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McCain and Obama Trade Shots; Child Custody Hearings Begin for Polygamist Sect; Obama Speaks in Montana

Aired May 19, 2008 - 13:00   ET

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


BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Clinton counts on Kentucky; Obama wants to own Oregon. Two more states get ready to weigh in.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, too few survivors, too many bodies, three days of mourning and a lifetime of grief in China.

Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon live here at the CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta.

KEILAR: And I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Kyra Phillips. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: All right. The back and forth on foreign policy between Barack Obama and John McCain continues today, even as both are campaigning in different states: Barack Obama in Montana and John McCain in Chicago.

Joining us now from Washington, D.C., with the very latest on this back and forth is our Dana Bash.

Dana, I hear the latest blows coming now from John McCain.

DANA BASH, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Don.

You know, it was pretty clear late last week that the general election campaign is upon us. It's even more clear in listening to John McCain just a short while ago speaking in Chicago.

You know, all of these campaigns take great pains to write out statements and to write out speeches on particular issues. Today, he was speaking about trade.

But John McCain made clear at the top of his speech he wanted to respond to something that Barack Obama said over the weekend. And what Obama said is Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny compared to the Soviet Union. Well, the McCain campaign, for various reasons we'll get to in a second, they wanted the Senator himself to respond to that and to use it as an opportunity to hit Senator Obama on this issue. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Should Iran acquire nuclear weapons, that danger would become very dire indeed. It might not become a superpower, but the threat the government of Iran poses is anything but tiny. Senator Obama has -- Senator Obama has declared, and repeatedly reaffirmed, his intention to meet the president of Iran without any preconditions, likening it to meetings between former American presidents and the leaders of the Soviet Union. Such a statement betrays the depth of Senator Obama's inexperience and reckless judgment. These are very serious deficiencies for an American president to possess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: There you heard some pretty tough language from Senator McCain against Barack Obama. And, Don, we do expect to hear from Senator Obama, we're told, by our producer with him, Mike Rozelli (ph), to respond to John McCain in just a short while. He is campaigning today in Michigan.

But to put this a little bit in context for you, obviously, as we just discussed, this is something that the McCain campaign sees, Don. This is national security. This is the experience issue that Senator McCain and his campaign are hoping will differentiate him from Senator Obama, particularly on this back and forth over whether or not is it appropriate or inappropriate to deal or sit down with the leader of Iran.

But there's another thing that our viewers need to keep in mind, and that is what's on the front page of the papers this morning. And that was a lot of discussion about the fact that John McCain had to let go one of his top fund-raisers, one of -- the deputy finance director of his campaign. And the reason is because of lobbying that he was doing for a foreign government.

This comes on the heels of new regulations that the McCain campaign put in place itself because of problems that it had had with lobbyists inside its organization.

And you know, it's kind of politics or Political Strategy 101 to try to throw something off the front page by throwing out something new. And that's exactly what the McCain campaign did today just a short while ago by having Senator McCain respond to Senator Obama on this issue that they do want to talk about, and that is national security and Senator Obama's experience.

LEMON: Yes, national security. And you know what, Dana? It's only the beginning if Barack Obama does, in fact, become the nominee. This is just the beginning of the back and forth on many other issues, as well, including national security.

Dana Bash...

BASH: Thank you.

LEMON: ... in our Washington bureau, thank you very much for that, Dana.

And we want -- Dana mentioned it just a little bit. Billings, Montana, Barack Obama, there he is, seated to the right. Obviously, you know his face. He is campaigning there. If he makes news or makes any comments about John McCain or anything that's newsworthy, we'll bring those comments to you right here in the CNN NEWSROOM -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Prim, proper and decidedly old-fashioned. They don't exactly look like threats to their kids, but here they are, some of the hundreds of Texas polygamists going to court in the hopes of retrieving their children from state custody.

This is the latest strange twist in the case that began last month amid suspicions that young girls were being forced into marriage. And Ed Lavandera is trying to sort things out at the Tom Green County Courthouse in San Angelo, Texas.

So what's happening today, Ed?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, well, it's the beginning of a series of hundreds of these child custody hearings involving some more than 460 children. There are five different courtrooms, five different judges, all of this happening simultaneous. And we're just now starting to get our first batch of details that are emerging from these initial hearings that have gone under way -- gotten under way here this morning.

