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Getting a Job: How Do You Reinvent Yourself?; Victims Billed For Rape Kits; Are You on the FBI Watch List?; Afghan President Karzai, "U.S. Airstrike Killed Hundreds of Civilians"
Aired May 08, 2009 - 14:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAM BOSLEY, VICTIM'S MOTHER: My baby was suffering. He could not breathe. He did not deserve this.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, when I heard this mother crying yesterday, I felt we had to keep pushing forward on this story. Why are so many teenagers dying in Chicago?
Well, it's the deadliest place in the country for school-age kids. Chicago is the third biggest city in America, but leads the nation in murders of children and teens. So far this school year, 36 have been killed. That's more than one a week. And if that's news to you, well, if the nation isn't taking note and action, many in Chicago say, that's a crime in itself.
And what about the killers? They're kids, too, kids with guns and grievances and precious little guidance.
CNN's David Mattingly is in Chicago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At 13, Samir Khan made his mother proud. She says he liked school, liked to cook and was a promising young athlete, but now his mother can't stop crying.
DOMINIQUE MAYO, MOTHER OF MURDERED CHILD: Every day, all day, saying why?
MATTINGLY: Samir was gunned down in October near this Chicago city park.
He was playing in a youth football game.
(on camera): Afterward, he went to a neighborhood store, not too far from here, to buy a bag of potato chips. He was exactly where he was supposed to be, not doing anything wrong. That's when another teenager carrying a gun opened fire and killed him.
MAYO: I am just puzzled, like, what I keep just saying, well what did he get killed for? MATTINGLY: His mother said Samir had been threatened. She doesn't know why, the shooter was only 15.
Like so many grieving Chicago parents, Samir's mom blames the abundance of guns on the street. Ron Holt used to think that way, too, after his son Blair was shot and killed in 2007, this Chicago cop initially became a believer in tougher background checks for gun buyers. But now he's changed his tactics, finding success, targeting the shooters instead.
(on camera): So now you're looking past the guns.
RONALD HOLT, FATHER OF MURDERED CHILD: Yes.
MATTINGLY: You're looking at the kids who are actually holding them.
HOLT: Yes, exactly.
MATTINGLY: Pursuing a face-to-face approach he takes to the streets with other activists trying defuse violent confrontations before they happen. That's where lives are going to be saved?
HOLT: That's where lives are going to be saved because you're appealing to that potential offender right there in your face. In your face.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Experts at the University of Chicago say targeting potential gang bangers like this is great and moving in the right direction, but research into how to stop the young shooter is years behind.
PROF. JENS LUDWIG, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO CRIME LAB: Anybody who says anything about what -- how to address this problem, needs to acknowledge that there is a lot of guesswork in -- in what we're doing.
MATTINGLY: Recent Chicago cases punctuate the immediate need for something new. A 15-year-old was beaten, shot and burned last Friday.
On Wednesday, a 16-year-old was killed after dropping his sister off at elementary school.
(on camera): In this case, the victim was walking down the sidewalk like this, when witnesses say a gunman ran up behind him and shot him in the back of the head. Experts tell us that no background check alone is enough to curb this kind of violence. MAYO: And I know my baby was scared when he saw him, I know he was.
MATTINGLY: Those experts and Samir Khan's mother ask themselves the same questions, why are so many children in Chicago armed and doing so much harm? Why are more Chicago teens dying when other cities have more gangs and more guns?
David Mattingly, CNN, Chicago. (END OF VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And we're going to try and answer that question, in search of a cease-fire. Just ahead, I'll talk with a violence interrupter -- that's the actual term -- pushing forward with words instead of guns.
You know this guy, he's been in and out of jail in and out of the news. Now it looks like Illinois prosecutors are going after Drew Peterson again, but this time they mean it. The ex-cop is being arraigned this hour on first-degree murder charges in the death of his third wife whose body was found in a bathtub in 2004. Police arrested Peterson yesterday near his Bolingbrook home, holding him on $20 million bond. The same grand jury that indicted Peterson is also investigating him in the 2007 disappearance of his fourth wife. Peterson maintains his innocence in both cases.
