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Supreme Court Chief Justice Suffers Seizure; Alaska Senator Ted Stevens Targeted in Bribery Investigation
Aired July 31, 2007 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Is it really a matter of life and death or simply a question of timing? A transplant surgeon stands accused of not letting nature take its course with a comatose donor.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And our Lou Dobbs weighs in on the case of the Border Patrol agents sentenced to prison for shooting a drug smuggler. It's an international incident that has mushroomed into outrage.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
PHILLIPS: And I'm Kyra Phillips. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Police in Maryland sifting through dirt, looking for more evidence of a grisly crime. Christy Freeman is charged with at least one death after the discovery of her body -- or the discovery of the body of her newborn son. Remains of three other preterm infants have also been found.
Our Kathleen Koch is following the investigation in Ocean City, Maryland.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Police here in Ocean City, Maryland, are literally combing through the property of the home behind us, where 37-year-old Christy Freeman lived with her boyfriend and her four children.
Early this morning, police resumed the search not only of the yard of their property, but also of an empty lot just to the east, ripping all the remaining vegetation, then a line of police walking through the yard with prods, searching the ground, and now today as the day goes, taking that dirt and putting it into giant sifters and combing through it, looking for any evidence. And, of course, the possibility of the remains of more tiny infants.
Cadaver dogs were brought here to the site Saturday and Sunday. And police tell us they did get a few hits on a couple of locations. So, police want to make sure they don't overlook anything.
The story beginning back Thursday and about Friday of last week, when police came here to Freeman's property after she reported to the hospital with bleeding and cramping. And admitted that she had given birth to a baby, but she said she had flushed it down the toilet.
Police came here, found the remains of not one but four preterm infants. Now, the police chief this morning spoke to us about the investigation that's being conducted into those tiny bodies.
BERNADETTE DIPINO, OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND, POLICE CHIEF: All the evidence that we have right now leads us to believe that they all belong to Ms. Freeman, but we aren't ruling out anything and we will wait for a DNA analysis to get a final determination.
But we're working in cooperation with the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. And it will take at least several months, if not up to a year, to be able to determine a lot of this information, but we're going to be aggressively investigating this case.
KOCH: Right now, Freeman is being held without bond in the county jail. She faces charges of first-degree murder, second-degree murder and man slaughter in the deaths of the first infant. The Baltimore medical examiner's office says that the infant was found underneath the sink in Freeman's bathroom on Thursday. They estimate it to be 28 weeks old. They stay it was stillborn.
So, obviously, police trying to determine why that baby was stillborn, if Freeman did anything to cause that. Other charges could be pending, depending, again, on when the other preterm infants died and just how they died.
And, as for the search, police say, it will continue here through at least another day.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Ocean City, Maryland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Autopsies are scheduled today on the bodies of two young children found wrapped in trash bags under an apartment sink near Charleston, South Carolina. Police say their mother had left her 1-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son in her car while she was at work.
Temperatures in Charleston hit 88 degrees yesterday. Detectives say the mother is distraught. She was taken to a hospital after supposedly talking about hurting herself.
LEMON: It is not constitutional, not legal. The pressing issue facing the chief justice of the United States is personal. John Roberts left a Maine hospital late this morning after a series of tests following a seizure and a fall at his summer home.
CNN's Allan Chernoff is in Rockport, Maine, with the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Justice Roberts walked out of the hospital at 11:20 this morning, 20 hours after arriving in an ambulance. Yesterday afternoon, he suffered a seizure. It happened on a dock on an island off the coast of Maine where he has a vacation home. He was treated for bruises suffered when he fell after the seizure, and then brought over here.
Neurologists did a brain scan. They found no reason for the seizure. They call it an idiopathic benign seizure, apparently not uncommon among seizures. The Supreme Court said, there was no reason for worry, no cause for concern at all, according to the Supreme Court.
Nonetheless, Justice Roberts was held here overnight as a precaution. The docs checked him this morning and he was released. We should note, this is at least the second seizure that Justice Roberts has had. We know he had one in 1993, when he was 38 years old.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, Rockport, Maine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Prosecutors say this California surgeon did something you might see in a horror movie, not a hospital.
