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Landslide in La Jolla, California Results in Major Damage; Manhunt Underway in Philadelphia; Interview with Robert Davila; Class Action Status to Those Suing Target

Aired October 04, 2007 - 13:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Trapped in a gold mine. More than 3,000 South African miners, men and women, some for more than 36 hours. They are hungry, thirsty, scared and tired, but they are alive. Amazing rescues are happening as we speak.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And manhunt in Philadelphia. Two guards are dead, two suspects on the loose after an armored car heist outside a mall. The mall is closed, schools are on lockdown and we're there live with the very latest for you.

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.

LEMON: First off, a brazen robbery in broad daylight, a manhunt is under way this hour in Philadelphia for at least one suspect in the killing of two guards and the wounding of another in an armed car robbery. Investigators are still trying to piece together exactly what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF MARK CLARK, VICE PRES., COMMUNICATIONS, LOOMIS: This doesn't happen very often, obviously, but when it does certainly we have a team there and investigate it thoroughly. And whatever there is to be learned we learn and adapt our processes as appropriate. But again, on this point, in this incident we're not aware anybody did anything wrong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: CNN crews are on the way to Philadelphia, live reports and more information from the police coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: California homers in the danger zone. A land slide in San Diego has destroyed a couple of million-dollar homes and others are at risk. The latest now from reporter Jenny Hamel with our affiliate XETV, they first brought us the pictures yesterday. Jenny, what can you tell us?

JENNY HAMEL, REPORTER, XETV SAN DIEGO: Well, yesterday 111 homes were evacuated. But just this morning the mayor of San Diego, Mayor Jerry Sanders, announced that 75 of these La Jolla homes would be reopened to their inhabitants, obviously to the delight of the people who have had to either stay with friends or relatives, the evacuation shelters, or for some they had to stay in hotels in downtown La Jolla.

Now meanwhile, this section of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) road here in La Jolla, which is a major thoroughfare for this town, has been closed and it will be for some time now. The mayor didn't even have an approximate timeline as to when the street would be reopened. Obviously the cause of yesterday's major land slide yesterday morning were a 200-foot gaping hole was created in the road and mounds of dirt were pushed down to an easterly road called Desert View Drive. Currently nine of those homes have been red tagged which means there is major structural damage.

We know that two of the homes, which basically collapsed about 50 feet, are totally destroyed. And we talked to some of the occupants of those homes who say they don't know what to do now. Essentially they hear that they have no home insurance. I spoke to one owner who said he called his insurance company right away, still unable to get inside his home and see the extent of the damage that happened. And the insurance company said, well, you're not covered because it didn't actually happen to your home.

It happened to the environment surrounding, so certainly there's been a lot of talk about who is responsible, who's going to pay for all of this. I know that a lot of the residents that we have spoken to feel that there were some causes that weren't just from Mother Nature. They think there were some fire hydrants involved that caused some major leaking. But then the city has said and some of its premier geologists have said Mount Soledad for San Diegans we're aware, but to the rest of the country might not be aware that near a fault like Mount Soledad has -- the land is very tenuous and we've been very susceptible to land slides.

In fact there was one in the early '60s where major structural damage was concerned, so a lot of back and forth as to what caused this. But certainly for us here in San Diego, this was a major catastrophe that occurred and the city is saying they are going to act quickly. They are going to -- the federal and state levels they said they have already gotten word from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and even the White House offering assistance as well as from some congressional leaders. But that is the current status here, nine homes red tagged could be demolished, 75 homes their inhabitants are allowed in -- back to you, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jenny Hamel with our affiliate XETV. Appreciate that. We'll follow the investigations.

