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American Morning
North Korea Threatening War; President Obama Challenging the Senate to Confirm Sonia Sotomayor into Supreme Court; The Personal Side of Sonia Sotomayor; Deadly Attack in Pakistan Targets Police
Aired May 27, 2009 - 07:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: And welcome once again. It is 7:00 on the nose, here in New York, on this Wednesday, May 27th. I'm Kiran Chetry.
T.J. HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning to you all. I'm T.J. Holmes.
Here's what we have on the agenda. The big story we're breaking down over the next few minutes. North Korea, up in (INAUDIBLE) this morning, threatening war after South Korea joined a U.S. effort to limit WMD trafficking. There are also reports that U.S. spy satellites have detected signs the North has restarted its the main nuclear facility.
Also breaking out of Pakistan, gunmen targeting police in a ruthless attack. At least 23 people are dead after an apparent suicide blast in the northeastern city of Lahore. Officials say the attack was well coordinated and reduced the police buildings with hundreds inside to rubble. Over 250 people are also said to be wounded in that attack.
Also President Obama using a west coast fundraising tour to sing the praises of his Supreme Court nominee, federal appeals court judge, Sonia Sotomayor. He was in Las Vegas last night heading to Los Angeles today.
The president is pushing for a quick approval in the Senate but Republicans are saying slow down. Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell calling for a vigorous confirmation process.
We want to get back to the new threats from North Korea this morning. The U.S. and South Korea teaming up to stop North Korea from spreading WMD. The North is calling that, quote, "A declaration of war."
Pyongyang has also fired a new round of missiles and there are reports this morning that U.S. spy satellites found steam coming from the North's main nuclear facility, a plant that was being dismantled.
Our Barbara Starr working her sources over at the Pentagon, joining us now.
Barbara, tell us first about this nuclear plant. What do we know? BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, T.J., U.S. officials at this hour are not addressing directly that question about whether this plutonium reprocessing facility at Yongbyong in North Korea is being restarted if there is any intelligence indicating steam or other activity at the plant.
That would be some of the most classified information if that is true. What U.S. officials are telling me is that it's going to be critical for them to determine if that plant is being restarted.
It was a few months ago that we all saw the pictures of the cooling tower there falling after being destroyed part of North Korea's statement that it was going to disable the plant. Now information may be to the contrary. The question, of course, is what is North Korea up to here. T.J.?
HOLMES: Well, and since nobody really knows and nobody seems to really ever know, and we seem to go through this with them every few months, it seems, certainly every couple of years, what is the level of anxiety there you have sensed around the Pentagon among the military commanders?
STARR: Well, throughout the Obama administration, the U.S. military, the U.S. intelligence community, certainly the White House, it's what you just said. Question number one, what is North Korea up to? Is this another round of rhetoric? Or is there something really going on here?
There are a couple of theories. One, Kim Jong-Il, the North Korean leader. The photos that have been seen of him recently show him to be increasingly frail and in very obvious poor health. That is something U.S. intelligence is watching closely.
Is it possible that he's making these moves to try and bolster his own position in his final days, to try and bolster the position of his generals? Or is this another round of trying to get negotiation concessions from the United States and the allies? And the real answer is, as it always is, nobody knows and that, perhaps, is the most unsettling truth at this hour. T.J.?
HOLMES: All right. Barbara Starr for us from the Pentagon. Thank you so much this morning, Barbara.
CHETRY: Turning now to breaking news out of Pakistan. A deadly well coordinated attack, one of the deadliest in Pakistan this year. It happened in the northeastern town of Lahore -- the city of Lahore.
Officials say that gunman packed a van with explosives, leveled a police building with at least 200 people inside. Officials say at least 23 are dead, more than 250 people wounded. Most of the casualties, police officers and staffers.
We're going to be reporting live from the Pakistani capital coming up at the bottom of the hour.
And to the most politics now, President Obama challenging the Senate this morning to move quickly to confirm his Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. He says he'd like to see her seated by the time the court begins its new term in October.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Sonia Sotomayor's life is proof that all things are possible. And when she ascends those marble steps to assume her seat on the highest court of the land, America will take another important step towards realizing the ideal it's chiseled above its entrance. Equal justice under the law.
(APPLAUSE)
So I'm inspired by her. I'm honored to nominate her. And I know that Harry Reid and others in the Senate will make sure she's confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHETRY: White House correspondent Suzanne Malveaux joins us live from Washington. So what do the next few days look like for the nominee?
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, obviously, you know, Sotomayor lives in New York. She is going to be wrapping up her case load there. But then she's going to be temporarily moving here to Washington and she's going to quickly start engaging in this preparation work for the confirmation hearings as well.
And one of the things that they fondly, some of the lawyers here in Washington, called the murder boards. This is really White House aides. These are also Justice Department lawyers as well as some hand-picked private attorneys will be a part of these cram sessions.
And they'll sit down with Sotomayor and they'll basically grill her on some of the toughest questions, they'll act as mock senators, the questions that they think that she is going to have to handle in the weeks to come.
