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No Safe Place in Baghdad; Look Before Your Loan; Deadly Fight in Texas Prison; Trashed Homes
Aired March 28, 2008 - 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: We start with this. Guards rush in to break up two fights at a federal prison in south Texas. One inmate is dead, 22 others are hurt, 15 are taken to hospitals. Authorities with the Three Rivers Prison say everyone else is OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DENNIS MOLINA, PRISON SPOKESMAN: The institution is secure of all inmates and they have been accounted for. There is no threat to the community and the local FBI has been notified and have begun their investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Three Rivers holds about 1,200 inmates about 80 miles south of San Antonio.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: People in Virginia might be able to drive a little easier today because authorities there have a teen in custody who they think could be the gunman who took shots yesterday at drivers along Interstate 64. Nineteen-year-old Slade Allen Woodson, you see him right there, he was arrested this morning at a farm near Charlottesville. And right now he's charged only with shooting into a house and a credit union in Waynesboro. Authorities are trying to tie him to six confirmed shootings on that 20-mile stretch of I-64.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COL. STEVEN FLAHERTY, VIRGINIA STATE POLICE: Woodson is considered a suspect in the Interstate 64 shootings that took place during the overnight hours of March 27. We are still awaiting ATF results of the analysis of the ballistic evidence that was collected at each of the scenes along I-64.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now two people were hurt in those interstate shootings, but thankfully they are both going to be OK. Only minor injuries. But keep in mind, folks, police think more than one person was involved here.
LEMON: A 20-something from Miami has some explaining to do. Efraim Diveroli is an entrepreneur who's company is under a magnifying glass today. His business, dealing weapons and ammunition to the army and police force in Afghanistan. Diveroli is only 22-years-old and today he is under federal investigation, suspected of selling illegal and outdated inventory, some of which was allegedly made in China.
KEILAR: The White House hopefuls looking ahead to the next big showdown. Barack Obama kicks off a week-long bus tour of Pennsylvania with a new endorsement. Hillary Clinton lays the groundwork for the Indiana primary in May. She is there all day with four stops planned around the state. And Republican John McCain, well, he heads west. He's gone to where the money is, Las Vegas, meeting voters, raising cash, and waiting on Democrats to decide whom he'll be running against.
LEMON: A big endorsement in the next big Democratic primary. We kick off our Friday political ticker with word that Pennsylvania Senator Bob Casey's endorsing Barack Obama. It's a bit of a surprise. Casey had said he would stay neutral until after the state's April 22 primary. Hillary Clinton still has her own roster of big-name supporters in Pennsylvania. It includes Governor Ed Rendell and the mayors of both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
More questions for Barack Obama's former pastor. This time, the morning talk show "The View." In an interview that's airing today, Obama told the show's host that controversial comments by the Reverend Jeremiah Wright could have forced him to leave his longtime church.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D-IL) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Had the reverend not retired and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and miss characterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying there at the church.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The controversy over Reverend Wright exploded when clips from some of his past sermons began circulating on the Internet.
KEILAR: Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean says he wants his party's nomination settled before the convention this summer. He also wants the competing candidates to focus on the issues. Today on CNN's "American Morning," Dean said the sometimes heated rhetoric between the Clinton and Obama camps isn't good for the party.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD DEAN, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Personal attacks demoralize the base. We need to focus on Iraq. We need to focus on gas prices, on mortgages. We need to focus on the economy. Those are the things that people care about. And they don't care about bickering over pastors and who said what in Bosnia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Howard Dean also said his party's primary system is not, in his words, a mess. Instead, he said, the primaries, "have done much better than in the past." You can get all of the latest campaign news available at your fingertips. Check it out at CNNPolitics.com. We also have analysis there from the best political team on television. Again, that's CNNPolitics.com.
LEMON: The White House says North Korea shouldn't be testing missiles while nuclear talks are underway. North Korea fired off a series of short-range missiles overnight. South Korea's president calls it an ordinary military training, but the White House says North Korea should be concentrating on finishing a complete declaration of its nuclear program as part of an agreement with the United States.
KEILAR: A wave of drug violence just across the U.S./Mexico border brings in armed response from Mexico's government. About 2,000 Mexican troops are headed for Juarez. This is across the river from El Paso, Texas. And Mexican officials say Juarez has become a battleground for rival drug cartels.
They're blaming the traffickers for about 200 killings so far this year. Juarez is the latest front in Mexico's drug crackdown. President Felipe Calderon has already sent more than 20,000 federal agents across the country to put down drug-related violence.