LEMON: Another long time powerful member of Congress is retiring. Republican Senator Pete Domenici says he won't be back when his term runs out next year and poor health is the reason. The 75- year-old six-term lawmaker will make an official announcement later today. He's suffering from a degenerative brain disorder, a form of dementia. Domenici says he is confident he can serve out his remaining 15 months but he cannot be sure how he'll be seven years from now. Domenici is the fourth Republican incumbent senator not to seek re-election. Larry Craig of Idaho would make five. PHILLIPS: A black student says he was held against his will while other students scrawled swastikas and the letters KKK on his body. It is a terrible story and police say it happened at high school on the campus of Gallaudet University, the nation's only liberal arts university for the deaf. There is more to this story that maybe you haven't heard so far. We're going to share that with you in just a few minutes. Gallaudet's president, Dr. Bob Davila, will join me to talk about that case and what's happening on campus to promote diversity and race relations.

LEMON: Finally, rain in Atlanta. Of course other places may not be cheering, Chad Myers.

(WEATHER REPORT)

LEMON: All right. Thank you very much, Chad.

We have lots of developing news happening here at CNN today. Just in, we have the totals for the third quarter for Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, raised more than 11 million over the past three months and has more than $16 million in cash on hand. Coming in second, Mitt Romney, 10 million this quarter. Just a million behind Rudy Giuliani. And of course John McCain with $6 million.

New totals from Republican hopeful Giuliani, $11 million; $16 million on hand; and Mitt Romney, $10 million this quarter. Much more ahead from our political team on that. And much more ahead on that armored car robbery in Philadelphia. What do we know about the guards who were shot? We have got a crew on the way and we expect to hear from -- more from police in the coming hours right here in the NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: Plus, my interview with the head of the U.S. Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen. I'll ask him what he's doing to assure his cadets that they are safe after nooses turn up on military grounds.

LEMON: Tired of traditional medicine? Empower yourself as a patient and learn more about alternative treatment. CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has some pointers for you.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We have breaking news out of Philadelphia. An urgent manhunt is under way now after a fatal armored car robbery. Joining us by phone now KYW News Radio is Tony Hanson, a reporter who is on the scene. Tony, tell us what you know and what officials have been telling you there in northeast Philadelphia.

VOICE OF TONY HANSON, KYW NEWS RADIO PHILADELPHIA (via phone): Don, two armored car guards were murdered this morning, ambushed, when they were making a delivery of cash to a Wachovia Bank ATM machine in northeast Philadelphia, a very busy section of the city, a busy residential and urban area. It was just after 8:00. According to police they have video surveillance from the bank of the actual crime happening.

The robber came up along the side of the bank; the one guard was reaching into the bank when he was executed. He never saw it coming. He was shot and killed. The gunman then turned on the second guard, shot and killed him. There was a third guard in the truck. He suffered a minor injury, a graze wound or an injury caused by broken glass. He is going to be OK. But again, police have surveillance video from the bank and also from a betting establishment just behind the bank where the robber was putting on gloves preparing for the crime, then he walked up and shot the two guards.

LEMON: And of course, Tony, this happening at 8:00 a.m. in the morning, this near the Roosevelt Mall, a very busy mall there in northeast Philadelphia. Exactly, I know it is northeast Philly. What's the neighborhood?

HANSON: The neighborhood is a combination of residential and commercial. As you said, there are a number of major shopping centers here including the Roosevelt Mall, there's another shopping center with a Sears just across the street. There are smaller strip malls and then you have residents. It is houses just across the street from where the shooting happened. And right down the street, this happened at the corner of Bli (ph) and Bustleton (ph), but Bustleton (ph) and Codman (ph), that's one of the busiest intersections in the city of Philadelphia.

LEMON: Yeah, it certainly is. So again, the two guards who have been killed, sadly, next of kin have not been notified with those two guards and you said they are looking -- at first they thought they were looking for one -- for two people, now they are looking for one person. Who do they have in custody?

HANSON: They don't have anyone in custody at this point. What they do have is the surveillance video. Apparently there was some confusion immediately afterward. People saw other people running from the scene, didn't know who was involved or who was just a witness. But once they saw the video police are pretty comfortable that there is just a one-person involved.

They saw him preparing for the crime and then committing it. And I can tell you right now a rather grim chore of washing the ground, the city workers have arrived on the scene. They're washing the blood away. The bodies were taken away a little while ago. Now cleaning the scene although authorities, police and the FBI remain on the scene looking for the suspect.

