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Obama, Clinton Appear Together in New Hampshire; North Korean Nuclear Plant Disabled; Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday Bash
Aired June 27, 2008 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: I know what we start here in this field in Unity will end on the steps of the Capitol, when Barack Obama takes the oath of office as our next president.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: The place is Unity. And the time, says Hillary Clinton, is now. Are Clinton's core supporters fully on board the Obama bandwagon? We will ask our Bill Schneider.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: And cast your ballot, or else. It's runoff election day in Zimbabwe, one candidate, lots of intimidated voters, a once thriving country in crisis.
KEILAR: And we have shown you how easy it is to get almost any drug that you want online, no questions asked, no prescription needed. Well, this hour, we will show you why nothing much is being done to stop it.
Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar at CNN Center in Atlanta.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon.
You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
KEILAR: A bruising campaign is now spirited debate. Toe to toe is now shoulder to shoulder. And unity is the word of the day. Hillary Clinton campaigning in New Hampshire with Barack Obama says their paths have now merged and their targets are no longer each other, but Republican John McCain.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: Senator McCain and the Republicans may have hoped that we wouldn't join forces like this. They may have wished that we wouldn't stand united to fight this battle with everything we've got.
But I have got news for them: We are one party; we are one America; and we are not going to rest until we take back our country and put it once again on the path to peace, prosperity, and progress in the 21st century.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary and I may have started with separate goals in this campaign, but we've made history together. Together, we inspired tens of millions of people to participate, some to cast ballots for the very first time, others who voted for the first time in a very long time.
And together, in this campaign in 2008, we shattered barriers that have stood firm since the founding of this nation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Clinton urged her supporters to work as hard for Obama as they did for her.
LEMON: Well, John McCain is working Ohio today, one of the tossup states on CNN's electoral map. Here he is at a GM plant, GM plant in Warren, Ohio, near Youngstown. McCain stressed his energy policy in general and his coal ideas in particular. Eastern Ohio of course is coal central.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, what do we need to do? We need to have clean coal technology. And I'm willing to invest federal dollars, a couple of billion dollars a year, to develop clean coal technology. That could also have an effect on the economy of this part of America.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Today, McCain released a new TV ad in Ohio and a bunch of other battleground states. The 30-second purpose spot talks up McCain's plan for energy independence and stresses that the Arizona senator puts his country first.
McCain talked about that at the meeting in Warren.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCCAIN: And I have always served my country first. I know that when I meet people here, I know that not every one of them is going to vote for me. I shook hands with a gentleman who had a shirt that said Obama on it. Probably should have said Senator Obama on it.
But the fact is that I understand that. What I'm here to tell you, that whether you vote for me or not, two things. One is that I will be president of everyone. I will not be a president just of Republicans or anyone else. I will represent everybody, because this nation's in difficult times.
And, all my life, I have put my country first. And as president of the United States, I want to assure you that I will reach across the aisle.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: Well, the latest CNN national poll of polls shows McCain seven points behind Obama among registered voters nationwide.
Analysis on today's campaign stops for Senators McCain and Obama at the top of the hour in "THE SITUATION ROOM" with Wolf Blitzer. And, remember, all the latest campaign news is right at your fingertips. Just go to CNNPolitics.com. We also have analysis of course from the best political team on television. It's all there at CNNPolitics.com.
We're keeping our eye on Wall Street. Let's take look now at the Big Board, if we can. It's coming. It's coming.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: There it is, down 75 points, standing at 11377.
This is after a drop of almost 360 points yesterday put the Dow Jones industrial average at almost a -- an almost two-year low. Investors trying to find a silver lining here. They are still looking, though, as the price of crude oil hit a new record high last hour. That's right, $142.99. It has settled back a little since then. But some analysts are actually looking for $150 a barrel later this summer, if you can believe that.
And not helping the equation, a weak dollar hovering at a record low against the euro. The Dow, the Nasdaq and the S&P all trying to bounce back from some earlier losses. You saw earlier they're not quite there.
LEMON: Two days, two promises kept by North Korea. Just watch. That was the cooling tower at North Korea's main nuclear reactor. It's now a pile of cement.
