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Planes to be Packed for Thanksgiving Holiday; Near-Collision in the Sky; Child Killer's Execution: Supreme Court Grants Stay

Aired November 15, 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: Millions in danger, hundreds of thousands in flight to higher ground. A monster storm bears down on a region known for disaster. The eyes of the world are on Bangladesh this hour.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Just in time for the holiday travel crunch the government opens up an express lane for airplanes. And that's not all. The airlines are making plans too, and we've got the lowdown live from D.C.

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.

PHILLIPS: All those planes in the air, all the delays on the ground. What's the president of the United States going to do about it? He made a speech just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're proposing new regulations to help ensure that airline passengers are treated fairly. We're proposing to double the amount of amount of compensation passengers receive when they are forced off overbooked flights. For example, a passenger forced to wait more than two hours for another flight would receive a minimum of $800 under our ideas instead of the current $400. We want people who are responsible for moving passengers to understand that there will be consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Here, there, and everywhere, planes will be packed as millions of us fly home for the Thanksgiving holiday. Does that mean more delays?

Brianna Keilar, just how do airline executives plan to keep everybody happy, and is that even possible?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I don't know -- what is the saying, you can't please everyone, but we did hear from some airline executives who were before a House committee testifying on the Hill today. We heard specifically from the CEOs of Delta and JetBlue. And remember, it was JetBlue that was crippled by that ice storm back in February with the many planes seemingly parked on the tarmac for just hours at New York's JFK and LaGuardia airports. And both JetBlue and Delta's CEOs say they have increased their number of pilots, their number of flight attendants, and their customer service agents, and Delta's CEO, Richard Anderson, gave some specifics about his airline's contingency plans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD ANDERSON, CEO, DELTA AIRLINES: Our spare airplanes, we normally operate the airline with about 10 to 12 spares, and we have an additional 10 spares over the holidays, and we're running somewhere around 85 to 90 extra sections.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We also heard from airport representatives who say that there's going to be more staff on the ground to help out customers at airports. But remember, if you're flying, at least you can help yourself out when you check on your flight to know if there are any delays and pay attention to that. And also, don't forget the liquid and gel restrictions, because there's a lot of people traffic around Thanksgiving who don't travel a lot and they are not necessarily familiar with these. That's liquids and gels in amounts no more than three ounces in one quart-sized Ziploc bag per person, and that can save you at least some time in security lines -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, what do you think? Is this political posturing, or is this the real deal?

KEILAR: Well, you know, if you look at this from a consumer eye, with a watchful consumer eye, you can say that it's both, because obviously this is a very important issue to travelers. It's very popular to do something about it.

So on one hand, opening up military air space for commercial use along the East Coast, that's something President Bush announced today. That is one thing that will go into effect for this travel season. It will have an immediate effect.

But what about -- you know, we just heard him talk about the upping of compensation to passengers who are involuntarily bumped from their flight from $400, all the way up to $800. What about forcing airlines to have mandatory contingency plans?

Those are two of the things we also heard President Bush talk about, but these are not new ideas and they are not going to be in effect for Thanksgiving. So the bottom line is it appears there are some changes that can help. But in the end, there's only so many runways, there's only so many gates. And until that changes, Kyra, air traffic delays are still going to be a crying problem.

PHILLIPS: We all experience them every single time we fly.

All right. Thanks, Brianna.

LEMON: You know what? This could have been a major, major disaster. Two passengers jets apparently came within seconds, just seconds of colliding in the sky over Indiana. It happened just Tuesday evening.

Our Susan Roesgen joins us now from Chicago with more on what happened.

What exactly did happen, Susan?

SUSAN ROESGEN, CNN GULF COAST CORRESPONDENT: Well, from what we know, Don, it was a Midwest Airlines jet that was flying from Milwaukee to Dayton, heading east, and a United Express jet heading west from Greensboro, North Carolina, to Chicago. These two planes got within 1.3 miles of each other horizontally and within just 600 feet vertically before this near-collision was averted.

