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New Orleans Doctor Not Indicted for Killing Patients; Attorney General Answers Accusations of Pressure Tactics; Michael Vick Barred from Training Camp; Airports Asked to Screen Employees

Aired July 24, 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: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
DON LEMON, CO-HOST: And I'm Don Lemon.

Happening right now, a developing story out of New Orleans. A grand jury will not indict a doctor accused of killing four seriously ill patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. You're looking at that doctor there. That is Dr. Anna Pou.

Let's head now to our New Orleans bureau and CNN's Sean Callebs. He's got the very latest for us.

What do you have, Sean?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, exactly. This is a case that's garnered a great deal of attention down in this area. Let's remember, we're coming up on the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

Think back to those very chaotic, difficult days right after. No electricity in the city, massive flooding. Memorial Hospital without power.

Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses stood accused of killing four patients, this by the state attorney general, charges that he was pursuing. State Attorney General Charles Foti asked the New Orleans district attorney to prosecute this case.

However, Eddie Jordan, the local D.A., said he wasn't going to and left that up to a grand jury, which began meeting back in April. Well, the grand jury less than an hour ago came back with its decision, and Anna Pou will not face any murder charges.

Here's what a representative for the state attorney general has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The attorney general just wanted to comment that the dedicated employees of the attorney general's office have done their duties as required by federal and state law, and he's very proud of everyone and their efforts on behalf of the victims and their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CALLEBS: In a very public fashion, Foti came out last year in 2006 and accused Pou and two nurses of concocting a lethal cocktail and administering that to four patients ranging in the age from 63 to 91.

Now more than -- about three dozen patients died in Memorial Hospital the days after Hurricane Katrina, many of them because of dehydration.

Now Pou had a number of supporters, and they argued that she and hospital staff acted heroically in those days after Hurricane Katrina, basically bagging patients, manually ventilating them, fanning them, keeping them as cool as they could in possible 100-degree conditions while outside the window they watched the flooding continue to devastate the city. They watched looting, and people at the hospital feared that anarchy was setting in on the city. When it became clear that not all the patients could be evacuated from the hospital, that is when Pou allegedly acted.

But once again, no charges will be filed against Anna Pou. She has been cleared of all murder charges. She has been working at a teaching hospital up in Baton Rouge, at LSU. She has left her private practice since these charges became public -- Don.

LEMON: All right. CNN's Sean Callebs. We'll follow that. Thank you, Sean.

PHILLIPS: Sooner or later. Now, a year from now, or mid-2009. Now more than ever, timelines for leaving Iraq are battle lines dividing America. The "New York Times" reports the U.S. military and diplomatic leaders in Baghdad are looking two years down the road in a best case scenario.

In last night's groundbreaking YouTube debate on CNN, the Democratic presidential hopefuls differed on the details, but each has a plan for ending the war. And as you may have seen live here, within the past hour, President Bush told a military audience the war in Iraq and the war on terror are one and the same.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's hard to argue that al Qaeda in Iraq is separate from bin Laden's al Qaeda, when the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq took an oath of allegiance to Osama bin Laden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, back now to the Democrats. And in the past debates, much of last night's event was spent sparring over Iraq and when to leave. For one YouTuber, Gary Barry (ph), it's a very personal matter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dear presidential candidates, see those three flags over my shoulder? They covered the coffins of my grandfather, my father, and my oldest son. Some day mine will join them. I do not want to see my youngest son's join them.

I have two questions. By what date after January 21, 2009, will all U.S. troops be out of Iraq? And how many family members do you have serving in uniform?

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D-NM), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Six months. But no residual forces. Senator Clinton has a plan that I understand is maybe 50,000 residual forces. Our troops have become targets. The diplomatic...

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Is that even possible? Six months?

RICHARDSON: The diplomatic work cannot begin to heal Iraq, to protect our interests, without our troops out. Our troops have become targets. You're going to say six months, because there's a civil war -- it might provoke a civil war? There is a civil war. There is sectarian conflict.

SEN. JOE BIDEN (D-DE), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's not a single military man in this audience that can tell this man he can get troops out in six months. Let's start telling the truth.

No. 1, if you take the troops out, you better have helicopters ready to take those 3,000 civilians inside the Green Zone where I've been seven times and shot at. You better make sure you have protection for them or let them die, No. 1. So you can't leave them there.