Dr. Hootan Roozrokh is accused of giving death an illegal push when a man didn't die fast enough to donate his organs.
Reporter Evelyn Taft of CNN affiliate KCOY picks up the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EVELYN TAFT, KCOY REPORTER (voice-over): Ruben Navarro is gone, but the legal battle surrounding his death isn't. The San Luis Obispo County DA filed three felony charges against San Francisco-based doctor Hootan Roozrokh, the man overseeing the organ donation. The DA says the first charge is based on the mistreatment of the severely disabled patient.
As for the others:
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Count two is administering a harmful substance to a patient, and the third count is a health and safety code violation of administering a controlled substance that's outside of appropriate medical care.
TAFT: Last January, Navarro went to Sierra Vista Regional Medical center. He was in cardiac arrest. Doctors didn't think he was going to make it. His mom took him off life support. The transplant team was called in. Dr. Roozrokh was the head of the team. Navarro continued to breathe on his own for seven hours.
M. GERALD SCHWARTZBACH, ATTORNEY FOR ROOZROKH: Dr. Roozrokh did not in fact intend to hasten Mr. Navarro's death. And, in fact, he did not hasten his death. He was there to recover organs in order that other people might live. But he never intended to do anything unethical, and he never did.
TAFT: OK.
SCHWARTZBACH: Evidence the fact that Mr. Navarro continued to live for seven hours after Dr. Roozrokh and the medical team left.
TAFT: But attorneys for the victim's family say the seven hours proved he had a chance to live. They say the standard rule says, if the patient lives beyond 30 minutes, he or she is no longer qualified to be a donor. The DA says it's the first case of its kind in the country.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as we know, this is a case of first impression.
TAFT: But regardless of who is right, attorneys from both sides say the case is making a permanent mark in the medical community.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And that was from Evelyn Taft from our affiliate KCOY. The doctor faces up to eight years in prison if he's convicted.
LEMON: Well, it's one of those stories that makes you really mad and also really sad, a woman accused of adopting 11 children just to collect the government subsidies. Worse, all appear to have been abused.
Now ranging in age from 15 to 27, they were malnourished and had no more than a fourth grade education. Police discovered all this after an 18-year-old girl told them she had been abandoned at a supermarket and led them to Judith Leekin's home.
The girl told police that Leekin used zip ties and handcuffs to restrain them. According to investigators, Leekin herself lived quite the high life with at least two homes and several cars.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPTAIN SCOTT BARTAL, PORT ST. LUCIE, FLORIDA, POLICE DEPARTMENT: The matter in which the person that we're looking at, their lifestyle, the properties that they own, the only source of income that we can attribute this to would be any income that was coming as a result of caring for these people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, Leekin remains jailed on charges of abuse, false I.D. and witness tampering. More charges are expected in this case.
A highway nightmare in Northern California. Take a look. A bridge under construction in Oroville collapses, raining huge metal beams and other debris onto the road below. One beam fell on a FedEx truck, trapping the injured driver inside. Rescuers spent more than two hours cutting him out of the cab.
The construction worker was also hurt. And a third injury happened when a car hit a state transportation truck helping to reroute traffic.
PHILLIPS: Well, security in Iraq is not great, but it's better than it was -- that assessment from Admiral Michael Mullen, President Bush's choice to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
He's been grilled today by the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has to approve his nomination.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADMIRAL MICHAEL MULLEN, JOINTS CHIEFS CHAIRMAN NOMINEE: Security is critical to providing the government of Iraq the breathing space it needs to work toward political, national reconciliation and economic growth, which are themselves critical to a stable Iraq. Barring that...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: The admiral added that there's no doubt that U.S. forces in Iraq, particularly the ground troops, are stretched thin, but morale, he says, is high.
Now, about 20,000 U.S. troops are scheduled to ship out to Iraq starting in December. That's part of the regular rotation of forces and not related to the troop buildup plan. The replacement forces will come from Camp Pendleton, California, and Fort Hood, Texas. Right now, there are about 159,000 U.S. troops in Iraq.
