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D.C. Madam Back in Court; Freeway Collapses in San Francisco; British Terror Suspects Found Guilty; Georgia Town Threatened by Wildfire; Delta Airlines Out of Bankruptcy; Bush Meets with European Leaders

Aired April 30, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
SUSAN ROESGEN, CO-HOST: And I'm Susan Roesgen today, filling in for Kyra Phillips.

The alleged D.C. Madam case is back in court. A client list is slowly sleaking (sic) out -- leaking out. Were the escort services she offered legal?

LEMON: And a mangled mess. This Bay area nightmare began when the freeway buckled. How long will commuters have to live without the major freeway connector? Answers coming up, live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Time may be running out on some of Washington's best-kept secrets. Former escort service owner Deborah Jeane Palfrey appeared in court today, giving some prominent Washingtonians another reason to squirm. A State Department official has lost his job already, and that could be just the beginning.

Joining us now from Washington, CNN's Jim Acosta -- Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good afternoon, Don.

Washington was all ears this morning, but we didn't hear any more names from alleged D.C. Madam, Deborah Palfrey. She appeared in court this morning to request government funds for her defense against charges she ran a prostitution ring here in the D.C. area.

Palfrey claims it was a legal escort service, but unless prosecutors drop their case, Palfrey is promising to release reams of phone records that could embarrass scores of what she describes as high level officials in this town.

Last Friday, deputy secretary of state, Randall Tobias, resigned for personal reasons after confirming to ABC News that, while he was one of Palfrey's clients, he had only received massages from her service.

Palfrey says she wishes that revelation had surfaced earlier, because she says it would have helped her case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DEBORAH JEANE PALFREY, ALLEGED D.C. MADAM: 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)

ACOSTA: And the judge in this case denied Palfrey's request for government funds for her defense but said she could have the services of a public defender. No word yet when she will be back in court -- Don.

LEMON: Sometimes things like this, Jim, are open secrets. People kind of look the other way. I imagine that's not happening in Washington. Is it the talk of the town there?

ACOSTA: Well, it certainly is, and it came up this morning at the White House press gaggle when reporters greeted Tony Snow on his first day back on the job after being treated for cancer.

He was asked about Randall Tobias, and Tony Snow had an answer prepared. He said that the president did hear about this and that the president was saddened to hear these revelations, but that he thought it was appropriate for Mr. Tobias to step down.

LEMON: All right. CNN's Jim Acosta, thank you so much for that report.

ACOSTA: Sure.

ROESGEN: Well, if you are driving in the San Francisco Bay area, this is the last thing you want to see, a critical ramp out of commission after that big gasoline tanker crash and fire, and it promises to make the rush hour just a nightmare for months. Here's a live look now at that ramp that basically melted.

Priya David from our affiliate KTVU is in San Francisco.

Fill us in on the latest there, Priya.

PRIYA DAVID, KTVU CORRESPONDENT: Susan, it is a mess out here. Eighty thousand people use this stretch of road every day to commute back and forth to work.

And take a look behind me. We've got 250 yards of it completely gone. This is after that tanker truck dropped into one of the side rails and ended up bursting into flames. You can see here where one stretch of the freeway has dropped onto the other one.

This is in a section called the MacArthur Maze, which is very close to the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. It gets people from San Francisco into Oakland, anywhere in the East Bay back and forth, and it's really a major artery for us. The scene that caused all this devastation happened early yesterday morning, when a tanker truck crashed and spilled more than 8,000 gallons of gasoline. That gasoline burst into flames and created an inferno. The heat rose to 2,700 degrees at least.

Now, that's the amount of heat that's necessary to melt the steel, and that's exactly what it did. All the steel within the roadways melted, buckled and eventually caused the roads to break.

The truck driver is recovering from serious burns, but that's all. He actually managed to get himself into a cab and then make his way to the hospital, and amazingly no one else was hurt.

Now, Governor Schwarzenegger toured the site last night, and he declared this a state of emergency for the area. That means we'll get federal funds and also a way to cut through some of the red tape. All of the construction that's going to be done doesn't need any permitting right now.

