRENCE: The state of California is picking up the tab to provide free public transportation Monday, but the months to come could be a nightmare.

COMMISSIONER MIKE BROWN, CALIFORNIA HIGHWAY PATROL: I would love to be able to say it's going to be easy, but I don't think it will be.

LAWRENCE: Every day more than 250,000 commuters take the bridge into San Francisco.

ROSEANNE WINCEK, BAY AREA COMMUTER: I live in the city and I work at Berkeley. So I don't want to be here tomorrow when it's going to be insane.

MOSTAFA EL DESOKY, BAY AREA COMMUTER: I think I'm maybe going to have, like, probably at least two or three hours and before I hit (INAUDIBLE). It usually takes me 20 minutes, 25 minutes max.

LAWRENCE: Repair costs could top tens of millions of dollars, and it could cause the worse traffic destruction since the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989. To fix the freeways then took about seven years and $2 billion.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAWRENCE: And again, as we take a live look at some of the workers on top of that freeway, the state reacted very quickly to this disaster, already beginning the process of getting some of that debris out of there. But the mayor of San Francisco called this a real wake- up call, saying it showed him just how vulnerable the Bay Area's transportation system is, not only to an accident like this, but an earthquake and even an terrorist attack -- Tony.

COLLINS: Yes, no question about that. And Chris, we hear that train behind you. Maybe it's a passenger train. Hopefully people able to get to work on some of that public transportation that's been offered.

LAWRENCE: They need something, Heidi. They need something out here, some way to get to work.

COLLINS: All right. Well, thanks for being there, Chris. We know you'll keep your eye on it for us.

Thanks so much.

HARRIS: A crowded mall in Kansas City, a gunman on the loose, and firing. It all went down Sunday afternoon at the Ward Parkway Center, a few miles from downtown.

Police say a man shot and wounded an officer at a gas station and then headed for the mall. Once there, he pulled into a parking space, fired at cars on either side of him, killing two people, and then ran inside. Officers went in after him, caught up with the man outside of a mall entrance, and shot him to death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. TONY SANDERS, KANSAS CITY POLICE: Don't have any particulars on him at all. All we know right now is that he did come into the mall.

We have hundreds of people that were here on a Sunday afternoon. If you can imagine how many people were at the mall and going to the movie and shopping and what have you, it was a lot of people we have to interview. And there are a lot of witnesses to this incident. And as bad as it is, it could have been a lot worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Sure. Sure. Police also suspect the man in the death of an elderly woman. Her body found earlier in the day in her home. Police say her missing car matches the one used by the gunman.

COLLINS: Firefighters in Georgia making progress in the state's biggest ever wildfire. But there's still a lot of work to be done.

The flames have raced across 100 square miles of tinder-dry forest and swampland. That's about 82,000 acres. Some families who have been evacuated still can't go home. And a stretch of US Highway 1 still shut down.

Right now, officials say the fire is about 70 percent contained, but full containment will not be easy. Winds are gusty and there's no rain in the forecast. The two-week-old blaze is expected to burn for at least another week. And you see how these fires kind of keep igniting...

HARRIS: Yes.

COLLINS: ... because they just can't seem to get the rainfall that they need -- right, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: A long time.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: The longest terror case to work its way through British courts. Today, convictions.

After a year-long trial, jurors today found five men guilty. They had planned to bomb targets including a London nightclub, a shopping mall, and power plants. A short time ago, the British judge handed down life sentences to all five men. Evidence presented secretly showed they had ties to the group that bombed London's transit system two years ago.

COLLINS: For American troops in Iraq, a deadly new milestone for 2007 -- the U.S. death toll has climbed again.

Also, George Tenet's take, three years later. The former CIA director talking tough about his time with President Bush. His memoir out today.

HARRIS: The games go on today, but the St. Louis Cardinals will be playing with heavy hearts. Death of a teammate, coming up in the NEWSROOM.

And from "American Idol" to arrest. The charges that landed this former top 10 in trouble with the law, that's ahead.

You are in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Making good on a threat. By tomorrow, President Bush is expected to veto the new war spending bill. The measure which cleared Congress last week includes a timetable for pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq, something the president is against.

As the political wrangling goes on in Washington, more American troops lose their lives in Iraq. The Pentagon says 14 U.S. soldiers and Marines were killed over the weekend in and around Baghdad and in Anbar province.

