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Veepstakes Near Finish Line; Tropical Storm Fay Pounds Florida

Aired August 19, 2008 - 15:00   ET

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

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, you want to be a veep? If you're not on a short list yet, it's probably too late. We're counting down to running mate announcements from the two main candidates for president, first up, we think, Barack Obama.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Want to stop violence in schools? Arm the teachers. That's the plan in a North Texas district. And some experts, some of them, can't believe their ears. We will have a debate and read your e-mails as well.

PHILLIPS: The troops with the guns are Russian, the guys in the blindfolds Georgian. The fighting may have ended, but the conflict in the area is a long way from over.

Hello, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips at the CNN Center in Atlanta.

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

And right off the top here, the suspense builds. We have learned Barack Obama may, may reveal his choice of running mate as early as tomorrow morning. Just six days from now, the curtain goes up on the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado.

John McCain may also be close to revealing his running mate. Sources say the Republican candidate may name his choice a week from Friday. That also happens to be McCain's 72nd birthday and the day after the Democratic Convention ends.

So, who makes the short list? Right now, for Barack Obama and John McCain, are there clues we should look for?

Here's CNN's senior political correspondent Candy Crowley.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CANDY CROWLEY, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Barack Obama is within days of announcing his vice presidential choice. It will begin with a text message to supporters. And sources say it will be followed by a series of events designed to roll into next week's convention with maximum excitement.

Who he has picked is another matter.

SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D-IL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, New Mexico.

CROWLEY: During veep week, a campaign stop is about less what is said than where it is. In veep week, geography and choreography are clues.

GOV. BILL RICHARDSON (D), NEW MEXICO: The next president of the United States!

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

CROWLEY: Obama would love to put New Mexico in the Democratic column this fall. And Bill Richardson, the governor, standing there with Obama, might be able to deliver it.

As it happens, Richardson also appeared on television over the weekend on behalf of Obama. During veep season, Sunday talk shows are widely viewed as tryouts, so, along with Richardson last Sunday, Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana and Virginia Governor Tim Kaine.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Bayh was all the talk when he campaigned with Obama. But, later this week, Obama is scheduled to campaign in Virginia.

And much has been made of a counterclue as well. Joe Biden, currently gaining currency in the veepstakes, has been uncharacteristically quiet.

Republican and campaign sources close to John McCain say there are plans in the works for McCain to have a big blowout of his own, naming his V.P. pick a week from Friday, the day after the Democratic Convention. Sources envision a series of events starting in Ohio. However, they caution, those plans are not in cement now, and they could change.

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R-AZ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'm pleased to be here today at Cocoa Beach.

CROWLEY: McCain was talking to veterans in Florida, a state with 27 electoral votes, where the governor is Republican Charlie Crist.

Other clues, talking the talk last Sunday, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR: I have got nothing for you on the V.P. sweepstakes. Anything in that regard ought to be directed to the McCain campaign.

CROWLEY: Also on the Sunday roster for McCain, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, and the frequently mentioned Minnesota governor, Tim Pawlenty.

GOV. TIM PAWLENTY (R), MINNESOTA: I don't talk about the vice presidential stuff, because I think it's mostly speculation. And I just have stopped talking about it.

CROWLEY: He may be the only one.

Candy Crowley, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LEMON: All right. So, Barack Obama and John McCain are both in the South today, first stop for Obama, the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Orlando, Florida.

This evening, the Democratic candidate has got a town hall meeting in North Carolina.

John McCain addressed the VFW yesterday. And today, he toured an oil rig near New Orleans. McCain is pushing for more offshore drilling as part of his energy plan.

Al Gore gets a plum speaking role at the Democratic National Convention. Sources tell us the former vice president will speak on the final night of next week's convention in Denver. That's the same night Obama accepts his party's nomination.

John McCain and Barack Obama in their own words. Later this hour, we will hear what the two men are saying today about some of the biggest issues on the campaign trail.

Well, Fay just won't quit. The tropical storm is packing quite a punch and gaining strength as it soaks much of the Florida Peninsula. It's inching inland, leaving a trail of flooding and almost 100,000 homes without power right now. The only serious injury that we have heard about so far is this guy, who went kiteboarding, not sure why, in Miami just as the storm hit. He's in critical condition right now after getting slammed into the beach and the side of the building there.