LEMON: The government of Zimbabwe is denying CNN and several other news organizations permission to cover tomorrow's elections. It is unclear whether any foreign journalist will be allowed in. The election amounts to Robert Mugabe's toughest test in 28 years as president. Many fear the 84-year-old, Mugabe, might tamper with the votes to hold on to power.
Two men are running against him. One of them, a member of the opposition party. The other, Mugabe's former finance minister. Both accuse Mugabe of trying to rig the election. They're urging people to vote and remain at polling stations to try to stop fraud when the counting begins. The military's patrolling the capital to head off any possible violence.
KEILAR: The U.S. embassy in Baghdad, well like most non-Iraqi interests, it's located inside of the city's fortified international zone. You've also probably heard it called the green zone. But the past few days have shown safety is a luxury even there. And now two U.S. government employees have been killed since Sunday. Several others wounded there in separate insurgent attacks.
Let's go ahead now and bring in CNN's State Department correspondent Zain Verjee for the latest on this -- Zain.
ZAIN VERJEE, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, the State Department puts out these sorts of the advisories from time to time when there is heavy incoming fire. But how long it's actually going to stay in place depends on the amount of incoming fire over the next few days.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE, (voice over): Insurgent fire power steps up. The target, the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.
SEAN MCCORMACK, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: We've seen rocket attacks on March 23, March 25, March 26 and March 27.
VERJEE: Those attacks in the international zone, U.S. officials say, are becoming more sophisticated, more accurate. The State Department is instructing all embassy employees to stay and sleep in hardened structures, buildings like Saddam Hussein's old palace, or the new U.S. embassy compound.
In an advisory to U.S. employees, the State Department says, "personnel should only move outside of hard cover for essential reasons." And "essential outdoor movements should be sharply limited."
If U.S. employees are outside, they must wear protective body armor, like flak jackets and helmets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VERJEE: Brianna, a lot of the fire power coming into the international zone is coming from Sadr City.
KEILAR: And I just want to know, like set the scene for us, Zain. If you're an American or you're working on the embassy grounds, what are you doing to cope with this situation?
VERJEE: Well, I talked a short while ago to someone who had spent quite a bit of time there and what this person told me was that when they're under fire this like, that most people actually just try to go about business as usually. All extra activities. Things like social events are all shut down, obviously. Everyone going outside mostly wears their flak jacket and helmets.
This person said that employees also have a choice whether or not they want to sleep inside the buildings in cots or even in their offices. Some people, I was told, choose to stay in their trailers. There are several thousand people on the embassy compound, Brianna, that live in these trailers. They're all over the place, but not clustered together, and they are about a five minute walk to the U.S. embassy.
KEILAR: And those trailers, are they considered safe or obviously not as safe as the embassy grounds?
VERJEE: No, they're considered soft targets and fairly vulnerable and that's how this week one person, one U.S. citizen was killed because he was inside his trailer.
KEILAR: All right. Very interesting that some people still choosing to stay in those, though.
Zain Verjee for us in Washington. Thanks.
LEMON: We've been hearing about this over and over. Just record flooding all across the Midwest. And we've got some record flooding in parts of Arkansas to tell you about today and one river, Chad Myers, still rising.
(WEATHER REPORT)
KEILAR: How many times have you heard it? If it sounds too good to be true, you know, it probably is. Well, if a home loan sounds too good and to affordable to be true, it probably is. So how can you spot a predatory lender? We'll be spotlighting some red flags you need to look for.
LEMON: Plus, the senator, the pastor, and the ongoing damage control.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Man, the mortgage crisis, we've been talking a lot about it. It is to blame in part on loans that never should have been made. And loan offers that never should have been accepted.
Our personal finance editor, Gerri Willis, takes a look at predatory lending.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR (voice over): If you've ever bought a house, you know the dizzying process to seal the deal. Dozens and dozens of signatures, countless scribbling of initials. It all goes by very fast. How many of us actually read what we signed?
The case against Ameriquest started in Des Moines, Iowa. State Attorney General Tom Miller, who led the charge.
TOM MILLER, IOWA ATTORNEY GENERAL: A number of things come together here that made fraud so tempting. One is it's so complex. So you combine complexity, a vulnerable population, a lot of money to be made, and you have the formula for disaster.
WILLIS: Mark Bomchill peddled loans for Ameriquest in Minneapolis.
MARK BOMCHILL, FORMER AMERIQUEST EMPLOYEE: One of the things we had to do was constantly role play our cold-calling skills.
WILLIS: Let's do a couple of those then. I'll give you the objection and you tell me what they told you to say.
