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Obama's Wailing Wall Note to God Published; Man Forgives Drunken Driver Who Killed His Daughter; China Works Hard to Clean the Air Prior to Olympic Games; Tornado Sightings in Iowa; African- American Community Sees a Dramatic Climb in HIV-AIDS Cases; Playing Air Guitar on Stage; Tennessee Church Shootings

Aired July 27, 2008 - 17:00   ET

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

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, and you are in the NEWSROOM.
The shooting happened at a Unitarian church in Knoxville. Parishioners reportedly tackled the man and then held him down until police were able to arrive.

Our Rusty Dornin is at the scene with the very latest. And Rusty, last we checked we heard that one person had actually died from this, the others are still in critical condition.

RUSTY DORNIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not all in critical condition. Some are stable, but Fred, investigators are still here reportedly, there are still some interviews going on inside the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, trying to piece together those last minutes, when the firing and when the shooting occurred.

From what we understand, there was a performance play going on at the time, with young children. They were performing "Annie" when a blonde, tall man, reportedly about in his 40s, walked into the doorway, with a 12-gauge shotgun and began firing.

Now, police say that he did hit one man immediately, and then hit several others. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE WILSON, CHURCH MEMBER: (INAUDIBLE) shot, they were extremely upset. There were some of them that were probably confused about it but weren't sure. Those with little kids, they're just kind of (INAUDIBLE) -- and then there were some who were crying, kind of going back and forth, not sure, because they're getting back (ph) to their families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Now, reportedly, he did not fire at the children, but, of course, they were very upset about what had happened. Two men did tackle the suspect and what is amazing is that, within three minutes of that 911 call, police had arrived, and taken the suspect into custody. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHIEF STERLING OWEN, KNOXVILLE POLICE: I'm sorry to report that at least nine people were injured during the course of this incident. One has passed away. His name is Greg McKendry, he's aged 60. His family has been notified. We have eight others, therefore. Two have been treated, and I'm told, have been released. But the others remain in varying stages of serious to critical condition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DORNIN: Now, there were some witnesses that were saying that the suspect was shouting things, but police say they are not aware of anything the suspect did say. There is no motive at this point, and they are not releasing the identity of the suspect as of yet. But what's interesting, of course, Fred, is this is a children's play. So of course, parents and the church were recording the play as it was going on.

So, reportedly there are several tapes that the police are also going to be looking at but the police chief did say don't count too much on that...

WHITFIELD: Really?

DORNIN: ... you might think much more would be on the tape than actually is -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: But, at the very least perhaps, of all that videotape, they might know whether indeed they have the right person in custody.

DORNIN: That's correct, but it sounds like the two parishioners tackled the man apparently as, the suspect, as he was reloading his shotgun. Remember, it was not an automatic. So he had to keep pausing to reload and it was during one of those times when he had to stop that the two parishioners were able to tackle him.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh, what a terrible set of events.

All right. Thanks so much, Rusty, appreciate the update.

Meantime, dangerous ocean currents have been making for very deadly weekend off Long Island, New York. Several swimmers have drowned and several others are still missing, one of them is a 10- year-old girl.

CNN's Jim Acosta joins us now from New York with the very latest.

Any progress in the search for this little girl?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not yet, Fredricka. And this is something we see on local beaches every summer here in the New York area -- inexperienced swimmers who are caught by strong rip currents and then swept out to sea. The coast guard is still everyone searching for a 10-year-old girl who apparently drowned at the beach at Coney Island yesterday. So far, four people have died and four people have gone missing, including that little girl, over the last 10 days. A few beachgoers at Coney Island say they tried to alert life guards after seeing the girl go under.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They got one child out but there were three lifeguards. And my sister yelled at them like seven times before they even like reacted, first of all, and then when they did react, they just took out the little boy and then the little girl was just like, her hand, and she was gone. She was gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, we should note that life guard reports from that incident state that attempts to save the life of that girl were made and unfortunately they were not able to save her. Anybody who goes to the beach knows or should know about the dangers of rip currents. They are strong currents of water flowing away from the beach and out to sea.

Every year, life guards warn swimmers if they are caught in a rip current, don't fight it, swim with it until you can break free and start making your way back to the beach way by swimming diagonally to the shore. Rip currents kill roughly 100 people every year on the nation's beaches. And authorities say these drownings while they're not unusual, they are of note this time of year because they just haven't seen this many clustered together in some time, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: You know, and sadly, Jim, even if you're a strong swimmer, a lot of times the reaction is you panic, you know...

ACOSTA: Exactly.