Just 24 hours ago, the manhunt for Stephen Morgan was going full force. Today, he's been arraigned in a Connecticut court, on first- degree murder charges. Held on $15 million bail for allegedly gunning down Wesleyan University student Johanna Justin-Jinich. Police took Morgan into custody last night after he enlisted a store clerk to help him surrender.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He started walking around the store. He bought a drink. He checked the newspapers, and then he asked me to use the phone. He started dialing some numbers and he couldn't -- I guess he couldn't dial the police number, so I dialed it for him.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Morgan's lawyer said that his client denies targeting anyone at Wesleyan and will plead not guilty.
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: He's just a little boy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SPECIAL INVESTIGATIONS UNIT CORRESPONDENT: Are you a terrorist?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: I don't know.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So, why is he on the FBI's terror watch list? Drew Griffin explains.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Jobless in America. Layoffs ease, but hiring lags, observers dare to hope. Today, we learn a lot fewer jobs were lost in April than the month before; 539,000, down from 699,000 in March.
Now, that may suggest the worst of the wide-scale layoffs are behind us, but businesses still are not hiring, at least not much and that's pushed the nation's unemployment rate to 8.9 percent. We haven't seen a number like that since the fall of 1983.
Now, here's a closer look at the numbers. Unemployment among adult men climbed from 8.8 percent to 9.4 percent. Adult women, from 7 percent to 7.1. African-Americans took a big hit, from 13.3 percent to 15. Hispanics saw their rate decline just a bit.
Now, unemployment insurance can help you feed your family, but it won't help you go to school. In fact, recipients who want to learn new skills often lose their benefits.
President Obama wants to change that. He's pushing states to let job seekers look for work, go to school and keep the jobless checks coming. He also wants colleges to boost financial aid for unemployed students.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK H. OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The idea here is to fundamentally change our approach to unemployment in this country. It's no longer just a time to look for a new job, but is also a time to prepare yourself for a better job. That's what our unemployment system should be, not just a safety net, but a stepping- stone to a new future. It should offer folks educational opportunities they wouldn't otherwise have, giving them the measurable and differentiated skills they need just -- not just to get through hard times, but to get ahead when the economy comes back.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So, if you're a regular viewer of this show, you know we're trying to connect job seekers with potential employers. We call it the "30 second pitch." And one of our viewers, Clint White, got in touch with us through our blog. He's a laid-off corporate pilot. In fact, he's been downsized twice in the past year. So, now Clint gets his chance to do his pitch. Let's get the clock ready and rolling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINT WHITE, JOB SEEKER: Hi, my names is Clint White. I'm a corporate and charter pilot seeking an employment position.
I currently bring with me nearly a decade of business aviation experience, almost 5,000 hours of total flight time, and three corporate type ratings. I also have an outstanding and proven record of performance, an exceptional sales experience, an ability to work in a team environment and an exceptional sales experience as well.
My ideal position would be with a large corporate or charter flight department as your pilot and I believe that my skills and abilities would be a great asset to your company.
Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Right on time. If you have a job prospect for Clint, e-mail him and be sure to check out the updates on our pitches on our blog at cnn.com/newsroom. One of our job seekers apparently has gotten a job.
Whether you've got 30 seconds or 30 minutes for your job interview, how do you make it count? How do you land the interview? Career coach Maggie Missile(ph) will have some answers for you in just a few minutes right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
If you lost six billion bucks so far this year, you might want to start pinching pennies, not General Motors. The almost-bankrupt automaker sent 500 high-end customers to this swanky resort in Arizona after taking billions of dollars of your bailout tax money.
GM's point man for the event calls it a business meeting and says the company's not paying for any extras, it's serving burgers and hot dogs for lunch and making clients pay for their own golf outings. GM says that keeping hold of top customers is more important than ever since overall sales are plunging.
Rape victims forced to pay for their evidence. Outrageous, isn't it? Wait until you hear what happened to them when they don't pay the rape kit bill.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, it's the deadliest place in the country for school-age kids, Chicago is the third biggest city in America, but leads the nation in murders of children and teens. So far this school year, 36 have been killed. That's more than one a week. And if that's news you to, if the nation isn't taking note and action, well, many people in Chicago say that that's a crime in itself. Kids killing kids on the streets of Chicago.
CeaseFire is a group dedicated to interrupting violence on the street. Joining me now from our Chicago bureau, CeaseFire member and violence interrupter, Ameena Matthews.
Ameena, thanks for being with us.
AMEENA MATTHEWS, VIOLENCE INTERRUPTER, CEASEFIRE: Thanks for having us.