Kind of struck by a couple of interesting side notes here. Of the hearings that we've seen so far, none of the fathers have shown up. And in the words of one judge, really, these hearings are more for the parents and not necessarily the children.

Essentially, what is going on here is that these parents are being presented with a service plan, a list of guidelines and goals and requirements that these parents must follow and participate in if they have any hopes of getting their children back. So essentially, they have to prove to state investigators that they are able to create a non-abusive environment for their children.

So, interesting that it's been almost strictly mothers that we have seen show up here at the hearing so far.

Also, in a couple of the hearings so far, some of the state investigators who have been talking about their individual cases, so far they haven't -- in two of the cases I know of so far, they have said that there has been no evidence of physical abuse that these investigators have been able to find.

And of course, you can imagine that the -- those sympathetic to the -- this polygamist sect will be bouncing over or jumping all over details like that. The longer it takes for the details of abuse to emerge, they will be -- the calls for reuniting these families will continue to grow much stronger in the days ahead.

So this is really the first of a very long process here, Brianna, that is expected to take about three weeks to get through all of these child custody hearings.

KEILAR: Ed Lavandera for us in San Angelo, Texas. Thanks for that, Ed.

Meantime, we want to get you to Barack Obama. He is speaking in Billings, Montana.

Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some of the issues that we're going to be talking about, not just now, but hopefully, all through the general election. And I've been running for president for about 15 months now, which means -- that's a long time. There are babies that have been born and are now walking and talking since I first started running for president.

And when I started running, there were those who said, "You know, Barack, you're a relatively young man. Why are you running so soon? You can afford to wait." And I had to explain, I'm not running because of some long-held ambition or because I think it's somehow owed to me. I'm running because of what Dr. King called "the fierce urgency of now." The fierce urgency of now. What he meant by that is there are times where you can't afford to wait. And I think those -- this is one of those times.

We're at a moment -- we're at a defining moment in our history. Our nation's at war. In fact our nation's involved in two wars: one war that we have to win against al Qaeda and those who killed 3,000 Americans and who are still at large in Afghanistan and in the hills of Pakistan. But we're also involved in a war that I believe should have never been authorized and should have never been waged in Iraq, and it's cost us severely.

This is a war that's cost us hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives. It's distracted us from what we need to do in Afghanistan, and it hasn't made us more safe.

But what's on the minds of people these days, as I travel around the country, is not just war; it's also the struggles here at home. And Aaron spoke about some of them. We just went through an economic expansion during the Bush administration in which the average family income actually went down by $1,000. That's never happened before where the economy was growing, corporate profits were up, but you were seeing your real incomes actually going down.

And all across this country, I meet people who can't afford health care, even though they've got two, three jobs. All across this country, I meet people who have seen their jobs shipped overseas. And they don't just lose their job, but they also lose their health care. They lose their pensions. And they lose a sense of who they are. They lose a sense of their place in a community.

All across this country, I meet young people who have got the talent and the grades to go to college but aren't sure whether they can afford to pay the tuition.

All across this country we're seeing people who are at threat of losing homes because nobody was overseeing the financial markets, and they were peddling predator loans. And people ended up being caught in a situation where they're now about to be foreclosed on.

In such circumstances we can't afford to wait. We can't wait to fix our schools. We can't wait to fix our health-care system. We can't wait to bring good jobs with good benefits to the American people. We can't wait to end this war in Iraq. We cannot wait. And that's why I'm running for president of the United States, right here and right now.

Now, what I also believed, when I decided to run, was that the American people were ready for something new. They were tired of a politics that was all about tearing each other down. They wanted a politics that was about lifting the country up. They -- I believe that you were tired of spin and P.R. You wanted straight talk from your elected officials.

And I was also convinced that people were tired of division. They wanted to bring the country together. Aaron mentioned I used to be a community organizer. And one of the things I learned in working with people who had been laid off of their jobs when the steel plants closed on the south of Chicago, is that when people worked together, when ordinary people -- black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, young, old -- when people come together, when we are unified, then there is nothing we can't accomplish. There's no challenge we can't meet. There's no destiny we cannot fulfill.