So they're hoping that it'll get this work done as soon as possible and get commuters back to their usual routes. And they haven't gotten a great estimate for that time, but they're hoping to get it done soon.

ROESGEN: Soon. What do you mean, with no real estimate, six months, six weeks? I mean, what are we talking about here?

DAVID: Yes. What we've heard from experts say anywhere from two months to a year. Caltrans this morning said that they were very happy. Caltrans is our local construction company here in California. They say they're very happy with the amount of demolition they were able to do on this one section.

If you take a look behind me right now, that section of the freeway that dropped down onto the other one, you can see half of it is sort of demolished already. And that was all done in just about an hour this morning.

So what they want to make sure is, once that is gone, then they hope to open up the bottom level. They need to check and make sure that the heat didn't damage any of the metal in that section of it. But as long as that's clear, they hope to open up that section of it very soon.

So it's a little bit difficult to say, but in the next few days we should have a much better idea of how soon we'll be able to use those roads again.

ROESGEN: And get some relief for people. Thanks, Priya David, reporting for us live from San Francisco -- Don.

LEMON: We've been hearing a lot lately about campus scares. There is another one, this time in Pennsylvania. T.J. Holmes has all the details for us.

What are you working on, T.J.? T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, they're taking this one very, very seriously, is the word.

Again, this is not too far outside of Philadelphia. This is the Delaware County Community College. This is comprised of several different campuses around a couple different towns and several different learning centers, where they have been shut down now for the past four days because of threats that came in via e-mail.

Those e-mails were fairly general in the threat but did mention Virginia Tech, of course, the killings that we saw there about two weeks ago, and mentioned a couple of the campuses specifically. But according to officials there, it was a general enough threat that they decided to shut down all of their campuses, all of their learning centers, all of their locations until they get this thing under control and have full confidence that the campuses are safe.

Now, this is a commuter school. No campus -- or rather no dorms on the campuses. But about 10,000 people, students you can find on those campuses, day in and day out.

Now, about this e-mail, they do believe it came from one person, because all the e-mails came from just one domain name. Police are now interviewing some 100, 160 faculty members trying to find out if they have anybody in their classes, know of anyone that they think might think is a threat.

So -- and again, here, Don, they are not going to open campuses. They say they're even going to consider it until they know that the campuses are safe. Certainly in light of what happened at Virginia Tech, all of these being taken very seriously.

LEMON: Absolutely. Better safe then we know the rest of that. Thank you so much for that, T.J.

Convictions today and life sentences in the longest terror case ever to wind through British courts. The suspects were rounded up three years ago, but details were kept secret until now.

CNN's international security correspondent Paula Newton joins us now, live from London with the very latest on this -- Paula.

PAUL NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Don, as significant as these convictions were, it was the story within the story here that has really jolted people here in Britain.

What has happened is that this crevice plot or the fertilizer plot, it was a very large surveillance operation that continued between 2003 and 2004. Seven defendants were -- were put on trial, five found guilty two today. Two were acquitted.

Certainly, here it was a landmark case that showed how al Qaeda could reach into Britain, and really it was a precedent-setting case. It was the first case of that kind of home-grown terror that we've now, unfortunately, learned so much about. What was interesting here, Don, and what we've been unable to report until this moment, now that the publication ban has been lifted, is the fact that two of the suicide bombers that blew themselves up on July 7, 2005, on the London transit system were caught in this web, caught in surveillance, caught in audio recordings, caught on video by police.

And yet they were never tagged again, never tailed again, not referred to local police. Seventeen months later with explosives strapped to them they killed 52 people and injured hundreds of others.

Today, Don, many people asking could 7/7 have been prevented if those security services were more on the ball and continued to try and tag and tail those two suspects -- Don.

LEMON: All right, CNN's Paula Newton in London, thank you very much for that report.

ROESGEN: Well, it's been two weeks now, and still the largest wildfire in Georgia history just keeps on burning, nearly 140 square miles so far. And the winds have shifted again, putting a new community in danger.

