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U.S. Forces on a Daily Mission to Root Out Insurgents; President Bush Breaking Bread and Mending Fences

Aired June 12, 2007 - 09:00   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 are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins. Good morning to you, everybody.

Watch events coming to the NEWSROOM live on this Tuesday morning. It's June 12. Here's what's on the rundown. Reviving immigration reform. President Bush heads to the Hill hoping to jump start key legislation.

HARRIS: It is a deadly cat and mouse game. U.S. forces on a daily mission to root out insurgents. We are with the troops had the gunfire goes off.

COLLINS: And water, water everywhere. But none to save this house. Flooding hits Oklahoma. We are watching for more severe weather today in the NEWSROOM.

President Bush breaking bread and mending fences. Today he heads to Capitol Hill for lunch with Republican senators. On the menu, lobbying support for his immigration reforms.

CNN's Kathleen Koch is at the White House now. Does the president, Kathleen, stand a chance of actually changing any minds on the Hill today?

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Heidi, it is going to be very tough. He's obviously right now a lame duck president. Roughly 18 months left in his presidency. His approval ratings hovering in the low 30s. So he does not have a lot of political capital left to spend. But he's going up there to Capitol Hill and because he believes in this bill. He believes immigration reform is important. Not just to the country but to him as part of his legacy and as president.

The White House is claiming this morning to be optimistic. Press secretary Tony Snow, busy spinning last week's vote on the bill. Not as a defeat but simply a sign that Republican senators wanted more time to suggest improvements to the immigration reform measure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It is possible to kind of overinterpret what happened in that cloture vote what. What now is going to happen, we think, is that Senate Republicans are going to get together on a series of amendments and they are going to present them to Harry Reid who has given us the belief that he will go ahead and permit that debate after they finish debating an energy bill that comes up today. And if that's the case we are confident it is going to pass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Many Senate conservatives, needless to say, have doubts about that. They firmly believe that the immigration reform measure is tantamount to giving amnesty to the roughly 12 million illegally in the United States. In fact, one Republican senator this morning had very blunt words for the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS, (R) AL: I think the president is wrong to push this piece of legislation so hard after we have demonstrated the flaws in it. He needs to back off. He needs to help us write a better bill and not push a bill that so many of us can't support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOCH: Shortly after noon, President Bush will head toward Capitol Hill. This marks only the second time in his presidency that he has joined Republican senators for their weekly policy lunch. But many believe his efforts today, Heidi, simply are too little, too late.

COLLINS: Well, what are the chances then, Kathleen, that Democrats will actually bring the immigration bill up for a vote again? It feels like a dumb question now.

KOCH: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says right now that's just not going to happen.

COLLINS: Right.

KOCH: Unless the president can get more Republicans to sign on to the bill. He sent a letter to the president, Reid, saying, quote, "It will take stronger leadership by you to ensure the opponents of the bill do not block its path forward."

And Heidi, some, though, see that as the Democrats basically positioning the president to take the blame if immigration reform dies.

COLLINS: Yes. All right. Well, Kathleen Koch standing outside the White House for us. We know you will continue to watch this one for us.

KOCH: I shall.

COLLINS: All right.

Next hour we will go to Capitol Hill and check in with congressional correspondent Dana Bash, who is expected at the meeting and how much arm twisting can they really expect. That's coming up next hour right here on the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Role reversal. The prosecutor becomes a defendant in North Carolina. A trial begins next hour for Mike Nifong, the Durham County district attorney. He's the man who prosecuted members of the Duke University lacrosse team rape charges. Those charges later dropped. The North Carolina bar has charged Nifong with ethics violations. If convicted he could be disbarred. Two of the three players once charged are expected to attend today's session.

COLLINS: A tragedy unfolding in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania this hour. Authorities say five mall children are children after a house fire. The children ranged from two to seven years old. Two other kids were taken to the hospital. Authorities say as many as 12 people may have been living in the three-story home. No word yet on how the fire may have started.

