Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Bush Lobbies for Immigration Reform; Iraqi Insurgents Targeting Bridges; Solar Arrays Unfurled at Space Station

Aired June 12, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CO-HOST: Lunchtime at the Capitol. President Bush stops by to try to make immigration reform a little more appetizing for his fellow Republicans.
T.J. HOLMES, CO-HOST: We're going to chew on the prospects in politics with CNN's Dana Bash, on the Hill, and our Bill Schneider. We'll serve up a heaping, helping bunch of poll numbers.

You can tell we're hungry here today. I'm T.J. Holmes in for Don Lemon at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia.

PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

HOLMES: Yes, this is happening right now. President Bush making a rare appearance on Capitol Hill: eating lunch, bending ears and maybe twisting some arms.

Immigration is one of the top priorities of his presidency, and he has to lobby his own party to try to keep it alive. He's trying to push GOP senators to put immigration reform back on the front burner.

Dana Bash is there.

Hello to you, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, T.J.

Well, we did just did see the president arrive about 15 minutes or so. He first came to Capitol Hill and had a separate meeting with the Republican leadership privately, maybe to have a little bit of a huddle about just what the strategy will be before he goes into the larger meeting, the lunch meeting with the entire Republican Caucus in the Senate.

And the reason why he would have to do something like that is because of the challenge that he is facing, as we speak in that meeting, in that lunch meeting, T.J.

And that is he is somebody who used to have, certainly, a lot of influence with the Republicans here on Capitol Hill and just doesn't simply have that kind of influence anymore, especially on this issue. This issue of immigration, where many in the conservative base has been pressing very hard, conservative senators here, Republican senators here, that they simply do not like this bill, because they say it gives what they call amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.

So what President Bush, we're told, is he's going to try to do listen to the senators, listen to their concerns, but also make the case that he really feels that this is absolutely urgent to get this done.

Now, the interesting thing is that he is only talking to Republicans, T.J. But this is not just a Republican problem, if you will. It is a problem, a procedural problem with the Republicans and the Democratic leadership.

That is why this particular very controversial bill essentially stalled last week, because of a fight over whether or not opponents on both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, would get a chance to offer more and more amendments, or chances to change what they don't like, the many things they don't like about this bill, T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Dana, before we let you go then, tell us, are Republicans going into this open-minded at all? Plenty are against the immigration reform bill. But are they going in, at least, open-minded for a chance of compromise, adding some amendments, changing things? Or they -- are they just to the point they don't want to be persuaded at all?

BASH: Well, you know, the Republican leader yesterday, Mitch McConnell, said to reporters, "Look, there are not very many undecided Republicans." And he really lowered expectations as to what could happen.

As a matter of fact, we have a sound bite from a Republican, Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama. He is certainly -- has been a staunch opponent of this immigration bill. But listen to what he said about what he expects to hear or maybe what he doesn't want to hear from the president in this meeting going on now. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: I think the president is wrong to push this piece of legislation so hard after we've demonstrated the flaws that are 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)

BASH: There you hear a Republican senator. Now granted, a very staunch opponent, as I said, of this immigration bill, but this is a Republican who had been a reliable Bush ally, telling the president to back off when it comes to his pushing Congress to get this bill done. That really does tell you a lot about the kind of things the president is facing inside that lunch as we speak, T.J.

HOLMES: Woo, telling the president to back off. All right. We'll see what happens here. Dana Bash, thank you so much.

BASH: Thank you.

HOLMES: And we are expecting the president to make some brief comments when he does get done with that luncheon, and we will bring those to you when they have them.

PHILLIPS: So are you as divided over immigration reform as the people you elect? Let's crunch the latest poll numbers with our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider.

So Bill, how important do you think it is to Americans right now at this point to get immigration reform this year?

BILL SCHNEIDER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the president said it's a matter of utmost urgency. Does it appear that way to Americans?

Well, the Pew Research Center asked in a poll, is it essential to revise immigration laws this year? Fifty percent of Americans said yes, that's fairly important. But it's not an overwhelming priority.

Forty-four percent say, no, it's not essential that it be done this year.

In the country as a whole, which is the people polled here, there's no sense of overwhelming urgency. There is in some border areas, which are deeply affected by illegal immigration. But in the country as a whole, there's a moderate sense of urgency.

PHILLIPS: So what do Americans think about this current bill?