PHILLIPS: What is going on in Chicago?
MATTHEWS: A lot of our babies are dying. It's a lot of senseless -- senseless violence.
PHILLIPS: And so, this is my question, I mean, I grew up in Los Angeles, I mean, I remember South Central. I remember the movies and the songs and the gang violence that was so intense there, especially in the '80s. When we start talking about this story, a lot of people were shocked to find out that Chicago had the highest number right now for these kids in just one school year. So, you know, why Chicago?
MATTHEWS: Well, right now, Chicago is in a bad position as far as gun violence, as far as lack of resources. And what we do at CeaseFire we get in at the front end and we mediate, if not we get in at the back end and stop a retaliation. Our funding just got back restored, and we're, you know, we're a full force, and as it's coming, we're getting in on it, and it's just really a very tragic, unfortunate situation, that we're losing babies in the process of the political fight over funding. Just different things, the Olympics, and our children are suffering here.
PHILLIPS: So, where do you want to see that funding go, Ameena? There was this rally yesterday, we're looking at video of it right now, about stopping the gun sales. But it's got to be more than that. These kids are killing at a whim. And they're kids, they're teens. It's not just about easy access to guns.
MATTHEWS: Right. Well, it's going to take collectively everyone. It's going to take CeaseFire. It's going to take, you know, the elected officials, Chicago-wide, nationwide. Our children and our youth, you know, we're struggling with education levels.
But we need funding far as what's going on in our schools to teach our children how to mediate conflicts. How to walk away. How to, you know - back when I was going up, there was a fight and that was it. Now, whoever gets whooped in the fistfight is bringing back a gun.
And we need to have strong role models, you know. Yes, we talk about the fathers are not in the families, but now we got to get past that. We got to get past, you know, bringing our city back to the vibrantness that it is. It's going to take collectively.
PHILLIPS: You have an interesting twist...
MATTHEWS: I'm sorry.
PHILLIPS: No, no, no, it's OK. You have an interesting twist, because you mentioned the family and growing up and the lack of the father figure and all of that. There were pretty intense gang leaders in your family as you were growing up.
What was the justification that you would hear around the family dinner table to why they were involved? And involved in a pretty intense way.
MATTHEWS: Well, you know, it was never around the dinner table. The dynamics of the street may be the gang violence or the gang organization back in the '70s and '80s have totally changed for the worst here in 2009, 2007, 2008. We didn't talk about it over dinner. It was just something that the gang leaders or the people that were involved in the gang, they protected the community.
And they're outraged with the senseless violence that's going on now. They're very upset that, you know, that they're not being heard to talk to these young men to say you know what, this is unacceptable, you all are not holding up to the code of whatever organization that you're claiming to represent. This is really stupid.
PHILLIPS: So are you saying...
MATTHEWS: Shooting a baby in the head.
PHILLIPS: Are you saying that there is a code, where actually gangs can be good? You talk about, when you were growing up, it was about protecting the community. But didn't that still involve...
MATTHEWS: Absolutely.
PHILLIPS: Didn't that still involve violence, though?
MATTHEWS: You know what, when I was younger, I didn't know about the, quote-end quote, gang murders. We just heard about it on the news. It wasn't shooting five or six 10 people on an intersection at 3:00 when kids are letting out of school. We never heard of that. Now, yes. There were safe zones when we were growing up. The schools, the churches, you respect your elderlies, you respect adults, and you go and get an education. That was what we were raised under.
PHILLIPS: Final question, Ameena, take a listen to this young boy whose brother was killed to gang violence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Choose hope over fear. We have to choose unity over advantage, that's sending a powerful message that change is coming to America! I am the first black president of the United States. I did -- I have to learn that speech, because I want to be president, just like Barack Obama.
(END OF VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: Which led me to the question, because he's from Chicago, this is happening in Barack Obama's backyard. Do you think having a black president, having someone where his history comes from the Chicago area, that that can have any type of impact on decreasing gang violence and involvement in gangs? Because for years gangs have been formed because of inequality and people feeling like they had no other opportunity.
MATTHEWS: Right. Well, what I'm seeing and I'm feeling is that people, you know, have lost hope. Our children have lost hope. Our youth, our families, and as I stated earlier in our interview, it's going to take collectively all of us.