HARRIS: A deadly strategy intensifies in Iraq. Insurgents blowing up bridges, three U.S. soldiers died in this attack. Today another explosion targets a bridge south of Baghdad. It is the third attack in as many days. And it comes as the U.S. deputy secretary state visits Baghdad. Live now to our Paula Hancocks in the capital city. Paula, good morning to you. What is John Negroponte's message to the Iraqi prime minister?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, he's really just the latest in a series of officials that have been sent over from Washington to come and meet Nouri al Maliki. The prime minister here in Iraq. And try and push him into more reforms. Push him into more agreement between his fractious coalition government.

Now, certainly what he had been talking about in that meeting is asking him to try to push for laws to decide on oil revenue sharing. Something that has split his government so far. Also on constitutional reforms. And also, most significantly to try and bring some of the disillusioned Sunni minority back into the government. This de-Baathfication process as it is being called.

Now what the about behind that is U.S. politicians are hoping if insurgents (ph) are invited to the political table maybe they will put down their arms.

Now, certainly over the past few weeks and months we have seen many officials coming through to try and give the same message and certainly we know that in Congress, there has been some arguments about this 30,000 extra troops on the ground. But Bush has been pushing this saying that if they get some stability on the ground, this will give Maliki the breathing room he needs to try and push through these political reforms. Tony?

HARRIS: Paula, but if Nouri al Maliki could have moved the parliament, wouldn't he have done it by now? Can't even seem to get them to show up for work on time.

HANCOCKS: Well, this is the main argument, it is how much power does Nouri al Maliki have and how much control does he actually have over his government. Certainly it is a fractious government. It is a coalition. There are Kurds, there are Sunnis, there are Shiites within this particular government. And each side, they have its own desires and has its own goals.

So certainly many of the critics have been saying that if he has not been able to get some kind of accommodation between all of the sides, at this point then will he be able to in the future? But certainly that's what John Negroponte has been here for today.

HARRIS: CNN's Paula Hancock for us in Baghdad. Paula, thank you.

COLLINS: Going for a goal, not quite making. The Army falls short of its recruiting target for May. New statistics tell a story, the Army signed up 5,100 recruits last month while aiming for 5,500. It is the first major recruiting drop in two years. The army says it is still on track to meet its goal of 80,000 for the full fiscal year.

HARRIS: What do you say we get a check of weather now? Jacqui Jeras with us. Hey, great to get some rain in the Atlanta area yesterday. Last evening.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: Oh, yes, very true.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Oh yes. I had an unhappy pilot last night.

COLLINS: Ooh. She is married to one of those. All right. Thanks so much, Jacqui.

Fallout now in the case involving globetrotting TB patient Andrew Speaker. The border agent who ignored a warning to stop Speaker at the U.S.-Canadian boarder is no longer with the agency.

The Department of Homeland Security says he put in for early retirement. The unnamed agent was already administrative leave while his actions were under investigation. Officials said he waved Speaker across the border because he did not appear sick. As you know, Speaker is infected with a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis.

HARRIS: A $54 million pair of pants. That's right, a Washington man heading to court this morning and his lawsuit against the dry cleaner. Roy Pearson is suing the owners of Custom Cleaners over what he claims is false and misleading advertising. He says signs are posted and the business claimed satisfaction guaranteed and same-day service. Then Pearson's pants allegedly were lost. Pearson, who is an administrative law judge at first was seeking $67 million in his lawsuit.

COLLINS: Fighting a guerilla war. U.S. forces battle fatigue and insurgents in Baquba. Details ahead in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: FEMA trailers trashed from the inside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They took the toilet?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They took the shower controls. It looks like they started trying to take the tub out and decided not to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Trailers used and abused by Hurricane Katrina victims. A surprising look ahead in the NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: A longer mission and a longer to-do list. More tool time for the Atlantis astronauts. We'll show you the pictures coming up in the NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: Taking aim at texters. More states working on laws to stop drivers from using their thumbs for something other than driving. Ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: An investigation is under way into an apparently friendly fire incident in Afghanistan. Officials there said U.S.-led forces killed seven Afghan police. It happened late yesterday in the eastern Nangahar province. The U.S. military says coalition and Afghan troops came under fire as they were heading to a suspected Taliban safe house, the coalition return fire and called in air support when it was over, seven Afghan police were dead. Five wounded. A spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai is calling it a tragic incident. He blames it on a lack of communication.