LEMON: Just real quickly, Tony, you mentioned that there is some surveillance video of this. And you touched on it a little bit. What about eyewitnesses?

HANSON: Well, there's at least one eyewitness that we know of and that's the armored car guard who was inside the truck when the crime happened. He apparently saw the robber just before the shooting happened. I understand there may be some other people that either heard shots or then saw a man they believe to have been the gunman running from the scene, but I think the main piece of evidence is going to be that surveillance tape. They said it has good pictures of this man from multiple locations.

LEMON: Tony Hanson, KYW News Radio, we thank you for joining us. If you get more information, please get back in touch with us again reporting on this story, two guards fatally wounded in an armored car shootout and robbery this morning in northeast Philadelphia. We have a reporter, a CNN crew on the way to the scene and they should join us very shortly with the latest information on that here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., it's a highly respected institution, the nation's only liberal arts university for the deaf. Today, it's the unlikely setting for what D.C. police are investigating as a hate crime. Over the weekend, a black student at Gallaudet's residential high school said that he was held against his will by seven other students who scrawled swastikas and the letters KKK on him. Police suspect racial motivations for obvious reasons, but we've learned there is more to this story.

The D.C. police chief says the whole thing started with two groups of students who were quote "horsing around". We've also learned that the groups, one mostly but not all black, the other mostly but not all white, were competing in what's described as war games where the goal was to capture a member of the other group. The names of those groups -- the Nazis versus the black KKK. Is there really a hate crime here?

Let's talk to Dr. Robert Davila. He is the president of Gallaudet University. Dr. Davila, it is a pleasure to have you with me.

DR. ROBERT DAVILA, PRES., GALLAUDET UNIVERSITY: Good afternoon, Kyra. It's good to be here with you.

PHILLIPS: Let's start with these war games. Why were the students playing these war games? Is this a usual way to pass the time for these students?

DAVILA: Well, those students are sharing a dormitory and were in the same location. And I think after they completed their homework and something like that, finished their dinner, they got together to play for a little while before they went to bed. So I think that probably they got a variety of games that they get a variety of games that they get involved with and other recreational activities. And that's what I assume sort of spring boarded all of this.

PHILLIPS: You listened to the competition and the fact that they actually named the groups the Nazis and the black KKK, Dr. Davila, there is an opportunity here to teach a very important lesson, right?

DAVILA: Most certainly. I would agree with that statement. We would not have anyone get involved in that particular kind of game. But I can tell you, and why they should not be involved in that sort of game and that's not a way to play among each other. You know, if you look at the history of the world, and this is reflected some very terrible times in history, and in fact, in some ways this game was obstructive and actually represented a kind of evil that existed in society, and so what we want to do is teach our young people to ashue (ph) those kinds of games that it's not acceptable regardless of the intention to have fun.

PHILLIPS: In addition, I mean I grew up within the deaf community, you know that, I've always seen the deaf community as so closely connected and to see a division like this was extremely unusual.

DAVILA: It was very unusual. What started this and what started the whole game and the direction that it took was extremely unusual and unfavorable. And you are correct in saying that deaf people are very socialable and they interact very appropriately with each other, and deaf people can communicate over distances, and do that to establish relationships. So, I think that it reflects very much what you're saying, that the deaf community is very tightly knit, and we do share a great deal of history together.

PHILLIPS: Dr. Davila, tell me how the black student is doing, the one that had the swastikas and the KKK marked on him.

DAVILA: I wish I could tell you what the condition of that student is but I do not have the full information at this time. But I would imagine that he has certainly suffered some emotional harm. He is currently with his family and it is my hope that they are doing well, and I know that the community here deeply regrets the incident that occurred, and we are here on behalf of the university to say that we are incredibly sorry for what has taken place. We hope that he is doing well, but again, I don't have full information as to his condition but we are reaching out to the family and wanting to let them know that they are able to do well and move forward and that we are deeply regretting that we could have done anything to cause so much harm to one individual.

PHILLIPS: As for the six white students and the one black student who were involved in cornering this one black student, how are they being handled? How are you and others there at the university handling their future?