Apparently, these two planes were coming in. There was a veteran air traffic controller who had been watching these planes, but he was just about to go on a shift change, and he apparently lost track of one of them, just forgot it for a split second, a simple human error, and what happened is that on board both jets the automated warning system went off that instructed the pilots of each jet to take evasive action. So actually, the Midwest Airlines jet went up rather quickly to get out of the way of the United Express jet.

There were about two dozen people on each of these jets, passengers and crew, and according to Midwest Airlines, the move was so smooth, at least on behalf of the Midwest jet going up, that the passengers and flight attendants didn't even realize how close those two planes came to actually hitting each other -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Susan Roesgen, a very frightening situation.

Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Airport screeners make sure you take only so much shampoo in your carry-on and no bottled water. But they miss bomb parts? Yes, it happened, and recently at several U.S. airports. Investigators revealed that they were allowed to pass undetected with bomb-making components in their luggage and on their persons.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TSA TESTER: What does this look like inside here?

TSA TESTER: Jumping out at you.

TSA TESTER: Exactly, so what do you have there?

TSA TESTER: We have an IED.

TSA TESTER: That's right. You just missed that one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Wow. Well, the Government Accountability Office tested those components and found they could easily have been used to damage an airplane just like that.

The Transportation Security Administration points out the undercover exercise tested only one of its 19 layers of security. Overall, officials say the system is safe.

Clark Kent Ervin agrees that air travel is safer now than it was on 9/11. As the first inspector general for Homeland Security, he oversaw some of the earliest changes such as sealed cockpit doors, but he told Congress yesterday and our own Tony Harris today that we are still vulnerable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: You said this yesterday in your congressional testimony. "It's just as easy today to slip these deadly weapons past screeners as it was on 9/11."

You know, there's a part of me that wants to say, oh, you know what, Clark, you're just being an alarmist here, but I know you well enough to know you don't play in this area. So will you explain this to us, please?

CLARK KENT ERVIN, FMR. DHS INSPECTOR GENERAL: Well, it really is inexplicable, Tony. That's the $20 billion question. I say $20 billion because that's the minimum figure everybody agrees on has been spent since 9/11 to improve aviation security. And then time and again, year after year, investigation after investigation by the GAO, by my former Office of Inspector General, by TSA itself, shows that it's just as easy, as you said, as I said yesterday, to get guns and knives and bombs past the screening workforce as it was on 9/11 itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Ervin says that he still recommends screeners undergo training on a regular basis.

LEMON: All right. He is a convicted child killer, a convicted child killer, but now a stay of execution, we are hearing.

Now, Susan Candiotti is following this for us.

Susan, I have got a question for you. No one is arguing the evidence here. He is convicted of this.

They are arguing how they are going to put him to death?

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, and now we know that Mark Dean Schwab will live to see another day. That's right.

The argument, Don, has not been on guilt or innocence. It has to do with how he will be executed, lethal injection. This is the matter that is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court. And a couple of months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a lethal injection case out of Kentucky.

Ever since that time, every time a lethal injection case has come before the U.S. Supreme Court on at least three occasions, the Supreme Court has issued stays of execution. And the same thing has happened now hear in Florida.

The reason some legal experts thought it might not happen here is because the state of Florida recently lifted a one-year moratorium on lethal injections after a botched execution that happened here in the state last year when they gave an injection to Angel Diaz (ph) and it took him three times as long as it should have for him to die after the executioner missed a vein. And the argument was, is that he suffered pain, that he grimaced, and that this should not be. And so now the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing the entire matter.

Don, I just got off the phone with the victim's parents in this case. They had already left their house and were slowly making their way here to the prison to witness the execution.

They have been waiting for this day for more than 16 years. They are not surprised by what has happened, but in the words of the victim's father, "As far as we're concerned, Mark Dean Schwab doesn't exist anymore. It's over. We are going on with our lives. We are convinced one day he will be excused, if not today, in the future."