COLLINS: Hurricane Katrina victims back in their homes. Left behind all those FEMA trailers. Temporary homes now trashed.

CNN's David Mattingly takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hundreds of empty FEMA trailers parked side by side. Endless rows of aluminum boxes, baking in the sun. We have seen these pictures before. But have you never seen FEMA trailers like this.

(on camera): Is that what I think it is?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bullet holes.

MATTINGLY: Bullet holes?

(voice-over): These trailers are trashed and vandalized. Many apparently by victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita who once lived inside. Purchased at taxpayer expense for $18,000 or more, FEMA officials say nearly 10 percent of them came back unfit to use again.

DON JACKS, FEMA: We wonder why people would then cause excess damage to the place that they had been given to live in. And sometimes we just don't know. MATTINGLY: FEMA says its trailers are inspected every 90 days. But apparently a lot can happen between inspections.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This one they -- they just took everything.

MATTINGLY: At a FEMA storage site near Houston, manager Josh Davis (ph) shows us how thoroughly someone stripped and looted their former home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The couch, all the lights, smoke detectors, vent covers.

MATTINGLY: Almost everything was gone but the kitchen sink.

(on camera): They took the toilet?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They took the shower controls. It looks like they started trying to take the tub out and decided not to.

MATTINGLY: So what happens to the people who ruin these trailers? Paid for by your tax dollars. Chances are absolutely nothing. In most cases, even if the trailer is completely unusable, the government usually decides it is just not worth going after the person who trashed it.

JACKS: The cost of prosecution far outweighs the value of either the trailer or the value of the damage or what we could get from the person who was living in that trailer.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Keeping them honest, we wanted to find out just how many trailer trashers have been punished. Calls to state prosecutors to Texas and Louisiana reveal they have taken no one to court. And neither the U.S. Justice Department nor the office of inspector general for homeland security could say for sure if they were working on any cases. As for the trailers, they simply go up for auction on a government Web site.

JACKS: Putting them on the auction and receiving a third, maybe even as -- a half of what was originally paid for the trailer.

MATTINGLY (on camera): Some of these trailers don't get that much, do they?

JACKS: And I can't answer that because I have not looked at every trailer that has been sold on the website, I have checked it and I'm seeing trailers that the bids are 1/4 of what they sold for new. One half of what they sold for new.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Checking auctions in progress on line, we found one damaged trailer with a single bid of only $601. And with losses per ruined trailer potentially reaching the thousands, the cost to the taxpayer is adding up.

David Mattingly, CNN, Jasper Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRIS: The immigration debate beyond the halls of Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do need a large work force. Legal, illegal, that is irrelevant. We need a large work force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Farming communities search for a willing work force. That story ahead in the NEWSROOM.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And it is turning out to be the worst year in 13 years for air travel when it comes to delays. I will have had a story for you when we come back in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COLLINS: Driving to distraction. Many states cracked down on cell phone users. Well, now, text messaging is under attack. One state already has passed a law. Washington where they call it DWT, driving while texting.

HARRIS: That's a ...

COLLINS: Starting next year, that will get you a $101 fine. For other states have bills pending, too. New Jersey, New York, Oregon and California. California's law would specifically target teenagers.

HARRIS: When it comes to flight delays this year is shaping up to be the worst ever to hit the nation's air traffic system. Making for many furious passengers this summer travel season. Look who is back, Heidi. Look who is back.

COLLINS: Ahh. Hi, Ali.

HARRIS: Ali has been out doing his own traveling.

VELSHI: Good to see you both. I think I have been on about eight flights in the last seven days. All over the world. And you know, I have had some of those flight delays. My last flight yesterday was a 14-hour flight. It got off late and they make up for the time.

Most folks travel one or two hour flights. Friday - and I know you were reporting on this -- turned out to be the worst day so far for flight delays. We have got some pictures of folks camping out at O'Hare Airport.

HARRIS: Yes! Yes!