This is just the beginning of the process, Kiran. Obviously, she's going to get some pretty tough questions about her background, about her positions when it comes to affirmative actions, whether or not she's an activist judge, those type of things.
So in the next couple of days, expect that she is going to be prepping for a lot of grilling ahead, Kiran.
CHETRY: Challenge is when you pick somebody who has a lot of experience, they also have a lot on paper, if you will, over the years. Their rulings, their judgments, opinions that they've issued. So how is the Obama administration planning to counter or sell her for people that might oppose?
MALVEAUX: Well, we've got a hint of it when we actually saw President Obama speaking about Sotomayor when he's on the west coast there. Obviously, there's some talking points, there are some things that they're emphasizing here at the White House.
One of the things that they're going to be emphasizing is the fact that it was under Republican president, George H.W. Bush, who actually nominated her for her previous post as well as Democrat, Bill Clinton. The fact that she has formed consensus. She is someone who agrees, they say, with conservatives more so than disagree with her colleagues.
And then finally, we hear the president talking about her full life story, her life picture, how she is really the embodiment for the American dream. That this is something that they believe is very attractive and that this is something that they're also going to emphasize. Not just her judicial record, Kiran.
CHETRY: Suzanne Malveaux for us at the White House this morning. Thanks.
And one Republican who could influence the speed as well as the outcome of the Sotomayor nomination is Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He's going to be joining us live in just 10 minutes.
HOLMES: And we've heard an awful lot about her judicial record which she has done as a judge. But a lot of this has been about her personal record, her personal story that a lot of people can relate to. A lot of people certainly proud of as well.
Let's bring in Deborah Feyerick here with the personal side of this woman.
Everybody who hears this story, I mean, aside from those decisions and what do you think she did as a judge, you have to be impressed where she came from.
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And that's the general feeling out there. But this is a woman whose dad died when she was 9. A year after she was diagnosed with childhood diabetes. She had to overcome those challenges and at first she was more comfortable with the screech of the New York City subway than the sounds of crickets of her Ivy League university that would bridge her two worlds.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK (voice-over): Born in the South Bronx, it's not crime or violence or poverty Sonia Sotomayor talks about. What influenced her most was her mom.
JUDGE SONIA SOTOMAYOR, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: I am all I am because of her and I am only half the woman she is.
FEYERICK: Originally from Puerto Rico, her parents moved into a public housing project near Yankee Stadium when Sotomayor was 3. Her dad worked in a factory and spoke no English. Her mother, a nurse, often worked two jobs to support Sonia and her brother.
In her biography for the Law School Admissions Council, Sotomayor says...
SOTOMAYOR: I didn't think of myself as a minority in the environment I was in. The community I grew up in, Hispanics predominated.
FEYERICK: Sotomayor attended Princeton on scholarships, graduating with highest honors. After Yale Law School where she editor of the "Law Journal," she chose to work as a prosecutor in Manhattan before taking the bench where she worked on new sentencing rules with Chief Justice Kimba Wood.
JUDGE KIMBA WOOD, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF N.Y.: She really understood the people in her neighborhood and tell what laws might help rehabilitate them and what laws would have a bad affect.
FEYERICK: Friends and colleagues like Judge Barrington Parker who shares Yankee tickets with Sotomayor described her as smart, determined, and modest.
JUDGE BARRINGTON DANIELS PARKER, JR., U.S. COURT OF APPEALS, SECOND CIRCUIT: If you are on the opposite side of an issue with Sonia, you better be sure you've done your homework.
FEYERICK: At her local Manhattan bakery where she's seen as a regular gal, she often comes in for sturgeon toast, bread sticks and a cup of decaf coffee.
SASHA ACOSTA-COHEN, BLUE RIBBON BAKERY: My dad is an immigrant from the Dominican Republican. And it's just so amazing to have a Latino person on the Supreme Court.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: Colleagues describe her work as sound and pragmatic and say Sotomayor sometimes talks in wonder about all of the things she's achieved growing up where she did.
HOLMES: And that's exactly what people are hailing. She -- a lot of times -- I mean whether it's congressmen, whether it's people in power, they seem to sometimes come from upper middle class and can't relate to some of the people they're having to govern to.
She came from the very bottom and now she's going to be making decisions about things that affect those people.
FEYERICK: Absolutely. And she was kid in the South Bronx at the time when the South Bronx you really did not want to be there. Crime was at its highest. Things were out of control. So she knows the people that who she's dealing with and she's seen it firsthand. And many people who really admire her say she's go to bring that sensibility into the decisions that she makes and the rulings that she may be responsible for deciding.
HOLMES: It's a fascinating personal story.
Deborah Feyerick for us this morning. Thank you for that. CHETRY: Thank you, Deborah.
Well, here is a quick look at some of the stories this morning. A number of deaths apparently linked to swine flu here in New York now doubled to four. Two more deaths reported by the city Friday. A 41- year-old woman and a 34-year-old man. New York City health commissioner saying that all four people who died in the city had existing health problems.