Well, a lot of rain and a lot of wind and a couple of tornadoes, as you predicted, Chad Myers.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Kyra, now three new injuries from a tornado up in Barefoot Bay -- Barefoot Bay hit so hard with Jeanne and Frances three years ago. And now we're hearing about the tornado there.

And we said this yesterday. We said that this hurricane, tropical storm, whatever it might be, will probably be known more for its damage from tornadoes than from hurricane winds. Now, the storm is still spinning. It is certainly still spinning pretty good, 65 miles per hour. That's really almost where it was when it made landfall.

Why did it not die yet? Well, because this is a swamp. A swamp is hot water. It doesn't know it's not over the ocean. It thinks it still is. But, eventually, as we get north of Lake Okeechobee -- and that's where we are -- there's the eye. There's Okeechobee proper. There's Buckhead Ridge, the lake right here, that big lake, Okeechobee, getting a lot of rain today. And it needs it. It's been low forever.

But, now, this storm will eventually pull offshore, may be very close to, oh, I don't know, Cape Canaveral up here, maybe as far north up here as Daytona. When it gets back into the Atlantic ocean, warm water again. It's going to reintensify and then turn left and maybe go toward Jacksonville or maybe as far north as Charleston. You're still in the cone there.

So, this isn't done yet. We have already had a couple landfalls, one obviously Key West, one here in southwestern Florida. We may have another landfall either in Florida or Georgia, maybe as far north as South Carolina, the storm that won't quit. Well, we will put some batteries in it. And maybe we will get some cheap batteries in it, Kyra, so it doesn't keep going and going and going and going and going.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILLIPS: Cheap batteries? We don't want cheap batteries, not at a time like this, Chad Myers. Nothing cheap.

All right. Thanks, pal.

MYERS: All right. You're welcome.

PHILLIPS: Our own John Zarrella, who was buffeted actually by the storm yesterday, has been following it from Key West. He actually made it to Fort Pierce, I have been told.

John, what can you tell us?

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN MIAMI BUREAU CHIEF: (INAUDIBLE) right along the Intracoastal Waterway. (INAUDIBLE)

PHILLIPS: All right. John, if you can still hear me, we're going to try and get a better connection to you, my friend.

As you can see, the winds are picking up and the rains there exactly where our John Zarrella is. We will try and get back to him when we can connect better technologically.

But Florida not the only state, as you know, dealing with floods and dealing weather like this. You can check out central Oklahoma as well, where days of rain have turned parts of the old Route 66 into rivers. Firefighters have been busy all day rescuing people stranded in their cars there and their homes.

And in Canadian County, some neighborhoods look as if they have been swallowed by a lake. This was just a mere creek only days ago. And it took less than an hour for flames to demolish six homes in this Reno, Nevada, neighborhood. Gusty winds kept the fire going and kept more than 50 firefighters on their toes. No cause has been confirmed yet, but investigators are looking into reports that kids were seen running from that area where the fire started. The early damage estimates are coming out now to about $2 million.

LEMON: Wow.

OK. Well, forget about chalk or dusty erasers. One school district is allowing gunpowder and concealed weapons in the classroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) PHILLIPS: First, Russia and Georgia exchange POWs. Next, reports that Russians forces seized Georgian soldiers. What is going on? We will hear from our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK. This story is really garnering some attention and some controversy as well. We're talking about reading, writing and revolvers?

The three R's of education could soon be changing in one Texas district. Governor Rick Perry says he supports a move by the Harrold Independent School District to let teachers, to let them carry concealed guns in classrooms.

Now, the district is a rural area near the Oklahoma border. And supporters say armed employees could stop school shootings. Any teacher who wants to be -- have a gun at work can do it. They can be licensed, trained in crisis management, and use ammo that minimizes the risk of ricochet.

OK. So, that's what we have here. Is this really a good idea is the question we want to ask you.

Kenneth Trump is the president of the National School Safety and Security Services. And he opposes, he opposes letting teachers carry guns. He is in Institute, West Virginia. David Tweet -- or Thweatt, I should say -- is the superintendent of the Harrold Independent School District. He is in Texas. And he joins us now in Texas. He joins us now from Fort Worth.

OK, thank you guys both for joining us. Feel free to jump in any time, because we know there's been a big debate here.

OK. Mr. Thweatt, is this a good idea to let teachers in classrooms carry guns? Shouldn't they be focusing on schoolwork, instead of on guns?