BOMCHILL: OK.
WILLIS: All right. So I just refinanced. Why would I refinance again?
BOMCHILL: Well, Miss Willis, often times when people refinance, they're not able to get all their needs met. Were you able to get all your debts consolidated that you needed consolidated?
WILLIS: I'm not interested. BOMCHILL: If I was able to show you how I could save you $60,000, $70,000, would you be interested then?
WILLIS: That's a compelling argument. Is it true?
BOMCHILL: Of course not. It's not true. Those people that fell for it are probably in -- I mean a lot of them are probably in foreclosure right now.
WILLIS: Do you ever feel guilty about having been there and having worked there? Did you put some of these people in these loans?
BOMCHILL: I don't think anybody that can seriously look back at their employment at Ameriquest, no matter what level, can honestly say or feel good about what they did to the customers.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WILLIS: We should tell you that Ameriquest no longer exists. It was bought out by Citigroup and Ameriquest's former CEO, Roland Arnall, passed away earlier this month.
LEMON: OK. So last year, what, 49 states gave (ph) a class action suit for Ameriquest for $325 million. Is that money really going to help the people who lost money?
WILLIS: Unfortunately, no, Don. I have to tell you, it's not going to help them because there are hundreds of thousands of victims and they're only going to only end up getting $300 to maybe $1,000 out of this. So at the end of the day, it's not going to provide a lot of help. And, of course, people still suffering out there.
LEMON: I've got to ask you this, because you were doing your show, you know, the show that you have on the weekends, which is so interesting. Did you have any idea that all of this was going to come? We've been doing this, issue No. 1 now, talking about the mortgage mess, talking about all this so you knew that it was eventually going to come to this?
WILLIS: Well, I don't think anybody saw the degree to which there was fraud in the marketplace. We had heard about it, we knew about it, but we didn't know how much there was. However, it was plainly clear to so many folks out there that there were so many problems in the market.
People were paying too much money; they were overextended. The loans were bad, we warned about the loans over and over and over again. Just didn't know the degree of the fraud.
LEMON: I have to say this, and I'm doing this on my own. Let me see this. Gerri's book, because all of that stuff seriously. You're here, obviously doing some work, but also you're here -- some people are interested in your book and we went down and got it from the store here. But Gerri Willis's book here. It is called "Home Rich." It talks to people about all the practical things they need to know about investing, especially in these times. WILLIS: Yes, especially looking at, how do you make money on that house? How do you make it a good investment? I think we've completely lost sight of that.
LEMON: All right. Good read. Thank you very much for that.
WILLIS: My pleasure.
LEMON: Thank you, Gerri.
Well, how did the mortgage boom go bust? I was just talking to Gerri a little bit about it. But Join CNN's Special Investigations Unit as it teams up with "Fortune" magazine for an in-depth look. It's called "Busted: Mortgage Meltdown." It airs at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, 5:00 p.m. Pacific, tonight on CNN.
KEILAR: Travel trouble in Texas. A woman with nipple piercings, just like these, told to take her rings off to get on a flight.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: A Texas woman says she wouldn't wish the experience on anyone. Mandi Hamlin says transportation security agents forced her to take out a nipple ring with pliers before she could get on an airplane. She demonstrated using a mannequin and Hamlin says she was sent behind a curtain but heard the male agents snickering.
Nationally known lawyer Gloria Allred has taken up the case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY FOR MANDI HAMLIN: The conduct of TSA was cruel and unnecessary. The last time that I checked, a nipple was not a dangerous weapon.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Well, not so fast, says TSA. A nipple ring may not be a dangerous weapon, but a bra might be. It released the mock-up of a bra bomb that could potentially be used by terrorists.
KEILAR: Now banks are facing an unusual problem. How do they prevent angry people facing foreclosure from trashing their homes? Stephanie Elam is at the New York Stock Exchange with details.
And, Stephanie, I'm actually looking for a home right now. I've seen a couple that are foreclosures. And, I mean, it seems like at the best some people, you know, they sort of leave big nails in the wall or they scratch the walls or just not careful with things. But, I mean, some people could even like pour cement downs the drains, right?
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. It's not just, Brianna, the case of like, oh, I left a big hole from when I hung up that picture. Some of it is actually just devious. And it's a sad state of affairs when someone's just going around trashing a house, but there's a lot of angry out there among people who are losing their homes.
The preliminary results of a survey by research firm Campbell Communications shows that about half of foreclosed homes have substantial damage and that leaves banks to clean up what is often a substantial mess. The homes can be costly and time-consuming to clean up, hurting bank's ability to quickly resell them, Brianna. So like you're seeing out there, it's rough.