WHITFIELD: ... because there's this force, this pull. You know, I've been caught in a rip current before, to know what that feels like and for a moment you can kind of panic, but really, the key is just what you underscore, you got to remain calm and try to swim diagonally, don't try to fight it because you're not likely to win that battle.

ACOSTA: Yes, even the strongest swimmers can get into trouble.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right. Jim Acosta, thanks so much, from New York.

Well, authorities now tell us that eight homes have burned. Now, we're talking out west and that wildfire in central California. Hundreds more are threatened in the heavily-wooded hills near Yosemite National Park. Well, the fire is zero percent contained. You're looking at live pictures right now of the area where the firefighters are trying to assemble and trying to protect what they can.

So far, it has burned 18,000 acres and authorities say it was started by a shooter who was taking target practice. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, KFSN)

SARAH GIBSON, CALIFORNIA DEPT. OF FORESTRY: The heat, the low humidity, I can understand how that would happen, but it is not common.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well, at last report, the south side of the fire was just two miles from Mariposa, a town of 1,800 people. And they're trying really hard to make sure it doesn't encroach on that area.

Jacqui Jeras is in the weather center.

And, you know, oftentimes, we talk about these fires and we talk about how the weather is so critical.

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Generally, it is so hot and so windy and that's what makes it so particularly hard for the firefighters. Are those the conditions right now?

JERAS: Yes, the winds are brisk but they're not really strong. You know, we're not talking about gusts to 40 miles an hour. We've got westerly winds about 10 to 15 miles per hour. So, you know, any kind of wind you don't really want it out there but it's not terrible.

The heat probably even more of a factor, as temperatures are up there in the mid-90s today, and the relative humidity is very low, down to about 26 percent, and we think, these type of weather conditions are going to last really throughout much of the week and by late week, hopefully, we'll have more of a handle on it, because, I think, we'll see more changes in the winds, and then also we'll probably see these temperatures move out.

Go ahead and look at some of these pictures, look at, these are live pictures that are just coming in to us of that fire, from the Yosemite area. It's just off to the west of there. In fact the heat signatures are so hot from these fires that we're able to detect them on satellite as well. And when we were talking about these winds here, Fredricka, notice the smoke, that's one of the indications how you can tell just how strong those winds are, you can see it is fanning a little bit but we're also seeing some of that vertical development as well which means the winds are light enough that some of this is carrying, you know, further up into the atmosphere.

Now, we also have another breaking story, this taking place here in New Mexico. We've been talking about Dolly and the remnants of that over the last couple of days. New flooding problems from overnight and this morning in Ruidoso, more than six inches of rain has fallen and the flooding is just very widespread and very severe here. Thanks to our i-Reporter John Harrell from Ruidoso, from sending these incredible pictures. Too far away that none of our crews have been able to get out there just yet, so we're very thankful for these photos, and being able to bring them to you today. Many creeks are out of their banks. The Rio Ruidoso is flooded right now and water is just pouring down the mountain according to John. "AP" is reporting 300 people have been evacuated from their homes and from campgrounds in this area, and more rain -- look at that -- is in the forecast here throughout the afternoon.

One other big issue that we're dealing with here, this evening, Fredricka, is the severe weather across the northeastern corridor. We've had several people killed today because of lightning strikes on the beaches, and you can see those severe thunderstorms now moving into the Boston area. Travel is a nightmare from Boston all the way down towards Atlanta. It's going to be a rough night and early tomorrow morning.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Any relation to, you know, between the thunderstorms and those rip currents that we've been talking about off the New York coast?

JERAS: Well, partially, yes, because, you know, the wind direction, the strong winds that move toward the coast, that can help drive some of these rip currents. So, once we get these storms move on through and high pressure builds back in, that will calm things down and we'll see less of a threat as we head into next week.

WHITFIELD: OK, that would be nice. All right, thanks so much, Jacqui, appreciate it.

And in overseas, breaking news that's unfolding in Turkey right now, we want to update you on that. Two explosions in Istanbul neighborhood have left more than a dozen people dead. We get the latest from journalist Andrew Finkel in Istanbul joining us again.

Andrew, last we spoke, we didn't know exactly how many people had been injured. Now, with this number, pretty high of those dead. Explain to me what you're learning.

ANDREW FINKEL, JOURNALIST (through phone): Well, what seems to have been the case is that earlier this evening, a balmy pleasant summer evening, people were walking down the pedestrian street, in the middle of a working class suburb of Istanbul.