SCHNEIDER: Well, they don't know a great deal about it. The Pew Center also asked people if they support this piece of legislation. Only 27 percent say they favor it. Thirty-four percent, a larger number, oppose it. And the rest say they don't know or they can't decide. That's a lot of uncertainty about this.

Notice, 27 percent favor the bill, even though 50 percent in that first poll said it was essential to reform immigration law, which means they have a lot of doubts and questions about this bill, which contains a lot of moving parts.

It contains guest workers. It contains a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. It contains border security. And when you put them all together, Americans look at that and they say, "We don't know if this is going to work, and we don't know what's really going on here."

PHILLIPS: Well, it's -- it's confusing if you think about it, Bill.

SCHNEIDER: It is.

PHILLIPS: I mean, how many times have we gone over all those specifics? And that's a whole other issue. And we'll talk more about that. But when it comes down to President Bush, is he the man to get this done? Or is he just being considered a lame duck here, taking into account how confused Americans are?

SCHNEIDER: Well, lame duck may be the right name for a president whose approval ratings over the last month have averaged 32 percent. That's a very low figure. This is not Albania, where he was very popular. Here, he has to deal with Congress, which is answerable to the American people.

And a president with a 32 percent job approval rating simply lacks clout, even with members of his own party, whom he's meeting with today.

The Democrats, who have the majority in Congress, are saying, "We're not going to push this bill unless the Republicans get behind it, because we don't want to get this through Congress and then shoulder the responsibility among the many critics of this legislation that we did it and the Republicans resisted it." They want the Republicans to join in a bipartisan effort.

And it's the Republicans who have been most resistant. They voted against it by a very solid margin. So there were -- Democrats are waiting to see if the president can carry his own party along on this.

And as you heard from Jeff Sessions a few minutes ago, that's going to be pretty tough. Because there are critics in the Republican Party dead set against this legislation.

PHILLIPS: He's got to convince 15 more, right?

SCHNEIDER: Exactly, to get up to 60. That's going to be tough.

PHILLIPS: All right. Bill Schneider, appreciate it. We'll be talking a lot this afternoon.

Later in the NEWSROOM, he thinks the president is wrong, and he's telling him to back off, just like Bill Schneider told us. One of the strongest critics of the immigration reform bill, Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, he's going to join us live right here in the NEWSROOM at 3:15 Eastern.

HOLMES: For the third time in three days, Iraqi insurgents have bombed a key bridge. Today's attack happened just south of Baghdad and just a few miles away from a bridge bombing that killed three U.S. soldiers were killed on Sunday.

Yesterday, a truck bomb destroyed a bridge linking Baquba with other villages in Diyala province. In all, insurgents have bombed seven bridges since March. These attacks appear to be aimed at paralyzing Iraqi transportation.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr joins us now with a look at that, a closer look.

Hello to you, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, T.J. Well, as you say now, so many attacks in recent days, three alone since Sunday.

The latest one, that one that you just mentioned, south of Baghdad, a bomb detonating on yet again another bridge. Three in three days. On Monday a suicide truck bomb, again on a bridge in Diyala province. That is, of course, in eastern Iraq. On Sunday, one back in Babil, as there was today, south of Baghdad. And that one on Sunday, three U.S. soldiers were killed and six were injured when that bridge basically collapsed on top of them.

This is something that is catching the military's attention, of course, at the highest levels, and it is because of what you just mentioned. They're trying to figure out is this now yet again a new insurgent tactic?

So many of these bridges, these overpasses, these highway roads are main arteries connecting various parts of Iraq, very significant transportation links. If you cut them off, what does it do? How does it foment additional violence, additional unrest amongst the people who live in these areas, who can't then travel to other areas?

So the bottom line is a lot of concern in the last few days about this growing tactic and not at all sure, in the military's world, what they're going to do about it. Certainly, try and put out more security forces on the road; try and keep a closer watch. But this is going to be very tough. There's, you know, perhaps hundreds of these bridges and overpasses across the country -- T.J.

HOLMES: That was going to be my question. What can they do about it? And they just don't know about it yet. You answered me there. Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon. Barbara, thank you so much.

STARR: Sure.

PHILLIPS: We want to keep reminding you about the president making a major push right now to get his immigration bill revived. Want to take you live to Capitol Hill. Behind closed doors, the president right now holding a GOP luncheon, trying to convince, persuade, 15 more Republicans to support his measure.

We'll be eager to hear what he has too say, in addition to Republicans and Democrats. He may even step up to the mics. I don't remember seeing something like that before, where the president of the United States has stepped to the mics there on Capitol Hill after a closed door session like this, so it should be pretty interesting.