KEILAR: So what are banks doing about this? Because generally they're not in the department of property management.
ELAM: Right. Well, I guess you could call it a ransom or a bribe, maybe. But "The Wall Street Journal" says some banks are paying people to leave homes without damaging them.
"The Journal" says one lender in Las Vegas offers occupants reluctant to leave $1,000 to move out. But if the house is trashed, they don't get any of that money. Other banks prefer to let the local sheriff handle the situation -- Brianna.
KEILAR: And it's a sad sign of the times, I suppose, isn't it?
ELAM: Oh, yes. And another sign of the times, underwater mortgages. That's when borrowers owe more than a home is worth and it's a growing problem. But "The Journal" says the Bush administration is ready to do something about it. A new plan would allow more people to qualify for FHA mortgage insurance, providing a partial backstop.
All right, let's turn to Wall Street now where stocks have turned to the red. We're slightly lower here at this point. The pace of consumer spending in February fell to a 17-month low. The Commerce Department says spending rose, but just barely, inching ahead by 0.1 of a percent. Adjusting for inflation, spending was flat, indicating that consumers are very cautious with all this talk about recession.
All right, looking at the numbers. The Dow on the downside with 21 points, 1,281. The Nasdaq off four at 2286.
And, coming up, have you ever told someone you were in one place but you were actually in a completely different location. In the future, you may get stone-cold busted if you try that. I'll tell you what device may tell on you in the next hour of the NEWSROOM. Of course, this is not a problem for us because if we say we're not at work, they know.
KEILAR: Yes, you can't really like show up in a town and be reporting or something and not tell your friend there that you're there.
ELAM: Or fib about it.
LEMON: By the way, Steph, I hate to below it, but our little banner on the bottom gave it away.
ELAM: Did they? LEMON: Oh, yes, it said something.
ELAM: Dagnabit (ph), all my creative writing just gone.
LEMON: Yes.
ELAM: All right. I'll work on it next time.
KEILAR: I appreciate it, Stephanie. Good job.
ELAM: Thank you.
LEMON: OK. Thank you very much.
Barack Obama and the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, it's a topic that just won't go away. We'll have more on the presidential candidate and his latest comments about his pastor.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
KEILAR: And I'm Brianna Keilar. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
It is about half past the hour and here are three of the stories that we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM.
The U.S. Army has suspended the contract of a company controlled by a 22-year-old Miami arms dealer. This company is a supplier for the Afghanistan army, but it's accused of breaking U.S. law by providing Chinese-made ammunition. The man's grandfather blames jealous competitors.
The Mexican government is dispatching 2,500 soldiers and police to fight drug gang violence near the U.S. border. Execution-style slayings have claimed hundreds of lives in the state of Chihuahua, which borders Texas and New Mexico.
One inmate is dead, more than 20 hurt after fights at a federal prison in south Texas. Officials say the prison, the Three Rivers Federal Correctional Institution, is now under control.
LEMON: All right. A lot of people wonder why Barack Obama didn't just find a new church if he didn't go along with his now controversial pastor. Well, today Obama says he might have done just that. Well, his latest comments about the Reverend Jeremiah Wright came on today's edition of the morning talk show, "The View."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Had the reverend not retired and had he not acknowledged that what he had said had deeply offended people and were inappropriate and mischaracterized what I believe is the greatness of this country, for all its flaws, then I would haven't felt comfortable staying there at the church. (END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: All right.
Let's talk more about Senator Obama and Reverend Wright with CNN contributor, Roland Martin.
And Roland, in all honesty, I said, you said, what are we talking about, obviously. And I said, we're talking about the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Barack Obama, and your response was --
ROLAND MARTIN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Why?
LEMON: Why?
MARTIN: Because we have delved into this topic in a million different ways. And it seems that people are asking, well, I want more and more and more, but what more do you want? Do you still -- at some point you have to say, do you want him to leave the church, or do you want him to stay?
LEMON: But real quickly, you're saying why? But he didn't say why to the women on "The View" when they asked him the question. He's responding --
MARTIN: Well that was him.
LEMON: -- He's responding to it, though. So of course we're going to talk about it. And of course it's going to put it in the media more, it's going to be out there, people are going to play the sound bite, like we're all doing, every single network. So he's continuing to talk about it as well.
MARTIN: Well -- obviously when one is asked you're not going to sit here and dance around it. But I'm talking about a much broader point.