And I am here to report that, after traveling for 15 months, after talking to hundreds of thousands of people and shaking hundreds of thousands of hands and kissing hundreds of babies, I am here to report that my bet on the American people has paid off, because everywhere I go, people are standing up. They're saying, "We are tired of business as usual in Washington. We are going to vote. We are going to make ourselves heard. We're going to bring about change in America."

Now, I know there's been a long primary contest. And so some Democrats have been worried that maybe the party's going to be divided. You've got Obama supporters here, Clinton supporters here. But let me tell you something: we are -- we are not going to be divided, because whatever differences exist between myself and Senator Clinton, we are unified in the idea that, whatever else happens in November, the name George W. Bush isn't going to be on the ballot. And that means we've got to make sure that George Bush's policies are not on the ballot.

You know, I respect and honor John McCain's service to our country. He's a genuine war hero. But John McCain has decided to run for George Bush's third term. And we can't afford it.

He wants to continue a war in Iraq, and he's willing to perpetuate it. He's said he'd be willing to have a U.S. presence there for as long as a hundred years. We can't afford that.

John McCain looked at George Bush's economic record and said we had made great progress. Now, I suspect he wasn't talking to the hundreds of thousands of people who have already lost their jobs since the beginning of this year. He's not talking to the people who have lost their jobs because everything's been shipped overseas. He's not talking to folks who don't have health care. He's not talking to millions of folks who are at risk of losing their home. He's not talking to you.

I don't think we've made great progress. You don't think we've made great progress. And that's why we are going to be united to make sure John McCain doesn't make great progress in going to the White House. We're going to be united on that.

And in fact, although we still have a number of contests, including Montana, before we're able to secure the nomination -- and Senator Clinton has run a magnificent race, and she's still working hard, as am I, for these last primary contests. You're already seeing the kind of strategy that the republicans are going to start employing in November.

I mean, John McCain yesterday decided to attack me for saying that Iran does not pose as great of a threat as the Soviet Union did. And so if we were willing to talk to Gorbachev, if we were willing to talk to Khrushchev, then there's no reason why we shouldn't talk to Iran. Seems like common sense.

So John McCain gave -- he said, "Obama doesn't understand the threat of Iran." I understand the threat of Iran. But what I know is that the Soviet Union had the ability to destroy the world several times over, had satellites spanning the globe, had huge masses of conventional military power, all directed at destroying us.

So I've made it clear, for years, that the threat from Iran is grave, but what I've said is that we should not just talk to our friends; we should be willing to engage our enemies, as well. That's what diplomacy is all about.

So let me be absolutely clear: Iran is a grave threat. It has an illicit nuclear program. It supports terrorism across the regions and militias in Iraq. It threatens Israel's existence. It denies the Holocaust. But this threat has grown primarily -- and this is the irony. The reason Iran is so much more powerful now than it was a few years ago is because of the Bush-McCain policy of fighting an endless war in Iraq and refusing to pursue direct diplomacy with Iran. They're the ones who have not dealt with Iran wisely.

Make no mistake, Iran is the single biggest beneficiary of a war in Iraq that should have never been authorized and should have never been waged. Thanks to -- thanks to George Bush's policies, Iran is the greatest threat to the United States and Israel and the Middle East for a generation. John McCain wants to double-down on that failed policy.

John McCain is right that the greatest threat we face is a terrorist with a nuclear weapon. That's why when he was busy supporting a war against a country that had no nuclear weapons, I was busy in the Senate, working with Republican Dick Lugar to pass legislation to secure loose nuclear weapons and loose nuclear materials around the world. That's why I've made it clear that I'll secure all loose nuclear materials around the world during my first term.

But went you're running for George Bush's third term, it's hard to make a case on the merits. John McCain is using the same George Bush textbook that we've seen year after year after year. Anything other than continuing a war in Iraq has been called -- that has been called the greatest strategic blunder in recent American history, he calls naive. Anything but their failed cowboy diplomacy, that's produced no results, is called appeasement.