Reporter Emily Pantelides (ph) is in the city of Folkston -- Emily.

EMILY PANTELIDES (PH), CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Here in Folkston, they have not been threatened by anything before. This fire has not come close to them. But now, apparently, fire officials are telling us winds in this area have shifted to the southeast, which means this massive 82,000-acre blaze is now being brought into this Folkston area.

Now, you take a look behind me. I don't know how much you can see, but this is U.S. 1, a main artery in this city. And what you're looking at is a massive detour, making people turn around and really kind of causing a little bit of a disruption here.

This is, like I said, a main artery of this city, and simply officials are telling us it's too dangerous to let people go through there. There's too much smoke, too much ash in the air. And they worry that people may get distracted driving.

And, really, you look in the air right now, and you don't see a whole lot of smoke, but the difference is really hour by hour. One minute you have a beautiful blue, clear sky like we're looking at right now, and then the next minute that thick dense smoke comes into the area.

Now we are a news crew from Jacksonville, Florida, which is about 45 minutes from here where we're standing. And I can tell you, even there, you put your hand up in front of your face, and you can't even see that, because so much smoke is billowing into the city of Jacksonville.

So you can imagine what a large fire this is, just kind of to make all the areas filled with smoke, filled with that ash in the air.

Like you mentioned, the biggest fire in southeast Georgia history at this point, 82,000 acres burned, 70 percent contained. Now, that is sort of a difficult number, because when you hear 70 percent containment, you think, "Hey, that's a good thing. These fires may be out."

But that is not the case. In fact, two days ago firefighters said this fire was 80 percent contained. It went back down to 20 percent contained because of the winds, and, of course, back up to 70 percent at this point. So really, firefighters battling this blade, battling these winds. And most importantly, everybody in this area simply praying for one thing: rain.

Back to you guys.

ROESGEN: It's a stubborn fire. Emily Pantelides (ph) reporting for us. Thank you.

LEMON: Above the clouds of financial failure, Delta Airlines flies out of bankruptcy but not without cost. Details straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

ROESGEN: And we are anticipating a departure of another kind this hour. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is supposed to leave the hospital. When he does, and if he says anything about the crash that put him there, we will bring that to you, as well.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Fifteen past the hour, and here are three of the stories we're working on for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

So far, so good. Morning rush hour was mostly normal in California's Bay area, despite this overpass collapse near the Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco. But officials warn the afternoon drive could bring headaches. Many commuters are using mass transit, which today is offering free rides.

More names. Alleged Washington D.C. Madam, Deborah Palfrey, expects more of her former clients to be revealed as a federal racketeering case moves forward. She also says she feels sorry for Randall Tobias, a top State Department official who resigned after revealing he had been a client.

And we're expecting a news conference this hour from President Bush, who is hosting European leaders at the White House today. Mr. Bush's popularity has taken major hits overseas, and he's using the annual summit to try to reach out -- Susan.

ROESGEN: Delta Airlines is flying high today out of bankruptcy and with a brand-new look. CNN's Rusty Dornin is at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, which has been Delta's home base since 1941. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been a very painful nearly 20 months for Delta Airlines and its employees. Not only were pensions and payrolls cut back, but more than 6,000 lost their jobs.

So it was a joyous occasion today as they unveiled the new image, the new paint job on the jets and as the CEO, Jerry Grinstein, announced that bankruptcy is officially over.

JERRY GRINSTEIN, CEO, DELTA AIRLINES: At 10:20 this morning, the last condition was fulfilled, our DIP financing was paid off, our exit financing kicked in, and Delta is officially out of bankruptcy.

DORNIN: The airline followed the old adage of you have to spend money to make money, spending nearly $30 million to upgrade the lobby at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson Airport. They also upgraded the interiors of the aircraft, new paint job on the outside and new uniforms for the airline attendants.

DIANE REDDIEN, DELTA EMPLOYEE: We're playing the songs and giving away lottery tickets and doing all these great thing, thanking our flight attendants for everything that they've done.