We'll talk more about it with our political analysts. Once again, 2 p.m. Eastern hoping to hear from the president and news about the immigration bill.

HOLMES: Well, sporting a new set of wings. The International Space Station unfurled its new solar arrays. We'll give you a look.

PHILLIPS: Filmmaker Michael Moore takes the pulse of America's healthcare system in a new film called "Sicko". Why did he stash a copy in Canada?

HOLMES: Also, Gaza collapses, as Palestinians turn against each other in a bloody power struggle.

You are watching the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: It is 1:13 here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of the stories we're working on right now.

President Bush lunching with Republican senators on Capitol Hill. He's trying to turn up the heat on an immigration reform bill. But many in his own party are lukewarm or straight up dead set against it.

Also right now, police in Pittsburgh are looking for a teenage babysitter after a deadly house fire. The blaze killed five children, ages 3 to 7. The sitter was supposed to be watching them.

Also, no foul play, said police, in Jamaica about the death of Pakistan's World Cup cricket coach. Earlier, they'd indicated the 58- year-old Bob Woolmer was strangled after losing a match, leading to all kinds of cricket conspiracy theories. Today police say further tests show Woolmer died of natural causes.

PHILLIPS: All right. Check out how beautiful this is. Only Miles O'Brien and I would think this orbital sun rise was absolutely amazing. He's got me -- he's got me addicted. I've got NASA live at home, at work. The power of Miles.

We're talking about new wings for the space station. They've been installed, Miles tells me. And now comes the delicate task of unfurling them. Wishing we were there.

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wow.

PHILLIPS: Space guru Miles O'Brien. What a -- what a way to wake up. That's all I have to say.

O'BRIEN: That is pretty, isn't it?

PHILLIPS: What kind of music did they play? Do we know?

O'BRIEN: This morning they played a little Louis Armstrong, "What a Wonderful World". I thought that was a good way to start the day. Don't you?

PHILLIPS: Yes.

O'BRIEN: And gosh, that is a spectacular shot. As you see, the orbital sunset there as the solar array begins its process of coming to light. Actually, it must be sunrise, because they do it in the sun.

PHILLIPS: Right. I'm told sunrise.

O'BRIEN: Yes, it is sunrise.

PHILLIPS: OK.

O'BRIEN: I'm sorry, sunrise, sunsets. You know?

PHILLIPS: They're all beautiful.

O'BRIEN: In any case, when you have 16 of them a day, it's hard to keep up with them. Right. It is, you know?

PHILLIPS: That's true.

O'BRIEN: It's -- in any case, they -- things are going well. First of all, just so you know what you're watching here, these are the solar arrays, and the goal is to slowly but surely extend them out. Each of them is about 115 feet; combined wing span is about 230 or so.

And I'm kind of ruining that picture. I'm just going to clear that out.

The other side went well. Take a look at some pictures from just a little while ago, as they were able to successfully extend it out. And Kyra, I know you know this word, stiction, right? Stiction.

PHILLIPS: Yes. You taught me stiction. Not to be confused with diction.

O'BRIEN: That's correct. Static and friction is stiction. And leave it to NASA to give me a word like that to look up.

And you can see what happens as they kind of get out -- they're stuck. They've been packed in there for a long time. And they get stuck. And so the trick is to do this slowly and give it a little bit of time to bake in the sun, and make sure you do this in an orderly process.

Back in 2000, when they did the first solar array, they just kind of hit the switch and let it go, and it was a mess. Because they all got snagged up and it created kind of a crack the whip effect. Fortunately, nothing was damaged. But nonetheless...

PHILLIPS: Except for the space glove, right?

O'BRIEN: Well, yes. That was on the last mission in December when Bob Curbeam was working on another problem similar to this, and he ripped his glove. That was not good either.

In any case, these -- this is the primary part of this mission. Let's go back -- we can go back to the live picture as it goes up ever so slowly. That -- you know, you can't come up with a better picture than that, as they slowly but surely, those golden arrays get baked in the sunshine there.

It's a 15-ton truss and solar array combination. And what's really neat about it is, Kyra, as they -- as it goes around the earth, one orbit every 90 minutes, like a paddle wheel, it spins around so that it's constantly pointing in the perfect direction toward the sun.

Ultimately, the International Space Station will have enough juice in it to power 42, 2,800-square-foot homes.

PHILLIPS: Wow. There's the bottom line. There's why we care.

