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Obama Speaks to Supporters in Florida; Ted Kennedy Released from Hospital

Aired May 21, 2008 - 13:00   ET

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

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now, listen. Last night, I was in Iowa, because we marked a significant moment in our campaign, where we achieved a majority of the pledged delegates that are assigned in this election. And so we are at the threshold of being able to attain this nomination.
But I know that this has been a long contest, and so there are people that are concerned that golly, the Clinton people might not vote for the Obama people, the Obama Clinton are mad at the Clinton people. And maybe they're going to be divided. The party's going to be divided. Let me tell you something.

First of all, Senator Clinton has run an outstanding campaign, and she deserves our admiration and our respect, because she has set the standard. She has broken through barriers and will open up opportunities for a lot of people, including my two young daughters.

But what -- what is also important to remember is that, no matter what else happens, here is one thing we know for sure. When you go into the polling place, the name George W. Bush will not be on the ballot. The name of any cousin, Dick Cheney, will not be on the ballot. Some of you heard about that. That was really embarrassing when that news came out.

But -- so what this means is, is that we have a chance in November to bring an end to Katrina incompetence and Scooter Libby justice and warrantless wiretaps and the failed economic policies of George W. Bush. But only if we're unified. Because what we also know is that the Republican standard there, John McCain, is running for a -- he's running for four more years of George Bush. He's running for a third Bush term. That's what he's running for.

I mean, I admire John McCain, because he is a genuine American war hero. I mean, he -- he deserves admiration for his service to our country. But he is running for a third Bush term.

Look at his foreign policy. Look at his foreign policy. He wants to continue a war without end. He says he's willing to have a presence of U.S. troops there for the next 100 years. He has been spending the last week describing his foreign policy by explaining who he won't talk to. I mean, that's his whole foreign policy: "I won't talk to that guy, and I won't talk to that guy, and I won't talk to that guy." What kind of -- that's your foreign policy?

He basically wants to perpetuate the same errors that George Bush has made for the last eight years that has cost us so dearly in blood and treasure and has not made us more safe. We can't afford four more years of George Bush foreign policy. That's why we can't afford John McCain, and that's why Democrats are going to be unified in November.

John McCain wants to perpetuate George Bush's economic policies. Now, don't take my word for it. He looked -- he looked over George Bush's economic policies, and he said he thought we had made great progress. Great progress.

He must not have been talking to the single mother that I met who couldn't afford health care for her children. He must not be talking to the guy who had worked 20 years in a plant that I met in Indiana who suddenly was packing up the equipment he had been working on and that his father had worked on for 30 years, because the job was being shipped overseas, and he had lost his job, his health care, his pension, his house and was losing his self-respect and dignity. John McCain must not have talked to -- talked to him or the other 260,000 people who have lost their jobs since the beginning of this year.

He must not have talked to all the children I meet trapped in the inner city or on Indian reservations or in barrios or in small rural towns in Appalachia who don't have computers in their classroom to work because the schools don't have the money. Or all the young people who want to go to college and have the grades and the will to go to college, but just can't afford it, he must not be talking to them.

They don't see great economic progress; you don't see great economic progress; I don't see great economic progress, and that is why we can't see John McCain in the White House. We're going to be unified come November.

Now, here is the thing, though, Tampa. I love you back. Now, here is the thing. It is important to understand, though, that even though we're going to be unified in November, it's not just getting a Democrat elected that is going to solve our problems. I mean, not all of our problems are the problem of just one party or one man.

I mean, if you think about it, we've been talking about health care reform for decades now. And yet, decade after decade, nothing has happened. Why is that? Well, part of the reason is because the drug companies and the insurance companies spent $1 billion over the last ten years preventing reform from happening, blocking reform by hiring high-paid lobbyists and providing big campaign contributions.

So it's not surprising that a lot of the laws coming out of Congress are very good for drug and insurance companies, but they're not so good for you.

The same is true on energy. Let me just take a quick poll. How many people are upset about high gas prices? Now, I haven't checked down here. What is it, $3.70, $3.80, $4?

Now, listen. We have been talking about our energy problems for decades, through Democratic and Republican administrations, and yet nothing ever changes. And if you need to know why, just take an example of what this administration did. Bush put Cheney in charge of energy policy. He met with the environmental groups once. He met with the oil and gas -- he met with the oil and gas companies 40 times. Forty times.