You just feel like, you know, that this is just fantastic, that the company has started at a certain point and now we're, like, back on the right track and that everything is positive.

DORNIN: And for many of the employees, they're going to receive a big bonus tomorrow in the form of a $480 million distribution of stock options and cash, something that's been long awaited for, for many years.

Rusty Dornin, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: His father's motto is "I serve," but it's Prince Harry who will turn those words into action if he heads for combat duty in Iraq as now planned. Details straight ahead, right ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Let's get you live now to the president in the Rose Garden. He is hosting European leaders today.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: ... concrete results. And we have done so. I thank the chancellor very much for the transatlantic economic integration plan that the three of us signed today.

It is a statement of the importance of trade. It is a commitment to eliminating barriers to trade. It is a recognition that the closer that the United States and the E.U. become, the better off our people become. And so this is a substantial agreement, and I appreciate it. We also talked about Doha. And I thank Peter Mendelssohn and Susan Swath (ph) for briefing us.

The first thing I told the group in the cabinet room was that I am firmly dedicated to a successful Doha round. I believe it's in this country's interests that we reject isolationism and protectionism and encourage free trade. I'm under no illusions as to how hard it will be to achieve the objective. But the first thing is there must be a firm commitment by the leadership to get a deal.

Secondly, I reminded the people that this country is dedicated to working to eliminate poverty and disease, and the best way to help the developing world is through a successful Doha round.

We told our trade ministers, work hard, work often, work constructively, and I believe we can be successful. We're committed to reducing our intercoastal (ph) subsidies in order to advance the process. We expect others to follow suit in market access.

Anyway, I am optimistic we can achieve the objective. And today's meetings gave us a chance to discuss our way forward.

We talked about the visa waiver program. We talked about Iran and the need for our nations to continue to work closely together to send a unified message to the Iranians that their development of a nuclear weapon is unacceptable to peace.

We talked about Darfur. We talked about Afghanistan and Iraq, and I appreciate very much the E.U.'s support of the international compact that will be meeting on Iraq here in Sharm El Sheikh.

We talked about Cuba and the importance for Cuba to be a free society, a society that respects human rights and human dignity, a society that honors the rule of law.

We also talked about climate change, and here we share a common interest. One, we recognize that we have a problem with greenhouse gases. Two, we recognize we have a problem with a dependence on oil. Three, we recognize that we can use technologies to help solve this problem. And, four, we recognize we have an obligation to work together to promote the technologies necessary to solve the problem and encourage the developing world to use those technologies.

And so I found the discussion refreshing and interesting, and I appreciate the candid conversations we had.

Madam Chancellor, welcome back here to the Rose Garden. And I'm looking forward to your comments.

ANGELA MERKEL, CHANCELLOR OF GERMANY: (speaking German)

LEMON: All right. The president meeting with European leaders there. And this news conference was expected all day. Mr. Bush, of course, his popularity has taken major hits overseas, and he's using this summit to sort of boost that. Of course, they're talking about, you know, greenhouse gases. They said they spoke about Cuba, Afghanistan, climate change and what have you.

So the president meeting there with European leaders. We're going to monitor this, and as soon as they make any news from this and the president speaks again, of course, we'll bring it to you live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM -- Susan.

ROESGEN: And now we have some more business news. If you are shopping for a computer, you probably go to a big electronics store like Best Buy or Circuit City. But if you do, there is one leading brand of computer that you won't find there. And that's Dell.

Felicia Taylor is at the New York Stock Exchange to tell us why that could change.

Hi, Felicia.

FELICIA TAYLOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Susan.

Now, do you remember that Dell commercial that shows a father finishing his shopping with just one phone call. He basically buys a Dell computer for his daughter. Well, that type of sales model, known as direct sales, helped make Dell the leading seller of PCs back in the '90s. But lately it's fallen on hard times.

Now CEO Michael Dell is revising that strategy. He sent a memo to employees outlining a new distribution model, saying, quote, "The direct sales model has been a revolution but is not a religion," end quote.