And, yes, Barack, he's done some things. His families lived here and they are from here. He is the president of the United States. It's going to take us collectively, wholeheartedly, the press, the parents, the faith-based, all organizations to come together and take our city back and say that this is unacceptable, and restore the hope, restore the funding and organizations and keep it going such as CeaseFire and just get it going again.
PHILLIPS: Ameena Matthews, the group CeaseFire based in Chicago. Appreciate your time Ameena.
MATTHEWS: Thank you very much. Thanks for having me.
PHILLIPS: You bet.
There's no such thing as a dumb money question. One of our viewers actually wants to know if it's a good idea to tap that 401(k) to go back to school. We'll get some answers from our financial help desk in just a minute.
Using retirement money for grad school? Is it a good idea or not? That's one of your money questions for Gerri Willis and her team there at "The Help Desk." We'll have that right after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: We want to get you answers to your financial questions. Let's go straight to "The Help Desk."
Donna Rosato is a senior writer for "Money" magazine and Ryan Mack is the president of Optimum Capital Management.
All right let's get to that first question guys. It's from a viewer in New York, who asks, "Do you think it's a good idea to use my 401(k) to pay for graduate school, instead of taking out a student loan? Are there penalties and tax implications?"
Donna, everybody's talking about how do I retrain and how do I pay for it?
DONNA ROSATO, SENIOR WRITER, "MONEY": It's a great idea to go back to school and it's good to educate yourself more.
But remember, your 401(k) is for your retirement and you don't really want to dip into that pot now if you don't have to. If you do have a 401(k), you can borrow from it if you're still employed. But if you borrow from it, you're going to have to pay it back, you have to pay it back with interest.
And if you leave your employer, say you want to go to grad school full time, you have to pay the whole thing back. If you're talking about taking it all out and cashing it out, there are taxes and penalties. You'll pay a 10 percent penalty and you'll pay federal and state taxes as well. That's a big price to pay.
WILLIS: And that could be as much as 40 percent out the door right away. Generally, it doesn't pay to break into the 401(k) because interest rates on the student loans are so low.
Let's go to Carolyn's question, "My brother lost his job in December, he contacted the bank in January to see if he could work out his mortgage. When he didn't hear back, he called again and again, finally yesterday he reached someone who told him that since he couldn't show his income, besides obviously unemployment benefits, he didn't qualify for assistance. Where else can he go for help to avoid foreclosure?"
Ryan, the dirty little secret of foreclosures, if you don't have an income, you can't get a new mortgage.
RYAN MACK, PRESIDENT, OPTIMUM CAPITAL MANAGEMENT: Exactly. Well, the first thing is get a job. You have to make sure you have some sort of proof of income. Get a part-time job. Go down to your local community center and see what -- if there are any jobs available. Ask your local politicians for job listings if they're available.
The major four things we have to do is, first of all, don't ignore the problem. Go to the mortgage lender with a plan. Know your options, restatement, forbearance, maybe at the end of the day, short sale. That's the last option, but it is a viable option. And finally, stick to the plan. Once you get a plan to come together, stick to it and you should be fine.
WILLIS: All right guys, great answers, very good questions indeed.
"The Help Desk" is all about getting you answers. Send me an e- mail to gerri@cnn.com or log on to cnn.com/helpdesk to see more about financial solutions.
And "The Help Desk" is everywhere, make sure to check out the latest issue of "Money" magazine on newsstands now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, two sides of the unemployment picture. Employers cut a lot fewer jobs in April than they did in March or in February or January or any time since last October. Five hundred and thirty-nine thousand to be exact. But the U.S. jobless rate rose last month from 8.5 percent to 8.9 percent because those same employers still aren't doing much hiring.
Well, our focus today is jobs and we're bringing you some job seekers giving their "30-Second Pitch." Let's go ahead and revisit Clint White, an unemployed pilot looking for work.
Let's go ahead and start the clock on his pitch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINT WHITE, JOB SEEKER: Hi, my names is Clint White. I'm a corporate and charter pilot seeking an employment position.
I currently bring with me nearly a decade of business aviation experience, almost 5,000 hours of total flight time, and three corporate type ratings. I also have an outstanding and proven record of performance, an exceptional sales experience, an ability to work in a team environment and an exceptional sales experience as well. My ideal position would be with a large corporate or charter flight department as your pilot and I believe that my skills and abilities would be a great asset to your company.
Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: All right, we're bringing in career coach and XM Sirius Radio host Maggie Mistal to give Clint and some others like him some advice.
Maggie, if you're highly specialized like Clint, is being a pilot - well, should you think about reinventing yourself if you're a pilot or learning some other type of skill?
MAGGIE MISTAL, CAREER COACH/XM SIRIUS RADIO HOST: Well, actually, Kyra, this economy is actually getting a lot of people to rethink and reinvent themselves. And in some cases it's turning out to even better opportunities. Those are actually my favorite people to work with.
So in Clint's case, absolutely. The challenge of being a corporate pilot is right now corporations are cutting back on their spending on the private jet. So he needs to come up with a plan for something to work through during this recession, when times are bad.
One area that I'm not sure if he's definitely interested in, but it is aviation related, are air traffic controllers. And they're in demand right now and the government's hiring right now and they're looking for people in that area.
PHILLIPS: Is that opportunity.gov, because that's the Web site President Obama talked about today? We noticed there's even a place where you can find out what jobs, you know, your skills actually fit with us.
MISTAL: Yes, it's amazing. You know, opportunity.gov does a great job of combining the education grants and different things that President Obama announced today. And also a link to the Department of Labor site which has tons of free resources that can be really helpful for job seekers and people looking to reinvent.
And the skills profiler takes 20 minutes to complete. You list out the different skills that you have, what level you have them, if it's an average or above average. And then, then it actually matches you to different jobs that you can research right there and see the occupational outlook for these jobs so you're not jumping from hot job to hot job, you actually are in something that's going to have long- term growth.
PHILLIPS: So, would someone like Clint be able to be an independent contractor? Are there Web sites where people like Clint can find jobs?
MISTAL: Absolutely. And there's one great one called sologig.com, solo gig for freelancers. And there are particular projects mentioned there and opportunities. And I think that's a great opportunity for people that don't want to reinvent themselves but want to keep the money coming in. In some respects, they may be able to find project base work in the short term, because companies aren't at the point yet where they're willing to invest in new employees, but they still need to get the work done.
So sologig.com, elance.com (ph). Some of these are really great resources.
PHILLIPS: You know, we talk so much about going online and filling out applications online, but what about the good old fashioned mail? Are prospective employers actually opening up envelopes and tracking prospective employees that way?
MISTAL: Well, Kyra, I'm so glad you brought this up, because a lot of people are not hearing - they're not hearing back at all to even get an interview. And what I've learned in my own clients and from what research I'm seeing, is that if you submit - you have to submit your resume online, fine, that's the new approach. But if you send a second submission, a hard copy of your resume and cover letter to the hiring company, to a hiring manager if you can get a name, it actually increases your chances of landing an actual interview.
And even if that doesn't work, ask for an informational interview, because even if you are get on their radar now, you'll still be in the picture when they start to hire, they'll have you top of their list.
PHILLIPS: Maggie Mistal, thanks so much.
MISTAL: Thanks, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: Well, many college - or many students, rather, see college as four years of classes and parties. But this week's "CNN Hero" transformed his college days into a life-changing experience and he rallied thousands of young people in the process with a crash course in philanthropy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is "CNN Heroes."
SHIN FUJIYAMA, YOUNG WONDER: That period in life when you're, like, 18 to 22 is very transitional. Whatever it is that happens during that time has an amazing ability to really mold your future.
I went and volunteered for Honduras. After my first trip, I wanted to keep helping. I saw such a great need, I knew I had to do something.
My name is Shin Fujiyama, and I mobilize college students to help kids and families in Honduras.
I started to talk to all my friends. It's a lot of poverty, a lot of kids that sleep in the streets. My little sister Cosmo (ph) joined the cause.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please check it out. Nice to meet you. Thanks again.
FUJIYAMA: Our motto is "Students can make a difference."
We're all here for one thing. We came to Honduras.
We have had hundreds of bake sales, car washes, little things, but they've added up. We have about 20 trips that we organize every year. We've had about 500 students go to ho Honduras with us.
A lot of our focus is with children and with education. We've raised money to be able to send girls in Honduras to college. We've built two schools. We're also building an entire village for the people. We have big goals, but I know with can do it together.
TEXT: Since 2006, Shin's organization has grown to 25 chapters at colleges campuses across America - and has raised more than $750,000 for projects in Honduras.