VELSHI: I mean, that's crazy. We got the stats on the airlines and how they did on Friday in terms of on-time arrivals which is really what matters. Are you getting there on time? Take a look at this list. U.S. Airways way down there. Thirty six percent of flights arrived on time. And then the rest of them, between 57 and 69 percent on time. This is turning out to be the worst year in 13 years for flight on time.

HARRIS: Ali, as I look at that list, there I see one, two, three, four, five, six, seven airlines there. How about a little consolidation? We have been talking about this for years that perhaps the best thing for the airline business, for that industry, would be a little bit of consolidation.

VELSHI: You know, we have got a few issues going on here. There are a lot of airlines and not only are there a lot of airlines, you know ...

HARRIS: Big and small!

VELSHI: Big and small. You have got weather delays, obviously, every summer. Although we are not really into summer yet. But here's the thing. These airlines are reducing the planes that fly these short routes and they keep the big planes for very, very profitable longer routes. You will notice on a lot of flights -- I have been taking flights to Houston a lot in the last year. You are on a little regional jet. You are not on a proper plane for a flight from New York to Houston.

The other thing you talk about, small airlines. There are a whole bunch of private jets out there and there are apparently 8,000 private jets in the U.S. and it is about the same number of commercial jets there are. And it takes the same amount of air traffic control work, Tony, to land a jet with 250 people on it as it does to land one with six people on it.

HARRIS: So where do we go from here? I'm thinking about this. As a traveler. You would love to be able to use that system. It is a great way to get around the country. My goodness, you don't want the headaches, you don't want the hassles and you don't want the lost bags, you don't want any of that mess.

VELSHI: Then that doesn't count security and all the other concerns. I have really taken to getting to the airport really, really early. And it has gotten to the point where I have vacation time I don't want to be flying somewhere. This is a very -- air travel is way up this year. The prices are still - they are starting to creep up because of all of that demand. It is going to be tough. I mean, it is really worth ...

HARRIS: But help me here. The industry is working on this. Oh, boy.

VELSHI: Good question. It's a good question. It is not the first year we have seen delays. This news only seems to go in one direction, Tony.

HARRIS: That's right. Ali Velshi. Great to have you back. Good to see you. Have a great day.

VELSHI: Good to see you.

COLLINS: An important ruling on enemy combatants dealing a blow to the Bush administration. We get more now from CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The U.S. cannot keep residents accused of being terrorists locked up indefinitely on U.S. soil, an appeals court panel says. It is a big setback for the Bush administration's war on terror and the Justice Department is already asking for a review. At issue, the case of Ali al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar and legal resident of the U.S. held in solitary confinement as an enemy combatant in a South Carolina military brig.

The government has accused him of being a sleeper agent. In a two to one ruling a Richmond, Virginia, appeals panel said the government cannot subject al-Marri to indefinite military detention. For in the United States, the military cannot seize and imprison civilians let alone imprison them indefinitely. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says that the Justice Department will ask the full appeals court to reconsider the decision.

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I would remind you this is an individual that was in the training -- Osama bin Laden's training camp in 2001. Met with KSM and we believe is a dangerous individual. But again, we will seek rehearing.

MESERVE: Al-Marri's lawyer, on the other hand, says his client is extremely gratified by the ruling which the lawyer characterized as rejecting the president's position he can treat the world as a battlefield and detain individuals without charge or trial.

The controversial U.S. detention policies for terror suspects have been dealt several recent setbacks. Just last week two judges at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility ruled that the cases of two enemy combatants being held there could not go forward. That decision is being appealed by the military.

When former secretary of state Colin Powell was asked if he close Guantanamo tomorrow, he said that was not quick enough. He could close it this afternoon.

Jeanne Meserve, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Curving a new life. A former homeless man finds a calling and the pope gets a present. The story in THE NEWSROOM.

COLLINS: Fighting a guerrilla war. U.S. forces battle fatigue and insurgents in Baquba. Details ahead in the NEWSROOM.

JERAS: And stormy weather means travel delays at the airport. We will let you know where to expect trouble. That's coming up with your travelers' advisory forecast.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(STOCK MARKET REPORT) TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: OK, the bottom of the hour.