April, with 104 U.S. troop deaths, is now the sixth deadliest month of the war. The total American death toll during the war now 3,351.

HARRIS: Former CIA director George Tenet is speaking out on TV and in a new book. Some want to know what took him so long.

CNN White House Correspondent Elaine Quijano has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): George Tenet describes Condoleezza Rice, then national security adviser, as sitting on the sidelines of policy fights over Iraq. In his new book, Tenet blames Rice for a lack of coordination and strong leadership at the National Security Council after the Iraq war began, saying, "What we did not have is an integrated and open process in Washington that was organized to keep the peace. Nor did we have the unity of purpose and resources on the ground. Quite simply, the NSC did not do its job."

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, SECRETARY OF STATE: There were some things that went right and some things that went wrong. And you know what? We'll have a chance to look at that in history, and I'll have a chance to reflect on that when I have a chance to write my book.

QUIJANO: In his book, and on CBS' "60 Minutes," Tenet also sharply criticizes Vice President Dick Cheney and the administration's use of Tenet's infamous "slam dunk" remark that the case for Iraqi WMD was solid.

GEORGE TENET, FMR. CIA DIRECTOR: I was a talking point. You know, look what the idiot told us, and we decided to go to war. Well, let's not be so disingenuous.

QUIJANO: The former CIA director says the White House had already made up its mind to go to war and took "slam dunk" out of context, making him a scapegoat after no WMDs were found. The Bush administration denies that.

RICE: It was an intelligence problem worldwide. We all thought, including U.N. inspectors, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. So there's no blame here.

QUIJANO: The backlash has already begun. In a scathing op-ed, the former head of the CIA's bin Laden unit, Michael Scheuer, says Tenet, who received a Medal of Freedom from President Bush months after resigning, should have made his views known sooner. "Now he tells us. At this late date, the Bush bashing that Tenet's book will inevitably stir up seems designed to rehabilitate Tenet his first home, the Democratic Party."

And in a blistering letter to Tenet, six former CIA officers ask why if his feelings were so strong he did not resign sooner. They accuse Tenet of being equally culpable as the administration officials he criticizes, saying, "Your silence contributed to the willingness of the public to support the disastrous war in Iraq, which has killed more than 3,300 Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis."

(on camera): The letter also urges Tenet to return the Medal of Freedom he received and to give at least half the royalties from his book sales to the soldiers and the families of those killed and wounded in Iraq.

Elaine Quijano, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Hear much more from George Tenet tonight. The ex CIA chief kicks off Larry King's 50 years in broadcasting. It's a week- long celebration. A live cable exclusive with George Tenet tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern.

COLLINS: A new Delta Air Lines emerging from bankruptcy and showing off its new image. Our Rusty Dornin has a look at Delta's new paint job.

Unveiled just moments ago right behind you, take us there, Rusty.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You just missed the big moment of excitement, Heidi. But you can take a look at the new paint job that Delta has unveiled. It's an airplane that is actually dedicated to the current CEO, Gerald Grinstein, who told this packed hangar of people that Delta is officially out of bankruptcy.

Apparently, the word was out, of course, that they were, but it was until the creditors actually received the wire funds. That happened at 10:20 this morning, so Delta has emerged from bankruptcy with a new image.

They're touting that they have 60 new flights internationally. Of course, they came at a very high price. You had 6,000 people who were laid off, a pension plan that was obliterated for the pilots, literally had to be taken over by the federal government.

Many of their employees, of course, some had up to 40 percent pay cuts. But now they have come back. They claim they're lean and mean, and this is one airline that says they're ready to compete -- Heidi.

COLLINS: Yes. Boy, it sure sounds like it.

HARRIS: Wow.

COLLINS: And I know you probably can't hear me very well, Rusty, but what's the overall excitement? Have you had an opportunity to talk with people about whether or not this is something that's going to actually get them to choose Delta over other airlines?

DORNIN: Well, you know, Delta has actually spent a lot of money. They spent $30 million on the lobby in the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson airport alone. And the idea was to streamline things and to make it easier for customers.

I mean, talking to some of the Delta officials, they realize it's been tough even on the customers, it's been tough on the employees. I mean, we all know going to airports that people have not exactly been happy. Many of the agents -- dealing with grumpy agents, the customer service has suffered, that sort of thing.