So is it any wonder, then, that Exxon Mobil just had two consecutive quarters of record profits, $11 billion each quarter? We're importing more oil from foreign nations than at any time in our history, and you're paying $4. And we're melting the polar ice caps and threatening the climate of the planet and threatening the ecosystem right here in Florida.

Now, that's not a smart energy policy. But the problem is, it's not written for you. It's not written in the national interest. It's written for special interests.

So here's what we're going to have to do if we want to change how Washington does business. If we want to not just change parties, but change our politics, then we have to push aside the special interests.

That's why last year I passed the toughest ethics reform legislation since Watergate, making sure that the lobbyists couldn't give gifts and meals and lend corporate jets to members of Congress. And that's why at the beginning of this campaign, I said to my staff, "We will not take PAC money. We will not take money from federal registered lobbyists." They have not funded my campaign. They will not run our White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I'm president of the United States of America.

Now, we need a president that sees the government, not as a tool to enrich friends and high-priced lobbyists, but as the defender of fairness and opportunity for every American.

And let me be fair about this. Now John McCain has agreed with me on some of the steps we need to make our government more ethical and accountable. Almost a decade ago, he offered a bill that, in his words, would ban a candidate from paying registered lobbyists.

Let me repeat that. Ten years ago, John McCain offered a bill that said he would ban a candidate from paying registered lobbyists. And he did this, because he said that having lobbyists on your campaign was a conflict of interest. This is what he said ten years ago.

Well, I'll tell you that John McCain then would be pretty disappointed with John McCain now, because he hired some of the biggest lobbyists in Washington to run this campaign and when he was called on it, his top lobbyist actually had the nerve to say, "The American people won't care about this."

Well, I think the American people do care about it, and I know they have a clear choice in this election. We can either have an election in which we are taking on the root causes of special- interests-dominated politics in Washington or we can ignore the problem, and we can wake up for years from now and still be talking about an energy crisis and still be talking about a health care crisis and still be talking about a tax code that's not fair to you. I don't want to wake up that way. Neither do you. That's a choice we've got in this election. We're going to change how politics is done in Washington.

Now, it's also important, though, not only do we end the domination of special interests, but we also have to start talking honestly with the American people about our problems. So let's take the example of gas prices. We already brought this up.

Now, John McCain's solution -- John McCain's solution was to suspend the gas tax for three months. Suspend the gas tax for three months. Now, the best -- the best -- the best-case scenario is that this would save you 30 cents a day for a grand total of $28. That was -- that was John McCain's plan.

Now -- but here is the problem. If we eliminate the gas tax, first of all, that's what we use to rebuild our roads and our bridges. And we need to make sure that our infrastructure is built.

But the other thing I've got to ask you is how many of you actually think that, if you took away that 5 percent gas tax, that the oil companies would lower prices by 5 percent? They wouldn't be lowering gas prices.

We tried this in Illinois. It didn't work. We stopped doing it, because what happened was the oil companies and the retailers were making all the money. You were still being stuck with the same prices.

It's a gimmick. It's an example -- an example of an election- year gimmick designed to just get you -- get the politicians over, but not designed to actually solve the problem.

So what I've said is people do need real relief. I'm meeting people who have lost their jobs and can't go on a job search because -- because they can't fill up their gas tanks. So what I want to do is provide real relief. A $1,000 per family tax cut to offset their payroll taxes to cover, so that you've got an extra $1,000 in your family to pay not only for higher gas prices, but also higher food prices, also higher medical expenses.

We're going to pay for it by closing corporate tax loopholes and tax havens that aren't creating jobs here in the United States.

And -- but most importantly, if we're going to really solve this problem, then we've got to invest in alternative energy. And we've got to raise fuel efficiency standards on cars, and we've got to invest in mass transit right here in Tampa.

That's how we're going to solve this problem long-term. That requires some leadership from the president of the United States of America. That's the kind of leadership I want to provide.

Let me tell you what we could do with clean energy. If we were really serious about this -- and I am serious about it. I want to put $150 billion over ten years, invested it in solar and wind and biodiesel. We can create millions of new jobs right here in Florida and all across the country, putting people back to work, saving our environment, ending our dependence on foreign oil.

But it requires the same kind of attitude that John F. Kennedy had when he said we're going to the moon. Nobody knew how we were going to do it, but we knew American ingenuity and American innovation could make it happen if we made the investment.

We are going to make that investment when I'm president of the United States of America. That's how we're going to solve our energy problem.