Right now Dell sells computers by phone and on its own website -- Susan.

ROESGEN: So does that mean that we're actually going to see Dell computers in the stores now?

TAYLOR: It's very possible. Michael Dell, though, hasn't said that outright, but there is speculation that Dell's computers will soon be in retail stores.

It would be a major change for the company but necessary in order to boost sales. Last year, Hewlett Packard overtook Dell to become the largest computer maker. And over the past two years, Dell has missed the street's earnings forecast several times. Shares of Dell are up more than 1 percent right now.

(STOCK REPORT)

ROESGEN: Time to check the 401(k) and see where we stand on that. Thanks, Felicia.

And we are waiting for another live event this afternoon. New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is expected to leave the hospital after three weeks. If he does, and again if he says something about the crash that put him there, about not wearing a seat belt that led to very serious injuries, we will bring that to you.

You are watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

ROESGEN: And I'm Susan Roesgen filling in for Kyra Phillips.

It has been almost three weeks since he was critically hurt in a car crash. Today New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine heads home from the hospital. We understand that people are lining up already, but the question is, will he talk about why he wasn't wearing his seat belt? We are standing by in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And right now you're looking live at President Bush there in the Rose Garden. Some thorny issues in the White House Rose Garden, as President Bush meets with leaders of the economic union, talking about things like standing firm in policy toward Iran, talking about trying to lessen the dependence on foreign oil.

When the president begins to take questions from reporters, we will take that news conference live.

LEMON: And they're also talking about Iraq. And speaking of that, marching orders for Prince Harry. Just in to CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Hello, everyone, I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

ROESGEN: And I'm Susan Roesgen filling in for Kyra Phillips.

You know the C-word, cancer, still a very scary word. But how can people like Tony Snow talk about living with cancer confidently? Dr. Otis Brawley has encouraging news for us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: First we start with this, the most feared figure in Washington isn't Karl Rove these days, but businesswoman Deborah Jean Palfrey, who's telephone records could ruin reputations and expose some of the city's best-kept secrets. Here's CNN's Jim Acosta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Washington was all ears this morning as alleged D.C. madam Deborah Palfrey was back in court. She appeared in court to try to set aside funds for her case. She needs a defense lawyer to defend against charges that she ran a prostitution ring here in the Washington, D.C. area for 13 years. After that court appearance, she appeared in front of the media. During that statement, she apologized to former Secretary of State Randall Tobias, who resigned Friday after disclosing to ABC News that he was one of Palfrey's clients. He says that while he was one of Palfrey's clients, he had only received massages from her service. Palfrey said to the media this morning that she wishes that revelation had surfaced earlier, because she says it would help her defense.

DEBORAH JEAN PALFREY, FMR. ESCORT SERVICE OWNER: I'm 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.

ACOSTA: And as federal prosecutors continue with this case, Palfrey is threatening to release reams of phone records that she says could disclose the names of some high-level Washington officials. But so far only two of those names have been released, and there's no word at this point to when she'll be back in court.

Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: And some new marching orders for Prince Harry. The head of the British army says he has personally decided that the prince will be deployed to Iraq, but General Sir Richard Dannatt emphasizes that decision will be under constant review up until the time Harry is scheduled to actually head out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. SIR RICHARD DANNATT, BRITISH ARMY: He will deploy. Third, I will, of course, keep that decision continually under review, and if the circumstances are such that I change that decision, I will make a further statement. And fourth, I would urge that the somewhat frenzied media speculation around this issue ends in the interest of the overall security of all our people deployed in Iraq at this time. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And all this comes amid new reports of threats to Harry if and when he goes to Iraq. A British newspaper cited Iraqi militants as warning they will target the prince for kidnapping.