There was a small explosion that appears to have attracted a crowd and then there was a much larger explosion about 10 or 15 minutes later. And then that explosion we now know that 13 people lost their lives, and there are many others injured, some figures are putting it as high as 100, they've been taken to local hospitals, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And I know it's very early in the investigation but are investigators saying anything about that second explosion, since that was the deadly one, that that was exactly the plan of whoever may be carrying this out -- the first explosion to attract people what's going on, and the second explosion, which a lot of times will offer more harm to those who are responding to the injured?

FINKEL: Well, it seems to have been a sort of classically malicious (ph) strategy to cause this much death and maiming as possible, as you say, Fredricka. The real question is who was responsible for this incident. The governor of Istanbul who made the declaration said that they were determined to catch these people, but they weren't quite sure who they were trying to catch, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Has it been fairly quiet in Istanbul? I mean, for a period of time, there were a number of explosions that were taking place, terror groups were being blamed. How long has it been since there has been this kind of peace?

FINKEL: Well, we had a strange incident the other day. Not more than two weeks ago, there was an attack on the policemen who were guarding the American consulate here, that's also in apparently (ph) remote part of the city. This seemed to be a fairly brainless attack; there were three men who got out of a car, opened fire. And the police said a gun battle ensued and three policemen and the three attackers were killed.

That seems to be an uncoordinated attack, and then no one is really quite sure why that attack happened. This incident is, seems to have been much better orchestrated. What the motives were, we don't know yet.

WHITFIELD: Sadly. All right. Andrew Finkel, thanks so much, a journalist there working in Istanbul, we appreciate the update.

Meantime here on U.S. soil, Election Day just 100 days away, and the campaign rhetoric is of course heating up.

Well, today, Barack Obama spoke at the Unity conference in Chicago, which is a collaboration of multicultural journalists associations. It was the first speech since he got back from his week-long trip overseas.

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux asked Senator Obama to respond to critics who felt his trip was more appropriate for a president and not a candidate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D-IL) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I basically met with the same folks that John McCain met with after he won the nomination. He met with all these leaders. He also added a trip to Mexico, a trip to Canada, a trip to Colombia, and nobody suggested that that was audacious. I think people assumed that what he was doing was talked to world leaders whom we may have to deal with, should we become president. That's part of the job that I'm applying for.

And so I was puzzled by this notion that somehow what we were doing was in any way different from what Senator McCain or a lot of presidential candidates have done in the past. Now I admit we did it really well.

(APPLAUSE) OBAMA: And that's, but that shouldn't be a strike against me. You know, if I was bumbling and fumbling through this thing, I would have been criticized for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Well, tomorrow, Republican presidential candidate John McCain heads to California, the state with the most electoral votes. And this weekend, he took to the air waves, blasting his Democratic rival in both paid ads and in television interviews. He accused Senator Obama of being wrong on Iraq.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, CNN'S LATE EDITION)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R-AZ) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I question his judgment, because he lacks experience and knowledge. And I question his judgment.

I'm not prepared to see the sacrifice of so many brave young Americans lost because Senator Obama just views this war as another political issue, which he can change positions.

And everybody knows that he was able to obtain the nomination of his party by appealing to the far left, and committing to a course of action that I believe was -- I know was wrong, because he said the surge would not work, he said it wouldn't succeed.

No rational observer in Iraq today believes that the surge did not succeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And some are calling it bank terrorism.

From protests to storming bankers' homes. One group is going to extreme measures to save homes from foreclosure.

Plus: Alarming numbers, a growing challenge. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in the African-American community.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Perhaps a big sigh of relief, mortgage relief on the way? Well, President Bush is promising to sign a bill to help struggling homeowners. The Senate passed a $300 billion package yesterday. The president could put his pen to it as early as tomorrow.

The legislation throws a lifeline to some 400,000 homeowners who are flirting with foreclosure. It also establishes a government rescue plan for mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Many homeowners struggling with bad loans are turning to a nonprofit group. It's aggressive and sometimes confrontational. And the tactics that are being described as such but they often get results. CNN's Kate Bolduan follows one woman's quest to save her home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Patricia Ephraim (ph) was desperate.

PATRICIA EPHRAIM, HOMEOWNER: I had to start working two jobs to keep the place afloat.

BOLDUAN: She says she could only manage her mortgage payment while all the other bills piled up.

BRUCE MARKS, NACA CEO: It's what you can afford.

BOLDUAN: So, she, like thousands of other struggling homeowners, seeking rescue says she found it with the Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America, known as NACA.

MARKS: I want an answer (ph) to all this people now.