See, when we -- when we end the dominance of special interests, and we start having an honest conversation with the American people, there is no problem we can't solve.

We can stop talking about the health-care crisis and start doing something about it. I've said we're going to lower premiums. If you already have health insurance, I'm going to lower your premiums, working with your employer, by $2,500 per family per year.

And if you don't have health insurance, you are going to be able to get health insurance that is at least as good as I have as a member of Congress. There will be no exclusions for preexisting conditions. We will subsidize you if you can't afford it.

Every single American will have health care. It's going to be preventive health care, checkups, primary care, so that you are not going to the emergency room for treatable illnesses. And we are not going to wait 20 years from now to do it or ten years from now to do it. We're going to do it by the end of my first term as president of the United States of America.

We're going to give our...

DON LEMON, CO-HOST: Barack Obama on the campaign trail today in Tampa, Florida, generally sounding more confident and sounding like he is the nominee, really talking about, pointedly, to John McCain and also making some very interesting comments about Hillary Clinton. You observed that, as well.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CO-HOST: Yes, that's right. He was giving her, basically, some credit for strides that she has made, saying that his daughters will benefit from some of the strides that she has made for women. So definitely no sharp attacks there, for sure.

LEMON: Yes. Definitely very interesting.

Don Lemon here with Brianna Keilar. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We want to remind you, also, Hillary Clinton is campaigning today in Boca Raton, Florida. As soon as she comes out, we will take that event for you, as well.

And we want to remind you that Barack Obama sat down for an extended interview with our Wolf Blitzer in "THE SITUATION ROOM." He did that yesterday, and he did it right -- right after Ted Kennedy had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, so they talked about that, as well, and other issues. We'll bring that to you a little bit later on in the show, including Obama's response to some tough criticism by Republican John McCain. We'll have that for you a little bit later on.

KEILAR: Well, the candidates, both Clinton and Obama, they claimed victories Tuesday, one each. So let's see how those races affected the all-important delegate count.

Overall, Clinton narrowed the gap with Obama in pledged delegates. She won at least 56 delegates yesterday. Obama won at least 43. Now, by our count, Obama has 1,962; Clinton, 1,777.

Of course, a Democrat would need 2,026 delegates to clinch the nomination.

LEMON: And you may be wondering, like a lot of people, what's left of this marathon Democratic primary season? Well, just three more contests. First up, Puerto Rico is Sunday, June 1. Fifty-five Democratic delegates will be on the line.

Two days later, on June 3, the last two states finally get their chance to weigh in. Sixteen delegates at are stake in Montana, and 15 delegates will be up for grabs in South Dakota. From there, all eyes turn to those 800 or so party super delegates.

KEILAR: And while the Democratic hopefuls crisscross the state of Florida, Republican John McCain has headed west. He's keeping a low profile in California today with a private campaign fundraiser. That is the only thing on his agenda today.

LEMON: Well, Ted Kennedy faces the fight of his life, battling a malignant brain tumor. What are the options here? What are his odds? We'll ask our very own neurosurgeon, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

KEILAR: Nearly 40 years later, a nightmare revisited. The dig continues at Charles Manson's old ranch. What are they finding there? We'll have a live report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So saying he's feeling well, doctors let Senator Edward Kennedy leave the hospital today. And CNN Boston bureau chief Dan Lothian was on hand as the 76-year-old senator walked out of Massachusetts General Hospital after being diagnosed with brain cancer.

It looked to be quite an emotional scene, Dan, and we noticed the bandage there on the back of his head, as well.

DAN LOTHIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It really was an emotional scene as he walked out of the door of the hospital. There were several dozen bystanders here, hospital workers and some nearby construction workers who had gathered outside. And as he walked out, there was a loud applause. That happened in two different moments, as he was standing outside, shaking hands, embracing. Some of the folks around him, sort of his own family members.

And as he turned around, you did see that square patch on the back of his head, and that is the area where doctors did perform that biopsy on Monday. That is what gave them confirmation that, indeed, that brain tumor that they had found was, in fact, cancerous.

He left the hospital here waving, and going along the highway, the helicopters got a shot of him. He was reaching his arm out the window and waving to motorists who were passing by. We're told some motorists were even holding up signs. Certainly, there's sort of this overwhelming feeling, certainly, here in Massachusetts and in other parts of the country, as well, certainly up on Capitol Hill. Well- wishes for the senator, who's going through a very difficult time.