LEMON: The Army is looking for a few good recruits. Make that a lot of recruits. And it's offering a lot of dough to boost its rolls. But there's a catch. You pretty much have to be packed and ready to go.
Reporter Dave Wagner of CNN affiliate WLWT has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're looking for individuals from 17 to 42.
DAVE WAGNER, WLWT REPORTER (voice-over): They are the men and women in the trenches of tristate Army recruiting.
SGT. ROB TALLY, STATION COMMANDER: We're staying busy, staying busy processing people that want to enlist. But we also stay busy trying to find new enlistees.
WAGNER: With a war overseas, keeping an Army strong is a challenge.
MAJ. MCKINLEY CUNNINGHAM, U.S. ARMY: We're recruiting because America still needs a standing Army.
WAGNER: The head of tristate Army recruiting told us three weeks ago that local recruiters are unlikely to meet their goals this year, in part because of concern about the dangers of serving in Iraq.
(on camera): What is the number one question you get from potential recruits?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will I go?
And we just say yes.
WAGNER: Now Army recruiters have a new tool to attract people, a $20,000 Q.S. bonus. Q.S. stands for quick shipper, recruits willing to ship out for training in 30 days.
At Boone County High School, students we talked with say the money may be sweet music to their ears, but not enough to convince them to join.
JARED SNOW, HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR: I don't think for that reason to go over to Iraq, I don't think that would be worth it to me. But it would appeal to me.
(LAUGHTER)
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
WAGNER: The Army is doing what it can to help with public perception, parachutes drops into Great American Ball Park and co- sponsoring the Reds Legends baseball camp this week. With a war overseas, Congress has approved up to 35,000 new Army positions. Finding those people is a challenge.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A lot of people are dissuaded because of our current situation, the current world situation. And, as this draws down, whenever it does, I'm sure that we will see a pickup in recruiting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: We asked you to e-mail us your thoughts on the big signing bonus.
PHILLIPS: Here's what Marlin writes: "Why didn't they just call our Army a bunch of mercenaries? A draft should be started on a lottery basis with no exceptions for social or financial status. It never ceases to amaze me how so few are bearing the burden of this war. It is unfair at any salary."
LEMON: "I do not believe that $20,000 will work, because young people are smarter than the military surmises. Who will risk their lives for this amount after seeing lives being lost?"
PHILLIPS: "This program will attract and kill off the least advantaged of our youth. Why not take that $20,000 per person and turn it into college scholarships for those in need?"
LEMON: And someone else writes: "If we are really patriotic, why isn't the patriotism enough of a motivator? And where are those patriots who think we need to fight them there so we don't have to fight them here? Talk is cheap, but money buys the beer."
Thanks to all of you who e-mailed us.
PHILLIPS: Well, he has met the president, members of Congress. Today, it's the United Nations.
Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, addressed the U.N., using his time at the podium to push for global development, poverty, health care, and education all issues that he's urging nations to address. Mr. Brown also met with the U.N. secretary-general.
LEMON: Inside the mind of a murder suspect -- letters from prison revealing new information in the Connecticut home invasion case. A friend speaks out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Sixteen past the hour, three of the stories we're working on for you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
John Roberts walking, waving and smiling. The chief justice of the United States is out of a Maine hospital where he underwent tests after suffering a seizure at his vacation home yesterday. Doctors haven't been able to pinpoint the seizure's cause.
In Northern California, construction crews have a lot of extra work a their hands. They now have to stabilize a bridge that collapsed while being built in Oroville. One of the steel beams fell on a FedEx truck and injured the driver. He had to be cut out.
Ocean City, Maryland, bulldozers are digging around the home of Christy Freeman. Police earlier found four dead preterm babies on her property. She's being held without bail.
PHILLIPS: Hundreds of mourners have paid their final respect to the Connecticut woman and her two daughters killed last week in their own home. Only the woman's husband and the girls' father survived what police are calling a home invasion that turned inexplicably vicious. Two men are charged.