The Pentagon has released a list of former Guantanamo detainees who returned to terrorism. The military says one out of every seven detainees released from the camp is either confirmed or suspected of returning to battle. The number is a slight uptick from last year but has more than doubled over the past few years.
Well, if you need a nicotine fix but you hate the smell of cigarette smoke, tobacco companies are trying to push a new solution. It's one that melts in your mouth. We're going to -- find out why parents are so outraged by the new marketing.
It's 11 minutes pas the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: The title of that song is "Don't Lie," right? No offense, Atlanta. Good morning to you down there. Expected some showers there in Atlanta, Georgia. A beautiful shot of downtown this morning.
Let's get you some stories that are making news. Welcome back to the most news in the morning at 13 past the hour.
First here, O.J. Simpson's attorneys are appealing his conviction to the Nevada state Supreme Court claiming his 2008 trial was, quote, "fundamentally unfair." His lawyer said the judge made a fair trial impossible back in October.
The former NFL great was found guilty on charges including armed robbery and kidnapping. The case was over sports memorabilia that Simpson claimed was rightfully his.
Well, the daughter of Mike Tyson has died. The former heavyweight champ's 4-year-old daughter died in a hospital just a day after her neck apparently was caught in a treadmill cord at the Tyson's Phoenix home. Police say this appears to have been a horrible accident.
And the Pentagon saying it's prepared to lead fighting forces on the ground in Iraq for a decade. That's in spite of an agreement that's in place currently between Washington and Baghdad to bring the U.S. troops home by 2012. Army Chief of Staff General George Casey says the Pentagon must be prepared for the possibility.
CHETRY: All right, well, the White House says it is essential to confirm Judge Sonia Sotomayor as the nation's first Hispanic Supreme Court justice. The president wants it done fast before the next Supreme Court session starts in October.
Opponents, though, say that you have to time and look at her record. Senator Jeff Sessions is the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and joins me from Mobile, Alabama this morning.
Senator, great to have you with us. Thanks for being here.
SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R) ALABAMA: Thank you. Good being with you.
CHETRY: So you're going to be leading the Republicans through this confirmation process and you're one of 11 sitting Republican senators who voted against Judge Sotomayor for her current position on the second Court -- Circuit Court of Appeals.
What was your reasoning then? And what do you need to hear from her now that will give you the confidence to confirm her?
SESSIONS: Well, I think 29 senators voted against her last time. I think there was an unease, maybe, about her background and her tendency to activism. I -- we'll have to go back and look at the record and see what most people felt. But she -- I believe she's entitled to a fair slate now, a clean slate, a fresh start, to examine the entire record in context and give her a chance to explain that.
But there are some troubling things that are going to have to be inquired into for us to do our job so the American people can know that whoever is on the U.S. Supreme Court will be faithful to the law passed by the people of the United States.
CHETRY: One of Judge Sotomayor's most controversial cases that I'm sure will come up at the confirmation hearing is the so-called New Haven firefighters case that's now pending in the Supreme Court.
And in this ruling, she cited with the city of New Haven, Connecticut after they threw out the results of a promotion test because too many white firefighters and not enough minority firefighters scored high. Critics have been calling that reverse discrimination. Do you agree?
SESSIONS: Well, we need to look at that as the case that she has decided so it's fair for us to look at it. We shouldn't ask her how she's going to rule on cases in the future. So it'll be something now that will be examined. Those are some tough cases that require real careful legal analysis and to make sure that you're striking the right approach to those cases. So I think it will be an issue, though, that have to be inquired into.
CHETRY: And of course, politics always comes into the equation with these nominations, and of course with the confirmation hearings. One former Bush adviser, though, Matthew Dowd, said that about Sotomayor's nomination that you really have to be careful as a GOP senator.
He went on to say because you'll have a bunch of white males who lead the Judiciary Committee leading the charge taking on a Hispanic woman. It's a bad visual, it's bad symbolism for the Republicans. He goes on to say that Republicans really need the Hispanic vote, a minimum of maybe 40 percent to be competitive with the Democrats.
How aggressive, do you think, Republicans can be going after the nation's what would-be first Hispanic Supreme Court justice if confirmed?
SESSIONS: Well, I committed before we had the nominee that any nominee that came before the committee we were going to give a fair shake to. We're not going to take advantage of them and misrepresent their records as has been done too often in the past.
I hope that the American people will say this is the best judiciary confirmation hearing that's ever been held and that we really talked about substantive issues. Issues that are important to the country. And we have a responsibility to take that nominee through the various complex and important issues they'll be involved in.
So the American people will have this one opportunity to see them, to cast them, because once confirmed, they have a lifetime appointment. We can't even dock their pay.
CHETRY: Now, sir, does that mean -- from what it sounds like, you're not putting the filibuster option on the table, are you?
SESSIONS: Well, you never know on a case like this. I don't feel -- I don't sense a filibuster in the works. The nominee has serious problems. Those kinds of things that might happen.
But I would think that we need to all have a good hearing, take our time, and do it right. And then the senators cast their vote up or down based on whether or not they think this is the kind of judge that should be on the court.