Here's the truth. The Soviet Union had thousands of nuclear weapons, and Iran doesn't have a single one. But when the world was on the brink of nuclear Holocaust, Kennedy talked to Khrushchev, and he got those missiles out of Cuba. Why shouldn't we have the same courage and the confidence to talk to our enemies? That's what strong countries do. That's what strong presidents do. That's what I'll do when I'm president of the United States of America.

So you know, for all of their tough talk, one of the things you have to ask yourself is what are George Bush and John McCain afraid of? Demanding that a country meets all of your conditions before you -- before you meet with them, that's not a strategy. It's just naive, wishful thinking.

I'm not afraid that we'll lose some propaganda fight with a dictator. It's time for America to win those battles, because we've watched George Bush lose them year after year after year. It's time to restore our security and our standing in the world.

And you can vote for John McCain, and nothing will change. We'll keep fighting a war in Iraq that hasn't made us safer. We'll keep talking tough in Washington while countries like Iran ignore our tough talk. Or we can turn the page. We can restore the tradition of tough discipline and principled, direct diplomacy that we've always used to protect the American people and to advance America's interest. That's what Kennedy did. That's what Reagan did. And that's what I will do as president of the United States of America. That's a fundamental difference between myself and John McCain.

Now, that's on the international front. But we're going to have a debate about what's happening here at home, as well. There's going to be a clear difference between myself and John McCain, if I'm the Democratic nominee.

I want to provide universal health care to every single American. If you've got health insurance, we want to lower it. We want to lower your premiums by $2,500 per family per year. If you don't have health insurance, we want to provide you with a health-care plan that's as good as the health care I have as a member of Congress. If you can't afford it, then we will subsidize you. You will not be excluded...

KEILAR: This is Barack Obama in Billings, Montana. He's beginning to speak now about domestic issues. But a short time ago, you saw that back and forth between him and John McCain continue over foreign policy. Barack Obama, yesterday in Oregon, talking about direct diplomacy with Iran. And we just heard a short time ago John McCain really hitting Barack Obama on foreign policy for that, saying that Barack Obama is minimizing the threat of Iran and that he shouldn't, basically.

We've heard McCain say that he has more experience. We just -- we have been hearing Barack Obama saying that he has better judgment, that early on he did not support the war in Iraq. And he just said, as we heard there in Billings, that it is naive, wishful thinking on the part of John McCain and President Bush that Iran would meet all conditions before sitting down for diplomacy.

So this back and forth continues. And we're going to continue to follow it here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

LEMON: You have seen the devastation in China. It is just unbelievable. We're going to have one couple's desperate search for their small son and his grandparents in the rubble that had been their apartment building. It is a heart-wrenching story that you don't want to miss in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Also, if you're a mom-to-be, stop stressing out or your child might end up with some nasty allergies. That finding in a new study that we'll tell you all about, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK. Just when you thought it was over, Microsoft and Yahoo! are talking again. So far this round of discussions does not -- does not -- include merger talks. Susan Lisovicz on the -- no, she's not on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I came upstairs.

LEMON: She's on her perch at -- when we went to the Obama event, you probably...

LISOVICZ: I wasn't sure when you were going to come to me.

LEMON: OK. So wait a minute. Let's see. I think I heard so far Microhoo, Yahoosaw. Blah, blah, blah. Do you have a good one?

LISOVICZ: MicroGoogleSoftYahoo? I don't know. It's incestuous...

LEMON: Yes.

LISOVICZ: ... in tech land, isn't it?

LEMON: It certainly is.

LISOVICZ: Becoming clearer, Don, that Microsoft didn't happy with presence on the Internet. It's wants more. Microsoft confirming the talks again over the weekend but did not reveal the exact nature of any possible deal. It would only say it involved bolstering the company's position in the online search and ad markets. Yahoo! says, for its part, it's exploring several value-maximizing alternatives.

Microsoft, remember, offered to buy Yahoo! for $47.5 billion but took that bid off the table when Yahoo! demanded more. Playing hard to get, Don.

LEMON: OK. So then you said MicroGoogle and all of that. So if something does happen here -- will it happen here? And what will that mean for rival Google if something does happen?