ROESGER: White House Press Secretary Tony Snow is back on the job today after five weeks after announcing his cancer had returned and spread to his liver. Snow says he'll start chemotherapy on Friday to make sure that all the cancer is, in his words, knocked out, and he was optimistic about his treatment on CNN's "American Morning."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It is unbelievable what medical researchers have been able to come up with in recent years, and conditions that used to be incurable are curable now. Conditions that didn't used to be treatable are treatable today, and lots of people with worse conditions than mine that have been living for 20, 30 years by simply dealing with it. They've been leading full and happy lives. And certainly that's what I hope to be doing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROESGER: Well, Dr. Otis Brawley an oncologist at Emory University, is here to talk to us a bit about this. Tony Snow looks good, his color is good, he's 51 years old, is he really accurate when he says people can live 20 to 30 years on chemotherapy?

DR. OTIS BRAWLEY, WINSHIP CANCER INST., EMORY UNIV: Yes, he is accurate and that is true. Many don't, but many do. It's important that a cancer patient have hope. What you're seeing is a great deal of courage and dignity and personal strength on the part of Mr. Snow. That will be helpful to a lot of other patients as well. It's also helpful to the doctors who take care of those patients.

ROESGER: He talked about the prayers, the support, he said if you don't believe in a higher power, I'm here to tell you that prayers work. I know that studies have been done that show that faith does help heal people.

BRAWLEY: That's right, that's absolutely correct. People who maintain some type of hope, some type of faith, do tend to do much better. People who can talk about their disease with other people, focus groups, people who participate in focus groups in breast cancer, for example, talking about the disease do better than people who close themselves away from society and try to become recluses.

ROESGER: Tony Snow had more comments about the chemotherapy treatment. So I want to listen in to a bit more from his statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: In an age like ours, things are happening very rapidly in the medical realm. I'm taking a cancer cocktail this time around, a chemo cocktail, that will contain two agents that were not in broad use two years ago. Things are moving very rapidly, and there's always hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROESGER: Dr. Brawley, he mentions two agents in a chemo cocktail. We've all heard AIDs cocktail, but I hadn't heard of chemo cocktails.

BRAWLEY: In oncology, it started in the 1960s, the idea of mixing several different agencies with different mechanisms of actions, different side effects, trying to get increased bang for the buck or increased activity. We do that now. We have things called fall five-phlox, that's used in colon cancer, and he's undoubtedly talking about those that really weren't available three years ago.

ROESGER: Is this something he's just getting, or can other people get these?

BRAWLEY: These drugs are available virtually throughout the United States. Any major cancer center has them available. This is not within the experimental realm. Back in the late 1990s, the only way one could get them would be in one of the clinical trial at one of the elite cancer centers, but now they've been proven to be useful and are widely available.

ROESGER: He says I plan to start weekly chemotherapy. We assume he will continue to work. How exhausting are the treatments these days? Or is that something we recall about chemotherapy?

BRAWLEY: Well, it will depend on the drugs that people get. When we talk about colon cancer regimens, there are several out there, not just the one he's getting. Generally it is tiring. Some people are able to work through it, and I'll tell you, I really believe that someone who tries to go to work and tries to do their routine activities is actually going to end up doing better than someone who does not. So I applaud what he's doing.

ROESGER: We know it started with colon cancer, but now there's some suggestion it has spread to his liver. Yet Tony Snow, we'll hear another piece of sound, he said it wasn't the liver but attached to the liver.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: I think a lot of people got overly concerned. It is attached to the liver, it is not a liver cancer per se. It is treatable, it is, the way they've described this is not curable, at least by standards, but you never know, given what happens. Some people in fact do have complete remission on this. What we're trying to do is to knock it into remission, turn what used to be a failed disease into a chronic disease, which we will treat with regular chemo for however long we need to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROESGER: So, Dr. Brawley, what do you think he meant by attached to the liver?

BRAWLEY: My suspicion is that he had a metastasis (ph). Some of his colon cancer which had spread from the colon had moved up to and was sitting up on the liver versus being inside the liver. To an oncologist it doesn't matter, it's a colon cancer metastasis area near the liver versus in the liver. The prognosis is the same, the treatment in many respects are exactly the same. He's right, many people do misidentify colon cancer which has spread to the liver as now liver cancer. Liver cancer is a separate and totally different disease. Similarly people will talk about prostate cancer which is spread to the bone as bone cancer. That again is a mislabeling, it's prostate cancer which has spread to the bone, not bone cancer.

