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Children From Polygamist Sect Questioned; Airlines Get Poor Report Card; Olympic Torch Met with Protests in France
Aired April 07, 2008 - 13:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BRENT BOWEN, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA AT OMAHA: This year was the worst year ever for the U.S. airline industry.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DON LEMON, CO-HOST: Bumped, delayed, canceled, you know the story. Just plain fed up. When it comes to flying, you're paying more. You're losing more. And you're fuming more.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CO-HOST: And a polygamist sect, scores of children and allegations of sex abuse, all part of a raid at a sprawling Texas ranch. And this is not over yet.
From CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Kyra Phillips.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
And we start with this. Scores of children now being questioned in West Texas as authorities try to get any information they can about the secretive world they lived in.
Meantime, authorities are still searching the sprawling Texas ranch they removed the kids from four days after they first raided it. The ranch is home to a polygamist sect, and the raid was prompted by a call from a 16-year-old girl who alleged physical and sexual abuse. No word on whether she's been found. But so far, more than 200 women and children, mostly girls, have been taken off the grounds.
The outside world is something they know nothing about and that many have come to distrust and fear. Now the children removed from the polygamist ranch have found themselves thrust into that world. People are trying to reach out to them, but it is not easy.
Here's CNN's Ed Lavandera. He's in Eldorado, Texas.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From a distance, the dresses and hairstyles suggest these sect members are from another time. But the images don't fully capture the drama several hundred women and children have endured.
EVA JO SESSOM, CHURCH VOLUNTEER: They just were so fearful. And all they have learned, that we were of the devil, all the outside world was of the devil.
LAVANDERA: Helen Lugar (ph) and dozens of other Eldorado residents spent the last four days setting up a temporary shelter for the sect members at a local Baptist church. The experience was eye- opening.
How do you react when a child looks confused by a crayon?
HELEN PFLUGER, CHURCH VOLUNTEERS: Didn't know. She was maybe 16 -- maybe 16 -- didn't know what to do with Crayolas. She said, "What are we supposed to do with these?"
LAVANDERA: Inside the compound, there are no televisions, no newspapers, no magazines.
(on camera) For the volunteers here in Eldorado who have been taking care of these sect members, it's really the first chance they've ever had to come close to them. Almost none of the women and children ever venture off the compound. In fact, only a few of the men have ever been seen around town.
(voice-over) Several volunteers say many of the women and children sat huddled together. Many were described as non-responsive. And that they even wanted their beds to be touching.
Pfluger says she heard one girl tell a child abuse investigator that it's an honor to be a teenaged mother.
PFLUGER: It was a little girl, probably 8 years old, and she had one of the babies and you could have thought, "Oh, well, that's her mother." She was learning at that age to be a mother. Not with a doll, because they don't have dolls. Their dolls are real.
JIMALEE DUTTON, CHURCH VOLUNTEER: The young pregnant girls was hard to watch or hard -- hard to watch, or hard to see. Some of them, the way they would not look at you, would not give you eye contact, that was -- that was hard.
LAVANDERA: Investigators acknowledge the children are terrified of the world outside the compound. But people like Helen Pfluger and other volunteers are also terrified of what it's like inside the compound.
Ed Lavandera, CNN, Eldorado, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: You're on time to the airport, but your flight is late. It happens all the time. Right? And it's just one of the gripes the passengers have.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve is in Washington with the latest report card on airline service. And some people would take exception with that service. Maybe they call it non-service, Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. There are a few airlines that did pretty well. At the top of the rankings this year, three low-cost airlines. AirTran is rated No. 1, followed by JetBlue and Southwest. At the bottom of the pile, Atlantic Southeast. The trend overall, however, not good.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOWEN: This year was the worst year ever for the U.S. airline industry. Overall operational performance and quality declined once again to the lowest level that it's ever been.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: According to this annual air quality ratings survey, customer complaints are up 60 percent this year. U.S. Airways had the most; Southwest the fewest.
And what are people complaining about? Schedule problems, first and foremost. Then baggage and customer service. One journalist who covers the industry points the finger at full flights and thin staffing, which have eliminated much of the elasticity in the air system.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN MUTZABAUGH, "USA TODAY": One small problem can very quickly lead to missed bags, missed flights, stranded passengers. And I think that's behind the lion's share of the spike in complaints that we've seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MESERVE: And the forecast for the next year is not pretty. With fuel prices heading up, up and then up again, experts say the airlines may not be able to do much to improve performance -- Brianna.