After he arrived home back on the cape, where all of this started on Saturday morning, local cameras, our affiliate cameras got shots of the senator and his wife, going out for a walk, walking the two dogs.

You might remember, Don, that it was Saturday morning. He had gone out for a walk with those same two dogs, we're told. After returning home is when he had the seizure which eventually landed him in the hospital down on Cape Cod, Cape Cod Hospital. He was eventually brought here to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Now, doctors said that he recovered remarkably well from that biopsy, and that is the reason that they did allow him to leave the hospital early.

They still have not yet decided on a course of treatment. They're looking at the combination of chemotherapy or radiation. The family, we are told, is waiting to get all the test results to see if, perhaps, even surgery will be a viable option, Don.

LEMON: All right. Dan Lothian, Massachusetts General Hospital. Thank you, Dan.

KEILAR: Senator Ted Kennedy's doctors say he's eager to start treating the tumor that he just found out he has. But they're waiting on a few more test results before deciding anything.

Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is also a neurosurgeon, I should add, is keeping a close eye on this case from New York.

And Sanjay, do we know if the senator's tumor was caught early?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We don't know that. All we have heard is that, basically, the location and sort of the general type of this tumor.

As we've sort of been reporting the story, we've had an opportunity here to give you a rare look at the brain through this GE Advantage work station. This is not FDA approved for diagnosis, but gives you an opportunity to sort of look slice by slice, the way the surgeons did, for any abnormalities.

If you look over here, you see the eyes, you see the nose. Up here. It was in this area around here, Brianna, that his tumor exists, left parietal area, they're calling it. And how big it is, how close it is to the surface, how close it is to important areas like right here where motor strength comes from or speech centers over here. We don't have all of that information. These are the sort of decisions, the sort of data that surgeons are going to need before making final recommendations.

KEILAR: Sanjay, the senator had a seizure on Saturday -- on Saturday. That was obviously the first sign that something was the matter. Do we know, necessarily, that the tumor was pressing on part of the brain, perhaps?

GUPTA: You know, that's essentially usually what happens. And a lot of people may be surprised to hear this. But a seizure is often the first sign that there's anything wrong. He may have had a vague headache in the past, maybe numbness in the arms or difficulties finding a word. But it's that seizure that provides sort of a stern warning sign.

Think about it like this. You have a mass sort of in the brain. It's not supposed to be there. And the cells around that mass are starting to get a little bit angry and they finally react in what is a frightening thing to anybody that witnesses it, people starting to have seizure activity, a convulsion, some call it.

But obviously, it's a warning, and it provides doctors an opportunity to go in and try and find out what happened here.

KEILAR: Sanjay, we saw this morning Senator Kennedy leave Massachusetts General Hospital. He gave a thumbs up. He was waving. He even was petting his dogs. He looked pretty good to a lay person. I'm wondering, though, as a neurosurgeon, does this tell you anything, his body language here?

GUPTA: Yes, it does, actually. There are some important clues here, and these are probably some of the same clues that his doctors in Boston were looking at.

First of all, just the way he raises his right arm. He waves. That's important, because one of the concerns would be is this tumor here possibly causing any pressure on those motor centers of the brain? It doesn't look like it, at least from observing him here.

Also, you know, another important clue. He's able to talk. He's able to understand. The speech centers, which are responsible for the expression of speech and the reception of speech, also seem to be intact. So these are good signs, as well. Giving you an idea, at least by looking at him, where this tumor is, exactly.

KEILAR: All right. Sanjay, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

LEMON: All right. We have some developing news we want to tell you about, this coming out of Bolingbrook, Illinois. We've been reporting Drew Peterson and, of course, the disappearance of his wife.

There is some new information to report, according to the Associated Press. This is coming from a publicist for Drew Peterson that says that the former police sergeant suspected in his wife's disappearance will turn himself into authorities on a weapons charge. And CNN is just confirming that now. Drew Peterson will turn himself in on a weapons charge.

Glenn Selig, who is the publicist, says the charge involves a gun seized after Stacy Peterson disappeared back in October. He says that claim -- he says police claim the gun was too short under Illinois law.

So Drew Peterson will turn himself in on a weapons charge violation in Illinois. As soon as we get more information on this, we'll let you know right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. But CNN is confirming that. Details to come.

KEILAR: Back to the Manson ranch where the story might not be over. Did Charles Manson and his family bury secrets here some 40 years ago?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: We'll call it "CSI Death Valley." Nearly 40 years after the fact the search for possible victims of Charles Manson's band of killers, it resumes at the infamous hideout where the so-called family was caught.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is live in the desert ghost town of Ballarat with the very latest for us.