And it's going to take a minimum of 5,000 troops to 10,000 just to protect our civilians. So while you're taking them out, Governor, take everybody out. That may be necessary.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The best estimate is that we can probably move a brigade a month if we really accelerate it, maybe a brigade and a half or two a month. That is a lot of months. My point is, they're not even planning for that in the Pentagon.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, at the bottom of the hour, CNN military analyst David Grange will share with us his strategy for a U.S. pullout.

LEMON: Well, analysts say there were no knockout punches, but what do you think? CNN started hearing from voters even before the debate ended. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK GRASSO, MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE: The winners of these debates really come down to people who out of nowhere and surprise us. And in my opinion tonight, it was a tie. It was a tie between Governor Bill Richardson and Senator Joe Biden. They both came out firing and used very passionate and charged language.

BRAD MCQUEEN, ASHEVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA: John Edwards really stood out. I didn't really think about him as a contender until tonight. Hillary Clinton did great. Barack Obama, he looked really inexperienced and fumbling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: I think people really feel empowered by this debate. CNN's Internet correspondent, Jacki Schechner, joins us here in the NEWSROOM next hour with even more on what you are saying about this.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales back in the hot seat on Capitol Hill. The Senate Judiciary Committee is asking the questions.

Joining us from D.C. with the details, justice correspondent Kelli Arena.

Hi, Kelli.

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Don. You know, hot seat? Understatement. I'm sure you remember that dramatic testimony from former deputy attorney general, James Comey, about how Alberto Gonzales and then former White House chief of staff, Andy Card, tried to pressure the then attorney general, John Ashcroft, to sign off on a domestic surveillance program as he was, you know, lying sick near death in a hospital bed.

Well, today, Gonzales said that that's not how it went down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERTO GONZALES, ATTORNEY GENERAL: We were there maybe five minutes, five to six minutes. Mr. Ashcroft talked about the real issues in as lucid form as I've heard him talk about legal issues in the White House. But at the end of his description of the legal issues, he said, "I'm not making this decision. The deputy attorney general is."

And so Andy Card and I thanked him. We told him that we would continue working with the deputy attorney general, and we left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARENA: Then Gonzales said that the meeting wasn't even about the domestic surveillance program, as Comey testified, but about other intelligence activities. But the senators, I can tell you, were not buying it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER (D-NY), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Sir, how can you say that you should stay on as attorney general when we go through exercises like this, where you're bobbing and weaving and ducking to avoid admitting that you deceived the committee?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ARENA: Now this whole hearing has been extremely contentious. Democrats still contend that Gonzales should step down. But he is vowing to stay on. And of course, you know, Don, this is up to the president, whether he stays or goes, and so far the president says he stays.

LEMON: CNN's Kelli Arena. Thank you, Kelli.

ARENA: You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: Well, you talk the talk but haven't walked the walk. That's the gist of the United States' message to Iran at a meeting on Iraq security. It's the second such meeting in two months and the second time U.S. diplomats have hammered Iran for its alleged support of Shiite militias in Iraq.

Both sides did agree to set up a security subcommittee with Iraq, but even that was tampered -- or tempered, rather, by the situation on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN CROCKER, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO IRAQ: Over the roughly two months since our last meeting, we -- we've actually seen militia- related activity that can be attributed to Iranian support go up and not down.

I was as clear as I could be with the Iranians that this effort, this discussion, has to be measured in -- in results, not in principles or promises.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, Crocker wouldn't confirm whether he'll hold a third round of talks with Iran.

LEMON: The latest military plan for Iraq. It could mean two more years in Iraq for U.S. troops? We'll ask retired general, David Grange, to break it down.

PHILLIPS: Plus, no relief yet for tens of thousands of water- logged Britons. And more rain is on the way.

LEMON: And do you like to wash down your lunch with a cold soda? Well, a new health report may burst your bubbles.

PHILLIPS: And actress Lindsay Lohan arrested again on DUI charges. The strange details, straight ahead from the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Thirteen past the hour. Three of the stories we're working on for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

The Senate Judiciary Committee grilled Alberto Gonzales today on the U.S. attorney firings. Ranking Republican Arlen Specter suggested the attorney general appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the controversy.