KEILAR: Yes. Anyone who flies knows exactly what you're talking about. Jeanne Meserve, thanks for us -- thank you for that report.
LEMON: President Bush is putting a proposed free trade agreement with Colombia on the fast track. He has signed a letter that requires Congress to vote on the measure within 90 working days before lawmakers leave in the fall for the campaign season.
Many Democrats oppose the deal, saying Colombia has not done enough to halt violence in the country. The bill could end tariffs on most goods traded between the two countries.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: President Uribe has told members of Congress as me -- and me, as well, that approving the free trade agreement is the best way for America to demonstrate our support for Colombia. People throughout the hemisphere are watching to see what the United States will do.
If Congress fails to approve this agreement, it would not only abandon a brave ally. It would send a signal throughout the region that America cannot be counted on to support its friends.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is also pushing the deal. She says in an op-ed in the "Wall Street Journal," quote, "More than 90 percent of Colombian goods enter the U.S. duty-free, while our exports to Colombia face tariffs of up for 35 percent. This agreement would level the playing field for U.S. workers, enabling them to send the products of their labor to Colombia on the same terms that Colombians now send theirs to the U.S."
The result, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission, would be an annual increase of approximately $1.1 billion in U.S. exports to Colombia.
KEILAR: Hillary Clinton has shaken up her campaign after a controversy involving the Colombia free-trade agreement.
Clinton's chief strategist, Mark Penn, stepped down after it was disclosed that he had actually met with Colombian government officials to discuss promoting the trade deal. The problem here? Clinton opposes the agreement.
Her campaign says Penn will continue to provide polling information and advice, and his duties will be assumed by other campaign staffers.
Now, we've also heard a whole lot about the North American Free Trade Agreement on the campaign trail. The deal eliminated most tariffs on products traded among the United States, Canada and Mexico, and it brought down most investment barriers.
Well, here's where the candidates stand on the issue. John McCain voted yes on NAFTA when it came up for a vote in 19 -- 1993, calling it vital to the future of America.
Barack Obama says he would call the leaders of Mexico and Canada to try to amend NAFTA. He would also stop tax breaks for companies that move overseas. And he says the federal government must reinvest in communities that are not benefiting from free trade.
Hillary Clinton supported NAFTA while she was first lady, but now believes it should be changed. She says she would end tax breaks for American companies that, again, move jobs out of the country. Under current law, those companies can defer paying U.S. taxes on overseas earnings.
And coming up, we're going to find out what our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, says about the free trade issue and the resignation of Clinton strategist Mark Penn.
LEMON: All right. Listen to this number. It's a very big number, and it explains, really, what's happening with our economy. Every day in America, up to 8,000 homes are being foreclosed. That was a claim asserted today by Senate Democrat Christopher Dodd, head of the banking committee. Dodd convened a field hearing in hard-hit Philadelphia, which witnessed a jump last year of 18 percent in homes lost to foreclosure. A witness now faced with losing her home said her lender misled her prior to purchase.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YAJAIRA RIVERA, HOMEOWNER: After most of the negotiations, because we tried to negotiate even when this occurred to us, on our own, and the mortgage servicer was very not sympathetic. They said, "Well, you must have known what you were getting into when you got into the loan."
We said everything we didn't want, and we signed on the things that we did want. What happened to us is pure, plain fraud. There's no other way of saying it.
SEN. CHRISTOPHER DODD (D), CONNECTICUT: You want to be in that house. Your daughters are crazy about it. Your husband liked the house. This is a great opportunity.
And all of a sudden a week later, some cases right at the closing, you know, "We're off a little bit. It's going to be a little bit more." Well, exactly at that point, it's not exactly that level playing field. They've got you at a disadvantage. They know you want to be in that place. And so they know that you're willing to maybe take additional costs and so forth that you weren't planning on and haven't been told about.
That's why those disclosure elements hare so critically important that you're not going to get to that closing or find out a week later, when you're already there, picking out the pallets and doing all of those things, that all of a sudden those numbers are different than what you were told they were.