I'm wondering this, Ted, are they letting you you guys get close to this search? Can you see any of it?

TRED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are letting us go up in two-hour intervals, just one team per day. We're the team that's going up in the next few hours. It's about an hour trek into the mountains. We've been there before, to the Barker ranch, and it is very, very remote, and they just want to limit the access to the media, so that's how they're doing it.

So far we're in day two right now of the dig. They have started digging again on day two. Day one produced pretty much nothing. They had a shell casing and some animal bones. They did mark them with some evidence flags at the two spots of the five that they've been able to clear. But no sign of human remains.

Of course, the reason we are here in large part is because of a local police detective and his dog. He's a guy that sort of was consumed with the Manson case, and then he had a cadaver dog, a dog trained to find dead bodies. So he thought, let's bring it up here and see if there are bodies up at the Barker ranch. Well, they found some circumstantial evidence with the dog hitting, and then some scientific soil testing, and that's where we are today. The other component is the 40 years of rumors that Manson and his family had killed drifters and other people through the time after the Tate-LaBianca murders, where the family was up here hiding out. The rumors had swirled that runaways had come and had been associated with Manson and he didn't like them, and boom, they were gone after a little walk in the backyard at the ranch. So the sheriff, local sheriff here, said, let's put the rumors to rest. Let's see if the circusmstansial evidence pans out.

So far, two of the sites have been dug up. No evidence of human remains. Three more to go. And we'll have more for you, more updates throughout the day today and tomorrow. They plan to finish this up sometime tomorrow.

LEMON: You're going to see something very interesting if you are, indeed, part of the crew that's going in, Ted. Thank you very much for that.

KEILAR: It's a number that's almost impossible to get your head around -- five million people. That's how many are homeless in China's earthquake zone, and then there is the dead, and hurt and still missing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELISSA BLOCK, NPR CORRESPONDENT: Especially in the case of the schools, I mean there's just a pattern now where you're seeing school after school collapsing. And because it was the middle of the school day, many, many children died. And you do hear a lot of accusations about schools either -- I mean, I visited a school that had collapsed. I saw children by the dozen being brought out of the rubble dead and their parents grieving over them. People there told me in that town that the school had been designed to be two stories, and that two stories were added on top of that. And that a man brought over a piece of cement and broke it in half with his fingers. He said, the cement was too soft. This building was shoddily constrcuted, local officials are on the take, and we want some accountability.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And can you believe they are still finding victims -- alive, nine days after the quake. We are in touch with reporters in the middle of the worst of it. We'll have the latest from devastated China.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, we want to update you on this devastating story coming out Of China. Millions of Chinese people, maybe five million in all, left homeless in this situation. They have nowhere to sleep and nothing to return to in the wake of last week's earthquake that killed more than 41,000 people.

This is Chengdu, the biggest city in the quake zone. Entire families are living inside sidewalks, inside cars and vans and inside sprawling tent cities, where at least food and medical care are available.

Now according to the Chinese military report, all quake-damaged villages, more than 1,000 in all, have now been reached by emergency rescue and recovery teams.

The earthquake, on May 12th, blocked roads, mountain passes and other transportation arteries. I want you to pay special attention to this next story that we're going to deliver to you.

It has been a week and two days since that quake hit central China. And life for millions of people there, well, it's simply changed forever. The pictures in the video of the quake zone are really just heartbreaking, devastating to watch. And on rare occasions, there is some triumph there. Few people have taken us to the heart of China's misery like NPR's Melissa Block, and she joined me just a short time ago to talk about what she is witnessing there and a possibly recovery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLOCK: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLOCK: It just makes you realize, I mean, how many individual tragedies are wrapped up in this disaster. This is such a densely populated country and the places that were hit, so many people are affected. So many buildings came down, so many school children trapped. There were schools in just about every city that was -- every city that was badly hit, where children were buried and you're starting to see now real public anger over shoddy construction. They're blaming local authorities, saying they cut corners and they want people to pay the price.

LEMON: So that's where this has come to now. At first it was just the anguish and just sort of the shock and awe factor of all of these pictures in what we saw.

Now it's turning to anger because what is it, that they're saying the government didn't build the buildings correctly?