DAVILA: The case is currently under investigation by the Metropolitan Police Department and because of confidentiality rules I'm unable to say much more about the students. We do not want to in any way interfere with the investigation and we're trying to cooperate as much as we can with the District of Columbia police, until we have a result from their investigation, so we're listening carefully to them to see what they eventually come up with at the conclusion of the investigation, but as I said it's still under investigation.

PHILLIPS: And my final question. You represent diversity and multicultural education in so many ways, you speak Spanish, American sign language, English, this is a very important issue for you, issues of diversity and race relations, that's a big reason why you have become so successful and why you are there at Gallaudet as the president. So tell me about your personal commitment and what you're going to do to educate your students and to move forward so that this doesn't happen again, and that each one of your students understands that symbols like a swastika and phrases like KKK are just not tolerable in 2007.

DAVILA: Thank you and you're right. You're saying that -- that I did grow up multi-culturally. And I do speak two languages growing up and I added a third language when I lost my hearing at age 8, I learned sign language. All my life I have been taught how to be understanding and tolerant of other individuals. My father had two sons. And I am a father myself with two sons. We work very closely with our sons to educate them about good values and teaching them about respecting others and to be tolerant and supportive of people in general, because that opens the doors to good interpersonal relationships.

And that is what we're trying to do now in our programs at the university and high school, so that we are integrating those ideas into the curriculum in many ways every day and into the lives of our students and helping our students to get the sort of social awareness and social abilities that are necessary to be able to progress successfully within society. So, we have taken a great deal of time from class and other school-related activities, to educate our students about the importance of group behaviors and how they can learn to be more understanding and be more tolerant and respectful of others, and by doing such they will also receive that in repayment.

So, this really has come as a large surprise to me, and has been very disappointing to me, to be quite honest with you. But we're going to continue and what this means is that we have to continue to reinforce the lessons that we are teaching on a daily basis so that people cannot only receive but maintain an understanding, and this understanding will get them through their lives as adults. We're going to redouble our efforts, I can assure you, that this is something that I do have a very personal stake in because I have been doing this all my life and I do understand the damage that can happen to one's self-esteem and the emotional harm that can result.

And we want people to be healthy. And also the harm that is done by the hands of others in terms of giving out discrimination and we want to stop that. We want our kids to know that this is not the right kind of behavior. I don't really know what was the genesis of this particular event, but regardless I can tell you that that kind of activity that we don't want to see people involved in such things because they have such harmful outcomes that happen from such behaviors.

It's probably some of the worst things that can happen to an individual in their life. Because they are given a message that they are less worthy than others, and I have grown up understanding and experiencing that kind of discrimination in my life. So we have to grow and learn how to be successful, in social situations, and then transfer that experience and knowledge to our students. And we're going to keep working very hard at doing this. It has been very grievous for us to have to deal with this incident, but we are even more committed to resolving these issues from this point forward.

PHILLIPS: Well you're the leader to do it. Dr. Bob Davila, president of Gallaudet University, I really appreciate your time today. DAVILA: Thank you, Kyra. I really appreciate this opportunity to speak with you.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

LEMON: Trapped underground for more than a day, thousands of South African gold miners are seeing daylight again, but the rescue's not over.

You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, those who want the Web to be more accessible for the disabled scored a victory. Susan Lisovicz at the New York Stock Exchange to tell us which major retailer is affected.

Hi, Susan.

(BUSINESS HEADLINES)

PHILLIPS: The war on terror, like all wars, demands hard and fast rules of engagement. When it comes to terror suspect where is the line between interrogation and torture? It's been fought over, some would say glossed over, for years now. Today the "New York Times" reports the Justice Department moved that line, and so did it in secret.

Let's get to the White House and reaction from our Elaine Quijano -- Elaine.

ELAINE QUIJANO, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hello to you, Kyra.