You acted responsibly. What you and your husband did was exactly what people should be doing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Very interesting testimony. And as I said in the beginning, up to 8,000 homes foreclosed every day in America. Dodd has introduced legislation aimed at stemming foreclosures and fixing and selling properties already foreclosed.
KEILAR: French police breaking up human blockades, shoving back protesters to shouts of "free Tibet" and "liberty." Just one view of the chaos that greeted the Olympic torch today in Paris.
Huge anti-China demonstrations forced heavy security, but even so, authorities had to snuff out the torch and bring it on board a bus several times for safe keeping.
Now, officials, they finally gave up. They canceled the last part of the torch's run through the city. We're going to be have -- having a live update from Paris in just a few minutes. LEMON: A bit of a chill in the air here. Scattered storms. And here in Atlanta, Chad Myers, have you seen this that I'm holding up?
CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: No, I can't see it.
LEMON (holding up box of tissues): That's just ask for it. My gosh. And if you wear contacts here, you know what, forget it.
MYERS: You know what? I want to see if we have an extra camera to go take a picture of my car.
LEMON: Do we have any of that?
MYERS: Because there's this pollen thing that happens in the south where there's a pine forest, and there's where most of them are. And these big yellow pollens come flying out of these trees. And they land on your car, and they turn your car -- whatever color your tree -- car is, they turn it like this lime yellow green.
LEMON: And Chad, I got the car washed.
MYERS: Yes.
LEMON: I got the car washed, and I went to get a smoothie at someplace. And I came out, and it looked just like it did before.
MYERS: Yes. I accidentally left my car outside last night and -- instead of putting it in the garage, and you can't even -- couldn't even see inside it.
LEMON: And we're breathing it.
MYERS: Yes. Well, of course you are. But it's inside. At least that's a little bit of help. But this is what spring is. Spring, the pollen comes out, and if it's snowing in some sports, the storms are going to come out.
(WEATHER REPORT)
LEMON: Chad Myers, thank you, sir.
MYERS: You bet.
KEILAR: On this day before the top U.S. commander in Iraq heads to Capitol Hill, we are hearing from Iraq's prime minister about the security situation there and also what that -- the future holds for his country. We will be finding out what Nuri al-Maliki has to say in an exclusive interview with CNN.
LEMON: And this. Legendary actor Charlton Heston is being remembered today for his award-winning career, including his larger- than-life roles. Heston died over the weekend at the age of 84.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Well, you can give the Olympic torch a "DNF" for "did not finish." Paris officials canceling the last seven miles of today's torch relay in the face of huge anti-China protests.
Senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann is live in the French capital with more on that.
Hi, Jim.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there.
Well, the fact is, yes, the French officials here, the Olympic officials, as well as the French police, decided that there really wasn't much point.
They had managed to get the Olympic torch out of the streets three or four different times during the afternoon, but every time they did have it on the streets, the entourage, the cortege with the Olympic flame at the center of it, was stopped by protesters. And as a consequence, they decided they'd just throw in the towel.
They did make it to a final ceremony in the southeastern part of -- eastern part of France a little while ago, and that sort of brought to an end the torch relay here. Not a very successful one. Nothing went according to plan.
LEMON: All right. CNN'S Jim Bittermann. Jim, thank you very much for that report.
On Wednesday, the Olympic torch makes its only U.S. and North American stop. Its six-mile tour of San Francisco is expected to draw big protests, as well, and CNN will be covering it live for you.
The exact route was only released just last week, along with the resolution by city leaders condemning China's human rights record.
For more on the protests that greeted the torch, that relay, including pictures from I-Reporters and a map of flames, the flame's route around the world, log onto CNN.com/Olympics.
KEILAR: More than ten years later, after 250 witnesses and $6 million of British taxpayers' money, there's an official ruling now on Princess Diana's fatal crash.
A coroner's jury has placed the blame on her chauffeur and a pack of paparazzi for grossly negligent driving. The 1997 crash in Paris killed the princess, her friend, Dodi Fayed, and the chauffeur, Henri Paul. And Fayed's father has insisted for years the British royal family was responsible. He says he is disappointed by today's ruling.
LEMON: United States troops in heavy fighting in Baghdad, a spike in instability ahead of tomorrow's visit to Washington by the U.S. commander, General David Petraeus. What will the general tell Congress?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Well, there is nothing soft about Microsoft's efforts to acquire Yahoo!, setting the stage for a Silicon Valley showdown. Susan Lisovicz is on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange with what could turn out to be as hostile takeover.
