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Bodies of 4 Pre-Term Babies Found in Maryland Home; Al Gore's Son Pleads Guilty to Possessing Marijuana; Mideast Military Upgrade; Review of Military Mental Health Diagnoses

Aired July 30, 2007 - 14:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Michael Vick says he'll be back under the right circumstances. The NFL quarterback and dog fighting suspect reaches out to fans the very day a co-defendant cuts a deal with prosecutors.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: The estate of Nicole Brown Simpson now wants a cut of O.J. Simpson's hypothetical confession. Nicole Simpson's family is another story. The Simpson story could be worth millions.

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

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

It is the top of the hour, and we go straight to Maryland, where just a short time ago a judge denied bail for Christy Freeman. The Ocean City woman has been charged with murder in the death of an infant found at her house last week.

Today, police made another gruesome discovery, the remains of three more babies, all pre-term. Police say they could be years old.

With the very latest, we go to CNN's Brianna Keilar. She joins us now live from Washington -- Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Don.

And actually, those four bodies were found on Thursday and Friday of last week. Police saying that they waited to release that information until today because they didn't want to compromise their investigation. But just a short time ago in the last hour in Worcester County District Court in Ocean City, Maryland, bond was denied for Christy Freeman, the woman that police took into custody last week.

Also right now, Ocean City police have a team of people, about 30 to 35 people, with backhoes and shovels who are digging up parts of Freeman's yard trying to find something. If there is anything at this point, they haven't found anything.

But just to give you a sense of what led police to Freeman's home, early Thursday morning, in the 4:00 hour, she went to a hospital complaining of cramping and bleeding. And when medical staff examined her, they found a placenta with an attached umbilical cord. And obviously a baby was missing.

At that point, they got social services involved. Police got involved. They got a warrant.

They went to her home Thursday night, and they found a dead pre-term baby wrapped in a blanket in her bathroom. Then they continued to search, and in her bedroom they found a trunk.

In the trunk, a large garbage bag, three smaller plastic bags inside. Two of those bags held the remains of the second and third pre-term infants that they found. And in the third bag, police found what they believe is a placenta. Then on Friday morning, police got a warrant for a motor home on Freeman's property, and this is where they found the fourth pre-term dead infant, also wrapped inside of a garbage bag.

Now, it's unclear when the last of the three babies they found, when those babies died. Police are confident that the first baby they found on Thursday did die recently, but they do believe that Freeman carried these babies, that she was pregnant with these babies.

And at this point, she faces charges of first-degree murder, second- degree murder, and manslaughter, all of those charges related to that recent death, the first baby they discovered on Thursday -- Don.

LEMON: Brianna Keilar in Washington.

Thank you, Brianna.

PHILLIPS: Let's get straight to the newsroom now. Betty Nguyen is working details on that developing story, Al Gore III pleading guilty in court today for DUI and drug possession.

What else do we know, Betty?

BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, he did plea guilty, but we also know that the judge says that as long as he as successfully completed a drug diversion program -- and they're giving him 18 months to do this -- once he completes that, it will be essentially as if he never entered that guilty plea. He can withdraw the guilty plea.

Now, Gore, as you'll remember, was allegedly driving a blue Toyota Prius about 100 miles per hour a little bit earlier this month. And after searching the car, officers found less than an ounce of marijuana and a variety of medications.

Well, today, Al Gore III has pleaded guilty to possessing marijuana and other drugs. But according to the judge, once he successfully completes a drug diversion program within the next 18 months, that guilty plea will be withdrawn and it will be essentially as if he never entered it -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. We'll follow up on what happens to Al Gore III next. Meanwhile, we've heard just two words from Michael Vick in the past few weeks -- not guilty. But today the Atlanta Falcons star hit the airwaves, talking to an Atlanta morning radio show. He only obliquely referred to the federal dog fighting case against him, calling it a crisis situation. The quarterback thanks his supporters and discussed his possible future with the Falcons on Atlanta radio station V-103.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

MICHAEL VICK, ATLANTA FALCONS QUARTERBACK: Hopefully so. You know, under the right circumstances, I think, you know, it can work. You know, I know I put the city through a lot (INAUDIBLE). Sincerely, I put him through a lot. And, you know, it's hurt me to put him through these situations and for him to have to deal with that, because he shouldn't have to.