DAVID THWEATT, SUPERINTENDENT, HARROLD INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT: Well, first of all, you know, when you're talking about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the first layer is security. And you have to make sure that your kids feel secure. And you also want the parents to know that they're secure.

But the only element you left out, that they have to have their CHL. They be approved individually by the school board. And there is extensive training. And then we also talked about -- you also talked the ammunition. We have taken some precautions. But we also have state-of-the-art security. We have the keyless entry. We have lockdown abilities from panic buttons with alarms. We have cameras.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: The reason I ask you that is not that anyone here is for or against. But we know how difficult it is to be a teacher and how difficult it is to do studies. You know, I have many people in my family are teachers. Every weekend, they're their doing lesson plans and they're doing all these things. Instead of focusing on -- no one I knew had to focus on guns.

So, why not get a school officer or someone who comes or maybe a couple officers, people who are trained to do this and allow them to hold fort at the school, rather than the teachers?

THWEATT: Well, we thought it was a safety issue. If you hire a security guard or a law enforcement officer, they're going to have a holstered pistol. And that's problematic.

And instead of taking an officer, who is not a school person, who is not education friendly, and try to make them, teach them about students, I would rather take somebody with a master's degree and train them in security measures, because they're going to react to students better. And we're picking -- or hand-picking these individuals.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I want Mr. Trump to get in here, because at the beginning I mentioned you and that you oppose it. Why do you oppose this? Because, you know, these schools -- some of these schools are in locations that are remote. They're not close to sheriff's or police departments. And some people in the community feel a need to have teachers with guns.

KENNETH TRUMP, SCHOOL SAFETY EXPERT: I certainly don't question the superintendent's concern for the safety of his children, and applaud that.

But, at the same time, I see the situation as a school safety professional for 25 years just the opposite in terms of the fact we would want to have a trained, certified, commissioned peace officer. We have school resource officers across the country who are trained to work with children.

But, most of all, they are trained, skilled professional, commissioned police officers. When we raise a standard and say we want to commission and charge our teachers and support staff members with providing a public safety function, it begs a number of implementation questions. Who's going to oversee that?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: ... level of expertise of a school board in having policies or procedures, use of force continuum?

LEMON: And, Mr. Trump...

TRUMP: Firearms type qualifications. Is the school district going to oversee and provide that...

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: I have got to jump in here. (CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Well, let me finish, Superintendent. I let you say yours.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: No. This is me. This is the moderator here talking.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: No, no, this is the moderator here talking, sir. I want all sides to get in. So, if you will just hold your horses here, because I want to play devil's advocate for a little bit here, Mr. Trump.

And if you're looking at all of these school shootings, you're looking at Columbine, you're looking at the Amish school shooting that happened two years ago, you're looking at the Cleveland shooting that happened last fall, if some of these people were armed with guns, there may not have been these situations where there were deaths or injuries.

Mr. Trump?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Who's the question for?

LEMON: For you.

TRUMP: I think we could hypothesize anything and say that there's a possibility.

But, at the same time, we could also say that if we're arming all of our staff members, there's also a possibility of accidental shootings, of teachers losing their guns in the middle of breaking up fights or doing cafeteria duty.

So, we can what-if a situation anywhere. What is clear is that we're providing teachers the direction, if a school board is authorizing it, to provide a public safety question. And just as you would not have a police officer or a layperson come in and teach second grade, we would expect that, if you're going to have somebody in charge of a firearm and providing a public safety function, that they would have training, policies and procedures that go beyond the training required for a concealed weapon.

LEMON: OK.

TRUMP: I heard extensive training. I would like to know exactly how many hours and what that training is.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: All right. Great. Thank you. You have made your point and gotten a lot of time here.

And, In fairness I want Mr. Thweatt to have the last word here. And I don't have very long.

So, go ahead and tell me your response to him and then we will have to move on.

THWEATT: As I mentioned in response, I think that taking teachers and training -- they're very trainable in these types of areas. And I don't have to justify the training. We have justified the training with those that designed the training. And they are very qualified to teach us.

And I feel safe and secure. The best thing I can say is my own children are in the school, and I trust them with the individuals I have trained.

LEMON: All right. We're going to have to leave it at that.

David Thweatt and Kenneth Trump, thank you both.

TRUMP: Thank you.

