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Colorado Hit by Tornado; Serious Fire on US Navy Ship; McCain Releases Health Records; Texas to Appeal Court Ruling on Polygamist Children

Aired May 23, 2008 - 13:00   ET

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

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Kids and courts in Texas. The polygamist group that won a bombshell ruling yesterday eager to re-unite while the state says not so fast. We've got the latest on the hearings, the filings and the kid who's really an adult.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Is John McCain fit to be president? His doctors say, yes. Our doctor, Sanjay Gupta, pores over the medical records of the GOP nominee-to-be.

LEMON: It's a big holiday weekend. You're ready to get away. Right?

KEILAR: Yes.

LEMON: Just in time for the start of the summer travel season, another good reason to stay home. Lots of us aren't, though, and our Allan Chernoff has proof on the New Jersey Turnpike. Look at that. It's a backup. But not on the roads, it looks like. Huh? You can see it. See the big gas sign right behind him.

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

KEILAR: And I'm Brianna Keilar.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

We want to take you to Glen Burnie, Maryland. This is between Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland. This is a multi-vehicle accident. What you're seeing here is someone who appears to be injured or at least is being taken on a stretcher as a precaution. This is a multi-vehicle accident on Interstate 97. It's closed the southbound lanes there.

And according to CNN affiliate WBAL, an accident here involving a tractor-trailer, four cars, as well as a pickup. Traffic is being detoured off on another highway.

And of course this is a big get-away weekend. People wondering if this is going to affect their get-away from town, as well. Well, this is southbound and this is south of Baltimore/Washington International Airport. So it appears at least, at this point, that perhaps there may not be as much of an effect as there could have, but we'll keep an eye on this and let you know how it is affecting traffic there. But again a multi-vehicle accident there on Interstate 97 in Glen Burnie, Maryland.

LEMON: And now let's take you to northern Colorado, where people there yesterday just woke up to, really, just a heck of a situation. They're calling it nightmarish.

In this auditorium you see there, they're preparing for a press conference to tell us exactly how these folks are doing, how they're going to recover. The extent of the damage, it's just amazing.

All day yesterday in the CNN NEWSROOM we were following this breaking weather story as a tornado just hop-scotched across Windsor County, Colorado, yesterday and really just ripped a hole in many places.

And the sky is looking threatening again today over the plains. And we want to check in now with our Reynolds Wolf to see what's on tap for today. Hopefully nothing like yesterday as we wait for this press conference to start at any minute -- Reynolds.

REYNOLDS WOLF, CNN METEOROLOGIST: OK. Well, unfortunately, Don, we're looking at a very similar scenario for parts of the Central Plains, where we have all the elements once again forming, plenty of moisture coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. We've got that frontal boundary coming in, too.

Right now, we're just seeing some high-level thunderstorms, nothing in terms of tornadic activity yet, but that may occur later this afternoon.

Now, the other side of this boundary and a little bit farther to the south, we're seeing not rain but some snowfall just to the north of Santa Fe and along parts of I-25.

But it is going to be the combination of this frontal boundary and that moist air I was telling you about, coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. And where those two boundaries, those air masses are going to meet up will be right into the Central Plains, just to the east of the Rockies.

So places that were affected yesterday may once again be dealing with some strong storms. Not nearly just the strong storms: the potential for tornadoes, some damaging winds, large hail through the afternoon and into the evening hours.

Don, that is the latest for you. Let's send it right back to you at the news desk.

LEMON: Reynolds, thank you very much for that.

WOLF: Yes.

LEMON: And again we are awaiting that press conference. As soon as it happens, we'll bring it to you here in the NEWSROOM. KEILAR: Don, CNN's Sean Callebs is in the middle of the damage in Windsor, Colorado, where we're waiting for that news conference to begin.

Sean, I'm just wondering. So much damage that we've seen there. How are people handling it?

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been -- it's interesting to watch people, because this morning when the sun came up there was a certain kind of dazed, "yes, this really happened to our community" kind of look. But people are now just rolling up their sleeves and digging in.

We can't forget that this punishing storm did claim one life, but it also took out, really, the historic part of this city. And that is this building right here. What you're looking at is a giant grain silo that was built well before 1900.

And in this portion over here, this brick structure, if you look at the bricks, they're like four layers thick. Up at the top you have 12 by 12 support beams. That was built in 1912. This building was not only on the Colorado historic list, also on the national historic registry, as well. It came down yesterday during the tornado.