It is still not much, but it is a raise for those making minimum wage. The federal hourly minimum went up 70 cents today to $5.85. It's the first hike in ten years.

And another arrest for fresh out of rehab Lindsay Lohan; the actress charged with DUI and cocaine possession, among other charges. We'll get the details from TMZ.com's Harvey Levin in about a half an hour.

PHILLIPS: Well, he's one of the most exciting players in the NFL. Now Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick is facing what might be the most damaging blow of his career.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has ordered Vick to stay away from the Falcons training camp because of dog fighting allegations.

CNN's Rusty Dornin just returned from the Falcons camp. What is the NFL basing this on? Is it just the indictment? Or do we think the NFL knows something we don't know?

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, look at the indictment itself anyway. It's a powerful document. There's some very ugly acquisitions there.

They are apparently also asking prosecutors to share some things with them to see how strong the case is against Vick.

Also, Roger Goodell, the commissioner, did meet with Vick in April and asked him straight out, when these allegations first surfaced, did have you anything to do with this? And reportedly, Vick denied it.

Well, from the -- according to the indictment, Vick, in April, was involved in the deaths of eight dogs. So I'm sure Goodell also might be taking his own interview with Vick into consideration.

But the interesting thing is they're asking the Falcons not to do anything, not to take any kind of disciplinary action until their review is over. But the Falcons are holding a press conference this afternoon. So it's going to be sort of interesting to hear what they have to say.

PHILLIPS: And you've been up there at the training camp. What has the reaction been? Can you give us a feel: players, just fans, people driving by? I know a lot of people were honking, saying, "Let him play, let him play."

DORNIN: Right. Well, it's very quiet there right now, of course, because they're just setting up the camp, which is scheduled to begin on Thursday. Of course, Vick is going to be facing his arraignment there.

But just while we were doing live shots out there, you had people going by, honking their horns, that sort of thing, you know, saying, "Let him play." Compared to yesterday, you had the PETA protesters out there, who are saying, you know, "Take him out. He shouldn't be playing. This is horrible."

And of course, that is something that's entering into it, as well. There's a lot of pressure going on towards the NFL, towards the Falcons, from PETA and from the Humane Society, saying this is unacceptable behavior if he's guilty of this. Something needs to be done.

PHILLIPS: In addition to that, you were saying, too, you've seen a lot of these letters to the editor, right at the local paper, thinking that it's sort of like -- there's a reminiscence of O.J.?

DORNIN: You know, there are some -- it goes both ways. Again, there are some people saying let him play, let him play. And there are others saying this is very racist, going after him is racist, and they compare it to sort of the O.J. case, that they're not letting him have his day in court. And let him have his day in court and then let the jury decide.

PHILLIPS: And we're expecting some type of news conference today. Correct?

DORNIN: That's the Falcons conference this afternoon.

PHILLIPS: OK. All right. OK.

DORNIN: Which is very curious, because the NFL is telling them to not take any disciplinary action. So what are they going to say? This is the first time they'll be speaking publicly, however. It will be the general manager, the owner and apparently the coach.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll track it. Thanks, Rusty.

LEMON: Lindsay Lohan, she is in hot water before -- was in hot water before, but now it is coming to a boil.

The 21-year-old actress arrested this morning in Santa Monica, California, for alleged drunken driving and cocaine possession. And TMZ now reporting -- you're looking at the web site -- Lindsay is already back in rehab at this hour.

Lohan was booked just last week in Beverly Hills for a previous DUI charge. And the week before that she checked out of rehab with an alcohol monitor on her ankle. But again, TMZ is reporting she's in rehab once again.

Harvey Levin from TMZ will weigh in on Lohan's latest trouble later on, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. TMZ all on top of this story. We'll have the latest from Harvey Levin.

No screening, big, big problem. You won't believe what went on after hours at a major U.S. airport. Find out ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, when you go to the airport, you know that you and your stuff, well, it's all going to get screened. Right? It's post-9/11 reality. But what if you work at the airport, on the graveyard shirt?

CNN's Kathleen Koch reports that's where the black and white rules and regs get a little gray.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Security procedures at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport are under review after CNN affiliate KNXV found contract guards, not TSA screeners, took over night security once passenger flights ended.

The guards checked airport workers' I.D.s but never screened them or their bags. A flight attendant with three suitcases goes through with no screening. So does a cartload of newspapers.