Susan, Microsoft coming on strong, Yahoo! certainly playing hard to get here.
SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's for sure, and you know -- and what's also happening is that, as these things often do, they get personal. Big money, big companies, big egos.
What happened over the weekend is that Microsoft's CEO, Brianna, Steve Ballmer, wrote a letter to Yahoo!'s board, saying, "Three weeks. We're giving you three weeks. And if you guys don't come to the table in order to get this deal done, we're going to go around you directly to shareholders and do a hostile takeover."
Today the CEO of Yahoo!, Jerry Yang, responded, along with the chairman, and said, "You know what? We're open to a tie-up, even if we" -- well, this is my inference here -- "even if we haven't been exactly completely friendly," since it's been going on for a couple of months. But Yahoo! says, "You've undervalued us. We need more."
And Microsoft is not offering more. You know, that original offer was a 60-percent premium. So we're talking a lot of money here, about $40 billion. Yahoo! shares are down 1.5 percent on that news. And we will continue to follow every chapter of the story, Brianna.
KEILAR: Susan, tell us about this other deal that's making news on Wall Street today.
LISOVICZ: Well, this one may not be as juicy, but it's certainly another sign of the distress that we continue to see, Brianna, in the financial sector. It involves Washington Mutual.
And there are reports that it could get an injection of $5 billion from some private equity firms.
WaMu, as it is so often called, has been hard hit by the mortgage meltdown. It's made a bad bet on subprime, its adjustable rate mortgages, on not documenting some borrowers, their ability to pay, those with spotty credit. And it's gotten burned. And it's gotten burned.
It's reported about $3 billion in mortgage-related write-downs. Its shares have lost about three-quarters of their value in the past year. But not today, Brianna. Their shares are surging nearly 30 percent.
And financial stocks in general doing nicely, as well. That's helping to lift the Dow Industrials, which right now are up 93 points. The NASDAQ is up ten points. And this despite the fact that oil is up nearly $3 today, at $109 a barrel.
There was a headline on the big board just a few minutes ago that said the betting now is that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates half a point when it meets later this month. And that may be, of course, on the bad jobs reports that we saw on Friday. We're talking about oil prices.
In the next hour we'll continue our talk about that. Imagine being stuck in Hawaii. This doesn't sound so bad on the surface, but there are victims of some of the recent airline bankruptcy that would beg to disagree. And we'll have that story in the next hour.
In the meantime, Brianna, I toss it back to you.
KEILAR: That's right. It's fun to be in the tropics, but maybe by choice, I think.
LISOVICZ: That's right.
KEILAR: Susan Lisovicz for us at the NYSE. Thanks.
LISOVICZ: You're welcome.
LEMON: Scores of children now being questioned in West Texas as authorities try to get any information they can about the secretive world they lived in.
Meantime, authorities are still searching the sprawling Texas ranch they removed the kids from four days after they first raided it. The ranch is the home to a polygamist sect, and the raid was prompted by a call from a 16-year-old girl who alleged physical and sexual abuse. No word on whether she's been found, but so far, more than 200 women and children, mostly girls, have been taken off the grounds.
And pay attention to this one. It's secretive and operating outside the law. How do polygamist sects get away with it? Ahead, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM, a former sheriff's deputy who converted to a polygamist group after he was sent to investigate one. He's going to share his amazing story right here with our Brianna about how he got into the group and how he eventually got out of the group. You don't want to miss that.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon, live at the CNN world headquarters here in Atlanta.
KEILAR: And I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Kyra Phillips today. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
LEMON: All right. We have some breaking news to tell you about, and it's out of Orange County, Florida. Let's take a look now at the live pictures. You're going to see people walking around. Actually this is tape from our affiliate WFTV, Orange County, Florida.
The Orange County sheriff's office here has been evacuated because of a suspicious package. And the people I was about to mention you see there standing there in the middle in those hazmat suits.
Here's what happened. A package that they say meeting the criteria of suspicious came into the Orange County sheriff's office around 10:10 a.m. That's eastern time. The building was evacuated. Hazmat crews are on the scene there, as you can see that.
At any given time, there are about 400 people inside of this office but we're not sure exactly how many people were in there and how many people were evacuated. We're also told by the sheriff's office, a spokesperson there, two civilian employees of the Orange County sheriff's office were treated after coming in contact with this package.