Its downfall comes just hours after the long-awaited release of secret documents outlining Korea's nuclear activities. It is a rare bit of action following years of talk and negotiation. And more diplomacy will certainly follow.
But today's was all about the boom.
Our chief international correspondent, Christiane Amanpour, was there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): On a hillside overlooking the Yongbyon nuclear plant, North Korean officials set up a reviewing stand and seats for the U.S. State Department delegation and the others who had come to witness the destruction of their cooling tower.
As dignitaries, technical experts and the handful of invited press waited, an official from the plant gave the signal, first, a warning flare, and, three minutes later, a massive cloud of smoke.
As the tower crumbled, the sound of the blast finally hit the air. There was a moment of stunned silence as it sank in, and then a quiet handshake between Sung Kim, the U.S. point man on North Korea, and Lee Yong-ho, the director of safeguards at Yongbyon.
SUNG KIM, U.S. ENVOY TO NORTH KOREA: It's complete demolition of the cooling tower. I think this is a very significant dismantlement step.
AMANPOUR: Dr. Lee said that he was sad to see his life's work destroyed. And yet, he said, "I hope the explosion of the cooling tower will make a contribution to peace, not only for the Korean Peninsula, but for the whole world."
It had taken North Korean experts two weeks to carefully lay the explosives. U.S. monitors watching with bated breath were impressed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because it's not very simple to blow it up and make it come down. And they did a very good job.
AMANPOUR (on camera): The cooling tower is down and all that's left is the smoke wafting away after the explosion. North Korea has moved up this part, which is called dismantlement, to show its goodwill and intent to continue this disarmament process.
(voice-over): After surveying the rubble, the State Department's Sung Kim said the stage is now set for the next phase of negotiations, to fully dismantle Yongbyon and hand over the plutonium, including the bombs it has produced.
Christiane Amanpour, CNN, at Yongbyon in North Korea.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: In Zimbabwe today, reports of people being forced to vote in the one-party -- the one-party presidential runoff. But early indications suggest a low voter turnout, not the show of support that president Robert Mugabe had wanted to legitimize this race.
Now, CNN is one of the many -- one of many news outlets banned from Zimbabwe. Our live report coming to us now from South Africa and CNN's Nkepile Mabuse.
Nkepile, do people there really consider this to be a legitimate election, a one-man runoff?
NKEPILE MABUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, the international community has condemned the election in Zimbabwe, calling it a sham.
And many Zimbabweans, you will remember, millions have fled that country and are living here in South Africa because of the dire political and economic situation there. Many of them who we spoke to here in South Africa didn't bother going home. They said this election is a joke ever since Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition leader in that country, decided to pull out of the election because of the ongoing violence. They saw no point in going home to vote.
KEILAR: So, Nkepile, with all of the violence that has taken place, do you think that people who have bothered to go home to vote or who are bothering to vote, do they honestly -- are they really thinking that their votes can be traced here perhaps?
MABUSE: Throughout voting day on Friday, we were getting reports of people who are being threatened with violence if they have don't go out and vote and vote for Robert Mugabe. Some of the people who were queuing there said they are doing it to just safeguard their lives, because they are so fearful and they are so scared that if they don't vote and if they are not seen -- seen if they are seen as opposition supporters who boycotted the vote, that maybe something will happen to them.
KEILAR: Nkepile Mabuse with that report in South Africa, thank you.
And there is much more on this still developing story coming up in the next half-hour from CNN's Isha Sesay. She's over at our international desk.
LEMON: Well, what everyone hoped would not happen did. But all hope is not lost in Winfield, Missouri.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, let's talk about the fight to save the levees in the flood zone. The fight to save the levee may be over. But the fight to save Winfield, Missouri, is more intense than ever.
Floodwaters are still a few hours away, so, everyone sandbagging, trying to save the homes that are in harm's way. The goal is a four- foot sandbag wall.