ROESGER: He says his prognosis is what he hopes to be total remission. Is that possible?

BRAWLEY: I don't know enough, and if I did, it wouldn't be appropriate for me to actually state. But I can tell you that people who have colon cancer, who have one relapse as he has, some of them do do very very well. Some of them get into a situation where the analogy would be a smoldering fire where every once in a while one needs to get a bit of chemotherapy to put down the disease and then they can go for several years and need to get chemotherapy again. There are people who do very very well once they have relapsed from colon cancer.

ROESGER: And hope for a lot of people all across the country.

BRAWLEY: That's right.

ROESGER: Thanks, Dr. Brawley.

Don?

LEMON: The dropping dollar bringing a flood of bargain hunting tourists to American shores.

Also, this one, from American Idol to under arrest. The charges that landed this former idol finalist in trouble with the law. We'll have that for you straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The stock market, well, judging by the DOW anyway, is at an all-time high, but not so the lowly greenback. The U.S. dollar is taking a pounding against other world currencies, but that's not all bad. Holders of those currencies are itching to spend them, and guess what? They're spending them right here. CNN's Richard Roth takes a look.

(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," but 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 come anyway, but the fact that it was $2 per pound was fantastic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ball drops right here in Times Square.

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've come all the way from London especially with the currency at the moment and made quite a few purchases.

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.

CATHY LIEN, FOREX CAPITAL MARKETS: Exactly unauthorized access, so no one has filmed in here before.

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

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

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

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I bought, shoes, clothing, lots of food.

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

ROTH: Handbags and jewelry are prime targets.

JESSICA HODGES, BLAIR DELMONICO STORE: We have a lot of European customers that come to shop here for the same merchandise at a lesser cost. 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.

(on camera) It's another summer of tourism with record numbers, perhaps as many as 50 million people.

(voice over) 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.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coming up here on your right. Look up, up, up, the Empire State Building.

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Good that they're spending it here. We have some amazing video to tell you about. A lot of videos from our I-Reporters, in fact very valuable information and pictures come from them. One is in Richmond, a train versus an 18-wheeler. This couple was right there as it happened. They took this I-Report for us.

You see that? That train, wow, going right into the side of that 18-wheeler. That's our I-Reporter, Laura Kennedy. She lives on the other side of the track. She and her husband were trying to go home. The driver got out of the cabin of the truck, waved his hands, got back in the cabin, and was in the cabin when the train actually hit. And Laura Kennedy, rather, is on the phone with us. She's on the phone right now and she's going to tell us her experience. You were waiting in that backup, that line right there when this all happened, correct?

VOICE OF LAURA KENNEDY, I-REPORTER: That's correct. We were at the red light when we noticed the truck high centered on the tracks. My husband said there was a train coming, and we had our camera, and I said, I do, and that's when I began taping the footage.

LEMON: You see it hits, Laura, right into the side of that 18- wheeler there, but then the driver you said, was in the cab, and it looks like the cabin pretty much held up?

KENNEDY: Yes, that's correct. Fortunately no one was injured.

LEMON: Tell us when you were sitting there, how long were you there? You saw the driver actually get out for a while? Tell us about that.

KENNDEY: Yes, he got out of the cab, and his was okay and probably a bit shocked. And well, he got out of the cab, and then he got back in, the train hit, and after a few -- about 30 seconds, he came back out of the cab as we were driving by, and he was fine.

LEMON: Do you know if he got out of the cab, was his truck stalled in was it traffic that he was right in the middle of the intersection and couldn't move?

KENNEDY: From our perspective, the grade on the track right there, is pretty high, basically his trailer got stuck on the tracks from our perspective. And he -- I guess he -- he got back into the cab trying to move forward, but he was unable to.