BOLDUAN: The group's leaders say 20,000 people showed up over five days at this event in D.C., many facing foreclosure. NACA negotiates for homeowners directly with their lenders. They say the key is, keeping people in their homes, restructuring expensive adjustable loans into fixed rates, and keeping the mortgage with the same bank.

NACA's CEO Bruce Marks say they do all of the hard work for the servicers.

MARKS: We determine a budget and we submit that solution to the servicer. They only have to do one thing, approve it.

BOLDUAN: Marks calls himself a bank terrorist and is known for his radical tactics like swamping financial firms with protesters and personal attacks on big bank CEOs.

MARKS: We go to where they live, and we've always want them to have in the back of their mind, is that NACA homeowner, is "NACA going to be there disrupting my country club, my social event, going to my kid's school," because it's personal.

BOLDUAN: It may be working.

Following the D.C. event, Marks says they sent 10,000 restructures loan requests out; 1,000 requests have already been approved. And experts say any help is good for the housing market.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to see this foreclosure problem continue. We're not at the -- we may be at the peak but the peak's probably going to last through the end of 2008.

BOLDUAN: Patricia Ephraim was one of the lucky ones. She anticipates her monthly mortgage payment will drop by $600.

EPHRAIM: Just knowing that I have, you know that, kind of savings coming in is just a stress relief.

BOLDUAN (on camera): NACA says because of the success of the D.C. event and the fact that there are so many more homeowners in need; the nonprofit is taking its program on the road, with an eight- city tour this fall.

Kate Bolduan, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Your money and your concerns. Be sure to check out CNNMoney.com for in-depth coverage and analysis. And every day at noon Eastern, it's ISSUE #1 with Ali Velshi and Gerri Willis right here on CNN. You don't want to miss that.

More police are on the streets in a western city in India. It's a show of security after waves of coordinated and deadly bombings.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Security is getting even tighter across India, one day after a second round of coordinated bomb attacks. At least 49 people were killed just yesterday and more than 100 others were hurt.

More now from CNN's Sara Sidner in New Delhi.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The number of dead has risen sharply after 17 bomb blasts went off in Ahmedabad which is the state capital of Gujarat. Investigators have been on the scene throughout the day looking for more explosives that possibly did not detonate. There have been many, many people killed and many more injured. Here in New Delhi, the prime minister and the home minister met today, trying to figure out how to secure the nation.

Yesterday marked the second day of deadly bombings in India. Now, these bombings in Ahmedabad came five minutes offer after an e- mail was sent out to some media organizations with a message, a warning trying that said they were trying to get the "Revenge of Gujarat." The group calls itself the Indian Mujahedeen. They are known to be an Islamic militant group. No one knows exactly where they came from or where they are based but they are in essence claiming responsibility for the attacks.

Police may now have a lead as to exactly where that e-mail originated from. They're looking at an I.P. address they found in Mumbai. At this hour, police and the nation's officials are putting the country on high alert due to these bombings.

Sara Sidner, CNN, New Delhi.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: A father comes face to face with his daughter's killer, and feels his rage give way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I saw you're a normal everyday boy, kid, family, such as mine, and I saw that they were going through, you know, the things that I was going through, total hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Even he was surprised that he was able to forgive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA LONG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Airlines are finding it difficult to keep their planes flying and some passengers are bidding bon voyage to service to their cities.

BEN MUTZABAUGH, USATODAY.COM: In the U.S., we are starting to see flights drop on certain -- or especially hard-hit for small cities. At least 50-seat regional jets are particularly notorious for being hard to make money with, right now. So if your city has served only 50-seat regional jets, those are the type of cities that could really see some flight cutbacks.

LONG: With the cutbacks, higher ticket prices and other fees -- some travelers are crying foul.

MUTZABAUGH: Customers have a lot of sentiment that all of the fees are nickel and diming, but I think it could get really ugly for the airlines if oil doesn't retreat to a lower number and that might possibly change some of the sentiment for the traveling public who are also having to deal with these issues at the pump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Here's what's happening right now.

Horror this morning at a church in Knoxville, Tennessee. A man with a shotgun killed one person and wounded several others. Other people in the church overpowered him until police came. The suspect reportedly was not a member of the church.

A fast-moving wildfire threatens hundreds of homes near Yosemite National Park in California. Eight houses have already been destroyed, and crews say they have seen flames up to 100 feet high.

John McCain has released another ad, tweaking Barack Obama over his road abroad, or his road trip that is. The spot is running in two states and in the District of Columbia.