The package still has not been removed from the building and the building remains evacuated. You can see all the emergency apparatus on the scene there. Orange County, Florida Sheriff's office evacuated because of a suspicious package. Two civilian employees being treated. We'll keep you updated.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: It is 31 after the hour and we're working on a few stories here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Here's three of them. Authorities are spending a fourth day at a sprawling Texas ranch searching for more children and evidence of abuse. They have already removed scores of children, most of them girls, from this ranch which is home for a polygamist sect.
The raid was prompted by a report of physical and sexual abuse from a 16-year-old girl and no word on whether she has been found.
One analyst says the past year was the worth year ever for airlines in the U.S. An annual survey of airline quality finds consumer complaints soared last year amid more lost baggage, more bumped passengers and fewer on-time arrivals.
Your tax information. Some independent auditors say it might not be safe from prying eyes. They say the IRS hasn't done enough to safeguard some of its computer systems against dishonest workers, contractors or hackers.
LEMON: Let's turn now to the war in Iraq. There's a lot to report from Iraq today, just as Congress prepares to question General David Petraeus on U.S. troop withdrawal prospect. Today the military raised to five the number of U.S. troops killed yesterday.
The dead include one in eastern Baghdad, where United States and Iraqi troops have battled again today with the Shiite Mehdi militia. Petraeus's testimony tomorrow follows a recent spike in instability that's sure to prompt questions about the success of his so-called surge.
Also today, backers of Shiite strong man, Muqtada al-Sadr, condemn Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for a threat delivered yesterday in an interview with CNN. Al-Maliki spoke with Nic Robertson who joins us now live from Baghdad. Hello, Nic.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don. What we're seeing over the past two weeks is Nuri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister of Iraq, go against the Mehdi militia of the cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. This started in Basra, moved to Baghdad. It fell into a stale mate and a cease fire where Iran helped broker a cease fire. Then the Prime Minister was going on go against the Mehdi militia again, then he backed down. What the Prime Minister is now saying is that he has the full support of the broad spectrum of political parties in Iraq and he is telling Muqtada al-Sadr that he has to disband, disarm his Mehdi militia, hand the weapons over to the government, or Muqtada ad-Sadr will have to get out of politics for good.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NURI AL-MALIKI, IRAQI PRIME MINISTER: A decision was taken Saturday that they no longer have the right to participate in the political process or take part in the upcoming elections unless they end the Mehdi army. The unanimous decision agreed upon by the political powers today.
And this is the first time the political powers dare say this. The solution comes from the solution, which means solving the problem comes in no other way other than dissolving the Mehdi army.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Now a spokesman for Muqtada ad-Sadr says that there's no way that the government is authorized to disband the Mehdi militia. Muqtada al-Sadr's group are saying that they will hold a demonstration in Baghdad in two day's time on Wednesday.
Could be tens, it could be hundreds of thousands of people on the street. It seems to be Muqtada ad-Sadr and the Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki, heading for a big confrontation and that is what the firefights in the east of Baghdad are all about right now, Don.
LEMON: And Nic, I want to talk to you about, I understand if I'm correct, you were involved in some fighting somewhat. Tell me about Sadr city, your experience in Sadr city.
ROBERTSON: Well, we were in Sadr city over the weekend where the Prime Minister is pitching Iraqi army troops backed by U.S. troops in a fight against the militia. Sadr city is a sprawling suburb of over two million impoverished Shias. It has become a haven for militias, militias that are backed, trained armed by Iran, that they're able to fire missiles from Sadr city into the green zone.
Just last weekend, two U.S. embassy officials were killed by missiles fired by Sadr city. Iraqi army, U.S. troops going to route out the militia in some parts of Sadr city that has resulted today, according to the ministry of the interior, nine people killed, 65 wounded, and what we saw was an intense firefight as the troops were going through the streets trying to clean up the militias.
But this is an urban area where a lot of people are living and it's a very, very tough battle to do it without killing innocent civilians. And this is what the U.S. commanders tell us, that they only -- will only use the air support, the accurate fire from helicopters, when they can clearly identify groups of these militias, Don. LEMON: Nic Robertson, we appreciate your reporting. We want to tell our viewers we're see that story that you were just talking about, a full report from Nic Robertson in the next hour of the CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks again, Nic.