O'BRIEN: And you have to wonder which engineer was assigned that task? Find out how many 2,800-square foot homes this thing would -- anyway.

I want to tell you just a little bit about the tear, because you know, everybody is concerned about it. And as we look at that great shot, I hate to spend too much time on this. But we'll go back to it in a sec.

You know where it is by now. It's up here in this left-hand kind of hump thing beside the tail. OK? It's not a particularly hot place on the shuttle when it comes in, but no one is sure -- well, the thinking is that basically -- take a look at the gash, first of all, or the pulled up piece of blanket.

The thinking is this. That as the hot air goes over here, this little piece, it will actually catch -- it will catch -- this is the other direction. It will catch the heat and actually exacerbate it. Makes it hotter than they think. This is only six inches across there, four inches there.

So they can't really tell how much heat it's going to be, but they're pretty certain it's beyond the capabilities of this graphite subsurface there.

So the idea is this. You have space walkers out there. They have a number of tasks to do. This is about an hour and a half of actual work, and you've got a blanket. It's like this. OK? So notice how it stays up that way? It's got memory. And the beauty of this is it doesn't -- its memory is short-lived, because when you push it down, it stays down.

So the thinking is this: they just go down and push it down, maybe come up with a little attachment scenario. And then that one area of concern will be taken care of.

Now, let's go back to that live picture. There it is.

PHILLIPS: I want to know how I can be one of the homes that's going to get all this power. Is it like a lottery system?

O'BRIEN: I think solar power from space is another story entirely that we could get into some day. You know, you could do that. You could do that.

PHILLIPS: I remember, I think it was what, in the early '80s or '70s, my parents got those solar panels, you know, spent all this money. They were trying to be so green and entrepreneurial with this idea. It didn't work, Miles.

O'BRIEN: Well, but it's come a long way.

PHILLIPS: That's true.

O'BRIEN: Solar power technology has come a long way. I invite them to look at it once again.

PHILLIPS: If we had these panels, that would be a different story.

O'BRIEN: Yes, that's true. That's true.

PHILLIPS: A little orbital sunrise and our Miles O'Brien. Thanks, Miles.

O'BRIEN: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: All right.

HOLMES: Well, as if they didn't have enough to deal with. Katrina victims had some serious sleep issues long after the storm. What's the connection there? That's ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Well, anybody who's taken a week off from work knows this. Sometimes it takes a few days just to unwind, but more and more people are back at their jobs before their vacation mode ever sets in.

Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange.

You know what? Do you ever really get vacation? You're just like the hardest working woman in the stock business. Hello to you.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm coasting now, T.J., because I'm taking off.

HOLMES: Oh, really?

LISOVICZ: A lot of next month.

HOLMES: OK. Well, congratulations.

LISOVICZ: I am bucking the trend, T.J. The two-week vacation, however, for many of us is quickly becoming a distant memory. Instead, more employees are using their hard-earned vacation days to extend weekends and ultimately take shorter breaks from work.

A poll done by Harris Interactive for travel web site Expedia.com shows only 14 percent of Americans plan to take a two-week vacation this year. That's down slightly from last year.

And get this: one-third of workers don't even use all of their days. Absolutely shameful, T.J. I think somebody who works hard has to play hard.

HOLMES: You know, I'm guilty of that. I cannot get my time in, my vacation time.

LISOVICZ: Oh, T.J.

HOLMES: Yes, I know.

LISOVICZ: Share -- share it with your fellow employees.

HOLMES: Yes, they'd love that. All right.

Well, let's talk, people traveling and vacations. Well, are people starting to cut back on some of that travel because of, you know, it costs a lot to travel these days, if you're trying to fill up a tank?

LISOVICZ: Well, that's right. I mean, high fuel prices are a reason. They obviously raise travel costs for drivers taking the traditional road trip, and also they raise air fares, you know, for those of us planning to fly.

But work demands are a huge culprit, you know, taking a toll on all of us is in the 24/7 global workplace.

Returning to an overflowing inbox. How many have -- of us have dealt with that when we return from vacation? It's really a turnoff. It's even worse for people with their own businesses. Research shows nearly a quarter of entrepreneurs haven't planned a vacation lasting longer than a week in more than four years.

Another reason? Families with two working parents are finding it more difficult to coordinate longer stretches of time away from their jobs.

Gas prices, no doubt, are high. We should mention, however, they are continuing to fall from last month's record levels. AAA puts the national average for self serve regular at just below $3.07 per gallon. That's down one and a half cents from yesterday, about 16 cents below the all-time high.