CHETRY: All right. Alabama senator Jeff Sessions, ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
SESSIONS: Thank you.
HOLMES: The headlines are already calling GM "Government Motors." Is the auto giant really on the road to bankruptcy? Christine Romans here with the latest just ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: We always get beautiful shots of the clouds every time we take our Dallas tower cam. This is from WFAA, our affiliate there. It's mostly cloudy right now, 74, and a little bit later today, they'll be partly cloudy, 84 degrees.
HOLMES: Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada, Virginia. Stop smiling. Those four states are giving you reason not to smile. Again, those are -- again -- that's just great. My home state of Arkansas, Indiana, then Nevada, Virginia, all ordering residents to wipe the grin off their faces when they're taking their driver's license photos. The states say the smile ban will help face recognition software identify duplicates and prevent license fraud. Experts say smiles can threw off the technology while neutral facial expressions produce more accurate results.
So, what would this look like? We're all happy people here this morning. Right now everybody's happy on their driver's license. Christine, T.J. there. Kiran...
CHETRY: We got the Georgia license. Look at yours.
HOLMES: Yes. We can peek on it. Now what do we look like if we were not smiling, if we were forced...
CHETRY: I got to see those.
HOLMES: Oh.
(CROSSTALK)
HOLMES: That's an actual picture of me.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I look mean when I'm not smiling.
CHETRY: Oh there you go.
HOLMES: Where is that picture from, Christine?
ROMANS: I don't know but I look mean.
CHETRY: I'm still smiling. You get me not smiling.
ROMANS: Come on, you would think that face recognition software would be better with a smile because smiles are one of a kind, you know?
HOLMES: Very unique. Yes.
CHETRY: That's right.
HOLMES: No -- wow, Christine. What was going on that day?
ROMANS: I know. Because of the world financial crisis.
HOLMES: OK.
ROMANS: I had to look serious. It is serious stuff but...
HOLMES: It is serious stuff.
ROMANS: I look mean. I don't do serious and not look mean.
CHETRY: And what does this tell you, though, about the facial recognition software? It's great. So the only thing you have to do to just, you know, completely mess us the system is smile. They can't figure it out.
HOLMES: We're smiling right now.
ROMANS: And for the record, my driver's license picture doesn't look like any of those publicity photos. It looks much worse.
HOLMES: Can we see it at the end of the segment?
ROMANS: Of course. Yes, you can.
HOLMES: All right. So what do you have? It's something to smile about, usually not. What do you have?
ROMANS: No, General Motors. We're still going to what has been a very difficult and painful process for a lot of people involving General Motors and for taxpayers, frankly, too, because this is your money here that is being used to support this company. And it looks as though bankruptcy is eminent.
We've been telling you this for several days but let me just give you the update on what's going on here. Creditors were offered about a 10 percent stake in the new restructured General Motors in exchange for their -- for just forgiving their $27 billion in debt and they're balking at that.
Think about it, there's a lot of people who invested money, companies, a lot of people who invested money in this company thinking that if it would belly up, they'd be the first in line to be paid back in bankruptcy court and the government is saying no, that's not the way it's going to be.
We've already spent $19.4 billion of taxpayer money. Even as recently as Friday, we pumped another $4 billion into this company. The Treasury Department did. And now look at this last line here, folks. Numerous published reports are saying up to $50 billion more may be needed.
Now I don't have that number independently from any of my sources in the auto industry and the treasury department but I do from my sources have tens of billions of dollars is what we'd be looking at if we have to take this company over and basically run it as you're pointing out, government motors.
CHETRY: All right. Well, it's time for our "Romans Numeral" and this is a number that we bring you every day on the program that's driving a story about your money today. So what is "Romans Numeral"?
ROMANS: And the number is 74,000. And so many on Twitter are so smart. You got this one right away. 74,000. This is the number of U.S. employees in General Motors. Think of this. In 1979, at the height of this company, when it was the largest industrial conglomerate in the world, it had 600,000 employees.
Today there are 74,000 U.S. employees. About a half a million retirees. This is a company that is a shadow of the size of its -- on its heyday but still a lot of people are going to be affected by whatever happens here next.
HOLMES: All right. Christine Romans for us this morning with a new one. Thanks so much.
ROMANS: Yes.
CHETRY: Well, police targeted in a deadly blast in Pakistan. How new threats are threatening the fragile country's stability. We're live from Islamabad next. It's 26 minutes past the hour.
ANNOUNCER: "Minding Your Business" brought to you by...
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HOLMES: Coming up on the bottom of the hour. Welcome back to the most news in the morning. We are tracking a breaking story out of Pakistan right now.
A deadly attack targeting police has killed at least 23 people in the northeastern city of Lahore. Authorities say gunmen packed a van with explosives and a suicide bomber reduced a police building to rubble. At least 200 people were said to be inside the building at the time.
We're going to tap now into our global resources of CNN. Bring in our Reza Sayah live for us in Islamabad. What are the latest we know on this attack? Do we know who's responsible?