I've been having this debate online in terms of -- on radio, people saying that -- who's actually continuing the conversation? Are we the ones that are continuing to ask? Do we continue to play the same sound bites? Or, do we also elevate the conversation?
Bottom line is this here, we're spending this level of time on a single pastor and talking about four or five comments that he made, as opposed to the totality. Are we also dealing with the whole issue of faith from a broader standpoint? Are the individuals on the left and the right who made comments that we might deem to be controversial, why do people stay?
We all say -- I asked the same very (sic) question to people who gave their tithes to their offerings to the Catholic church and their diocese were settling lawsuits, people were sexually abused. Now granted here's an individual who's running for president, who -- this is his particular pastor. I get that.
But you do have to ask the question, OK, what is the answer we're trying to achieve? I think people are saying, well, I want more and more and more to an answer that they're not going to get.
LEMON: Right, well, they're --
MARTIN: They're not going to get it.
LEMON: They're not going to get it.
But also, he's saying, and for the first time he's saying, had the reverend not said this, had he not sort of realized what he said was wrong -- I haven't heard the reverend say that, obviously that must have been in a personal conversation --
MARTIN: Right. Absolutely. Because we -- what we have been doing is we've been trying to reach out to him. I've actually talked to his family members and he has not been talking. He's canceled several appearances for security reasons as well.
LEMON: And that's -- but that's my question.
MARTIN: So we haven't heard from him.
LEMON: You know the Reverend Jeremiah Wright --
MARTIN: Yes.
LEMON: -- and you know Trinity and you know there's Apostolic and all those churches -- House of Pope in Chicago --
MARTIN: Right.
LEMON: -- and you know these people are outspoken. I've never heard the Reverend Jeremiah Wright not speak to anything, so obviously someone has said, shut up, be quiet.
MARTIN: Well -- no -- but I think it's also a matter of being sensitive to the reality that he's running for president. And so therefore who are the folks continuing it. And so, that's really what you have here. When I listen to conservative talk radio and watching these conservative commentators who are -- they're the ones who frankly want to keep the drama going. They don't want to take the conversation to a different level.
LEMON: I'm going to play devil's advocate here, because in any political event, in any presidential campaign or what have you, you have people who are going to pick up on controversy --
MARTIN: Of course.
LEMON: -- and that's what the media does. Why should the rules be any different for this campaign?
MARTIN: Not different, not different, not different.
LEMON: So why are people saying we shouldn't talk about it? Why are people saying that he shouldn't answer the question? MARTIN: No, no, no. I think -- here it is. There's a difference between saying we shouldn't talk about it, or do we have the exact same conversation every single day for the past two weeks. Because here's what --
LEMON: OK, real quickly --
MARTIN: Here's the question I get all the time.
LEMON: OK.
MARTIN: Well, why did he stay? He has answered the question, why did he stay. Why didn't he leave? He's answered the question.
OK, we keep talking about that over and over and over again. That's what I mean by people saying they want an answer -- they want an answer that they're not going to get --
LEMON: OK, hang on.
MARTIN: -- and so if we keep asking it they will get the answer.
LEMON: OK. Hang on, Roland. Because it's not just the appearance on "The View," but also in several letters, the church letter and also "Trumpet" magazine. He's said things about Italians, he's said things about Jews. He said --
MARTIN: One second, one second. Now, hold up, put it in context. When he talked about Italians, was he speaking about biblical days in terms of in the Roman days?
LEMON: Well -- do you say --
MARTIN: No, but what was it?
LEMON: Wait, hang on. The thing is, when you write something, do you say, looking down their "garlic noses at the Galatians"?
MARTIN: First of all, I don't fully -- but again, though, I don't fully understand what he was talking about.
LEMON: He said --
MARTIN: I haven't read what he said. But my point is this here. Was he talking about biblical days or was he talking about last week?
LEMON: But does that matter? When you say --
MARTIN: It does matter.
LEMON: -- that someone is "looking down their garlic nose"? Does that really matter. It sounds offensive.
MARTIN: Of course it sounds offensive. But if I'm talking about Galatians, which is a book in the Bible, if I'm talking about Romans, if I'm talking about first John, second John, if I'm talking about Timothy, I'm speaking within that context.
This is the problem that I believe we have in the media when it comes to faith. And that is we don't understand the faith context in the real world context. When I listen to even some of the readings and teachings of a John Hagee, or when I look at some of the past readings of a Francis Schaeffer, I'm looking at people who are offering a perspective through a theological prism. And the problem is -- but there's a reason it's a theological prism.