And there's another story behind all this. The man who owned this, he was actually hit in a car accident a number of years ago and paralyzed from the waist down. He struggled to keep his company up and going. He had some assistants, and they actually did a great deal of renovation work up in there. They were going to turn this into an office space, because it had just a wonderful view of this lake out here in Windsor.

But as soon as they got all this renovation work done, the storm came through and leveled it. So now these workers over here are with conservation crews. They are trying to salvage these bricks, because these bricks go back to about the turn of the century. So right now they're pulling all these bricks aside, and they're trying to see what they can do. They need to get engineers in here to see if they can salvage this building.

But this has been something that's really garnered the attention of the community so far today, a lot of people coming out, taking pictures. Let's hope this story has somewhat of a happy ending. Hope they can salvage this building in some capacity -- Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Sean, and we'll be checking back in with you. I know there is a news conference going to happen at some point there at the town hall. You can see people waiting for that. So Sean Callebs in Windsor, Colorado, we'll be checking in with you in a bit.

LEMON: That's a lot of people waiting. And I wonder if it's -- you know, they're out of their homes and they don't have a home to go to. Usually, you don't see this many people crowded inside of a gymnasium, awaiting word of this. So it just shows you the extent of the damage and exactly what Sean Callebs was talking about. We have some other breaking news to tell you about, Brianna, this one coming from the USS Washington. And it appears there's a fire on board. We want to get you to our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, to give us an update on that.

What's going on, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, the U.S. Navy now saying that the aircraft carrier George Washington has suffered what they call a serious fire off the coast of South America.

This happened yesterday. We want to get right to it and tell the military families that may be watching and have their loved ones on board that ship, there were no fatalities. However, one sailor was treated for first-degree burns, and 23 sailors were, in fact, treated for extreme heat stress.

This so-called serious fire broke out in a rear portion of the ship in an air conditioning and ventilation type area. But then the Navy says it quickly spread to a number of other areas in the ship via a cable way, raising the temperature in many of the ship's compartments to extreme levels. That's apparently how those sailors came to be treated for extreme heat stress.

The ship is still under way -- making its way to a scheduled port call in San Diego, but this is very unusual for a ship at sea to suffer a serious fire like this. The Navy said it took them several hours on board the ship to put the fire out -- Don.

LEMON: Wow, OK, Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. Barbara, thank you.

KEILAR: Well, to politics now. If Senator John McCain wins in November he will be the oldest man ever elected to a first term as president. Well, today he's trying to show that he's up to the job by releasing eight years' worth of medical records.

And our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, has just been poring over more than 1,000 documents. He's joining us now from Fountain Hills, Arizona.

Sanjay, what have you learned there?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, about 1,200 pages. This has got to be some of the most widely-reviewed medical records, I think, in history.

A couple of things immediately. There's a lot there, as you might imagine, Brianna, but he was seen by five different doctors this year alone, including a primary doctor, G.I. doctor, a cardiologist, dermatologist. These are his doctors that take care of him.

He's on a few different medications, about average for a man his age. Hydrochlorothiazide, for example. Simvastatin. That's a medication for cholesterol. He takes a multi-vitamin. He takes a baby aspirin. He takes Zyrtec for allergies and occasionally Ambien for sleep. In the past he's taken melatonin for sleep, as well. He's had some issues with that.

I think most interestingly, most importantly, he's had five different skin cancers: four melanomas and one most recently, a squamous cell carcinoma that was removed in February. There's been no sign -- I was looking for this carefully -- no sign that there's been recurrence, that any of those specific cancers have come back.

These were all different cancers. But each time, as the dermatologist noted, each time he has one it raises the chances of him having a future skin cancer. So our calculations was he has about an 18 percent chance of having another skin cancer at some point in the future.

He saw his dermatologist on May 12, just a couple of weeks ago, who gives him a clean bill of health as far as melanoma goes.

Speaking of cancer, you may not have known this, but he was a two-pack-a-day smoker for 25 years. He stopped smoking in 1980, but he has a couple of abnormalities in his lung. He has a granuloma, it's called, on the right upper part of his lung, and he has some fibrosis on the right lower part of his lung. Those are -- those are just followed with chest X-rays. The doctors give chest X-rays periodically to see if those abnormalities in his lungs change. They don't look like they're lung cancer.

He's had a prostate biopsy which, again, was negative. No evidence of prostate cancer. And for those people who follow this sort of thing, he does get his PSA, or prostate-specific anagen levels checked, 1.1, which is actually a normal number.