And, you know, you see a lot of smiles on people's faces. I think there's a lot of pride in being able to come back. They did it after 20 months.

Of course, Northwest Airlines also declared bankruptcy the same day that Delta did. Delta has come out now, and they feel like they're going to be able to compete.

COLLINS: Yes. United going through a lot of these troubles, too. So it will be interesting to see the state of the airlines shortly and see what changes are made.

All right. Rusty Dornin, live for us at Atlanta Hartsfield- Jackson airport with the new look.

Thanks, Rusty.

HARRIS: The dropping dollar, and here comes a flood of shoppers to America's shores and stores. That story ahead in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: On the mend and going home. The latest on the New Jersey's recovery from a terrible traffic crash. We'll have that story for you coming up in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And panda hanky panky. China finds a way to re-ignite the passion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We videotape pandas who mate successfully and play that for pandas who don't know how to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Woo hoo!

HARRIS: Just do it.

Panda porn in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The St. Louis Cardinals will be back on the field today, one day after the death of pitcher Josh Hancock. The 29-year-old died early Sunday morning when his SUV slammed into a tow truck that had stopped on the road. Police say no alcohol was found in the car, and they may never know exactly what caused the accident.

Last night's game was canceled. Hancock's teammates are expected to attend the funeral in Mississippi on Thursday. The Cardinals faced a similar tragedy, you may recall, five years ago, when pitcher Darryl Kile was found dead in his hotel room.

COLLINS: New Jersey governor Jon Corzine is expected to leave the hospital this afternoon. Corzine was seriously injured in a car crash a little over two weeks ago. The 60-year-old governor underwent three operations. Authorities say Corzine was not wearing his seat belt, as required by state law. There's no word on when he'll be able to return to work. Corzine says he'll pay all of his medical bills out of his own pocket.

More than four months after suffering a brain hemorrhage, Senator Tim Johnson is out of the hospital and back with his family. The South Dakota Democrat's office says he was discharged from the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington on Friday. The statement says Johnson is meeting with his staff and getting some work done. And for now, he will continue outpatient therapy.

HARRIS: White House Press Secretary Tony Snow back at work. Snow's been on medical leave since late last month when doctors found his cancer had returned, spreading to his liver. Snow was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2005. He talked about his battle against cancer a short while ago during the regular morning White House briefing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The first reaction to people when they hear the word cancer is "Uh-oh." But we live in kind of a different medical situation than we used to. And I have been blessed to be treated by, supported by some of the finest doctors in the world.

What we are going to do -- we had surgery, where we did disclose -- and there were some small cancers in the peritoneum. And we are going to attack them using chemotherapy. I'll start chemotherapy this Friday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Yesterday Snow was at his alma mater, Davidson College in North Carolina. He joked -- quoting here now -- "To my classmates who think I am going to lose my great hair, forget about it."

ANNOUNCER: Live in the CNN NEWSROOM, Tony Harris and Heidi Collins.

HARRIS: Good morning again. Welcome, everyone to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.

COLLINS: And I'm Heidi Collins. Good morning to you, everybody.

Crawling along, Bay-area drivers facing a nightmarish commute after a bridge collapsed, in fact, a lot of people opting for BART today. We're going to talk with one of the spokesmen from the transportation and find out how they're handling this increase in ridership. Find out what's happening in road to ruin, in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: The alleged DC madam pressing one-time clients to go public and testify in her defense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I believe there is something very, very rotten at the core of my circumstance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Reluctant witnesses in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: From "American Idol" to arrest. The charges that landed this former top 10 in trouble with the law, ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Rush hour around San Francisco Bay a lot less rushing. A lot more than an hour's commute. That's for sure. The cause of the traffic nightmare, yesterday's collapse of a vital link between San Francisco and Oakland. The fiery crash of a gasoline tanker truck literally melted the overpass. Somehow the driver walked away with only moderate burns and no one else was injured.

Today, more than a quarter of million commuters are feeling the pain though. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared a state of emergency and is offering free public transportation today. Rebuilding the highway, though, will likely takes several months. So that's a question to ask. A closer look at public transportation now and how it's helping to alleviate some of the commuter crisis. Joining us by telephone is Jim Allison. He is the spokesman for BART. That's the Bay Area Rapid Transit system. Thanks for being with us Jim. I wonder, it sounds like obviously the governor is helping to come up with these free fares today. But what will be plan be after today?