LEMON: Yes, but don't you see -- you can understand when people say it seems like you're making excuses --
MARTIN: Of course I do.
LEMON: -- for something that on any level --
MARTIN: No, no, no I'm not.
LEMON: -- on any sense, no matter how you put it--
MARTIN: I'm not.
LEMON: -- what context, it's offensive. And people are offended by that.
MARTIN: Right, people --
LEMON: If someone had made the same comment --
MARTIN: Absolutey.
LEMON: -- biblically about African-Americans, a white preacher, then people would be offended by that as well.
MARTIN: Absolutely. And the point I'm making -- this is what we have here. We have the intersection of three of the most volatile issues ever; and that is faith, race and politics. And what we always -- those are the three issues you are going to get people who are going to be passionate and angry and fired up and I think one of the problems that we have in the media, I'm going to be very honest, is we have a lack of understanding of faith.
Whenever the issue of faith comes up, we don't really want to tackle this. We don't want to touch it, because it's a lot more complex than we want to admit to. And I think that's part of our problem. Because one think -- I'm grateful, last year and we hosted several faith specials --
LEMON: I understand that.
MARTIN: -- because we have to examine that particular issue.
LEMON: And I think people will agree with you on part of it, but you cannot use faith and the Bible, or any book or any doctoring or any belief, police to discriminate or say derogatory things about other people. MARTIN: But ideologically, Don, this is what we do know. Ideologically, both sides do. And that is the problem that I think that we have here, and that is, do we have a secular standard or a faith standard? Or do we say, well no, there's one standard.
That's why I listen to people on the left and the right. I'm listening to -- just like people say, well he's a fiery preacher. Well yes, so is the southern Baptist preacher who was with the Southern Baptist Church who might be white.
So are you saying that folks shouldn't preach that way? The reality is, I think what we should be examining is, what happens in churches. Not just in my church, what happens in churches across the country. Now, we have that conversation, that might be an interesting thing --
LEMON: That's a very interesting conversation that we should have. But I --
MARTIN: And that's the challenge that we have.
LEMON: They've wrapped me like six times. But I let you talk because it's a very interesting conversation. I wish we could move on and talk about other things than this issue, but I'm always surprised when people think it's going to be any different in this campaign than it is in any other campaign.
MARTIN: Oh no, well -- it's not.
LEMON: Roland Martin.
MARTIN: Faith is faith.
LEMON: Thank you very much for that.
MARTIN: Don, keep the faith.
LEMON: Thank you, Roland.
KEILAR: No matter who wins the Democratic nomination, a lot of Democrats, well they're going to be unhappy. The question, though, how unhappy will they be? Some are now threatening to stay home in November if their choice for nominee loses out.
CNN's Tom Foreman looks at the growing Democratic divide.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Democrats were almost measuring the White House for curtains last summer, with a deep field of well- liked candidates. But now, the party is bitterly divided. Arguing over rules, arguing over policy, arguing over arguments.
JAMES CARVILLE, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: It would have been a wonderful thing to have democracy at work and allow this to happen, Congressman. And the fact is is that the agents and lobbyists of the Obama campaign stopped it. I bet if Obama --
REP. XAVIER BECERRA (D), CALIFORNIA: James, stop it. Stop it. You know that's not the way --
CARVILLE: Of course it happened that way.
BECERRA: You know it's not the way happened.
CARVILLE: Then how did it happen?
FOREMAN: The brutal primary season has produced numerous wedges according to political analysts, including that very public spat over whether delegates from Florida and Michigan should be counted. The tortured debate over whether superdelegates should decide the winner. And of course, angry words over race and gender.
Jenny Backus a is a Democratic strategist.
JENNY BACKUS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: We have our two most reliable bases, symbolized by African-Americans in Barack Obama and women with Hillary Clinton, fighting with each other. That's tough. So we're going to have to do some reconciliation. But we have lots and lots of time.
FOREMAN: Both candidates talk about party unity.
OBAMA: I want to make sure that the tone of this campaign remains -- it creates the situation where Democrats are going to win in November.
SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D-NY), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The most important goal is for us to put a Democrat back into the White House next January.
FOREMAN (on-camera): Still, winning will be tough unless those voters who are feeling battered by this process can feel good enough about it again to keep participating.
What do you have to do to get those people back in the tent?
BACKUS: Pick a fight with John McCain.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Maybe.
But for now, the Democratic demolition derby rages on.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: The FBI taking its expertise overseas, agents in a warzone.