BLOCK: Well, I think especially in the case of the schools, I mean, there's just this pattern now where you're seeing school after school collapsing. And because it was the middle of the school day, many, many children died. And you do hear a lot of accusations about schools either -- I mean, I visited a school that had collapsed. I saw children by the dozens being brought out of the rubble dead, and their parents grieving over them.

People there told me in that town that the school had been designed to be two stories and that two stories were added on top of that. And a man brought over a little piece of cement and broke it in half with his fingers. He said, the cement was too soft, this building was shoddily constructed. Local officials are on the take and we want some accountability.

LEMON: We were seeing yesterday, Melissa, I mean it's seven, seven and a half days after this quake hit, that people were still being pulled out of rubble.

Can you tell us about more stories and what you're witnessing as far this is concerned? And how far are they now with this rescue effort?

BLOCK: I think you're going to see those numbers -- and you already are -- seeing those numbers tapering off dramatically. I wish I had more happy stories and every time I hear about one of those is rescues, it's incredibly heartening. And it's miraculous to think how long people have survived.

I was outside a hospital that had collapsed and I met a couple there who had been waiting for four days by that point, after the earthquake. They had 10 family members in the hospital who were visiting one of the patients there, another family. 10 family members that they were missing and they had been waiting and waiting and waiting. And I saw them bringing out body bag after body bag. It was just hard to imagine that anybody else could have been left behind.

But then you hear the stories of these miraculous recoveries, few and far between. And you know, some of the foreign rescue teams have already left. They brought in sniffer dogs and life-detecting equipment and they know now that their work is done.

LEMON: Yes. And we know that this is sort of an unprecedented response by the government. And also the Chinese media showing this on television, also unprecedented as far as openness when it comes to this.

But I have to ask you, as I ask even our journalists here at CNN.

How are you dealing with this personally, seeing this much tragedy, this much death, this much destruction?

BLOCK: Well, it's -- you know, it's incredibly difficult, no question about it. And these voices and the people that I've met, they'll stay with me forever. But I'm fine. I mean, it's watching and bearing witness to this is nothing on the order of having to live through it. And these families, they've been completely torn apart and now have to think about rebuilding their lives. And that situation magnified by millions and millions of people all across this province.

LEMON: How long will it be until they at least have some degree of normalcy there or they start rebuilding?

How long do you think this effort is going to take?

BLOCK: I think it's anyone's guest how long it's going to take. It's going to be a very, very long time. I mean, these are villages that were completely wiped off the map. They're not going to be rebuilt where they are, when they were in the most dangerous zones. These people will have to be relocated. I think you're going to see huge waves of migration, of people moving to other parts of the country.

The Chinese people move very fast. When they want to build something quickly, they do. And think about the emotional trauma that these people have gone through. That's going to go on for many, many years to come. So many, I can't even begin to imagine it.

LEMON: And what about the pandas? China's iconic and treasured, rare animals.

Well, Melissa Block, is working about them for tomorrow.

She shared her photos with us. Word today that eight pandas that survived the disaster are on their way to Beijing this week. They're from a panda center just 20 miles from the epicenter of the earthquake and will go on display during the Olympic Games.

CNN's iReporters have been sharing their stories and their pictures and telling us tales of that earthquake from the disaster zone in China.

So you can go to ireport.com or CNN.com and look for the iReport logo.

Also, if you want to help out, you may be trying to figure out what ways you can help out, go to CNN.com and go to Impact Your World. Look for the Impact Your World logo on our web site.

And you can figure out how you can help. And CNN can be your guide with that -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Well, Don, mob justice and a bizarre mass killing in Africa.

We are live from Kenya, where some people believed to be witches met a horrific fate.

Making it their business, a program that some historically black colleges hopes to help budding entrepreneurs. It's the focus of today's Black in America's special segment. That's coming up in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. Some historically black schools are making it their business to give students a special window into the business world.

This program for young entrepreneurs is the focus of our Black in America segment today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Applause and high marks at an awards ceremony honoring eager business owners to be. DESOLA AWOFESO, PRAIRIE VIEW A&M STUDENT: It's definitely opened my eyes to the business world.

LEMON: Over a program that might not seem unusual at integrated universities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like they have the keys that open the door.

LEMON: It's called the Minority Entrepreneurship Education Program, aimed at giving students with a 3.0 or higher grade point average at historically black colleges and universities, exposure to business ideas, trends, strategies and the right people.

Like legendary civil rights activist and businessman, Jessie Hill. And billionaire, Bob Johnson, founder of Black Entertainment Television.