Just into the CNN NEWSROOM now, we have learned that Hillary Clinton will be asking President Bush to boycott the opening ceremonies at the summer Olympics in Beijing. Now again, this is a boycott of the opening ceremonies that she'll be calling for, not the full Olympic Games.
And of course, China under some criticism because of its recent crackdown on protesters in Tibet and because of its human rights record. So while Hillary Clinton is calling for the U.S. to boycott the opening ceremonies, she's not the first prominent Democrat to do this.
Last week, house speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Bush should also consider this move. But again, we have just learned that Hillary Clinton will be asking President Bush to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Summer Olympics.
Mean time, Hillary Clinton's Chief Campaign Strategist steps down after a controversial meeting involving free trade. So where does that leave the campaign? we'll check in with our Senior Political Analyst, Bill Schneider.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, while his Democratic rivals take a break from the campaign trail, John McCain is stumping in the nation's heartland. A short timing ago, he spoke at the Veterans of Foreign Wars headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri. And he explained again why he's against a quick withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I hope my position on Iraq not because I am indifferent to the suffering caused by this war, but because I detest war and believe sincerely that should we fail in Iraq, we will face an even sterner test in the very near future. An even harder war with even greater sacrifice and the heart breaking loss than we have suffered over the last five years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: McCain's Democratic opponents Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton say if they're elected, they'll withdrawal American forces from Iraq.
KEILAR: And again, something just in to the CNN NEWSROOM. CNN has learned that senator Hillary Clinton is going to announce that she wants the U.S. to boycott the opening ceremonies at the Summer Olympics in Beijing.
So she'll be asking President Bush to boycott those opening ceremonies. Again, just the opening ceremonies, not the entire Olympic Games. And President Bush has come under pressure before for this last week from house speaker Nancy Pelosi saying he should consider this move.
China, of course, under a whole lot of criticism. That's part of the reason we have seen protests of the torches. You can see on the right here protests today following the torch in Paris as it moves through Paris.
China under criticism because of its recent crackdown on protesters in Tibet and also just because of its human rights record in general. But the headline here, Hillary Clinton going to be asking the U.S. boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games in Beijing this summer.
Also we'll get you these live pictures, Brianna. I don't know if we have them up, but let's take a look at the Golden Gate Bridge. We were talking about the protest happening -- this is a protest that's already started here in the U.S.
People protesting, of course what you said, China and Tibet and all the protests that have been going on when it comes to the Olympic torch. But look at this. Live pictures -- this is the Golden Gate Bridge and this is up pretty high. So let's hope that they don't fall here. But we wanted to show you this live picture just to get it to you because it was happening as you were speaking, Brianna.
KEILAR: That's right and those -- the torch, we saw it come through Paris today; it came through London with protest this weekend. We're going to be seeing it going through San Francisco on Wednesday. So ahead of that, we see those protesters in San Francisco.
But obviously concern here. They're not just running after a torch. It's not there yet. But they're actually climbing very high on the Golden Gate Bridge obviously pretty dangerous.
LEMON: And the torch, of course, in the news a lot. We're going to talk to someone a little bit later on in the NEWSROOM who actually designed the 1996 torch and also consulted with this torch, as well. And hopefully he's going to bring an Olympic torch in, or at least a replica of one so we can see what it looks like, what it feels like, what people are protesting about. If you're carrying it and someone tries to knock it over or extinguish is, what have you. So I think it's going to be a very interesting sort of show and tell --
KEILAR: Sure.
LEMON: -- About all of this.
There it is. They're usually very interesting and beautiful. Of course this one tried to be extinguished a number of times during its torch relay and then they had to actually extinguish it themselves and put it on a bus in order to get it and then they canceled the last couple miles of it.
So we're going to have it live -- there you go -- Wednesday all day on CNN "Olympic Torch Relay in San Francisco." It's going to be a beautiful ceremony.
KEILAR: Beautiful ceremony, but not without controversy for sure.
Now on to politics. With the Pennsylvania primary just two weeks from tomorrow, our latest Poll of Polls, as we call it, shows a tightening Democratic race there. Hillary Clinton now leads Barack Obama 49 percent to 42 percent. Nine percent undecided.
Now on Friday, Clinton's lead was 11 points. Our Poll of Polls includes recent surveys from three different groups.