One, Joshua Komisarjevsky, has not entered a plea. One of his closest friends spoke with our Randi Kaye.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This woman says she and suspect Joshua Komisarjevsky have been close friends for seven years. They met through his ex-girlfriend. She asked us to protect her identity, but agreed to share these letters she says she received from him during his last few years in prison exclusively with 360.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "Prison was a hard pill for me to swallow. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't get angry. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't feel the pain of being taken from my daughter. I use that anger and emotion to keep myself in check and to stay disciplined, so that I can get where I want to be."
KAYE: The letters include a great deal about Komisarjevsky's dislike for police, his love for his daughter, and his anger at her mother, his ex-girlfriend.
He also writes about politics, taxes, the Constitution, and a desire to make an honest living.
(on camera): A lot of people would be surprised that an alleged would-be killer would be discussing things like that in letters to you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it is surprising, you know? I mean, he obviously wasn't a stupid people.
KAYE (voice-over): Komisarjevsky shares his dreams. When he's released, he writes, he would like to become a real estate developer. There is no hint of violence.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I'll be playing nice, though, when I'm released. I can't afford mindless indulgences or a lack of discipline to attention to detail. My daughter needs me, and I can't accomplish my goals when I'm locked up."
KAYE: But it seems those plans were sidetracked. Komisarjevsky and fellow suspect Steven Hayes are charged with taking the Petit family hostage in their own home, strangling Mrs. Petit, and leaving her daughters to die in the fire police say they set.
Komisarjevsky is also accused of sexually assaulting 11-year-old Michaela. Mr. Petit survived.
On these pages, a disturbing hint of what Komisarjevsky seemed to fear would come.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: "I need someone like you who knows a little about my past to keep me grounded in the future, when my criminal demon starts to wander."
KAYE: The last time this woman spoke to Komisarjevsky was just five days before the murders. He was under pressure, she says, to win custody of his daughter, and distraught over a breakup.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was really, really depressed. He wasn't talking back to me. He wasn't talking back to me.
And I was like, "Josh, you know, you want to go do something? You want to get out of the house?"
"No, no, no."
KAYE: She describes her friend as quiet, giving and a master burglar, able to get in and out of homes in a matter of seconds. She says, if he did attack the Petit family, then something inside him must have gone terribly wrong.
(on camera): How hard has this been for you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been really hard, you know. I'm not sleeping at night. I keep waking up. I think that, you know, he put the terror into these poor girls' hearts. And he was the person that -- that they spent last hours in fear for their lives. And he left them to burn. That's not fair.
KAYE (voice-over): When Komisarjevsky was in prison, she visited him numerous times. Now haunted by the charges against him, she has no plans to see her friend again.
(on camera): This woman also tells us Komisarjevsky had been wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, a condition of his parole. She says that condition had been fulfilled and the bracelet removed just three days before the murders.
We tried to talk to police about this, but they didn't return our calls.
Randi Kaye, CNN, Cheshire, Connecticut.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Hacking your vote? A security breakdown for electronic voting, but e-vote machine makers say the failed test is misleading -- details straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Thar she blows. Mount Bulusan in the central Philippines spews ash nearly four miles high. Look at that. It ended up covering fields and villages for three miles in every direction.
Here's the good news. No one has been hurt, but some areas are being evacuated as a precaution.
We are going to show you this I-Reporter. This is the closest I- Reporter Sharleen Evasco was able to get. Mount Bulusan is one of 22 active volcanoes in the Philippines.
(BUSINESS REPORT)
LEMON: Still hoping to return to New Orleans and rebuild? Well, you have until the end of business day today to apply for a federal grant. Now, if you qualify, you can get up to as much as $150,000 from the state-administered Road Home program. Nearly two years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita tore through parts of the Gulf Coast, thousands of storm evacuees have yet to come home.
PHILLIPS: Well, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens at the center of his own storm. Federal agents search his home.
We are going to have more straight ahead 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 are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
No regrets -- that's the word from the shoe bomber, Richard Reid, in letters he's reportedly written from prison. They were published in a British newspaper. At one point, Reid writes that he trusts god to set him free. He also says he's dreamed that his situation will change for the better. It's not known whom the letters were written to, but some refer to Reid's father.
Reid is serving a life sentence in Colorado for trying to blow up a Paris to Miami flight in 2001.