He's also had colonic polyps, polyps in his colon removed. I got a look at a presidential candidate's colon. They actually included those pictures there. That's something I thought I'd never say on live television.

He also has bilateral lens implants in his eyes for cataracts. That's something you may notice if you look carefully at his eyes. You may see those.

He's had badly damaged joints. This is something we've talked about. In fact, if you watch the senator carefully, you'll see that he has a hard time sort of raising his arms up. In fact his doctors have said he may need both shoulders actually replaced at some point in the future depending on how bad it gets for him.

He's got nodules in his thyroid glands. Those look like they're not a problem for him.

And in January of 2006 he started to have some bleeding in his urine. That was subsequently found to be kidney stones.

These are some of the sort of basic things I found about him. His -- you know, he talks a lot about his mom being 96 years old. And she's on the campaign trail with him. His father died of a stroke at age 70, and his grandfather died as well, of a heart attack. So, you know, he has a concern about his heart history. He's had a couple of significant tests of his heart. Stress echocardiograms, they're called. And I notice that the numbers are actually very good, and they didn't change at all over the last eight years. He had an echocardiogram in 2000. He had one in 2008. They're about the same. So his heart function appears to be good. And that's according to his cardiologist, as well.

There was hardly any mentions of anything regarding his mental health. As I mentioned, he's had some sleep difficulties. Takes Ambien occasionally, melatonin. Almost every single note about him from his doctors starts off with "He is a pleasant man who is cooperative." I notice that in almost every note since 2000 says that.

He has complained of dizziness in the past, specifically when he sort of tips his head back, for example, to put in eye drops. He feels like the earth is sort of moving around him at that point, and he's been diagnosed with vertigo for that reason.

You know, the scarring on his face is probably the most noticeable thing that people will notice about him. His doctors in the past have recommended that he wear masks over his face to try and decrease that scarring. He has not done that. Doctors have noted that he has not done that. And also he has -- they told him to wear loose-fitting shirts. So it's not uncommon to see him in a loose- fitting shirt, as opposed to a shirt with a tie.

In the past, you know, his height was actually noted as two different heights. In the past it was noted as 5'6", and most recently notes as 5'9". Those are some of the most up-to-date facts about him.

A lot there, 1,200 pages, trying to condense into a minute and 30 seconds, Brianna.

KEILAR: Wow. I mean, I feel more intimately acquainted with John McCain's health history now than I do my own. It's strange to be privy to this kind of information, but Sanjay, let's talk about the skin cancer. We saw the scar there. Does he have to go back and get that checked frequently?

GUPTA: He does. In fact, he just got it checked a couple of weeks ago by his dermatologist, Dr. Connelly. And, you know, as far as I can tell, about every three to four months he's been getting skin checks. So it seems like he's pretty diligent about it, seeing the same doctor who does skin checks. They actually have his wife do some skin checks at home. So sounds like it's happening quite frequently.

KEILAR: OK. They're keeping an eye on that. Dr. Sanjay Gupta for us there in Fountain Hills, Arizona. Appreciate it.

And a reminder that you can see more of Dr. Gupta this weekend. He explores the health demands of being commander in chief and the challenges facing presidential doctors. This is a one-hour special report called "The First Patient: Health and the Presidency." You can catch that Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern. LEMON: Let's talk now about what's going on on the Democratic side.

In South Florida this hour, Barack Obama will be making a play for the always-important Cuban-American vote. He will speak at the Cuban Independence Day celebration in Miami. And we'll have more when he begins speaking there.

And Hillary Clinton is pretty far away from South Florida. She's in South Dakota campaigning ahead of that state's June 3 primary, one of the last two contests of the primary season.

KEILAR: Well, tug-of-war in Texas. And the children of a polygamist sect are in the middle of it all. An appeals court says the state should have left the kids on the ranch. The state is expected to continue fighting to keep them away from there.

LEMON: You remember this? Cheap gas? No. Right?

KEILAR: No, I don't.

LEMON: It's a distant memory. Right? Some drivers are going so far as to stay near this Memorial Day weekend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. We have this just into the CNN NEWSROOM. The state of Texas will appeal that appeals court ruling yesterday that said that they didn't have a right -- the state didn't have a right to take those 460 children away from that polygamist ranch.