And the touchy issue of free trade has sparked a shakeup in the Hillary Clinton campaign. Mark Penn stepped down as chief strategist after meeting with Colombian officials about a proposed free trade agreement with that country. Senator Clinton opposes the deal.
Now what does that mean for the Clinton campaign? Well, joining us from Los Angeles, our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider.
Is this going cause problems, Bill?
WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well I think the immediate impact will be campaign in trouble because here was her chief campaign strategist who had one client, the government of Colombia, which wanted a free trade deal. Another client, Senator Clinton's presidential campaign, which opposed that deal. It was a conflict of interest waiting to happen. And so it's a bit embarrassing for the Clinton campaign.
However, it could liberate the Clinton campaign. One of the criticisms of Mr. Penn, and some of the strategies, is that it wasn't working. As you just reported, in Pennsylvania, she has been slipping.
She's behind Barack Obama in delegates. She had been running a cautious, calculated campaign based on her experience and her qualifications. Clearly it was putting her at a disadvantage and perhaps, just perhaps, this announcement today that she wants the president to boycott the opening ceremony at the Beijing Olympics -- it's a bold pronouncement, where she's really up front on that issue. Maybe that's the beginning of a whole new Hillary Clinton strategy.
KEILAR: And tomorrow, Bill, we're going to see some expected fireworks on Capitol Hill. We've got General David Petraeus, as well as Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, beginning two days of testimony on the Hill.
But all eyes really aren't so much on those two men as they are on the three candidates who are taking a rare break -- right -- to come and grill these guys. What might they do to sort of get themselves in the spotlight here?
SCHNEIDER: Well, believe me, they'll be in the spotlight. All three will be asking questions of General Petraeus and his testimony. And you're going hear a full airing of their views on the war in Iraq, on the true buildup that President Bush ordered at the beginning of 2006, whether it's working or not. This is all going.
And there's going to be a pretty good debate here tomorrow, we can look forward to, on the success or failure of the Iraq policy and what should be done next. You're going to hear John McCain arguing that the recent flareup in Iraq is an argument. Probably Petraeus will say this, too, that the United States cannot withdraw too quickly or the country will fall apart.
You'll probably hear the Democrats arguing that this has become a sectarian conflict, that the war now between two Shiite sects is really their business, not our business, and the best thing the United States can do is to get out of there and let them handle it their way. So it's going to be a full airing of differences on the Iraq war tomorrow.
KEILAR: And could it be vice president Condoleezza Rice? I mean, this is something that has been floated out there by folks. I'm wondering, though, would that help or -- it seems like it could very possibly hurt the McCain ticket.
SCHNEIDER: Well, if it's anything serious, it's sort of a no- brainer on paper. The two Democratic candidates, one is a woman, one is an African-American. And here's Condi Rice, an African-American woman. Put her on the ticket and you can't say anymore that the Republican Party is just a party of white men.
So it looks like a no-brainer. She is the most popular member, the best regarded member of the Bush administration. But I think it would be a very difficult move for John McCain to make because it instantly fulfills exactly the argument that Democrats are presenting, that if you elect John McCain, what you're going to get is a third term for George W. Bush.
What easier way to make that point than he's got one of the architects of Bush's Iraq strategy on the ticket with him? That just says to the voters -- continuity. I don't think that's what McCain wants to say.
KEILAR: All right. As always, very interesting. Bill Schneider for us. Thank you.
Now back to the issue of the North American Free Trade Agreement. We've heard a whole lot about it on the campaign trail. This is the deal that eliminated most tariffs on products traded among United States, Canada and Mexico and it brought down most investment barriers.
Well here is where the candidates stand on the issue. John McCain voted yes on NAFTA when it came up for a vote in 1993. He called it vital to the future of America.
Barack Obama says he would call the leaders of Mexico and Canada to try to amend NAFTA and would also stop tax breaks for companies that move overseas, outsourcing. And he says the federal government must reinvest in communities that are not benefiting from free trade. Hillary Clinton supported NAFTA while she was first lady, but now believes it should be changed. She says she would end tax breaks for American companies that move jobs out of the country, like Barack Obama.
Now under current laws, those companies can defer paying U.S. taxes on overseas earnings.