And guess what? Stocks are down, too. But we'll talk more about that in the next hour. I'll throw it back to you, T.J.

HOLMES: All right. Susan, we will see you again next hour. Thank you, ma'am.

PHILLIPS: We're just getting word now from Aeromexico that a flight, Air Mexico Flight 420, has landed here in Miami, Florida. These live pictures coming to us from our affiliate there, WSVN.

Apparently, 45 people on board this flight, and about 11 of them have fallen ill, we're told.

As you can imagine, since the big T.B. scare with Andrew Speaker weeks ago, everybody has been on heightened alert about who is traveling and traveling while ill. And yesterday we had a flight landing in Miami, a British Airways flight from Africa where there was a very sick passenger, and that passenger had been quarantined. And the CDC s called out.

Now we're getting word today, Aeromexico Flight 420, landing here in Miami. About 11 people have fallen ill. And we're told that the CDC is on board that plane right now, trying to figure out what's going on.

We'll keep you updated.

Well, the middle of the country is weathering another day of dangerous and drenching storms. We're going to have the latest from our severe weather center. That's coming up next in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: I want to head over first to Jacqui Jeras in the weather center. And Jacqui, just sometimes air travel and weather do not mix and we go that case again today.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We sure and my husband can attest to that as he was very late -- he's a pilot - last night. It looks like the same is going to happen to a lot of pilots and a lot of people traveling today. Thunderstorms are developing very rapidly here across the northeastern quarter just really in the last half an hour here and we've got a number of delays as a result of that. If you are flying in from the west, here is the problem. You really can't get there to say La Guardia and JFK because those thunderstorms are becoming pretty widespread right now.

We'll zoom in and one other thing I want to say to notice too about this, is the direction that they're moving. This line is spreading down toward the south. It's traveling down towards the west as well. Normally we get those thunderstorms coming through from the opposite direction, so if you are hoping to get some rain at your house, just keep note they are coming in from the north today.

Here are the travel delays that we have at this hour. We'll start out at Atlanta Hartsfield, Jacksonville international, the busiest one there, ground stop, means you can't go there until 3:00. That's the time your flight could take off at the earliest. New York City, JFK, we're looking at a ground stop as well just before the 2:00 hour, 2:00 at La Guardian, ground stop also in Newark until 2:00, and there you can see some increasing departure delays if you are trying to take off out of Teterboro (ph).

We could also have some problems in the Orlando area as well as Jacksonville. We've got showers and thunderstorms that have been pushing through here. Severe thunderstorm watches are in effect. Got some rain coming down in Daytona Beach. We've got a live picture to show you there. If you can take a look at that, do we still got it, guys? No Daytona Beach? Zero? I guess not, but I promise you, there it is. Look at that. The clouds, rain that's coming down and a few of those storms could be severe so watch out for that. Don't want to be at the beach today, guys.

HOLMES: All right, Jacqui, we just had to get that picture in. Thank you so much. PHILLIPS: You don't want to be coming from Orita (ph), Mexico either. This is a live pictures from WSVN, one of our affiliates in Miami. I'm not quite sure if we're going to see these six or 11 sick passengers being taken off the airplane here or not. We're monitoring the police that are kind of guarding the door there, exiting from this flight, flight 420 coming from Orita, Mexico landing in Miami. We're being told 11 people are claiming to be sick. We're not quite sure what it is.

But as you can imagine, we're following these stories continuously now since covering the tuberculosis story a number of weeks ago and the flight of Andrew Speaker and the issue of being contagious. That of course led to us a story yesterday, British Airways flight coming from Africa. There was a sick individual. The CDC was called in and now the CDC once again has been called in, is onboard that AeroMexico flight, trying to figure out what's made these passengers sick. We'll keep you updated and let you know what happened.

HOLMES: It was a top priority for President Bush and one that threatens to tear his own party apart. Right now, the president is on a rare visit to Capitol Hill, lobbying Republican senators to revive an immigration reform bill. They are the ones most opposed to the sweeping measure that stalled after losing two procedural votes on the same day last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R) ALABAMA: I think the president is wrong to push this piece of legislation so hard after we've demonstrated the flaws that are in it. He needs to back off. They always say this is the only chance to pass this bill. Of course, that's not true. We can do that again in the future and we can write a better bill. 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)

HOLMES: Top Democrats want Mr. Bush to put more pressure on Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he's willing to bring the measure up again if 15 additional GOP senators sign on. The president plans to speak to reporters after his Capitol Hill session and CNN will bring that to you live.