BOB JOHNSON, FOUNDER, BLACK ENTERTAINMENT TELEVISION: Well, it gives me a chance to talk to young people, particularly young people from HBCUs, about the issue of wealth generation, ownership, wealth maintenance. All the things that I found successful in my life.

LEMON: Until 2000, program founders say almost no historically black college or university offered an entrepreneurial curriculum. Now university presidents, deans and professors from about 50 HBCUs help with the more than 150 students who participate.

Like Florida A&M's, Deliena Stone.

DELIENA STORE, FLORIDA A&M STUDENT: I feel like the opportunity that they provided for me -- I probably wouldn't be able to get it anywhere else because I would be lost in the crowd at a majority institution.

LEMON: More than 2,000 students have completed the program so far. And the director says corporations like Wal-mart, Office Depot and Pricewaterhousecooper seek out and hire his students.

DR. MOHAMMAD BHUIYAN, FAYETTEVILLE STATE UNIV.: If you are trying to hire minority students with excellent qualifications, you get 150 of them in one place in our program. So you have 150 and all of them are excellent students. So you have a much bigger pool to select. So that's a gold mine for any recruiter.

EVAN ANDERSON, FLORIDA A&M STUDENT: I believe it's allowed me to make myself more diverse and more ready for the real world as soon as I graduate.

LEMON: A real world lesson on how to create success from those who define it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Well this summer, CNN presents Black in America, a six- hour special event. We'll examine the complex issues, successes and struggles black men, women and families can encounter.

Black in America, July 23rd and 24th, only on CNN.

KEILAR: Mob justice and a bizarre mass killing in Africa. We are live from Kenya where some people, reportedly believed to be witches, met a horrific fate.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, this just in to the CNN NEWSROOM. Live pictures now from Bolingbrook, Illinois, just outside of Chicago.

This is courtesy of our affiliate WGN, and you see the news cameras on the ground there. The reason that they are -- I'm trying to make out if that is Drew Peterson's car. I would imagine Drew Peterson or someone who is affiliated with him is in the back of that car. Because that's the whole reason those news cameras are there.

Drew Peterson turned himself into Bolingbrook police this morning, CNN has confirmed -- or this afternoon, I should say. Because of a weapons charge, a violation there. According to police, they say that one of the guns that he owned was too short under Illinois law. It was one of the guns that was seized after his wife, Stacey Peterson, disappeared back in October.

Again, we don't have control of these shots. Otherwise, we would push in for you to see exactly who that is on the ground there. But according to one of Drew Peterson's publicists, says that the former police sergeant suspected in his wife's disappearance, turned himself into authorities on a weapons charge that is the Bolingbrook, Illinois police department.

As soon as we get more information for you, we'll bring it to you, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

KEILAR: Here's the most horrific report today out of Kenya. A rampaging mob singles out men and women believed to be witches and takes the law into their own hands.

Let's bring in now CNN's, David McKenzie.

He is in Nairobi today.

David, tell us what happened here.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, it is really shocking and almost hard to believe.

A mob of over 200 people, we're told by our sources on the ground in western Kenya, did a lynching of about 11 people. Both elderly women, men and young women and they said that they were witches and wizards. Hard to believe in these days. But in this area, this is a very strong belief. They say that they had developed a list, these witches. They found a box saying which people -- their people in their villages would die at a certain time. And so they took the law into their own hands and attacked them with machetes and burnt over 40 homes.

Back to you.

KEILAR: Just appalling. David McKenzie, for us in Nairobi, thanks.

LEMON: An act of heroism caught on camera. Stay with us for the story behind this dramatic video.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK. We've got a lot of developing news here in the CNN NEWSROOM. And this time, again, as we say hot off the presses just now. We're learning from our affiliate KXAN, about those children at that polygamous ranch in Texas.

Here's what our affiliate is reporting now: Child Protective Services workers are attempting to look for more children at the polygamous ranch in El Dorado. A reporter there on the scene said that they just talked to the fundamentalist Latter-day Saints gatekeeper, the person who is there. And that gatekeeper says that sheriff deputies escorted two CPS workers to the ranch between 11:00 and 11:30 local time there, to look for more children. And he told the worker that there weren't any there, and they didn't have a search warrant.

The information goes on further with more details. But, again, what we're learning there, Child Protective Services in Texas, back at that ranch looking for possible other children who may be at the ranch.