REZA SAYAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, police say it's too early to say who was responsible. But Pakistan's interior minister Rehman Malik a couple of hours ago in a live TV interview said in recent weeks the leader of the Pakistani Taliban Baitullah Mehsud issued a general threat against major cities saying if the military offensive going on right now in northwestern Pakistan targeting the Taliban at the Swat region continues the Taliban will target major cities, large cities, throughout Pakistan and no city larger in Pakistan other than the city of Karachi.
This was targeting a compound with a lot of sensitive buildings in the city of Lahore. The weapon, large passenger van packed with 100 kilograms of explosives. It's not clear what exactly they were targeting inside this compound but we do know that this van was trying to penetrate an initial barrier.
Police officials say three gunmen popped out of the van. Two of them started firing. One of them lobbed a grenade. In that confusion, they penetrated that initial barrier. Then came the large explosion that brought down the emergency response headquarters, a two-story building and killed 24 people and injured 250 people.
Police officials say three people are in custody. Local Pakistani TV showing what appeared to be two of those people being led away.
Again, this attack coming as the operation continues in Swat. Many speculate that this is retaliation, T.J. HOLMES: All right. Reza Sayah for us in Islamabad. Thank you so much.
Also we're tracking new developments in North Korea this morning. North Korea firing a third round of short range missiles and calling a joint U.S. South Korea effort to stop it's ships from trafficking WMDs, a declaration of war. There are also reports that U.S. spy satellites have detected steam coming from the North's main nuclear site. U.S. officials have not confirmed yet that.
Also, some good news here from the American Cancer Society saying this morning that in the 15 years from 1990 to 2005, about 650,000 lives were saved because of the drop in deaths from cancer. However, the figure still show cancer will kill 1,500 Americans every single day.
Asian markets posting strong closing numbers earlier this morning after a solid day on Wall Street, Hong Kong's Hang Seng shot up more than five percent. Japan's Nikkei also posting gains. As for today on Wall Street right now, Dow futures up around 23 points.
CHETRY: Well, what would you do if your daughter was the target of a vicious internet video? Beth Smith is now living that nightmare. Her daughter's classmates made the clip called "The Top Six Ways to Kill Piper," taking cyber bullying to a disturbing whole new level. We first brought you the story yesterday but we want to tell you more about what the school officials and the police are doing about it. I sat down with Piper and her mom and asked her how they first found out this cartoon was on-line.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BETH SMITH, MOTHER OF CYBER-BULLYING VICTIM: My daughter perceived this girl as a friend of hers at school. They were friendly. And so we had no idea totally sideswiped by the idea that she would be this hateful. Piper came home from school on Wednesday, the 6th and told me, you know, mom, the kids are being mean at school. And I heard that there's a video like this out there about me. I said you're kidding. You know, that can't be. The more we looked on-line and started to -- Dad came home from work. He made the phone calls. And it was the first parent, the dad who said - you know he was busy making dinner and he'd get back to us.
CHETRY: Let me ask Piper - what was your reaction when you knew this video was made?
PIPER SMITH, CYBER BULLYING VICTIM: I guess I was really shocked that someone would do this to me because I thought we were really good friends and then she would be two-faced to me and they did this behind my back and I just didn't know of it until I actually saw the video and I just couldn't believe that was happening. I felt really, really numb.
CHETRY: And, Piper, you've since been back to school. Have you talked to any of these girls? Did they apologize? What's the relationship now? PIPER SMITH: Well, one of them called me and she told me sorry and I actually listened to it. But the other two, I was either in the shower or I was going to bed by then and I didn't really want to talk to them anyways.
CHETRY: This is what the school district said in a statement they released. "When this matter impacted the student's ability to attend school, the district took immediate steps to appropriately discipline the student who created the video. Since then, these students have expressed their remorse."
Are you satisfied with that response?
BETH SMITH: No. I can't imagine they have expressed their remorse to anyone except the school for the fact that they got caught in doing this. They have expressed remorse to us in any form other than that night, an hour after the discovery and we're on the phone with their parents and they're sobbing in the background - oh, I'm so sorry. They're sorry they got caught.
The school district did as little as they possibly could. They erred on the side of caution and the law and the civil rights of the perpetrators. They didn't do anything to ensure her safety in school until - a matter of fact, they suggested we call the sheriff from our home. So we did and we filed a police report.
CHETRY: Here's what the sheriff said to us in a statement to CNN. They said "this case is three weeks old. All parents were in agreement with the way the girls were disciplined. The case was not a prosecutorial case because the girls were 11 years. We do not believe there was a real threat."
What is your response to the sheriff's statement?
BETH SMITH: Huge. They are covering themselves. I had to make four, five, six phone calls to finally get a hold of the detectives. Apparently there are only three juvenile detectives in my district. And when he got a hold of me, he returned my phone calls. He said he was familiar with the case. And it turns out after I extract, extract answers from this man, he said he had not seen the video that we had given to the deputy. He had not read my letter that I had sent by registered mail to the district, which is the only reason any action was taken.
If I hadn't sent those letters registered mail to the district, we'd still be sitting at home wondering what's going on. That's the only reason the girls were expelled in the first place that I asserted to make them think I would take a legal action which is not what I wanted to do at all.