Good morning again, everyone.

I'm Tony Harris.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Heidi Collins.

It's been a month now and two U.S. soldiers who were ambushed at a military post south of Baghdad are still missing. Specialists Alex Jiminez and Private Brian Fouty disappeared after the attack, along with Private First Class Joseph Anzack. Anzack's body was discovered in a river south of Baghdad late last month. Four other U.S. troops and an Iraqi soldier were killed in the ambush.

HARRIS: Iraq's urban warfare -- day after day, door to door searches for insurgents.

CNN's Karl Penhaul is with U.S. troops in Baquba.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They've done this a thousand times before, but it doesn't seem to get any easier.

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SOLDIER: So you don't see no Ali Baba running around the streets?

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SOLDIER: No one.

PENHAUL: The same question as always, but few clear answers.

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SOLDIER: We're just doing a routine check here, homey.

PENHAUL: It's around dawn and these U.S. soldiers have been scouring old Baqubah's twisted alleys for hours.

Their target?

Al Qaeda militants.

Iraqi soldiers are out with the Americans.

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SOLDIER: Put your astronauts into it.

PENHAUL: Today, at least, some of the soldiers feel the Iraqis aren't pulling their weight. Mid-morning, fatigue sets in. And so far the platoon has come up with nothing -- neither guns nor gunmen.

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SOLDIER: It's hit or miss. Some days we find a lot, some days we don't.

PENHAUL: Then the rattle of gunfire. Insurgents pop up close to a mosque and open fire on another platoon.

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SOLDIER: They've got four or five guys on different rooftops.

PENHAUL (on camera): Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SOLDIER: Pop a few shots at us. If we can't get them pinpointed, they keep it up. If we get them pinpointed, they start hopping rooftops.

PENHAUL (voice-over): Stryker fighting vehicles maneuver down in the street below us. A radio crackles the bad news.

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SOLDIER: And (UNINTELLIGIBLE) called up and said (UNINTELLIGIBLE) called up a new report. One guy in the stroller (UNINTELLIGIBLE). The other guy was blocking.

PENHAUL: One U.S. soldier is killed, two others wounded. And down below, a wounded Iraqi calls out for medical help. That's the nature of Iraq's guerrilla war -- the American advance bulked down by a handful of insurgent gunmen.

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SOLDIER: It's kind of like a crap shoot. Some days you get lucky, some days you don't.

PENHAUL: An Apache helicopter swoops in and unleashes a Hellfire missile. There's no indication it killed militants. The Strykers try to conceal their movements with a curtain of smoke and soldiers scurry across exposed terrain.

(on camera): However long U.S. soldiers spend on the ground here, the insurgents remain the masters of the streets and alleys, choosing when to fight and when to melt away.

(voice-over): Soldiers hole up in an abandoned building and wait for dark.

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SOLDIER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) shooting (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED U.S. SOLDIER: Yes. This is called the witching hour.

PENHAUL: But like a thousand times before, the insurgents had slipped away. Tonight was not their night to stand and fight.

Karl Penhaul, CNN, Baquba, Iraq.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COLLINS: President Bush back in Washington and back on the stump. Today, his diplomatic mission merely travels down the street to Capitol Hill. But he faces a world of resistance from his own party. He's having lunch with Republican senators so he can lobby support for his immigration reforms. The measure is considered one of the president's top priorities. But it stalled last week amid stiff opposition from fellow Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY SNOW, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: What they didn't like last week was that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wanted to cut off debate so that a number of Republicans who had amendments they wanted to propose didn't get to have their hearing before the United States Senate. So, you know, it's -- it's possible to over interpret what happened in that cloture vote.

What now is going to happen, we think, is that Senate Republicans are going to get together on a series of amendments, they're going to present them to Harry Reid, who has given us the belief that he will go ahead and permit that debate after they finish debating an energy bill that comes up today. And if that's the case, we're confident it's going to pass.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Some key Republicans sharply oppose the measure because they say it provides amnesty to immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally.