As a result, the Transportation Security Administration says it's put the airport federal security director on administrative leave, and it's now requiring TSA screeners at their posts night and day.

KIP HAWLEY, TSA ADMINISTRATOR: You can't tell from looking at the tape whether there was a violation or not, and that's something THAT we'll figure out. But it raises the question, and we wanted to answer the question right away and, "Say, look, we're going to now screen 24 by 7." And we'll sort out what exactly you saw.

KOCH: Hawley says nearly 20 U.S. airports use contract guards in the overnight hours and that it's an acceptable practice.

And despite the crackdown in Phoenix, the government does not require the screening of all airport employees or their bags. They do have to show I.D.s and undergo fingerprinting and an FBI background check.

Still, some lawmakers have concerns about the practice.

REP. NITA LOWEY (D), NEW YORK: Meticulously screening passengers but giving workers open access doesn't make any sense to me. It's like a security system in a home and leaving the back door open.

KOCH: The TSA does conduct random screenings of airport workers. It stepped them up in March after an Orlando airport worker was charged with using his I.D. to smuggle weapons and marijuana into the airport and onto a plane.

The TSA, though, says trying to screen all 800,000 airport workers around the country would grind air travel to a halt.

(on camera) Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport says it has not violated any security regulations. Still, it is cooperating with the TSA's request for federal screeners around the clock. And the city is increasing police presence at all airport checkpoints. Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Be sure to stay tuned to CNN day and night for the most reliable news about your security.

LEMON: Millions of the nation's lowest paid workers will soon find some extra cash in their paychecks. Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange with more on the first minimum wage hike in a decade.

I asked them for some applause, just because it's so good to see you, but they didn't -- they didn't come up with it. But we could applaud, because that's amazing. First in ten years.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. (applause) There we go.

LEMON: Susan, that's for you. It's always good to see you.

LISOVICZ: I want to thank my agent. Actually, I don't have one.

The first of three hikes in the federal minimum wage goes into effect today after being stuck at $5.15 an hour since 1997. The boost brings the hourly pay for a minimum wage worker to $5.85. And over the next two years, we'll see two more increases. Eventually, it will bring the wage to $7.25 an hour.

The pro-labor Economic Policy Institute estimates that about 10 percent of the nation's work force, or 13 million workers, will benefit from the increase. And they certainly have been looking for this for some time, Don.

LEMON: Yes, yes. And how much of a financial difference, Susan, will this really make for people? Will it make a difference, you think?

LISOVICZ: It will make a difference, but I think that it -- depending on who you talk to, it's like, you know, too little, too late.

Today's increase puts the annual income of a minimum wage worker, who puts in 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year, at just over $12,000. After all three increases, it will be about $15,000.

And consider this. If you adjusted the old minimum wage for inflation each year since 1997, it would need to top $9 per hour for workers have the same purchasing power they did a decade ago. Some folks say, some economists say, that actually the minimum wage is about at a 52-year low.

(STOCK REPORT)

LISOVICZ: Coming up, it's a fixture in many restaurants, and now a la carte may be coming to satellite radio, too. I'll have details in the next hour of NEWSROOM. Don, back to you.

LEMON: (applauds) All right. I look forward to that. I want to see about that a la cart. (applause) There you go.

Susan Lisovicz, everybody. Thank you.

LISOVICZ: See you guys.

PHILLIPS: Well, how long might U.S. troops stay in Iraq? A classified military plan contains the latest strategy, and it was leaked. Retired General David Grange weighs in on how it might work, next, in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon.

You know, gauging reaction, it used to be a metaphor until political debates went high tech.

PHILLIPS: We're reading the meters to see what viewers thought of the Democrats last night. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: More on that story in just a moment. But first this half hour, swamped, soaked, and stranded. More than a million people are still trapped by floods in western England. Most have electricity again, but almost 350,000 are running out of drinking water.

Red Cross workers and British troops are hand delivering bottled water and other supplies.

So far, no deaths or injuries have been reported, and officials want to keep it that way, urging people to stay out of the increasingly filthy waters. The two major rivers, the Thames and the Severn, are beginning to recede. The worry is what happens tonight when the rain resumes.

And it is much the same in parts of this country. Summer storms slammed the Arizona desert yesterday, quickly flooding roads and stranding more than a few tourists.