PHILLIPS: Montana, the fourth biggest state in the nation with lots of places to hide. Authorities are using a Blackhawk helicopter to track down a pair of prison escapees. One of them Kelly Frank, was accused of plotting to kidnap David Letterman's son.

CNN's Alina Cho with more now on the expanded search.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALINA CHO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): As they say in the business, the show must go on and so it did. Last night, David Letterman taped not one, but two shows and Letterman, who is intensely private and rarely talks about his family, made no mention of the news, but spoke at length about his son.

DAVID LETTERMAN: My son comes up to me and says, daddy, would you like to rough house?

CHO: For those who don't know what's going on in David's personal life, last night was just another show sprinkled with stories about his son.

LETTERMAN: Wham, and I take a knee to my nose.

CHO: But more than 2,000 miles away in Montana, authorities are searching for 45-year-old Kelly Frank and another inmate. Frank was arrested back in 2005 for plotting to kidnap Letterman's son, Harry. He came to know the family while working as a painter at the talk show host's Montana home. At the time, Letterman mentioned the ordeal on his show.

LETTERMAN: I want to just take a second here to thank some people.

CHO: On Friday, Frank and the other inmate took off in a truck while working on the prison's minimum security ranch under little supervision.

VOICE OF MIKE MAHONEY, MONTANA STATE PRISON WARDEN: We do believe that these two individuals may be in possession of a weapon. In addition, the complication is our intelligence indicates that Mr. Frank is very familiar with this area.

CHO: Local authorities are getting help from the Feds, including a Blackhawk helicopter. Montana authorities are also in touch with Letterman's security team.

MAHONEY: He was just concerned if our intelligence indicated the Letterman family should be concerned about being at risk if this guy has or we have any intelligence that he would have an agenda.

CHO: Letterman's family is not believed to be in danger. Both CBS which broadcast the "Late Show" and Worldwide Pants, Letterman's production company, had no comment. Meanwhile, Kelly Frank was up for parole in just three months. The warden called his decision to escape a bad choice and a dumb decision. Alina Cho, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Kids could be more than cranky after nights with no sleep. Now research points to a possible link with another well-known pediatric condition. That's coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Trouble sleeping? More than 70 million Americans have some kind of sleep disorder. That apparently includes quite a few people who lived through hurricane Katrina. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen here now. It makes sense you go through something like Katrina, you are going to have some issues. Studies are finding there is a difference between how men and women would handle this. What's the difference?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's fascinating. The study looked at people post-Katrina to see how they were doing and what they found was that more men were seeking help for trouble sleeping after hurricane Katrina. Now usually after a trauma, it's women who are looking for help. But in this case, it was men. The researchers don't know why. They say one theory, maybe it was men, actually you can see here, maybe it was men who did more of the firefighting - not fire fighting, I'm sorry, the rescue operations and the cleanup. Maybe it was the men who suffered the most.

HOLMES: How do you know? You expect some issues after that, but how do you know, OK, it's not just a problem sleeping. I'm having a few issues right now. How do you know you got a serious problem and you need to seek some help?

COHEN: You want to do that by length of time and also by severity. If you for example, you have been through a divorce, you've lost your job and there's a couple of days where you have trouble sleeping, maybe a couple weeks, maybe a couple of months, that's probably pretty normal, and unless it's really disturbing your life, you may not need help. However, if it goes on for many months, then you really need to seek professional help. You might have depression. You might have post-traumatic stress disorder.

HOLMES: What about kids now? Everybody gets cranky when they don't sleep, kids especially get cranky as well. How do you know when a kid is having enough of a problem and are they at higher risk, the young kids, the young developing brain still to have some severe psychological issues down the road if they're not getting enough sleep?

COHEN: Right, because all parents know, your kid is cranky, they are going to have trouble focusing the next day. This is a study that found just that. They actually put science to the test. They said to parents make your kid sleep deprived for seven days. Don't give them enough sleep and voila, lo and behold, those kids had trouble focusing. But the interesting part of this study is that they actually measured the kids' brain waves and the found abnormalities in the brain waves that have to do with attention. So they actually scientifically showed what a lot of parents know which is that if your kid doesn't get enough sleep, they're going to have trouble paying attention. That's made some doctors say aha, maybe some kids with ADD just aren't getting enough sleep. Maybe that's the issue.

HOLMES: (INAUDIBLE) study, kept kids up for seven days?