LISOVICZ: Well, you know, it's still very much up in the air. Yahoo! is, remember, under more pressure now that billionaire investor Carl Icahn is involved. He's famous for putting pressure on corporate boards, including Motorola, Oracle and Time Warner, the parent of this network.

Meanwhile, Yahoo! has been mulling an ad agreement with Google. That potential deal could raise antitrust concerns, and it would make Yahoo! less attractive to Microsoft. Some analysts believe a deal between Google and Yahoo! could happen any day now, which is likely the reason Microsoft has been so aggressive about pursuing an alternative.

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

LISOVICZ: So a nice way to start the work week, the trading week. Don, back to you.

LEMON: Nice -- nice way to start, but still, we'll got a couple hours before it's all over.

LISOVICZ: That's true.

LEMON: All right. All right, thanks, Susan.

LISOVICZ: You're welcome.

KEILAR: Well, a new worry for expectant moms who worry too much. Could your stress spell trouble for your baby's health?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Working on tons of stories for you today including this one -- John McCain mounts a new attack on Barack Obama's foreign policy credentials. McCain says Obama shows reckless judgment by saying he would meet with leaders of hostile nations like Iran without preconditions. Just minutes ago at a Montana rally, Obama accused McCain of parroting President Bush's cowboy diplomacy. That was a quote.

Court hearings resumed in Texas in the massive child custody case stemming from last month's raid on a polygamist ranch. It takes five courtrooms to accommodate the lawyers for the hundreds of children seized and put in state custody. Their mothers are trying to get them back. Three days of mourning have begun in earthquake ravaged China, as workers press on with search and rescue efforts. But they're finding precious few survivors as the official death toll tops 34,000.

KEILAR: Important health news for expectant mothers. Being stressed out while you're pregnant could predispose your newborn to allergies or asthma.

Out medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen, is here now with more on this new study. It's a study about the effects of "mommy stress."

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, I mean this really takes "mommy stress" to a whole new level. Because what this report is saying is that what's going on in the head of a pregnant woman could have an affect on her fetus.

Here's how these Harvard researchers did the study. They talked to more than 300 pregnant women and they measured their stress levels by interviewing them. And then they looked at baby's umbilical cord after birth. This was a really unique way to tackle this problem. And they found this: The moms who were at the highest stress, had the highest levels of IgE in their baby's umbilical cords.

High levels of IgE is a very good indication of whether or not someone is going to develop asthma -- people with high IgE levels are much more likely to have asthma. One of the researchers in fact, Brianna, he says that on the basis of this study, he would call stress a social pollutant.

KEILAR: Oh, wow. And I mean, how stressed out are these women, especially -- in our morning meeting we said, uh-oh, uh-oh, would that mean we would have children with allergies? How much stress are we talking about here?

COHEN: In this study we're talking about a lot of stress. These moms weren't moms just sitting around at a table at a meeting. These were moms who lived in the inner city, who were dealing with gun violence, who were dealing with abuse, who were dealing with severe financial problems. So it's different than what perhaps some other mothers might be feeling. So it's not entirely clear, but just basic everyday stress would do. But certainly it would be less than what we saw here.

KEILAR: OK, so these are serious stressors, having to do with someone's situation in life, not just I go to work and I have a really stressful job. But even so I mean, anyone experiences a certain degree of stress, how do you control it?

COHEN: Right. Stress just isn't good, whether you're male, female, pregnant or not pregnant. So let's look at some ways to manage stress.

First of all, manage your diet and fitness. Eat well, exercise, even if it's just a little walk every day. Recognize mood swings if you find yourself going from one direction to another quickly. That could be a sign you're under stress. And also, shore up your support systems, especially when pregnant. This is the time to get the people you love around you supporting yourself. You have to really empower yourself in many ways to fight stress.

And you can find more tips about how to be an empowered patient on my web site CNN.com/empoweredpatient. All sorts of advice about how to live your life more tranquilly.

KEILAR: Always great advice. Elizabeth Cohen, thanks -- Don.

LEMON: You can use that even if you're not pregnant.

COHEN: Oh absolutely, sure.

LEMON: I'm a little stressed and I could use that.

COHEN: And you're not pregnant, right?

LEMON: I hope -- well, make me tons of money if I was. No, I'm not.