Our Ed Lavandera is standing by with the very latest on this from San Angelo -- Ed.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Don, well, that's what we're being told by officials with the Texas Supreme Court, that they have been told by officials of CPS that they do intend to file.

That has not been filed as of yet, so if it does happen we anticipate it would happen in the coming moments, perhaps within the next hour or so. So that's something we're closely monitoring.

We'll continue to monitor the rest of this afternoon, because as you well know, that ruling that was sent down yesterday, essentially telling the courts and state investigators here that they had no right to remove the children from the ranch in Eldorado, Texas, came as a devastating blow to this investigation. And it has many people saying that the state's case is falling apart.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA (voice-over): It is a scathing opinion issued by the Texas Court of Appeals. The nine-page decision blasts fellow judges and the Department of Family and Protective Services, ruling there was no evidence children would be subjected to sexual or physical abuse, that there was no evidence they were in urgent danger, and no evidence that required their immediate removal from the compound.

The appeal was brought by 38 mothers whose children were removed from the Yearning for Zion compound. The ruling only affects their children, but outside the courthouse a lawyer representing the mothers said the reasoning would apply to all of the children.

JULIE BALOVICH, LEGAL AID, TEXAS RIO GRANDE: The Third Court of Appeals has stood up for the legal rights of these families and given the mothers hope that their families will be brought back together very soon.

LAVANDERA: The opinion also throws out the earlier order granting temporary custody of the children to the state.

This historic custody battle began in early April. Acting on phone calls whose authenticity is now being doubted by the court, authorities raided the ranch and removed more than 460 children.

The FLDS denies allegation of sexual or physical abuse and says that they are being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

Responding to the appellate court's opinion, a spokesman for the Department of Family and Protective Services released a statement saying, "We just received this information from the court of appeals, and it is being reviewed. We are trying to assess the impact this may have on our case and what our next steps will be."

Kids are living in shelters across the state and will remain there for at least the next ten days. That's how long the state has to appeal this court ruling or return the children to their mothers.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: And Don, so as we mentioned at the top -- in the pressing news, at this moment, is as we mentioned, we're being told by officials with the Texas Supreme Court that an appeal is expected.

And depending on what they file and how they file it this afternoon, the children protective services will really go a long way in determining what will happen with these children.

So it's really unclear, and we're unable to say at this point if this appeal will slow down the return of the children or if that will happen immediately, regardless of the appeal. It really depends on what they file, and until we see that, we won't be able to tell you with any -- with any specifics -- Don.

LEMON: Ed Lavandera in San Angelo, Texas. Ed, thank you.

KEILAR: Senator Barack Obama is set to speak momentarily. You see him there on the left of your screen. He'll be talking to an audience of Cuban-American voters. And we're going to bring you those comments live right here in the NEWSROOM.

And this woman endured eight days buried in China's earthquake rubble. For every survivor, there's a fascinating survival story. There's thousands of them. We're going to share a few, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: A Northern Colorado town, specifically Windsor, Colorado, recovering from a devastating tornado that struck down there yesterday. You're looking at the cleanup just moments after that tornado hit.

A press conference under way now, and just moments ago the mayor of Windsor spoke to the people of this town. And here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAYOR JOHN VAZQUEZ, WINDSOR, COLORADO: Significant damage was done to the east side of town. Most of it identified in the Diamond Valley Park, Cornerstone subdivision, areas in between Easton Park Drive, State Highway 392 along the Highway 257 corridor.

We currently have this area closed off. We're experiencing many downed power lines. We have gas leaks still. Basically, the trees that have been uprooted have grabbed hold of gas lines and severed gas lines underground. So we're having a hard time locating where the leaks are coming from. So we're being very cautious in that.

We have a tremendous amount of heavy equipment in the area: removing timber, getting rid of the trees that are down on structures and on people's personal property.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: One person was killed in that tornado yesterday in Windsor. Several others were injured. Our Reynolds Wolf is checking all of it for us today. We'll check with him in just a little bit.

KEILAR: Remember those mortgage deals with the low interest rates that eventually led to the housing crisis? Well, guess what? They are back. And Susan Lisovicz is on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to tell us what we should make of this.

Hi, Susan.

SUSAN LISOVICZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brianna.

Well, as so many of us know, creative financing helped create the housing bubble. But some proponents say creative financing may help us get out of the housing mess.

We're talking about very big builders here -- Hovnanian, Lennar, Ryland -- that are offering special incentives that go well beyond, say, a gourmet kitchen. We're talking about low initial interest rates of less than 3 percent. Zero down payments, no payments for nine months, no closing costs.