So, like I said, under the right circumstances, you know, there has to be a lot of things that would need to be worked out, you know, for them to put that trust, that faith back in me. But if I had the opportunity, without a doubt, and that's why I was drafted.

You know, I've been there for the last seven years of my life, and I've learned to adapt, you know, in the Atlanta area. And like I said, it wouldn't be a problem. I'd love to come back. But like I said, under the right circumstances.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: But circumstances might have gotten bleaker for Vick today. One of his co-defendants reversed course and pleaded guilty to a dog fighting conspiracy charge. Tony Taylor also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors ahead of Vick's trial, set to being November 26th.

LEMON: It is a book neither side wanted published, but now the Goldman and Brown families are in court over control of the failed O.J. Simpson "If I Did It" book. A decision is expected this afternoon.

And CNN's Susan Candiotti has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Fred Goldman recently won a judgment in bankruptcy court to get the rights to that unpublished book written by O.J. called "If I Did It".

You'll remember that Fred Goldman is the father of Ron Goldman, who was murdered 13 years ago, along with Nicole Brown Simpson. Well, Fred Goldman and the Brown family are both owed tens of millions of dollars in separate civil judgments against O.J. Simpson. Neither has collected any money from him.

Fred Goldman wants to publish the book to help pay off that judgment.

FRED GOLDMAN, RON GOLDMAN'S FATHER: Whether he calls it a work of fiction or not, or nonfiction, the fact is that he murdered two people. And I'd like everybody to hear him virtually say it.

CANDIOTTI: The sister of victim Nicole Brown Simpson, Denise Brown, is against publishing that book. She says no way. Here's what she told CNN about it.

DENISE BROWN, NICOLE BROWN SIMPSON'S SISTER: Fred, this book should not be published. I have said this over and over and over again. It's a manual to commit murder and it just shouldn't be.

CANDIOTTI: But now Denise Brown is saying, hold on. If Fred Goldman is going to get that book published, then Nicole Brown's estate should also get a piece of any benefits from that book because O.J.'s and Nicole's children, Justin and Sydney, should be beneficiaries of any profits that come from that book. So, she wants the judge to consider their role in this as well.

Well, this federal bankruptcy court judge is going to be considering all of this and try to sort things out during a hearing.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: A multibillion-dollar military upgrade in the Mideast, and the U.S. is footing the bill. The beneficiaries -- Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and several neighbors. The goal -- boosting stability, fighting terror and undercutting the likes of al Qaeda, Hezbollah and Iran.

CNN's Aneesh Raman is in Tehran right now. He joins us live via broadband.

Bring us up to date, Aneesh.

ANEESH RAMAN, CNN MIDDLE EAST CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Kyra.

That last goal, of course, something Iran is watching very closely, as they are any potential arms deal between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Today, reaction was swift, it was not too specific, but it came from the country's foreign ministry, who said essentially this is all part of a broader strategy of American policies in the Middle East.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAMAN (voice over): America has always considered one policy in this region, and that is creating fear and making an effort to sell its arms and impose the export of these arms.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAMAN: Now, what he's saying there essentially, Kyra, is that America is looking for money, creating instability so that countries are so afraid they go out and buy arms. But Iran cannot avoid the map.

Other countries that the U.S. is talking to -- Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait -- they're all just across the Persian Gulf from the Islamic republic. There are in the Islamic republic some fears of an arms race that could be looming. But analysts I spoke to said this: Iran doesn't fear any attack from those Gulf countries, it really doesn't fear any attack from anyone but the United States.

Iran has its own weaponry, a lot made on its own. It feels it's in a strong defensive position within the Persian Gulf. And with the U.S. bogged down in Iraq, Iran isn't worried that an attack is imminent -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Well, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Bob Gates traveling today to Saudi Arabia.