Well, before this water pouring through the levee reaches the town about 45 miles from Saint Louis, for days, we watched volunteers and National Guard troops try to shore up the levee. But just before dawn today, well, the corner gave way.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRAVIS TUTKA, ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS: This particular problem that did eventually fail this levee, it occurred rather rapidly. It did not give us time to respond. Within approximately 15 minutes of when our guys got the notification, the breach had already occurred. It was a difficult road, and I wish it didn't turn out this way. But we are where we are. And it was just an amazing effort, in my opinion, with how hard everyone worked so far.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: The Corps of Engineers is blaming muskrats for the weakening conditions there and for weakening that levee.
In the meantime, though, hopefully they will stay away from the sandbagging wall, those muskrats and all of that. Debbie Halcomb, she is watching it go up, watching that wall go up. And she joins us on the phone now from her home in Winfield, Missouri.
Thank you very much for joining us, Debbie.
DEBBIE HALCOMB, RESIDENT OF WINFIELD: Well, you're welcome.
LEMON: So, I understand -- and I'm just reading the information that I was given here, some of the stories that I have seen. Did you hear those sheriff's deputies going door to door saying, get out because the levee broke?
HALCOMB: Yes.
LEMON: What did they tell you? Tell us what happened.
HALCOMB: Well, first, they set off an alarm. And then they came by and was going house to house and told everybody to hurry up and get out.
LEMON: And what time was this?
HALCOMB: About 6:00.
LEMON: Tell us about the conditions where you are, your home and what you're seeing, Debbie.
HALCOMB: Well, right now, I'm about I'm not sure how far from the flood before it gets here.
But the Army of Engineers is all putting up a four-foot levee all the way around east Winfield, and putting sand on each side of it, so that, when the water does come up, it won't wash the wall away. And I stood down there and washed them do it. And I'll tell you what. They're fantastic and they got it up fast.
LEMON: They got a what?
HALCOMB: They put it up real fast.
LEMON: Yes.
Before I let you go, I'm sure you're worried. You're, what, 52 years old? you have been there for quite a long time.
HALCOMB: Yes.
LEMON: You're worried, huh?
HALCOMB: Yes. Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
HALCOMB: This will be the second time. And I don't know if I can take it a third time. LEMON: Yes. That's certainly understandable.
OK, Debbie Halcomb, are you going to leave? Real quick, are you going to leave?
HALCOMB: No. I'm going to sit here and wait until the water comes up to where I can see it in my backyard.
LEMON: OK. Well, we wish you the best. And you know when they say get out, that they say you should heed that warning. But we certainly wish you the best. It's your prerogative to stay there. But we certainly hope you go to safety.
Debbie Halcomb, thank you very much for joining us from Winfield, Missouri.
Meantime, our Karen Maginnis is standing behind me right here in the Severe Weather Center.
Karen, there are other people at risk besides the people in Winfield, Missouri. But you can certainly understand her wanting to stay with her property, but not always a good thing to do.
KAREN MAGINNIS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Exactly.
Well, the levee that broke, that was the last urban levee across the Mississippi in Lincoln County. It has given way. But now there is still hope that, even as we go into towards the weekend, they're expecting to put sandbags around about 100 homes, as we just heard.
So, perhaps that will protect that. But, for the agricultural areas, they're saying about 3,000 acres at risk.
Let's go ahead and show you what's happening, as we take a look at our computer. There is the Pin Oak levee. That is the earthen levee that did breach early this morning. And we will go ahead and show you what's happening as we go into the afternoon and towards the weekend.
We're looking at Winfield already. That was the last breach. In Saint Louis, it looks like the river is going to crest at what we think will be a level below what we were anticipating.
(WEATHER UPDATE)
KEILAR: And we're keeping an eye on your money, keeping an eye on Wall Street. Let's take a look at the Big Board, down 84 points. Remember, yesterday, wow, it just really tanked, I guess you could say, down 360 points, so, obviously, a better day than yesterday.
LEMON: We hope.
KEILAR: But we're also keeping an eye on oil. It hit a record high just last hour, $142.99 a barrel, settling back, though, a little since then. Meantime, computer geeks won't have Bill Gates to kick around anymore. We will tell you what -- pardon me -- what retirement may hold for one of the richest guys in the world.
LEMON: It's Friday.