THWEATT: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Some schools in Illinois spent summer vacation upgrading their security. And when students returned today in Edwardsville, they were greeted by A-plus technology. Faculty and staff now get into the buildings with a fingerprint scan. Visitors have to hand over their driver's licenses, which are also scanned and compared to digital databases.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sex offenders are the primary people that we're looking for and then if there's any custody situations that we need to be alerted to.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The doors are already locked. So, there's no way they can get into the building without anyone knowing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The doors will lock automatically behind you. They can -- I believe they can record and see who has come in and out of the buildings and when. So, I definitely think it's much better security.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, installing all this stuff at the district's 14 schools cost more than $1 million. It came from tax proceeds and a building referendum.

LEMON: OK.

So, we asked you what you thought about new security measures at the Illinois and Texas school. And here's what some of you had to say about this.

Jerry writes: "The Illinois plan is reasonable and constructive. The gun-toting teachers things is just stupid. I wouldn't send my kids there. The wacko-to-sane ratio is the same in the teaching community as it is in normal society."

And here's what Terry writes: "At the Illinois school with the high-tech security, I noticed when the reporter showed how easy it is to open the doors from the inside, that they opened in the building." He goes on to say, "In the event of a panic, students pressing against those doors could trap children inside."

And regarding guns in school, Rudy writes: "It is this law- abiding people -- it is time," I should say, "law-abiding people are able to protect themselves against criminals who love gun-free zones, where they, the criminals, feel secure while they commit their crimes."

Thanks to all of you for e-mailing us here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PHILLIPS: So, where do John McCain and Barack Obama stand on guns? We will fill you in later this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BUSINESS REPORT)

PHILLIPS: Well, in New York, police are going after a mugger who is going after the elderly. And they need your help today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: All right. It's time now to tell you some of the stories we're working on right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. Tropical Storm Fay slammed into South Florida today leaving in its wake flooding, downed trees, and power outages. Maximum sustained winds are reported at 65 miles per hour.

Suspense is rising over who Barack Obama and John McCain will pick as their running mates. Both candidates are sharing their plans only with a small select group of advisers.

NATO meeting in an emergency session warns Russia to live up to the cease-fire signed with the Republic of Georgia. If it doesn't, NATO says Moscow can forget about normal relations with the alliance.

PHILLIPS: More confused signals in the conflict between Russia and the Republic of Georgia. First a welcomed exchange of POWs. Not long afterwards Georgia reported Russian soldiers seized 20 Georgian groups and commandeered U.S. humvees.

Joining us now with more details, Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr. Barbara?

STARR: You know, you're absolutely right. The confusion and mixed signals continue today. As the pentagon says, still they see no real sign of a Russian military withdrawal from these areas in Georgia. The video that we're going to show you here now is one of the most confused signals, because, again, as you said, what we see are Georgian troops blindfolded and being driven away by Russian troops in the port city of Poti where the Russians had been operating. Now commandeering Georgian vehicles and driving troops away.

You see a U.S. military humvee there being towed out apparently by Russian troops as well as the blindfolded Georgian troops. Who owns the American humvees right now is still a bit confusing. The Georgian may actually be using them for training. But still, the prospect, the picture of the Russian military driving away in U.S. military gear, very upsetting to the pentagon. And people are really trying to figure out at this point what the Russians are up to. Kyra.

PHILLIPS: Of course. We'll be all over it. Barbara Starr, thanks.

LEMON: In Afghanistan the deadliest attack on international forces in more than three years. Ten French paratroopers killed today in an ambush. NATO says about 100 insurgents took part. An Afghan source says 27 were killed. It happened 30 miles from the Afghan capital, Kabul.

It's been almost seven years since the U.S. went into Afghanistan following the 9/11 attack. Where do things stand today? Let's go to CNN's Josh Levs for a look at that.

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Don, there's been a real trend lately. It's playing out here in the U.S. presidential race and most importantly there in the field. You're talking about those 10 French troops. It is one of the most popular stories on cnn.com today. Those 10 who were killed today and we are hearing more and more about this.

I want to show you how it's playing out. Let's go to a graphic we have that shows you the deaths in Afghanistan as a part of this conflict throughout ever since it began in 2001. Total coalition deaths with these 10 today are now at 925. And the U.S. is 570. You see underneath there we've put inside Afghanistan, just beneath 500. Because Operation Enduring Freedom actually includes efforts just outside and around Afghanistan as well. The next screen, we'll compare to the deaths in Iraq and you'll see why it's such an issue in our race as well as there on the ground. In Afghanistan over the last few months, each month now more deaths of coalition troops than there were in Iraq. We've been hearing a lot about the improvements in Iraq. But we're also seeing more and more deaths in Afghanistan. That's why there are a lot of security concerns there on the ground right now.