FUJIYAMA: When I wake up in the morning where things are tough in Honduras, I think of all the members that have come to Honduras and the ones that are thinking of going. And that's what keeps me going.
For people to say that young people like us can't do anything, we have proven to them over and over that we can do anything that we dream of, and so can these kids in Honduras.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, if you'd like to help this week's hero or if you know someone who is doing something so extraordinary that they should be a "CNN Hero," go to CNN.com/heroes.
Remember, all of our CNN heroes are chosen from people like you who nominate, so tell us all about yours.
He's just a little boy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRIFFIN: Are you a terrorist?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: I don't know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PHILLIPS: So, why is he on the FBI's terror watch list? Drew Griffin explains.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Taliban militants on one side, Pakistani troops on the other, civilians in the middle. The U.N. says up to 200,000 people have fled the Swat Valley and other northwestern areas of Pakistan, as thousands of government troops broaden their offensive against the Taliban. The U.N. estimates another 300,000 people are still on the move or planning to flee.
Meantime, Pakistan plans to deploy more troops to the Swat Valley, as fighter jets pound suspected Taliban positions there. The military claims it killed 140 militants over the past 24 hours.
As if rape isn't traumatic enough, just imagine having to pay for your evidence. Well, it's outrageous, and we're trying to push forward some help to the victims.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, from wildfires in the west to powerful storms in the Midwest, it's a busy day on the weather front.
(WEATHER REPORT)
PHILLIPS: If rape isn't trauma enough, imagine trying to pay for your evidence? It's outrageous, and we're trying to push forward help.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Rape victims forced to pay for evidence. You've got to be kidding?
My guess is this story will outrage you as much as it did me. This is just wrong on so many levels.
Imagine, you've just been attacked in your own home, you go to the hospital, doctors have to examine you for evidence of a crime that's painful enough, right? Well, then you're victimized again when you get the bill for the rape kit. And get this, if you can't pay the bill, well, bill collectors will just add to your pain.
It's outrageous.
Stephen Dean from our affiliate KPRC in Houston investigated this for us.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RAPE VICTIM (identity concealed): That was unreal. And I never thought I'd be out anything for what I went through.
STEPHEN DEAN, KPRC REPORTER (voice-over): Along with her emotional scars, this rape victim holds a lap full of bills that police promised to pay.
RAPE VICTIM (identity concealed): And I'm the victim. And yet here I am, I'm asked to pay this bill. And my credit's going to get hurt.
DEAN: A 44-year-old single mom, she was attacked in her own bed by a 15-year-old friend of her son. RAPE VICTIM (identity concealed): When you awake from your deep sleep and you realize who it is, it's like oh, my God, this isn't happening.
DEAN: Now, she can't believe this is happening to her and other rape victims across Texas. Denial letters, saying the victims have to pay up for giving police the evidence they need to arrest the rapists.
RAPE VICTIM (identity concealed): It's not fair to women.
DEAN: It usually starts here with the rape kit. Specially trained nurses have to gather evidence, and every hair, body fluid or piece of clothing goes into each envelope for lab testing.
KELLY YOUNG, HOUSTON AREA WOMEN'S CENTER: It is set up legislatively so that the criminal justice system pays for whatever evidence collection occurs.
DEAN: So why are rape counselors like Kelly Young at the Houston Area Women's Center, hearing from victims who are stuck with the bills?
YOUNG: There may be lots of survivors who have it happen and we don't know, because they don't know that they shouldn't be getting the bills. A lot of people aren't going to ask. They're just going to go ahead and pay it and move forward with their lives. They don't want to have to keep reliving that experience.
DEAN: In Austin, Attorney General Greg Abbot is over the Crime Victim Compensation Fund where this denial letter came from. It says $1,800 has to be paid by the victim in this case. That's why she's been getting delinquency notices threatening to damage her credit.
YOUNG: If you're everywhere in your recovery process or healing process, to have anything pop up like that, it can really set you back.
DEAN: It's on the not like the state's Crime Victim Fund would be set back. The state controller reports it has millions left in the bank each year; $67 million in 2006 and $58 million in 2007. Most of that money coming from criminals, the fines and fees they're required to pay when they're caught. In 2007, nearly $99 million was paid into that fund. Lots of money when victims are being told their expenses from being raped will not be covered.