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right. Look at that, fun times in Hyde Park, right?
KEILAR: That's right. This is Johnny Clegg. He's a popular South African musician. And he's playing at this concert celebrating Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday.
LEMON: Yes. Also playing at that concert, Queen, Simple Minds, the Eurythmics, Amy Winehouse, quite a lineup there. Of course, his birthday, his 90th birthday, not until July 18, but a early happy birthday to him. And it looks like the festivities going on and lots of fun at Hyde Park in London.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: I think they have about 50,000 people there, and all of this going to, what, his group 4664, the AIDS charity. And that was the number, right, that he wore when he was in prison.
LEMON: Yes, when he was in prison.
KEILAR: Yes.
LEMON: Happy birthday to him.
KEILAR: Happy birthday. Happy early birthday to him.
(BUSINESS REPORT)
KEILAR: Well, have you got any big plans for the weekend?
Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, sure does. He's bound again for New Orleans, where he's hoping to give the kids who survived Hurricane Katrina a better shot at physical fitness.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you know, I have been following the rebuilding of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina now for a few years, been down there about a dozen times, mainly to look at the hospital systems, how you rebuild a hospital system after what happened down there.
But something else was sort of nagging at us, this idea that the idea of fitness, and just taking care of your health on your own was becoming less and less of a priority, especially among children. They just had no place where they could actually go and exercise. So, as part of the "Fit Nation" project, we started brainstorming and came up with this idea to actually help build a playground down there in Metairie, one of the areas that was really badly hit by the hurricane and by all the flooding as well afterwards.
In fact, you can still see the water levels on the trees up to five feet high. Well, it is in that exact area that we partnered with KaBOOM! to try and put together this playground.
Now, this is going to be a remarkable thing. Take a look at some of the work that is already being done. They're actually setting all the groundwork. This is a huge space in which we're going to build this playground. It's going to cost about $150,000.
And we're partnering with KaBOOM!, who ultimately wants to put a playground within walking distance for every child in America. That's what they're hoping to do.
We want to build this playground so that kids can get out. They can have a safe place to play. They can get there easily. We also had this idea that we should let the kids themselves come up with the idea of how to design to playground.
So, take a look at some of these drawings. We told the kids, grab plans, grab paper, and actually come up with your dream playground.
We took a look at all those pictures and then with the help of the kids actually created the playground that we're going to build there over the next couple days.
So, this weekend, I will be down in New Orleans actually hammering in nails and putting together that playground, along with about 60 other volunteers. And hopefully, next week, we will have something very important and very neat to show you. We will have that for you when we get it -- back to you for now.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: All right, good going, Sanjay. Thank you very much for that.
Let's talk now about scoring drugs online, so easy, even a child can do it. Who's watching the store? A CNN special investigation coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Hi, there. I'm Brianna Keilar at the CNN world headquarters in Atlanta.
LEMON: And I'm Don Lemon. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
KEILAR: Half past the hour now and here are three of the stories that we're working on in the CNN NEWSROOM. After a long, often bitter fight, a show of unity for two former rivals. Hillary Clinton joins Barack Obama in the appropriately named town of Unity, New Hampshire to show her support for Obama's presidential bid.
North Korea trying to convince the U.S. that it means what it says when it says it's giving up its nuclear program. It blew up the cooling tower at its reactor in Yongbyon.
And it's the end of an era. Bill Gates, whose name is almost synonymous with the computer age, steps away today from day to day oversight of Microsoft, the software giant that he created.
LEMON: Well, a bizarre election is being held today in Zimbabwe. It's a one man runoff -- the sole candidate being a man who's been in power for 28 years. His challenger dropped out a week ago, saying the election is a sham and his supporters are being killed -- killed by the dozens.
CNN's Isha Sesay is watching from the International Desk.
And Isha joins us now -- OK, the question is why even bother voting?
ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, it's quite simple. People are voting essentially simply because armed militias are going door-to-door to force them to go to the polls.
Now, we want to point out to people that CNN isn't actually allowed inside Zimbabwe. So all day on the International Desk, we've been working flat out to try and get every angle of this story covered for you.