Every year thousands of people leave private prayer notes at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. But last week, one, one of the notes, was removed and then actually published. Why? Because the person who left the note was reportedly Barack Obama.

Reporting from Jerusalem, CNN's Paula Hancocks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A pre-dawn visit by Barack Obama to Jerusalem's Western Wall, Judaism's holiest sight. A public event, with media in tow, but the prayer he wrote and placed in cracks at the wall was meant to be private.

An Israeli newspaper published what it claims is Obama's prayer saying a Jewish seminary student took it from the wall after the U.S. presidential candidate left.

JONATHAN ROSENBLUM, ORTHODOX AM EHAD THINK TANK: Anybody who goes to the Western Wall and places a note there does so under the assumption that that's a private communication between him and God, and therefore, once he has that presumption of confidentiality, there are rabbinic decrees against reading anybody else's private communications.

HANCOCKS: CNN is not reporting the contexts of the private note. The Obama camp says, "We haven't confirmed or denied that it's his." An aide adding that when Obama was told of it, he, quote, "wasn't angry so much as bewildered, kind of shrugged and shook his head."

The senior rabbi at the Western Wall, Shmuel Rabinowitz, says the incident is sack religious. He says, "Notes, which are placed in the Western Wall, are between the person and his maker. Heaven forbid that one should read them or use them in any way."

(on camera): Up to seven million people visited the Western Wall last year, both tourists and locals who pray here regularly. That translates into millions of prayers placed in between the stones of this wall. Tradition has it that any request placed between these holy stones will be granted.

(voice-over): The late Pope John Paul II placed a prayer at the Western Wall while visiting Jerusalem in 2000. But he requested his words be made public.

The Western, or Wailing Wall, is a relic of the second temple destroyed by the Romans 2,000 years ago. Prayers left here are considered sacred, and are cleared away twice a year to be buried in a cemetery, none of them meant to be read, or published.

Paula Hancocks, CNN, Jerusalem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: The publication of that prayer note is generating a lot of viewer e-mail. We brought in Josh Levs because he's been fielding through all of it. And apparently everyone kind of shares the same view, everyone, meaning those who have given the e-mail.

JOSH LEVS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Sure, who is going to come along and say it's OK to steal someone's prayer. Obviously, it's horrifying that happened in that.

WHITFIELD: It's sacred. LEVS: Yes, it's sacred. We also asked if it was right to publish it, that was the right call for the Israeli newspaper to publish it. We haven't heard anyone say it's the right call to publish it either.

We'll share some different views. They are striking.

Let's go to this first one. This one is from Doris, who tells us, "I don't feel what he placed in the Wailing Wall to be public information. It was wrong for anyone to intentionally remove it and have it published for whatever reason."

Next, Andrea Stephenson, "The newspaper should not have published it. Even a public figure deserves a private moment at the Wailing Wall."

That's what a lot of people are saying here.

Lew Berry now, "The young man who retrieved the note is so typical of so many people today -- willing to violate certain sanctities in order to get a quick buck or make a name for themselves."

A couple more here.

This one is from Susan. "I'm outraged by the sinful actions of the individual who stole Obama's note. I visited the Wailing Wall and felt that my note was between God and myself."

We'll end on this one here.

"The individuals who did it should ask for forgiveness from God and from Senator Obama.

Now, Fred, I will tell you, we did get one note -- we don't have to look at it here -- but we did get one note from someone named Chris, who says, "This matters, but the media needs to stop fixating on minutia like this. This event doesn't have anything to do with what kind of president he could be." Which is also a legitimate point.

WHITFIELD: OK, well, that's interesting too because I'm dying to know then -- you heard the words like stole the note, the person who took it, but is it proven how that note actually found its way to the newspaper? Was it the reporter who actually retrieved it or was it someone working the wall, policing the wall who actually took the note?

LES: The newspaper says it was a student who went up to the wall after Obama left and took it and somehow then offered it to different papers. That's what the story is. But we don't officially know that. That's just what they're saying.

WHITFIELD: Josh, thanks so much. Very intriguing conversation.

LEVS: Yes. WHITFIELD: Appreciate it.

His daughter was taken from him needlessly. His grief and rage pretty overwhelming. and then this big tough guy was hit by something unexpected.

Carol Costello has a father's story of forgiveness.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Snapshots of daddy's little girl. Jessica Vetter grew up a tomboy. So much like her father, they dreamed of racing cars and opening up a body shop. But last year, on this Maryland roadway, their dreams died with Jessica. Just 20 years old, she was killed by a drunk driver.