COHEN: Not up completely but they said have them get an hour less sleep each night. They said deprive them of a bit of sleep. My children did not participate.

HOLMES: Well, what do you do? I mean people got all kinds of theories about how best to help the kids go to sleep and every parent has a different method. What is the best way to make sure a kid gets enough sleep? COHEN: Sleep experts say the three most important things are routine, routine and routine. Set up a routine, same time every night. Your child takes a bath, they get in their pajamas, read a story, sing a song, that's it, go to sleep. They don't vary the routine. They get used to it and they think it's sort of like Pavlovian. They think, oh, this means I'm supposed to go to bed. And that's what you need to do every night. Now another thing and this sounds like a real no duh kind of thing, don't give your children caffeinated cola in the evening. You know what, a lot of parents do that. You have a cola with dinner and you don't think, oh, there's caffeine in that cola. It's not a great idea.

HOLMES: Stay away from the caffeine and sing a song. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you so much.

PHILLIPS: I got High-C, I didn't get cola.

COHEN: And that's why you're so smart today.

PHILLIPS: OK, I got it.

HOLMES: I hate to see you worked up.

PHILLIPS: And I didn't get sugared cereal either. That was a whole other issue anyway. (INAUDIBLE)

We're following two developing stories. Right now live picture from Capitol Hill. We're actually expecting the president of the United States possibly to step up to the microphone, something you don't see very often. He's actually behind closed right there with the GOP, a special luncheon trying to revive that immigration bill. He needs to convince 15 more Republicans to get on board so that Republican or that bill can be revived, move forward, and be signed by him. Obviously, a huge controversial piece of legislation dealing with the nation's some 12 million illegal immigrants, big issue this year as we go into an election year next year.

The other story that we are watching, live pictures now from our affiliate WSVN out of Miami, Florida. This is an Aeromexico flight that landed in Miami, flight 420 coming from Orita, Mexico. Apparently 11 people have fallen ill. There were about 45 people on board. The CDC is on that aircraft, trying to figure out what is going on. Susan Candiotti is I'm told now on the phone with us. Susan, obviously we're paying attention to these stories. I think it has started from the TB scare weeks ago, then yesterday there was a British Airways flight that landed there in Miami. There was a sick passenger coming in from Africa. The CDC responded. What do we know about this?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's the question. What made them sick? We don't know very much and that's what authorities are trying to get to the bottom of. We know that 11 people aboard this flight that originated in Mexico City, stopped in Merida (ph), Mexico, and then went on to Miami. For some reason, 11 people are ill. The FAA is telling us that they have some sort of gastrointestinal illness. Miami-Dade police department tells us that those people are being treated and assessed on board the plane for now. If any of them need additional medical treatment and need to be transported to a hospital, that's what will happen next.

Meantime, the other people that were aboard the plane according to police have already disembarked and gotten off and gone on their way perhaps to catch other flights. So it's just something that makes people nervous when you hear about people being ill aboard a flight. You don't know if they caught something before they left from their originating city somewhere in Mexico or whether something happened aboard the plane. So that's why officials are concerned about this and are trying to get to the bottom of it. Whenever a plane like this comes in from another country and people on board are ill, the Centers for Disease Control is automatically notified and they respond. They get involved to try to get to the bottom of it.

PHILLIPS: All right, we'll stay on top of it, Susan Candiotti, thanks.

HOLMES: Well most filmmakers fear critics, but Michael Moore, he is afraid of Uncle Sam. Ahead in the NEWSROOM, "Sicko." He's not sicko. It's the name of the movie. It's stirring up drama even before it hits the big screen.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Keeping an eye on live picture on Capitol Hill today. When the president comes out and somebody asks him, how was your lunch, they really don't want to know how the food was. He's been sitting up with Republican senators, many of whom are against the immigration reform bill that he is really pushing, really wants a win on and many in his own party are dead set against him. He is there Kyra, trying to convince them that his way is the way to go and trying to save a bill that really took a lot of compromise to get to this point.

PHILLIPS: So what do you feed 15 Republicans to try to persuade them to get onboard your immigration bill?

HOLMES: I don't know, a fillet?