All right. Thanks a lot Elizabeth Cohen.

LEMON: Scenes like this, check out this. A survivor's becoming more and more rare in China. One family's desperate search for their family, it will -- it will break your heart, that's all I have to say.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well one week after the earthquake hit, China has entered a three-day mourning period. The government now puts the death toll above 34,000. Among them, more than 200 relief workers buried in a mud flow.

Now the number of survivors being found in the rubble has dropped dramatically. As the death toll soars higher, the numbers, well then can become a dull blur. The truth is, every victim is someone's relative, a son, daughter, or even a parent.

NPR's Melissa Block recently filed this report on a young couple desperate to find their small son and his grandparents in the rubble that had been their apartment billing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BLOCK, NPR REPORTER (voice-over): More than 600,000 people lived in the city of Dujiangyan before the earthquake. Now, there is no telling how many are dead. Much of this city lies in ruins. Hospitals, schools, apartment buildings were flattened by the force of the earthquake. We end up driving through the city behind a rumbling excavate somewhere find two people -- a woman and a man -- stumbling alongside it.

They're clinging to the machine's lowered boom as if they could pull it by sheer human force to speed it through traffic. Please let us pass, they're crying. We have the excavator so we can save people, our parents and our child are buried. Foo Gwong-Yu (ph) and Wong Wei (ph) hop back in their tiny Suzuki, which they've abandoned in traffic. They lead the excavator on its way and I climb in with them. She is 26, he is 34.

It's Mr. Wong's parents who are buried, along with the young couple's son, Wong Ji-Liu (ph). He's two months shy of his second birthday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): He's a lovely boy, about ten minutes before the happening of the earthquake he's calling, mom, stay with me, don't go.

BLOCK: This past Monday afternoon, Mrs. Foo (ph) dropped her son off with his grandparents so she could go to her job at a department store. Then, just minutes later, the earthquake hit. She rushed back home and saw their apartment building in ruins. She says soldiers came right away to help but they had no equipment. Now finally, the heavy machinery is on the way.

It's been two days now and you haven't been able to get any machinery to your house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I still don't want to give up. I firmly believe he's still alive.

BLOCK (voice-over): Finally, we pull up at end of the alley that leads to the family's apartment building.

(on-camera): You're worried about there is building over here? You're worried about this building falling down?

There goes the excavator. You're worried that the shaking will harm this billing and this building here, this ten-story building could collapse as the excavator goes by. We'll be careful.

We're running down the alley to get by the building, in fear of collapse. The ten-story building, still standing. Headed down toward -- toward Mrs Foo and Mr. Wong who are behind the excavator.

(voice-over): But there's still one more delay. There's a covered, concrete gateway that's too low for the equipment to drive through. The claw of the excavator starts smashing the gate to bits.

(on-camera): OK, the top of the gate is almost completely down. The whole 15 year structure, cement and wires -- whoa -- and down it comes in a huge crash. But this gate is down. Once they clear the debris away then the bulldozers can come in and the cranes, to start picking through what's left of this family's building, and try to find their child and the grandparents.

(voice-over): The family rushes toward the six-story collapsed building, at one end of a courtyard filled with trees.

(on-camera): Cement, brick and rubble. It's a pile about three stories high, what's left of this building. All around it, there are buildings perfectly fine. That building is not at all fine. That building is gone. (voice-over): We lived on the fourth floor, Mrs. Foo says. That's our furniture up there.

(on-camera): Mrs. Foo just called out her son's name and said mom is coming for you. As the excavator, forces its way through the pile of debris that is just devastating to look at.

(voice-over): When the excavator has cleared a path, Mrs. Foo and Mr. Wong run up to the debris pile.

(on-camera): Mrs. Foo is climbing up through sharp pieces of metal. She's calling out her son's name, Wong. She's peering -- peering through the bricks. The dad is now crawling deep under the masonry, and that's not safe. Doubled over, shaking her fist. Doubled over in terror, begging him to come out so that he wouldn't get hurt or crushed by these piles of debris.

(voice-over): The young couple climbs back down. There's so much heavy wreckage, it's useless. Work crews are brought in with torches to cut through rebar. The excavator starts back to work and a bulldozer and a crane. And after a long while the workers stop. They have found some bodies.