How are the Iranians responding to this trip, and who will they really meet with?

RAMAN: Yes. We haven't heard any official reaction yet to the fact that the trip is coming or that this deal is in the works beyond what we heard from the foreign ministry there. Iran will be watching this extremely closely, though.

Keep in mind, in the broader context of the Middle East, you have two competing powers that are here -- Iran, the Shia theocracy, and the Saudis, who are Sunni. They are competing for influence within not just the Middle East, but within Iraq as well. They have been trying to forge ties on their own. It's been difficult at times.

Just some days ago, there was a report of a fatwa issued out of Saudi Arabia by a cleric there calling for the destruction of Shia shrines inside Iraq. That prompted at Friday prayers in Iran condemnation of that. So, there's a lot of animosity that exists already between these countries, so they'll be watching what happens with the U.S. extremely closely -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Aneesh Raman live from Tehran.

Thanks, Aneesh.

LEMON: Exit Blair, enter Brown. The new British prime minister, Gordon Brown, had his first sit-down meeting with President Bush today. Some of Brown's advisers have warned that Downing Street won't parrot the White House when it comes to foreign policy.

But today at Camp David, both leaders stressed their common ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GORDON BROWN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Ladies and Gentlemen, in Iraq, we have duties to discharge and responsibilities to keep. In support of the democratically-elected government, and in support of the explicit will of the international community, expressed most recently through U.N. Resolution 1723, our aim, like the United States, is step by step to move control to the Iraqi authorities, to the Iraqi government, and to its security forces as progress is made.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The notion of America and Britain sharing values is very important in that we have an obligation, it seems to me, to work for freedom and justice around the world. And I've found a person who shares that vision and who understands the call.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The prime minister also plans to meet with leaders on Capitol Hill during his U.S. visit. He'll also speak at the United Nations.

PHILLIPS: So, is the V.A. to blame for a marine suicide? Ahead in the NEWSROOM, the young man's family joins us in the NEWSROOM to talk about why they're suing the Veterans Administration.

LEMON: And an uproar on the streets of Baghdad. Iraqis coming together for a common cause.

That story straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

It's 2:14 Eastern Time. Here are three of the stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM this hour.

Just last hour, a Maryland judge denied bail for this woman, Christy Freeman, charged with killing her pre-term infant. But more charges could be on the way.

Police now say they've found the bodies of three other pre-term bodies on her property. This is new video we're just about to see of that search from our affiliate WBOC.

There you go. There's the video. Our affiliate just getting that in to us from WBOC. Affiliate college.

Obviously, investigators on the scene trying to find if there could be more dead babies.

Michael Vick speaking out for the first time since being indicted on dog fighting charges. The Atlanta Falcons quarterback tells a local radio station he still hopes to return to the field. Meantime, a co- defendant has pleaded guilty and is pledging to cooperate with investigators.

And a hearing right now in Washington on whether the popular diabetes drug Avandia should be pulled from the market. The government says Avandia puts people at higher risk for heart attacks. The drug's maker disputes that.

LEMON: For one brief, shining moment, there was peace in Iraq. OK, maybe peace isn't the best word, but this certainly isn't war.

It's a long-overdue national moment of triumph after Iraq's national soccer team won the Asian Cup. But even here there was bloodshed. Four people killed in the celebratory gunfire, but for once, death and despair were overshadowed by victory and hope.

And CNN's Arwa Damon was right in the middle of it all. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The U.S. military took us into the streets of Kadmiya (ph), where it felt much more like a Mardi Gras celebration than a war zone.

(on camera): The mood here is absolutely electrifying. I have no idea what just happened, but everyone is out having an amazing time!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very happy today because my team Iraqi is victory! OK! Go! Go!

DAMON (voice over): Some Iraqis in strange costumes. Others grabbing anything just to make more noise.

UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Go! Go! Go!

DAMON: And some bizarre sights.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am woman (INAUDIBLE).

DAMON: Euphoria everyone wishes Iraq could have forever.

Arwa Damon, CNN, Baghdad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Satisfying a thirst for truth? PepsiCo opens the tap and reveals the source of its bottled water straight ahead from the CNN NEWSROOM.