Let's head into this screen here. I want to show you a couple things on these maps. Then I'll bring it back to you. First of all, let's go here. This is just a Google map. I want to close in because I want to remind everyone the part of the world we're talking about, this is Afghanistan, it borders Iran, kind of hard to see it on your screen. It borders Iran which obviously is a big U.S. concern and also Pakistan. Now, this is from NATO. I want you to see one thing on it. The NATO shows all the national flags of where troops are. U.S. troops in NATO are pretty much based in the eastern section all throughout this area. So when you hear about efforts going on in Afghanistan, if you're hearing about the eastern part of the country very often, that's U.S. troops. You can see how many troops we have in the NATO coalition. Here NATO listed online, 19,000 in the NATO coalition. There's something that might be a little surprising to some people. That's right here. This flag is Georgia. Georgia is part of the NATO coalition. They have one soldier there. Certainly as a way of NATO being a part of it.

We have some video as well from the ground. We're seeing some at that. Let's take a look. We have some of the latest figure on the way civilians are struggling in the area. 70 percent of the population according to the U.N. right now in poverty. Forty percent, listen to this, 40 percent of children under three are under weight. And the majority of kids under five years old, just over 50 percent, are considered stunted. You also have 100,000 people, most children and women, displaced by the conflict and by drought. I'll tell you also, there are improvements. We are hearing on a regular basis from humanitarian groups and the U.N. that there's improvements in education. There are some improvements in health care. That doesn't change the situation there's really a dire condition on the ground there. You're seeing more and more violence, you're seeing people really desperately in need. That's why we are seeing a shifting focus here in this country and certainly, Don, on the presidential race. More and more talk about Afghanistan, what can be done to boost NATO forces, to boost the U.S.-led coalition, and to try to turn the tide from what we've been seeing more and more of. These deaths in Afghanistan, Don.

LEMON: Appreciate it, Josh.

LEVS: Thanks. One day after getting rid of the man they despise, Pakistan's ruling coalition is wrangling over who will replace former President Pervez Musharraf. He resigned yesterday rather than face probable impeachment. He's expected to leave the country. The new government says there's no immunity deal. The U.S. weighed in today saying its once close ally in President Bush's war on terror has the right to live wherever he wants.

So John McCain is pushing for more offshore oil drilling as a way to ease the energy crunch. His backdrop today, an oil rig near New Orleans. Here's a Republican presidential candidate in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Americans across our country are hurting. As we all know because of the cost of energy, gas prices are through the roof. Energy costs are sinking into our grocery bills, making it more expensive to feed our families. Now as people prepare for the winter, it's time for us to be more serious about meeting oil needs and other issues that face America as far as energy is concerned. That means we need to start drilling offshore in advanced oil rigs like this one.

This rig survived a hurricane. They have been here for nine years. And they have produced a whole lot of oil and natural gas. As we speak, they are producing 10,000 barrels of oil a day. Fifteen million cubic feet of natural gas. Senator Obama opposes new drilling. He said it won't solve our problem and that it's, quote, not real. He's wrong, and the American people know it. I hope you all seize the opportunity to come out and pay a visit like this one. I think it would probably change his mind. We all want to conserve.

We also know that conservation will not put us -- will not be sufficient to put us on the road to energy independence. The nation is sending $700 billion every year overseas to countries that don't like us very much. When I'm president, that's going to stop. We're going to achieve energy independence, and we're going to do it by using every resource at our disposal to get the job done. Including new offshore drilling.

New drilling has got to be part of our energy solution. We won't solve this problem alone. Alternative energy will not solve this problem alone. And conservation alone will not. It will require aggressive development in alternative sources like winds, solar, tide, biofuels, natural gas, and it also requires expanding traditional sources of energy like clean coal, nuclear power and offshore drilling like that done on this rig.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: If you stuck with us through that, we apologize for the audio. We'll try to get that cleaned up for you if we rerun it here on CNN. And later this hour, we'll hear what Barack Obama had to say about the issues that matter to veterans. As he spoke today as the VFW convention in Orlando.