This woman was plucked to safety from the roof of her car. Take a look at that video. Her husband managed to swim to dry land. Wow. What a predicament.

(WEATHER REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Forget about any quick withdrawal from Iraq this year, or even next year. For the first time, we're hearing a date for sustainable security -- summer 2009. A source tells "The New York Times," the Pentagon is planning on staying the course for at least another two years. The "Times" front page story says the classified plan "calls for restoring security in local areas, including Baghdad, by the summer of 2008. 'Sustainable security' is to be established on a nationwide basis by the summer of 2009. This according to the American officials familiar with the document."

CNN military analyst and retired Army Brigadier General David Grange joins us for reaction. We'd lost the signal. He is back.

General, does sustainable security mean troops coming home?

GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I believe it does. I think that it's going to be a while, just like you outlined, and maybe the public will hear the plan once it's released, but with the new strategy it's going to take most of this year to get at least a lodgement, where you can see some noticeable achievement. And then as you phase into '08, up to '09, I think it is realistic, but, again, plans change constantly in the Pentagon, depending on conditions.

PHILLIPS: Yes, and let me ask you, OK, that's the word, condition based. So let's say that the military is coming forward, saying, OK, right now, after taking a look at everything, summer 2009. That's our timeline. That's what we're going to do. But say a year down the road, they may re-evaluate and not expect certain things to happen. So they may push it again, OK, summer 2010. Is this just a timeline being thrown out there once again, or do you think this is credible? This could be a serious date.

GRANGE: I think it is a serious date. And keep in mind that at the end of this year, if that is the plan, the timeline may go the other way. It may not go to 2010. If it may come back -- later part of 2008. Again, conditions, positive, negative, will force it to go either way. And you really want the military and State Department aspects of that to think that way. Because, again, if you just lock yourself into the time and things change for good or for worse, you get trapped with that timeline.

PHILLIPS: Sure, and you don't want to do that, especially with all the political pressures. OK, let's say summer 2009 is a set timeline. You've done strategy and planning. You've did it for years. So let's take a look at a plan that you and I talked about. If you were in charge and you had two years to work on a new plan. You said, No. 1, would you set certain goals. Give me a quick definition of that.

GRANGE: Well, the goals, one would be to lay out what you said earlier, that Iraq has reached a point of sustainable security. It's not 100 percent, but it's sustainable throughout the country with Iraqis in the lead of that task.

PHILLIPS: OK, you've set that goal. No. 2...

GRANGE: That's an example of a goal.

PHILLIPS: OK, there is an example. No. 2, you said you have to work backward from 2009. Let's say that's the date, summer 2009. What do you mean by work backwards? GRANGE: Well, just like if you're doing an attack. I'm going to take this hill. I'm going to take the city of Baghdad at a certain time in my plan. And you back up from that, and all of the logistics, the administration, the conditions, the different phases that have to be accomplished to get to that point. So you always plan backward from the critical event. In this case, it's a strategic goal. There'll be several goals, but we gave an example of one. So you come back from that and you say, OK, to do that, I have to have the Iraqis trained to certain level, and they have to have so many units that are credible. I have to maintain enough outposts or neighborhood police stations within Baghdad, the Baghdad belts. I have to have control of Anbar province. Different things have to -- you back all of that up, and then you also planning on all of that, is how to get out of there, because that's about a year process just to come home, still leaving an advisory force in place.

That's No. 3., advisory force/training, because obviously there is always going to be a U.S. advisory force of some type there. So let's hit on that for a sec.

GRANGE: Sure. The advisory force, obviously to report on the condition and the readiness of these Iraqi units, military and police. It's also to provide support like airpower, communications, medical, et cetera, advisement for tactics, and they need to have -- and they have to continually train these Iraqi units, just like we continually train U.S. units. It's a neverending process. You don't reach a certain level of proficiency and then maintain it forever without training. And then the other part of that, you have to be able to react to anything that goes to hell in a handbasket. So you've got to have a reaction force in the planning and positioning of those aspects.

PHILLIPS: No. 4, contractors and civilian organizations.

GRANGE: How do you get all of them out of there? How many stay? Who takes up all the jobs that still may be needed, that in some cases maybe military forces are doing? Of course today most of them are done by contractors. But how are they protected? How do they continue to work on the infrastructure? That is an unbelievable planning process in itself and a coordination effort by the State Department, and on the way out, the military.