In other words, it's a great time to be a buyer. But here's the big difference between now and a few years ago. The builders say they are much more judicious on who gets a loan, because they have been burned, and of course, that's one of the continuing fallouts that we see in the economy -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Well, are there any signs of life from the troubled housing market, Susan?

LISOVICZ: Well, we -- the major economic report of the day was on existing home sales. Existing home sales -- or existing homes, rather, are the biggest part of the housing market. And they declined 1 percent in April from the -- from the month before.

Perhaps what's even worse is that the inventory of unsold homes grew, grew to a more than 11-month supply. That is just a glut of unsold homes on the market.

One bright spot is that home prices actually inched up. So we'll continue to monitor that.

We're also monitoring stock prices. We're looking at what could be a third triple-digit loss out of the last four sessions. While oil prices, which dropped $2 yesterday, up about a buck right now.

Taking a look at the big board, the Dow right now is down 142 points. The NASDAQ, meanwhile, is down 26.

Brianna, back to you.

KEILAR: Our Susan Lisovicz for us at the New York Stock Exchange, thanks.

LISOVICZ: You're welcome.

LEMON: I the high price of gas keeping people off the roads this weekend? We'll have a live report from the Jersey Turnpike.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right, developing news just in to the CNN NEWSROOM.

It involves that Texas polygamist ranch and the court process there. Yesterday we learned that a state appeals court had ruled that the state had no right to take those children off that ranch.

Well, today we are learning that the state is going to appeal that all the way up to the state supreme court and we've learned that the state has filed its papers within just the last few minutes with the supreme court to appeal yesterday's ruling.

Not exactly sure what that means for the children and for the mothers here, but we'll fine out as the day progresses here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Meantime, we're working on several developing stories for you today, in the NEWSROOM. One worker was killed today and three others hurt, when a construction crane collapsed outside Kansas City. The accident occurred at a power plant construction site near Westin, Missouri.

The cleanup has started in Windsor, Colorado, one of several towns hit by a powerful tornado. One man was killed, dozens were hurt. And many homes and businesses were damaged or either destroyed.

Myanmar's rulers have agreed to ease restrictions on cyclone recovery aid. U.N. Secretary, Ban Ki-Moon, says they'll allow all aid workers to enter the country but, they still won't let warships dock with relief supplies.

KEILAR: Just in time for Memorial Day weekend and the start of the summer travel season. Gas prices -- you know what I'm going to say -- they set another record. AAA says the national average price of regular gasoline is $3.87 a gallon. That is expected to keep some folks off the roads. And those who do drive may be taking shorter trips.

Let's check in now with CNN senior correspondent, Allan Chernoff on the New Jersey Turnpike.

And I imagine you've talked to a lot of folks who are not too happy about these gas prices.

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: No, not exactly any applause here at the gasoline pumps. Although I do have to say, there are plenty of New Yorkers coming here for relatively cheap gasoline. Right now, $3.72 here in New Jersey. Low state taxes on gas. So people are coming here to save a bit.

In fact we have one customer right here, $3.72. What do you think, sir?

That's cheaper than state I come from. Over there, about $3.91 from Rhode Island.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's cheaper than in the state that I come from. Over there, about $3.91, from Rhode Island.

CHERNOFF: Very typical. Lot of people drive over here and they just want to save money. As a result you see the line, very long over here. Probably about 35 cars right now just waiting to fill up. But many people really are changing their plans, as you said Brianna, for this holiday season, because of gasoline.

In fact, one quarter of all Americans, according to a Deloitte & Touche survey, say they either have canceled their plans to travel or they're going to shorten those trips for the Memorial Day weekend.

It certainly is a big change from a year ago when gasoline was so much cheaper. Seems that the price just keeps on going up. We've had 16 consecutive record prices nationwide, now at $3.87 a gallon.

KEILAR: And I heard about a new word for that phenomenon you're talking of.

It's the stay-cation instead of the vacation. The stay-cation, Allan.

Interesting, right?

CHERNOFF: Right. You know, that's what people have to do, you know.

What can you say? It's just changing with the times. And who knows? I mean the prices we're seeing right now, they could seem relatively cheap if the gasoline prices keep on soaring, if the oil prices keep on soaring. It's just gotten very difficult for a lot of people, especially you can see right behind over there, a Hummer just pulled out.

We spoke to that gentleman a few minutes ago. He told me he gets eight miles to the gallon.