Don.

LEMON: You can imagine they don't want to go through all of that again. All right.

Susan, thank you.

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. So when you think of the early important states in the presidential -- in presidential politics, you think of Iowa and New Hampshire, of course. That's natural. But what about Nevada?

That's right, the state known best for casinos and slots is playing a very big role in choosing the next president. CNN is hosting a Democratic debate tonight in Las Vegas, and our senior political analyst, Gloria Borger, she joins us now with a preview on that.

And Gloria, first off, I've got a question for you.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

LEMON: The polls have tightened a little bit among Democrats. Why has Senator Clinton fallen into a closer way with her party rivals? It seems that she was way out front and sometimes in double digits.

BORGER: Well, you know what? I think at this point the voters have actually decided they ought to participate in this election, and so they weren't really focusing on it until now.

We've got the Iowa caucuses coming up on January 3rd. Senator Clinton had sort of a not-so-good debate performance in her last debate, and so Senator Obama started moving up in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. So tonight's debate is going to be very important, because all eyes are going to be on Hillary Clinton to see how she performs.

You know, the charge against her is that she doesn't answer questions directly, that she's overcautious, that she's running out the clock, if you will, before the first caucus has begun because she's the frontrunner. So it's going to be interesting to see how she handles the heat that I think she's going to get from the other candidates tonight.

LEMON: OK. Gloria, also, we hear so much, you know, about Iowa and New Hampshire and, you know, the Midwest, apple pie, peachy keen, everything clean and dandy, but this is Las Vegas. It's not a traditional venue.

BORGER: Yes.

LEMON: Why, you know, the gambling capital, if you will, of the world?

BORGER: Well, Nevada decided early on that it wanted to get into the game, if you will. Here we are in the gambling capital of the world, as you point out.

They want to get in the game. And, of course, Senator Harry Reid is the majority leader in the Senate. He had a little something to do with making that happen. So they're going to have an early caucus on January 19. And if Iowa and New Hampshire really aren't conclusive, then Nevada could become more and more important.

So that's going to be very interesting to see, how this plays out. They decided this time, you know, they just didn't want to sit it out, and we're glad to be here in Las Vegas.

LEMON: Gloria Borger.

And we're glad to have you there. Thank you very much.

We will be watching tonight.

BORGER: Thank you.

LEMON: And win some money for us, if you will.

BORGER: OK.

LEMON: All right. Well, it all gets started 8:00 Eastern tonight. Gloria Borger, part of the best political team on television.

And that's the Democratic presidential hopefuls. They will take the stage right here on CNN.

Our Wolf Blitzer will moderate this. He'll be joined by our very own Campbell Brown. Campbell makes her debut tonight. And John Roberts as well will be there. Appreciate that.

And ahead of tonight's Vegas showdown, check out CNNPolitics.com for analysis. Behind-the-scenes blogging, of course, polls and more from the best political team on TV and also online.

PHILLIPS: Dora the Explorer, Aqua Dots, if you're a parent you probably know those toys and many others. They are the focus of massive recalls right now. Many of them made overseas. But some people in Congress now say it's time for better accountability from those toy makers.

Our Lisa Sylvester is in Washington tracking it.

Hi, Lisa.

LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.

You know, 80 percent of the products recalled so far this year came from China. Many of them were toys that resulted in young kids becoming seriously ill. And a perfect case in point, as you mentioned, the Aqua Dots.

That has a glue that when swallowed essentially turns into the date rape drug. But consumers, when they try to go over these foreign manufacturers, what they are finding is that they face significant barriers.

First off, U.S. consumers have to show that a domestic court has jurisdiction over a foreign company. Then they have to provide notification. That can be quite time consuming, complicated, expensive. And even if there is a successful judgment, it's very difficult for consumers harmed by these products to ever collect a dime.