PHILLIPS: This is harder than the initial attack, isn't it?

GRANGE: I'd rather attack any day than withdraw. Withdrawal is very complicated and very dangerous.

PHILLIPS: General David Grange, always great to talk to you. Appreciate it.

GRANGE: My pleasure.

LEMON: Put down that soda can. A new study says people who have too many soft drinks may be harming their heart. Details straight ahead. PHILLIPS: Less than two weeks out of rehab, and already back in again. After an arrest for alleged DUI, we're going to talk with TMZ.com's Harvey Levin for the latest trouble on little old Lindsay Lohan.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, listen up. This one affects just about everybody on the planet. If you plan to drink a soda today, even a diet soda, you may want to think about what it might mean for your health.

Our Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen is here with more on this, all the details. This is very interesting.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is very interesting because of course so many of us do drink sodas, and what they found in this research is that you don't have to drink very much soda to possibly put your health at risk. What they found is that people who drank a lot of soda, and I'll define a lot in a minute, had a higher chance of having problems like high blood pressure, increased cholesterol or cholesterol problems, insulin problems, and also gathering fat around the waist.

Now, these people were not drinking tons and tons of soda. They were having one soda a day. That really isn't very much, and it didn't matter if it was diet or regular, and I think that's really the big surprise.

LEMON: OK, I'm guilty of that -- well, I was. I don't drink soda anymore. But for a while there, only did diet soda because there's no sugar in it and there are no calories, you think it's fine. So why on earth would diet soda cause these symptoms or these problems?

COHEN: You know what, they don't know, and I think even the researchers were surprised by the fact that the diet soda could possibly cause these problems. They have a few thoeries.

One of the theories is that even diet soda is sweet, it's very sweet. And maybe it just makes you crave sweets more and so you want more sweet things because you become accustomed to it. There's also a little bit of scientific evidence that says that diet -- that caramel coloring, which of course is in any dark soda, that that may goof up your insulin levels -- I mean, mess with your insulin level.

LEMON: All right, I got a question.

COHEN: Now, of course, the beverage industry says this all defies common sense, doesn't make any sense at all, they think the study is totally off the mark.

LEMON: OK, so then, is it the chicken or the egg? Is it that people who drink soda maybe are more prone to this, they're couch potatoes, that kind of thing, or ... COHEN: Right, that was my first thought is that if you're drinking a soda a day maybe in general, your health habits aren't that great. But in fact, they controlled for that. In other words, they statistically controlled for that, they took it out of the equation. And still, even if you consider other health habits, the soda seems to be doing something -- according to this one study.

LEMON: So that study, the advice is iksnee (ph) on the soda?

COHEN: Right, but they said if you want to drink less of it. For example, if you're having one every single day, maybe you want to have half a glass every single day.

LEMON: Right.

COHEN: Just sort of, you know, drink a bit less.

LEMON: All right, be cautious. Not iksnee on soda ...

COHEN: Right, right.

LEMON: ...just be careful.

Thank you, Elizabeth Cohen.

COHEN: Thanks.

PHILLIPS: All right, back to the CNN/YouTube debate. Now all voters threw questions at the candidates, we were asking other voters who won points in the debate, who lost ground.

CNN's Randi Kaye tracks the audience response.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This line here, this represents the reaction. A mark above 50 is favorable, below 50 unfavorable, and 50 means no opinion whatsoever. The group rating the debate was made up of undecided Democrats and nonpartisan Independents.

Now let's turn to some of the raw highlights and what we like to call the raw low lights. One of the peaks in audience reaction came in response to Senator Barack Obama on the issue of diplomacy and Iraq.

BARACK OBAMA, (D-IL) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ronald Reagan and Democratic presidents like JFK, constantly spoke to Soviet Union at a time when Ronald Reagan called them an evil empire. And the reason is because they understood ...

KAYE: All right, now during that answer, the audience meters cruised up to -- oh, I don't know, about 80 or so. The viewers apparently liked his idea of talking with Syria and Iran to solve problems in Iraq. Obama also scored high on the question of race and how his would play in this election. OBAMA: If children feel as if the fact that they have a different surname or they've got a different skin color is not going to impede their dreams, then I am absolutely confident that we're going to be able to move forward on the challenges that we face as a country.