The immigration debate beyond the halls of Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ED MURRAY, LINDSAY, CALIFORNIA: We do need a large workforce. Being illegal or legal, that's irrelevant. We need a large work force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Farming communities search for a willing work force -- that story coming your way in THE NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: And Senate Democrats lose a round to Alberto Gonzales. Republicans block a no confidence resolution, though many have doubts about the embattled attorney general. CNN Congressional correspondent Dana Bash has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BASH (voice-over): The Democrats' one sentence resolution was simple and straightforward: "It is the sense of the Senate that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales no longer holds the confidence of the Senate and of the American people."

SEN. KENT CONRAD (D), NORTH DAKOTA: This attorney general needs to leave his office. He has tainted his office.

BASH: In the end, the resolution failed. But even in defeat, there was a troubling political warning for President Bush.

Seven Republican senators, including the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee agreed, breaking ranks with the White House.

SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R), PENNSYLVANIA: Have I lost confidence in Attorney General Gonzales?

Absolutely, yes.

BASH: Most Republicans do have deep reservations about Gonzales' ability to lead the Justice Department in the wake of the fired federal prosecutors' controversy and Gonzales' trouble answering Congress' questions about it.

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES: I don't recall specifically...

I don't recall ever saying...

I don't recall whether or not I made the decision that...

BASH: But most Republicans, even those who want Gonzales' out, were against the no confidence resolution, calling it a meaningless Democratic stunt.

SEN. TRENT LOTT (R-MS), MINORITY WHIP: We ought to summarily punt this out into the back field where it belongs. This is beneath the dignity of the Senate.

GONZALES: I'm not focusing on what the Senate is doing. I'm going to be focusing on what the people expect of the attorney general of the United States.

BASH: Speaking to reporters in Miami, the attorney general still showed no sign of going anywhere after he got yet another boost from his boss.

GEORGE BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'll make the determination if I think he's effective or not, not, you know, not those who are using an opportunity to make a political statement on a -- on a meaningless resolution.

BASH (on camera): What may be most telling about the debate over this no confidence measure is that no Republicans, not even President Bush's most loyal allies, came to the defense of his attorney general.

Dana Bash, CNN, Capitol Hill.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COLLINS: The dragnet for escaped convict Kelly Frank widens. He's the man once accused of plotting to kidnap David Letterman's young son. Frank and another inmate escaped from a Montana prison Friday while on a work detail.

The search now more intense because authorities believe the fugitive may have a weapon. Local authorities say they are getting help from the Feds, who've provided a Blackhawk helicopter. They're also using all terrain vehicles and a dog. HARRIS: So, a lot of weather out there, which means flight delays, some other issues. Jacqui Jeras is following it all for us there in the Severe Weather Center -- good morning, Jacqui.

JACQUI JERAS, ATS METEOROLOGIST: Hey, good morning, guys.

(WEATHER REPORT)

COLLINS: A humble beginning to a place of honor at the Vatican -- a former homeless man, the president and the pope. We make the connection for you, coming up in THE NEWSROOM.

COMMERCIAL

HARRIS: OK, we are pod casting today.

Join us, won't you, 9:00 until 12:00 weekday mornings?

You're with us. We've got that covered.

(INAUDIBLE).

But here's the thing. You can take us with you anywhere right there on your iPod. The CNN NEWSROOM pod cast. That's what we call it. It is available to you 24/7 right on your iPod.

Join us today.

COLLINS: Thirty Texas National Guard soldiers accused of running an immigrant smuggling ring. Prosecutors say border agents found 24 illegal immigrants inside a van that one of the Guardsmen was driving. The three are charged with conspiring to transport illegal immigrants.

The soldiers were deployed as part of the Bush administration's Operation Jump Start program, designed to strengthen border controls. The Texas National Guard is still considering whether to charge them under military law.

HARRIS: The immigration debate at the local level -- a community courting legal and illegal immigrants with taxpayer money.

CNN's Thelma Gutierrez takes a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP FROM RUSH LIMBAUGH TALK SHOW)

ANNOUNCER: Rush on the E.I.B. Network.