Exorcism or abuse? Police say a seemingly inconspicuous had a bizarre bloody scene.

That story from the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: So, what is in your bottled water? Whatever it is, it's better than plain tap water, right? Well, not so fast.

CNN's Rob Marciano has the story now from Douglasville, Georgia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Don't let that scenic logo fool you. This water is not bottled from a mountain stream.

Now PepsiCo plans to spell it out for consumers, adding the words "public water source" to the label of its Aquafina brand. And in case you didn't know, Aquafina is actually just purified tap water.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That would make me never want to buy Aquafina again, knowing that it was bottled public water. Like, just tap water.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. No, that's just not cool.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's -- what am I paying for?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How does that make you feel?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Like I've been bamboozled and hoodwinked all this time.

MARCIANO: In a statement on Friday, PepsiCo said, "If this helps to clarify the fact that water originates from public sources, then it's a reasonable thing to do."

Coca-Cola's Dasani does the same thing, purifies and bottles public drinking water. One environmental group found at least 25 percent of bottled water is actually just tap water. Sometimes purified, sometimes not.

MAYOR GAVIN NEWSOM, SAN FRANCISCO: We are now exposing an underbelly truth. That is, a big percentage of bottled water in this country is tap water.

MARCIANO: San Francisco's mayor banned city workers from buying bottle water, citing environmental concerns and saving the city half a million a year.

And let's face it, it's expensive. Brands like Fiji can cost $8 a bottle or more at high-end hotels. Ironic that drought have led to water shortages on the island that exports it.

In total, Americans snapped up $11 billion worth of bottled water last year, all in a country that has some of the cleanest public water in the world.

MARCIANO: Spring water, artesian well water, purified tap water -- not too long ago, it would have seemed a little wacky to sell bottled water. But now it's become part of our culture. And sales of these bottles rank second only to carbonated soft drinks.

So, in this saturated market, it's increasingly important for you know exactly what you're paying for.

Rob Marciano, CNN, Douglasville, Georgia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(BUSINESS REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon. He survived the battle for Iraq, but this Marine couldn't survive the battle in his head. His parents say Uncle Sam could have saved him but denied him instead. Well hear his story straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We go now to Maryland where a judge has denied bail for Christy Freeman. The Ocean City woman is charged with murder in the death of a preterm infant found at her home last week. Police then found the remains of three more babies, all of them preterm.

It all started on Thursday when Freeman went to a hospital complaining of cramping and bleeding. When doctors examined her, they found an umbilical cord but no baby. Police searched her home and found the tiny bodies. All are believed to have come from Freeman.

A medical examiner is working to determine the cause of death before more charges are filed in that case.

A fatal ending to a reported exorcism. Police burst into a home in Phoenix, Arizona, over the weekend after hearing a child screaming. They say they found a three-year-old being choked by her grandmother (ph) and they had to use a stun gun to subdue him. He later died. The exact cause is not known. Relatives say the 49-year-old man was trying to release demons. The little girl is hospitalized along with her 19-year-old mother, who was found naked and bloody inside the house.

PHILLIPS: Mental health and the military. Thousands of G.I.s coming home from war find themselves discharged after being diagnosed with personality disorders. But critics say in some cases it's a misdiagnosis that cuts off military men and women from the exact help that they need. CNN's Deborah Feyerick has one story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Army Specialist Jeans Cruz looked down into the foxhole when Saddam Hussein came out hands up.

ARMY SPEC. JEANS CRUZ, DISCHARGED WITH PERSONALITY DISORDER: There he was, a man who looked like a bum.

FEYERICK: He received awards for courage, a big deal for a kid who grew up poor in the projects in the Bronx, New York.

(on camera): They gave you parades, they gave you proclamations, they gave you awards. You were a hero. Do you feel as if you are a hero?

CRUZ: A hero, I consider a person who goes out there dies right now. Because he died for his country. I didn't die. Physically and mentally, I died, but I'm here.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Back home with his parents and four-year-old son, Cruz says he was getting panic attacks. He couldn't eat or sleep and was drinking heavily, haunted by images of dead children.