PHILLIPS: Powerful, controversial, secretive and tonight taking questions from our own Larry King.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KING, HOST: Alberto Gonzales -- do you stand by him?
DICK CHENEY, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I do. Al is a good man, a good friend and in a difficult assignment.
KING: Are you troubled by what appears to have happened with the appearance of him not telling the truth?
CHENEY: Well, I don't want to get into the specifics with respect to his testimony and the questions that were asked. I just -- I know Al on a personal and a professional basis and I hold him in high regard.
KING: You're going to stand by him?
CHENEY: Yes, sir.
KING: No doubt about that?
CHENEY: Correct.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Well, the nation's second in command answers the tough questions on "LARRY KING LIVE," tonight, 9:00 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.
LEMON: A second hostage killed, families losing hope. The bullet- riddled body of another South Korean was found late yesterday in Central Afghanistan. He and 22 others were killed by Taliban rebels 12 days ago. A Korean church group had gone to Afghanistan to offer medical aid. Their captors say they will kill other hostages unless the Afghan government frees certain rebel prisoners by tomorrow.
The first hostage was killed last week. His body returned to South Korea yesterday. But his family says they'll hold off the funeral until other hostages come home.
PHILLIPS: Cases of wine stored in the Alaska home of Senator Ted Stevens. Those bottles reportedly got a lot of attention from federal agents searching the house yesterday. Stevens is under federal investigation for his ties to an oil services contractor recently convicted of bribing lawmakers. That contractor oversaw the renovation of Stevens' home in 2000 -- a project that more than doubled the size of the house.
In response to the search, the Republican senator released this statement, which reads, in part: "I continue to believe this investigation should proceed to its conclusion without any appearance that I have attempted to influence its outcome. For more than 50 years, I have work hard for Alaskans as part of our territorial states and federal government and I'll continue to do so. All I can assure that government meets our people's unique needs."
LEMON: They died in that unforgettable news chopper collision last week in Phoenix. But today at a memorial service for KTVK's Tim Cox and Scott Bowerbank, friends asked that that we remember the friends' passion for flying instead.
You're looking at live pictures now from the service going on as we speak. Scott's best friend, well, he put it like this...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: his spirit is now in the air watching over the Phoenix skies. And I know that every once in a while he will be responsible for one of the beautiful sunsets that bless our valley. So when you remember Scott, remember that he lived out his dream and he would want everyone he touched to remember that this is what he loved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: KNXV's Craig Smith and Rick Krolak were also killed in the midair wreck, which took place as the choppers followed a police chase. Memorials for them will be held later this week.
PHILLIPS: How safe is your vote?
Months before the presidential primaries, tests are underway on electronic systems that were supposed to be the answer to punch cards and chads. The results of those tests are being hotly debated.
But CNN's Brian Todd reports, one thing is clear -- no system is tamper-proof.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the state with the most registered voters, three of the most popular electronic voting system hacked. Computer experts hired by California's state government had no trouble penetrating Diebold, Sequoia and Hart InterCivic machines and say they could have potentially changed millions of votes.
MATT BISHOP, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-DAVIS: It causes them to do things they shouldn't have done. It causes them to do things that would violate the integrity of the election.
TODD: State officials tell CNN some investigators on these so- called red teams took only a few seconds to penetrate voting machines and left no trail; that they not only hacked into operating systems, but also infiltrated physically by prying open seals or taking screws off to bypass locks.
Their report comes just six months before California's presidential primaries. But some observers say, don't panic -- these tests were done with no real world protections in place.
STEPHEN WEIR, CONTRA COSTA COUNTY REGISTRAR: They did the typical red team attack -- go after, see if you can hack it. There was no counter blue team that says you've got to get past the security procedures.
TODD (on camera): Experts say between software safeguards, polling station workers and other precautions, e-voting systems will be much more secure on primary and election days throughout the country than the study shows, and a lot safer than the old way.
PAUL HERRNSON, UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: Anyone can steal a box of paper ballots -- blank or completed -- and switch them for another one. And that's much easier to do than to hack into a computerized voting system.