RUSH LIMBAUGH, HOST: If this immigration bill goes through, we are doomed.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

THELMA GUTIERREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ed Murray listens to Rush Limbaugh every single day. (BEGIN AUDIO CLIP FROM RUSH LIMBAUGH TALK SHOW)

LIMBAUGH: We're treating the illegals as though we are doing something wrong, as though... (END AUDIO CLIP)

GUTIERREZ: Murray is the Republican mayor of Lindsay, California.

MURRAY: I'm a member of the NRA. I'm definitely very conservative.

GUTIERREZ: But Murray says he and Rush part ways on one big issue -- immigration. Lindsay is a rural farming community three hours north of L.A. A national group voted it an all-American city. That doesn't sit well with some people because 80 percent of the people here are Latino -- some here legally, some here illegally. Unlike most of his fellow conservatives, Mayor Murray will tell you immigrants are welcome here.

MURRAY: They have made Lindsay's economy. They have made the economy we have. They've made our -- our city to be a robust city.

GUTIERREZ: That's because Lindsay's economy is all about agriculture, mostly oranges and olives. The mayor and growers say immigrant laborers are the city's lifeblood.

MURRAY: We do need a large workforce, be it illegal or legal, that's irrelevant. We need a large workforce.

GUTIERREZ: Some say that's just breaking the law.

JOHN KEELEY, CENTER FOR IMMIGRATION STUDIES: If the only way you can exist is on the backs of illegal labor, you don't deserve to do business in our country.

GUTIERREZ: John Keeley is with a Washington think tank. He says growers would attract Americans if they just paid more.

KEELEY: I would say that they've tried to recruit native workers, precisely because U.S. immigration policy has delivered a labor subsidy.

JAY WEAVER, PACKING PLANT MANAGER: Somebody in the city that never sees a tree, hardly, they don't know what's going on here. You know, they don't know the issues we're facing.

GUTIERREZ: The mayor says ads like this, offering jobs with health and retirement plans, have brought no permanent takers. The Lobue Packing House flew in workers from Thailand two years ago, an experiment that failed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Their performance was so abysmal that we canceled the whole program. GUTIERREZ: Then came the devastating winter freeze this year that wiped out more than $400 million in orange crops in Tulare County alone.

(on camera): After the winter freeze, the city leaders worried the farm workers would leave the town of Lindsay, so they came up with city jobs to keep them employed through the next harvest.

(voice-over): Repairing alleys, building the new football field and maintaining public land. Albert Salaz is an orange picker who was able to stay, thanks to the extra work.

ALBERT SALAZ, FIELD WORKER (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): I wouldn't be able to pay my rent or bills, so I would have to leave.

GUTIERREZ: Murray says state money pays for his public works program and immigration enforcement is up to the federal government.

(on camera): Some of the people who work on your public works project may be illegal.

MURRAY: It's possible. When a person comes across and has the proper documentation, is it our responsibility to go back and say is this a legal card or not a legal card?

GUTIERREZ: Is it not your responsibility?

MURRAY: No, it's not.

GUTIERREZ (voice-over): Murray says America's immigration policy is broken because it makes it hard for people to put in a good day's work.

MURRAY: These people don't want a free handout. They want to work. They want to get ahead.

GUTIERREZ: The mayor says hard work is a core conservative value he believes in, even if it takes him down a different road from his beloved party.

Thelma Gutierrez, CNN, Lindsay, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: A new tactic in the fight for Iraq -- blowing up bridges. In a divided country, it's just another degree of separation. Battle strategy ahead in the NEWSROOM.

COMMERCIAL

HARRIS: Playing it safe -- the Atlantis astronauts will be making a fix and spending more time in space.

Here's CNN space correspondent, Miles O'Brien.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nine turns and a reminder of the caution (ph).

MILES O'BRIEN, SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Atlantis space walkers were still hard at work in orbit when they got the word there are more items on their to do list.

JOHN SHANNON, DEPUTY SHUTTLE PROGRAM MANAGER: We think you're going to have some damage on the structural top layer if you don't go off and fix this.