CRUZ: A lot of children I seen died and shot at and had myself wounded, several of them had to die.

FEYERICK: Even though he was consumed by thoughts of suicide and self-mutilation, thoughts Army personnel knew about, the Army let him reenlist two weeks after he signed a paper agreeing he would not hurt himself or anyone else.

He sought help with a military counselor. But when the problems didn't go away, the army gave him an honorable discharge citing what it claimed was pre-existing personality disorder, even though he says he had no history of any.

CRUZ: They're claiming that I've had past depression.

FEYERICK: Like some 22,000 others in all five branches of the military who were discharged with a personality order in the past six years, Cruz was denied all disability, medical, and financial benefits.

Had the military diagnosed him with posttraumatic stress, a condition with many of the same symptoms, he would have received all benefits.

BRIDGET WILSON, ATTORNEY: I think it's one of the great disgraces of military medicine.

FEYERICK: Lawyer Bridget Wilson represents soldiers like Cruz.

WILSON: The real reason that personality disorder diagnoses are misused is expediency. It saves money, it saves time, it gets a problem out of my hair. It gets me a replacement fast.

LT. COL. ELSPETH RITCHIE, ARMY PSYCHIATRIST: I am not concerned about money. I am concerned about taking care of soldiers and I'm also concerned about the readiness of the unit.

FEYERICK: Lieutenant Colonel Elspeth Ritchie is one of the Army's top military psychiatrists.

RITCHIE: If somebody meets a criteria of a long-standing, maladaptive pattern of behavior, that meets the criteria for a personality disorder, then that may be the appropriate separation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Well, that was CNN's Deb Feyerick reporting. Now, the Army says it's reviewing about 6,000 personality disorder cases in hopes of uncovering possible mistakes. Now, misdiagnosis of mental health problems is just one of a growing list of ills at the V.A. Earlier this year, you remember "The Washington Post" uncovered appalling conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Veterans' affairs secretary Jim Nicholson says he is resigning in October and a veterans' group is suing him and others claiming the V.A. and others mishandled their mental health claim.

Nicholson is also facing a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of this man, Marine Corporal and Iraq War veteran Jeffrey Lucey. They say the V.A. did not give their son treatment for posttraumatic stress when he returned from battle. Corporal Lucey killed himself in June of 2004. We're going to be joined by his parents, Joyce and Kevin Lucey, in just a moment. LEMON: But first coming up, vacations, weddings, even funerals missed all because of a huge backlog in passport applications. SO what's the solution? Details straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Mental health and the military. Back to our top story this half hour. The Army says it's reviewing about 6,000 personality disorder cases in hopes of uncovering possible mistakes.

Misdiagnosis of mental health problems is just one of a growing list of ills at the V.A. You'll remember earlier this year "The Washington Post" uncovered appalling conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Veterans' affairs secretary Jim Nicholson says he's resigning in October, and a veterans' group is suing him and others claiming the V.A. mishandled their mental health claims.

Nicholson is also facing a wrongful death suit filed by the parents of this man, Marine Corporal and Iraq War veteran Jeffrey Lucey. They say the V.A. did not give their son treatment for posttraumatic stress when he returned from battle. Corporal Lucey killed himself in June of 2004. Joyce and Kevin Lucey join me from Chicopee, Massachusetts.

Really glad to have you both with us. I know it's a tough subject.

JOYCE LUCEY, MOTHER OF CORPORAL LUCEY: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Kevin, I want to start you. How did Jim Nicholson and his department fail you, fail your wife, fail your son, fail your family?

KEVIN LUCEY, FATHER OF CORPORAL LUCEY: When we started noticing that Jeff was having so many problems, we were trying to get Jeff to go to the V.A. because we thought they were going to be the angels, for lack of a better word. And we brought him finally after convincing him that they would not tell the military because Jeff was so frightened of that stigma.