The former head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission says given all of that, many foreign companies, what they are doing, they are simply ignoring U.S. safety standards.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA GILBERT, FMR. EXEC. DIRECTOR, CPSC: Accountability is a key to making sure that we provide in this country the right incentives for manufacturers and other companies in the stream of commerce to make themselves safer products.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SYLVESTER: So often the only recourse that parents have is to hold the retailer where they bought the defective toy accountable. That is putting more pressure on these mega stores to make sure their suppliers and wholesalers are making safe toys -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Appreciate it, Lisa.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, thousands of marchers for justice in Jena, Louisiana, in September. Now leaders of that march want to march on Washington for the same cause. The Reverend Al Sharpton will join us to talk about why he's marching again.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: A bit of a bizarre story breaking out of Russia right now. We're being told a religious cult whose members had barricaded themselves in an underground cave in Russia's Penzar (ph) region. Let's get to Isha Sesay monitoring the International Desk for us right now.

Isha, what do we know?

ISHA SESAY, CNN INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Kyra, very, very bizarre, indeed.

What we know is that this cult has barricaded themselves in this underground cave, as you say. They are supposedly staying in this cave until May because that's when they believe the world will end. And they are in this cave to keep themselves safe. They are saying that they are going to remain in there, and if authorities attempt to drag them out, they will kill themselves.

You're looking at the region. This is happening outside of the village of Nikoskoya (ph), which is in Russia's Penzar (ph) region. To give our viewers some context, it is about 700 kilometers, 450 miles southeast of Moscow.

Now, as you look at these pictures we believe that cave is at the bottom of a ravine. You see people looking down there. They have dug this cave and they have barricaded themselves in. What we're being told, all of this coming to us by way of Russian state television. There are 29 people inside this cave, four of them are children. The youngest is one and a half years old.

Now, authorities are trying to mount some kind of negotiation, trying to get them out, or at least release the children. So far they have flatly refused to do so. And as I said earlier, have said they will kill themselves if authorities try to drag them out.

What do we know about the conditions inside the cave? We're hearing, again via Russian state television, that they have food. They have drinking water. They have medicines. We're also being told they have gas canisters that they are used to go cook their food and to keep themselves warm.

One interesting point though that I want to bring to you before you guys leave me, is that the cult leader, by name of Pietr Kuznetsoff (ph) is not in the cave with them. We're being told, according to some reports, he is actually in detention with the state authorities. He's not in there because he said -- he's quoted as saying (AUDIO GAP) he need to keep an eye on things outside. Back to you.

PHILLIPS: Well, is this a protest to get the leader out of jail? Or do you know really the background of this cult, Isha?

SESAY: No, we sent our people in Russia -- and we're working to get more details for our viewers. As far as they know they believe the world will end in May. That is why they have barricaded themselves in, because they believe they will survive that doomsday scenario. And they are just keeping in there until then.

PHILLIPS: Isha Sesay, we'll follow it. Thanks.

LEMON: All right, some developing news. We told you about this earlier in our broadcast. House Speaker Dennis Hastert, former speaker, he is on the floor now, and he's getting a standing ovation. He's expected to announce that he is going to resign from Congress today. CNN, of course, reported early on, just a couple months back, that he would end his term early. He's the longest person to serve as speaker of the House, longest Republican.

(BEGIN LIVE FEED)

REP. DENNIS HASTERT (R-IL), FMR. SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: As members of Congress we're not here just to vote, but to speak, to give voice on this floor to the aspirations of our constituents. So this place, where we speak, the well of the House, is very special to me.

When I was a freshman congressman in 1987, I delivered my first remarks from this podium. And 12 years later on January 6, 1999, when I was first sworn in as speaker I made my acceptance speech from here as well.

I explained at the time that I was breaking the tradition of the speaker by making an acceptance remarks, not from the speaker's chair, because my legislative home is here on the floor with you, and so is my heart. Well, my heart is still here and always will be, but the Bible reminds us, in the book of Ecclesiastes, to everything there's a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven". And I think that pretty much sums up our existence in this place.