People who deal with rape every day say the state needs to change its criteria so victims stop getting the runaround.
RAPE VICTIM (identity concealed): It's horrible. I mean, you're a victim, and yet you come out with an $1,800 bill, and a $1,200 bill because - and I didn't do anything to deserve it.
DEAN: A spokesman for the attorney general told us that Crime Victims Compensation Fund, the one with the surplus each year, would actually be insolvent if very strict criteria set up by the legislature were not being followed in deciding what to pay for each victim. He says the rape kit itself is paid automatically, but many follow-up or added treatments are not covered. Plus, the fund only pays as a last resort, after police and the victim's health insurance have already said no.
But at Houston's Rape Crisis Center, Young says if the state and local police don't work it out to make sure the bills are paid, women will just keep getting victimized by the system, too.
YOUNG: They are not dotting the "Is" and crossing the "Ts" to make sure that that one person who was victimized does not have to relive it six months later because they get a bill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: Well, as for the victim that you just heard from in that investigation, once the hospital that treated her for rape found out that Texas's Crime Prevention Fund was not paying for all her medical charges, the hospital dropped the bill.
"Team Sanchez" back there working on the next hour of CNN NEWSROOM.
I'll tell you what, that was the outrage story of the day, Rick, can you believe that?
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Unbelievable.
You know what we're looking at now? We're looking at the situation in California. I talked to our weather guys just a little while ago, and they were telling me that just around noon is when they expect the wind to really pick up out there. And as the wind - as you know - as the wind picks up through some of these canyons, we'll probably going to see many more problems.
I've been twittering since I got in here this morning, talking to people out there in California, including some very famous people, who I'm reading their tweets, finding out that they may have -- be evacuating their homes as well. I just learned moments ago, speaking of Twitter, that Michael Douglas' home is where the fire is headed now as everyone - you know, it's funny out there in that region, sometimes people gauge the fires by the famous homes that they seem to be threatening at the time.
I just asked folks on Twitter what the wind conditions were. And all of them are saying that it seems to be picking up. Now, obviously some of these fires create their own wind conditions and their own environment, so it's even stronger there.
But we're going to be all over this thing. Since we have social media, it's a perfect opportunity to follow a breaking story while talking to the people who are being affected by it. So, we'll bring that to you, Kyra.
PHILLIPS: All right. Thanks, Rick.
Well, an airline pilot, a former federal prosecutor, an 8-year- old boy - all on the FBI's terror watch list. A report out this week from the Justice Department's inspector general found huge problems with that list. Problems that put our national security at risk. Some names inexplicably left off, some others improperly flagged.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GRIFFIN: Are you a terrorist?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: I don't know.
GRIFFIN (voice-over): Well, most of us knew anyway. We are not terrorists. Even though every time we went to the airport and tried to check in for a flight, we were being told we were on a terrorist watch list.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are on the watch list.
GRIFFIN (on camera): A watch list?
(voice-over): A just-released inspector general's report found 24,000 of us were on the FBI's terror watch list, by mistake.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIPS: And, of course, I think that's because you were hammering the TSA in a number of reports for all the loopholes in the system. That probably added to the issue there.
But seriously, update us on your situation. I never even had a chance to ask you if you finally got off that list. And then, let's push it forward and this inspector general found there were...
GRIFFIN: Right.
PHILLIPS: ... I mean, FBI agents that even said, whoops, forgot to do the paperwork, sorry about that.
GRIFFIN: Right, right, right. And to be absolutely clear, the only reason that all of us would have been on the lists know that we're on a list because airline agents tell us we're on the list. It's a very deep secret that they keep. They never confirm that you are on or off the list.
But I have been on the list. I've been stopped at airports. It hasn't happened, Kyra, since September. I checked my records...
PHILLIPS: OK.
GRIFFIN: ... after, you know, even congressional hearings embarrassingly brought up my name. But I was stopped at Alaska Airlines up in Anchorage and I actually, the lady actually had came across and looked into my eyes to see if they were blue, that it matched my passport. How ridiculous this gets.
PHILLIPS: Well, that's why I thought about you when this report got released - what was it? - two days ago. And I said, can you follow-up here, what's your status? I remembered your investigation.
But on a serious note, I mean, the inspector general revealed that FBI agents were like forgetting to do paperwork, not properly doing their job. They weren't sure, you know, because of all the aliases, whose name should be on the list, not on the list. I mean, it's pretty frightening to see the mistakes that were made.