KEILAR: Oh, my goodness!

LEMON: Oh!

KEILAR: Ouch! Allan Chernoff for us there --

CHERNOFF: You know what his other car is?

KEILAR: What's that?

CHERNOFF: His other car is a Toyota Corolla. He just takes that out on the weekends.

KEILAR: Oh, OK.

LEMON: Allan, weren't you on a bicycle?

Was that earlier in the week? Or was that late last week, that you were on a bicycle?

CHERNOFF: That's right. Last week. I think all these people would love to be on a bicycle right now. They wouldn't be in line here.

LEMON: They need to follow your advice, get on a bicycle. And maybe that's the vacation right there, including a little exercise.

KEILAR: The bike does work for the stay-cation, I have to say.

Allan Chernoff, for us on the Jersey Turnpike, we certainly appreciate that report.

And we also want to know how high gas prices are where you live and how that is affecting your lifestyle. You can share your photos, you see some people have done it here.

Share your videos, share your stories with us by going to iReport.com

(WEATHER REPORT)

KEILAR: Senator Barack Obama is set to speak in just a moment to an audience of Cuban-American voters.

We'll bring you those comments live here in the NEWSROOM. You're watching CNN, the most trusted name in news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Well every American voter has an issue and we wanted to know what's on your mind?

It's the people of Kentucky's turn to talk as CNN's, Josh Reuben, brings us this week's Election Express Yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can only speak for myself. I know that I've lost substantial amount of money in the last two years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Farmers and tobacco, I think that's pretty bad. And a lot of the factories and things like that, they're not doing very well.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Prices of everything's outrageous compared to people's wages. It's just a crazy situation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Republicans have taken and messed up the whole economy. You know, the budget and everything, as far as on the Republican party. I think that the Democrats should get together, come on, bring this nation back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need to take control in a lot of stuff that's going to affect America. You know, the economy's a start, the Earth, period. You know, I'm not a greenpeacer, as you can see I'm out here fishing, but you know, a lot of stuff needs to be handled and it needs to be handled sooner than later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, don't you think on the water at Cape Cod sure beats a hospital bed?

While doctors chart a course for treating his malignant brain tumor, Ted Kennedy enjoying some of the simple pleasures.

We're going to have an update ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Home in Hyannis Port, this is senator Ted Kennedy getting a Cape Cod welcome after his hospital stay. Doctors are working on a plan to treat his malignant brain tumor but for now the senator is taking it easy. Yesterday he talked with reporters as he, his wife Vicki and their dogs headed from their home down to the water for a sail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: We've received an incredible amount of wonderful notes and letters from friends and colleagues in the Senate, and as well as from people here in Massachusetts. It's all been very touching.

VICKI KENNEDY, WIFE OF SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY: It's been a wonderful outpouring of support. Wonderful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, Kennedy will not be able to deliver the commencement address Sunday at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, as he was supposed to. Barack Obama will be standing in.

And he is the presumptive Republican nominee for president and he knows there are questions about his health. So today John McCain voluntarily released years of detailed medical records.

The bottom line is that his doctors say there is no medical reason why he cannot be president. Among his most serious health issues, he's been treated for melanoma skin cancer three times, but there's been no recurrence of this cancer since 2000. And McCain's physicians are holding a teleconference at the top of the hour. We're expecting to learn more at that time.

And then in the 3:00 hour we'll talk with a former White House physician about the demands of being president.

LEMON: All right, we're going to check in, in Florida. Let's go to Florida and just look -- see what's going on with Barack Obama.

Barack Obama is speaking at a Cuban-American National Foundation. He's an invited guest there. And while we're taking a look, why don't we listen?

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... somebody who has given me advice the first time we met.

What I said was that I don't presume to know everything that I need to know about Cuba, and our policies there, and I'm here not just to talk but to listen. And although, I admit that my job today is to talk, this is just hello, it is not good-bye, and so I'm going to be spending a lot of time here in south Florida making sure that I'm listening, not only to Jorge but to all the people here to find out how we can best advance the cause of freedom in Cuba.

(APPLAUSE)

To Pepe Hernandez, thank you so much, not only for your leadership of this wonderful organization, but also your service to our country. I am very proud to have met you and am looking forward to working with you in the years ahead.

To Marco Rubio, the first Cuban-American speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, congratulations to you for your great success.