So now after 21 years in serving the people of Illinois, in this House, the time has come for me to make my last speech from this podium. Our Founding Fathers envisioned a citizen legislature, and it's time for this legislator to return to being a private citizen.

Madam Speaker, when I was re-elected as speaker of this House, in January 2003, I was able to congratulate you on being the first woman to be nominated as speaker. (END LIVE FEED, IN PROGRESS)

LEMON: Dennis Hastert talking about the first woman nominated as speaker. He was elected speaker back in 1999 and has since been the longest serving Republican speaker in history.

A former aide said he's not resigning because of health, but more because of wealth and because of his service as Republican speaker, and to the House there. So Dennis Hastert, of Illinois, my former state, announcing his resignation today from the House, on the floor, getting a standing ovation before that.

We'll continue to update. If he makes any news out of this, we will bring that right to you here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Let's move on now to talk about something we don't -- a lot of folks are not comfortable talking about. And we probably should -- nooses. They are symbols of hate, the Jena 6 case, swastikas painted on schools, some of the incidents inspiring a march for justice tomorrow, in Washington.

March organizers say they want to invoke the memory and continue the legacy of this march, the one you're looking at now, that was back in 1963. Dr. Martin Luther King, III, says tomorrow's event -- and the issues it raises -- will carry on his father's legacy. Reverend Al Sharpton and radio talk show host Steve Harvey are the men behind the movement and they join me now from Washington.

Hey, thank you both for joining us today.

REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Thank you.

LEMON: How you doing?

STEVE HARVEY, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Great.

LEMON: Optimistic about tomorrow?

SHARPTON: Very optimistic.

LEMON: Why so?

SHARPTON: I think we have toured all over the country and been in this Washington metropolitan area and with Steve Harvey pushing it every day, Tom Joyner and others, that the reaction we're getting is that people are tired of seeing these hangmen nooses, these hate crimes almost reported daily and there's been no response from the Justice Department.

We're almost back to a model of let every state handle it, in a state's right model. And when you have state's rights we always suffer. The federal government must come in and protect the civil rights of its citizens, which is why since the Justice Department will not come to the people, tomorrow we'll bring the people to the Justice Department.

LEMON: OK, two important things you've said. Justice Department and also you're going to bring the people to the Justice Department.

Steve, every day on the air, you talk with everyday folks about this. Was there something that inspired you to do this? Was it listening to your listeners? Was it what was happening? What inspired you to do this? And to go on your radio show and promote it as well?

STEVE HARVEY, RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Well, of course it's inspired by my listeners. You know, I have an obligation that I entertain every morning but I also try to enlighten and inspire every morning.

But what I'm listening to the people that listen to me and the pain that they are going through, like the Genarlow Wilson case or the Jena 6 situation, I have an obligation to people to help out and to stand for it. Because I have a voice and I have to use it to disperse information.

LEMON: Yes.

HARVEY: And this information has got to get out. And we're asking tomorrow and from now on, that the Justice Department just does exactly what the title is, justice. You've got to get on the local level where these people claim to have good intentions, but they are making some mistakes on a local level. And we just want the government to help us. That's all.

LEMON: All right, Steven and Reverend, we have a lot -- I want to get to a lot here so if I guys can keep it short because I don't want to run out of time. This is a very, very important topic.

Fair enough. What both of you said, but here's what I want to talk about. You saw -- both of you I'm sure, saw this new Pew Research poll that says are blacks better or worse off than they were five years ago? Right?

SHARPTON: Sure.

LEMON: And it says 29 percent of blacks say they are worse, and 49 percent say they are the same. Let's get to some other numbers. That was very disturbing.

OK, they said the reason many black people can't get ahead -- and these are African-Americans who are responding there -- they said 30 percent say discrimination but here's what's interesting, 53 percent say it's their own responsibility.

The Justice Department, is the Justice Department really responsible -- or is it our own back yards?