JEFF VETTER, FATHER OF JESSICA VETTER: It was the phone call you never want to get. That was the worst thing I ever had to deal with in my life.

COSTELLO: Every year, more than 17,000 people are killed by drunk drivers. More than 17,000 stories where sorrow turns to rage, as it did for Jeff Vetter.

VETTER: I was full of anger, hate, revenge. I was full of venom, ready to strike at any time. I was so tied down into that world of mad and anger, that I had to try to do something to get out of it, because if I didn't, I wasn't going to survive.

COSTELLO: But that changed when he decided to do what few can imagine -- forgive. He reached out to the Jacoby family and to their son, Michael, the man who had killed his daughter.

The power to do that came to him in court, when he saw not a monster, but a fragile, almost 24-year-old man, pleading guilty to manslaughter, ready to be punished and filled with remorse.

VETTER: I saw your normal, everyday boy, kid, family, such as mine. And I saw that they were going through, you know, the things that I was going through, total hell.

COSTELLO: And the Jacobys were going through hell, placing flowers at the accident site, praying not for their son, but only for forgiveness.

TINA JACOBY, MOTHER OF DRUNKEN DRIVER: We wanted to reach out to them, but we didn't know how, other than to go to the site and to pray for Jessie.

COSTELLO: When forgiveness came, they fully expected Michael to remain in jail for the 18-month sentence, but Vetter convinced a judge to release Michael from jail, so both could educate young people about the dangers of drunk driving.

Michael is willing, but still too emotionally fragile to appear on camera. (on camera): Do you think you'll ever heal?

JACOBY: I don't know. I don't know. He's very remorseful for what happened.

COSTELLO (voice-over): As for what daddy's little girl would think of her father's astonishing gift of forgiveness?

VETTER: I was hoping you wouldn't ask that. She was a very forgiving person. I can feel her kicking me in the back right now. She would say, "Go on, Dad, give it to him."

COSTELLO (on camera): She would probably be proud.

VETTER: Very.

COSTELLO: In case you're wondering, before this accident, Michael Jacoby had a clean driving record. This was his first accident. And he's not completely free. He's been sentenced to serve hundreds of hours of community service and he is on home detention.

Carol Costello, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: In the countdown to the Beijing Olympics, well, it's on. The big question, will China be able to clear the air of all that heavy pollution?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We want to tell you about efforts taking place there in Los Angeles. We're looking at images that are just now coming in. And presumably those just might be workers near the Los Angeles Zoo, who are trying to evacuate a number of endangered species, including the California condors, because this fire is getting, oh, so close, about 1,000 feet away from the breeding facility of the endangered California condors. And apparently there is a pretty large family of chicks, of condor chicks, that they want to make sure they're rescued and certainly taken out of any harm's way. This fire raging out of control there, encroaching upon the property there at Griffith Park, that is right near the zoo, and near this breeding facility, for the California condors, trying to save the animals from any further danger.

Getting the skies over Beijing cleaned up just in time for the summer games, well, that could take an Olympic effort. John Vause shows us the drastic measures that are already being taken to clear the air as the clock ticks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A thick, heavy grayish haze hung over Beijing's gleaming new airport Friday morning. Visibility down to a mile and a half. And with the opening ceremony two weeks away, some arriving passengers were asking if maybe officials had done too little too late to improve the city's air.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It looks pretty, pretty grim.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In Europe, we took 2030, years to improve the situation. They can't do it in one year.

VAUSE: Almost a week ago an emergency pollution plan took effect. Half of Beijing's cars off the road, many factories closed and all construction sites shut down.

Beijing's environment protection agency is yet to respond to our request for comment, but official figures show there's been little improvement in air quality this week. A strong wind on Tuesday blew industrial pollution in from the south, and with dead calm conditions since, has now settled in.

(on camera): Never before has a city this big with this much pollution taken such drastic action to try and clear the air so quickly. And right now, apart from hoping for good wind and rain, it seems there's no plan B.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking in a foreign language.)

VAUSE: But amid a festive atmosphere outside the bird's nest stadium where the twisted gray beams match the sky, the advice from locals, relax.

"It's called haze weather" she says, "It's a weather thing. It's not from car exhaust or air pollution. Look, it's about to rain and then it will be clear."

In two weeks, we'll know if she's right.

John Vause, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Here at home, HIV-AIDS disproportionately affecting the African-American community. What's behind the numbers and what can be done about this health crisis?

And love it or hate it, they're not holding back. Folks have a lot of opinions about our "Black in America" documentary.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, there's some potential tornadic activity. We want to check in with Jacqui Jeras in the Severe Weather Center.