LEMON: Again, you were driving along highway 90 in Richmond right next to the train tracks, and you saw that all unfold. That's our I-Reporter Laura Kennedy. Thank you so much for the I-Report.

KENNEDY: Thank you.

LEMON: You too can be an I-Reporter, just go to CNN.com/ireports, and file your pictures and video. And we want you to stay out of harm's way, but those pictures are certainly good. Many times they're the first people on the scene.

ROESGER: You notice that train never stopped.

LEMON: At least in the video it didn't.

ROESGER: Well, coming up, a little more excitement, but this one on the big screen. We'll check the latest entertainment news after the break, and here with a preview is Sibila Vargas in Los Angeles.

SIBILA VARGAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: That's a tough act to follow, but it is one of the most anticipated movies of the summer, Spiderman 3. I'll go one on one with Tobey Maguire, straight ahead, in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROESGER: Her own web site calls her a spitfire, but former American Idol finalist Jessica Sierra may want to tone it down a little. She was arrested over the weekend for allegedly throwing a heavy glass at a man in a Tampa cafe. She's 21 years old and she was booked on charges of aggravated battery, cocaine possession and bringing contraband into a jail. She's free now on bond. She was a top ten finisher on American Idol back in 2005.

LEMON: Well, since the first two Spiderman flicks had record openings, you better believe lots, expect it from Spiderman 3. This report from Sibila Vargas, who got to sit down with spiedy himself.

VARGAS: Sure did.

LEMON: It looks like you are wearing your spiedy top, there.

VARGAS: You noticed! The webbing here. Yes.

LEMON: It's all coordinated.

VARGAS: Even before I started my interview, he warned me he wasn't the best of interviews. He's kind of quiet. This is a guy that dealt with his parents divorce at a very young age, he dropped out of high school and was even in rehab before he was 21-years-old. Last November he became a first-time dad and gave me some more insight into his troubled past.

The thing about super heroes, they show us they go through insurmountable odds at times and we do as people. That's what your character is going through right now. Have you ever felt that way?

TOBY MAGUIRE, ACTOR: Well, not quite like that. I've definitely made my share of mistakes, but never with the types of consequences or stakes that Peter Parker faces.

VARGAS: We've all experienced, you know, tragedy or someone trying to put us down. We look at Tobey Maguire as this super hero and this guy that has it all. Have you yourself gone through things that you've had to get through? And how did you get through it?

MAGUIRE: I've definitely been through, you know, challenging times. I think it's okay to be hurt or to experience emotional things, but you can't allow that to, like, sedate you or keep you down. You have to walk through things.

VARGAS: Well, it certainly seemed like there's a bit of a parallel with your character and almost in your life. This is a new beginning for you in your way. You've got your child and --

MAGUIRE: Right.

VARGAS: How are you feeling? How is life right now?

MAGUIRE: For me, life is great. I'm excited about this movie coming out, so it's a lot of fun, promoting the film and, you know, life with my fiancee and my baby girl is just great, you know. I just can't, it's what everybody says. It's that indescribable amazing experience that everybody talks about.

VARGAS: Someday she'll know you're playing Spiderman. Do you think about that?

MAGUIRE: I know. But it's like I have two little brothers who have been there for all three films and, you know, they're sweet. They're the greatest kids, but they're kind of blase about the film. I'm like, what did you think? Thinking they'll get all jazzed, and they're like, yes, yes, it's cool, whatever.

VARGAS: And Spiderman 3 makes its debut tonight. I've already seen the movie and fans will not be disappointed. We'll have more on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT.

And tonight, an emotional interview with Miss America, she tells us about her daring undercover mission to catch child sex predators. And it's only on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT, 11:00 p.m. eastern and pacific on Headline Prime. Back to you, Don.

LEMON: Sibila, the spiedy top is a big hit in the control room.

VARGAS: All right.

LEMON: Listen, we'll be watching. Have a great show tonight.

VARGAS: All right.

ROESGER: Well, first the big apple, now Boston, another major city is squirming with vermin. Well go on the rat control in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

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