The polls have now closed and Mugabe is assured of victory. The man that's supposed to be challenging Robert Mugabe but decided to boycott that vote is Morgan Tsvangirai. He's calling the election an exercise in mass intimidation.
Take a listen to what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MORGAN TSVANGIRAI, ZIMBAWBEAN OPPOSITION LEADER: President Mugabe is intimidating African leaders. He is intimidating the world. It is part of his culture of denying his mistakes. Let me say this. He cannot continue to intimidate the Zimbabwean people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Well, Zimbabwean journalists report people being coerced to vote for Mugabe by those armed militias. The MDC say thousands of his supporters had been displaced prior to today's runoff. And CNN has actually spoke with dozens of opposition supporters who are now living in camps in South Africa because they say they were kicked out of their homes. And, Don, it's just worth emphasizing the tension some people in Zimbabwe are feeling right now if they did not vote. And we want you to look closely at these pictures. You see Zimbabwe's president, Robert Mugabe, voting for himself earlier today. You can see here, he had to dip his finger into red ink. Well, that's how the authorities mark who's voted. Well, residents fear that they don't have that red ink stain, the militias will know they didn't show up to support Mugabe and that could mean violent repercussions -- Don.
LEMON: OK.
Speaking of violence, what, if anything, is being done to stop the violence?
SESAY: Nothing immediate.
LEMON: Nothing.
SESAY: Nothing immediate. But there was more international condemnation. In a meeting of the Group of 8 industrialized countries in Tokyo, the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, joining the chorus of voices that have said they will push for the U.N. Security Council to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe -- Don.
LEMON: All right.
Isha Sesay.
Thank you, Isha.
SESAY: You're very welcome.
KEILAR: A week after a ferry flipped in rough weather, rescue divers in the Philippines are giving up the search for more bodies. The reason here is that officials say a load of highly toxic chemicals is somewhere on the ship. This was just a horrific accident. About 850 people were on board when a typhoon hit. And so far, only 200 are accounted for, most of them dead.
The Philippine vice president says more than 10 tons of pesticide went down with this ferry. So now the search has been called off until the water is safe.
The number of people sickened by salmonella tainted tomatoes has swelled up to 810. That is 250 more than reported last week and it's the largest outbreak connected to tomatoes since the Centers for Disease Control began recordkeeping in the 1960s. This outbreak includes 36 states and the District of Columbia. At least 95 people have been hospitalized. The source of the contamination, though, remains a mystery.
LEMON: We want to get you back to Hyde Park in London. We have been following the celebrations there because of the 90th birthday for Nelson Mandela. And you can see them on stage. And we want to listen in as they sing "Happy Birthday". They just finished the "Happy Birthday" as we were getting in other stories here. They were singing "Happy Birthday". And you can see some of the people on the stage. You can, as are Brianna pointed out earlier, one of the Spice Girls. I'm not sure -- I don't know them all apart.
KEILAR: Gerri Halliwell.
LEMON: Gerri Halliwell.
KEILAR: Ginger Spice.
LEMON: Ginger Spice. OK. On the stage there, as well as there's Will Smith. Other performers earlier, Johnny Clegg was performing when we took a live shot there. Amy Winehouse is supposed to be in the audience, as well; members of Queen, Simple Minds, the Eurythmics. There's Amy Winehouse. As you know, Amy Winehouse has been going through some health problems.
And he is going to speak.
KEILAR: Annie Lenox there of the Eurythmics.
LEMON: Yes, there's Annie Lenox from the Eurythmics. Yes. So, as we put the number, you see the number up top, right, the prison number?
KEILAR: That's right -- 4664. And that is the -- that's his AIDS charity. And that's also representative of the number that he wore when he was in prison in South Africa.
LEMON: Yes.
KEILAR: We're going to continue to monitor this and bring you some more a little later.
LEMON: Yes. We're going to bring it to you a little bit later. And if you're interested in the entire live event, you can go to CNN.com and there's a live component to our Web unit and they'll carry this for you live.
Not to be disrespectful of Nelson Mandela, but we have to move on here and talk about some other news.
We wish him a happy early birthday. His birthday is not until July 18th.