I know that we've got Pedro Peirluisi, who is the co-chair of the Puerto Rico for Obama, who participated in the free program. And I want to thank him for his outstanding work.

(APPLAUSE)

And I know -- to the students of Jorge Amos Carnosa (ph) Middle School, outstanding performance. And we are very proud of you.

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And finally I want to acknowledge that we got -- I know this is a nonpartisan organization but I am a Democrat so I would be remiss if I did not point out, we've got three outstanding candidates for Congress. Two of them are here, Mayor Raul Martinez and Joe Garcia.

We believe that they will win in this election and we are proud that they are leading our banner down here in south Florida. Congratulations.

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It is my extraordinary privilege to join in this week's independence day celebration. And in honoring those who have stood up with courage and conviction, against oppression and for liberty. I'm going to take this opportunity to speak about Cuba and also U.S. policy towards the Americas more broadly.

You know, we meet here united in our unshakeable commitment to freedom. And it is fitting that we re-affirm that commitment here in Miami. In many ways Miami stands as a symbol of hope for what's possible in the Americas. Jaime's (ph) promise of liberty and opportunity has brought generations of immigrants to these shores, sometimes with nothing more than the clothes on their back. And I was talking to Jorge about his father and the story -- the immigrant story that he embodies and his family embodies and the extraordinary success, that is the story of America.

It was a similar hope that drew my own father across an ocean in search of the same promise that our dreams need not be deferred because of who we are or what we look like or where we come from. Here in Miami that promise can join people together. We take common pride in a vibrant and diverse democracy and a hard-earned prosperity. We find common pleasure in the crack of the bat, or the rhythms of our music, or ease of voices shifting from Spanish to Patua to Portuguese to English.

Now these bonds are built on a foundation of shared history in our hemisphere. Colonized by empires, we share stories of liberation. Confronted by our own imperfections, we're joined in a desire to build a more perfect union. Rich in resources, we strive to vanquish poverty from our lands. What all of us strive for is freedom, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt described it, political freedom, religious freedom, but also freedom from want and freedom from fear.

At our best, the United States has been a force for these four freedoms in the Americas. But if we're honest with ourselves we'll acknowledge that at times we failed to engage the people of the region with the respect owed to a partner. And when George Bush was elected, he held out the promise that this would change. He raised the hopes of the region that our engagement would be sustained instead of piecemeal. He called Mexico, our most important bilateral relationship. He pledged to make Latin America a fundamental commitment of his presidency. And it seemed that a new 21st century era had dawned.

Almost eight years later those hopes have been dashed. Since the Bush administration launched a misguided war in Iraq, its policy in the Americas has been negligent towards our friends, ineffective with our adversaries, disinterested in the challenges that matter in the people's lives and incapable of advancing our interests in the region.

No wonder then, the demagogues like Hugo Chavez, have stepped into this vacuum. His predictable, yet perilous mix of anti-American rhetoric, authoritarian government, checkbook diplomacy, coddling the repressive regimen Cuba offers the same false promise as the tried and failed ideologies of the past. But the United States is so alienated from the rest of the Americas, that this stale of vision has gone unchallenged, and has even made inroads in Bolivia, Nicaragua. And Chavez and his allies are not the only ones filling the vacuum.

While the United States fails to address the changing realities in the Americas, others from Europe and Asia, most notably China, have stepped up their engagement. Iran has drawn closer to Venezuela. Just the other day Tehran and Caracas launched a joint bank with their windfall oil profits. That is the record, the Bush record in Latin America, that John McCain has chosen to embrace. Senator McCain doesn't talk about these trends in our hemisphere because he knows that as part of the broader Bush-McCain failures to address priorities beyond Iraq.

The situation has changed in the Americas but we've failed to change with it. Instead of engaging the people of the region, we've acted as if we can still dictate terms unilaterally. We've not offered a clear and comprehensive vision backed up with strong diplomacy. We are failing to join the battle for hearts and minds. For far too long Washington has engaged in outdated debates and stuck to tired blueprints on drugs and trade, on democracy and development -- even though they won't meet the tests of the future. The stakes could not be higher. Not only in Cuba but all across the Americas.

It is time for us to recognize that the future security and prosperity of the United States is fundamentally tied to the future of the Americas. If we don't turn away from the policies of the past, then we won't be able to shape the future. The Bush administration has offered no clear vision for this future and neither has John McCain. So we face a clear choice here in the United States, in this election. We can continue as a bystander or we can lead the hemisphere into the 21st century.