TODD (voice-over): Still, California's secretary of state has just days to decide which equipment to use in the state's presidential primary next February. As for the three companies whose machines were breached, they stressed these tests were done in a sterile environment, the tests don't reflect the precautions they take, and all three say their systems are secure and accurate.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
LEMON: Well, it's the gum and breath strip industry's worst nightmare. It's also a vampire's dream -- a ban on garlic. OK, garlic doesn't smell like a rose. But should it be a kitchen exile?
What do you think?
PHILLIPS: Yes.
LEMON: A big whiff of controversy ahead in the NEWSROOM.
I'm not a big fan of garlic either.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
BETTY NGUYEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A biplane stunt pilot died Saturday when his aircraft spiraled out of control and crashed during an air show in Dayton, Ohio. These images, captured by I-Reporter Kevin Roy, shows us how the scene unfolded. Roy says he was trying to film a few of the maneuvers when the plane went down. He stopped shooting the video once he realized what had happened.
Steven Elliott of Springfield, Ohio got these images of the crash wreckage amid billowing smoke and flames. Elliott initially thought the dive was part of the show. He says the experience was especially traumatic for his two young sons attending the event.
We thank these I-Reporters for their images and invite you to send us your own when news happens around you. You'll find the I- Report link at CNN.com.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: well, this year CNN is shinning the spotlight on everyday folks whose passion and dedication to a cause has made a big difference.
We are proud to call them CNN Heroes.
Well, today a woman fights a social stigma that shuns children with special needs.
Dina Abdel we are hearing about is today's CNN Hero.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DINA ABDEL WAHAB, CNN HERO: So let's do it again.
I remember when my son was born eight years ago. I didn't hear anything about inclusion in Egypt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are approximately two million children with special needs in Egypt.
Less than 2 percent of them receive educational services.
WAHAB: Very good reading, Ali (ph).
We first learned that Ali (ph) had Down's Syndrome when he was three months old. And, of course, it took us some time to really learn what to do. And we did a lot of research. We went to the States and we did some programs for Ali (ph). And it was to my surprise when I went there to see that children with special needs were just integrated into the main school system and they went in the same classroom with the other children.
If it can happen around the world, it should happen here. And this is how, really, I got things started.
I was absolutely convinced if you want to talk about mainstreaming and if you want to talk about the inclusion of children with special needs, you have to start at a very young age. You need to prepare him academically, you need to prepare him socially.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Approximately 700 toddlers are currently enrolled in The Baby Academy.
Ten percent are children with special needs who are fully integrated with their classmates.
WAHAB: It has prepared the children who don't have special needs to be with their peers in the classroom and accept their differences.
It has taught us to see disability in a new and different light and to learn how to deal with it in a positive way.
Because it was a new concept in Egypt and because not everybody really understood, can they really be together, we have prepared and opened the doors for them to see things in a different perspective.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ninety-five percent of special needs graduates from The Baby Academy have been integrated into normal education.
Over the next five years, Dina plans to open 20 centers throughout the Middle East.
WAHAB: If you really believe that it is all right for every child to have a proper education and just seeing that there is a shift in mentality now is a plus and is hope for the future, and not only for Ali (ph), but for all other children.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: If you would like to learn more about Dina Abdel We are hearing about and her school, or if you want to nominate a hero of your own for special recognition later this year, you'll find all the information you need at CNN.com/heroes.
PHILLIPS: We're just finding out here at CNN the U.N. Security Council has authorized 26,000 U.N. African Union peacekeeping forces to head to Darfur.
Richard Roth has been following this for us out of the United Nations -- Richard, what did you just learn?
RICHARD ROTH, SENIOR UNITED NATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, the Security Council, a unanimous vote, has approved this large peacekeeping force. As some may be aware, it's been taking years to get this type of operation on the ground inside Darfur, where the U.S. and others allege a genocide has taken place.
It will be many months before the forces are there and this resolution, in order to get final passage by everyone, was watered down a touch. There is still some vagueness regarding the responsibilities of these peacekeepers.
They're not going to be going after the militia. They will be monitoring certain situations and protecting humanitarian workers. So we may be back on the course for still more trouble and violence there. International groups say the violence there has continued for years despite pledges by Sudan to do something. The second-general and others warning Sudan it must accept and comply with this mission, which they say in Khartoum, Sudan they will do. But we've also seen some promises not lived up to before -- Kyra.