GRIFFIN: Right, and the FBI said it's correcting those mistakes. However, the critics say it's too huge. One point one million names, aliases; 400,000 people. I mean, that's a lot of people to keep track of. They're adding people all the time. The ACLU, which has a complaint line, continues to get complaints about people who say, I shouldn't be on this list.
And you have a devil of a time trying to get off. I mean, people who have spent years trying to submit to them. The former U.S. attorney from Michigan, the airline pilot trying to say, look, look at me, I'm not a terrorist, couldn't get off.
PHILLIPS: And if you wouldn't have done all these stories on CNN, you probably wouldn't be off the list either, pal.
GRIFFIN: Maybe.
PHILLIPS: All right, thanks for the follow-up, Drew.
GRIFFIN: Thank you.
PHILLIPS: Well, we have breaking news just in. Strong words from the president of Afghanistan. He just wrapped up an interview with our Wolf Blitzer. We'll have more on that in just a moment, Wolf is joining us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PHILLIPS: Well, breaking news to tell you about now. Afghan President Hamid Karzai says that NATO should stop airstrikes in Afghanistan immediately. He just said it minutes ago in a one-on-one interview with our own Wolf Blitzer.
Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HAMID KARZAI, PRESIDENT OF AFGHANISTAN: It's not wise to use an aircraft. It's not wise to drop bombs from air on villages. We cannot justify in any manner, for whatever number of Taliban, for whatever number of significantly important terrorists, the accidental or otherwise loss of civilians. So, this is something....
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Did you mention that to President Obama?
KARZAI: We have -- we spoke -- about (AUDIO GAP)...
(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIPS: Whoops. Sorry about that, Wolf. That's what happens when we try to -- we also need audio with Wolf.
Can we get that? Sorry, Wolf, we're having a few technical difficulties. Give me -- talk to me again.
BLITZER: Can you hear me?
PHILLIPS: There we go. I've got you now. Well, this is what happens when you have a one-on-one interview and we're trying to push it to the last minute with the breaking news.
I think we sort of got the gist, but go ahead and explain or tell us what he started to say about meeting with the president and why exactly he said this.
BLITZER: He basically was saying that the report that he now has from his government, that more than 100, maybe 120, 130 civilians, men, women, and children, were killed in an airstrike. He says, it's definitive. This was not a Taliban hand-grenade attack against Afghan civilians.
It was a U.S. airstrike. He says that in his opinion, in his government's opinion, is definitive. He said the United States is responsible for the deaths of these civilians.
And I said, well, what do you want the U.S. to do about it? Do you have to do compensation?
He said, no, you don't have to do compensation. You just have to stop airstrikes.
I said, all airstrikes?
He said, yes. The U.S. and NATO have to stop air strikes in Afghanistan.
I said to him, what happens if there are suspected Taliban or al Qaeda targets?
He says, deal with them on the ground. Don't launch bombs. Don't launch missiles. Because you're just going to kill a lot of innocent civilians in Afghanistan and you're going to create even more anti-U.S. attitudes among the Afghan people. He was very firm on this.
I said to him, did you raise this directly with President Obama this week?
And he said he did.
That was the gist of the news there. And there's a lot more, Kyra, that he had to say. As you know, President Karzai does not mince words.
PHILLIPS: It's true. And Wolf, we heard Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apologize for the deaths, but did Karzai say to you in any way, shape or form that military, U.S. military commanders on the ground, did they confirm to him it was definitely U.S. airstrikes that killed these innocent civilians?
BLITZER: He said, his report, his government has concluded it was definitely a U.S. airstrike that killed scores of Afghan civilians. He says he has absolutely no doubt about that.
He -- he said he discussed this with the U.S. And in fact, he even discussed it with President Obama. He says President Obama expressed his regrets about all of this.
He didn't say that he has a commitment from the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. military, the U.S. Army, whatever, to stop these airstrikes. But he did say he's -- he's appealing to the U.S., no more airstrikes in Afghanistan.
PHILLIPS: As usual, Wolf Blitzer, great job. Wolf, thanks so much.
And you can see President Karzai's full interview, 6:00 p.m. Eastern, 3:00 Pacific in "THE SITUATION ROOM," only on CNN.
Rick Sanchez takes it from here.