But as our Drew Griffin showed us in his special investigation, addictive, powerful and dangerous drugs are just a mouse click away -- no prescriptions needed, no questions asked.
So why doesn't somebody do something about it?
Well, Drew and our Special Investigations Unit tried to find that out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Dr. Tunis (ph), can I show you this prescription bottle, sir?
(voice-over): We thought after chasing down doctors, confronting a rogue pharmacy and basically exposing just how blatantly easy it is to go online, purchase prescription drugs and get them delivered to our door no questions asked, we might hear a reaction from the government on what's being done to stop it. And we did -- just not the one we thought.
JOE RANNAZZISI, DRUG ENFORCEMENT AGENCY: It's not a loophole -- well, it's not a loophole. There is an agency that conducts those investigations.
GRIFFIN (on camera): There is, in fact, a loophole so big that the bureaucratic agencies in Washington are finger pointing over who should stop it. The White House sent us to the DEA, the DEA to the FDA. All the while, the government seems to be MIA in stopping Internet drug abuse.
JOHN HORTON, PRESIDENT, LEGITSCRIPTS.COM: This is a big problem. We have got a lot of work to do in this area.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): John Horton worked for five years in the White House Office on Drug Policy. And like others, he told us prescription drugs are the new cocaine and heroin of drug abusers and the Internet has changed the game on how it's delivered.
HORTON: There are more prescription drug abusers than there are for methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin combined today in the United States.
GRIFFIN: Full disclosure here -- Horton is trying to start a business that polices Internet pharmacies to make sure they are legal. His potential customers are Google and Yahoo!. Horton says the Internet search engines make an estimated billion dollars a year advertising Internet pharmacies. Both Google and Yahoo! told CNN they do screen their pharmacies to make sure they obey the law. Horton is convinced Google and Yahoo! aren't doing much of anything.
HORTON: By our estimate, we think that only about 1 percent of Internet pharmacies are following those rules and verification processes.
GRIFFIN: Want proof?
We bought Prozac and the anti-depressant Elavil from a site called Linepharmacy.com. We accessed the site through Google. We bought the drugs without prescriptions. Shortly after our report, Linepharmacy.com disappeared from the Internet.
Want another example?
HORTON: Just the other day, we were able to pose as a minor, a 13-year-old, and without a prescription, fill an order for over $500 worth of Soma -- an addictive prescription-only drug, without a prescription, posing as a minor.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: And that is not nearly the end of the story. After the break, policing the Internet -- do online pharmacies need an enforcer?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Before the break, we showed you why nothing much is being done to regulate the free flow of prescription drugs on the Internet.
Here's more from our Special Investigations Unit correspondent Drew Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN (voice-over): There's just too much money in the search engine business, critics say, for Internet providers to cut off the flow of online drug sites. That's why Carmen Catizone, with the National Pharmacy Board, says companies like Google and Yahoo! enable these drug sites to sell hundreds of millions of dollars of prescription drugs a year.
CARMEN CATIZONE, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BOARDS OF PHARMACY: Google and Yahoo!, they're accepting advertisement from these sites. And when those advertisements appear on their Web sites, people think they're legitimate Web sites and therefore they go to them.
GRIFFIN: Google and Yahoo! both told us they rely on a third company to check on and verify that the Internet pharmacy sites are legitimate. But that same company allowed a mystery buyer posing as a 13-year-old boy to buy Soma.
(on camera): After we told them about the purchase, the verification of that drug site was suspended -- meaning only that they can't advertise on the search engines. You can still go to the Web site.
(voice-over): Google and Yahoo! both told us they're willing to do more and Google even told us it "has been heavily engaged on this issue, working with government agencies," though Google didn't say precisely how.
That led us straight back to the government. Actually, the government came to us. The White House Office of Drug Policy, the drug czar, wanted to talk. Then, a day before our interview, we were told the DEA would talk instead.
When we got to the DEA, a deputy director named Joe Rannazzisi told us his agency deals only with controlled substances, like morphine and Oxycodone -- drugs so potentially deadly, Congress banned their sale over the Internet. But most prescription drugs, many of which are just as deadly, are not controlled.