PHILLIPS: Army commanders on the defensive over reports of untreated mold in the barracks where wounded soldiers are recovering. They have enough to deal with already.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: An update now on the victim of a brutal attack in a New York elevator. Eighty-five-year-old Lillian France is hospitalized now after the injuries she suffered in this mugging. A man grabs her, chokes her, steals her purse which contained $900. He even took her cane. Here's another picture of the suspect. New York police believe he's connected to a string of attacks targeting elderly victims. They're asking for you, the public, to help identify him.

LEMON: So in Pennsylvania it was a much different story. Eighty-five-year-old great grandmother Leda Smith turned the tables on a would be burglar in her house yesterday. She confronted him with her .22 caliber pistol.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEDA SMITH, CONFRONTED ALLEGED BURGLAR: I said, what are you doing in my house?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're pointing the gun at him? SMITH: I had the gun on him then, uh-huh. I had it on him before he turned around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Smith kept the 17-year-old alleged burglar on ice, and get this even making him dial 911 so the police would come. She says she told the teen she'd shoot him if he moved. And he didn't move. Go Leda.

PHILLIPS: A pastime that may hold clues to the past. CNN's Kelli Arena looks at how card games in prison could lead to breaks in cold cases.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KELLI ARENA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In prison inmates tend to have a lot of time on their hands. No chips, no cash, but the stakes couldn't be higher.

JONATHON KITT, INMATE: I looked through them at first. But it was very distracting, horrifying when I first seen them.

ARENA: Each of the 52 cards is an unsolved crime. The faces of the dead and missing. Like Suzanne Lyall. A decade ago she got off a bus near Albany, New York near her college and vanished.

MARY LYALL, CARD PROGRAM ORGANIZER: This is a missing part of my life. I need to find my daughter. And this is our job now.

ARENA: Her parents, Doug and Mary, hope the cards will jog a memory, jar a guilty conscious, maybe even a hot lead in a cold case.

DOUG LYALL, CARD PROGRAM ORGANIZER: There's still an answer out there. That's our belief. Is that somebody knows someone, knows something about this situation.

ARENA: So does it work? A similar program in Florida has already led to eight cold case arrests. Sheriff jack runs the county jail in Rensselaer County, New York. He started distributing cards to inmates in June.

SHERIFF JACK MAHAR, RENSSELAER COUNTY, NEW YORK: We have a very high turn over, which is very good. We keep on getting different people in here all the time. That would give some fresh ideas and fresh information.

ARENA: It makes sense. Convicts hear things, know things that the cops don't. At the call center that takes the tips, callers can stay anonymous. But surprisingly, many inmates choose to give their names.

CINDY BLOCK, NEW YORK CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM: There's a wide range of calls from people saying, yes, I think I've seen this person. Or I know someone who has said that they have information about this case. KAREEM WILLIAMS, INMATE: Sometimes it makes you come clean for the things you did to try to change your life around.

ARENA: Maybe that's a genuine change of heart or just more convict bluff. It doesn't matter. For Doug and Mary Lyall and the police with cold cases to solve, there's nothing to lose. Kelli Arena, CNN, Troy, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: What's next for Olympic hero Michael Phelps? The swimmer tells CNN about his goals after gold.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIPS: Army BRATs are denied and neglected to fix poor conditions in a unit for wounded soldiers at Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Twenty soldiers told the newspaper "USA Today " that complaints about a mold infestation were ignored and they were told on to keep silent. Commanders at the Oklahoma base said they issued a work order three days after mold was reported. They admitted a captain who overhead talks about the problem did tell troops to keep quiet. They say disciplinary action is being considered now.

LEMON: Barack Obama, reaching out today to veterans. The Democratic presidential candidate talked to the VFW convention in Orlando, hitting back at John McCain over the Iraq War and clarifying his own positions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Before the surge, I argued that the long-term solution in Iraq is political. The Iraqi government must reconcile its differences and take responsibility for its future. That holds true today. We have lost over 1,000 American lives. We've spent hundreds of billions of dollars since the surge began. But Iraq's leaders still haven't made hard compromises or substantial investments in rebuilding their own country. Our military is badly overstretched. A fact that has surely been noted in capitals around the world.

And while we pay a heavy price in Iraq, and Americans pay record prices at the pump, Iraq's government is sitting on a $79 billion budget surplus from windfall oil profits.