Coming up, we'll find out what our senior political analyst, Bill Schneider, says about the free trade issue and the resignation of Clinton strategist, Mark Penn.
All of the latest campaign news available at your finger tips, of course. Just go to CNNPolitics.com and we'll also have analysis from the best political team on television. Again at CNNPolitics.com.
LEMON: A severe danger to kids in hospitals. They are getting potentially lethal doses of medicine much more often than we thought.
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LEMON: Researchers are concerned, and parents will be, too, about a new study on medical mixups and kids. The numbers much higher than thought, with about one in 15 hospitalized children affected.
The data showed everything from accidental overdoses to the wrong drugs being administered to bad drug reaction. On CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING," a pediatric expert had some advice for worried parents.
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DR. CHARLES HOMER, HARVARD UNIVERSITY PEDIATRICS: First, you should know what medication your child's already on and you should communicate that to the various clinicians at the hospital. You should also not believe that just because you told one doctor or nurse what your child's medications are that all of them have that information. Because unfortunately, hospitals are complicated places and not everybody communicates well with each other.
You should know what they're prescribing to your child in the hospital, and again, if you are aware that your child has allergy, you should point that out.
And if you have somebody with your child and almost all hospitals allow a parent or other close family member to be with the child, you should find out every time what medication is being given. And if you have any concerns about it, you should stop and ask, ask them to clarify. And if the person giving the medication takes offense, you should say I'm sorry, I'm only caring about my child's safety. And ask.
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HOLMES: And the doctor helped development a new method for detecting these kinds of mistakes which prompted this latest study.
Charlton Heston a leading man for the ages passing away at age 84. A look at his legacy.
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HOLMES: An American icon, Charlton Heston, dead at the age of 84. A leading man on and off the screen. And CNN's Brooke Anderson takes a look back.
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BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Most people knew Charlton Heston as the actor who played God's right-hand man.
CHARLTON HESTON, ACTOR: Behold his mighty hands.
ANDERSON: The man who would play larger than life characters on the big screen says his love of acting grew out of his lonely childhood. Known for his strong screen presence and his chiseled good looks, Heston was a natural as the handsome hero.
In 1959, that distinction in the movie "Ben-Hur" won him the Oscar.
HESTON: Who are you?
ANDERSON: A rarity in Hollywood, his film career endured more than half a century. From technicolor epics to science fiction, that granite-carved profile intimidated opponents with a glare or few choice words.
HESTON: Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape.
ANDERSON: His talent commanded respect, and conveyed integrity on the big screen and the small one. It allowed him to hone his craft.
HESTON: Oh, my god!
ANDERSON: Heston boasted he had acted on every continent, except Antarctica. He was the longest serving president of the Screen Actors Guild. Later, he diverted much of his attention to conservative politics and fought the forces of gun control.
After four people were killed in a school shooting in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Heston took command of the declining National Rifle Association, and turned it around with what became a polarizing phrase.
HESTON: ... From my cold dead hands.
ANDERSON: Tom Selleck called Heston a friend and mentor. The two appeared in the 1976 war drama, "Midway."
TOM SELLECK, ACTOR: You know, when Chuck started heading up the NRA, it put a face to an organization that, whether people disagree with it or agree with it, had been effectively demonized for quite a few years. HESTON: Let me make one more point that I forgot.
ANDERSON: Heston was used to taking a stand. In the '60s he disagreed with segregation, supported Dr. Martin Luther King and campaigned for civil rights.
In 2002, the man who had lived his whole life in front of the public told America about his private battle. He was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
HESTON: I'm neither giving up nor giving in. I believe I'm still the fighter that Dr. King and JFK and Ronald Reagan knew. But it's a fight I must some day call a draw.
ANDERSON: Friends say Heston and his wife Lydia, whom he married when their careers were just beginning, plan to confront the disease together.
TONY MAKRIS, HESTON FAMILY FRIEND: They've dealt with a lot. And they'll deal with this as they've done the other things -- holding hands, very much in love, with their heads held high.
ANDERSON: In 2003 Heston was given the Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Charlton Heston himself has become one of the great names in film history. Charlton Heston has left his mark on our country as an artist, and as a citizen and as a patriot.
ANDERSON: Actor or activist, Heston loved the power he had with the crowd.
HESTON: Thank you for everything. Not only now, tonight, but through all the years. It's been a wonderful run. I'm going to miss you.
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