And when I am president of the United States, we will choose to lead.

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It is time for a new alliance of the Americas. After eight years of the failed policies of the past, we need new leadership for the future. After decades of pressing for top-down reform, we need an agenda that advances democracy, security, and opportunity from the bottom-up. So my policy towards the Americas will be guided by the simple principle that what's good for the people of the Americas, is good for the United States. And that means measuring success not just...

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... that means measuring success not just through agreements among governments, but also through the hopes of the child of the favelas in Rio. The security for the policemen in Mexico City. And the unanswered cries of the political prisoners, heard from the jails of Havana. That is the measure of whether or not we are successful in our foreign policy.

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The first and most fundamental freedom that we must work for, and what this organization has championed for years, is political freedom. The United States must be a relentless advocate for democracy. I know something about this. I grew up for a time in Indonesia. It was a struggling society -- it was a society struggling to achieve meaningful democracy. Power could be undisguised and indiscriminate. All too often power wore a uniform and was unaccountable to the people. Some had good reason to fear a knock on the door at night because there wasn't respect for rule of law. So I understand the fears and I understand oppression.

There is no place for this kind of tyranny in this hemisphere. There is no place for any darkness that would shut out the light of liberty.

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Here, here in this hemisphere we must heed the words of Dr. King, written from his own jail cell, "In justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.

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Throughout my entire lifetime, there has been injustice and repression in Cuba. Never in my lifetime have the people of Cuba known true freedom. Never in the lives of two generations of Cubans have the people of Cuba known democracy. This is the terrible and tragic status quo that we have known for half a century of elections that are anything but free or fair. Of dissidents locked away in dark prison cells for the crime of speaking the truth. I won't stand for this injustice, you will not stand for this injustice, and together we will stand up for freedom in Cuba. That will be my commitment as president of the United States of America.

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Now let me say this. I know what the easy thing to do for American politician is when he or she comes down to Miami. About every four years they come down, they talk tough. Then they go back to Washington and nothing changes in Cuba. That's what John McCain did the other day. He joined the parade of politicians who made the same empty promises year after year, decade after decade. Instead of offering a strategy, a strategy for change, he chose to distort my position and embrace George Bush's and continue a policy that's done nothing to advance the freedom of the Cuban people. That's the political posture that John McCain has chosen, and all it shows is that you can't take his so-called straight talk seriously.

Now my policy towards Cuba will be guided by one word -- libertad. The road to freedom for all Cubans must begin with justice for Cuba's political prisoners, the right of free speech, a free press, freedom of assembly, and it must lead to elections that are free and fair. That is my commitment.

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And let me be absolutely clear. John McCain's been going around the country talking about how much I want to meet Raul Castro, as if I'm looking for a social gathering. I'm going to invite him over and have some tea. That's not what I said. John McCain knows it. After eight years of the disastrous policies of George Bush, it is time, I believe, to pursue direct diplomacy with friend and foe alike, without preconditions. Now there must be careful preparation. We will set a clear agenda. As president, I would be willing to lead that diplomacy at a time and place of my choosing.

But only when we have an opportunity to advance the interests of the United States, but even more importantly, to advance the cause of the freedom for the Cuban people, and I promise you that the Cuban exiled community will participate in those talks because it is all of you that have been living with this terrible legacy for the last half century, and I want you there with me when we participate in these negotiations.

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I will never, ever compromise the cause of liberty. And unlike John McCain, I would never, ever rule out a course of action that could advance the cause of liberty. We've heard enough empty promises from politicians. I intend to turn the page. It's time for more than tough talk that never yields results. It's time for a new strategy. There are no better ambassadors for the freedom of the Cuban people, than Cuban-Americans. And that's why I have said that I will immediately allow unlimited family travel and remittances to the island. It's time to let Cuban-Americans see their mothers and their fathers, their sisters and their brothers. It's time to let Cuban- American money make their families less dependent on the Castro regime. That is a commitment I'm making right here.

I will maintain the embargo. It provides us with leverage to present. So don't be confused about this, I will maintain the embargo. It provides us with the leverage to prevent the regime with a clear choice. If you take significant steps towards democracy, beginning with the freeing of political prisoners, we will take steps to begin normalizing relationships. That's the way to bring about real change in Cuba, through strong, smart principled diplomacy. We cannot keep playing political games on this issue. It is time for us --

LEMON: Barack Obama, in Miami, at the Cuban-American National Foundation, speaking there.