KAYE: On that one, the Obama meter hit above 70. Here, you can see that line right there.

Now, see what happens though next when Senator Hillary Clinton responds to how her gender will play.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D-NY) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm excited that I may ...

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: ...you know, may be able finally to break that hardest of all glass ceilings, but obviously I'm not running because I'm a woman. I'm running because I think I'm the most qualified and experienced person to hit the ground running in January 2009.

KAYE: Well, that was a low point for the Clinton camp. The meter took a dive to around 50 actually before it started to climb again.

The biggest spike of the night went to John Edwards. He may be trailing Clinton and Obama, but on health care, one of his key issues, the meter movers thought he was tops.

JOHN EDWARDS, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have got to stand up to the insurance companies and the drug companies that Barack just spoke about. It is the only way we're ever going to bring about real change. We should be outraged by these stories.

KAYE: Take a look at that. Did you see that? The meter hit 90 -- all wait up to 90. That was the most favorable reading of the night.

Now, because of this first of its kind format tonight, we asked our raw reaction reviewers to rate questions as well as answers, like this question about reparations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is African-Americans ever going to get reparations for slavery? I know you'll are going to runaround this question, dipping and dodging. So, let's see how far you'll can get.

KAYE: Yes, well, the only thing that dipped there actually was the meter -- all the way down to 30, the low point of the entire night.

And, when the debate ended, the same group moving meters actually rated each candidate's overall performance, and here's how they stacked up. Take a look. Obama, Biden, Edwards, and on the bottom, Clinton.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, the Republicans get their chance to answer your questions in another CNN/YouTube debate. That's September 17th, only on CNN.

LEMON: Actress Lindsay Lohan arrested again on DUI charges, and already back in rehab. That's according to our next guest. TMZ's Harvey Levin will join us with the strange details, straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: The hunt for Madeleine McCann comes to the United States. The four-year-old British girl disappeared on May 3rd during a family vacation in Portugal. She was snatched from her hotel room while her parents were having dinner 50 to 100 yards away.

Madeleine's father Gerry is in the U.S. He met with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales yesterday to discuss efforts to tackle child abduction. Gerry McCann talked about his daughter on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERRY MCCANN, FATHER OF MADELEINE MCCANN: The investigation is still very active 82 days after she was abducted. But the very disappointing news is we still don't know where Madeleine is, and clearly that's the only thing that will bring happiness back to our family, is the day we get her back. But the police are still working very hard and following quite a lot of information that's coming in.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Gerry, is there any truth to this article that was in Britain's "Daily Mail" that you and your wife could face a child endangerment probe because of the circumstances surrounding Madeleine's disappearance?

MCCANN: That certainly was news to us and we've been assured that the authorities have considered that what we did was well within the bounds of responsible parenting, and what we want to keep the focus on is, you know, Madeleine was targeted by a predator ...

CHETRY: Right.

MCCANN: ...she was taken out of bed while she was sleeping, and that we shouldn't have to be worrying about people getting into your homes or your gardens or your playgrounds for that matter and abducting children. That's the real criminal act here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, Gerry McCann says that the United States continues today, and includes meetings with members of Congress.

LEMON: A sex abuse case dismissed because the court could not find an interpreter.

Here's Greta Kreuse (ph), of CNN affliliate WJLA in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRETA KREUSE, WJLA REPORTER (voice-over): Montgomery County's top prosecutor said he's going to fight a judge's decision to dismiss rape charges against 23-year-old Mahamu Kanneh because the court couldn't find a suitable translator in time.

JOHN MCCARTHY, PROSECUTOR: We believe that that decision to dismiss these charges was improper. We therefore have requested that an appeal be taken to reverse the court's order and to set this matter back in for trial.

KREUSE: Kanneh was charged with nine counts of rape and child sexual abuse involving two female relatives, one seven-years-old, the other only a year-and-a-half. He allegedly abused them repeatedly over the course of a year between September 2003 and August 2004 while living in this Gaithersburg apartment. The older girl lived in this townhouse, just a block or so away.

But Kanneh, who's from Liberia, speaks a rare dialect known as Vai, and the court could not find a translator in time, so three years later, the case was dismissed.

We just happened to meet Matthias Bannister, who speaks Vai outside the courthouse.