CHETRY: And what has been the response from the other parents within the school? Is this a problem in your school and in your district?
BETH SMITH: Parents don't know what to do. We go to work every day. But the administration is the ins and outs of the law. They've got the attorneys there. It took the school three days to get me a letter, maybe two days. But it took two or three days to get a letter from the school summarizing what actions they had taken to protect my daughter at school and ensure her safety.
CHETRY: I see you rolling your eyes, Piper. What's it been like to be back in school and be back in classes with these girls?
PIPER SMITH: I kind of felt intimidated by them. Because it was just the whole fact that the whole thing happened and they weren't doing enough. They were trying to do as little as possible to protect themselves from like a lawsuit and stuff like that.
CHETRY: And what are you going to do, moving forward, Beth?
BETH SMITH: What am I going to do next? I'm sick at my stomach everyday that I have to send her to school. I'm sad that I have to ask teachers to be vigilant for her safety. I have pictures in my head of the movie "Pay It Forward" where the kid has a knife. They say they can't inspect the other kids' backpacks for knives, guns, poisons, because of their civil rights. So, yes, it makes me sick. I'm nauseous every day I send her to school.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHETRY: Beth Smith also says that the video was set to a "Hannah Montana" song, "True Friend." We're going to keep following the story and we're going to bring you any new developments.
HOLMES: Well, parents calling a new type of smokeless tobacco, tobacco lollipops since they're being marketed towards kids. The outrage over the cigarette alternative that melts in your mouth. That's next. It's 36 minutes past the hour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHETRY: Good morning from Louisville, Kentucky this morning where right now it's partly cloudy. 70 degrees. A bit later, it's going up to 85. It could be stormy though later on today. And welcome back to the most news in the morning. It's 40 minutes past the hour now.
The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company under fire from parents this morning. It's all over a new product that gives you a nicotine fix and it melts in your mouth. But there are questions about whether or not the company is targeting kids. Carol Costello is on the story from our Washington bureau this morning. Hey, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Kiran.
R.J. Reynolds is testing out three new products in Ohio, Oregon and Indiana. Critics call them tobacco lollipops and minty tobacco breath strips designed with one thing in mind, to get your kids hooked on nicotine.
R.J. Reynolds denies that saying it's new smokeless products are for adults and they're catching on. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My first can of Camel nut.
COSTELLO (voice-over): This YouTub-er is joking. He's actually demonstrating something called Snus. Tea bags filled with mint flavored tobacco. They fit neatly between your teeth and gums.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't smoke a pipe in class or at work. But, heck, I can sure throw in one of these at work. This is convenient.
COSTELLO: And no need to spit. The tobacco stays in the bag. Tobacco companies say Snus have become so popular they are taking the next step, totally dissolvable tobacco. For traditional smokers, it will solve all kinds of problems.
TOMMY PAYNE, R.J. REYNOLDS: They don't have second hand smoke. You won't have a litter problem. The product actually dissolves in your mouth as opposed to having to spit or to extract something, a pouch from your mouth, like other smokeless products.
COSTELLO: R.J. Reynolds will soon test three new products - Camel Sticks that dissolve as you suck them, minty tobacco strips that look like breath strips and orbs, flavored dissolvable tablets that some say look and say exactly like candy. And there's the thing.
Critics say R.J. Reynolds is up to its old tricks doing what it did with Joe Camel, marketing not to adult smokers but to smoker wannabes.
DAN SMITH, AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY: Really what you're doing with kids is actually it's kind of like a gateway drug of getting them addicted to nicotine which then leads them to possibly wanting to do other things.
COSTELLO: And according to the Indiana Poison Control Center, just one Camel dissolvable delivers up to 300 percent of the nicotine found in just one cigarette. Take too many and nicotine poisoning might set in. And you could possibly develop oral cancer.
PAYNE: They're not candy, they're tobacco products.
COSTELLO: R.J. Reynolds says their new dissolvables have warning labels and it's illegal for kids to buy them. and yet they're not completely safe but they're for adults.
PAYNE: It's just when compared to smoking, and the impact that it has on our society, these products at least should be made available for those who can't or won't quit.
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COSTELLO: But there's a lot of concern out there. Oregon Senator Jeff Merkel and others are now pushing the bill to regulate these products. If passed, it would allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate how dissolvables are marketed. The bill will likely pop up in the Senate in a few weeks and of course, we'll keep an eye on it, Kiran.
CHETRY: All right. Carol, thanks so much.
HOLMES: Well, a new economic forecast. And the outlook is promising. See why leading economists believe the recession will end later this year.
And a Minnesota mom promises a judge she'll allow her son to get chemo treatment that may save his life. Daniel Hauser is his name. He says tumors are causing him extreme pain. Dr. Sanjay Gupta on the young man's prognosis now. It's 43 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: There you go, light turn green. And people start wheeling around Columbus Circle, shot at New York this morning. Cloudy right now, 55 degrees. I don't know, T.J., for some reason, we're the only lone place where it's not going to be nice it seems, at least on the east coast, rainy and 66.