Well, President Bush didn't take questions in the Oval Office today. The White House in the wake of this article by the "New York Times," that essentially talks about a memo back in February of '05 that they say was a secret memo, that authorized the combination of harsh interrogation techniques, including head slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

About the only thing the White House is saying in response to this is that the United States does not engage in torture. But when you ask specifically what does the United States allow, what specifically does the administration look at in defining that word torture, the answer here from officials is that they can't talk about the specific techniques. They say the information is classified because they don't want to give that information to the terrorists who would then be able to train against those techniques.

Here is White House Press Secretary Dana Perino a short time ago on the issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA PERINO, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECY.: The policy of the United States is not to torture. The president has not authorized it. He will not authorize it. But he has done everything within the corners of the law to make sure that we prevent another attack on this country, which is what we have done in this administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUIJANO: Now human rights groups say the bigger picture here is that this "New York Times" story suggests that the administration is pushing the limit essentially of what CIA interrogators are able to do. As you might expect, this is causing commotion on Capitol Hill. Already we have some response from presidential candidate, Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, calling on the Justice Department to release any information on so-called secret memos regarding this issue -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Elaine Quijano, live from the White House, thank you.

LEMON: Manhunt in Philadelphia. Two armored car guards killed in an attempted robbery today. The latest on this breaking story. Plus, a live news conference planned for the top of the hour. We'll bring it to you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: There's an intense manhunt going on now in Philadelphia because of an armored car robbery where two guards were killed at a bank in northeast Philadelphia. We also heard from a reporter on the scene there is some surveillance video that police are looking over as we speak to try to identify the persons in that video and exactly what happened.

But, again, two armored car guards killed this morning in northeast Philadelphia. A manhunt under way for one person believed to be armed and dangerous. And at the top of the hour, police have scheduled a news conference. As soon as that happens we'll bring it to you here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: Twenty-seven hundred made it out alive, but roughly 500 other South African gold miners are still trapped almost a mile and a half underground.

CNN's Robyn Curnow is on the scene of this long, slow, but so far successful rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Leaping out from the darkness, just some of the thousands of miners rescued from the South African gold mine. For these men, this was their first breath of fresh air and a glimpse of sunshine in more than a day. For others, a hug and a promise that life will be the same again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I'm happy to see my wife, because being (ph) underground It's difficult. It's not all right in underground, staying in the underground.

CURNOW: Over 200 female miners were among those trapped more than a mile underground.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was terrible, because we are thinking that, you know, we are going to die. But I'm happy because now we are out and everything's okay.

CURNOW: On Wednesday morning, deep down underground, in a working environment similar to this, a burst pipe triggered an electrical failure and damaged an elevator cage, stranding all the miners underground, their main exits blocked.

PETER BAILEY, S. AFRICAN MINEWORKERS UNION: It was fortunate that none of the workers were in the immediate vicinity of the cage, otherwise we could have had one of the largest mining disasters in South Africa.

CURNOW: But the number of deaths in South African mines is already high, 200 dying last year on the job.

GRAHAM BRIGGS, ACTING CEO, HARMONY GOLD: We're not proud of our statistics at all. At Harmony we have improved over the last few years, but we need to keep working at it and keep improving.

CURNOW: This shaft is normally used to bring up rocks from deep underground. Today this lift was turned into a makeshift escape route, slowly hoisting up miners, 75 at a time.

(on camera): South Africa is the world's largest gold producer, and the precious metal is also a vital source of revenue for this country. But many warn here, including the mining minister, of the dangers to these men of over a century of mining in this region. There's aging infrastructure and the need to go ever deeper and deeper underground.

(voice-over): For these fortunate men, a song of celebration for having survived another day in a dangerous job.

Robyn Curnow, CNN, Carltonville, South Africa

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Acupuncture, St. John's wort, B vitamins, what works and what doesn't when it comes to alternative medicines? We'll take a look, straight ahead in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, so, when conventional medicine fails, many people turn to alternative treatment. But determining what helps and what's a hoax, that can be daunting.

CNN medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now with some alternative treatments that work?

ELIZABETH COHEN, MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, because ...

LEMON: OK.

COHEN: ...you know, some people are turning to alternative medicine even before they try conventional medicine.

LEMON: OK.

COHEN: They just want to go straight there. And that's great because there are some wonderful alternative medicine choices out there. But there's also a fair amount of garbage. So you have to be careful.