Jacque, where?

JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, Fredricka. This is in Iowa, and this is just outside of the Des Moines metro area. Trained spotters have actually sited a tornado on the ground near the town of Elkhart. We'll zoom in here. There you can see the town of Des Moines. There's Ankeny. And the rotation is outside of Ankeny, east of I-35 there. It's moving to the east-southeast, 43 miles per hour, so it's a fast-moving tornado. Seek shelter immediately. Again, trained spotters reporting a tornado near Elkhart for Polk and Jasper counties in central Iowa --Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Jacqui, for the update. We'll keep checking with you on that.

Meantime, the number of new HIV-AIDS cases is climbing dramatically in the African-American community specifically. CNN's Ted Rowlands looks at some possible reasons for this stunning increase.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PHIL WILSON, FOUNDER, BLACK AIDS INSTITUTE: The truth of the matter is, no matter where you look relative to the black epidemic, it's bad news.

TED ROWLANDS, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Phil Wilson is the founder of the Black AIDS Institute. He's talking about the incredibly disproportionate number of African-American men and women with HIV and AIDS. Blacks represent about 13 percent of the U.S. population, but about 50 percent of new HIV-AIDS cases.

WILSON: Quite frankly, today, AIDS in America is a black disease. Nobody wants to talk about it. Nobody wants to acknowledge it. Nobody wants to own it.

ROWLANDS: Darryl Hendricks didn't own up to being gay for years. He was married with kids but secretly having sex with men, a lifestyle that eventually led to contracting HIV in 1989.

Darryl says now he's honest with people about who he is, but believes, because of the African-American community's stigma, many black men are not honest. In fact, he says some gay black men have sex with women so they won't be considered gay.

DARRYL HENDRICKS, HIV POSITIVE: African's don't want to be gay. They want to be sexually active and do whatever they want with whatever, men, women, whatever.

ROWLANDS: According to the latest numbers from the CDC, black women represent 67 percent of new HIV-AIDS cases, primarily from men with the virus. The percentage of black teens is higher, accounting for 70 percent of new cases.

Why are the numbers so high? Experts say it's a problem everyone knows about, but because of the stigma, few have done anything about it.

African-American churches have been criticized for not getting involved.

MAMIE HARRIS, CO-FOUNDER, IV CHARIS: How are we going to deal with the condom issue? How would we deal with homosexuality? How are we going to deal with people who had out of wedlock marriage? So I think it was a safe ground to just not be involved.

ROWLANDS: Five years ago, Mamie Harris and her late husband started a program at their Cincinnati, Ohio, church. They tested more than 11,000 people for HIV. She's urging other black Christians to get involved.

HARRIS: Not being involved can give the impression, as a church, that we don't care about the affairs of the people that we serve.

WILSON: It is more important that we change the cultural norms in our communities.

ROWLANDS: Phil Wilson says things are getting better. The Black AIDS Institute is working with a number of African-American organizations with educational outreach programs. The hope is to change habits and stigma about HIV and AIDS.

Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Mean time, I-reporters are sharing their reactions to CNN's documentary, "Black in America." Here now is one from Memphis, Tennessee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CORHONDA BOLTON, MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE I-REPORTER: I'd like to thank CNN for being a vehicle that has spurred long-overdue dialogue that is occurring in beauty shop, barber shop, corporate offices and classrooms. I pray that it brings about a collective movement to address so many of our conditions. Many of the stories that were told, I could relate to. Some, I could not. However, disenfranchisement has always been a part of the black experience in America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And I-reporter Traveda Jordan of Atlanta wanted to see more positive images of African-Americans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRAVEDA JORDAN, ATLANTA, GEORGIA I-REPORTER: Don't just show white America the struggles of black people because they already see black people as negative. Show them how we're impacting America, just like their kids are impacting America. Show them how single mothers are sending kids to school, just like their single mothers are sending kids to school.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And Derrick McCullough of Kentucky said a lot of the African-American culture was exposed in the series, but he wishes it is could have offered more solutions to the issues facing black families. Well, if you haven't checked out the documentary, you have another opportunity to do so. "Black in America" airs again tonight at 8:00 eastern and 11:00 p.m. eastern, as well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Some new information we're just getting in. Remnants of Hurricane Dolly dumping a whole lot of rain on Ruidoso in New Mexico. You heard Jacqui talking about it earlier. But now you're seeing some new pictures of it coming in. And they sent in helicopters to try and pluck people from rooftops because there were reports that there were many people who needed to be rescued. But apparently, the helicopters have not located any people yet. But about 300 folks have evacuated from this resort town, some campgrounds and even some residences. We'll keep a close watch on what's taking place there in Ruidoso, New Mexico. All that as a result of a whole lot of rain from that hurricane.