HOLMES: Yes.
CHETRY: You might not make it back to Atlanta.
HOLMES: I will make it back to Atlanta. The weather in Atlanta is always -- you just have to wait five minutes and it will change. You'll be fine. Good morning to you all. Once again at about 15 minutes to the top of the hour, we're going to fast forward to some stories that will be making news later today. 2:40 Eastern time, President Obama is going to be touring Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada where he will deliver a speech on energy.
After that, he heads to Los Angeles where he'll attend two star- studded fundraisers. Those kick off at 9:40 Eastern time at the Beverly Hills Hilton. Then the General Hoyt S. Vandenberg, the retired missile tracking ship will become the next artificial reef in the Florida Keys today. The 523-foot-long ship will be sunk sometime after 10:00 a.m. Eastern. It will be one of three largest vessels in the world to become an artificial reef.
Then later today, fire departments from Los Angeles and other southern California cities giving their outlook for the 2009 fire season. That's going to be coming you way at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time. Fire season for southern California pretty much year round but it's most dangerous time during the dry summer months. Of course, that is what we're following this morning.
Rob Marciano, what are you following this morning? Kiran's giving me a hard time. And said that I might not make it back to Atlanta today. What's going on?
ROB MARCIANO, CNN, METEOROLOGIST: I think you're, you know, you got conviction, T.J. I think you'll make it. You and I may cross each other at the airport. A little problem in the northeast but you know, it's cool up there. And for a lot of people, that's fairly comfortable. Everywhere south of New York, it's pretty warm and pretty humid. So you're already into that sticky stuff. And where it's warm and humid, you can often get heavy rain in the folks in Florida has been seeing that for the past two weeks.
This is Davy, Florida, just north of Miami. Torrential rains yesterday, for the past couple of days. And kids are out there driving bicycles in the rain, just kind of get through and folks barely getting along. Some of the rainfall tallies pretty impressive. Not only in Florida but in other spots like Ames, Iowa over 3 1/2 inches. Dulles and D.C., actually over 3 1/2 that's a record. West Palm Beach seeing almost three and Maryland 2 3/4 inches of rain.
All right. Here we go. Here's your - here's, well that's some stuff right there. Here's your moisture. All of it north of pretty much the Ohio Valley and east of the Mississippi. That's where your soup is and that's where it's going to continue to be warm and humid with thunderstorms now potentially.
New York right now, you're dry for the most part. You'll see a little bit of drizzle. Everywhere across the northern New England, a little bit of rain, heavy at times and some flooding possible across parts of northern Vermont and New Hampshire and north of Chicago also seeing a little bit of the rainfall.
Atlanta, you had a ground stop, T.J., until 8:30, that means they're not allowing planes to take off if they're heading to Atlanta at least until later.
HOLMES: I hate when they do that.
MARCIANO: You may be staying there.
HOLMES: Nothing drives me crazier.
MARCIANO: Let me know, you save me a trip.
HOLMES: No, I got to get back. Got things to do. Rob, appreciate you. I will see you in the airport, buddy.
MARCIANO: All right. See you.
HOLMES: All right. Kiran.
CHETRY: You have nothing better to do than host this show for us. Come on.
HOLMES: No, this is a great honor. Always a pleasure to work with you, Kiran, any time I get to but I got to get back.
CHETRY: I think you're not - it doesn't look like you're going anywhere today. Sorry. Unless it's called the Amtrak. Well, celebrations on one side. Protests on the other after California's Supreme Court upholds the ban on same sex marriage. So what's next on the battle over Proposition 8? We're going to talk with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
Also reversing a trend that's so common in poor communities, giving disadvantaged kids a chance to learn and compete. It's 50 minutes past the hour.
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CHETRY: New developments this morning in 13-year-old Daniel Hauser's battle with cancer. He is the Minnesota boy who went on the run, now scheduled to undergo court-ordered chemotherapy starting tomorrow. Last week his mom fled with her son to southern California. They were apparently seeking holistic treatments in Mexico. She did return home and has promised a judge she will comply with the doctor's treatment schedule for her son's Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Now although a cure can be long and painful, the American Cancer Society is reporting this morning that cancer death rates have fallen again and are now down dramatically since the early 1990s. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta had a look at Daniel's latest medical report. He joins us now. There has been talk that this cancer has gotten worse. What did you find out?
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we found that out exactly, Kiran. His cancer seems to have gotten worse both in terms of his scans that he's had as well as in terms of how he is reporting his symptoms. We're talking about Hodgkin's lymphoma. As you know, Kiran, let me just show you something here. This is a chest x-ray. What this focusing on specifically is a mass. It's located in part of his chest over here and in one of the lung fields, this is where the trachea and the esophagus come down.
When you have a mass here it starts to push on his trachea and that can make his breathing very, very difficult. Doctors describing it as maybe breathing like you are breathing through a straw. That's how it's becoming for him. He's also describing a higher degree of pain. 10 out of 10 is what he told his doctors and when we're talking about Hodgkin's lymphoma overall, this green over here is lymphatic system.