O'BRIEN: Deputy Shuttle Manager John Shannon is talking about this -- a turned up thermal blanket, leaving a four by six inch triangle exposed to the elements near the orbiter's tail. Shannon has decided to have a space walker push it down and attach it.

(on camera): Here's a little piece of the blanket material. Notice it has a memory. If you lift it up, it stays up. Push it back down and it lays flat. So the repairs should be relatively easy.

It's located here, the front part of this hump, just to the left of the tail of the shuttle. Temperatures here during reentry range between 700 and 1,000 degrees -- nowhere near the hot spots like the leading edge of the wing, where temperatures on reentry approach 3,000 degrees.

(voice-over): Over the years, several shuttles have returned home safely with heat shield damage in the same area as the loose blanket. In fact, during the first shuttle mission, Columbia lost 16 heat resistant tiles there. And that crew, of course, had a happy landing.

But this is a new era for NASA. In February of 2003, Columbia disintegrated as it returned to Earth, killing the crew of seven. One of the hot spots -- the leading edge of the wing -- was fatally breached by a piece of falling foam shortly after launch. Since then, NASA has mandated a series of in-orbit inspections of a shuttle's skin.

As it approached the Space Station on Sunday, Atlantis performed the now routine back flip maneuver to allow the station crew to take some high resolution pictures of the shuttle heat shield. They show protruding gap fillers between tiles, but none are serious enough to cause worry.

SHANNON: And what you're seeing is this thread has gotten hit by aerodynamic forces and has pushed up just a little bit. So, really, it's -- there's no impact to us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no change.

O'BRIEN: Shuttle managers also decided to extend this mission by two days and add another space walk. It's unclear which day the astronauts will tuck in the blanket, as mission control has all sorts of other station construction projects in store for them. Miles O'Brien, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COLLINS: The tables are turned -- the D.A. In the Duke lacrosse case goes on trial himself. Live pictures there from Raleigh, North Carolina. We'll have some insight, too, from our senior legal analyst coming up in THE NEWSROOM.

COMMERCIAL

COLLINS: President Bush -- he received a hero's welcome abroad, but facing perhaps a chillier reception today from his own party -- a rare visit to Capitol Hill. And a preview ahead in THE NEWSROOM.

HARRIS: He is a ninth grade dropout and was once homeless. Now a Texas man has gotten the attention of the pope and the president.

KDAF's Michael Rey the story.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

MICHAEL REY, KDAF-TV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These steps lead to a tiny East Dallas apartment where a gift presented to the pope was made by hand. Once homeless, Roosevelt Wilkerson now lives here. It's where he dons a protective glove, puts on his glasses and begins to rough out his works of art.

He carves walking sticks by hand, inscribing each of them with the Ten Commandments.

ROOSEVELT WILKERSON, WALKING STICK CARVER: God gave me a year U.N. z). I want to get back to the world, OK U.N. z)?

REY: Years ago, he dreamed of making one for the pope.

WILKERSON: It would be an honor to give a pope one of my sticks. I didn't tell no one -- my wife or nobody.

REY: This weekend, his dream came true when President Bush made the presentation at the Vatican.

BUSH: It's from a homeless man. (UNINTELLIGIBLE). Oh, it's nice. (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

REY (on camera): Mr. Wilkerson has a church friend who attended school here at SMU with Laura Bush. Thus, a connection was made. The next thing you know, a stick is on its way to the pope via the president.

(voice-over): Wilkerson keeps close a signed picture from the first lady and the president, thanking him for two walking sticks he made for them. The pope's and the president's are very much like the one that Wilkerson carved and keeps for himself -- but not quite.

WILKERSON: Ain't nobody has got anything like it. That's the only one right here. That's the only one.

REY: The red coloring makes it different. Wilkerson carried through on a vision to complete this stick.

WILKERSON: For real, I mean, to me, (UNINTELLIGIBLE) to the world, you know?

REY: Working by a single bulb, he helps send forth a message about the light of the world.

In Dallas, Michael Rey, CW-33, news at 9:00.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

COLLINS: Good morning, everyone, I'm Heidi Collins.

HARRIS: And I'm Tony Harris.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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