VOICE OF JIM ALLISON, SPOKESMAN, BART: Well, that's a good question. We're going to need to assess what went right today and what problems we need to address and come up with a service plan for tomorrow. So I think this is something that we're going to need to take day by day and come up with a new plan for every day.

COLLINS: Give us an idea, though, Jim. How much of an increase in ridership are you seeing this morning?

ALLISON: Well, it's very difficult to determine because we rely on our fare gates to count how many passengers are actually riding. But I can just tell you anecdotally by looking at the video cameras that it actually seems like a normal day. So I think some people may have simply taken a long weekend.

COLLINS: Well, that's probably a smart way to do it. I wonder, though, as you talk about the contingency plans and kind of taking it day by day, it sounds like it's going to be some time and it's going to really take a while to put a plan in place. People don't really have time, though, for that.

ALLISON: Well, I'd just like to remind you that in 1989 the Bay bridge was closed for a month and BART served as the one way to get from Oakland to San Francisco and back and we were able to do that. Our ridership is about 340,000 people every day so we're a big system. We have the capacity to carry more people and we're certainly gearing up for the expected increase demand. COLLINS: Sure. Any idea if, in fact, you'll likely need to add more trains or buses though at least for the short term?

ALLISON: Well, we have 59 trains running at the moment and they're all on time. I think tomorrow morning we're just going to have to reassess what happened today and as I said, it's going to be a day by day process.

COLLINS: You do have the ability to do that, though, if you need to, is that correct, add more buses or trains?

ALLISON: Well, we added cars to our trains to make them longer this morning and we added trains. So yes, we do have the ability to beef up the service.

ALLISON: All right. Well, certainly wish you the best of luck with all of this. As we look at the pictures, the live pictures right now, with trying to clear away all of that debris and eventually get this thing back up and running, people will likely be looking to BART as one alternative. Jim Allison, appreciate your time this morning.

HARRIS: The woman accused of running a prostitution ring for the rich and powerful just out of a Washington courtroom this morning. Deborah Jeane Palfrey insists she ran a legal escort service. She's been indicted on Federal racketeering and money laundering charges. Palfrey says that she will name of some of her 10,000 clients and use them as defense witnesses. Already the scandal has caused a top State Department official his job. Randall Tobias resigned on Friday. He says he used Palfrey's escort service for massages, but not sex.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH JEANE PALFREY, PAMELA MARTIN AND ASSOCIATES: My hope -- defense witnesses could be found by combing through the information indeed is being realized. Friday's admission by Mr. Tobias that he engaged in legal activity while a customer of my firm supports my position all along, that I operated a sexual, albeit legal business for 13 years from 1993 to 2006. I am very dismayed, however, by Mr. Tobias' refusal to come forward until now with this extremely valuable exculpatory evidence. Had he done so earlier, along with the many, many others who have used my company's services throughout the years, I most likely would not be in my current predicament.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Palfrey is seeking a public defender, saying she's broke because the government seized her assets.

COLLINS: OK, top teeth in trouble. Too much sugar leading to a surge in cavities. Open wide in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Something new at KFC. It may be stamped on your next bucket of chicken. Open wide.

COLLINS: Panda hanky-panky. China finds a way to reignite the passion. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZHANG HEMIN, DIR., WOLONG PANDA RESERVE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We videotape pandas who mate successfully and play that for pandas who don't know how to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Don't know how to do it, really? Is that possible?

HARRIS: It doesn't come naturally to the pandas, I guess.

COLLINS: Panda porn coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Recipe for change for KFC. KFC's fried chicken buckets will soon boast zero transfats. The chain says its restaurants have stopped frying chicken in artery-clogging transfats. They're switching over to soybean oil believed less likely to cause heart disease. Sister chain Taco Bell says its restaurants have completely switched to an oil with zero transfats.

HARRIS: Sweet treats and your kids' teeth could add up to trouble at the dentist's office. A new study finds tooth decay is on the rise among kids ages two to five. Experts say it suggests the preschool set may be eating too much sugar. The findings are part of the largest government study of the country's dental health in more than 25 years. But experts say they did see improvement elsewhere. The study found older children had fewer cavities and more of the elderly are keeping their teeth.

To catch your daily dose of health news online, log onto our Web site. You'll find the latest medical news, library and information on diet and fitness. The address, cnn.com/health.