And then what happened is that on May 28 we brought him in. But during that period of time, it was three and a half days, a psychiatrist at the beginning to admit him involuntarily had him at then saw him at the end to discharge him but no one really saw him in between. And there was no treatment given. It was basically detoxification of the alcohol, which Jeff was detoxed by the second day he was there, and then they said that he was going to have to remain sober for him to be assessed for PTSD.

And of course Jeff -- we tried to bring Jeff back on June 5, but they didn't call anyone to assess him, and then 17 days later Jeff hung himself.

PHILLIPS: And, Joyce, you were telling me this was not your son. Tell me the changes that you saw in him and what was it that he experienced in Iraq that you think caused him to make these changes in his personality.

J. LUCEY: You know, I don't think we're ever going to know what he experienced in Iraq. But the boy that was on the deck in our backyard speaking to me was not my son. He was in my son's body. But the eyes that were looking at me and the tone, the monotone voice, was not my child.

He kind of went into a variety of stories, none of which are we sure are true about seeing elderly people that were killed and about a little boy that he saw that was dead holding an American flag. But whatever did occur destroyed our son, and the boy that came back to us was not the boy that we sent.

PHILLIPS: And Kevin, what did you notice? I mean, tell me how your son was and how he was a different person when he came back from that war.

K. LUCEY: Well, Jeff, when he was growing up, he was fun loving, he was laughing, and he always had a smile on his face. After he came back, we immediately noticed that he was vomiting every single day. And we sent him to the doctor. There was no medical causation.

Then as time went on, the real symptom that first broke out occurred on December 24, 2003, when our daughter went back to her house during that Christmas Eve and Jeff was drunk and crying and he threw his dog tags, which Joyce is wearing, at his sister saying that he was nothing more than a murderer.

Then what happened is he was okay but then mid-March everything started exploding. He was drinking heavily. He couldn't sleep. He wasn't eating that much. He was having ha hallucinations. If they were visual hallucinations, tactile, audio. He heard camel spiders at night. His whole life was falling apart.

PHILLIPS: God, and Joyce, it's not like he was ignoring a problem. It's not like you two were ignoring a problem. You all reached out for help and didn't get it. So, what could have saved your son's life? What do you believe the V.A. could have done?

J. LUCEY: Well, I believe he should have been assessed for PTSD. They told us that they couldn't assess him until he was alcohol free. And when Jeffrey -- it was about a week before he did die, he stopped drinking. We called them at that point, and there was only a very small window of time that we had to do something. And they needed to be able to have the means to get him right then and there and get him into a facility.

And I think there's too much red tape and they dropped the ball and a week later, Jeffrey was gone.

PHILLIPS: And we tried to get a statement -- tried to get an interview, rather with Veterans' Affairs and did not, but we did get a statement. "The Department of Veterans' Affairs is committing to meeting the mental health care needs of all veterans. It would be inappropriate to comment directly upon a potential or pending lawsuit."

Kevin, it's not just your son, but there was another death that inspired you to take action as well. Tell me about Jonathan Schultz. K. LUCEY: On January 16, 2007, it appeared that Jonathan and his father, Jim, and step mom Maryann (ph), had gone to the V.A. previous that week, and from what we understand from his father, Jonathan told the V.A. that he was having very serious problems, he was suicidal, and the V.A. placed him 26th on a waiting list to go into the V.A.. And four days later, he hung himself. So, two and a half years after our son died, and after assurances had been given us by V.A. personnel, we came to find out that it was only words. Nothing had been done.

And we feel very strongly Jonathan was abandoned just like our son was. The government, the past Congresses have turned their backs to the veterans coming back once they've been used on the battlefield.

PHILLIPS: Joyce, final question. When you look at and hold those dog tags around your neck, what do you think about?

J. LUCEY: Oh, I think these were extremely important to Jeffrey in the last days of his life. He wore them, he told his private counselor to honor the two men that he felt that he had killed. So, in a way, we wear these or I wear these to honor my son.

PHILLIPS: Well, we lift up your son and honor him today as well. Kevin and Joyce Lucey, it takes a lot of guts to do what you're doing. We'll follow the case. And appreciate your time today.