(on-camera): OK, we're standing on the edge of the rubble pile now, where they've clawed a big hole into this debris. There are flies buzzing around, people who were digging in here with the machinery came running out with their hand over their mouths. They have found a body. And I can see the hand now. I can see the hand now in the rubble. There's a ring on right finger. And there is no -- there are no air pockets in this pile of rubble. This is just a massive debris. And anyone in there has been crushed.

(voice-over): From the description of the ring, the Wong family can tell this is not their relative, it's a neighbor. There's some relief, but also now, even deeper fear that this day will not end well. We are 50 feet away from the rubble pile and now this smell of death is unmistakable.

(on-camera): These women have just brought Mrs. Foo a white sheet. They told her, we hope they're still alive, but in case they're not, you can use this to cover their faces. It's a local tradition that others shouldn't see the faces of the dead and now these women are tearing the sheets into three pieces for Mrs. Foo's family if they're found dead.

(voice-over): Mrs. Foo is trembling, and a friend wraps her in a tight embrace. Don't cry, don't cry, the friend reassures her. Maybe they didn't die.

(on-camera): Mrs. Foo is just limp with grief, and her neighbors are -- they want her to sit down and try to relax. She wants to stand right here and watch.

(voice-over): With the discovery of the bodies, 30 members of the military police are brought in to dig by hand through the rubble. But these soldiers seem to have come with no equipment. Mrs. Foo and Mr. Wong rush out to buy supplies for them. They come back with packs of cotton gloves and face masks. Neighbors scramble to find shovels. And the soldiers head toward the pile.

(on-camera): Mrs. Foo started out this day saying she had great hopes that her son was still alive. But with the discovery of these bodies now and the army here to pick through the rubble, the shrouds that are being brought in, you can tell that hope is just draining from her. She is limp. And her face is completely blank.

(voice-over): Hours crawl by. There is no news. Mrs. Foo and Mr. Wong fall into each other's arms.

(on-camera): It's now noon. We've been here for several hours. Mrs. Foo has lost hope of finding her family, it seems. She's saying, my son, I should have taken you to work with me. You were asking me to take you to work. Her husband is telling her, there's nothing we can do about it now, I need you to stay strong. I can't lose you anymore. She has just collapsed in grief in her husband's arms. As they both weep for what they've lost.

(voice-over): Then, the police walkie-talkie crackles with a glimmer of hope.

(on-camera): They're trying to bring in sniffer dogs, they're trying to find sniffer dogs, there might be people still alive.

(voice-over): But soon enough that hope is dashed, too.

(on-camera): So some soldiers have come in and have reported that they could not find any sniffer dogs.

(voice-over): At 4:40 in the afternoon, nine hours after this day of waiting began, a worker comes out with news.

(on-camera): A worker just came out and said they found the bodies of a child and two old people and Mrs. Foo asked, was he a boy of about two? And the worker nodded yes. They now know that their family has been found and they're all dead.

Mrs. Foo just cried out her son's name and she said, mama is here. The mother just called out to the worker, asking whether he had called out to the child, maybe he had just fainted.

(voice-over): The family was told later that their baby was found in his grandfather's arms with the grandmother close behind holding on to her husband's back. There have been so many deaths here in Dujiuanyan that the crematories are full. People are being asked to take the bodies of their loved ones out to the countryside for burial.

But Foo Gwong-Yu and Wong Wei manage to get a local crematorium to come collect the bodies. They're driven away in a white van. Later, the family will burn paper money to usher the dead into the afterlife. Then, light incense and set off firecrackers to ward off evil spirits. Down the street, another family has begun the same ritual. This scene repeating itself countless times here in Dujiangyan, throughout Sichuan province and beyond.

I'm Melissa Block, in Dujiangyan.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Unbelievable stories there. Melissa Block has been following some -- doing some amazing work there. She was in the country doing -- filing reports for something else and then this happened. And she continued to stay in the country and has just been doing some amazing work.

So our thanks here at CNN to NPR's Melissa Block.

You have seen the faces of the victims, you know the odds facing rescuers now. And you may be looking for ways to help.