COLLINS: Do you know what happens in 15 minutes?

HARRIS: "Your World Today."

COLLINS: Yes. Rosemary Church will be on the program telling us all of the international news. Hi Rosemary.

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello there. I certainly will and we've got a lot to cover today Tony and Heidi. First off, of course, the longest serving or the longest terrorism trial in Britain has come to the end with the conviction and the sentencing of all five men involved. They will go to prison for life. But a secret only now revealed has many asking, could the 2005 attacks on London's transportation system have been prevented? We will have a live report from London.

Also, Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert under fire. A government-appointed panel accuses him of severe failure in last July's war in Lebanon. Can he survive? That's the question everyone is asking. And then we talked to actor and now author Don Cheadle (ph) about his new book on a strategy to stop the crisis in Darfur. How can you help? He's going to tell you. That's all coming up at the top of the hour here on "Your World Today" on CNN. Back to you Tony and Heidi. We're hoping you'll stay with us.

HARRIS: Don Cheadle is on your show today?

CHURCH: Yes. He sure is. Jim Clancy talked to him just a short time ago and he has the tips for all of us so we can all be involved. He gets a lot of letters from people saying, what can we do? So he's going to tell us.

HARRIS: Note to self. All right, thank you.

COLLINS: Thanks Rosemary. From "American Idol" to arrest. The charges that landed this former top 10 in trouble with the law. That's ahead in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: The dropping dollar here comes a flood of shoppers to American shores and American stores. That's ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: As you probably know by now, the stock market hitting an all-time high, but it's a different story for the dollar. It's down around the world. That has international tourists looking for bargains. CNN's Richard Roth has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to our gray line tour. Welcome to New York.

RICHARD ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The slogan used to be I love New York. Now tourists from overseas are singing, I love the low dollar.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's wonderful.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very good exchange rate at the moment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fantastic, great time to come. We would have came anyway, you know, but the fact it was $2 is just fantastic. Super.

ROTH: Dropping faster than the ball is the dollar, plunging to record or near-record lows against the euro and the British pound.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've come all the way from London especially because of the currency at the moment and made quite a few purchases (ph).

ROTH: The Italians savor the euro's moment. The Dutch got instructions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't take anything with you. Buy everything here.

ROTH: And Canadians are enjoying currency revenge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've been through that, but it's our turn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is actually unauthorized access. No one has actually filmed in here before.

ROTH: This is where the dollars fall when down. The dealers room at 4-X Capital Markets on Wall Street, trading currencies online. The Dow Jones hit an all-time high, yet the greenback is slumping.

CATHY LIEN, DAILYFX.COM: Confidence is not necessarily a problem. It's just that people are not necessarily as interested in buying the U.S. dollar as any other currencies because they have better prospects than we do.

ROTH: Talk about shop until the dollar doesn't drop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We both food, clothing, lots of food.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're always shopping constantly. We're out just shopping, shopping, shopping.

ROTH: Handbags and jewelry are prime targets.

JESSICA HODGES, BLAIR DELMONICO STORE: We have a lot of European customers that actually come here to shop for the same merchandise at a lesser cost for them and they go crazy. It's great. It's like Christmas for them half the time.

ROTH: Americans like the Times Square naked cowboy are left feeling stripped bare by the tourist invasion. It's another summer of tourism expected here with record numbers, perhaps as many as 50 million people. Americans though can't return the favor because it's so expensive in Europe.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not happy to hear it at all. We're very, very unhappy. We'll go, though. We'll economize somewhere else.

ROTH: You don't look up these days to find the U.S. dollar. Richard Roth, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: More business news now.

Computer shoppers often head to big electronics stores like Best Buy or Circuit City, but there is one leading brand you won't find there. Dell. Felicia Taylor is at the New York Stock Exchange to tell us that could actually change soon. Felicia, good morning. What's going on here?

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Tony. Remember that Dell commercial that shows a father finishing his shopping with just one phone call? He buys a Dell computer for his daughter. That's the way they used to do it. That type of sales model however, known as direct sales, helped make Dell the leading seller of PCs in the '90s. But it's fallen on some hard times lately and the CEO Michael Dell, now has a new strategy. He sent a memo to employees outlining a new distribution model saying quote, the direct sales model has been a revolution, but it's not a religion end quote. And right now, Dell sells computers by phone and its own Web site, which, frankly, I didn't even realize that they only sold them via the Internet.