PHILLIPS: That's true. We'll continue to follow it.
Richard Roth, thanks for the news.
LEMON: Lemonade for a cause?
A kid in Colorado sells tangy treats to help his diabetic brother. You won't believe how much he's raised.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Barry Bonds hit home run number 754 over the weekend. The San Francisco Giants' slugger gets another whack at Hank Aaron's home run record -- he does that tonight.
Well, Bonds and the Giants are on the road to face their archrivals, the Los Angeles dodgers. Bonds needs just one homer to tie Aaron's record of 755 and two to break it.
PHILLIPS: Well, a couple of other baseball milestones could be reached tonight. New York's Met's pitcher Tom Glavine is going for his 300th career run against the Brewers in Milwaukee.
And New York Yankee slugger Alex Rodriguez -- A-Rod -- may become the youngest player to hit 500 home runs. Rodriguez turns 32 on Friday.
LEMON: Well, I, more than anyone, have been -- people say this about me all the time, especially when they don't like me -- there's a saying when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. And a 12-year-old in Colorado is taking it to heart, of course, for a very good cause.
The story from TaRhonda Thomas of CNN affiliate KUSA.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
MARK RINKEL, SELLS LEMONADE TO HELP BROTHER: Lemonade and snacks down this road.
TARHONDA THOMAS, KUSA CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An ear catching advertisement.
RINKEL: Lemonade and snack down this road.
THOMAS: That point passersby...
RINKEL: Lemonade and snacks down this road.
THOMAS: ...to an eye catching sale.
THOMAS: It sort of looks like we've got some more lemonade coming.
THOMAS: And an impressive little boy.
RINKEL: I should like sign people's autograph books.
THOMAS: Twelve-year-old Mark Rinkel runs this lemonade stand.
RINKEL: I'm so glad it didn't rain.
THOMAS: But his 9-year-old brother Jason is the inspiration behind it.
RINKEL: My brother, recently it was discovered that he has Type I Diabetes.
THOMAS: The family wants to get a medical assistance dog that can smell blood sugar levels and help give peace of mind.
RINKEL: Let's say Jason went low in the middle of the night and we don't have the dog. He might not wake up in the morning.
THOMAS: So Mark sells lemonade to help pay for his brother's very expensive dog.
RINKEL: Six thousand dollars.
THOMAS: He's getting lots of thirsty customers.
RINKEL: We should have a lemonade stand sound.
THOMAS: And publicity.
RINKEL: I'm going to be on the radio.
THOMAS: And donations.
RINKEL: A lot of people have checks, because checks are easier to put more money on.
THOMAS: As they donate, lots of people ask about Mark's brother. He was at the sale, but had to leave because his blood sugar levels dropped.
RINKEL: He's quite a trooper.
THOMAS: But even without his brother here, Mark's lemonade stand is a success.
RINKEL: You know, my guess for this stand is going to be $3,000.
THOMAS: And with a packed schedule...
RINKEL: I have to have a cell phone when I'm out here alone.
THOMAS: ...the 12-year-old has no plans to stop peddling his punch. RINKEL: Bye, thank you.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
LEMON: How cute was that?
PHILLIPS: One lucky little brother, I'll you what.
LEMON: I know.
You know yes, way to go, Mark.
Yes. And what a nice way. I mean we're almost done today. We've had so much bad news. But I've got to tell you, though, those young fundraisers, they've reached their $6,000 goal and the medical assistance dog costs about $25,000. But there's a group, a non-profit group, which is picking up most of the tab. So we wish them luck.
PHILLIPS: There you go. And donate.
LEMON: Yes.
PHILLIPS: We've got to figure out how we can maybe solicit where they can donate the rest of the money.
LEMON: Yes, we'll figure that out.
PHILLIPS: All right.
Well, it's the gum and breath strip industry's worst nightmare. It's also a vampire's dream -- a ban on garlic.
OK, so garlic doesn't smell like a rose, but should it be a kitchen exile?