J. LUCEY: Thank you.

K. LUCEY: Thank you.

LEMON: For months now we've been telling you about that huge backlog in passport applications. Of course, if you're one of the almost 2 million applicants whose summer travel plans were in danger or in shambles, well, you didn't need to be told about it. Now, however, progress thanks to newfound pool of temporary labor. CNN's Sean Callebs reports from New Orleans.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Angry and tired of waiting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I pay taxes. I deserve better.

CALLEBS: The passport backlog reached nearly 2 million. The State Department's plan to ease the burden, call in the interns, albeit the best and the brightest.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They brought us into a meeting and said there's a need, we need you to go, and we need you to leave next week and start training. A little bit of shock factor, I think.

CALLEBS: About 200 employees, many presidential management fellows, paid interns with graduate degrees, told they must go to either New Orleans or Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to process passport applications. The backlog was created early this year when the U.S. mandated everyone travel to Mexico, the Caribbean, Bermuda or Canada needed a passport. The result, nearly 1.5 million more applications than the government anticipated.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The American public needs their passports and they deserve their passports in a timely fashion. And they really did a very quick, efficient job at mobilizing a large amount of people to address this problem.

CALLEBS: New Orleans handles passport applications from 14 states. It already faced a severe backlog after being closed for months following Hurricane Katrina.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the attitude in the department and all the people that have come down from Washington is we're here to work, we're here to do a lot of passports.

CALLEBS: In June, the New Orleans office completed 188,000 passport applications. The newest crop of workers are having an immediate impact. This month, more than 200,000 applications are expected to be processed. By September, the government hopes to reduce the average wait time from three months to two.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are making a dent, which is I think exactly why we're here.

CALLEBS: Making a dent now, but there was a certain degree of grumbling when State Department employees first come out found out they had to come here to New Orleans or to New Hampshire.

(on camera): But that has changed somewhat. The workers here are staying at a luxury hotel on Canal Street, they are working 4:00 p.m. until midnight which gives them a lot of time to enjoy the music and food of Bourbon Street, and some are giving back to this community by working for Habitat for Humanity. Sean Callebs, CNN, New Orleans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Got some wildfire dangers happening in the country. We want to check in with our Chad Myers in the Weather Center to see what's up. Hi, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know what, buddy.

LEMON: What?

MYERS: Of the fires that are still burning in Idaho and Montana, showed you pictures a little bit earlier, 980,000 acres have burned so far this year. You do the division, that's 1,500 square miles. And no relief for the firefighters today. Missoula, Cut Bank, Bozeman, all making runs at 100 yesterday. They'll do the same thing today.

Over 30 active fires. It's even hard to tell where the heck we are here. Here's Spokane, here's Great Falls. This is all of Montana. So it's the mountain area, the basin area as well where all the trees are. Really, you know, the wheat fields of Montana don't burn. They can but they usually don't. This is the area that does, though, when all this very dry, tinder dry trees and things that just haven't had much rain this year and not much help today. Record highs, relative low humidities, somewhere around five percent, and thunder and lightning with rain showers that don't make enough rain to put the fire out after the lightning sparks it. That's going to be the problem again today.

The good news is tomorrow you get a cold front to roll through there. It's good and bad. Shifts the wind direction, cools you down, raises the humidity, so those are all good things. But also we'll make some wind and wind and a forest fire or any type of wild land fire, Don, not a good combination.

LEMON: Not a good combination.

MYERS: No.

LEMON: Thank you, sir. We'll check back with you.

MYERS: All right.

PHILLIPS: Well, one of the world's busiest airports cracks down on security. Passengers call it a nightmare. Airlines agree it's a big problem. What you need to know about the not so friendly skies straight ahead from the CNN NEWSROOM.

A.J. HAMMER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm A.J. Hammer in New York. One star was supposed to get married this weekend. He didn't. But another star wasn't and he did. I'm going to tell you who tied the knot and who stayed untied when the NEWSROOM returns.