SHARPTON: Oh, no, I think you can't misread the poll. I think when they talk about advancing and doing well in values 53 percent say our values ought to be more self-motivating and better. We agree with that. But any number of polls will tell you that the majority of blacks of every class says that the Justice Department must have equal distribution of the law. Let's not distort that poll. You must remember, middle-class blacks had hangman nooses hung. Columbia University was an educated middle-class black. This is not a class issue.

LEMON: OK.

SHARPTON: This unfortunately spans all blacks.

LEMON: OK, I want to get through these real quickly, here. Blacks nearly three times more likely than Hispanics to be in jail. That's -- the source is the Justice Department, which you're marching around tomorrow. And blacks five times more likely than whites to be in jail, again, Justice Department.

And in prison, 4.8 percent of black men, 1.9 of Hispanic and 7 percent of white men, that's according to the Justice Department. More than 11 percent of black men ages 25-34 are in prison.

Who do you plan -- you know, folks are going to say, you know, all these marches, march, march, march, just symbolism. What are you going to do? Is this even going to make a difference?

HARVEY: Yes.

SHARPTON: Yes, you opened, Don, by showing the March on Washington, '63, that both of us, Steve and I were too young to be at. They said the same thing then. That march inspired legislators to go in with legislation. There will be Congress people there tomorrow. There will be a manifesto. Marches are to heighten and bring public attention. Marches is not there to solve a problem, it's to expose a problem. But if somebody doesn't expose it, it will never be solved. Dr. King never passed a bill in his life. He marched that created a climate to pass bills. So it's kind of crazy for people to memorialize Dr. King, and then when people do what he does, they say what are you doing?

LEMON: All right, Steve, I want to give you a chance to respond here and say what you have to say.

I have to tell you, I spoke with a lot of young people today, and this week, and they said we really don't have mentors. We really need a new generation. We love the Reverend Al Sharpton, we love Jesse Jackson, for what they do. But we need some new folks to step in and be change agents.

HARVEY: Well, I mean, you know, that's a true statement. These gentlemen are not going to be here forever. So we do need some new people, but in order to have new people we have to have leadership right now. We've got to have guys right now who set an example to show young people how to step up. What the marches can accomplish. How to draw attention to causes. That's what guys like Reverend Al Sharpton have been doing over the years, and that's what's necessary for our young people to get a hold of.

LEMON: Steve Harvey, the Reverend Al Sharpton, thank you very much. See you tomorrow. SHARPTON: Thank you.

LEMON: All right.

We want to tell you all day tomorrow, I'll be right in the middle of the march bringing you live coverage of what's going on. And we'll go in depth on the issues of race and justice. Is America's judicial system racially based? Live coverage tomorrow, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: Donnie and Marie Osmond, what they told our Larry King about the recent death of their father and Marie talked about a tragic situation with her 16-year-old son. You'll hear it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Fame and misfortune, Marie Osmond, popular and successful. She's fox trotting her way through "Dancing With The Stars." Her family is celebrating 50 years in showbiz. But the entertainer has had plenty of heartache, too. She, and brother, Donnie spoke to CNN's Larry King last night about her family's recent troubles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY KING, CNN ANCHOR, LARRY KING LIVE: How are you dealing with it?

MARIE OSMOND, SINGER: This last week with my dad passing was hard for many reasons. That was one of them. My son was put into a rehab. It's really hard. But it's a reality, Larry, 75 percent, like you said, of kids under age 18 are dealing with this. It's affecting every single family in our country. They are having these -- they are called pharm parties where go and steal medicines out of their parent's drug cabinets. And they dump them in a bowl they just take them until they pass out.

My son didn't do that. But, you know, he's dealing with a lot of issues. I don't know that I feel comfortable talking for him. I think he'll have to deal with that. But I will say this. My son is amazing. He's dealing with a lot. He's one of my kids. He's dealing with adoption issues, all kinds of things right now.

KING: He was adopted.