HARRIS: So Felicia, this memo, if we read between the lines here, does it mean that we might soon see Dell computers in stores?

TAYLOR: Exactly. Michael Dell hasn't actually said that outright, but there is speculation that Dell computers will soon be in retail stores. It would be a radical change for the company but obviously necessary to boost sales. Last year Hewlett-Packard overtook Dell to become the largest computer maker and over past two years, Dell has missed Wall Street's earnings forecast for several times. Share of Dell right now up more than 1 percent, so already good news for them.

As for the market, there's an old adage on Wall Street, sell in May and go away. Banking on the trend that stocks often trade higher in the winter months and then sell off between May and October. And on this last day of the month, it looks like April will once again mark the best month for stocks as it has done since 1950. Due to the strong run, investors are taking a breather right now, despite a fresh report that showed inflation is in check. The Dow industrials right now are still trading to the upside by about 11 points. However, the Nasdaq Composite still is in negative territory but just fractionally. And Tony and Heidi, that's it for what's happening on Wall Street. Back to you.

HARRIS: OK, Felicia. Thank you.

From "American Idol" top 10 to charges of battery, remember Jessica Sierra? She's one of Idol's top 10 from 2005. This is the mug shot taken after she was arrested on Sunday. The 21-year-old is out on bail this morning. She is accused of hitting a man on the head with a heavy glass at a Tampa, Florida, cafe. Police say she was also charged with possession of cocaine after police found a small amount of the drug while searching her.

Getting in the mood, a surge in China's panda population, and it may be due to panda porn. Yes, that's it. Panda porn, straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: This just in to the CNN NEWSROOM. The governor of Virginia Tim Kaine says he has closed now a loophole that allowed the Virginia Tech gunman to obtain the weapons used in the April 16th campus massacre. Again, the governor issuing an executive order requiring that people who are found to be dangerous in order to undergo involuntary mental health treatment must be included in a database barring them from buying guns. That information just in to us here in the CNN NEWSROOM. A break now.

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HARRIS: We're going it fire up the podcast machine here in just a couple minutes and get that cranking for you. Boy, 24/7 the CNN daily podcast right on your iPod. Make it a part of your everyday life. Take it to the gym with you, grocery store. When you pick up the kids, download it onto your iPod. The CNN daily podcast 24/7. Just hands going crazy right there at cnn.com.

COLLINS: I think you should actually take it on vacation with you, too.

China is in the middle of a panda baby boom, apparently.

HARRIS: Excuse me?

COLLINS: Made possible by a little panda pornography, of course. CNN's John Vause explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're cute, playful, cuddly, but, apparently, not so passionate. So researchers in China have found a way to get male pandas to put down their bamboo, get out of their trees and get in the mood.

ZHANG HEMIN, DIR., WOLONG PANDA RESERVE (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): We videotape pandas who mate successfully and play that for pandas who don't know how to do it.

VAUSE: That's right, panda porn. The theory is simple, show pandas like Lulu (ph) how it is done so he can make the most of the three days every year when females are ready to mate. It's not just the visuals, but also the sounds of panda loving that does the job. And Lulu is raring to go. Scientists here at China's Wolong research center have found what's good on tape, is even better live, taking pandas who may be a little shy to watch others who aren't. Pandas also regularly swap panda partners so each finds that someone special. All of this has led to a panda baby boom with 20 cubs, including this little guy, who is not so little, called (INAUDIBLE) being born here in the past year alone and that's more than ever before. Zhang Hemin, the park's director boasts his breeding program now has almost 100 percent success rate. When you look at this, do you feel like a proud father? But not everything has worked. They tried Viagra once. It proved just too much for your average bear.

HEMIN: They stay excited for way too long.

VAUSE: Even so, after teetering on the edge of extinction, the future for the giant panda is looking hopeful and a little bit frisky. John Vause, Wolong, CNN, China.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: I don't think we could possibly do that story enough. HARRIS: I'm making a paper airplane.

COLLINS: For what?

HARRIS: Just to fly on out of here before I say something crazy.

COLLINS: OK. That's good. Well, CNN NEWSROOM continues just one hour from now.

HARRIS: YOUR WORLD TODAY is next with news happening across the globe and here at home, I'm Tony Harris.

COLLINS: I'm Heidi Collins. Have a great Monday, everybody.

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