All right, meantime, it's a lot like sinking in the shower. Most people do it in private. And for good reason. As our Jim Acosta shows us, it takes as special breed, however, to play your air guitar on stage.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Take these four New Yorkers off the street, put them on a stage, and they will melt your face with their air guitars.

That's Taran Kapronica (ph), aka Betty be Good, in the striped pants. At rehearsal, she showed us some of the moves that have made her one of the top performers in the world of air guitar.

(on camera): you have to be a little nuts to do this, right? You have to be a little nuts.

TARAN KAPRONICA (ph), AIR GUITARIST: Everybody's a little nuts inside. We just have fun with it.

ACOSTA (voice-over): How is this for nuts? On the night Taran won the latest regional competition in New York, she didn't just break a leg. She lost a toe, tripping over a chair. It was a stage dive that landed her in the hospital. The X-rays now the stuff of air guitar legend.

(on camera): You don't miss the toe?

KAPRONICA (ph): I have nine more. I really do.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Think you can play at Taran's level?

(on camera): As can you tell, I'm not really that cool. So this is going to be a stretch for me.

KAPRONICA (ph): I can't tell at all.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Think again.

KAPRONICA (ph): Another one that a lot of people like to do is they like to play with their teeth.

ACOSTA (on camera): OK, like that?

KAPRONICA (ph): OK, I don't know what this is. And really kind of throw your head into it.

ACOSTA: Wow.

KAPRONICA (ph): So it can kind of look like your hair.

It'll happen. It'll work.

ACOSTA: Like that kind of thing?

KAPRONICA (ph): Wow. Nice.

ACOSTA: I'll just let her do it now.

(voice-over): Their inspiration? The rock gods of yesteryear, which may explain their stage names like Shreddy Mercury and William Ocean.

ACOSTA (on camera): OK, where do you get the clothes?

WILLIAM OCEAN, 2007 U.S. AIR GUITAR CHAMPION: OK, mostly, I think 90 percent from my mom's closet. I leave the shoulder pads in because my shoulders aren't that big.

ACOSTA (voice-over): Shoulder pads as big as the sport itself.

CEDRIC DEVITT, U.S. AIR GUITAR ORGANIZER: In 2003, we started with two cities. With did a New York and L.A. competition. We're now to the five years later and we're doing 24 cities this is year. It's right across America.

ACOSTA: Next month, Taran will lay for the national crown in San Francisco and the chance to compete for the world title in Finland. Despite her injury, she hasn't lost a step.

KAPRONICA (ph): I plan to lose this one and then lose this one. This way my toes can do this, which is a big metal sign.

ACOSTA: As Taran's friends like to tell her, the toe must go on.

Jim Acosta, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: OK, girlfriend is hardcore.

Now we're in the "Chat Room" here with Jacqui Jeras.

I've got a nickname for her, since all the other musicians have a rock band kind of. let's call her toe jam. Get it?

JERAS: Yeah, I got that the one. But who hasn't. Come on, who hasn't?

WHITFIELD: Since she lost a toe and all. And jamming it, all right, toe jam.

All right, we've got a lot of other things we want to talk about, right?

JERAS: Yes.

WHITFIELD: So on a musical note...

JERAS: Absolutely. This is kind of interesting. A lot of people are talking about this today. Frederick Chopin -- you probably would recognize the music. Hear a little bit of background. But anyway, scientists believe that Chopin didn't die of tuberculosis. So his heart has been pickled in a jar since his death and scientists want to take some DNA samples and see if he has cystic fibrosis. But officials in Poland say no, no, no.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it sounds kind of gross, but actually they believe that, I guess, scientifically, this really could advance in the research of cystic fibrosis. That is the argument at least.

JERAS: They think they can encourage people with that disease.

WHITFIELD: OK. And talk about a name.

JERAS: It's all about a name. And apparently a judge, at least in New Zealand, gets involved and says you parents are doing your child a huge disservice by naming the child Talula Does the Hula from Hawaii.

(CROSSTALK)

JERAS: This 9-year-old girl -- Yes. And apparently, she's so embarrassed that she goes by the name of Kay. The judge says see what you've done?

(CROSSTALK)

JERAS: ... disability.

WHITFIELD: I know. Wow. That was pretty harsh though. I don't know, to separate them? No?