So, we asked a panel of experts at places like Duke and the University of Minnesota, the University of Arizona, what are the good ones out there? What do you think people need to try? And they gave us a list of five things. They're all on CNN.com/health right now. I'll tell you two right at this moment.

The first one is, they say acupuncture for knee pain can work wonders, especially if your pain is due to osteoarthritis. They said there are some really terrific studies on acupuncture for various kinds of pain, but especially knee pain.

Also, St. John's wort for mild to moderate depression. Some of the studies are mixed, but the experts that we talked to said definitely worth a try and also, you need to make sure that whatever you're taking doesn't interact with any drugs you might be taking.

LEMON: OK, recently, they -- Farrah Fawcett had been having some alternative treatments for cancer.

COHEN: Right.

LEMON: What are experts thinking about that because that's not always -- they don't always agree.

COHEN: Right, because what you heard me just talking about now with things like knee pain or things like depression, where pretty much, your life is not in the balance. When it comes to cancer or something where your life is in the balance, you need to be more careful about turning to alternative medicine.

So, the experts we talked to said, look, if you're just doing alternative medicine for cancer, that is a bad idea. You need to seek conventional treatment: surgery, chemo, radiation. But we're told, according to a magazine, a German magazine called Bunte, that actually Farrah Fawcett is doing both, she's doing chemotherapy in Germany, and then at a nearby clinic, she's also doing some alternative medicine. That's a different story.

If indeed they don't interact with each other, if nothing is harmful, you know, that may be some things that people want to consider. Some major universities now are actually doing both conventional and alternative treatments for cancer.

LEMON: But how do you separate that, the ones that are good from the not so good. COHEN: Right, right. Right, it's very hard to separate. And we have actually a couple of hints for how to separate what's good from what's garbage.

First of all, when you go to someone for acupuncture or a massage or anything, ask them if they're licensed to do what they're doing. They're not always licensed, so got to ask that question.

Secondly, you might want to try going to an academic center. There are 38 major universities that are at that Web site right there, Harvard, Duke, Stanford, Columbia, that have integrated medicine centers and so those folks, they're looking at both sides of things, and they can really help guide you.

LEMON: And -- absolutely, thank you so much. CNN.com/medicine, more on ...

COHEN: /health, right.

LEMON: /health, sorry. More on how to be an empowered patient.

COHEN: That's right.

LEMON: Thank you, Elizabeth.

PHILLIPS: And this just in to CNN, we're getting word from Minnesota, actually this just now coming across the wires in that case, State of Minnesota versus Senator Larry Craig.

We are being told now, it looks like through court documentation, that the judge has refused Senator Craig's request to withdraw his guilty plea, a guilty plea that he made when he was caught in an airport sex sting. According to undercover police, trying to solicit sex from another male in a men's restroom at the airport there in Minneapolis.

We're being told now the judge has refused Senator Craig's request to withdraw his guilty plea from that incident. We will follow the information as we get more.

LEMON: And Kyra, we're also following this, a brazen robbery in broad daylight, a manhunt in Philadelphia. Two armored car guards killed in an attempted robbery today. The latest on the breaking story and a live news conference planned for the top of the hour. We'll bring it to you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Senator Larry Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in a bathroom sex sting, tried to have it withdrawn and the judge says it's going to have to stay the way he originally pleaded.

Let's go to Dana Bash on the Hill with more on that. What's going on, Dana?

DANA BASH, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, exactly as you said, Don.

Senator Craig certainly got some very, very bad news from the judge in the Minnesota court just moments ago. What the judge said is because the defendant, because Larry Craig's plea was accurate, voluntary, and intelligent, and because his conviction is supported by the evidence, his motion to withdraw his plea is denied.

Now, that is important on a couple of fronts. Primarily, on the idea that these are exactly the grounds by which Senator Craig's lawyers were trying to overturn or withdraw this plea. What Senator Craig's lawyer, Billy Martin in the courtroom, just a week ago, witnessed it myself, was trying to convince the judge is that the actual actions that Senator Craig was engaging in, what we all heard about, peering through the men's room stall, tapping his toe, what Billy Martin argued is that that was not disorderly conduct, despite the fact that the Senator pleaded guilty to that.