PHILLIPS: We'll see what happens. It's unusual. I can't remember the last time I saw the president of the United States step up to the mike like this on the Hill. It goes to show what a big issue this for him and Democrats and Republicans trying to figure out how to come to some sort of compromise, some sort of deal and revive the immigration bill, a very controversial bill especially going into the election year 2008. We're going to take it live as soon as the president comes out of there and get reaction, find out what happened, see if they struck a deal.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Taking you back to this live picture in Miami. We're watching a scene at the Miami international airport where a flight from Mexico has landed. It landed with at least 11 people on it complaining of being ill. There's the flight there. It's flight 420. It's coming from Orita, Mexico. It landed there in Miami, 11 people saying they are sick. And now those 11 people are being taken care of, treated and the CDC is now on the scene and looking into what's happening there. Our medical correspondent is with us now. Again, Elizabeth, the CDC is all over this. Is this standard procedure?

COHEN: This is standard operating procedure. When you have a plane land and a pilot thinks that there is someone who is ill --

HOLMES: We actually have to...

PHILLIPS: Sorry, got to get straight to the president.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We talked about a lot of issues. I briefed them on my trip to Europe. We talked about they were very interested in the (INAUDIBLE) plan for Kosovo. They were interested in my conversations with Vladimir Putin on missile defense. We talked about the energy bill. We talked about the appropriations process and we talked about immigration. Some members in there are -- believe that we need to move a comprehensive bill, some don't. I understand that.

It's a highly emotional issue, but those of us standing here believe now is the time to move a comprehensive bill that enforces our borders and has good workplace enforcement, that doesn't grant automatic citizenship, that addresses this problem in a comprehensive way. I would hope that the Senate majority leader has that same sense of desire to move the product that I do or the bill that I do and these senators do, because now is the time to get it done.

It's going to take a lot of hard work, a lot of effort. We've got to convince the American people that this bill is the best way to enforce our border. I believe without the bill, it's going to be harder to enforce the border. The status quo is unacceptable. And I want to thank those senators on both sides of the aisle who understand the time is now to move a comprehensive piece of legislation. The White House will stay engaged. Thank you very much.

QUESTION: Mr. President, did you change any minds Mr. President?

PHILLIPS: Not a lot of details but the president saying it's a highly emotional issue, obviously. That is of immigration. He just came out of a luncheon there with key leaders within the GOP. He's trying to persuade 15 Republicans to side with him and to sign off on his immigration bill. It continues to be quite a controversial issue, a lot of back and forth specifically in the past couple of weeks. . Kathleen Koch at the White House right now. She's following this. First of all Kathleen, it's unusual to see the president of the United States in such a casual setting, there on the Hill, before reporters at the mikes. That in itself shows how he is prioritizing obviously this issue and wanting to talk to the media about it.

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Certainly, Kyra. This is only the second time in President Bush's presidency that he has gone to Capitol Hill to participate in this Republican party policy luncheon that the senators have every week. The vice president, Dick Cheney, does go on a regular basis, but clearly this is an issue that the president himself has said he was going to stay engaged. There are some on Capitol Hill who would say he has not been engaged enough and that basically this visit to the Hill today was too little, too late with the bill going down to defeat last week.

Many felt that coming up now at the 11th hour trying to revive it, give it mouth-to-mouth resuscitation essentially just was not going to really accomplish anything. But the Democrats, the Democratic leadership, Senator Harry Reid has made it very clear he is not going to bring this measure up again, no matter how much the president wants it, no matter how hard the president pushes it, unless the president can rally Republican support and so far, that's not something he's been able to do Kyra.

PHILLIPS: When are we going to find out details of what took place behind closed doors? We were hoping to hear that they reached some sort of compromise or at least, made some headway on specific issues. He just said, look, it's a highly emotional subject matter and we're talking. So when are we actually going to know something?

KOCH: Well, Kyra, at least we'll certainly have to wait until the senators themselves come out. I believe some of them are escorting the president to the motorcade right now and then they're going to come back and take questions, but there is so much still to be decided on this, it may be a while before we hear the details.

PHILLIPS: And Mitch McConnell, Senate Republican leader speaking right now.

SEN. MITCH McCONNELL (R) MINORITY LEADER: A pretty wide-ranging discussion. As he indicated on his trip, there was particular interest in the Kosovo independence issues which is important to a number of our members and obviously was discussed by President Putin and President Bush.

We also talked about the energy bill, the pending business on the floor and let me just say this about the energy measure. It unfortunately doesn't do anything, at least the bill that was called up. It doesn't do anything to address expanded production domestically and number two, won't do a single solitary thing to lower gas prices. Having said that, members of my conference are going to have a number of amendments that would dramatically improve this energy bill and actually have an impact on the nation's energy independence, including over a period of time getting gas prices down. With that, let me turn to Trent.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.voxant.com