M. OSMOND: Yeah, I think he was. He is the most amazing kid and --

KING: How are you dealing?

DONNIE OSMOND, SINGER: As you can see --

M. OSMOND: A lot of heartache.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Marie says that her family and her faith are getting the family through these rough times.

More developments today involving the doctor who performed plastic surgery on rapper Kanye West's mom right before her death. Entertainment Correspondent Kareen Wynter joins me now with the latest on that.

Hi, Kareen.

KAREEN WYNTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kyra.

That's right, more problems emerging for Dr. Jan Adams, the Los Angeles plastic surgeon, and TV show host, who operated on rapper Kanye West's mother, Donda West, just hours before her sudden death.

Now, Discovery Health Channel has now pulled the plug on the surgeon's plastic surgery show, which has been currently airing in repeats. In a statement issued to CNN, Discovery Health Channel spokesman Chris Finnegan said, quote, "The four episodes slated for this week have been replaced in the schedule. Plans for episodes of "Plastic Surgery: Before and After" beyond this week are tbd. At this point we're trying to be as sensitive as possible to all involved."

PHILLIPS: Kareen, you said the show is currently in repeats. Do you know if Doctor Adams is still shooting new episodes?

WYNTER: Actually, he isn't shooting any new episodes at this time. Discovery also told us that Dr. Adams had hosted the show for about five years, until the final episode which aired in June. And while repeats of the show continue to run, Adams has not been affiliated with the network since the show's production ended earlier this year.

PHILLIPS: Has anyone heard from Dr. Jan Adams, himself?

WYNTER: Actually, I had an extensive interview yesterday, Kyra, with his uncle and mentor, who is also a plastic surgeon himself, Dr. Perlman Hicks (ph). And get this, after days of reaching out to Adams and trying to get in touch with him. Dr. Hicks tells me that he heard from Adams last night and that he's in surprisingly, surprisingly good spirits. That he's also confident the operation was not to blame and he said Adams says the surgery went well, and he doesn't think anything at all happened in surgery, that may have left to Donda West's death.

PHILLIPS: What about Kanye West? How is he handling all of this? I hear he's dropping out of some of the appearances he was supposed to make this week.

WYNTER: You know he is. It's a tough time for him, and understandably so. He has dropped out of a performance he was scheduled to tape tonight for the 2007 Victoria Secret Fashion Show. That special will air in December. As for his tour, well, Kanye was supposed to start that on Monday in Amsterdam, in fact. But that concert is no longer listed on his Web site. Tickets however are still being sold for the November 22nd show in London. And, Kyra, we'll have to see if he actually cancels that as well. PHILLIPS: Before I let you go, how are things going there with the writers' strike, any updates.

WYNTER: Oh, it's day 11 of the writers strike and so far no new negotiations to report, but the picket lines outside of all the major studios continue strong. Including Sony studios as seen here, but yesterday picketers outside of Disney Studios in Burbank got a little surprise entertainment. Singer KT Tunstall gave WGA members a special performance. She had some free time since the production of her shows so she sang her hit single. Tunstall had been in town for previously booked appearances with Jay Leno and Carson Daily, but since the strike has halted production on those shows, Tunstall has some free time on her hands. So she decided to -- why not? -- offer a little support for the writers by singing her hit single, "Suddenly I See". There you go. She does a better job.

And we'll keep you up to date on all the latest.

LEMON: Whoo!

(LAUGHTER)

WYNTER: Hey, Don, be nice. All the latest striking news tonight on "Showbiz Tonight." Plus more on Marie Osmond's heartache, her startling revelation that her teenage son is in rehab, the death of her father, her painful divorce. How much more can she take? And is she going to be OK? The inside story on her private pain on TV's most provocative entertainment news show, "Showbiz Tonight," 11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.

PHILLIPS: I think Kareen will be singing songs through the entire --

LEMON: Is she done yet? Ouch.