Well, it's very clear that the judge simply did not buy that. And also, it is very clear that Senator Craig's lawyers did not prove the very, very high standard that somebody has to prove in order to withdraw a plea. It's something called manifest injustice, that according to Minnesota law is what the defendant has to prove. It's clear from the judge that Larry Craig did not do that.

Now, the big question now of course is what will Senator Craig do? Will he actually decide to step down from his seat? That date was September 30th that he'd originally set. That was this past Sunday. After the judge heard this hearing last week, the Senator said that he was going to stay. He did not put any kind of date or finality on that, so we are going to try to find out, of course, what this means for Senator Craig, because privately, he has been trying to get with associates and figure out if he can stay, perhaps even to appeal this.

So, we're going to certainly try to find Senator Craig and figure out what he will do next.

LEMON: Dana, thank you.

PHILLIPS: 1:53 Eastern time right now.

Here are three of the other stories we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM. A brazen and deadly armored car robbery in Philadelphia, two guards are dead, another is wounded in an ambush at an ATM. Police are searching for the gunman. We're expecting a news conference in just a few minutes live from Pennsylvania.

Some of the people who live near this landslide outside San Diego are being let back into their homes. Nine homes remain off limits and 27 others are being evaluated. The city plans to hire geologists to find out what caused yesterday's collapse.

And a deadly plane crash in Africa. At least 30 people are dead in the crash of a Russian-built aircraft into a crowded suburb in Kinshasa, Congo. Twenty-two people were on that plane which was headed to the southern part of the country near the Angolan border. The others were killed on the ground.

LEMON: It wasn't much, much bigger than a beach ball, but what an impact it had. The race to space and an anniversary to remember, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Well, if you're old enough to remember October 4, 1957, 50 years ago today, I don't need to tell you what happened. That's the day the Cold War gave rise to the space race and the Soviet Union gave the West a shock that's hard to imagine today. All with a beach ball-sized metal orb called Sputnik.

CNN's Miles O'Brien looks back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOSHUA STOFF, CURATOR, CRADLE OF AVIATION MUSEUM: It's hard to believe that something this small can cause such a huge fervor that remains with us to this very day.

MILES O'BRIEN, CHIEF SPACE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No, this is not a scale model. It's the real thing, one of a handful of the first Sputniks the Russians built to launch an era. The sphere is about the size of a beach ball, the four antennas about eight feet long, it weighed little more than 180 pounds, but pound-for-pound, you'd be hard-pressed to find a Cold War PR weapon with more impact.

STOFF: It freaked them out because you could be in anywhere, USA and there's a Russian thing going over your head. I mean, what's next, atomic bombs, the whole country just went nuts.

O'BRIEN: Fifty years later, we know a lot more about what the Soviets were thinking. Russian rocket genius Sergei Korolev was busy working on bigger, more sophisticated satellites, as well as rockets that could carry hydrogen bombs.

But the work was moving slowly, and he feared the U.S. team, led by Wernher von Braun, was ahead, so he formed a team to quickly make a simple, small satellite that would put the communists in space first. Ironically, the Kremlin and the Russian military thought it was nothing more than a stunt.

STOFF: When it was successfully launched, it wasn't headline news in Russia, it was buried in the back page, because they didn't think it was really that big a deal until the United States just freaked out. And then, it became front page news around the world, and the Russians didn't realize how -- what a PR coup they had until, you know, days later.

O'BRIEN: Miles O'Brien, CNN, Garden City, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIPS: Next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now. Racism in the ranks. The Coast Guard cracks down after nooses turn up on a training ship, and under the very nose of the academy's civil rights officer. This hour, I'll speak live with the Coast Guard commadant (ph) Thad Allen.

LEMON: Steady as she goes in San Diego where most of the homeowners who cleared out yesterday when the earth gave way are back home, but some homes are still in danger, and no one knows when the ground might shift again.

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.

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