A bottomless bowl of controversy straight ahead in the CNN NEWSROOM.
LEMON: Plus, the closing bell and a wrap on all the action on Wall Street straight ahead.
The Dow in negative territory, it looks like.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, a stink is being raised in Italy over garlic.
Will the herb get tossed out of the kitchen or will it survive the heat?
Here's CNN's Rome bureau chief, Alessio Vinci.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
ALESSIO VINCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At first glance, Filippo La Mantia is any Italian chef. But take a closer look at his kitchen in one of Rome's trendiest restaurants and you will not find the one item used in just about every kitchen in this country -- garlic. Yes, you heard me right -- garlic.
"It stinks," he says, "and overwhelms the flavor of other natural ingredients, such as herbs and citrus."
La Mantia says garlic is a leftover from when Italians were poor and needed it to flavor their meager meals.
"But with all the fresh produce today," he says, "who needs it?"
His diners eat it up.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's what I always associated with Italian food is the garlic. And I'm excited that this doesn't have garlic, you know?
If you want to be on a romantic evening with somebody and not have garlic breath, it's great.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, it doesn't taste traditionally Italian to me, because the eggplant is sweet. It's very sweet. But it's delicious.
VINCI: La Mantia's no garlic approach has some support.
CARLO ROSELLA, WRITER AND JOURNALIST: It happened to me to kiss a lady who was eating garlic. It was terrible, the worst kiss of my life.
VINCI: Carlo Rosella is a prominent television journalist who is writing a guide to garlic-free restaurants. He is also a close friend of Italy's best known garlic phobe, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
ROSELLA: It is not educated to eat garlic before -- before speaking with somebody, going to a business meeting, you know?
He hates garlic for this social reason.
VINCI (on camera): I'm in Campo Di Fiori, one of Rome's best known and oldest farmers' markets, which supplies some of the city's most renowned restaurants. Let's find out what people here think about garlic.
(voice-over): Claudio Zampa agrees. "Garlic stinks," he says. "But that's good. It's a battle of a small minority. Something for the elite," he says.
And the numbers back him up. Italians consumed more than 100 million pounds of garlic last year.
So does it stink or make for a tastier dish? The answer is both.
Alessio Vinci, CNN, Rome.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: I'm with him on that. I'm not a big fan of the garlic.
But you know what?
The freshest breath in the business, I should say a breath of fresh air -- who do you think that is?
PHILLIPS: I just want to know, Wolf, will you kiss me if I had garlic?
(LAUGHTER)
WOLF BLITZER, HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": Absolutely, positively. The answer is yes.
(LAUGHTER)
BLITZER: Kyra, Don, thanks very much.
The attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, under fire to clear up discrepancies in his testimony before Congress. I'll talk about it with Senator Arlen Specter. I'll ask him whether Gonzales could face a perjury investigation.
And in the midst of war, the Iraqi parliament now going on a month long vacation. Senator Lindsey Graham -- he's a major backer of President Bush -- has been to Iraq seven times. I'll ask him what he thinks about the Iraqi parliament's August recess. He'll join us live here in "THE SITUATION ROOM."
And will Chelsea Clinton make history?
She could become the first first daughter for a second time. She's also her mother's secret weapon on the campaign trail.
All that, guys, coming up right here on "THE SITUATION ROOM".
PHILLIPS: All right, thanks, Wolf.
LEMON: Hey, Wolf, have you ever driven a race car?
BLITZER: No.
LEMON: How about a lawn mower?
BLITZER: I've pushed a lawnmower.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: OK. Good. Then you qualify for this next story.
So, gentlemen, start your engines.
OK, so it's not exactly NASCAR. But it does involve driving around in circles. Welcome to the annual British lawnmower race. For the first time in its 31-year history, though, there wasn't a winner, unless you count the rain. It made a muddy mess of things from the course to the mowers. Even the drivers ended up with mud in their eyes.
PHILLIPS: I don't know, it looks like fun -- Susan Lisovicz, what do you think?
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think that a bumpy ride is what we're seeing on Wall Street. That's what I think.
LEMON: Just like the mowers, right?
PHILLIPS: Good segue.
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
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