WYNTER: I'm going to sing for you every day, Don, just for that. You watch it.

LEMON: Well?

PHILLIPS: Well? All right, Kareen. Bring it to the house.

WYNTER: Have a nice day, Kyra.

LEMON: Come on, what about me? I love you, too.

Are you driving the safest vehicle on the road? Don't miss the new safety ratings.

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LEMON: The nation's largest brokerage firm has a new chief executive. John Thain, the current CEO of the New York Stock Exchange, will take the helm at Merrill Lynch -- it will happen next month. And he replaces Stanley O'Neil, who resigned after pressure after Merrill, last month, reduced the value of risky sub-prime mortgage investments by nearly $8 billion.

John Thain joins us now from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, along with our Susan Lisovicz, who is standing there to interview him.

Hi, guys.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN FINANCIAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don.

Thank you so much. And Mr. Thain, you have your work cut out for you. It seems we don't have a day when we don't hear about another big casualty and problems related to sub-prime mortgages. You know the general rule crisis management is get the bad news out and fast. And yet we can't seem to get behind this. Why is that?

JOHN THAIN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE, NYSE, EURONEXT: Well, the problem that we've seen in other financial crises like this, is as the prices go down longer and lower than people think. And so what's happening now is prices in the CDO market, prices in the sub-prime market are continuing to fall. And that's why you see continued losses.

LISOVICZ: Yes, but, you know, sub-prime mortgages are a tiny part of the mortgage market. And yet you're seeing big companies like Citi and Merrill and even overseas companies like BNP Parabas, take big write downs. Even if you and I have perfect credit ratings we're still casualties because if we invest in financial companies they are getting hit. Is this really a statement of how complex investing has become, or the fact that these companies just took reckless risk?

THAIN: Well, it's two things. The securities that we're talking about collateralized debt obligations, CDOs, are very complex securities. And a lot of times people relied on the ratings rather than understanding what the real underlying asset was. It's also true a lot of financial institutions in the environment of very easy credit took too much risk.

LISOVICZ: So where are we going? What do you see happening?

THAIN: Well, I think it will take probably six to 12 months to work out of this problem. So I think you will see continued losses. I think the fourth quarter will see the financial institutions take more losses.

LISOVICZ: Here we're seeing the losses play out on a daily basis. This year, in particular, we've seen so much volatility in the stock market, both to the upside and downside. And a lot of professional traders say one of the reasons why has almost nothing to do with some of the headlines. It has to do with the fact that we're seeing fewer traders on the floor, that we're going to computerized trading. Is this really one of the consequences of faster and speedier trading?

THAIN: Well, first of all, we continue to trade about 10 percent of the total volume here in the floor and the specialists and brokers continue to do their job of reducing intraday volatility. But they're not going to keep the market from going up or down 100s of points. That's really the drivers of -- the basics economics and corporate earnings.

And the other thing is from the business of the stock exchange, volatility is actually good for our business. We actually make more money when there's more trading.

LISOVICZ: So we get gray hairs and our stomachs churn, but --

THAIN: Well, the truth is it gives you more to talk about. If there was nothing happening it would not be as interesting down here.

LISOVICZ: That's true. We do talk a lot about it. One quick question, Merrill's losses for this quarter, you're coming in as a new CEO, what can you tell us?

THAIN: Well, I did a lot of work to make sure that I understood where their positions were at the end of the third quarter, but they still do have positions. And so I think without saying anything specific about them, I think they, like the industry, are still going to have industries with the fourth-quarter marks.

LISOVICZ: OK, so red ink, perhaps. We'll expect that you'll take our call. John Thain current CEO, of the New York Stock Exchange, soon to be the CEO and chairman of Merrill Lynch.

Thanks so much and congratulations.

THAIN: Thank you very much.

LISOVICZ: Back to you, Don.

LEMON: All right, thank you, Susan and John.

PHILLIPS: Needle scare in Long Island, syringes allegedly reused by a doctor who is now going on the defense.

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