KREUSE (on camera): Do you think it's that difficult to find a translator?

MATTHIAS BANNISTER, SPEAKS VAI LANGUAGE: I don't think so, I don't think so. There are, as a matter of fact, there a lot of (ph) Vialese (ph) out there.

KREUSE (voice-over): Prosecutors had argued Kanneh didn't even need a translator since he went to high school here and attended Montgomery Community College. Kanneh now lives in this apartment building in Rockville, mere blocks from the courthouse. A relative who answered the door said he was at work, and declined comment.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: That was Greta Kreuse of CNN affiliate WJLA in Washington. The first interpreter hired by the court stormed out in tears after hearing facts of the case. A second was rejected for not doing a good job, a third was called away for a family emergency. Most recently, an acceptable Vai interpreter was found. But again, the judge had to dismiss the case because too much time had passed.

PHILLIPS: Breaking a sacred trust, a referee at the center of a federal gambling investigation. The NBA commissioner speaks out, that story's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, that's not it. But there's Lindsay Lohan, the latest celebrity mugshot. We're going to show it to you. Lindsay Lohan arrested this morning in Santa Monica, California, and later charged with DUI and cocaine possession. The latest incident, a series of sequels -- seems a sequel for the troubled young star.

TMZ.com's Harvey Levin joins us now. We understand she's already back in rehab, but Harvey, before we get to all of that, I want to read this statement from her attorney we got and you put it up on your Web site just a short time ago.

The attorney says, "Addiction is a terrible and vicious disease, and since Lindsay has transitioned to outpatient care, she has been monitored by this -- on a SCRAM bracelet and tested daily in order to support her sobriety. Throughtout this period, I've received timely and accurate reports from the testing companies. Unfortunately, late yesterday, I was informed that Lindsay had relapsed. The bracelet has now been removed. She is safe, out of custody, and presently receiving medical care."

According to you, that medical care's that's she's back in rehab.

HARVEY LEVIN, TMZ.COM: Yes, we're told she's back in rehab, but she is not back at the facility she went in to last month, the Promises rehab facility. She is not there. We don't know where she is. We know she's not at Promises.

LEMON: OK, so Harvey, we saw that thing -- you know, the photo earlier. It had her with the bracelet on, the ankle bracelet, that SCRAM thing that we talked about. Now this had showed that she had been sober until yesterday. Is that so, because we've been getting reports, we've been seeing TMZ.com that she had been drinking in other places, even before yesterday.

LEVIN: Well, I don't know how reliable SCRAM is in this case because we called one of the honchos at SCRAM early, early this morning as we were putting stories up, and he didn't even know that she had been arrested, much less drinking. So, I'm not sure what that was connected to. But, there was certainly a problem this morning, at least, from all the information we have.

LEMON: Harvey, she just turned 21. How does, at 21-years-old, 18, 19, 20, this has been -- this has been happening for quite a while with Lindsay Lohan. How does one become -- have an addiction problem at that young age, I mean to this degree of severity?

LEVIN: Well, there are lots of people who have addictions. It's not just because you're not of legal age doesn't mean that you're not hitting the bottle, or using drugs. It happens to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of kids in this country. So, that's no surprise.

In her case, she is just -- honestly, she is hardly had a fighting chance. She had a nightmare upbringing with two parents who were at war, the father going in and out of jail having their own rehab problems or substance abuse issues. So, you know ...

LEMON: Yes. LEVIN: ...this has been something that she's been dealing with for an awfully long time and frankly, it's not a huge surprise to me.

LEMON: Yes, and you know what, you hit the nail on head because I think it stems back to what you just said, but also -- you also hit it on the head again. There are lots of people who have these problems, and all these young people, a lot of them, look up to people like Lindsay Lohan, and they think that this is fashionable to do this. They look in the magazines as Lindsay Lohan is in and out of rehab.

What is going on with this young lady? She's got the world at her feet, why would -- why would she even drive, she can afford a driver?

LEVIN: Yes, you know, everybody says that, but when you look at all the celebrities -- a lot of celebrities just want the freedom to go here and there without having a posse because it really gets kind of onerous living a life with somebody always, you know, in tow. So, that doesn't surprise me. You know, it's really easy to say you got the world by a string until you're the one holding it and you know, it's not all that it's cracked up to be.

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