RANNAZZISI: What I can tell you is that the Drug Enforcement Administration has statutory authority to regulate and control the distribution of controlled substances. The two drugs you just mentioned, Prozac and Elavil, are not controlled substances.
GRIFFIN (on camera): And Soma, not controlled?
RANNAZZISI: Soma is not a controlled substance.
GRIFFIN: A highly addictive drug going -- flying over the Internet.
RANNAZZISI: We do some see some abuse of that drug, yes. However, again, since it's not a controlled substance, I don't have the statutory authority to investigate the distribution -- or the illegal distribution of that drug.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Confusing?
That's why critics say it's so easy for the rogue Internet pharmacies to operate.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: And Drew Griffin joining us now.
So what has the reaction been to this?
GRIFFIN: Well, Congress has now stepped in. They've had a hearing and there's been a bill introduced just this week looking at trying to basically put this genie back in a bottle, Brianna, which is going to be very difficult to do. And here's the problem. There are legitimate uses for Internet pharmacies for people who need to buy drugs. The question is, how do you possibly police the Internet and do that effectively, to keep people from actually ordering drugs which they are going to abuse?
And it's going to be a big tangled web to get around that.
KEILAR: And it will take time, of course.
GRIFFIN: Time, money, education -- all the things that have this going against it.
KEILAR: A very interesting report.
Glad to follow up on it, as well, Drew.
Thanks very much.
GRIFFIN: Thanks, Brianna.
KEILAR: Don?
LEMON: All right. Well, a very long dive into a very shallow pool -- we'll show you exactly what happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEMON: About 200,000 farms in the United States go out of business each year. And for family farmers, injury or natural disaster, like the devastating floods along the Mississippi, can put an end to their livelihood. The lucky ones will get to meet this week's CNN Hero, Bill Gross. He comes to their rescue when tragedy strikes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My dad bought this land in 1947. I've been here all my life. It's home. It's where we belong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's our roots.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People don't realize how tough it is until you lose everything.
Anything on the path of the tornado, you name it, it was gone. We didn't have no insurance.
BILL GROSS, COMMUNITY CRUSADER: The family farmer is in danger. And so when a major injury, illness or a natural disaster occurs, it's devastating to them.
I'm Bill Gross and I help family farmers in crisis.
We're ready to go.
Farm Rescue is operated all by volunteers, and we're very proud of that. The volunteers are eager to come in. And by the time we leave, we have their crop planted or harvested.
I was raised on a family farm in North Dakota, and now an airline pilot for UPS. However, my heart never left the farming community.
I firmly believe that if you're going to help people, you should do something that you know how to do. And so I started Farm Rescue to help the farmers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In a situation like we're in, there's no way we'd be able to survive on our own.
STARLA KUJATH, BELLEVUE, WASHINGTON: They seeded 200 acres of wheat and about 530 acres of soybeans.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got a place we can call home again. It's a new beginning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It sure is.
GROSS: If Farm Rescue didn't come in and plant these farms, then they would not be able to maintain their livelihood. And the families are very, very thankful and become lifelong friends.
(END VIDEOTAPE) LEMON: You know that it was a CNN viewer like you who told us about Bill Gross?
In fact, this year, all of our CNN Heroes are extraordinary people you've nominated on our Web site. So go to CNN.com/heroes right now if you know someone who deserves to be a CNN Hero. Tell us about them. You never know, you could see your hero right here on CNN.
KEILAR: Lieutenant Colonel Charles Dryden is being called an icon. He was a Tuskegee airman -- a member of the first African- American combat flying squadron in U.S. history. Dryden died this week at a hospital right here in Atlanta. He was a command pilot with more than 4,000 flying hours that included combat missions in World War II and the Korean War. His nickname was A-Train. In his 1997 autobiography, Dryden told of the pride that he felt as a military pilot and the discrimination that he faced when he came home from World War II.
Dryden was among the Tuskegee airmen awarded the Congressional Gold Medal just last year. Lieutenant Colonel Charles Dryden was 87.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: Wow! It's getting close to "THE SITUATION ROOM."