KEILAR: Singulair, millions of people with asthma and allergies take it, but what does it do to their minds? The FDA is looking into it. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Curfews are in effect in several cities in Iraq, including Baghdad. Nobody allowed to walk or drive anywhere until Sunday morning, Baghdad time. It is a drastic measure from Iraqi officials hoping to squash a flare-up in street fighting between Iraqi forces and Shiite gangs. That curfew includes the International Zone, the secured part of Baghdad considered one of the safest and well- protected parts of the city. Still, insurgent rockets and mortars landed inside that zone today, killing a pair of government guards.
This is Basra looking like a ghost town during the curfew. Basra and other cities with high Shiite concentrations are where groups the government calls rogue elements have battled with Iraqi troops.
KEILAR: Well, if you think sifting for clues at a crime scene is tough on the streets of America, you're right. Now, imagine how hard it is in Iraq.
CNN justice correspondent, Kelli Arena, got some war stories from a survivor of the FBI's Baghdad office.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KELLI ARENA, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The bombing of a U.N. building in Baghdad, the kidnapping of an American journalist, the ongoing hunt for terrorists.
ANDREW BLAND, FBI: Unquestionably, the security was the major impediment when it came to conducting investigations.
ARENA: Andrew Bland ran the FBI's Baghdad office for nearly two years. Speaking exclusively to CNN, Bland admits how scary it gets when investigations take agents outside the secure area, known as the Green Zone.
BLAND: I'm a former army airborne ranger, middleweight boxing champion at West Point, former SWAT team member, but the experiences that I went through in traveling from the Green Zone to the Red Zone were amongst the most fearful in my entire life.
ARENA: Another challenge, working with Iraqis. Once their seen as collaborating with the U.S., insurgents mark them for death. Bland remembers one woman from Iraq's intelligence agency who came to the FBI for training.
BLAND: She herself was abducted, horribly tortured, and then killed, and her body was dumped just outside the Green Zone.
ARENA: Still, FBI officials say that there's no shortage of agent volunteers to serve in Iraq, and many agents who've been there say they bring much-needed expertise.
Chris Hamilton helped oversee the FBI's Iraq office from Washington. CHRIS HAMILTON, FMR. FBI COUNTERTERRORISM OFFICIAL: We were able to use forensics to identify terror cells, identify terrorist individuals from hairs and fibers and evidence that we would collect on the scene at all of these events.
ARENA: But some agents don't completely buy it and privately tell CNN that there are limits to what the FBI can and should be doing in Iraq. They point to the Blackwater investigation as a prime example. That company's employees were allegedly involved in a shooting incident that killed 17 Iraqi civilians.
HAMILTON: By the time investigators got there, it was after the event, conducting an interview, even being seen talking to an American was probably very problematic for Iraqi citizens.
ARENA (on-camera): Some agents suggest that the investigation is merely a political cover for the U.S. and say putting agents in harm's way to play politics is flat-out wrong. FBI officials obviously disagree.
Kelli Arena, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Singulair, millions of people with asthma and allergies take it, but what does it do to their brains? The FDA is looking into it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Mark your calendars, next Wednesday is World Autism Awareness Day. CNN will bring you a special report on autism at noon Eastern on April 2.
And this weekend, CNN's "HOUSE CALL" with Dr. Sanjay Gupta is also exploring the issue. He'll be going one on one with the CDC and asking whether childhood vaccines are safe. That is Saturday and Sunday, 8:30 a.m. Eastern, only here on CNN.
LEMON: And Dr. Gupta has been checking into another story for you. If you or someone you know takes the drug, it's called Singulair for asthma or allergies, millions of people do. Here's a development you may want to keep an eye on. The federal government is looking into a possible link between Singulair and suicide.
Here's our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: We're talking about one of the most prescribed allergy/asthma medications in the country, Singulair, it's been around for about 10 years. Now, the FDA is going to be doing some investigating into these suicides.
Now, to be fair, we're talking about four suicides, as far as our homework has told us. That's out of about 32,000 suicides on average every year. So, a small number here.
But the way a medical investigation like this takes place is they try and find similarities, and Singulair emerged as a concern. Again, no one is saying there's any kind of a definitive link here, but they're going to look into this a little bit further.
Now, Singulair is a medication that can be described for children as young as six months, obviously into adulthood. So, children and adults maybe getting a good looking at here with regard to this medication.
Singulair is what is known as a leukotriene antagonist. The name doesn't matter. But basically, what that means is it stops a lot of those inflammatory cells from causing the awful symptoms of asthma and allergies, the chest tightness, the sinus problems, and the runny nose, and it's pretty effective for a lot of people.