Well go to CNN.com/impact, where you can find links to aid groups. It is a chance for you to impact your world.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. This just in to the CNN NEWSROOM. Remember this videotape. It was just a couple weeks ago. Well there is fallout now from the beating in Philadelphia.

This was Philadelphia police officers beating three men inside of that car as they pulled them out of that car. This just in to the CNN NEWSROOM, four police officers have been recommended for dismissal for their role in this videotaped beating that surfaced earlier this month. That's according to the Police Commissioner, Charles Ramsey, on Monday.

Another police officer, we're told, has been demoted and three others were put on various lengths of suspension. The controversial beatings were captured -- as you know -- on videotape from a television news helicopter and then broadcast around the world. That happened on May 5.

But again, there have been some suspensions here, and also recommendations for dismissal and a demotion. More to come in the CNN NEWSROOM.

KEILAR: "Indiana Jones" addicts can get their fix when the "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" premiers on Thursday. It actually debuted last night at the Cannes Film Festival. So what did the critics think?

Our Brooke Anderson is at Cannes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (on-camera): A new, more mature Indiana Jones has officially arrived here at the Cannes Film Festival. Now Harrison Ford wasn't wielding his whip at last night's big premiere, but photographers did wear Indy hats to celebrate the event.

Ford was joined in the red carpet by his co-stars, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LeBoeuf and also filmmakers, Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. I got a chance to speak with all of them here at the festival, and they told me they made this film for the fans.

STEVEN SPIELBERG, DIRECTOR: This was kind of by popular demand that we brought this character back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, "INDIANA JONES, KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL": This ain't going to be easy.

HARRISON FORD, ACTOR, "INDIANA JONES, KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL": Not as easy as it used to be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE LUCAS, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: It was one of those things that we did it out of love. We didn't do it because the studio said we had to do it, because they didn't really have any say in it.

ANDERSON: Why did it take so long to do a fourth "Indiana Jones"?

FORD: Because George and Steven are so lazy. No. It took time because there's three very complicated, different personalities involved here with different ambitions and different focuses in their lives, very busy guys. And we all had to -- we agreed -- to agree.

LUCAS: We were just trying to get a script that everybody was happy with.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CATE BLANCHETT, ACTRESS, "INDIANA JONES, KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL": You will help us find it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLANCHETT: It's very surreal, because obviously I was a huge fan of the franchise growing up. So to kind of have that zelic (ph) moment where you walk on to set and you -- everything's strangely familiar but you know, you're older and you're in it, it's very --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIA LEBOEUF, ACTOR, "INDIANA JONES, KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL": What is he going to do now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE, "INDIANA JONES, KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL": I don't think he plans that far ahead. FORD: I'd cover my ears if I were you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEBOEUF: To see the film it's incredible, but I'm extremely critical myself and how I'll be received and whatnot. That's all very scary, you know? You don't want to be the thing that brought the house of cards down.

SPIELBERG: It's almost nostalgic to come back here because I haven't been back here in 26 years. I haven't had a movie that qualified to be at the Cannes Film Festival. I haven't been making it, or the timing was wrong and I didn't make the movie in time for the cut off date and that sort of thing. So it's really a sweet kind of return to this whole part of the south of France.

LEBOEUF: It is the biggest film festival in the world and to be here with the biggest movie in the world, the biggest people in film, it's just overwhelming.

ANDERSON: Early reviews had been mixed. "Time" magazine says,"Once it gets going, 'Crystal Skull' delivers smart, robust, familiar entertainment."

Now most of the critics I've spoken with here believe that this "Indiana Jones" film is going to be one of the summer's biggest blockbusters. It opens worldwide this week.

Reporting from the 61st Cannes Film Festival, Brooke Anderson, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Looks likes a lot of fun.

One man says it smells like burning tires. And from Florida's panhandle to the Everglades you can see it. Mile upon mile, a state on fire in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK. The back and forth, the back and forth. John McCain takes a shot; Barack Obama fires back. A fight over foreign policy on the campaign trail.

KEILAR: Plus, fine one day, then strapped to a gurney the next. A health scare for one of the nation's longest-serving senators.

Hi there, from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, I'm Brianna Keilar in for Kyra Phillips.

LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.