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LEMON: You know, this is news to me. Usher was supposed to get married this weekend. I knew he was supposed to get married but I didn't know it was this weekend. But at the last minute, the wedding was called off. SHOWBIZ TONIGHT's A.J. Hammer is going to tell us all about that. A.J. joins us now. What happened?

HAMMER: Well, Don, we're not sure exactly who pulled the plug on the planned nuptials in this case. The wedding between Usher and Tamika Foster was supposed to take place at music mogul L.A. Reid's estate on Saturday. But just hours before the wedding was scheduled to get under way, all the high-powered guests were told the ceremony was off.

Now, Usher's publicist did put out a statement announcing the cancellation, but there wasn't any explanation as to exactly why it was canceled. There are reports floating around that Usher's mother doesn't approve of the bride and she wasn't even going to attend the wedding. There are also some stories floating around that Foster and Usher couldn't agree on what sort of reception they wanted. Whatever the case, we don't know what's next for Foster and Usher but they don't appear to be going their separate ways. Right now Foster is pregnant with Usher's child. She is due this fall.

Now "People" magazine reported that a source told them the wedding was being rushed together over the last couple of weeks so that Foster could get married before the baby bump was showing. So, Don, maybe this is just a case of trying to rush an event that obviously takes an awful lot of planning.

LEMON: I don't know. I did a thing on James Brown and met them a couple months ago. Her ring was like ...

HAMMER: Oh, yeah.

LEMON: Gigantic.

HAMMER: When you make an Usher coin, that's the size of the ring.

LEMON: On the other hand though, A.J., we have another star who pulled off a surprise wedding over the weekend. They didn't call it off.

HAMMER: No, I love this and I love how he did this, he is one of my favorite actor, comedians, he's also a comedian and now he's a husband for the second time. We're talking about Steve Martin. He surprised his friends with a wedding yesterday.

He's how it went down. The 61-year-old actor married 35-year-old writer Anne Stringfield. Now the guests at the wedding which included Tom Hanks and Diane Keaton, among others, thought they were just attending a regular old house party.

Instead, former Senator Bob Kerrey presided over the ceremony and Martin's best man was Lorne Michaels, of course the creator of "Saturday Night Live." And that might explain why Martin has hosted "SNL" more than anyone else.

Of course, Don, we are wishing the happy couple all the best. I think it's kind of cool. A surprise wedding, no worries about paparazzi showing up, I guess.

LEMON: Absolutely. Anytime there's no paparazzi, I guess that's good, unless you want the paparazzi.

All right. We talked about Lindsay Lohan last week. And I think I know what you're going to tell me because I read some of the reviews. She had movie come out over the weekend. How did it do?

HAMMER: Two words. Not well. The movie, "I Know Who Killed Me" was really the one that died at the box office over the weekend. It took in just $3.9 million. By comparison, the number one movie at the box office was "The Simpsons," that had a $72 million take in ticket sales.

People may have simply avoided the movie because they were turned off by all the bad publicity surrounding Lohan or maybe they were turned off by the reviews. Let me quote a couple of them for you. "The Boston Globe" called it "intensely unpleasant." "Variety" called it "a disaster."

Lohan plays two characters in the film who are identical, but I assure you this is not "The Parent Trap," which of course put her on the map. Lohan is playing a stripper and a torture victim. Not everyone panned the movie, I should point out. "The Washington Post" review called it a "credible piece of pop entertainment." And they said that Lohan was "brilliant" on the screen.

She will be the focus on SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. With "I Know Who Killed Me" a box office bomb, certifiably, with serious criminal charges against her, is America saying Lindsay Lohan's career is killed? We've got all the Hollywood drama tonight on TV's most provocative entertainment news show, it is SHOWBIZ TONIGHT. We look forward to you joining us at 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific on Headline Prime. Don?

LEMON: Now that's the way you tease ahead, A.J. I want to see that. Thank you, sir.

HAMMER: You got it.

PHILLIPS: Straight ahead, a frantic rescue effort. Bystanders jump into action to save children as floodwaters rage. We're going to hear from the two heroes straight ahead from the CNN NEWSROOM.

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