But a lot of people, obviously, looking into this are going to be concerned about what the FDA is investigating now. We have talked to Merck, and they said look, there's been a lot of studies -- take a look at the numbers there -- about 11,000 patients were studied in 40 different clinical tries and they found no evidence of suicide links.
But we also found that there have been four updates in their labeling. Take a look at some of the less-common side effects. You can never read those little labeling things. We're reading it for you. Read that, take a look: behavior and mood-related changes, aggressive behavior, bad/vivid dreams. If you keep reading, suicidal thoughts and actions are on the list.
This is not the first time that a medication that would seemingly have no affect on one's mood or behavior has been looked at by the FDA. Chantix, which is a smoking medication is another one that's being looked at. Also, Accutane, a medication commonly used for skin problems, also had some links with suicide as well. Antidepressants, we've talked a lot about that.
A prevailing message here and an important one, don't stop this medication, this asthma medication if you've been taking it for some time. A bad asthma attack can certainly be riskier than the possible chance of what we're talking about here.
If you've had some problems with depression or if you've had some problems with anxiety, you think it might be related to Singulair, talk to your doctor about this. This investigation continues on. We'll keep tabs on it. Back to you for now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: Encouraging news now about Emilio Navaira, the Tejano music star who has been in a coma since his tour bus crashed near Houston on Sunday. He remains in critical condition, but doctors say he's opened his eyes and is slowly regaining consciousness. They still don't know how well he will recover or how long it might take.
LEMON: Drug violence at the United States back door. What Mexico is doing to fight drug traffickers who turned a border city into a killing ground.
KEILAR: So, what do you think about this? You want to be this guy's MySpace friend? Well, before you say OK, listen to this. He is a million dollar arms dealer, he's only 22, and oh, yes, he is in big trouble.
LEMON: Meow is right. We don't speak cat or kitten -- is it a cat or a kitten? I don't know.
KEILAR: A skinny cat.
LEMON: Yes, a skinny cat, but this guy probably is saying something like thanks for getting me out of the stinking wall.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, it is a very sad story to report you. Looking at aerials of this hospital for a reason. Pay attention to this one. It involves an infant and it is a missing infant from this hospital, an infant missing from this hospital.
We cannot confirm the age, but according to some of the media reports there on the ground, they're reporting that it's a one-day-old baby that is missing. They're still doing an assessment and a search of this building.
It is Central Florida Regional Medical Center, Central Florida Regional Medical Center, a baby is missing here. They're doing an assessment of the building and also checking some surveillance video. This is in Orlando, Florida, and this is courtesy of our affiliate WFTV.
We're working on the specifics of this story. More details and we'll bring it to you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
In the meantime, the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
The war from Juarez. Mexico sends troops to the Texas border to take on the drug cartels blamed for 200 deaths this year. We'll talk live with the Juarez mayor.
KEILAR: President Bush calls this a defining moment in Iraq. Iraqi forces take the fight to so-called rogue militias, and the militia is giving it right back. Our Kyra Phillips is in the thick of it.
Hi there, I'm Brianna Keilar at CNN Center in Atlanta.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
We're going to update you on our breaking news coming from Orlando in just a moment. But first, we want to tell you about this story. It's a 20-something from Miami. He has some explaining to do. His name is Efraim Diveroli. He is an entrepreneur whose company is under a magnifying glass today. His business: dealing weapons and ammunition to the army and police force in -- get this -- Afghanistan.
Diveroli is only 22-years-old and today, he is under federal investigation, suspected of selling illegal and outdated inventory, some of which was allegedly made in China.
KEILAR: Guards rush to break up two fights in a federal prison in south Texas. One inmate is dead, 22 others are hurt, 15 of them have been taken to hospitals. Authorities with the Three Rivers Prison say everyone else is OK.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOLINA: The institution is secured of all inmates, and they have been accounted for. There is no threat to the community and the local FBI has been notified and have begun their investigation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: About 1,200 inmates are at that correctional institution, which is about 80 miles south of San Antonio, Texas.
LEMON: All right, we want to get you back live now to the scene of our breaking news story. This is in Orlando, Florida and this is the Central Florida Regional Medical Center, these pictures courtesy of our affiliate there.
And here's what we are being told by our affiliates, that there is a missing baby here. An infant is missing. Also, local media is reporting that it is a one-day-old baby. They're still doing an assessment of this building, a search, if you will, and they're checking some surveillance video to see exactly where this baby might have gone and who may have taken this baby.
WFTV is our affiliate there, we thank them for these pictures and also for this information that's coming into the CNN NEWSROOM.
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