We sort of zoom in and look at these specific cells over here. They're calling Reed-Sternberg cells. They start to divide. That's problem, when they're dividing, they eventually will divide enough to form a mass, a tumor, as you can see here. That tumor within the lymphatic system, that is the problem. That tumor can start to grow. These are the various symptoms. You get those swollen lymph nodes. You get unexplained weight loss, night sweats. You get fevers, lack of energy overall. These are the sort of symptoms that someone with Hodgkin's lymphoma would have. This is what he is experiencing. The good news is, as you've mentioned, Kiran, the chemotherapy can be very good with Hodgkin's. It's going to be over the top to say since he skip so many doses, Kiran.
CHETRY: Right. So is it almost like being treated for the first time now since it sort of progressed to this point? Is he going to be able to get relief and how treatable is it now? GUPTA: Yes, it's a very good question and I that's exactly how doctors are probably approaching this. You can think of chemotherapy in some ways that you can think of antibiotics. If you stop start dose of antibiotics and then you stop. It's almost worse than never having started at all. It's the same thing with chemotherapy. You sort of selected those cells that don't respond to chemotherapy and allow them to divide. Making it tougher to kill the cancer. So they're going to have to start all over again.
As far as his symptoms, as far as getting relief from that, they are starting him on a steroid medication as well, known as prednisone. It may be that prednisone that offers him the best relief in the long range and from the shrinking of those tumors. But you know, he's got to be under the chemo. And what we're hearing, Kiran, is as you're hearing as well what he will start it tomorrow.
CHETRY: That thing that's so difficult about this is both with the steroids, it's like the side effects that you get with that and also the side effects from chemo will probably make him feel worse, right? At the beginning? And so -
GUPTA: No question.
CHETRY: And this is what's so troubling for the family is that they're very against this in the first place.
GUPTA: Yes, I mean, it's a tough treatment, Kiran. You are absolutely right. You can get mouth sores. You can get nausea and vomiting. He's going to feel awful for the first several days. He says he has 10 out of 10 pain. You're going to compound that with these other symptoms. So you're right, the payoff that everyone seems to think here is worth it.
CHETRY: Well, everybody is hoping that this boy can get treatment and that he will in the end beat the cancer for sure. All right. Thanks so much, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Great to see you this morning.
GUPTA: Thanks, Kiran.
CHETRY: T.J.
HOLMES: Kiran, President Obama pushing for quick confirmation of his Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor but conservative republicans say, not so fast. We look at the case that they're building against her. It's five minutes until the top of the hour.
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HOLMES: Welcome back, everybody, to the most news in the morning. The end of the recession, could it be near? In a new survey nine out of ten economists say, better days are coming and they predict the recession will end when? This year.
The reading comes from the National Association of Business Economics. Christine Romans, this sounds great to a lot of people.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: From their lips to god's ears.
CHETRY: I always hope that when Christine comes out and hand you an article and says "Read this. Read this. I don't believe it. I got a fascinating update this morning."
ROMANS: No, I wanted to ask you both, do you feel better about things in the economy?
CHETRY: Yes.
ROMANS: You feel better, why?
CHETRY: I guess I feel better because it seems as though we've weathered what, at the time, you know, the air was sucked out of the room -
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: And then Treasury Henry Paulson said this is serious.
ROMANS: Right.
CHETRY: We seem to have come - we've seemed to have some more answers. I'm not saying that things are 100 percent better. We seem to know a little bit more about what is wrong since those times.
ROMANS: Right. Do you feel better?
HOLMES: That's exactly it. We had this sense of panic and the world's about to end when this whole thing started. There were so much. I mean politicians were telling you, trying to get the stimulus package through --
ROMANS: Right.
HOLMES: There's all of this, you knew the world was ending but we seemed to be weathering the storm.
ROMANS: Who needs economists when you have the three of us?
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ROMANS: Because a panel of experts have concluded exactly what you have concluded, that is, that there will likely be economic growth by the end of this year. We're still going to have the jobless rate going to continue higher, but look, consumer confidence yesterday jumped. A different survey showed consumer confidence jumped mostly because the panic has faded.
People are making decisions now based on real information instead of just outright raw fear. Job losses will likely persist. This panel, the National Association of Business Economics says 9.3 percent by the end of the year. Others are saying 10 percent by sometime next year and we have record low - home prices have record declines, almost 19 percent decline in home prices in the first quarter.
Look, the information is still pretty ugly. But people are making decisions now about what they expect for the future. And what people expect for the future is eventually this economy's going to grow again. People are starting to make decisions based on, I need to buy this. I need to make this step. I need to make this investment. Instead of just, hunkering down and not doing anything. And so that is something.
HOLMES: There are things we just have to do. We have to buy this. We have to buy that. And people, I guess, we're learning how to live in this current economy even as well.
ROMANS: That's right. We're used to it. We're used to this sense of stasis that we're hoping that growth will come in the later half of this year. We hope that they're right.
HOLMES: Christine Romans, thank you so much.