So let's be clear. Our troops have completed every mission they've been given. They have created the political space for reconciliation. Now, it must be filled by an Iraqi government that reconciles its differences and spends its oil profits to meet the needs of its people. Iraqi inaction threatens the progress we've made and threatens the opening for Iran and the special groups it supports. It's time to press the Iraqis to take responsibility for its future.

The best way to do that is a responsible redeployment -- the best way to do that I believe is a responsible redeployment of our combat brigades carried out in close consultation with commanders on the ground. We can safely redeploy at a pace that removes our combat brigades in 16 months. That would be well into 2010, seven years after the war began. After this redeployment, we'll keep a residual force to target remnants of al Qaeda, to protect our service members and diplomats and to train Iraqi security forces if the Iraqis make political progress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Earlier we told you about a Texas school district that's gotten the go-ahead for teachers to carry guns in school. Gun control is an issue that pops up every presidential election. Where do the two main candidates stand? John McCain sponsored legislation requiring background checks at gun shows but he opposed the extension of the assault weapons ban and opposed trigger locks for handguns. McCain also opposed a 1994 crime bill which contained the assaults weapons ban. Barack Obama supports extending the assault weapons ban. He supports a national law against carrying concealed weapons with exceptions for retired military and police personnel and he supports limiting gun sales to one per month.

LEMON: He has been the talk of the town, really the talk of the world. What is next for Olympic hero, Michael Phelps? The swimmer tells CNN about his goals after all the gold medals.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: It is time now to check in with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

PHILLIPS: He's standing by in THE SITUATION ROOM to tell us what's coming up at the top of the hour. Hey, Wolf.

BLITZER: Hi, guys, thanks very much. The vice presidential waiting game. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. The possible VP contender Tom Ridge.

And it could happen at anytime, Barack Obama is expected to name his vice presidential pick in the next three days. We'll take a look at some of the top choices.

Plus, Russian troops take prisoners and make off with American humvees. We'll also have the latest on the crisis between Georgia and Russia.

And a real-life invisibility cloak. Yes, scientists say it is possible and they're on the way to creating one. You're going to see just how. All that, guys, and a lot more, coming up, right here in THE SITUATION.

LEMON: We look forward to all that. Thanks, Wolf, we'll be watching.

PHILLIPS: Well, a new challenge for record-setting Olympic gold medal winner Michael Phelps. Helping others getting to swim. The star of the Beijing Games told AMERICAN MORNING he's serious about swim safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL PHELPS, OLYMPIC SWIMMER: One of my goals growing up was always to change the sport of swimming and I watched Michael Jordan change the sport of basketball.

And today I just finished the last lap with Hilton's Swim to Beijing, and there was $100,000 raised for USA Swimming to -- to help kids become more water safe and, you know, that -- I think that's going to be something that is going to be something I'm going to be working on for the rest of my life and, you know, I think I can definitely change the sport and raise the bar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, that fund raise are for USA swimming had people doing 6,250 laps in the Hilton Hotel pools. That's the number of miles between Los Angeles and Beijing.

LEMON: Hearing he's going to make, like, $40 million over the next year, $5 million for each medal. I'm sure Stephanie Elam could use some of that cash.

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, you know, but what is so funny, Don and Kyra, I'm thinking about it. The poor guy is probably ready to rest. But things are ramping up for him now. There's no sleep for him. None at all.

PHILLIPS: Then comes the ads and the special deals that carry on into the 401(k).

ELAM: Totally. That is such the true statement here. Because swimming, you know, that's a sport that most Americans only seem to care about every four years, but still, Michael Phelps started raking in the dough even before he got to Beijing. Now that he set the record, the next few weeks and months could be crucial for his future earnings potential. So the big question is, can he break an earnings record, too. He scooped up $1 million from Speedo for breaking Mark Spitz's record and they expect Phelps' current annual earnings to double and other estimates put his lifetime earnings as much as $100 million. Of course, all of this depends on just how marketable Phelps turns out to be. He could end up everyone. We all know there are gold medalists that we don't remember and there are those that we can't stop talking about care about it. So there are others we have to keep our eyes on. His team is looking at that.

There are the markets. They are down today, off 125 points, 11,354 and the NASDAQ off 1.75 percent. Don and Kyra, have a good night.

LEMON: Thanks. Now let's turn it over to the "Situation Room" and Wolf Blitzer.