What do you think we should do?
KEILAR: Yes. Let's check in with Wolf Blitzer.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, guys.
Let's see what's coming up at the top of the hour.
They praised each, other criticized John McCain, even wore some color-coordinated outfits. But Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's show of unity might not necessarily mask some of the still remaining deep divisions in their party. There are real issues unresolved and not everyone is on board this unity journey.
A Democratic Congressman has a nasty exchange with a Bush administration official. Now Republicans claim what the congressman said paints an al Qaeda target on the back of the vice president, Dick Cheney's chief of staff.
All that and a lot more, guys, coming up right here in "THE SITUATION ROOM" -- back to you.
KEILAR: All right. Thanks so much, Wolf.
LEMON: Hey, Wolf, it's the 90th birthday party for Nelson Mandela going on in Hyde Park right now. What major festivities. See them behind us. There's a live shot. Eddie Grant on stage.
You remember Eddie Grant?
KEILAR: "Electric Avenue." LEMON: Rock on to "Electric Avenue." Yes. So they're having a good time there. All the proceeds from this -- it's a charity event. It's going to go to Mandela's AIDS charity.
But, again, all the people performing there at his party -- Queen, Simple Minds, The Eurythmics, Amy Winehouse. Really quite a lineup. And we've seen a star-studded stage there and background. There he is, Nelson Mandela.
Happy Birthday.
It's not until July 18th, but it's an early happy birthday for him.
KEILAR: Wouldn't you like to have your 90th birthday celebrated like that?
LEMON: I would just love to go to his, you know?
KEILAR: Oh, it would be fantastic.
LEMON: Yes. And live to be 90 years old.
KEILAR: Yes.
LEMON: All right. Well, let's talk about another guy. He's a guy who really knows how to make a splash.
Oh! I cringe every time I see that. Stunt diver Darren Taylor broke his own world record with this belly flop in Federal Heights, Colorado. Lucky he just broke a record there. Better known as Professor Splash, Taylor jumped off a 35-foot, 5-inch platform and belly flopped into a kiddie pool filled with one foot of water. Kids, do not try this at home. Everyone told me lighten up last time. So I'm glad he's safe. Ha-ha.
KEILAR: Ouch. Ouch, though.
Well, is this the face of Jesus?
Take a look. That's what folks at a Dallas marble company think. Oh, I see. This granite slab -- it came from a quarry in Brazil. And some say that they see the face of Jesus, along with either a belt, a sword or a glowing book. This company says it plans to sell the slab and then donate the proceeds to a struggling church.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates shutting down his PC for the final time today at the software powerhouse that he started with childhood friend Paul Allen back in 1975. After 33 years, millions of gigabytes and billions of dollars in his portfolio, of course, the 52- year-old computer whiz retires from Microsoft today, though he will still be chairman of Microsoft's board. Gates has been scaling back his duties now for years and doing more charitable work. And he now plans to work full-time with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that he started with his wife for 13 years. Until this year, Gates led the "Forbes" list as the world's richest man. He's now third, with an estimated fortune of $50 billion. Just third.
LEMON: Well...
KEILAR: Just third.
LEMON: That's it, third. Oh. Fifty billion.
KEILAR: Oh, too bad. Too bad for him.
LEMON: Yes.
KEILAR: I really feel bad.
LEMON: Yes, too bad.
KEILAR: Well, you know, oil prices -- they are in record territory again. The Dow is at nearly two year lows.
So how are the markets responding to one of the worst sell-offs of the year?
LEMON: Oh, yes. The worst sell-off -- what was it yesterday, 364 points or something like that?
KEILAR: Three hundred and sixty.
LEMON: Ridiculous.
Alison Kosik has been watching the numbers all day at the New York Stock Exchange and she joins us now for a final look at the trading day -- hey, Alison, how are things going?
(STOCK MARKET REPORT)
KEILAR: Let's look at the silver lining, Alison. Thanks so much.
LEMON: Alison, have a great weekend -- Brianna, as well.
Now it's time to turn it over to "THE SITUATION ROOM" and Wolf Blitzer -- Wolf.
